The History of British Magic After Crowley

This book is Evans' doctoral thesis expanded to book length -- a much larger follow-up to his book 'Aleister Crowley and the 20th Century Synthesis of Magick'. Even though it's very academic and scholarly, it's anything but dry. In fact, I found it incredibly fascinating. Basically it's a history

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book, as the title implies. Evans illustrates how occultism and magick have developed since Crowley's death (more or less since the end of WWII). He also shows how Crowley's teaching have influenced many diverse currents practiced in today's 3 main magickal schools: Neo-Paganism, Hermetics/Ceremonial magick, and Chaos magick. Also included are lengthy bios on leading figures in magick since the 40s, like Kenneth Grant, long associated with the Typhonian O.T.O., and proto-Chaos magician, Austin Osman Spare. In addition, Evans discusses some other minor but influential people such as: Peter Carroll and Phil Hine, two key figures in modern Chaos magick, and Gerald Gardner, founder of Wicca.

The book is an incredibly in-depth study. My only gripe is that occasionally it seems a bit unnecessarily in-depth. For example, included is a whole chapter devoted to Amado Crowley. I know what you're thinking, "Amado who?". Amado claims to be Aleister Crowley's son (a claim he's touted for the last 40 years). Evans more or less proves Amado is a fraud in the first two pages. However, Evans is very thorough; he goes on beating a dead horse (which Evans acknowledges) for the rest of the chapter disproving Amado's claims one by one -- more or less destroying the man. It's interesting, but a large amount of book-space is devoted to a rather minor person who doesn't really have much influence in the occult community anyway.

I found it curious that Evans completely ignores the "Trad" witchcraft current or "Crooked Path" witchcraft (seen by many as a counter balance to Wicca). Key figures like Robert Cochrane, and Andrew Chumbley are barely touched upon, as are groups like the Clan of Tubal Cain, the 1734 current, and the Cultus Sabbati . Then again, the book is already well over 400 pages. One wouldn't have room to include EVERYTHING. Perhaps he has plans to address these in a follow-up book. I hope so, as I really enjoy his insight and style.

I also highly recommend Evans' Journal For The Academic Study Of Magic -- the single most academic and scholarly publication devoted to magick to date.

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