Wisdom From Afar

by Francis X. King

Westerners today are looking with renewed interest toward the cultures of distant times and places. This book opens the way to an understanding of other peoples, and reminds us that the world is wide and full of wisdom. The way is open for a pooling of spiritual resources that could transform mankind.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Francis X. King was an occult writer and editor who wrote about tarot, divination, witchcraft, magic, sex magic, tantra, and holistic medicine. He was a member of the Society of the Inner Light, an offshoot of the Alpha et Omega, which in turn was an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Reviews

[Annabelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here be mystics, angels, zombies, witch doctors, yogis, and flying magicians! Which means it's a mishmash of pseudo articles and claims from other books in the series. (I suppose the publishers needed one or two more books to come up with a set of twenty books, not counting the index guide.)

Robert Graves, according to this book, believed in the link to ancient wisdom and poetry, which he supposedly writes about in The White Goddess. At fifteen, I had no idea who Robert Graves was, and for that I'm thankful. Otherwise I would have associated Graves with this awful, faux-full book and miss out on reading I, Claudius, one of the most delicious books I have ever read.

* In 1985, a dear aunt left us a set of books on the Supernatural. Published in the mid-seventies, the books are dated by today's standards, and sketchy even back then--an encyclopaedia/The Sun hybrid. Over the years, the titles got lost, and those which remained had broken spines and missing pages, a result of persistent re-readings. I've always wanted to recapture the fascination I had for these books, so when I saw a mint set available on eBay in 2018, I bought it.