Customer Reviews

The Morning of the Magicians: Secret Societies, Conspiracies, and Vanished Civilizations

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Morning of the Magicians is one of the original inspirations for writers like Colin Wilson, Erich von Daniken, and Graham Hancock. Originally published in French in 1960, it is an overview of numerous concepts that are now often lumped together as New Age.

Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier were young men during the German occupation of France in World War II, and this experience led them to pay particular attention to the Nazis' focus on the occult. I found the sections of their book dealing with Hitler and other Nazi leaders' fixation on Horbiger's ice moons theory and other similar ideas to be the most fascinating. But there is a wide variety of subjects included in this work, and most readers should find plenty of material to ponder, if not necessarily completely accept.

Like most books translated from other languages the phrasing may seem a bit odd from time to time, but Morning of the Magicians remains a work of great interest.

Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier's THE MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS: SECRET SOCIETIES, CONSPIRACIES, AND VANISHED CIVILIZATIONS was first published in 1960 and offers insights into scientific evidence that supports the existence of paranormal activity, telepathy, and the occult in human history. From masterminds behind early civilizations' growth to connections between alchemy and modern physics and Hitler's psychic potentials, THE MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS offers a wide-ranging history. A fine new age library addition.

[This review is based on the original French.]

Quite an unusual book, and superbly written, Morning of the Magicians is around 600 pages about topics as varied as Nazi occultism, alchemy, ancient astronaut theory, and unknown human capacities.

Published first in 1960, the authors propose "fantastic realism" as a new paradigm. Fantastic realism is all about the idea that actual reality is far more fantastic than what we limit it to.

To demonstrate this, the authors begin by showing how, at the end of the 19th century, scientists were under the pression that their job was mostly done, and sciences like biology or physics were closed cases. Definitely not something I would have guessed on my own, but definitely what the late 1900's had in mind.

The book goes on to show how some famous inventions had been discovered centuries ago, such as gas lamps, which could have emerged in the 17th century (or earlier, I forget the exact date), if only scientists had paid more attention to ancient books. The authors complain that ancient books are almost exclusively read by literature and history scholars, and not by engineers. Had they read some of these ancient books, some technologies would have (re)seen the light of day 200 years earlier than they did.

Another part of the book deals with alchemy, showing the parallels between this ancient science and the process of nuclear production. The underlying idea is that, perhaps, alchemists were the owners of an ancient and somewhat incomplete knowledge. A very interesting part of the book, especially if you know next to nothing about alchemy.

Following this is a whole part about vanished civilisations, Atlantis and the likes.

And following this is my favourite part of the book: Nazi occultism. Of the entire book, this is what I preferred, and this is indeed why I bought said book. This part explains some of the beliefs held by prominent Nazis and their spiritual guides. You will learn about the cosmology of the "Eternal Ice", which Nazis opposed to "Jewish" cosmology of relativity and the rest. Absolutely fascinating.

The last part, about humanity's potential, is the part I liked least, but still worth reading. It tells of some humans' special capacities (without mentioning one of the author's own odd talent, photographic memory, which enabled him to read from 4 to 10 books a day; this is Bergier, who was a chemical engineer by formation, a journalist, a writer, and even a spy during the war!).

All in all, this book can be read selectively, as the authors claim in their introduction, although I read the whole thing from A to Z and didn't regret doing so. The authors' aim was to try and demonstrate that our reality is indeed much weirder than we are led to believe, and than we like to think. To do this, some truly astounding facts are laid before our eyes, and an important number of other writers are mentioned (Charles Fort, to name one). You even get to read three short stories in this book! Stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur Machen (I think), and another by someone whose name I forget. All these stories help illustrate a point the authors discuss, a very welcome intermission of sorts.

Morning of the Magicians is a small door (still 600 pages!) onto an enormous universe of possibilities. From this volume alone, I probably wrote down the names of countless other authors and books I would like to read. Very recommended!

we [homo-sapiens] are the homeless sifting through the refuse ... trying to find a key that boomerangs back to this little rock - thrown way out there - way in an area that's kind of a forbidden zone - because of rules - vibrations and stuff.

Yes, sifting through the excrement of the ages, and what exactly does it wish to find?

Keys, mates, "rings"?

It's a brilliantly inspired guide and takes decades to awaken whatever lies within.....

This book is okay, but it offers no new insights. Anyone who has studied this topic for any time will find it a compilation of things they already know.