A controversial magician and writer, Kenneth Grant left his mark on the landscape of modern occultism. Grant’s book The Magical Revival plays a seminal role in the interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos – casting the fantastic tales as spiritual revelations and not just creepy monster epics. Grant also takes credit for bringing the occultist/artist Austin Osman Spare and his work to a wider audience through Grant’s publication of books like: Zos Speaks! Encounters with Austin Osman Spare, Fulgur Limited, 1998; Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare, Fulgur Limited, 2003; Borough Satyr, The Life and Art of Austin Osman Spare, Fulgur Limited, 2005.
The Magical Revival is the first book in Grant’s Typhonian Trilogy and it was published way back in 1972. Even then he was documenting Spare and his work:
When barely twenty years of age he began writing The Book of Pleasure, in which he used art and sex to explore the subconscious mind. The Book of Pleasure reeks of diabolism to such an extent that Mario Praz in The Romantic Agony (Oxford, 1933) refers to Spare as an English “satanic occultist,” and he places him in the same category as Aleister Crowley.
Read more about Spare, Crowley and Lovecraft by downloading the full text of The Magical Revival here.
