Scope
We collect printed and manuscript material, in any language, that documents Pagan, occult, esoteric, or mystical thought and practice from antiquity to the present. In practice most of our books are in English, with working collections in Latin, French, German, and Spanish.
Two tests
Every book offered to us is put to two questions:
- The practitioner's test. Would someone following one of these traditions want to study this book as part of that path?
- The historian's test. Would someone studying those traditions, their people, or their ideas need to consult it?
A yes to either question is enough. This is why a supermarket paperback on spells from the 1970s sits a few shelves from a scholarly edition of the Greek magical papyri. The paperback may preserve an interview, an address, or a turn of phrase recorded nowhere else.
What we collect
- Primary texts in the original languages and in translation, with a preference for editions that name their sources.
- Scholarship: history, philology, anthropology, folklore, religious studies, and the history of science.
- Practitioner literature of every period, including self-published and small-press work.
- Critical, skeptical, and opposing literature, shelved beside the works it answers.
- Reference works: dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, and catalogs.
- Periodicals, newsletters, zines, and ephemera, especially from the Pacific coast.
- Annotated books and personal papers that record a reader's working life.
- Tarot and oracle decks, collected as printed matter together with their booklets.
What we decline
- Objects: ritual tools, regalia, jewelry, and art. We are not a museum and cannot care for them properly.
- Material that is damp, moldy, or infested, which endangers every other book in the room.
- Unauthorized copies of works still in copyright.
- Private ritual texts given under an obligation of secrecy, unless the giver has the right to deposit them and sets the terms of access.
Our stance
We describe; we do not endorse
A place on our shelves is not a recommendation. We keep books that contradict one another, books that are historically mistaken, and books that make promises no book can keep. Our catalog notes and research guides try to say plainly what each one is: when it was written, by whom, on what authority, and how it has been received.
Critics belong in the room
Skeptical and hostile literature is part of the record. The witch-hunters' manuals, the debunkers, and the theological opponents stand here beside the writers they attacked. Readers are best served by seeing the whole argument.
Age and claims of age
This literature is full of books that claim to be older than they are. We date works by the evidence, state the traditional attribution alongside it, and try not to sneer at either. A pseudonymous grimoire printed in 1750 is a genuine document of 1750.
Difficult material
Some books in these fields recommend things that are dangerous, illegal, or cruel, and a few have served hateful causes. We keep such material where it has documentary value, describe it accurately, and neither display nor promote it. Recipes in historical texts are records of past belief. They are not instructions, and nothing on our shelves or on this website should be taken as medical, legal, or practical advice.
Living and closed traditions
Many of the traditions documented here are living religions, and some reserve their teachings for initiates or for particular communities. We consult the people concerned where we can and honor reasonable requests to restrict access. We do not accept unpublished ritual texts from anyone who has no right to deposit them. Material that has long been in print is part of the public record, and we keep it, with a note in the shelf list where its publication was disputed.
Privacy
Newsletters, letters, and membership lists from past decades often name people who were not public about their beliefs. Unpublished papers and membership lists less than seventy-five years old are consulted at the desk, and we ask readers not to publish private names or addresses found in any newsletter or paper.
Care of the collection
Books are shelved upright, out of direct sunlight, in a room kept cool and dry. Fragile items are boxed. We keep no more than two copies of any edition. Further copies that arrive with a gift are passed on, with the giver's knowledge, to other reading rooms and study groups. Nothing given to us is ever sold.
Offering books
If you have books, periodicals, or papers that may belong here, please read Give Books or Time before packing a box. A list sent ahead saves everyone a journey.