Occult Press Review, The.
A Monthly Publication Devoted to Higher Thought in all its Phases / "Occultism bespeaks the search for God, the Great Cause back of all Nature. It embraces a knowledge of the fine natural forces not generally perceptible to the outer five senses in man".
Fiat Lux / I Am Life and the Giver of Life
1922--1923? Monthly, bimonthly (irregular)
Los Angeles, CA. Publisher: New Era Press. Editor: R. Caswell Werner; then Werner and Henry Christeen Warnack; Charles Stansfeld Jones ("Frater Achad"), contributing editor.
1/1, August 1922. 32-40 pp., with additional advertising supplements, $1.50 a year.

The journal seems to have ceased with 3/4, November 1923, since that issue included as a supplement three mimeographed pages of the conclusion of William Barker's "Tarot of the Year," which had been running since December of the previous year. The journal was intended originally as a review of current periodical literature on the occult, an idea tried several times before without notable success, with non-partisan articles on "higher thought, metaphysics, psychical research, psycho-analysis, the new psychology, and occultism in all its phases." At least initially, this promise was fulfilled with unsigned pieces on Dr. Abrams' "Scientific Psychometry," and on "Taking God into Partnership," and "Spirit Message from Bishop Phillips Brooks" (whose spirit had earlier contributed to Helmuth Holler's Theomonism) through Edith Hubbell Leffingwell Torrence Phillips, and other brief articles of the same sort, but eventually the journal came to contain original contributions by and excepts from of the likes of screenwriter-occultist Henry Christeen Warnack, whose work was reprinted by the New Era Press, Louis Plante, Clarence H. Foster, Fr. Odacon ("The Avatar to the Negro"--will be Caucasian), William Millard Barker, Rolla H Waffle, Mary E. Thedick ("Color: First Aid to Beauty, William Barker, R. Caswell Werner, Katherine Poor, Stuart Armour, Clarence H. Foster, T. Sharper Knowlson, Agnes Mae Glasgow, the Order of Christian Mystics, Katherine Hillwood Poor, et al. To excite controversy and interest, the journal carried long conflicting excerpts on H.P. Blavatsky's metaphysical status, leaving it for the readers to reach their own conclusions. There were extensive advertisements for the publisher's own book service and publications and for minor New Thought mages and astrologers and their lessons and institutes, like Yacki Raizizun, Ph.D., Llewellyn George, and the Institute of Business Success of Chicago, and the journal may have had some connection with Agnes E. Marsland of Washington, D.C., since it carried prominent advertisements for her books, the Esoteric Brotherhood, and for the Esoteric. This staid pattern changed with the appearance of "Frater Achad" (Charles Stansfeld Jones, 1886-1950), who first began to appear in the issue of February-March 1923 ("Bread and Stones?"), and eventually created cover art for the journal (August 1923, with an editorial explaining its occult significance) and, in September, became a contributing editor. Jones was one of Aleister Crowley's first neophytes in the A.A., and went on, in occasional bouts of sanity, to play a significant role in the M.M. and O.T.O. In June 1923 he advertised in the journal the appearance of his Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception at $10.00 a copy, and in July appeared the first of an important two-part series on "Initiation" ("Briefly, during a ceremony of this sort, the candidate is taken out of his normal surroundings, caused to be in a very impressionable state of mind, and then certain suggestions are given to him, which, when accepted, become autosuggestions which go on working in his subconscious mind, perhaps for many years afterwards."). On accepting a position as contributing editor, Jones exalted in the prospects for the journal: "The united efforts of the Editorial Staff should enable The Occult Press Review to supply those who are interested in Attainment, Alchemy, Astrology, Bahaism, Buddhism, Cryptic Science, Ceremonialism, Dharma Yoga, Divination, Esoteric Teachings, Figureology, Gnosticism, Geomancy, Hatha Yoga, Healing, Initiation, Jainism, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Logic, Masonry, Magick, Mysticism, Mantra Yoga, Numerology, New Aeon Methods, New Thought, Occultism, Psychology, Palmistry, Platonic Philosophy, Qabalah, Ritualism, Raja Yoga, Rosicrucian Philosophy, Science, Spiritualism, Thelema, Theosophy, Taoism, Unity, Vegetarianism, Vedanta, The Way of Will and Wisdom, Xianity, Yoga, or Zoroastrianism, with, not alone further Light on their own systems, but with the true relation and correspondence between one and all, which leads to the Supreme Goal of UNITY and the ability to fulfill the True Will and Purpose of existence." The journal ceased with the next issue and Jones went on to contribute to the Occult Review. The last surviving issue carried a notice of his new: "Psychomagia, Inc., of which Frater Achad is the founder and president, is a society which aims at Individual Freedom through Order. It upholds that 'Every man and every woman is a Star,' which implies that every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion." The table of contents of the journal is given in www.lashtal.com. LOC Houdini Collection.

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