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#24: Saints & Scoundrels

Next Issue "However heroic the virtues of the saint may be, the scoundrel has a bit of the hero in him too."
- Richard Smoley, from the introduction
Issue 24 cover
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Contents

Summer 1992
Home 2
News

3
Forum

8
Skeptic's Corner
Stranger Than Science
A column by Ted Schultz

10
Alternative Realities
The Divine Feminine in Recent World Events
A column by Stephan A. Hoeller

12
Choose Your Saints Wisely
by Richard Smoley
Why we must cast a cold eye on even our greatest heroes.

16
The Hell-Fire Club
by Daniel Willens
Were they Satanists and libertines? Or some of the most progressive and far-sighted men in British history?

23
The Grand Copt
by Timothy O'Neill
How the legendary Cagliostro tried to revive the magic of ancient Egypt.

30
The Best of the Beast
by Antoinette LaFarge and Robert Allen
What can we make of the legacy of the inimitable Aleister Crowley?

36
Heroic Virtue: An Interview with Brother David Steindl-Rast
by Richard Smoley
A distinguished monk talks about saints, the contemplative life, and the future of the Catholic Church.

43
Wrath, Sanctity, and Power
by John Carey
Why were those Irish saints so darn ornery?

48
Was Tsar Nicholas a Saint?
by Stephen Muratore
The case of the last tsar of Russia casts some light on who becomes a saint, and why.

56
The Art of Conscious Listening
by Heidi Melas
How classical music can serve as a pathway to the realms of the spirit.

61
Book Reviews
  • In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations by Jerry Mander
  • Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence McKenna
  • The Elements of Alchemy by Cherry Gilchrist
  • The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature by Michael Murphy
  • Eating the "I": An Account of the Fourth Way by Wm. Patrick Patterson
  • Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and the Popular Culture by David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson
  • Saturday's Child: Encounters with the Dark Gods by Janet O. Dallett
  • Prayer of Jesus - Prayer of the Heart by Alphonse and Rachel Goettmann
  • Song of the Cosmos: An Introduction to Traditional Cosmology by Arthur Versluis
  • Visions of the Night: A Study of Jewish Dream Interpretation by Joel Covitz
  • The Journey of the Self: A Sufi Guide to Personality by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri





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