Occult Forces — L. H. Anderson (1896)

Originally published in Chicago in 1896, Occult Forces by Professor L. H. Anderson is a remarkable late-Victorian manual of divination, fortune-telling, and practical occult instruction.

Physical edition: The Holographic Pagan Press edition is a handmade softcover book, not a hardcover.

The work moves through methods including card reading, palmistry, tea-leaf reading, charms, and other means of interpreting hidden influences and future events. Its combination of practical instruction, popular supernatural lore, and period occult philosophy captures the flourishing mail-order metaphysical culture of fin-de-siècle Chicago.

Anderson was also a prominent teacher of personal magnetism, hypnotism, mental influence, and physical culture. Occult Forces belongs to that larger body of work: an attempt to catalogue the unseen powers believed to operate behind character, attraction, destiny, and everyday life.

This Holographic Pagan Press edition restores the original’s extraordinary pictorial cover and presents the period text as a substantial handmade large-format volume. Each physical copy is printed, assembled, and finished by hand on muted olive-green card stock with a black cloth tape-bound spine.

This is a newly prepared Holographic Pagan Press edition and not an original antique copy.

Choose Your Edition

For the physical collector: choose the handmade Holographic Pagan Press edition — a substantial large-format book printed, assembled, and finished by hand. For immediate reading and research: choose the digital PDF. The PDF is the lower-entry-price reading format; the handmade edition is the physical HPP object intended for the shelf and collection.

Handmade edition note: Holographic Pagan Press editions are produced, assembled, and finished by hand in small batches. As a result, minute variations may occur between individual copies, including slight differences in materials, color, binding, trimming, placement, or hand-applied details. Materials may also vary slightly according to availability. We make every effort to preserve the intended design, character, and quality of each edition while allowing for the natural variations inherent in handmade bookmaking.

Title: Occult Forces
Author: Professor L. H. Anderson
Original publication: 1896
Original publisher: The Occult Publishing Co., Chicago
Length: 107 pages
Formats: Handmade physical book or digital PDF
Physical dimensions: 8.5" × 11"
Cover: Muted olive-green card stock with black printing
Binding: Black cloth tape-bound spine
Interior: Black-and-white
Edition publisher: Odd Enough Books / Holographic Pagan Press
Edition design: C.K. Lee
Condition: Newly produced

Historical Note

The text reflects the occult theories, fortune-telling practices, and social assumptions of the late nineteenth century and is presented as a historical document of that tradition.

Continue the Anderson Library

Continue with Ancient Magic, Magnetism and Psychic Forces, How to Hypnotize, The Key to Mental and Physical Power, and Marvels of Magnetism. View the complete L. H. Anderson collection.