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Review of "Dark Star Rising" by Gary Lachman

5/31/2018

33 Comments

 
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Dark Star Rising: Magic and Power in the Age of Trump
Gary Lachman | 256 pages | TarcherPerigree | May 2018 | ISBN: 978-0143132066 | ~$17.00
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​It’s a bit challenging for me to review former Blondie band member and occult historian Gary Lachman’s Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump because it straddles the borderline between the serious and the ridiculous in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Lachman’s thesis is that Trump’s rise, and that of the alt-right in general, has been made possible by and helped resuscitate particular strains of occultism. That this is partially true cannot be denied. Trump received support from Richard Spencer, the white nationalist whose erstwhile business partner, Aryan supremacist Jason Reza Jorjani, openly calls for a rejection of monotheism and an embrace Aryan paganism, with its magical rituals and spirituality. But on the other hand, Lachman actually believes in the power of magic and the occult, or seems to, and alludes to supernatural implications that I simply cannot accept. This is half a sober book about right-wing interest in the occult to justify hateful policies, and it is half a bizarre panic attack over fears that evil spiritual entities are pushing the world toward war.
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​Let’s start with what Lachman gets quite right. It’s true that the far right has an infatuation with the dark side of the occult, and that occult notions have entered into extreme rightwing beliefs, particularly among white supremacists. It’s also true that Trump-adjacent figures like Steve Bannon have shown an affinity for fascistic or dark occult philosophers and that Trump himself believes in a Secret-like philosophy called “New Thought,” a Victorian pantheistic philosophy that held all creation to be God and right thinking the cure to all disease. He also admirably traces connections between occult philosophy, fringe history, and justifications for racism and xenophobia. He wishes to declare this to be a misunderstanding of the true nature of the occult, but at a certain point one must recognize that it is not a bug but a feature—a belief system born in an imperial age to justify the unconscionable with an appeal to the supernatural.
 
The trouble is that Lachman immediately follows a factual statement with an unproveable interpretation that undoes any sober assessment of fact. This occurs for a reason that is also a key weakness in the book. To really prove his case, Lachman would need to be embedded in the Alt-Right, or at least, to interview key figure about their beliefs. Instead, he relies largely on news reports, with all their flaws, and imposes an interpretation on them based upon his own preexisting belief in magical powers. For example, he quotes Spencer as saying that “We willed Donald Trump into office, we made this dream our reality.” He links this to, of all things, The Secret and other New Age occult ideas about willing reality into existence, and he declares this an example of “meme magic.” 

For chaos magicians and many other contemporary occultists, the internet serves the same purpose that the “astral plane” does for traditional magicians, as a kind of psychic ether that can transmit their willed intentions. Meme magic happens when something created on the internet bleeds into the “real world” and changes it.
Nothing in Spencer’s statement suggests that he was practicing ritual magic (which I refuse to grant a “k” as though it were a serious science). It is, in context, a prima facie figure of speech about the making plans and seeing them through. An interview with Spencer might resolve the problem, but Lachman stands outside of his subject, unlike in his previous books where he is more actively embedded in the world of magic and theosophy. But, similarly, Lachman seems to stand outside conventional understandings of communication as well. “Meme magic” is an attempt to supernaturalize what in communication theory we would call “social influence.” Lachman isn’t describing magical powers released by posting hate speech online; he is describing the use of Robert Cialdini’s six weapons of social influence to nudge the audience in a preferred direction. While Lachman is right that Aleister Crowley’s dictum to “do as thou wilt and that shall be the whole of the law” did emerge from and influence the cultural forces that created postmodernism, that doesn’t make postmodernism a chaotic arrival from a magical plane beyond our ken. No magic is needed to explain why certain groups of people wanted to become “free and wild and beyond good and evil,” as another famous racist once put it.
 
That’s what it pains me in my heart of hearts to have to defend Donald Trump for any reason, but Lachman is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong to declare Trump a “‘natural’ chaos magician” or to suggest that there are any supernatural attributes to his use of postmodern, post-truth lying to influence his audience to adopt his inconsistent and ever-shifting set of positions. These are the same arguments that were once used, notably by Lachman’s shameful predecessors Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier in Morning of the Magicians, to imagine Adolf Hitler as the embodiment of supernatural evil. (They, at least, had the excuse that they meant their claims satirically, even if no one realized it.) When we attribute the unpalatable or the unforgiveable to supernatural evil rather than the very human impulses that actually allow evil to grow and thrive, we risk absolving those that support horrific policies for their own choices. Donald Trump does not make anyone hate. He does not control demons, nor can his word salad conjure spells. He says things a large number of people want to believe, and that is all.
 
Similarly, Lachman stretches beyond plausibility when he tries to attribute most major political developments to the influence of occult societies. He sees Trump staff as being in thrall to fascistic philosophers, and he believes that the E.U. came to fruition due to the work of “synarchy,” an occult philosophy related to the work of Schwaller de Lubicz, the French fantasist who recycled Belle Époque speculation about the age of the Sphinx (by Gaston Maspero and Francois Lenormant) and spawned the “alternative history” industry when the late John Anthony West recycled Schwaller and Graham Hancock recycled him. But all of this rises to the level of the ridiculous when Lachman uses his magical worldview to imagine that the very real political tensions that have emerged due to the resurgence of extreme right views are supernatural manifestations of a Manichean spiritual power:
Far-right magical ideas at work in American and Russian politics? With an esoterically based European Union between them, the last redoubt of the by now old New World Order, defiantly hanging on? I am not conspiracy minded, although conspiracy consciousness will play a large part in the account that follows. But as I looked at all this and the other material that gathered around it, I began to wonder. Are Order and Chaos gearing up for a magical battle that will change the political landscape of the world? Is some kind of occult war on its way, or has it already begun?
​This kind of thinking does no one any good because it imagines that the world’s problems can be fixed by magic rather than the hard work of advocating for real change.
 
Lachman promiscuously mixes philosophy, spirituality, and the occult, turning them all into manifestations of one impulse, all the better to declare any philosophical musings a secret backdoor into magic. But they aren’t the same thing.  It doesn’t matter to current White House policy that Ralph Waldo Emerson was interested in Hermetic philosophy, because Donald Trump couldn’t name Emerson, nor does he know Hermes as anything but a handbag. The deeper issue is also the more important one: There is a difference between taking inspiration from an ancient philosophy and imagining a world impregnated by demons and angels, where magical rituals control physical reality. What does Lachman mean by the occult? In the strictest sense, it refers to anything paranormal, and I suppose it is in this sense that Lachman uses it. But when something as blandly useless as “the power of positive thinking” becomes the occult and is used to suggest that the political right use magical powers, it’s just ridiculous. By that measure, everyone is using magic, and therefore no one is. Similarly, when he takes the alt-right literally in claiming that a “red pill” will shake away an illusory (P.C.) world, he compares this to the Gnostic idea that reality is an illusion, seemingly without recognizing that the alt-right don’t believe they are living in a liberal simulation of reality but are speaking metaphorically—though wrongly—about seeing the underlying systems of the world for what they are.
 
I’ll be honest: By the time Lachman brought in the Watchers—in their occult form as egregores—I had about had enough. Lachman imagines Pepe the Frog, the alt-right cartoon mascot, as a Watcher, or a (fake) Buddhist tulpa, a thought-form possessed of magical powers. “Perhaps some entity’s entry into our plane is facilitated by agents unaware of their participation, who think their activities are just for ‘lulz’?” No. He is a cartoon frog. He does not have magic powers. He barely has recognition beyond the fever swamps of the alt-right internet. His influence is purely the social influence of symbolism.
 
Lachman’s book is predominantly a potted history of various occult movements, especially New Thought and Chaos Magic, and some rightist thinkers like Evola, but it never truly connects beyond the superficial with the Trump Administration, largely because there isn’t anything there. A whole chapter compares Trump to Hitler and Mussolini, but Lachman’s analysis of charismatic leadership owes nothing to the occult that cannot be explained purely by psychology and sociology. More of the book is devoted to Russian politics than American politics, perhaps because Lachman doesn’t actually have much to say about the nitty gritty of American life, or perhaps because it’s harder to attribute the boring workaday failures of Trump policy to demonic forces than the politics of another country glimpsed only from afar, where the daily struggle to grind out policy is obscured by distance. Once again, the lack of direct access to right-wing figures hampers Lachman’s ability to be more than an outside observer spinning stories from the tea leaves pressed into newspapers.
 
Ultimately, here is where my problem emerges: Parts of Lachman’s book are clearly correct. Are some right-wing political types interested in dark philosophies? Yes. That is beyond dispute. Do some in the alt-right think that they are engaged in a mystical battle for the soul of (white) civilization? Yes, they do. But the George W. Bush people thought they were living out the Christian End Times, so it is not just an occult perspective. Too much of Lachman’s book is implication and innuendo, predicated on an acceptance of the idea that the dark side of the occult isn’t just an empowerment fantasy for the angry but a real and puissant force manipulating the world. If you do not believe that there are Watchers and bogeys and evil little Trump thought-rays permeating reality, then the analysis falls apart. Lachman never makes the case that the occult drives the right rather than serves, when convenient, as a justification for the actions and beliefs of a small subset of right-wing believers, nor can does he do the obvious and compare the influence of the occult to that of extreme rightist Christianity, an arguably more influential force claiming supernatural warrant for specific and unpopular policies.
 
Dark Star Rising is, essentially, worthless wish-fulfillment for disaffected liberals who want to imagine that only supernatural evil could explain how a minority of American voters could select Trump, or why a minority of the public continues to support him. 
33 Comments
Machala
5/31/2018 10:48:32 am

Gary Lachman's assertion that Trump is a “‘natural’ chaos magician” and that he somehow has harnessed supernatural powers to influence his audience, is no more absurd and ridiculous as the belief of many of the Uptight-Upright-Religious Right, bible thumping, "Christians", who see Trump as the Anti-Christ and support him because they are hoping to hasten The End of Days, Apocalypse, or Second Coming ( take your pick : A, B, C, or all of the above. ).

Reply
Scott Hamilton
5/31/2018 11:29:36 am

I've never heard of a single evangelical Christian who supports Trump BECAUSE they think he's the (or an) Anti-Christ, let alone many. Do you have a source for that claim? After all, the Bible is pretty explicit about not supporting/believing an anti-Christ.

Most Evangelicals I've seen support Trump rationalize that support by either simply denying Trump has done anything Biblically wrong, or comparing him to the imperfect Kings of the Old Testament who God used as his tools.

Reply
W.A.S.T.E.
5/31/2018 12:02:23 pm

It's called immanentizing the eschaton.

An Anonymous Nerd
5/31/2018 07:08:15 pm

My hypothesis is that Machala badly mistook the stuff you're talking about for the Anti-Christ thing.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Joe Scales
5/31/2018 11:08:37 am

Just curious, but is there far right wing in Wicca?

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
5/31/2018 07:07:07 pm

I've never met one, but logic tells me there's no reason they should not exist, and Google confirms that, yes, they exist.

When you expand the question to Pagans generally, then the answer is an even more emphatic yes.

It looks like there's some stuff written about them. Seems like an interesting topic. I may have to do some reading and watching at some point. (Thank you by the way!)

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
V
6/3/2018 11:07:02 pm

I've met a few. I don't think it's that common, because far right philosophy tends to be heavily influenced by Evangelicalism (not to say that all far right are Evangelicals, just that the philosophy tends to be very "one true way and the rest are going to Hell"), and Wicca is not so popular there. You'll find a larger number of Asatruans to be far right (Asatru: a revival of Norse paganism), especially among the more obviously super-Christianized myth-adoptions.

No, it's not about "evil Christianity," it's about how modern Conservatism, in particular the far right, is steeped in "traditional" conformism, and a Christian gloss is very much "traditional."

Reply
John
5/31/2018 11:21:46 am

Hasn’t the author heard of Bohemian Grove at magic rituals performed there. I doubt anti-establishment Trump will be attending.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
5/31/2018 07:11:19 pm

While I doubt President Trump has been to the Grove he does seem to run in circles that have similar tastes without the Pagan trappings.

Roger Stone for example is a self-described 'libertine" who posted personal ads for folks to spend time with his wife.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster

Here's the passage:

[[Stone served as a senior consultant to Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign for President, but that assignment ended in a characteristic conflagration. The National Enquirer, in a story headlined “Top Dole Aide Caught in Group-Sex Ring,” reported that the Stones had apparently run personal ads in a magazine called Local Swing Fever and on a Web site that had been set up with Nydia’s credit card. “Hot, insatiable lady and her handsome body builder husband, experienced swingers, seek similar couples or exceptional muscular . . . single men,” the ad on the Web site stated. The ads sought athletes and military men, while discouraging overweight candidates, and included photographs of the Stones. At the time, Stone claimed that he had been set up by a “very sick individual,” but he was forced to resign from Dole’s campaign. Stone acknowledged to me that the ads were authentic. “When that whole thing hit the fan in 1996, the reason I gave a blanket denial was that my grandparents were still alive,” he said. “I’m not guilty of hypocrisy. I’m a libertarian and a libertine.”]]

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
Huh? What?
5/31/2018 07:37:48 pm

So the same circles as the Kennedys without the vehicular drowning? And of course Clinton?

An Anonymous Nerd
5/31/2018 08:19:54 pm

Kennedys definitely. (Or, at least, similar circles.) Clinton always struck me as the solo type when it came to his indiscretions. Also remember he's considered White Trash to people like that. And while Clinton and Trump do have at least one rather vile friend in common

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-billionaire-pedophile-who-could-bring-down-donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton

the version of the rumors I heard regarding Trump were a lot worse. I'm sure, though, that different versions of these rumors exist.

I'd like to think we'll know the truth eventually, but let us face it: We probably won't.

Though it is interesting how much Conservatives want everyone else to adhere to moral standards they disregard for themselves! And what they're willing to ignore in someone like Trump they like versus someone like Clinton whom they do not.

-An Anonymous Nerd

huh? what?
5/31/2018 09:55:30 pm

"And what they're willing to ignore in someone like Trump they like versus someone like Clinton whom they do not."

You get that that works both ways, right?

An Anonymous Nerd
6/2/2018 11:23:15 am

*scratches head* Where did I say it didn't go both ways? Highlighting Conservatives is of great importance because they spent a lot of time building themselves up as the party of family values and candidates with good character. Only to turn it all around when they elected a candidate with no claim to good character. Trump (and the Grove for that matter) are useful in that it reflects the degree to which Conservatives don't really care if their leaders share their values or not.

I've actually condemned Clinton for his sexual indiscretions for decades now, I just didn't post back then.

I got tired of keeping quiet.

*shrugs*

-An Anonymous Nerd

V
6/3/2018 11:26:34 pm

Huh? What? I actually agree with Nerd on this one. It's extremely hypocritical of the Conservative hoi polloi to condemn Clinton for sexual misconduct while ignoring their own leader's misconduct which is at least equally as bad. It's particularly hypocritical to hold up Clinton's late 90s misconduct while ignoring much more recent and boldly self-recounted misconduct on Trump's part, such as admitting ON CAMERA to peeping on underage women (ie, walking into Miss America dressing rooms to ogle half-dressed 16- and 17-year-olds).

I really don't think it's particularly hypocritical of liberals to point out that Trump is NOT adhering to the values espoused by the party he represents, and honestly, liberal leadership DOES seem to tend to call out party members who egregiously depart from the values espoused by the party, even if a whole lot of non-leadership liberals seem to pull sand over their heads. (I'm looking at you, Berniebros....)

Americanegro
5/31/2018 12:13:57 pm

"an outside observer spinning stories from the tea leaves pressed into newspapers." That's a beautiful phrase. OTOH, "But the George W. Bush people thought they were living out the Christian End Times" strikes me as a bit of over-generalization.

Let us not forget that George H.W. Bush was probably the first President to use the phrase "New world order" in a speech.

Reply
Dunior
5/31/2018 12:33:07 pm

It is surprising that the author forgot to discuss how all those occult concepts were used in intelligence gathering throughout history. This is likely still going on today. The practical side of developing the notion of the occult in politics is to use and extort people into what you want them to do. See Dr. John Dee, St. Germain, Cassanova, Michel Scot and so on.

Reply
Patrick Okane
2/20/2020 10:30:39 am

The Carter Administration employed "remote viewing" successfully to locate a downed Soviet aircraft. Gary Lachman's upcoming book "Holy Russia" will most likely expand on different occult practices Russia employs to secure and hold onto territory and resources.

Reply
Only Me
5/31/2018 01:10:57 pm

I'm not defending Lachman, but interviewing key figures in the alt-right is risky.

I remember a Youtuber, Roaming Millenial, interviewed Richard Spencer and received significant backlash for doing so. Other Youtubers have either debated Spencer or looked deeper into the political beliefs of the alt-right and became targets of harassment.

It seems when one is willing to engage the alt-right, one had better be prepared for just about anything.

Reply
Americanegro
5/31/2018 01:45:37 pm

Sounds like the problem isn't "the alt-right" but internet idiots who go around backlashing people who post on Youtube. Would it be safe to assume they are liberal/progressive/left wing? he asked in the form of a question.

Reply
Only Me
5/31/2018 02:58:40 pm

Well, Jared Holt of Right Wing Watch included Roaming Millenial on a list of Youtubers he labeled "right-wing extremists", in an article titled "White Supremacy Figured Out How To Become Youtube Famous", so take that as you will.

For the other Youtubers, it's possible they were being harassed by progressives, but many comments were left on their videos and live streams repeatedly demanding them to debate Mike Enoch. Enoch is a white nationalist blogger who hosts The Daily Shoah podcast. I doubt the left would encourage giving more exposure to the alt-right.

Only Me
5/31/2018 03:20:05 pm

Correction:

Roaming Millenial was listed as "People Who Enable the Hate".

An Anonymous Nerd
6/2/2018 11:26:15 am

The vicious reactions to shooting victims ("fake" "crisis actors" "nazi" etc.) also should be considered.

Having said that when you write and publish a book you kind of put yourself out there, so you really should put in all the effort your resources and skills allow.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
Kal
5/31/2018 05:33:35 pm

In the last 40 plus years, every disenchanted group claims the 'other guys in power' will bring about the end times via their 'new order' of some kind. They've claimed the Presidents are 'anti Christ' too, but that phrase does not appear in the Bible.

Nor does the US or even anywhere beyond the Old Roman Empire and parts of the Mediterranean.

What Revelation does say is quoting Daniel, "No man shall know the time or hour of His return".

The mix up might lie in that the 'Deciever' is supposed to show up, modeled after Nero, not anyone currently living, and He will bring about his false order, and lead people astray. But then the Christ will judge them. Not the alt right. That did not exist then.

Armageddon is the Geddon (or Gideon) valley outside Palistine.

Trump is not capable of being a harbinger. He is too busy making stuff up.

Reply
Machala
5/31/2018 08:36:20 pm

The problem many modern Bible literalists have is that they don't have your sense of biblical history or nuance. They will tell you that they believe it word for word. The don't see the "Deceiver" as a symbol for the Roman Emperor Nero but as a modern "Anti-Christ" ( I have heard that term used - correctly or incorrectly ). The final war between good and evil will play itself out etc.etc.
Many of these people have incorporated into their beliefs modern fictions and ancient myths in a romanticized vision of the "End of Days" replete with battling forces of Good and Evil.

I don't say that these people are "alt-right" or ultra-right. I think that the majority of modern religious fundamentalists - be they Evangelicals, Adventists, Traditional Roman Catholics etc. - tend towards a more conservative political worldview and in the United States tend to vote Republican and support those who will uphold their values ( even though some of these politicians, like Trump, are the antithesis of their religious ideals).
Hence, especially among the fanatical few, the hope that coming out of the reign the Emperor tRUMP ( a sinful man ) the battle of the Good ( his supporters - the Religious Righteous ) will finally be fought against the Evil ( those who oppose them and their God ).
It's also this type of Christian fanatic, that is supporting, enthusiastically, Benny Netanyahu and his gang, in their oppression of the Palestine people, in hopes of bringing on the "Final Conflagration" of the Middle East. Again, to hasten the biblical End of Days.

Reply
Americanegro
5/31/2018 10:01:04 pm

Just so we're clear, I think KAL was saying that "new order" doesn't occur in the Bible. "Antichrist" Ἀντίχριστος occurs five times in the New Testament.

Machala
5/31/2018 10:27:43 pm

AN,
KAL said: "...They've claimed the Presidents are 'anti Christ' too, but that phrase does not appear in the Bible. "
I believed, as you so accurately pointed out, that appellation did appear in the New Testament.

Americanegro
5/31/2018 10:57:13 pm

I was all ready to respond to him earlier today based on the part you quoted, but since "antichrist" isn't a phrase and "new order" is, figure he'd just messed up the presentation.

See how nice I am?

A Buddhist
5/31/2018 08:38:55 pm

Actually, the term Anti-Christ appears in the Bible:

1 John 2:22: Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.--2 John 7

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
6/2/2018 06:20:42 pm

Sometimes I think of this argument (essentially: Trump because magic) and laugh to myself when I need a pick-me-up.

Then I think back to the science fiction book "A Canticle for Leibowitz." There's a scene where the humans of the future are speculating if the humans of the past (our era) were "really" humans. And therefore, if they weren't, then those humans of the future are essentially relieved of the sins we committed that caused the world to be as screwed up as it is in their present.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
tomi
6/7/2018 05:18:49 am

What a bizarre idea for a book. Traditionally. it was (religious) right that formed the audience for these conspiracy theories about evil occultists/illuminati/Satanists/pagans/whatever. It speaks about the craziness of our times that Lachman saw the audience for this sort of thing on the left side of political spectrum.

Reply
Arnsugr
6/8/2018 01:04:23 am

This book is ridiculous, meme magic is just social media algorithm, and the 'age of Trump' has much mysticism and magic as a deflated balloon. Can anyone seriously imagine magicians getting together at a Republican meeting? Or Trump sitting down to read Liber Al and to check out some neo-pagan Ayran reading at lunch? It's a worthless book for worthless people who think trolling with Pepe is the pinnacle of the occult...

Reply
Jenni7
8/10/2018 06:29:23 pm

Lachman plagiarized his whole chaos magic thesis from a blogger named Branko Malic (Kali Tribune) without giving him a single citation. (Branko is a failed guru who bitterly hates Dugin and peddles conspiracy theories about him.)

Lachman's whole narrative about Russia is nonsense, and consists mainly of repeating racists western stereotypes about Russians with Dugin as the example.

The fact that there is such a market for this trash demonstrates that Hillary liberals have in fact turned into Glenn Beck.

Reply
Simon
12/31/2018 05:29:29 am

so. in summary, you commend Lachman for pointing out that people believe in occult philosophies - and that some of them are attached to Trump. But you criticize him because he ACTUALLY gives some credence to some of these philosophies because you don't believe in any of that.

Your supremely rational assessment of the situation is that Trump's rise to power was because of all the horrible ignorant racist people and Trump used some clever 'rhetoric' on them.

Your hatred of the word 'magick' is so strong you cannot even bring yourself to utter it - especially for the fear of what ripples you may send out into the world by dignifying its existence.

Words do not really have any 'magical' power. Its all 'just' 'psychological' influence process.

Have you heard of the witch doctors who attempted to 'tame' an illness by giving it a power word. This would reduce and constrict the entity in their mind and make it seem less threatening and amorphous. Modern western doctors still apply this magical technique to good effect in many cases.





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      • Giants in the Earth >
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          • Fossils and Myth
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        • Fragments on Giants
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        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
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        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • The Shaver Mystery >
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    • Miscellaneous Documents >
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