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Roma Lister

Ghosts of Florence: Roma Lister and the Haunted Villa

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by TheCustodian

“It was in one of these periods of strange happenings that I accepted my friend’s invitation, having little fear of ghosts.” – Roma Lister As I’ve written previously, late nineteenth-century Florence was a bona fide ghostland. Following the rise to international stardom of the Fox sisters (who are generally acknowledged as the “mothers” of spiritualism),…

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Roma Lister: A Haunting Vision in Florence

Posted on March 14, 2025March 14, 2025 by TheCustodian

Long ignored by scholarship, Lister was a writer, folklore collector, and occultist who served as an inspiration and adviser to the American man of letters Charles Godfrey Leland. Throughout her life, Lister, like her friend Lady Walburga Paget and others, often had strange, visionary experiences.

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Alien Encounters: An Interview with Professor Diana Pasulka

Posted on November 26, 2023November 26, 2023 by TheCustodian

“At some future day—I cannot say when and where—it will be proved that the human soul is…already in an uninterrupted communication with those living in another world; that the human soul can act upon those beings, and receive, in return, impressions of them…” – Immanuel Kant Humanity’s first attempts to contact otherworldly intelligences date back…

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Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World: An Interview with Dr Holly Fletcher

Posted on July 17, 2023November 23, 2023 by TheCustodian

Sleep’s importance to early modern life and culture can hardly be overstated and yet the history of this vital and ubiquitous human experience has barely been told. -Professor Sasha Handley How has climate impacted historical sleeping patterns? How did early peoples interpret and customise their own sleep environments? These are some of the questions that…

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Bookish Maledictions: An Interview with Dr Eleanor Baker

Posted on June 30, 2023June 30, 2023 by TheCustodian

“I had previously stumbled across book curses when leafing through manuscripts and, as an avid fan of folk horror literature, was interested in the intersection of the macabre and book history.” -Dr Eleanor Baker Modern libraries do not suffer fools gladly. To protect their collections from ambitious thieves, they frequently rely on a multipronged strategy,…

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Italian Witchcraft and Shamanism: An Interview with Dr Angela Puca

Posted on June 17, 2023June 17, 2023 by TheCustodian

“The primary focus of the book is to shed light on the concepts of indigenous and trans-cultural shamanism within the Italian context, while also delving into the fascinating realm of Italian folk magic tradition that I systematised as the Tradition of Segnature.” -Dr Angela Puca In the late 1890s, Eustace Neville-Rolfe–an acquaintance of Charles Godfrey…

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The Dark Arts Research Group

Posted on May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 by TheCustodian

In January 2023, the University of Copenhagen launched the Dark Arts Research Group (DARG). Covering the period from 1750 to the present, the project will take an in-depth look at the global public’s “fascination with otherworldly entities and the macabre”. The DARG is specifically interested in exploring the varied ways horror, gothic, and other esoteric…

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The Astra Project: An Interview with Dr Luís Ribeiro

Posted on April 26, 2023April 26, 2023 by TheCustodian

“From a historical point of view, astrology is a fascinating subject…it has traversed not only time but also many cultures with different philosophical and religious views. -Dr Luís Ribeiro Astrology remains one of humanity’s most enduring and enchanting interests. Like stars, coruscating in the darkness infinite, it has been a guide to all civilizations, casting…

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Underground Mathematics: An Interview with Dr Thomas Morel

Posted on March 19, 2023March 19, 2023 by TheCustodian

“Dowsing rods and transmutative alchemy, mining tools and popular magic have all been analysed by modern historians. Mathematics, on the other hand, is surprisingly missing from historical accounts of mines, caves, and the underground world.” -from Underground Mathematics (2022) by Dr Thomas Morel In early March, a team from the ScanPyramids project confirmed the existence…

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Skyscape Archaeology: An Interview with Dr Fabio Silva

Posted on February 28, 2023February 28, 2023 by TheCustodian

“It is…no wonder that sun, moon, and star-rises and -sets are the most widespread celestial phenomena encoded in alignments of structures.” – Dr Fabio Silva Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark is a film buff’s dream: full of clever dialogue, imaginative history, and eye-popping (sometimes literally) sequences–all brought to life by John Williams’s…

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  • Art (60)
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Recent Posts

  • Ghosts of Florence: Roma Lister and the Haunted Villa
  • Roma Lister and the Mysterious Dream Powder
  • Roma Lister: A Haunting Vision in Florence
  • Contract signed: new book on Roma Lister
  • Alien Encounters: An Interview with Professor Diana Pasulka
  • Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World: An Interview with Dr Holly Fletcher
  • Bookish Maledictions: An Interview with Dr Eleanor Baker
  • Italian Witchcraft and Shamanism: An Interview with Dr Angela Puca
  • Dream Mysteries: An Interview with Sarah Janes
  • The Dark Arts Research Group
  • The Astra Project: An Interview with Dr Luís Ribeiro
  • Underground Mathematics: An Interview with Dr Thomas Morel
  • Skyscape Archaeology: An Interview with Dr Fabio Silva
  • Shamans and Kabbalah: An Interview with Dr Yosef Rosen
  • Modern Occultism: An Interview with Mitch Horowitz
  • Lady Paget and the Enchanted Villa of Bellosguardo
  • The Lost Treasures of Cottenghe
  • Psychic Investigators: An Interview with Dr Efram Sera-Shriar
  • Los Angeles Noah: Reverend J. E. Lewis and the Liberian Arks
  • Dark Destinations: An Interview with Peter Hohenhaus
  • Storytelling and London Dreamtime: An Interview with Vanessa Woolf
  • Rosicrucians, Drugs, and Angelic Transformations: An Interview with Dr Hereward Tilton
  • Sigils and Spirits: An Interview with Darragh Mason
  • Sacred Worship in Ancient Nubia: An Interview with Professor Solange Ashby
  • Death Studies at Padua: An Interview with Ivan Cenzi
  • Espionage in Early Modern Venice: An Interview with Dr Ioanna Iordanou
  • Evelyn De Morgan and the Art of the Imponderable: An Interview with Emma Merkling
  • The Many Faces of Pico della Mirandola: An Interview with Professor Brian Copenhaver
  • A 17th-Century Conspiracy Tale: Johann Cambilhon and the “Magick” College
  • Occult Egypt in the Victorian Popular Imagination: An Interview with Dr Eleanor Dobson

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