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Back Issues Of QUEST Magazine By Marian Green

_Danforth_

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Hi,

Don't normally venture into this section, hello everyone :)

I like to trawl second-hand and charity bookshops for Fortean books. I'm mostly about the ghosts, but I came across three old issues of what looks like a self-published quarterly magic/esoteric magazine called Quest. A quick Google reveals, incredibly, it is still going (http://www.magicalquest.co.uk/) and hasn't changed in front cover style!

I have issues #38, #39 (June and September 1979) and #55 (September 1983.

I'll be honest and say my thought was to read, enjoy and then resell (at a profit, yes, but a profit which will go straight back into other second-hand books :) ) but I wondered if there was any interest in me scanning some of the contents first, for you lot to read and enjoy. If that's okay, of course.
 
The first thing to do is to check the hardcopy magazines to see if they're copyrighted material and what (if any) restrictions are stated for copying them.
 
Suggestion (not mine alas!): can you write to the owner and ask if you can put some old issue scans up?

Linking to the site would be a good way to encourage continued publication so I vote for that too!
 
This is really rather exciting @_Danforth_ I've read a number of quests and thoroughly enjoyed them - it's very much coloured by one person's take on things and so there is a coherent aspect to them.

I think I'm actually looking for a reference from Quest. OK if I dig it out?
 
A little update for you all. I asked permission to reproduce parts rather than full scans, figuring we'd be more likely to get a yes that way. I know it might look like I am trying to drive up the resale value, but hand-on-heart that wasn't on my mind when I asked! More details below, but first:

I think I'm actually looking for a reference from Quest. OK if I dig it out?
If that was directed at me, I have no objection :)

So! I heard back from Marian via her webmaster:
"I've spoken to Marian. In principle she is happy, provided the quotes are credited to Quest (with the date). However, if the authors of the relevant bits are still alive, she'd like to ask their permission first. So: would you mind giving details of the issue dates, article titles and authors?"

I invite you to make suggestions, see attached contents page scans.

quest38_jun79.jpgquest39_sep79.jpgquest55_sep83.jpg
 
ooh!

Screeton, Towards a Dynamic Prehistory
Laurant, Human Response to Nature
Devereux, Thought Forms and Earth Mysteries :)
 
I've added in the two book review sections and submitted these requests to Quest :) EDIT: Marian has OK'd 300-word excerpts from the above articles! Will update this thread with the goodies as I get free time.
 
Last edited:
EDIT: Marian has OK'd 300-word excerpts from the above articles! Will update this thread with the goodies as I get free time.

At some point, please can you express my thanks to her? :)

:fhtagn:
 
Extracts from "Towards a dynamic prehistory", article by Paul Screeton, Quest magazine no.38 (June 1979). The magazine is still going strong, for more information see their website.

--
Sir Mortimer Wheeler, in “Archaeology from the Earth”, quite rightly points out that archaeology “is increasingly dependent on a multitude of sciences and is itself increasingly adopting the methodology of natural science. It draws upon physics, chemistry, geology, biology, economics, political science, sociology, climatology, botany and I know not what else.” Well, should we not add astronomy, astrology, numerology, geometry, comparative religion, dowsing and much, much more?
...
We must understand that [early man] was no primitive savage and when we judge the frequency with which […] nine-day wonders such as klackers, hula-hoops and streaking, is it any wonder that we must remain largely ignorant of the cultural context which inspired the Megalithic civilisation so many centuries ago, and over such a long period of time?
...
Materialistic, scientific, common-sensical values of contemporary opinion militate against a system of perfectly straight lines which: Were seemingly trade routes – Join sacred centres – Are associated with geological fault lines – Mark earth currents – Mark underground water – Have astrological connotations – Relate to a psychic interface – Are benevolent – Are malevolent – Relate to UFO sightings.
...
Perhaps, paradoxically, dynamic prehistory’s greatest enemy is within – the indiscriminate enthusiast. He or she is the uncritical dilettante, or occasionally obsessed or deluded person who see leys everywhere, feels vibrations of occult significance everywhere, and who bombards magazine editors with half-digested material, often flavoured with a pet quirk, attached limpet-like, to each option his or her meandering, tedious visions of the past. These folk do nothing to enhance the views of the gifted seer, who if honest will readily admit deficiencies, or the able scholar, paraphrasing another’s work in the hopes of bringing it to the attention of a wider audience through his popularisation in a medium to which he has access.

--
 
Extracts from "The human response to nature", article by Simon Laurant, Quest magazine no.39 (September 1979). The magazine is still going strong, for more information see their website.

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...you will hear the Craft discussed from the “Gardnerian”, “Hereditary” or “Traditional” points of view and this will naturally tend to split the subject up so it appears there are many factions which come under the general heading of “The Craft”. The view I’d like to put forward, based on my own experience, is that to divide the Craft up thus often leads people to think that they’ve found all there is to know once they’ve been taken into a group working a particular tradition. This, in fact, is often the reverse and the narrowing of horizons that takes place in all the traditions seems to be causing a lot of Craft members to fossilise and stagnate.
...
The ability to adapt your working to circumstances shows that like nature you can use change positively to encourage growth in new directions. This is the constructive side to the appreciation of several branches of the Craft. However, when we stick to one type of working, be it a set ritual from the Book of Shadows repeated time after time the same, then a group often finds itself in a similar position to the dinosaur when faced with a sudden climatic change on pre-historic earth, often with the same result! Especially the workings relying on lots of equipment and written instructions seem prone to this. Lost in the intricacies of works, gestures and regalia poor old Nature often gets symbolised out of all existence!
--
 
Extracts from "Thought-forms and earth mysteries", article by Paul Devereux, Quest magazine no.55 (September 1983). Reproduced by the kind permission of editor/publisher Marian Green, and the magazine is still going so take a look if you like these :) Underlining is taken from the original article, they're not clickable links!

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No occultist doubts the reality and power of thought-forms. It is part of the very stuff of magical action; creation by Will and Imagination, projection onto the plane of everyday reality in the form of images as vessels of power or the actual alteration of existing physical forms and systems.
...
To the so-called rational mind, the idea of thought-forms existing more or less autonomously in free space is an anathema. If such a situation could be demonstrated as fact (in the terms of the “rational” majority in our culture), however, the implications would have a devastating effect on the foundations of current Western concepts. Such a demonstration would change the nature of our culture: pockets of power unknowingly left invisibly surrounding us, modifying our mental, electromagnetic and possibly physical environment. What is the half-life of a thought form?
...
...people (dowsers and non-dowsers) visit these ancient sites and leave behind them mental litter generated by their own ideas and convictions about what forces are there and what forms leys take and so on. I think a good part – though not all – of ley dowsing is mental litter collection. It provides earth mysteries research with a real problem in the use of dowsing as an investigative tool. I must emphasise that most dowsers do not accept my current conclusions…
...
Jacques Vallee showed in his admirable study – Passport to Magonia that Celtic faery faith was being re-enacted in modern UFO events. This hints to me that there may be another input influencing the shape-shfting urge of UFOs… pre-existing thought-forms, which these mysterious lights perhaps disclose in the way iron filings can disclose the otherwise invisible presence of magnetic lines of force around a magnet.
 
(Issues now listed on a certain auction site if you are interested in that sort of thing)
 
My favourite was the last one. Bridging fairy and UFO abductions with the Joseph Campbell monomyth, and positing an explanation for the phenomena in the first place. And although not said in the article itself, not a great leap to also include ghosts in this "thought-form" lark :)

The second one was... chaos witchcraft? :) Use any ritual which looks useful?
 
10 squids for a 4 issue subscription looks pretty damn good - from the Quest site.
 
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