It’s hard to imagine the notion that daily life in New Zealand was narrow, conservative, unimaginative and stolid given the vigorous strand of interest in the occult, the spooky and the mysterious that has been part of our history since 1840. This book takes a lively scan including across communicating with spirits, secret ritualistic societies, the supernatural, the New Age — everything from The Golden Dawn and Rosicrucianism to Spiritualism, witchcraft and Radiant Living — and introduces the reader to a cast of fascinating characters who were generally true believers and sometimes con artists. It’s a fresh and novel take on the history of a small colonial society that was not quite as ploddingly conformist as we may have imagined.
