Monsters for beginners

John Michael Greer is an independent scholar, writer, blogger and Archdruid. He has written books on a wide variety of subjects. Please don't confuse him with Steven Greer!

"Monsters" is a kind of beginner's guide to vampires, werewolves, demons and other supernatural beings. Not all of the entities covered are evil or dangerous. Greer has included chapters on angels, spirits and even mermaids! The most interesting section deals with fairies and their similarities with aliens and the UFO phenomenon. Very often, Greer criticizes the pop culture ideas about supernatural beings, and occasionally the New Age notions as well. His views on Bigfoot might be contentious within the community dealing with such matters: Greer believes that Bigfoot is a real, flesh-and-blood animal in the Pacific Northwest, while most "Bigfoot" sightings outside the creature's traditional haunts are really supernatural beings (a kind of solitary fairies). Nor will Greer's negative views of nuts-and-bolts ufology endear him to that particular group of people.

For a beginner's guide written in a relatively laid back style, I'd say Greer cracks a surprisingly large amount of eggs!

The book also includes chapters on natural and ritual magic, and a guide to monster hunting. The magical rituals come from the Golden Dawn tradition, which is Greer's personal magical path. "Monsters" further include a philosophical introduction defending the reality of the supernatural, and speculations about the eheric realm, which I found particularly helpful. An extensive list of literature is appended.

Note once again that this is intended as a book for those more or less completely untutored in the magical worldview (i.e. people like yours truly). Greer does manage to portray the magical worldview as relatively rational and logical, but he also admits that the monster lore and magical rituals of various cultures are extremely varied, and that it isn't always possible to get clear information on such matters. Unless you do your own magickal research, presumably.

And yes, even if you are a sceptic, you might actually find this book somewhat entertaining...

Five stars.