SHADOW WORLDS: A History of the Occult and Esoteric in New Zealand, by Andrew Paul Wood (Massey University Press, $55)
In Shadow Worlds, self-described “cultural mercenary” Andrew Paul Wood has given us an enthusiastically researched book about alternative spiritual communities in New Zealand, from Pākehā settler society to the present time. He demonstrates how this raw frontier provided fertile ground for spiritual experimenters, reformist utopians, mystics and greedy necromancers, who cultivated their messages and visionary systems.
As Wood shows,Freemasons counted governors and ministers among their ranks. Late-19th century premier Harry Atkinson and Sir Edmund Hillary were on the Theosophical Society’s membership rolls.