Spirits, Seers & Séances: Victorian Spiritualism, Magic & the Supernatural – Steele Alexandra Douris

Spiritualism in the Age of Sherlock Holmes & Edgar Allan Poe

A woman in a black veil convenes a séance. A magician places a volunteer into a trance. A fortune-teller leans over a crystal ball. These images are deeply familiar — because our modern language, imagery, and practice of magic borrows heavily from the Victorians. But the spiritual, cultural, and historical foundations beneath them remain largely unexplored.

Spirits, Seers & Séances by Steele Alexandra Douris pulls back the curtain on the Victorian occult revival — revealing what drove an entire era to embrace mediumship, hypnotism, and fortune-telling in the age of Jack the Ripper, Jane Eyre, and Sherlock Holmes.

What You'll Explore

• The history of automatic writing, cartomancy, clairvoyance, and séances
• How Victorian belief in ghosts, fairies, and nature spirits shaped Halloween and Christmas
• The fears, longings, and cultural forces that fueled the spiritualist movement
• Historic examples alongside hands-on exercises to bring the practices to life
• The living roots of modern occultism hidden in plain sight

Book Details

• Author: Steele Alexandra Douris
• Format: Paperback, 226 pages
• Published: September 2023
• ISBN: 9780738774619

For history lovers, occult practitioners, and anyone captivated by the gaslit world where science and the supernatural collided.