In this wickedly entertaining and thoroughly informed homage to one of rock music's towering pinnacles, Erik Davis investigates the magic-black or otherwise-that surrounds this album. Carefully peeling the layers from each song, Davis reveals their dark and often mystical roots-and leaves the reader to decide whether [FOUR SYMBOLS] is some form of occult induction or just an inspired, brilliantly played rock album. Excerpt: Stripping Led Zeppelin's famous name off the fourth record was an almost petulant attempt to let their Great Work symbolically stand on its own two feet. But the wordless jacket also lent the album charisma. Fans hunted for hidden meanings, or, in failing to find them, sensed a strange reflection of their own mute refusal to communicate with the outside world. This helped to create one of the supreme paradoxes of rock history: an esoteric megahit, a blockbuster arcanum. Stripped of words and numbers, the album no longer referred to anything but itself: a concrete talisman that drew you into its world, into the frame. All the stopgap titles we throw at the thing are lame: Led Zeppelin IV, [Untitled], Runes, Zoso, Four Symbols. In an almost Lovecraftian sense, the album was nameless, a thing from beyond, charged with manna. And yet this uncanny fetish was about as easy to buy as a jockstrap.

Essays on the history of psychedelics, the present renaissance, and visions for an inclusive and equitable future. As psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapies explode into the popular consciousness, what does it mean to cultivate and embody a psychedelic renaissance that learns from the past and prepares for the future? From cultural appropriation and sustainability to diversity, inclusion and venture capitalism, Psychedelic Justice: Toward a Diverse and Equitable Psychedelic Culture examines the history of psychedelics, celebrates its present moment and contemplates how advocates and policymakers can shape the future integration of psychedelics into general society. An anthology of essays written for the Chacruna Institute and edited by its co-founders Bia Labate, Ph.d, and Clancy Cavnar, Psy.D, Psychedelic Justice highlights the need for an inclusionary, societal-level approach to the psychedelic renaissance. In addition to psychedelics and drug policy, works in this book examine psychedelics in the contexts of capitalism, Indigenous traditions, reciprocity, sustainability, mental health, diversity, sex, power, and more. A mirror of the vision for a more inclusive psychedelic future, Psychedelic Justice highlights voices that have been long marginalized in Western psychedelic culture: women, queer people, people of color, and Indigenous people. Essay authors include Labate, Cavnar, Belina Eracho, MPH, Bill Brennan, Ph.D (C), NiCole T. Buchanan, Ph.D, Erika Dyck, Ph.D, Jeanna Eichenbaum, LCSW, Sean Lawler, MFA, Monnica T. Williams, Ph.D, ABPP and more. With a focus on radical cultural transformation as the guiding force behind visionary social change and the future of psychedelics, Psychedelic Justice: Toward a Diverse and Equitable Psychedelic Culture, is a guide for a more inclusive and equitable tomorrow.

In these wide-ranging essays, Erik Davis explores the codes -- spiritual, cultural, and embodied -- that people use to escape the limitations of their lives and enrich their experience of the world. These include Asian religious traditions and West African trickster gods, Western occult and esoteric lore, postmodern theory and psychedelic science, as well as festival scenes such as Burning Man. Whether his subject is collage art or the "magickal realism" of H. P. Lovecraft, Davis writes with keen yet skeptical sympathy, intellectual subtlety and wit, and unbridled curiosity. The common thread running through these pieces is what Davis calls "modern esoterica," which he describes as a no-man's-land located somewhere between anthropology and mystical pulp, between the zendo and the metal club, between cultural criticism and extraordinary experience. Such an ambiguous and startling landscape demands that the intrepid adventurer shed any territorial claims and go nomad.