A Complete Run of the (first Series) of "New Dimensions" magazine, Issues 1-16, 1963-65.
St. Paul, MN, USA / Toddington, Glos., UK: Llewellyn Publications / Helios Book Service, 1963 - 1965. First Editions. Softcovers. 16 Issues. Small octavos. Variously paginated - approx. 60pp.each. Stapled in original printed wrappers. "New Dimensions" was a periodical founded by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke of Llewellyn Publications in 1963, at the very start of the late twentieth century revival of interest in the occult. From the outset its editor was Basil Wilby (most of whose works were published under the pseudonym Gareth Knight) a British esotericist and occult author who began his esoteric training in 1953 as a member of the Fraternity (later Society) of the Inner Light, the magical order founded by Dion Fortune. Writing in the first issue of "New Dimensions" Wilby observed "Our ideal is to promote a wider understanding of what occultism stands for - and to open the way to unity of purpose among all esoteric schools." The magazine comprised original artwork, editorials, essays, poetry, reviews, short fiction, etc. on topics as diverse as ritual magick, astrology, witchcraft, miracles, talismans, folklore, clairvoyance, tarot, LSD, astral projection, Kabbalah, UFOs, angels, etc. Its contributors numbered some of the most prominent occultists of the time, namely Douglas Baker; W.E. Butler; Arnold Crowther; Patricia Crowther; Louis T. Culling; Dion Fortune; Gerald.B. Gardner; William G. Gray; Marc Edmund Jones; Gareth Knight; Israel Regardie; Dane Rudhyar; Doreen Valiente and many others. It also included historical material by Victor E. Neuburg and Dion Fortune: notably the previously unpublished essay "Introduction to Ritual Magic" which was serialised in issues 3 - 10. Llewellyn published the first 6 issues of New Dimensions from 1963 through 1964. Publication was then transferred to Wilby's newly-founded Helios Book Service, who continued with more or less the same format as Llewellyn for issues 7 - 11, but from issue 12 onwards they sought to economise and changed the size and switched from offset printing to cheaper mimeography for the text. Despite these measures the magazine was unsustainable, and its final issue was no. 16, published in the winter of 1965 (in 1973 Wilby commenced a new series with the same title, but although similar in content they were little more than stapled photocopies). Looking back on the original series Weschke told one researcher: "New Dimensions was my first attempt at magazine publishing, and it was overly ambitious at the time.... I first encountered Basil as a voluntary, unpaid, librarian for the Society of Inner Light. When we realized we couldn't make a go of the magazine in its quality incarnation, we transferred all rights to Basil and he continued in the 'mimeograph' style as you see. At the same time, he was able to start his own book endeavor, Helios Book Service ...". All issues have light rubbing to covers and a bit of light creasing & chafing at spines, some light toning and creasing to pages. The corners of issue 4 and the top corner of issue 8 are bumped,
issue 13 is creased and has some pen notes on the inside rear cover; issue 14 is lacking the rear wrapper; and issue 15 has a felt-tip scrawl on the fronwrapper. Condition varies from issue to issue, but with the exception of issue 14 (which lacks the back wrappers) all are VG to VG+. Complete sets as this are scarce. Item #68136
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