Nevill Drury (1 October 1947 – 15 October 2013) was an English-born

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

editor and publisher, as well as the author of over 40 books on subjects ranging from

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

and western magical traditions to art, music, and anthropology. His books have been published in 26 countries and in 19 languages.Amazon's bio: Nevill Drury page
/ref>

Early life

Born in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

, EnglandAxis Mundi Books Bio: Nevill Drury
/ref> in 1947, Drury moved to Australia at the age of nine. He attended

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

in the late 1960s and later earned his Master of Arts (honours) degree in anthropology from

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of ...

.Visionary Journeys Bio: Nevill Drury
/ref> He received his PhD from the School of Humanities and Social Research, University of Newcastle in 2008 for a dissertation on the visionary art and magical beliefs of

Rosaleen Norton Rosaleen Miriam Norton (2 October 1917 – 5 December 1979), who used the name of Thorn, was a New Zealand-born Australians, Australian artist and occultism, occultist, in the latter capacity adhering to a form of pantheism, pantheistic / Neopa ...

Career

In 1970 Drury was an English teacher at

West Wyalong West Wyalong is the main town of the Bland Shire in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Located west of Sydney and above sea level, it is situated on the crossroads of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, and the ...

High School in the Riverina District of NSW. A few years later in 1976 he started working in the Australian book industry. He was a former managing editor for the holistic journal ''Nature and Health''. A former managing editor for

Harper and Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

and Doubleday in Australia, he helped found the specialist visual arts publishing company Craftsman House in 1981, which became Australia's leading art book imprint. Drury worked full-time as publishing director of this company from 1989 to January 2000. He also co-edited ''Australian Painting Now'', which was published in the UK and US by

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

. He was briefly the manager of

Adyar Bookshop Adyar or Adayar may refer to: * Adyar, Bhandara, a small town in Maharashtra, India * Adyar, Chennai, a locality in Chennai (Madras) in the state of Tamil Nadu, India ** Battle of Adyar, October 1746 * Adyar Eco Park (also known as Tholkappia Po ...

in Sydney (2008-2012).

Writing and lecturing

Drury was a prolific author of books on

, spirituality, and different forms of magical practice. His many books include the first serious overview of

occultism The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...

in Australia: ''Other Temples, Other Gods'' (co-written with Gregory Tillet). Others include ''Don Juan, Mescalito and Modern Magic'', ''The Occult Experience'' (the book of an award-winning documentary he co-produced and narrated released in 1985 featuring, among others,

Margot Adler Margot Susanna Adler (April 16, 1946 – July 28, 2014) was an American author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess, and New York correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). Early life Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adler grew up mostl ...

, Selena Fox, Alex Sanders, Janet and Stewart Farrar, and

H. R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mar ...

), and ''Pan's Daughter'': the first biography of Australian artist and witch

. He authored several books on Australian art, including the three-volume ''Images'' series. Artist Matthew Tobin (Creative Director, Urban Arts Project

describes Nevill Drury as

...one of those most responsible for Aboriginal art's growth (he discovered
Rover Thomas Rover Thomas Joolama (1926 – 11 April 1998), known as Rover Thomas, was a Wangkajunga and Kukatja Aboriginal Australian artist. Early life Rover Thomas was born in 1926 near Gunawaggii, at Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route, in the Great ...
, Clifford Possum and
Emily Kame Kngwarreye Emily Kame Kngwarreye (or Emily Kam Ngwarray) (1910 – 3 September 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian artist from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory. She is one of the most prominent and successful artists in the history of Aust ...
)

His books have been translated into 19 languages. Since 1980 he was a speaker and workshop facilitator on subjects such as magical visualization and shamanic drumming. He was both an interviewer and a guest on several programs on Australian television, including the ABC Television shows ''The Ark'' and ''Compass'', as a spokesperson for the New Spirituality. He has also lectured at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, Australia.

Awards

* Bronze Award for documentary ''The Occult Experience'' at the 1985 International Film and Television Festival of New York * Silver Award in ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards, New York (2004) for ''The New Age : Searching for the Spiritual Self'' (In the USA: ''The New Age: The History of a Movement'') Thames & Hudson UK / Thames & Hudson Inc. "Mind Body Spirit". * ''Best PhD in the School of Humanities'', University of Newcastle 2008 * ''Most Significant Publication Arising from a Research PhD'', (chapter on the 'Modern Magical Revival' published in M. Pizza and J.R. Lewis d Handbook of Contemporary Paganism, Brill, Leiden 2009), University of Newcastle 2008

Personal life

Nevill married three times – to Susan Pinchin (their three children being: Rebecca, Megan and Ben), to writer Anna Voigt, and to Lesley Andrews-Buffard. From 2008 onwards he lived in and around the small rural town of Milton, on the New South Wales south coast. In retirement his interests included drawing in pastels, gardening, lecturing for the

U3A The University of the Third Age (U3A) is an international movement whose aims are the education and stimulation of mainly retired members of the community—those in their third 'age' of life. There is no universally accepted model for the U3A. It ...

organization, learning how to play

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

on a

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was origina ...

, and singing in a local gospel choir.

Death

Drury suffered various cancers and complications and was found to have advanced liver failure. He died at home on 15 October 2013 aged 66.Biography
/ref> He was survived by his wife Lesley, his three children, Rebecca, Megan and Ben, and his grandchildren Jethro, Isabella, Madeleine, Archie and Zara.
/ref>

Bibliography

* ''Australian Painting Now'' (with Laura Murray Cree) (2000) * ''Bodywork Book'' (1984) * ''Creating Good

Karma Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...

: Release Your Karmic Burdens and Change Your Life'' (2003) * ''

Creative Visualization Creative visualization is the cognitive process of purposefully generating visual mental imagery, with eyes open or closed, simulating or recreating visual perception, in order to maintain, inspect, and transform those images, consequently modi ...

- To Attain Your Goals and Improve Your Well-Being'' (2001) * ''Dark Spirits: The Magical Art of Rosaleen Norton and Austin Osman Spare'' (2012) Salamander & Sons * ''Dictionary of Mysticism and the Esoteric Traditions'' (1992) ABC Clio, (1992) Prism Press, (1994) Ferenczy Konyvkiado, (2002) Watkins (republication of ''Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult'') * ''Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult'' (1985) Harper & Row , (1988) Droemer Knaur * ''The Dictionary of the Esoteric: Over 3,000 Entries on the Mystical and Occult Traditions'' (2002) Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Ltd , Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. * ''

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...

, Mescalito and Modern Magic: The Mythology of Inner Space'' (1988) Arkana, Penguin (Non-Classics) (1 November 1988) , * ''Echoes From the Void: Writings on Magic, Visionary Art and the New Consciousness'' (1994) * ''The Elements of Human Potential'' (1989) Element, (1993) Edizione Crisalide, (1994) Xenia, (1995) Zysk, (1996) Votobia * ''The Elements of Shamanism'' (1989) Element, (1991) Tirion, (1991) Jouvence, (1994) Karisto Oy, (1994) Edesviz Kiado, (1994) Rebis, (1995) Xenia, (1996) Forum, (1996) Okyanus, (1997) Floros (republished 2000 by Element as New Perspectives: Shamanism) * ''Everyday Magic'' (9 April 2002) Simon & Schuster, Australia * ''Exploring the Labyrinth: Making Sense of the New Spirituality'' (1999) Continuum, 1999 Allen & Unwin (Sydney), 1999 Gill & Macmillan / Newleaf * ''Fire & Shadow: Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Art'' (with Anna Voigt) (1996) * ''The Gods of Rebirth'' (1988) * ''Healing Music: The Harmonic Path to Inner Wholeness'' (with Andrew Watson) (1987) * ''The Healing Power: A Handbook of

Alternative Medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

and Natural Health'' (1981) * ''The History of Magic in the Modern Age'' (2000) Carroll & Graf, 2000 Constable, 2000 Simon & Schuster Australia * ''The Illustrated Dictionary of Natural Health'' (with Susan Drury) (1988) David & Charles * ''Images in Contemporary Australian Painting'' (1992) * ''Images 2: Contemporary Australian Painting'' (1995) * ''Images 3: Contemporary Australian Painting'' (1998) * ''Inner Health: The Health Benefits of Relaxation,

Meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

and Visualization'' (1985) * ''Inner Visions: Explorations in Magical Consciousness'' (1995) Arkana, (1995) Penguin Group (US) Incorporated * ''Magic and Witchcraft: From Shamanism to the Technopagans'' (2004) * ''Merlin's Book of Magick and Enchantment'' (with Linda Garland) (2001) Barnes and Noble, (1997) Lansdowne, (1998) Raincoast, (2002) Edaf * ''The

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consid ...

: The History of a Movement'' (2004) * ''New Art'' (1990) * ''New Art One'' (1987) * ''New Art Two: New Directions in Contemporary Australian Art'' (1980) * ''New Art Four: Profiles in Contemporary Australian Art'' (1990) * ''New Art 5: Profiles in Contemporary Australian Art'' (1991) * ''New Art Six: Profiles in Contemporary Australian Art'' (1992) * ''New Art Seven'' (1992) * ''New Art Eight: Profiles in Contemporary Australian Art'' (1993) * ''New Perspectives: Shamanism'' (2000) * ''New Sculpture: Profiles in Contemporary Australian Sculpture'' (1994) * ''Occult Experience'' (1989) * ''The Occult Sourcebook'' (with Gregory Tillett) (1978) Routledge & K. Paul * ''Other Temples, Other Gods: the Occult in Australia'' (1980) * '' Pan's Daughter: the Strange World of

'' (1988) * ''The Path of the

Chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bei ...

: Man's Encounter with the Gods and Magic'' (1973) * ''

Reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

: Exploring the Concept of Reincarnation in Religion, Philosophy and Traditional Cultures'' (2002) Barnes & Noble, New York * ''Sacred Encounters: Shamanism and Magical Journeys of the Spirit'' (2003) * ''The Search for

Abraxas Abraxas ( grc-x-biblical, ἀβραξάς, abraxas, variant form romanized: ) is a word of mystic meaning in the system of the Gnostic Basilides, being there applied to the "Great Archon" (), the princeps of the 365 spheres (). The word is foun ...

'' (with Stephen Skinner, Introduction by

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

) (1972) * ''The Shaman and the Magician: Journeys Between the Worlds'' (1988) Arkana, Penguin (Non-Classics); New Ed edition (1 November 1988) , * ''The Shaman's Quest: Journeys in an Ancient Spiritual Practice'' (with Tom Cowan) (2002) * ''Stealing Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic'' (February 2011) New York: Oxford University Press * ''The

Tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...

Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering the Wisdom of the Cards'' (

Divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history ...

and Energy Workbooks) (2004) * ''Vision Quest: A Personal Journey Through Magic and Shamanism'' (1989) * ''The Visionary Human: Mystical Consciousness and

Paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

Perspectives'' (1991) * ''The Watkins Dictionary of Magic: Over 3,000 Entries on the World of Magical Formulas, Secret Symbols, and the Occult'' (28 July 2006) Watkins , * ''A Way Forward: Spiritual Guidance for Our Troubled Times'' (with Anna Voigt) (2003) * ''Wisdom from the Earth: the Living Legacy of the Aboriginal Dreamtime'' (with Anna Voigt) (1998) Shambhala, (1997) Simon & Schuster Australia, (1998) Droemer / Delphi (Germany)

Filmography

* ''Healers, Quacks or Mystics?'' (1983) ABC TV Series * ''The Occult Experience'' (1985

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Home Video (won a Bronze Award at the 1985 International Film and Television Festival of New York)

Discography

* ''Shaman Journey'' by Nevill Drury & Japetus (CD) (Released 18 November 2005) Japetus

Notes

References

''Early Pioneers of the New Age''
– ABC Radio National: Interview by Rachael Kohn on 12 December 2004.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drury, Nevill 1947 births Australian biographers Male biographers Australian occult writers Australian spiritual writers English emigrants to Australia People from Hastings 2013 deaths