Strange Experience The Autobiography of Hexenmeister by Lee R. Gandee
Publication: 1971 Prentice-Hall, Inc First Edition First Printing
An unusual autobiographical work"The book is broken into nineteen chapters and an introduction, with titles such as "A Dead Man's Treasure" and "The Strangest Prayers are Painted." Each chapter is introduced with a hex sign--a Pennsylvania German art design frequently seen on barns in Lancaster and Berks Counties. Some of the signs are essentially reproductions of old barn signs, but a number of them are Gandee originals, and all have short explanations about their significance and attributed powers (such as "perpetual watchful protection and guidance" or "man's power to create through mental and spiritual action") (pp. 27, 115)...The book explains that Lee's childhood was full of demons, ghosts, hauntings, and apparitions, but that most people he knew simply accepted those as part of the world in which they lived. Much of the book recounts the simply mind-boggling spiritual world of Gandee, which ranges from the native hexenmeister-craft he practices (including the aforementioned chapter on painting prayers through hex signs) to working with Christian Science methods and encountering ferocious ghosts in Mexico Because of the paucity of good, first-hand accounts of this sort of folk magic, Gandee's book stands out in its field. It hardly reads as a dissection of Pennsylvania German religious or magical culture, and Gandee himself is hard to pin down at times .Strange Experience highlights the humanity of a man with feet in two worlds, belonging to none." (exerpted from New World Witchery, blog post 193)
Condition: Fine in unclipped dust jacket. Scarce in hardcover!