Source books
Books
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23 books of 336 · oldest first
Egyptian religion and magic 5
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c. 2400–2300 BCE
Pyramid Texts
Inscribed inside royal pyramids, among the oldest substantial religious texts known. Their utterances concern the dead king's transformation, protection, ascent and...
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c. 2100–1650 BCE
Coffin Texts
Extends formerly royal funerary privileges to a broader elite, elaborating the journeys, dangers and powers available after death.
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from c. 1550 BCE
Egyptian Book of the Dead
A changing collection of funerary spells rather than one fixed book. Individual papyri were assembled for the deceased and supplied the knowledge, incantations and instructions...
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undated
The Book of Gates
ancient Egyptian funerary text
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undated
The Book of What Is in the Duat
literary work
Jewish scripture and tradition 7
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c. 1200–165 BCE (composition); canon fixed by c. 100 CE
Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible in its Jewish arrangement of Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim. Kabbalists read its Hebrew closely: a root, a vowel or a divine name may open the verse toward a...
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3rd century BCE–1st century CE
1 Enoch
First Enoch is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic collection that names Michael, Gabriel and Raphael among a group of holy angels. The work assigns them distinct responsibilities,...
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Probably 3rd–2nd century BCE
Book of Tobit
The Book of Tobit is an ancient Jewish narrative in which Raphael travels in disguise, guides Tobias, heals Tobit and delivers Sarah. Near the story's conclusion Raphael...
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Final form c. 167–164 BCE
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is the earliest canonical biblical source to name Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel appears as an interpreter of visions, while Michael is described as one of the...
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Compiled c. 3rd–6th centuries CE
Babylonian Talmud
The Babylonian Talmud is a multi-generational rabbinic corpus of legal discussion, interpretation and narrative. Particular passages preserve early discussions of Metatron and...
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1901–1906
The Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an early twentieth-century reference work whose signed articles gather biblical, rabbinic and mystical source trails. Its accounts of variant angel...
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prayers from antiquity; the order fixed in the Middle Ages
Siddur
The daily prayer book: the Amidah, the Shema and the prayers before sleep.
Greek and Roman mysteries 2
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2nd century
The Golden Ass
Ancient Roman novel by Apuleius
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1890
The Golden Bough
1890 non-fiction work by James George Frazer
Hermetism 2
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mainly c. 100–300 CE
Corpus Hermeticum
Philosophical-religious dialogues on God, Mind, cosmos, humanity, rebirth and divine knowledge. Its central movement is inward and contemplative: humanity awakens to its divine...
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earliest secure forms medieval, probably Arabic
Emerald Tablet
A very short alchemical text that eventually produces the formula usually paraphrased as 'as above, so below'. Its legendary attribution to ancient Hermes is much older than the...
Gnosticism 1
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undated
The Gospel of Thomas
Coptic-language early Christian non-canonical gospel, part of the Nag Hammadi library
Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah 2
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probably 3rd–6th centuries CE
Sefer Yetzirah
Ten sefirot, twenty-two letters, thirty-two paths. Its division of the letters into three Mothers, seven Doubles and twelve Simples is the structural rule every later tree is...
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principally late thirteenth century; circulated from the 1280s
Zohar
A vast mystical commentary on the Torah concerned with the sefirot, divine masculine and feminine dimensions, cosmic symbolism, evil, souls and mystical interpretation.
Islamic esotericism 1
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Arabic, probably second half of the tenth century
Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm
A large handbook of astral magic, carried into Renaissance occultism through its Latin translation as the Picatrix.
Astrology 1
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1619
Harmonices Mundi
book by Johannes Kepler
Witchcraft and demonology 1
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1487
Malleus Maleficarum
treatise on the prosecution of witches
Late-modern and chaos magic 1
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1969
The Satanic Bible
The foundational statement of LaVeyan Satanism, combining polemic, ritual and an individualist ethic.