Source books
Books
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56 books of 336 · showing 1–50 · oldest first
Mesopotamian divination and magic 1
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probably standardised in the 1st millennium BCE
Maqlû
A ritual series against witchcraft and hostile magic, with prayers, incantations and the ritual destruction of images of the alleged witch.
Jewish scripture and tradition 1
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c. 8th–9th century
Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer
A narrative midrash retelling Genesis and Exodus, with an account of creation and of the angels about the divine throne.
Neoplatonism 3
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third century
On Abstinence from Animal Food
Connects vegetarianism with purification and the philosophical life.
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early fourth century
On the Mysteries
Written as a response to Porphyry and framed as by the Egyptian priest 'Abammon'. It argues for divination, sacrifice, sacred symbols and theurgy as legitimate means by which...
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fifth century
Elements of Theology
A rigorously organised series of propositions mapping emanation from, and return toward, the first principle.
Christian scripture and mysticism 1
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c. 500
The Celestial Hierarchy
Organises the angels into a systematic hierarchy.
Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah 3
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Late antiquity; the tradition is attested by the 2nd century, the surviving texts are later (contested)
Shi'ur Qomah
An enumeration of the measurements of the divine body, given in figures so vast they defeat comprehension, which is generally taken to be the point of them.
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Late 13th–early 14th century
Tikkunei Zohar
Seventy interpretations of the first word of Genesis, and the home of the Patach Eliyahu — the passage beginning 'Elijah opened' that maps the sefirot onto the parts of a body,...
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1548, first printed 1592
Pardes Rimonim
Cordovero's systematisation of Zoharic Kabbalah into thirty-two gates, written before Luria's teaching reorganised the field. It is the most orderly pre-Lurianic presentation of...
Islamic esotericism 2
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composed and revised over decades
The Meccan Openings
A gigantic encyclopedic treatment of cosmology, spiritual practice, mystical states, prophecy, imagination and metaphysics.
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c. 1230
The Ringstones of Wisdom
A concentrated presentation of divine wisdom through a sequence of prophets.
Astrology 1
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1647
Christian Astrology
William Lilly’s large practical manual of horary and natal astrology, including concise accounts of the planets and twelve houses.
Alchemy 3
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printed London, 1597
The Mirror of Alchemy
A short English treatise that defines alchemy, gives the theory that every metal is made of quicksilver and sulphur, and describes the colours the work passes through.
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1841
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
1841 collection of historic anecdotes about human follies by Charles Mackay
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1944; English translation 1953
Psychology and Alchemy
Jung's reading of alchemical imagery as a projection of psychic processes, and the book through which most twentieth-century readers met alchemy at all.
Grimoires and ritual magic 6
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13th century
Liber Juratus
medieval grimoire
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1575
Arbatel of Magic
The seven Olympic spirits, their seals and their governance of historical periods, framed with unusual restraint.
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1668
Le Petit Albert
18th-century grimoire
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eighteenth–nineteenth-century textual tradition
The Grand Grimoire
The pact with Lucifuge Rofocale, and the apparatus for compelling it.
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1898; later substantially revised
The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts
A historical and critical survey of the grimoires rather than an instruction manual.
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undated
The Grimoire of Pope Honorius
17th to 18th century grimoire
Renaissance magic and Christian Cabala 4
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completed 1474; printed 1482
Platonic Theology
A massive defence of the immortality of the soul and a Christianised Platonic metaphysics.
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1489
Three Books on Life
The most overtly occult of his works: medicine, astrology, music, planetary influence, images, substances, and methods by which the learned can bring themselves into harmony...
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written c. 1499; first printed 1606
Steganographia
It appears to teach the summoning of spirits for communication across distances, yet much of its opening can also be decoded as cryptographic instruction. The magic may conceal...
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1518, posthumous
Polygraphia
A substantial cryptographic work presenting numerous systems of secret writing.
Witchcraft and demonology 3
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1862
La Sorcière
essay by Jules Michelet
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1921
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe
Argues from witch-trial material for an organised pre-Christian religion surviving into the early modern period.
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undated
The Discoverie of Witchcraft
partially sceptical book published by Reginald Scot in 1584, intended as an exposé of early Modern witchcraft; contains a small section intended to show how the public was...
Rosicrucianism 3
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1614
Fama Fraternitatis
Tells the story of Christian Rosenkreutz and announces a hidden fraternity devoted to universal reform.
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1615
Confessio Fraternitatis
Expands the ideological programme and announces a coming transformation of religion, philosophy and science.
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1670
Comte de Gabalis
17th-century French occult text
Freemasonry 1
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1872
Morals and Dogma
book by Albert Pike
Christian theosophy and Swedenborg 2
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1749–1756
Secrets of Heaven
A large spiritual interpretation of Genesis and Exodus built through his doctrine of correspondences.
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1758
Heaven and Hell
His best-known account of the afterlife: heaven and hell as states corresponding to inward loves rather than external rewards and punishments.
Mesmerism and Spiritualism 4
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1861
The Mediums' Book
A practical and theoretical manual on mediumship, manifestations and methods of testing communications.
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1864
The Gospel According to Spiritism
Interprets Christian teaching through reincarnation and Spiritist ethics.
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1865
Heaven and Hell
Rejects eternal damnation in favour of progressive spiritual development.
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1868
The Genesis
Attempts to reconcile cosmology, miracles and spiritual law with contemporary science.
Tarot 1
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1910
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The textual companion to the deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith.
French occultism 1
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two parts, 1854 and 1856
Dogma and Ritual of High Magic
His masterpiece. Twenty-two chapters in each half implicitly parallel the Tarot trumps, building a theory and practice of ceremonial magic.
Theosophy and its descendants 3
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1889
The Key to Theosophy
A much more accessible question-and-answer exposition of Theosophical teaching.
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1905, with C. W. Leadbeater
Thought-Forms
Claims to show the shapes and colours of thoughts and emotions as seen clairvoyantly, illustrated in vivid plates.
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1908, with Besant
Occult Chemistry
Claims clairvoyant observation of atomic structures.
Thelema 1
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1944
The Book of Thoth
Crowley's account of the Tarot system embodied in the deck painted by Frieda Harris.
The Fourth Way 2
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1949, posthumous
In Search of the Miraculous
Probably the clearest systematic account of Gurdjieff's early teaching.
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1950, posthumous
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
A vast and deliberately difficult allegorical cosmology meant to interrupt habitual thought.
Traditionalism 1
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1945
The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times
His great critique of modern materialism and the reduction of quality to quantity.
Modern witchcraft 1
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1954
Witchcraft Today
Gardner's first public nonfiction account of the religion he called the witch cult.
Late-modern and chaos magic 2
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1972
The Magical Revival
The first of the Typhonian Trilogies, rereading Crowley and modern occultism through Tantra, dream and hidden correspondences.
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1972
The Satanic Rituals
A collection of group rites drawing freely on literary and historical sources.