Source books
Books
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18 books of 336 · oldest first
Greek and Roman mysteries 1
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undated
Hermetism 3
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1463
Latin translation of the Hermetic writings
Made philosophical Hermetism accessible to Renaissance Latin readers, and gave it a prestige built on a mistaken date.
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1885
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1906
Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah 2
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1887
The Kabbalah Unveiled
Translation of portions of Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin Kabbala Denudata, making Zoharic material accessible in English.
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English translation, 1887
Sepher Yetzirah
Helped make a foundational Kabbalistic text available to English-speaking occultists.
Alchemy 3
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1850
A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery
The book that began the modern reading of alchemy as an inner discipline rather than a chemistry. Atwood and her father withdrew and burned most of the edition soon after it...
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1893
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written 1520s–1541; collected in English 1894
The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
Waite's two-volume English collection of the Paracelsian corpus, whose appendix on the three prime essences states the doctrine of salt, sulphur and mercury directly.
Grimoires and ritual magic 4
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1801
The Magus
Book by occultist Francis Barrett
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1889
The Key of Solomon the King
An influential English edition of the Solomonic grimoire tradition.
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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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1898
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
Introduced English occultists to the Abramelin system: prolonged purification, communion with the Holy Guardian Angel, and subsequent command of spirits.
The Golden Dawn 2
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1893 onward
Collectanea Hermetica
A series he edited, making Hermetic, alchemical and Kabbalistic material available to students.
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four volumes, 1937–1940
The Golden Dawn
Rituals, knowledge lectures and practical instructions from the Stella Matutina, published in defiance of initiatory secrecy.
Thelema 1
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1909
Liber 777
Tables aligning Qabalistic, astrological, elemental, mythological and magical systems. This is one of the principal mechanisms by which Golden Dawn correspondences became portable.
The Fourth Way 1
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1949, posthumous
In Search of the Miraculous
Probably the clearest systematic account of Gurdjieff's early teaching.
Twentieth-century magic 1
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1928
The Secret Teachings of All Ages
A large illustrated survey of mystery religions, alchemy, Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Tarot and symbolic philosophy.