Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition


Frances A. Yates - 1964
    Placing Bruno—both advanced philosopher and magician burned at the stake—in the Hermetic tradition, Yates’s acclaimed study gives an overview not only of Renaissance humanism but of its interplay—and conflict—with magic and occult practices.

The Black Arts: A Concise History of Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the Ages


Richard Cavendish - 1967
    This text describes the practice, theory, and underlying rationale of black magic in all its branches - the summoning and control of evil spirits, necromancy, psychic attack, devil worship, witchcraft, evil charms and spells - as well as other branches of occult theory.

In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching


P.D. Ouspensky - 1947
    I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mystical thought as expressed through the Work, a combination of Eastern philosophies that had for centuries been passed on orally from teacher to student. Gurdjieff's goal, to introduce the Work to the West, attracted many students, among them Ouspensky, an established mathematician, journalist, and, with the publication of In Search of the Miraculous, an eloquent and persuasive proselyte.Ouspensky describes Gurdjieff's teachings in fascinating and accessible detail, providing what has proven to be a stellar introduction to the universal view of both student and teacher. It goes without saying that In Search of the Miraculous has inspired great thinkers and writers of ensuing spiritual movements, including Marianne Williamson, the highly acclaimed author of A Return to Love and Illuminata. In a new and never-before-published foreword, Williamson shares the influence of Ouspensky's book and Gurdjieff's teachings on the New Thought movement and her own life, providing a contemporary look at an already timeless classic.

Heaven and Hell


Emanuel Swedenborg - 1758
    A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.This deluxe edition contains an introduction by religious historian Bernhard Lang setting the volume in the context of its time.The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. Introductions and annotations by eminent, international scholars place Swedenborg’s writings in their historical context and illuminate obscure references within the text, enabling readers to understand and trace Swedenborg’s influence as never before.

The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin, The Mage — As Delivered By Abraham The Jew Unto His Son Lamech — As A Grimoire of The 15th Century


Abraham von Worms - 1897
    From Abramelin he took his concepts of protections, purifications, evocations, vestments, and dromena down to specific details. This system of Abramelin the Mage is known from a unique 15th century manuscript persevered in the Bibliotheque de l`Arsenal in Paris. In it, Abraham of Wurzburg, a cabalist and connoisseur of magics, describes a tour that he made of the then civilized world, visiting sorcerers, magicians, and cabalists, estimating their powers and virtues. This quest is in itself as fascinating as the similar tours of Gurdjieff. The high point of Abraham`s travels was found in a small town on the banks of the Nile, where he encountered the great magician Abramelin, whose complete system Abraham thereupon sets out in detail. This amounts to a complete course in ceremonial magic (both white and black), which the student can pursue by himself. Abramelin, whose system is based mostly on Hellenistic theurgy of the Iamblichan sort, but with Jewish increments from the Cabala, explains the qualifications needed to become a magician, purifications and asceticisms to be practiced month by month, studies and activities permitted during this period, selections of place and time for working magic, equipment needed, prayers and formulas, evocation of good and evil spirits, commanding spirits, to do one`s will, overcoming rebellious spirits, an similar material. Specific instructions are offered to develop such powers as clairvoyance, divining metals and treasurers, warding off evil magic, healing illness, levitation, transportation, rendering oneself invisible, creating illusions and glamour, reading minds, placing compulsions, working black magic, and a host of other abilities. We do not guarantee that Abramelin's techniques work, not that the results are desirable...

WTF is Tarot?: ...& How Do I Do It?


Bakara Wintner - 2017
    No necesitas aprender el tarot porque ya lo sabes. Es desde este punto de partida radical que este libro descompone el antiguo arte de la cartomancia. Esta gu�a fresca, accesible y a veces atrevida, arroja una luz hol�stica sobre c�mo leer el tarot, desde la base de la magia misma hasta la comprensi�n de las complicadas tarjetas para ofrecer lecturas a otros.El autor y lector de tarot Bakara Wintner desempaqueta la magia de los arcanos mayor y menor con sabidur�a cham�nica y el ingenio de una ni�a, iluminando su significado con an�cdotas y analog�as reflexivas que revelan cu�n enraizados est�n estos s�mbolos en nuestra vida cotidiana: podemos sentir a la Luna en una carrera descalza por Prospect Park, aceptar la gracia de Temperance al enamorarnos o identificar cu�ndo es el momento de soltar a un ex con el ahorcado.ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Young Blood, Old Magic: A No-Nonsense Approach to the Ancient Art of Reading TarotYou do not need to learn the tarot because you already know it. It is from this radical jumping off point that WTF Is Tarot breaks down the ancient art of cartomancy. This fresh, accessible and sometimes cheeky guide sheds a holistic light on how to read tarot, from the foundation of magic itself to understanding those tricky court cards to offering readings to others.In WTF Is Tarot, author and tarot reader Bakara Wintner unpacks the magic of the Major and Minor Aracana with shamanic wisdom and girl boss wit, illuminating their meaning with thoughtful anecdotes and analogies that reveal how deeply rooted these symbols already are in our everyday lives: we can feel the Moon in a howling barefoot run through Prospect Park, accept the grace of Temperance in falling in love or a divine intervention, "ghost the haters" with the Six of Swords, or identify when it's time to let go of an ex with the Hanged Man.WTF is Tarot offers far more than a refreshingly candid tutorial on card reading. Bakara goes on to investigate the magic of crystal healing, chakras, meditation and other magical practices. This young witch offers not just a guide, but an invitation for even the most mundane Muggles to welcome magic into their lives, and for experienced wizards to rediscover it once again.

Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions


Joyce Higginbotham - 2002
    Based on a course in Paganism that the authors have taught for more than a decade, it is full of exercises, meditations, and discussion questions for group or individual study.This book presents the basic fundamentals of Paganism. It explores what Pagans are like; how the Pagan sacred year is arranged; what Pagans do in ritual; what magick is; and what Pagans believe about God, worship, human nature, and ethics.For those who are exploring their own spirituality, or who want a good book to give to non-Pagan family and friends A hands-on learning tool with magickal workings, meditations, discussion questions, and journal exercises Offers in-depth discussion of ethics and magick

Zohar: The Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah


Gershom Scholem
    It is the central work in the literature of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. This volume of selected passages from the Zohar, culled by the greatest authority on Jewish mysticism, offers a sampling of its unique vision of the esoteric wonders of creation; the life and destiny of the soul; the confluence of physical and divine love; suffering and death; exile and redemption.

A Course in Miracles


Foundation for Inner Peace - 1976
    __________'I love it. Will make you see the world differently' - 5* reader review'This book can and will change your life' - 5* reader review 'Anyone who has ever sensed that pull against the ego for a greater understanding and meaning to life, will feel blessed to have discovered this great work.' - 5* reader review

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas


Elaine Pagels - 2003
    This book explores how Christianity began by tracing its earliest texts, including the Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945.When her infant son was diagnosed with fatal pulmonary hypertension, Pagels' spiritual and intellectual quest took on a new urgency, leading her to explore historical and archaeological sources and to investigate what Jesus and his teachings meant to his followers before the invention of Christianity. The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, along with more than 50 other early Christian texts, some unknown since antiquity, offers clues. She compares such sources as Thomas' gospel (which claims to give Jesus' secret teaching and finds its closest affinities with kabbalah) with the canon to show how Christian leaders chose to include some gospels and exclude others from the collection many call the New Testament. To stabilize the emerging church in times of persecution, church fathers constructed the canon, creed and hierarchy - and, in the process, suppressed many of its spiritual resources.Drawing on new scholarship - her own and that of an international group of scholars - that has come to light since the 1979 publication of The Gnostic Gospels, she shows that what matters about Christianity involves much more than any one set of beliefs. Traditions embodied in Judaism and Christianity can powerfully affect us in heart, mind and spirit, inspire visions of a new society based on practising justice and love, even heal and transform us.Provocative and moving, Beyond Belief, the most personal of her books to date, shows how the impulse to seek god overflows the narrow banks of a single tradition. She writes, "What I have come to love in the wealth and diversity of our religious traditions - and the communities that sustain them - is that they offer the testimony of innumerable people to spiritual discovery, encouraging us, in Jesus' words, to 'seek, and you shall find.'"CONTENTSFrom the feast of Agape to the Nicene CreedGospels in conflict: John and Thomas God's word or human words?The canon of truth and the triumph of JohnConstantine and the Catholic Church AcknowledgementsNotesIndex

The Book of Enoch (Ethiopian)


Anonymous
    H. Charles provides a definitive translation of one of the most noted apocalyptic works still in existence. Often described as "the lost book" of the Bible, The Book of Enoch seems to have been written in Palestine by several different authors in the first and second centuries B.C. For hundreds of years it was accepted by the early church fathers, but it was rejected by the council of Laodicea in A.D. 364. Today, it remains a written remnant of the Apocalypse — an ardent testament to hope and the triumph of good over evil in the dawning of a world to come. Rife with concepts of original sin, fallen angels, demonology, resurrection, and the last judgment, it is a vital document to the origins of Christianity.The Book of Enoch is comprised of various monumental works: The Book of Enoch, The Parables, The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries, The Dream Visions, The Concluding Section, and The Noah Fragments. Each work is independent, but all the works are bound by a common theme: the punishment of the wicked and the blessedness of the righteous. This edition, complete with analysis and notes, is an indispensable resource for the study and understanding of both the Old and New Testaments.

Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft


Raymond Buckland - 1986
    The workbook formats includes exam questions at the end of each lesson, so you can build a permanent record of your spiritual and magical training.

The Occult


Colin Wilson - 1971
    He produces a wonderfully skillful synthesis of the available material—one that sees the occult in the light of reason and reason in the light of the mystical and paranormal. The result is a wide-ranging survey of the subject that provides a comprehensive history of magic, an insightful exploration of our latent powers, and a journey of enlightenment. “I am very impressed by this book, not only by its erudition but…above all for the good-natured, unaffected charm of the author whose reasoning is never too far-fetched, who is never carried away by preposterous theories.”—Sunday Times

The Creative Tarot: A Modern Guide to an Inspired Life


Jessa Crispin - 2016
    Jessa Crispin guides you through the intuitive world of the tarot to get those creative juices flowing again. Thought to be esoteric and mystical, tarot cards are approachable and endlessly helpful to overcoming creative blocks. Crispin offers spiritual readings of the cards, practical information for the uninspired artist, and a wealth of fascinating anecdotes about famous artists including Virginia Woolf, Rembrandt, and David Bowie, and how they found inspiration. With five original tarot spreads and beautiful illustrations throughout, The Creative Tarot is an accessible, colorful guide that demystifies both the tarot and the creative process.

The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need


Joanna Martine Woolfolk - 1982
    But the CD-ROM in this new edition allows the reader to cast his or her chart in just a few minutes by inputting the date, time and place of birth into the computer, producing a personalized astrological chart in just a few minutes. In addition to revealing the planets' influence on romance, health, and career, The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need takes a closer look at the inner life of each sign. Celebrated astrologer Joanna Martine Woolfolk offers abundant insights on the personal relationships and emotional needs that motivate an individual, on how others perceive astrological types, and on dealing with the negative aspects of signs. Readers will also welcome the inclusion of new discoveries in astronomy.