Esoteric Notebook
A reference for the written history of Western esotericism: the Tree of Life, tarot, astrology, alchemy, geomancy, ritual, the grimoires and the orders, each traced through the books that carry it. Claims are tied to the editions they come from, so you can follow one back and read the source yourself.
Systems
- Qabalah The Tree of Life, its paths, and the old correspondences gathered around it along with a brief history of K/C/Qabalah.
- Solomonic The seventy-two spirits of the Goetia, their seals, and some of the books that catalogue them.
- Planetary magic The seven classical planets (pre-Copernicus) in celestial timing, images and checked numerical squares.
- Enochian Dee and Kelley's angelic script, the figures they were given, and the words with a recorded meaning.
- Egypt Egyptian religion, magic and writing alongside the Greek, Renaissance and modern esoteric traditions that received them.
Arts
- Tarot Seventy-eight cards across four decks, from Renaissance play to modern divination.
- Astrology The signs, planets and houses of a natal chart, along with a chart generator.
- Alchemy The art of perfecting bodies — its principles, the colours of its work, its operations, and the argument over whether it was ever meant inwardly.
- Geomancy Divination comprised of sixteen figures of four lines each, and a shield in which eleven of the fifteen are not chance.
Practice
Reference
- Correspondences Planets, metals, plants, names and symbols, with sources for their connections and an interactive atlas.
- History The people, books, disputes and revivals that shaped Western esotericism, shown in an adjustable chronology.
- Source books A collection of the books that the tradition is written in, what role each played, and where each can be read free.
- Glossary A searchable guide to terms in occultism and some adjacent traditions.
- Elements Fire, Earth, Water and Air as Aristotle paired them, Agrippa taught them, and the tarot, the zodiac, the Tree and the weapons inherited them.
- Symbols The signs of astrology, alchemy and geomancy, drawn from their Unicode characters and linked to what the study says about each.
- Alphabets The Hebrew letters as a script and as numbers, with where each stands on the Tree.
Things to do
The interactive parts
Most of the site is text to read. These are the parts you can use: you supply something and they return a result, or they are interactive diagrams. Nothing they produce is stored — a reading, a cast or a chart exists only as the link in your address bar, which you can keep or send.
Every interactive tool, each with a short introduction
Divination
- Tarot reading Ask a question, choose a spread, and deal. The cards go out face down, one at a time, and you turn them.
- Geomantic cast Ask a question and cast four Mothers. Eleven of the fifteen figures that follow are arithmetic, not chance.
- Natal chart A date, a time and a place, and you get a chart — with the sidereal time and the house cusps shown.
- Gematria Type an English word to get its Hebrew, then read that back as a number, letter by letter. Words sharing the same value are listed with their meanings.
- Enochian script Type in English and watch it come back in Dee's alphabet, right to left, with the gaps named.
- Hieroglyphs Type a name and watch it spelled in Egyptian signs, with every borrowed sign named.
- Planetary hour Name a place and read the planetary hour running there now, with the twenty-four of that day.
Interactive reference
- The Tree of Life Compare Tree of Life arrangements, turn lenses on, walk a sequence, and open any node's sources.
- Correspondence atlas A map of what corresponds to what. Move around it and follow any edge to the text it rests on.
- Chronology Two thousand years on one chart. Turn layers on, drag it sideways, and follow a life across it.
- The geomantic walk Step or play through a shield being built, one line of one figure at a time.
Method and provenance
How to read it
- Begin with an overview. It defines the subject, gives the history in brief, and says what the section does not cover.
- Open the thing you want to explore. Each sphere, card, book, ritual or symbol gets its own explanation before any tables or technical detail.
- Follow the source when a claim matters. Each claim names who made the connection, where it appears in print, and what is still unclear.
The traditions covered here grew by copying, translating and arguing over older material. The source notes follow that trail as far back as the surviving record allows, and the label beside each claim says what kind of support was found for it.
How the evidence is labelled
- Canonical
- Found in a primary text, with the passage quoted where possible.
- Traditional
- Well attested in the tradition, though shaped by later hands.
- Modern
- A later systematization or interpretation, identified with its author and date.
- Contested
- The surviving sources give more than one account.
- Disputed
- A source or attribution is directly challenged by another source.
- Unsourced
- Common in practice, but without a securely identified first source.
1,837 claims · 96 catalogued texts · 96 historical figures and corpora · 3 trees · 78 cards across 4 decks