Source books
Books
Start by searching for a title or author. Open Filters to narrow the list by tradition, the role a book played, whether a free edition is available, or how much public attention it receives. Last, choose date or name order. Every choice stays in the address, so you can bookmark the result or send the same list to someone else.
239 books of 370 · showing 51–100 · oldest first
Jewish scripture and tradition 1
-
1886–1903
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature
The standard dictionary of rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic.
Hermetism 1
-
1885
Gnosticism 1
-
1887
Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah 4
-
Early 17th century; printed Peremyshl 1896–1898
Ohr HaChammah
A commentary on the Zohar assembling the readings of the Safed kabbalists. It is cited here for one thing it does that its sources do not: it states the mapping of the seven...
-
compiled from Luria's teaching, c. 1573–1620; printed 1782
Pri Etz Chaim
Vital's arrangement of the Lurianic teaching on prayer and the commandments, and the source this site cites for the seven weeks of the Omer.
-
Sulzbach 1677; Frankfurt 1684
Kabbala Denudata
Kabbalah Unveiled: Latin translations of Zoharic and Lurianic material with dictionaries and commentary. The channel through which the nineteenth-century revival, and then the...
-
1887
The Kabbalah Unveiled
Translation of portions of Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin Kabbala Denudata, making Zoharic material accessible in English.
Alchemy 2
-
first form 1595; expanded 1609, posthumous
Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom
One of the great emblematic books of Christian alchemy, in which the laboratory and the oratory are the same room.
-
1850
A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery
The book that began the modern reading of alchemy as an inner discipline, withdrawn and burned by its author within months of publication.
Renaissance magic and Christian Cabala 9
-
1558
Propaedeumata Aphoristica
Astrological and cosmological aphorisms exploring celestial influences.
-
1570
Mathematical Preface to Euclid
Not an occult manual, but part of Dee's belief that mathematics could open the order hidden in nature.
-
1582
Cantus Circaeus
Uses magical imagery and memory technique in a philosophically charged setting.
-
1582
On the Shadows of Ideas
A complex art-of-memory work in which combinatorial images become instruments for organising mind and reality.
-
principally 1580s; partially published 1659 by Meric Casaubon
Spiritual and angelic diaries
Records of the angelic sessions: voices, letter tables, a purported angelic language and the cosmology disclosed through them.
-
c. 1590
On Bonds in General
A disturbing and brilliant analysis of the forces by which minds, desires and persons can be bound or influenced.
-
c. 1590, manuscript
On Magic
Examines the different meanings of magic and develops his theory of bonds, sympathies and spirit.
-
volumes from 1617 into the 1620s
History of the Two Worlds
An illustrated encyclopaedia in which the greater world and the human body mirror one another.
-
Rome, 1652–1654
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
Three volumes claiming to decipher the hieroglyphs, which it does not. It carries the engraved Sephirothic Tree that became the standard diagram of Western occultism — the...
Freemasonry 4
-
delivered in versions c. 1736–37
Ramsay's Discourse
Links Freemasonry imaginatively with chivalric and crusading traditions.
-
1827
-
1866
-
1882
Christian theosophy and Swedenborg 16
-
written 1612; circulated in manuscript; first printed 1634, posthumous
Aurora
An unfinished visionary account of God, creation, nature and the emergence of opposites.
-
1619
The Three Principles of the Divine Essence
Develops his dynamic conception of divine manifestation and nature.
-
1621
The Signature of All Things
Perhaps his most directly esoteric book: visible nature contains signatures revealing invisible spiritual realities.
-
1763
Divine Love and Wisdom
Systematic metaphysics of God, creation and spiritual reality.
-
1764
Divine Providence
A study of divine governance and human freedom.
-
1766
Apocalypse Revealed
A spiritual interpretation of Revelation.
-
1768
Conjugial Love
Spiritual sexuality and the correspondence of marriage.
-
1771
True Christian Religion
The great synthesis of his later theology.
-
1775
Of Errors and Truth
His first major work, published as 'The Unknown Philosopher'. Humanity is fallen from an original spiritual condition and capable of restoration.
-
1782
Tableau naturel
Develops his account of humanity, nature and the divine order.
-
1790
The Man of Desire
A devotional and mystical work expressing the soul's longing for reintegration.
-
1792
Ecce Homo
A meditation on spiritual regeneration and the true human condition.
-
1790s
The New Man
An account of inward rebirth.
-
1800
The Spirit of Things
Attempts to read nature as a spiritual revelation.
-
1802
Ministry of the Man-Spirit
One of his mature statements concerning humanity's spiritual vocation.
-
1885 English translation
Jacob Boehme: His Life and Teaching, or Studies in Theosophy
An English translation of Martensen's theological study of Jacob Böhme, combining a biography with an extended account of his theosophy.
Mesmerism and Spiritualism 3
-
1766
Dissertatio physico-medica de planetarum influxu
His medical dissertation on planetary influences and a universal physical fluid.
-
1779
Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal
The foundational statement of animal magnetism.
-
1874
Eulis!
An explicitly occult work developing his theories of love, sexuality, magic and spiritual transformation.
Tarot 4
-
nine volumes, 1773–1782; the Tarot essay in volume VIII, 1781
Le Monde primitif
Volume VIII contains the famous Tarot essay asserting an Egyptian origin and a 'Book of Thoth'.
-
installments 1783–1785
Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots
The first systematic published instructions for divinatory Tarot. It assigns upright and reversed meanings and integrates astrology and elemental correspondences.
-
1785
Fragment sur les hautes sciences
Further develops his 'higher sciences'.
-
c. 1790
Cours théorique et pratique du Livre de Thot
A late synthesis of his Tarot theories.
French occultism 4
-
1860
History of Magic
An influential but highly mythologised history linking ancient mysteries, Kabbalah, magic and Christian esotericism.
-
1861
Key of the Great Mysteries
Develops his occult philosophy of correspondences and universal equilibrium.
-
1886
At the Threshold of the Mystery
An introduction to occult doctrine and symbolism.
-
1887
L'Occultisme contemporain
A survey of the contemporary occult revival.
The Golden Dawn 1
-
1887