1Books:

1. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts
(Volume 1) by Hans Dieter Betz - This is a collection of magical spells and
formulas, hymns, and rituals from Greco-Roman Egypt, dating from the second
century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. A must read.
2. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World edited by John G.
Gager - In the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was common practice to curse or
bind an enemy or rival by writing an incantation on a tablet and dedicating it to a
god or spirit. These curses or binding spells, commonly called defixiones were
intended to bring other people under the power and control of those who
commissioned them
3. Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion edited by Christopher A.
Faraone & Dirk Obbink - This collection challenges the tendency among scholars
of ancient Greece to see magical and religious ritual as mutually exclusive and to
ignore "magical" practices in Greek religion. The contributors survey specific
bodies of archaeological, epigraphical, and papyrological evidence for magical
practices in the Greek world, and, in each case, determine whether the traditional
dichotomy between magic and religion helps in any way to conceptualize the
objective features of the evidence examined.
4. Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A
Collection of Ancient Texts by Georg Luck - Magic, miracles, daemonology,
divination, astrology, and alchemy were the arcana mundi, the "secrets of the
universe," of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In this path-breaking collection of
Greek and Roman writings on magic and the occult, Georg Luck provides a
comprehensive sourcebook and introduction to magic as it was practiced by
witches and sorcerers, magi and astrologers, in the Greek and Roman worlds.
5. Greek and Roman Necromancy by Daniel Ogden - In classical antiquity, there
was much interest in necromancy--the consultation of the dead for divination.
People could seek knowledge from the dead by sleeping on tombs, visiting oracles,
and attempting to reanimate corpses and skulls. Ranging over many of the lands in
which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek
archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive
survey of the subject ever published in any language.
6. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer'0s Manual of the Fifteenth Century by

Richard Kieckhefer - Like many medieval texts for the use of magicians, this
handbook is a miscellany rather than a systematic treatise. It is exceptional,
however, in the scope and variety of its contentsprayers and conjurations, rituals
of sympathetic magic, procedures involving astral magic, a catalogue of spirits,
lengthy ceremonies for consecrating a book of magic, and other materials.
7. Ritual Magic by Elizabeth M. Butler - In this classic book (first published in
1949), Butler explores ritual magic using a wide range of texts from the preChristian rites of the Akkadians and Chaldeans to the Solomonic Clavicles of
medieval Europe. Throughout, there is extensive quotation from the documents
themselves, providing the reader with an authentic sense of the richness and power
of these texts.
8. Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic edited by
Claire Fanger - Included are chapters by Richard Kieckhefer and Robert Mathiesen
on the Sworn Book of Honorius, Michael Camille on the Ars Notoria, John B.
Friedman on the Secretum Philosophorum, Nicholas Watson on the McMaster text,
and Elizabeth Wade on Lullian divination. The work also includes Juris Lidaka's
edition of the Liber de Angelis, and an overview of late medieval English ritual
manuscripts by Frank Klaassen.
9. The Fortunes of Faust by Elizabeth M. Butler - Butler follows the magic
tradition of the Magusthe priest-kingand its reformulation in the Christian
world. In the process, the Magus was transformed into a wicked sorcerer who
comes to a bad end in this world and a worse one hereafter. This conception, which
gained ground in the Middle Ages, received its most categorical statement in the
Faust legend.
10. The Goetia of Dr. Rudd by David Rankine & Stephen Skinner - The Goetia
of Dr. Rudd explains how the 72 angels of the Shemhamphorash are used to evoke
and safely bind demonsmaterial that has not been made available in any
previous edition. This rare volume contains a transcription of a hitherto
unpublished manuscript of the Lemegeton and includes illustrations drawn from
rare manuscripts held in the British Library.
11. The Complete Magicians Tables by Stephen Skinner - The sources of this
remarkable compilation range from classic grimoires such as the Sworn Book to
modern theories of prime numbers and atomic weights. Data from Peter de Abano,
Abbott Trithemium, Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, and other prominent
scholars is referenced here, in addition to hidden gems found in unpublished

medieval grimoires and Kabbalistic works.

12. The Keys to the Gateway of Magic: Summoning the Solomonic Archangels
and Demon Princes by Stephen Skinner & David Rankine - This classic text of
the Nine Great Keys details the invocation of the Archangels, the full hierarchy of
spiritual beings (including Olympic Spirits and Elementals) and the evocation of
the four Demon Princes
13. Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa & edited by
Donald Tyson - How magicians collect virtues from the three-fold World, is
declared in these three books.
Seeing there is a three-fold World, Elementary, Celestial, and
Intellectual, and every inferior is governed by its superior. Indispensable.
14. The Complete Picatrix: The Occult Classic Of Astrological Magic Liber
Atratus translated by John Michael Greer & Christopher Warnock - The Picatrix
is the most famous grimoire of astrological magic and one of the most important
works of medieval and Renaissance magic. With all four books of the Latin
Picatrix complete in one volume, the Picatrix is an encyclopedic work with over
300 pages of Hermetic magical philosophy, ritual, talismanic and natural magic.
15. Secrets of the Magical Grimoires Revealed by Aaron Leitch - The magickal
methods and esoteric knowledge of medieval Europe (476 to 1453 C.E.) form the
ancestral backbone of modern ceremonial magick. To understand medieval
magick, its necessary to know the primary repositories of this knowledge - the
grimoires of spells, incantations, and ritual instructions for working with angels
and conjuring spirits. And to understand the grimoires, you must delve into the life
and times of the magicians who wrote them.
16. The True Grimoire by Jake Kent-Stratton - The True Grimoire is a major
contribution to the practice and study of Goetic magic. The neglected Grimorium
Verum has been restored to it's rightful place as a potent and coherent system of
Goetic magic. Jake Stratton-Kent has reconstructed a working version from the
corrupted Italian and French versions of this important grimoire.
17. Geosophia: The Argo of Magic by Jake Stratton-Kent - Geosophia traces the
development of magic from the Greeks to the grimoires, laying bare the chthonic
roots of goetic ritual. By exposing the necromantic origins of much of modern
magic we are able to reconnect with the source of our ritual tradition. There is a
continuity of practice in the West which encompasses the pre-Olympian cults of

Dionysus and Cybele, is found in the Greek Magical Papyri and Picatrix and flows
into the grimoires.
18. "Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power" by Marvin W. Meyer
& Richard Smith - This provocative collection of rites, spells, amulets, curses, and
recipes of the early Coptic Christians documents Christianity as a living folk
religion resembling other popular belief systems - something quite different from
what theological and doctrinal traditions have led us to believe.
19. Invoking Angels: Theurgic Ideas and Practices, Thirteenth to Sixteenth
Centuries edited by Claire Fanger - Bring0s together a tightly themed collection
of essays on late medieval and early modern texts concerned with the role of
angels in the cosmos, focusing on angelic rituals and spiritual cosmologies.
Collectively, these essays tie medieval angel magic texts more clearly to medieval
religion and to the better-known author-magicians of the early modern period.
20. The Testament of Cyprian the Mage by Jake Stratton-Kent - An ambitious
and far-seeing work, addressing two ends of the magical spectrum: the Testament
of Solomon and one version of the Iberian Book of Saint Cyprian. In doing so, key
aspects of magical practice are revealed. This work draws upon these texts to
create a clear understanding of the practice of grimoire magic, not as a discrete or
degenerate subset of ceremonial magic, but one which is integrated with folk
magic and witchcraft.
21. Veritable Key of Solomon by Stephen Skinner & David Rankine - Based on
one of the best-known grimoires of the Western world, The Veritable Key of
Solomon presents all aspects of this revered magical system in one impressive
source.
22. The Magical Treatise of Solomon, or Hygromanteia by Ioannis Marathakis The true source of the Key of Solomon, it is arguably the most significant magical
text in the world. For the first time ever, this extraordinary work has been
translated from the original Greek into English.
23. Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman World: A Sourcebook
by Daniel Ogden - Contains three hundred texts in new translations, along with
brief but explicit commentaries. Alongside descriptions of sorcerers, witches, and
ghosts in the works of ancient writers, it reproduces curse tablets, spells from
ancient magical recipe books, and inscriptions from magical amulets.

24. Ancient Jewish Magic: A History by Gideon Bohak - Gives a pioneering

account of the broad history of ancient Jewish magic, from the Second Temple to
the rabbinic period. It is based both on ancient magicians' own compositions and
products in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and on the descriptions and prescriptions
of non-magicians, to reconstruct a historical picture that is as balanced and
nuanced as possible.
25. John Dee's Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion by Nicholas
Clulee - Thoroughly examining Dees natural philosophy, this book provides a
balanced evaluation of his place, and the role of the occult, in sixteenth-century
intellectual history. It brings together insights from a study of Dees writings, the
available biographical material, and his sources as reflected in his extensive library
and, more importantly, numerous surviving annotated volumes from it.
26. Grimoires: A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies - Put simply,
grimoires are books of spells that were first recorded in the Ancient Middle East
and which have developed and spread across much of the Western Hemisphere and
beyond over the ensuing millennia. At their most benign, they contain charms and
remedies for natural and supernatural ailments and advice on contacting spirits to
help find treasures and protect from evil. But at their most sinister they provide
instructions on how to manipulate people for corrupt purposes and, worst of all, to
call up and make a pact with the Devil. Both types have proven remarkably
resilient and adaptable and retain much of their relevance and fascination to this
day.
27. The Language of Demons and Angels: Cornelius Agrippa's Occult
Philosophy by Christopher I. Lehrich - The analysis walks the reader through the
text of De Occulta Philosophia, Agrippa's 1533 masterpiece, explicating the often
hidden structure and argument of the work.
28. Thrice-Greatest Hermes; Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis by G.
R. S. Mead - Three Volumes bound into one. Volume contents are: Vol. 1.
Prolegomena. -- Vol. 2. Sermons. -- Vol. 3. Excerpts and fragments.
29. The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind by
Garth Fowden - Starting from the complex fusions and tensions that molded
Graeco-Egyptian culture, and in particular Hermetism, during the centuries after
Alexander, the author argues that the technical and philosophical Hermetica,
apparently so different, might be seen as aspects of a single "way of Hermes".
30. Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient

Greece by Sarah Illes Johnston - Topics of focus include the origin of the goes
(the ritual practitioner who made interaction with the dead his specialty), the threat
to the living presented by the ghosts of those who died dishonorably or
prematurely, the development of Hecate into a mistress of ghosts and its
connection to female rites of transition, and the complex nature of the Erinyes.
31. Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and
Related Literature by Sarah Illes Johnston - Hekate is best known to classicists
and historians of religion as the horrific patroness of witches. But from the
Hellenistic age onwards, some Greek and Roman philosophers and magicians
portrayed her quite differently.
32. Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World edited by Paul Mirecki and Marvin
Meyer.
33. Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy edited by V.
Rees, Michael J. B. Allen & Valery Rees - This volume consists of 21 essays on
Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), the great Florentine scholar, philosopher and priest who
was the architect of Renaissance Platonism and whose long-lasting influence on
philosophy, love and music theory, medicine and magic extended across Europe.
34. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe edited by
William R. Newman & Anthony Grafton - Shows the many ways in which
astrology and alchemy diverge as well as intersect. Overall, it shows how an
appreciation of the role of the occult opens up new ways of understanding the past.
35. Trithemius and Magical Theology: A Chapter in the Controversy over Occult
Studies in Early Modern Europe by Noel L. Brann - This is a very useful, exciting
and informative text for those interested in the philosophy and theology behind
Renaissance Magic. Mentor to Agrippa, pioneer of cryptography, Trithemius is one
of the most important (and well-placed in Church history) yet difficult to
understand of the great Renaissance writers on magic, and this book provides a
detailed but readable introduction to his views on the subject.
36. John Dee's Conversations with Angels by Deborah E. Harkness - John Dee's
angel conversations have been an enigmatic facet of Elizabethan England's most
famous natural philosopher's life and work. Professor Harkness contextualizes
Dee's angel conversations within the natural philosophical, religious and social
contexts of his time. She argues that they represent a continuing development of
John Dee's earlier concerns and interests. These conversations include discussions

of the natural world, the practice of natural philosophy, and the apocalypse.
37. John Dee's Occultism: Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs by
Gyorgy E. Szonyi - Presents an analysis of Renaissance occultism and its place in
the chronology of European cultural history. Culling examples of "magical
thinking" from classical, medieval, and Renaissance philosophers, Szonyi revisits
the body of Dee's own scientific and spiritual writings as reflective sources of
traditional mysticism.
38. The Arch Conjuror of England: John Dee by Glyn Parry - Explores Dees
vast array of political, magical, and scientific writings and finds that they cast
significant new light on policy struggles in the Elizabethan court, conservative
attacks on magic, and Europe's religious wars. John Dee was more than just a
fringe magus, Parry shows Dee was a major figure of the Reformation and
Renaissance.
39. The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus by Antoine
Favre - Drawing upon rare books and manuscripts, this highly illustrated work
explores the question of where Hermes Trismegistus came from how he came to be
a patron of the esoteric traditions and how the figure of Hermes has remained
lively and inspiring to our own day.
40. Glamorous Sorcery: Magic and Literacy in the High Middle Ages by David
Rollo - Demonstrates how closely interconnected certain types of vernacular and
Latin writing were in this period. Uncovered through a series of illuminating,
incisive, and often surprising close readings, these connections give us a new, more
complex appraisal of the relationship between literacy, social status, and political
power in a time and place in which various languages competed for cultural
sovereignty-at a critical juncture in the cultural history of the West.
41. Unlocked Books: Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval Libraries of
Central Europe by Benedek Lng - During the Middle Ages, the Western world
translated the incredible Arabic scientific corpus and imported it into Western
culture: Arabic philosophy, optics, and physics, as well as alchemy, astrology, and
talismanic magic. The line between the scientific and the magical was blurred.
According to popular lore, magicians of the Middle Ages were trained in the art of
magic in magician schools located in various metropolitan areas, such as Naples,
Athens, and Toledo.
42. The History of Magic and Experimental Science by Lynn Thorndike.

43. The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice by Robert K. Ritner This study represents the first critical examination of "magical techniques,"
revealing their widespread appearance and pivotal significance for all Egyptian
"religious" practices from the earliest periods through the Coptic era, influencing
as well the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri.
44. Eternal Egypt: Ancient Rituals for the Modern World by Richard J. Reidy The first comprehensive collection of important temple rituals performed
throughout Egypt during the time of the pharaohs. The author presents seven key
rites from official temple records and ancient esoteric texts for personal or group
use.
45. Arguing With Angels by Egil Asprem - Examining this magical system from
its Renaissance origins to present day occultism, Egil Asprem shows how the
reception of Dees magic is replete with struggles to construct and negotiate
authoritative interpretational frameworks for doing magic. Arguing with Angels
offers a novel, nuanced approach to questions about how ritual magic has survived
the advent of modernity and demonstrates the ways in which modern culture has
recreated magical discourse.
46. Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism by Wouter J. Hanegraaff - This
is the first comprehensive reference work to cover the entire domain of Gnosis
and Western Esotericism from the period of Late Antiquity to the present.
Containing around 400 articles by over 180 international specialists, it provides
critical overviews discussing the nature and historical development of all its
important currents and manifestations, from Gnosticism and Hermetism to
Astrology, Alchemy and Magic, from the Hermetic Tradition of the Renaissance to
Rosicrucianism and Christian Theosophy, and from Freemasonry and Illuminism to
19th-century Occultism and the contemporary New Age movement.
47. The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical
Illustration by Ursula Szulakowska - This study concerns the late Renaissance
metaphysics of light in its adoption to a Paracelsian alchemical context by John
Dee, Heinrich Khunrath, Michael Maier and Robert Fludd. he volume includes 50
illustrations from alchemical treatises of the period, the emphasis being placed on
Khunrath's "Amphiteatrum Sapientiea Aeternae" (1595-1609). The study
investigates these images using analytical tools drawn from semiotics,
structuralism and post-structuralism.

48. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus by Gregory Shaw A study of Iamblichus of Syria (ca. 240-325), whose teachings set the final form of
pagan spirituality prior to the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Shaw focuses
on the theory and practice of theurgy, the most controversial and significant aspect
of Iamblichus's Platonism.
49. Platonic Theology, Volume 1: Books I-IV by Marsilio Ficino, edited by
James Hankins - A visionary work and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio
Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely
responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. A student of the Neoplatonic
schools of Plotinus and Proclus, Ficino was committed to reconciling Platonism
with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual
revival and return of the golden age. This is one of the keys to understanding the
art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.
50. Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science by Hilary Gatti - This argument,
associated with the work of Frances Yates, holds that early modern science was
impregnated with and shaped by Hermetic and occult traditions, and has led
scholars to view Bruno primarily as a magus.
51. De Umbris Idearum (The Collected Works of Giordano Bruno, Book 1) by
Giordano Bruno, edited by Scott Gosnell - To memorize anything, distribute vivid,
emotionally stirring imagined images around a piece of familiar architecture. This
is the method of loci, or memory palace method, first developed in classical
antiquity.
52. "Hermes: Guide of Souls" by Karl Kerenyi, translated by Murray Stein Presents an authoritative study of the great god Hermes whom the Greeks revered
as the Guides of Souls as well as the complex role of Hermes in classical
mythology.
Further Resources:
PDFs:
Seeing The Word: John Dee and Renaissance Occultism by Hakan Hakannson
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Seeing+the+Word
%3A+John+Dee+and+Renaissance+Occultism.+.-a099012024

Misc. Articles
Khunrath by Peter Forshaw
http://uva.academia.edu/PeterForshaw
Enoch Traditions by Andrei Orlov
http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/metatronyouth.html
Hermes, Proclus, and the Question of A Philosophy of Magic in
the Renaissance by Copenhaver
Websites & Blogs:
Brian P. Copenhaver
http://www.cmrs.ucla.edu/brian/index.htm
Claire Fanger:
http://rice.academia.edu/ClaireFanger
http://rice.academia.edu/ClaireFanger
Wouter J. Hanegraaff: http://uva.academia.edu/WouterHanegraaff
The Ritman Library
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRitmanLibrary/videos
Scholarly Journals:
Dionysius
http://www.dal.ca/faculty/arts/classics/journals/dionysius.html
Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism
http://www.brill.com/aries