The History of Magic

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877289298 ISBN 13: 9780877289296

Publisher: Red Wheel / Weiser, 1999

First published in 1913, this classic text is an invaluable source book on the history and practice of magic and occultism. The contents include: Magic of the Magi, Magic in Ancient Greece, the Kabalah, Primitive Symbolism, Mysticism, Oracles, Magical Monuments, Magic and Christianity, Pagan Magic, Kabalistic Paintings and Sacred Emblems, Sorcerers, Magic and Freemasonry, the Illuminati, and more. Illustrated.

Book Description:

First published in French, this work by Éliphas Lévi (1810-75) was translated into English by occult historian Arthur Waite in 1913. In this book, Lévi traces Western magic from its origins in the ancient world to the nineteenth-century occult revival. Lévi's French edition is also reissued in this series.

About the Author:

Alphonse Louis Constant, better know by his pen name Eliphas Levi, was a master of the traditional Rosicrucian interpretation of the Kabbalah. He was born in France in 1810, and through the offices of the parish priest, was educated for the church at SaintSulpice. He was later expelled from seminary for teaching doctrines contrary to those of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1824 Levi began studying the occult sciences, and wrote about magic and the Kabbalah for the next three decades. His other books include Transcendental Magic, Mysteries of the Qabalah, and The Book of Splendours.

A.E. Waite (1857-1942) is one of the bestknown authors and translators of magic and the occult. He is the creator of the Rider-Waite tarot and is the author of several books including Book of Black Magic and Pictorial Keys to the Tarot.