Show Notes
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Primary Sources Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Trans. James Freake; ed. and annotated by Donald Tyson. Llewellyn, 1993. The work itself dates to Agrippa’s developing project from 1510, with the complete revised three-book edition appearing in 1533. Google Books Augustine of Hippo. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford University Press, 1991. Particularly important for Augustine’s encounter with the “books of the Platonists,” inward ascent, and his Christian appropriation of Platonic metaphysics. WorldCat Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. Ed. and trans. Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies/Renaissance Society of America, 1989. This is one of the most important primary texts for the astrology, medicine, music, planetary influence, and natural-magic portions of the episode. Google Books Meister Eckhart. The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense. Trans. Edmund Colledge and Bernard McGinn. Paulist Press, 1981. Google Books Nicholas of Cusa. On Learned Ignorance: A Translation and an Appraisal of De Docta Ignorantia. Trans. Jasper Hopkins. 2nd ed. Arthur J. Banning Press, 1985. WorldCat Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1486): The Evolution of Traditional Religious and Philosophical Systems. Ed. and trans. Stephen A. Farmer. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998. This should be one of our major Pico sources rather than relying on summaries of the 900 Conclusions. WorldCat Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The Complete Works. Trans. Colm Luibheid, with Paul Rorem. Paulist Press, 1987. Includes The Divine Names, The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and Mystical Theology. Cambridge University Press Core Modern Scholarship Faivre, Antoine. Access to Western Esotericism. State University of New York Press, 1994. Very useful for correspondence, living nature, imagination, mediation, transformation, Christian Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and defining Western esotericism without treating it as one secret continuous religion. JSTOR Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2008. An excellent broad academic overview covering Renaissance magic, Cabala, planetary and angel magic, and later Western esoteric developments. OUP Academic Hanegraaff, Wouter J. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2012. Important for keeping our larger historical thesis rigorous and avoiding the mythology of one uninterrupted underground occult tradition. Cambridge University Press Hanegraaff, Wouter J. Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Probably the best compact methodological source for explaining what scholars mean by “Western esotericism,” including magic, astrology, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Christian theosophy, and occultism. Bloomsbury Magee, Glenn Alexander, ed. The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism. Cambridge University Press, 2016. Especially useful for our argument that mysticism and esotericism overlap historically without being identical categories. Cambridge University Press Walker, D. P. Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella. Originally 1958; Pennsylvania State University Press edition, 2000. Still a foundational scholarly study of Ficino and Renaissance magic, although we should supplement it with newer scholarship rather than treating a 1958 interpretation as the final word. Penn State University Press Christian Platonism and Mysticism McGinn, Bernard.
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Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects
Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects
Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Substack https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects PART TWO BIBLIOGRAPHY Christianity Created the Western Occult Primary Sources Paracelsus. Paracelsus: Essential Theoretical Writings. Edited and translated by Andrew Weeks. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008. This is the edition I’d use for Paracelsus rather than modern occult compilations; it gives the German and English texts with extensive scholarly commentary. Wellcome Collection Dee, John. John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery: Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic. Edited and translated by Joseph H. Peterson. Weiser Books, 2003. A modern edition of Dee’s Mysteriorum Libri Quinque and one of the most useful primary-source collections for the early angelic sessions. Red Wheel/Weiser Böhme, Jakob. Aurora: The Day-Spring, or Dawning of the Day in the Orient. Originally written 1612. Any scholarly or reliable critical edition can be used for the primary material concerning Böhme’s early cosmology. Böhme, Jakob. The Way to Christ. Useful for the explicitly Christian and regenerative side of Böhme rather than treating him merely as an abstract occult cosmologist. Swedenborg, Emanuel. Heaven and Hell. Originally published in Latin in 1758. I’d use the New Century Edition, translated by George F. Dole, because it includes scholarly historical material and annotations. Swedenborg Foundation Saint-Martin, Louis-Claude de. Theosophic Correspondence between Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and Kirchberger, Baron de Liebistorf. Translated by Edward Burton Penny. Especially useful for documenting Saint-Martin’s engagement with Böhme and his increasingly interior understanding of Christian theosophy. Theosophy Society Eckartshausen, Karl von. The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary. The A. E. Waite translation is historically useful because Waite’s transmission of the text is itself part of its later occult reception. Lévi, Éliphas. Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual. Translated by A. E. Waite. Important as a primary document for Lévi’s synthesis of Kabbalah, ceremonial magic, Christian symbolism, priesthood, polarity, and magical theory. Lévi, Éliphas. The History of Magic. Again, use this as a primary source for what Lévi believed, not as reliable modern historiography. Waite, Arthur Edward. The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal. Essential for understanding the specifically Christian-mystical dimension of Waite’s esotericism. Waite, Arthur Edward. The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry. Useful for Waite’s conception of mystical initiation and the “secret tradition.” Fortune, Dion. The Mystical Qabalah. First published 1935. Essential primary material for Fortune’s attempt to interpret Qabalah through the twentieth-century Western Mystery Tradition. Medieval Grimoires, Ritual Magic & Angelic Practice This is the group I would rely upon heavily for the material we added concerning Christian prayer, exorcism, angels, grimoires, consecration, and the unstable boundary between religion and magic. Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997/1998. Absolutely essential. Kieckhefer edits and analyzes a real medieval magical manuscript containing prayers, conjurations, astral operations, spirit catalogues, and ceremonies for consecrating magical books. PSU Press Fanger, Claire, ed. Invoking Angels: Theurgic Ideas and Practices, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012. One of the strongest sources for our thesis because it specifically examines medieval and Renaissance attempts to obtain knowledge or supernatural assistance through angels. PSU Press Fanger, Claire. Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Vis
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