Publisher's Synopsis
Black Magic, High Magic, Goetia, Thaumaturgy, Alchemy, Kabbalah, the Druids, the Egyptian Hierophants, the Astral Light, the Ancients, Sorcerers of the Middle Ages, Pythagoras, the Tarot, the I Ching, Curses, Spells, Mediums, the Black Mass, the Sphinx, Blood rituals, telekinesis, telepathy, The Knights Templar, Freemasonry, ancient androids, The Illuminati, the sacred geometry, Apollonius of Tyana, The Magi-- the French Transcendentalist Eliphas Levi tackled all of these subjects and more between the covers of his exhaustive History of Magic, and indeed was one of the first to do so. Levi was no skeptic deriding his subject matter, he was a true believer and practitioner of what he termed the High Magic with its roots deep in the practices of the ancient Chaldeans, the Persian Magi, the Sumarians, Babylonians and Hebrews. For enthusiasts of magic the book is a cornucopia of knowledge and hints toward further knowledge. For the casual reader there are highly interesting and well written accounts of the lives of figures ranging from Plato to St. Thomas Aquinas. Whether one agrees with Levi the Magus or merely smiles and enjoys his accounts of things past and rather unique hopes for things to come, his History of Magic is sure to entertain.
