A fascinating and highly original history of medieval magic told through twenty key illuminated manuscripts Medieval Europe was preoccupied with magic. From the Carolingian Empire to Renaissance Italy and Tudor England, great rulers, religious figures, and scholars sought to harness supernatural power. They tried to summon spirits, predict the future, and even prolong life.
Alongside science and religion, magic lay at the very heart of culture. In this beautifully illustrated account, Anne Lawrence-Mathers explores the medieval fascination with magic through twenty extraordinary illuminated manuscripts. These books were highly sought after, commissioned by kings and stored in great libraries.
They include an astronomical compendium made for Charlemagne’s son; The Sworn Book of Honorius, used by a secret society of trained magicians; and the highly influential Picatrix. This vivid new history shows how attitudes to magic and science changed over the medieval period—and produced great works of art as they did so.
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Deluxe hardback edition, limited to 500 copies only.
Discover the esoteric writings of occultist and poet William Butler Yeats, in a new collection of his lesser-known magical essays W. B. Yeats is celebrated globally for his contributions to poetry and Irish nationalism. However, his engagement with the occult circles of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries have passed largely unappreciated. A member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and later drafting his own system for a Celtic magical order, Yeats wrote prolifically on magical philosophy, mystical symbolism, and the
occult experience.
In this new anthology, John Michael Greer presents six of Yeats’ occult writings that have the most to offer the operative mage. From an analysis of the Golden Dawn System, to an investigation of the relationship between folklore and the paranormal experience to occult
philosophy, to an outline of Yeats’ own proposed magical order (The Castle of Heroes) that draws on the symbolism of nature, this collection is a much-needed addition to the occult canon. It concludes with Yeats’ most famous work of esoteric writing, the complete text of the original 1925 edition of A Vision. Written in a series of automatic writing sessions with his wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees, this revolutionary essay delves into innovative system that explores human personality, occult philosophy, cycles of history, the afterlife, and the symbolic structures from which all four arise and interleaf.
Other essays included are Magic; Witches and Wizards and Irish Folk- Lore; Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places; Per Amica Silenta Lunae; and Hodos Camelionis.
Edited and annotated, and complete with a new introduction by John Michael Greer, The Magical Writings of W.B. Yeats preserves vital knowledge from the esoteric tradition, and offers the modern magician fresh guidance and perspective from one of the most important occultists of the last century.