The Mysteries of Magic.

A Digest of the Writings of Éliphas Lévi. With biographical and critical essay.

London: George Redway 1886

First edition. 8vo. 225x135mm. pp. xliii, [ibl], 349, [3bl], 38pp adverts, [2 index to adverts]. Bright blue cloth, upper cover with a red border and a central design in gilt of “The Pentagram of Faust” and lettered “Tetragammaton”. Spine lettered in gilt. Corners bumped and rubbed. Spine soiled and worn at head and foot. Some soiling to edges of boards. Internally very good with some toning to edges. Overall a very good copy of a scarce book, five copies recorded in JISC Library Hub and no copies in the auction records since 1956.

Arthur Waite (1857-1942) has been described as the first person to “attempt a systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of protoscience or as the pathology of religion”. He also devised the Rider-Waite Tarot. In 1881, he discovered the writings of the French nineteenth-century esotericist (and former priest) Eliphas Levi whose work he translated and anthologised. This digest, first published in 1896 and then revised for this edition, covers a huge range of subjects: occult force, Kabbalistic Pneumatics, Ceremonial Magic, the religion of magic and thaumaturgical experiences.  

ref: 5386