The Mysteries of Magic.

A Digest of the Writings of Éliphas Lévi. With biographical and critical essay.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.. 1897.

Second edition, revised and enlarged. 8vo. 190x125mm. pp. xvi, 523 [1]. 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. Bumping and some wear to head and foot of spine and slight rubbing to corners. Slight soiling to boards. Some pencil marks to the text. Hinges a little cracked but overall a nice copy of a scarce book, nine copies recorded in JISC Library Hub and only one in the auction records. 
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. 4798