Esoteric Texts

This category holds the written sources of the Western esoteric tradition: the Hermetic corpus, the alchemical and magical treatises, the grimoires, and the foundational works of modern occultism. These are the books in which the systems of magic, alchemy, Kabbalah and astrology were set down and passed on.

Each entry records what the text is, who wrote or compiled it where that can be established, roughly when, and what it contains, a body of practical instruction, a philosophy, a collection of spirits and their offices, or a synthesis of several traditions.

A defining feature of this literature is uncertain authorship. Much of it is pseudonymous (ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, to Solomon, to Moses or to other prestigious ancient names), or circulated anonymously, and the traditional attribution is frequently centuries out from the true date of composition. The Hermetic writings, once thought Egyptian and primordial, were shown by Isaac Casaubon to be of the early Christian era; many grimoires attributed to Solomon are late medieval or early modern.

The entries flag these attributions and give the scholarly dating where it is known. The texts group by tradition (Hermetic, alchemical, Solomonic, Kabbalistic, thelemic and the rest), so a reader can follow one current through its literature.