People & Practitioners

This section holds the historical people whose work shaped the traditions in the atlas: philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, mystics, scholars and occultists, given with their dates, fields and influence. They are treated as historical figures, actual persons, as distinct from the gods and legendary characters gathered under Deities & Sacred Figures.

The entries describe what each person taught, wrote or did, and how their work bore on the systems the atlas covers, keeping to what the historical record supports.

Many figures in the esoteric traditions attract legend, and a good deal of influential writing is pseudonymous or misattributed, ascribed to a famous ancient name to lend it authority. The atlas notes where authorship or biography is uncertain or disputed, distinguishing the person from the persona that later tradition built.

Some individuals are dual-modelled: remembered here as historical figures and also, in their own traditions, as founders or saints; the entries are kept complementary so each viewpoint is represented.