Study Guides

Orientations before the reading begins.

26 guides

Each guide explains what a tradition is, why it matters, which texts form its core and in what order a newcomer should read them, with every recommendation drawn live from the library and linked to related authors, collections and reading paths.

Guides

A candlelit study table with an open manuscript and a brass armillary sphere
What Is Hermeticism?
The philosophy attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, and why it never went away.
Joseph Wright of Derby, The Alchymist, 1771: an alchemist kneeling in a vaulted laboratory lit by a glowing flask
How to Begin Studying Alchemy
The art of transformation, read in the right order.
Nineteenth-century painting of scholars studying together over large open volumes
A Beginner’s Guide to Kabbalah
Jewish mysticism, its classic texts, and its long afterlife in the West.
John William Waterhouse, The Magic Circle, 1886: a robed woman tracing a circle on the ground with a wand
How to Approach Historical Grimoires
Books of ritual magic, read as the historical documents they are.
Fernand Khnopff, I Lock My Door Upon Myself, 1891: a pensive woman in a dim, symbol-laden interior
The Foundations of Thelema
Aleister Crowley’s system, from the Book of the Law to The Equinox.
William Blake, The Ancient of Days, 1794: a bearded figure leaning from a sphere of light with golden compasses
Introduction to Gnosticism
Knowledge as salvation, and the myths that carried it.
Gerrit Dou, Astronomer by Candlelight, c. 1665: a scholar studying a globe by candlelight
How to Read Rosicrucian Texts
Three mysterious books, and four centuries of response.
A hand-painted fifteenth-century Italian tarot card on gold ground from the Cary-Yale Visconti deck
Tarot Beyond Fortune-Telling
From Renaissance card game to symbolic system.
An eighteenth-century Tibetan thangka painting of a seated figure with mineral pigments and gold
Esoteric Buddhism and Eastern Mysticism
The contemplative classics of Asia, and how the West first read them.
Arnold Böcklin, Isle of the Dead, 1886: a boat approaching a dark rocky island of cypresses
An Introduction to Jung and Esoteric Psychology
The unconscious, the archetypes, and the psychology of the mysteries.
Eighteenth-century Viennese painting of a Masonic lodge meeting with members in formal dress
Understanding Freemasonry in the Context of Secret Societies
Lodges, degrees and symbols, set in their historical company.
Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, c. 1475: a scholar reading within a carved wooden study
How to Study Sacred Texts Across Traditions
Reading scripture comparatively, carefully and in good translations.
A late-antique philosopher in a marble courtyard at dusk contemplating a radiant sphere beside a small altar
Neoplatonism and Theurgy
Philosophy that became a path of ascent, and ritual that became philosophy.
A medieval monastic cell with a candle, an open illuminated manuscript and light falling through a narrow window
Christian Mysticism
The contemplative current inside Christianity, from the desert to Görlitz.
A whirling dervish silhouette in a domed hall with geometric tilework, hanging lamps and a starry oculus
Sufism
The inward path of Islam, in poetry, practice and brotherhood.
Misty mountain peaks in ink-wash style with a hermit’s pavilion and a gnarled pine
Daoist Esotericism
The Way that cannot be named, and the practices that follow it.
An ancient Indian temple sanctum with a meditating figure in silhouette among oil lamps
Yoga and Tantra
Disciplines of mind and body, older and stranger than the gym mat.
A nineteenth-century Paris occult salon with tarot cards on a table and the Seine visible through tall windows at night
The French Occult Revival
From Martinist theosophy to the Parisian magicians of the fin de siècle.
An Elizabethan scholar’s chamber with an obsidian scrying mirror, an astrolabe and candles
John Dee and Enochian Magic
An Elizabethan mathematician, a scryer, and the language of angels.
A sepia Victorian room mixing scientific instruments with a séance table, a planchette and drifting mist
Spiritualism and Psychical Research
Séances, mediums, and the scientists who tried to test them.
William Blake, The Ancient of Days, a figure leaning from a sphere of light with golden compasses
Hermeticism and Gnosticism Compared
Two late-antique paths of saving knowledge, and where they part.
Nineteenth-century painting of scholars studying together over large open volumes
Jewish Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah Compared
One Tree of Life, two very different gardens.
An engraved-style alchemical allegory with a flask, sun and moon, a green lion and an ouroboros on an open book
Laboratory Alchemy and Spiritual Alchemy Compared
Furnace or soul? How the Victorians reread the alchemists.
A Victorian occultist’s study at night with a gas lamp, a crystal ball and stacks of leather books
The Golden Dawn and Thelema Compared
A Victorian order and the prophet who left it.
Tarot cards on a velvet table in a nineteenth-century Paris salon at night
Historical Tarot and Esoteric Tarot Compared
A Renaissance card game, and how it became a book of wisdom.
A sepia Victorian room mixing scientific instruments with a séance table and drifting mist
Spiritualism and Psychical Research Compared
The believers and the investigators, reading the same séances.

Subject Guides by Tradition

Tradition overviews, each with an essential-texts shelf drawn from the catalogue.

Hermeticism
The philosophy of Hermes Trismegistus — primary sources, context, and where to begin.
Alchemy
The Great Work — spiritual and operative alchemy from antiquity to the Renaissance.
Grimoires & Books of Ceremonial Magic
Handbooks of ceremonial magic — the Solomonic tradition and its descendants.
Kabbalah
Jewish mysticism and the Western Qabalah — the Tree of Life and its literature.
Thelema
“Do what thou wilt” — the philosophy and magick of Aleister Crowley.
Gnostic Texts & Scriptures
Knowledge as salvation — the scriptures of the Gnostics.
Rosicrucian Books & Manifestos
The Order of the Rosy Cross — manifestos and mysteries.
Tarot Books & Primary Texts
The esoteric tarot — symbolism, divination, and the Tree of Life.
Astrology Books & Primary Texts
The art of the heavens — from Ptolemy to the modern revival.
Enochian Magic
The angelic language of John Dee and Edward Kelley.
Witchcraft & Wicca
Folk magic, the witch-cult, and the roots of modern Wicca.
Mysticism
The direct experience of the divine — across the world’s contemplative traditions.
Occult Books & Esoteric Philosophy
The Western occult tradition — its great syntheses and systems.
Esoteric Books & Hidden Wisdom
A gateway to the world’s traditions of hidden wisdom.
Sacred Texts & Scriptures
Scriptures and wisdom literature from the world’s traditions.