Of Occult Philosophy or of Magical Ceremonies

The Third and Last Book of Magick, or Occult Philosophy – Henry Cornelius Agrippa. Now it is time to turn our pen to higher matters, and to that part of magick which teacheth us to know and perfectly understand the rules of religion, and how we ought to obtain the truth by divine religion, and how rightly to prepare our mind and spirit. By which only we can comprehend the truth. For it is a common opinion of the magicians that unless the mind and spirit be in good case, the body cannot be in good health.

Written by a legendary scholar of Renaissance esoterica, this is the single most important text in the history of Western occultism, Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) combined classical Neoplatonic and Hermetic philosophy with elements of the Jewish Kabbalah and Christianity to form a systematic exposition of occult knowledge. Agrippa's view of divine order was subsequently eclipsed by the materialism and atheism of the Enlightenment, but 500 years later, his influential work endures as a cornerstone of mystic literature.