A library should tell you where it got its information, and a library of the occult should do so more carefully than most, because the subject is choked with books that copy each other's errors. These are the books I trust. Where a primary text exists in a scholarly translation I have given that rather than the cheaper reprint, because the notes are where the dates are corrected.
The ShelvesPrimary texts
- The Hermetica. Brian Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica (Cambridge, 1992): the Corpus Hermeticum and the Asclepius with the best notes in English.
- Greek Magical Papyri. Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago, 2nd ed. 1992).
- Iamblichus. On the Mysteries, trans. Emma Clarke, John Dillon and Jackson Hershbell (SBL, 2003).
- Ptolemy. Tetrabiblos, ed. and trans. F. E. Robbins (Loeb, 1940).
- Cicero. De senectute, De amicitia, De divinatione, trans. W. A. Falconer (Loeb, 1923).
- Sefer Yetzirah. Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation (Weiser, 1990).
- The Zohar. Daniel Matt, trans., The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (Stanford, 2004–2017), twelve volumes.
- Picatrix. Dan Attrell and David Porreca, trans., Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic (Penn State, 2019).
- Ficino. Three Books on Life, ed. and trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (MRTS, 1989).
- Agrippa. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, ed. Donald Tyson (Llewellyn, 1993).
- The Key of Solomon. S. L. MacGregor Mathers, ed., The Key of Solomon the King (1888; many reprints).
- Dee. John Dee's Five Books of Mystery, ed. Joseph Peterson (Weiser, 2003).
- Malleus Maleficarum. Christopher Mackay, trans., The Hammer of Witches (Cambridge, 2009).
- Lilly. William Lilly, Christian Astrology (1647; facsimile reprints).
- Lévi. Transcendental Magic, trans. A. E. Waite (1896; reprints).
- Hare. Robert Hare, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations (1855; public domain).
- Crowley. Magick: Liber ABA, ed. Hymenaeus Beta (Weiser, 2nd ed. 1997).
The ShelvesScholarship
- Esotericism. Wouter Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy (Cambridge, 2012); Antoine Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism (SUNY, 1994).
- The Renaissance. Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964); D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (1958).
- Magic. Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989); Owen Davies, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (Oxford, 2009).
- Astrology. Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology (2017); Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology (2 vols, 2008–09).
- Alchemy. Lawrence Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy (Chicago, 2013); William Newman, Newton the Alchemist (Princeton, 2019).
- Kabbalah. Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941); Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (Yale, 1988).
- Divination. Sarah Iles Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008); Richard J. Smith, The I Ching: A Biography (Princeton, 2012).
- Tarot. Michael Dummett, The Game of Tarot (1980); Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards (1996).
- Spiritualism. Janet Oppenheim, The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 1985); Alex Owen, The Darkened Room (1989).
- Psychical research. Deborah Blum, Ghost Hunters (2006); Etzel Cardeña, Steven Jay Lynn and Stanley Krippner, eds., Varieties of Anomalous Experience (APA, 2nd ed. 2014).
- Witchcraft. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971); Brian Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (4th ed. 2016); Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon (1999).
- The orders. Christopher McIntosh, The Rosicrucians (3rd ed. 1997); Ellic Howe, The Magicians of the Golden Dawn (1972).
- Talking boards. Robert Murch's history of the Ouija, and the Museum of Talking Boards collection; Mitch Horowitz, Occult America (2009).