Three Books of Occult Philosophy - Henry Cornelius Agrippa (Donald Tyson Edition) (1)

The Foundation booh of UJcsreRn Occalrisml
The Three Books of Occult Philosophy is the single most important text in the history of
Western occultism. Occultists and magicians have been drawing upon its vast storehouse of
magical lore for five centuries, although they seldom if ever credit their source. For example,
Francis Barrett's Magus is a wonderful book only because it is made up of a direct plagiarism
of part of the Occult Philosophy, with some additional material attributed to Agrippa (the apocryphal Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy) thrown in at the end. The Golden Dawn systems of
the Kabbalah, geomancy, elements, and seals and squares of the planets are all taken in large
measure from Agrippa. Though countless writers have borrowed from the text, the Occult Philosophy has never been reprinted in its entirety, except in limited facsimile editions, since 1651.
The reason the book has not been made into a new edition is simple—it required a herculean effort to correct the hundreds of errors, most of which were reproduced in both the English edition of 1651 and the Latin edition in the Opera of around 1600. These errors could only
be corrected by understanding the material completely: not only what was present in the text,
but what should be, and should not be, present.
For the first time in 500 years (first Latin edition, Antwerp, 1531), the seals, sigils, and
magic squares of the planets, which are universally used in modem magic, are correctly given,
and their structure and construction fully explained. For the first time the complex Hebrew
tables of the practical Kabbalah are accurately drawn. For the first time the geomantic figures
are corrected and truly represented.