The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)

“Paracelsus was a high priest among mystics and alchemists; he left behind him one hundred and six treatises upon medical and occult subjects, which are likely to be read by the curious as long as mysticism remains a necessary study for whoever would trace the developments of civilisation. From some considerable acquaintance with the writings of Paracelsus, we can say that Dr. Hartmann has made his excerpts from them with a good deal of skill. Students, indeed, should be grateful for this book, despite its setting of Theosophical nonsense ; since to read one of Bombast’s Latin or German treatises is a very stiff exercise indeed, unless

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you are well versed in his very recondite terminology. Dr. Hartmann has compiled a very full and accurate glossary of occult terms, which will be of great use to future' readers of Paracelsus ; and for so much he is to be thanked. Dr. Hartmann quotes some of his recipes for transmuting metals and producing the * electrum magicum.' But Paracelsus is the most transcendental of European mystics, and it is not always easy to know when he is writing allegorically and when practically. Dr. Hartmann says he has tried these prescriptions and found them all right ; but he warns the uninitiated against running the risk of blowing themselves up in the endeavour to* follow the master’s instructions. Paracelsus held firmly to the belief of some of the hermetic writers of the Middle Ages, that it is perfectly possible to create human beings by alchemical means ; and he even gives directions (in his treatise ‘De Natural Rerum’) for the production of homunculi. On the whole, however, Dr. Hartmann has produced a very amusing book, and a book which will have some permanent value to the student of the occult.” — St. James’s Gazette.

ASTROLOGY THEOLOGIZED.

THE SPIRITUAL HERMENEUTICS OF ASTROLOGY

and Holy Writ. Being a Treatise upon the Influence of the Stars on Man, and on the Art of Ruling them by the Law of Grace. Reprinted from the Original of 1649. With a Prefatory Essay on Bible Hermeneutics. By Anna Kingsford, M.D. Paris. In post 4to. Illustrated with Engravings on Wood. Most chastely bound in white vellum, lew. 6 d.

“ It is well for Dr. Anna Kingsford that she was not bom into the sidereal world four hundred years ago. Had that been her sorry fate, she would assuredly have been burned at the stake for her preface to ‘Astrology Theologized.’ It is a very long preface — more than half the length of the treatise it introduces ; it contains some of the finest flowers of Theosophical Philosophy, and of course make^ very short work of Christianity. Mrs. Kingsford, amid many things which we do not understand, and some few which we think we comprehend afar off, gives a more detailed analysis of ghosts than we remember to have met with in any of the ancient hermetic writers. The only pleasing features of the book are the reproductions of a number of beautiful symbolical figures with which it is illustrated. That on p. 28, representing Christ surrounded by an elliptical glory and carried up to heaven by angels, is taken from an illuminated manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Bibliotheque Royale ; and the figure of the Virgin in an aureole, on p. 94, is from a tenth-century illuminated manuscript in the same library. Some of the figures here reproduced are among the finest things in Christian iconography.” — St. James's Gazette.

THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC ; a Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi. With Biographical and Critical Essay by Arthur Edward Waite. In demy 8vo, cloth, ioj. 6d.