The ESOTERICA Library
Here is a curated list of what I take to be the most essential, accessible, scholarly and fundamental texts for the study of Western Esoterica up to around 1650. This list is by no means exhaustive, far from it by design. But, I’ve selected texts based on their being foundational, in print, in English, ‘affordable’ and not overly specialized. The Amazon affiliate links mean I will receive a slight margin if you buy a book. This list will be updated. Last Update: April 2024.
I discuss the methodology of the creation of this list in the episode here: https://youtu.be/1-S95SMkBVw
JJS.
Start Here
Hanegraaff - Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed
Read through this text cover to cover.
Then either (1) build out a robust library of Primary and Secondary sources in the next two lists and/or (2) deep dive your interests, e.g., Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Historical Magic, etc., with the reference sections below:
Foundational Primary Texts
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha (my Bible recommendation)
Layton - The Gnostic Scriptures
Salaman - The Way of Hermes
Dillon - Neoplatonic Philosophy: Introductory Readings
Linden - The Alchemy Reader
Meyer - The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts
Betz - The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells
McGinn - The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism
Wakefield & Evans - Heresies of the High Middle Ages
Idel & Dan - The Early Kabbalah
Attrell & Porreca - Picatrix
Kieckhefer - Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century
Farmer - Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486) With Text, Translation, and Commentary
Kaske - Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life: A Critical Edition and Translation
Agrippa - Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Levack - The Witchcraft Sourcebook
Fine - Safed Spirituality: Rules of Mystical Piety, The Beginning of Wisdom
Foundational Secondary Texts
Collins - The Apocalyptic Imagination
Hanegraaff - Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination
Wallis - Neoplatonism
van den Broek - Gnostic Religion in Antiquity
Brennan - Hellenistic Astrology
Principe - The Secrets of Alchemy
Bowden - Mystery Cults of the Ancient World
Edmonds - Drawing Down the Moon
Given - Inquisition and Medieval Society
Scholem - Kabbalah
Kieckhefer - Magic in the Middle Ages
Copenhaver - Magic and the Dignity of Man
Levack - The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
Scholem - Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
Versluis - Wisdom's Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition
Sub-Domain Specific Sections
General Western Esotericism
Goodrick-Clarke - The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction
Hanegraaff - Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
Versluis - Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esoteric Traditions
Magee - The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism
Jones - Philosophy of Mysticism
Biblical & Ancient Near East
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha
Dever - Has Archaeology Buried the Bible?
Smith - The Early History of God
Day - Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan
Coogan - Stories from Ancient Canaan
Simpson - The Literature of Ancient Egypt
Foster - Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature
Jacobsen - The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation
Dalley - Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others
Allen - The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts
Scalf - Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt
Allen - The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Nissinen - Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East
Apocalypticism, Merkavah and Dead Sea Scrolls
Collins - The Apocalyptic Imagination
Arbel - Beholders of Divine Secrets
Segal - Two Powers in Heaven
Schafer - Two Gods in Heaven
Schwartz - Scholastic Magic (Sar Torah Mysticism)
Vermes - The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English
Gnosticism
Van den Broek - Gnostic Religion in Antiquity
Layton - The Gnostic Scriptures
Williams - Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category
Ehrman - Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Rudolph - Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism
Litwa - Found Christianities
Hermeticism
Salaman - The Way of Hermes
Copenhaver - Hermetica
Litwa - Hermetica II
Hanegraaff - Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination
Fowden - The Egyptian Hermes
Van Bladel - The Arabic Hermes
Classical Philosophy
Pre-Socratics - The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection
Plato - Cooper - Plato: Complete Works
Aristotle - Barnes - Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. 1
Barnes - The Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. 2
Neo-Platonism
Dillon - The Middle Platonists
Wallis - Neoplatonism
Dillon - Neoplatonic Philosophy: Introductory Readings
Shaw - Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
Hellenistic Philosophy
The Hellenistic Philosophers, Vol. 1
The Hellenistic Philosophers: Volume 2
Inwood - Hellenistic Philosophy
Astrology
Brennan - Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune
Campion - A History of Western Astrology Volume I
Campion - A History of Western Astrology Volume II
Alchemy
Linden - The Alchemy Reader
Principe - The Secrets of Alchemy
Roob - Alchemy & Mysticism
Newman - Newton the Alchemist
Rampling - The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300–1700
Zuber - Spiritual Alchemy
Weeks - Paracelsus: Speculative Theory & the Crisis of the Early Reformation
Paracelsus: Essential Readings
Abraham - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery
Ancient Greek Mysteries
Athanassakis - The Orphic Hymns
Majercik - The Chaldean Oracles
Dodds - The Greeks and the Irrational
Betegh - The Derveni Papyrus: Cosmology, Theology and Interpretation
Cosmopoulos - Greek Mysteries
Bowden - Mystery Cults of the Ancient World
Meyer - The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts
Ancient Magic
Edmonds - Drawing Down the Moon
Ogden - Greek and Roman Necromancy
Gager - Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World
Naveh & Shaked - Amulets and Magic Bowls
Betz - The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells
Bohak - Ancient Jewish Magic
Harari - Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah
Morgan - Sepher Ha-Razim: The Book of Mysteries
Ritner - The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice
Abusch - The Witchcraft Series Maqlû
Meyer - Ancient Christian Magic
Western Christian Mysticism (w/a focus on women mystics)
McGinn - The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism (best anthology)
Pseudo Dionysius: The Complete Works
Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works
Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias
McGinn - Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete
Swan - The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement
Hadewijch: The Complete Works
Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead
Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls
Angela of Foligno : Complete Works
The Cloud of Unknowing
Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher
Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense
Johannes Tauler: Sermons
Henry Suso: The Exemplar, with Two German Sermons
The Theologia Germanica of Martin Luther
Everything in the Classics of Western Spirituality Series including Catherine of Sienna, Julian of Norwich, Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, etc.
Medieval Heresy and Inquisition
Wakefield & Evans - Heresies of the High Middle Ages
Lambert - The Cathars
Moore - The War On Heresy
Lambert - Medieval Heresy
Barber - The Cathars
Sennis, etc. - Cathars in Question - A Must Read w/ traditional account
Peters - The Magician, the Witch, and the Law
Given - Inquisition and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline, and Resistance in Languedoc
Lerner - Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages
Early Kabbalah & Foundational Texts
Hebrew/Aramaic Editions
Sefer Yetzirah - https://seforimcenter.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=385&strReferer=search&PPGR=0
Sefer Bahir - https://seforimcenter.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=10187&strReferer=search&PPGR=0
Sefer Zohar (Academic Aramaic) - https://seforimcenter.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=487&strReferer=search&PPGR=0
Sefer Zohar (Aramaic Menukad + Hebrew Translation) - https://seforimcenter.com/HEBREW-Books/Kabbalah/Zohar-Sets/Zohar-with-Hebrew-translation-/-12-volumes__p-73-77-201-646.aspx
Scholem - Kabbalah
Idel - Kabbalah: New Perspectives
Matt (trans) - Zohar: Pritzker Edition
Green - A Guide to the Zohar
Tishby - The Wisdom of the Zohar: An Anthology of Texts
Matt - Zohar: Annotated & Explained (short anthology)
Weiss - "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts
Kellner - Maimonides' Confrontation with Mysticism
Hellner-Eshed - Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba
Huss - Mystifying Kabbalah: Academic Scholarship, National Theology, and New Age Spirituality
Liebes - Studies in the Zohar
Verman - The Books of Contemplation
Idel & Dan - The Early Kabbalah
Idel - The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia
Medieval Magic & Necromancy
Thorndike - A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols.
Find online, or on Abebooks, Ebay, Library sales, etc.
Anything in the Penn State History of Magic series
Attrell & Porreca - Picatrix
Michael Psellus on the Operation of Daemons
Kieckhefer - Magic in the Middle Ages
Kieckhefer - Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century
Klaassen - The Transformations of Magic: Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance
Page - Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe
Fanger - Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic
Fanger - Invoking Angels: Theurgic Ideas and Practices, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries
Butler - Ritual Magic
Saif - The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy
Peterson - Elucidation of Necromancy
Peterson - The Sworn Book of Honorius
Castle - Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon: A Medieval Treatise on Angelic Magic and the Art of Memory
Marathankis - The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia
While in French, important critical editions of medieval magical texts are prepared by Nicolas Weill-Parot and Julien Véronèse
Medieval Philosophy
Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions
Copleston - History of Philosophy, vols 2 & 3
Aquinas - On Spiritual Creatures
Renaissance Magic
Copenhaver - Renaissance Philosophy
Pico - On the Dignity of Man
Farmer - Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486) With Text, Translation, and Commentary
Kaske - Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life: A Critical Edition and Translation
Walker - Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella
Yates - Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
(important but outdated - should be read with Hanegraaff - Esotericism and the Academy)
Copenhaver - Magic and the Dignity of Man: Pico della Mirandola and His Oration in Modern Memory
Giordano Bruno: Cause, Principle and Unity: And Essays on Magic
Idel - Kabbalah in Italy
Wirszubski - Pico della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism
Early Modern Magic
Reuchlin - On the Art of the Kabbalah (Trans. Not totally reliable)
Agrippa - Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Brann - Trithemius and Magical Theology: A Chapter in the Controversy Over Occult Studies in Early Modern Europe
Harkness - John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature
Asprem - Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture
Klein - The Complete Mystical Records of Dr. John Dee: A 3-Volume Set: Transcribed from the 16th-Century Manuscripts Documenting Dee's Conversations with Angels
Leitch - The Angelical Language
Peterson - Arbatel: Concerning the Magic of the Ancients
Peterson - The Lesser Key of Solomon
Dehn (trans) - The Book of Abramelin
Rankine - The Grimoire Encyclopaedia (2 vols)
Harms - The Book of Oberon
Early-Modern Witch Hunts
Levack - The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
Levack - The Witchcraft Sourcebook
Peters - Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History
Mackay - The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum
Clark - Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Hutton - The Witch
Safedian Kabbalah
Fine - Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship
Chajes - The Kabbalistic Tree
Werblowsky - Joseph Karo: Lawyer and Mystic
Fine - Safed Spirituality: Rules of Mystical Piety, The Beginning of Wisdom
Faierstein - Jewish Mystical Autobiographies: Book of Visions and Book of Secrets
Moses Cordovero's Introduction to Kabbalah: An Annotated Translation of His or Ne'Erav
Chajes - Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism
Idel - Primeval Evil in Kabbalah: Totality, Perfection, Perfectibility
Scholem - Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
Early Modern Theosophy
Versluis - Wisdom's Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition
Weeks - German Mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein
Weeks - Boehme: An Intellectual Biography of the Seventeenth-Century Philosopher and Mystic
Gibbons - Gender in Mystical and Occult Thought: Behmenism and its Development in England
Gibbons - Spirituality and the Occult
Rosicrucianism
Godwin - Rosicrucian Trilogy: Modern Translations of the Three Founding Documents
Yates - The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (often speculative - proceed w/ caution)
McIntosh - The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason: Eighteenth-Century Rosicrucianism in Central Europe and its Relationship to the Enlightenment
Languages
Latin
Wheelock's Latin
Cassell's Standard Latin Dictionary
Greek
Greek: An Intensive Course
Cambridge Greek Lexicon
Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon
Aramaic (Relies on knowing Hebrew!)
Grammar for Gemara & Targum Onkelos: An Introduction to Aramaic
Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature
Coptic
Coptic: A Grammar of Its Six Major Dialects
Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies
French
French for Reading
German
Jannach’s German for Reading Knowledge
Reading German for Theological Studies
Specialized Publishers and Journals
Coming soon
This list will come to include Freemasonry, Illuminism, Philosophy and the Occult, the English Occult Revival, the French Occult Revival, and, perhaps, Traditionalism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, among other contemporary topics.