Occult knowledge and practice can be divided into three main branches: astrology, which aims to guide human fortune by means of foreknowledge; alchemy, which tries to secure power through the agency of the philosopher's stone; and ritual magic, which seeks to control the spirit world. In this classic book (first published in 1949), Elizabeth Butler explores ritual magic using a wide range of texts, from the pre-Christian rites of the Akkadians and Chaldeans to the Solomonic Clavicles of medieval Europe. She quotes extensively from these documents, providing the reader with an...
Occult knowledge and practice can be divided into three main branches: astrology, which aims to guide human fortune by means of foreknowledge; alch...
This work is a powerful and astute examination of the connection between magic in literature and magic in history. It traces the evolution of the Faust tradition and its relationship to the practice of magic in European history. Written by one of the most distinguished scholars in the field of German literature, this book, first published in 1952, is a classic text. Butler follows the magic tradition of the magus--the priest-king--and its reformulation in the Christian world. In the process, the magus was transformed into a wicked sorcerer who comes to a bad end in this world and a worse...
This work is a powerful and astute examination of the connection between magic in literature and magic in history. It traces the evolution of the F...
The young Elizabeth Butler (nee Thompson, 1846 1933) and her sister, the poet Alice Meynell, were educated at home by their wealthy father, and much of their childhood was spent in Italy. Elizabeth began to train as an artist at the Female School of Art, South Kensington, in 1866. She became famous for her work in the genre (unusual for a woman) of military art, one of her best known paintings being The Roll Call, an imagined incident from the Crimea. She took great trouble to ensure the accuracy of the detail of regimental uniform, and her depiction of the bravery and stoicism of the...
The young Elizabeth Butler (nee Thompson, 1846 1933) and her sister, the poet Alice Meynell, were educated at home by their wealthy father, and much o...
