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  3. Cambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge

Magic, superstition, the occult sciences and esoteric knowledge appear regularly in the history of ideas alongside more established academic disciplines such as philosophy, natural history and theology. Particularly fascinating are periods of rapid scientific advances such as the Renaissance or the nineteenth century, which also see a burgeoning of interest in the paranormal among the educated elite. This series provides primary texts and secondary sources for social historians and cultural anthropologists working in these areas, and all who wish for a wider understanding of the diverse intellectual and spiritual movements that formed a backdrop to the academic and political achievements of their day. It ranges from works on Babylonian and Jewish magic in the ancient world, through studies of sixteenth-century topics such as Cornelius Agrippa and the rapid spread of Rosicrucianism, to nineteenth-century publications by Sir Walter Scott and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Subjects include astrology, mesmerism, spiritualism, theosophy, clairvoyance and ghost-seeing, as described both by their adherents and by sceptics.

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145 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge

Page 3 of 8

Occult Sciences
  • The Philosophy of Magic, Prodigies and Apparent Miracles
  • Volume 2
  • Eusèbe Salverte
  • Edited and translated by Anthony Todd Thomson
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1846
  • This examination of the connection between the belief in miracles and religious practices in ancient times was originally written by French politician and polymath Anne-Joseph-Eusèbe Baconnière de Salverte (1771–1839) and published in 1829. In 1846, it was translated into English by a Scottish physician and writer, Anthony Todd Thomson (1778–1849), and published in two volumes. Thomson explains that Salverte's work was an important study of miracles and the power of priests, and he had 'performed a beneficial service in throwing open the gates of ancient sanctuaries'. However, Thomson also states that he differed from Salverte over the idea of the miraculous, and that he had expunged or heavily edited any passages relating to Christianity, even changing 'miracles' in the original subtitle to 'apparent miracles'. Volume 2 discusses the role of drugs and poison in magic, as well as the influence of weather on miraculous events.

Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism
  • William Crookes
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • Published in 1874, this collection of reports by the chemist and scientific journalist Sir William Crookes (1832–1919) describes his controversial research into psychic forces. In 1870, Crookes decided that science had a duty to study preternatural phenomena associated with spiritualism, and he spent the next four years carrying out experiments which tested famous mediums including D. D. Home, Kate Fox and Florence Cook. This fascinating work describes Crookes' witnessing of the movement of bodies at a distance, rappings, changes in the weights of bodies, levitation of individuals and automatic writing. Although he was strongly criticised by his contemporaries, Crookes would not be deterred from his psychical research, demonstrating that he thought all natural phenomena worthy of scientific investigation. A great experimentalist, Crookes refused to be bound by tradition and convention, and his story reveals one of the important episodes in the history of the spiritualist movement.

Witch, Warlock, and Magician
  • Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland
  • W. H. Davenport Adams
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1889
  • The journalist and author W. H. Davenport Adams (1828–91) established a reputation for himself as a popular science writer, translator and lexicographer. He also wrote several children's books. In this 1889 work, Adams gives a general introduction to alchemy in Europe and traces the development of magic and alchemy in England from the fourteenth century onwards. Initially the disciplines were persecuted by the Church and met with 'the prejudice of the vulgar', languishing throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Book 1 Adams portrays the English 'magicians' Roger Bacon, whom he considers to have been ahead of his contemporaries; John Dee and William Lilly, astrologists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, respectively; and the English Rosicrucians. Book 2 is a historical account of witchcraft in England and Scotland, from the middle ages to the witch trials of the seventeenth century, and includes a chapter on witchcraft in literature.

Narratives of Sorcery and Magic
  • From the Most Authentic Sources
  • Volume 2
  • Thomas Wright
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1851
  • The English historian and antiquary Thomas Wright (1810–70) co-founded and joined a number of antiquarian and literary societies. He was greatly interested in Old English, Middle English and Anglo-Norman texts, and in the 1840s and 1850s he published widely within these areas. Gradually his focus shifted to the archaeology of Roman Britain and to Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Although much of Wright's research has been completely superseded, his work is still considered worth consulting, as he collected material not readily available elsewhere. This two-volume 1851 publication is testimony to Wright's interest in folklore, sorcery and legend. In Volume 2, he maintains a broad perspective while surveying instances of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. Wright writes about such famous cases as the Earl of Somerset, the Ursuline nuns of Loudun, and the Mohra witches in Sweden, to whom the Devil appeared with a red beard and a high-crowned hat.

Occult Sciences
  • The Philosophy of Magic, Prodigies and Apparent Miracles
  • Volume 1
  • Eusèbe Salverte
  • Edited and translated by Anthony Todd Thomson
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1846
  • This examination of the connection between the belief in miracles and religious practices in ancient times was originally written by French politician and polymath Anne-Joseph-Eusèbe Baconnière de Salverte (1771–1839) and published in 1829. In 1846, it was translated into English by a Scottish physician and writer, Anthony Todd Thomson (1778–1849), and published in two volumes. Thomson explains that Salverte's work was an important study of miracles and the power of priests, and he had 'performed a beneficial service in throwing open the gates of ancient sanctuaries'. However, Thomson also states that he differed from Salverte over the idea of the miraculous, and that he had expunged or heavily edited any passages relating to Christianity, even changing 'miracles' in the original subtitle to 'apparent miracles'. Volume 1 begins with a consideration of human credulity before discussing magic in the ancient world, and offering explanations for supernatural phenomena.

Narratives of Sorcery and Magic
  • From the Most Authentic Sources
  • Volume 1
  • Thomas Wright
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1851
  • The English historian and antiquary Thomas Wright (1810–70) co-founded and joined a number of antiquarian and literary societies. He was greatly interested in Old English, Middle English and Anglo-Norman texts, and in the 1840s and 1850s he published widely within these areas. Gradually his focus shifted to the archaeology of Roman Britain and to Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Although much of Wright's research has been completely superseded, his work is still considered worth consulting, as he collected material not readily available elsewhere. This two-volume 1851 publication is testimony to Wright's interest in folklore, sorcery and legend. In Volume 1 the author accounts of sorcery across Europe, and he considers the legendary Dr Faustus as an archetypal magician who called 'the demon'. Wright also discusses the place of the occult in England during and after the Reformation, writing about magicians such as John Dee, and describing King James I's views on witchcraft.

The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis)
  • Edited and translated by S. L. MacGregor Mathers
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1889
  • This book, translated and edited by the occultist Samuel Liddell Mathers (1854–1918) and published in 1889, introduced to Victorian England an important work of Renaissance esoterica. Purportedly the deathbed testament of King Solomon to his son, distilling all the angelic wisdom he received in his lifetime, it provided its readers with detailed instructions in conjuring, divining and summoning God's power to work 'experiments', or spells. For Mathers, it represented 'the fountain-head and storehouse of Qabalistical Magic' and formed a central part of his efforts to lend scholarly respectability to occult research. Mathers edited the text using available manuscripts at the British Museum, and it continues to offer authoritative and fascinating insight into both Renaissance occultism and its Victorian revival. Features of this edition include introductions from three distinct manuscripts, a table of the planetary hours and their magical names, and spells for producing invisibility, creating magic carpets and identifying thieves.

Demonology and Devil-Lore
  • Volume 1
  • Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1879
  • Moncure Daniel Conway (1832–1907), the son of a Virginian plantation-owner, became a Unitarian minister but his anti-slavery views made him controversial. He later became a freethinker, and following the outbreak of the Civil War, which deeply divided his own family, he left the United States for England in 1863. He gained a reputation for being the 'least orthodox preacher in London', and was acquainted with many figures in the literary and scientific world, including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin. In this two-volume work, first published in 1879, Conway draws from examples across the world to discuss the origins and decline of beliefs in demons. In Volume 1, he classifies types of demon and argues that the various types are personifications of the main obstacles to 'primitive man': he finds in mythology across the world examples of animal demons and demons of hunger, fire and disease.

True History of the Ghost
  • And All about Metempsychosis
  • John Henry Pepper
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1890
  • Chemist and illusionist John Henry Pepper (1821–1900) lectured at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London, and incorporated experiments, illusions and magic lanterns into his popular science lectures. In 1862 he developed a stage-show illusion called 'the ghost'. This involved using strategically placed pieces of glass and specific lighting in order to create the illusion of ghostly figures on stage. The illusion was immensely popular in the second half of the nineteenth century - it was visited by royalty, and Pepper's show toured to America, Canada and Australia. In this book, first published in 1890, Pepper details the history of 'the ghost' and the process of carrying out the illusion. 'Pepper's Ghost' is considered to be a precursor to cinema, and this book will be of interest to those studying the development of popular nineteenth-century culture, the 'entertainment industry', and the origins of cinema.

The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum
  • Interpreted by the Tarot Trumps
  • Éliphas Lévi
  • Edited and translated by W. Wynn Westcott
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1896
  • Éliphas Lévi, born Alphonse Louis Constant, (1810–75) was instrumental in the revival of Western occultism in the nineteenth century, and published several influential books on magic that are also reissued in this series. This posthumous publication (1896) is a translation by William Wynn Westcott, co-founder of the 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn', of an unpublished French manuscript by Lévi, then owned by the spiritualist Edward Maitland. It includes eight of the author's drawings. Each short chapter outlines the meaning of one of the twenty-two tarot trumps and is followed by a brief editor's note describing the card's iconography and summarising interpretations (sometimes deliberately misleading) given in Lévi's earlier publications. The book ends with Kabbalistic prayers and rituals, praise of Jesus Christ as the great initiate, and a surprising assertion that Christianity has superseded ancient magic, revealing the life-long tension between Catholicism and magic in Lévi's personality and thought.

Secrets of Conjuring and Magic
  • Or How to Become a Wizard
  • Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin
  • Edited and translated by Louis Hoffmann
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1877
  • Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–71) is often called the father of modern conjuring. His name was later adopted by magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, whose highly sceptical exposé of Victorian spiritualism is also published in this series. The best-known magician of his time, Robert-Houdin toured France, England and Germany, performed for Queen Victoria, and was sent to French Algeria by Napoleon III to demonstrate the perceived superiority of French magic to the local shamans. This book, originally published in 1868, is devoted primarily to coin and card tricks, but Robert-Houdin also describes many other magical tricks and includes a history of conjuring. In 1877 the book appeared in this English translation by Louis Hoffmann (1839–1919). Hoffmann (real name Angelo John Lewis, a barrister) had published his own guide to magic in 1876, and both books caused controversy for revealing the secrets of stage magicians in such unprecedented detail.

The Cradle of the Twin Giants, Science and History
  • Volume 1
  • Henry Christmas
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1849
  • Henry Christmas (1811–68) was a scholar of very wide interests and a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He wrote extensively about many subjects including philosophy, religion, literature, mythology and numismatics. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and soon afterwards became the librarian and secretary of Sion College. Between 1840 and 1860 he edited a number of books and journals, including The Literary Gazette. He also translated Calmet's Phantom World, and Wieland's Republic of Fools into English. Published in 1849, this two-volume set examines how popular mythology kept alive beliefs about the occult, alchemy and the paranormal. In Volume 1, the author looks at astrology, dream-interpretation, magic and fantastical automata. He shows how some of these beliefs were so entrenched in tradition and culture that they came to be regarded almost as fact, and so had a detrimental influence on rational thought.

The Cradle of the Twin Giants, Science and History
  • Volume 2
  • Henry Christmas
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1849
  • Henry Christmas (1811–68) was a scholar of very wide interests and a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He wrote extensively about many subjects including philosophy, religion, literature, mythology and numismatics. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and soon afterwards became the librarian and secretary of Sion College. Between 1840 and 1860 he edited a number of books and journals, including The Literary Gazette. He also translated Calmet's Phantom World, and Wieland's Republic of Fools into English. Published in 1849, this two-volume set examines how popular mythology kept alive beliefs about the occult, alchemy and the paranormal. Volume 2 considers witchcraft, mesmerism, fairy mythology, alchemy and ghosts, and shows how some of these beliefs were so entrenched that they came to be regarded almost as fact, and so influenced rational thought. The volume concludes with comparison of superstitious beliefs with factual knowledge.

Human Personality
  • And its Survival of Bodily Death
  • Volume 2
  • Frederic William Henry Myers
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1903
  • Frederic William Henry Myers (1843–1901) was a classical scholar who in mid-career turned to the investigation of psychic phenomena. After studying, and later teaching, Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge he resigned his lectureship in 1869, became an inspector of schools, and campaigned for women's higher education. With the encouragement of former colleagues he began a scientific investigation of spiritualism and related phenomena, and in 1882 he helped to found the Society for Psychical Research. This two-volume work, first published posthumously in 1903, contains the fullest statement of Myers' influential theory of the 'subliminal self', which he developed by combining his research into psychic phenomena with his in-depth reading about the latest advances in psychology and related fields. His deeply intellectual approach is evident throughout the book, which analyses a huge amount of interesting data. Volume 2 discusses apparitions, trances and bodily possession.

On the Threshold of the Unseen
  • An Examination of the Phenomena of Spiritualism and of the Evidence of Survival after Death
  • William Fletcher Barrett
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    16 June 2011
    First published in:
    1917
  • In this 1917 publication English physicist Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844–1925) purports to rescue psychical research from the scorn of his colleagues and provide indisputable evidence for the existence of psychic phenomena. A successful scientist (he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and was honoured with a knighthood), Barrett was better known for his psychical work and his attempts to reconcile it with his scientific pursuits. Certain that the human spirit could linger after bodily death, in this book Barrett examines a wide range of spiritualist practices including levitation, spirit photography, mediumship, automatic writing, the ouija board, clairvoyance, and telepathy, carefully considering the evidence for each phenomenon in the hope that they will in time be recognised as scientifically established facts. This book is a much-revised edition of Barrett's 1908 publication On the Threshold of a New World of Thought, republished to include more 'trustworthy' evidence.

Transcendental Physics
  • An Account of Experimental Investigations from the Scientific Treatises
  • Johann Carl Friedrich Zöllner
  • Translated by Charles Carleton Massey
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1880
  • A pioneer in the field of astrophysics, Johann Zöllner (1834–1882) was a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Leipzig and an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society. Zöllner was best known for his work on astronomical photometry and spectrum analysis, on which he published widely. He invented the astronomical photometer used for measuring stellar magnitudes. He was also interested in optical illusions: the 'Zöllner illusion' consists of straight parallel lines which appear to be unparallel. This book, published in German in 1878–1879 and translated into English by Charles C. Massey in London in 1880, exemplifies the shift in Zöllner's interests in later life: he became involved in the public debate surrounding the scientific veracity of spiritualism. Here Zöllner describes his observations of experiments conducted by the medium Henry Slade in his own home.

Spiritualism, and the Age We Live In
  • Catherine Crowe
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    27 January 2011
    First published in:
    1859
  • Catherine Crowe (1790–1872) was a successful author of fiction, non-fiction and plays, who moved in literary circles and corresponded with the prominent authors of her day, including W. M. Thackeray and Harriet Martineau. Her interest in the supernatural and the spiritual dimension, and her frustration with the narrow-mindedness of her generation, are evident in this work, first published in 1859. A strong believer in the possibilities of spiritual planes and of forces beyond contemporary human knowledge, she suggests that much is still unknown to the human race, and that the advance of scientific materialism may hinder the search for spiritual insight. Unusually for her time, Crowe also questions the literal truth of the Bible, suggesting metaphorical interpretations of scripture, and asks how modern miracles or prophets might be recognised, in a society so closed to the possibility of the physically impossible.

Theosophy or Psychological Religion
  • The Gifford Lectures Delivered before the University of London in 1892
  • F. Max Müller
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1893
  • German-born Sanskritist and philologist Max Müller (1823–1900) was a pioneer in the field of comparative mythology and religion. Settling in England in 1846, during his distinguished career he served as Taylorian professor of modern European languages, curator of the Bodleian Library and Oxford's first professor of comparative philology. The content of this book was originally presented as part of a lecture series delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1893, where Müller was serving as the Gifford Lecturer. Müller's aim in presenting these lectures was to show that the only way of properly understanding religious phenomena was through utilising historical method. The three volumes preceding this one focused on 'physical religion', 'natural religion' and 'anthropological religion'; this fourth book, on theosophy, contains fifteen lectures, the subject matter ranging from Alexandrian Christianity and the eschatology of Plato to the journey of the soul after death.

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions
  • Volume 2
  • Charles Mackay
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    27 January 2011
    First published in:
    1852
  • This book is a joy to read and remains relevant in the current era of financial boom and bust. Mackay examines animal magnetism, money-mania, tulip-mania, the history of hair and facial hair, haunted houses, and much more. Throughout history, the most extraordinary fashions and trends have been followed unthinkingly, and occasionally this crowd fever has overtaken not only a town but a whole country; in some cases much of western Europe was engulfed simultaneously. The ability of some manias to be so far-reaching, and for common sense and intelligence to abandon such large populations seem incredible, though the book is as thought-provoking now as it was when first published in 1852. Volume 2 examines the fervour of the crusades and of witch trials, both of which engulfed Europe at different times. Explored on a lighter note are haunted houses and a fashion for lady poisoners.

The History of Magic
  • Volume 2
  • Joseph Ennemoser
  • Edited by Mary Howitt
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    27 January 2011
    First published in:
    1854
  • Joseph Ennemoser (1787–1854) was an Tyrolean doctor and scientist, noted for his use of magnetism and hypnosis. He was a forerunner of Freud in his belief in the connection between the mind and physical health, and his interest in psychology led to investigations into the paranormal. He became well known for his presentations about magic, delusions and apparently supernatural occurrences. He suggested that most of these phenomena appeared miraculous only because of a lack of understanding of the laws of nature. The History of Magic was published in Leipzig in 1844, and translated into English in 1854 by William Howitt, a leading Spiritualist writer. Volume 2 examines Germanic and medieval magic. Ennemoser attempts to show how animal magnetism has been partially understood throughout history, and relates it to scientific knowledge. The editor, Mary Howitt, has added a collection of accounts of supernatural events which illustrate the topics discussed.

Page 3 of 8