About
About the library
An independent reference library on mysticism, magic and the history of sacred and hidden knowledge.
Esoteria treats the esoteric traditions as a serious subject: a body of texts, practices, ideas and people with a real history. We write about Jewish mysticism and Christian Gnosticism, Hermeticism and alchemy, the Solomonic grimoires and ceremonial magic, Thelema, Wicca, Satanism, Tantra, Sufism and Taoist alchemy in the same register — describing what practitioners believe and do, what the sources actually say, and what modern scholarship has learned about where those sources came from.
How we write
Every article is original. We describe practices historically rather than prescriptively, give dates and attributions only where they can be supported, note when scholars disagree, and finish every article with the primary texts and studies a reader can check for themselves. We are neutral about belief: this is a library, not a congregation.
The texts catalogue
Our catalogue of grimoires and treatises gives each text a summary, its dating and key manuscripts, and — because the field has moved quickly in the last twenty years — the current critical editions, translations and studies.
Books
Book recommendations are chosen for quality and usefulness: primary sources in good translations, the classic works of each tradition, and current scholarship.
Corrections
Scholarship changes and we make mistakes. If you find an error of fact or attribution, please tell us; corrections are made promptly and the article’s “updated” date changes.