Chronology · Timeline
Chronology
A timeline of esoteric & sacred knowledge
296 moments, from Solomon and the Hermetica to the critical editions and discoveries of our own century.
- Antiquity
- c. 24th century BCE
Pyramid Texts carved in the tomb of Unas
The oldest large body of Egyptian religious spells is inscribed inside a royal pyramid at Saqqara, giving formulae to protect the king and secure his ascent among the gods.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 1550 BCE onward
The Egyptian Book of the Dead takes shape
New Kingdom scribes compile spells for the afterlife on papyrus, making protective funerary magic available beyond royalty and supplying imagery later Hermetic writers would claim as Egyptian wisdom.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - legendary: c. 13th century BCE
Legendary horizon of Moses, Zarathushtra and Hermes
Later traditions placed several 'founders' of sacred wisdom in remote antiquity around this period; modern scholars treat the Hermes dating as mythical and still debate when Zarathushtra lived.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 10th century BCE
Reign of King Solomon
The biblical son of David becomes the archetypal wise king; later Jewish, Christian and Islamic lore credits him with command over demons through a sealed ring.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - c. 9th century BCE
Core of the Zhouyi (I Ching) composed
The divinatory hexagram texts of the Western Zhou form the oldest layer of the Book of Changes, later expanded by the commentarial 'Ten Wings'.
Liber VII · Divination - c. 7th–6th century BCE
Earliest Upanishads
The Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads turn Vedic ritual inward, teaching the identity of the self (atman) with ultimate reality (brahman).
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 7th century BCE
Maqlû anti-witchcraft ritual copied in Assyria
Tablets from Nineveh preserve 'Burning', a nightlong Mesopotamian ceremony for destroying figurines of witches—an early systematic counter-sorcery rite.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 570 BCE
Birth of Pythagoras
The philosopher of Samos founds a secretive community devoted to number, harmony and the soul's transmigration, becoming a model for later initiatory brotherhoods.
Liber XXIX · Symbols - c. 5th century BCE
Empedocles teaches the four roots
Earth, water, air and fire are named as the elemental 'roots' of all things—a scheme that underlies Western alchemy, astrology and ritual magic for two millennia.
Liber I · Alchemy - c. 360 BCE
Plato writes the Timaeus
Plato's account of a divine craftsman shaping the cosmos from geometric elements becomes a foundational text for Neoplatonism, Gnostic ideas of the demiurge and Renaissance magic.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - c. 4th century BCE
The Daodejing circulates
The classic attributed to Laozi presents the nameless Dao and the art of non-action, the philosophical root of later Taoist inner cultivation.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 3rd century BCE
Earliest parts of 1 Enoch composed
The Book of the Watchers tells of fallen angels teaching humanity sorcery, metallurgy and astrology, a myth that shaped later demonology and angel magic.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE
Philo of Alexandria
The Jewish philosopher reads scripture allegorically through Platonism, introducing the Logos as mediator between God and world—a bridge to later Christian and Gnostic speculation.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - c. 30–33 CE
Ministry and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth
The death of the Galilean teacher gives rise to the Christian movement, within which Gnostic and mystical currents would soon emerge.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1st century CE
Simon Magus in Samaria
Acts of the Apostles depicts a Samaritan wonder-worker; Church Fathers later named him the father of all heresies and the first Gnostic.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1st century CE
Apollonius of Tyana flourishes
The Neopythagorean sage, famed for asceticism and miracles, becomes a pagan rival to Christ in later polemic and a hero of occultists such as Lévi.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 120–140
Basilides teaches in Alexandria
One of the earliest named Christian Gnostics develops an elaborate cosmology of heavens and archons, known mostly through his opponents.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 144
Marcion breaks with the Roman church
Marcion's dualist reading of the scriptures—separating the just creator god from the good Father of Jesus—leads to his excommunication and a rival church.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 136–160
Valentinus teaches in Rome
The poet-theologian builds the most sophisticated Gnostic system, with a myth of divine emanations (aeons) and Sophia's fall; his school spreads widely.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 2nd century BCE – 5th century CE
Greek Magical Papyri
Spells from Greco-Roman Egypt invoke Egyptian, Greek and Jewish divine names for love, protection, divination and binding; they are a cornerstone of later scholarship on ancient magic.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 1st–3rd century CE
The Testament of Solomon
A Greek pseudepigraphon has Solomon interrogating demons with a ring from the archangel Michael, cataloguing each spirit and the angel who thwarts it.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - later 2nd century
The Chaldean Oracles
Hexameter verses attributed to Julian the Chaldean and his son the Theurgist describe a fiery transcendent Father and rites of ascent, later revered by Neoplatonists.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 180
Irenaeus writes Against Heresies
The bishop of Lyon's five-book refutation becomes the chief ancient source on Valentinian and other Gnostic systems before the Nag Hammadi finds.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - Late Antiquity
- c. 200
The Mishnah restricts the Chariot and Creation
Rabbinic law limits public teaching of Ma'aseh Bereshit and Ma'aseh Merkavah, testifying to early esoteric speculation on creation and Ezekiel's throne-vision.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - c. 100–300
The Corpus Hermeticum composed
Greek dialogues credited to Hermes Trismegistus teach that the soul can know God through gnosis and rebirth; they surface again in Florence in the 1460s.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 240
Mani begins his mission
The Persian prophet proclaims a universal dualist religion of Light and Darkness; Manichaeism spreads from the Roman Empire to China.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 244–270
Plotinus teaches in Rome
The founder of Neoplatonism describes the One, Intellect and Soul and the soul's return by contemplation, shaping Western mysticism and esotericism ever after.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - c. 274–277
Death of Mani
Mani dies in prison under the Sasanian king Bahram I, but his missionaries carry the religion of Light across Eurasia for over a thousand years.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 300
Zosimos of Panopolis writes on alchemy
The Egyptian author's treatises and visions are the earliest substantial alchemical writings with a named author, blending metallurgy with spiritual purification.
Liber I · Alchemy - c. 300
Iamblichus defends theurgy
In On the Mysteries, Iamblichus argues that ritual 'god-work', not reason alone, unites the soul with the divine—a charter for later ceremonial magic.
Liber XII · High Magick - c. 301
Porphyry publishes the Enneads
Plotinus's student arranges his master's treatises into six groups of nine, the form in which Neoplatonism reached later ages.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - c. mid-4th century
Nag Hammadi codices produced
Coptic books of Gnostic, Hermetic and other texts are copied in Upper Egypt and later buried, possibly after Athanasius's 367 letter on the canon.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 325–425
Patañjali's Yoga Sutras compiled
Many scholars now date the classical yoga aphorisms, with their eightfold path to meditative absorption, to around the turn of the fifth century.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 391
Destruction of the Serapeum
Christian mobs destroy Alexandria's great temple of Serapis amid Theodosius's laws against pagan cult, marking the end of public Egyptian religion there.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - 413–426
Augustine's City of God
Augustine attacks theurgy and the Hermetic Asclepius as demonic, establishing the Christian framework within which magic was judged for a millennium.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 3rd–6th century
Sefer Yetzirah composed
The 'Book of Formation' describes creation through the ten sefirot and the twenty-two Hebrew letters; its date remains debated by scholars.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - c. 5th century
Earliest surviving Shaiva Tantras
Texts such as the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā record initiation, mantra and ritual for Shiva worship, opening the long history of tantric traditions.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 485
Death of Proclus
The last great head of the Athenian Neoplatonic school leaves systematic works on theurgy and the hierarchy of being that influenced Christian and Islamic thinkers.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - c. 500
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
A Syrian writer using the name of Paul's convert writes on celestial hierarchies and the unknowable God, founding Christian negative theology.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 3rd–8th century
Hekhalot literature
Jewish texts describe adepts ascending through seven heavenly palaces to behold the divine Chariot-throne, using hymns, seals and secret names.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - c. 5th–7th century
Aramaic incantation bowls
Jewish, Mandaic and Christian practitioners in Mesopotamia inscribe spiral spells inside clay bowls buried beneath houses to trap demons.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - Middle Ages
- c. 8th–9th century
Emerald Tablet appears in Arabic
The terse alchemical text 'as above, so below' first surfaces in the Arabic Book of the Secret of Creation attributed to Balinas (Apollonius).
Liber XI · Hermeticism - c. 801
Death of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya
The Basran woman ascetic, remembered for teaching pure love of God without hope of paradise or fear of hell, becomes a model saint of Sufism.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 9th century
Vasugupta and the Shiva Sutras
Tradition holds that Vasugupta received the Shiva Sutras in Kashmir, founding the non-dual Shaiva lineage later systematised by Abhinavagupta.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 9th–10th century
The Jabirian alchemical corpus
Hundreds of Arabic treatises credited to Jabir ibn Hayyan set out the sulphur–mercury theory of metals and numerical 'balance', later read in Latin as Geber.
Liber I · Alchemy - 922
Execution of al-Hallaj
The Sufi mystic who declared 'I am the Truth' is executed in Baghdad, becoming a byword for ecstatic union and its dangers.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. mid-10th century
Bogomil movement in Bulgaria
The priest Bogomil preaches a dualist Christianity rejecting the material world as the devil's work, a current that later feeds the Cathars.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. mid-10th century
Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix) compiled
An Andalusian compendium of astral magic, talismans and Hermetic lore is assembled; scholars now attribute it to Maslama al-Qurṭubī.
Liber XII · High Magick - c. 10th century (date debated)
The Sword of Moses
A Hebrew manual of divine names and adjurations of angels, of uncertain date, exemplifies practical Jewish magic between antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - c. 1000
Abhinavagupta's Tantrāloka
The Kashmiri polymath composes his encyclopedic 'Light on the Tantras', the summit of non-dual Shaiva tantric philosophy and practice.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 1027
Kalachakra Tantra reaches Tibet
The 'Wheel of Time' tantra, with its astronomical and yogic system, enters Tibet; its sixty-year calendar cycle is counted from this year.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 11th century
The Amṛtasiddhi
This Buddhist-influenced text is the earliest known to teach physical techniques later called hatha yoga, aimed at retaining the vital essence.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1075
Zhang Boduan writes the Wuzhen pian
'Awakening to Reality' becomes the foundational poem of Taoist internal alchemy (neidan), using furnace language for inner transformation.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1111
Death of al-Ghazali
The theologian whose Revival of the Religious Sciences reconciled Sufism with orthodox Islam dies in Tus.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1151
Hildegard of Bingen completes Scivias
The German abbess records twenty-six visions with symbolic illuminations, a landmark of medieval visionary mysticism.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 1167
Cathar council of Saint-Félix
Dualist churches of southern France meet, reportedly with a Bogomil bishop from Constantinople, to organise their dioceses.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 1177
Attar's Conference of the Birds
The Persian poem allegorises the Sufi path as birds crossing seven valleys to find the Simurgh, only to discover it in themselves.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 1180s
Sefer ha-Bahir appears in Provence
The 'Book of Brightness', the first classic of Kabbalah, introduces the sefirot as divine attributes and the idea of a feminine Shekhinah.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - c. late 12th century
The Ars Notoria emerges
A Latin Solomonic art promising instant learning through prayers and figures (notae) appears in Italy and spreads rapidly despite condemnation.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - c. 1200
Isaac the Blind in Provence
The Provençal master of contemplative Kabbalah teaches meditation on the sefirot; his circle passes the tradition to Girona in Catalonia.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1209
Albigensian Crusade begins
Pope Innocent III's crusade against the Cathars opens with the massacre at Béziers, beginning two decades of war in Languedoc.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 13th century
Latin Clavicula Salomonis takes shape
Scholars believe a Latin 'Key of Solomon' circulated by the thirteenth century, though no complete copy from that era survives.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1240
Death of Ibn Arabi
The 'Greatest Master' of Sufi metaphysics, author of the Meccan Revelations and Bezels of Wisdom, dies in Damascus.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1244
Fall of Montségur
After a siege, more than two hundred Cathars are burned below the mountain fortress, breaking organised Catharism in Languedoc.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. mid-13th century
Liber iuratus Honorii (Sworn Book)
A Latin grimoire attributed to Honorius of Thebes teaches how to obtain the vision of God and command spirits; its date is debated.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1256
Picatrix translated at Alfonso X's court
The Arabic Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm is put into Castilian for the Learned King, and soon into Latin as Picatrix, the West's chief manual of astral magic.
Liber XII · High Magick - c. 1260
Speculum astronomiae lists Solomonic books
A treatise attributed to Albertus Magnus distinguishes licit astrology from 'detestable' image magic, naming several Solomonic necromantic texts.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1267–70
Roger Bacon on the books of Solomon
The Franciscan scholar complains of magical 'books of Solomon' used to invoke demons, while defending a legitimate science of nature.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1273
Death of Jalal al-Din Rumi
The poet of the Masnavi dies in Konya; his followers form the Mevlevi order, known for the turning ceremony of the whirling dervishes.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1274
Ramon Llull's illumination on Mount Randa
On Majorca, Llull receives the idea of his combinatory Art, using letters and rotating figures to demonstrate divine attributes.
Liber XXIX · Symbols - 1277
Paris condemnations
Bishop Tempier condemns 219 philosophical propositions and books of necromancy and geomancy, marking clerical anxiety over learned magic.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1280
Abraham Abulafia seeks the pope
The founder of ecstatic, letter-permutation Kabbalah travels to Rome to meet Nicholas III, who dies before the audience; Abulafia narrowly escapes execution.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - c. 1280s–1290s
Moses de León and the Zohar
In Castile, Moses de León circulates Aramaic texts attributed to Simeon bar Yohai; scholars see the Zohar as the work of his circle.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - c. 1290s
Gikatilla's Gates of Light
Joseph Gikatilla's Sha'arei Orah links each sefirah to divine names, becoming a classic key to the Tree of Life.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1303–10
Earliest reference to a Clavicula
Peter of Abano's Lucidator mentions a 'Clavicula' of Solomon, the first known allusion to the work by that title.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1310
Marguerite Porete burned in Paris
The beguine author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, describing the annihilated soul united with God, is executed as a relapsed heretic.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1314
Jacques de Molay burned
Seven years after the 1307 arrests, the last Templar Grand Master dies at the stake in Paris, seeding legends later adopted by Masonic and occult orders.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1323
Liber florum burned in Paris
John of Morigny's visionary prayer book, a reworking of the Ars Notoria, is condemned and burned as superstitious.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1329
Meister Eckhart condemned
The bull In agro dominico condemns propositions of the late Dominican mystic, whose teaching of the soul's ground and the birth of God endures.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1346
Ganellus's Summa sacre magice
Berengarius Ganellus compiles a vast compendium of ritual and Solomonic magic, an important witness to learned magic in the fourteenth century.
Liber XII · High Magick - c. late 14th century
The Cloud of Unknowing
An anonymous English guide to contemplative prayer teaches approaching God through a 'cloud' of unknowing, in the line of Dionysius.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 1380–1410
Earliest Clavicula fragment (Trento)
Two leaves in Trento's chapter library with excerpts from Book 2 of the Clavicula are the oldest known witnesses to the Key of Solomon.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - Renaissance
- c. 1428–1436
Early witch hunts in the Valais
Trials in the western Alps help crystallise the new idea of a diabolical sect of witches who fly to sabbaths and make pacts with Satan.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - c. 1440s
First tarot (trionfi) decks in Italy
Northern Italian courts add a series of allegorical trump cards to playing cards; the Visconti-Sforza decks survive from mid-century.
Liber VII · Divination - 1446
Oldest near-complete Clavicula manuscript
An Italian Key of Solomon (BnF Ital. 1524), likely translated from a Latin copy in the Visconti library at Pavia, is completed.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - c. 15th century
Hatha Yoga Pradipika compiled
Svatmarama's 'Light on Hatha Yoga' gathers postures, breath control, seals and the arousal of kundalini into the classic hatha manual.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1463
Ficino translates the Hermetica
Cosimo de' Medici has Marsilio Ficino set aside Plato to render the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin, believing Hermes older than Moses' successors.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 1471
Corpus Hermeticum first printed
Ficino's Latin Pimander is printed at Treviso and runs through many editions; the same year George Ripley completes his Compound of Alchemy.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 1484
Bull Summis desiderantes affectibus
Innocent VIII authorises inquisitors Kramer and Sprenger to pursue witches in Germany; the bull is later printed with their manual.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1486
Pico's 900 Theses and Oration
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola proposes a public debate in Rome, claiming that magic and Kabbalah prove Christ's divinity; several theses are condemned in 1487.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1486–87
Malleus Maleficarum published
Heinrich Kramer's 'Hammer of Witches' argues witchcraft is real, chiefly female and demands secular prosecution; it becomes a notorious reference.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1489
Ficino's Three Books on Life
Ficino's De vita teaches drawing beneficial planetary influences through music, images and medicine—a learned 'natural magic'.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - late 15th century
Oldest Latin Clavicula exemplar
Oxford's Coxe 25 preserves an early Latin Key of Solomon, alongside the Italian witnesses of the same century.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1492
Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
The Alhambra Decree scatters Iberian Jewry; exiled kabbalists carry their traditions to Italy, North Africa and the Ottoman lands, especially Safed.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1494
Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico
Johannes Reuchlin argues that inserting the letter shin into the Tetragrammaton yields the name of Jesus, launching Christian Kabbalah in Germany; Pico dies the same year.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1508
Trithemius's Antipalus maleficiorum
The abbot of Sponheim catalogues magic books he deems dangerous, including the earliest reference to pseudo-Abano's Elucidation of Necromancy.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1509–10
Agrippa drafts De occulta philosophia
The young Cornelius Agrippa sends a manuscript of his three books of occult philosophy to Trithemius, who advises discretion.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1516
Portae Lucis and the sefirotic tree
Paulus Ricius's Latin version of Gikatilla's Gates of Light is printed with a famous woodcut of a man holding the sefirot; Trithemius dies the same year.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1517
Reuchlin's De arte cabalistica
Reuchlin's dialogue presents Kabbalah to Christian humanists; that autumn, Luther's theses begin the Reformation.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1525
Giorgi's De harmonia mundi
The Venetian friar Francesco Giorgi weaves Kabbalah, Neoplatonism and numerology into a theory of cosmic harmony.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1527
Paracelsus burns the medical canon
Teaching at Basel, Paracelsus publicly burns a standard medical text, championing experience, chemical remedies and the salt–sulphur–mercury triad; John Dee is born.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1531–33
Agrippa's Three Books printed
The full De occulta philosophia appears in Cologne, organising natural, celestial and ceremonial magic into the Renaissance's most influential occult manual.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1535
Death of Agrippa
Agrippa dies at Grenoble; his reputation as a black magician grows posthumously, abetted by spurious works issued under his name.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1541
Death of Paracelsus
The radical physician dies at Salzburg; his followers spread Paracelsian chemical medicine and spiritual alchemy across Europe.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1548
Cordovero's Pardes Rimonim
In Safed, Moses Cordovero completes the 'Orchard of Pomegranates', the great systematic synthesis of earlier Kabbalah.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1550
Rosarium philosophorum printed
The 'Rosary of the Philosophers', with woodcuts of the royal couple's union and death, is printed at Frankfurt; Jung later analyses it.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1558
Della Porta's Magia naturalis
Giambattista della Porta's natural magic gathers experiments and wonders, treating magic as the practical side of natural philosophy.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 1558–60
First printings of the Zohar
Rival editions appear at Mantua and Cremona, making the Zohar widely available despite rabbinic controversy.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1559
Pseudo-Agrippa's Fourth Book
A spurious 'Fourth Book' of occult philosophy appears, soon printed alongside the Heptameron attributed to Peter of Abano—handbooks of practical conjuration.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1563
Witchcraft acts and Weyer's dissent
England and Scotland pass new witchcraft acts, while Johann Weyer's De praestigiis daemonum argues most accused witches are deluded, not guilty.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1564
Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica
John Dee publishes a single glyph combining planetary and elemental signs, which he presents as a key to cosmic unity.
Liber XXIX · Symbols - 1570–72
Isaac Luria in Safed
In barely two years Luria teaches a revolutionary Kabbalah of divine contraction, shattered vessels and cosmic repair; he dies in 1572.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1575
Arbatel of Magic published
A short, Paracelsian-flavoured Latin grimoire of Olympic spirits and pious aphorisms is printed at Basel.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1577
Weyer's Pseudomonarchia daemonum
Weyer appends a catalogue of demons and their offices to his book—a precursor of the Goetia's 72 spirits.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1577
Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa and Interior Castle
In Bengal, Purnananda describes the six chakras; in Spain, Teresa of Ávila writes The Interior Castle on the soul's seven mansions.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1582
Dee and Kelley begin the angelic actions
With Edward Kelley as scryer, Dee records sessions with angels that yield the Enochian language and tables.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1584
Scot's Discoverie and Bruno's Spaccio
Reginald Scot's sceptical Discoverie of Witchcraft reprints conjurations to expose them; in London Bruno publishes his Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1587
The Faustbuch printed
The anonymous Historia von D. Johann Fausten tells of a scholar's pact with Mephistopheles, inspiring Marlowe and later Goethe.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1590–91
North Berwick witch trials
Scottish trials accuse dozens of raising storms against James VI's ship; the king publishes his Daemonologie in 1597.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1595
Khunrath's Amphitheatrum
Heinrich Khunrath's Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom, with its famous engraved plates, fuses alchemy, Kabbalah and Christian devotion.
Liber I · Alchemy - c. 1597–98
Death of Edward Kelley
Dee's former scryer dies imprisoned in Bohemia; the often-repeated date of 1595 is too early.
Liber XII · High Magick - Early Modern
- 1600
Giordano Bruno burned in Rome
After an eight-year trial, the Hermetic philosopher of an infinite universe is executed in the Campo de' Fiori.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 1604
James I's Witchcraft Act
England's new statute makes contracting with or feeding spirits a capital crime; it governs English trials until 1736.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1606
Trithemius's Steganographia printed
Long circulated in manuscript, the abbot's work on angelic communication—actually concealing cryptography—is finally published at Frankfurt.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1608–09
Death of John Dee
Elizabeth's astrologer and angel-conjurer dies impoverished at Mortlake; his angelic diaries resurface later in the century.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1609–10
Basque witch hunt and Logroño auto-da-fé
Hunts in Labourd and Zugarramurdi culminate in the Logroño auto-da-fé; inquisitor Salazar's scepticism later curbs Spanish witch trials.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1612
Pendle witch trials
Ten people from Lancashire are hanged after one of England's best-documented witch trials.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1612
Boehme writes Aurora
The Görlitz shoemaker Jacob Boehme records his vision of God's self-birth from the abyss, founding Christian theosophy.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1612
Flamel's Hieroglyphic Figures published
A Paris book attributes to the fourteenth-century scribe Nicolas Flamel an account of making the philosophers' stone, launching his alchemical legend.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1614
Casaubon redates the Hermetica
Isaac Casaubon shows philologically that the Corpus Hermeticum was written in the Christian era, not by a sage contemporary with Moses.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 1614
Fama Fraternitatis published
The first Rosicrucian manifesto, printed at Kassel, announces a secret brotherhood founded by Christian Rosenkreuz to reform learning.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1615
Confessio Fraternitatis
The second Rosicrucian manifesto appears, provoking hundreds of pamphlets across Europe for and against the invisible order.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1616
The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz
Johann Valentin Andreae's alchemical allegory narrates a seven-day royal wedding, completing the Rosicrucian trilogy.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1617
Maier's Atalanta fugiens
Michael Maier's alchemical emblem book pairs fifty engravings with epigrams and musical fugues.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1617–21
Fludd's History of the Two Worlds
Robert Fludd's Utriusque cosmi historia maps macrocosm and microcosm in elaborate engravings and defends the Rosicrucians.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 1624
Death of Jacob Boehme
Boehme dies in Görlitz; his writings inspire Pietists, English Behmenists, Swedenborgians and later German Idealists.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - c. 1626–31
Peak of German witch burnings
Prince-bishoprics such as Würzburg and Bamberg execute hundreds in the deadliest phase of the European witch hunts.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1631
Spee's Cautio criminalis
The Jesuit Friedrich Spee anonymously exposes the use of torture in witch trials, arguing it produces false confessions.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1636
Venetian Inquisition tries magicians
Leonardo Longo and Francesco Viola are tried in Venice for possessing a Clavicula, typical of the Inquisition's late focus on learned magic.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1645–47
Matthew Hopkins, 'Witchfinder General'
During the English Civil War, Hopkins and John Stearne drive a hunt in East Anglia that sends around a hundred people to the gallows.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1646
Elias Ashmole made a Freemason
The antiquary and astrologer records his initiation at Warrington, one of the earliest documented admissions of a gentleman into a lodge.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1647
Lilly's Christian Astrology
William Lilly publishes the first comprehensive astrology textbook in English, centred on horary questions.
Liber VII · Divination - c. mid-17th century
The Lemegeton compiled
The five-part 'Lesser Key of Solomon'—Goetia, Theurgia-Goetia, Pauline Art, Almadel and Ars Notoria—takes form in English manuscripts.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1651
Agrippa in English
'J.F.' publishes the first English translation of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1652
Vaughan's Rosicrucian translation and Ashmole's Theatrum
Thomas Vaughan englishes the Fama and Confessio, and Ashmole publishes his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum of English alchemical verse.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1652–54
Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus
Athanasius Kircher's encyclopedic attempt to decode hieroglyphs includes a sefirotic Tree of Life whose layout later shaped occult Kabbalah.
Liber XXIX · Symbols - 1655
Robert Turner translates the Heptameron
Turner's English Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, with the Heptameron and other texts, brings practical conjuration to English readers.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1659
Casaubon publishes Dee's angel diaries
Meric Casaubon's A True and Faithful Relation prints Dee's spirit records to discredit him, unwittingly preserving the Enochian material.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1665
Sabbatai Zevi proclaimed messiah
Encouraged by the prophet Nathan of Gaza, the Smyrna kabbalist is hailed as messiah, igniting enthusiasm across the Jewish world.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1666
Sabbatai Zevi converts to Islam
Before the Ottoman sultan, Sabbatai accepts Islam; a believing minority reads the apostasy as a mystical descent into impurity.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1677–78
Kabbala Denudata, volume one
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth publishes Latin translations of Zoharic and Lurianic texts, the main source of Kabbalah for later occultists.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1692
Salem witch trials
Accusations in Massachusetts lead to nineteen hangings and one man pressed to death; Elias Ashmole dies in London the same year.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - Enlightenment
- 1717
Premier Grand Lodge of London
Four London lodges meet at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse on St John's Day to form a Grand Lodge, beginning organised speculative Freemasonry.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1723
Anderson's Constitutions
James Anderson's charges and regulations for Freemasons standardise the craft and give it a legendary history reaching back to Adam.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1727
Last witch execution in Scotland
Janet Horne is burned at Dornoch, the last person legally executed for witchcraft in Britain.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1735–36
Witchcraft Act of 1735
Britain repeals laws against witchcraft and instead penalises pretending to magical powers—an act that survives until 1951.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1745
Swedenborg's spiritual call
The Swedish scientist experiences visions in London and turns to scriptural interpretation and accounts of heaven, hell and the spirits.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1746
Death of Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto
The Padua kabbalist and author of The Path of the Just dies in Acre after rabbinic opposition to his mystical circle (some lists give 1747).
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1749–56
Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia
Eight volumes of spiritual exegesis of Genesis and Exodus set out Swedenborg's doctrine of correspondences between natural and spiritual worlds.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1759
Frankist disputation at Lwów
Followers of Jacob Frank, heirs of Sabbatean antinomianism, debate rabbis and then accept mass baptism.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1760
Death of the Baal Shem Tov
Israel ben Eliezer, healer and founder of Hasidism, dies in Medzhybizh; his disciples spread a joyful, popular mysticism.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1772
Ban on Hasidim; Swedenborg dies
The Vilna Gaon's circle pronounces a ban against the Hasidim; Swedenborg dies in London the same year.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1776
Bavarian Illuminati founded
Adam Weishaupt founds an Enlightenment secret society in Ingolstadt; suppressed in 1784–85, it becomes a fixture of conspiracy theory.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1781
Court de Gébelin's Egyptian tarot
In Le Monde primitif, Antoine Court de Gébelin claims the tarot preserves the lost Book of Thoth, birth of the esoteric tarot.
Liber VII · Divination - 1782
Anna Göldi executed; Etz Hayyim printed
Göldi is beheaded in Glarus, often called Europe's last witch execution; Hayyim Vital's Lurianic Etz Hayyim is first printed.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1784
Royal commission on Mesmer
A French commission including Franklin and Lavoisier attributes 'animal magnetism' to imagination, yet mesmerism flourishes and feeds later occultism.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1785
Askew Codex and Etteilla's tarot
The British Museum acquires the Askew Codex containing the Gnostic Pistis Sophia; around this time Etteilla popularises tarot cartomancy.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1796–97
The Tanya printed
Shneur Zalman of Liadi's systematic Hasidic work founds Chabad, reworking Lurianic Kabbalah for contemplative devotion.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - Nineteenth Century
- 1801
Barrett's The Magus
Francis Barrett compiles Agrippa, the Heptameron and other sources into an English handbook that kept ceremonial magic alive in Britain.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1801
Scottish Rite Supreme Council in Charleston
The first Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is formed, organising the higher Masonic degrees up to the 33rd.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1848
The Fox sisters and Spiritualism
Rapping sounds at Hydesville, New York, launch modern Spiritualism, a mass movement of séances that paved the way for Theosophy.
Liber VII · Divination - 1849
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
Johann Scheible prints this German grimoire of seals and conjurations, which later became influential in African American hoodoo and Caribbean practice.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1854–56
Lévi's Dogme et rituel de la haute magie
Éliphas Lévi's two volumes recast magic as a science of will, light and correspondence; the second carries his famous image of Baphomet.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1857
Kardec's Spirits' Book
Allan Kardec codifies Spiritism, teaching reincarnation and moral progress through communication with spirits; it thrives especially in Brazil.
Liber VII · Divination - 1861
Lévi's Key of the Great Mysteries
La Clef des grands mystères completes Lévi's main cycle on magic (the date 1897 sometimes given is too late).
Liber XII · High Magick - 1866
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
Freemasons including Robert Wentworth Little found an English Rosicrucian society, later a recruiting ground for the Golden Dawn's founders.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1871
Pike's Morals and Dogma
Albert Pike issues a sprawling commentary on the Scottish Rite degrees that borrows heavily from Lévi.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1875
Theosophical Society founded
In New York, Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge found a society to study occult science and comparative religion.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1875
Death of Lévi, birth of Crowley
Éliphas Lévi dies in Paris in May; Aleister Crowley, who would claim to be his reincarnation, is born that October.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1877
Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled
Blavatsky's first major work argues for an ancient wisdom tradition behind all religions and sciences.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1882
Theosophical headquarters at Adyar
After moving to India in 1879, the Society settles near Madras, linking Western occultism with Hindu and Buddhist revival.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1885
Death of Frederick Hockley
The English collector and crystal-gazer dies, leaving manuscripts of magic that passed to the next generation of occultists.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1887
Mathers's The Kabbalah Unveiled
S. L. MacGregor Mathers englishes part of Kabbala Denudata, giving Victorian occultists a Kabbalistic foundation (often misdated 1889).
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1888
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn founded
Westcott, Mathers and Woodman open the Isis-Urania temple in London, creating the template of modern initiatory ceremonial magic.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1888
Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine
Blavatsky's magnum opus lays out cosmic cycles, root races and the evolution of consciousness, claiming to rest on the Stanzas of Dzyan.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1888
Papus's Traité élémentaire de science occulte
Gérard Encausse ('Papus') publishes his primer in Paris; Anna Kingsford, Christian esoteric reformer, dies the same year.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1889
Mathers's Key of Solomon
Mathers publishes an English Key of Solomon from British Museum manuscripts, the version through which most English readers knew the Clavicula.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1890
Yeats joins the Golden Dawn; Ouija marketed
W. B. Yeats is initiated into the Golden Dawn, and the Kennard Novelty Company begins selling the Ouija talking board.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1891
Death of Blavatsky; Martinist Order
Blavatsky dies in London; in France, Papus and Augustin Chaboseau organise the Martinist Order's supreme council.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - c. 1892
Golden Dawn's inner Second Order
The Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis is established for practical magic, giving the Golden Dawn its working inner order.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1893
Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions
Swami Vivekananda's addresses in Chicago introduce Vedanta and yoga to a broad Western audience; his Raja Yoga follows in 1896.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1896
Berlin Codex acquired
A Coptic codex containing the Gospel of Mary and Apocryphon of John reaches Berlin, though publication is delayed until 1955.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1898
Abramelin published; Crowley initiated
Mathers publishes The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, and Crowley enters the Golden Dawn.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1899
Leland's Aradia
Charles Godfrey Leland publishes what he presents as the gospel of Tuscan witches, a key influence on later Wicca.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - Twentieth Century
- 1900
Golden Dawn schism
London adepts revolt against Mathers, and Crowley's attempt to seize the order's vault for him ends in the 'Battle of Blythe Road'.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1904
The Book of the Law received
In Cairo, Crowley writes down Liber AL vel Legis over three days, proclaiming 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1904
The Goetia published
Crowley issues Mathers's translation of the first book of the Lemegeton, making the 72 spirits widely known.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 1907
The A∴A∴ founded
Crowley and George Cecil Jones create a teaching order of individual mentorship to carry Golden Dawn magic into Thelema; Olcott dies.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1909
The Equinox and the Rider–Waite–Smith deck
Crowley launches his occult journal, and Pamela Colman Smith's fully illustrated tarot designed with A. E. Waite is published.
Liber VII · Divination - 1910
Inayat Khan brings Sufism west
The Indian musician and Sufi teacher arrives in the United States, founding a universalist Sufi movement in Europe and America.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1911
Order of the Star in the East
Theosophists organise around the young Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming World Teacher.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1913
Anthroposophical Society; Spare's Book of Pleasure
Rudolf Steiner leaves Theosophy to found Anthroposophy, and Austin Osman Spare publishes his sigil method, a seed of chaos magick.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1915
AMORC founded
H. Spencer Lewis establishes the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis in New York, popularising Rosicrucianism through mail-order lessons.
Liber XXIV · Secret Societies - 1916
Death of Papus
The French occultist and Martinist leader dies in Paris while serving as a wartime physician.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1918
Death of MacGregor Mathers
The Golden Dawn's chief ritualist and translator of grimoires dies in Paris.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1919
Woodroffe's The Serpent Power
Sir John Woodroffe ('Arthur Avalon') translates the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa, the source of the familiar Western seven-chakra system.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1920–23
Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù
Crowley's commune in Sicily ends with his expulsion by Mussolini's government after a disciple's death and press scandal.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1921
Murray's Witch-Cult in Western Europe
Margaret Murray argues that accused witches belonged to a surviving pagan fertility religion—a thesis since rejected but formative for Wicca.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1922
Gurdjieff's Institute at Fontainebleau
G. I. Gurdjieff opens his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Paris, teaching the 'Fourth Way'.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - c. 1924
Dion Fortune's Fraternity of the Inner Light
Violet Firth founds her magical order, later the Society of the Inner Light; Westcott dies in 1925.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1925
Death of Rudolf Steiner
Steiner dies at Dornach, leaving schools, biodynamic agriculture and the Goetheanum as lasting legacies.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 1926
Fulcanelli's Le Mystère des cathédrales
A pseudonymous French alchemist reads Gothic cathedral sculpture as encoded alchemy; his identity remains disputed.
Liber I · Alchemy - 1928
Hall's Secret Teachings of All Ages
Manly P. Hall's illustrated encyclopedia of esoteric traditions becomes a perennial bestseller; Preisendanz's edition of the magical papyri begins the same year.
Liber XXIX · Symbols - 1929
Golden Flower and Magick
Wilhelm and Jung publish The Secret of the Golden Flower; Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice appears; Krishnamurti dissolves the Order of the Star.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 1933
First Eranos conference
Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn's gatherings at Ascona begin, uniting Jung, Scholem, Corbin and Eliade in the study of myth and mysticism; Annie Besant dies.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1934
Crowley's libel suit fails
Crowley's case against Nina Hamnett's publishers collapses as the court hears lurid accounts of his magic, leaving him bankrupt.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1935
Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah
Dion Fortune's lucid guide to the Tree of Life becomes a standard text of Hermetic Qabalah.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1937–40
Regardie publishes The Golden Dawn
Israel Regardie breaks his oath of secrecy to print the order's rituals and teachings in four volumes.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1939
Yeats dies; Gardner's claimed initiation
W. B. Yeats dies in France; Gerald Gardner later claimed initiation into a New Forest witch coven that September.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1941
Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
Gershom Scholem's lectures found the critical, historical study of Kabbalah as a modern academic field.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1942
Death of A. E. Waite
The scholar-mystic of the Golden Dawn and Rider–Waite–Smith tarot dies in Kent.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1944
The Book of Thoth; Jung's Psychology and Alchemy
Crowley's tarot study appears with Lady Frieda Harris's designs, and Jung reinterprets alchemy as a map of individuation.
Liber VII · Divination - 1945
Nag Hammadi codices discovered
Farmers in Upper Egypt unearth a jar of thirteen leather-bound Coptic codices, transforming knowledge of Gnosticism.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1946
Parsons's Babalon Working
Rocket engineer Jack Parsons, with L. Ron Hubbard, performs Thelemic rites in Pasadena to incarnate Babalon; Dion Fortune dies.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1946–47
Dead Sea Scrolls discovered
Bedouin shepherds find scrolls in a cave near Qumran, including Aramaic Enoch fragments and angelological texts.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - 1947
Death of Aleister Crowley
Crowley dies in Hastings in December, months after meeting Gardner and granting him an OTO charter.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1949
Gardner's High Magic's Aid
Gerald Gardner publishes a novel containing witchcraft rituals under the pseudonym Scire.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1951
Witchcraft Act repealed
Britain replaces the 1735 Witchcraft Act with the Fraudulent Mediums Act; Cecil Williamson opens a witchcraft museum on the Isle of Man.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1953
Doreen Valiente initiated
Valiente joins Gardner's coven and rewrites much of its Book of Shadows, including the Charge of the Goddess.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1945–53
Ashlag's Sulam commentary
Yehuda Ashlag completes his Hebrew translation and commentary on the Zohar, the basis of later popular Kabbalah movements.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 1954
Gardner's Witchcraft Today
Gerald Gardner publicly describes a surviving witch cult, launching the religion later called Wicca.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1955
Grant's New Isis Lodge
Kenneth Grant opens a lodge that develops into the Typhonian current of Thelema.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 1956
Death of Austin Osman Spare
The visionary artist dies in London; his sigils and 'Zos Kia' ideas are later revived as a precursor of chaos magick. Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics appears.
Liber V · Chaos Magick - 1958
Jonas's The Gnostic Religion
Hans Jonas's existentialist account of Gnosticism becomes a classic; Franz Bardon dies in Brno.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1960
Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle
Cecil Williamson relocates his collection to Cornwall, where it remains a major archive of magic and witchcraft.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1960s
Alexandrian Wicca emerges
Alex and Maxine Sanders build a widely publicised tradition mixing Gardnerian rites with ceremonial magic.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1964
Gardner dies; Yates's Bruno
Gardner dies at sea; Frances Yates publishes Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, reshaping Renaissance studies.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1965
EPHE chair in esoteric Christianity
The École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris creates a chair for the history of esoteric currents, first held by François Secret.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1966
Church of Satan founded
On Walpurgisnacht in San Francisco, Anton LaVey proclaims the Church of Satan, an atheistic religion of self-assertion.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1966
Death of Robert Cochrane; Ginzburg's Benandanti
The founder of the Clan of Tubal Cain dies; Carlo Ginzburg publishes his study of Friulian night-battling visionaries.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1969
The Satanic Bible published
LaVey's paperback manifesto of Satanic philosophy and ritual becomes the best-selling text of modern Satanism; the Thoth tarot deck is printed.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1971
Pagan Federation; Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic
Britain's Pagan Front, later the Pagan Federation, forms; Keith Thomas's study recasts the history of popular magic.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1973
Ásatrú recognised in Iceland
Iceland grants official status to the Ásatrúarfélagið, an early state-recognised modern Pagan religion.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1974
Principles of Wiccan Belief; Evola dies
The Council of American Witches adopts thirteen principles, and the Traditionalist Julius Evola dies in Rome.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1975
Temple of Set founded
Michael Aquino and others leave the Church of Satan to found an initiatory order venerating Set as the principle of isolate consciousness.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1975
Illuminatus! trilogy
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's satirical novels spread Discordian ideas that later fed chaos magick.
Liber V · Chaos Magick - 1977
The Nag Hammadi Library in English
James M. Robinson's team publishes the first complete English translation of the codices.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 1978
Illuminates of Thanateros; Liber Null
Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin found the IOT and publish Liber Null, defining chaos magick around belief as a tool.
Liber V · Chaos Magick - 1979
The Spiral Dance and Drawing Down the Moon
Starhawk's feminist Goddess witchcraft and Margot Adler's survey of American Paganism are published together.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1979
Faivre takes the Paris chair; Pagels's Gnostic Gospels
Antoine Faivre becomes professor of esoteric and mystical currents at the EPHE; Elaine Pagels popularises Nag Hammadi.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1980
Michelle Remembers
A memoir of alleged ritual abuse, later discredited, helps ignite the Satanic panic in North America.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1983–90
The McMartin preschool case
California's longest criminal trial, based on ritual-abuse allegations, ends without convictions.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1983
Faivre co-founds Aries
Antoine Faivre and Roland Edighoffer begin the journal Aries, relaunched by Brill in 2001 as the field's flagship journal.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1985
Death of Israel Regardie
The publisher of the Golden Dawn rituals dies in Sedona.
Liber XII · High Magick - 1986
Betz's Greek Magical Papyri; Dettmer v. Landon
Hans Dieter Betz's translation opens ancient spells to readers, and a US appeals court accepts Wicca as a religion.
Liber II · Ancient Magic - 1988
Idel's Kabbalah: New Perspectives
Moshe Idel challenges Scholem's model by stressing ecstatic and practical dimensions of Kabbalah.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1990
Death of Manly P. Hall
The founder of the Philosophical Research Society dies in Los Angeles, the final event of many older chronologies.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1991
Orkney case; scrolls opened
Scottish children are removed from homes on unfounded ritual-abuse claims, and the Huntington Library releases Dead Sea Scrolls photographs.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1992
Lanning report on ritual abuse
FBI agent Kenneth Lanning finds no corroborating evidence for organised Satanic murder cults.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1992
Faivre's L'ésotérisme and Copenhaver's Hermetica
Faivre defines esotericism as a form of thought with six characteristics; Brian Copenhaver's English Hermetica appears.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1992
Chumbley's Azoëtia and Carroll's Liber Kaos
Andrew Chumbley's grimoire of Sabbatic craft appears alongside Peter Carroll's second chaos magick manual.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 1994
La Fontaine report
A UK government inquiry finds no evidence of Satanic ritual abuse in the cases examined.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 1996
Williams's Rethinking 'Gnosticism'
Michael Williams argues 'Gnosticism' is a misleading category, starting a lasting scholarly debate.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1997
- 1999
Amsterdam chair in Hermetic Philosophy
The University of Amsterdam creates a chair for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, held by Wouter Hanegraaff.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 1999
Hutton's Triumph of the Moon; Valiente dies
Ronald Hutton's history of modern Pagan witchcraft appears, and Doreen Valiente dies in Brighton.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - Twenty-First Century
- 2001
Peterson's edition of the Lemegeton
Joseph H. Peterson publishes a critical English edition of the Lesser Key of Solomon from the British Library manuscripts.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 2001
Salem victims exonerated
Massachusetts clears the remaining people convicted in 1692 who had not been named in earlier pardons.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 2001
Aries relaunched by Brill
The Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism begins a new series under Wouter Hanegraaff's editorship.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2003
Pritzker Zohar begins
Stanford University Press issues the first volumes of Daniel Matt's annotated English translation of the Zohar from a critical Aramaic text.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 2005
ESSWE founded
The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism is established to support the new academic field and its biennial conferences.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2005
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism
Brill publishes Hanegraaff's two-volume reference work, a landmark consolidation of the field.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2006
The Gospel of Judas published
National Geographic publishes the restored Coptic text from the Codex Tchacos, a Sethian Gnostic work presenting Judas as Jesus's confidant.
Liber IX · Gnosticism - 2007
Véronèse's critical Ars Notoria
Julien Véronèse publishes a critical Latin edition and study of the Ars Notoria's medieval versions.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 2007
Pentacle approved for US veterans' graves
The US Department of Veterans Affairs settles a lawsuit and adds the Wiccan pentacle to its approved emblems of belief.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 2008
Fraudulent Mediums Act repealed
The 1951 successor to the Witchcraft Act is replaced in Britain by consumer-protection regulations.
Liber VII · Divination - 2009
Jung's Red Book published
The illuminated record of Jung's visionary 'confrontation with the unconscious' appears in facsimile for the first time.
Liber XXIX · Symbols - 2011
Death of Kenneth Grant
The leader of the Typhonian Order and author of the Typhonian Trilogies dies in England.
Liber XXXI · Thelema - 2012
Esotericism and the Academy
Hanegraaff traces how Western culture rejected esoteric knowledge; Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke dies the same year.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2013
The Satanic Temple founded
Activists led by Lucien Greaves found a non-theistic group using Satanic symbolism to campaign for religious pluralism and church–state separation.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 2013
Blue plaque for Doreen Valiente
Brighton honours Valiente with a commemorative plaque, the first for a modern witch.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 2013
Journal Correspondences launched
An open-access peer-reviewed journal for the study of esotericism begins publication.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2015
The Book of Oberon published
Daniel Harms, James R. Clark and Joseph Peterson edit an Elizabethan grimoire from the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 2015
Baphomet statue unveiled in Detroit
The Satanic Temple displays its bronze Baphomet, created to protest Ten Commandments monuments on public land.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 2017
Pritzker Zohar completed
Volume twelve completes the Stanford translation of the Zohar, the most extensive English rendering to date.
Liber XIX · Kabbalah - 2017
Mallinson and Singleton's Roots of Yoga
Translations of premodern yoga texts present the history of hatha practice on the basis of manuscript research.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism - 2018
Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim
A record-breaking New York exhibition brings the Theosophically inspired abstract painter to a global audience.
Liber XXXII · Theosophy - 2019
Attrell and Porreca's Picatrix
The first complete English translation of the Latin Picatrix restores the medieval Western form of the astral magic classic.
Liber XII · High Magick - 2019
Satanic Temple recognised; Aquino dies
The US tax authority recognises The Satanic Temple as a church, and the Temple of Set's founder Michael Aquino dies.
Liber XXIII · Satanism - 2021
Trento Clavicula fragment published
Matteo Cova identifies two leaves of c. 1380–1410 as the oldest known Key of Solomon text.
Liber XXVII · Solomonic Magic - 2021
Death of Antoine Faivre
The French founder of esotericism as an academic field dies in Paris at 87.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2022
Hanegraaff's Hermetic Spirituality
Hanegraaff's Cambridge study reads the Hermetica as records of spiritual practice and altered states.
Liber XI · Hermeticism - 2022
Apologies to accused witches
Scotland's First Minister apologises to those accused under the Witchcraft Act, Catalonia's parliament pardons victims, and Massachusetts exonerates Elizabeth Johnson Jr.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 2023
Connecticut absolves accused witches
Connecticut's legislature formally exonerates people convicted of witchcraft in the 1640s–60s and apologises for the miscarriage of justice.
Liber XXXIV · Witchcraft & Wicca - 2025
AI redates the Dead Sea Scrolls
The 'Enoch' model, combining radiocarbon and handwriting analysis, suggests several scrolls are older than previously thought.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship - 2025
ESSWE's tenth conference in Vilnius
The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism holds its tenth biennial conference on 'Esotericism and Rationality'.
Liber XIV · History & Scholarship