Chronology · Timeline
Chronology
Antiquity
23 moments, c. 24th century BCE to c. 180.
- 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