Mysteries and Secrets of Magic

by Charles John Samuel Thompson

Book Overview

The Mysteries and Secrets of Magic by C. J. S. Thompson is a comprehensive guide to the world of magic. The book explores the history of magic, from ancient times to the present day, and covers a wide... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859581560
• ISBN13: 9781859581568
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Publishers Overstock Remainder
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.9" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A reasonable general overview

I found CJS Thompson's "Mysteries and Secrets of Magic" to be a reasonable (if somewhat broad spectrum) overview of a number of magical belief systems. It is *not* a book specifically dealing with modern witchcraft, wicca, or modern magic in general. It deals more with the old grimoires and the personages and principles of classical magic. It covers a fairly broad range of time and culture and presents a fair amount of material likely to be of interest to the intermediate or advanced student of the magical Art. I would say it would be of the most interest to those with a fair amount of magical background already who are seeking to extend their knowlege or find new areas to explore. While the book does not go into any one system in enough depth for actual practice, it gives a taste which may lead the reader to look more closely into the older grimoiric texts and.or lore from other lands. I would say that I rank it as being similar to Cavendish's "The Black Arts" in these regards, but slightly less thorough in the coverage it gives. It has one shortcoming which prevented me from giving it a 5 star rating. While it reproduces many diagrams from old texts and does indeed include a decent bibliography, I feel it would have been better if it specified in each instance which of the sources cited in the bibliography served as the source for the diagrams. Also there could have been more continutity of the topic being discussed and how it relates to the diagrams being show. In this regard I would have to list it as not being on a par with De Givry's "Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy". Still, a worthwhile addition to any serious student's collection of occult lore and I found it to be an enjoyable read.