title: Three Books of Occult Philosophy (Llewellyn's Sourcebook)
author:  Henry Cornelius Agrippa 
description: The <i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy</i> by Agrippa is the single most important text in the history of Western occultism. Even today, occultists use the techniques first described here, although rarely giving credit to it. <br> <br>Barrett's <i>The Magus</i> is a direct plagiarism of a part of this book. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's systems of the Kabbalah, geomancy, elements, and seals and squares of the planets are all taken, in a large measure, from Agrippabut for 500 years, <i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy</i> was almost impossible to find. <br> <br>Donald Tyson took on the Herculean task of digging out the original, correcting the errors, and fully annotating the entire work. As a result, not only is this new edition easily available to scholars, but it is now fully understandable by people today. The ancient magics, in their original form, live again. <br> <br>Besides the annotations, there are also extensive appendices on such topics as the elements, the magical squares, the humors, and more. Biographical and geographical dictionaries and the general index make accessing and understanding information in this book easier than ever. <br> <br>This is the ultimate version of the book that is the ultimate book on magic. If you are interested in any form of magic or occultism, you must get <i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy. <br>
zlib_text:  
   
   
   
  Three Books of Occult Philosophy, or of 
  Magick; Written by that Famous Man  
  Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Knight,  
  And Doctor of both Laws, Counsellor to 
  Cæsars Sacred Majesty, and Judge of the 
  Prerogative Court.  
   
  BOOK I. 
   
  Chap. i. How Magicians Collect vertues from the three-fold World, is 
  declared in these three Books. 
  eeing there is a three-fold World, Elementary, Celestiall, and 
  Intellectual, and every inferior is governed by its superior, and receiveth the influence of 
  the vertues thereof, so that the very original, and chief Worker of all doth by Angels, the 
  Heavens, Stars, Elements, Animals, Plants, Metals, and Stones convey from himself the 
  vertues of his Omnipotency upon us, for whose service he made, and created all these 
  things: Wise men conceive it no way irrationall that it should be possible for us to ascend 
  by the same degrees through each World, to the same very originall World it self, the 
  Maker of all things, and first Cause, from whence all thin