Three Books of Occult Philosophy

For those that study the Occult arts, these books are key to ones foundational understanding of all the various aspects occultism in order to become intimately familiar with the spiritual, practical and esoteric side of the Occult. I bought these for my collection, but also have the paperback version I use for study. And of course book four will complete the set if one so desires which is also an excellent read.

(I am new to the classics, so my review may not be helpful for those who are well versed in them. ) Amazing. This is like a textbook for a university-level Ancient Spirituality 101 course. The Three Books provide a high-level overview of the Spiritual beliefs of the ancients from Plato to Aristotle to the Egyptians and so on. The books provide practical instructions, logic, explantaions. My world has opened up! Purdue does a stellar job providing sources for as much of the data and instructions as possible. His hard work in producing this translation and reference allows me to find the ancient or archaic referenced book(s) on a topic so that I may go deeper. My library is now becoming full of the great minds whom I was led to believe were nothing more than stodgy philosphers; I never realized until this book came along how *spiritual* and practical Plato, Aristotle, etc were! And their knowledge & spirituality were very much based on logic and reason, something that has been removed from modern-day spirituality (from my personal observation and to my chagrin). As one anonymous poster wrote: Modern-day spirituality books are like 5th-grade science books compared to this book being like an intro to biochemistry textbook. TIP: Bookmark an etymology dictionary website to read this. Many words used by Agrippa/Purdue do not have the same modern-day meanings. Example: 'Accidents' Modern meaning: an unfortunate, unforeseen event Aristotle (and thus Agrippa/Purdue) used 'accident' in a philosophical sense to describe "distinction between the essential and accidental properties of a thing. For example, a chair can be made of wood or metal, but this is accidental to its being a chair: that is, it is still a chair regardless of the material from which it is made." (Wikipedia) Therefore all of our individual Accidents makes us *unique* and who we are. But we're still human. Do you see what I mean about how this book is expanding my world? I don't know that I'll ever buy a modern spirituality book again. Thank you for your hard work, Purdue. Friends have already ordered their copy as well.

This new translation of Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia is both fluent in its rendition for a modern audience, and a great asset for researchers, with its footnotes indicating the specific primary sources from which the text's many obscure allusions may have been derived. The corrections to questionable translations found in previous editions, also listed in the footnotes, are a philological gift to casual readers and serious scholars alike! If you can own only one version of Agrippa's work in English, I would recommend this one.

Packed with new unkown information, full size print easy to read. Nice 3 book set.

This edition restores structural integrity where earlier translations introduced confusion or omission. For those working seriously with Agrippa, the difference is not cosmetic, it is functional.

Books arrived within 20 hours after ordered. Good packaging. Contents were in mint condition. I paid $132 (tax included) at Amazon. The cover price is $195. I saved $65 which I would have gladly paid. These books are excellent. The binding is made of sewn in signatures with hard covers. They are cloth bound, crisp and handsome with dust jackets. The three volumes came in a sturdy slip case. Published in 1533 in Latin. This is the newest complete translation from the 1533 edition. I got it about two hours ago and only had time to skim through the tables of contents and picking random paragraphs from two of the volumes. I am excited to read this master work by such a great renaissance magician.

Everything was perfect except Book 3 from page 585 to 588 there are holes that must have happened during printing, containing missing information. I would’ve returned it but didn’t want to go through the trouble.

This version by Eric Purdue is the most accurate version while being easier to read you'll be able to buy today. Unlike the Llewellyn version which is a few decades old now served us well over the years did have some inaccuracies. Also the text was much more flowery and in older style English so for those that don't like reading text like that, you'll not have an enjoyable time digesting these books. Purdue's version is a healthy mix between the Llewellyn version and the Black Letter Press version by sitting between the two extremes of overly flowery and modern clinical. So while Purdue does simplify the language he takes care not to remove beauty of it. Lastly Purdue does a great job with diagrams and charts and their printing clarity is fantastic, which was a big criticism for the Llewellyn's version that was blurry and low resolution. Well that's all I got to say about the book. It's a must read for those diving into the occult and witchcraft and other magickal practices. Agrippa explains basically every mechanic that goes into the magickal systems we use today and it is incumbent for any practitioner to at least read this text once to know both the ethics and mechanics of magick.