The Gentle Art Of Blessing Book Internet Archive

The Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism

Spiritual Exercises

The remarkable monastery of Helfta was a 'place where learning and art, courtesy and holiness flowered in a dark season' of interregnal warfare.* The nuns drew their inspiration from the twin roots of Citeaux: the Rule of Saint Benedict and the constitutions of Citeaux; their spirituality, liturgy, customs, and habits were modelled on those of the White Monks, even though juridically they were not part of the Cistercian Order. Under the guidance of the thirteenth-century abbess Gertrud of Hackeborn, the nuns of Helfta steadfastly pursued learning and holiness. Among them were three outstanding women whose works have come down through the centuries: Mechtilde of Hackeborn, Mechtilde of Magdeburg, and the scholarly Gertrud the Great. Having entered monastic life at the age of five, Gertrud combined a deep knowledge of the Church Fathers and earlier medieval writers, an intimate familiarity with Scripture, and innate common sense. Her Spiritual Exercises—prayers, litanies, meditations, and hymns—articulate a spirituality that is both traditionally monastic and authentically, but unself-consciously, feminine. Hers is a mysticism of light and love, of humility and commitment, of freedom and discipline and—most of all—of joy. *M. Jeremy Finnegan OP, 'The Women of Helfta', Peace Weavers, Medieval Religious Women, 2:212. --

The Mysteries of Magic - A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi

“The Mysteries Of Magic” is a 1927 work by A. E. Waite that explores the life and work of Éliphas Lévi Zahed (1810 – 1875), a French occult author and ceremonial magician. Arthur Edward Waite (1857 – 1942), more commonly referred to as A. E. Waite, was an American-born British mystic and poet. He wrote profusely on the subject of the occult and esoteric matters, and is famous for being the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. His work arguably constitutes the first attempt to systematically studying the history of western occultism, which he viewed more of a spiritual tradition than proto-science or pseudo-religion, as was the more common conception. Contents include: “Life of Alphonse Louis Constant", "Notes on the Mysteries of Magic as expounded in the Occult Philosophy of Eliphas Levi", "Threshold of Magical Science", "Doctrines of Occult Force", "Written Tradition of Magic", "Doctrine of Spiritual Essences, or Kabbalistic Pneumatics", "Ceremonial Magic", "Science of the Prophets”, etc. Other works by this author include: “The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly” (1893), “Turba Philsophorum” (1894), and “Devil-Worship in France” (1896). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.