Magicians Through the Ages
hese are the stories of some individuals whose names and careers are synonymous with the Art. Some of those mentioned may have been mythical, and others were certainly historical figures. Not all were necessarily great adepts or highly evolved spiritual beings, but all were at least colorful enough to be remembered. They are names worth conjuring with.
Circe
Surely one of the earliest enchantresses of whom we have record, she was a key figure in The Odyssey by Homer, written perhaps in 700 BCE. She lived on an island inhabited by many wild animals in the Mediterranean Sea. It was she who changed Odysseus’ crew to pigs: even after she restored his men to their original forms, the hero found her so enchanting that he remained on the island for a year. Her magickal skill was hardly surprising: she was the daughter of Hecate, goddess of magick.
Medea
Medea was Circe’s niece and a companion to Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece. They were apparently quite an effective team, until Jason decided to marry royalty. According to legend, Medea killed the bride and disappeared in a chariot drawn by dragons.
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus, or “Hermes Thrice-Great,” was a sage-king of ancient Egypt, or some say a composite god. He is perhaps best known for an event which took place after his death (if he did live and die): according to legend, his tomb was lost for centuries—and when it was at last discovered, an Emerald Tablet was clutched in the hands of the corpse, buried deep in an underground burial chamber. The Tablet is a short and mysterious treatise on magick and the universe: it is a key to great wisdom and power for anyone who can understand its cryptic utterances. It is from this tablet that the famous adage “As above, so below” derives.
Pythagoras
Pythagoras (ca. 560–480 BCE) was a Greek mathematician who formed a secret magickal society about 500 BCE; he was a great numerologist (which seems natural enough in a mathematician), but legend said he could also walk on water and become invisible (skills which my high school geometry teacher never demonstrated).
Mary the Jewess, Maria the Coptic, Maria the Egyptian,
Maria Prophetissa, Miriam
(ca. 50 CE—or far earlier). Little is known of the life of Maria, but her skill as an alchemist has been compared with that of Hermes Trismegistus. Many early works on alchemy refer to her as a great master of the art. Some say she was the sister of Moses. She may have lived in Alexandria, and worked with another famous alchemist named Zosimos of Panopolis. She is credited with inventing the process of distillation, and learned the secret of combining sulphur and copper to produce gold. Maria was obviously familiar with the teachings of Aristotle on the quintessence, for she wrote that every chemical, rock, and mineral has both substance and spirit, or body and soul. Her work established the foundation for alchemy for the next thousand years and more.
Apollonius
Apollonius of Tyana (first century CE) lived in Asia Minor, traveled widely all over the ancient world, and was a confidante of kings and emperors. He also raised the dead and performed other miracles. In addition to his skills as a healer and clairvoyant, he could understand and speak to animals. Roman Pagans tremendously admired him during the infancy of the Christian faith—a “legend in his own time.” Had the currents of history flowed but a little differently, the Western world might be covered with Apollonian churches today.
Simon Magus
Simon Magus (first century CE) was a great teacher of the Gnostic faith, which was a hybrid of Pagan religion, Jewish teachings, and the fledgling Christian theology. Simon claimed to be an avatar or incarnation of god, come to Earth to rescue the Ennoia or Divine Thought, which had been trapped in a series of mortal women’s bodies; this was seen as an act that redeemed all humankind. Gnostics held that with sufficient knowledge, the divine could be experienced and understood by humanity directly, without any need for the mediation of priests and popes. This attitude was not calculated to endear the Gnostics to the emerging Christian hierarchy, and they were wiped out—in God’s name, of course. Despite the best efforts of the Roman Church, a great deal of Gnostic lore and teaching has survived.
Morgan Le Fay
Morgan Le Fay was the half-sister of the legendary King Arthur and a sorceress, shapeshifter, and healer. She was one of nine magickal sisters who ruled the Isle of Avalon, and one of the three who bore the dying Arthur away to be healed there and await the time when he would return to Britain in its hour of need. In the earliest stories she is entirely benevolent; later she is depicted as angry at Guinevere for her affair with Lancelot, and still later she has been transformed into Arthur’s enemy and the mother of Modred, or Mordred. She may have originally been an aspect of the Celtic mother goddess Modron, or possibly one of the Morganes, water spirits of the Breton coast. In any case, she was both a powerful enchantress and a seductive woman:
For all her looks were full of spells,
And all her words, of sorcery;
And in some way they seemed to say,
“Oh, come with me!”[1]
Christian Rosenkreuz
Christian Rosenkreuz (1378–1484+) was the semi-mythical founder of the Rosicrucian society, a company of adepts who practiced an esoteric system of knowledge and spiritual growth blending Christian mysticism with hermetic philosophy. Legend says that he traveled to the Holy Land, Egypt, Spain, and elsewhere, seeking and sharing esoteric wisdom; finally he established the Brethren of the College of the Holy Spirit, an order of healers and spiritual teachers. However, the first solid evidence we have of the society comes from seventeenth-century Germany, though it popped up later in Paris and other places. Supposedly the member adepts were so skilled that they could move invisibly through the streets of a great metropolis. They operated in total secrecy and anonymity.
The modern heir to this hidden organization is the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis. Rosicrucians are a worldwide organization, far from secret, who pass on ancient teachings through their website and correpondences. They admit people of all faiths, but are focused on spiritual development (see theurgy in appendix I).
Cornelius Agrippa
Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1533+?) was born in Germany but spent much of his career in France and Austria as a physician and astrologer in those royal courts. He did not get on well with the church, and once successfully defended a girl accused of Witchcraft. He was the author of De Occulta Philosophia (The Occult Philosophy), published in 1531, and could reputedly conjure spirits and turn base metals into gold.
John Dee
John Dee (1527–1609?) is known as an alchemist and astrologer, but he was at least as skilled in weaving his way through the political intrigues of sixteenth-century England without getting burned—in either sense of the word. He eventually became a powerful and respected advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.
Dee found an amazing crystal, or showstone, but unfortunately was not particularly adept at divination with it, or scrying. Then he met one whose scrying abilities included seeing and hearing spirits in the crystal. This person happened to be a man of tarnished reputation named Edward Kelly; rumor hinted of his crimes both mystical and mundane, from sorcery to forgery. But Kelly could scry, and from his work came the language and techniques of Enochian magick, as revealed by the spirits of the crystal.
However, eventually Elizabeth withdrew her support of their activities, and Dee and Kelly drifted around Europe looking for new patrons. Years later they split up; Dee went back to England, but died in poverty.
Anna Maria Zieglerin
Anna Maria Zieglerin (ca. 1550–1575) came to the court of Duke Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in the Holy Roman Empire with her alchemist husband in 1571. She set up her own laboratory and quickly attracted attention for her own alchemical studies, partly because she claimed to be the lover and colleague of a mysterious count who was the illegitimate son of the great adept Paracelsus. This relationship, although quite fictional, forced the court to notice her extraordinary knowledge and skill in the alchemical arts. She wrote a single book explaining how to create the legendary Philosopher’s Stone and died at age twenty-five, before her brilliance could fully flower.
The Comte De Saint-Germain
The Comte De Saint-Germain (1690?–1784?) cultivated an air of mystery with great success. He arrived in Paris in the year 1748 from parts unknown and was soon a favorite fixture in the salons of high society. Everyone knew (though they had never seen it) that he enjoyed great wealth, and everyone suspected (though they could not prove it) that he had discovered the Elixir of Life, and was far more ancient than he appeared. It was even said that he was the original founder of Freemasonry. He may have died about 1784, but according to another legend he survives to this day.
Count Allendro De Cagliostro
The Count Allendro De Cagliostro (1743–1795) was a Sicilian, born about the time Saint Germain was making his debut in Paris. His tutor was Althotas, a Greek alchemist. Cagliostro traveled throughout Africa, Asia, and Arabia making a living as an alchemist, medium, and fortuneteller. At one point he took the title “The Grand Copt” and created Egyptian Freemasonry—which was progressive for its time in its admittance of women (at least wealthy women, for the fees were more than nominal). He was, for a while, a student of St. Germaine.
After an initial splash in France, the authorities made it clear that his continued presence was not welcome. Cagliostro then made the incredible mistake of trying to start a lodge in Rome, under the very nose of the Vatican. The Inquisition promptly arrested him and sentenced him to death as a sorcerer and heretic, but the Pope commuted his sentence to life in prison and sent his vivacious wife Lorenza to a convent.
Francis Barrett
Francis Barrett (1770?– ?) was a scholar of magick born at an unfortunate time: with the coming of the Enlightenment, interest in magick waned and few pursued the Art. But Barrett delved deeply into “the Rites, Mysteries, Ceremonies, and Principles of the Ancient Philosophers, Magi, Cabalists, Adepts . . . ,” and taught magick at his London apartment. He also compiled and edited the works of Agrippa and other early magicians, producing The Magus: A Complete System of Occult Philosophy in 1801; this work influenced Levi and others, including, possibly, Joseph Smith—the founder of the Mormon Church. Barrett attempted a second career as a balloonist, but the balloons did not cooperate.
Eliphas Levi
Eliphas Levi (1810–1875) was born in Paris, a city that seems to nurture and attract interest in the occult. He studied for the Catholic priesthood, but attempted to combine his faith with the practice of magick, an endeavor that (as Cagliostro could have explained) was not encouraged by Rome. He was also a political radical and endured two prison sentences for his beliefs. Levi renounced neither magick nor the church and, though he was more a scholar than a practicing theurgist, wrote many popular books on the topic. The Dogma and Ritual of High Magick (1855) is one of his major works. His other books on the Qabala, tarot, alchemy, and ritual had a major effect on the Golden Dawn, and are still read by many today. (The Key to the Great Mysteries, 1861; The Science of Spirits, 1865; The Great Secret, or Occultism Unveiled, 1898)
Dr. William Westcott
Dr. William Westcott (1848–1925) was a medical doctor who became a Freemason in his early twenties and promptly accrued a mass of honors and titles in various branches of that organization. He also joined the Rosicrucians (Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia) around 1880, and twelve years later was elected its Supreme Magus. In 1887 he acquired the mysterious Cipher Manuscript, which included some rough rituals and, supposedly, the address of an adept in Germany, who soon gave Westcott authority to found the first Golden Dawn temple in England. Although later it was widely suggested that the “German adept” was a fabrication, Westcott was revered until his death in South Africa, and he is regarded as the founder of the Golden Dawn. (Sepher Yetzirah, 1887; The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum by Eliphas Levi (trans.), 1896; and more)
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918) was one of the three founding Chiefs of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He lived in London for some time and pursued such diverse interests as boxing, fencing, Celtic studies, feminism, and the campaign against animal vivisection. He became a Mason, then joined the Rosicrucians and rose to the highest level. In 1887 he joined William Westcott in creating the Golden Dawn, and over the next years studied invocation, talismans, divination, alchemy, Egyptology, and Enochian magick extensively; he wrote much of the Golden Dawn curriculum and proved himself to be a gifted ritualist. He was a controversial figure, in that some thought him vain and a shallow scholar, while others found him to be warm-hearted and exceptionally knowledgeable. He and his wife moved to Paris in 1892 to found the Ahathoor Temple #7, and he died of influenza there in 1918. (The Tarot: Its Occult Significance, 1888; The Goetia: The Key of Solomon the King, trans., 1888, 1972; The Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, trans., 1898; The Kabbalah Unveiled, 1989)
Arthur Edward Waite
Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942), though born in America, spent most of his life in London. In his thirties he joined the Golden Dawn and then the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, and then the Masons. He was more mystic than magician, and was at the center of various schisms and upheavals in the Golden Dawn. Though he wrote many not-very-readable books on magick, Qabala, divination, alchemy, and the Holy Grail, he is best remembered for his involvement with the Rider-Waite tarot deck, in which all seventy-eight cards were fully illustrated with symbolic scenes (The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1910). (Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1960; Book of Ceremonial Magic, 1911; and more)
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a very unusual Englishman. Unlike most of his countrymen, Crowley seemed to take great pleasure in shocking people—which was not terribly difficult to do in Victorian England.
He made no secret of his tastes, which included drugs and drink, and he called himself “The Great Beast,” a biblical title not calculated to endear him to his more conservative Christian contemporaries. He was a major figure in the Golden Dawn; then left it in a storm of controversy, started another lodge which soon self-destructed, founded Astrum Argentinium (the “Silver Star”), joined the Ordo Templi Orientis in Germany, spent some time in America, then organized a “Sacred Abbey of Thelema” in Sicily. Apparently the activity schedule at the “Sacred Abbey” would have made a Roman emperor blush, and the government invited him to leave. Like his predecessor John Dee, Crowley wandered for years before returning to England, where he died. (Book of the Law, Weiser, 1976; Collected Works of Aleister Crowley, 1905)
Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951) is not known as a magician but had a profound effect on modern magick through the tarot. She was born in England, but also lived in New York and Jamaica. Smith was a writer and artist who became involved with the Order of the Golden Dawn about 1903, and was recruited by Arthur Edward Waite to illustrate a new Tarot deck. The Rider-Waite Tarot, named for the publisher and Mr. Waite, was the first to include story-like illustrations for all the minor arcana, and became the standard source for most modern decks. There is some controversy as to whether Waite designed the cards and Ms. Smith simply drew them to his specifications, or whether in fact she designed most of them herself. If the latter is true, as seems likely to scholars, then she deserves credit for almost single-handedly reviving the tarot for the present age. Sadly, her career did not prosper, she never married nor had children, and she died alone and in poverty.
Gerald Gardner
A descendent of British Witches, Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) was a studious lad much interested in history and archaeology. As a young man he traveled to Ceylon, Borneo, and Malaysia, where he worked as a British civil servant and wrote about local history and customs. Though he continued to travel a great deal, he retired to the New Forest area of England in 1936, where he became involved with a local group of Co-Masons, and through them met a group of Witches practicing a hereditary Craft passed down through the years. In 1939 he was initiated into the coven by “Old Dorothy” Clutterbuck. Over the years he gathered more occult information and folklore, and blended it with the fragmentary material of the New Forest coven, his own interest in naturism, and perhaps even some Malaysian lore to create his own tradition of Witchcraft, Gardnerian Wicca. When the British Witchcraft laws were repealed in 1951, Gardner became very public as a Witch, and his books sparked a great deal of interest. While Gardner was a controversial figure within the English Craft community, partly because of his love for publicity, he was the single person most responsible for the emergence of Witchcraft as a modern religion. (A novel, High Magic’s Aid, 1949; Witchcraft Today, 1954; The Meaning of Witchcraft, 1959)
Dion Fortune
Dion Fortune (1891–1946): this remarkable British mystic and magician was born Violet Firth in Wales and became involved in the Theosophical Society and Stella Matutina, one of the offshoots of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Later she created The Society of the Inner Light, part of the Golden Dawn tradition but focused on the mystical aspects of Christianity. The Society is still active today. She was a highly talented psychic, astral traveler, and channeler, as well as a respected psychiatrist and prolific author. She participated in the Magical Battle of Britain, a gathering of magicians who worked to repel a Nazi invasion during World War II, died shortly afterward, and was buried in one of the most sacred spots in Britain, at Glastonbury. (The Mystical Qabalah, Weiser, 1984; The Cosmic Doctrine, Weiser, 1976; The Training and Work of an Initiate,1940. Novels: The Sea Priestess, 1938; Moon Magic, Weiser, 1979, and many more)
Israel Regardie
An immigrant and the son of a poor Jewish family, Israel Regardie (1907–1985) joined the Societas Rosicruciana in America before his twentieth birthday. He served as Aleister Crowley’s secretary for a few years, though oddly, Crowley refused to teach magick to the young Israel. He later joined a magickal order known as Stella Matutina. In 1937 he published the teachings and rituals in The Golden Dawn (1937), to ensure their survival. He practiced as a chiropractor and therapist, and before his death wrote many more classic works on magick, and passed on the Adept Initiation of his order to an American lineage.[2] (A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life, 1932; The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, 1990; and many more)
Franz Bardon
Franz Bardon (1909?–1958) was the eldest child of a Christian mystic in Germany. Franz had a stage career as an illusionist under the name Frabato, but was secretly studying the true Art; some say that he may have joined a magickal lodge called the Fraternity of Saturn. With the rise of Nazism, all occult organizations were banned; however, it is said that Hitler was deeply involved in black magick. The Nazis learned of Bardon’s expertise in the magickal arts, arrested him, and tried to secure his help for the German war effort. Bardon refused and was tortured. He did survive the war and turned to a career as an herbalist and healer in Czechoslovakia, often successfully treating cancer. But in 1958 he was accused of being a spy and arrested by the communist authorities; the exact circumstances of his death are unknown. By all accounts he was a sincere, patient, and kindly person, and as part of his legacy he created a marvelously thorough curriculum for self-instruction in ceremonial magick.[3] (Initiation Into Hermetics: The Path of the True Adept, English ed. 1962; The Practice of Magical Evocation, English ed. 1967; The Key to the True Qabalah, English ed. 1971; and more)
Stewart Farrar
Stewart Farrar (1916–2000) was an English Witch who spent the first decades of his life as an agnostic. He had a long career as a journalist, editor, writer, and army officer. In 1969 he met the self-styled King of the Witches, Alex Sanders, and the next year was initiated into Sanders’ coven. There he met Janet Owen, who became his wife and spiritual partner. They created their own covens in England and Ireland, wrote several very popular books on Witchcraft, and as teachers and organizers have had a huge influence on the Craft, not only in their adopted home of Ireland but throughout the Western world. (Several novels, including The Twelve Maidens, 1974; with Janet Farrar: What Witches Do, 1971; A Witches’ Bible Compleat, 1981, which combines Eight Sabbats for Witches and The Witches’ Way; The Witches’God, 1989; The Witches’ Goddess, 1987)
Sybil Leek
Sybil Leek (1922?–1982) grew up in a well-to-do family (that included some astronomers and astrologers) in the New Forest area of England, and early on hobnobbed with celebrities and aristocrats. But that life was to disappear. During the grim days of World War II, as Britain was bombed incessantly, she joined the Red Cross and then became a nurse. She survived Anzio Beach, served in the remote Hebrides Islands under constant enemy attack, and saw many of her sister nurses die. After the war she became public as a Witch. She made her living as an astrologer and counselor to hundreds of businessmen and to the rich and famous, including President Reagan. With her crow companion, Mr. Hotfoot Jackson, and her boa constrictor, she was a colorful figure, but also a hardheaded businesswoman and probably the premier astrologer of the twentieth century. (Diary of a Witch, 1968; The Complete Art of Witchcraft, 1975)
Doreen Valiente
Born Doreen Dominy, Doreen Valiente (1922–1999) experimented with magick as a child—to the dismay of her Christian parents, who sent her to convent school (she didn’t stay). She moved to Wales, was married at nineteen, and lost her sailor husband just six months later. She married again and moved with her husband to the New Forest area. There, in 1953, she was initiated into Witchcraft by Gerald Gardner, became for a time his high priestess, and collaborated with him in creating much of the liturgy and direction of modern Witchcraft. They took the fragmentary material that Gardner had been given from the New Forest coven and created a complete Book of Shadows. Never interested in publicity, she worked to support and defend the (re)emerging religion of Wicca for decades, emphasizing the Goddess and the importance of feminist and environmental values. (Natural Magic, 1975; An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present, 1973; Witchcraft for Tomorrow, 1978)
Scott Cunningham
Scott Cunningham (1956–1993) was a Californian who was introduced to Wicca and magick while still in high school. After a couple of years at San Diego State University, he dropped out to research and write full-time. He had more than fifteen magickal works published (in eleven languages), as well as many novels and articles. He will be remembered for his careful research, clear writing, and genuine desire to empower his readers in discovering their own spiritual paths. Cunningham’s religion was about people and nature, and he brought magick to a huge audience who would never be drawn to the esoteric studies of Western ceremonialism. Sadly, he passed away at the age of thirty-seven. (Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, 1985; Earth Power: Techniques of Natural Magic, 1987; The Truth About Witchcraft Today, 1988; Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, 1990)
Some common themes run through the stories we have seen here, a pattern that has developed over time. The earliest practitioners on record have miraculous powers ascribed to them, and it is clear they were either completely legendary or else respected figures whose skills were much inflated after death. As we enter the Christian era, the magicians appear more and more like showmen earning a precarious living: one month lionized by fascinated aristocrats as men of learning and amazing skill, the next month denounced as charlatans and hounded by the authorities. This sort of love-hate attitude still exists today. Many are intrigued by the occult but are still not very comfortable with those who study such arts.
Some of the people whose lives were sketched here are not representative of magickal practitioners: these are the ones whose activities were so colorful or outrageous that their names are remembered. Others were serious and admirable people, dedicated to the Art and to the spiritual evolution of humanity. Forgotten are myriad even quieter wonder-workers—the priestesses and healers and ritualists who served their communities without fanfare, and never offered to create gold from lead for a king too wealthy to need it. Especially ignored, in our own patriarchal age, are most of the women who practiced the Art, and who today are the backbone of the magickal resurgence in the West.
So enjoy the tales of magicians of old, but remember that we need not emulate the most flamboyant and egotistic of them. A sense of drama and a strong ego can be useful tools for the magician; but far, far more important are reverence, courage, and love. These are the qualities of the greatest of magicians, and their names were not Cagliostro and Crowley. Their names were Lao-Tzu, and Buddha, and Jesus, and a host of feminine names now forgotten.