Three Books of Occult Philosophy

In brief

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's great synthesis of Renaissance magic, organised by the three worlds: Book I the elemental or natural world (properties of stones, herbs and animals), Book II the celestial world (number, geometry, the planets and their magic squares and seals), Book III the intellectual or divine world (religion, angels, divine names and Kabbalah). Translated into English in 1651 by 'J.F.', it became the encyclopaedia of Western magic.

Key ideas

• ✦Three worlds: elemental, celestial, intellectual
• ✦Occult virtues and sympathies in nature
• ✦Planetary kameas, seals and characters
• ✦Divine names, angels and ceremonial magic

Why it matters

Agrippa is the source of the planetary magic squares in Luxryne's Sigil Maker and much of the correspondence tables used by later traditions, from the Golden Dawn to modern witchcraft.

“Seeing there is a threefold world, elementary, celestial, and intellectual, and every inferior is governed by its superior...”