It's always a pleasure to find a book of history so well written that I lose track of time while I'm reading it. Masello has collected the exploits of prominent sorcerers and alchemists, secret societies, rituals and key tools of black magic, without sinking into a subjective analysis of the morality of these occult arts.
Raising Hell: A Concise History of the Black Arts and Those Who Dared to Practice Them FROM THE PUBLISHER
Here, in one spellbinding volume, is a history of the major occult arts - necromancy, sorcery, astrology, alchemy, and prophecy - as they have been practiced from ancient Babylon to the present day. Raising Hell weaves history with myths, quotes, anecdotes, and illustrations to provide a vivid chronicle of the evolution of the occult arts. From the origins of the pentagram and the sacred circle, to the incantations of necromancers, to the prophecies of Nostradamus, this definitive source offers a compelling look at the black arts ... and those who risked their lives - and some say souls - to explore them.