From Publishers Weekly
Drury, the author of more than 40 books (The Shaman's Quest; Exploring the Labyrinth), offers a comprehensive yet accessible historical guide to magic and witchcraft through the ages. This is not a how-to manual or a spellbook, but a well-researched history with a refreshingly global perspective. Beginning with shamanism, "the oldest magical tradition," Drury examines shamanic traditions in Alaska, South America, Australia, Siberia and Indonesia. He then explores ancient magic traditions in Greece, Rome, Egypt and Mesopotamia; Gnostic and Kabbalistic cosmologies; witchcraft and witch trials in medieval and Renaissance Europe; and hermetic and alchemical traditions. Other chapters delve into Tarot, astrology, numerology, Wicca, contemporary technopaganism and mystical fraternities such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians. One of the most interesting chapters is an in-depth portrait of Aleister Crowley, the turn-of-the-century self-styled British warlock whom some called the "most wicked" man of the age. Drury writes well and never loses sight of the big picture, offering readers broad strokes and helping them to understand the subtle distinctions between magical traditions. He draws on some legitimate theory and scholarship from the likes of Mircea Eliade, Emile Durkheim and Carl Jung (though he quotes Carlos Castaneda without divulging until the end of the book that much of Castaneda's "anthropology" has been debunked as fiction). The book is strikingly well illustrated, with more than 200 illustrations, 61 of them in color. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Drury presents magic and witchcraft as a religious tradition concerned with directly contacting divine power to aid spiritual development and affect events and persons. Tribal shamans, the first magicians Drury describes, seem its most benign practitioners. Later magicians in Europe, which is Drury's geographical focus, were often considerably less innocent. Magic animated the first great literature and philosophy; sparked Gnosticism and Cabalism, the principal rivals of Christianity and Orthodox Judaism; underlay medieval witchcraft; helped Renaissance thinkers stumble through alchemy to science; and during the Enlightenment manifested as systems of influence upon persons (astrology and the tarot) and society (freemasonry and Rosicrucianism). Modern magic began with the Golden Dawn, once led by W. B. Yeats, and proceeded through Aleister Crowley's sex magic to satanism, the current wicca and goddess movements, and shamanist and pantheist revivals among cybernauts. Neither endorsing nor condemning any aspect of its subject, Drury's handsomely illustrated presentation is hampered only by typos in the book's latter half and the poor prose of the most recent sources he quotes. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Publishers Weekly
A comprehensive yet accessible historical guide....A well-researched history with a refreshingly global perspective.

Library Journal
Sumptuously illustrated throughout, this attractive book is sure to be popular.

Book Description
Magic and witchcraft are as old as humanity itself. From the earliest animist concepts of a universe alive with potent spiritual forces to the emergence of Wicca and contemporary neopaganism, magic and its associated practices have provided a sense of power and purpose in an often mysterious world. Beginning with shamanism—widely acknowledged as the world's earliest spiritual tradition—this book explores myth and magic in the ancient world, the quest for gnosis, or sacred esoteric knowledge, and the emergence of the kabbalah, alchemy, and the Hermetic tradition. It then describes the rise of medieval witchcraft, the origins of the tarot, and the secret philosophy of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, started in Britain in 1888, led to a twentieth-century revival that extends into the present millennium. The influence of the controversial occultist Aleister Crowley, the rebirth of witchcraft and goddess worship, the emergence of contemporary satanism, the revival of interest in shamanism and indigenous spirituality, and the intriguing connection between digital magic and cyberspace are all explored here in detail. The book reminds us that magic is not so much about superstition as the quest to be at one with the spirits, gods, and goddesses of the magical realms. Magicians have always sought to tap the mysterious forces of the universe and to use them for their own specific purposes, good or evil. 205 illustrations, 61 in color.

About the Author
Nevill Drury has written widely on shamanism and the Western esoteric tradition, and his books have been published in fifteen languages.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Magic is as old as humanity itself. From the earliest animist view of a universe alive with potent spiritual forces to the emergence of Wicca and Neopaganism, the magical arts have helped invest the cosmos with sacred meaning.