Customer Reviews

Dictionary of Mysticism and the Esoteric Traditions

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What an excellent publication. The minute I picked this volume up I knew that it was something special. I have several dictionaries and encyclopedias on occult and esoteric topics but there is just something about this one that I had to have. First of all, as I flipped through looking for the subjects that I am primarily interested in, I found that they were all there. Then, when I looked up a few topics that I had questions about, they were there as well. The definitions were concise, pithy, and to the point. In addition the design of the book is elegant and the accompanying illustrations were selected with taste. The back cover states that this dictionary is a browser's delight- and that is a perfect description. The more I browse it, the more respect I have for the editor's knowledge and perspective.

As for the contents, you have literally everything: magical formulae; the nature of spiritual beings; the meanings of signs, symbols, and secret rites; astrology; numerology; tarot; historical accounts of hauntings and psychic occurrences; biographies of leading figures in the field, their lives, philosophies, and writings; religious and esoteric texts such as the Egyptian coffin texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Zohar; great legends and myths of the world; folklore from around the world; the nature of transpersonal psychology; and no doubt much more that I haven't found yet. All of it is written with clear focused understanding- and often that little helpful obscure fact that you weren't familiar with.

You could do far worse than to make this your primary reference for the mystic, occult, and esoteric. Indeed, I have not seen better.

It should be noted that this is a totally revised evolution of the editor's earlier _Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult_.