It's been several years now that I have been researching on the history of magic in the German speaking countries. It all began with the simple question of how our tradition of Western Magic looked before the time of the GD - especially in Germany, a country where much of their work was published only much later and which was once home to the Rosicrucians movement.

The in-depth study On the Order of the Asiatic Brethren which I shared in five parts in mid-2014 was a first result of this research. It focusses an often overlooked strand of our tradition in the 18th century - preparing the ground for still well known links in the chain such as Karl Freiherr von Eckartshausen, Eliphas Levi, Papus and a few decades later for the founding fathers of the GD itself.

Currently I am writing on the next chapter in this journey back in time - looking closer at the turn of the 16th century and the historic forces that influenced people like Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandela, Johann Trithemius, Agrippa von Nettesheim and even Paracelsus to reinvent the very idea and assumed nature of magic. Most of the work published today in our Western Tradition is still standing on their shoulders - and rarely looking down to understand what shaped these giants' ideas of magic and how they differed from more ancient times.

However, before moving on there was one thing I needed to complete first. And that was to bring the 60+ pages of the first study into a more digestible form. After a long night and a very early morning I am happy to share that the complete article is now available as single PDF ebook for free download.

The only caveat is that some of the material you can still access in the online version of the articles didn't make it into the PDF version. The static format of a PDF unfortunately didn't allow to include interactive elements, such as pop images. Therefore on a few occasions in the eBook you'll find links to the online articles for further information.

With that I can return to immersing myself into the next chapter. And if you'd like you can now read the first one offline in your very own time.