If you’ve already finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and are desperately seeking a new magic fix, why not read up on the historical roots of the mythology of magic?

Start with Aradia: Gospel of the Witches, by Charles Godfrey Leland, the 1899 classic that has become a foundational document of modern Wicca and neopaganism. Leland, an American journalist, claimed that a “witch informant,” a fortune-teller named Maddalena, supplied him with the secret writings that he translated and combined with his research on Italian pagan tradition to create a gospel of pagan belief and practice. Here, in the story of the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to champion oppressed peasants in their fight against their feudal overlords and the Catholic Church, are the chants, prayers, spells, and rituals that have become the centerpieces of contemporary pagan faiths.

Also from Leland is Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, in which he explores the origins of witchcraft, vindictive and mischievous magic, charms and conjurations, love potions, fortune telling, gypsy amulets, and much more. Cosimo’s edition is a replica of the original 1891 book, complete with Leland’s beautifully evocative drawings and diagrams.

Modern wizards will want to add the 1911 book The Book of Ceremonial Magic, by Arthur Edward Waite, to their magical libraries. Culled from the rare and often inaccessible actual manuscripts of magical grimoires from the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, this classic work on magic and its secrets reveals all you need to know in order to begin communing with the supernatural and appropriating its power. Waite, a preeminent 19th-century expert in esoterica and a cocreator of the famous 1910 Rider-Waite Tarot deck, discusses the difference between white and black magic, the rituals of transcendental magic, the rituals of black magic, the names and offices of evil spirits, the mysteries of “infernal evocation,” and much more. But be warned: Dabbling in the paranormal arts is an adventure undertaken at your own risk.

What happened to medieval magicians caught casting spells? Fifteen-century Inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger reveal all in The Malleus Maleficarum, also known as “The Witch Hammer.” A handbook for hunting and punishing witches, this is mostly a compilation of superstition and folklore, but it was taken very seriously at the time it was written and became a kind of spiritual law book used by judges to determine the guilt of the accused. Cosimo’s is a replica edition of the 1928 translation by Montague Summers.

Did you know that Albus Dumbledore’s old pal Nicholas Flamel was a real alchemist of historical lore? Learn about Flamel — and more than fifty other alchemists — in Alchemists Through the Ages, another work by Arthur Edward Waite. The word alchemy conjures up images of charlatans mixing potions and concocting remedies during the Middle Ages in a futile quest to transform lead into gold, but the roots of alchemy can be traced back more than 2,500 years to locales as disparate as Egypt, India, and China, and it was considered serious science until as recently as the 16th century. In this highly regarded volume first published in 1888, Waite examines the lives and works of alchemists from the year 850 through the end of the 18th century. Was alchemy the true precursor to modern chemistry or a pseudo-science populated by quacks? Decide for yourself.

For more on alchemy, check out Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored, by Archibald Cockren. According to practitioners and students of alchemy, the body’s Vital Energy, or Quintessence, is best obtained from minerals and metals. Using everyday language and an accessible style, Cockren — considered the greatest British alchemist of the 20th century — explores the different uses and manifestations of this ancient science, from the physical to the medicinal and even the spiritual. Along the way, he provides engaging sketches of alchemy’s early pioneers, including St. Germain, Basil Valentine, and the legendary Paracelsus, providing a solid foundation to his belief that within the world’s metals “can be found elements to cure all discords in the human body.”

(Technorati tags: , , )