The Occult Sciences. A Compendium of Transcendental Doctrine and Experiment, embracing an account of Magical Practices; of Secret Sciences in connection with Magic; of the Professors of Magical Arts; and of modern Spiritualism, Mesmerism and Theosophy.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1891. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. viii + 296pp. (last 4 pages are advertisements). Black cloth, with gilt titling on spine, and red Rosicrucian symbol in center of front board, bibliography & index. The very scarce first edition of this work by Waite, which was published shortly after he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The content reflects Waite's more magical interests of the time (as opposed to his later embrace of mysticism) , and includes sections on Necromancy, Elixir of life, White Magic, Black Magic, Theosophy, Mesmerism, Freemasonry etc. (Gilbert, A9a). Binding variant with 'Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd' on spine and black endpapers. A bit of overall shelf wear, a few light bumps and light rubbing to edges, corners and spine ends bumped & lightly chafed, top edge unevenly darkened, contemporary armorial bookplate on front pastedown, light pencil lines to less than a dozen pages (easily erased). Overall a tight, bright VG + copy - the nicest we've seen in a very long time (no dust jacket). Quite scarce. Item #69977
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