Britten, Emma

Art Magic

First published in 1876, Art Magic is one of the founding documents of theVictorian occult revival. Published under mysterious circumstances, the book wascontroversial in its own day, and has intrigued and infuriated students of the occultfor nearly 150 years. Regarded for years merely as a supplement to the more famous Ghost Land (1876), Art Magic is actually the more important work: closely connectedto the founding of the Theosophical Society, to Helene Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled(1877), and to the teachings of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, as well as to thework of J. C. Street, R. Swinburne Clymer and other occult figures.Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) was one of the most influential Spiritualist andoccult propagandists of the nineteenth century. Her work informs modern-dayorganizations as diverse as the international Spiritualist movement, theTheosophical Society, esoteric Freemasonry, and the Church of Light.This definitive, corrected edition of the text includes an in-depth bibliographicaland historical introduction, as well as extensive annotations to the text, by thecurator of the Emma Hardinge Britten Archive.