Abramelin the Mage (1362-1460), a Jew from Wurxburg, Germany. Abraham, or Abramelin, also known as Abraham the Jew or Abra-Melin composed a body of magical works which left their mark on Alexander Sanders and Aleister Crowley. Abra-Melin was an expert of the Kabbalah and proclaimed that he was taught magical knowledge by angels. They told him how to conjure and tame demons to become his personal servants and workers. He also was taught how to raise storms. His magic is frequently referred to as Abra-Melin magic.

This influential magician (1486-1534?) created magical forms during the Renaissance that are still being used today. He is especially noted for his tables of correspondence and his books of occult philosophy.

(circa 2nd century CE) A neo-Pythagorean of Greece who acquired a reputation for his magical powers. He is considered a contemporary of Christ. At sixteen he became an adherent of Pythagoras whose discipline he ascribed to all of his life. In his desire for knowledge he traveled many Eastern countries and according to legend he performed miracles where ever he went.

This esotericist English polymath (1617-92) was one of the early speculative Freemasons. A contributor in alchemy, sciences, and culture.

Alice Bailey was born Alice Ann La Trobe-Bateman on June 16, 1880 in Manchester, England. She died in New York City on December 15, 1949. Her ancestors included Hollinshed, "the chronicler," of English literary fame, Charles La Trobe, one of the first governors of Australia, and others who had been traced back in English history to the time of the Crusades.

Franz Bardon (1909 - 1958) is one of the most important but least known occultists and magicians of the Twentieth Century.

Francis Barrett (1770? - ?) a practially unknown author of "The Magus" published in 1801. This was a concise handbook on the occult and magic. Barrett, an Englishman, claimed himself to be a student of chemistry, metaphysics, and natural occult philosophy. He was an extreme eccentric who gave lessons in the magical arts in his apartment and fastidiously translating the Kabbalah and other ancient texts into English.

Famous orator, socialist and theosophist. This category focusses on the theosophical side of her work.

H. P. Blavatsky (1831 - 1891) was the founder of Theosophy.

This Italian mystic, astronomer, and martyr (1548-1600) contributed both to the development of modern science and to the revival of Neo-Platonic magic in the Renaissance. He is claimed by rationalist humanists and by occultists alike as an ancestor.

Born Edward Bulwer in 1803, he was educated at Trinity College Cambridge. He began writing to finance an extravagant lifestyle as man of fashion. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1858. For his achievements as novelist, playwright and statesman, he was elevated to the peerage in 1866. For forty years he was known as Bulwer, for twenty-two, having added his mother's surname on inheriting Knebworth, Bulwer-Lytton, and the last seven as Lord Lytton. He died in 1873. Lytton's work expresses some of the most significant intellectual currents of the nineteenth century, several of which are far from are exhausted. He treated intelligently and interestingly perennial themes of good and evil, of freedom and despotism, egoism and altruism, life affirmation and the power of will. His treatment can seem all the fresher partly because he is no longer familiar. His influence was world-wide. It was notable in Germany, whose deep and thoughtful culture he both affected and was affected by. He was influenced by Schiller (whom he translated), and by Goethe, sharing something of the latter's eclectic liveliness, and exploring subjects that strongly suggest his speculations about the daemonic. His novel of thirteenth century Italy, Rienzi, inspired Wagner's third opera.

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), was a magician, mountaineer, poet, and philosopher. He created the religious system known as Thelema. Many of Thelema's various organizational incarnations are still active. Crowley considered Theosophy and the Golden Dawn to be Thelema's parents, and acknowledged Rabelais as the source for its creed, "Do what thou wilt". Crowley influenced Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, Gardnerian Witchcraft, Chaos Magic, and many other 20th century occultists and movements. He considered himself a major literary figure but history has not shared his view.

Dr. John Dee (1527-1608/9) was the foremost scholar of his day, whose influence on the intellectual currents of Europe was far-reaching and profound, his work leading to the Rosicrucian manifestos, the rise of empiricism and the foundation of the Royal Society. However, as a neo-Platonist, his highest aim was to receive true wisdom from God; and so he is perhaps best known for the records of his "Actions with Spirits" which resulted from his association with the scryer Sir Edward Kelley, wherein is contained a system of classification of the universe based upon figurative, mathematical and linguistic lines.

Dion Fortune (1891-1946), known in ordinary life as Violet Firth, became one of the most widely read occult writers of the 20th century and so she has had a broad influence. Her novels and instructional books derive from the Golden Dawn, Theosophy, Thelema, and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. Her weird tales involve a pre-Gardnerian Witch heroine based on Maiya Tranchell-Hayes, and she studied with J. W. Brodie-Innes, who also had Witchcraft interests, both of the Golden Dawn.

Darwin Gross was the successor of Sri Paul Twitchell, founder of Eckankar. Currently the organisation of Eckankar no longer want's to have anything to do with him.

Hermes Trismegistus is the latin name for "Hermes the thrice-greatest" derived from 'Åñìçò Ôñéóìåãéóôïò, the Greek name of the Egyptian god Thoth (Egyptian god of wisdom and writing). Sometimes referred to as the god, sometimes as a man contemporary to Moses, who was son of the god. During the middle-ages and later, a series of scripts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, known as the Hermetica were popular.

Iamblichus (c. 250-c. 330), the neoplatonic philosopher, was born in Chalcis, Coele-Syria. While a student of Porphyry in Rome, he came under the influence of the Greek Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus. When Porphyry died, Iamblichus succeeded him as the head of the neoplatonic school. In Syria he established his own school, which attempted to fuse the ideas of Plato, those of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, and Hermetism and the magical literature into a single coherent system. Iamblichus succeeded in transforming the purely intellectual Neoplatonism of Plotinus into an even more spiritual form of Greco-Roman religious philosophy that include myths, rites, and magical formulas.

William Quan Judge was one of the founders of the Theosophical Society and a prolific writer.

Edward Kelley (1527 - ?1597), the alchemist and theurgist, is chiefly remembered for his association with Dr. John Dee, for whom he was the scryer in a series of Angelic Conferences during which was revealed the Angelic or Enochian system of magick (1582 - ?1587). Although there has been much speculation (based on rumour) concerning the rest of Kelley's life, very little is actually known of it.

Anton Szandor LaVey (11 April 1930 - 31 October 1997) was the founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan.

Timothy Leary (1920 - 1995)

Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) The pseudonym for Alphonse Louis Constant, a French occultist who is credited for reviving interest in magic in the 19th century. Although Levi studied magic, he was considered to be more of a commentator on the subject than an adept even though he professed to have practiced necromancy several times.

Samaritan founder of the Simonian sect of Gnostics, contemporary of the Apostles and of Philo Judaeus of Alexandria. Little is known of Simon or the Simonians, most of the information we have about him is from his enemies, and is probably highly distorted.

Macgregor Mathers (1854-1918) was one of the more colorful characters in the history of the Golden Dawn, displaying many of the assets and liabilities often associated with those who possess magical genius and creativity. A gifted ritualist, Mathers produced some of the finest teachings in the Western Esoteric Tradition, but he was also capable of being an eccentric tyrant. Of the three founding Chiefs of the Order it was Mathers, the primary Chief of the R.R. et A.C., who made the Golden Dawn into a truly magical Order.

Henry Steele Olcott is known for his activities in two related areas: Buddhism and Theosophy. He was instrumental in helping the Buddhists of Sri Lanka regain their self-confidence. He did this as president of the Theosophical Society.

Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim, immortalized as "Paracelsus," (1493-1511). He was the son of a well known physician who was described a Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, and it was from him that Paracelsus took his first instruction in medicine. At the age of sixteen, Paracelsus entered the University at Basle where he applied himself to the study of alchemy, surgery, and medicine.

(1463-1494), Italian humanist philosopher, born near Ferrara, and educated at the University of Bologna. Instead of completing his studies at Bologna he visited famous universities in Italy and France, astonishing scholars with his precocious learning. At the age of 23 he settled in Rome and there publicly posted a list of 900 theses or propositions about all subjects, offering to defend them publicly. The pope deemed that some of his theses dealing with cabalistic magic were heretical and forbade him to carry on his projected discussions.

Israel Regardie (1907-1985) was one of the best liked figures in twentieth century occultism. His publication of "The Golden Dawn" in 1937 opened up a vast field of study for the occult community in general, breaking the Golden Dawn tradition out of the torpor caused by its excessive secrecy, about which Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley had also complained. He served as Aleister Crowley's secretary from 1928 to 1931 and had a life-long love/hate relationship with Crowley's work. This ambivalence did not prevent him from being its greatest popularizer, almost single-handedly awakening thousands of people to Crowley's potential in the 1960's and 1970's. Regardie's own original books on ceremonial magic and Qabalah are also regarded as minor classics in their field. Despite his achievements, Regardie never fell into the egotistical traps that plague many occultists in the Golden Dawn and Thelema; he never claimed exalted degree or became perversely judgmental of others. When he died in 1985 he was greatly mourned.

Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was persecuted in Europe for his sex theories. He later claimed to discover the secrets of cosmic life energy, called "orgone," and an easy way to accumulate it in a booth or a tube, equally useful for curing cancer or busting clouds. His sales and advertising of the orgone accumulator were suppressed by the USA Food and Drug Administration during the 1950's, raising civil rights concerns. He is considered by some to be a crackpot, and even some sympathetic biographers have believed that his sanity was compromised under the strain of his last years. He died in prison after treating the court case against him with contemptuous disregard.

Nicholas Roerich was a German artist, writer, humanist, philosopher, educator, explorer, archaeologist, poet, and peacemaker.

A. O. Spare (1888-1956) was a dark-side mystic and illustrator. His work was related to Surrealism and has served as the foundation of Chaos Magic. He was associated for a time with Aleister Crowley and his work features prominently in the books of Kenneth Grant. His artwork was always disturbing and evocative, and frequently executed without the involvement of his conscious mind.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Austrian founder of Anthroposophy.

Arthur Edward Waite (1857 - 1942) was an occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Born in America, and raised in England, A.E. Waite joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891 and also entered the Societas Rosicruciana in 1902.

William Wynn Wescott (1848 - 1925) Dr. William Wynn Westcott was born in Leamington, Warkwickshire, England on December 17, 1848. He was one of the three founders of the Golden Dawn.

Dr. W. Robert Woodman (1828 - 1891) Probably the least known of the three original Chiefs of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was Dr. William Robert Woodman. Dr. Woodman was described in a Rosicrucian Society pamphlet written by W.W. Westcott as "a student of Old Hebrew Philosophy (Qabalah) and Egyptian Antiquities.