Esoterica Historical Timeline: Witchcraft, Magic, Sorcery
What follows is a condensed Esoterica Timeline following the highlights of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and magickal thought through the centuries and their influence on the transdisciplinary studies of Western esotericism: Western esoteric traditions including alchemy, astrology, Gnosticism, gnosis, magic, mysticism, Rosicrucianism, and secret societies, and their ramifications in art history, history, literature, and politics.
| 13th century BCE? | Zarathushtra founds Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Magi; Moses founds Judaism; mythical date of Hermes Trismegistus. |
| 10th century BCE | Solomon, son of David, King of Israel flourished |
| 4? BCE-33 CE | Jesus founds Christianity |
| 1st century CE | Apollonius of Tyana flourished |
| 1st to 3rd CE? | Testament of Solomon composed |
| 100-300 CE | composition of Corpus Hermetica |
| 204-270 CE | Plotinus, Neoplatonic philosopher and mystic (born in Egypt) |
| 250-325 CE | Iamblicus, neoplatonic philosopher, was born in Chalcis, Coele-Syria |
| 500 CE (circa) | Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite flourished, probably a native of Syria |
| 6th CE | Sefer Yetzirah edited |
| 10th CE | Sword of Moses composed |
| 1004-1007? | al-Majriti, author of Picatrix, passes |
| 1054 | Rome splits from orthodox church, forms Catholic church |
| 1175?-1235 | Michael Scot (Scottish) |
| 1220?-1292 | Roger Bacon (English) |
| 1227 | Pope Honorius III passes |
| 1232 | Ramon Llull born (Majorca) |
| 1240 | Abraham Abulafia, Sicilian Kabbalist, founder of ecstatic Kabbala, born in Saragosa |
| 1248 | Joseph Gikatilla, Spanish Sephardic Kabbalist, born |
| 1250? | Liber Juratus (Sworn Book of Honorius) compiled by Honorius of Thebes, son of Euclid |
| 1259 | Peter de Abano [Pietro d'Abano], Italian physician and philosopher born. Professor of medicine in Padua. |
| 1266 | John Duns Scotus, Scottish scholastic philosopher and thrologian, born |
| 1274 | Ramon Llull's vision on Mount Randa |
| 1280? | Sefer Ha-Zohar written by Moses de León but attributed to Simon ben Yohai |
| 1292? | Abraham Abulafia passes |
| 1308 | John Duns Scotus passes |
| 1314 | Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, burned at the stake in Paris |
| 1316? | Ramon Llull passes; |
| 1316 | Peter de Abano passes |
| 1323 | Joseph Gikatilla passes |
| 1433 | Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher born. Under the patronage of the de'Medicis, he translated many Greek classics including the Corpus Hermetica |
| 1453 | Fall of Constantinople to the Turks caused dispersal and spread of Greek manuscripts and scholarship |
| 1455 | Johannes Reuchlin, German humanist and lawyer, born. Reuchlin wrote on Kabbalah and propagated Hebrew stupasses |
| 1462 | Johannes Trithemius born at Trittenheim on the Moselle. Trithemius was a famous scholar and Benedictine abbot. |
| 1463 | Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher and scholar, born |
| 1466 | Francesco Giorgi [Zorzi], Venetian philosopher, born. Author of De Harmonia Mundi (Venits, 1525) |
| 1471 | Ficino's translation of Corpus Hermeticum published |
| 1474 | Ferdinand and Isabella ascend to the throne |
| 1483 | Martin Luther born Eisleben, Saxony, Germany. |
| 1486 | Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa born in Cologne Germany; Malleus Maleficarum published, major instrument of witch hunters; Giovanni Pico della Mirandola takes his theses to Rome |
| 1489 | Ficino's Libri de Vita published |
| 1492 | Ferdinand and Isabella expel Jews from Spain, center of Cabalistic stupasses, caused dispersal and spread of Jewish and Cabalistic manuscripts and scholarship; discovery of the New World |
| 1493 | Paracelsus (Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim) born Einsiedeln Switzerland. Swiss physician and philosopher. He was tutored (by his account) by Trithemius. |
| 1494 | Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico published; Giovanni Pico della Mirandola passes |
| 1499 | Marsilio Ficino passes |
| 1510 | Agrippa's De Occulta philosophia finished Guillaume Postel, French mathematician, Kabbalist, and mystic born |
| 1515 | Johan Weyer born |
| 1516 | Johannes Trithemius passes |
| 1517 | Reuchlin's De arte cabalistica published; Martin Luther posts theses |
| 1522 | Johannes Reuchlin passes |
| 1525 | Giorgi's De harmonia mundi published |
| 1527 | John Dee born in London Maximillian II born |
| 1533 | Agrippa's De Occulta philosopha published; Isaak Luria, Jewish Kabbalist, born in Jerusalem; Queen Elizabeth I born at Greenwich palace in London (September 7) |
| 1535 | Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa passes; Giambattista della Porta born in Naples. Author of Magia naturalis (Natural Magic) (1585, 1589) |
| 1538? | Reginald Scot born. Author of Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584) |
| 1540 | Francesco Giorgi passes; Faust passes |
| 1541 | Paracelsus passes |
| 1542 | Inquisition established in Rome |
| 1546 | Martin Luther passes |
| 1548 | Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher born in Nola Italy. |
| 1552 | Simon Forman born Emperor Rudolph II born Guillaume Postel publishes Latin translation of Sefer Yetzirah |
| 1554 | Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded |
| 1555 | Edward Kelley born |
| 1558 | Elizabeth I becomes queen of England; Giambattista della Porta's Magia Naturalis published; Zohar printed |
| 1560? | Heinrich Khunrath born in Leipzig |
| 1564 | Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica published |
| 1566? | Michael Maier, physician, alchemist, and philosopher, born in Rensburg, Holstein (Germany). Physician to Emperor Rudolph II. |
| 1572 | Isaak Luria passes |
| 1574 | Robert Fludd, English physician, philosopher, and mystic, born |
| 1575 | Jakob Boehme, German religious mystic, born; Arbatel Of Magic first appears |
| 1576 | Maximillian II passes |
| 1581 | Dee and Kelley start their "mystical experiments" Guillaume Postel passes |
| 1584 | Bruno's Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast published |
| 1588 | Johan Weyer passes |
| 1595 | Edward Kelley passes (Nov) |
| 1599 | Reginald Scot passes |
| 1600 | Giordano Bruno burned at the stake in Rome |
| 1602 | Athanasius Kircher born in Geisa a. d. Ulster, Germany (May 2) William Lilly, astrologer and translator of Trithemius, born in Diseworth, county Leicester, England |
| 1603 | Queen Elizabeth I passes; accession of James I |
| 1605 | Heinrich Khunrath passes |
| 1606 | Trithemius' Steganographia first published |
| 1608 | John Dee passes |
| 1611 | Simon Forman passes |
| 1612 | Emperor Rudolph II passes |
| 1614-15 | Rosicrucian manifestos published in Germany |
| 1615 | Giambattista della Porta passes |
| 1617 | Elias Ashmole born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England (May 23) |
| 1617-19 | Fludd's Utriusque cosmi historia published |
| 1618 | Maier's Atlanta Fugiens published |
| 1620 | Robert Turner 'of Holshot', translator of magical texts, born |
| 1622 | Thomas Vaughan, English Rosicrucian, born Michael Maier passes |
| 1624 | Jakob Boehme passes |
| 1636 | Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, German mystic and Kabbalist, born |
| 1637 | Robert Fludd passes |
| 1652 | Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus published Thomas Vaughan publishes English translation (not his own) of the Rosicrucian Fama and Confessio |
| 1666 | Thomas Vaughan passes |
| 1677 | Christian Knorr von Rosenroth published first volume of Kabbala Denudata |
| 1680 | Athanasius Kircher passes |
| 1681 | William Lilly, astrologer and translator of Trithemius, passes |
| 1684 | Christian Knorr von Rosenroth published second volume of Kabbala Denudata |
| 1688 | Emanuel Swedenborg, scientist and mystic, born in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| 1689 | Christian Knorr von Rosenroth passes |
| 1692 | Elias Ashmole passes Salem witchcraft panic |
| 1707 | Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Hebrew poet and Kabbalistic mystic, born Padua |
| 1734 | Franz Anton Mesmer born in Iznang, Swabia (Germany) (May 23) |
| 1747 | Moses Hayyim Luzzatto passes |
| 1749-56 | Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia published |
| 1751 | Ebenezer Sibly born |
| 1772 | Emanuel Swedenborg passes |
| 1800 | Ebenezer Sibly passes |
| 1810 | Eliphas Levi, (Constant, Alphonse Louis), French occultist, born in Paris, France. He is said to be largely responsible for the revival of magic in the 19th century. |
| 1815 | Franz Anton Mesmer passes |
| 1831 | Helena Petrovna Blavatski (Helena Petrovna von Hahn), cofounder of the Theosophical Society, born of German parents in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine). |
| 1832 | Henry Steel Olcott, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, born |
| 1865 | Papus (i.e. G.A.V. Encausse), French occultist and author born |
| 1846 | Anna Kingsford (Annie Bonus) born |
| 1847 | Annie Besant (née Wood), author and noted Theosophist born |
| 1848 | William W. Wescott born |
| 1854 | Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers born in London |
| 1856 | Levi's masterpiece Le Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie published |
| 1857 | Arthur Edward Waite born in Brooklyn, New York |
| 1861 | Rudolph Steiner born |
| 1865 | William Butler Yeats born in Ireland |
| 1875 | Eliphas Levi, (Constant, Alphonse Louis) passes (May 31) |
| 1875 | Aleister Crowley (Crowley, Edward Alexander) born (October 12) |
| 1889 | Mathers' edition of Kabbalah Unveiled published |
| 1888 | Anna Kingsford (Annie Bonus) passes Papus' Traité Elémentaire de Science Occulte published; Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn established in London |
| 1889 | Mathers' edition of Key of Solomon published |
| 1890 | Dion Fortune (i.e. Violet Mary Firth) born; W.B. Yeats joins the Golden Dawn |
| 1891 | Helena Petrovna Blavatski (Helena Petrovna von Hahn), cofounder of the Theosophical Society, passes |
| 1897 | Levi's Le Clef des Grandes Mystères published |
| 1898 | Julius Evola born Aleister Crowley joins the Golden Dawn; Mathers publishes The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage [Abramelin] |
| 1899 | C.G. Leland publishes Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches |
| 1900 | Crowley expelled from the Golden Dawn |
| 1901 | Manly Palmer Hall born |
| 1907 | Henry Steel Olcott, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, passes Israel Regardie born |
| 1909 | Franz Bardon born |
| 1916 | Papus (i.e. G.A.V. Encausse), French occultist and author passes |
| 1918 | Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers passes |
| 1925 | William W. Wescott passes Rudolph Steiner passes |
| 1933 | Annie Besant (née Wood), author and noted Theosophist passes |
| 1937 | Israel Regardie publishes the Golden Dawn, which includes the bulk of the Golden Dawns' rituals and teachings. |
| 1939 | William Butler Yeats passes |
| 1942 | Arthur Edward Waite passes |
| 1946 | Dion Fortune (i.e. Violet Mary Firth) passes |
| 1947 | Aleister Crowley (Crowley, Edward Alexander) passes |
| 1958 | Franz Bardon passes |
| 1974 | Julius Evola passes |
| 1985 | Israel Regardie passes |
| 1990 | Manly Palmer Hall passes |
