Raphael’s Ancient Manuscript
of Talismanic Magic

Raphael’s Ancient Manuscript of Talismanic Magic, facsimile and transcribed edition. 

The companion volume to Troy Books’ acclaimed facsimile edition of The Little Key of Rabbi Solomon, this handwritten manuscript of Raphael/Robert T. Cross (1850–1923) is a remarkable grimoire of planetary and talismanic magic, penned around 1879–1880 and originally duplicated by the hectographic process in vanishingly small numbers.

Subtitled The Art of Talismanic Magic, the manuscript draws principally upon an earlier translation of the Key or Clavis of Rabbi Solomon — believed to have descended from the library of the physician and occultist Ebenezer Sibly — with additional material selected from the works of Cornelius Agrippa and Francis Barrett. Containing nearly one hundred rare talismanic diagrams, seals of spirits, charms, magical squares, and pentacles, alongside the ritual instructions for the invocation and conjuration of elementary spirits, it represents Cross’s most ambitious compilation of practical ceremonial magic.

The original hectographic editions produced by Cross are of the utmost rarity, with only a handful of copies traceable in libraries worldwide. Troy Books is pleased to offer this extraordinary work reproduced in facsimile alongside a full transcript for clarity.

Together with The Little Key of Rabbi Solomon, this volume completes a portrait of Cross’s singular contribution to the Solomonic magical tradition — a body of handwritten work that circulated among a small circle of Victorian occultists and has remained largely inaccessible for well over a century….

Special Edition available now to pre-order

Graveyard Lilies 

An Encyclopedia of Victorian European
Death and Mourning Traditions

Our modern culture has lost its connection to the death process and to the tools for mourning those that we love. We are left with very little support when going through the dark passage that the death of a loved one brings. This book was created because of the need to remember the old ways where death was honored, with every part of the process being observed, tended to, and infused with superstition and folk beliefs. People of the past understood things about spirits of the dead that we do not, in modernity.

The Victorian times in the British Isles, continental Europe and North America culminated to contain elaborate mourning practices and customs, where it is clear that death ruled the day to day life. With so much death to be tending to, the need to mourn the dead properly formed itself, from the rural areas with little resources, to the inner cities and the lavishly wealthy. Mourning customs were practiced by all people in society, and no doubt brought some comfort during this essential suffering that we all must one day endure.

Within this special book, one will find numerous symbols, meanings, practices and traditions surrounding the process of death, dying and mourning customs out of Europe. Most of these came out of the Victorian era, but some of them harken back to ancient Greco-Roman times and influences. While mostly focusing on European traditions, there are also some American examples included as well. This A-Z encyclopedia has many uncommon entries and also contains much plant lore relating to the dead. This information is rare and hard to find in one place, hence why it was brought together into an easy to read format, with copious footnotes for future referencing. There are also many black and white photos featuring mourning and funeral items and their symbols. In many ways, this book is a hands on manual for mourning the dead, working with the dead and understanding the grief of the living left behind….

The Secrets of Albertus Magnus

OF the Vertues of Herbs, &
Stones, and certain Beasts

Freshly typeset edition

A cornerstone of medieval natural magic, The Secrets of Albertus Magnus gathers together a treasury of occult knowledge concerning the hidden virtues of herbs, stones, beasts, and the celestial powers that govern their operation. Long attributed to the great scholastic philosopher Albertus Magnus, this remarkable compendium stands within the tradition of the libri secretorum — books of wonders that reveal the subtle correspondences binding the natural and astral worlds.

Within its pages are found the marvellous properties of common plants and rare roots, the occult powers of gemstones and metals, the curious virtues of birds and beasts, and the influence of the seven planets upon the generation and destiny of all living things. Rooted in medieval natural philosophy and enriched by the lore of astrology and sympathetic magic, the text offers a vivid window into the learned magic of the early modern period, where science, medicine, and enchantment were yet entwined.

Part herbal, part lapidary, part bestiary, and part planetary manual, this enduring work preserves a vision of a cosmos alive with hidden forces, awaiting the discerning practitioner who knows the proper times, signs, and correspondences by which nature’s secrets may be unlocked.

Special Edition available now to pre-order

Song of Hathor

Ancient Egyptian Ritual for Today

For millennia, the enigmatic rituals and spiritual practices of Ancient Egypt have captivated and inspired seekers of wisdom. Now, for the first time, Song of Hathor unveils a comprehensive guide to the authentic ceremonial and magical traditions of this ancient civilization.

Drawing on over 40 years of meticulous research and using translations from temple inscriptions and sacred texts—many newly interpreted—this work offers an unprecedented glimpse into the heart of Egyptian ritual. Authoritative yet accessible, Song of Hathor is both a practical guide and an invitation to delve into the profound mysteries of the Neteru, the forces of nature worshipped as gods, and Ma’at, the divine harmony that underpinned their world.

Rich with history, cultural insight, and actionable techniques, this expanded second edition incorporates significant new content, including material previously available only to private students. The revised edition builds on the foundation of the original work, offering even deeper insights and additional rituals to guide practitioners on their spiritual journey.

Explore:

• The spiritual significance of Egypt’s lunar and civil calendars.
• The role of the Nile and cosmic cycles in shaping festivals and rituals.
• The wisdom of Hathor, the goddess of joy, love, and creativity, and her central place in Egyptian worship.
• The essential tools for understanding and performing Ancient Egyptian magic, including deep respect for the divine forces as living entities.

Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or new to the path, Song of Hathor provides an essential resource for spiritual growth through the timeless wisdom of Ancient Egypt. This revised and enriched edition is a tribute to an enduring legacy—an inheritance now accessible to modern seekers….

Paperback & Dust Jacketed
Hardback Editions available now

Transcendental Magic

Its Doctrine & Ritual

Freshly typeset edition

Behind the veil of ruined temples, Kabbalistic diagrams, alchemical emblems and secret initiations, Eliphas Lévi discerned a single hidden doctrine running like a golden thread through the ages. In Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, his most influential work, he sets out to reveal that doctrine – and to restore magic as the “traditional science of the secrets of nature”.

Born Alphonse Louis Constant in 1810, the shoemaker’s son who was educated for the priesthood at Saint Sulpice, expelled for unorthodox views and later reborn as Eliphas Lévi, drew on Christian symbolism, Hermetic philosophy, Kabbalah and alchemy to forge a new, modern esotericism. In these pages, Lévi explores the astral light, the pentagram and the tarot, the hierarchy of spirits, the nature of the magus, and the ethical demands of initiation, insisting that true magic is neither superstition nor stage trickery, but a disciplined, philosophical path of will, imagination and spiritual responsibility.

First published in mid-nineteenth-century France and presented here in Arthur Edward Waite’s classic English translation – together with his substantial biographical preface – Transcendental Magic became the cornerstone of modern ceremonial magic. Its ideas shaped the major occult revivals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries; much of what is now taken for granted in Western ritual magic can be traced back to this book.

This freshly typeset Troy Books edition offers a carefully prepared text for the modern reader, while preserving the character and language of the original. Whether approached as a historical monument of the occult revival, or as a living manual for the sanctum regnum – the “holy kingdom” of the magus – this volume provides a powerful, demanding initiation into Lévi’s vision of magic as the meeting of reason, faith, and the will to transform…..

Special Edition available now to pre-order

Mystic Masonry

Or Symbols of Freemasonry & the
Greater Mysteries of Antiquity
Supplemental Harmonic Series,
Vol. V.  1911

Freshly typeset edition 

Troy Books is proud to present a newly typeset, finely crafted edition, first published in the closing years of the nineteenth century, Mystic Masonry is J. D. Buck’s bold attempt to restore Freemasonry to its place as a true School of the Mysteries. Rather than tracing lodge histories and quarrels over constitutions, Buck asks what the Craft is really for: what its symbols, rituals and legends reveal about the origin of the soul, the purpose of human life and the “higher evolution of man”.

Drawing on the Ancient Mysteries and the emerging occult philosophy of his day, Buck reads Masonic symbolism as a universal language of initiation. The rough and perfect ashlars, the broken columns and lost Word, the five-pointed star and temple-architecture all become keys to an inner work by which the candidate learns that “man is not man as yet”, and that real initiation is an at-one-ment between the higher self and the unseen source from which intuition and spiritual power arise. Education, for Buck, is not mere intellectual polish but the awakening of latent faculties of the soul – a process mirrored, degree by degree, in the work of the Lodge.

Across chapters on education and ethics, the “genius” of Freemasonry, the Secret Doctrine, science and religion, the septenary nature of man, the Great Lodge and the outline of Masonic symbolism, Mystic Masonry uncovers a profound esoteric philosophy within the Craft. It presents Masonry as heir to the Egyptian and Greek Mysteries and as a living custodian of the “Great Secret” preserved in their initiations: a working hypothesis for the psychical and spiritual life of humanity.

For practising Freemasons with an occult bent, Mystic Masonry illuminates the inner side of familiar ceremonies and working tools, revealing the Craft as a path of genuine spiritual transformation rather than mere conviviality. For witches, magical practitioners and students of esoterica, it offers a compelling bridge into Masonic thought, showing how lodge symbolism, ancient Mystery-traditions and the modern occult revival interweave into a single, initiatory tapestry…..

Special Edition available now to pre-order