Occult Literature
Edward Kelley: ritual frontispiece
Edward Kelley and a companion stand inside a ritual circle while a shrouded figure appears in a moonlit churchyard. Waite's explanation identifies the setting as Walton le Dale and says the plate is reproduced from the second edition of Ebenezer Sibly's Illustration of the Occult Sciences, whose account ultimately draws on John Weever. He identifies the companion only provisionally as Paul Waring, an important uncertainty when reading the scene as a historical narrative. This is an illustration of an alleged act of necromancy and its later transmission in occult literature, not an eyewitness record or evidence that a dead person was summoned.
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Citation
"Edward Kelley: ritual frontispiece" [editorial title]. In The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, Arthur Edward Waite. Tenth edition, 1910, 1910, The de Laurence Co.. Source scan leaf 9. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/occult-frontispiece
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
The setting and source history follow Waite's explanation. Waring's identification is explicitly provisional; the later de Laurence impression also carries publisher lettering inside the circle.
Sources
From the book
The Book of Black Magic and of PactsArthur Edward Waite1910More from this book
Angels, Sigils and Spirits of the Seven Planets
Mystic Figures of the Enchiridion: Plate III
Enchiridion Talismans and Angelic MonogramsRelated illustrations
Cite this illustration
Edward Kelley: ritual frontispiece. The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Scan leaf 9. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/occult-frontispiece