Magic goes a long way beyond vague memories of fairy-tales, witch-doctors and conjurors. It is infact Western civilization's own native occult tradition, dating back to the mysteries of Egyptian, Greek and Roman religion: a spiritual discipline, the 'Yoga of the West', which through ritual and meditation gives the magician power to evoke the enormously powerful 'spirits' which are the ruling principles of his own psyche in their purest form. Francis King traces the origins of ritual magic in the West, and its perilous coexistence with witchcraft, black magic and orthodox religion in the days when alchemy, astrology and the Kabalah formed a powerful undercurrent in the whole intellectual life of Western Europe. The tradition of ritual magic has played a central part in the occult revival of the twentieth century, and Francis King illustrates ritual images and objects used by modern practising magicians.