The grand sweep of Greek magic, philosophy and religion from the archaic period of Homer's Iliad up to the present. This book begins with the magic and mythology of classical Athens; gives detailed considerations of Gnosticism, early Christianity and Neoplatonism; explains the manifestations of Greek thought in the Renaissance; and explores the Greek elements of the magic of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley and others.

As far as I am concerned this book is one of the most significant that Llewellyn ever published. It demonstrates the debt that western occult philosophy and practice owes to Greek thought. As the author points out you can hardly open any book on this subject without finding Plato and Plotinus on every page.

The history of Greek mystical and magical thought is traced progressively from Archaic and Classical Greece, to the growth of the Mysteries, to the wider Hellenistic period, to Gnosticism, to Middle Platonism, to the Greek New Testament, to Neoplatonism, to the Renaissance, to 19th and 20th century occult societies (Golden Dawn, Theosophical Society, Rosicrucian, Fraternitas Saturni, Aurum Solis, etc.) An especially good case is made for cabalistic thought being as much, or more, Greek as Hebrew in nature.

Yet, in spite of the main purpose of showing Greek influence, the author doesn't hesitate to point out the roots of Orphism and Pythagorianism may very well have been influenced by Siberian Shamanism.