100 books like Wisdom of the Ancients

By Lobsang Rampa,

Here are 100 books that Wisdom of the Ancients fans have personally recommended if you like Wisdom of the Ancients. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Ramtha: The White Book

H. Gibson Author Of Preserving Creata

From my list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Han. During my NDE I was informed by Light Beings that I should write my soul adventures. My body was burnt to a crisp. It did not even have hands! But back we came and after publishing more than 2 million words of Past Life adventures, readers keep on reporting that the Chronicles of Han books change their lives. It is with gratitude that I realize that the information in the books I am sharing with you have helped me through the years, during the accident where I should have died, and the healing process that now assists thousands of individuals. 

H.'s book list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation

H. Gibson Why did H. love this book?

The history of Ramptha by Ramptha himself, channeled through one of his descendant's bodies (author J Z Knight). Ramtha was a Lemurian warrior who fought the Atlanteans over 35,000 years ago.

I found this book after my Near Death Experience during which I was awakened to my memories of all my previous lives. While reading this book, my body shook uncontrollably with heightened vibrations, a sure sign that my soul recognized the history and I was part of it in a Past Life.

This book gives insight about the original world, of one of the times of humans and their fall, also about enlightenment and what it means. In this book I also discovered, and confirmed, who I used to be in that lifetime.

By J.Z. Knight,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ramtha as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The classic introduction to Ramtha and his teachings now revised and expanded with a Foreword by JZ Knight, a glossary of terms and concepts used by Ramtha, a detailed index and a commentary essay by Jaime Leal-Anaya showing the significance of Ramtha s teachings. It addresses questions on the Source of all existence, our forgotten divinity, life after death, evolution, love, the power of consciousness and the mind, lessons from nature, and Ramtha s ascension.


Book cover of Working with the Law: 11 Truth Principles for Successful Living

H. Gibson Author Of Preserving Creata

From my list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Han. During my NDE I was informed by Light Beings that I should write my soul adventures. My body was burnt to a crisp. It did not even have hands! But back we came and after publishing more than 2 million words of Past Life adventures, readers keep on reporting that the Chronicles of Han books change their lives. It is with gratitude that I realize that the information in the books I am sharing with you have helped me through the years, during the accident where I should have died, and the healing process that now assists thousands of individuals. 

H.'s book list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation

H. Gibson Why did H. love this book?

Along with the Lobsang Rampa series, as well as The Secret of the Ages, this book came into my possession after their owner passed over.

Working with the Law teaches the natural way of working with the energy of Creation to build the appropriate life for yourself. It laid a solid foundation for living life honourably I am still referring to on a daily basis.

By Raymond Holliwell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Working with the Law as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A classic guide to becoming the master of our circumstances There are countless laws that impact on our daily lives and actions. But there are other laws just waiting to be discovered and put to work from within--laws that anyone can use to live a limitless and prosperous life. After many printings, the lessons in WORKING WITH THE LAW are still being taught in numerous workshops around the country and continue to provide the reader with a new opportunity to take action and re-think their strategy for success by simply working with the law.

Science has defined a variety of…


Book cover of The Secret of the Ages: The Master Code to Abundance and Achievement

H. Gibson Author Of Preserving Creata

From my list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Han. During my NDE I was informed by Light Beings that I should write my soul adventures. My body was burnt to a crisp. It did not even have hands! But back we came and after publishing more than 2 million words of Past Life adventures, readers keep on reporting that the Chronicles of Han books change their lives. It is with gratitude that I realize that the information in the books I am sharing with you have helped me through the years, during the accident where I should have died, and the healing process that now assists thousands of individuals. 

H.'s book list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation

H. Gibson Why did H. love this book?

I consider this book The Original "The Secret" just much more practical without any secrets at all.

I truly adore this book, referring clients who want to change their lives to study it and implement the lessons. It teaches the fundamentals of self-mastery, self-discipline and focus. The knowledge contained is basically a form of meditation you can use anytime in any situation.

By Robert Collier,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Secret of the Ages as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Joining the ranks of Tarcher's runaway editions of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Public Speaking for Success by Dale Carnegie, and The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, here are three landmark guides to a life of prosperity-now restored to print in beautiful, signature volumes.

- Newly discovered by fans of The Secret, the metaphysical writer Wallace D. Wattles distills the rules of real power and personal achievement in his slender, immensely practical The Science of Being Great-the companion work to The Science of Getting Rich.

- Publisher Robert Collier taught millions of people how to…


Book cover of The Puppet Master's Secret

H. Gibson Author Of Preserving Creata

From my list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Han. During my NDE I was informed by Light Beings that I should write my soul adventures. My body was burnt to a crisp. It did not even have hands! But back we came and after publishing more than 2 million words of Past Life adventures, readers keep on reporting that the Chronicles of Han books change their lives. It is with gratitude that I realize that the information in the books I am sharing with you have helped me through the years, during the accident where I should have died, and the healing process that now assists thousands of individuals. 

H.'s book list on esoteric mysteries with a glimpse of Creation

H. Gibson Why did H. love this book?

Where The Alchemist is considered the beginner's book on esoteric wisdom, The Puppet Master's Secret is the PHD book about Fractals and what it means to be one, how it feels to be one, as well as the possibilities an awakened Fractal may consider after an incarnation.

This book hits home hard as I'm a Fractal of my Overself as well. The author is a personal friend who used some of our conversations in this book, making it a private biographical adventure for me. This book is meant to assist other Fractals on their journeys to decide if they want to become their own individuals.

By Cathy Mc Donald,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Puppet Master's Secret as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of The Tarot: A Collection of Secret Wisdom from Tarot's Mystical Origins

Angelo Nasios Author Of Tarot Tracker: A Year-Long Journey

From my list on tarot books to own.

Why am I passionate about this?

I found the tarot at the age of fourteen. Like many teenagers exploring the spirit world, I was curious about witchcraft, prophecies, numerology, astrology – it was a matter of time until I found the Tarot and fell in love with the cards. From studying Tarot, I branched out into Gnosticism, Kabbalah, and finally coming home to my culture’s Hellenic Tradition (Hellenism). I went on to college to receive a B.A. in Religion and later a M.A. in Ancient History.  I give the Tarot large credit to all my later achievements in life. Those 78 cards opened my eyes to a whole world of mysteries to be unlocked.  

Angelo's book list on tarot books to own

Angelo Nasios Why did Angelo love this book?

This pick is for the history nerds like me. This book provides, in a single volume over ten selections from foundational tarot books from the last two hundred years. This book is definitely for the enthusiast who wants to go back to the study texts that are out of print or to go back to the beginning of occult Tarot. This book includes ‘old school’ fortunetelling techniques not seen in a long time. I love some old fashion fortunetelling techniques. This is also a recently published book, so you can show off a fresh hot big book on Instagram to make the followers go “ooooo.” 

By F. Homer Curtiss, Harriette Augusta Curtiss, Manly P. Hall , Papus , S.L. MacGregor Mathers , Arthur Edward Waite , Eliphaz Levi , P.D. Ouspensky , P.R.S. Foli

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Tarot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A major contribution!"
-Rachel Pollack, bestselling author of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom

The definitive collection of rare, secret, and arcane tarot knowledge

The Tarot: A Collection of Secret Wisdom from Tarot's Mystical Origins is the ultimate guide to the mysteries and lost knowledge of the tarot. This single volume includes more than ten selections from foundational tarot books, all from the 19th and 20th century. Many of these critical texts have been forgotten, fallen out of print, or are impossible to acquire. The Tarot reintroduces these books to the modern-day reader, unlocking the invisible power of the tarot for a…


Book cover of The Magical World of Aleister Crowley

Phil Baker Author Of City of the Beast: The London of Aleister Crowley

From my list on the beast.

Why am I passionate about this?

I used to love Dennis Wheatley’s Satanic pulp fiction when I was about twelve—like a gateway drugand graduated on to read my first Crowley biography a year or two later. I was gripped. As the years went by I developed what might seem like more serious interests in reading about psychoanalysis, Buddhism, and surrealism, but it’s really the same area. I used to think it was funny that the Dewey library system puts Freud and the occult next to each other, but now I see it makes perfect sense. It’s all about the mind, and inner experience, and Crowley remains one of its towering figures. 

Phil's book list on the beast

Phil Baker Why did Phil love this book?

An atmospheric biographya book you can curl up withby British occultist King (not to be confused with the more ‘literary establishment’ Francis King, a respected gay novelist; our man sometimes called himself Francis X King to distinguish between them). King was a quietly eccentric character who had been traumatized by his experiences in the Korean War, and at one stage sold ice cream on Bournemouth beach. Steeped in the Golden Dawn tradition, his other books include works on alchemy, Western esotericism, tantra, and more, and he was a friend of Crowley’s friend Gerald Yorke, who also wrote on those subjects. I’ve always had a soft spot for their charmingly old-school, gentlemanly style of bygone British occult scholarship.

By Francis King,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Magical World of Aleister Crowley as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by King, Francis


Book cover of Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare

Phil Baker Author Of Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London's Lost Artist

From my list on Austin Osman Spare.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first encountered Spare in my early teens, when I was reading books about the occult, and then forgot about him for a few years. As time went by, I grew more interested in surrealism, psychoanalysis, and Buddhism, but I never quite abandoned magic, and I came to see it’s really the same area. I used to think it was funny that the Dewey library classification system puts Freud and the occult next to each other, but now I see it makes perfect sense. It’s all about exploring the mind and inner experience. And Austin Osman Spare, like Crowley and the surrealists, is among its most interesting figures.  

Phil's book list on Austin Osman Spare

Phil Baker Why did Phil love this book?

This is an unreliable but very readable book from occult writer Kenneth Grant. I used to find the title mysterious; it really means images and oracular worlds, and I remember seeing great heaps of this book remaindered in the 1980s, little knowing it would go on to fetch £300 a copy. Fortunately, Fulgur have since produced an affordable edition.

Grant’s depiction of Spare is heavily influenced by his reading of popular fiction writers like Arthur Machen, Sax Rohmer, and H.P. Lovecraft, and he gives us Spare, the black magician seduced in childhood by an elderly witch, who launches “an amphibious owl with the wings of a bat” into a conflict between magical groups. This is really the book that started the “Spare Mythos.”

By Kenneth Grant,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Images and Oracles remains one of the most influential works on esoteric magick and mystical art produced in the last thirty years. Part One discusses Spare's life and biographical anecdotes while Part Two provides Kenneth Grant' important analysis and co


Book cover of Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England

Larry Silver Author Of Europe Views the World, 1500-1700

From my list on values in European historical periods.

Why am I passionate about this?

A retired professor, an art historian who taught at Berkeley, Northwestern, and the University of Pennsylvania. Since my main interest is the emergence of Europe from the late Middle Ages and into the Early Modern period around 1500, I naturally gravitate to non-fiction books that engage with the shifting interests and values of that era, and my own books include similar efforts to discuss visual art in relation to religion, literature, politics, and wider contemporary cultural movements. Among my own books I would cite: Rubens, Velázquez, and the King of Spain (with Aneta Georgievska-Shine); Europe Views the World, 1500-1700; and the forthcoming Art and Dis-Illusion in the Long Sixteenth Century.

Larry's book list on values in European historical periods

Larry Silver Why did Larry love this book?

An unlikely complement to Huizinga tracing the overlap between magical beliefs in religion as well as astrology and the emerging accusations of witchcraft. Deeply immersed in research about 16th-17th century England, this book offers a form of historical anthropology for baseline views of the strange ideas that drove spiritual life.

By Keith Thomas,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Religion and the Decline of Magic as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas's classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of English society begins with the collapse of the medieval Church and ends with the changing intellectual atmosphere around 1700, when science and…


Book cover of The Occultists

David Allen Voyles Author Of Tales from the Hearse: Thirteen Tales of Spine-Tingling Terror

From my list on horror you’ve probably never heard of but should.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have loved Halloween horror my whole life. As a teacher of literature, I always looked forward to October when I had a green light to incorporate the greatest horror authors into my lessons. The desire to share new horror stories did not fade when I retired. There are so many wonderful new authors of horror it’s impossible to read them all! But there’s also a lot of trash out there—I know, I’ve read it! My lifelong love of spooky things and my background in literature make me confident that I won’t be steering readers wrong when they look to me for the best new reads in horror.

David's book list on horror you’ve probably never heard of but should

David Allen Voyles Why did David love this book?

I love a good coming-of-age story coupled with supernatural events in a period-piece setting, and that’s exactly what Polly Schattel serves up. Her cinematic style of story-telling (her filmmaking past is obvious) offers up a vivid picture of her protagonist, young Max Grahame as he journeys literally across the country from his home in Georgia and metaphorically as he discovers more about who he is and what his budding supernatural talents entail. Schattel is also a master of creating rich supporting characters ranging from the other children whom Max meets as he first undergoes his occult training to the mysterious adults whose spiritual machinations are woven into the history of this turn-of-the-century setting. This book begs to be made into a movie, but Schattel helps you create one in your head.

By Polly Schattel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Occultists as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sssshhhhhhhh...

For Edwardian-era spiritualists and illusionists, silence is more than a strategy; it's a way of life. And when Max Grahame, a bullied, small-town teen, discovers a secretive world of occultism and séances right under his nose, he can hardly contain his excitement.

But as Max begins his conjurer's lessons in earnest, his newfound knowledge exposes the group's dark and deeply sinister designs, leading a game of supernatural cat and mouse that takes him from the ancient hills of rural Georgia and the mystic plains of the Midwest to fin-de-siècle Manhattan...and beyond.

Impeccably researched and wildly imaginative, The Occultists is…


Book cover of Raising Hell: A Concise History of the Black Arts and Those Who Dared to Practice Them

Eve Lestrange Author Of Widdershins

From my list on occult, witchcraft, and a little mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

From the time I was very young, Witchcraft and the supernatural have always fascinated me. I can remember staying up late to watch horror movies or reading an Edgar Allen Poe book under the sheets with a flashlight when I was supposed to be asleep. I knew this was never a phase or something I would “outgrow”; the spell had been cast and I was forever in its power. I’ve tried to read everything I could on Witchcraft, its history and practice and anything regarding the occult. It was all of this reading and research that really helped me to write Widdershins and everything that came after. Enjoy the list!

Eve's book list on occult, witchcraft, and a little mystery

Eve Lestrange Why did Eve love this book?

This is an excellent, yet brief history of the Black Arts and the famous (or infamous) people who practiced them. It was while reading this book, particularly the chapter on LaVoisin, that inspired the story of Christina Lafage, the main character in Widdershins. The book also describes other interesting practitioners, such as Dr. John Dee, Eliphas Levi, Nostradamus, Aleister Crowley, and many more. The chapters on Black Magic and Sorcery and Raising the Dead also contributed to my ideas for my book. I often find myself referring to this book over and over again for great source material.

By Robert Masello,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Raising Hell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A concise history of the black arts and those who practise them.


Book cover of Ramtha: The White Book
Book cover of Working with the Law: 11 Truth Principles for Successful Living
Book cover of The Secret of the Ages: The Master Code to Abundance and Achievement

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