Printed in the Winter 2026 issue of Quest magazine.
Occult: Decoding the Visual Culture of Mysticism, Magic, and Divination
PETER FORSHAW
London: Thames & Hudson, 2025. 256 pp., hardcover, $35.
Occult: Decoding the Visual Culture of Mysticism, Magic, and Divination is fun, fascinating, and lavishly illustrated. Despite some idiosyncrasies and challenges, the book strongly delivers on its initial promise: to set forth, detail, and, when possible, cross-connect the visual aspects of a vast array of occult, mystical, and magical creations. It presents and describes ancient, medieval, and modern works from “the mouths of mages and sages, astrologers and alchemists, Hermetists and Kabbalists,” along with those from “the hands of artists, composers, performers and others drawn to the occult wisdom of the past.”
The result is a collection of “intriguing examples of . . . beliefs and practices, illustrated with original images from books and manuscripts, material survivals (such as talismans, magic mirrors and crystal balls) and works that they have inspired.”
Author Peter Forshaw brings to bear two significant strengths. First, as a faculty member in the department of history of the University of Amsterdam, associated with the Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, he is a professional, academic historian whose familiarity with these materials stands out. For example, his condensed summary of Dion Fortune’s Mystical Qabalah (1935) is both pithy and expansive: “Students are introduced to the sefirot in the four worlds, the interconnecting paths on the Tree of Life, with information on related magical images that can be used, text from the Sefer Yetzirah, associate names of God, archangels, angelic orders, yogic chakras, spiritual experiences, virtues to be cultivated, vices to be avoided, correspondences with the microcosm, related tarot cards, and so on.”
Forshaw’s second strength is his publisher, Thames and Hudson, well known for its archive of images and photographs. With high-quality printing and detailed image descriptions and labels, this book will grasp the imagination of many readers interested in these subjects. Even students well-versed in occult studies will be glad for the diversity of images, and those who merely “look at the pictures” will find themselves delighted and more knowledgeable than when they started.
As for the idiosyncrasies and challenges, they begin with the book’s unique overall architecture, laid out as follows:
1. Introduction (“As Above So Below”)
2. “Foundations,” with “Astrology,” “Alchemy,” and “Kabbalah” chapters
3. “Occult Philosophy,” with “Natural Magic,” “Astral Magic,” and “Ritual Magic” chapters
4. “Occult Revival,” with “Occultism,” “Tarot,” and “New Age & Occulture” chapters
The “Foundations” section is strong, and the “Natural Magic” chapter ably focuses “on discovering the secrets of nature, the occult properties of the animals, vegetables, minerals and stones . . . of the world.”
The next chapter, “Astral Magic,” involves the “belief that astrological influences from the heavens can be harnessed and manipulated through the creation of physical objects, such as rings or talismans, that become containers of celestial energies.”
Then come the final three “Occult Revival” chapters, with “Occultism” focusing on the nineteenth-century revival of magical lodges and organizations, but this of course involves a good look at ritual magic, which was previously covered in the “Ritual Magic” chapter. And then the “Tarot” chapter begins by bringing us all the way back to the fifteenth century, before the next and final chapter zooms ahead to the late twentieth-century New Age movement and “Occulture” (a combination of “occult” and “culture”) through the beginning of the twenty-first century—including Dior’s commissioned embroidered Tarot card coat for its autumn-winter 2017–18 clothing collection.
The simplest explanation for these overlaps and temporal see-saws—which are a bit disjointed for anyone wanting to read the book straight through—is that the chosen images have at least in part driven the book’s organizational choices. For example, there are extensive illustrations of astrological seals and astrological talismans, so perhaps having a separate chapter on “Astral Magic,” in addition to the earlier “Astrology” chapter, was called for.
Similarly challenging is the back-and-forth hunting and connecting that the reader must do to match up the descriptions of images and the images themselves, which are often two or three pages later or earlier. Deciding whether to read the text straight through (and temporarily skip over images) or whether to stop and first look at the images (resulting in the loss of textual continuity) can be difficult.
Finally, for some, this book may leave out something important: we never learn much about what the author himself thinks of all this, that is, which parts of the occult are real, true, and powerful, what practices and symbols bring about magical and mystical results, and where interested practitioners might most beneficially place their effort and focus. Forshaw may have a personal set of practices and interests among the wide realms he covers, but we never find out. Since this is just not that kind of book, we are not given distilled learnings or a trusted practical voice to guide us through the nitty-gritty of the occult, magic, and mysticism.
Instead, what we have here is a promise made good: a visually gorgeous gazetteer, an astounding picture book of luminous intensity, color, form, and information. Not only will it make a great gift for anyone even vaguely interested in the subject, it provides an enjoyable and often thrilling look at many centuries of human artistic and creative efforts inspired by religious, mystical, and magical impulses.
Jordan Gruber
The reviewer is coauthor, with James Fadiman, of Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance (2025) and Your Symphony of Selves (2020).