List of notable occultists and mystics. This is a list of notable people, whether contemporary, historical or legendary, who are or were involved in any of the following practices and traditions:
- paranormal or supernatural magic, 'black' or 'white'
- witchcraft
- sorcery
- wizardry
- astrology
- alchemy
- practical mysticism
- voodoo
- divination and fortune-telling
- theurgy
Since this subject has attracted hoaxes, folklore, and tall tales, the inclusion of historical persons is limited based on considerations of accepted historical fact - a restriction which obviously does not apply to legendary or mythological figures. For a list of sleight of hand artists and practitioners of stage magic, see: List of magicians.
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Famous magicians
Some historical or legendary magicians, wizards, witches, or people who have been claimed to be so, are:
Classical mythology
- Cassandra, oracle
- Circe, legendary sorceress
- Hecate, goddess of witchcraft
- Medea, legendary sorceress
- Semiramis, semi-legendary queen and sorceress
Ancient world
- Apollonius of Tyana, wizard
- Apuleius, author of a magical novel
- Abaris the Hyperborean
- Elymas, Jewish magus who opposed Paul on Cyprus
- Gyges of Lydia, king said to possess magical artifacts
- Heraclitus, philosopher important in occultism
- Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth
- Iamblichus, neo-platonist philosopher, espoused theurgy
- Iannes and Mambres, magicians at Pharaoh's court mentioned in the New Testament
- Julian, practiced occult theurgy
- Plato, philosopher important in occultism
- Plotinus, neo-platonist philosopher important in occultism
- Pythagoras, philosopher important in occultism
- Simon Magus, magician mentioned in New Testament
- Virgil, subjected to magical legends
- The Witch of Endor, Biblical witch and spirit medium
- Zhang Jiao, leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion
- Zhuge Liang, advisor to Liu Bei during the Three Kingdoms period
Mediæval Europe
- Abraham Abulafia, kabalist "messiah"
- Albertus Magnus, had many magical texts attributed to him
- Gilles de Rais, serial killer accused of sorcery
- Merlin, (probably fictional) Arthurian wizard
- Morgan le Fay, witch sister of King Arthur
- Nicolas Flamel, alchemist
- Ramon Llull, syncretic mystic
- Roger Bacon, philosopher accused of magic
Renaissance
- Abramelin the Mage, alleged author of a grimoire
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, occult philosopher, astrologer
- Olaus Borrichius, alchemist
- Sir Thomas Browne, hermetic author
- Giordano Bruno, occult philosopher
- Benevenuto Cellini, sculptor whose diary relates experience summoning spirits
- Christina of Sweden, abdicated Queen who dabbled in alchemy
- Arthur Dee, hermetic author, and son of John Dee
- John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's court astrologist.
- Gerhard Dorn, Belgian follower of Paracelsus
- Faust, made a pact with the Devil, also see Doctor Faustus
- Robert Fludd, occult philosopher and astrologer
- Edward Kelley, medium who assisted John Dee
- Athanasius Kircher, Jesuit priest, wrote on magical subjects
- John Lambe, astrologer to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
- Nostradamus, soothsayer, seer, astrologer
- Paracelsus, medical pioneer and occult philosopher
- Henry Percy, "Wizard Earl"
- Sir Walter Raleigh, practiced alchemy
- Johannes Reuchlin, German cabalist magician, summoned angels
- Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor, employed alchemists
- Ursula Southeil
- Johannes Trithemius, cryptographer and magical writer
- Johann Weyer (aka Johannes Wierus), German physician, occultist and demonologist
Enlightenment and early modern period
- Ulrica Arfvidsson, politically influential Swedish fortune-teller.
- Giuseppe Balsamo, "Count Alessandro di Cagliostro," occult charlatan
- Antoine Court de Gebelin, connected tarot and esotericism
- Etteilla, fortune-teller
- Isobel Gowdie, self-confessed witch
- Matthew Hopkins, commissioned English witch-finder
- Margaret Matson, New Sweden (colony) witch
- Françoise Athenaïs Rochechouart, marquise de Montespan, royal mistress
- Sir Isaac Newton, physicist and alchemist
- Count of St Germain, alchemist
- Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, founder of Martinism, writer known as the Unknown Philosopher
- Emanuel Swedenborg, alchemist, founder of Swedenborgianism
- "La Voisin", French sorceress
- Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati
Nineteenth century
- Evangeline Adams, astrologer to the famous
- Francis Barrett, wrote a book on magic
- Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym, French demonologist
- Algernon Blackwood, member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- William Blake, poet of the occult
- Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, author of several occult novels
- Constant Chevillon, the head of FUDOFSI
- Robert Felkin, medical missionary and explorer, member of Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Stella Matutina, author on Africa and medicine
- Henri Gamache, authority on the Evil Eye
- A. Frank Glahn
- Rudolf John Gorsleben
- Stanislas de Guaita, occult author
- John George Hohman, American wizard
- Allan Kardec, founder of Spiritism
- William Lyon MacKenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada
- Siegfried Adolf Kummer
- Marie Laveau, American voodoo practitioner
- Marie Anne Lenormand, fortune-teller favoured by Joséphine de Beauharnais
- Eliphas Lévi, occult author
- Harvey Spencer Lewis, founder of AMORC
- Ralph Maxwell Lewis, Imperator of AMORC
- Guido von List
- Arthur Machen, member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Friedrich Bernhard Marby
- Moina Mathers, first initiate in Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, wife of S.L. MacGregor Mathers, and Imperatrix of the Alpha et Omega
- Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers, founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Evan Morgan, poet and aristocrat Lord Tredegar
- Papus, pseudonym for Gérard Encausse, occult author
- Carl Reichenbach
- Theodor Reuss
- Arthur Rimbaud, visionary poet, adventurer
- Pamela Colman Smith, Golden Dawn member, artist, did tarot deck
- Ludwig Straniak
- August Strindberg, dramatist, alchemist
- Arthur Edward Waite, occult author and member of Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Dr. William Wynn Westcott, cofounder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Hellmut Wolff
- William Butler Yeats, poet, Golden Dawn member, astrologer
