Van den Broek is a well-known Dutch expert of gnosticism and hermetism and he translated some of the major texts of these currents to Dutch. Hanegraaff is head of the Amsterdam hermetic academy which investigates western esotericism at a university-level. Hanegraaff has several books on his name. The current work is a compilation of 18 essays of mostly Dutch writers. It covers a wide range of subjects, such as ancient gnosticism and hermetism, Renaissance hermeticism, Manicheism, Christian theosophy, music, art and ‘even’ western esotericism in New Age (a beloved subject of Hanegraaff). The articles are well-written. They may not all tell something new for people who have read more about the subjects, but new names give new insights and some subjects are new, so all in all I can recommand this book both to ‘newbies’ as to people who are better read in the subjects.