The subtitle on the title page, but not on the cover, is "Construction of a Personal Temple and Magical instruments in the Western Esoteric Tradition." In a genre other than magic I might call this a how-to book, but it doesn't tell you how to do magic, or much about magic at all. What it does do is give instructions for building the altar, tools and decorations associated with working the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn system of magic. If I were handy (I am not), or were interested in having a HOGD temple in my home, I would find the instructions very useful. The book includes color plates of each item, too. ( )