Daemonology: An introduction with a Selection of Texts. PDF

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DÆMONOLOGY An Introduction with a Selection of Texts Dæmonology: a n inTroDucTion wiTh a selecTion of TexTs Copyright © Humberto Maggi 2015 All Rights Reserved Worldwide Cover image: Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros, circa 1775. isbn 9...

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DÆMONOLOGY An Introduction with a

Selection of Texts

Dæmonology: a n inTroDucTion wiTh a selecTion of TexTs Copyright © Humberto Maggi 2015 All Rights Reserved Worldwide Cover image: Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros, circa 1775. isbn 978 1 907881 62 6 (hb) isbn 978 1 907881 63 3 (pb) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Except in the case of quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Humberto Maggi has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work. First published in Portuguese as Thesaurus Magicus 3 by Clube dos Autores, 2015 First English edition by Hadean Press West Yorkshire Printed in England

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DÆMONOLOGY An Introduction with a

Selection of Texts

Humberto Maggi

Contents Foreword..... vii Dæmonology: An Introduction..... 1 The Daimon of Socrates..... 10 Plato’s Other Daimons..... 15 Eros as a Magical Daimon..... 16 The Sublunary Daimons..... 20 Agathos Daimon..... 23 The Daimon of the Defixiones..... 24 The Paredros of Pnouthis..... 31 A Few Brief Considerations..... 36 The Theurgy of Iamblichus..... 40 The Peculiar Dæmon..... 51 Seventy-two Sages and The Angels Who Came Down..... 53 Christianity and Pre-Augustinian Theology..... 67 Augustinian Demons..... 73 The Magic of Christ..... 77 The Magical Renaissance..... 79 The Discoverie of Witchcraft..... 85 A Note on Etymology..... 88 The Selection of Texts..... 93 The Magical Operation of Pnouthis..... 95 On Angels and Dæmonae, and the Peculiar Dæmon..... 107 The Divination of Demons..... 127 On the Order of the Evil Spirits, and the Triple Good Dæmon..... 145 Isagoge: An Introductory Discourse of the nature of such Spirits..... 175 A Discourse upon divels and spirits (I & II)..... 209 Book XV and the Rules of Vaganostus..... 309 Bibliography..... 363 Index..... 367

Foreword s

This first volume in a collection devoted to the subject of the “daimon/dæmon” provides a comprehensive and detailed description of the intermediary spirits in the Western Tradition. Being a fundamental part of Magic, these spirits have important ramifications on the religions and philosophies from Late Antiquity through the present. Tracking the origins and developments of the concept of intermediary spirits under the terms “daimon/ dæmon”, from Homer to Augustine and beyond, revealed a very rich fountain of knowledge with direct importance to the comprehension of the worldview shared by magical practitioners from every age and culture. The “daimon/dæmon” was an essential idea for the eschatology of the pagan and Christian religions, from the cosmology of the different philosophies of the Greek-Roman culture to the practice of the magicians. The importance and the abundance of the material researched proved too much to exhaust in one single volume. The present volume narrates the evolution of classical dæmonology until the advent of Christianity and its further uses in Renaissance magic and grimoire literature. The forthcoming books of the collection deal more deeply with specific points of the subject, being The Greek-Roman Inheritance, The Christian Tradition, The Grimoire Literature, Torah-Talmud-Zohar and A Comparative Study.

The Selection of Texts Dæmonology is a branch of knowledge which depends almost exclusively on the reading of a vast array of texts from Archaic Greece to the most updated digressions on anthropology, and includes incursions into important precedents such as the Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures and shamanic practices. It is a fundamental topic in the antagonism between the orthodox Foreword

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views of the majoritarian Christian groups and pagan religions and magical philosophies. To facilitate and enrich the reader’s experience, each volume of the collection includes a selection of texts that defined or represented critical uses of the concept of the intermediary spirit during its evolution. This format allows for a more comfortable and immediate access to the pertinent original materials and opens the view to a more comprehensive understanding of the writings from the related religions, philosophies, and magical traditions mentioned. My great thanks go to Joseph H. Peterson for the use of his digital version of Three Books of Occult Philosophy. The texts of The Discoverie of Witchcraft in English of the sixteenth century are full of references difficult to identify. Jake Stratton-Kent, who knows very well this material, greatly helped me to understand many obscure points. However, there were cases where even our combined efforts were not enough to understand some passages. I must also thank Gal Sofer, who very graciously helped me with Hebrew words.

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Dæmonology: An Introduction with a Selection of Texts...