In the authors introduction we find immediately the struggle between the trained scientific mind and the magicians yearning for supernatural, daemonic experience, an ecstatic awakening which is the key feature of Humberto Maggi’s endeavours. For thirty years he has dug deeply into the textbooks of magic and into the layers of his own psyche, showing throughout these essays a profound grasp of both the esoteric literature of magic and the subtle nature of our relationship to the spirits.
The sixteen lengthy essays in the book are:
Daemonic Knowledge:
an intimate discussion of the prime feature of magical experience as described in ancient literature and the philosophy of magic
The Lesson of Phenex:
conjuration of the Goetic spirit with proofs of the objective nature of spirits and their effects upon us
The Tree of the Grimoires:
the survival of shamanic iconography and ecstatic experience echoed in grimoire literature
The Language of the Birds:
on the true nature of magical language, the subtle communications of spirits being the prime material of communication and thus facilitating human evolution as shown in the authors invocations of the Angels in the ARS PAULINA
Crossing Worlds:
dissolving the apparent dichotomy between Goetic and Theurgic magic, Maggi discusses the facility for both angelic and demonic discourse within the self and as expressed in ones personal experiences including the invocations of the Seven Great Princes
The Solomonic Spirit:
concerning Humberto Maggis personal invocation of The Holy Guardian Angel, the parallels with other forms of magical practise and the assertion of scientific method to the communion of spirits
The Lord of the Good Tree:
Babylonian and Sumerian legends are woven together with those of the biblical Satan and the gnostic allegory of the shadow cave, a dissertation on the nature of magical perception
The Gnosis of the Devil:
The past and future practise of Quimbanda with some personal observations and encounters with EXU, the spirit chiefs of the GrimoiriumVerum aligned with the hierarchy of the Exus
The White Snake:
On the nature of the wisdom tree and its powerful energetic revealer deity the Serpentine God of Magic and the deities of Vision and Rainbow
The Great War of Magic:
The impact of the Renaissance of occultism and the return of Hermes Trismegistus in the early modern period redefining the nature of the Magus and the creation of our esoteric utopia
The Saint, the Magus, and the Devil:
The inheritance of the conjurers craft, shamanism and the Knowledge and Conversation of Spirits, the torments of St.Anthony and the lessons learnt from explorations into the world of the demons
Ars Moriendi:
The arts of necromancy, magical eschatology and the ArsMoriendiMagicae, survival of the consciousness after death
Faustus’s Good Friend:
Being an archaeology of late antiquity magical techniques obscurely found in in Christian legends; Simon Magus, Mephistopheles and Faustus, the Sanctum Regnumof the Dragon Rouge and the ‘paredros’ of the Papyri GraecaeMagicae with a disquisition on conjuring the magical assistant
The New World of Saint Cyprian:
Contact with the grimoire of Cyprian in Brasil and Angola, a discussion of the transformation of Cyprian the Mage and his influence on sorcery
The Spirit of Saint Cyprian:
The Black Pilgrimage to Sintra, Toldeo and Paris, with a vision of the Devil…
