Daemonology: An Introduction

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, reveals a very rich fountain of knowledge with direct importance to the comprehension of the worldview shared by magical practitioners from every age and culture.

In Dæmonology: An Introduction With a Selection of Texts, Humberto Maggi brings together numerous threads into one cohesive whole, addressing the diverse uses of the concept of the intermediary spirit in the history and practice of Magic, and its correlates in other cultures. The selected texts included in this volume are as follows:

Magical Operation of Pnouthis [PGM I. 1-42 & PGM I. 42-195]

On Angels and Daemonae & the Peculiar Dæmon, from Iamblichus’ work On the Mysteries, comes from the Thomas Taylor translation from 1822.

On the Divination of Demons, by Saint Augustine, was translated from the Spanish in the Obras Completas de San Agustín, from the Federación Agustiniana Española.

On the Order of the Evil Spiritis and the Triple Good Dæmon, chapters from Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy, are from the eletronic version made by Joseph H. Peterson and are used with his permission.

The Isagoge is from a facsimile copy of the 1655 edition of the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy.

The texts from the Discoverie of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot, come from a facsimile of the 1886 edition.