The Myth of the Magus

The Magus a legendary magician of superhuman powers is an archetype central to myth and religion across many cultures. Identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals performed by a shaman or wizard to ensure the prosperity of his tribe E. M. Butler goes on to trace its subsequent development in pre-Christian religious and mystic philosophers in medieval sorcerers and alchemists and finally in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century occult revival. From Zoroaster to Solomon Merlin to Faust Cagliostro to Rasputin legends of the Magus are explored and where possible compared with the historical record in this fascinating account first published in 1948 of one of the major figures in religious and occult mythology.