515 THE MAGUS

The Magus

Barret is best known for authoring or more accurately, for compiling the Magus. Published in London in 1801 it consists of selections from Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy attributed to Agrippa and the Robert Turner's 1655 translation of the Heptameron of Peter of Abano. Barrett made a few modifications and modernized the spelling and syntax of these selections.

Nevertheless, as the modern scholar of religion and magic, D. Michael Quinn notes the Magus had a great influence despite only one printing, "Barrett's book was not reprinted until 1875. Nonetheless, Francis King's study of the Western tradition of magic noted that the first edition of the Magus, 'played an important part in the English revival of magic'. Antoine Faivre has also emphasized Barrett's book in the general European revival of magic during the first decades of the 1800's." D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Signature, 1998) page 21. Here is a selection from the Magus on the Lunar Mansions which closely follows that of Cornelius Agrippa.