Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Papyrus of Abaris [Paperback]

Stephen Edred Flowers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2009

The Egyptians worshipped their own gods with particular rituals. This translation of The Magical Papyrus of Abaris shows modern seekers how to perform their own ritual celebrations of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stephen Flowers presents a holistic view of the magic practiced in the eastern Mediterranean region in early A. D. - and brings those ideas and practices to life in a new and more relevant way. Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris describes the roots of the Hermetic tradition in Greek, Egyptian and Hebrew cultures. Flowers provides keys to Hermetic magical theory, cosmology, and concept of the soul and outlines the complex Hermetic world of Divinities and Daimons, plus magical lore for the Greek alphabet, the Egyptian hieroglyphics and other alphabets. Readers will find the basis for experimentation in the conceptual world of the ancient Hermetic magicians and instructions for performance of 53 operations based on an authentic text from the Greek magical papyri of pagan Egypt. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel / Weiser (May 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877288283
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288282
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #851,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Thought Out and Presented, June 21, 2003

By 

Stone Mirror "Cult Leader" (Santa Cruz, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Papyrus of Abaris (Paperback)

I found this to be an excellent introduction to Graeco-Egyptian magic of the sort documented in the Greek Magical Papyri.

Flowers takes the Greek Magical Papyri as a starting point for a pretty thorough investigation of how one might construct a consistent and coherent system of personal magical practice. This is more than simply a canned reworking of a bunch of ancient spells, but a well-constructed and systematic walk through the development of a system of magical cosmology, theology, theory and praxis.

This isn't a beginner's book. A decent grounding in ceremonial magic theory is definitely recommended. Better books in that vein might be Crowley's "Magick", or Regardie's "The Golden Dawn". For a practitioner with the necessary background, this is potentially an extremely valuable book.

Another review makes a number of loose assertions, particularly that Flowers has wilfully mistranslated the spells in order to put some sort of "Satanic" spin on them. Flowers helpfully provides full references to the Greek papyri throughout this book, and I've verified that there is no substance to the other reviewer's claims. I went so far as to email him to see if he had any rebuttal to make, but haven't ever received a response. The references back to Betz are consistent and complete; it's trivial to verify that there are no "tricks" in the translations.

I recommend getting a copy of Betz' book as well, not only as a cross reference, but for access to a wealth of other related material which Flowers did not incorporate. Flowers has included a variety of useful tables and diagrams of relevant material, including details of several writing systems used in the source material.

Highly recommended.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Consider this a rebuttal, January 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Papyrus of Abaris (Paperback)

The review below makes some rather unfortunate statements, the most striking being the idea of this book having an Anti-Semetic tone. That the Kabbalah has its origin in Greek Culture is hardly a new or controversial standpoint to anyone other than an Occultist, and to take this to be Anti-Semetic is just foolish.

This book stands as one of the few books written to the Occult audience with a strong historical background and top-notched scholarship. It is an excellent companion to the Greek Magical Papyrus in that it removes much of the coding and allows for a more Post-Modern outlook.Brooklyn

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide to the World of the Magical Papyri, December 2, 2009

By 

Jason Hurd "Kitsula" (Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Papyrus of Abaris (Paperback)

Flower's Hermetic Magic was something I took a chance on. I was somewhat interested in the Greek Magical Papyri as an example of authentic pagan magical practices of the Roman Imperial Era and Flower's book promised to provide a guide to them and the milieu of ancient Hermeticism.

Every review I found online was utterly unhelpful as they tended to center on the author, Stephen Edred Flowers, who is controversial due to his membership in the Temple of Set and being a founder of several Ásatrú groups (See his Wiki Page for more information). A good portion of the reviews of this book are more or less rants & character assassinations while another good portion exists to defend/praise Flowers. Very few reviews actually discussed the book in any detail.

Taking my chances, I decided to get the book and I was presently surprised as it seems to be an excellent introduction to the Greek Magical Papyri from a practical standpoint and provides a good background and jumping off point for further exploration. It however has some distracting features such as Flower's Setian background showing through in parts along with controversial opinions bleeding through and treated as fact - which I will point out later in my review.

The book is presented in several sections: History - which takes a quick look at the cultural streams present in the Papyri (Flowers identifies Hellenic, Egyptian, Iranian, Gnostic, Semitic, and Christian streams). In the 'Theory' section Flowers takes a look at the Cultural beliefs and practices of all the identified cultural streams and provides among other things an excellent look at Egyptian & Greek views of the parts of the Body (both physical and metaphysical), various cosmologies, the writing systems (which includes a short lessons on Hieroglyphics, Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic, Greek, and Semitic systems - an appendix also includes a pronunciation guide to the Greek of the Era), Greek Gematria, Iamblichus' Numerology, and a lot of really good nuggets of information intended as a jumping off points for deeper study - which Flowers heavily encourages.

The Praxis section is composed of a description of the most common tools used in the Papyri,a suggestion of frame rituals, and a collection of some of the more accessible workings from the Magical Papyri - Flowers strongly recommends getting Betz's The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (I have a copy).

Throughout the text Flowers promotes a post-modern approach to Magic that is very similar in some respects to Chaos Magic but Flowers tends to stress a more syncretistic approach over eclecticism. He urges the reader to experiment and incorporate more streams into their practice (with the ancient material as a guide) based upon what works. He also has a great call for rationalism in Magic which I have reproduced below:

"Rationality in magic must be rehabilitated. It must be restored to its rightful place as the foundation of magical development, but not as its essence. Modernism has split would-be magicians into two impotent camps - those who have rejected rationality all together (and have become so disorientated as to be virtually insane) and those who have embraced rationality totally (and have become virtually paralyzed as magicians)" (pp. 140-141)

Flower's book is not all wonderful however as in some instances his Setian background barges through and may alienate some readers such as his dislike of the 'decadent' Osirian Cult due to its increasingly demonetization of Set over time in later eras Ancient Egyptian civilization or his view of the historical Jesus being a libertine gnostic - granted that you can really say anything about Jesus given that the only non-religious source we have amounts to a mention but most of the earlier texts depict him as very faithful to the spirit and principles of the Torah and I tend to see the very late gnostic libertine view as an extreme long shot as a guide to the historical Jesus' character. In addition Flower's 'Left Hand' views (which are mostly centered on individualism and self-reliance) are evident in a couple of instances (where he clearly stating an opinion) that may alienate some readers but they are not really large obstacles.

Overall, it still it has more than enough good practical information about Greco-Roman-Egyptian Magic and the syncretistic world of late antiquity to make it well worth reading and an excellent springboard into further study and understanding (which is the intention of the book in the first place).