Magick, Art, & Alchemy

New Release

Mephistopheles Mercurialis

The definitive analysis of Goethe’s philosophical and psychological masterpiece, now available!

Unlike traditional folklore where a sorcerer sells his soul for Black Magick and earthly desires, Goethe transforms his protagonist Faust into a symbol of modernity that deals with humanity’s restless ambition. Plimer details Goethe’s extensive use of sources that span a variety of esoteric fields including ancient Classical languages, Philosophy, and religious texts. Plimer also examines the development of the ‘Daimonic’ and ‘Shadow self’ by demonstrating how Goethe’s understanding of Magi and Magical practice was influenced by various Germanic, medieval folkloric and Renaissance Grimoiric sources Including Goethe’s own initiation through the pietist Maria von Klettenberg and who influenced Goethe’s Alchemical praxei and Rosicrucian theosophy, including his later initiation into Freemasonry.

For Plimer, Goethe’s Faust is therefore a true Philosophical and Psychological masterpiece, which would go on to pave the way for several later writers and thinkers including Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Husserl and Schopenhauer, Thomas Mann and George Eliot, Rudolph Steiner and even Walt Disney. Originally, Plimer was attracted to Goethe’s ‘Faust’ over 40 years ago, but who only now feels esoterically competent enough to deal with its astonishing depth and relevance for the modern occultist.