Bøker av David Pantano

- Presents Daffi's writings on unique and unusual experiences from five decades of alchemical and hermetic practice, available for the first time in English - Offers a view of Daffi's "Inner Laboratory" and his pioneering investigations into consciousness, past-life regression, Hermetic healing, and divination - Offers a psychological portrait of Daffi through writings by initiates, artists, and scholars who knew or had firsthand knowledge of the Baron Following the path set by renowned alchemist Giuliano Kremmerz, Marco Daffi was one of the most interesting and controversial protagonists of magical Hermeticism in the 20th century, a master initiate who illuminated the more esoteric aspects of Hermetic practice in terms of initiation, gnosis, eros, divination, and consciousness. In this comprehensive look at the man born Baron Ricciardo Ricciardelli yet better known by his spiritual name Marco Daffi, historian and researcher David Pantano presents Daffi's writings on some of the most unique and unusual topics within alchemical Hermeticism, available for the first time in English. Through his visionary writings, Daffi elucidates firsthand accounts of "initiatory experience" and the inner visions of Hermetic practices, supported by relevant experiential praxis. Readers are able to enter Daffi's "Inner Laboratory" and experience his pioneering investigations into the numinal or interdimensional aspects of consciousness. Daffi details the descensus ad inferno he took into the dark cavernous recesses of past-life regression for purposes of Hermetic healing. His writings also reveal his practical applications of oracular-modes of consciousness, especially by exercising his considerable mediumistic capabilities. Exploring the more human side of Daffi as well, Pantano shares biographical information on Ricciardelli and writings from initiates, artists, and scholars who knew or had firsthand knowledge of the Baron. These never-before-translated writings provide context and additional depth for the insights that permeate Daffi's alchemical and magical work and philosophy. Pantano also includes Daffi's own account of the infamous "Trial of the Magus," which pitted him against the grandson of Giuliano Kremmerz at the height of Italy's fascist era. Providing an inside view of the magus at work, a glimpse into the far-reaching spiritual horizon of a man who explored the depths of the astral realm and the most occult aspects of alchemy and Hermeticism, this book allows the reader to see with an initiate's eyes the kaleidoscopic prism of Daffi's expansive vision of reality.

The Magic Door is a study on myth, magic, and metamorphosis in the Italic (Italian) branch of the Western Inner Traditions. The Magic Door surveys a wide spectrum of esoteric traditions and explores the heroes, schools, and teachings that have provided the foundations for initiation in Italy, from Roman times to the present, in the broader context of an Occidental Tradition.The overarching themes that constitute this tradition include a perennial Western Empire (Hesperia), Atavistic Resurgences, Heroic Spirit, and internal practices specific to the Ars Italica: Magia, Amatoria, Memoria, Imaginatio, and Insomnium. Initiation in this context, from the Latin initiatus, refers to the individual inner journey to identify and integrate with the Principle (Self, Soul, Numen) and the corresponding Tradition (Olympia, Heroi, Aeneades). In this sense, initiation - like Aeneas' quest to reveal his future by finding the roots (principle) - refers to a process of self-discovery, identity, and tradition.Summary: Aeneas (archetypal hero of initiation) Heroic Initiation through the River Mnemosyne Spiritual Kingship Hesperia Myths and Symbols of Ancient Rome Vestal Virgins & the She-Wolf Golden Bough and the Italic Tree of Life Return of the Nostoi (Olympians) Pythagorean Brotherhoods and the Underground Basilica of Porta Maggiore Cicero and the Art of Dreaming Magical Realism of Virgil Ovid's Ars Amatoria Apuleius and the Art of Metamorphoses Symmachus, Last of the Olympians Macrobius' Commentary on the Dream of Scipio Dante and the Fedeli d'Amore Revival of the Platonic Academy in Renaissance Florence Marsilio Ficino on Divine Love Pico della Mirandola on the Christian Cabbala Julius Pomponius Laetus and the Roman Academy Francesco Colonna and the Strife of Love in a Dream Hermes Redividus in Ludovico Lazzarelli and Giovanni Mercurio Correggio Renaissance Origins of the Tarot Giordano Bruno on the Art of Magic Tommasso Campanella on the Practice of Philosophical Ecstasy Cesare Della Riviera on the Magical World of Heroes The Magic Door of Rome Chiron the Centaur Cagliostro and the Arcana Arcanorum Giambattista Vico and the Restoration of Ancient Italic Wisdom Domenico Bocchini, Giustiniano Lebano, and the Neapolitan Mysterio Sophic School Giuliano Kremmerz and the Fraternity of Myriam Julius Evola and the UR Group Ekatlos and the Great ORMA Viennese Circle of Kronos Marco Daffi and the Rite of Andromeda Giammaria and the Body of Peers Commentary on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras Recapitulation of Orphic and Bacchic Initiation