Occulture

The Modern Hermeticist himself in the house. Dan Attrell is here to talk all about translating one of the preeminent texts, maybe the preeminent text, in the history of Western esotericism: the Picatrix. The Picatrix is perhaps the premiere text written on the subject of astrological magic - a manual for constructing talismans, mixing magical compounds, summoning planetary spirits, and determining astrological conditions. Originally composed in Arabic around the 11th century, it was then translated into Latin in the 13th century, and it is that Latin translation that Dan and his co-translator David Porecca have worked to produce this new English version, which offers important insights not only into occult practices and beliefs but also into the transmission of magical ideas from antiquity to the present. Dan is an historian, classicist, philosopher, and musician. He has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Classical Studies, a Masters in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures from the University of Waterloo with a thes