The Magus (Barrett book)

The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer is a handbook of the occult and ceremonial magic compiled by occultist Francis Barrett published in 1801.

Much of the material was collected by Barrett from older occult handbooks, as he hints in the preface: We have collected out of the works of the most famous magicians, such as Zoroaster, Hermes, Apollonius, Simon of the Temple, Trithemius, Agrippa, Porta (the Neapolitan), Dee, Paracelsus, Roger Bacon, and a great many others...In fact, most of the material comes from Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy and Pietro d'Abano's Heptameron.

[1] Previous demonologists such as Binsfeld (1589) had drawn up lists that comprised a hierarchy of devils, and attributed to them the power to instigate people to commit the seven deadly sins.

In The Magus Barrett altered the "roster of devils" and Satan now became a prince of deluders (serving conjurers and witches).

It facilitated the modern revival of magic by making information from otherwise rare books more readily available.