Overview

The Faust legend seen as a transmission of core Gnostic teachings disguised as a morality tale • Shows the 16th-century Faust text to be a coded, composite Gnostic creation myth • Identifies the many Hermetic, alchemical, and Tantric symbols found in Faust that signify worship of the divine feminine through sacramental sexual practices • Reveals a mystical process of spiritual salvation, as distilled from esoteric traditions In The Gnostic Faustus, Ramona Fradon shows the legend of Doctor Faustus to be a composite Gnostic creation myth that reveals the process of spiritual salvation. Nearly every element of the original 16th-century text is a metaphor containing profound spiritual messages based on passages of Coptic and Syrian Gnostic manuscripts, including the Pistis Sophia and The Hymn of the Pearl. Fradon identifies many Hermetic, alchemical, and Tantric symbols in the Faust Book that accompany the story of Sophia, the goddess of wisdom, whose troubled journey to salvation is a model for human spiritual development. Extensive line-by-line text comparisons with these Gnostic manuscripts show that Faustus’s corruption by the Devil and his despair parallel Sophia’s transgression and fall, and that his tragic death is a simple reversal of her joyful rebirth, so written in order to make an otherwise heretical story palatable to Church authorities at that time. Fradon demonstrates that the Faust legend is a vehicle for transmitting antiquity’s secret wisdom. It provides an account of spiritual initiation whose goal is ecstatic revelation and union with the divine. The elements of alchemy, sacramental sex, and worship of the divine feminine that are encoded in the Faust Book reveal the same hidden goddess-worshipping tradition whose practices are hinted at by the writings of Renaissance magi such as Cornelius Agrippa and Giordano Bruno.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ramona Fradon
Publisher:   Inner Traditions Bear and Company
Imprint:   Inner Traditions Bear and Company
Dimensions:   Width: 15.30cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9781594772047

ISBN 10:   1594772045
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   05 December 2007
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Setting the Stage PART ONE Here Beginneth Doctor Faustus: His Vita & Historia Introduction to the Faust Book 1 Of His Parentage and Youth 2 How Doctor Faustus Did Achieve and Acquire Sorcery 3 Here Followeth the Disputatio Held By Faustus and the Spirit Introduction to Chapters 4-7 4 The Second Disputatio with the Spirit 5 Doctor Faustus’s Third Colloquium with the Spirit, Which Was Called Mephistopheles--Concerning Also the Pact Which These Two Made 6 Doctor Faustus’s Instrumentum, or Devilish and Godless Writ Obligatio 7 Concerning the Service That Mephistopheles Used Toward Faustus Introduction to Chapters 8-11 8 Concerning Doctor Faustus’s Intended Marriage 9 Doctor Faustus’s Quaestio of His Spirit Mephistopheles 10 A Disputatio Concerning the Prior State of the Banished Angels 11 A Disputatio Concerning Hell; How It Was Created and Fashioned; Concerning Also the Torments in Hell PART TWO Doctor Faustus His Historia: Here Followeth the Second Part, Adventures & Sundry Questions 12 His Almanacs and Horoscopes 13 A Disputatio or Inquiry Concerning the Art of Astronomia, or Astrologia 14 A Disputatio and False Answer Which the Spirit Gave to Doctor Faustus 15 How Doctor Faustus Traveled Down to Hell 16 How Doctor Faustus Journeyed Up to the Stars 17 Now I Will Tell You What I Did See 18 Doctor Faustus’s Third Journey 19 Concerning the Stars 20 A Question on This Topic 21 The Second Question 22 The Third Question PART THREE Here Followeth the Third Part: Doctor Faustus, His Adventures, the Things He Performed and Worked with His Nigromantia at the Courts of Great Potentates 23 A History of the Emperor Charles V and Doctor Faustus 24 Concerning the Antlers of a Hart 25 Concerning Three Lords Who Were Rapidly Transported to a Royal Wedding in Munich 26 Concerning an Adventure with a Jew 27 An Adventure at the Court of Count Anhalt 28 The Manner in Which Doctor Faustus as Bacchus Kept Shrovetide 29 Concerning Helen Charmed Out of Greece 30 Concerning a Gesticulation Involving Four Wheels 31 Concerning Four Sorcerers Who Cut Off One Another’s Heads and Put Them On Again, Wherein Doctor Faustus, Attending Their Performance, Doth Play the Major Role 32 Concerning an Old Man Who Would Have Converted Doctor Faustus from His Godless Life 33 Pact PART FOUR Doctor Faustus: His Last Tricks and What He Did in the Final Years of His Contract 34 How Doctor Faustus Brought About the Marriage of Two Lovers 35 Concerning Divers Flora in Doctor Faustus’s Garden on Christmas Day 36 Concerning an Army Raised Against Lord Hardeck 37 Concerning the Beautiful Helen from Greece, How She Lived for a Time with Doctor Faustus 38 Concerning One Whose Wife Married While He Was Captive in Egypt and How Doctor Faustus Informed and Aided Him 39 Concerning the Testament: What Doctor Faustus Bequeathed to His Servant Christof Wagner 40 The Discourse Which Doctor Faustus Held with His Son Concerning His Last Will and Testament 41 What Doctor Faustus Did in the Final Month of His Pact 42 Doctor Faustus: His Lamentation, That He Must Die at a Young and Lusty Age 43 Doctor Faustus Lamenteth Yet Further 44 Doctor Faustus: His Hideous End and Spectaculum Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

The Gnostic Faustus is one of those books in which every other paragraph is so illuminating that you want to jot down notes so as to not forget anything. Fradon's style is mature and she frames these gems of insight in a way that everyone can understand. --Jeff Arrow, Parallel Perspectives, Jan 2008

The Gnostic Faustus is one of those books in which every other paragraph is so illuminating that you want to jot down notes so as to not forget anything. Fradon's style is mature and she frames these gems of insight in a way that everyone can understand. * Jeff Arrow, Parallel Perspectives, Jan 2008 * The historical and literary information in the Introduction is key. . . . Familiarity with the book can improve one's magic because it includes basic esoteric concepts and their application. * Michelle Mueller, Facing North, Feb 2008 * The imagery contained in the Faust legend is thoroughly explored, and some aspects are brought forward which have not, to my knowledge, been discussed in works available to a general readership. And that is the best thing about this book. While a basic background is necessary, the reader need not be a specialist in medieval literature to be able to make sense of it. * Michael Gleason, Witchgrove.com, Dec 2007 * Fradon's comparative study of the hidden origins of the 'original' Faust tale not only illuminates the gnostic, hermetic, and alchemical substrata that have been hinted at by previous scholars but also breaks new ground in pointing out uncanny tantric resonances in what superficially appears as a lurid sixteenth-century German chapbook. * Michael Moynihan, author of Lords of Chaos and The Secret King *

The Gnostic Faustus is one of those books in which every other paragraph is so illuminating that you want to jot down notes so as to not forget anything. Fradon's style is mature and she frames these gems of insight in a way that everyone can understand.

Author Information

Ramona Fradon has been investigating the Faust legend since 1978 in order to decipher the mysteries of its spiritual framework. She has also practiced astrology and energy healing and studied shamanism and hypnotherapy. She is a visual artist with ex-tensive illustration credits in the comics industry. She was the artist for Aquaman, Metamorpho, and the comic strip Brenda Starr. In 2006, she was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. She lives in upstate New York.

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