Published: July 13, 2005

Faust's Magical Book of Forbidden Knowledge Not Fiction

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Key to Western Occult Mystery Schools Translated by Smith College Professor

Groundbreaking English Translation Set for January 2006 Release

Smith College Professor Joseph McVeigh, Ph.D. has successfully completed the first-ever English translation of one of the most important occult texts of all time, "Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum." Written in the 1700s by alchemist Georg von Welling of Germany, the original text has been jealously revered for nearly 300 years by German esotericists.

Professor McVeigh has successfully transformed von Welling's strange and provocative text and dozens of famous alchemical, magical and occult illustrations into English for contemporary readers. "Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum" had an immediate and direct influence upon the secret work of the 18th century German society, the Golden Rosicrucians, whose work in turned inspired esoteric Freemasons in Great Britain including the founders of the most famous magical society of all time, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Lon Milo DuQuette, popular occult scholar and Freemason who wrote the Introduction to this landmark edition, calls it an "Alchemical masterpiece." DuQuette further states, "This in all likelihood was the actual book of forbidden knowledge that fired the imagination of the fictional magician Faust in Goethe's immortal play. For the modern student of the Western Mystery Traditions, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of von Welling's work. Its influence can be traced through the doctrines and teachings of a host of European esoteric institutions including those of the Freemasons."

Professor McVeigh is a Professor of German Studies at Smith College (Northampton, MA) and is currently Chair of the German Studies Department at Smith. McVeigh received his Ph.D. in German from the University of Pennsylvania (1984), and is the author of numerous books and articles in German and English on a variety of topics on German and Austrian culture. McVeigh is also the translator of the play "Irrsee" ("Lake of Illusions") by Gerald Szyszkowitz (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1993).

Red Wheel / Weiser, publisher of OPUS, has set a January 2006 release date.

Only three thousand copies will be offered in a first printing. The Collector's hardcover edition will be available for $80.00.