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Author Edits by Joseph H. Pererson, who is he?

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AlfrunGrima

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There are grimoires (like Grimorium Verum) edited/ annotated by Joseph H. Peterson before they went to publish, some books published by Llewellin. What kind of figure/person is he? Was he a magician or more a history researcher? Is there somebody who can shine a light on this person and tell more?

(I used the prefix Autor for this post, but that is not completely fitting because he was an editor)
 

AlfrunGrima

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I take it google was broken at the time of this question ?
I hoped for more insights than only google could give. The occult world is not a big world/community...... And I never have thought to look at podcasts. I am online in this forum, but not so on the internet in general. Still have to find my way.

Thank you for your somewhat unfriendly answer.
 

Yazata

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The cool thing about Peterson is, as I said, he gives basically the full translations of all the grimoires he himself has transcribed from Latin into English for free on his website. To support his work you can always buy one of his books or make a donation via PayPal on his site.
 

AlfrunGrima

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The cool thing about Peterson is, as I said, he gives basically the full translations of all the grimoires he himself has transcribed from Latin into English for free on his website. To support his work you can always buy one of his books or make a donation via PayPal on his site.
Yes, it is really great that makes those translation! I certainly will make a donation, it is hard work and needs to be appreciated.
 

MorganBlack

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While he is not a practitioner we owe a lot to Peterson.

Most people now don’t realize that for the 20th century all this magic stuff was considered trash, least in the English speaking world. It was almost impossible almost to find any good primary texts, and everyone was working from very sparse source material. I had Idries Shah's 1957 book The Secret Lore of Magic that a stranger gave me at a party, Waite, and Crowley's rippoff of Mathers to work from, and I made it work.

Then Peterson comes out with the Lesser Key in 2001, the Grimorium Verum, Heptameron, Arbatel, all straight from the best manuscripts, footnotes, corrected names, the works. And if I recall, The Fourth Book, Sworn Book, 6 & 7 Books of Moses , all hitting between 2000 and 2010 or 2011, every one sourced from the old manuscripts from libraries around the world, footnotes, parallel Latin/English, the whole deal.

Look at just the massive influence of just one book alone, Reginald Scott's The Discoverie of Witchcraft , which people used as a grimiore. Even the British Cunning Men and Women had to collect scraps. Peterson is a one man Cambrian explosion of manuscripts. They were all put to good use by magicians.
 

Faria

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Long ago he ran a website called Avesta, focused on the Pharsi religion. After some time he published the Esotericarchives as a CD-Rom with a website, probably the best resource for occult literature online. I have never spoken to him, but I understand that he is still invested in the Zoroastrian material and is publishing the occult as a personal interest. He is known for reliable representations of source material with relevant commentary on their contents.
 

beardedeldridge

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Like others have said, I’ve never met him.

He’s a Zoroastrian who is one of the main reasons, directly and indirectly, for the revival of magic that we are currently enjoying. Of his work, his own biases don’t seem to affect the finished product and the way he explains things in interviews as obviously as most authors/practitioners. While making a living is most assuredly important to him, his main driving goal seems to be the finding, translating, and disseminating of these texts.

-Eld
 
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