Simon Magus: An Essay by G.R.S. Mead

George Robert Stowe Mead · Buddhas and Initiates Series · 75 pages

The complete text of Simon Magus: an Essay on the Founder of Simonianism based on the Ancient Sources, with a re-evaluation of His Philosophy and Teachings, published by the Theosophical Society in London in 1892. Mead's starting point is that everyone in Christendom has heard of Simon the magician and of Peter's rebuke in Acts, and of the legend of his attempted flight at Rome and fatal fall — and that most people consider the matter closed there, dismissing it with pity, contempt or laughter according to their own beliefs.

The essay is in three parts. Part A gathers the sources of information: the Simon of the New Testament, the Simon of the Fathers, and the Simon of the legends. Part B reviews the authorities and the various theories scholars have advanced. Part C sets out what Mead calls the Theosophy of Simon. Following Thomas Taylor's practice, Greek accents and breathings are omitted in this edition, and an amplification of Mead's diagram of the Simonian Æonology, drawn from the Philaletheians series The Masque of Love, is appended by the editor.

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