Western Esotericism / Occultism

A New Book is coming from our Publications...

The Son of PrometheusThe library of Daedaleos publications is growing with yet another special book, unique in the Greek bibliography. This time, his subject concerns the life and work of a great artist, magician and philosopher of 19th century France, Josephine Pélandin. Although rather unknown until today in our country, Peladan was the source of a special intellectual current of thought that placed Art in the highest position as the greatest means in the course of human evolution.

From the text on the back cover we read the following...
At the end of the 19th century, the intellectuals and artists of the time stood on a threshold that represented a definitive break with the past. In this rapidly evolving world, a lonely, eccentric writer, Josephine Péladin (1858-1918) reduced human creativity and the Callous to supreme values, which he believed to be the last bastion between the human soul and the decadent materialism which he perceived as swallowing up Western Civilization. He wrote more than a hundred books, and several hundred monographs and articles to promote the Callus Theory as a Religion which he composed based on elements of Neoplatonism, Orphism, world mythology, and Symbolic Art. The core of his aesthetic theory taught that humanity could, and should, evolve spiritually with the ultimate goal of restoring the distance from Being. According to him, the only way this could happen was through art. The artists, on the other hand, had to overwhelm the secularized society with works that symbolically expressed the principles of Kallos, while the viewers and readers had to reflect on the symbolic messages that crystallized in these works. In this way, Pelladan believed, the general public would develop spiritually, human relations would acquire a new, spiritual basis, a social renaissance would be sparked, and humanity would discover its heavenly origin. The life and work of Peladan is the subject of this book, leading to a major and topical question: to what extent does philosophy and Callos have any tangible meaning for our time?

The book is signed by the academic and artist Sassa Metallinou – Chaitow, while it is prefaced by professor Joscelyn Godwin and author Zefyros Kavkalidis. It will be released by Daedaleos publications at the beginning of December 2013.