The Hermetic Book of the Dead

Writings from the Italian occult tradition exploring life, death, and rebirth

Explores fundamental principles and symbolism of Italian Hermeticism

Features secret Italian texts, translated for the first time, including an unpublished Renaissance alchemical manuscript

Offers rituals and parables for spiritual transformation

Egypt and Tibet have long offered maps of the territory the soul must navigate after death. Now historian, translator, and esoteric scholar David Pantano illuminates the Italian Hermetic tradition that describes the afterlife journey for the first time in English.

He has curated a range of texts spanning from the Renaissance to the present day, sharing rituals and essays by figures such as Giuliano Kremmerz and Marco Daffi, alongside contemporary practitioners Valerio Tomassini and Gaetano Lo Monaco. The collection also includes documents from secret societies and writings from the Corpo dei Pari, a group of underground alchemists and Hermeticists who have been active since the late 1960s.

Featuring figures in the Italian mystical tradition such as Dante Alighieri, Giordano Bruno, and Marsilio Ficino, Pantano traces the influence of this unique branch of Hermeticism. By exploring the spiritual lives of his predecessors, he shares Hermetic parables for navigating the astral plane after death and how to live in this lifetime.

Also included is a translation of the Flos Coeli, a Renaissance manuscript that gives a recipe for the Elixir of Life. Pantano pairs this with esoteric interpretations of ayahuasca effects and with secret papers from the Fraternity of Miriam to show how principles of transference can be used with plant medicines to alleviate suffering.

Focusing on death and spiritual rebirth, this is a valuable collection of rituals and discourses on magic, Hermeticism, and consciousness—a guide for the living and a map for the journey in the afterlife.