A scholarly
English occultist active during the late 18th and early 19th century. Barrett is primarily noted for composing the monumental
compendium of information on
Western magical tradition and
ritual known as
The Magus, or The Celestial Intelligencer. This enormous (432-page, encyclopedia-sized) volume is one of the finest compendiums on pre-
Golden Dawn hermetic magical practices in existence. The
book was published in
1801 and had a profound influence on
Victorian occultists, particularly
Eliphas Levi, as well as groups such as
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; indeed, such groups drew much of their basic resource material from this book.
Little other information on Barrett's life can be found, at least during the course of an Internet search. There are indications that he plagiarized Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's earlier (but less complete) grimoire, De Occulta Philosophia (published 1533), as parts of each text are identical, right down to errors in printing. Barrett also reprinted sections of the writings of the 15th-century physician and philosopher known as Paracelsus.