Dr.

Faust on Capri

Munthe and the myth of Mephistopheles

The meeting with Mephistopheles

Munthe describes his
meeting with the redcloaked figure in the
beginning of Story of San
Michele.

It is a central condition for
the story.

The figure is
Mephistopheles and - as
highlighted by Bengt
Jangfeldt - appears
throughout the story.

Dr. Munthe and Dr. Faust

A Faust in the early
20th Century.

The two-edged sword
of wishes full-filled.

A symbol of the crisis
of modernity (the
faustian spirit).

Connecting to a myth.

My home shall be open for the sun and the wind and the voices of the sea
- like a Greek temple and light, light, light everywhere!

Is he perhaps like Icarus when

from the heights of Capri s steep
cliffs he stretches out for more to
then be violently driven into the
shadows, blind and alone . Peter
Cottino

Contrast motif - A storytelling
clairobscure technique: The Demon
of Darkness helps him build his
Temple of Light.

His personal life tragedy. The
blindness.

Identification with tragical heroes
of hubris.

Symbolist or clairvoyant, or both?

Munthe tells the reader
about meetings with
nature spirits in Lappland.

A metaphor or a real
experience?

According to Antoine
Faivre the third criteria of
Esotericism is the central
importance of
imagination.

Esotericism and imagination

Imagination is seen as a
mediator between the
intellectual and the
sensory worlds.

The imaginary worlds are
real, i.e. Astral worlds.

Fact and fiction are
consciously mixed.

Reitzenstein and the
concept of
Lesemysterium.

The reality is linguistic

A rather Platonic than

Postmodern concept.

The idea of the original
language.

An objective reality, not a
relativistic worldview.

Kabbalah, Indian
philosophy, Bureus.

Back to Faust

According to Leo
Ruickbie there has been
two main approaches to
Faust:

1) take him as a literary
creation

2) strip him down to only
that which can be proven

Ruickbie tried to
reconstruct the historical
Faust

Contemporary sources

Seven contemporary
sources

First mentioned by
Trithemius and his
friend Rufus in 1513

Luther and his circle
discussed Faust in the
mid-1530s.

Faust and the Devil

Trithemius is the first to
mention Faust, but Luther is the
one that links Faust to the
Devil.

Luther call him a Black
magician in 1566, which is the
first known use of the epithet.

The first full account emerged
around 1580, in the first
surviving Faustbook , the
Wolfenbtten Manuscript.

Some facts about Faust

Probably born in the end of April (maybe feast
day of St. George, i.e. 23 April) in the end of the
15th century.

Faust or Faustus is Latin for "auspicious" or
"lucky .

According to Trithemius Faust called himself
Sabellicus, maybe a reference to the Sabine Hills
in Italy, associated with witchcraft.

The Diabolical Doctor

Faust was a Renaissance man and humanist turned
into a diabolist by Luther.

Faust became an Anti-Luther figure.

Melanchthon claim that Faust had been at the
Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Accorded the title of Doctor around 1520.

Is said to have produced three Latin texts on
magic

Mephistopheles

The essence of the
Faust myth.

The symbol of the
dark side of
knowledge, a theme
already found in
Genesis.

The shadow of Faust,
and Man.

The demon in red cloak

Mephistopheles depicted
with a red cloak in "L'Art
Du Travestissement" by
Leon Salut, 1885.

A play on Me Fausto
Philos, Friend of Faust ?

He who shuns the light ?

Important demon in the grimoire tradition

Mentioned by Agrippa

Appears in the tract
Doctoris Iohannis Fausti
magiae naturalis et
innatural

Seal in the so called Sixth
and seventh books of
Moses

The meaning of the myth of Mephistopheles

The concept of magic ,
vs. religion . Conjuring
the spiritual realm.

The sinister side of power,
love and knowledge.

According to E . M. Butler
the fundamental theme of
the faustian myth is Mans
search for knowledge

Two forms of Renaissance magic:

Faustian magic, aiming for the unknown, and for fortunes,

eroticism, power and knowledge. Hubris. Unnatural,
demonic, luciferan magic according to Ficino. Black
magic.

Ficinian magic, aiming for restoring and rediscovering
Mans knowledge of the Divine order. Obedience. Natural,
heavenly magic according to Ficino. White magic.

Why identify with Faust?

Faust is one of the most spread
Western myths, with
inummerable versions.

Faust is a symbol of knowledge,
and its dark sides, i.e progess
and modernity and its twoedged nature.

Identification with tragical
heroes of hubris

A mythical desciption of the
personal life tragedy.

Darkness has been a symbol of
the sublime since the
Renaissance

And not least

a place of
extraordinary beauty
demands an
extraordinary story