Description

ABSTRACT

What historical role, what worldview and conception of the cosmos had those who did authors classics defined "iatromancers", shamans and ecstatic adepts of the Hyperborean god Apollo, master of coincidence oppositorum and inspirer of the "divine madness" and of the art of mantic? Because in the imposing fresco of the Sistine Chapel depicting the Last Judgment Michelangelo painted, in the face of Christ-Judge, the features of the ancient Hellenic god of Light and Prophecy that Saint John the Evangelist in the Book ofApocalypse did he define the "Angel of the Abyss"? And finally, what does the End Times have to do with IV Eclogue of Virgil, the "Sibillini Oracles", the "Sacred Line of San Michele" and the countless legends about the "Blessed Islands" located at the extreme northern and western borders of the world, such as the Apollonian Hyperborea, the Ogigia where the god Saturn waits in a state of life-in-death the return of the Golden Age of which he is ruler, the Hesperides and the invisible Avalon, the "Isle of Apples" where the Tuatha de Danann, the divine and "shining" lineage of which the Celtic tradition speaks?

MARCO  .  MACULOTTI

Born in Cremona on July 14, 1988. Founder and editorial director of «AXIS MUNDI», a magazine of the history of religions, anthropology of the sacred, traditional studies, folklore, esotericism and literature of the fantastic (online digital edition since December 2015) and of the newborn home publisher "Axis Mundi Edizioni" for which in August 2021 he published the first paper register of "AXIS MUNDI", entirely dedicated to the so-called literary and cinematographic genre folk horror, of which he has signed nine essays and a film dossier. In February 2021 Mimesis Edizioni published his first long essay, «Carcosa unveiled. Notes for an esoteric reading of T», A work that met with unanimous attention from critics and audiences. In recent years he has focused particularly on the work of the Welsh writer Arthur Machen, on which he has written seven essays / articles / prefaces published by various publishing houses in collective publications and magazines.

REVIEWS

« MARCO MACULOTTI is a young essayist, scholar and researcher of issues related to esotericism, folklore, history of religions. in short, he is a profound investigator of everything that has a concrete link with the sacred and sacredness in their most authentic, genuine, traditional value, topics to which he has dedicated, however, an important magazine (digital and paper), AXIS WORLD. Maculotti has given indisputable proof of his great scholarly skills in several short essays, as well as in the volume CARCOSA REVEALED. NOTES FOR AN ESOTERIC READING OF "TRUE DETECTIVE" (Mimesis, 2021). With THE ANGEL OF THE ABYSS. APOLLO, AVALON, THE POLAR MYTH AND THE APOCALYPSE (Axis Mundi Edizioni, 2022) our author, making use of a vast amount of ancient and modern sources, expertly explores the ancient Apollonian solar archetype and its centuries-old epiphanies in various civilizations (from the Greeks to the Babylonians, from the Celts to Christianity, etc. ), effectively showing how it, despite the "superstructural" disguises (apparently divergent from the originals) with which it is presented in certain socio-cultural contexts, is always the same and unique archetypal power that "possesses its followers", shamans and ecstatics of every time, that is, that cosmic fire that illuminates and/or destroys to purify. in this regard, writes Maculotti: "it is in fact clear how all the divine figures (Apollinian) that we have listed, are explicitly awarded, in their respective religious traditions, the fatal task of consuming and purifying the world now at the end of the line with fire and sword, to ensure that under its ashes the grass can be reborn as a virgin (topos of the so-called 'pacified nature'), and with it humanity and the whole cosmos” (p. 302). To conclude, the text in question constitutes in my opinion an important and further step forward towards a serious understanding of the origins of human civilization, of the universe and, above all, of the forces at play in them. in the light of all this, I can only warmly recommend reading it. »

JULIUS VERGA (alias Gaetano Lo Monaco)
"MOST ARCANA"
November 1, 2022

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« For some books, talking about simple reading is an understatement. Some texts can be more compelling than others, they offer us greater involvement, they can transmit us relevant information, but few are transformed into a true learning experience, into the transmission of knowledge in the fullest sense of the term. They are books that add a purely emotional component to the rational component: the amazement of discovery. This occurs in rare cases, but when it happens it is inevitable to note that the very soul of the author is at the basis of everything, who pours into his work not only notions, but love for what he describes, not simple expositions of conjectures but the taste for research and the amazement of discovery. In these cases, all the dedication and energy that an author pours into his work emerges. Energy that reverberates on the player. Even more rare is to find such a book in an area, that of anthropology and history of religions, which often produces as interesting as hyper-academic treatises capable of cooling down even the most motivated of readers. Well, the rare event took shape with the recent “THE ANGEL OF THE ABYSS. APOLLO, AVALON, THE POLAR MYTH AND THE APOCALYPSE” (Axis Mundi editions, 2022), a long journey through the epiphanies of a multifaceted divinity, Apollo, who turns out to be far from the static categories with which, with scholastic notions, we have always known him. Audacious author is the researcher and writer MARCO MACULOTTI, born in 1988, already widely known for his web page Axis Mundi, a fascinating bubbling cauldron of original studies on the anthropology of the sacred, history of religions, symbology and esotericism, which recently gives also the name of a new editorial reality of which this work is one of the first fruits, together with periodical, intriguing monographs. In “The Angel of the Abyss” Maculotti, who despite his young age demonstrates an uncommon familiarity with decidedly complex themes, easily takes us through times, places and peoples, facing events suspended in mythical time and offering original points of view, right from the beginning of the work. Those of us who, among those who studied philosophy for at least some time in our lives, imagined those ancient sages as austere, bearded dispensers of maxims, will be astounded to discover that some of them were known as iatromancers (seers-healers), sort of ancient and powerful shamans with extraordinary powers… One wonders what impact they would have on students, if described in this respect. It is precisely from these figures, closely linked to Apollo, that the in-depth investigation of the author begins who, starting from the furrow traced by the unreachable Giorgio Colli, who dedicated revealing pages to the God who presides over the oracles, examines the innumerable manifestations of divinities - especially in the European area - which in some way reproduce not only the features, but also take up their details and contexts. Thus a dense network of symbolic, semantic and linguistic interconnections is created in front of the reader, made up of references between traditions that are often very distant from each other, from the East to the far North of Europe, which return a much more articulated portrait of the god Apollo. No longer, or – better – not so much a purely solar divinity, as a power that concentrates opposites within itself, a polar god who carries within himself light and darkness, a transfiguration of that alchemical “coincidentia oppositorum” which reveals two principles united and opposed in every institution. [...] Sun and darkness, life and destruction in eternal alternation according to the natural cycles, to which Apollo is associated several times. A God whose principles permeate Wisdom itself. Giorgio Colli – anything but hidden inspirer of this work – used the term “wisdom” to define the pre-Socratic philosophical corpus, and precisely by introducing his basic “Greek wisdom” he reminds us that “…Apollo is the god of wisdom, explicitly and peacefully. In fact, knowing everything […] pertains only to divination, in the archaic sphere, and this art is granted by Apollo”. This is why the connotation of "iatromancer" attributed to numerous pre-Socratics takes on a meaning that goes far beyond religious superstition, and is closely connected with the very concept of Wisdom through the experience of clairvoyance. Perhaps it is no coincidence that his name re-emerges precisely [...] in the Apocalypse, a book that takes its essence from the clairvoyance of divine origin. Maculotti's work moves from this principle, thanks to which we discover that Apollo, the god who presides over the oracles, manifests himself in the main cultures of the ancient world - Greek, Oriental, Celtic, Germanic, Roman ... - through transfigurations that are not always evident but clearly connoted, to the point of constituting a real Indo-European archetype. Reading "The Angel of the Abyss", grasping that thin thread that connects diaphanous lands, islands cloaked in mystery, divinities that in their power and contrasts manifest the dynamics and principles of life itself, is an experience that closely resembles another fundamental reading, that "Il Mulino di Amleto" by Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend which has definitively changed the way of approaching mythology, leaving the enclosures of individual civilizations and capturing those fragments of wisdom that have crossed the history of all of humanity, keeping their fascinating mystery unchanged. Today, with "The Angel of the Abyss", we can once again relive that vertigo.

DARIO NOASCONE
«CIVICO20NEWS.IT»
3 December 2022

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« From newborns AXIS MUNDI EDITIONS, the great MARCO MACULOTTI sends us his latest work: THE ANGEL OF THE ABYSS. APOLLO, AVALON, THE POLAR MYTH AND THE APOCALYPSE. Already from the subtitle you can understand the vastness of the topics covered: the Hyperborean Apollo, Orpheus and Pythagoras, the Cave of the Nymphs, Delphi, Druidism, the Occult King, the Sibillini Oracles and much more, exposed in an intense and engaging study, which touches on all the traditional themes dear to the author, to which he had already started us with his famous blog, with the AXIS MUNDI magazine and with his previous essays. Great job Mark! »

FABIO TODESCHINI
ESOTERIC LIBRARY THE SEAL, PADUA
12 April 2022

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« Dear Elle, I finally found the time to write to you and recommend a read too: I'm back from the latest work by MARCO MACULOTTI, a young author and scholar that you may have already met, through the AXIS MUNDI blog, or thanks to his first work entitled CARCOSA SVELATA. In this case you will already know that Maculotti boasts an authentic encyclopaedic culture as regards folklore, the study of the Sacred and the History of Religions, and you will equally know how much M. loves to enrich a thesis with new points of view, drawing from disconnected sources and distant, apparently, but always coherent and curious. All this is not lacking in the essay in question, entitled THE ANGEL OF THE ABYSS – with reference to Apollo – and who indeed, as a layman as I am, left me with an immense amount of texts to jot down thanks to his 300 plus pages of notes and notions. Given the vastness of the speech, therefore, it would be difficult to summarize the gist: you just know that I was not a little amazed to learn how, beyond Greek mythology, this Apollo is not a being that can be distinguished from other entities venerated in past and in different cultures such as the Celtic Lugh, the local San Michele or the Babylonian Marduk. This being of a solar nature (but not only) has in fact influenced our cultures, our imagination and our lives in so many ways as to make the mind waver: first of all I live in a village that in the past was occupied by the Celts, and which has San Michele as its patron saint - but not only: attached to the town I have another one, which is called Lugo - look! – whose etymology probably resides in that Lugh transmuted into Michael, in the transition from Celts to Christians, and who in summary is precisely that being who has irradiated not only our cultures, but Marco's book itself! But on such a complex subject and far from my knowledge, in order to avoid ridiculous figures, I prefer not to add anything else! Let me know if you'll read it, or at least if I've intrigued you! I'm sure, in case, it's a work you can't be but proud of! »

NICHOLAS BOSI
“ELLER READER”, ep. THE
22 September 2022

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