Three Books of Occult Philosophy Or Magic

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Three Books of Occult Philosophy Or Magic ''^^mm:m;mfi§i0M CORNELL U.JNJIV.ER,SITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN ., 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library BF1598.A27 02 1898 Three books of occult phijpsophv or magi 3 1924 028 928 236 olin PRINTED IN U.S A. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028928236 HENRY CORNELIUS AGRIPPA. THREE BOOKS OP OCCUIT PHILOSOPHY OE MAGIC BY THE FAMOUS MYSTIC HENRY CORNELIUS AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM COUNSELOR TO CHARLES THE FIFTH, EMPEROR OF GERMANY, AND JUDGE OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT. T BOOK ONE — NATURAL MAGIC WHICH INCLUDES THE EARLY LIFE OF AGRIPPA, HIS SEVENTY-FOUR CHAPTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC, NEW NOTES, ILLUSTRATIONS, INDEX, AND OTHER ORIGINAL AND SELECTED MATTER. EDITED BY WILLIS F. WHITEHEAD By Direction op the Bbotherhood op Magic: THE MAGIC MIRROR A MESSAGE TO MYSTICS OONTAHJIKG FULL INSTRUCTIONS ON ITS MAKE AND USE. " A Quamt ana curious volume of forgotten lore."—PoE. CHICAGO HAHN & WHITEHEAD 1898 r'kTVT Copyrighted, November 17, 1897, by Hahn & Whitehead, Chicago. % /'/' • <?•*•*• * THIS -d WORK & ir OF -k OCCULT * <r PHILOSOPHY, iz •k OE {3 NATURAL • •ft MAGIC, • BY -ft * t::? • -ft • tS • THAT a PURE • -ft • « • lS • ft MYSTIC, * THINKER -ft AND -ft TEACHER, -k SCHOLAR, -ft * STATESMAN, * PHILOSOPHER -ft AND -ft AUTHOR, * * HENRY * CORNELIUS * AGRIPPA * * WAS a BROUGHT -ft FORTH -ft BY ft HIM * THOUGH * ft SLANDER, ft EDICT, *• AND & ENEMIES ft OPPOSED. H * ft^-ft-^ft'^ftHE-ft LIVED, • -ft • ft • -ft • ft TOILED -k AND -ft * TRIUMPHED IN * •Cs THIS -ft CAUSE, -ft * -ft TO ft THOSE -k is WHO • HAVE -ft * A-ftLOVEftFOR ie ft TRUTH * AND ft * MYSTIC ft ART * ft THIS -k NEW ft * EDITION * IS * ft DEDICATED. *• H * -ft * ft * ft • mi Agrippa. Mr. Henry Morley, an eminent Englisli scholar, in his Life of Cornelius Agrippa, makes these tributary statements; He secured the best honors attainable in art and arms ; was acquainted with eight languages, being the master of six. His natural bent had been from early youth to a consideration of Divine Mysteries. To learn these and teach them to others had been at all times his chief ambition. He is distinguished among the learned for his cultivation of Occult Philosophy, upon which he has written a complete work. CONTENTS. Introductory. Editor's Preface 13 Early Life of Agrippa 15 Cornelius Agrippa to the Reader 25 Agripi^a to Trithemius 28 Trithemius to Agrippa 31 Natural Ma^ic. ^I. Eoiu Magicians Collect Virtues from the Three- fold World, is Declared in these Three Books. 83 t^II. What Magic Is, What are the Parts thereof, and Hoiu the Professors thereof must he Qualified. 34 III. Of the Four Elements, their Qualities, and Mut- ual Mixtions 38 IV. Of a Three-fold Consideration of the Elements. 40 v. Of the Wonderful Natures of Fire and Earth. 42 VI. Of the Wonderful Natures of Water, Air and Winds 44 VII. Of the Kinds of Compounds, what Relation they stand in to the Elements, and what Relation there is betwixt the Elements themselves and the Soul, Senses and Dispositions of Men 53 VIII. How the Elements are in the Heavens, in Stars, in Devils, in Angels, and, lastly, in God him- self 55 5 » 6 LIST OP CONTENTS. IX. Of the Virtues of things Natural, depending immediately upon Elements 58 X. Of the Occult Virtues of Tilings 59 XI. Hoiv Occult Virtues are Infused into the several kinds of Things by Ideas, through the Help of the Soul of the World, and Bays of the Stars; and what Things abound most luith this Virtue 62 XII. How it is that Particular Virtues are Infused into Particular Individuals, even of the same Species 64 XIII. Whence the Occult Virtues of Things Proceed . 65 XIV. Of the Spirit of the World, What It Is, and how by loay of medium It Unites occult Virtues to their Subjects 69 XV. How we must Find Out and Examine the Vir- tues of Tilings by way of Similitude 71 XVI. Hoio the Operations of several Virtues Pass from one thing into another, and are Com- municated one to the other 74 XVII. How by Enmity and Friendship the Virtues of things are to be Tried and Found Out 75 XVIII. Of the Inclinations of Enmities 78 XIX. How the Virtues of Tilings are to be Tried and Found Out, which are in them Specifically, or one Individual in any by ivay of Special Gift . 82 XX. The Natural Virtues are in some Things throughout their Whole Substance, and in other Things in Certain Parts and Members . 83 XXI. Of the Virtues of Things luhich are in them only in their Life Time, and Such as Remain in them even After their Death 85 LIST OF CONTENTS. 7 , XXII. Hmo Inferior Things are Subjected to Supe- rior Bodies, and hoiv the Bodies, Actions, and Dispositions of Men are Ascribed to Stars and Signs 87 XXIII. Haw we shall Know what Stars Natural Things are Under, and what Things are Under the Sun, which are called Solary ... 91 XXIV. What Things are Lunary, or Under the Power of the Moon 95 XXV. What Things are Saturnine, or Under the Poioer of Saturn 97 XXVI. What Things are Under the Power of Jupi- ter, and are called Jovial 100 XXVII. Wliat Things are Under the Power of Mars, and are called Martial 101 XXVlil. What Things are Under the Power of Venus, and are called Venereal 102 XXIX. What Things are Under the Power of Mer- cury, and are called Mercurial 103 XXX. That the Whole Sublunary World, and those Things which are in It, are Distributed to Planets 104 I XXXI. How Provinces and Kingdoms are Distributed to Planets 105 XXXII. What Things are Under the Signs, the Fixed Stars, and their Images 107 XXXIII. TJie Seals and Characters of Natural Things. 110 XXXIV. Hoiu, by Natural Things and their Virtues, we may Draw Forth and Attract the Influ- ences and Virtues of Celestial Bodies 114 XXXV. Of the Mixtions of Natural Things, one with another, and their Benefit 115 8 LIST OF CONTENTS. XXXVI. Of the Union of Mixed Things, and the Introduction of a More Noble Form, and the Senses of Life 117 XXXVII. How, by some certain Natural and Artificial Preparations, We May Attract certain Celestial and Vital Gifts 118 XXXVIII. Eoio We May Draw not only Celestial and Vital but also certain Intellectual and Divine Gifts from Above 121 XXXIX. That We May, by some certain Matters of the World, Stir Up the Gods of the World and their Ministering Spirits 123 XL. Of Bindings; ivhat Sort tJiey are of, and in what Ways they are wont to be Done .... 124 XLI. Of Sorceries, and their Power 125 XLII. Of the Wonderful Virtues of some Kinds of Sorceries 127 XLIII. Of Perfumes or Suffumigations; their Man- ner and Poioer 132 XLIV. The Composition of some Fumes appropri- ated to the Planets 135 XLV. Of Gollyries, Unctions, Love-Medicines, and their Virtues 137 XLVI. Of Natural Alligations and Suspensions. 139 XLVII. Of Magical Rings and their Compositions. 141 XLVIII. Of the Virtue of Places, and what Places . are Suitable to every Star 143 XLIX. Of Light, Colors, Candles and Lamps, and to lohat Stars, Houses and Elements sev- eral Colors are Ascribed 146 L. Of Fascination, and the Art thereof 150 LIST OF CONTENTS. 9 LI. Of certain Observations, Producing wonderful Virtues 152 >^ LII. Of the Countenance and Gesture, the Habit and the Figure of the Body, and to what Stars any of these do Answer; whence Physiognomy, and Metoposcopy, and Chiromancy, Arts of Divination, have their Grounds 155 ^ LIII. Of Divination, and the Kinds thereof 158 LIV. Of divers certain Animals, and other things, which have a Signification in Auguries 161 LV. How Auspicias are Verified by the Light of Nat- ural Instinct, and of some Bules of Finding of It Out 169 LVI. Of the Soothsayings of Flashes and Light- nings, and how Monstrous and Prodigious Tilings are to be Interpreted 175 ^ LVII. Of Geomancy, Hydromancy, Aeromancy, and Pyromancy, Four Divinations of Elements . 177 ''LVIII. Of the Reviving of the Dead, and of Sleeping or Hibernating (wanting victuals) Many Years together 180 ^ LIX. Of Divination by Dreams 184 ^ LX. Of Madness, and Divinations ivhich are made when men are awake, and of the Power of a Melancholy Humor, by which Spirits are sometimes induced into Men's Bodies 186 LXI. Of the Forming of Man, of the External Senses, also those Inward, and the Mind; and of the Threefold Appetite of the Soul, and Passions of the Will 190 LXII. Of the Passions of the Mind, their Original Source, Differences, and Kinds 194 10 LIST OF CONTENTS. LXIII. How the Passions of the Mind change the proper Body by changing its Accidents and moving the Spirit 195 LXIV. How the Passions of the Mind change the Body by toay of Imitation from some Resemblance; of the Transforming and Translating of Men, and lohat Force the Imaginative Power hath, not only over the Body but the Soul 197 LXV. Eoiv the Passions of the Mind can Work of themselves upon Another's Body 200 LXVI. That the Passions of the Mind are Helped by a Celestial Season, and hoiu Necessary the Constancy of the Mind is in every Work. 203 LXVII. How the Mind of Man may be Joined with the Mind of the Stars, and Intelligences of the Celestials, and, together with them.
Recommended publications
  • A Philosophical and Historical Analysis of Cosmology from Copernicus to Newton
    University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2017 Scientific transformations: a philosophical and historical analysis of cosmology from Copernicus to Newton Manuel-Albert Castillo University of Central Florida Part of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Castillo, Manuel-Albert, "Scientific transformations: a philosophical and historical analysis of cosmology from Copernicus to Newton" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 5694. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/5694 SCIENTIFIC TRANSFORMATIONS: A PHILOSOPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF COSMOLOGY FROM COPERNICUS TO NEWTON by MANUEL-ALBERT F. CASTILLO A.A., Valencia College, 2013 B.A., University of Central Florida, 2015 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2017 Major Professor: Donald E. Jones ©2017 Manuel-Albert F. Castillo ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to show a transformation around the scientific revolution from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries against a Whig approach in which it still lingers in the history of science. I find the transformations of modern science through the cosmological models of Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.
    [Show full text]
  • What Did Shakespeare Know About Copernicanism?
    DOI: 10.2478/v10319-012-0031-x WHAT DID SHAKESPEARE KNOW ABOUT COPERNICANISM? ALAN S. WEBER Weill Cornell Medical College–Qatar Abstract: This contribution examines Shakespeare’s knowledge of the cosmological theories of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) as well as recent claims that Shakespeare possessed specialized knowledge of technical astronomy. Keywords: Shakespeare, William; Copernicus, Nicolaus; renaissance astronomy 1. Introduction Although some of his near contemporaries lamented the coming of “The New Philosophy,” Shakespeare never made unambiguous or direct reference to the heliocentric theories of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) in his drama or poetry. Peter Usher, however, has recently argued in two books Hamlet’s Universe (2006) and Shakespeare and the Dawn of Modern Science (2010) that Hamlet is an elaborate allegory of Copernicanism, which in addition heralds pre-Galilean telescopic observations carried out by Thomas Digges. Although many of Usher’s arguments are excessively elaborate and speculative, he raises several interesting questions. Just why did Shakespeare, for example, choose the names of Rosenskrantz and Guildenstern for Hamlet’s petard-hoisted companions, two historical relatives of Tycho Brahe (the foremost astronomer during Shakespeare’s floruit)? What was Shakespeare’s relationship to the spread of Copernican cosmology in late Elizabethan England? Was he impacted by such Copernican-related currents of cosmological thought as the atomism of Thomas Harriot and Nicholas Hill, the Neoplatonism of Kepler, and
    [Show full text]
  • A Lexicon of Alchemy
    A Lexicon of Alchemy by Martin Rulandus the Elder Translated by Arthur E. Waite John M. Watkins London 1893 / 1964 (250 Copies) A Lexicon of Alchemy or Alchemical Dictionary Containing a full and plain explanation of all obscure words, Hermetic subjects, and arcane phrases of Paracelsus. by Martin Rulandus Philosopher, Doctor, and Private Physician to the August Person of the Emperor. [With the Privilege of His majesty the Emperor for the space of ten years] By the care and expense of Zachariah Palthenus, Bookseller, in the Free Republic of Frankfurt. 1612 PREFACE To the Most Reverend and Most Serene Prince and Lord, The Lord Henry JULIUS, Bishop of Halberstadt, Duke of Brunswick, and Burgrave of Luna; His Lordship’s mos devout and humble servant wishes Health and Peace. In the deep considerations of the Hermetic and Paracelsian writings, that has well-nigh come to pass which of old overtook the Sons of Shem at the building of the Tower of Babel. For these, carried away by vainglory, with audacious foolhardiness to rear up a vast pile into heaven, so to secure unto themselves an immortal name, but, disordered by a confusion and multiplicity of barbarous tongues, were ingloriously forced. In like manner, the searchers of Hermetic works, deterred by the obscurity of the terms which are met with in so many places, and by the difficulty of interpreting the hieroglyphs, hold the most noble art in contempt; while others, desiring to penetrate by main force into the mysteries of the terms and subjects, endeavour to tear away the concealed truth from the folds of its coverings, but bestow all their trouble in vain, and have only the reward of the children of Shem for their incredible pain and labour.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethan Allen Hitchcock Alchemy Collection in the St
    A Guide to the Ethan Allen Hitchcock Alchemy Collection in the St. Louis Mercantile Library The St. Louis Mercantile Library Association Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock (1798 - 1870) A GUIDE TO THE ETHAN ALLEN HITCHCOCK COLLECTION OF THE ST. LOUIS MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION A collective effort produced by the NEH Project Staff of the St. Louis Mercantile Library Copyright (c) 1989 St. Louis Mercantile Library Association St. Louis, Missouri TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Staff................................ i Foreword and Acknowledgments................. 1 A Guide to the Ethan Allen Hitchcock Collection. .. 6 Aoppendix. 109 NEH PROJECT STAFF Project Director: John Neal Hoover* Archivist: Ann Morris, 1987-1989 Archivist: Betsy B. Stoll, 1989 Consultant: Louisa Bowen Typist: ' Betsy B. Stoll This project was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities * Charles F. Bryan, Jr. Ph.D., Executive Director of the Mercantile Library 1986-1988; Jerrold L. Brooks, Ph.D. Executive Director of the Mercantile Library, 1989; John Neal Hoover, MA, MLS, Acting Librarian, 1988, 1989, during the period funded by NEH as Project Director -i- FOREWORD & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: For over one thousand years, the field of alchemy gathered to it strands of religion, the occult, chemistry, pure sciences, astrology and magic into a broad general philosophical world view which was, quite apart from the stereotypical view of the charlatan gold maker, concerned with the forming of a basis of knowledge on all aspects of life's mysteries. As late as the early nineteenth century, when many of the modern fields of the true sciences of mind and matter were young and undeveloped, alchemy was a beacon for many people looking for a philosophical basis to the better understanding of life--to the basic religious and philosophical truths.
    [Show full text]
  • Renaissance Man, Series One, Part 2
    Renaissance Man, Series One, Part 2 RENAISSANCE MAN: THE RECONSTRUCTED LIBRARIES OF EUROPEAN SCHOLARS, 1450-1700 Series One: The Books and Manuscripts of John Dee, 1527-1608 Part 2: John Dee's Manuscripts from Corpus Christi College, Oxford Contents listing EDITORIAL PREFACE PUBLISHER'S NOTE CONTENTS OF REELS DETAILED LISTING Renaissance Man, Series One, Part 2 Editorial Preface by Dr Julian Roberts Research on John Dee (1527-1609) is gradually showing him to be one of the most interesting and complex figures of the late English renaissance. Although he was long regarded – for example in the Dictionary of National Biography – as alternately a charlatan and a dupe, he was revealed by E G R Taylor in 1930 as the teacher of the most important Elizabethan navigators. Research since then has underlined his role in the teaching of mathematics and astronomy, in astrology, alchemy, British antiquities, hermeticism, cabala and occultism, and, posthumously, in the Rosicrucian “movement” that swept Europe in the second and third decades of the seventeenth century. Dee thus stood, in the middle of the sixteenth century, at the watershed between magic and science, looking back at one and forward to the other. Central to all these interests was a great library, the largest that had ever been built up by one man in England. Dee’s omnivorous reading (demonstrated by his characteristic annotation) and the availability of his library to others fed many of the intellectual streams of Elizabethan England, and he was well known to Continental scholars, even before his ultimately disastrous visit to eastern Europe in 1583-89.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemy Archive Reference
    Alchemy Archive Reference 080 (MARC-21) 001 856 245 100 264a 264b 264c 337 008 520 561 037/541 500 700 506 506/357 005 082/084 521/526 (RDA) 2.3.2 19.2 2.8.2 2.8.4 2.8.6 3.19.2 6.11 7.10 5.6.1 22.3/5.6.2 4.3 7.3 5.4 5.4 4.5 Ownership and Date of Alternative Target UDC Nr Filename Title Author Place Publisher Date File Lang. Summary of the content Custodial Source Rev. Description Note Contributor Access Notes on Access Entry UDC-IG Audience History 000 SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE. ORGANIZATION. INFORMATION. DOCUMENTATION. LIBRARIANSHIP. INSTITUTIONS. PUBLICATIONS 000.000 Prolegomena. Fundamentals of knowledge and culture. Propaedeutics 001.000 Science and knowledge in general. Organization of intellectual work 001.100 Concepts of science Alchemyand knowledge 001.101 Knowledge 001.102 Information 001102000_UniversalDecimalClassification1961 Universal Decimal Classification 1961 pdf en A complete outline of the Universal Decimal Classification 1961, third edition 1 This third edition of the UDC is the last version (as far as I know) that still includes alchemy in Moreh 2018-06-04 R 1961 its index. It is a useful reference documents when it comes to the folder structure of the 001102000_UniversalDecimalClassification2017 Universal Decimal Classification 2017 pdf en The English version of the UDC Online is a complete standard edition of the scheme on the Web http://www.udcc.org 1 ThisArchive. is not an official document but something that was compiled from the UDC online. Moreh 2018-06-04 R 2017 with over 70,000 classes extended with more than 11,000 records of historical UDC data (cancelled numbers).
    [Show full text]
  • Orbis Terrarum DATE: AD 20 AUTHOR: Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
    Orbis Terrarum #118 TITLE: Orbis Terrarum DATE: A.D. 20 AUTHOR: Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa DESCRIPTION: The profound difference between the Roman and the Greek mind is illustrated with peculiar clarity in their maps. The Romans were indifferent to mathematical geography, with its system of latitudes and longitudes, its astronomical measurements, and its problem of projections. What they wanted was a practical map to be used for military and administrative purposes. Disregarding the elaborate projections of the Greeks, they reverted to the old disk map of the Ionian geographers as being better adapted to their purposes. Within this round frame the Roman cartographers placed the Orbis Terrarum, the circuit of the world. There are only scanty records of Roman maps of the Republic. The earliest of which we hear, the Sardinia map of 174 B.C., clearly had a strong pictorial element. But there is some evidence that, as we should expect from a land-based and, at that time, well advanced agricultural people, subsequent mapping development before Julius Caesar was dominated by land survey; the earliest recorded Roman survey map is as early as 167-164 B.C. If land survey did play such an important part, then these plans, being based on centuriation requirements and therefore square or rectangular, may have influenced the shape of smaller-scale maps. This shape was also one that suited the Roman habit of placing a large map on a wall of a temple or colonnade. Varro (116-27 B.C.) in his De re rustica, published in 37 B.C., introduces the speakers meeting at the temple of Mother Earth [Tellus] as they look at Italiam pictam [Italy painted].
    [Show full text]
  • Mechanical Miracles: Automata in Ancient Greek Religion
    Mechanical Miracles: Automata in Ancient Greek Religion Tatiana Bur A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney Supervisor: Professor Eric Csapo March, 2016 Statement of Originality This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. Tatiana Bur, March 2016. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................... 1 A NOTE TO THE READER ................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 3 PART I: THINKING ABOUT AUTOMATION .......................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1/ ELIMINATING THE BLOCAGE: ANCIENT AUTOMATA IN MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ................. 10 CHAPTER 2/ INVENTING AUTOMATION: AUTOMATA IN THE ANCIENT GREEK IMAGINATION ................. 24 PART II: AUTOMATA IN CONTEXT ................................................................................... 59 CHAPTER 3/ PROCESSIONAL AUTOMATA ................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Kabbalah, Magic & the Great Work of Self Transformation
    KABBALAH, MAGIC AHD THE GREAT WORK Of SELf-TRAHSfORMATIOH A COMPL€T€ COURS€ LYAM THOMAS CHRISTOPHER Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota Contents Acknowledgments Vl1 one Though Only a Few Will Rise 1 two The First Steps 15 three The Secret Lineage 35 four Neophyte 57 five That Darkly Splendid World 89 SIX The Mind Born of Matter 129 seven The Liquid Intelligence 175 eight Fuel for the Fire 227 ntne The Portal 267 ten The Work of the Adept 315 Appendix A: The Consecration ofthe Adeptus Wand 331 Appendix B: Suggested Forms ofExercise 345 Endnotes 353 Works Cited 359 Index 363 Acknowledgments The first challenge to appear before the new student of magic is the overwhehning amount of published material from which he must prepare a road map of self-initiation. Without guidance, this is usually impossible. Therefore, lowe my biggest thanks to Peter and Laura Yorke of Ra Horakhty Temple, who provided my first exposure to self-initiation techniques in the Golden Dawn. Their years of expe­ rience with the Golden Dawn material yielded a structure of carefully selected ex­ ercises, which their students still use today to bring about a gradual transformation. WIthout such well-prescribed use of the Golden Dawn's techniques, it would have been difficult to make progress in its grade system. The basic structure of the course in this book is built on a foundation of the Golden Dawn's elemental grade system as my teachers passed it on. In particular, it develops further their choice to use the color correspondences of the Four Worlds, a piece of the original Golden Dawn system that very few occultists have recognized as an ini­ tiatory tool.
    [Show full text]
  • And What They Can Teach Us About Contemporary Financial Expertise
    Klaus Oschema Heaven Can Tell ...Late Medieval Astrologers as Experts – and what they can Teach us about Contemporary Financial Expertise Abstract: In taking action, or rather in making the decision to act, humans are inevi- tably confronted with a fundamental dilemma: actions taken in the present seek to bring about consequences in an immediate or distant future, but that future is, by definition, unknown and unknowable. That even the present is characterized by a high degree of complexity can lead to the establishment of a particular group: experts or expert advisers. Experts are individuals credited with specific knowledge and who are relied upon in order to make informed decisions or solve particular problems. While many authors consider the development of cultures of expertise to be a uniquely modern phenomenon that responds to the increasing complexity of social organisation, this chapter argues that late medieval astrologers can be described as ‘experts’, and that their activities can be analysed fruitfully as being part of an ‘expert culture’. In order to appreciate fully the characteristics and workings of this culture, medievalists have to rely upon insights and findings derived from the Social Sciences. While an interdisciplinary dialogue benefits research on medieval subjects, I argue that the analysis of premodern ‘expert culture’ can (and must) inform reflex- ions on the role of experts in modern societies. Based on drawing a comparison between modern financial experts and late medieval astrologers, I argue that analysis of the latter enables us to better understand our reliance on experts as an act of belief rather than as an outcome of supposedly rational calculation.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity CALIFORNIA CLASSICAL STUDIES
    Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity CALIFORNIA CLASSICAL STUDIES NUMBER 7 Editorial Board Chair: Donald Mastronarde Editorial Board: Alessandro Barchiesi, Todd Hickey, Emily Mackil, Richard Martin, Robert Morstein-Marx, J. Theodore Peña, Kim Shelton California Classical Studies publishes peer-reviewed long-form scholarship with online open access and print-on-demand availability. The primary aim of the series is to disseminate basic research (editing and analysis of primary materials both textual and physical), data-heavy re- search, and highly specialized research of the kind that is either hard to place with the leading publishers in Classics or extremely expensive for libraries and individuals when produced by a leading academic publisher. In addition to promoting archaeological publications, papyrolog- ical and epigraphic studies, technical textual studies, and the like, the series will also produce selected titles of a more general profile. The startup phase of this project (2013–2017) was supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Also in the series: Number 1: Leslie Kurke, The Traffic in Praise: Pindar and the Poetics of Social Economy, 2013 Number 2: Edward Courtney, A Commentary on the Satires of Juvenal, 2013 Number 3: Mark Griffith, Greek Satyr Play: Five Studies, 2015 Number 4: Mirjam Kotwick, Alexander of Aphrodisias and the Text of Aristotle’s Meta- physics, 2016 Number 5: Joey Williams, The Archaeology of Roman Surveillance in the Central Alentejo, Portugal, 2017 Number 6: Donald J. Mastronarde, Preliminary Studies on the Scholia to Euripides, 2017 Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity Olivier Dufault CALIFORNIA CLASSICAL STUDIES Berkeley, California © 2019 by Olivier Dufault.
    [Show full text]
  • Hypatia and Tsong Kha-Pa Giordano Bruno and Paracelsus
    Hypatia and Tsong Kha-pa Giordano Bruno and Paracelsus The third “On The Path” Seminar Saturday 15th December 2018 from 3 to 6.15 pm “The public must be made acquainted with the efforts of many World-adepts, of initiated poets, writers, and classics of every age, to preserve in the records of Humanity the Knowledge of the existence, at least, of such a philosophy, if not actually of its tenets. The Initiates of 1888 would indeed remain incomprehensible and ever a seemingly impossible myth, were not like Initiates shown to have lived in every other age of history. This could be done only by naming Chapter and Verse where may be found mention of these great characters, who were preceded and followed by a long and interminable line of other famous Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Masters in the arts. Thus only could be shown, on semi-traditional and semi-historical authority, that knowledge of the Occult and the powers it confers on man, are not altogether fictions, but that they are as old as the world itself.” H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, Introductory, p. xlv The United Lodge of Theosophists 62 Queen’s Gardens London W2 3AH - 2 - Hypatia (b. 370) “Neo-platonism. Lit., “the new Platonism” or Platonic School. An eclectic pantheistic school of philosophy founded in Alexandria by Ammonius Saccas, . It sought to reconcile Platonic teachings and the Aristotelean system with oriental Theosophy. Its chief occupation was pure spiritual philosophy, metaphysics and mysticism. Theurgy was introduced towards its later years. It was the ultimate effort of high intelligences to check the ever-increasing ignorant superstition and blind faith of the times; the last product of Greek philosophy, which was finally crushed and put to death by brute force.” (“The Theosophical Glossary” H.
    [Show full text]