Western Esotericism in the Early Modern Period
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Alchemical Culture and Poetry in Early Modern England
Alchemical culture and poetry in early modern England PHILIP BALL Nature, 4–6 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK There is a longstanding tradition of using alchemical imagery in poetry. It first flourished at the end of the sixteenth century, when the status of alchemy itself was revitalised in European society. Here I explain the reasons for this resurgence of the Hermetic arts, and explore how it was manifested in English culture and in particular in the literary and poetic works of the time. In 1652 the English scholar Elias Ashmole published a collection of alchemical texts called Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum, comprising ‘Several Poeticall Pieces of Our Most Famous English Philosophers’. Among the ‘chemical philosophers’ represented in the volume were the fifteenth-century alchemists Sir George Ripley and Thomas Norton – savants who, Ashmole complained, were renowned on the European continent but unduly neglected in their native country. Ashmole trained in law, but through his (second) marriage to a rich widow twenty years his senior he acquired the private means to indulge at his leisure a scholarly passion for alchemy and astrology. A Royalist by inclination, he had been forced to leave his London home during the English Civil War and had taken refuge in Oxford, the stronghold of Charles I’s forces. In 1677 he donated his impressive collection of antiquities to the University of Oxford, and the building constructed to house them became the Ashmolean, the first public museum in England. Ashmole returned to London after the civil war and began to compile the Theatrum, which was intended initially as a two-volume work. -
Redalyc.Kabbalah, Symbolism and Metaphysicsin Russian Freemasonry of the XVIII Th–XIX Th Centuries
REHMLAC. Revista de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña E-ISSN: 1659-4223 [email protected] Universidad de Costa Rica Costa Rica Khalturin, Yuriy Kabbalah, Symbolism and Metaphysicsin Russian Freemasonry of the XVIII th–XIX th centuries REHMLAC. Revista de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña, vol. 7, núm. 1, mayo-noviembre, 2015, pp. 128-140 Universidad de Costa Rica San José, Costa Rica Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=369539930009 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative REHMLAC+, ISSN 1659-4223, Vol. 7, no. 2, Mayo - Noviembre 2015/ 128-140 128 Kabbalah, Symbolism and Metaphysics in Russian Freemasonry of the XVIIIth – XIXth centuries Yuriy Khalturin PhD in Philosophy (Russian Academy of Science), independent scholar, member of ESSWE. E-mail: [email protected] Fecha de recibido: 20 de noviembre de 2014 - Fecha de aceptación: 8 de enero de 2015 Palabras clave Cábala, masonería, rosacrucismo, teosofía, sofilogía, Sephiroth, Ein-Soph, Adam Kadmon, emanación, alquimia, la estrella llameante, columnas Jaquín y Boaz Keywords Kabbalah, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Sophiology, Sephiroth, Ein-Soph, Adam Kadmon, emanation, alchemy, Flaming Star, Columns Jahin and Boaz Resumen Este trabajo considera algunas conexiones entre la Cábala y la masonería en Rusia como se refleja en los archivos del Departamento de Manuscritos de la Biblioteca Estatal Rusa (DMS RSL). El vínculo entre ellos se basa en la comprensión tanto de la Cabala y la masonería como la filosofía simbólica y “verdaderamente metafísica”. -
Rosicrucianism from Its Origins to the Early 18Th Century
CHAPTER TWO ROSICRUCIANISM FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY In order to understand the 18th-century Rosicrucian revival it is necessary to know something of the origins and early history of Rosicrucianism. This ground has already been covered many times,1 but it is worth covering it again here in broad outline as a prelude to my main investigation. The Rosicrucian legend was born in the early 17th century in the uneasy period before religious tensions in Central Europe erupted into the Thirty Years' War. The Lutheran Reformation of a century earlier had finally shat tered the religious unity of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. On the other hand, as the historian Geoffrey Parker has observed, the Reformation had not produced the spiritual renewal that its advocates had hoped for.2 In the prevailing atmosphere of political and religious tension and spiritual malaise, many people turned, in their dismay, to the old millenarian dream of a new age. This way of thinking, dating back to the writings of the 12th-cen tury Calabrian abbot Joachim of Fiore, had surfaced at various times in the intervening centuries, giving rise to movements of the kind described by Nor man Cohn in his Pursuit of the Millennium3 and by Marjorie Reeves in her Joachim ofFiore and the Prophetic Future.4 Joachim and his followers saw history as unfolding in a series of three ages, corresponding to the three per sons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in that order. They believed that hitherto they had been living in the Age of the Son, but that the Age of the Spirit was at hand. -
Rosicrucianism in the Contemporary Period in Denmark
Contemporary Rosicrucianism in Denmark 445 Chapter 55 Contemporary Rosicrucianism in Denmark Rosicrucianism in the Contemporary Period in Denmark Jacob Christiansen Senholt Rosicrucian ideas were present in Denmark already during the seventeenth century, fuelled by the publication of the tracts Fama fraternitatis rosae crucis and Confessio fraternitatis in Germany in 1614 and 1615 respectively. After a gap in the history of Rosicrucian presence in Denmark of almost 300 years, modern Rosicrucian societies spread across the world, and following this wave of Rosi cru cian fraternities, Danish offshoots of these fraternities also emerged. The modernday Rosicrucians and their presence in Denmark stem from two differ ent historical roots. The first is an influence from Germany via the Rosicrucian Society in Germany (RosenkreuzerGesellschaft in Deutschland), and the other comes from the United States, with the formation of Antiquus Mys ti cus que Ordo Rosæ Crucis (AMORC) by Harvey Spencer Lewis (1883–1939) in 1915. The Rosicrucian Fellowship The history of modern Rosicrucianism in Denmark starts in 1865 when Carl Louis von Grasshoff (1865–1919), later known under the pseudonym Max Heindel, was born. Although born in Denmark, Heindel was of German ances try, and spent most of his life travelling in both the United States and Germany. He was a member of the Theosophical Society and met with the later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, in 1907. In 1909 he published his major work, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, which dealt with Christian mysticism and esotericism, and later that year Heindel founded The Rosicrucian Fellowship. It was a German spinoff of this group lead by occultist and theosophist Franz Hartmann (1838–1912) and later Hugo Vollrath, that later became influential in Denmark. -
Theosophical Siftings Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucians Vol 6, No 15 Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucians
Theosophical Siftings Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucians Vol 6, No 15 Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucians by William Wynn Westcott Reprinted from "Theosophical Siftings" Volume 6 The Theosophical Publishing Society, England [Page 3] THE Rosicrucians of mediaeval Germany formed a group of mystic philosophers, assembling, studying and teaching in private the esoteric doctrines of religion, philosophy and occult science, which their founder, Christian Rosenkreuz, had learned from the Arabian sages, who were in their turn the inheritors of the culture of Alexandria. This great city of Egypt, a chief emporium of commerce and a centre of intellectual learning, flourished before the rise of the Imperial power of Rome, falling at length before the martial prowess of the Romans, who, having conquered, took great pains to destroy the arts and sciences of the Egypt they had overrun and subdued ; for they seem to have had a wholesome fear of those magical arts, which, as tradition had informed them, flourished in the Nile Valley; which same tradition is also familiar to English people through our acquaintance with the book of Genesis, whose reputed author was taught in Egypt all the science and arts he possessed, even as the Bible itself tells us, although the orthodox are apt to slur over this assertion of the Old Testament narrative. Our present world has taken almost no notice of the Rosicrucian philosophy, nor until the last twenty years of any mysticism, and when it does condescend to stoop from its utilitarian and money-making occupations, it is only to condemn all such studies, root and branch, as waste of time and loss of energy. -
INTRODUCTION Rosicrucianism Is a Theosophy Advanced by an Invisible
INTRODUCTION Rosicrucianism is a theosophy advanced by an invisible order of spir itual knights who in spreading Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Gnosis seek to enliven and to preserve the memory of Divine Wisdom, understood as a feminine flame of love called Sofia or Shekhinah, exoterically given as a fresh unfolded rose, yet, more akin to the blue fire of alchemy, the blue virgin. Rosicrucians have no organisation and there are no recognizable Rosicrucian individuals, but the order makes its presence known by leaving behind engram- matic writings in the genre of Hermetic-Platonic Christianity.1 The historical roots of Hermeticism is to be located in Ancient Egypt. Long before the rise of Christianity, Hermetic texts were struc tured around the belief that organisms contain sparks of a Divine mind unto which they each strive to attend. Things easily transform into others, thereby generating certain cyclical patterns, cycles that peri odically renew themselves on a cosmic scale. These transformations of life and death were enacted in the Hermetic Mysteries in Ancient Egypt through the gods Isis, Horus, and Osiris. In the Alexandrian period these myths were reshaped into Hermetic discourses on the transformations of the self with Thot, the scribal god. These dis courses were introduced in the west in 1474 when Marsilio Ficino translated the Hermetic Pimander from the Greek. The story of Chris tian Rosencreutz can be seen as a new version of these mysteries, specifically tempered by German Paracelsian philosophy on the lion of the darkest night, a biblical icon for how the higher self lies slum bering in consciousness.2 In this book, I develop the Rosicrucian theme from a Scandinavian perspective by linking selected historical events to scenarios of the emergence of European Rosicrucianism that have been advanced from other geographic angles. -
PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance
Graduate School ETD Form 9 (Revised 12/07) PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Angela C. Ghionea Entitled RECURRING THOUGHT PATTERNS AND RESURFACING ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS IN EUROPEAN, HELLENISTIC, ARABIC, AND BYZANTINE ALCHEMY FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD Doctor of Philosophy For the degree of Is approved by the final examining committee: James R. Farr Chair Myrdene Anderson Anthony T. Grafton To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Research Integrity and Copyright Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 20), this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s “Policy on Integrity in Research” and the use of copyrighted material. Approved by Major Professor(s): ____________________________________James R. Farr ____________________________________ Approved by: Douglas R. Hurt 04/16/2013 Head of the Graduate Program Date RECURRING THOUGHT PATTERNS AND RESURFACING ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS IN EUROPEAN, HELLENISTIC, ARABIC, AND BYZANTINE ALCHEMY FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Angela Catalina Ghionea In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana UMI Number: 3591220 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3591220 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013). -
How Alchemists Meditated in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Dennis William Hauck, Ph.D
Searching for the Cosmic Quintessence: How Alchemists Meditated in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Dennis William Hauck, Ph.D. Go directly to the text of the paper. Abstract The meditative techniques practiced by alchemists in the Middle Ages were different from what we think of as meditation today. Alchemical meditation was an active instead of a passive activity, and it focused on harnessing spiritual forces for positive transformation and specific manifestations. The alchemists sought to actually work with the transcendental powers during meditation to achieve union with the divine mind or somehow bring the transformative powers from Above directly into their practical work in the lab or their personal work in the inner laboratory of their souls. This paper reviews two actual meditations practiced by medieval and Renaissance alchemists. The first is a form of mystical contemplation popular with spiritual seekers of all kinds during this period. The other is a meditation created specifically for alchemists and kept secret from the public for over 200 years. The two meditations are intended to be practiced by those interested, and free audio recordings of the guided meditations are available.1 La recherche de la Quintessence Cosmique - Comment méditaient les alchimistes du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance Dennis William Hauck, Ph.D. Résumé Les techniques de méditation pratiquées par les alchimistes du Moyen-Âge étaient bien différentes de ce que nous considérons comme méditation aujourd'hui. La méditation alchimique était une activité active et non passive, elle se focalisait sur la maitrise des forces spirituelles en vue d’atteindre une transformation évolutive ainsi que des manifestations psychiques particulières. -
Alchemical Reference in Antony and Cleopatra
SYDNEY STUDIES Alchemical Reference in Antony and Cleopatra LYNDALL ABRAHAM Lepidus: Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. (II.vii.26-7) The phrase "the operation of your sun" is a distinctly alchemical term. It refers to the opus alchymicum as a whole and is first known to occur in one of the oldest and most famous alchemical documents, the Emerald Table: "What I have said concerning the operation of the Sun is finished."1 The Tabula Smaragdina or Emerald Table, ascribed to Hermes Tris megistus or the Egyptian Thoth, was not only one of the most important sources of medieval alchemy, but continued to be considered as the basis of alI alchemical law by alchemists right through to the seventeenth cen tury. The earliest known version was discovered by E. J. Holmyard in an eighth-century Arabic text, and it was translated into Latin around the time of the thirteenth century. The first English translation appears as a part of Roger Bacon's The Mirror of Alchimy (London 1597). The con tents of the influential Table occur repeatedly in both Renaissance and seventeenth-century alchemical treatises, including John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica (1564: reprinted in 1591 and included in the alchemical anthology Theatrum Chemicum in 1602), the De Alchemia (1541-Table included in full), George Ripley's The Compound of Alchymie (1591), William Bloomfield's Bloomfield's Blossoms, Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy (1477), and Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617).2 In Euphrates or The Waters -
Historical Influence of the Rosicrucian Fraternity on Freemasonry
Historical Influence of the Rosicrucian Fraternity on Freemasonry Introduction Freemasonry has a public image that sometimes includes notions that we practice some sort of occultism, alchemy, magic rituals, that sort of thing. As Masons we know that we do no such thing. Since 1717 we have been a modern, rational, scientifically minded craft, practicing moral and theological virtues. But there is a background of occult science in Freemasonry, and it is related to the secret fraternity of the Rosicrucians. The Renaissance Heritage1 During the Italian renaissance of the 15th century, scholars rediscovered and translated classical texts of Plato, Pythagoras, and the Hermetic writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, thought to be from ancient Egypt. Over the next two centuries there was a widespread growth in Europe of various magical and spiritual practices – magic, alchemy, astrology -- based on those texts. The mysticism and magic of Jewish Cabbala was also studied from texts brought from Spain and the Muslim world. All of these magical practices had a religious aspect, in the quest for knowledge of the divine order of the universe, and Man’s place in it. The Hermetic vision of Man was of a divine soul, akin to the angels, within a material, animal body. By the 16th century every royal court in Europe had its own astrologer and some patronized alchemical studies. In England, Queen Elizabeth had Dr. John Dee (1527- 1608) as one of her advisors and her court astrologer. Dee was also an alchemist, a student of the Hermetic writings, and a skilled mathematician. He was the most prominent practitioner of Cabbala and alchemy in 16th century England. -
Charlotte.Pdf
TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I BIRTH AND EDUCATION Tercentenary of Dee’s death — No life of him — Persistent misunderstanding — Birth — Parentage — At Chelmsford Grammar School — St. John’s College, Cambridge — Fellow of Trinity — Theatrical enterprise — In the Low Countries — M.A. of Cambridge — Louvain University — Paris — Readings in Euclid — Correspondents abroad — Return to England. CHAPTER II IMPRISONMENT AND AUTHORSHIP Books dedicated to Edward VI. — Upton Rectory — Long Leadenham — Books dedicated to Duchess of Northumberland — Ferrys informs against his “magic” — In prison — Handed over to Bonner — At Philpot’s trial — Efforts to found a State Library — Astrology — Horoscopes — Choice of a day for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation — Introduced to her by Dudley — Sympathetic magic — Bachelor of Divinity — In Antwerp — Monas Hieroglyphica — Preface to Billingsley’s Euclid — Called a conjurer. CHAPTER III MORTLAKE Proposed benefices — Propædeumata Aphoristica — Alchemical secrets — Settled at Mortlake — Journey to Lorraine — Illness — The Queen’s attentions — Mines and hidden treasure — Wigmore Castle — Marriage — Death of first wife — Literary correspondence — John Stow — Diary commenced — The Hexameron Brytannicum — The British Complement — Slander and falsehood — A petty navy — The sea-power of Albion — Fisheries and foreign policy. CHAPTER IV JANE DEE A comet or blazing star — Second marriage — Jane Fromond — Hurried journey abroad — Berlin and Frankfort — Birth of a son — Christening — Edward Dyer — Duc d’Alencon — Michael Lock — His sons — The Queen’s visit — Sir Humphrey Gilbert at Mortlake — Adrian Gilbert — John Davis — The Queen’s Title Royall — Lord Treasurer Burleigh — Death of Dee’s mother — The Queen’s visit of condolence — Map of America — Visits to the Muscovy House — Frobisher and Hawkins — Birth of a daughter — Accident to Arthur. -
Michael Maier’S Atalanta Fugiens
The Secret Teachings of Western Alchemy are Basically Eastern Cultivation Teachings in Disguise … An Analysis of Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens According to Zen, Taoism, Buddhism and Esoteric Teachings by Master Nan Huai-Chin A Workbook to Accompany the Audio Course by William Bodri www.MeditationExpert.com Atalanta Fugiens The Secret Teachings of Western Alchemy are Basically Eastern Cultivation Teachings in Disguise An Analysis of Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens, According to Zen, Taoism, Buddhism and Esoteric Teachings by Master Nan Huai-Chin As Related to William Bodri Copyright © 2005, William Bodri All Rights reserved in all media First edition 2005 Top Shape Publishing, LLC 1135 Terminal Way Suite 209 Reno, Nevada 89502 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, digital copying, printing, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the authors. www.MeditationExpert.com 2 Atalanta Fugiens Thanks Thanks go to the many people who made this work possible: Master Nan Huai-Chin for agreeing to give the lectures on these emblems. Zhao Hai-ying for her work in translating his teachings. Neil Tarvin for his ebook production of this text. John Newtson for editing this ebook. And finally, Nicholas-Hays for their kind permission to reprint the English translations of the Emblems found in Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical Book of Emblems by H. M. E. de Jong. 3 Atalanta Fugiens Introduction Michael Maier was one of the few Renaissance alchemists who actually revealed genuine spiritual cultivation teachings in his writings.