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Post by Admin on Sept 26, 2022 13:34:51 GMT
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Post by Admin on Sept 28, 2022 19:00:52 GMT
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Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2022 22:35:02 GMT
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Post by Admin on Oct 18, 2022 21:11:59 GMT
What Most People Would Call Evil: The Archontic Spirituality of William S. Burroughs www.academia.edu/41311669/What_Most_People_Would_Call_Evil_The_Archontic_Spirituality_of_William_S_BurroughsThis article argues that the true depth of William Seward Burroughs II’s ideological legacy within Western esotericism has been somewhat underappreciated by historians of religion, and this is evidenced by the insufficient credit Burroughs has thus far received for his pivotal role in the emergence of the “2012 phenomenon.” The purpose of this article is to distinguish Burroughs’ works as centrally spiritual, thus providing a context that can allow scholars to properly measure the communities that gravitate to his ideas. The body of this article begins by examining Burroughs’ role in the 2012 phenomenon, and it will be argued that “anti-magical polemics” are perhaps partly responsible for somewhat reducing the awareness of Burroughs’ roles in esoteric currents of the twentieth century. A diachronic comparison is then undertaken by analyzing Gnosticism to provide a foundational context for situating Burroughs’ worldview as a transhistorical pattern of thought that herein will be defined as ‘archontism.’ The concept of archontism is then used to more accurately classify Burroughs’ literature as ‘books of the dead,’ and this article concludes with a refutation of anti-magical polemics that explicitly denigrate the study of esotericism.
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Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2022 9:59:29 GMT
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Post by Admin on Oct 26, 2022 20:39:51 GMT
Spiritual Alchemy from the Age of Jacob Boehme to Mary Anne Atwood, 1600–1900 www.academia.edu/35197521/Spiritual_Alchemy_from_the_Age_of_Jacob_Boehme_to_Mary_Anne_Atwood_1600_1900PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2017. WINNER OF THE ESSWE THESIS PRIZE 2019. ‘Spiritual alchemy’ is a contested term that is often accompanied by far-reaching claims about the presumed essence of alchemy. Despite the troubled past of this term, this study reclaims ‘spiritual alchemy’ as a precisely definable category for historical research. The term stands for the practical pursuit of inward but physically real transmutation, its goal being the reversal of the Fall as a preparation for the resurrection of the dead at the Last Judgment. Spiritual alchemy in this sense first developed around the turn of the seventeenth century, due to the confluence of two important currents: German mysticism and alchemical Paracelsianism. In underground networks of religious dissenters, mystical and spiritualist as well as alchemical and Paracelsian writings circulated side by side. In this context, spiritual alchemy eventually reached Jacob Boehme. According to his understanding, laboratory alchemy was but a lesser, grossly material reflection of spiritual alchemy. Drawing extensively on the manuscript record, this study traces how Boehme’s spiritual alchemy ultimately came to shape Mary Anne Atwood’s enduringly popular 'Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery'. It appears that a formerly minor strand of early-modern alchemy exerted crucial influence on this first major presentation of modern alchemy.
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Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2022 1:02:01 GMT
Enochian Angel Magic: From John Dee to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn www.academia.edu/921740/Enochian_Angel_Magic_From_John_Dee_to_the_Hermetic_Order_of_the_Golden_DawnThis dissertation seeks to define the importance of John Dee’s interpretation of mediaeval and Renaissance esoterica regarding the contacting of daemons and its evolution into a body of astrological and terrestrial correspondences and intelligences that included a Biblical primordial language, or a lingua adamica. The intention and transmission of John Dee’s angel magic is linked to the philosophy outlined in his earlier works, most notably the Monas Hieroglyphica, and so this dissertation also provides a philosophical background to Dee’s angel magic. The aim of this dissertation is to establish Dee’s conversations with angels as a magic system that is a direct descendant of Solomonic and Ficinian magic with unique Kabbalistic elements. It is primarily by the Neoplatonic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and alchemical philosophy presented in the Monas Hieroglyphica that interest in Dee’s angel magic was transmitted through the Rosicrucian movement. Through Johann Valentin Andreae’s Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459, the emphasis on a spiritual, inner alchemy became attached to Dee’s philosophy. Figures such as Elias Ashmole, Ebenezer Sibley, Francis Barret, and Frederick Hockley were crucial in the transmission of interest in Dee’s practical angel magic and Hermetic philosophy to the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The rituals of the Golden Dawn utilized Dee’s angel magic, in addition to creative Kabbalistic elements, to form a singular practice that has influenced Western esoterica of the modern age. This study utilizes a careful analysis of primary sources including the original manuscripts of the Sloane archives, the most recent scholarly editions of Dee’s works, authoritative editions of original documents linked to Rosicrucianism, and Israel Regardie’s texts on Golden Dawn practices.
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Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2022 19:42:16 GMT
The mysterious history of medieval magic, wizards, and sorcerers Stars Insider www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/the-mysterious-history-of-medieval-magic-wizards-and-sorcerers/ss-AA117UC3We've all heard countless stories of wizards (who were born as mere mortals but learned magic) and sorcerers (who were born with magic but had to learn to master it). Both were figures shut away in dark towers conducting arcane experiments, bringing objects to life and hexing their enemies. Pointy hats, magical staffs, enchantment scrolls—all these things are hearty food for the imagination, and most believe it ends there. But were there really magical practitioners during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? Did people truly believe in magic? The answers might surprise you.
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Post by Admin on Nov 15, 2022 15:46:29 GMT
The Scythe and the Pentagram: Santa Muerte from Folk Catholicism to Occultism www.academia.edu/37334720/The_Scythe_and_the_Pentagram_Santa_Muerte_from_Folk_Catholicism_to_OccultismSanta Muerte is establishing a presence among practitioners of contemporary occultism in Europe and North America. The occult milieu is highly different from the Mexican cult of Santa Muerte, having a strong heritage of secrecy and tradition as social capital and being mostly middle-class in orientation. Nonetheless, this Catholic folk saint with a mostly pragmatic, popular, and grassroots cult is becoming increasingly popular among occultists. Based on a survey of three recent books on Santa Muerte geared towards an Anglophone, occult audience, it is therefore the aim of this article to understand how and why the Skeleton Saint is attracting adherents in the occult milieu, by analyzing the underlying causes of this growing trend, as well as the conditions shaping it. It is the overall argument of this article that the beginning reception of Santa Muerte in occultism is a result of perceived needs and demands specific to the occult milieu rather than characteristics inherent in the symbol itself, and that an analysis of the ways in which she is spreading outside of her original sociocultural context must be guided by an understanding of the novel one she is integrated in.
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Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2022 11:04:51 GMT
The Light of Hermes Trismegistus New Translations of Seven Essential Hermetic Texts By (Author) Charles Stein www.innertraditions.com/books/the-light-of-hermes-trismegistusA presentation of seven essential texts, central to the Hermetic Tradition, never before published together Offering new translations from the earliest source languages, Charles Stein presents seven essential Hermetic texts alongside introductions and interpretive commentary, revealing their hidden gems of insight, suggesting directions for practice, as well as progressively weaving the texts together historically, poetically, hermeneutically, and magically. • Includes Theogony, The Homeric Hymn to Hermes, The Poem of Parmenides, The Poimandres, The Chaldean Oracles, Hymn to Isis, and On Divine Virtue, each translated from the original Greek or Latin • Presents interpretive commentary for each text to progressively weave them together historically, poetically, hermeneutically, and magically Linked to both the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, Hermes Trismegistus is credited, through legend, with thousands of mystical and philosophical writings of high standing, each reputed to be of immense antiquity. During the Renaissance, a collection of such writings known as the Corpus Hermeticum greatly inspired the thought of philosophers, alchemists, artists, poets, and even theologians. Offering new translations of seven essential Hermetic texts from their earliest source languages, Charles Stein presents them alongside introductions and interpretive commentary, revealing their hidden gems of insight, suggesting directions for practice, and progressively weaving the texts together historically, poetically, hermeneutically, and magically. The book includes translations of Hesiod’s Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the “Poem of Parmenides,” the Poimandres from the Corpus Hermeticum, the Chaldean Oracles, “The Vision of Isis” from Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, and “On Divine Virtue” by Zosimos of Panopolis. Through his introductions and commentaries, Stein explains how the many traditions that use Hermes’s name harbor a coherent spirit whose relevance and efficacy promise to carry Hermes forward into the future. Revealing Hermes as the very principle of Mind in all its possibilities, from intellectual brilliance to the workings of the cognitive life of everyone, the author shows how these seven texts are central to a still-evolving Western tradition in which the principle of spiritual awakening is allied with the creative. Never before published together, these texts present a new vehicle for transmission of the Hermetic Genius in modern times.
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Post by Admin on Dec 6, 2022 13:23:03 GMT
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Post by Admin on Dec 26, 2022 13:25:37 GMT
Thought for the day.... and maybe pertinent in these days of deliberate obscurity "I understand that the word ‘occult’ means hidden, but surely that is not meant to be the final state of all this information, hidden forever. I don’t see why there is any need to further obscure things that are actually lucid and bright." - Alan Moore
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Post by Admin on Dec 28, 2022 15:37:34 GMT
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Post by Admin on Jan 13, 2023 11:05:27 GMT
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Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2023 22:03:42 GMT
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