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Ezoterizm

Ezoterizm

PARACELSUS (I)

CİNLER

CİNLERLE İNSANLAR EVLENEBİLİRLER Mİ?

CİN'CE YADA CİNLERİN ÖZEL BİR DİLİ VAR MIDIR?

YAMYAMLIK

YENİ DÜNYA BÜYÜCÜLERİNDE YAMYAMLIK

Ezoteristler
Plato (ca. 360 BC)
Olympiodorus of Thebes (ca. 400)
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280)
Roger Bacon (1220- 1292)
Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418) - 5 Files
Basil Valentine (supposed 15th cent.) The 12 Keys - 2 Files
Valentin Weigel (1533-1588) - 2 Files
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
John Dee (1527-1608)
Robert Boyle (1626-1691)
Isaac Newton (1642 -1727) - 2 Files
Count Alessandro de Cagliostro (1743-1795)
Count of Saint Germain (18th Century)
Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre The Archeometre (1842-1909)
Fulcanelli

 

PARACELSUS (I)

Rönasans'ın Alman bilgini Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim ( 1493-1541) renkli bir kişiliğe sahipti. Genellikle PARACELSUS adıyla tanınmaktadır. Otuz yaşlarındaykenaldığı bu lakap “von Hohenheim”ın Latinceleştirilmiş şeklinden türetilmiş olabileceği gib “Celsus'tan üstün” ( Celsus, milattan sonra birinci yüzyılda yaşamış bir Romalı tıp eserleri derleyicisidir.) anlamına da gelebilmekteydi. Belki de, geleneksel kavramları yıkan “paradoksal” (doktrinlere aykırı) kitaplar yazmasıyla ilgiliydi. Paracelsus 1493 veya 1494'te İsviçre'de Einsiedeln'de tıpla ilgilenen bir ailede doğdu.

İlk eğitimini özellikle botanik, madencilik, metalürji ve genel bilim konusunda babasından aldı. Sonraki hocaları piskoposlar ve büyüyle ilgili faliyetlerinin önde gelen ismi olan Sponheim başrahibiydi. Yirmili yaşlarına geldiğinde, Paracelsus bölgedeki madenlerde veya daha muhtemel olarak bu madenlerin laboratuarlarında çalıştı. Bu, oldukça alışılmış bir eğitimdi. Ayrıca, İtalya'ya gittiği ve Ferrara Üniversitesi'nde bir süre tıp okuduğu da tahmin edilmektedir: çünkü çok geçmeden, önce Venedik'te sonra da başka yerlerde askeri cerrah olarak çalıştığını görmekteyiz.

Doktorluk gibi saygı gören bir mesleğin üyesi olmasına rağmen Paracelsus'un babası gayri meşru bir çocuk olarak doğmuştu. Annesi ise bir Benediktin manastırında hizmet etmekteydi. Bu durum, Paracelsus'u hayatı boyunca etkilemiş görünmektedir; çünkü otorite ile arasında her zaman bir sevgi-nefret ilişkisi vardı. Arkadaşlarını, hatta hamilerini bile kendinden uzaklaştıran öfkeli bir adamdı. Geleneksel bilimi ve tıbbı reddetti; tedavi yöntemlerini köylülerden öğrenmeye çalıştı; köylülerle beraber tavernalarda içki içerek zaman geçirdi; bu alışkanlığı ona şarap konusunda uzmanlık kazandırdı. Köylülerin hastalıklarını ücretsiz olarak tedavi etti ve zenginlerden fahiş ücretler alarak durumunu dengeledi.

Paracelsus'un meslek hayatı, başarı ve başarısızlığın tam bir karışımıydı.Salzburg'da başarılı şekilde doktorluk yaptı, önde gelen hümanist yayımcı Johannes Froben'in hayatını kurtararak büyük ün kazandı. Bu başarısı ve Erasmus'a yaptığı sağlam tıbbi tavsiyeler sayesinde, 1527'de Basel'de belediye doktorluğu ve tıp profesörlüğü görevlerini elde etti. Ancak akademik otoriteler memnun değildi. Çünkü, gerekli belgeleri sunmayı ve yemin etmeyi reddetmiş, Galenos'u karalayan bir yazı hazırlamış ve yeni bir program hazırlayacağını açıklamıştı. Tayini ancak Froben'in ve diğer güçlü reformcuların yardımı sayesinde gerçekleşti. Ancak ertesi yıl Froben öldü ve Paracelsus, Basel'i terk etmek zorunda bırakıldı. İbn Sina'nın Kanun'unun bir nüshasını herkesin önünde yakmış, Almanca ders vermekte ısrar etmiş, sınıflarına berber-cerrahları almış ve hatta, vizite ücretini ödemediği için bir üst düzey hükümet yetkilisini mahkemeye verecek kadar işi ileri götürmüştü. Bundan sonra Paracelsus, bir şehirden diğerine dolaştı. Kendine gösterilen misafirperverliği genellikle suistimal ettiğinden, bir yerde en fazla iki yıl kalabilmekteydi. Madencilerde görülen hastalıkları da, köylü elbisesi giyerek yaptığı bu geziler sırasında inceledi. 1541 yılında Salzburg'da öldü.

Çok sağlam bir bünyeye sahip olan Paracelsus, içki içmede köylülerle iddiaya girmekte ve kazandıktan sonra, gecenin geri kalan kısmında yazılarını çok tutarlı bir dille sekreterine dikte etmekteydi. Tabii ki, elindeki kılıcı sallayarak ve bağırarak etrafındakilere dehşete düşürmediği zamanlarda! Ertesi gün laboratuarında çalışmakta veya muayenehanesinde hasta bakmaktaydı. Bu çılgınca hayata rağmen, tıbba bazı yenilikler getirdi. Silikoz ve tüberkülozu madencilerde görülen meslek hastalıkları olarak tanımladı; frenginin doğuştan gelebileceğini buldu; guatr ile kretinizm (patolojik zeka geriliği) arasında bir bağlantı olduğunu anladı. Ancak en önemli katkısı yeni bir hastalık teorisi ortaya koymuş olmasırdır.

Paracelsus, hastalığın vücut sıvılarındaki dengesizlik veya düzensizlikten meydana geldiğine dair eski inancı çürüttü; dış etkilerin önemini vurguladı ve özellikle vücudun bir “zehir” tarafından istila edildiğini ileri sürdü. Bu onu yeni tedavi şekillerine götürdü ve tedavide, homeopati ilkelerini ve “benzerlikler” kavramını uyguladı.

Homeopati, Sağlıklı kişilerde belirli hastalıklara yol açan ilaçların, o hastalıkların belirtilerine karşı kullanılmasına dayanan tedavi yöntemidir.

Bunun sonuncu tedavi şekline göre, kullanılacak bitkisel ilacın seçimi, bitkinin rengi ve şekli ile hasta organ arasındaki benzerlik göz önüne alınarak yapılmaktaydı. Ayrıca ilaç hammadelerini, içerdikleri spesifik bileşenlere göre ayırmaya çalıştı ve minarelleri doğrudan ilaç olarak kullanmayı öğütledi. Bütün bunlar, kimyada yeni teknik ve fikirler geliştirmesine sebep oldu ki, bu teknikler ve fikirler kendisinden sonra iyatrokimyayı uygulayacak olanlara çok fayda sağlayacaktı

 

CİNLER

Cinler daha önceki peygamberlerin tebliğlerine de uymuşlardı. Kur'an-ı Kerim'de Ahkaf suresinin ( 46 / 29 - 30 – 31 ) ayetlerinde,

30) < Dediler ki: “ Ey toplumumuz! Biz; Musa'dan sonra indirilen, kendinden öncekini doğrulayan, hakka ve dosdoğruyola ileten bir Kitap dinledik” >

31) “ Ey toplumumuz! Allah'ın davetçisine uyun, ona imanedin ki Allah, günahlarınızdan bir kısmını bağışlasın ve sizi acıklı bir azaptan korusun.”

Anlatıldığı gibi Hz. Musa'ya indirilene iman etmişlerdi. Nitekim sadece Hz. Musa değil daha pekçok peygamberin de tebliğini aldıkları yine En'am suresinde net olarak görülmektedir. (En'am /130) “ Ey cinler ve insanlar topluluğu! İçinizden, size ayetlerimi anlatan ve şu gününüzle yüzyüze geleceğiniz hususunda sizi uyaran resullaer gelmedi mi? ”

Bütün bu ayetlerden anlaşılacağı gibi, Cinler de peygamberlerin tebliğlerini dinlemişlerdir. Ve aralarından bazıları iman etmiş bazıları da inkar etmişlerdir.

Yine Kur'an-ı Kerim'de Cin suresi gayet net olarak açıklamaktadır;

1) De ki “ Cinlerden bir topluluğun dinleyip şunu söyledikleri bana vahyolundu: Gerçekten biz, hayranlık verici bir Kur'an dinledik.”

Yine Kur'an-ı Kerim'de (Neml, Sebe, Fussılet, Saffat.. ) cinler hakkında pek çok bilgi edinmekteyiz.

O halde sorumuza gelelim . İman eden cinler neye iman etmişlerdir?

- Cinler Allah'ın tek yaratıcı olduğuna, onun resulleri olduğuna ve bu resullerin insanlardan olduğuna iman etmişlerdir.Yani iman eden cinler, şeytanın yaptığı gibi yapmamış topraktan ve sudan olanın üstün olduğuna iman ettikleri gibi peygamberlerin de insanlardan olduğuna iman etmişlerdir.

O halde cinler öteki peygamberlerin de bütün tebliğlerine uyarlar mı?

- Dört ayaklı bir masanın bir ayağı kısa olsa nasıl denge olmaz ve o masanın üzerinde bir şey durmazsa, iman da böyledir. İnançlı bir bütünün tamamına inanır. Peygamberlerin tebliğlerine iman eden cinler de ilahi vahyin tamamına iman etmişlerdir.

Fakat insanlar arasında geçen özel meselelerle ilgili ayetler onları bağlamaz (Bakara 222).

Bu konuda bir başka görüş ise şudur. Ayetlerin okunuşlarının bir görünen manaları bir de sır olan manaları vardır ki, onlar bu örtünün altındaki manaya da iman ederler. Böylece bütün vahyi uygulamaları icab eder.

Cinlere, cinlerden peygamber gelmiş midir?

Bu konuda Kur'an-ı Kerim'de net bir cevap bulamıyoruz. (Sadece Enam 130) Oysa daha önceki inançlarda kabul edilen görüş şudur ki, Adem'den önce yeryüzünde cinler yaşamaktaydı. Daha doğrusu insandan önce onlar vardı. Ve cinler nefisli varlıklardı. Yani kavimdiler. Allah'u teala “ biz her kavime bir uyarıcı elçi gönderdik” der. İşte bu yüzden cinlere de cinlerden peygamber gönderildiğine inanılır.

O halde bu peygamberlerin isimleri nelerdir? Veya kitapları nerededir?

Bugün peygamber isimleri olarak söylenen cin isimleri esasen Akadca, Sümerce ve İbranice isimleridir. Ve bunun böyle olduğunu, daha doğrusu bu isimlerin eski inanışlardaki çok tanrıların isimleri olduğunu bunu savunanların bildiklerini sanmıyorum. Bugün büyüde kullanılan isimler de çoğunlukla bu isimlerdir. Yalnız işin bir enteresan tarafıda şudur ki, Eski ve Yeni Dünya'da cin peygamber isimlerinden bazıları ortak isimlerdir.

Süleyman EYÜP

Şubat, 1991

Süleyman EYYÜP'le röportaj:

CİNLERLE İNSANLAR EVLENEBİLİRLER Mİ?

Hande Karlukzade : Cinlerle insanlar evlenebilirler mi? Çocukları olur mu?

Süleyman Eyyüp : Bildiğimiz gibi insanın ham maddesi basitçe söylemek gerekirse su ve topraktır. Oysa cinlerin ise ateştir. Bu sorunun cevabı “insanoğlu sadece kendisi gibi bir insanoğlu ile evlenebilir.” diyeceğim.

Bir de olaya cinsel ilişki boyutundan baksak da farklı bir cevap bulamayız. Çünkü cinsel ilişkide de etten, kemikten, bedenli olana ihtiyaç vardır. Hatta insanlardan bazı sapıklar bazı hayvanlarla da ilişkiye girebilir. Bu çarpık ilişki de bile su ve beden ilişkisi söz konusudur. Oysa bir erkek insan ile bir cin nasıl ilişkiye girebilir ki? Bu hava ile ilişkiye girmek gibi birşeydir.

Ayrıca insanoğlunun üremesi için ALLAH muazzam bir beden yaratmıştır. Ve insan bedeninin bir ısısı mevcuttur. Biliyorsunuz ki bu ısı spermleri öldürür. İşte bu yüzden testisler vücudun dışındadırlar. Birkaç derecelik ısı azlığı bile spermlerin yaşamasını sağlar ancak bu sayede üreyebiliriz.

O halde bir erkek insanla bir dişi cinin ilişkiye girdiğini düşünsek dahi ateşten olanın içinde spermin yaşaması ve tutması düşünülemez.

Hande Karlukzade : Bir kadın insanla erkek cin ilişkiye girebilir mi? Çocukları olur mu?

Süleyman Eyyüp : BU da mümkün olmayan bir konudur. Asla bir kadın bir cinden hamile kalamaz. Yalnız burada bir farklılık söz konusudur. Kadın kendisi ile ilişkiye giriliyor gibi hissedebilir. Vücudunun belli bölgeleri (göğüs, boyun, rahim) darbeye maruz kalıyor hissedebilir. Hatta bu olayı kameralar bile tespit edebilir (Bu olayın tıptaki literatürüne bak.). Fakat bu derecede bile gelişen olayda çocuk olmaz.

Hande Karlukzade : Peki o zaman bu söylentiler nereden kaynaklanıyor?

Süleyman Eyyüp : Bütün bu söylentilerin kaynağı Yahudilerdir. Yahudi inanışına göre (Kitab-ı Mukaddes) Hz. Adem'in ilk karısı dişi cin LİLİTH'dır. Buna inanılır. Yine Kitab-ı Mukaddeste (Süleyman'ın eşi) Belkıs'ın annesinin cinlerden olduğu bahside vardır. Tabi sadece Yahudi inanacında değil diğer öteki inanaçlarda ve mitolojilerde de insanları cinlerle ilişkiye girdiği ve çocuk sahibi olduğu inanacı da vardır.

Hande Karlukzade : Bu olayı yaşadığını söyleyenler ne demek istiyorlar?

Süleyman Eyyüp : Esasında onlar hayallerini ve rüyalarını anlatıyorlar. Gizli İlimlerin içine girip çıkmayı bir türlü başaramayanlar cinlerden eşleri olduğunu söylerler. Bu hadise ekseriyetle şöyle gelişir (……….. ayetlerini ………… isimlerini belli aralıklarla tekrara ettikten sonra ……….oluşları yerine getirilir. Daha sonra temas sağlanır. Uzatmayalım bir güzel cin kadın görünür. Bu kadın ki o erkeğin asla hayal edemeyeceği bir güzelliktedir. Onunla cinsel ilişkiye girerse ki bu rüya halinde olur boşalır. Daha sonra her uyku anında da onunla ilişkiye girmeye çalışır. Ve belgesel gibi belli zamanlarda bu rüyaların devamını görür. Sanki günlük hayatının dışında rüya aleminde bir başka hayatı daha vardır. Çocukları bile olur. Onları görür konuşur.) İşte bu vakkaların yani kazayla Gizli İlimlerin içine girip çıkmayı bir türlü başaramayanları tedavi etmek lazımdır. Modern tıp ilaç ve psikolojik telkinle tedavi de büyük ilerlemeler kaydetmiş olsa da şu an için tam tedavisi mümkün değildir. Ben de böyle birkaç deli iyileştirdiğim kanaatindeyim. Daha doğrusu onlar artık kadın çocuk görmüyor ve kendi işlerine bakıyorlar.

Bir kadın ise rüyasında bir erkek cin görebilir. Onunla yakınlaşır. Ama tam beraber olacağı an uyanır. İşte dediğimiz gibi bunlar hep rüya aleminde olur.

Ben burada ŞIBLİ'nin, İBN ABBAS'ın, MUHİTTİN ARABİ'nin, İMAM MALİK'in görüşlerini size anlatmadım. Çünkü siz bana benim görüşümü sordunuz. Onların da cinlerle cinsel ilişkide çocuk meselesine bakışları aşağı yukarı aynıdır.

Hande Karlukzade : Sayın Süleyman Eyyüp peki ya büyücülükte üremeleri ve çoğalmaları…………?

Süleyman Eyyüp : Bu olayda şeytanlarla toplanılır. İnsanlar birbirleriyle çarpık ve sapık ilişkilere girerler. Belli günler, belli saatler ve lanetlenmiş ortamlarda bazı şekillerin içersinde …………… ama bu konuyu daha fazla anlatmak istemiyorum.

Yavrum! bu konuyu anlatırken bazı satanistler ve yeni yetme masonikler şunu iyi bilmelidirler ki, biz onların gittiği yoldan çoktan geri döndük. Onlar incubi ve üstatları iyi bilir sutcubilerle uğraşıyorlar. Ben ise bu konuyu anlatma ihtiyacı bile duymadım. Kimyanın elementlerini bile anlayamayacak kapasitede olan bit beyinlilere yardımcı olur diye biraz da bu konuyu anlatayım.

Cıvanın sırlarına vakıf olmaya başladıktan sonra (kuledeki Newton gibi) altını öğrenmeye başlayacaklar. Sonra en başa dönüp suyun sırrına vakıf olurlarsa ne demek istediğimi belki anlarlar.

Neyse fazla uzatmayalım kadınlarla cinsel ilişkiye giren cinlere kısaca incubi derler (Yeni dünyada tamnatom, Asya'da huzunn). Bunun Tevrat'ta yeri var mıdır dersek, Tekvin 6/4'de dayandırırlar. Bu konuyu Magdelena Crucia 1515 eylülünde ilk olarak yaşadı (Ve tam 29 yıl 8 ay 11 gün de devam etti). Erkeklerle beraber olanlarına da folletideunde sutcubi pomrad nızzmennet denir………………………………………………

Hande Karlukzade Not: Değerli okuyucularım, Süleyman Eyyüp bu özel sohbetinde Kur'an-ı KERİM inanışı dışındaki inanışları ayrıntılarıyla anlatmıştır. Bu konuyu cadılık bahsinde ayrıntıları ile vereceğimiz için bu bölümde yayınlamıyoruz. Yine Süleyman Eyyüp esasında bu konularla ilgili geçen pek çok ismin ve olayın esasen tuzaklar ve aldatmacalarla dolu olduğunu söylemiştir. Yine sorular esnasında yazılı olarak not tutulmasına izin vermediğinden kaset çözümünde bazı harflerin eksik yada fazla olabileceği belirtmek isterim. Ben tarzı gereği konuşmaları birebir yazıya döktüm. Böyle daha doğal olacağını düşündüm. Bu yüzden diksiyon hataları yapılmış olabilir.

Şubat 1991

Bilinmeyen bir yer

CİN'CE YADA CİNLERİN ÖZEL BİR DİLİ VAR MIDIR?

Öncelikle şunu belirtmeliyim ki, cinlerin bütün türlerinin kendi aralarında veya diğer türlerle anlaşmaları için sese ve özel bir lisana ihtiyaçları yoktur.

Şimdi sorunuza gelirsek, Ademoğullarının cinlerle temasını sağlama yollarından biri olan seslerde de bir takım özellikler vardır. Bu ses sistemi bizim alfabemizle yorumlandığında daha çok sessiz harflerle ifade edilebilecek sesler içerirler. Okunuş şekilleri ise daha önce Amazonlar'ın yaptığı gibi gırtlaktan çıkan sesler şeklindedir. Bu sesler topluluğundan oluşan kelimelere mana verilmeye kalkarsa en yakın diller Akadça veya Köktürkçe, Ural-Altay dil grubunda az da olsa manalandırılabilir.

Büyük olasılıkla bu manası olan kelimeler, Adem'den önce bu türlerin sınırlı sayıda maddeye verdikleri ya da çağrışım yaptıkları (rüzgar sesi, su sesi, ateşin rüzgarla parlaması, ağacın devrilirken sesi, fokurdamalar v.b.) seslerdir.

Bu bir dildir. Ve bu dili yeryüzünde sınırlı sayıda yazabilen ve yazıya aktarabilen, konuşan (kısa cümlelerle) gruplar vardır.

Bu gruplar: a) Cadılar

b) Büyücüler

c) Aradakiler

Süleyman Eyyüp

YAMYAMLIK

Yamyamlık, Arap toplumlarında da vardı. Misal olarak, Muaviye'nin annesi Hind harpte şehit olan müslümanların burun ve kulaklarını kestirerek boynuna uzun bir kolye yapmıştı. Yine Uhud Harbi'nde şehid edilen bir veya birkaç kişinin (Hz. Hamza) Vahşi isimli bir köle vasıtasıyla göğsünü açtırmış kalbinden bir parçayı ve ciğerini çiğ olarak yemişti.

 İklimlerin ve koşulların değişik olması yamyamlık geleneğini engellememiştir. Yine bir başka kıtada eskimolarda bile yamyamlık vardı. Yazılı olmayan yasalarına göre aç kaldıklarında ve uzun süre gıda bulamadıklarında köpeklerinden evvel çocuklarını keserek yerlerdi. Bu günkü şartlara göre çok garip gelebilir ama eskimo inancına göre çocuklarını keserek yemek bazen de yaşlı anne ve babalarını yemek bir gelenekti. İşin en ilginç yanı ise bu toplumun yamyamlığı doğal karşılamasıydı. Mesela çocuklar kendi boyunlarına ip bağlayıp öldürülüp yenmeleri için anne ve babalarının önlerine kendi istekleriyle otururlardı. Annelerine ay şeklindeki bıçağı getirirlerdi. Yaşlılar ise geri kalanların kurtuluşu için en iyi çarenin bu olduğuna evlatlarını iknaya çalışırlardı.

  Açlık dayanılmaz bir hal alınca kurban öldürülür fakat kafa, kalp ve ciğerine asla dokunulmazdı.

 Avrupalı denizciler ve kürk avcıları soğuk denizlere açıldıklarında uzun yolculuklar yaparlardı. Bu seferler esnasında (İskorpit hastalığına da tutulurlar) bir de gemileri buza saplanınca (17. ve 18. yy.) mürettebatları tüm gıdayı buzlar çözülünceye kadar idare edememişlerse önce ölen denizcileri yerler daha sonra zayıfları öldürüp yemeye devam ederlerdi. Yamyamlığı pek çok kere tatbik etmişlerdi.

  Haçlı seferleri sırasında da özellikle Franklar ve Almanlar, Müslüman eti yemeyi adet haline getirmişlerdi. O sırada sözde din savaşçılarını örgütleyen kilise yamyamlığı görmezden geliyordu.

  Yine bir başka kıtada ise durum farklı değildi. Ekvator ve Bolivya And'larında bulunan Kaçibo Kızılderilileri de yamyamlık yaparlardı. Fakat bunların mantığı diğerlerinden farklıydı. Kaçibolar'a göre ölü etinin mezarda çürümesi, böcekler ve diğer hayvanlar tarafından yenilmesinden ise sevenleri ve dostları tarafından yenilmesi daha doğruydu. Bu kızılderililerde taze ölü yeme adeti vardı. Yine Bora Boralılar yılda bir kere Tahiti'ye saldırırlar ve büyük bir kıyım yaparlardı. İşin ilginç yanı Bora Boralılar Tahiti'li gençlerin etlerinin lezzetini beyazlardan öğrenmişlerdi. Denizci Kaptan Cook Havai'li yerliler tarafından yendiği gibi, illimunati çemberinin göbeğinde yer alan meşhur bir ailenin evladı ise Nakima'lar tarafından yenmişti.  

Kimi topluluklarda ise yamyamlık özel törenler ve ritüeller için yapılıyordu. Cadılarda bebek yamyamlığı, Zumnularda cinsel organ yamyamlığı, Vandallarda (Vandal Krallığı değil) göz yamyamlığı mevcuttu.

SÜLEYMAN EYÜP

ÖNEMLİ NOT:

Yukarıda kısaca değişik topluluklarda yamyamlığı anlatmaya çalıştık. Fakat bu yazının devamında gizli ilimlerde büyü ve şeytana tapınmada yamyamlık anlatılacaktır. Toplam 13 bölümden oluşmaktadır. Yazarın isteği üzerine 52 günde bir yazılacaktır. Birinci bölüm 6 Haziran'da yayınlanacaktır.

YENİ DÜNYA BÜYÜCÜLERİNDE YAMYAMLIK

Onlar kafalarına uzun huni şeklinde külahlar takarlardı. Onlar sağ baş parmaklarını çolak ederlerdi. Onlar erkekliklerini ilk rüyadan sonra keserlerdi. Ve baş büyücüye MANÇE derlerdi. Tekerleğin ve atın olmadığı bu dünyada MANÇE'ler yani o büyünün büyük üstadları, şeytanın çocukları yamyamlık yapardı. Onlar en güçlüyü seçerlerdi. Yalnız en güçlüyü seçmekle kalmaz en şanslı olanı da ararlardı. Savaşta biz buna av da diyebiliriz, oklarla yaralanmayanlar en şanslılardı. Savaşları iki Turay (kahin avcı) ve bir Mançe takip ederdi.

Kurbanı tespit ettikten sonra onun yaralanmadan (kanı akmadan) yakalanmasına özen gösterilirdi. Daha sonra bu esir veya esirler Yürüyen Yılanın Tapınağında, Güneşin Mabedindeki törene hazırlanılırdı. Esire (kurban) ilk 9 gün hiç gün ışığı gösterilmezdi. Ve özel karışımlı (si..ad.). içirilirdi. 9. günün bitiminde güneşi görürlerdi. 25. güne kadar seçilen yiyecekler yedirilir ve kimyasal karışımlar içirilirdi. 25. günden sonraki 4 gün sadece sıvı karışımı verilir ve 29. gün eğer gökte güneş varsa tapınağın üstündeki sunakta gölgenin boyu eşit olduğu an ayaklarından (ayakları otlu sıvıya değecek şekilde) katlanarak sırt üstü sunağa yatırılır ve bir hamlede MANÇE kalbini çıkarırdı. O kadar ustaydı ki kalp elinde bile atmaya devam ederdi. Kan sunağa akıtılır kurbanın daha önce içmiş olduğu özel kimyasal sıvı ile karıştırılıp ense köküne yakın iki taraftan alınan et parçaları ile birlikte gırtlak ve dilden parçalar bu sıvının içine konulup, güneş batıncaya kadar bekletilir ve Mançe tarafından yenilirdi. Ve bu işlemi sadece baş rahip yapardı (halifeleri de –turaylar- yapabilirdi).

Bilgelerin öldürülmesi ve yamyamlığı daha farklı olurdu. Kafataslarının içine bilge kurbanın kalbinin sol tarafının parçasıyla ense kökünün parçalarını koyarlardı. Daha sonra beyni ile birlikte ezip lapa haline getirir ve Mançe bunu çorba gibi içerdi. Ve rüzgara, yağmura hükmederdi. Dokunduğunu öldürür, dokunduğunu iyileştirirdi. Büyük blok taşların yerlerini değiştirir, onları üst üste koydururdu. Sesle …………. ları da yapabilirdi. Bu bozguncu ve kan dökücüler kendi kanlarında boğdular. Dikkat edilmesi gereken bir husus da şudur, yamyamlıkla bayramlarda, müsabakalarda ve felaketleri savmak için yapılan insan kurbanları karıştırılmamalıdır. Yukarda bahsettiğim olay sadece Magic güç elde etmek, bu gücü daha da çoğaltmak, cinlerle daha iyi bedelleşmek için yapılan bir törendir. İspanyollar gelmeden çok önce yok oldular (yeni dünyada onlardan çok daha önceki büyücülerin ise başına göktaşı düştü.)

Yine kendilerine tanrıların gücünü cinlerin enerjisini kazanmak isteyen mason üstü bazı gruplarda da yamyamlık mevcuttur. Golden Dawn'da da yamyamlık görülmüştür. Fakat sadece Ipsissimus'ları yani iki kişi bunu denedi. Bu mason üstü tarikat ilk başlarda (Kont Cagliostro gibi) güce ve gizeme sahip olmak için ……. yemeğe ihtiyaç duydular.

SÜLEYMAN EYYÜP

Not: Bir sonraki yazı GoldEn Dawn'da Yamyamlık ve 11. derecenin sırrı.

Not: Yazar yine sohbet esnasında çok ayrıntılı törenden bahsetmiştir. Etik değerlere yakışmayan bu tören şeklini, beyin, ciğer, kalp ve bağırsak okumayı yazarın izniyle yayınlamadık. Bu yazının ikici bölümünde şu an yeryüzünde var olan bir takım gizli ve sapık tarikatların yamyamlık tarzlarını ve yöntemlerini yayınlayacağız, ALLAH yardımcımız olsun.

 

Ayeti Kerime Meali:  

“Şunlar size HARAM kılınmıştır: Boğazlanmayarak ölmüş hayvanın eti, kan, domuz eti, ALLAH'tan başkası adına boğazlananlar, bir de boğulmuş yahut vurulmuş yahut yuvarlanmış yahut süsülmüş yahut canavar yırtmış olup da canı üzerindeyken kesemedikleriniz, dikili adak taşları üzerinde boğazlanan hayvanlar, fal oklarıyla kısmet paylaşmanız…Bütün bunlar birer fısk tır, yoldan çıkıştır. Küfre batmış olanlar bugün dininizden ümitlerini kestiler. Artık onlardan korkmayın, benden korkun. Bugün sizin için dininizi kemale erdirdim, üzerinizdeki nimetimi tamamladım ve sizin için din olarak İslam 'ı/ALLAH'a teslim olmayı seçtim. Şu da var ki, her kim ciddi bir açlıkla yeryüzüne gelir de günaha kaçmak maksadı olmaksızın onlardan yemek zorunda kalırsa, elbette ALLAH Gafur ve Rahim 'dir. (MAİDE - 3)”

Büyük şeytanla temasa geçip ondan güç almak esasında bu delilerin aradığı kadar zor bir şey de değildir.

Ama Okültik, hermetik, putperest ve ekzoterik inanç içinde kaybolan bu insanlar sonunda şeytanları ile buluştular. İşin hiç unutulmaması gereken bir vardıysa son kademeye gelmek için şeytanın kendinden üstün olan topraktan olan birini yok ettirmesi ve onun ruhunu ele geçirmeye kalkışması vardır.

Bu sapık mason üstü tarikat ilk başlarda (Kont cagliostro gibi) güce ve gizeme sahip olmak için mumya yemeye ihtiyaç duydu. Çünkü mumyaların içinde hem ölü hem de bilgelerin karışımları vardı. Bugün için inanması çok güç gelebilir ama Avrupa'da bir dönem özellikle Fransa'da mumyalar kilo ile satılır ve hatta hastalıkları iyi edeceği söylenirdi bugün Mısır'da mumya kalmamasının altındaki neden bu sapık inançtır. ( daha sonra gül haç derneğini faaliyetlerine (annasiperengili woddmanı westcotu materisi aleistercrowly peter cosimoyu dheophrastusbombastusvonhohenhim'i stefan aikel'i ) anlatacağım bir sonraki konu isis tapınağındaki yamyamlık ve 1888 1991 arası yamyamlık .

Plato

 

 

Plato is probably one of the greatest philosophers of all times, if not the greatest.

Plato was born to an aristocratic family in Athens. His father, Ariston, was believed to have descended from the early kings of Athens. Perictione, his mother, was distantly related to the 6th-century B.C. lawmaker Solon.

When Plato was a child, his father died, and his mother married Pyrilampes, who was an associate of the statesman Pericles.

Plato's original name was Aristocles, but in his school days he received the nickname Platon (meaning "broad" ) because of his broad shoulders.

It was mostly in Pyrilampes' house that Plato was brought up. Aristotle writes that when Plato was a young man he studied under Cratylus who was a student of Heracleitus, famed for his cosmology which is based on fire being the basic material of the universe. It almost certain that Plato became friends with Socrates when he was young, for Plato's mother's brother Charmides was a close friend of Socrates.

The Peloponnesian War was fought between Athens and Sparta between 431 BC and 404 BC.

Plato was in military service from 409 BC to 404 BC but at this time he wanted a political career rather than a military one. At the end of the war he joined the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens set up in 404 BC, one of whose leaders being his mother's brother Charmides, but their violent acts meant that Plato quickly left.

In 403 BC there was a restoration of democracy at Athens and Plato had great hopes that he would be able to enter politics again. However, the excesses of Athenian political life seem to have persuaded him to give up political ambitions.

In particular, the execution of Socrates in 399 BC had a profound effect on him and he decided that he would have nothing further to do with politics in Athens.

Plato left Athens after Socrates had been executed and traveled in Egypt, Sicily and Italy. In Egypt he learned of a water clock and later introduced it into Greece. In Italy he learned of the work of Pythagoras and came to appreciate the value of mathematics. He studied with the disciples of Pythagoras.

Again there was a period of war and again Plato entered military service. It was claimed by later writers on Plato's life that he was decorated for bravery in battle during this period of his life. It is also thought that he began to write his dialogues at this time.

On his return to Athens Plato founded, in about 387 BC, on land which had belonged to Academos, a school of learning which being situated in the grove of Academos was called the Academy.

On his journeys he decided to devote the rest of his life to philosophy.

In 389 B.C. he founded a school in Athens. Because it was on the grounds that had once belonged to a legendary Greek called A cademus, it came to be called the Academy, and this term has been d for schools ever since. The institution often described as the first European university.

The Academy provided a comprehensive curriculum, including such subjects as astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory, and philosophy.

The main purpose of the Academy was to cultivate thought to lead to a restoration of decent government in the cities of Greece.

Only two further episodes in Plato's life are recorded. He went to Syracuse in 367 BC following the death of Dionysius I who had ruled the city. Dion, the brother-in-law of Dionysius I, persuaded Plato to come to Syracuse to tutor Dionysius II, the new ruler. Plato did not expect the plan to succeed but because both Dion and Archytas of Tarentum believed in the plan then Plato agreed. Their plan was that if Dionysius II was trained in science and philosophy he would be able to prevent Carthage invading Sicily. However, Dionysius II was jealous of Dion who he forced out of Syracuse and the plan, as Plato had expected, fell apart.

Plato returned to Athens, but visited Syracuse again in 361 BC hoping to be able to bring the rivals together. He remained in Syracuse for part of 360 BC but did not achieve a political solution to the rivalry. Dion attacked Syracuse in a coup in 357, gained control, but was murdered in 354.

Like Socrates, Plato was chiefly interested in moral philosophy and despised natural philosophy (that is, science) as an inferior and unworthy sort of knowledge.

To Plato, knowledge had no practical use, it existed for the abstract good of the soul.

 


At the heart of Plato's philosophy is his theory of Forms, or Ideas. Ultimately, his view of knowledge, his ethical theory, his psychology, his concept of the state, and his perspective on art must be understood in terms of this theory.

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

Plato's theory of Forms and his theory of knowledge are so interrelated that they must be discussed together. Influenced by Socrates, Plato was convinced that knowledge is attainable. He was also convinced of two essential characteristics of knowledge.

First, knowledge must be certain and infallible. Second, knowledge must have as its object that which is genuinely real as contrasted with that which is an appearance only. Because that which is fully real must, for Plato, be fixed, permanent, and unchanging, he identified the real with the ideal realm of being as opposed to the physical world of becoming. One consequence of this view was Plato's rejection of empiricism, the claim that knowledge is derived from sense experience. He thought that propositions derived from sense experience have, at most, a degree of probability. They are not certain.

Furthermore, the objects of sense experience are changeable phenomena of the physical world. Hence, objects of sense experience are not proper objects of knowledge.

Plato's own theory of knowledge is found in the Republic, particularly in his discussion of the image of the divided line and the myth of the cave. In the former, Plato distinguishes between two levels of awareness: opinion and knowledge. Claims or assertions about the physical or visible world, including both commonsense observations and the propositions of science, are opinions only. Some of these opinions are well founded; some are not; but none of them counts as genuine knowledge. The higher level of awareness is knowledge, because there reason, rather than sense experience, is involved.

Reason, properly used, results in intellectual insights that are certain, and the objects of these rational insights are the abiding universals, the eternal Forms or substances that constitute the real world.

 

 

THE MYTH OF THE CAVE

The myth of the cave describes individuals chained deep within the recesses of a cave. Bound so that vision is restricted, they cannot see one another. The only thing visible is the wall of the cave upon which appear shadows cast by models or statues of animals and objects that are passed before a brightly burning fire.

Breaking free, one of the individuals escapes from the cave into the light of day.

With the aid of the sun, that person sees for the first time the real world and returns to the cave with the message that the only things they have seen heretofore are shadows and appearances and that the real world awaits them if they are willing to struggle free of their bonds.

The shadowy environment of the cave symbolizes for Plato the physical world of appearances. Escape into the sun-filled setting outside the cave symbolizes the transition to the real world, the world of full and perfect being, the world of Forms, which is the proper object of knowledge.

The theory of Forms may best be understood in terms of mathematical entities. A circle, for instance, is defined as a plane figure composed of a series of points, all of which are equidistant from a given point. No one has ever actually seen such a figure, however.

What people have actually seen are drawn figures that are more or less close approximations of the ideal circle. In fact, when mathematicians define a circle, the points referred to are not spatial points at all; they are logical points. They do not occupy space.

Nevertheless, although the Form of a circle has never been seen-indeed, could never be seen-mathematicians and others do in fact know what a circle is. That they can define a circle is evidence that they know what it is.

For Plato, therefore, the Form "circularity" exists, but not in the physical world of space and time.

It exists as a changeless object in the world of Forms or Ideas, which can be known only by reason.

Forms have greater reality than objects in the physical world both because of their perfection and stability and because they are models, resemblance to which gives ordinary physical objects whatever reality they have.

Circularity, squareness, and triangularity are excellent examples, then, of what Plato meant by Forms. An object existing in the physical world may be called a circle or a square or a triangle only to the extent that it resembles - "participates in" is Plato's phrase - the Form "circularity" or "squareness" or "triangularity."

Plato extended his theory beyond the realm of mathematics. Indeed, he was most interested in its application in the field of social ethics. The theory was his way of explaining how the same universal term can refer to so many particular things or events.

The word justice, for example, can be applied to hundreds of particular acts because these acts have something in common, namely, their resemblance to, or participation in, the Form "justice."

An individual is human to the extent that he or she resembles or participates in the Form "humanness." If "humanness" is defined in terms of being a rational animal, then an individual is human to the extent that he or she is rational.

A particular act is courageous or cowardly to the extent that it participates in its Form.

An object is beautiful to the extent that it participates in the Idea, or Form, of beauty.

Everything in the world of space and time is what it is by virtue of its resemblance to, or participation in, its universal Form. The ability to define the universal term is evidence that one has grasped the Form to which that universal refers.

Plato conceived the Forms as arranged hierarchically; the supreme Form is the Form of the Good, which, like the sun in the myth of the cave, illuminates all the other Ideas.

There is a sense in which the Form of the Good represents Plato's movement in the direction of an ultimate principle of explanation. The Good is perfect and desired by all who know it. In the Philebus he wonders, Is it pleasure or knowledge?

He shows that pleasure cannot be the Good; pleasures are often accompanied by false opinions, and great pleasures and pains occur in bad states of body or soul.

Knowledge is not perfect either, because some arts are more exact than others.

The Good can be neither knowledge nor pleasure alone, but a mixture of the best parts of both, which include the sciences and those pleasures that are pure and necessary. The best parts of this mixture are beauty, symmetry, and truth, which are all closer to knowledge than pleasure.

He finally gives the order of value as measure, beauty, mind, science, and pure pleasure.

Plato had an essentially antagonistic view of art and the artist, although he approved of certain religious and moralistic kinds of art.

His approach is related to his theory of Forms. A beautiful flower, for example, is a copy or imitation of the universal Forms "flowerness" and "beauty."

The physical flower is one step removed from reality, that is, the Forms.

A picture of the flower is, therefore, two steps removed from reality.

This also meant that the artist is two steps removed from knowledge, and, indeed, Plato's frequent criticism of the artists is that they lack genuine knowledge of what they are doing.

Artistic creation, Plato observed, seems to be rooted in a kind of inspired madness.

Plato's influence throughout the history of philosophy has been monumental.

When he died, Speusippus became head of the Academy. The school continued in existence until AD 529, when it was closed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, who objected to its pagan teachings.

Plato's impact on Jewish thought is apparent in the work of the 1st-century Alexandrian philosopher Philo Judaeus.

Neoplatonism, founded by the 3rd-century philosopher important later development of Platonism.

The theologians Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and St. Augustine were early Christian exponents of a Platonic perspective. Platonic ideas have had a crucial role in the development of Christian theology and also in medieval Islamic thought.

Nature of Forms:

The theory of Forms may best be understood in terms of mathematical entities.

A circle, for instance, is defined as a plane figure composed of a series of points, all of which are equidistant from a given point.

No one has ever actually seen such a figure, however.

What people have actually seen are drawn figures that are more or less close approximations of the ideal circle. In fact, when mathematicians define a circle, the points referred to are not spatial points at all; they are logical points.

They do not occupy space. Nevertheless, although the Form of a circle has never been seen-indeed, could never be seen-mathematicians and others do in fact know what a circle is.

That they can define a circle is evidence that they know what it is. For Plato, therefore, the Form "circularity" exists, but not in the physical world of space and time. It exists as a changeless object in the world of Forms or Ideas, which can be known only by reason. Forms have greater reality than objects in the physical world both because of their perfection and stability and because they are models, resemblance to which gives ordinary physical objects whatever reality they have. Circularity, squareness, and triangularity are excellent examples, then, of what Plato meant by Forms.

An object existing in the physical world may be called a circle or a square or a triangle only to the extent that it resembles ("participates in" is Plato's phrase) the Form "circularity" or "squareness" or "triangularity."

Plato extended his theory beyond the realm of mathematics. Indeed, he was most interested in its application in the field of social ethics.

The theory was his way of explaining how the same universal term can refer to so many particular things or events. The word justice, for example, can be applied to hundreds of particular acts because these acts have something in common, namely, their resemblance to, or participation in, the Form "justice."

An individual is human to the extent that he or she resembles or participates in the Form "humanness." If "humanness" is defined in terms of being a rational animal, then an individual is human to the extent that he or she is rational. A particular act is courageous or cowardly to the extent that it participates in its Form.

An object is beautiful to the extent that it participates in the Idea, or Form, of beauty. Everything in the world of space and time is what it is by virtue of its resemblance to, or participation in, its universal Form. The ability to define the universal term is evidence that one has grasped the Form to which that universal refers.

Plato conceived the Forms as arranged hierarchically; the supreme Form is the Form of the Good, which, like the sun in the myth of the cave, illuminates all the other Ideas. There is a sense in which the Form of the Good represents Plato's movement in the direction of an ultimate principle of explanation. Ultimately, the theory of Forms is intended to explain how one comes to know and also how things have come to be as they are. In philosophical language, Plato's theory of Forms is both an epistemological (theory of knowledge) and an ontological (theory of being) thesis.

 

 

MATHEMATICS

Plato was fond of mathematics because of its idealized abstractions and its separation from the merely material.

Nowadays, the purest mathematics manages to be applied, sooner or later, to practical matters of science. In Plato's day this was not so, and the mathematician could well consider himself as dealing only with the loftiest form of pure thought and as having nothing to do with the gross and imperfect everyday world.

And so above the doorway to the Academy was written, "Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here."

Plato did, however, believe that mathematics in its ideal form could still be applied to the heavens.

The heavenly bodies, he believed, exhibited perfect geometric form. This he expresses most clearly in a dialogue called Timaeus in which he presents his scheme of the universe.

He describes the five (and only five) possible regular solids -- that is, those with equivalent faces and with all lines and angles, formed by those faces, equal.

These are the four-sided tetrahedron, the six-sided hexahed ron (or cube), the eight-sided octahedron, the twelve-sided dodecahedron, and the twenty-sided icosahedron.

Four of the five regular solids, according to Plato, represented the four elements, while the dodecahedron represented the universe as a whole.

These solids were first discovered by the Pythagoreans, but the fame of this dialogue has led to their being called the Platonic solids ever since.

Plato decided also that since the heavens were perfect, the various heavenly bodies would have to move in exact circles (the perfect curve) along with the crystalline spheres (the perfect solid) that held them in place.

The spheres were another Pythagorean notion, and the Pythagorean preoccupation with sound also shows itself in Philolaus belief that the spheres of the various planets made celestial music as they turned -- a belief that persisted even in the time of Kepler two thou sand years later.

We still use the phrase "the music of the spheres" to epitomize heavenly sounds or the stark beauty of outer space.

This insistence that the heavens must reflect the perfection of abstract mathematics in its simplest form held absolute sway over astronomical thought until Kepler's time, even though compromises with reality had to be made constantly, beginning shortly after Plato's death with Eudoxus and Callippus.

 

 

On Science

Plato's principal work touching on scientific questions, the Timaeus, bluntly states that this world "in very truth [is] a living creature with soul and reason."

To this viewpoint Plato accords an unconditional primacy even in matters of detail.

Thus when he discusses the working of the human eye, he deplores the fact that "the great mass of mankind regard [the geometrical and mechanical aspects of the question] as the sole causes of all things."

Against this he opposes the classification of causes into two groups: the accessory or mechanical causes that are "incapable of any plan or intelligence for any purpose," and those that "work with intelligence to produce what is good and desirable." The reaffirmation of the Socratic or organismic approach in science could hardly be more unequivocal.

Such an emphasis on the concept of organism as the basic framework in which the cosmos is to be explained derived only in part from factors like the emergence in the fifth century of the Hippocratic medical theory and practice.

The principal factor was a deeper and more universal one. It was rooted in the Greek nature as such and was given unchallenged prominence when cultural developments forced the Greek mind to reflect on the consequences of a mechanistic explanation of the inanimate and animate world including man both as an individual and as a member of society.

The "Greekness" of the organismic approach can be seen in the fact that they first applied the term cosmos to a patently living thing - a well-ordered society - and only afterward to the orderliness of the physical world.

Rooted deeply in their personal, cultural inclinations, this organismic approach to reality, once it became the conscious possession of the Greeks, had never been seriously questioned or abandoned by them. Single views of the Ionians and atomists continued, of course, to play seminal roles in Greek science.

What is more, once the cultural crisis evidenced by the activity of the Sophists was over, even the poets began to take more kindly to the physikoi, who for a while were the principal targets of plays concerned with the source of various cultural evils.

At any rate, the Ionians ceased to be called in literary circles, as Plato remarks, "she dogs uttering vain howlings and talking other nonsense of the same sort."

This was, however, merely a concession that could easily be meted out by those who won the cultural battle.

For as Plato could confidently state in the same context, the authority of the mechanical views had been checked, or to paraphrase his words, the case was reversed in favor of the organismic viewpoint.

 

 

PLATO'S REPUBLIC

The Republic, Plato's major political work, is concerned with the question of justice and therefore with the questions "what is a just state" and "who is a just individual?"

The ideal state, according to Plato, is composed of three classes. The economic structure of the state is maintained by the merchant class. Security needs are met by the military class, and political leadership is provided by the philosopher-kings. A particular person's class is determined by an educational process that begins at birth and proceeds until that person has reached the maximum level of education compatible with interest and ability. Those who complete the entire educational process become philosopher-kings. They are the ones whose minds have been so developed that they are able to grasp the Forms and, therefore, to make the wisest decisions. Indeed, Plato's ideal educational system is primarily structured so as to produce philosopher-kings.

Plato associates the traditional Greek virtues with the class structure of the ideal state. Temperance is the unique virtue of the artisan class; courage is the virtue peculiar to the military class; and wisdom characterizes the rulers. Justice, the fourth virtue, characterizes society as a whole. The just state is one in which each class performs its own function well without infringing on the activities of the other classes.

Plato divides the human soul into three parts: the rational part, the will, and the appetites. The just person is the one in whom the rational element, supported by the will, controls the appetites. An obvious analogy exists here with the threefold class structure of the state, in which the enlightened philosopher-kings, supported by the soldiers, govern the rest of society.

 

 

ETHICS

Plato's ethical theory rests on the assumption that virtue is knowledge and can be taught, which has to be understood in terms of his theory of Forms. As indicated previously, the ultimate Form for Plato is the Form of the Good, and knowledge of this Form is the source of guidance in moral decision making. Plato also argued that to know the good is to do the good. The corollary of this is that anyone who behaves immorally does so out of ignorance. This conclusion follows from Plato's conviction that the moral person is the truly happy person, and because individuals always desire their own happiness, they always desire to do that which is moral.

 

 

ART

Plato had an essentially antagonistic view of art and the artist, although he approved of certain religious and moralistic kinds of art. Again, his approach is related to his theory of Forms. A beautiful flower, for example, is a copy or imitation of the universal Forms "flowerness" and "beauty." The physical flower is one step removed from reality, that is, the Forms. A picture of the flower is, therefore, two steps removed from reality. This also meant that the artist is two steps removed from knowledge, and, indeed, Plato's frequent criticism of the artists is that they lack genuine knowledge of what they are doing. Artistic creation, Plato observed, seems to be rooted in a kind of inspired madness.

 


The concluding years of Plato's life were spent lecturing at the Academy and writing.

At age 60 - the arrival of Aristotle - age 18 - as a student at Plato's Academy, where he will stay until Plato's death in 347.

Plato's influence extended long past his own life and, indeed, never died. The Academy remained a going institution until A.D. 529, when the Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian, ordered it closed. It was the last stronghold of paganism in a Christian world.

Plato's influence throughout the history of philosophy has been monumental. When he died, Speusippus became head of the Academy.

Aristotle is by now about 38 and leaves the Academy perhaps because he was not chosen - or perhaps he had another destiny.

The school continued in existence until AD529, when it was closed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, who objected to its pagan teachings. Plato's impact on Jewish thought is apparent in the work of the 1st-century Alexandrian philosopher Philo Judaeus.

Neoplatonism, founded by the 3rd-century philosopher Plotinus, was an important later development of Platonism. The theologians Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and St. Augustine were early Christian exponents of a Platonic perspective. Platonic ideas have had a crucial role in the development of Christian theology and also in medieval Islamic thought (see Islam).

During the Renaissance, the primary focus of Platonic influence was the Florentine Academy, founded in the 15th century near Florence. Under the leadership of Marsilio Ficino, members of the Academy studied Plato in the original Greek. In England, Platonism was revived in the 17th century by Ralph Cudworth and others who became known as the Cambridge Platonists.

Plato's influence has been extended into the 20th century by such thinkers as Alfred North Whitehead, who once paid him tribute by describing the history of philosophy as simply "a series of footnotes to Plato."

Plato died at about the age of 80 in Athens in 347 BC.

Reference: Encyclopedia Britannica

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Olympiodorus of Thebes

 

Olympiodorus was an historical writer (5th century AD), born at Thebes in Egypt, who was sent on a mission to the Huns on the Black Sea by emperor Honorius in 412, and later lived at the court of Theodosius. The record of his diplomatic mission survives in a single epitome:

Donatus and the Huns, and the skillfulness of their kings in shooting with the bow. The author relates that he himself was sent on a mission to them and Donatus, and gives a tragic account of his wanderings and perils by the sea. How Donatus, being deceived by an oath, was unlawfully put to death. How Charaton, the first of the kings, being incensed by the murder, was appeased by presents from the emperor. from Photius' Bibliotheca, tr. J. H. Freese

He was the author of a history in 22 books of the Western Empire from 407 to 425. The original is lost, but an abstract is given by Photius, according to whom he was an alchemist. A manuscript treatise on alchemy, reputed to be by him, is preserved in the National Library in Paris, and was printed with a translation by Berthelot in his Collection des alchimistes grecs (1887­1888).

 

Albertus Magnus

 

Albertus Magnus - 1193-1280 - was also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican friar who became famous for his comprehensive knowledge and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. He is considered to be the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. He was the first medieval scholar to apply Aristotle's philosophy to Christian thought at the time. Catholicism honors him as a Doctor of the Church, one of only 33 men and women with that honor.

In the Dominican Order he rose to the position of Bishop of Ratisbourg. Later he was canonized as Saint Albert the Great. He was both student and teacher of alchemy and chemistry, and an alleged magician. He firmly believed in the benefits of botany claiming various plants, rocks, and amethysts improved clairvoyance.

Like Aristotle, he thought nature and men's lives were controlled by the stars and plants. Notably he taught Saint Thomas Acquinas and made several significant contributions to chemistry. Legend has it he turned based metal into gold, but there is no evidence of this in his notes on alchemy. Legend also has it that when a dinner guest of William II, the Count of Holland, on New Year's Day, 1242, Magnus suggested the guests dine outdoors. Wanting a piece of land for a monastery he graciously changed the freezing day into a warm spring afternoon with blooming flowers and singing birds.

LIFE

He was born of the noble family of Bollstadt in Lauingen, Bavaria, Germany on the Danube, sometime between 1193 and 1206. The term "magnus" is not descriptive; it is the Latin equivalent of his family name, de Groot.

Albertus was educated principally at Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotle's writings.

 

After an alleged encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, he entered holy orders.

In 1223 he became a member of the Dominican Order, and studied theology under its rules at Bologna and elsewhere.

Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, where the order had a house, he taught for several years there, at Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg and Hildesheim.

In 1245 he went to Paris, received his doctorate and taught for some time, in accordance with the regulations, with great success.

In 1254 he was made provincial of the Dominican Order, and fulfilled the arduous duties of the office with great care and efficiency. During the time he held this office he publicly defended the Dominicans against the attacks by the secular and regular faculty of the University of Paris, commented on St John, and answered the errors of the Arabian philosopher, Averroes.

In 1260 Pope Alexander IV made him bishop of Regensburg, which office he resigned after three years. The remainder of his life he spent partly in preaching throughout Bavaria and the adjoining districts, partly in retirement in the various houses of his order.

In 1270 he preached the eighth Crusade in Austria. Among the last of his labors was the defence of the orthodoxy of his former pupil, Thomas Aquinas, whose death in 1274 grieved Albertus.

After suffering collapse of health in 1278, he died on November 15, 1280, in Cologne, Germany. His tomb is in the crypt of the Dominican church of St. Andreas in Cologne.

Albertus is frequently mentioned by Dante, who made his doctrine of free will the basis of his ethical system. In his Divine Comedy, Dante places Albertus with his pupil Thomas Aquinas among the great lovers of wisdom (Spiriti Sapienti) in the Heaven of the Sun.Albertus was beatified in 1622.

He was canonized and also officially named a Doctor of the Church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI. His feast day is celebrated on November 15th.

MUSIC

Albertus is known for his enlightening commentary on musical practice of the time. Most of his musical observations are given in his commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.

Among other things, he rejects the idea of "music of the spheres" as ridiculous: movement of astronomical bodies, he supposes, is incapable of generating sound.

He also wrote extensively on proportions in music, and on the three different subjective levels on which plainchant could work on the human soul: purging of the impure; illumination leading to contemplation; and nourishing perfection through contemplation.

Of particular interest to 20th century music theorists is the attention he paid to silence as an integral part of music.

WRITINGS

Albertus' writings collected in 1899 went to 38 volumes, displaying his prolific habits and literally encyclopedic knowledge of topics including, but not limited to, logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, mineralogy, chemistry, zoölogy, physiology, and phrenology, all of it the result of logic and observation. He was the most widely read author of his time.

The whole of Aristotle's works, presented in the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, were by him digested, interpreted and systematized in accordance with church doctrine. He came to be so associated with Aristotle that he was referred to as "Aristotle's ape".

Albert's activity, however, was more philosophical than theological. The philosophical works, occupying the first six and the last of the twenty-one volumes, are generally divided according to the Aristotelian scheme of the sciences, and consist of interpretations and condensations of Aristotle's relative works, with supplementary discussions depending on the questions then agitated, and occasionally divergences from the opinions of the master.

His principal theological works are a commentary in three volumes on the Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Magister Sententiarum), and the Summa Theologiae in two volumes. This last is in substance a repetition of the first in a more didactic form.

INFLUENCE

The influence exerted by Albert on the scholars of his own day and on those of subsequent ages was naturally great.

His fame is due in part to the fact that he was the forerunner, the guide and master of St. Thomas Aquinas, but he was great in his own name, his claim to distinction being recognized by his contemporaries and by posterity.

It is remarkable that this friar of the Middle Ages, in the midst of his many duties as a religious, as provincial of his order, as bishop and papal legate, as preacher of a crusade, and while making many laborious journeys from Cologne to Paris and Rome, and frequent excursions into different parts of Germany, should have been able to compose a veritable encyclopedia, containing scientific treatises on almost every subject, and displaying an insight into nature and a knowledge of theology which surprised his contemporaries and still excites the admiration of learned men in our own times.

He was, in truth, a Doctor Universalis. Of him it in justly be said: Nil tetigit quod non ornavit; and there is no exaggeration in the praises of the modern critic who wrote: "Whether we consider him as a theologian or as a philosopher, Albert was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary men of his age; I might say, one of the most wonderful men of genius who appeared in past times" (Jourdain, Recherches Critiques).

Philosophy, in the days of Albert, was a general science embracing everything that could be known by the natural powers of the mind; physics, mathematics, and metaphysics. In his writings we do not, it is true, find the distinction between the sciences and philosophy which recent usage makes. It will, however, be convenient to consider his skill in the experimental sciences, his influence on scholastic philosophy, his theology.

SCIENCES

Albertus' knowledge of physical science was considerable and for the age accurate. His industry in every department was great, and though we find in his system many of those gaps which are characteristic of scholastic philosophy, yet the protracted study of Aristotle gave him a great power of systematic thought and exposition, and the results of that study, as left to us, by no means warrant the contemptuous title sometimes given him of the "Ape of Aristotle."

They rather lead us to appreciate the motives which caused his contemporaries to bestow on him the honorable surnames "The Great" and Doctor Universalis.

It must, however, be admitted that much of his knowledge was ill digested; it even appears that he regarded Plato and Speusippus as Stoics.

Albertus was both a student and a teacher of alchemy and chemistry.

He isolated arsenic in 1250, the first element to be isolated since antiquity and the first with a known discoverer.

He was alleged to be a magician, since he was repeatedly charged by some of his unfriendly contemporaries with communing with the devil, practicing the craft of magic, and with the making of a demonic automata able to speak.

He was also one of the alchemists reputed to have succeeded in discovering the Philosopher's Stone.

PHILOSOPHY

More important than Albert's development of the physical sciences was his influence on the study of philosophy and theology. He, more than any one of the great scholastics preceding St. Thomas, gave to Christian philosophy and theology the form and method which, substantially, they retain to this day.

In this respect he was the forerunner and master of St. Thomas, who excelled him, however, in many qualities required in a perfect Christian Doctor. In marking out the course which other followed, Albert shared the glory of being a pioneer with Alexander of Hales (d. 1245), whose "Summa Theologiae" was the first written after all the works of Aristotle had become generally known at Paris.

Their application of Aristotelean methods and principles to the study of revealed doctrine gave to the world the scholastic system which embodies the reconciliation of reason and Orthodox faith.

After the unorthodox Averroes, Albert was the chief commentator on the works of, Aristotle, whose writings he studied most assiduously, and whose principles he adopted, in order to systematize theology, by which was meant a scientific exposition and defence of Christian doctrine.

The choice of Aristotle as a master excited strong opposition. Jewish and Arabic commentaries on the works of the Stagirite had given rise to so many errors in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries that for several years (1210-25) the study of Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics was forbidden at Paris.

Albert, however, knew that Averroes, Abelard, Amalric, and others had drawn false doctrines from the writings of the Philosopher; he knew, moreover, that it would have been impossible to stem the tide of enthusiasm in favour of philosophical studies; and so he resolved to purify the works of Aristotle from Rationalism, Averroism, Pantheism, and other errors, and thus compel pagan philosophy to do service in the cause of revealed truth. In this he followed the canon laid down by St. Augustine (II De Doct. Christ., xl), who declared that truths found in the writings of pagan philosophers were to be adopted by the defenders of the true faith, while their erroneous opinions were to be abandoned, or explained in a Christian sense. All inferior (natural) sciences should be the servants (ancillae) of Theology, which is the superior and the mistress

Against the rationalism of Abelard and his followers Albert pointed out the distinction between truths naturally knowable and mysteries (e.g. the Trinity and the Incarnation) which cannot known without revelation

We have seen that he wrote two treatises against Averroism, which destroyed individual immortality and individual responsibility, by teaching that there is but one rational soul for all men.

Pantheism was refuted along with Averroism when the true doctrine on Universals, the system known as moderate Realism, was accepted by the scholastic philosophers.

This doctrine Albert based upon the Distinction of the universal ante rem (an idea or archetype in the mind of God), in re (existing or capable of existing in many individuals), and post rem (as a concept abstracted by the mind, and compared with the individuals of which it can be predicated).

"Universale duobus constituitur, natura, scilicet cui accidit universalitas, et respectu ad multa. qui complet illam in natura universalis" (Met., lib. V, tr. vi, cc. v, vi). A.T. Drane (Mother Raphael, O.S.D.) gives a remarkable explanation of these doctrines (op. cit. 344-429). Though follower of Aristotle, Albert did not neglect Plato.

"Scias quod non perficitur homo in philosophia, nisi scientia duarum philosophiarum, Aristotelis et Platonis (Met., lib. I, tr. v, c. xv). It is erroneous to say that he was merely the "Ape" (simius) of Aristotle. In the knowledge of Divine things faith precedes the understanding of Divine truth, authority precedes reason (I Sent., dist. II, a. 10); but in matters that can be naturally known a philosopher should not hold an opinion which he is not prepared to defend by reason ibid., XII; Periherm., 1, I, tr. l, c. i).

Logic, according to Albert, was a preparation for philosophy teaching how we should use reason in order to pass from the known to the unknown: "Docens qualiter et per quae devenitur per notum ad ignoti notitiam" (De praedicabilibus, tr. I, c. iv).

Philosophy is either contemplative or practical. Contemplative philosophy embraces physics, mathematics, and metaphysics; practical (moral) plilosophy is monastic (for the individual), domestic (for the family), or political (for the state, or society).

Excluding physics, now a special study, authors in our times still retain the old scholastic division of philosophy into logic, metaphysics (general and special), and ethics.

ALBERT'S THEOLOGY

In theology Albert occupies a place between Peter Lombard, the Master of the Sentences, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

In systematic order, in accuracy and clearness he surpasses the former, but is inferior to his own illustrious disciple.

His "Summa Theologiae" marks an advance beyond the custom of his time in the scientific order observed, in the elimination of useless questions, in the limitation of arguments and objections; there still remain, however, many of the impedimenta, hindrances, or stumbling blocks, which St. Thomas considered serious enough to call for a new manual of theology for the use of beginners - ad eruditionem incipientium, as the Angelic Doctor modestly remarks in the prologue of his immortal "Summa".

The mind of the Doctor Universalis was so filled with the knowledge of many things that he could not always adapt his expositions of the truth to the capacity of novices in the science of theology.

He trained and directed a pupil who gave the world a concise, clear, and perfect scientific exposition and defence of Christian Doctrine; under God, therefore, we owe to Albertus Magnus the "Summa Theologica" of St. Thomas.

He died at Cologne, November 15, 1280.

- New Advent Encyclopedia

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Roger Bacon

 

Roger Bacon (c. 1214 ­ 1294), also known as Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: "astounding teacher"), was one of the most famous Franciscan friars of his time. He was an English philosopher who placed considerable emphasis on empiricism, and has been presented as one of the earliest advocat

es of the modern scientific method in the West; though later studies have emphasized his reliance on occult and alchemical traditions. He was intimately acquainted with the philosophical and scientific insights of the Arab world, one of the most advanced civilizations at the time.

Early life

Bacon is thought to have been born near Ilchester in Somerset, though he has also been claimed by Bisley in Gloucestershire. His date of birth is equally uncertain. The only source is his statement in the Opus Tertium, written in 1267, that forty years have passed since I first learned the alphabet. The 1214 birth date assumes he was not being literal, and meant 40 years had passed since he matriculated at Oxford at the age of 13. If he had been literal, his birth date was more likely around 1220.

Bacon's family appears to have been well-off, but, during the stormy reign of Henry III of England, their property was despoiled and several members of the family were driven into exile.

Roger Bacon studied and later became a Master at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle. There is no evidence he was ever awarded a doctorate - the title Doctor Mirabilis was posthumous and figurative. He crossed over to France in 1241 to teach at the university of Paris, then the center of intellectual life in Europe, where the teaching of Aristotle, till that time forbidden because Aristotle was only available via Islamic commentators, had recently been resumed. As an Oxford Master, Bacon was a natural choice for the post. He returned to Oxford in 1247 and studied intensively for many years, forgoing much of social and academic life, ordering expensive books (which had to be hand-copied at the time) and instruments. He later became a Franciscan friar. He probably took orders in 1253, after 10 years of study which had left him physically and mentally exhausted.

The two great orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, were not long-established, and had begun to take the lead in theological discussion. Alexander of Hales led the Franciscans, while the rival order rejoiced in Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Bacon's abilities were soon recognised, and he enjoyed the friendship of such eminent men as Adam de Marisco and Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. In the course of his teaching and research, he performed and described various experiments.

Life and Works

The scientific training Bacon had received showed him the defects in existing academic debate. Aristotle was known only through poor translations, as none of the professors would learn Greek. The same was true of Scripture. Physical science was not carried out by experiment in the Aristotelian way, but by arguments based on tradition.

Bacon withdrew from the scholastic routine and devoted himself to languages and experimental research. The only teacher whom he respected was a certain Petrus de Maharncuria Picardus, or "of Picardie", probably identical with a certain mathematician, Petrus Peregrinus of Picardie, who is perhaps the author of a manuscript treatise, De Magnete, contained in the Bibliotheque Imperiale at Paris. The contrast between the obscurity of such a man and the fame enjoyed by the fluent young doctors roused Bacon's indignation.

In the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium he pours forth a violent tirade against Alexander of Hales, and another professor, who, he says, acquired his learning by teaching others, and adopted a dogmatic tone, which caused him to be received at Paris with applause as the equal of Aristotle, Avicenna, or Averroes. Bacon was always an outspoken man who stated what he believed to be true and attacked those with whom he disagreed, which repeatedly caused him great trouble.

In 1256 a new head of the scientific branch of the Franciscan order in England was appointed: Richard of Cornwall, with whom Bacon had strongly disagreed in the past. Before long, Bacon was transferred to a monastery in France, where for about 10 years he could communicate with his intellectual peers only in writing.

Bacon wrote to the Cardinal Guy le Gros de Foulques, who became interested in his ideas and asked him to produce a comprehensive treatise. Bacon, being constrained by a rule of the Franciscan order against publishing works out of the order without special permission, initially hesitated.

The cardinal became Pope Clement IV and urged Bacon to ignore the prohibition and write the book in secret. Bacon complied and sent his work, the Opus Majus, a treatise on the sciences (grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and philosophy), to the pope in 1267. It was followed in the same year by the Opus Minus (also known as Opus Secundum), a summary of the main thoughts from the first work.

In 1268, he sent a third work, the Opus Tertium to the pope, who died the same year, apparently before even seeing the Opus Majus although it is known that the work reached Rome.

Some claim that Bacon fell out of favor, and was later imprisoned by the Franciscan order in 1278 in Ancona as his dissemination of Arab alchemy, and his protests against the ignorance and immorality of the clergy, roused accusations of witchcraft.

He supposedly stayed imprisoned for over ten years, until intercession of English noblemen secured his release. About this episode, the historian of science David C. Lindberg, quoted by James Hannam, says that "his imprisonment, if it occurred at all probably resulted with his sympathies for the radical 'poverty' wing of the Franciscans (a wholly theological matter) rather than from any scientific novelties which he may have proposed."

Bacon died without important followers, was quickly forgotten, and remained so for a long time.

In his writings, Bacon calls for a reform of theological study. Less emphasis should be placed on minor philosophical distinctions as in scholasticism, but instead the Bible itself should return to the center of attention and theologians should thoroughly study the languages in which their original sources were composed. He was fluent in several languages and lamented the corruption of the holy texts and the works of the Greek philosophers by numerous mistranslations and misinterpretations. Furthermore, he urged all theologians to study all sciences closely, and to add them to the normal university curriculum.

He possessed one of the most commanding intellects of his age, or perhaps of any, and, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and discouragements to which he was subjected, made many discoveries, and came near to many others. He rejected the blind following of prior authorities, both in theological and scientific study.

His Opus Majus contains treatments of mathematics and optics, alchemy and the manufacture of gunpowder, the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies, and anticipates later inventions such as microscopes, telescopes, spectacles, flying machines and steam ships.

Bacon studied astrology and believed that the celestial bodies had an influence on the fate and mind of humans. He also wrote a criticism of the Julian calendar which was then still in use. He first recognized the visible spectrum in a glass of water, centuries before Sir Isaac Newton discovered that prisms could disassemble and reassemble white light.

Roger Bacon is considered by some to be the author of the Voynich Manuscript, because of his studies in the fields of alchemy, astrology, and languages.

Bacon is also the ascribed author of the alchemical manual Speculum Alchemiae, which was translated into English as The Mirror of Alchemy in 1597.

He was an enthusiastic proponent and practitioner of the experimental method of acquiring knowledge about the world. He planned to publish a comprehensive encyclopedia, but only fragments ever appeared.

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Nicholas Flamel

The Book of Abraham the Jew

Wisdom has various means for making its way into the heart of man. Sometimes a prophet comes forward and speaks. Or a sect of mystics receives the teaching of a philosophy, like rain on a summer evening, gathers it in and spreads it abroad with love. Or it may happen that a charlatan, performing tricks to astonish men, may produce, perhaps without knowing it himself, a ray of real light with his dice and magic mirrors. In the fourteenth century, the pure truth of the masters was transmitted by a book.

This book fell into the hands of precisely the man who was destined to receive it; and he, with the help of the text and the hieroglyphic diagrams that taught the transmutation of metals into gold, accomplished the transmutation of his soul, which is a far rarer and more wonderful operation.

Thanks to the amazing book of Abraham the Jew all the Hermetists of the following centuries had the opportunity of admiring an example of a perfect life, that of Nicolas Flamel, the man who received the book. After his death or disappearance many students and alchemists who had devoted their lives to the search for the Philosopher's Stone despaired because they had not in their possession the wonderful book that contained the secret of gold and of eternal life. But their despair was unnecessary. The secret had become alive. The magic formula had become incarnate in the actions of a man. No ingot of virgin gold melted in the crucibles could, in color or purity, attain the beauty of the wise bookseller's pious life.

There is nothing legendary about the life of Nicolas Flamel. The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris contains works copied in his own hand and original works written by him. All the official documents relating to his life have been found: his marriage contract, his deeds of gift, his will. His history rests solidly on those substantial material proofs for which men clamor if they are to believe in obvious things. To this indisputably authentic history, legend has added a few flowers. But in every spot where the flowers of legend grow, underneath there is the solid earth of truth.

Whether Nicolas Flamel was born at Pontoise or somewhere else, a question that historians have argued and investigated with extreme attention, seems to me to be entirely without importance. It is enough to know that towards the middle of the fourteenth century, Flamel was carrying on the trade of a bookseller and had a stall backing on to the columns of Saint-Jacques la Boucherie in Paris. It was not a big stall, for it measured only two feet by two and a half. However, it grew. He bought a house in the old rue de Marivaux and used the ground floor for his business. Copyists and illuminators did their work there. He himself gave a few writing lessons and taught nobles who could only sign their names with a cross. One of the copyists or illuminators acted also as a servant to him.

Nicolas Flamel married Pernelle, a good-looking, intelligent widow, slightly older than himself and the possessor of a little property. Every man meets once in his life the woman with whom he could live in peace and harmony. For Nicolas Flamel, Pernelle was that woman. Over and above her natural qualities, she had another which is still rarer. She was a woman who was capable of keeping a secret all her life without revealing it to anybody in confidence. But the story of Nicolas Flamel is the story of a book for the most part. The secret made its appearance with the book, and neither the death of its possessors nor the lapse of centuries led to the complete discovery of the secret.

Nicolas Flamel had acquired some knowledge of the Hermetic art. The ancient alchemy of the Egyptians and the Greeks that flourished among the Arabs had, thanks to them, penetrated to Christian countries. Nicolas Flamel did not, of course, regard alchemy as a mere vulgar search for the means of making gold. For every exalted mind the finding of the Philosopher's Stone was the finding of the essential secret of Nature, the secret of her unity and her laws, the possession of perfect wisdom. Flamel dreamed of sharing in this wisdom. His ideal was the highest that man could attain. And he knew that it could be realized through a book, for the secret of the Philosopher's Stone had already been found and transcribed in symbolic form. Somewhere it existed. It was in the hands of unknown sages who lived somewhere unknown. But how difficult it was for a small Paris bookseller to get into touch with those sages.

Nothing, really, has changed since the fourteenth century. In our day also many men strive desperately towards an ideal, the path which they know but cannot climb; and they hope to win the magic formula (which will make them new beings) from some miraculous visit or from a book written expressly for them. But for most, the visitor does not come and the book is not written.

Yet for Nicolas Flamel the book was written. Perhaps because a bookseller is better situated than other people to receive a unique book; perhaps because the strength of his desire organized events without his knowledge, so that the book came when it was time. So strong was his desire, that the coming of the book was preceded by a dream, which shows that this wise and well-balanced bookseller had a tendency to mysticism.

Nicolas Flamel dreamed one night that an angel stood before him. The angel, who was radiant and winged like all angels, held a book in his hands and uttered these words, which were to remain in the memory of the hearer: "Look well at this book, Nicholas. At first you will understand nothing in it neither you nor any other man. But one day you will see in it that which no other man will be able to see." Flamel stretched out his hand to receive the present from the angel, and the whole scene disappeared in the golden light of dreams. Sometime after that the dream was partly realized.

One day, when Nicolas Flamel was alone in his shop, an unknown man in need of money appeared with a manuscript to sell. Flamel was no doubt tempted to receive him with disdainful arrogance, as do the booksellers of our day when some poor student offers to sell them part of his library. But the moment he saw the book he recognized it as the book that the angel had held out to him, and he paid two florins for it without bargaining.

The book appeared to him indeed resplendent and instinct with divine virtue. It had a very old binding of worked copper, on which were engraved curious diagrams and certain characters, some of which were Greek and others in a language he could not decipher.

The leaves of the book were not made of parchment, like those he was accustomed to copy and bind. They were made of the bark of young trees and were covered with very clear writing done with an iron point. These leaves were divided into groups of seven and consisted of three parts separated by a page without writing, but containing a diagram that was quite unintelligible to Flamel.

On the first page were written words to the effect that the author of the manuscript was Abraham the Jew - prince, priest, Levite, astrologer, and philosopher. Then followed great curses and threats against anyone who set eyes on it unless he was either a priest or a scribe. T

he mysterious word Maranatha, which was many times repeated on every page, intensified the awe-inspiring character of the text and diagrams. But most impressive of all was the patined gold of the edges of the book, and the atmosphere of hallowed antiquity that there was about it.

Nicolas Flamel considered that being a scribe he might read the book without fear. He felt that the secret of life and of death, the secret of the unity of Nature, the secret of the duty of the wise man, had been concealed behind the symbol of the diagram and formula in the text by an initiate long since dead. He was aware that it is a rigid law for initiates that they must not reveal their knowledge, because if it is good and fruitful for the intelligent, it is bad for ordinary men. As Jesus has clearly expressed it, pearls must not be given as food to swine. Was he qualified to read this book?

Nicolas Flamel considered that being a scribe he might read the book without fear. He felt that the secret of life and of death, the secret of the unity of Nature, the secret of the duty of the wise man, had been concealed behind the symbol of the diagram and formula in the text by an initiate long since dead. He was aware that it is a rigid law for initiates that they must not reveal their knowledge, because if it is good and fruitful for the intelligent, it is bad for ordinary men. As Jesus has clearly expressed it, pearls must not be given as food to swine.

He had the pearl in his hands. It was for him to rise in the scale of man in order to be worthy to understand its purity. He must have had in his heart a hymn of thanksgiving to Abraham the Jew, whose name was unknown to him, but who had thought and labored in past centuries and whose wisdom he was now inheriting.

He must have pictured him a bald old man with a hooked nose, wearing the wretched robe of his race and wilting in some dark ghetto, in order that the light of his thought might not be lost. And he must have vowed to solve the riddle, to rekindle the light, to be patient and faithful, like the Jew who had died in the flesh but lived eternally in his manuscript.

Nicolas Flamel had studied the art of transmutation. He was in touch with all the learned men of his day. Manuscripts dealing with alchemy have been found, notably that of Almasatus, which were part of his personal library.

He had knowledge of the symbols of which the alchemists made habitual use. But those that he saw in the book of Abraham the Jew remained dumb for him. In vain, he copied some of the mysterious pages and set them out in his shop, in the hope that some visitor conversant with the Kabbalah would help him to solve the problem. He met with nothing but the laughter of skeptics and the ignorance of pseudo-scholars just as he would today if he showed the book of Abraham the Jew either to pretentious occultists or to the scholars at the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

Nicholas Flamel's Journey For twenty-one years, he pondered the hidden meaning of the book. That is really not that long. He is favored among men for whom twenty-one years are enough to enable him to find the key of life.

At age twenty-one Nicolas Flamel had developed in himself sufficient wisdom and strength to hold out against the storm of light involved by the coming of truth to the heart of man.

Only then did events group themselves harmoniously according to his will and allow him to realize his desire. For everything good and great that happens to a man is the result of the co-ordination of his own voluntary effort and a malleable fate.

No one in Paris could help Nicolas Flamel understand the book. Now, this book had been written by a Jew, and part of its text was in ancient Hebrew. The Jews had recently been driven out of France by persecution. Nicolas Flamel knew that many of these Jews had migrated to Spain.

In towns such as Malaga and Granada, which were still under the more enlightened dominion of the Arabs, there lived prosperous communities of Jews and flourishing synagogues, in which scholars and doctors were bred. Many Jews from the Christian towns of Spain took advantage of the tolerance extended by the Moorish kings and went to Granada to learn. There they copied Plato and Aristotle forbidden texts in the rest of Europe and returned home to spread abroad the knowledge of the ancients and of the Arab masters.

Nicolas Flamel thought that in Spain he might meet some erudite Cabalist who would translate the book of Abraham for him. Travelling was difficult, and without a strong-armed escort, safe passage was nearly impossible for a solitary traveler. Flamel made therefore a vow to St James of Compostela, the patron saint of his parish, to make a pilgrimage. This was also a means of concealing from his neighbors and friends the real purpose of his journey.

The wise and faithful Pernelle was the only person who was aware of his real plans. He put on the pilgrim's attire and shell-adorned hat, took the staff, which ensured a certain measure of safety to a traveler in Christian countries, and started off for Galicia.

Since he was a prudent man and did not wish to expose the precious manuscript to the risks of travel, he contented himself with taking with him a few carefully copied pages, which he hid in his modest baggage.

Nicolas Flamel has not recounted the adventures that befell him on his journey. Possibly he had none. It may be that adventures happen only to those who want to have them. He has told us merely that he went first to fulfil his vow to St James. Then he wandered about Spain, trying to get into relations with learned Jews.

But they were suspicious of Christians, particularly of the French, who had expelled them from their country. Besides, he had not much time. He had to remember Pernelle waiting for him, and his shop, which was being managed only by his servants. To a man of over fifty on his first distant journey, the silent voice of his home makes a powerful appeal every evening.

In discouragement, he started his homeward journey. His way lay through Leon, where he stopped for the night at an inn and happened to sup at the same table as a French merchant from Boulogne, who was travelling on business.

This merchant inspired him with confidence and trust, and he whispered a few words to him of his wish to find a learned Jew. By a lucky chance the French merchant was in relations with a certain Maestro Canches, an old man who lived at Leon, immersed in his books. Nothing was easier than to introduce this Maestro Canches to Nicolas Flamel, who decided to make one more attempt before leaving Spain.

Sayfa Başı

Basil Valentine

Records of the life of Basilius Valentinus, the Benedictine monk who for his achievements in the chemical sphere has been given the title of Father of Modern Chemistry, are a mass of conflicting evidence. Many and varied are the accounts of his life, and historians seem quite unable to agree as to his exact identity, or even as to the century in which he lived. It is generally believed, however, that 1394 was the year of his birth, and that he did actually join the Benedictine Brotherhood, eventually becoming Canon of the Priory of St. Peter at Erfurt, near Strasburg, although even these facts cannot be proved.

Whatever his identity, Basil Valentine was undoubtedly a great chemist, and the originator of many chemical preparations of the first importance. Amongst these are the preparation of spirit of salt, or hydrochloric acid from marine salt and oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) the extraction of copper from its pyrites (sulphur) by transforming it firstly into copper sulphate, and then plunging a bar of iron in the watery dissolution of this product: the method of producing sulpho-ether by the distillation of a mixture of spirit of wine and oil of vitriol: the method of obtaining brandy by the distillation of wine and beer, rectifying the distillation on carbonate of potassium.

In his writings he has placed on record many valuable facts, and whether Basil Valentine is the correct name of the author or an assumed one matters little, since it detracts nothing from the value of his works, or the calibre of his practical experiments. From his writings one gathers that he was indeed a monk, and also the possessor of a mind and understanding superior to that of the average thinker of his day. The ultimate intent and aim of his studies was undoubtedly to prove that perfect health in the human body is attainable, and that the perfection of all metallic substance is also possible. He believed that the physician should regard his calling in the nature of a sacred trust, and was appalled by the ignorance of the medical faculty of the day whose members pursued their appointed way in smug complacency, showing little concern for the fate of their patients once they had prescribed their pet panacea.

On the subject of the perfection of metallic bodies, as in his reference to the Spagyric Art, the Grand Magi-strum, the Universal Medicine, the Tinctures to transmute metals and other mysteries of the alchemist's art, he has completely mystified not only the lay reader, but the learned chemists of his own and later times. In all his works the important key to a laboratory process is apparently omitted. Actually, however, such a key is invariably to be found in some other part of the writings, probably in the midst of one of the mysterious theological discourses which he was wont to insert among his practical instructions, so that it is only by intensive study that the mystery can be unravelled.

His most famous work is his Currus Triumphalis Antimonii - The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony .

It has been translated into German, French, and English, and has done more to establish his reputation as a chemist than any other. The best edition is undoubtedly that published at Amsterdam in 1671 with a commentary by Theodorus Kerckringius. In his preface Kerckringius states that he had actually spoken with Valentine besides studying his works. He speaks of Basil as 'the prince of all chemists', and the most learned, upright, and lucid of all alchemistic writers. He tells the careful student everything that can be known in alchemy; of this I can most positively assure you.'

A perusal of this book makes it quite evident that Valentine had investigated very thoroughly the properties of antimony, and the findings on his experimental work with this metal have.been brought forward as recent discoveries by chemists of our day.

His other works are The Twelve Keys - The Medicine of Metals - Of Things Natural and Supernatural - Of the First Tincture, Root and Spirit of Metals - and his Last Will and Testament .

It is alleged that this last work remained concealed for a number of years within the High Altar of the church belonging to the Priory. Such a story is quite feasible, since alchemists both before and after this era, deeming their works unfit for the age in which they were written, are known to have buried or otherwise secreted their writings for the discovery and benefit, as they doubtless hoped, of a more deserving and more enlightened age. Such manuscripts would very often not be discovered for several generations after the death of the author.

In view of his other outstanding achievements as a chemist of great ability, it seems not illogical to suppose that Valentine's Universal Method of Medicine should be capable of achieving as great a measure of success as his other somewhat more prosaic discoveries.

Here follow the Twelve Keys of Basilius Valentinus, the Benedictine, with which we may open the doors of the knowledge of the Most Ancient Stone and unseal the Most Secret Fountain of Health.

KEY ONE

Let my friend know that no impure or spotted things are useful for our purpose. For there is nothing in their leprous nature capable of advancing the interests of our Art There is much more likelihood of that which is in itself good being spoiled by that which is impure. Everything that is obtained from the mines has its value, unless, indeed, it is adulterated. Adulteration, however, spoils its goodness and its efficacy.

As the physician purges and cleanses the inward parts of the body, and removes all unhealthy matter by means of his medicines, so our metallic substances must be purified and refined of all foreign matter, in order to ensure the success of our task. Therefore, our Masters require a pure, immaculate body, that is untainted with any foreign admixture, which admixture is the leprosy of our metals.

Let the diadem of the King be of pure gold, and let the Queen that is united to him in wedlock be chaste and immaculate.

If you would operate by means of our bodies, take a fierce grey wolf, which, though on account of its name it be subject to the sway of warlike Mars, is by birth the offspring of ancient Saturn, and is found in the valleys and mountains of the world, where he roams about savage with hunger. Cast to him the body of the King, and when he has devoured it, burn him entirely to ashes in a great fire. By this process the King will be liberated; and when it has been performed thrice the Lion has overcome the wolf, and will find nothing more to devour in him. Thus our Body has been rendered fit for the first stage of our work.

Know that this is the only right and legitimate way of purifying our substance: for the Lion purifies himself with the blood of the wolf, and the tincture of its blood agrees most wonderfully with the tincture of the Lion, seeing that the two liquids are closely akin to each other. When the Lion's hunger is appeased, his spirit becomes more powerful than before, and his eyes glitter like the Sun. His internal essence is now of inestimable value for the removing of all defects, and the healing of all diseases. He is pursued by the ten lepers, who desire to drink his blood; and all that are tormented with any kind of sickness are refreshed with this blood.

For whoever drinks of this golden fountain, experiences a renovation of his whole nature, a vanishing of all unhealthy matter, a fresh supply of blood, a strengthening of the heart and of all the vitals, and a permanent bracing of every limb. For it opens all the pores, and through them bears away all that prevents the perfect health of the body, but allows all that is beneficial to remain therein unmolested.

But let my friend be scrupulously careful to preserve the fountain of life limpid and clear. If any strange water be mixed with it, it is spoiled, and becomes positively injurious. If it still retain any of the solvent which has been used for its dissolution, you must carefully purge it off. For no corrosive can be of the least use for the prevention of internal diseases.

When a tree is found to bear sour and unwholesome fruit, its branches must be cut off, and scions of better trees grafted upon it. The new branches thereupon become organically united to the trunk; but though nourished with its sap, they thence forward produce good and pleasant fruit.

The King travels through six regions in the heavenly firmament, and in the seventh he fixes his abode. There the royal palace is adorned with golden tapestry. If you understand my meaning, this Key will open the first lock, and push back the first bolt; but if you do not, no spectacles or natural eyesight will enable you to understand what follows. But Lucius Papirius has instructed me not to say any more about this Key.

KEY 2

In the houses of the great are found various kinds of drink, of which scarcely two are exactly like each other in odour, colour, or taste. For they are prepared in a great variety of different ways. Nevertheless they are all drunk, and each is designed for its own special use. When the Sun gives out his rays, and sheds them abroad upon the clouds, it is commonly said that he is attracting water, and if he do it frequently, and thereby cause rain, it is called a fruitful year.

If it be intended to build a palace, the services of many different craftsmen must be employed, and a great variety of materials is required. Otherwise the palace would not be worthy the name. It is useless to use wood where stone is necessary.

The daily ebb and flow of the sea, which are caused by the sympathetic influence of heavenly bodies, impart great wealth and blessing to the earth. For whenever the water comes rolling back, it brings a blessing with it.

A bride, when she is to be brought forth to be married, is gloriously adorned in a great variety of precious garments, which, by enhancing her beauty, render her pleasant in the eyes of the bridegroom. But the rites of the bridal night she performs without any clothing but that which she was arrayed withal at the moment of her birth.

In the same way our bridal pair, Apollo and Diana, are arrayed in splendid attire, and their heads and bodies are washed with various kinds of water, some strong, some weak, but not one of them exactly like another, and each designed for its own special purpose. Know that when the moisture of the earth ascends in the form of a vapour, it is condensed in the upper regions, and precipitated to the earth by its own weight. Thus the earth regains the moisture of which it had been deprived, and receives strength to put forth buds and herbs. In the same way you must repeatedly distil the water which you have extracted from the earth, and then again restore it to your earth, as the water in the Strait of Euripus frequently leaves the shore, and then covers it again until it arrives at a certain limit.

When thus the palace has been constructed by the hands of many craftsmen, and the sea of glass has absolved its course, and filled the palace with good things, it is ready for the King to enter, and take his seat upon the throne. But you should notice that the King and his spouse must be quite naked when they are joined together. They must be stripped of all their glorious apparel, and must lie down together in the same state of nakedness in which they were born, that their seed may not be spoiled by being mixed with any foreign matter.

Let me tell you, in conclusion, that the bath in which the bridegroom is placed, must consist of two hostile kinds of matter, that purge and rectify each other by means of a continued struggle. For it is not good for the Eagle to build her nest on the summit of the Alps, because her young ones are thus in great danger of being frozen to death by the intense cold that prevails there.

But if you add to the Eagle the icy Dragon that has long had its habitation upon the rocks, and has crawled forth from the caverns of the earth, and place both over the fire, it will elicit from the icy Dragon a fiery spirit, which, by means of its great heat, will consume the wings of the Eagle, and prepare a perspiring bath of so extraordinary a degree of heat that the snow will melt upon the summit of the mountains, and become a water, with which the invigorating mineral bath may be prepared, and fortune, health, life, and strength restored to the King.

KEY 3

By means of water fire may be extinguished, and utterly quenched. If much water be poured upon a little fire, the fire is overcome, and compelled to yield up the victory to the water. In the same way our fiery sulphur must be overcome by means of our prepared water. But, after the water has vanished, the fiery life of our sulphurous vapour must triumph, and again obtain the victory. But no such triumph can take place unless the King imparts great strength and potency to his water and tinges it with his own colour, that thereby he may be consumed and become invisible, and then again recover his visible form, with a diminution of his simple essence, and a development of his perfection.

A painter can set yellow upon white, and red or crimson upon yellow; for, though all these colours are present, yet the latter prevails on account of its greater intensity. When you have accomplished the same thing in our Art, you have before your eyes the light of wisdom, which shines in the darkness, although it does not burn. For our sulphur does not burn, but nevertheless its brilliancy is seen far and near. Nor does it colour anything until it has been prepared, and dyed with its own colour, which it then imparts to all weak and imperfect metals. This sulphur, however, cannot impart this colour until it have first by persevering labour been prevailed upon to abjure its original colour.

For the weaker does not overcome the stronger, but has to yield the victory to it. The gist of the whole matter lies in the fact that the small and weak cannot aid that which is itself small and weak, and a combustible substance cannot shield another substance from combustion. That which is to protect another substance against combustion must itself be safe from danger. The latter must be stronger than the former, that is to say, it must itself be essentially incombustible. He, then, who would prepare the incombustible sulphur of the Sages, must look for our sulphur in a substance in which it is incombustible -- which can only be after its body has been absorbed by the salt sea, and again rejected by it.

Then it must be so exalted as to shine more brightly than all the stars of heaven, and in its essence it must have an abundance of blood, like the Pelican, which wounds its own breast, and, without any diminution of its strength, nourishes and rears up many young ones with its blood. This Tincture is the Rose of our Masters, of purple hue, called also the red blood of the Dragon, or the purple cloak many times folded with which the Queen of Salvation is covered, and by which all metals are regenerated in colour.

Carefully preserve this splendid mantle, together with the astral salt which is joined to this sulphur, and screens it from harm. Add to it a sufficient quantity of the volatility of the bird; then the Cock will swallow the Fox, and, having been drowned in the water, and quickened by the fire, will in its turn be swallowed by the Fox.

KEY 4

All flesh that is derived from the earth, must be decomposed and again reduced to earth; then the earthy salt produces a new generation by celestial resuscitation. For where there was not first earth, there can be no resurrection in our Magistery. For in earth is the balm of Nature, and the salt of the Sages.

At the end of the world, the world shall be judged by fire, and all those things that God has made of nothing shall by fire be reduced to ashes, from which ashes the Phoenix is to produce her young. For in the ashes slumbers a true and genuine tartaric substance, which, being dissolved, will enable us to open the strongest bolt of the royal chamber.

After the conflagration, there shall be formed a new heaven and a new earth, and the new man will be more noble in his glorified state than he was before.

When the sand and ashes have been well matured and ripened with fire, the glass-blower makes out of it glass, which remains hard and firm in the fire, and in colour resembles a crystal stone. To the uninitiated this is a great mystery, but not to the master whom long experience has familiarized with the process.

Out of stones the master also prepares lime by burning which is very useful for our work- But before they are prepared with fire, they are mere stones. The stone must be matured and rendered fervent with fire, and then it becomes so potent that few things are to be compared to the fiery spirit of lime.

By burning anything to ashes you may gain its salt. If in this dissolution the sulphur and mercury be kept apart, and restored to its salt, you may once more obtain that form which was destroyed by the process of combustion. This assertion the wise of this world denounce as the greatest folly, and count as a rebellion, saying that such a transformation would amount to a new creation, and that God has denied such creative power to sinful man. But the folly is all on their side. For they do not understand that our Artist does not claim to create anything, but only to evolve new things from the seed made ready to his hand by the Creator.

If you do not possess the ashes, you will be unable to obtain our salt; and without our salt you will not be able to impart to our substance a bodily form; for the coagulation of all things is produced by salt alone.

As salt is the great preserving principle that protects all things from decay, so the Salt of our Magistery preserves metal from decomposition and utter annihilation. If their Balm were to perish, and the Spirit to leave the body, the body would be quite dead, and no longer available for any good purpose. The metallic spirit would have departed, and would have left its habitation empty, bare, and lifeless.

Observe also, thou who art a lover of this Art, that the salt that is gained from ashes has great potency, and possesses many concealed virtues. Nevertheless, the salt is unprofitable, until its inward substance has been extracted. For the spirit alone gives strength and life. The body by itself profits nothing. If you know how to find this spirit, you have the Salt of the Sages, and the incombustible oil, concerning which many things have been written before my time.

Although many philosophers
Have sought for me with eagerness,
Yet very few succeed at length
In finding out my secret virtue.

KEY 5

The quickening power of the earth produces all things that grow forth from it, and he who says that the earth has no life makes a statement which is flatly contradicted by the most ordinary facts. For what is dead cannot produce life and growth, seeing that it is devoid of the quickening spirit. This spirit is the life and soul that dwell in the earth, and are nourished by heavenly and sidereal influences. For all herbs, trees, and roots, and all metals and minerals, receive their growth and nutriment from the spirit of the earth, which is the spirit of life. This spirit is itself fed by the stars, and is thereby rendered capable of imparting nutriment to all things that grow, and of nursing them as a mother does her child while it is yet in the womb. The minerals are hidden in the womb of the earth, and nourished by her with the spirit which she receives from above.

Thus the power of growth that I speak of is imparted not by the earth, but by the life-giving spirit that is in it. If the earth were deserted by this spirit, it would be dead, and no longer able to afford nourishment to anything. For its sulphur or richness would lack the quickening spirit without which there can be neither life nor growth.

Two contrary spirits can scarcely dwell together, nor do they easily combine. For when a thunderbolt blazes amidst a tempest of rain, the two spirits, out of which it is formed, fly from one another with a great shock and noise, and circle in the air, so that no one can know or say whither they go, unless the same has been ascertained by experience as to the mode in which these spirits manifest.

Know then, gentle Reader, that life is the only true spirit, and that that which the ignorant herd look upon as dead may be brought back to permanent, visible, and spiritual life, if but the spirit be restored to the body -- the spirit which is supported by heavenly nutriment, and derived from heavenly, elementary, and earthly substances, which are also called formless matter. Moreover, as iron has its magnet which draws it with the invisible bonds of love, so our gold has its magnet, viz., the first Matter of the great Stone. If you understand these my words, you are richer and more blessed than the whole world.

Let me conclude this chapter with one more remark. When a man looks into a mirror, he sees therein reflected an image of himself. If, however, he try to touch it, he will find that it is not palpable, and that he has laid his hand upon the mirror only. In the same way, the spirit which must be evolved from this Matter is visible, but not palpable. This spirit is the root of the life of our bodies, and the Mercury of the Philosophers, from which is prepared the liquid water of our Art - the water which must once more receive a material form, and be rectified by means of certain purifying agents into the most perfect Medicine. For we begin with a firm and palpable body, which subsequently becomes a volatile spirit, and a golden water, without any conversion, from which our Sages derive their principle of life. Ultimately we obtain the indestructible medicine of human and metallic bodies, which is fitter to be known to angels than to men, except such as seek it at God's hands in heartfelt prayer, and give genuine proofs of their gratitude by service rendered to Him, and to their needy neighbour.

Hereunto I may add, in conclusion, that one work is developed from another. First, our Matter should be carefully purified, then dissolved, destroyed, decomposed, and reduced to dust and ashes. Thereupon prepare from it a volatile spirit, which is white as snow, and another volatile spirit, which is red as blood. These two spirits contain a third, and are yet but one spirit. Now these are the three spirits which preserve and multiply life. Therefore unite them, give them the meat and drink that Nature requires, and keep them in a warm chamber until the perfect birth takes place. Then you will see and experience the virtue of the gift bestowed upon you by God and Nature. Know, also, that hitherto my lips have not revealed this secret to any one, and that God has endowed natural substances with greater powers than most men are ready to believe. Upon my mouth God has set a seal, that there might be scope for others after me to write about the wonderful things of Nature, which by the foolish are looked upon as unnatural. For they do not understand that all things are ultimately traceable to supernatural causes, but nevertheless are, in this present state of the world, subject to natural conditions.

KEY 6

The male without the female is looked upon as only half a body, nor can the female without the male be regarded as more complete For neither can bring forth fruit so long as it remains alone. But if the two be conjugally united, there is a perfect body, and their seed is placed in a condition in which it can yield increase.

If too much seed be cast into the field, the plants impede each other's growth, and there can be no ripe fruit. But if, on the other hand, too little be sown, weeds spring up and choke it.

If a merchant would keep a clear conscience, let him give just measure to his neighbour. If his measure and weight be not short, he will receive praise from the poor.

In too much water you may easily be drowned; too little water, on the other hand, soon evaporates in the heat of the sun.

If, then, you would attain the longed-for goal, observe just measure in mixing the liquid substance of the Sages, lest that which is too much overpower that which is too little, and the generation be hindered. For too much rain spoils the fruit, and too much drought stunts its growth. Therefore, when Neptune has prepared his bath, measure out carefully the exact quantity of permanent water needed, and let there be neither too little nor too much.

The twofold fiery male must be fed with a snowy swan, and then they must mutually slay each other and restore each other to life; and the air of the imprisoned fiery male will occupy three of the four quarters of the world, and make up three parts of the imprisoned fiery male, that the death-song of the swans may be distinctly heard; then the swan roasted will become food for the King, and the fiery King will be seized with great love towards the Queen, and will take his fill of delight in embracing her, until they both vanish and coalesce into one body.

It is commonly said that two can overpower one, especially if they have sufficient room for putting forth their strength. Know also that there must come a twofold wind, and a single wind, and that they must furiously blow from the east and from the south. lf, when they cease to rage, the air has become water, you may be confident that the spiritual will also be transmuted into a bodily form, and that our number shall prevail through the four seasons in the fourth part of the sky (after the seven planets have exercised power), and that its course will be perfected by the test of fire in the lowest chamber of our palace, when the two shall overpower and consume the third.

For this part of our Magistery skill is needed, in order to divide and compound the substances aright, so that the art may result in riches, and the balance may not be falsified by unequal weights. The sky we speak of is the sky of our Art, and there must be justly proportioned parts of our air and earth, our true water and our palpable fire.

KEY 7

Natural heat preserves the life of man. If his body lose its natural heat his life has come to an end.

A moderate degree of natural heat protects against the cold; an excess of it destroys life. It is not necessary that the substance of the Sun should touch the earth. The Sun can heat the earth by shedding thereon its rays, which are intensified by reflection. This intermediate agency is quite sufficient to do the work of the Sun, and to mature everything by coction. The rays of the Sun are tempered with the air by passing through it so as to operate by the medium of the air, as the air operates through the medium of the fire.

Earth without water can produce nothing, nor can water quicken anything into growth without earth; and as earth and water are mutually indispensable in the production of fruit, so fire cannot operate without air, or air without fire. For fire has no life without air; and without fire air possesses neither heat nor dryness.

When its fruit is about to be matured, the vine stands in greater need of the Sun's warmth than in the spring; and if the Sun shine brightly in the autumn, the grapes will be better than if they had not felt his autumnal warmth.

In the winter the multitude suppose everything to be dead, because the earth is bound in the chains of frost, so that nothing is allowed to sprout forth. But as soon as the spring comes, and the cold is vanquished by the power of the Sun, everything is restored to life, the trees and herbs put forth buds, leaves, and blossoms, the hibernating animals creep forth from their hiding places, the plants give out a sweet fragrance, and are adorned with a great variety of many coloured flowers; and the summer carries on the work of the spring, by changing its flowers into fruit.

Thus, year by year, the operations of the universe are performed, until at length it shall be destroyed by its Creator, and all the dwellers upon earth shall be restored by resurrection to a glorified life. Then the operations of earthly nature shall cease, and the heavenly and eternal dispensation shall take its place.

When the Sun in the winter pursues his course far away from us, he cannot melt the deep snow. But in the summer he approaches nearer to us, the quality of the air becomes more fiery, and the snow melts and is transmuted by warmth into water. For that which is weak is always compelled to yield to that which is strong.

 

Sayfa Başı

 

Valentin Weigel

 

Valentin Weigel (1553-1588) was a mystical writer who drew upon Paracelsist and alchemical ideas. His ideas influenced Jacob Boehme, and other German Protestant mystics of the 17th century. Most of his writings were published after his death, when a small group of Weigelians promoted his ideas, and some texts were issued in his name, pseudonymously. This book is the only one I know that was ever published in English.

CHAPTER I.

What Astrology is, and what Theology; and how they have reference one to another.

The Kingdom of Nature. - Astrology is Philosophy itself, or it is the whole light of Nature, from whence ariseth the universal natural Wisdom, or a solid, sincere, and exquisite knowledge of natural things: which light of Nature is twofold, external and internal: external in the Macrocosm, internal in the Microcosm. Or, Astrology is the very knowledge of good and evil, which is, and bears rule in things subject to Nature; which science flourishing in man, unless it be ruled and governed by Theology, that is Divine Wisdom, as the handmaid by her mistress, is vicious. And by her specious appearance and concupiscible jucundity, man seduceth himself and, as it were by eating of the forbidden tree, or by whoring with the creatures, he maketh his soul the Babylonian Harlot sitting upon the Beast, having seven heads and ten horns, and being sweetly deceived of himself, obtains eternal death to himself.

The Kingdom of Grace. - But Theology is the whole light of Grace happening to man from the Holy Spirit effused from above, which is the universal Wisdom of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the saving knowledge of divine and supernatural things, making chaste and purging the soul from every defilement of sin abiding in the mortal body in respect whereof that natural Wisdom is but a shadow, which, when the world is blotted out and removed, will together with it be blotted out and removed, and then Theology alone shall reign.

Astrology is so called because it ariseth from the stars. As Theology, because it flows from God. 'To live astrologically is with a pleasing concupiscence to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to bring death to himself. To live theologically is to eat of the wood and Tree of Life by an intimate abnegation of oneself, and thence to attain to oneself, Life and Salvation.

The Light of Nature in Astrology, with his incitative fruits, is the probatory instrument whereby Man, placed in the midst, that is, between God and the Creature, is proved which way he would direct or convert his free will, desire, love and appetite; whether to God his Creator, by loving Him above all things, with his whole heart, with his whole mind, with his whole soul, and with his whole strength; which should be the Theological life. Or, whether, casting God behind, he would reflect to himself and to the Creature by love of himself, and arrogating of good things received, which was the Astrological life at the Babylonish fornication, as will appear by that which followeth.

Astrology possesseth our soul with the eternal body, wherein the Light of Nature dwells and shines forth, in some more excellently, in others less. And it contains in itself two things.

1st. All kind of Sciences, Arts, Tongues, Faculties, and natural studies: all the gifts, as well of the mind, as of the body, and also all negotiations, occupations, actions, and labours of men, how many soever of them are found, exercised and used in all times upon the whole earth, everywhere amongst men, as well gross as subtle, as well old as new, serving as well to good as to bad uses.

2nd. Under Astrology, are referred all orders, states, and degrees of men, distinctions of persons, dignities, gifts, offices, and every kind of life as well naturally ordained by God Himself, as thought of and invented by human wit, and found out in the whole world from the highest and most honourable to the lowest and most base.

All these are the fruits of the Stars, and have their original from Astrology, and pertain to the body and soul, and may be as well good as bad, according to the divers pleasures of the users and abusers.

But Theology possesseth our Spirit, which we have from God, which alone is Theologus, that is the Speech of God, the Breath of God, the Word of God, being and inhabiting in the Temple of our heart, from which alone according to sacred letters, true Theology is to be drawn forth; that is, the knowledge of God, of things divine and celestial and supernatural, arising from within, from the illumination of the holy Spirit Itself dwelling within us. According to Whose beck, will and command we ought to institute, direct and finish all our Sciences, Arts, studies, actions, offices, vocations, industries, labours and kinds of life, invented and drawn forth on earth from the Light of Nature; so as whatsoever we think, say or do in the world, in all arts, sciences and labours, it all proceeds from the Will of God, and seems, as it were, to be done and governed by God Himself in us, as by His fit instruments.

For every astrological gift, coming from the Light of Nature ought to be ruled and subjected. to the Divine Will by the Theological Spirit dwelling in us, that so the Will of the Lord be done, as in heaven, so also in earth. For all Wisdom, both Natural and Supernatural, is from the Lord.

Astrology is the science of tilling and perlustrating of the inferior terrestrial earth, ground, garden, Paradise, from which man was taken and made, as to his body and his soul, in the labour and culture whereof six days were ordained and appointed. But because this science of itself confers not salvation and eternal beatitude, but alone belongs to this present life; it is necessary the Lady and Mistress of all sciences and arts - Theology - be added, which seeing it is Wisdom from above, it hath in itself the science of tilling and perlustrating the celestial earth, ground, garden, Paradise, from whence also man was taken, created according to the similitude and image of God, which garden man also hath in himself, to the culture whereof, the seventh day alone, which is the Sabbath day, is appointed.

For so it was ordained between God and man from all eternity, that Man should be God, and God, Man, neither without the other; that is, as God Himself is, and will be, the Paradise, garden, tabernacle, mansion, house, temple, and Jerusalem of man, so also was Man created for the same end, that he should be the Paradise, garden, tabernacle, mansion, house, temple, and Jerusalem of God; that by this mutual union and friendship of God with Man, and of Man with God, all the wisdom power, virtue and glory eternally hidden in God should be opened and multiplied. For, God once made all things for Man, but Man for Himself.

CHAPTER II

Concerning the Subject of Astrology.

The study of Astrology or Philosophy is conversant about the universal knowledge of all the wonderful and secret things of God, infused and put into natural things from above in the first creation.

The exercise therefore of the Light of Nature is the most sagacious perscrutation and enucleation of the abstruse, internal and invisible virtues, lying hid in external, corporal and visible things; to wit,

What should be the first matter of this great world whereof it was made.

What the Elements should be, and those things which are bred of the Elements, and consist in them; of what kind is their creation, essence, nature, propriety and operation as well within as without.

What might be in the stars of heaven, what their operation.

What in volatiles, what in fishes, metals, minerals, gems; what in every species of sprigs and vegetables.

What in animals, beasts, creeping things, and in the whole frame of the world.

Lastly, what is in Man, who was made and created of all these; to wit,

What is that mass, or slime, or dust whereof the body of the first man was formed, and whence he received his soul, and what it is; and whence he hath the Spirit, and what he is: And so the Light of Nature, or Astrology comprehends in itself all the wisdom and knowledge of the whole universe; that is, all these are hid and learned in the School of the Light of Nature, and are referred to Astrology, or are rather Astrology itself; to wit,

The subject of Astrology is therefore double; the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, the greater world and the lesser world.

The greater World is this very frame and great House, or this huge Tabernacle wherein we inhabit and live; and it consists of the four elements, Fire, Air, Water and Earth; and is twofold, visible according to the body, invisible according to the soul or spirit.

The lesser world is Man, the offspring or sum of the greater world, extracted and composed out of the whole greater world, who also in himself is twofold, visible according to the body, invisible according to the soul or spirit.

And as Man is made of nothing else but the world, so also is he placed and put nowhere else but within the world, to wit, that he might live, dwell, and walk therein, yet so as that he should take heed of that subtle Serpent, and should not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest he die; that is, that he serve not the soul of the world, and creatures subject to vanity: but as a wise man rule the stars, and resist the devil tempting him, by the concupiscence of the flesh, of the eyes and pride of life; and suppress sinful nature, living and walking in wisdom and simplicity of the Divine Godhead inspired into him, not in the subtlety of the Serpent by arrogancy and love of himself.

For it is most certain, of what anything is born and procreated, from thence also it seeks, desires and receives its nourishment, convenient to its essence and nature, for the sustentation of itself.

Now Man was taken from, and composed of the Macrocosm, and placed in the same: Therefore also necessarily he is nourished, cherished, receives his meat and drink, is clothed and sustained according to that. (Gen. iii, 19. Thou art taken from the earth, and thou shalt eat thereof in labour all the days of thy life, and shalt eat the herbs of the field until thou shalt return unto the earth, for from it thou art taken.)

Seeing therefore, Man, as to his body, is composed of the elements, and as to his soul, of the stars, and each part is fed and sustained from that from which it was taken; the food or aliment of the body, whereby the body grows to a due stature, comes to a man from the elements, the earth, the water, air and fire; not that man should take to himself for food the crude bodies of the elements, but the fruits growing from the elements: they are for nutriment. But the food of the soul inhabiting in the Microcosmical body, are all kinds of sciences, arts, faculties, and industries, with which she tincts and makes herself perfect.

Moreover; all aliment passeth into the substance of the user, and is made the same that he himself is; that is, whatsoever a man eats and drinks, the same thing is essentially transmitted into the substance, nature, propriety and form of man, by the digestion of Archeus in the ventricle. I say, the food passeth and is converted into the nature of the eater, and drink into the substance of the drinker, and is made one and the same with him.

And in the first place, let these things be understood concerning the body without wonder: because man is made of that which he eats and drinks. So also whatsoever a man learns, studies, knows in things that are placed without himself, that knowledge and intelligence passeth into the very essence, nature and propriety of a man, and is made one with him.

The Light of Nature is made man in man, and by a man's diligent searching man is made Light both in light and by light; and by the benefit of that light he finds out all things, whatsoever he seeks and desires; but one more and another less, because all do not seek with the like study.

Every knowledge, science, art, industry and faculty passeth into the nature of man, penetrates him, occupies him, possesseth him, tincts him, is agglutinated to him, united with him, and perfected in him, and he in it. For, whatsoever kind of aliment man useth, and whatsoever he endeavours to study, inquire, know and understand, this is not strange or different from his essence and nature.

The reason is, because whatsoever is without a man, the same is also within him, for that man is made of all these things which are without him, that is, of the whole universe of things.

Therefore whatsoever man takes from without from the elements and stars by meat, drink, knowledge, study and intelligence, this is the same that man is, and is made the same with man. So man eating bread, and drinking water, wine, etc., from the Macrocosm, he eats and drinks himself; and learning - arts, tongues, faculties, and sciences of external things, he learns and knows himself.

And as he tincts his body by meat and drink, which pass into the substance of flesh and blood, so also his soul is tincted with whatsoever kind of sciences, arts, etc., eating and drinking, he is united essentially with that which he eats and drinks. And learning and knowing, he is united essentially with that which he studies, learns and knows. Wherefore this is a most certain rule; - Whatsoever is without us, is also within us. Which in this place, we, philosophising of the soul and body, do thus declare.

This whole world visible as to the body, invisible as to its soul, is without us. From this we are all essentially in and with the first man complicity made and created, and incontinently after the Creation, were put and placed into it. And seeing it is manifest that everything that is derived, retains the essence, nature and propriety of its original; that although the Macrocosm is without us, yet nevertheless it may also be found truly within us; I say the World is in us, and we are in it, and yet this is, as that is without us, and we without that. For indeed we have no existence or original from anything else, but from that which is without us, and which was before us; nor are we, nor do we inhabit, walk and live in anything else, save in that whereof we are made. Neither do we seek and draw forth meat and drink from any other, either for the body or the soul, but from that into which we are placed, and which is placed in us.

As to the Spirit, we are of God, move in God, and live in God, and are nourished of God. Hence God is in us and we are in God; God hath put and placed Himself in us, and we are put and placed in God.

As to the Soul, we are from the Firmament and Stars, we move and live therein, and are nourished thereof. Hence the firmament with its astralic virtues and operations is in us, and we in it. The Firmament is put and placed in us, and we are put and placed in the Firmament.

As to the Body, we are of the elements, we move and live in them, and are nourished of them: - hence the elements are in us, and we in them. The elements, by the slime, are put and placed in us, and we are put and placed in them.

So God is whole without us, and also whole within us, by the being of inspiration, that is, by His Spirit communicated to us.

So the world is whole without Adam, and also the whole world is within Adam, by the being of extracted slime.

So Adam is whole without us, and also whole within us, by the being of seed.

And so we bear God within us, and God bears us in Himself. God hath us with Himself, and is nearer to us than we are to ourselves We have God everywhere with us, whether me know it, or know it not. We bear the world in us, and the world bears us in itself. Therefore whatsoever we perceive, feel, touch, taste, smell, hear, see, imagine, think, speculate learn, understand, savour, know, eat, and drink, and wheresoever we walk, this is the very same from whence we have drawn our original. We are always conversant in those things of which we are made. For Man is the centre of the whole universe. So we learn nothing else, but the very same thing that was before us, and whereof we are made, and which before we begin to learn, lies hid in us. Yea, we learn, search and know nothing else than our selves; to wit, learning, searching and knowing that whereof we come, and whence we have received our being. So we eat and drink nothing else but ourselves, to wit eating and drinking that whereof we are made.

So our body hath its hunger and thirst in itself from within, and desires the perfection of itself, by meat and drink taken from the elements from without.

See Paracelsus of the 'Lodestone of Nature in the Macrocosm and Microcosm'. So the soul hath its hunger and thirst in itself, and desires the perfection of itself, by meat and drink from the stars, which is the wisdom and knowledge of natural things; by arts, tongues, sciences, etc. Hence spring the artificers and wise men of this world.

Moreover, as in meat and drink taken from the elements, there is always pure and impure conjoined, which when they come into the stomach to the fire of digestion, are by the internal Vulcan or Archeus of Nature separated from one another after a spagirical manner, and that which is pure is retained and abides in us, that is the essence extracted from meat and drink, the pure is separated from the impure which passeth into flesh and blood. For it penetrates the body like unto leaven, and is made one with it, and causeth it to increase, that it may become greater and more solid in its strength and nerves; but the impure, differing from nutriment, is cast forth into the draught, and that by the operation of Archeus labouring in the ventricle. By like reason the matter is even in all sciences arising from the Light of Nature, where always good and evil are joined together. For in Nature all things are convertible, as well to good as to evil. Wherefore unless Astrology be Theologized, that is, unless that which is good be retained, and that which is evil rejected, Man from thence acquires to himself eternal death. And this is the probation of Man.

CHAPTER III.

Of the three parts of Man; Spirit, Soul and Body, from whence every one is taken, and how one is in the other.

The parts of the Universe, of which the whole man is made, are three; - the World of Eternity, the Evial World, and the World of Time. The parts of man are three, Spirit, Soul and Body; and these three parts spring and are taken from these three parts of the whole Universe.

The Spirit of man comes from the Spirit of God, and participates with eternity and Aevo.

The Soul in man is extracted from the soul of the World, and participates with Aevo and Time.

The Body of Man is formed and composed from the body of the World, as elements, and participates with Time only.

The Body extracted from the elements, and constituted into this form, is the House, the Tabernacle, the seat of the Soul, and resident chiefly in the heart.

The Soul of Man extracted from the Soul of the world, and delivered over to the heart, is the habitation of the Divine Spirit, and hath the Divine Spirit in itself.

So one exists in the other, and dwells in the other, abides in the other, and operates in the other.

The Spirit in the Soul, and by the Soul.

The Soul in the Body, and by the Body.

The Body in and by external subjects.

Everything which is without is as that which is within, but the internal always excels the external in essence. virtue, and operation. For by how much any thing is more inward, by so much the more it is more noble, potent and capacious.

Great virtue is in the Body, if it be excited.

Greater in the Soul of the firmament if it be excited.

Greatest in the Divine Spirit, if it be excited.

By excitation all things are laid open, which are hidden and placed in Ignorance. For both Divine and Natural Wisdom sleep in us, and each light shines in darkness, and without excitation man wants the having.

Great and excellent is the knowledge of the human body, extracted from the elements, and disposed into this form.

Greater and more excellent is the knowledge of the Soul, taken from the firmament, and inserted into the body.

Greatest and most excellent is the knowledge of the Spirit inspired from the mouth of God into the first man, and by the mysteries of multiplication equally communicated to every one of us.

Wherefore is the knowledge of the human body great? By reason of its wonderful composition, that is, because all the four Elements are essentially composed in it. And moreover I say, the essence, nature, and propriety of all the creatures of the whole invisible world which are in the earth, water, air and fire, are incorporated and situate in man. But seeing all things generally are conjoined and included into one skin, they are not altogether and at once discovered, nor can be revealed, but at least come forth and are known in specie, as they are drawn forth and excited.

Wherefore is the knowledge of the Soul which is in the heart of Man greater? Because the whole firmament, with all the essences, nature, virtue, propriety. inclination, operation and effect of all the Stars is therein conjoined and complicated, so as there is nothing in the whole power of the Spirit of the firmament or Soul of the World, which the soul of man also hath not in himself, and in the exaltation of itself, can give it of itself.

Yea, the whole Light of Nature is in the soul of the Microcosm, which is the wisdom and power and vigour of all things of the whole world throughout all the elements and things procreated of the elements. For she is the Astrological Spirit, containing in herself all kind of sciences, magic, Cabalistic, astronomic, with all their species, chemistry, medicine, Physic, all arts, tongues, all workmanships and all studies existent throughout the whole shop of Nature.

But because all these things are collected in one, and generally comprehended in the soul, they do not all lie open, or can they be in act together, although they are in power; but are let out and produced one species after another.

Wheresoever, therefore, these kinds of divers sciences flourish and are exercised amongst men, there shines the Light of Nature, and the soul of the Microcosm is in her exaltation, that is, the firmament of the Micrososm is in his ascendents.

But why is the knowledge of the Spirit of God greatest in us? Because He from Whom we receive this Spirit is greatest and most eminent above all. For in this same Spirit all the divine wisdom and power from whence that saving knowledge flows forth, that is, Theology, treating of supernatural, celestial and divine things, and is conversant in the Magnalia and mysteries of God placed above Nature, and tends even to the inexhausted and unspeakable profundity of the Deity, in which profundity, the very original matter, cause and end of all the works of God, and of things acted in time from the beginning of the creation even to the end of the consummation of the world, eternally and essentially lay hid. For all things came forth from Him; all things were made by Him, and all things consist in Him.

By how much anything is most inward, by so much it is more noble and excellent. This visible world is a body compacted of fire, air, water and earth, which is without, and hath in itself the spirit of Nature which is the soul of the world, which is within, to which soul this external body belongeth; because it is inhabited, possessed and governed by. Hence the soul of the world is more noble than the body.

This soul of the world hath in it the Spirit of God, which comprehendeth and possesseth it. For nothing is beyond God or the Spirit of God. Hence the Spirit is more noble than the soul. The more noble always exists in the more ignoble, and internals prevail over externals, as in essence as in power. So our external body is indeed great in its stature and quantity, and a wonderful creature.

Yet the soul dwelling in the body is far greater, and more wonderful, not in corporeal quantity, but in essence, virtue and power.

But the Spirit is the greatest of all, not in the lump or corporeal quantity, but in essence, virtue and power; and therefore most wonderful.

There is nothing greater than that in which are all things. And there is nothing less than that which is in all smallest things Therefore let us observe this rule well:

By how much anything is more inward and more hidden from the external senses, by so much the more it is more worthy, noble and potent in its essence, nature and propriety.

Which we will demonstrate by examples. There is not any house built for itself, but for the inhabitant. Now the edifice is an external thing, and the inhabitant an internal thing. The house is for the guest, and not the guest for the house. Therefore the inhabitant is far more noble, worthy and excellent in his essence than every edifice, although sumptuous. For what is the house profitable, the guest being absent?

So garments are made and prepared for the body, that it might be and walk in them. Garments are external things; the body is internal. Therefore the body in its essence is far more noble and worthy than all garments, although precious. For, what need is there of garments, if they are wanting which should put them on? Therefore garments are for the body, and not the body for garments.

So the body, raiment, house and habitation is a certain external thing to the soul, but the soul is internal.

And the body is for the soul, and not the soul for the body. Therefore the soul in her essence is a far more noble and worthy creature than the body, although most comely and most excellently proportioned. For, what availeth the body? the soul being wanting, it is a carcase.

So the Soul, made and created for an habitation of the Divine Spirit, is external; but the Spirit is internal. And the soul is for the Spirit, and not the Spirit for the soul. Therefore the Spirit of God is found far more noble and excellent, and worthy in His original essence? virtue, nature, power and propriety.

So God is and abides the most inward, chief, great, potent, noble and worthy above all things; and contains all things in Himself, and He Himself is contained of none.

Everything that is most Inward is most precious and most noble. - Moreover, by how much anything is more inward, by so much it is more nigh and near to us, but also so much the harder to be found and known. Because of the too much aversion and alienation of our soul from divine and heavenly things; and by reason of the too much tenacity and adherency of our love to the creatures of the world.

And on the contrary; - by how much anything is more exterior, by so much the more it is remote from us, and by so much the more strange. For example sake; - the Spirit of the Lord truly is and inhabiteth in my soul, whose seat is in the captula of my heart: But, seeing every inhabitant is within, and his habitation without, it followeth; that the Spirit of the Lord is more near to me than I am to myself, And so it most evidently appears; -That the Kingdom of God is not to be sought without us, here or there, but within us; - witness Christ himself who saith (Luke xvii), being asked of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come: "The kingdom of God shall not come with observation; neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there; for behold the kingdom of God is within you." And the Apostle Paul (Rom. xiv), "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the holy Spirit." For by these he which doth service to Christ is accepted of God and approved by men.

The soul is and dwells in the heart, and the heart is in my body, therefore the soul is more near to me than the body - with garments: hence the body is nearer to me than garments, and the soul nearer to me than the body: and the Spirit nearer than the soul? and therefore more noble, more worthy, and of more moment.

And because it is true, - that every internal is more noble and more worthy than his external, in which it is and dwells; that even all of us do witness, nilling or willing, knowing or not knowing. For behold, if we are in danger of life by fire, by water, by pestilence, or wars, etc., these being imminent upon us, then indeed in the first place, we leave behind us all our edifices, as well sumptuous as vile, with our external goods: and with a few things, if there be any we can carry with us, we betake ourselves to flight; so that the body being clad, might be preserved safe and unhurt, with the life and soul. By which very thing we testify, that the internals are more desirable than externals.

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Tycho Brahe

 

 

Tycho Brahe (December 14, 1546 ­ October 24, 1601), was a Danish (Scanian) nobleman astronomer as well as an astrologer and alchemist. He was granted an estate on the island of Hven and the funding to build the Uraniborg, an early research institute, where he built large astronomical instruments and took many careful measurements.

As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the geometrical benefits of the Copernican system with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system into his own model of the universe, the Tychonic system. From 1600 until his death in 1601, he was assisted by Johannes Kepler, who would later use Tycho's astronomical information to develop his own theories of astronomy. He is universally referred to as "Tycho" rather than by his surname "Brahe", as was common in Scandinavia.

He is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data were used by his assistant Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion. No one before Tycho had attempted to make so many redundant observations, and the mathematical tools to take advantage of them had not yet been developed. He did what others before him were unable or unwilling to do - to catalogue the planets and stars with enough accuracy so as to determine whether the Ptolemaic or Copernican system was more valid in describing the heavens.

On April 19, 1559, Tycho began his studies at the University of Copenhagen. There, following the wishes of his uncle, he studied law but also studied a variety of other subjects and became interested in astronomy. It was, however, the eclipse which occurred on August 21, 1560, particularly the fact that it had been predicted, that so impressed him that he began to make his own studies of astronomy helped by some of the professors. He purchased an ephemeris and books such as Sacrobosco's Tractatus de Sphaera, Apianus's Cosmographia seu descriptio totius orbis and Regiomontanus' De triangulis Omnimodis.

Tycho realized that progress in the science of astronomy could be achieved not by occasional haphazard observations, but only by systematic and rigorous observation, night after night, and by using instruments of the highest accuracy obtainable. He was able to improve and enlarge the existing instruments, and construct entirely new ones.

Tycho's naked eye measurements of planetary parallax were accurate to the arcminute. His sister, Sophia, assisted Tycho in many of his measurements. These jealously guarded measurements became the possessions of Kepler following his death. Tycho was the last major astronomer to work without the aid of a telescope, soon to be turned toward the sky by Galileo.

While a student, Tycho lost part of his nose in a duel with rapiers with Manderup Parsbjerg, a fellow Danish nobleman. This occurred in the Christmas season of 1566, after a fair amount of drinking, while the just turned 20-year-old Tycho was studying at the University of Rostock in Germany. Attending a dance at a professor's house, he quarrelled with Parsbjerg. A subsequent duel (in the dark) resulted in Tycho losing the bridge of his nose. A consequence of this was that Tycho developed an interest in medicine and alchemy.

For the rest of his life, he was said to have worn a replacement made of silver and gold blended into a flesh tone, and used an adhesive balm to keep it attached. In 1901, though, Tycho's tomb was reopened and his remains were examined by medical experts. The nasal opening of the skull was rimmed with green, a sign of exposure to copper, not silver or gold. Some historians have speculated that he wore a number of different prosthetics for different occasions, noting that a copper nose would have been more comfortable and less heavy than one of precious metals.

Tycho was the preeminent observational astronomer of the pre-telescopic period, and his observations of stellar and planetary positions achieved unparalleled accuracy for their time. For example, Tycho measured Earth's axial tilt as 23 degrees and 31.5 minutes, which he claimed to be more accurate than Copernicus by 3.5 minutes. After his death, his records of the motion of the planet Mars enabled Kepler to discover the laws of planetary motion, which provided powerful support for the Copernican heliocentric theory of the solar system.

Tycho himself was not a Copernican, but proposed a system in which the Sun orbited the Earth while the other planets orbited the Sun. His system provided a safe position for astronomers who were dissatisfied with older models but were reluctant to accept the Earth's motion. It gained a considerable following after 1616 when Rome decided officially that the heliocentric model was contrary to both philosophy and Scripture, and could be discussed only as a computational convenience that had no connection to fact. His system also offered a major innovation: while both the geocentric model and the heliocentric model as set forth by Copernicus relied on the idea of transparent rotating crystalline spheres to carry the planets in their orbits, Tycho eliminated the spheres entirely.

He was aware that a star observed near the horizon appears with a greater altitude than the real one, due to atmospheric refraction, and he worked out tables for the correction of this source of error.To perform the huge number of products needed to produce much of his astronomical data, Tycho relied heavily on the then-new technique of prosthaphaeresis, an algorithm for approximating products based on trigonometric identities that predated logarithms.

Astronomy

On November 11, 1572, Tycho observed (from Herrevad Abbey) a very bright star which unexpectedly appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia, now named SN 1572. Since it had been maintained since antiquity that the world beyond the orbit of the moon, i.e. that of the fixed stars, was eternal and unchangeable (a fundamental axiom of the Aristotelian world view: celestial immutability), other observers held that the phenomenon was something in the Earth's atmosphere. Tycho, however, observed that the parallax of the object did not change from night to night, suggesting that the object was far away.

Tycho argued that a nearby object should appear to shift its position with respect to the background. He published a small book, De Stella Nova (1573), thereby coining the term nova for a "new" star (we now know that Tycho's star in Cassiopeia was a supernova 7500 light years from earth, today known as SN 1572). This discovery was decisive for his choice of astronomy as a profession. Tycho was strongly critical of those who dismissed the implications of the astronomical appearance, writing in the preface to De Stella Nova: "O crassa ingenia. O caecos coeli spectatores" ("Oh thick wits. Oh blind watchers of the sky").

Tycho's discovery was the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's poem, Al Aaraaf. In 1998, Sky & Telescope magazine published an article by Donald W. Olson, Marilynn S. Olson and Russell L. Doescher arguing, in part, that Tycho's Supernova was also the same "star that's westward from the pole" in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Heliocentrism

In this depiction of the Tychonic system, the objects on blue orbits (the moon and the sun) rotate around the earth. The objects on orange orbits (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) rotate around the sun. Around all is sphere of fixed stars.

Kepler tried, but was unable, to persuade Tycho to adopt the heliocentric model of the solar system. Tycho believed in a modified geocentric model known as the Tychonic system, for the same reasons that he argued that the supernova of 1572 was not near the Earth. He argued that if the Earth were in motion, then nearby stars should appear to shift their positions with respect to background stars.

In fact, this effect of parallax does exist; it could not be observed with the naked eye, or even with the telescopes of the next two hundred years, because even the nearest stars are much more distant than most astronomers of the time believed possible. The Tychonic system is very similar to the Copernican one, except that it has a static earth instead of a static sun.

In the years following Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus in 1610, which made the Ptolemaic system intractable, the Tychonic system became the major competitor with Copernicanism, and was adopted by the Catholic Church for many years as its official astronomical conception of the universe.

King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway, impressed with Tycho's 1572 observations, financed the construction of two observatories for Tycho on the island of Hven in Oresund. These were Uraniborg and Stjerneborg. Uraniborg also had a laboratory for his alchemical experiments.

Because Tycho disagreed with Christian IV, the new king of his country, he left Hven in 1597 and moved to Prague in 1599. Sponsored by Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, he built a new observatory in a castle in Benátky nad Jizerou, 50 km from Prague, and he worked there for one year. The emperor then had him move back to Prague, where he stayed until his death.In return for their support, Tycho's duties included preparing astrological charts and predictions for his patrons on events such as births, weather forecasting and astrological interpretations of significant astronomical events such as the comet of 1577 and the supernova of 1572.

Tycho was the preeminent observational astronomer of the pre-telescopic period, and his observations of stellar and planetary positions achieved unparalleled accuracy for their time. For example, Tycho measured Earth's axial tilt as 23 degrees and 31.5 minutes, which he claimed to be more accurate than Copernicus by 3.5 minutes. After his death, his records of the motion of the planet Mars enabled Kepler to discover the laws of planetary motion, which provided powerful support for the Copernican heliocentric theory of the solar system.

Tycho himself was not a Copernican, but proposed a system in which the Sun orbited the Earth while the other planets orbited the Sun. His system provided a safe position for astronomers who were dissatisfied with older models but were reluctant to accept the Earth's motion. It gained a considerable following after 1616 when Rome decided officially that the heliocentric model was contrary to both philosophy and Scripture, and could be discussed only as a computational convenience that had no connection to fact. His system also offered a major innovation: while both the geocentric model and the heliocentric model as set forth by Copernicus relied on the idea of transparent rotating crystalline spheres to carry the planets in their orbits, Tycho eliminated the spheres entirely.

He was aware that a star observed near the horizon appears with a greater altitude than the real one, due to atmospheric refraction, and he worked out tables for the correction of this source of error.To perform the huge number of products needed to produce much of his astronomical data, Tycho relied heavily on the then-new technique of prosthaphaeresis, an algorithm for approximating products based on trigonometric identities that predated logarithms.

Astrology

Like the fifteenth century astronomer Regiomontanus, Tycho Brahe appears to have accepted astrological prognostications on the principle that the heavenly bodies undoubtedly influenced (yet did not determine) terrestrial events, but expressed skepticism about the multiplicity of interpretative schemes, and increasingly preferred to work on establishing a sound mathematical astronomy. Two early tracts, one entitled Against Astrologers for Astrology, and one on a new method of dividing the sky into astrological houses, were never published and are unfortunately now lost.

Tycho also worked in the area of weather prediction, produced astrological interpretations of the supernova of 1572 and the comet of 1577, and furnished his patrons Frederick II and Rudolph II with nativities and other predictions (thereby strengthening the ties between patron and client by demonstrating value).

An astrological worldview was fundamental to Tycho's entire philosophy of nature.

His interest in alchemy, particularly the medical alchemy associated with Paracelsus, was almost as long-standing as his study of astrology and astronomy simultaneously, and Uraniborg was constructed as both observatory and laboratory.In an introductory oration to the course of lectures he gave in Copenhagen in 1574, Tycho defended astrology on the grounds of correspondences between the heavenly bodies, terrestrial substances (metals, stones etc.) and bodily organs (medical astrology).

He was later to emphasise the importance of studying alchemy and astrology together with a pair of emblems bearing the mottos:

Despiciendo suspicio ("By looking down I see upward") and Suspiciendo despicio ("By looking up I see downward").

As several scholars have now argued, Tycho's commitment to a relationship between macrocosm and microcosm even played a role in his rejection of Copernicanism and his construction of a third world-system.

Final Years

Tycho died on October 24, 1601, several days after straining his bladder during a banquet. It had been said that to leave the banquet before it concluded would be the height of bad manners, and so he remained. His bladder, stretched to its limit, exploded. He died after eleven agonizing days.

However, recent investigations have suggested that Tycho did not die from urinary problems but most likely from mercury poisoning: toxic levels of it have been found in his hair and hair-roots. Tycho may have poisoned himself unintentionally by imbibing some mercury-containing medicine.3 Some have even speculated that Tycho may have been murdered, possibly by Kepler, though there is no solid evidence for this.

Tycho Brahe's body is currently interred in a tomb in the Church of Our Lady in front of Tyn near Old Town Square near the Astronomical Clock in Prague.

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John Dee

 

 

John Dee (July 13, 1527 - 1608 or 1609) was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy.

Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his time, he had lectured to crowded halls at the University of Paris when still in his early twenties. He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery.

(He coined the term "British Empire.") At the same time, he immersed himself deeply in Judeo-Christian magic and Hermetic philosophy, devoting the last third of his life almost exclusively to these pursuits. For Dee, as with many of his contemporaries, these activities were not contradictory, but particular aspects of a consistent world-view.

Biography

Dee was born in Tower Ward, London to a Welsh family, whose surname derived from the Welsh du ("black"). His father Roland was a mercer and minor courtier. Dee attended the Chelmsford Chantry School (now King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford), then - from 1543 to 1546 - St. John's College, Cambridge. His great abilities were recognized, and he was made a founding fellow of Trinity College.

In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Leuven and Brussels and lecturing in Paris on Euclid. He studied with Gemma Frisius and became a close friend of the cartographer Gerardus Mercator, returning to England with an important collection of mathematical and astronomical instruments. In 1552, he met Gerolamo Cardano in London: during their acquaintance they investigated a perpetual motion machine as well as a gem purported to have magical properties.

Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford in 1554, which he declined, citing English universities' emphasis on rhetoric and grammar (which, together with logic, formed the academic trivium) over philosophy and science (the more advanced quadrivium, comprised of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) as offensive.

In 1555, Dee became a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through the company's system of patrimony. That year he was arrested and charged with "calculating" for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth; the charges were expanded to treason against Mary. Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the reactionary Catholic Bishop Bonner for religious examination. His strong and lifelong penchant for secrecy perhaps worsening matters, this entire episode was only the most dramatic in a series of attacks and slanders that would dog Dee through his life. Clearing his name yet again, he soon became a close associate of Bonner.

Dee presented Queen Mary with a visionary plan for the preservation of old books, manuscripts and records and the founding of a national library in 1556, but his proposal was not taken up. Instead, he expanded his personal library at his house in Mortlake, tirelessly acquiring books and manuscripts in England and on the Continent. Dee's library, a center of learning outside the universities, became the greatest in England and attracted many scholars

.

When Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, Dee became her trusted advisor on matters astrological and scientific, choosing Elizabeth's coronation date himself.

From the 1550s through the 1570s, he served as an advisor to England's voyages of discovery, providing technical assistance in navigation and ideological backing in the creation of a "British Empire", and was the first to use that term.

In 1577, Dee published General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, a work that set out his vision of a maritime empire and asserted English territorial claims on the New World. Dee was acquainted with Humphrey Gilbert and was close to Sir Philip Sidney and his circle.


Dee's glyph, whose meaning he explicated in Monas Hieroglyphica

In 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas Hieroglyphica ("The Hieroglyphic Monad"), an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. This work was highly valued by many of Dee's contemporaries, but the loss of the secret oral tradition of Dee's milieu makes the work difficult to interpret today.

He published a "Mathematical Preface" to Henry Billingsley's English translation of Euclid's Elements in 1570, arguing the central importance of mathematics and outlining mathematics' influence on the other arts and sciences. Intended for an audience outside the universities, it proved to be Dee's most widely influential and frequently reprinted work.

By the early 1580s, Dee was growing dissatisfied with his progress in learning the secrets of nature and with his own lack of influence and recognition. He began to turn towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge. Specifically, he sought to contact angels through the use of a "scryer" or crystal-gazer, who would act as an intermediary between Dee and the angels.

Dee's first attempts were not satisfactory, but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley, who impressed him greatly with his abilities. Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits. These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with an air of intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification, prayer and fasting.

Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to mankind. (The character of Kelley is harder to assess: some have concluded that he acted with complete cynicism, but delusion or self-deception are not out of the question. Kelley's "output" is remarkable for its sheer mass, its intricacy and its vividness.)

Dee maintained that the angels laboriously dictated several books to him this way, some in a special angelic or Enochian language.

In 1583, Dee met the visiting Polish nobleman Albert Aaski, who invited the Englishman to accompany him on his return to Poland. With some prompting by the angels, Dee was persuaded to go.

Dee, Kelley, and their families left for the Continent in September 1583, but Laski proved to be bankrupt and out of favor in his own country.

Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe, but they continued their spiritual conferences, which Dee recorded meticulously. He had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II and King Stephen of Poland in which he chided them for their ungodliness and attempted to convince them of the importance of his angelic communications. He was not taken up by either monarch.

During a spiritual conference in Bohemia in 1587, Kelley told Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered that the two men should share their wives. Kelley, who by that time was becoming a prominent alchemist and was much more sought-after than Dee, may have wished to use this as a way to end the spiritual conferences.

The order caused Dee great anguish, but he did not doubt its genuineness and apparently allowed it to go forward, but broke off the conferences immediately afterwards and did not see Kelley again. Dee returned to England in 1589.

Personal life - Dee was married three times and had eight children. His eldest son was Arthur Dee, about whom Dee wrote a letter to his headmaster at Westminster School which echos the worries of boarding school parents in every century; Arthur was also an alchemist and hermetic author. John Aubrey gives the following description of Dee: "He was tall and slender. He wore a gown like an artist's gown, with hanging sleeves, and a slit.... A very fair, clear sanguine complexion... a long beard as white as milk. A very handsome man."

Final years - Dee returned to Mortlake after six years to find his library ruined and many of his prized books and instruments stolen. He sought support from Elizabeth, who finally made him warden of Christ's College, Manchester in Manchester (now Manchester Grammar School) in 1592. However, he was by now widely reviled as an evil magician and could not exert much control over the Fellows, who despised him. He left Manchester in 1605. By that time Elizabeth was dead, and James I, unsympathetic to anything related to the supernatural, provided no help. Dee spent his final years in poverty at Mortlake, where he died in late 1608 or early 1609. Unfortunately, both the parish registers and Dee's gravestone are missing.

Achievements

Thought

Dee was an intensely pious Christian, but his Christianity was deeply influenced by the Hermetic and Platonic-Pythagorean doctrines that were pervasive in the Renaissance. He believed that number was the basis of all things and the key to knowledge, that God's creation was an act of "numbering". From Hermeticism, he drew the belief that man had the potential for divine power, and he believed this divine power could be exercised through mathematics. His cabalistic angel magic (which was heavily numerological) and his work on practical mathematics (navigation, for example) were simply the exalted and mundane ends of the same spectrum, not the antithetical activities many would see them as today. His ultimate goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of the Catholic and Protestant churches and the recapture of the pure theology of the ancients.

Reputation and significance

About ten years after Dee's death, the antiquarian Robert Cotton purchased land around Dee's house and began digging in search of papers and artifacts. He discovered several manuscripts, mainly records of Dee's angelic communications. Cotton's son gave these manuscripts to the scholar Meric Casaubon, who published them in 1659, together with a long introduction critical of their author, as A True & Faithful Relation of What passed for many Years between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and some spirits.

As the first public revelation of Dee's spiritual conferences, the book was extremely popular and sold quickly. Casaubon, who believed in the reality of spirits, argued in his introduction that Dee was acting as the unwitting tool of evil spirits when he believed he was communicating with angels. This book is largely responsible for the image, prevalent for the following two and a half centuries, of Dee as a dupe and deluded fanatic.

Around the same time the True and Faithful Relation was published, members of the Rosicrucian movement claimed Dee as one of their number. There is doubt, however, that an organized Rosicrucian movement existed during Dee's lifetime, and no evidence that he ever belonged to any secret fraternity.

Dee's reputation as a magician and the vivid story of his association with Edward Kelley have made him a seemingly irresistible figure to fabulists, writers of horror stories and latter-day magicians. The accretion of false and often fanciful information about Dee often obscures the facts of his life, remarkable as they are in themselves.

A re-evaluation of Dee's character and significance came in the 20th century, largely as a result of the work of the historian Frances Yates, who brought a new focus on the role of magic in the Renaissance and the development of modern science. As a result of this re-evaluation, Dee is now viewed as a serious scholar and appreciated as one of the most learned men of his day.

His personal library at Mortlake was the largest in the country, and was considered one of the finest in Europe, perhaps second only to that of de Thou. As well as being an astrological, scientific and geographical advisor to Elizabeth and her court, he was an early advocate of the colonization of North America and a visionary of a British Empire stretching across the North Atlantic.

Dee promoted the sciences of navigation and cartography. He studied closely with Gerardus Mercator, and he owned an important collection of maps, globes and astronomical instruments. He developed new instruments as well as special navigational techniques for use in polar regions. Dee served as an advisor to the English voyages of discovery, and personally selected pilots and trained them in navigation.

He believed that mathematics (which he understood mystically) was central to the progress of human learning. The centrality of mathematics to Dee's vision makes him to that extent more modern than Francis Bacon, though some scholars believe Bacon purposely downplayed mathematics in the anti-occult atmosphere of the reign of James I. It should be noted, though, that Dee's understanding of the role of mathematics is radically different from our contemporary view.

Dee's most long-lasting practical achievement may be his promotion of mathematics outside the universities. His "Mathematical Preface" to Euclid was meant to promote the study and application of mathematics by those without a university education, and was very popular and influential among the "mecanicians": the new and growing class of technical craftsmen and artisans. Dee's preface included demonstrations of mathematical principles that readers could perform themselves.

Dee was a friend of Tycho Brahe and was familiar with the work of Copernicus. Many of his astronomical calculations were based on Copernican assumptions, but he never openly espoused the heliocentric theory. Dee applied Copernican theory to the problem of calendar reform. His sound recommendations were not accepted, however, for political reasons.

He has often been associated with the Voynich Manuscript. Wilfrid M. Voynich, who bought the manuscript in 1912, suggested that Dee may have owned the manuscript and sold it to Rudolph II. Dee's contacts with Rudolph were far less extensive than had previously been thought, however, and Dee's diaries show no evidence of the sale.

Artefacts

The British Museum holds several items once owned by Dee and associated with the spiritual conferences:

  • Dee's Speculum or Mirror (an obsidian Aztec cult object in the shape of a hand-mirror, brought to Europe in the late 1520s), which was once owned by Horace Walpole.
  • The small wax seals used to support the legs of Dee's "table of practice" (the table at which the scrying was performed).
  • The large, elaborately-decorated wax "Seal of God", used to support the "shew-stone", the crystal ball used for scrying.
  • A gold amulet engraved with a representation of one of Kelley's visions.
  • A crystal globe, six centimetres in diameter. This item remained unnoticed for many years in the mineral collection; possibly the one owned by Dee, but the provenance of this object is less certain than that of the others.

 

In December 2004, both a shew-stone (a stone used for scrying) formerly belonging to Dee and a mid-1600s explanation of its use written by Nicholas Culpeper were stolen from the Science Museum in London; they were recovered shortly afterwards.

 

Arthur Dee (July 13, 1579 ­ September 1651) was the eldest son of Dr John Dee, and educated at Westminster School. Arthur accompanied his father in his peregrinations across Bohemia. He became a physician to Michael I of Russia, the founder of the Romanov Dynasty and resided in Moscow for fourteen years where he wrote his Fasciculus Chemicus, a collection of writings upon alchemy.

Returning to England upon the death of his wife in 1637, Dee became physician to King Charles I. Upon his retirement Arthur Dee resided in Norwich, where he became a friend of Sir Thomas Browne. Arthur Dee died in October of 1651. Dee's relationship to Browne has been little explored, but upon his death it was to Browne that the bulk of Arthur Dee's alchemical manuscripts and books were bequeathed.

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Robert Boyle

 

The Honorable Robert Boyle (January 25, 1627 - December 30, 1691) was an Irish natural philosopher (chemist, physicist, and inventor) , noted for his work in physics and chemistry. Although his research and personal philosophy clearly has its roots in the alchemical tradition, he is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist. Among his works The Sceptical Chymist is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry.

He was born at Lismore Castle, in the province of Munster, Ireland, as the seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard Boyle, the "Great Earl of Cork". While still a child he learned to speak Latin, Greek and French, and he was only eight years old when he was sent to Eton College, of which his father's friend, Sir Henry Wotton, was then provost. After spending over three years at the college, he went to travel abroad with a French tutor. Nearly two years were passed in Geneva; visiting Italy in 1641, he remained during the winter of that year in Florence, studying the "paradoxes of the great star-gazer" Galileo Galilei, who died within a league ( 3 miles ) of the city early in 1642.

Returning to England in 1645 he found that his father was hospitalized and had left him the manor of Stalbridge in Dorset, together with estates in Ireland. From that time he gave up his life to study and scientific research, and soon took a prominent place in the band of inquirers, known as the "Invisible College," who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the "new philosophy."

The Invisible College refers mainly to the intrinsic ideology of the free transfer of thought and technical expertise, usually carried out without the establishment of designated facilities or authority structure, spread by a loosely connected system of word-of-mouth referral or localized bulletin-board system, and supported through barter (i.e. trade of knowledge or services) or apprenticeship. In earlier times the term also included certain Hegelian aspects of secret societies and occultism.

It is akin to the old guild system, yet holds no sway in recognized scholastic, technical or political circles. It is merely an attempt to circumvent bureaucratic or monetary obstacles by knowledgeable individuals and civic groups. Said entities generally feel a need to share their methods with fellow journeymen, so to speak, and to strengthen local techniques through collaboration. In short, it is a grassroots educational system.

They met frequently in London, often at Gresham College; some of the members also had meetings at Oxford, and in that city Boyle went to reside in 1654. Reading in 1657 of Otto von Guericke's air-pump, he set himself with the assistance of Robert Hooke to devise improvements in its construction, and with the result, the "machina Boyleana" or "Pneumatical Engine," finished in 1659, he began a series of experiments on the properties of air.

An account of the work he did with this instrument was published in 1660 under the title New Experiments Physico-Mechanical. Among the critics of the views put forward in this book was a Jesuit, Franciscus Linus (1595-1675), and it was while answering his objections that Boyle enunciated the law that the volume of a gas varies inversely as the pressure, which among English-speaking peoples is usually called after his name, though on the continent of Europe it is attributed to Edme Mariotte, who did not publish it till 1676. In 1663 the Invisible College became the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, and the charter of incorporation granted by Charles II of England, named Boyle a member of the council. In 1680 he was elected president of the society, but declined the honor from a scruple about oaths.

It was during his time at Oxford that Boyle was a Chevalier. The Chevaliers are thought to have been established by royal order a few years before Boyle's time at Oxford. The period of Boyle's residence was marked by the reactionary actions of the victorious parliamentarian forces, consequently this period marked the most secretive period of Chevalier movements and thus little is known about Boyle's involvement beyond his membership. In 1668 he left Oxford for London where he resided at the house of his sister, Lady Ranelagh, in Pall Mall.

About 1689 his health, never very strong, began to fail seriously and he gradually withdrew from his public engagements, ceasing his communications to the Royal Society, and advertising his desire to be excused from receiving guests, "unless upon occasions very extraordinary," on Tuesday and Friday forenoon, and Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. In the leisure thus gained he wished to "recruit his spirits, range his papers," and prepare some important chemical investigations which he proposed to leave "as a kind of Hermetic legacy to the studious disciples of that art," but of which he did not make known the nature. His health became still worse in 1691, and his death occurred on December 30 of that year, just a week after that of the sister with whom he had lived for more than twenty years. He was buried in the churchyard of St Martin's in the Fields, his funeral sermon being preached by his friend Bishop Burnet. In his will, Boyle endowed a series of Lectures which came to be known as the Boyle Lectures.

Boyle's great merit as a scientific investigator is that he carried out the principles which Francis Bacon preached in the Novum Organum.

The Novum Organum is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon published in 1620. The title translates as "new organ" or "instrument". This is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. For Bacon, finding the essence of a thing was a simple process of reduction. One must list all the things which cause the object in question, and then dismiss each one as the primary cause until only one was left. This work was critical in the historical development of the scientific method.

Yet he would not avow himself a follower of Bacon, or indeed of any other teacher. On several occasions he mentions that in order to keep his judgment as unprepossessed as might be with any of the modern theories of philosophy, till he was "provided of experiments" to help him judge of them, he refrained from any study of the Atomical and the Cartesian systems, and even of the Novum Organum itself, though he admits to "transiently consulting" them about a few particulars. Nothing was more alien to his mental temperament than the spinning of hypotheses. He regarded the acquisition of knowledge as an end in itself, and in consequence he gained a wider outlook on the aims of scientific inquiry than had been enjoyed by his predecessors for many centuries. This, however, did not mean that he paid no attention to the practical application of science nor that he despised knowledge which tended to use.

He himself was an alchemist; and believing the transmutation of metals to be a possibility, he carried out experiments in the hope of effecting it; and he was instrumental in obtaining the repeal, in 1689, of the statute of Henry IV against multiplying gold and silver. With all the important work he accomplished in physics - the enunciation of Boyle's law, the discovery of the part taken by air in the propagation of sound, and investigations on the expansive force of freezing water, on specific gravities and refractive powers, on crystals, on electricity, on color, on hydrostatics, etc.- chemistry was his peculiar and favourite study.

His first book on the subject was The Sceptical Chemist, published in 1661, in which he criticized the "experiments whereby vulgar Spagyrists are wont to endeavour to evince their Salt, Sulphur and Mercury (element) to be the true Principles of Things." For him chemistry was the science of the composition of substances, not merely an adjunct to the arts of the alchemist or the physician. He advanced towards the modern view of elements as the undecomposable constituents of material bodies; and understanding the distinction between mixtures and compounds, he made considerable progress in the technique of detecting their ingredients, a process which he designated by the term "analysis."

He further supposed that the elements were ultimately composed of particles of various sorts and sizes, into which, however, they were not to be resolved in any known way. Applied chemistry had to thank him for improved methods and for an extended knowledge of individual substances. He also studied the chemistry of combustion and of respiration, and conducted experiments in physiology, where, however, he was hampered by the "tenderness of his nature" which kept him from anatomical dissections, especially of living animals, though he knew them to be "most instructing."

Besides being a busy natural philosopher, Boyle devoted much time to theology, showing a very decided leaning to the practical side and an indifference to controversial polemics. At the Restoration he was favourably received at court, and in 1665 would have received the provostship of Eton, if he would have taken orders; but this he refused to do on the ground that his writings on religious subjects would have greater weight coming from a layman than a paid minister of the Church. As a director of the East India Company he spent large sums in promoting the spread of Christianity in the East, contributing liberally to missionary societies, and to the expenses of translating the Bible or portions of it into various languages. He founded the Boyle lectures, intended to defend the Christian religion against those he considered "notorious infidels, namely atheists, theists, pagans, Jews and Muslims," with the proviso that controversies between Christians were not to be mentioned.

In person Boyle was tall, slender and of a pale countenance. His constitution was far from robust, and throughout his life he suffered from feeble health and low spirits. While his scientific work procured him an extraordinary reputation among his contemporaries, his private character and virtues, the charm of his social manners, his wit and powers of conversation, endeared him to a large circle of personal friends. He was never married. His writings are exceedingly voluminous, and his style is clear and straightforward, though undeniably prolix.

In 2004 The Robert Boyle Science Room was opened in the Lismore Heritage Centre, near his birthplace, dedicated to his life and works where students have the opportunity of studying science and participating in scientific experiments.

 

 

 



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Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society, (4 January 1643 - 31 March 1727) [OS: 25 December 1642 ­ 20 March 1727] was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians in history.

Newton wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in which he described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from this system, he was the first to show that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws. The unifying and deterministic power of his laws was integral to the scientific revolution and the advancement of heliocentrism.

Among other scientific discoveries, Newton realised that the spectrum of colours observed when white light passes through a prism is inherent in the white light and not added by the prism (as Roger Bacon had claimed in the thirteenth century), and notably argued that light is composed of particles.

He also developed a law of cooling, describing the rate of cooling of objects when exposed to air.

He enunciated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum.

Finally, he studied the speed of sound in air, and voiced a theory of the origin of stars.

Despite this renown in mainstream science, Newton actually spent more time working on alchemy than physics, writing considerably more papers on the former than the latter.

Newton played a major role in the development of calculus, sharing credit with Gottfried Leibniz. He also made contributions to other areas of mathematics, for example the generalised binomial theorem. The mathematician and mathematical physicist Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736­1813), said that "Newton was the greatest genius that ever existed and the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system of the world to establish."

Early Years

Born in the hamlet of Woolsthorpe, Newton was the only son of a local yeoman, also Isaac Newton, who had died three months before, and of Hannah Ayscough. That same year, at Arcetri near Florence, Galileo Galilei had died; Newton would eventually pick up his idea of a mathematical science of motion and bring his work to full fruition. A tiny and weak baby, Newton was not expected to survive his first day of life, much less 84 years.

 

Education

From the age of about twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at The King's School in Grantham (where his signature can still be seen upon a library window sill). He was removed from school and by Oct 1659 he was to be found at Woolsthorpe, where his mother attempted to make a farmer of him. He was, by later reports of his contemporaries, thoroughly unhappy with the work. It appears to be Henry Stokes, master at the King's School, who persuaded his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his education.

In June 1661 he matriculated to Trinity College, Cambridge. At that time, the college's teachings were based on those of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the more advanced ideas of modern philosophers such as Descartes and astronomers such as Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler.

When Newton arrived in Cambridge in 1661, the movement now known as the scientific revolution was well advanced, and many of the works basic to modern science had appeared. Astronomers from Copernicus to Kepler had elaborated the heliocentric system of the universe. Galileo had proposed the foundations of a new mechanics built on the principle of inertia. Led by Descartes, philosophers had begun to formulate a new conception of nature as an intricate, impersonal, and inert machine. Yet as far as the universities of Europe, including Cambridge, were concerned, all this might well have never happened. They continued to be the strongholds of outmoded Aristotelianism, which rested on a geocentric view of the universe and dealt with nature in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.

Like thousands of other undergraduates, Newton began his higher education by immersing himself in Aristotle's work. Even though the new philosophy was not in the curriculum, it was in the air. Some time during his undergraduate career, Newton discovered the works of the French natural philosopher René Descartes and the other mechanical philosophers, who, in contrast to Aristotle, viewed physical reality as composed entirely of particles of matter in motion and who held that all the phenomena of nature result from their mechanical interaction.

A new set of notes, which he entitled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions), begun sometime in 1664, usurped the unused pages of a notebook intended for traditional scholastic exercises; under the title he entered the slogan "Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica veritas" ("Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth").

Newton's scientific career had begun.

The "Quaestiones" reveal that Newton had discovered the new conception of nature that provided the framework of the scientific revolution. He had thoroughly mastered the works of Descartes and had also discovered that the French philosopher Pierre Gassendi had revived atomism, an alternative mechanical system to explain nature. The "Quaestiones" also reveal that Newton already was inclined to find the latter a more attractive philosophy than Cartesian natural philosophy, which rejected the existence of ultimate indivisible particles.

The works of the 17th-century chemist Robert Boyle provided the foundation for Newton's considerable work in chemistry. Significantly, he had read Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist, and was thereby introduced to another intellectual world, the magical Hermetic tradition, which sought to explain natural phenomena in terms of alchemical and magical concepts. The two traditions of natural philosophy, the mechanical and the Hermetic, antithetical though they appear, continued to influence his thought and in their tension supplied the fundamental theme of his scientific career.

Although he did not record it in the "Quaestiones," Newton had also begun his mathematical studies. He again started with Descartes, from whose La Géometrie he branched out into the other literature of modern analysis with its application of algebraic techniques to problems of geometry. He then reached back for the support of classical geometry. Within little more than a year, he had mastered the literature; and, pursuing his own line of analysis, he began to move into new territory. He discovered the binomial theorem, and he developed the calculus, a more powerful form of analysis that employs infinitesimal considerations in finding the slopes of curves and areas under curves.

Work during the plague years

When Newton received the bachelor's degree in April 1665, the most remarkable undergraduate career in the history of university education had passed unrecognized. On his own, without formal guidance, he had sought out the new philosophy and the new mathematics and made them his own, but he had confined the progress of his studies to his notebooks.

Then, in 1665, the plague closed the university, and for most of the following two years he was forced to stay at his home, contemplating at leisure what he had learned. During the plague years Newton laid the foundations of the Calculus and extended an earlier insight into an essay, "Of Colors," which contains most of the ideas elaborated in his Opticks.

It was during this time that he examined the elements of circular motion and, applying his analysis to the Moon and the planets, derived the inverse square relation that the radially directed force acting on a planet decreases with the square of its distance from the Sun--which was later crucial to the law of universal gravitation. The world heard nothing of these discoveries. He chose not to share concepts he had discovered unless he was asked.

Mathematical Research

Newton became a fellow of Trinity College in 1669. In the same year he circulated his findings in De Analysi per Aequationes Numeri Terminorum Infinitas (On Analysis by Infinite Series), and later in De methodis serierum et fluxionum (On the Methods of Series and Fluxions), whose title gave rise to the "method of fluxions". Despite the fact that only a handful of savants were even aware of Newton's existence, he had arrived at the point where he had become the leading mathematician in Europe.

Newton and Gottfried Leibniz developed the calculus independently, using different notations. Although Newton had worked out his method years before Leibniz, he published almost nothing about it until 1693, and did not give a full account until 1704. Meanwhile, Leibniz began publishing a full account of his methods in 1684. Moreover, Leibniz's notation and "differential Method" were universally adopted on the Continent, and after 1820 or so, in the British Empire.

Newton claimed that he had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared being mocked for it. Starting in 1699, other members of the Royal Society accused Leibniz of plagiarism, and the dispute broke out in full force in 1711. Thus began the bitter calculus priority dispute with Leibniz, which marred the lives of both Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in 1716. This dispute created a divide between British and Continental mathematicians that may have retarded the progress of British mathematics by at least a century.

Newton is generally credited with the generalized binomial theorem, valid for any exponent. He discovered Newton's identities, Newton's method, classified cubic plane curves (polynomials of degree three in two variables), made substantial contributions to the theory of finite differences, and was the first to use fractional indices and to employ coordinate geometry to derive solutions to Diophantine equations.

He approximated partial sums of the harmonic series by logarithms (a precursor to Euler's summation formula), and was the first to use power series with confidence and to revert power series. He also discovered a new formula for pi.He was elected Lucasian professor of mathematics in 1669.

In that day, any fellow of Cambridge or Oxford had to be an ordained Anglican priest. However, the terms of the Lucasian professorship required that the holder not be active in the church (presumably so as to have more time for science). Newton argued that this should exempt him from the ordination requirement, and Charles II, whose permission was needed, accepted this argument. Thus a conflict between Newton's religious views and Anglican orthodoxy was averted.

 

Optics


Replica of Newton's 6-inch reflecting telescope of 1672 for the Royal Society

From 1670 to 1672 he lectured on optics. During this period he investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colours, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicoloured spectrum into white light. He also showed that the coloured light does not change its properties, by separating out a coloured beam and shining it on various objects.

Newton noted that regardless of whether it was reflected or scattered or transmitted, it stayed the same color. Thus the colors we observe are the result of how objects interact with the incident already-colored light, not the result of objects generating the color. Many of his findings in this field were criticized by later theorists, the most well-known being Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who postulated his own color theories.

From this work he concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours, and invented a reflecting telescope (today known as a Newtonian telescope) to bypass that problem.

By grinding his own mirrors, using Newton's rings to judge the quality of the optics for his telescopes, he was able to produce a superior instrument to the refracting telescope, due primarily to the wider diameter of the mirror. (Only later, as glasses with a variety of refractive properties became available, did achromatic lenses for refractors become feasible.)

In 1671 the Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope. Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes On Color, which he later expanded into his Opticks.

When Robert Hooke criticized some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate. The two men remained enemies until Hooke's death.

In one experiment, to prove that color perception is caused by pressure on the eye, Newton slid a darning needle around the side of his eye until he could poke at its rear side, dispassionately noting "white, darke & colored circles" so long as he kept stirring with "ye bodkin."

Newton argued that light is composed of particles, but he had to associate them with waves to explain the diffraction of light (Opticks Bk. II, Props. XII-XX).

Later physicists instead favored a purely wavelike explanation of light to account for diffraction.

Today's quantum mechanics restores the idea of "wave-particle duality", although photons bear very little resemblance to Newton's corpuscles (e.g., corpuscles refracted by accelerating toward the denser medium).

Newton is believed to have been the first to explain precisely the formation of the rainbow from water droplets dispersed in the atmosphere in a rain shower.

Influence of the Hermetic Tradition

In his Hypothesis of Light of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the ether to transmit forces between particles. Newton was in contact with Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist who was born in Grantham, on alchemy, and now his interest in the subject revived.

During a period of isolation, Newton was greatly influenced by the Hermetic tradition with which he had been familiar since his undergraduate days.

Newton, always somewhat interested in alchemy, now immersed himself in it, copying by hand treatise after treatise and collating them to interpret their arcane imagery. Under the influence of the Hermetic tradition, his conception of nature underwent a decisive change.

Until that time, Newton had been a mechanical philosopher in the standard 17th-century style, explaining natural phenomena by the motions of particles of matter. Thus, he held that the physical reality of light is a stream of tiny corpuscles diverted from its course by the presence of denser or rarer media. He felt that the apparent attraction of tiny bits of paper to a piece of glass that has been rubbed with cloth results from an ethereal effluvium that streams out of the glass and carries the bits of paper back with it.

This mechanical philosophy denied the possibility of action at a distance; as with static electricity, it explained apparent attractions away by means of invisible ethereal mechanisms.

Newton's Hypothesis of Light of 1675, with its universal ether, was a standard mechanical system of nature. Some phenomena, such as the capacity of chemicals to react only with certain others, puzzled him, however, and he spoke of a "secret principle" by which substances are "sociable" or "unsociable" with others.

About 1679, Newton abandoned the ether and its invisible mechanisms and began to ascribe the puzzling phenomena - chemical affinities, the generation of heat in chemical reactions, surface tension in fluids, capillary action, the cohesion of bodies, and the like, to attractions and repulsions between particles of matter.

More than 35 years later, in the second English edition of the Opticks, Newton accepted an ether again, although it was an ether that embodied the concept of action at a distance by positing a repulsion between its particles. The attractions and repulsions of Newton's speculations were direct transpositions of the occult sympathies and antipathies of Hermetic philosophy--as mechanical philosophers never ceased to protest.

Newton, however, regarded them as a modification of the mechanical philosophy that rendered it subject to exact mathematical treatment. As he conceived of them, attractions were quantitatively defined, and they offered a bridge to unite the two basic themes of 17th-century science--the mechanical tradition, which had dealt primarily with verbal mechanical imagery, and the Pythagorean tradition, which insisted on the mathematical nature of reality. Newton's reconciliation through the concept of force was his ultimate contribution to science.

John Maynard Keynes, who acquired many of Newton's writings on alchemy, stated that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason: he was the last of the magicians."

Newton's interest in alchemy cannot be isolated from his contributions to science. He lived at a time when there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science. Had he not relied on the occult idea of action at a distance, across a vacuum, he might not have developed his 'theory of gravity.'

In 1704 Newton wrote Opticks, in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. He considered light to be made up of extremely subtle corpuscles, that ordinary matter was made of grosser corpuscles and speculated that through a kind of alchemical transmutation "Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible into one another,...and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?" Newton also constructed a primitive form of a frictional electrostatic generator, using a glass globe (Optics, 8th Query). Controversy

Among the most important dissenters to Newton's paper was Robert Hooke, one of the leaders of the Royal Society who considered himself the master in optics and hence he wrote a condescending critique of the unknown parvenu. One can understand how the critique would have annoyed a normal man. The flaming rage it provoked, with the desire publicly to humiliate Hooke, however, bespoke the abnormal. Newton was unable rationally to confront criticism. Less than a year after submitting the paper, he was so unsettled by the give and take of honest discussion that he began to cut his ties, and he withdrew into virtual isolation.

In 1675, during a visit to London, Newton thought he heard Hooke accept his theory of colors. He was emboldened to bring forth a second paper, an examination of the colour phenomena in thin films, which was identical to most of Book Two as it later appeared in the Opticks.

The purpose of the paper was to explain the colors of solid bodies by showing how light can be analyzed into its components by reflection as well as refraction. His explanation of the colors of bodies has not survived, but the paper was significant in demonstrating for the first time the existence of periodic optical phenomena.

He discovered the concentric coloured rings in the thin film of air between a lens and a flat sheet of glass; the distance between these concentric rings (Newton's rings) depends on the increasing thickness of the film of air. In 1704 Newton combined a revision of his optical lectures with the paper of 1675 and a small amount of additional material in his Opticks.

A second piece which Newton had sent with the paper of 1675 provoked new controversy. Entitled "An Hypothesis Explaining the Properties of Light," it was in fact a general system of nature. Hooke apparently claimed that Newton had stolen its content from him, and Newton boiled over again. The issue was quickly controlled, however, by an exchange of formal, excessively polite letters that fail to conceal the complete lack of warmth between the men.

Newton was also engaged in another exchange on his theory of colors with a circle of English Jesuits in Liège, perhaps the most revealing exchange of all. Although their objections were shallow, their contention that his experiments were mistaken lashed him into a fury. The correspondence dragged on until 1678, when a final shriek of rage from Newton, apparently accompanied by a complete nervous breakdown, was followed by silence. The death of his mother the following year completed his isolation. For six years he withdrew from intellectual commerce except when others initiated a correspondence, which he always broke off as quickly as possible.

Gravity and Motion

In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e., gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets, with reference to Kepler's laws of motion, and consulting with Hooke and Flamsteed on the subject. He published his results in De Motu Corporum (1684). This contained the beginnings of the laws of motion that would inform the Principia.

The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (now known as the Principia) was published on 5 July 16871 with encouragement and financial help from Edmond Halley.

In this work Newton stated the three universal laws of motion that were not to be improved upon for more than two hundred years. He used the Latin word gravitas (weight) for the force that would become known as gravity, and defined the law of universal gravitation. In the same work he presented the first analytical determination, based on Boyle's law, of the speed of sound in air.

With the Principia, Newton became internationally recognised. He acquired a circle of admirers, including the Swiss-born mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, with whom he formed an intense relationship that lasted until 1693. The end of this friendship led Newton to a nervous breakdown.

Later Life

In the 1690s Newton wrote a number of religious tracts dealing with the literal interpretation of the Bible. Henry More's belief in the infinity of the universe and rejection of Cartesian dualism may have influenced Newton's religious ideas. A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published.

Later works - The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) and Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) - were published after his death.

He also devoted a great deal of time to alchemy.

Newton was also a member of the Parliament of England from 1689 to 1690 and in 1701, but his only recorded comments were to complain about a cold draft in the chamber and request that the window be closed.

Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, a position that he had obtained through the patronage of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. He took charge of England's great recoining, somewhat treading on the toes of Master Lucas (and finagling Edmond Halley into the job of deputy comptroller of the temporary Chester branch). Newton became perhaps the best-known Master of the Mint upon Lucas' death in 1699, a position Newton held until his death. These appointments were intended as sinecures, but Newton took them seriously, retiring from his Cambridge duties in 1701, and exercising his power to reform the currency and punish clippers and counterfeiters.

As Master of the Mint Newton unofficially moved the Pound Sterling to the gold standard from silver in 1717; great reforms at the time and adding considerably to the wealth and stability of England. It was his work at the Mint, rather than his earlier contributions to science, that earned him a knighthood from Queen Anne in 1705.

Newton was made President of the Royal Society in 1703 and an associate of the French Académie des Sciences. In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy of John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, by prematurely publishing Flamsteed's star catalogue.

Newton died in London on March 20th, 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His half-niece, Catherine Barton Conduitt, served as his hostess in social affairs at his house on Jermyn Street in London; he was her "very loving Uncle", according to his letter to her when she was recovering from smallpox. Newton died intestate and his considerable estate was divided between his half-nieces and half-nephews.

After his death, Newton's body was discovered to have had massive amounts of mercury in it, probably resulting from his alchemical pursuits. Mercury poisoning could explain Newton's eccentricity in late life.

Religious and Occult Studies

The law of gravity became Newton's best-known discovery. He warned against using it to view the universe as a mere machine, like a great clock. He said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."

His scientific fame notwithstanding, Newton's study of the Bible and of the early Church Fathers were among his greatest passions. He devoted more time to the study of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and to Alchemy than to science, and said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."

Newton himself wrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture.

Newton also placed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at 3 April, AD 33, which is now the accepted traditional date. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to find hidden messages within the Bible.

Despite his focus on theology and alchemy, Newton tested and investigated these ideas with the scientific method, observing, hypothesising, and testing his theories. To Newton, his scientific and religious experiments were one and the same, observing and understanding how the world functioned.

Newton rejected the church's doctrine of the trinity, and was probably a follower of arianism. In a minority view, T.C. Pfizenmaier argues that he more likely held the Eastern Orthodox view of the Trinity rather than the Western one held by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and most Protestants.

In his own day, he was also accused of being a Rosicrucian (as were many in the Royal Society and in the court of Charles II).

In his own lifetime, Newton wrote more on religion than he did on natural science. He believed in a rationally immanent world, but he rejected the hylozoism implicit in Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza. Thus, the ordered and dynamically informed universe could be understood, and must be understood, by an active reason, but this universe, to be perfect and ordained, had to be regular.

Newton and Robert Boyle's mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians.

Thus, the clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitious enthusiasm and the threat of atheism, and, at the same time, the second wave of English deists used Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion."

The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magical thinking," and the mystical elements of Christianity, were given their foundation with Boyle¹s mechanical conception of the universe. Newton gave Boyle¹s ideas their completion through mathematical proofs, and more importantly was very successful in popularising them.

The perceived ability of Newtonians to explain the world, both physical and social, through logical calculations alone is the crucial idea in the disenchantment of Christianity.

Newton saw God as the master creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.

But the unforeseen theological consequence of his conception of God, as Leibniz pointed out, was that God was now entirely removed from the world¹s affairs, since the need for intervention would only evidence some imperfection in God¹s creation, something impossible for a perfect and omnipotent creator.

Leibniz's theodicy cleared God from the responsibility for "l'origine du mal" by making God removed from participation in his creation. The understanding of the world was now brought down to the level of simple human reason, and humans, as Odo Marquard argued, became responsible for the correction and elimination of evil.

On the other hand, latitudinarian and Newtonian ideas taken too far resulted in the millenarians, a religious faction dedicated to the concept of a mechanical universe, but finding in it the same enthusiasm and mysticism that the Enlightenment had fought so hard to extinguish.

 

Newton and the Counterfeiters

As warden of the royal mint, Newton estimated that 20% of the coins taken in during The Great Recoinage were counterfeit. Counterfeiting was treason, punishable by death by drawing and quartering. Despite this, convictions of the most flagrant criminals could be extremely difficult to achieve; however, Newton proved to be equal to the task.

He gathered much of that evidence himself, disguised, while he hung out at bars and taverns. For all the barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government, English law still had ancient and formidable customs of authority.

Newton was made a justice of the peace and between June 1698 and Christmas 1699 conducted some 200 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers and suspects. Newton later ordered all records of his interrogations to be destroyed. Newton won his convictions and in February 1699, he had ten prisoners waiting to be executed.

Newton's greatest triumph as the king's attorney was against William Chaloner. One of Chaloner's schemes was to set up phony conspiracies of Catholics and then turn in the hapless conspirators whom he entrapped. Chaloner made himself rich enough to posture as a gentleman.

Petitioning Parliament, Chaloner accused the Mint of providing tools to counterfeiters (a charge also made by others). He proposed that he be allowed to inspect the Mint's processes in order to improve them. He petitioned Parliament to adopt his plans for a coinage that could not be counterfeited, while at the same time striking false coins. After being exposed by Newton, Chaloner was hanged, drawn and quartered on March 23, 1699.

Enlightenment Philosophers

Enlightenment philosophers chose a short history of scientific predecessors - Galileo, Boyle, and Newton principally - as the guides and guarantors of their applications of the singular concept of Nature and Natural Law to every physical and social field of the day. In this respect, the lessons of history and the social structures built upon it could be discarded.

It was Newton¹s conception of the universe based upon Natural and rationally understandable laws that became the seed for Enlightenment ideology. Locke and Voltaire applied concepts of Natural Law to political systems advocating intrinsic rights; the physiocrats and Adam Smith applied Natural conceptions of psychology and self-interest to economic systems and the sociologists criticised the current social order for trying to fit history into Natural models of progress. Monboddo and Samuel Clarke resisted elements of Newton's work, but eventually rationalised it to conform with their strong religious views of nature.

Newton's Legacy

Newton's laws of motion and gravity provided a basis for predicting a wide variety of different scientific or engineering situations, especially the motion of celestial bodies. His calculus proved vitally important to the development of further scientific theories.

Finally, he unified many of the isolated physics facts that had been discovered earlier into a satisfying system of laws. Newton's conceptions of gravity and mechanics, though not as accurate as Einstein's Theory of Relativity or quantum mechanics, still represent an enormous step in the evolution of human understanding of the universe. For this reason, he is generally considered one of history's greatest scientists.

In 1717, the Kingdom of Great Britain went on to an unofficial gold standard when Newton, then Master of the Mint, established a fixed price of 44‡ guineas per standard (22 carat) troy pound, equal to just over £4 0s 4d (£4.017) per standard ounce or just under £4 7s 8d (£4.383) per fine ounce. Under the gold standard the value of the pound (measured in gold weight) remained largely constant until the beginning of the 20th century.

Newton is reputed to have invented the cat flap. This was said to be done so that he would not have to disrupt his optical experiments, conducted in a darkened room, to let his cat in or out.

Newtonmas is a holiday celebrated by some scientists as an alternative to Christmas, taking advantage of the fact that Newton's birthday fell on 25 December in the Julian calendar in use at the time of his birth.

To this day, Newton's achievements have been immortalised in popular culture. Almost all schoolchildren are familiar with the apocryphal story of Newton's apple and his subsequent discovery of gravity; even the likeness of Newton holding an apple under a tree is a well-known image of science. English poet Alexander Pope was sufficiently moved by Newton's accomplishments to write the famous epitaph:

"Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."

Newton has also featured in conspiracy theories and fiction.

Newton has been identified as a "Grand Master of the Priory of Sion " from 1691- 1727 in documents that have been dismissed as a hoax concocted by Pierre Plantard.

This information was incorporated into the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which was later one of the primary source books for the bestselling 2003 Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code.

 

Newton's Laws of Motion

The famous three laws of Newton are:

  • Newton's First Law (also known as the Law of Inertia) states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and that an object in uniform motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force.
  • Newton's Second Law states that an applied force equals the rate of change of momentum. For constant mass: F=ma, or force equals mass times acceleration. In other words, the acceleration produced by a net force on an object is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force and inversely proportional to the mass. In the MKS system of measurement, mass is given in kilograms, acceleration in metres per second squared, and force in newtons (named in his honor).
  • Newton's Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

Newton's Apple

The question was not whether gravity existed, but whether it extended so far from Earth that it could also be the force holding the moon to its orbit. Newton showed that if the force decreased as the inverse square of the distance, one could indeed calculate the Moon's orbital period, and get good agreement. He guessed the same force was responsible for other orbital motions, and hence named it "universal gravitation".

A contemporary writer, William Stukeley, recorded in his Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life a conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726, in which Newton recalled "when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre." In similar terms, Voltaire wrote in his Essay on Epic Poetry (1727), "Sir Isaac Newton walking in his gardens, had the first thought of his system of gravitation, upon seeing an apple falling from a tree." These accounts are probably exaggerations of Newton's own tale about sitting by a window in his home (Woolsthorpe Manor) and watching an apple fall from a tree.

Various trees are claimed to be "the" apple tree which Newton describes, the King's School, Grantham, claims that the tree was purchased by the school, uprooted and transported to the headmaster's garden some years later, the staff of the [now] National Trust-owned Woolsthrope Manor dispute this, and claim that a tree present in their gardens is the one described by Newton. It is also claimed that the tree was replanted in front of the council buildings in Grantham, which is unlikely, considering that they were built over 300 years after Newton's death. A clone of the original tree can be seen growing outside the main gate of Trinity College, Cambridge, below the room Newton lived in when he studied there.

Wikipedia

In the News

Unpublished Papers Reveal Lesser-known, but Significant Research of Sir Issac Newton PhysOrg - September 11, 2006

Known primarily for his foundational work in math and physics, Sir Issac Newton actually spent more time on research in alchemy, as well as its interrelationships with science, history and religion, and its implications for economics.

  Sayfa Başı

Count Cagliostro

 

 

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (June 2, 1743 ­ August 26, 1795) was a traveller, occultist and Freemason. "Cagliostro" is widely held to have been an alias for the charlatan Giuseppe Balsamo, born to a poor family in Palermo, Sicily. Balsamo was a petty criminal who, in his most famous crime, claimed aptitude in alchemy to swindle a man out of his gold. The identification of Cagliostro with Giuseppe is not certain, however, being based mainly upon the untrustworthy testimony of the French spy and blackmailer Theveneau de Morande, and later upon his confession to the Inquisition, obtained through torture.

Cagliostro himself claimed to have been born of Christians of noble birth, but abandoned as an orphan upon the island of Malta. He claimed to have travelled as a child to Medina, Mecca, and Cairo, and upon return to Malta to have been initiated into the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta, with whom he studied alchemy, the Kabbalah and magic. He founded the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry in The Hague, which initiated men and women in separate lodges and had an influence on the foundation of the masonic Rite of Misraim.

Life and travels

What is known about Cagliostro is that he became well-known in Naples and later Rome, where he met and married his wife Lorenza Feliciani.

They traveled together to London, where he was initiated into Freemasonry, possibly by the Comte de Saint-Germain.

He adopted as his secret sign the symbol of Ouroboros; the snake that bites its own tail.

He soon founded the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry in The Hague, which initiated men and women in separate lodges and had an influence on the foundation of the masonic Rite of Misraim.

He traveled throughout Russia, Germany, and later France, spreading the influence of the Egyptian Rite and also claiming to be a magnetic healer of great power.

His fame grew to the point that he was even recommended as a physician to Benjamin Franklin during a stay in Paris.

He was an extraordinary forger. In his autobiography, Giacomo Casanova narrates an encounter with Cagliostro who was able to forge a letter of Casanova despite being unable to understand it.

Occult historian Lewis Spence comments in his entry on Cagliostro that the swindler put his finagled wealth to good use by starting and funding a chain of maternity hospitals and orphanages around the continent.

Affair of the diamond necklace

He was prosecuted in the affair of the diamond necklace which involved Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette, and was imprisoned in France for fraud. He was held in the Bastille for nine months, but finally acquitted, when no evidence could be found connecting him to the affair. Nonetheless, he was asked to leave France, and left for England. This was where he was accused by Theveneau de Morande of being Giuseppe Balsamo, which he refuted in his Open letter to the English People, forcing a retraction and apology from Morande.

Betrayal and Imprisonment

Cagliostro left England to visit Rome, where he met two people who asked him to initiate them into the Egyptian Rite. However, they proved to be spies of the Inquisition. Some accounts hold that his wife was the one who initially betrayed him to the Inquisition.

On December 27, 1789, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo. Soon afterwards he was sentenced to death on the charge of being a Mason. The Pope changed his sentence, however, to life imprisonment in the Castel Sant'Angelo. After attempting to escape he was relocated to the Fortress of San Leo. He died on August 26, 1795.

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The Count of St. Germain

The Count of St. Germain (allegedly died February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and a mysterious gentleman; he also displayed some skills with the practice of alchemy. He was known as 'Der Wundermann' -- 'The Wonderman'. He was a man whose origin was unknown and who disappeared without leaving a trace.

Since his death, various occult organizations have adopted him as a model figure or even as a powerful deity. In recent years several people have claimed to be the Count of St. Germain. (Note that St Germain was never regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church - the "st." before his name refers to his alleged home).

St. Germain never revealed his actual background and identity, leading to many speculations about him and his origin and ancestry. Some of these include the possibility that he was the son of Francis II Rakoczi, the Prince of Transylvania (who was in exile), or that he was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna of Pfalz-Neuburg, the widow of Charles II of Spain.

While he may have studied in Italy at Siena University, possibly as a protégé of Grand Duke Gian Gastone (the last of the Medici line), St. Germain's first chronicled appearances were in London in 1743 and in Edinburgh in 1745, where he was apparently arrested for spying. He was released and soon acquired a reputation as a great violinist. He was ascetic and apparently celibate. During this time he met Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

In 1746 he disappeared. Horace Walpole, who knew him from about 1745 in London, described him thus: "He sings, plays the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad and not very sensible".

He reappeared in Versailles in 1758. He claimed to have had recipes for dyes and acquired quarters in the Chateau de Chambord. During this time in Paris he gave diamonds as gifts and reputedly hinted that he was centuries old. The old portrait of him dates from these years. He was an acquaintance of Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour. At the time a mime, Gower, began to mimic his mannerism in salons, joking that he would have advised Jesus.

In 1760 he left for England through Holland when the minister of State, Duke of Choiseul, tried to have him arrested.

After that the Count passed through the Netherlands into Russia and apparently was in St Petersburg when the Russian army put Catherine the Great on the throne. Later conspiracy theories credit him for causing it. The next year he turned up in Belgium, bought land and took the name Surmount. He tried to offer his processes ­ treatments of wood, leather, oil paint ­ to the state.

During his negotiations ­ that came to nothing ­ with Belgian minister Karl Cobenzl he hinted at a royal birth and turned iron into something resembling gold. He then disappeared for 11 years.

In 1774 he resurfaced, and apparently tried to present himself to a count in Bavaria as Freiherr Reinhard Gemmingen-Guttenberg, the count Tsarogy.

In 1776 the Count was in Germany, calling himself Count Welldone, and again offered recipes ­ cosmetics, wines, liqueurs, treatments of bone, paper and ivory. He alienated King Frederick's emissaries by his claims of transmutation of gold and reputedly compared himself to God. To Frederick he claimed to have been a Freemason. He settled in a house of Prince Karl of Hesse-Kassel, governor of Schleswig-Holstein and studied herbal remedies and chemistry to give to the poor. To him he claimed he was a Francis Rakoczy II, Prince of Transylvania.

1784 is when the Count supposedly died, probably of pneumonia. He left very little behind.

There were rumors of him alive in Paris in 1835, in Milan in 1867 and in Egypt during Napoleon's campaign. Napoleon III kept a dossier on him. Annie Besant said that she met the Count in 1896.

Theosophist C. W. Leadbeater claimed to have met him in Rome in 1926, and said that St. Germain showed him a robe that had been previously owned by a Roman Emperor and that St. Germain told him that one of his residences was a castle in Transylvania.

Theosophist Guy Ballard claimed that the Count had introduced him to visitors from Venus and published a book series about his channelings; Ballard founded the "I Am" Activity.In January 28, 1972, ex-convict and lover of singing star Dalida, Richard Chanfray claimed to be the Count of St. Germain on French television. He also claimed that Louis XV was still alive.

There are several "authoritative" biographers who usually do not agree with one another. His ancestry is a matter of much speculation. Theosophists consider him to be an Ascended Master or adept. Aleister Crowley identified with him. Helena Blavatsky said he was one of her Masters of Wisdom and hinted at secret documents. Several books on palmistry and astrology have been published in his name.

During the centuries after his death, numerous myths, legends and speculations have surfaced. He has been attributed with occult practices like snake charming and ventriloquism. There are stories about an affair between him and Madame de Pompadour. Other legends report that he was immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the elixir of life, a Rosicrucian or an ousted king, a bastard of Queen Anna Maria of Spain, that he prophesied the French Revolution. Casanova called him the violinist Catlini. Count Cagliostro was rumored to be his pupil. The fact that the name "St. Germain" was not exactly uncommon confuses the matters even more.

Many groups in occultism honor St. Germain as an Ascended Master. As such, he is believed to have many magical powers such as the ability to teleport, levitate, walk through walls, influence people telepathically, etc.

Some esoteric groups credit him with inspiring the Founding Fathers to draft the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

In the New Age beliefs regarding him, St. Germain is always associated with the color violet and the jewel amethyst; he is also regarded as the " Master of the Seventh (violet) Ray".

According to Theosophy, the Seven Rays are seven metaphysical principles that govern both individual souls and the unfolding of each 2,158 year long Astrological Age. Since according to Theosophy the next Astrological Age, the Age of Aquarius, will be governed by the Seventh (violet) Ray (the Ray of Ceremonial Order), St. Germain is sometimes called "The Cosmic Master of the Age of Aquarius."

In Rosicrucian Max Heindel's writings, the Count of St Germain (18th century) is described as one of the later incarnations of Christian Rosenkreuz, an enigmatic individual born in the 13th century and the Head of the Rosicrucian Order. According to this author, Rosenkreuz had been Lazarus in his previous previous physical life, a biblical character in the New Testament (this would contradict the idea that he was Joseph, since they both lived at the same time) and Hiram Abiff, the Widow's Son of Freemasonry, in an earlier existence.

In the 1925 book The Masters and the Path by C.W. Leadbeater, an adherent of Theosophy, St. Germain is called both the "Comte de St. Germain" and the "Master Rakoczi." His previous incarnations are enumerated (the same ones as noted below in the paragraph about Guy Ballard). On page 240 of The Masters and the Path it is stated that when performing magical rituals in his castle in Transylvania, St. Germain wears "a suit of golden chain-mail which once belonged to a Roman Emperor; over it is thrown a magnificent cloak of crimson, with on its clasp a seven-pointed star in diamond and amethyst, and sometimes he wears a glorious robe of violet."

In the Alice Bailey's books, St. Germain is also known as the "Master Rakoczi". Alice A. Bailey's book The Externalisation of the Hierarchy (1934) gives the most information about his reputed role as an Ascended Master. His title is said to be the "Lord of Civilization". He is said to telepathically influence people who are seen by him as being instrumental in bringing about the new civilization of the Age of Aquarius. It was said by Alice A. Bailey that "sometime after AD 2025" Jesus Christ, St. Germain, Kuthumi and the others in the Ascended Master hierarchy (except Gautama Buddha) would "externalisze" i.e., descend from the etheric plane, and live physically on Earth in ashrams surrounded by their disciples.

In the Godfre Ray King books, and Law of Life books is said that St. Germain was Joseph the foster-father of Jesus, Merlin the magician of King Arthur's Court, Roger Bacon, Christian Rosenkreuz of Germany, Christopher Columbus, Francis Bacon and Prince Rakoczy of Transylvania, in previous reincarnations. These beliefs about his previous incarnations are also promulgated by the Church Universal and Triumphant, with the addition that he was also incarnated as the ancient Jewish Prophet Samuel, as Saint Alban, and as a high priest of the white magicians in Atlantis. Guy Ballard claimed his book The Magic Presence was channeled to him from St. Germain (The official I Am edition of The Magic Presence, regarded as a sacred scripture, is printed in a violet colored typeface on lavender paper.).

According to Elizabeth Clare Prophet, St. Germain ascended on May 1st 1684. Although Sir Francis Bacon is said to have died in 1626, Prophet claims that the body in the coffin at Sir Francis Bacon's funeral was not his own and that he attended his own funeral. Supposedly, he continued living until his ascension in 1684. Thus, according to Prophet, the historical St. Germain was already an ascended master.In the Church Universal and Triumphant St Germain is regarded as a deity outranked only in importance by Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, and Sanat Kumara (the "Lord of the World"), and in that church, he is the deity towards whom the most intense devotion is given. Guy Ballard, the founder of I Am, originated the meditation practice of invoking the "Violet Flame" from St. Germain in order to contact one's "I Am Presence" and revivify one's etheric body. This practice has been continued by the Church Universal and Triumphant.

Conspiracy theorists who believe in NESARA, a purported secret law that the US government denies the existence of (such as controversial evangelist Sherry Shriner), believe that St. Germain is still alive and is actively working with Jesus Christ and with benevolent space aliens to get the law enacted.

Wikipedia

The commonest hypothesis about his birth is that Saint-Germain was the natural son of the widow of Charles II of Spain and a certain Comte (Count) Adanero, whom she knew at Bayonne. This Spanish queen was Marie de Neubourg, whom Victor Hugo took as the heroine of his Ruy Blas. Those who disliked Saint-Germain said that he was the son of a Portuguese Jew named Aymar, while those who hated him said, in the effort to add to his discredit, that he was the son of an Alsatian Jew named Wolff.

Fairly recently a new genealogy of Saint-Germain has been put forward which seems the most probable of all. It is the work of the theosophists and Annie Besant, who has frequently made the statement that the Comte de Saint-Germain was one of the sons of Francis Racoczi II, Prince of Transylvania. The children of Francis Racoczi were brought up by the Emperor of Austria, but one of them was withdrawn from his guardianship.

Saint Germain never seemed to age. For an entire century he maintined the physical appearance of a man between forty and fifty years old.

He could do just about anything. He was almost too good to be true. He was a magician, a musician, artistry as a violinist, talent as a painter, skill in alchemy and chemistry, a seer who read for and socialized with the rich and famous, had great wealth, and was one of the most mysterious men on the Europe continent. He knew nearly all the European languages. His knowledge of history was comprehensive, and his accomplishments as a chemist, on which he based his reputation, were in many ways considerable.

By far the greatest obvious talents of the Comte de Saint-Germain were connected with his knowledge of alchemy. Yet if Saint-Germain he knew how to make gold, he was wise enough to say nothing about it. Nothing but the possession of this secret could perhaps account for the enormous wealth at his command, though he was not known to have money on deposit at any banks.

He was one of the of the most celebrated mystics and adventurers of modern times. He was a confidant of two kings of France, a dazzlingly rich and gifted social figure, the subject of a thousand rumors.

He enjoyed and sought the company of the pretty women of his day. It appears from the memoirs of Baron von Gleichen that when Saint-Germain was in Paris he became the lover of Mademoiselle Lambert, daughter of the Chevalier Lambert, who lived in the house in which he lodged. And it appears from Grosley's memoirs that in Holland he became the lover of a woman as rich and mysterious as himself.

Though he never ate any food in public, he liked dining out because of the people he met and the conversations he heard. They say he lived on oatmeal. He had an immense stock of amusing stories with which he regaled society.

He was an aristocrat who lived with princes and even with kings almost on a footing of an equal.

He gave recipes for removing wrinkles and dyeing hair.

His activity and the diversity of his occupations were very great. He was interested in the preparation of dyes and even started a factory in Germany for the manufacture of felt hats.

One of his principal roles was that of a secret agent in international politics in the service of France. He became Louis XV's confidential and intimate counselor and was entrusted by him with various secret missions.

He had a love of jewels in an extreme form, and he ostentatiously showed off those he possessed. He kept a great quantity of them in a casket, which he carried about everywhere with him. The importance he attached to jewels was so great that in the pictures painted by him, which were in themselves remarkable, the figures were covered with jewels; and his colors were so vivid and strange that faces looked pale and insignificant by contrast. Jewels cast their reflection on him and threw a distorting light on the whole of his life.

He was also known to carry jewels sewn into his clothing . He was said to have presented a cross ornamented with gems to a woman he scarcely knew, because she had idly admired it.

The count claimed that he had learned how to turn several small diamonds into one large one and to make pearls grow to spectacular size. He said he could remove flaws from diamonds. He could make a big diamond out of several small stones. The diamonds that he wore in his shoes and garters were believed to be worth more than 200,000 francs.

It was widely suspected that he also knew the secret for making gold out of base metal.

Tradition has related that he said he had known Jesus and been present at the Council of Nicea. But he did not go so far as this in his contempt for the men with whom he associated and in his derision of their credulity.

He seems to have become a celebrity in the 1750's as a friend of Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour, who together spent evenings with him simply for the pleasure of his conversation. Louis XV must have known who he was, for he extended to him a friendship that aroused the jealousy of his court. He allotted him rooms in the Chateau of Chambord. He shut himself up with Saint-Germain and Madam de Pompadour for whole evenings; and the pleasure he derived from his conversation and the admiration he no doubt felt for the range of his knowledge cannot explain the consideration, almost the deference, he had for him. Madam du Housset says in her memoirs that the king spoke of Saint-Germain as a personage of illustrious birth.

Count Charles of Hesse Cassel, with whom he lived during the last years in which history is able to follow his career, must also have possessed the secret of his birth. They worked with alchemy together. Saint-Germain treated him as an equal. It was to him that Saint-Germain entrusted his paper just before his supposed death in 1784.

However, neither Louis XV nor the Count of Hesse Cassel ever revealed anything about the birth of Saint-Germain. The count even went so far as invariably to withhold the smallest detail bearing on the life of his mysterious friend. This is a very remarkable fact, since Saint-Germain was an extremely well known figure.

Whether he was a genius or a charlatan, Saint-Germain had the talent to make himself noticed and the subject of gossip. But in Versailles and Paris he was embraced as the confidential adviser of Louis XV. The position earned him the envy and enmity of the king's ministers, who denounced him as an adventurer with a smooth line of talk.

Matters came to a head in 1760, when the count at the behest of the king involved himself in foreign affairs, going behind the back of ministry. Threatened with arrest, he was obliged to flee to England, where he stayed for a while; possibly for a period of two years.

From England Count Saint-Germain apparently went to Russia, where it is claimed he took part in a conspiracy that put Catherine the Great upon the throne in 1762.

After that nothing much is known of the count until 1774, when Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette came to the throne. Saint-Germain then returned to France. It is said that he warned the royal couple of the revolution 15 years in the future, saying, "There will be a blood-thirsty republic, whose scepter will be the executioner's knife."

Secret Societies

Secret societies were the fashion in pre-revolutionary France, and some of them recognized Saint-Germain as an 'adept' one who knew the ancient wisdoms hinted at in the rites of the Freemasons, Rosicrucians and Knights Templars.

He influenced Freemasonry and the secret societies, though many modern masons have denied this and have even omitted to mention him as a great source of inspiration.

In Vienna he took part in the foundation of the Society of Asiatic Brothers and of the Knights of Light, who studied alchemy; and it was he who gave Mesmer his fundamental ideas on personal magnetism and hypnotism. It is said that he initiated Cagliostro, who visited him on several occasions in Holstein to receive directions from him, though there is no direct evidence for this. The two men were to be far separated from one another by opposite currents and a different fate.

All over the country secret societies sprang up. The new spirit manifested itself in the form of associations. Neither the nobility nor the clergy escaped what had become a fashion.

There were lodges for women, and the Princesse de Lamballe became grand mistress of one of them.

In Germany there were the Illuminati and the Knights of Strict Observance, and Frederick II, when he came to the throne, founded the sect of the Architects of Africa.

In France, the Order of the Templars was reconstituted, and Freemasonry, whose grand master was the Duke de Chartres, increased the number of its lodges in every town. Martinez de Pasqually taught his philosophy at Marseilles, Bordeaux and Toulouse; and Savalette de Lange, with mystics such as Court de Gebelin and Saint-Martin, founded the lodge of the Friends Assembled.

The initiates of these sects understood that they were the depositories of a heritage that they did not know, but whose boundless value they guessed; it was to be found somewhere, perhaps in traditions, perhaps in a book written by a master, perhaps in themselves. They spoke of this revealing word, this hidden treasure it was said to be in the hands of "unknown superiors of these sects, who would one day disclose the wealth which gives freedom and immortality."

It was this immortality of the spirit that Saint-Germain tried to bring to a small group of chosen initiates. He believed that this minority, once it was developed itself, would, in its turn, help to develop another small number, and that a vast spiritual radiation would gradually descend, in beneficent waves, towards the more ignorant masses. It was a sage's dream, which was never to be realized.

With the co-operation of Savalette de Lange, who was the nominal head, he founded the group of Philalethes, or truth-lovers, which was recruited from the cream of the Friends Assembled. The Prince of Hesse, Condorcet, and Cagliostro were all members of this group. Saint-Germain expounded his philosophy at Ermenonville and in Paris, in the rue Platriere. It was a Platonic Christianity, which combined Swedenborg's visions with Martinez de Pasqually's theory of reintegration. There were to be found in it Plotinus' emanations and the hierarchy of successive planes described by Hermeticists and modem theosophists. He taught that man has in him infinite possibilities and that, from the practical point of view, he must strive unceasingly to free himself of matter in order to enter into communication with the world of higher intelligences.

He was understood by some. In two great successive assemblies, at which every Masonic lodge in France was represented, the Philalethes attempted the reform of Freemasonry. If they had attained their aim, if they had succeeded in directing the great force of Freemasonry by the prestige of their philosophy, which was sublime and disinterested, it may be that the course of events would have been altered, that the old dream of a world guided by philosopher-initiates would have been realized.

But matters were to turn out differently. Old causes, created by accumulated injustices had paved the way for terrible effects. These effects were in their turn to create the causes of future evil. The chain of evil, linked firmly together by men's egoism and hatred, was not to be broken. The light kindled by a few wise visionaries, a few faithful watchers over the well being of their brothers, was extinguished almost as soon as it was kindled.

Saint-Germain's Death

Secluded at Eckenforn in the count's castle, Saint-Germain announced that he was tired of fife. He seemed careworn and melancholy. He said he felt feeble, but he refused to see a doctor and was tended only by women. No details exist of his death, or rather of his supposed death. No tombstone at Eckenforn bore his name. It was known that he had left all his papers and certain documents relating to Freemasonry to the Count of Hesse Cassel.

The count for his part asserted that he had lost a very dear friend. But his attitude was highly equivocal. He refused to give any information about his friend or his last moments, and turned the conversation if anyone spoke of him. His whole behavior gives color to the supposition that he was the accomplice of a pretended death.

Although, on the evidence of reliable witnesses, he must have been at least a hundred years old in 1784, his death in that year cannot have been genuine. The official documents of Freemasonry say that in 1785 the French masons chose him as their representative at the great convention that took place in that year, with Mesmer, Saint-Martin, and Cagliostro present. In the following year Saint-Germain was received by the Empress of Russia. Finally, the Comtesse d'Adhemar reports at great length a conversation she had with him in 1789 in the Church of the Recollets, after the taking of the Bastille.

His face looked no older than it had looked thirty years earlier. He said he had come from China and Japan. "There is nothing so strange out there," he said, "as that which is happening here. But I can do nothing. My hands are tied by someone who is stronger than I. There are times when it is possible to draw back; others at which the decree must be carried out as soon as he has pronounced it."

And he told her in broad outlines all the events, not excepting the death of the queen, that were to take place in the years that followed. "The French will play with titles and honors and ribbons like children. They will regard everything as a plaything, even the equipment of the Garde Nationale. There is today a deficit of some forty millions, which is the nominal cause of the Revolution. Well, under the dictatorship of philanthropists and orators the national debt will reach thousands of millions."

"I have seen Saint-Germain again," wrote Comtesse d'Adhemar in 1821, "each time to my amazement. I saw him when the queen was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the death of the Duke d'Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the murder of the Duke de Berry."

Mademoiselle de Genlis asserts that she met the Comte de Saint-Germain in 1821 during the negotiations for the Treaty of Vienna; and the Comte de Chalons, who was ambassador in Venice, said he spoke to him there soon afterwards in the Piazza di San Marco. There is other evidence, though less conclusive, of his survival. The Englishman Grosley said he saw him in 1798 in a revolutionary prison; and someone else wrote that he was one of the crowd surrounding the tribunal at which the Princess de Lamballe appeared before her execution.

It seems quite certain that the Comte de Saint-Germain did not die at the place and on the date that history has fixed. He continued an unknown career, of whose end we are ignorant and whose duration seems so long that one's imagination hesitates to admit it.

What happened to the Comte de Saint-Germain after 1821, in which year there is evidence that he was still alive? An Englishman, Albert Vandam, in his memoirs, which he calls An Englishman in Paris, speaks of a certain person whom he knew towards the end of Louis Philippe's reign and whose way of life bore a curious resemblance to that of the Comte de Saint-Germain.

"He called himself Major Fraser, wrote Vandam, "lived alone and never alluded to his family. Moreover he was lavish with money, though the source of his fortune remained a mystery to everyone. He possessed a marvelous knowledge of all the countries in Europe at all periods. His memory was absolutely incredible and, curiously enough, he often gave his hearers to understand that he had acquired his learning elsewhere than from books. Many is the time he has told me, with a strange smile, that he was certain he had known Nero, had spoken with Dante, and so on."

Like Saint-Germain, Major Fraser had the appearance of a man of between forty and fifty, of middle height and strongly built. The rumor was current that he was the illegitimate son of a Spanish prince. After having been, also like Saint-Germain, a cause of astonishment to Parisian society for a considerable time, he disappeared without leaving a trace. Was it the same Major Fraser who, in 1820, published an account of his journey in the Himalayas, in which he said he had reached Gangotri, the source of the most sacred branch of the Ganges River, and bathed in the source of the Jumna River?

It was at the end of the nineteenth century that the legend of Saint-Germain grew so inordinately. By reason of his knowledge, of the integrity of his life, of his wealth and of the mystery that surrounded him, he might reasonably have been taken for an heir of the first Rosicrucians, for a possessor of the Philosopher's Stone. But the theosophists and a great many occultists regarded him as a master of the great White Lodge of the Himalayas. The legend of these masters is well known. According to it there live in inaccessible lamaseries in Tibet certain wise men who possess the ancient secrets of the lost civilization of Atlantis. Sometimes they send to their imperfect brothers, who are blinded by passions and ignorance, sublime messengers to teach and guide them. Krishna, the Buddha, and Jesus were the greatest of these. But there were many other more obscure messengers, of whom Saint-Germain has been considered to be one.

"This pupil of Hindu and Egyptian hierophants, this holder of the secret knowledge of the East," theosophist Madam Blavatsky says of him, "was not appreciated for who he was. The stupid world has always treated in this way men who, like Saint-Germain, have returned to it after long years of seclusion devoted to study with their hands full of the treasure of esoteric wisdom and with the hope of making the world better, wiser and happier." Between 1880 and 1900 it was admitted among all theosophists, who at that time had become very numerous, particularly in England and America, that the Comte de Saint-Germain was still alive, that he was still engaged in the spiritual development of the West, and that those who sincerely took part in this development had the possibility of meeting him.

The brotherhood of Khe-lan was famous throughout Tibet, and one of their most famous brothers was an Englishman who had arrived one day during the early part of the twentieth century from the West. He spoke every language, including the Tibetan, and knew every art and science, says the tradition. His sanctity and the phenomena produced by him caused him to be proclaimed a Shaberon Master after a residence of but a few years. His memory lives to the present day among the Tibetans, but his real name is a secret with the Shaberons alone. Might not this mysterious traveler be the Comte de Saint-Germain?

But even if he has never come back, even if he is no longer alive and we must relegate to legend the idea that the great Hermetic nobleman is still wandering about the world with his sparkling jewels, his senna tea, and his taste for princesses and queens even so it can be said that he has gained the immortality he sought. For a great number of imaginative and sincere men the Comte de Saint-Germain is more alive than he has ever been. There are men who, when they hear a step on the staircase, think it may perhaps be he, coming to give them advice, to bring them some unexpected philosophical idea. They do not jump up to open the door to their guest, for material barriers do not exist for him. There are men who, when they go to sleep, are pervaded by genuine happiness because they are certain that their spirit, when freed from the body, will be able to hold converse with the master in the luminous haze of the astral world.

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The Comte of Saint-Germain is always present with us. There will always be, as there were in the eighteenth century, mysterious doctors, enigmatic travelers, bringers of occult secrets, to perpetuate him.

St. Germain was as real or as lllusionary as any of us only he knew how to control the illusion and play the game at a higher level than most of us do. He played the roles of Hermes [the Trickster] - who was Thoth the scribe - Merlin the Magician - Shakespeare among others.

Sayfa Başı

Alexandre St. Yves d'Alveydre (1842-1909)

 

He is buried in the cemetery at Notre Dame.

Alexandre St. Yves d'Alveydre, together with contemporaries like Eliphas Levi, Maitre Philippe, and Fabre d'Olivet, belonged to the most influential spiritual teachers/philosophers of France in the 19th century. Saint-Yves may be looked upon as a 19th century profound thinker, philosopher and mystic.

Being an occultistand alchemist, Saint-Yves believed in the existence of spiritually superior beings. These 'beings' could be contacted telepathically.

Apparently Saint-Yves claimed that he was in touch with these 'superiors' himself, as a matter of fact the principles of Synarchy were partially received telepathically from these Masters who lived in the mysterious underworld realm known as Agartha. Thus d'Alveydre introduced the concept of "Agartha" to the Western world.

The myth of "Agartha" is also known as "Shambhala", as it was known in India, the underworld realm peopled by initiates and lead by 'the Masters", Masters who are the Spiritual leaders of humanity.

Agartha is the great Asian University of the Initiates of the Greater Mysteries. Their 'Mahatma' ('Great Soul') plays the part of the supreme spiritual leader of humanity.

According to Saint-Yves the secret world of "Agartha" and all of its wisdom and wealth "will be accessible for all mankind, when Christianity lives up to the commandments which were once drafted by Moses and Jesus, meaning ' When the Anarchy which exists in our world is replaced by the Synarchy".

Saint-Yves gives a 'lively' description of "Agartha" in this book as if it were a place which really exists, situated in the Himalayas in Tibet. Saint-Yves' version of the history of "Agartha" is based upon ' revealed' information, meaning received by Saint-Yves himself through 'attunement'. However, several French 'reliable' sources state that Saint-Yves was NOT a medium. We've seen that Saint-Yves used a medium, a certain Marie Victoire, when he wrote the "Archeometre". It seems that "the sources" disagree with each other when it comes to Saint-Yves' gifts.

St. Yves d'Alveydre was incredibly influential in the development of 19th century occultism. The concept of Agartha and its Masters had a big influence on the teachings of Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophic Society . Blavatsky also 'promoted' one of Saint-Yves' other concepts, namely the idea of 'root races' ; a 'root race' dominated a long period in history, "destined to be supplanted by the next superior race ". The concept of "root races" can also be found in the writings of Alice A.Bail, Rudolf Steiner and Max Heindel.

On the matter of Atlantis - Saint-Yves believed the Atlantis was an advanced superior civilization. According to Saint-Yves the Sphinx was built by the Atlanteans, many thousands of years before the rise of Egypt. Saint-Yves placed the downfall of Atlantis at around 12,000 B.C.

Another source of inspiration for Saint-Yves were the medieval Knights Templar, which he regarded as the ultimate Synarchists in history. After all, the Knights Templar exerted control over the political, financial, and religious life of medieval Europe. These three pillars of medieval society corresponded with Saint-Yves' model of Synarchy.

Saint-Yves was influenced by the many neo-Templar societies that were flourishing in his day. He incorporated many of their ideas, in particular from a Masonic-Templar order called "the Rite of Strict Observance", which was founded around 1740-1750 by German Karl von Hund. Saint Yves borrowed the concept of "Unknown Superiors" from Von Hund , however he expanded the concept into "spiritually advanced beings that lived in a remote part of Tibet", aka "Agartha".

In his youth Saint-Yves (who was of French origin) apparently was not easy to handle and because of his "insubordination" he was, at the age of 13, taken under the custody of 2 professors, Frederic-Auguste of Metz and the Abbot Rosseau. Encouraged by his teachers, he started to read Joseph de Maistre and learned about Fabre d'Olivet. The young Alexandre wanted to study literature, but his father decided otherwise; His son should aim for a career in the military.

At a naval-academy in Brest, where he studied medicine (which his professor, Frederic-Auguste of Metz, had advised him to do), he contracts the blackpox (or "black variola") and he leaves for Jersey to recover from the disease. There he met Pelleport and Victor Hugo. It is said that Victor Hugo, a famous French 19th century novelist, was involved with a group of "Rose-Croix" (rosicrucians) of which Maurice Barres (a later member of the "Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose +Croix" and of the Supreme Council of Papus' Martinist Order) was also a member.

Around this time Saint-Yves d'Alveydre also visited London for the first time . In 1870 Saint-Yves, still on Jersey, joined the 171 "bataillon de Marche". In 1871 he accepted a post at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It is stated by an unknown biographer that Saint-Yves at his stay on the Isle of Jersey, received from a relative of Fabre d'Olivet several of his manuscripts which apparently made a huge impression on Saint-Yves. The works of Fabre d'Olivet exerted a major influence on the development of Saint-Yves' philosophy.

In 1877 Saint-Yves met Countess Marie de Riznitch-Keller, a relative of Honore de Balzac, novelist and a member of the 'original ' Martinist Order. Saint-Yves married the Countess, a decision which made him financially (in)dependent. He could afford it to spent almost all of his time doing research in libraries in France and abroad. In 1880 Saint-Yves obtains the title of "Marquis", a title which was confered to Saint-Yves by the Vatican. Saint Yves had an excellently connected circle of acquaintances through his marriage with the Countess.İ

Saint-Yves published 4 books between 1882 and 1887, about the concept of 'Synarchy'.

In the year 1885 Saint-Yves was visited by a group of Eastern Initiates, one of them being named prince Hardjij Scharipf. Their mission was to inform Saint-Yves on 'AGARTTHA' , a spiritual and political organization. Their visit lead to his publication, titled "Mission de l'Inde en Europe, mission de l'Europe en Asie. La question des Mahatmas et sa solution". Saint-Yves dedicated this work to the "Sovereign Pontiff who wears the tiara of the seven crowns of modern Brahatmah in the ancient Paradise of the Cycle of the Lamb and the Ram". But Saint-Yves did not publish the book but decided to destroy the work and tore it apart. According to Saint Yves he acted under orders of the Brotherhood.

The wisdom revealed would not be understood and therefore a publication would be like casting pearls before swine. Other sources state that Saint-Yves decided not to "expose the life of a saint" to the outside world, the saint being "Guru Pandit", the Eastern initiate who'd visited Saint-Yves. Apparently Saint-Yves overlooked one copy of the manuscript which fell into the hands of Count Alexander Keller, son of Countess Marie de Riznitch-Keller.

This copy of Saint-Yves "Mission de l'Inde en Europeä" was published (posthumous) in a limited edition in 1910 by the publishing firm of Dorbon-Aone. During the Second World War the Gestapo seized all the publications of this book that were known to exist. According to Dr.Philippe Encausse, Papus' son, the original copy belonging to Count Keller was given to Papus. After the death of Papus in 1916 it was donated to the Library of Sorbonne.

After his wife's death in 1895, Saint-Yves started to work on his last work, an enormous work called the "Archeometre", a book published in 1903. The "Archeometre" 'intended to be a comprehensive key permitting a survey of ancient culture'. The book 'explores' the value of various philosophical, scientific, occult and religious systems 'and its place in the universal tree of science or tradition'. "Archeometre" is derived from the Greek meaning roughly "the mass of the principle". Saint-Yves' system is build around a series of symbols and interpretations relating to the "Ark of the Covenant". It's a very complex system which intends to be the key to all Religions and Sciences of the Ancients.


Seal of the Martinist Order

Saint-Yves d'Alveydre had many followers within the Martinist Order. Saint Yves' ideas have become part of subsequent occult "beliefs", mainly because they were also taken up and popularized by one of the most influential occultists of modern times, Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), founder of the "Theosophic Society".

Blavatsky's work had an enormous impact on various esoteric organizations, mainly those which were established in the beginning of the 20th century. For instance, many of Blavatsky's concepts were incorporated into the teachings of Alice Baily (1880-1949), and it is generally known that Baily's teachings have had a huge influence over the beliefs of the New Age movement of today.

Then there is Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) who used Synarchy as a major influence when he developed his own ideas for his own organization, the "Antroposofische Gesellschaft" (established in 1913, Steiner developed a philosophy which is known as "Antrosophy").

Steiner was a former member (and high dignitary) of the "Theosophic Society" in Germany. One of Steiner's former disciples, Max Heindel (1865-1919), founded the "Rosicrucian Fellowship" in 1908. All these organizations, and I just named a few of them, propagated several of the ideas which were "introduced" by Saint-Yves in a way. The principle of "Masters" is a well known concept within many of the esoteric organizations. The original concept did not descend from Saint-Yves, but he was probably one of the first in the West who introduced the idea of the hidden realms of these Masters, Adepts and Initiates which were situated in the East.

Encyclopedia Britanica 1911

 

 

 

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Fulcanelli

Fulcanelli (dates of birth and death unknown) is almost certainly a pseudonym assumed, in the late 19th century, by a French alchemist and esoteric author, whose identity is still debated. He is also called the Master Alchemist and sometimes the Last Alchemist, the latter because the heritage of medieval alchemic tradition seemed to have ceased with his disappearance. The appeal of Fulcanelli as a cultural phenomenon is partly due to the mystery that surrounds most aspects of his life and works; one of the anecdotes pertaining to his life retells, in particular, how his most devoted pupil Eugene Canseliet performed a successful transmutation of 100 grams of lead into gold in a laboratory near Sarcelles with the use of a small quantity of the "Projection Powder" given to him by his teacher, in the presence of several eyewitnesses.

Life

Very little has been established with any credence about Fulcanelli's origin or life. He was undoubtedly a Frenchman, widely and profoundly educated, and learned in the ways of alchemic lore, architecture, art, and languages.

To associate Fulcanelli with any exact dates or places, excepting the dates when his books were published, would be almost certainly to identify him with a man from his milieu and the illustrator of his books, Jean-Julien Champagne; and, while it is the single most plausible disambiguation of Fulcanelli's true identity, it is not without major flaws and should certainly not be accepted for an established fact.

Fulcanelli wrote two books that were later to be published, and disappeared in 1926, having left his magnum opus with Canseliet. One example of a fact which is difficult to reconcile with the Champagne theory is that Canseliet referred to Fulcanelli as being an eighty-year old man at the time he disappeared, while Champagne, born in 1877, would have only been fifty at the time.

Another is that in 1957, twenty-five years after Champagne's death from an excessive intake of absinthe, a new chapter (The Cyclic Cross at Hendaye) was added to the second edition of Fulcanelli's major book, The Mystery of the Cathedrals, undoubtedly written by the same man. It is unclear why Champagne would have concealed it while he was alive, or why it would have taken so long to have it published posthumously; or why Canseliet would keep denying that Fulcanelli and Champagne were the same man till his own death.

Other theories about Fulcanelli speculate that he was one or another famous French occultist of the time; a member of the former Royal Family (the Valois); another member of the Frères d'Heliopolis (Brotherhood of Heliopolis, a society centred around Fulcanelli which included Eugene Canseliet, Jean-Julien Champagne and Jules Boucher); etc. All of these theories are equally poorly grounded in actual fact.

It is believed that on the verge of World War II, the Abwehr was in active (but fruitless) pursuit of Fulcanelli because of his alleged knowledge of the technology of nuclear weapons.

Finally, according to Canseliet, his last encounter with Fulcanelli happened in 1954, when he went to Spain and there was taken to a castle high in the mountains for a rendez-vous with his former master, now miraculously rejuvenated and looking Canseliet's age (about fifty). This particular account is of a highly ambiguous nature, leaving one to question its credibility.

 

 

Fulcanelli is linked to the

 

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