Course Of Alchemy

Book: Course Of Alchemy by Jose Luis Ramos

Dear student of Alchemy. The fact that you receive this unit it implies that you have assimilated the teachings of the previous one and overcome with success the test of corresponding evaluation. For it, I allow me to talk to you with the trust and the opening own among siblings of the sacred order of the Alchemy. Although you have not received the Initiation that, in an indelible way, it transforms you into a Philosopher by the Fire, when having discovered the Initial Matter (true key to accede to the Work), have you learned the philosophical principles that govern our Road and have you manifested your determination of continuing, you have reached a knowledge that it have been denied along the times to many investigators and erudites. On the other hand, Internet is, at the present time, the translation of the old medieval zoco, where there is of everything (good and bad) and anyone can enter and to expose its " goods ". The page of GAP is one more among so many others which it mix the Alchemy with the Magic, the Astrology and all type of esoterisms (there are serious pages, but they are few...) and the possible visitors don't have trial elements to be able to appreciate the seriousness of our offer. Also, the net is full with places " free " and all that you gets paid, still that it is moderate, it always sounds to suspect... For everything it, we reiterate our congratulation to you and we wish you a fortunate Road whose unavoidable difficulties have begun to overcome.

Buy Jose Luis Ramos's book: Course Of Alchemy

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Key 3 By Basil Valentine

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.

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Alchemical Poetry Alchemy By Sara Teasdale

I lift my heart as spring lifts up A yellow daisy to the rain; My heart will be a lovely cup Altho' it holds but pain. For I shall learn from flower and leaf That color every drop they hold, To change the lifeless wine of grief To living gold.

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India Ink Or Chinese Ink

As early as 2500 BC, writing inks were carbon inks consisting of fine grains of carbon black [from soot] suspended in a liquid. The Latin name for this was atramentum librarium and it's now called India ink or Chinese ink. On the famous Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran (from the third century BC to AD 68), a red version of this ink is found which uses cinnabar (HgS) instead of carbon. The idea is simple: When the liquid dries out, the solid pigment (C or HgS) remains which leaves a permanent trace. Such inks are best used on semi-absorbent stuff, like paper or papyrus (not parchment). The problem was to keep the grains in suspension long enough to apply the ink. In plain water, fine grains of carbon black would aggregate under the action of Van der Waals forces and form flakes large enough to fall quickly to the bottom of the container. This flocculation process can be prevented with an hydrophilic additive which minimizes Van der Waals interactions between the grains by coating them (as was properly explained only in the 1980s). Early ink recipes may thus have called for various plant juices instead of plain water. It turns out that gum arabic acts this way to stabilize India ink into a colloidal suspension for days or weeks... This wonderful invention is at least 4500 years old. Traditional Chinese ink is not bottled. Instead, ink is produced as needed by grinding an inkstick on an inkstone after adding a little water (the inkstone also acts as an inkwell). Chinese ink-sticks consist of a pigment (usually soot from pine, oil or lacquer) and a soluble resin which holds the dry stick together and plays a critical part in the colloidal ink suspension produced by wet grinding.

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Alchemical Visualization In Tantric Buddhism

The visualized 'cauldron' or vessel of transformation is a skullcup, known as a kapala in Sanskrit. Impure substances symbolising mental afflictions are transmuted to pure nectar of enlightenment by the power of a fierce wind-blown fire, with the reaction being 'catalysed' by seed letters. In a typical visualisation, urine, feces, brain/marrow, semen, blood and the meats of five taboo animals are transmuted into nectar "When engaging in the generation stage practices one starts with the dissolution of everything into emptiness by reciting the mantra. This is done in order to eliminate self-grasping. From within emptiness the syllable YAM in a crescent moon arises, symbolizing wind. Then the syllable RAM in a triangle arises above it, symbolizing fire. Then from the syllable KAM arises a tripod of skulls. The skull which is the cauldron sits on the tripod. It is white on the outside and red on the inside. It is vast. In the center one pours urine in the form of the syllable HUNG. On the east one puts feces in the form of the syllable OM. In the North one puts brain in the form of the syllable KAM. In the west one puts semen in the syllable ANG. In the south one puts blood in the form of the syllable TRAM. Then one puts fire in the form of HUNG. In the center of the five nectars one places human flesh in the form of the syllable HUNG. In the southeast corner one puts cow meat in the form of the syllable LAM. In the southwest one places dog meat in the form of the syllable MAM. In the northwest one places elephant meat in the form of the syllable HAM. In the northeast one puts horse meat in the form of the syllable TAM. The wind swirls around, generating fire out of the syllable RAM. This boils the substances in the skull cup, melting the five meats and nectars. As they boil, their color becomes orange red like the rays of the rising sun. The mandala of the moon is placed as a lid on the skull. On top of it are a white OM, a red AH, and a blue HUNG. Light rays radiate from the three syllables in the ten directions, reaching the Buddhas and bodhisattvas whose wisdom nectars are drawn back and dissolve into the vessels. The wisdom and samaya nectars become one and become white in color, cool in temperature, sweet in taste, and abundant in power. This becomes the collection of wealth and riches." - Tsok Practice The urine, excrement, brain, sperm and blood represent the five contaminated aggregates to be purified. They are form, feeling, perception, karmic impulses and consciousness. The five meats symbolise the five delusions, which are confusion , miserliness, attachment, jealousy and self-grasping.

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The Art Of Memory

Book: The Art Of Memory by Frances Yates

The late Frances Yates was an honorary Fellow of the Warburg Institute at the University of London. She was awarded an O.B.E. in 1972. Her book THE ART OF MEMORY is an astonishing account of the use of imagery during the European Renaissance and, in particular, the importance of ordered memory in the Hermetic Arts. Ms. Yates focuses on the work of Giordano Bruno, the enigmatic and remarkable genius who profoundly influenced the occult teachings of the period. The book sheds light on Dante's Divine Comedy, the form of Shakespearean theatre and the history of ancient architecture. Students of Alchemy will be interested in the extraordinary use of imagery and active imagination which is portrayed in a most unusual and exciting manner. Giordano Bruno and others used the system as a means of achieving "illumination", or a dialogue with God, for MEMORY was seen as a power of the soul. Bruno believed that by constructing an ordered and linked series of images in the mind, the psyche could commune with the Divine. The images were odd to say the least. Myths, magical and astrological themes predominated in the system. This re-arrangement of the psyche thus brought one closer to the nature of the All. Bruno's connections with Shakespeare raise some fascinating hypotheses about the underlying nature and meaning of this famous author's work. The description of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, with its mandala-like symbolism, will surprise many readers. The design and arrangement of the building (conceive it as a "theatre of the world or macrocosm") accords with Hermetic, Magical and Zodiacal principles. The roof of the theatre had, for example, the signs of the zodiac painted on it. The placement of actors and the location of action scenes may have been influenced by this layout thus adding a new dimension to the meanings and morality expressed in the plays. Frances Yates also traces the development of this memory system from Egypt, through Greece, Italy and Germany to Britain. The people, the church, alchemy and local culture all combined to influence the progress of the system and, it can be argued, the system influenced those in return. The book contains some fine illustrations and diagrams of mnemonic devices of the period. This is a scholarly work and is highly recommended.

Buy Frances Yates's book: The Art Of Memory

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The Testimony Of Nicholas Flamel Part 1

Written in France in the late 1750s and published in London in 1806. The original document was written in the hand of Nicolas Flamel in a coded alphabet consisting of 96 letters. It was written in secrecy and intended only for his nephew. A Parisian scribe named Father Pernetti and a Monsieur de Saint Marc were finally able to break the code in 1758. 1. I Nicholas Flamel, a scrivener of Paris, in the year 1414, in the reign of our gracious Prince Charles VI, whom God preserve; and after the death of my faithful partner Perenelle, am seized with a desire and a delight, in remembrance of her, and in your behalf, dear nephew, to write out the whole magistery of the secret of the Powder of Projection, or the Philosophical Tincture, which God hath willed to impart to his very insignificant servant, and which I have found out, as thou also wilt find out in working as I shall declare unto you. 2. And for this cause do not forget to pray to God to bestow on thee the understanding of the reason of the truth of nature, which thou wilt see in this book, wherein I have written the secrets word for word, sheet by sheet, and also as I have done and wrought with thy dear aunt Perenelle, whom I very much regret. 3. Take heed before thou workest, to seek the right way as a man of understanding. The reason of nature is Mercury, Sun and Moon, as I have said in my book, in which are those figures which thou seest under the arches of the Innocents at Paris. But I erred greatly upwards of 23 years and a half, in labouring without being able to marry the Moon, that is quicksilver, to the Sun, and to extract from them the seminal dung, which is a deadly poison; for I was then ignorant of the agent or medium, in order to fortify the Mercury: for without this agent, Mercury is as common water. 4. Know in what manner Mercury is to be fortified by a metallic agent, without which it never can penetrate into the belly of the Sun and of the Moon; afterward it must be hardened, which cannot be affected without the sulfurous spirit of gold or silver. You must therefore first open them with a metallic agent, that is to say with royal Saturnia, and afterward you must actuate the Mercury by a philosophic means, that you may afterward by this Mercury dissolve into a liquor gold and Luna, and draw from their putrefaction the generative dung. 5. And know thou, that there is no other way nor means to work in this art, than that which I give thee word for word; an operation, unless it be taught as I now do, not at all easy to perform, but which on the contrary is very difficult to find out. 6. Believe steadfastly, that the whole philosophic industry consists in the preparation of the Mercury of the wise, for in it is the whole of what we are seeking for, and which has always been sought for by all ancient wise men; and that we, no more than they, have done nothing without this Mercury, prepared with Sun or Moon: for without these three, there is nothing in the whole world capable of accomplishing the said philosophical and medicinal tincture. It is expedient then that we learn to extract from them the living and spiritual seed. 7. Aim therefore at nothing but Sun, Moon and Mercury prepared by a philosophical industry, which wets not the hands, but the metal, and which has in itself a metallic sulfurous soul, namely, the ignited light of sulfur. And in order that you may not stray from the right path, apply yourself to metals; for there the aforesaid sulfur is found in all; but thou wilt easily find it, even almost similar to gold, in the cavern and depths of Mars, which is iron, and of Venus, which is copper, nearly as much in the one as in the other; and even if you pay attention to it, this sulfur has the power of tingeing moist and cold Luna, which is fine silver, into pure yellow and good Sun; but this ought to be done by a spiritual medium, viz. the key which opens all metals, which I am going to make known to you. Learn therefore, that among the minerals there is one which is a thief, and eats up all except Sun and Moon, who render the thief very good; for when he has them in his belly, he is good to prepare the quicksilver, as I shall presently make known to you. 8. Therefore do not stray out of the right road, but trust to my words, and then give thyself up to the practice, which I am going to bestow on thee in the name of the Father, of Son, and Holy Ghost. The Practice. 9. Take thou in the first place the eldest or first-born child of Saturn, not the vulgar, 9 parts; of the saber chalibs of the God of War, 4 parts. Put this latter into a crucible, and when it comes to a melting redness, cast therein the 9 parts of Saturn, and immediately this will redden the other. Cleanse thou carefully the filth that arises on the surface of the saturnia, with saltpetre and tartar, four or five times. The operation will be rightly done when thou seest upon the matter an astral sign like a star. 10. Then is made the key and the saber, which opens and cuts through all metals, but chiefly Sun, Moon and Venus, which it eats, devours and keeps in his belly, and by this means thou art in the right road of truth, if thou has operated properly. For this Saturnia is the royal triumphant herb, for it is a little imperfect king, whom we raise up by a philosophic artifice to the degree of the greatest glory and honor. It is also the queen, that is to say the Moon and the wife of the Sun: it is therefore both male and female, and our hermaphrodite Mercury. This Mercury or Saturnia is represented in the seven first pages of the book of Abraham the Jew, by two serpent encircling a golden rod. Take care to prepare a sufficient quantity of it, for much is required, that is to say about 12 or 13 lbs. of it, or even more, according as you wish to work on a large or a small scale. 11. Marry thou therefore the young god Mercury, that is to say quicksilver with this which is the philosophic Mercury, that you may actuate by him and fortify the said running quicksilver, seven or even ten or eleven times with the said agent, which is called the key, or a steel sharpened saber, for it cuts, scythes and penetrates all the bodies of the metals. Then wilt thou have the double and treble water represented by the rose tree in the book of Abraham the Jew, which issues out of the foot of an oak, namely our Saturnia, which is the royal key, and goes to precipitate itself into the abyss, as says the same author, that is to say, into the receiver, adapted to the neck of the retort, where the double Mercury throws itself by means of a suitable fire. 12. But here are found thorns and insuperable difficulties, unless God reveals this secret, or a master bestows it. For Mercury does not marry with royal Saturnia: it is experient to find a secret means to unite them: for unless thou knowest the artifice by which this union and peace are effected between these aforesaid argent-vives, you will do nothing to any purpose. I would not conceal any thing from thee, my dear nephew; I tell thee, therefore, that without Sun or Moon this work will profit thee nothing. Thou must therefore cause this old man, or voracious wolf, to devour gold or silver in the weight and measure as I am now about to inform thee. Listen therefore to my words, that thou mayest not err, as I have done in this work. I say, therefore, that you must give gold to our old dragon to eat. Remark how well you ought to operate. For if you give but little gold to the melted Saturnia, the gold is indeed opened, but the quicksilver will not take; and here is an incongruity, which is not at all profitable. I have a long while and greatly laboured in this affliction, before I found out the means to succeed in it. If therefore you give him much gold to devour, the gold will not indeed be so much opened nor disposed, but then it will take the quicksilver, and they will both marry. Thus the means is discovered. Conceal this secret, for it is the whole, and neither trust it to paper, or to any thing else which may be seen. For we should become the cause of great mischief. I give it thee under the seal of secrecy and of thy conscience, for the love I bear thee. 13. Take thou ten ounces of the red Sun, that is to so say, very fine, clean and purified nine or ten times by means of the voracious wolf alone: two ounces of the royal Saturnia; melt this in a crucible, and when it is melted, cast into it the ten ounces of fine gold; melt these two together, and stir them with a lighted charcoal. Then will thy gold be a little opened. Pour it on a marble slab or into an iron mortar, reduce it to a powder, and grind it well with three pounds of quicksilver. Make them to curd like cheese, in the grinding and working them to and fro: wash this amalgama with pure common water until it comes out clear, and that the whole mass appears clear and white like fine Luna. The conjunction of the gold with the royal golden Saturnia is effected, when the mass is soft to the touch like butter.

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The Mercurial Bird

Emblem 9 (of 12) from the 1752 Hermaphrodite Child of the Sun and Moon by unknown alchemist L.C.S., reproduced by Adam McLean (p42). Translates Mike Brenner in McLean’s edition: “A soaring eagle with heart aflame, with the Sun and Moon at the threshold of its wings, bears tokens of dominion: the crown of influence, the sceptre of the king, and the globe of the empress. “Its buoyancy in flight and its flaming heart show the ethereal nature of this eagle: wet outside, fire inside. It is our Liquid Mercury. “The Sun and Moon seek solace under the shadow of these wings, basking in the pleasing radiation from the flaming heart. “To win the Crown of the Earth, fuse the power of the sceptre and the globe…” (p42). Comments Fabricius: In plate 7 “the deluge [cf. the biblical Flood] leaves only a small patch of land, on which the Hermes bird descends [beneath the symbol of Mercury]. The chaotic situation is emphasized by the emergence of the seven planets on the horizon, a symbol of universal disorder. As indicated by the sign of sulphur, the sinking island is set on fire by sulphurous flames from the hellish interior of the earth. Yet the alchemist’s sinking island is ‘supported’ by a sealed chest of drawers emerging from the sea and containing immense riches of silver and gold. Although the adept’s world has become a sinking island, it has been simultaneously transformed into a treasure island” (p18).

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Alchemy And Masonry

Many of you may have familiarity with the term “Alchemist”. For most this term conjures images of early experimenters attempting to chemically convert lead or base metals into gold, and the search for the chemical elixir of life. These experimenters did indeed exist, their work being the forerunner of modern chemistry. As there were “operative” alchemists, so there were also “speculative” alchemists. Speculative alchemists are often associated with Hermetic philosophy, and employ symbols of metals, elements, the planets, and chemical processes to describe and understand the spiritual process of personal improvement. The founder of Hermetic philosophy was an Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegisus. To the Egyptians he was credited as the author of all the arts and sciences. Deified by different cultures, he was known as Thoth by the Egyptians, Mercury by the Romans and Hermes to the Greeks. While in all probability there actually existed a great sage by the name of Hermes, it is impossible to extricate the historical man from the mass of legendary accounts of him[1]. One of the famous writings of Hermes was the Emerald Table, which contains thirteen sentences summarizing Hermetic thought.

In the Sixteenth through Eighteenth century, Hermeticism became connected with Alchemy; and by what seemed mere chemical jargon and meaningless symbols, their true explanations were concealed from the masses and from the church, who would have likely pronounced many Alchemists as heretics.

Unbeknownst to most Masons, many of the symbols found in symbolic, or “Blue Lodge” Masonry came to us from Alchemy. In his book, “Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry” , Albert Pike describes these relationships and states that “By this and many other proofs we know that the symbols of Freemasonry were introduced into it by the Hermetic philosophers of England…”. Manly P. Hall in his work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, states, “…he [Hermes] was the author of the Masonic initiatory rituals…Nearly all of the Masonic symbols are Hermetic in character”. In spite of this, I was surprised to find a dearth of research regarding the relationship between Alchemy and Masonry.

Since Albert Pike informs us of the strong connection in Blue Lodge Masonry with that of Alchemy, I wondered if that connection continued into the Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection, which in many ways is a continuation and completion of the Blue Lodge degrees. In this paper we will survey the symbols of the Scottish Rite degrees from the 4th through the 14th to see if we can find any connection with the symbols of Alchemy. My goal is twofold in doing this: first, to expose the reader to the connection between Alchemy and Freemasonry, and second to encourage other Masonic researchers to explore this very interesting and largely untapped area of study. It should be noted that I am a Masonic researcher and not an Alchemist. This paper is written from the viewpoint of that of a Masonic researcher. Let us know explore the Lodge of Perfection in a hunt for Scottish Chemistry!

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Count Cagliostro Biography

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 Magus A Complete System Of Occult Philosophy

Book: The Magus A Complete System Of Occult Philosophy by Francis Barrett

IN this Work, which we have written chiefly for the information of those who are curious and indefatigable in their enquiries into occult knowledge, we have, at a vast labour and expence, both of time and charges, collected whatsoever can be deemed curious and rare, in regard to the subject of our speculations in Natural Magic--the Cabala--Celestial and Ceremonial Magic--Alchymy--and Magnetism; and have divided it into two Books, subdivided into Parts: to which we have added a third Book, containing a biographical account of the lives of those great men who were famous and renowned for their knowledge; shewing upon whose authority this Science of magic is founded, and upon what principles. To which we have annexed a great variety of notes, wherein we have impartially examined the probability of the existence of Magic, both of the good and bad species, in the earliest, as well as in the latter, ages of the world. We have exhibited a vast number of rare experiments in the course of this Treatise, many of which, delivered in the beginning, are founded upon the simple application of actives to passives; the others are of a higher speculation. The First Book we have, fully explained what Natural Magic is; and have shewn that, by the application of actives to passives, many wonderful effects are produced that are merely natural, and done by manual operations. We have procured every thing that was valuable and scarce respecting this department of our work, which we have introduced under the title of Natural Magic; and a variety of our own experiments likewise. In the possession of this work, the laborious and diligent student will find a complete and delectable companion; so that he who has been searching for years, for this author and the other, will in this book find the marrow of them all. The Second Book forms a complete treatise on the mysteries of the Cabala and Ceremonial Magic; by the study of which, a man (who can separate himself from material objects, by the mortification of the sensual appetite - abstinence from drunkenness, gluttony, and other bestial passions, and who lives pure and temperate, free from those actions which degenerate a man to a brute) may become a recipient of divine light and knowledge; by which they may foresee things to come, whether to private families, or kingdoms, or states, empires, battles, victories, &c.; and likewise be capable of doing much good to their fellow-creatures: such as the healing of all disorders, and assisting with the comforts of life the unfortunate and distressed. The Third Book forms a complete Magical Biography, being collected from most antient authors, and some scarce and valuable manuscripts; and which has been. the result of much labour in acquiring. Therefore, those who wish to benefit in those studies, must shake off the drowsiness of worldly vanity, all idle levity, sloth, intemperance, and lust; so that they may be quiet, clean, pure, and free from every distraction and perturbation of mind, and worthily use the knowledge he obtains from his labours.

Buy Francis Barrett's book: The Magus A Complete System Of Occult Philosophy

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Francis Barrett - The Magus A Complete System Of Occult Philosophy Vol I

Death Of Compte Saint Germain

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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Alchemical Poetry The Royal Marriage From Metallic Verses

Doubt is the alchemical substance out of which revelation is born. The Royal Marriage from Metallic Verses Into this chalice Two waters flow Without doubt or malice Love grows Two souls breathe A single breath of air Two spirits feed Making us more aware Outwardly the same Inwardly one Wedded in name Never undone We laugh at secret things Cry when the other despairs Embrace this new being To which none can compare Your king rules my heart Your queen governs my reality Neither can ever depart This eternal, sacred unity

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The Enochian Language Of Edward Kelley

Kelley's "angels" sometimes communicated in a special "angelic" or Enochian language. Dee and Kelley claimed the language was given to them by angels. Some modern cryptographers argue that Kelley invented it. See for example the work by Donald Laycock. It is not clear whether Dee was a victim or an accomplice of this farce. Because of this precedent, and of a dubious connection between the Voynich Manuscript and john dee through Roger Bacon, Kelley has been suspected of having fabricated that book too, in order to swindle Rudolf. The angelic language was supposedly dictated by angels that Kelley claimed to see within a crystal ball. The angels were said to tap out letters on a complicated table, something like a crossword puzzle but with all the cells filled in. The first third were tapped out with each angelic word backwards; the following two thirds with each word forwards. Interestingly, there are no significant errors or discrepancies in word usage between the first and following parts. The English translations were not tapped out but, according to Kelley, appeared on little strips of paper coming out of the angels' mouths.The reasoning that Kelley fabricated the language is based upon the claim that the angelic is just a word-for-word substitution for English translation. This is not entirely the case, however, and there is tantalizing evidence of some other linguistic source. For example, the angelic word "telocvovim" is glossed as "he who has fallen" but it is actually a Germanic-like combination of two other angelic words: "teloch" (glossed as "death") and "vovin" (glossed as "dragon"). Thus "he who has fallen" would be literally translated as "death dragon", both rather obvious references to Lucifer. Interestingly, though, neither Kelley nor Dee appears to have noticed or remarked on this. Another argument against Kelley's fabrication of angelic is that the english translations are in a very different style of writing to that of Kelley's own work, exhibiting an eldrich quality that seems beyond Kelley's own modest ability as a writer. This raises the possibility that Kelley might have plagiarized the material from a different source. However, no similar material has ever surfaced. Dee considered the dictation of the angelic material as highly important for three reasons. First, Dee believed the angelic represented a documentable case of true "glossalia" thereby proving that Kelley was actually speaking with angels and not from his imagination. Second, the angels claimed that angelic was actually the original prototype of Hebrew and the language with which God spoke with Adam, and thus the first human language. Third, the angelic material takes the form of a set of conjurations that are supposed to summon an extremely powerful set of angelic beings who, he believed, would be able to reveal many secrets, especially the key to the philosopher's stone.

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Alchemical Poetry Why I Do Not Meditate From Things I Hate

Doubt is the alchemical substance out of which revelation is born. Why I Don't Meditate from Things I Hate I'm too busy receiving the love Of stars and planets Of demons and daimons Of dogs and zebras Of lilacs and daffodils Of rocks and stones Of amebas and viruses Of cells and molecules Of atoms and quarks Superstrings and black holes. Without me Their meditations would dissolve And the universe would collapse.

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Avicenna Aka Abu Ali Al Husain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina

Avicenna, aka Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina, was a Persian physician, philosopher, and scientist who was born in 980 in Kharmaithen near Bukhara, now in Uzbekistan (then Persia), and died June 1037 in Hamadan, Persia (Iran). He was the author of 450 books on a wide range of subjects. Many of these concentrated on philosophy and medicine. He is considered by many to be "the father of modern medicine." George Sarton called Ibn Sina "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times." His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, also known as the Qanun (full title: al-qanun fil-tibb). Early years His life is known to us from authoritative sources. An autobiography covers his first thirty years, and the rest are documented by his disciple al-Juzajani, who was also his secretary and his friend. He was born in 370 (AH) / 980 (AD) in Afshana, his mother's home, a small city now part of Uzbekistan (then part of Persia) and his Father from Balkh now part of Afghanistan (then also Persia). His native language was Persian. His father, an official of the Samanid administration, had him very carefully educated at Bukhara. Although traditionally influenced by the Ismaili branch of Islam, his independent thought was served by an extraordinary intelligence and memory, which allowed him to overtake his teachers at the age of fourteen. Ibn Sina was put under the charge of a tutor, and his precocity soon made him the marvel of his neighbours; he displayed exceptional intellectual behavior and was a Child prodigy who had memorized the Koran by the age of 10 and a great deal of Persian poetry as well. From a greengrocer he learned arithmetic, and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. However he was greatly troubled by metaphysical problems and in particular the works of Aristotle. So, for the next year and a half, he also studied philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night he would continue his studies, stimulating his senses by occasional cups of goat's milk, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution. Forty times, it is said, he read through the Metaphysics of Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one day they found illumination, from the little commentary by Farabi, which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhems. So great was his joy at the discovery, thus made by help of a work from which he had expected only mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the poor. He turned to medicine at 16, and not only learned medical theory, but by gratuitous attendance on the sick had, according to his own account, discovered new methods of treatment. The teenager achieved full status as a physician at age 18 and found that "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful physician's fame spread quickly, and he treated many patients without asking for payment.His first appointment was that of physician to the emir, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (997). Ibn Sina's chief reward for this service was access to the royal library of the Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. When the library was destroyed by fire not long after, the enemies of Ibn Sina accused him of burning it, in order for ever to conceal the sources of his knowledge. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in his financial labours, but still found time to write some of his earliest works. When Ibn Sina was 22 years old, he lost his father. The Samanid dynasty came to its end in December 1004. Ibn Sina seems to have declined the offers of Mahmud of Ghazni, and proceeded westwards to Urgench in the modern Uzbekistan, where the vizier, regarded as a friend of scholars, gave him a small monthly stipend. The pay was small, however, so Ibn Sina wandered from place to place through the districts of Nishapur and Merv to the borders of Khorasan, seeking an opening for his talents. Shams al-Ma'ali Qabtis, the generous ruler of Dailam, himself a poet and a scholar, with whom Ibn Sina had expected to find an asylum, was about that date (1052) starved to death by his troops who had revolted. Ibn Sina himself was at this season stricken down by a severe illness. Finally, at Gorgan, near the Caspian Sea, Ibn Sina met with a friend, who bought a dwelling near his own house in which Ibn Sina lectured on logic and astronomy. Several of Ibn Sina's treatises were written for this patron; and the commencement of his Canon of Medicine also dates from his stay in Hyrcania. Ibn Sina subsequently settled at Rai, in the vicinity of modern Tehran, (present day capital of Iran), the home town of Rhazes; where Majd Addaula, a son of the last emir, was nominal ruler under the regency of his mother (Seyyedeh Khatun). At Rai about thirty of Ibn Sina's shorter works are said to have been composed. Constant feuds which raged between the regent and her second son, Amir Shamsud-Dawala, however, compelled the scholar to quit the place. After a brief sojourn at Qazvin he passed southwards to Hamadan, where the emir had established himself. At first, Ibn Sina entered into the service of a high-born lady; but the emir, hearing of his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with presents to his dwelling. Ibn Sina was even raised to the office of vizier. The emir consented that he should be banished from the country. Ibn Sina, however, remained hidden for forty days in a sheikh's house, till a fresh attack of illness induced the emir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time, Ibn Sina persevered with his studies and teaching. Every evening, extracts from his great works, the Canon and the Sanatio, were dictated and explained to his pupils; among whom, when the lesson was over, he spent the rest of the night in festive enjoyment with a band of singers and players. On the death of the amir, Ibn Sina ceased to be vizier and hid himself in the house of an apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued the composition of his works. Meanwhile, he had written to Abu Ya'far, the prefect of the dynamic city of Isfahan, offering his services. The new emir of Hamadan, hearing of this correspondence and discovering where Ibn Sina's was hidden, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadan; in 1024 the former captured Hamadan and its towns, expelling the Turkish mercenaries. When the storm had passed, Ibn Sina returned with the emir to Hamadan, and carried on his literary labors. Later, however, accompanied by his brother, a favourite pupil, and two slaves, Ibn Sina escaped out of the city in the dress of a Sufite ascetic. After a perilous journey, they reached Isfahan, receiving an honorable welcome from the prince. Avicenna also introduced medical herbs. Late life The remaining ten or twelve years of Avicenna's life were spent in the service of Abu Ya'far 'Ala Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous campaigns. During these years he began to study literary matters and philology, instigated, it is asserted, by criticisms on his style. But amid his restless study Ibn Sina never forgot his love of enjoyment. Unusual bodily vigour enabled him to combine severe devotion to work with facile indulgence in sensual pleasures. Versatile, lighthearted, boastful and pleasure-loving, he contrasts with the nobler and more intellectual character of Averroes. His bouts of pleasure gradually weakened his constitution; a severe colic, which seized him on the march of the army against Hamadan, was checked by remedies so violent that Ibn Sina could scarcely stand. On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamadan, where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen imposed, and resigned himself to his fate.His friends advised him to slow down and take life moderately. He refused, however, stating that: "I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length". On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and every third day till his death listened to the reading of the Qur'an. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in Hamedan, Persia.

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Recipes For Immortality

Book: Recipes For Immortality by Richard Weiss

Despite the global spread of Western medical practice, traditional doctors still thrive in the modern world. In Recipes for Immortality, Richard Weiss illuminates their continued success by examining the ways in which siddha medical practitioners in Tamil South India win the trust and patronage of patients. While biomedicine might alleviate a patient's physical distress, siddha doctors offer their clientele much more: affiliation to a timeless and pure community, the fantasy of a Tamil utopia, and even the prospect of immortality. They speak of a golden age of Tamil civilization and of traditional medicine, drawing on broader revivalist formulations of a pure and ancient Tamil community. Weiss analyzes the success of siddha doctors, focusing on how they have successfully garnered authority and credibility. While shedding light on their lives, vocations, and aspirations, Weiss also documents the challenges that siddha doctors face in the modern world, both from a biomedical system that claims universal efficacy, and also from the rival traditional medicine, ayurveda, which is promoted as the national medicine of an autonomous Indian state. Drawing on ethnographic data; premodern Tamil texts on medicine, alchemy, and yoga; government archival resources; college textbooks; and popular literature on siddha medicine and on the siddhar yogis, he presents an in-depth study of this traditional system of knowledge, which serves the medical needs of millions of Indians. Weiss concludes with a look at traditional medicine at large, and demonstrates that siddha doctors, despite resent trends toward globalization and biomedicine, reflect the wider political and religious dimensions of medical discourse in our modern world. Recipes for Immortality proves that medical authority is based not only on physical effectiveness, but also on imaginative processes that relate to personal and social identities, conceptions of history, secrecy, loss, and utopian

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Alchemical Symbols

The alchemist, in the formulation of Wayne Shuhmaker, “did not analyze but analogized,” and his own universe, metallurgy, provided the mythical imagery and stimulated new meanings. The alchemical opus centered on the change of matter, and transmutation of matter turned into the recurrent theme of the alchemist’s cult. To him, the soul imprisoned in matter symbolized the spirit striving to purify itself from the roughage of the flesh. Matter was represented above all by metal and symbolized life and man, its growth comparable to the growth of the fetus. “The achievement of metallic transmutation became symbolic of the religious regeneration of the human soul” (Sheppard, Ambix 17, p. 77). With technical alchemy providing the similes that expressed Gnostic religiousity, the two-tiered semantic construct evolved that was characteristic of Hellenistic and medieval mystic language: the worldly, exoteric lexicon furnished the “surface,” the sensus litteralis, but when applied to esoteric experience it yielded the hidden meaning, the sensus allegoricus. Many lexical items were drawn into the process: thus, in the Valentinian system of Gnosticism (deriving from the second-century Egyptian Valentinus), metallurgical terms such as the following symbolized spiritual concepts. Pneuma signified, first, the product of natural sublimation, then, “divine spirit”; ebullient (“boiling up”), referring to the alchemical process of “separating the pure from the impure,” was applied to wisdom; sperma (the “embryonic germ”) yielded the “seed” of gnosis; in a similar way, such terms as refine, filter, and purify acquired spiritualized meanings. The transfer, through alchemy, from the literal to the symbolic realm contributed richly to the language of religion and, generally, abstraction. It indicates a conscious effort of the alchemist to frame his views in the terms of his craft.

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Tycho Brahe Biography

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. 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.

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Alchemical Poetry From The Dark Skies From The Dark Moon

“Naked the Goddess mother lies in hell; naked. Ninazu’s mother lies exposed, the holy garment fallen from her shoulders, bare are the breasts of the mother, Ereshkigal.” – Cry of the Dead, from Gilgamesh “There is no death of anyone, save in appearance, just as there is no birth of any, save only in seeming.” – Apollonius of Tyana dog or sometimes cat assailed he claws at legs or clothes his horns & bells the end of moon of lotus seat the love of clouds & death-like sounds like wheels a sea of jewels all kinds of bones her noose & skull in red & feeding wolves her tears on beating wings all snaky-tressed & wordless / book of birds at dawn a falling dew from too dark skies & forests earth & dust the light (in beauty cheeks the forehead bright & high the neck like shell the heart at times eats stones & lastly thunder cuckoos flutes & bees the tree as food a house or road & coiled for certain worms or one she blinks & rips & hooked in hair her fingers rent the bloody head her face & breasts she shrieks & swathed in glitter tries to crawl his corpse-light eyes & lower (dead) she cries the skins of beasts & set but made not known the day she lost or hides as dark or maybe emptied / missed with dread

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