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Categories:
Alchemy & Hermeticism,
Astrology
Secrets of Nature – Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe Edited by William R. Newman & Anthony Grafton
£50.00
Second hand / Antiquarian
Published: MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2001
Condition: Fine. Dust jacket unclipped, pages clean and unmarked.
"In recent years scholars have begun to acknowledge that the occult sciences were not marginal enterprises but an integral part of the worldview of many of our ancestors. Astrology was one of the many intellectual toolsalong with what we consider to be the superior tools of social and political analysisthat Renaissance thinkers used to attack practical and intellectual problems. It was a coherent body of practices, strongly supported by social institutions. And alchemy was not viewed primarily as a spiritual pursuit, an idea popularized by nineteenth-century occultists, but as a part of natural philosophy. It was often compared to medicine.
Many Renaissance writers suggested links between astrology and alchemy that went beyond the use of astrological charts to determine the best time to attempt alchemical operations. Secrets of Nature shows the many ways in which astrology (a form of divination) and alchemy (an artisanal pursuit concerned with the technologies of minerals and metals) diverge as well as intersect. Overall, it shows how an appreciation of the role of the occult opens up new ways of understanding the past. Topics include the career of Renaissance astrologer Girolamo Cardano and his work on medical astrology, the astrological thinking of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, the history of the Rosicrucians and the influence of John Dee, the work of medical alchemist Simon Forman, and an extended critique of the existing historiography of alchemy."
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Procession of the Night Theatre by J.M. Hamade
£21.99
By light, unites the Indian nakshatra, the Chinese xiu, the Arabic manzil, and more, in a comprehensive study of the lunar stations through their many significations, magics, and delineations. By darkness, proceeds through dream-logics and poetry familiar to the labyrinths of One Thousand and One Nights. Each night a lunar station…
Procession is about the lunar zodiac in all its grandeur. Unlike the familiar 12 sign zodiac of the Sun, the 27-28 fold circle of the Moon still maintains her starry retinue in full. Though astrological correspondences are given their proper weight, including interpretations for the seven primary planets in each station, this book is at its core an exploration of teeming sidereal imagery.
Accordingly Procession may be read as an ongoing story. All the same, for astrologers, magicians, and luna-philes alike, as the most complete reference on the subject to date.
De Radiis by Al-Kindi
£38.99
2nd hardback edition.
Abū Yaʿqūb ibn Ishāq al-Kindī (c.800-870CE) De Radiis (On The Stellar Rays) proposes that all things emit rays that operate on all other things, producing an interplay of causes and effects from the stars down to material objects. The rays pouring down from the celestial harmony of the stars, constellations, and planets, he thought, accounted for the efficacy of astrology. Living beings, likewise, were the source and destination of rays, and humans out of all creatures were a “small world” or microcosm unto themselves, and therefore humans are able to cause things (whether themselves or others) to move and change. Sound “rays”, emitted through speech, song, and music could effect magical change by the same principle.
De Radiis provides a concise, comprehensive physical and magical theory using the philosophy of the Greeks, which Al-Kindi had a hand in translating into Arabic at the start of the Islamic Golden Age. This edition of De Radiis comes from a back translation into Latin from a lost Arabic original. Together with practical manuals of Arab magic, such as Picatrix, the theoretical treatise De Radiis had a profound impact on the Western esoteric tradition during the ensuing thousand years.
This new translation, by Scott Gosnell, translator of The Collected Works of Giordano Bruno and writer on the history and future of science and magic, rendered into clear, fresh language; it is an essential part of any complete esoteric library.
Constellation Myths by Eratosthenes, Hyginus and Aratus
£8.99
'Athena seized the writhing serpent and hurled it into the sky, and fixed it to the very pole of the heavens.' The constellations we recognize today were first mapped by the ancient Greeks, who arranged the stars into patterns for that purpose. In the third century BC Eratosthenes compiled a handbook of astral mythology in which the constellations were associated with figures from legend, and myths were provided to explain how each person, creature, or object came to be placed in the sky. Thus we can see Heracles killing the Dragon, and Perseus slaying the sea-monster to save Andromeda; Orion chasesthe seven maidens transformed by Zeus into the Pleiades, and Aries, the golden ram, is identified flying up to the heavens.
This translation brings together the later summaries from Eratosthenes' lost handbook with a guide to astronomy compiled by Hyginus, librarian to Augustus. Together with Aratus's astronomical poem the Phaenomena, these texts provide a complete collection of Greek astral myths; imaginative and picturesque, they also offer an intriguing insight into ancient science and culture. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.
Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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