! :{izmaragd}:

2010-01-30T15:16:00.001-08:00

Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician

2010-01-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

By John Patrick Deveney

"This is a superb piece of work. It is the only book that I know of about Randolph, who is generally considered a notable curiosity of nineteenth-century esotericism, but whom the author establishes as an absolutely central and pivotal historical character. This historiography is masterful—meticulously detailed and coherently presented. This is an important book, filling a gap that wasn't previously known to have been so substantial. It's well written, a tour de force at amassing the data. It is a must read" — Dan Merkur author of Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions

Paschal Beverly Randolph, an African American who carved his own eccentric path in the mid-nineteeiuh century from the slums of New York to the courts of Europe, performed as a spiritualist trance medium. Self-educated, he became one of the first Black American novelists and took a leading part in raising Black soldiers for the Union army and educating Freedmen during the Civil War. His most enduring claim to fame is the crucial role he played in the transformation of spiritualism, a medium's passive reception of messages from the spirits of the dead, into occultism, the active search for personal spiritual realization and inner vision.

From his solitary travels in England, France, Egypt And the Turkish Empire, he brought back occult beliefs and practices (the magic mirror, hashish use and sexual magic) that worked a revolution. The systems of magic he taught left their traces on Madame Blavatsky, her Theosophical Society, and many practicing occult organizations in Europe and America today. This is the fine scholarly work on Randolph, and it includes the full text of his two most important manuscripts on sexual magic.

"It is fascinating, because the subject's life was filled with dramatic adventure and hardship, and touched upon so many issues of the day. Deveney's work is important in itself as a ground-breaking study of an intriguing character. I can think of no figure in nineteenth-century Western esotericism who has been more unjustly ignored than Randolph. Devency rescues him from obscurity in this biography, which will be regarded as authoritative for many years to come." — K. Paul Johnson, author of Initiates of Theosophical Masters and The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge

THE METAPHYSICS OF SEX by Julius Evola

2009-12-27T05:03:00.000-08:00

What is the essence of the power which animates the universe of eros and sex? The author presents us with an in-depth study of the possibilities of sexual energies on their highest level. He verifies that the erotic experience can lead to a displacement of the boundaries of the ego and the emergence of profound states of consciousness. He observes that a different rhythm is established in every intense experience of eros, which invests and transports, or suspends, the normal faculties of an individual and can open vistas onto a different world.

Modern researchers who try to investigate sexuality by studying others rather than themselves are in error; they cannot approach the depths of the metaphysics of sex. Furthermore, since psychoanalysis has emphasized the sub-personal primordialism of sex it is necessary to oppose it with a metaphysical perspective. Only the lost sacred science is able to provide the necessary references for investigating the potential dimensions of the experience of eros.

THE METAPHYSICS OF SEX is opposed to the established conventional viewpoint which has promoted the spiritual fall of modern man. But the world of eros did not begin today. Religion, mysticism, folklore and mythology point to the existence of erotic forms and sexual experiences in which the deeper possibilities of man are recognized. The author introduces a world of ritual invocations and initiatory experiences and traces their development through time. He reveals the sexual rites of sacred traditions: from the transmutations of Tantric and Taoist yoga, to the adulation of the female organ at Eleusis, to the erotic rituals described in the Kaballah and the secret and symbolic practices of Islam. Evola also discusses the myth of the androgyne, the Courts of Love of the Middle Ages; Sacred Prostitution and Holy Marriages, the Incubus and Succubus, mystical ecstasy, and the polarity between voluptuousness and suffering. He explains these practices and helps us to understand the vast, universal fresco that is the mystical and spiritual expression of sexual love.

pdf | 38.8mb [ rapidshare ]

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Eros and Sexual Love

The Evolutionary Prejudice - Love and Sex - Eros and the Instinct for Reproduction - The Myth and Genius of the Species - Eros and the Tendencey toward Pleasure - Sensual Pleasure - The Magnetic Theory of Love - The Degrees of Sexual Development - Physical Sex and Inner Sex - Conditional Nature and Forms of Erotic Attraction

II. The Metaphysics of Sex

The Myth of the Hermaphrodite - Eros and the Various Degrees of Intoxication with It - The Biological Treatment and the Fall of Eros - Aphrodite Urania; Eros and Beauty - Lust and the Myth of Poros and Penia - Appendix - Homosexuality

III. Phenomena of Transcendency in Profane Love

Sex and Human Values- "Everlasting Love," Jealousy, and Sexual Pride - Phenomena of Transcendency in Puberty - Love, the Heart, Dreams, and Death - The Love-Pain-Death Complex - Sensual Pleasure and Suffering: The Masochist-Sadist Complex - Erotic Ecstasy and Mystic Ecstasy - The Experience of Coitus - The Metaphysics of Modesty - The Meaning of the Orgy - Appendix: Marquis de Sade and the "Way of the Left Hand" - Rasputin and the Sect of the Khlysti

IV. Gods and Goddesses, Men and Women

Mythology, Ontology, and Psychology - The Metaphysical Dyad - Demeter Archetypes and Aphrodite Archetypes, the Virgin, and Ultimate Nakedness - Typical Differentations of Manhood in Myth - Man and Female in Manifestation - On the Daemonic in the Feminine and the Symbolism of the Inverted Coitus - The Phallus and Menstruation - Male and Female Psychology - Woman as Mother and Woman as Lover - Pity, Sexuality, and Cruelty in Woman - The Fascination of Woman and Activity and Passivity in Sexual Love - The Ethics of the Sexes

V. Sacred Ceremonies and Evocations

Wedlock as "Mystery" in the World of Tradition - Christianity and Sexuality - Sacred Prostitution and Holy Marriages - Incubus and Succubus; Fetishism and Evocatory Processes - Evocation Processes in the Chivalrous Love of the Middle Ages - The Initiatory Experiences of the Worshippers of Love - Appendix; The Meaning of the Sabbat and the Black Mass - The Doctrine of the Hermaphrodite in the Christian Mysticism

VI. Sex in the Realm of Initiations and Magic

Transmutations and the Commandment of Chastity - The Techniques of Endogenous Transmutation in Kundalini-Yoga and Taoism - Sex in the Kabbala and Eleusinian Mysteries - Tantric Sexual Practices - Tantric Sexual Practices and Their Dangers - Secret Sexual Practices in Chinese Taoism - Arab Sexual Practices and Hermetic Symbology - The Myriam and the "Fire Magic" - The "Light of Sex" and the "Law of Telema" - The Presuppositions of Operative Sexual Magic

Conclusion
Notes
Index

MAGIC AND SCHIZOPHRENIA by Geza Roheim

2009-12-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

Contents

Preface, by Sandor Lorand

Part I The Origin and Function of Magic

•LOVE MAGIC
•MAGIC AND ORALITY
•SEPARATION ANXIETY
•ANAL MAGIC
•PHALLIC MAGIC
•IDENTIFICATION
•THEORIES
•THE SUPEREGO
•THE COUVADE
•NEUROSIS AND MAGIC
Bibliography

Part II Fantasies and Dreams in Schizophrenia

•INTRODUCTION
•FANTASIES AND DREAMS OF A SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENT
•FURTHER INSIGHTS
•CONCLUSION
Bibliography

pdf | 22.8mb [ rapidshare ]

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY by Merlin Coverley

2009-12-25T00:08:00.000-08:00

pdf | 9.85mb [ rapidshare ]

contents

Introduction

1: London and the Visionary Tradition

Daniel Defoe and the Re-Imagining of London; William Blake and the Visionary Tradition; Thomas De Quincey and the Origins of the Urban Wanderer; Robert Louis Stevenson and the Urban Gothic; Arthur Machen and the Art of Wandering; Alfred Watkins and the Theory of Ley Lines

2: Paris and the Rise of the Flaneur

Poe, Baudelaire and the Man of the Crowd; Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project; Robinson and the Mental Traveller; Psycho-geography & Surrealism

3: Guy Debord and the Situationist International

The Pre-Situationist Movements; The Situationist International (1957-1972); Walking the City with Michel de Certeau

4: Psychogeography Today

JG Bollard and the Death of Affect; Iain Sinclair and the Re-Branding of Psychogeography; Peter Ackroyd and the New Antiquarianism; Stewart Home and the London Psychogeographical Association; Patrick Keiller and the Return of Robinson

Psychogeographical Groups, Organisations and Websites

Bibliography & Further Reading

Index

PAN AND THE NIGHTMARE [ Roscher, Hillman ]

2009-12-19T00:12:00.000-08:00

: being the only English Translation of EPHIALTES: A Pathological-Mythological Treatise On The Nightmare In Classical Antiquity by Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1900) together with AN ESSAY ON PAN serving as a Psychological Introduction by James Hillman

This brilliant book brings Pan back to life by following C.G. Jung's famous saying that the gods have become our diseases. Chapters on nightmare panic, masturbation, rape and nympholepsy, instinct and synchronicity, and Pan's female lovers (Echo, Syrinx, Selene, and the Muses) show the goat-god at work and play in the dark drives and creative passions of our lives. Includes a full translation of Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher's masterful nineteenth-century treatise "Ephialtes."

13.6mb | pdf [ rapidshare ]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part One
AN ESSAY ON PAN
by James Hillman

The Text.
Roscher: Life, work and contribution to psychology.
The dream in 1900.
Pan, Goat-God of nature.
'Instinct'.
Panic.
Pan and masturbation.
Rape.
Pan's Nymphs.
Spontaneity - Synchronicity.
Healing our madness.

Part Two
EPHIALTES
by Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher

I. The nature and origin of the nightmare from the modern medical aspect.
II. The nature and origin of the nightmare according to the ancient physicians.
III. The old designations of the nightmare.
IV. The most important of the Greek and Roman nightmare demons.

Abbreviations used in the Present Work
Sources and Notes
Bibliographical End Note

А.Эткинд • ХЛЫСТ • секты, литература и революция [Khlyst. Russian]

2009-12-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

Книга известного историка культуры посвящена дискурсу о русских сектах в России рубежа веков. Сектантские увлечения культурной элиты были важным направлением радикализации русской мысли на пути к революции. Прослеживая судьбы и обычаи мистических сект (хлыстов, скопцов и др.), автор детально исследует их образы в литературе, функции в утопическом сознании, место в политической жизни эпохи. Свежие интерпретации классических текстов перемежаются с новыми архивными документами. Метод автора — археология текста: сочетание нового историззма, постструктуралистской филологии, исторической социологии, психоанализа. В этом резком свете иначе выглядят ключевые фигуры от Соловьева и Блока до Распутина и Бонч-Бруевича.

pdf 86.5mb [rapidshare]

Alexander Etkind,
Khlyst: sects, literature and revolution
: On the face of it, the subheading of this book (sects, literature, and revolution) appears quite obvious. The connection between revolution and religious sects, between political and religious undergrounds seems only natural, but 'literature' stands between them, and it is literature that comprises the major focus of the author's attention, even though 'sects' are listed first in the parenthesis. The author asserts: "Russian literature, philosophy, and political thought are not mirrors of the Russian revolution; on the contrary, revolutions were accomplished in texts and from there looked at their own historical reflection, always dim and faulty" (p. 21). Naturally, the author is mainly interested in "the texts that burst into the revolution," in the complex interaction of literature with religious and revolutionary movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. So the order in the subheading is precise: popular religious sects, through their literary representations, moulded dreams of Russian revolutionaries and, therefore, the Russian revolution itself. — read a review by Elena Krevsky (Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta)

Peter Lamborn Wilson • A Note on the Use of Wine, Hemp & Opium

2009-11-17T15:24:00.000-08:00

Chapter 7 of SCANDAL: Essays in Islamic Heresy

«The Shariah forbids all intoxicants. A Moslem who drinks wine or uses hashish acts against the Shariah, but someone who uses an intoxicant for spiritual purposes can rightly be called not just a sinner but a heretic.

Nevertheless a great many people in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and elsewhere use preparations of cannabis for various spiritual reasons. Very little has been published on this subject, and of that little almost nothing of value. Between 1968 and 1978 I had occasion to observe and participate in such hemp use, and I consider my own observations of some small value.»

1.48mb [rapidshare]

Carlo Ginzburg • ECSTASIES: Deciphering The Witches Sabbath

2009-10-29T19:44:00.001-07:00

Weaving early accounts of witchcraft — trial records, ecclesiastical tracts, folklore, and popular iconography — into new and startling patterns, Carlo Ginzburg presents in Ecstasies compelling evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across Europe and in England for thousands of years.

68.7mb (rapidshare)

"Emerging from testimonies during witchcraft trials in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries are consistent descriptions of the Witches' Sabbath: night flying, ritual cannibalism, etc. Most scholars dismiss these descriptions as torture-induced gibberish. Ginzburg (history, Univ. of California at Los Angeles) proves that these descriptions are bastardized accounts of ecstatic experiences practiced by a shamanic culture. In addition, he links the persecution of the witches with that of other social outcasts (lepers, Jews, and Muslims). Europeans thought that these groups conspired against society, which led to their wholesale slaughter. Very interesting and very convincing. For collections serving upper-level undergraduates and graduate students."
— Gail Wood, Montgomery Coll. Lib., Germantown, Md. [from Library Journal]

"Ecstasies manages, with extraordinary candor, clarity, grace, and erudition, to steer between lurid sensationalism and dry-as-dust academic drivel, and between purely localized historiography and universalism. This is a big, bold, brilliant book."
— Wendy Doniger, New York Times Book Rivew

"Ecstasies is a work of uncompromising scholarship and erudition, but it is not intended for the scholar alone. It is also a rich tapestry of anecdote and incident, a chamber of horrors, curiosity shop, and medieval bestiary all in one."
— Richard Gott, The Guardian

"By any standards, Ecstasies is a bravura performance. It is difficult to think of any other historian who combines such polymathic cultural erudition, grasp of textual and visual detail, and hight theoretical aim — not to mention literary skill".
— London Review of Books

Aries • vol IX / no2 • 2009 • Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

2009-10-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

( vol IX no1 | vols VII & VIII | vols V & VI | vols III & IV | vols I & II )

( rapidshare )

René Gründer
Runengeheimnisse: Zur Rezeption esoterischen Runen-Wissens im germanischen Neuheidentum Deutschlands

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Ramon Lull’s New World Order: Esoteric Evangelism and Frontline Philosophy1

Hans Thomas Hakl
‘Den Antaios kenne und missbillige ich. Was er pflegt, ist nicht Religio, sondern Magie!’ Kurze Geschichte der Zeitschrift ANTAIOS1

René Dybdal Pedersen
The Second Golden Age of Theosophy in Denmark: An Existential “Template” for Late Modernity?

Book Reviews

David S. Katz, The Occult Tradition: From the Renaissance to the Present Day.

Paul Magdalino et Maria Mavroudi (éds.), The Occult Sciences in Byzantium.

Jean-Michel Sallmann (éd.), Dictionnaire de la magie et des sciences occultes.

Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Swedenborg, Oetinger, Kant: Three Perspectives on the Secrets of Heaven.

Jody Myers, Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Centre in America.

Jonathan S. Rose, Stuart Shotwell and Mary Lou Bertucci (eds.), Scribe of Heaven: Swedenborg’s Life,Work, and Impact.

Jean-Pierre Brach and Jérôme Rousse-Lacordaire (eds.), Études d’histoire de l’ésotérisme: Mélanges offerts à Jean-Pierre Laurant pour son soixante-dixième anniversaire.

Jan A.M. Snoek, Monika Scholl, and Andréa A. Kroon (eds.), Symbolism in 18th Century Gardens: The Influence of Intellectual and Esoteric Currents, such as
Freemasonry.

James Webb [The Occult Underground]

2009-10-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

First published in 1971 under the title "The Flight from Reason", this book might still be of use to the students of the occult as a brief introduction to the history of 19th century occult revival.

It should be kept in mind, though that the author killed himself on May 9, 1980. This is a significant deed. (Significant date too. I.e., author's animosity towards "irrationalism" is to be taken for what it is - a product of confusion & hasty conclusions.)

The follow-up book [The Occult Establishment] is in process of being digitalized.

pdf | 34.1mb [ rapidshare ]

Marshall G. S. Hodgson • The Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizari Isma'ilis Against the Islamic World

2009-09-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

«The essential work on the Assassins.»
— Times Literary Supplement

1955 facsimile | pdf
34.3mb [ rapidshare ]

09.12.09 update: added missing pages

The sect known as "the Assassins," a corruption of an Arabic word that means hashish smoker, is familiar to the West as a mystical cult of killers led by the "Man in the Mountain" encountered by the Crusaders. But it was not defeat at the hands of Christians that ended more than a century of Assassin rule; it was the massive and brutal invasion of Mongols from the East who conquered Assassin strong points and mountain fortifications one by one, crushing nearly all traces of this once fearsome sect. For nearly two centuries the Fâtimids, Shi'ite Muslims who believed Mohammed's daughter Fâtimah was his successor, attempted to control the Islamic world from their seat in Cairo.

Following the death of the Fâtimid caliphate al Mustansir in 1094, members of a faction in Persia that supported a deposed claimant to the caliphate, Nizâr, believed they now represented Fâtimid interests. These Nizârî Ismâî'lîs ended up separating themselves from mainstream Islam and creating their own state in parts of present-day Syria, Iraq, and Iran. In order to establish and maintain regional control, the Nizârî Ismâî'lîs used political murders and spies to subjugate or influence rival caliphates and the dominant Saljûqs.

Marshall Hodgson's first major book, The Order of the Assassins remains the most complete history of the Assassins. Beginning the story with the separation of Sunnis and Shi'ites and the rise of Ismâî'lîsm, an offshoot of Shi'ism, Hodgson traces the long and complex history of power struggles within Islam that led ultimately to the separation of the Nizârî Ismâî'lîs and their direct challenge to Muslim leadership. Hodgson goes on to explain the principles of the movement, provides an examination of their sacred texts, and follows the history of the group from the pinnacle of power in the mid-eleventh century to its legacy in the form of small pockets of followers in parts of contemporary Syria and India.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prefatory Note

I - INTRODUCTION : THE ISMAILI HERITAGE

Building an Islamic world
The Caliphate as framework for elaborating earlier traditions on a fresh basis. — Incipient Islam: Mohammed's demand for civil and religious purity. — Islamization of the Middle East. — The Sunni synthesis.

Isma'ilism as Offering an Alternative Synthesis
The Shi'a form of Islam. — Isma'ilism as a Shi'a sect. — The Isma'iliyya as a conspiratorial revolt.

The Fatimid Empire: Philosophy of Cosmos and of Man
Rationalism and the batin. — Occultism: the cosmic process of emana¬tion. — The cosmic return. — Position of the imam: typological conception of history. — The crisis of Isma'llism and the Nizart response.

The Traditional Interpretation of Isma'ilism
The revaluation of Fatimid Isma'llism. — The enemies of the Nizaris. — Von Hammer and the Western legend of the Assassins.

Vindication of the Nizaris
Problems of dealing with Saljuq and Ayyubid times. — Niziiri texts. — Ivanow and the modern revaluation of the Nizaris. — The place of a general history of the Nizaris.

PART ONE - THE ONSLAUGHT AGAINST THE SALJUQS
II - HASAN-I SABBAH AND THE ISMA'ILI CRISIS

The Confrontation of Fatimid Isma'ilism with Saljuq Sunnism
The breakdown of the Fatimid power. — Sunni culture in the Saljuq age. — Social atomization and religious integration. — Tableau of Nizari Times.

Hasan-i Sabbah's Labors
The youthful seeking. — The visit to Egypt (1078). — Hasan serves in the Isma'lll da'wa (1081-1090). — The taking of Alamut (1090). — Hasan-i Sabbah's figure at Alamut (1090-1124).

Hasan-i Sabbah and the Isma'ili Ta'lim
The leadership of Ibn 'Attash. — The Shi'ite doctrine of ta'lim. — Hasan's critique of the doctrine of ta'lim. — The role of reason in reaching universal validity. — The dehistoricized, absolute imamate. — Authoritarian community policy.

III - THE NIZARI REVOLT

The Nizari Schism from the Fatimid Government (1094)
The succession dispute between Nizar and Musta'li. — Motivation for the schism. — Justification for the schism: the problem of a figurehead. — The organization of an independent Nizari da'wa. — The succes of the Nizari da'wa.

The Revolt Under Way
The first uprisings: Rudbar and Quhistan (1090-1092). — The Isma'ili uprising finds its pattern (1092—1099). — Ambiguities of civil war.

IV - WAR WITH THE SALJUQS : DECISIVE PHASE

Methods of Struggle
The dar al-hijra ideal and the seizing of fortresses. — Isma'ili revolt in a Sunni setting. — The method of assassination. — Assassination as a weapon of desperation.

Rising Fortunes (1100-1105)
The disruption of the Saljuq power. — Isma'ilis intervene at the heart of the Saljuq power. — Unorganized anti-Isma'ili violence. — Saljuqs attempt repression. — Isma'ilis in Syria: their patron Ridwan.

Falling Fortunes (1105-1118)
Reversal of the Isma'ili fortunes in Syria (1106-1113). — Disorganization of the Syrian da'wa (1113). — Muhammad Tapar and the Saljuq counteroffensive (1105-1107). — The limits of Saljuq reconquest (1107-1118).

V - THE NIZARI STATE

Buzurg'ummid and Territorial Settlement (1118-1138)
The Isma'ilis among the amirs (1118-1126). — Defeat of the renewed Saljuq offensive (1126-1131). — Magnificent gestures from Alamut (1131-1138).

Definition of the Isma'ili Position in the West
Career of Bahram in Damascus: the Syrian da'wa revived (1125-1128). — Defeat and withdrawal to the mountains in Syria (1129-1140). — The end of the contest with Fatimid lsma'ilism. — The Hafizi-Tayyibi schism in the Fatimid da'wa (1130).

Isma'lii Policies: Assassination
Patterns of assassination and massacre. — Assassination at the request of non-Isma'ilis. — Assassinations and the local struggles for power.

Social and Political Structure
Nizari solidarity and vigor. — Raiders' life in Alamut. — Alamut as the center of the Nizari power. — Stability of the Nizari dynasty.

VI - REACTION OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Social and Legal Reaction: Proscription
The popular terror and scorn. — The legal problems of conformity by lip-service.

The Intellectual Response: Ghazzali and the Challenge of Ta'lim to Reason
Ghazzali's defense of a Sunni alternative to ta'lim. — Problem of authority solved in terms of history. — Ghazzali's "Balance" as answer to Hasan-i Sabbah's four propositions. — Variations upon Ghazzali's response later.

Imaginative Fruit
The legend of the garden. — The word "Assassin". — Legend of the three schoolfellows. — Horrified awe.

PART TWO - THE GOSPEL OF THE QIYAMA
VII - STALEMATE AND A NEW START: HASAN ALA DHIKRI-HI S-SALAM

Muhammad ibn Buzurg'ummid: Mountain Lord (1138-1162)
Persistent expectancy despite a local outlook. — Revolt in stalemate: campaigns degenerate to quarrels. — Nizari rigorism and the young heir.

The Proclamation of the Qiyama: Hasan II as Da'i and Imam
Festival of the Qiyama: the resurrection from the dead (1164). — Return of the imam: Hasan's claims. — The resurrection: Hasan as Qa'im. — Qiyama as ending taqiyya, fulfilling Isma'ilism. — The resistance to the Qiyama: Hasan is murdered.

VIII - THE PREACHING OF THE QIYAMA

Muhammad II: Devotion Oriented Toward the Imam (1166-1210)
Muhammad's interpretation of his father's claims. — The imam as revelation of God. — The beatific vision. — True viewpoint as salvation.

The Universe of the Qiyama
Indentification of Qiyama and haqiqa. — Existence as personal: tashakhkhus. — The deathless sage: Melchizedec as imam and qa'im. — The individual in the Qiyama: three levels of being. — Resolution of the emanational system.

The Qiyama as Declaration of Spiritual Maturity
The Christian analogy to the Qiyama. — Nizari ambivalence toward Sunnism.

The Qiyama in the World: its Lackluster (1166-1192)
Sunnism and the mystics: stolen thunder. — Sunni powers after Sanjar: dissension and the Syrian ghazis. — Muhammad's defensive peace in the Iranian territories.

IX - QIYAMA TIMES IN SYRIA: RASHID AD-DIN SINAN

Sinan in Syria: Consolidation Within and Without (1140-1192)
Military problems. — Sinan and his friend Saladin. — The internal administration.

Abu Firas' Portrait of Sinan: the Hero
Sinan as a one-man show. — The types of Sinan's wonders.

Sinan and Alamut: The Syrian Response to the Qiyama
Sinan as independent not in name but in effect. — The Fragment Nr. One: appearances of the Lord to men. — Sinan's version of the Qiyama. — Flavor of the Syrian haqiqa: unregimented hopefulness. — Popular Shi'ism. — Sinan's legacy in Syria (1192-1210).

X - RAPPROCHEMENT WITH SUNNISM : THE SATR

Romance and Reality Among the Sunni Powers
Clouds over Muhammad IIs reign (1192-1210). — Khwarazmshah and the Middle Eastern universal monarchy. — The Caliph Nasir and the civil empire. — Breach between Muhammad II and his heir.

Hasan III's Islamization
Restoration of the shari'a. — Hasan's authority at home. — Military adventure abroad. — Probability of Hasan's sincerity.

The Aftermath of Hasan's Conversion: the Doctrine of the Satr
The relaxation of Hasan's policy: transition into the reign of Muhammad II. — Adjustment of the Qiyama to history: a new mood shifts the meaning of old terms. — Satr and Qiyama as alternating periods. — Restriction of the privilege of wahda to the men of ta'yid. — Restrictions on the manifestation of the imam: hujja as sole channel of access. — The outcome of Hasan's demarche.

XI - THE LAST GENERATION OF FREEDOM

Learning and Life Under the Satr (1221-1256)
The respect for learning: Nasir ad-Din Tusi. — Tusi's Isma'ili work. — The Quhistani sense of dignity. — The Syrian lieutenants: high expectations. — Surviving Syrian literature: the fragments.

Hopes of Expansion
Fighting with the Khwarazm power (1221-1231). — Tortuous negotiations. — World-wide outlook.

The Death of Muhammad III
Muhammad's character: the dynasty in degeneracy. — War with the Mongols. — Crisis and murder.

XII - THE FAILURE OF THE NIZARI VENTURE

Retrospect

The End of the Nizari Power
Khwurshah's surrender (1256). — Khwurshah among the Mongols. — The revenge of Islam.

Afterglow
The Mamluk triumph in Syria. — Under Egyptian rule. — The Iranian Isma'ilis attempt a comeback. — The Nizari heritage.

APPENDICES

I The Popular Appeal of the Qiyama: Commentary and Translation of the Haft Bab-i Baba Sayyid-na
II Hasan-i Sabbah's doctrine: translation from Shahrastani
III Bibliographical Notes

Index

MAPS AND CHARTS

The Rivalry of Fatimids and 'Abbasids
The Lords of Alamut
The Nizari Risings (general map)
Chronological Landmarks 1072-1275
Genealogy of the Isma'ili Imams
The Periods of the Prophets Ulu l-'azm

А.И.Андреев. Время Шамбалы: оккультизм, наука и политика в Советской России

2009-09-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

1920-е годы - начало эпохи созидания новой, коммунистической России, время великого энтузиазма и самоотречения, поисков новых путей в науке и культуре. Эта книга повествует о людях и событиях того времени.

Первая ее часть посвящена А.В.Барченко - литератору, ученому-парапсихологу и оккультисту, основателю эзотерического кружка "Единое Трудовое Братство" в Петрограде и руководителю секретной лаборатории, курировавшейся Спецотделом ОГПУ. В книге рассказывается о научной работе Барченко, его экспедициях в заповедные уголки России, а также о его попытках, при поддержке руководства ОГПУ, совершить путешествие в Тибет для установления контактов с духовными вождями Шамбалы - хранителями соврешенной "Древней науки", чтобы побудить их передать свой опыт и знания коммунистическим вождям.

Вторая часть книги содержит рассказ об усилиях большевистской дипломатии завязать дружеские отношения с правителем Тибета Далай-Ламой с целью распространения советского влияния в регионе. Из нее читатель узнает о секретных тибетских экспедициях Наркоминдела и о загадочном посольстве к Далай-Ламе русского художника и мистика Н.К.Рериха.

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ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ

ЧАСТЬ I. ЖИЗНЬ И ИСКАНИЯ А.В.БАРЧЕНКО

Пролог: Счастливая страна Шамбала и ее искатели
1. Начало пути
2. Храм Шамбалы в Петербурге
3. Доктор Черный
4. Тайный лучистой энергии
5. Г.И.Гурджиев о "скрытом знании"
6. Смутное время
7. К.К.Владимиров - графолог, оккультист и чекист
8. С красными моряками в Шамбалу
9. Лапландия - страна сказок и колдунов
10. Единое Трудовое Братство
11. Учителя
12. Коммуна на улице Красных Зорь
13. Универсальная Схема
14. Несостоявшаяся экспедиция
15. ОГПУ овладевает "Древней наукой"
16. Новые поиски
17. Эпилог: Шамбала перед судом ЧК

ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 1 А.В.Барченко. Таро (лекция), 1919
ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 2 Мысли А.В.Барченко о медицине (Из записок Э.М.Кондиайн) / Некоторые способы лечения А.В.Барченко / Лечение росой
ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 3 Из донесений ОГПУ К.К.Владимирова
ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 4 Из протокола допроса Г.И.Бокия от 17-18 мая 1937

ЧАСТЬ II. БОЛЬШЕВИКИ В ТИБЕТЕ

1. Тибет - "зерно между жерновами" двух великих империй
2. Большевики обращают взоры к "Стране лам"
3. На разведку в Лхасу
4. Москва бросает вызов Лондону: миссия С.С.Борисова, 1923-1925
5. "Монгольское посольство" А.Ч.Чапаева, 1926-28
6. "Посольство Западных буддистов" Н.К.Рериха, 1927-28
7. Последние попытки привлечь Далай-ламу на советсткую сторону
Эпилог

Примечания

Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America By David T. Courtwright

2009-07-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

In a newly enlarged edition of this eye-opening book, David T. Courtwright offers an original interpretation of a puzzling chapter in American social and medical history: the dramatic change in the pattern of opiate addiction--from respectable upper-class matrons to lower-class urban males, often with a criminal record. Challenging the prevailing view that the shift resulted from harsh new laws, Courtwright shows that the crucial role was played by the medical rather than the legal profession. Dark Paradise tells the story not only from the standpoint of legal and medical sources, but also from the perspective of addicts themselves. With the addition of a new introduction and two new chapters on heroin addiction and treatment since 1940, Courtwright has updated this compelling work of social history for the present crisis of the Drug War.

Preface, 2001
A Note on Terminology and Spelling
Introduction

1 The Extent of Opiate Addiction

2 Addiction to Opium and Morphine

3 Addiction to Smoking Opium

4 Addiction to Heroin

5 The Transformation of Opiate Addict

6 Heroin in Postwar America

7 The Drug Wars

Appendix: Addiction Rate and City Size
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

[An] impeccably literate and acute analysis... One of the major themes of this book is that 'what we think about addiction very much depends on who is addicted.' This view is convincingly supported in a historical review that is both absorbing to read and extremely relevant to a general understanding of the social forces connected with opiate use.
— Martin Plant (British Medical Journal)

Dark Paradise...is an interesting account of the history of the use of opiates in the United States, which is relevant to any western country. Although this book would be of most interest to those in the drug and alcohol treatment and policy areas, it is important reading for anyone with an interest in the political, legal and treatment aspects of drug dependence. It shows clearly how politics play a crucial role in the sanctioning of drug use and the social effects of different approaches to addressing drug dependence...Dark Paradise is recommended reading for anyone interested in the history of opiate dependence. It is presented in a factual format, but with a human focus. Courtwright illustrates beautifully the impact of social and legislative changes on the individual with an opiate addiction while managing to avoid an emotive or "one-sided" account of events.
— Sandra Sunjic (Drug and Alcohol Review)

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The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times

2009-07-05T04:27:00.000-07:00

by Florian Ebeling, translated by David Lorton

Contents

Foreword by Jan Assmann

Introduction

I Prehistory and Early History of a Phantasm
1. What Are Hermetic Texts?
2. The Hermetic Texts of Late Antiquity
3. Hermes as Preacher of Theology and Philosophy
4. Hermes: Astrologer, Magus, and Alchemist
5. What Was Ancient Hermeticism?

II The Middle Ages: Christian Theology and “Antediluvian” Magic
1. Christian Hermeticism
2. Arab Hermeticism
3. Hermes Latinus
4. Traditions of Medieval Hermeticism

III Renaissance: Primeval Wisdom for a New World
1. Tradition or Rediscovery?
2. Hermeticism and Paracelsism
3. Religious Hermeticism
4. Two Paths of Hermeticism in the Early Modern Period

IV Seventeenth Century: High Point and Decline
1. Casaubon and the Dating of the Hermetic Texts
2. Hermeticism and the Modern Natural Sciences
3. Hermeticism and Pietism
4. The Decrepitude of Hermeticism?

V Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Between Occultism and Enlightenment
1. Two German Editions of the Corpus Hermeticum
2. Hermes Trismegistus in Freemasonry
3. From Historical to Systematic Hermeticism

VI Twentieth Century: Systems and Esoterica
1. Julius Evola and Esoteric Hermeticism
2. Umberto Eco’s Hermetic Semiosis and Heinrich Rombach’s Hermeticism

Chronology
Glossary
Select Bibliography
Index

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Starfire magazine • vol.1, no.5 • vol.2, no.1

2009-05-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Volume One Number Five

Contents

Foreword
It's An Ill Wind That Bloweth... / The Editors
Consciousness & Liber AL / Robert Taylor
Sanctum Sigillum / Paul Lowe
Zos: The New Flesh of Desire / Gavin W.Semple
Lam: The Gateway / Michael Staley
Wisdom for the New Flesh / Andrew D. Chumbley
Manifestations of Nu / Stephen Dziklewicz
Morningstar: The Tradition and Odyssey of Austin Osman Spare / Randall K. Holmes
Supping at the Angel & Feathers / Michael Staley
Zero Equals Two / Frater Siva, 77
In Nomine Babalon / The Serpents Kiss / Paul Lowe
Book Reviews
In Memoriam: Jeffrey Willis
Appointment Notice

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Volume Two Number One

Contents

Foreword
The Dreaming Attention / Paul Lowe
Bastrum-Enoi/Ast Rubi-Onem / Soror Pasht-akhti
Ghostly Amalgam / Michael Staley & Soror Artemis 656
Gerald Massey: His Life & Works / Rey Bowen
Magick for Fools / Margaret Ingalls
The Cult of the Divine Artist / Andrew D. Chumbley
Two Poems / Paul Lowe
Love Letters (for no-one that I loved) / Gavin W. Semple
The Gnostic Intensive / Zivorad Mihajlovic-Slavinski
The Lam-Serpent Sadhana / Michael Staley
Magick & Imagination / Robert Taylor
Marjorie Cameron: An Appreciation / Michael Staley
Reviews
Afterword

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Fei-Ling Davis • Primitive Revolutionaries of China, A Study of Secret Societies in the Late Nineteenth Century

2009-05-10T04:11:00.000-07:00

Contents

Prologue
Introduction
I.The ideological background to Chinese society, 1840-1912
II.The institutional background
III.Origins and formation of Chinese secret societies
IV.Purposes and activities
V.Recruitment and social composition
VI.Structure and organization
VII.Ritual
VIII.Sanctions
IX.Conclusions

Appendices

A)Rebellions and secret societies
B)Triad vocabulary
C)The Thirty-six Articles of the Oath Hung Chia San-shih-liu Che
D)Chinese associations in Havana, Cuba, 1967-8
E)List of other secret societies in the south operative in the late Ch'ing
Notes
Select bibliography
Index

«Last winter I read a book on the Chinese Tongs (Primitive Revolutionaries of China: A Study of Secret Societies in the Late Nineteenth Century, Fei-Ling Davis; Honolulu, 1971-77):— maybe the first ever written by someone who wasn't a British Secret Service agent!—(in fact, she was a Chinese socialist who died young—this was her only book)—& for the first time I realized why I' ve always been attracted to the Tong: not just for the romanticism, the elegant decadent chinoiserie decor, as it were—but also for the form, the structure, the very essence of the thing.» —— Hakim Bey, «The Tong».

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Peter Lamborn Wilson • Angels

2009-05-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

180 illustrations, 38 in color

«Most westerners, when they hear the word 'Angel', think of Christianity; many assume that only Christian artists have depicted them since Jewish law forbids all such representations. This is simply not so. Already we have seen Angels in classical myth and philosophy, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Islam.

Angels have played rather an ambigous role in Christianity. St.Paul bitterly attacked 'the worship of Angels which some enter into blindly, puffed up by their mere human minds' - which suggests the existence in his time of a cult of Angels. The Council of Nicaea in 325 declared belief in Angels a part of dogma, and apparently this caused an explosive renewal of the cult: in 343 the Synod Laodicaea condemned the worship of Angels as 'idolatry'. Finally in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Synod reinstated a carefully defined and limited cult of the Archangels which took root in the Eastern Church; in the West, however, the distrust of Angels remained stronger.»

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Bruno, Giordano, 1548-1600. [De imaginum, signorum et idearum compositione. English]

2009-05-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

It is impossible to place Giordano Bruno's De Imaginum, Signorum et Idearum Compositione in the straitjacket of one of the many categories and types of treatises, fictions, poems, and other genres of writing in which the clear-minded Renaissance rhetoricians and followers of Aristotle and Cicero thought that all types of speculative and creative activities could be divided.

The very personal and original nature of Giordano Bruno — his iconoclastic and rebellious nature that throughout a short and tumultuous life set him apart from and against the major religions of the time, and against most other established cultural and political institutions — should discourage from the start any attempt to “define” the De Imaginum... Compositione in any way other than as a fascinating and engrossing multi- and intermedia work whose symbolism is not to be read with the eyes of the body but with the eyes of the mind.

It is to be explored, searched, perused with the same amazement and wonder with which one would walk thorough a labyrinth, or inside a pyramid. The result of the experience is not going to be greater understanding — if by understanding we mean the rational, scientific and pragmatic type of understanding that we are commonly taught in philosophy courses — but an initiation into arcane mystery.

— Manfredi Piccolomini

On the composition of images, signs & ideas
/ by Giordano Bruno
translated by Charles Doria;
edited and annotated by Dick Higgins;
foreword by Manfredi Piccolomini.

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Marcus Boon • The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs

2009-04-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Contents

Prologue

1. Addicted to Nothingness: Narcotics and Literature

2. The Voice of the Blood: Anesthetics and Literature

3. The Time of the Assassins: Cannabis and Literature

4. Induced Life: Stimulants and Literature

5. The Imaginal Realms: Psychedelics and Literature

Epilogue

Bibliography
Notes
Acknowledgments
Illustration Credits
Index

poor quality scans, but quite readable
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Hugh B. Urban • Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism

2009-04-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

«This book offers a fascinating account of the development of Western sexual magic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Urban focuses on an extraordinary set of historical figures, and his rich analysis illuminates the sexual — and supernatural — undercurrents that have shaped modernity.» / Randall Styers, author of Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World

Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface, Acknowledgments, and Apologies

INTRODUCTION
Sex Magic, Modernity, and the Search for Liberation

1. THE RECURRING NIGHTMARE, THE ELUSIVE SECRET
Historical and Imaginary Roots of Sex Magic in the Western Tradition
2. SEX POWER IS GOD POWER
Paschal Beverly Randolph and the Birth of Sex Magic in Victorian America
3. THE YOGA OF SEX
Tantra, Kama Sutra, and Other Exotic Imports from the Mysterious Orient
4. THE BEAST WITH TWO BACKS
Aleister Crowley and Sex Magick in Late Victorian England
5. THE YOGA OF POWER
Sex Magic, Tantra, and Fascism in Twentieth-Century Europe
6. THE GODDESS AND THE GREAT RITE
Sex Magic and Feminism in the Neo-Pagan Revival
7. THE AGE OF SATAN
Satanic Sex and the Black Mass, from Fantasy to Reality
8. SEXUAL CHAOS
Chaos Magic, Cybersex, and Religion for a Postmodern Age

CONCLUSION
The Lessons of King Lamus: Religion, Sexuality, and Liberation in a "Post-Orgy" World

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

poor quality scans, but readable
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Aries • vol IX / no1 • 2009 • Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

2009-04-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

( vols VII & VIII | vols V & VI | vols III & IV | vols I & II )

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Demyan Belyaev
Zur Rolle des heterodoxen Wissens in Russland nach dem Zusammenbruch des kommunistischen Systems

Claudio Moreschini
Il commento al Corpus Hermeticum di François Foix-Candale: annotazioni storiche e filologiche

Jitse H.F. Dijkstra
Mysteries of the Nile? Joseph Scaliger and Ancient Egypt

Gregory R. Johnson
From Swedenborg’s Spiritual World to Kant’s Kingdom of Ends

Book Reviews

Raffaella Faggionato, A Rosicrucian Utopia in Eighteenth-Century Russia: The Masonic Circle of N.I. Novikov.

Katherine Barnes, The Higher Self in Christopher Brennan’s Poems.

Jonathan Peste, The Poimandres Group in Corpus Hermeticum: Myth, Mysticism and Gnosis in Late Antiquity.

Reimund Leicht, Astrologumena Judaica: Untersuchungen zur astrologischen Literatur der Juden.

Jean-Pierre Laurant, René Guénon: Les enjeux d’une lecture.

Elisabeth Heckmann et Michael Frensch, Valentin Tombergs Leben (1944–1973) mit Beiträgen von Wilhelm Maria Maas, Friederike Migneco und Ludmilla
Zimmermann.

Franz Sättler Musallam, Der Adept: Die zwölf Stufen des magischen Einweihungsweges.

Betty Bouthoul • Le Grand Maître Des Assassins

2009-03-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

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«...perhaps the most penetrating book on the real meaning of the mysteries which served the Master in his deadly purpose, is a volume in French signed Betty Bouthoul. The book in itself is a mystery and as such I gave it to my good friend William Burroughs a short time after he had published Naked Lunch, before 1960. I explained that I had met the author, a portrait painter in Parisian social circles. She was oddly vague about why she wrote the book or what her sources of research were. Her husband is Maitre Gaston Bouthoul, the lawyer for many of the most famous living painters and he is, at the same time, perhaps the only practicing adept of a very odd discipline indeed… the philosophy of war: polemology. Who else has there ever been in this branch? Clausewitz? Moltke?
Burroughs and I were living in those days in the famously infamous old Beat Hotel on the edge of the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank in Paris. We pored over the book, passing it back and forth. We read and reread it. The crux of the matter, of course, is: How did he do it? And, beyond that: What is the nature of power? Bouthoul teases the reader enough to make you feel that there must be an answer and in the answer lies the key to Control on this planet. Big stuff. Poor Tim Leary had not yet said: “The revolution is over and we have won,” but everyone around the Beat Hotel thought that when we put acid in the water supply, that would do it. Burroughs denounced the Garden of Delights as a pernicious weapon of Control, like junk, but we still harkened back to the echo from Alamut, asking ourselves: How did he do it?»
—Brion Gysin
«A Quick Trip to Alamut»
(Ultraculture Journal One)

Aries • vols VII & VIII • Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

2009-03-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

( vols V & VI | vols III & IV | vols I & II )

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vol.VII, no.1 2007
Special Issue on “Esotericism and Fiction”: The Horror of Disenchantment

Arthur McCalla
“Eternal Sun” / “Black Sun”: Illuminism and Disenchanted Romanticism

Antoine Faivre
Borrowings and Misreading: Edgar Allan Poe’s “Mesmeric” Tales and the Strange Case of their Reception

Marco Pasi
Arthur Machen’s Panic Fears: Western Esotericism and the Irruption of Negative Epistemology

Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Fiction in the Desert of the Real: Lovecraft ’s Cthulhu Mythos

vol. VII, no.2 2007

Radek Chlup
The Ritualization of Language in the Hermetica

Brendan French
Blavatsky, Dostoevskii, and Occult Starchestvo

Hélène Koehl-Krebs
Spiritisme et Piété Luthérienne en Toscane, avant le “Grand Marché”

Jean-Marc Mandosio
Problèmes et controverses: à propos de quelques publications récentes sur la magie au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance

vol. VIII, no.1 2008

Valery Rees
The Care of the Soul: States of Consciousness in the Writings of Marsilio Ficino

Glenn Alexander Magee
Hegel on the Paranormal: Altered States of Consciousness in the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit

C. J. Pevateaux
Widened Awareness: Allen Ginsberg’s Poetic Transmission of a Blakean Inflected Esoteric Dream-Insight

Leonardo Sacco
La tradizione taoista nel pensiero di René Guénon

vol. VIII, no.2 2008

Gerhard Mayer
Die Bedeutung von Tradition und Geheimnis für praktizierende Magier des 21. Jahrhunderts: Ergebnisse einer Interviewstudie

Egil Asprem
Magic Naturalized? Negotiating Science and Occult Experience in Aleister Crowley’s Scientific Illuminism

Pauline Chakmakjian
Theological Lying and Religious Radicalism in Anderson’s Constitutions

Antoine Faivre
“Éloquence magique”, ou descriptions des mondes de l’au-delà explorés par le magnétisme animal: Au carrefour de la Naturphilosophie romantique et de la théosophie chrétienne (première moitié du XIXème siècle).

Aries • vols V & VI • Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

2009-03-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

( vols III & IV | vols I & II )

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vol.V, no.1 2005

BENEDEK LÁNG
ANGELS AROUND THE CRYSTAL: THE PRAYER BOOK OF KING WLADISLAS AND THE TREASURE HUNTS OF HENRY THE BOHEMIAN

CLAUDIO MORESCHINI
L’ERMETISMO DEL RINASCIMENTO DA MARSILIO FICINO A LUDOVICO LAZZARELLI

MATTHEW D. ROGERS
THE ANGELICAL STONE OF ELIAS ASHMOLE

GARRY W. TROMPF
ISAAC NEWTON AND THE KABBALISTIC NOAH: NATURAL LAW BETWEEN MEDIAEVALIA AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

vol.V, no.2 2005

MELANIE ÖHLENBACH
LILIE, LICHT UND GOTTES WEISHEIT: PHILIPP OTTO RUNGE UND JACOB BÖHME

CLAIRE FANGER
VIRGIN TERRITORY: PURITY AND DIVINE KNOWLEDGE IN LATE MEDIEVAL CATOPTROMANTIC TEXTS

WOUTER J. HANEGRAAFF
FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE: ANTI-ESOTERIC POLEMICS AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH

PIERLUIGI ZOCCATELLI
NOTE A MARGINE DELL’INFLUSSO DI G.I. GURDJIEFF SU SAMAEL AUN WEOR

vol.VI, no.1 2006

ROBERT COLLIS
FREEMASONRY AND THE OCCULT AT THE COURT OF PETER THE GREAT

AURÉLIE CHONÉ
LES DRAMES-MYSTÈRES DE RUDOLF STEINER: TRANSCRIPTION LITTÉRAIRE D’UN SAVOIR ÉSOTÉRIQUE ET / OU TENTATIVE ÉSOTÉRIQUE DE RÉCONCILIATION ENTRE L’ART ET LA SCIENCE AU DÉBUT DU 20e SIÈCLE?

KOCKU VON STUCKRAD
VISUAL GODS: FROM EXORCISM TO COMPLEXITY IN RENAISSANCE STUDIES

vol.VI, no.2 2006

HEREWARD TILTON
OF ELECTRUM AND THE ARMOUR OF ACHILLES: MYTH AND MAGIC IN A MANUSCRIPT OF HEINRICH KHUNRATH (1560-1605)

DYLAN BURNS
THE CHALDEAN ORACLES OF ZOROASTER, HEKATE’S COUCH, AND PLATONIC ORIENTALISM IN PSELLOS AND PLETHON

EZIO ALBRILE
I PARGOLI DI AGATODEMONE: FRAMMENTI DI MITOLOGIE ALCHEMICHE

ANTOINE FAIVRE
KOCKU VON STUCKRAD ET LA NOTION D’ESOTERISME

Alain Mercier • Musique et correspondances cosmiques

2009-03-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Dans les sociétés primitives ou archaïques, il est bien connu que l'acte musical — associé à la danse et aux incantations — reste lié directement aux forces cosmiques. La musique accompagne la célébration des rites saisonniers, rythme les successives transformations de la nature, appelle la pluie bienfaisante et les dons du ciel.

Au-delà de cette simple magie sonore, les civilisations plus évoluées élaborent des systèmes plus ou moins complexes de correspondances entre la musique et les divers aspects du monde extérieur.

Aries • vols III & IV • Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

2009-03-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

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(vols I & II)

vol.III, no.1

CHRISTINE MAILLARD
ALCHIMIE ET HÉTÉRODOXIE: CRITIQUES ET MISES EN CAUSE DU “CHRISTIANISME CHYMIQUE” DANS L’ESPACE GERMANIQUE AU XVIIe SIÈCLE

ANTOINE FAIVRE
ELIE ARTISTE, OU LE MESSIE DES PHILOSOPHES DE LA NATURE (seconde partie)

CATHY GUTIERREZ
FROM ELECTRICITY TO ECTOPLASM: HYSTERIA AND AMERICAN SPIRITUALISM

HELMUT ZANDER
SPIRITISMUS IN DEUTSCHLAND

vol.III, no.2

MONIKA NEUGEBAUER-WÖLK
ESOTERIK UND CHRISTENTUM VOR 1800: PROLEGOMENA ZU EINER BESTIMMUNG IHRER DIFFERENZ

FRANK KLAASSEN
MEDIEVAL RITUAL MAGIC IN THE RENAISSANCE

URSZULA SZULAKOWSKA
THE APOCALYPTIC EUCHARIST AND RELIGIOUS DISSIDENCE IN STEFAN MICHELSPACHER’S "CABALA: SPIEGEL DER KUNST UND NATUR, IN ALCHYMIA" (1616)

MARCO PASI
THE NEVERENDINGLY TOLD STORY: RECENT BIOGRAPHIES OF ALEISTER CROWLEY

vol.IV, no.1

JOACHIM TELLE
EINE DEUTSCHE ALCHIMIA PICTA DES 17. JAHRHUNDERTS: BEMERKUNGEN ZU DEM VERS/BILD-TRAKTAT "VON DER HERMETISCHEN KUNST" VON JOHANN AUGUSTIN BRUNNHOFER UND ZU SEINEN KOMMENTIERTEN FASSUNGEN IM "BUCH DER WEISHEIT" UND IM "HERMAPHRODITISCHEN SONN- UND MONDS-KIND"

KONSTANTIN BURMISTROV, MARIA ENDEL
THE PLACE OF KABBALAH IN THE DOCTRINE OF RUSSIAN FREEMASONS

NICHOLAS GOODRICK-CLARKE
THE ESOTERIC USES OF ELECTRICITY: THEOLOGIES OF ELECTRICITY FROM SWABIAN PIETISM TO ARIOSOPHY

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE
DIANA REDUX: RETOUR SUR L’AFFAIRE LÉO TAXIL – DIANA VAUGHAN

vol.IV, no.2

KYLE A. FRASER
ZOSIMOS OF PANOPOLIS AND THE BOOK OF ENOCH: ALCHEMY AS FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

ANDREAS B. KILCHER
THE MOSES OF SINAI AND THE MOSES OF EGYPT: MOSES AS MAGICIAN IN JEWISH LITERATURE AND WESTERN ESOTERICISM

ANDREW PRESCOTT
STUART FREEMASONRY: RESTORING THE TEMPLE OF VISION?

MARSHA KEITH SCHUCHARD
RESPONSE TO PRESCOTT’S REVIEW

ANDREW PRESCOTT
SEARCHING FOR WELSH INDIANS

O.T.O. curriculum: Le cabinet secret du Musée royal de Naples

2009-03-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Le cabinet secret du Musée royal de Naples : peintures, bronzes et statues érotiques
/ préface et explications par le colonel Famin.

Facsimile de l'édition originale: Paris, 1857.

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Aries • vols I & II • Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

2009-03-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

Aries is a peer-reviewed journal publishing articles and book reviews in English, French, German and Italian.

Aries is the first professional academic journal specifically devoted to a long-neglected but now rapidly developing new domain of research in the humanities, usually referred to as Western Esotericism . This field covers a variety of alternative currents in Western religious history, including the revival of hermetism and the so-called occult philosophy in the early modern period as well as its later developments; alchemy, paracelsianism and rosicrucianism; christian kabbalah and its later developments; theosophical and illuminist currents; and various occultist and related developments during the 19th and 20th centuries, up to and including popular contemporary currents such as the New Age movement.

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vol.I, no.1

WOUTER J. HANEGRAAFF
BEYOND THE YATES PARADIGM: THE STUDY OF WESTERN ESOTERICISM BETWEEN COUNTERCULTURE AND NEW COMPLEXITY

JOHN F. MOFFITT
CRYPTOGRAPHY AND ALCHEMY IN THE WORK OF MARCEL DUCHAMP AND WALTER ARENSBERG

NATALE SPINETO
MIRCEA ELIADE AND TRADITIONALISM

CAROLE FROSIO
L'ÉSOTERISME ENTRE HISTOIRE ET TRADITION

vol.I,no.2

JOSEPH DAN
MEDIEVAL JEWISH INFLUENCES ON RENAISSANCE CONCEPTS OF HARMONIA MUNDI

STÉPHANE TOUSSAINT
LA "SCIENCE DES SPECTRES" DE PIERRE LE LOYER (1605), LECTEUR DE MARSILE FICIN ET DE JEAN PIC: NOTES DE "PHILOSOPHIA OCCULTA" AUX XVIe-XVIIe SIÈCLES

BRENDAN FRENCH
THE MERCURIAN MASTER: HERMES' GIFT TO THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

MIRKO SLADEK
FASZINATION ZARATHUSHTRA

vol.II, no.1

HEREWARD TILTON
REGNI CHRISTI FRATER: COUNT MICHAEL MAIER AND THE FRATERNITY R.C.

JULIETTE VAN DEN ELSEN
THE ROTTERDAM SYMPATHY CASE (1696-1697) A WINDOW ON THE LATE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE

GYÖRGY E. SZONYI
JOHN DEE AND EARLY MODERN OCCULT PHILOSOPHY

vol.II, no.2

ANTOINE FAIVRE
ELIE ARTISTE, OU LE MESSIE DES PHILOSOPHES DE LA NATURE (première partie)

NOEL L. BRANN
TRITHEMIUS, CUSANUS, AND THE WILL TO THE INFINITE: A PRE-FAUSTIAN PARADIGM

SÉBASTIEN CLERBOI
L’INFLUENCE DE LA PENSÉE OCCULTISTE SUR LE SYMBOLISME BELGE: BILAN CRITIQUE D’UNE “AFFINITÉ SPIRITUELLE” À LA FIN DU 19e SIÈCLE

HILARY GATTI
FRANCES YATES’S HERMETIC RENAISSANCE IN THE DOCUMENTS HELD IN THE WARBURG INSTITUTE ARCHIVE

Kenneth Grant • Outer Gateways

2009-03-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

As Aleister Crowley's last magical student at Netherwood in the 1940's, Kenneth Grant has upheld a proud occult tradition through a lifetime of study practice and writing. This latest book is not only for experienced students of the occult; it is also excellent for those who are new to Grant's work. Here is Grant moving through magic and beyond to a new and controversial view of human evolution and the ultimate goal of Undivided Consciousness. Topics include the primal grimoire the unfamiliar spirit and the fourth power of the sphinx along with aspects of dream control and the wisdom of S'lba.

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Peter Lamborn Wilson • Iblis, The Black Light: Satanism in Islam

2009-02-18T16:53:00.000-08:00

«Allah is characterized by ninety-nine names, among them “the Tyrant” and “the Wily One.” Certain qualities associated by Christianity with “evil” are thus divinized by the Koran as attributes of God's majestic or “terrible” aspect. In this context, Satan cannot aspire to a separate or substantial autonomy — his power cannot oppose Allah's but must instead derive from and complement it. Islam admits no “original sin,” only forgetfulness of the Real; likewise, cosmos/nature cannot be considered “evil” in itself, since it is a reflection or aspect of the Real. But precisely because cosmos/nature reflects the divine all-possibility, it must also include the “terrible” possibilities of negation and illusion, including the existence of Iblis.

In the Koran and accepted Traditions (ahadith), Satan is said to be made of fire like the djinn, not of light like the angels. Nevertheless, he is also the Angel Azazel, preacher to all the angels in preeternity, seated beneath the Throne in glory. When God creates the form of Adam and commands the angels to bow to him (because only the human is truly microcosmic), only Azazel refuses. He claims the proud superiority of fire (the psychic) over clay (the material). For this God curses him, Azazel becomes Iblis, and all proceeds more or less as in Genesis.»

Aleister Crowley's essays on the Psychology of Hashish

2009-02-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

ROLL AWAY THE STONE:
An Introduction to Aleister Crowley's
essays on the Psychology of Hashish
by Israel Regardie

with complete text of
THE HERB DANGEROUS
by Aleister Crowley

«Where there is no vision the people perish.» — Proverbs, xxix, 15

«I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet,& be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self.» — Liber Legis, II, 22

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Querini's Philosophical Garden at Altichiero

2009-02-18T15:27:00.000-08:00

Patrizia Granziera
Enlightenment and Freemasonry in Eighteenth-century Venice:
The Hermeticism of Querini's Garden at Altichiero

Edward Burman • The Assassins: Holy Killers of Islam

2009-02-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

Islam has fostered many revolutionary movements, but none so fascinating to the West, perhaps, as the Assassins — the sect whose members dedicated themselves with unquestioning obedience to acts of political murder.

Until the twentieth century knowledge of the Assassins was based largely on hostile sources — Crusaders who viewed their suicidal courage with awe and Moslems who regarded them as dangerous heretics. Modern scholarship, however, has slowly peeled away the layers of secrecy and distortion and it is now possible to see the Isma'ilis — the sect of which the Assassins were a branch — in a more objective light.

Edward Burman draws on this research, and his own detailed knowledge of the Middle East, to present an engrossing history of the Assassins, from their rise in the twelfth century under the dynamic leadership of Hasan-i Sabbah and Rashid al-Din Sinan (the «Old Man of the Mountains») to their defeat, decline and eventual re-emergence in India in the nineteenth century. He also documents the impact of the Assassins on the Western imagination and finally lays to rest many of the myths and legends that have grown up around them.

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A∴A∴ curriculum: LX • CCCXXV • CDXV

2009-02-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

Liber LX The Ab-Ul-Diz Working
Liber CCCXXV The Bartzabel Working
Liber CDXV The Paris Working

Mark Morrisson • Modern Alchemy, Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory

2009-02-16T19:03:00.001-08:00

Mark Morrisson challenges the widespread dismissal of alchemy as a largely insignificant historical footnote to science by prying into the revival of alchemy and its influence on the emerging subatomic sciences of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Specifically, Morrisson examines the resurfacing of occult circles during this time period and how their interest in alchemical tropes had a substantial and traceable impact upon the science of the day. Modern Alchemy chronicles several encounters between occult conceptions of alchemy and the new science, describing how academic chemists, inspired by the alchemy revival, attempted to transmute the elements; to make gold. Examining scientists publications, correspondence, talks, and laboratory notebooks as well as the writings of occultists, alchemical tomes, and science-fiction stories, he argues that during the birth of modern nuclear physics, the trajectories of science and occultism—so often considered antithetical—briefly merged.

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Randall G. Styers • Making Magic: Religion, Magic and Science in the Modern World

2009-02-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

In Making Magic, Randall Styers seeks to account for the extraordinary vitality of scholarly discourse purporting to define and explain magic despite its failure to do just that. He argues that this persistence can best be explained in light of the Western drive to establish and secure distinctive norms for modern identity, norms based on narrow forms of instrumental rationality, industrious labor, rigidly defined sexual roles, and the containment of wayward forms of desire. Magic has served to designate a form of alterity or deviance against which dominant Western notions of appropriate religious piety, legitimate scientific rationality, and orderly social relations are brought into relief. Scholars have found magic an invaluable tool in their efforts to define the appropriate boundaries of religion and science. On a broader level, says Styers, magical thinking has served as an important foil for modernity itself. Debates over the nature of magic have offered a particularly rich site at which scholars have worked to define and to contest the nature of modernity and norms for life in the modern world.

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C O N T E N T S

INTRODUCTION:
Magic and Modernity • Magic and the Boundaries of Religion • Magic and the Modern Subject • Magic and Social Control • Magic and the Critique of Modernity • Magicians in Search of Revenge.

1 THE EMERGENCE OF MAGIC IN MODERN WORLD:
Early Modern Witchcraft and Magic • The Reformation of Western Religion • Opposition to the Persecutions •Mechanical Views of Nature • Natural Religion and the Enlightenment War on Superstition • Colonialism and Comparative Theories of Culture • Theories of Religion and Religious Evolution.

2 MAGIC AND THE REGULATION OF PIETY:
The Origin of Religion • Fetishism and Other Early Theories • Animism • The Despair of Magic • Primitive High Gods • Mana and the Magico-Religious • Totemism and Clan Gods • Decline of the Search for Origins • Recent Accounts of Religious Development • The Essence of Religion • Transcendence • Submission • Divine Volition • Morality • Conformity • “Where Your Treasure Is”.

3 MAGIC AND THE REGULATION OF REASON:
Do Natives Think? • Theories of the Primitive Philosopher • Theories of a Primitive Mentality • Theories of Psychic Unity • Theories of Primitive Ingenuity • Theories of Primitive Expressiveness • Medieval Magic and Modern Science • Scientific Triumphalism • The Role of Religion • The Role of Magic • Science as Sui Generis •
The Morality of Inquiry.

4 MAGIC AND THE REGULATION OF DESIRE:
Desire and the Subject • Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts • Magic and Realistic Action • Magic and Intersubjective Power • The Desires of the Magician • The “Impostor Who Is His Own Dupe” • Magicians and Their Deviance • Desire and Social Order • Magic and the Birth of Order • Magic and the Stagnation of Culture • Magic and the Threat of Anarchy • Magic as Contemporary Menace • Magic and the Margins • Magic and the Channeling of Power • Magic and Colonial Control • Magic and the Domestic Terrain • Magic and the Subversion of Markets.

CONCLUSION