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title

pp.

6.

Mediaeval Magic and Sorcery

100-28

6.1

Hairesy & Dissenters

100-4

6.4

Magic, Cosmology and Early Science

110-6

6.5

The Hermetic Revival

117-20

6.6

Spiritual Dimensions of Alchemy

121-4

6.7

Mediaeval Goeteia

125-8

6.1

Hairesy & Dissenters

100-4

p. 102

"Cathars were ... Christians who ... believed that all the principal figures in the Old Testament, and also John the Baptist in the New Testament, were demons. ...

{This is the direct reverse of the Manda<i (>aramaic for 'Knower, Gnostic') of Iran and of <iraq, who reject Yis^u< (Iesous) as evil, but glorify Yuh.anan (Ioannes) the Baptist.}

The Cathars did not believe that

a holy Christ

{i.e., aspect of the Godhead as membre of the divine Trinity}

could assume a flesh-bound form ... . They also rejected ... the use of bread and wine in the Eucharist. The cross was of no account either ... .

p. 103

The Cathars distinguished between ... the perfecti ... and ordinary believers (credenti). The perfecti were initiated by ... "h{a}eretication." ...

The ordinary credenti received it only when death was near." (O'Grady 1985, pp. 69-70)

{So that it was the aequivalent to the Catholic sacrament of extreme unction : likewise in the early Catholic Church, for imperator Constantinus received the Catholic sacraments only when he was dying.}

p. 103

"by night they see most fair queens ... and maidens ... leading the dances with the ... Elves, and

p. 104

believe that the latter transform men and women into other shapes and conduct then to Elvelond, where now dwell those mighty champions

Onewone and Wade".

{"Unewyn(e)-Onewone I take to refer to the Unwen of Widsid 114 while we also have ... the story of Wade" (Brett 1919, p. 1).}

6.4

Magic, Cosmology and Early Science

110-6

p. 111

"Albertus Magnus (1206-80), Count of Bollstadt, was born in the town of Lauingen in Swabia. He ... became Bishop of of Ratisbon, and was mentor to St. Thomas Aquinas ... . ... Albertus believed that engraved gems had magical powers, and he regarded astrology as the basis of ... divination. However, this was for the ... reason that, just as Aristotle had decreed, celestial bodies were seen to govern all things on earth."

p. 112

[quoted from Seligman 1971, p. 145 :] "Albertus had ... in spite of the fact that it was midwinter ... fragrant flowers."

{Though mention of a greenhouse is omitted from this account, it is sure to have been employed by Albertus Magnus. Already in the early Roman Empire, "Columella describes use of mica (translucent) sheets to protect plants and temper sunlight for young plants" ("HGD").}

"The Book of Secrets -- a work ... to describe the "virtues of herbs, stones and certain beasts," ... was composed and assembled by ... his followers. ... It was translated into ... Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, and English ..., and its popularity continued until Elizabethan and early Stuart times."

"There be seven herbs that have great virtues ... of the influence of the planets ...

Daffodillus

(Saturn);

Polygonum {'many-knees' : knotweed}

(Sun);

Chynostates {Salvia sclarea : eyebright (AMBS)}

(Moon);

Arnoglossus {'lamb's tongue'} or Plaintain

(Mars);

Pentaphyllon or Cinquefoil

(Mercury);

Jusquiamus, or Henbane

(Jupiter) and

Verbena or Vervain

(Venus)."

p. 113

"Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) was born ... in Cologne. ... An attendant to Maximilian I, Agrippa ... wrote the first version of De Occulta Philosophia in Germany around 1509-10 ... . ... Agrippa published De Occulta Philosophia ... in Antwerp in 1533 ... . ...

p. 114

In De Occulta Philosophia, Agrippa divides the universe into the elemental world, the celestial world, and the intellectual world, each receiving influences from the one above it. The virtue ... descends via the archangels to the intellectual world, then is transmitted to the stars in the celestial world, and finally it filters down into the physical world where it permeates the elements ... . De Occulta Philosophia is divided into three books. The first is about natural magic ... in the elemental world; the second is about the magic of the stars and how to utilize it; and the third is about ceremonial magic ... involving angelic spirits."

p. 114

"Paracelsus (1493-1541) ... Born ... in Einsiedeln, near Zurich, ... spent his childhood in Villach in Carinthia, ... but ... received his doctorate ... at the University of Ferrara in northern Italy ... . ... Paracelsus subsequently accepted a position as ... professor of medicine at Basle in 1526."

p. 115

"Paracelsus studied with Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim, who had instructed Cornelius Agrippa in the magical traditions. [Pachter [1951], p. 76] ...

Nevertheless, he did believe that sacred names, magical motifs, and astrological symbols could be inscribed on lamens (magical talismans) and then hung around the patient's neck at the appropriate astrological time as part of an effective medical cure. By way of explanation, Paracelsus wrote : "Characters, Letters and Signes have several virtues and operations, wherewith also the nature of Metals, the condition of Heaven, and the influence of the Planets, with their operations, and the significations and proprieties of Characters, Signs and Letters, and the observations of the times, do concur and agree together. ...""

"he called the spirits of fire

acthnici,

the spirits of air

nenufareni,

the spirits of water

melosinae, and

the spirits of earth

pigmaci."

"Dr. John Dee (1527-1608) ... calculated an auspicious date for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I, having been commissioned to do this by Lord Robert Dudley on the instructions of the queen. [Fell-Smith 2004]

Following a meeting with a magician named Jerome Cardan in England in 1552, Dee became interested in the conjuration of spirits".

György Endre Szőnyi : John Dee's Occultism : Magical Exaltation .... Albany : State Univ of NY Pr, 2005.

Deborah E. Harkness : John Dee's Conversations with Angels. Cambridge Univ Pr, 1999.

6.5

The Hermetic Revival

117-20

p. 117

"In 1460 a monk named Leonardo da Pistoia brought with him to Florence the Greek manuscripts ... known collectively as the Corpus Hermeticum, or Hermetica. These particular texts had been found in Macedonia and were presented to Cosimo de Medici, who ... passed the manuscripts to ... Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), and requested that he translate them into Latin. This work was completed in 1463".

"Ficino felt that ... the Corpus Hermeticum text was divinely inspired :

[quoted from Shumaker [1972], p. 202 :] They called {him}

Trismegistus {Tris-megistos} thrice great{est : /isto-/ being the superlative affix}

{Not Hermes (who is a myriad times so), but rather Platon, is designated simply "thrice-great" (Z:OO 8 -- ThGH--E&F, p. 276).}

because he was pre-eminent as the greatest philosopher, the greatest priest, and the greatest king. As Plato writes, it was a custom among the Egyptians to choose priests from among the philosophers, and kings from the company of priests."

p. 118

"For Ficino ... writes ... :

[quoted from Shumaker [1972], p. 203 :] Mercury ["i.e., Hermes Trismegistus"] knows how to instruct ... in divine matters. ... The work is therefore to be accomplished by a divine light ... poured into a soul".

p. 118

"Hermes had already been endorsed by ... Saint Augustine and the fifth-century Christian poet Lactantius,

{These two authors were referring to the Christian book Shepherd of Hermas.}

so it would have seemed quite acceptable to Ficino to combine Greek mystical philosophy and Christianity. ...

p. 119

Ficino's work with the Corpus Hermeticum was developed by Giovanni Pico, Count of Mirandola (1463-94), who ... combined Ficino's Hermetic Neoplatonism with ... Christianity, and "high magic" (mageia)."

p. 120

"As Hermes Trismegistus says in the Asclepius, in a text which was also quoted by Pico :

[quoted from Churton 1987, p. 112 :] He takes in the nature of a god ... .

He is united to the gods because he has the divinity pertaining to gods ... . ...

He is at the same time everything as he is everywhere.

Similarly we read in the Corpus Hermeticum [libellus XIII] :

I see myself to be the All.

I am in heaven and in earth ...; I am in beasts and plants;

I am a babe in the womb, and one that is not yet conceived, and one that has been born;

I am present everywhere."

6.6

Spiritual Dimensions of Alchemy

121-4

"The fourth-century alchemical writer Zosimus of Panopolis (Akhmim) in Egypt maintained that a person named Chemes ... had authored a book of supernaturally inspired instruction called Chema ... . However, it is thought that

the Greek word chyma, meaning to fuse or cast metals,

{Surely this world must be the source of the Latin /humo/ ('I cover with soil, I interr') through the specialization 'I fuse with the soil, I cast into the underground'.}

established itself ... as ... the ... term".

p. 121

"As the sixteenth-century Moravian alchemist Michael Sendigovius writes in The New Chemical Light :

[quoted from Redgrove 1922, p. 10 :] "this natural world is only an image and a material copy of a heavenly and spiritual pattern; ... the

p. 122

very existence of this world is based upon the reality of its celestial archetype; ... in imitation of the spiritual and invisible universe ... . Thus the Sage sees heaven reflected in Nature as in a mirror; and he pursues this Art ... for the love of ... the mysteries of heaven".

[quoted in Berthelot 1893, vol. 2, p. 262] "What is the adage of the philosophers? Know thyself! This refers to the intellectual and cognitive mirror ... the Divine and original Intellect ... . He sees God within himself."

planet

its metal

Sun

gold

Moon

silver

Mercury

quicksilver

Venus

copper

Mars

iron

Jupiter

tin

Saturn

lead

[quoted from Burckhardt 1971, p. 97] "The form of the soul thus "born again" is nevertheless distinguishable from the all-embracing Spirit ... . But at the same it is transparent to the undifferentiated Light of the Spirit and its vital union with the primordial materia of all souls, for the ... "substantial" ground of the soul ... has a unitary nature."

6.7

Mediaeval Goeteia

125-8

"the archangel Michael presented him with a magical ring ... that had the power to bind demons.

{Theseus praesented the ring (GM 98.j).}

More than 36 demons could be harnessed

{the 36 dekanoi, of 10 degrees each, of the zodiac?}

through this ring, and King Solomon was said to have used some of their magical powers".

{This ring belonged to king Minos (GM 98.i).}

"draw the secret seal of Solomon ... with the blood of a black cock. ...

{A cock was immolated "to Asklepios" (Platon : Phaidon 118a -- "AC").}

Wearing ... a girdle of lion's skin around his waist ... ."

{This was the skin of the Nemean Lion, worn by Heraklees (GM 123.g).}