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Medieval Precursors

Nevill Drury

in Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic

This chapter gives an exploration of the most significant elements that have shaped modern Western magic: the medieval Kabbalah, the Hermetic tradition, Alchemy, and the Tarot. The Kabbalah provided ... More

This chapter gives an exploration of the most significant elements that have shaped modern Western magic: the medieval Kabbalah, the Hermetic tradition, Alchemy, and the Tarot. The Kabbalah provided modern magical practice with its central motif—the Tree of Life—a multiple symbol encompassing ten spheres, or sephiroth, with interconnecting paths. The Kabbalistic Tree delineates the spiritual terrain accessed by the practicing occultist in the quest for transcendence. The Hermetic tradition and the spiritual aspects of medieval Alchemy have also been influential. Hermetic mageia, or high magic, sought to provide humanity with access to the inner workings of Nature and the cosmos—man could not only come to know God but could also become a type of god himself—while Alchemy affirmed, as the Hermetic texts had similarly conveyed, that the Universal Mind is indivisible and unites all things in the material universe. Various precious metals provided a metaphor for the process of personal transformation—gold symbolized the highest development in Nature and came to personify human renewal, or regeneration. Finally, within the context of modern Western magic the medieval Tarot has been employed primarily as a meditative device, rather than as a tool of prophecy. In the nineteenth century, French occultist Eliphas Lévi suggested that the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana—the mythological cards of the Tarot—could be directly attributed to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and he linked them in turn to the interconnecting paths on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Lévi’s proposal was taken up by members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and has influenced magical practice ever since.Less

Affective Alchemy: W. B. Yeats and the Transformative Heresy of Joy

Wendy J. Truran

in The Edinburgh Companion to Irish Modernism

Yeats’s project was to transform sorrow into joy, an affective alchemy that produces vitalizing effects on the body and the mind. This chapter uses his poem “Vacillation” to demonstrate the ... More

Yeats’s project was to transform sorrow into joy, an affective alchemy that produces vitalizing effects on the body and the mind. This chapter uses his poem “Vacillation” to demonstrate the difference between two kinds of joy: sensual and divine, both of which fuel creativity. Yeats believed that poetry could unify the material and the immaterial, the human and the divine.Less

Undisturbed by Reality: Victor Frankenstein’s Technoscientific Dream of Reason

Alfred Nordmann

in Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature shows that the premodern, alchemical dream of animating lifeless things returns ... More

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature shows that the premodern, alchemical dream of animating lifeless things returns after science has studied its “realities of little worth.” If Frankenstein speaks to us today, it is because today’s technosciences carry forward the alchemical dream. Whereas science requires a calm and peaceful state of mind, Victor’s technoscience – then and now – is driven by a supernatural enthusiasm. Accordingly we may find that even the supposedly ordinary nanotechnologies and materials sciences of our day and age are not “befitting the human mind” – long before one seeks to create artificial life. Less

Magic, Astrology, and Alchymy

Edward William Lane and Jason Thompson

in An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians

This chapter opens with an explanation of the distinction held by learned Muslims between “spiritual” magic, effected by angels and jinn, and “natural” or “deceptive magic,” induced by drugs or ... More

This chapter opens with an explanation of the distinction held by learned Muslims between “spiritual” magic, effected by angels and jinn, and “natural” or “deceptive magic,” induced by drugs or perfumes for example. It discusses who could practise it and relates tales of magic performed by famous magicians. It moves on briefly to alchemy (which is said to require good knowledge of chemistry) and astrology, both of which were widely studied in Egypt. Astrology includes geomancy, the signs of the zodiac, determining auspicious periods of time, and was used for purposes such as determining if two people will make a good marriage match.Less

Jacob Boehme’s Spiritual Alchemy of Rebirth

Mike A. Zuber

in Spiritual Alchemy: From Jacob Boehme to Mary Anne Atwood

This chapter presents the first fully developed spiritual alchemy as encountered in the later works of Jacob Boehme, including his Signatura rerum of 1622. In his earliest work of 1612, Aurora, ... More

This chapter presents the first fully developed spiritual alchemy as encountered in the later works of Jacob Boehme, including his Signatura rerum of 1622. In his earliest work of 1612, Aurora, alchemy did not yet play a role, and rebirth had not yet acquired its distinct shape. That changed as Boehme gained access to networks of correspondents and supporters who introduced him to alchemical terminology and the notion of rebirth as developed by Valentin Weigel and others. In works composed between 1619 and 1622, Boehme frequently used alchemical language to describe rebirth, thus formulating the spiritual alchemy of rebirth. For him the ubiquitous body of Christ was the philosophers’ stone and the subtle body of the new birth at once.Less

Abraham von Franckenberg and the Ancient Wisdom of Rebirth

Mike A. Zuber

in Spiritual Alchemy: From Jacob Boehme to Mary Anne Atwood

This chapter shows how the Silesian nobleman Abraham von Franckenberg linked Jacob Boehme’s spiritual alchemy to the idea of ancient wisdom, as exemplified by the gnostic church father Valentinus. ... More

This chapter shows how the Silesian nobleman Abraham von Franckenberg linked Jacob Boehme’s spiritual alchemy to the idea of ancient wisdom, as exemplified by the gnostic church father Valentinus. Franckenberg himself experienced a crisis of faith in 1617 and discovered the heterodox devotional literature of his day upon his religious awakening. In the early 1620s, he read many of Boehme’s works in manuscript and met with their author in person repeatedly. Soon after Boehme’s death, Franckenberg composed an epistolary treatise that defended Valentinus against his detractors and presented him as a model Christian who had experienced rebirth. Much like Boehme, Franckenberg described this as spiritual alchemy. In later writings, he frequently alluded to concepts of his spiritual alchemy yet never again presented it as fully as in his early Theophrastia Valentiniana.Less

Alchemy and the Art-Nature Debate

in Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature

This chapter examines alchemy and the art–nature debate. The topic of equaling nature by fooling the eye or of outdoing nature's power by producing an object more aesthetically appealing than any in ... More

This chapter examines alchemy and the art–nature debate. The topic of equaling nature by fooling the eye or of outdoing nature's power by producing an object more aesthetically appealing than any in the natural world found ample representation in areas ranging from the making of perfumes to the Zeuxian melding of bodily features to produce a perfect female. The debate around the legitimacy of alchemy provided a focal point for the consideration of human art in general. The basis of Avicenna's argument against specific transmutation is probably to be found in his overall theory of generation and mixture. As the apex of human artistry, alchemy serves as the high-water mark against which demonic power must be measured. This use of alchemy as the symbol of man's ability to alter the natural world would have far-reaching consequences.Less

‘There are no demons’: faith and metaphysical desire

Alex Wylie

in Geoffrey Hill's Later Work: Radiance of Apprehension

This chapter examines the relationship between belief and “metaphysical fantasy” as Hill conceives it in his later work. The chapter argues that such fantasy, or metaphysical desire as it is termed ... More

This chapter examines the relationship between belief and “metaphysical fantasy” as Hill conceives it in his later work. The chapter argues that such fantasy, or metaphysical desire as it is termed elsewhere in the book, is at the heart of Hill’s later conception of poetic energy and human values at large – and, fundamentally, that such a conception is a tortured and tortuous one. The influence of Gerard Manley Hopkins on the later work is discussed, and there is a further examination of Hill’s sense of the human will, this time in relation to the fall, drawing on such Christian thinkers as St Augustine, Martin Luther and Karl Barth. The chapter concludes with a consideration of Hill’s sense that reality is “like fiction”, and that the religious sense of his later work is fired by this difficult conclusion – difficult particularly for someone who rejects postmodern relativism.Less

Spirituality and Religious Traditions in Beat Literature

David Stephen Calonne

in The Beats: A Teaching Companion

This essay explicates a Beat fascination with esoteric religious traditions, including astrology, alchemy, and Gnosticism, illuminating heterodoxies characterizing countercultural minorities from ... More

This essay explicates a Beat fascination with esoteric religious traditions, including astrology, alchemy, and Gnosticism, illuminating heterodoxies characterizing countercultural minorities from antiquity to the present and shaping the Beat imagination. Calonne presents detailed readings of the poetry of Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, and Michael McClureLess

Saving Perfection from the Alchemists: Shakespeare’s Use of Alchemy

Margaret Jones-Davies

in Spectacular Science, Technology and Superstition in the Age of Shakespeare

In this chapter devoted to the “abstract riddles” of alchemy (Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, 2.1.104), Margaret Jones-Davies argues that Shakespeare uses the poetics of alchemy at a time when it begins ... More

In this chapter devoted to the “abstract riddles” of alchemy (Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, 2.1.104), Margaret Jones-Davies argues that Shakespeare uses the poetics of alchemy at a time when it begins to be on the wane as a “science.” Perfecting nature was the aim of alchemy. But in the Renaissance, the literal reading of the power of alchemy was being questioned (Rabelais, Erasmus, Jonson…). And yet, Jones-Davies explains that no matter how cruel the satire, but also the persecutions, against some alchemists had become, the influence of alchemy remained active on a figurative level as hermetic philosophy came to acquire a political importance as the basis of a new religious language, freed from the fanaticism of the warring parties. Now, however much Shakespeare shared Rabelais’ and Erasmus’ irony against alchemical lore, he did not extend his scepticism to the ideal of perfection, which he expressed through alchemical imagery and numerology, more particularly in the Histories and the Romances. Alchemy doesn’t work miracles, Jones-Davies notes, but by lending its language to the ideal of perfection, it certainly creates wonder. Shakespeare Less

From New Alchemy to Living Machines: John Todd’s Dreams of Ecological Engineering

Michael R. Dietrich and Laura L. Lovett

in Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences

When John Todd, Nancy Todd, and William McLarney set up the New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod in the late 1960s, they wanted to scientifically rethink how we live, produce food, build shelters, ... More

When John Todd, Nancy Todd, and William McLarney set up the New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod in the late 1960s, they wanted to scientifically rethink how we live, produce food, build shelters, generate energy, and process waste. It was a bold dream. As ecologists working at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, John Todd and William McLarney harnessed their expertise in ecological systems and aquaculture to make the New Alchemy Institute into a research laboratory for sustainable living. While the Institute closed in 1991, the Todds took the ecological innovations that they discovered on Cape Cod to create Living Machines capable of large-scale remediation of polluted water systems. In doing so they created a radically biologically-based alternative to established systems of industrial water remediation. The chapter will examine the conditions that allowed for this radical departure from the received approach, and ask what it was that prepared Todd to become the visionary of his field.Less

A Quest for Permanence: The Ecological Visioneering of John Todd and the New Alchemy Institute

Henry Trim

in Groovy Science: Knowledge, Innovation, and American Counterculture

This chapter examines the visioneering of John Todd and the New Alchemy Institute. In the 1970s this group of counterculture scientists and back to the land advocates founded their own scientific ... More

This chapter examines the visioneering of John Todd and the New Alchemy Institute. In the 1970s this group of counterculture scientists and back to the land advocates founded their own scientific institute on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Merging scientific research with a compelling vision of a sustainable “space ship earth,” the Institute straddled the supposed boundary between NASA research and countercultural rebellion. Guided by their charismatic leader, Dr John Todd, the New Alchemists deftly drew financial and political support from the Canadian government and prestigious institutions while working closely with Stewart Brand and the appropriate technologists associated with the Whole Earth Catalog. The group used this support to build its iconic Arks and to pioneer green architecture and aquaponics on Cape Cod and Prince Edward Island. The work of Todd and his New Alchemists highlights the intimate relationship between advanced techno-science, countercultural visions of social transformation, and activist state which made the dizzying experimentation of the long 1970s possible.Less

Promoting the Revival

Kenneth Garden

in The First Islamic Reviver: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and his Revival of the Religious Sciences

Al-Ghazali’s letters reveal that the decade he spent in his native Khurasan between teaching in Baghdad and Nishapur were not years of solitary retreat. Rather, he spent this time actively promoting ... More

Al-Ghazali’s letters reveal that the decade he spent in his native Khurasan between teaching in Baghdad and Nishapur were not years of solitary retreat. Rather, he spent this time actively promoting his Revivalist agenda. He did so by writing shorter versions of the Revival, including a Persian version of his masterpiece, the Alchemy of Happiness. He called on contacts he had from his days working with the Seljuk regime to aid him in his revivalist agenda. He recruited disciples in his Science of the Hereafter, including the Seljuk minister Fakhr al-Mulk, son of his previous patron Nizam al-Mulk, who was instrumental in his return to teaching in Nishapur 1106.Less