hecowan wrote:
welcome
a bibliography would be great -
I am a great fan of Jan Assmann's book "Moses the Egyptian" which seems
to be in part about
Renaissance theories of the Egyptian language and culture.
bb/93
Mogg
> Hello all,
> I've been lurking for some time but have also been following many
> conversations with great interest. I'll post a proper introduction
> later, but on the topic of Egypt in the early modern mystery
> traditions, although indeed the Egypt craze of the 19th century may
> account for some measure of influence, I would have thought that in
> truth it stems from the Renaissance discovery of Horapollo's
> Hieroglyphica (1492). This was essentially responsible for the
> explosive symbolism in Renaissance art, the subsequent emblematic
> tradition which was adopted and adapted by the late Renaissance
> alchemists in particular, and then travelled down into proto-masonic
> and Rosicrucian brotherhoods of the late 17th and early 18th century,
> where it essentially crystallized into the ritual symbolism adapted by
> so many esoteric orders and groups. Basically it seems to be a case of
> post-Renaissance syncretism following the idea of the prisca
> sapientia; Egyptian symbolism and conflation of Egyptian and Hellenic
> mythology cropping up repeatedly particularly in the alchemical
> emblematic tradition from the Renaissance onwards.
>
> I'll be glad to post some biblio in a later post if anyone is interested.
>
> Sasha
>
> Sasha Chaitow
> BA Comm., MA Eng.Lit.
> MA Western Esotericism
>
> Website & Gallery: http://sashanonserviat.net
> Professional Profile: http://exeter.academia.edu/SashaChaitow
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* A Clanton <[log in to unmask]>
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Sent:* Thu, February 4, 2010 4:24:29 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] On Nature Mysticism
>
> One of the reasons for the Egyptian material in the Golden Dawn was
> the general popularity of ancient Egypt throughout the 19th century.
> Archeology was becoming a science, and discoveries in Egypt, including
> the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone in 1822, fueled this
> fascination. However, there were factions in the Golden Dawn who
> supported more inclusion of Egyptian material (particularly Florence
> Farr) and others who downplayed it.
> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 7:56 PM, toyin adepoju
> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> wrote:
>
> Thanks Eric.
> Frances Yates,as in/ Giodarno Bruno and the Hermetic tradition/,in
> her account of a disagreement over cosmology between Johannes
> Kepler and Bruno,describes one of the points at which an
> astrologer and scientist as Kepler was was able to achieve a mode
> of addressing his cosmological work that was influential in the
> move from the magical conception of nature to the
> scientific.Richard Westfall,in his Encyclopedia Britannica 1992
> essay on Isaac Newton,also present in his biography of Newton in
> the Cambridge Canto series,also presents the the points of
> convergence and divergence between the magical and emerging
> scientific perspective,as demonstrated by Newton's role in both
> worlds.
> I find your point about Western magic as deriving from Egypt most
> intriguing and reminds me of my puzzlement as to why a group such
> as the Golden Dawn depended so heavily on ancient Egyptian
> religion,influencing such seminal figures as Aleister Crowley and
> Israel Regardie along those lines.I would like to know too why the
> choice of Egypt.
> thanks
> toyin
>
>
>
>
> On 3 February 2010 23:28, Eric N. Peterson, Ph.D.
> <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Toyin,
>
>
> I won't weigh in on the question of whether the phenomenon of
> nature mysticism is recent and Western, since I don't know
> whether others use the term as you do.
>
>
> However, I agree with your last comment. ("If I might
> mention,even though it would be unusual to describe Isaac
> Newton and Immanuel Kant in relation to mysticism,I cant help
> but compare the intensity of what I would describe as the
> cognitive devotion in their descriptions of the relationship
> between the human being and the cosmos in some of their work
> which recall and might not be surpassed by the intensity and
> depth of the mystics writing on the same subjects.")
>
>
> There's a lovely body of work in History of Early Modern
> Science (e.g. Robert Westman, Betty Jo Dobbs, Laurence
> Principe) on the complex relation of alchemy to physics and
> chemistry. Newton, as many here no doubt know, wrote quite a
> bit on alchemy. In that period of European history, there was
> no obvious separation between science and magick.
>
>
> The lore of Western magick (no idea if that is "nature
> mysticism" by the standards of the conference; I suspect not)
> is that is derives from Egyptian sources (i.e. African, rather
> than Asian). I'd be interested in reading historical work done
> around that question, if anyone here knows of any.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Eric
>
>
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