Dear Friends
As a magician & amateur Egyptologist I don't find it surprising that
Egyptian magic is
so influential on the western mystery tradition.
I suppose I'd also say its figures muchly in GD* because it is so effective.
Not surprisingly Egypt was famous in the classical world as the "most
advanced" of magical cultures
and internal evidence backs this up.
There is hardly any technique in magick of the modern period that doesnt
have a precedent in Egypt eg: wax image spell, encircling,
cardinality, importance of colours especially red,
The earliest "graded course of magick" / the Corpus Hermetica - is
essential a summary of the Egyptian magical religion of its time -
and has an Egyptian context - for example Hermetic texts found at Nag
Hammadi (in Egypt)
and the earliest grimoires have an Egyptian connection (See Testament of
Solomon)
and often continue to make reference to their source eg Goetia says the
spirits speak in the Egyptian tongue,
Abramelin has Egyptian authorship etc
The origins of Kabbalah are in Alexandria, an Egyptian city, KBL also
incorporates many Egyptian religious concepts.
Some of this is obscured by the fact that Egypt was colonised by Greece
and later Rome.
It is also the historical "contrary" of Israel which perhaps contributes
to its
erasure from intellectual history, the famous closure of its temples and
suppression of its ancient language -
There is a prophesy in the CH that after the destruction of "The temple
of the world"
the Egyptian magical religion will one day rise again in the west -
and this is part of the
purpose of modern magick - imo.
* you might also consider the mean of the term
"Golden Dawn" for another Egyptian reference
BB/93
mogg
ps for written work may I recommend material on my portal and indeed my
books www.ombos.info
Mandrake.uk.net
Publishers
PO Box 250, Oxford, OX1 1AP
+44 1865 243671
homepages:
http://www.mandrake.uk.net
http://www.ombos.info
> 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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