Paracelsus and Powerpoint

It's not often you hear the words 'Paracelsus' and 'Powerpoint' in the same sentence, but that's exactly how I can embody the MA Western Esotericism Study Weekend in Exeter! It was a most useful orientation to the scope of work in the subject, the research endeavours, and the names of those prominent luminaries of particular import. At the end of the first day, I was buzzing with ideas and ignited by discussions with lecturers such as Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and Christopher McIntosh.

I also discovered a sudden resonance with the work of Emanuel Swedenborg, whom I had not specifically studied, but was brought to life by a film and lecture by Michael Stanley, who has written and lectured on the Swedenborgian work for many years. Strangely, the lecture made sense of the version of heaven found in "Lovely Bones," a fiction I've just finished reading, by Alice Sebold (and soon to be a film by Peter jackson).

One enjoyable aspect of the course was the variety of conversations going on and the different backgrounds of those attending; everything from Theosophy to Ismali, from Kabbalah to Chaos Magick! It was however strange that everything was being approached from the purely academic perspective (as one would expect) which was fine for discussing influences and transmissions of the Great Work in history, but worked less well for a workshop on Alchemical Frontispieces. I found it frustrating to be embroiled in a discussion of whether a particular figure in a particular drawing represented Antimony or not, when usually I would have simply walked into the picture and asked the figures themselves!

It's important to remember that this is a living, breathing, *practical* operative system, for change through the work, not a second-hand analysis from a distance. I appreciate the importance of both, increasingly so, but they must be balanced otherwise we risk losing the very "Cor" of the "Corpus" we are studying.

Well, I have plenty arising from the weekend; e-mails to write, papers to exchange, a visit to the Ritman Library in Amsterdam next month, and a timeline that I want to produce, which I'll make available on http://www.westernesoterictradition.com .

At least my first paper (on Alchemy) wasn't too weak - I got a functional pass - but the next paper is more challenging, on psychology and ritual. Then there's the Bibliographical Diary to complete, ugh!

Signing off for today in the Great Work

F.P.

An early Tree of Life, pre-Judaic, Egyptian, Roman and Greek! 

Various Stele, although none of the British Museum examples are as stunning visually as those in the Cairo museum; the one made famous by Crowley, which he said was "unremarkable," in fact is very noticable as it is one of the few on wood, and the colours are extremely vivid! He played it down to play it up! 

The Shewstone used by Dee and Kelly. 

This statue of Sekhmet has always attracted me. It's a well-preserved item, but not displayed to best advantage in one alcove of the museum. However, everytime I visit the museum, it's to this statue I always stand first, and acknowledge and smile as if we share some hidden secret communion. 

The wax discs including the "Seal of God" as used by Dee. The smaller discs supported the table of practice, onto the larger was placed the shewstone. Although slightly worn by time, their precision and power can be felt even through the glass! They felt like cogs of creation. 

Detail of the "Seal of God" used by Dee. 

Other esoteric and occult items collected in the Enlightenment period include this "Hand of Sabazius," once owned by the famous scholar, Richard Mead. These items all come from the Sloane collection. 

The gold disc inscribed with the "Vision of the Four Castles". 

The cabinet containing the ritual items of John Dee and Edward Kelly. For more about these magicians, see http://www.alchemylab.com/kellydee.htm 

"The black stone into which Dr Dee used to call his spirits" a label on the cover made for the magic mirror, as written by Horace Walpole, who once owned the item. 

Atlantis Bookshop. A pilgrimage for me in my youth, where I first came across the obscure writings of Kenneth Grant, amongst others. Now, as my wife pithily remarked, I've got more books in my study than are in the shop ... :-) 

An Alchemist's Knife at the British Museum. 

An elaborate german "Wonder Cabinet" at the V&A Museum. 

London, Dee & Kelly, Bookshops and Wonder Cabinets!

I have a weird place in my soul for the area around the British Museum. In fact, my A-Z of London needs replacing, as the page on which this area is mapped is falling to pieces. I don’t know if it’s the museum itself that evokes figments of esoteric memories of previous lives, or the names of the streets; Coptic Street, Museum Street, Russell Street, all resonate within me, or the presence of Atlantis Bookshop, which served as a Shangri-La to me when I first set off on this occult way. Perhaps it was first embedded in my pagan heart when I read the opening pages of ‘The Winged Bull,’ by Dion Fortune, where she describes the hero’s chance meeting with an esoteric teacher in the foggy courtyard, after being spellbound by the human-headed bull guardians of Ninevah? Whatever, I love the area, the museum and the bookshop, and so it was wonderful to be staying at a hotel in Bloomsbury right on the corner of the museum, for four days whilst my son, R, attended dance auditions ahead of finishing his A-Levels later this year.

My wife, B, was equally bemused by the sight of Oxford Street in January Sales season, stretching on as far as the eye could see or the wallet could stretch. She’s by no means an avid shopper, to be sure, I’m blessed in that, but she did determine to find a new top and pair of boots to match a skirt that had so far proved impossible to ensemble. And, after two brave but rather foolhardy expeditions, we did indeed find the perfect matches! But suffice to say, I *never* want to see another Top Shop, Next or UniQlo ever again. Ever. Really.

Now, meanwhile, I got to loaf around the museum, and not only adore my favourite statue, of Sekhmet, which emanates more than any other statue I’ve personally encountered (including those still in Egypt), but there was also an exhibition of Dee & Kelly’s scrying paraphernalia, including the original Wax ‘Seal of God’ and the shewstone crystal, black mirror, and gold ‘four castles’ plate. Hmmmm! A round trip then followed to Atlantis, Watkins and Treadwell’s bookshops, where my bibliophilia was addressed for some months to come; I purchased some titles on Alchemy, the Western Esoteric Tradition, and Tobias Churton’s ‘The Golden Builders’ which is a splendid overview of some interesting personages in the development of Freemasonary and Rosicrucianism!

Sadly, one of the books on Alchemy I purchased, second-hand, at Atlantis, I was told had come from the library of Peter Redgrove, author of “The Wise Wound” with his second wife, Penelope Shuttle, and “The Black Goddess and the Sixth Sense,” both of which were formative titles for me when I was developing my Witchcraft. He died a couple of years ago, and it was odd to be holding a book annotated by a ‘removed teacher’ whom I had never met. Interestingly, he had marked out a couple of passages which spoke to me and illuminated some of my recent studies on the subject, so it is wyrd how these webs are wound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Redgrove

I vowed to catch up with Shuttle’s poetry, and found this http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=1532.


What else? Well, I love the idea of “WunderKammer” or ‘Wonder Cabinets’ which were a sort of precursor to modern museums, where renaissance travellers collected curiousities, both man-mind and natural, in cabinets, or sometimes in shelved rooms, to display to other admirers. Quite often, these would contain trinkets, amulets, medals, coins and stones. One of the cabinets on display in the V&A Museum had mythic scenes painted on each drawer which made it look like a Alcehmical/Mythic/Tarot puzzle-box! Neat.