Showing posts with label Hermeticism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hermeticism. Show all posts

Sunday, April 3, 2022

‘Kybalion screening Saturday’

    

UPDATE: Another screening has been scheduled for Saturday, May 21 at seven o’clock.


In keeping with the news of films and videos in recent days, here’s an update on Ronni Thomas’ The Kybalion I told you about a long time ago: The movie was released earlier this year and has been shown here and there. On Saturday, The Kybalion will be screened in Brooklyn. From the publicity:


The Kybalion
Saturday, April 9
7 p.m.
Film Noir Cinema
122 Meserole Avenue, Brooklyn
Tickets here


This film is an adaptation of the 1908 occult manuscript The Kybalion, and explores the seven principles of Hermetics. It is a surreal documentation of the supernatural world around us.

Q&A with writer Mitch Horowitz and director Ronni Thomas will follow after the film.


The Kybalion is not Freemasonry, but Hermetic thought is evident in the rituals of the lodge. I recommend The Kybalion text published a few years ago and edited by Horowitz.
     

Sunday, March 27, 2022

‘Bob Cooper on early catechisms’

    
Robert L.D. Cooper
I’ve been slacking this month, so I’m late with the news of Bob Cooper’s recent visit to New Jersey. He made a few stops for speaking engagements, the plans originally done in by the pandemic two years ago but finally jump started two weeks ago. On the fifteenth he visited Eclipse Lodge 67, meeting in Clifton to take advantage of larger accommodations. A smart thing, too, being how we numbered around sixty.

Cooper, I think we can say, is the dean of Scottish Masonic historians. He is a Past Master of Lodge Sir Robert Moray 1641, and also of Quatuor Coronati 2076, the premier lodges of Masonic research in Scotland and England, respectively. He is an author of very useful and accessible books for Masonic readers, including The Masonic Magician, about Cagliostro; The Red Triangle, a chronicle of anti-Masonry; and Cracking the Freemason’s Code, among the best primers on the fraternity to emerge during the first decade of this century. You could dive safely into any of his books, and I recommend The Rosslyn Hoax? to anyone stuck on the Templar nonsense.

His topic at Eclipse Lodge was intriguing: “Early Freemasonry 1598…or Freemasonry Before 1717.” I think that period is without form and void in the minds of most Freemasons in the United States. Despite the centrality of Scotland to Freemasonry’s embryonic years, we Americans mostly see the Craft as having been born in early eighteenth century London, but the scant evidence are tantalizing pieces of the same vexing puzzle. Bob’s overall point was to walk us through the catechism of the Edinburgh Register House Manuscript, which he terms the oldest Masonic ritual, dated 1696. To get there, he had to present historical context first, so he tied together for us the Art of Memory, Hermeticism, William Schaw, and the need for an illustrative catechetical ritual to teach illiterate stone masons the secret education that goes well past mere modes of mutual recognition.


Needless to say, he did so convincingly and in only about an hour. Click here to read this seventeenth century catechism. You’ll see many things that are foreign to your lodge experience, but it’s amazing how much is fitting or at least familiar enough.

For more on the Art of Memory, see the Frances Yates book.
     

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

‘Journey to the Source of Ancient Wisdom’

     
More news from the aptly dubbed Golden State. Again, far outside my flight plan but must be shared here. From the Rosicrucian Order’s publicity:



Join practicing alchemist Dennis William Hauck

All proceeds go to benefit the Alchemy Museum
being built at Rosicrucian Park.

May 24-26
Rosicrucian Park
San Jose, California


Alchemy is based on ancient Hermetic teachings that were meant to be experienced directly in an initiatory environment. True alchemy is neither an intellectual pursuit nor a measure of knowledge, but is a secret fire that ignites passion and inspiration in all those who possess it. That fire can be passed only in living concepts grasped by both heart and mind to create a new state of consciousness Egyptians called “Intelligence of the Heart.” This process is part of the Underground Stream of perennial wisdom that still flows into our modern era.

The most powerful rendering of the ancient wisdom is in the intuitive writings, coded ciphers, and symbolic imagery of the alchemists. Their practical approach to esoteric energies created a powerful spiritual technology that combined introspection, meditation, and prayer with laboratory demonstrations. Their tireless efforts to unite soul and spirit – the inner and outer worlds – exposed the deep connection between mind and matter that science is just beginning to explore.

This three-day intensive, multimedia workshop focuses on the advanced teachings of alchemy. Using the operations of alchemy, secret Hermetic techniques, activated symbology, and guided meditations; participants will journey through the stages of purification and empowerment that lead to the transpersonal source that is the Philosopher’s Stone.

Tools include a full-color bound textbook of meditative drawings, process handouts and charts, and audio recordings. Selected eBooks will be sent to participants to help them prepare for the workshop. Everyone will also receive personalized graphs showing the relative power of the metals (planetary archetypes) in their astrological signatures. This information will guide their work to transmute the inner metals into a more resilient golden temperament.


Dennis William Hauck is known for his ability to present these teachings in a way that comes alive in people. While studying for his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Vienna, he completed a three-year apprenticeship in alchemy and was later initiated into a variety of Hermetic traditions in Europe, Egypt, and the United States. He has since translated several old manuscripts and authored a number of bestselling books on alchemy, including The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation, The Secret of the Emerald Tablet, Sorcerer’s Stone: A Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy.

The sessions will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a break from noon to 2 for Council of Solace and lunch each day.

The cost is $300 per person for AMORC members, and $350 per person for non-member guests. Click here to register.

All proceeds will go toward the Alchemy Museum being built at Rosicrucian Park.

Logistics: Many visitors to Rosicrucian Park enjoy staying at the Arena Hotel on The Alameda, which is within walking distance of the Park and right across the street from the train station where both Amtrak and Caltrain make stops. The best airport to fly into is San Jose International Airport, about 10 to 15 minutes from Rosicrucian Park and the recommended hotel.
     

Thursday, May 1, 2014

‘Tarot and the Western Hermetic Tradition’

     
On the whole, New York Open Center provides programming that I would say leans to the East (Zen, yoga, et al.) in spiritual matters, but it does host occasional lectures, classes, and other events that look at Western esoteric traditions. Case in point: This workshop next Friday. From the publicity:


Tarot and the Western Hermetic Tradition
Presented by Ellen Goldberg, MA
Friday, May 9
7 to 10 p.m.
Members: $55 / Non-members $65

New York Open Center
22 East 30th Street
Manhattan

The Tarot is a book of wisdom disguised as a pack of cards. The ever-evolving Tarot is an extraordinary compendium of Western esoteric knowledge, a river of Hermetic wisdom into which the streams of Kabbalah, Alchemy, Pythagorean mathematics, and astrology have flowed. In accord with Hermetic ideals, the object of the Tarot journey is the transformation of individual consciousness into a state of unity with the One.

Today we will learn the basic principles of Hermeticism and see how they breathe life and meaning into the Tarot. Viewed as Hermetic Mandalas, the 22 cards of the Major Arcana allow us to radically enhance our quest for self-realization. Through active imagination and inner journey, we will learn to engage these archetypal images. The workshop will leave you with an ability to use the Tarot for your inner development. The Rider-Waite cards will be used as a basis of discussion.

Note: The workshop is appropriate for students at all levels of study.

Ellen Goldberg, MA, is a psychotherapist, artist, and mystic who has been working within the Hermetic tradition for 35 years. She has been teaching Tarot at the New York Open Center since 1986, and is the founder and director of the School of Oracles.


Click here to register.
     

Thursday, April 24, 2014

‘Hieroglyphical Key’

     
An unsolicited commercial endorsement—hey, I just like the company:

Ouroboros Press has announced its publication of Nicholas Flamel’s Hieroglyphical Key: Being an Explication of Alchemical Figures, Together with His Summary of Philosophy and His Testament.

As always, gorgeous bindings, endsheets, etc. A miracle anyone does that kind of work anymore. From the publicity:

When SOL, the emblem of the Royal Arte, moves into the Sign of the Ram it is considered the perfect time to begin the Alchemical Opus. This is the season when the cold crust of winter is broken through by the budding seeds buried deep in the earth. The energy of life expresses itself with fresh and robust growth offering a new beginning of Nature’s cycle. Ouroboros Press takes this opportunity to release a classic text by Nicholas Flamel, one of the alchemists purported to have succeeded in making the Philosopher’s Stone.

Nicholas Flamel’s Hieroglyphical Key is offered with two additional texts: Summary of Philosophy and his Testament. The quality of the emblematic engravings in the Ouroboros Press edition are exquisite and are reproduced in crisp offset printing. As with other trade editions produced by us, the Key is wrapped in a letterpress dust jacket. A few very special Cambridge style bindings are being bound up by Michael Atha of Restoration Books, and full leather scarlet bindings will be available from Ars Obscura.

The press has always been an advocate of the alchemical art and several of our publications reflect this. Celebrate the Spring by adding these classic texts of Hermeticism to your library or laboratory.



Courtesy Ouroboros Press

There are three editions from which to choose:

Brazen Serpent – Full leather hand bound in a Cambridge style binding with hand marbled endsheets. Includes a folding plate of the Hieroglyphical Figures.
Limited to 26 copies only. $345

Libri Rubaeus Edition – Full scarlet leather with raised spine bands gilt title and ornamental device. Handmarbled endsheets and silk ribbon bookmark.
Limited to 72 copies only. $175

Trade Edition – Full cloth with gilt title and Rose Cross device. Letterpress printed dust jacket.
Limited to 679 copies only. $40
     

Thursday, March 6, 2014

‘Hermetic Studies program in Pennsylvania’

     
The ubiquitous Mark Stavish of the Institute for Hermetic Studies made the following announcement yesterday:

Mark Stavish
Over the last few months we have had inquiries asking if we would be willing to reinvigorate our bi-weekly classes in western esotericism, with emphasis on Hermeticism and the three principal Hermetic arts and sciences of magic, alchemy, and astrology. Our response has always been a firm ‘Yes, if there is sufficient interest and commitment from the students for something that runs once or twice a month for two or more years.’

As such, we are sending out this notice stating that if you are interested in monthly or bi-weekly programs of an organized and directed nature, for the study and practice of Hermeticism and the disciplines stated above, contact us. Meetings and attendant work would be held in the Wilkes-Barre area of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Dues and attendant obligations will be announced. Please contact us if you are interested, briefly state your background in any of the subjects mentioned, and your general geographic location (i.e., Scranton or Central NJ), and your ability to attend bi-weekly or monthly classes.

Please understand this is a structured program and does not allow for easy entry of new members after the first six months—and certainly not after the first year—so it is important that everyone be on board prior to its initiation.

In addition, Mark stated:

The course is going to be a highly condensed version of our first program that ran twice monthly for four years. This is ideal for those with some modest reading and limited experience in meditation and/or ritual rather than a complete beginner. It is also ideal for those wishing to establish their own local group, as it is aimed at the motivated learner, or the one most likely to establish a group and thereby be its first leader. This would be the essentials to get them started for general alchemical and qabalistic work, not a detailed study - there is not enough time for that. Emphasis will be on reading one’s own chart, and very basic horary astrology for asking questions and finding general elections.

Mark can be reached at:

esoteric777(at)aol.com