The Modern Hermeticist | The Six Principles of Hermes Mercurius Triplex - Medieval Hermetica @TheModernHermeticist | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 22 hours ago.
In the 12th century Medieval Latin West, long before there were "Seven Hermetic Principles," there were only six. But what were they? Let's unveil the Hermetic Book of Six Principles of Things to find out.
Bibliography:
Firmicus Maternus (1992-1997). Mathesis. In Monat, P. (ed.), Le Mathesis de Firmicus Maternus. Paris, Belles Lettres, 3 volumes.
[Hermes Trismegisto], Acerca de los seis principios de las cosas. Un sistema medieval del universo, ed. and transl. Francisco Battista-Harriet, Valeria Buffon and Cecilia Rusconi. Buenos Aires: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 2019.
Hermes Trismegistus. (1945-1954). Pimander, Asclepius, Fragmenta apud Stobaeum. In Festugière, A.-J. and Nock, A. D. (eds.), Corpus Hermeticum. Vols. I-IV. Paris, Les Belles Lettres.
_____. (1997). Liber XXIV philosophorum. In Hudry, F. (ed.), Liber XXIV philosophorum. Turnhout, Brepols (Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediaevalis, 143 A).
_____. (1999). Liber XXIV philosophorum. In Lucentini, P. (ed.), Il Libro dei ventiquattro filosofi. Milano, Adelphi.
Lucentini, Paolo and Mark Delp (eds.) (2006). Hermes Latinus: De sex rerum principiis, tomus II. Turnhout, Brepols (Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediaevalis, 142).
Pseudo-Apuleius (1991). Asclepius. In Moreschini, C. (ed.), Apulei Platonici Madaurensis opera quae supersunt, vol. III. Stuttgart/Leipzig, Teubner.
Sahl bin Bishr al-Israili (1985). Liber electionibus. In Crofts, C. M. (ed.), Kitāb atikhtiyārāt ‘alā l-buyūt al-iţnai ‘ašar, by Sahl ibn Bišr al-Isra’īlī, with its Latin translation De Electionibus. PhD Thesis. Glasgow, University of Glasgow, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Silverstein, Theodore (ed.) (1955). Liber Hermetis Mercurii Triplicis de VI rerum principiis. In Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen ge 22, pp. 217-302.
#history #religiousstudies #hermetica #hermeticism #esotericism #kybalion #platonism #neoplatonism #medievalscience #astrology #astronomy #medievalstudies #medieval
Support The Modern Hermeticist
- patreon.com/themodernhermeticist
- Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic (PSU Press, 2019) amzn.to/3LnAEse (affiliate link)
- Marsilio Ficino: On the Christian Religion (UTP, 2022) amzn.to/3POdTOQ (affiliate link)
- PayPal tip jar: paypal.me/dattrell?locale.x=en_US
- BTC: 3P8BmGE5UNJ8nehxkaq9MtDcY6EavQhTjN
- Official Website: themodernhermeticist.com
- Socials: https://linktr.ee/themodernhermeticist
In the 12th century Medieval Latin West, long before there were "Seven Hermetic Principles," there were only six. But what were they? Let's unveil the Hermetic Book of Six Principles of Things to find out.
Bibliography:
Firmicus Maternus (1992-1997). Mathesis. In Monat, P. (ed.), Le Mathesis de Firmicus Maternus. Paris, Belles Lettres, 3 volumes.
[Hermes Trismegisto], Acerca de los seis principios de las cosas. Un sistema medieval del universo, ed. and transl. Francisco Battista-Harriet, Valeria Buffon and Cecilia Rusconi. Buenos Aires: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 2019.
Hermes Trismegistus. (1945-1954). Pimander, Asclepius, Fragmenta apud Stobaeum. In Festugière, A.-J. and Nock, A. D. (eds.), Corpus Hermeticum. Vols. I-IV. Paris, Les Belles Lettres.
_____. (1997). Liber XXIV philosophorum. In Hudry, F. (ed.), Liber XXIV philosophorum. Turnhout, Brepols (Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediaevalis, 143 A).
_____. (1999). Liber XXIV philosophorum. In Lucentini, P. (ed.), Il Libro dei ventiquattro filosofi. Milano, Adelphi.
Lucentini, Paolo and Mark Delp (eds.) (2006). Hermes Latinus: De sex rerum principiis, tomus II. Turnhout, Brepols (Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediaevalis, 142).
Pseudo-Apuleius (1991). Asclepius. In Moreschini, C. (ed.), Apulei Platonici Madaurensis opera quae supersunt, vol. III. Stuttgart/Leipzig, Teubner.
Sahl bin Bishr al-Israili (1985). Liber electionibus. In Crofts, C. M. (ed.), Kitāb atikhtiyārāt ‘alā l-buyūt al-iţnai ‘ašar, by Sahl ibn Bišr al-Isra’īlī, with its Latin translation De Electionibus. PhD Thesis. Glasgow, University of Glasgow, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Silverstein, Theodore (ed.) (1955). Liber Hermetis Mercurii Triplicis de VI rerum principiis. In Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen ge 22, pp. 217-302.
#history #religiousstudies #hermetica #hermeticism #esotericism #kybalion #platonism #neoplatonism #medievalscience #astrology #astronomy #medievalstudies #medieval
Support The Modern Hermeticist
- patreon.com/themodernhermeticist
- Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic (PSU Press, 2019) amzn.to/3LnAEse (affiliate link)
- Marsilio Ficino: On the Christian Religion (UTP, 2022) amzn.to/3POdTOQ (affiliate link)
- PayPal tip jar: paypal.me/dattrell?locale.x=en_US
- BTC: 3P8BmGE5UNJ8nehxkaq9MtDcY6EavQhTjN
- Official Website: themodernhermeticist.com
- Socials: https://linktr.ee/themodernhermeticist
![Gnostic Cosmology and the Apocryphon of John [Lecture]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aSp5TYEDYwU/hqdefault.jpg "Gnostic Cosmology and the Apocryphon of John [Lecture]
This is a re-recorded version of an older talk by Dan Attrell entitled What Athens Has Got To Do With Jerusalem: The Marriage of Greek and Jewish Themes in the Apocryphon of John
Artwork: Nicholas Roerich - Mother of the World
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agus, Aharon. Some Early Rabbinic Thinking on Gnosticism. The Jewish Quarterly Review 71 (1), 1980: 18-30.
Carroll, Scott T. The Apocalypse of Adam and Pre-Christian Gnosticism. Vigiliae Christianae 44 (3), 1990: 263-279.
Dodds, E. R. Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Grant, Robert M. Gnosticism and Early Christianity. New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Grant, Robert M. The Earliest Christian Gnosticism. Church History 22 (2), 1953: 81-98.
Grant, Robert. M. Les êtres intermédiaires dans le judaïsme tardif. Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 38, 1967: 245-259.
Hengel, Martin. Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975.
Hoeller, Stephan A. The Gnostic Society Library: The Nag Hammadi Library. March 13, 2014. http://gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html (accessed May 16, 2014).
Katz, Joseph. Plotinus and the Gnostics. Journal of the History of Ideas 15, 2, 1954: 289-298.
MacCulloch, James A. The Ascent of the Soul: A Comparative Study in Gnosticism. The Irish Church Quarterly 5 (18), 1912: 122-141.
Nock, Arthur Darby. Gnosticism. The Harvard Theological Review 57 (4), 1964: 255-279.
Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
Pearson, Birger A. Gnosticism as Platonism: With Special Reference to Marsanes (NHC 10,1). The Harvard Theological Review 77 (1), 1984: 55-72.
Quispel, Gilles. Ezekiel 1:26 in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosis. Vigiliae Christianae 34 (1), 1980: 1-13.
Quispel, Gilles. Gnosticism and the New Testament. Vigiliae Christianae 19 (2), 1965: 65-85.
Quispel, Guilles. Gnosis als Weltreligion. Leiden: Origo, 1951.
Rasimus, Tuomas. Ophite Gnosticism, Sethianism, and the Nag Hammadi Library. Vigiliae Christianae 59 (3), 2005: 235-263.
Scholem, Gershom G. Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism,and Talmudic Tradition. Philadelphia: Maurice Jacobs, 1965.
Swartz, Michael D. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Later Jewish Magic and Mysticism. Dead Sea Discoveries 8 (2), 2001: 182-193.
Von Stuckrad, Kocku. Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity: A New Approach. Numen 47, 2000: 1-40.
Yamauchi, Edwin M. Pre-Christian Gnosticism in the Nag Hammadi Texts? Church History 48 (2), 1979: 129-141.
Support The Modern Hermeticist:
- https://patreon.com/themodernhermeticist
- Purchase a copy of Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. (Penn State University Press, 2019) https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA (affiliate link)
- PayPal tip jar: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dattrell
- Bitcoin tip jar: 1Epq5E4xKcDTP2iEMoEoWCTdLoTnDGWoEr
- Ethereum tip jar: 0x4605709e32448e7D6A97A2031935F7eD558c00a9")
![Angels, Daemons, and Magic in Ethiopian Religion [Interview]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ab9bs4KF7YI/hqdefault.jpg "Angels, Daemons, and Magic in Ethiopian Religion [Interview]
Topics: Magic, Angelology and Daemonology, Scrolls, Enoch, Intercultural Exchange, Ethiopian Orthodoxy
Speakers:
Dan Attrell (https://themodernhermeticist.com)
Augustine Dickinson (https://augustinedickinson.com/)
Some Related Resources (w/ affiliate links):
- Textes éthiopiens magico-religieux (https://amzn.to/378lW3N)
- Art That Heals: The Image As Medicine in Ethiopia (https://amzn.to/374ELF1)
- Études Sur lHistoire dÉthiopie (https://amzn.to/2KnedFr)
- Les Apocalypse Éthiophiens (https://amzn.to/374FeHh)
- The Books of Enoch (https://amzn.to/32P0Tjc)")
![The Ritual of Perfect Nature [Picatrix 3.6]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aihFCuBEOyg/hqdefault.jpg "The Ritual of Perfect Nature [Picatrix 3.6]
This is a reading of Picatrix Book 3, Chapter 6 which pertains to the Hermetic/pseudo-Aristotelian concept of the “Perfect Nature” which is a kind of illumination experienced by the perfected sage at the summit of all learning in both the sciences and in philosophy – in other words, the knowledge of and conversation with ones higher genius. The passage draws on texts from the pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica and describes a peculiar magical incubation ritual followed by another invocation ritual and a communal feast, with some speculations on what exactly is Perfect Nature and how it connects to the science of astral magic.
http://www.themodernhermeticist.com
Support The Modern Hermeticist:
- https://patreon.com/themodernhermeticist
- Purchase a copy of Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. (Penn State University Press, 2019) https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA (affiliate link)
- Paypal tip jar: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dattrell
- Bitcoin tip jar: 1Epq5E4xKcDTP2iEMoEoWCTdLoTnDGWoEr")
![Plotinus and the Platonic Tradition [Interview w/ Ellery Beard]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/akBomxcqBPo/hqdefault.jpg "Plotinus and the Platonic Tradition [Interview w/ Ellery Beard]
Topics: Plotinus, Platonism, Neoplatonism, The Platonic Tradition, Forms, Immortality of the Soul, Emanation, Parmenides, Causality, Theology of Aristotle, Iamblichus, Porphyry, Marsilio Ficino, Pico Della Mirandola, etc.
Speakers: Dan Attrell and Ellery Beard
Ellery Beard on Twitter: @HoDiadochus
For a great Plotinus Enneads, see here: https://amzn.to/2IFgv4v (affiliate link)
http://themodernhermeticist.com
Support The Modern Hermeticist:
- Patreon https://patreon.com/themodernhermeticist
- Purchase a copy of Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. (Penn State University Press, 2019) https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA (affiliate link)
- Paypal tip jar: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dattrell
- Bitcoin tip jar: 1Epq5E4xKcDTP2iEMoEoWCTdLoTnDGWoEr
- Ethereum tip jar: 0x4605709e32448e7D6A97A2031935F7eD558c00a9")
![On Power [Lecture]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/atC43shyjno/hqdefault.jpg "On Power [Lecture]
Topics: Power as perceived within the Western Esoteric tradition; Philosophical musings on ability, authority, skill, aptitude, fitness, etc.; humanism; the seven planets as they relate to power; using power appropriately; and other informal thoughts on power conceived as monolith vs. traditionally conceived as pluriform.
http://www.themodernhermeticist.com
Support The Modern Hermeticist:
Purchase a copy of Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. (Penn State University Press, 2019) https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA (affiliate link)
Paypal tip jar: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dattrell
Bitcoin tip jar: 1Epq5E4xKcDTP2iEMoEoWCTdLoTnDGWoEr
Ethereum tip jar: 0x4605709e32448e7D6A97A2031935F7eD558c00a9")
![72 Cabalistic Conclusions [A Christian Interpretation of Kabbalah from the Renaissance]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b7dYwu_nX58/hqdefault.jpg "72 Cabalistic Conclusions [A Christian Interpretation of Kabbalah from the Renaissance]
Here are the concluding 72 Theses of Giovanni Pico Della Mirandolas 900 Conclusiones in which he attempted to highlight the merits of Cabala as he understood it (in its purely Christian interpretation) in preparation for a debate before the Pope at Rome in 1486. A small handful of Picos theses were deemed heretical before he was allowed to hold the debate in public, and he was promptly excommunicated from the Church after writing an Apologia defending himself against the accusations of his committee. Today these 900 theses stand as a monument to the breadth (more so than the depth) of Renaissance thought, and they provide us with a window into the mind of the Latin Wests very first Christian cabalist, a man who sought to appropriate the Hebraica veritas in order to use it as a weapon against its original proponents, all in an attempt to immanentize the end times.
For a copy of the full work including all 900 Conclusiones in both English translation and in the original Latin (by S. A. Farmer), please visit: https://amzn.to/3kPkpoI (affiliate link)
http://www.themodernhermeticist.com
Support The Modern Hermeticist:
- Purchase a copy of Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. (Penn State University Press, 2019) https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA (affiliate link)
- Paypal tip jar: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dattrell
- Bitcoin tip jar: 1Epq5E4xKcDTP2iEMoEoWCTdLoTnDGWoEr
- Ethereum tip jar: 0x4605709e32448e7D6A97A2031935F7eD558c00a9")
![Honoring the Outermost: Saturn, Ficino, and Astral Magic [2/2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bDSuMox1bZY/hqdefault.jpg "Honoring the Outermost: Saturn, Ficino, and Astral Magic [2/2]
Script, narration, and video by Dan Attrell
Music by Dave Suppa (available for download here: https://davidsuppa.bandcamp.com/album/saturn-ficino-and-astral-magic-2)
For a voice only version of this documentary without music or visuals: https://youtu.be/fRKr9NAwX9A
Select Bibliography (with affiliate links)
Attrell, Dan, and David Porreca. Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2019. (https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA) Azzolini, Monica. The Duke and the Stars The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013). Dieter, Blume. “Michael Scot, Giotto and the Construction of New Images of the Planets. ” Images of the Pagan Gods 14. London: Warburg Institute, 2009. 129-142. Blume, Dieter. “Picturing the Stars: Astrological Imagery in the Latin West.” In A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance, edited by Brendan Dooley. Leiden: Brill, 2014. (https://amzn.to/39wEzA5) Boudet, Jean-Patrice, Anna Caiozzo, and Nicolas Weill-Parot. Images et magie: “Picatrix” entre Orient et Occident. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2011. Bullard, Melissa M. “The Inward Zodiac: A Development in Ficino’s Thought on Astrology,” Renaissance Quarterly 43, 4 (1990): 687-708. Burnett, Charles. “Herman of Carinthia and the Kitāb al-Isṭamāṭīs: Further Evidence for the Transmission of Hermetic Magic.” JWCI 44 (1981): 167-169. Callataÿ, Godefroid de, and Sébastien Moureau. “Again on Maslama Ibn Qāsim al-Qurtubī, the Ikhwān al-Safā’, and Ibn Khaldūn: New Evidence from Two Manuscripts of Rutbat al-hakīm.” Al-Qantara 37, 2 (2016): 329-372.Dillon, John. “Plotinus on whether the Stars are Causes.” Res Orientales 12 (1999): 87-92. Farmer, Stephen A. Syncretism in the West: Picos 900 Theses (1486): The Evolution of Traditional Religious and Philosophical Systems. Binghamton: ACMRS, 2016. (https://amzn.to/2XXiULf) Fierro, Maribel. “Bātinism in Al-Andalus: Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurtubī (died 353/964), Author of the ‘Rutbat al-Hakīm’ and the ‘Ghāyat al-Hakīm’ (Picatrix).” Studia Islamica 84 (1996): 87-112. Ficino, Marsilio. Opera Omnia (2 vols.). Turin: Bottega dErasmo, 1959-1962. Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life: A Critical Edition and Translation with Introduction and Notes. Edited by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. New York: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1989. (https://amzn.to/3hKBpM2) Garin, Eugenio. Astrology in the Renaissance: The Zodiac of Life. London: Penguin, 1988. (https://amzn.to/2OaPFQm) Green, Tamara. The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harrān. Leiden: Brill, 1992. (https://amzn.to/306Ww51) Herrera, Breanne. Howlett, Sophia. Marsilio Ficino and His World. New York: Palgrave, 2016. (https://amzn.to/3g99Coa) Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah in Italy 1280-1510. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. (https://amzn.to/2W1zszL) Idel, Moshe. Saturn’s Jews: On the Witches’ Sabbath and Sabbateanism. New York: Continuum, 2011. (https://amzn.to/3jO6MqN) Kristeller, Paul. Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964. (https://amzn.to/2O6gNQy) Kristeller, Paul, and Virginia Conant (trans.). Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. (https://amzn.to/2ue0sAq) Panofsky, Erwin. “Father Time” in Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962. Pingree, David. “Al-Tabarī on the Prayers to the Planets.” Bulletin d’études orientales 44 (1992): 105-17. Pingree, David. “Some Sources of the Ghāyat al-Hakīm.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 43 (1980): 1-15.R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, F. Saxl. Saturn and Melancholy. London: Nelson, 1964. Saif, Liana. The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. (https://amzn.to/2Fg4Sg9) Saif, Liana. “From Ġāyat al-hakīm to Šams al-ma‘ārif: Ways of Knowing and Paths of Power in Medieval Islam.” Arabica 64 (2017): 297-345. Voss, Angela. Marsilio Ficino. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2006. (https://amzn.to/2O86sDU) Walker, Daniel Pickering. Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1958/2000. Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Routledge: London and New York, 1964.Frances Yates, “The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance Science” in C. S. Singleton, ed., Art, Science, and History in the Renaissance. Baltimore: JHU Press, 1968. Zafran, Eric. “Saturn and the Jews. ” JWCI 42, 1979: 16-27.
Support The Modern Hermeticist:
- Patreon: https://patreon.com/themodernhermeticist
- Purchase a copy of Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. (Penn State University Press, 2019) https://amzn.to/2TcdBnA (affiliate link)
- Paypal tip jar: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dattrell
- Bitcoin tip jar: 1Epq5E4xKcDTP2iEMoEoWCTdLoTnDGWoEr")
