ALCHEMY AND ITS MUTE BOOK. In the year of foundation in 2010, we published Br. Magaphon’s commentary on the Mutus Liber – the Book Without Words. This year we offer commentary on the Mutus Liber from Magaphon’s friend and associate: Eugène Canseliet. Canseliet had a most pivotal role in the transmission of the alchemical tradition in Europe in the 20th century. Canseliet may not quite touch upon the innermost secrets of the book, as becomes obvious from the preface of Br. Exoslius, yet this book still offers a most formidable insight in the Visual Language of the Alchemists of old.
How are conductors' silent gestures magicked into sound by a group of more than a hundred brilliant but belligerent musicians? The mute choreography of great conductors has fascinated and frustrated musicians and music-lovers for centuries. Orchestras can be inspired to the heights of musical and expressive possibility by their maestros, or flabbergasted that someone who doesn't even make a sound should be elevated to demigod-like status by the public. This is the first book to go inside the rehearsal rooms of some of the most inspirational orchestral partnerships in the world - how Simon Rattle works at the Berlin Philharmonic, how Mariss Jansons deals with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and how Claudio Abbado creates the world's most luxurious pick-up band every year with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. From London to Budapest, Bamberg to Vienna, great orchestral concerts are recreated as a collection of countless human and musical stories.
The fifteen plates of the Mutus Liber "the Mute Book," are well known, and this book without words is recognized as a classic of the seventeenth-century alchemical tradition. Although the engravings seem to outline an alchemical process in detail, their message is not immediately obvious and it really requires a commentary to make it intelligible to the present-day reader. Adam McLean's extensive commentary on this series of engravings reveals the Mutus Liber as a synthesis of spiritual, soul, and physical alchemy. While the entire secret of the physical process is not fully revealed in the plates, enough information is given to piece together details of a modus operandi/ indeed, modern French alchemists like Canseliet and Barbault have found great inspiration and hints relating to the physical work in the Mutus Liber. As one of the most significant documents of the alchemical tradition, this edition of the Mutus Liber will be appreciated by all students of the Hermetic tradition, for Adam McLean's fascinating and insightful commentary throws a penetrating light on both the spiritual and physical dimensions of the Great Work.
VOYAGES IN KALEIDOSCOPE is a little dadaist style book which undeniably reveals the Great Work. It is a must for all those involled in some form of Inner Work or practical Qabalah - the journeymen who seek the uncharted realms, the maze with its own order and images in kaleidoscope. The book was originally published in French, in the autumn of 1919. Shortly after publication in Paris, all copies of the book were confiscated and pulped. A few copies were overseen. Translated into English for the first time, it is now offered through Inner Garden Press. Enjoy this poetic little novel.
Acknowledged as the "Artist of the Century," Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) left a legacy that dominates the art world to this day. Inventing the ironically dégagé attitude of "ready-made" art-making, Duchamp heralded the postmodern era and replaced Pablo Picasso as the role model for avant-garde artists. John F. Moffitt challenges commonly accepted interpretations of Duchamp's art and persona by showing that his mature art, after 1910, is largely drawn from the influence of the occult traditions. Moffitt demonstrates that the key to understanding the cryptic meaning of Duchamp's diverse artworks and writings is alchemy, the most pictorial of all the occult philosophies and sciences.
Winner of the 2021 American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Annual Book Prize for Best Theoretical Book in Psychoanalysis! Stanton Marlan brings together writings which span the course of his career, examining Jungian psychology and the alchemical imagination as an opening to the mysteries of psyche and soul. Several chapters describe a telos that aims at the mysterious goal of the Philosophers’ Stone, a move replete with classical and postmodern ideas catalysed by prompts from the unconscious: dreams, images, fantasies, and paradoxical conundrums. Psyche and matter are seen with regards to soul, light and darkness in terms of illumination, and order and chaos as linked in the image of chaosmos. Marlan explores the richness of the alchemical ideas of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and others and their value for a revisioning of psychology. In doing so, this volume challenges any tendency to literalism and essentialism, and contributes to an integration between Jung’s classical vision of a psychology of alchemy and Hillman’s Alchemical Psychology. C.G. Jung and the Alchemical Imagination will be a valuable resource for academics, scholars, and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, Jungian analysis, and psychotherapy. It will also be of great interest to Jungian psychologists and Jungian analysts in practice and in training.
Avner Ben-Zaken reconsiders the fundamental question of how early modern scientific thought traveled between Western and Eastern cultures in the age of the so-called Scientific Revolution. Through five meticulously researched case studies—in which he explores how a single obscure object or text moved in the Eastern world—Ben-Zaken reveals the intricate ways that scientific knowledge moved across cultures. His diligent exploration traces the eastward flow of post-Copernican cosmologies and scientific discoveries, showing how these ideas were disseminated, modified, and applied to local cultures. Never before has a student of scientific traffic in the Mediterranean taken such pains to see precisely which instruments, books, and ideas first appeared where, in whose hands, by what means, and with what implications. In doing so, Ben-Zaken challenges accepted views of Western primacy in this fruitful exchange. He shows not only how Islamic cultures benefited from European scientific knowledge but also how Eastern understanding of classical Greek texts informed developments in the West. Ben-Zaken’s mastery of different cultures and languages uniquely positions him to tell this intriguing story. His findings reshape our understanding of scientific discourse in this critical period and contribute to the growing field of cross-cultural Christian-Muslim studies.
The word 'magic' evokes many ideas, from a stage magician performing illusions to the pyrotechnics of witches and wizards depicted in movies and on television. This book covers the history, practices, and philosophies of magic and alchemy in Western history. It also looks at the tools used by magicians and alchemists.
As a human being living in today's reality, information is readily available for interpretation and subjectivism. The information provided in this book may cause a few readers to prop up on the edge of their seat as they ponder such notions as: Psychology, Consciousness, Spirituality, Religion, Ancient History, Mythology, Symbolism, Shamanism, Music, Art, Crop Circles, and UFOs. 'The Forbidden Fruit & The Tree of Knowledge' is a book that is intended to raise some very curious questions about seemingly random topics which hold a sacred geometrical outline for understanding who and what we are.
