Painter, fisherman, pseudo-hermaphrodite—Forrest Bess lived his life in obscurity at an isolated bait camp off the east coast of Texas. From 1949 through 1967, Bess showed at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City, alongside superstar artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Rediscovered after his death in 1977, Bess's small visionary paintings are now prized by museums and collectors for their primal beauty, and can fetch over $200,000 apiece. Bess's treasured canvases were only part of a grander theory—based on alchemy, Jungian philosophy, and aboriginal rituals—that proposed that hermaphrodism was the key to immortality. As an artist, Bess could never equivocate, and in 1960 he underwent an operation to become a pseudo-hermaphrodite. For the first time ever in print, Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle combines the beauty of Bess's art with the drama and tragedy of his personal life. Using Bess's own hauntingly sincere words (in letters to Betty Parsons, Meyer Schapiro, and others) the book traces the life and logic of this forgotten artist and explains how a love of beauty and a desire for wholeness lead Bess to self-surgery and, ultimately, a mental hospital. Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle is a fascinating look at one of America's most notorious cult visionaries—a man who truly believed that art could save his life.
Alchemy is an ancient, but still practised, science. Peter Marshall investigates the realities behind the mythology of alchemy and searches for evidence of the element which can make it a reality, the legendary Philosopher's Stone.
Acclaimed by Publishers Weekly as "a classic reference, dizzying in its breadth," this volume explores the themes underlying ancient mythology, philosophy, and religion. Hundreds of entries range from esoteric elements of Islamic and Christian history to arcane rituals practiced by Druids, Freemasons, alchemists, and other secret societies. 16 pages of color plates, 100 black-and-white illustrations.
NUMEROUS volumes have been written as commentaries upon the secret systems of philosophy existing in the ancient world, but the ageless truths of life, like many of the earth's greatest thinkers, have usually been clothed in shabby garments. The present work is an attempt to supply a tome worthy of those seers and sages whose thoughts are the substance of its pages. To bring about this coalescence of Beauty and Truth has proved most costly, but I believe that the result will produce an effect upon the mind of the reader which will more than justify the expenditure. Work upon the text of this volume was begun the first day of January, 1926, and has continued almost uninterruptedly for over two years. The greater part of the research work, however, was carried on prior to the writing of the manuscript. The collection of reference material was begun in 1921, and three years later the plans for the book took definite form. For the sake of clarity, all footnotes were eliminated, the various quotations and references to other authors being embodied in the text in their logical order. The bibliography is appended primarily to assist those interested in selecting for future study the most authoritative and important items dealing with philosophy and symbolism. To make readily accessible the abstruse information contained in the book, an elaborate topical cross index is included. I make no claim for either the infallibility or the originality of any statement herein contained. I have studied the fragmentary writings of the ancients sufficiently to realize that dogmatic utterances concerning their tenets are worse than foolhardy. Traditionalism is the curse of modern philosophy, particularly that of the European schools. While many of the statements contained in this treatise may appear at first wildly fantastic, I have sincerely endeavored to refrain from haphazard metaphysical speculation, presenting the material as far as possible in the spirit rather than the letter of the original authors. By assuming responsibility only for the mistakes which may' appear herein, I hope to escape the accusation of plagiarism which has been directed against nearly every writer on the subject of mystical philosophy. Having no particular ism of my own to promulgate, I have not attempted to twist the original writings to substantiate preconceived notions, nor have I distorted doctrines in any effort to reconcile the irreconcilable differences present in the various systems of religio-philosophic thought. The entire theory of the book is diametrically opposed to the modern method of thinking, for it is concerned with subjects openly ridiculed by the sophists of the twentieth century. Its true purpose is to introduce the mind of the reader to a hypothesis of living wholly beyond the pale of materialistic theology, philosophy, or science. The mass of abstruse material between its covers is not susceptible to perfect organization, but so far as possible related topics have been grouped together.
The worst of the mess they were in, Kestrel knew, was that it was all his own fault. It all began when he had tried to cheat the lady wizard Phoebe with a load of worthless wood. When she insisted on testing his sample, the demon Astron had burst through the flame.
A book that finally demystifies Newton’s experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton’s alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton’s actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton’s alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton’s alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher’s stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.
Before his death in 1727, Sir Isaac Newton, the notorious physicist, concealed a prophetic script in an alchemy journal. This mysteriously coded script detailed crucial future events involving both Israel and the United States...and their relation to the return of Jesus Christ. During a trip to England to visit an old friend, Dr. Ezra Schroeder, a National Security Administration code breaker, happens upon the cryptic contents of Newton's final work. With each passing day, as the political clouds around the United States and Israel grow increasingly ominous, Ezra knows what he must do. With this vital knowledge in hand, he must become a modern-day Moses and implore the reluctant president of the United States to come to the aid of the Jewish state of Israela "which is on the brink of total annihilation...
Manly Palmer Hall was a writer, lecturer, mystic philosopher, founder of the Philosophical Research Society, an expert in tarot readings, and a Freemason. He wrote a series of occult books that became famous due to the author’s breadth of knowledge. Among his books, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry and The Secret Teachings of All Time: An Encyclopedic Exposition of Hermetic, Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy are best known. His books are primarily informational and contain numerous illustrations and original texts describing mystical components: Freemasonry symbols, Rosicrucians’ documents, recipes by alchemists, and Kabbalistic rules. The Lost Keys of Freemasonry The Secret Teachings of All Ages