History of Hermeticism

Resumo: O Curso de Hermetismo Antigo e Literatura Hermética tem como objetivo enfatizar o estudo sobre a Literatura e Filosofia na Antiguidade e suas implicações culturais na sociedade hodierna. O tema principal é duplo: a) Hermetismo e Literatura e b) Hermetismo e Filosofia. Esse projeto de pesquisa está vinculado ao Grupo de Pesquisa Hermeneia: Estudo e Análise de Textos Herméticos. Tem como objetivos: enfatizar o estudo das Línguas e Literaturas Clássicas; promover o intercâmbio de conhecimento; ampliar as possibilidades de contato com os estudos clássicos. promover um momento e espaço de interação em áreas diferentes: Filosofia, Letras, História etc.; fomentar os estudos clássicos.

Palavras-Chave: Hermetismo, Literatura Hermética, Antiguidade

Justificativa: O Curso de Hermetismo Antigo e Literatura Hermética propõe preencher algumas lacunas, em virtude da quantidade mínima de disciplinas  oferecidas na graduação ligadas aos estudos clássicos e referentes à Filosofia Antiga e da carência que isso representa. A partir do tema do Curso, pretende-se não só abarcar os estudos clássicos em seus primórdios greco-latinos, mas também trazer à luz o ímpeto com que as ideias do Hermetismo refletem sua expressão na Renascença e nos dias atuais em diferentes áreas do conhecimento. Proporciona ainda uma interação entre pesquisadores, alunos e comunidade geral, alargando, assim, o horizonte dos nossos graduandos.

This essay argues that Sylvia Plath's sequence of bee poems, composed in 1962, offers a prime site to reassess notions of authorship in the twenty-first century, decades after post-structuralist theory overwhelmed literary criticism. Resisting both biographical readings as well as language-centered readings of Plath's work, I offer a way forward that accounts for the dialectic dramatized in the author's work between chaos and control. Providing close readings of the five bee poems: "The Bee Meeting," "The Arrival of the Bee Box," "Stings," "The Swarm," and "Wintering," I unpack the palpable tension present in the sequence, a tension that cannot be fully reduced or explained by feminist, Marxist, or decolonial approaches. The ramifications of this study highlight the need for a recuperation of authorship, particularly in the realm of Plath studies. That this authorship is unstable, caught in constant "deferral," to use Derrida's terminology, is no reason to shy from attempting to parse its disorder. Plath's poetry becomes a useful event horizon for the future of signification and for the survival of the author herself in her readership to the present day.

Este artículo explora los imaginarios de la corrupción en España mediante la representación de la Sevilla del Barroco en El oro del rey (2000) de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. A través del análisis de tres personajes centrales-el duque de Medina Sidonia, el capitán Alatriste y el rey Felipe iv-, se enseña la corrupción como una norma social de la Sevilla del siglo xvii. Pérez-Reverte aborda este fenómeno desde diversas perspectivas éticas y niveles de privilegio social, lo que facilita una exploración exhaustiva de sus implicaciones. El análisis revela que la tolerancia y la impunidad frente a la corrupción actúan como fuerzas transformadoras de los imaginarios sociales y literarios. Este estudio contribuye al entendimiento de cómo los escritores contemporáneos ofrecen una comprensión diacrónica de la corrupción, a la vez que invitan a los lectores a reinterpretar esta problemática histórica y su relevancia en la actualidad.

La diplomacia es un elemento más del fresco del Siglo de Oro que se encuentra en la saga del capitán Alatriste de Pérez-Reverte, que se presenta in crescendo a través de los siete libros con diferencias de alcance, función y sentido: por eso, en este trabajo se exploran los ingredientes diplomáticos en la serie en relación con su valor político coetáneo (ceremonial, inmunidad, etc.) en cada caso y especialmente se analiza El puente de los asesinos como una novela de espías con mucha diplomacia. / Diplomacy is another key element of the Golden Age fresco found in Pérez-Reverte’s Captain Alatriste saga, which is presented in crescendo throughout the seven books with differences in scope, function and meaning: this work explores the diplomatic ingredients in the series in relation to their contemporary political value (ceremonial, immunity, etc.) in each case and especially analyses The bridge of the assassins as a spy novel with a lot of diplomacy.

Tensões mediterrâneas culturais no Egito Romano à Luz do Λόγος Τέλειος (III AD)
Tensions culturals mediterrànies a l’Egipte romà a la llum del Λόγος Τέλειος (III AD)
Tensiones culturales mediterráneas en el Egipto romano a la luz del Λόγος Τέλειος (III AD)
Mediterranean Cultural Tensions in Roman Egypt in light of the Λόγος Τέλειος (III AD)

Abstract: The Mediterranean in the Ancient Age was a space of conflicts, exchanges, encounters, interactions and disagreements. This article examines the cultural tensions between native Egyptians (ⲛ̅ⲣⲙ̅ⲛ̅ⲕⲏⲙⲉ [enremenkēme]) and the settlers of the metropolitan nomos in Roman Egypt, known as ἀλλόφυλοι or ⲛⲁⲗⲗⲟⲫⲩⲗⲟⲥ [n.allophylos], from a historical-literary and cultural perspective. The study focuses on the predictions of the Λόγος Τέλειος, corresponding to Asclepius 24 in its Latin version and ⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲧⲉⲗⲉⲓⲟⲥ (Nag Hammadi VI.8 [70.3-71.29]) in its Coptic version, with particular emphasis on sociocultural interaction in Roman Egypt.

Keywords: Λόγος Τέλειος − Asclepius Latinus − ⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲧⲉⲗⲉⲓⲟⲥ − Hermetic Literature − Sociopolitical and socioreligious tensions − ἀλλόφυλοι − Native Egyptians.

Resumen: El Mediterráneo en la Edad Antigua fue un espacio de conflictos, intercambios, encuentros, interacciones y desacuerdos. Este artículo examina las tensiones culturales entre los egipcios nativos (ⲛ̅ⲣⲙ̅ⲛ̅ⲕⲏⲙⲉ [enremenkēme]) y los colonos del nomos metropolitano en el Egipto romano, conocidos como ἀλλόφυλοι o ⲛⲁⲗⲗⲟⲫⲩⲗⲟⲥ [n.allophylos], desde una perspectiva histórico-literaria y cultural. El estudio se centra en las predicciones del Λόγος Τέλειος, correspondientes a Asclepio 24 en su versión latina y ⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲧⲉⲗⲉⲓⲟⲥ (Nag Hammadi VI.8 [70.3-71.29]) en su versión copta, con un énfasis particular en la interacción sociocultural en el Egipto romano.
Palabras-clave: Λόγος Τέλειος − Asclepius Latinus − ⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲧⲉⲗⲉⲓⲟⲥ − Literatura Hermética − Tensiones sociopolíticas y socioreligiosas − ἀλλόφυλοι − Egipcios nativos.

Prima facie il titolo potrebbe sembrare strano: che cosa c’entra il Filosofo con l’acrostico alchemico-ermetico? E’, more solito, una boutade dello scrivente? Forse…
Innanzitutto una premessa è d’obbligo. Questo lavoro nasce per caso, in seguito alla lettura di una dotta citazione ― forse per darsi un tono di grande cultura ― riportata in un giornale nazionale. Citazione riferentesi alla Conoscenza, ma non al concetto filosofico di questa, bensì a un mero accadimento.

No one, I imagine, would like to draw the cards of Death, the Devil, the Tower, and the Hanged Man in tarot divination. You do not need to be a connoisseur of symbols to have the blood frozen in your veins at the very idea of these archetypes at work in your life, especially if you came to see a psychic to ask about the possibility of investing in a small business venture or the state of your health. However, the metaphorical meaning of these cards need not have negative connotations. Joseph Campbell says that metaphors are used to point to the experience that lies

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The Order of the Knights and Brothers of Light, or Fratres Lucis, had strict rules regarding membership and conduct. Candidates had to be Master Freemasons, physically fit, and free from other secret societies. The Order emphasized moral integrity, prohibiting members from being persecutors, troublemakers, or those with a history of legal disputes.

Drawing on insights from the spatial turn, this analysis examines the role of spirituality in religious experience, particularly focusing on how the body becomes central to transcendent experience in relation to spatial structural changes. It investigates how the emergence of hybrid social spaces contributes to the decline of institutionalised religiosity and how new forms of religiosity amplify the role of individual meaning-making. The paper focuses on how changes in the spatial structure of religious spaces are transforming the perception of the body among religious persons and how body-centred spiritualism is becoming central to religious experience. In this context, the paper discusses both the secular sources of spiritual bodily experience and the new features of sacred experience associated with the changed spatial structure. The analysis interprets this complex phenomenon in terms of body-focused spiritualism. The theoretical novelty of the analysis lies in the fact that, while interpreting spirituality and embodied transcendental experience, it not only relies on classical authors of spatial theory, but also draws on insights from phenomenological analysis in its interpretation of social spaces, the conceptual (spatial) domains of reality, and the body.

This extremely rare manuscript/ book of old (1655) is attributed to Eugenius Philalethes (the pseudonym of Thomas Vaughan), is a highly esoteric work of alchemical and mystical philosophy. Written in Vaughan’s characteristic poetic and cryptic style, the treatise explores the concept of a "secret fountain"—a divine and alchemical source of wisdom symbolized by a water that paradoxically "flows from fire" and carries the celestial influences of the Sun and Moon. This work, deeply influenced by Hermeticism, Paracelsianism, and Rosicrucian thought, presents an allegorical discourse on spiritual regeneration, the transmutation of the soul, and the search for hidden knowledge.

Vaughan’s text can be divided into several thematic sections. The Preface to the Reader establishes the purpose of the book, urging the seeker to pursue divine wisdom beyond superficial appearances. The first major section, The Secret Fountain and Its Origins, introduces the mysterious concept of fire-born water, drawing on alchemical principles where fire acts as both a destructive and generative force. The following discussion, Celestial Influences: The Sun and Moon in the Work, highlights the interplay of lunar and solar forces in the great work of transformation, echoing Paracelsian and Kabbalistic cosmologies.

The heart of the book lies in The Fire-Water Paradox, which elaborates on the seeming contradiction of water emerging from fire. This section engages deeply with Hermetic axioms, suggesting that opposites—fire and water, light and dark—must be reconciled in the process of true spiritual and alchemical refinement. Vaughan then extends this discussion in The Euphrates as a Symbol of Hidden Knowledge, where the titular river serves as a metaphor for divine wisdom, referencing biblical and mystical traditions, particularly its presence in Eden and its esoteric significance in sacred geography.

The penultimate section, The Regeneration of Man and the World, turns from theory to application, exploring how the knowledge of the "waters of the East" can lead to personal and cosmic renewal. This aligns closely with the Rosicrucian and Christian mystical idea of spiritual rebirth, where the adept undergoes an inner transformation akin to the alchemical Magnum Opus. The book concludes with Concluding Reflections on the Path to Illumination, where Vaughan synthesizes his discourse, urging the reader toward deeper contemplation and the direct experience of divine truth.

Published by Humphrey Moseley, a bookseller known for disseminating philosophical and mystical works, Euphrates reflects the intellectual and spiritual currents of the 17th century, particularly the intersection of alchemy, Christian mysticism, and Rosicrucian ideals. The text’s rich symbolism and intricate prose make it a challenging yet invaluable work for scholars of early modern esotericism. It stands as both a guide for those seeking spiritual enlightenment and a testament to the enduring allure of Hermetic wisdom.
Reconstructed Chapter List of Euphrates, or the Waters of the East

• Preface to the Reader – An introduction to the mystical nature of the work, addressing its esoteric significance and the author's intent.

• The Secret Fountain and Its Origins – Discusses the concept of the "waters of fire," drawing from alchemical and Hermetic traditions.

• Celestial Influences: The Sun and Moon in the Work – Examines the role of the luminaries in alchemical transmutation and spiritual enlightenment.

• The Fire-Water Paradox – Explores the paradoxical nature of a water that flows from fire, linking it to the philosopher’s stone and divine wisdom.

• The Euphrates as a Symbol of Hidden Knowledge – Connects the sacred river Euphrates to biblical and mystical traditions, particularly its role in Eden and esoteric geography.

• The Regeneration of Man and the World – Discusses the spiritual and philosophical implications of alchemical transformation, aligning with Christian mysticism.

• Concluding Reflections on the Path to Illumination – Final thoughts on achieving enlightenment through divine and alchemical wisdom.

Since this book is highly symbolic and written in a dense, poetic style, its divisions are not always explicit, but these thematic sections represent the main topics discussed throughout the text.
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The following article aims at highlighting the theurgical tendencies in the teachings of the great Andalusī Muslim mystic Muhyī l-Dīn Ibn al-'Arabī (560/1165-638/1240). By "theurgy" is meant the influence of man on Divinity in its manifest external dimension, that is to say, the dimension of God that creates beings and is involved with their lives and fortunes, as opposed to His hidden essence. The category "theurgy/theurgical" is adopted from the modern academic study of Kabbalah, and is ultimately derived from Late Antique Neoplatonism. The bulk of this article is dedicated to analyzing relevant texts from Ibn al-'Arabī's oeuvre and elucidating the theurgical elements reflected in them, while the last two sections (5-6) present preliminary observations on the relevant links between Ibn al-'Arabī, Kabbalah, and Late Antique Neoplatonism. It is argued that these three traditions should be studied together, as they shed light on one another.

Scholarship on the visual culture in American religions has flourished in the past three decades. Scholars from myriad disciplines have generated essays, monographs, and edited volumes that examine everything from fine art paintings to popular prints, church architecture to yard shrines, and folk art to graphic novels. In this essay, I provide an abbreviated explanation for the explosion of scholarship on visual culture and American religions in the 1980s and 1990s to highlight prominent approaches to the subject in contemporary scholarship. Then, I outline a few of the major themes that stimulate the scholarly field, including popular religion, consumption, cross-cultural encounters, sacred space, modern and postmodern art, and dress. Finally, I consider challenges faced by contemporary scholars in developing and strengthening this interdisciplinary area of inquiry. Scholarship on visual culture in American religions has flourished in the past three decades. Scholars from American studies, anthropology, art history, film studies, history, folklore, philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and theology have generated essays, edited volumes, monographs, seminars, conferences, exhibitions, catalogues, and websites that examine everything from fine art paintings to popular prints, church architecture to yard shrines, holy cards to video games, and folk art to graphic novels. The myriad subjects, methodologies, and theories that stimulate this intellectual exchange confirm art historian David Morgan's assertion that there is no universal discourse of 'art and religion' that unites its practitioners into a single intellectual community or their dialog into an integrated field of study (Morgan 2004, p. 17). To tell the story of vision's role in American religious history, then, is a complicated task. It can be recounted through an investigation of the mental images that have animated the religious imagination or the 'mind's eye'. It can be narrated, too, through theological writings on the arts and arts criticism; through paintings, sculptures, and installations that engage religious subjects and themes; through devotional objects that facilitate religious practice; through buildings and spaces set aside for sacred use; and through the artifacts, television programs, and films of American mass culture that decorate homes and entertain audiences. While all of these threads are critical to understanding vision's role in America's religious life and can be examined independently, they are also interwoven. Indeed, a study of the visual involves far more than the image or object itself. It requires an investigation of its 'thingness' or 'objecthood,' or put differently, its subject matter, medium, and style. It demands, too, a consideration of its creator as well as his or her artistic intention and cultural status. Its setting is important as well, since its function and significance change if it is exhibited in a department store, an art museum, a church, or a living room. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, its meaning is contingent on the viewer, and more specifically, the ways of seeing and epistemological assumptions he or she brings to the artifact, image, or building. Seeing is not a natural or neutral act; it is a learned practice shaped by the cultures in which people live and work.

La relación entre la literatura alquímica y religiosa en general está fuera de duda. No hay que excluir cierta conexión entre alquimia y hagiografía. Un ejemplo de esta cuestión se da en la traducción latina del Mundus Symbolicus. Hay ahí una adición, en la sección que concluye la parte de las aguas destiladas, en que se alude a los santos mártires y a santa Afra de Augsburgo. El propósito de este artículo es analizar los elementos aludidos y ofrecer el recorrido de la tradición textual que permite esta conexión. De esta manera, se propone aquí que el encuentro entre alquimia y hagiografía se debe a la idea renacentista de la doctrina de las similitudes, que todavía encuentra sentido en una obra barroca como la de Filippo Picinelli. Se concluye, asimismo, que el fragmento textual del traductor, un canónigo alemán, no es aleatorio ni accidental, sino que procede de su erudición y talento al poner en juego las dos tradiciones literarias. Estas construyen un relato sobre la purificación con el propósito de atraer la atención del lector hacia la moral y la virtud de la doctrina católica.

Ontologie sudiste. La vita delle cose da Telesio (via Campanella) a Bruno Abstract: Southern Ontologies. The Life of Things from Telesio (via Campanella) to Bruno Calabria is the Amazon of Europe. Every rationalist project produces, as its opposite and reject, an alternative world in which its principles and 'normality' do not apply. Amazonian perspectivism in contemporary anthropology has finally brought the point of view of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Amazon rainforest to the center of attentionthink e.g. of the Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Cannibal Metaphysics. This point of view is completely different not only from that of 'Western' anthropology, but more generally from post-Cartesian philosophy and way of life. It is a radically non-dualistic perspective, in which no 'Nature' is opposed to 'Culture', an opposition that in fact simply represented the gaze of the white, male, adult and disenchanted capitalist. In Europe itself, however, a completely different potential tradition existed at the dawn of rationalist and dualist modernity. It arose in the 16th century in the south of an Italy by then cut off from the lines of development of modernity, in fact in the most marginal region of the country, Calabria. In this essay, an attempt is made to broadly outlinethrough a conceptual rather than historiographical comparison with Amazonian perspectivismthis alternative tradition.

Cittaprakṛti, mens and Enlightenment between Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine and Renaissance Neoplatonism ἡ ψυχὴ τὰ ὄντα πὼς ἐστὶ πάντα [The soul is in a sense all things] Aristotle, De anima «Omnes mentium species possunt coniungi deo»; «Sarvasattvās tathāgatagarbhāḥ». These two statements, the first being the title of a chapter in Marsilio Ficino's Theologia Platonica (XVIII, 8), the second being a crucial statement in the tathāgatagarbha literature, seem to insist on the same fundamental idea. Developing the crucial Neoplatonic theme of the unio mystica of the soul with God, the Italian Renaissance philosopher argues in his works that each singular mens, being the most excellent part of the soul, is also part of a supreme and divine mens, and therefore can free itself from the darkness that shades it to unite with the latter's pure light. The capacity of the mens to rejoin the divine is grounded in the absolute presence of the divine in the mens itself, thus in the soul. God, in fact, penetrates everything (deus omnia penetrat), has the property of pervasiveness: every point on the "line" of time intersects it, as it is omnipresent and eternal; every point on the surface of space intersects it, as it is ubiquitous and extended to the last edge of reality. Consequently, the unio mystica of the soul with God implies the spatiotemporal amplification of the mens itself. In God, the mens is everywhere at the same time. In some texts of the tathāgatagarbha literature, notably in the Ratnagotravibhāga(-vyākhyā), the relation between the Buddhahood (buddhatva) and the single sentient being (sattva) is "structured" in a similar way. The "cause" (hetu) of enlightenment (bodhi) lies in the tathāgatagarbha's capacity of being enlightened (i.e. in its being "bodhya"). This is because the "nature" of the Tathāgata (tathāgatadhātu) is all-pervading (sarvatraga), and thus provides the purity of the nature of the mind (cittaprakṛti) of living beings. In other words, the all-pervasiveness of the "principle" makes possible for the mind to be purified from the defilements that obstruct enlightenment. The Tathāgata, the Ratna. states, reaches up to the limit of space and lasts as long as the extreme limit of the world. The pervasiveness of the tathāgatadhātu-or, in the Neoplatonic sense, that of God or the One-is the very root of enlightenment. Understanding the actual "structure" of pervasiveness itself-what pervades what and how-is therefore crucial in order to define the conditions of the non-dual awareness of the Tathāgata-or the conditions of the unio mystica. Unlike the Prajñāpāramitā, while affirming the vacuity of the defilements that "cover" the garbha, the Ratna. affirms the astiva, and thus aśūnya, character of the garbha itself. While this facilitates comparison with the Neoplatonic doctrines based on the principle of the immortality of the soul-defined as a pure form-and the eternity of the mind, the function and definition of the tathāgatagarbha and the Neoplatonic definition of the soul are not, however, identifiable. For while the former plays a fundamentally "soteriological" role, the latter becomes in Neoplatonism the pivot of an entire philosophy of Nature. In line with the doctrine expounded by Plato in the Timaeus, the world itself-and, as Ficino states, even the elements and celestial bodies-possesses a soul. In Giordano Bruno's system, the soul of the world (anima mundi) is at the center of a pantheistic and immanentist cosmology. Nevertheless, exploring some possibilities for dialogue between the two doctrines may help to understand more deeply the role of pervasiveness in relation to the freeing of the mind from that which prevents it from shining in unity with the uncreated light of its principle.

Quella della poesia alchemica è una produzione copiosa e riconoscibile, in cui le strofe adespote si rincorrono di archetipo in archetipo, di citazione in citazione. Per quanto possa apparire strano, sono assai pochi i lavori moderni consacrati a questo particolare aspetto della tradizione testuale dell'alchimia. Il primo lavoro sistematico di esame dei manoscritti alchemici delle biblioteche italiane, quello del Carbonelli 2 , rileva già la presenza di una antica tradizione di trattati in versi 3 , che lo studioso ricollega senz'altro alla tradizione poetica classica: Nella poesia didascalica latina primeggia il poema Della natura delle cose di T. Lucrezio Caro: nel manoscritto greco di S. Marco vi sono parecchi trattati in versi, ciò prova che la tradizione esisteva tanto greco-alessandrina o bizantina, quanto latina. Non è certamente mio scopo ricercare le origini di questo genere di poesia, mi basta

Francisco de Holanda (1517-1584), artista e teórico português, emerge como uma figura de grande relevo na cultura europeia do século XVI. Inserindo-se em um intenso processo de circulação de ideias, no qual as fronteiras da filosofia e da arte se misturam, Holanda produz uma síntese entre as teorias artísticas de seu tempo e o movimento neoplatônico florentino, desenvolvido na segunda metade do século XV, produzindo um sistema conceitual baseado no caráter divino da criação artística. Assim, esse livro analisa a obra holandiana sob duas perspectivas complementares: como um teórico e um artista, com o objetivo de identificar suas principais referências teóricas, afinidades conceituais e seus possíveis impactos na cultura lusitana dos Quinhentos. Considerando a arte e a filosofia como aspectos importantes de uma cultura, o estudo da complexa relação entre estes campos, ambicionando compreender como princípios filosóficos são interpretados pela prática e teoria artísticas, pode contribuir para uma melhor compreensão da cultura, da arte e da sociedade do Renascimento, bem como um entendimento mais profundo do pensamento e da arte de Francisco de Holanda.

Introduzione di Flavia Buzzetta IX ARTE E SIMBOLISMO ALCHEMICO Vincenzo lomBino, Il cucchiaio e il coltello. Mantica/magia e demoniaco in Sant'Agostino e Hieronymus Bosch Francesca Paola massara, Iconografia di Simon Mago nelle narrazioni dei mosaici normanni di Sicilia. Impostazioni figurative, riferimenti simbolici, chiavi esegetiche Angela militi, Simboli alchemici nel palazzo Lanza di Randazzo PROFEZIA E MAGIA Maria Pia alBerzoni, I frati e le profezie Patrizia sardina, L'immagine della Sicilia medievale tra profezie post eventum e lamentationes Marcello PaciFico, Federico II, re Salomone e la profezia dell'imperatore degli ultimi tempi Daniela santoro, Arnau de Vilanova e la famiglia reale aragonese: consigli medici e interpretazioni profetiche Vincenzo tedesco, Un episodio di magia rituale nella Perugia del XIV secolo: la sentenza di condanna contro Nicola di Masolo Marcello GriFò, Mulier opificium Dei. Un teologo rinascimentale patrono delle donne: Cornelius Agrippa e il caso della strega di Woippy LIBRI PROIBITI E CENSURA Francesca Paola massara, Nascosti e proibiti? I testi apocrifi come fonte per l'iconografia in età paleocristiana e altomedievale

Proyecto nº 242 'Las religiones y las espiritualidades: un podcast para la inclusión' (Convocatoria Innova 2023-24-UCM) y @quediosnospilleconfesadas podcast Colaboran: Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Obra Derivada (by-nc-nd), que no permite la generación de obras derivadas ni hacer un uso comercial de la obra original, es decir, sólo son posibles los usos y finalidades que no tengan carácter comercial.

Describing feelings is a notoriously diffi cult thing to do. The problem is enhanced when those who do so use a language that is not their vernacular, and even more so when that language is part of sacred scriptures, which are understood as paradigmatic and as informing or teaching some sublime forms of experience that took place in the glorious past. Caught between the artifi ciality of the language and the authority of the sacred texts, the dimension of personal experience is often attenuated and sometimes even obliterated. Clichés, models, paragons, rituals, and ideals canonized in the ancient past are powerful obstacles to representing present experiences. These observations certainly apply to Jewish mystical literatures, written in their vast majority during the Middle Ages, and later, in Hebrew and Aramaic, under the strong impact of biblical and other Jewish canonical values and writings. Jewish thinkers and mystics used ancient terminology not only to express their own experiences during the Middle Ages, but also to develop complex systems of thought which emerged from the appropriation of signifi cant parts of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, which were grafted on the canonical Jewish writings. As part of this process, among many other things they developed a variety of views regarding delight. 1 The ancient Hebrew vocabulary is rich in terms that can be translated as delight or pleasure, such as ta anug, oneg, no am, hana ah, sha ashu a (and in its plural form sha ashu im), or nahat ruah. Each of these terms has its own semantic fi eld, but to describe them with suffi cient nuance would go beyond the scope of this chapter. With regard to the following discussions, most important is the fi rst of these six terms, which expresses a stronger form of pleasure than the others. In the Song of Songs 7:7, the term Ahavah (love) accompanies ta anug as a qualifi er: ahavah beta anugim, literally a love [full] of delight. However, the expression here describes not a feeling, but the beloved herself; it has therefore quite a personal

Leore Sachs-Shmueli, Roee Goldschmidt
This article presents a first attempt to classify and present a group of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Hasidic texts as belonging to a specific literary genre: rationales for the commandments. In this category we include Sefer Toldot Ya‘akov Yosef, by Ya‘akov Yosef of Pollonye; Sefer derekh pikudekhah, by Tsvi Elimelekh of Dinov; Sefer otsar ha-hayim, by Yitshak Eizik Yehiel Safrin; Likute halakhot, by Nathan Sternharts of Nemirov; Derekh mitsvotekhah, by Menachem Mendel Schneerson; and, finally, Sefer be’erat Miriam, by Avraham Abele Kanarfogel. We survey the works broadly and relate them to one defined literary genre. In so doing, we offer a new framework for a scholarly discussion of the Hasidic occupation with nomos and kabbalah. We demonstrate how Hasidic works discussing rationales for the commandments simultaneously employ halakhic and kabbalistic perspectives, emphasizing the punctiliousness in their fulfilment, their theurgic efficacy, and personal-spiritual completeness.

Describing feelings is a notoriously diffi cult thing to do. The problem is enhanced when those who do so use a language that is not their vernacular, and even more so when that language is part of sacred scriptures, which are understood as paradigmatic and as informing or teaching some sublime forms of experience that took place in the glorious past. Caught between the artifi ciality of the language and the authority of the sacred texts, the dimension of personal experience is often attenuated and sometimes even obliterated. Clichés, models, paragons, rituals, and ideals canonized in the ancient past are powerful obstacles to representing present experiences. These observations certainly apply to Jewish mystical literatures, written in their vast majority during the Middle Ages, and later, in Hebrew and Aramaic, under the strong impact of biblical and other Jewish canonical values and writings. Jewish thinkers and mystics used ancient terminology not only to express their own experiences during the Middle Ages, but also to develop complex systems of thought which emerged from the appropriation of signifi cant parts of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, which were grafted on the canonical Jewish writings. As part of this process, among many other things they developed a variety of views regarding delight. 1 The ancient Hebrew vocabulary is rich in terms that can be translated as delight or pleasure, such as ta anug, oneg, no am, hana ah, sha ashu a (and in its plural form sha ashu im), or nahat ruah. Each of these terms has its own semantic fi eld, but to describe them with suffi cient nuance would go beyond the scope of this chapter. With regard to the following discussions, most important is the fi rst of these six terms, which expresses a stronger form of pleasure than the others. In the Song of Songs 7:7, the term Ahavah (love) accompanies ta anug as a qualifi er: ahavah beta anugim, literally a love [full] of delight. However, the expression here describes not a feeling, but the beloved herself; it has therefore quite a personal

The Kybalion, written in 1912 by the pseudonymous Three Initiates, purports to be a work of “Hermetic Philosophy,” containing aphorisms from the eponymous text and extensive commentary thereon.  It is now generally accepted that The Kybalion (both as a collection of aphorisms and its encompassing commentary) was a product of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century New Thought movement, likely written singlehandedly by William Walker Atkinson.  Despite widespread acknowledgement of this fact, The Kybalion’s self-proclaimed association with Hermeticism has largely gone unchallenged.  Undoubtedly, The Kybalion is a work of esotericism; but is it consonant with the particular milieu of Hermeticism?  This study undertakes a critical analysis of the thought of The Kybalion as compared with and contrasted to ancient and modern Hermetic thought.  In light of the evidence thus presented, the longstanding supposition that The Kybalion is consonant with Hermetic philosophy as an historical current is shown to be erroneous and in need of revision.

Erróneamente el vigoroso movimiento hermenéutico, que se perfila en la aurora del tercer milenio como una de las más importantes tendencias del pensamiento filosófico, atribuye al representante del romanticismo alemán, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), la paternidad de la sistematización y la consiguiente autonomización de la moderna disciplina que se presenta como arte de la comprensión 1. A decir verdad, es 1 Por su valor esclarecedor resulta oportuno citar las palabras de BAUMAN Z., La Hermenéutica y las Ciencias Sociales, Nueva Visión, Buenos Aires 2002, 23-24: "Lo que constituyó la formación discursiva de la que nació la hermenéutica del siglo XIX y sostenida por ella fue esta práctica de la historiografía, apuntalada por los dos pilares del provisional carácter espiritual y nacional de una nación-en-busca-de-unestado, y la visión romántica de la obra creativa. Joachim Wach, el autor del más comprensivo estudio de esta hermenéutica, rastreó los comienzos de virtualmente todos los tópicos significativos del discurso hermenéutico a partir de Friedrich Ast (1778-1841), retrotrayendo la fecha de nacimiento de la teoría moderna de la comprensión mucho más allá de Schleiermacher, hasta entonces reconocido ampliamente como su padre. A continuación de la victoria final de los 'modernos' sobre los 'antiguos', el mundo antiguo, con todas sus realizaciones artísticas, filosóficas y legales, fue por primera vez encarado por Europa como un estadio en su historia, más bien que como parangón de una perfección atemporal. El mundo antiguo había estado presente en la conciencia europea durante la mayor parte de la Edad Media y con toda certeza desde comienzos de la era moderna; pero en ambas aparecía como una hechura eterna, un modelo atemporal de perfección excelsa, o bien como una entidad encerrada en sí misma con pocos, o ningún, contactos con los acontecimientos corrientes. Fue sólo cuando Europa despertó a su propia historicidad que la Grecia y la Roma antiguas pudieron ser reveladas como sociedades históricas, como el pasado de Europa, como una contribución a la tradición europea. Ast se ubica en la larga fila de los filólogos que se empeñaron en tratar de registrar ampliamente las consecuencias de la nueva situación, y trataron, por sobre todo, de articular la totalidad de la tarea de asimilación del mensaje antiguo con las surgientes tradiciones europeas como una serie de postulados metodológicos." Parecer que confirma GRONDIN J., Introducción a la hermenéutica filosófica, Herder, Barcelona 1999, 22-24: "Como cualquier otra historia, la historia actual de la hermenéutica es una historiografía retrospectiva, es decir una construcción. Como tal historia se realizó en buena medida sin conocerse a sí misma. Hasta el siglo XVII aún no tenía nombre. Lo que antiguamente se llamaba ars interpretandi lo retomaron y continuaron diversas ramas de la ciencia, como la crítica, la exégesis, o la filología. También en la Edad Moderna la hermenéutica no se desarrolló de manera rectilínea hacia una meta teleológica y filosófica. Habitualmente se atribuye a Lutero el mérito de la invención o reanimación de la hermenéutica. Este criterio del protestante Dilthey también es decisivo para Gadamer y para el investigador de Lutero, Gerhard Ebeling. Aunque el principio de escritura de la sola scriptura tenía que originar casi necesariamente una hermenéutica elaborada, Lutero sólo se dedicó a trabajos y lecciones exegéticos sin contar con una teoría hermenéutica específica y no fue él quien la concibió, sino su colaborador Flacius Illyricus, seguramente el autor de la primera teoría hermenéutica de las Sagradas Escrituras de la Edad Moderna. Hasta finales del siglo XVIII fue considerada como una obra fundamental en el campo de la exégesis. Entretanto, a lo largo del siglo XVII, autores como J Dannhauer, G. F. Meier y J. M. Chladenius elaboraron una hermenéutica entendida como arte general de la interpretación, es decir, en forma germinal como una hermenéutica universal dentro del espíritu racionalista. Estas doctrinas generales de la interpretación rompieron el marco de las hermenéuticas especializadas, o sea, de las doctrinas técnicas destinadas específicamente a las Sagradas Escrituras o a los autores de la antigüedad clásica. Por lo tanto es incorrecto atribuir a Schleiermacher la elaboración del primer arte de la interpretación que superaba las hermenéuticas especiales. Pero, a su vez, la ubicación de la teoría hermenéutica de Schleiermacher es todo menos unívoca. Esto se debe en primer lugar al hecho de que Schleiermacher, quien se entendió sobre todo como teólogo, nunca hizo imprimir personalmente su hermenéutica. Su único texto hermenéutico preparado para ser impreso, "Uber das Konzept der Hermeneutik", que recogía sus discursos académicos de 1829, ofrece más que nada una discusión de los enfoques de Wolf y Ast, pero no una concepción hermenéutica de conjunto. Sólo en sus lecciones-publicadas por primera vez en 1838 por F. Lücke bajo el título de Hermeneutik und Kritik-discurrió sobre su hermenéutica, a la que pretendió incorporar en el horizonte de una dialéctica. Mas, en un principio, los esbozos fragmentarios de

Este trabajo tiene el propósito de repensar la significación que se atribuye a los tres grados del R.E.A.A que se conocen popularmente como “Los grados de la venganza”. Nos estamos refiriendo a los grados 9º, 10º y 11º, es decir, Maestro Elegido de los Nueve, Ilustre Elegido de los Quince y Sublime Caballero Elegido.

Las leyendas de estos tres grados narran el castigo que recibieron los asesinos del arquitecto Hiram cuando el Rey Salomón ordenó su captura. Como demostraremos más adelante el castigo que reciben los tres malhechores guarda una estrecha similitud con un relato alquímico de Zósimo de Panópolis, en el que de manera metafórica, describe el violento proceso de transformación físico-químico que sucede en el interior del matraz del alquimista.

In the last few decades, the usage of the term "spirituality" has plummeted in an unprecedented way and has significantly contributed to the question what "religion" is and is not. The notion that the word "spirituality" is an emic term, closely tied to the postmodern situation and specifically the New Age scene, is occasionally referred to by scholars, mainly by Steven Sutcliffe. However, the consequences of this remain largely unexplored. This article shows the term has been largely accepted by the scholarly community, with all its implicit emic baggage, and discusses various aporia and questionable results that emerge from its uncritical usage. Consequently, from the traditional perspective, the term should be treated as emic. At the same time, however, the term should be subject to rigorous discursive analysis to uncover all of its implications, contexts, and implicit relationships of power.

The normative texts of Jewish tradition tend to portray young children as not-yet-adults. There are expressions of excitement for them to grow up and perform actions of Torah study, marriage, and righteous deeds, but one is hard-pressed to find classical sources that draw inspiration from young children themselves as they are. Early Hasidism broke from this trend in significant ways. In contrast to the scholarly ideals of eighteenth-century Ashkenazi Jewish culture, some early Hasidic sages went so far as to suggest that one who is ignorant of the tradition and even illiterate may have an easier time accessing the joy and trembling of spiritual connection. Hasidic celebrations of the “simple person” (tamim) is a much discussed expression of this perspective. A rather overlooked image, though, is that of the child. This article explores expressions of “child mind” in early Hasidic spirituality. In truth, much like the contemporaneous romanticization of children in Romantic literature, the theological sources we will examine say more about adults than they do about actual children. “Child mind” proves to be a decidedly grownup affair. Thus, in this essay, child mind refers precisely to the textures of children’s (including babies’) inner experiences, as imagined by adults in their own personal quests for meaning. A common ideal in this vein is a sort of beginner’s mind, where everything is new. However, Hasidic ruminations expand far beyond this frame, opening up perspectives that both reflect and defy insights from the field of developmental psychology.

The Corpus Hermeticum is one of the oldest documents of ‹Western› philosophy, revered by all connoisseurs of this domain: It conveys the timeless wisdom of Initiates in their quest for truth about God as Creator, about the World as His Creation, and about Man with his human destiny, cosmic mission, and universal responsibility.

The present edition renders ‒ strictly verbally ‒ even the most challenging and problematical passages of this rich text, staunchly obeying the grammatical rules of refined Latin and its classical abbrevia-tures. The text is beautiful, and good to read – also because uncertain idioms are accompanied by the original term in Latin, explaining to the reader the choice of interpretation.

The present new translation thus satisfies the wish for a new, reliable translation, and therefore will fill a severe gap, as in our time this vener-able Scripture of the antique Mysteries is of renewed actuality for both academic researchers and spiritual seekers of today. – A plethora of linguistic, historical, cosmological and mythological notes at the end of the book will be welcome especially to all lovers of the intricate weaving of original esoteric traditions.
ISBN  9783907103111

The article reflects on the intertwining of research and curating in relation to the Eastern Spirituality exhibition and presents its main themes and theo retical starting points. The research-based exhibition, which ran at the Museum Villa Gyllenberg from April to August 2023, explored how artists in Finland imagined and depicted "Eastern spirituality" from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. The project brings forth artists' conceptions of Asian religions and the more vaguely defined "East" as a positive "Other", marked by a particular aura of spirituality. Discourses on Eastern spirituality contain many challenging and problematic dimensions, such as those intertwined with colonialism. Additionally, "Eastern spirituality" is closely intertwined with esotericism, the role of which has recently been actively discussed in relation to modern art.

In the last few decades, the usage of the term "spirituality" has plummeted in an unprecedented way and has significantly contributed to the question what "religion" is and is not. The notion that the word "spirituality" is an emic term, closely tied to the postmodern situation and specifically the New Age scene, is occasionally referred to by scholars, mainly by Steven Sutcliffe. However, the consequences of this remain largely unexplored. This article shows the term has been largely accepted by the scholarly community, with all its implicit emic baggage, and discusses various aporia and questionable results that emerge from its uncritical usage. Consequently, from the traditional perspective, the term should be treated as emic. At the same time, however, the term should be subject to rigorous discursive analysis to uncover all of its implications, contexts, and implicit relationships of power.

En el mundo alegórico de la masonería, una antigua instrucción prevalece sobre el tiempo; la tercera llave de la filosofía alquímica, obra de Basilio Valentín; es una misteriosa obra cargada de simbolismos alquímicos y esotéricos. En el centro, se observa un majestuoso dragón, símbolo del fuego transformador, el cual mira con ojos centelleantes hacia la eternidad como aquel sabio guardián. A su alrededor, un ballet de energías libran una batalla, entrelazando a un gallo valeroso y un fiero lobo en un baile eterno. Al fondo, un castillo sobre montañas firmes en un plano elevado. Esta imagen del maestro Valentín, compuesta de un simbolismo sutil, nos permite comprender el inicio del espeso camino de la alquimia.

Al contrario de lo que se dice en la mayoría de estudios sobre la vida y la obra de Flaubert, hoy parece seguro que el primer texto publicado por el autor de Madame Bovary no fue Une leçon d'histoire naturelle genre commis, que apareció en Le Colibri de Rouen el 30 de marzo de 1837, sino otro breve cuento, titulado Bibliomanie, que fue publicado en la misma revista un mes antes, el 12 de febrero del mismo 1837. El cuento fue editado recientemente dentro del volumen Bouvard et Pécuchet centenaires, en el año 1981, acompañado por un estudio de D. G. Laporte. 1 Aunque la edición original iba firmada solamente F., es sin duda obra primeriza de Gustave Flaubert. El texto en cuestión empieza con estas palabras: "Dans une rue étroite et sans soleil de Barcelone vivait, il y a peu de temps, un de ces hommes au front pâle..." El estilo, como puede apreciarse ya en estas primeras palabras, y como suele suceder en la mayoría de las obras tempranas de Flaubert, es bastante lamentable, y contiene perlas como éstas: u ses cheveux étaient longs mais blancs", "sa physionomie était pâle, triste, laide, et même insignifiante". Son frases dignas sin duda de figurar en el "sottisier" del Flaubert adulto. En cuanto al argumento de Bibliomanie, está sacado de un suceso, tal vez real, narrado en La Gazette des Tribunaux, n Q 3465, 23 de octubre de 1836. Narra la historia de Fra Vicenç, un monje de Poblet, exclaustrado después de la destrucción del monasterio en 1835, que se instaló poco después en Barcelona, dedicado a la compraventa de libros antiguos. Al cabo de poco tiempo empezaron a produ-(1) G. Flaubert, Bibliomanie in Bouvard et Pécuchet centenaires, Paris, La Bibliotèque d'Ornicar, 1981. Las referencias al texto de Flaubert remiten a esta edición.

Доклады на конференции АИЭМ июнь 2023

Доклад 1: Вечный Гермес: хронология герметицизма, основные этапы, термины и события.
Eternal Hermes: chronology of Hermeticism, main stages, terms and events.

Доклад 2: Становление изучения эзотеризма и мистицизма в современной России.
The formation of the study of esotericism and mysticism in modern Russia.

RÉSUMÉ Le but initial de nos rechereixes étail F&ude de la pollution mereurielle. Mais, lorsque noes visitions le complexe mercuriel eL les mines de cinabre siíués Sur notre terrain d'invesíigation, neus avons prohité peur explorer le paysage de ce terrain. II nous esí ...