Esoteric Coffeehouse

First of all, it’s been a while since I had the time to post here. Ever since I started the full-time PhD, research has naturally taken precedence to my other interests. But, the Esoteric Coffeehouse blog has never been fully out of the picture and I’ve been thinking of ways to resuscitate it. Given my reduced amount of time available, I have decided that I will have to sacrifice some of the quantity of information that I can provide in this blog. Instead, the ‘new’ version of the Esoteric Coffeehouse will run shorter posts, perhaps with some pointers where to read further on some information. I also tend to make it more informal by providing more of my own thoughts and experiences on studying esotericism. Well, we’ll see how it goes.  

I’ve been looking at light and vision theories for the past week. As it turns out, up to the modern period there existed two main competing models: the ‘intromission’ and ‘extramission’ theory. The intromission is similar to the way we understand vision today: as light ‘entering’ our eyes and projecting the shape of perceived things within. This theory was supported mainly by Aristotelian and atomistic philosophers and was made an official part of science by Johannes Kepler. The extramission theory, on the other hand, was favoured by Pythagoras, Plato, Euclid, Galen and the Neoplatonists. According to it, the eyes ‘emit’ light, throwing ‘arrows’ that reflect one’s emotional state. Interestingly, this theory fits very well with the popular beliefs in the evil eye or love at first sight. In both cases, the onlooker projects his/her feelings of hate or love. The light emanation is imprinted within the soul of the person looked at.

Today, the triumph of science and its wholehearted adoption of the intromission theory has rendered the idea that eyes can project light obsolete. This is in fact ironic, since early mathematicians and physicists tended to support the extramission perspective, using Euclidean geometry to show how light projects outside the eye. However, interest in psychological phenomena has been challenging the official scientific perspective. The reality of the sense of being stared at from behind or through CCTV has been proven through empirical research by Rupert Sheldrake and others. Sheldrake is currently making the argument that the intromission theory should be revised. It would be interesting to think about the consequences of the idea that eyes may send forth rays of light and how that might affect our understanding of the ’superstitions’ of popular magic.

If you want to read more, Rupert Sheldrake’s articles are available on the web here and here. I also recommend David C. Lindberg’s scholarly studies, particularly Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler (1981), a preview of which can be found on Google Books.

This is a short announcement that the first of the Rosicrucian Manifestos, the Fama Fraternitatis, is available for download in the new ‘Downloads‘ page. This is a new modern English rendering I have prepared based on the 1652 Thomas Vaughan original. The modern English does not necessarily make it less obscure though :).

I have tried to keep the modern English version in line with Vaughan’s intentions. Still, if you plan to write a scholarly paper or anything like that, please use the Vaughan original. Also, please acknowledge source if you use this one publicly.

Since I am currently researching on the topic of early Rosicrucianism, I have taken a closer look at the Rosicrucian Manifestos: Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio. My reading of the documents made me decide to provide a modern English version, as the 1652 version is slightly hard to read. While the Chymical Wedding benefited from such a modern English updating, the Manifestos didn’t. I will soon publish my version under a new envisioned section of the website called Downloads.

It is important to know that, although lumped together as the ‘Manifestos’, the Fama and Confessio were not published simultaneously. The Fama was published in Kassel, Germany in 1614 as an appendix to a section of a Italian work by Trajano Boccalini. It was republished, together with the Confessio, in 1615. Hence, the Fama can be considered as the more original and important of the two treatises (in fact, the Confessio constantly refers to the Fama as authority).

To make things easier, I have set what I consider to be the main ideas of the Manifestos in a numbered list below.

1. Secret Medieval Tradition from the East. The works affirm that the Rosy Cross society was established in the 1300s by a legendary friar called Christian Rosenkreutz. He was supposed to have traveled widely in the Eastern lands and to have acquired secret knowledge from Islamic initiates. It was a peculiar aspect of Rosicrucian belief that secret knowledge could be obtained from Moslem thinkers in the Middle East. Needless to say, at the time, many anti-Rosicrucian writers attacked them for upholding non-Christian beliefs. Yet, as shown below, the Rosicrucian manifestos portray a mystical and ardent form of Christianity. Nevertheless, the composers of the Fama and Confessio must have been aware of the historical truth that esoteric knowledge came through the intermediation of Islam.

2. Paracelsianism. The Manifestos refer to Theophrastus Paracelsus as an important precursor of the Rosicrucian revelation; however, they say, he did not belong to the Rosicrucian lineage. Paracelsian language and ideas pervade both Fama and Confessio: they talk about universal medicine, the religious value of knowledge, the inferior nature of gold-making and other ideas traceable to Paracelsian followers. The Paracelsians, it must be remembered, were interested in medical alchemy rather than gold-making and often disparaged the latter as an inferior pursuit. They were also fervent knowledge-seekers, both in nature and in the Bible.

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All Rosicrucian or Rosicrucian-based orders in existence today hark back to the 1614 publication of the famous manifests, the Fama Fraternitatis and the Confessio. These anonymously published works claimed that the Rosicrucians were a hidden order of initiates established by an unknown mystic named Christian Rosenkreutz in the 14th century. The publication of the two manifestos caused an intense excitement on the European intellectual scene, an event which is now referred to as the Rosicrucian furor. Thousands of intellectuals from all over the continent sent letters demanding to become members of the obscure organization. No letter was ever answered.

Today, scholars still wonder: did the Rosicrucians really exist? There are many views on these. On one extreme, there are those that claim that there was indeed an organization of the Rose and Cross, whether or not founded by the mythical Rosenkreutz. At the other extreme, there are those that maintain that Rosicrucianism was a big hoax perpetrated by pranksters. At the middle of the scholarly discourse, there are those who believe that Rosicrucianism was a name comprising a heterogeneous group of reformers that had a common goal, but not a common creed.

At the end of the 16th century, there was expectation in the air. The 1500s had been a period of upheaval and questioning, which had resulted in the split of the Catholic Church and the birth of the Protestant Churches. To us today the 16th century was a period of innovation that opened avenues of inquiry previously deemed impossible. However, for the people actually living during those times the change must have been painful and not necessarily positive. There were wars amongst Christians previously unheard of; witch hunts; plagues; persecutions. Within this unstable environment, many intellectuals spent a lot of time thinking how to reform the European society and mend its religious and social fractures. Many offered solutions, but there was a current of thought that was primarily dedicated to religious concord: the Hermetic one. This heterogenous ‘group’ comprised philosophers, Christian Kabbalists, magicians, and especially, alchemists. The latter, devoted followers of Paracelsus, were particularly active at the end of the 16th century and were spreading their beliefs in the philosopher’s stone and the Universal Medicine.

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As mentioned last time, I will now talk about the identity of the Navi and their religion from a Paracelsian perspective. Just as a reminder, Paracelsus was a revolutionary philosopher, alchemist and physician living in the 16th century (I already touched upon some elements of his life and philosophy here and here). Now, I’m not saying that Cameron was necessarily acquainted with Paracelsian speculation, but it must be kept in mind that the ideas of Paracelsus had a strong impact on the development of Western culture, though the extent of his influence still awaits research.

One of the first things that you notice about the Navi people is their size. They are approximately twice as big as the ordinary humans. They live in the thick forest, in brotherhood with all animals and plants. They are able to ‘fly’ by becoming one with their dragons and have developed a keen ability of falling from huge heights without really getting hurt.

All these characteristics made me think straight away of the mythology of the sylphs, originating in Paracelsus’ speculations. Paracelsus wrote a strange little work called ‘The Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies and Salamanders and the Other Spirits’. According to the Book of Sylphs, there are spirits in nature which live in each of the four elements: water, fire, air and earth.

The water creatures are called undines (or nymphs), the fire ones salamanders, the air ones sylphs (or sylvesters) and the earth ones gnomes (aka pygmies). Each has its own characteristics and rapport with humans. Of all of these, the sylphs appear most humanly; Paracelsus informs us that they are ‘like men’ except they live in the forest, and are ‘cruder, coarser, longer and stronger’ than the human beings. They have intercourse with men, except, Paracelsus maintains in Renaissance vein, they have no soul since soul is reserved to human beings only. Otherwise, they don’t seem to differ very much from men: they work, eat, converse in similar ways to humans.

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