Images Flashcards
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Separation of the spiritual vapours (the winged cherubs) from the “death’s head,” the earthly residue, represented by the black crow and the corpse.
This image explains the general rationale behind why we’re killing it with fire (for the salt principle). We are hoping to extract the “soul”/essence/spirit (lol remember the soul debate) of the thing that we just turned into toast.
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Christian Marlowe, the Occult Batman.
1580-87: Educated in Theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (BA, 1582; MA, 1587). Theological study at Cambridge was heavily oriented towards Calvinist Reformed Christianity. In the same period, he worked as a spy for the state, rooting out Catholic sympathizers
1593: Doctor Faustus is written and first performed
May 18, 1593: The Privy Council issues a warrant for Marlowe’s arrest, based on charges of atheism and subversion.
Mary 30, 1593: Marlowe is murdered in a drunken disagreement (in the company of several figures involved in espionage)
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Dictionnaire Infernal (19th century)
The first spirit, Bael, is a corruption of Ba’al (‘Lord’), the Canaanite storm god. He can be summoned by King Solomon.
Likewise, the arch-demon ‘Beelzebub’ derives from ‘Ba’al Zebub’, a variant of Ba’al worshipped by the Philistines. (people of Canaan) He takes a variety of forms, shapeshifting demons (very scary)
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Cover of an early 20th century edition of “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”.
The tale as first published in 1845 in a periodical called the American Review: A Whig Journal of Politics, Literature, Art and Science.
In 1846 he published it as a stand alone booklet, under the title, “Mesmerism in articulo mortis”, accompanied by an editorial note: ‘a pure recital of facts . . . of so extraordinary nature as almost to surpass belief”.
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Typical 19th century spirit photos. The camera functions as an experimental instrument, detecting apparitions that are not visible to the human subjects.
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‘Adam Kadmon’, the Primordial Human, as Microcosm.
The truth is magic and sex orgies.
The supreme goal of the Cabalist is tikkun olam, ‘restoration of the world’. In our world, and in the human soul, the powers of God have become disintegrated, unbalanced; the Cabalist seeks to put the oppositions back together:
“so that finally man might thereby understand his own nobleness and worth, and why he is called Microcosmus” (Fama Fraternitatis, 178).
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John Valentin Andreae (1586-1654), theologian, reformer and esotericist. Author of Christianopolis (1619) and the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616)
The origins and teachings of the Rosicrucians are described in three anonymously published books that have been attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae (1568–1654), a Lutheran theologian and teacher. (According to Brittanica idk about Fraser)
The Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross (1614), The Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity (1615), and The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosenkreuz (1616) recount the travels of Christian Rosenkreuz, the putative founder of the group, who is now generally regarded as a fictional character rather than a real person.
“The generation of all natural things is twofold: one which takes place by Nature without Art, the other which is brought about by Art, that is to say, by Alchemy, though, generally, it might be said that all things are generated from the earth by the help of putrefaction”
“For a constant moist heat produces putrefaction and transmutes all natural things from their first form and essence . . . into something else. For as putrefaction in the bowels transmutes and reduces all foods into dung, so, also, without the belly, putrefaction in glass transmutes all things from one form into another . . .” (Concerning the Nature of Things, 163).
Fire burn. Fire good. Fire clean. Salt is mystical substance now. (Alchemy principle remember the symbolism of the cherubs and the crow). Fire cleanses and then you get magical spirit dust from the thing you used to make your salts.
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The chemist William Crookes (1832-1919) and the spirit control “Katie King,” allegedly manifested by the medium Florence Cook in the 1870s.
Florence Cook (ca 1856 – 22 April 1904) was a medium who claimed to materialise a spirit, “Katie King”. The question of whether the spirit was real or a fraud was a notable public controversy of the mid-1870s. Her abilities were endorsed by Sir William Crookes but many observers were skeptical of Crookes’s investigations, both at the time and subsequently. It really did cause quite a scene.
But it shows the sensationalism and how huge this all got.
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Marlowe’s literary adaptation of the necromantic circle (Scene 3)
Christian Marlowe was literary Occult Batman. He says some shit about Jehovah and he explains how the circle works in the occult using his play. Then he writes this scene,
(The power of magos/magic is illusory and he compares that to Aquinas (lololol))
- Faustus: Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee? Speak.
- Meph: That was the cause, but yet per accidens; / For when we hear one rack the name of God,/ We fly in hope to get his glorious soul . . . (Scene 3).
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The demon Belial pays homage to Solomon. From the ‘Book of Belial’, Jacobus Teramo (15th century).
The Testament of Solomon (ca. 4th century ce), is the oldest Solomonic grimoire, the prototype and inspiration for the late medieval manuals. The “Key of Solomon” and the “Lesser Key of Solomon” aren’t actually traceable to Solomon though. This is an example of how grimoires were mixed up and “half-digested” messes of kabalistic(esoteric), christian, and jewish liturgy.
It introduces the theme of Solomon’s magical signet ring, which enables him to master demons and harness their powers in the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Solomon is a super famous king/figure in the Jewish Religion.
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Eliphas Levi, Dogme et Ritual de la Haute Magie (1855-56).
Baphomet: supposedly the blasphemous idol worshipped by the Knight’s Templar. Another demonic-human-animal hybrid, a symbol of sexual transgression, therefore also of liminality and mystery. Alchemically, it may represent the prime matter of creation, which defies all boundaries and limitations.
Obviously Baphomet was non gender conforming and was woke as fuck.
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The Magic Circle, Goetia
Magic Demon summoning circle that bring all the demons to the yard. Solomon made it and it starts with Eheia, significant for more than milkshakes. It ‘borrows’ -significantly- from Aprippinas magical circle of friendship. The magic circle also protects Solomon or the summoner from the demons bad touch.
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Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1576-1612
Rudolf was deeply interested in the occult sciences and he was a patron and protector to some of the more controversial thinkers of the day: Dee, Giordano Bruno, as well as the astronomers, Kepler and Brahe. The occult had some deeeeep pockets and highly influential friends. Probably cause science is magic.
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Innovations in cooling the distillate to facilitate separation: the ‘Moor’s head’ and condensing barrel
By cooling the distillate, we can facilitate the separation of the alcohol (which boils at 79 degrees Celsius) from water (which boils at 100 degrees) and other impurities.
Super useful for chemistry and illustrates how deeply connected the occult and science fields were at the time
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Faustus: History and Myth
The historical “Faustus” was one Georgius Helmstetter (i.e. from Helmstadt), a graduate of Heidelberg University (Master of Arts). (Pfft so a broke writer)
The name he adopted, ‘Faustus’, was perhaps an allusion to the Manichean ‘heretic’ of the same name (see Augustine’s Confessions)
He was a wandering astrologer and magician, celebrated by some (commissioned to cast horoscopes for minor nobility) and derided by others as a diabolical figure, associated with forbidden magic and sexual deviancy.
Luther in 1537 described Faustus as the ‘brother in law of the Devil’ and his followers developed the legend of his Pact with the Devil and subsequent damnation.(Told you sex demons)
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“Triangle of the Art”
The Greek is ‘garbled’ but honestly they were either really drunk when they wrote it or just didn’t fucking know greek. Either way, it says ‘primeumaton’ which probably is derived from ‘preumenes’ which means ‘kind/gentle’ and ‘anaphaxeton’ which might mean appear. Further supports my theory of being drunk or stupid (possibly both).
You command the demon you summon into the magic triangle when it’s being bad “disobedient” and hope a timeout will make it behave.
Illustrates the clusterfuck of esoteric ritual combinations of things. Hilariously, Wiccans use it today and it’s tied into chakras which is not how Chakras work (as a Hindu I promise). Generally in a circle hand holding stereotypical white bitch fashion. It’s a solomonic ritual.
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The tomb of Illumination
Hermes Redivivus
Essentially a movement that was born after a bunch of anonymous publications “claiming” to have discovered the tomb and works of an “unknown esoteric” order had emerged. Tons of people then tried to say that they were the sect that was the true “rosicrucian” group and they had the actual mysteries. It was a bunch of hype that got dismissed by Johann Valentin Andreae. But some scholars think he may have said that to have the Church calm the fuck down.
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Frontispiece to Sprat’s History of the Royal Society (1667)
Where my nerds at? (Mood of the scientifically minded of this time)
The nerds congregated a lot and then it was out of these scientific circles that the Royal Society was formed in 1662 now with an official charter from the newly restored monarch, Charles II.
Thanks nerds!
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The period demon.
The toxic basilisk: “You must know that it gets that power and that poison from unclean women . . . For the basilisk is produced and grows from the chief impurity of a woman, namely, from the menstrual blood” (164).
Basically your period made this thing and you’re a witch and it’s going to fucking eat you for being a woman how dare you witch.
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Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati in 1776. Beginning in the 19th century, the Illuminati were vilified by conservative factions as instigators the American and French Revolutions. These conspiracy theories form the distant background to current fantasies about the “New World Order” and the alleged persistence of the Illuminati in our own times.
Though lacking any credibility, these theories reflect the gradual politicization of occult ideas that first took shape in the social and religious upheavals of the 17th century. This convergence of occultism and radical politics was first announced in the Rosicrucian manifestos. (Well fuck it’s real and it started with this asshole)
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“Katie King” and Florence Cook
Florence Cook (ca 1856 – 22 April 1904) was a medium who claimed to materialise a spirit, “Katie King”. The question of whether the spirit was real or a fraud was a notable public controversy of the mid-1870s. Her abilities were endorsed by Sir William Crookes but many observers were skeptical of Crookes’s investigations, both at the time and subsequently.
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The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. With new additions (1631).
Written by badass Christian Marlowe(Occult Batman).
Timeline:
Written in 1592; first performed (Lord Admiral’s Men), 1594
Marlowe’s death: 1593
First printed edition: 1604 (A text)
Issuing of the Act of Abuses, 1606
Revised (censored?) and expanded edition (William Byrde and Samuel Rowley): 1616 (B text)
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For occultists, like Helena Blavatsky, electro-magnetism and its technological applications seemed to demonstrate the truth of ancient esoteric doctrines.
Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), founder of the Theosophical Society (in 1875). Its headquarters are still located in Adyar (Madras), India.
The Origin of Species was published in 1859 (Blavatsky’s text was first published in 1877, just as Darwinism was becoming mainstream). She connected the emerging western idea of evolution to the Indian idea of samsara: the idea of cycles of reincarnation, through which the individual becomes progressively enlightened.
It’s through Blavatsky that western esotericism was synthesised with Indian thought (e.g. Buddhism and yoga), a process furthered by Aleister Crowley at the turn of the 20th century.



























































