Showing results by narrator "Matthew Schmitz" in All Categories

"The golden tractate" (Aureus) by Hermes Trismegistus is a classic text of Hermetic and ancient Philosophy about natural and divine magic; it will strongly influence the later Alchemic literature. The Golden Tractate of Hermes, first created in the Renaissance and rendered into English in 1850, is one of a number of texts from its era attempting to explain alchemy, along with the works of Pontanus and Artephius.

The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories is the third book by Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others. It was first published in hardcover by George Allen & Sons in October 1908, and has been reprinted a number of times since. Issued by the Modern Library in a combined edition with A Dreamer's Tales as A Dreamer's Tales and Other Stories in 1917.

Clark Ashton Smith was a poet, sculptor, painter, and author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction short stories. It is for these stories and his literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft, from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937, that he is mainly remembered today.

Dated to the late 18th century, the book is divided into 12 sections representing the 12 zodiacal signs. The veiled content is said to refer to an allegorical initiation, detailing many Kabbalistic, alchemical, and masonic mysteries.

The subject of my discourses I have called "The Laws of the Higher Life", because so many people in dealing with religion that has to do with the Higher Life seem inclined to remove it from the realm of law, bringing it into some strange region of arbitrary whim and results without endeavor, of failure without weakness.

The Conference of the Birds or Speech of the Birds is a Persian poem by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, commonly known as Attar of Nishapur. The title is taken directly from the Qur'an, 27:16, where Sulayman and Dāwūd are said to have been taught the language, or speech, of the birds.

Five fantastical tales from the mind of H. P. Lovecraft that center around a theme of illicit substances: some used to transcend the veil of reality, some used to keep one's sanity in check. All of the stories are quite psychedelic and unreal, quite mystical, and quite frightening.

One of the best-known Arthurian stories—adapted many times into verse, prose, games, and film. It recounts an adventure undertaken by King Arthur’s famous nephew, Sir Gawain, who is brave and the model of knightly grace. When a mysterious knight in green armor issues a challenge to the Round Table, the gallant Gawain volunteers to do battle for his king, beginning an adventure that explores chivalric tradition, loyalty, and the virtue of forgiveness, as well as alchemical symbolism and the psychological process of individuation.

The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state.

Ascribe the work to Georgius Aurach de Argentina (sometimes Anrach) and date it to 1475. There are versions in Latin, German, French, and Italian, and one in English in the British Library.

This is a compendium of theories of the shape of the Earth, along with a great deal of Earth mystery lore. The Book of Earths includes many unusual theories, including Columbus' idea that the Earth is literally pear-shaped, modern theories that the Earth was originally tetrahedral, and so on.

The Mirror of Alchemy is a short alchemical manual, known in Latin as Speculum Alchemiae. Translated in 1597, it was only the second alchemical text printed in the English language. Long ascribed to Roger Bacon, the work is more likely the product of an anonymous author who wrote between the 13th and the 15th centuries.

Songs of Kabir is a book from 1915 consisting of 100 poems of Kabir, the 15th century Indian poet and mystic, translated to English by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

This was a key work of 17th-century alchemy. It was written in Latin by Jean d'Espagnet as Enchiridion Physicae Restitutae, and the first edition was issued at Paris in 1623.

The Burden of Isis, being the laments of Isis and Nephthys, translated from the Egyptian by James Teackle Dennis, was first published in 1910. This edition is from a reprint in 1918. Includes "The Laments of Isis and Nephthys", "The Chants", and "Hymn to Osiris-Sokar".

The Book of Lambspring is one of the few real-life cases of a centuries-old book on alchemy. Nicolas Barnaud was a French Protestant writer, physician and alchemist, from Crest, in Dauphiné, from which he took the name Delphinas. He was a member of the Monarchomaques. He is associated with a number of mysteries.

Translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra, this book is a work of philosophical fiction written by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was published in four volumes between 1883 and 1885. The protagonist is nominally the historical Zoroaster.

This is a collection of five alchemical tracts written by one of the most famous alchemists who was said to have discovered the Philosopher's Stone. In these writings, Paracelsus attempts to educate the listener about the nature of the Philosopher's Stone and the scientific principles from which we can be assured of its existence and understand how it works. Like all alchemical tracts, the language is very cryptic and allegorical, so as to be unintelligible to the unworthy.

The Six Keys of Eudoxus is a short but important manuscript within alchemy. Ascribed to an ancient philosopher, it dates to the Renaissance and describes a simplistic set of methods by which alkahest and the philosopher's stone can be made.

Heralding from the famed Emerald Tablet, Mead examines the phrase, As Above So Below, and primarily as it pertains to Theosophy.