The Quest for the Phoenix
eBook - PDF

The Quest for the Phoenix

Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622)

  1. 330 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Quest for the Phoenix

Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622)

About this book

The author presents with this intellectual biography of the Lutheran alchemist Count Michael Maier an academic study of western esotericism in general and to the study of alchemy and rosicrucianism in particular.

The author charts the development of Maier's Hermetic worldview in the context of his service at the courts of Emperor Rudolf II and Moritz of Hessen-Kassel. The problem of the nature of early Rosicrucianism is addressed in detail with reference to Maier's role in the promotion of this "serious jest" in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. The work is set in the context of ongoing debates concerning the nature of early modern alchemy and its role in the history of Western esotericism.

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Yes, you can access The Quest for the Phoenix by Hereward Tilton in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & World History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
De Gruyter
Year
2012
Print ISBN
9783110176377
eBook ISBN
9783110896572
Edition
1
Topic
History
Subtopic
World History
Index
History

Table of contents

  1. Foreword
  2. I. Introduction: Jung and Early Modern Alchemy
  3. 1. The alchemical chimera
  4. 2. The reception of Jung amongst historians of alchemy
  5. 3. The arguments of Principe and Newman
  6. 4. The origins of Jung’s alchemy and the work of Richard Noll
  7. 5. ‘Secret threads’: the seventeenth century ‘Carl Jung of Mainz’ and Count Michael Maier
  8. 6. Spiritual alchemy, Rosicrucianism and the work of Count Michael Maier
  9. II. Maier’s Formative Years
  10. 1. The context of Maier’s life and thought
  11. 2. Auguries of fortune: Maier’s childhood and parentage
  12. 3. The influence of Governor Heinrich Rantzau
  13. 4. Galenism and Maier’s studies at Frankfurt an der Oder
  14. 5. ‘First love and grief’: Maier’s peregrinatio academica
  15. 6. The theses on epilepsy
  16. 7. Contact with the arcana
  17. 8. Maier’s first alchemical experiment
  18. III. Bohemia and England
  19. 1. Maier at the court of Emperor Rudolf II
  20. 2. The Hymnosophia
  21. 3. The reversal of fortune
  22. 4. The most secret of secrets
  23. 5. A ‘Rosicrucian mission’ to England?
  24. 6. The seventeenth rung of the alchemical ladder and the art of gold-making
  25. 7. A journey to England
  26. 8. Francis Anthony and the ‘drinkable gold’
  27. 9. The Golden Tripod: “Truth is concealed under the cover of shadows”
  28. IV. The Rosicrucian ‘Imposture’
  29. 1. Illness and a chance encounter
  30. 2. The origins of Rosicrucianism and the Leipzig Manuscript of Michael Maier
  31. 3. Johann Valentin Andreae and the nature of the Order
  32. 4. The serious jest
  33. 5. An invitation to Rosicrucians, wherever they may lie hidden
  34. 6. Uncovering the true Brethren
  35. 7. Defining Rosicrucianism: Silentium post Clamores and the Themis Aurea
  36. 8. Regni Christi frater. Maier’s ‘entrance into the Order’
  37. V. The Completion of the Work
  38. 1. The squaring of the natural circle
  39. 2. Maier and the Calvinist court of Moritz of Hessen-Kassel
  40. 3. Millennialism, nationalism and the descent into war
  41. 4. The Civitas Corporis Humani – procuring a medicine of piety
  42. 5. Ulysses and the death of Maier
  43. 6. The phoenix and the return of the long-absent traveller
  44. VI. Conclusion: Maier and the Historiography of Alchemy
  45. 1. Piety and the coniunctio oppositorum
  46. 2. Chymia and alchemia
  47. 3. The ‘Tradition’ and the fate of Maier’s thought
  48. 4. Alchemy and the re-emergence of Rosicrucianism
  49. 5. The historiography of alchemy
  50. Bibliography
  51. Index
  52. Illustrations