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"His right hand pointed to heaven, his left to earth. Under his mantle he wore a white tunic girded with a serpent swallowing its tail.

His face was luminous and serene, and, when his eyes met mine, I felt that he saw most intimate recesses of my soul. I saw myself reflected in him as in a mirror and in his eyes I seemed to look upon myself.

With his hands he unites heaven and earth, and the four elements that form the world are controlled by him.

And I heard a voice saying: Look, this is the Great Magician!"

Words: P D. Ouspensky, The Symbolism of the Tarot, 1913

Image: Le Bateleur, Jean Dodal Tarot

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Mutus Libre, plate 4

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The Island Universe. Another illustration from "A Stellar Key to the Summer Land", 1867, by Andrew Jackson Davis.

In this book Davis locates the afterlife somewhere on the plane of the Milky Way.

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“Art does not simply reveal God: it is one of the ways in which God reveals, and thus actualizes, himself.”

—  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics

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Lady Anne Conway - Early Theosophy and Kabbalah vs Mechanism, Atheism and Pantheism

Brilliant introduction by Dr Justin Sledge

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Anne Conway by Samuel van Hoogstraten (detail)

"Seeing God was of all the most exceeding great and infinite Light, and yet the chiefest Good: For this Reason he would make Creatures to whom he might communicate himself: But these could in no wise bear the exceeding greatness of his Light: And hereunto belong those Scripture sayings, God dwelleth in an inapproachable Light. No Man hath seen God at any Time, etc.

"He diminished therefore (for the sake of his Creatures) the highest Degree of his most intense Light, that there might be room for his Creatures, from whence Place immediately arose, as it were a certain Circular Vacuity or Space of Worlds. 

"This Vacuum was not a mere Privation or Non ens, but a certain real Position of Light, diminutively, which was the Soul of the Messiah, called by the Hebrews, Adam Kadmon, which filled all that whole Space."

From Anne Conway's The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, first published 1690.

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"Confronted by a singular looking being."

John Uri Lloyd's allegorical hollow Earth novel Etidorhpa was first published 1895. The following year saw an edition graced by a bevy of suitably unworldly artworks by J. Augustus Knapp, an illustrator now best known for his paintings in P. Manly Hall's compendium of Western mysteries, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

The faceless figure dripping water in the above illustration, who serves as a Virgil-like guide for the protagonist, reminds me somewhat of the the man emerging from the swamp from the 8th image of the Splendor Solis. As alchemy is one of themes of Lloyds' subterranean narrative, this similarity is perhaps no coincidence.

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Dream Vision, Albrecht Dürer, 1525, Watercolour on paper, 30 x 43 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The text reads:

"In 1525, during the night between Wednesday and Thursday after Whitsuntide, I had this vision in my sleep, and saw how many great waters fell from heaven. The first struck the ground about four miles away from me with such a terrible force, enormous noise and splashing that it drowned the entire countryside. I was so greatly shocked at this that I awoke before the cloudburst. And the ensuing downpour was huge. Some of the waters fell some distance away and some close by. And they came from such a height that they seemed to fall at an equally slow pace. But the very first water that hit the ground so suddenly had fallen at such velocity, and was accompanied by wind and roaring so frightening, that when I awoke my whole body trembled and I could not recover for a long time. When I arose in the morning, I painted the above as I had seen it. May the Lord turn all things to the best."

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Unity of Being

"The One rules all. Nothing has authority over it. It is the God. It is Father of everything, Holy One The invisible one over everything. It is uncontaminated Pure light no eye can bear to look within.

"The One is the Invisible Spirit. It is not right to think of it as a God or as like God. It is more than just God.

"Nothing is above it. Nothing rules it. Since everything exists within it It does not exist within anything. Since it is not dependent on anything It is eternal.

"It is absolutely complete and so needs nothing. It is utterly perfect Light.

The One is without boundaries Nothing exists outside of it to border it. The One cannot be investigated Nothing exists apart from it to investigate it. The One cannot be measured Nothing exists external to it to measure it."

Taken from the The Apocryphon of John (Translated by Stevan Davies)

Image adapted from an emblematic figure featured in William Law's "Illustration of the Deep Principles of Jacob Behmen."

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Newly hatched two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculatus) By: Unknown photographer From: Natural History of Marine Animals 1949

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La Questionante from Etteilla's orginal Livre de Thot deck of 1789.

Though this card actually corresponds to the papess/high priestess of more regular decks, to me at least, it's imagery seems to evoke The World card instead. I definitely get an Anima Mundi vibe rather than a Sophia or Isis vibe.

#tarotCardOfTheDay #tarot #TheHighPriestess

#esotericism #occultism #Etteilla

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Two fishes swimming in our sea

(Caption: The Sea is the Body, the two Fishes are Soul and Spirit.)

The Sages will tell you That two fishes are in our sea Without any flesh or bones. Let them be cooked in their own water; Then they also will become a vast sea, The vastness of which no man can describe. Moreover, the Sages say That the two fishes are only one, not two; They are two, and nevertheless they are one, Body, Spirit, and Soul. Now, I tell you most truly, Cook these three together, That there may be a very large sea. Cook the sulphur well with the sulphur, And hold your tongue about it: Conceal your knowledge to your own advantage, And you shall be free from poverty. Only let your discovery remain a close secret.

— the Book of Lambspring, 1599

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The World

"I saw Eternity the other night, Like a great ring of pure and endless light, All calm, as it was bright, And round beneath it,  Time in hours, days, years Driv'n by the spheres Like a vast shadow mov'd; in which the world And all her train were hurl'd"  - Henry Vaughan

Tarot card: Il Mondo by FF Solesio of Genova, 1865

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a lot of people draw hermes with a winged helmet which is fine and all but i think we are all sleeping on his farmer's hat. if anyone deserves to wear a big hat like this it's hermes

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Artist: Walter Valentini — Andromeda Text: “[T]he methods of theology were essentially those of ritual magic, its aime the incarnation of the divine force either in a material object, such as a statue, or in a living human being, the result being a state of prophetic trance. Its justification, most clearly expanded in Proclus’ little essay On the Hieratic Art, is the magical ‘Principle of Correspondence,’ the idea, first, that each part of the universe mirrors every other part, and secondly, and more important, that the whole material world is the mirror of invisible divine powers; hence, in virtue of the network of forces linking image to archetype, manipulation of the appropriate material objects brings the theorists into contact with the deities they represent.” - RT Wallis, Neoplatonism, p. 107

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Islamicate Occultsim

As-salamu alaykum

Muslim magic isn’t exactly the right phrase to use here. While many practitioners would be definitely view these practices as modern magick, sihr is technically a no go. That is to say that these two paradigms are working under different definitions. In my definition, magick is the flow of energy around us to enact will. There is nothing about this definition that is inherently shirk. It’s all about how you practice and what you believe that separates you from the religion.

It would be easier to use the word occultism or esotericism when researching.

I will not be sharing my own practice today, as I am not religiously but culturally Muslim. I’m not a “Good Muslim” by any means, and it is my path to decide how I go about my beliefs. Instead, I’ll be sharing my research and key terms I’ve found so you can make your own judgements. As an American placed outside of the culture with maybe two muslim friends, it’s been incredibly hard finding research. Every google search will make you feel shame for your practice being a sin. Magick is all around you in your community, you just have to look with magickal eyes. Any protection you seek from Allah (swt) is magick, is esoteric, is occult.

In the medieval era, esotericism and science were tied together. It was simply understanding the world through Allah (swt). This is a great place to start your research!

If you want to get closer to the Source, look into Sufism. Hermeticism overlaps with Islam. Astrology is alive and well, and has a basis in historic practice. Alchemy is still of use to people as a spiritual practice. These practices are real, and you are not haram.

Need an overall deepdive? Read the works of Dr Liana Saif.  Read the Ghayat Al Hakim (Picatrix). For hands on work, read the Shams Al Ma’arif (Sun of Gnosis), which was partially translated in English not too long ago. Every time you are told to read a surat for specific things, that's magick.

Every day, we get more information as to what the old practices look like. You are not alone.