The mysterious relic âwhich could be at one and the same time a chalice, a book, a stone, or a personâ was seen as existing both on the earth and at a remove from it. In the poem The Later Titurel, it hovers above the world, untouched by human hands and supported by angels. In the Perceval of ChrĂ©tien de Troyes and the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, it is kept in a secret chamber...
When following Otto Maier’s path one will meet somewhere on his/her road, Böhme. Like the contemporary student of the inner world, alchemists were concerned about differentiating imagination from fantasy. They were aware that true imagination possesses a power and depth that fantasy does not possess. Jakob Boehme was one of those who warned against the delusions of fantasy. Struggle for redemption Böhme was a mystic. Although not a practicing alchemist, he used the terminology and symbols...
The secret teachings of Goethe. That Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Germany’s greatest poet, had an interest in the occult and alchemy is clear from Faust. Based on an historical character, the original Faust legend goes back to medieval times and prior to Goethe‘s there were earlier dramatic renditions of the tale, notably Christopher Marlowe’s. Yet it is to Goethe’s Faust (Part I 1808; Part II 1833) that most of us turn when we think...
The name of Hermes, whether or not qualified as Trismegistus, henceforth served as guarantee or signature for a host of esoteric books on magic, astrology, medicine, etc., throughout the Middle Ages, and this despite the fact that, with the exception of the Asclepius, the Corpus Hermeticum was unknown. Picatrix At the same time, an inspired imagery unfolded in both Latin and Arabic literature in a succession of âvisionary recitalsâ (as Henry Corbin calls them), constellated...
At Maier Files Tidbits, we delve into the enigmatic and the unexplained, where history intertwines with the supernatural. In the remote mountains of Auvergne-RhĂŽne-Alpes, France, amidst the crumbling ruins of an ancient monastery, a peculiar discovery whispers of secrets long buried. A plant, steeped in bitter mystique, grows wild among the stones of Chartreuse de Bonnefoy, a once-thriving Carthusian enclave. Known to some as the harbinger of the âGreen Fairyââa nickname for the infamous absintheâthis...
Physical space may itself be curved, contain antimatter, house a sea of neutrinos, and be related to the invisible realm of the psyche. Nevertheless, physical space is also made up of something else. That something else has been called, for generations, the ether. With the discovery of holography and a new order to the universe, the conceptualization of empty space must be reevaluated. Just as the room you are sitting in contains the electromagnetic energy...
At the present time, our materialistic science derides alchemists as misplaced mystics who pursued a dream of finding a chemical compound that might transform base metals into gold. Indeed, they recognize that much scientific breakthrough was achieved through these pursuits, but they throw out out the goal of the alchemists as simply a fanciful or impossible plan and fantasy. However, there exist fascinating incidents, a few so deeply curious that the mind can barely cope...
Laurin ‘s marvels. Are you worthy to enter the Rosengarten? King Laurin âs greatest marvel is his understanding of day and night, which is also that of life and death. Oh, how we would like to possess that knowledge! It is in these terms that men lament, but they need not. As one can always ascend to Laurin âs marvellous kingdom. In spite of the silk threads which protect it. Still, one must be a...
It was in 1926, in the thick of transformative ferment of the interbellum, that an anonymous volumeâissued in a luxury edition of three hundred copies by a small Paris publishing firm known mostly for artistic reprintsârocked the Parisian occult underworld. Its title was Le MystĂšre des cathĂ©drales (The Mystery of the Cathedrals). The author, âFulcanelli,â claimed that the great secret of alchemy, the queen of Western occult sciences, was plainly displayed on the walls of...
The destruction of the worldwide economic order in the wake of World War II encouraged world leaders in 1944 to form a meeting to generate alternatives. This conference, referred to as Bretton Woods, resulted in the development of a new global ïŹxed exchange rate regime with the U.S. dollar playing a central role. Under the Bretton Woods system, an ounce of gold could be bought at a ïŹxed international rate of $35 per ounce (+/-...
In the Tower at Bollingen it is as if one lived many centuries simultaneously. The place will outlive me, and in its location and style it points backward to things of long ago. There is very little about it to suggest the present. If a man of the sixteenth century were to move into the house, only the kerosene lamp and the matches would be new to him; otherwise, he would know his way about...
Philosophical esotericism âthe practice of communicating oneâs unorthodox thoughts âbetween the linesââ was a common practice until the end of the eighteenth century. The famous EncyclopĂ©die of Diderot, for instance, not only discusses this practice in over twenty different articles, but admits to employing it itself. The history of Western thought contains hundreds of such statements by major philosophers testifying to the use of esoteric writing in their own work or othersâ. Despite this long...