Book Club Week 1

Hello dear readers! Here is a link to a free online edition of De Occulta Philosophia!

http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm#chap1

Let’s start small, please read your way through chapter 15 by Wednesday May 19th, at which point proper discussion can begin!

In the meantime, here’s some background about our boy Heinrich Cornelius:

Selections from Wikipedia:

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim was born 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535 . He was a German polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, theologian, and occult writer. He is considered one of the most influential occultists of the early modern period. His book on the occult Three Books of Occult Philosophy was published in 1533, but was condemned as heretical by the inquisitor of Cologne. His work drew heavily upon the influences of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and neo-Platonism. (we will talk about that)

Agrippa's academic career began in 1509, receiving the patronage Margaret of Austria, governor of Franche-Comté, and Antoine de Vergy, archbishop of Besançon and chancellor of the University of Dole. He was given the opportunity to lecture a course at the University on Hebrew scholar Johann Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico. At Dôle, Agrippa wrote De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminae sexus (On the Nobility and Excellence of the Feminine Sex), a work that aimed at proving the superiority of women using cabalistic ideas. The book was likely written to impress margaret.

Agrippa’s lectures received attention, and he was given a doctorate in theology because of them. He was, however, denounced by the Franciscan prior Jean Catilinet as a "Judaizing heretic", and was forced to leave Dôle in 1510.

In the winter of 1509-1510 Agrippa returned to Germany and studied with Humanist Johannes Trithemius at Würzburg. On 8 April 1510 he dedicated the then unpublished first draft of De occulta philosophia ("On the Occult Philosophy") to Trithemius, who recommended that Agrippa keep his occult studies secret. Proceeding to the Netherlands he took service again with Maximilian. In 1510 the king sent Agrippa on a diplomatic mission to England, where he was the guest of the Humanist and Platonist John Colet, dean of St Paul's Cathedral, and where he replied to the accusations brought against him by Catilinet (Expostulatio super Expositione sua in librum De verbo mirifico).

In the reply he argued that his Christian faith was not incompatible with his appreciation for Jewish thought, writing "I am a Christian, but I do not dislike Jewish Rabbis". Agrippa then returned to Cologne and gave disputations at the university's faculty of theology.

In 1518 the efforts of one or other of his patrons secured for Agrippa the position of town advocate and orator, or syndic, at Metz. Here, as at Dôle, his opinions soon brought him into collision with the monks, and his defense of a woman accused of witchcraft involved him in a dispute with the inquisitor, Nicholas Savin. The consequence of this was that in 1520 he resigned his office and returned to Cologne, where he stayed about two years.

The third book of occult philosophy concludes with:

“But of magic I wrote whilst I was very young three large books, which I called Of Occult Philosophy, in which what was then through the curiosity of my youth erroneous, I now being more advised, am willing to have retracted, by this recantation; I formerly spent much time and costs in these vanities. At last I grew so wise as to be able to dissuade others from this destruction. For whosoever do not in the truth, nor in the power of God, but in the deceits of devils, according to the operation of wicked spirits presume to divine and prophesy, and practising through magical vanities, exorcisms, incantions and other demoniacal works and deceits of idolatry, boasting of delusions, and phantasms, presently ceasing, brag that they can do miracles, I say all these shall with Jannes, and Jambres, and Simon Magus, be destinated to the torments of eternal fire.”

This comes from the same man who wrote “How Kabbalah Proves That Women Are Inherently Superior”. It’s a joke, but also Agrippa covering his ass.

One thing that I want y’all to keep in mind is that Agrippa is funny. His dry wit and serious-but-not-serious sarcasm serve a distinct occult purpose, but also make him more fun and accessible to read.

Happy hunting! Nyxus Aeternam!