BLOG Introduction: The hermetic cabinet: 1. Puzzle pictures & linguistic riddles
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Introduction: The hermetic cabinet:
1. Puzzle pictures & linguistic riddles
A rich world of images has etched itself into the memory of modern man, despite the fact that it is not available in public collections, but lies hidden in old manuscripts and prints.
By imbuing them with a special hieroglyphic aura, the creators of these pictures sought to suggest the very great age of their art and to acknowledge the source of their wisdom: the patriarch of natural mysticism and alchemy, Hermes Trismegistus.
It was Greek colonists in late classical Egypt who identified their healing, winged messenger of the gods, Hermes (Lat. Mercurius) with the ancient Egyptian Thoth, the 'Thrice Greatest'. Thoth was the god of writing and magic, worshipped, like Hermes, as the psychopompos, the soul's guide through the underworld. The mythical figure of Hermes Trismegistus was also linked to a legendary pharaoh who was supposed to have taught the Egyptians all their knowledge of natural and supernatural things, including their knowledge of hieroglyphic script. The alchemists saw him as their "Moses" who had handed down the divine commandments of their air in the "emerald tablet". This Tabula Smaragdina, now believed to date back to the 6th-8th centuries A.D., became known to the Christian world after the 14th century through translations from the Arabic.
Also from Hermes, messenger of the gods, comes hermeneutics, the art of textual interpretation, and according to the author of the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit (Book of the Holy Trinity, 1415), the first alchemical text in the German language, this occurs in four directions: in the natural, supernatural, divine and human sense. As used by its most distinguished representatives, alchemical literature possesses a suggestive language, rich in allegories, homophony and word-play which, often through the meditation of Jaboc Böhme's theosophical works, has had a profound effect on the poetry of Romanticism (Black, Novalis,) the philosophy of German idealism (Hegel, Schelling) and on modern literature.
A rich world of images has etched itself into the memory of modern man, despite the fact that it is not available in public collections, but lies hidden in old manuscripts and prints.
By imbuing them with a special hieroglyphic aura, the creators of these pictures sought to suggest the very great age of their art and to acknowledge the source of their wisdom: the patriarch of natural mysticism and alchemy, Hermes Trismegistus.
It was Greek colonists in late classical Egypt who identified their healing, winged messenger of the gods, Hermes (Lat. Mercurius) with the ancient Egyptian Thoth, the 'Thrice Greatest'. Thoth was the god of writing and magic, worshipped, like Hermes, as the psychopompos, the soul's guide through the underworld. The mythical figure of Hermes Trismegistus was also linked to a legendary pharaoh who was supposed to have taught the Egyptians all their knowledge of natural and supernatural things, including their knowledge of hieroglyphic script. The alchemists saw him as their "Moses" who had handed down the divine commandments of their air in the "emerald tablet". This Tabula Smaragdina, now believed to date back to the 6th-8th centuries A.D., became known to the Christian world after the 14th century through translations from the Arabic.
Also from Hermes, messenger of the gods, comes hermeneutics, the art of textual interpretation, and according to the author of the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit (Book of the Holy Trinity, 1415), the first alchemical text in the German language, this occurs in four directions: in the natural, supernatural, divine and human sense. As used by its most distinguished representatives, alchemical literature possesses a suggestive language, rich in allegories, homophony and word-play which, often through the meditation of Jaboc Böhme's theosophical works, has had a profound effect on the poetry of Romanticism (Black, Novalis,) the philosophy of German idealism (Hegel, Schelling) and on modern literature.
Many voices, even from within their own ranks, were raised agains the "obscure idioms" of the alchemists. And their own account of their communication technique hardly sounds more encouraging: "Wherever we have spoken openly we have (actually) said nothing. But where we have written something in code and in pictures we have concealed the truth." (Rosarium philosophorum, Weinheim edition, 1990).
The tendency towards arcane language in "obscure speeches", in numbers and in enigmatic pictures, is explained by a profound scepticism about the expressive possibilities of literal language, subjected to Babylonian corruption, which hold the Holy Spirit fettered in its grammatical bonds. The prehistoric knowledge, the prisca sapienta that was revealed directly to Adam and Moses by God, and which has handed down in a long, elite chain of tradition, had to be preserved in such a way that iwas protected against the abuse of the profane. To this end, Hermes Trismegistus, who, like Zorasther, Pythagoras and Plato, was seen as a major link in this hermetic chain, develed hieroglyphs.
The Reinassance idea of Egyptian hieroglyphs took them to be a symbolic, rebus-like, esoteric script. This was influenced by the tratise of a 5th century Egyptian by the name of Horapollo, in which he provided a symbolic key to some 200 signs.
Horapollo's 'Hieroglyphica' also formed the basis for the development, in the mid-16th century, of emblems, symbols which are always connected with a short motto and generally accompanied by an explantory commentary. They were very popular in the Baroque, and proved to be an ideal vehicle for communication of paradoxical alchemical teaching aids and maxims.
Emphasizing their broad theoretical foundations, the alchemists often termed themselves "philosophers", describing their work simply as "art" or "philosophical art".
The heyday of hermetic emblems and the art of illustration coincided with the decline in "classical" alchemy, which was still capable of combining technical skills and practical experience with spiritual components. Theosophical alchemists like the Rosicrucians and practising laboratory chemists like Andres Libavius, who sought to improve the empirical foundations of alchemy thereby bought it closer to analytical chemistry, were already irreconcilable by the beginning of the 17th century. Although Rosicrucians did boast that "godless and accursed gold-making" was easy for them, this was a ludicrous and marginal pursuit in comparison with the main pursuit of inner purification: their gold was the spiritual gold of the theologians.
Source: Roob, A. (2009) The Hermetic Cabinet, Köln: Taschen.
Gnosis and NeoplatonismConcepts of natural philosophy
Emphasizing their broad theoretical foundations, the alchemists often termed themselves "philosophers", describing their work simply as "art" or "philosophical art".
Many voices, even from within their own ranks, were raised agains the "obscure idioms" of the alchemists. And their own account of their communication technique hardly sounds more encouraging: "Wherever we have spoken openly we have (actually) said nothing. But where we have written something in code and in pictures we have concealed the truth." (Rosarium philosophorum, Weinheim edition, 1990).
The tendency towards arcane language in "obscure speeches", in numbers and in enigmatic pictures, is explained by a profound scepticism about the expressive possibilities of literal language, subjected to Babylonian corruption, which hold the Holy Spirit fettered in its grammatical bonds. The prehistoric knowledge, the prisca sapienta that was revealed directly to Adam and Moses by God, and which has handed down in a long, elite chain of tradition, had to be preserved in such a way that iwas protected against the abuse of the profane. To this end, Hermes Trismegistus, who, like Zorasther, Pythagoras and Plato, was seen as a major link in this hermetic chain, develed hieroglyphs.
The Reinassance idea of Egyptian hieroglyphs took them to be a symbolic, rebus-like, esoteric script. This was influenced by the tratise of a 5th century Egyptian by the name of Horapollo, in which he provided a symbolic key to some 200 signs.
Horapollo's 'Hieroglyphica' also formed the basis for the development, in the mid-16th century, of emblems, symbols which are always connected with a short motto and generally accompanied by an explantory commentary. They were very popular in the Baroque, and proved to be an ideal vehicle for communication of paradoxical alchemical teaching aids and maxims.
Emphasizing their broad theoretical foundations, the alchemists often termed themselves "philosophers", describing their work simply as "art" or "philosophical art".
The heyday of hermetic emblems and the art of illustration coincided with the decline in "classical" alchemy, which was still capable of combining technical skills and practical experience with spiritual components. Theosophical alchemists like the Rosicrucians and practising laboratory chemists like Andres Libavius, who sought to improve the empirical foundations of alchemy thereby bought it closer to analytical chemistry, were already irreconcilable by the beginning of the 17th century. Although Rosicrucians did boast that "godless and accursed gold-making" was easy for them, this was a ludicrous and marginal pursuit in comparison with the main pursuit of inner purification: their gold was the spiritual gold of the theologians.
Source: Roob, A. (2009) The Hermetic Cabinet, Köln: Taschen.
Gnosis and NeoplatonismConcepts of natural philosophy