Thursday, October 29, 2009

Occult Philosophy: Happy Halloween!

The figure of a nude man with his limbs positioned to overlap an enclosed pentagram. Various planetary signs a placed on the image.Published as a single volume in 1533, these three books, collectively known as De occulta philosophia libri tres (Köln: Soter, 1533), are the fruits of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's study of occult philosophy.  Written over a period of at least twenty years,  they outline Agrippa's thoughts on the theory, practice and history of ritual magic and it's relation to religion, medicine and other disciplines.  This volume was published without any indication of a printer's name or a place of publication as it had initially been denounced as heretical.

Shown here is one of several figures from book two which illustrates Agrippa's discussion of the perfection of man.  In a sequence of images he describes how man's physical form relates to perfect geometric shapes, significant numbers, astrological signs, stars and divine names.

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