The Mage's Images: Heinrich Khunrath in His Oratory and Laboratory, Volume 2

Theosopher & Christian Cabalist

Series: 

This is the 2nd volume in a 4-volume work entitled The Mage’s Images. The work provides the first in-depth examination of the life and works of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), ‘one of the great Hermetic philosophers’, whose Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1595/1609) has been described as ‘one of the most important books in the whole literature of theosophical alchemy and the occult sciences’. Khunrath is best known for his novel combination of ‘scripture and picture’ in the complex engravings in his Amphitheatre. In this richly illustrated monograph, Forshaw analyses occult symbolism, with previously unpublished material, offering insight into Khunrath’s insistence on the necessary combination of alchemy, magic, and cabala in ‘Oratory and Laboratory’.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-70207-3
Publication:
20 Jan 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-70206-6
Publication:
23 Jan 2025
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Peter J. Forshaw, Ph.D. (2004), London University, is Associate Professor in History of Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam. He was editor of the journal Aries (2010-2020), has edited essay collections and published articles and chapters on esotericism and occult philosophy.
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Tables

Introductory Note

3 Khunrath the Theosopher – a Lover of Divine Wisdom
 1 Pre-Modern Uses of the Term Theosophy
 2 Characteristics of Early Modern Theosophy
 3 Proto-Theosophers and Theophrastia Sancta
 4 Valentin Weigel (1533–1588)
 5 Johann Arndt (1555–1621)
 6 Enthusiasm
 7 The Anti-Trinitarians’ Contempt of Divine Tri-Unity
 8 An Unorthodox Lutheran?
 9 A Faithful Lover of Theosophy
 10 Theodidaktos – Taught by God
 11 Hermetic Philosophy and Pansophy
 12 Khunrath’s Theosopher
 13 Qualifications to be a Magus
 14 Ora et Labora
 15 Ora, Oratio, Oraculum
 16 Exegesis: Interpreting the Three Books
 17 Labora
 18 The Triune Apocalyptic Key
 19 I. The Book of God in the Ternary
 20 Book of God, Book of Scripture
 21 Deus Pater Archetypos – God, the Father, the Archetype
 22 Filius Theanthropos – the Divinely-Human Son
 23 Spiritus Polypoikilos – Multiform Spirit
 24 II. Book of Nature, Book of Creation
 25 Χαος – Chaos
 26 רוח אלהים – Ruach Elohim – Spirit of the Lord
 27 שמים – Schamaim – Heaven
 28 Three Heavens
 29 1) The Lower Sublunar Heaven
 30 2) Rachia: the Firmament of Heaven
 31 3) The Super-Supreme Empyrean
 32 III. Book of Man, Book of Conscience
 33 Ten Grades of Cognition
 34 The Threefold Eye and Three Kinds of Vision
 35 The Ladder of Conjunction and Union
 36 Prologue: Seven Steps to the Sanctuary
 37 1) Fides (Faith)
 38 2) Meditatio (Meditation)
 39 3) Cognitio (Knowledge) and 4) Amor (Love)
 40 5) Spes (Hope)
 41 6) Oratio (Prayer)
 42 7) Conjunctio (Conjunction)
 43 8) Frequentia (Concourse & Constant Practice)
 44 Gerard Dorn’s Speculative or Meditative Philosophy
 45 9) Familiaritas (Familiarity)
 46 10) Similitudo (Likeness)
 47 Deification
 48 Conclusion
 49 Ascent and Descent

4 Christian Cabala’s Wonder-Working Word
 1 The Origins of Christian Cabala
 2 Proto-Kabbalah of the Sepher Yetzirah
 3 Bahir: Book of Illumination
 4 The Works of Bereshit and Merkavah
 5 Zohar: Book of Splendour
 6 Ten Sephiroth on the Tree of Life
 7 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and the Genesis of Christian Cabala
 8 Exegetical Techniques in Jewish Kabbalah
 9 Gematria
 10 Notarikon/Notariakon
 11 Temurah or Tsiruf
 12 Exegetical Examples from Pico’s Conclusions and Heptaplus
 13 Johann Reuchlin’s Neo-Pythagorean Cabala
 14 On the Wonder-Working Word (1494)
 15 On the Cabalistic Art (1517)
 16 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy
 17 John Dee’s Hieroglyphic Monad
 18 Sources for Khunrath’s Knowledge of Cabala
 19 Other Potential Sources
 20 Cabala in Khunrath’s Works
 21 Aben – Stone
 22 Sol/Shemesh
 23 Urim and Thummim
 24 Sigillum Dei: Khunrath’s Christian-Cabalist Seal of God
 25 1. Circumference: Tetraktys and Decalogue
 26 2. The Angelic Hierarchy
 27 3. A Prayer for Christians and Jews
 28 4. 22 Foundational Letters
 29 5. Ensoph – The Infinite
 30 6. Emet – Truth
 31 7. Sephiroth: Emanations of the Divine
 32 8. Shemoth: the Names of God
 33 9. יהשוה YHSVH, Pentagrammaton, Verbum Mirificum
 34 10. Christ θεανθρωπος
 35 A Christian-Cabalist Adam Androgyne
 36 Rejection of the Binary
 37 Cabalistic Conclusions concerning Khunrath
Index
Scholars and students of early modern intellectual and cultural history, the complex relations between occult philosophy, religion, science, and medicine, as manifested in Khunrath’s idiosyncratic interplay of text and image.
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