Chemical Wedding

The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, often looked upon as the third Rosicrucian manifesto, has an entirely different tone from the other Rosicrucian documents. Unlike the Rosicrucian manifestoes, which address the transformation of society, The Chemical Wedding is concerned with the inner transformation of the soul. It is a deeply interior work, one which asks the reader to step into its world of symbols and walk with Christian Rosenkreutz along his path of transformation. Despite its importance as a key text of the Western esoteric traditions, this is the first ever contemporary English translation of The Chemical Wedding, made especially for this edition by Joscelyn Godwin. Also included in this edition is an introduction and commentary by Adam McLean, which illuminates the transformative symbolism.

The Rosicrucian Fraternity announced their existence some four centuries ago. Since then there has been much speculation about the brotherhood regarding their secrets, their history, and their existence. Time has spawned numerous imitators, voluble detractors, and earnest defenders of the Fraternity. The only certainty lies in the early manuscripts and publications; these works are presented together in this volume. Herein are all of the crucial Rosicrucian documents. The Fama Fraternitatis proclaims the existence of the brotherhood to the world and calls for sincere Christian reformation. The Confessio Fraternitatis gives more details on their history and teachings. The Chemical Wedding is considered by some to be a key alchemical work by the brotherhood. When the Fama was first printed, it was accompanied by the by Trajano Bocalini. Each of these works is presented in an early English translation, along with the original prefaces. Also included is Thomas Vaughn's lenghty preface to the first English publication of Fama and Confession This edition includes introductions to every Rosiucrucian work, useful footnotes, historical information, and latin, german and greek translations from noted Rosicrucian scholar Benedict J. Williamson. Williamson has compared numerous translations of the various works to produce the most authoritative and accurate version to date of these forgotten historical treasures.

The Chemical Marriage appeared anonymously, in Germany, in 1616. It's one of three primary documents which announced and helped define who the secret society of Rosicrucians were. Presented here is a translated, condensed and modernized version of the original, which used heavily veiled language and is difficult to understand at times. The story is told with alchemical symbolism and deals with mystical initiation, and it has been the subject of serious occult study for centuries since its first appearance.

Rosicrucianism is one of the most important, and least recognized, streams of Western spirituality. Forced underground in the maelstrom of the Thirty Years War, Rosicrucianism was passed down secretly by alchemists, hermetists, and Masons into the nineteenth century, when it inspired new spiritual movements, including theosophy, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science. This book collects from many different sources Steiner's discussions on Rosicrucianism: the Tao and the Rose Cross; the history and mission of Christian Rosenkreutz; the nature of Rosicrucian practice and experience; the meaning of The Chemical Wedding; Goethe's Rosicrucian poem "The Mysteries; " and how to meditate on the Rose Cross itself.

Winner of the 2002 Colorado Prize for Poetry Published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University

Telling Images is a study of Chaucer's narrative art and its use of symbolic images in the visual arts of his time.

Rene Descartes was a highly influential philosopher, mathematician, and scientist and is regarded as the Father of modern philosophy and mathematics. This is the biography of Descartes, and it describes the life of Descartes, in the flesh and blood, rather than a technical analysis of his philosophical, scientific, and mathematical ideas.

This volume introduces what has sometimes been called "the third component of western culture". It traces the historical development of those religious traditions which have rejected a world view based on the primacy of pure rationality or doctrinal faith, emphasizing instead the importance of inner enlightenment or gnosis: a revelatory experience which was typically believed to entail an encounter with one's true self as well as with the ground of being, God. The contributors to this book demonstrate this perspective as fundamental to a variety of interconnected traditions. In Antiquity, one finds the gnostics and hermetics; in the Middle Ages several Christian sects. The medieval Cathars can, to a certain extent, be considered part of the same tradition. Starting with the Italian humanist Renaissance, hermetic philosophy became of central importance to a new religious synthesis that can be referred to as Western Esotericism. The development of this tradition is described from Renaissance hermeticists and practitioners of spiritual alchemy to the emergence of Rosicrucianism and Christian theosophy in the seventeenth century, and from post-enlightenment aspects of Romanticism and occultism to the present-day New Age movement.