New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
I have always loved the city of Florence. There is something special about it; art and culture are omnipresent, but not conspicuous. This is a discrete presence that surrounds you while walking in the streets. From porches and churches to palaces, there is a rich history that influenced Europe—and the entire world. The Renaissance transformed art, but also the mind and spirituality. Building on fascinating medieval traditions, the rebirth of the classical philosophy and art has given birth to a new spirit. Even the light of the sky in Florence seems different, as if the blue was sometimes opening to another world. This time, I was there with my wife for a few days, to share with ...
A word that frequents occult, historical, and scholarly texts of all varieties is Hermeticism. The word is derived from the name of the Greek-Egyptian mythic figure Hermes Trismegistus, meaning "thrice-great Hermes," and refers to the spiritual and religious movement that occurred after the Greek conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Alexander's death shortly thereafter (323 BCE) began what is known as the Hellenistic Period, in which old worldviews were threatened by cultural merging. The centuries of transition between Alexander's conquests and the beginning of the Common Era marked the rise of a pagan variant of Gnosticism now termed Hermeticism. Because readers come ...
Image by Wil Kinghan. Used with permission. I've been searching for the Grail for many years. I have visited a dozen or more places where it is supposed to be found. The Blue Bowl in Glastonbury, the Antioch Chalice in the New York Metropolitan Museum, the Valencia Chalice in Spain, the Nanteos Cup in Wales, and many more. I discovered that all of these are Grails, but none of them are the Grail. In fact, I'm not even sure there is a the Grail—and this is part of its fascination. It remains almost as mysterious now as it did when I started my own quest many years ago. And yet…I keep looking. The Grail is illusive. It leaps into focus on the road ahead, then vanishes ...
Mystics, magicians, Wiccans, and Neo-pagans of all stripes identify their practice with the figure of the pentagram. But, it is unlikely that any group has incorporated the pentagram into its ritual work more than the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Not only does the pentagram play an essential role in the practical workings of our tradition, it is also used to classify all aspects of Golden Dawn Magic. The pentagram, or five-pointed star, undoubtedly the best-known symbol of magic, is often said to resemble the figure of a human being; the upper point corresponds to the head while the remaining four points match the out-stretched arms and legs. The legs of our archetypal ...
