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Vain traditions of a man I say, words that are thrown around in about,……. There is no enlightenment only the trigger of pride which leads to the second death‼️
It really is amazing how many of these ideas either survive into or re-emerge in modern magical fiction: "true names", the magical power of verse, disbelief as a magic-suppressor, the practical importance of language and script and enunciation to magic, magic as an act of Will, the importance of the stars to casting, it just goes on and on.
@@zenosAnalytic lol where you think they get it from. It's really what we have lost that holds amazing potential, hopefully some of our best survived time
@@bobthemadmonkey ? that's what Im saying? Like: my first sentence is literally "It really is amazing how many of these ideas either survive into or re-emerge in modern magical fiction".
I remember being a little kid and hearing my grandfather being quite put out that Hebrew was the spoken language of Israel. In his view it should have been Yiddish as he viewed Hebrew to be a sacred and mystical language and therefore not appropriate for mundane communications. I wish he were alive today that I could pick his brain more on the matter.
This is one of the best I've heard yet. Comment on the tri-part soul. Interesting congruence with the modern concept of the triune brain (R-complex, lymbic system, and the pre-frontal cortex). Amazing how the neurobiological understanding of today reflects the same conceptual framework of so long ago. Keep up this good work!
Love this channel......glad it was suggested by the algorithm. 8:34 I went through a really bad time , just gave up on life. Months and months into this ...Well, i was having these dreams of me gardening, swimming and other things i once enjoyed physically . I would be really enthusiastic about what i was doing and how it would look. I would wake up and my newfound emotional state would quickly desolve from my negative thoughts and actions. Over time i listened. Started doing these things and my depression and motivation has improved. It was like a separate part of myself that was giving me these dreams for encouragement and desperately trying to suggest things i should be doing. It felt like it was apart of me but not in my body. Like a part of my consciousness was separate but connected. I "personally" think what your talking about at that point maybe related. It was unusual and never had happened before. I could very well be wrong, what you're saying sounds very familiar and open for interpretation.
I would die for more videos on the philosophy of Occultism! My undergrad education was in Analytical Philosophy but by the end of it I was completely disillusioned with its ability to deal with meaning. I’ve always loved Continental Philosophy for almost beginning from the other side of the coin (to generalise) but once had a lecturer arrogantly tell me ‘If you want to study Nietzsche go somewhere else, we do real philosophy here.’ Another once shouted ‘you’re wasting my time! Jung is so last century!’ Thankfully I’m hopefully doing an MA at Trinity St. David’s in Wales, which has a particular interest in these areas. Your channel has been such a goldmine and genuinely therapeutic for me to see these ideas treated with the respect they deserve. I suppose as someone that practices as well as studies, you don’t realise how much the culture of dismissal and arrogance crushes your spirit and desire to learn. Sorry for the rant Justin, in short, more philosophy!!
I'm not as smart or in tune with the occult as other people, but I find your lectures to be so intellectually interesting that I jump on them as soon as you release them. Thank you.
Many thanks - excellent nutrition for the mind, as ever. I was reminded of the chapter in Evelyn Underhill's 'Mysticism', where she contrasts mysticism and magic. Perhaps one major difference is their respective attitudes towards language itself. Mysticism, like modern philosophy, distrusts language - at best a limited tool, at worst a seductive trap. Magic often seems preoccupied with language and its potency. Personally, I can't see language as anything but an arbitrary, shifting set of signs with a long, very human history - in which case, Agrippa's perspective is both fascinating and incomprehensible.
You may well have received this feedback before, Dr Sledge, and in fact I am confident what I have to say has been covered adequately by now, however I feel compelled to comment: you are a total (s)LEGEND. Thank you thank you thank you for doing the work you do here and sharing it with the world. Everything about your approach is utterly ideal from where I'm perched, and I come away from videos like this both inspired and thrilled. Admittedly, thrilled seems a little over the top for a scholarly dive into arcane literature that much of the world has zero interest in, but nevertheless, let me reiterate, I'm THRILLED you are pursuing this path and letting us all come have a gawk. Highest blessings!
Wonderful video. I always wanted to know more about Agrippa when I was a student. I love the way you reference semantic theory as well as phenomenology and the Kabbalah - I did all of this but not Agrippa. Thankyou Dr Sedge!
Giordano has a work "On Magic" which explains the philosophy of all this rather clearly, and surprisingly there is an audiobook on youtube... it ties into his philosophy/practice of Neoplatonic mnemonic devices in other works of his... the Corpus Hermeticum also explains how the universe is made of language and will
The Angelic script is super interesting to me. I drew many of these sorts of patterns and variations of lines connected to small circles when I was a young child. I was also obsessed with drawing the pentagram. Make me wonder what past lives I've lived.
I feel like there is an almost infinite amount of interesting material in Agrippa's Three Books. I've only read through them once and it was a lot to digest lol. But this was definitely helpful and now I want to revisit them again. Oh yea, and that story about the laser eyes was amazing. I want an episode about that!
So glad to hear that I'm not the only one confused by the Ancient ideas about Intellect, Mind, Soul, Spirit, etc. It really seems that the meanings have shifted and changed over the centuries such that I don't understand how we can even build dogma on top of these concepts. We literally do not know wtf we're talking about.
Much of the confusion seems to arise from switching from one language to the other. In Greek, when we are talking about the mind or the soul, it is usually just one word being translated - psyche. This is what Plato was arguing about being immortal and surviving after death in the Phaedo while his interlocutors thought it would vanish as soon as the physical brain was destroyed. The spirit, however is either coming from thumos (when we are talking about being spirited, angry or passionate) or pneuma (when we are talking about breath, shades/ghosts, or life force). Even this distinction is messy though, because sometimes psyche can also be used to mean breath or life force... So maybe this did not help. However, it does at least point to the fact that the term "mind" did not exist as a seperate term for the Greeks. As a translator, you just choose whether you will use the word mind when the author thinks the psyche dies when the body dies or you use the word soul when the author thinks the psyche is immortal and will survive death.
Orthodox theologian Jean-Yves Leloup has a lot to say about the tripartite nature of the human or anthropos. His translation and commentary on the book of Mary Magdalene makes it far more clear than I've seen it any place else including in Aristotle's texts. The odds are you probably checked out this author but if you haven't give him a read, it's worth the time and effort to check out the clarity with which he makes an effort to bring into this very complex question and situation.
I have chanted AUM before and I did it so long and repeated it that the "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" part vibrated my brain and afterwards so much mucous came out of the back of my head, it had cleared inflammation!
When you mentioned a book club it made me realize that we should have an Esoterica Discord server. It would make it awesome for everybody to be able to coordinate a book club, discuss questions and answers from videos, suggest new ideas for future videos, etc.
This is so timely. I have been thinking about this extensively. Basically, the Kabbalah's view of language, or something very much like it, is at the basis of all magic and esotericism. The question is what sort of philosophy, explicit or implied, could give such a role of language? Some kind of idealism is probably necessary for magic. Obviously, if mind is emergent from the physical alone, then mind only follows the physical event upon which it supervenes. George Berkeley in particular is probably the pre-modern/modern philosopher who's ideas are most sympathetic to magic. Crowley, in book 4, states that Berkeley is his philosopher of magic, and basically anyone else's too, whether they know this formally and consciously or not. I wanted to direct your attention to the work of Kenneth Pearce. BERKELEY ON UNPERCEIVED OBJECTS AND THE PUBLICITY OF LANGUAGE Kenneth L. Pearce; History of Philosophy Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3 (JULY 2017), pp. 231-250 (or LANGUAGE AND THE STRUCTURE OF BERKELEY’S WORLD same author - dissertation) He provides good demonstration that Berkeley's answer for the stability of unperceived objects is not "God is perceiving them" as is commonly thought (as this would not have been the defense against Descartes' skepticism that Berkeley was in fact looking for in the first place.) Rather, Berkeley argues in his New Theory of Vision for a use theory of language, and that God is giving a public discourse which we interpret as vision. Human language (especially say Hebrew with the Torah) would then be seen as retaining certain links to God's discourse of reality by virtue of its origin there, and that when language is properly understood, it could serve as a mechanism to make change in physical reality or travel between different dimensional worlds (olam), etc. I feel that some sort of synthesis of Wittgenstein and Berkeley is basically the implied philosophy of language in magic. And, incidentally, I also think it is true. I feel like I am quantumly entangled with this page: I read something, think something, and then there's a video in 24-48 hours.
Awesome content as always. Now having to review all of my books to see if Dr. Sledge has given the all clear on the translations. I really could use a Rosetta Stone produced by Dr. Sledge. If not a stone ...due to shipping restrictions, perhaps a publication or a PDF that can be printed for purchase. :)
The divinity of Hebrew reminds me of this Steve Tenebaum guy (maybe wrong name) but he went into how Hebrew/Greek were written in the flame, somehow postulated the Hebrew/Greek letters were taken from different angles of viewing the Tetrahedron. Fascinating stuff.
I saw Dan Winters take an image of a toroid connected to another toroid...two funnels connected at their apex...and cut cross sections into the toroid and showed all the letters of hebrew...because the letters appear to turn and cut and the way the toroidal spins you do see it...which led me to Rudolf steiner work on blood, who said the heart is not a pump but a vortex and blood is little vortices that move through the body....also if I remember correctly Dan Winters calls it the "Holy Grail".
Fascinating text and great analisys. Impressive to see such an old volume has such a well-explained and well-structured system. By the have, have you ever thought about making an episode dedicaded to the infamous Bornless Conjuration/Headless Rite?
My favorite days are those with a notification of a new video on this channel. I truly appreciate your work. On a side note, didn't Robert Fludd have a brother named Elmer? Please don't block me.
Judgey laser eyes sounds like such a compelling premise for a superhero character. He's got really powerful laser vision but can only activate it by being super judgmental in the face of crime, but his kryptonite is coming to understand other people's point of view and so there's this sort of back and forth over the course of the story where initially he's really judgmental feeling that all criminals should pay, but as he interacts with these villains some of them manage to make compelling arguments or have sympathetically tragic stories and the hero has to constantly psych himself up to harshly judge these people in order to actually stop their crimes.
I like Jim Butcher's take in his Dresden Files series. The magical languages are to keep the practicioner from getting burned out or distracted by words that are too familiar.
The relationship between the material mind and the higher consciousness semi-connected to the greater Divine consciousness modeled by Aristole resembles the Jungian model of the self being an extension of the Deep Self which is connected to collective subconscious where all knowledge and wisdom exist.
A question. Agrippa open his Three Books of Occult Philosophy whit the claim that “seeing there is a threefold world, elementary, celestial, and intellectual, and every inferior is governed by its superior, and receiveth the influence of the virtues thereof” thus describing what historians of religion call A tiered universe. A tiered universe is normally something we find in a functional culture like the Aboriginal of Australia, the San of Southern Africa or the Greek and Northern mythology. But the renaissance was a chaotic world, where ideas fought with and against each other for centuries. Within the faculties, in politics, among the different churches that arose in the period. This continued at least till we get to the period called the enlightenment. So the question is, how doth the chaos of the renaissance represent it self within the Three Books? Is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a contemporary or a romantic, when it comes to paralleling his theory, whit the word surrounding him? 🧌
I am relatively new to your channel, but really enjoying your work. The alchemists and mystics are proving to be my entry into Medieval theology and philosophy, as informed largely by your excellent videos. I am also easily distracted by all the items and books you have in the background :). What is that copper device you have in the background, that looks like an alchemist's distillery? I may have to add such a device to my collection.
@ 9:00 The first paragraph seems like it lays out the concept of causality, then builds upon it. If an act is performed as a Craft, the action you take has a mirrored effect within. Like when JP says to clean your room. One sort of mind seems like he's talking about Satori or recognition of the Self. Light makes the potential actual because it carries the information with it for you to register as an experience. The second paragraph seems like it's talking about the stoic effect of Self awareness as being primary in the causality of experience. That third paragraph is unclear and confusing...hard to know what words and meanings he had in mind but sounds a little woo and redundant. The forth paragraph is talking about separating the Self from the thinking mind, as the Self is eternal and subjectively everlasting. We don't remember ourselves as Brahman, because our thinking minds are perishable and without the automatic nature of the thinking mind, nothing would think.
Soul = Integrated Psyche (Heart, Mind, Will). Mind = Inspiration Heart = Aspiration Will = Volition When the Heart aspires, the Mind inquires and the Will conspires (combines).
Love the great drawing of the bald man with the written tongue. Where is that from, Dr. Sledge? It reminds me of some of the drawings of Oskar Kokoschka from c. 1908. Speaking of which, the art I've found in Grimoires and other magical documents is often striking. Much of it is folk art, I know, but it has a kind of strength, depth, rawness, and mystery connected to it that comes from all kinds of sources. Would it be possible to do a video or a series of videos on this aspect of magical documents from the point of view of aesthetics? I know Taschen Books has done a giant anthology of this, but they have neglected the rich materials that one finds in the older, more obscure places. Jesse
Amazing vid! Can you plz do a video on the on the or flood 9 apkhalu the demonic entity's (Giants) assigned to certain geographical locations... And maybe one on the angels, their ranks and roles
The fierce blazing🔥 shooting from the 👀eyes, sounds a lot like the Kal El or (Superman) power!🎆 Maybe the ideations that the creators of these fictional superheroes were taken from Esoteric/ Occult Literature!🦉🎓📚
Seems to me Aristotle is referring to observable reality itself as "active mind" and the things we can observe as "potential knowledge" while the mind of the individual is "passive mind" and the things it perceives is "actual knowledge". The first analogy is craft to matter, the second analogy is light. There is the mind or the part of the soul produces which is likened to a craft or to light, and the part of the mind which is all things which is likened to the matter and to colors in relation to light. Light is the true reality but it is only the cause which manifests itself in the form of colors just as the craft is the cause which only manifests itself as the matter produced such as a chair. When he talks about "this mind" which is separate and unaffected and unmixed, being in its essence actuality, he would seem to be talking about the kind of mind that is likened to the craft or to light because he goes onto say that what produces is always superior to what is affected and gives another analogy of first principle to matter. So, when he says actual knowledge is the same as the thing known he's talking about the color or matter side of the mind equation. Light is the thing you could potentially know and it precedes color in time (even though there are occasions where we may know about a thing before having experienced it like one who learns about the geography of a country he has not visited), while color is the actual knowledge because it is the thing known. Then he goes back to talking about "this mind" which is the unaffected and unmixed one saying it never shuts off, and it sort of suggests an idealistic view of reality, the active "mind" is the light or the reality which the passive mind can learn about at which point it becomes actual knowledge. Once you know about a thing it goes from something you could potentially know to something you actually know.
I don't think so, you'll need to read the rest of de anima on light of the metaphysical to see why - it had to do with the role of actualization in his general concept of motion. So not "active" and "potential" how we might use them
Fair enough, I will do that. Though if actualization in motion is anything like our modern concept of potential energy vs kinetic energy then I'll probably come back with something like the same conclusion, but I'll be sure to give it a read through. I've got Aristotle's Metaphysics which I'm excited to give a read through but I'll check out de anima next.
@@ricardopenamcknight6407 No, far from it. Aristotle's physics are totally foreign to modern readers. From Aristotle, all entities have built in 'ends' or teloi which must be 'activated' through efficient causation informed through their material natural by an outside agent such that they tend towards their teloi in accordance to nature. Of course, mind, being purely formal must be activated by an outside intelligence, here the 'agent' or 'active' intellect. Aristotle has no concept of 'energy' at all, especially not as 'the measurement in joules of the ability to do work.'
@@TheEsotericaChannel I didn't figure he did have a concept of energy, I just meant similar in that an object that could move but isn't moving is in a state of potentiality, such as a ball at the top of a hill that has not been nudged so that it would begin to roll downward, but otherwise fair enough. It looks like I'll have to try to wrap my head around a few more of his ideas to be sure.
Though, admittedly, to my ear hearing that something must be activated through efficient causation through their material nature toward their built in ends does still sound like just a more ancient version of "an object at rest tends to stay at rest until" and in my mind at least would bear a similar relationship as that between our concept of potential energy (minus the modern physical explanations of energy) to kinetic energy once an object is acted upon, buuuut that could just be me still filtering things through my modern conceptions.
That De Anima excerpt is a little confusing but I feel like I understood it. It's saying that the eternal part of you exists only to animate the non-eternal part, and there is no change or emergence that accompanies this interaction. Like one who follows a recipe to make soup, few would argue that the former collaborated with the writer of the recipe to make the soup. And since consciousness must be animated, it is firmly in the non-eternal category.
I have some questions about specific diagrams of the tree of life...in the western occult tradition .the practice of impronting the tree as i jave been taught is that gevurah or mars is the sphere on the right shoulder..yet there is picture from antiquity with christ on the tree with his left hand on gevurah..the reverse of what is taught...as well as this several pictures seem to portray the tree and its attributes mirrored. ..this is confusing me..my question is :is this picture displaying the macrocosm as opposed to the tree procedure commonly used...if you can help with any referwnces to this image and explain to me the mirroring etc etc...some help would be nice..i have recently been trying do a complete reformation of the angellic system and there names according to the spheres..would like to understand this aspect of the doagram as i have always practiced it as taught in golden dawn...the descrepencies between michael having rightful place on tiferet too confuse me...
I wonder if that third state mentioned by Agrippa ties conceptually to the “third eye” in other esoteric concepts in some way or if it’s one of those “correlation does not imply causation” type things.
*And having been separated, this alone is deathless and everlasting, though we do not remember, because this is unaffected, whereas passive mind is perishable. And without this nothing thinks.* Well, truly reading that piece from Aristotle to me was like reading the Greatest Secret by Rhonda Brynne. We are all that is and unaware. We are Source. In this reality of human experience we have forgotten who we are. An Avatar that has lost its connection. Having lost the knowledge of the source of its animation and therefore believes that they are only the sum total of what they experience and limited to this one existence. Not realizing they are in fact everything and eternal.
Agrippa appears to have been correct about language being underdeveloped at the time. Here in the 21st century, people who are the most adept in cutting edge language are literally among the most powerful and wealthy; programmers.
So: 1.magical ability is determined by mind, spirit and body; In short as powerful as the Magus' will 2. In written form for speaking, Latin and Hebrew are the closest alphabets to linking with that magic Is this correct, in general?
I have a general question, and i couldn't think of a better place to ask it. All are welcome to share their input. My question is: if magic isn't real/doesn't work, why did so many people practise it? I'm pretty neutral on magic, im neither an extreme skeptic nor a practitioner but i'd love some opinions on it as i can't think through the question myself.
Interesting study - As a Christian most of this is basic teaching & I can see why Talmud believed Jesus was a Magician. After some horrific encounters with the Occult I was forced to learn the hard way how to defend myself from such spells & curses & even bind the demons involved, or worse - to destroy the 'magic circles' and protections of the assailing parties who believed they had control or a bond with their demons. Jesus also said Words were powerful - and taught his disciples to bind the spirits (fallen angels & nephilim) under specific rules. Baptism was essential to keep them away once removed as a covenant with the Living God. Otherwise, he explained, they return 7 fold lol. They key difference is that his followers must do all this invoking His Name or in his name. If indeed he is or was Messiah - then this was not magic. Demons knew who he was and shouted to him to have mercy. They feared him greatly. I continue to believe from age 19 because of the incredible success doing what he taught. One becomes a conduit of the Holy Spirit (Jesus referred to Him as the Counselor) - who offers glimpses of future events and gifts including discernment of spirits. So few Christians believe today or practice this gift. Faith was your last point in the required spells success. So it is in Christianity as well. I have seen spirits placed by God in people due to the sins of their fathers & grandparents. (And removed them) - I have seen territorial spirits including Leviathan, and also Covens working in the astral realm (and invited to join- a form of slavery). I have seen the fallen (at least one), and was told recently by a witch - that she could see that being hovering about me today - years after the encounter happened. There is a world we cannot see all around us. Staying free is difficult.
In your live stream you mentioned doing workshops on both coasts but I live in indiana and I would be willing to drive to Detroit for a workshop. I'm a red wings fan so it would give me 2 excuses to visit. Thoughts?
8:45 Call this what you may But my interpretation of this is that it is, in longer form, the 2 main laws of the universe according to hermeticism The All is one, and the one is All (every is just aspects of the one like the idea of white light being made of all colors and itself being a color - look also to the alchemical symbol for the sun being a circle of All, and a dot of One, which itself is together One symbol) And the universe is mental (that one that is all, the white light of being, it itself conscious, the animator of experience and thought) So your thoughts just as your chair and physical body are but colors on the canvases of the all, and the all in themselves TLDR: your thought come from god, who is you and everything
Aristotle speak of the black light, by itself deathless and everlasting, the mother of light, that forms the 3d, flesh, thoughts, wood, rock, yet withdraws, such as the cutting of the ombilical cord, never fusing, but continuously birthing.
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Vain traditions of a man I say, words that are thrown around in about,……. There is no enlightenment only the trigger of pride which leads to the second death‼️
6:54 "hella complicated" haha that was good.
Don’t tempt us with a book club, we’d totally go there with you!!!
Nothing better than dr sledge dropping knowledge on a Friday 😎🙏
Agreed.
It really is amazing how many of these ideas either survive into or re-emerge in modern magical fiction: "true names", the magical power of verse, disbelief as a magic-suppressor, the practical importance of language and script and enunciation to magic, magic as an act of Will, the importance of the stars to casting, it just goes on and on.
@@zenosAnalytic lol where you think they get it from. It's really what we have lost that holds amazing potential, hopefully some of our best survived time
@@bobthemadmonkey ? that's what Im saying? Like: my first sentence is literally "It really is amazing how many of these ideas either survive into or re-emerge in modern magical fiction".
An Esoterica book club sounds divine!
I hope
Where do I sign up??
❤
I remember being a little kid and hearing my grandfather being quite put out that Hebrew was the spoken language of Israel. In his view it should have been Yiddish as he viewed Hebrew to be a sacred and mystical language and therefore not appropriate for mundane communications. I wish he were alive today that I could pick his brain more on the matter.
This is one of the best I've heard yet. Comment on the tri-part soul. Interesting congruence with the modern concept of the triune brain (R-complex, lymbic system, and the pre-frontal cortex). Amazing how the neurobiological understanding of today reflects the same conceptual framework of so long ago. Keep up this good work!
The Eric Perdue translation is top notch. Definitely worth your time.
Love this channel......glad it was suggested by the algorithm.
8:34 I went through a really bad time , just gave up on life. Months and months into this ...Well, i was having these dreams of me gardening, swimming and other things i once enjoyed physically . I would be really enthusiastic about what i was doing and how it would look. I would wake up and my newfound emotional state would quickly desolve from my negative thoughts and actions. Over time i listened. Started doing these things and my depression and motivation has improved.
It was like a separate part of myself that was giving me these dreams for encouragement and desperately trying to suggest things i should be doing. It felt like it was apart of me but not in my body.
Like a part of my consciousness was separate but connected. I "personally" think what your talking about at that point maybe related.
It was unusual and never had happened before.
I could very well be wrong, what you're saying sounds very familiar and open for interpretation.
I would die for more videos on the philosophy of Occultism! My undergrad education was in Analytical Philosophy but by the end of it I was completely disillusioned with its ability to deal with meaning. I’ve always loved Continental Philosophy for almost beginning from the other side of the coin (to generalise) but once had a lecturer arrogantly tell me ‘If you want to study Nietzsche go somewhere else, we do real philosophy here.’ Another once shouted ‘you’re wasting my time! Jung is so last century!’
Thankfully I’m hopefully doing an MA at Trinity St. David’s in Wales, which has a particular interest in these areas. Your channel has been such a goldmine and genuinely therapeutic for me to see these ideas treated with the respect they deserve. I suppose as someone that practices as well as studies, you don’t realise how much the culture of dismissal and arrogance crushes your spirit and desire to learn.
Sorry for the rant Justin, in short, more philosophy!!
“Judgy laser eyes” makes me think of Cyclops from X-Men. Really enjoying this channel. Thank you.
"There is NO such thing as a coincidence yet...."
haha this is exactly what I was picturing
Sounds just like him hahah. Alsways on his high horse 😂🤣🐴
I'm not as smart or in tune with the occult as other people, but I find your lectures to be so intellectually interesting that I jump on them as soon as you release them. Thank you.
I really appreciate the way you base your presentations on scripture and historical facts rather than simply chatting.
Thank you Dr. Justin Sledge for another amazing episode. This one was truly packed to the gills with telesma.
Many thanks - excellent nutrition for the mind, as ever. I was reminded of the chapter in Evelyn Underhill's 'Mysticism', where she contrasts mysticism and magic. Perhaps one major difference is their respective attitudes towards language itself. Mysticism, like modern philosophy, distrusts language - at best a limited tool, at worst a seductive trap. Magic often seems preoccupied with language and its potency. Personally, I can't see language as anything but an arbitrary, shifting set of signs with a long, very human history - in which case, Agrippa's perspective is both fascinating and incomprehensible.
21:24 I understand it a little!! Hallelujah!!!
TY so much for these videos! And please yes talk more about magical mathematics please!!
“Theoretically underdeveloped” such a wonderful use of language.
Thank you Dr. Sledge, the scholarly delivery is very much appreciated. If you ever decide to take your lectures on tour, I would buy a ticket.
Excellent as always, thanks so much for your hard work. Perfect blend of academic content, humor, and insight.
You may well have received this feedback before, Dr Sledge, and in fact I am confident what I have to say has been covered adequately by now, however I feel compelled to comment: you are a total (s)LEGEND. Thank you thank you thank you for doing the work you do here and sharing it with the world. Everything about your approach is utterly ideal from where I'm perched, and I come away from videos like this both inspired and thrilled. Admittedly, thrilled seems a little over the top for a scholarly dive into arcane literature that much of the world has zero interest in, but nevertheless, let me reiterate, I'm THRILLED you are pursuing this path and letting us all come have a gawk. Highest blessings!
Thanks!
Wonderful video. I always wanted to know more about Agrippa when I was a student. I love the way you reference semantic theory as well as phenomenology and the Kabbalah - I did all of this but not Agrippa. Thankyou Dr Sedge!
Giordano has a work "On Magic" which explains the philosophy of all this rather clearly, and surprisingly there is an audiobook on youtube... it ties into his philosophy/practice of Neoplatonic mnemonic devices in other works of his... the Corpus Hermeticum also explains how the universe is made of language and will
Fascinating episode and so well-presented, as always, Dr. Sledge. 🖤
The Angelic script is super interesting to me. I drew many of these sorts of patterns and variations of lines connected to small circles when I was a young child. I was also obsessed with drawing the pentagram. Make me wonder what past lives I've lived.
I love the intro of this channel.
I feel like there is an almost infinite amount of interesting material in Agrippa's Three Books. I've only read through them once and it was a lot to digest lol. But this was definitely helpful and now I want to revisit them again. Oh yea, and that story about the laser eyes was amazing. I want an episode about that!
Tak!
Truly enjoy these videos. It’s wonderful to see so many perspectives from an unbiased source and in a neutral presentation of facts. Professional 🙌
This really is a gripping lecture...
Never going to get over Corny Gripps. Thank you, you have given me a gift
Love this channel, and I look forward to Fridays.
I need that book club in my life rn.
So glad to hear that I'm not the only one confused by the Ancient ideas about Intellect, Mind, Soul, Spirit, etc. It really seems that the meanings have shifted and changed over the centuries such that I don't understand how we can even build dogma on top of these concepts. We literally do not know wtf we're talking about.
Much of the confusion seems to arise from switching from one language to the other. In Greek, when we are talking about the mind or the soul, it is usually just one word being translated - psyche. This is what Plato was arguing about being immortal and surviving after death in the Phaedo while his interlocutors thought it would vanish as soon as the physical brain was destroyed.
The spirit, however is either coming from thumos (when we are talking about being spirited, angry or passionate) or pneuma (when we are talking about breath, shades/ghosts, or life force).
Even this distinction is messy though, because sometimes psyche can also be used to mean breath or life force... So maybe this did not help. However, it does at least point to the fact that the term "mind" did not exist as a seperate term for the Greeks. As a translator, you just choose whether you will use the word mind when the author thinks the psyche dies when the body dies or you use the word soul when the author thinks the psyche is immortal and will survive death.
Well researched and well presented Dr JS. I hope your slowed down speech is comfortable with you. Thanks for sharing.
I'm totally gonna try reading that Plato paragraph on acid and see if I can make sense of it sometime.
it was Aristotle
just because an acid trip gives you ideas doesn't mean it'll be true sadly but gl and let us know
Orthodox theologian Jean-Yves Leloup has a lot to say about the tripartite nature of the human or anthropos. His translation and commentary on the book of Mary Magdalene makes it far more clear than I've seen it any place else including in Aristotle's texts. The odds are you probably checked out this author but if you haven't give him a read, it's worth the time and effort to check out the clarity with which he makes an effort to bring into this very complex question and situation.
I have chanted AUM before and I did it so long and repeated it that the "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" part vibrated my brain and afterwards so much mucous came out of the back of my head, it had cleared inflammation!
On another note, just thinking, could we do an episode where you give synopsis' of unaffordable brill books? Man, those guys are expensive!
I love this so much!
When you mentioned a book club it made me realize that we should have an Esoterica Discord server. It would make it awesome for everybody to be able to coordinate a book club, discuss questions and answers from videos, suggest new ideas for future videos, etc.
@@anon415 did you ever make it?
This is so timely. I have been thinking about this extensively. Basically, the Kabbalah's view of language, or something very much like it, is at the basis of all magic and esotericism. The question is what sort of philosophy, explicit or implied, could give such a role of language?
Some kind of idealism is probably necessary for magic. Obviously, if mind is emergent from the physical alone, then mind only follows the physical event upon which it supervenes. George Berkeley in particular is probably the pre-modern/modern philosopher who's ideas are most sympathetic to magic. Crowley, in book 4, states that Berkeley is his philosopher of magic, and basically anyone else's too, whether they know this formally and consciously or not.
I wanted to direct your attention to the work of Kenneth Pearce. BERKELEY ON UNPERCEIVED OBJECTS AND THE PUBLICITY OF LANGUAGE Kenneth L. Pearce; History of Philosophy Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3 (JULY 2017), pp. 231-250 (or LANGUAGE AND THE STRUCTURE OF BERKELEY’S WORLD same author - dissertation)
He provides good demonstration that Berkeley's answer for the stability of unperceived objects is not "God is perceiving them" as is commonly thought (as this would not have been the defense against Descartes' skepticism that Berkeley was in fact looking for in the first place.) Rather, Berkeley argues in his New Theory of Vision for a use theory of language, and that God is giving a public discourse which we interpret as vision. Human language (especially say Hebrew with the Torah) would then be seen as retaining certain links to God's discourse of reality by virtue of its origin there, and that when language is properly understood, it could serve as a mechanism to make change in physical reality or travel between different dimensional worlds (olam), etc.
I feel that some sort of synthesis of Wittgenstein and Berkeley is basically the implied philosophy of language in magic. And, incidentally, I also think it is true. I feel like I am quantumly entangled with this page: I read something, think something, and then there's a video in 24-48 hours.
Definitely the most extraordinary book I have.
Fascinating and well presented talk.
Awesome content as always. Now having to review all of my books to see if Dr. Sledge has given the all clear on the translations. I really could use a Rosetta Stone produced by Dr. Sledge. If not a stone ...due to shipping restrictions, perhaps a publication or a PDF that can be printed for purchase. :)
The divinity of Hebrew reminds me of this Steve Tenebaum guy (maybe wrong name) but he went into how Hebrew/Greek were written in the flame, somehow postulated the Hebrew/Greek letters were taken from different angles of viewing the Tetrahedron. Fascinating stuff.
I saw Dan Winters take an image of a toroid connected to another toroid...two funnels connected at their apex...and cut cross sections into the toroid and showed all the letters of hebrew...because the letters appear to turn and cut and the way the toroidal spins you do see it...which led me to Rudolf steiner work on blood, who said the heart is not a pump but a vortex and blood is little vortices that move through the body....also if I remember correctly Dan Winters calls it the "Holy Grail".
@@brandymonville7511 THIS!
Thanks Doc, loved the lecture as always looking forward to the next. Unfortunately it makes me think I picked the wrong major
Looking forward to the procolus fragment video!
I recently learned of the 22 utterances and the 10 Serifots= The 32 Paths in Kabbalah and Sefer Yetzirah.
Fascinating text and great analisys. Impressive to see such an old volume has such a well-explained and well-structured system. By the have, have you ever thought about making an episode dedicaded to the infamous Bornless Conjuration/Headless Rite?
Flawless, as always!
Rewatch your own vid. Every time you say "vid for another day" write it down in your notebook of projects. We'll want thise vids soon. 😀
:/
My favorite days are those with a notification of a new video on this channel. I truly appreciate your work. On a side note, didn't Robert Fludd have a brother named Elmer? Please don't block me.
“Judge-y laser eyes” is exactly The type of concepts I’m here for so you know your target audience. 👀
Judgey laser eyes sounds like such a compelling premise for a superhero character. He's got really powerful laser vision but can only activate it by being super judgmental in the face of crime, but his kryptonite is coming to understand other people's point of view and so there's this sort of back and forth over the course of the story where initially he's really judgmental feeling that all criminals should pay, but as he interacts with these villains some of them manage to make compelling arguments or have sympathetically tragic stories and the hero has to constantly psych himself up to harshly judge these people in order to actually stop their crimes.
I like Jim Butcher's take in his Dresden Files series. The magical languages are to keep the practicioner from getting burned out or distracted by words that are too familiar.
The relationship between the material mind and the higher consciousness semi-connected to the greater Divine consciousness modeled by Aristole resembles the Jungian model of the self being an extension of the Deep Self which is connected to collective subconscious where all knowledge and wisdom exist.
Yes please do a book club!!
A question. Agrippa open his Three Books of Occult Philosophy whit the claim that “seeing there is a threefold world, elementary, celestial, and intellectual, and every inferior is governed by its superior, and receiveth the influence of the virtues thereof” thus describing what historians of religion call A tiered universe. A tiered universe is normally something we find in a functional culture like the Aboriginal of Australia, the San of Southern Africa or the Greek and Northern mythology. But the renaissance was a chaotic world, where ideas fought with and against each other for centuries. Within the faculties, in politics, among the different churches that arose in the period. This continued at least till we get to the period called the enlightenment. So the question is, how doth the chaos of the renaissance represent it self within the Three Books? Is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a contemporary or a romantic, when it comes to paralleling his theory, whit the word surrounding him? 🧌
Excellent video... Much appreciation...
Rage creating fire sounds totally awesome is one of the better quotes from you
I am relatively new to your channel, but really enjoying your work. The alchemists and mystics are proving to be my entry into Medieval theology and philosophy, as informed largely by your excellent videos.
I am also easily distracted by all the items and books you have in the background :). What is that copper device you have in the background, that looks like an alchemist's distillery? I may have to add such a device to my collection.
It's a decorative Portuguese still and welcome!
@ 9:00
The first paragraph seems like it lays out the concept of causality, then builds upon it. If an act is performed as a Craft, the action you take has a mirrored effect within.
Like when JP says to clean your room.
One sort of mind seems like he's talking about Satori or recognition of the Self.
Light makes the potential actual because it carries the information with it for you to register as an experience.
The second paragraph seems like it's talking about the stoic effect of Self awareness as being primary in the causality of experience.
That third paragraph is unclear and confusing...hard to know what words and meanings he had in mind but sounds a little woo and redundant.
The forth paragraph is talking about separating the Self from the thinking mind, as the Self is eternal and subjectively everlasting.
We don't remember ourselves as Brahman, because our thinking minds are perishable and without the automatic nature of the thinking mind, nothing would think.
The Three Books of Occult Philosophy - Cornelius Agrippa - Renaissance Hermeticism Cabala and Magic - TH-cam
Awesome. Thank you good sir.!
Soul = Integrated Psyche (Heart, Mind, Will).
Mind = Inspiration
Heart = Aspiration
Will = Volition
When the Heart aspires, the Mind inquires and the Will conspires (combines).
Love the great drawing of the bald man with the written tongue. Where is that from, Dr. Sledge? It reminds me of some of the drawings of Oskar Kokoschka from c. 1908. Speaking of which, the art I've found in Grimoires and other magical documents is often striking. Much of it is folk art, I know, but it has a kind of strength, depth, rawness, and mystery connected to it that comes from all kinds of sources. Would it be possible to do a video or a series of videos on this aspect of magical documents from the point of view of aesthetics? I know Taschen Books has done a giant anthology of this, but they have neglected the rich materials that one finds in the older, more obscure places. Jesse
Amazing vid! Can you plz do a video on the on the or flood 9 apkhalu the demonic entity's (Giants) assigned to certain geographical locations... And maybe one on the angels, their ranks and roles
Thanks Doc!
The fierce blazing🔥 shooting from the 👀eyes, sounds a lot like the Kal El or (Superman) power!🎆 Maybe the ideations that the creators of these fictional superheroes were taken from Esoteric/ Occult Literature!🦉🎓📚
You should do an esoterica reading group over zoom!!!!!!
Seems to me Aristotle is referring to observable reality itself as "active mind" and the things we can observe as "potential knowledge" while the mind of the individual is "passive mind" and the things it perceives is "actual knowledge". The first analogy is craft to matter, the second analogy is light. There is the mind or the part of the soul produces which is likened to a craft or to light, and the part of the mind which is all things which is likened to the matter and to colors in relation to light. Light is the true reality but it is only the cause which manifests itself in the form of colors just as the craft is the cause which only manifests itself as the matter produced such as a chair.
When he talks about "this mind" which is separate and unaffected and unmixed, being in its essence actuality, he would seem to be talking about the kind of mind that is likened to the craft or to light because he goes onto say that what produces is always superior to what is affected and gives another analogy of first principle to matter.
So, when he says actual knowledge is the same as the thing known he's talking about the color or matter side of the mind equation. Light is the thing you could potentially know and it precedes color in time (even though there are occasions where we may know about a thing before having experienced it like one who learns about the geography of a country he has not visited), while color is the actual knowledge because it is the thing known.
Then he goes back to talking about "this mind" which is the unaffected and unmixed one saying it never shuts off, and it sort of suggests an idealistic view of reality, the active "mind" is the light or the reality which the passive mind can learn about at which point it becomes actual knowledge. Once you know about a thing it goes from something you could potentially know to something you actually know.
I don't think so, you'll need to read the rest of de anima on light of the metaphysical to see why - it had to do with the role of actualization in his general concept of motion. So not "active" and "potential" how we might use them
Fair enough, I will do that. Though if actualization in motion is anything like our modern concept of potential energy vs kinetic energy then I'll probably come back with something like the same conclusion, but I'll be sure to give it a read through. I've got Aristotle's Metaphysics which I'm excited to give a read through but I'll check out de anima next.
@@ricardopenamcknight6407 No, far from it. Aristotle's physics are totally foreign to modern readers. From Aristotle, all entities have built in 'ends' or teloi which must be 'activated' through efficient causation informed through their material natural by an outside agent such that they tend towards their teloi in accordance to nature. Of course, mind, being purely formal must be activated by an outside intelligence, here the 'agent' or 'active' intellect. Aristotle has no concept of 'energy' at all, especially not as 'the measurement in joules of the ability to do work.'
@@TheEsotericaChannel I didn't figure he did have a concept of energy, I just meant similar in that an object that could move but isn't moving is in a state of potentiality, such as a ball at the top of a hill that has not been nudged so that it would begin to roll downward, but otherwise fair enough. It looks like I'll have to try to wrap my head around a few more of his ideas to be sure.
Though, admittedly, to my ear hearing that something must be activated through efficient causation through their material nature toward their built in ends does still sound like just a more ancient version of "an object at rest tends to stay at rest until" and in my mind at least would bear a similar relationship as that between our concept of potential energy (minus the modern physical explanations of energy) to kinetic energy once an object is acted upon, buuuut that could just be me still filtering things through my modern conceptions.
That De Anima excerpt is a little confusing but I feel like I understood it. It's saying that the eternal part of you exists only to animate the non-eternal part, and there is no change or emergence that accompanies this interaction. Like one who follows a recipe to make soup, few would argue that the former collaborated with the writer of the recipe to make the soup. And since consciousness must be animated, it is firmly in the non-eternal category.
Can we get an episode on Rudolf Steiner?
Could you make a video about non western magic?
I would find it greatly interesting
I have some questions about specific diagrams of the tree of life...in the western occult tradition .the practice of impronting the tree as i jave been taught is that gevurah or mars is the sphere on the right shoulder..yet there is picture from antiquity with christ on the tree with his left hand on gevurah..the reverse of what is taught...as well as this several pictures seem to portray the tree and its attributes mirrored. ..this is confusing me..my question is :is this picture displaying the macrocosm as opposed to the tree procedure commonly used...if you can help with any referwnces to this image and explain to me the mirroring etc etc...some help would be nice..i have recently been trying do a complete reformation of the angellic system and there names according to the spheres..would like to understand this aspect of the doagram as i have always practiced it as taught in golden dawn...the descrepencies between michael having rightful place on tiferet too confuse me...
I wonder if that third state mentioned by Agrippa ties conceptually to the “third eye” in other esoteric concepts in some way or if it’s one of those “correlation does not imply causation” type things.
*And having been separated, this alone is deathless and everlasting, though we do not remember, because this is unaffected, whereas passive mind is perishable. And without this nothing thinks.* Well, truly reading that piece from Aristotle to me was like reading the Greatest Secret by Rhonda Brynne. We are all that is and unaware. We are Source. In this reality of human experience we have forgotten who we are. An Avatar that has lost its connection. Having lost the knowledge of the source of its animation and therefore believes that they are only the sum total of what they experience and limited to this one existence. Not realizing they are in fact everything and eternal.
Agrippa appears to have been correct about language being underdeveloped at the time.
Here in the 21st century, people who are the most adept in cutting edge language are literally among the most powerful and wealthy; programmers.
Great episode
I'll join the book club! Lol
book club, book club, book club!
Very cool. Thank you!
did you ever make the video on the fragment of proclus? if so can you link it?
So:
1.magical ability is determined by mind, spirit and body; In short as powerful as the Magus' will
2. In written form for speaking, Latin and Hebrew are the closest alphabets to linking with that magic
Is this correct, in general?
Will you discuss book 4 ?
There is no link to the other Agrippa video in the description
Very well done.
I have a general question, and i couldn't think of a better place to ask it. All are welcome to share their input. My question is: if magic isn't real/doesn't work, why did so many people practise it? I'm pretty neutral on magic, im neither an extreme skeptic nor a practitioner but i'd love some opinions on it as i can't think through the question myself.
Beautiful
Interesting study - As a Christian most of this is basic teaching & I can see why Talmud believed Jesus was a Magician. After some horrific encounters with the Occult I was forced to learn the hard way how to defend myself from such spells & curses & even bind the demons involved, or worse - to destroy the 'magic circles' and protections of the assailing parties who believed they had control or a bond with their demons. Jesus also said Words were powerful - and taught his disciples to bind the spirits (fallen angels & nephilim) under specific rules. Baptism was essential to keep them away once removed as a covenant with the Living God. Otherwise, he explained, they return 7 fold lol. They key difference is that his followers must do all this invoking His Name or in his name. If indeed he is or was Messiah - then this was not magic. Demons knew who he was and shouted to him to have mercy. They feared him greatly. I continue to believe from age 19 because of the incredible success doing what he taught. One becomes a conduit of the Holy Spirit (Jesus referred to Him as the Counselor) - who offers glimpses of future events and gifts including discernment of spirits. So few Christians believe today or practice this gift. Faith was your last point in the required spells success. So it is in Christianity as well. I have seen spirits placed by God in people due to the sins of their fathers & grandparents. (And removed them) - I have seen territorial spirits including Leviathan, and also Covens working in the astral realm (and invited to join- a form of slavery). I have seen the fallen (at least one), and was told recently by a witch - that she could see that being hovering about me today - years after the encounter happened. There is a world we cannot see all around us. Staying free is difficult.
Did you make a video on that passage from Proculus? I was looking through your videos but didn't see one. If you did can you paste a link? Thank you
Nope, not yet?
In your live stream you mentioned doing workshops on both coasts but I live in indiana and I would be willing to drive to Detroit for a workshop. I'm a red wings fan so it would give me 2 excuses to visit. Thoughts?
Intuitive… neuroscience. Amazing
Do a patreon Book Club! PLEEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEE
15:52 sounds similar to the use of mantras
i mean.... i'd love to join a Dr. Sledge Book Club lol especially if we're reading ancient/medieval philosophy too :3
Thank you
8:45
Call this what you may
But my interpretation of this is that it is, in longer form, the 2 main laws of the universe according to hermeticism
The All is one, and the one is All (every is just aspects of the one like the idea of white light being made of all colors and itself being a color - look also to the alchemical symbol for the sun being a circle of All, and a dot of One, which itself is together One symbol)
And the universe is mental (that one that is all, the white light of being, it itself conscious, the animator of experience and thought)
So your thoughts just as your chair and physical body are but colors on the canvases of the all, and the all in themselves
TLDR: your thought come from god, who is you and everything
Aristotle speak of the black light, by itself deathless and everlasting, the mother of light, that forms the 3d, flesh, thoughts, wood, rock, yet withdraws, such as the cutting of the ombilical cord, never fusing, but continuously birthing.
Foolish Fish has just announced a new translation of Agrippa on his TH-cam channel.... Have you heard about it yet?