the Occult

Early Modern Alchemy: Heinrich Khunrath’s "Amphitheater of Eternal Knowledge"

2 Comments / Alchemy, Book history, Heinrich Khunrath, Hermeticism, John Dee, Sixteenth century, the Occult / By

“While these Discontents continued, severall Letters past between Queene Elizabeth and Doctor Dee, whereby perhaps he might promise to returne; At length it so fell out, that he left Trebona and took his Iourney for England. The ninth of Aprill he came to Breame… Here that famous Hermetique Philosopher, Dr Henricus Khunrath of Hamburgh came …

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The Key of Hell: an Eighteenth-Century Sorcery Manual [Updated]

25 Comments / Eighteenth century, Grimoires, Magic, Res Obscura, Saint Cyprian, Sorcery, the Devil, the Occult / By

Astrological talisman from an 1801 grimoire. I found these amazing illustrations on Wellcome Images, a useful online database devoted to images related to the history of medicine from ancient times to the present. It is a small part of the larger Wellcome Trust archives. According to the image captions supplied by the Wellcome, all of the images below come …

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The Domestic Life of Alchemists

8 Comments / Alchemy, Domestic Life, Drugs, Res Obscura, the Occult, Visual Culture / By

Philadelphia’s Chemical Heritage Foundation maintains a wonderful Flickr page of images relating to the history of chemistry, pharmacy and alchemy. While perusing their image banks, I came across this collection of 17th and 18th-century paintings of alchemists practicing their occult art — paintings which include some revealing glimpses into the private life of those who …

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Witchcraft and Magic Images from the Wellcome Library

4 Comments / Magic, Res Obscura, the Occult, Visual Culture, Witchcraft / By

The Wellcome Image Collection is one of the best digitized archives of rare, unusual and old images I’ve found on the internet. Here’s a selection of images relating to magic, witchcraft and sorcery. A figure holds a scythe as winged creatures fly above him, three figures approach on a horse, and another figure approaches from …

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