Gangleri – book reviews

It has been quite a while since I investigated the interesting Swede Johannes Bureus. There seems to be quite an interest in the man, since my articles and book reviews are relatively popular and I even got two comments in a few days time on an article speaking about Bureus. One of these comments notified me about this book. I guess I missed it, otherwise I would have bought it earlier, but if I remember correctly this is the dissertation of Karlsson and was only available in Swedish in the time I wrote my articles. Karlsson is one of the founders of the Dragon Rouge order and this German translation is published by the Edition Roter Drache. It is good that this little book has been translated to a language that is mastered by more people. First of all Karlsson is more extensive and in-depth than Stephen Flowers, but mostly, Karlsson has visited all the libraries that have writings of Bureus, so the information about for example Adalruna is not based on one version, but on all seven. Then, of course, there is quite a lot of material about Bureus and his system available in Swedish and Karlsson used all these sources too, so now we have more insight in what has been investigated already than when a non-Swedish author picks up the subject. Having written this book on college, Karlsson dived into the current scholarly field of the investigation of Western esotericism, of course including our Amsterdam chair and the Sarbonne in France.
Karlsson wanted to put Bureus in a larger perspective and therefor he starts with information about Western esotericism and the scholars in this field and he continues with a rather long chapter about gothicism and what is meant and what it means. There is little information about the life of Bureus himself, but all the more about his Kabbalistic use of his runes and his shady figures such as the cubic stone and the rune cross. What I mostly enjoy about the larger perspective is that Karlsson says a thing or two about Bureus’ predecessors and how and why his system had such little influence on later generations. Indeed, Karlsson’s book definately adds something to the subject and I would suggest an English edition to expand the readership a bit more.
2007 Edition Roter Drache, isbn 9783939459040
See here for my Bureus articles.

I don’t often get books to review, but the publisher of this book contacted me. According to the description this books holds the middle between my ‘old interests’ (magic and Western occultism) and more recent interests (comparative religion) so I decided to have a copy sent and see what this scholarly book on magic is all about. The writer (who earlier wrote a book on Agrippa) wrote an interesting preface… Continue reading The Occult Mind * Christopher I. Lehrich (2007 cornell university press * isbn 9780801445385)

After the magnificent publications of the Corpus Hermeticum in Dutch (1990 Quispel and Van den Broek) and Asclepius (1995 Quispel), Van den Broek now offers smaller Hermetic texts in Dutch translation with lengthy and informative explanations. This book even contains some Hermetic texts that I didn’t have yet. You will find the Stobaeus fragments, the two short and heavily damaged fragments of Wien/Vienna, the Oxford Hermetica (Bodleian Library, Clarkianus 11)… Continue reading Hermes Trismegistus * Roelof van den Broek (transl.) (2006 in de pelikaan * isbn 9071608220/9789071608223)

In 2004 the Dutch city of Almaar celebrated its 750th year of existence. The organisation asked the Rosicrucian society ‘Lectorium Rosicrucianum’ to organise a symposion about the famous Alkmarian inventor Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633). There was more about Drebbel than science. He was asked to join the court of the Hermetic emperor Rudolf II of Prague, he has Rosicrucian friends and his famous booklet about his Perpetuum Mobili (on the cover… Continue reading De Alkmaarder Cornelis Drebbel (isbn isbn 9067323160)

Here we have the most interesting booklet in the Lectorium Rosicrucianum “symposion”-series. First the Kabbalah Philo of Alexandria of Henk Spierenburg, then the home Sancti Spiritus ((pre-)Rosicrucian organisations) by Frans Smit, a magistral article by Jacob Slavenburg about the Hermetic path of initiation based on the Nag Hammadi text “The 8th and 9th (Celestial) Spheres” and information from the “Corpus Hermeticum”. The last article is of Rachel Ritman in which… Continue reading Terug Naar De Bron - symposion booklet (isbn 9067322660)

I already reviewed the earlier pressing of this translation, but here we have a completely new edition. The earlier pressings came in two 6cm thick books, this one is printed on super thin paper which resulted in one book of about 3,5 cm thick. This looks pretty strange indeed! Besides a new kind of printing the general intro, introductions to the texts, the translations and the notes are completely revised… Continue reading De Nag Hammadi Geschriften (dundrukeditie) * Jacob Slavenburg & Willem Glaudemans (isbn 9020219642)

In two books of about 500 pages each, you get the complete translation of all the texts that were found in a jar near the Egyptian village Nag Hammadi in 1945 (completed by the so called “Berlin Codex”). I suppose most of you know about that discovery? Because they are mostly gnostic writings, the Nag Hammadi scriptures are often called “the Gnostic Library”. Slavenburg and Glaudemans are two Dutch gnostic… Continue reading Nag Hammadi geschriften I & II * Jacob Slavenburg + Wim G. Glaudemans (isbn 9020219499 + 9020219502)

Every now and then the magnificent Dutch library “Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica” has an exposition of a part of her own collection and that of others, based around one theme. Over ten years ago the subject was “the Hermetic Gnosis” which then was still fairly unknown. The exposition was composed by Frank van Lamoen and as things to at the BPH, Lamoen also made the exposition-book which is still available.

These books… Continue reading De Hermetische Gnosis * Frank van Lamoen (bph * 1990)

“Along Hermes’ Paths” is the latest exposition that the Italian Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana and the Dutch Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica had. Long after I had visited this exposition in Amsterdam, I ran into the little book accompanying this exposition. You will get some nice information about Hermetic history, a hermetic chronology and then detailed information about the exhibited books. Always good to lay my hands on a BPH-publishing!… Continue reading Langs Hermes' Wegen

Every now and then the magnificent Dutch library “Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica” has an exposition of a part of her own collection and that of others, based around one theme. Over ten years ago the subject was the textual history of the Corpus Hermeticum.

These books of the BPH are simply, but nicely printed, and always extremely informative. After some introductionary texts, you will get all information you could possibly want about… Continue reading Hermes Trismegistus - pater philosophorum * Frank van Lamoen (bph * 1990)

I have been paging through this book when I saw a copy in ECCAARTH, the European Library of the Brittish Arktion foundation when I was on holidays there, so I don’t own a copy myself. I noted that it was released by Phanes, but I can’t find it on their page….
Anyway, Mead was a Theosophical writer with a huge interest in Hermeticism and Gnosticism in the time that there… Continue reading Hymns Of Hermes * G.R.S. Mead (isbn 155818144X)

What a wonderfull book! Fully intitled “Hermetica, vol. 1: the ancient greek and latin writings which contain religious or philosophic teachings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus”. I already had a great Dutch translation with excellent commentaries of the Corpus Hermeticum and another of the Asclepius, but I was looking for translations of the Stobaeus fragments. There are a few books that have them, usually the more scientific publishings like Nock/Festugière and… Continue reading Hermetica, vol. 1 * Walter Scott (isbn 1570626308)

This is a review for Dutch visitors. There are also good English versions of the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius, but never did I see a version as wonderfull as these Dutch translations by our own expert Gilles Quispel. He made very well readable translations and each of the 17 tractates of the Corpus comes with a lengthy explanation. Further there is a great introduction speaking of the Hermetic tradition and… Continue reading Corpus Hermeticum + Asclepius * translated and elucidated by Gilles Quispel and Roelof van den Broek (isbn 9071608077 + 9071608085)

I saw this little book in my favourite local bookstore. It is published by a publisher that I didn’t know, which is usually bad news. When I paged through the book quickly it seemed to me that it contained a descent overview of the Hermetic tradition and some texts, so I decided to buy it.
The first part of the book has an overview of the Hermetic tradition and on… Continue reading The Hermetica * Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy (isbn 0874779502)

This is really a magnificent collection of ‘occult art’. If you like what you see in the occult art section of the artpages of Sententia, you definately have to get this book. It counts over 700 pages and is stuffed with Hermetic, Kabbalistic, philosophical, religious, occult and mystic art, forming a wonderfull overview of pieces full of symbolism. From well known artists such as Athanasius Kircher and William Blake, to… Continue reading The Hermetic Museum - Alchemy & Mysticism * Alexander Roob (isbn 382288653X)

Strange that I forgot to review this book. I have read it a long time ago and I bought it when writing my article about the philosophical Renaissance. In this book Yates places Giordano Bruno in the Hermetic Tradition of the Renaissance. This was started by Marsilio Ficino who not only translated the Corpus Hermeticum but also had a system of natural magic. A student of Ficino, Giovani Pico, combined… Continue reading Giordano Bruno And The Hermetic Tradition * Frances Amelia Yates (isbn 0226950077 )

It is true that the Netherlands have a strong gnostic and especially hermetic tradition, but I wonder why our knowledge isn’t shared more with other countries. This book is the result of a congress that was held in the fall of 1990 in Amsterdam. 18 Experts gave lectures about the influence of the Hermetic Gnosis (an Egyptian religion) on Western culture.
The lectures are worked to articles, that are edited and… Continue reading De Hermetische Gnosis In De Loop Der Eeuwen * (under editorship of) Gilles Quispel (isbn 9051213743)

Van den Broek is a well-known Dutch expert of gnosticism and hermetism and he translated some of the major texts of these currents to Dutch. Hanegraaff is head of the Amsterdam hermetic academy which investigates western esotericism at a university-level. Hanegraaff has several books on his name. The current work is a compilation of 18 essays of mostly Dutch writers. It covers a wide range of subjects, such as ancient… Continue reading Gnosis and Hermeticism * edited by Roelof van den Broek & Wouter J. Hanegraaff (editors) (isbn 079143611X * 1998)