HERMETICISM, SPIRITUALITY & IMAGINATION

An interactive series of seminar-workshops led by Clare & Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke using the books of the Corpus Hermeticum

In 1462 a Greek manuscript was brought by a monk from Macedonia to the court of Cosimo de‘ Medici, the ruler of Florence. Known as the Hermetica (after Hermes Trismegistus), these teachings were immediately recognised as an ancient source of divine revelation and wisdom.

A major source of the Western esoteric tradition, the Corpus Hermeticum is no formal intellectual treatise but a guide for the ascent of the soul. Its rich mystical speculations have fertilised the imagination for five centuries from Marsilio Ficino through Shakespeare and Spenser to C. G. Jung and Thomas Moore.

The Hermetica offer a voyage of spiritual exploration. Once the attention is directed inward, the soul begins to ascend up the spiritual hierarchy of the cosmos, all the while learning from and interacting with the higher spiritual planes of the World Soul.

This course of six seminar-workshops provides an opportunity to read and meditate upon the soul-enlivening texts of the Hermetica. Through inner work on the soul, their profound truths may be discovered in a living way. Readings will be illustrated by poetry, art, drama and music – enhancing the transforming potential of the work.

Recommended text: The Way of Hermes, translated by Clement Salaman, Dorine van Oyen, and William Wharton (Duckworth, 1999).
Please read in advance and bring a copy with you!

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke has lectured internationally on Renaissance philosophy, German mysticism and Paracelsian medicine. He is series editor of the Western Esoteric Masters series (North Atlantic Books), which comprises volumes on Paracelsus, John Dee, Jacob Boehme and Robert Fludd. His books include Paracelsus, The Occult Roots of Nazism, Hitler’s Priestess and Black Sun. He has translated two major German monographs on Emanuel Swedenborg and he is a contributor to the recently published The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited (Lindisfarne, 1999).

Clare Goodrick-Clarke practises subtle energy medicine using Homoeopathy and Reflexology. She is a Council member of the Scientific & Medical Network. Clare’s scholarly interests include the Western esoteric tradition, alchemy’s contribution to homoeopathy, and the influence of Platonism on the English Renaissance. She has contributed to Temenos Academy and New York Open Center conferences and to The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited.

Nicholas and Clare have visited the Czech Republic many times and this will be their third visit to Roztez.