Scan barcode
scheu's review against another edition
4.0
My favorite thing about this book (a scholarly study of the Hermetic magical tradition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance) was that it tied together people and lore that I'd read about in college. Not for the casual occult reader, that's for sure!
raventhorns's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
5.0
Giordano Bruno was the guy!
graywacke's review against another edition
inspiring
5.0
the link between the drives of the metaphysical perspectives of religion, magic and science may be a kind of spiritual enlightenment moment, and Bruno might be a nice center point of all three.
wmhenrymorris's review against another edition
A bit of a slog, partly because it's a highly specialized volume where fairly in-depth pre-existing knowledge of hermeticism and Renaissance philosophy and history would be helpful and partly because I don't read Latin. But quite valuable nonetheless in that it shatters the standard grade school narrative of the rise of science and the modern age. Or as Yates puts it:
"The basic difference between the attitude of the magician to the world and the attitude of the scientist to the world is that the former wants to draw the world into himself, whilst the scientist does just the opposite, he externalises and impersonalises the world by a movement of will in an entirely opposite direction to that described in the Hermetic writings, the whole emphasis of which is precisely on the reflection of the world in the mens [power]. Whether as religious experience or as magic, the Hermetic attitude to the world has this internal quality.
Hence, may it not be supposed, when mechanics and mathematics took over from animism and magic, it was this internalisation, this intimate connections of the mens with the world, which had to be avoided at all costs. And hence, it may be suggested, through the necessity of this strong reaction, the mistake arose of allowing the problem of mind to fall so completely out of step and so far behind the problem of matter in the external world and how it works. Thus, from the point of view of the history of the problem of mind and of why it has become such a problem through the neglect of it at the beginning of the modern period, "Hermes Trismegistus" and its history is important." (454-455)
"The basic difference between the attitude of the magician to the world and the attitude of the scientist to the world is that the former wants to draw the world into himself, whilst the scientist does just the opposite, he externalises and impersonalises the world by a movement of will in an entirely opposite direction to that described in the Hermetic writings, the whole emphasis of which is precisely on the reflection of the world in the mens [power]. Whether as religious experience or as magic, the Hermetic attitude to the world has this internal quality.
Hence, may it not be supposed, when mechanics and mathematics took over from animism and magic, it was this internalisation, this intimate connections of the mens with the world, which had to be avoided at all costs. And hence, it may be suggested, through the necessity of this strong reaction, the mistake arose of allowing the problem of mind to fall so completely out of step and so far behind the problem of matter in the external world and how it works. Thus, from the point of view of the history of the problem of mind and of why it has become such a problem through the neglect of it at the beginning of the modern period, "Hermes Trismegistus" and its history is important." (454-455)
More...