“When one trades history for mythology, you do so with the currency of intellectual integrity” might be the hardest bar of the decade. 10:14 for those who want a reel-up
When giving out credit to ahistorical alchemical views, I think Terence Mckenna deserves a lot of credit (I love Terence but he was pushing the ahistorical interpretations hard in the 80s and 90s, and was a self-proclaimed student of Eliade and Jung) for his popularity on RUclips and influence on more recent generations.
Couldn’t agree more, Terence was my very first introduction to these ideas. Incredibly grateful to this channel for helping me develop a more sophisticated understanding of the subject. That being said, Terence was an incredible mind. I think the prevalence of his lectures on RUclips are surely a net positive in regards to stimulating contemporary philosophy.
@@TheEsotericaChannel Hi Dr. Sledge! It would definitely be something different, but I wonder if some examination of his work and ideas would fold into a topic on your channel, as a focus or something tangential to a broader topic. It would definitely be a bit of a departure from the dustier old tomes of Meister Eckhart or the like, but he was certainly influential. I agree very much with everything @jordanm6940 said also - he's definitely had a big influence on my life, and your channel has given me a much more academic and focused insight into a lot of the topics he discussed. In fact I am often surprised at the sheer quantity of overlap I find in topics of interest - one filtered through a very psychedelic mindset. One can easily find Mckenna talking for hours on the Voynich manuscript, Hermeticism, or alchemy. He even loved telling the story of Descartes "founding" science through divine revelation - and I especially enjoyed the deep dive you did on his dreams not too long ago. He would often even frame these talks in a sort of, "I'm tired of describing the DMT elves, so tonight you all get a surprise lecture on Jung's 'Seven Sermons to The Dead,' or 'Finnegans Wake,'" fashion. I can't say for certain, I've been subscribed and watching you regularly for between 1 and 2 years, but the algorithm very possibly originally steered me to you from my intake of TM. Keep up the fantastic work!
Interesting, even in my hippy days I wasn't the biggest fan of Terrence, except for his views on how psychedelics may have influenced human evolution. I didn't like his takes on alchemy before OR after I got into the subject 😅
I mean that's super understandable...your use of "hippy days" makes me think you might be a bit older than me. Your head was probably screwed on a bit tighter than mine when you first encountered him. =) I'm 42, so in the 90s I was into Aldous Huxley, Robert Anton Wilson, and all the typical "3rd Eye" adjacent things. I probably didn't even encounter TM until I was 30+. Even now when I listen to him there are a lot of obvious contradictions and paradoxes in his talks I let slide. He even juxtaposes other people I like, such as his not-quite-contemporaries Alan Watts or Krishnamurti. And it' like, a bit of cognitive dissonance (*both* these methods can't be right). That is, Terence tends to endlessly deconstruct language (while somehow deriding "the French stuff") and put it back together, have Zen-tangent thoughts about how language and symbols basically can never be reality, but then will proclaim reality is literally made of language. He was really looking for that Plotinus type "higher Logos." He was dying to use language to talk about language. On the other hand there's the more traditional (typically Eastern in non-esoteric studies) idea of just being, presence, ridding one's self of thoughts/constructs as if they are demons, which might have been expounded by everyone from Gautama Buddha to Eckhart Tolle, which doesn't really fly with Terence (even though, again, paradoxically, he often mentioned "the felt presence of immediate experience" being all that is "real".) I think I've always had a personal identification with him; I feel like we "intellectually evolved" along similar tracks (though not to similar degrees I cannot in fact make entertaining "small mouth noises" for 8 hours straight). But at age 14 I was an avid reader of Carl Sagan and a hardcore rationalist/materialist, but by age 20 I was turning back to more "spiritual" pursuits. So I still get some great enjoyment out of his ideas, if only as a sort of...manic kindred spirit.@@jeremyt4292
So basically the original alchemists wanted to be able to find a method to turn stuff into other stuff, elemental transmutation. And in the process of doing that they discovered a lot of compounds, basically by trying to mix various things, heat them up and/or then separate them again, and these compounds were then given fanciful descriptions, since nobody really knew how the process worked at the molecular level ("Spirit of Sea Air" being a favorite.) Then actual analytical chemistry became a thing because people had discovered that some of the things alchemists had made were useful for normal everyday applications, and they wanted to make more of those things, and know the exact process to make them, and if it could be made more efficient and cheaper. As usually happens when money is involved, all the fanciful ideas about what actually took place were stripped out, a new process for mass production was formulated, and we get common everyday hydrochloric acid. Then after alchemy had already been declared a pseudoscience by the current generation, someone thought that this lost art would be really cool to bring back, because surely something that involved had to have SOME meaning to it, and they made it trendy, and then a lot of now-famous people put words in the mouths of the old alchemists that were only really trying to turn one metal into another?
@@TheEsotericaChannel Except they called it spirit of sea air, and the other name came after, or have I got that one wrong as well? I'm not exactly an expert after all. Edit: (I am almost a hundred percent sure I read the previous name in an old, but not THAT old, chemistry book back when I was still in highschool, so it might be a later description.)
For me, I have always thought that all you should take from the "New Age" Alchemy, is that you can always make something great [noble] out of a unideal [base] situation. That is it, the rest is just "Jedi Mind tricks" ;)
Fantastic analysis as usual. Could it be the time that Anglo-American occulture finally discovers how laboratory alchemy never disappeared in non-Protestant countries? Maybe in the future you could look into Principe Raimondo di Sangro and in the esoteric orders that he inspired.
Or in the Islamicate world - there were still practicing alchemists using the old mercury-sulfur theory into the 1950s in Morocco. The last known Jewish alchemical text was produced in 1865 on the Tunisian island of Jerba. The French also have a long history of laboratory alchemy.
Thank you Dr. Sledge for exciting my intellect once again. So much in the world to think about. And how much our thinking shapes our world. Oh for more time just to read and study!
Excelente talk, a lot of info to digest. I probably need to watch it again, even if graduated from a theological college and continue studying for many years . Heavy stuff. Thank you.
The green flash with the "Your guess is as good as mine" was easy to identify the cause: you had an urge for absinthe and it came thru on the video. Green as a bean. Another interesting video.Thanks.
Awesome episode Sir. Thank you for setting the record straight. There's so much BS around misinterpreting one thing for the other. May truth prevail. Thank you.
i'm from Görlitz, so I very much appreciated your closing words! Great scholarship, I am currently working on a presentation for spiritual alchemy and you helped greatly to restrict the historical timeframe. My reading left me with the impression that spiritual alchemy in a gnostic sense was the dominant line and laboratory alchemy just its veil.
Great video as always, thank you so much! Böhme was a very interesting dude... I used to be a Jung and Eliade fanboy in my 20s... and then I grew up... 😅 I wish I knew then what I know now. I still find these guys interesting but it's now harder for me to take them seriously... I see them more as "philosophers" (in the broadest sense of the term) than anything else; their ideas are very interesting but they shouldn't be seen as historians. Joseph Campbell also needs to be mentioned. He was heavily influenced by Jung and his work on comparative mythology is often simplistic and wrong. What annoys me is when film critics and cinephiles use Campbell to basically show off and give some kind of authority/legitimacy to their analyses ("Ooouuhh look at me, I just mentioned the monomyth, I'm so smart!"). But it is so obvious that they actually know nothing about Campbell and what he was writing about; they may know a lot about movies and have interesting things to say about them, but as soon as they mention Campbell I roll my eyes and sigh... It's just cringe. Full disclosure: I have to admit that I once was one of those guys... What you say about Jung (7:51 to 8:23) perfectly summarises his work (the same can be said about Eliade and Campbell): cherry-picking and manipulating facts to feed their own ideas on alchemy and religion...
Wow, thank you so much Justin for this video and the previous one on origins of Spiritual/ Physical Alchemy. I've been using that term for a while now in the spiritual context, without knowing fully it's historical significance. Very happy to move forward with greater understanding of this term.
I knew that I had heard his name somewhere before, we have a feast Day for him in the Episcopal Church, him and Johann Arndt. Very interesting to learn more about him
@@TheEsotericaChannel Historiography of Alchemy and Importance of Myth-making (in psychological and spiritual milieus/practices) but not to the detriment of its history.
Ah yes, if there were one word I wish folks could reclaim it would be "myth" with a positive valence. The restoration of the concept of myth would eliminate so much cognitive dissonance and empower people so, so much.
The flip of perspective in my mind with my hifalutin egoic notion of "knowing what Alchemy was 'REALLY' about" is actually humbling, grounding, and enlightening! At least European alchemy. I'll grasp the implications eventually on history vs. mythology. I'm Drax sitting in on an Esoterica episode. My reflexes are too fast, I will catch it! Yes, my boss man Bombastus! Green faerie? Now I know, say Burma in an English accent, and it's a close approximation! This epic, almost Miltonian*, mythology actually has me enthralled and more than the perplexing Demiurge...if the subtitles are accurate, then the Winter Solider is actually a real thing! the cosmogony* is astounding, or at least the Eden/Genesis* story interpretation kinda lights a fire in the imagination! 25:45 Band/Album Name! I do love that Sophia oh and substrate like the "Matrix" has the feminine field aspect, so the "Shekinah vs the Klippoth" can still and does loom large in my personal unfounded mythology! haha! "L&L" folks have an origin? that is awesome! epic summation I will certainly revisit! (*loosely applied and borrowed)
I'm also not gonna claim I somehow suffered as an audience under the misinterpretations or oversimplifications by authors and thinkers as maintained ostensibly in comments, under Jung and Eliade. If anything, rigorous Esoterica is no echo chamber and is often revelatory and is often the one, if anybody, that has to labor under inaccurate impressions. I always take it as I do with historically inspired dramas that don't try to be bios but apply creative license to fulfill their roles as inspiration. Besides, if I'm going to write a paper, I can only use so much non-academic sources as rigorous sources. Plus, the more resources, the better to cross-check, cross reference, and find out where thinkers might disagree or maybe not have the full picture. Like, I know William Wallace didn't actually do so n so nor Robert the Bruce nor a general named Maximus served Marcus Aurelius so n so and Commodus and Lucius Verus. I mean...I often see Thoth in this manner, so it's not like I'm misled that that's the be-all because Eliade, Campbell, Jung, and Mckenna said so. I'm easier and simpler than I think. And I'll still dig into these guys. Heck, my regard of "nucular" physicists what with Oppenheimer is clarified, especially seeing thoughtful archive interviews of him in 50's vs my initial impression of an already truncated famous footage of him quoting the Bhagavad Gita like some grim madman inventor! Now I know better! Every person's journey is different. Social group think isn't my thing, no matter the venue. Influence I will definitely do, but it's not the be-all end-all definitiveness. If there's anything I got the incorrect assumption, and now know: it's that radio astonomy isn't actually auditory. Thanks for that, Contact MOVIE showing main character LISTENING with 🎧 headphones for signals!! listening to what?? It's not auditory signals! 🛰 📡 🎧 🌌! Too often, the benefit of the doubt has flipped. Didn't even the Buddha apocryphally* say to not believe him at face value?
Fascinating topic, I've never hearad about Böhme befor. I would like to add that the eucharist, which turns a piece of bread into the body of Christ, which is then eaten, looks also fundamentally to me like an alchemical process.
Great video Justin, just wonderful. His work, whether one believes it or not, is breathtaking and spectacular in its machinations and its descriptive imagery. It is simply beautiful. Thank you again for doing these topics justice and in a digestible manner.
Absolute perfection, as usual. Just about to finish my MA by Research using most of your sources and of course giving credit to your channel and yourself. So : thank you!
Thanks! Awesome content as usual. Im in the middle of your Kabbalah series and I must say it is quite fascinating. I can only imagine the hours of research it took to produce such an in depth series.
Very nice to see this video. I first read about Jakob Böhme because of a paper I did on the Harmonist Society in undergrad and Böhme's influence on them. I could not fully get into Böhme as he wasn't the focus on my paper but it is interesting to learn more and to connect that with what the Harmonists believed.
Such a moving and passionate presentation. Much gratitude for your scholarship, devotion and analysis of Jacob Bohme's thought and vision. Obe feels compelled and emboldened to try and take it on. Maybe we need a Notes for How to Study the Zohar" kind of talk for reading JB.
Thank you for this series! I appreciate learning about historical alchemy, although I have no intention of doing it myself, as I like my countertops how they are. That's one thing OSA work has over historical alchemy -- all you need is stylus and paper! Finally, thank you for speaking of the 19th/20th century spiritual alchemy myth as a MYTH -- one can get things from a myth in spiritual practice, but it is NOT history. I would no more treat it as history than I would teach a science class that our world came from [insert creation myth here].
Much respect for making the differentiation of “detonation” versus rapid oxidation with saltpeter. I imagine that millennia from today, as humanity continues to progress, may see analytical chemistry and classical physics as antiquated when new physical forces and particles are discovered, understood and deployed
Loved this presentation and its precursor, which you referred to. Thoroughly enjoying this topic and looking forward to working through your Alchemy Playlist. I wonder what you think about the possibility that a new edition of Böhme's Complete Works in English will ever see the light of day? No way I'm ever going to pay $10k to $20k for an antiquarian set in fine condition; but I'd be willing to pay up to $500 / volume for a very high quality, new edition of the Complete Works that includes a new biography and all his Letters.
So, I'm Romanian and I felt like I had to congratulate you on the pronunciation of Mircea Eliade's name. A lot of anglophones utterly mangle it when they see it, it's refreshing to see someone having done some extra research
I was invited to the Freemasons and I turned them down because they want to kill off the population. They are the crown monarchy, and I told them why I would not join and then they explained how people want to live comfortably, but not work for it. Want to live off of everyone else. And the saddest part of that belief is that they’re talking about themselves . They have never invented anything, built anything, created, maintained or even used they’re colonized theft for the benefit of anyone else but themselves. It takes wealth to build wealth for an economy. They take massive amounts of wealth through colonization, fraud, scam, and deception . And it puts us all in a financial restraints internationally for generations
I was invited to the Freemasons and I turned them down because they want to kill off the population. They are the crown monarchy, and I told them why I would not join and then they explained how people want to live comfortably, but not work for it. Want to live off of everyone else. And the saddest part of that belief is that they’re talking about themselves . They have never invented anything, built anything, created, maintained or even used they’re colonized theft for the benefit of anyone else but themselves. It takes wealth to build wealth for an economy. They take massive amounts of wealth through colonization, fraud, scam, and deception . And it puts us all in a financial restraints internationally for generations
Brilliant video, thank you. When i practised thervada buddhism i found parralles to alchemy and taoist alchemy, could have just been me projecting though, just got to ten minutes in, yeah definetly understand the importane of difference and sticking to the facts now. and they where pretty general parrallels
I never had any interest in knowing about alchemy, I went to this channel by chance and from here I looked to see if I could find other videos about alchemy working (someone trying to reproduce the experiments). it's really amazing that the comments on the video I found were basically people saying that this wasn't alchemy, that alchemy was actually a spiritual teaching
Really glad to check out this video, I've been curious to learn more about Jakob Boehme since I decided to re-read Magee's Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition. Since you're a philosophy professor I'd be curious to know some of your thoughts on Magee's book if it's something you've read before. I thumbed through my copy of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy and I was surprised to see that he devoted almost as much space to Boehme as he gave to Spinoza.
Hello, I just discovered your channel. Thank you for your rich delivery of esoteric subjects! I am curious if you have videos or content that points to Ophiuchus? Kindly, Veronica✨
Jesus as a male drone bee - a clone of the queen, spreading her genetics as a wanderer from hive to hive without father or home. Dead at the end of his journey of peace & diversity with a wound to his thorax after releasing his encoded message; reborn again a missionary, a female worker, or potentially ascending to the Matriarch. Golden light as honey eventually spilling forth, transfigured from intangible to physical in his hidden labors.
I always try to remember how important personal mythology is...even though other people's can hit you as pretty weird sometimes. So I get why there's some push back. I mean I ask myself what would happen if I stopped believing in Plato's Atlantis, fairy lore, The Goetia or even simple astrology and just blankly wandered off to watch Jersey Shore for 48 hours? Like many Americans do! I'm pretty sure I'd go jump off a bridge. lol Nevertheless its good to just hear the history of Alchemy without the fluff and it is appreciated.
Another excellent and fascinating video. I like to think that your pause after saying “all religious myths…” was an exercise of materialist restraint. 😂
Did we have a klippot attack during the video? Either way, really intriguing episode, I wouldn't have expected Lutheranism, Gnosticism and Kabbalah cooked together in a single theory. I think that's the real spiritual alchemy happening here.
My passion is pyrotechnics and I figured out that my love for it is based on growing up without religion and open minded and answers came because I did not have the answers or conclusions. So my mind was unconsciously collecting the puzzle pieces during my life. Experienced as an puzzle that begins with a small corner and you can only guess or believe what the puzzle is. Right now all 4 corners are build and in the middle a few pieces are there. I cannot see precisely what the total picture is but I can clearly see what it's not. I figured out that my passion is alchemy and it's so strong because it cannot be faked, changed or rewritten. It is total 100% honest and real
I do love this channel. It seems to me though, a scholarly approach to esotericism is a bit like studying and collecting culinary recipes in order to chronicle the history of food. In general the value of acquiring the knowledge of cooking is in the meal. Even with an extensive collection of recipes, kitchen utensils and the like , the question that maters most is - can you cook ?
Serious platemakers ( i love these unsung heroes of esoteric literature) i am a lover of calligraphy as well... both are strangely silent artisans whom are rarely appreciated in their own rite.
I’d love if you did an episode on Manley P. Hall. He’s a bit too much to encompass in an episode, but do you know how to eat an elephant? Cheers from Memphis
14:37 are those mushies I see the angel contemplating over on the left there??? A good flush from the looks of it, Damn! Wish mine came in that strong! Lolol Peace 🙏
I am so pleased that you continue to burst my bubble Doctor. You have already shown that Islamic Alchemy was largely related to chemical transformation and now you show the western tradition to be the same. Like yourself I am mistrustful of Theosophists, if only for their lack of rigour. I cling onto view that there is some link from Neoplatonism to spiritual alchemy via people like Ibn Arabi, but need to be much more cautious in overstating this.
Wonderful lecture! Enthralled with Splendor Solis. Could you please recommend a book translation of this manuscript that does not defer to an interpretation of Jungian archetypes ?
I know I am back on my nerdy bullshit when I'm watching a video and the word "milieu" comes up. PS I'd been having video problems with my Mac Pro all morning, so that green flash gave me a cardiac episode.
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🎉been waiting forever for this video
Like 109 of your comment
Heterodoxical Lutheran Stuff and the Acrimonious Rivalries is the name of my metal band, we play Landsknechtcore.
Opened by some obscure Paracelcore band...at St Vitus, of course
Your ability to take extremely intricate and normally confusing concepts and break them down in an understandable way is awesome. Rock on man l..l,
“When one trades history for mythology, you do so with the currency of intellectual integrity” might be the hardest bar of the decade.
10:14 for those who want a reel-up
Thanks. Good one.
We're pumping out mythology faster than fiat dollars these days.
I had to replay that more than once… 😮
So glad these videos exist... Saves me years of banging my head against impenetrable books and getting nowhere...
would have been one of the best class courses in high school, had it been an option
@@golgothandefinitely would have made school interesting.
As a Christian, this is heavily illuminating concerning the history and inner workings of my faith in Christ. Thanks
When giving out credit to ahistorical alchemical views, I think Terence Mckenna deserves a lot of credit (I love Terence but he was pushing the ahistorical interpretations hard in the 80s and 90s, and was a self-proclaimed student of Eliade and Jung) for his popularity on RUclips and influence on more recent generations.
This is a great comment and you're absolutely right
Couldn’t agree more, Terence was my very first introduction to these ideas. Incredibly grateful to this channel for helping me develop a more sophisticated understanding of the subject. That being said, Terence was an incredible mind. I think the prevalence of his lectures on RUclips are surely a net positive in regards to stimulating contemporary philosophy.
@@TheEsotericaChannel Hi Dr. Sledge! It would definitely be something different, but I wonder if some examination of his work and ideas would fold into a topic on your channel, as a focus or something tangential to a broader topic. It would definitely be a bit of a departure from the dustier old tomes of Meister Eckhart or the like, but he was certainly influential. I agree very much with everything @jordanm6940 said also - he's definitely had a big influence on my life, and your channel has given me a much more academic and focused insight into a lot of the topics he discussed.
In fact I am often surprised at the sheer quantity of overlap I find in topics of interest - one filtered through a very psychedelic mindset. One can easily find Mckenna talking for hours on the Voynich manuscript, Hermeticism, or alchemy. He even loved telling the story of Descartes "founding" science through divine revelation - and I especially enjoyed the deep dive you did on his dreams not too long ago.
He would often even frame these talks in a sort of, "I'm tired of describing the DMT elves, so tonight you all get a surprise lecture on Jung's 'Seven Sermons to The Dead,' or 'Finnegans Wake,'" fashion.
I can't say for certain, I've been subscribed and watching you regularly for between 1 and 2 years, but the algorithm very possibly originally steered me to you from my intake of TM. Keep up the fantastic work!
Interesting, even in my hippy days I wasn't the biggest fan of Terrence, except for his views on how psychedelics may have influenced human evolution.
I didn't like his takes on alchemy before OR after I got into the subject 😅
I mean that's super understandable...your use of "hippy days" makes me think you might be a bit older than me. Your head was probably screwed on a bit tighter than mine when you first encountered him. =)
I'm 42, so in the 90s I was into Aldous Huxley, Robert Anton Wilson, and all the typical "3rd Eye" adjacent things. I probably didn't even encounter TM until I was 30+. Even now when I listen to him there are a lot of obvious contradictions and paradoxes in his talks I let slide. He even juxtaposes other people I like, such as his not-quite-contemporaries Alan Watts or Krishnamurti. And it' like, a bit of cognitive dissonance (*both* these methods can't be right).
That is, Terence tends to endlessly deconstruct language (while somehow deriding "the French stuff") and put it back together, have Zen-tangent thoughts about how language and symbols basically can never be reality, but then will proclaim reality is literally made of language. He was really looking for that Plotinus type "higher Logos." He was dying to use language to talk about language.
On the other hand there's the more traditional (typically Eastern in non-esoteric studies) idea of just being, presence, ridding one's self of thoughts/constructs as if they are demons, which might have been expounded by everyone from Gautama Buddha to Eckhart Tolle, which doesn't really fly with Terence (even though, again, paradoxically, he often mentioned "the felt presence of immediate experience" being all that is "real".)
I think I've always had a personal identification with him; I feel like we "intellectually evolved" along similar tracks (though not to similar degrees I cannot in fact make entertaining "small mouth noises" for 8 hours straight). But at age 14 I was an avid reader of Carl Sagan and a hardcore rationalist/materialist, but by age 20 I was turning back to more "spiritual" pursuits. So I still get some great enjoyment out of his ideas, if only as a sort of...manic kindred spirit.@@jeremyt4292
Without a doubt, one of the best episodes on alchemy and a must watch for anyone interested in the subject. Great job Dr.!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏
So basically the original alchemists wanted to be able to find a method to turn stuff into other stuff, elemental transmutation. And in the process of doing that they discovered a lot of compounds, basically by trying to mix various things, heat them up and/or then separate them again, and these compounds were then given fanciful descriptions, since nobody really knew how the process worked at the molecular level ("Spirit of Sea Air" being a favorite.)
Then actual analytical chemistry became a thing because people had discovered that some of the things alchemists had made were useful for normal everyday applications, and they wanted to make more of those things, and know the exact process to make them, and if it could be made more efficient and cheaper.
As usually happens when money is involved, all the fanciful ideas about what actually took place were stripped out, a new process for mass production was formulated, and we get common everyday hydrochloric acid.
Then after alchemy had already been declared a pseudoscience by the current generation, someone thought that this lost art would be really cool to bring back, because surely something that involved had to have SOME meaning to it, and they made it trendy, and then a lot of now-famous people put words in the mouths of the old alchemists that were only really trying to turn one metal into another?
Yeah. Basically. Though the alchemists did also discover hydrochloric acid.
@@TheEsotericaChannel Except they called it spirit of sea air, and the other name came after, or have I got that one wrong as well? I'm not exactly an expert after all.
Edit: (I am almost a hundred percent sure I read the previous name in an old, but not THAT old, chemistry book back when I was still in highschool, so it might be a later description.)
@@TheEsotericaChannel and the processes to make all kind of alcoholic beverages. 🍻
@@TheAlkhemiaStudio 🤣😅
For me, I have always thought that all you should take from the "New Age" Alchemy, is that you can always make something great [noble] out of a unideal [base] situation.
That is it, the rest is just "Jedi Mind tricks" ;)
Fantastic analysis as usual. Could it be the time that Anglo-American occulture finally discovers how laboratory alchemy never disappeared in non-Protestant countries? Maybe in the future you could look into Principe Raimondo di Sangro and in the esoteric orders that he inspired.
Or in the Islamicate world - there were still practicing alchemists using the old mercury-sulfur theory into the 1950s in Morocco. The last known Jewish alchemical text was produced in 1865 on the Tunisian island of Jerba. The French also have a long history of laboratory alchemy.
@@TheEsotericaChannel Yes! Oh well, many more videos ahead then :)
@@TheEsotericaChannel lab alchemy still exists in some esoteric circles, both Frater Albertus and Jean Dubuis wrote very recent guides on it.
Thank you Dr. Sledge for exciting my intellect once again. So much in the world to think about. And how much our thinking shapes our world. Oh for more time just to read and study!
Excelente talk, a lot of info to digest.
I probably need to watch it again, even if graduated from a theological college and continue studying for many years . Heavy stuff. Thank you.
The green flash with the "Your guess is as good as mine" was easy to identify the cause: you had an urge for absinthe and it came thru on the video. Green as a bean.
Another interesting video.Thanks.
I'm watching this stoned af and I got to say this is a truly beautiful presentation. I mean that in the neoplatonic sense.
I can't wait to get off work so I can watch this! Thank you Dr. Sledge and whomever works on ESOTERICA for the wonderful videos. God bless you all.
Awesome episode Sir. Thank you for setting the record straight. There's so much BS around misinterpreting one thing for the other. May truth prevail. Thank you.
i'm from Görlitz, so I very much appreciated your closing words! Great scholarship, I am currently working on a presentation for spiritual alchemy and you helped greatly to restrict the historical timeframe. My reading left me with the impression that spiritual alchemy in a gnostic sense was the dominant line and laboratory alchemy just its veil.
This man is totally legit- you got beef with him, you got beef with ME..
Keep bringing us that occult wisdom Justin 🙏 🙌 ✨️ 👌 👏
Great Episode!
Can u do a series on H.P. Blavatsky and William Quan Judge and Theosophy in General?
Love the divinely timed glitch at 13:32 as you say "transform nature." Lol
I think I'm getting smarter. I can understand 8 words you said this time. Things are looking up
Great video as always, thank you so much!
Böhme was a very interesting dude...
I used to be a Jung and Eliade fanboy in my 20s... and then I grew up... 😅
I wish I knew then what I know now. I still find these guys interesting but it's now harder for me to take them seriously... I see them more as "philosophers" (in the broadest sense of the term) than anything else; their ideas are very interesting but they shouldn't be seen as historians.
Joseph Campbell also needs to be mentioned. He was heavily influenced by Jung and his work on comparative mythology is often simplistic and wrong.
What annoys me is when film critics and cinephiles use Campbell to basically show off and give some kind of authority/legitimacy to their analyses ("Ooouuhh look at me, I just mentioned the monomyth, I'm so smart!"). But it is so obvious that they actually know nothing about Campbell and what he was writing about; they may know a lot about movies and have interesting things to say about them, but as soon as they mention Campbell I roll my eyes and sigh... It's just cringe.
Full disclosure: I have to admit that I once was one of those guys...
What you say about Jung (7:51 to 8:23) perfectly summarises his work (the same can be said about Eliade and Campbell): cherry-picking and manipulating facts to feed their own ideas on alchemy and religion...
Thank you very much for finally getting around to Böhme. Great Video!
Wow, thank you so much Justin for this video and the previous one on origins of Spiritual/ Physical Alchemy. I've been using that term for a while now in the spiritual context, without knowing fully it's historical significance. Very happy to move forward with greater understanding of this term.
I knew that I had heard his name somewhere before, we have a feast Day for him in the Episcopal Church, him and Johann Arndt. Very interesting to learn more about him
I have absolutely looked forward to this video, this has given me a lot to chew on.
This was great. Thank you so much. Waiting eagerly for more upcoming videos on Böhme.
Fascinating stuff, the distinction you make is such an important one. Thank you.
Thanks - but, which distinction? ;)
@@TheEsotericaChannel Historiography of Alchemy and Importance of Myth-making (in psychological and spiritual milieus/practices) but not to the detriment of its history.
Ah yes, if there were one word I wish folks could reclaim it would be "myth" with a positive valence. The restoration of the concept of myth would eliminate so much cognitive dissonance and empower people so, so much.
@@TheEsotericaChannel Agreed!
Many thanks for the great information in this video. Just to say that your easy-going scholarly presentation is enjoyable.
The flip of perspective in my mind with my hifalutin egoic notion of "knowing what Alchemy was 'REALLY' about" is actually humbling, grounding, and enlightening! At least European alchemy. I'll grasp the implications eventually on history vs. mythology. I'm Drax sitting in on an Esoterica episode. My reflexes are too fast, I will catch it! Yes, my boss man Bombastus! Green faerie? Now I know, say Burma in an English accent, and it's a close approximation! This epic, almost Miltonian*, mythology actually has me enthralled and more than the perplexing Demiurge...if the subtitles are accurate, then the Winter Solider is actually a real thing! the cosmogony* is astounding, or at least the Eden/Genesis* story interpretation kinda lights a fire in the imagination! 25:45 Band/Album Name! I do love that Sophia oh and substrate like the "Matrix" has the feminine field aspect, so the "Shekinah vs the Klippoth" can still and does loom large in my personal unfounded mythology! haha! "L&L" folks have an origin? that is awesome! epic summation I will certainly revisit! (*loosely applied and borrowed)
I'm also not gonna claim I somehow suffered as an audience under the misinterpretations or oversimplifications by authors and thinkers as maintained ostensibly in comments, under Jung and Eliade. If anything, rigorous Esoterica is no echo chamber and is often revelatory and is often the one, if anybody, that has to labor under inaccurate impressions. I always take it as I do with historically inspired dramas that don't try to be bios but apply creative license to fulfill their roles as inspiration. Besides, if I'm going to write a paper, I can only use so much non-academic sources as rigorous sources. Plus, the more resources, the better to cross-check, cross reference, and find out where thinkers might disagree or maybe not have the full picture. Like, I know William Wallace didn't actually do so n so nor Robert the Bruce nor a general named Maximus served Marcus Aurelius so n so and Commodus and Lucius Verus. I mean...I often see Thoth in this manner, so it's not like I'm misled that that's the be-all because Eliade, Campbell, Jung, and Mckenna said so. I'm easier and simpler than I think. And I'll still dig into these guys. Heck, my regard of "nucular" physicists what with Oppenheimer is clarified, especially seeing thoughtful archive interviews of him in 50's vs my initial impression of an already truncated famous footage of him quoting the Bhagavad Gita like some grim madman inventor! Now I know better! Every person's journey is different. Social group think isn't my thing, no matter the venue. Influence I will definitely do, but it's not the be-all end-all definitiveness. If there's anything I got the incorrect assumption, and now know: it's that radio astonomy isn't actually auditory. Thanks for that, Contact MOVIE showing main character LISTENING with 🎧 headphones for signals!! listening to what?? It's not auditory signals! 🛰 📡 🎧 🌌! Too often, the benefit of the doubt has flipped. Didn't even the Buddha apocryphally* say to not believe him at face value?
Fascinating topic, I've never hearad about Böhme befor.
I would like to add that the eucharist, which turns a piece of bread into the body of Christ, which is then eaten, looks also fundamentally to me like an alchemical process.
Wrathful fire and luminous love
Change the source spirits
Of silver and gold
In the center of the Earth
Böhme Shave
Thanks!
I love your lectures, Justin Sledge.
I appreciate learning more about your depth of knowledge you impart with on these topics.
Great video Justin, just wonderful.
His work, whether one believes it or not, is breathtaking and spectacular in its machinations and its descriptive imagery. It is simply beautiful.
Thank you again for doing these topics justice and in a digestible manner.
Ooo we're getting to Rosicrusianism soon it sounds. Very curious on your scholarly understanding of that strangely beautiful time in history :)
Doc Sledge does a Great Job explaining this.
It's like Quantum Mechanics in the Spiritual World. TY Doc.
Absolute perfection, as usual. Just about to finish my MA by Research using most of your sources and of course giving credit to your channel and yourself. So : thank you!
Thanks! Awesome content as usual. Im in the middle of your Kabbalah series and I must say it is quite fascinating. I can only imagine the hours of research it took to produce such an in depth series.
Thanks for the kind words and generous donation!
Super excited for the next few alchemy episodes
Your material is usually way over my head, but your presentation makes me want to "get it" anyway. Well done, sir!
A sort of Christ-Sophia-Chrysopoeia one might say.
Yes, verily
Very nice to see this video. I first read about Jakob Böhme because of a paper I did on the Harmonist Society in undergrad and Böhme's influence on them. I could not fully get into Böhme as he wasn't the focus on my paper but it is interesting to learn more and to connect that with what the Harmonists believed.
Loved this episode!
Thank you doctor..you're the man... sir
Warm greetings to you Justin. This particular episode reflects your utter genius and knowledge. Thank you 🌹☺️
love that scary screen green blip!
Never heard the never able to sin aspect but I can assure you it is true. Knowing makes knowing better. I refuse to sin. I will happily die first 🥇
Such a moving and passionate presentation. Much gratitude for your scholarship, devotion and analysis of Jacob Bohme's thought and vision. Obe feels compelled and emboldened to try and take it on. Maybe we need a Notes for How to Study the Zohar" kind of talk for reading JB.
Insightful as always🙌
Thank you for this series! I appreciate learning about historical alchemy, although I have no intention of doing it myself, as I like my countertops how they are. That's one thing OSA work has over historical alchemy -- all you need is stylus and paper!
Finally, thank you for speaking of the 19th/20th century spiritual alchemy myth as a MYTH -- one can get things from a myth in spiritual practice, but it is NOT history. I would no more treat it as history than I would teach a science class that our world came from [insert creation myth here].
Much respect for making the differentiation of “detonation” versus rapid oxidation with saltpeter.
I imagine that millennia from today, as humanity continues to progress, may see analytical chemistry and classical physics as antiquated when new physical forces and particles are discovered, understood and deployed
I will most likely watch this several times, as Boehme is quite important in the R.C tradition.
Thank you
LOVE LOVE LOVE this episode!!! 😍🔥
You're the absolute best English speaker on western esotericism on youtube, us over at
r/hermeticism would to have you for a live Q and A sometime
This a good Saturday
Loved this presentation and its precursor, which you referred to. Thoroughly enjoying this topic and looking forward to working through your Alchemy Playlist. I wonder what you think about the possibility that a new edition of Böhme's Complete Works in English will ever see the light of day? No way I'm ever going to pay $10k to $20k for an antiquarian set in fine condition; but I'd be willing to pay up to $500 / volume for a very high quality, new edition of the Complete Works that includes a new biography and all his Letters.
So, I'm Romanian and I felt like I had to congratulate you on the pronunciation of Mircea Eliade's name. A lot of anglophones utterly mangle it when they see it, it's refreshing to see someone having done some extra research
I just love alchemical art. Thanks for sharing this one!
I am a Freemason, thank you for your channel. You are one of my references when I research.
I was invited to the Freemasons and I turned them down because they want to kill off the population.
They are the crown monarchy, and I told them why I would not join and then they explained how people want to live comfortably, but not work for it. Want to live off of everyone else.
And the saddest part of that belief is that they’re talking about themselves .
They have never invented anything, built anything, created, maintained or even used they’re colonized theft for the benefit of anyone else but themselves.
It takes wealth to build wealth for an economy.
They take massive amounts of wealth through colonization, fraud, scam, and deception . And it puts us all in a financial restraints internationally for generations
I was invited to the Freemasons and I turned them down because they want to kill off the population.
They are the crown monarchy, and I told them why I would not join and then they explained how people want to live comfortably, but not work for it. Want to live off of everyone else.
And the saddest part of that belief is that they’re talking about themselves .
They have never invented anything, built anything, created, maintained or even used they’re colonized theft for the benefit of anyone else but themselves.
It takes wealth to build wealth for an economy.
They take massive amounts of wealth through colonization, fraud, scam, and deception . And it puts us all in a financial restraints internationally for generations
Brilliant video, thank you. When i practised thervada buddhism i found parralles to alchemy and taoist alchemy, could have just been me projecting though, just got to ten minutes in, yeah definetly understand the importane of difference and sticking to the facts now. and they where pretty general parrallels
I never had any interest in knowing about alchemy, I went to this channel by chance and from here I looked to see if I could find other videos about alchemy working (someone trying to reproduce the experiments).
it's really amazing that the comments on the video I found were basically people saying that this wasn't alchemy, that alchemy was actually a spiritual teaching
Thanks for this!
Thanks!
Really glad to check out this video, I've been curious to learn more about Jakob Boehme since I decided to re-read Magee's Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition. Since you're a philosophy professor I'd be curious to know some of your thoughts on Magee's book if it's something you've read before. I thumbed through my copy of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy and I was surprised to see that he devoted almost as much space to Boehme as he gave to Spinoza.
Becoming Christ, or becoming God, Theosis, is the central goal of salvation in Eastern Orthodox theology too
Hello, I just discovered your channel. Thank you for your rich delivery of esoteric subjects! I am curious if you have videos or content that points to Ophiuchus?
Kindly,
Veronica✨
As always, you open some doors, that are each one leading to a library of possibilities 😂❤
Jesus as a male drone bee - a clone of the queen, spreading her genetics as a wanderer from hive to hive without father or home. Dead at the end of his journey of peace & diversity with a wound to his thorax after releasing his encoded message; reborn again a missionary, a female worker, or potentially ascending to the Matriarch. Golden light as honey eventually spilling forth, transfigured from intangible to physical in his hidden labors.
dude we need an online MA with you … pls get accredited and post details ❤
Great job with this one
Best channel on YT ❤❤❤ Persian Magi is second best
I always try to remember how important personal mythology is...even though other people's can hit you as pretty weird sometimes. So I get why there's some push back. I mean I ask myself what would happen if I stopped believing in Plato's Atlantis, fairy lore, The Goetia or even simple astrology and just blankly wandered off to watch Jersey Shore for 48 hours? Like many Americans do! I'm pretty sure I'd go jump off a bridge. lol Nevertheless its good to just hear the history of Alchemy without the fluff and it is appreciated.
Those two rival (protestant) theologians sound like Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Theologians"
This episode became weirdly PKDickensian as the whole "Sophia-Christ" matter is present in the novel VALIS.
Another excellent and fascinating video. I like to think that your pause after saying “all religious myths…” was an exercise of materialist restraint. 😂
;)
He has definitely taught me to leave no stone unturned...
Did we have a klippot attack during the video? Either way, really intriguing episode, I wouldn't have expected Lutheranism, Gnosticism and Kabbalah cooked together in a single theory. I think that's the real spiritual alchemy happening here.
im shocked at just how much Bohme must have unconsciously shaped my thinking, nice for one for the insight
My passion is pyrotechnics and I figured out that my love for it is based on growing up without religion and open minded and answers came because I did not have the answers or conclusions. So my mind was unconsciously collecting the puzzle pieces during my life. Experienced as an puzzle that begins with a small corner and you can only guess or believe what the puzzle is. Right now all 4 corners are build and in the middle a few pieces are there. I cannot see precisely what the total picture is but I can clearly see what it's not. I figured out that my passion is alchemy and it's so strong because it cannot be faked, changed or rewritten. It is total 100% honest and real
The thing is, there are always more corners to come
Thank you!
this is important material for any androgynous christian mystic
The backdrop has a nice vibe to it.
Thank you for your incredible work! The engraving at 14:22 is so breathtaking! Do you know where I could find such a clean version of this work?
Getting significant “Fifth Element” vibes at 27:00 here…
I do love this channel. It seems to me though, a scholarly approach to esotericism is a bit like studying and collecting culinary recipes in order to chronicle the history of food. In general the value of acquiring the knowledge of cooking is in the meal. Even with an extensive collection of recipes, kitchen utensils and the like , the question that maters most is - can you cook ?
i love you man
Serious platemakers ( i love these unsung heroes of esoteric literature) i am a lover of calligraphy as well... both are strangely silent artisans whom are rarely appreciated in their own rite.
I’d love if you did an episode on Manley P. Hall. He’s a bit too much to encompass in an episode, but do you know how to eat an elephant? Cheers from Memphis
I first learned of alchemy when study¨ng newton in elementary school.
14:37 are those mushies I see the angel contemplating over on the left there??? A good flush from the looks of it, Damn! Wish mine came in that strong! Lolol
Peace 🙏
Nice appreciate the video on Bohme 🎈
Great stuff.. thanks
I am so pleased that you continue to burst my bubble Doctor. You have already shown that Islamic Alchemy was largely related to chemical transformation and now you show the western tradition to be the same. Like yourself I am mistrustful of Theosophists, if only for their lack of rigour.
I cling onto view that there is some link from Neoplatonism to spiritual alchemy via people like Ibn Arabi, but need to be much more cautious in overstating this.
Wonderful lecture! Enthralled with Splendor Solis. Could you please recommend a book translation of this manuscript that does not defer to an interpretation of Jungian archetypes ?
Brilliant
Thank the Primeval Divine Androgyne it's Friday
Now we're talking
Omg stahhhpppp iiittttt 😂
I know I am back on my nerdy bullshit when I'm watching a video and the word "milieu" comes up.
PS I'd been having video problems with my Mac Pro all morning, so that green flash gave me a cardiac episode.
Hi Justin .., is there any chance you could produce an episode on Paul’s teacher GAMALIEL ? I find it quite interesting. Thank you for your work!!
Like a peacock born out of an alchemical cocoon from an elden ring silver tear
I love your vídeos!!!!!❤