Friday, January 14, 2011

Taking Pico's "Hints of Theurgy" Seriously


Perhaps Pico really did mean to imply magical practices or theurgy with his "magic and Kabbalah." This blog will explore the magical implications of Pico's encounters with Neoplatonism, Jewish Mysticism and Magic, Divine and Angelic Names, Astral and Talismanic Magic, Cognitive Ascent, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, Gnosticism and crypto-Origenism, Pseudo-Dionysius, Albertus Magnus, Proclus, Iamblichus, Abulafia, Gikatilla, Mithridates, Alemanno, Kabbalistic Gates, Enoch, Metatron, Azael, the Critique of Scholastic Philosophy, Averroism, Italian Kabbalah, and other threads in his syncretic tapestry of synthesized system.