By Damien Gayle

He laid the foundations of classical physics and is considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time.

But Sir Isaac Newton was also deeply interested in the occult and applied a scientific approach to the study of scripture and Jewish mysticism.

Now Israel’s national library, which contains a vast trove of Newton’s esoteric writings, has digitised his occult collection and posted it online.

Among the yellowed texts is Newton’s famous prediction of the apocalypse in 2060.

The quintessential scientist, Newton revolutionised the approach to physics, maths and astronomy in the 17th and 18th century.

He laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics, including the the principal of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which bear his name.

However, the curator of Israel’s national library’s humanities collection said Newton was also a devout Christian who believed that scripture provided a ‘code’ to the natural world.

‘Today, we tend to make a distinction between science and faith, but to Newton it was all part of the same world,’ said Milka Levy-Rubin.
‘He believed that careful study of holy texts was a type of science, that if analysed correctly could predict what was to come.’

To further his understanding, Newton learned Hebrew and delved into the study of esoteric Jewish philosophy, the mysticism of Kabbala and the Talmud.

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• Ron Paul: Race, Ritual and the Scottish Rite
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• Of This Men Shall Know Nothing

Natalie Angier - Oct. 11, 2010

Excerpt:

Sir Isaac the Alchemist … was no less the fierce and uncompromising scientist than was Sir Isaac, author of the magisterial Principia Mathematica. There were plenty of theoretical and empirical reasons at the time to take the principles of alchemy seriously, to believe that compounds could be broken down into their basic constituents and those constituents then reconfigured into other, more desirable substances.

Miners were pulling up from the ground twisted bundles of copper and silver that were shaped like the stalks of a plant, suggesting that veins of metals and minerals were proliferating underground with almost florid zeal.

Pools found around other mines seemed to have extraordinary properties. Dip an iron bar into the cerulean waters of the vitriol springs of modern-day Slovakia, for example, and the artifact will emerge agleam with copper, as though the dull, dark particles of the original had been elementally reinvented. “It was perfectly reasonable for Isaac Newton to believe in alchemy,” said Dr. Newman. “Most of the experimental scientists of the 17th century did.”

Moreover, while the alchemists of the day may not have mastered the art of transmuting one element into another — an ordeal that we have since learned requires serious equipment like a particle accelerator, or the belly of a star — their work yielded a bounty of valuable spinoffs, including new drugs, brighter paints, stronger soaps and better booze. “Alchemy was synonymous with chemistry,” said Dr. Newman, “and chemistry was much bigger than transmutation.”

Books of interest, by Newman:

• Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe
• Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry
• Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature

A detailed post about modern day alchemists.

Bret Burquest - September 25, 2009

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, the founder of analytical psychology known as Jungian psychology.

As a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, he explored the psyche through an examination of dreams, mythology, religion and art. He also spent much of his life delving into alchemy, astrology and Eastern philosophy. Some of his notable achievements include the concept of psychological archetypes, synchronicity and the collective unconscious.

Jung emphasized the importance of harmony and balance. The process of “individuation” was the central concept of analytical psychology. For a person to become whole, it requires a psychological process of integrating the conscious with the unconscious while still maintaining conscious independence.

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An alchemist’s “magic door” stands in the middle of a Roman park

Atlas Obscura - September 15 2009

While this “magic door” is famous to Romans, it is barely noticed by tourists visiting Rome. But in the central district of Piazza Vittorio, inside the Park, the remains of an old Villa reveal a Magic or Alchemist Door, a portal into the real and secretive world of 1600s alchemy.

Full of symbols and inscriptions, it was built during the early 1600s by the Roman marquis Massimiliano Palombara, a member of a group of people known as “The Alchemists of Palazzo Riario,” who congregated around the Roman court of Christina of Sweden the Queen Regent of Sweden. Christina was an ardent supporter of alchemy and science and thinkers and science luminaries like Decarte and Athanasius Kircher were often found in her Italian court, along with alchemy enthusiasts like Massimiliano Palombara.

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Teresa Burns - Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition No. 16, Vol. 2. Vernal Equinox 2009

Last issue, two articles under the larger title William Shakespeare’s Green Garland explored the possibility that “Francis Garland,” a man who seems to barely exist outside of his presence in John Dee’s diary and angelic workings, but who according to Dee witnessed Edward Kelley’s grand transmutation,[1] could be a pseudonym for the man we now call William Shakespeare.

As the first of those articles noted, Dee refers to several “Garland” brothers in his diary—Francis, Edward, and Robert—and mentions a fourth “Garland,” Henry. None have ever been positively identified. No extant archival records show a payment to or letter from any of these men, yet they clearly are presented by Dee as acting as couriers. No civic record yet located lists their names. In fact, with only two or perhaps three significant exceptions which I mentioned in that essay, all of the references to a “Garland” connected to John Dee or Edward Kelley have as their source the writings of John Dee.

That article, “Francis Garland, William Shakespeare, and John Dee’s Green Language,” its timeline comparing Francis Garland’s activity to that of William Shakespeare, and a related analysis of a poem perhaps written by Edward Kelley to a “G.S.” who may have been “Gulielmus Shakespeare,” were all written to test out two clusters of hypotheses concerning John Dee, Edward Kelley, William Shakespeare, and Francis Garland.

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The second installment in my “Illuminati Sightseeing” series. Once again it includes a lightbox with plenty of pictures. This one should appeal to a wider audience, since it involves Count St. Germain. Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel gave the infamous count refuge at his estate in Schleswig-Holstein; had an alchemical tower built - among other occult architecture - and the two of them conducted experiments there in “gold making,” etc.

It is pictures such as these - which relate to the real Illuminati - that I wish would have been included in Texe Marrs’ Mysterious Monuments. The castle and pyramid at Wilhelmsbad (a site notorious in secret society history), and the latest post on Karl von Hessen-Kassel and his occult-masonic-alchemical country estate - this is the stuff of authentic “Illuminati architecture.”

…and there’s much more to come.