The Caretaker

The Secret Societies - 8/23/2023

The year is 1610. You are an aspirant occultist. John Dee is dead. Shakespeare is soon for the grave. Europe has spent the last century and a half embroiled in bloody religious wars at the behest of kings and priests. Faith in the old institutions is strong, but there are whispers. Dangerous ideas like science, democracy, rationalism, and the rights of man, are taking root in the coffee shops and reading groups of Europe. The broth of the enlightenment simmers on the backburner of history. 2023-08-23 16:58:57 +0000 UTC View Post

ROADMAP

SHIT WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MORE

Al-Ghazali

• Book of Invocations and Supplications was hella influential on Dee

Ramon Lull

• Put this guy before the Renaissance Sages

Ficino

Pico

Reuchlin

Agrippa

Paracelsus

• Put this section after agrippa and before Dee
• 
  

THE PAGES SO FAR (final page count: 100)

1. Discussion of terms
2023-08-22 15:19:04 +0000 UTC View Post

FULL TEXT SO FAR - 5/august/23

A DISCUSSION OF TERMS

Magic: Magic is inf

Alchemy - 31/7/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, how it f...

Alchemy - 7/27/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, how it f...

alchemy: 23/july/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, how it f...

ALCHEMY - July/17/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, how it f...

Alchemy - 12/July/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, how it f...

ALCHEMY - 8th/July/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O great pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, ho...

Alchemy - 3/July/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

MARIA HEBREA, THE FIRST ALCHEMIST - 1 page

• No later than the 1st-3rd century
• Was probably real, contemporary with the copus hermeticum,valentenian gnosticism
• Most information coems from Zosimos, who calls her “Among the ancients”
• Alexandria...
  2023-07-03 16:25:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Alchemy - 26/june/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

PART 1: THE FORERUNNERS OF ALCHEMY

HERMES TRISMEGISTUS

• Probably not an ancient egyptian priest
• Probably and early roman greco-egyptian person, or someone styling himself after that
• Not necessarily an alchemist himself, but hermetic doctrine forges...
  2023-06-26 17:07:00 +0000 UTC View Post

ALCHEMY - 25/june/2023

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

PART 1: THE FORERUNNERS OF ALCHEMY

HERMES TRISMEGISTUS

• Probably not an ancient egyptian priest
• Probably and early roman greco-egyptian person, or someone styling himself after that
• Not necessarily an alchemist himself, but hermetic doctrine forges...
  2023-06-25 16:18:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Paracelsus - 18/June/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Doctor, lay-theologian, grandfather of toxicology, and quite possibly the most important alchemist in history, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would shit-talk his way into laying the groundwork for modern medical science.

PARACELSUS...

Paracelsus - 14/June/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

PARACELSUS THE DOCTOR

Welcome to the year 1530. You...

Paracelsus - 6/13/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

PARACELSUS THE DOCTOR

Welcome to the year 1530. You...

Defining Terms - 6/june/2023

A DISCUSSION OF TERMS

Magic: Magic is infamously difficult to define. Ask a Roman centurion, a Zhao dynasty scholar, an American revival preacher, for their definition of magic, and they will give you wonderfully varied answers. Magic changes depending on time period, culture, location, and historical moment. A book could be a tome of powerful magical secrets on one side of a river, and a text of ordinary, mundane knowledge on the other. A book can be added to a library as a mundane tex...

Paracelsus - 6/june/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

PARACELSUS THE DOCTOR

Welcome to the year 1530. You...

Paracelsus - 5/june/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

PARACELSUS THE DOCTOR

Welcome to the year 1530. You...

Defining Terms - 3/june/2023

A DISCUSSION OF TERMS

Magic: Magic is infamously difficult to define. Ask a Roman centurion, a Zhao dynasty scholar, an American revival preacher, for their definition of magic, and they will give you wonderfully varied answers. Magic changes depending on time period, culture, location, and historical moment. A book could be a tome of powerful magical secrets on one side of a river, and a text of ordinary, mundane knowledge on the other. A book can be added to a library as a mundane tex...

Paracelsus - 3/june/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

PARACELSUS THE DOCTOR

Welcome to the year 1530. You...

John Dee - 3/june/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed what it meant t

Paracelsus - 25/may/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

PARACELSUS THE DOCTOR

Welcome to the year 1530. You...

Paracelsus - 17/may/2023

PARACELSUS

Sometimes, good ideas need a bastard. Alchemist, doctor, lay-theologian, and grandfather of toxicology, Phillipus Aruelious Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoenhiem –better known as Paracelsus– was a preeminent shit-talker in a Europe that already contained Martin Luther. He was the five-foot-nothing, always-armed-with-a-sword bastard who would draw from alchemy and magic to lay the groundwork for modern medicine.

MEDIEVAL MEDICINE AND THE MEDIEVAL BODY

Welcome to ...

John Dee - 16/march/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed what it meant t

John Dee - 11/may/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed what it meant to practice magic. Occultist, Alchemist, Astronomer, Mathematician, Wife-swapper, Court Magician to Queen Elizabeth I, and quite possibly the most educated person alive at the time, John Dee represents the pinnacle of Renaissance magic and learning. He is a figure so influential, he threatens to take over an introductory text like this one.

The son of a wealthy Welsh textile merchant, young John Dee was characterized by two things: courtly a...

John Dee - 5/may/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed what it meant to practice magic. Occultist, Alchemist, Astronomer, Mathematician, Wife-swapper, Court Magician to Queen Elizabeth I, and quite possibly the most educated person alive at the time, John Dee represents the pinnacle of Renaissance magic and learning. He is a figure so influential, he threatens to take over an introductory text like this one.

The son of a wealthy Welsh textile merchant, young John Dee was characterized by two things: courtly a...

John Dee - 9/May/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed what it meant to practice magic. Occultist, Alchemist, Astronomer, Mathematician, Wife-swapper, Court Magician to Queen Elizabeth I, and quite possibly the most educated person alive at the time, John Dee represents the pinnacle of Renaissance magic and learning. He is a figure so influential, he threatens to take over an introductory text like this one.

The son of a wealthy Welsh textile merchant, young John Dee was characterized by two things: courtly a...

John Dee - 5/april/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed the game. Occultist, Alchemist, Astronomer, Mathematician, Wife-swapper, Court Magician to Queen Elizabeth I, and quite possibly the most educated person alive at the time, John Dee represents the pinnacle of Renaissance magic and learning. He is a figure so influential, he threatens to take over an introductory text like this one.

The son of a wealthy Welsh textile merchant, young John Dee was characterized by two things: courtly ambition, and an overwhe...

John Dee - 2/may/2023

JOHN DEE

John Dee changed the game. Occultist, Alchemist, Astronomer, Mathematician, Wife-swapper, Court Magician to Queen Elizabeth I, and quite possibly the most educated person alive at the time, John Dee represents the pinnacle of Renaissance magic and learning. He is a figure so influential, he threatens to take over an introductory text like this one.

The son of a wealthy Welsh textile merchant, young John Dee was characterized by two things: courtly ambition, and an overwhe...

John Dee - April/28/2023

JOHN DEE

(We gotta talk about Paracelcus before this)

Occultist, Alchemist, Mathematician, Antiquarian, Humanist, Wife-swapper, Court Magician to Queen Elizabeth I, and quite possibly the most educated person alive at the time, John Dee represents the pinnacle of Renaissance magic and learning. He is a figure so influential, he threatens to take over an introductory text like this one.

Where other occultists languish under a lack of attention from academics, Dee is the oppos...