Societas Magica: Syllabus Project
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DESCRIPTION: The history of alchemy traces human efforts
to achieve immortality through the transformation of matter and spirit. While alchemists attempted to prepare the
“philosophers’ stone,” with the power to transmute base metals into gold, the
transmutation of metals became symbolic of the transformation of flawed man
into a perfect being. The alchemists or
magician’s Great Work (Magnum Opus) serves as a metaphor for all human creative
work, whether it be art, writing, medicine, psychology or science, where life
and work are a process that mirrors a journey to the underworld and
rebirth.
Traditional
magic and the alchemical process of perfection of metals and human nature was
based upon an integrated cosmology derived primarily from Greek and Egyptian
mysticism. The influence of alchemy and
magic is evident in the works of Durer, Botticelli, Shakespeare, Marlowe and
Mozart. While the Enlightenment severed
science from mysticism, alchemical and magical symbols continued to penetrate
the work of Gustav Moreau, Yeats, Jung and Cocteau, among others.
The
study of magic and alchemy provides unique insight into the history of science,
psychology, anthropology, art and literature.
Today, modern theoretical physics rejoins metaphysics to mathematics in
“superstring theory,” in describing a unified cosmos whose nature cannot be
measured or verified but only postulated through imagination. In this course we will examine elements of
Babylonian, Greek and Egyptian mysticism from which alchemy and traditional
magic have been derived, and then look at the influence of alchemical and
magical motives in Western literature, art, music and science.
TEXTS:
Timaeus, Plato
Magic,
Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds,
The
Alchemy Reader,
The
Hermetic Museum: Alchemy and Mysticism, Roob
Believing
in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, Vyse
The
Elegant Universe, Brain Greene
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Bring
The Hermetic Museum to every
class, as well as the assigned reading.
A passing grade in the course requires that you be prepared to discuss
assigned reading material on the day it is due.
(30%) Quizzes on reading. Graded on curve.
(15%) Midterm
(15%) Discussion, attendance, participation (more than one absence drops final grade by one full grade per absence)
(40%)
A presentation based on a research project on some aspect of
alchemy/magic; topic must be approved by instructor.
SCHEDULE OF
9/1 Introduction to the Course. Creation and Cosmologies.
9/8 Immortality of the Soul, The Underworld,
Hymn to Demeter,
Cupid and
Psyche, Orpheus, Inanna, Egypt, Greek mystery cults.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html
9/15 Plato: the
Immortality of the Soul, Creation
*quiz Timaeus pg. 29-124
Plato Handouts: “Myth of
Afterlife,” “Myth of Er”
9/22 Dick Davis
reading--Persian poetry/mysticism.
9/29 *quiz Magic,
Witchcraft and Ghosts in Greek and Roman Worlds
Divination and Demonology
10/6. Alexandrian
and Medieval Alchemy *quiz Alchemy
Reader 1-140
10/13 Ficino, Natural Magic, The Four Humors and
Melancholy *quiz on planetary
Correspondences Magic in the Middle Ages
10/20 The Renaissance Magus *quiz Doctor Faustus, The Tempest
10/27 Alchemy Reader: Paracelsus, Fludd,
Ashmole, Boyle,
and Mysticism *chapter reviews--midterm.
11/3 Symbolists,
Surrealists, Jung, Tarrochi
11/10 *quiz Believing in Magic: The
Psychology of Superstition- surveys
12/8 Presentations (LIBA 8-15)
12/15 Final Exam
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Societas Magica: Syllabus Project |
Societas Magica home page Posted 19 July 2005 |