Philosophical Week - Help required - Request for information


Alchemy discussion forum > Request for information > Help required > Philosophical Week

Moderated by: alchemyd

Author

Post

Paul Ferguson
Member

Joined:	Fri Feb 15th, 2008
Location:
Posts:	1538
Status:	Offline

Can someone give me a succinct definition of the phrase 'philosophical week' which Dorn uses in some of his treatises?

Thanks,

P

Tom Willard
Member

Joined:	Mon May 5th, 2008
Location:	Tucson, Arizona USA
Posts:	96
Status:	Offline

Could you give us a citation or two, Paul?

Offhand I would think this is the Paracelsian idea (in "Philosophia ad Athenienses" and elsewhere) that the alchemical work mirrors the creation week in Genesis 1.

Paul Ferguson
Member

Joined:	Fri Feb 15th, 2008
Location:
Posts:	1538
Status:	Offline

Yes Tom, that seems to be the gist of it.

From 'De duello animi cum corpore':

Non negamus quaternarium in ternario quiescere posse, ad hebdomadis philosophicae constitutionem,

We do not deny that the quaternary can lie quiescent in the ternary, for the purpose of constituting the Philosophical Week.

http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=11637&dirids=1
Page 481

and

Videtisne iam quaternarium in ternario conclusum, at nondum quiescentem in veram hebdomadem philosophicam,

Now you see the quaternary enclosed in the ternary, but not yet lying quiescent in the true Philosophical Week.

http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=11637&dirids=1
Page 484

Last edited on Wed Oct 8th, 2014 06:57 am by Paul Ferguson

Mike Zuber
Member

Joined:	Fri Oct 5th, 2012
Location:	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Posts:	12
Status:	Offline

I thought the phrase was connected specifically to the seven stages of the alchemical work, which ties in nicely with the Genesis analogy if the last stage is 'fixatio' or 'tinctura', as in Michelspacher's Cabala, speculum artis et naturae, in alchymia (1616). Dorn seems to specifically have in mind the day of rest as the culmination of the philosophical week.
By the way, there's a beautiful series of engravings, based on the planetary deities, entitled 'Glyphical Week of the Philosophical Work' in the Reconditorium ac reclusorium ... chymica vannus (1666). And since I mention the Chymical Fan, I should add that, contrary to common belief, I am quite certain that this work is not by Johannes de Monte-Snyder: his known works were authored in German, and the author of the Chymical Fan displays a degree of late humanist erudition that is far removed from Monte-Snyder.)

Paul Ferguson
Member

Joined:	Fri Feb 15th, 2008
Location:
Posts:	1538
Status:	Offline

Mike Zuber wrote:
I thought the phrase was connected specifically to the seven stages of the alchemical work, which ties in nicely with the Genesis analogy if the last stage is 'fixatio' or 'tinctura', as in Michelspacher's Cabala, speculum artis et naturae, in alchymia (1616). Dorn seems to specifically have in mind the day of rest as the culmination of the philosophical week.
By the way, there's a beautiful series of engravings, based on the planetary deities, entitled 'Glyphical Week of the Philosophical Work' in the Reconditorium ac reclusorium ... chymica vannus (1666). And since I mention the Chymical Fan, I should add that, contrary to common belief, I am quite certain that this work is not by Johannes de Monte-Snyder: his known works were authored in German, and the author of the Chymical Fan displays a degree of late humanist erudition that is far removed from Monte-Snyder.)

Thanks Mike, that's very helpful.