Paradoxa Emblemata - Dionysus A Freher

[antonchanning]

Dionysius Andreas Freher was a London based alchemist who illustrated, and was greatly influenced by, the work of Jakob Böehme, and lived between 1649 - 1728. It never appeared in print, but according to Alexander Roob it "did circulate in handwritten copies in English bohemian circles, including the Philadelphia society headed by John Porridge and the Anglican mystic Jane Leade. The extraordinary level of abstraction in these 153 hieroglyphs or emblem pictures corresponds to the theme: the relationship between nothing and something, unity and variety."

In 1979 the book was printed for the first time but only in a limited edition available through mail order, but went out of print again in 1986. In this edition it was given the English title of 'The Paradoxical Emblems'.

I have just discovered that it is now back in print, but only as a 250 copy limited edition. It says its signed, but I don't think that would be Freher's signature so I'm not sure what that is about!

Here is the url if you can afford £42 or $80 for it... http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/mohs16.html

Anyway, I just snapped one up, so I should be getting mine soon. At long last! I've been wanting a copy of this book for years!

[deviadah]

You should scan the book, perhaps not the whole thing, but the best bits and create a PDF. I am sure a lot of members have great tomes and if we all did this we could have some sweet PDF's to share that might not exists on the web.

Gnosis is for sharing!



I got Invisible Landscape that I can scan that I haven't found a free text of for example!



As for the topic of this thread all I know really of Freher is from the book by Roob so I can't add much more there. Not tonight anyway...

Here's one link connected to the fellow: Freher's Process in the Philosophical Work

[antonchanning]

You should scan the book, perhaps not the whole thing, but the best bits and create a PDF. I am sure a lot of members have great tomes and if we all did this we could have some sweet PDF's to share that might not exists on the web.

Gnosis is for sharing!

Well, we'll see if I get time. 153 pages is a lot of scanning, and I'm a very busy man. I'm certainly not going to break Adam McLean's copyright on his own commentary. The Freher stuff is of course public domain by now, so I have no problem reproducing those. If I get time, which I may not. I've got a lot of projects on right now.

Here's one link connected to the fellow: Freher's Process in the Philosophical Work

Yes, there are some Freher texts on the web, but he apparently one of the more underrated and little known alchemists.

[deviadah]

The Freher stuff is of course public domain by now, so I have no problem reproducing those. If I get time, which I may not. I've got a lot of projects on right now.

These are the ones I meant (not the entire book). If there are images (part of the public domain) scan these.

[antonchanning]

The Freher stuff is of course public domain by now, so I have no problem reproducing those. If I get time, which I may not. I've got a lot of projects on right now.

These are the ones I meant (not the entire book). If there are images (part of the public domain) scan these.

Sorry. It is one of my few flaws that I like to be clear and precise about everything, and sometimes this comes across as criticism when I don't mean it to be...

[deviadah]

Sorry. It is one of my few flaws that I like to be clear and precise about everything, and sometimes this comes across as criticism when I don't mean it to be...

No worries... takes time to get to know someones way of speaking in posts and although I saw you on OF I don't think we communicated that much over there!



Keep your posts comin'... so far I am enjoying it (now you got real pressure)!

[antonchanning]

Well, my copy of The Paradoxical Emblems arrived today, and I am very pleased to finally own a copy. Limited edition number 169 of 250, apparently signed in 1983. A hand bound book, a truly beautiful object. I plan to read it properly this weekend in candle lit meditation...

...will let you know what I think then.

[deviadah]

Lookin' forward to hear what you have to say about it. I myself just ordered:

A Doctrine of Correspondences by Louis Claude Saint Martin

[antonchanning]

Lookin' forward to hear what you have to say about it.

Well, I would have had something to say about because I was going to read it last night. But for various reasons I ended up in the company of a beautiful young woman instead. Sometimes other things must take precedence over alchemical studies...

[deviadah]

Sometimes other things must take precedence over alchemical studies...

Well perhaps we should get a thread going Alchemical Sex?

I think there are some tantric stuff floating about though... I am not that much into it so I haven't participated in those topics, but it doesn't mean they ain't worthy to consider!

[antonchanning]

Sometimes other things must take precedence over alchemical studies...

Well perhaps we should get a thread going Alchemical Sex?

I think there are some tantric stuff floating about though... I am not that much into it so I haven't participated in those topics, but it doesn't mean they ain't worthy to consider!

Indeed, and wasn't as if I didn't start to instruct said young lady in alchemical teachings anyway. And of course, alchemical practise, to me, has always been about sex, drugs and rock n roll... :D

I mean, take the caduceus, the hexagram, the rose cross, the hermaphrodite, the yin-yang, the solar cock and lunar hen, etc. Alchemy is littered with sexual innuendo. Of course, all these symbols can be interpretted on other levels, but that doesn't detract from the importance of the sexual interpretation. Sexual alchemy is as important in the Hermetic tradition as it is Taoist or Tantric, even if they had to play it down and cunningly hide it in symbols rather than talk about it openly. There is a reason Flamel performed the great work with his wife...

[deviadah]

There is a reason Flamel performed the great work with his wife...

Excellent point!

[antonchanning]

For various reasons, including getting laid, and a strong resurgence of gender dysphoria, I haven't got round to doing the above mentioned meditation yet, although I still plan to, and I have somewhat read the context in which the material was written and something about the group Dionysus belonged to when he wrote it. It seems it is a strain of mystical Protestant Christianity, influenced by Hermetic Tradition. Most fascinating, I had no idea that such a side to the reformation even existed, thinking it was more a Catholic tendency to indulge in paganisms and mysticisms...

[deviadah]

Have a look at this:

Freher Series

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