Category: Articles

From New Dawn Special Issue Vol 13 No 5 (Oct 2019)

William Walker Atkinson was one of the most influential and mysterious metaphysical writers of the twentieth century. Under an array of different pseudonyms, Atkinson authored over a hundred books and close to a thousand magazine articles in a prolific career that began later in his life after a breakdown pushed him out of a successful legal career. 

While known during his own lifetime, Atkinson’s works continued to have a remarkable and widespread influence after his death and up to the present. His pen helped to shape everything from yoga and Reiki to the Prosperity Gospel and the Law of Attraction.

Atkinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1862 to a solidly middle-class family who had connections to some of the city’s more prestigious and established families. His father and grandfather both owned grocery stores, and as he grew up and worked in his father’s business, William Walker Atkinson seemed fated to join them. 

When he was just twenty-one, Atkinson suffered a breakdown. Seemingly despondent from a case of unrequited love, the younger Atkinson disappeared from Baltimore and sent a series of suicide notes from a hotel in Philadelphia a few days later. Not long after, he started reading books on Theosophy and began a study of esotericism that not only seemed to stabilise him and give him direction in the moment, but for the next half-century.

He then travelled throughout the eastern half of the United States for several years in search of a career that could be of his own making. Atkinson moved from one job to another and tried his hand in sales and office work without anything really taking hold, eventually finding his vocation as an attorney. In 1893, Atkinson began to study the law, serving first as an apprentice and then alongside a senior attorney in central Pennsylvania.

Atkinson thrived as a lawyer, and not long after he moved to another city to start a practice of his own, and he was invited back to become a partner with his former mentor. The future seemed bright for Atkinson and his young family, but when the perfunctory transfer of his legal credentials from one county to another was unexpectedly denied, that future was thrown into doubt. Left with few options, Atkinson moved his family in with his brother-in-law in Philadelphia and promptly had another breakdown that saw him disappear for six weeks.

His Great Work Begins 

In later accounts of this time, Atkinson described being brought to the brink of collapse on all levels through overwork and anxiety. While he was coy about what exactly happened during the time of his absence, when he reappeared Atkinson quickly gathered up his family and moved to Chicago where he changed his occupation and became an enthusiastic author and proponent of New Thought – a web of beliefs and practices that hold that one’s thoughts affect health, well-being and circumstances – and he took to it with a convert’s zeal.

Atkinson started in his new career by writing and serving as the associate editor for a magazine titled Suggestion, and by the end of 1901 he was the editor of another Chicago-based periodical titled New Thought. As he continued to write and give lectures, compilations of Atkinson’s work began to be published in book form.

While Atkinson’s nascent life as a writer might seem to have been a dramatic shift, it brought together much of his past. His early interest in Theosophy appears throughout his works in direct references to Helena Blavatsky and use of the term “secret doctrine,” and in a worldview indebted to its perennial philosophy that saw a validity and interconnectedness in the different spiritual traditions of the world. Atkinson incorporated the works on self-help and physical culture he absorbed during his sojourns as a clerk and salesman, and from his time as an attorney he took a fondness for describing the universe as a set of laws, as well as the ability to eloquently argue a point.

With Atkinson as editor and chief contributor, the readership of New Thought swelled, and its total circulation doubled and then doubled again. This was no accident. Many scholars have suggested that New Thought’s popularity is best understood in the context of swift and massive changes that were happening in American society as the Gilded Age transitioned into the Progressive Era and large numbers of Americans moved into the cities to work jobs in sales or inside offices. 

With theories that were simultaneously scientific and magical, New Thought gave explanations for why some people were successful and others were not, and it offered the possibility for advancement and improvement to those who had little more than their thoughts and desires. 

For his part, Atkinson wrote to his audience with a voice that was simultaneously clear, authoritative, sympathetic, and profoundly democratic. Always a champion of the individual and those who worked hard, he saw the workings of New Thought as easily in the empires of newly minted industrial magnates as in the hustle of the young newspaper hawkers he admired on the streets of Chicago. Atkinson also regularly invited readers to visit him in his office and answered their letters in a regular column in New Thought with counsel that was as kind as it was direct.

Atkinson held a view of New Thought that was both generous in theory and practical in its application. He saw little that was “new” in New Thought but understood it as only the most recent manifestation of a long and varied line of systems that extended all the way back to ancient India. At the same time, Atkinson approached New Thought like a scientist and saw the everyday world as its proving ground that could test and refine its ideas, with its ultimate value in how it could help people in their daily lives.

Unlike many of his contemporaries and those later influenced by New Thought, Atkinson never saw its teachings as just a magical way to manifest desires, but rather as a method of strengthening and clarifying one’s aims that always needed to be paired with hard work. One of Atkinson’s sayings was “Hold the Thought and Hustle.” He also refused to see material wealth as the sole worthy aim, but instead glorified those who were creative, productive, and felt at home in the world as themselves.

‘Yogi Ramacharaka’ 

While he was at the helm of New Thought, Atkinson began to author monthly mail-order lessons on yoga under the name ‘Yogi Ramacharaka’ that soon developed into a series of books published by the Yogi Publication Society, housed in Chicago’s Masonic Temple skyscraper. Atkinson did not seem to be concerned with being a conduit for the pure ancient wisdom of India. For him, the yogi was an ideal type – energetic, efficient, and attuned with nature – and the yoga he offered the public as Yogi Ramacharaka was a mixture of physical culture, contemporary science, New Thought philosophy, and self-help techniques. 

Yogi Ramacharaka was one of the earliest of over a dozen different pseudonyms Atkinson used during his writing career that would become a source of confusion and speculation after his death. Upon close inspection, his various pen names align with different publishers and distinct periods of time. The most likely explanation for them is that they allowed someone so prolific to publish with several companies simultaneously and to do so without flooding the market. 

Importantly, Atkinson never distanced himself from any of his writing. In the biographical entries he submitted to reference books such as Who’s Who in America, he openly claimed authorship of all his pseudonymous works, and in the personal copies of his pseudonymous books that were left to his family, he personally inscribed “I Wrote This” next to his initials on their inside covers. 

As New Thought magazine became increasingly successful, its manager Sydney Flower used its pages to promote dubious products (including a health cigar) and investment schemes. Flower quickly became the target of mockery in several newspapers and ran afoul of federal postal authorities who halted New Thought magazine’s use of the mail as part of a fraud order just before Christmas in 1904. 

Atkinson moved with his family to Southern California a few months later. It was a decision he claimed was for the climate and change of scenery, but as he had carefully distanced himself from Flower during this time – reminding readers in print that he was simply a writer and editor who had nothing to do with the “business side” of the magazine – the move undoubtedly had the added benefit of putting distance between himself and Flower’s legal troubles. 

Relocating to Los Angeles established a pattern that would see Atkinson and his family move between Chicago and California a total of three times, staying in each city for several years at a stretch. Both cities were active hubs of metaphysical and esoteric activity, and were separately described by newspapers as claimants to the title of America’s “cult capital.” Atkinson’s presence in these locations – combined with his affable disposition and position as an author and lecturer – brought him into contact with an impressive list of important and influential figures in the metaphysical world. The heart of the Los Angeles scene was Blanchard Hall and for the next few years Atkinson regularly lectured to packed crowds in its large 800-seat auditorium and teach classes in its smaller meeting rooms. 

One of the most important connections Atkinson made in Los Angeles was with Baba Bharati, a Bengali-born Krishna devotee who had recently arrived in the United States. Atkinson wrote a pair of articles for Bharati’s magazine, The Light of India, and warmly described their friendship. Bharati was also influenced by Atkinson, and after their meetings he began to describe yoga with the New Thought-inspired phrase “Thought Force.” It was likely through Bharati’s influence, if not direction, that soon after Atkinson left California and edited two volumes of Hindu sacred texts for a popular American audience – The Bhagavad Gita and The Spirit of the Upanishads – under his pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka.

When Atkinson returned to Chicago in late-1907 he entered into an astonishing five-year period in which he was at his most prolific and eloquent, publishing over forty books and one hundred magazine articles. One account of Atkinson’s writing process during this time claimed that he would immerse himself in the study of a topic and then, once “loaded up,” write in a rapid outpouring with the office assistant setting up the type for each page as soon as Atkinson was done writing it.¹ This process not only explains Atkinson’s productivity but also the repetition of ideas and minor typos in his works during these years.

The Kybalion

Early in this period, Atkinson wrote a self-described “little volume” called The Kybalion under the cryptic pseudonym “Three Initiates.” At the core of The Kybalion were seven axiomatic laws – such as the Principle of Correspondence and the Principle of Vibration – that were described as originating with the mythic Hermes Trismegistus and carefully passed down through the ages from teachers to select students. While The Kybalion claimed to be ancient, Egyptian, and Hermetic, it was much more a product of modern American New Thought, one reason it resonated so strongly with its audience.

Although he distanced himself from the business affairs of New Thought magazine, William Walker Atkinson never stopped contributing to it, and he faithfully discharged articles and regular columns to its readers as he moved around the country, and the magazine changed hands. For a short while in 1910, Atkinson even resumed his duties as editor for New Thought before the periodical dissolved. 

Atkinson moved back to California in 1913 and settled just outside Los Angeles in the city of Pasadena for a few years. He took over noon weekday meetings in Blanchard Hall for Annie Rix Militz, the founder of the New Thought group known as the Home of Truth, at times with hundreds of people in attendance. 

Even though Atkinson was not serving as the editor of a magazine during this time, he was a regular contributor to Elizabeth Towne’s Nautilus. Many of these pieces were reprinted in newspapers throughout the United States – from the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune to a host of smaller papers in the Midwest – and they were perhaps the greatest measure of visibility Atkinson received during his lifetime.

When Atkinson returned to Chicago in 1916 he entered familiar work with old partners and took on the editorship of a new magazine titled Advanced Thought, owned by the same couple who ran the Yogi Publication Society. For four years, Atkinson was at the helm of Advanced Thought, and in many ways the magazine was a one-man operation. Atkinson served as not only its editor but through columns and articles under his own name and supplemental pieces under his various pseudonyms, he supplied nearly all of the non-advertisement copy for some issues.

A few years before Atkinson’s return to the Midwest, the poet Carl Sandburg personified Chicago as a hard-working young man and gave it the moniker “City of Broad Shoulders.” Atkinson held Chicago in the same regard and was always at his most productive when he lived there. He fell in love with the activity and industry. He first lived there in 1900, and once told readers of New Thought that he “long(ed) to walk down State Street, seeing the native Chicagoan in all his glory,” while he was temporarily relocated in New York. 

It was also during this period in Chicago that Atkinson authored the bulk of about fifteen different books under a trio of new pseudonyms. As Swami Panchadasi and Swami Bhakta Vishita, Atkinson wrote on subjects such as the human aura, the astral world, and the development of seership and psychic powers. While Atkinson frequently wrote about the dangers of the occult leading its students astray, he just as often made sense of occult phenomena through his understanding of the mind and its powers, and there is evidence that he worked with a crystal ball. The French-sounding pen name Theron Q. Dumont was used for more everyday application of mental powers: salesmanship, reading character, the development of memory, and increasing personal magnetism.

Atkinson, ever the optimist, could find the good in other New Thought figures and often supported them by giving guest lectures for their organisations. He did the same at regional and national gatherings of the International New Thought Alliance until he chafed at the increasing “churchianity” of the organisation. 

At their 1916 annual meeting in Chicago, the International New Thought Alliance appointed a committee of “leading New Thought workers” to consider drafting a formal declaration of principles to be shared the following year in Saint Louis. While everyone else dutifully wrote affirmative creeds and eloquent statements of belief, William Walker Atkinson gave four terse and sharp paragraphs. According to him, New Thought could not be organised or set to fixed principles, rather New Thought “takes its own wherever it finds it” and “all attempts to… institutionalise it result merely in dwarfing and stultifying it.” Unsurprisingly, the statement went over poorly and caused others to either critique Atkinson or apologise on his behalf. 

In 1922, Atkinson temporarily located to Detroit and published the twelve-volume Personal Power series of books with Edward Beals, largely a recapitulation of the main themes from Atkinson’s writing during the preceding two decades. From Detroit, Atkinson and his wife moved to Los Angeles where they remained until his death a decade later. Although age began to catch up with William Walker Atkinson during this time and his pace declined, he still gave regular lectures to New Thought congregations and lessons to small classes. 

Atkinson only made sporadic efforts to publish his own work during the early part of his writing career and seemed to prefer leaving the business side of publishing for others to handle. While this decision left him and his heirs open to exploitation, and certainly cost him vast sums of money, it could also be seen as a reflection of his New Thought philosophy. Perhaps like his friend and mentor Helen Wilmans, Atkinson not only believed in the existence of a limitless potential supply of money and opportunity but regarded concern about money, even at the simple level of planning ahead for it in the future, to be erroneous and detrimental. For someone as prolific as Atkinson during the first decades of his career, this would have been a tenable strategy. But as his age increased and his health declined in the 1920s, it was no longer possible for him to write as he once did, and he only managed to produce a pair of unpublished manuscripts during the latter years of his life, The Seven Cosmic Laws and a primer on Theosophy. 

In a tragic irony for the author whose words inspired so many to believe they could attain success and prosperity when William Walker Atkinson died in November of 1932 his family needed to borrow money for the funeral and burial.

“The Other Side of Life”

In one of his books written under the name Yogi Ramacharaka, Atkinson told his readers “that which we call death is but the other side of life.” There was no better example of this statement than his own life and legacy. After Atkinson’s physical death, his works took on remarkable lives of their own.

William Walker Atkinson was deeply suspicious of any institution or system that would limit the freedom of the individual seeker. He was similarly distrustful of teachers who positioned themselves before the public as unquestionable authorities or objects of devotion. In his writings, Atkinson constantly counselled readers to test his teachings in their own lives, take what was useful for them, and discard what was not. In his career, Atkinson never made any serious efforts to establish his own church or institution like so many of his peers, preferring to simply write, lecture, and hold classes with small groups of students.

These decisions, along with his liberal use of pseudonyms, profoundly affected Atkinson’s legacy. Paradoxically, they allowed for his ideas to spread widely around the world and become enormously influential in various realms, while at the same time obscuring William Walker Atkinson as their creator. 

Even before Atkinson wrote the last of the Yogi Ramacharaka books in 1912, they began to be translated into numerous languages and disseminate around the world. Japan was particularly receptive to the works of Yogi Ramacharaka as it was in the midst of massive interest in mental healing and had recently endured a large epidemic of tuberculosis. Books like the Science of Breath and concepts like prana were translated into Japanese, finding their way into the healing system of Reiki and the work of the influential positive thinking guru Nakamura Tempu who claimed to have studied with Yogi Ramacharaka in India.

Translations of the Yogi Ramacharaka books into Russian quickly became influential among artists and the intelligentsia, and were an important part of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s acting system which in turn influenced Lee Strasberg who trained generations of the most accomplished and celebrated actors in the United States with his ‘Method’ techniques. One young woman in Latvia, influenced by one of the Yogi Ramacharaka books translated into Russian, was Eugenie V. Peterson who would later travel to India and study with T. Krishnamacharaya. As Indra Devi, she became one of the most influential and well-travelled promulgators of yoga in the twentieth century. 

During the interwar decades of the 1920s and 1930s, dozens of South Asian immigrants in the United States took up the profession of travelling yoga teacher and lectured to tens of thousands of people across the country after the American government declared them ineligible for citizenship. These newly-minted swamis and gurus found sets of yogic exercises and lessons lying in wait within the Yogi Ramacharaka books. In a confusing reversal, they presented the work of the American lawyer as ancient Indian wisdom to their audiences, some going so far as to sell, and even autograph, copies of the Ramacharaka books to their students.

In the decades following his death, Atkinson’s books under his own name and several of his pseudonyms were widely distributed and republished by numerous mail-order companies. Bruce King – the man widely credited with popularising astrology under the moniker ‘Zolar’ – filled the pages of his official magazines Astrology and Horoscope during the late-Fifties to mid-Sixties with uncredited excerpts from Atkinson’s books while advertising several titles by Atkinson and Swami Panchadasi for sale directly from Zolar’s New York headquarters.

By far, Atkinson’s most influential work was The Kybalion. The clear writing and organisation of The Kybalion made it accessible to a wide readership. The vague penname authorship by the “Three Initiates,” the name and location of the publisher (The Yogi Publication Society in the Masonic Temple Building of Chicago), and its claims to ancient Hermetic wisdom, gave the book an air of mystery and intrigue that allowed for endless speculation and for a diverse range of groups to see it as their own. 

The hand of The Kybalion can be seen in the writings of Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking, and one of the key popularisers of positive thinking and the Prosperity Gospel, which holds for many Christians that God’s will is that they be physically healthy and financially well off. A 1995 article found that Peale likely took many central ideas for his best-selling work from The Kybalion, and did so by way of the metaphysical author Florence Scovel Shinn, citing among other things parallel uses of terms like “law” and “vibration” in Peale’s work and The Kybalion.² 

William Walker Atkinson took on a new life in the late-Sixties as his books were widely rediscovered and his ideas became part of the spiritual backdrop of the era. For many Hippies who discovered yoga, the thirteen titles by Yogi Ramacharaka were a reference library in waiting. So many people wrote to the Yogi Publication Society during this time desperate for more information on Yogi Ramacharaka that the publisher produced a fallacious stock response to answer them. According to one critic, the Yogi Ramacharaka books were one of the many sources mined by Carlos Castaneda, the anthropologist whose alleged encounters with the Yaqui teacher Don Juan turned on innumerable Hippies to shamanism and ideas of magical apprenticeship.³

The Kybalion also resonated deeply with Augustus Owsley Stanley, who mass-produced millions of doses of LSD, helped engineer the sound of the Grateful Dead, and was perhaps more responsible for the Hippie Counterculture of the 1960s than anyone else. Stanley described Atkinson’s book of Hermetic wisdom as “perfect… because it put into context all the things I had experienced on acid… Everything is connected, because it’s all being created by this one consciousness.”⁴

As times changed, Atkinson’s Kybalion continued to have remarkable staying power with a wide array of seekers and aspirants. Many African American thinkers took the Egyptian origins of Hermes Trismegistus described in The Kybalion and cast it as distinctly African wisdom, using the seven Hermetic principles in works of fine art, literature, self-help, psychology, family therapy, and even bounty hunting. 

Pagans, Wiccans, and other products of the modern revival of witchcraft also drew from The Kybalion. Figures like Laurie Cabot claimed that “the seven Hermetic Laws (were) the basis of Witchcraft.”⁵ One newspaper in 1989 began a multi-part series titled “Understanding the New Age” by elucidating The Kybalion’s teaching as “the basis of all esoteric principles,” and that Atkinson’s “little volume” served as an introductory and foundational text for a variety of occult groups and Freemasons.

Some of the most striking examples of just how prolific and influential Atkinson was, and also how overlooked and under appreciated he is, come from cases in which people were influenced by several of Atkinson’s pseudonymous works without realising they came from the same hand. 

The same overlap occurred in 2006 with the sudden and massive success of Rhonda Byrne’s self-help film turned book The Secret, which went on to sell over thirty million copies in over fifty languages and became a major cultural moment as it was feted and endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. While some critics and observers noted that The Secret was not much more than a repackaging of New Thought ideas, those familiar with the work of William Walker Atkinson would have seen his unspoken influence, both directly and indirectly, in Byrne’s creation through allusions to Hermetic wisdom and the constant use of “The Law of Attraction,” which Atkinson articulated over a century earlier.

It was a testament to not only his influence but how fresh and vital William Walker Atkinson’s work has remained over time. For another author to be used and forgotten after such a prolific career would seem an insult. But for Atkinson – someone who valued placing constructive ideas into the world over constructing his own prestige and always encouraging others to use what worked for them as they found it – it was entirely fitting.

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Footnotes

1. From The Art and Practice of the Occult by Ophiel, Peach Publication Company, 1969

2. “Peale’s Secret Source” by George D. Exoo and John Gregory Tweed, Lutheran Quarterly, 1995

3. See Castaneda’s Journal: The Power and the Allegory by Richard de Mille, Capra Press, 1976

4. “Owsley Stanley: The King of LSD” by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 2007

5. The Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot with Tom Cowan, Delacorte Press, 1989

© New Dawn Magazine and the respective author.
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From New Dawn 170 (Sept-Oct 2018)

We like to think that modern science has developed as a result of rational enquiry; however, the history of science is littered with tales of bizarre experiments, eccentric characters and peculiar coincidences. 

Many of the influential scientists responsible for the birth of modern science were not the conventional rationalists that they are often portrayed as. Although their discoveries are the result of complex mathematical workings and meticulous scientific experimentation, many of them were also heavily immersed in the esoteric world of the occult and pursued the mystical practices of alchemy, astrology and magic. 

While the orthodox scientific community has denounced these practices as nonsensical pseudoscience, they are incredibly significant in the history of modern science. 

This article examines three scientists who made exceptional contributions in their fields including the occult, showing the unusual and forgotten ideas that guided the course of scientific enquiry. 

Sir Isaac Newton and the Philosopher’s Stone

Sir Isaac Newton is recognised as one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived and was a crucial figure in the scientific revolution during the Enlightenment period. Born in 1643, Newton is credited for developing the laws of modern physics; however, he also made discoveries in mathematics, optics, and other scientific disciplines. 

His momentous book, Principia, brought him to international fame when published in 1687 and distinguished him as one of the most important scientific figures of the Renaissance. The manuscript contains information on the elementary principles of modern physics, such as the laws of motion and the theory of gravity. Newton is also credited for developing essential concepts of modern calculus, demonstrating his prodigal influence within both science and mathematics. 

Newton’s historical legacy has come to symbolise the power of the scientific method in the development of Western civilisation, but many people are unaware that Newton was not a conventional scientist. He was a very curious individual who dabbled in the peculiar and unusual world of the occult, a realm antithetical to the narrow rationalism of science. In fact, after purchasing Newton’s manuscripts and studying his works, economist John Maynard Keynes famously stated that “Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians.”¹

An area of the occult that Newton extensively studied was alchemy. Alchemy was the medieval forerunner to chemistry and outwardly concerned the transmutation of base metals into gold and the discovery of a universal elixir that would bless its creator with immortality. Grounded in the discipline of hermeticism, alchemy was not only a method of chemical transmutation but also a spiritual practice by which the alchemist sought to purify their body and soul. 

Since chemistry was in its infancy during Newton’s lifetime, many of his studies in chemical science contained language more typically associated with occultism than modern science. Unfortunately, a laboratory fire caused by his dog may have destroyed most of his works, and therefore our understanding of how much he knew about alchemy is somewhat limited. 

Existing works suggest Newton was heavily immersed in the hermetic discipline and his primary objective was to discover the philosopher’s stone, a mysterious substance that supposedly had the power to turn base metals into gold. The stone was central to the imagery of medieval hermetic philosophy and symbolised man’s attainment of spiritual perfection. 

Newton’s writings suggest that he was interested in this mystical object and undertook many experiments to uncover its chemical composition. He also believed that ‘Diana’s Tree’, an alchemical process that produces a dendritic ‘growth’ of crystallised silver from a silver-nitrate solution, proved that metal “possessed a sort of life.”²

Newton was not only interested in alchemy. He also believed the Bible contained hidden information about a future apocalypse. Unpublished documents, evidently written by Newton, indicate he thought the world would end by the year 2060 AD based on a series of mathematical calculations. It has been suggested the apocalypse he was talking about was a transformative stage in mankind’s spiritual evolution in which the human race would achieve a higher state of transcendental consciousness; however, this is mostly scholarly conjecture. 

The original documents written by Newton are currently stored at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. It appears that they were written for personal use since Newton personally disliked date-specific biblical prophecies. This would make sense considering he provided no actual date as to when the world would end, merely predicting it would happen before the year 2060. Newton’s reasoning behind this particular date cannot be considered in cultural and historical isolation. It must be understood in the context of his antitrinitarian beliefs and Protestant views on the Papacy. His writings suggest he relied on the specific chronology of events described in the Bible, as well as the ominous prophecies described in the Book of Revelation, to calculate the date. The religious basis for his calculations is evident when he writes:

“So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic for ‘long lived’] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060.”³

As one can see, Newton was of the belief that biblical scripture contained encrypted knowledge about the future of humankind’s destiny; he carefully studied the chronological dates and events described in the Bible and performed complex mathematical calculations to determine the date of the apocalypse. Although he made various predictions during his lifetime, he was certain that a global cataclysm would destroy Earth before the year 2060 based on his interpretation of the Bible. 

Although Newton’s legacy has become associated with the development of modern science, he was deeply immersed in the esoteric practices of alchemy, hermeticism and biblical prophecy. While modern science denounces these practices as irrational and absurd, Newton’s interest in the occult suggests they played a more significant role in the history of scientific enquiry than we have been led to believe. 

Galileo and the Art of Astrology

Galileo Galilei was a mathematician, astronomer, physician and engineer during the Italian Renaissance; he is considered to have been a central figure in the transition from natural philosophy to modern science. 

Born in 1564, Galileo made a number of breakthrough discoveries in mathematics, optics and astronomy. In 1609, he heard about the invention of the spyglass, a device that made objects in the distance appear closer, and used mathematical knowledge to design the first working telescope. Galileo then made his first astronomical discovery when he cast the lens of his new invention upon the surface of the moon. He was also the first astronomer to observe the four moons of Jupiter, track the planetary phases of Jupiter and detect sunspots on the Sun. 

Galileo faced fierce opposition from the Roman Inquisition since his writings promoted a heliocentric view of the universe in which the Earth rotates around the Sun. The Inquisition believed that this fundamentally questioned man’s central place within the cosmos and sentenced him on the grounds of heresy, resulting in indefinite imprisonment until his death in 1642. Ever since Galileo has become known as one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. However, many people are unaware that he had an interest in mysticism and hermeticism as well as the mysterious world of the occult.⁴

Like many scientists during the Italian Renaissance, Galileo was well practiced in the art of astrology. Although the idea of astronomers practising astrology seems alien to us in the modern age, during the Renaissance period many early scientists believed that the position of planets and stars influenced man’s destiny. In fact, it has been suggested that scepticism towards astrology only emerged during the Enlightenment period, when scientists like Rene Descartes emphasised the importance of scientific doubt. Before then, astrological beliefs were deeply embedded across European culture, and members of the aristocracy relied on its predictive power to make important political and economic decisions. 

The Medici Family, who ruled over Florence during the 15^th century, would often appoint astronomers to interpret their horoscopes. When Galileo discovered the four moons of Jupiter in 1609, he told the Medici Family that fate had reserved the planetary objects for them so each of the family’s four sons would have one to their name. In fact, when Galileo revealed knowledge of the discovery in his book, Sidereus Nuncius, he decided to name them “Medici Sidera,” meaning the “Medician Stars.” When the Roman Catholic Prelate, Piero Dini, questioned how he could be so certain of the connection, Galileo replied in a letter arguing that the discovery of Jupiter’s four moons were inextricably connected with the family’s rising political and economic influence. Galileo also talks about how smaller planets might affect our destiny in ways that we are unaware and distinguishes between superior and inferior causes of planetary influence, writing:

“If therefore, of the inferior causes, those which arouse boldness of heart are diametrically contrary to those which inspire intellectual speculation, it is also most reasonable that the superior causes (if indeed they operate on us) be utterly different from those on which courage and the speculative faculty depend; and if the stars do operate and influence principally by their light, perchance it might be possible with some probable conjecture to deduce courage and boldness of heart from very large and vehement stars, and acuteness and perspicacity of wit from the thinnest and almost invisible lights.”⁵

It is easy to view Galileo’s interest in astrology as the result of social and historical circumstances. While it is undoubtedly true that astrological practice was common among the scientific elite during the Renaissance period, particularly among the aristocracy of Italian society, his writings suggest a sincere belief in the idea that planets and stars influenced humankind’s destiny. Moreover, there is evidence to indicate that he not only produced astrological readings for the Italian aristocracy but his close family as well, suggesting a personal belief in its predictive powers. 

Although Galileo has come to symbolise the power of modern science to enhance our understanding of the cosmos and our place within it, many people forget he was deeply engaged in the mystical practice of astrology and its power to predict the economic, social and political destinies of people’s lives. Although many scientists denounce astrology as pseudoscience, there is no denying that it played an interesting and significant role in the history and development of science, particularly in regards to Galileo’s life. 

Paracelsus and the Hermetic Tradition

Paracelsus, or Theophrastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss-born physician, alchemist and astrologer. Born in 1493, Paracelsus was an influential figure in the ‘medical revolution’ during the German Renaissance and emphasised the importance of experimentation in medical science. He has been labelled the ‘father of toxicology’, one of his most notable phrases being, “The dose makes the poison.” 

Paracelsus was also one of the first people to suggest that physicians should receive an education in the natural sciences and study the basic principles of chemistry as part of their schooling. Interestingly, he is credited with giving the element ‘zinc’ its name as well as inventing chemical therapy, chemical urinalysis and early theories of digestion. 

While the medical establishment opposed many of his ideas at the time, particularly his views on medical education, he is currently recognised as one of the most influential figures in the history of medicine. His discoveries contributed significantly to the development of natural science and transformed our understanding of chemistry and its application in relation to medicine. Saying this, however, many forget that Paracelsus was  immersed in hermetic philosophy and the mysterious world of the occult.⁶

Paracelsus had a profound interest in astrology, the art of prediction based on the position of stars and planets. Since medicine and astrology were closely connected during Paracelsus’s lifetime, he believed in the commonly held notion that each part of the body corresponds with a specific planet or zodiac sign, and therefore medical procedures should be undertaken according to the position of the solar system to ensure their effectiveness. 

He also believed in the hermetic idea there are two worlds: the microcosm (which refers to the world of man and Earth) and the macrocosm (which is the heavenly universe or the spiritual world) and that these two worlds interact and influence each other. He states that:

“Know that there are two kinds of stars – the heavenly and the earthly, the stars of folly and the stars of wisdom. And just as there are two worlds, a Little World [the Microcosm, man] and a Great World [the Macrocosm, the Universe] and just as the little one rules over the great one, so the stars of the microcosm rule over and govern the Stars of heaven.”⁷

There has been much discussion about the historical sources of Paracelsus’s known magical beliefs. The Archidoxis Magica, for example,was supposedly written by Paracelsus in 1561 and contains information on magical talismans that can be used to cure illness and disease. Many historians dispute that he produced the manuscript since none of his other works discuss the use of talismanic objects; however, it is possible that he may have acquired a sudden interest in their magical potential. 

While the authorship of Archidoxis Magica remains subject to scholarly debate, there is no denying that mysticism deeply influenced Paracelsus; in particular the belief that each organ corresponds with a planet and precious metal, which is central to the philosophy of hermeticism. During the medieval period, the Sun was thought to rule over the heart and its corresponding metal was gold. The Moon ruled the brain and its metal was silver. Mercury ruled the lungs and its metal was silver or quicksilver. Venus ruled over the kidneys and its metal was copper. Mars ruled over the bladder and corresponded with Iron. Jupiter governed the liver and corresponded with Tin, and Saturn ruled over the spleen and its metal was lead. Therefore, one can see that Paracelsus believed in the hermetic idea of microcosm and the macrocosm; that the body corresponds with the structure of the cosmos and that both spheres must exist in a state of harmony for man to attain earthly and spiritual perfection. 

Saying this, however, Paracelsus was not a determinist astrologer and believed that while the planets and stars could influence human destiny, we still have some degree of free will, writing: 

“Even if he is a child of Saturn and if Saturn has overshadowed his birth, he can still escape Saturn’s influence, he can master Saturn and become a child of the Sun.”⁸

The life of Paracelsus highlights the blurred line between science and mysticism that secretly guided the history of modern science. Although he is credited with scientific innovations such as urinalysis, toxicology and chemical therapy, Paracelsus had a serious interest in the practices of astrology, alchemy and hermeticism. There is much scholarly debate regarding which manuscripts can be attributed to Paracelsus, but the evidence clearly suggests he was not a conventional scientist; he was an inquisitive mind, deeply immersed in the occult. 

Conclusion

The distinction between the occult and science has not always been as clear-cut as many of us like to think it is. Many of the influential scientists that we have come to associate with the birth of modern science were clearly involved in the study and practice of alchemy, astrology and biblical prophecy. Moreover, it would appear that many of these scientists believed in the power of these practices while simultaneously recognising the importance of scientific inquiry. 

Galileo was a key figure in the transition from natural science to the scientific revolution, however, he also believed that planetary bodies could influence the destiny of humanity. Similarly, Newton used complex mathematical principles to outline his theory of gravity but also turned to biblical prophecy to predict the end of the world. Paracelsus made a number of discoveries in chemical science but also believed in hermeticism. 

It is easy for modern science to portray its historical development as linear and coherent, but many of the individuals responsible for humanity’s greatest scientific achievements were inquisitive minds fascinated by the mysterious, peculiar and esoteric world of the occult.

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Footnotes

1. John Maynard Keynes (1946), ‘Newton, the Man’ [online] available at http://phys.columbia.edu/~millis/3003Spring2016/Supplementary/John%20Maynard%20Keynes_%20%22Newton,%20the%20Man%22.pdf

2. Wikipedia (2018), Isaac Newton’s occult studies [online] available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton%27s_occult_studies 

3. Ken Ludden (2012), Mystic Apprentice Master Volume with Dictionary, lulu.com, page 413

4. Britannica, Galileo: Italian Philosopher, Astronomer and Mathematician [online] available at www.britannica.com/biography/Galileo-Galilei 

5. Nick Kollerstrom (2004), Galileo’s Astrology, skyscript.co.uk [online] (available) www.skyscript.co.uk/galast.html

6. Wikipedia (2018), Paracelsus [online] available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus 

7. Nicholas Campion (2009), A History of Western Astrology Volume II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds, Bloomsbury, page 117

8. www.renaissanceastrology.com/paracelsus.html

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