The Forbidden Universe (60 page)

 

Still standing tall in Rome, these ancient Egyptian obelisks re-erected in the 1650s by the remarkable Hermetic Jesuit Athanasius Kircher and the famous sculptor Bernini are replete with Hermetic symbolism. Their monument
(above left),
erected outside the church where Bruno and Galileo were condemned, draws its symbolism from the extraordinary esoteric work
Hypnoerotomachia
Poliphili (above right).
(both images: Bridgeman)

 

Similarly the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome’s Piazza Navona, encodes Hermetic secrets, as does Kircher’s book on the subject,
Obeliscus
Pawphilius (its frontispiece,
opposite
)
.

 

(opposite bottom: Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: A: 13.1 Eth, 2°; above: Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenb
ü
ttel: A: 66.1 Quod. 2
°
) 

 

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), whose work on gravity and the laws of motion was set out in the
Principia rnathernatica,
effectively created the modern technological world. Although the most famous scientist in history he was utterly dedicated to the magical Hermetic tradition, whose principles actually drove his masterpiece.
(Science Photo Library)

 

Although long doubted, recent research has shown that the Hermetic texts do indeed have their roots in ancient Egypt. Not only is Hermes Trismegistus the Egyptian god Thoth
(above left)
but the books encapsulate the wisdom of Heliopolis, magical city of the sun. This was the religion that inspired the building of the pyramids of Giza
(above right)
and the world’s oldest religious writings, the Pyramid Texts
(below).
(top left: Bridgeman; other images: author’s collection)

 

 

(top-left)
The early universe as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The understanding emerging from modern physics is rapidly converging with the ancient Hermetic vision of the cosmos as the mind of God – and, to the Hermeticists, therefore also the mind of humankind. The notion of the ‘participatory universe’ developed by the eminent American physicist John Archibald Wheeler
(below)
intimately links human consciousness to the creation and growth of the universe, as depicted in his famous ‘U and eye’ diagram
(top-right).
In the act of observing the universe, intelligent life is in some way actually creating it.
(top-left: NASA;
top-right
: Keith Prince; bottom: Science Photo Library)

 

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