Index

All page numbers are refer to the print edition of this title.

Abelard, Peter, 172
Adam, 214, 215, 271–72
Adam Kadmon, 272, 276, 281
Agrippa, 65
akasha, 204, 205
alchemy
    Fludd and, 189–236
    Leibniz and, 243–55
    Spengler and, 194
al-Kindi, 213
ananta, 158, 164–65
anima mundi
    Hermetic tradition and, 54
    imaginary and, 46
    shape of, 165–70
antirinascimento, 241
Arhem, Peter, 81
Aristotle
    active intellect, 201–2
    Categories, 171
    De anima, 177
    dynamis, 115
    law of contradiction, 175–76
    proton organon, 110–12
    soul relationship with body, 110,
        113–14
artificial intelligence (AI)
    functionalist approach, 72
    language and, 81–82
    natural scientific outlook, 70
    project, 65, 67, 70
    psyche modeling, 71
    strong, 71
    virtuality, 71
Asclepius, 39
associationism, 43
astroeides, 115
attractors, 182
autos, 192–93
Avatara, 204
Averroës, 201–2
avidya, 253
awake, 77–78
awakened consciousness, 79
axis visualis, 192

Banach, Stephen, 152–53, 155–56
Bateson, Gregory, 86–90, 97, 99
beingness, 63
Bell’s theorem, 131
Bernard of Chartres, 3
Bhagavad Gita, 204–5
Bhaskara, 164–65
bindu, 157, 161, 166, 196, 286
bio-cyberspace, 82, 95
body mysticism, 191
Boehme, Jacob, 177
Bohm, David, 40–41, 287–88,
        290–91
Bohr, Niels, 43, 81, 253–55, 284
Bolzano, Bernard, 155
Book of Changes, 262, 264
Book of Nature, 276
Bose, Georg M., 120
breath, 135
Brown, Norman O., 190–91
Bruno, Giodano, 38–39
Buddha, 126, 252
Buddhism
    Mahayana, 125–26
    meditation, 135
    self and, 91
    Tantric, 129–30, 135, 138–40, 271
    Tibetan, 108–9, 135
    Vajrayana, 124–35, 215–16
    Zen, 130

cakras (chakras), 133
Cantor, Georg, 152, 154
Carnot’s engine, 89
catastrophe cusp, 31
catastrophes
    coherent system of, 183
    defined, 178
    sets of, 178–79
    seven, 176–84
    Thom’s, 178–83, 185
catastrophism, 21
Categories, 171
celestial nervous system, 136–37
Chaldean Oracles, 221–22
champ vital, 286
Charon, Jean, 5
chitones, 114
Chomsky, Noam, 15–17, 20
chora, 196, 198
chreod, 180
Christ, hypostasis of, 217–20
circularity, 155, 158
Clifford, William, 231, 232
complementarity, 81
consciousness
    awakened, 79
    Spengler and, 147
continuity-deformation, 19–20
Coomaraswamy, Ananda, 157, 161–62,
        164–65, 169
corporeality
    cartesian, 116–20
    semiosis and, 120–25
Corpus Hermeticum, 1, 36–37, 39, 137,
        210
the cosmic, 4–5
Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of
        Modernity
, 29
Costa de Beauregard, Olivier, 95–97
Couliano, Ioan, 12–19
    on cognitive systems, 14
    disjunction, 76
    on human belief systems, 13, 17–18
    ideal objects, 12–19
    magic and science, 2
    on Reformation, 148
    on religious dualism, 15, 18
    “specific patterns of thought” and, 15
    on structuralist anthropology, 14
Critique of Pure Reason, 107, 147
Cudworth, Ralph, 116–18, 126
cybernetic theory, 27–28, 39, 58,
        90–91, 99
cyberspace, 53

Daoism, 36, 174, 223–24
Darwin’s theory, 178
Davies, Paul, 14
Dawkins, Richard, 186
De anima, 177
de Chardin, Teilhard, 15
Decline of the West, 20, 52
Dedekind, Richard, 152
deformations, 19
deliré, 76, 77
De Magnete, 277
De natura rerum, 172
de Nicolás, Antonio, 204
De radiis stellarum, 212
Descartes, René
    human body as machine, 102
    intellectual orientation, 37–38
    psyche and body separation, 80–81,
        118
De somniis, 212
Difference Engine, 68
differential, 109
Discourse on the Natural Theology of the
        Chinese
, 261, 264
disjunction, 76
DNA, 73, 74, 84–86
Dodds, E. R., 27, 115
Durand, Gilbert, 150
dynamis, 115
Dyson, Freeman, 5, 273

Eco, Umberto, 25, 33, 34, 39
eidola, 111–12
Einstein, Albert, 57, 109–10, 283–85,
        287
Einstein/Minkowski spacetime, 6,
        230–31
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paper, 131
electrical theology, 75
Eliade, Mircea, 14, 107, 127
emptiness, 128, 130
Epicureans, 174, 196, 199
Evola, Julius, 37

face-recognition, 15
Faivre, Antoine, 32–33, 35–36, 292–93
Fernel, Jean, 209, 210
Ficino, Marsillio, 39, 66, 116
field theory, 6
Figur, 44
figurae, 44
figurations, 41–47
    defined, 44
    imaginary and, 44–45, 149
    metaphysical relationships, 170
Fludd, Robert
    background, 189
    corporeity, 194
    Gnostic alchemy, 189–236
    interpenetrating triangles, 45
    light, 202–3
    mental beam, 223
    Philosophers’ Stone, 165
    radiation economy, 192–96, 211–17
    species, 203
    spinther, 190
    substance, 203
    vibration, 231
    waters, 198
Foucault, Michel, 172
fourth dimension
    space, 10
    Spengler and, 20–22
    stability, 11
    vibration and, 231
Frankenstein, 75
free will, 13, 14
Freud, Sigmund, 56

Garin, Eugenio, 212
Gegenwelt, 85, 86
geometry, 181, 182, 183, 187, 230
Gilbert, William, 119, 277–79
gnosis, 158–59
Gnosticism, 158–60, 183–84
    dualistic structure, 175
    Fludd and, 189–236
    Leibniz and, 237–93
    salvation and, 159
    theoretical content of, 158
    worldview, 160
Gnostic spark, 28, 46, 247, 249
Goethe, Wolfgang, 18, 21
GOFAI theory, 60, 68, 82
Great Chain of Being
    Hermeticism and, 140
    Lovejoy, 85
    mind and, 86
    organism hierarchy, 225
great circles, 168
Great Cycle, 159
Grosseteste, Robert, 203–4
Grosz, Elizabeth, 106
Guenther, H., 134
Gurdjieff, G. I., 78–79
Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang, 128–29, 132,
        133–34

Haraway, Donna, 138–39
harmonica, 44–45
Harmonice Mundi, 93
Hartshorne, Charles, 292
hegemonikon, 112, 113, 211
Heisenberg, Werner, 138
Hermetic bio semiosis, 84–86
Hermetic informatics, 91–99
Hermeticism
    dualistic structure, 175
    erotic ontology of, 182
    fundamental notions in, 40–41
    Great Chain of Being and, 140
    imaginary of, 7, 19, 44–45
    pneumatic economy of, 102
    postmodern and, 28–37
    scientific ideas and, 3
    world as living organism, 93
Hermetic thinking, 92, 93, 101
Hermetic tradition
    as alternative model, 39–40
    anima mundi and, 54
    defined, 1
    panpsychic notions, 69
    psyche and, 65
    word resonance, 37
Hinton, C. H., 8–9, 10, 231, 291
Hobbes, Thomas, 102, 118
Hoffmeyer, Jesper
    bio-cyberspace, 82, 97, 99
    bodies, 82
    intelligence, 83
    swarm of swarms, 83–84, 98
Holy Spirit, 192, 210, 221, 232
homeorrhesis, 90
human analysis model, 3–4
hyle, 198, 201
hypodoche, 201
hypostasis of Christ, 217–20

ideal objects, 7–22
    concept implications, 51
    Couliano and, 12–19
    defined, 11
    imaginal logic of, 196–203
    Spengler and, 20–22
Ignatius of Loyola, 150
illumination, 248
imaginary
    anima mundi and, 46
    in cognitive functioning, 143
    figuration and, 44–45
    geometric, 181, 230
    Gnostic spark and, 46
    imagination and, 42–44
    machinic, 67
    Pythagorean, 45
    rarefaction of, 55–58
    vortices of, 75–81
infinite circle, 152–62
Innenwelt, 86
intelligence, 83
The Interpretation of Dreams,
        56
Isadora of Seville, 172–74
Isagoge, 171, 172
Izutzu, Toshihiko, 131
Jolas, Eugene, 104
Jonas, Hans, 104–5, 183–84, 187–88
Jung, Carl, 88, 96, 176, 181

Kabbalah, 49, 255–70, 275
Kabbalah Denudata, 259–60, 266, 267,
        274
Kant, Immanuel, 50, 147
karma, 91
kayas, 126
Kepler, Johannes, 93–95, 234
kha, 156, 162
Knorr von Rosenroth, 258–70, 272
kosmos, 105, 106, 148–49, 169, 183,
        201, 236
Kuhn, Thomas, 30–31

Landauer’s concept, 62, 63, 97
Langton, Christopher, 140–41
language, 81–82, 242
la pensée sapientielle, 33, 37
lapis philosophorum, 80, 222, 223, 244
law of contradiction, 175–76
Le Doeuff, Michele, 145, 151
Le Goff, Jacques, 22–28
    God and Satan and, 24
    on history of imagination, 41–42
    medieval period, 25
    mentalité, 24
    reformulation, 26
    renaissance and, 22
Leibniz, G. H.
    alchemy and, 243–55
    background, 240–43
    computation, 238–39
    on cusp of shift, 49
    fulgurations, 255, 256
    Gnosticism, 237–93
    God, 281–82
    Hermetic metaphysical figuration, 48
    “identity of indiscernibles” postulate, 80
    Kabbalah influence, 49
    language of thought, 242
    monads, 50, 246–50, 291
    Philosophers’ Stone and, 244–45
    seed concept, 246
    spermatic, 250
    spiritus coagulans, 243, 245
    theory of kernels, 245
Leviathan, 118
Lewontin, Richard, 73
Life Against Death, 190–91
Life of the Bee, 63
light
    baptismal radiation, 220–24
    Fludd and, 202–3
    formal, 215
    original, 197
    pure, 216
    upon the waters, 198
local neighborhood relations, 19
logos, 81, 197
logos-code, 205, 220, 224–25, 234–35
loka, 163, 168

Maeterlinck, Maurice, 63, 79
Magian, 204, 205–6, 218, 227
mahamudra, 126, 128, 129
Mahayana Buddhism, 125–26
Mandelbrot, Benoit, 268–69, 270, 273–74
Maturana, Humberto, 200
Maxwell, James Clerk, 56–57, 160, 282
Mead, G. R. S., 122
Medieval Imagination, 22
Meditations, 38, 252
mens, 86, 92, 149, 195, 222, 275
mentalité, 24, 27, 31, 38, 104, 149, 202
metabolism, 188
metaphoricity, 70
Meyerson, Emile, 286, 288
Middle Ages, 22, 23–24, 26, 33, 35
Miller, George, 184–85
mind
    differences selected by, 87
    Great Chain of Being and, 86
    virtual, 67–69
Monadology, 50, 252, 255, 260,
        268–69, 270
monads, 50, 246–50, 255–70, 291
More, Henry, 116–18, 119–20
morphology, 18, 50, 95, 146
mudra, 126, 127, 130, 132
Mystical Theology, 258

nadi, 133, 134
Needham, Joseph, 191–92, 223–24,
        263, 270
Nestorius, 218–19
New Chemical Light, 217
New Essays, 247, 249, 282
New System, 248
Newton, Isaac
    absolute space, 164
    “General Scholium,” 281
    Optics, 233
    optics and, 47
    Principia, 47
    representative theory, 99
Newtonian science, 2
Nicholas of Cusa, 166–67
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 21, 76, 144
nothingness, 88, 156
nous poetikos, 202

Oetinger, 75
okhema, 113–15, 214, 220, 221, 230
omnes in omnibus, 35
omni in omnibus, 228
onoma, 123
On the Delay of Divine Justice, 103
On the Divine Names, 258
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies,
        119
organicity, 16
Origin of Language, 90–91

panpsychism, 5–6
paradigm shift, 23
Paradoxien des Unendlichen, 155
Parmenides, 156, 169
perception, 289
perennial philosophy, 34
phantasms, 111, 112, 147
phase change, 61
phase space, 10–11
Philosophical Imaginary, The, 145, 151
Philosophical Key, 207–8
Philosophie Zoologique, 86
philosophy
    of Hermeticism, 3
    natural, 147, 293
    progressivist account of, 144–47
    Spengler and, 146
    Western, 145–46
Physiologia, 209
physis, 194
Plato
    casual relationship, 72
    eidos, 122, 123
    geometry, 183
    myth of the cave, 8, 12, 291
    Phaedrus, 208
    Republic, 7, 222
    Timaeus, 113, 162, 197–98, 230, 280,
        284
    time, 199
Plotinus, 167–69, 248, 258, 278
pneumatic fields, 276–89
Popper, Karl, 15
Porphyry, 171–72
postmodern
    Hermeticism and, 28–37
    science, 37–41
    theory, 28–41
pranayama, 134
Principia, 182
projections, 108
proton organon, 110–12
proton soma, 115
Pymander, 196–97, 214–15, 271
Pythagoras, 45, 150, 176–77, 192

quantum theory, 290–91

radiation economy, 192–96, 211–17
rays, 212–13, 229–31, 250
Rig Veda, 163
Ross, G. M., 243–44
rubber-geometry, 19
Rudolph, Kurt, 246–47
Russell, Bertrand, 48, 50, 89

sambhoga-kaya, 124
Schrödinger, Erwin, 5, 138
science, 2–3, 22, 37–41
Science and Civilisation in China, 263
Sefer Yetzirah, 253
self determination, 13
semeion, 122
Sendivogius, Michael, 80, 166
sensus interior, 107–10
Sententiarum, 173
sephiroth, 266, 273, 275–76
Septem Sermones ad Mortuos, 88
Serres, Michel
    background, 90
    diverse systemic complexions, 98
    homeorrhesis, 90
    quasi-stable turbulence, 91
    temporal vortices, 200
Shannon, Claude, 96, 160
Shelley, Mary, 75, 225
siddhas, 215, 216
Simplicius, 163–64
Singularity
    After (AS), 62
    Before (BS), 62
    defined, 59
    in a field, 286
    Hermetic Adam and, 66
    power curve, 64
    Vinge and, 59–67
    virtuality, 71
soma, 110, 194
soma augoeides, 115
soul, 210–11, 221, 279, 280
souls, hierarchy of, 250
space-time, 6, 18
speculative anachrony, 3
Spengler, Oswald
    alchemy, 194
    ideal objects and, 20–22
    “Jesuit” thought, 147–48
    machine and, 52–53, 58
    Magian, 204, 205–6, 218, 227
    philosophy and, 146
sphere, 168, 265, 266
spinther, 6, 190, 246
spirit, 118
Spiritual Exercises, 150
spiritual rock, 206–7
Steiner, Jakob, 154–55
Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen, 152
Steuco, Agostino, 34
Stewart, Ian, 11
Structural Stability and Morphogenesis,
        178
Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 30
subtle body
    explanatory power, 107
    Hermetic notion of, 102, 110
    as psychonaut, 113–15
    in spiritual technology, 103
    vertigral index of, 107–10
sunya (void), 156, 157, 158
survival of the fittest, 92
swarm of swarms, 83, 98
Synesius, 211–12, 213, 226, 229

taiji, 36, 264
Tantra, 126, 129
Tantric Buddhism, 129–30, 135,
        138–40, 271
Tarski, Alfred, 152–53, 155–56
tekmerion, 123
Theodicy, 257
thermodynamics, 64, 162
Thom, René
    attractors, 144
    catastrophes, 21–22, 150, 178–83, 185
    derived by specialization, 226
    field organization, 285–86
    geometric models, 187
    Young and, 225–26
Thompson, D’Arcy, 18–19
tiangun, 136
Tibetan Book of the Dead, 108
Tibetan Buddhism, 108–9, 135
Timaeus, 113, 162, 197–98, 230, 280, 284
time, 199
time series, 9
Tippler, Frank, 54
Toulmin, Stephen, 29–30, 240, 241
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 48
Tree of Life, 173, 266, 267, 274
The Tree of Gnosis, 12, 18
True Intellectual System of the Universe, 117
Trungpa, Chögyam, 129, 132
Truth’s Golden Harrow, 165, 196–97,
        205–11, 222
Turing machine, 55, 68

Umwelt, 85, 183
universal model, 227
Upanishads, 163
Urpflanze, 18
Utriusque Cosmi Historia, 195

Vajrayana Buddhism, 124–35, 215–16
vertigral
    architecture, 104
    defined, 104
    schema, 136
vertigrality, 7, 125
vibration, 231–33
Vinge, Vernor
    black hole and, 59
    Singularity, 59–62, 64, 66–67,
        75–76, 77, 98
virtual mind, 67–69
virtual reality, 70
void, 199
von Franz, Marie-Louise, 95–96
von Neumann, John, 55–56, 67
von Uexküll, Jacob, 84–85, 183, 225
vortices, 75–81

Waddell, L. Austine, 126
Waddington, C. H., 180
Walker, D. P., 215
Watt, James, 160, 161
Weigel, M., 257
Wheeler, W. M., 63
Whitehead, Alfred North, 191–92,
        199, 237, 239
Wholeness and the Implicate Order,
        40
Wiener, Norbert
    cybernetics, 88, 91, 94
    mechanical monitors, 160–61
    patterns, 141, 188
    temporal vortices, 200
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 29, 48

xin, 133

Yates, Frances, 30, 31, 48
Young, J. Z., 225, 235–36

zazen, 127
Zen Buddhism, 130
Zohar, 255, 257–58, 270–73, 278–79