EDGE
OF THE CIRCLE BOOKS
IS
PROUD TO PRESENT
THE
FOLLOWING NEW TITLE
FROM
TOPAZ HOUSE PUBLICATIONS:
HERMETIC
BEHMENISTS:
Writings
from Dionysius Andreas Freher and Francis Lee
Compiled
by Christopher Walton, Edited by John Madziarczyk
826 pages,
Topaz House Publications, 2018
Available
in trade paperback and hardcover.
Hardcover:
$60.00
Paperback:
$34.00
Hermetic
Behmenists reproduces writings from Dionysius Andreas Freher and
Francis Lee, two exceptional commentators on Jacob Boehme’s
philosophy. The texts contained in this book were originally
published in 1856, in an edition of 500, given away to friends, and
sent to university libraries by their editor, Christopher Walton.
They were never sold publicly.
Walton was
an English Behmenist and devotee of William Law, and these texts were
assembled as part of a research project, “Notes and Materials
Towards an Adequate Biography of William Law”, that was never
completed. Unfortunately, Walton presented the texts haphazardly,
without a table of contents, in microscopic type, with footnotes up
to one hundred pages in length, that in turn contained other texts.
Besides
Walton’s book, only fragments of Freher’s writings have been
published. A great quantity of writings exist in manuscript form.
Freher was referred to as “Second to Boehme” in his capacity as a
commentator on Boehme’s philosophy, making the inaccessibility of
his works an unfortunate loss.
Francis Lee
was the co-founder of the Philadelphian Society, an English Behmenist
group. Although many of his writings were published posthumously, his
Behmenist works were excluded.
This
edition aims to put these writings into a more accessible, and
readable format.
**
Table of
Contents:
Preface 1
Introduction
3
1. Boehme
and the Background of Theosophy 5
2.
Rosicrucians and Para-Rosicrucians 23
3. The
Philadelphian Society 41
4. Freher,
Walton, “Notes and Materials”, Texts in This Volume 56
Part One:
Dionysius Andreas Freher
Foundational
Texts
1. God
Without Nature or Creature [from Serial Elucidations A, section 1] 97
2. How the
Nothing Brings Forth Something [From Serial Elucidations F, part 1]
101
3. God in
Unity and Trinity Before and After Eternal Nature [Serial
Elucidations G, part 1] 145
4. General
Positions on Divine Nature in Unity and Trinity [Serial Elucidations
G., part 2] 171
Intermediary
Texts 5. Two Questions Answered, [Serial Elucidations G part 7] 183
6.
Considerations on Lucifer and the Third Principle [?][Serial
Elucidations B Section 5] 209
7. Rubens’
Manuscript [Extract from the Commentary on the “Three Tables”]
225
8. [Thirty
Propositions, Fragment] 233
9. Of the
Further Manifestation of God Through the Creation of Angels[?]
[Serial Elucidations B section 4] 243
10. Process
in the Philosophical Work [Serial Elucidations G], part 10 249
12. Growing
Vegetables [Serial Elucidations G, part 11] 273
Observations
on Waple
11.
Observations on Waple [Serial Elucidations H] 281
Highlights
within Waple
[Seven
Spirits] 289
[Nature of
Angels] 297
[Seven
Spirits in Nature] 308
[Formation
of the Planets] 314
[Alchemy]
323
[Breath in
Man] 337
[Adam in
Paradise] 341
[Eve and
the Serpent] 352
[Reproduction]
360
[Partial
Esoteric Anatomy] 375
[Esoteric
Meaning of Jesus] 390
[God and
the Nature of Evil] 403
[Thirty
Positions on God] 407
[Spiritual
Discernment] 433
[The Ten
Commandments] 440
[Baptism]
444
[Eucharist]
447
[The End
Times] 457
Final
13.
Freher’s Confession, [Three Tables, Table One] 467
14.
Walton’s Summaries of Serial Elucidations A-E 485
15.
Discourse by William Law, Compiled from Freher’s Works 517
16. List of
Freher’s Works by Walton 537
Part Two:
Francis Lee
Philadelphian
Society Era Texts:
1. Letter
to Dodwell 553
2.
[Comments on the Seven Spirits.] 631
3.
Introduction to the First Volume of “A Fountain of Gardens” by
Jane Lead 633
4. Excerpt
from Theosophical Transactions 647
5.
Questions to Edward Hooker. About Pordage 663
Post-Philadelphian
Texts:
6.
Concerning Wisdom 665
7. Short
Reflections on the Universal Matter, 687
8. [On the
Book of Revelation] 691
9. [On
Moses] 695
10.
[Paragraph on Mystical Theology] 696
11. One
Hundred Questions on the Mosaic Cabbala 697
Organizational
Texts and Texts on Contemplation and Prayer:
15. [Lee on
the Contemplative Way] 709
16. [Two
Commemorations and Three Prayers by Lee]. 721
12. [Plan
for a Publishing Company] 729
13. Model
of a Society for Reviving the Spirit and Life of Christianity 731
Part Three:
Richard Roach & Christopher Walton
Richard
Roach
1.
Solomon’s Porch. 737
2. [Chapter
on Magical Prayer] 763
3. Index of
Philosophical and Theosophical Terms 767
Christopher
Walton
4.
[Comments on the Philadelphians] 781
5. [On
Enthusiasm.] 787
6.
[Walton’s Reading List on Magic] 791
Appendix
797
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