Christopher McIntosh

This is a personal portrait of the Scottish poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, his life and work, by Christopher McIntosh, his friend of nearly three decades, who took part in many of his battles and campaigns. McIntosh recounts Finlay's emergence as an avant-garde writer and poet in the 1950s, the creation, together with his wife Sue, of his famous garden at his home Stonypath-Little Sparta in Lanarkshire, his espousal of the ideals of the French Revolution, his defence of classical values, his idiosyncratic form of paganism (Little Sparta was dedicated to Apollo), his struggle against what he called the "secular terror", his many battles (with the local taxation authorities, with the French cultural establishment, with publishers and with authors who misunderstood his work. In many ways he was a paradoxical figure on the cultural scene - a contemporary artist who opposed modern culture and fiercely upheld tradition, in other words a kind of radical traditionalist. Having been seen by many as an enfant terrible, he was in his later years f ted by the establishment, given honorary doctorates and an honorary professorship, awarded a CBE and hailed as Scotland's greatest artist. Today he has a world-wide reputation, and in 2004 a panel of artists and arts professionals voted the garden at Stonypath-Little Sparta the most important work of Scottish art. This lively personal tribute is a must for Finlay scholars and admirers.

How can we better relate and respond to the political times we inhabit? Temporal relationships play a central role in the questions at the heart of global politics, but political commentators and observers focus almost exclusively on the past as a means of predicting and preparing for the future. Christopher McIntosh argues that, although past events are meaningful for our collective future, the present remains vitally important. McIntosh emphasises the importance of the present as a conceptual resource and analytical category for thinking about international politics. The present, he suggests, places an orientation toward difference and a recognition of the human limits of understanding alongside an emphasis on process and change. This book will shift current thinking about prediction and better enable the use of knowledge about international politics to meaningfully and positively intervene in present-day concerns.

Personal revelations on living a magical life • Examines the rise of Paganism in Europe and the U.S. from the late twentieth century • Explores numerous pagan and esoteric practices, including Stav (a form of Nordic Tai Chi), sacred gardening, breath work, and many seasonal rites, rituals, and ceremonies • Includes rare personal accounts of the author’s friendships with pagan luminaries and occult scholars For millions of people, the spiritual journey is focused on a God in heaven. But what if the answers we are seeking lie in the re-enchantment of life? In this illuminating work—part memoir, part meditation—scholar and Pagan practitioner Christopher McIntosh takes readers on the deeply personal quest that led him to paganism, illustrating how forming stronger connections to the world around us awakens the magic that lives within us. There was a time when McIntosh believed that a spiritual path should fulfill four centers: the soul, the mind, the heart, and the belly. He later discovered, however, that there was a fifth component to this mystical equation: the feet. The land on which we stand and to which we feel a profound relatedness is the key to wholeness and inner peace. These subtle but significant realizations about connection to the land and nature inspired McIntosh and ultimately led to his following of what he calls "the Fivefold Path." He also recounts pivotal meetings with Pagan luminaries and important figures from esoteric scholarship, the arts, and the occult renaissance of the twentieth century, including Colin Wilson, Joscelyn Godwin, Keith Critchlow, and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, as well as offers an evolving portrait of the occult scene of the late twentieth century. Woven throughout with examples of seasonal rites and rituals, reflections on sacred gardening, and the practice of energetic breath work as well as a deep dive into Stav, a form of Nordic Tai Chi, this book provides valuable insight into the world of paganism as both a field of study and a system of practice.

Alkemins etymologiska rötter återfinns både i de arabiska och grekiska språken, och syftar på den process av transmutation som leder till en fullständig återförening med den gudomliga ursprungsformen. Dock sträcker sig det esoteriska utövandet av alkemi ända till Indien och Kina och har praktiserats åtminstone sedan 300-talet. Under medeltiden lockade alkemi många av tidens mest framstående lärda. Starkt influerade av den klassiska elementläran drev alkemisterna sina hypoteser utifrån Aristoteles idé att allt går att skapa genom olika proportioner av de fyra elementen. Från 1800-talet och framåt har alkemin felaktigt reducerats till en primitiv pseudovetenskap med det enda målet att omvandla oädla metaller till guld. Denna snäva tolkning bortser dock från alkemins verkliga komplexitet och ignorerar dess djupa filosofiska och religiösa aspekter, samt dess avgörande bidrag till kemins framväxt. I denna rikt illustrerade antologi presenteras en mångfald av perspektiv på hur ömsesidighet, metafysiska kopplingar och relationen mellan makrokosmos och mikrokosmos utgör kärnan i alkemins filosofi. Några av världens mest framstående forskare och akademiker samlas för att analysera den alkemistiska världsbilden och utforska hur esoteriska tankeströmningar har format kultur, samhälle och vetenskap. Boken finns även i engelsk utgåva.

An exploration of German esoteric history from prehistory to the present. No country is richer in occult and esoteric traditions than Germany. In this magical journey through the inner history of Deutschland, Christopher McIntosh explores many of these traditions from prehistory to the 21st century. Recounting the longstanding magical tradition of Germany, McIntosh investigates the numerous prehistoric sacred sites that point to a nearly-forgotten ancient shamanic civilization. He examines the survival and revival of the old pre-Christian gods in folklore, customs, and practices as well as witchcraft. He looks at Germany’s rich and many-faceted spiritual heritage and explores Christian mysticism and theosophy as exemplified by Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, and Jakob Boehme. Examining Rosicrucianism, which originated in Germany, the author also looks at other secret societies that flourished in Germany such as speculative Freemasonry, the Fraternitas Saturni, and the Golden and Rosy Cross. He explores how the Church sought to stamp out the old gods and pagan beliefs, as well as how periods of the Church’s heaviest oppression produced immortal poets, philosophers, theologians, artists, and mystics. He examines the distinctive forms adopted by astrology, alchemy, and the Kabbalah in Germany as well as the esoteric influences on Romanticism. Exploring more recent centuries, the author looks at the Nordic revival in the 19th century and the influence of Theosophy and the movements that grew out of it, such as Steiner’s Anthroposophy. Examining the esoteric traditions of the 20th century, he looks at the work of neo-Nordic occultists and esoteric writers like Meyrink and Hesse. He explores certain occult aspects of the Third Reich, which resulted in a backlash against the occult. He also looks at modern occult practices and the rise of neopaganism. Revealing both the enlightened and the dark sides of occult Germany, the author shows how this country has long been a cauldron in which esoteric ideas have flourished, spread, been condemned, and lauded, leaving an enduring mark.

How can we better relate and respond to the political times we inhabit? Temporal relationships play a central role in the questions at the heart of global politics, but political commentators and observers focus almost exclusively on the past as a means of predicting and preparing for the future. Christopher McIntosh argues that, although past events are meaningful for our collective future, the present remains vitally important. McIntosh emphasises the importance of the present as a conceptual resource and analytical category for thinking about international politics. The present, he suggests, places an orientation toward difference and a recognition of the human limits of understanding alongside an emphasis on process and change. This book will shift current thinking about prediction and better enable the use of knowledge about international politics to meaningfully and positively intervene in present-day concerns.

In this in-depth look at occult and esoteric traditions in Russia, Christopher McIntosh explores the currents of mysticism, myth, magic, and the spiritual to which the Russian soul has always been attuned. The author explains how the search for meaning in the post-Soviet era has given rise to a revival of ancient spiritual traditions and a plethora of new movements. He examines the precursors to these movements in the “Silver Age” (1880-1920) before the Revolution, when alternative forms of spirituality were finding new life as a reaction to the ongoing climate of violence, revolt, and repression. He discusses the impact of the Russian Revolution on spiritual and esoteric groups, and shows how their activities were tolerated and even in some instances encouraged--until Stalin assumed power in 1924. Discussing the spiritual reawakening after the fall of communism in 1989, the author explores the survival of Slavic deities and pagan practices in modern Russia, including the indigenous pre-Christian customs of the Mari people and the shamanic traditions of Siberia. He examines the resurgence of the Orthodox Church and the burgeoning of alternative forms of spirituality. He offers a deep look at the controversial Book of Veles, branded by some as a forgery and hailed by others as an epic chronicle of the Slavic people. He also explores the interface between spirituality and the arts and the unique qualities of the Russian language as a medium for the sacred. Revealing the implications of the modern Russian spiritual and esoteric renaissance, McIntosh shows that it still remains to be seen whether Edgar Cayce’s prediction of Russia as the hope of the world will come true or if Russia will remain, as Churchill famously stated, “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

A sequel to 'Renaissance Man & Mason', this book primarily focuses on the Enlightenment period, particularly in continental Europe. Focusing therefore on the 1700s - 1800s, it provides the same eclectic mix of topics as in the previous book. However, the number of papers is reduced from 22 to 8, and therefore more in depth in their approach. The topics range from an in-depth look as an image in a King James Bible to an extensive exposition of the Black Eagle Rose Croix rituals of J.B. Willermoz, including the first English translation of these rites. It is hoped the book will appeal to any reader of the first in the series, as a means for private study or for use in Book Clubs, which was a major use of the first volume. It is worth noting that the first book contained 22 Chapters - the span of the Hebrew alphabet, while this contains 8, the number of perfection in Saint-Martin's system

A sequel to 'Renaissance Man & Mason', this book primarily focuses on the Enlightenment period, particularly in continental Europe. Focusing therefore on the 1700s - 1800s, it provides the same eclectic mix of topics as in the previous book. However, the number of papers is reduced from 22 to 8, and therefore more in depth in their approach. The topics range from an in-depth look as an image in a King James Bible to an extensive exposition of the Black Eagle Rose Croix rituals of J.B. Willermoz, including the first English translation of these rites. It is hoped the book will appeal to any reader of the first in the series, as a means for private study or for use in Book Clubs, which was a major use of the first volume. It is worth noting that the first book contained 22 Chapters - the span of the Hebrew alphabet, while this contains 8, the number of perfection in Saint-Martin's system Chapter 1: The Story Behind the Most Famous Image of King Solomon's TempleChapter 2: The Magician, The Mystic and the Mason - the Unlikely Origin of the Scottish Rectified RiteChapter 3: A Discourse on Numbers (Part 1 - History)Chapter 4: Enochian, or How to Speak with AngelsChapter 5: An Introduction to Martinism and its Spiritual Relationship to FreemasonryChapter 5: The Kabbalistic Tree of Life - The Soul of the Rosicrucian Masonic OrderChapter 7: Did Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin Influence the Scottish Rectified Rite?Chapter 8: The Degrees of the Black Eagle Rose-Croix (translated into English for the first time)

A new, updated edition of the essential guide to the practice of the runes as a magical tool for spiritual development.In Futhark, rune master Edred Thorsson reinitiates us into our heritage, explaining the mysteries of a profound system of thought and practice that underlies our developing Western culture.Futhark covers both the spiritual heritage of ancient runic lore and the practical steps we can take to draw on rune power. This complete book of rune instruction includes rune history and lore, its basis in metaphysical thought and mysticism, complete definitions of the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark, and the etymology, phonetic value, and interpretation of each rune. The reader will learn how to perform chants and rituals using runic energy, how to sign and send runes, and how to practice runic meditation. The author's presentation of this powerful system is lucid and profound, and provides a valuable tool for spiritual transformation and self-development.

"The Swan King" is the biography of one of the most enigmatic figures of the 19th century, described by Verlaine as 'the only true king of his century'. A man of wildly eccentric temperament and touched by a rare, imaginative genius, Ludwig II of Bavaria is remembered both for his patronage of Richard Wagner and for the fabulous palaces which he created as part of a dream-world to escape the responsibilities of state. In realization of his fantasies, he created a ferment of creativity among artists and craftsmen, while his neglect of Bavaria's political interests made powerful enemies among those critical of his self-indulgence and excesses. At the age of 40, declared insane in a plot to depose him, Ludwig died in mysterious circumstances.

"The North" is simultaneously a location, a direction, and a mystical concept. Although this concept has ancient roots in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales, it continues to resonate today within modern culture. McIntosh leads readers, chapter by chapter, through the magical and spiritual history of the North, as well as its modern manifestations, as documented through physical records, such as runestones and megaliths, but also through mythology and lore.This mythic conception of a unique, powerful, and mysterious Northern civilization was known to the Greeks as "Hyberborea"--the "Land Beyond the North Wind"--which they considered to be the true origin place of their god, Apollo, bringer of civilization. Through the Greeks, this concept of the mythic North would spread throughout Western civilization.In addition, McIntosh discusses Russian Hyperboreanism, which he describes as among "the most influential of the new religions and quasi-religious movements that have sprung up in Russia since the fall of Communism" and which is currently almost unknown in the West.

The Lebensborn Spy is a novel based a real situation during the Cold War, in which former inmates of the Nazi Lebensborn maternity and children's homes were used as spies by the East German intelligence service. The story involves one such spy, who goes to Denmark to carry out espionage for the German Democratic Republic and to find his mother, who he believes to be a Danish woman who had a love affair with a German soldier during the wartime occupation and then gave her infant son away to the Lebensborn. There is a parallel thread to the story, involving another young man living in East Berlin. The two men and the Danish family become caught up in a web of deception, betrayal and love. The story, which is also about the search for one's origins and one's native homeland, moves to a dramatic climax, which reaches a startling d nouement in the re-united Berlin of 1990.

The seminal document known as the Fama Fraternitatis (the Proclamation of the Fraternity) burst like a firework over Europe in the early 17th century, igniting the imagination of many with its story of the German seeker Christian Rosenkreuz, his journey through the Middle East in search of wisdom, and his creation of the esoteric Rosicrucian Fraternity. The first of three so-called Rosicrucian Manifestos, it received no adequate English translation for over three centuries. To mark the 400th anniversary of the original German publication in 1614, Christopher McIntosh and Donate Pahnke McIntosh produced an English rendering, based on careful study of printed and manuscript versions. They have now issued it in a second edition with certain amendments and corrections. This work is an essential resource for all who are drawn to Rosicrucianism, whether as a field of study or a spiritual path.

Paul Cairns, the narrator of this story, is a young journalist with a penchant for the occult. Prompted by a mysterious recurring nightmare, he seeks the advice of Gilbert North, scholar, country squire and occultist, who leads him on an extraordinary series of adventures involving a quest for the Tetrad, four primal magical objects corresponding to the elements and the suits of the Tarot. Cairns' life becomes full of weird and supernatural happenings in a great magical battle between dark and light. But in the world of Gilbert North things are not quite what they seem. Layers of reality and unreality are peeled away until the deeper meaning of the whole quest is revealed.

Examines the relationship between diverse iterations of Rosicrucianism and the philosophy of the Enlightenment. This new edition of Christopher McIntosh's classic book on the Golden and Rosy Cross order is eagerly awaited. The order stands out as one of the most fascinating and influential of the high-degree masonic and illuminist groups that mushroomed in Europe from the 18th century onward. Active mainly in the German-speaking lands, it recast the original Rosicrucian vision and gave it renewed vitality. At one point it became politically influential when the Prussian King, Frederick William II, was a member of the order. Historians have often perceived the Golden and Rosy Cross as having had a conservative, anti-Enlightenment agenda, but this study – drawing on rare German sources – shows that the matter was more complex. The members of the order practiced alchemy and operated a degree system that was later imitated by later orders such as the Golden Dawn. Like the latter, the Golden and Rosy Cross exerted a wide and enduring cultural influence. Both the alchemy of the order and its powerful ritual system are insightfully described in Christopher McIntosh's clear and compelling style.

A searching study of Eliphas Lévi and the French occult revival.This classic study of the French magician Eliphas Lévi and the occult revival in France is at last available again after being out of print and highly sought after for many years. Its central focus is Lévi himself (1810-1875), would-be priest, revolutionary socialist, utopian visionary, artist, poet and, above all, author of a number of seminal books on magic and occultism. It is largely thanks to Lévi, for example, that the Tarot is so widely used today as a divinatory method and a system of esoteric symbolism. The magicians of the Golden Dawn were strongly influenced by him, and Aleister Crowley even believed himself to be Lévi's reincarnation. The book is not only about Lévi, however, but also covers the era of which he was a part and the remarkable figures who preceded and followed him – the esoteric Freemasons and Illuminati of the late 18th century, and later figures such as the Rosicrucian magus Joséphin Péladan, the occultist Papus (Gérard Encausse), the Counter-Pope Eugène Vintras, and the writer J.-K. Huysmans, whose work drew strongly on occult themes. These people were avatars of a set of traditions which are now seen as an important part of the western heritage and which are gaining increasing attention in the academy. Christopher McIntosh's vivid account of this richly fascinating era in the history of occultism remains as fresh and compelling as ever.