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- Herausgeber: Edizioni Aurora Boreale
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
As the great esotericist and freemason Manly Palmer Hall pointed out, the Golden Chain of Homer comes originally from the Iliad which refers to the Golden Chain that connects the Supreme Deity to all of manifestation. In 1731, it was written about in Anton Josef Kirchweger’s book by the same name. The book relates a human being’s spiritual development to the steps in the alchemical process. Besides alchemy, Hall ties in Hermeticism, Platonism, and Neoplatonism along with the Divine Purpose of Life as symbolized by the Ouroboros.
We have very little information on the life of Anton Josef Kirchweger. We know that he was German and that, according to Willy Schrödter, he died on February 8, 1746. He was the author of the influential German hermetical book
Aurea Catena Homeri Oder, Eine Beschreibung von dem Ursprung der Natur und Natürlichen Dingen (
The
Golden Chain of Homer
, or A Description of Nature and Natural Things), better known as
Aurea Catena Homeri.
The book was read by Pietists and later influenced the young Goethe. It was first published in Leipzig in 1723, in the German language, followed by other editions: 1723, 1728, 1738 and 1757 (Latin edition). Another Latin version was issued at Frankfurt in 1762. Sometime in the late eighteenth century Sigismund Bacstrom translated parts of the work into English. In 1891, part of the translation was published in the Theosophical Society journal
Lucifer.
Today we offer our readers the first part of the Kirchweger’s book, entitled
Of the Generation of things, in the English translation edited by Sigismund Bacstrom.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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SYMBOLS & MYTHS
ANTON JOSEF KIRCHWEGER
THE GOLDEN CHAIN OF HOMER
(Aurea Catena Homeri)
Edizioni Aurora Boreale
Title: The Golden Chain of Homer (Aurea Catena Homeri)
Part I: Of the Generation of things
Author: Anton Josef Kirchweger
Summary and translation by Sigismond Bacstrom
Publishing series: Symbols & Myths
Editing by Nicola Bizzi
ISBN: 979-12-5504-735-3
Edizioni Aurora Boreale
© 2024 Edizioni Aurora Boreale
Via del Fiordaliso 14 - 59100 Prato - Italia
www.auroraboreale-edizioni.com
INTRODUCTION BY THE PUBLISHER
As the great esotericist and freemason Manly Palmer Hall pointed out, the Golden Chain of Homer comes originally from the Iliad which refers to the Golden Chain that connects the Supreme Deity to all of manifestation. In 1731, it was written about in Anton Josef Kirchweger’s book by the same name. The book relates a human being’s spiritual development to the steps in the alchemical process. Besides alchemy, Hall ties in Hermeticism, Platonism, and Neoplatonism along with the Divine Purpose of Life as symbolized by the Ouroboros.
We have very little information on the life of Anton Josef Kirchweger. We know that he was German and that, according to Willy Schrödter, he died on February 8, 1746. He was the author of the influential German hermetical book Aurea Catena Homeri Oder, Eine Beschreibung von dem Ursprung der Natur und Natürlichen Dingen (TheGolden Chain of Homer, or A Description of Nature and Natural Things), better known as Aurea Catena Homeri.
The book was read by Pietists and later influenced the young Goethe. It was first published in Leipzig in 1723, in the German language, followed by other editions: 1723, 1728, 1738 and 1757 (Latin edition). Another Latin version was issued at Frankfurt in 1762. Sometime in the late eighteenth century Sigismund Bacstrom translated parts of the work into English. In 1891, part of the translation was published in the Theosophical Society journal Lucifer.
Today we offer our readers the first part of the Kirchweger’s book, entitled Of the Generation of things, in the English translation edited by Sigismund Bacstrom.
ABOUT SIGISMUND BACSTROM
Sigismund Bacstrom (c. 1750-1805), a German a medical doctor, surgeon, naturalist, and a notable artist of the early maritime fur trade, is considered by some to be one of the most important scholars of Alchemy in the last few centuries.
Little is known of Bacstrom’s early history. His name is probably Swedish, but he is believed to have been born in Germany. He claimed to have been trained as a physician, surgeon and chemist at the University of Strausburg. He served as a surgeon in the Dutch navy from 1763 to 1770, then moved to England.
Bacstrom was employed by the famous naturalist Joseph Banks as a secretary from 1772 to 1775, accompanying the naturalist on a scientific exploration of Iceland. He was then engaged by Captain William Kent of the Royal Navy, a friend of Joseph Banks and collector for him, until 1779. Over the next decade he made at least six voyages as surgeon on merchant vessels, including voyages to Greenland (Spitsbergen), Guinea, and Jamaica.
In the late 1780s Bacstrom found a patron, whose name is unknown, who established him in an expensive laboratory in Marylebone to conduct research in natural philosophy. When his sponsor died in 1789, Bacstrom again found himself without work. He eventually received sponsorship to collect samples for Banks on a voyage around the world via Cape Horn, Nootka Sound, China and the East Indies that was to be undertaken by a group of London merchants as a commercial venture.
The vessels chosen for this voyage were the Butterworth, a former French frigate of 392 tons, a large sloop named The Jackal, and a smaller sloop named Prince Lee Boo, all under the command of Captain William Brown. They sailed from England in late 1791. By March 1792 they were encamped on Staten Island near Cape Horn, slaughtering seals and boiling their oil. They sailed across the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands in June, reaching Vancouver Island on the Northwest coast of North America in July 1792.
Bacstrom left the Butterworth at Nootka on October 15 «on account of the ill and mean usage I received from Capt. W. Brown and his Officers».
He was briefly a guest of the Spanish officers at Nootka before being welcomed on board the Three Brothers, a brig out of Newcastle, sailing with the schooner Prince William Henry. On the Three Brothers, Bacstrom sailed up into Haida Gwaii and into Southeast Alaska near what is now Sitka. There are many drawings from this period of the voyage.
Returning to Nootka Sound, Bacstrom took passage as surgeon on the American flagged brig Amelia for China. But just outside Macao she was stopped by the British cruiser HMS Lion, and her true papers were found to be French. She was therefore seized as a British prize of war, leaving Bacstrom stranded in Canton.
He eventually signed on as surgeon aboard the Warren Hastings, an ex-East Indiaman of 600 tons flying Genoese colors, with a British captain, and a crew from 13 different nations, bound for the Cape of Good Hope and Ostend. But, led by the French chief mate, the French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian crew mutinied and took possession of the ship, confining Bacstrom and others below deck as prisoners. They then sailed to Mauritius where the ship and her cargo were condemned as a French prize of war.
After six months in Mauritius, Bacstrom was able to buy passage on an American ship bound for New York, but his ship was once again captured by a British naval ship, this time in the Virgin Islands, and once again the ship and cargo were seized as a prize of war.
