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Private Library



Hermetic Reads: "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" – Jorge Louis Borges (1940) "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by Jorge Louis Borges. The story conjures up a mystical world, imagined by a group of intellectuals. This imagined planet is ‘made’ in the minds of people, proving that people are able to invent alternative worlds. "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a milestone in the development of fantastic literature and had great influence on Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault's Pendulum. S. Michelspacher, ‘Cabala’, Augsburg, 1616. “The raw chaotic source material, the legacy of Satan’s and Adam’s fall, is shown here as a beast with horns and a crown, of which it is said in the Apocalypse: “(…) and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast (…)”. (Rev., 13, 3) Its exaltation occurs during the familiar phases of the Work, represented by the birds in the central retort. The upper six-sided star signaling perfection refers to #Mercury which is both beginning and end.” (p. 186) Mandala of the Sun God, Nepal, 16th century. Watercolors on cotton. The Walters Art Museum F.195.















The Ritman Library.


Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica or The Ritman Library is a private Dutch library founded by Joost Ritman. The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica brings together manuscripts and printed works in the field of Hermeticism, more specifically the 'Christian-Hermetic' tradition. To date, the library holds more than 23,000 volumes on hermetica, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, mysticism, gnosis, esotericism and comparative religion, and has great scientific and artistic value.