Stephen Skinner (1)Reseñas

Fascinating book. Some of the "magick" is pure folkloristic nonsense, but some of it is well worth reading. More later.

Pros: in depth discussion, full translation, summaries are useful for quick reference

Cons:

Note: I received a copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley. My copy did not include the manuscript reproduction pages for the illustrations, therefore I cannot comment on the images or their quality.

The book gives the historical background of the Splendor Solis and then a new English translation of the Harley manuscript 3469 version, currently held by the British Library (and viewable online here: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_3469 Click on the image below ‘view bindings’ to see the pages).

There is an introduction and four chapters, followed by a glossary of alchemical terms and other alchemical works the Splendor Solis refers to. The chapters are: History and authorship of Splendor Solis, Inventing an alchemical adept: Splendor Solis and the Paracelsian movement, Commentary on the text and plates of Splendor Solis and finally Translation of the Harley manuscript.

The chapter on the history of the manuscript is very scholarly and quite dry. I appreciated that Prinke mentioned the history of scholarship regarding the Splendor Solis, in terms of printed volumes, manuscripts, the illustrations and attempts at discovering the author and illustrators. He even includes recent scholarship on the topics. I was disappointed that there was such a limited discussion on the antecedents of the artworks, the topic that most interested me. Instead of showing examples of where the Splendor Solis’ illustrators received inspiration, he simply offhandedly mentioned the works with little to go in if you’d like to research this topic yourself. When discussing the Aurora Consurgens’s artistic lending he merely cites the page of an English translation that got a 200 copy print run in 2011 and is quite difficult to find. I did find an older reproduction of the Aurora Consurgens online (digitized by Zurich’s Zentralbibliothek https://archive.org/details/AuroraConsurgens), but Prinke gave so little descriptive information that I found it difficult to identify which images he was comparing.

I really enjoyed the essay on the Paracelsian movement. There was a lot of information here I was unaware of and it was fascinating to learn about.

The next chapter summarizes all of the passages in the manuscript and gives a thorough description of the illustrations and their meanings. It is here that the reproduced manuscript pages are found. The information is in clear language with translations of any text that appears in the images.

I was a little surprised there was a summary of the text followed by a full translation, but the translation’s fairly dense, so it’s actually quite useful to have read the summary and explanation before digging into it. It meant I came away with a much better understanding of what I read.

As stated above, I can’t judge the quality of the images included in this edition, but the text alone is definitely worth the price. It’s a deep dive into the Splendor Solis and a worthwhile addition to your collection if you’re interested in alchemy.

This book is amazing. All the information you'll ever need. And if you read the commentary you'll find yourself questioning preconceived beliefs. Those two things alone make this book worth the money.

This is a very attractive book looking at the geometry of nature and recognizing that there is a sacredness to it. There are patterns and shapes which reflect the beauty of the world. Many of mankind's greatest achievements, such as the Gothic architecture of cathedrals or the perspective and vanishing points in painting seem to come from a higher order. These are all worth taking in and appreciating.½

Despite it's rise in popularity with all the Disney Mind Control patients who propose to entertain and carry out Kabbalistic rituals on stage, Feng Shui has enough historicity to keep an intellectual busy for quite a while. This "KISS" (horrible name, horrible) version is quite a nice introductory to ancient eastern geomancy, or to the Tao of Heaven and Earth. We take our translation of Feng Shui from Pu's "Book of Burial"--Wind, Water. Pu's words were much more eloquent. The book is filled with pictures and tid-bits of delictable datum. It's quite dumbed-down, so American Pharmacuetical customers can try to understand where best to keep their hordes of material sh*t they buy at Wal-Mart. The only ones who can truly practice Feng Shui are the lords of Capitalism and Communism. Everyone else doesn't have room for anything but a money toad and desk Foo dog. I find the pics of ancient burial sites most exciting. At most times I find the author's neo-paganism irritating.½

A short explanation of feng-shui for westerners by a sympathetic western scholar.

An introduction to some of the mathematical underpinnings of astronomy, music and architecture (including ancient sites) as well as the growth and development of living things. The explanations are as clear as they can be for readers without mathmatical training and are complemented by many coloured illustrations and diagrams.

I like the simplicity of this one as well as the before and after explanations of what they did and why they did it. It's simple and direct, making Feng Shui accessible to everyone.

#53, 2004

I've written a lot about my work with this book in my Tarot Journal, reginadibastoni, so this review will be fairly concise. I found it to be a very informative and useful book, although at times I felt overwhelmed when reading it. The author tended to present a bunch of theoretical information and then details of evaluating specific situations before having us do the practical stuff so we could apply the evaluations to real life. As a consequence, I felt lost at times, and somewhat discouraged. By the end, though, he'd pulled everything together, and has a lot of great information in the appendices. I would not recommend this as a first book on Feng Shui, as he goes pretty quickly through the basic stuff. (I enjoyed this author's "KISS Guide to Feng Shui" as a starter book). Having read several other books on the subject previously, though, I enjoyed this book, and it is certainly the most complete treatment of flying the stars that I've seen yet. I did get a lot of valuable information and insight from it. Now, I just need to go through my home and implement some of the changes I want to make.

#34, 2004

Hooray! Finally, a book on the subject that I can recommend with no hesitations whatsoever. I thought this was a fantastic book. Clearly written, easy to read, with great graphics and charts which often really helped me to understand the material. This book does not go into some of the more complex areas of feng shui (like detailed 8 Houses, or Flying Stars), but what it does cover it covers thoroughly and well. I came away from this book with lots of specific strategies for changes I can make *right now* to improve the feng shui of my home. The book also has a section devoted to specific remedies for each of the five phases (something I felt was missing from the Idiot's Guide), and also a section on furniture placement for each room of the house. After the reading I've done so far, this is the book I would recommend to anyone wanting to get started with feng shui.

An excellent review can be found at http://www.themagickalreview.org/reviews/enochian-tables.php½

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