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Three strands · thirty modules · the Exeter MA model reimagined · convened by Iamblichus of Chalcis Simulacrum, Marsilio Ficino Simulacrum, and Eliphas Lévi Simulacrum
A three-strand programme on the Western magical and occult tradition, modelled on the Exeter University MA in Magic and Occult Science but reimagined to use the Universitas’s faculty of authors-as-tutors. Where the Exeter programme surveys the field by lecture, this programme reads the founding texts and figures with the figures themselves: Iamblichus on theurgy in the words of the De Mysteriis; Ficino on his own translation of the Hermetica; Lévi on the Astral Light and the Tarot-Kabbalah correspondence; Mathers on the Neophyte ritual of the Golden Dawn; Newton in his alchemical voice. Thirty modules across the long tradition, every module led by its author or its text-as-tutor.
The Foundations strand reads the founding period from Mesopotamian divination through the Late Antique Neoplatonist-theurgical synthesis. Convened by Iamblichus of Chalcis Simulacrum, the Syrian theurgist whose De Mysteriis is the founding theoretical defence of magical practice as philosophical discipline, with Adad-shumu-usur on the Assyrian omen tradition, Isis and Thoth on Egyptian magic and the Greek Magical Papyri, Apuleius on the magic trial he actually faced, Mary the Jewess on Late Antique alchemy, Plotinus on the metaphysics of cosmic sympathy, Porphyry on the Letter to Anebo, the Corpus Hermeticum on the Poimandres, and Proclus on the Elements of Theology leading their own modules.
The Hermetic Renaissance strand reads what happened to the corpus next: its passage into Arabic translation in the eighth-eleventh centuries through the great Bayt al-Ḥikma in Abbasid Baghdad, its extension and systematisation by Arabic-writing scholars (Jabir ibn Hayyan, al-Kindī, the anonymous compilers of the Picatrix), the Jewish-mystical contribution (the Zohar), and the Renaissance recovery and synthesis when Greek originals returned to Europe after 1453. Convened by Marsilio Ficino Simulacrum — also programme convener for the full three-strand sequence — the Florentine philosopher-physician-priest who translated the Hermetic Corpus into Latin in 1463 and gave the Renaissance its philosophical-architectural framework, with Pico della Mirandola on Christian Kabbalah, Agrippa on the De Occulta Philosophia, Paracelsus on signatures and medical alchemy, John Dee on the Mathematicall Praeface and the Enochian system, and Giordano Bruno on the cosmic magus, closing at his stake at Campo de’ Fiori in 1600.
The Modern Tradition strand picks up the tradition where Strand 2 left it: underground in seventeenth-century England (Newton in his alchemical voice), revived in nineteenth-century France (Lévi), institutionalised in late-Victorian London (the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded 1888), reshaped by twentieth-century practitioners (Crowley, Spare, Fortune, Regardie), academically recovered (Scholem on Kabbalah), opened to its non-Western counterpart-traditions (the Codex Borgia and the Tonalpouhqui on the Mesoamerican divinatory tradition), and pushed against by the modern condition of disenchantment (Weber’s Entzauberung). Convened by Eliphas Lévi Simulacrum, the nineteenth-century French magus through whom the modern occult revival begins.
The three strands are independently enrolable. A student interested only in the Late Antique foundations may take only Strand 1; a student approaching from contemporary occultism may begin at Strand 3. The full sequence in chronological order produces a layered understanding of the Western magical tradition that few graduate programmes now offer — read in the voices of the people who made it.
Iamblichus of Chalcis Simulacrum convenes · led by Adad-shumu-usur, Isis and Thoth, Apuleius, Mary the Jewess, Plotinus, Porphyry, the Corpus Hermeticum, Iamblichus, and Proclus
Ten encounters with the founding tradition. Mesopotamian divination through the letters of the royal scholar Adad-shumu-usur; Egyptian magic and the Greek Magical Papyri with Isis and Thoth; Greek and Roman magic through the trial of Apuleius and the defixiones; Late Antique alchemy with Mary the Jewess and the apparatus she invented; Plotinus on the metaphysics of cosmic sympathy; Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo; the Corpus Hermeticum on the Poimandres; Iamblichus’s De Mysteriis as the founding theoretical defence of theurgical practice; Proclus on the Elements of Theology; and a closing synthesis from Late Antiquity to the Islamic inheritance.
Open strand →Marsilio Ficino Simulacrum convenes (and programme convener) · led by Jabir ibn Hayyan, al-Kindī, the Picatrix, the Zohar, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Agrippa, Paracelsus, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno
From the Bayt al-&Hamacr;ikma to Campo de’ Fiori. Jabir ibn Hayyan on Islamic alchemy and the sulphur-mercury theory; al-Kindī on the doctrine of stellar rays; the Picatrix on talismans and star-magic; the Zohar on the Kabbalistic tradition; Ficino on his Hermetica translation and the prisca theologia; Pico della Mirandola on Christian Kabbalah and the 900 Theses; Agrippa on the De Occulta Philosophia as systematic synthesis; Paracelsus on the doctrine of signatures and the tria prima; John Dee on the Mathematicall Praeface, Enochian, and the Hieroglyphic Monad; Giordano Bruno as cosmic magus, closing at his execution in 1600.
Open strand →Eliphas Lévi Simulacrum convenes · led by Newton, Lévi, Mathers, Crowley, Spare, Fortune, Regardie, Scholem, the Codex Borgia and the Tonalpouhqui, and a strand-end synthesis
The modern occult tradition from Newton’s underground alchemy through Weber’s disenchantment. Newton in his alchemical voice on the Renaissance synthesis surviving the Scientific Revolution; Lévi on the nineteenth-century French revival, the Astral Light, and the Tarot-Kabbalah correspondence; Mathers on the founding of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; Crowley on Thelema and the Liber AL; Spare on the sigil method; Fortune on psychological occultism and The Mystical Qabalah; Regardie on the systematisation and publication of the Golden Dawn corpus; Scholem on the academic recovery of Kabbalah; the Codex Borgia and the Tonalpouhqui on the Mesoamerican divinatory counterpart-tradition (the strand opening to its non-Western counterparts as the Exeter MA explicitly invites); and a strand-end synthesis on disenchantment, re-enchantment, and the place of the magical tradition in the contemporary world.
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