SYMPOSIUM 'THE GREATNESS OF THE HUMAN MIND'

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In an inspiring meeting on 7 November 2015, eminent specialists in their field offered us their views on the
human mind. The afternoon opened with an introduction into seventeenth-century thought and an outline of the
intellectual climate in Amsterdam, held by Russell Shorto. What made Amsterdam such a relatively safe place
for free minds? The day

ended

perspectives

future.

for

the

with

This atmospheric video

takes you straight

into the event held in the

Westerkerk,

church that was built in

the

century as a 'physical

manifestation

what went on in people's

minds', as Russell

Shorto put

speaker,

it.

Another

Forshaw, discusses the

addressed

that

range

the

seventeenth
of
Peter
of

topics

afternoon.

Is Hermetic philosophy a source of inspiration

for

new

spirituality?

Do

new

discoveries in the neurosciences prove that the views of some of the major seventeenth-century-century
thinkers are as relevant today as they were then? Can those views provide the basis for fundamental
changes?

For

reappraisal

of

the

human

mind?

The afternoon was organized as part of the international "Manifestoes 400" project, with the public being
invited to visit the accompanying exhibition Divine Wisdom - Divine Nature in The Ritman Library. The
exhibition runs until Friday 1 April 2016.

THE IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS OF THE BROTHERHOOD

A brief explanation of a key image in the history of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, and the logo of the current
exhibition in The Ritman Library, Divine Wisdom - Divine Nature showing until 1 April 2016. Daniel Mgling's
Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum has been called the 'fourth Rosicrucian manifesto' and depicts
the impenetrable fortress of the Brotherhood, the responses to the brotherhood, and much more. A video by
Maarten van der Velde and Thomas Dijkman. An English version will follow soon.

WATCH THE VIDEO

NEW BLOGS
The

Esoteric

Conception

of

Divinity

in

the

Ancient

World

by

Thomas

Yaeger

The Sacred History of Being is about philosophy and its origin in the context of ancient cultic life. As
such it argues that philosophy as a discipline is very old, as Plato himself said in the Protagoras, and
that

it

was

not

invented

by

the

Greeks.

In my twenties, I was struck by the strong interest the ancients had in the idea of limit in art,
architecture, philosophy, and ritual.

Hermetic Adventures: A Student's Travels into Worlds Unknown - by Mascha Boeser

Entering The Ritman Library for the first time felt a little daunting due to the large door that only opens
after you first announce yourself. Hermetic Library indeed... But as a fresh student of Western
esotericism at the University of Amsterdam, I had heard this was a treasure house of primary sources
and not to be missed. So I broke the Tuesday morning silence and rang the doorbell.

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READ THE BLOG