Ronnie Pontiac was the personal research assistance for Manly P. Hall at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. He is author of American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World. He is coauthor with Tamra Lucid of The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic.

This interview focuses primarily on three significant contributors to Renaissance esoteric culture: Marsilio Ficino, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and Paracelsus. Their life spans covered a period of 100 years during which European culture experienced a great awakening, triggered initially by Ficino’s translations of lost texts from ancient Greece. Other important figures are also discussed including Pico Della Mirandola, John Dee, Trithemius – as well as the backlash against the Renaissance, triggered by the Dominican Friar Savonarola.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:05:53 Ficino’s early career

00:12:16 Rebirth of Plato’s Academy

00:33:38 Bonfires of the vanities

00:52:28 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

00:58:07 Johannes Trithemius

01:15:16 Negative images of Agrippa

01:26:13 Paracelsus

01:49:58 Negative images of Paracelsus

02:03:45 Conclusion

(Recorded on November 16, 2024)

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Published on December 2, 2024