Renaissance Magic & the Return of the Golden Age

Published on: 04 Sep 2024

I'm currently reading Renaissance Magic & the Return of the Golden Age by John S. Mebane as part of some research into historical magical practices in the renaissance period for my TTRPG project The High Bank. It's an interesting look into the zeitgeist of the world of renaissance intellectuals at a time when the received wisdom from religious and classical traditions is being challenged by rational thought and experimentation.

At a time when science is in its infancy, the "occult sciences" slot into the same kind of mental space as elements of Cosmology such as String Theory do in the present day. They're a collection of hard to prove theories pursued by researchers, convinced that there is a spiritual component of reality, looking to reach beyond the directly observable building blocks of the world.