Renaissance Astrology Home Page SERVICES PAYMENT COURSES BOOKS CONTACT SEARCH Renaissance Astrology Home Page

Thabit Ibn Qurra
Christopher Warnock, Esq.
Thabit Ibn Qurra:
Philosopher, Astrologer & Mage
HOME


Copyright 2004, Nigel Jackson

Thabit Ibn Qurra
De Imaginibus:
Astrological Talismans
Wealth Talismans
from De Imaginibus
Traditional Electional Astrology Course
Introduction to the
Electional Astrology Course
Astrological Magic Course
Introduction to the
Astrological Magic Course
Planetary Magic Mini-Course
Introduction to the
Planetary Magic Mini-Course
Mansions of the Moon Mini-Course
Introduction to the
Lunar Mansions Mini-Course
Web Site Search
Web Site Search
Just as the Body is not able to persist without the sustenance of the Soul through which it lives, similarly Knowledge is rootless when Astrology is absent from it; and the Science of Images is the highest and most valuable Astrology.

De Imaginibus



Introduction
De Imaginibus Thabit Ibn Qurra on Astrology & Magic


Thabit Ibn Qurra

TOP

Thabit Ibn Qurra was the most famous of the Harranian Sabians, heirs of the high pagan civilizations of the Near East and Mediterrean. He was born in A.D. 836 in Harran, though he subsequently came to fame after traveling to Baghhad. In modern times he is best known for his contributions to science, particularly in the field of mathematics. While his "scientific" achievements are lauded, even by the above website maintained by my alter mater, the University of St Andrews, they prefer to keep silent about Thabit Ibn Qurra's contributions in the area of occult or esoteric studies, regarding these as a regretable abberation.
In fact, Thabit Ibn Qurra's skill in many arts and sciences had its root in his knowledge of Arabic, Greek and the local vernacular of Syriac. The early Abbasid caliphs were avid for the wisdom of their predecessors, particularly the Greeks and Romans and living as they did in a vast and newly conquered empire, newly united in a great free trade zone bound together culturally by the use of Arabic, they were able to drawn on the many disparate and cosmopolitan cultures of the new Islamic empire.
The establishment of the Bayt al Hikam, the House of Wisdom, in the new capital, Baghdad, was the concrete manifestation of this desire for the amassing and advancement of knowledge. Here Thabit Ibn Qurra's faculty for languages helped materially to advance the great translations projects of the Abbasid Caliphs, bringing the arts and sciences of many previous cultures into the new lingua franca of Arabic.
Thabit Ibn Qurra not only translated many texts, including Ptolemy's Almagest and Euclid's Elements, and such mathematical works as Archimedes' Measurement of the Circle, but a large number of own works on mathematics, astronomy, ethics, music, medicine, physics, philosophy in addition to commentaries on such philosophers as Aristotle, Ptolemy and Euclid.



De Imaginibus Thabit Ibn Qurra on Astrology & Magic

TOP


However, Thabit Ibn Qurra, in common with his contemporaries, saw no contradiction in studying these exoteric sciences while simultaneously explicating the occult sciences of astrology and magic. Since among the Harranians, Hermes Trismegistus was esteemed as a prophet and sage, the Hermetic view of the Cosmos as one, great unified Being, guided Thabit Ibn Qurra to a mastery of all arts and sciences.
Thabit Ibn Qurra's best known esoteric work is De Imaginibus "On Images" a key text of astrological magic cited as a source in Picatrix and widely consulted in the Middle Ages and Renaissance by such esoteric masters as Albertus Magnus, Marsilio Ficino and Cornelius Agrippa. De Imaginibus represents the most sophisticated form of astrological magic, relying not simply on planetary talismans, but using the highly advanced traditional astrology of the Harranian Sabians.
We can see an actual example of a set of astrological Wealth Talismans from De Imaginibus utilizing the extremely sophisticated astrological technique characteristic of the Harranian Sabians. This particular set of talismans is tuned to the birth chart of the user and then linked astrologically and magically to the expected donor.
Renaissance Astrology is proud to present the first English translation of De Imaginibus with a commentary by Christopher Warnock, a leading contemporary practitioner of traditional astrological magic. Thabit Ibn Qurra and the Harranian Sabians made a key contribution in preserving and advancing the Neoplatonic and Hermetic esoteric tradition, the fruits of which are newly available to us in De Imaginibus.




TOP


HOME



Please Contact me with any Questions & Comments

Specializing in Horary Astrology, Electional Astrology Astrological Magic and Astrological Talismans.

Copyright 2005, Christopher Warnock, All Rights Reserved.