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The Ritman Library

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Nederland
Amsterdam
The Ritman Library

www.embassyofthefreemind.com The library was founded in 1957 by Amsterdam businessman Joost R. Ritman.
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The Ritman Library or Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) is the largest library in the world in the fields of Hermeticism, Alchemy, Mysticism, Rosicrucians, Gnosis & Western Esotericism and Comparative Religion studies. Ritman began collecting rare early books at a young age, after having been presented by his mother with a copy of a 17th-century edition of Aurora, a work by the German mystic Jacob Böhme. Decades of assiduous collecting resulted in an unparalleled collection of 27,000 works in the field of Christian-Hermetic gnosis. In 1984 Ritman decided to turn his private collection into a library that would be ‘hermetically open’ to all. His aim was also to acquaint a wide public, both scholars and non-scholars, with Hermetic, alchemical, mystical and gnostic works. Together, these works represent a challenging component of the European cultural and spiritual heritage. Over the past 25 years, the research carried out by the Ritman Institute has been made available by means of exhibitions, in the library and abroad, and through publications brought out by the library's own publishing house In de Pelikaan. Following its motto ‘Ad Fontes, Ex Fontibus’ - to the sources, from the sources - The Ritman Library envisages to co-create an active offline and online community and offers an open educative platform for lively exchange of knowledge and debate in the fields of its expertise.

10/09/2026

BPH Highlight: Oration on the Dignity of Man | Complete Works of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1557)

In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, understood as 'the manifesto of the renaissance', Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) presented a radical and controversial vision of humanity. Challenging the medieval conception of a fixed cosmic hierarchy, he argued that human beings were uniquely free to shape their own nature and determine what they might become; an idea that would become one of the defining expressions of Renaissance humanism.

This 1557 Basel edition of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Opera Omnia (Complete Works), published by Henricus Petri, is a cornerstone of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) collection. The folio volume was edited by Pico’s nephew Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, and binds together the Oration on the Dignity of Man with his controversial 900 Theses and his kabbalistic and metaphysical treatises.

A notable passage from this specific edition reflects Pico's awareness of the controversy his work ignited:

"I wanted to say this so that it might be understood how great a labor was mine, and what difficulty I faced, to extract the hidden secrets of philosophy from the affected knots of enigmas and the hiding places of fables... And yet my 'dogs' [critics] have not ceased to bark." (translated by )

The 1557 Basel edition is distinguished by its elegant typography and ornate historiated initials. Among them is the woodcut initial ‘L’, introducing the opening word Legi (“I have read”). This sets the tone for Pico’s manifesto, the idea that human dignity emerges from the active pursuit and synthesis of wisdom across diverse intellectual traditions.

The manuscript is on view now in our Grand Exhibition, The House with the Heads: A Monument to Free Thinking, extended until December 28th, 2026. Come and see for yourself!

08/09/2026

“Dreamwork frees our consciousness from the rigidity of any imposed pattern, and can awaken us to the laughter and freedom of our true self.” — Sufi teacher and author Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Join our course Dreamwork Across Cultures and explore everything from Greek incubation to Jungian, Sufi, and indigenous dreamwork, with Farânak Mirjalili.🌙

We start September 20th - sign up via the link in our bio.

03/09/2026

BPH Highlight: The Modern Mystic and Monthly Science Review (1937-40).

The Modern Mystic and Monthly Science Review was a London-published journal dedicated to mysticism, the occult sciences, and esoteric philosophies. Founded by Norman Vincent Dagg (1897-1962), the first issue was published in January 1937, and the journal ran consistently for three volumes, when severe paper shortages and economic pressures of World War II forced it to cease publication in 1940.

Dagg was a controversial figure, founding the magazine out of frustration with the British mainstream occult scene of the 1930s with mixed reviews. In the introduction of the very first issue, he writes that the fallout of World War I sent people into the "arms of waiting mediums”, criticizing the rush toward the "Astrological columns of the daily Press.”

He also distanced himself firmly from belonging to any specific spiritual organization, stating: “The Modern Mystic owes allegiance to no sect, society, 'ism' or 'osophy' of any kind. But it does owe allegiance to the truth wherever it finds it." Still, it can be noted that many contributors to the magazine leaned toward anthroposophic beliefs.

Despite a certain abrasiveness in his editorial approach from the get-go, Dagg brought in contributions from an impressive line of respected authors, thinkers, and artists of the time, figures such as Henry Miller, Paul Brunton, and a young Alan Watts.

This issue from September 1938 had a musical theme. It features Austrian physician Eugen Kolisko, remembered as a pioneer in Anthroposophy with an article on Beethoven- , and Bernard Bromage, a prominent English lecturer on mysticism and a member of the Fraternity of the Inner Light (a breakaway group from the famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn), exploring musical mysticism of composer Ferruccio Busoni.

During the war years, Dagg alienated himself from this community completely. He abandoned esoteric philosophy to run the periodical Tomorrow (1939–1952), a journal of extreme right-wing politics, severing ties with many of his former contributors. The Modern Mystic remains a remarkable window into the diverse streams of interwar esoteric thought.

24/08/2026

“The more the soul is raised above earthly things, the stronger she is.”
— Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328), Sermon 67

The week builds toward a Full Moon in Pisces and a partial lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday, 28th of August 🌒

Eclipses have a chaotic element to them; in what may feel like an interruption of the usual rhythms of the heavens, light suddenly gives way to shadow. This eclipse marks one of the last eclipses on the Pisces–Virgo axis, a celestial dance between these two signs that has been playing out over the last couple of years.

Eckhart’s words come from a meditation on the Moon, reflecting on its waxing and waning, its light from the Sun, and its mysterious influence over the sea. The further the Moon rises from the Earth, he observes, the greater its power.

Image: Athanasius Kircher, lunar illustration from Ars magna lucis et umbrae, 1646.

23/08/2026

“She has single stars in each hand, of which the one in the right is seen to be larger and brighter… which some have called the Spike [Spica].” — Astronomica, attributed to Hyginus, c. 1st–2nd century CE.

Happy Virgo Season! ♍︎

Virgo is the largest constellation of the Zodiac, and the second-largest constellation in the entire sky, covering more than 3% of the night sky. Yet for all her size, she is relatively faint, with only one first-magnitude star: Spica, the “Ear of Grain”.

Spica marks the grain held in Virgo’s hand and represents the final reward of a season’s labour, the literal fruit of what has been cultivated and tended. Her second-brightest star, Vindemiatrix, the “Vintager” or “Grape-Gatherer”, sits in her wing, traditionally signalling the time of the grape harvest. Here we find Virgo’s active discernment: knowing exactly when to reap and when to wait.

Ruled by Mercury, the messenger of the gods, Virgo possesses the discerning intellect required to separate the wheat from the chaff. While Leo brought the outward fire of the heart, Virgo turns that energy inward again, calling us back to tend to our crafts, refine what we have been working on, and reap what we have sown.

Across centuries and cultures, Virgo has had many names and many faces. In the Astronomica, attributed to Hyginus, several ancient identifications are gathered together: “Others called her Ceres, because she holds the ear of grain... others call her Erigone, the daughter of Icarius... many have called her Justice [Astraea].”

Swipe to see some of them →

Image: Unknown artist, Virgo, from a Book of Hours, Milan, c. 1470–1480.

The Flight🪽

In classical mythology, the constellation Virgo represents Astraea, the goddess of Justice. According to the Greek poet Aratus of Soli (c. 315–240 BCE), Astraea lived openly among humans during the mythic Golden Age, the primordial age when gods and mortals still lived together in harmony.

As humanity declined through the Silver Age, people became “lesser than their fathers”. Astraea withdrew to the lonely mountains, warning that their descendants would be worse still, bringing wars and “promiscuously shed blood,” as it appears in the Astron

21/08/2026

BPH Highlight: Polygraphia (1561) by Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) ⚙️📜

Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) is a fascinating figure of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica collection. Widely considered the founder of modern cryptography and steganography, he is also credited with developing bibliography and literary studies as branches of knowledge.

Also known as the “magical abbot of Sponheim,” he transformed the remote German monastery where he served as abbot into an unlikely intellectual hub. Building Sponheim’s library into a spectacular collection of more than 2,000 volumes, it became a magnet for ambitious young scholars, with the young Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus among those entering its circle.

The Polygraphia, published posthumously in 1518, is recognized as the first printed work devoted to cryptography in the Western world.

Trithemius’ earlier manuscript, Steganographia (c. 1499-1500), was condemned as demonic: it used the names of spirits as cipher keys, disguising secret communication as the summoning of angels and demons. In Polygraphia, Trithemius developed these ideas further, replacing the occult imagery that had made Steganographia so controversial with elaborate systems in which letters could be substituted with Latin words, allowing secret messages to masquerade as innocent religious or literary texts. The work also pioneered the use of rotulae (spinning cipher disks) to automate the shifting of alphabets, making complex codes practical for field use.

In this French 1561 edition of Polygraphia shown here, his cryptographic systems were transformed into physical use: thirteen paper wheels - also known as ‘volvelles’ - that readers could actually rotate, align, and use to encode and decode messages.

He also presented the ‘tabula recta’, a grid of shifting alphabets that became an important milestone in the development of polyalphabetic cryptography.

19/08/2026

Unicorns | The Digitized BPH Collection 🦄

If you ask the Source Library, the legend of the unicorn spans over four millennia, from the ancient cities of Mohenjo-daro (c. 2500 BCE) to the Hermetic traditions of 17th-century Europe. In the BPH collection, this creature is often presented as a sophisticated hieroglyph for the singular, divine force. While early traditions associated it with ritual authority or the Incarnation of Christ, 17th-century alchemists refined the symbol to represent the volatile ‘Spiritus’, the celestial energy that must be “fixed” or stabilized within the body to achieve the Great Work (the Magnum Opus of achieving spiritual and physical perfection).

In Raphael’s portrait, the unicorn is a small, docile creature resting in the lap of a young woman. In hermetic thought, this maiden is interpreted as a representation of the Soul (Anima); the “taming” of the unicorn signifies the process by which the wild, volatile Spirit of nature is brought into a state of purity and receptive calm.

Swipe to see more interpretations of the unicorn within our collection!

Raphael, “Ritratto di Giovane Donna con Unicorno” (c. 1505–1506).

The Alchemical Duality: The Book of Lambspring

The Book of Lambspring is a celebrated treatise within the Musaeum Hermeticum (1625), one of the most treasured works of the BPH collection. Attributed to the pseudonym “Lambspring”, a name traditionally associated with the “spring” or source of the sacrificial lamb, it uses fifteen emblems to map the internal states of the alchemist.

In the Third Figure of this sequence, the unicorn is paired with a stag in a forest clearing, providing a key cipher for the union of Spirit and Soul. In 1893, A.E. Waite translated the 17th century latin manuscript into English:

“The Sages say truly / That two animals are in this forest: / One glorious, beautiful, and swift, / A great and strong deer; / The other a unicorn... If we apply the parable to our Art, / We shall call the forest the Body... The unicorn will be the Spirit at all times.”

— The Hermetic Museum (Vol. 1) by Various (trans. A.E. Waite), Page 296

Michael Maier (1568–1622), who served as personal physician to Emperor

14/08/2026

Codex Hermeticus: August 2026 Edition 🐉

The August edition of Codex Hermeticus arrives tomorrow!

This month, Corey Andrews (Corey Andrews) concludes his exploration of A. E. Waite’s Some Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism, looking further into the deeper symbolism of Freemasonry, from initiation and spiritual transformation to Kabbalah and the quest for the Divine.

Kyra Ge**er returns and introduces us to Maria the Jewess, the Alexandrian alchemist who lived sometime between the 1st and early 3rd century CE. Ever melted chocolate au bain-marie? You’ve used an ancient technique associated with Maria! One of the most influential alchemists of antiquity, Maria made important innovations in alchemical processes and apparatus design, and remained an authority for alchemists for centuries.

Finally, Dr José Leitão brings us the third and final installment of his exploration of the mysterious ‘Faust Manuscript’ in our collection, offering an enlightening discussion of its place within the broader grimoire tradition.

📩 Sign up via the link in our bio to receive tomorrow’s edition of Codex Hermeticus.

Cover image: Augustin Anton Pocquieres de Jolyfief, Der Compas der Weißen (1779), from the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica collection.

13/08/2026

BPH Highlight: Rays from the Rose Cross, August 1974 - The Children of Leo ♌️

Max Heindel’s (1865–1919) Rosicrucian magazine Rays from the Rose Cross ran from 1913 to 2004, always featuring an astrology section with a beautifully engraved header artwork.

This August 1974 issue highlights the “royal” sign of Leo, ruled by the life-giving sun and symbolized by the lion, with its fiery companions Sagittarius and Aries beside it.

Those born under the sign of Leo are “vital, creative, aspiring, generous and capable of deep and lasting attachments,” notes the author. As natural leaders, Leos are fearless and have “a flair for the dramatic and self-expression,” often making great singers, actors, and executives - though, on the flip side, they are also thought to be more prone to arrogance and a short temper. However, the intense feelings of the Leo native can be tamed if you know how to “play the right melody on the heartstrings”.

Leo season calls us to move forward with sincerity, optimism, and a brave heart. There’s just over a week left to embrace this warm and sunny energy - enjoy🌞

12/08/2026

The Perseids | The Digitized Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Collection ☄️🌌

We are about to witness a spectacular Solar Eclipse today, setting the stage for another special cosmic event happening just a few hours later: the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower.

Every year in mid-August, we can observe the Perseid Meteor Shower, named after the constellation Perseus because the meteors appear to originate from a “radiant” point within it. Between midnight and dawn, as many as 50–100 meteors can be seen falling across the sky every hour. This year, it coincides with a New Moon, giving us perfect viewing conditions 🌌

The Perseids have been recorded and tracked by the human eye for nearly 2,000 years, a long history of observing the heavens which is also reflected in the BPH collection. Using the Librarian feature on Source Library, we dove into the books: from Paracelsian meteorology, where meteors could be understood as “excrements” of celestial bodies, to the meticulous star logs of Christiaan Huygens. Swipe to see a glimpse of what we found!

Want to see for yourself? Follow the link in our bio to go on your own Source Library deep dive🔗

The Constellation Perseus 🌌

The Perseid Meteor Shower is named for the constellation Perseus because of its radiant - the single point in the night sky from which all the meteors appear to “fan out.”

This 1482 edition of the Poeticon Astronomicon, with a text by the ancient Roman scholar Hyginus (c. 64 BC – AD 17), is a Renaissance printing recognized by scholars as the very first printed book to illustrate the constellations with figures.

The woodcut shows Perseus holding the head of Medusa; the star Algol (the “Demon Star”) sits in her eye, marking the exact spot where the Perseid meteors begin their journey across our sky.

Image: Hyginus, Poeticon Astronomicon (Venice, 1482), BPH 282, Page 62.

Paracelsian Star-Shots ☄️

In his collected works, Paracelsus (1493–1541) provides a vivid description of how stars maintain their purity. He argues that just as humans must eat and excrete, so too do the stars consume “fire” from the firmament and cast off their decay.

“The stars purify themselves... they cast a body aw

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