User:ShadowyCaballero/List of Esoteric Subjects in Foucault's Pendulum



This is a list of obscure subjects mentioned in Foucault's Pendulum. The words and subjects herein are widely considered archaic or esoteric. This list is by no means definitive, as some links (in red) are fictitious, misspelled, or have yet to be discussed in Wikipedia. Among these subjects, many are in other languages, and need translation.
 * "Only for you, children of doctrine and learning, have we written this work. Examine this book, ponder the meaning we have dispersed in various places and gathered again; what we have concealed in one place we have disclosed in another, that it may be understood by your wisdom."  -Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia


 * "Superstition brings bad luck." - Raymond Smullyan

KETER
The first section of Foucault's Pendulum refers to Kether. It means crown, and symbolizes will.

Chapter 1
Quote (in Hebrew): "When the Light of the Endless was drawn in the form of a straight line in the Void...it was not drawn and extended immediately downwards, indeed it extended slowly - that is to say, at first the Line of Light began to extend and at the very start of its extension in the secret of the Line it was drawn and shaped into a wheel, perfectly circular all around." - Philip S. Gruberger (ed.) - The Kabbalah: A Study of the Ten Luminous Emanations from Rabbi Isaac Luria with the Commentaries Sufficient for the Beginner. Vol. II, Press of the Research Centre of Kabbalah, Jerusalem, 1972-1973, p. 7., ISBN 0-943688-09-4
 * isochronal
 * triadic
 * mandala
 * pentaculum
 * Agartha
 * Samoa
 * Novaya Zemlya
 * Avalon
 * Ayers Rock
 * astigmatic
 * Solomon's Temple
 * Saint Martin-des-Champs, Musée des Arts et Métiers
 * Panta Rei
 * Ein-Sof
 * Numinous
 * ogive
 * sapiential
 * Planes of: Louis Charles Breguet, Louis Blériot, Esnault, Dufaux
 * priory
 * ogive
 * chthonian
 * patina
 * entomologist
 * chelae
 * Proglottid
 * ambulatory
 * New Atlantis

Chapter 2
Quote: "Wee haue divers curious Clocks; and other like Motions of Return....Wee haue also Houses of Deciets of the senses, where we represent all manner of feats of juggling, false apparitions, Impostures and Illusions...These are (my sonne) the Riches of Saloman's House. - The New Atlantis by Francis Bacon.
 * concatenation
 * esthete
 * Empedocles
 * liturgy
 * macumba
 * evanescent
 * Alhazen
 * calcination
 * eolopile
 * homunculus
 * reliquaries
 * quatrefoil
 * Netrikon
 * Lalique
 * majolica
 * faience
 * Murano
 * Yaldabaoth
 * Ogdoades
 * "But perhaps in that simsun, that diminishment, that lonely separation-Diotallevi said-there was already the promise of a return."

CHOKHMAH
The second section refers to the sefirot of Chokhmah, which refers to wisdom.

Chapter 3
Quote: De arte cabalistica by Johannes Reuchlin- In hanc ufilitatem clementes angeli saepe figuras, characteres, formas et voces invenerunt proposueruntque nobis mortabilus et ignotas et stupendas nullius rei iuxta consuetum linguae usumásignificativas, sed per rationis nostrae summam admirationem in assiduam intelligibilium pervestigationem, deinde in illorum ipsorum venerationem et amorem.

Chapter 4
Quote: "He who attempts to penetrate into the Rose Garden of the Philosophers without the key resembles a man who would walk without feet." -Atlanta Fugiens by Michael Maier


 * Carpathians
 * orthogonal

Chapter 5
Quote: "And begin by combining his name, YHWH, at the beginning alone, and examine all its combinations and move it and turn it about like a wheel, front and back, like a scroll, and do not let it rest, but when you see its matter strengthened because of great motion, because of the fear of confusion of your imagination and the rolling about of your thoughts, and when you let it rest, return to it and ask it, until there shall come to your hand a word of wisdom from it, do not abandon it."Abulafia, Hayye ha-Nefes


 * Temurah
 * caftan
 * Sefer Yesirah = Sefer Yetzirah. Sefer haYashar?
 * gematria
 * Metacyclosynchrotron (could it mean cyclotron?
 * antediluvian
 * acrostic
 * Synarchy
 * Druids
 * Ennoia

Chapter 6
Quote: Jorge Luis Borges, El Golem


 * Adelino Canepa - character
 * atabaque
 * Exu
 * pontos
 * amor fati - "love your fate"

BINAH
The third section refers to the sefirot of Binah which refers to understanding.

Chapter 7
Quote: "Do not expect too much of the end of the world." -Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Aforyzmy
 * Academie de Saint-Cyr
 * polyphony


 * Carpocrates
 * ignominy
 * impotentia coeundi
 * Krupskaya
 * philology
 * Pilade's is the bar the main characters frequent, presumably fictional. ("Pilade" is Italian for "Pylades".)

Chapter 8
Quote: "Having come from the light and from the gods, here I am in exile, separated from them." Fragment of Turfa'n M7
 * Copernican
 * Etruscan
 * catafalque

Chapter 9
Quote: "In his right hand he held a golden trumpet." Johann Valentin Andreae


 * Finis Austriae

Chapter 10
Quote: Cesare della Rivera


 * Shklovski
 * philologist
 * Vedurin salon (Verdurin salon)
 * chez Guermantes
 * paralogism
 * idee fixe

Chapter 11
Quote: Emil Cioran


 * langourous

Chapter 12
Quote: Fama Fraternitatis


 * contretemps
 * philately

Chapter 13
Quote: Chronique à la suite du roman de Favel


 * Et in Arcadia ego
 * ascetic
 * sycophant
 * Ludovico Ariosto
 * Jean de Joinville
 * Ascalon
 * Commanderies

Chapter 14
Quote: Aimery de Villiers-le-Duc


 * halcyon
 * pieds noirs
 * poulains
 * exculpate

Chapter 15
Quote: Jean de Joinville

Chapter 16
Quote: Étienne de Provins

Chapter 17
Quote: Victor-Emile Michelet, Martinism


 * Adolphe Menjou
 * Mensur
 * De Gaulle
 * Nostradamus

Chapter 18
Quote: Thomas Burnet


 * Comte de Champagne
 * speleologist
 * dissipation
 * ecclesiastical
 * paleography
 * antiquarian
 * compunction

Chapter 19
Quote: "After Beaujeu, the Order has never ceased to exist, not for a moment, and after Aumont we find an uninterrupted sequence of Grand Masters of the Order down to our own time, and if the name and seat of the true Grand Master and the true Seneschals who rule the order and guide it's sublime labors remain a mystery today, an impenetrable secret known only to the truly enlightened, it is because the hour of the Order has not struck and the time is not ripe.... - Manuscript of 1760, in G.A. Schiffmann


 * litany
 * inviolable
 * unassailable
 * gematria
 * Tetragramaton
 * Trithemius

Chapter 20
Quote: Julius Evola


 * hyperboreal
 * hermetic
 * Baphomet
 * Southern Cross

Chapter 21 & 22
Quote: "The Graal...is a weight so heavy that creatures in the bondage of sin are unable to move it from its place." - Wolfram von Eschenbach Parzival, IX, 477

HESED
The fourth passage is named for the sefirot Chesed, which refers to loving-kindness.

Chapter 23
Quote: Eliphas Levi


 * telluric
 * lumpenproletariat
 * pedantic

Chapter 24
Quote: Joséphin Péladan


 * neophyte

Chapter 25
Q: C.-L. Cadet-Gassicourt, Le tombeau de Jacques de Molay


 * somnambulism
 * varicolored

Chapter 26
Q: Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin


 * sacristies
 * jacaranda
 * naves
 * cloisters
 * famuli
 * Cagliostro
 * braggart
 * agate
 * umbanda
 * candomble
 * Lourdes
 * Capuchins
 * syncretism
 * Sorbonne

Chapter 27
Quote: Collin de Plancy


 * Kardecism
 * Trier region
 * Comte de Saint-Germain

Chapter 28
Quote: Corpus Hermeticus


 * gymnosophists
 * dissimulation
 * hepatoscopic
 * ci-devant
 * demurred
 * metempsychosis

Chapter 29
Quote: Heinrich Neuhaus


 * nought
 * centenary

Chapter 30
Quote: Christof von Besold(?), Appendix to Tommaso Campanella, Von der Spanischen Monarchy, 1623

Chapter 31
Quote: Rene Guenon
 * Cheops
 * Nefertiti
 * Solon
 * Plotinus
 * Essenes
 * Therapeutae
 * Alcuin Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus
 * Dagobert
 * Bacon
 * Spinoza
 * Jakob Bohme
 * Debussy
 * Cambronne
 * Geronimo
 * Pancho Villa
 * siakra
 * plexus

Chapter 32
Quote: Tertullian
 * Parmenides
 * banality

Chapter 33
Quote: Papus


 * Agliè- "{What is the} difference between the man who knows and the man who undergoes?"
 * alopecia areata
 * marzipan
 * Pantagruelian
 * Corcovado
 * Eucaristic
 * cambone
 * atabaques
 * thurible
 * "It was a quadrangular hall, with one area set aside for the dancing of the cavalos"
 * pontos
 * clavichord
 * aspirant
 * saraband
 * Archean
 * ostentatious
 * askesis

GEVURAH
Gevurah symbolizes strength.

Chapter 34
Q: Picatrix


 * reshimu
 * morass
 * noxious
 * Celine
 * Homeopathy
 * Chandos
 * cyclical crises
 * Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Chapter 35
Q: Purgatorio, Dante


 * epistolary

Chapter 36
Q: Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy
 * epicurean
 * regal
 * libidinal
 * deontologically
 * larboard
 * Lantenac
 * welkin
 * philter
 * louche

Chapter 37
Q: Talmud, Hagigah


 * scrofula

Chapter 38
Q: Scottish Rite


 * Magdeburg hemispheres
 * golconda
 * phlogiston

Chapter 39
Q: Grades of the Ancient and Primitive Memphis-Misraim Rite


 * balneum
 * couscous

Chapter 40
Q: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (play)


 * paralogism
 * Friedrich Hölderlin

Chapter 41
Q: Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah


 * couchette
 * decan
 * magiam
 * necromantium
 * astrologiam
 * geomantiam
 * pyromantium
 * hydromantium
 * chaomantium
 * medicinam adeptam
 * physiognosis
 * cosmognosis
 * ontological
 * anthropognosis
 * psychurgy
 * clairvoyance
 * 5 hyperphysical senses
 * physiognomics
 * theurgy
 * necromancy
 * onomancy
 * thaumaturgy
 * Wronski
 * Saint Medard
 * Eleusinian Mysteries
 * Samothrace
 * Moloch
 * Eurynomus
 * somnambulism
 * mercurial chemistry

Chapter 42
"But you must know we are all in agreement, whatever we say." - Turba Philosophorum
 * "gnoseology or whatever it is"
 * geomancy
 * maalox
 * mercurial Radames, Radames
 * catechism
 * The Golden Branch
 * Tabula Smaragdina

Chapter 43
Q: Joris-Karl Huysmans
 * Dr. Moebius - Belbo's pseudonym
 * Jesuits
 * Opus Dei
 * Carbonaria
 * Rotary
 * Absolutists
 * Aetherius Society of California
 * Astara of Lausanne
 * Atalanteans
 * Builders of the Adytum in California
 * Cercle E.B. of Perpignan
 * Cercle Eliphas Levi of Maule
 * Knights of the Templar Alliance of Toulouse
 * Druidic College of Gaul
 * Couvent Spiritualiste de Jericho
 * Cosmic Church of Truth in Florida
 * Traditionalist Seminar of Econe in Switzerland
 * Church of Mithra
 * Church of Satan
 * United Luciferan Church
 * Apostolic Rosicrucian Church
 * Childern of Darkness and Green Order on the Ivory Coast
 * Escuela Hermetista Occidental of Montevideo
 * Tetra-Gnosis of Chicago
 * Ancient Bretheren of the Rosie-Cross
 * dachshund
 * hippomene - pregnant mares secrete it
 * joss stick
 * aquiline

Chapter 44
Q: Israel Regardie
 * Ordo Templi Orientis
 * goety
 * Aleister Crowley
 * Aiwaz
 * Hoor-paar-Kraat
 * conventicle

Chapter 45
"And from this springs the extraordinary question: Did the Egyptians know about electricity?" - Peter Kolosimo


 * undines
 * sylphs
 * Nibelungs
 * philology
 * Charles Hoy Fort
 * Fortean
 * Machu Picchu
 * Sibylline books
 * Lilith
 * angelology
 * Porsena
 * Iamblichus

Chapter 46
Q: Aleister Crowley


 * redivivus
 * Ahasuerus
 * imprudent
 * tauroboliaste
 * psychopompe
 * ratatouille
 * chanoine
 * pyx
 * Palladians
 * chocs
 * bibelots
 * alembiques
 * Baphomet
 * cataplasms (sinapisms?)
 * Sorcelery
 * voyante
 * parquet
 * diablotines
 * Carmelite Scapular

Chapter 47
Q: Giulio Delminio


 * crepuscular
 * penumbra
 * opalescent penumbra
 * trompe l'oeil
 * sylloge
 * aeolipile of Hero of Alexandria
 * cyclotrons
 * mountebank
 * McGregor Mathers
 * conventicle
 * esthetes
 * anglais
 * queste du Graal
 * querulous
 * Stella Matutina

Chapter 48
Q: Piazzi Smyth, Charles Piazzi Smyth


 * pyramid of Cheops
 * Jacques de Molay
 * Chaldean
 * surrogate
 * elect

Chapter 49
Q: Henry Corbin


 * Badoglian

Chapter 50
Q: Nag Hammadi


 * tete-a-tete
 * pompiers
 * pointillist
 * Mondrian
 * Ennoia
 * satyr
 * Allumeuse

Chapter 51
Q: Thomaso Garzoni


 * firedamp

Chapter 52
Q: Saint Yves d'Alveydre
 * Fabre d'Olivet

Chapter 53
Q: Josef Hoëné-Wroński


 * Fabian Society socialism
 * Vichy
 * internecine

Chapter 54
"The prince of darkness is a gentleman." - King Lear

Chapter 55
Q: Robert Fludd


 * centenarian
 * pergola
 * Combray

Chapter 56
Q: Johann Valentin Andreae


 * catechism
 * bombardon
 * provost
 * lascivious
 * amatory
 * embouchure

Chapter 57
Q: Johann Valentin Andreae


 * Eleusina
 * rocaille
 * naiad
 * amphora
 * perennial
 * countenance
 * prefect

Chapter 58
Q: Johannes Trithemius

pg. 344
 * sepulcher
 * Rebis
 * White Copper
 * Immaculate Lamb
 * Aibathest
 * Alborach
 * Orpiment
 * Azoch
 * Baurach
 * Cambar
 * Caspa
 * Comerisson
 * Fada
 * Favonious
 * Foundation of the Art
 * Precious Stone of Givinis
 * Zibach
 * Ziva
 * Veil...


 * biers
 * sumptuous
 * carbuncle
 * alembics
 * lethargy
 * insufflate

Chapter 59
Q: Paracelsus


 * ampules
 * philter
 * Cartesian devil

Chapter 60
Q: Artephius


 * Ariadne's thread
 * rocaille
 * gendarmes
 * detritus
 * phonurgic
 * Nibelungs

Chapter 61
Q: Jean d'Espagnet


 * damask
 * acolytes

Chapter 62
Q: M. Raoult


 * hallouines
 * dolmen

Chapter 63
Q: Joseph Heller, Catch 22


 * athanor
 * pg. 362
 * menhir

TIFERET
tiferet means beauty, harmony

Chapter 64
Q:Gerolamo Cardano


 * cyclotron

Chapter 65
Q: Johnathan Swift


 * revelatory
 * Chermish
 * Adamic
 * Guillaume Postel

Chapter 66
Q: Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail


 * polygenesis
 * quaternion

Chapter 67
Q: Sampayo Bruno


 * Morgan le Fay
 * Manueline

Chapter 68
Q: Abulafia


 * Aleksandr Nevski
 * ignominy

Chapter 69
Q: Jules Bois

Chapter 70
Q:Fama Fraternitatis

Chapter 71
Q:Fama Fraternitatis

Chapter 72
Q: Effroyables pactions faicetes entre le diable & les pretendus Inuisibles

Chapter 73
Q: J. Duchaussoy


 * lemure
 * Verulam
 * jurisprudence
 * cantering

Chapter 74
Q: Guillaume Postel, Ignatius of Loyola

Chapter 75
Q: Julius Evola


 * morass
 * ipissimus

Chapter 76
Q: Renè Le Forestier

Chapter 77
Q: Johannes de Rupescissa


 * parricide
 * philosopher's stone
 * lapis exillis
 * steeping
 * Grimoire

Chapter 78
Q: Athanasius Kircher


 * striated
 * sclerotic

Chapter 79
Q: Alexandre Chayla

Chapter 80
Q: Dom J. Pernety

Chapter 81
Q: Ferdinand Ossendowski


 * tatterdemalion
 * ithyphallic
 * mentula

Chapter 82
Q: H.P. Blavatsky


 * auscultation
 * orgone

Chapter 83
Q: Alfred Korzybski


 * apse
 * nave
 * pictures on page 458

Chapter 84
Q: Christian Huygens


 * vicissitude

Chapter 85
Q: Michael Lamy, Jules Verne

Chapter 86
Q: L. Charpentier

Chapter 87
Q: W.C.F. Wigston

Chapter 88
Q: Madame Blavatsky, Charles Southeran


 * terraqueous
 * picture on page 473

Chapter 89
Q: Marquis de Luchet

Chapter 90
Q: Abbé Barruel

Chapter 91
Q: Captain Simonini to [uinytilks] for nonstudying peoples Barruel

Chapter 92
"There can no longer be any doubt. With all the power and the terror of Satan, the reign of the triumphant King of Israel is approaching our unregenerate world; the King born from the blood of Zion, the Antichrist, approaches the throne of universal power." - Sergei Nilus
 * massacre of Tsarskoye Selo
 * pogroms

Chapter 93
Q: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
 * libertinage

Chapter 94
Q: F.N. de Bonneville

Chapter 95
Q: Mons. Leon Meurin, S.J.

Chapter 96
Q: ?

Chapter 97
I am that I am. - Exodus 3:14, "Ego sum qui sum. An axiom of hermetic philosophy" - Madame Bavatsky, "'Who are you?' three hundred voices asked as one, while twenty swords flashed in the hands of the nearest ghosts...." - Alexandre Dumas, père

Chapter 98
Q: Rene Alleau
 * hauteur

Chapter 99
Q: Guenonism, Pauwels and Bergier

Chapter 100
Q: J. Cleves Symmes of Ohio, Lands Beyond (1952) by L. Sprague de Camp and Willy Ley
 * Hohlweltlehre

Chapter 101
Q: Pico della Mirandola

Chapter 102
Q: Odorico da Pordenone

Chapter 103
Q: Hasan as-Sabbah
 * bravura

Chapter 104
Q: Kamal Jumblatt, Johann Valentin Andreae

Chapter 105
Q: Lucretius
 * Andreae

Chapter 106
Q: Woody Allen


 * Ingolf Document
 * pictures page 538

NEZAH
Netzach (Kabbalah) means victory.

Chapter 107
Q: Faust

Chapter 108
Q: Nesta Webster

Chapter 109
Q: Le Coulteux de Canteleu
 * mythomane

Chapter 110

 * Pseudo Saadia Gaon?

Chapter 111
Q: Jacques Cazotte

HOD
Hod means splendor.

Chapter 112
Q: John Heydon
 * anathemas
 * proboscises

Chapter 113
Q: Ja'far as-Sadiq, sixth Imam
 * antistrophe
 * legerdemain
 * rachitic
 * psychopomp
 * Grand Guignol
 * Annibale Cantalamessa
 * Pio Bo
 * sacerdotal
 * hieratic
 * blanched
 * vicissitude

Chapter 114
Q: Mario Salvadori, features equations

Chapter 115
Q: Talmud, Zeraim, Berakhot, 6
 * loci
 * temple of Karnak
 * Bhagavad-Gita
 * Assassins of Alamut, Hashshashin

Chapter 116
Q: Blaise Cendrars
 * apotheosis

Chapter 117
Q: Sebastian Brant


 * Louis Charles Bréguet
 * lepidoptera
 * athanor

YESOD
Yesod means foundation

Chapter 118
Q: Karl Popper
 * Herostratus
 * prehensile

Chapter 119
Q: Johann Valentin Andreae


 * sinusitis
 * tachycardia
 * verdigris

MALKHUT
Malkhuth means kingdom

Chapter 120

 * sagacious


 * residuum
 * ammonoid