Magic and science in the modern Age: From the world of secrets to public knowledge

At the threshold of modernity, science and magic are still shrouded in a bond that is difficult to dissolve. They are, so to speak, in a relationship of contiguity rather than clear opposition. The revival of magic was linked to Marsilio Ficino's translation, between 1461 and 1463, of the Corpus Hermeticum, which was later published in 1471: a collection of theological and magico-astrological texts attributed to the legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus, or "thrice-great," the alleged founder of the religion of the Egyptians, a contemporary of Moses, as well as the source of Pythagoras and Plato. What characterizes these texts is the idea that every object in the universe consists of occult sympathies that connect it to the whole; that everything is divine; that between the macrocosm (the universe) and the microcosm (man) there are precise correspondences, which man is able to grasp. In particular, the magician is the one who can penetrate this network of correspondences, since he knows its secrets and is able - through invocations, images, talismans, etc. - to use them to his own advantage. Secrets precisely, which are to be concealed and made unrecognizable, as the exclusive patrimony of a chosen circle. The texts of the Corpus Hermeticum are referred to by Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, just to name a few of the founding fathers of modern science, to whom they appeared not as relics of gloomy superstitions of the past, but as an ancient and steadfast heritage of ieee, to be drawn upon and confronted. Despite this permanence, however, a different, strongly contrasting attitude to the secret knowledge of magicians also emerges. The idea that science is a universal form of knowledge, comprehensible to all and that everyone can contribute to its construction, is increasingly gaining ground. That is, the idea that science must be public and that secrecy rather than a value is a disvalue.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of C.G. Jung (1875-1961), the Eranos Foundation dedicates its Eranos-Jung Lectures - the public conferences held at the Monte Verità Conference Center in Ascona - to the exploration of a Jungian micro-lexicon, with which we wish to map some problematic nodes of our present. These are six words - Guilt, Soul, Conflict, Time, Care, Knowledge - to which Jung, during his intellectual and human journey, dedicated pages of great clarity and depth. For us today, they are precious notions through which we can shed light on ourselves, on our relationship with others and with the surrounding world. In this way, Jung will accompany us on a journey of discovery inside and outside ourselves, to help us better understand what went wrong in the process of civilization to which we owe both our power and our fragility, in the face of a reality that no longer seems to respond as we would like to our hegemonic designs