Modern alchemy: "Nordic gold"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_gold

http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/currency/eurocoinsgr.asp

Nordic gold is the alloy from which the middle three denominations of euro coins, 50 cent, 20 cent, and 10 cent coins are made. It has also been in use for a number of years in other countries.
It contains no gold, which is likely to lead to a number of misleading trade descriptions, its composition being:

Metal Percentage
Copper (Cu) 89%
Aluminium (Al) 5%
Zinc (Zn) 5%
Tin (Sn) 1%


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_gold

Ah Rusty: All that glitters is not gold, huh?

Georges Colleuil has done a lot of research on the Tarot with relation to the Mendeleiev Periodic Table. I must ask him if he cannot resume it briefly and ask permission to translate it for the pleasure of the Aeclecticians. Am dining with him next Sunday and will ask him if it's possible.

The 'alchemical' gold of the alchemists in ancient Greece was probably only a gold-plated base metal. Some among them may have been deluded into thinking that it was, in fact, gold. I wonder what they would have thought of the 'Nordic gold' had they stumbled onto it?

Diana said:

Ah Rusty: All that glitters is not gold, huh?

Georges Colleuil has done a lot of research on the Tarot with relation to the Mendeleiev Periodic Table. I must ask him if he cannot resume it briefly and ask permission to translate it for the pleasure of the Aeclecticians. Am dining with him next Sunday and will ask him if it's possible.

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Thanks, Diana! That would be interesting indeed. To some extent, Crowley in _Book of Thoth_ has related tarot to physics and chemistry. I have always wanted to see a unified presentation with the Periodic Table of Elements. As regards alchemy and tarot, I find Alain Bocher's _Cahiers du tarot: Vol 1_ utterly fascinating.

There's one early 20th century Russian scientist (who was a Rosicrucian, if I remember correctly) - Vladimir Shmakov - who, in a book [whose Russian title I'd translate as "Holy Book of Thoth: The Great Arcana of the Tarot: The Beginning of a Synthetic Philosophy of Esotericism"] - no relation to Crowley's book) gives all sorts of equations and scientific connections as regards the major arcana of the Tarot. Shmakov is cited in the Anonymous Author's _Meditations on the Tarot_. I was curious how UA knew about him but I later found out that apparently the UA was originally from Russia.

This Shmakov seems to be a mysterious character. I find nothing about him on the internet in English. Except that he, and a fellow philosopher called "GOM (the acronym of George Ottonovich Mebes) are well-known to the public in Russia for their works on Arcanology."

Arcanology. Never heard of that either. All the web-sites I go to seem to be game-based (Dungeons and Dragons and such-like).

Anyone know anything about Arcanalogy???

Diana said:

This Shmakov seems to be a mysterious character. I find nothing about him on the internet in English. Except that he, and a fellow philosopher called "GOM (the acronym of George Ottonovich Mebes) are well-known to the public in Russia for their works on Arcanology."

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I wasn't able to find much else on Shmakov except one Russian site that contains illustrations of the major arcana as described by Shmakov in his book on tarot (the book that I mentioned above). I own that book, but haven't had a chance to look much into it. I've seen another book of his on esotericism more generally.

One among several alternate phonetic spellings for his Russian surname would be Schmakov.

Edited to add:

link to major arcana images per specifications of Shmakov:
http://users.i.com.ua/~grdoor/shmakov.html

link to major arcana images per specifications of G.O.M.:
http://users.i.com.ua/~grdoor/gomtarot.html

Diana said:

Arcanology. Never heard of that either. All the web-sites I go to seem to be game-based (Dungeons and Dragons and such-like).

Anyone know anything about Arcanalogy???

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I haven't heard of it either.

But here's an establishment for esoteric teaching where it's on the curriculum:

http://kuslik.de.codexx.de/akademie/curriculum/lehrplan/detailplaene/markttag.htm

At http://www.roliste.com/static/detail3f14.html , a games site, it's explained that arcanology is a mixture of science and magic. There might be something to that explanation, when you see what other subjects are on the above curriculum besides arcanology.

My searc gave me this site also...with arcanology meaning
"the search for secrets."

http://www.mastros.biz/a23/arcanum.html

All the others dealt with magic or "fantasy" games.

terri

Can't wait to hear of your meeting, Diana....
Thanks, Rusty for this thread.