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Athanasius Kircher – Musurgia Universalis
Identifier
018628
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Athanasius Kircher, S.J. (sometimes erroneously spelled Kirchner; 1602–1680) was a 17th-century German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works, most notably in the fields of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. He correctly established the link between the ancient Egyptian and the modern Coptic languages. One of the first people to observe microbes through a microscope, Kircher was ahead of his time in proposing that the plague was caused by an infectious microorganism and in suggesting effective measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Kircher also displayed a keen interest in technology and mechanical inventions; inventions attributed to him include a magnetic clock, various automatons and the first megaphone.
A description of the experience
Athanasius Kircher – Musurgia Universalis (Rome 1650) translated by Joscelyn Godwin
The primeval Monad, the beginning of all things, unfolding itself in time into the Dryad, produced an indefinite duality or matter. From the monad and dyad proceeded numbers, from numbers points, from points lines, from lines surfaces and finally from surfaces solid bodies