From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe two enthusiastic expressions stand in Khunrath's p. 135 margin beside the first of his ways of knowing.
- In KhunrathThe context is a defence of knowing the matter before completing the work.
- In this editionRetain the expression as affirmative.
- A reading distinctionThe mode-of-receiving interpretation is the supplied editor’s formulation, supported by the gloss’s placement beside inspiration and revelation.
Meaning
The two enthusiastic expressions stand in Khunrath's p. 135 margin beside the first of his ways of knowing. That way consists of special divine inspiration, secret visions and good-spiritual revelations. “Cabala” here names reception under inspiration in the local argument.
Use in the book
The context is a defence of knowing the matter before completing the work. If knowledge could arise only from finished success, the first philosopher could not have begun with certainty. Khunrath answers by distinguishing sources of true knowledge, including a knowledgeable teacher and enlightened observation and reading as well as inspired revelation.
The placement of the gloss matters: it labels the first route, rather than dismissing all three as enthusiasm or claiming that every proper account must begin with a private vision. All the routes remain within divine government, but they are not identical descriptions of an experience.
The separate Azazel passage calls cabalistic witnesses to a punitive claim. It does not furnish a method for the Cabala Enthusiastica, nor does the p. 135 passage specify letter combinations, divine-name operations or a historical system of interpretation. The narrower account avoids making the word carry procedures absent from the page.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 135Special inspiration and revelation form the first source in the knowledge argument
- 1599 p. 135 · marginCabalâ Enthusiasticâ and Enthusiasticè label that source
- 1599 p. 136The continuation describes reading and observation under a different route
Translation in this edition
Retain the expression as affirmative. “Fanatical cabala” would import the negative force attached elsewhere to the Schwermer. The uninflected Cabala Enthusiastica is a normalized lookup form; the printed margin gives the ablative.
Source note
The mode-of-receiving interpretation is the supplied editor’s formulation, supported by the gloss’s placement beside inspiration and revelation. It should not be offered as a universal definition of every early modern use of Cabala.