September 2026

Sarah and I have quite the four-course meal for you this month. We are thrilled to feature the work of three brand new Codex contributors!! Firstly, we have a piece by Kavi Tiwari. Making extremely productive use of his time before applying to universities, Kavi has spent a month as a research intern with our library working alongside us. In his time here has focused on a topic we have somehow not addressed in the Codex so far: ciphers. In particular, he has occupied his time studying the origins of cryptography, encryption, and secret writing, and excavating that understudied part of our collection in doing so.  

Next, we have a ‘blinding’ piece by Leonardo Baldi, an expert on the history of science and specialist of late medieval and early modern conceptions of light. His piece focuses on the 9^th century light metaphysics of philosopher and mathematician al-Kindi (c. 801-873). A superb Latinist, as well as recent graduate of the History of Hermetic Philosophy master’s program at the University of Amsterdam, I am very pleased to feature his work.

Our third course in the banquet this month comes from Maria Marqués, whose piece focuses on the theme of beauty and the person of St. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). Written in observance of ‘Hildegard von Bingen day’ marking the anniversary of the Benedictine abbess and polymath’s death in 1179, this beautifully written piece was partly inspired from her postgraduate research written for King’s College London. Maria now works alongside us at the Embassy and has flirted with the idea of contributing for some time, I am overjoyed she finally has.

Last and least ;) we have a short piece by yours truly. I have written a piece also marking the occasion of someone’s death anniversary, namely the great Manly P. Hall who continues to find mention in the Codex. Specifically, I discuss the personal relationship that he shared with our founder Joost Ritman, displaying some ‘receipts’ of the latter’s visit to the Philosophical Research Society (PRS). Sincere thanks to PRS director Kelly Carmena for bringing them to my attention.

That’s all from me, dig in!

Warmest regards,

Corey

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To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books."

- Manly P Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy. Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1928.

Each issue of the Codex contains a selection of articles written by our contributors, exploring the themes and traditions at the heart of the hermetic world.