Currents · by Frater Custos · 12-minute read

Archeosophy

A Pisan who at thirty writes on tantric yoga, at forty-two goes up to Mount Athos, at fifty-one goes to Palestine and comes back a Christian, and at fifty-three founds in Rome a school that still exists. With the dates, and with what of these dates I have not been able to verify.

Tommaso Palamidessi was born in Pisa on 16 February 1915 and died in Rome on 29 April 1983. Between these two dates lies a course that changes direction at least three times, and that has a characteristic rare among Italian esotericists of the twentieth century: the author does not conceal his earlier phases. He does not disown the astrologer of the Forties nor the tantrist of 1945; he treats them as steps.

This entry serves to set those steps out in order with the right years, because that is the thing missing online — and to declare, as always on this site, what I have not checked myself.

The seasons, in order

The astrologer (1940-1943). The first books concern astrology applied to medicine: Il corso degli astri e le malattie nell’uomo, La medicina e gli influssi siderali. It is the field in which Palamidessi makes his name, and it is also the one he later leaves.

The East (1945-1949). In 1945 comes out I poteri occulti dell’uomo e la yoga tantrica; in 1949 L’Alchimia come via allo Spirito. These are the years in which in Italy one can write of tantra and of operative alchemy without being either an academic or a sectarian, and Palamidessi moves in them as a self-taught man of classical formation: he forms himself, by his own account, on Hermes Trismegistus, Plotinus, Origen and Vladimir Solovyov — the last of these is the name that explains all the rest.

The Christian turn (1953-1966). In 1953 he moves to Rome and works with «La Tribuna Illustrata». In 1957 he visits the monasteries of Mount Athos: it is the direct contact with hesychasm, the prayer of the heart and Eastern theology. In 1966 the journey to Palestine, which his followers indicate as decisive for the conversion to an esoteric Christianity.

The foundation (1968). On 29 September 1968, in Rome, Palamidessi publicly presents Archeosophy, publishes the first Quaderno — Tradizione arcaica e fondamenti dell’iniziazione archeosofica — and founds Archeosofica. The body will be registered as the Associazione Archeosofica in 1973. In 1975 comes out Tecniche di Risveglio Iniziatico; Le basi della teologia sofianica is of 1974, printed in 1986.

What «archeosofia» means

The term is built on archḗ, «principle» or «origin», and sophía, «wisdom»: wisdom of the origins. In the definition its author gives of it, it is not a new doctrine but a synthesis: the conviction that beneath the historical spiritual traditions lies an older common core, and that this core can be reached by a precise ascetic labour, set out in techniques. The framework is avowedly Christian, of Eastern matrix — Solovyov, Russian sophiology, hesychasm — but it takes in without embarrassment the Indian and alchemical material of the earlier phases.

What it is today

The Associazione Archeosofica still exists, has its seat in Rome and sections in several Italian cities — among them Lucca, that is, within the same range as the linchetto and the buffardello catalogued elsewhere in this atlas. It publishes, organises meetings and courses, and has a continuous editorial output that includes the founder’s posthumous works, devoted above all to mundane astrology and sacred iconography.

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