Cecco d' Ascoli and Forbidden Renaissance Magic

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the late Medieval astrologer magician Cecco d' Ascoli who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition in 1327 a.d. for publishing books connecting astrology with magick, necromancy and demonology. In several ways he presaged the sad career of Giordano Bruno who went to the stake 273 years later in 1600 for a similar offense. Cecco expounded his magick on a geocentric universe model, whereas Bruno paganized (or demonized) a later Copernican universe. Cecco d' Ascoli may be considered the father of Solomonic ceremonial mirror magick. One of his most heretical revelations was a description of summoning (evoking) the demon "Floron", in a mirror of polished steel. Floron had fallen from the Order of Cherubim and served under the Goetic king Amaymon. Such a mirror was described in Picatrix and later depictions of it reveal that it was in fact a hand mirror. After Cecco's execution magicians no longer wrote of magick mirrors but their use continued until the present day. We will draw primarily from Lynn Thorndike's "History of Magic and Experimental Science", Volume 2 (1923) with current material from Christopher Warnock. So if you want to find out where this dark mirror magick got started, tune in and we'll pull another Italian magus out of the fire.