Transitus Fluvii ("passing through the river" in Latin) or Passage Du Fleuve (in French) is an occult alphabet consisting of 22 characters described by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in his Third Book of Occult Philosophy (Cologne, 1533, but written around 1510). It is derived from the Hebrew alphabet[1] and is similar to the Celestial and Malachim alphabets. The name may refer to the crossing of the Euphrates by the Jews on their return from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.[2]

Transitus Fluvii
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Script type
Alphabet
CreatorHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Time period
16th century
LanguagesDerived from Hebrew
Related scripts
Parent systems
Hebrew
  • Transitus Fluvii
Sister systems
Celestial, Malachim
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Passing of the River script, described by Agrippa in Of Occult Philosophy, English edition

This alphabet can also be found in Abraham de Balmis Peculium Abrae. Grammatica hebraea una cum latino, Venetiis, 1523, sig. B6v. as well as in Geoffroy Tory, Champ Fleury, Paris 1529, f. 76v ubi tamen: "Lettres Chaldaiques", and Giovanni Agostino Panteo's (Pantheus) Voarchadumia contra alchimiam, Venice, 1530, pp. 545–46.[3] Pantheus claims that, while the Hebrew alphabet was entrusted to Moses and Enochian to Enoch, the Transitus Fluvii was entrusted to Abraham.[4]

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The alphabet is depicted in the movie The Blair Witch Project. It is also referenced in the book An Enemy at Green Knowe, part of the Green Knowe series by British author Lucy Boston.

References

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  1. ^ Gettings, Fred. Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils. London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981. ISBN 0-7100-0095-2.
  2. ^ Haywood, H. L.; Mackey, Albert Gallatin. Encyclopedia of Freemasonry Part 1 (1909). Kessinger Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7661-4719-3
  3. ^ V. Perrone Compagni, Cornelius Agrippa De occulta philosophia Libri tres, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992, p. 491. ISBN 978-90-04-09421-5.
  4. ^ Joannes Pantheus, Voarchadumia contra alchimiam, ars distincta ab archimia et sophia, cum additionibus, proportinonibus numeris et figuris opportuni. n.d. [1] Gallica – Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1550.
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