{"id":80175,"date":"2026-03-16T10:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/?p=80175"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:04:07","slug":"embassy-free-mind-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/cultuur\/embassy-free-mind-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Embassy of the Free Mind: Museum of Worldly Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Walking into Embassy of the Free Mind feels a bit like entering someone's home who shares his gigantic private library with the city. And that's right: the core of the museum is the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, founded by Joost R. Ritman. For years this was a closed collection, now the door is open and you can wander among the ancient knowledge yourself.<\/h2>\n<p>The collection revolves around Hermetic philosophy, alchemy, mysticism, Rosicrucians, Kabbalah, Freemasonry and related spiritual traditions. Some of the books and manuscripts are on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. You can tell by the way everything is presented: not as dusty showcases, but as a living knowledge base for anyone curious about the history of free thought.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-80246\" title=\"embassy-of-the-free-mind6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6.webp\" alt=\"embassy-of-the-free-mind6\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6.webp 1920w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-600x368.webp 600w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-1024x627.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-768x470.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-1536x941.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-18x12.webp 18w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-400x245.webp 400w, https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/embassy-of-the-free-mind6-500x306.webp 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The museum is in the House with the Heads, a seventeenth-century canal house built in 1622. You walk through historic period rooms where exhibitions are now built around symbolism, esotericism and man's search for meaning. The old beamed ceilings, tall windows and wooden floors make the setting pretty special; you can feel the Golden Age architecture while looking at prints, manuscripts and mysterious drawings.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The museum sits in the House with the Heads, a seventeenth-century canal house built in 1622.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the garden behind the canal house you will find a symbolically landscaped area with alchemical and other references. Together with the caf\u00e9, this forms a quiet corner where you can let everything sink in after a lecture or museum tour. The combination of historic architecture, esoteric collection and public programs makes Embassy of the Free Mind a serious sanctuary for ideas, in the middle of the city.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walking into Embassy of the Free Mind feels a bit like entering someone's home who is sharing his gigantic private library with the city. And that's right: the core of the museum is the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, founded by Joost R. Ritman. For years this was a closed collection, now the door is open and you can ... <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/cultuur\/embassy-free-mind-museum\/\"><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":80238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[10924],"district":[9],"class_list":["post-80175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultuur","tag-musea-amsterdam","district-amsterdam-centrum"],"acf":{"slider":[80239,80242,80241],"fotograaf":"","editor":"","video":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cNVYIlgZ_l4?si=43PR6m_8RSgZXaym","google_360":"","instagram_code":"","subregel":"Tussen 17e\u2011eeuws pracht en zeldzame boeken ontdek je een museum\u2011bibliotheek vol vrijdenkers","new_in_town":false,"featured_item":false,"beste_van_amsterdam":false,"homepage_carousel":false,"cord_A":"","cord_B":"","introductie_tekst":"Embassy of the Free Mind zit in het monumentale Huis met de Hoofden, een grachtenpand uit 1622. Binnen word je omringd door oude boekenkasten, studietafels en spannende symbolen. Het museum draait om de Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: zeldzame werken over hermetische filosofie, mystiek en andere esoterische richtingen, opengesteld voor iedereen die verder wil kijken dan de waan van de dag.","rubriek":"Locatie","locatie_event":null,"naam_locatie":"Embassy of the Free Mind","adres":"Keizersgracht 123","stad":"Amsterdam","website":"https:\/\/embassyofthefreemind.com","telefoon_nummer":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80247,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80175\/revisions\/80247"}],"acf:attachment":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80241"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80242"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80175"},{"taxonomy":"district","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/district?post=80175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}