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ALEISTER CROWLEY THE SWORD OF SONG

r the glimmering silver-white of celtic paganism; the hard grey dim-gilded of buddhism, the fleecy opacity of islam, or the mysterious medium of those ancient faiths which come up in as many colours as their investigator has moods* in order to get over the ethical difficulties presented by the na ve naturalism of many parts of those scriptures, in the divine authority of which he firmly believed, philo borrowed from the stoics (who had been in like straits in respect of greek mythology) that great excalibur which they had forged with infinite pains and skill the method of allegorical interpretation. this mighty two handed engine at the door of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken allegorically, or, as it

BLACK WITCHCRAFT

untain (eden) practicing in wild orgies with the music of lucifer through that created by jubal. women, the first pairikas or faeries/witches, in their beautiful appearances, invited the sons of seth (children of god) and copulated with them, bearing other children. this jewish folklore presents the earliest forms of the witches sabbat as a luciferian celebration and practice of sexual magick. to philo, likewise, cain is the type of avarice, of "folly and impiety("de cherubim" xx, and of self-love("de sacrificiis abelis et caini "quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat" 10 "he built a city (gen. iv. 17) means that "he built a doctrinal system of law-lessness, insolence, and immoderate indulgence in pleasure("de posteritate" 15; and the epicurean philosophers are of the school of cain "claim

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

cended on earth to incarnate in their turn "the souls (monads) are pre-existent in the world of emanations (book of wisdom viii, 20; and the zohar teaches that in the "soul "is the real man, i.e, the ego and the conscious i am 'manas "they descend from the pure air to be chained to bodies" says josephus repeating the belief of the essenes (de bello judaeo, 11, 12 "the air is full of souls" states philo "they descend to be tied to mortal bodies, being desirous to live in them (de gignat, 222 c; de somniis, p. 455; because through, and in, the human form they will become progressive beings, whereas the nature of the angel is purely intransitive, therefore man has in him the potency of transcending the faculties of the angels. hence the initiates in india say that it is the brahmin, the twice

om the two words[[hebrew] yaho-iah, jaho-jah, or jaho is jah. punctuated it is[[hebrew] which is, however, a rabbinical caprice to associate it with the name adoni or[[hebrew, which has the same points. it is curious, and indeed hardly conceivable, that the jews anciently read the name[[hebrew (adoni, when they had so many names of which jeho and jah and iah constituted a part. but so it was; and philo byblus, who gives us the so-called fragment of sanchoniathon, spelt it in greek letters[[ieuo, javo or jevo. theodoret says that the samaritans pronounced yahva, and the jews yaho. prof. gibbs, however, suggests its punctuation thus[[hebrew (ye-hou-vih; and he cut the gordian knot of its true occult meaning. for in this last form, as a hebrew verb, it means "he will- be* it was also derived

olemy philadelphus, desiring to have the hebrew law translated for him into greek (the famous septuagint, wrote to the high priest of the jews, eleazar, to send him six men from each of the twelve tribes; and the seventy-two representatives (of whom sixty were ghosts apparently) came to the king in egypt and translated the law amid miracles and wonders. see butler's "horae biblicae" josephus, and philo judaeus[[vol. 2, page] 201 the transformation of the earth. in these red-haired and hair-covered monsters, the fruit of the unnatural connection between men and animals, the "lords of wisdom" did not incarnate, as we see. thus by a long series of transformations due to unnatural cross-breeding (unnatural "sexual selection, originated in due course of time the lowest specimens of humanity; wh

as sure "to swallow it" one day, as he has swallowed jupiter-lapis and still greater characters[[vol. 2, page] 342 the secret doctrine. is shaggy, hard, heavy, black, and has the gift of speech; when one prepares to cast it away, it produces a sound similar to the cry of a child. it is by means of this stone that helanos foretold the ruin of troy, his fatherland" etc (falconnet) sanchoniathon and philo byblius, in referring to these betyles, call them "animated stones" photius repeats what damascius, asclepiades, isidorus and the physician eusebius had asserted before him. the latter (eusebius) never parted with his ophites, which he carried in his bosom, and received oracles from them, delivered in a small voice resembling a low whistling* arnobius (a holy man who "from a pagan had become

gans did, it is the work in question. and now it may be as well to remind the reader of that which was said of i a o, in our work "isis unveiled "no other deity affords such a variety of etymologies as jaho, nor is there any name which can be so variously pronounced. it is only by associating it with the masoretic points that the later rabbins succeeded in making jehovah read 'adonai- or lord, as philo byblius spells it in greek letters[[ieuo- ievo. theodoret says that the samaritans pronounced it jahe (yahra, and the jews yaho; which would make it as we have shown, i- ah- o. diodorus states that 'among the jews they relate that moses called the god iao' it is on the authority of the bible itself, therefore, that we maintain that before his initiation by jethro, his father-in-law, moses ha

no more* but phallic worship has developed only with the gradual loss of the keys to the inner meaning of religious symbols; and there was a day when the israelites had beliefs as pure as the aryans have. but now judaism, built solely on phallic worship, has become one of the latest creeds in asia, and theologically a religion of hate and malice toward everyone and everything outside themselves. philo judaeus shows what was the genuine hebrew faith. the sacred writings, he says, prescribe what we ought to do. commanding us to hate the heathen and their laws and institutions. they did hate baal or bacchus worship publicly, but left its worst features to be followed secretly; and it is with the talmudic jews that the grand symbols of nature were the most profaned. with them, as now shown by

ame the visible waters on the face of the earth- the crystalline abode of the great mother, the mother of ea and all the gods, which became, still later, the great dragon tiamat, the sea serpent. its last stage of development was the great struggle of bel with the dragon- the devil! whence the christian idea that god cursed the devil? the god of the jews, whomsoever he was, forbids cursing satan. philo judaeus and josephus both state that the law (the pentateuch and the talmud) undeviatingly forbid one to curse the adversary, as also the gods of the gentiles "thou shalt not revile the gods" quoth the god of moses (exodus xxii. 28, for it is god who "hath divided (them) unto all nations (deut. iv. 19; and those who speak evil of[[vol. 2, page] 478 the secret doctrine "dignities (gods) are c

st beginning opens invariably with the unknown and passive deity, from which emanates a certain active power or virtue, the mystery that is sometimes called wisdom, sometimes the son, very often god, angel, lord, and logos* the latter is sometimes applied to the very first emanation, but in several systems it proceeds from the first androgyne or double ray produced at the beginning by the unseen. philo depicts this wisdom as male and female. but though its first manifestation[[footnote(s[[footnote continued from previous page] the chariots attached to dhruva (the pole star, parasara speaks of "the chariots of the nine planets" which are attached by aerial cords* justin "cum. trypho" p. 284[[vol. 2, page] 490 the secret doctrine. had a beginning, for it proceeded from oulom (aion, time, the

the chariots attached to dhruva (the pole star, parasara speaks of "the chariots of the nine planets" which are attached by aerial cords* justin "cum. trypho" p. 284[[vol. 2, page] 490 the secret doctrine. had a beginning, for it proceeded from oulom (aion, time, the highest of the aeons when emitted from the father, it had remained with him before all creations, for it is part of him* therefore, philo judaeus calls adam kadmon "mind (the ennoia of bythos in the gnostic system "the mind, let it be named adam* as the old magian books explain it, the whole event becomes clear. a thing can only exist through its opposite- hegel teaches us, and only a little philosophy and spirituality are needed to comprehend the origin of the later dogma, which is so truly satanic and infernal in its cold an

tainly has not. the zohar gives it very suggestively. when the "holy one (the logos) desired to create man, he called the highest host of angels and said to them what he wanted, but they doubted the wisdom of this desire and answered "man will not continue one night in his glory- for[[footnote(s* a division indicative of time* sanchoniathon calls time the oldest aeon, protogonos, the "first-born* philo judaeus "cain and his birth" p. xvii* it is suggestive of that spirit of paradoxical negation so conspicuous in our day, that while the evolution hypothesis has won its rights of citizenship in science as taught by darwin and haeckel, yet both the eternity of the universe and the pre-existence of a universal consciousness, are rejected by the modern psychologists "should the idealist be righ

mperfect, and given only to the terrestrial and infernal deities. in his eighth eclogue, virgil records the fact by saying "numero deus impare gaudet "unequal numbers please the gods" but number seven, or the heptagon, the pythagoreans considered to be a religious and perfect number. it was called "telesphoros" because by it all in the universe and mankind is led to its end, i.e, its culmination (philo. de mund. opif. being under the rule of seven sacred planets* the doctrine of the spheres shows, from lemuria to pythagoras, the seven powers of terrestrial and sublunary nature, as well as the seven great forces of the universe, proceeding and evolving in seven tones, which are the seven notes of the musical scale. the heptad (our septenary) was regarded "as the number of a virgin, because

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

right space, son of dark space" corresponds to the ray dropped at the first thrill of the new "dawn" into the great cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated as oeaohoo the younger (the "new life, to become, to the end of the life-cycle, the germ of all things. he is "the incorporeal man who contains in himself the divine idea- the generator of light and life, to use an expression of philo judaeus. he is called the "blazing dragon of wisdom[[footnote(s* lanoo is a student, a chela who studies practical esotericism "tri-dasa" or three times ten (30, alludes to the vedic deities, in round numbers, or more accurately 33- a sacred number. they are the 12 adityas, the 8 vasus, the 11 rudras, and 2 aswins- the twin sons of the sun and the sky. this is the root-number of the hindu pa

nce his mother and his wife: the pure element of fire (the active or male principle) regarded as light and heat, in conjunction with earth and water, or matter (female, or passive, elements of cosmical generation[[footnote(s* plato "timaeus "suidas" v. tyrrhenia* the reader will understand that by "years" is meant "ages" not mere periods of thirteen lunar months each* see the greek translation by philo byblus* cory "ancient fragment* mithras was regarded among the persians as the theos ekpetros- god of the rock[[vol. 1, page] 341 one tree of knowledge. mithras is the son of bordj, the persian mundane mountain* from which he flashed out as a radiant ray of light. brahma, the fire-god, and his prolific consort; and the hindu agni, the refulgent deity from whose body issue a thousand streams

f chaos and primordial light (the central sun. this "first-born" however, was only the aggregate of the host of the "builders" the first constructive forces, who are called in ancient cosmogonies the ancients (born of the deep, or chaos) and the "first point" he is the tetragrammaton, so-called, at the head of the seven lower sephiroth. this was the belief of the chaldees "these chaldeans" writes philo, the jew, speaking very flippantly of the first instructors of his ancestors "were of opinion that the kosmos, among the things that exist) is a single point, either being itself god (theos) or that in it is god, comprehending the soul of all things (see his "migration of abraham" 32) chaos-theos-kosmos are but the three aspects of their synthesis- space. one can never hope to solve the myst

tion; the word or logos, or dabar (in hebrew, which word, though it becomes in fact a plural number, or "words- d(a)b(a)rim, when it reflects itself, or falls into the aspect of a host (of angels, or sephiroth "numbers) is still collectively one, and on the ideal plane a nought- 0, a "no-thing" it is without form or being "with no likeness with anything else (franck "die kabbala" p. 126) and even philo calls the creator, the logos who stands next god "the second god" and "the second god who is his (highest god's) wisdom (philo. quaest. et solut. deity is not god. it is nothing, and darkness. it is nameless, and therefore called ain-soph "the word ayin meaning nothing" see franck "die kabbala" p. 153. see also section xii "theogony of the creative gods" the "highest god (the unmanifested lo

e collective beingless[[footnote(s* iswara, or the logos, cannot see parabrahmam, but only mulaprakriti, says the lecturer, in the four lectures on bhagavatgita (see theosophist, feb, 1887[[vol. 1, page] 352 the secret doctrine. unbegotten aeon, and these are the angels that are ever beholding the face of the father (the logos, the "second god" who stands next god "the inconceivable" according to philo. this is as plain as ancient esoteric secrecy would make it. it is as kabalistic, but less veiled than the zohar in which the mystic names or attributes are also four syllabled, twelve, forty-two, and even seventy-two syllabled words! the tetrad shows to marcus the truth in the shape of a naked woman, and letters every limb of that figure, calling her head[[omega, her neck[[psi, shoulders an

gory has it. aye, from ananta, the serpent of eternity which carries vishnu through the manvantara, from the original primordial sesha, whose seven heads become "one thousand heads" in the puranic fancy, down to the seven-headed akkadian serpent. this typifies the seven principles throughout nature and man; the highest or middle head being the seventh. it is not of the mosaic, jewish sabbath that philo speaks in his creation of the world, when saying that the world was completed "according to the perfect nature of number 6" for "when that reason (nous) which is holy in accordance with the number seven, has entered the soul (rather the living body, the number six is thus arrested, and all the mortal things which that number makes" and again "number 7 is the festival day of all the earth, th

red" it was known, seen, and felt by the whole of antiquity. pantheism manifests itself in the vast expanse of the starry heavens, in the breathing of the seas and oceans and the quiver of life of the smallest blade of grass. philosophy rejects one finite and imperfect god in the universe, as the anthropomorphic deity of the monotheist is represented by his followers. it repudiates in its name of philo-theo-sophia the grotesque idea that infinite, absolute deity should, or rather could, have any, whether direct or indirect, relation to finite illusive evolutions of matter, and therefore cannot imagine a universe outside that deity, or the latter absent from the smallest speck of animate or inanimate substance* why either the ether of space, or "nervous ether" should "destroy the individual

ons about the zodiac. he traces the invention of it to the palmy days of the golden age of iran, remarking that one of the said traditions maintains that the genii of the planets are represented under the same shapes and figures they had assumed, when they showed themselves to several holy prophets, and have thus led to the establishment of the rites based on the zodiac. pythagoras, and after him philo judaeus, held the number 12 as very sacred "the dodecahedron is a perfect number" it is the one among the signs of the zodiac, philo adds, that the sun visits in twelve months, and it is to honour that sign that moses divided his nation into twelve tribes, established the twelve cakes (levit. xxiv, 5) of the shewbread, and placed twelve precious stones around the ephod of the pontiffs (see d

CHRONOLOGIA RORISPERGIUS

ited for the discovering the precession of the equinoxes which was already known in babylonia centuries earlier. 86-82 bc rhetorica ad herennium latin rhetorical treatise on the classical art of memory attributed to marcus tullius cicero. 70-19 virgil 67 pirates based in cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of asia minor) were practicing secret rites of mithras. 46-120 plutarch 20 bc- 45 philo of alexandria, jewish platonic philosopher 10 bce apollonius of tyana 4? bce-33 ce jesus founds christianity. diamond sutra. heart sutra. 1st century ce apollonius of tyana flourished. nagarjuna- first order 4 magic square, in india. 1st to 3rd ce) testament of solomon composed 17 egyptian zodiac at denderah is erected. 30-96 new testament. 50-63 (n.t) colossians, philemon, ephesians, philip

DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

er outside of the new testament texts there is no sign or record of jesus whatsoever. a mention in the works of the "hebrew" historian josephus is an obvious later addition in the priesthood's desperation to cross-reference their meal ticket. more than 40 writers are known to have chronicled the events in israel/palestine at the alleged time of "jesus" and not one of them mentions him. the writer philo lived throughout the "life" of jesus and wrote a history of the judeans, which covered this whole period. philo lived in or near jerusalem at the time that jesus was supposed to have been born to a virgin mother, made his triumphant entry into jerusalem on a donkey, and was crucified and rose again. in this same period, king herod is also claimed to have killed all those children trying to e

of jesus and wrote a history of the judeans, which covered this whole period. philo lived in or near jerusalem at the time that jesus was supposed to have been born to a virgin mother, made his triumphant entry into jerusalem on a donkey, and was crucified and rose again. in this same period, king herod is also claimed to have killed all those children trying to eliminate the "saviour. what does philo say about these amazing events? nothing, zilch, the big round circle. it is the same with the roman records and the work of every contemporary author. there is a simple explanation for this. these events never happened because there was no "jesus. jesus the "christ" the word "christ" comes from the greek "christos, which simply means "anointed. the anointing was performed with the fat of a c

DAVID ICKE THE BIGGEST SECRET

er in aramaic,contain what we would call horoscopes, the belief that the movement of the planetsaffects a persons character and destiny. the essenes practised astrology, the symbolismof which you find throughout the gospels and the old testament. the early christians,an offshoot of the essenes-therapeutae, did the same, as did the romans and all thegentile nations surrounding judea.35 the writer, philo, who lived at the alleged time ofjesus, said in his treatise on the contemplative life, that when the therapeutae prayedto god, they turned to the sun and they studied in order to discover the hidden (coded)meaning of sacred books. he wrote that they also meditated on the secrets of naturecontained in the books under the veil of allegory.36 that is precisely the way the bible iswritten. toda

ous manipulators become to cross reference jesusthat they inserted a pathetically obvious addition into the works of the jewishhistorian, josephus, to support the unsupportable. more than 40 writers are known tohave chronicled the events of these lands during the alleged time of jesus, but theydont mention him.48 a guy who did all the things that he was supposed to have doneand no-one records it? philo lived throughout the supposed life of jesus and wrote ahistory of the judeans which covered the whole of this period. he even lived in or nearjerusalem when jesus was said to have been born and herod was supposed to havekilled the children, yet he doesnt record any of this. he was there when jesus is said tohave made his triumphant arrival in jerusalem and when he was crucified and rose from

ife of jesus and wrote ahistory of the judeans which covered the whole of this period. he even lived in or nearjerusalem when jesus was said to have been born and herod was supposed to havekilled the children, yet he doesnt record any of this. he was there when jesus is said tohave made his triumphant arrival in jerusalem and when he was crucified and rose fromthe dead on the third day. what does philo say about these fantastic events? nothing.not a syllable. not a titter.49 none of this is mentioned in any roman record or in thecontemporary accounts of the writers of greece and alexandria who were familiar withwhat happened there.50why? because it didnt happen. it was a symbolic, coded story to pass on esotericand astrological knowledge of many kinds and, most crucially, to create another

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

description of the angelic orders became integral to magic and in the practices of magical rituals. angels and giants another leading belief, not so much interwoven with the popular theology, was that of angels intercourse with women, producing the race of giants. the idea derived from genesis 4:2, in the adoption of which the christian fathers followed the opinion of ancient jewish interpreters, philo-judaeus, and josephus. a particular account of the circumstances is given in the book of enoch, which makes the angels.uriel, gabriel, and michael.the chief instruments in the subjugation of the adulterers and their formidable offspring. the classic writers have perpetuated similar beliefs of the hero race, all of them born either from the love of the gods for women, or of the preference sho

me sound could hasten the redemption of a sick and sinful world. the creative power of divine utterance is indicated in genesis in the phrase and god said, which precedes creation; this is repeated in the christian fourth gospel: in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god and the word was god (john 1:1. the concept of the logos as the word of god, immanent and creative, derived from philo judaeus of alexandria in the first half-century of the christian era. philo fused together traditional jewish teachings from the talmud and the hellenistic philosophy of greece (influenced by hindu mysticism. the 72-syllable name became the tetragrammaton of four-syllable form. a christian kabalist of the sixteenth century developed a pentagrammaton said to increase the power of the tetragra

iego: academy of creative living, 1972. the essenes an esoteric jewish sect that flourished in palestine in the century immediately prior to the emergence of the christian movement and from whom the early christians may have drawn some of their basic ideas. they were very exclusive and possessed an organization peculiar to themselves. the earliest mentions of the essenes come from the writings of philo and josephus, both contemporaries of jesus. according to philo, they lived separated lives apart from the cities, had a voluntary communal life with a subsistence level of existence, and avoided temple worship. they had a threefold rule of love of god, love of virtue, and love of humankind. pliny, most importantly, located a holy of essenes on the west bank of the dead sea at a point far eno

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

d. in a discussion about the day of their creation, it is agreed on all hands that there were no angels at first, lest men might say, michael spanned out the firmament on the south, and gabriel to the north. there is a distinct foreshadowing of the gnostic demiurgos. that antique link between the divine spirit and the world of matter.to be found in the talmud. what with plato were the ideas, with philo the logos, with the kabalists the world of aziluth, what the gnostics called more emphatically the wisdom (sophi, or power (dunamis, and plotinus the nous, that the talmudical authors call metation. there is a good deal, in the post-captivity talmud, about the angels, borrowed from the persian. the archangels or angelic princes are seven in number, and their hebrew names and functions corres

FREEMASONS SATANISM AND SYMBOLISM

quote above where pike identifies lucifer as the masonic light-bearer. however when you understand the esoteric explanation from doc marquis, your understanding clears up completely. the apocalypse is identified first by pike as being the book of revelation written by the apostle john. pike then states that similar books from other religions are just as 'inspired' as revelation, mentioning plato, philo, the sephar yezirah, and the sohar. pike says all three of these books- apocalypse [revelation, the sephar yezirah, and the sohar, are all identically "inspired" and since the last two books are of non-christian faiths, albert pike is saying that the contents of revelation are no big deal. therefore, it is no big deal that the book of revelation denigrates the "pomp and works" of satan, sinc

FULLER J F C SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH

eal brahm which is the only true. it manifests itself first in brama, vishnu and siva, past, present and future time, and through these in the visible, the last being maya, or illusion. the temples of most of the archaic peoples of asia and of egypt were intended to be visible copies of the heavenly temple, the starry firmament called templum, and the same idea is visible in those of the hebrews. philo and josephus represent the temples of the israelites, as typical of the visible universe, and this was based on the invisible universe. 15 amongst the mohammedans we find the same idea: the first thing god created was a pen. indeed the whole creation is but a transcript, and god when he made the world, did but write it out of that copy which he had of it in his divine understanding from all

in the old testament and in the new, especially in the works of st. paul and st. john, is wisdom described as the creative power. the book of genesis opens with the words gin the beginning h, which in hebrew are rendered by the word b'raishith, which by many qabalists is spelt be'raishith, which means gthrough wisdom h, or through the word or principle which expresses wisdom- namely the logos of philo and st. john. a similar idea is found in the chaldaic word memrah, in the vach of the rig veda, honover of the zend avesta, and in the boundless light of latter-day buddhists. nebo was the babylonian god of wisdom, and his planet was mercury. moses, the supposed originator of the qabalah, was buried on mount nebo. bo, bod, boden, and in china fo, are all gods of wisdom. amongst the buddhists

dom, whose day is the fourth day of the week, wednesday, upon which god created glights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night h. 13 wisdom is not only the creator of the universe but also the mediator between the uncreated and the created- god and man. in the form of 'hokmah, the son of kether, wisdom renders comprehensive the abstract thought in an association of ideas. philo names it messiah, and st. john christ. st. paul says: but we speak the wisdom of god in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which god ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the lord of glory. 14 referring to christ as the sun, this same apostle says: who is the image of the invisible god, the

GAMBLE ELIZA BURT THE GOD IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS OR SEX IN RELIGION

on the nature and attributes of the two principles by which everything is produced, and to dispute over their relative importance in the office of reproduction. much light has been thrown upon these speculations by the kosmogonies which have come down to us from the phoenicians, babylonians, and other peoples of past ages. in the phoenician kosmogony, according to the mokh doctrine as recorded by philo, out of the kosmic egg toleeleth (female "sprang all the impregnation of creation and the beginning of the universe" in this exposition of the beginnings of things, it is distinctly stated that the spirit which in after ages came to be regarded as something outside or above nature "had no consciousness of its own creation" commenting on the above, bunsen is constrained to admit that it is us

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

ainly flourished in christian apostolic times,butthey are not mentioned in the new testament, nor in the hebrew old testament, and there is no proof that the society existed in the era of any of the authors of the old testament of whom malachi, the last of the prophets, died about 400b.c.theearliest information regarding the essenes as a sect of the jews is derived from the worksofthelearned jew, philo of alexandria, who flourished about 40a.d.;his writings show that although he was a deep student of greek philosophy he retained his hebrew faith in the worship of jehovah; we find his thoughts wandered also to those theological notions which were subsequently displayed by the worksofpaul and the doctrines of st john the evangelist. philo appears to have decided that the greek philosophers w

ellinginpalestine and alexandria, his account of the essenes should be very reliable; he seems also to have studied the doctrines and customs of another similar society of deeply religious men of the time, which existed in egypt, where he lived. i refer to the therapeutee; theonly.surviving tract describing the character and doctrines of the sect is namedde vita contemplatioa,and is attributed to philo.thetherapeutee lived solitary, monastic lives, gave great attention to the healing of sick persons, and assembled for worship once a week: their chief resort was near lake mareotis, not far from alexandria.thewritings of philo concerning the essenes are two, the earlier mention is foundinthe treatisequod omnis probus liber.,ss. 12, 13, and the later from hisapologies for thejewsmay be found

hisantiquitiesofthe jews;267and lastly we have the roman author pliny the elder (dieda.d.79, who mentions the sect in hisnatural history.following these there were, after a long interval, hip255 polytus (d. 230, porphyry (d. 305) the neo-platonist theo. sophist who repeats the account given by josephus, and solinus who repeats pliny, and the christian authors eusebius..225.(d. 338) who reproduces philo, and epiphanius (d. 403)who!mention this sect. for many hundred years the history and doctrines ofthe,essenes were entirely unnoticed, and it is only in quite recent times (with one exception- theophilus gale in hiscourtofthe gentiles,1672) that writers have studied the original information and have overlain the subject with a heapofconjectural additions and vague opinions qualified by the p

estigations.themodern commentators whose works may be read in english are neander, onchurch history,basnage,historyofthejews,de quincey, in hisessays,c. d. ginsburg,thefreemasonry and the essenes 235essenes,theirhistoryanddoctrine,with alex. lawrie and r. freke gould, in theirhistoriesoffreemasonry.most recently james moffat has written a concise article on the subject, giving the quotations from philo and josephus and pliny. the talmud, that quaint collection of jewish legends, does not mention the essenes as such, but some jewish authors hold that its references to the sect of assideans or chasidim(chsidim)refer to the essenes as a religio-philosophic sect of maccabean times (see macc.i.,2, 42) it is not easy to understand why this sect of essenes should have been considered as a conspic

e minor details from other authors: pliny called the essenes the marvel of the world, saying the society had existed for thousands of years (of which there is not the slightest proof, that they had neither wives nor children, possessed no money, and lived amid palm trees; he added that their numbers are often recruited from persons who have wearied of life's struggles with the waves of adversity. philo tells us that in his time there were four thousand of these 'holy ones; additional details given by him are that they condemned slavery, never used oaths in private life, offered no sacrifices, were the strictest of sabbatarians, and spent their238themagical masontime in giving interpretations of an allegorical character to the books of moses. hippolytus, in his work upon heresies, speaking

ed from the eastern world. as regards the name of the sect, essenes, there is no agreement either among jews or christians as to its meaning and derivation. various suggestions may be found, such as the syriachasaya,the pious ones; aramaicasia,healers;iznuoim,the humble;chshaim,the silent ones. josephus calls themessenoiandessaioi;epiphanius calls themossenes,osioior holy ones, thus agreeing with philo. a curious note is that josephus, in whiston's english translation, calls the breast255 plate of the high priest by the wordessen(antiquitiesiii.,8, 5),butthis is not the spelling of the hebrew word used in the mosaic books, exodus xxv, 7, and xxviii, 4, 30, where we readch sh nfor that adornment. boutell's bible dictionary gives the namesshriunandshrihfor the breastplate of judgment. there

he hebrew nation, but about the timefreemasonry and the essenes 239of jesus there appear to have been two, annas and caiaphas (lukeiii.,2, who held the office contemporaneously; not long aftera.d.70 the office ceased to exist when titus took jerusalem and burned the temple. in many early works and essays upon freemasonry and masonic origins we find that the scanty accounts of the essenes given by philo, pliny, and josephus have been expanded into a narrative suggesting that the essenes formed a secret society closely resembling in its principles and practices that of freemasonry, and of its having had a regular initiatory procedure, but these additions are almost entirely imaginary and invented to support the theory of one masonic origin from this jewish sect.theessenes certainly existed i

ble foods, while the pythagoreans were vegetarians. alexander lawrie, the elder, published ahistoryoffree255masonrywith anaccountof the grandlodgeofscotlandin 1804, and his successor, w. a. laurie, in 1859; it is declared in these volumes that the essenes used signs resembling those of the. freemasons; this article was, i understand, written by sir david brewster for lawrie; he gives the tract of philo,uponthecontemplativelife,as his authority; i have looked over the greek textofthat tract, as well as the english version, and i am unable to find there any such assertion as to the essenes, for its information refers mainly to the therapeutee of egypt. albert mackey,inhis greatencyclopediaoffreemasonry,written in 1874, gives a long article upon the essenes, quoting largely from alexander law

, for its information refers mainly to the therapeutee of egypt. albert mackey,inhis greatencyclopediaoffreemasonry,written in 1874, gives a long article upon the essenes, quoting largely from alexander lawrie and c. ginsburg, and especially declares 'they had particular signs for recognising each other, which have a strong resemblance to thoseoffreemasons. i find no such statement made either by philo, josephus, or pliny,norcan i find any such claim made, except by masonic authors, who seem to have invented their information. inthelexiconoffreemasonry,by albert g. mackey, compiled by m. c. peck, it is stated 'philo..says that when they [the essenes] were listening to the secret instructions of their chiefs they stood with the righthandon the breast a little below the chin andthelefthandpl

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

of our own. what occurred during this time is truly terrifying, demonic forces came to earth and mated with the daughters of men and gave birth to every kind of mutation. these mutated creatures, called nephilim were truly evil and hideous. they are discussed in many traditional theological works such as those of clement, alexander, tertullian and justin to name a few early christian writers and philo and josephus to name a number of others. these beings brought such havoc to earth that after the flood the elder gods (emissaries from the pleroma) created a special seal across the astral dimension which surrounds the earth and locked them away until the omega day. according to the new testament these forces were kept in a spiritual dimension called tartaros. this is the meaning of verses s

HELENA BLAVATSKY THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

trife of words ought to cease, and considered it possible to extract one harmonious system from these various teachings panaetius, athenagoras, and clement were thoroughly instructed in platonic philosophy, and comprehended its essential unity with the oriental systems. in those days, the jew aristobulus affirmed that the ethics of aristotle represented the esoteric teachings of the law of moses; philo judaeus endeavored to reconcile the pentateuch with the pythagorean and platonic philosophy; and josephus proved that the essenes of carmel were simply the copyists and followers of the egyptian therapeutae (the healers. so it is in our day. we can show the line of descent of every christian religion, as of every, even the smallest, sect. the latter are the minor twigs or shoots grown on the

wretch, hapless from birth to death though he has done nothing to deserve his cruel fate-would be rather a senseless fiend than a god. why, even the jewish philosophers, believers in the mosaic bible (esoterically, of course, have never entertained such an idea; and, moreover, they believed in reincarnation, as we do. q. can you give me some instances as a proof of this? a. most decidedly i can. philo judaeus says: the air is full of them (of souls; those which are nearest the earth, descending to be tied to mortal bodies, palindromousi authis, return to other bodies, being desirous to live in them. in the zohar, the soul is made to plead her freedom before god: lord of the universe! i am happy in this world, and do not wish to go into another world, where i shall be a handmaid, and be ex

an abstraction like parabrahman, though modern cabalists have succeeded by mere dint of sophistry and paradoxes in making a "supreme god" of it, and nothing higher. but with the early chaldean cabalists ain-soph was "without form or being" with "no likeness with anything else" that ain-soph has never been considered as the "creator" is proved conclusively by the fact that such an orthodox jew as philo calls "creator" the logos, who stands next the "limitless one" and is "the second god "the second god is in its (ain-soph's) wisdom" says philo in qu st et solut. deity is no-thing; it is nameless, and therefore called ain-soph-the word ain meaning nothing. alchemy (arabic ul-khemi) the chemistry of nature. ul-khemi or al-kimia, however, is really an arabianized word, taken from the greek 'c

ician: for astronomers, natural philosophers, anatomists such as herophilus and erasistratus; physicians, musicians, artists, etc. but it became still more famous for its eclectic, or new platonic school, founded by ammonius saccas in 173 ad, whose disciples were origen, plotinus, and many other men now famous in history. the most celebrated schools of the gnostics had their origin in alexandria. philo-judaeus, josephus, iamblichus, porphyry, clement of alexandria, eratosthenes the astronomer, hypatia, the virgin philosopher, and numberless other stars of second magnitude, all belonged at various times to these great schools, and helped to make of alexandria one of the most justly renowned seats of learning that the world has ever produced. altruism from alter, other. a quality opposed to

h father and voluminous writer, who had been a neo-platonist and a disciple of ammonius saccas. he was one of the few christian philosophers between the second and third centuries of our era, at alexandria. college of rabbis a college at babylon; most famous during the early centuries of christianity, but its glory was greatly darkened by the appearance in alexandria of hellenic teachers, such as philo-judaeus, josephus, aristobulus, and others. the former avenged themselves on their successful rivals by speaking of the alexandrians as theurgists and unclean prophets. but the alexandrian believers in thaumaturgy were not regarded as sinners and impostors when orthodox jews were at the head of such schools of "hazim" there were colleges for teaching prophecy and occult sciences. samuel was

ga in india, symbolize respectively the two sexes. philadelphians lit "those who love their brother-man" a sect in the seventeenth century, founded by one jane leadly. they objected to all rites, forms, or ceremonies of the church, and even to the church itself, but professed to be guided in soul and spirit by an internal deity, their own ego or god within them. philaletheians see neo-platonists. philo judaeus a hellenized jew of alexandria, a famous historian and philosopher of the first century, born about the year 30 bc, and died between the years 45 and 50 ad philo's symbolism of the bible is very remarkable. the animals, birds, reptiles, trees, and places mentioned in it are all, it is said, allegories of conditions of the soul, of faculties, dispositions, or passions; the useful plan

, the noxious of the affections of the unwise and so on through the mineral kingdom; through heaven, earth, and stars; through fountains and rivers, fields and page 166 the key to theosophy- hp blavatsky.txt dwellings; through metals, substances, arms, clothes, ornaments, furniture, the body and its parts, the sexes, and our outward condition. all of which would strongly corroborate the idea that philo was acquainted with the ancient cabala. philosopher's stone a term in alchemy; called also the powder of projection, a mysterious principle having the power of transmuting the base metals into pure gold. in theosophy it symbolizes the transmutation of the lower animal nature of man into the highest divine. phren a pythagorean term denoting what we call the kama-manas, still overshadowed by b

ISIS UNVEILED

idered the divine nature under the three-fold modification of the firtt cause, the reason or logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. the three archical or original principles" says gibbon "were represented in the platonic system as three gods, united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable genera- tion" blending this transcendental idea with the more hypostatic figure of the logos of philo- whose doctrine was that of the oldest kabala, and who viewed hk king messiah, as the metatron, or 'the angel of the lord' the legaiia descended in flesh, but not the ancuni of days himself* the christians clothed jesus, the son of mary, with this mythical representation of the mediator for the fallen race of adam. under this unexpected garb his personality was all but lost. in the mod- em j

fore that; but that god did everything through his wisdom, which u his verlmm, and which the christian bme named the beginning" thus adopting the exo- teric meaning of the word abandoned to the multitudes "hie kabala the oriental as well as the jewish shows that a number of emanatione (the jewish sephiroth) issued from the firat principle, the chi^ c^ which was wiedom. this wisdom is the logos of philo, and michael, the chi^ of the gnostic eons; it is the ormazd of the persians; minerva, goddess of wisdom, of the greeks, who emanated from the head of jupiter; and the second person of the christian trinity. the eariy fathers of the church had not much call to exert their imagination; they found a ready-made doctrine that had existed in every theogoay for thousands of years before the christ

"beginning" of st. john are all the rasit, n'^vkh, of the book of genesis. if rightly interpreted it overturns, as we have remarked, the whole elaborate system of christian theology, for it proves that behind the cretuixe deity there was a hioheb god, a planner, an architect; and that the former was but his executive agent a dmple poweb! they [the christiana] persecuted the gnostics, murdered the philo- sophers, and burned the kabalists and the masons; and when the day of the great reckoning arrives, and the li^t shines ui darkness, what will tfaey have to offer in the place of the departed, expired religion? what will they answer, these pretended monotheists, these worshipers and jwrado-servants of the one living grod, to their creator? how will they account for this long persecution of t

er's doctrine. the ancient kabala, the gnosis, or traditional aecrh knowledge, has never been without its representatives in any age or country. the trinities of initiates, whether passed into history or concealed under the impene- trable veil of mystny, are preserved throughout, and impressed upon the ages. they are known as moses, aholiab, and besaleel, the son of uri, the son of hur, as plato, philo, and pythagoras, etc. at the transfigura- tion we see them as jesus, moses, and elias, the three trismegisti; and three kabahsts, peter, james, and john whose revelation is the key lo all wisdom. we found them in the twiught of jewish history as zoro- aster, abraham, and terah, and later as henoch, ezekiel, and daniel. who of those who ever studied the ancient philosophies who understand int

o taking great pains to conceal the true meaning of his allegories. every time the subject touches the greater secrets of the oriental kabala, secrets of the true cosmogony of the universe and of the ideal, pre-existing world, plato shrouds his philosophy in the profoundest darkness. his timaeus is so confused that no one but an initiate can imderstand the secret meaning. and mosheim" thinks that philo has filled his works with passages directly contradicting each other for the sole purpose of concealing the true doctrine. for once we see a critic on the right track. and this very trinitariaa idea, as well as the so bitterly denounced doctrine of emanations, whence their remotest origin? llie answer is easy, and every proof is now at hand: in the sublime and profoundest of all philosophies

ause of isis, the egyptian goddess, and had anthropomorphized her into mary, the mother of god; and the trinitarian controversy had been begun; from that moment the egyptian doctrine of the emanation of the creative god out of emepht? began to be tortured in a thousand ways, until the councils had agreed upon the adoption of it as it now stands the disfigured ternary of the kabalistic solomon and philo! but as ha origin was yet too evident, the word was no longer called the 'heavenly man' the primal adam kadmon, but became the logos christ and was made as old as the 'ancient of the ancient' his father. the concealed wisdom became identical with its emanation, the divine thouqht, and had to be regarded as co-equal and co- etemal with its first manifestation. if we now stop to consider anoth

eely watered by rivers of blood, the tree of mecca has grown till we find it in the present century over- shadowing nearly two hundred millions of people. the recent bulgarian atrocnties are but the natural outgrowth of the triumph of cyril and the mariolaters. the cruel, crafty politidan, the plotting monk, glorified by ecclesias- tical history with the aureole of a martyred saint; the despoiled philo' aophers, the neo-platonists, and the gnostics, daily anathematized by the church all over the world for long and dreary centmiea; the curse of the unconcerned deity hom-ly invoked on the magian rites and theurgic' practice, and the christian clergy themselves using lorcery for ages; hypatia, the glorious maiden-philosopher, torn to pieces by the christian mob; and such as catherine de m dic

could be resorted to by its clergy, and accepted with or without question by the people. no t far be such a reli^on from the man who feels the workings of an immortal spirit within him! there never was nor ever will be a truly philosophical mind, whether of pagan, heathen, jew, or christian, but has followed the same path of thought. gautama-buddha is mirrored in the precepts of christ; paul and philo judaeus are faithful echoes of plato; and ammonius saccas and plotinus won their immortal fame by combining the teachings of all these grand masters of true philosophy "prove all things; hold fast that which is good" ought to be the motto of all brothers on earth. not so is it with the interpreters of the biue. the seed of the reformation was sown on the day that the second chapter of the ca

les bad possibly something dwine and true in their doctrines* he nevertheless declared that for their superstition, idolatry and pride they had "to be detested, and, unless they improved, to be punished by divine judgment" this furnishes the clew to ^e sub- sequent policy of the christian church, even to our day. if the gentiles did not choose to come into the church, all that was divine in their philo- sophy should go for naught, and the divine wrath of god shoi^d be visited upon their heads. what effect this produced is succinctly stated by draper "no one did more than this father to bring science and religion into antagonism; it was mainly he who diverted the bibk from its true office a guide to purity of life and placed it in the perilous position of being the arbiter of human knowledg

elf, and uao u not to be dwidi;ed to the external aeruea of mm, dissipated darkness and mani- fested the perceptible world "he that can be perceived only by the spirit, that escapes the organs of sense, who is without visible parts, eternal, the soul of all beings, that none can comprehend, dispuyed his own splendor (mcmu, h'iu^cat 5-7. such is the ideal of the supreme in the mind of eveiy hindct philo- sophy "of all the duties, the principal one is to acquire the knowledge of the supreme soul [the spirit; it is the first of all sciences, for u aione eonjert on man immortality" manu, xh, tloka 85. and our scientists talk buddha and the moksha brahma as of complete annihilation! it is thus that the following verse is interpreted by some materialists "the man who recognis

ir profession. but with an arrogant, dogmatic, and dis- honest clergy we have nothing to do except to see the ancient philosophy antagonized by modem theology in its puny offspring, spiritualism defended and righted so far as we are able, so that its grandeur and suffi- ciency may be thoroughly displayed. it is not alone for the esoteric philosophy that we fight; nor for any modem system of moral philo- sophy, but for the inalienable right of private judgment, and especially for the ennobung idea of a future life of activity and accountability. we 'eagerly applaud such commentators as godfrey higgins, inman, payne knight, king, dunlap, and dr. newton, however much they dis- agree with our own mystical views, for their diligence is constantly bdng rewarded by fresh discoveries of the pagan

itute one great error. among thousands of exoteric or popuur coi^cting religions which have been propagated since the days when the first men were enabled to interchange their ideas, not a nation, not a people, nor the most abject tribe, but after its own fashion has believed in an unseen god, the first cause of unerring and immutable laws, and in the immortality of our spirit. no creed, no false philo- sophy, no religious exaggerations, could ever destroy that feeling. it must therefore be based upon an absolute truth. on the other hand every one of the numberless religions and religious sects views the deity after its own fashion; and, fathering on the unknown its own tpeculations, forces these purely human outgrowths of overheated im- agination on the ignorant masses, and calls them 're

, a god of wisdom. but nebo is also mercary, and mercury is buddha in the hindq monogram [iconography] of planets. moreover we find the talmudists holding that jesus was inspired by the genius of mercury* the nazarene reformer had undoubtedly belonged to one of these sects; though perhaps it would be next to impossible to decide ab- solutely which. but what is self-evident is that he preached the philo- sophy of b'uddha-sdkyamimi. denounced by the later prophets, cursed by the sanhedrim, the ruuara they were confounded with others of that name "who separated themselves unto that shame* were secretly, if not opei, persecuted by the orthodox synagog. it be- 2g7. cod. nai. i, p. 47. 268. i, p. 56; norbccg: owtnaoicoti, p. 74. 2eq. alphounia
study of the hiddmt sense of their rites and customs, we can trace their kinship. it was given to a contemporary of jesus to become the means of pointing out to posterity, by his interpretation t^ the oldest literature of israel, how deeply the kabalistic philosophy agreed in its esoterism with that of the profoundest greek thinkers. this contemporary, an ardent disdi^e of i^to and aristotle, was philo judaeus. while explaining the mosaic books according bt a purely kabalistic method, he is the famous hebrew writer whom kingsley calls the father of new flatonism. it is evident that philo's tberapeutea are a brandi of the essenes. their name indicates it "ecrcramii, aaaya, physicians. hence the con- tradictions, forgeries, and other deqierate expedients to reconcile the prophecies os the je

ew flatonism. it is evident that philo's tberapeutea are a brandi of the essenes. their name indicates it "ecrcramii, aaaya, physicians. hence the con- tradictions, forgeries, and other deqierate expedients to reconcile the prophecies os the jewish canon with the galilean nativity and god^p. luke, who was a physician, is designated in the syriac texts as aaaia, the essaian or essene. josephus and philo judaeus have suf- ficiently described this sect to leave no doubt in our mind that the naza- rene reformer, after having received his education in their dwellings in the desert, and been duly initiated in the mysteries, preferred the free and independent life at a wandering nmaria, and so separated or inaxarentud himself from them, thus becoming a traveling theraprate, a nazoria, a healer. e

tter were kabalists and theurgists "they hod their rayitic books, and pre- dicted future events" says munk" dunlap, whose personal researches seem to have been quite success- ful in that direction, traces the essenes, nazarenes, dositheans, and some other sects as having all existed before christ "they rejected pleasures, deapued richea, loved one another, and more than other sects neglected 30b. philo judmiu: d rite eontemflahni. 3t0. llw mj mmding of the divhion into agtt u motctic aad bnddhiitic so utile did the oiuiiitibted chriitiuu imdcntaiid it that they kc^pted the wotdt ot letaa lila^ andfirmlybelievedthbtheiiieuittheeddof thewohd. lliaehmdbchiiimiu'pr^lm' the foriboomiiig age. vergil, in the fourth edofug, mentioiu the ifetatroi t^bpnn^ with whom the tnm ag* shall end, and a foum

ysteries in the same way "i approached the confines of death; and having trodden on the threshold of proserpina returned, having been carried through all the elements. in the depths of midnig ht. i saw the sun glittering with a splendid light, together with the infernal and mper- nal goda, and to these divinities approaching, i paid the tribute of devout adoration" la coniidend by ku the bocieiit philo- ft p uniahm pfit 317. t^jxar: euxa. and bacek. mgtl, ed. a. wilder, p. 87( li edit. 318 "the profaunder taotoic doctrinea ot the ukimta were deaoduiibted wtidrat, ud aftcmrd pmiatophf, uid also the gmtiii, or knowledge. the^ rdstcd to the hninaii oul. hi divine paranuge, iti nippabed degradation from ita hi^ estate by becomiiig connected with 'generatiod' ac the phyaioj world, ita oaward pr

rder, theft, adultery, and lying" answers the master* identical injunctions are they not? divine injunctions, the living up to which would purify and exalt humanity. but are they more (ovine when uttered through one mouth than another? if it is god-like to return good for evil, does the enunciation of the precept by a nazarene give it any greater force than its enunciation by an indian or tibetan philo- sopher? we see that the golden rule did not originate with jesus; that its birthplace was india. do what we may, we cannot deny sdkya- 3f uni-buddha a less remote antiquity than several centuries before the birth of jesus. in seeking a model for his system of ethics why should 370. praliinoktiia-siura, pali-bunnese copy; tee iki le itdtu de la boms ioi, tr&iulated by burnouf, p. 4u. 371. if

cent into hell' 177 to christoa the aon of sophia (the elder) and of the primitive mad who produces him through his own vivifying light, which emanates from the source or caiue of all (hence the cause of his light also, the 'un- known father' there is a great difference made in the gnostic meta- physics between the first unrevealed logos and the 'anointed' who is christos. ennma may be termed, as philo understands it, the second god, but he alone is the 'primitive and first man' and by no means the second one, as theodoret and irenaeus express it. it was only the inveterate desire of the latter, even in his against berenet, to con- nect jesus in every possible way with the' highest god, that led him into so many falsifications. such an identification with the unknown god, even of christos

uver saw pre- viously, as if they were th&r intimate friends (josephus: jewish war, ii, viit, 4. such was undeniably the custom of jesus and his disdples. epiphanius, who places the gbionite 'heresy' on the same level with that of the nazarenes, also remarks that the naxaraioi come next to the cerinthians" so much vituperated by irenaeus* 457. joaepliui: jewuk war. u, viii, 7. 458. ibid, n, viii; philo jud: de mta eontmpl. uid quod mm. pmb. ubir. i 12; frag, in eiu: praip, viu, viii; munk; pauttine, pp. 35, 525, etc. eiuebioi menlioiu thor lemneion, where they perform tlie myaterics of k retil d life iecd. hitl, u. svii. 458. panar, ub. i, torn. ii, hmt. xxix, i; xxx. i. 460. cerinthus it the mne gnoitic? codtemporary of john the eransriiat of whom irenaeut inveoted the fallowing anecdote

manation, but in several systems it proceeds from the firat androgjrne or double ray pro- duced at the beginning by the unseen. fhilo depicts this wisdom as male and female* but though its first manifestation had a beginning for it proceeded from oulam (aion, time, the hi^est of the aeons when emitted from the fathers it had remained with him before all ereatiotu, for it is part of him" therefore philo judaeua calls adam sadmon 'mmd (tite ennoia of byuuu in the gnostic system "the mind, let it be named adam* strictly speaking, it is difficult to view the jewish book of geaetii otherwise than as a chip from the trunk of the mundane tree of univwsal cosmogony, rendered in oriental allegories. as cycle succeeded cyde, and one nation ^ter another came upon the world's stage to play its brief p

KARR DON NOTES ON THE STUDY OF EARLY KABBALAH JEWISH MYSTICISM IN ENGLISH

. gvisionary gnosis and the role of the imagination in theosophic kabbalah. h 20081 14 addendum: pre-kabbalistic streams of jewish mysticism* to fill the span between the close of the old testament and early kabbalah, a muchsimplified selection of streams representative of.or having influence upon.jewish mysticism can be outlined thus: 1. early beginnings a. pseudepigrapha (ca. 200 bce onward) b. philo (ca. 20 bce to 50 ce) c. qumran= dead sea scrolls: 100 bce onward) d. rabbinic and synagogue traditions (100 ce onward) e. miscellaneous magic texts and other goccult h works 2. merkabah and hekhalot (200 ce onward) 3. sefer yezirah (between 200 and 900 ce) 4. transition a. geonic period (600-1000) b. early commentaries on sefer yezirah c. religious philosophers i. solomon ibn gebirol (1020

y james h. charlesworth: volume 1: apocalyptic and testaments; volume 2: expansions c legends, wisdom c prayers, odes, psalms, fragments (garden city: doubleday and company, 1983 and 1985. it is a collection of utmost value, far more inclusive than the previous standard, apocrypha and pseudepigrapha of the old testament, edited by r. h. charles (2 vols, oxford: clarendon press, 1913; rpt 1973* b. philo philo, who has a somewhat anticlimactic relationship with jewish mysticism, was the most important jewish philosopher of the first century. thoroughly hellenized, he begins for us the long, and rather strained, counterpoint between neoplatonism and judaism (and, indeed, jewish mysticism) which simmers right on up to spinoza and beyond. of particular use in the present context are the followi

hilo, who has a somewhat anticlimactic relationship with jewish mysticism, was the most important jewish philosopher of the first century. thoroughly hellenized, he begins for us the long, and rather strained, counterpoint between neoplatonism and judaism (and, indeed, jewish mysticism) which simmers right on up to spinoza and beyond. of particular use in the present context are the following: on philo. borgen, peder. gheavenly ascent in philo: an examination of selected passages, h in the pseudepigrapha and early biblical interpretation, edited by j. charlesworth and c. evans (sheffield: sheffield academic press, 1993. lewy, hans (ed. gphilo: selections, h in three jewish philosophers (new york/philadelphia: jewish publication society/meridian books, 1960. niehoff, maren r. gwhat is in a

borgen, peder. gheavenly ascent in philo: an examination of selected passages, h in the pseudepigrapha and early biblical interpretation, edited by j. charlesworth and c. evans (sheffield: sheffield academic press, 1993. lewy, hans (ed. gphilo: selections, h in three jewish philosophers (new york/philadelphia: jewish publication society/meridian books, 1960. niehoff, maren r. gwhat is in a name? philo fs mystical philosophy of language, h in jewish studies quarterly, vol. 2, no. 3 (tubingen: j. c. b. mohr [paul siebeck, 1995. werblowsky, r.j. zwi. gphilo and the zohar h parts 1 and 2, in journals of jewish studies, vols. x and xi (1959 and 1960. winston, david. gwas philo a mystic? h in studies in jewish mysticism (1982. on neoplatonism. goodman, lenn e (ed. neoplatonism and jewish though

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

the word adonai) the tradition looks forward to a future when time or circumstances shall have restored the genuine method of pronunciation, and man will return to the god from whom he came forth, able to utter the word in all its mighty power, to command the forces latent in his own divinity. 308. all this was interwoven with the doctrine of the logos, the word of god, expounded so admirably by philo, and known to all christians from the opening words of the gospel of s. john; for the whole tradition of the divine word is derived from the mysteries of egypt. the true tetragrammaton was not the name of god in hebrew, but another and far more ancient word, which has ever been known to initiates of high degree. a christian development of this symbolism forms the device of a jewel worn by a

te can be assigned (1723(*gould. concise history, p. 223) 608. it seems probable that the original workings may have been compressed into two degrees, and the subsequent division into three degrees may well have been a rearrangement of the material in accordance with ancient tradition. evidence for the working of three grades of masonry occurs as early as 1725 in london in the transactions of the philo-musicae et architecturae societas in which certain brethren are recorded as regularly passed masters, regularly passed fellow crafts and regularly passed fellow craft and master, although it is not clearly known exactly what took place(*ibid, p. 228) by 1738 the procedure in the lodges seems to have been generally similar to that known among us to-day. 609. opposition 610. that there was at

LEMEGETON

ause of their skill know how to anticipate an effect which to the vulgar shall seem a miracle. origen saith that the magical art doth not contain anything subsisting, but although it should yet that must not be evil or subject to contempt or scorn; and doth distinguish the natural magic from that which is diabolical. tyaneus only exercised the natural magic by which he perforned wonderful things. philo hebreus saith that true magic by which we come to the secret works of nature is so far from being contemptible that the greatest monarchs and kings have studied it. nay amongst the persians none might reign unless he was skillfull in this great art. this noble science often degenerates, and from natural becomes diabolical, from true philosophy turns to nigromancy, which is wholly to be charg

LEWIS JAMES SATANISM TODAY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE

s the hebrew name for the greek apollyon, known as the angel of the bottomless pit (rev. 9:10) and the angel who ties up the devil for a millennium (rev. 20. different sources speak of abaddon, such as the thanksgiving hymns (a dead sea scroll document, which mentions the sheol of abaddon, and the torrents of belial that burst into abaddon, as well as the first-century the biblical antiquities of philo, in which abaddon is used as a place name for hell rather than as the name of a demon or an angel. abaddon is also referred to as a place the pit in milton s paradise regained (iv, 624. alternately, abaddon is identified with a demon, or the devil himself, in the third-century acts of thomas, as well as in john bunyan s puritan classic, pilgrim s progress.within modern ceremonial magic, it c

LIBER DCCCXI ENERGIZED ENTHUSIASM

er) the address of a person willing to consider their fitness to affiliate to a chapter practicing similar rites. xvi i consider it supererogatory to continue my essay on the mysteries and my analysis of energized enthusiasm. energized enthusiasm 23 [the following appeared in crowley fs editorial to equinox i (10; the bulk of it is crowley quoting g.r.s. mead quoting from de vita contemplativa by philo of alexandria, a hellenized jewish writer of the first century e.v. t.s] with regard to the article in no. 9, genergized enthusiasm, h a circumstance of exceptional interest has arisen. the author was not acquainted at that time with the literature of those gnostics who were the earliest and only true christians. in fragments of a faith forgotten, however, we find the following passage: gaft

LIBER LXVII THE SWORD OF SONG

r the glimmering silver-white of celtic paganism; the hard grey dim-gilded of buddhism, the fleecy opacity of islam, or the mysterious medium of those ancient faiths which come up in as many colours as their investigator has moods .in order to get over the ethical difficulties presented by the na ve naturalism of many parts of those scriptures, in the divine authority of which he firmly believed, philo borrowed from the stoics (who had been in like straits in respect of greek mythology) that great excalibur which they had forged with infinite pains and skill.the method of allegorical interpretation. this mighty .two handed engine at the door. of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken allegorically, or, as i

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

breath of christ! to a people believing implicitly in a seraph sufficiently tangible to have its proboscis preserved, the more profound issues of judaistic philosophy must necessarily be incomprehensible. nor is it difficult to imagine the reaction taking place in the mind of some ancient sage should he hear that a cherub--which, according to st. augustine, signifies the evangelists; according to philo jud us, the outermost circumference of the entire heavens, and according to several of the church fathers, the wisdom of god--had sprouted finger nails. the hopeless confusion of divine principles with the allegorical figures created to represent them to the limited faculties of the uninitiated has resulted in the most atrocious misconceptions of spiritual truths. concepts well-nigh as prepo

and the entire solar system is properly the mercavah, or chariot of god. one of the divisions of the qabbalah--that dealing with the arts and sciences of those planes which are under the heavens--is called the mercavah. in the zohar it is written that the celestial throne or ezekiel's vision signifies the traditional law; the appearance of a man sitting upon the throne represents the written law, philo jud us in describing the cherubim upon the ark of the covenant declares that the figures are an intimation of the revolutions of the whole heavens, one of the cherubim representing the outer circumference and the other the inner sphere. facing each other, they represent the two hemispheres of the world. the flaming sword of the cherubim of genesis is the central motion and agitation of the h

t "as far as epigraphic material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question, the semites are shown to be of polytheistic leanings" various schools of philosophy, both jewish and gentile, have offered explanations erudite and otherwise of the identity of adam. in this primordial man the neo-platonists recognized the platonic idea of humanity--the archetype or pattern of the genus homo. philo jud us considered adam to represent the human mind, which could understand (and hence give names to) the creatures about it, but could not comprehend (and hence left nameless) the mystery of its own nature. adam was also likened to the pythagorean monad which by virtue of its state of perfect unity could dwell in the edenic sphere. when through a process akin to fission the monad became the

MATHERS MACGREGOR THE LESSER KEY OF SOLOMON LEMEGETON VOL 1

pate an effort,10 the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle. origen saith that the magical art doth not contain anything subsisting, but although it should, yet that it must not be evil, or subject to contempt or scorn; and doth distinguish the natural magic from that which is diabolical. apollonius tyannaeus only exercised the natural magic, by the which he did perform wonderful things. philo hebraeus saith that true magic, by which we do arrive at the understanding of the secret works of nature, is so far from being contemptible that the greatest monarchs and kings have studied it. nay! among the persians none might reign unless he was skilful in this great art. this noble science often degenerateth, from natural becometh diabolical, and from true philosophy turneth unto nigroma

MEANING OF MASONRY

my son" is, in one of its many senses, a biblical allusion to this passing on of the catholic m ysteries from egypt to new and virgin regions, for their enlightenment. of these various translations those that concern us chiefly are two; the one to greece, the other to palestine. we know from the bible that moses was an initiate of the egyptian mysteries and became learned in all its wisdom, while philo tells us that moses there became" skilled in music, geometry, arithmetic, hieroglyphics and the whole circle of arts and sciences" in other words he became in a real sense a master mason and, as such, qualified himself for his subsequent great task of leadership of the hebrew people and the formulating of their religious system and rule of life as laid down in the pentateuch. the mosaic syst

MORALS AND DOGMA

s, thus arranged: the moon, mercury, venus, the sun, mars, jupiter, and saturn. there were seven heavens and seven spheres of these planets; on all the monuments of mithras are seven altars or pyres, consecrated to the seven planets, as were the seven lamps of the golden candelabrum in the temple. that these represented the planets, we are assured by clemens of alexandria, in his stromata, and by philo judaeus. to return to its source in the infinite, the human soul, the ancients held, had to ascend, as it had descended, through the seven spheres. the ladder by which it reascends, has, according to marsilius ficinus, in his commentary on the ennead of plotinus, seven degrees or steps; and in the mysteries of mithras, carried to rome under the emperors, the ladder, with its seven rounds, wa

thus the principle is at once the first, the second, and the third, since it is all in all, the centre and cause of all. it is not _the genius of plato_ that we here admire. we recognize only _the exact knowledge of the initiate. the great apostle saint john did not borrow from the philosophy of plato the opening of his gospel. plato, on the contrary, drank at the same springs with saint john and philo; and john in the opening verses of his paraphrase, states the first principles of a dogma common to many schools, but in language especially belonging to philo, whom it is evident he had read. the philosophy of plato, the greatest of human revealers, could _yearn toward_ the word made man; the gospel alone could give him to the world. doubt, in presence of being and its harmonies; skepticism

e, by the studies of the learned and wise, it enriched itself with the most admirable principles of the religions of egypt and asia, it was changed, in the wanderings of the people, by everything that was most impure or seductive in the pagan manners and superstitions. it was one thing in the times of moses and aaron, another in those of david and solomon, and still another in those of daniel and philo. at the time when john the baptist made his appearance in the desert, near the shores of the dead sea, all the old philosophical and religious systems were approximating toward each other. a general lassitude inclined the minds of all toward the quietude of that amalgamation of doctrines for which the expeditions of alexander and the more peaceful occurrences that followed, with the establis

n addressing themselves to mankind in general, enunciated only the articles of the vulgar faith; but transmitted the mysteries of knowledge to superior minds, to the elect--mysteries handed down from generation to generation in esoteric traditions; and to this science of the mysteries they gave the name of[[greek: g??s] gnosis. the gnostics derived their leading doctrines and ideas from plato and philo, the zend-avesta and the kabalah, and the sacred books of india and egypt; and thus introduced into the bosom of christianity the cosmological and theosophical speculations, which had formed the larger portion of the ancient religions of the orient, joined to those of the egyptian, greek, and jewish doctrines, which the neo-platonists had equally adopted in the occident. emanation from the d

meaning of which could have been clear to the initiates alone. it is admitted that the cradle of gnosticism is probably to be looked for in syria, and even in palestine. most of its expounders wrote in that corrupted form of the greek used by the hellenistic jews, and in the septuagint and the new testament; and there was a striking analogy between their doctrines and those of the jud o-egyptian philo, of alexandria; itself the seat of three schools, at once philosophic and religious--the greek, the egyptian, and the jewish. pythagoras and plato, the most mystical of the grecian philosophers (the latter heir to the doctrines of the former, and who had travelled, the latter in egypt, and the former in ph nicia, india, and persia, also taught the esoteric doctrine and the distinction betwee

o the fabulous times of orpheus; and the mysteries of theosophy were found in all their traditions and myths. and after the time of alexander, they resorted for instruction, dogmas, and mysteries, to all the schools, to those of egypt and asia, as well as those of ancient thrace, sicily, etruria, and attica. the jewish-greek school of alexandria is known only by two of its chiefs, aristobulus and philo, both jews of alexandria in egypt. belonging to asia by its origin, to egypt by its residence, to greece by its language and studies, it strove to show that all truths embedded in the philosophies of other countries were transplanted thither from palestine. aristobulus declared that all the facts and details of the jewish scriptures were so many allegories, concealing the most profound meani

origin, to egypt by its residence, to greece by its language and studies, it strove to show that all truths embedded in the philosophies of other countries were transplanted thither from palestine. aristobulus declared that all the facts and details of the jewish scriptures were so many allegories, concealing the most profound meanings, and that plato had borrowed from them all his finest ideas. philo, who lived a century after him, following the same theory, endeavored to show that the hebrew writings, by their system of allegories, were the true source of all religious and philosophical doctrines. according to him, the literal meaning is for the vulgar alone. whoever has meditated on philosophy, purified himself by virtue, and raised himself by contemplation, to god and the intellectual

ccording to the light he possesses. again we see the symbolism of masonry, and the search of the candidate for light "let men of narrow minds withdraw" he says "with closed ears. we transmit the divine mysteries to those who have received the sacred initiation, to those who practise true piety, and who are not enslaved by the empty trappings of words or the preconceived opinions of the pagans" to philo, the supreme being was the primitive light, or the archetype of light, source whence the rays emanate that illuminate souls. he was also the soul of the universe, and as such acted in all its parts. he himself fills and limits his whole being. his powers and virtues fill and penetrate all. these powers [greek? e, dunameis] are spirits distinct from god, the "ideas" of plato personified. he i

as permitted _to furnish him the means of exercising his liberty. the souls that are purified, not by the law but by light, rise to the heavenly regions, to enjoy there a perfect felicity. those that persevere in evil go from body to body, the seats of passions and evil desires. the familiar lineaments of these doctrines will be recognized by all who read the epistles of st. paul, who wrote after philo, the latter living till the reign of caligula, and being the contemporary of christ. and the mason is familiar with these doctrines of philo: that the supreme being is a centre of light whose rays or emanations pervade the universe; for that is the light for which all masonic journeys are a search, and of which the sun and moon in our lodges are only emblems: that light and darkness, chief e

e object of its terrestrial life is to disengage itself of its body or its sepulchre; and that it will ascend to the heavenly regions whenever it shall be purified; in which we see the meaning, now almost forgotten in our lodges, of the mode of preparation of the candidate for apprenticeship, and his tests and purifications in the first degree, according to the ancient and accepted scottish rite. philo incorporated in his eclecticism neither egyptian nor oriental elements. but there were other jewish teachers in alexandria who did both. the jews of egypt were slightly jealous of, and a little hostile to, those of palestine, particularly after the erection of the sanctuary at leontopolis by the high-priest onias; and therefore they admired and magnified those sages, who, like jeremiah, had

alexandria who did both. the jews of egypt were slightly jealous of, and a little hostile to, those of palestine, particularly after the erection of the sanctuary at leontopolis by the high-priest onias; and therefore they admired and magnified those sages, who, like jeremiah, had resided in egypt "the wisdom of solomon" was written at alexandria, and, in the time of st. jerome, was attributed to philo; but it contains principles at variance with his. it personifies wisdom, and draws between its children and the profane, the same line of demarcation that egypt had long before taught to the jews. that distinction existed at the beginning of the mosaic creed. moshah himself was an initiate in the mysteries of egypt, as he was compelled to be, as the adopted son of the daughter of pharaoh _th

from an opposition essentially jewish, to these foreign teachings, and that mixture of doctrines, adopted by the pharisees, and which constituted the popular creed. we come at last to the _essenes_ and _therapeuts, with whom this degree is particularly concerned. that intermingling of oriental and occidental rites, of persian and pythagorean opinions, which we have pointed out in the doctrines of philo, is unmistakable in the creeds of these two sects. they were less distinguished by metaphysical speculations than by simple meditations and moral practices. but the latter always partook of the zoroastrian principle, that it was necessary to free the soul from the trammels and influences of matter; which led to a system of abstinence and maceration entirely opposed to the ancient hebraic ide

n by simple meditations and moral practices. but the latter always partook of the zoroastrian principle, that it was necessary to free the soul from the trammels and influences of matter; which led to a system of abstinence and maceration entirely opposed to the ancient hebraic ideas, favorable as they were to physical pleasures. in general, the life and manners of these mystical associations, as philo and josephus describe them, and particularly their prayers at sunrise, seem the image of what the zend-avesta prescribes to the faithful adorer of ormuzd; and some of their observances cannot otherwise be explained. the therapeuts resided in egypt, in the neighborhood of alexandria; and the essenes in palestine, in the vicinity of the dead sea. but there was nevertheless a striking coinciden

senes in palestine, in the vicinity of the dead sea. but there was nevertheless a striking coincidence in their ideas, readily explained by attributing it to a foreign influence. the jews of egypt, under the influence of the school of alexandria, endeavored in general to make their doctrines harmonize with the traditions of greece; and thence came, in the doctrines of the therapeuts, as stated by philo, the many analogies between the pythagorean and orphic ideas, on one side, and those of judaism on the other: while the jews of palestine, having less communication with greece, or contemning its teachings, rather imbibed the oriental doctrines, which they drank in at the source and with which their relations with persia made them familiar. this attachment was particularly shown in the kabal

extensive learning, came to ephesus. he had learned in the mysteries the true doctrine in regard to god; and, being a zealous enthusiast, he spoke and taught diligently the truths in regard to the deity, having received no other baptism than that of john" he knew nothing in regard to christianity; for he had resided in alexandria, and had just then come to ephesus; being, probably, a disciple of philo, and a therapeut "that, in all times" says st. augustine "is the christian religion, which to know and follow is the most sure and certain health, called according to that name, but not according to the thing itself, of which it is the name; for the thing itself, which is now called the christian religion _really was known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of th

adhere to the doctrines taught by himself, and had sent timothy to them to bring them afresh to their recollection. according to paul, christ was to come again. he was to put an end to all other principalities and powers, and finally to death, and then be himself once more merged in god _who should then be all in all. the forms and ceremonies of the essenes were symbolical. they had, according to philo the jew, four degrees; the members being divided into two orders, the _practici_ and _therapeutici; the latter being the contemplative and medical brethren; and the former the active, practical, business men. they were jews by birth; and had a greater affection for each other than the members of any other sect. their brotherly love was intense. they fulfilled the christian law "love one anot

m: onkelos paraphrases it "if the word of ihuh will be my help. then the word of ihuh shall be my god. so, in iii. gen. 8, for "the voice of the lord god[[hebrew, ihuh alhim, we have "the voice of the word of ihuh" in ix. wisdom, 1 "o god of my fathers and lord of mercy! who has made all things with thy word [greek? s" and in xviii. wisdom, 15 "thine almighty word [greek] leaped down from heaven" philo speaks of the word as being the same with god. so in several places he calls it"[greek: de?te? te" the second divinity"[greek: e??t??te" the image of god: the divine word that made all things "the [greek ?pa" substitute, of god; and the like. thus, when john commenced to preach, had been for ages agitated, by the priests and philosophers of the east and west, the great questions concerning t

posed more than one intermediary between god and the world. to place between them but a single being, to suppose for the production of the world but a single intermediary, was, in their eyes, to lower the supreme majesty. the interval between god, who is perfect purity, and matter, which is base and foul, was too great for them to clear it at a single step. even in the occident, neither plato nor philo could thus impoverish the intellectual world. thus, cerinthus of ephesus, with most of the gnostics, philo, the kabalah, the zend-avesta, the puranas, and all the orient, deemed the distance and antipathy between the supreme being and the material world too great, to attribute to the former the creation of the latter. below, and emanating from, or created by, the ancient of days, the central

of creation was by the emanation of a ray of light, creating the principle of _light_ and _life. the primitive thought, creating the inferior deities, a succession of intelligences, the iynges of zoroaster, his _amshaspands _izeds, and _ferouers, the _ideas_ of plato, the _aions_ of the gnostics, the _angels_ of the jews, the _nous, the _demiourgos, the divine reason, the _powers_ or _forces_ of philo, and the alohayim, forces or superior gods of the ancient legend with which genesis begins--to these and other intermediaries the creation was owing. no restraints were laid on the fancy and the imagination. the veriest abstractions became existences and realities. the attributes of god, personified, became powers, spirits, intelligences. god was the _light of light _divine fire, the _abstra

sting power is satan, the rebellious matter, matter that does not partake of god. to many there were two principles; the unknown father, or supreme and eternal god, living in the centre of the light, happy in the perfect purity of his being; the other, eternal matter, that inert, shapeless, darksome mass, which they considered as the source of all evils, the mother and dwelling-place of satan. to philo and the platonists, there was a soul of the world, creating visible things, and active in them, as agent of the supreme intelligence; realizing therein the ideas communicated to him by that intelligence, and which sometimes excel his conceptions, but which he executes without comprehending them. the apocalypse or revelations, by whomever written, belongs to the orient and to extreme antiquit

judaism on the other. it is a particular application of the ancient myth of ormuzd and his genii against ahriman and his devs; and it celebrates the final triumph of truth against the combined powers of men and demons. the ideas and imagery are borrowed from every quarter; and allusions are found in it to the doctrines of all ages. we are continually reminded of the zend-avesta, the jewish codes, philo, and the gnosis. the seven spirits surrounding the throne of the eternal, at the opening of the grand drama, and acting so important a part throughout, everywhere the first instruments of the divine will and vengeance, are the seven amshaspands of parsism; as the twenty-four ancients, offering to the supreme being the first supplications and the first homage, remind us of the mysterious chie

RITUEL ET DOGME DE LA HAUTE MAGIE BY ELIPHAS LEVI PART II

d words. jod he vau he. the learned gaffarel regards the teraphim of the hebrews, by means of which they consulted the oracles of the urim and thummim, as the figures of the four kabalistic animals, which symbols, as we shall show shortly, were epitomized by the sphinxes or cherubs of the ark. in connexion with the usurped teraphim of the book of hermes 129 michas, he cites a curious passage from philo, which is a complete revelation as to the ancient and sacerdotal origin of our tarots. gaffarel thus expresses himself: ghe (philo the jew) speaking of the history concealed in the before-mentioned chapter of judges, says that michas made three gimages of young boys and three young calves, three also of a lion, an eagle, a dragon and a dove, all of fine gold and silver; so that if anyone sou

ung calves, three also of a lion, an eagle, a dragon and a dove, all of fine gold and silver; so that if anyone sought him to discover a secret concerning his wife, he interrogated the dove; concerning children, the young boy; concerning wealth, the eagle; concerning strength and power, the lion; concerning fecundity, the cherub or bull; concerning length of days, the dragon. h this revelation of philo, though deprecated by gaffarel, is for us of the highest importance. here, in fact, is our key of the tetrad, and here also are the images of the four symbolical animals found in the twenty-first key of the tarot; that is, in the third septenary, thus repeating and summarizing all the symbolism expressed by the three septenaries superposed; next, the antagonism of colours expressed by the do

RUBY TABLET OF SET

ould we reject nonverbal symbolic thought simply for difficulty of exposition. miserable is the craftsman who discards a screwdriver because it is not a hammer. footnotes 1. see "the concept of initiation, black magic in theory and practice, in the crystal tablet the gnosis as an integral part of the hermetic science table of contents i. introduction ii. the gnosis as a philosophical hermetism 1. philo, the man and his thought 2. the evidence from hippolytus 3. the old gnostics iii. some basic gnostic methods 1. cosmology 2. anthropology 3. soteriology iv. results of research in gnostic science 1. the myth of pistis sophia 2. the mystery of the first mystery 3. the gnosis of jesus the mystery of the ineffable 4. the degrees of the mysteries 5. the mysteries of mithras 6. the mystic diagram

lytus who also repeatedly alleged a connection of gnosticism with the schools of greek philosophy and questions the validity of the assertion. quispel states that gnosticism had some greek origins and in the greek philosophic climate gnosticism developed and came to varied expressions. this is not to be taken as agreement with harnack that gnosticism is the acute hellenization of christianity. 1. philo, the man and his thought philo, an alexandrian jew, was born approximately 30 bc. this places him in the times that the romans controlled the hellenized world of alexander. philo is known to have written much. however the actual works extant today are said to be comparatively scarce. philo works predominantly with the idea of the platonic dualism. god is outside of time and space, and in his

jew, was born approximately 30 bc. this places him in the times that the romans controlled the hellenized world of alexander. philo is known to have written much. however the actual works extant today are said to be comparatively scarce. philo works predominantly with the idea of the platonic dualism. god is outside of time and space, and in his being unknowable. however, we must not forget that philo spoke of god, the revealed one, as immanent in his relation with the universe. in this relationship, god is "all filling, all penetrating, leaving no vacuum" philo posits god as the first cause on whom the world of sense and spirits depends. more important however is the fact that philo posits "mediary beings" between the unknowable god and the universe. the great central idea, power, and me

utions that survive through sucking, however inefficiently and therefore in the long run fruitlessly, from those superabundantly life-filled sources. vi. conclusion my initial intention when i began the study of gnostic problems was to study the gnostic documents produced by various gnostic writers. the particular interest was in the cosmology, anthropology, soteriology, and eschatology of men as philo, hippolytus, and the old gnostics. it was imperative to study the origin and motivations of the various gnostic movements. hence the immediate interest was turned primarily from the actual documents produced in the third to fifth centuries to those sources available for study which arose from or dealt with the material from the first and second centuries. in fact, the author has found that g

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

articles/watt.htm. 150 world religions: biographies abu ha mid muhammad al-ghaza l periodicals dallal, ahmad. ghazali and the perils of interpretation. journal of the american oriental society (october december, 2002: 773 87. web sites abu hamid al-ghazali. http//www.ghazali.org (accessed on june 2, 2006. abu hamid al-ghazali. window: philosophy on the internet. http//www.trincoll. edu/depts/phil/philo/phils/muslim/ghazali.html (accessed on june 2, 2006. halsall, peter. medieval sourcebook: abu hamid al-ghazali (1058 1111 ce: munkidh min al-dalal (confessions, or deliverance from error, c. 1100. fordham.edu. http//www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/1100ghazali-truth.html (accessed on june 2, 2006. nakamura, kojiro. al-ghazali, abu hamid (1058 1111. routledge encyclopedia of philosophy. http//ww

SOLOMON

sealed me round with the ring of god, thou hast done nothing. i am not standing before thee, and thou wilt not be able to command me. for i have no work other than the destruction of children, and the making their ears to be deaf, and the working of evil to their eyes, and the binding their mouths with a bond, and the ruin of their minds, and paining of their bodies [1. the sophia, identified by philo and the early fathers with the logos, is supposed to have entered into and taken possession of solomon as it afterwards did with jesus. 2. stamatihu, an unknown verb. 3. xalep n] 59. when i solomon heard this, i marvelled at her appearance, for i beheld all her body to be in darkness. but her glance was altogether bright and greeny, and her hair was tossed wildly like a dragon's; and the who

pstand of stone, and of emerald, and hyacinth, and sapphire; and she beheld the vessels of gold, and silver, and bronze, and wood, and the folds of skins dyed red with madder. and she saw the bases of the pillars of the temple of the lord. all were of one gold [2] apart from the demons whom i condemned to labour. and there was peace in the circle of my kingdom and over all the earth [1. a shekel. philo has the form s klos, i. 468. s glos is the usual spelling in the lxx. 2. there seems to be here a lacuna in the ms] 117. and it came to pass, which i was in my kingdom, the king of the arabians, adares, sent me a letter, and the writing of the letter was written as follows "to king solomon, all hail! lo, we have heard, and it hath been heard unto all the ends of the earth, concerning the wis

STEINER RUDOLF CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT

arkable how much is present in embryo in his first short treatment of this vast subject, but it is as well to be aware too of the larger context he himself subsequently established for many of its ideas. the early work certainly has its peculiarities. in parts the book is an odd mixture of sketchiness and profundity, while other sections like those on heraclitus, xvi christianity as mystical fact philo, or augustine blossom into short monographs that could almost stand alone. furthermore, much discussion elsewhere of christianity and the mysteries has focused on paul, about whom steiner chose to say virtually nothing in his book. it is worth realizing that this does not betoken any hostility toward paul and his message, such as one occasionally and misguidedly finds in spiritual circles. d

opment, existing in different religious settings. he knew that the connection must therefore have been there. historical research, he once said, will one day vindicate completely the evidence drawn from purely spiritual sources, which forms the basis of my christianity as mystical fact. 7 in the meantime he appealed to evidences where he found them for instance, in the mystery-oriented judaism of philo of alexandria or, in the absence of documents relating to the greek mysteries, in the reflection of mystery processes in the pre-socratics and plato (again i have tried in the footnotes to refer to discoveries that now prove his case) part of the roundaboutness of the book is thus explained; but he also clearly wanted to establish a larger perspective than the shortsighted historical approac

e and uniquely created world would not be perfect if it did not contain among its images the image of its creator himself. and that image can arise only from the human soul; it is not the father himself, but the son, platonic mysteries 55 the living child of god in the soul who is of like nature with the father, to whom humanity can give birth. the expression son of god is used in this context by philo of alexandria, who was called a plato redivivus. it designates the wisdom that lives in the soul and is born of human beings, having as its content the reason immanent in the world; while this world-reason, logos, figures as the book in which every permanent characteristic of the world is recorded and inscribed. 61 or elsewhere it is the son of god: following the ways of the father, he fashi

e wisdom that lives in the soul and is born of human beings, having as its content the reason immanent in the world; while this world-reason, logos, figures as the book in which every permanent characteristic of the world is recorded and inscribed. 61 or elsewhere it is the son of god: following the ways of the father, he fashions material objects after his contemplation of their eternal forms.62 philo anticipates the language applied to christ when he speaks of this logos from a platonizing viewpoint: as god is the first and only king of the universe, the way to him is rightly called the royal road. consider this road as philosophy. the road taken by the ancient company of ascetics, who turned away from the entangling fascination of pleasure and devoted themselves to a noble and earnest c

universe, the way to him is rightly called the royal road. consider this road as philosophy. the road taken by the ancient company of ascetics, who turned away from the entangling fascination of pleasure and devoted themselves to a noble and earnest cultivation of the beautiful. the law names this royal road, which we call true philosophy, the word and spirit of god.63 to travel this road is for philo equivalent to an initiation in the mysteries. on it he will encounter the logos, which is for him the son of god: 56 christianity as mystical fact i do not shrink from relating what has happened to me innumerable times. often when i wished to put my philosophical thoughts in writing in my accustomed way, and saw quite clearly what was to be set down, i found my mind barren and rigid, so that

rent with the divine. that is clear too in the following passage: when the spirit, moved by love, takes its flight into the holy of holies, soaring joyfully on divine wings, it forgets everything else and itself. it holds to and is filled only with the power of which it is the follower platonic mysteries 57 and servant, and to this it offers the incense of the most sacred and chaste virtue.65 for philo there are only two alternatives to follow the way of the senses (perception and intellect, in which case one is confined in the limits of oneself and draws back from the cosmos; or to become aware of the universal power and so, within one s own self, experience the eternal: he who wishes to escape from god falls into his own hands. for there are two things to be considered: the universal spi

o such a personality. when they described his life, it was in terms of their own particular mystery-traditions. if the synoptics (the first three gospels) describe it in similar ways, that proves nothing except that they were working out of similar traditions from the mysteries. the writer of the fourth gospel steeps his narrative with ideas that recall the thought of the philosopher of religion, philo of alexandria; again, that proves nothing except the proximity of the tradition out of which he wrote to that of philo.100 in the gospels we meet with several sorts of material. there are in the first place reports of events, which apparently lay claim to historicity. secondly, there are the parables, where the story only serves to present a deeper truth in imaginative terms. and thirdly, th

book, which marks out the path to the summit of wisdom. only one person is worthy to open this book: look! the lion of the tribe of judah, the root of david, has triumphed. he is able to open the book and its seven seals. 138 the apocalypse of john 131 the book has seven seals human wisdom is sevenfold. once again we encounter the holiness of the number seven. seals, in the mystical philosophy of philo judaeus, are the eternal cosmic ideas that come to expression in things.139 human wisdom is the quest for these creative ideas. only in the book sealed by them can divine wisdom be found. the archetypal ideas behind the created world must be unveiled the seals opened and the contents of the book will be revealed. jesus is the lion who can break open the seals; he has given a meaning to the i

him. experience of the spirit permitted members, after a certain stage had been reached, to be admitted into a higher order. this exercised authority, not by compulsion, but as a source of the community s fundamental convictions.155 a related group were the therapeutae, who were to be found in egypt. all our reliable information about their organization is contained in the work by the philosopher philo, on the contemplative life.156 a few passages from philo s book will be sufficient to convey an idea of its contents: the houses of those thus banded together are quite simple, affording protection against the two things requiring it most, the blazing heat of the sun and the frostiness of the air. they are neither contiguous as in towns, since close proximity is troublesome and displeasing t

, and the christian initiate tells us that one ascends in one s own inner nature to the vision of god, but the light by which one sees is the light of christmade- manifest. it is through him that the mystic ascends to the highest point within. so does the mysticism of medieval christianity differ from the experiences of the mystai in the ancient mysteries.169 chapter 11 christian and pagan wisdom philo judaeus: the mystery of the logos at the time of christian origins we also find the development within the ancient pagan culture of certain world conceptions that constitute a continuation of platonic thought, but which also have roots in a mysteriosophy that has been refined, made inward and spiritual. they appear first with philo of alexandria (c. 25 b.c. a.d. 50. the path to divinization

hin the ancient pagan culture of certain world conceptions that constitute a continuation of platonic thought, but which also have roots in a mysteriosophy that has been refined, made inward and spiritual. they appear first with philo of alexandria (c. 25 b.c. a.d. 50. the path to divinization, according to his view, is an entirely inward one taking place in the soul. one might aptly say that for philo the temple of the mysteries where he seeks initiation is nothing other than his own inner being and the experiences that it undergoes.170 he translates the mystery-rites used in their enactments into processes of a purely psychological and conceptual nature. he does not see any possibility of reaching the divine through the impressions of the senses or through rational understanding. these a

augustine speaks in essentially philonic terms when he says: christian and pagan wisdom 155 we therefore behold these things which you [god] have created, because they are; but they are, because you see them. and his further comment on what and how we see them is also striking: and we see externally that they are; but inwardly that they are good.171 all this has its origins in plato. like plato, philo interprets the destiny of the human soul as the denouement in a cosmic drama, when the hidden god awakens from the spell.172 he describes inner events in which the soul is active by saying that wisdom follows within human beings the ways of her father, looking upon the archetypes and shaping forms in accordance with them.173 thus it is not of merely personal significance for someone to give

upon the archetypes and shaping forms in accordance with them.173 thus it is not of merely personal significance for someone to give expression to these forms; rather they are the eternal wisdom the life of the world. his view accords with the mysteryattitude toward the familiar myths. the mystai looked for the deeper reality behind the myths, and what they did in the case of the pagan mythology, philo does with the tale of origins contained in the books attributed to moses. the old testament narratives he treats as images of internal, psychic processes. take the creation of the world recounted in the bible. to read it as expressing things that happened in an external way is to grasp only one half of its meaning. it does indeed say: 156 christianity as mystical fact in the beginning god cr

empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters.174 but the inner truth that lies behind such words has to be experienced in one s own inner depths. god must first be found within, and then he will be recognized as the archetypal essence, sending forth myriads of rays, none of them visible to sense, but all grasped by the mind. 175 that is how philo describes god. and something almost identical can be recognized in plato s timaeus: when the father who had begotten it perceived that the universe was alive and in motion, a shrine for the eternal gods [that is, the stars, he was well pleased.176 compare the bible s and god saw everything, that it was good. in this platonizing way, philo assimilates the meaning of the bible to the experienc

pleased.176 compare the bible s and god saw everything, that it was good. in this platonizing way, philo assimilates the meaning of the bible to the experiences of the mysteries, making the knowledge of the divine arise from the creation- process, which takes place in one s own soul as the working-out of its destiny. the story of creation and that of the soul s divinization are one and the same. philo acts on the assumption that the narratives in the mosaic primordial history can be used to tell the story of the soul in its search for god. everything in the bible thus becomes profoundly symbolic, and philo is the interpreter of its symbolism, reading the bible as the story of the soul. it may rightly be said that philo s method of exegesis christian and pagan wisdom 157 corresponds to con

s pioneered by mysteriosophy. he himself draws attention to the same approach to the ancient scriptures among the therapeutae: they have also writings of men of old, who were the founders of their sect, and had left behind many memorials of the type of treatment employed in allegory. their interpretations of the holy scriptures are made in accordance with the deeper meanings conveyed in allegory. philo s aim was likewise to uncover the deeper meaning hidden in the old testament allegories. it is worth considering where such exegesis could lead. reading the creation story, one comes upon something that refers not merely to outer events but furnishes an image for the path of the soul toward divinization. the soul, then, must undertake on the microcosmic level to follow in the footsteps of go

he footsteps of god; that is the only way of describing its mystery-striving after wisdom. it is the cosmic drama itself that is played out in every soul. the primal image expressed in the account of the creation finds its fulfillment in the inner life of the mystery-adept. moses wrote, not just to recount historical occurrences, but to provide images of the course that will lead the soul to god. philo s conception renders everything a spiritual reality within a person s own being. the human experience is a subjective echo of god s cosmic experience. god s word, the logos, becomes a reality within the soul. god brought the jews out of egypt and led them to the promised land, subjecting them to trials and privations before giving 158 christianity as mystical fact them the land as their rewa

e promised land, subjecting them to trials and privations before giving 158 christianity as mystical fact them the land as their reward these were outward events. but one has to go through them as an inner experience, departing from the land of egypt (the perishable world, going through privations (the suppression of the sense-nature) until the promised land of the soul (the eternal) is attained. philo turns it all into a sequence of inner happenings. the mystery-god who has poured himself out into the world celebrates his return to life in the soul, which has grasped his creative word, and in which it becomes reality once more. a person then has god within, having inwardly given birth to the divine spirit, which has taken on human form: the logos (christ. philo and those who took up his i

tus, fragments 12 and 91. 24. fragment 88. 25. fragment 78 a (bywater. 26. fragment 15; and cf. fragment 49 a. discoveries of orphic- dionysiac membership tokens with the formula life-death- life again confirm the mystery background; kirk, raven and schofield, the presocratic philosophers, pp. 208, 210. 27. fragments 110-111. 28. fragment 61. 29. fragment 51. 30. fragment 62. 31. fragment 52. 32. philo of alexandria, living around the beginning of the christian era, still thinks in the same way. considering the legal sections of the bible he writes: there are those who take a purely symbolic view of the written law. they inquire diligently after its spiritual meaning, but scorn the actual laws. but i can only blame such people, for they ought to observe both the hidden meaning and the obvi

, living around the beginning of the christian era, still thinks in the same way. considering the legal sections of the bible he writes: there are those who take a purely symbolic view of the written law. they inquire diligently after its spiritual meaning, but scorn the actual laws. but i can only blame such people, for they ought to observe both the hidden meaning and the obvious one (r.st) see philo, on the migration of abraham, 89. 33. daimon is used here in its greek sense of spiritual being (r.st. heraclitus, fragment 119. 34. reincarnation formed an important element in the thought of several pre-socratic thinkers, notably empedocles and of course pythagoras. rudolf steiner arrived at an understanding of reincarnation, not through ancient doctrines, but out of evolutionary and devel

9, pp. 155-156. 94. 1 john 1:1, 1:3. 95. augustine, against mani s so-called fundamental epistle, 6. 96. matthew 28:20. 97. otto schmiedel, die hauptprobleme der leben jesu-forschung (t bingen and leipzig, 1902, p. 15. 98. adolf harnack, the essence of christianity. 99. see above, pp. 152ff. 100. see above, pp. 91ff. for an important study of the relationship, common symbolism, and so on, between philo and the gospel of john, see c.h. dodd, the interpretation of the fourth gospel (harvard university press, cambridge, 1968, pp. 55-73. dodd comments extensively on philo s use of the language of the mysteries. notes 223 101. on the meaning of this central theme in the preaching of jesus, and its esoteric dimension, see steiner, the gospel of st. matthew (anthroposophic press, hudson, ny, 1985

THE STAR IN THE WEST BY CAPTAIN FULLER A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE WORKS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY

everence to prana, to whom the universe is subject, who has been lord of all, on whom all is supported. h prana is the purusha or aum, the totality of brahman, vishnu, and siva, of past, present, and future. the wisdom of the book of proverbs, and the later book of wisdom; it is also the same power as the eden illa-ah of the zohar, the be f raisheeth of many qabalists and talmudists, the logos of philo and st. john, and the sophia of plato. all the above are absolute ideals, and so can bear only a relationship and no proportionate value whatever to our finite understanding, they can only be watched, and have never been realized; and for this reason is it that they have never been appreciated by the mass of their so-called believers: i will not look at her; i dare not stay. i will go down a

TURNER ROBERT ARBETEL OF MAGICK

altogether, are the corruptions which have made odious the very name of magick, having chiefly sought, as the manner of all impostures is, to counterfeit the highest and most noble part of it. a second kind of magick is astrologie, which judgeth of the events of things to come, natural and humane, by the motions and influences of the stars upon the lower elements, by them observed and understood. philo judaeus affirmeth, that by this part of magick or astrologie, together with the motions of the stars and other heavenly bodies, abraham found out the knowledge of the true god while he lived in caldea, qui contemplatione creaturarum, cognovit creatorem (saith damascen) who knew the creator by the contemplation of the creature. josephus reporteth of abraham, that he instructed the egyptians i

of god. flee from earthly things; seek after heavenly things. put no confidence in thy own wisdom; but look unto god in all things, according to that sentence of the scripture: when we know not what we shall do, unto thee, o god, do we lift up our eyes, and from thee we expect our help. for where all humane refuges do forsake us, there will the help of god shine forth, according to the saying of philo. aphorism 5. thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thy self: and the lord will keep thee as the apple of his eye, and will deliver thee from all evil, and will replenish thee with all good; and nothing shall thy 8 soul desire, but thou shalt be fully endued therewith, so that it be contingent to the salvation of thy soul and body

TWO ESSAYS ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS

o fills both; who can therefore feel no succession of events, nor know any gradation of distance; but must comprehend infinite duration as if it were one moment, and infinite extent as if it were but a single point.3 hence the ammonian platonics speak of him as concentered in his own unity, and extended through all things, but participated of by none. being of a nature more refined and elevated 1 philo. de leg. alleg. lib. i. jo. damasc. de orth. fid. 2 mosheim. note in sec. xxiv. cdw. syst. intellect. 3 see boeth. de consol. philos. lib. iv. prof. 6. 26 on the worship than intelligence itself, he could not be known by sense, perception, or reason; and being the cause of all, he must be anterior to all, even to eternity itself, if considered as eternity of time, and not as the intellectual

e and female,1 as he himself consequently was.2 hence an ingenious author has supposed that these androgynous figures represented the first individuals of the human race, who, possessing the organs of both sexes, produced children of each. this seems to be the sense in which they were represented by some of the ancient artists; but i have never met with any trace of it in any greek author, except philo the jew; nor have i ever seen any monument of ancient art, in which the bacchus, or creator in a human form, was represented with the generative organs of both sexes. in the symbolical images, the double nature is frequently expressed by some androgynous insect, such as the snail, which is endowed with the organs of both sexes, and can copulate reciprocally with either: but when the refineme

human form, was represented with the generative organs of both sexes. in the symbolical images, the double nature is frequently expressed by some androgynous insect, such as the snail, which is endowed with the organs of both sexes, and can copulate reciprocally with either: but when the refinement of art adopted the human form, it was represented by mixing the characters of the 1 genes, c. i. 2 philo, de leg. alleg. lib. ii. 44 on the worship male and female bodies in every part, preserving still the distinctive organs of the male. hence euripides calls bacchus qhlummorfoj,1 and the chorus of bachannals in the same tragedy address him by masculine and feminine epithets.2 ovid also says to him, tibi, cum sine cornibus adstas, virgineum caput est. 3 alluding in the first line to his taurin

y of the corruptions of christianity, which began in the pure theism of the eclectic jews,1 and by the help of inspirations, emanations, and canonizations, expanded itself, by degrees, to the vast and unwieldly system which now fills the creed of what is commonly called the catholic church. in the ancient religion, however, the emanations assumed the appearance of moral 1 compare the doctrines of philo with those taught in the gospel of st. john, and epistles of st. paul. of priapus 109 virtues and physical attributes, instead of ministering spirits and guardian angels; and the canonizations or deifications were bestowed upon heroes, legislators, and monarchs, instead of priests, monks, and martyrs. there is also this further difference, that among the moderns philosophy has improved, as r

ndria explains st. peter s prohibition of worshipping after the manner of the greeks, not to mean a prohibition of worshipping the same god, but merely of the corrupt mode in which he was then worshipped.6 1 the vine and goblet of bacchus are also the usual devices upon the jewish and samaritan coins, which were struck under the asmonean kings. 2 hieron. comm. in psalm. viii. diodor. sic. lib. i. philo-bybl. ap. euseb. prep. evang. lib. 1, c. ix. 3 macrob. sat. lib. 1, c. xviii. 4 ibid. 5 act. apost. c. xvii, ver. 28. 6 stromat. lib. v. finis. on the worship of the generative powers during the middle ages of western europe a on the worship of the generative powers during the middle ages of western europe ichard payne knight, has written with great learning on the origin and history of the

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

t the fool at the end or anywhere in between. perhaps this explains why the fool traditionally was put between cards xx and xxi. the placement is so arbitrary, it suggests the absurdity of trying to fix the fool between any of the numbered cards. understanding the role of the fool is the single most important step in learn- ing tarot symbolism because the fool reveals the dynamics underlying this philo- sophical machine. the diviner and the fool are one, but the diviner is colored by various shades of prejudice and bias, whereas the fool is as clear as water. the diviner stands with the fool in a great circular chamber with twenty-one glass windows of different colors. as the diviner approaches a window, the light shining through it casts over him or her a certain hue, and causes the divin

TYSON DONALD THE POWER OF THE WORD

y practices of kabbalists, ritual magicians, and astrologers over the years to come. lvx donaltdy son march 21,1994 bedford, nova scotia historoyf the name t etragrammaton, from the greek tetra (four) gramma (letter, is the word used by early jewish authors writing in the greek language to signify the most sacred and powerful name of god composed of four hebrew letters. it appears in the works of philo judaeus, an alexandrian of the first century, and flavius josephus, a native of jerusalem who lived during the same period. the pronunciation of the name was forbidden except to priests of the temple during the benediction of the people (num. 6:22-7) and on the day of atonement, when the high priest spoke it ten times before the assembled worshippers (lev. 16:30. because unpointed hebrew is

the books of the torah and yet still conceal its pronunciation. it appears as 717, which is transliterated into the latin characters ihvh (sometimes yhwh or jhwh. but the name could not be written in greek without revealing the way of saying it. josephus was a priest and knew the correct pronunciation of the name, but states in his antiquities (11, 12, 4) that religion forbids him to divulge it. philo calls the name ineffable and says that it is lawful only for those whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place-in other words, for priests in the temple. in their own language the jews referred to the name as shem ha- mephoresh (w?15?3d;1w" the distinctive excellent name" this designation 2 tetragrammaton is often assigned by occultists to the seventy-t

unds of ritual. with the seizing of the temple, the public use of the name in religious ceremonies ceased altogether, but it continued to be preserved in the schools of the rabbis, who according to one tradition (qiddushin 71a) communicated the true pronunciation of the name to their disciples "mouth to ear" once every seven years. it was the most serious blasphemy for a layman to speak the name. philo says the penalty was death. it shocked and enraged the rabbis that for some time after its use was forbidden, the sect of the samaritans continued to employ the name in their judicial oaths. a jew reading aloud the scriptures who encountered the letters ihvh was directed to speak the name "adonai" which means lord. if the names ihvh and adonai occurred together on the page "elohim" translate

one, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth (exod. 28:9-10. the name urim, avrim, literally translates as "lights" this name was often used alone to stand for both parts of the oracle. the name thummim (thmim) is literally translated as "truth" both of these are plural forms in hebrew. the names are translated in the septuagint as "revelation" and "truth" philo judaeus believed that urim and thummim were two little images, the first symbolically representing revelation and the second representing truth. since revelation is truth of a kind, apparently two types of truth are intended. the name urim (lights) calls to mind the sephiroth of the kabbalistic kee, specifically the second and third sephiroth, chokmah (wisdom) and binah (understanding. these

d to, but should not prove confusing. moses and god said moreover unto moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of israel, the lord god (ihvh) of your fathers, the god of abraham, the god of isaac, and the god of jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations (pentateuch [ninth century bc, exod. 3:15, king james translation) tetragrammaton philo judaeus if anyone, i do not say should blaspheme against the lord of men and gods, but should even dare to utter his name unseasonably, let him expect the penalty of death (vita mosis [first century, 3.2) flavius josephus moses having now seen and heard these words that assured him of the truth of these promises of god, had no reason left him to disbelieve them: he entreated him to grant him

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

, harleian mss. it is also the number of chesed (chsd) the sephirah, mercy. it is said that ptolemy, king of egypt, collected 72 hebrew rabbis and confined each in a separate room, and ordered each to write out the mosaic law, and that by the help of god, each wrote out the same words. megillah of the talmud, 9.1. this account is similar to that of josephus and aristaeus, but different to that of philo. hence the name septuagint. 73. the number of chokmah (chkmh, wisdom, the 2nd sephirah. 78. the number of cards in a tarot pack. 40 numerals, 16 court cards and 22 trumps (major. 117. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott 79. boz, boaz, the left-hand brazen pillar at the entrance to solomon s temple. 80. the number of yesod, foundation, 9th sephirah. the

WOLFSON ELLIOT ALEF MEM TAU KABBALISTIC MUSINGS ON TIME TRUTH AND DEATH

significantly, augustine describes his intellectual vision of god in these very terms: so in the flash of a trembling glance it attained to that which is. at that moment i saw your invisible nature understood through the things which are made (rom 1:20. but i did not possess the strength to keep my vision fixed. 60 in spite of the seemingly incontrovertible divergence between eternity and time on philo- 10 chapter one sophical grounds, in theological terms that is, in the language of faith the one informs us about the nature of the other; to see the light that is god, one beholds with the mind s eye the flow of time in the flight of eternity. echoing the augustinian position many centuries later, kierkegaard surmised that the moment is really time s atom, but not until eternity is posited

e. la clepsydre: essai sur la pluralit des temps dans le juda sme. paris: ditions albin michel, 2000. les jeux du temps dans la culture ashk naze. revue des tudes juives 160 (2001: 155 169. questions of times: conflicting time scales in historical perspective. jewish history 14 (2000: 267 286. goodman-thau, eveline. aufstand der wassen: j dische hermeneutik zwischen tradition und moderne. berlin: philo verlagsgesellschaft, 2002. gordon, peter e. the erotics of negative theology: maimonides on apprehension. jewish studies quarterly 2 (1995: 1 38. rosenzweig and heidegger: between judaism and german philosophy. berkeley: university of california press, 2003. gorl e, dinda l. semiotics and the problem of translation with special reference to the semiotics of charles s. peirce. amsterdam: edit

iversity press, 1999. philosophical and theological writings. translated and edited with notes and commentary by paul w. franks and michael l. morgan. indianapolis: hackett publishing, 2000. the star of redemption. translated by william w. hallo. new york: holt, rinehart, and winston, 1971. zweistromland: kleinere schriften zur religion und philosophie. with an afterword by gesine palmer. berlin: philo, 2001. rospatt, alexander von. the buddhist doctrine of momentariness: a survey of the origins and early phase of the doctrine up to vasubandhu. stuttgart: franz steiner verlag, 1995. rotenstreich, nathan. experience and its systematization: studies in kant. the hague: martinus nijhoff, 1965. rubenstein, eric m. experiencing the future: kantian thoughts on husserl. in the importance of time:

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