Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
PLATO

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18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

d) is commonly neuter, and forms its pi. apcotir; whether the m.h.g' dcr aptgot' in geo. 3254. 3302 can be correct, is questionable; we have taken to 1 ovbeh ayados d jj (is 6 oeos, i\raik 10, 18, luke 18, 19, wliich ingothic is rendered 'ni livashuii ]nuseigs alja ains gus, but in a.s' nis nan man god ijuton god ana. god is the giver of all good, and himself the highest good, smnmum bonum. thiis plato names him ro dyadoi. y 2 in gothic the rule is to change th into d belore a vowel in inflection, as, fass, fadis, fada, fus; haubi's -dis -da -s. the peculiarity of gus is that it retains th throughout the sing, gus, guss, gusa, gus; though in pi. and in derivatives it falls under rule asain. teans. god. 15 usiug ahgott as a masc. throughout, yet our pi. gutter itself can only be explained a

the poetic art, and saga is his divine daughter, just as the greek muses, though daughters of zeus, are under apollo's protection, and in his train. on the other hand, writing and the alphabet were not invented by apollo, but by hermes. tlie egyptian priests placed hermes at the head of all inventions (lamblich. de myst. aegypt. 8, 1, and theuth or thoth is said to have first discovered letters (plato's phaedr. 1, 96, bekker, while, ace. to hygin. fab. 143, hermes learnt them by watching the flight of cranes. in tbe as. dialogue between saturn and solomon, we read (thorpe's anal, p. 100 'saga me, hwa aerost bocstafas sette 'ic the secge, mercurius se gyqcmd. another dialogue, entitled adrian and epictus (ms. brit. mus. arund. no. 351. fol. 39) asks 'quis primus fecit literas' and answers'

e, boiith. metr. 25, 41; tirfruma, cod. exon. 13, 21; tirmeahtig (potentissimus, 72, 1; tireadig (felicissimus, ccedm. 189, 13. 192, 16; tirfa^st (firmissimus, 64, 2. 189, 19; 1 somelimcp, thoiigh rarely, we find another on. dlar, s;eni. 91. sn. 17g. yngl. saga cap. 2; it agrees with 6e6i more than with 5ior^ we know to what shifts socrates is driven in trying to explain the forms z^i/a and at'a (plato's cratylus p. 29, bekker; 6e6s he derives from dtlv, currere (p. 32* or must wc read it tivor, and connect it with the as. tifer, tiber, ohg. 7x'par] 196 zio. much in the same way as the as. eormen, oiig. irman is prefixed. now when a similar prefix t' meets us in the oast. writings, e.g. tyhraustr (fortissimus, tyspakr (sapientissimus, sn. 29, it confirms the afiinity between tir and ty-r

nd life, death and metamorphosis, as elsewhere on a draught of holy water. according to the eddie view, the gods have a means, it is true, of preserving perpetual freshness and youth, 1 as homer too makes ganymede olvoxoeveiv, ii. 20, 234, and of hebe it is even said, vikzap it^voxod 4 .3^ zeus,'0l's to bancjuet kara ^aita) with the ethiopians, ii. 1, 423; orav trpos haira kai evl dolvr)v 'icoai, plato's pha;dr. 247, as tliurr does with tlie norwegians; even when disguised as a bride, he does not refuse the giants' dishes, saeni. 73; and the ases boiled an ox on their journey, sn. 80' in sanskrit, siulha nectar is distinguished from rnjin'to ambrosia. everywhere there is an eitgli in the l)usiness: garuda is called sudhahara, or amritaharana, nectar-thief or ambrosia-thief (pott, forsch. 2

s stand beside the combatants, kkwom, ad)(ealre adyealv re kal "arpottov, a'lre /bporotaiv lyelvo/iievoiai sisovaiv exeiv djaoov re kakov re' who give to mortals at birth to have both good and ill' and in almost the same w^ords at 905. the most detailed description is given by plato (de republ. 617 steph. 508 bekk: the three fioipai are daughters of ^avdykt (necessity, on whose knees the spindle (drpakro) turns; they sit clothed in white and garlanded, singing the destiny, lachesis ra rye'yovora, klotho ra ovra, atropos ra fiexkovra: just the same relation to past, present and future as the norns have, though the greek proper names do not themselves exj)ress it. kkwddo

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGICK SPELLS

e leaders should wear one around the neck or in a ring. they are powerful against all forms of malevolence and danger, repelling envy in others. most of all, carnelians protect us against ourselves and our own weaknesses. coral coral is an organic gem, usually pink, red or orange, and is known as the protector of children. coral has been a children's stone from the time of the ancient greeks when plato wrote that it should be hung around children's necks to prevent them falling and to cure colic, and rubbed on the gums to help painless teething. it is good for all children's fears and against threat to their person or self-esteem. it is also protective for adolescent girls, pregnant women and new mothers, and invokes kindness and gentleness in others. garner usually a deep, clear red, garn

ine circles widdershins. plunge the pendulum in cold running water to cleanse it, shake it dry and circle it nine times deosil over the tool(s) to restore energies. you may need to repeat this several times if a tool seems lifeless or after you have been carrying out a banishing ritual. the four elements the four elements- earth, air, fire and water- play an important part in all kinds of magick. plato, the greek philosopher who lived around 360 bc, was the first to identify these elements as the components that made up the whole universe and right until elizabethan times people still believed that our nature was influenced by our elemental composition. indeed, jung, the twentieth-century psychoanalyst, used this concept in his personality types, renaming them as earth/sensations, air/thin

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

sisting of the article "al" and the adjective "khemi" which means "that which pertains to egypt<egyptian matter. the assumption is that the mohammedan grammarians held traditionally that the art was derived from that wisdom of the egyptians which was the boast of moses, plato, and pythagoras, and the source of their illumination. modern research (by profane scholars) leaves it still doubtful as to whether alchemical treatises should be classified as mystical, magical, medical, or chemical. the most reasonable opinion is that all these objects formed the preoccupation of the alchemists in varying proportions. hermes is alike the god of wisdom, thaumaturgy, therape

material symbols. there have been certain saints who are capable of love for an idea as such without it being otherwise than degraded by "idolising" it, to use this word in its true sense. thus one may be impassioned of beauty, without even the need of so small a concretion of it as "the beauty of apollo, the "beauty of roses, the "beauty of attis. such persons are rare; it may be doubted whether plato himself attained to any vision of absolute beauty without attaching to it material objects in the first place. a second class is able to contemplate ideals through this veil; a third class need a double veil, and cannot think of the beauty of a rose without a rose before them. for such, is this method of most use; yet let them know that there is this danger therein, that they may mistake the

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS

hout tears get any book for free on: www.abika.com 84 first reading. careful study of it should reveal the nature of the thought-processes which are habitually used by the secret masters of the human race to determine its destiny. when everyone has done laughing, i will ask you to compare the real effects produced on the course of human affairs by caesar, attila, and napoleon, on the one hand; of plato, the encyclopaedists, and karl marx31 on the other. the yellow school of magick considers, with complete scientific and philosophical detachment, the fact of the universe as a fact. being itself apart of that universe, it realizes its impotence to alter the totality in the smallest degree. to put it vulgarly, it does not try to raise itself from the ground by pulling at its socks. it therefo

a full discussion of this see letter xlii. 4 "god" this is really to bad of you! of all the hopelessly mangled words in the language, you settle with unerring sadism on the most brutally butchered. crippen10 was an amateur. skeat hardly helps us at all, except by warning us that "good" has nothing whatever to do with it.11 dieu comes from deus, with all its sol-jupiter references, and deos, which plato thought meant a runner; hence, sun, moon, planets. the best i can do for you, honest injun! is the russian word for god bog; connected probably, though the lithuanian, with the welsh bwq a spectre or hobgoblin. bugge, too. not very inspiring, is it, to replace the old hundredth by "hush! hush! hush! here come the bogey man" or is it. enough of this fooling! out, trusty rapier, and home to th

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE LOST CONTINENT

ormer part being also twofold, fluid and gaseous, and the latter earthy and fiery. the combination of these four phases of zro accounted for the universe. this quintessence is zro in some state unknown and incalculable. some expected to find it in its twelth state, some in a seventeenth, others in a thirty-seventh: all this was pure guesswork. some tradition to this effect appears to have reached plato; and the neo-platonists combined with those jews who had preserved fragments of the egyptian tradition to form a new initiated hierarchy, the echo of whose teaching is found in paracelsus. at one period, too, missionaries (not colonists, as has been ignorantly asserted; there was no trouble of over-population in atlantis) were sent to the four quarters and parties landed in mexico, ireland a

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE OLD AND NEW COMMENTARIES TO LIBER AL

infinity of ills; jealousies, abortions, diseases, infanticides, frauds, intrigues, quarrels, poverty, prostitution, persecution, idleness, self-indulgence, social stress, over-population, sex-antagonism. they show with poincare's precision that jesus and paul struck at the heart of hell when they proclaimed marriage a scourge, and offered the testimony of john and timothy to support the plea of plato on behalf of paederastic passion. out of the court there slunk mark antony, his toga to his face, one of the legion of lost souls that woman had withered; behind him groped blind samson, disinherited adam, feeling his way along the table where they had piled countless papyri writ with woes of kings and sages woman-wrecked, and many a map of towns and temples torn and trampled beneath the fee

to another! the idea of creation from nothing of something and the destruction of something to nothing, exploded with the theory of phlogiston. it stands plain, even to sceptical reason- indeed, most of all to the sceptic- that our talisman, one microscopic serpent of which can build for itself such a house as to rule men's bodies for a generation like alexander, or their minds for an epoch like plato, cannot be destroyed or diminished by any conceivable force. when this talisman comes forth from its fortress, its action begins. the ancient jewish rabbins knew this, and taught that before eve was given to adam, the demon lilith conceived by the spilth of his dreams, so that the hybrid races of satyrs, elves and the like began to populate those secret places of the earth which are not sens

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQ I 1

ns at all, they come from a deeper level of your nature than the loquacious level which rationalism inhabits "the varieties of religious experience" p. 73. the rationalists who will slay the magic of darwin; so that four hundred years hence perchance will some disciple of lamarck 151 be torn to pieces in the rooms of the royal society by the followers of haeckel, just as hypatia, that disciple of plato, was torn to pieces in the church of christ by followers of st. john. we have nothing to say against the men of science, we have nothing to say against the great mystics- all hail to both! but such of their followers who accepted the doctrines of either the one or the other as a dogma we here openly pronounce to be a bane, a curse, and a pestilence to mankind. why assume that only one system

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3 3

explained away. this is what makes modern spiritualism so hideous and qliphothic a thing, and "psychic researchers" such bad mystics. there is nothing in the book under review that is fresh_ nothing that was not known forty years ago_ see emma hardinge britten's "modern american spiritualism; nothing that was not commonplace yesterday_ see the current issue of "light" the real occult knowledge of plato, of paracelsus, of boehme, of levi, 319 was based upon theories whereby all the phenomena of modern psychism had their place, and were awarded their proper value. the pseudo-occultism and watery mysticism of the modern spiritualistic philosophers_ we call them by this noble title by courtesy_ is due to their complete lack of knowledge. what serious student of religion and occultism cares for

ALICE A BAILEY02 INITIATION HUMAN AND SOLAR

great deities agni, vayu and surya, and also all the three, as he is the triple aspect of fire; fire is the essence of the solar system. the bible says "our god is a consuming fire" it is also the symbol of the mental plane of which agni is paramountly lord. agnichaitans. a group of fire devas. atlantis. the continent that was submerged in the atlantic ocean, according to the occult teaching and plato. atlantis was the home of the fourth root race, whom we now call the atlanteans- 125- initiation, human and solar copyright 1998 lucis trust antahkarana. the path, or bridge, between higher and lower mind, serving as a medium of communication between the two. it is built by the aspirant himself in m ental matter. ashram. the centre to which the master gathers the disciples and aspirants for

ALICE A BAILEY04 A TREATISE ON COSMIC FIRE

bed vision will fail to recognise the unity of the many force impulses emanating from the one lodge. these cycles will not coincide, for they are not all similar to the one hundred year spiral. some idea as to the mahachohan's cycle of emanatory impulses may be gathered by considering the- 615- a treatise on cosmic fire copyright 1998 lucis trust dates of the foremost scientific discoveries since plato's time; the cycles of the second ray may also be averaged by a summary of the appearances of the great teachers down the ages. the force emanations from the manu, or those of the first ray, are easily traced when the races are considered, and this has been done in the recognition of the races and subraces. what is oft overlooked is that each of these rays of energy demonstrates constructivel

he world song in human sound that was given to man for his use metaphysically from the standpoint of its meaning, and magically from the standpoint of its proper recitation. the world song obeying certain laws of proportions or the pythagorean arithmetic and imparting its thrilling effect to the domain of cosmic substance, has induced the latter into a crystallisation process that the philosopher plato called the geometry of the cosmos. the various forms that are observed from a molecule of salt crystal to the wonderfully complex organism of the human body are all the structures of the great cosmic geometriser known as viswakarma, the deva carpenter in our puranic writings. the revealed veda whose function is to trace out the cosmos from one basic sound substance symbolised as om, necessar

ALICE A BAILEY07 FROM INTELLECT TO INTUITION

ers will decide. but out of the welter of opinion emerges the basic fact of the wide range of the human states of- 15- from intellect to intuition copyright 1998 lucis trust awareness, and the wonder of the realization that humanity has produced such marvels of comprehensive understanding, of purity of expression and of perfected world-wide influence as we see evidenced by the christ, the buddha, plato and many others, whose thoughts and words have set their mark upon the minds of men for thousands of years. what has made them what they are? are they miracles, emerging from the heart of the infinite, and, hence, can never find their equal? are they products of the evolutionary process, and so have become potent through vast experience and unfoldment? or are they the flower of the human rac

tanding of the laws which govern the natural world, and some of those which govern the psychical. the laws of the spiritual realm, so-called, remain to be scientifically discovered and utilized. a few have known them and spoken to humanity about them, but they are only utilized by the pioneering spirits of our race. among these few who stand out as the eminent knowers, are the buddha, the christ, plato, aristotle, pythagoras, meister eckhart, jacob boehme, spinoza the list is long. we are now beginning to ask the pertinent question: is it not possible that many hundreds now are at the point where they can co-ordinate the brain, the mind and the soul, and so pass through the portal of mental awareness into the realm of light, of intuitive perception, and the world of causes? from the standp

ALICE A BAILEY09 A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYS VOLUME I ESOTERIC PSYCHOLOGY I

that vortex of energy had been set up. spirit and matter became mutually interactive and the form or appearance of the solar system began its process of becoming, a process leading to an eventual being. this idea is ancient and true. we find reference to the seven aeons and the seven emanations and to the life and nature of the seven "spirits which are before the throne of god" in the writings of plato and of all initiates who laid down in ancient times the basic propositions which have guided the human mentality down the ages. these great lives, functioning within the boundaries of the solar system, gathered to themselves that substance which they required for manifestation and built it into those forms and appearances through which they could best express their innate qualities. within t

ALICE A BAILEY10 FROM BETHLEHEM TO CALVARY

which render him a different man from what he was before. the oriental may believe that the earth provides adequate facilities for the training and developing processes, and that again and again we return, until we have reached perfection. the goal remains one. the objective is identical. the school is in a different place, and the consciousness is unfolded in varying localities. but that is all. plato held that "confined in the body as in a prison. the soul seeks its pristine sphere of pure rationality by pursuing the philosophic life, by thinking the universal, by loving and living according to reason. the bodily life is but an episode in the eternal career of the soul, which precedes birth and proceeds after death. life in the flesh is a trial and a probation; death, the release and the

ALICE A BAILEY11 A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYS VOLUME II ESOTERIC PSYCHOLOGY II

god really is. love is the presented attribute which is at this time working into manifestation. wisdom began to emerge in the time of the buddha, and was the specified forerunner of love. synthesis is another of the presented attributes and is only now making its appeal for recognition an appeal which can only evoke response from the higher types of men, even though centuries have elapsed since plato endeavoured to picture forth the completeness of the whole and the intricacy of the ideas which have come forth as an expression of that whole. such great revealers of emerging divine attributes as are plato, the buddha or christ differ radically from other avatars in that they are so constituted that they are focal points through which a new presented attribute can emerge as a thought form

gan to control the brain of man so that the anglo-saxon emphasis on joy and bliss eventually became descriptive of many so-called dreams. we have then the emergence of the utopias, the fantasies, the idealistic presentations of future beauty and joy which distinguishes the thought life of the advanced human being, and which find their expression in such presented (and as yet unfulfilled) hopes as plato's republic, milton's paradise regained and the best utopian, idealistic creative productions of our western poets and writers. thus occident and orient together present a theory of dreams of a lower astral or higher intuitional nature which are a complete picture of the wish life of the race. these range all the way from the dirty ideas and the bestial filth, drawn forth at times from their

tre or subjective world government, whose members are responsible for the spread of those ideals and ideas which have led humanity onwards from age to age. this inner centre has always existed and the great leaders of the race, in every field, have been connected with it. the great idealists and world workers (such as the christ and his great brother, the buddha, and those lesser workers, such as plato, spinoza, abraham lincoln, or florence nightingale) have all been associated with this centre. the range of these associates is tremendous and the grades of these workers are many, but self sacrificing work for the betterment of human living and love of their fellow men have distinguished them all. yet all drew their light and inspiration from this central focal point. the members of this go

ALICE A BAILEY18 A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYS VOLUME III ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

pendent of planets and matter as we see and know them on earth, who are the rulers of the sidereal heaven (s.d. i. 535) 6 "the seven sons of light called after their planets and often even identified with them namely, saturn, jupiter, mercury, mars, venus and presumably the sun and the moon (s.d. i. 628) 7 "the planets have their growth, changes, development and gradual evolution (s.d. i. 667) 8 "plato represented the planets as moved by an intrinsic rector. one with his dwelling, like a `boatman in his boat (s.d. i. 535) a "the planets were not inanimate masses but acting and living bodies" b "the planets were rational intelligences circulating around the sun (s.d. i. 535) 9 "the seven planets have for supreme spirits, fortune and destiny, who uphold the eternal stability of the laws of n

ship. he is the priest, sacrificer, suppliant and the medium through which the prayers of mortals reach the gods (ii. 49. note- 388- a treatise on the seven rays- volume iii: esoteric astrology copyright 1998 lucis trust 2. jupiter is regarded as the "throne of brahma (ii. 829) 3 "jupiter is the personification of cyclic law (ii. 830) 4 "the sun used to be called the `eye of jupiter (iii. 278) 5 "plato makes jupiter the logos, the word of the sun (iii. 279) 6 "the mysteries. were presided over by jupiter and saturn" 7 "occultism makes jupiter blue because he is the son of saturn" 8 "the sign of the messiah's coming is the conjunction of saturn and jupiter in the sign of pisces (iii. 152) references in a treatise on cosmic fire 9 "venus, jupiter and saturn might be considered from the stand

tion in a triple form two of which are the `day-sun' and one the `night-sun (s.d. iii. 212) 25 "all initiates are `epitomisers of the history of the sun' which epitome is another mystery within the mystery (s.d. iii. 140) 26 "the mystery of the sun is the grandest of all the innumerable mysteries of occultism (s.d. iii. 212) 27. the sun: a "used to be called the `eye of jupiter (s.d. iii. 278) b. plato mentioned jupiter-logos, the word or sun (s.d. ii i. 279) c. the true colour of the sun is blue (s.d. iii. 461) d. the sun was adopted as a planet by the post-christian astrologers who had not been initiated (s.d. iii. 461) 28 "this self, the highest, the one and the universal was symbolised on `the plane of mortals by the sun, its life-giving effulgence being in its turn the emblem of the s

ALICE A BAILEY23 THE EXTERNALISATION OF THE HIERARCHY

the hierarchy copyright 1998 lucis trust two ways in which these determining ideas in the past came into being and played their part in leading the race onward might be mentioned. one was through the teaching of some teacher who founded a school of thought, thus working through the minds of a chosen few, and through them eventually coloured the thoughts of the men of his time. of such a teacher, plato, aristotle, socrates and many others are outstanding examples. another method was the evocation of the desire of the masses for that which is deemed desirable and their mass reorientation towards a fuller life expression. this life expression, founded on some voiced idea, was embodied in an ideal life. thus the work of the saviours of the world came into expression, and this brought about th

which is deemed desirable and their mass reorientation towards a fuller life expression. this life expression, founded on some voiced idea, was embodied in an ideal life. thus the work of the saviours of the world came into expression, and this brought about the emergence of a world religion. the first method was strictly mental, and even today remains so; the masses, for instance, know little of plato and his theories in spite of the fact that he has moulded human minds either through acquiescence in his theories or through refutation of them down the ages. the other method is strictly emotional and so more easily colours the mass consciousness. an instance of this was the message of the love of god which christ enunciated and the emotional reaction of the masses to his life, his message

he spiritual hierarchy of the planet, or the great white lodge; many millions speak of the guidance of christ and his disciples. be that as it may, there is a universal recognition of a guiding power, exerting pressure throughout the ages, which appears to be leading all towards an ultimate good. some definite direction has led man from the stage of primeval man to that evolutionary point where a plato, a shakespeare, a da vinci, a beethoven can appear. some power has evoked man's capacity to formulate ideas, to produce systems of theology, of science and of government; some inner motivating power has given man the ability to create beauty, to discover the secrets of nature; some realisation of divine responsibility lies behind the philanthropy, the educational systems, and the welfare mov

itive to shamballa force. such avatars frequently emerge at the founding of a nation. this is true of both bismarck and lincoln. 2. teaching avatars. these appearances sound a new note in the realm of thought and of consciousness; they reveal the next needed truth; they pronounce those words and formulate those truths which throw light upon the spiritual development of humanity. such avatars were plato, the first patanjali and sankaracharya; they emerge upon the second ray line of energy, in the department of the christ and are expressions of hierarchical force. when i say the department of the christ, i would remind you that the name "christ" is that of an office an office that has always had its head. i do not mention the christ or the buddha as among these avatars because they are avata

ANTINOMIANISM

xis demands of its adherents. through the utilization of the process i have just described you can reach the limits of what is known to you and begin to project- based upon that known- into the unknown. this personal projection will have a very different form than what is possible through the undeveloped constructs that are and never were your own in the first place. compare this idea to those of plato regarding dianoia and noesis, you will find that they are similar. divine inspiration can only result from the use of the truly divine gift- the full use of the intellectual faculties- it cannot, and never has occurred as the result of the sublimation of consciousness. when you begin to disperse ideas that are not your own, and replacing them with what you do know the entire world as you vie

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

footnote(s* see volcker "mythological geography" pp. 145 to 170[[vol. 2, page] 8 the secret doctrine. secondary period" writes mr. c. gould in "mythical monsters" p. 47. the subject is treated at length elsewhere* iv "atlantis" is the fourth continent. it would be the first historical land, were the traditions of the ancients to receive more attention than they have hitherto. the famous island of plato of that name was but a fragment of this great continent (see "esoteric buddhism) v. the fifth continent was america; but, as it is situated at the antipodes, it is europe and asia minor, almost coeval with it, which are generally referred to by the indo-aryan occultists as the fifth. if their teaching followed the appearance of the continents in their geological and geographical order, then

on of north africa was in fact a peninsula of spain, and that its union with africa (proper) was effected on the north by the rupture of gibraltar, and on the south by an upheaval to which the sahara owes its existence. the shores of this former sea of sahara are still marked by the shells[[footnote continued on next page[[vol. 2, page] 9 pre-tertiary giants. and was followed by the submersion of plato's little atlantic island, which he calls atlantis after its parent continent. geography was part of the mysteries, in days of old. says the zohar (iii, fol. 10a "these secrets (of land and sea) were divulged to the men of the secret science, but not to the geographers" the claim that physical man was originally a colossal pre-tertiary giant, and that he existed 18,000,000 years ago, must of

5, 7, are called "celestial numbers" in the canonical "book of changes (yi king, or transformation, as in "evolution. the explanation of it becomes evident when one examines the ancient[[footnote(s[[footnote continued from previous page] seems to believe and to seek to prove that the esoteric learning of the aryans and the egyptians was derived from the mayas. but, although certainly coeval with plato's atlantis, the mayas belonged to the fifth continent, which was preceded by atlantis and lemuria* these seven caves, seven cities, etc, etc, stand in every case for the seven centres, or zones, upon which the seven primitive groups of the first root-race were born[[vol. 2, page] 36 the secret doctrine. symbols: all these are based upon and start from the figures given from the archaic manus

561) by which (light) all things were made" in sepher jezirah, or numbers of creation, the whole process of evolution is given out in numbers. in its "32 paths of wisdom" the number 3 is repeated four times, and the number 4 five times. therefore, the wisdom of god is contained in numbers (sephrim or sephiroth, for sepher (or s-ph-ra when unvowelled) means "to cipher" and therefore, also, we find plato stating that the deity geometrizes in fabricating the universe. the kabalistic book, the sepher jezirah, opens with a statement of the hidden wisdom of alhi in sephrim, i.e, the elohim in the sephiroth "in thirty and two paths, hidden wisdom, established jah, jhvh, tzabaoth, elohi of israel, alhim of life, el of grace and mercy- exalted, uplifted dweller on high, and king of everlasting, and

tions of angels and the rest out of nothing, now finds itself hopelessly stranded between supernaturalism, or miracle, and materialism. an extra-cosmic god is fatal to philosophy, an intra-cosmic deity- i.e. spirit and matter inseparable from each other- is a philosophical necessity. separate them and that which is left is a gross superstition under a mask of emotionalism. but why "geometrize" as plato has it, why represent these emanations under the form of an immense arithmetical table? the question is well answered by the author just cited. his remarks are quoted in part ii "the theogony of the creative gods "mental perception" he says "to become physical perception, must have the cosmic principle of light: and by this, our mental circle must become visible through light; or, for its co

of science, does not even our modern human race occasionally furnish us with monster-specimens: two-headed children, animal bodies with human heads, dog-headed babies, etc, etc? and this proves that, if nature will still play such[[footnote(s* gods and planetary spirits, especially the ribhus "the three ribhus" who yet become "thrice seven in number" of their gifts* remember the "winged races" of plato; and the popol-vuh accounts of the first human race, which could walk, fly and see objects, however distant* see "mythical monsters" by charles gould[[vol. 2, page] 56 the secret doctrine. freaks now that she has settled for ages into the order of her evolutionary work, monsters, like those described by berosus, were a possibility in her opening programme; which possibility may even have exi

pend upon cyclical processes in the kosmos itself, producing periodic agencies which, acting from without, affect the earth and all that lives and breathes on it, from one end to the other of any manvantara. causes and effects are esoteric, exoteric, and endexoteric, so to say. in isis unveiled we wrote that which we now repeat "we are at the bottom of a cycle and evidently in a transitory state. plato divides the intellectual progress of the universe during every cycle into fertile and barren periods. in the sublunary regions, the spheres of the various elements remain eternally in perfect harmony with the divine nature, he says 'but their parts' owing to a too close proximity to earth, and their commingling with the earthly (which is matter, and therefore the realm of evil 'are sometimes

hana. therefore they of the fifth principle (manas) seem to be connected with, or to have originated the system of the yogis who make of pranidhana their fifth observance (see yoga shastra, ii, 32) it has already been explained why the trans-himalayan occultists regard them as evidently identical with those who in india are termed kumaras, agnishwattas, and the barhishads. how precise and true is plato's expression, how profound and philosophical his remark on the (human) soul or ego, when he defined it as "a compound of the same and the other" and yet how little this hint has been understood, since the world took it to mean that the soul was the breath of god, of jehovah. it is "the same and the other" as the great initiate- philosopher said; for the ego (the "higher self" when merged wit

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

em rife for abuse of occult powers and sorcery of the worst description. the documents were concealed, it is true, but the knowledge itself and its actual existence had never been made a secret of by the hierophants of the temple, wherein mysteries have ever been made a discipline and stimulus to virtue. this is very old news, and was repeatedly made known by the great adepts, from pythagoras and plato down to the neoplatonists. it was the new religion of the nazarenes that wrought a change for the worse- in the policy of centuries. moreover, there is a well-known fact, a very curious one, corroborated to the writer by a reverend gentleman attached for years to a russian embassy- namely, that there are several documents in the st. peters[[vol. 1, page] xxxvi introductory. burg imperial lib

e anger" but the notion of such mental states clearly involves the unthinkable postulate of the externality of the exciting stimuli, to say nothing of the impossibility of ascribing changelessness to a being whose emotions fluctuate with events in the worlds he presides over. the conceptions of a personal god as changeless and infinite are thus unpsychological and, what is worse, unphilosophical* plato proves himself an initiate, when saying in cratylus that[[theos] is derived from the verb[[theein "to move "to run" as the first astronomers who observed the motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets[[theoi, the gods (see book ii "symbolism of the cross and circle) later, the word produced another term[[aletheia "the breath of god[[vol. 1, page] 3 proem. phenomenon in nature* intra-c

. the "manifested universe" therefore, is pervaded by duality, which is, as it were, the very essence of its ex-istence as "manifestation[[footnote(s[[footnote continued from previous page] cannot be the absolute, for it is a manifestation. therefore, eastern occultism calls the abstract all the "causeless one cause" the "rootless root" and limits the "first cause" to the logos, in the sense that plato gives to this term* see mr. subba row's four able lectures on the bhagavad gita "theosophist" february, 1887* called in sanskrit "upadhi[[vol. 1, page] 16 the secret doctrine. but just as the opposite poles of subject and object, spirit and matter, are but aspects of the one unity in which they are synthesized, so, in the manifested universe, there is "that" which links spirit to matter, sub

imordial revelation" to teach that the anima mundi, the one life or "universal soul" was made known only by anaxagoras, or during his age. this philosopher brought the teaching forward simply to oppose the too materialistic conceptions on cosmogony of democritus, based on his exoteric theory of blindly driven atoms. anaxagoras of clazomene was not its inventor but only its propagator, as also was plato. that which he called mundane intelligence, the nous[[nous, the principle that according to his views is absolutely separated and free from matter and acts on design* was called motion, the one life, or jivatma, ages before the year 500 b.c. in india. only the aryan philosophers never endowed the principle, which with them is infinite, with the finite "attribute" of "thinking" this leads the

o objectivity from the passive universal mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the "builders" reconstruct the kosmos after every pralaya, it is they who stand parallel to the seven angels of the presence, whom the christians recognise in the seven "planetary spirits" or the "spirits of the stars" for thus it is they who are the direct amanuenses of the eternal ideation- or, as called by plato, the "divine thought" the eternal record is no fantastic dream, for we meet with the same records in the world of gross matter "a shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving thereupon a permanent trace which might be made visible by resorting to proper processes" says dr. draper "the portraits of our friends or landscape-views may be hidden on the sensitive surface from the eye, but they

to explain which is now being made. how men of the last few centuries have come to the same ideas and conclusions that were taught as axiomatic truths in the secrecy of the adyta dozens of[[footnote(s "the doctrine of the rotation of the earth about an axis is taught by the pythagorean hicetas, probably as early as 500 b.c. it was also taught by his pupil ecphantus, and by heraclides, a pupil of plato. the immobility of the sun and the orbital rotation of the earth were shown by aristarchus of samos as early as 281 b.c. to be suppositions accordant with facts of observation. the heliocentric theory was taught about 150 b.c, by seleucus of seleucia on the tigris [it was taught 500 b.c. by pythagoras- h. p. b] it is said also that archimedes, in a work entitled psammites, inculcated the hel

ter him who inhabits it; after which we turn to the east" belief in the "four maharajahs- the regents of the four cardinal points- was universal and is now that of christians* who call them, after st. augustine "angelic virtues" and "spirits" when enumerated by themselves, and "devils" when named by pagans. but where is the difference between the pagans and the christians in this cause? following plato, aristotle explained that the term[[stoicheia] was understood only as meaning the incorporeal principles placed at each of the four great divisions of our cosmical world to supervise them. thus, no more than the christians did, do they adore and worship the elements and the cardinal (imaginary) points, but the "gods" that ruled these respectively. for the church there are two kinds of sidere

such has reference to the "fifth" and even "sixth-rounders" those who knew that a round was preceded and followed by a long pralaya, a pause of rest which created an impassable gulf between two rounds until the time came for a renewed cycle of life, could not understand the "fallacy" of talking about "fifth and sixth rounders" in our fourth round. gautama buddha, it was held, was a sixth-rounder, plato and some other great philosophers and minds "fifth-rounders" how could it be? one master taught and affirmed that there were such "fifth-rounders" even now on earth; and though understood to say that mankind was yet "in the fourth round" in another place he seemed to say that we were in the fifth. to this an "apocalyptic answer" was returned by another teacher "a few drops of rain do not mak

CASE PAUL F THE BOOK OF TOKENS

from what is within, because 434 digits to 11, the half of 22. the letter-name, d l th, is concealed in the saying "the lord is a man of war, because the hebrew for "man of war, used in exodus 15: 3, is ish milkhamah, a i sh m l ch m h, which has the value 434, the same as the letter-name. atziluth is the highest of the four qabalistic "worlds. it is the archetypal world, practically the same as plato's world of ideas. below it is briah, the creative world, or world of mental patterns. below briah is yetzirah, the world of formation, or plane of invisible forces. the fourth, and lowest, plane is assiah, the material world, or world of action and things [48] the meditation on heh* 1 in whatsoever object thou perceivest, know me as the essence, as the idea, and as the interior nature. becau

CASSANDRA EASON A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

e leaders should wear one around the neck or in a ring. they are powerful against all forms of malevolence and danger, repelling envy in others. most of all, carnelians protect us against ourselves and our own weaknesses. coral coral is an organic gem, usually pink, red or orange, and is known as the protector of children. coral has been a children's stone from the time of the ancient greeks when plato wrote that it should be hung around children's necks to prevent them falling and to cure colic, and rubbed on the gums to help painless teething. it is good for all children's fears and against threat to their person or self-esteem. it is also protective for adolescent girls, pregnant women and new mothers, and invokes kindness and gentleness in others. garner usually a deep, clear red, garn

ine circles widdershins. plunge the pendulum in cold running water to cleanse it, shake it dry and circle it nine times deosil over the tool(s) to restore energies. you may need to repeat this several times if a tool seems lifeless or after you have been carrying out a banishing ritual. the four elements the four elements- earth, air, fire and water- play an important part in all kinds of magick. plato, the greek philosopher who lived around 360 bc, was the first to identify these elements as the components that made up the whole universe and right until elizabethan times people still believed that our nature was influenced by our elemental composition. indeed, jung, the twentieth-century psychoanalyst, used this concept in his seite 120 wicca01.txt personality types, renaming them as eart

CHRONOLOGIA RORISPERGIUS

about numerology, astrology and the occult arts, which pythagoras learned during his 20 years of travels in babylon and egypt. 500 bce w.v. gensis, exodus, numbers (o.t) 475 bc empedocles of agrigentum introduces the 4 elements, fire, earth, air and water, into astrology, as the 4-fold root of all things. he discovered the idea that nothing can be destroyed (or created) only transformed. 427-347 plato 400 bce books of proverbs, job (o.t) 384-322 aristotle 370 bc eudoxus of cnidus devises calendars using zodiac with 12 equal zodiac signs. invents geometrical theory of proportion. 360 critias by plato: the origin of the atlantis story. 356- alexander the great born 350 bc petosiris, chief administrator of the temple of khumunu (hermes) near hermopolis becomes known for mastering egyptian es

learning active in cairo. spread of cathari manicheism throughout europe. leif ericson explores north america. 1004-1007) al-majriti, author of picatrix, dies 1010 earliest european mention of chess: count of urgel(spain)leaves his rock crystal chess set to a convent. by 1200, the game has spread over most of europe, reaching iceland, the baltic and bohemia. 1012: ben gabirol brings the works of plato to spain. 1013 1103 jacob ha-kohen's book of illumination aleph and angelic symbolism overlayed on the menorah 1016-1100 naropa 1018-c. 1079 michael psellus: on the hieratic art(alchemy theologised. 1020 d. meshullam ben kalonymos corresponded with the jews of babylon. rhineland mysticism. 1034 d. abu'l-hasan kharraqani. iranian sufi of the uwaysis tradition (whom suhrawardi claimed himself

the catalan alchemist john of rupescissa 1357 hortulanus' commentary on the emerald tablet of hermes 1358 francesco petrarch discussed alchemy in de remediis utriusque fortunae c1360-c1450 plethon, george gemisthos. taught philosophy at constantinople and studied zoroastrianism, as well as occult teachings, with eliseus, a learned jewish scholar. his followers regarded him as the reincarnation of plato. 1362 d. john of roquetaillade 1363-1437 niccoli, niccol c.1365 judah ben nissim ibn malka(moroccan. commentary on sefer yetsirah mentions that students of this book were given a magical mansucript named "sefer raziel" to study. 1365-1393 "sefer yetzirah "l" paris 764 (1, foll. 1a-3a. paper, written in spanish (n. africa (gruenwald, 136) 1370 william langland's piers plowman criticises alche

CHYMICAL WEDDING OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ

and yet the greatest lords were so simple that they believed their pretences, and the rogues so audacious, that although one or other of them was here and there rapped over the fingers with a knife, yet they flinched not at it, but when anyone perchance had filched a gold-chain, then they would all hazard for the same. page 16 i saw one who heard the rustling of the heavens. the second could see plato s ideas. a third could number democritus s atoms. there were also not a few pretenders to the perpetual motion. many a one (in my opinion) had good understanding, but assumed too much to himself, to his own destruction. lastly, there was one also who found it necessary to persuade us out of hand that he saw the servitors who attended us, and would have persuaded us as to his contention, had

COMMENTARY ON THE SEAL OF THE NINE ANGLES

ree broken and/or solid lines. each design stands for an important element heaven, earth, fire, water, wind, storm, mountain, laa commentary on the seal of the nine angles by michael a. aquino vi gme.tr. generally speaking, some of these angles were taken from pythagoras, who talked in terms of the significance of 'numbers" rather than "angles. from my readings on the subject, i am convinced that plato's discourses upon geometry and the significance of the various "platonic solids" are essentially taken from pythagoras' work, just as pythagoras came up with these notions following his lengthy stay in egypt as a priesthood initiate. fascinating how these "trails" just keep going backward until they vanish into the mists of pre-recorded history. bear in mind that the ceremony of the nine ang

DAVID ICKE AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

rica. the name rhodesia, now zimbabwe, is an indication of his influence in that part of the world. as a student at oxford university, rhodes was inspired by a fine arts professor called john ruskin, who is still considered a legendary figure at oxford. ruskin was born in london in 1819, the son of a wealthy wine merchant, and inherited a large fortune. his hero was the ancient greek philosopher, plato, whose works he read almost every day. plato had a brilliant mind and made a great contribution to human debate and knowledge, but some of his views on how to structure a society by top-down imposition could hardly be further from my own. ruskin was a believer in the new world order agenda of centralised power, and he felt the state should control the means of production and distribution. th

he control of the state could be in the hands of one dictator of superior intellect to the rest of society. some researchers say he was a supporter of the illuminati. ruskin probably genuinely wanted better conditions for the poor, but i would suggest that he was seriously misguided in his means of achieving them. his ideas were to be followed by karl marx and friedrich engels (another student of plato) and became the foundations of the marxist form of communism which was soon to grip the nations of eastern europe. rabbi marvin s. antelman also identifies the plato theme and its connection to the all-seeing eye secret society network. he points out that moses mendelssohn, an architect of the french revolution, was such a student of plato's works that he became known as the "german plato. h

tions of the marxist form of communism which was soon to grip the nations of eastern europe. rabbi marvin s. antelman also identifies the plato theme and its connection to the all-seeing eye secret society network. he points out that moses mendelssohn, an architect of the french revolution, was such a student of plato's works that he became known as the "german plato. he translated three books of plato's republic into german, but his work was never published. it was, however, passed down through the warburg banking family, the subordinates of the rothschilds, and creators of the federal reserve.1 the warburgs, like the rothschilds, would later help to fund adolf hitler. adam weishaupt, the founder of the illuminati, was another plato groupie and high initiate of the all-seeing eye stream o

he rise of the nazis has been thoroughly underplayed or ignored except in a few excellent books such as gerald suster's hitler and the age of horus.12 look deeper into any historical situation and you will usually find the esoteric. john ruskin, the man who inspired cecil rhodes, alfred milner, and those who formed the round table secret society, was himself influenced by the esoteric writings of plato and by madame blavatsky the books of lord edward bulwer-lytton, and secret societies in the mould of the order of the golden dawn. the murder of us president abraham lincoln has been explained by some as part of the struggle between competing secret societies, although i don't accept that. one of his close friends, pascal beverly randolph, revealed that lincoln was involved with a society ca

DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

onnected and isolated from everything else. one seeks to unite, the other to divide and, therefore, rule. you will see this theme throughout the book as i tell the story of how the llluminati, the atlantean "sons of belial" or whatever you would like to call them, have sought to build the new atlantis ever since the cataclysmic events that destroyed the original version. atlantis was described by plato (427-347bc, the ancient greek philosopher. he was also a high initiate of the secret society- mystery school network. to this day this secret network has passed on advanced knowledge to the chosen few while denying that privilege to the mass of the people. official history dismisses plato's contention that such a continent existed, but there is vast geological support for such claims. the az

,000 miles.22 the mid-atlantic ridge is one of the foremost areas for earthquakes and volcanoes. four vast tectonic plates, the eurasian, african, north american, and caribbean, all meet and collide in this region making it very unstable geologically. both the azores and the canary islands (named after dogs "canine, and not canaries) were subject to widespread volcanic activity in the time period plato suggested for the end of atlantis. tachylite lava disintegrates in seawater within 15,000 years and yet it is still found on the seabed around the azores, confirming geologically recent upheavals.23 other evidence, including beach sand gathered from depths of 10,500- 18,440 feet, reveals that the seabed in this 20 children of the matrix region must have been, again geologically recently, abo

height around 12,000 years ago.28 lake titicaca on the peru-bolivia border is today the highest navigable lake in the world at some 12,500 feet. around 11,000 years ago, much of that region was at sea level.29 why are so many fish and other ocean fossils found high up in mountain ranges? because those rocks were once at sea level and recently so in geological terms, too. how interesting then that plato dated the cataclysm that destroyed the continent of atlantis to around 9000bc and so do allan and delair in their superb work, when the earth nearly died. they say it happened around 9500bc. the american researcher charles hapgood claimed that the surface of the earth had moved by some 3,000 miles around 10000bc' rocks that contain iron act like a compass. as the molten rock cools, the molec

a lineage of egyptian kings going back tens of thousands of years before the formation of the egyptian civilisation described by official historians. this supports the stories of an atlantean/lemurian colony in egypt long before the cataclysm. the colonisation of greece is also far older than officially claimed and this colony (called the athenians) went to war with atlanteans before the deluge. plato wrote of this war and official historians have dismissed it because they say that greece did not exist that long ago. they are mistaken. the "classic greece" they ruled by the gods 41 focus upon was a later expression of that culture, not the first. the original greece existed before the cataclysms that sank atlantis. the atlantean colonists of greece worshipped a serpent goddess called athe

n the red sea is not recorded in any historical document and this is utterly ludicrous if it had actually happened. the greek historian herodotus (c.485-425bc) travelled and researched the lands and history of egypt and the near east and yet he heard nothing of king solomon, the mass exodus of "israelites" from egypt, or the egyptian army drowned in the red sea. neither did the greek philosopher, plato. l.a. waddell, a fluent reader of sanskrit, sumerian, and egyptian, researched that whole region in great detail. he concluded "there is absolutely no inscriptional evidence whatsoever, nor any ancient greek or roman reference, for the existence of abraham or any of the jewish patriarchs or prophets of the old testament, nor for moses, saul, david, solomon, nor any of the jewish kings, with

onese; xamolxis of thrace; zoar of the bonzes; chu chulainn of ireland; deva tat, codom, and sammonocadam of siam; alcides of thebes; mikado of the sintoos; beddru of japan; hesus or eros, and bremrillaham of the druids; thor, son of odin, of gauls; cadmus of greece; hil and feta of mandaites; gentaut and quetzalcoatl of mexico; universal monarch of the sibyls; ischy of formosa; divine teacher of plato; holy one of xaca; fohi, ieo, lao-kium, chiang-ti, and tien of china; ixion and quirnus of rome; prometheus of the caucasus; mohammed or mahomet of arabia, dahzbog of the slavs; jupiter, jove, and quirinius of rome; mithra of persia, india, and rome.18 the cult of mithra originates thousands of years before "jesus" and yet again tells the later christian story in fine detail. it is even said

ing these techniques on a mass scale because they know how it all works- that's the knowledge they have worked so incessantly to keep from us. creating our own reality we are not our physical bodies. that is merely one level of us for a short time while we experience this frequency range. the body is a holographic projection that allows our consciousness to interact with the dense physical realm. plato said, quite rightly, that all bodies are only the shadows of true reality. every particle of a hologram contains a picture of the entire image. this is why every cell of the body contains the information needed to create an entire body. a hologram is an illusion. it is not 3-d, but it looks 3-d. same with the body "conventional" medicine concentrates purely on the holographic image and ignor

key region of greece, persia, syria, phoenicia, egypt, babylon, the former lands of sumer, and across into india before dying in babylon at the age of 33. during his rule of egypt he founded the city of alexandria "city of the serpent's son, later one the greatest centres for esoteric knowledge in the ancient world. alexander was taught by the greek philosopher, aristotle, who had been taught by plato, who had been taught by socrates. the bloodline and the hidden advanced knowledge have always gone together. this key bloodline comes down through the most famous egyptian queen, cleopatra (60-30bc, who married the most famous roman emperor, julius caesar, and bore him a son, who became ptolemy xiv. she also bore twins with mark anthony, who has his own connections to this line and its many

DAVID ICKE THE BIGGEST SECRET

ance of 40,000 miles. the mid-atlantic ridge is one ofthe foremost areas for earthquakes and volcanoes. four vast tectonic plates, theeurasian, african, north american and caribbean, all meet and collide in this regionmaking it very unstable geologically. both the azores and the canary islands (namedafter dogs canine and not canaries, were subject to widespread volcanic activity inthe time period plato suggested for the end of atlantis. tachylite lava disintegrates insea water within 15,000 years and yet it is still found on the sea bed around the azores,confirming geologically-recent upheavals.10 other evidence, including beach sandgathered from depths of 10,500-18,440 feet, reveals that the seabed in this region musthave been, again geologically-recently, above sea level.11 the oceanogra

fish and other ocean fossilsfound high up in mountain ranges? because those mountains were once at sea level.recently so in geological terms, too. there is increasing acceptance that the earth hassuffered some colossal geological upheavals. the debate (and often hostility) comesfigure 3: the mid-atlantic ridge, the centre of earthquake and volcanic activity in the area of the atlanticocean where plato apparently placed atlantis. 12with the questions of when and why. these upheavals have obviously involved the solarsystem as a whole because every planet shows evidence of some cataclysmic eventswhich have affected either its surface, atmosphere, speed and angle of orbit or rotation.i think the themes of the sumerian tablets are correct, but i doubt some of their detail,not least because of

he dramatic change in temperature at the poles would have collided with thewarm air and caused devastating winds, exactly as described by chinese folklore.the physicists said that the pressures created by the orbits of v enus around theearth would have produced a 10,000 foot tidal wave in the oceans and this againfits with the evidence that agriculture began at altitudes of 10,000 feet and higher.plato wrote in his work, laws, that agriculture began at high elevations after agigantic flood covered all the lowlands. the botanist, nikolai ivanovitch v avilov,studied more than 50,000 wild plants collected around the world and found thatthey originated in only eight different areas- all of them mountain terrain.23 thetidal wave would have produced pressures on the earths surface of two tons pe

for a person called king solomon. not once has his name appeared in anyinscriptions. before the levites wrote their texts, the greek historian herodotus (c. 485-425 bc, travelled and researched the lands and history of egypt and the near east. heheard nothing of the empire of solomon, the mass exodus of israelites from egypt, or thedestruction of the pursuing egyptian army in the red sea. nor did plato in his travels tothe same area. why? because it is all invention. the three syllables in sol-om-on are allnames for the sun in three languages. manly p hall wrote that solomon and his wives andconcubines were symbolic of the planets, moons, asteroids and other receptive bodieswithin his house- the solar mansion.15 solomons temple is symbolic of the domain ofthe sun. in talmudic legend, solom

ylon; attis of phrygia; xamolxis of thrace; zoar of thebonzes; adad of assyria; deva tat and sammonocadam of siam; alcides of thebes;mikado of the sintoos; beddru of japan; hesus or eros, and bremrillahm, of the druids;thor, son of odin, of the gauls; cadmus of greece; hil and feta of mandaites; gentautand quetzalcoatl of mexico; universal monarch of the sibyls; ischy of formosa; divineteacher of plato; holy one of xaca; fohi and tien of china; adonis, son of virgin lo, ofgreece; ixion and quirinus of rome; prometheus of the caucasus; and mohammed ormahomet, of arabia.22all but a few of those sons of god or prophets, and the mind-prison religions foundedin their names, come from the very lands occupied or influenced by peoples emerging fromthe near east and the caucasus. the lands of the a

riest in the babylon mystery school. after an initiateof the mithran cult had completed the ritual, the members had a meal of bread and winein which they believed they were eating the flesh of mithra and drinking his blood.mithra, like a long list of pre-christian gods, was said to have been visited by wise menat his birth who brought him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. the same was saidby plato of his teacher, socrates, in ancient greece. christianity is a pagan sun religion,the worship of which is condemned by christianity! it is also an astrology religion, theevil of which is condemned by christianity, not least by the pope! beam me up scotty,its mad down here. the church hierarchy, of course, know all this. they just dont wantyou to know. the mystery cult of mithra spread from p

luence of the underground esoteric networkshad continued to expand and now it was possible to begin the next stage of the globaltakeover. rene danjou was one of the key players behind the renaissance when,through his many contacts in italy and particularly florence, he helped to orchestratethe translation, publishing and distribution of ancient greek, egyptian and gnosticworks, including those of plato and pythagoras. this transformed art and culture amongthe privileged classes of europe and the power of the church was under more challengethan ever before. it also enlisted many more influential people into the gathering secretsociety network. the pressure on the church establishment was increased still further bythe publication of the rosicrucian manifestos in 1614 to 1616 which claimed to

ll of a paradise island to the north, a beautiful land of perpetuallight where there is no darkness nor extremes of sunlight, a place where people live forthousands of years in peace and happiness. you find the same in irish myth also. it wasto the inner earth, legends say, that some of the fleeing lemurians and atlanteanssheltered at the time of great geological turmoil and flood on the surface. plato wrote ofmysterious passageways in and around the atlantean continent, tunnels both broad andnarrow, in the interior of the earth.17 he also described the great ruler who sits at thecentre, on the navel of the earth. the interpreter of religion to all mankind18 theroman writer, gaius plinius secundus, better known as pliny, refers to undergroundpeoples who had fled from atlantis and there are

DION FORTUNE MYSTICAL QABALA

etaphors if we do not expect to be taken literally our-selves. the outer form of the ancient pagan faiths is no cruder than christianity in backward latin countries, where jesus christ is represented in topper and tails and the virgin mary in lace-edged pantaloons. the inner form of the ancient faiths can compare very favourably with the best of our modern metaphysicians. after all, they produced plato and plotinus. the human mind does not change, and what is true of ourselves is probably true of the pagans. the lamb of god which taketh away the sins of the world is only another version of the bull of mithra which does the same thing, the only difference being that the ancient initiate was literally "washed in blood" and the modern one takes it metaphorically. autres temps autres mours. 9

EMERALD TABLET MULTIPLE TRANSLATIONS

from needham 1980, holmyard 1957) the tablet probably first appeared in the west in editions of the psuedo-aristotlean secretum secretorum which was actually a translation of the kitab sirr al-asar, a book of advice to kings which was translated into latin by johannes hispalensis c. 1140 and by philip of tripoli c.1243. other translations of the tablet may have been made during the same period by plato of tivoli and hugh of santalla, perhaps from different sources. the date of the kitab sirr al-asar is uncertain, though c.800 has been suggested and it is not clear when the tablet became part of this work. holmyard was the first to find another early arabic version (ruska found a 12th centruy recension claiming to have been dictated by sergius of nablus) in the kitab ustuqus al-uss al-thani

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

phesians 3:10) and the book of enoch. vartan (or vertabied, the thirteenth-century armenian poet and historian, described them under the same terms, but expressly stated: these orders differ from one another in situation and degree of glory, just as there are different ranks among men, though they are all of one nature. this description, and all others resembling it (the twelve heavenly worlds of plato, and the heaven of the chinese, for example, can be understood as landmarks serving to denote the heights human intelligence has reached at various times in the attempt to represent the eternal and infinite in precise terms. seventeenth-century mystic jakob boehme recognized the whole deep between the stars, as the heaven of one of the three hierarchies, and placed the other two above it; in

: doubleday, 1977. maeterlinck, maurice. the unknown guest. new hyde park, n.y: university books, 1975. schul, bill. the psychic power of animals. greenwich, conn: fawcett, 1977. selous, edmund. thought-transference (or what) in birds. london: constable& co. ltd, 1931. anima mundi the soul of the world, a pure ethereal spirit that some ancient philosophers said was diffused throughout all nature. plato is considered to be the originator of this idea, but it is of more ancient origin and prevailed in the systems of certain eastern philosophers. the stoics believed it to be the only vital force in the universe. similar concepts have been held by hermetic philosophers like paracelsus and have been incorporated in the philosophy of more modern philosophers like friedrich schelling (1775.1854

ganism practical morality combined with a transcendental doctrine. he himself practiced a very severe asceticism and supplemented his own knowledge by revelations from the gods. because of his claim to divine enlightenment, some would have refused him a place among the philosophers, but philostratus holds that this in no way detracts from his philosophic reputation. he points out that pythagoras, plato, and democritus used to visit eastern sages, and they were not charged with dabbling in magic. divine revelations had been given to earlier philosophers; why not also to the philosopher of tyana? it may be that apollonius borrowed considerably from oriental sources and that his doctrines were more brahminical than magical. sources: eells, charles p. life and times of apollonius of tyana, ren

ime, and frequently appeared about their graves. when the soul of patroclus appeared to achilles, it had his voice, his shape, his eyes, and his dress, but not the same tangible body. calmet added of the early christian church fathers, we find that origen, tertullian, and st. irenaus, were clearly of this opinion. origen, in his second book against celsus, relates and subscribes to the opinion of plato, who says, that the shadows and images of the dead, which are seen near sepulchres, are nothing but the soul disengaged from its gross body, but not yet entirely freed from matter; that these souls become in time luminous, transparent, and subtle, or rather are carried in luminous and transparent bodies, as in a vehicle, in which they appeal to the living. tertullian, in his book concerning

society, 1908. atlanta astrologer monthly newsletter of the metropolitan atlanta astrological society; includes news of local membership, psi phenomena, and book reviews. address: po box 12075, atlanta, ga 30305. the atlanteans see friends of runnings park atlantis a mythical island continent said to have existed in the atlantic ocean in ancient times. the earliest mention of atlantis is found in plato s two dialogues timaeus and critias, from which it emerged as a topic of fascination and speculation over the centuries. it entered occult perspectives through the writings of helena petrovna blavatsky, cofounder of the theosophical society, in the nineteenth century and has been a topic of popular speculation in the twentieth century. for many, atlantis has replaced the biblical garden of e

emerged as a topic of fascination and speculation over the centuries. it entered occult perspectives through the writings of helena petrovna blavatsky, cofounder of the theosophical society, in the nineteenth century and has been a topic of popular speculation in the twentieth century. for many, atlantis has replaced the biblical garden of eden as a mythical original home for the human race. for plato, atlantis was a useful myth for conveying several lessons he wanted to make about government and the nature of city-states. in the twentieth century it has been integrated into a myth about overreliance on technology as opposed to personal spiritual and psychic awareness. plato described atlantis as a large land located beyond the straits of gibraltar. it was a powerful land able to conquer

d the nature of city-states. in the twentieth century it has been integrated into a myth about overreliance on technology as opposed to personal spiritual and psychic awareness. plato described atlantis as a large land located beyond the straits of gibraltar. it was a powerful land able to conquer much of the mediterranean basin, but at the height of its power it was destroyed by geologic forces. plato supposedly learned of atlantis as a result of the athenian lawgiver solon, who had brought the story to greece from egypt several centuries earlier. over time the atlantis myth grew in proporition, so that by the middle ages, atlantis had been transformed into a massive mid-atlantic continent. eventually it became one of the destinations visited by explorers in the european fantastic voyage

discovered an ancient minoan city, buried in layers of volcanic ash. it was the center of a once-powerful city-state that was wiped out suddenly by the volcano. with the exception of its location in the mediterranean rather than outside the straits of encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. atlantis 113 gibraltar, it fits most precisely the several descriptions of atlantis reported by plato. from cayce the idea of atlantis was picked up in the new age movement. in 1982, frank alper, a channel from arizona, issued an important channeled work, exploring atlantis, in which he picked up the account in cayce s writings about the crystal on atlantis. the three-volume work, which purports a crystal-based culture on the lost continent, became the basis of the faddish use of crystals by

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

ophical college; and either its professors were indifferently magi, or magicians, and wise men or they were distinguished into two classes by those names. their name, pronounced mogh by later persians, and magh by the ancients, signified wise, which was the interpretation of it given by the greek and roman writers. stobaeus expressly called the science of the magi, the service of the gods, as did plato. according to joseph ennemoser in his book the history of magic (1847, magiusiah, madschusie signified the office and knowledge of the priest, who was called mag, magius, magiusi, and afterward magi and magician. the philosopher j. j. brucker maintained that the primitive meaning of the word was fire worshiper and worship of the light, an erroneous opinion. in modern persian, the word is mog

a history of experimental spiritualism, 2 vols, 1931, caesar de vesme wrote: we are in a fair way to recognize that we find (approximately) mana in the brahman and akasha of the hindus, the living fire of zoroaster, the generative fire of heraclitus, the ruach of the jews, the telesma of hermest trismegistus, the ignis subtilissimus of hippocrates, the pneuma of gallien, the soul of the world of plato and giordano bruno, the mens agitat molem which vergil drew from the pythagorean philosophy, the astral light of the kabbalists, the azoth of the alchemists, the magnale of paracelsus, the alcahest of van helmont, the pantheistic substance of apinoza, the subtle matter of descartes, the animal magnetism of mesmer, the will of schopenhauer, the od of reichenbach and du prel, the unconscious o

to animate, the belief that after death, the soul passes into another body, either human or animal. in ancient greece it was roughly equivalent to the idea of reincarnation. the idea seems to have originated in egypt but to have first been advocated by pythagoras around 455 b.c.e. diogenes laertius noted that pythagoras once recognized the soul of a departed friend in a dog that was being beaten. plato picked up on the idea and expounded it in several of his dialogues, most notably the phaedo and republic. according to the vision of truth that one attains, one will be born in the next life in a body suitable to that attainment, plato said. the most enlightened will be reborn as a philosopher, musician, artist, or lover. at the lowest level, he placed tyrants. once a soul has beheld true be

of his dialogues, most notably the phaedo and republic. according to the vision of truth that one attains, one will be born in the next life in a body suitable to that attainment, plato said. the most enlightened will be reborn as a philosopher, musician, artist, or lover. at the lowest level, he placed tyrants. once a soul has beheld true being, it will pass from animal into human form, he said. plato also put forth the idea that a person chooses his next life, the very choice being a sign of his character. the idea of metempsychosis was also held by some of the gnostics, and it became a source of disagreement between them and the leaders of the christian church. irenaeus, the second century bishop of lyons, wrote at length against the gnostics in his pacesetting contra heresies and singl

the body, the soul learns how desirable is the nonphysical existence, plotinus taught. the idea of reincarnation lingered in the west, passing through a succession of gnostic groups, but experienced a rebirth in the twentieth century. it s current spread, however, has a basis in indian and oriental ideas of reincarnation, usually attached to the additional notion of karma. sources: crombie, i. m. plato: the midwife s apprentice. london: routledge& kegan paul, 1964. ducasse, c. j. a critical examination of the belief in a life after death. springfield, ill: charles c. thomas, 1961. meteormancy a branch of aeromancy (divination through aerial phenomena such as thunder and lightning, concerned with divination from the appearance and movements of meteors and shooting stars. methetherial a term

, he was selected as the channel of these communications. like imperator and preceptor every member of the band had an assumed name at first. the biblical characters included the following names, as revealed later: malachias (imperator, elijah (preceptor, haggai (the prophet, daniel (vates, ezekiel, st. john the baptist (theologus. the ancient philosophers and sages numbered 14. they were: solon, plato, aristotle, seneca, athenodorus (doctor, hippolytus (rector, plotinus (prudens, alexander achillini (philosophus, algazzali or ghazali (mentor, kabbila, chom, said, roophal, magus. it was not until book xiv of the communications was written that moses became satisfied of the identity of his controls. in his introduction to spirit teachings he writes: the name of god was always written in cap

use, 1991. neometaphysical digest publication of the society of metaphysicians, inc, archers court, stonestile lane, the ridge, hastings, east sussex, england. neoplatonism a mystical philosophical system initiated by plotinus of alexandria in 233 c.e. that combined the platonic philosophy of ancient greece with later gnostic spiritual cravings. although to some extent founded on the teachings of plato, it was undoubtedly sophisticated by a deep mysticism, which in all probability emanated from greece. to a great extent, neoplatonism colored the thought of medieval mysticism and magic. plotinus, its founder, commenced the study of philosophy in alexandria at the age of 28. he early experienced an earnest desire to reach the truth concerning existence, and to that end made a deep study of t

doubtedly sophisticated by a deep mysticism, which in all probability emanated from greece. to a great extent, neoplatonism colored the thought of medieval mysticism and magic. plotinus, its founder, commenced the study of philosophy in alexandria at the age of 28. he early experienced an earnest desire to reach the truth concerning existence, and to that end made a deep study of the dialogues of plato and the metaphysics of aristotle. he practiced severe austerities and attempted to live what he called the angelic life, or the life of the disembodied in the body. he was greatly drawn to apollonius of tyana by reading his life by philostratus. the union of philosopher and priest in the character of apollonius fired the imagination of plotinus, and in his pythagorean teachings the young stu

EXTRAORDINARY ENCOUNTERS AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXTRATERRESTRIALS AND OTHERWORLDY BEINGS

ough almost eve ry theorist has p roposed a different one. most writing, howe ve r, has taken an alternative- h i s t o ry appro a c h, paying little heed to mainstream arc h a e o l o g y, h i s t o ry, and science, while taking atlantis into the realm of unfettered speculation. the legend of atlantis begins in two works, timaeus and critias (written circa 355 b.c, by the great greek philosopher plato. as in his earlier work the republic, plato wrote these works as dialogues among four wise men, including plato s teacher socrates. in the course of a long discourse on philosophical issues of various kinds, critias, a historian and plato s great-grandfather, tells of a story that he ascribes to his grandfather, who heard it from his father. around 600 b.c, while traveling in europe, solon (

s have to say, however. most of the discussion, much of it intricately detailed, describes a civilization that was nearly perfect before pride corrupted it. atlantis is supposed to be the place of model governance. in its prime it operated by the principles set forth in the republic. no other ancient document contains an independent treatment of atlantis. all references to the lost continent cite plato as the source. some accept plato s account as historical, while others see it as an allegory never meant to be taken literally. plato s own student aristotle took the latter view. during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as european explorers found their way to the americas, several writers, most prominently sir francis bacon (1551 1626, revived the myth of atlantis and theorized that

ad inve n t e d airplanes and television. the scottish folklorist and occultist lewis spence, who took a relatively more conservative approach, wrote five books on atlantis between 1924 and 1943, citing donnelly and his methodology as his principal inspiration. bowing to the consensus view of historians and archaeologists, who held that human beings were living in caves nine thousand years before plato s time, spence held that atlantis had existed nine hundred years before plato. meanwhile, allegations, rumors, and outright hoaxes of archaeological discoveries of atlantean artifacts filled the popular press and kept the mystery alive. the much-circulated channelings of ed g a r c a yce (1877 1945, called the s l e e p i n g p ro p h e t because of the state of consciousness in which he vo

ings of ed g a r c a yce (1877 1945, called the s l e e p i n g p ro p h e t because of the state of consciousness in which he vo c a l i zed his psychic re a d i n g s, often concerned atlantis. many who came to him for psychic guidance learned that they had been atlanteans in previous lives. in cayc e s c o m p re h e n s i ve re-envisioning of the lost continent, atlantis was essentially where plato had placed it: between the gulf of mexico and the mediterranean. unlike pl a t o s, cayc e s at l a n t i s was as advanced as mid-twe n t i e t h- c e n t u ry america, and in a number of ways more ad- 32 atlantis vanced. the atlanteans, according to cayce, at first we re spiritual beings. they eve n t u a l l y e vo l ved into flesh-and-blood ones. their society came undone when civil war

d nearly all of atlantis s buildings and cities. it is said, the department reports, that one of these antimatter rays is still operating in the bermuda triangle and has been causing planes and ships to disappear. today that ray is out of control (omar, 1996. for all the allure of the atlantis legend, nothing of substance has come to light in the nearly twenty-five centuries that separate us from plato s account to lead reasonable people to conclude that such a lost continent ever graced the atlantic ocean. in imagining at- lantis (1998) richard ellis writes, plato s description of atlantis was of a rich and powerful society that was swallowed up by the sea in a great cataclysm, and every remnant of it de- atlantis 33 stroyed. like the iliad and the odyssey, it has managed to survive for m

hat such a lost continent ever graced the atlantic ocean. in imagining at- lantis (1998) richard ellis writes, plato s description of atlantis was of a rich and powerful society that was swallowed up by the sea in a great cataclysm, and every remnant of it de- atlantis 33 stroyed. like the iliad and the odyssey, it has managed to survive for more than two millennia. but unlike homer s epic poems, plato s tale rarely considered an important part of his voluminous output has not only survived as a demonstration of the storyteller s art, but also has become a part of our own mythology. see also: bermuda triangle; channelings; hollow earth; lemuria; mount shasta; shaver mystery further reading cayce, edgar, 1968. edgar cayce on atlantis. new york: paperback library. de camp, l. sprague, 1970

FRANCIS A YATES GIORDANO BRUNO AND THE HERMETIC TRADITION

yclic view of time as a perpetual movement from pristine golden ages of purity and hermes trismegistus the works which inspired the renaissance magus, and which he believed to be of profound antiquity, were really written in the second to the third centuries a.d. he was not returning to an egyptian wisdom, not much later than the wisdom of the hebrew patriarchs and prophets, and much earlier than plato and the other philosophers of greek antiquity, who had all so the renaissance magus firmly believed drunk from its sacred fountain. he is returning to the pagan background of early christianity, to that religion of the world, strongly tinged with magic and oriental influences, which was the gnostic version of greek philosophy, and the refuge of weary pagans seeking an answer to life's proble

erences there given. festugiere allows hardly anything to it and concentrates almost entirely on the greek influences in the hermetica. a cautious summary by bloomfield (op. cit, p. 46) is as follows "these writings are chiefly the product of egyptian neoplatonists who were greatiy influenced by stoicism, judaism, persian theology and possibly by native egyptian beliefs, as well as, of course, by plato, especially the timaeus. they were perhaps the bible of an egyptian mystery religion, which possibly in kernel went back to the second century b.c" the mystery cult theory is opposed by festugiere, i, pp. 81 ff. 3 hermes trismegistus was highly organised and at peace. the pax romano, was at the height of its efficiency and the mixed populations of the empire were governed by an efficient bur

or the renaissance, a real person, an egyptian priest who had lived in times of remote antiquity and who had himself written all these works. the scraps of greek philosophy which he found in these writings, derived from the somewhat debased philosophical teaching current in the early centuries a.d, confirmed the renaissance reader in his belief that he had here the fount of pristine wisdom whence plato and the greeks had derived the best that they knew. this huge historical error was to have amazing results. it was on excellent authority that the renaissance accepted hermes trismegistus as a real person of great antiquity and as the author of the hermetic writings, for this was implicitly believed by leading fathers of the church, particularly lactantius and augustine. naturally, it would

y books, lactantius certainly means some of the hermetic writings which have come down to us, for he makes several quotations from some of the treatises of the corpus hermeticum and also from the asclepius.1 the very early date at which lactantius would place hermes trismegistus and his books may be inferred from a remark in his de ira dei where he says that trismegistus is much more ancient than plato andpythagoras.3 there are many other quotations from, and references to hermes trismegistus in lactantius' institutes. he evidently thought that hermes was a valuable ally in his campaign of using pagan wisdom in support of the truth of christianity. in the quotation just made, he has pointed out that hermes, like the christians, speaks of god as "father; and in fact the word father is not i

reat sacred library of which clement speaks. about 1460, a greek manuscript was brought to florence from macedonia by a monk, one of those many agents employed by cosimo de' medici to collect manuscripts for him. it contained a copy of the corpus hermeticum, not quite a complete copy, for it included fourteen only of the fifteen treatises of the collection, the last one being missing.4 though the plato manuscripts were 1 see the collection of testimonia in scott, vol. i. 2 clement of alexandria, stromata, vi, iv, xxxv-xxxviii. cf. festugiere, i, pp. 75 ff. 3 clement does not mention the hermetic writings, from which scott concludes (i, pp. 87-90) that either he did not know them, or knew that they were not of very ancient date. 4 the manuscript from which ficino made his translation is in

hat dedication to lorenzo de' medici of the plotinus commentaries in which he describes the impetus given to greek studies by the coming of gemistus pletho and other byzantine scholars to the council of florence, and how he himself was commissioned by cosimo to translate the treasures of greek philosophy now coming into the west from byzantium. cosimo, he says, had handed over to him the works of plato for translation. but in the year 1463 word came to ficino from cosimo that he must translate hermes first, at once, and go on afterwards to plato "mihi mercurium primo termaximum, mox platonem mandavit interpretandum".1 ficino made the translation in a few months, whilst the old cosimo, who died in 1464, was still alive. then he began on plato.2 it is an extraordinary situation. there are th

n. but in the year 1463 word came to ficino from cosimo that he must translate hermes first, at once, and go on afterwards to plato "mihi mercurium primo termaximum, mox platonem mandavit interpretandum".1 ficino made the translation in a few months, whilst the old cosimo, who died in 1464, was still alive. then he began on plato.2 it is an extraordinary situation. there are the complete works of plato, waiting, and they must wait whilst ficino quickly translates hermes, probably because cosimo wants to read him before he dies. what a testimony this is to the mysterious reputation of the thrice great one! cosimo and ficino knew from the fathers that hermes trismegistus was much earlier than plato. they also knew the latin asclepius which whetted the appetite for more ancient egyptian wisdo

y because cosimo wants to read him before he dies. what a testimony this is to the mysterious reputation of the thrice great one! cosimo and ficino knew from the fathers that hermes trismegistus was much earlier than plato. they also knew the latin asclepius which whetted the appetite for more ancient egyptian wisdom from the same pristine source.3 egypt was before greece; hermes was earlier than plato. renaissance 1 dedication by ficino to lorenzo de' medici of his epitome and commentaries on plotinus; ficino, p. 1537. 2 "mercurium paucis mensibus eo uiuente (referring to cosimo) peregi. platonem tunc etiam sum aggressus; ficino, loc. cit. cf. kristeller, studies, p. 223; a. marcel, marsile ficin, paris, 1958, pp. 255 ff. 3 in order to understand this enthusiasm, a history of hermetism in

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM BY MAX HEINDEL 2

from the lighter fogs, and at the same time their growing lungs were fitting them to live under the present atmospheric conditions. two more races were born in the basins of the earth after the pioneers had left it. then a succession of floods drove them all to the highlands. the last flood took place when the sun by precession entered the watery sign cancer about ten thousand years ago, as told plato by the egyptian priests. thus we see that there is no sudden change of constitution or environment for the whole human race when a new epoch is ushered in, but an overlapping of conditions which makes it possible for the majority by gradual adjustment to enter the new conditions, though the change may seem sudden to the individual when the preparatory work has been accomplished unconsciously

FREEMASONS SATANISM AND SYMBOLISM

ct the 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 sata

FULLER J F C SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH

man 20 2. the qabalistic chalice 35 3. the flaming sword 45 4. the good and evil pentagrams 53 5. the fourth dimension 75 6. the fourth dimension shown qabalistically 76 secret wisdom of the qabalah page 6 introduction the mystical foundations of the world order. life is shrouded in a mystery; this is the fundamental fact which confronts us. we live in a cave with our backs to the light, and, as plato said, our knowledge is nothing more than the shadows which play upon its walls. what this mystery is in itself we cannot tell. all we know is that it exists, and ultimately all we know of ourselves is that we exist. if we call this mystery ggod h, then our lives vibrate between the two poles of ggod is h and gi am h; but because the first transcends the reason, as the infinite transcends the

t the mediating agent is the will, so to the zoroastrian the great magical agent is in actual fact no other than lucifer- the vehicle of light. to pythagoras, god was absolute truth clothed in light, all things emerged from the tetrad, and the mediator was number manifested by form. to him material forms were but images or illusions of real forms, and this was the view also taken by aristotle and plato. to the second of these philosophers ggod, intending to make a visible world, first formed an intelligible one; that so having an incorporeal secret wisdom of the qabalah page 21 and most god-like pattern before him, he might make the corporeal world agreeable to it h. xenophon says: gthe supreme god holds himself invisible, and it is only in his works that we are capable of admiring him. h

ht. 5 here we return to an idealism which would have staggered the imagination of most of the scientists of half a century ago; but which will be readily accepted by every qabalist, and would have been accepted by such as a supreme truth even two thousand years ago. and outside the qabalah this idealism logically brings us back to bishop berkeley, the greatest of the idealistic philosophers since plato. over two hundred years ago he wrote: all the choir of heaven and furniture of earth, in a word all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world, have not any substance without mind. so long as they are not actually perceived by me, or do not exist in my mind, or in that of any other created spirit, they must either have no existence at all, or else subsist in the mind of some et

hievement of twentiethcentury physics is not the theory of relativity with its welding together of space and time, or the theory of quanta with its present apparent negation of the laws of causation, or the dissection of the atom with the resultant discovery that things are not what they seem; it is the general recognition that we are not yet in contact with ultimate reality. to speak in terms of plato's well-known simile, we are still imprisoned in our cave with our backs to the light, and can only watch the shadows on the wall. at present the only task immediately before science is to study these shadows, to classify them and explain them in the simplest possible way. 7 scientists are, therefore, concerned in explaining the shadows of reality in terms of the rational symbols of today, ju

bility may be compared to rational thought, and the raising of our heads to that higher faculty which will enable us to open, as it were, spiritual eyes, and see not only the shadows of reality but reality itself. since the beginning of written history very little progress has been made in the intellectual interpretation of the mysteries, which stood shrouded before the academies of aristotle and plato. many things have changed, innumerable experiments have been made, yet before the essential mysteries we still stand as blindly as they did. all that has in reality happened is that we have changed our forms of thought; then they were flatter, now they are rounder. each new philosophy opens like a fairy-tale, for man is ever, and of necessity must be, a wondering child. there is a man or a w

grows, silent and unobtrustive like a plant in the dark. 12 nor are these mysterious retirements, concerning which the masters tell us so little, solely connected with religious manifestations for they are to be found in the lives of many of the philosophers. pythagoras exacted silence and abstinence amongst his disciples for five years; lao-tze retired from the world and was inspired of taoism; plato enjoined meditation on his pupils; and bishop berkeley was wont to retire into solitude at stated periods. once, writing to a friend, he said i propose to set out for dublin. but of this you must not give the least intimation to anyone. speak not, therefore, one syllable of it to any mortal whatsoever. i would have the house with necessary furniture taken by the month. for i propose staying

e first is extraordinarily dangerous. for example, take a fly-wheel: if the object is to stop its motion, either the energy of the engine should be decreased until the wheel ceases to revolve, or its energy increased until through centrifugal force the secret wisdom of the qabalah page 82 wheel gexplodes h. though this sudden shock will stop the wheel, in all probability it will wreck the engine. plato, we believe, was right when he said that the root-matter of this great knowledge is not to be found in books; we must seek it in ourselves by means of deep meditation, discovering the sacred fire in its proper source. this is why i have written nothing concerning these revelations and shall never even speak about them. whosoever shall undertake to popularize them will find the attempt futile

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

e and male. according to proclus, jupiter was an immortal maid "the queen of heaven, and mother of the gods" all things were contained within the womb of jupiter. this virgin within whom was embodied the male principle "gave light and life to eve" she was the life-giving, energizing power in nature, and was identical with aleim, om, astarte, and others. the goddess esta, or vesta, or hestia, whom plato calls the "soul of the body of the universe" is believed by beverly and others to be the self-existent, the great "she that is" of the hindoos, whose significance is identical with the cushite or phoenician deity, aleim. according to marco polo, the chinese had but one supreme god of whom they had no image, and to whom they prayed for only two things-"a sound mind in a sound body" they had

"profoundly learned race of people existed previous to the formation of any of our systems" the wiser among the greek philosophers, those who, it is believed, borrowed their philosophical doctrines from the east, declare that "there is no production of anything which was not before; no new substance made which did not really pre-exist" equally with matter was spirit indestructible "our soul" says plato "was somewhere, before it came to exist in this present form; whence it appears to be immortal. who knows whether that which is demonstrated living, be not indeed rather dying, and whether that which is styled dying be not rather living" to one who has given attention to the various legends relative to the destruction of the world by a flood, and a storm-tossed mariner saved in an ark or boa

aditions nor any acquaintance with chronology, you are as yet in a state of intellectual infancy. the true origin of such mutilated fables as you possess is this. there have been and shall again be in the course of many revolving ages, numerous destructions of the human race; the greatest of them by fire and water, but others in an almost endless succession of shorter intervals"[47 [47] quoted by plato; also by clement of alexandria. we have observed that the symbol of the universe was an egg. the egg was also the symbol of the earth and of the ark, which meant universal womanhood. from the mundane egg the triplicated deity sprang. there can be little doubt at the present time that adam, noah, menu, osiris, and dionysos all represent the fructifying power of the sun. in process of time the

he said that religion consists in knowing the truth and doing good, and his ideas show the grandeur and beauty of the earlier conception of a deity. he declared that there is only one god who is not "as some are apt to imagine, seated above the world, beyond the orb of the universe" but that this great power is diffused throughout nature. it is "the reason, the life, and the motion of all things" plato believed that human beings are possessed of two souls, the one mortal, which perishes with the body, the other immortal, which continues to exist either in a state of happiness or misery; that the righteous soul, freed from the limitations of matter, returns at death to the source whence it came, and that the wicked, after having been detained for a while in a place prepared for their recept

ncreased self-aggrandizement and power. it is now thought that the iliad (rhapsodies) of homer is only a number of "detached songs" which perhaps for centuries were delivered orally, and that they contain the secret doctrines of the priests. porphyry says that "we ought not to doubt that homer has secretly represented the images of divine things under the concealment of fable" it has been said of plato that he banished the poems of homer from his imaginary republic for the reason that the people might not be able to distinguish what is from what is not allegorical. hippolytus informs us that the simonists declared that in helen resided the principle of intelligence "and thus, when all the powers were for claiming her for themselves, sedition and war arose, during which this chief power was

whenever a distinctively female emblem was present it denoted the male power alone. the ibis, which is represented with human hands and feet, bears the staff of isis in one hand and the cross in the other. there is scarcely an obelisk or monument in egypt upon which this figure does not appear. the symbol or monogram of venus was a circle and a cross, that of saturn was a cross and a ram's horn. plato declared that the son of god was expressed upon the universe in the form of the letter x, and that the second power of the supreme god was figured on the universe in the shape of a cross. there is little doubt that the early christians understood full well the true meaning of the cross, and that it was no new device. in later ages, however, every monument of antiquity marked with this symbol

e doctrine of original sin. their theory to account for evil in the world was the same as that of an ancient and almost forgotten race. the belief that the soul of man is a spark from, or a part of the universal soul, that at the death of the body it returns to its source, and in process of time appears as the animating principle in other bodies, was believed by pythagoras, aspasia, socrates, and plato and, in fact, for thousands of years it was entertained by the best and wisest of the human race. it was a part of the early christian doctrine and is still believed by the followers of buddha and by the theosophists of europe and america. doubtless the doctrines of re-incarnation and karma were set forth by those very ancient philosophers who were the near descendants of the inventors of th

GILBERT AE WAITE A MAGICIAN OF MANY PARTS

which underlie sense-delusions does not seem beyond the reach of theage,an acquaintancewiththis method will destroy the philosophy of the materialist; it will realisespiritual aspirations and the hopesofa larger life. vii while the existence of a supreme intelligenceis being relegatedto the rank of superstitions, that process is in courseofconstruction, by which the god-illuminated. seers ofold255plato, plotinus, ammonius, bonaventura, eckart,tauler,vaughan, theresa, saint-martin, and jacobbohme-e-accomplishedan individual reversion to the fontal sourceofsouls, and entered into an ecstatic communionwiththe universal consciousness. viii in view of these facts, in view of the actual discoveries which have been made in the domain of psychology by various circles of investigation, in view of t

onal, and will embody the .aspirational mysticismoftheoldandnewtestaments of all religion. there will be a hymnal portion, selected fromthemetrical literature of mysticism.theinstructional section will be derived mainly from the lives..and teachings of the mystics. we shall select from the concourse of the sages fifty-two 'representative men, taken in historical order, beginningwithpythagoras and plato.thelessons of each week will be taken from the works of one of these men, andthediscourse will interpret his wisdom, or some important factor in mystical philosophy which may be said to take shape in him. during seven days he will rule our thoughts, and will be therefore the ascending star which will govern during that period in the spiritual sky.thelessons and discourses which constitute th

GILBERT THE GOLDEN DAWN TWILIGHT OF THE MAGICIANS

so ponderous and unexciting that there was no risk whateverofanother temple purloining them, but the outlines of theorderworkingswereappropriated by alvin lang255 don coburn, the photographer, who fell out with waite in1922when he utilized the robes and some of the temple settings of the f..r'.c..for the universal order which he was then engagedinreorganizing (its purposewas-findis-theteaching of plato255 nie philosophy;ithas no ritual workings) few, if any, of waite's members made an impact upon contem255 porary occultismbutthe stella matutina moulded two of the three most influential writers on magicofthis century, dion fortune and israel regardie (the third, aleister crowley, moulded himself and so much has already been written about him that it would be pointless to say any more) dion

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

on used, also she ought not to be much doubted of or contradicted by other opinions or meanings; but seeing thattruthis always peaceful and brief and always like herself and especially accorded by with jesusinomniparteand all members. and as he is the true image of the father, so is she his image.itshall not be said that this is true only of philosophy, but true according to theology. and wherein plato, aristotle, pythag255 oras and others did hit the mark, and wherein moses, enochandsolomon did excel, but especially in what that wonderful book the bible agreeth. all that same concurreth and makes a sphere or globe whose total parts are equidistant from the centre.there follows theconfessio fraternitatis,written to the learned in europe, and which is said to contain thirty-seven reasons of

it was not printed until 1659.ittreats of divine wisdom as contrasted with human knowledge, and he discourses upon the true meaning of philosophy, and considers theology, the world of the angels, astronomy, meteorology, the science of healing, music, geometry, rhetoric and oratory, politics and on miracles. he then complains of several heathen philosophies, greek and arabian: but objects less to plato than to aristotle. he then explains at length his views of creation and of the realms of nature and man as described in the mosaic works and in the bible generally, and again recounts the doctrine of the cabala as illustrating and completing the doctrine of moses, and he concludes the work with the words 'worldlings still persecute and crucify daily the spiritual christ who is the only true

that the inhabitants of india in the earliest times must have made long and accurate observations of the heavenly bodies. according to isaac meyer there is a reason to think that the akkadian observations of the stars date back to about 4310b.c.,when the vernal equinox occurred in the sign of taurus.theearliest allusion to actual divination by the stars in greek literature is found in thetimeusof plato. eudoxus became acquainted with chaldean astrology. diodorus the historian, who flourished about 30b.c.,states that the chaldeans foretold the death of antigonus in 315b.c.vitruvius states that astrology was introduced into greece by berosus, who settled in cos, and held a school there. berosus was a chaldean and was a contemporary of alexander the great.fromhis time astrology became natural

notable is here given. different nations affected different forms of magical art, and although the course of history shows a gradual disappearance of almost all modes, yet it will be shownthtsome faith in several old myths still194themagical masonsurvives not only in europe, but even in our midst, and in our english twentieth-century homes. in regard to the great ancient philosophers the works of plato show that he regarded divinations to be proper and successful because they were appeals to the gods; he favours the advices given by dreams and visions. aristotle negatives the modes of artificial divination,butadmits intuitions and inspirations of diviners considering them as a specialbutnatural faculty. the stoics maintained the truth of the methodsofdivination on the grounds that the gods

materialistic account of the ancient mysteries, and he has been followed by s. cheetham, 1897. a middle course is pursued by warburton, taylor, ouvaroff, muller, foucart, and creuzer.themore mystical, and often visionary account of the subject will be found in the writings of st croix, james benwick, eliphaz levi,h.p.blavatsky, p. christian, and th.i.lefaki. it appears that herodotus, pythagoras, plato and plutarch, were all received into the mysteries, either in egypt or greece.thegeneral opinion of ancient greek writers was that admis255 sion was difficult, that a high moral standard was demanded, that the proceedings were kept very private, the ritualofinitiation very impressive and exhausting, its trials very severe, and that the knowledge given related to the powers of the gods, the l

ocles, 400b.c.,wrote'ohthrice blessed are the mortals who contemplating the mysteries have descended into hades, for such will therebea future happy existence; other men will find death only suffering' pindar, 450b.c.,wrote 'happy is he who has seen these things in the mysteries before leaving this world, for he realises the end and the beginning oflife, as they are ordained by zeus' according to plato, aboutb.c.350, the sacred mysteries of greece were intended to lead men more directly back to the principles from which they had descended, and to the path of perfect conduct, from which the sons of men buried in the body was so liable to wander. he said:'itis very difficult to commune with the great father of all, and when achieved it was impossible and futile to discover him to ordinary me

yptian papyri are silent on these matters, and even the works of the ancient greeks which have been transmitted to our time reveal no secrets. several authors distinctly say that revelation was forbidden, and was indeed impossible, even when they alleged their own possession of the mystic knowledge. herodotus, the father of history, mentions the mysteries,butreveals nothing.thesame may be said of plato, pythagoras, and of many others. apuleius, of madaura in north africa, who lived about 170a.d.,has left us in hisgoldenassa mere hint of initiation.thestory which has been often quoted is shortly as follows: a youth well cultured at home, and loving what is good and true, finds in his travels that he is unable to withstand the temptations of the passions, and also develops a desire for unhol

om the creative divinity who is over all, or from his emanations, whether they may be called archangels, devas or gods; some of these appear to have taught forms of religion, some ethics and morality, and others important truths of nature. may we so think of zoroaster, of gautama the288themagicalmasonbuddha, of hermes trismegistus of egypt, of lao tze and confucius, of pythagoras, of socrates and plato, of st paul and of st john the divine: may we above all speak of the divine incarnation of the christ godinthe humanity of jesus of nazareth, who taught us to love the supreme being, and do unto each other as we wish others to do to ourselves, or of st paul, who said 'know ye not that ye are the temple of god, or as the rosicrucians used to phrase it,'thetemple of god is within you' the divi

GLOBAL FREEMASONRY

yptians founded heliopolis (the sun city) and memphis and according to masonic legend, these two cities were the source of knowledge and science, that is, as the masons would say "great light" pythagoras, who visited heliopolis, had much to say about the temple. the memphis temple where he had been trained has historical significance. in the city of thebes there were advanced schools. pythagoras, plato and cicero were initiated into masonry in these cities.63 masonic writings do not laud ancient egypt merely in broad terms; they express praise and sympathy for the pharaohs who governed that cruel system. in another article from mimar sinan magazine it is stated: the basic duty of the pharaoh was to find light. to exalt hidden light in a much more vivid and powerful way .as we masons are tr

he islamic world, this society distanced itself from basic islamic tenets. it was influenced by ancient greek philosophy, which it expressed by means of an esoteric symbolism. selami isindag continues: this society originated in the ismaili sect and its basic purpose was to make religious dogmas intelligible by allegorical and symbolic explanations. its philosophy was influenced by pythagoras and plato. to enter this secret deh the theory of evolution revisited society, a person was first enticed by mystical instruction and later purged of vain religious beliefs and dogmas. later he was familiarized with philosophical and symbolic methods. such an initiate who passed through his apprenticeship was sometimes put through training in neo-platonic ideas, and then he could begin chemistry, astr

GNOSTIC HANDBOOK

fundamentalism exist, the most pernicious forms are those which in reaction to materialism and scientism use rationalism to create a stalwart of dogma and doctrine, and yet in the process destroy the very foundation of the true religious vision- mysticism. to appreciate the esoteric and mystical view of truth we need to travel back to ancient greece and examine the allegory of the cave as used by plato. this allegory, beyond all others, offers us a real insight into the problem of what truth is. plato sees all of humanity as prisoners, each of us has been kept chained in a subterranean cavern from birth, facing a dark wall. only a very small amount of light enters the cavern and this comes from a small opening high overhead. because of our chains, we look in opposite direction and hence ca

l. only a very small amount of light enters the cavern and this comes from a small opening high overhead. because of our chains, we look in opposite direction and hence can only observe the dark shadows which pass along the wall we are facing. these shadows are cast by the men and occurrences of the upper world beyond the overhead opening. our perceptions and hence of the shadows and reflections, plato's major contemplation was on what would occur if one of us escaped from the cave? plato s answer is found in his work the republic, where socrates tells us that at first the escaped prisoner would be blinded by the strength of the light of the upper world and would retreat back to the shadows. but only for a while. he would need, then, to grow accustomed before he could see things in that up

ts nature, not as it appears when reflected in water or any alien medium, but as it is in itself the gnostic handbook page 10 in its own domain..and now he would begin to draw the conclusion that it is the sun that produces the seasons and the course of the year and controls everything in the visible world and moreover is in a way the cause of all that he and his companions used to see. republic, plato. 516ff. plato, then, is illustrating for us the state of man, his insight is clear and precise. man is chained by his attachment to his perceptions which are based on materialism and rationalism. the only reality he sees is a reflection and this reflection creates an illusionary world around him. the true source of what he perceives is found in the world of ideals and yet he cannot even cont

century most educated men were to accept without question- the conception of the universe as a" great chain of being, composed of an immense or infinite number of links ranging in hierarchical order from the meagerest kinds of existents. through every possible grade up to the ens perfectissimum" great chain of being, arthur lovejoy. modern mans vision of reality can be seen like those locked into plato's cave, he perceives only shadows and presumes these to be real. this is far more dangerous than we admit, for if we limit our reality to our sense alone then we remove all possibility of ethical or spiritual insight and reduce existence to material banality. while psychology may wish to somewhat expand our horizons by positing spiritual equivalents within the mind, it is still reductionist

gnostic handbook page 18 characteristics of the traditional model the first is the point of origin, this is only described in negative terms (by what it is not. the second is considered the upper world, it is sometimes imaged as the world of the gods but in a gnostic system we prefer a more impersonal description. this world includes any number of original principles, it is the higher reaches of plato s world of ideals. in the general gnostic- theosophic tradition it has a triune principle. within the triune principle is the power of polarity, this is important as it gives rise to the sexual polarity of most pagan traditions and the balance between mind and intuition in others. the third is the other world, it is an intermediate reality and is comprised of any number of planes, worlds or

they tend to be included within a gradient of states or worlds. these can be any number, but in the gnostic theosophic approach tends to be seven. to fully appreciate these characteristics we shall take some case studies of specific cultural "maps" which outline the traditional model of the universe. the neo-platonic cosmos one of the pivotal figures within the history of traditional cosmology is plato. while before him both pythagoras and socrates are of great significance, it was plato who outlined the major characteristic of the great chain of being- ideals. for plato an ideal was more than just a notion or idea, ideals existed eternally in the world of ideals (similar to the gnostic pleroma) and had eternal, abstract qualities. it is from this world of ideals the lower worlds emanate

ag hammadi texts such as the secret book of john and the writings of the valentinian gnostic sect all elucidate a hierarchical structure which could be seen as a precursor to later kabbalistic glyphs and figures. if in turn we take our exploration further and give due consideration to the origins of greek philosophy and esotericism, an egyptian influence can be seen clearly on both pythagoras and plato. such scholars as heinrich schliemann, have noted the similarity between greek and vedic forms and suggested a common place of origin. similar similarities can be found be- chapter seven: the continuum of the gnosis the gnostic handbook page 70 tween nordic and vedic sources and hence as we come to speculate on these links we may begin to conjecture that they are ripples resulting from a sto

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

im that we have re-discovered the essential gnosis behind the various spiritual systems as they apply to modern man. we have found enough pieces of the puzzle to offer a comprehensive understanding of what is happening behind the world of appearances. what is truth? the best way to understand the question of truth is to travel back to ancient greece and examine the allegory of the cave as used by plato. this allegory, beyond all others, offers us a real insight into the problem of what truth is. plato sees all of humanity as prisoners, each of us has been kept chained in a subterranean cavern from birth, facing a dark wall. only a very small amount of light enters the cavern and this comes from a small opening high overhead. because of our chains, we look in opposite direction and hence ca

ing high overhead. because of our chains, we look in opposite direction and hence can only observe the dark shadows which pass along the wall we are facing. these shadows are cast by the men and occurrences of the upper world beyond the overhead opening. our perceptions and hence of the shadows and reflections, platos major contemplation was on what would occur if one of us escaped from the cave? plato s answer is found in his work the republic, where socrates tells us that at first the escaped prisoner would be blinded by the strength of the light of the upper world and would retreat back to the shadows. but only for a while. gnostic theurgy page 8 he would need, then, to grow accustomed before he could see things in that upper world. at first it would be easiest to make out shadows, and

at the sun and contemplate its nature, not as it appears when reflected in water or any alien medium, but as it is in itself in its own domain..and now he would begin to draw the conclusion that it is the sun that produces the seasons and the course of the year and controls everything in the visible world and moreover is in a way the cause of all that he and his companions used to see. republic, plato. 516ff. plato, then, is illustrating for us the state of man. his insight is clear and precise. man is chained by his attachment to matter and his fallen condition. the only reality he sees is a reflection and forms a illusionary world around him. this is known as the dialectic system or the world of the archons. the true source of all things is found in the world of ideals- the spiritual pl

s chained by his attachment to matter and his fallen condition. the only reality he sees is a reflection and forms a illusionary world around him. this is known as the dialectic system or the world of the archons. the true source of all things is found in the world of ideals- the spiritual planes. in the gnostic school these are known as the static system or the treasury of light. the allegory of plato is an important place to start as it gives us a keen understanding of mans search for meaning. man search is a battle, a cosmic battle, between two distinct systems. in many traditions these two distinct systems are not only seen to be at odds with each other, but in antagonism and conflict. for if the same force that put man in chains is manipulating the reflections, then surely a battle to

o contradictory forces can be seen throughout the history of the gnosis. in many gnostic schools there was a certain hierarchy, even a caste structure which included both of these traditions. while on an esoteric level the sky cult had transcendence as the focus, on an exoteric level, the earth cult and related reproductive characteristics was cultivated, if not encouraged. the double doctrine of plato is a superb example of how this hierarchy of truth could exist, while the esoteric tradition worked in isolation, the exoteric tradition was sustained for the sake of the community, even, at times, denying that the esoteric tradition existed gnostic theurgy page 190 except to those who were properly prepared. in some sense this is out of a sense of pragmatism, while reproduction sustains the

reference to greek gematria, traditions and social mores. greek philosophical works were found among the dead sea scrolls and in the nag hammadi finds and it seems likely that the greek philosophers not only formed the backbone for the development of christian doctrine (in terms of the roman catholic gnostic theurgy page 202 church, but were an integral part of the gnostic canon. the teachings of plato form, in some sense, the foundation from which much of modern gnostic thought has developed. the world of ideals, the nature dualism, spiritual aristocracy and other gnostic doctrines can be all be seen in early platonic thought, and certainly while much of greek philosophy is at variance with the gnostic tradition, there is much similarity also. plotinus, iamblichus, apuleius, pythagoras an

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS ZAM17

ht not much to be doubted of, or contradicted by other opinions, or meanings; but seeing the truth is peaceable, brief, and always like herself in all things, and especially accorded with by jesus in omnia parte and all members, and as he is the true image of the father, so is she his image, so it shall not be said, this is true according to philosophy, but true according to theology; and wherein plato, aristotle, pythagoras, and others did hit the mark, and wherein enoch, abraham, moses, solomon, did excel, but especially wherewith that wonderful book the bible agreeth. all that same concurreth together, and maketh a sphere or globe whose total parts are equisdistant from the center, as hereof more at large and more pain shall be spoken in christianly conference. but now concerning, and c

GRAHAM HANCOCK FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

nd knowledge of the skies. this knowledge was spoken of almost in awe, by the classical commentators who visited egypt from the fifth century bc onwards. herodotus, the earliest of these travellers, noted: the egyptians were the first to discover the solar year, and to portion out its course into twelve parts. it was observation of the course of the stars which led them to adopt this division..31 plato (fourth century bc) reported that the egyptians had observed the stars for ten thousand years .32 and later, in the first century bc, diodorus siculus left this more detailed account: the positions and arrangements of the stars as well as their motions have always been the subject of careful observation among the egyptians. from ancient times to this day they have preserved the records conce

. my proposition was a priori impossible. there could be no lost advanced civilization because a landmass big enough to support such a civilization was too big to lose. geophysical impossibilities the problem was a serious one and it continued to nag at the back of my mind all the way through my own research and travels. it was, indeed, this exact problem, more than any other, which had scuppered plato s atlantis as a serious proposition for scholars. as one critic of the lost continent theory put it: there never was an atlantic landbridge since the arrival of man in the world; there is no sunken landmass in the atlantic: the atlantic ocean must have existed in its present form for at least a million years. in fact it is a geophysical impossibility for graham hancock fingerprints of the go

serious proposition for scholars. as one critic of the lost continent theory put it: there never was an atlantic landbridge since the arrival of man in the world; there is no sunken landmass in the atlantic: the atlantic ocean must have existed in its present form for at least a million years. in fact it is a geophysical impossibility for graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 443 an atlantis of plato s dimensions to have existed in the atlantic..1 the adamant and assertive tone, i had long ago learnt, was entirely justified. modern oceanographers had thoroughly mapped the floor of the atlantic ocean and there was definitely no lost continent lurking there. but if the evidence that i was gathering did represent the fingerprints of a vanished civilization, a continent had to have got lost

en left out. in particular, references to human experiences prior to the invention of writing around 5000 years ago have been omitted in their entirety and myth has become a synonym for delusion. suppose it is not delusion? suppose that a tremendous cataclysm were to overtake the earth today, obliterating the achievements of our civilization and wiping out almost all of us. suppose, to paraphrase plato, that we were forced by this cataclysm to begin again like children, in complete ignorance of what had happened in early times .1 under such circumstances, ten or twelve thousand years from now (with all written records and film archives long since destroyed) what testimony might our descendants still preserve concerning the events at the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki in august 1

stimony might our descendants still preserve concerning the events at the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki in august 1945 of the christian era? it is easy to imagine how they might speak in mystical terms of explosions that gave off a terrible glare of light and immense heat .2 nor would we be too surprised to find that they might have formulated a mythical account something like this: 1 plato, timaeus and critias, penguin classics, 1977, p. 36. 2 the bhagavata purana, motilal banardass, delhi, 1986, part i, pp. 59, 95. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 467 the flames of the brahmastra-charged missiles mingled with each other and surrounded by fiery arrows they covered the earth, heaven and space between and increased the conflagration like the fire and the sun at the end of

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

is just as much resemblance in the expulsion of the titans from heaven (theog. 813) to the fall of the rebel angels into the bottomless pit; so that to the giant element in the titans we may add a daemonic. when the works and days makes the well-known* five races fill five successive ages, the act of creation must needs have been repeated several times; on which point neither the poem itself nor plato (cratyl. 397-8, steph) gives sufficient information. first came the golden race of blissful daimones, next the silver one of weaker divine beings, thirdly, the brazen one of warriors sprung from ash-trees, fourthly, the race of heroes, fifthly, the iron one of men now living. the omission of a metal designation for the fourth race is of itself enough to make the statement look imperfect. dim

nt information. first came the golden race of blissful daimones, next the silver one of weaker divine beings, thirdly, the brazen one of warriors sprung from ash-trees, fourthly, the race of heroes, fifthly, the iron one of men now living. the omission of a metal designation for the fourth race is of itself enough to make the statement look imperfect. dimmest of all is the second race, which also plato passes over, discussing only daemons, heroes and men: will the diminutive stature of these shorter-lived genii warrant a comparison with the wights and elves of our own mythology? in the third race giants seem to be portrayed, or fighters of the giant sort, confronting as they do the rightful 1 the rabbinic myth supposes a first woman, lilith, made out of the ground like adam [the bible, we

H SPENCER LEWIS ROSICRUCIAN MANUAL AMORC 1990

the continent once occupying a considerable portion of the space occupied now by the atlantic ocean. atlantis was well advanced in civilization in parts and was the ancient home of mystic culture. mt. pico, which still rises above the ocean among the group of azores islands, was a sacred mountain for mystic initiation (see ritual of fourth degree) the story of the lost atlantis was first told by plato; another story of mystic peoples using the name atlantis is told by sir francis bacon (read the new atlantis) investigations by french and american scientists have proved that there is the contour of a continent on the floor of the atlantic ocean.(read also the lost atlantis, by ignatius donnelly. atom.the smallest division of matter having a definitive nature; the first distinctive unit whi

HELENA BLAVATSKY THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

more tolerant than they are in this enlightened century. q. was he encouraged and supported by the church because, notwithstanding his heresies, ammonius taught christianity and was a christian? a. not at all. he was born a christian, but never accepted church christianity. as said of him by the same writer: he had but to propound his instructions according to the ancient pillars of hermes, which plato and pythagoras knew before, and from them constituted their philosophy. finding the same in the prologue of the gospel according to st. john, he very properly supposed that the purpose of jesus was to restore the great doctrine of wisdom in its primitive integrity. the narratives of the bible and the stories of the gods he considered to be allegories illustrative of the truth, or else fables

wilder, but not one of permanent duration, and it is reached only by the very, very few. it is, indeed, identical with that state which is known in india as samadhi. the latter is practiced by the yogis, who facilitate it physically by the greatest abstinence in food and drink, and mentally by an incessant endeavor to purify and elevate the mind. meditation is silent and unuttered prayer, or, as plato expressed it, the ardent turning of the soul toward the divine; not to ask any particular good (as in the common meaning of prayer, but for good itself-for the universal supreme good -of which we are a part on earth, and out of the essence of which we have all emerged. therefore, adds plato, remain silent in the presence of the divine ones, till they remove the clouds from thy eyes and enabl

the subject of alchemy, the fire-philosophers, and mysticism in general. yet a long series of the hierophants of egypt, india, chaldea, and arabia are known, along with the greatest philosophers and sages of greece and the west, to have included under the designation of wisdom and divine science all knowledge, for they considered the base and origin of every art and science as essentially divine. plato regarded the mysteries as most sacred, and clemens alexandrinus, who had been himself initiated into the eleusinian mysteries, has declared "that the doctrines taught therein contained in them the end of all human knowledge" were plato and clemens two knaves or two fools, we wonder, or-both? q. you spoke of "persecution" if truth is as represented by theosophy, why has it met with such oppos

hics are there, ready and clear enough for whomsoever would follow them. they are the essence and cream of the world's ethics, gathered from the teachings of all the world's great reformers. therefore, you will find represented therein confucius and zoroaster, lao-tzu and the bhagavad-gita, the precepts of gautama buddha and jesus of nazareth, of hillel and his school, as of pythagoras, socrates, plato, and their schools. q. do the members of your society carry out these precepts? i have heard of great dissensions and quarrels among them. a. very naturally, since although the reform (in its present shape) may be called new, the men and women to be reformed are the same human, sinning natures as of old. as already said, the earnest working members are few; but many are the sincere and well

ds as much of these thoughts as he is able to assimilate. therefore we divide him into two distinct natures; the upper or the spiritual being, composed of three principles or aspects; and the lower or the physical quaternary, composed of four-in all seven -ooo- the septenary nature of man q. is it what we call spirit and soul, and the man of flesh? a. it is not. that is the old platonic division. plato was an initiate, and therefore could not go into forbidden details; but he who is acquainted with the archaic doctrine finds the seven in plato's various combinations of soul and spirit. he regarded man as constituted of two parts-one eternal, formed of the same essence as the absoluteness, the other mortal and corruptible, deriving its constituent parts from the minor "created" gods. man is

, who maintains that there is a psychical body which is sown in the corruptible (astral soul or body, and a spiritual body that is raised in incorruptible substance. even james corroborates the same by saying that the "wisdom (of our lower soul) descendeth not from the above, but is terrestrial("psychical "demoniacal" see the greek text) while the other is heavenly wisdom. now so plain is it that plato and even pythagoras, while speaking but of three principles, give them seven separate functions, in their various combinations, that if we contrast our teachings this will become quite plain. let us take a cursory view of these seven aspects by drawing two tables. theosophical division of the lower quaternary sanskrit term exoteric meaning explanation 1. rupa, or sthula-sarira physical body

(the sixth and seventh. as to all others, since that principle only which is predominant in man has to be considered as the first and foremost, no numeration is possible as a general rule. in some men it is the higher intelligence (manas or the fifth) which dominates the rest; in others the animal soul (kamarupa) that reigns supreme, exhibiting the most bestial instincts, etc -ooo- now what does plato teach? he speaks of the interior man as constituted of two parts-one immutable and always the same, formed of the same substance as deity, and the other mortal and corruptible. these "two parts" are found in our upper triad, and the lower quaternary (see table above. he explains that when the soul, psuche "allies herself to the nous (divine spirit or substance, she does everything aright and

or the soul in general) in its two aspects: when attaching itself to anoia (our kamarupa, or the "animal soul" in esoteric buddhism) it runs towards entire annihilation, as far as the personal ego is concerned; when allying itself to the nous( atma-buddhi) it merges into the immortal, imperishable ego, and then its spiritual consciousness of the personal that was, becomes immortal) st. paul calls plato's nous 'spirit';but since this spirit is 'substance, buddhi is meant then and not atma; philosophically speaking this (atma) cannot be called 'substance. we count atma as a human 'principle' in order to not create yet more confusion. in reality it is not a 'human' but the universal absolute principle of which buddhi, the soul-spirit, is the vehicle [reversely translated note from dutch trans

HP LOVECRAFT POETRY AND THE GODS

the bloody course of war, my dearest master, your dear son, may hie; bless him at home in peace, whilst i from far, his name with zealous fervour sanctify. accents still more familiar arose as milton, blind no more, declaimed immortal harmony: or let thy lamp at midnight hour be seen in some high lonely tower, where i might oft outwatch the bear with thrice-great hermes, or unsphere the spirit of plato, to unfold what worlds or what vast regions hold the immortal mind, that hath forsook her mansion in this fleshy nook* sometime let gorgeous tragedy in sceptered pall come sweeping by, presenting thebes, or pelop s line, or the tale of troy divine. last of all came the young voice of keats, closest of all the messengers to the beauteous faun-folk: heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

ISIS UNVEILED

ir^utable, and strictly autheaticated. that little is left for spiritualist authors who may come after him. how unfortunate that the scientists, who believe neither in devil nor spirit, are more than likely to ridicule m. des mousseauz's books without reading them, for they really contain so many facts of profound scientific interest! but what can we expect in our own age of unbelief when we find plato, over twenty-two centuries ago, complaining of the same "me, too" says he, in his euihyj^mm "when i say anything in the public assembly concerning divine things, and predict to them what is going to happen, they ridicule as mad; and although nothing that i hone predicted has proved wurue, yet they envy all such men as we are. however, we ought not to heed, but pursue our own way" the literar

the christians from helping themselves to its abstruse metaphysics in every way and manner. allying themselves with the ascetical uterapeutae forefathers and models of the christian monks and hermits it was in alexandria, let it be remembered, that they laid the first foundations of the purely hatonic trinitarian doctrine. it became the liato-i^ilonean doctrine later, and such as we find it now "plato considered 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

led irenaeua, not the adept of the esseoes, the obscure reformer from galilee. we see him under the disfigured nato-philoneaa mask, not as when the disciples heard him on the mount. so far then the heathen philosophy had helped them in the building of the principal dogma. but when the theurgists of the third neo ^atonic school, deprived of their ancient mysteries, strove to blend the doctrines of plato with those of aristotle, and by combining the two philosophies added to their theosophy the primeval docbioes ot the oriental kabala, then the christians from rivals became persecutors. once that the metaphysical allegories of plato were being prepared to be discussed in pubuc in the form of grecian dialectics, all the elaborate system of the christian trinity would be unraveled and the divi

any forgeries, interpolated later in the acts, the fathers are guilty, we know not; but that paul never considered christ more than a man "full of the spirit of god" is but too evident "in the arche was the logot, and the logos was adnate to the theos" wisdom, the first emanation of ain-soph; the protogonos, the hy- postasis; the adam kadmoq of the kabalist; the brahm& of the hindfl; the logos of plato; and the "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

at master'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 underst

as henoch, ezekiel, and daniel. who of those who ever studied the ancient philosophies who understand intuitionally the grandeur of their conceptions, the boundless sublimity of their views of the unknown deity can hesitate for a moment to give the preference to their doctrines over the incompre- hensible, dogmatic and contradictory theology of the hundreds of christian sects? who that ever read plato and fathomed his ?ro 'or, 65. fiiiubu,ap.augutl.,xxiii,2;xx^i, 3;d. beaiudire: biml.erit. du maniek, i, p. 297. 66. z-afouoie, illmepart, ch. it, p. 257: puu, 1892, 3nl ed. the words "converted uid cmmcnted by sl paul" may have been in earlier editioni, but aie not in snl. 07. le rpuilime, eu, p. 215. digitizecoy google plato's prudent reserve 39 "i^tom no person hat seen except the son" can

part, ch. it, p. 257: puu, 1892, 3nl ed. the words "converted uid cmmcnted by sl paul" may have been in earlier editioni, but aie not in snl. 07. le rpuilime, eu, p. 215. digitizecoy google plato's prudent reserve 39 "i^tom no person hat seen except the son" can doubt that jeaus was a disciple of the same seckt doctrine which had instructed the great philosopher? for, as we have shown before now, plato never claimed to be the inventor of all that he wrote, but gave credit for it to ivthagoras, who, in his turn, pointed to the remote east as the source whence he derived his information and hb philosophy. moreover, it is undeniable that the theologies of all the great nations dovetail together and show that each is a part of "oae stupendous whole" like the rest of the initiates we see plato

s undeniable that the theologies of all the great nations dovetail together and show that each is a part of "oae stupendous whole" like the rest of the initiates we see plato 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 bit

JENNINGS HARGRAVE ROSICRUCIANS RITES MYSTERIES

utely real: it is said, in intellectually admitting, because the influence of the arts proves that men s feelings always have admitted, and do still admit, this reality. the platonic philosophy of vision is, that it is the view of objects really existing in interior light, which assume form, not according to arbitrary laws, but according to the state of mind. this interior light, if we understand plato, unites with exterior light in the eye, and is thus drawn into a sensual or imaginative activity; but when the outward light is separated, it reposes in its own serene atmosphere. it is, then, in this state of interior repose, that the usual class of religious, or what are called inspired, visions occur. it is the same light of eternity so frequently alluded to in books that treat of mysteri

ertained similar theories (brucker, 1, c. i. p. 113. parmenides also represents god as a universal fire which surrounded the heavens with its circle of light and fire (cicero, de natura deorum, lib. iii. c. 2. hippasus, heraclitus, and hippocrates imagined god as a reasoning and immortal fire which permeates all things (cudworth, systema intellectuale, p. 104; and gesnerus, de animis hippocratis. plato and aristotle departed by little from this in their teachings; and democritus called god the reason or soul in a sphere of fire (stob us, eclog physic, lib. vii. c. 10. cleonethes considered the sun as the highest god (busching, grundriss einer geschichte dir philosophie, 1 th. p. 344. we find, therefore, in the earliest ages, an ther (spiritual fire) theory, by which t 148 the rosicrucians

ee anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 627 (parkhurst, in voce, grb. the personality of jehovah is, in scripture, represented by the material trinity of nature; which also, like the divine antitype, is of one substance. the primal, scriptural type of the father is fire; of the word, light; and of the holy ghost, spirit, or air in motion. this material trinity, as a type, is similar to the material trinity of plato; as a type, it is used to conceal the secret trinity. see anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 627. holy fires, which were never suffered to die, were maintained in all the temples: of these were the fires in the temple of the gaditanean hercules at tyre, in the temple of vesta at rome, among the brachmans of india, among the jews, and principally among the persians. now to prove that all appearances are

n or the various classes of the blessed angels. the contrary of all this is to be assumed of the evil genii or the recusant genii (luciferent and yet lucifugent, except in regard to their power or knowledge. for the soul of the world and matter, and to an important onehalf, the means of the world are feminine. for night (which is the other side of the curtain of day) is feminine. thus boehmen and plato; as representing all the closest-of-thought of the centuries. all the above is the reproduction of the singular ideas of the idealists of the middle ages. curves of the lunar symbol in moresque arch. the lunar or feminine symbol, is the universal parent of the hindoo and mahometan returned arches; and therefore, also, of the horse-shoe curves of the arabian arches, and the hooked curves of a

it. carm. 64. quod enim genus figurae est, ego quod non habuerim? ego mulier, ego adolescens, ego ephebus, ego puer, ego gymnasii fui flos, ego eram decus olei. marcianus capella lib. i. atys pulcher item curvi et puer almus aratri. caput autem tectum mithra phrygem indicat. laurentii pignorii patavini magn deum matris id et attidis initia. amstelodami andre frisii. mdclxix. profound mysticism of plato. 327 hear or read of each other; whether even the continual natural inclination which impels man to woman, and woman to man, be not the spirit-reflex and the atoning penance (there is a great amount of sadness which mingles in the delight of these feelings) of the original grand human division. and that this extra-natural (and yet natural) inclination which draws one sex towards the other be

are samuel manasseh and ben-israel, are of opinion that our great progenitor was created with two bodies, and that he separated them afterwards during adam s sleep; an opinion founded by these writers upon the second chapter of genesis, verse 21: the literal translation of the hebrew being: he (god) separated the woman from his side, and substituted flesh in her place. this idea resembles that of plato. origen, st. chrysostom, and st. thomas believed that the.woman was not created till the seventh day. but the most generally received opinion is, that adam and eve were created on the sixth. these particular notions extravagant as they must be admitted to be as to the original single-dual, dual-single characteristics of adam and eve are eminently platonic nay, cabalistic. plato proceeds to a

t, quibus incumbant. tels sont les termes de vallesius. maluenda confirme ce qui a t dit plus haut, i semi-human worlds unknown. 355 prouvant, par le t moignage de divers auteurs, classiques la plupart, que c est a pareilles unions que doivent leur naissance: romulus et r mus, d apr s tite-live et plutarque; servius-tullius, sixi me roi des romains, d apr s denys d halicarnasse et pline l ancien; plato le philosophe, d apr s diog ne la rce et saint j r mc; alexandre le grand, d apr s plutarque et quinte-curce; s leucus, roi de syrie, d apr s justin et appien; scipion i africain, premier du nom, d apr s tite-live; 1 empereur c sar-auguste, d apres su tone; aristom ne de mess nie, illustre g n ral grec, d apres strabon et pausanias. ajoutons encore l anglais merlin or melchin, n d un incube

KARR DON NOTES ON EDITIONS OF SEFER YETZIRAH IN ENGLISH

usion: already abraham abulafia perceived that the pythagorean number philosophy is identical with the sefiroth philosophy of the sefer yetzirah. the relation they bear to each other is variously explained. a. f. thimus shares the view that the pythagorean philosophy is an adaptation from the sefer yetzirah. others hold that the author of sefer yetzirah borrowed his philosophy from pythagoras and plato. would it be to [sic] bold to conclude that sefer yetzirah represents the genuine fragments of philolaus? mordell develops his thesis further in a supplement, a solution of the pythagorean number philosophy, which is included in the weiser reprint of the origin of the letters and numerals. mordell put his english translation and the hebrew of sy side by side, but his version is unlike any wh

LAITMAN M KABBALAH REVEALED

edge. the engine of change desires don t just pop out of the blue. they form unconsciously within us and surface only when they become something definable, such as, i want a pizza. before that, desires are either not felt, or at most, felt as general restlessness. we ve all experienced that sense of wanting something but not quite knowing what it is. well, it is a desire that has not yet ripened. plato once said, necessity is the mother of invention, and he was right. similarly, kabbalah teaches us that the only way we can learn anything is by first wanting to learn it. it s a very simple formula: when we want something, we do what it takes to get it. we make the 26 kabbalah revealed time, muster the energy, and develop the necessary skills. it turns out that the engine of change is desire

LAITMAN M THE KABBALAH EXPERIENCE

, and in fact, they only permitted it in our time, when the souls are ripe enough for that study. in the past, many people wanted to misuse it, but there aren t such people anymore; people are too immersed in fulfilling their petty desires to take pleasure in such things. the prohibition against disclosing such sublime knowledge in public was applied to other sciences, as well. both aristotle and plato mention in their writings the prohibition against teaching and disclosing scientific knowledge for people to trade for money or other pleasures. they saw in the knowledge itself a power that was not to be conveyed to people r e f l e c t i o n s a n d t h o u g h t s 401 for use against others. the few that were of high enough standards to keep this knowledge secret were accepted as disciple

LEADBEATER C W THE HIDDEN LIFE IN FREEMASONRY 2E

l as their purity of race. nearly four thousand years after the arrival of the indians, there arose in egypt certain prophets who foretold a great flood, so the clan in a body took ship across the red sea and found a refuge among the mountains of arabia. 63. in 9,564 b.c. the prophecy was fulfilled; the island of poseidonis sank beneath the atlantic ocean in the deluge mentioned in the timaeus of plato; at the same time the land rose and made the sahara desert where a shallow sea had been before, and a vast tidal wave swept over egypt, so that almost its entire population was destroyed. even when everything settled down, the country was a wilderness, bounded on the west no longer by a peaceful sea but by a vast salt swamp, which as the centuries rolled on dried into an inhospitable desert

an. 591. the prayer which is offered just before the lodge is declared open is that the craftsmen may be enlightened in the paths of virtue and of science, and the lodge is declared to be opened on the s c for the instruction and improvement of f.c.f.s. 592. it is of deep significance that in the invocation of this degree the r.w.m. uses for the logos the title of the grand geometrician. long ago plato said that god geometrizes, and a study of crystallography will show vividly how true that is with regard to the building up of beautiful mineral forms. in the higher kingdoms also the student finds the same wonderful evidence of order and regularity. indeed, the more deeply we study the processes of nature the greater in every direction becomes our admiration for the wonderful work of him wh

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

istory of that sub-race is given; it includes the following remarks on the subject of the origin of the cretans: 219. the first section [of the fourth sub-race] to cross into europe from asia minor were the ancient greeks- not the greeks of our ancient history, but their far-away ancestors, those who are sometimes called pelasgians. it will be remembered that the egyptian priests are mentioned in plato s timaeus and critias as having spoken to a later greek of the splendid race which had preceded his own people in his land; how they had turned back an invasion from the mighty nation from the west, the conquering nation that had subdued all before it, until it shivered itself against the heroic valour of these greeks. in comparison with these, it was said, the modern greeks- the greeks of o

worth. a few quotations- samples of many- will be sufficient to show this. sophocles, the great tragic poet, says of them: 313. thrice-happy are those mortals who after the contemplation of the mysteries go down into the realms of hades; for there they alone will possess true life: for the rest there is naught but suffering(*sophocles fr. 348, quoted foucart: les mysteres d eleusis, p. 362) 314. plato says through the mouth of socrates in that wonderful death-scene in the phaedo: 315. i fancy that those men who established the mysteries were not unenlightened, but in reality had a hidden meaning when they said long ago, that whoever goes uninitiated and unsanctified to the other world will lie in the mire, but he who arrives there initiated and purified will dwell with the gods(*plato. ph

ve a set of seven figures, corresponding to the number of planes in our solar system. 381. in some of the older schools of philosophy it was said: no one can enter who does not know mathematics. that meant not what we now call mathematics, but that science which embraces the knowledge of the higher planes, of their mutual relations, and the way in which the whole is built by the will of god. when plato said: god geometrizes, he stated a profound truth which throws much light upon the methods and mysteries of evolution. those forms are not conceptions of the human brain; they are truths of the higher planes. we have formed the habit of studying the books of euclid, but we study them now for themselves, and not as a guide to something higher. the old philosophers pondered upon them because t

thinking men of the period that a reform of the church was essential, for corruption and abuses of all kinds had crept into her sanctuaries. at first an attempt was made towards a broader view of christian doctrine from within the roman church, and scholars, such as ficino, the platonists of italy, erasmus, and sir thomas more, sought to reinterpret christianity in the light of the philosophy of plato and plotinus. but this attempt failed; and, in consequence, the reformation took place outside the church in the sixteenth century. it was an attempt to purify the church from her abuses, to bring her teachings into closer harmony with the new ideas; but it must be admitted that it did little to improve matters from the spiritual point of view, even though it won freedom of belief and libert

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

nce neither can perceive the other, being one bathed in the light of god, and the other covered by blackness and encompassed by burning fire. blake was a platonist very familiar with reincarnation and the karmic principle.he saw angels, good and evil, as the real forces behind the weaknesses and the triumphs of mortal men and women. blake s entire scheme is based upon a view that has its roots in plato and that extends to a philosophical tradition pointing to a spiritual reality in which forces higher than ourselves are constantly at work. blake insisted that eternity was complete harmony, and that therefore angels and spirits were androgynous,with no separate principles of male and female, but only the one of humanity. blake often used infernal imagery to represent aspects of the human be

according to the gnostic myth of creation, sophia, one of the good spiritual beings (one of the aeons) residing in the pleroma (the pure spiritual realm, inadvertently creates another entity often called yaldabaoth who creates our familiar world (e.g, refer to the apocryphon of john 2, in robinson 1981, 9f. this evil deity, who is alternately designated the demiurge (a term originally utilized by plato to refer to a demigod who creates the world in the timaeus, also creates the human body for the purpose of trapping human spirits in the physical world. our true home is the absolute spirit, the pleroma. a standard tenet of gnostic christianity was that yahweh, the god of the old testament, was one and the same as this evil demiurge. pointing to the discrepancy between the jealous, vengeful

wers of darkness. gnosticism gnosticism is a term for a broad range of different religious movements. despite this variation, what we might call generic gnosticism is usually described as having an identifiable, coherent ideology that includes such doctrines as the notion that this world, and especially the human body, were the products of an evil deity the demiurge (a term originally utilized by plato to refer to a demigod who created the world in the timaeus) who also created the human body for the purpose of trapping human spirits in the physical world. our true home is the absolute spirit, referred to as the pleroma. according to the gnostic myth of creation, sophia, one of the spiritual beings residing in the pleroma, inadvertently created the demiurge. the demiurge then created the c

rd (or one-half, depending on the source) of each year in the underworld, the part of the year when demeter is once again sorrowful and nothing grows. thus did kore, a fertility figure by relation to demeter, become identified with persephone, the wife of hades and a figure of death. three platonic dialogues the gorgias, phaedo, and republic include a mythical account of what happens after death. plato does not merely repeat standard stories, but artfully mixes together elements from the cultural heritage, the tragedies, and mystery religions. the myth in the gorgias describes the judgment of a soul after death. the soul has been freed from the an 18th century print of charon receiving a dead soul into his boat taking the oblos (coin (fortean picture library) halloween 103 body, which is c

a meadow to swap experiences. the worst souls do not emerge, but are thrown forever into tartarus. see also cerberus; underworld for further reading: eliade,mircea, ed. encyclopedia of religion. new york:macmillan, 1987. grant,michael, and john hazel. who s who in classical mythology. new york: oxford university press, 1993. hamilton, edith, and huntington cairns, eds. the collected dialogues of plato. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1961. macgregor, geddes. images of afterlife: beliefs from antiquity to modern times. new york: paragon house, 1992. north,helen f. death and afterlife in greek tragedy and plato. in hiroshi obayashi, ed.death and afterlife: perspectives ofworld religions.westport, ct: greenwood press, 1992, 49 64. smart, ninian. the religious experience of mankind

d while the elysian fields were accessible only to the righteous. in the homeric poems minos is mentioned as a regulator rather than properly a judge of the dead. with the development of pythagorean doctrine, a true afterlife judgment was conceived in pythagoras s notion of reincarnation. orphism introduced the afterlife judgment of rhadamantos, triptolemos, and aiakos in its mythological system. plato mentions the judgment of the dead by these three figures at the conclusion of gorgias. in ancient roman literature one finds judges of the dead who originated in greece, rhadamanthos, and minos. in early judaism the deeds of the dead were recorded and a judgment of the dead mentioned to establish punishment for the sinners or reward for the righteous (culminating in resurrection. in christia

inctions among the dead, bound to live forever in a state of boredom. those bound to some sort of punishment or suffering either had remained unburied or were not fed enough sacrificial food. the kingdom of hades was a dark underground realm surrounded on all sides by five rivers (lethe, styx, phlegethon, acheron, and cocytus) and at the entrance the mythical threeheaded dog cerberus stood guard. plato introduced the idea of a postmortem judgment based on good and evil deeds during one s life into greek spirituality. this philosopher also aimed at understanding hades as a psychological state rather than as a physical location, while all the symbology related to it was interpreted allegorically. in judaism the underworld was viewed as a dusty shadowy realm called sheol, representing the ext

LIBER ASTARTE

ese material symbols. there have been certain saints who are capable of love for an idea as such without it being otherwise than degraded by idolising it, to use this word in its true sense. thus one may be impassioned of beauty, without even the need of so small a concretion of it as .the beauty of apollo .the beauty of roses .the beauty of attis. such persons are rare; it may be doubted whether plato himself attained to any vision of absolute beauty without attaching to it material objects in the first place. a second class is able to contemplate ideals through this veil; a third class needs a double veil, and cannot think of the beauty of a rose without a rose before them. for such is this method of most use; yet let them know that there is this danger therein, that they may mistake the

LIBER DCCCLX JOHN ST

gitimate against a public enemy like the mind. no truce nor quarter! on the contrary, to use the spiritual forces to secure health, as certain persons attempt to do to-day, is the vilest black magic. this is one of the numerous reasons for supposing that jesus christ was a brother of the left- hand path. 1 [chaldaan oracles, fragment 183 in westcott edition; quoted by proclus in his commentary on plato.s parmenides] john st. john 57 now my body has been treating me well, waking nicely at convenient hours, sleeping at suitable times, keeping itself to itself. an admirable body. then why shouldn ft i take it out and give it the best dinner lavenue can serve. provided that it doesn.t stop saying that mantra! it would be so easy to trick myself into the belief that i had attained! it would be

LIBER DCCCXI ENERGIZED ENTHUSIASM

c.s. jones, and the work is cited as liber 811 in the blue equinox. it was also said to be an eadumbration f of liber iao (xvii, an unpublished (believed lost) class d text which supposedly describes meditation-practices based on the three eenthusiasms f discussed above. the four kinds of eenthusiasm f or edivine madness f (the first being poetic inspiration from the nine muses) are discussed in plato's phaedrus and treated of by renaissance writers such as ficino in his commentary on the symposium, agrippa in de occulta philosophia lib. iii cap. 45-49, and giordano bruno in de gli eroici furori (for which see yates, giordano bruno and the hermetic tradition. in connection with the three genthusiasms h mentioned here, there is evidence that crowley referred the letters of iao to iacchus

LIBER HHH

ich parallels .liber cadavaris (120. compare also the meditations on various kinds of corpses described in the m.hasatipatth.na sutta. 3 grk .pyramid. the reference is to cap. i, mmm, which parallels .liber pyramidos (671. 4 grk .phallus. the reference is to cap. iii, sss. 5 the four kinds of .enthusiasm. or .divine madness (the first being poetic inspiration from the nine muses) are discussed in plato.s phaedrus and treated of by renaissance writers such as ficino in his commentary on the symposium, agrippa in de occulta philosophia lib. iii cap. 45-49, and giordano bruno in de gli eroici furori. see also crowley.s essay .energised enthusiasm (liber 811. it is believed that .liber iao. if it was ever written, described meditation or magick practices based on these three .enthusiasms. 6 to

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

ii the gnostic mysteries--simon magus and basilides--abraxas, the gnostic concept of deity--the mysteries of serapis--labyrinth symbolism--the odinic, or gothic, mysteries. 25 the ancient mysteries and secret societies, part iii the eleusinian mysteries--the lesser rites--the greater rites--the orphic mysteries- the bacchic mysteries--the dionysiac mysteries. 29 atlantis and the gods of antiquity plato's atlantis in the light of modern science-the myth of the dying god-the rite of tammuz and ishtar--the mysteries of atys and adonis-the rites of sabazius--the cabiric mysteries of samothrace. 33 the life and writings of thoth hermes trismegistus suppositions concerning identity of hermes--the mutilated hermetic fragments--the book of thoth--poimandres, the vision of hermes--the mystery of un

the solar trinity-christianity and the sun--the birthday of the sun--the three suns- the celestial inhabitants of the sun--the midnight sun. 49 the zodiac and its signs primitive astronomical instruments--the equinoxes and solstices--the astrological ages of the world--the circular zodiac of tentyra--an interpretation of the zodiacal signs- the horoscope of the world. 53 the bembine table of isis plato's initiation in the great pyramid--the history of the bembine table--platonic theory of ideas--the interplay of the three philosophical zodiacs--the chaldean philosophy of triads--the orphic egg. 57 wonders of antiquity the ever-burning lamps--the oracle of delphi--the dodonean oracle--the oracle of trophonius--the initiated architects--the seven wonders of the world. 61 the life and philoso

is devoted to investigation and classification of those forms of phenomena referable to a mental origin; epistemology, which is the science concerned primarily with the nature of knowledge itself and the question of whether it may exist in an absolute form; and sthetics, which is the science of the nature of and the reactions awakened by the beautiful, the harmonious, the elegant, and the noble. plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever imparted by divinity to man. in the twentieth century, however, it has become a ponderous and complicated structure of arbitrary and irreconcilable notions--yet each substantiated by almost incontestible logic. the lofty theorems of the old academy which iamblichus likened to the nectar and ambrosia of the gods have been so adulterated by opinion

ted in a basket high in the air studying the sun, socrates rose calmly in his seat, the better to enable the athenian spectators to compare his own unprepossessing features with the grotesque mask worn by the actor impersonating him. the elean sect was founded by ph do of elis, a youth of noble family, who was bought from slavery at the instigation of socrates and who became his devoted disciple. plato so highly admired ph do's mentality that he named one of the most famous of his discourses the ph do. ph do was succeeded in his school by plisthenes, who in turn was followed by menedemus. of the doctrines of the elean sect little is known. menedemus is presumed to have been inclined toward the teachings of stilpo and the megarian sect. when menedemus' opinions were demanded, he answered th

euphantus, who lived to great age and wrote many tragedies, was among the foremost followers of eubulides. diodorus is usually included in the megarian school, having heard eubulides lecture. according to legend, diodorus died of grief because he could not answer instantly certain questions asked him by stilpo, at one time master of the megarian school. diodorus held that nothing click to enlarge plato. from thomasin's recuil des figures, groupes, thermes, fontaines, vases et autres ornaments. plato's real name was aristocles. when his father brought him to study with socrates, the great skeptic declared that on the previous night he had dreamed of a white swan, which was an omen that his new disciple was to become one of the world's illumined. there is a tradition that the immortal plato

hus elevated by aristippus to the chief position among the virtues. he further declared philosophers to differ markedly from other men in that they alone would not change the order of their lives if all the laws of men were abolished. among prominent philosophers influenced by the cyrenaic doctrines were hegesias, anniceris, theodorus, and bion. the sect of the academic philosophers instituted by plato (427-347 b.c) was divided into three major parts--the old, the middle, and the new academy. among the old academics were speusippus, zenocrates, poleman, crates, and crantor. arcesilaus instituted the middle academy and carneades founded the new. chief among the masters of plato was socrates. plato traveled widely and was initiated by the egyptians into the profundities of hermetic philosoph

r. arcesilaus instituted the middle academy and carneades founded the new. chief among the masters of plato was socrates. plato traveled widely and was initiated by the egyptians into the profundities of hermetic philosophy. he also derived much from the doctrines of the pythagoreans. cicero describes the threefold constitution of platonic philosophy as comprising ethics, physics, and dialectics. plato defined good as threefold in character: good in the soul, expressed through the virtues; good in the body, expressed through the symmetry and endurance of the parts; and good in the external world, expressed through social position and companionship. in the book of speusippus on platonic definitions, that great platonist thus defines god "a being that lives immortally by means of himself alo

in the body, expressed through the symmetry and endurance of the parts; and good in the external world, expressed through social position and companionship. in the book of speusippus on platonic definitions, that great platonist thus defines god "a being that lives immortally by means of himself alone, sufficing for his own blessedness, the eternal essence, cause of his own goodness. according to plato, the one is the term most suitable for defining the absolute, since the whole precedes the parts and diversity is dependent on unity, but unity not on diversity. the one, moreover, is before being, for to be is an attribute or condition of the one. platonic philosophy is based upon the postulation of three orders of being: that which moves unmoved, that which is self-moved, and that which is

MEANING OF MASONRY

. it is, of course, common knowledge that great secret systems of the mysteries (referred to in our lectures as" noble orders of architecture" i.e, of soul-building) existed in the east, in chaldea, assyria, egypt, greece, italy, amongst the hebrews, amongst mahommedans and amongst christians; even among uncivilized african races they are to be found. all the great teachers of humanity, socrates, plato, pythagoras, moses, aristotle, virgil, the author of the homeric poems, and the great greek tragedians, along with st. john, st. paul and innumerable other great names--were initiates of the sacred mysteries. the form of the teaching co mmunicated has varied considerably from age to age; it has been expressed under different veils; but since the ultimate truth the mysteries aim at teaching i

e made spectacular and dramatic. the ritual runs that our ancient brethren of this degree met in the porchway of king solomon's temple. this is a way of saying that natural philosophy is the porchway to the attainment of divine wisdom; that the study of man leads to knowledge of god, by revealing to man the ultimate divinity at the base of human nature. this study or self-analysis of human nature plato called geometry; earth-measuring; the probing, sounding and determining the limits, proportions and potentialities of our personal organism in its physical and psychical aspects. the ordinary natural consciousness is directed outwards; perceives only outward objects; thinks only of an outward deity separate and away from us. it can accordingly cognize only shadows, images and illusions. the

y, it must discard all its former thought-habits, prejudices and preconceptions, and be prepared to receive humbly the illumination that will flood into it from the light of divine wisdom. for the determined student of the mental discipline implied by the second degree there may be recommended two most instructive sources of information and examples of personal experience. one is the dialogues of plato and the writings of plotinus and other neo-platonists. the other is the records of the classical christian contemplatives, such as eckhart or ruysbroeck or the" interior castle" of st. theresa. the phoedrus of plato, in particular, is an important record by an initiate of the ancient mysteries of the psychological experiences referred to in the fellow-craft degree. the subject is too lengthy

inasmuch as its action upon the organism of whoever surrenders himself to its influence causes a redisposition of functional and conscious faculty. the knowledge of this fact was with the wise ancients the true and original science of geometry (literally" earth measuring; determining the occult potentialities of the human earth or temporal organism under spiritual stresses" god geometrizes" wrote plato, with intimate knowledge of the subject. many of the euclidean and pythagorean theorems, now regarded merely as mathematical demonstrations, were originally expressions, veiled in mathematical glyphs, of the esoteric science of soul-building or true masonry. the well-known 47th proposition of the first book of euclid is an example of this and in consequence has come (though few modern masons

periclean age. greece was the spiritual descendant and infant prodigy of both india and egypt, though developing along quite different lines. we know that pythagoras, like moses, after absorbing all his native teachers could impart, journeyed to egypt to take his final initiation prior to returning and founding the great school at crotona associated with his name. we know, too, from the timaus of plato how aspirants for mystical wisdom visited egypt for initiation and were told by the priests of sais that" you greeks are but children" in the secret doctrine, but were admitted to information enabling them to promote their own spiritual advancement. we know from the corresponden ce, recorded by iamblichus, between anebo and porphyry, the fraternal relations existing between the various schoo

a death unto sin and self and a new birth unto righteousness, but how will the information profit those who nevertheless mean to go on living the old manner of life, which at every moment negates all that ritual implies? the ancient mysteries, then, involved much more than a merely notional philosophy. they required also a philosophic method of living--or rather of dying. for as socrates said (in plato's phoedo, from which much masonic teaching is directly drawn and which every masonic student should study deeply" the whole study of the philosopher (or wisdom-seeker) is nothing else than to die and be dead; an assertion repeated by plutarch" to be initiated is to die; and by the christian apostle" i die daily" their method was divided into two parts, the lesser and the greater mysteries. t

nt in, and determining the destiny of, individuals, nations and the race. finally music (or harmony) was for them not of the vocal or instrumental kind; it meant the l iving practice of philosophy, the adjustment of human life into harmony with god, until the personal soul became unified with him and consciously heard, because it now participated* the four cardinal virtues are referred to in both plato's phoedo and the book of wisdom, ch. viii, 5-7, indicating community of teaching between the greek and hebrew schools. in, the music of the spheres. as milton puts it "how lovely is divine philosophy, not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, but musical as is apollo's lute and a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets where no crude surfeit reigns" every possible device was employed and pract

ere only a pe rcentage of the total of those who entered the mysteries, for in the spiritual life, as in the world of nature, the biological phenomenon prevails that the available raw material greatly exceeds the perfected product. every year far more seeds are borne, far more eggs are laid or spawned, than reach maturity, although every seed and egg is potentially capable of growth and fruition. plato, speaking of the mysteries in his own day, quotes a still older authority that" the thyrsus bearers (or candidates for initiation) are numerous, but the bacchuses (or perfected initiates) are few" the same truth is restated in the words in the gospels" many are called, but few are chosen" one qualification above all was essential to the* the thyrsus (or caduceus) was an elaborate wand borne

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

gods (exodus 22:28) scholar and genius, ignatius donnelly wrote of the tribulations: it sounds like the cry not of a man but of a race, a great, religious, civilized race, who couldnot understand how god could so cruelly visit the world.and from comyns beaumonts the riddle of prehistoric britain: the prehistory of the atlanteans and the race of adam possessed peculiar similarities. thesupermen of plato s island were drowned in a flood like the adamites, the giants of old time,men of renown, the men whose thoughts became wholly evil, destroyed in what is called theflood or universal deluge. the cause advanced for their destruction was in effect the samein both cases, they being accused of having mastered too many of the divine secrets of, as weshould say, science, as the ancients named it

s provide a commentary on the life of human-kind in the post-diluvian epoch: acquired inheritance, cities and industry, domestication of animals, practical family organi-zation (male at the head, racial and cultural separatism, strong executive head, militarystrength, conquest and territorialism and enslavement of foreigners (urantia book) states are as the men, they grow out of human characters (plato)perhaps we will never fully understand the mystery of that original mutation from egalitar-ian to state society. certainly no standard explanations are adequate (david watson, thepathology of civilization)in individuals, insanity is rare, but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule (fredrick nietzsche) atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation65 chapter 10what goes o

ticular tree (p. 335)peoples claiming descent or knowledge of the sky godskachinas (decent from the sun)hopis, utes, toltecs, miztecs, aztecs, quiches, aleutians, creeks, seminoles, mattoles, tepanecas (of columbia)mormonsmikados of japan (decent from the sun)sumerians (sargon the great)semites (moses, isaac, john and jesus, abrahamthe name means father is high)greeks (hesiod theogony, pindar. in plato, the deluge of deucalion)appendix b: book abstracts190atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation chinese (in the pwan-ku, or reign of chaos, states that people lived underground)babylonians and akkadiansindians (indra versus vritra and the battles between the asas and the asuras or gods and demons)russianscelts (in the deluge of ogyges and the journey of bran, of the coming of the

all these beds clearly sustainedcivilizations. spina of the etruscansspina was buried under water and mud in northern italy. it was a prehistoric city. appendix b: book abstracts202atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation new calendarsthe hindu, egyptian, and babylonian calendars start or commence a new cycle from the point of11,500 to 11,000 b. c, fairly close to the figure given by plato for the end of atlantis, or 9,500 beforehis time (p. 160)dinosaurs and manin peru, artifacts (round stones) have been found that show depictions of men fighting with dinosaurs,saber-tooth tigers, and all the other so-called extinct mammals. there are also images of persons wear-ing suits clothing, of performing surgery, and using telescopes. tyrannosaurus rexin california, found wall paintin

atlantis destroyed? a continent was reputedly the size of europe. it boasted gorgeouscities, advanced technology and utopian government. it suffered a cataclysm and was reduced torubble that sank beneath the sea, lost forever. the legend of atlantis has been around for thousandsof years, and whatever its factual validity may be, it does claim a noble heritage, for its earliestknown proponent was plato.the greek philosopher wrote of atlantis in two of his dialogues, timaeus and critias, around370 b.c. plato said that this was a true story which derived from then-200-year-old records of thegreek ruler solon, who heard of atlantis from an egyptian priest. plato wrote that the continent layin the atlantic ocean near the straits of gibraltar until its destruction 10,000 years before. intimaeus

ato.the greek philosopher wrote of atlantis in two of his dialogues, timaeus and critias, around370 b.c. plato said that this was a true story which derived from then-200-year-old records of thegreek ruler solon, who heard of atlantis from an egyptian priest. plato wrote that the continent layin the atlantic ocean near the straits of gibraltar until its destruction 10,000 years before. intimaeus, plato described atlantis as a prosperous nation out to expand its domain: now in thisisland of atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island andseveral others, and over parts of the continent, he wrote, and, furthermore, the men of atlantis hadsubjected the parts of libya within the columns of heracles as far as egypt, and of europe as far astyrrhenia.plato t

istake by attacking greece. they could not withstandthe greeks' military might, and following their defeat, a natural disaster sealed their fate. timaeuscontinues: but afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day andnight of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of atlantis inlike manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. plato tells a more metaphysical version of theappendix c: suggested areas of research274atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation atlantis story in critias, where he describes the lost continent as the kingdom of poseidon, the godof the sea. this atlantis was a noble, sophisticated society that reigned in peace for centuries, untilits people became complacent and greedy. angered by thei

research274atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation atlantis story in critias, where he describes the lost continent as the kingdom of poseidon, the godof the sea. this atlantis was a noble, sophisticated society that reigned in peace for centuries, untilits people became complacent and greedy. angered by their fall from grace, zeus chose to punishthem by destroying atlantis. although plato was the first to use the term atlantis, there are ante-cedents to the legend. in an egyptian legend which solon probably heard while traveling in egypt,and which was passed down to plato years later, the island nation of keftiu, home of one of the fourpillars that held up the sky, was said to be a glorious advanced civilization which was destroyed andsank beneath the ocean. another atlantis

MICHAEL WYNN THE SOUL TRAVELERS

roperty is the elements, and there are 5: spirit, air, water, fire, and earth. the second major type of hidden property is the planets, and there are 7: the sun, the moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, and saturn. the 5 elements of the magicians were allegedly derived from the 4 elements the greeks claimed all things were made from. after more research, especially into greek philosophers such as plato and aristotle (who i suspect had occult knowledge, i am more convinced that the reverse is true, and that the greeks based their belief of the 4 elements (air, water, earth, fire) on the magicians 5 elements. the term the elements remains with us to this day. to be exposed to the elements, is to be left outside and exposed to rain (water, dirt (earth, air (air, and sunlight (fire. magicians

MOODY RAYMOND A LIFE AFTER LIFE

ost common analogy of this type is the comparison between death and sleep. dying, we tell ourselves, is like going to sleep. this figure of speech occurs very commonly in everyday thought and language, as well as in the literature of many cultures and many ages. it was apparently quite common even in the time of the ancient greeks. in the iliad, for example, homer calls sleep "death's sister" and plato, in his dialogue the apology, put the following words into the mouth of his teacher, socrates, who has just been sentenced to death by an athenian jury [now, if death is only a dreamless sleep] it must be a marvelous gain. i suppose that if anyone were told to pick out the night on which he slept so soundly as not even to dream, and then to compare it with all the other nights and days of hi

is story to a small group of interested students. at the time, i was most impressed, but since i had little background from which to judge; such experiences, i "filed it away" both in my mind and in the form of a tape recording of his talk. some years later, after i had received my ph.d. in philosophy, i was teaching in a university in eastern north carolina. in one course i had m y students read plato's phaedo, a work in which immortality is among the subjects discussed. in my lectures i had been emphasizing the other doctrines which plato presents there and had not focused upon the discussion of life after death. after class one day a student stopped by to see me. he asked whether we might discuss the subject of immortality. he had an interest in the subject because his grandmother had "

eriences themselves are remarkably similar, both the circumstances surrounding them and the persons describing them vary widely. accordingly, i have tried to give a sample of experiences which adequately reflects this variation. with these qualifications in mind, let us now turn to a consideration of what ma happen, as far as i have been able to discover, during the experience of dying- notes (1) plato, the last days o f socrates, trans. hugh tredennick (baltimore: penguin books, 1959, p. 75= 2- the experience of dying despite the wide variation in the circumstances surrounding close calls with death and in the types of persons undergoing them, it remains true that there is a striking similarity among the accounts of the experiences themselves. in fact, the similarities among various repor

paul says, for example, that whereas the physical body was weak and ugly, the spiritual body will be strong and beautiful. this reminds one of the account of a near-death experience in which the spiritual body seemed whole and complete even when the physical body could be seen to be mutilated, and of another in which the spiritual body seemed to be of no particular age, i.e, not limited by time- plato the philosopher plato, who was one of the greatest thinkers of all time, lived in athens from 428 to 348 b.c. he left us a body of thought in the form of some twenty-two philosophical plays or dialogues, most of which include his teacher socrates as chief interlocutor, and a small number of letters. plato believed strongly in the use of reason, logic, and argument in the attainment of truth

higher" planes of reality. accordingly, he was interested mainly in the incorporeal, conscious component of man-the soul-and saw the physical body only as the temporary vehicle of the soul. it is not surprising, then, that he was interested in the fate of the soul after physical death and that several of his dialogues-especially phaedo, gorgias, and the republic-deal in part with that very topic. plato's writings are full of descriptions of death which are precisely like those which were discussed in the previous chapter. for instance, plato defines death as the separation of the incorporeal part of a living person, the soul, from the physical part, the body. what is more, this incorporeal part of man is subject to many fewer limitations than is the physical part. hence, plato specifically

or instance, plato defines death as the separation of the incorporeal part of a living person, the soul, from the physical part, the body. what is more, this incorporeal part of man is subject to many fewer limitations than is the physical part. hence, plato specifically points out that time is not an element of the realms beyond the physical, sensible world. the other realms are eternal, and, in plato's striking phrase, what we call time is but the "moving, unreal reflection of eternity" plato discusses in various passages how the soul which has been separated from its body may meet and converse with the departed spirits of others and be guided through the transition from physical life to the next realm by guardian spirits. he mentions how some might expect to be met at the time of their

be met at the time of their death by a boat which takes them across a body of water to "the other shore" of their after-death existence. in phaedo both the dramatic setting and the thrust of the arguments and words used drive home the point that the body is the prison of the soul and that, correspondingly, death is like an escape or release from that prison. while, as we saw in the first chapter, plato articulates (through socrates) the ancient view of death as a sleeping and a forgetting, he does so only ultimately to disavow it and, indeed, to turn it around 180. according to plato, the soul comes into the physical body from a higher and more divine realm of being, for him it is birth which is the sleeping and the forgetting, since the soul, in being born into the body, goes from a state

he soul comes into the physical body from a higher and more divine realm of being, for him it is birth which is the sleeping and the forgetting, since the soul, in being born into the body, goes from a state of great awareness to a much less conscious one and in the meantime forgets the truths it knew while in its previous out-of-body state. death, by implication, is an awakening and remembering. plato remarks that the soul that has been separated from the body upon death can think and reason even more clearly than before, and that it can recognize things in their true nature far more readily. furthermore, soon after death it faces a "judgment" in which a divine being displays before the soul all the things-=both good and bad-which it has done in its life and makes the soul face them. in b

MORALS AND DOGMA

. hence the constructive power of such assemblies is generally deficient. the chief triumphs of modern days, in europe, have been in pulling down and obliterating; not in building up. but repeal is not reform. time must bring with him the restorer and rebuilder. speech, also, is grossly abused in republics; and if the use of speech be glorious, its abuse is the most villainous of vices. rhetoric, plato says, is the art of ruling the minds of men. but in democracies it is too common to _hide_ thought in words, to _overlay_ it, to babble nonsense. the gleams and glitter of intellectual soap-and-water bubbles are mistaken for the rainbow-glories of genius. the worthless pyrites is continually mistaken for gold. even intellect condescends to intellectual jugglery, balancing thoughts as a juggl

general rule. the man who endeavors to say something worth remembering in every sentence, becomes fastidious, and condenses like tacitus. the vulgar love a more diffuse stream. the ornamentation that does not cover strength is the gewgaws of babble. neither is dialectic subtlety valuable to public men. the christian faith has it, had it formerly more than now; a subtlety that might have entangled plato, and which has rivalled in a fruitless fashion the mystic lore of jewish rabbis and indian sages. it is not this which converts the heathen. it is a vain task to balance the great thoughts of the earth, like hollow straws, on the finger-tips of disputation. it is not this kind of warfare which makes the cross triumphant in the hearts of the unbelievers; but the actual power that lives in the

re erected on the hypothenuse as in the other two squares together. now the egyptians arranged their deities in _triads; the father or the spirit or active principle or _generative power; the mother, or matter, or the passive principle, or the _conceptive_ power; and the son _issue_ or _product, the universe, proceeding from the two principles. these were osiris, isis, and horus. in the same way, plato gives us _thought_ the _father; primitive _matter_ the _mother; and _kosmos_ the _world, the _son, the universe animated by a soul. triads of the same kind are found in the kabalah. plutarch says, in his book _de iside et osiride "but the better and diviner nature consists of three--that which exists within the intellect only, and matter, and that which proceeds from these, which the greeks

_father; primitive _matter_ the _mother; and _kosmos_ the _world, the _son, the universe animated by a soul. triads of the same kind are found in the kabalah. plutarch says, in his book _de iside et osiride "but the better and diviner nature consists of three--that which exists within the intellect only, and matter, and that which proceeds from these, which the greeks call kosmos; of which three, plato is wont to call the intelligible, the 'idea, exemplar, and father; matter 'the mother, the nurse, and the place and receptacle of generation; and the issue of these two 'the offspring and genesis" the kosmos "a word signifying equally _beauty_ and _order, or the universe itself" you will not fail to notice that beauty is symbolized by the junior warden in the south. plutarch continues to say

ace and receptacle of generation; and the issue of these two 'the offspring and genesis" the kosmos "a word signifying equally _beauty_ and _order, or the universe itself" you will not fail to notice that beauty is symbolized by the junior warden in the south. plutarch continues to say that the egyptians compared the universal nature to what they called the most beautiful and perfect triangle, as plato does, in that nuptial diagram, as it is termed, which he has introduced into his commonwealth. then he adds that this triangle is right-angled, and its sides respectively as 3, 4, and 5; and he says "we must suppose that the perpendicular is designed by them to represent the masculine nature, the base the feminine, and that the hypothenuse is to be looked upon as the offspring of both; and a

e, and rome, it could not but share the greatnesses and decadences of the priesthood and of royalty. every philosophy hostile to the national worship and to its mysteries, was of necessity hostile to the great political powers, which lose their grandeur, if they cease, in the eyes of the multitudes, to be the images of the divine power. every crown is shattered, when it clashes against the tiara. plato, writing to dionysius the younger, in regard to the nature of the first principle, says "i must write to you in enigmas, so that if my letter be intercepted by land or sea, he who shall read it may in no degree comprehend it" and then he says "all things surround their king; they are, on account of him, and he alone is the cause of good things, second for the seconds and third for the thirds

perfect form, the form of forms, the world, the supreme beauty and excellence, the created perfection. 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;

ens, for _them, only the gate of the tomb and of hell. all the true initiates have recognized the usefulness of toil and sorrow "sorrow" says a german poet "is the dog of that unknown shepherd who guides the flock of men" to learn to suffer, to learn to die, is the discipline of eternity, the immortal novitiate. the allegorical picture of cebes, in which the divine comedy of dante was sketched in plato's time, the description whereof has been preserved for us, and which many painters of the middle age have reproduced by this description, is a monument at once philosophical and magical. it is a most complete moral synthesis, and at the same time the most audacious demonstration ever given of the grand arcanum, of that secret whose revelation would overturn earth and heaven. let no one expec

MOTTA MARCELO THE COMMENTARIES OF AL

infinity of ills; jealousy, abortions, diseases, infanticides, frauds, intrigues, quarrels, poverty, prostitution, persecution, idleness, self- indulgence, social stress, over-population, sex-antagonism. they show with poincares's precision that jesus and paul struck at the heart of hell when they proclaimed marriage a scourge, and offered the testimony of john and timothy to support the plea of plato on behalf of paederastic passion. out of the court there slunk mark anthony, his toga to his face, one of the legion of lost souls that woman had withered; behind him groped blind sampson, disinherited adam, feeling his way along the table where they had piled countless papyri writ with woes of kings and sages woman-wrecked, and many a map of towns and temples torn and trampled beneath the f

to another! the idea of creation from nothing of something and the destruction of something to nothing, exploded with the theory of phlogiston. it stands plain, even to sceptical reason--indeed, most of all to the sceptic--that our talisman, one microscopic serpent of which can build for itself such a house as to rule men's bodies for a generation like alexander, or their minds for an epoch like plato, cannot be destroyed or diminished by any conceivable force. when this talisman comes forth from its fortress, its action begins. the ancient jewish rabbins knew this, and taught that before eve was given to adam the demon lilith conceived by the spilth of his dreams, so that the hybrid race of satyrs, elves and the like began to populate the secret places of the earth which are not sensible

NAUDON PAUL THE SECRET HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY

the era when raymond lulle reconciled the jewish kabbalah and christianity; when abelard, saint bernard, saint thomas, roger bacon, and gerson gave new life to the theories of aristotle; when arab works spread throughout the university of paris. it was also the time when marsilio ficino, perceiving the philosophical continuity connecting the systems of zoroaster, hermes, orpheus, pythagoras, and plato, developed them further with the assistance of the kabbalah and christian philosophy. meanwhile his colleague, pico della mirandola was kabbalistically analyzing genesis and declaring that no science proved christ's divinity better than magic. another renaissance scholar, pietro pomponazzi, was denying, in the name of aristotle, the immortality of the soul, or the immortality of consciousnes

e medicis nor an initiatory one. but it was still novel for its time. the philosophy ficino taught there would leave a significant mark on the next generation, influencing cornelius agrippa, thomas more, and 242 from the art of building to the art of thinking rabelais. it was ficino's contribution to develop a syncretic philosophy inspired by the systems of zoroaster, hermes, orpheus, pythagoras, plato, the kabbalah, and christian philosophy. he wrote: god appeared in eternity, creating or rather luminously emanating from the center of the circumference, which radiates outward from being and good to nothingness and evil. as men, who are intelligences, finite lights within the abode of time and movement, we aspire toward that motionless light for which we are its mobile emanantions. death

rs, who came from all points on the horizon, brought with him his own pertinent opinion. the resulting understanding generally agreed upon was that freemasonry was the "original religion" handed down from such diverse sources as king arthur, richard i, ramon lulle, the gnostics and the school of alexandria, the templars (as instructed by judas of galilee, disciple of the hermit banon, pythagoras, plato, jesus christ and the apostles, the persian philosopher each-ben-mohammed- eleansi, ormus, the egyptians, the benedictines, the rosicrucians, zoroaster, abbaris, channondas, eudoxus, hermippis, hermes trismegistus, porphyrus, plotinus, proclus, jamblique, the priesthood schools of india, the gauls, the hebrews, the essenes, and the persian magi.22 the temple of solomon had been transformed i

ONYX TABLET OF SET

my friend and teacher james lewis is fond of rightly condemning as "mysticism" 2. intellectual commitment. the initiate must view initiation as a lifetime pursuit. in the time of our ancestors' ancestors we had schools that were deeply connected with the culture, both on a linguistic and material culture basis, that taught sovereignty. some of these were closed to certain bloodlines, others like plato's academy were open to persons of merit. we do not exist in a small unified coherent culture. one school- even the temple- will not provide you with all of your needs. now we do the job perfectly for the teaching of magic and philosophy, but the adept-to-be should be looking for other things that significantly deepen their personhood. some of these might better colleges, field work in the sc

ted humanity in contempt. any and every form of life has its own right to exist as nature may provide, and each species- such as humanity- must have a collective respect for its own kind if it is to prosper. setians of all degrees must not only tolerate non-setians; they must appreciate and respect the needs and capacities which fit some for initiation and not others. this is most closely akin to plato's "stratification of the soul" in the republic, in which he illustrated the point by dividing an artificial society into various specializations of its citizenry. such is the degeneration of modern social culture that such specializations are now thrust into pecking-orders of prestige. if the initiate of the priesthood is to be successful in relations with non-initiated society, such prejudi

hat over the years some priests and priestesses have done so with a variety of motives. some could not stand the strain of maintaining such an exalted state of being- for it is a strain to do so. some, while able to sustain the priesthood, found that in the final analysis they preferred a lesser intensity of existence- either as a non-ordained adept or even as a non-initiated human again. here is plato's "stratification of the soul" asserting itself. if such alignments are undertaken honestly and methodically, there must be no stigma attached to them whatever. disrepute and dishonor lie rather in clinging to the trappings of an exalted state of being when one's soul is no longer governed by the principles characteristic of that state. initiatory degree relationships the essential dignity o

mber 30, 1997 ce revision: html revision: september 28, 1999 ce path. now what i am about to say is true for setians of all grades, but very true for the iii. the setian system has a great deal of play built into it. the setian ideal is that as you go from action to action you gain the essential part of the experience. so on monday you gain something by going to the dentist, on tuesday by reading plato, on wednesday by doing a ritual, and on thursday by playing miniature golf with your spouse. sounds easy. wrong. because without a deep, deep commitment to your goals, each of these actions merely pulls you in another direction. the watchword of the iii is "focus" here are a few helpful questions to ask yourself, from time to time- but this is only a start- you have to develop the method tha

PROMETHEUS

g-place of zeus, and moreover the guards of zeus were terrible: but he entered unobserved the building shared by athene and hephaistos for the pursuit of their arts, and stealing hephaistos's fiery art and all athene's also he gave them to man, and hence it is that man gets facility for his livelihood, but prometheus, through epimetheus' fault, later on (the story goes) stood his trial for theft -plato protagoras 320c-322a "and asia [was named] after the wife of prometheus; yet the lydians claim a share in the latter name, saying that asia was not named after prometheus' wife asia -herodotus the histories 4.45.3 and zeus, when prometheus had taken fire and given it to men, put him in chains and set an eagle at his side which devoured his liver. but when herakles saw him suffering such puni

REGARDIE ISRAEL THE COMPLETE GOLDEN DAWN

; and air hot and moist; and so in this manner, the elements, according to two contrary qualities are opposite one to the other, as fire to water, and earth to air''likewise the elements are contrary one to the other on another account. two are heavy, as earth and water; and the others are light, as <244> fire and air. therefore the stoics called the former 'passives' but the latter 'actives' and plato distinguishes them after another manner, and assigns to each of them three qualities, viz: to the fire brightness, thinness and motion. to the earth, darkness, thickness, and quietness. and according to these qualities the elements of fire and earth are contrary. now 612 the golden dawn: volume n book eight the other elements borrow their qualities from these, so that the air receives two qu

RITUALS OF THE SOCIETAS ROSICRUCIANIS IN ANGLIA

gion, whose knowledge of the soul and all thereto pertaining is great; but as to these confreres,they can but say to you 'if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never findrituals of the societas rosicrucianis in angliasecond section48 it without thee'.apart from theosophy and divinity, as rosicrucians we discuss at our leisure moments, that occultphilosophy, adopted by plato, from the more ancient mysteries, and which consisted of threeprincipal parts. first the proceeding from the doctrine of the "soul of the world. second, thatderived from the consideration of numbers, letters and sacred words; and, third that resulting from apure and holy life, and these all summed up in one great system of esoteric ethereal truth. the soulof the world is a difficult matter t

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

it or perish, as we shall prove later on; yet she does not recognize the less that her mysterious founder was saluted in his cradle by three magi that is to say, by the hieratic ambassadors of the three parts of the known world and the three analogical worlds of occult philosophy. in the school of alexandria, magic and christianity almost joined hands under the auspices of ammonius saccas and of plato; the doctrine of hermes is found almost in its entirety in the writings attributed to dionysius the areopagite; synesius outlined the plan of a treatise on dreams, which was annotated subsequently by cardan, and composed hymns that might have served for the liturgy of the church of swedenborg, could a church of the illuminated possess a liturgy. with this period of fiery abstractions and imp

eat universal mystery. how is the tetrad changed into the duad and explained by the triad? in more common but more emblematic terms, what is that animal which in the morning has four feet, two at noon, and three in the evening? introduction 9 philosophically speaking, how does the doctrine of elementary forces produce the dualism of zoroaster, while it is summarized by the triad of pythagoras and plato? what is the ultimate reason of allegories and numbers, the final message of all symbolisms? oedipus replies with a simple and terrible word which destroys the sphinx and makes the diviner king of thebes: the answer to the enigma is man. unfortunate! he has seen too much, and yet through a clouded glass. a little while and he will expiate his ominous and imperfect clairvoyance by a voluntary

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

, the multiplicity of symbols has been a book of poesy indispensable to the education of human genius. the harmony of outward beauties and the poetry of form must reveal god to the infancy of man; but soon venus had psyche for her rival and psyche enchanted love. it came about therefore that the cultus of form yielded perforce to those ambitious dreams which adorned already the eloquent wisdom of plato. thus was the advent of christ prepared and was therefore also expected; it arrived because the world awaited it; and to become popular, philosophy transformed into belief. emancipated by belief itself, the human mind protested speedily against the school which sought to materialize its signs and the work of roman catholicism was solely an undesigned provision for the emancipation of conscie

on a throne and having a flaming torch between the horns. but the adorers of this sign do not consider, as do we, that it is a representation of the devil: on the contrary, for them it is that of the god pan, the god of our modern schools of philosophy, the god of the alexandrian theurgic school and of our own mystical neo-platonists, the god of lamartine and victor cousin, the god of spinoza and plato, the god of the primitive gnostic schools; the christ also of the dissident priesthood. this last qualification, ascribed to the goat of black magic, will not astonish students of religious antiquities who are acquainted with the phases of symbolism and doctrine in their various transformations, whether in india, egypt or judea. the bull, the dog and the goat are the three symbolical animals

ROBERT KIRK WALKER BETWEEN WORLDS

connected to it, one of which seems to be for acquiring the sight permanently (pages 32-33) and another for a temporary experience of it (page 33. he also makes some comments upon the nature of light, and a higher order or octave of light connected to seership (pages 34-35. this octave theory is a perennial concept, with parallels in a number of magical and philosophical texts from ancient egypt, plato and the neoplatonic writers, and kabbalistic and renaissance hermetic philosophers. we may also find it in a number of sources such as john dee's hieroglyphic monad and other writings, and in the preface and centuries of nostradamus, neither of which has, at first glance, any overt connection with collective or racial or folklore traditions, though the connections are present upon a deeper l

ey throw great stones, pieces of earth, and wood, at the inhabitants, they hurt them not at all [just] as if they acted not maliciously like devils, but in sport like buffoons and drolls. all ages have offered some obscure testimonies of it [that is, the existence of otherworldly beings] such as pythagoras' doctrine of transmigration; socrates' daemone that gave him precautions of future dangers; plato's classing them into various vehiculated species of spirits; dionysius areopagita's marshalling [of] nine orders of spirits [from] superior [to] subordinate; the [classical] poets [in] their borrowing from the philosophers, and adding their own fancies of fountain, river, and sea nymphs, wood, hill and mountain inhabitants, and worldwide copyright 1990, 1998-2001 ,rjstewart, all rights and p

at its simplest level the three worlds are the sky-world, the land-world, and the under-world. the three worlds relate to the concepts of stars and planets and the four elements as shown in figure 4, and though there are several variations upon the patterns, the basic conceptual model underpins ancient magical and metaphysical thought from the simplest models to the more refined, such as those of plato or of the jewish or hermetic neoplatonic kabbalah. page 23 some men of that exalted sight. have seen. a double- man. that is, a superterranean and a subterranean inhabitant perfectly resembling one another in all points, whom [the seer] could. distinguish one from the other. this is kirk's first mention of the double, reflex man or co-walker, a subject which he discusses in several places. a

confused with gaseous air, but is used repeatedly by kirk to define the lightest and most mobile of materialized energies. thus air and bodies of air are really the highest octave of matter, so light, subtle and changeable that it may not be seen without special visual faculties. following the biblical citations, we find the classical sources of authority for kirk's thesis: pythagoras, socrates, plato, dionysus areopagita, and the poets. and if we doubt kirk's learning at all after this array of evidence, he cites dr. moore, and cornelius agrippa. agrippa (1486-1535) is perhaps the most curious reference in the list, for he was notorious as a magician. possibly kirk is referring to agrippa's de occulta philosophia, published in 1531. commentary 115 various examples concerning the protecti

RUBY TABLET OF SET

he panpsychism of thales (ca. 640-546) of the agean island of miletus, who had been schooled in egypt. panpsychism teaches that every living substance has an immortal psyche or soul, which transmigrates into other life forms. in later greek hellenic thought, materialism was to lead into the sophism of protagoras, while panpsychism was to continue into pythagoreanism and then into the doctrines of plato and aristotle [panpsychism was a crucial component of orphism, the cult of dionysus, which emphasized the division of the human being into psychic and material components] pythagoras (569-470 bce) was born and lived his early years on samos, which was exposed to the "barbaric" east as well as to the greek west. initiated into the egyptian priesthood of hathor, he remained in egypt over ten y

(further representing fire, earth, air, water, and ether "6" is the first perfect number (its products adding to 6, and like "5" is circular in that its powers always produce numbers ending in itself "7" is the only prime number in the decad which cannot generate another number in the decad "8" symbolizes the cube, and "9" is important as the highest number before the series is repeated. most of plato's comments concerning panpsychism, numbers, mathematics, and geometry are echoes, simplifications, and corruptions of pythagoras' earlier ideas on these subjects. the philosophy of plato fourth-century-bce("golden age) athens was strongly rational and humanistic. the human mind and body were admired and exalted. the debate between the pythagoreans/platonists and the materialists/sophists cen

sts and the materialists/sophists centered on whether there were more to man. and more to the cosmic order. than matter and behavior. in the realm of art, the greeks admired perfection of the body. their statues are almost always of idealized figures and physiques [contrast this with roman sculpture, which was more realistic in its portrayal of actual, rather than ideal features] the cosmology of plato (387-347 bce) centers on his famous "theory of the forms" in which the gods are defined as in egypt, save that they are not directly concerned with human affairs, but rather with the forms or first principles which are the ordering mechanisms of the universe and everything in it [including humankind. plato conceives the universe as a highly complex, logically intelligible machine which may b

uman affairs, but rather with the forms or first principles which are the ordering mechanisms of the universe and everything in it [including humankind. plato conceives the universe as a highly complex, logically intelligible machine which may be understood through philosophy (which is reserved to elite, higher intellects. there is no life after death, but transmigration of the psyche does occur. plato [in the laws] defends belief in the gods because of (1) the doctrine of the immortal psyche, and (2) the evident order in the universe. plato's philosophy concerning immortality can be found in the phaedo, specifically discussions of the recollective basis of knowledge and the cyclical theory of immortality. plato was an adherent of teleology. this is the doctrine that final causes of phenom

uses of phenomena exist. further that purpose and design are a part of or are apparent in nature. further that phenomena are not only guided by mechanical forces, but also move towards certain goals of selfrealization [the opposite of teleology is mechanism, which describes phenomena in terms of prior causes instead of their presumed destination or fulfillment. modern science is thus mechanistic] plato [through the character of socrates in his dialogues] considered the soul or psyche as the repository of the entire personality or character. one should not attempt to purify the psyche by rituals or restrictions, but rather to develop it through exercise of its faculties. the state is the psyche magnified, hence the republic is most accurately seen as a prescription for the psyche magnified

philosophy reading list #5 #12 #16 maximization of individual desires while avoiding suffering at others' hands. socrates indirectly refutes this by prescribing the ideal state. the "republic" hence socrates answers thrasymachus and glaucon by arguing that it is more natural for a man to be just rather than unjust if his soul is healthy and each part is doing its proper work. it was important to plato that virtue be raised to a level of rationality. it was not enough for people to be unconsciously or instinctively virtuous; they must "taste of the knowledge of good and evil" and then knowingly choose the good. plato stratified thought as eikasia (primitive emotion, pistis (ordinary active/reactive thinking, dianoia (precise, logical, enlightened thought, and noesis (intuition and apprehen

ianoia (precise, logical, enlightened thought, and noesis (intuition and apprehension of the agathon. he offered the famous "parable of the cave" whereby philosophers (who have seen the agathon of perfect wisdom) lead mankind into the light by means of the dialectic [here "dialectic" means teaching or rather the encouraging of selfteaching through examination and refutation of imperfect concepts] plato was an elitist, but his elitism was directed towards an ideal, happy, and harmonious society, which he felt could best be attained by enlightened stratification of roles. his prescription was thus benevolent aristocracy. critics of plato erroneously attack him as a totalitarian oligarch. they are also bewildered by the "mysticism" which permeates his writings. such "mysticism" is intelligibl

py, and harmonious society, which he felt could best be attained by enlightened stratification of roles. his prescription was thus benevolent aristocracy. critics of plato erroneously attack him as a totalitarian oligarch. they are also bewildered by the "mysticism" which permeates his writings. such "mysticism" is intelligible to those familiar with egyptian and pythagorean concepts. in the laws plato argues that the wise man must be subjected to laws which are not as competent as he is in order that unwise men will continue to trust him, because otherwise they cannot understand him. virtue in the laws is the proper posture towards pleasure and pain reached by reason. lf the reasoning is adopted by the city, the result is law. the rule of laws is an imitation of divine rule. hence honor m

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

est by his latinized name, confucius. xi c. 540 c. 470 bce life span of mahavira, considered the main founder of jainism. 539 bce mesopotamian religion ends when babylonia accepts cyrus of persia as king. 515 bce the second jewish temple is built in jerusalem. 483 bce death of the buddha. c. 470 399 bce life span of the greek philosopher socrates. c. 428 348 bce life span of the greek philosopher plato. 384 322 bce life span of the greek philosopher aristotle. c. third century bce period in which the major text of daoism, the dao de jing, is likely written. c. 273 c. 232 bce the emperor ashoka of maurya, in present-day india, begins to spread buddhism beyond the borders of india. c. 6 bce jesus of nazareth, also known as jesus christ, is born. c. 30 ce jesus christ is put to death by cruci

cessed on june 5, 2006. world religions: almanac 35 agnosticism and atheism atheism web. http//www.infidels.org/news/atheism/overview.html (accessed on june 5, 2006. secular/nonreligious/atheist/agnostic. major religions ranked by size. http/ www.adherents.com/religions_by_adherents.html (accessed on june 5, 2006. smart, j. j. c. atheism and agnosticism. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism (accessed on june 5, 2006. 36 world religions: almanac agnosticism and atheism 3 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia organized religion had its beginnings in ancient mesopotamia (in what is now modern iraq) and in egypt more than five thousand years ago. the religious systems in these areas blended political with spiritual elements in a type of

n. new york: vintage books, 1989. miller, james. daoism: a short introduction. oxford, england: oneworld publications, 2003. oldstone-moore, jennifer. taoism: origins, beliefs, practices, holy texts, sacred places. new york: oxford university press, 2003. smith, huston. the religions of man. new york: perennial library, 1989. web sites chan, alan. laozi. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. http//plato.stanford.edu/ entries/laozi (accessed on june 5, 2006. hansen, chad. taoism. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. http//plato.stanford. edu/entries/taoism (accessed on june 5, 2006. taoism. overview of world religions project. http//philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/ taoism/index.html (accessed on june 5, 2006. taoism (a.k.a. daoism. religious tolerance.com. http//www.religioustolerance. org/t

s about nature and existence. as the religion declined in popularity, more people turned to philosophy for answers. name of god. logos, or reason and defining pattern, was used by several greek philosophers to denote the way matter and all life is organized. logos was not, however, considered a god, but a concept or ideal. symbols. there is no symbol that represents greco-roman philosophy. texts. plato s the republic is the most influential single text from greco- roman philosophy. sites. athens, greece, is often viewed as the seat of greek learning. phrases. know thyself might be considered the most important phrase of greco-roman philosophy. 214 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy empedocles and the four elements an attempt at compromise was proposed by empedocle

pective, became a cornerstone in western education. atomists such as democritus believed that all matter was made up of small, indivisible, and indestructible particles. science later proved that atoms were essential elements of matter, but they could be further divided. photo researchers, inc. reproduced by permission. world religions: almanac 215 greco-roman religion and philosophy socrates and plato with socrates (469 399 bce, greek philosophy entered a new period. the sophists had already shifted discussions away from the substance of nature, or natural science, to the realm of morality and society. morality is a system of acceptable human behavior. socrates deepened and expanded the trend. he dismissed the material and physical theories of earlier thinkers to focus on the thoughts and

ismissed the material and physical theories of earlier thinkers to focus on the thoughts and opinions of individuals. this led him to inquire into the nature of such virtues as courage, justice, and morality. he developed an ethical system of behavior rather than attempting to explain origins or the afterlife. socrates wrote nothing down, and what is known of him comes from his pupils, especially plato (428 348 bce. socrates is understood to have lived by the principles that he created. he famously stated that he knew nothing but the fact that he knew nothing. for him, questions of metaphysics were unimportant (metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with explanations about what brought the world into being, and the nature of space, time, god, and the afterlife) he believed that

atic method called the dialectic, or finding the truth through questioning and considering opposing beliefs and then modifying one s own beliefs. socrates was brought to trial and executed in 399 bce on the charges of disbelieving in the gods and corrupting the young people of athens through his teachings. the teachings of socrates gave rise to many schools. perhaps his most important student was plato, whose teachings and writings, such as the republic, have been among the most influential in western philosophy. plato s writings consist primarily of dialogues, or conversations, usually with socrates as one of the speakers. plato wrote about moral virtue, how to lead a good life, and the nature of knowledge. he also wrote about the immortality of the soul. in fact, plato was the first of t

n philosophy. plato s writings consist primarily of dialogues, or conversations, usually with socrates as one of the speakers. plato wrote about moral virtue, how to lead a good life, and the nature of knowledge. he also wrote about the immortality of the soul. in fact, plato was the first of the greek philosophers to offer an extensive argument concluding that the soul was immortal. in many ways plato blended much of the work that had come before. his conception was that humans wanted to become one with the bigger and eternal world of the idea and the ideal, of which the waking world was only a shadow. 216 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy aristotle (384 322 bce) was a student at plato s school, the academy. aristotle later opened his own school, the lyceum, and

SET IT STRAIGHT

nother vantage point, any noetic experiences of yours will probably remain on the level of belief and imagination (mystical nonsense) unless you have trained yourself in sound reasoning also. moreover, you will not be able to communicate the experience intelligently without sufficient mastery of the domain of reason (and language. this in turn again depends on your properly 'arranging' your soul (plato's allegory of the state in which all parts do their proper job- the belly and heart subservient to the head; ouspensky's ideas about developing a 'deputy steward, and so on. i think a most commendable way to approach set [if the reasoning for the necessity of the influence of set in crystal tablet makes sense to you in the first place] is simply to get on with xeper. in due time you will mos

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON ZANONI A ROSICRUCIAN TALE

t his advice upon a work of imagination, intended to depict the effects of enthusiasm upon different modifications of character. he listened to my conception, which was sufficiently trite and prosaic, with his usual patience; and then, thoughtfully turning to his bookshelves, took down an old volume, and read to me, first, in greek, and secondly, in english, some extracts to the following effect "plato here expresses four kinds of mania, by which i desire to understand enthusiasm and the inspiration of the gods: firstly, the musical; secondly, the telestic or mystic; thirdly, the prophetic; and fourthly, that which belongs to love" the author he quoted, after contending that there is something in the soul above intellect, and stating that there are in our nature distinct energies, by the o

cover and seize, as it were, on sciences and theorems with almost intuitive rapidity, by another, through which high art is accomplished, like the statues of phidias, proceeded to state that "enthusiasm, in the true acceptation of the word, is, when that part of the soul which is above intellect is excited to the gods, and thence derives its inspiration" the author, then pursuing his comment upon plato, observes, that "one of these manias may suffice (especially that which belongs to love) to lead back the soul to its first divinity and happiness; but that there is an intimate union with them all; and that the ordinary progress through which the soul ascends is, primarily, through the musical; next, through the telestic or mystic; thirdly, through the prophetic; and lastly, through the ent

universe. this abode, for the first time since thus occupied, a visitor enters. it is zanoni. you observe those two men seated together, conversing earnestly. years long and many have flown away since they met last, at least, bodily, and face to face. but if they are sages, thought can meet thought, and spirit spirit, though oceans divide the forms. death itself divides not the wise. thou meetest plato when thine eyes moisten over the phaedo. may homer live with all men forever! they converse; they confess to each other; they conjure up the past, and repeople it; but note how differently do such remembrances affect the two. on zanoni's face, despite its habitual calm, the emotions change and go. he has acted in the past he surveys; but not a trace of the humanity that participates in joy a

you, equally with me, detest the barbarity of kings and the fraud of priests "detest! how could i love mankind if i did not "and" said the old man, hesitatingly "you do not think, with this noble gentleman, that i erred in the precepts i instilled into that wretched man "erred! was socrates to blame if alcibiades was an adulterer and a traitor "you hear him, you hear him! but socrates had also a plato; henceforth you shall be a plato to me. you hear him" exclaimed the old man, turning to the stranger. but the latter was at the threshold. who shall argue with the most stubborn of all bigotries, the fanaticism of unbelief "are you going" exclaimed dumas "and before i have thanked you, blessed you, for the life of this dear and venerable man? oh, if ever i can repay you, if ever you want the

blood of rene dumas" thus volubly delivering himself, he followed the stranger to the threshold of the second chamber, and there, gently detaining him, and after looking over his shoulder, to be sure that he was not heard by the owner, he whispered "i ought to return to nancy. one would not lose one's time, you don't think, sir, that that scoundrel took away all the old fool's money "was it thus plato spoke of socrates, monsieur dumas "ha, ha! you are caustic. well, you have a right. sir, we shall meet again "again" muttered the stranger, and his brow darkened. he hastened to his chamber; he passed the day and the night alone, and in studies, no matter of what nature, they served to increase his gloom. what could ever connect his fate with rene dumas, or the fugitive assassin? why did the

STEINER RUDOLF CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT

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 approach. later, especially in his lectures, he was to extend his treatment into the details of the gospels and the apocalypse, only touched on here. his ev

tion would be quite valueless from the standpoint of the mysteries. from the mystery- standpoint the eternal has no living presence in one who is not a mystes, so when speaking of the eternal such a person would speak of precisely nothing. rather it is the eternal itself that the mystai seek to possess; they have first to awaken the eternal to existence within them, and then they can speak of it. plato s hard saying is absolutely true for them, that the uninitiated sink into the mire, and only those who have passed through the mysteries enter into eternity.8 that is the meaning too of sophocles fragment: thrice blessed when they come to the realm of shades who have seen these rites! they alone have life, for the rest there is only pain and toil.9 that is why to speak of the mysteries is at

f. chapter 2 the mysteries and pre-socratic philosophy heraclitus of ephesus a whole range of considerations leads us to the conclusion that the ideas of the greek philosophers depended upon the same way of thinking as the knowledge of the mystai.20 the great philosophers only become comprehensible when we approach them with feelings gained in the study of the mysteries. with what veneration does plato speak of the secret teachings in the phaedo: perhaps these people who direct the religious initiations are close to the mark, and all the time there has been an allegorical meaning beneath their doctrine that he who enters the next world uninitiated and unenlightened shall lie in the mire, but he who arrives there purified and enlightened shall dwell among the gods. you know how the initiati

omes a real possibility. forces that would not unfold under purely natural conditions of life must certainly be present in human beings, and if they remain untapped their life will pass away unfructified. it was the role of the mysteries, as it was the task set for themselves by the greek philosophers, to release those forces and thereby to make humanity akin to the divine. thus we can understand plato s assertion that those who enter the next world uninitiated and unenlightened shall lie in the mire, but those who arrive there purified and enlightened shall dwell among the gods. there is a concept of immortality here whose meaning lies within the cosmic order; everything whereby one strives to rouse the eternal to life within oneself is done to increase the existential value of the world

the members to such an experience. their education was thus a philosophical initiation; the pythagoreans could well say that in their mode of life they were striving for a goal similar to that of the mystery cults. chapter 3 platonic mysteries the mystery of immortality the significance of the mysteries for the intellectual life of the ancient greeks can be appreciated when we examine the case of plato s idea of the world. there is in fact only one way of making plato fully intelligible, and that is to place him in the light that streams from the mysteries. according to his later followers, the neoplatonists, he taught an esoteric doctrine to those he admitted as worthy to receive it, and placed them under a seal of secrecy. his teaching was regarded as secret in the same way that mysterio

s to place him in the light that streams from the mysteries. according to his later followers, the neoplatonists, he taught an esoteric doctrine to those he admitted as worthy to receive it, and placed them under a seal of secrecy. his teaching was regarded as secret in the same way that mysteriosophy was secret.44 for our purposes it matters little whether or not the seventh letter attributed to plato is genuine; it has been disputed he, or someone else, expressed in the letter the essentials of plato s attitude to the world. take the following passage from the letter: but this much at any rate i can affirm about any present or future writers who pretend to knowledge of the matters with which i concern myself, whether they claim to have been taught by me or by a third party or to have dis

ommon life devoted to this very thing does truth flash upon the soul like a flame kindled by a leaping spark, and once it is born there it nourishes itself thereafter.45 the words might be taken to signify merely the inadequacy of verbal expression, a personal failing on the part of the writer, if we did not detect in them a mystery-sense. something that cannot and never will be put into words by plato must refer to a matter about which all writing would be futile. it must mean a feeling, a sense of experience that cannot readily be communicated, but can be gained only by long partnership in a common life. this indicates a special process of education given by plato to the elect, who caught the fire that flashed from his words, whereas others received only ideas. interpreting plato s dialo

rship in a common life. this indicates a special process of education given by plato to the elect, who caught the fire that flashed from his words, whereas others received only ideas. interpreting plato s dialogues depends very much on the manner of approach we adopt. everyone, according to his or her spiritual condition, will find in them either more or less significance. what took place between plato and his pupils was much more than the imparting of the words in their literal meaning. studying with him meant living in the atmosphere of a mystery. the words possessed overtones and resonances that could only be heard, however, in the atmosphere of the mystery; outside it, they died away unheard. 42 christianity as mystical fact the personality who stands at the center of the world we enco

SYMBOLISM

ence that is evoked through a willed perception that extends beyond the actual set of tables that a person may have ever experienced. 1569 ouspenski claims that at a certain state of consciousness the aware individual can see this deeper meaning or essence, and that this deeper meaning or essence can be commonly perceived by all who reach this level of consciousness. similar ideas were offered by plato, and the concept of platonic forms is very prevalent throughout the setian use of symbolism. we often speak of the egyp tian neters as being forms, the original or specific essence of an ideal. this is certainly an area that needs deeper investigation. the workshop session discussion however left the topic of abstract forms, and instead investigated the historic use of symbols in various cul

TECHNICIANS GUIDE TO THE LEFT HAND PATH

ents if it is to be enacted. through the utilization of the process i have just described you can reach the limits of what is known to you and begin to project- based upon that known- into the unknown. this personal projection will have a very different form than what is possible through the undeveloped constructs that are, and never were your own in the first place. compare this idea to those of plato regarding dianoia and noesis, you will find that they are similar. divine inspiration can only result from the use of the truly divine gift- the full use of the intellectual faculties- it cannot, and never has occurred as the result of the sublimation of consciousness. when you begin to disperse, and rid yourself of ideas that are not your own, and then replacing them with what you do know

nd micro-cosmic function and form of the antinomian character. this concept was first developed through a description of antinomianism on a microcosmic level, and then further developed as a formulaic convention upon a macrocosmic level. the purpose of revealing that the polaric constituents of the antinomian environment, and its movement of activity and ideas- the lhp- was to reveal them as what plato would call a first form. secondary to this, the purpose was also to demonstrate the hierarchy of lhp spiritual relevance, from the infinitely large, to the intimate and personal. we must now begin to apply this antinomian character to our immediate realms of conscious perception. the instantaneous and synchronous environment within, and from without of ourselves. the previous lessons of pola

TEXE MARRS CODEX MAGICA SECRET SIGNS MYSTERIOUS SYMBOLS AND HIDDEN CODES OF THE ILLUMINATI

ophy and the "secret doctrine" 90 m codex magica for he's a jolly good fellow 91 interesting political cartoon in new jersey's star-ledger newspaper following the 9/11 world trade center attack, sent to the author by a friend. ever wondered why "uncle sam" wears the satanic goatee beard? johannes kepler (1571-1630, a german astronomer and mathematician who taught the numerological philosophies of plato and pythagoras that were adopted by the illuminati (from the book, sacred architecture, by a.t. mann, element books, 1993) 92 codex magica russian president boris yeltsin was known to be a dupe of jewish illuminati interests. following the fall of the iron curtain, these illuminati jews carved up russia, seizing every asset of value and leaving the everyday soviet citizenry in desperate econ

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on the road to damascus. he discovered it to be a challenge to convince others in the belief in the physical resurrection of the dead when he preached in athens. although the assembled athenians listened politely to his message of a new faith, they mocked him and walked away when he began to speak of dead bodies standing up and being reborn. to these cultured men and women who had been exposed to plato s philosophy that the material body was but a fleshly prison from which the soul was freed by death, the very notion of resurrecting decaying bodies was repugnant. paul refused to acknowledge defeat. because he had been educated as a greek, he set about achieving a compromise between the resurrection theology being taught by his fellow apostles and the platonic view of the soul so widely acc

dy was but a fleshly prison from which the soul was freed by death, the very notion of resurrecting decaying bodies was repugnant. paul refused to acknowledge defeat. because he had been educated as a greek, he set about achieving a compromise between the resurrection theology being taught by his fellow apostles and the platonic view of the soul so widely accepted in greek society. paul knew that plato had viewed the soul as composed of three constituents: the nous (the rational soul, is immortal and incarnated in a physical body; the thumos (passion, heart, spirit; and epithumetikos (desire. after many hardships, imprisonments, and public humiliation, paul worked out a theology that envisioned human nature as composed of three essential elements the physical body; the psyche, the life-pri

ome students of theology, paul and his fellow first-century christian missionaries taught that while the immortal soul within was the most essential aspect of a person s existence, in order for a proper afterlife, one day there would be a judgment and the righteous would be rewarded with reconstituted bodies. the early church fathers began more and more to shape christian doctrines that reflected plato s metaphysical philosophy, but they remained greatly divided over the particular nature of the immortal soul. the platonists saw the soul as supraindividual and remaining within the universal cosmic soul after its final ascent to oneness with the divine. the christian philosophers could not be shaken from their position that each soul was created by god to be immortal and individual, irrevoc

s really doing penance for previous incarnations, a process which gradually purifies the soul. between lifetimes, when the soul descends to hades, it can enjoy a brief period of freedom that can be pleasant or unpleasant. then it must return to the cycle of births and deaths. how many lifespans must the soul endure before the process of purification is completed and its final release is obtained? plato (c. 428 348 b.c.e) envisioned three periods of a thousand years each as a possible answer. according to orphic teachings, the only way out of the wheel of birth, the great circle of necessity, was through an act of divine grace that could possibly be obtained by the supplicant becoming immersed in the writing, ritual acts, and teachings of orpheus and receiving initiation into the mysteries

a i n e d 40 afterlife mysteries gill, sam d, and irene f. sullivan. dictionary of native american mythology. new york: oxford university press, 1992. how the major religions view reincarnation reincarnation, the belief that the soul of a man or woman who has died will later be born again into another physical body, is an ancient doctrine, ancient even at the time of the greek and roman empires. plato (c. 428 348 b.c.e) alludes to reincarnation in many of his essays, and he seems to be speaking of the law of karma, the spiritual balance of cause and effect, in book x of laws when he says: know that if you become worse, you will go to the worst souls, or if better, to the better; and in every succession of life and death you will do and suffer what life may fitly suffer at the hands of lif

) is an eclectic blend of many earlier philosophies and cult teachings, all of which claim to have been handed down to contemporary seekers of spiritual truth by disciples of ancient wisdom. the theosophical society, cofounded by helena petrovna blavatsky (1831 1891) in new york in 1875, is an esoteric blend of zoroastrianism, hinduism, gnosticism, manichaeism, the kabbalah, and the philosophy of plato (c. 428 b.c.e. c. 348 b.c.e) and other mystics, combined with the teachings of mysterious t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d afterlife mysteries 55 masters who dwell in secret places in the himalayas and communicate with their initiates through their psychic abilities and their projected astral bodies. whereas edgar cayce (1877 1945) and

een ridiculed by scientists and orthodox theologians in the west is because it has never been properly understood. while learned individuals accept the t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d 56 afterlife mysteries thetheosophical society is an esoteric blend of zoroastrianism, hinduism, gnosticism, manichaeism, the kabbalah, and the philosophy of plato. indestructibility of energy, she reasons, how can they believe that man, the living, thinking, reasoning entity, the indwelling deity of our nature s crowning masterpiece, will evacuate his casket and be no more! would the principle of continuity which exists even for the so-called inorganic matter, for a floating atom, be denied to the spirit, whose attributes are consciousness, memory, mi

is really doing penance for previous incarnations, a process that gradually purifies the soul. between lifetimes, when the soul descends to hades, it can enjoy a brief period of freedom that can be pleasant or unpleasant. then it must return to the cycle of births and deaths. how many lifespans must the soul endure before the process of purification is completed and its final release is obtained? plato envisioned three periods of a thousand years each as a possible answer. according to orphic teachings, the only way out of the wheel of birth, the great circle of necessity, was through an act of divine grace that could possibly be obtained by the supplicant becoming immersed in the writing, ritual acts, and teachings of orpheus and receiving initiation into the mysteries of the cult. althou

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housands of people made their pilgrimage to these holy places to seek advice and healing from their dreams. after rigorous periods of fasting, prayer, and sacred ritual, they would attempt to induce revelatory nocturnal visions by spending the night in the temple. this practice was commonly employed by the cultic prophets and the kings of the ancient cities of lagash in sumer and ugarit in syria. plato (c. 428 348 or 347 b.c.e) saw dreams as a release for passionate inner forces. in the second century, another greek, artemidorous of ephesus, produced the oneirocritica, the encyclopedia that was the forerunner to thousands of dream books throughout the ages. in hinduism, it is believed that the immortal soul within the physical body is able to leave the house of flesh during sleep and to tr

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL

suffered since the world began; and as tears are salt, the oceans f waters are salt. salt was used long before the contemporary era, and it was highly valued by those who included it in their diet. salt was probably being traded even in neolithic times. the israelites believed that no meal was complete without a bit of salt to help digest it. homer (9th.8th century b.c.e) called salt divine, and plato (c. 428.348 or 347 b.c.e) described it as a substance valued by the gods. at one time salt was regarded as being almost as valuable as gold, and soldiers, officials, and working people in greece and rome received all or part of their pay in salt. money paid for labor or service was termed gsalarium, h the origin of the word gsalary, h.money paid for services rendered. from this custom of pay

uing that all civilization is an inheritance from atlantis. listing numerous parallels between ancient cultures spaced far away from each other, donnelly argued that their commonness resulted from contact with atlanteans. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d places of mystery and power 219 theidea of atlantis was first expressed in the works of plato. similarities do indeed exist among various ancient cultures, as do significant differences. flood myths and sun worship, for example, might be based on a shared teaching, or they might be separate reactions to beneficient and destructive elements of nature. pyramids were built in egypt and the americas, but they are also significantly different in their structures. the walls of pyramids in

and the megaliths of western europe are among the structures attributed to the genius of atlanteans. according to most accounts, atlantis was suddenly destroyed by a cataclysm of earthquakes and floods and swallowed up by the sea. no definitive remnants have ever been found, and the exact location of the glost continent h remains debatable. the idea of atlantis was first expressed in the works of plato (c. 428.348 or 347 b.c.e, the greek philosopher, who stressed that a perfect world exists in ideas. for example, a shoe, according to plato, exists as an idea before a craftsperson makes the material object identified as a shoe. the material world, then, is a reflection of ideas, never quite reaching the perfection of ideas, but which serve as models for which the adepts might strive. while

ntified as a shoe. the material world, then, is a reflection of ideas, never quite reaching the perfection of ideas, but which serve as models for which the adepts might strive. while plato used the model of atlantis to represent a world of perfect order in contrast to all that was imperfect in the world around him, he labeled the story of atlantis gliterally true h.a significant declaration. for plato was suspicious of fiction and art. if ideas are the primary reality, and the material world is a reflection of ideas, then art, as a reflection of the material world, is twice removed from reality, according to plato. his claim that the atlantis story is literally true helps sustain the continuing legend of atlantis. it remains a legend, or an idea, however, until some material proof shows t

l some material proof shows that atlantis existed in the material world. aristotle (384.322 b.c.e, another of the great greek philosophers, viewed the atlantis legend as fiction. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d 220 places of mystery and power fate magazine and its feature article on atlantis (llewellyn publications/fortean picture library) plato fs writings comprise several letters and 25 dialogues. his views and those of his mentor, socrates (c. 470.399 b.c.e, were presented as dramatic conversations exploring such topics as truth, the origin of the world and its composition, the purpose of humankind, and what an individual should choose as an aim of life. atlantis is discussed in two of plato fs dialogues, timaeus and critias. tim

e presented as dramatic conversations exploring such topics as truth, the origin of the world and its composition, the purpose of humankind, and what an individual should choose as an aim of life. atlantis is discussed in two of plato fs dialogues, timaeus and critias. timaeus provides a description of the island continent and how atlanteans conquered all the known world except for the athenians (plato was an athenian. critias, named after the primary speaker in the dialogue, plato fs great-grandfather, presents a history of atlantean civilization and describes the ideal society that flourished there. critias notes that the stories were originally passed on by an ancestor, solon (638.558 b.c.e, a politician and poet who traveled widely. critias and solon were both ancestors of plato. solon

land, and clever uses of natural t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d places of mystery and power 221 nineteenth-century map of atlantis (fortean picture library) resources provided security and abundance. many groves provided solitude and beauty, racetracks were used for athletic competitions, and irrigation systems ensured great harvests. in plato fs account, the people of atlantis eventually became corrupt and greedy, putting selfish pursuits above the greater good. they began invading other lands with the idea of world domination. angered by these developments, poseidon set about destroying the civilization, battering the continent with earthquakes and floods until atlantis was swallowed up by the ocean. that description of the dest

ing the time identified with the destruction of atlantis. the location of atlantis has been claimed on each of the seven continents, and in several spots in the world fs oceans and seas. additionally, many of the ancient world fs wonders have been attributed to atlanteans who, presumably, escaped the destruction of their homeland and spread their advanced engineering skills elsewhere. the text of plato fs dialogue suggests the atlantic ocean gbeyond the pillars of hercules h as the location of atlantis. as late as the twentieth century, a belief persisted that a landbridge once existed in the ocean and ran between europe and africa and north and south america. such a land-link concept helps explain similarities in flora and fauna existing on continents spread thousands of miles apart. the

THE KEY TO THE MYSTERIES

f the judgment who separates the wicked from the good. civilization transforms men of good will into angels of light, and lowers the selfish man beneath the brute; it is the corruption of bodies and the emancipation of souls. the impious world of the giants raised to heaven the soul of enoch; above the bacchanals of primitive greece rises the harmonious spirit of orpheus. socrates and pythagoras, plato and aristotle, resume, in explaining them, all the aspirations and all the glories of the ancient world; the fables of homer remain truer than history, and nothing remains to us of the grandeur of rome 56 but the immortal writings which the century of augustus brought forth. thus, perhaps, rome only shook the world with the convulsions of war, in order to bring forth vergil. christianity is

e of their reason or, rather, of their individual unreason, have laid hands on dogma, have, in the very act, lost the spirit of charity; they have excommunicated themselves. the catholic, that is to say the universal, dogma merits that magnificent name by harmonizing in one all the religious aspirations of the world; with moses and mohammed, it affirms the unity of god; with zoroaster, hermes and plato, it recognizes in him the infinite trinity of its own regeneration; 78 it reconciles the living numbers of pythagoras with the monadic word of st. john<gospel legend itself is a macedoine of those of bacchus, adonis, osiris, and a hundred others, and that the mass, and christian ceremonies generally, have similarly pa

gma of the qabalah, because he had not the science of the beautiful hypothesis, partly demonstrated and realized more from day to day by the discoveries of science: i refer to "universal analogy" deprived of this key of transcendental dogma, he could see no more of the gods than the sun, the seven planets, and the twelve signs of the zodiac; but he did not see in the sun the image of the logos of plato, in the seven planets the seven notes of the celestial gamut, and in the zodiac the quadrature of the ternary circle of all initiations. 187 the emperor julian, that "adept of the spirit" who was never understood, that initiate whose paganism was less idolatrous than the faith of certain christians, the emperor julian, we say, understood better than dupuis and volney the symbolic worship of

that thou hast called me to this admirable light! thou, the supreme intelligence and the absolute life of those numbers and those forces which obey thee in order to people the infinite with inexhaustible creation! mathematics proves thee, the harmonies of nature proclaim thee, all forms as they pass by salute thee and adore thee! abraham knew thee, hermes divined thee, pythagoras calculated thee, plato, in every dream of his genius, aspired to 289 thee; but only one initiate, only one sage has revealed thee to the children of earth, one alone could say of thee "i and my father are one" glory then be his, since all his glory is thine! thou knowest, o my father, that he who writes these lines has struggled much and suffered much; he has endured poverty, calumny, proscription, prison, the for

THE MAGICIAN S KABBALAH

is core idea, the human being is then seen as a fragmented reflection of this source, to which it can attain by contemplation and transcendence of the less real. as plotinus and aristotle both perceived it, this contemplation of its own virtue formed a self-similar image which could then, albeit being imperfect, draw vitality from the real and generate more accurate reflections of that source. as plato has it in "timaeus (timaeus, 37 c-d "when the father who had engendered it [the universe] saw it in motion and alive, a shrine brought into being for the everlasting gods, he rejoiced and, being well pleased, he conceived the idea of making it more like its model. accordingly, as that model is the ever-existent living being, he set about making the universe also like it, as far as possible

THE ROSICRUCIAN MANIFESTOS

ought not much to be doubted of, or contradicted by other opinions, or meanings; but seeing the truth is peaceable, brief, and always like herself in all things, and especially accorded by with jesus in omni parte and all members. and as he is the true image of the father, so is she his image; it shall not be said, this is true according to philosophy, but true according to theologie; and wherein plato, aristotle, pythagoras and others did hit the mark, and wherein enoch, abraham, moses, solomon did excel; but especially wherewith that wonderful book the bible agreeth. all that same concurreth together, and make a sphere or globe, whose total parts are equidistant from the center, as hereof more at large and more plain shal be spoken of in christianly conference. but now concerning (and ch

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

or space or various state (ask chemists else) so i must claim spirit and matter are the same or else the prey of putrefaction *sword of song, pentecost, vol. ii, p. 170. and we intend to take it as such, otherwise, like mysticus, we, if we enter the vortex of subjectivity and objectivity, gshall be tossed about as the world this 2,500 years. h *time, vol. ii, p. 268. idealism in the philosophy of plato idealism took the shape of a strictly formal characteristic, there was nothing in itself, as kant might have explained it, an idea however dating back long before either plato or kant, and to be first found in any degree of maturity in the upanishads of post-vedic india. form was reality, and nothing else, it was the sole and only essence. from such metaphysics rose numerous modified forms w

e 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 and mingle with the throng, find some d

t, therefore identical, he who forbids an act commits it. vol. ii, p. 193. agnosticism ex oriente lux. as old as the vedas is the idea of agnosticism, though in name it is not yet forty years of age. everywhere we look we find the. of paul, midst the greeks, the egyptians, the hebrews, the chaldeans, the aryans, and the chinese, and its light is focussed in the greatest of the great: socrates and plato, malebranche and descartes, locke and spinoza, hume and berkeley, swedenborg and kant, hegel and comte, tyndall, spencer, and huxley. declining the mimetic, seeking the idiosyncratic, and standing by the eclectic, it has stood and grown a colossus of thought, ever young, ever virile, as age after age has gathered round it, and as the years have swept by it on their path to oblivion. between

of vantage attack it as being pure autohypnosis and nothing else. but curious to say. if such be the case why is it that the greatest sages of all times have been able to attract within their focus so many hundreds of millions of rational beings? they themselves being only irrational and pathological mystagogues. if such men as krishna, mahomet, st. augustine, moses, orpheus, pythagoras, buddha, plato, jesus, and a host of equal and lesser names, owed their power to self-hypnosis, then indeed self-hypnosis is the key which in this world will unlock the fast closed corridor of its mysteries. crowley strongly attacks this kitchen-knavery: you weary me with proof enough that all this meditation stuff is self-hypnosis. be it so! do you suppose i did not know? still, to be accurate, i fear the

in, attain, and remain silent. the ghindu practice, h says mysticus in gtime, h gbears out western speculation, whether we take the shadowy idealism of berkeley, or the selfrefuted monism of haeckel. all these men got our results, and interpreted them in the partial light of their varied intellect, their diverse surroundings and education. but the result is the same physiological phenomenon, from plato and christ to spinoza and cankaracharya, from augustine and abelard, boehme and weigel in their christian communities to trismegistus and porphyry, mohammed and paracelsus in their mystic palaces of wisdom, the doctrine is essentially one: and its essence is that existence is one. but to my experience it is certain that in dhyana the ego is rejected. h *time, vol. ii, p. 275. this is absolut

TURNER ROBERT ARBETEL OF MAGICK

d sorcery, are works done merely by the devil, which with respect unto some covenant made with man, he acteth by men his instruments, to accomplish his evil ends: of these, the histories of all ages, people and countries, as also the holy scriptures, afford us sundry examples. but magus is a persian word primitively, whereby is expressed such a one as is altogether conversant in things divine; as plato affirmeth, the art of magick is the art of worshipping god: and the persians call their gods, hence apollonius saith, that magus is either [illegible greek]2 or [illegible greek]3, that is, that magus is a name sometime of him that is a god by nature& sometimes of him that is in the service of god: in which latter sense it is taken in matt, 2.1,2. when the wise men came to worship jesus, and

a newer family, which may be illustrious and do great things. 3. the third is, to excel in military affairs, and happily to achieve to great things, and to be an head of the head of kings and princes. 4. to be a good house-keeper both in the country and city. 5. the fifth is, to be an industrious and fortunate merchant. 6. to be a philosopher, mathematician, and physician, according to aristotle, plato, ptolomy, euclides, hippocrates, and galen. 7. to be a divine according to the bible and schooles, which all writers of divinity both old and new have taught. aphorism 25. we have already declared what a secret is, the kindes and species thereof: it remaineth now to shew how we may attain to know those things which we desire. the true and onely way to all secrets, is to have recourse unto go

s another way which is more common, that secrets may be revealed unto thee also, when thou art unwitting thereof, either by god, or by spirits which have secrets in their power; or by dreams, or by strong imaginations and impressions, or by the constellation of a nativity by celestial knowledge. after this manner are made heroick men, such as there are very many, and all learned men in the world, plato, aristotle, hippocrates, galen, euclides, archimedes, hermes trismegistus the father secrets, with theophrastus, paracelsus; all which men had in themselves all the vertues of secrets. hitherto also are referred, homer, hesiod, orpheus, pytagoras; but these had not such gifts of secrets as the former. to this are referred, the nymphes, and sons of melusina, and gods of the gentiles, achilles

TWO ESSAYS ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS

scovery of science. thrace was certainly inhabited by a civilized nation at some remote period; for, when philip of macedon opened the gold mines in that country, he found that they had been worked before with great expense and ingenuity, by a people well versed in mechanics, of whom no memorials whatever were then extant. of these, probably, was orpheus, as well as thamyris, both of whose poems, plato says, could be read with pleasure in his time. 1 see sophocl. oedip. tyr, ver. 1436. 2 orph. hym. 5. 3 symph. i. 2. of priapus 21 matter, by the efforts of his divine strength. the incubation of the vital spirit is represented on the colonial medals of tyre, by a serpent wreathed around an egg;1 for the serpent, having the power of casting his skin, and apparently renewing his youth, became

ib. i. et ii. of priapus 27 as metaphysical theology is a study very generally, and very deservedly, neglected at present, i thought this little specimen of it might be entertaining, from its novelty, to most readers; especially as it is intimately connected with the ancient system, which i have here undertaken to examine. those, who wish to know more of it, may consult proclus on the theology of plato, where they will find the most exquisite ingenuity most wantonly wasted. no persons ever showed greater acuteness or strength of reasoning than the platonics and scholastics; but having quitted common sense, and attempted to mount into the intellectual world, they expended it all in abortive efforts which may amuse the imagination, but cannot satisfy the understanding. the ancient theologist

confined by the ancients to plants and animals, and such transitory productions, but extended to the universe itself. fire being the essential cause of both, they believed that the conflagration and renovation of the world were periodical and regular, proceeding from each other by the laws of its own constitution, implanted in it by the creator, who was also the destroyer and renovator;3 for, as plato says, all things arise from one, and into one are all things resolved.4 it must be observed, that, when the ancients speak of creation and destruction, they mean only formation and dissolution; it being universally allowed, through all systems of religion, or sects of philosophy, that nothing could come from nothing, and that no power whatever could annihilate that 1 see plate xxi, fig. 7. 2

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

three preceding elemental principles in the sphere of matter. although it has no pure essence, its compound nature is perceived by the human mind as separate and unique. it is a reflection of the first three elements. according to aristotle, the elements have four powers that describe their active natures and the ways in which they can interact. each element has two powers: however, according to plato, there are six powers. each element has three powers that describe its action and its interaction with other elements. plato gave these sets of powers a mathematical relationship: plato used geometry to describe the nature of the four elements. he believed that each element is made up of combinations of triangles. fire, air and water are composed of sets of the 30-60-90 degree triangle, and

elements. he believed that each element is made up of combinations of triangles. fire, air and water are composed of sets of the 30-60-90 degree triangle, and for this reason, can be trans- formed one into the other. earth, however, is composed of a set of the 45-45-90 degree triangle, and cannot be transformed into the other three elements; nor can the other three elements be changed into earth. plato's understanding is important for two reasons. first, it explains the con- nection between three and four, the triangle and the square. second, it shows why the three elements fire, air, and water are separate and different from the element earth. this same understanding of the elements is expressed in a different form in the letters of the hebrew name for god, ihvh, which is called tetragram

TYSON DONALD THE POWER OF THE WORD

ning. the first letter, which also stands for the number ten, and which by its form reminds us of the mathematical point, teaches us that god is the beginning and end of all things. the number five, expressed by 7 the second letter, shows us the union of god with nature-of god inasmuch as he is depicted by the number three, i.e, the trinity; and of visible nature, inasmuch as it is represented by plato and pythagoras under the dual. the number six, expressed by 1, the third letter, which is likewise revered in the pythagorean school, is formed by the combination of one, two, and three, the symbol of all perfection. moreoever the number six is the symbol of the cube, the bodies (solids, or the world. hence it is evident that the world has in it the imprint of divine perfection. the fourth a

WAITE ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM

especially in his own mind and heart. it is the complete surrender to the working of the divine, so that an hour comes when proprium meum et tuum dies in the mystical sense, because it is hidden in god. in this state, by the testimony of many literatures, there supervenes an experience which is described in a thousand ways yet remains ineffable. it has been enshrined in the imperishable books of plato and plotinus. it glimmers forth at every turn and corner of the remote roads and pathways of eastern philosophies. it is in little books of unknown authorship, treasured in monasteries and most of which have not entered into knowledge, except within recent times. the place of darkness the experience is in a place of darkness, where, in other symbolism, the sun is said to shine at midnight. t

WALLIS BUDGE E A LEGENDS OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS

gods, therefore they shave themselves. the light azure blossom of the flax resembles the clear and bloomy colour of the ethereal sky, therefore they wear linen; whereas the true reason of the institution and observation of these rites is but one, and that common to all of them, namely, the extraordinary notions which they entertain of cleanliness, persuaded as they are, according to the saying of plato "none but the pure ought to approach the pure" now, no superfluity of our food, and no excrementitious substance, is looked upon by them as pure and clean; such, however, are all kinds of wool and down, our hair and our nails. it would be the highest absurdity, therefore, for those who, whilst; they are in a course of purification, are at so much pains to take off the hair from every part of

correct [fn#283] he compiled a history of egypt for ptolemy ii, and flourished about b.c. 270; only the king-list from this work is preserved [fn#284] he was a native of the town of sebennytus [fn#285] amen means "hidden" and amen is the "hidden god" x. and this is still farther evinced from those voyages which have been made into egypt by the wisest men among the greeks, namely, by solo, thales plato, eudoxus, pythagoras, and, as some say, even by lycurgus himself, on purpose to converse with the priests. and we are also told that eudoxus was a disciple of chnouphis the memphite, solo of sonchis the saite, and pythagoras of oinuphis the heliopolite. but none of these philosophers seems either to have been more admired and in greater favour with the priests, or to have paid a more especia

hem, remember what has just been said, and be assured that nothing of what is thus told you is really true, or ever happened in fact. for can it be imagined that it is the dog[fn#290] itself which is reverenced by them under the name of hermes[fn#291? it is the qualities of this animal, his constant vigilance, and his acumen in distinguishing his friends from his foes, which have rendered him, as plato says, a meet emblem of that god who is the chief patron of intelligence. nor can we imagine that they think that the sun, like a newly born babe, springs up every day out of a lily. it is quite true that they represent the rising sun in this manner,[fn#292] but the reason is because they wish to indicate thereby that it is moisture to which we owe the first kindling of this luminary. in like

explanation of the story] xxv. there is another and a better method which some employ in explaining this story. they assert that what is related of typhon, osiris, and isis is not to be regarded as the afflictions of gods, or of mere mortals, but rather as the adventures of certain great daemons. these beings, they say, are supposed by some of the wisest of the greek philosophers, that is to say, plato, pythagoras, xenocrates, and chrysippus, in accordance with what they had learned from ancient theologians, to be stronger and more powerful than men, and of a nature superior to them. they are, at the same time, inferior to the pure and unmixed nature of the gods, as partaking of the sensations of the body, as well as of the perceptions of the soul, and consequently liable to pain as well a

abundance of other similar instances. the same thing may also be affirmed of those other things which are so carefully concealed under the cover of mysteries and imitations [in sec. xxvi. plutarch points out that homer calls great and good men "god-like" and "god's compeers" but the word daemon is applied to the good and bad indifferently (see odyssey, vi. 12; iliad, xiii. 810, v. 438, iv. 31 &c. plato assigns to the olympian gods good things and the odd numbers, and the opposite to the daemons. xenocrates believed in the existence of a series of strong and powerful beings which take pleasure in scourgings and fastings &c. hesiod speaks of "holy daemons (works and days, 126) and "guardians of mankind" and "bestowers of wealth" and these are regarded by plato as a "middle order of beings be

WESTERN MANDALAS OF TRANSFORMATION SR AL

ld. to the scientist, mathematics is the discipline which is most closely tied to nature itself. this may seem strange to the outsider.one to whom math is a bizarre world of numbers and strange symbols.but the idea dates as far back as the ancient egyptians, who used their understanding of correct proportion of number and ratio to build the pyramids. they could have influenced the ancient greeks; plato makes reference in his laws to their sacred canon which served to help preserve their civilization over centuries. certainly we know that the greek philosophers perceived numbers and geometry as the ordering principles of the universe. the famous words of pythagoras echo even today "number is the measure of all things" later galileo was to say "the book of nature is written in mathematical l

eavenly bodies. soon it came to be understood that the relationships existing in these heavenly planets had direct counterparts within the human dimension. this was not just a simple belief in astrology, which was a much more ancient science. it was a more sophisticated understanding of the hermetic principle that through sympathetic correspondences one could temper or augment a planet's effects. plato applied numerology to the known elements.earth, air, fire, and water.and thought we did not invent mathematics, we only discovered it. numbers enjoy an independent existence which transcends the physical senses and belongs to the world of eternal forms or ideas. many modern mathematicians feel the same way about the "mandelbrot set" and the beautiful fractal forms it produces. one mathematic

is still the most viable theory to explain how nature is so rationally intelligible. one such scientist, roger penrose, explains how such ideas also make communication so fluid between mathematicians, or people of like minds. it is worth quoting at length since so much of what we will explore here is based on this very premise: whenever the mind perceives a mathematical idea it makes contact with plato's world of mathematical concepts. when one "sees" a mathematical truth, one's consciousness breaks through into the world of ideas and makes direct contact with it. the mental images that each (person) has, when making this platonic contact, might be rather different in each case, but communication is possible because each is directly in contact with the same eternally existing platonic worl

in the future. yet this is nothing we have invented; it is only one application of an ancient system which, in my mind, is the most profound esoteric tradition of revelation ever known to humankind: the mystical qabalah. chapter 1 qabalistic talismans: how do they work? but perhaps there is a pattern set up in the heavens for one who desires to see it, and having seen it, to find one in himself .plato do talismans have power independently of the person who designed them? some think that a consecrated or charged talisman does; in ages past it was believed that one had only to wear a talisman or amulet made by someone else to benefit from it, without understanding its special symbols and signatures. others, like paracelsus, explained their magical power in psychological terms, and many mode

erfectly that they tapped into a source of power "which made all technological contrivances unnecessary (ibid, p. 110. the magical number that is the theosophical extension of the mercury kamea is 2080. michell notes that in greek this relates back to the fire connected to the apex, because by gematria, the artificer's fire equals 2080. in fact, the first three letters of pyramid (pyr) mean fire. plato wrote (the) solid which has taken the form of a pyramid shall be the element and seed of fire (ibid, p. 106. interestingly, the two words in greek, fire and light, when added together, also equal 2080. recall that the affirmation attributed to hod on the pattern on the trestleboard is "i look forward with confidence to the perfect realization of the eternal splendor of the limitless light" i

WICCA WITCHCRAFT TODAY

as the titans devoured zagreus, man has within him also the nature of dionysus. theologians said that it was the titanic nature innate in the body from which man must free himself to reunite with the dionysiac nature through the agency of the mysteries. thus the orphic mystery took a lofty moral and spiritual significance and exercised great influence on lofty souls such as heraclitus, pindar and plato, and when christianity spread it was orphism that gave the fundamentals to the pauline theology 'orphism soon came in contact with the rural cult at eleusis whose celebrated mysteries were without ecstatic and orgiastic elements. contact with orphism transformed the cult adding the element of redemption; from the fusion were born the eleusinian mysteries as known throughout antiquity. these

ynesius, all refer to them and their objects and revelations 'of what the disease of the spirit consists, from what cause it is dulled, how it can be clarified, may be learned from their philosophy. for by the lustrations of the mysteries the soul becomes liberated and passes into a divine condition of being, hence disciplines willingly endured become of far greater utility for purification' says plato. he continues 'on entering the interior part of the temple, unmoved and guarded by the sacred rites, they genuinely receive into their bosoms divine illumination, and divested of their garments they participate of the divine nature' the same method takes place in the speculation of thales: see proclus on the theology of plato, vol. i, and ede anima ae daemona, stoboeus, dr. war-barton's tran

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

rive our knowledge of the life and doctrines of pythagoras and his successors, the following are notable- 1. b.c. 450. herodotus, who speaks to the mysteries of the pythagoreans as similar to those of orpheus. 2. b.c. 394. archytas of tarentum, who left a fragment upon pythagorean arithmetic. 3. b.c. 380. theon of smyrna. 4. b.c. 370. philolaus. from three books of this author it is believed that plato compiled his book numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott timaeus; he was probably the first who committed to writing the doctrines of pythagoras. 5. b.c. 322. aristotle. refer to his metaphysica, moralia magna, and nicomachean ethics. nicomachus of stagyra was his father. 6. b.c. 276. eratosthenes, author of work entitled kokkinon or cribrum, a sieve to se

equal to the sum of the aliquot parts of 284. thus 1+2+4+71+142=220; and 284 is equal to the sum of the aliquot parts of 220. thus 1+2+4+5+10+11+20+22+44+55+110=284. another such pair of numbers is 17,296 and 18,416. very curious speculations as to the relation between numbers and marriage, and the character of offspring from it, are to be found scattered through the writings of the philosophers. plato, in his republic, has a passage concerning a geometric number, which, divinely generated, will be fortunate or unfortunate. nicomachus also speaks of this same number, and he calls it the nuptial number; and he passes from it to state that from two good parents only good offspring can come. from two bad parents only bad; and from a good and a bad parent only bad. whence he warns the republic

rands and an image was carried 3 times round an altar. terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore. the druids also paid a constant respect to this number and even their poems are noted as being composed in triads. it is not necessary here to enlarge upon the transcendent importance of the christian trinity. in old paintings we often see a trinity of jesus with john and mary. in the timaeus of plato, the divine triad is called theos--god, logos--the word and psyche, the soul. indeed it is impossible to study any single system of worship throughout the world, without being struck by the peculiar persistence of the triple number in regard to divinity. whether as a group of deities, a triformed or 3- numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott headed god, a m

ed side and the tongue vertical, and an acute angle on the other. hence it is worse to do than to suffer injury, and the authors of injury sink down to the infernal regions, but the injured rise to the gods. since, however, injustice pertains to inequality, equalization is necessary which is effected by addition and subtraction. plutarch, in his treatise on the generation of the soul according to plato, states that the pentad is called trophos, which equals sound, because the first of the intervals of a tone, which is capable of producing a sound, is the fifth. it is also a type of nature. the pentalpha or 5-pointed star, an endless of complex set of angles, was the emblem of health, hygeia. it numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott forms 5 copies of the

1/ 5 of water to milk as a medical draught. phintys, the daughter of callicrates, describes the five virtues of a wife. mental and bodily purity. abstaining from excess of ornament in dress. staying at home. refraining, as females then did, from celebrating public mysteries. piety and temperance. in roman marriage ceremonies it was customary to light 5 tapers and to admit the guests by fives. see plato in leg. iv. theology displays 5 modes of the conception of god, pantheism, polytheism, dualism, unitarianism and trinitarianism. jewish references to five are many 5 gifts to the priests, 5 things which might only be eaten in the camp. not to eat fruit from a tree until it was five years old. the trespass offering imposed on the philistines, 5 golden emerods and 5 golden mice. joseph gave be

esponding, of course, to the seven planets. apollo, the sun god, had a greek title ebdomaios, sevenfold. the persian mithras, a sun god, had the number 7 sacred to him. note the mysterious kadosh ladder of 7 steps ascent and 7 steps descent, the one side oheb eloah, love of god; the other oheb kerobo, love of the neighbor. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott plato, in his timaeus, teaches that from the number seven, was generated the soul of the world, anima mundana (adam kadmon. the seven wise men of greece were: 1. bias who said, most men are bad, b.c. 550. 2. chilo who said, consider the end, b.c. 590. 3. cleobulos who said, avoid extremes, b.c. 580. 4. periander who said, nothing is impossible to perseverance, b.c. 600. 5. pittacus who said, know

umbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott cients buried their dead; after 9 years numa, received his laws from jove; note the 9 cubits length of the iron bedstead of the giant og, king of basan, who is a type of the devil, and there are 9 orders of devil s in sheol (what we call hell. it prevails against plagues and fevers; it causes long life and health, and by it plato so ordered events that he died at the age of nine times 9. there are nine orders of angels, says gregory, a.d. 381, in homily 34. seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels. from a christian point of view, the number nine represents: 1. unity of the godhead. 2. the hypostatic union of christ. 3. trinity. 4. evangelists. 5. wounds of jesus

WILLIAM WESCOTT THE CHALDEAN ORACLES OF ZOROASTER TRANSLATION

. isaac preston cory, ancient fragments, london, 1828 (a third edition of this work has been published, omitting the oracles) 13. phoenix, new york, 1835. a collection of curious old tracts, among which are the oracles of zoroaster, copied from thomas taylor and i. p. cory; with an essay by edward gibbon_ notes* josephus, contra apion. i* stephanus, de urbibus* vide his scholia on the cratylus of plato. introduction by l. o. it has been believed by many, and not without good reason, that these terse and enigmatic utterances enshrine a profound system of mystical philosophy, but that this system demands for its full discernment a refinement of faculty, involving, as it does, a discrete perception of immaterial essences. it has been asserted that the chald an magi* preserved their occult lea

ments, both macrocosmic and microcosmic, on every plane, is directly controlled by the "revolution of the name" that name is associated with the thers of the elements and is thus considered as a universal law; it is the power which marshals the creative host, summed up in the demiurgus, hypezokos, or flower of fire. reference may here be made to the psychic anatomy of the human being according to plato. he places the intellect in the head; the soul endowed with some of the passions, such as fortitude, in the heart; while another soul, of which the appetites, desires and grosser passions are its faculties, about the stomach and the spleen. so, the chald an doctrine as recorded by psellus, considered man to be composed of three kinds of souls, which may respectively be called: first, the int

first to discover it in the voluminous writings of eusebius, who attributes the authorship to the persian zoroaster_ 2. theurgists assert that he is a god and celebrate him as both older and younger, as a circulating and eternal god, as understanding the whole number of all things moving in the world, and moreover infinite through his power and energizing a spiral force. proclus on the tim us of plato, 244. z. or t. the egyptian pantheon had an elder and a younger horus a god son of osiris and isis. taylor suggests that he refers to kronos, time, or chronos as the later platonists wrote the name. kronos, or saturnus, of the romans, was son of uranos and gaia, husband of rhea, father of zeus_ 3. the god of the universe, eternal, limitless, both young and old, having a spiral force. cory in

30. z. 14. the second mind conducts the empyrean. world. damascius, de principiis. t. 15. what the intelligible saith, it saith by understanding. psellus, 35. z. 16. power is with them, but mind is from him. proclus in platonis theologiam, 365. t. 17. the mind of the father riding on the subtle guiders, which glitter with the tracings of inflexible and relentless fire. proclus on the cratylus of plato. 18. after the paternal conception i the soul reside, a heat animating all things. for he placed the intelligible in the soul, and the soul in dull body, even so the father of gods and men placed them in us. proclus in tim, plat, 124. z. or t. 19. natural works co-exist with the intellectual light of the father. for it is the soul which adorned the vast heaven, and which adorneth it after th

ing the abysses of the 11 of 13 universe; for from thence downwards do all extend their wondrous rays. proclus in theologiam platonis, 171 and 172. t. 25. the monad first existed, and the paternal monad still subsists. proclus in euclidem, 27. t. 26. when the monad is extended, the dyad is generated. proclus in euclidem, 27. t. note that "what the pythagoreans signify by monad, duad and triad, or plato by bound, infinite and mixed; that the oracles of the gods intend by hyparxis, power and energy" damascius de principiis. taylor. 27. and beside him is seated the dyad which glitters with intellectual sections, to govern all things, and to order everything not ordered. proclus in platonis theologiam, 376. t. 28. the mind of the father said that all things should be cut into three, whose will

glitters with intellectual sections, to govern all things, and to order everything not ordered. proclus in platonis theologiam, 376. t. 28. the mind of the father said that all things should be cut into three, whose will assented, and immediately all things were so divided. proclus in parmen. t. 29. the mind of the eternal father said into three, governing all things by mind. proclus, timaeus of plato. t. 30. the father mingled every spirit from this triad. lydus, de mensibus, 20. taylor. 31. all things are supplied from the bosom of this triad. lydus, de mensibus, 20. taylor. 32. all things are governed and subsist in this triad. proclus in i. alcibiades. t. 33. for thou most know that all things bow before the three supernals. damascius, de principiis. t. 34. from thence floweth forth t

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

nkers through the course of time, but the justification for this venture, specified in the first part of the statement, underscores the significant difference between the two. for brumbaugh, polysemy is a consequence of aporia; for heidegger, it is the impetus to slash through the aporia. brumbaugh identifies four analyses of time that have been operative in occidental metaphysics (beginning with plato) and attempts to show how none is adequate to deal with the complex phenomenon of time.21 although no single conceptual model, whether derived from mathematics, physics, or philosophy, is su cient to explain time, brumbaugh does not consider the quest to do so meaningless. to treat brumbaugh s work in the manner it demands and deserves lies beyond the scope of this chapter, but su ce it to s

st pristinely in the nunc stans, the moment that becomes eternally in the ephemerality of being, is not rationally discernible. prima facie, the comparison might strike one as dubious, given the unequivocal distinction augustine draws between the fixity of eternity and the mutability of time, the constancy of god and the variableness of creation,52 a perspective that can be traced conceptually to plato s exposition in the first hypothesis of the parmenides that the one, the ultimate principle of metaphysical unity, does not come to be and is thus not a tensed being, subject to the fluctuations of time.53 any attempt to taste eternity when one s heart is still flitting about in the realm where things change and have a past and future proves futile.54 the logic underlying the binary oppositi

ter one entities: the one being (to hen on hos, the monad of all being (monas ton onton, which, in virtue of its absolute oneness, is beyond attribution; eternity (aion, the dyad that always is (o aei on; and the eternal (to aionion, which participates in the conjunction of always and existence but not with the same degree of durability as in the case of eternity.100 in contrast to the friends of plato, that is, plotinus and other neoplatonists, who considered time an obscure notion linked to the motion of the soul that is measurable,101 proclus insists that time s essence is more divine than that of the soul.102 certainly, he accepts the proposition that if something partakes of soul, it partakes of time; but for him the converse is not true, as there are beings without soul that partake

y of the heavenly bodies, and thus, as he further adduces, every psychic period is measured by time; the soul is characterized by circular motion, continuous and perpetual, and it is in this sense that time is the image of eternity. the way of the soul, like the spiritual power (dunamis) of being more generally, undergoes procession and reversion in relation to its source.107 in his commentary on plato s parmenides, proclus reiterates this point by noting that what is nonreceptive to time applies to the one and not the soul, for all soul partakes in time and uses periods measured by time. the one, indeed, is superior to soul because all soul partakes in time, and the one will be shown now not to partake in time; but intellect thinking time/ hermeneutic suppositions 15 also is different fro

were, that makes possible the spinning of the rim, is belief in an eternal present the moment always a semblance of the moment it will never have been in which the divine-human drama is continuously and divergently enacted through israel s ceremonial practices and obedience to the covenantal law.16 interestingly, the ideal set forth by voegelin corresponds to what he elsewhere depicts in terms of plato s idea of metaxy, the in-between, which is neither time nor eternity but the erotic tension of lingering betwixt the poles of temporal becoming and eternal being.17 in this state, which voegelin identifies as the philosophical experience, the two poles endure in their autonomy: neither does eternal being become an object in time, nor is temporal being transposed into eternity. we remain in t

fragment of parmenides preserved by simplicius in his commentary on aristotle s physics. according to the wisdom imparted to and by parmenides, time is not a flux of becoming with past or future but rather the saturation of being characteristic of that which is, the eternity of the nunc stans: it was not in the past, nor shall it be, since it is now, all at once, one, continuous. 37 congruently, plato depicted the instant as the point of transition between motion and rest, the point through and in which what is at rest comes to motion and what is in motion comes to rest. when, being in motion, it comes to rest and when, being at rest, it changes to being in motion, it must itself not be in one time. it is simply not possible for it to admit being earlier at rest and later in motion and la

124, of his inner vision of god, an ascent by introspection, inspired, as the author himself acknowledges, by platonic books, platonicorum libri (chadwick, p. 123 n. 18, refers the reader to plotinus, enneads v.1.1; for a more detailed discussion, see augustine, confessions, ed. o donnell, 2:434 437. 51. augustine, on the trinity: books 8 15, p. 7. 52. augustine, confessions, 11.7.9, p. 226. 53. plato, parmenides 140e 141e. see plato and parmenides, trans. cornford, pp. 127 129; plato s parmenides, trans. allen, pp. 23 25, 241 243; turnbull, par- 182 notes to pages 7 10 menides and plato s late philosophy, pp. 57 58; plato s parmenides, trans. socolnicov, pp. 34 35, 89 91. the conclusion of the first hypothesis is reiterated in the sixth hypothesis, parmenides 163b d; cornford, pp. 231 23

. 23 25, 241 243; turnbull, par- 182 notes to pages 7 10 menides and plato s late philosophy, pp. 57 58; plato s parmenides, trans. socolnicov, pp. 34 35, 89 91. the conclusion of the first hypothesis is reiterated in the sixth hypothesis, parmenides 163b d; cornford, pp. 231 232; allen, p. 60; turnbull, pp. 134 135; socolnicov, p. 158. by contrast, in the second hypothesis, parmenides 151e 155d, plato analyzes the theorems and corollaries that support the view that the one does participate in time and hence may be considered a tensed being. the paradoxical conclusion, which challenges the principle of noncontradiction, is stated explicitly in the third deduction of the first hypothesis (155e 156a: concerning the one, we must say that it is both one and many, neither one nor many, particip

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