Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
THEOLOGY

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ABRAMELIN3

being a mass composed of different orders, and they are sufficiently truthful. 11. these and the following titles of the hierarchies are usually ascribed to the good angels; but sometimes are also employed to designate grades of the evil and fallen angels as well. the sacred magick 217 the archangels be proper to reveal all occult matters, and all kinds of secret things, such as obscure points in theology and the law. they serve with great diligence. the angels in general do operate each one according unto his quality. there be an infinite number of them. they command the four princes and the eight sub-princes in all kinds of operations. these latter12 having taken their oath, observe that which they have promised, provided that the operation one demandeth of them be in their power. to cau

ALEISTER CROWLEY BOOK OF LIES

original steam. around this flows the air, created by earth and water through the action of vegetation. such is the globe; but all this is a mere strain in the aethyr, alpha-iota-theta-eta-rho. here is a new pentagrammaton, presumably suitable for another analysis of the elements; but after a different manner. alpha( alpha) is air; rho( rho) the sun; these are the spirit and the son of christian theology. in the midst is the father, expressed as father-and-mother. i-h (yod and he, eta( eta) being used to express "the mother" instead of epsilon( epsilon, to show that she has been impregnated by the spirit; it is the rough breathing and not the soft. the centre of all is theta( theta, which was originally written as a point in a circle( sun, the sublime hieroglyph of the sun in the macrocos

been impregnated by the spirit; it is the rough breathing and not the soft. the centre of all is theta( theta, which was originally written as a point in a circle( sun, the sublime hieroglyph of the sun in the macrocosm, and in the microcosm of the lingam in conjunction with the yoni. this word alpha-iota-theta-eta-rho (aethyr) is therefore a perfect hierogly ph of the cosmos in terms of gnostic theology. the reader should consult la messe et ses mysteres, par jean 'marie de v (paris et nancy, 1844, for a complete demonstration of the incorporation of the solar and phallic mysteries in christianity. book of lies get any book for free on: www.abika.com 180 [183] 87 kappa-epsilon-phi-alpha-lambda-eta pi-zeta mandarin-meals there is a dish of sharks' fins and of sea-slug, well set in birds'

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

this theory in a very simple form. i cannot even explain (for instance) that an idea may not refer to being at all, but to going. the book of the law demands special study and initiated apprehension> these are unmanifest. one conjunction of these infinites is called ra-hoorkhuit< more correctly, heru-ra-ha, to include hoor-paar-kraat> a unity which includes and heads all things<theology is given in liber ccxx, al vel legis which forms part iv of this book 4. hence i can only outline the matter in a very crude way; it would require a separate treatise to discuss even the true meaning of the terms employed, and to show how the book of the law anticipates the recent discoveries of frege, cantor, poincare, russell, whitehead, einstein and others (there is also a particular n

gicians assuming respectively the characters of herod, herodias, salome, and the executioner, acted out the scene of the dance and the beheading, on the lines of oscar wilde's drama "peter paul" being cast for the part of john the baptist. this ceremony was devised and done on the spur of the moment, and its spontaneity and simplicity were presumably potent factors in its success. on the point of theology, i doubt whether dom gorenflot sucessfully avoided eating meat in lent by baptizing the pullet a carp. for as the sacrament- by its intention, despite its defects of form- could not fail of efficacy, the pullet must have become a christian, and therefore a human being. carp was therefore only its baptized name- cf. polycarp- and dom gorenflot ate human flesh in lent, so that, for all he b

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS

ou talk of "anachronism" when the being is eternal? for the type of energy is eternal. every name is a number: and "every number is infinite; there is no difference (al i, 4. but one name, or system of names, may be more convenient either (a) to you personally or (b) to the work you are at. e.g. i have magic without tears get any book for free on: www.abika.com 32 very little sympathy with jewish theology or ritual; but the qabalah is so handy and congenial that i use it more than almost any- or all the others together- for daily use and work. the egyptian theogony is the noblest, the most truly magical, the most bound to me (or rather i to it) by some inmost instinct, and by the memory of my incarnation as ankh-f-n-khonsu, that i use it (with its graeco-phoenician child) for all work of s

gun by discarding all these puerilities. it has of necessity been divided into these schools: the nihilist, the monist, and the dualist. i. the last of these is, on the surface, the most plausible; for almost the first thing that we notice on inspecting the universe is what the hindu schools call "the pairs of opposites" this too, is very convenient, because it lends itself so readily to orthodox theology; so we have ormuzd and ahriman, the devas and the asuras, osiris and set, et cetera and da capo, personifications of "good" and "evil" the foes may be fairly matched; but more often the tale tells of a revolt in heaven. in this case "evil" is temporary; soon, especially with the financial help of the devout, the "devil" will be "cast into the bottomless pit" and "the saints will reign wit

subject of morality. of we go! what really is it? the word comes from mos, latin for custom, manner. similarly, ethics: from greek esoc custom "it isn't done" may be modern slang, but it's correct. interesting to study the usage of "moeurs" and "mani res" in french "manner" from "manus- hand: it is "the way to handle things" but the theological conception has steered a very wrong course, even for theology; brought in divine injunction, and conscience, and a whole host of bogeys (candles in hollow turnips deceive nobody outside a churchyard) magic without tears get any book for free on: www.abika.com 234 so we find ourselves discussing a "palely wandering" phantom idea whose connotations or extensions depend on the time, the place, and the victim. we know "the crimes of clapham chaste in ma

tales are true! you can have as many dragons, princesses, vampires, knightserrant, glendowers, enchanted apes, jinn, sorcerers and incubi as you like to fancy, and- whoa emma! did i tell you about cardinal newman? well, i will. the one passage in his snivelling apologia which impressed me was a tale of his childhood- before the real poet, lover and mystic had been buried beneath the dung-heap of theology. he tells us that he read the arabian nights- in a heavily bowdlerized edition, bet you a tosser- and was enchanted, like the rest of us, so that he sighed "i wish these tales were true" the same thing happened to me; but i set my teeth, and muttered "i will make these tales true" magic without tears get any book for free on: www.abika.com 268 well, i have, haven't i? you said it yourself

ALEISTER CROWLEY MEDITATION

preciates the existence of flies! this lack of understanding with which we all begin is so terrible, so pitiful. in this world there is so much cruelty, so much waste, so much stupidity. the contemplation of the universe must be at first almost pure anguish. it is this fact which is responsible for most of the speculations of philosophy. mediaeval philosophers when hopelessly astray because their theology necessitated the reference of all things to the standard of men's welfare. they even became stupid: bernardin de st. pierre (was it not) said that the goodness of god was such that wherever men had built a great city, he had placed a river to assist them in conveying merchandise. but the truth is that in no way can we imagine the universe as devised. if horses were made for men to ride, w

t it should be emphasised, for it is a very simple one. waugh! waugh! waugh! waugh! waugh! in the question of ethics it again becomes vital, for to many people it seems impossible to consider the merits of any act without dragging in a number of subjects which have no real connection with it. the bible has been mistranslated by perfectly competent scholars because they had to consider the current theology. the most glaring example is the "song of solomon" a typical piece of oriental eroticism. 96 but since to admit that it was this would never do for a canonical book, they had to pretend that it was symbolical. they tried to refine away the grossness of the expressions, but even their hardihood proved unequal to the task. this form of dishonesty reaches its climax in the expurgating of the

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE BANNED LECTURE

rths. such upas-trees can only grow in the poisonous mire of fear and shame where thought has putrefied to christianity. there is thus no antecedent improbability that gilles de rais (or any other person of that place and period) was addicted to black magical practices, for they were all catholics. the power of the church was, at that time, absolute, and even research was limited by the arbitrary theology imposed upon the mind of everyone. the abomination was at its height. but its decline has been rapid. true, one hundred years later it was still possible for queens to be bulldozed by presbyterian pulpiteers, but the time was already predictable when their best was for undergraduates to be bluffed by homosexual ecclesiastics. i suppose it is ll in the family. while these profound thoughts

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE OLD AND NEW COMMENTARIES TO LIBER AL

e north and nuit, with the "john" slain with the sword, whose flesh is placed upon a disk, in the lesser mysteries, baptizing with water as "jesus" with fire, with on, oannes, noah, and the like. it seems as if this great division, which has wrought such appalling havoc upon the earth, were originally no more than a distinction adopted for convenience. it is indeed the task of this book to reduce theology to the interplay of the dyad nuith and hadith, these being themselves conceived as complementary, as two equivalent to naught "divided for lvoe's sake, for the chance of union- had enjoyed them in the form of a beast, bird, or what not; while later mary attributed her condition to the agency of a spirit- spiritus, breath, or air- in the shape of a dove. but the "small person" of hindu mys

onceived as possessing a fixed centre, or summit; an absolute standard to which all things might be referred; an unity, or god (mystics were angry and bewildered, often enough, when attaining to "union with god" they found him equally in all. this led to making a difference between one thing and another, and so to the ideas of superiority, of sin, etc, ending by absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology, ethics, and science (2) the absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposites. this is really a corollary of (1. there was an imaginary "absolute evil" which made manichaeanism necessary- despite the cloaks of the causists- and meant "that which leads one away from god" but each man, while postulating an absolute "god" defined him unconsciously in terms of a freudian phantasm created by

e welcome every new 'sport; its success or failure is our sole test of its value. we let the hen's queer hatching take to water, and laugh at her alarms; and we protect the 'ugly duckling, knowing that time will tell us whether it be a cygnet. herbert spencer, inexorably condemning the unfit to the gallows, only echoed the high-priest who protected paul from the pharisees. sound biology and sound theology are for once at one! the question of the limits of individual liberty is fully discussed in liber cxi (aleph, to which we refer the student. the following four chapters will give a general idea of the main principles "de vi per disciplinam colenda "consider the bond of a cold climate, how it maketh man a slave; he must have shelter and food with fierce toil. yet thereby he becometh strong

ix religions whose flesh must be torn out cover the whole globe outside islam and christianity. why assault their flesh rather than their eyes, as in the other cases? because the metaphysics, or point of view, is correct- i take judaism as qabalistic- but the practice imperfect. al iii,54 "bahlasti! ompehda! i spit on your crapulous creeds" the old comment 54. appears to be a plain instruction in theology and ethics. i do not understand "din. bahlasti= 358, and ompehda perhaps 210. the new comment see appendix weh note: not extant. by sound bahlasti suggests "hurling" or "blasting" ompegda is not too phantastically onomatopoeitic for 'an explosion" al iii,55 "let mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste women be utterly despised among you" the new comment the name ma

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE QABALAH

d of course it is only intelligibile to advanced students. this atheist, not in-being but in-passing, is a very apt subject for initiation. he has done with the illusions of dogma. from a knight of the royal mystery63 he has risen to understand with the members of the sovereign sanctuary64 that all is symbolic; all, if you will, the jugglery of the magician. he is tired of theories and systems of theology and all such toys; and being weary and anhungered and athirst seeks a seat at the table of adepts, and a portion of the bread of spiritual experience, and a draught of the wine of ecstasy. it is then thoroughly understood that the aspirant is seeking to solve the great problem. and he may conceive, as various schools of adepts in the ages have conceived, this problem in three main forms

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE SWORD OF SONG

and skill the method of allegorical interpretation. this mighty two handed engine at the door of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken allegorically, or, as it is otherwise said poetically or in a spiritual sense, the plainest words mean whatever a pious interpreter desires they should mean (huxley, evolution of theology. a.c. introduction 3 if the student has advanced spiritually so that he can internally, infallibly perceive what is truth, he will find it equally well symbolised in most external faiths. it is curious that browning never turns his wonderful faculty of analysis upon the fundamental problems of religion, as it were an axe laid to the root of the tree of life. it seems quite clear that he k

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQ I 5

h, and of course it is only intelligible to advanced students. this atheist, not in-being but in-passing, is a very apt subject for initiation. he has done with the illusions of dogma. from a knight of the royal mystery he has risen to understand with the members of the sovereign sanctuary that all is symbolic; all, if you will, the jugglery of the magician. he is tired of theories and systems of theology and all such toys; and being weary and anhungred and athirst seeks a seat at the table of adepts, and a portion of the bread of spiritual experience, and a draught of the wine of ecstasy. it is then thoroughly understood that the aspirant is seeking to solve the great problem. and he may conceive, as various schools of adepts in the ages have conceived, this problem in three main forms. 1

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQ I 5

n or so totally disconnected allegories, that were pieced together, and ruthlessly planed down to make them into a connected account; and that recension was re-written and edited in the interests of christianity, because people were complaining that christianity could show no true spiritual knowledge, or any food for the best minds: nothing but miracles, which only deceived the most ignorant, and theology, which only suited pedants.23 so a man got hold of this recension, and turned it christian, and imitated the style of john. and this explains why the end of the world does not happen every few years, as advertised. there is nothing whatever in the stone but a white rose. and a voice comes: there shall be no more red roses, for she hath crushed all the blood of all things into her cup. it

nds, either by curiosity, or by fear' yoga or transformation: a comparative statement of the various religious dogmas concerning the soul and its destiny, and of akkadian, taoist, eguptian, hebrew, greek, christian, mohammedan, japanese and other magic, by wm. j. flagg. large 8vo "cloth extra" 1898. 6"s" 6"d" knight (j payne. discourse on the worship of priapus, and its connection with the mystic theology of the ancients; with an essay on the worship of the generative organs during the middle ages of western europe. 4to "with" 40 "curious plates. half roxvurghe binding. privately printed "1865 "3 3"s" paracelsus. the hermetical and alchemical writings of aureopus phillippus theophrastus bombast of hohenheim, called paracelsus the great, now for the first time translated into english. edite

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 2

or! i have begun. 195 postcards to probationers theorems i. the world progresses by virtue of the appearance of christs (geniuses. ii. christs (geniuses) are men with super-consciousness of the highest order. iii. super-consciousnes of the highest order is obtainable by known methods. therefore, by employing the quintessence of known methods we cause the world to progress. essentials of method i. theology is immaterial; for both buddha and st. ignatius were christs. ii. morality is immaterial; for both socrates and mohammed were christs. iii. super-consciousness is a natural phenomenon; its conditions are therefore to be sought rather in the acts than the words of those who attain it. the essential acts are retirement and concentration- as taught by yoga and ceremonial magic. 196 mistakes

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3 2

adventure that happened to d.d.c.f. and frater i.a, who was a guest in his house, in which a revolver figured prominently; but the story was only vague, and frater i.a, who could and would have told the truth about it, had departed for a distant colony. so on arriving in paris, p. lured d.d.c.f. into telling the story, which was as follows: that he and i.a. had disagreed upon an obscure point in theology, thereby formulating the accursed dyad, thereby enabling the abramelin demons to assume material form: one in his own shape, another in that of i.a. now, the demon that looked like i.a. had a revolver, and threatened to shoot him (d.d.c.f, while the demon that resembled himself was equally anxious to shoot i.a. fortunately, before the demons could fire, v.n.r. came into the room, thus for

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3 3

qabbalah_ the philosophical writings of ibn gebirol, or avicebron, and their connection with the hebrew qabbalah and sepher ha-zohar, with remarks upon the antiquity and contents of the latter, and translations of selected passages from the same; also, an ancient lodge of initiates, translated from the zohar, and abstract of an essay upon the chinese qabbalah, a translation of part of the mystic theology of dionysus, the areopagite, etc. etc, by isaac myers, ll.b. royal 4to, large paper, with diagrams and illustrations, cloth, t. e g, others uncut, philadelphia, 1888. 35s. nostrodamus_ the true prophecies and prognostications of michel nostrodamus, physician to henry ii, francis ii, and charles ix, kings of france, and one of the best astronomers that ever were; a work full of curiosity a

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3

safe, is vision sure to rise therein? marsyas. though calm and pure it seem, maybe some thought hath crept into his mind to baulk the adept. the expectation of success suffices to destroy the stress of the one thought. but then, what odds? 30 "man's vision goes, dissolves in god's" or "by god's grace the light is given to the elected heir of heaven" these are but idle theses, dry dugs of the cow theology. business is business. the one fact that we know is: the gods exact a stainless mirror. cleanse thy soul! perfect the will's austere control! for the rest, wait! the sky once clear, dawn needs no prompting to appear! olympas. enough! it shall be done. marsyas. beware! easily trips the big word "dare" each man's an oedipus, that thinks he hath the four powers of the sphinx, will, courage

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 6 2

y s. l. macgregor-mathers. new and cheaper edition, demy 8vo. the bible, which has been probably more misconstrued than any other book ever written, contains numberless obscure and mysterious passages which are utterly unintelligible without some key wherewith to unlock their meaning "that key is given in the kabbalah" isis unveiled: a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. by h. p. blavatshy. in two volumes. vol. i. science, pp. xiv, 628. vol. ii. theology, pp. iv, 640 and index 52 "pounds"1, 1"s. net" vol. i- before the veil- 1. old things with new names- ii. phenomena and forces- iii. blind leaders of the blind- iv. theories respecting psychic phenomena- v. the ether, or "astral light- vi. psycho-physical phenomena- vii. the elements, elementals, and ele

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 6

s of whispering lust 'the song of young desire' and that kind of poppycock "london opinion "a competent master of words and rhythms. his esoteric style is unreasonably obscure from an intelligent plain poetry-lover's standpoint "morning leader "a charming volume of poems. pagan glamour. passion and vigour 'sigurd's songs' are commendable for dealing with the all too largely neglected scandinavian theology. a scholarly disciple. the entire volume is eminently recommendable "jewish chronicle "a gorgeous rhapsody. fortunately, there are the police. on the whole, we cannot help regretting that such splendid powers of imagination and expression are flung away in such literary rioting "light "sometimes of much beauty of rhythm and phrase-"times "poets who have any originality deserve to be judge

ALEX SANDERS THE KING OF THE WITCHES

hose girls come when i whistle-they've only themselves to blame if they get hurt' not always patiently, alex would expound the ideals of witchcraft and read out extracts from the secret book ofwitch law which demands that all men honour all women, not only because they are the receptacles ofthe future, but because they represent the goddess on earth. he encouraged paul to sit in with the group of theology students from the university who attended classes under alex-now an acknowledged authority on witchcraft-as part of their study of comparative religions. twice a week during the term they visited his chorlton rooms and delved into the dogma, history and beliefs of all forms of witchcraft, both english and egyptian. paul became interested in the tutorials, and as he realized that no restri

ALICE A BAILEY01 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM

only trying to point out that the form through which that spirit seeks to express itself has somewhat served its purpose, and is proving a limitation. those same great truths, and those same basic ideas, require a more adequate vehicle through which to function. christian thinkers at this time need to distinguish very carefully between the vital truths of christianity and the crystallised form of theology. the living impulse was given by the christ. he enunciated these great and eternal truths, and sent them forth to take form and meet the need of a suffering world. they were limited by the form, and there came a long period wherein that form (religious dogmas and doctrines) gradually grew and took shape. centuries ensued wherein the form and the life seemed adapted to each other, and the

ALICE A BAILEY04 A TREATISE ON COSMIC FIRE

m is the manifestation of the energy and life of a great cosmic existence, whom we call, for lack of a better term, a solar logos. this solar logos incarnates, or comes into manifestation, through the medium of a solar system. this solar system is the body, or form, of this cosmic life, and is itself triple. this triple solar system can be described in terms of three aspects, or (as the christian theology puts it) in terms of three persons. electric fire, or spirit. 1st person..father. life. will. purpose. positive energy. solar fire, or soul. 2nd person..son. consciousness. love-wisdom. equilibrised energy. fire by friction, or body, or matter. 3rd person..h. oly spirit. form. active intelligence. negative energy. each of these three is also triple in manifestation, making therefore a. th

ds in the fifth or spiritual kingdom, these three fires blaze forth simultaneously, producing perfected consciousness. this blaze results in the final purification of matter and its consequent adequacy; at the close of manifestation it brings about eventually the destruction of the form and its dissolution, and the termination of existence as understood on the lower planes. in terms of buddhistic theology it produces annihilation; this involves, not loss of identity, but the cessation of objectivity and the escape of spirit, plus mind, to its cosmic centre. it has its analogy in the initiation at which the adept stands free from the limitations of matter in the three worlds. the internal fires of the system, of the planet, and of man are threefold: 1. interior fire at the centre of the sph

ALICE A BAILEY07 FROM INTELLECT TO INTUITION

" h. a. overstreet one of the many factors which have brought humanity to its present point of development has been the growth and perfecting of its educational methods and systems. at first this was in the hands of the organized religions, but now it is practically divorced from the control of the religious bodies, and lies in the hands of the state. in the past, education was largely colored by theology and its methods were dictated by the churchmen and the priests. now the vast body of teachers are trained by the state; any religious bias is ignored on account of the many differentiated religious bodies, and the trend of the teaching is almost entirely materialistic and scientific. in the past, both in the east and in the west, we have had the education of the more highly evolved member

tle word of three letters. it is but a symbol of reality. every world religion posits a life that is immanent in form, and a cause that has brought all things into being. every human being is conscious within himself of the dim struggles (becoming more fierce as the intellect develops) to know, to understand, and answer the questions of why and wherefore. the majority of men, no matter what their theology, when they stand before the portal of death, assert their belief in the father of beings and accept the implications of that fatherhood. let us regard god as that "high and unknown purpose" which can be recognized as the sum-total of all forms which express the life, of all states of consciousness, and as the life itself; let us regard deity as that in which we live and move and have our

ALICE A BAILEY08 A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC

man will enter into his divine heritage and know himself as the son of the father, with all the divine characteristics, powers and capacities which are his because of his divine endowment. but in the meantime what have we? a breaking away from old established tradition, a revolt from authority, whether of the- 188- a treatise on white magic copyright 1998 lucis trust church, of dogma, doctrine or theology; a tendency towards self-determination and an overthrowing of the old standards, and of old barriers of thought and the divisions existing between races and faiths. hence we are passing through an intermediate stage of change and of questioning, of rebellion and consequent apparent license. the methods of science, investigation and analysis, comparison and deduction, are being applied to

or us) ultimate formulation of truth which will suffice for the next age and carry man to a high pinnacle of the temple to the mount of initiation. these two lines are: 1. those who look back to the past, who hang on to the old ways, the ancient theologies, and the reactionary rejection methods of finding truth. these are the people who recognize authority, whether that of a prophet, a bible or a theology. these are those who prefer obedience to imposed authority to the self-imposed guidance of an enlightened soul. these are the followers of a church and a government, who are distinguished by a pure devotion and love, but refuse recognition to the divine intelligence with which they are gifted. their devotion, their love of god, their strict but misguided conscience, their intolerance mark

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

ion of truth; and those of us therefore who are responsible for the teaching of the race must perforce provide that which is required. also, in so doing we work for the coming generation of enquirers, knowing full well that the advanced teaching of today, and the new ideas which influence the pioneers of humanity, become the inspiration of the thinking public in the succeeding generation, and the theology, in due time, of that which follows them. the beliefs and knowledges of the esotericists today (of the real spiritual esotericists, not of the so-called esoteric groups) are resolved into the formulas of faith of their successors, and become eventually identified with religious beliefs and organisations. mental comprehension of the ray teaching, and the study of the rays in relation to ev

ALICE A BAILEY10 FROM BETHLEHEM TO CALVARY

recognition of the reality of the individuality of christ and of his mission; and secondly, a recognition that the development of the christ consciousness and the christ nature in individual man, and in the race as a whole, carries with it the solution of our world problem. most heartily do i endorse the words of arthur weigall when he says "yet the jesus of history as distinct from the jesus of theology, remains `the way, the truth, and the life; and i am convinced that concentration upon the historic figure of our lord and upon his teaching can alone inspire in this twentieth century that fervent adherence and service which in former ages could be obtained from the average layman by the expounding of theological dogmas, the threat of hell, and the performance of elaborate rites and cere

s an expression of the human consciousness, has had its word. two thousand years ago a word was for us "made flesh" and around that dynamic centre of spiritual life our western world revolves. whether we accept this fact or question it matters not, as far as the results are concerned, for as dr. schweitzer tells us "the historical foundation of christianity, as rationalism, liberalism, and modern theology count it, exists no longer which, however, is not to say that christianity has therefore lost its historical foundation. the work which historical theology believed it must carry out, and which it sees falling to pieces at the very moment when completion was near, is only the terra cotta veneer of the true indestructible, historical foundation, which is independent of any historical knowl

elative and temporary uncertainty. this new birth is no mystical dream; neither is it a lovely vision of something that is possible but not probable; it is not simply a symbolic expression of some ultimate goal lying ahead of us in some dim future, or in some other form of existence and some eventual heaven which we can attain if we fall back upon unthinking faith and blind acceptance of all that theology can tell us. relatively easy to believe, this is the line of least resistance to the majority. it is difficult to fight one's way to that stage of experience where the divine programme for man becomes clear, and the possibilities which christ dramatised for us become something permitting us no rest until we have transmuted it into personal experience, through the experiment of initiation

well-pleased. in each of them a christ is born. thus besides the ideas of ransom and sacrifice of christ for us, these theologians placed the ideas of sanctification and inner transformation of christ in us, and they considered the latter as real and as integral a part of our redemption as the former. but the doctrine of divine immanence in the human heart never became quite the central truth of theology till the time of the medieval mystics. it is eckhart who says `the father speaks the word into the soul, and when the son is born, every soul becomes mary'"67 we are summoned to the new birth. our personalities are now alive with potentiality. the hour is upon us- 54- from bethlehem to calvary copyright 1998 lucis trust the human soul must hear the challenge of the christ soul, and realis

ity itself. such was the issue with christ, and such the implications hidden in the devil's threefold "if" rightly or wrongly, it seems to me that we have erred in interpreting all truth from the angle of the mediocre. that is what has been done. truth is capable of interpretation in many ways. those who are simply physical-emotional beings, with therefore little vision, require the protection of theology, despite its imperfections and dogmatic or untenable assertions. this they need, and the responsibility of those who administer dogmas to the "little ones" of the race is great. truth must also be given in a wider form, and with a more general connotation to those who are beginning to live consciously as souls, and who can therefore be trusted to see the meaning behind the symbol and the

atic or untenable assertions. this they need, and the responsibility of those who administer dogmas to the "little ones" of the race is great. truth must also be given in a wider form, and with a more general connotation to those who are beginning to live consciously as souls, and who can therefore be trusted to see the meaning behind the symbol and the significance behind the outer appearance of theology. truth, for the perfected sons of god, must be something beyond our dreams, of so deep a significance and of such comprehensiveness that it is futile for us to speculate upon it, for it is something to be experienced and not to be dreamed; something to enter into and not to vision. christ's reply each time should be viewed in this triple manner "it is written" he says, and the- 74- from b

pon one of them only, the crucifixion. one wonders sometimes whether the other tremendous experiences through which christ passed would have been relatively overlooked in favour of the crucifixion had the epistles never been written and had we only the gospel story upon which to base our christian belief. this is a point to consider, and worthy of serious speculation. the bias thrown on christian theology by st. paul has perhaps over-balanced the structure of the presentation of christ as we were meant to get it. the three initiations which, in the last analysis, may mean the most to the seeker after truth, are the birth into the kingdom, that august moment when the entire lower nature is transfigured and one realises the fitness of god's sons to be citizens of that kingdom, and the final

upon the revelation of the risen christ must the new world religion take its stand. christ upon the cross, as will appear when we study the next great crisis, showed us love and sacrifice carried to their extreme expression; but christ alive from all time, and vitally alive today, is the keynote of the new age, and upon this truth must the new presentation of religion be built and, later, the new theology be constructed. the true meaning of the resurrection and the ascension has not yet been grasped; as a divine subjective reality those truths still await revelation. the glory of the new age will be the unveiling of those two mysteries, and our entrance into a fuller understanding of god as life. the true church of christ is the assembly of all who live through the life of christ, and whos

connected with it, we know practically nothing, beyond the fact that christ rose from the dead. the resurrection initiation is veiled in silence. all that is recorded is the reaction of those who knew and loved the lord, and the after-effects upon the history of the christian church. but the crucifixion has always been the outstanding, dramatic episode upon which the entire structure of christian theology has been founded. upon this has the emphasis been laid. millions of words have been written about it, and thousands of books and commentaries have attempted to elucidate its meaning and to explain the significance of its mystery. down the ages a myriad points of view have been presented for the consideration of men. there has been much misinterpretation, but much also that is divinely rea

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

stroy. mental separation. desire for knowledge. this leads to material activity. detailed analysis. intense materialism and temporarily the negation of deity. intensification of the power to isolate. the implications of wrong emphasis. distorted views of truth- 26- a treatise on the seven rays- volume ii: esoteric psychology ii copyright 1998 lucis trust mental devotion to form and form activity. theology, leading to a knowledge of reality. the realisation of the soul and its potentialities. power to recognize and contact the angel of the presence. sensitivity to deity, to light and to wisdom. spiritual and mental devotion. the power to take initiation (this is a point of real importance) ray six violence. fanaticism. willful adherence to an ideal. short sighted blindness. militarism and a

e found, nevertheless, even in the most undesirable types of human beings; it is evolved in moments of high destiny or immediate urgency, and of supreme difficulty. the heart of man is sound, but oft asleep. serve and obey! these are the watchwords of the disciple's life. they have been distorted into terms of fanatical propaganda and have thus produced the formulas of philosophy and of religious theology; but these formulas do, at the same time, veil a truth. they have been presented to the consideration of man in terms of personality devotions and of obedience to masters and leaders, instead of service of, and obedience to, the soul in all. the truth is, however, steadily emerging, and must inevitably triumph. once the aspirant upon the probationary path has a vision of this (no matter h

s- volume ii: esoteric psychology ii copyright 1998 lucis trust behind the manifested universe, however, stands the formless one, that which is not an individual, being free from the limitations of individualised existence. therefore the buddhist is right when he emphasises the non-individualised nature of deity and refuses to personalise divinity. the father, son and holy spirit of the christian theology, embodying as they do the triplicities of all theologies, disappear also into the one when the period of manifestation is over. they remain as one, with quality and life untouched and undifferentiated, as they are when in manifestation. an analogy to this appears when a man dies. then his three aspects mind or will, emotion or love, and physical appearance vanish. there is then no person

ALICE A BAILEY12 DISCIPLESHIP IN THE NEW AGE VOLUME I

s in one section of the fourth degree, entitled weavers in the light. the teaching on glamour has been given as some of the reading matter for another section. no obedience is expected in the arcane school, no emphasis is laid on "obeying the master" for no master is running the school. emphasis is laid upon the one master in the heart, the soul, the true spiritual man within each human being; no theology is taught; the student is under no compulsion to accept any interpretation or presentation of truth; he can accept or reject the fact of the masters, of the hierarchy, of reincarnation, or of the soul and still remain a member of the school in good standing. no loyalty is expected or asked, either to the school or to a.a.b. students can work in any of the occult, esoteric, metaphysical or

ALICE A BAILEY13 PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY

sing all that is true, beautiful and good (inherited from the past) but which will emphasize certain basic objectives which have hitherto been largely ignored. these newer techniques and methods must be developed gradually and will hasten the process of integrating the whole man. there is no hope for the future world except in a humanity which accepts the fact of divinity, even whilst repudiating theology, which recognizes the presence of the living christ, whilst rejecting man-made interpretations of him and of his message, and which emphasizes the authority of the human soul. the future which lies ahead is full of promise. let us base our optimism upon humanity itself. let us recognize the self-proven fact that there is a peculiar quality in every man, an innate, inherent characteristic

great organized religious groups of churches in every land and composing all faiths do not offer spiritual guidance and help, humanity will find another way. nothing can keep the spirit of man from god. i. the failure of the churches let us remember: christ has not failed. it is the human element which has failed and which has thwarted his intentions, and prostituted the truth which he presented. theology, dogma, doctrine, materialism, politics and money have created a vast dark cloud between the churches and god; they have shut out the true vision of god's love, and it is to this vision of a loving reality and to a vital recognition of its implications that we must return. is there any chance that a renewal of the faith as it was in christ will return? are there enough men of vision in th

man's recollection of what was said. at the same time, it must be remembered that the general trend and the basic teaching, as well as the significance of the symbols, is usually correct, though again, symbolism itself must be subjected to modern translation and not to the misinterpretation of ignorance. the point is that dogmas and- 73- problems of humanity copyright 1998 lucis trust doctrines, theology and dogmatic affirmations, do not necessarily indicate the truth as it exists in the mind of god, with whose mind the majority of dogmatic interpreters claim familiarity. theology is simply what men think is in the mind of god. the more ancient the scripture, the greater, necessarily, the distortion. the doctrine of a vengeful god, the doctrine of retribution in some mythical hell, the te

mbol, the teaching about the virgin birth and the picture of an angry deity only appeased by death are the unhappy results of man's own thinking, of his own lower nature, of his sectarian isolationism (fostered by the jewish old testament, but not generally found in the oriental faiths) and of his sense of fear, inherited from the animal side of his nature all these are fostered and inculcated by theology but not by christ, or the buddha or shri krishna. the little minds of men at their past and present stages of evolution cannot today and never have comprehended the mind and the purposes of the one in whom we live and move and have our being; they have interpreted god in terms of themselves; therefore when men unthinkingly accept a dogma, they are only accepting the point of view of some

authenticity and historicity of the bible. today men's minds are recognizing the dawn of freedom; they are realizing that every man should be free to worship god in his own way. this will not mean (in the coming new age) that every man will pick a theological school to which he will choose to adhere. his own god-illumined mind will search for truth and he will interpret it for himself. the day of theology- 74- problems of humanity copyright 1998 lucis trust is over and that of a living truth is with us. this the orthodox churches refuse to recognize. truth is essentially non-controversial; where controversy emerges, the concept is usually secondary in importance and consists largely of men's ideas about truth. men have gone far today in the rejection of dogmas and doctrine and this is good

ndary in importance and consists largely of men's ideas about truth. men have gone far today in the rejection of dogmas and doctrine and this is good and right and encouraging. it signifies progress, but, as yet, the churches fail to see in this the workings of divinity. freedom of thought, the questioning of presented truths, a refusal to accept the teachings of the churches in terms of the past theology, and a rejection of imposed ecclesiastical authority are characteristic of creative spiritual thinking at this time; this is regarded by orthodox churchmen as indicative of dangerous tendencies and as a turning away from god and, consequently, of a loss of the sense of divinity. it indicates exactly the reverse. perhaps as serious, because of its effect upon untold thousands of the more i

as- 76- problems of humanity copyright 1998 lucis trust conditions the roman catholic church, but it is a quarrelling, fanatical and intolerant body of believers. the spirit of differentiation is rampant; there is no unity or cohesion among them, but usually a constant spirit of rejection, a virulent partisanship and the growth of hundreds of protestant cults, a constant presentation of a narrow theology which teaches nothing new but produces fresh quarrelling around some doctrines or some question of church organization or procedure. the protestant churches have set a precedent of acrimonious controversy from which the older churches are relatively free, owing to their hierarchical method of government and their centralized authoritarian control. again, how ever, the first efforts to ach

nd they struggle and strive to present sound christian and religious ideas to a searching, suffering world. they are true sons of god; their feet are set in most unpleasant places; they are aware of the "dry rot" which has undermined the clerical structure and of the bigotry, selfishness, greed and narrow-mindedness with which they are surrounded. they know well that no man has ever been saved by theology but only by the living christ and through the awakened consciousness of the christ within each human heart; they interiorly repudiate the materialism in their environment and see little hope for humanity in the churches; they know well that the spiritual realities have been forgotten in the material development of the churches; they love their fellowmen and would like to divert the money

t attitude to life and its processes, based on continuously renewed opportunity, controls the people. christianity has emphasized immortality but has made eternal happiness dependent upon the acceptance of a theological dogma: be a true professing christian and live eternally in a somewhat fatuous heaven or refuse to be an accepting christian and go to an impossible hell a hell growing out of the theology of the old testament and its presentation of a god full of hate and jealousy. both concepts are today repudiated by all sane, sincere, thinking people. no one of any true reasoning power or with any true belief in a god of love accepts the heaven of the churchmen or has any desire to go there. still less do they accept the "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" or the everlasting tor

ALICE A BAILEY14 THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST

firmations of other human minds who claim that they do understand and that they have the truth. he does not believe that their minds and their interpretations are any better than his. the same old formulas, the same old theologies and the same old interpretations are deemed adequate to meet man's modern needs and enquiries. they are not. the church today is the tomb of the christ and the stone of theology has been rolled to the door of the sepulchre. there is, however, no point in attacking christianity. christianity cannot be attacked; it is an expression in essence, if not yet entirely factual of the love of god, immanent in his created universe. churchianity has, however, laid itself wide open to attack, and the mass of thinking people are aware of this; unfortunately, these thinking pe

d endorse the spread of the true teaching of the christ. it is not possible that he has any pleasure in the great stone temples which churchmen have built, whilst his people are left without guidance or reasonable light upon world affairs; surely, he must feel (with an aching heart) that the simplicity which he taught and the simple way to god which he emphasised have disappeared into the fogs of theology (initiated by st. paul) and in the discussions of churchmen throughout the centuries. men have travelled far from the simplicity of thought and from the simple, spiritual life which the early christians lived. is it not possible that the christ may regard the separative life of the churches and the arrogance of the theologians as wrong and undesirable dividing (as they have) the world int

rituals and the ceremonies, the pomp and the vestments, the candles and the gold and silver, the graded order of popes, cardinals, archbishops, canons and ordinary rectors, pastors and clergy would seemingly have small interest for the simple son of god, who when on earth had not where to lay his head. the presentation of religious truth in the past has blocked the growth of the religious spirit; theology has brought mankind to the very gates of despair; the delicate flower of the christ life has been stunted and arrested in the dark caves of man's thinking; fanatical adherence to human interpretations has taken the place of christian living; millions of books have obliterated the living words of christ; the arguments and discussions of priests have put out the light which the buddha broug

ocesses, based on continuously renewed opportunity, controls the people. christianity has emphasised immortality but has made eternal happiness dependent upon the acceptance of a theological dogma: be a true professing christian and live in a somewhat fatuous heaven or refuse to be an accepting christian, or a negative professional christian, and go to an impossible hell a hell growing out of the theology of the old testament and its presentation of a god, full of hate and jealousy. both concepts are today repudiated by all sane, sincere, thinking people. no one of any true reasoning power or with any true belief in a god of love accepts the heaven of the churchmen or has any desire to go there. still less do they accept the "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone (rev. xix.20) or the e

ALICE A BAILEY15 THE DESTINY OF THE NATIONS

separativeness from- 21- the destiny of the nations copyright 1998 lucis trust all other forms of faith as well as its internal dissensions, its protesting groups and its cliques and cabals. the church has wandered far from the simplicity which is in christ. theologians have lost (if they ever possessed it) the "mind that is in christ" and the outstanding need of the church today is to relinquish theology, to let go all doctrine and dogma and to turn upon the world the light that is in christ, and thus demonstrate the fact of christ's eternal livingness, and the beauty and the love which it can reflect from its contact with him, the founder of christianity but not of churchianity. i generalise. there are those in the church today who do express all that i have stated and who are reflection

n the world the light that is in christ, and thus demonstrate the fact of christ's eternal livingness, and the beauty and the love which it can reflect from its contact with him, the founder of christianity but not of churchianity. i generalise. there are those in the church today who do express all that i have stated and who are reflections in the truest sense of the living christ. they relegate theology and authority to their rightful place and regard the discussions of theologians as simply expressions of perhaps needed mental gymnastics and as incentives to thought, but they do not regard them as conditioning factors, determining man's salvation or not. they know that man's salvation is determined by the processes of evolution and is not a question of ultimate achievement but simply on

ALICE A BAILEY17 TELEPATHY AND THE ETHERIC VEHICLE

ce (if i might use such a term) submerges the astral nature, vitalising and inspiring the astral body, changing temporarily the quality of the astral aura, and establishing a control which will lead finally to the substitution which i have mentioned above. this is an aspect of the truth which underlies the doctrine of "vicarious atonement" a doctrine which has been woefully distorted by christian theology. registration, recording and interpretation let us now deal with the aforementioned "processes of registration, of recording interpretations, and the resultant invocative response" we must bear in mind always that i am stating general rules and that i am not dealing either with the ideal or with the undesirable; the sources of impression change as the disciple makes progress, though alway

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

the sixth ray- 127- a treatise on the seven rays- volume iii: esoteric astrology copyright 1998 lucis trust working through mars, rules christianity. it is a religion of devotion, fanaticism, of high courage, of idealism, of the spiritual emphasis upon the individual and his worth and problem, of conflict and of death. all those characteristics are familiar to us in the presentation of christian theology. it is however pre-eminently a religion which has waged a cruel and oft illogical war upon sex and its implications; it has emphasised a militant celibacy (militant where women and their rights and natures are concerned; it has regarded the sex relation as one of the primary evils in the world and has laid the emphasis upon the inviolable nature of the marriage bond when endorsed by the c

icent or the malefic effect of the impact of sixth ray force upon the form nature. little emphasis has been laid nevertheless upon the influence of mars upon christianity, making it a definitely militant religion, oft cruel and sadistic (as witness the murders and tortures carried out in the name of christ, who was the outstanding representative of god's love. throughout the teaching of christian theology, the theme of blood runs ceaselessly and the source of salvation is laid upon the blood relationship and not upon the life aspect which the blood veils and symbolises. it is the creed of a crucified and dead christ which rules christianity and not that of the risen master. one of the reasons for this travesty of the truth has been that st. paul, that great initiate, prior to taking the th

ALICE A BAILEY19 THE UNFINISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHY

an imagine nothing more appalling than the perpetuation of the victorian era, for instance, with its ugliness, its smugness, and the excessive comfort of the upper classes (so-called) and the frightful condition under which the labouring classes struggled. it was in that well-padded, sleek and comfortable world i lived when a girl. i can imagine nothing more blighting to the human spirit than the theology of the past with the emphasis upon a god who saves a smug few and condemns the majority to perdition. i can imagine nothing more conducive to unrest, class war, hate and degradation than the economic situation of the world, then and for many decades a situation largely responsible for the present world war (1914-1945- 5- the unfinished autobiography copyright 1998 lucis trust thank god, w

ay in cardoness castle, kirkcudbrightshire, is of one of the loveliest women one can imagine. she married the "younger of cardoness (as the heir is sometimes called in scotland, the eldest son of sir william maxwell, but her husband, my uncle david, died before his father and, therefore, never inherited the title. to her i owe more than i can ever repay. she oriented me spiritually and though her theology was very narrow, yet she herself was very broad. she gave me certain keynotes for spiritual living which have never failed me and to the end, she herself never failed me. when i became interested in esoteric matters and gave up being an orthodox, theologically minded christian, she wrote me that she could not understand but she certainly could trust me because she knew that i had a deep l

at that time) the heathen were still heathen and i was a christian. deep and fundamental doubts were left in my mind. my life was henceforth coloured (and is today) by the knowledge that there were masters and subjective events upon the inner spiritual planes and in the world of meaning which were a part of life itself, perhaps the most important part. how could i fit these things into my limited theology and my daily life. i did not know. it is said that one's deepest and most intimate spiritual experiences should never be discussed or related. this is fundamentally true and no true "experiencer" is the least interested in such discussions. the deeper and more vital the experience, the less temptation is there to tell it. only beginners with a theoretical, imaginative event in their consc

er questioned and of which i am eternally sure is the fact of christ himself. i do know whom i have believed. that fact has stood the test and is no longer on the basis of belief but of knowledge. christ is. he stands "the master of all the masters and the teacher alike of angels and of men" but beyond this one unalterable fact, the whole mental fabric of my life and my attitude towards the trite theology of my co-workers was shaken to the very foundation. it remained thus shaken until 1915. unfortunately for me and giving the third reason for my physical breakdown, i fell in love, for the first time, with a gentleman ranker (as they are called) a private in an hussar regiment. i had imagined myself in love many times. i can well remember a major in a certain regiment (now a famous general

keeper and a mother, poultry keeper and gardener and my rich life as a girl and my full life as an evangelist finally got me completely down. i felt i was of no use to anybody; that i must have gone off the track along some line or else i would not be in this position. the old christian complex of being a "miserable sinner" overwhelmed me. my conscience, morbidly conditioned by the fundamentalist theology, kept telling me i was paying the penalty of my questioning doubts and that if i had held on to my girlhood faith and surety i would not now be in this pickle. the church had failed me, because walter was a churchman and the other churchmen i had met seemed to be so mediocre, with the- 70- the unfinished autobiography copyright 1998 lucis trust exception of the bishop. he was a saint but

d faith and surety i would not now be in this pickle. the church had failed me, because walter was a churchman and the other churchmen i had met seemed to be so mediocre, with the- 70- the unfinished autobiography copyright 1998 lucis trust exception of the bishop. he was a saint but then, i argued, he would have been a saint anyway even if he had been a plumber or a stockbroker. i knew enough of theology to have lost my faith in theological interpretations and i felt that there was nothing left me except a vague belief in christ, who at this time seemed very far away. i felt deserted by god and man. let me say here that there is no question in my mind that the church is playing a losing game unless it changes its technique. i cannot understand why churchmen do not move with the times. all

by god and man. let me say here that there is no question in my mind that the church is playing a losing game unless it changes its technique. i cannot understand why churchmen do not move with the times. all evolutionary development in all fields is an expression of divinity and the static condition of theological interpretation is contrary to the great law of the universe, evolution. after all, theology is simply man's interpretation and understanding of what he thinks god means. but it is a human, finite brain that does the thinking and has done the thinking down the ages. hence other human and finite brains can appear and give other, deeper, more significant or broader interpretations and thus found a more progressive theology. who dare say that they are not as right as churchmen in th

ng truths. they are not interested in the virgin birth they are interested in the fact of christ. they know too much to accept the verbal inspiration of the scriptures; but they are prepared to believe in the word of god. life is so full of movement today, of heroes, of beauty, of tragedy and cataclysm and of reality and glorious opportunity that this generation has no time for the puerilities of theology. fortunately, there are within the church a few men of vision who will, eventually, change the reactionary attitude, but it will take time. in the meantime, the cults and the isms will engulf the people. this would not be necessary if the church would wake up and give a seeking, urgent humanity what it needs not soporifics, not authority, not sweet platitudes but the living christ. after

eparate places would go on climbing the ladder of evolution, life after life, until some day for each of us it would be equally true "as he is, so are we in this world" it seemed reasonable to me that "as a man soweth so shall he also reap" and it was a joy to me to discover that i could call in st. paul and christ, himself, to substantiate these teachings. clear light was being thrown on the old theology. i was discovering that the only thing that was wrong was man-made interpretations of the truth and it dawned on me how silly it was just because some learned preacher or scholar said that god meant this or that that we should accept it. he might be right and if so, intuitively one would know it; but the intuition does not work unless the mind is developed and that has been a lot of the t

ALICE A BAILEY20 A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYS VOLUME IV ESOTERIC HEALING

isunderstanding of the law of karma as i am anxious to have you set out on this study of the laws of healing with a free and open mind as far as may be, realising that your understanding of these laws is limited by- 13- a treatise on the seven rays- volume iv: esoteric healing copyright 1998 lucis trust 1. old theologies, with their static, distorted, and erroneous points of view. the teaching of theology is most misleading, but is, alas, generally accepted. 2. world thought, strongly tinged with the desire element, and with little in it of real thought. men interpret these dimly sensed laws in terms of finality and from their little point of view. the idea of retribution runs through much of the teaching on karma, for instance, because men seek a plausible explanation of things as they ap

ALICE A BAILEY22 DISCIPLESHIP IN THE NEW AGE VOLUME II

concern the right feeding and the development of a true security for millions who for many lives will not be interested in matters esoteric. the- 163- discipleship in the new age- volume ii copyright 1998 lucis trust reform of the churches of the many world religions is another aspect of the same work, requiring no occult information but the introduction of commonsense and progressive ideas into theology, and the shift of the ecclesiastical emphasis from material values to the spiritual. the political regimes of the world need orienting to each other; it has never been the divine plan that all nations and races should conform to some standard political ideology or be reduced to a uniform general form of government. nations differ; they have different cultures and traditions; they can func

be occultly expressed- 235- discipleship in the new age- volume ii copyright 1998 lucis trust for the initiate (at this great stage of experience, karma ends. by this i mean that karma as the ordinary student understands it is no longer effective. neither good karma, resulting in a sense of bliss, nor bad karma, resulting in a sense of penalty and related to a conviction of sin, as the christian theology so dreadfully miscalls it, has any longer the slightest hold upon him. manifestation and the law of cause and effect are related; where manifestation exists, there this great law governing substance and innate in matter must control and must condition form. the master, however, stands free, endowed with the christ-consciousness. he then wields this law, but is not wielded by it. such is t

h is "conditioned by gold (as the saying is) and that which belongs to a passing age an age which should pass. this affects also your sixth ray personality and, consequently, from many angles your allegiances and your loyalties are motivated by the sixth ray and based on personality decisions and not on the illumined vision of the soul. the fact, however, that you have broken with orthodoxy where theology is concerned indicates (to us who watch) a great measure of emancipation and of emerging soul control. you will find, if your intuition gets more dynamic and your first ray astral body (the ray of government and politics) does not unduly affect you, that an increasing measure of thought release will be yours. in this connection and in order to enlarge your perspective, i would add that ch

ALICE A BAILEY23 THE EXTERNALISATION OF THE HIERARCHY

hment are the two safeguards. where the form is more potent than the life, danger is imminent; where attachment to the material aspect or organisation is present, spiritual values are lost. today we are watching the death of a civilisation or cycle of incarnation of humanity. in all fields of human expression, crystallisation and deterioration had set in. worn-out religious dogmas and the grip of theology and the orthodox churches have no longer sufficed to hold the allegiance of the potent, inner, spiritual life; humanity is deeply spiritual and innately religious but needs today a new form with which to clothe the ancient verities. old political schools have been deemed inadequate and new ideologies bear witness to the strength of the life which is seeking more adequate expression; the e

lined is now abrogated; only fulfilment is postponed. for seven critical years, it lay in the hands of the spiritually minded men of the world, in the hands of the churches in all lands and of the men of goodwill and of the world aspirants so to work that the present conflict could have been avoided. but the spirit of christ was lost in clerical organisation; emphasis has been laid upon technical theology; the spirit of goodwill was not expressed dynamically and practically, but theoretically and negatively; the aspirants of the world had no true sense of values but were content to give a little time to the spiritual life and to other people, but much time was lost in individual, personal aims. a spirit of inertia settled down upon the better inclined and upon the more understanding people

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 movements throughout the world. the progress of the human spirit has been one of irresistible unfoldment, of a developing appreciation of re

, that the emergence of a world religion is necessarily of profound difficulty. but that emergence is very close at hand and the differences are relatively superficial. the new world religion is nearer than many think, and this is due to two things: first, the theological quarrels are mainly over non-essentials, and secondly, the younger generation is basically spiritual but quite uninterested in theology. the intelligent youth of all countries are rapidly repudiating orthodox theology, state ecclesiasticism and the control of the church. they are neither interested in man-made interpretations of truth nor in past quarrels between the major world religions. at the same time, they are profoundly interested in the spiritual values and are earnestly seeking verification of their deep-seated u

and the veracity of the gospel story is recognised and accepted, for he is more interested that the search for truth and for subjective spiritual experience should persist; he knows that within each human heart is found that which responds instinctively to god, and that the hope of ultimate glory lies hid in the christ-consciousness. therefore, in the new world order, spirituality will supersede theology; living experience will take the place of theological acceptances. the spiritual realities will emerge with increasing clarity and the form aspect will recede into the background; dynamic, expressive truth will be the keynote of the new world religion. the living christ will assume his rightful place in human consciousness and see the fruition of his plans, sacrifice and service, but the

ssumption of spiritual rule in the hearts of men everywhere. i know that he has no pleasure in the great stone temples which man has built whilst his people are left without practical guidance or reasonable light upon their affairs; and i know too that he feels, with an aching heart, that the simplicity which he taught, and the simple way to god which he emphasised have disappeared in the fogs of theology and the discussions of churchmen throughout the centuries. i know that he realises that the words he spoke have been lost in the labyrinths of the ecclesiastical minds which have sought to interpret- 265- the externalisation of the hierarchy copyright 1998 lucis trust them, and that the simple teaching of the approach to god which he taught has been superseded by the pomp and ceremony of

ady are making the needed preparations. the coming struggle will emerge within the churches themselves; it will also be precipitated by the enlightened elements who exist in fair numbers already, and are rapidly growing in strength through the impact of human necessity. the fight will then spread to thinking men and women everywhere who in a protesting revolt have denied orthodox churchianity and theology. they are not irreligious but have, through pain and sorrow, learned (without ecclesiastical help) that the spiritual values are the only values which can salvage humanity, that the hierarchy stands, and that christ as the symbol of peace and the leader of the forces of light is not a negligible force but one that is evoking response from the hearts of men everywhere. true religion will c

asters or higher initiates which can respond to any vibration of this nature. though they cannot absorb it or react to it or redevelop it again, it can cause them the acutest discomfort and pain; that is the reason why the son of god was called in the old testament a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. this did not in reality refer to his sufferings for poor miserable humanity (as orthodox theology so selfishly interprets it) but to the fact that he had to submit himself to contact with humanity. the hierarchy is therefore, along all lines (many of which i may not indicate or upon which i may not enlarge- 347- the externalisation of the hierarchy copyright 1998 lucis trust preparing itself for the experience of physical manifestation; it is also endeavouring to "create" the needed r

the part of workers of all grades and kinds in the world, for otherwise perception is not possible. to each point enumerated i will append in a few brief words the reason why it is regarded as important: 1. the reorganisation of the world religions. reasons a. to make way for the world religion, universal religion. b. to return humanity to the simplicity which is in christ. c. to rid the world of theology and ecclesiasticism. 2. the gradual dissolution of orthodox judaism. reasons a. because of its presentation of a wrathful jehovah, caring only for his chosen people. this is a basic evil. the lord of the world, the god in whom we live and move and have our being, is totally otherwise. b. because of its separativeness. c. because it is so ancient that its teachings are largely obsolete. d

ALICE A BAILEY24 A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYS VOLUME V THE RAYS AND THE INITIATIONS

a group of enlightened masons will re-arrange the rituals and adapt the present forms and formulas in such a manner that the spiritual possibilities, symbolically indicated, will emerge with greater clarity and a deepened spiritual potency; the coming form of masonry in the new age will necessarily rest upon the foundation of a newly interpreted and enlightened christianity, having no relation to theology and being universal in nature. its present form, resting as it does on a jewish foundation which is nearly five thousand years old, must disappear. this must take place, not because it is jewish, but because it is old and reactionary and has not followed the evolutionary passage of the sun through the zodiac. that passage should and does symbolise human evolution, and just as the sin of t

ALICE BAILEY THE LABOURS OF HERCULES

r its ancient appeal but, in spite of a widespread revolt against organized, or ecclesiastical religion, the urge towards the spiritual realities has never been more keen than it is today. the period of empirical experience on a large scale is with us. men and women everywhere are refusing any longer to believe the authoritative pronouncements of the churches or to accept blindly the dicta of any theology. they are determined to know for themselves the facts of the inner mystical experience, if such facts can be ascertained, and to grasp for themselves the nature of that identity which we call the soul. the world setting is ripe for a renewal of a living faith and religion which will be based upon personal knowledge and not upon the pronouncements and the- 118- the labours of hercules inte

AN INTRO TO STUDY OF THE KABALAH

he name qblh from qbl to receive, and it became varied by the minds through which it filtered in its course; there is no proof that any part of it was written for centuries after. it has been kept curiously distinct both from the exoteric pentateuchal mosaic books, and from the ever-growing commentaries upon them, the mishna and gemara, which form the talmud. this seems to have grown up in hebrew theology without combining with the recondite doctrines of the kabalah. in a similar manner we see in india that the upanishads, an esoteric series of treatises, grew up alongside the brahmanas and the puranas, which are exoteric instructions designed for the use of the masses of the people. with regard to the oldest kabalistic books still extant, a controversy has raged among modern critics, who

as are doubtless almost as old as the first promulgation of the main principles of the worship of jehovah. i cannot now attempt any glance at the contentions of some doubting scholars, who question whether the story of the twelve tribes is a historic fact, or whether there ever were a moses, or even a king solomon. it is sufficient for the present purpose that the jewish nation had the jehovistic theology and a system of priestly caste, and a coherent doctrine, at the time of the second temple when cyrus, sovereign of all asia, 536 b.c, holding the jews in captivity, permitted certain of them to return to jerusalem for the express purpose of reestablishing the hebrew mode of worship which had been forcibly interfered with by nebuchadnezzar in 587 b.c. after this return to jerusalem it was

them into seven planes referable to the worlds of the seven planetary powers, thus connecting the kabalah with astrology (w. gorn old has recently published a volume called "kabalistic astrology) to each sephira were allotted in briah an especial archangel, and in yetzirah an army of angels; these connect the kabalah with talismanic magic. there is also a close relation between the old kabalistic theology and alchymy; each sephira of assiah becomes the allegoric emblem of one of the metals: and there is a special rabbinic volume named "asch metzareph" entirely concerned with alchymy; its name in english meaning is "cleansing fires (my english translation can be obtained) a. e. waite in his work on the kabalah states that rabbi azariel ben menachem in his "commentary on the sephiroth" allot

ANATHEMA OF ZOS

ot obtain among vermin with vain ideas-with hopes and fears of absurd significance. not yet am i over-weary of myself. not ye shall i palliate abomination, for in ye i behold your parents and the stigmata of foul feeding. in this ribald intoxication of hypocrisy, this monument of swindlers' littlenesses, where is the mystic symposium, the hierarchy of necromancers that was? honest was sodom! your theology is a slime-pit of gibberish become ethics. in your world, where ignorance and deceit constitute felicity, everything ends miserably-besmirched with fratricidal blood. seekers of salvation? salvation of your sick digestion; crippled beliefs: convalescent desires. your borrowed precepts and prayers-a stench unto all good nostrils! unworthy of a soul-your metamorphosis is laborious of morbid

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

d not hurt him. the modern anthropologist is quite welcome to laugh at our titans, as he laughs at the biblical adam, and as the theologian laughs at his pithecoid ancestor. the occultists and their severe critics may feel that they have pretty well mutually squared their accounts by this time. occult sciences claim less and give more, at all events, than either darwinian anthropology or biblical theology. nor ought the esoteric chronology to frighten any one; for, with regard to figures, the greatest authorities of the day are as fickle and as uncertain as the mediterranean wave. as regards the duration of the geological periods alone, the learned men of the royal society are all hopelessly at sea, and jump from one million to five hundred millions of years with the utmost ease, as will b

cease to repeat that primal intelligence can never be understood. it cannot be comprehended, nor can it be located, therefore it has to remain nameless and negative. hence the ain-soph- the "unknowable" and the "unnameable- which, as it could not be made manifest, was conceived to emanate manifesting powers. it is then with its emanations alone that human intellect has to, and can deal. christian theology, having rejected the doctrine of emanations and replaced them with direct, conscious creations 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

verse. tara, the priest's wife, who symbolizes the worshipper, prefers esoteric truths to their mere shell, exotericism; hence she is shown as carried off by soma. now soma is the sacred juice of that name, giving mystic visions and trance revelations, the result of which union is budha (wisdom, mercury, hermes, etc, etc; that science in short which to this day is proclaimed by the brihaspatis of theology as devilish and satanic. what wonder that by expanding the cycle of this allegory we find christian theology espousing the quarrel of the hindu gods, and regarding usanas (lucifer, who helped soma against that ancient personification of ritualistic worship (brahmanaspati, the lord of the brahmans, now become "jupiter-jehovah) as satan, the "enemy of god[[vol. 2, page] 46 the secret doctri

e a possibility in her opening programme; which possibility may even have existed once upon a time as a law, before she sorted out her species and began regular work upon them; which indeed now admits of definite proof by the bare fact of "reversion" as science puts it. this is what the doctrine teaches and demonstrates by numerous proofs. but we shall not wait for the approval of either dogmatic theology or materialistic science, but proceed with the stanzas. let these speak for themselves, with the help of the light thrown by the commentaries and their explanations; the scientific aspect of these questions will be considered later on. thus physical nature, when left to herself in the creation of animal and man, is shown to have failed. she can produce the first two and the lower animal k

produced; after which, abandoning this body, it was transformed into night (see part ii "the fallen angels) two important points are involved herein (a) primarily in the rig-veda, the "asuras" are shown as spiritual divine beings; their etymology is derived from asu (breath, the "breath of god" and they mean the same as the supreme spirit or the zoroastrian ahura. it is later on, for purposes of theology and dogma, that they are shown issuing from brahma's thigh, and that their name began to be derived from a privative, and sura, god (solar deities, or not-a-god, and that they became the enemies of the gods. every ancient theogony without exception- from the aryan and the egyptian down to that of hesiod- places, in the order of cosmogonical evolution, night before the day; even genesis, w

wing stanza vii. in book i. the whole philosophy of the so-called "creation" of the good and evil in this world and of the whole cycle of manvantaric results therefrom, hangs on the correct comprehension of these four bodies of brahma. the reader will now be prepared to understand the real, the esoteric significance of what follows. moreover there is an important point to be cleared up. christian theology having arbitrarily settled and agreed that satan with his fallen angels belonged to the earliest creation, satan being the first-created, the wisest and most beautiful of god's archangels, the word was given, the key-note struck. henceforth all the pagan scriptures were made to yield the same meaning, and all were shown to be demoniacal, and it was and is claimed that truth and fact belon

uses led the initiates among the early christians to remain silent, while those who had never known the truth disfigured the order of things, judging of the hierarchy of "angels" by their exoteric form. thus as the asuras had become the rebellious inferior gods fighting the higher ones in popular creeds, so the highest archangel, in truth the agathodaemon, the eldest benevolent logos, became with theology the "adversary" or satan. but is this warranted by the correct interpretation of any old scripture? the answer is, most certainly not. as the mazdean scriptures of the[[footnote(s* the same idea is found in the first four chapters of genesis, with their "lord" and "god" which are the elohim and the androgynous eloha[[vol. 2, page] 61 what the gnostics say. zend-avesta, the vendidad and ot

ngers of anu (who is sin, the "moon) are shown, in verses 28 to 41, as being finally overpowered by the same sin with the help of bel (the sun) and ishtar (venus. this is regarded as a contradiction by the assyriologists, but is simply metaphysics in the esoteric teaching. there is more than one interpretation, for there are seven keys to the mystery of the fall. moreover there are two "falls" in theology: the rebellion of the archangels and their "fall" and the "fall" of adam and eve. thus the lower as well as the higher hierarchies are charged with a supposed crime. the word "supposed" is the true and correct term, for in both cases it is founded on misconception. both are considered in occultism as karmic effects, and both belong to the law of evolution: intellectual and spiritual on th

terms, which no matter-of-fact orientalist has yet endeavoured to make out, nor could he if he would. these sacred astronomical cycles are of immense antiquity, and most of them pertain, as stated, to the calculations of narada and asuramaya. the latter has the reputation of a giant and a sorcerer. but the antediluvian giants (the gibborim of the bible) were not all bad or sorcerers, as christian theology, which sees in every occultist a servant of the evil one, would have it; nor were they worse than many of "the faithful sons of the church" a torquemada and a catherine de medicis certainly did more harm in their day and in the name of their master than any atlantean giant or demigod of antiquity ever did; whether his name was cyclops, or medusa, or yet the orphic titan, the anguipedal mo

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

t of sanskrit and brahman learning. but all such proofs must lose their value, in the presence of the latest theory worked out by prof. max muller. what it is everyone knows. the code of phonetic laws has now become a universal solvent for every identification and "connection" between[[footnote(s* see max muller's "introduction to the science of religion" lecture on false analogies in comparative theology, pp. 288 and 296 et seq. this relates to the clever forgery (on leaves inserted in old puranic mss, in correct and archaic sanskrit, of all that the pundits of col. wilford had heard from him about adam and abraham, noah and his three sons, etc, etc[[vol. 1, page] xxxii introductory. the gods of many nations. thus, though the mother of mercury (budha, thot-hermes, etc, was maia, the mothe

alism and nominalism "has science" says one of its ablest advocates, edward clodd "revealed anything that weakens or opposes itself to the ancient words in which the essence of all religion, past, present, and to come, is given; to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before thy god" provided we connote by the word god, not the crude anthropomorphism which is still the backbone of our current theology, but the symbolic conception of that which is life and motion of the universe, to know which in physical order is to know time past, present, and to come, in the existence of successions of phenomena; to know which, in the moral, is to know what has been, is, and will be, within human consciousness (see "science and the emotions" a discourse delivered at south place chapel, finsbury, lond

dhi. the one reality; its dual aspects in the conditioned universe. further, the secret doctrine affirms (b) the eternity of the universe in toto as a boundless plane; periodically "the playground of numberless universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing" called "the manifesting stars" and the "sparks of eternity "the eternity of the pilgrim* is like a wink[[footnote(s* called by christian theology: archangels, seraphs, etc, etc "pilgrim" is the appellation given to our monad (the two in one) during its cycle of incarnations. it is the only immortal and eternal principle in us, being an indivisible part of the integral whole- the universal spirit, from which it emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end of the cycle. when it is said to emanate from the one[[footnote continue

and hence lands his readers on the bleak shore of agnostic despair- reverently formulates the grand mystery "that which persists unchanging in quantity, but ever changing in form, under these sensible appearances which the universe presents to us, is an unknown and unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise as without limit in space and without beginning or end in time" it is only daring theology- never science or philosophy- which seeks to gauge the infinite and unveil the fathomless and unknowable[[vol. 1, page] 20 the secret doctrine. secret doctrine. brahma (neuter) is called kalahansa, meaning, as explained by western orientalists, the eternal swan or goose (see stanza iii, comment. 8, and so is brahma, the creator. a great mistake is thus brought under notice; it is brahma (

visible matter. it is the soul, so to say, of the one infinite spirit. the hindus call it mulaprakriti, and say that it is the primordial substance, which is the basis of the upadhi or vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, mental or psychic. it is the source from which akasa radiates (a) by the seven "eternities" aeons or periods are meant. the word "eternity" as understood in christian theology, has no meaning to the asiatic ear, except in its application to the one existence; nor is[[vol. 1, page] 36 the secret doctrine. the term sempiternity, the eternal only in futurity, anything better than a misnomer* such words do not and cannot exist in philosophical metaphysics, and were unknown till the advent of ecclesiastical christianity. the seven eternities meant are the seven peri

aranirvana, which is yong-grub) to be outbreathed by that which is and yet is not. naught was (c (a) the seven sublime lords are the seven creative spirits, the dhyan-chohans, who correspond to the hebrew elohim. it is the same hierarchy of archangels to which st. michael, st. gabriel, and others belong, in the christian theogony. only while st. michael, for instance, is allowed in dogmatic latin theology to watch over all the promontories and gulfs, in the esoteric system, the dhyanis watch successively over one of the rounds and the great root-races of our planetary chain. they are, moreover, said to send their bhodisatvas, the human correspondents of the dhyani-buddhas (of whom vide infra) during every round and race. out of the seven truths and revelations, or rather revealed secrets

r is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesized by life, which pervades them all. the idea of universal life is one of those ancient conceptions which are returning to the human mind in this century, as a consequence of its liberation from anthropomorphic theology. science, it is true, contents itself with tracing or postulating the signs of universal life, and has not yet been bold enough even to whisper "anima mundi" the idea of "crystalline life" now familiar to science, would have been scouted half a century ago. botanists are now searching for the nerves of plants; not that they suppose that plants can feel or think as animals do, but because

rmission of the padri, as the zealous convert had no money to purchase two statues or "idols" as they, very properly, were called by a witness- another but a non-converted hindu. blasphemous this will appear to a dogmatic christian, but the theosophist and the occultist must award the palm of logic to the converted hindu. the esoteric christos in the gnosis is, of course, sexless, but in exoteric theology he is male and female* the gnostic sophia "wisdom" who is "the mother" of the ogdoad (aditi, in a certain sense, with her eight sons, is the holy ghost and the creator of all, as in the ancient systems. the "father" is a far later invention. the earliest manifested logos was female everywhere- the mother of the seven planetary powers* see "chinese buddhism" by the rev. j. c. edkins, who a

en manus become 14, the root manu being the prime cause, and the "seed-manu" its effect; and when the latter reach from satyayuga (the first stage) to the heroic period, these manus or rishis become 21 in number[[vol. 1, page] 236 the secret doctrine. actualities, but the two aspects or facets of the same unity. now the best man living would appear, side by side with an archangel- as described in theology- a fiend. hence a certain reason to depreciate a lower "double" immersed far deeper in matter than its original. but there is still as little cause to regard them as devils, and this is precisely what the roman catholics maintain against all reason and logic (b) the concluding sentence of this sloka shows how archaic is the belief and the doctrine that man is seven-fold in his constitutio

BLUE EQUINOX

dy of hindu mysticism. his .bhakti yoga. is also good. the shiva samhita. an account of various phyiscal means of assisting the discipline of initiation. a famous hindu treatise on certain physical practices. the hathayoga pradipika. similar to the shiva samhita. the aphorisms of patanjali. a valuble collection of precepts pertaining to mystical attainment. the sword of song. a study of christian theology and ethics, with a statement and solution of the deepest philosophical problems. also contains the best account extant of buddhism, compared with modern science. the book of the dead. a collection of egyptian magical rituals. dogme et rituel de la haute magie, by eliphas levi. the best general textbook of magical theory and practice for beginners. written in an easy popular style. the boo

BOOK OF JASHAR

i had some thoughts of writing a monograph about the philosophical foundations of social theory. then i read harold bloom's "book of j" an homage to the j-strand in the bible("j" is an early draft of the books of genesis and exodus, which can be extracted from the later priestly additions on the basis of its linguistic style) bloom's thesis is that this j-strand was intended by its author, not as theology nor as history, but as literature. that is, it was written just to be a good story, which might tell us something fundamental about the universe or might simply entertain us. bloom compares j to shakespeare's "king lear" which is not diminished by being neither history nor theology. after reading bloom, i became fascinated by the power of simple stories to transform our view of society. t

CHIREAU YVONNE BLACK MAGIC RELIGION AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CONJURING TRADITION

ing" of the gift of tongues. while parham is credited with having introduced the practice in his bible school as a "formally stated doctrine" it was seymour who is considered responsible for its institutionalization in the public revival that inaugurated the pentecostal movement at the azusa street mission in los angeles, california, in 1906.[37] divine healing became a cornerstone of pentecostal theology. the conviction that physical healing, along with unknown tongues and other gifts of the holy spirit such as prophecy and miraculous signs and wonders\ 109\ existed in the present-day church stemmed from the pentecostals f emphasis on biblical authority. for pentecostals, physical affliction ran counter to god's will for the faithful christian. in this tradition, cause of all disease was

sonal consultations for individuals in need of employment, protection, or healing. spiritualist advisors sometimes doubled as pastors, forming new congregational bodies with their regular clients. in this manner many new storefront churches were organized around spiritual ministers.[48] the decentralized structure of the spiritual church movement permitted considerable eclecticism in the groups f theology and practices. although the churches shared a common origin, spiritual tradition varied from congregation to congregation. the emphasis on church autonomy might have fostered religious syncretism. in new orleans, for example, home of some of the first spiritual churches in the country, church practices were shaped by unique regional influences. even as most spiritual churches developed as

e directly out of the bible" despite a continued emphasis on supernatural healing, seances, charms, divination readings, and spiritual advising, black spiritualists eluded public disapproval of their tradition by adopting many of the standard worship practices in black protestant revival churches.[56] black spiritualists established churches that integrated supernaturalism into their practice and theology. like the pentecostals and like the conjurers, spiritualists utilized spiritual power for healing. spiritualists and conjurers alike explained the presence of disease and misfortune as products of both supernatural agents and social actors, acknowledging the human potential for evil and the intransigence of the invisible forces that battered body and soul. connecting both of these traditi

ifice. even within courthouse spaces.[5] the persistence of supernatural traditions in the present day illuminates the pervasive pragmatism that is characteristic of african american spirituality. in earlier periods, conjuring provided a conceptual and practical framework by which enslaved blacks confronted misfortune and evil in their lives. supernaturalism spoke directly to areas that christian theology did not clearly address, the indeterminate territory between right and wrong, the hazy, gray field of situation-specific ethics and actions\ 154\ although christianity provided its own set of moral guidelines with which individuals could address the misfortunes that occurred in life, there were other, non-christian notions that informed blacks f responses to affliction. although supernatu

r comments, see henry h. mitchell, black belief: folk beliefs of blacks in america and west africa (new york: harper and row, 1975, p. 31; michael gomez, exchanging our country marks: the transformation of african identities in the colonial and antebellum south (chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 1998, p. 284; dwight hopkins, shoes that fit our feet: sources for a constructive black theology (maryknoll, n.y: orbis books, 1993, p. 73. see also dwight hopkins and george c. l. cummings, eds, cut loose your stammering tongue: black theology in the slave narratives (maryknoll, n.y: orbis books, 1991, p. 93. 8. george rawick, ed, the american slave: a composite autobiography (hereafter cited as american slave, texas narratives (westport, ct: greenwood press, 1977, vol. 2, ss. 2, pp

hristians viewed the sanctification process as the culmination of one's inner spiritual development, while others believed that sanctification was an instantaneous occurrence, a "second blessing" that was imparted following the event of conversion. some understood sanctification to be a state that was unattainable before a believer passed on. on the various interpretations of holiness-pentecostal theology see donald dayton, the theological roots of pentecostalism (metuchen, n.j: scarecrow press, 1987, esp. chs. 2.4; and vinson synan, ed, aspects of pentecostal-charismatic origins (plainfield, n.j: logos international, 1975. on the doctrinal roots of perfection see john leland peters, christian perfection and american methodism (grand rapids, mich: zondervan, 1956; and on its social sources

CHRONOLOGIA RORISPERGIUS

"the father of kabbalah" in provence. 1160-1170 yehuda ibn tibbon translates book of the duties of the heart by bahya ibn pequda which apparently was influenced by the rasa'il of ikhwan as-safa (encyclopaedia of the brotherhood of purity) and, possibly, by hermetic sources< bahya s the duties of the heart, written in arabic in around 1075, denote the first complete assimilation of muslim ascetic theology into judaism -s.d. goitein, ebrei e arabi, 1980, p. 179> 1162 to 1227- life of genghis khan, conqueror of china and russia, invader of europe and islamic empire, destroyer of assassin power. approximate beginnings of the wandering of the gypsies of north india. 1163: work begins on the gothic cathedral of notre-dame de paris. 1165 prester john letter addressed to manuel commentus, emperor

liphili (written before 1467) 1500 "sefer yetzirah "r" paris 809 (2, foll 93a,-94a. italy. short recension of tamim. 1500 kaf ha-ketoreth "the censer"-apocalyptic commentary written in italy on the psalms as text of the millenium; magical weapons of purification and destruction to annihilate the forces of evil. 1501 d. ibn abi jumhur al-ahsa'i. imami author of kitab al mujli, combined mu'tazilite theology with illuminationist philosophy and mysticism. 1501-1575 girolamo cardano 1502-1594 foix, francois de- comte de candale 1503-1566 nostradamus 1505 lefevre d etaples brought out in france for the first time in one volume ficino s pimander, and the asclepius, which also included ludovico lazarelli s crater hermetis (written before 1494 and modelled upon corpus hermeticum iv, which describes

ha-mal'akhim. student of joseph caro and a teacher of isaac luria. 1523-1596 blaise de vigen re astrologer and alchemist, follower of guillaume postel; published traict of the figures and traict of the prayers and speeches< traict des chiffres et le traict des pri res et oraisons, a small anthology of kabbalistic texts. c.1525-c.1600 hannibal roselli. pymander 1584-1590 6 parts. franciscan taught theology at todi and cracow. confessor for john dee (1527-1608) at the prague court of rudolph ii during the time roselli was working on his edition of the corpus hermeticum. 1525 n.t. translated into englsh by w. tyndale (1494-1536. 1525 giorgi's de harmonia mundi published 1525-1580 thomas charnock 1526-1607 martin crusius professor of greek. wrote on byzantine history. translated homer into lat

DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

hat time. then you shatter that original belief into an everexpanding list of sub-beliefs and offshoot "churches. now you have division between the belief and other beliefs, and within the belief itself. what a perfect situation for divide and rule. this has happened with christianity, and the major fault-line was the work of an illuminati frontman called martin luther. in 1517, this professor of theology at wittenberg university listed 95 complaints against the vatican for selling pardons to raise money to build st peter's church. luther was excommunicated, but he burned the decree along with copies of roman church law and launched his own lutheran church. protestant christianity was born and it was used to engineer untold war and yet more slaughter. countries fought each other and justif

DEMONIC BIBLE

sence in the room whenever he begins his nightly ritual. when the magician consecrates his body to the dark lord he begins to become a nexus or gate to acausal entities, dark gods, or forces. whatever these beings or forces are exactly they are traditionally called demons. the purpose of invoking the unholy trinity or unholy spirit is to permanently open this gate between the worlds. in christian theology the trinity is the father (macroscosm, son (microcosm, and holy spirit (link. similarly, the unholy trinity represents the forces of darkness, the satanic magician, and the magical link between the forces of darkness and the satanic magician] invocation of the nine lords of the abyss nine great lords of the abyss, i invoke thee. nine great lords of the abyss, i summon thee. nine great lor

DION FORTUNE MYSTICAL QABALA

the dark ages; but mysticism is inherent in the human race, and although the church had destroyed all roots of tradition in her group-soul, nevertheless devout spirits within her fold rediscovered the technique of the soul's approach to god and developed a characteristic yoga of their own, closely akin to the bhakti yoga of the east. the literature of catholicism is rich in treatises on mystical theology which reveal practical acquaintance with the higher states of consciousness though a somewhat naive conception of the psychology thereof, thus revealing the poverty of a system which does not avail itself of the experience of tradition. 17. the bhakti yoga of the catholic church is only suitable for those whose temperament is naturally devotional [page 6] and who find their readiest expre

ity is unfortunate in not having any choice of systems to offer its aspirants. the east, being tolerant, is wise, and has developed various yoga methods, each of which is pursued by its adherents to the exclusion of the others, and yet none would deny that the other methods are also paths to god for those to whom they are suited. 18. in consequence of this deplorable limitation on the part of our theology many western aspirants take up eastern methods. for those who are able to live in eastern conditions and work under the immediate supervision of a guru, this may prove satisfactory, but it seldom gives good results when the various systems are pursued with no other guide than a book and under unmodified western conditions. 19. it is for this reason that i would recommend to the white race

m known to us as the tree of life is an attempt to reduce to diagrammatic form every force and factor in the manifested universe and the soul of man; to correlate them one to another and reveal them spread out as on a map so that the relative positions of each unit can be seen and the relations between them traced. in brief, the tree of life is a compendium of science, psychology, philosophy, and theology. 2. the student of the qabalah goes to work in exactly the opposite way to the student of natural science; the latter builds up synthetic concepts; the former analyses abstract concepts. it goes without saying, however, that before a concept can be analysed it must first be assembled. someone must have thought out the principles that are resumed in the symbol which is the object of medita

schools of transcendental thought appear to do. 22. the whole question of the angels,archons,and elementals is a very vexed and very important one in occultism, because its practical application to magic is immediate. christian thought can tolerate with an effort the idea of archangels, but the ministering spirits, the messengers who are flames of fire, and the heavenly builders, are alien to its theology; god, alone and in an instant, made the heavens and earth. the great architect of the universe is also the bricklayer. not so does esoteric science. the initiate knows the legions of spiritual beings who are agents of god's will and the vehicles of creative activity. it is through these that he works, by the grace of their ruling archangel. but an archangel cannot be conjured by any spell

DONALDTYSON NOMICON

read in your own dreams, as i did, and as lovecraft did. those seeking serious information about the necronomicon should consult the necronomicon files, a comprehensive and surprisingly sane examination of the necronomicon phenomenon. here you will find a link to the complete text of lovecraft's brief bogus history of the necronomicon. concerning the curious connnecting thread that links gnostic theology, the book of enoch, the new testament book of revelation, the elizabethan magician dr. john dee and his communications with the enochian angels, the victorian era secret society of practical magic known as the hermetic order of the golden dawn, the magician and great beast aleister crowley, the dreamer and writer h. p. lovecraft, and the writer and magician kenneth grant (and perhaps i sh

EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD PAPYRUS OF ANI MALESTROM

: tmu-ra, and menthu-ra, and amen-ra are composed of tmu and ra, and menthu and ra, and amen and ra respectively, and we have seen from the hymn quoted above (p. lii) that already in the xviiith dynasty the god osiris had absorbed the attributes which belonged in the earlier dynasties to ra alone. history of the god amen. still more remarkable, however, is the progress of the god amen in egyptian theology. in the early empire, i.e, during the first eleven dynasties, this god ranked only as a local god, although his name is as old as the time of unas;[3] and [1. e.g, the litany from the tomb of seti i, published by naville, la litanie du soleil, leipzig, 1875, p. 13 ff. 2. e.g, hymn to amen-ra, translated by goodwin from papyrus no. 17, now preserved in the gizeh museum (see les papyrus gyp

EMPERORS NEW RELIGION CHURCH OF SATAN

tion, indicating that perhaps this argument provides an explanation that is too simple. there may be other motivations behind some of the attacks against the church of satan. some doubt can be shed over the desire to be a copy of the church of satan. inspiration from the satanic bible or several of the many sources that anton lavey cited is unescapable seeing that most other sources are christian theology. drawing inspiration from anton lavey is not equivalent to copying the church of satan. split groups are inevitable, because traditionally such groups arise from different interpretations of a religion, or because emphasis is placed on other elements of the religion than in the original organization. the vagueness of the church of satan begs for diversion and individuals focusing on each

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

lar to the theosophical spiritual hierarchy. the hierarchy sent spiritual energy to the planet, which could be used to fight the forces of evil, especially those coming from evil extraterrestrials. spaceships position themselves above the earth at special times of the year, considered the best moments for transmitting the energies from outer space. king authored a series of books spelling out the theology and practices of what emerged as a new occult religion. king claimed that he received a mystical consecration on july 23, 1958, from the master jesus for his mission; the lord buddha added his consecration on december 5, 1978. the society continues and has headquarters in both london and california, where it owns a complex of buildings. it may be contacted at 757 fulham road, london, sw6

rate creation; the tradition of the rebellious hierarchy, headed by lucifer, was rendered familiar to society by the epic poetry of john milton. the medieval development of angelology was passed on to occultists and a description of the angelic orders became integral to magic and in the practices of magical rituals. angels and giants another leading belief, not so much interwoven with the popular theology, was that of angels intercourse with women, producing the race of giants. the idea derived from genesis 4:2, in the adoption of which the christian fathers followed the opinion of ancient jewish interpreters, philo-judaeus, and josephus. a particular account of the circumstances is given in the book of enoch, which makes the angels.uriel, gabriel, and michael.the chief instruments in the

at all appeared to the woman, it is still certain that saul and his attendants, with the generality of the hebrews, believed the thing to be possible. similar beliefs were held by other mediterranean nations. among the greeks and romans of the classic period apparitions of gods and men seem to have been fairly common. as calmet further noted, the ancient greeks, who had derived their religion and theology from the egyptians and eastern nations, and the latins, who had borrowed theirs from the greeks, were all firmly persuaded that the souls of the dead appeared sometimes to the living.that they could be called up by necromancers, that they answered questions, and gave notice of future events; that apollo gave oracles, and that the priestess, filled with his spirit, and transported with a h

conception (the belief that the virgin mary was born free of original sin) as official dogma (teachings. it also saw the publication of several massive works on mariology, especially the eminently successful glories of mary (1876) by alphonsus liguori, which became one of the most highly circulated books on mary in modern times. through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the role of mary in theology and her place in the devotional life of the church has increased significantly. in 1854, pope leo ix issued the bull defining the doctrine of the immaculate conception. over the next century, there were to be numerous papal encyclicals on mary that would culminate in 1950 with pope pius xii s definition of the assumption of mary (that at the end of her life she was taken body and soul int

over the last 200 years, have seen the apparitions as supportive of a return to pre-scientific superstition. also critical are conservative evangelical christians who view roman catholicism as a distorted form of christianity, and attack the apparitions as a counterfeit supernaturalism. in the middle are people who believe that such phenomena occur, but do not tie the phenomena to roman catholic theology. in fact, the marian apparitions do supply a vast amount of data for contemporary parapsychology, and the ongoing apparitions provide an interesting set of data for those concerned about the phenomenon of channeling. the material channeled by van hoof, lueken, and their peers is structurally like that from new age channelers, but its content could not be more different. sources: connor, e

periodicals concerned with various issues (theosophy, alchemy, hermeticism, rosicrucianism, christian kabbalah, etc. study of the esoteric tradition as an important subdiscipline in religious studies was given a significant boost at the end of the 1990s when the university of amsterdam established a new chair in the history of hermetic philosophy and related currents as part of its department of theology/religious studies. that chair is now held by wouter j. hanegraaff. beginning in 2000, e. j. brill of leiden, the netherlands, assumed responsibility for publishing aries. these two events have led to the development of a second center of primary activity for aries. hanegraaff now serves with antoine faivre and roland edighoffer as an editor of the journal. the association aries may be con

keep of the council s webpage. others affiliated with the council are designated associate members. there are no fees required for becoming an associate member. associate members support the council but do not have a vote on policy issues. the council s primary policy is a disavowal of all illegal activities, especially the use of drugs or violence. the council does not favor a particular satanic theology, especially on the matter of whether satan is a symbol or a deity. it does not recognize ecclesiastical titles (reverend, bishop, etc, as they tend to perpetuate the christianity from which they were derived. it recognizes only the accomplishments of individuals. the council maintains a reference library of satanic materials, which it makes available on its website, and assumes a role in

464. he gave, for his guarantors, saturn, jupiter, the crab, and the fish. the jews were said to have kept their windows open to receive the messenger of god who did not arrive. averroes (1126.1198) name generally used for abul-walid mohammed ibn- ahmad ibn-mohammed ibn-rushd, one of the greatest arabian philosophers, and a commentator on the works of aristotle. he was born at cordova and studied theology, mathematics, medicine, jurisprudence, and philosophy. he traveled widely and died in morocco. his writings greatly influenced christian theologians, especially thomas aquinas, who obtained copies of his writings as a result of the crusades. averroes followed the concept of god as the source of emanation of intelligence and suggested that religious and philosophical truth may be in contra

writers, but properly ebor sina, or.to give his names in full.al-sheikh al-rayis abu ali al-hossein ben abdallah ben sina. he was born at kharmatain, near bokhara, in the year of the hegira 370, or 980 c.e, and was educated at bokhara. he displayed such extraordinary precocity that when he had reached his tenth year, he had completely mastered the quran and acquired a knowledge of algebra, muslim theology, and the his ab ul-hind, or the arithmetic of the hindus. under abdallah al-natheli he studied logic, euclid, and the almagest, and then, as a diversion, devoted himself to the study of medicine. he was only 21 when he composed his kitab al-majmu or, the book of the sum total, whose mysteries he afterward attempted to clarify in a 20-volume commentary. avicenna s reputation for wisdom and

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

923. the riddle of life. london: methuen, 1938. pleasants, helene, ed. biographical dictionary of parapsychology. new york: helix press, 1964. mckenzie, james hewat (1869.1929) founder of the british college of psychic science. mckenzie was born in edinburgh, scotland, november 11, 1869. he began the study of the paranormal in 1900 as a result of his dissatisfaction with the failure of science or theology to throw any light on human destiny. years of private study and investigation followed. the fruit of this period of research was a series of lectures in london, edinburgh, and glasgow (1915, a book, spirit intercourse: its theory and practice (1916, and a pamphlet if a soldier die (1916, which had a wide circulation. in 1917 he toured the eastern united states and the midwest as far as ch

bread and water recommended once or twice weekly could merely counteract the excesses of normal diet without risk of starvation. the cures at medjugorje were reported upon favorably by doctors from the university of milan. the apparitions at medjugorje present many intriguing problems, both for skeptics and believers. such apparitions now follow a regular pattern within the framework of catholic theology, just as claims of ufo contacts are often consistent with a different pattern of belief. it could be argued that once such conventions are established, knowledge of them influences other visionaries. in the case of medjugorje, the parish priest had shown one of the visionaries a book about lourdes, although it must be remembered that the apparitions had established a regular pattern befor

joyeux. scientific& medical studies on the apparitions at medjugorje. dublin: veritas, 1987. laurentin, rene, and l. rupcic. is the virgin mary appearing at medjugorje? washington, d.c: word among us press, 1984. laurentin, rene, l. rupcic, and rene lejeune. messages and teachings of mary at medjugorje. milford, ohio: the riehle foundation, 1988. o carroll, michael. medjugorje: facts, documents, theology. dublin: veritas, 1986. pelletier, joseph a. the queen of peace visits medjugorje. worchester, mass: assumption, 1985. sevric, ivo. the hidden side of medjugorje. saint francois du lac, canada: psilog, 1989. meehl, paul e(verett (1920) professor of psychology who has written on parapsychology. he was born january 3, 1920, at minneapolis, minnesota, and was educated at the university of mi

spiritual unity. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. mental world 1023 sources: jinarajadasa, c. the early teachings of the masters, 1881.83. chicago: theosophical press, 1923. powell, arthur e. the astral body and other astral phenomena. london: theosophical publishing house, 1927. mentor one of the controls of william stainton moses, said to be al-gazzali or ghazali, professor of theology at baghdad in the eleventh century, the greatest representative of the arabian philosophical school. mentor s main duty was to manage the phenomena at the seances. he was very successful with lights and scents and brought many apports. in book 16 of the spirit communications of stainton moses there is a story of mentor carving heads on two shells in the dining room while dinner was going

d office for manned orbiting laboratory (1964. he later attended air force aerospace research pilot school. he was selected by nasa as an astronaut in april 1966 and was lunar module pilot of apollo 14, which landed on the moon february 5, 1971. his interest in parapsychology dated from 1967, soon after his arrival at the nasa manned spacecraft center in houston. he was dissatisfied with orthodox theology and began to investigate areas of psychic phenomena and mysticism. in december 1969 mitchell became friendly with medium arthur ford, who suggested an interesting esp test from a man in a rocket to a contact on earth. mitchell planned a rocket-to-earth esp test for the apollo 14 mission, although ford died january 4, 1971, 27 days before the mission launch (to which he had been invited as

ade a definite mark upon early christianity, and we find it mirrored in many of the patristic writings of the sixteenth century. it was erigena who, in the ninth century, transmitted to europe the so-called writings of dionysius the areopagite, the mystic order of veiled prophets of the. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 1082 sixth century syrian thinker who synthesized christian theology and neoplatonism and thus greatly influenced the mysticism of the middle ages. erigena based his own system upon that of dionysius. this was the so-called negative theology, which placed god above all categories and designated him as nothing, or the incomprehensible essence from which the world of primordial causes is eternally created. this creation is the work of the son of god, in whom

mence with the year 1260, and to be inaugurated by the general adoption of monastic and contemplative life. a sect called the new spirit, or the free spirit, became widespread through northern france, switzerland, and germany; and these did much to infuse the spirit of mysticism throughout germany. it is with meister eckhart, who died in 1327, that we get the juncture of mysticism with scholastic theology. of his doctrine it has been said: the ground of your being lies in god. reduce yourself to that simplicity, that root, and you are in god. there is no longer any distinction between your spirit and the divine.you have escaped personality and finite limitation. your particular, creature self, as a something separate and dependent on god is gone. so also, obviously, your creaturely will. h

d be no pleasure in the practice of mysticism, and that god did not exist for the enjoyment of man. per- encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. mysticism 1083 haps the greatest students of boehme were william law (1686.1761) and saint-martin (1743.1803. the universality of mystical experience it is clear from the statements of mystics that they are not limited to any given religion or theology. given the elevation of the mystical experience over any theological reflection upon that experience, it has been relatively easy for mystics of different traditions to relate to each other, often finding a more natural affinity that with the non-mystic members of their own religious tradition. it is obvious that they are dealing with an element in human experience common to all of humank

hafiz and saadi, pantheism abounded, and their magnificent poetry is read by moslems as having a deep mystical significance, although for the most part it deals with the intoxication of love. it is certain that many of them exhibit the fervor of souls searching for communion with the highest. the apparent differences between hindu mysticism and christian mysticism are nominal. although christian theology postulates the divine in the form of god as father, son, and holy spirit, such distinctions become largely unimportant in the actual mystical experience. similarly, popular hinduism postulates hundreds of different gods and goddesses, but these are merely legal fictions to the indian mystic, melting away in the totality of higher consciousness. because mind and emotion are transcended in

EXTRAORDINARY ENCOUNTERS AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXTRATERRESTRIALS AND OTHERWORLDY BEINGS

osmic gospel essentially earthbound occult doctrines ascribed to philosophical extraterrestrials and soon was issuing a mimeographed bulletin titled aetherius speaks to earth (later cosmic voice. in august 1956 king established the aetherius society, among the most successful and enduring contactee groups. king died on july 12, 1997, in los angeles, where he had been living for many years. in the theology of the aetherius society, good and evil extraterrestrials are engaged in constant warfare. from time to time, during crisis situations, the cosmic brotherhood will place its spaceships above earth and direct positive energy downward. society members receive the energy and make sure that it reaches its targets. over a three and a half year period, beginning in 1958, king climbed no fewer t

FAUST

e. mephistopheles [alone] i like to see the old man not infrequently, and i forbear to break with him or be uncivil; it s very pretty in so great a lord as he to talk so like a man even with the devil. the first part of the tragedy night in a high-vaulted, narrow gothic chamber faust, restless in his chair by his desk. faust i ve studied now philosophy and jurisprudence, medicine, and even, alas! theology all through and through with ardour keen! here now i stand, poor fool, and see i m just as wise as formerly. am called a master, even doctor too, and now i ve nearly ten years through pulled my students by their noses to and fro and up and down, across, about, and see there s nothing we can know! that all but burns my heart right out. true, i am more clever than all the vain creatures, th

inherit like an eternal malady go trailing on from race to race and furtive shift from place to place. to nonsense reason turns, and benefit to worry. woe unto you that you re a grandchild, woe! for of the law that was born with us, no! of that, alas! there never is a query. student you have increased my own disgust. the youth whom you instruct is blessed in sooth! i m now almost inclined to try theology. mephistopheles i would not wish to lead you so astray. in what this science teaches, it would be so hard to shun the false, misleading way; so much of hidden poison lies therein, you scarce can tell it from its medicine. tis best here too that only one be heard and that you swear then by the master s word. upon the whole- to words stick fast! then through a sure gate you ll at last enter

FELDMAN DANIEL QABALAH THE MYSTICAL HERITAGE OF THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM

judaism, this mystical tradition has come to be known as the jewish kabbalah, and in islam, as sufism (arabic tasawwuf. the christian cabala emerged from the mystical side of christianity, which developed as a parallel tradition to pauline dogma as it diverged and became estranged from its judaic roots. the christian cabala evolved as a way to harmonize jewish kabbalistic doctrines with christian theology. the precise usage of the word qabalah to denote the ideas and practices of the esoteric teachings and the secrets of the torah emerged from the circle of yitza aq the blind (1200ce, and was used in the same context by eleazar of worms (beginning of the thirteenth century).2 the word qabalah (hlbq lit. receiving, also welcoming of god) alludes to a dynamic state of direct communication an

age upon which christianity was founded was largely modified and assimilated into the greek language and hellenistic worldview. as the new religion of christianity emerged estranged from its jewish roots, it developed in accordance with roman political organization and social conventions. when christians later brought civilization to the indigenous tribes of western europe, they adapted christian theology to the languages and cultures of those tribes, and absorbed many of their conventions and observances as a means to facilitate and expedite their conversion. the resultant version of western christianity thereby evolved into a historical phenomenon significantly different than near eastern christianity, and even farther removed from its judaic roots. today, a growing body of scholars is q

d expedite their conversion. the resultant version of western christianity thereby evolved into a historical phenomenon significantly different than near eastern christianity, and even farther removed from its judaic roots. today, a growing body of scholars is questioning many aspects of christianity that have been popularly held for a long time. a picture is emerging that shows that the history, theology, and practice of christianity have been directly effected and shaped by dominant factions, resulting in the marginalization and suppression of the mystical element as being in opposition to accepted doctrine. as soon as paul entered the picture, a dichotomy arose among the early christian devotees between those coming from a traditional jewish background and the growing group of gentile c

nes.21 in the seventeenth century ce, the center of christian cabala moved to england and germany, where its status was boosted by the theosophical writings of jacob boehme and the landmark qabalistic compendium of christian knorr von rosenroth.22 von rosenroth and athanasius kirchner extrapolated the qabalistic allusion of adam kadmon to be a reference to jesus as the primordial man in christian theology. in the final phase in the development of the christian cabala in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became permeated with alchemical symbolism and conjoined with the emerging doctrines of theosophy. this in turn greatly influenced the development of freemasonry. 3' 8: h" 2: 2 2:e 8 '0- 0* like judaism and christianity, islam is a primary branch stemming from the religion of the

hvh your elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. followed by, vuh-ahavta leh-re akha kamokha. and thou shall love your neighbor as your self. 24 but when one reads the stories of master yeshuvah s life and teachings as explicated in the four gospels of the conventional peshitta, it is no longer a jewish story that is found there, but preponderantly an admixture of theology developed almost exclusively by gentiles. master yeshuvah had come to reestablish and enliven the universal mystical spirituality that was always present in judaism, but had become largely forgotten and covered by the dross of worldliness and contortions of interpretation. but, his simple and clear message of the absolute unity of all existence, and spiritual awakening through uncondition

, does this mean that the essential teachings of master yeshuvah are lost to the world? definitely not! again, it is important to remember that master yeshuvah did not come to deliver a new message but to renew an old one. he did not come to replace the torah, but to demonstrate its essence through his life. hence, the hebrew scriptures, even without interpretations skewed to support a developing theology, and the mystical qabalah provide us with the necessary keys to identify the many gems placed in the setting of the quasi-fictionalized gospel narratives. the gospels of john and thomas, in particular, make it clear that the teachings of master yeshuvah were firmly rooted in the continuum of shemite mystical spirituality. secondly, there are universal characteristics of messianic appearan

itted through the children of abraham has become filtered by and clothed in a variety of vessels i.e. desert hebrew, israelite judaic, rabbinical judaic, messianic judaic, pauline christian, islamic, and tantric. over the course of time, each of these vessels has come to be dominated by the overriding impressions (sanskrit. samskaras) of their conventional outgrowths, and substantially altered in theology, practice, and ritual as they expanded and assimilated to different cultural and political milieus. the root mystical teachings at their respective foundations have been overshadowed to the extent that they are viewed as something alien and to be distrusted. the mystical core of their meditation practices has become lost to all but a small number of their adherents. their rituals and obse

FRANCIS A YATES GIORDANO BRUNO AND THE HERMETIC TRADITION

m. w. bloomfield, the seven deadly sins, michigan, 1952, p. 342, and the references 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 efficien

etters" to the egyptians, adding that he founded the city called hermopolis. he was an egyptian priest, the wisest of them all, supreme as philosopher for his vast knowledge, as priest for his holiness of life and practice of the divine cults, and worthy of kingly dignity as administrator of the laws, whence he is rightly called termaximus, the three times great.2 he is called the first author of theology: he was succeeded by orpheus, who came second amongst ancient theologians: aglaophemus, who had been initiated into the sacred teaching of orpheus, was succeeded in theology by pythagoras, whose disciple was philolaus, the teacher of our divine plato. hence there is one ancient theology prisca theohgia. taking its origin in mercurius and culminating in the divine plato.3 it is in this pre

oted from his works of ficino's unquestioning belief in the primacy and importance of hermes, and this attitude impressed an early biographer of the florentine philosopher who says that "he (ficino) held it as a secure and firm opinion that the philosophy of plato took its origin from that of mercurius, whose teachings seemed to him closer to the doctrine of orpheus and in certain ways to our own theology (that is, to christianity) than those of pythagoras."2 mercurius wrote many books pertaining to the knowledge of divine things, continues ficino in his preface to the pimander, in which he reveals arcane mysteries. nor is it only as a philosopher that he speaks but sometimes as a prophet he sings of the future. he foresaw the ruin of the early religion and the birth of a new faith, and th

rophet he sings of the future. he foresaw the ruin of the early religion and the birth of a new faith, and the coming of christ. augustine doubts whether he did 1 in the theohgia platonica, ficino gives the genealogy as (1) zoroaster (2) mercurius trismegistus (3) orpheus (4) aglaophemus (5) pythagoras (6) plato (ficino, p. 386. in the preface to the plotinus commentaries, ficino says that divine theology began simultaneously with zoroaster among the persians and with mercurius among the egyptians; then goes on to orpheus, aglaophemus, pythagoras, plato ibid, p. 1537. this equating of zoroaster with hermes brings ficino's genealogy into some conformity with that of gemistus pletho, for whom the most ancient source of wisdom is zoroaster, after whom he puts a different string of intermediar

the internal evidence of the corpus hermeticum and the latin asclepius of pseudo-apuleius. he saw. that the resemblance between the hermetic doctrines and those of plato was such as to imply some historical connection; but accepting it as a known fact that the author of the hermetica was a man who lived about the time of moses, he inverted the true relation and thought that plato had derived his theology, through pythagoras, from trismegistus. and his view was adopted, at least in its main outlines, by all who dealt with the subject down to the end of the sixteenth century.2 1 in his work on the christian religion (de christ, relig, xxv, ficino puts hermes with the sibyls as testifying with them to the coming of christ (ficino, p. 29* scott, i, p. 31. the end of the sixteenth century is t

of christianity through their use of the cross as a talisman comes in as an appropriate introduction to the list of talismanic images. after this list, ficino makes great play with the recommendation by doctors, particularly peter of abano, of the use of tahsmans in medicine. then, after some references to porphyry and plotinus, he comes to albertus magnus, described as professor of astrology and theology, who in his speculum astronomiae has distinguished between false and true use of tahsmans.1 next he again worries over what thomas aquinas has said in the contra gentiles, finally reaching a position which he imagines is near to that of thomas, namely that the tahsmans have their power mainly from the materials of which they are made, not from the images.2 yet if they are made under the i

ate us with ethics and dialectics, like a salutary physician. in us, now restored to good health, will dwell gabriel, the force of the lord, who leading us through the miracles of nature and showing us where dwell the virtue and power of god, will present us to michael, the high priest, who, after our service to philosophy, will crown us, as with a crown of precious stones, with the priesthood of theology.5 how do we invoke raphael, gabriel, and michael, so that they dwell in us with all their powers and knowledge? do we perhaps know their secret names and numbers? is there a secret of practical cabala at the core of this lofty mystical aspiration? the praise of magic and of man as magus in the oration is couched in general rhetorical terms, and only hints at the secrets of magical procedu

of the emergence of the magus can be studied at its source. 1 see above, pp. 2, 14. 116 chapter vi saint dionysius the areopagite was, for ficino, both oilmen of platonism,1 and the saint whom st. paul had met at athens, and whose vision of the nine angelic hierarchies, unquestioningly accepted by thomas aquinas and all the doctors of the church, had become an integral part of orthodox christian theology.2 saint dionysius is constantly referred to in ficino's theologia platonica and de christiana religione, the two works in which he set out his synthesis of platonism with christianity, and indeed, not only for ficino but also for all later christian neoplatonists, dionysius was one of the main christian allies. the author of the celestial hierarchies was, of course, not really the areopag

of three representing one of the persons of the trinity. these nine angelic orders have their abode far above, or beyond the spheres of the universe, being orders of a purely spiritual or divine nature. 1 see r. klibansky, the continuity of the platonic tradition, london, warburg institute, 1939, pp. 42 ff. 2 hence he was, for ficino, not only the oilmen of platonism but the columen of christian theology (commentary on dionysius' liber de trinitate; ficino, p. 1013. 117 pseudo-dionysius and theology of a christian magus nevertheless, though the dionysian orders are not, strictly speaking, a cosmological religion, there is something in the whole idea of orders set out in this fashion which recalls the gnostic religion of the world, or religious experience in the setting of the cosmic order

FULLER J F C SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH

fall the divinity became manifest in adam qadmon, accordingly must man emulate him and through his own transfiguration destroy the material form of consciousness, so that the mirror of illusions may dissolve. thus will divinity be redeemed by the destruction of the divine image and the ineffable shin will be reabsorbed into the body of tetragrammaton. man must suffer for god- just as in christian theology, which in so many ways inverts hebrew theology, christ must suffer for man, so that god may become the perfect one. thus the crucifixion of mankind is the necessary consequent of the divine fall. man is, therefore, the implement of the redemption of god. this is the secret the qabalah hints at but never clearly expresses. the accomplishment of the messianic act. in the second chapter of g

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

themselves before the remains of the ancient temples and offered adoration to them, proves the identity of indian and egyptian deities. these foreign devotees, being asked to explain the reason of their strange conduct declared that they "saw sculptured before them the gods of their country" upon the subject of the identity of eastern religions, wilford remarks that one and the same code both of theology and of fabulous history, has been received through a range or belt about forty degrees broad across the old continent, in a southeast and northwest direction from the eastern shores of the malaga peninsula to the western extremity of the british isles, that, through this immense range the same religious notions reappear in various places under various modifications, as might be expected;

neration, formerly constituted the deity throughout asia is acknowledged by all those who have examined either the literature or monumental records of oriental countries. the rev. mr. maurice bears testimony to the character of eastern religious ideas in the following language "whoever will read the geeta with attention, will perceive in that small tract the outlines of all the various systems of theology in asia. the curious and ancient doctrine of the creator being both male and female, mentioned on a preceding page, to be designated in indian temples by a very indecent exhibition of the masculine and feminine organs of generation in union, occurs in the following passage 'i am the father and mother of this world; i plant myself upon my own nature and create again and again this assembla

s by no means invalidate this opinion, which rests upon the perfect identity of their characters: for the great mother, like the great father, was an hermaphrodite; or, rather, that person from whom all things were supposed to be produced, was the great father and the great mother united together in one compound being. ymer and omoroca are each the same as that hermaphrodite jupiter of the orphic theology" we have observed, however, that in all the older traditions this hermaphrodite conception is accounted as female, it is the great mother within whom is contained the male; in later ages, however, it is represented as male, the female being concealed beneath convenient symbols. the trinity of the goths was male; yet as odin could not create independently of the female energy he is provide

ere by the poets transformed into epic or narrative myths, in which the original subject symbolized was almost effaced, whilst the allegorical expressions were received generally in a literal sense. hence, to the many, the meaning of the ancient doctrine was lost, and was communicated only to the few, under the strictest secrecy in the mysteries of eleusis and samothrace. thus there was a popular theology to suit the people, and a rational theology reserved for the educated, the symbolical language in both being the same, but the meaning of it being taken differently. in course of time, as knowledge makes its way among the people, and religious enlightenment with it, much of what had been received literally will relapse into its original figurative or symbolical meaning. reason will resume

ucharistic rites of christians had their counterpart among the mexicans is observed in the fact that shortly after the death of their god, cakes which had been prepared and blessed by the priests were offered by them to the people to be eaten as the veritable body of their sacrificed lord. the source whence the doctrine of an atonement--a bloody sacrifice which lies at the foundation of christian theology--has proceeded is not at the present time difficult to determine, for we shall presently see that it, like all the leading doctrines contained in this later system, and which are regarded as exclusively christian, had its origin in the religion of past ages, a religion which although originally pure, in course of time degenerated into the grossest phallicism and even into human sacrifice

GILBERT AE WAITE A MAGICIAN OF MANY PARTS

malted milk_'notversenow,onlyprose''doanythingrather than attempt to live by literature, browning had urged waite in 1876,butitwasnoteasy for an eageryoungpoettofollow such sober advice, and it becamedoublydifficult after 1878whenhe reachedtheageoftwenty-one and wasadmittedtothereadingroomofthebritishmuseumlibrary. there,forfiveyears-except for interludes by the sea-waite busiedhimselfwithalchemy,theology, magic(in the guiseofeliphas levi, mythology.astronomy,and poetry;reading, annotating, and dreaming.butwhilethereadingroomgavehimthe.appearanceofapolymathit didnotgivehiman income.hecouldnotlive for ever ondwindlinglegacies and onthegoodwillofhismother, and as therewasno'anything'towhichhe couldturnhis hand,writingfor pleasuremustneeds becomewritingfor profit, waite's first forayintocomme

l, seen in termsofmatthewarnold's admiration for thebookand treated as aworkof literature rather than a mystical text.butnot all churchmen were hostileto waite. bothobermannandsaint-martinhad been read and appreciated bytherevd w. robertsonnicoll,aneminent free church minister and editorofthe britishuleekly. in june1905he was due to lecture on'thepractical uses of mysticism' atthesummer school of theology to be held in glasgow, the aim of the lectures being'topointouthowchristian134a.e.waite-magicianofmanyparts_mysticism helps christians (1)in the conductoflife (2) in the shaping of theology. nicoll was unsureofhisgroundandwroteto waite for advice.hewished waite to explain the mystical doctrine of prayer, to answer the question'hasmysticism any real place for the atonement, and to rebut we

GILBERT THE GOLDEN DAWN TWILIGHT OF THE MAGICIANS

gness of spirits to communicate with the living, and the existenceofan orderly, happy and permanent spirit-world, in which the dead lived out their after-lives in an idealized mirror-image of contemporary society. in this spirit255 world hell had no place and many spiritualists were undoubtedly converted to the cause by a desire to evade the probability of eternal damnation that victorian popular theology offered them. further, spiritualism offered the novel attraction, which no church could offer, of conversation with one's departed relatives, either by mechanicalmeans-suchas ouija boards and table255turning-ordirectly, through the voice of a medium who could offer to individuals specific messages from particular spirits.thereaction of the churches was unanimously hostile and spiritualist

ails and is finallyvanquished-asare all pro255 fessorsofwickedness in williams' novels, whether they seek to defile the holy grail, to master the true tarot, or to seize the stoneofsolomon. in each case the themeofthe novel is drawn from conceptsthatwilliams could, and probably did, find ina.e. waite's fellowshipofthe rosy cross,butthe elegant structureofhis work and the peculiar orthodoxy of his theology are williams'own-thegolden dawn was alwayshis servant, never his master. in like manner arthur machen was little influenced by the order. his storiesofspiritual horror were more concerned with the perversionofspiritual alchemy than with magic and were mostly written before he entered the order.itis more probablethathis awarenessofa supernatural realm interpenetrating our world, often with

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

neo-platonists, although to a roman catholic or protestant decidedly heretical, were yet inspired by christian ideals- although they could not realize the accepted admixture of the god and man in christ, yet insisted on the christ teaching of the man jesus; similarly so we today, having mostly entered upon the eastern theosophy from a christian education, still are largely tinctured by our basic theology and still use christian language and types and symbolsinour new ideals of the higher principles of man and humanity.forexample, read the theosophic works of brothers kingsland and brodie innes. for this reason,itseems to me, that this book, explanatory of an eastern occultism yet using frequently christian terms, must be read as though the christian allusions were to a gnostic and not to

and as moses and solomon 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 t

selves acquainted with the ancient mysteries of egypt, of greece and of rome.thebasis of the western occultism of medieval europe is the kabalah of the medieval hebrew rabbis,towhich i have publishedanintroduction.this philosophy, although at first sight barbarous and crude, yet will be found, when one has grown familiar with the nomenclature, to be a concrete, coherent and far-reaching scheme of theology, cosmology, ethics and metaphysics, serving to throw light on many obscure biblical passages and to suggest original views of the meaning of most of the allegorical descriptions found in the old testament. a copy of a very curious old kabalistic picture from a syriac gospel with a descriptive essay by dr carnegie dickson, a notable scotch rosicrucian adept, has just been given to our libr

he gnostics, the several systems of philosophy of the hindoos, the parallelism between rosi255 crucian doctrine and eastern theosophy, for which read max heindel'srosicrucian cosmo-conception,and that enticing subject, the origin and meaning of the 22 trumps or symbolic designs of the 'tarocchi' or pack of tarot cards, which eliphaz levi says form a group of keys which will unlock every secret of theology and cosmology.forsuch as are interested in the alchemy of the past i recommend a perusal ofa suggestive enquiry into the hermetic mystery,1850, by an anonymous author, and e.a. hitchcock'sremarks on alchemy and the alchemists,1857. and, lastly, we may make researches into that most interesting problem- did speculative masonry arise from the rosicrucians? i am given to understand that the

that my lectures of last winter were given to the fratres of the study group. the last great work of robert fludd was hisphilosophicmoysaica,gouda, 1638. this great work he also translated into english and called itmosaicallphilosophy,but 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 ge

ts existence the teaching was entirely oral, and became varied by the minds through whom it filtered in its course: there is no proof that any part of it was written for centuries after; and it was kept curiously distinct both from the exoteric pentateuchal mosaic doctrine, and from the ever255 growing talmudic commentaries.themishnahand'gemara,which form thetalmud,seem to have grown up in hebrew theology without combining with these recondite doctrines of the kabalah. in a similar manner we see in india that theupanishads,an esoteric series of treatises, grew up alongside thebrahmanasand thepurdnas -exoteric instructions des255 igned for the use of the masses of the people. with regard to the oldest kabalistic books still extant, a fierce controversy has raged among critics for the last c

mustconceive the wholetensephiroth to be immanent.byaseries of six lines we group them into seven planes referable to the worldsofthe sevenplanetarypowers, thus connecting the kabalah with astrology. to each sephira are alloted a special titleofthedeity,an especial archangel,andan army of angels; connecting the kabalah with talismanic magic. to show the close connection between the old kabalistic theology, and the lower alchemy, each sephira becomes the allegoric emblemofoneofthe metals: and there is a special rabbinic volume namedascametzarephentirely concerned with alchemy; its name in english meaning is 'cleansing fires'.thesetensephiroth are thought of as being connected together by paths, or waysofwisdom, twenty-two in number, shownthuson the diagram; they are numbered by means of the

rews, the foundation dogmas are doubtless almost as old as the first promulgation of the main principles of the worship of jehovah. i cannot now attempt any glance at the contentions of some doubting scholars, who question whether the story of the twelve tribes is a historic fact, or whether there ever were a moses. it is sufficient for my present purpose that the jewish nation had the jehovistic theology and a complete system of priestly caste, and a coherent doctrine, at the time of the second temple, when cyrus, sovereign of all asia, holding the jews in captivity, permitted certain of them to return to jerusalem for the express purposetoreestablishing the hebrew cultus which had been forcibly interfered with by nebuchadnezzar, 587b.c.after this return to jerusalem it was that ezra and

before or after his fall. st jerome first applied the name lucifer to a fallen angel and milton is notable as following the same course.theword satan of jobi,6,12and ii. 1, and zechariah iii. 1, appears to have had the meaning of 'adversary. in the new testament the name is satanas and occurs 26 times.theearliest use of the name satan isin1. chron, xxi. 1.thejews while nominally restrictedintheir theology to the old testament books, were at all timesmuchinfluencedintheir beliefs by the additional teachings of the rabbis whose views have come down to us in the volumes calledtalmud,the mishnah and gemara; while the more learned of the jewish philosophers also relied on the collection of treatises which demonstrate the kabalah, a system of philosophy which taught in a special manner the relat

GILBERT R A CHAOS OUT OF ORDER THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SWEDENBORGIAN RITE

o with it neither with the late 18th century rite that has come to bear his name, nor with its bizarre successor that is the subject of this paper. but in order to understand that rite it is essential to know something of the man, of his work and of the religious movement that grew out of it. emanuel swedenborg was born at stockholm in 1688, the son of jasper swedberg. at that time a professor of theology at uppsala university and later, from 1702, bishop of skara (the name was changed when the family was ennobled in 1719. from 1716 to 1747 swedenborg was an assessor in the royal college of mines of sweden, but he was more than simply a metallurgist and mining engineer. by any standard swedenborg was a polymath: fascinated equally by the natural world and by human invention he not wrote le

ised in the form of the new jerusalem church, a denomination that has survived to the present day, although it has remained a small body with a worldwide membership of some 25,000. swedenborg s ideas, however have had a greater effect the secular world, influencing individuals as diverse as blake, balzac, emerson, yeats, and d. t. suzuki. a detailed discussion of those ideas, and of swedenborgian theology in general is beyond the scope of this paper but certain aspects must be noted in order to make sence of the swedenborgian rite. for swedenborg the physical world is the result of spiritual causes, and the laws of nature are reflections of spiritual laws; thus objects and even the material world are images of their spiritual counterparts. this is his doctrine of correspondences. from this

] swedenborg s principal theological works are arcana coekstia, his commentary on the books of genesis and exodus, published at london between 1749 and 1756; and vera chrisriana religio, his principal dogmatic work, published at amsterdam in 1771. all of his works have been translated into english. the most noticeable differences between swedenborg s system and most other expositions of christian theology are over the doctrines of the trinity and vicarious atonement. swedenborg also denied the divine inspiration of all of the canonical scriptures, rejecting the poetical books in the old testament and the epistles in the new. avignon he moved to berlin where he became librarian to frederick the great and began to translate the works of swedenborg into french3[3. here he met a polish count

of 1870, swedenborg rite and the great masonic leaders of the eighteenth century, or, as on the cover, swedenborg and phremasonry. the bulk of the book purports to show, by a judicious manipulation of sources and the use of specious reasoning, that swedenborg had indeed been a freemason and that many of the hauts grades of the later eighteenth century were heavily influenced by swedenborg and his theology. and then, towards the end of the text, comes the startling announcement that the swedenborgian rite had been revived in america. beswick s account of the recent history of the rite is guarded at best the author is not very clear in this part of the book commented the reviewer in the intellectual repository (june 1870, p. 791) although he is surprisingly forthcoming in describing the stru

GLOBAL FREEMASONRY

divine plural in kabbalistic theosophy, but in its first subtle emanation from unknowable unity god had taken on a dual form as male and female; a supernal father and mother, hokhmah and binah, were god's first emanated forms. kabbalists used frankly sexual metaphors to explain how the creative intercourse of hokhmah and binah generated further creation. 27 an interesting feature of this mystical theology is that, according to it, human beings are not created, but are in some way divine. owens describes this myth: the complex divine image was also visualized by kabbalah as having a unitary, anthropomorphic form. god was, by one kabbalistic recension, adam kadmon: the first primordial or archetypal man. man shared with god both an intrinsic, uncreated divine spark and a complex, organic for

c form. this strange equation of adam as god was supported by a kabbalistic cipher: the numerical value in hebrew of the names adam and jehovah (the tetragrammaton, yod he vav he) was both 45. thus in kabbalistic exegesis jehovah equaled adam: adam was god. with this affirmation went the as- gj the inside story on the kabbalah sertion that all humankind in highest realization was like god.28 this theology comprises of a mythology of paganism, and formed the basis of the degeneration of judaism. jewish kabbalists breached the limits of common sense to such an extent that they even tried to make human beings into gods. in addition, according to this theology, not only was humanity divine, but it consisted only of jews; other races were not considered human. as a result, within judaism, which

any years. setting out from england, it will cross the entire ocean and reach the shores of south america. the beagle, a ship that had been of little known importance until that time, was setting out on a 5 year voyage. that which would ultimately make that ship famous was its passenger, charles robert darwin, a 22 year-old naturalist. he had not actually studied biology but had been a student of theology at the university of cambridge\ though this young man's education in theology was extensive, the times in which he lived were deeply influenced by materialist thought. indeed, one year before embarking on his journey on the beagle, he had renounced a number of basic tenets of christianity. the young darwin interpreted all the discoveries made in the course of his voyage in terms of materi

GNOSTIC HANDBOOK

avidians continue to believe that this date was significant and teach that in 1844 jesus entered the holy of holies in the israelite temple and began an investigative judgment of the dead. during the period from 1844 to an unspecified date the angels of the book of revelation will unveil their messages and mankind will go through great tribulations heading towards the second coming of jesus. this theology while in a language different from the egyptian heraldic cycle is basically identical. the energy of christ can be related to the solar force which meditates the astrological cycles and hence we can easily relate the quasi- christian imagery to the esoteric tradition. 1904 as the transmission period of the heraldic cycle certainly is expressive. aliester crowley declared that in 1904 aiwa

the original edition, so did jesus say that the criminal would be in paradise today (ie. ascend to heaven on his death) or did jesus simply say the criminal would be in paradise sometime and simply use a turn of phrase to intimate how he was speaking" i say unto thee today. this is a clear example of how modern grammatical composition, when added into the bible, can be used to produce misleading theology. in the above example, we see how certain denominations using modern translations are able to use the first form of the verse in an attempt to prove that we go straight to heaven when we die. even though this concept is based on a dubious use of grammar, especially dubious if we understand that the grammar was added in by translators for easy reading; nothing more, nothing less. chapter t

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

egative energies. in addition to the solar vortex, there are other sources of energy which emanate into our system, however as we wish to keep the model simple, and since their effect is not significant at this point, we will ignore them for the moment. to say the earth is a living system is not unusual. whether we contemplate the old occult concept that the earth has a soul or the modern new age theology of gaia, we can readily appreciate that the earth is a complex living system. in esoteric terminology, the earth is a logos and forms the matrix which receives and relays energies from the solar sphere. since these energies are both of a positive and negative nature, so too is mother earth. the gnostic tradition maintains that the essential earth logos is a light force (even in some tradi

of traditional christianity. in the adventist movement people were experiencing revelations and visions as early as the 1830 s, as 1844 came close they became convinced that jesus was to return at that date. they were sorely disappointed. interpreting what they experienced in christian terms, they came to the conclusion that they had misunderstood the momentous event. they then evolved a complex theology whereby in 1844 jesus changed his role and function. jesus moved from being a priest in the outer temple, to being the high priest in the holy of holies. for the adventists (now seventh day adventists) there was a tabernacle, like that of israel, in the heavens and starting in 1844 jesus began to officiate at the judgement of the dead. this doctrine was evolved in association with complex

ng in 1844 jesus began to officiate at the judgement of the dead. this doctrine was evolved in association with complex systems of prophecy taken from the old testament which clearly suggested some esoteric event was to occur around this time. the doctrine of investigative judgement places the seventh day adventists outside the general doctrinal position of many other christian denominations. the theology of the adventists actually offers a fascinating perception of the equinox of the gods. ellen.j.white and the other visionaries of the adventist movement obviously perceived a change in the energies that existed, and even perceived a change in the nature or focus of these forces. while at first they gnostic theurgy page 212 interpreted these in traditional theological terms (i.e. the physi

ult perceptions of the equinox of the gods, there are obviously many more, we could fill a whole book just considering many of the perceptions people had of the change that occurred. when it comes to philosophy it is much the same, however, one name stands out above the others- that of fredrich nietzsche. gnostic theurgy page 217 nietzsche was born in rocken in prussian saxony in 1844. he studied theology at leipzig university but soon abandoned his studies as he realised the degenerative state of german theology. he completed a doctorate in philology and continued to teach it for some ten years at basil. he began a study of philosophy first basing his work on schopenhauer and then going beyond to create his own unique system based on the will to power. the philosophy of nietzsche is an em

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS ZAM17

arts. but such is their opposition that they still keep, and are loath to leave, the old course, esteeming porphyry, aristotle, and galen, yea, and that which hath but a mere show of learning, more than the clear and manifested light and truth. those, if they were now living, with much joy would leave their erroneous doctrines; but, here is too much weakness for such a great work. and although in theology, medicine and mathematics, the truth doth oppose itself, nevertheless, the old enemy, by his subtlety and craft, doth show himself in hindering every good purpose by his instruments and contentious, wavering people. to such an intention of a general reformation, the most godly and highly illuminated father, our brother, c.r.c, a german, the chief and original of our fraternity, hath much

n used it, also it 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 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

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS ZAM19

covereth a remedy against the same, so amidst so many infirmities 3 of philosophy there do appear the right means, and unto our fatherland sufficiently offered, whereby she may become sound again, and new or renovated may appear to a renovated world. no other philosophy have we than that which is the head of all the faculties, sciences and arts, the which (if we behold our age) containeth much of theology and medicine, but little of jurisprudence; which searcheth heaven and earth with exquisite analysis, or to speak briefly thereof, which doth sufficiently manifest the microcosmic man, whereof if some of the more orderly in the number of the learned shall respond to our fraternal invitation, they shall find among us far other and greater wonders than those they heretofore did believe, marv

GRAHAM HANCOCK FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

solar and stellar deities, and was old beyond reckoning when senuseret chose it as the site for his obelisk. indeed, together with giza (and the distant southern city of abydos) innu/heliopolis was believed to have been part of the first land that emerged from the primeval waters at the moment of creation, the land of the first time, where the gods had commenced their rule on earth.4 heliopolitan theology rested on a creation-myth distinguished by a number of unique and curious features. it taught that in the beginning the universe had been filled with a dark, watery nothingness, called the nun. out of this inert cosmic ocean (described as shapeless, black with the blackness of the blackest night) rose a mound of dry land on which ra, the sun god, materialized in his self-created form as a

o stone might have told us about even earlier epochs, notably zep tepi the golden age of the gods. the deeper we penetrate into the myths and memories of egypt s long past, and the closer we approach to the fabled first time, the stranger the landscapes that surround us become. as we shall see. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 375 chapter 44 gods of the first time according to heliopolitan theology, the nine original gods who appeared in egypt in the first time were ra, shu, tefnut, geb, nut, osiris, isis, nepthys and set. the offspring of these deities included well-known figures such as horus and anubis. in addition, other companies of gods were recognized, notably at memphis and hermopolis, where there were important and very ancient cults dedicated to ptah and to thoth.1 these f

GREENFIELD ALLEN SECRET CIPHER OF THE UFONAUTS

he relativity of things, these higher intelligences may seem unspeakably powerful, mythic and divine. the gnostic view has tended to be that what the external world of the conventional person understands as god, devil demon, angel or, more recently, extraterrestrial beings are, in fact, such emanations of the unspeakable ultimate. indeed, the ancient gnostics saw the god and devil of conventional theology as an ego-maddened entity under the delusion that it, indeed, is the ultimate being! the late phil dick, in his last gnostic allegorical fiction, eventually settled on the name v.a.l.i.s. or vast active living intelligence system for this being or demiurge. he wrestled through his literary career and secret life as a christian gnostic philosopher with whether valis was a benevolent, if ma

H SPENCER LEWIS ROSICRUCIAN MANUAL AMORC 1990

every evidence, however, that the oral teachings were in existence at a far earlier date. traditionally, they are said to date back to the time of the secret wisdom related by moses. by a system of numbers, and letters of the hebrew alphabet, the kabala discloses the esoteric mysteries. its philosophy, in other words, concerns ontology, the nature of being; cosmology, the origin of the universe; theology, the nature of god; and anthropology, man's relationship to god and the world. karma.a term used by us to mean the working of the law of compensation. rosicrucians do not contend, however, that the exactions of the law of compensation will result in any reversal of the law of evolution, as is claimed by some modern schools. that a human being may be reincarnated in the form or body of a l

of the cosmic intelligence within us. when our soul personality is equivalent to the soul force within us, then perfection is realized. we are then one with the consciousness of the cosmic. at such a time, rebirth is no longer necessary. religion.the knowledge of god and god's ways leads to a real religious devotion on the part of rosicrucians, and the mystic is always a true student of essential theology. but aside from uniting with sectarian churches in order to assist in the great work they are doing, the rosicrucian is broad and tolerant in his religion and ends god in everything and every one of his creatures. ritual.ritualistic ceremonies are a combination of acts and symbols designed to induce a psychic and emotional experience. they are not an intellectual presentation of ideas int

HAMIL THE ROSICRUCIAN SEER

ssengertrainvols. 7. 8. 9.ofthe crystal ms&3 or 4 pamphlets.thequarterly censertalmudmust come at another time.whenyou open the box take out the little newspaper first then the two blue pamphlets. mymssnot being indexed i have been looking through them till my head aches&i am so unwell i get worse insteadofbetter-ifeel at the present moment too insipid to do anything. you cannot judgeofthe c.a.'s theology until i have got out my manuscript for publication.itheevan's- glass was made thus: a square topofwood with a hole in the middle then a piece for the bottom without anyhole-uponthis last piece is spread a pieceoffine thin whitesilk-ithink they call it [illegible] or some such queer name&upon that a piece of plain thick glass.theni made it square by putting 4 brass rods which fitted into t

ary of the grand lodge of mark master masons 1861-88; secretary of the royal masonic institution for boys 1861-90; and a member of many other orders, including the metropolitan college sria. 4 william carpenter (r797-1874. a man of no formal education, he worked for lackington the bookseller, whom he left to devote his life to writing. as a political reformer, he wrote extensively on politics and theology and edited various journals and newspapers. a freema255 son, he was made a rosicrucian byj.o. haye in 1857 in the original societas rosicruciana in scotia. an early member of the sria he reached the viii degree and at the time of his death was master255 general elect of the metropolitan college. irwin made him a member of the bristol college, for which he wrote a paper as well as a being

i7)undatedmanuscriptsalmadel 'key of solomon the king, the fourth book, transcribed from the original ms bymrhockley (hi04)drbacstrom f.r.c [letter [and]thehidden sense of hadamah. cabalistic numerals in squares (hi03) cabala [hebrew title [from the publisher james burns, with a printed label advertising hockley's crystals and mirrors forsale.]book of the cabalistic art, that is to say, of hidden theology and philosophy, bydrjohn pistor (m302* book of spirits, bael, agares, marbas etc (hi 16) crystallomancy,or the art of invocating spirits by the crystal [two copies of this manuscript are extant] magical mss comprising:ofintelligences and spirits,themethod of invocating the dead or raising the spirit of a departed person,anepitome of the angelican world, ruben's latin manuscript. dr rudd's

HANDBOOK OF EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

snake deities and celestial ferrymen who inhabit a complex and intensely imagined realm of the gods. the most frequently mentioned deities are anubis, atum, geb, horus, isis, nephthys, nut, osiris, ra, seth, shu, and thoth (see deities, themes, and concepts. these include most of the deities who make up the ennead of heliopolis, and it is often argued that the pyramid texts largely represent the theology of the solar temple at heliopolis. a stellar element was also important in the pyramid texts. the king was destined to join the imperishable stars, and the god osiris was identified with the constellation of orion and the goddess isis with the dog star, sirius.20 the cult of osiris is hardly known before the fifth dynasty, but he gradually became the most important funerary god. one thing

fertiti, were dedicated to the cult of aten, a form of the sun god represented by the solar disk. akhenaten built huge temples for aten that were open to the sky. he established a new capital and a new royal burial ground at akhetaten (modern tell el-amarna. akhenaten suppressed the cult of amun, but the idea that he closed down all of egypt s temples seems to be an exaggeration.45 in akhenaten s theology the worship of aten as the creator sun god and the king as his representative on earth made other deities and their myths superfluous. belief in a separate realm of the dead ruled by osiris was replaced by the idea that spirits of the dead could live on in the aten temples. akhenaten s religious and political policies were not popular, and under the boy king tutankhamun (tutankhamon (c. 1

, but the temples of thebes seem to have been the main center of production. many of the spells were adapted from earlier funerary literature, particularly the coffin texts. in spell 17, quotations from the coffin texts are interspersed with com- 26 handbook of egyptian mythology mentaries headed this means. in these explanatory passages, ancient creation myths are reinterpreted in terms of later theology. this is a clear example of the way in which the meaning and functions of egyptian myths could change from period to period. many deities are mentioned or depicted in the book of the dead, but the afterlife that the spells envisage is dominated by two gods, ra and osiris. some of the spells concerning ra were adapted from solar hymns used in temples. the spirits of the dead could join the

me. 71 some pyramid tombs of nubian kings near napata are inscribed with extracts from old kingdom pyramid texts. in thebes, priests appointed by the nubian kings revised and codified the book of the dead. some of the spells they added contain passages that are probably in the nubian language. 72 also dating to this nubian period is the shabaqo stone with a copy of the text known as the memphite theology (see figure 8. the memphite theology this text tells how the earth god geb judged between the rival gods horus and seth and how osiris was established as ruler of the underworld. it reconciles the separate creation myths of atum of heliopolis and ptah of memphis and includes a first-person account by ptah of how he created all life through his powers of thought and speech. this section ha

includes a first-person account by ptah of how he created all life through his powers of thought and speech. this section has often been compared to the famous opening of st. john s gospel: in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god and the word was god. the whole text may have been read aloud during religious festivals. king shabaqo (c. 716 702 bce) claims to have had the memphite theology copied onto stone because the original was eaten by worms. the new version, which was set up in the temple of ptah in memphis, was to prove equally unlucky. the slab on which it was inscribed was eventually reused as a millstone, so parts of the text have been ground away. the preface to the memphite theology states that shabaqo thought this text worthy of preservation because it was foun

ve been ground away. the preface to the memphite theology states that shabaqo thought this text worthy of preservation because it was found to be a work of the ancestors. in the past, egyptologists accepted 32 handbook of egyptian mythology shabaqo s word that this was a very ancient text and assigned it to the old kingdom or even the early dynastic period. recent work has shown that the memphite theology cannot be earlier than the late new kingdom. it was probably rewritten under shabaqo using a deliberately archaic style to give the contents added authority. 73 much of the memphite theology is similar to accounts of creation in the so-called bremner-rhind papyrus, which dates to around the fourth century bce (see brp in appendix: primary sources).74 among the texts inscribed on this papy

estroying them by methods such as stabbing, trampling, burning, and burying. these sections are prefaced by speeches from the creator god describing the creation of life and the establishment of the divine order. this identifies the ritual as part of the continuing cosmic struggle. until recently, the bremner-rhind papyrus cosmogony has received much less attention from scholars than the memphite theology, partly because the former conforms to modern ideas of what a religious text should be like, whereas the latter was seen as belonging to the primitive world of magic. of the two, it is probably the bremner-rhind papyrus that is more characteristic of the way in which mythology was used in egyptian culture. in the seventh century bce, most egyptians must have felt that the forces of chaos

gypt s gods. they looted the temples of heliopolis and thebes, taking away vast quantities of treasure. the nubian kings were driven out of egypt, but they continued to reign over kush for almost a thousand years. the assyrians did not have enough manpower to leave a large army in egypt. they appointed egyptians to govern the country on their behalf and col- introduction 33 figure 8. the memphite theology inscribed on the shabaqo stone. the inscription was damaged when the stela was reused as a grindstone (courtesy of geraldine pinch) lect tribute. a family from the region of sais in the delta collaborated with the assyrians for awhile. as soon as the assyrians were occupied with problems elsewhere in their empire, this family made egypt independent again and ruled as the twenty-sixth dyna

yptians and their gods.84 native egyptian society was more temple centered than ever, and the priesthood became the custodians of egyptian culture. working for a temple was virtually the only form of advancement available to talented egyptians. the priesthood turned into a hereditary caste, jealous of its rights and privileges. yet this was not a period of decadence. egyptian art, literature, and theology continued to flourish and develop. the architecture of the ptolemaic temples reflects their use by the general population. inside the enclosure walls there were sanatoria where people could visit statues with healing powers or spend the night in the hope that a deity would come to them in a dream and tell them how their illness could be cured. crowds took part in the annual festival of os

HEAVEN HELL

iod represent too much a patch-work belief for purposes of systematic illustration, and in the result, and perhaps also through the funeral customs of the day, the growth in men's minds of the wish for illustrated guides to the underworld was retarded. when the glory of sovereignty departed from the kings who held court at memphis after the end of the rule of the vith dynasty, the system of solar theology, which had been promulgated in lower egypt by the priests of heliopolis, began to make its way into upper egypt, and wherever it came it assumed a p. 5 leading position among the religious systems of the day. the kings of the viith and viiith dynasties, like those of the iiird, ivth, and vith, came from memphis, but they had comparatively little power in the land, and, so far as we know

dynasty, and it will suffice to say that the history of his cult is, practically, the history of egypt for nearly one thousand years. his priests made him possessor of the principal attributes and titles of all the ancient gods of egypt, and their absolute power enabled them to modify the old systems of belief of the country. they introduced the primitive gods of the land into their own system of theology, but assigned to them subordinate positions and powers inferior to those of amen, or amen-ra, as he was called, and the new editions of most of the old religious works which appeared at thebes bore the traces of having been edited in accordance with their views and opinions. in many of its aspects the cult of amen was less material than that of many of the old gods, and the religion of th

the kingdom of khenti-amenti-osiris according to the book am-tuat. the god afu-ra now enters the region urnes which derives its name from that of the river flowing through it; it is 309, or 480 atru or leagues in length, and 120 wide. urnes is a portion of the dominions of osiris-khenti-amenti, the great god of abydos, and it, no doubt, formed a section of the sekhet-hetepet according to the old theology of egypt. the boat of afu-ra is now under the direction of the goddess of the second hour of the night, shesat-maket-neb-s, and the uraei of isis and nephthys have been added to its crew. immediately in front of it are four boats, which move by themselves; the first contains the full moon, of which osiris was a form, the second the emblem of a deity of harvest, the third the symbols of an

HELENA BLAVATSKY THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

religion. page 10 the key to theosophy- hp blavatsky.txt q. what is the difference between buddhism, the religion founded by the prince of kapilavastu, and budhism, the "wisdomism" which you say is synonymous with theosophy? a. just the same difference as there is between the secret teachings of christ, which are called "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" and the later ritualism and dogmatic theology of the churches and sects. buddha means the "enlightened" by bodha, or understanding, wisdom. this has passed root and branch into the esoteric teachings that gautama imparted to his chosen arhats only. q. but some orientalists deny that buddha ever taught any esoteric doctrine at all? a. they may as well deny that nature has any hidden secrets for the men of science. further on i will pr

hought. can you tell me, then, what has caused this system of theosophy which you support to arouse so much interest and so much animosity at the same time? a. there are several reasons for it, i believe; among other causes that may be mentioned is: 1. the great reaction from the crassly materialistic theories now prevalent among scientific teachers. 2. general dissatisfaction with the artificial theology of the various christian churches, and the number of daily increasing and conflicting sects. 3. an ever-growing perception of the fact that the creeds which are so obviously self-and mutually-contradictory cannot be true, and that claims which are unverified cannot be real. this natural distrust of conventional religions is only strengthened by their complete failure to preserve morals an

on god and prayer q. do you believe in god? a. that depends what you mean by the term. q. i mean the god of the christians, the father of jesus, and the creator: the biblical god of moses, in short. a. in such a god we do not believe. we reject the idea of a personal, or an extra-cosmic and anthropomorphic god, who is but the gigantic shadow of man, and not of man at his best, either. the god of theology, we say-and prove it-is a bundle of contradictions and a logical impossibility. therefore, we will have nothing to do with him. q. state your reasons, if you please. a. they are many, and cannot all receive attention. but here are a few. this god is called by his devotees infinite and absolute, is he not? q. i believe he is. a. then, if infinite-i.e, limitless-and especially if absolute

which was inaugurated by the jews and popularized by the pharisees. page 34 the key to theosophy- hp blavatsky.txt q. is there any other kind of prayer? a. most decidedly; we call it will-prayer, and it is rather an internal command than a petition. q. to whom, then, do you pray when you do so? a. to "our father in heaven"-in its esoteric meaning. q. is that different from the one given to it in theology? a. entirely so. an occultist or a theosophist addresses his prayer to his father which is in secret, not to an extra-cosmic and therefore finite god; and that "father" is in man himself. q. then you make of man a god? a. please say "god" and not a god. in our sense, the inner man is the only god we can have cognizance of. and how can this be otherwise? grant us our postulate that god is

rnal? naturally all this ceases to exist, either at, or soon after corporeal death. it becomes in time entirely disintegrated and disappears from view, being annihilated as a whole. q. then you also reject resurrection in the flesh? a. most decidedly we do! why should we, who believe in the archaic esoteric philosophy of the ancients, accept the unphilosophical speculations of the later christian theology, borrowed from the egyptian and greek exoteric systems of the gnostics? q. the egyptians revered nature-spirits, and deified even onions: your hindus are idolaters, to this day; the zoroastrians worshiped, and do still worship, the sun; and the best greek philosophers were either dreamers or materialists-witness plato and democritus. how can you compare! a. it may be so in your modern chr

ies, his lower three principles leave him forever; i.e, body, life, and the vehicle of the latter, the astral body or the double of the living man. and then, his four principles-the central or middle principle, the animal soul or kamarupa, with what it has assimilated from the lower manas, and the higher triad find themselves in kamaloka. the latter is an astral locality, the limbus of scholastic theology, the hades of the ancients, and, strictly speaking, a locality only in a relative sense. it has neither a definite area nor boundary, but exists within subjective space; i.e, is beyond our sensuous perceptions. still it exists, and it is there that the astral eidolons of all the beings that have lived, animals included, await their second death. for the animals it comes with the disintegr

d and incarnation. q. but christianity teaches the same. it also preaches progression. a. yes, only with the addition of something else. it tells us of the impossibility of attaining salvation without the aid of a miraculous savior, page 73 the key to theosophy- hp blavatsky.txt and therefore dooms to perdition all those who will not accept the dogma. this is just the difference between christian theology and theosophy. the former enforces belief in the descent of the spiritual ego into the lower self; the latter inculcates the necessity of endeavoring to elevate oneself to the christos, or buddhi state. q. by teaching the annihilation of consciousness in case of failure, however, don't you think that it amounts to the annihilation of self, a in the opinion of the non-metaphysical? a. from

portion of that terrestrial entity, now passed away out of sight. the actor is so imbued with the role just played by him that he dreams of it during the whole devachanic night, which vision continues till the hour strikes for him to return to the stage of life to enact another part. q. but how is it that this doctrine, which you say is as old as thinking men, has found no room, say, in christian theology? page 86 the key to theosophy- hp blavatsky.txt a. you are mistaken, it has; only theology has disfigured it out of all recognition, as it has many other doctrines. theology calls the ego the angel that god gives us at the moment of our birth, to take care of our soul. instead of holding that "angel" responsible for the transgressions of the poor helpless "soul" it is the latter which, ac

father is the husbandman. every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. i am the vine-ye are the branches. if a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered and cast into the fire and burned. now we explain it in this way. disbelieving in the hellfire which theology discovers as underlying the threat to the branches, we say that the "husbandman" means atma, the symbol for the infinite, impersonal principle, while the vine stands for the spiritual soul, christos, and each "branch" represents a new incarnation. q. but what proofs have you to support such an arbitrary interpretation? 1. universal symbology is a warrant for its correctness and that it is

HP LOVECRAFT THE UNNAMABLE

ing my stories with, sights or sounds which paralyzed my heroes' faculties and left them without courage, words, or associations to tell what they had experienced. we know things, he said, only through our five senses or our intuitions; wherefore it is quite impossible to refer to any object or spectacle which cannot be clearly depicted by the solid definitions of fact or the correct doctrines of theology- preferably those of the congregationalist, with whatever modifications tradition and sir arthur conan doyle may supply. with this fried, joel manton, i had often languidly disputed. he was principal of the east high school, born and bred in boston and sharing new england's self- satisfied deafness to the delicate overtones of life, it was his view that only our normal, objective experien

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW CHUMBLEY

et alia it is evident that motifs and elements of the witches sabbath relate directly to early modern folk beliefs, magical praxis, and attested interactions with dream-conclaves and spirit-hosts. this being so, there is very clear comparison with contemporary sabbatic craft praxis. one might ask whether certain types of praxis yield comparable spirit-communion and thus, despite shifts in values, theology, names, and representations, the experiential actualities of magical practice, spirit-congress and oneiric locus maintain a certain constancy of reality. to comprehend the forms of inner continuity one must not however equate antiquity with authenticity; the source of the sabbatic craft is of the moment, beyond past and future. the linear perspective of time assumed by historical analysis

ISIS UNVEILED

o about ia projects (navigation image)(navigation image) home american libraries canadian libraries universal library community texts project gutenberg children's library biodiversity heritage library additional collections search: advanced search anonymous user (login or join us) upload see other formats full text of "isis unveiled: a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology" google this is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. it has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. a public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright

through the full text of this book on the web at http//books .google .com/i digilizocb, google p digilizocb, google digilizocb, google digilizocb, google digilizocb, google digilizocb, google jiliooglc digilizocb, google isis unveiled digilizocb, google attak tsbosorhical pkbss point loma, ctlifbcnia digitizecoy google isis unveiled a master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology by h. p. blavatsky" ce^ mt nn un de boiuw fay" moiraioini vol. ii theology section i thibo roint loha edition revised the aryan theosophical press point loma, caupornu 1019 dibiiizoo;b, tikivgli. the new york public libb ary 5fi092.1 a astor. lencx and tllofim rounda t10n8 n 1s31 i. capjii^t 1b77 by j. w. bonton nbwaj coprright uie b7 kkuxrioe tfa^ej digitizec by google bebitatm ttime boi

tctat dijiiizocb, google digilizocb, google table of contents ad^rnir* pbkpaci to volum n v hi. elubeth lliampkni and baronen burdett-coutls. volume two the *infalubility* of reugion section i chapteb i the chtrch: where is it? church stattftici 1 catholic 'miradn' and spiritualutic 'phedomeiu' 4 christian and pa^an beliefs compared 10 .jblagic and mcer^ practiaed by chriitian dergy 20 o^muatitc theology a new idcdce 2s eafteni traditioii* as to alexandrian library 27 rotnan pontiffs imitatoia of the sndq brakm^tna 30 christimi dogmm derived from heathm philom^y 33 doctrine trf the l^inity of pagan gnostics and church fathers 51 bloody leooids of oiriitimiity 63 chapter n christian crimes and heathen virtues so t eeiies tt catherine of medida 5s occult aria prac

it is no buraness of ours. all the facts in nature belortg to science, and every addition to the store of science en- riches instead of impoverishes her. if humanity has once admitted a truth, and then in the blindness of self-conceit denied it, to return to its realization is a step forward and not baokward" since the day when modern science gave what may be considered the death-blow to dogmatic theology by assuming the ground that religion was full of mystery, and mystery is unscientific, the mental state of the educated class has presented a curious aspect. society seems from that time to have been ever balancing itself upon one leg on an unseen tight-rope stretched from our visible universe into the invisible one; un- certain whether the end hooked on faith in the latter mi^t not sudde

lly committed to paper the heretical thought that after all socrates might not be altogether fixed in hell" his benedictine editor criticises this too-benevolent father very severely. whoever doubts the christian charity of the church of rome in this direction is invited to peruse the cenmre of the sorbonne on marmontel's bsliaaire. the odium tiieolofficum blazes in it on the dark sky of orthodox theology like an aurora borealia the precursor of god's wrath according to the teaching of certain medieval divines. we have attempted in the first part of this work to show by historical examples how completely men of science have deserved the sting- ing sarcasm of the late professor de morgan, who remarked of them that "they wear the priest's cast-off garb, dyed to escape detection" the christia

man to consider it as an intermediate state, in which an opportunity is afforded them to prepare for higher degrees of purification and redemp- tion from their wretched condition. the gehenna of the new testa- ment was a locality outside the walls of jerusalem; and ill mentioning it jesus used but an ordinary metaphor. whence then came the dreary dogma of hell, that archimedean lever of christian theology, with whidi they have succeeded in holding in subjection the numberless millions of christians for nineteen centuries? assuredly not from the jewish scriptures, and we appeal for corroboration to any well-informed hebrew scholar. he only suggestion of something approaching hell in the bible is gehenna or hinnom, a valley near jerusalem, where was situated tophet, a place where a fire was

he satanic majesty, or accredit him with the gover- norship of a single inch of territory. the clergy felt thor prestige growing! weaker every day, as they saw the people impatiently shaking off, in the broad daylight of truth, the dark veils with which they had been blindfolded for so many centuries. then finally fortune, which previously had been on their side in the long-waged conflict between theology and science, deserted to their adversary. he help of the latter to the study of the occult side of nature was truly predous and timely, and science has unwitting widened the once narrow path of the phenomena into a broad h^way. had not this conflict ou reunimu t^ the ckrmmu. he motive which had induced the apoatle to coafcr on liiuu and cletiu mccetuvdy the epi^ctqw] durmcter, in order to

of salem witchcraft and of the nuns of loudun. as it was the clergy were muzzled. but if science has tmintentionally helped the progress of the oc- cult phenomena, the latter have reciprocally aided science herself. until the days when newly-reincamated philosophy boldly claimed its place in the world, there had heen but few scholars who had under- taken the difficult task of studying compilative theology. this science occupies a domain heretofore penetrated by few e^orers. the neces- sity which it involved of being well acquainted with the dead languages naturally limited the number of students' besides there was less popular need for it so long as people could not replace the christian orthodoiqr by something more tan^ble. it is one of the moat un- deniable facts of psychology, that the

ner* we have now before us the canonical books of buddhism; the zend avetta of zoro- aster is no longer a sealed book; and the hymns of the rig-veda have revealed a state of religions anterior to the first beginnings of that mythology which in homer and hesiod stands before us as a mouldering ruin* in their insatiable desire to extend the dominion of blind faith, the early architects of christian theology had been forced to conceal, as much as it was possible, the true sources of the same. to this end they are said to have bunted or otherwise destroyed all the original manuscripts on the kabala, magic, and occult sciences upon which they could uy their hands. they ignorantly supposed that the most danger- ous writings of this class had perished with the last gnostic; but some day they may

JENNINGS HARGRAVE ROSICRUCIANS RITES MYSTERIES

altogether give in with such ediyfying submission to the indoctrination of the scientific classes, notwithstanding that these latter have the support generally of that which, by a wide term, is called the press in this country quietly decline reliance on modern science. they see that there are numerous shortcomings of teachers in medicine, which fails frequently, though always with its answer, in theology, which chooses rather that men should sleep, though not the right sleep, than consider waking nay, in all the branches of human knowledge; the fashion in regard to which is to disparage the ancient schools of thought by exposing what are called their errors by the light of modern assumed infallible discovery. it never once occurs to those t 2 the rosicrucians. eager, conceited, professors

creation. the twelve signs may be interpreted as the twelve acts of the divine drama. some of the fig. 86. fig. 87. fig. 88. brixworth church, northhamptonsh, supposed circa 670. tower in dover castle, circa 400. turret at the east end of st. peter s church, oxford, circa, 1180. mosques in the east are surmounted with twelve minarets, and the number twelve occurs frequently in connection with the theology of the moslems. fig. 89. little saxam church, suffolk, circa 1120. fig. 90. rochester cathedral (turret, 1180. fig. 91. bishop's cleeve church, gloucestershire, circa. 1180. fig. 115a is a scale enrichment, introduced into architecture, to symbolise the female deity, or virgin born of the waters. the spectator looks to the faces of the figure marked 116. christian towers. 219 fig. 117 is

f the bull, calf, or cow. all these horns are everywhere devoted in their signification to the moon. it is in connection with this secondary god or goddess, who is always recognisable through the peculiar appendage of horns, it is in proximity to this god or goddess, who takes the second place in the general pantheon, the sun taking the first, it is here, in all the illustrations which the mythic theology borrows from architecture, or the science of expressing religious ideas through hieroglyphical forms, that the incoherent horns reiterate, always presenting themselves to recognition, in some form or other, at terminal or at salient points. thus they become a most important figure, if not the most important figure, in the templar architecture everywhere, of india, of egypt, of greece, of

would seem that it came at least three hundred years since. the collar of s.s. means the magian, or first order, or brotherhood. in the christian arrangements, it stands for the holy spirit, or third person of the trinity. in the gnostic talismans, it is displayed as the bar, curved with the triple s. refer to the cnuphis abraxoids occurring in our book, for we connect the collar of s.s. with the theology of the gnostics. that the order of the garter is feminine, and that its origin is an apotheosis of the rose, and of a certain sin290 the rosicrucians. gular physiological fact connected with woman's life, is proven in many ways such as the double garters, red and white; the* twenty-six knights, representing the double thirteen lunations in the year, or their twenty-six mythic dark and lig

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

roit: wayne state university press, 1981. willensky, sara o. heller. gthe efirst created being f in early kabbalah: philosophical and isma fillan sources, h in binah, vol. 3 (ed. j. dan; westport: praeger, 1994. gisaac ibn latif.philosopher or kabbalist? h in jewish medieval and renaissance studies, edited by alexander altmann (cambridge: harvard university press, 1967. wolfson, elliot. gnegative theology and positive assertion, h in daat, nos. 32-33 (1994. through a speculum that shines. vision and imagination in medieval judaism. princeton: princeton university press, 1994: chapter six. gvisionary gnosis and the role of the imagination in theosophic kabbalah. h 20081 14 addendum: pre-kabbalistic streams of jewish mysticism* to fill the span between the close of the old testament and earl

ing compiled and redacted with little being added to the existing traditions. in this period, however, magical works circulated and grew. joseph dan writes, gthe geonic period, from the sixth to tenth centuries, is a period which seems to be outside the realm of the history of jewish thought. c [i]t still retains the image of being a half-millennium almost completely devoid of any hebrew works on theology or ethics. this image is not completely true. h* see klaus herrmann, gjewish mysticism in the geonic period: the prayer of rav hamnuna sava, h in jewish studies between the disciplines: papers in honor of peter schafer on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday (leiden. boston: brill, 2003. refer also to scholem fs kabbalah, pp. 30-5: gmysticism in the geonic period. h an example of a work

LAITMAN M KABBALAH SCIENCE AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

a wealthy family in palma, mallorca, was well educated, and became the tutor of king james ii of aragon. he wrote in arabic, latin and catalan. he wrote treatises on alchemy and botany, ars magna, and llibre de meravelles. the creation, or language, is an adequate subject of the science of kabbalah that is why it is becoming clear that its wisdom governs the rest of the sciences. sciences such as theology, philosophy and mathematics receive their principles and roots from her. and therefore these sciences (scientiae) are subordinate to that wisdom (sapientia; and their= the sciences] principles and rules are subordinate to her= the kabbalah] principles and rules; and therefore their= the sciences ]mode of argumentation is insufficient without her= the kabbala--raymundus lullus, raymundi lu

LEADBEATER C W THE HIDDEN LIFE IN FREEMASONRY 2E

after life he was destined to make famous. he was one of the last great exponents of neo-platonism, and his influence overshadowed to a great extent the medieval christian church. after that there is a gap in his list of incarnations, as to which at present we know nothing. we find him reborn in the year 1211, and in that life he was roger bacon, a franciscan friar, who was a reformer both of the theology and the science of his day. in 1375 came his birth as christian rosenkreutz. that also was an incarnation of considerable importance, for in it he founded the secret society of the rosicrucians. he seems some fifty years later, or a little more than that, to have used the body of hunyadi janos, an eminent hungarian soldier and leader. also we are told that about 1500 he had a life as the

masonic rank. it is a matter of deep regret that so few of our modern brn. realize in the least the sacredness of their office, and the heavy responsibility laid upon them to use their power without thought of self in the service of the world. 443. there are, however, considerable differences be-tween the methods of transmission in these two great sacramental systems. it is recognized in catholic theology, and confirmed by occult investigation, that the spiritual powers given at ordination are invariably conferred, provided only that the bishop be in the line of the apostolic succession, that he have the intention to confer holy orders and that the recipient have the intention to receive them, and that the laying on of hands take place according to the ancient tradition. the particular bel

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

ses, 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 liberty for the individual intellect to search for the truth in its own way. for so great was the ignorance and bigotry of the reformers that they cast aside the good with the evil, and framed a theology more intolerable than that of rome, while to a great extent rejecting her sacramental and contemplative treasures. 558. the reappearance of speculative masonry 559. after the reformation in england ecclesiastical architecture practically ceased as an activity of the guilds, and the operative lodges fell into decay since their work was no longer needed. but while the reformation thus injur

LEMEGETON

14, fol 20b. note the drawing at the bottom showing how the candles are to be constructed with feet to support the almadel "picture of the almadel, from or. ms. 6360: first note of the art of grammar, from sl. 1712, fol. 14v. second note of the art of grammar, from sl. 1712, fol. 15r. the fourth note of rhetoric and the note of geometry, from sl. 1712, fol. 19r: second, third, and fourth notes of theology, from sl. 1712. fol 21v. twilit grotto- esoteric archives contents prev intro next timeline messages none! power sound people on this site 42 other people are just browsing nikita fakename chat joe fakename chat giles fakename chat jessica fakename chat khem caigan chat andren hurry chat galactic humans we r this is you john fakename use real name- broadcast your thoughts- clear powered b

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

the great bulk of the information contained in these pages derives directly or indirectly from the christian tradition) i also included brief entries on a significant number of fallen angels a kind of who s who in hell as well as entries on certain topics from older western folklore about satan and witches. with the exception of a few older theologians like aquinas, i have largely ignored formal theology. the reader will also find treatments of a handful of traditional literary figures who have helped shape our images of the prince of darkness, such as milton and dante. and because of their influence on modern, religious satanism, i included material on romantic writers like blake and other literary figures like baudelaire. beginning in 1966, religious satanism emerged out of the occult s

this panic, the christian subculture played a key role in promoting the ritual abuse scare to the broader society. during this period, the reality of a vast, underground network of evil satanists abusing children and others was accepted by significant segments of the law enforcement community and by numerous therapists even police officers and analysts not otherwise inclined to accept traditional theology. less responsible members of the mass media, attracted by the sensationalism of these claims, avidly promoted the idea. the sra scare went into a sharp decline after about 1992. by the mid-1990s public opinion had shifted, and soon the sra perspective was being rejected by almost everyone except certain conservative christians. another influential arena in which traditional images of the

the satanic conspiracy theories that became so influential during the ritual abuse scare. as gavin baddeley, the author of lucifer rising, observes, the movies of the 1970s established satanic cultists as stock movie monsters. although christians have often accused hollywood of promoting satanism, the great majority of horror movies featuring a diabolical theme tend to adhere closely to orthodox theology. such films have thus been highly significant in keeping traditional images of the devil alive, and this book provides a series of entries on relevant movies. next to horror movies, perhaps the most significant source of diabolical images in contemporary popular culture is heavy metal music and some of heavy metal s darker musical relatives. this pattern began earlier among certain pre-he

f service in the natural order after their fall. aquinas, summa theologica the catholic theologian and philosopher st. thomas aquinas (c. 1224 1274) was born in roccasecca, italy. educated by the benedictines of monte cassino, he became a master in arts at the university of naples before entering the order of dominicans in 1244. in 1252 he was sent to the university of paris for advanced study in theology and taught until 1259, when he went back to italy to spend about ten years at various dominican monasteries, lecturing on theology and philosophy. after spending four years in paris, he returned to naples where he taught for more than a year at the university and where he preached a notable series of sermons. illness forced him to interrupt his teaching, and later on to interrupt his trip

abstracted universals on individual material things; the summa contra gentiles, four books in which he argues against nonbelievers and heretics; against the errors of the greeks, in which he expresses his opinion about the doctrinal points disputed by greek and latin christians; and the unfinished summa theologica, a three-part treatise on sacred doctrine that contains the principles of thomistic theology. the element that provides the summa with conceptual unity is the dionysian circle, implying the going forth of all things from god and the return of all things to god. part one includes questions and treatises about creation, the angels, the human being, and divine government. the two divisions of the second part are about virtues, vices, law, and grace, and the questions contained aquin

is ministry. small and cheap, any evangelist could buy a few hundred chick tracts and leave them wherever the casual passerby might pick them up laundromats, telephone booths, bus station benches, etc. they were more common in years past, and almost everyone older than generation x has come across them at one time or another. although many people who have seen them are appalled by the tracts, the theology of chick publications is squarely aligned with the mainstream of fundamentalist christianity. the comicbook form of the message and the focus on the enemies of real christians make chick publications appear more offensive than other ministries. ultimately, however, the only point on which chick deviates from standard fundamentalism is his targeting of catholicism as being at the very cent

pse, wherein appear demons that recall jewish, persian, and mesopotamian myths. in the transmission of the texts of the scriptures the devil (in hellenistic greek, diabolos) came to be identified with satan (the name used in the hebrew bible to indicate an adversary. the belief in evil powers as the source of sicknesses and problems for humans is found in early christian literature, and christian theology acknowledges evil as necessary for the fulfillment of free will. from very early, christianity developed the practice of exorcism to expel evil spirits who had taken control of human individuals. in medieval europe, the belief in the existence of demons came to be associated with witchcraft and contributed to the development of the practice of exorcism and witch-hunting. since the early d

s the aspect to which mortuary offerings were generally made. the ba was the breath or soul, the principle animating the person, both physically and psychically, which was pictured as a human-headed bird. the ba was able to perform all bodily functions, but shared with the akh the ability to exist as well among the gods. how much of the following process the pharaoh had to undergo is unclear. the theology was that he entered the divine realm, that is, the circuit of the sun god, by right. they did not have to answer to anyone and did not have to visit osiris in the underworld. even so, the pharaohs sometimes gave evidence of anxiety about the journey. in general, the newly dead, in the form of their ba and ka, traveled in the boat of re, the sun god, as he made his way across the sky. in t

s about raising hell, which imply that one is having such a good time that hell is being raised up from the underworld and manifesting on the surface in a wild party. see also advertising; humor for further reading: baddeley, gavin. lucifer rising: sin, devil worship and rock n roll. london: plexus, 1999. scott,miriam van. encyclopedia of hell. new york: thomas dunne books, 1998. fallen angels in theology, the fall refers to humanity s fall from grace into sin. it is the fall that is responsible for what is called original sin, meaning that everyone is born in sin and thus in need of salvation because of adam and eve s disobedience of god s command to not eat of the tree of good and evil in the garden of eden. simply by being born into this world, every human being inherits the sin of our

LIBER A

t asking the advice or approval of his adeptus minor. let the dominus liminis keep it when consecrated in the secret chamber of art. svb figvra cdxii 3 this then is that which is written: gbeing furnished with complete armour, and armed, he is similar to the goddess. h1 and again gi am armed, i am armed. h2 1 [chaldaan oracles, fragment 171 in westcott/ cory edition; quoted by proclus in platonic theology. the goddess in question is probably hekate. t.s] 2 [this is probably a quote from something, but i have not so far managed to identify it. t.s (c) ordo templi orientis. key entry &c. by frater t.s. for celephais press/ niwg. this e-text last revised 29.06.20teliber a fash vel capricorni pnevmatici svb figvra ccclxx v a a publication in class a 1 0. gnarled oak of god! in thy branches is

LIBER ALEPH

of wisdom or folly 185 zg altera de sua via (further concerning his way) hus i was brought unto the knowledge of myself in a certain secret grace, and as a poet, by jerome politt of kendal; oscar eckenstein of the mountain discovered manhood in me, teaching me to endure hardship, and to dare many shapes of death; also he nurtured me in concentration, the art of the mystics, but without lumber of theology. allan bennett bestowed upon me the right art of magic, and our holy qabalah, with a great treasure of learning in many matters, but especially concerning egypt, and asia, the mysteries of their arcane wisdom. but of cecil jones had i the great gift of the holy magick of abramelin, and he inducted me into that order which we name not, because of the silliness of the profane that pretend t

LIBER CCXLII AHA

ade safe, is vision sure to rise therein? marsyas. though calm and pure it seem, maybe some thought hath crept into his mind to baulk the adept. the expectation of success suffices to destroy the stress of the one thought. but then, what odds .man.s vision goes, dissolves in god.s. or .by god fs grace the light is given to the elected heir of heaven. these are but idle theses, dry dugs of the cow theology. business is business. the one fact that we know is: the gods exact a stainless mirror. cleanse thy soul! perfect the will fs austere control! for the rest, wait! the sky once clear, dawn needs no prompting to appear! olympas. enough! it shall be done. marsyas. beware! easily trips the big word .dare. liber ccxlii 16 each man fs an .dipus, that thinks he hath the four powers of the sphinx

LIBER LVII

nd of course it is only intelligible to advanced students. this atheist, not in-being but in-passing, is a very apt subject for initiation. he has done with the illusions of dogma. from a knight of the royal mystery65 he has risen to understand with the members of the sovereign sanctuary66 that all is symbolic; all, if you will, the jugglery of the magician. he is tired of theories and systems of theology and all such toys; and being weary and anhungered and athirst seeks a seat at the table of adepts, and a portion of the bread of spiritual experience, and a draught of the wine of ecstasy. 63 [the reference appears to be to a passage in the 5th athyr. t.s] 64 [ps. xiv, 1. note that by gematria ya \yhla= 147= hwhy+ ynda+ hyha+ alga, the four divine names of the lesser ritual of the pentagr

LIBER LXVII THE SWORD OF SONG

kill.the method of allegorical interpretation. this mighty .two handed engine at the door. of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken allegorically, or, as it is otherwise said .poetically. or .in a spiritual sense. the plainest words mean whatever a pious interpreter de sires they should mean (huxley .evolution of theology..a.c. introduction iii if the student has advanced spiritually so that he can internally, infallibly perceive what is truth, he will find it equally well symbolised in most external faiths. it is curious that browning never turns his wonderful faculty of analysis upon the fundamental problems of religion, as it were an axe laid to the root of the tree of life. it seems quite clear that he

LOGOMACHY OF ZOS

..1 2* 2* n= 2 9"d..1 2( n; the exceptions prove the possibility of great differences by changes. the longevity of cultures, hierarchies, institutions, ideas or beliefs do not prove their general worth or truth, often the reverse (a hundred million people can be wrong. the exceptions are usually overlooked. for instance, the oldest and most lasting of religions, the earliest egyptians. a complete theology in itself. is now defunct, sans priests and followers. it maintained the most rigid of conventions and limits and, throughout, the culture remained archaic. if the mind is a refraction of the soul then it also comprehends and manifests all the different realities and the imaginings we see and feel. xk5! s k= 2..q 5( 5( 9"d 9- e..1 e..1. 9= faculty, from this ever-changing, contracting and

desire like a god, a man, a beast or an abortion, we become akin. the constant process: illusions becoming true, and truths becoming illusions. h..1 y. e n f6..q( s 5! 2 &7 i =h never managed it for a minute; perhaps morons are more successful. g. 5..q. 5..1. x e 6..1 2 5( 9"f' z! 5..q as. release from evil is more by aesthetics than by asceticism. learned only of our solitude is a sound personal theology. all things realize sensationally: noting comes out of anything except by unity. better to believe untruth than suffer the sterility of unassertability. to believe anything sufficiently makes desire connective. only impacts have meaning: their consequences are true and real. t* 6..1 e. a\ i( 6..1 2..1. x..q i am+ o# e..1 6 k..1( sively realizable and advantageous, then autistic thinking h

LURQUIN STONE EVOLUTION AND RELIGIOUS CREATION MYTHS

what ultimately god did. concerning the teaching of id in public schools in the united states, several orthodox and reform rabbis in kansas city made their views crystal clear. in 2005, these rabbis showed their total opposition to the teaching of id in science classes, which, at that time, had been recommended by the kansas board of education. intelligent design, they said, is not science; it is theology. therefore, teaching it in public schools would violate the separation between church and state. apparently, this opinion represents the general stance of american jewish leaders. but even so, things are not that simple. in a radio interview just after the kansas decision, rabbi brad hirschfield, vice president of the national jewish center for learning and leadership, complained that ame

lf pronounced evolution to be just a theory that in recent years has been challenged in the world of science, which is totally untrue. the main difference between classical creationism of the 1980s and modern neocreationism is that neocreationists try to recruit individuals who hold academic degrees rather than evangelical preachers. other than that, says mooney, their goal is the same: introduce theology into science for political gains. but, of course, hiring people with academic credentials, as well as widely advertising creationist thinking in the formof books,web sites, and cds, requires significant funding. the money trail the seattle-based discovery institute (the umbrella organization that houses the neocreationist center for science and culture, the think tank where much of the id

eed of light. as this example shows, and as always, rigorous education is a great eye-opener, and the key to distinguishing sense from nonsense. to conclude this section, we quote the american physicist and 1965 nobel laureate richard feynman (1918 1988: i think that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. we interpret this quote as also meaning that just as theology is for theologians, so too science is for scientists. or, to quote the bible, render unto caesar the things that are caesar s and to god the things that are god s. the dangers of creationism 191 conclusions we hope that we have presented to readers interesting and persuasive arguments demonstrating the usefulness of evolutionary thinking in science and in the humanities. in their oppositi

ther. surely, this is the wedge at work. to combat this trend, we strongly encourage parents to the dangers of creationism 193 become vocal, serve on school boards, and provide encouragement to teachers and principals who want to maintain sanity in the science classroom. we must maintain the technological prominence of our country alive and well, and we can do so by preventing the introduction of theology and miracles into science courses. if we fail to discard this ideology, the world will watch, ponder. and suddenly burst out laughing. 194 evolution and religious creation myths appendix 1 the brusselator the brusselator is the first computer-generated dissipative structure developed by ilya prigogine and colleagues at the university of brussels, belgium, in the early 1970s. it is based o

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

e the irreconcilable differences present in the various systems of religio-philosophic thought. the entire theory of the book is diametrically opposed to the modern method of thinking, for it is concerned with subjects openly ridiculed by the sophists of the twentieth century. its true purpose is to introduce the mind of the reader to a hypothesis of living wholly beyond the pale of materialistic theology, philosophy, or science. the mass of abstruse material between its covers is not susceptible to perfect organization, but so far as possible related topics have been grouped together. rich as the english language is in media of expression, it is curiously lacking in terms suitable to the conveyance of abstract philosophical premises. a certain intuitive grasp of the subtler meanings conce

science of sciences [fichte; the science of the absolute [von schelling; the science of the absolute indifference of the ideal and real [von schelling--or, the identity of identity and non-identity [hegel (see lectures on metaphysics and logic) the six headings under which the disciplines of philosophy are commonly classified are: metaphysics, which deals with such abstract subjects as cosmology, theology, and the nature of being; logic, which deals with the laws governing rational thinking, or, as it has been called "the doctrine of fallacies; ethics, which is the science of morality, individual responsibility, and character--concerned chiefly with an effort to determine the nature of good; psychology, which is devoted to investigation and classification of those forms of phenomena refera

contending for universal supremacy. in manich ism, christ is conceived to be the principle of redeeming good in contradistinction to the man jesus, who was viewed as an evil personality. the death of boethius in the sixth century marked the close of the ancient greek school of philosophy. the ninth century saw the rise of the new school of scholasticism, which sought to reconcile philosophy with theology. representative of the main divisions of the scholastic school were the eclecticism of john of salisbury, the mysticism of bernard of clairvaux and st. bonaventura, the rationalism of peter abelard, and the pantheistic mysticism of meister eckhart. among the arabian aristotelians were avicenna and averroes. the zenith of scholasticism was reached with the advent of albertus magnus and his

rge to reproduce his kind. click to enlarge the tree of classical mythology. from hort's the new pantheon. before a proper appreciation of the deeper scientific aspects of greek mythology is possible, it is necessary to organize the greek pantheon and arrange its gods, goddesses, and various superhuman hierarchies in concatenated order. proclus, the great neo-platonist, in his commentaries on the theology of plato, gives an invaluable key to the sequence of the various deities in relation to the first cause and the inferior powers emanating from themselves. when thus arranged, the divine hierarchies may be likened to the branches of a great tree. the roots of this tree are firmly imbedded in unknowable being. the trunk and larger branches of the tree symbolize the superior gods; the twigs

to authority. consequently his conclusions are built up from the simplest of premises and grow in complexity as the structure of his philosophy takes form. the positive philosophy of auguste comte is based upon the theory that the human intellect develops through three stages of thought. the first and lowest stage is theological; the second, metaphysical; and the third and highest, positive. thus theology and metaphysics are the feeble intellectual efforts of humanity's child-mind and positivism is the mental expression of the adult intellect. in his cours de philosophie positive, comte writes "in the final, the positive state, the mind has given over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself to the s

ms tradition as the proper foundation for philosophy; the sociological school, which regards humanity as one vast social organism; the encyclopedists, whose efforts to classify knowledge according to the baconian system revolutionized european thought; voltairism, which assailed the divine origin of the christian faith and adopted an attitude of extreme skepticism toward all matters pertaining to theology; and neo-criticism, a french revision of the doctrines of immanuel kant. henri bergson, the intuitionalist, undoubtedly the greatest living french philosopher, presents a theory of mystic anti-intellectualism founded upon the premise of creative evolution, his rapid rise to popularity is due to his appeal to the finer sentiments in human nature, which rebel against the hopelessness and he

ch other, sheathed their swords when ordered to do so by the white-robed druids. no undertaking of great importance was scatted without the assistance of these patriarchs, who stood as mediators between the gods and men. the druidic order is deservedly credited with having had a deep understanding of nature and her laws. the encyclop dia britannica states that geography, physical science, natural theology, and astrology were their favorite studies. the druids had a fundamental knowledge of medicine, especially the use of herbs and simples. crude surgical instruments also have been found in england and ireland. an odd treatise on early british medicine states that every practitioner was expected to have a garden or back yard for the growing of certain herbs necessary to his profession. elip

enturies before the christian era "as to orpheus himself" writes thomas taylor "scarcely a vestige of his life is to be found amongst the immense ruins of time. for who has ever been able to affirm any thing with certainty of his origin, his age, his country, and condition? this alone may be depended on, from general assent, that there formerly lived a person named orpheus, who was the founder of theology among the greeks; the institutor of their lives and morals; the first of prophets, and the prince of poets; himself the offspring of a muse; who taught the greeks their sacred rites and mysteries, and from whose wisdom, as from a perennial and abundant fountain, the divine muse of homer and the sublime theology of pythagoras and plato flowed (see the mystical hymns of orpheus) orpheus was

ol of the ancient wisdom. thus orpheus was declared to be the son of apollo, the divine and perfect truth, and calliope, the muse of harmony and rhythm. in other words, orpheus is the secret doctrine (apollo) revealed through music (calliope. eurydice is humanity dead from the sting of the serpent of false knowledge and imprisoned in the underworld of ignorance. in this allegory orpheus signifies theology, which wins her from the king of the dead but fails to accomplish her resurrection because it falsely estimates and mistrusts the innate understanding within the human soul. the ciconian women who tore orpheus limb from limb symbolize the various contending theological factions which destroy the body of truth. they cannot accomplish this, however, until their discordant cries drown out th

MEANING OF MASONRY

ing beyond all precedent. one asks oneself what this growing interest portends, and to what it will, or can be made to, lead? the growth synchronizes with a corresponding defection of interest in orthodox religion and public worship. it need not now be enquired whether or to what extent the simple principles of faith and the humanitarian ideals of masonry are with some men taking the place of the theology offered in the various churches; it is probable that to some extent they do so. but the fact is with us that the ideals of the masonic order are making a wide appeal to the best instincts of large numbers of men and that the order has imperceptibly become the greatest social institution in the empire. its principles of faith and ethics are simple, and of virtually universal acceptance. pr

and fulfilment of the third degree. the latter inculcates the necessity of mystical death and dramatizes the process of such death and revival therefrom into newness of life. the royal arch carries the process a stage farther, by showing its fulfilment in the" exaltation" or apotheosis of him who has undergone it. the master mason's degree might be said to be represented in the terms of christian theology by the formula" he suffered and was buried and rose again" whilst the equivalent of the exaltation ceremony is" he ascended into heaven" the royal arch degree seeks to express that new and intensified life to which the candidate can be raised and the exalted degree of consciousness that comes with it. from being conscious merely as a natural man and in the natural restricted way common to

e self-perceptive by polarization within an efficient physiological organism. man provides the only organism adapted to the attainment of that self-perception; but only when that organism is purified and prepared sufficiently for the achievement. in the royal arch that achievement is hypothetically effe cted. the condition attained by the illumined candidate is the equivalent of what in christian theology is known as beatific vision and in the east as samadhi. it is also spoken of as universal or cosmic consciousness, since the percipient, transcending all sense of personal individualization, time and space, is co-conscious with all that is. he has entered the bliss and peace surpassing that temporal understanding which is limited to perceiving the discords, antinomies and contrasts charac

ugh scattered, literature is available for those who would pursue the subject further in the direction of the egyptian, samothracian, chaldean, mithraic, gnostic and other systems. in their respective days and localities they formed the authoritative centres of religion and philosophy, using those terms as but phases of an indivisible subject which nowadays has become split up into many brands of theology and speculative philosophy having little and often no possible connection with each other. what the old writers made public about the mysteries of course discreetly avoids descriptions of the deeper truths they imparted or of the actual processes of initiation. these must always remain a subject of secrecy, but by the perspicuous reader enough can be found in their purposely obscure and m

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

control and the enslavement of human-kind. the utter perversity of their natures could not be better revealed than by the philosoph-ical perusal of these so-called religious credos.a study of christian history discloses the portentous fact that the concept of the malig-nancy of matter, coming into the movement from hinduism through zoroastrianism,became an influence overwhelmingly dominating the theology and the ethic. it bred the mon-strous cult of asceticism, whose driving motivation was the idea that the instincts of the fleshmust be crushed down in the interests of the spirit. the tragic consequence of this stagger-ing default of insight are incalculable, but in all conscience overwhelming to any intelli-gence that discerns it. it lay the christian mind open to the obsession of a psyc

evelopment in the brotherhood he achieved everlasting fame forhis efforts to champion the cause of monotheism monotheism was a brotherhood teaching, and manyhistorians cite akhenaton as the most important figure to broadly promulgate the concept (p. 69)atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation229 appendix b: book abstracts the original cross/crucifixin addition to launching the one god theology, the snake brotherhood created many of the symbolsand regalia still used by some important religions today. for example, the brotherhood temple at elamarna was constructed in the shape of a cross a symbol later adopted by the brotherhoods mostfamous offshoot; christianity (p. 70)solomons temple was also modeled after that of el amarna.book of ezekielnow as i looked upon the living creatur

world. whether you are a beginner or a more seasoned student you will thisinformation to be of immense value. regardless of your background or occupation, this system is sureto unveil, inspire and empower. for more information on this tape/cd set, logon to www.taroscopes.com and take the taroscopes touratlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation431 also by michael tsarion videos/dvdastro-theology and sidereal mythologyas long as you consider the stars as something above the head, youwill lack the eye of knowledge (fredrick nietzsche)and god said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven todivide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and forseasons, and for days, and years (genesis 1:14)modern religions grew out of four ancient cults of power, which ruled the

ter the fourgreat cults became corrupted they eventually gave rise to the modern religions and political hierar-chies we all know today. our world is still controlled by the elite families of these secret orders today.in this talk and slide show presentation, michael will present information which will shift your entireview of how religion and politics work to shape the events of the world. astro-theology, the parentsubject of common astrology and astronomy, exposes the occult roots of religion, government and bigbusiness. knowledge of these roots will empower, inform and clarify your perception of the seem-ingly complex dynamics of the world (includes 600+ digital slides).what connection do the symbols of government, religion, royalty and the corporate world have with the constellations a

MOODY RAYMOND A LIFE AFTER LIFE

en in this study. my hope for this book is that it will draw attention to a phenomenon which is at once very widespread and very well-hidden, and, at the same time, help create a more receptive public attitude toward it. for it is my firm conviction that this phenomenon has great significance, not only for many academic and practical fields-especially psychology, psychiatry, medicine, philosophy, theology, and the ministry-but also for the way in which we lead our daily lives. let me say at the very beginning that, on grounds which i will explain much later, i am not trying to prove that there is life after death. nor do i think that a "proof" of this is presently possible. partly for this reason, i have avoided the use of actual names and have disguised certain identifying details in the

with phenomena and events mentioned in the more unusual sources. it must be acknowledged that the existence of the similarities and parallels among the writings of ancient thinkers and the reports of modern americans who survive close brushes with death remains a striking, and, so far, not definitively explicable fact. how is it, we might well ask ourselves, that the wisdom of tibetan sages, the theology and visions of paul, the strange insights and myths of plato, and the spiritual revelations of swedenborg all agree so well, both among themselves and with the narratives of contemporary individuals who have come as close as anyone alive to the state of death- notes (1) all quotations from the bible are taken from the king james version (2) all swedenborg quotations are taken from compend

MORALS AND DOGMA

egislation, upright in all her dealings. whenever such a republic exists, it will be immortal: for rashness, injustice, intemperance and luxury in prosperity, and despair and disorder in adversity, are the causes of the decay and dilapidation of nations. ii. the fellow-craft. in the ancient orient, all religion was more or less a mystery and there was no divorce from it of philosophy. the popular theology, taking the multitude of allegories and symbols for realities, degenerated into a worship of the celestial luminaries, of imaginary deities with human feelings, passions, appetites, and lusts, of idols, stones, animals, reptiles. the onion was sacred to the egyptians, because its different layers were a symbol of the concentric heavenly spheres. of course the popular religion could not sa

e 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" there is in these few words a complete summary of the theology of the sephiroth "the _king" is ainsoph, being supreme and absolute. from this centre _which_ is _everywhere, all things ray forth; but we especially conceive of it in three manners and in three different spheres. in the _divine_ world (aziluth, which is that of the first cause, and wherein the whole eternity of things in the beginning existed as unity, to be afterward, during eternity ut

nd universal benevolence. we labor here to no other end. these symbols need no other interpretation. the obligations of our ancient brethren of the rose were to fulfill all the duties of friendship, cheerfulness, charity, peace, liberality, temperance and chastity: and scrupulously to avoid impurity, haughtiness, hatred, anger, and every other kind of vice. they took their philosophy from the old theology of the egyptians, as moses and solomon had done, and borrowed its hieroglyphics and the ciphers of the hebrews. their principal rules were, to exercise the profession of medicine charitably and without fee, to advance the cause of virtue, enlarge the sciences, and induce men to live as in the primitive times of the world. when this degree had its origin, it is not important to inquire; no

ns; and, as was usual, the thracians, cretans, and athenians each claimed the honor of invention, and each insisted that they had borrowed nothing from any other people. in egypt and the east, all religion, even in its most poetical forms, was more or less a mystery; and the chief reason why, in greece, a distinct name and office were assigned to the mysteries, was because the superficial popular theology left a want unsatisfied, which religion in a wider sense alone could supply. they were practical acknowledgments of the insufficiency of the popular religion to satisfy the deeper thoughts and aspirations of the mind. the vagueness of symbolism might perhaps reach what a more palpable and conventional creed could not. the former, by its indefiniteness, acknowledged the abstruseness of its

recy observed by the initiated priests, for many years, and the lofty sciences which they professed, caused them to be honored and respected throughout all egypt, which was regarded by other nations as the college, the sanctuary, of the sciences and arts. the mystery which surrounded them strongly excited curiosity. orpheus metamorphosed himself, so to say, into an egyptian. he was initiated into theology and physics. and he so completely made the ideas and reasonings of his teachers his own, that his hymns rather bespeak an egyptian priest than a grecian poet: and he was the first who carried into greece the egyptian fables. pythagoras, ever thirsty for learning, consented even to be circumcised, in order to become one of the initiates: and the occult sciences were revealed to him in the

ects and purposes of the mysteries. hereafter, if you are permitted to advance, you will arrive at a more complete understanding of them and of the sublime doctrines which they teach. be content, therefore, with that which you have seen and heard and await patiently the advent of the greater light [illustration] xxiv. prince of the tabernacle. symbols were the almost universal language of ancient theology. they were the most obvious method of instruction; for, like nature herself, they addressed the understanding through the eye; and the most ancient expressions denoting communication of religious knowledge, signify ocular exhibition. the first teachers of mankind borrowed this method of instruction; and it comprised an endless store of pregnant hieroglyphics. these lessons of the olden ti

, in her primitive organization, was presented to him whom it was wished to instruct in her secrets and initiate in her mysteries; and clemens of alexandria might well say that initiation was a real physiology. so phanes, the light-god, in the mysteries of the new orphics, emerged from the egg of chaos: and the persians had the great egg of ormuzd. and sanchoniathon tells us that in the ph nician theology, the matter of chaos took the form of an egg; and he adds "such are the lessons which the son of thabion, first hierophant of the ph nicians, turned into allegories, in which physics and astronomy intermingled, and which he taught to the other hierophants, whose duty it was to preside at orgies and initiations; and who, seeking to excite the astonishment and admiration of mortals, faithfu

light and darkness, day and night, good and evil; which mingle with, and clash against, and pursue or are pursued by each other throughout the universe. the great symbolic egg distinctly reminded the initiates of this great division of the world. plutarch, treating of the dogma of a providence, and of that of the two principles of light and darkness, which he regarded as the basis of the ancient theology, of the orgies and the mysteries, as well among the greeks as the barbarians--a doctrine whose origin, according to him, is lost in the night of time--cites, in support of his opinion, the famous mystic egg of the disciples of zoroaster and the initiates in the mysteries of mithras. to the initiates in the mysteries of eleusis was exhibited the spectacle of these two principles, in the su

e world on his right, and the southern on his left. mithras, says porphyry, presided over the equinoxes, seated on a bull, the symbolical animal of the demiourgos, and bearing a sword. the equinoxes were the gates through which souls passed to and fro, between the hemisphere of light and that or darkness. the milky way was also represented, passing near each of these gates: and it was, in the old theology, termed the pathway of souls. it is, according to pythagoras, vast troops of souls that form that luminous belt. the route followed by souls, according to porphyry, or rather their progressive march in the world, lying through the fixed stars and planets, the mithriac cave not only displayed the zodiacal and other constellations, and marked gates at the four equinoctial and solstitial poi

MOTTA MARCELO THE COMMENTARIES OF AL

of the north and nuit, with the "john" slain with the sword, whose flesh is placed upon a disk, in the lesser mysteries, baptizing with water as "jesus" with fire, with on, qannes, noah, and the like. it seems as if this great division, which has wrought such appalling havoc upon earth, was originally no more than a distinction adopted for convenience. it is indeed the task of this book to reduce theology to the interplay of the dyad nuit and hadit, these being themselves conceived as complementary, as two equivalent to naught "divided for love's sake, for the chance of union- had enjoyed them in the form of a beast, bird, or what not; while later mary attributed her condition to the agency of a spirit spiritus, breath, or air in the shape of a dove (simple-minded readers must not think fo

minded readers must not think for one moment that a. c. is here "admitting the historical existence of the virgin mary; on the contrary, he is obviously putting her on the same footing with europa, semele and others. the virgin birth, like the dying god, is a much older myth than christianity; and the virgin was usually seeded by a god under the form of a beast. far from being original, christian theology is a pot-pourri of stolen goods) but the "small person" of hindu mysticism, the dwarf insane, yet crafty, of many legends in many lands,is also this same "holy ghost, or silent self of a man, or his holy guardian angel. he is almost the "unconscious" of freud, unknown unaccountable, the silent spirit, blowing "whither it listeth, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. it

chesed mercy which is male. the qualities that homosexuals attribute to masculinity are nothing but psychological transference. women, who are much more qualified to judge, like men to be gentle and considerate. they want men to be strong, and hard, and even harsh, of course-but they want to feel an underlying basis of qualities which homosexuals are inclined to attribute to the female. in jewish theology there is no woman concept. the creator is 'all boy; and one must surmise that he produced the universe through some astounding feat of male parthenogenesis. these homosexual tendencies reflect themselves in the harsh intolerance of mosaic law towards women. wives are chattels. women are not admitted to worship. adulteresses are stoned to death. these 'super-male (sin is nothing of the sor

onceived as possessing a fixed centre, or summit; an absolute standard to which all things might be referred; an unity, or god (mystics were angry and bewildered, often enough, when attaining to 'union with god' they found him equally in all) this led to making a difference between one thing and another, and so to the ideas of superiority, of sin, etc, ending in absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology, ethics, and science (2: the absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposites. this is really a corollary of (1. there was an imaginary 'absolute evil' which made manichaeism necessary despite the cloaks of the casuists and meant 'that which leads one away from god. but each man, while postulating an absolute 'god, defined him unconsciously in terms of freudian phantasm created by his o

e welcome every new 'sport; its success or failure is our sole test of its value. we let the hen's queer hatching take to water, and laugh at her alarms; and we protect the 'ugly duckling, knowing that time will tell us whether it be a cygnet. herbert spencer, inexorably condemning the unfit to the gallows, only echoed the high-priest who protected paul from the pharisees. sound biology and sound theology are for once at one! the question of the limits of individual liberty is fully discussed in liber aleph, to which we refer the student. the following four chapters will give a general idea of the main principles: 36, 37, 38, 39. we of thelema think it vitally right to let a man take opium. he may destroy his physical vehicle thereby (the vehicle is his, not ours) but he may produce anothe

gh practice "i forbid argument. conquer! that is enough" again the old saw: all the world loves a winner. do your true will, and nothing else. thelemites are not, repeat not, to preach or convert. they are to mind their own business, which is enough to occupy the time of anyone. argument is of the ruach, and the most it can produce is a manifestation of because. this is the danger of all forms of theology "conquer" it does not mean to go out warring and killing, so sorry, dear sadists. conquer your circumstances! conquer yourself! then, and only then, is a man in condition to conquer others if that be necessary for performance of his true will "fire& blood" see the attributions of the element of fire and the magickal attributions and qabalistic correspondences of blood (one most significan

ed justification for obeying him. for surely this would have been a man much more worthy of obedience than jesus, buddha, or karl marx. and yet, what is the injunction given by this man to each who would obey him "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" why shall that stele be called "the abomination of desolation? this is an extremely important point, the basis of all the revolutions in theology that have been occurring since 1904. 20. why? because of the fall of because, that he is not there again. there is here a perception of the profound law which opposes thought to action. we act, when we act aright, upon the instructive wisdom inherited from the ages. our ancestors survived because they were able to adapt themselves to their environment; their rivals failed to breed, and so

'rescues by "the gods. such aspirants usually die. when they do not die, they go insane. let this be a warning. heru-ra-ha shows no mercy. what he has to say to anybody in a desperate situation is this "success is your proof; courage is your armour. there is no law beyond do what thou wilt" or, in other words: sink or swim. which brings us to mr. heschel's very simple assertion of jewish orthodox theology 'wherever god is present, there is mercy. wherever there is no mercy, god is absent and we are forsaken" it strikes at once any mind that has the seed of thelemic endeavor that god can never be absent, since god is omnipresent. if god abstains from showing 'mercy, then, god must have a reason. and god being 'good, the reason must be a good reason. sometimes a loving father will refuse can

NAUDON PAUL THE SECRET HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY

rpenetration would be the outcome of the extensive relationship between the two cultures. it is this extensive arab influence, twin to that of the byzantine world, that prompted the first cultural and philosophical renaissance that took place in the west during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially in france. along with the rebirth of the studies of roman law, the royal role enjoyed by theology, which had ruled as sovereign over the world of ideas and provided society with it principal leaders, was strongly undermined. a new science was born that, rather than being fundamentally opposite to its theological predecessor, was instead independent of it. this was not the science of society such as the one the romans had let loose. despite the official resistance of the church, this s

ad-faith debtors, fraudulent bankrupts, and those who led criminal lifestyles. these kinds of individuals would be given twenty-four hours to leave the enclos. sometimes, for opportunistic reasons, the temple refused to grant to craftsmen the right to asylum in the enclos. thus in 1645 the compagnons cordonniers du devoir [companion cobblers of duty] were denounced among the sorbonne's faculty of theology because of initiation practices they employed to make an apprentice into a journeyman. this exposure led to the targeting of other such practices among the hatters, tailors, and saddlers, and condemnation of these rites by verdict of the officiality of paris on may 30, 1648. confessors were ordered to see to it that their penitents atoned for all the rites in compagnnonage [journeyman rit

could learn of local job opportunities. the church was even more poorly disposed to the compagnonnages than the civil authorities, condemning them under the pretext that their observance of symbols and traditional rites parodied that of holy objects and rites and violated their sworn oaths. there are records of some interesting sentences handed down on may 30, 1648, and on march 14, 1655, by the theology school (sorbonne) condemning and at the same time describing the impious, sacreligious, and superstitious practices of journeymen cobblers, saddlers, tailors, cutlers, and hatters. some raised the objection that these traditional rites had been practiced for centuries by the former religious brotherhoods who were guided by the clergy. the church responded easily to this objection, however

case in france, a religious brotherhood claimed the same members as the trade group. thus in these associations, priests played a mandatory leader's role. it is beyond doubt that religion and metaphysics were a part of the lodges' practices, all the more so as they gave shelter to artists and scholars as well as simple craftsmen, and as study gradually turned on a philosophy that was identical to theology. though it would seem that the religion of the builders was roman catholicism, it is still frequently claimed by freemasons and their adversaries alike that this was and is not so. cited as evidence of this are their pagan traditions, their skeptical attitude that grew from constant travel and contact with diverse peoples, and the sculptures they used to adorn the portals of the churches

nued to live, with their rites and symbols, traditions and franchises, under the protection of the templars' successors, the hospitallers and the knights of malta, whose religious orthodoxy has never been in doubt. in order to dispel any misunderstanding, it is helpful to emphasize here how the medieval mind conceived of religious orthodoxy. in the middle ages and up until the reformation, though theology was the chief topic of debate, freedom of expression was quite considerable. while not more expansive, the notion of orthodoxy was much more flexible than it is today, for the essential dogmas hadn't varied over time. certain systems that today may appear daring, at least to catholics, were never suspected by christians of being heretical before the council of trent. the reasons they were

ld understand.7 the symbolism in architecture, sculpture, and stained glass, which was the work of artists under the direction of the clerics, was the expression of science and philosophy, akin to that of alchemists and hermeticists. throughout the middle ages and the renaissance, philosophy, metaphysics, alchemy, and hermeticism were closely commingled and these disciplines were inseparable from theology. the means of expression were the same in all these areas, for, in the final analysis, they could all be boiled down to the formulation of fundamental metaphysical truths. it is easy to cite famous alchemists who were also master builders, such as gerbert, who was pope from 999 to 1003 under the name of sylvester ii, or nicholas flamel, to whom sauval attributes 216 from the art of buildi

london's catholic circle and was buried in the catholic church of south lambeth.13 ashmole was introduced to the rosicrucian society by william backhouse and on october 16,1646, according to his own journal, was admitted as an accepted mason into the warrington lodge. here he found himself in the company of the warton brothers, thomas and george; the mathematician william oughteed; the doctors of theology john herwitt and john prarson; and the astrologer william lilly. with these men he founded a society whose purpose was to build the house of solomon, the ideal temple of the sciences, in imitation of the models imagined by sir thomas more and francis bacon. he persuaded the masons to allow them to meet on their premises. we should note that the society formed by ashmole, like those of mor

ONYX TABLET OF SET

and otherwise. slaying stasis xeper is the actualization in the objective universe of dynamism, a quality of the core self. setian cosmology is keyed to certain numbers, thanks to a certain michael aquino's iv work in the church of satan following the writings of iambilicus. the number of stasis is six (see "the ceremony of the nine angles" in the satanic rituals and waterfield, robin, trans. the theology of arithmetic: on the mystical, mathematical and cosmological symbolism of the first ten numbers. grand rapids, mi: phanes press, 1988) therefore a setian magician can use a six part formula of action to kill anything, even stasis (inside of outside of the temple. here is such a formula of simple real world action, which if followed in exactly this order will remove the effect of dead woo

RELIGIOUS TENANTS OF THE YEZIDI

nk it cannot be doubted that the term "yezeedee" is derived from yezd, one of the titles applied by the ancient persians to the supreme being "we are yezeedees" said sheikh n sir to me on one occasion "that is, we are worshippers of god" but a difficulty then arises as to the person of him whom they designate "sheikh adi" and who there is every reason to believe also represents the deity in their theology. the conversation which i held with the guardians of the temple clearly leads to this conclusion, and the same has been declared to we again and again by many yezeedees. fr. 1 in that case his tomb must be regarded as a myth, and the prefix "sheikh" fn. 1. may not the yezeedee "adi" be cognate with the hebrew hbw ad adh or ad, the two first letters in the original of adonai, the lord, and

ways. who desireth me must forsake the world. i am he that spake a true word; the highest heavens are for those who obey me. i sought out truth, and became the establisher of truth; and with a similar truth shall they attain to the highest like me/ confused and unintelligible as much of the above rhapsody is, it tends to confirm our hypothesis that "sheikh adi" is one of the names of deity in the theology of the yezeedees. i believe this poem to be the only fragment now extant in any way connected with their creed, and i very much doubt whether they ever had any sacred scriptures. their occasional pretensions to possess such must he regarded as another artifice to evade the hatred of the mohammedans, who are taught in the kor n to consider those who are not the "people of a book" i.e. have

d. a fak r was in the room relating all the benefits that had been conferred on christians and mohammedans, as well as on yezeedees, by the contributions to the senjak, and calling upon all present to give liberally to the same object. the following is a sketch of the famous symbol which i committed to paper on my return home" thumb 12400 "the melek taoos of the yezeedees" p. 125 according to the theology of the yezeedees, melek taoos, of which the senjak is a type, is the principle or power from whom all evil proceeds, and their religious services seem to partake much more of a propitiatory than of an eucharistic character. in this respect, their system is in accordance with the natural feelings of man in his fallen state, which lead him rather to dread punishment for his misdeeds, than t

than that of sheikh adi. i have frequently inquired the cause of this, and the answer has been, that the latter is so good that he needs not to be invoked, whereas the former is so bad, that he requires to be constantly propitiated. as these two principles seem to form the substance of their religious creed, there can be no doubt as to its origin "the great and fundamental article of the persian theology" writes gibbon "was the celebrated doctrine of the two principles; a bold and injudicious attempt of eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of moral and physical evil, with the attributes of a beneficent creator and governor of the world" such was pure zoroastrianism, which in after ages was corrupted by the persian magians by a various mixture of foreign idolatry. this was borrowe

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

doctrine so logical, so simple and at the same time so absolute. the essential union of ideas and signs; the consecration of the most funda12 the doctrine of transcendental magic mental realities by primitive characters; the trinity of words, letters and numbers; a philosophy simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite as the word; theorems more complete and luminous than those of pythagoras; a theology which may be summed up on the fingers; an infinite which can be held in the hollow of an infant's hand; ten figures and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square and a circle: such are the elements of the kabalah. such also are the component principles of the written word, reflection of that spoken word which created the world! all truly dogmatic religions have issued from the kabalah and

riad and the origin of the dogma of the trinity. the magical dogma is also one in three and three in one. that which is above is like or equal to that which is below. thus, two things which resemble one another and the word which signifies their resemblance make three. the triad is the universal dogma. in magic principle, realization, adaptation; in alchemy azoth, incorporation, transmutation; in theology god, incarnation, redemption; in the human soul thought, love and action; in the family father, mother and child. the triad is the end and supreme expression of love; we seek one another as two only to become three. there are three intelligible worlds which correspond one with another by hierarchic analogy; the natural or physical, the spiritual or metaphysical, and the divine or religiou

and progress, that is, eternity and victory hod and netsah. such, according to the kabalah, is the groundwork of all religions and all sciences a triple triangle and a circle, the notion of the triad explained by the balance multiplied by itself in the domains of the ideal, then the realization of this conception in forms. now, the ancients attached the first notions of this simple and impressive theology to the very idea of numbers, and qualified the figure of the first decade after the following manner: 1. kether- the crown, the equilibrating power. 2. chokmah.-wisdom, equilibrated in its unchangeable order by the initiative 46 the doctrine of transcendental magic of intelligence. 3. binah.-active intelligence, equilibrated by wisdom. 4. chesed.-mercy, which is wisdom in its secondary co

of hatred or affection. whatsoever bears the impression of a human soul belongs to that soul; whatsoever a man has appropriated after any manner becomes his body in the broader acceptation of the term, and anything which is done to the body of a man is felt, mediately or immediately, by his soul. it is for this reason that every hostile deed committed against one's neighbour is regarded in moral theology as the beginning of homicide. bewitchment is a homicide, and the more infamous because it eludes self defence by the victim and punishment by law. this principle being established to exonerate our conscience, and for the warning of weak vessels, let us affirm boldly that bewitchment is possible. let us even go further and lay down that it is not only possible but in some sense necessary a

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

been established in the world. now, the priestthe ceremonial of initiates 55 hood is recruited by initiation. religious forms perish when initiation ceases in the sanctuary, whether by the betrayal of the mysteries or by their neglect and oblivion. the gnostic disclosures, for example, alienated the christian church from the high truths of the kabalah, which contains all secrets of transcendental theology. hence the blind, having become leaders of the blind, great obscurities, great lapses and deplorable scandals have followed. subsequently, the sacred books, of which the keys are all kabalistic from genesis to the apocalypse, have become so little intelligible to christians, that prudent pastors have judged it necessary to forbid them being read by the uninstructed among believers. taken

il and that the star of solomon was another diabolical device to persuade the world that satan was the same as god. observe what is taught seriously by those who are masters in israel! the ideal of nothingness and night inventing a sublime philosophy which is the universal basis of faith and the keystone of all temples! the demon setting his signature by the side of god's! my venerable masters in theology, you are greater sorcerers than you or others are aware, and he who said: gthe devil is a liar like his father, h would have had some observations to make on the decisions of your reverences. evokers of the devil must before all things belong to a religion which admits a creative devil, who is also rival of god. to invoke a power, we must believe in it. given such firm faith in the religi

thereupon gave her potions to induce love, and these caused extraordinary derangements in the health of the lady, increasing to such a degree that she was believed to be possessed, so that other physicians, baffled by her case, recommended her for the exorcisms of the church. thereupon, by command of m. de porcelets, bishop of toul, the following were named as her exorcists: m. viardin, doctor in theology, the state councillor of the duke of lorraine, a jesuit and a capuchin. but in the long course of these ceremonies, almost all the clergy of nancy, the aforesaid lord bishop, the bishop of tripoli, suffragan of strasbourg, m. de nancy, formerly ambassador of the most christian king at constantinople and then priest of the oratory, charles of lorraine, bishop of verdun, two sorbonne doctor

RUBY TABLET OF SET

nce it was necessary to refine catholicism to an intellectual precision comparable with that of aristotle, and also to make aristotle's more secular/scientific works tolerable to the church through a flattering interpretation of them. the bewildering complexity of thomas aquinas' philosophy may be illustrated by one dictionary definition, which describes "thomism" as. teaching that philosophy and theology have separate spheres, with one seeking truth through the agency of reason and the other through that of revelation, but reaching conclusions that support one another; that all knowledge begins with sense perception from the data of which the intellect abstracts universals, and on the basis of these proceeds through induction and deduction to science and knowledge of things in their cause

uries to those sources available for study which arose from or dealt with the material from the first and second centuries. in fact, the author has found that gnostic hermetism particularly is a scientifically oriented phenomenon, and is shaped and colored by the spirit of scientism. the intent of this study would be to determine in how far much what could be termed as twentieth century christian theology- i.e, theology proper, cosmology, christology, soteriology, and eschatology is basically oriented to, pervaded, and controlled by the modern scientific spirit, mind, and method. how long must it be before we learn that there are as many ways to worship god as there are men on earth? yet each man still declares: my way is best; mine is the only way. or if he does not say it, he things it

stianity r.m. grant gnosticism: an anthology r.m. grant gnosis: character and testimony robert haardt gnosis: a selection of gnostic texts werner foerster gnostic ethics and mandean origins edwin m.yamanchi gnosticism: it's history and influence benjamin walker the gnostic religion hans jonas the encyclopedia of religion mircea eliade scribners encyclopedia of religion and ethics religion satanic theology: an exploration of the left-hand path in this essay, i shall endeavor to bring to light the reverse side of the theological coin, exploring the dark and misty realms of satanic and setian philosophy. i shall also demonstrate the existential authenticity of the satanic perspective on the universe, and man's relation to it. in order to do this, i will begin with a discussion of the satanism

pon the specific details of the said crime- not be considered to have acted freely, and would, therefore, probably not be held responsible) 34. aquino, temple of set informational letter 35. lavey, the satanic bible 36. satanists and setians are not atheists; however, their concept of god bears very little resemblance to popular interpretations of god. the satanic and setian philosophies approach theology on a rational level, whereas much of conventional religiosity amounts to nothing more than the fervor of the passions completely unbound by any semblance of reason. 37. a consensus reality is a collection of beliefs concerning the nature of the objective universe, or a certain portion thereof, endorsed and reinforced by members of a society [robert anton wilson, prometheus rising. 38. suc

ews as a people went through, and which they have been using since the historical occurrences as symbols of recurring collective and individual challenges to faith, or initiations as we would look at it. an example is the passover seder celebrating the exodus. however this is a glaring contradiction of god as not "the intervening presence "the main doctrine of the prophets can be called 'pathetic theology. their attitude toward what they knew about god can be described as [a] religion of sympathy. the divine pathos, or as it was later called, the middot, stood in the center of their consciousness. the life of the prophet revolved around the life of god. this is the pattern of jewish mysticism: to have an open heart for the inner life of god. it is based on two assumptions: that there is an

y smoother sailing. no orientation makes for a de facto assurance of success, but certain constituents of the complete self can be made into positive tools. it becomes amusing on occasion to observe the antics of wiccan and associated groups when faced with the question of homosexuality and their own types of magic. the unsure silence that comes about tends to suggest a deeper problem than one of theology; in other words, methinks they do protest too much! on the other side of the scale are wiccan/pagan/etc. homosexual activists who take fiery issue with all-heterosexual advocates. neither of these is the proper concern of the temple of set, but it is now and then enjoyable to get popcorn and a ringside seat for watching the fights. perhaps the general idea of homosexuality and left hand p

uide" there is a question about aleph-nought. recently an adept asked me to explain this idea and its relevance to setian philosophy. to many sorcerers and witches of the l.h.p, the mathematical sciences appear dry and difficult. yet setians can find dark inspiration in this seemingly-secular topic. in the last hundred years such obscure sciences have driven a stake through the heart of classical theology. the finitude of man, relative to the infinite nature of god, is a basic premise embedded in western monotheism. it was not a philosopher, but a mathematician, whose work defied this classification: v2- 510.i- 1 author: patty a. hardy iii date (unknown) html revision: dec 01, 1997 ce subject: infinities reading list: proposition. george cantor died mad- but not until he had seen, grasped

; and this is aleph-two. the number of provably distinct alephs is itself infinite. cantor named these mind-boggling and eldritch mathematical entities transfinite numbers. behold: the mind of a man has compassed the infinite, dissected it, named and numbered its parts! when the theologians are asked how finite beings can comprehend the infinite- and someone always does ask, for no one engages in theology except to claim supernatural sanction for his personal preferences and hangups- they avow that the infinite is a nice guy who would never leave his creations in the dark, invoke "mysteries" or otherwise waffle shamelessly. it has been over a century since cantor sorted this out and no theologian has taken the hint. as bergier and pauwel put it in the morning of the magicians "the human mi

t 666] crowley's own writings, however, do not substantiate this. crowley practically ignored set, except for an occasional mention of the god in an osirian-mythos context. in his principal discussion of the devil on page #296 of magick (london: routledge& kegan paul ltd, 1973, for instance, he does not even include the name of set. it is obvious that crowley's orientation with regard to egyptian theology was exclusively towards the osiris-cult mythos. on page #399 of his confessions, while discussing the sequence of magical aeons in terms of the osirian triad (isis, osiris& horus the younger, he emphasizes the position of horus as the avenger of his father osiris- a role accorded only the osirian corruption. additional confirmations are to be found in magical and philosophical commentarie

SATANGEL

goddess has continued, often under the guise of the three marys, the song of solomon has particular importance. whilst modern witches are lucky enough to have all the theological history books at their disposal, and may thus consider themselves to have rediscovered their pagan heritage, the witches of the middle ages had only those few snippets that were preserved in their lineage. much of their theology was thus christian and drawn from the bible, even if interpreted in ways that the church would strongly have disapproved of. many modern practitioners have not even read this work, whilst in the past we were all made to listen to vast passages of it recited by their priests, once a week and by law. various spells actually use the bible as a ritual object in its own right. bibliomancy is a

n in 1659. they were employed during the late nineteenth century by the golden dawn, and in the twentieth by the church of satan. aliester crowley combined the employment of enochian easily with that of the goetia. many others have written calls to the spirits since, such as the enochian call to baphomet employed by the illuminates of thanateros. its power, purpose and place within the subversive theology of the black arts is well established. their employment in ritual is through their empowered vocal vibration. their pronunciation is largely phonetic, so that each letter is sounded clearly and in turn. the character z has largely been interpreted to be sounded as zod. the first is the proclamation of the mysteries, invoking that which has no beginning or end; the bornless one. through se

SATANIC RITUALS

diterranean; sarahdar, in georgia and southern russia; lepcho, in india and tibet; and the kotchar, who, like the bedouins, moved about with no permanent sector. the yezidi interpretation of god was in the purest satanic tradition. the idea, so prominent in greek philosophy, that god is an existence absolute and complete in himself, unchangeable, outside of time and space, did not exist in yezidi theology. also rejected was the theocratic judaic concept of jehovah, and also the mohammedan god: the absolute ruler. the notion, unique to christians, that god is christ-like in character was totally absent. if there was any semblance of a personal manifestation of god, it was through satan, who instructed and guided the yezidi toward an understanding of the multifaceted principles of creation

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

authority in sikhism. the five takhts are gurdwaras located in india. talmud: traditions that explain and interpret the torah. tanakh: the chief jewish scripture; the hebrew bible. tawba: repentance. theism: belief in the existence of gods or god. theocracy: a form of government in which god or some supreme deity is the ruler. god s laws are then interpreted by a divine king or by a priest class. theology: the study of god and of religions truths. world religions: almanac xxix words to know three jewels: the jain code of ethical conduct, consisting of right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct. tian: heaven, or the principle of ordering the universe. tipitaka: the buddhist sacred texts accepted by all branches of buddhism. tirthankara: literally, makers of the ford; those souls who ha

any gods. pantheon: the class or collection of all gods and goddesses in a system of belief. polytheism: a religion worshiping many gods. shaman: in indigenous tribes, an intermediary between the gods and the tribal members; also one who controls various spiritual forces, can look into the future, and can cure the ill with magic. supreme being: the central god responsible for creating the cosmos. theology: the study of god and of religious truths. totem: some sort of object or animal that assumes a spiritual symbolism for a clan or tribe. 2 world religions: almanac what is religion? origins of religion there are essentially two different theories on the origins of religion. one is called the faith-based theory. it assumes that religions are the result of divine messages from one or more go

nosticism and atheism existence of god could neither be explained nor totally denied by scientific examination or rational thought. the nineteenth century to the present in the nineteenth century the german philosopher ludwig feuerbach (1804 1872) argued that the concept of god is simply the projection of the highest ideals and standards that people can imagine. as such, god was not a subject for theology (religious study, but for anthropology (the study of human beings and their cultures. his work the essence of christianity influenced an entire generation of german thinkers, including karl marx (1818 1883. marx was the founder of marxism, an economic system that views history as an ongoing struggle between the oppressed workers, or proletariat class, and the owners of the means of produc

perhaps as long as organized religions themselves. the concepts and those who hold them have survived for more than two thousand years. as a group they are very difficult to classify because their belief systems range from complete denial of any spiritual reality to a distrust and rejection of organized religion. agnostics and atheists, however, together are considered a major presence in modern theology. basic beliefs the terms agnosticism and atheism both come from greek terms. the greek prefix a means not or without. atheism is a compound of a and theos, or god, and thus means literally without god or not god. atheism is divided into several categories. strong atheists reject the entire concept of theism or of the existence of a god. they do not personally believe in god, and they also

nconscious mind. buddhism has influenced the world both religiously and in secular, or nonreligious, ways since its introduction 2,500 years ago. the scientist albert einstein (1879 1955) conceded the influence and importance of buddhism when he wrote in the merging of spirit and science, the religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. it should transcend a personal god and avoid dogmas and theology. covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. buddhism answers this description. if there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be buddhism. for more information books buswell, robert e, jr, ed. encyclopedia of buddhism. new york

ns) have a voluntary private rite of confession similar to that of catholics, but not all members of the faith use it. general confession during holy communion is more common. for all christians such periodic confession is an important part of the faith. christianity s influences christianity has been one of the most influential religions in world history. it has been a dominant force not only in theology, or the formal study of religion, but also in education, art and architecture, in the structure of western society, and even in politics. the christian church has, in large part, shaped societies in europe and the americas. the very rhythms of life in the west are attuned to christianity. for example, the workweek typically begins with monday and ends with friday or saturday, with sunday

h their close examination of religious questions. christianity still plays a large role in education in the united states, where many schools from kindergarten through university are run by faith-based institutions. many fundamentalists (people who believe in the bible as a complete and accurate historical record and statement of prophecy) question scientific theories that conflict with christian theology, such as the evolutionary theories of charles darwin (1809 1882, and put forward alternative theories to describe the way that life on earth has evolved. influence on the arts perhaps one of the most visible areas of christian influence has been in literature. the bible stands as one of the earliest and most popular texts in the world. writers such as italian poet dante alighieri (1265 13

nce on early christianity. the idea of emanation is very close to the idea developed by christian theologians to explain the concept of the trinity, the union of the father, son, and holy spirit as three divine persons in one god. moreover, plotinus s concept of sin is very close to the christian concept. sin, for plotinus, came about from humans being separated from the one, just as in christian theology sin arises from humankind s separation from god. sects and schisms greek religion was both a public and private matter. but there were no written rules for the religion, no moral code, no dogma (established opinion) or church teaching. the mystery cults could not properly be called sects, as they were simply another way of honoring various gods. however, what could be called a schism or s

reanism and stoicism, with their emphasis on the material world. 236 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy later christian leaders, however, blended the two schools of thought further. for example, the writings of plato and aristotle influenced such christian writers and scholars as thomas aquinas (1225 1274) in the creation of his influential summa theologica (a summary of theology or religious writings. here he talks of god as being infinite, just as plato and aristotle had centuries before. influences on science further, modern western science would not exist without the foundation laid by greek thinkers. the atomists anticipated modern atomic theory, and biology is highly indebted to aristotle and his classification systems. many greek philosophers, including tha

SET IN EGYPTIAN THEOLOGY

plying a type of divine power and attributes. in my introduction to the kabalah will be found a diagram showing how the paths from eleven to thirty-two connect the several sephiroth, and are deemed to transmit the divine influence. some teachers of occult science also allot the twenty-two trumps of the tarot cards to the twenty-two paths. unattributed contents 1997- 2001 al billiwoset in egyptian theology by oz tech set was one of the earliest egyptian deities, a god of the night identified with the northern stars. in the earliest ages of egypt this prince of darkness was well regarded. one persistant token of this regard is the tcham scepter, having the stylized head and tail of set. the tcham scepter is frequently found in portraits of other other gods as a symbol of magical power. in so

d head and tail of set. the tcham scepter is frequently found in portraits of other other gods as a symbol of magical power. in some texts he is hailed as a source of strength, and in early paintings he is portrayed as bearer of a harpoon at the prow of the boat of ra, warding off the serpent apep. yet the warlike and resolute nature of set seems to have been regarded with ambivalence in egyptian theology, and the portrayal of this neter went through many changes over a period of nearly three thousand years. pictures of a god bearing two heads, that of set and his daylight brother horus the elder, may be compared to the oriental yin/yang symbol as a representation of the union of polarities. in time, the conflict between these two abstract principles came to be emphasized rather than their

SET IT STRAIGHT

e of the harmony of the universe) his priesthood when this didn't work out. that set's name was used to denote to non-natural concepts (to what was not of the neteru/natural principles, indicates that he originally stood for something that didn't belong to that order. if we take into account that at the very least after the xx dynasty set's cult suffered a real persecution mania and that in later theology he was reinterpreted, it seems that nothing certain of his original concept has survived [for hardly would any original egyptian priesthood have been a lettuce-eating bunch of bacchanalian criminals] in the osirian myth he became merely "the enemy of gods and the murderer of osiris, the being who revolted against the order established by the highest god (te velde, p. 150) de lubicz must h

SETH IN THE MAGICKAL TEXTS

ged quotation from the gospel according to the hebrews preserved in a coptic translation of a homily attributed to cyril of jerusalem, the angel michael is called a "great power (dynamis) in heaven (e.a. wallis budge, miscellaneous coptic texts, 2 vols, coptic texts v [london 1915, reprinted new york 1977] 1.60. for the assimilation of christ to michael in early christianity, see j. danielou, the theology of jewish christianity, the development of christian doctrine before the council of nicaea i; trans. j.a. baker (london 1964) 121-127 (theologie du judeo-christianisme, histoire des doctrines chretiennes avant nicee, i, bibliotheque de theologie [tournai 1958] 171-177. 20 see kropp, zaubertexte 1.25. f.j. dolger, ixyu, 5 vols (munster 1928-43) 1.267-268, discusses a couple of gems where t

STEINER RUDOLF CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT

the gospel of st. mark (anthroposophic press, hudson, ny, 1986, pp. 187ff. the discovery of the secret mark fragment (cf. note 118) has again strikingly confirmed his insight. steiner discussed the basic myth of gnosticism, concerning the divine sophia and the pre-earthly existence of spiritual worlds( aeons) in his lectures christ and the spiritual world (london, n.d. 167. these include mystical theology, on the divine names, and on the celestial hierarchies. dionysius the areopagite was the pupil of paul in athens (acts 17:34) by whom these works claim to be written. steiner described dionysius as a teacher of esoteric christianity in the tradition of paul (steiner, the gospel of st. john, new york, 1962, pp. 34 5. his teachings were presumably given written form much later by his pupils

SZYMANSKI GREG SEARCHING FOR THE ILLUMINATI DEEP WITHIN THE BOWELS OF THE VATICAN

ishop of chiavari, genoa, italy. assistant general of italian catholic azione. 6-3-68# 441-c "luma" mensa, albino. archbishop of vercelli, piedmont, italy. 7-23-59# 53-23" mena" messina, carlo. 3-21-70# 21-045 "meca" messina, zanon (adele. 9-25-68# 045-329" amez" monduzzi, dino. regent to the prefect of the pontifical house. 3-11 -67# 190-2 "mondi" mongillo, daimazio. professor of dominican moral theology, holy angels institute of roma. 2-16-69# 2145-22 "monda" morgante, marcello. bishop of ascoli piceno in east italy. 7-22-55# 78-3601. morma" natalini, teuzo. vice president of the archives of secretariat of the vatican. 6-17-67# 21-44d "nate" nigro, carmelo. rector of the seminary, pontifical of major studies. 12-21-70# 23-154 "carni" noe, virgillio. head of the sacred congregation of div

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

reality. barnwell refers to this psychic energy force by the hindu term "kundalini" or "serpent power."6 a man possessing serpent power is said to operate in a spiritual realm. as such, he is immune to and beyond any human spectrum of morality. whatever he wills is good, based solely on the results and not on any relative moral scale. in essence, the ends justify the means. in such a relativistic theology, black magic is no lesser in moral standing than is white magic. black is white, bad is good, and all things are reversed. power is the ultimate aphrodisiac oh, how thrilling to the egomaniacal illuminati is the realization that they possess 32 codex magica and wield such awesome power within the planetary realm. power is addictive. former secretary of state and illuminati insider extraor

is actually white, then he is insane. but the illuminati do not agree. their whole insane doctrine is based on the supposition that black is white, that good is evil, that two plus two equals five. they are men of insane minds. and they have developed an equally insane "scientific" system, designed to reprogram and recreate social material and spiritual reality to fit their perverted, upside down theology. universal motion: alchemy and magic their scientific system, actually a form of witchcraft, is based on alchemy and magic. its process is one of universal motion, designed to purposely foment diabolical chaos so that order may come out of two dynamic competing forces, ordo ah chao. their objective is the great work, the changing of man created in god's image into the image of a serpent-b

liticians and was able to get about anything he and his mentors wanted done. in the case of the great seal, the rothschilds wanted symbols to be pictured in the great seal of united states befitting the aims of the illuminati. though jewish and zionist in ambition, the rothschilds were not worshippers of the god of the old and new testaments of the bible. they were sabbatian/frankist (satanic) in theology. they sought (and still today seek) a jewish utopia or kingdom on planet earth. this kingdom would be the new age successor to ancient babylon and egypt. it would be a powerhouse nation that would, through magic and intellect, conquer the world. america would be its proxy. america would be its alter ego. america, then, must be fashioned into a cabalistic, jewish state. all hail the new th

f ancient babylonians, egyptians, greeks, persians and others. thus, we glean understanding when we read, in earth's earliest ages, this the riddle of the great seal of the united states 269 statement by g. pember "there is little doubt that the culmination of the mysteries was the worship of satan himself."5 you'll also recall our discussion elsewhere in this book that the illuminist and masonic theology is solidly based on the jewish cabala (kaballah or quaballah. indeed, almost all occult and magical belief systems are founded on the principles and teachings of the jewish cabala. in her most famous book, the secret doctrine, helena blavatsky praised satan as the teacher of humanity.6 he is to be thanked, blavatsky says, for setting men on the path to divinity and liberty. it is, she emp

1998) twisted satanic rituals and lies the rabbinical doctrines and teachings of cabalism are based on a curious blending and mosaic of astrology, numerology, graphology, color magic, symbology, alchemy, pagan religion, and pure luciferianism. there are hand signs and body gestures, talismanic jewelry and clothing, hidden codes, and on and on. the end result is a confusing jumble of "man is god" theology (but only jewish man gentiles are inferior) and magical formulae, words of power, incantations and spells. heads of chickens are cropped off and blood sprinkled around "magic cords" of specific color are worn on the wrist as miracle-working bracelets; magic water is used to heal; magic symbols are objects of trance-like mediation; and mantralike chants are repeated over and over. the 22 l

e studied and accorded supernatural powers. angels, archangels, grimoires, devas, and elementals are worshipped and feared. there are "gods" and more "gods" but only a mysterious, hazy supreme deity behind everything. this supreme deity is a pantheistic god who fills up the whole universe. in fact, he is the macrocosm, the universe. of course, as in all illuminist magic, there's the double-minded theology of "as above, so below" the insidious lie that black is white and vice versa; that good and evil are one, that the shadow and the substance are unitary. sex magic holds an important place in cabalism, and sex ritual is a popular vocation of students of cabala. margie martin, in her informed, unpublished manuscript for her upcoming book, the molten image, explains that the tarot cards of w

a number of native american indian tribes. even today, in temples and shrines throughout asia, you will find the swastika painted on walls, on totem poles, and over altars. until hitler and the nazis gave the sign a bad reputation, the masons also universally used the sun sign. and today the symbol of the circle, particularly that of the point within the circle, is a prominent feature of masonic theology. the point within the circle according to mackey's masonic encyclopedia the hidden, true meaning of this symbol, the point inside the circle, is far different than what the everyday masonic brother is told. in reality, its meaning is yet another proof that masonry is a sex cult. mackey says the esoteric explanation is that the point within the circle is the male phallus, or penis, and the

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europe. the church created the inquisition in the high middle ages in response to unorthodox religious beliefs that it called heresies. since some of these involved magical practices and witchcraft, the occult also became an object of persecution. the harsh treatment of the manichaean cathars in southern france is an example of society s reaction to those who mixed arcane practice with heterodox theology. in spite of persecution, the concept of witchcraft persisted and even flourished in early modern times. at least the fear of it did, as the salem witch trials richly illustrate. in the early decades of the twentieth century, schools of pagan and magical teachings were reborn as wicca. wiccans, calling themselves practitioners of the craft of the wise, would resurrect many of the old ways

odies 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 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 wor

eing 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-principle, much like the hebrew concept of the nephesh; and the pneuma, the spirit, the inner self. developing his thought further, he made the distinction between the natural body of a living person that dies and is buried, and the spiritual body, which is resurrected. in i corint

itual body. if there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. although he had begun to mix platonic and jewish philosophies in a manner that would be found acceptable to thousands of new converts to christianity, paul could not free himself completely from the hebrew tradition that insisted upon some bodily form in the afterlife. however inconsistent it might appear to some 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 metaphys

ng of jesus was imminent and that many who were alive in the time of the apostles would live to see his return in the clouds. when this remarkable event occurred, it would signal the end of time and jesus christ would raise the dead and judge those who would ascend to heaven and those who would suffer the everlasting torments of hell. the delay in the second coming forced the church to adjust its theology to acknowledge that the time of judgment for each individual would arrive at the time of that person s death. for the traditional christian, heaven is the everlasting dwelling place of god and the angelic beings who have served him faithfully since the beginning. there, those christians who have been redeemed through faith in jesus as the christ will be with him forever in glory. liberal

osite, in fact, for isis, incarnation of the divine mother goddess, used her magic to put him back together. osiris rose from the dead and became for all of his followers a god of resurrection. the cult of osiris was established at abydos, where he became known as the lord of the death or lord of the west, referring to his mastery over all those who had traveled west into the sunset of death. the theology of osiris, which promised resurrection, soon overshadowed that of the sun god ra and became the dominant feature of all egyptian religion. ra was a creator god, fundamentally solar, a king by nature, whose theology concerned itself with the world, its origin, creation, and the laws that governed it. osiris and his doctrines were concerned with the problems of life, death, resurrection, an

a ladder of initiatory degrees that allowed them to reach the higher grades. while separated from them by the curtain, pythagoras lectured his students on the basic principles of music, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. pythagoras called his disciples mathematicians, for he believed that the higher teachings began with the study of numbers. from his perspective, he had fashioned a rational theology. the science of numbers lay in the living forces of divine faculties in action in the world, in universal macrocosm, and in the earthly microcosm of the human being. numbers were transcendent entities, living virtues of the supreme one, god, the source of universal harmony. devoted to his studies, his travels, and his school, pythagoras did not marry until he was about 60. the young woman

ns attributed to his name. when his name is recalled today, it is usually as a swedish mystic and medium who courted angels and cursed demons. swedenborg claimed daily communications with the inhabitants of the unseen world, and his manifestations of remarkable psychic phenomena are well documented. emanuel swedberg was born in stockholm, sweden, on january 29, 1688. his father was a professor of theology at the university of upsala, who later became the lutheran bishop of scara in spite of certain opinions which appeared to challenge orthodox religious views. emanuel completed his university education at upsala in 1710, then traveled abroad in england, holland, france, and germany. in 1715, he returned to upsala and gained a solid reputation as an engineer, leading to his appointment by c

of biology and the biology of faith (2000, robert pollack concedes that religious experience may seem irrational to a materialistic scientist, but he argues that irrational experiences are not necessarily unreal. in fact, he states, they can be just as real, just as much a part of being human, as those things that are known through reason. lorenzo albacete, a roman catholic priest, a professor of theology at st. joseph s seminary in yonkers, writes in the new york times magazine (december 18, 2000) that he is somewhat nervous about the new efforts of science to explain human spirituality: if the religious experience is an authentic contact with a transcendent mystery, it not only will but should exceed the grasp of science. otherwise, what about it would be transcendent? daniel batson, a u

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europe. the church created the inquisition in the high middle ages in response to unorthodox religious beliefs that it called heresies. since some of these involved magical practices and witchcraft, the occult also became an object of persecution. the harsh treatment of the manichaean cathars in southern france is an example of society s reaction to those who mixed arcane practice with heterodox theology. in spite of persecution, the concept of witchcraft persisted and even flourished in early modern times. at least the fear of it did, as the salem witch trials richly illustrate. in the early decades of the twentieth century, schools of pagan and magical teachings were reborn as wicca. wiccans, calling themselves practitioners of the craft of the wise, would resurrect many of the old ways

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL

europe. the church created the inquisition in the high middle ages in response to unorthodox religious beliefs that it called heresies. since some of these involved magical practices and witchcraft, the occult also became an object of persecution. the harsh treatment of the manichaean cathars in southern france is an example of society fs reaction to those who mixed arcane practice with heterodox theology. in spite of persecution, the concept of witchcraft persisted and even flourished in early modern times. at least the fear of it did, as the salem witch trials richly illustrate. in the early decades of the twentieth century, schools of pagan and magical teachings were reborn as wicca. wiccans, calling themselves gpractitioners of the craft of the wise, h would resurrect many of the old w

fate. therefore, he concluded, astrology should be utilized as a powerful tool in medicine, alchemy, and predicting the future of individuals and nations. friar bacon was well aware that the church did not share his enthusiasm for astrology, but he argued that the bible itself is the basic source of astrological knowledge and that a careful study of astrology would ultimately prove the claims of theology. fellow clerics who opposed such a study, bacon said, were merely ignorant. in spite of such statements that seemed tinged with heresy, bacon fs religious views 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 44 magic and sorcery roger bacon (c. 1220.1292 (the library of congress) were essentially orthodox, and he sincerely believed that his studi

alberto, and stanley krippner. healing states: a journey into the world of spiritual healing and shamanism. new york: simon& schuster inc. fireside book, 1987. the practice of brujeria indian islands. plantation owners, who purchased the slaves for rigorous labor, were compelled by order of the lieutenant-general to baptize their slaves in the catholic religion. the slave suffered no conflict of theology. they accepted the white man fs gwater h and quickly adopted catholic saints into their family of nature gods and goddesses. the connotations of evil and fear that are associated with vodun originated primarily from the white plantation owners f obsession with the threat of slave revolts, for they and their overseers were outnumbered 16 to 1 by the field hands whom they worked unmercifull

christian magic. san francisco: harpersanfrancisco, 1994. seligmann, kurt. the history of magic. new york: meridian books, 1960. pico della mirandola (1463.1494) born in 1463 in mirandola castle, near modena, italy, pico, the count of mirandola, was one of those precocious young geniuses who were gifted with a precise memory, a facility for language, and a talent for philosophy, mathematics, and theology. early in his studies, mirandola came to believe that the future could be predicted through a practiced interpretation of dreams, communication with benevolent spirits, and a careful analysis of the intestines of birds. he took a great deal of inspiration from the ancient chaldean oracles and the old mystery schools of orpheus and eleusis, and he was greatly influenced by the teachings of

a ladder of initiatory degrees that allowed them to reach the higher grades. while separated from them by the curtain, pythagoras lectured his students on the basic principles of music, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. pythagoras called his disciples mathematicians, for he believed that the higher teachings began with the study of numbers. from his perspective, he had fashioned a rational theology. he believed the science of numbers lay in the living forces of divine faculties in action in the world, in universal macrocosm, and in the earthly microcosm of the human being. numbers were transcendent entities, living virtues of the supreme gone, h god, the source of universal harmony. devoted to his studies, his travels, and his school, pythagoras did not marry until he was about 60

rch of wicca as a federally recognized church, not only with regard to its tax-exempt status, but also in federal appeals court. the church fs official letter of determination arrived from the irs in 1972, making ours the first wiccan church (despite the resentful claims of others) to earn federal recognition. the key to such recognition of wicca.the craft. as a religion has been its well-defined theology. h m delving deeper frost, gavin, and yvonne frost. the good witch fs bible. hinton, w.va: church and school of wicca, 1996. 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 84 magic and sorcery gavin frost (archives of brad steiger) thefrosts live under a vow of poverty, turning over all their material possessions to the church of wicca. the magic

f heretics, then lessened their responsibility for determining orthodoxy by establishing inquisitors under the special jurisdiction of the papacy. the office of inquisitor was entrusted primarily to the franciscans and the dominicans, because 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 magic and sorcery 95 of their reputation for superior knowledge of theology and their declared freedom from worldly ambition. each tribunal was ordered to include two inquisitors of equal authority, who would be assisted by notaries, police, and counselors. because they had the power to excommunicate even members of royal houses, the inquisitors were formidable figures with whom to reckon. in 1257, the church officially sanctioned torture as a means of forcing wi

lanets and positions of the stars with every kind of terrestrial activity. their ability to predict future trends.even actual events.has been repeatedly demonstrated. h the gstar gospel, h outlined in the history of creation and origin of species (1967) by reuben luther katter, attaches religious interpretations to the 12 signs of the zodiac. katter stated that the star gospel, also called adamic theology, antedates the old testament by 2,500 years. the star gospel uses the same 12 zodiacal signs as does astrology, but begins with virgo and ends with leo. katter stated that, according to tradition, jacob and his 12 sons carried zodiacal tablets and banners into egypt and carried them out in the exodus. like astrology, the star gospel holds that the 12 signs stand for 12 positions of the su

THE GOD OF THE WITCHES

be traced. but the religion of those early times hasbeen entirely neglected, with the exception of a few references to mother-goddesses and to burial customs.the student of early religion begins his subject in the early bronze-age of the near east and totally ignoreswestern europe in the stone-ages; he ends his study with the introduction of christianity, as the study of thatreligion is known as theology. there is, however, a continuity of belief and ritual which can be traced fromthe palaeolithic period down to modern times. it is only by the anthropological method that the study ofreligions, whether ancient or modern, can be advanced.the attitude of all writers towards the post-christian era in europe, especially towards the middle ages, hasbeen that of the ecclesiastic, the historian

e court during the examinations of joan with the exception of her guards; and guillaume manchon, one ofthe chief notaries, stated on oath on two separate occasions, that when joan complained of the conduct of herguards the earl of warwick was furious with the men and removed them, giving joan two other guards whoappear to have behaved themselves. the evidence of thomas de courcelles, professor of theology and canonof paris, is particularly interesting as showing the difficulties which a change of government involved; he hadbeen one of the lesser judges at the rouen trial and had obviously agreed that joan was a heretic. he nowtried to explain away his previous opinion. he remembered well that he never held that joan was a hereticexcept in so far that she pertinaciously maintained that she

a witch. she utterly refused to acknowledge the authority of thechurch, though she understood what was meant by the pope and asked to be taken to him. she declined totake the oath on the gospels, and after much persuasion and very unwillingly she swore on the missal. shetreated the ecclesiastics who examined her at poitiers with familiarity; when pierre s351guin de s351guin, deanof the faculty of theology in the university of poitiers, asked her what dialect (idioma) her voices spoke,she answered "a better one than yours, for he spoke in the limousin dialect. he then asked her if shebelieved in god, to which she replied "more than you do. at the trial at rouen she treated her judges withcontempt. when asked direct questions regarding her faith, she invariably prevaricated; thus, when asked

THE GOLDEN ESSENCE

e light of a pagan religion the characters and deaths of rufus, becket, joan and gilles arereasonable and consistent. in each of them the dying god was incarnate; rufus died as the actual king, theother three as substitutes in order that their royal masters might live and reign for a further term of years.referencesintroduction1. sinistrari de amecothe golden essence: craft mythology and the deep theology of the housle copyright 2004 by robin artisson all rights reserved simple and perfect: the sum of all mysteries i have described the housle in my other essays as the basic rite of the old faith. such a statement is quite correct, but many people automatically interpret the word basic in such a way that they think the housle to be simple or even shallow somehow. nothing could be further fr

source of life and the place of death, she was depicted as half- fair and half dark and decaying; the outward life of the earth can also be seen as her fair face and the darkness below as her dark face. the original darkness that she embodies, which is the darkness of the mystery of fate, also links her to the figures of sophia or dame wisdom, which as we will see, is an important element in her theology, as her presence acts as a kind of final and necessary factor in the regeneration and realization of the cunning people, just as the ancient gnostics saw sophia as being the source of the wisdom that liberated the soul. we will discuss more of her liberating wisdom function later on. she is of a power and a time older than gods. she was the first being. she is the mirror in which all thin

THE KEY TO THE MYSTERIES

heses; they stand apart from faith, and we indicate them only as curiosities of research. it is no part of our task to make innovations in dogma, and what we assert in our character as an initiate is entirely subordinate to our submission in our character as a christian<key to the whole of his paradoxes- trans> sketch of the prophetic theology of numbers i unity unity is the principle and the synthesis of numbers; it is the idea of god and of man; it is the alliance of reason and of faith. faith cannot be opposed to reason; it is made necessary by love, it is identical with hope. to love is to believe and hope; and this triple outburst of the soul is called virtue, because, in order to make it, courage is necessary. but would t

o not see that physical light is nothing but the instrument of thought! 67 thought alone, then, reveals light, and creates it in using it for its own purposes. the affirmation of atheism is the dogma of eternal night: the affirmation of god is the dogma of light! we stop here at the number nineteen, although the sacred alphabet has twenty-two letters; but the first nineteen are the keys of occult theology. the others are the keys of nature; we shall return to them in the third part of this work- let us resume what we have said concerning god, by quoting a fine invocation borrowed from the jewish liturgy. it is a page from the qabalistic poem kether-malkuth, by rabbi solomon, son of gabirol "thou art one, the beginning of all numbers, and the foundation of all buildings; thou art one, and i

an the blind, for there remains to them not even the resource of allowing themselves to be led "sir, i know all that as well as you do. but god cannot be divided against himself. he cannot allow good faith to be deceived, and the church itself could hardly decide that 141 i am blind when i have eyes. here, see what john huss says in his letter, the forty-third letter, towards the end"'a doctor of theology said to me "in everything i should submit myself to the council; everything would then be good and lawful for me" he added "if the council said that you had only one eye, although you have two, it would be still necessary to admit that the council was not wrong "were the whole world" i replied "to affirm such a thing, so long as i had the use of my reason, i should not be able to agree wi

THE MIDDLE PILLAR

say "ve-gevurah("and the power).l 5. clasping the fingers on the breast, say "le olahm amen("forever, amen. the words employed are in the hebrew tongue. hebrew is so employed because the magical system first attained prominence in europe since it was adopted by some jewish philosophers whom we call qabalists. apart from this usage of hebrew words, there is not the slightest implication of hebrew theology or philosophy. the gestures themselves are a variance of the ordinary christian cross, making use of the last few phrases of the lord's prayer. that it is utilized in magical work is due to the fact that it constitutes an ideal method of equilibriating the personality and raising the mind to the contemplation of hgher things.2 the first name in the invocation is atoh. this is a hebrew wor

5. halevi, kabbalah: tradition of hidden knowledge, 12. 6. ibid, 68. 7. ceremonial magicians. literally "god-workers" 8. levi, transcendental magic, 234. 9. from a 1977 paper titled a possible sol rcefo r the lesser pentagram ritual in a hebrew night prayer by bill heidrick. 206 theb alancbee tweemnin da nd magic 10. levi, transcendental magic, 63. 11. ibid, 67-68. 12 %id, 70. 13. waterfield, the theology ofarithmetic, attributed to iamblichus, 68. 14. renamed the occult power ofnumbers, 59. 15. levi, transcendental magic, 239. 16. ibid, 237. 17. ibid, 241. 18. some of the material cited in this section comes from an anonymous paper from the late 1970s or 1980s entitled simply pentagram ritual. 19. yod is spelled out as yod vav daleth, heh is spelled heh heh, vav is spelled vav vav, and he

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES

ernoon. ii. three thousand years ago a small group of brilliant men investigated and solved the mystery of unidentified flying objects. since then a great many others have approached the same mystery from different perspectives and solved it over and over again. unfortunately, their staggering solutions were obfuscated by intellectual extrapolations and the ponderous terminology of philosophy and theology. few modern ufo enthusiasts have the educational background to understand such literature. they choose, as an alternative, to deal with the phenomenon on a materialistic level, assuming that the presence of unlikely objects and entities in our atmosphere is evidence of some extraterrestrial civilization. xenophanes, one of the first great philosophers (sixth century b.c, observed that the

THE ROSICRUCIAN MANIFESTOS

ame; so there doth appear for so manifold infirmities of philosophy the right means, and unto our patria sufficiently offered, whereby she may become sound again, which is now to be renewed and altogether new. no other philosophy we have, than that which is the head and sum, the foundations and contents of all faculties, sciences, and arts, the which (if we will behold our age) containeth much of theology and medicine, but little of the wisdom of the law, and doth diligently search both heaven and earth: or, to speak briefly thereof, which doth manifest and declare sufficiently man, whereof all learned who will make themselves known unto us, and come into our brotherhood, shall find more wonderful secrets by us than heretofore they did attain unto, and did know, or are able to believe or u

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

like a faulty boiler on due pressure being brought to bear upon it by david hume. the final judgement of the senses was doubted, but only partially, men sought the link which connected cause and effect. the excluded middle-consciousness, and what may be called super-consciousness; and to attain this end crowley has applied the whole of his pyrrhonic-iconoclasm to break down the vulgar idealism of theology, as well as the vulgar realism of the empirical sciences. there fs the true refuge of the wise; to overthrow the temple guards, deny reality *the sword of song, pentecost, vol. ii, p. 176. in fact to crush and annihilate by means of a sceptical-theurgy the rational fifth-monarchism of the scientific cults. philosophy and science have up to the present apprehended things per nos, from this

s of mind. its correspondence with the talmud is more of method than material. that it was of slow growth is very certain, that it is a conglomerated mass of a multitude of efforts is also most sure. the zohar is its corner-stone, and the date of its construction extends probably from the second to the seventh century of the present era. much of its logic, psychology, metaphysics, philosophy, and theology, is drawn directly from the midrash. to make it superior to profane literature its simplicity has at various times been cloaked in a truculent obscurantism, many of its students delighting in paraphrases and hermeneutical constructions. because of their unintelligibility words were transposed, numericalisms added, till at last much if not all its sense was lost in a maze of mental legerde

TRUE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT

hurch. the medieval witches were not likely to have been satanists, as the church would have it, but, as we have seen, neither were they likely to have been "witches" in the wiccan sense, either. the hellfire clubs of the eighteenth century were satanic, and groups like the process church of the final judgement do, indeed, have satanic elements in their (one should remember) essentially christian theology. aleister crowley, ever theatrical, was prone to use satanic symbolism in much the same way, tongue jutting in cheek, as he was given to saying that he" sacrificed millions of children each year" that is, that he masturbated. crowley once called a press conference at the foot of the statue of liberty, where he announced that he was burning his british passport to protest britain's involve

ip. ancient pagans did not `worship' nature; to a large extent they were afraid of it, as has been pointed out to me by folk practioners. their "nature rites" were to propitiate the caprice of the gods, not necessarily to honor them. the first neopagan revivalists, gardner, crowley and dr. murray, well understood this. neopagan wiccans usually do not. in introducing a "goddess element" into their theology, crowley and gardner both understood the yin/yang, male/female fundamental polarity of the universe. radical feminist neopagans have taken this balance and altered it, however unintentionally, into a political feminist agenda, centered around a near-monotheistic worship of the female principle, in a bizarre caricature of patriarchal christianity. bigotry, i submit, cuts both ways. i do no

TURNER ROBERT ARBETEL OF MAGICK

specially in the first and highest: for in his oracles he confesseth god to be the first and the highest; he believeth of the trinity, which he would not investigate by any natural knowledge: he speaketh of angels, and of paradise; approveth the immortality of the soul; teacheth truth, faith, hope, and love, discoursing of the abstinence and charity of the magi. of this zoroaster, eusebius in the theology of the phoenicians, using zoroaster s own words: h c ad verbum scribit (saith eusebius) deus primus, incorruptibilium, sempiternus, ingenitus, expers partium sibi ipsi simillimus, bonorum omnium auriga, munera non expectans, optimus, prudentissimus, pater juris, sine doctrina justitiam per doctus, natur perfectus, sapiens, sacr natur unicus inventor &c. thus saith zoroaster, word for word

TWO ESSAYS ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS

ount of the remains of the worship of priapus, lately existing at isernia, in the kingdom of naples: in two letters: one from sir william hamilton, k.b, his majesty s minister at the court of naples, to sir joseph banks, bart, president of the royal socieity. and the other from a person residing at isernia: to which is added a discourse on the worship of priapus and its connection with the mystic theology of the ancients. by r. p. knight, esq. london: printed by t. spilsbury, snowhill. m.dcc.lxxxvi. a letter from sir william hamilton, etc. naples, dec. 30, 1781. sir, aving last year made a curious discovery, that in a province of this kingdom, and not fifty miles from its capital, a sort of devotion is still paid to priapus, the obscene divinity of the ancients (though under another denomi

who wish to know how generally the symbol, and the religion which it represented, once prevailed, will consult the great and elaborate work of mr. d hancarville, who, with infinite learning and ingenuity, has traced its progress over the whole earth. my endeavour will be merely to show, from what original principles in the human mind it was first adopted, and how it was connected with the ancient theology: matters of very curious inquiry, which will serve, better perhaps than any others, to illustrate that truth, which ought to be present in every man's mind when be judges of the actions of others, that in morals, as well as physics, there is no effect without an adequate cause. if in doing this, i frequently find it necessary to differ in opinion with the learned author above-mentioned, i

l image could they find, by which to express their idea of the beneficent power of the great creator, than that organ which endowed them with the power of procreation, and made them partakers, not only of the felicity of the deity, but of his great characteristic attribute, that of multiplying his own image, communicating his blessings, and extending them to generations yet unborn? in the ancient theology of greece, preserved in the orphic fragments, this deity, the erwj prwtogonoj, or first-begotten love, is said to have been produced, together with ther, by time, or eternity (kronoj, and necessity (anagkh, operating upon inert matter (caoj. he is described as eternally begetting (aeignhthj; the father of night, called in later times, the lucid or splendid (fanhj, because he first appeare

which they thought would depreciate the old religion or recommend the now; whilst the heathen priests revealed whatever they thought would have contrary tendency; and endeavoured to show, by publishing the real mystic creed of their religion, that the principles of it were not so absurd as its outward structure seemed to infer; but that, when stripped of poetical allegory and vulgar fable, their theology was pure, reasonable, and sublime (gesner. proleg. orphica. the collection of these poems now extant, being probably compiled and versified by several hands, with some forged, and other interpolated and altered, must be read with great caution; more especially the fragments of priapus 19 self, and with him brought forth from inert matter by necessity. hence the purity and sanctity always

nticity. the medals were the public acts and records of the state, made under the direction of the magistrates, who were generally initiated into the mysteries. we may therefore be assured, that whatever theological and mythological allusions are found upon them were part of the ancient religion of greece. it is from these that many of the orphic hymns and fragments are proved to contain the pure theology or mystic faith of the ancients, which is called orphic by pausanias (lib. i, c. 39, and which is so unlike the vulgar religion, or poetical mythology, that one can scarcely imagine at first sight that it belonged to the same people; but which will nevertheless appear, upon accurate investigation, to be the source from whence it flowed, and the cause of all its extravagance. the history o

ngth, is represented on innumerable greek medals by the urus, or wild bull, in the act of butting against the egg of chaos, and breaking it with his horns.4 it is true, that the egg is not represented with the bull on any of those which i have seen; but mr. d hancarville5 has brought examples from other countries, where the same system prevailed, which, as well as the general analogy of the greek theology prove that the egg must have been understood, and that the attitude of the bull could have no other meaning. i shall also have occasion hereafter to show by other examples, that it was no uncommon practice, in these mystic monuments, to make a part of a group represent the whole. it was from this horned symbol of the power of the 1 see plate xxi. fig. 1. 2 macrob. sat. i. c. 20. 3 see gol

imself; hence he is called taurozoaj, taurwpoj, tauromorfoj,1 &c, and hence the initials and monograms of the orphic epithets applied to the creator, are found with the bull, and other symbols, on the greek medals.2 it must not be imagined from hence, that the ancients supposed the deity to exist under the form of a bull, a goat, or a serpent: on the contrary, he is always described in the orphic theology as a general pervading spirit, without form, or distinct locality of any kind; and appears, by a curious fragment preserved by proclus,3 to have been no other than attraction personified. the self-created mind (nooj autogeneqloj) of the eternal father is said to have spread the heavy bond of love through all things (pasin enespeiren desmon peribriqh erwtoj, in order that they might endure

equate an idea of infinity, as of any finite substance whatever. infinity, said they, is that which has no bounds. this negation, being a positive assertion, must be founded on a positive idea. we have therefore a positive idea of infinity. the eclectic jews, and their followers, the ammonian and christian platonics, who endeavoured to make their own philosophy and religion conform to the ancient theology, held infinity of space to be only the immensity of the divine presence `o qepk auto topoj esti1 was their dogma, which is now inserted into the confessional of the greek church.2 this infinity was distinguished by them from common space, as time was from eternity. whatever is eternal or infinite, said they, must be absolutely indivisible; because division is in itself inconsistent with i

ral ones, which are only generalized modes of action of the former. even simple abstract truth was denied him; for truth, as proclus says, is merely the relative to falsehood; and no relative can exist without a positive or correlative. the deity therefore who has no falsehood, can have no truth, in our sense of the word.1 1 proclus in theolog. platon. lib. 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 exquisi

WAITE ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM

o that each one of them was henceforth symbolically a son of the queen of heaven- born as a man originally and reborn in a divine manner- has its correspondence on a much higher plane of symbolism with the divine birth in bethlehem, according to which a child was "born" and a son "given" who, in hypothesis at least, was the son of god, but son also of mary- one of whose titles, according to latin theology, is queen of heaven. the hidden life in egypt and nazareth corresponds to the life of seclusion led by the mystae during their period of probation between the lesser and greater mysteries. the three years of ministry are in analogy with the temple-functions of the mystagogues. but lastly, in egypt and elsewhere, there was the mystic experience of the pastos, in which the initiate died sym

WALLIS BUDGE E A LEGENDS OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS

er of priests, and by them instructed in their abstruse and hidden philosophy, a philosophy for the most part involved in fable and allegory, and exhibiting only dark hints and obscure resemblances of the truth. this the priesthood hints to us in many instances, particularly by the sphinxes, which they seem to have placed designedly before their temples as types of the enigmatical nature of their theology. to this purpose, likewise, is that inscription which they have engraved upon the base of the statue of athene[fn#282] at sais, whom they identify with isis "i am everything that has been, that is, and that shall be: and my veil no man hath raised" in like manner the word "amoun" or as it is expressed in the greek language "ammon" which is generally looked upon as the proper name of the e

WESTERN MANDALAS OF TRANSFORMATION SR AL

; it is where subjective and objective experience meets that what we like to call reality happens. as the third sephira, binah represents the origin of trinitarian dogmas, because, as levi explains, the universal way of thinking about relationship is grammatically: that which speaks, that which is spoken to, and that which is spoken about. in magic, this is origin, realization, and adaptation. in theology it supposes an intelligent cause, a mediation (the logos, and a creative expression. binah is the creative principle which in turn births the rest of the sephiroth. when we are dealing with only two-letter hebrew combinations, there exists the possibility of reversal. we said that there were two words that add up to three. the first is ab, and the second is ba (baw, which means to come, a

WICCA WITCHCRAFT TODAY

t and refreshment, becoming young and strong, waiting for the time to be reborn on earth again, and: you pray to him to send back the spirits of your beloved dead to rejoice with you at your festivals. that they believe something of this sort is clear from the myth of the goddess which forms the central part of one of their rituals. it is a sort of primitive spiritualism. witches have no books on theology, so it is difficult for me to discover all they actually believe. with all the thousands of books there are on christianity i find it difficult to define christian beliefs. transubstantiation, for instance. on the other hand, it is easy to give the central idea or myth, which i believe is defined as being a story which affects people's actions. strictly speaking, in this sense the myth of

aid 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 consisted of two parts, the orphic centring round zagreus and celebrated at agrai, a suburb o

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 trans 'the mind is affected and agitated in death, just as it is in initiation into the mysteries, and word answers to word, as well as thing to thing; for to die, to be initiated, is the same; with hymns, dances and sublime and sacred knowledge, crowned and triumphant they walk the regions of the blessed' but it was a

WICCA MAGICK OCCULT THREE GREEN BOOKS DRUIDISM

nto the distance. v.v. rozanov in solitaria 1912 rituals mend ever again worlds forever breaking apart under the blows of usage and the slashing distinctions of language. roy rappaport 297 man is a religious animal. man is the only religious animal. he is the only animal that has the true religion several of them. he is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn t straight. mark twain provide a religious organization with wealth and power and it begins to change into a secular agency. edmund a. opitz fantastic doctrines (like christianity or islam or marxism) require unanimity of belief. one dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions. thus the fear and the hate; thus the torture chamber, the iron stake, the gallows, the labor camp, the ps

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

tion, as numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott may be seen in some copies of very old poems (the 24 books of homer s iliad and odyssey, for example, in which the stanzas bear the letters consecutively, in a similar manner to the hebrew letters heading the portions of the 119th psalm in our bibles. the word kabalah includes the hebrew doctrines of cosmogony and theology as well as the science of numbers. the former is specified as the dogmatic qabalah, the latter as the literal qabalah. 25. by means of associating the ancient doctrines of numbers with the letters of the alphabet, the planets, stars, zodiacal signs and other astronomical terms, a form of divination became practiced, by which the professors attempted to foretell the future, life and death

ilk 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 benjamin 5 suits of

f life. the pleiades, a group of seven stars in the constellation taurus, was thought of mighty power over earthly destiny; there were seven also of the hyades, daughters of atlas; and the seven stars which guided the sailors. ursa major, in which the hindus locate the sapta rishi, seven sages of primitive wisdom, are a group of the first importance and are easily recognized. duncan, in his astro-theology, gives 7 stages of life with associated planets; thus, infancy, moon, luna; childhood, mercury, knowledge; youth, venus, love; numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott manhood, sol; full strength, mars; maturity of judgment, jupiter; and old age, saturn. 74. some philosophers have said that our souls have 7 foci in the material body, viz, the five senses

, syriac, hebrew, persian and in english are called the book of sindibad, edited by clouston. the coptic gnostics represented the jehovah of the hebrews by a curious arrangement of the 7 vowels, numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott without a consonant. thus iehooua (the h is the greek eta, long e; and the first o is the greek long o, omega. in the zoroastrian theology, we read of the highest beings the 7 amshaspands. ormuzd, source of life; bahman, the king of this world; ardibehest, fire producer; shahrivar, the former of metals; spandarmat, queen of the earth (the gnostic sophia; khordad, the ruler of times and seasons; and amerdad, ruling over the vegetable world. below there are the 27 izeds, ruled over by mithras. in opposition to these were power

ittarius night house of mars scorpio- libra day house of venus virgo night house of mercury leo sole house of sol cancer sole house of luna gemini day house of mercury taurus night house of venus aries day house of mars this is very fully explained by coley in his astrology, and also by john middleton in his astrology, 1679. herodotus tells us that the egyptians founded the system of a twelve-god theology, euterpe iv. the hebrews certainly at times worshipped the sun, moon, seven planets, and the star rulers of the twelve zodiacal signs see 2 kings, xxiii. 5, and job, xxxviii. 32. dunlop, in his vestiges, remarks that of the names of the twelve months in use among the jews, several are identical with names of deities, as tammuz, ab, elul, bul. groups of twelve gods are to be noticed in the

english it has been calculated that the proportion between the frequency of the use of the letters was, of a, 85; b, 16; c, 30; d, 44; e, 120; f, 25; g, 17; h, 64; i, 80; j, 4; k, 8; l, 40; m, 30; n, 80; o, 80; p, 17; q, 5; r, 62; s, 80; t, 90; u, 34; v, 12; w, 20; x, 4; y, 20; z, 2. 27. the number of the izeds or angels who ruled under the supervision of the seven amshaspands of the zoroastrian theology. 28. a division of the zodiac into 28 mansions of the moon, was probably earlier than the solar division into 12 parts. the names and symbols can be obtained in sanskrit and in arabic. proctor believes that solar astronomy of the 12 signs arose about 2170 b.c, in a country of about 36 degrees of north latitude, and at a period when taurus was the first constellation of the zodiac. 114. 29

by c.r. 1461. the egyptian sothic period, calculated by the heliacal rising of sirius, the dog star, at the solstice. 1480. christos, in greek numeration meaning anointed. according to the canon this number exhibits an imnumbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott portant measure of the cosmos, and was the foundation of the scientific pantheism upon which christian theology was built, it was a part of the gnosis and was derived from the priestly astronomers of egypt. 123. 1484. christian rosenkreutz died. the vault closed over his body and the secrets of the order he had founded. 1604. the vault of c. r. opened by his successors after 120 years of secret study and benevolence. 1614. the fama fraternitatis rosae crucis was printed. 1717. grand lodge of freema

WILLIAM WESCOTT THE CHALDEAN ORACLES OF ZOROASTER TRANSLATION

ered by tradition in the family, the son receiving it from his father, being exempted from all other employment; and thus having their parents for their teachers, they learn all things fully and abundantly, believing more firmly what is communicated to them* the remains then of this oral tradition seems to exist in these oracles, which should be studied in the light of the kabalah and of egyptian theology. students are aware that the kabalah* is susceptible of extraordinary interpretation with the aid of the tarot, resuming as the latter does, the very roots of egyptian theology. had a similar course been adopted by commentators in the past, the chald an system expounded in these oracles would not have been distorted in the way it has been. the foundation upon which the whole structure of

h yesod_ malkuth world of assiah ruled by material form. adonai melekh_ the earth-matter chald an scheme of beings. representatives of the previous classes guiding our universe. i. hyperarchii archangels ii. azon i unzoned gods iii. zon i planetary deities_ higher demons: angels_ human souls_ lower demons, elementals fiery 4 of 13 airy earthy watery_ evil demons lucifugous; the kliphoth_ chald an theology contemplated three great divisions of supra-mundane things: the first was eternal, without beginning or end, being the "paternal depth" the bosom of the deity. the second was conceived to be that mode of being having beginning but no end; the creative world or empyr um falls under this head, abounding as it does in productions, but its source remaining superior to these. the third and las

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

axiomatic acceptance of the three theological categories, creation (sch pfung, revelation (offenbarung, and redemption (erl sung. each of these corresponds to a dimension of time: creation to the everrenewed past, revelation to the ever-enduring present, redemption to the evercoming future. for rosenzweig, the temporal mode has ontological status only by virtue of its theological correlates. his theology, therefore, may be labeled a metaphysics of temporality whereby the traditional distinction between time and eternity is transcended in the eternalization of time through the temporalization of eternity: in the fullness of the moment, one encounters the perpetual coming-to-be of what has always been. in a manner similar to schelling, whose later thought betrays an a nity with traditional

11, 42 43. 83. plotinus, enneads iii.7.11, 44. for an extended analysis of this theme, see plotinus, ber ewigkeit und zeit, pp. 35 49. 84. aristotle, physics 218b 23 30. the point is acknowledged in the review of aristotle s conception of time offered by brentano, philosophical investigations, p. 50. 85. hobbes, elements of philosophy, 2.7.3, in hobbes: selections, p. 70. 86. proclus, elements of theology, prop. 50, p. 49. 87. ibid, props. 45 47, pp. 47 49. 88. ibid, prop. 51, p. 51. 89. aristotle, de caelo i.9.279a, 25 28. 90. plotinus, enneads iii.7.4, 42 43. 91. proclus, elements of theology, prop. 52, p. 51. on the definition of eternity (aion) as that which always is (o aei on, see proclus, in platonis timaeum commentaria 3.15.11 13. on the implications of this understanding of eterni

ady for it. time and place belong and are related to one another, for place is in the earth and time depends on the celestial order and the spheres. on the identification of time with body, which is interchangeable with space, see idem, gevurot ha-shem, vol. 1, ch. 46, pp. 213, 216; be er ha-golah, vol. 2, 6:4, p. 187. on the equation of time and space in maharal s writings, see sherwin, mystical theology, p. 142. see also idel, sabbath: on concepts of time, pp. 79 81. notes to pages 55 56 205 5. see references, ch. 3 n. 60. 6. heschel, god in search of man, p. 58. 7. jullien, du temps, p. 35. for a more technical discussion on the analogousness of space and time, see sider, four-dimensionalism, pp. 87 98. 8. endsj, to lock, pp. 375 378. 9. gould, time s arrow, pp. 10 16. 10. smith, imagin

of time, pp. 138 166. 50. cordovero, zohar im perush or yaqar, vol. 15, p. 89. 51. cordovero, pardes rimmonim, 5:4, 25d. 52. cordovero, shi ur qomah, 6a. for the citation and analysis of other passages wherein this principle is articulated in the works of cordovero and other sixteenth- century kabbalists, including his teacher solomon alqabes and his student hayyim vital, see ben-shlomo, mystical theology, pp. 95 100, 232; sack, kabbalah of rabbi moshe cordovero, pp. 14, 57 n. 2, 169, 256 n. 43; wolfson, divine suffering, pp. 110 114. 53. wolfson, language, eros, being, pp. 242 255. 54. on the kabbalistic depiction of torah as limitless, see idel, infinities, pp. 141 157; idem, absorbing perfections, pp. 88 89, 94 108. cordovero s view on the eternally changing character of that which eter

eternity offered by plotinus, enneads iii.7.5: and if someone were in this way to speak of eternity as a life which is here and now endless because it is total and expends nothing of itself, since it has no past or future for if it had, it would not now be a total life he would be near to defining it. the description of eternality as a simultaneous whole is a rmed as well by proclus, elements of theology, prop. 52, p. 1; see smith, eternity and time, pp. 202 203. 99. rumi, mathnawi, 1:1440. 100. abe, zen and comparative studies, pp. 163 169. consider the description of notes to page 71 215 enlightenment of the bashashita in jokin, denkoroku, p. 134: at this point we should not say that the physical body breaks up and scatters whilst something tranquilly continues on as an eternal spirit

s, pp. 211 221, suggests that the notions of a sequence of times prior to the world and worlds that preceded our world found in rabbinic literature is a response to the gnostic conception (influenced by platonic philosophy) of a world of eternity set in diametric contrast to the created world of time. 112. cordovero, pardes rimmonim, 6:6, 30b. for analysis of this theme, see ben- shlomo, mystical theology, pp. 246 and 260. 113. cordovero, pardes rimmonim, 3:1, 11b; ben-shlomo, mystical theology, p. 56. 114. maimonides, guide, 1.57, p. 132, and 1.63, pp. 154 155 (in that context, maimonides explicitly interprets the expression ehyeh asher ehyeh as signifying the necessarily existent; altmann, essence and existence, pp. 294 315, reprinted in altmann, studies, pp. 107 127. 115. see goichon, l

i have rendered as primordial without primordiality. cordovero is thus in basic agreement with the apophatic position adopted by albo, sefer ha-iqqarim, 2:18, 80a: the matter of primordiality and eternity [inyan ha-qadmut we-ha-nishiyyut] spoken with respect to him is a negative matter, the negation of privation qua beginning and qua end. 125. cordovero, elimah rabbati, 3a-b; ben-shlomo, mystical theology, pp. 194 195, 202, 212, 224. 126. cordovero, elimah rabbati, 5c. 127. as noted by scholem, kabbalah, p. 103. for discussion of the neoplatonic influence on conceptions of space and time in renaissance kabbalistic texts, see neuser, raum und zeit, pp. 93 101. 128. ben-shlomo, mystical theology, pp. 293, 308 309. 129. cordovero, elimah rabbati, 26c. 130. ergas, shomer emunim, 2.11, 33d. 131

iah of fano that ergas 218 notes to pages 74 77 cites or alludes to are from yonat elem, chs. 2, 12, and 20. see menahem azariah of fano, sefer ma amerei ha-rav menahem azariah mi-fano, vol. 1, pp. 3, 16, 25. 139. vital, es hayyim, 1:2, 11b. 140. see turner, darkness of god, p. 35. for discussion of this theme in medieval kabbalistic literature, see katz, utterance, pp. 279 298; wolfson, negative theology, pp. v xxii. 141. it is of interest to mention here the following comment in a work (shem olam, p.12) attributed by some scholars to the colorful and controversial eighteenth- century figure jonathan eybeschuetz: the words of the ari, blessed be his memory, attest that the emanation was in time [bi-zeman. if this is so, then the beginning of the name yhwh is also in time. this is not the

p. 59 90; english translation in idem, roots of faith and devequt, pp. 131 184. 155. cordovero, pardes rimmonim, 4:5, 18d. 156. gruenwald, preliminary critical edition, p. 142, sec. 6. 157. for an extensive discussion of this text and its presumed author, see sendor, emergence of proven al kabbalah, vol. 1, pp. 25 50. 158. isaac the blind, perush sefer yesirah, p. 6. 159. see ben-shlomo, mystical theology, pp. 268 274. 160. cordovero, sefer yesirah, p. 70. 161. cordovero, pardes rimmonim, 2:6, 9d. 162. wolfson, from sealed book, pp. 145 178. 163. moses ben nahman, perushei ha-torah, vol. 1, p. 15 (ad gen. 1:2. see wolfson, by way of truth, pp. 110 111 n. 25. on the problem of creation and commentaries on ma aseh bere shit in thirteenth-century kabbalah, see gottlieb, studies, pp. 18 28, 59

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