Category: Global Esotericism
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The Lamp of Diogenes: “A Worthy Goal for the Welfare of Mankind”
“In this time, when the games and abuses of secret societies were without end, I wanted to make use of this human weakness for a real and worthy goal, the welfare of mankind (…) I wanted what the heads of the ecclesiastical and secular powers should do and want by virtue of their offices.” JOHANN…
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The Emanation Theory in Theosophy and its Three Aspects of Evolution
Darwinism only a One-Sided Theory of Evolution This view is taught to be complementary to evolution; but asserts that Darwinian Evolution theory holds to a “one-sided physical evolution.” It teaches, that Man is the product of a triple scheme of evolution: (1) spiritual (monadic);(2) intellectual or psychic;(3) physical. Emanationism and Evolution The Theosophical Glossary describes the…
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Jean-Louis Siemons: “Theosophy” in Neo-Platonic and Christian Literature
Dr. Jean-Louis Siémons article Theosofia in Neo-Platonic and Christian Literature (2nd to 6th Century A.D.), Theosophical History Centre, London, 1988, pp. 24-26. Dr. Siémons was an Associate of the United Lodge of Theosophists for over fifty years. This is to give us perspective on the 19th century Theosophical Movement’s place within the broader scope of theosophical…
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Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge: ‘Though They Are Gods, Still They Are Not To Be Worshiped’
“I say there are many gods, but one God of all these gods, incomprehensible and unknown to all (…) a Power of immeasurable and ineffable Light, whose greatness is held to be incomprehensible, a Tower which the maker of the world does not know.” (Simon Magus, Clemens Recognitiones from the Clementine Literature) “They boast ethereal vigour and…
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The Secret Doctrine Commentaries on Gods and the Seven Planetary Regents
COMMENTARY ON BLAVATSKY LODGE MEETING, 1888 (EDITED 7/28/2020). I briefly introduced in the topic of sun-gods and fire-gods, the explanation of the ancient so-called “fire” and “sun-worshipers” held by our many and various ancestors; and that in truth, they did not die entirely in vain believing wholly in superstitions. Now, much of the purpose of The…
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Shepherd of Men: Gem from ‘Poemandres’ and ‘Corinthians’
A man says in the Poemandres: “Upon a time while my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, while the physical senses of my body were held back—just as are the senses of men who are heavy with sleep after a large meal, or from fatigue…
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The Manifestation of Divine Light
“But All-Father Mind, being Life and Light, did bring forth Man (Ἄνθρωπον) co-equal to Himself.” (Pœmandres treatise) “This Man or Anthrōpos is the Spiritual Prototype of humanity and of every individual man, and is a technical term found in a number of the early Christianised Gnostic systems” (G.R.S. Mead). “So says the Zoroastrian: I hold…
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Hermetic Undertone of the Theosophical Society’s Foundations
K.H., The Mahatma Letters, Letter no. 85, December 7, 1883 “(…) As the lady has rightly observed, the Western public should understand the Theosophical Society to be “a Philosophical School constituted on the ancient Hermetic basis” — that public having never heard of the Tibetan, and entertaining very perverted notions of the Esoteric Buddhist System.…
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Ralph Waldo Emerson on the Over-Soul
American Transcendentalist and Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson discusses the nature of the over-soul “The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity,…
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Pico della Mirandola Oration on the Secret of Gnosis and the Dignity of Man
Pico della Mirandola on the secret of Gnosis
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G.I. Gurdjieff on Esoteric Christianity and the Slavery of the Masses
Peter D. Ouspensky, a Russian philosopher and student of Armenian mystic, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff around 1870 recounts a conversation he had with him in his book, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching (1949). In one account, Peter D. Ouspensky asks Gurdjieff: “Why if ancient knowledge is preserved, why aren’t such men…
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Limitations of Christian Cabalists and Bible Challenge Authority of Western Esotericism
Does the limitations of Kabbalah and the Christian Bible in the Studies of Esotericism blind Western Philosophers? Helena P. Blavatsky challenged the esotericists of her time, who saw in the Bible, the final authority, even in the area of esoteric study. “And now it has come to this: The student interested in the Secret Sciences…
The American Minervan 