|
Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2020 20:37:12 GMT
Wisdom of the Ageswww.universalfreemasonry.org/library/wisdom-of-the-ages/introductionIntroduction Truth is eternal, exhaustless, unfathomable. Its Divine Fount is far beyond human discovery, however rich the intellect which aspires towards its inaccessible heights. It lies far above the topmost clouds which eye of man can scan, far beyond the Storm-King's throne, whence the flashing lightnings are hurled, where the mighty thunderbolts are forged; far above the vast waves of ether, that wide Planetary Sea where suns and worlds float and sail their swift, majestic currents; still farther on beyond the boundaries of this entire Universe of expressed Life, toward the Infinite, causeless Cause, the Unmanifest, the Silence, from whose profound depths all vibrations are stirred, all Light spoken, all Harmony breathed—even there and only thence has Truth its pristine, immaculate birth. No human ear can catch its full-toned syllables, no heart conceive the beauty, the grandeur of its sublime accents, but to the aspiring soul come glintings of its full-orbed Glory, flash-lights of its Perfection. And to that soul which likewise feels its own union with the same wondrous Source, there come in-breathings, or inspirations, of this Eternal Wisdom, whose translation into human speech serves to illumine mundane shadows. All down through the ages such souls have blessed and enlightened the world. The messages received by such seers, prophets and psalmists have been collected in every cycle of human advancement, into Scriptures fitly termed sacred, into Vedas, Sutras, Koran, Avesta and Bible. No age, nation or teacher holds a copyright above any other for the excellence or infallibility of its particular message. The One Fountain has countless rills, and were all these minute streams collected into one great volume, the vast reservoir which feeds them would still be scarcely touched. But as humanity advances, as material, grovelling tendencies are transcended and outgrown, and the Light of the Spirit illumines mortal vision, as the yearning of the soul increases and is felt above the clamor of the senses, as the demand for more of Truth arises from the lips and hearts of men, such earnest prayer is always answered. Pure-hearted messengers are chosen and prepared through discipline, through sorrows manifold, to hear this transcendent Voice and transmit its potent accents to mankind. The planet is now passing its sixth cyclical birthday. The fifth grand cycle wanes, a new spiritual dispensation is upon us; the sixth age advances, the opening of the sixth seal. Our solar centre in his tireless revolution around far distant Alcyone, with his attendant retinue of worlds, passes from one sign of the Zodiac to another, making marked planetary changes in physical, mental and spiritual life. Wars, famine and pestilence abound—the fermentation of unrest, which will work out the necessary purification for the spiritual era, whose dawn already is dimly discerned. Even now the angels of preparation for this glad new Day are on the earth or in the air, psychic gateways are being prepared among the children of men for the entrance of new messages of Truth, for deeper words of Wisdom, for grander pæans of Harmony than have hitherto blessed the world. Such a message is contained in the rare volume before us, whose origin and manner of transmission are calculated to inspire the soul with reverence and awe. Not alone is it literally the work of angelic hands, but it serves also as a valuable link with a prehistoric past, the inspirer of these pages having once worn mortal form, once trodden mundane pathways, in the earliest civilization our planet has known, many thousand years ago, in Central America. The instrument through whom this grand, unique message has been transmitted—Dr. George A. Fuller—is admirably fitted to be thus chosen as a mouthpiece of wise inspirers, being a man of pure, clean nature, a close student, philosopher and aspirant for Truth, loving honor and integrity better than fame or fortune. He has been for years before the public as a teacher of spiritual truth, constantly under observation when criticism was rife, without a stain or breath of calumny. Some twenty-five years ago, Dr. Fuller possessed to some degree the gift of automatic writing, and at that time received communications purporting to come from an ancient dweller of Central America. But these messages were chiefly historical and personal, and after a time ceased; gradually also the automatic gift was withdrawn, presumably forever, After the lapse of a quarter of a century, however,— "The mills of the gods grind slow, But they grind exceeding fine," to Dr. Fuller's great surprise, on the morning of June fourth, suddenly and without warning, a peculiar pricking of the hand and arm, with a strong impulse to take his pen, resulted in the transcription of the first chapter in this volume, followed an hour and two hours later by succeeding chapters. At intervals during the current summer, though busily engaged in other absorbing duties, the volume grew, page by page, until the ancient Teacher and Revelator himself pronounced the Finis. Who shall say that other sacred books have not been similarly penned? The manner of inspiration, it is true, matters little, or whether the angel is seen, as it was by John in Patmos, and other early writers; it is the purport of the message which decides its value, and surely the exalted character of this scripture, its revealments of spiritual truth, its advanced teachings, its lofty conceptions and ideals, the beauty of its musical rhythm, the utterly impersonal feature of its authorship, must stamp this work, whatever its source, as pure inspiration of a high order. By the expressed wish of the intelligence inditing these pages, the volume is now given to the world. The same Power that had a use for it and thus called it into being will direct that those souls who are ready, whose further growth demands this nutriment, will attract it unto them, while minds less ripened may pass it by until a more convenient season. To sow the seed is all the disciple can do. The Lord of the harvest can alone bring the increase in His own time and way. May it prove an hundred-fold to every thoughtful, earnest reader! "Rise, oh my soul, to still loftier heights; unfettered be all thy wings!"
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2020 19:09:17 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 13, 2021 21:14:37 GMT
The Lost Pillars of Enoch When Science and Religion Were One By (Author) Tobias Churton www.innertraditions.com/books/the-lost-pillars-of-enochAt the dawn of human civilization there existed a unified scientific and spiritual understanding of the universe. Tobias Churton traces the fragments of this sacred knowledge as it descended through the ages into initiated circles, showing how the lost pillars stand as a twenty-first century symbol for reattaining our heritage. Explores the unified science-religion of early humanity and the impact of Hermetic philosophy on religion and spirituality • Investigates the Jewish and Egyptian origins of Josephus’s famous story that Seth’s descendants inscribed knowledge on two pillars to save it from global catastrophe • Reveals how this original knowledge has influenced civilization through Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic, Masonic, Hindu, and Islamic mystical knowledge • Examines how “Enoch’s Pillars” relate to the origins of Hermeticism, Freemasonry, Newtonian science, William Blake, and Theosophy Esoteric tradition has long maintained that at the dawn of human civilization there existed a unified science-religion, a spiritual grasp of the universe and our place in it. The biblical Enoch--also known as Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, or Idris--was seen as the guardian of this sacred knowledge, which was inscribed on pillars known as Enoch’s or Seth’s pillars. Examining the idea of the lost pillars of pure knowledge, the sacred science behind Hermetic philosophy, Tobias Churton investigates the controversial Jewish and Egyptian origins of Josephus’s famous story that Seth’s descendants inscribed knowledge on two pillars to save it from global catastrophe. He traces the fragments of this sacred knowledge as it descended through the ages into initiated circles, influencing civilization through Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic, Masonic, Hindu, and Islamic mystical knowledge. He follows the path of the pillars’ fragments through Egyptian alchemy and the Gnostic Sethites, the Kabbalah, and medieval mystic Ramon Llull. He explores the arrival of the Hermetic manuscripts in Renaissance Florence, the philosophy of Copernicus, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, and the origins of Freemasonry, including the “revival” of Enoch in Masonry’s Scottish Rite. He reveals the centrality of primal knowledge to Isaac Newton, William Stukeley, John Dee, and William Blake, resurfacing as the tradition of Martinism, Theosophy, and Thelema. Churton also unravels what Josephus meant when he asserted one Sethite pillar still stood in the “Seiriadic” land: land of Sirius worshippers. Showing how the lost pillars stand as a twenty-first century symbol for reattaining our heritage, Churton ultimately reveals how the esoteric strands of all religions unite in a gnosis that could offer a basis for reuniting religion and science. Tobias Churton Tobias Churton is Britain’s leading scholar of Western Esotericism, a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Rosicrucianism. He is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. An Honorary Fellow of Exeter University, where he is faculty lecturer in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, he holds a master’s degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. The author of many books, including Gnostic Philosophy, The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, and Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin, he lives in England.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2021 11:38:27 GMT
23 JANUARY, 2021 - 02:59 ANCIENT-ORIGINS The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery TraditionsAuthors: Joscelyn Godwin Richard Smoley ISBN-10: 0835608603 www.ancient-origins.net/book-reviews/golden-thread-ageless-wisdom-western-mystery-traditions-005125The Golden Thread traces the interconnectedness of esoteric wisdom in the Western world, from classical antiquity to contemporary Europe and America. Joscelyn Godwin lends personal perspective to an arrangement of text that is historical and wisdom that is timeless, creating a source of inspiration that calls us to action in our everyday spiritual practice. Every chapter, therefore, makes reference to some aspect of contemporary life and issues of immediate concern. Elegantly written and not without irony and humor, readers will appreciate the non-threatening tone of Godwin's writing, which is not meant to preach or convert but rather inform the public on an often baffling field. Educated readers who are curious about the esoteric and mystery traditions and interested in finding surprising, new approaches to subjects that veer away from the trends of current thought will be particularly drawn to this book.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2021 13:31:37 GMT
LEADING CONSCIOUSNESS RESEARCHER BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN SCIENCE AND REAL MAGIC February 6, 2018 www.wakingtimes.com/leading-consciousness-researcher-bridges-gap-science-real-magic/Dylan Charles, Editor Waking Times Those of us who have experienced true magic in our lives have been wondering when modern science will somehow bridge the gap between science and spirit, and wondering what will happen to the world when these forces finally unite. It’s coming. Is magic real? Sure it is, which is why there’s such a long and storied history of it in every human civilization, and why so many people practice it everyday, whether they realize it or not. “Magic is one of the most enduring legends of humanity. It’s at the core of the esoteric traditions, it saturates the literature of religion and science, and while it has been severely suppressed for millennia, fictional stories about magic are just as popular today as they’ve ever been.” [IONS] Dean Radin, PhD, is “Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS) and Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at theCalifornia Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).” Having explored the frontiers of human consciousness for decades, he is one of the world’s leading parapsychologists. Among the many thousands of scientific papers, journals, articles and books he has written, his forthcoming work, Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe, will explore the links between magic and science. Real magic, he notes, consists of three categories: Divination (think Tarot reading, The I Ching), force of will (The Secret, Power of Intention), and theurgy (shamanism, channeling), and magical thinking is everywhere today, seen as superstitions and prayer. Drawing a distinction between real magic and fake or fictional magic, Radin explains: “When you think about magic, we’re talking about ancient ideas, and in the same way that alchemy turned into chemistry, and that astrology turned into astronomy, more or less, herbalism turned into the pharmaceutical world, there’s a fourth level of what used to be called natural magic, which will turn into real magic at some point. What’s interesting is that alchemy, astrology and herbalism all had elements of mental magic in them, but those parts have been left out in the scientific domain.” ~Dean Radin In a presentation for the International Transpersonal Conference in 2017, Radin gave an hour-long talk on the cutting edge of our understanding of magic, beginning with the historical background of esoteric ideas. We are realizing that much of the esoteric knowledge from our past is correct, and that one mind, or consciousness, is the creator of our conscious experience, and that consciousness is more fundamental than the material world. If consciousness is fundamental to our experience, then through the manipulation of consciousness we have an extraordinary amount of control over the material reality we create for ourselves. “The force of will works in a magical sense because mind manipulates reality from the get go. Divination works because consciousness and mind are before space-time, in which case if you direct your attention to Pluto a million years ago, it would be just as easy as directing your attention to me right now. And theurgy starts to make more sense, the idea of disembodied spirits that have some kind of intelligence. Physical embodiment would just be one from of the way that consciousness can manifest. So, our brain and body just happen to be the right kind of receiver, or capacity, to express consciousness in a way that we think of as being human.” ~Dean Radin He goes on to explain how science is on the brink of a revolution because our context of understanding the esoteric is evolving along with our technological advances. So far, we have been unable to integrate magical thinking into the sciences. Now, however, we have deep knowledge of the subconscious domains of the psyche along with the inter-connected nature of quantum physics, which is progressing into the post-quantum domain of abstractly presented informational realities. “Information is reality. Or mathematics is reality. So, we’re no longer even talking about energy and matter, we’re talking about something even more and more fundamental.” ~Dean Radin To get us there, Radin’s team is involved in designing experiments which test the powers of the human mind’s effect on the physical world. To test the effect of intention they had traditional Buddhist monks bless a quantity of tea, which was given to test subjects, demonstrating that those who believed they were drinking blessed tea, felt a significant boost in mood and energy levels. Radin’s team created another study which displayed random people’s faces to psychic mediums and ask them which of the people presented were deceased. The results showed a much higher success rate for pictures of people who had died more recently, versus people who had died many years or decades earlier. Remarkably, this may indicate that people who’ve been dead longer had already reincarnated, and therefore their souls were no longer ‘dead.’ Furthermore, using a photon quantum entangler, another study demonstrated that a person’s intention on the entanglement of photons does in fact positively affect the behavior and relationship of the photons, a new version of Schrodinger’s famous findings. At the cutting edge of our understanding of human consciousness is the realization that science was born out of magic, and in order for our greatest potential to be fully realized, these two domains must finally unite.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2021 15:13:25 GMT
A Psychological Approach to Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine iiyp.net/lifedivinechapters.phpSupermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya Spiritual mind-range How do we access the superior grades of consciousness from the limited poise of our surface existence? Sri Aurobindo describes that there are "two successive movements of consciousness" (The Life Divine, pg.290): (a) A journey to the depths -- the inner recesses of consciousness that eventually leads to widening to the cosmic consciousness; and (b) A journey to the heights that can surpass all cognition to the Great Void -the abode of the vast static and silent self or charts an alternative roadmap that traverses supra-cognitive planes to reach the highest creative consciousness. Journey to the depths Behind our outer being or surface personality stands an inner subliminal being with an inner mind, an inner vital and a subtle (inner) physical. The wall between the surface being and subliminal being can be breached in two ways: (a) "a gradual effort and discipline", or (b) "a vehement transition", at times "a forceful involuntary rupture" which might not be safe for the habitual mind accustomed to the security of life, but nevertheless a potent transition. (Ibid) Once we access the subliminal depths, we are confronted with a larger being with a larger mind capable of a manifold knowledge, a larger life in communion with the universal Life-Energy, an inner subtle-physical consciousness that surpasses the limitations of the surface body and a widening of oneself to the poise of an universal being no more limited by our narrow mental, vital, physical existence. "This widening can extend itself to a complete entry into the consciousness of cosmic Mind, into unity with the universal Life, even into a oneness with universal Matter". (Ibid) However Sri Aurobindo is pragmatic and warns that a widening into the cosmic consciousness does not guarantee that one is in possession of the Supreme Truth. When an individual widens into the cosmic consciousness, he or she has surpassed the limitations of ordinary life but has initially identified with the lower regions of the cosmic consciousness -"an identification either with a diminished cosmic truth or with the cosmic Ignorance". (Ibid) Behind the subliminal being is the soul-space that holds the soul in its individual and universal poises. Journey to the heights Once we have accessed the subliminal consciousness, the inner being or inner Self "is found to be capable of an opening, an ascent upwards into things beyond our present mental level; that is the second spiritual possibility in us". (Ibid) The ascent can move along two different pathways: (a) The usual time-honoured journey upwards leads to the vast impersonal static and silent Self as our real basic existence or to a Great Void . "There may be even an extinction, a Nirvana both of our active being and of the sense of self into a Reality that is indefinable and inexpressible. But also we can realise that this self is not only our spiritual being but the true self of all others; it presents itself then as the underlying truth of cosmic existence. It is possible to remain in a Nirvana of all individuality, to stop at a static realisation or, regarding the cosmic movement as a superficial play or illusion imposed on the silent Self, to pass into some supreme immobile and immutable status beyond the universe". (Ibid,291) (b)There is another pathway that had hitherto not been zealously followed except having some glimpses of it. It is a spiritual mind-range that traverses supra-cognitive planes. In this pathway, a two-way communication takes place. There is a dynamic descent of light, knowledge, power and bliss into our self of silence while there is a corresponding ascent to the higher regions of the Spirit that is the foundation of all the forces that descend. Both the pathways raise us from the mind of Ignorance to the spiritual state. The difference is that the first pathway to the Transcendent Self or Nirvana leads us to the Truth beyond the world while the second pathway opens the possibility of the Descent of the creative Supramental Truth-Consciousness through the activation of Chit-Shakti or Consciousness-Force to bring the Divine rule in the earth consciousness. Naturally, Sri Aurobindo opts for the second pathway that could lead to the transformation of life rather than the first pathway that seeks a liberation from life. He is explicit in his observations: "It is in the latter alternative that we find the secret we are seeking, the means of the transition, the needed step towards the supramental transformation; for we perceive a graduality of ascent, a communication with a more and more deep and immense light and power from above, a scale of intensities which can be regarded as so many stairs in the ascension of Mind or in a descent into Mind from That which is beyond it". (Ibid) Sri Aurobindo traces the scale of supra-cognitive matrices of Consciousness-Force that extend beyond the ordinary cognitive mind to the creative consciousness of the Supermind: (a) Higher Mind (b) Illumined Mind (c) Intuition (d) Overmind or global cognition (e) Supermind or Integral Cognition. Higher Mind The Higher Mind is a supracognitive field beyond the ordinary mind and holds all contradictory and complementary ideas in a sort of mass-ideation. In ordinary thinking, if we have to incorporate a new idea, we have to deconstruct the opposite idea. For example to be a votary of capitalism it would be difficult to glorify socialism. Not so in the Higher Mind where mental constructions and deconstructions are not needed for knowledge is "automatic and spontaneous"(Ibid, pg.292) and can exist in a multidimensional mode with contradictory ideas carrying the same value. If humanity could be trained to rise up to this plane of Higher Mind, we would be free from dogmatic and exclusivist thinking that is the cause of human discord to a large extent. Speaking of the Higher Mind, Sri Aurobindo describes: "We are aware of a sealike downpour of masses of a spontaneous knowledge which assumes the nature of Thought but has a different character from the process of thought to which we are accustomed; for there is nothing here of seeking, no trace of mental construction, no labour of speculation or difficult discovery; it is an automatic and spontaneous knowledge from a Higher Mind that seems to be in possession of Truth and not in search of hidden and withheld realities. One observes that this Thought is much more capable than the mind of including at once a mass of knowledge in a single view; it has a cosmic character, not the stamp of individual thinking". (Ibid, pg.291-292) Illumined Mind Unlike the ordinary mind where one idea has to be dislodged to accommodate an opposite idea, the Higher Mind accommodates all ideas which therefore go on adding to each other. At a certain point this would be strenuous if all ideas needed words for expression and one could shift to a yet higher matrix of Consciousness-Force where the ideas could be able to illumine our cognition without the necessity of words. This is the Illumined Mind that is a sort of seer vision where a revelatory ideograph would communicate the essence of Truth without the necessity of words. The Higher Mind is the domain of philosophers who are compelled to communicate the Truth through words. The Illumined Mind is the domain of the seer who does not have the compulsion to communicate experiences and realizations through words and yet can have more hold on the psyche of the race than the philosophers. Sri Aurobindo describes: "Beyond this Truth-Thought (of the Higher Mind) we can distinguish a greater illumination instinct with an increased power and intensity and driving force, a luminosity of the nature of Truth-Sight with though-formulation as a minor and dependent activity. If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, --an image which in this experience becomes a reality, -- we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff". (Ibid, pg.292) Intuition Beyond the Illumined Mind is the supra-cognitive field of Intuition from where Truth leaps like a spark of lightning that surpasses all intellectual logic and yet is veridical and determinative in character, has an exactitude and precision and is unfailingly right. It is not a derivatory but self-existent Truth. The only problem is that when it reaches the ordinary mind, it can get deformed and diluted. Therefore one must be trained to receive it and concentrated not to miss its cues that may come as a sudden aberrant Idea or a revelation heard or glimpsed or a strong feeling perceived in the depths of the being or a dream-message that turns out to be true or constructive. It should be noted that this supra-cognitive Intuition that coveys self-existent Truth is different from what we label as ordinary intuitions in common parlance; these latter are often instincts or subconscious hints or are derived from collective suggestions. Sri Aurobindo describes; "Still beyond (beyond the Higher Mind and Illumined Mind), can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; for though we have applied that word for want of a better to any supra-intellectual direct way of knowing, yet what we actually know as intuition is one special movement of self-existent knowledge. This new range is its origin; it imparts to our intuitions something of its own distinctive character and is very clearly an intermediary of a greater Truth-Light with which our mind cannot directly communicate". (Ibid) Beyond the plane of Intuition is the field of global cognition or Overmind. Date of Update: 21-Jan-21 - By Dr. Soumitra Basu
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2021 8:48:36 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2021 16:45:00 GMT
Lost Knowledge The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories Series: Technology and Change in History, Volume: 16 Author: Benjamin B. Olshin Lost Knowledge: The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories examines the idea of lost knowledge, reaching back to a period between myth and history. It investigates a peculiar idea found in a number of early texts: that there were civilizations with knowledge of sophisticated technologies, and that this knowledge was obscured or destroyed over time along with the civilization that had created it. This book presents critical studies of a series of early Chinese, South Asian, and other texts that look at the idea of specific “lost” technologies, such as mechanical flight and the transmission of images. There is also an examination of why concepts of a vanished “golden age” were prevalent in so many cultures. Offering an engaging and investigative look at the propagation of history and myth in technology and culture, this book is sure to interest historians and readers from many backgrounds. brill.com/view/title/35646
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 23, 2021 16:39:49 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2021 11:35:57 GMT
Enter the Ancient Wisdom: Quest for the Source of Lost Knowledge BY GARY LACHMAN www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/enter-the-ancient-wisdom-quest-for-the-source-of-lost-knowledgeThe Council of Ferrara-Florence, held from 1438 to 1445 in, not surprisingly, the Italian cities of Ferrara and Florence, had as one of its main objectives the possible reunion of the two branches of Christianity, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Byzantine, that had been separated since 1054. Agreement over doctrinal differences was not the guiding principle of the proposed merger. The true motive was realpolitik. The Turk was edging closer to Constantinople, and the Greek Orthodox Church knew it needed help to keep him at bay. When Emperor John VIII Palaeologus decided to put together a crack team of negotiators to plead the Byzantine church’s case, he included among his top men someone from outside the fold, a secular thinker he respected. Some thought this strange. Yet the appearance at the Council of the emperor’s man turned out to be one of the most important events in what we can call the “secret history” of the West. Who was this mystery man and why was his participation in the Council so important? It certainly wasn’t because of his ostensible reason for being there. The Council itself was a failure. The two churches did not reunite and less than a decade later, just as the emperor feared, the Ottomans overran Constantinople. Oddly enough, the ransacking of the Byzantine capital by the Turk was itself a major factor in the same secret history for which the Council of Ferrara-Florence set the stage. The mystery man in question was the Byzantine Neo-Platonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon. It wasn’t in fact until he attended the Council that he took or was given the name Plethon. This was a variant on the name of a philosopher who was still something of a mystery himself at the time, Plato. Why Gemistos took the name of the father of Western philosophy will become clear as we go along. Gemistos was born in 1355 in Constantinople to a well-off family who had him educated there and in Adrianople. Adrianople at the time was the capital of the Ottoman empire and had become an important centre of learning. Gemistos must have been something of a prodigy; he was said to have accompanied the emperor on a visit to western Europe when he was in his teens and seems to have been primed to become a teacher of philosophy. In this regard, Gemistos was lucky to be born in Constantinople. After the fall of the pagan world and the onset of the Dark Ages, more of Greek philosophy survived in the eastern empire than in the west. What there was of it that he could find, Gemistos absorbed greedily. Gemistos was a passionate lover of the ancient world and devoted student of Plato; in the Aristotelian atmosphere of the Orthodox – and Catholic – church, this held certain dangers. While Aristotle could be harnessed for the church’s purposes, Plato was seen as a threat. But Gemistos’ Platonising also meant that his learning, wisdom, and dialectical skill were highly prized. Hence, the decision of John VIII Palaeologus to send him to the Council. Gemistos was an old man by then – he lived to be nearly 100, amazing for the time – but in many ways it was the defining event of his life. Gemistos had no appetite for doctrinal disputes; he also had no love of the Catholic church although he did his best to get it on Constantinople’s side. When his services were not needed, he let his companions split dogmatic hairs while he killed time by giving lectures on Plato, Aristotle, and a strange idea that he had retrieved from his studies of a mystical text known as the Chaldean Oracles. This was what he called the prisca theologia, a “primal” or “ancient theology,” the fundamental knowledge of God, that had been revealed to mankind in the dim past, but which had, over the centuries, become obscured. Gemistos believed that the Chaldean Oracles had been written by one of the sages to whom this ancient wisdom had been given, the Persian Zoroaster, who lived in the dim past and who had himself passed this wisdom on to those who came after him. Sadly, Gemistos was wrong about Zoroaster – at least about him being the author of the Chaldean Oracles. Today we are fairly sure that these strange texts were actually written in second-century Rome by a family of magicians and seers known as the Juliani, who used various forms of what we would call mediumship and trance states to produce them. For Gemistos the Oracles were a fount of the primal theology, the ancient wisdom that had been vouchsafed to man before the Flood. Since that time it had been kept and periodically disseminated by what became known as the aurea cantena or “golden chain of adepts,” a lineage of secret teachers whose mission it was to pass on the ancient wisdom to those who could grasp it. Plethon’s own stream of transmission had Zoroaster at the start, with Eumolpus – the founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries – King Minos of Crete, the oracle of Dodona, Chiron, the wisest of centaurs, the Seven Sages, as well as Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, and his disciples Porphyry and Iamblichus, following after him. Gemistos enjoyed lecturing on the ancient wisdom and its teachers, but as the Council dragged on, he left Florence and returned to his home in Mystras, near ancient Sparta, where he began a kind of “mystery school.” He also devised a plan to reorganise the failing Byzantine empire along the lines of Plato’s Republic, wrote about the need to revive the pagan religions, and produced studies of Neo-Platonism, astrology, Hindu philosophy and Sufism. He seemed to have a premonition of a coming crisis and wanted to preserve what he could of his beloved ancient past. He died in 1452. A year later Gemistos’ premonition proved correct. Constantinople fell, and as the Turk entered the city, scores of Christian Greek scholars fled, selling off their libraries to fuel their departure. Marsilio Ficino One of the people who had heard Gemistos lecture while he was in Florence was Cosimo de’ Medici, the city’s great power broker. The Byzantine’s words had inspired him. Gemistos’ championing of Plato and, even more, his belief in the “ancient wisdom” of which Plato himself was a student, had fired Cosimo’s soul. So inspired was Cosimo that he decided to revive the Platonic philosophy right there in Florence. The best way to do this, Cosimo saw, was to reopen the Platonic Academy, which had been closed for business since the Emperor Justinian I shut its metaphorical doors in 529, effectively calling time on the pagan world. Luckily for Cosimo, just the man for the job was close at hand. Marsilio Ficino was a young Florentine Greek scholar, and after an interview with him, in 1462 Cosimo entrusted to him the newly revived Platonic Academy, putting all he needed for it at his disposal. Along with a villa in the hills above Florence, Cosimo, an obsessive book collector, gave Ficino access to his library. Recently, precisely because of the fall of Constantinople, many items previously unavailable in the west had come on the market, and several works by Plato had been snatched up by Cosimo’s book scouts. Cosimo hoped to read these as soon as possible, so he put Ficino on the job of translating them into Latin. No sooner had the young scholar got down to work than his boss told him to delay that order. Something else, more important than Plato, had come into his possession. Ficino had to put the father of philosophy aside and get to work immediately on this. What could have been so important that it forced Plato into the backseat? None other than the Corpus Hermeticum, the collection of mystical, magical, and metaphysical writings that were attributed to the greatest sage of the antediluvian world, Hermes Trismegistus, fabled “thrice greatest Hermes.” Hermes, an even more misty figure than Zoroaster – he is in fact an amalgam of the Egyptian god of magic Thoth and the Greek god of writing Hermes, born in ancient Alexandria – was considered to be even more important or fundamental a secret teacher than the great Persian sage. When Cosimo heard that a collection of these texts had come into his possession, he told Ficino to get them into Latin post haste. By one of those twists of fate that suggest some guiding hand at work, the very catastrophe that Gemistos Plethon, teacher of the ancient wisdom, had tried to prevent, led to perhaps the greatest work in this tradition coming to the mind most ready at that time to appreciate it and, more importantly, to pass it on. Ficino put down Plato and picked up Hermes. Soon his Latin translations of these primordial texts were informing the shift in western consciousness that we know as the Renaissance. In school, we are taught that the Renaissance was about the rediscovery of the great works of ancient philosophy, such as Plato’s dialogues, and the birth of humanism, the belief in humanity as something more than a race of wretched sinners. This is true. But as the historian Frances Yates argued in Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, it was also as much about the rediscovery of the Hermetic texts, and Ficino’s belief that they presented the very prisca theologia and “ancient wisdom” which Plato and the whole aurea catena had called upon since time immemorial. Along with informing and inspiring works such as Botticelli’s Venus and Michelangelo’s masterpieces, among others, what is remarkable about the Hermetic Renaissance is that for a time, Hermes Trismegistus was considered a kind of precursor to Christ or at least a very important fellow traveller. There were influential people within the church who argued for the “ancient wisdom” to be incorporated into church teaching. I tell this story, along with that of the Corpus Hermeticum itself, in my book The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus. One product of this sadly unsuccessful attempt to unite the ancient wisdom with Christianity – which devotees of the prisca theologia believed was an expression of the ancient wisdom itself – was what has become known as the philosophia perennis, or “perennial philosophy.” The Perennial Philosophy This term was coined in 1540 by the humanist, biblical scholar and Catholic apologist Agostino Steuco, to account for the harmony he and many others saw among Christianity, pagan philosophies, and the Hermetic teaching, and which argued that they should be united and not antagonists. This was further extended to include the differences between Protestant and Catholic, Aristotle and Plato, Jew and Christian, and has since come to mean a central timeless spiritual teaching from which all religions, including those of the East, emerge. Steuco’s arguments convinced others, such as François Foix de Candale, Bishop of Aire, who believed that the Hermetic writings should be made canonical, and the Venetian philosopher Francesco Patrizi, who petitioned Pope Clement VIII to have Hermetic ideas taught in Christian schools. Although the notion made some headway, in the end the church insisted that Christianity, rather than being the best or most perfect expression of this perennial wisdom – as its advocates needed to concede – was unique, incomparable, and in a league of its own, and did not need other adepts. Although clearly similar and often used interchangeably, there is nevertheless a difference between the ancient wisdom and the perennial philosophy. The difference lies in the ancient wisdom positing a historical revelation, a “giving” of this knowledge to mankind in the dim past, which has subsequently become obscured over time. Hence the Renaissance obsession with the “source” or “fount” of wisdom, which it considered the purest expression of it, rather as a mountain stream is clearest at its source, not muddied as it gets into the lowlands. Hence also the belief that what is oldest is best, and the prestige given to the Corpus Hermeticum, which was believed to have been written before the Flood. For a culture coming out of the Dark Ages, such an appetite for the “real thing” is not surprising. For the perennial philosophy, however, the source is not that important because it is always present; it is a-temporal. It does not lie in the vaults of time but in the Eternal Now. We can say it presents an “evergreen wisdom” rather than an ancient one. This is the sense in which it became popularly known and first widely appreciated, through Aldous Huxley’s influential anthology The Perennial Philosophy, which draws on spiritual and mystical texts from all sources – although it must be said that Huxley’s interpretation falls heavily on the side of the East. He also mistakenly credits the philosopher Leibniz with coining the term philosophia perennis. This is understandable, as Leibniz was the first to make it widely known outside the church. Another school likewise associated with that of the ancient wisdom, which is also different from it, and from the perennial philosophy, with which it is also confused – all three are often mixed and matched – is what is known as Traditionalism. Like the ancient wisdom, Traditionalism posits a “primordial” revelation and also believes that this pristine appearance of sacred Truth has over time become obscured. As does the ancient wisdom, it believes that this revelation is at the heart or essence of the great religions. But where they differ is in Traditionalism’s belief that access to this primordial knowledge can come only through strict adherence to one of the great religious traditions. We can see this as a kind of esoteric fundamentalism. René Guénon, the recognised founder of Traditionalism, sought this “true” stream of knowledge first in Hinduism, then in Islam. That said, other important Traditionalists, such as Frithjof Schuon and Julius Evola, took the idea in directions rather different from Guénon’s, and it is not unusual today for contemporary Traditionalists to follow paths not necessarily laid down by the great religions. While in its early days, the proponents of ancient wisdom did seek for unity among different beliefs, and adherence to a strict tradition was not part of their method. As in ancient Alexandria, the birthplace of the Hermetic teachings, the Renaissance in which these teachings re-emerged was a melting pot of different ideas and visions, and the synthesis of these was of more importance than any putative purity – see, for example, Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man. Hence the syncretism characteristic of Alexandria and of the esoteric and mystical teachings that appeared there. It is one of the ironies of esoteric history that Traditionalism, whose roots can be traced back to Ficino’s version of the aurea catena, came to be known as a vociferous condemner of the Renaissance, and a fierce opponent of the “modernity” to which it gave rise, as well as of the syncretism which it saw as the sign of what it called “counter-initiation.” If we can accept the Renaissance as the time when the notion of an ancient wisdom or lost tradition gained intellectual and cultural momentum, then Traditionalists of the “revolt against modernity” school seem to want to pull away at their own roots. Yet that modernity itself undermined its Hermetic foundations. In 1614 the prestige of Hermes Trismegistus declined when the humanist scholar and church historian Isaac Casaubon declared that, based on the Greek in which the Corpus Hermeticum was written, it could not have been “revealed” to mankind in the misty past, but was most likely produced – as we have subsequently come to accept – in Alexandria circa 100-200 CE. At a single blow, the authority of the ancient wisdom and the Renaissance worship of the oldest as best had the rug pulled out from under them. Although Hermetic thinkers like Robert Fludd fought gallantly against it, with Casaubon’s bombshell the Hermetic philosophy quickly lost its street cred. Now the modern, new, up to date and rigorously “scientific” had pride of place. What Happened to the Ancient Wisdom? What happened to the ancient wisdom? For one thing, its links to the philosophia perennis helped in this crisis; if the source of wisdom was ever-present, then fixing it at a one-time-only point in history seems redundant, although its various appearances, at different times and places, could be traced. But perhaps more important, the ancient wisdom went underground. First with the Rosicrucian brotherhood – that mysterious secret society of invisible sages – and subsequently in a variety of forms, which have come down to us as the Western “esoteric,” “mystery,” or “inner tradition,” or, more popularly, “occultism.” This is a body of “rejected knowledge,” jettisoned by the rise of rationalism and, in our time, “scientism,” which insists nevertheless in maintaining its important and indispensable place in the human spiritual economy. In fact, we can say that since the late nineteenth century, the ancient wisdom has been making a fragmentary but persistent comeback, filled with detours, dead ends, and wrong turns, but gaining ground nonetheless. This began with the most influential appearance of the ancient wisdom in modern times, the founding of the Theosophical Society by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and her colleagues in 1875, and the mammoth texts Blavatsky produced – Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine – to get the wisdom across to the reading public. As in the Renaissance, Blavatsky and Co. believed that the ancients knew quite a bit that had been forgotten; they also believed that at root all religions share the same source and are moving, however clumsily, in the same direction. Science, in its own befuddled way, is too. Blavatsky’s ancient wisdom was global; she found it in the rejected Hermetic tradition, and in the Eastern traditions she did so much to translate to the West. After her, others sought this wisdom too, and brought some of it back from their journeys: Rudolf Steiner from the Akashic Record, Gurdjieff from the Sarmoung Brotherhood, Ouspensky from his search for “the miraculous,” to mention only some of the most insightful and influential of those “seekers of truth” that followed, often literally, in Blavatsky’s footsteps. Today, almost a century and a half later, ancient wisdom, perennial philosophies, and a variety of Traditions crowd the electronic noösphere we call the Internet. And what precisely is the ancient wisdom? That would require another article. But I would think that by now the reader would have enough to find out for themselves.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 29, 2021 18:11:02 GMT
"All the great world religions, though divided by the superficial differences of their exoteric creeds, unite in their esoteric knowledge. It is this Secret Doctrine, which all the faiths of the world share in common, that interests all sincere students of religion. The quest of essential wisdom is the great work of life."
— Manly P. Hall
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 26, 2022 20:21:25 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2022 20:20:51 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2022 20:22:13 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2022 20:23:24 GMT
Perennial philosophy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophyThe perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis),[note 1] also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a perspective in philosophy and spirituality that views all of the world's religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown. Perennialism has its roots in the Renaissance interest in neo-Platonism and its idea of the One, from which all existence emanates. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) sought to integrate Hermeticism with Greek and Jewish-Christian thought,[1] discerning a prisca theologia which could be found in all ages.[2] Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) suggested that truth could be found in many, rather than just two, traditions. He proposed a harmony between the thought of Plato and Aristotle, and saw aspects of the prisca theologia in Averroes (Ibn Rushd), the Quran, the Kabbalah and other sources.[3] Agostino Steuco (1497–1548) coined the term philosophia perennis.[4] A more popular interpretation argues for universalism, the idea that all religions, underneath seeming differences, point to the same Truth. In the early 19th century the Transcendentalists propagated the idea of a metaphysical Truth and universalism, which inspired the Unitarians, who proselytized among Indian elites. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Theosophical Society further popularized universalism, not only in the western world, but also in western colonies. In the 20th century, universalism was further popularized through the Advaita Vedanta inspired Traditionalist School, which argued for a metaphysical, single origin of the orthodox religions, and by Aldous Huxley and his book The Perennial Philosophy, which was inspired by neo-Vedanta and the Traditionalist School.
|
|