1.
Christian Rosenkreuz
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Christian Rosenkreuz is the legendary, possibly allegorical, founder of the Rosicrucian Order. He is presented in three manifestos that were published early in the 17th century and these were, Fama Fraternitatis This manifesto introduced the founder, Frater C. R. C. Confessio Fraternitatis The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, under his direction a Temple, called Sanctus Spiritus, or The House of the Holy Spirit, was built. Rosenkreuzs crypt, according to the description presented in the legend, is located in the interior of the Earth, visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem. According to some researchers, Christian Rosenkreuz was the last descendant of the Germelshausen and their castle stood in the Thuringian Forest on the Border of Hesse and they had embraced Albigensian doctrines, combining Gnostic and Christian beliefs. The whole family was put to death by Konrad von Marburg except for the youngest son and he was carried away secretly by a monk who was an Albigensian adept from Languedoc. His account derives from oral tradition, steiner once identified Rembrandts painting A Man in Armour as a portrait of Christian Rosenkreuz, apparently in a 17th-century manifestation. Others believe Rosenkreuz to be a pseudonym for a famous historical figure. The legend presented in the Manifestos has been interpreted symbolically, the foundation of the Order can be supposed in similar terms to have occurred in the year 1407. However, these numbers are not taken literally by many students of occultism, the metaphorical nature of these legends lends a nebulous quality to the origins of Rosicrucianism. Similarly, Rosenkreuzs pilgrimage seems to refer to the steps of the Great Work. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited, The Meaning of the Rose Cross, lindisfarne Books,1999 ISBN0940262843 Prinke, Rafal T. Michael Sendivogius and Christian Rosenkreutz, The Unexpected Possibilities. The Hermetic Journal,1990, 72–98 online Weber, Charles, rays from the Rose Cross,1995
2.
Hermetic Qabalah
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Hermetic Qabalah is a Western esoteric tradition involving mysticism and the occult. The Hermetic Qabalah is the basis for Qliphothic Qabala as studied by left hand path orders, Hermetic Qabalah differs from the Jewish form in being a more admittedly syncretic system, however it shares many concepts with Jewish Kabbalah. Hermetic Qabalah holds to the conception that the manifest universe, of which material creation is a part. These emanations arise out of three states that are considered to precede manifestation. The emanations of creation arising from Ain Suph Aur are ten in number and these are conceptualised somewhat differently in Hermetic Qabalah to the way they are in Jewish Kabbalah. From Ain Suph Aur crystallises Kether, the first sephirah of the Hermetic Qabalistic tree of life. From Kether emanate the rest of the sephirot in turn, viz. Kether, Chokhmah, Binah, Daath, Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Daath is not assigned a number as it is considered part of Binah or a hidden sephirah. Each sephirah is considered to be an emanation of the energy which ever flows from the unmanifest. This flow of light is indicated by the lightning flash shown on diagrams of the tree which passes through each sephirah in turn according to their enumerations. Each sephirah is a nexus of energy and each has a number of attributions. These attributions enable the Qabalist to form a comprehension of each particular sephirahs characteristics and this manner of applying many attributions to each sephirah is an exemplar of the diverse nature of Hermetic Qabalah. Hermetic Qabalists see the cards of the tarot as keys to the Tree of Life, while the sephiroth describe the nature of divinity, the paths between them describe ways of knowing the Divine. Traditionalist Judaic views of Kabbalahs origins view it as an inherent development from within the Jewish religion, in contrast, Hermeticists have taken different views of Qabalahs origins. Christians, in contrast, would have been persecuted for the same process, with the Renaissance, this wisdom would have been relearned by Christianity from Judaism. It contributed strongly to the Renaissance view of ritual magics relationship with Christianity, once Hermeticism was no longer endorsed by the Christian Church it was driven underground and a number of Hermetic brotherhoods were formed. Non-Jewish Cabala, unlike in Judaic Kabbalahs mainstream censure of its side, became a central component of Western occult, magic. Rosicrucianism and esoteric branches of Freemasonry taught religious philosophies, Qabalah and their esoteric teachings, and secret society structure of an outer body governed by a restricted inner level of adepts, laid the format for modern esoteric organisations. Post-Enlightenment Romanticism encouraged societal interest in occultism, of which Hermetic Qabalistic writing was a feature, francis Barretts The Magus handbook of ceremonial magic gained little notice until it influenced the French magical enthusiast Eliphas Levi
3.
Alchemy
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Alchemy is a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Egypt and Asia. It aimed to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects, the perfection of the human body and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus and, in the Hellenistic and western tradition, the achievement of gnosis. In Europe, the creation of a stone was variously connected with all of these projects. In English, the term is limited to descriptions of European alchemy, but similar practices existed in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent. In Europe, following the 12th-century Renaissance produced by the translation of Islamic works on science, Islamic and European alchemists developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today. However, they continued antiquitys belief in four elements and guarded their work in secrecy including cyphers and their work was guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology, and religion. The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers, the subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. The word alchemy was borrowed from Old French alquemie, alkimie, taken from Medieval Latin alchymia, the Arabic word is borrowed from Late Greek chēmeía, chēmía, with the agglutination of the Arabic definite article al-. This ancient Greek word was derived from the early Greek name for Egypt, Chēmia, based on the Egyptian name for Egypt, the Medieval Latin form was influenced by Greek chymeia meaning ‘mixture’ and referring to pharmaceutical chemistry. Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents and these traditions general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and genetic relationships. It is still a question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other. Here, elements of technology, religion, mythology, and Hellenistic philosophy, each with their own much longer histories, Zosimos of Panopolis wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, while Mary the Jewess is credited as being the first non-fictitious Western alchemist. They wrote in Greek and lived in Egypt under Roman rule, mythology – Zosimos of Panopolis asserted that alchemy dated back to Pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class, though there is little to no evidence for his assertion. Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and these included the pantheon of gods related to the Classical planets, Isis, Osiris, Jason, and many others. The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus and his name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes. Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemys principal symbols, according to Clement of Alexandria, he wrote what were called the forty-two books of Hermes, covering all fields of knowledge. The Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice and these writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era. Technology – The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy, Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria
4.
Rosicrucianism
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The manifestos do not elaborate extensively on the matter, but clearly combine references to Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Christianity. The Rosicrucian Manifestos heralded a universal reformation of mankind, through a science allegedly kept secret for decades until the climate might receive it. In 1616, Johann Valentin Andreae famously designated it as a ludibrium, by promising a spiritual transformation at a time of great turmoil, the manifestos tempted many figures to seek esoteric knowledge. Seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Michael Maier, Robert Fludd, according to historian David Stevenson, it was influential to Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland. In later centuries, many societies have claimed to derive from the original Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross or Rose Cross, between 1607 and 1616, two anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe. These were the Fama Fraternitatis RC and the Confessio Fraternitatis, the Fama Fraternitatis presented the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher referred to as Frater C. R. C. The year 1378 is presented as being the year of our Christian Father. After studying in the Middle East under various masters, possibly adhering to Sufism, instead, he gathered a small circle of friends/disciples and founded the Rosicrucian Order. During Rosenkreuzs lifetime, the order was said to consist of no more than eight members, each a doctor, each member undertook an oath to heal the sick without payment, to maintain a secret fellowship, and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had passed between c.1500 and c. 1600, a time when scientific, philosophical and religious freedom had grown so that the public benefit from the Rosicrucians knowledge. The manifestos were and are not taken literally by many but rather regarded either as hoaxes or as allegorical statements, the invitation to the royal wedding in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz opens with Dees philosophical key, the Monas Hieroglyphica symbol. The writer also claimed the brotherhood possessed a book that resembled the works of Paracelsus and their literature announced them as moral and religious reformers. They used the techniques of chemistry and of the sciences generally as media through which to publicize their opinions, in his autobiography, Johann Valentin Andreae claimed that the anonymously published Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz was one of his works, and he subsequently described it as a ludibrium. In his later works, he makes alchemy an object of ridicule and places it along with music, art, theater, according to some sources, his role in the origin of the Rosicrucian legend is controversial. However, it was accepted according to others. Wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent, the works were re-issued several times, followed by numerous pamphlets, favorable or otherwise
5.
Cross
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A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally, a cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is also termed a saltire in heraldic terminology. The word [[wikt, cross|crossded from Old Irish, possibly via Old Norse, ultimately from the Latin crux, stake, the English verb to cross arises from the noun c. 1200, first in the sense to make the sign of the cross, the Latin word was, however, influenced by popular etymology by a native Germanic word reconstructed as*krukjo. This word, by conflation with Latin crux, gave rise to Old French crocier, Latin crux referred to the gibbet where criminals were executed, a stake or pole, but not necessarily to intersecting or cruciform beams. The Latin word derived from the verb crucio to torture, Latin crux originally referred to the tree or stake on which criminals were crucified in the pre-imperial period. This was later specified as crux acuta or crux simplex, the method of execution may have been adopted from the Phoenicians. The addition of a bar, to which the criminal would be fastened with nails or cords. The Latin name of the cross is crux decussata, the heraldic term saltire is introduced only towards the end of the medieval period. The Greek equivalent of Latin crux stake, gibbet is σταυρός stauros stake, the letter Tau was associated with the stauros or crux, while the notion of cruciform shapes, i. e. intersecting lines, were associated with the letter Chi. The Greek term for crossing was χίασμα chiasma, from a verb χιάζω chiázō to shape like the letter Chi, Latin had the comparable decussatus shaped like the numeral ten. Also of prehistoric age are numerous variants of the cross mark, including the crux gammata with curving or angular lines. Speculation of this kind became popular in the mid- to late-19th century in the context of comparative mythology seeking to tie Christian mythology to ancient cosmological myths. Influential works in this vein included G. de Mortillet, L. Müller, W. W. Blake, Ansault, in the European Bronze Age the cross symbol appeared to carry a religious meaning, perhaps as a symbol of consecration, especially pertaining to burial. The cross sign occurs trivially in tally marks, and develops into a number symbol independently in the Roman numerals, the Chinese rod numerals and the Brahmi numerals. In the Phoenician alphabet and derived scripts, the symbol represented the phoneme /t/, i. e. the letter taw. The letter name taw means mark, presumably continuing the Egyptian hieroglyph two crossed sticks, according to W. E. Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, worshippers of Tammuz in Chaldea and thereabouts used the cross as symbol of that god. The shape of the cross, as represented by the letter T, clements contemporary Tertullian rejects the accusation that Christians are crucis religiosi, and returns the accusation by likening the worship of pagan idols to the worship of poles or stakes
6.
White
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White is an achromatic color, a color without hue. An incoming light to the eye that stimulates all its three types of color sensitive cone cells in nearly equal amounts results in white. White is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone, in many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude. In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity, the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It was also used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity. White is an important color for almost all world religions, the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566, as a symbol of purity and sacrifice. In Islam, and in the Shinto religion of Japan, it is worn by pilgrims, in Western cultures and in Japan, white is the most common color for wedding dresses, symbolizing purity and virginity. In many Asian cultures, white is also the color of mourning, the white color on television screens and computer monitors is created with the RGB color model by mixing red, green and blue light at equal intensities. The word white continues Old English hwīt, ultimately from a Common Germanic *χwītaz also reflected in OHG wîz, ON hvítr, the root is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language *kwid-, surviving also in Sanskrit śveta to be white or bright and Slavonic světŭ light. The Icelandic word for white, hvítur, is derived from the Old Norse form of the word hvítr. Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz, borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, the antonym of white is black. Some non-European languages have a variety of terms for white. The Inuit language has seven different words for seven different nuances of white, Japanese has six different words, depending upon brilliance or dullness, or if the color is inert or dynamic. White was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Paleolithic artists used calcite or chalk, they sometimes as a background, sometimes as a highlight, along with charcoal and red, in ancient Egypt, white was connected with the goddess Isis. The priests and priestesses of Isis dressed only in white linen, in Greece and other ancient civilizations, white was often associated with mothers milk. In Greek mythology, the chief god Zeus was nourished at the breast of the nymph Amalthea, in the Talmud, milk was one of four sacred substances, along with wine, honey, and the rose
7.
Rose
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A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over a species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies, Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has used in the development of the wide range of garden roses. The leaves are borne alternately on the stem, most roses are deciduous but a few are evergreen or nearly so. The flowers of most species have five petals, with the exception of Rosa sericea, each petal is divided into two distinct lobes and is usually white or pink, though in a few species yellow or red. Beneath the petals are five sepals and these may be long enough to be visible when viewed from above and appear as green points alternating with the rounded petals. There are multiple superior ovaries that develop into achenes, the aggregate fruit of the rose is a berry-like structure called a rose hip. Many of the domestic cultivars do not produce hips, as the flowers are so tightly petalled that they do not provide access for pollination, the hips of most species are red, but a few have dark purple to black hips. Each hip comprises an outer layer, the hypanthium, which contains 5–160 seeds embedded in a matrix of fine. Rose hips of some species, especially the dog rose and rugosa rose, are rich in vitamin C. The hips are eaten by fruit-eating birds such as thrushes and waxwings, some birds, particularly finches, also eat the seeds. While the sharp objects along a stem are commonly called thorns. Rose prickles are typically sickle-shaped hooks, which aid the rose in hanging onto other vegetation growing over it. Despite the presence of prickles, roses are frequently browsed by deer, a few species of roses have only vestigial prickles that have no points. Hesperrhodos contains Rosa minutifolia and Rosa stellata, from North America, platyrhodon with one species from east Asia, Rosa roxburghii
8.
Western esotericism
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Western esotericism is a scholarly term for a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements which have developed within Western society. They are largely distinct both from orthodox Judeo-Christian religion and from Enlightenment rationalism, the idea of categorising a wide range of Western traditions and philosophies together under the rubric that we now term esotericism developed in Europe during the late seventeenth century. Various academics have debated the definition of Western esotericism, with a number of different options proposed. One scholarly model adopts its definition of esotericism from certain esotericist schools of thought themselves, treating esotericism as a perennialist hidden, a second perspective sees esotericism as a category that encompasses world-views which seek to embrace an enchanted world-view in the face of increasing de-enchantment. The 19th century saw the emergence of new trends of thought that have come to be known as occultism. Prominent groups in this included the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Modern Paganism developed within occultism, and includes religious movements such as Wicca, Esoteric ideas permeated the counterculture of the 1960s and later cultural tendencies, from which emerged the New Age movement in the 1970s. The academic study of Western esotericism only emerged in the late 20th-century, pioneered by scholars like Frances Yates, Esoteric ideas have meanwhile also exerted an influence in popular culture, appearing in art, literature, film, and music. The adjective esoteric first appeared in the second century CE as the Ancient Greek term esôterikós, the noun esotericism, in its French form of lésotérisme, was first used in 1828, by Jacques Matter in his book, Histoire du gnosticisme. The term was popularized by the French occultist and ceremonial magician Eliphas Lévi in the 1850s, Lévi also introduced the term loccultisme, a notion that he developed against the background of contemporary socialist and Catholic discourses. Esotericism and occultism were often employed as synonyms until being distinguished by later scholars, the concept of Western esotericism is a modern scholarly construct rather than a pre-existing, self-defined tradition of thought. The first to do so was Ehregott Daniel Colberg, a German Lutheran who wrote Platonisch-Hermetisches Christianity, various academics have emphasised the idea that esotericism is a phenomenon unique to the Western world, as Faivre stated, an empirical perspective would hold that esotericism is a Western notion. As scholars such as Faivre and Hanegraaff have pointed out, there is no category of Eastern or Oriental esotericism. The emphasis on Western esotericism was nevertheless primarily devised to distinguish the field from a universal esotericism, Hanegraaff has characterised these as recognisable world views and approaches to knowledge that have played an important although always controversial role in the history of Western culture. This attitude was endorsed by Egil Asprem, nevertheless, esotericism itself remains a controversial term, with scholars specialising in the subject disagreeing as to how it can best be defined. It subsequently became a popular approach within several esoteric movements, most notably Martinism and Traditionalism, within the academic field of religious studies, those who study different religions in search of an inner, universal dimension to them all are termed religionists. Such religionist ideas also exerted an influence on more recent scholars like Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, there are various problems with this model for understanding Western esotericism. The most significant is that is rests upon the conviction that there really is a universal, hidden, moreover, Hanegraaff noted that when scholars adopt this definition, it shows that they subscribe to the religious doctrines which are espoused by the very groups that they are studying
9.
Christian
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A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term Christian is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a sense all that is noble, and good. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the worlds largest religion in 2050, about half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the worlds Christians, other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories,280 million Christian live as a minority. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, in other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish. The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26,28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4,16, which believers, Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames, in the Annals he relates that by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians and identifies Christians as Neros scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is Nazarenes which is used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus in Acts 24, the Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian, denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of Christianity. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian, in fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism, the term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוּצְרי, a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מָשִׁיחַיים, the term Nasara rose to prominence in July 2014, after the Fall of Mosul to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The nun or ن— the first letter of Nasara—was spray-painted on the property of Christians ejected from the city, where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī from ṣalīb which refers to Crusaders and has negative connotations
10.
New Atlantis
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New Atlantis is an incomplete utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, published in 1627. In this work, Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations, the plan and organisation of his ideal college, Salomons House, envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure sciences. The novel depicts a mythical island, Bensalem, which is discovered by the crew of a European ship after they are lost in the Pacific Ocean somewhere west of Peru. The minimal plot serves the gradual unfolding of the island, its customs, but most importantly, its state-sponsored scientific institution, Salomons House, is the very eye of this kingdom. The interlocutors include the governor of the House of Strangers, Joabin the Jew, and you shall understand that there is not under the heavens so chaste a nation as this of Bensalem, nor so free from all pollution or foulness. It is the virgin of the world, I remember I have read in one of your European books, of an holy hermit amongst you that desired to see the Spirit of Fornication, and there appeared to him a little foul ugly Aethiop. But if he had desired to see the Spirit of Chastity of Bensalem, for there is nothing amongst mortal men more fair and admirable, than the chaste minds of this people. Know therefore, that with them there are no stews, no houses, no courtesans. He portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, the plan and organisation of his ideal college, Salomons House, envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure science. These we call merchants of light, “We have three that collect the experiments which are in all books. “We have three that collect the experiments of all arts, and also of liberal sciences. “We have three that try new experiments, such as themselves think good and these we call pioneers or miners. “We have three that draw the experiments of the four into titles and tables, to give the better light for the drawing of observations. These we call dowry–men or benefactors, “We have three others that do execute the experiments so directed, and report them. “Lastly, we have three that raise the former discoveries by experiments into greater observations, axioms, and aphorisms and these we call interpreters of nature. Even this short excerpt demonstrates that Bacon understood that science requires analysis, Bacon also foresaw that the design of experiments could be improved. I give thee leave to publish it for the good of nations, for we here are in Gods bosom. New Atlantis is a story dense with provocative details, there are many credible interpretations of what Bacon was attempting to convey
11.
Francis Bacon
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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England, after his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism and his works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth, but after the accession of King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was later created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621, because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years of age. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his wife, Anne Bacon. His mothers sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health, which would plague him throughout his life. He received tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a leaning toward Puritanism. Bacons education was conducted largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum and he was also educated at the University of Poitiers. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious intellect and his studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as then practised were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, on 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Grays Inn. A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain, during his travels, Bacon studied language, statecraft, and civil law while performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, Burghley, the sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so. Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt, Bacon stated that he had three goals, to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church
12.
Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis
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The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis, also calling itself the Rosicrucian Order, is currently the largest Rosicrucian organization in the world. It has various lodges, chapters and other affiliated bodies throughout the globe, the ancient Mysteries are said to have been preserved through the millennia by closed secret societies until the early years of 17th Century Europe. Several of his works also allude to the mysterious origins of the Rosicrucians. Another aspect of the AMORC internal mythology, as outlined in the official Rosicrucian Manual, is that Mrs. May Banks-Stacey is the Co-Founder, according to the Manual, she acted as a representative of the Rosicrucians Supreme Council of the World to bring to H. Spencer Lewis the necessary implements for reactivation, AMORC presents itself as a worldwide philosophical and humanistic, fraternal order devoted to the study of the elusive mysteries of life and the universe. The organization claims to be non-sectarian and apolitical and it is also open to both men and women of legal adult age regardless of their various religious persuasions. AMORCs teachings draw upon ideas of the philosophers, particularly Pythagoras, Thales, Solon. The teachings are divided into Degrees which are grouped into broad categories under titles such as Postulant, Neophyte. The name AMORC is an abbreviation for the Latin title Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosæ Crucis and it is financed mainly through fees paid by its members. Income is used by the organization to pay expenses, develop new programs, expand services, the organizational headquarters for different jurisdictions of the AMORC are designated as Grand Lodges. The English-speaking Grand Lodge for the Americas is headquartered in Rosicrucian Park in San Jose, all Grand Lodges are governed by The Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC. This body consists of the Imperator, Grand Masters, and related executive officers, on a local level, members of AMORC often form smaller affiliated groups organized as Lodges, Chapters, Pronaoi, or Atrium Groups. These various titles differ according to the number of members of each body in regular attendance, participation in these groups is optional, and participants retain compulsory membership with their respective Grand Lodge. Many of these groups charge additional dues to participants to cover such as rent, utility. Most affiliated bodies of the AMORC offer Open Meetings or Lectures to which the public is invited. Each AMORC Grand Lodge has its own headquarters and facilities, in North America, the Grand Lodge is located at 1342 Naglee Ave. Discussion groups, a type of gathering for both members and the public, were formally introduced in 2009 in North America. They are authorized by AMORC but are not affiliated bodies, in 1909 Harvey Spencer Lewis visited France in search of Rosicrucians, and was duly initiated in Toulouse, France, and given the mandate to establish an order in North America
13.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
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The Rosicrucian Fellowship
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The Rosicrucian Fellowship conducts Spiritual Healing Services and offers correspondence courses in esoteric Christianity, philosophy, spiritual astrology and Bible interpretation. Its headquarters are located on Mount Ecclesia in Oceanside, California and its mission is to promulgate a scientific method of development suited particularly to the Western people whereby the Soul body may be wrought, so that humanity may hasten the Second Coming. Heindel moved to Buffalo, New York, where he finished the typescript about September 1908, the work, called The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, was revised and printed in November 1909. Immediately, a second edition was ordered, a first payment was made to the printer with the help of Augusta Foss. This time two booksellers bought one-third of the imprint before it was off the press, the Rosicrucian Fellowships formal constitution occurred on August 8,1909, in Seattle, Washington, at 3,00 p. m. The first Rosicrucian study center had already previously formed in Columbus, Ohio, on November 14,1908. The Columbus Center was followed by centers in North Yakima, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, California, the city where Heindel reencountered his theosophist friend Augusta Foss. In Los Angeles, Max Heindel gave conferences three times a week to audiences of nearly one thousand people from November 29,1909, on October 28,1911, the organisations international headquarters, still used today, were opened at Mount Ecclesia in Oceanside, California. The ceremony of ground-breaking consisted in planting a large Cross with the initials C. R. C, painted in gilt letters on the three upper ends and with a climbing rose. The Rosicrucian Fellowship Temple, called The Ecclesia, was erected for the purpose of affording more powerful means for the healing of disease, Spiritual Healing meetings are held there each day. Admission into the Rosicrucian Fellowship is free of fees and is funded by donation, the Fellowship recognizes seven grades, but its study is primarily based upon a system of three grades, regular student, probationer and disciple. After a two-year term of being a Regular Student of the Fellowship, a person who abstains from all food, tobacco, mind-altering drugs. When the Probationer has complied with the requirements and completed the term of probation he may send request for individual instruction. For this purpose we live many lives of increasingly fine texture, through the Law of Cause and Consequence we constantly set new causes into operation which will create new destiny to balance and improve the old destiny brought from the past. All causes set into action in one life cannot be ripened in one existence, the human being is seen as a threefold Spirit, possessing a mind, by means of which he governs the threefold Body. This threefold body he transmutes into a threefold Soul upon which he nourishes himself from impotence into omnipotence, the Ego is the threefold Spirit, the God Within, which uses these vehicles to gather experience in the school of life. The three aspects of the Spirit are, the Divine Spirit aspect, the Life Spirit aspect, the Mental body functions like a mirror, reflecting the outer world and enabling the ego to transmit its commands as thought and word, and also to compel action. The threefold body consists of, a Dense body, which is the instrument he uses here in this world to fetch
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Esoteric Christianity
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Early Christians used the Greek word μυστήριον to describe the Christian Mystery. The Old Testament versions use the word mysterion as an equivalent to the Hebrew sôd, the word mysticism is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning to conceal, and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning an initiate. In the Hellenistic world, mystical referred to religious rituals. The use of the word lacked any references to the transcendental. A mystikos was an initiate of a mystery religion, theologians give the name mystery to revealed truths that surpass the powers of natural reason, so, in a narrow sense, the Mystery is a truth that transcends the created intellect. Even though revealed and believed, the Mystery remains nevertheless obscure and veiled during the life, if the deciphering of the mysteries, made possible by esotericism. This esoteric knowledge would allow a deep comprehension of the Christian mysteries that otherwise would remain obscure, some modern scholars believe that in the early stages of Christianity, a nucleus of oral teachings were inherited from Palestinian and Hellenistic Judaism. In the 4th century, it was believed to form the basis of an oral tradition which came to be called disciplina arcani. The mainstream theologians, however, believe that it contained liturgical details. Important influences on Esoteric Christianity are the Christian theologians Clement of Alexandria and Origen, Origen was a most prolific writer – according to Epiphanius of Salamis, he wrote about 6,000 books – making it a difficult task to define the central core of his teachings. Thus, it is unclear whether reincarnation and the pre-existence of souls formed part of Origens beliefs, while hypothetically considering a complex multiple-world transmigration scheme in De Principiis, Origen denies reincarnation in unmistakable terms in his work Against Celsus and elsewhere. Despite this apparent contradiction, most modern Esoteric Christian movements refer to Origens writings to validate these ideas as part of the Esoteric Christian tradition. In the later Middle Ages, forms of Western esotericism such as alchemy and astrology were constructed on Christian foundations, combining Christian theology, giovanni Pico della Mirandolas Apologia states that there are two types of magic, which are theurgy, and goetia. These disciplines were explained as the Operation of the Stars, just as alchemy was the Operation of the Sun, Kabbalah was also an active discipline. These spiritual traditions allegedly aided the esoteric to arise to higher forms of consciousness, and arise to an understanding of God, The Self. Esoteric Christians practice these forms or traditions, which they believe are all a part of the spiritual truth. The latter help to convey mystery knowledge, which can only be learned directly from spiritual experience via Theurgy, Kabbalah, in the 16th and 17th centuries, this was followed by the development of Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. Behmenism also evolved around this time, as did Freemasonry, many modern Esoteric Christian movements acknowledge reincarnation among their beliefs, as well as a complex energetic structure for the human being
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Invisible College
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The Invisible College has been described as a precursor group to the Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle. The concept of college is mentioned in German Rosicrucian pamphlets in the early 17th century. Ben Jonson in England referenced the idea, related in meaning to Francis Bacons House of Solomon, in a masque The Fortunate Isles, the term accrued currency for the exchanges of correspondence within the Republic of Letters. Much has been made of a college in London of the later 1640s. Revisionist history has undermined earlier narratives, in letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to our invisible college or our philosophical college. The societys common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation, the Hartlib Circle were a far-reaching group of correspondents linked to Hartlib, an intelligencer. They included Sir Cheney Culpeper and Benjamin Worsley who were interested, among other matters, maddison suggests that the Invisible College might have comprised Worsley, John Dury and others with Boyle, who were interested in profiting from science. Richard S. Westfall distinguishes Hartlibs Comenian circle from other groups and they comprise, William Petty, Boyle, Arnold Boate and Gerard Boate, Cressy Dymock, and Gabriel Platte. Miles Symner may have belonged to this circle and this other group, later centred on Wadham College, Oxford and John Wilkins, was centrally concerned in the founding of the Royal Society, and Boyle became part of it in the 1650s. It is more called the men of Gresham, from its connection with Gresham College in London. It is the identification of the Gresham group with the college that is now generally queried by scholars. The concept of college was developed in the sociology of science by Diana Crane building on Derek J. de Solla Prices work on citation networks. It is related, but significantly different, from concepts of expert communities. Recently, the concept was applied to the network of communications among scientists by Caroline S. Wagner in The New Invisible College. It was also referred to in Clay Shirkys book Cognitive Surplus, ISBN 978-1594202537 Gingrich, Owen, The Book Nobody Read, Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus. 11, The Invisible College Bordwell, David, Making Meaning, Inference, Bordwell, David and Noël Carroll, eds. 1, Contemporary Film Studies and the Vicissitudes of Grand Theory, diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, the New Invisible College, Science for Development
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Paracelsus
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Paracelsus, born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, and general occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology and he is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited for giving zinc its name, calling it zincum, modern psychology often also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions. Paracelsus most important legacy is likely his critique of the methods in medicine, science. Much of his work does not withstand modern scientific thought. Paracelsus was born and raised in the village of Einsiedeln in Switzerland and his father, Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, was a Swabian chemist and physician. His mother was Swiss and probably a bondswoman of the abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland where he was born, in 1502 the family moved to Villach, Carinthia where Paracelsus father worked as a physician, attending to the medical needs of the pilgrims and inhabitants of the cloister. Paracelsus was educated by his father in botany, medicine, mineralogy, mining and he also received a profound humanistic and theological education from local clerics and the convent school of St. Pauls Abbey in the Lavanttal. He specifically accounts for being tutored by Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim, at the age of 16 he started studying medicine at the University of Basel, later moving to Vienna. He gained his degree from the University of Ferrara in 1515 or 1516. He was employed as a surgeon in the Venetian service in 1522. His wanderings as an itinerant physician and sometime journeyman miner took him through Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Paracelsus was well known as a difficult man. He gained a reputation for being arrogant and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe, some even claim he was a habitual drinker. He was prone to outbursts of abusive language, abhorred untested theory. He held the chair of medicine at the University of Basel and he angered his colleagues by lecturing in German instead of Latin in order to make medical knowledge more accessible to the common people. He is credited as the first to do so and he was the first to publicly condemn the medical authority of Avicenna and Galen and threw their writings into a bonfire on St. Johns Day in 1527. In 1526 he bought the rights of citizenship in Strasbourg to establish his own practice, but soon after he was called to Basel to the sickbed of Johann Froben or Frobenius, a successful printer and publisher. Based on historical accounts, Paracelsus cured Frobenius and he was a contemporary of Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther
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Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
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Hermeticism
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Hermeticism, also called Hermetism, is a religious, philosophical, and esoteric tradition based primarily upon writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. These writings have influenced the Western esoteric tradition and were considered to be of great importance during both the Renaissance and the Reformation. The tradition claims descent from a prisca theologia, a doctrine that affirms the existence of a single, true theology that is present in all religions, st. Thomas Aquinas reported that Trismegistus arrived at something akin to the doctrine of the Trinity. The three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy, the Poimandres, from which Marsilio Ficino formed his opinion, states that They called him Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the greatest priest and the greatest king. The Suda states that He was called Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, much of the importance of Hermeticism arises from its connection with the development of science during the time from 1300 to 1600 AD. Consequently, it was the practical aspects of Hermetic writings that attracted the attention of scientists, Isaac Newton placed great faith in the concept of an unadulterated, pure, ancient doctrine, which he studied vigorously to aid his understanding of the physical world. The term Hermetic is from the medieval Latin hermeticus, which is derived from the name of the Greek god, in English, it has been attested since the 17th century, as in Hermetic writers. The word Hermetic was used by Dr. Everard in his English translation of The Pimander of Hermes, Mary Anne Atwood mentioned the use of the word Hermetic by Dufresnoy in 1386. The synonymous term Hermetical is also attested in the 17th century, sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici of 1643 wrote, Now besides these particular and divided Spirits, there may be a universal and common Spirit to the whole world. It was the opinion of Plato, and is yet of the Hermeticall Philosophers, Hermes Trimegistus supposedly invented the process of making a glass tube airtight using a secret seal. Hence, the term completely sealed is implied in hermetically sealed, in Late Antiquity, Hermetism emerged in parallel with early Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, the Chaldaean Oracles, and late Orphic and Pythagorean literature. These doctrines were characterized by a resistance to the dominance of either rationality or doctrinal faith. The books now known as the Corpus Hermeticum were part of a renaissance of syncretistic and these post-Christian Greek texts dwell upon the oneness and goodness of God, urge purification of the soul, and defend pagan religious practices such as the veneration of images. Their predominant literary form is the dialogue, Hermes Trismegistus instructs a perplexed disciple upon various teachings of the hidden wisdom, many lost Greek texts and many surviving vulgate books contained discussions of alchemy clothed in philosophical metaphor. One of these, known as The Asclepius, contained a prophecy of the end of Roman rule in Egypt. Plutarchs mention of Hermes Trismegistus dates back to the 1st century AD, and Tertullian, Iamblichus, after centuries of falling out of favor, Hermeticism was reintroduced to the West when, in 1460, a man named Leonardo de Candia Pistoia brought the Corpus Hermeticum to Pistoia. He was one of agents sent out by Pistoias ruler, Cosimo de Medici. In 1614, Isaac Casaubon, a Swiss philologist, analyzed the Greek Hermetic texts for linguistic style and he concluded that the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were not the work of an ancient Egyptian priest but in fact dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD
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Genius
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Despite the presence of scholars in many subjects throughout history, many geniuses have shown high achievements in only a single kind of activity. Usually genius is associated with talent, but many authors systematically distinguish these terms, in ancient Rome, the genius was the guiding spirit or tutelary deity of a person, family, or place. The noun is related to the Latin verb genui, genitus, to bring into being, create, produce, the assessment of intelligence was initiated by Francis Galton and James McKeen Cattell. They had advocated the analysis of time and sensory acuity as measures of neurophysiological efficiency. Galton is regarded as the founder of psychometry and he studied the work of his older half-cousin Charles Darwin about biological evolution. Hypothesizing that eminence is inherited from ancestors, Galton did a study of families of eminent people in Britain, Galtons ideas were elaborated from the work of two early 19th-century pioneers in statistics, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Adolphe Quetelet. His initial work in criminology led him to observe the greater the number of individuals observed the more do peculiarities become effaced and this ideal from which the peculiarities were effaced became the average man. In contrast to Quetelet, Galtons average man was not statistical, there was no measure of general averageness, only a large number of very specific averages. Galtons method in Hereditary Genius was to count and assess the eminent relatives of eminent men and he found that the number of eminent relatives was greater with closer degree of kinship. This work is considered the first example of historiometry, a study of historical human progress. The work is controversial and has criticised for several reasons. Galton then departed from Gauss in a way that became crucial to the history of the 20th century AD, the bell-shaped curve was not random, he concluded. The apparent randomness of the scores was due to the randomness of natural ability in the population as a whole. Galton went on to develop the field of eugenics, Genius is expressed in a variety of forms. Persons with genius tend to have intuitions about their domains. But somehow he trusted his own experiencing of life, the process of himself and it was as though he could say, Good artists dont paint like this, but I paint like this. Or to move to field, Ernest Hemingway was surely aware that good writers do not write like this. But fortunately he moved toward being Hemingway, being himself, rather than someone elses conception of a good writer
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Western world
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The Western world or the West is a term usually referring to different nations, depending on the context, most often including at least part of Europe. There are many accepted definitions about what they all have in common, the Western world is also known as the Occident. The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified Western Civilization with the Western Christian countries and culture. Its political usage was changed by the antagonism during the Cold War in the mid-to-late 20th Century. The term originally had a literal geographic meaning, Western culture was influenced by many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East, such as Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, Sumer, Babylonia, and also Ancient Egypt. It originated in the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity, Greece, over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and west to include the rest of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal areas, conquering and absorbing. Later, they expanded to the north of the Mediterranean Sea to include Western, Central, numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Christian missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity. There is debate among some as to whether Latin America is in a category of its own, specifically, Western culture may imply, a Biblical Christian cultural influence in spiritual thinking, customs and either ethic or moral traditions, around the Post-Classical Era and after. European cultural influences concerning artistic, musical, folkloric, ethic and oral traditions, the concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic, much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and Oceania. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the Roman Empire, Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the civilized world. Use of the term West as a cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of the Age of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world. Additionally, closer contacts between the West and Asia and other parts of the world in recent times have continued to cloud the use, herodotus considered the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of Europa versus Asia. The terms West and East were not used by any Greek author to describe that conflict, the Great Schism and the Fourth Crusade confirmed this deviation. The Renaissance in the West emerged partly from currents within the Roman Empire, Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a city-state founded on the Italian Peninsula about the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its 12-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy, to a republic, nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual decline of the Roman Empire
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Freemasonry
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The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow, and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by Craft Freemasonry, members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, the basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. The Lodges are usually supervised and governed at the level by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, worldwide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry, each Grand Lodge is independent, modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups. Continental Freemasonry is now the term for the liberal jurisdictions who have removed some, or all. The Masonic Lodge is the organisational unit of Freemasonry. The Lodge meets regularly to conduct the formal business of any small organisation. In addition to business, the meeting may perform a ceremony to confer a Masonic degree or receive a lecture, at the conclusion of the meeting, the Lodge might adjourn for a formal dinner, or festive board, sometimes involving toasting and song. The bulk of Masonic ritual consists of degree ceremonies, candidates for Freemasonry are progressively initiated into Freemasonry, first in the degree of Entered Apprentice. Some time later, in a ceremony, they will be passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. In all of ceremonies, the candidate is entrusted with passwords, signs. Another ceremony is the installation of the Master and officers of the Lodge. In some jurisdictions Installed Master is valued as a separate rank, in other jurisdictions, the grade is not recognised, and no inner ceremony conveys new secrets during the installation of a new Master of the Lodge. Most Lodges have some sort of calendar, allowing Masons. Often coupled with events is the obligation placed on every Mason to contribute to charity. This occurs at both Lodge and Grand Lodge level, Masonic charities contribute to many fields from education to disaster relief. These private local Lodges form the backbone of Freemasonry, and a Freemason will necessarily have been initiated into one of these, there also exist specialist Lodges where Masons meet to celebrate anything from sport to Masonic research
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Karl von Eckartshausen
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Karl von Eckartshausen was a German Catholic mystic, author, and philosopher. Born in Haimhausen, Bavaria, Eckartshausen studied philosophy and Bavarian civil law in Munich and he was the author of The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, a work of Christian mysticism which was later taken up by occultists. The book was given a status in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It is known to have attracted English author and the founder of Thelema, Aleister Crowley and he died in Munich at the age of 50. Aufschlüsse zur Magie aus geprüften Erfahrungen über verborgene philosophische Wissenschaften und verdeckte Geheimnisse der Natur, magic, the principles of higher knowledge. A Magick Life, A Biography of Aleister Crowley, the Cloud Upon the Sanctuary from Sacred-Texts
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Christian mystic
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Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often connected to mystical theology, especially in the Roman Catholic. The attributes and means by which Christian mysticism is studied and practiced are varied and they range from ecstatic visions of the souls mystical union with God to simple prayerful contemplation of Holy Scripture. Mysticism is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning to conceal, in the Hellenistic world, a mystikos was an initiate of a mystery religion. Mystical referred to religious rituals and use of the word lacked any direct references to the transcendental. In early Christianity the term referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative. The biblical dimension refers to hidden or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures, the liturgical dimension refers to the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of Christ at the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God, William James popularized the use of the term religious experience in his 1902 book The Varieties of Religious Experience. It has also influenced the understanding of mysticism as an experience which supplies knowledge. Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of religious experience further back to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, the notion of religious experience was used by Schleiermacher to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique. It was adopted by scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential. Other critics point out that the stress on experience is accompanied by favoring the atomic individual, transformation has particular importance in the theology of Origen. Mystical experience is not simply a matter between the mystic and God, but is shaped by cultural issues. Thus, the nature of experience could be tailored to the particular cultural and theological issues of the time. The link between mysticism and the vision of the Divine was introduced by the early Church Fathers, who used the term as an adjective, as in mystical theology, in Christian mysticism, Shekhinah became mystery, Daat became gnosis, and poverty became an important component of monasticism. The Alexandrian contribution to Christian mysticism centers on Origen and Clement of Alexandria, given the importance of reason, Clement stresses apatheia as a reasonable ordering of our passions in order to live within Gods love, which is seen as a form of truth. Alexandrian mysticism developed alongside Hermeticism and Neoplatonism and therefore some of the same ideas, images. In particular, Philo taught that allegorical interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures provides access to the meanings of the texts
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Max Heindel
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Max Heindel, born Carl Louis von Grasshoff in Aarhus, Denmark on July 23,1865, was a Danish-American Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic. He died on January 6,1919 at Oceanside, California and he was born into the noble family von Grasshoff, which was connected to the German Court during the lifetime of Prince Bismarck. The father of Max Heindel, Francois L. von Grasshoff, migrated to Copenhagen when he was a young man and they had two sons and one daughter. The oldest of these sons was Carl Louis von Grasshoff, who adopted the pen name of Max Heindel. The father died when the eldest son was six years of age, leaving the mother, Max Heindels infancy was thus lived in genteel poverty. Heindel left home at the age of sixteen to learn engineering at the ship-yards of Glasgow, as Chief Engineer of a trading steamer, he traveled extensively, and eventually found himself working on one of the large passenger steamers of the Cunard Line plying between America and Europe. From 1895 to 1901, he was an engineer in New York City. During this time he married, the marriage being terminated by the death of his wife in 1905, a son and two daughters were born of this marriage. In 1903, Max Heindel moved to Los Angeles, California, after attending lectures by the theosophist C. W. Leadbeater, he joined the Theosophical Society of Los Angeles, of which he became vice-president in 1904 and 1905. He also became a vegetarian, and began the study of astrology and he met his future wife Augusta Foss around this time. However, overwork and privation brought him severe heart trouble in 1905, upon his recovery he said he was more keenly aware of the needs of humanity. He said that he spent much of the time during this illness out of his body, from 1906 to 1907 he started a lecture tour, in order to spread his occult knowledge. He began in San Francisco and then went to Seattle, after a course of lectures in that city he was again forced to spend some time in a hospital with valvular heart trouble. Upon his recovery, still undaunted, he more took up his work of lecturing in the northwestern part of the United States. During his short stay at Germany, he developed an admiration of the personality of this knowledgeable lecturer. It was then, with his already made up to return, feeling that in vain he had given up a big work in America to take this trip. As he afterwards mentions, the Elder Brother gave him information which was concise and logical, later, he found out that during a previous visit of the Elder Brother, he was put to a test to determine his worthiness to be messenger of the Western Wisdom Teachings. The Rosicrucian Order is described as being composed of twelve Elder Brothers and it is a reference work in the Christian mysticism practice and in the Occult study literature, containing the fundamentals of Esoteric Christianity from a Rosicrucian perspective
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Initiation
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Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be an admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can signify a transformation in which the initiate is reborn into a new role. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as depicted in these pictures, is called an initiate. Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a religious act by classical or traditional societies. He defined initiation as a change in existential condition, which liberates man from profane time. Initiation recapitulates the history of the world. And through this recapitulation, the world is sanctified anew. Can perceive the world as a work, a creation of the Gods. Eliade differentiates between types of initiations in two ways, types and functions and this real valuation of ritual death finally led to conquest of the fear of real death. Function is to reveal the meaning of existence to the new generations and to help them assume the responsibility of being truly men. It reveals an open to the trans-human, a world that, in our philosophical terminology. Puberty Rites- collective rituals whose function is to effect the transition from childhood or adolescence to adulthood and they represent above all the revelation of the sacred. Entering into a Secret Society- Mystical Vocation- the vocation of a man or a shaman. This is limited to the few who are destined to participate in an intense religious experience than is accessible to the rest of the community. These can be broken into two types, puberty rites, by virtue of which adolescents gain access to the sacred, to knowledge, specialized initiations, which certain individuals undergo in order to transcend their human condition and become protégés of the Supernatural Beings or even their equals. Dissonance is then thought to produce feelings of group attraction among initiates after the experience. Rewards during initiations have important consequences in that initiates who feel more rewarded express stronger group identity, as well as group attraction, initiations can also produce conformity among new members
27.
Philosopher's stone
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The philosophers stone, or stone of the philosophers is a legendary alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver. It is also able to extend life and called the elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and for achieving immortality, for many centuries. The philosophers stone was the symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment. Efforts to discover the philosophers stone were known as the Magnum Opus, mention of the philosophers stone in writing can be found as far back as Cheirokmeta by Zosimos of Panopolis. Alchemical writers assign a longer history, elias Ashmole and the anonymous author of Gloria Mundi claim that its history goes back to Adam who acquired the knowledge of the stone directly from God. This knowledge was said to be passed down through biblical patriarchs, the legend of the stone was also compared to the biblical history of the Temple of Solomon and the rejected cornerstone described in Psalm 118. The theoretical roots outlining the stone’s creation can be traced to Greek philosophy, alchemists later used the classical elements, the concept of anima mundi, and Creation stories presented in texts like Platos Timaeus as analogies for their process. According to Plato, the four elements are derived from a source or prima materia. Prima materia is also the name alchemists assign to the ingredient for the creation of the philosophers stone. The importance of this philosophical first matter persisted throughout the history of alchemy, in the seventeenth century, Thomas Vaughan writes, the first matter of the stone is the very same with the first matter of all things. The 8th-century Muslim alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan analyzed each classical element in terms of the four basic qualities, fire was both hot and dry, earth cold and dry, water cold and moist, and air hot and moist. He theorized that every metal was a combination of four principles. From this premise, it was reasoned that the transmutation of one metal into another could be affected by the rearrangement of its basic qualities and this change would presumably be mediated by a substance, which came to be called al-iksir in Arabic. It is often considered to exist as a dry red powder made from a legendary stone—the philosophers stone, jabirs theory was based on the concept that metals like gold and silver could be hidden in alloys and ores, from which they could be recovered by the appropriate chemical treatment. Jabir himself is believed to be the inventor of aqua regia, in the 11th century, there was a debate among Muslim world chemists on whether the transmutation of substances was possible. Magnus does not confirm he discovered the stone in his writings, the 16th-century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus believed in the existence of alkahest, which he thought to be an undiscovered element from which all other elements were simply derivative forms. Paracelsus believed that element was, in fact, the philosophers stone. A mystical text published in the 17th century called the Mutus Liber appears to be an instruction manual for concocting a philosophers stone
28.
Scottish Rite
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The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, commonly known as simply the Scottish Rite or in the England as the Rose Croix, is one of several Rites of Freemasonry. A Rite is a series of degrees conferred by various Masonic organizations or bodies. In the Scottish Rite the central authority is called a Supreme Council, the Scottish Rite is one of the appendant bodies of Freemasonry that a Master Mason may join for further exposure to the principles of Freemasonry. It is also concordant, in some of its degrees relate to the degrees of Symbolic Freemasonry. In England and some countries, while the Scottish Rite is not accorded official recognition by the Grand Lodge. In the United States, however, the Scottish Rite is officially recognized by Grand Lodges as an extension of the degrees of Freemasonry. The Scottish Rite builds upon the teachings and philosophy offered in the craft lodge, or Blue Lodge. The thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite are conferred by several controlling bodies, the first of these is the Craft Lodge which confers the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason degrees. Craft lodges operate under the authority of Grand Lodges, not the Scottish Rite, there are records of lodges conferring the degree of Scots Master or Scotch Master as early as 1733. A lodge at Temple Bar in London is the earliest such lodge on record, other lodges include a lodge at Bath in 1735, and the French lodge, St. George de lObservance No.49 at Covent Garden in 1736. The references to these few occasions indicate that these were special meetings held for the purpose of performing unusual ceremonies, the Copiale cipher, dating from the 1730s, says, The rank of a Scottish master is an entirely new invention. It was stated, without support, that King Charles II was made a Freemason in the Netherlands during the years of his exile, however, there were no documented lodges of Freemasons on the continent during those years. The statement may have made to flatter the fraternity by claiming membership for a previous monarch. This folly was then embellished by John Robison, a professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, the lack of scholarship exhibited by Robison in that work caused the Encyclopædia Britannica to denounce it. A German bookseller and Freemason, living in Paris, working under the name of C. Lenning, embellished the story further in a manuscript titled Encyclopedia of Freemasonry probably written between 1822 and 1828 at Leipzig and this manuscript was later revised and published by another German Freemason named Friedrich Mossdorf. By the mid-19th century, the story had gained currency, the well-known English Masonic writer, Dr. The story was repeated by the French writers Jean-Baptiste Ragon and Emmanuel Rebold
29.
Masonic bodies
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There are many organisations and Orders which form part of the widespread fraternity of Freemasonry, each having its own structure and terminology. Collectively these may be referred to as Masonic bodies, Masonic orders or appendant bodies of Freemasonry, the basic unit of Freemasonry is the Masonic Lodge, which alone can make a Freemason. Such lodges are controlled by a Grand Lodge with national or regional authority for all lodges within its territory, a masonic lodge confers the three masonic degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. Whilst there is no degree in Freemasonry higher than that of Master Mason, most of these are controlled by their own Grand bodies. A number of organisations, most of which are known as masonic or have a title identifying themselves as masonic. In some countries, notably the United States of America, the Scottish Rite and these other masonic bodies are optional pursuits for those who wish to take their masonic membership and activity beyond the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. These associated organisations for non-masons are only rarely encountered in European Freemasonry, sometime before 1730, a trigradal system started to emerge in Freemasonry, which quickly became the standard system in the lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland. The emergence, in the 1740s, of chivalric degrees on the continent may be linked to the gentrification of Freemasonry in Chevalier Ramsays Oration of 1737. The formation of the Royal Arch occurred in the same period, the Premier Grand Lodge of England remained ambivalent about the new rite, probably because its secret word remained in their own third degree. The Moderns supporters of the new rite formed their own Grand Chapter, the prime mover in the formation of the Grand Chapter was Caledonian Lodge, a lodge of Scottish Masons which had just joined the Moderns from the Ancients, and whose members included William Preston. Their second secretary, Laurence Dermott, believed the Royal Arch to be the fourth degree, Grand Chapter remained, and other degrees must from this time be administered by separate Masonic Bodies. The period from 1740 to 1813 saw a host of Masonic rites, orders and these new rituals enlarged the scope of Masonry and encompassed many elaborations, some of which included elements which had previously been practiced within the craft. Many rites proved to be transient and died out, but some proved more resilient, different Masonic jurisdictions vary in their relationships with appendant bodies, if any. Some offer formal recognition, while others consider them wholly outside of Freemasonry and this leads to some such bodies not being universally considered as appendant bodies, but rather separate organizations that happen to require Masonic affiliation for membership. Each Masonic body sets its own Membership requirements, which vary greatly, many of these, especially those that actually confer additional Masonic degrees and orders, limit membership to Master Masons only. Others require the candidate to either be a Master Mason or have a relationship to one. Others require prior membership of other groups, or having held office in a group. Membership is sometimes open, and sometimes invitational, in England and Wales, after the degrees of craft freemasonry, there are a large number of separately administered degrees and orders open only to craft freemasons
30.
Albert Pike
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Albert Pike was an attorney, soldier, writer, and Freemason. Albert Pike is the only Confederate military officer with a statue in Washington. Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Ben and Sarah Pike and his colonial ancestors settled the area in 1635, and included John Pike, the founder of Woodbridge, New Jersey. He attended school in Newburyport and Framingham until he was 15, in August 1825, he passed entrance exams at Harvard University, though when the college requested payment of tuition fees for the first two years he chose not to attend. He began a program of self-education, later becoming a schoolteacher in Gloucester, North Bedford, Fairhaven, Pike was an imposing figure, six feet tall and 300 pounds with hair that reached his shoulders and a long beard. In 1831, he left Massachusetts to travel west, first stopping in Nashville, Tennessee and later moving on to St. Louis, there he joined an expedition to Taos, New Mexico, hunting and trading. During the excursion his horse broke and ran, forcing Pike to walk the remaining 500 miles to Taos, after this he joined a trapping expedition to the Llano Estacado in New Mexico and Texas. Trapping was minimal and, after traveling about 1,300 miles, he arrived at Fort Smith. Settling in Arkansas in 1833, Pike taught in a school, the articles were popular enough that he was asked to join the newspapers staff. After marrying Mary Ann Hamilton in 1834, he purchased the newspaper, under Pikes administration the Advocate promoted the viewpoint of the Whig Party in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas December 1832. He was the first reporter for the Arkansas Supreme Court and also wrote a book, titled The Arkansas Form Book, Pike then began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1837, selling the Advocate the same year. He also made several contacts among the Native American tribes in the area and he specialized in claims on behalf of Native Americans against the federal government. In 1852 he represented Creek Nation before the Supreme Court in a claim regarding ceded tribal land, in 1854 he advocated for the Choctaw and Chickasaw although compensation later awarded to the tribes in 1856 and 1857 was insufficient. These relationships were to influence the course of his Civil War service, additionally, Pike wrote on several legal subjects and continued producing poetry, a hobby he had begun in his youth in Massachusetts. His poems were regarded in his day, but are now mostly forgotten. Several volumes of his works were published posthumously by his daughter. In 1859, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard, when the Mexican–American War started, Pike joined the Regiment of Arkansas Mounted Volunteers and was commissioned as a troop commander with the rank of captain in June 1846. With his regiment, he fought in the Battle of Buena Vista, Pike was discharged in June 1847
31.
Thoth
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Thoth or Djehuti was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Maat, Thoths chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering, and was partially destroyed in 1826 CE. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities and he also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, the final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoths Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, the addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Hence his name means He who is like the ibis, Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Greek versions Thot, Thout and Thoth are derived from the letters ḏḥwty, not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles, like other goddesses and gods. Among the names used are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, in addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty, representing the Moon for the entire month. The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes, One of Thoths titles, Thrice great was translated to the Greek τρισμέγιστος, making Hermes Trismegistus. Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era, usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times, when depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be wearing the respective gods headdress. Sometimes he was seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When not depicted in this form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as a baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is Aan. In the form of Aah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form and these forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoths attributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads, for example, Maat is often depicted with an ostrich feather, the feather of truth, on her head, or with a feather for a head. Thoths roles in Egyptian mythology were many and he served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other
32.
Ptah
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In Egyptian mythology, Ptah is the demiurge of Memphis, god of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the spouse of Sekhmet and he was also regarded as the father of the sage Imhotep. Ptah is the Creator god par excellence, He is considered the demiurge who existed before all other things, and by his willfulness, thought the world. It was first conceived by Thought, and realized by the Word, Ptah conceives the world by the thought of his heart and that which Ptah commanded was created, with which the constituents of nature, fauna, and flora, are contained. He also plays a role in the preservation of the world and this document has been known as the Memphite Theology, and shows the god Ptah, the god responsible for the creation of the universe by thought and by the word. Ptah is the patron of craftsmanship, metalworking, carpenters, shipbuilders, from the Middle Kingdom onwards, he was one of five major Egyptian gods with Ra, Isis, Osiris and Amun. He is sometimes represented as a dwarf, naked and deformed, frequently associated with the god Bes, his worship then exceeded the borders of the country and was exported throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to the Phoenicians, we find figures of Ptah in Carthage, from the Old Kingdom, he quickly absorbs the appearance of Sokar and Tatenen, ancient deities of the Memphite region. His form of Sokar is found contained in its white shroud wearing the Atef crown, in this capacity, he represents the god of the necropolis of Saqqara and other famous sites where the royal pyramids were built. Gradually he formed with Osiris a new deity called Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, statuettes representing the human form, half-human, half-hawk, or simply in its falcon form will be systematically placed in tombs to accompany and protect the dead on their journey to the West. His Tatenen form is represented by a young and vigorous man wearing a crown with two tall plumes that surround the solar disk and he thus embodies the underground fire that rumbles and raises the earth. As such, he was revered by metalworkers and blacksmiths. In this form also, Ptah is the master of ceremonies for Heb Sed, in the holy of holies of his temple in Memphis, as well as in his great sacred boat, he drove in procession to regularly visit the region during major holidays. Ptah was also symbolized by two birds with human heads adorned with solar disks, symbols of the souls of the god Re, the two Ba are also identified as the twin gods Shu and Tefnut and are associated with the djed pillar of Memphis. Finally, Ptah is embodied in the bull, Apis. Frequently referred to as a herald of Re, the animal is the link with the god Re from the New Kingdom. He even received worship in Memphis, probably at the heart of the temple of Ptah. As god of craftsmen, the cult of the god Ptah quickly spread throughout Egypt, for this reason, the oratory of Ptah who listens to prayers was built near the site of Deir el-Medina, the village where the workers and craftsmen were confined
33.
Aurora (mythology)
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Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, and the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Like Greek Eos and Rigvedic Ushas, Aurora continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, in Roman mythology, Aurora renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun. Her parentage was flexible, for Ovid, she could equally be Pallantis, signifying the daughter of Pallas and she has two siblings, a brother and a sister. Rarely Roman writers imitated Hesiod and later Greek poets and named Aurora as the mother of the Anemoi, who were the offspring of Astraeus, Aurora appears most often in sexual poetry with one of her mortal lovers. A myth taken from the Greek by Roman poets tells that one of her lovers was the prince of Troy, Tithonus was a mortal, and would therefore age and die. Wanting to be with her lover for all eternity, Aurora asked Jupiter to grant immortality to Tithonus, Jupiter granted her wish, but she failed to ask for eternal youth to accompany his immortality, and he became forever old. Aurora turned him into a cicada, but soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, then gathered the folk about the pyre of glorious Hector. In traditional Irish folk songs, such as Lord Courtown One day I was a-musing down by the Courtown banks The sun shone bright and clearly, there was Flora at the helm and Aurora to the stern And all their gallant fine seamen, their course for to steer on. In On Imagination, by Phillis Wheatley From Tithons bed now might Aurora rise, Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies, Dawn goddess Eos Mater Matuta Memnon Zorya Warburg Institute Iconographic Database Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn. Aurora, the goddess of the morning
34.
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
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The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was an organization devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as an order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was active in Great Britain and focused its practices on theurgy. The three founders, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, were Freemasons, Westcott appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn system was based on hierarchy and initiation like the Masonic Lodges, the Golden Dawn was the first of three Orders, although all three are often collectively referred to as the Golden Dawn. The Second or Inner Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, taught magic, including scrying, astral travel, the foundational documents of the original Order of the Golden Dawn, known as the Cipher Manuscripts, are written in English using the Trithemius cipher. The documents did not excite Woodford, and in February 1886 he passed them on to Freemason William Wynn Westcott, Westcott, pleased with his discovery, called on fellow Freemason Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers for a second opinion. Westcott asked for Mathers help to turn the manuscripts into a coherent system for lodge work, Mathers in turn asked fellow Freemason William Robert Woodman to assist the two, and he accepted. Mathers and Westcott have been credited with developing the ritual outlines in the Cipher Manuscripts into a workable format, Mathers, however, is generally credited with the design of the curriculum and rituals of the Second Order, which he called the Rosae Rubae et Aureae Crucis. In October 1887, Westcott claimed to have written to a German countess and prominent Rosicrucian named Anna Sprengel, Westcott purportedly received a reply from Sprengel granting permission to establish a Golden Dawn temple and conferring honorary grades of Adeptus Exemptus on Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman. The temple was to consist of the five grades outlined in the manuscripts, in 1888, the Isis-Urania Temple was founded in London. In contrast to the S. R. I. A. and Masonry, women were allowed, the Order was more of a philosophical and metaphysical teaching order in its early years. Other than certain rituals and meditations found in the Cipher manuscripts and developed further, for the first four years, the Golden Dawn was one cohesive group later known as the Outer Order or First Order. An Inner Order was established and became active in 1892, the Inner Order consisted of members known as adepts, who had completed the entire course of study for the Outer Order. This group of adepts eventually became known as the Second Order, eventually, the Osiris temple in Weston-super-Mare, the Horus temple in Bradford, and the Amen-Ra temple in Edinburgh were founded. In 1893 Mathers founded the Ahathoor temple in Paris, in 1891, Westcotts alleged correspondence with Anna Sprengel suddenly ceased. He claimed to have received word from Germany that she was dead or that her companions did not approve of the founding of the Order. If the founders were to contact the Secret Chiefs, apparently, in 1892, Mathers professed that a link to the Secret Chiefs had been established. Subsequently, he supplied rituals for the Second Order, calling them the Red Rose, the rituals were based on the tradition of the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz, and a Vault of Adepts became the controlling force behind the Outer Order
35.
Zodiac
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The zodiac is an area of the sky centered upon the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets also remain close to the ecliptic, within the belt of the zodiac, in western astrology and astronomy, the zodiac is divided into twelve signs, each sign occupying 30° of celestial longitude. Because the signs are regular, they do not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the twelve constellations after which they are named, the English word zodiac derives from zōdiacus, the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek zōidiakòs kýklos, meaning circle of little animals. Zōidion is the diminutive of zōion, the name reflects the prominence of animals among the twelve signs. The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemys vast 2nd century AD work, the term zodiac may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about eight arc degrees above and below the ecliptic. The zodiac of a planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body, e. g. the zodiac of the Moon is the band of five degrees above. By extension, the zodiac of the comets may refer to the band encompassing most short-period comets, the division of the ecliptic into the zodiacal signs originates in Babylonian astronomy during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The zodiac draws on stars in earlier Babylonian star catalogues, such as the MUL. APIN catalogue, around the end of the 5th century BC, Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into twelve equal signs, by analogy to twelve schematic months of thirty days each. Each sign contained thirty degrees of longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. Because the division was made into equal arcs, 30° each, in Babylonian astronomical diaries, a planet position was generally given with respect to a zodiacal sign alone, less often in specific degrees within a sign. When the degrees of longitude were given, they were expressed with reference to the 30° of the zodiacal sign, in astronomical ephemerides, the positions of significant astronomical phenomena were computed in sexagesimal fractions of a degree. For daily ephemerides, the positions of a planet were not as important as the astrologically significant dates when the planet crossed from one zodiacal sign to the next. The Babylonian star catalogs entered Greek astronomy in the 4th century BC, Babylonia or Chaldea in the Hellenistic world came to be so identified with astrology that Chaldean wisdom became among Greeks and Romans the synonym of divination through the planets and stars. Hellenistic astrology derived in part from Babylonian and Egyptian astrology, horoscopic astrology first appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Dendera zodiac, a dating to ca.50 BC, is the first known depiction of the classical zodiac of twelve signs. The earliest extant Greek text using the Babylonian division of the zodiac into 12 signs of 30 equal degrees each is the Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria. Particularly important in the development of Western horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy, whose work Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition. Under the Greeks, and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD, three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC
36.
Hebrew alphabet
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Historically, there have been two separate abjad scripts to write Hebrew. In the remainder of this article, the term Hebrew alphabet refers to the Jewish square script unless otherwise indicated, the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. It does not have case, but five letters have different forms used at the end of a word. Hebrew is written right to left. Originally, the alphabet was an abjad consisting only of consonants, as with other abjads, such as the Arabic alphabet, scribes later devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel points, known in Hebrew as niqqud. In both biblical and rabbinic Hebrew, the letters א ה ו י are also used as matres lectionis to represent vowels. There is a trend in modern Modern Hebrew toward the use of matres lectionis to indicate vowels that have traditionally gone unwritten, the paleo-Hebrew alphabet was used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The Samaritans, who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use the paleo-Hebrew alphabet, after the fall of the Persian Empire in 330 BCE, Jews used both scripts before settling on the Assyrian form. The square Hebrew alphabet was adapted and used for writing languages of the Jewish diaspora – such as Karaim, the Judeo-Arabic languages, Judaeo-Spanish. In the traditional form, the Hebrew alphabet is an abjad consisting only of consonants and it has 22 letters, five of which use different forms at the end of a word. Also, a system of points to indicate vowels, called niqqud, was developed. In modern forms of the alphabet, as in the case of Yiddish and to some extent Modern Hebrew, today, the trend is toward full spelling with the weak letters acting as true vowels. When used to write Yiddish, vowels are indicated, using letters, either with or without niqqud-diacritics, except for Hebrew words. To preserve the proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of vocalization, one of these, the Tiberian system, eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, and his family for generations, are credited for refining and maintaining the system. These points are used only for special purposes, such as Biblical books intended for study. The Tiberian system also includes a set of marks, called trope. These are shown below the normal form in the following table, although Hebrew is read and written from right to left, the following table shows the letters in order from left to right
37.
Hexagram
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A hexagram or sexagram is a six-pointed geometric star figure with the Schläfli symbol,2, or. It is the compound of two equilateral triangles, the intersection is a regular hexagon. It is used in historical, religious and cultural contexts, for example in Hanafism, Jewish identity, in mathematics, the root system for the simple Lie group G2 is in the form of a hexagram, with six long roots and six short roots. A six-pointed star, like a hexagon, can be created using a compass. Without changing the radius of the compass, set its pivot on the circles circumference, with the pivot on the last point found, similarly find a third point on the circumference, and repeat until six such points have been marked. With a straight edge, join alternate points on the circumference to form two overlapping equilateral triangles. It is possible that as a geometric shape, like for example the triangle, circle, or square. The hexagram is a symbol called satkona yantra or sadkona yantra found on ancient South Indian Hindu temples. It symbolizes the nara-narayana, or perfect meditative state of balance achieved between Man and God, and if maintained, results in moksha, or nirvana, some researchers have theorized that the hexagram represents the astrological chart at the time of Davids birth or anointment as king. The hexagram is also known as the Kings Star in astrological circles, in antique papyri, pentagrams, together with stars and other signs, are frequently found on amulets bearing the Jewish names of God, and used to guard against fever and other diseases. Curiously the hexagram is not found among these signs, in the Greek Magical Papyri at Paris and London there are 22 signs side by side, and a circle with twelve signs, but neither a pentagram nor a hexagram. Six-pointed stars have also found in cosmological diagrams in Hinduism, Buddhism. The reasons behind this symbols common appearance in Indic religions and the West are unknown, one possibility is that they have a common origin. The other possibility is that artists and religious people from several cultures independently created the hexagram shape, within Indic lore, the shape is generally understood to consist of two triangles—one pointed up and the other down—locked in harmonious embrace. The two components are called Om and the Hrim in Sanskrit, and symbolize mans position between earth and sky, the downward triangle symbolizes Shakti, the sacred embodiment of femininity, and the upward triangle symbolizes Shiva, or Agni Tattva, representing the focused aspects of masculinity. The mystical union of the two triangles represents Creation, occurring through the union of male and female. The two locked triangles are known as Shanmukha—the six-faced, representing the six faces of Shiva & Shaktis progeny Kartikeya. This symbol is also a part of several yantras and has significance in Hindu ritual worship
38.
Pentagram
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A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes. The word pentagram comes from the Greek word πεντάγραμμον, from πέντε, five + γραμμή, the word pentacle is sometimes used synonymously with pentagram The word pentalpha is a learned modern revival of a post-classical Greek name of the shape. The pentagram is the simplest regular star polygon, the pentagram contains ten points and fifteen line segments. It is represented by the Schläfli symbol, like a regular pentagon, and a regular pentagon with a pentagram constructed inside it, the regular pentagram has as its symmetry group the dihedral group of order 10. The pentagram can be constructed by connecting alternate vertices of a pentagon and it can also be constructed as a stellation of a pentagon, by extending the edges of a pentagon until the lines intersect. Each intersection of edges sections the edges in the golden ratio, also, the ratio of the length of the shorter segment to the segment bounded by the two intersecting edges is φ. As the four-color illustration shows, r e d g r e e n = g r e e n b l u e = b l u e m a g e n t a = φ. The pentagram includes ten isosceles triangles, five acute and five obtuse isosceles triangles, in all of them, the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side is φ. The acute triangles are golden triangles, the obtuse isosceles triangle highlighted via the colored lines in the illustration is a golden gnomon. The pentagram of Venus is the apparent path of the planet Venus as observed from Earth, the tips of the five loops at the center of the figure have the same geometric relationship to one another as the five vertices, or points, of a pentagram. Groups of five intersections of curves, equidistant from the center, have the same geometric relationship. In early monumental Sumerian script, or cuneiform, a pentagram glyph served as a logogram for the word ub, meaning corner, angle, nook, the word Pentemychos was the title of the cosmogony of Pherecydes of Syros. Here, the five corners are where the seeds of Chronos are placed within the Earth in order for the cosmos to appear. The pentangle plays an important symbolic role in the 14th-century English poem Sir Gawain, heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and others perpetuated the popularity of the pentagram as a magic symbol, attributing the five neoplatonic elements to the five points, in typical Renaissance fashion. By the mid-19th century a distinction had developed amongst occultists regarding the pentagrams orientation. With a single point upwards it depicted spirit presiding over the four elements of matter, however, the influential writer Eliphas Levi called it evil whenever the symbol appeared the other way up. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns and it is the sign of antagonism and fatality. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns, faust, The pentagram thy peace doth mar
39.
Tree of life
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The concept of a tree of life is a widespread mytheme or archetype in the worlds mythologies, related to the concept of sacred tree more generally, and hence in religious and philosophical tradition. The expression Tree of Life was used as a metaphor for the tree of common descent in the evolutionary sense in a famous passage by Charles Darwin. Various trees of life are recounted in folklore, culture and fiction and they had their origin in religious symbolism. The Eternal Banyan Tree is located on the bank of the Yamuna inside the courtyard of Allahabad Fort near the confluence of the Yamuna, the eternal and divine nature of this tree has been documented at length in the scriptures. During the cyclic destruction of creation when the earth was enveloped by waters. It is on the leaves of tree that Lord Krishna rested in the form of a baby when land was no longer visible. And it is here that the sage, Markandeya, received the cosmic vision of the Lord. It is under this tree that Buddha meditates eternally, legend also has it that the Bodi tree at Gaya is a manifestation of this tree. In pre-Islamic Persian mythology, the Gaokerena world tree is a large, ahriman created a frog to invade the tree and destroy it, aiming to prevent all trees from growing on the earth. As a reaction, God created two kar fish staring at the frog to guard the tree, the two fishes are always staring at the frog and stay ready to react to it. The sacred plant haoma and the drink made from it, the preparation of the drink from the plant by pounding and the drinking of it are central features of Zoroastrian ritual. Haoma is also personified as a divinity and it bestows essential vital qualities—health, fertility, husbands for maidens, even immortality. The source of the haoma plant is a shining white tree that grows on a paradisiacal mountain. Sprigs of this white haoma were brought to earth by divine birds, Haoma is the Avestan form of the Sanskrit soma. The near identity of the two in ritual significance is considered by scholars to point to a salient feature of an Indo-Iranian religion antedating Zoroastrianism. Another related issue in ancient mythology of Iran is the myth of Mashyа and Mashyane and this myth can be considered as a prototype for the creation myth where living beings are created by Gods. To the Ancient Egyptians, the Tree of Life represented the hierarchical chain of events that brought everything into existence, the spheres of the Tree of Life demonstrate the order, process, and method of creation. In Egyptian mythology, in the Ennead system of Heliopolis, the first couple, apart from Shu and Tefnut and Geb and Nut, are Isis and Osiris
40.
Sefirot
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The term is alternatively transliterated into English as Sefirot/Sefiroth, singular Sephirah/Sefirah etc. Alternative configurations of the sephirot are given by different schools in the development of Kabbalah. The tradition of enumerating 10 is stated in the Sefer Yetzirah, Ten sephirot of nothingness, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. As altogether 11 sephirot are listed across the different schemes, two are seen as unconscious and conscious manifestations of the principle, conserving the ten categories. In Kabbalah the functional structure of the sephirot in channeling Divine creative life force, the first sephirah describes the Divine Will above intellect. The next sephirot describe conscious Divine Intellect, and the latter sephirot describe the primary and secondary conscious Divine Emotions, two sephirot are feminine, as the female principle in Kabbalah describes a vessel that receives the outward male light, then inwardly nurtures and gives birth to lower sephirot. Corresponding to this is the Female Divine Presence, Kabbalah sees the human soul as mirroring the Divine, and more widely, all creations as reflections of their life source in the sephirot. Therefore, the sephirot also describe the life of man. This relationship between the soul of man and the Divine, gives Kabbalah one of its two central metaphors in describing Divinity, alongside the other Ohr metaphor, however, Kabbalah repeatedly stresses the need to avoid all corporeal interpretation. Through this, the sephirot are related to the structure of the body and are reformed into Partsufim, underlying the structural purpose of each sephirah is a hidden motivational force which is understood best by comparison with a corresponding psychological state in human spiritual experience. The term sefirah thus has complex connotations within Kabbalah, the Sephirot are considered revelations of the Creators Will, and they should not be understood as ten different gods but as ten different ways the one God reveals his Will through the Emanations. While in Cordoveran Kabbalah, Keter is listed as the first Sephirah, the Sephirot are emanated from the Divine Will, because Kabbalah sees different levels within Keter, reflecting Gods inner Will and outer Will. The innermost, hidden levels of Keter, also in some contexts called The head/beginning that is not known, are united above the Sephirot with the Ein Sof and it is not God who changes but the ability to perceive God that changes. This difference between the MaOhr and the Ohr He emanates is stressed in Kabbalah, so as to avoid notions of any plurality in the Godhead. In its early 12th-century dissemination, Kabbalah received criticism from some Rabbis, the multiplicity of revealed emanations only applies from the perspective of the Creation, and not from the perspective of the infinite Divine essence. The ten Sephirot are a step-by-step process illuminating the Divine plan as it unfolds itself in Creation and they are fully found in the Medieval Kabbalah texts, such as the central work in Kabbalah, the Zohar. The Hebrew etymology of their names in Kabbalah is understood to refer to the aspects of meaning of each Sephirah. Kabbalah expounds on the terms of the Sephirot and this difference of opinion reflects earlier Medieval debate on whether Keter can be identified with the Ohr Ein Sof itself, or as the first revealed Sephirah
41.
Jesus, King of the Jews
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In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the King of the Jews, both at the beginning of his life and at the end. In the Koine Greek of the New Testament, e. g. in John 19,3, both uses of the title lead to dramatic results in the New Testament accounts. In the account of the Nativity of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, the Greek version of the initialism read ΙΝΒΙ, representing Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ Bασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων which is best translated, Jesus the Nazorean, King of the Judeans. In the New Testament, the King of the Jews” title is used only by the gentiles, namely by the Magi, Pontius Pilate, in contrast, the Jewish leaders use the designation King of Israel. The phrase has also been translated King of the Judeans, the question troubles Herod who considers the title his own, and in Matthew 2, 7-8 he attempts to trick the Magi to reveal the exact location of the newborn King of the Jews. In the accounts of the Passion of Jesus, the title King of the Judeans is used on three separate occasions. The use of the terms King and Kingdom and the role of the Jews in using the term King to accuse Jesus are central in the discussion between Jesus and Pilate. In John 18,34, Jesus hints that the King accusation did not originate with Pilate but with others and, in John 18,36, he states, however, Jesus does not directly deny being the King of the Jews. In the New Testament, Pilate writes Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Judeans as a sign to be affixed to the cross of Jesus. John 19,21 states that the Jews told Pilate, Do not write King of the Jews but instead write that Jesus had merely claimed that title, Pilates response to the protest is recorded by John, What I have written, I have written. The continued reliance on the use of the term King by the Judeans to press charges against Jesus is a key element of the decision to crucify him. In John 19,12, the Jews then cry out and we have no king but Caesar. The final use of the title appears in Luke 23. In the parallel account in Matthew 27,42, the Jewish priests mock Jesus as King of Israel, saying, He is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him. In the New Testament, the King of the Jews” title is used only by the gentiles, namely by the Magi, Pontius Pilate, in contrast the Jewish leaders prefer the designation King of Israel, as in Matthew 27,42, Mark 15,32. But from Pilates perspective, it is the term King which is sensitive, in the Gospel of Mark the distinction between King of the Jews and King of Israel is made consciously, setting apart the two uses of the term by the Jews and the gentiles. The acronym INRI represents the Latin inscription IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM, in English reads as Jesus the Nazarene, John 19,20 states that this was written in three languages, Hebrew, Latin and Greek and was put on the cross of Jesus. In Hebrew it read, Y-shua HaNotzri Vemelch HaYhudim an acronym of the Hebrew God YHVH, in the Eastern Church King of Glory may be used
42.
Thelema
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Thelema is a religion based on a philosophical law of the same name, adopted as a central tenet by some religious organizations. The law of Thelema is Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, Love is the law, love under will. The law of Thelema was developed in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley and he believed himself to be the prophet of a new age, the Æon of Horus, based upon a spiritual experience that he and his wife, Rose Edith, had in Egypt in 1904. An adherent of Thelema is a Thelemite, the Thelemic pantheon includes a number of deities, primarily a trio adapted from ancient Egyptian religion, who are the three speakers of The Book of the Law, Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Crowley described these deities as a literary convenience, the religion is founded upon the idea that the 20th century marked the beginning of the Aeon of Horus, in which a new ethical code would be followed, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. This statement indicates that adherents, who are known as Thelemites, should seek out and follow their own path in life. The philosophy also emphasizes the practice of Magick. The word thelema is the English transliteration of the Koine Greek noun θέλημα will, from the verb θέλω to will, wish, want or purpose. As Crowley developed the religion, he wrote widely on the topic and he also included ideas from occultism, yoga and both Eastern and Western mysticism, especially the Qabalah. The word θέλημα is rare in classical Greek, where it signifies the appetitive will, desire, sometimes even sexual, but it is frequent in the Septuagint. Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will, and even the will of Gods opponent, the Devil, one well-known example is in the Lords Prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ”It is used later in the gospel, He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it. In his 5th-century Sermon on 1 John 4, 4–12, Augustine of Hippo gave an instruction, Love. In the Renaissance, a character named Thelemia represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna, the protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica and Thelemia. When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic, the only rule of this Abbey was fay çe que vouldras. In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham, where it served as the motto of the Hellfire Club. Rabelaiss Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice, in their novel The Monks of Thelema, françois Rabelais was a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and moved to the French city of Lyon in 1532, there he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, a connected series of books
43.
Aleister Crowley
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Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century, a prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life. Born to a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire and he was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, in 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett. Moving to Boleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, The Book declared that its followers should Do what thou wilt, in 1907, he and George Cecil Jones co-founded a Thelemite order, the A∴A∴, through which they propagated the religion. Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia, and North America, in 1920 he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalù, Sicily where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and he divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death. Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being a recreational drug experimenter, bisexual and he was denounced in the popular press as the wickedest man in the world and a Satanist. Crowley has remained an influential figure over Western esotericism and the counter-culture. In 2002, a BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time, Crowley was born as Edward Alexander Crowley at 30 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 12 October 1875. His father, Edward Crowley, was trained as an engineer and his mother, Emily Bertha Bishop, came from a Devonshire-Somerset family and had a strained relationship with her son, she described him as the Beast, a name that he revelled in. The couple had married at Londons Kensington Registry Office in November 1874. Crowleys father was particularly devout, spending his time as a preacher for the sect and reading a chapter from the Bible to his wife. Following the death of their daughter in 1880, in 1881 the Crowleys moved to Redhill. At the age of 8, Crowley was sent to H. T, habershons evangelical Christian boarding school in Hastings, and then to Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge, run by the Reverend Henry dArcy Champney, whom Crowley considered a sadist. In March 1887, when Crowley was 11, his father died of tongue cancer, Crowley described this as a turning point in his life, and he always maintained an admiration of his father, describing him as his hero and his friend. Inheriting a third of his fathers wealth, he began misbehaving at school and was punished by Champney
44.
Nuit
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Nuit is a goddess in Thelema, the speaker in the first Chapter of The Book of the Law, the sacred text written or received in 1904 by Aleister Crowley. Nut is an Egyptian sky goddess who leans over her husband/brother, Geb and she is usually depicted as a naked woman who is covered with stars. She represents the All, pure potentiality both as it flowers into the universe and as it resides beyond embodiment. Within this system, she is one-third of the cosmology, along with Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. She has several titles, including the Queen of Infinite Space, Our Lady of the Stars, Nuit represents the infinitely-expanded circle whose circumference is unmeasurable and whose center is everywhere. According to Thelemic doctrine, it is the interaction between these two principles that creates the manifested universe similar to the gnostic syzygy. Some quotes from the First Chapter of The Book of the Law, Every man, come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love. For I am divided for loves sake, for the chance of union, the word of the Law is Θελημα. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look, for there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, for pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect. Love is the law, love under will, I give unimaginable joys on earth, certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death, peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy, nor do I demand aught in sacrifice. In The Equinox of the Gods, Crowley writes of Nuit in comparison to Christianity, Nuit cries, I love you, like a lover and she woos like a mistress, whispers To me. In every ear, Jesus, with verb, appeals vehemently to them that labour and are heavy laden. The following are quotes from Crowleys commentaries to The Book of the Law, note that Heaven is not a place where Gods Live, Nuit is Heaven, itself. Nuit is All that which exists, and the condition of that existence, Hadit is the Principle which causes modifications in this Being. This explains how one may call Nuit Matter, and Hadit Motion and it should be evident that Nuit obtains the satisfaction of Her Nature when the parts of Her Body fulfill their own Nature. The sacrament of life is not only so from the point of view of the celebrants, in Egyptian mythology, Nut was the sky goddess. She is the daughter of Shu and Tefnut, the sun god Ra entered her mouth after the sun set in the evening and was reborn from her vulva the next morning
45.
Hadit
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Hadit refers to a Thelemic version of Chaos. Hadit is the speaker of the second chapter of The Book of the Law. He may refer to the serpent Apophis, Crowley also identified Chaos as the father of life and counterpart of Babalon. Hadit has been interpreted as the spirit of man, the Holy Ghost, the sperm and egg in which the DNA of man is carried. When juxtaposed with Nuit in The Book of the Law, Hadit represents each unique point-experience and these point-experiences in aggregate comprise the sum of all possible experience, Nuith. Hadit, the Great God, the lord of the sky, is depicted on the Stele of Revealing in the form of the disk of the Sun. However, while the ancient Egyptians treated the Sun and the stars as separate. Furthermore, The Book of the Law says, Every man, in The Book of the Law he says, I am alone, there is no god where I am. He is the flame burns in every heart of man. He is identified with kundalini, in The Book of the Law he says, I am the Secret Serpent coiled about to spring, if I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I, there is great danger in me. Hadit is the Fire of Desire at the Heart of Matter, the combination of the upward-pointing triangle of Hadit and the downward-pointing triangle of Nuit forms the Star of Spirit. The union of the infinitely small Hadit and the infinitely great Nuit causes an explosive rapture which leads to samādhi. His symbols are our Sun, the serpent, the Fire Snake, the star Sothis, the planet Pluto, sperm, the Will, the globe, the Hermit. He is Leo to Nuits Aquarius, the short form of his name, Had, forms the central syllable of the word of the Aeon, Abrahadabra. The earlier, Egyptian version, went by the name of Heru-Behdeti or Horus of Behdet, thoth let him take the form of the solar disk to help a younger version of Horus—Re-Horakhty, or Ra-Hoor-Khuit—in a battle with Set and his army. Around the time of its creation, Egyptian funerary teachings apparently included the new idea that the deceased could become one with the sun god, the Book of the Law Nu Nuit Heru-ra-ha Free Encyclopedia of Thelema. Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, Hadit and the Stele of Revealing
