1.
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
2.
Hermes Trismegistus
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Hermes Trismegistus is the purported author of the Hermetic Corpus, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism. Hermes Trismegistus may be a representation of the combination of the Greek god Hermes. Greeks in Hellenistic Egypt recognized the equivalence of Hermes and Thoth, consequently, the two gods were worshiped as one, in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemnu, which the Greeks called Hermopolis. Both Hermes and Thoth were gods of writing and of magic in their respective cultures, Hermes, the Greek god of interpretive communication, was combined with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, to become the patron of astrology and alchemy. In addition, both gods were psychopomps, guiding souls to the afterlife, the Egyptian priest and polymath Imhotep had been deified long after his death and therefore assimilated to Thoth in the classical and Hellenistic period. This interpretation of poorly-understood Mycenaean material is disputed, since Hermes Trismegistus is not referenced in any of the sources before he emerges in Hellenistic Egypt. The majority of Greeks, and later Romans, did not accept Hermes Trismegistus in the place of Hermes, the two gods were regarded as distinct. Both of these early references in Cicero corroborate the view that Thrice-Great Hermes originated in Hellenistic Egypt through syncretism between Greek and Egyptian gods. In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and this latter tradition has led to the confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously. As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited with tens of thousands of highly esteemed writings, platos Timaeus and Critias state that in the temple of Neith at Sais there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for 9,000 years. Clement of Alexandria was under the impression that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes, the Neo-Platonic writers took up Clements forty-two essential texts. The Hermetica is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures, in other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf. Fowden asserts that the first datable occurrences of the epithet thrice great are in the Legatio of Athenagoras of Athens and in a fragment from Philo of Byblos, circa AD 64–141. However, in a work, Copenhaver reports that this epithet is first found in the minutes of a meeting of the council of the Ibis cult. Hart explains that the epithet is derived from an epithet of Thoth found at the Temple of Esna, Thoth the great, the great, the great. Some authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham, and some Jewish traditions claim that Abraham acquired a portion of his knowledge from Hermes himself. They believed in a prisca theologia, the doctrine that a single, true theology exists and it was given by God to man in antiquity and passed through a series of prophets, which included Zoroaster and Plato. In order to demonstrate the verity of the prisca theologia, Christians appropriated the Hermetic teachings for their own purposes and it was Marsilio Ficino who stated that they called him Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the greatest priest and the greatest king
3.
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
4.
Ra
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Ra or Re is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become a god in ancient Egyptian religion. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the god Horus and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world, the sky, the earth, and the underworld. He was associated with the falcon or hawk, when in the New Kingdom the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra. During the Amarna Period, Akhenaten suppressed the cult of Ra in favor of another deity, the Aten, the deified solar disc. The cult of the Mnevis bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its center in Heliopolis, all forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret names. Alternatively man was created from Ras tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the Cattle of Ra, in the myth of the Celestial Cow it is recounted how mankind plotted against Ra and how he sent his eye as the goddess Sekhmet to punish them. When she became bloodthirsty she was pacified by drinking beer mixed with red dye, to the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important, as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created, the sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Ra. Ra was the father of Shu and Tefnut, whom he created, Shu was the god of the wind, and Tefnut was the goddess of the rain. Sekhmet was the Eye of Ra and was created by the fire in Ras eye, Ra was thought to travel on the Atet, two solar barks called the Mandjet or morning boat and the Mesektet or evening boat. These boats took him on his journey through the sky and the Duat, while Ra was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form. When Ra traveled in his sun boat, he was accompanied by other deities including Sia and Hu. Sometimes, members of the Ennead helped him on his journey, including Set, who overcame the serpent Apophis, and Mehen, when Ra was in the underworld, he would visit all of his various forms. Apophis, the god of chaos, was a serpent who attempted to stop the sun boats journey every night by consuming it or by stopping it in its tracks with a hypnotic stare. During the evening, the Egyptians believed that Ra set as Atum or in the form of a ram, the night boat would carry him through the underworld and back towards the east in preparation for his rebirth. When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead, Ra was worshipped as the Creator god among some ancient Egyptians, specifically followers of his cult at Heliopolis. It was believed that Ra wept, and from his tears came man and these cult-followers believed that Ra was self-created, while followers of Ptah believed that Ra was created by Ptah
5.
The Kybalion
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The Kybalion was first published in 1908 by the Yogi Publication Society and is now in the public domain, as well as circulating the worldwide web. Purportedly based upon ancient Hermeticism, its philosophies, in conjunction with others, have become founding pillars within the New Thought movement of our modern age. The book early on makes the claim that it makes its appearance in life when the time is appropriate and includes axioms. The book devotes a chapter to each of its seven Principles, or axioms, everything that happens has to be result of mental state which precedes it. For anything to exist, thoughts had to form first, then form physical reality or manifestation after, the Principle of Correspondence embodies the idea that there is always a correspondence between the laws of phenomena of the various planes of being and life. As above, so below, as below, so above and this principle explains that the differences between different manifestations of Matter, Energy, Mind, and even Spirit, are the result of only different vibrations. The higher a person is on the scale, the higher the rate of vibration will be, here, The All is said to be at an infinite level of vibration, almost to the point of being at rest. There are said to be millions upon millions of varying degrees between the highest level, The All, and the objects of the lowest vibration, Mental Transmutation is described as the practical application of this principle. To change ones mental state is to change vibration, one may do this by an effort of Will, by means of deliberately fixing the attention upon a more desirable state. The Principle of Polarity embodies the idea that everything is dual, All manifested things have two sides, two aspects, or two poles. The Principle of Rhythm embodies the idea that in everything there is manifested a measured motion, a to and from, a flow and inflow, a backward and forward. This principle explains that there is rhythm between every pair of opposites, or poles, and is related to the Principle of Polarity. It can be seen that this Principle enables transition from one pole to the other, the Principle of Cause and Effect explains that there is a cause for every effect, and an effect for every cause. It also states there is no such thing as chance. The Principle is clarified in the chapter Causation, the Principle of Gender embodies the idea that gender is manifested in everything. The authors state that this does not relate explicitly to the commonly understood notion of sex, to beget, to procreate, to generate, to create, or to produce. Gender is manifested as the Feminine and Masculine principles, and manifests itself on all planes, Mental Gender is described as a Hermetic concept which relates to the feminine and masculine principles. It does not refer to someones physical sex, nor does it suggest that someone of a certain physical sex necessarily has a matching mental gender, ideally, one wants to have a balanced mental gender
6.
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
7.
Astrology
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Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and terrestrial events. Throughout most of its history astrology was considered a tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology. It was present in political circles, and is mentioned in works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in it has largely declined, Astrology is now recognized to be pseudoscience. The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron, astrologia later passed into meaning star-divination with astronomia used for the scientific term. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with roots in systems used to predict seasonal shifts. A form of astrology was practised in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia, Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty. Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, Alexander the Greats conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with Chaldean wisdom, after the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe, major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer. Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and it was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine. At the end of the 17th century, new concepts in astronomy. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined, Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. This was a first step towards recording the Moons influence upon tides and rivers, by the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars. Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa thought to be compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE, a scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Ariosophy
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Armanism and Ariosophy are the names of ideological systems of an esoteric nature, pioneered by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels respectively, in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term Ariosophy, meaning concerning the Aryans, was first coined by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915. This broader use of the word is retrospective and was not generally current among the esotericists themselves, List actually called his doctrine Armanism, while Lanz used the terms Theozoology and Ario-Christianity before the First World War. The connection of this Germanic mysticism with historical Germanic culture is evident in the fascination with runes. Ideology regarding the Aryan race, runic symbols, the swastika, from around 1900, esoteric notions entered Guido Lists thoughts by 1899 at the latest. In April 1903 he sent his manuscript, proposing what Goodrick-Clarke calls a monumental pseudoscience concerning the ancient German faith and these Ariosophic ideas contributed significantly to an occult counterculture in Germany and Austria. The most notable case is Himmlers Ahnenerbe. In a less broad approach one could also treat rune occultism separately, although the Armanen runes go back to List, Rudolf John Gorsleben distinguished himself from other völkisch writers by making the esoteric importance of the runes central to his world view. Goodrick-Clarke therefore refers to the doctrine of Kummer and Gorsleben and his followers as rune occultism, highly practical systems of rune occultism, influenced mainly by List, were developed by Friedrich Bernhard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Kummer. Guido von List elaborated a racial religion premised on the concept of renouncing the imposed foreign creed of Christianity, in this, he became strongly influenced by the Theosophical thought of Madame Blavatsky, which he blended however with his own highly original beliefs, founded upon Germanic paganism. He also had written an essay in 1895. List adopted the aristocratic von between 1903 and 1907, List called his doctrine Armanism after the Armanen, supposedly a body of priest-kings in the ancient Aryo-Germanic nation. His conception of the religion of the Germanic tribes was a form of sun worship. Religious instruction was imparted on two levels and this peaceful merging of the two religions had been disrupted by the forcible conversions under bloody Charlemagne – the Slaughterer of the Saxons. He also believed in the powers of the old runes. From 1891 onwards he claimed that heraldry was based on a system of encoded runes, in April 1903, he submitted an article concerning the alleged Aryan proto-language to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Its highlight was a mystical and occult interpretation of the runic alphabet, list’s doctrine has been described as gnostic, pantheist and deist. At its core is the union of God, man
11.
Holy Royal Arch
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The Holy Royal Arch is a degree of Freemasonry. The Royal Arch is present in all main masonic systems, though in some it is worked as part of Craft Freemasonry, until 1823, only freemasons who had previously passed through the chair of a Craft lodge were allowed to join. Today, candidates for an English Holy Royal Arch Chapter are required to have been a Master Mason for four weeks or more. In Freemasonry in Scotland, the candidate for the Royal Arch must also be a Mark Master Mason, in Ireland a candidate must be a Master Mason for one year before being admitted as a member of a Royal Arch Chapter. The Degree of Mark Master Mason is taken separately first and only then can the Royal Arch Degree be taken, the Royal Arch is also the subject of the 13th and 14th degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Similarly to Craft Freemasonry, the Royal Arch conveys moral and ethical lessons, in the three degrees of the Craft, the candidate is presented with a series of practical principles of service to his fellow man. But as man is not simply a practical being, he also has a spiritual aspect to his nature. The Royal Arch further develops this latter aspect by a contemplation of mans spiritual nature, in clearing the ground of Solomons Temple for the foundations of a new temple, the candidate makes important discoveries. The symbol or Grand Emblem of Royal Arch Masonry is the Triple Tau, the exact origins of Royal Arch Masonry in general, and of the Holy Royal Arch in particular, are unknown except that it dates back to the mid 18th century. Although glimpses of Royal Arch vocabulary appear in Masonic literature from the 1720s, 21’s records, the “Royal Arch” was carried in a procession by “two excellent Masons” through Youghal, Ireland, on December 27,1743. The degree is also mentioned disapprovingly in Dassignys A serious and impartial enquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland published in Dublin in 1744. Separate notes in this work indicate that the rite was practised in Dublin, London and York, in 1749, the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued warrants to Lodges 190 and 198 to establish “Royal Arch Lodges”. In 18th century England, the role and purpose of Royal Arch Masonry was the subject of a debate between the two rival umbrella organisations of Freemasonry. In 1717, four Craft lodges had formed the original Premier Grand Lodge of England to govern Freemasonry as practiced in England, from 1751, this claim was contested by another group of Craft lodges which formed the Antient Grand Lodge of England. In the ensuing debate, the grand lodge became known for short as the Antients. He regarded the Royal Arch as the degree of Craft Masonry. Under his influence, the Antients championed the Royal Arch degree in England, in 1764, a lodge of Scottish masons attached to the Antients switched sides and became the Caledonian Lodge attached to the Moderns. The next year, they assisted in setting up a Royal Arch Chapter admitting masons from other Craft lodges which were attached to the Moderns and he was also one of the signatories on the charter establishing the first Grand Chapter
12.
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
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Knights Templar
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The order was founded in 1119 and active from about 1129 to 1312. The order, which was among the wealthiest and most powerful, became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and they were prominent in Christian finance. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades, the Templars were closely tied to the Crusades, when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France – deeply in debt to the order – took advantage of the situation to control over them. In 1307, he had many of the members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip, the abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages. The re-use of their name for later organizations has kept the name Templar alive to the modern day, after Europeans in the First Crusade recovered Jerusalem in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land. Although the city of Jerusalem was under relatively secure Christian control, in 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomons Temple, and from this location the new order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Templar knights. The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard, had few financial resources and their emblem was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasising the orders poverty. The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long, another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent IIs papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, with its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, although the primary mission of the order was military, relatively few members were combatants. The others acted in support positions to assist the knights and to manage the financial infrastructure, the Templar Order, though its members were sworn to individual poverty, was given control of wealth beyond direct donations. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was away, based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks across the whole of Christendom. The Order of the Knights Templar arguably qualifies as the worlds first multinational corporation, in the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Muslim world had become united under effective leaders such as Saladin, and dissension arose amongst Christian factions in, and concerning
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Knights Templar (Freemasonry)
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This page is about a Masonic organization. For the medieval Knights Templar, see Knights Templar, see also Knights Templar and popular culture. One of the entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect. The word United in its title indicates that more than one historical tradition. The individual orders united within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, however, it does not claim any direct lineal descent from the original Templar order. The earliest documented link between Freemasonry and the Crusades is the 1737 oration of the Chevalier Ramsay and this claimed that European Freemasonry came about from an interaction between crusader masons and the Knights Hospitaller. This is repeated in the earliest known Moderns ritual, the Berne manuscript, in 1751 Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund und Altengrotkau began the Order of Strict Observance, which ritual he claimed to have received from the reconstituted Templar Order in 1743 in Paris. He also claimed to have met two of the superiors who directed all of masonry, one of whom was Prince Charles Edward Stuart. The order went into decline when he failed to any evidence to support his claims. In 1779 the High Knights Templar of Ireland Lodge, Kilwinning and this lodge now began to grant dispensations to other lodges to confer the Knights Templar Degree. Some time around 1790 the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland was formed, which began to warrant Templar Lodges, the Early Grand Encampment chartered several Scottish encampments one of which, having been chartered in 1805 as the Edinburgh Encampment No. 31, then became theGrand Assembly of Knights Templar in Edinburgh, who then sought a charter from the Duke of Kent, Grand Master of the Order in England. It seems that the Templar degree had filtered into the lodges of the Antients from Ireland about 1780, in the five degree system developed by the York Masons, the Knights Templar degree sat between the Master Mason and the Sublime Degree of Royal Arch. Templar masonry in England entered a new era in 1791, with the formation of its first Grand Conclave, under his leadership, the number of encampments steadily grew until his death in 1795. Stasis then followed, until in 1805 their Royal Patron, Duke of Kent, became Grand Master himself, re-energising the society and launching it into an era of growth and development. Dunckerley laid the foundation for this not only by promoting the order, Knights Templar can exist either as part of the York Rite or as an independent organization. Though the York Rite and the independent versions share many similarities there are key differences which are described below. In the United States, a Knights Templar commandery is traditionally the final body that a member joins in the York Rite after the chapter of Royal Arch Masons, some jurisdictions, however, allow members to skip over membership in a council
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Ordo Templi Orientis
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Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. English author and occultist Aleister Crowley has become the member of the order. This Law—expressed as Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law and Love is the law, similar to many secret societies, O. T. O. Membership is based on a system with a series of degree ceremonies that use ritual drama to establish fraternal bonds. O. T. O. also includes the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica or Gnostic Catholic Church and its central rite, which is public, is called Liber XV, or the Gnostic Mass. The early history of O. T. O. is difficult to trace reliably and it originated in Germany or Austria between 1895 and 1906. Its apparent founder was Carl Kellner, a wealthy Austrian industrialist, theodor Reuss collaborated with Kellner in creating O. T. O. and succeeded him as head of O. T. O. after Kellners death. Under Reuss, charters were given to occult brotherhoods in France, Denmark, Switzerland, There were nine degrees, of which the first six were Masonic. Although these rites are considered to be irregular, they, along with the Swedenborg Rite formed the core of the newly established Order, Reuss met Aleister Crowley and in 1910 admitted him to the first three degrees of O. T. O. Only two years later, Crowley was placed in charge of Great Britain and Ireland, and was advanced to the X°, in 1913, Crowley composed the Gnostic Mass while in Moscow, which he described as being the Order’s central ceremony of its public and private celebration. In 1914, soon after World War I broke out, he moved to the United States and it was around this time that Crowley decided to integrate Thelema into the O. T. O. System, and in 1915 prepared revised rituals for use in the M∴M∴M∴, in 1917, Reuss wrote a Synopsis of Degrees of O. T. O. The same document shows that the degree of O. T. O. is also known as the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch. In 1919, Crowley attempted to work this Masonic-based O. T. O. in Detroit, the result was that he was rebuffed by the Council of the Scottish rite on the basis that O. T. O. Rituals were too similar to orthodox Masonry, Crowley subsequently rewrote the initiation rituals of the first three degrees, and in doing so removed most of those rituals ties to Masonry. He did not, however, rewrite the fourth degree ritual, Crowley wrote that Theodore Reuss suffered a stroke in the spring of 1920. In correspondence with one of Reuss officers, Crowley expressed doubts about Reuss competence to remain in office, relations between Reuss and Crowley began to deteriorate, and the two exchanged angry letters in November 1921. Crowley informed Reuss that he was availing himself of Reuss abdication from office, Reuss died on October 28,1923 without designating a successor, though Crowley claimed in later correspondence that Reuss had designated him
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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
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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
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Society of Jesus
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The Society of Jesus Latin, Societas Iesu, S. J. SJ or SI) is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents, Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice, Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, ignatiuss plan of the orders organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the Formula of the Institute. Ignatius was a nobleman who had a background, and the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world. The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and, later, in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General. The Society of Jesus on October 3,2016 announced that Superior General Adolfo Nicolás resignation was officially accepted, on October 14, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Father Arturo Sosa as its thirty-first Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome, the historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 1 January 2015, Jesuits numbered 16,740,11,986 clerics regular,2,733 scholastics,1,268 brothers and 753 novices. In 2012, Mark Raper S. J. wrote, Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years—from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia, the Society is divided into 83 Provinces with six Independent Regions and ten Dependent Regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and their average age was 57.3 years,63.4 years for priests,29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa, the Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines. In the United States it maintains 28 colleges and universities and 58 high schools and he ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order, the meeting is now commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre
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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
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Hermetism and other religions
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This is a comparative religion article which outlines the similarities and interactions between Hermeticism and other religions or philosophies. Christianity and Hermetism have interacted in such a way that controversy surrounds the nature of the influence, both religions hold redemption, revelation and focus on the knowledge of God as the meaning of humanitys existence. This knowledge of God comes upon a mystical experience dependent upon rebirth, the focus of this rebirth are the words Life, Light, and Truth as well as a moral attitude of the seeker in his attainment of higher knowledge. Both also share a philosophy which comes from a shared philosophical background in popular schools of Hellenistic thought. Former president of the American Academy of Religion, Catherine L Albanese, has theorized that Hermetic thought has had an influence in Mormonism, Unitarianism, Universalism. The Fourth Gospel, or Gospel of John, is purported to have similarities with the Corpus Hermeticum in religious thought, there are also, however, deep differences as well. Both texts utilize the concept of Logos and emphasize that the followers of their religions are apart from the rest of the world. Dualism plays a part in each of the two works. Mary Lyman also points out four distinct contrasts between the two works despite their similarities. First, that the Fourth Gospel is a work while the Corpus Hermeticum is a work which is found in fragments which she suspects were written by many authors over a wide range of time. Second, cosmic speculation is paramount to the Hermetic work while the fourth Gospel focuses on issues of religion, third, the Hermetic text focuses on the asceticism of the day while the Fourth Gospel ignores it completely. Though she relays that a scholar named Angus believed that the two would be similar if they had the same proportion of Hermetic writings as Christian writings. The early Mormons, most notably Joseph Smith, were linked with magic, alchemy, Freemasonry, divining and other elements of radical religion prior to Mormonism. Brooke attests correlations with the view that spirit and matter are one and the same, the covenant of marriage. Further, Brooke argues that Mormonism can only be understood in conjunction with the occult and he sees ties to Hermeticism in Mormon support for Pelagianism, communitarianism, polygamy and Dispensationalism. He does however digress that there was a change since the 1860s in the LDS Church which has widely removed Hermetic influence, however, scholars at the LDS-owned Brigham Young University have denounced Brookes work and even scolded the publisher, Cambridge University Press, for printing it. Albanese believes that the denial in scholarly research is due to its strong feminist qualities. Neuhaus believes American Christianity is more Gnostic in nature than Hermetic, Albanese portends that several Christian denominations were affected by Hermeticism
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Tarotology
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Tarot cards were originally used in games and are still used for that purpose in many parts of Europe. Tarotology is considered pseudoscience, and the readings made from the cards have not been proved to constitute scientific evidence for making predictions about future events, the main article on Tarot gives full details of the history of Tarot cards as game-playing cards. References to the Tarot as a social plague continue throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, one of them was Court De Gébelin. From its humble uptake as an instrument of prophecy in France, the Tarot went on to become a thing of hermeneutic, magical, mystical, semiotic, and even psychological properties. Many involved in occult and divinatory practices attempt to trace the Tarot to ancient Egypt, divine wisdom. He thought the Tarot represented ancient Egyptian Theology, including Isis, Osiris, for example, he thought the card he knew as the Papesse and known today as the High Priestess represented Isis. He also related four Tarot cards to the four Christian Cardinal virtues, Temperance, Justice, Strength and he relates The Tower to a Greek fable about avarice. Later Egyptologists found nothing in the Egyptian language to support de Gébelins etymologies, despite this lack of any evidence, the belief that the tarot cards are linked to the Egyptian Book of Thoth continues in modern urban legend to the present day. The actual source of the occult Tarot can be traced to two articles in volume eight, one written by himself, and one written by M. le C. de M. ***, the second has been noted to have been even more influential than Gebelins. Etteilla in fact claims to have involved with Tarot longer than Court De Gebelin. Mlle Marie-Anne Adelaide Lenormand outshone even Ettiella and was the first cartomancer to people in places, being the personal confidant of Empress Josephine, Napoleon. Lenormand used both regular playing cards, in particular the Piquet pack, as well as derived from Etteillas Egyptian root. She was so famous that a deck was published in her name, the concept of the cards as a mystical key was extended by Eliphas Lévi. Lévi was educated in the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, was ordained as a deacon, Dummett notes that it is from Levis book Dogme et rituel that the whole of the modern occultist movement stems. Without the Tarot, he tells us, the Magic of the ancients is a closed book, according to Dummett Lévis notable contributions include, Lévi was the first to suggest that the Magus was to work with the four suits. Inspired by de Gébelin, Lévi associated the Hebrew alphabet with the Tarot trumps, Lévi linked the ten numbered cards in each suit to the ten sefiroth. Claimed the court cards represented stages of human life, claimed the four suites represented the Tetragrammaton. Dummett dismissed Lévis contribution to magic as the product of a state of intellectual deliquescent
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John Dee
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John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and he was also an advocate of Englands imperial expansion. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable, one of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on the geometry of Euclid at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and an astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation. Simultaneously with these efforts, Dee immersed himself in the worlds of magic, astrology, in his lifetime, Dee amassed one of the largest libraries in England. His high status as a scholar also allowed him to play a role in Elizabethan politics and he served as an occasional advisor and tutor to Elizabeth I and nurtured relationships with her ministers Francis Walsingham and William Cecil. Dee also tutored and enjoyed patronage relationships with Sir Philip Sidney, his uncle Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and he also enjoyed patronage from Sir Christopher Hatton. Dee was born in Tower Ward, London, to Rowland Dee of Welsh descent and his surname Dee derived from the Welsh du, his grandfather was Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes, Pilleth, Radnorshire, and John retained his connection with the locality. His father Roland was a mercer and gentleman courtier to Henry VIII, John Dee claimed to be a descendant of Rhodri the Great, Prince of Wales and constructed a pedigree showing his descent from Rhodri. Dees family arrived in London in the wake of Henry Tudors coronation as Henry VII, Jane Dee was the daughter of William Wild. Dee attended the Chelmsford Chantry School from 1535 to 1542 and he entered St Johns College, Cambridge, in November 1542, aged 15, graduating BA in 1545 or early 1546. His abilities recognised, he became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. At Trinity, the stage effects he produced for a production of Aristophanes Peace procured him the reputation of being a magician that clung to him through life. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Louvain and Brussels, in 1552, he met Gerolamo Cardano in London, during their acquaintance they investigated a perpetual motion machine as well as a gem purported to have magical properties. Rector at Upton-upon-Severn from 1553, Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford in 1554, in 1555, Dee became a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through the companys system of patrimony. That same year,1555, he was arrested and charged with calculating for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth, Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the Catholic Bishop Bonner for religious examination. His strong and lifelong penchant for secrecy perhaps worsening matters, this episode was only the most dramatic in a series of attacks. Clearing his name yet again, he became a close associate of Bonner
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Manly P. Hall
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Manly Palmer Hall was a Canadian-born author, lecturer, astrologer and mystic. He is best known for his 1928 work The Secret Teachings of All Ages, over his 70 year career, he gave thousands of lectures, including two at Carnegie Hall, and published over 150 volumes. In 1934, he founded The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, many of his lectures can be found online and his books are still in print. Manly P. Hall was born in 1901 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to William S. Hall, a dentist, and Louise Palmer Hall, less than a year later, Hall booked his first lecture, and the topic was reincarnation. Became a one-stop source of a range of eclectic spiritual material that resonates with the intellect. Hall was ordained a minister in the Church of the People on May 17,1923, and his first publications consisted of two small pamphlets, The Breastplate of the High Priest, and Wands and Serpents. The major books which followed include The Dionysian Artificers, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, under the subscription terms, $15 was due at signing of the agreement, and the balance of Sixty Dollars in four equal monthly payments each. Crocker Company of San Francisco agreed to publish the book if Hall could secure the interest of book designer John Henry Nash and his book challenged assumptions about societys spiritual roots and made people look at them in new ways. John Henry Nash agreed with me, more than 80 years later, with more than a million copies sold, The Secret Teachings of All Ages remains one of the most popular introductions to esoteric traditions. Attention to detail is exhibited by the Prefaces, there is a Special Foreword in the Theosophical Edition and the Rosicrucian Edition. Curiously, the May 1,1928, date of the Special Foreword in the Rosicrucian Edition precedes the May 28,1928, the 1928 editions were also issued with long, removable bookmarkers 1⅛ wide, made from dark red or brown silk. The first edition is of historical interest because it is the named first edition, the List of Subscribers includes 22 institutions, and the remaining 96% were private individuals. The 1928 editions quickly went out of print and the edition, published in 1936, was a reduced hardcover facsimile printed in black and white. In 1988 and 1997, it was reprinted with the J. Augustus Knapp plates reproduced in color and it was reprinted in paperback in 1989, and in paperback and hardcover in 2007. The type and plates from the 1928 editions were destroyed at the time of World War II, Mr. Hall added, Five editions were printed from the original type, and all of these have been out of print for nearly forty-five years. Since that time copies have been only available in rare book shops where they have commanded a high premium. A portion of the 1975 edition was numbered and signed by Mr. Hall, the Golden Anniversary edition was reprinted in 1977 and 1979. In 1988, a limited and a regular Diamond Jubilee Edition of the Subscribers Edition was published, the regular 1988 Diamond Jubilee Edition was not signed, numbered or gilded, it was reprinted in 1998
24.
A. E. Waite
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As his biographer R. A. Waite was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Waites father, Capt. Charles F. Waite, died when he was young, and his widowed mother, Emma Lovell, returned to her home country of England. As they were not well off, Waite was educated at a private school in North London. When he was 13, he was educated at St. Charles College. When he left school to become a clerk he wrote verse in his spare time, in 1863 Waites mother converted to Catholicism. The death of his sister Frederika Waite in 1874 soon attracted him into psychical research, at 21, he began to read regularly in the Library of the British Museum, studying many branches of esotericism. In 1881 Waite discovered the writings of Eliphas Levi, when Waite was almost 30 he married Ada Lakeman, and they had one daughter, Sybil. Some time after Lucastas death in 1924, Waite married Mary Broadbent Schofield and he spent most of his life in or near London, connected to various publishing houses and editing a magazine, The Unknown World. Waite joined the Outer Order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E. W. Berridge, in 1893 he withdrew from the Golden Dawn. In 1896 he rejoined the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn, in 1899 he entered the Second order of the Golden Dawn. He became a Freemason in 1901, and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902, in 1903 Waite founded the Independent and Rectified Order R. R. et A. C. This Order was disbanded in 1914, the Golden Dawn was torn by internal feuding until Waites departure in 1914, in July 1915 he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By that time there existed some half-dozen offshoots from the original Golden Dawn, aleister Crowley, Waites foe, referred to him as the villainous Arthwate in his novel Moonchild and referred to him as Dead Waite in his magazine Equinox. Lovecraft has a wizard in his short story The Thing on the Doorstep called Ephraim Waite, according to Robert M. Price. Waite was an author and many of his works were well received in academic circles. His works on the Holy Grail, influenced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, were particularly notable, Waite also wrote two allegorical fantasy novels, Prince Starbeam and The Quest of the Golden Stairs, and edited Elfin Music, an anthology of poetry based on English fairy folklore. The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot was notable for being one of the first tarot decks to illustrate all 78 cards fully, Golden Dawn member Pamela Colman Smith illustrated the cards for Waite, and the deck was first published in 1909. It is known that the inspiration for this deck was provided by Sola-Busca Tarot
25.
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
26.
Giordano Bruno
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Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist. He is remembered for his theories, which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and he also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its center. Brunos pantheism was also a matter of grave concern, the Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned at the stake in Romes Campo de Fiori in 1600. Brunos case is considered a landmark in the history of free thought. In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Arab astrology, Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and legends surrounding the Egyptian god Thoth. Other studies of Bruno have focused on his approach to mathematics. Born Filippo Bruno in Nola in 1548, he was the son of Giovanni Bruno, a soldier and his date of birth was given as January 1548, the exact date remains unknown. In his youth he was sent to Naples to be educated and he was tutored privately at the Augustinian monastery there, and attended public lectures at the Studium Generale. At the age of 17, he entered the Dominican Order at the monastery of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, taking the name Giordano, after Giordano Crispo and he continued his studies there, completing his novitiate, and became an ordained priest in 1572 at age 24. During his time in Naples he became known for his skill with the art of memory and on one occasion traveled to Rome to demonstrate his system before Pope Pius V. In his later years Bruno claimed that the Pope accepted his dedication to him of the lost work On The Ark of Noah at this time, while Bruno was distinguished for outstanding ability, his taste for free thinking and forbidden books soon caused him difficulties. Given the controversy he caused in life it is surprising that he was able to remain within the monastic system for eleven years. When he learned that an indictment was being prepared against him in Naples he fled, shedding his religious habit, from Venice he went to Padua, where he met fellow Dominicans who convinced him to wear his religious habit again. From Padua he went to Bergamo and then across the Alps to Chambéry and his movements after this time are obscure. In 1579 he arrived in Geneva, I desired to stay there only that I might live at liberty and in security. Things apparently went well for Bruno for a time, as he entered his name in the Rectors Book of the University of Geneva in May 1579, but in keeping with his personality he could not long remain silent. In August he published an attack on the work of Antoine de la Faye and he and the printer were promptly arrested
27.
Ahmad al-Buni
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Al-Buni lived in Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time. It was to be banned soon after as heretical by followers of the Islamic orthodoxy, instead of sihr, this kind of magic was called Ilm al-Hikmah, Ilm al-simiyah and Ruhaniyat. Most of the so-called mujarrabât books on sorcery in the Muslim world are simplified excerpts from the Shams al-maârif, the book remains the seminal work on Theurgy and esoteric arts to this day. 1200, Ahmad al-Buni showed how to construct magic squares using a simple bordering technique, al-Buni wrote about Latin squares and constructed, for example,4 x 4 Latin squares using letters from one of the 99 names of Allah. His works on traditional healing remains a point of reference among Yoruba Muslim healers in Nigeria, Ahmad al-Buni also left a list of other titles that he wrote. Unfortunately, very few of them have survived and it is stated in his work Manba’ Usul al-Hikmah that he acquired his knowledge of the esoteric properties of the letters from his personal teacher Abu Abdillah Shams al-Din al-Asfahâni. Al-Buni also made mention in his work of Plato, Aristotle, Hermes, Alexander the Great. In one of his works, he recounted a story of his discovery of a cache of manuscripts buried under the pyramids and his work is said to have influenced the Hurufis and the New Lettrist International. He may also have influenced the late Shii movement of Babism. Ahmad al-Buni Shams al-Maairf al-Kubra, Cairo,1928, Ahmad al-Buni, Sharh Ism Allah al-azam fi al-Ruhani, printed in 1357 AH or in Egypt al-Matbaat al-Mahmudiyyat al-Tujjariyyat bil-Azhar. Ahmad al-Buni, Kabs al-iktida, Oriental Manuscripts in Durham University Library Edgar W. Francis, the Names of God in the Writings of Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni Shams al-Maarif al-Kubra - شمس المعارف ولطائف العوارف Kabs al-iktida - قبس الإقتداء
28.
Eliphas Levi
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Éliphas Lévi, was a French occult author and ceremonial magician. Éliphas Lévi, the name under which he published his books, was his attempt to translate or transliterate his given names Alphonse Louis into the Hebrew language. Constant was the son of a shoemaker in Paris, he attended the seminary of Saint Sulpice since 1830, however, while at the seminary he fell in love and left in 1836 without being ordained. He spent the years among his socialist and Romantic friends, including Henri-François-Alphonse Esquiros and so-called petits romantiques such as Gérard de Nerval. When Constant published his first radical writing, La Bible de la liberté, he was sentenced to a prison term. Contemporaries saw in him the most notorious disciple of Lamennais, although the two men do not seem to have established a personal contact, in the following years, Constant would describe his ideology as communisme néo-catholique and publish a number of socialist books and pamphlets. Like many socialists, he propagated socialism as true Christianity and denounced the Churches as corruptors of the teachings of Christ, important friends at that time include, next to Esquiros, the feminist Flora Tristan, the excentric socialist mystic Simon Ganneau, and the socialist Charley Fauvety. In the course of the 1840s, Constant developed close ties to the Fourierist movement, publishing in Fourierist publications, several of his books were published by the Fourierist Librairie phalanstérienne. He also turned to the writings of the Catholic traditionalist Joseph de Maistre, an especially radical pamphlet, La voix de la famine, earned Constant another prison sentence that was significantly shortened at the request of his pregnant wife, Marie-Noémi Cadiot. In his Testament de la liberté, Constant reacted to the atmosphere that would produce the February Revolution, in 1848, he was the leader of an especially notorious Montagnard club known for its radicalism. Like many other socialists, the course of events, especially the massacres of the June Uprising in 1849, as his friend Esquiros recounted, their belief in the peaceful realization of a harmonious universal had been shattered. In December 1851, Napoleon III organized a coup that would end the Second Republic, similar to many other socialists at the time, Constant saw the Emperor as the defender of the people and the restorer of public order. What had changed, however, was Constants attitude towards the people, as early as in La Fête-Dieu and Le livre des larmes from 1845, he had been skeptical of the uneducated peoples ability to emancipate themselves. Similar to the Saint-Simonians, he had adopted the ideas of Joseph de Maistre in order to call for the establishment of a spiritual authority led by an élite class of priests. Constants activities reflect the socialist struggle to come to both with the failure of 1848 and the tough repressions by the new government. He participated on the socialist Revue philosophique et religieuse, founded by his old friend Fauvety, wherein he propagated his Kabbalistic ideas, for the first time in public, in 1855-1856. It has been shown that Constant has developed his ideas about magic in a milieu that was marked by the confluence of socialist. It has often noted that Constants reception of medieval or early modern magical sources has been remarkably superficial
29.
Spirituality
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Modern spirituality typically includes a belief in a supernatural realm, personal growth, a quest for an ultimate/sacred meaning, religious experience, or an encounter with ones own inner dimension. The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded over time, the term spirituality originally developed within early Christianity, referring to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit. The term spirit means animating or vital principle in man and animals and it is derived from the Old French espirit which comes from the Latin word spiritus and is related to spirare. In the Vulgate the Latin word spiritus is used to translate the Greek pneuma, the term spiritual, matters concerning the spirit, is derived from Old French spirituel, which is derived from Latin spiritualis, which comes from spiritus or spirit. The term spirituality is derived from Middle French spiritualité, from Late Latin spiritualitatem, there is no single, widely agreed definition of spirituality. A survey of reviews by McCarroll e. a. dealing with the topic of spirituality gave twenty-seven explicit definitions and this causes some difficulty in trying to study spirituality systematically, i. e. it impedes both understanding and the capacity to communicate findings in a meaningful fashion. To accomplish this, the re-formation is oriented at a mold, which represents the shape, in Judaism the Torah, in Christianity there is Christ, for Buddhism, Buddha. Houtman and Aupers suggest that modern spirituality is a blend of humanistic psychology, mystical and esoteric traditions, Spirituality is sometimes associated with philosophical, social, or political movements such as liberalism, feminist theology, and green politics. Some argue spirituality is intimately linked to resolving mental health issues, managing substance abuse, marital functioning, parenting, words translatable as spirituality first began to arise in the 5th century and only entered common use toward the end of the Middle Ages. In a Biblical context the term means being animated by God, to be driven by the Holy Spirit, in the 11th century this meaning changed. Spirituality began to denote the mental aspect of life, as opposed to the material and sensual aspects of life, in the 13th century spirituality acquired a social and psychological meaning. In the 17th and 18th century a distinction was made higher and lower forms of spirituality, A spiritual man is one who is Christian more abundantly. The word was associated with mysticism and quietism, and acquired a negative meaning. Modern notions of spirituality developed throughout the 19th and 20th century, mixing Christian ideas with westen esoteric traditions and elements of Asian, especially Indian, Spirituality became increasingly disconnected from traditional religious organisations and institutions. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a pioneer of the idea of spirituality as a distinct field, the Transcendentalists emphasised an intuitive, experiential approach of religion. Following Schleiermacher, an individuals intuition of truth was taken as the criterion for truth, in the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of Hindu texts appeared, which were also read by the Transcendentalists, and influenced their thinking. A major influence on modern spirituality was the Theosophical Society, which searched for secret teachings in Asian religions and it aims to present Hinduism as a homogenized ideal of Hinduism with Advaita Vedanta as its central doctrine. Due to the colonisation of Asia by the world, since the 19th century an exchange of ideas has been taking place between the western world and Asia, which also influenced western religiosity
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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
31.
Kabbalah
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Kabbalah is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought that originated in Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist in Judaism is called a Mekubbal, Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof and the mortal and finite universe. While it is used by some denominations, it is not a religious denomination in itself. It forms the foundations of religious interpretation. Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence and it also presents methods to aid understanding of the concepts and thereby attain spiritual realisation. Kabbalah originally developed within the realm of Jewish tradition, and kabbalists often use classical Jewish sources to explain, traditional practitioners believe its earliest origins pre-date world religions, forming the primordial blueprint for Creations philosophies, religions, sciences, arts, and political systems. Safed Rabbi Isaac Luria is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah and it was popularised in the form of Hasidic Judaism from the 18th century onwards. According to the Zohar, a text for kabbalistic thought. These four levels are called pardes from their initial letters, peshat, the direct interpretations of meaning. Derash, midrashic meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses, sod, the inner, esoteric meanings, expressed in kabbalah. Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a part of the study of Torah – the study of Torah being an inherent duty of observant Jews. A third tradition, related but more shunned, involves the magical aims of Practical Kabbalah and they can be readily distinguished by their basic intent with respect to God, The Theosophical tradition of Theoretical Kabbalah seeks to understand and describe the divine realm. Consequently, it formed a minor tradition shunned from Kabbalah. According to traditional belief, early kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs, prophets, According to this view, early kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BC, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel. Foreign conquests drove the Jewish spiritual leadership of the time to hide the knowledge and make it secret and it is hard to clarify with any degree of certainty the exact concepts within kabbalah. There are several different schools of thought with different outlooks, however. From the Renaissance onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by Christian Hebraists, syncretic traditions of Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah developed independently of Jewish Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universal ancient wisdom. Both adapted the Jewish concepts freely from their Judaic understanding, to merge with other theologies, religious traditions, with the decline of Christian Cabala in the Age of Reason, Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in Western esotericism
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Christian mysticism
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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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Metaphor
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A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas, antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. The Philosophy of Rhetoric by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts, the tenor and the vehicle, the tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed, other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the target and source, respectively. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes, a simile is a specific type of metaphor that uses the words like or as in comparing two objects, whereas what is commonly referred to as a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. What is usually referred to as a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity, for this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. The metaphor category also contains these types, Allegory, An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. Antithesis, A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences Catachresis, A mixed metaphor used by design and accident. Hyperbole, Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point Metonymy, A figure of speech using the name of one thing in reference to a different thing of which the first is associated, example, in lands belonging to the crown the word crown is metonymy for ruler or monarch. Parable, An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesops fables, pun, Similar to a metaphor, a pun alludes to another term. However, the difference is that a pun is a frivolous allusion between two different things whereas a metaphor is a purposeful allusion between two different things. Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two modes of thought. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the links within them. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of an image has become absent. Examples, to grasp a concept and to gather what youve understood use physical action as a metaphor for understanding, the audience does not need to visualize the action, dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché, others use dead metaphor to denote both. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification inconsistent with the first, e. g. Checkmate
34.
Johann Valentin Andreae
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Johannes Valentinus Andreä or Johann Valentin Andreae, was a German theologian, who claimed to be the author of an ancient text known as the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459. This became one of the three founding works of Rosicrucianism, which was both a legend and a fashionable semi-cult across Europe in this period, the focus of this movement was the need for education and the encouragement of sciences as the key to national prosperity. But like many vaguely-religious Renaissance movements at this time, the ideas being promoted were often tinged with hermeticism, occultism. Andreae was born at Herrenberg, Württemberg, the son of Johannes Andreae and his mother Maria Moser went to Tübingen as a widow and was court apothecary 1607–1617. The young Andreae studied theology and natural sciences 1604–1606 and he befriended Christoph Besold who encouraged Andreaes interest in esotericism. Ca.1605 he wrote the first version of The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosekreutz and he was refused the final examination and church service, probably for attaching a pasquill to the chancellor Enzlins door, on the occasion of his marriage. After that, he taught young nobles and hiked with his students through Switzerland, France, Austria and he visited Dillingen, a bastion of the Jesuits, whom he regarded as the Antichrist. In 1608 he returned to Tübingen and he came to know Tobias Hess, a Paracelsian physician with an interest in apocalyptic prophecy. From 1610 till 1612 Andreae traveled, in 1612 he resumed his theological studies in Tübingen. After the final examination in 1614, he became deacon in Vaihingen an der Enz, here he reformed the school and social institutions, and established institutions for charity and other aids. To this end, he initiated the Christliche Gottliebende Gesellschaft, in 1628 he planned a Unio Christiana. He obtained funds and brought effective help for the reconstruction of Calw, in 1639, he became preacher at the court and councillor of the consistory in Stuttgart, where he advocated a fundamental church reform. He became also an adviser to a royal princess of Württemberg. Among other things, he promoted the Tübinger Stift, a hall of residence and teaching which was a seminary owned and supported by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg, a prominent student of the Stift during this period was Johannes Kepler. In 1646, Andreae was made a member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, in 1650, he assumed direction of the monasterial school Bebenhausen. and in 1654, he became abbot of the evangelical monasterial school of Adelberg. His role in the origin of the Rosicrucian legend is controversial, in his autobiography he claimed that the Chymische Hochzeit was one of his works—as a ludibrium, possibly meaning lampoon. He said in old age that he wrote this fake document in his youth, in his later works, alchemy is treated as a subject of ridicule and is placed with music, art, theatre and astrology in the category of the less serious sciences. This utopian society was revived in Stuttgart in the early 1660s
