The Reconciliation of Science and Religion: Eliphas Levi's Discourse on Gnostic Kabalah - the Human Verb, the Divine Verb and the Divine Humanity

The Reconciliation of Science and Religion: Eliphas Levi's Discourse on Gnostic Kabalah - the Human Verb, the Divine Verb and the Divine Humanity
Author: Eliphas Levi
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2011-05-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1257715860

This is the first English translation of Eliphas Levi's Preliminary Discourse from the second edition of his famous Dogma & Ritual of High Magic (also called Transcendental Magic in English). It is a Discourse on Gnostic Kabalah: the Human Verb, the Divine Verb and Divine Humanity. It is presented in a Bilingual format (English side-by-side with the original French) with copious footnotes and a sizable Editor's Appendix. Levi mentions it in his correspondence with his student Baron Spedalieri, saying: "...the economy of numbers necessitates the alliance of science and of faith which will constitute the absolute reason for the human verb upon an unshakable foundation, analogous to that of God, as I have demonstrated in the preliminary discourse of my second edition to Dogma and Ritual..."

Kabbalah, Magic, and the Great Work of Self-transformation

Kabbalah, Magic, and the Great Work of Self-transformation
Author: Lyam Thomas Christopher
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2006
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0738708933

Advancing to higher levels of ritual magic with purpose and power requires an exaltation of consciousness-a spiritual transformation that can serve as an antitode to the seeming banality of modern life. Based on Kabbalistic techniques, the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and an Hermetic tradition spanning nearly two thousand years, this innovative new work introduces the history of the Golden Dawn and its mythology, the Tree of Life, Deities, demons, rules for practicing magic, and components of effective ritual. A comprehensive course of self-initiation using Israel Regardie's seminal Golden Dawn as a key reference point, Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation guides you through the levels of the Golden Dawn system of ritual magic. Each grade in this system corresponds with a sphere in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and includes daily rituals, required reading, written assignments, projects, and additional exercises. Knowledgeable and true to tradition, author Lyam Thomas Christopher presents a well-grounded and modern step-by-step program toward spiritual attainment, providing a lucid gateway toward a more awakened state. Finalist for the Coalition of Visionary Resources Award for Best Magick/Shamanism Book

The Mysteries of Magic - A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi

The Mysteries of Magic - A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi
Author: Arthur Edward Waite
Publisher:
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2019-04-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781528711470

"The Mysteries Of Magic" is a 1927 work by A. E. Waite that explores the life and work of Éliphas Lévi Zahed (1810 - 1875), a French occult author and ceremonial magician. Arthur Edward Waite (1857 - 1942), more commonly referred to as A. E. Waite, was an American-born British mystic and poet. He wrote profusely on the subject of the occult and esoteric matters, and is famous for being the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. His work arguably constitutes the first attempt to systematically studying the history of western occultism, which he viewed more of a spiritual tradition than proto-science or pseudo-religion, as was the more common conception. Contents include: "Life of Alphonse Louis Constant", "Notes on the Mysteries of Magic as expounded in the Occult Philosophy of Eliphas Levi", "Threshold of Magical Science", "Doctrines of Occult Force", "Written Tradition of Magic", "Doctrine of Spiritual Essences, or Kabbalistic Pneumatics", "Ceremonial Magic", "Science of the Prophets", etc. Other works by this author include: "The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly" (1893), "Turba Philsophorum" (1894), and "Devil-Worship in France" (1896). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Gnostic Mysteries of Sex

Gnostic Mysteries of Sex
Author: Tobias Churton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2015-08-17
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1620554224

An exploration of the sexual practices and doctrinal secrets of Gnosticism • Reconstructs the lost world of Gnostic spiritual-erotic experience through examination of every surviving text written by heresiologists • Investigates the sexual gnosis practices of the Barbelo Gnostics of the 2nd century and their connections to the Gnostic Aeon Sophia, the Wild Lady of Wisdom • Explains the vital significance of “the seed” as a sacrament in Gnostic practice Examining every surviving text written by heresiologists, accounts often ignored in favor of the famous Nag Hammadi Library, Tobias Churton reveals the most secret inner teaching passed down by initiated societies: the tradition of sexual gnosis--higher union with God through the sacrament of sex. Discovering actual sex practices hidden within the writings of the Church’s authorities, he reconstructs the lost world of Gnostic spiritual-erotic experience as taught by initiated masters and mistresses and practiced by Christian couples seeking spiritual freedom from the world. Churton explores the practices of the “first Gnostic,” the historical Simon Magus, and explains the vital significance of “the seed” in Gnostic practice, showing it to be the sacramental substance par excellence. He illuminates the suppressed truth of why the name “Valentine” came to be associated with ennobling erotic love and reveals profound parallels between sexual gnosis and Tantra, suggesting that gnosis lies at the root of the tantric path. Solving a millennia-old riddle regarding the identity and secret symbol of Sophia, the mysterious Gnostic “Aeon,” Churton investigates Sophia’s connections to Barbelo, also known as Pruneikos, the Wild Lady of Wisdom, and the central focus of the Barbelo Gnostics of the 2nd century, whose religious sex practices so shocked orthodox Christian contemporaries that they were condemned, their cults of spiritual gnosis and “redemption by sin” driven underground. Churton exposes the mystery of Sophia in the philosophy of the medieval Troubadours and explores William Blake’s inheritance of secret Renaissance sexual mysticism through the revolutionary English poet Andrew Marvell. Showing how Blake’s sexual and spiritual revolution connects to modern sexual magic, Churton also examines the esoteric meaning of the free-love explosion of the 1960s, revealing how sex can be raised from the realm of guilt into the highest magical sacrament of spiritual transformation.

The Origins of Self-Consciousness in The Secret Doctrine

The Origins of Self-Consciousness in The Secret Doctrine
Author: H. P. Blavatsky
Publisher: Theosophy Trust Books
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2009
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0979320542

Any attempt to explain the mysterious connections between consciousness and matter, and self-consciousness in particular, necessarily involves much complexity. Because all levels of relative reality are present here and now, the human being embodies the whole hierarchy of the cosmos: a microcosm of the macrocosm, to use an insightful Renaissance expression. Besides the physical human body, there is the dynamic structural plan of that body (called the 'astral body'), the desire nature, the life force that permeates all living creatures, consciousness involved in sense perception and practical operations, consciousness capable of universal thought and awareness, and pure consciousness manifest in pristine intuition. Above these six principles of human nature broods the luminous spirit called the Atman. Many people are seldom aware of anything more in themselves than the first five of these principles, although many also have intuitive glimpses of universal understanding, often as transcendent experiences which cannot be sustained. Because understanding cannot be separated from experience, and experience cannot be divorced from the way we live, think, feel and have our being, various spiritual traditions have offered practices to nurture these inner awakenings to our higher natures and to a greater awareness of spiritual reality. Theosophy connects together how we live our lives, what we think and how we focus our attention, the bold exploration of our inner natures, how we react to what comes to us (karma), and how we can build depth of awareness across lifetimes, with Enlightenment. Theosophy, therefore, connects ethics and action, including both physical action in the world and the action of our own thoughts. Where we are ignorant of all the dimensions of our circumstances-and, short of Enlightenment, we are all ignorant-motive for thought and action is fundamental for altering one's karmic trajectory and future incarnations. The selections from The Secret Doctrine in this book are gathered with a focus on the consciousness exhibited in Nature, its origin and destiny, and on human self-consciousness, in particular. This book therefore explores one vital current in the Ocean of Wisdom that is Theosophy. A thoughtful and persistent reading of these texts will radically transform one's understanding of the unity of self-consciousness and the world around us, and of one's place in the greater scheme of things.

Moses Cordovero's Introduction to Kabbalah

Moses Cordovero's Introduction to Kabbalah
Author: Moses ben Jacob Cordovero
Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1994
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780881254396

First published in 1587, Moses Cordovero's now classic introduction to Kabbalah, Or Ne'erav, was intended to serve several purposes; it was meant both to provide a justification for the study of Kabbalah and to encourage that study by providing detailed instructions for interested laymen on how to go about that study; indeed, it was intended as a precis of Cordovero's much larger Pardes Rimmonim. In many ways, Cordovero was ideally suited to compose such a work. His teacher of rabbinics was no other than R. Joseph Caro, author of the Shulhan Arukh, which rapidly became the halakhic code par excellence. His master in Kabbalah was Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz, whose sister he subsequently married. The result of his studies with both was no less than a kabbalistic "code", a systematic kabbalistic theology of the Zohar, the basic text of Jewish mysticism. But this work was too large, and too complex to be easily mastered. Moreover, it assumed too much previous knowledge to serve as an introduction to the subject; hence the need for Or Ne'erav. Or Ne'erav succeeded in fulfilling all these purposes, and has remained a classic introduction to the study of Kabbalah - and is used as such to this day. Dr. Robinson's accurate but readable translation is the first English rendition of this essential work. -- Back cover.

The Narrow Way

The Narrow Way
Author: Samael Aun Weor
Publisher: Glorian Publishing
Total Pages: 304
Release:
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1943358052

The Secret History of Freemasonry

The Secret History of Freemasonry
Author: Paul Naudon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 427
Release: 2005-03-28
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1620553376

Explores the hidden history of Freemasonry from ancient Rome, through the Middle Ages, to the present • Shows the close connection between medieval masons and the Knights Templar • Illustrates the sacred nature of Roman and medieval trade associations • Reveals the missing link that connects the lodges of modern Freemasonry to the medieval brotherhoods of builders Historians often make a sharp distinction between the operative Masonry of the Middle Ages and the speculative Masonry of modern times, emphasizing that there is no direct bridge connecting the two. Modern historians also have scoffed at Masonic claims concerning the close relationship between the Lodge and the Temple. Using medieval archives housed throughout Europe, historian Paul Naudon reveals that there was in fact a very intimate connection between the Masons and the Knights Templar. Church records of medieval Paris show that most, if not all, the Masons of that time were residents of the Templar censive, which allowed them to enjoy great exemptions and liberties from both church and state as a result of the protection afforded them by this powerful order. Naudon shows that the origins of Freemasonry can be traced back to the collegia of ancient Rome. He traces the evolution of organizations such as the Comacine Masters, the Arab turuqs, and the brotherhoods of builders created under the aegis of the Benedictines and the Knights Templar, all of which provide the vehicle for the transmission of a sacred tradition from pre-Christian times to the modern era. This tradition is the source of Masonic ritual and symbolism, and it provides the missing link in the transformation of the operative Masonry of the medieval cathedral builders to the spiritual principles of modern speculative Masonry.