Esoterism

For nearly 400 years, incredible myths and stories have been woven around the “invisible” Brothers of the Rose Cross, the Rosicrucians. It is said that they possessed the secret of man and God, that they could turn lead into gold, that they governed Europe in secret, that theirs was the true philosophy of Freemasonry, and that they could save--or destroy--the world.

Robert Fludd was one of the last true 'Renaissance men' who took all learning as their preserve and tried to encompass the whole of human knowledge. His voluminous writings were devoted to defending the philosophy of the alchemists and Rosicrucians, and applying their doctrines to a vast description of man and the universe.

The Rosicrucian Emblems is a significant yet little-known work of emblematic philosophy published in 1617, only one year after the appearance of The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. The work consists of 40 emblematic plates, each bearing a title, together with a verse from the Bible and two lines in Latin.

Esoteric tradition has long maintained that at the dawn of human civilization there existed a unified science-religion, a spiritual grasp of the universe and our place in it. The biblical Enoch--also known as Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, or Idris--was seen as the guardian of this sacred knowledge, which was inscribed on pillars known as Enoch's or Seth's pillars.

Ancient and classical societies have always had an ideal of manhood. In Japan, the samurai cultivated not only the art of the sword but also poetry, calligraphy, and spiritual practice. In Confucianism, the ideal man was the Chun-Tzu (the Higher Man), who cultivated both the arts of war and the arts of peace. And, in medieval Europe, the knight lived by the comparable code of chivalry.

One of the most important texts in the Western magical tradition for nearly 500 years, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's 1533 work THREE BOOKS OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY collates a multitude of sources from the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance periods and organizes them into a coherent explanation of the magical world.

· Examines each line of the Book of the Law in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, Gurdjieff's teachings and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought · Explores Crowley's identification with the First Beast of Revelations as well as his adoption of the Loki archetype for becoming a vessel of love for all humanity · Recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal ...

Found near the small village of Shunga in Russia, the remarkable mineral known as shungite, formed naturally more than two billion years ago from living single-cell organisms. Used in Russian healing therapies since the time of Peter the Great, shungite contains almost the entire periodic table of the elements as well as fullerenes, the hollow carbon-based molecules that recent research shows are ...

· Exposes the esoteric influences behind the National Grange Order of Husbandry · Examines the sacred design and hidden purpose of the Washington Monument · Reveals how the three obelisks in New York City depict the stars of Orion's Belt · Explains how every baseball diamond is actually a temple to the Goddess In AMERICA: ...

During Paris's Belle Époque (1871–1914), many cultural movements and artistic styles flourished - Symbolism, Impressionism, Art Nouveau, the Decadents - all of which profoundly shaped modern culture. Inseparable from this cultural advancement was the explosion of occult activity taking place in the City of Light at the same time.

Set within the dramatic tableau of the mediaeval Crusades, this story of initiation, adventure and romance follows members of the Knights Templar and Assassins as they discover a mystical tradition with the potential to unify, protect and liberate humankind - the very heresy for which the Knights Templar were later condemned.

The Tarot is a mythic map of the world and of consciousness. It offers a meta-language of signs and symbols that communicate their meaning precisely. Yet the true origins of the Tarot remain shrouded in mystery. These oracular cards have long been thought to have come from Egypt or from the “Gypsies,” but as Stephen E.

Written two years before his most prominent book Revolt Against the Modern World, Julius Evola's THE FALL OF SPIRITUALITY was originally published in Italian as Maschera e volto dello spiritualismo contemporaneo (The Mask and Face of Contemporary Spiritualism).

Mention the Hell-Fire Clubs and you conjure up an image of aristocratic rakes cutting a swath through the village maidens. Which is true, but not the whole truth. The activities of these clubs of upper-class Englishmen revolved around not only debauchery, but, also, blasphemy, ritual, quasi-magical pursuits and political intrigue.

· Explores the golden civilization of ancient Egypt and its system of natural magic that birthed the Western Mystery tradition · Examines each phase of Egyptian history from the Pharaonic period, through the Roman conquest, to the ongoing Islamization · Provides a revised portrait of the life of Muhammad, revealing his connections to the Essene tradition Imagine the paradise of ancient ...

In SECRET SOCIETIES AND THE HERMETIC CODE, Ernesto Frers presents a virtual museum of artistic works that contain occult secrets. The scope of his research ranges from the paintings of Byzantine icons to Salvador Dali, from mystery sites such as the Pyramids to the architecture of Andrea Palladio's Villa Cornaro.

In Antiquity, the art of memory was a mnemonic device that allowed an orator, such as Cicero, to recall all the points he wished to make by associating each of them with an image or architectural element in the site he was speaking.

The main purpose of the hermetic science, as seen by Giuliano Kremmerz (1861-1930), Italian alchemist, hermeticist, philosopher and member of the Ur Group, is to allow the adept to concentrate on the natural and divine magic that will allow him or her to develop the latent powers innate in every human being.

Exploring the craftsman, warrior and magician archetypes - three vocations that echo the traditional tripartite division of society, Angel Millar reveals how these archetypes represent the three successive stages of spiritual growth in an individual's life. He shows how they provide structure for the initiatory process to develop one's mental, physical and spiritual potential.

Drawing on ancient Egyptian and Greek cosmogonies and essential Hermetic texts, such as the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina), and the Nag Hammadi codices, Marlene Seven Bremner offers a detailed understanding of Hermetic philosophy and the art of alchemy as a foundation for a psycho-spiritual creative practice.