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cosmology

Aeons

Divine archetypal beings or eternal attributes dwelling within the Pleroma, often arranged in male-female syzygies.

105 passages · 8 traditions
gnosticism: 66 passagesgnosticism66greek_mystery: 10 passagesgreek_mystery10hermeticism: 10 passageshermeticism10neoplatonism: 8 passagesneoplatonism8western_esoteric: 5 passageswestern_esoteric5christian_mysticism: 4 passageschristian_mysticism4egyptian: 1 passageegyptian1jewish_mysticism: 1 passagejewish_mysticism1
gnosticism66
Gospel of Philip | Section 1d
When the child is grown, however, then the father turns over all he possesses. THE LOST Those who have gone astray are those born of the spirit. And they are usually lost because of the spirit. So from one single breath of spirit the fir…”
Gospel of Philip | Section 1k
If you become light, light will share you. If you are of those from above, one of those from above will rest in you. If you become a horse or a donkey or bull or dog or sheep or another animal that is wild or tame, then neither a person n…”
Gospel of Philip | Section 1l
Now they say, “He who creates engenders,” but his so-called offspring is merely a creature; therefore his children are not offspring but creatures. He who creates works openly and is visible. He who engenders does so in private. . . .…”
Gospel of Thomas | Logion 105
Jesus said, "He who knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot."…”
Pistis Sophia | Document FIRSTa
But it happened after that Jesus rose out of those who (are) dead, and he spent eleven years speaking with his disciples, and teaching them only as far as the Places of the First precept (Law?), and as far as the Places of the First Mystery…”
Pistis Sophia | Document FIRSTb
Because of this therefore they were thinking of that Mystery that it is the completion of all completions; and that it is the head of the Universe; and that [4 ] it is the whole Pleroma: since Jesus is wont to say unto his disciples that th…”
Pistis Sophia | Document FIRSTd
It happened while I am sitting being distant from you [9 ] a little upon the mountain of the Olives, thinking of the arrangement of the service concerning which they sent me, that it was finished: and the Last mystery dispatched not to me m…”
Pistis Sophia | Document FIRSTg
Now therefore we all together we wait for thee at the last Boundary, namely, the last mystery (reckoning) from within, he also is a part of us. Now therefore we have dispatched to thee thy vesture [17 ] which is thy very own from at first,…”
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greek_mystery10
Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 4)
Hence according to his theology there are two worlds, the intelligible and the sensible. Hence too his three demiurgic principles: Jovial, Dionysiacal, and Adonical, Δΐι#, ( ) Διονυσιακὴ, Αδωναϊκὴ, from whence many orders and differences o…”
Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 5 (part 3)
Again, Vesta, in the Orphic hymns, is the same with the mother of the Gods; and the mother of the Gods is celebrated as "always governing rivers and every sea m ; which perfectly agrees with the appellations given both to Love and Proteus.…”
Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 5 (part 4)
Now Nature is called in these hymns, or rather initiations πολυμήχανε μῆτερ, or much-mechanic Mother, and παντοτεχνεσ or universal Artist; and Minerva is denominated μητερ τεχνῶν, or Mother of Arts. Likewise Nature is expressly called ἀθαν…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn V. PROTOGONUS, Or the FIRST-BORN (part 1)
V. TO PROTOGONUS, Or the FIRST-BORN. The FUMIGATION from MYRRH. O Mighty first-begotten, hear my pray'r, 1 Two-fold, egg-born, and wand'ring thro' the air, p. 119 Bull-roarer, glorying in thy golden wings, 3 From whom the race of Gods a…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn XXXIII. APOLLO (part 3)
Ζεὺς δέ τε πάντων ἐςὶ ϑεὸς, πάντων τε κεραςὴς, Πνέυμασι συζι#ων, ( ) φωναῖσι τε ἀερομικτοις· That is, "But Jupiter is the God of all, and the mingler of all things; whistling with the breathing winds and aerial voices." And this perfectly a…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn XXXVII. THE CURETES +
XXXVII. TO THE CURETES + . The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. Brass-beating Salians, ministers of Mars, Who guard his arms the instruments of wars p. 168 Whose blessed frames, heav'n, earth, and sea compose, And from whose breath all animals…”
Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 5)
And in the same place, Proclus has preserved to us another copy of Orphic verses, which are also found in the writer (de Mundo); previous to which he observes, that the demiurgus, or artificer of the world, being full of ideas, comprehended…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn V. PROTOGONUS, Or the FIRST-BORN (part 2)
For Phanes is not only among the intelligible Gods, but also among the intellectual ones; in the demiurgic order, and among the super-mundane and mundane Gods. And Night and Heaven in a similar manner: for the peculiarities of these are re…”
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hermeticism10
Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1b
But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.…”
Corpus Hermeticum 3: The Sacred Sermon | Section 1
The Sacred Sermon 1. The Glory of all things is God, Godhead and Godly Nature. Source of the things that are is God, who is both Mind and Nature - yea Matter, the Wisdom that reveals all things. Source [too] is Godhead - yea Nature, Energy,…”
Corpus Hermeticum 11: The Hymn | Section 1a
Mind Unto Hermes <This complex text is written as a revelation from the divine Mind - the "Man-Shepherd" of CH I - to Hermes, concerning the nature of God and the universe. Difficult enough in its own right, it has been made rather more so…”
Corpus Hermeticum 12: The Prayer | Section 1b
But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching as to vice and Fate, for we have spoken of these things in other [of our sermons]; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind: - what Mind can do, and how it is [so] different - in men bein…”
Corpus Hermeticum 12: The Prayer | Section 1e
Observe this too, my son; that each one of the other lives inhabiteth one portion of the Cosmos - aquatic creatures water, terrene earth, and aery creatures air; while man doth use all these - earth, water air [and] fire; he seeth Heaven, t…”
Corpus Hermeticum 13: The Discourse of Hermes to Tat | Section 1e
Sing praise, my Self-control; sing thou through me, my Righteousness, the praises of the Righteous; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises! Sing thou, O Good, the Good! O Life and Light,…”
Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1c
And when she saw that Form of beauty which can never satiate, and him who [now] possessed within himself each single energy of [all seven] Rulers as well as God's own Form, she smiled with love; for 'twas as though she'd seen the image of M…”
Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1e
To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized;…”
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neoplatonism8
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 163
Section 7 7. That this world has neither beginning nor end but exists for ever as long as the Supreme stands is certainly no novel teaching. And before this school rose it had been urged that commerce with the body is no gain to a Soul. But…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 168 (part 1)
Section 12 12. And how does this image set to its task immediately after it comes into being? By memory of what it has seen? But it was utterly non-existent, it could have no vision, either it or the Mother they bestow upon it. Another…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 168 (part 2)
The theory, therefore, refers the entire process to pre-existing compulsions: the guilt inheres in the Primal Beings.…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 170
Section 14 14. In yet another way they infringe still more gravely upon the inviolability of the Supreme. In the sacred formulas they inscribe, purporting to address the Supernal Beings- not merely the Soul but even the Transcendents- they…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 509
Section 1 1. Philosophy at a very early stage investigated the number and character of the Existents. Various theories resulted: some declared for one Existent, others for a finite number, others again for an infinite number, while as regar…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 636 (part 2)
When you enumerate two things- say, animal and beauty- each of these remains one thing; the number is your production; it lay within yourself; it is you that elaborate quantity, here the dyad. But when you declare virtue to be a Tetrad, yo…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 488
Section 10 10. This is why Zeus, although the oldest of the gods and their sovereign, advances first [in the Phaidros myth] towards that vision, followed by gods and demigods and such souls as are of strength to see. That Being appears befo…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 497 (part 1)
Section 5 5. This Intellectual-Principle, if the term is to convey the truth, must be understood to be not a principle merely potential and not one maturing from unintelligence to intelligence- that would simply send us seeking, once more,…”
western_esoteric5
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolisml
The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem confirms the theory that Jesus was born in a grotto, or cave. According to Dupuis, Mithras was put to death by crucifixion and rose again on the third day. *** The theory that Mithra was originally…”
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismm
Of these shoots one is manifested from above, which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all things, male, and the other, [is manifested] from below, the Great Thought, female, producing all things. Hence pairing with each other…”
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismn
In discussing the original meaning of this word, Godfrey Higgins, in his Celtic Druids, has demonstrated that the numerological powers of the letters forming the word Abraxas when added together result in the sum of 365. The same author al…”
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismo
To the Gnostics, the Christ was the personification of Nous , the Divine Mind, and emanated from the higher spiritual Æons. He descended into the body of Jesus at the baptism and left it again before the crucifixion. The Gnostics declared…”
Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | 3. The Triangle Of Solomond
Matthew, and in several Hebrew copies, as follows: “The sacred word MALKUTH substituted for KETHER, which is its kabalistic correspondent, and the equipoise of GEBURAH and CHESED, repeating itself in the circles of heavens called eons by th…”
christian_mysticism4
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 3 (part 1)
p. 71 CHAPTER III. THE SEVEN PROPERTIES OR QUALITIES OF ETERNAL NATURE. 1 I. ♄ ☾ II. ☿ ♃ III. ♂ ♀ IV. ☉ V. ♀ ♂ VI. ♃ ☿ VII. ☾ ♄ When the Eternal One, in its aspect as a Trinity and with reference to divine wisdom, reveals itself o…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 4 (part 6)
"The created world was before the mysterium magnum, for all things were then in a spiritual condition in wisdom, as in a continual play or wrestle of love. The one only Will conceived this spiritual form into the Word, and permitted the in…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 7)
The heart of God wanted to have him in Paradise and to reside in him, for it said, 'He is my image and likeness.' The kingdom of wrath wanted him, for it said, 'He is mine; for he has issued out of my fountain, out of the eternal mind of th…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 14)
50.) 207:3 It should be remembered that these allegorical names do not refer to individual men, but to states of the universal mind. 208:1 " Seth " is a ray of love-light escaping from the fiery will. ( Mysterium Magnum , xxix. 24.) 209:…”
egyptian1
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 77)
The reader has now before him the main points of the evidence concerning the Egyptians' notions about God, and the cosmic powers and their phases, and the anthropomorphic creations with which they peopled the other world, all of which have…”
jewish_mysticism1
The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1a
CHAPTER V. 1. (It is written) Isa. i. 4: "Woe unto the sinful nation, unto the people heavy with iniquity, unto the seed of evildoers, &c." (Here the author of the "Siphra Dtzenioutha" reasoneth concerning the small word HVI, "woe," whi…”