cosmology
Aeons
Divine archetypal beings or eternal attributes dwelling within the Pleroma, often arranged in male-female syzygies.
128 passages · 9 traditions
gnosticism71
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | Barbelo
“This is because [we do] not [understand unspeakable things, and we] do not understand what [cannot be measured], apart from him who originated [from] him, that is, [the] Father, because he [alone] is the one
who [explained] it to us, given…”
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Only-Begotten
“He also peered into Barbelo with the pure light that surrounds the unseen Spirit, and his spark, and from him she conceived. He begot a light- spark by means of a light similar to blessedness, but (the latter) is not equal to his greatness.…”
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Four Lights
“[IV, 11] Eternal Life also <with> his Will, and Mind with Precognition, attended and extolled the unseen Spirit and Barbelo, given that they had come into being on her account. The holy Spirit also completed the self- generated God, his Son…”
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | Pigera-Adamas and Seth
“Further, from the Precognition of Perfect Mind, by means of the revelation of the will of the unseen Spirit and the will of the self-generated one, (issued forth) <the> Perfect Man, the first revelation, even the truth.
He is the one whom…”
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | Yaltabaoth-a
“Further, being an aeon, Sophia of Reflection thought a thought [IV, 15] on her own, together with the conception of the unseen Spirit and Precognition. She willed to bring forth a likeness from out of herself, apart from the agreement of th…”
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.
.
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.…”
Show all 71 →theosophy24
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 9)
“As may be judged, however, from the most important, as the best known of the Rosicrucians' symbols, there is one which has never been hitherto understood even by modern mystics.
It is that of the "Pelican" tearing open its breast to feed i…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 4 (part 2)
“T HE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS REMAIN, AND STILL O EAOHOO IS ONE.
6.
T HE ROOT OF LIFE WAS IN EVERY DROP OF THE OCEAN OF IMMORTALITY, AND THE OCEAN WAS RADIANT LIGHT, WHICH WAS FIRE, AND HEAT, AND MOTION.
D ARKNESS VANIS…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 4 (part 3)
“T HEY MAKE OF HIM THE MESSENGER OF THEIR WILL.
T HE D ZYU BECOMES F OHAT, THE SWIFT SON OF THE D IVINE SONS WHOSE SONS ARE THE L IPIKA, RUNS CIRCULAR ERRANDS.
F OHAT IS THE STEED AND THE THOUGHT IS THE RIDER.
H E PASSES LIKE LIGHTNING TH…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 5 (part 2)
“Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the has-been, out of the future into the past -- present momentarily to our senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total selves, as they pass through time and space…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 5 (part 3)
“D ARKNESS ALONE FILLED THE BOUNDLESS ALL ( a ), FOR FATHER, MOTHER AND SON WERE ONCE MORE ONE, AND THE SON HAD NOT AWAKENED YET FOR THE NEW WHEEL* AND HIS PILGRIMAGE THEREON ( b ).
( a ) "Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son," says a…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 8 (part 2)
“Latent, during Pralaya, and active, during Manvantara, the "Primordial" proceed from "Father-Mother" (Spirit-Hyle, or Ilus ); whereas the other manifested Quaternary and the Seven proceed from the Mother alone.
It is the latter who is the…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 8 (part 3)
“"Ten is the Mother of the Soul, for Life and Light are therein united," says Hermes.
"For number one is born of the Spirit and the number ten from matter (chaos, feminine); the unity has made the ten, the ten the unity" ( Book of the Keys…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 8 (part 4)
“He designed and hewed therewith the throne of glory and the wheels, and the seraphim and the holy animals and the ministering angels, and of the three He founded his dwelling, as it is said, He makes his angels spirits and his servants fier…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 2)
“They are, so to speak, the eternal prototypes of the Buddhas who appear on this earth, each of whom has his particular divine prototype.
So, for instance, Amitabha is the Dhyani-Buddha of Gautama Sakyamuni, manifesting through him whenever…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 3)
“Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes, the action of which resembles -- on an immense scale -- that of a living Force created…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 4)
“This esotericism is the common property of all, and belongs neither to the Aryan 5th Race, nor to any of its numerous Sub-races.
It cannot be claimed by the Turanians, so-called, the Egyptians, Chinese, Chaldeans, nor any of the Seven divi…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 6)
“It was also taught by his pupil Ecphantus, and by Heraclides, a pupil of Plato.
The immobility of the Sun and the orbital rotation of the earth were shown by Aristarchus of Samos as early as 281 B.C .
to be suppositions accordant with fac…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 13 (part 2)
“And the Dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." The Kabalistic version of the same story is given in the Codex Nazareus, the scripture of the Nazarenes, the real mystic Christians…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 13 (part 3)
“It is already the outline of the two "Supremes" -- God and Satan.
But in the Stanzas no such idea exists.
Most of the Western Christian Kabalists -- pre-eminently Eliphas Levi -- in their desire to reconcile the Occult Sciences with Churc…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 14 (part 8)
“These "Father and Son" were interchangeable in their functions and worked harmoniously together in their effects upon terrestrial nature and humanity; hence they were regarded as ONE, though TWO in personified Entities.
They were both male…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 21 (part 2)
“In his "Revelation," speaking of divine mysteries expressed by means of letters and numbers, Marcus narrates how the "Supreme Tetrad came down unto me (him) from the region which cannot be seen nor named, in a female form , because the worl…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 23 (part 3)
“"Awaking at the end of his night, the unborn .
.
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creates the Universe anew.
.
.
.
" ( Vishnu Purana.
) This is "incidental" pralaya; what is the Elemental Dissolution?
"When by dearth and fire," says Parasara to Maitreya, "all th…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 23 (part 4)
“In the Zohar we read as follows: -- "As Moses was keeping a vigil on Mount Sinai, in company with the deity, who was concealed from his sight by a cloud, he felt a great fear overcome him, and suddenly asked: 'Lord, where art thou .
.
.…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 27 (part 3)
“Anger, my son, is the destruction of [[Vol.
1, Page]] 416 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
all that man obtains .
.
.
and prevents the attainment of emancipation.
The sages shun wrath.
Be not thou, my child, subject to its influence.
Let not th…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 28 (part 10)
“, a fiery serpent, the Gnostic Agathodaemon probably.* As explained, the "sacred animals" and the Flames or "Sparks" within the "Holy Four" refer to the prototypes of all that is found in the Universe in the Divine Thought , in the R OOT, w…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 29 (part 2)
“First from ONE emanated number TWO, or Air, the creative element; and then number THREE, Water , proceeded from the air; Ether or Fire complete the mystic four, the Arba-il.
(Ibid.) In the Eastern doctrine Fire is the first Element -- Ethe…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 77 (part 4)
“And this ideal conception is found beaming like a golden ray upon each idol, however coarse and grotesque, in the crowded galleries of the sombre fanes of India and other Mother lands of cults.
This will be demonstrated in the following Se…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 79 (part 7)
“The earliest Zoroastrians did not believe in Evil or Darkness being co-eternal with Good or Light, and they give the same interpretation.
Ahriman is the manifested shadow of A HURA-MAZDA (Asura-mazda), himself issued from Zeruana Akerne "b…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 85 (part 4)
“The writer presumes to explain these things neither to the Hindus, who have their own Gurus; nor to the Orientalists, who think they know more than all the Gurus and Rishis, past and present, put together.
These rather lengthy quotations a…”
← Collapsehermeticism10
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 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;…”
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 11: The Hymn | Section 1b
“It <i.e., Soul> fills it <i.e., the Body of the Cosmos> from within, and from without encircles it, making the All to live.
Without, this vast and perfect Life [encircles] Cosmos; within, it fills [it with] all lives; above, in Heaven, con…”
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…”
Show all 10 →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 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,…”
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…”
western_esoteric6
Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune) | 11. The Psychic Element In Mental Disturbance-d
“The older faiths knew this, but popular Christianity, which has no roots in tradition, has forgotten it.
Protestant Christianity threw away its occult aspect at the Reformation.
All the pagan pantheons have gross aspects of divinities as…”
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism-l
“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 Symbolism-m
“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 Symbolism-n
“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 Symbolism-o
“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 Solomon-d
“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:…”
greek_mystery3
Orphic Hymns | Hymn V. PROTOGONUS, Or the FIRST-BORN
“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 and m…”
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 | Hymn XXXVIII. CORYBAS * The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE
“XXXVIII. TO CORYBAS * The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. THE mighty ruler of this earthly ball, For ever flowing, to these rites I call; p. 170 Martial and blest, unseen by mortal sight, Preventing fears, and pleas'd with gloomy night: Hence…”
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…”