anthropology
Childlike Innocence
The infant or child as symbol of the unfallen, undivided spiritual state; return to primordial simplicity.
77 passages · 13 traditions
finnic15
◆The Kalevala | Rune IIIh
“for waning beauty, Childhood vanished, youth departed, Silver sunshine, golden moonlight, Hope and pleasure of my childhood, Taken from me now forever, And so soon to be forgotten At the tool-bench of my brother, At the window of my sister,…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune IVc
“Deck thy brow with silken ribbon, Trim with gold thy throbbing temples, And thy neck with pearly necklace, Hang the gold-cross on thy bosom, Robe thyself in pure, white linen Spun from flax of finest fiber; Wear withal the richest short-fro…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XId
“If ye do not heed this order, Ye shall badly fare as maidens; I shall sing to war your suitors, Sing them under spear and broadsword, That for months, and years, and ages, Never ye will see their faces, Never hear their merry voices, Never…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XIXe
“Tell me is the maiden ready, Wilt thou give the bride affianced?
Spake the hostess of Pohyola: "I will give to thee my daughter, Will prepare my snow-white virgin, For the suitor, Ilmarinen; Thou hast won the Maid of Beauty, Bride is she o…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXId
“Never will these benches echo Till the bench-guests chant thy virtues; Nor the floor resound thy praises Till the floor-guests sing in concord; Nor the windows join the chorus Till the window-guests have spoken; All the tables will keep sil…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIIa
“BRIDE S FAREWELL.
When the marriage was completed, When the many guests had feasted, At the wedding of the Northland, At the Dismal-land carousal, Spake the hostess of Pohyola To the blacksmith, Ilmarinen: "Wherefore, bridegroom, dost thou…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIId
“Not to sleep art thou conducted, Not to happiness, nor joyance, Wakefulness, thy night-companion, And thy day-attendant, trouble; Often thou wilt drink of sorrow, Often long for vanished pleasures.
"When at home thou hadst no head-gear, Th…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIIe
“Differently I had thought it, I had hoped for greater pleasures, I had hoped to sing as cuckoos, On the hill-tops call and echo, When I had attained this station, Reached at last the goal expectant; But I am not like the cuckoo, Singing, me…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIVd
“Then I sought for other measures, Used on her my last resources, Cut a birch-whip in the forest, And she spake in tones endearing; Cut a juniper or willow, And she called me 'hero-darling'; When with lash my wife I threatened, Hung she on m…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIVe
“Now I leave these friends of childhood, Journey southward with my husband, To the arms of Night and Winter, O'er the ice-grown seas of Northland.
"Should I once again, returning, Pay a visit to my tribe-folk, Mother would not hear me calli…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIVf
“But the youth remained for singing, This the chorus of the children: "Hither came a bird of evil' Flew in fleetness from the forest, Came to steal away our virgin, Came to win the Maid of Beauty; Took away our fairest flower, Took our merma…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XXXVId
“Bitterly he wept and murmured, Wept one day, and then a second, On the third day spake as follows: "Faithful mother, fond and tender, Why hast left me here to sorrow In this wilderness of trouble?
But thou dost not hear my calling, Though…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune La
“—WAINAMOINEN'S DEPARTURE.
Mariatta, child of beauty, Grew to maidenhood in Northland, In the cabin of her father, In the chambers of her mother, Golden ringlets, silver girdles, Worn against the keys paternal, Glittering upon her bosom; Wo…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune Ld
“Spake the wife of old Ruotus: 'Occupied are all the chambers, All the bath-rooms near the reed-brook; In the mount of fire are couches, Is a stable, in the forest, For the flaming horse of Hisi; In the stable is a manger, Fitting birth-plac…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune Le
“"O, thou guiding-star of Northland, Star of hope, by God created, Dost thou know and wilt thou tell me Where my darling child has wandered, Where my holy babe lies hidden?" Thus the star of Northland answers: "If I knew, I would not tell th…”
← Collapsechristian_mysticism13
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 8)
“1 "When my spirit, full of sorrow, earnestly, and as if moving in a great storm, arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart and mind, with all my thoughts and with the whole of my will, and when I would not cease to wrestle with the love…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 10)
“It is itself the most secret thing, which can be known by no one except by him who has experienced it; neither do those that live entirely within the realm of animality, or within that of the speculating intellect, believe that such a state…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 4)
“28.) "In Paradise the substance of the divine world penetrated the substance belonging to time, comparable to the power of the sun penetrating a fruit growing on a tree, and endowing it with such qualities as render it lovely to the sight a…”
◆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 7 (part 11)
“162 [paragraph continues] Eve, the latter was the first to be seduced to fall away from God.
1 "The lust originated in Adam, but thereupon this perverted desire began to be excited in the woman." ( Stiefel , ii.
375.) "Eve was lusting aft…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 8)
“For the internal being is continually labouring to manifest itself outwardly.
Thus everything has its own mouth for the purpose of revealing itself, and therein is based the language of nature, by means of which each thing speaks out of it…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 6)
“He could generate in a virginal state, and procreate by means of his will and out of his own substance, without any pain or laceration." ( Threefold Life , ii.
24.) "If man had withstood the temptation one human being would have been born…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 5)
“If, then, the soul of the child is in the Holy Trinity, do you then not think that its glorious light beautifully illuminates the mother, and does not that mother rightfully put her feet upon the Moon, 1 as being exalted above all that is o…”
Show all 13 →taoism12
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 3
“Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the way to keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not to prize articles which are difficult to procure is the way to keep them from becoming thieves; not to show them what is likely…”
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 15
“The skilful masters (of the Tao) in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep (also) so as to elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make an effort to desc…”
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 57
“A state may be ruled by (measures of) correction; weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity; (but) the kingdom is made one's own (only) by freedom from action and purpose. How do I know that it is so? By these facts:--In the kingdom…”
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 76
“Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the c…”
◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 10
“When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a (tender) b…”
◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 19
“If we could renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom, it would be better for the people a hundredfold. If we could renounce our benevolence and discard our righteousness, the people would again become filial and kindly. If we could reno…”
◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 20
“When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'-- Small is the difference they display. But mark their issues, good and ill;-- What space the gulf between shall fill? What all men fear is indeed to…”
◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 28
“Who knows his manhood's strength, Yet still his female feebleness maintains; As to one channel flow the many drains, All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky. Thus he the constant excellence retains; The simple child again, free from all s…”
Show all 12 →gnosticism9
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1i
“His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” The tree of life in the middle of that garden of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree comes chrism, and from that oil comes the resurrection.
THE WORLD EATS BODIES The world e…”
◆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 Thomas | Logion 21
“Mary said to Jesus, "Whom are your disciples like?" He said, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They (will) undress in the…”
◆Pistis Sophia | Document FIRST
“The truth also is the power which came out of thee, thou being in the Place below of the Chaos.
Because of this, thy power said by David, The truth burst forth out of the earth, because that thou art in the Place below of the Chaos.
The r…”
◇Gospel of Thomas | Logion 4
“Jesus said, "The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same."…”
◇Gospel of Thomas | Logion 22
“Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one…”
◇Gospel of Thomas | Logion 37
“His disciples said, "When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?" Jesus said, "When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then w…”
◇Gospel of Thomas | Logion 39
“Jesus said, "The pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge (gnosis) and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as wise as serpents and as innocent a…”
Show all 9 →western_esoteric7
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XIV (part 1)
“p.
156 CHAPTER XIV The voices of stones.
The wall of a church and the wall of a prison.
The mast of a ship and a gallows.
The shadow of a hangman and of an ascetic.
The soul of a hangman and of an ascetic.
The different combinations o…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXII (part 10)
“But it does not bear fruit presently; and, though it blossoms, they fall off; also many a cold wind, frost and snow, puff upon it, before it comes to any growth and bearing of fruit.
Boehme's books are full of wonderment before these myste…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXIII (part 6)
“Doubt of God and of eternal life will be as impossible as is now doubt of existence; the evidence of each will be the same.
Religion will govern every minute of every day of all life.
Churches, priests, forms, creeds, prayers, all agents,…”
◆Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductiona
“KNOWEST thou that old queen of the world who is on the march always and wearies never?
Every uncurbed passion, every selfish pleasure, every licentious energy of humanity, and all its tyrannous weakness, go before the sordid mistress of ou…”
◆Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) | 21. The Science Of The Prophetsb
“The soul, scrutinizing by means of the whole nervous system the circle of the Astral Light, which influences a man and from him receives an influence; the soul of the diviner, we repeat, can comprehend by a single intuition all the loves an…”
◇Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XVIII (part 1)
“p.
213 CHAPTER XVIII Rationality and life.
Life as knowledge.
Intellect and emotions.
Emotion as an organ of knowledge.
The evolution of emotion from the standpoint of knowledge.
Pure and impure emotions.
Personal and impersonal emot…”
◇Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XVIII (part 8)
“There can be pure sympathy, and there can be sympathy mixed with calculation to receive something for one's sympathy.
There can be pure love of knowledge, a thirst for knowledge for its own sake, and there can be an inclination to knowledg…”
celtic6
◆The Mabinogion | Tale PEREDUR THE SON OF EVRAWCa
“Earl Evrawc owned the Earldom of the North.
And he had seven sons.
And Evrawc maintained himself not so much by his own possessions as by attending tournaments, and wars, and combats.
And, as it often befalls those who join in encounters…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale PEREDUR THE SON OF EVRAWCb
““Go forward,” said Peredur, “for I saw such an one as thou inquirest for, and I will follow thee.” Then Peredur returned to his mother and her company, and he said to her, “Mother, those were not angels, but honourable knights.” Then his mo…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINb
“And just as she was about to stoop upon him, and he was in fear of death, he espied a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor of a barn, and he dropped among the wheat, and turned himself into one of the grains.
Then she transformed herself in…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINc
“Elphin of notable qualities, Be not displeased at thy misfortune; Although reclined thus weak in my bag, There lies a virtue in my tongue.
While I continue thy protector Thou hast not much to fear; Remembering the names of the Trinity, Non…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINg
“And so, when the bards and the heralds came to cry largess, and to proclaim the power of the king and his strength, at the moment that they passed by the corner wherein he was crouching, Taliesin pouted out his lips after them, and played “…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINh
“I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass: I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan; I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene; I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen; I have been bard of the harp to L…”
egyptian4
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 10 (part 7)
“Horus , the son of Osiris and Isis, appears in Egyptian texts usually as Heru-p-khart, " Horus the child," who afterwards became the "avenger of his father Osiris," and occupied his throne, as we are told in many places in the Book of the D…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 89)
“The natural opposition of the day and night was at an early period confounded with the battle which took place between Horus, the son of Isis, and Set, wherein Isis intervened, and it seems that the moral idea of the battle of right against…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 108)
“O Unas, the Eye of Horus hath been given to thee that it may embrace thee.[6] O Unas, the Eye of Horus which strove with Set hath been, given unto thee, in order that the opening of thy mouth may be caused thereby.[7] O Unas, that which flo…”
◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 12 (part 3)
“This scent is that which distilleth from Horus, this scent is that which distilleth from Set, and it is that which stablisheth the hearts of the two Horus gods.[2] Thou purifiest thyself with the Heru-shesu;[*] thou art purified with natron…”
mesopotamian3
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet I — The Tyranny of Gilgamish and the Creation of Enkidu | Tablet I, Section 1d
“Drank he his fill , with the beasts did his heart delight at the water, So beheld him the courtesan-girl, the lusty great fellow, (O but) a monster (all) savage from out of the depths of the desert!
"’Tis he, O girl!
O, discover thy beaut…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet II — The Meeting of Gilgamish and Enkidu | Tablet II, Section 1a
“THE SECOND TABLET OF THE MEETING OF GILGAMISH AND ENKIDU.
2.
While Gilgamish (thus) is the vision revealing Enkidu sitteth before the hetaera, and she [displaying her] bosom, 5.
Shewing [her beauty (?)], the place of his birth he forgett…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet II — The Meeting of Gilgamish and Enkidu | Tablet II, Section 1b
“I would know his intention." The woman the fellow Call’d that he come to him, that he might see him: "O, why art thou seeking, Sir?
(Pray), which is the way to thy rest-house?" 20.
The man spake, addressing Enkidu: "You to the House of Co…”
neoplatonism3
◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 224
“Section 3 3. That Love is a Hypostasis [a "Person"] a Real-Being sprung from a Real-Being- lower than the parent but authentically existent- is beyond doubt. For the parent-Soul was a Real-Being sprung directly from the Act of the Hypostasi…”
◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 166
“Section 10 10. Under detailed investigation, many other tenets of this school- indeed we might say all- could be corrected with an abundance of proof. But I am withheld by regard for some of our own friends who fell in with this doctrine be…”
◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 422 (part 2)
“But in soul the utterance is obscured, for soul is an image and must look to its own original: that Principle, on the contrary, looks to the First without mediation- thus becoming what it is- and has that vision not as from a distance but a…”
platonism2
◆Plato: Republic | Section 1h
“Yes, but not in a satisfactory manner; you frightened us by interposing objections, which certainly showed that the discussion would be long and difficult; and what still remains is the reverse of easy.
What is there remaining?
The questi…”
◆Plato: Republic | Section 1o
“And, again, in respect of temperance, courage, magnificence, and every other virtue, should we not carefully distinguish between the true son and the bastard?
for where there is no discernment of such qualities States and individuals uncon…”
sufism1
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY IV
“Another Tyrannical Jewish King. A certain Jewish king, the same who is referred to in the Sura "Signs of the Zodiac," I made up his mind to utterly exterminate the Christian faith, and with that view he set up a huge idol, and issued comman…”
hermeticism1
◇Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount | Section 1d
“Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way.
For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowin…”
renaissance_hermeticism1
◇The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Fifth Dialoguec
“It means that enthusiast, signified by the naked child as simple, pure, and exposed to all the accidents of Nature and of fortune, who at the same time by the force of thought, constructs castles in the air, and amongst other things a tower…”