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theology

Divine Providence

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

900 passages · 22 traditions
neoplatonism: 159 passagesneoplatonism159christian_mysticism: 134 passageschristian_mysticism134western_esoteric: 92 passageswestern_esoteric92jewish_mysticism: 83 passagesjewish_mysticism83biblical: 71 passagesbiblical71greek_mystery: 62 passagesgreek_mystery62platonism: 42 passagesplatonism42gnosticism: 40 passagesgnosticism40mesopotamian: 31 passagesmesopotamian31renaissance_hermeticism: 31 passagesrenaissance_hermeticism31hermeticism: 27 passageshermeticism27egyptian: 24 passagesegyptian24hinduism: 23 passageshinduism23sufism: 18 passagessufism18finnic: 13 passagesfinnic13taoism: 13 passagestaoism13celtic: 12 passagesceltic12theosophy: 9 passagestheosophy9zoroastrianism: 7 passageszoroastrianism7native_american: 6 passagesnative_american6mandaean: 2 passagesmandaean2upanishads: 1 passageupanishads1
neoplatonism159
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIII
“Moreover, “ the pacifications of anger ” will become manifest, if we understand what the anger of the Gods is. This, therefore, is not, as it appears to be to some, a certain ancient and inveterate rage, but an abandonment of the beneficent…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIX-a
“In the next place, therefore, we shall answer your question, “ What it is which conjoins the Gods that have a body in the heavens with the incorporeal Gods. ” What this is, therefore, is evident from what has been before said. For 72 if t…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI
“The division, however, of the passive from the impassive , which you adopt, may perhaps be rejected by some one, as not adapted to either of the more excellent genera, through the causes which we have before enumerated; and it also deserves…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I
“It is also necessary to demonstrate to you, in what dæmons, heroes, and souls differ from each other, and whether this difference is according to essence, or according to power, or according to energy. I say, therefore, that dæmons are prod…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX
“In the last place, the dispositions of the soul of those that invoke the Gods to appear receive, when they become visible, a liberation from the passions, a transcendent perfection, and an energy entirely more excellent, and participate of…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I
“In the first place, therefore, you ask me to explain to you distinctly, “ what that is which is effected in the foreknowledge of future events? ” Immediately, however, that which you endeavour to learn is impossible. For, according to the m…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III
“The wise, therefore, speak as follows: The soul having a twofold life, one being in conjunction with body, but the other being separate from all body; when we are awake we employ, for the most part, the life which is common with the body, e…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XII
“It appears, therefore, that the divination of oracles accords with all the hypotheses which we have before adduced concerning prediction. For if a power of this kind was inseparable from the nature of places, and of the bodies which are the…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIV
“Concerning another kind of divination, also, you say as follows: “ Others who are conscious what they are doing in other respects, are divinely inspired according to the phantastic part, some indeed receiving darkness for a cooperator, othe…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XV
“Let us, therefore, pass on to the mode of divination which is effected through human art, and which possesses much of conjecture and opinion. But concerning this you say as follows: “ Some also establish the art of the investigation of futu…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVI
“Descending, however, to particulars, the soul of animals, the dæmon who presides over them, the air, the motion of the air, and the circulation of the heavens, variously change the viscera, 156 conformably to the will of the Gods. But an in…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVII-a
“In the next place you inquire “ concerning the mode of divination, what it is, and what the quality is by which it is distinguished ,” which we have already explained, both generally and particularly. But you, in the first place, represent…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVII-b
“For, as he sometimes makes some stupid man to speak wisely, through which it becomes manifest to every one, that this is not a certain human but a divine work; thus, also, he reveals through things which are deprived of knowledge, conceptio…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIX
“But neither does the cause [of the energies] of more excellent natures subsist as a certain middle instrument, nor does he who invokes operate through him who prophesies; for to assert these things is impious. And it is much more true to sa…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIII
“The animadversions which are after this adduced, at first, indeed, doubt about the mode of divination, but as they proceed, endeavour entirely to subvert it. We shall, therefore, discuss both these. And, in the first place, we shall begin t…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIV
“In what follows, while you endeavour to unfold divination, you entirely subvert it. For if a passion of the soul is admitted to be the cause of it, what wise man will attribute to an unstable and stupid thing orderly and stable foreknowledg…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVI
“There are many other contentious innovations also, which may be the subject of wonder. But some one may justly be astonished at the contrariety of opinions produced by admitting either that the truth of divination is with enchanters, the wh…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVII-a
“Moreover, neither is it sufficient to assert, “ that nature, art, and the sympathy of things in the universe, as if they were the parts of one animal, contain premanifestations of certain 188 things with reference to each other; nor that bo…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I
“Let us then, in the next place, consider the opposing arguments, what they are, and what reason they possess. And if we should discuss some things a little more abundantly, in consequence of speaking freely and at leisure, it is requisite t…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV
“What then shall we say concerning the next inquiry to this, viz. “ why the powers who are invoked think it requisite that he who worships them should be just, but they when called upon to act unjustly do not refuse so to act ?” To this I re…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V
“The multitude, also, are accustomed to doubt in common the very same thing concerning providence, viz. why certain persons are afflicted undeservedly, as they have not done any thing unjustly prior to their being thus afflicted. For neither…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI
“In order, therefore, that from an abundance of arguments we may contend against the objection which is now adduced, we will grant, if you please, the contrary to what we have asserted, viz. that certain unjust things are performed in this b…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII
“We may, however, beginning from another hypothesis, demonstrate the same thing. We must admit that the corporeal parts of the universe are neither sluggish nor destitute of power, but as much as they excel our concerns in perfection, beauty…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XI
“Moreover, you inquire, and at the same time doubt, “ how it comes to pass that the Gods do not hear him who invokes them, if he is impure from venereal connexions; but, at the same time, they do not refuse to lead any one to illegal venery…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XII
“It is, necessary, however, to discuss these things particularly, and to show how they subsist, and what reason they possess. It is requisite, therefore, to understand that the universe is one animal; and that the parts in it are, indeed, se…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I
“The doubt mentioned by you in the next place, is, as I may say, an inquiry which is made in common both by the learned and the unlearned, I mean concerning sacrifices, “ what utility or power they possess in the universe, and with the Gods,…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX
“It is better, therefore, to assign as the cause of the efficacy of sacrifices friendship and familiarity, and a habitude which binds fabricators to the things fabricated, and generators to the 241 things generated. Hence when, this common p…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVII
“What, therefore, shall we derive from the Gods who are entirely exempt from all human generation, with respect to sterility, or abundance or any thing else pertaining to [the mortal] life? Nothing whatever. For it is not the province of tho…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIII
“According to another division, therefore, the numerous herd [or the great mass] of men is arranged under nature, is governed by physical powers, looks downward to the works of nature, gives completion to the administration of Fate, and to t…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI
“I think, therefore, that all who are lovers of the contemplation of theurgic truth will acknowledge this, that the piety which pertains to divine natures ought not to be exercised towards them partially or imperfectly. Hence, since prior to…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIV
“The same things also may be learned from the distribution of the Gods according to places; and from this, and the partible dominion over each particular thing, it may be seen how many allotments, greater or less, superior beings are assigne…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXV
“If, therefore, these things were human customs alone, and derived their authority through our legal institutions, it might be said that the worship of the Gods was the invention of our conceptions. Now, however, divinity is the leader of it…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVI-a
“Since, however, prayers are not the smallest [but on the contrary a very great] part of sacrifices, especially give completion to them, and through these the whole operation of them is corroborated and effected; and since, besides 271 this,…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVI-b
“And, in the third and last place, it may easily be conceived from hence how prayer and sacrifice mutually corroborate and confer on each other a sacred and perfect power in divine concerns. Hence, since it appears that there is a perfect c…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII
“Or this thing may likewise be explained as follows: Dæmons preside with a guardian power over arcane mysteries, and this in so remarkable a degree, because the orderly distribution of things in the universe is primarily contained in dæmons.…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II
“Hear, therefore, the intellectual interpretation of symbols, according to the conceptions of the Egyptians; at the same time removing from your imagination and your ears the image of things symbolical, but elevating yourself to intellectual…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III
“Since, however, every part of the heavens, every sign of the zodiac, all the motion of the heavens, every period of time according to which the world is moved, and all things contained in the wholes of the universe, receive the powers which…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V
“You object, however, “ that he who hears words looks to their signification, so that it is sufficient the conception remains the same, whatever the words may be that are used .” But the thing is not such as you suspect it to be. For if name…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII
“What then, is it not possible for a man to liberate himself [from fate] through the Gods that revolve in the heavens, and to consider the same as the leaders of fate, and yet as 311 those that bind our lives with indissoluble bonds? Perhaps…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II
“In the next place, here also you appear to me to have cut off only a certain small part of the discussion concerning the peculiar dæmon. For since it is usual with those who artificially operate about nature to invoke this dæmon in an order…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III
“You say, then, “ that he is happy who having learned the scheme of his nativity, and knowing his proper dæmon, is thus liberated from fate .” To me, however, you appear to assert these things in a way neither consonant to themselves nor to…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-a
“And thus we have answered, to the utmost of our ability, your inquiries concerning divination and theurgy. It remains, therefore, at the end of this discussion, that I should beseech the Gods to afford me an immutable guard of true concept…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-c
“The fifth according to body, which is called corporeal-formed. And the sixth according to matter, and this is denominated material.” Olympiodorus adds, “or after another manner it may be said, that some of these are celestial, others ether…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-d
“For it is necessary that every form in the universe should be never failing, in order that the universe may be perfect, and that, being generated from an immoveable cause, it may be immoveable in its essence. But every wholeness is a form,…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-e
““The divine Iamblichus, however, doubts how the Gods are said to be allotted certain places according to definite times, as, by Plato in the Timæus, Minerva is said to have been first allotted the guardianship of Athens, and afterwards of S…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-h
“Hence the ancient priests, by the mutual relation and sympathy of things to each other, collected their virtues into one, but expelled them by repugnancy and antipathy; purifying when it was requisite with sulphur and bitumen, and sprinklin…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-l
“Opinion, likewise, and the phantasy, are said thus to energize when they discover arts, and accomplish admirable works, such, for instance, as Phidias effected in the formation of statues, and another in another art, as also Homer says of h…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-u
“ελευθεροι δε οντες υπερανω παντων, ωσπερ φυλακες και επισκοποι ακριβεις του παντος, περιεχονται τῳ νυχθημερῳ το παν.——εχουσι προς ημας την μεγιστην δυναμιν. i. e. “We say, O son, that the body [of the universe] is comprehensive of all th…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-v
“Hence some of them preside over men, others over lions or other animals, and others over plants; and still more partially, some are the inspective guardians of the eye, others of the heart, and others of the liver.” He adds, “all things, ho…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ae
“Ταις ενεργειαις της μελῳδιας συμπασχειν ημων αντικρυς τας ψυχας, την συγγενειαν ωσπερ επιγινωσκουσας ——et, ποτε μεν εις ησυχιαν και κατασολην τρεπεσθαι, ποτε δε εις οἱσρον και ενθυσιασμον. And, in the last place, see Plato in his Io, and A…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ag
“Moreover, if it should happen that the whole race of some one successively use land which had originally been plundered, in this case, the injury in the first place becomes immanifest, and on this account is more difficult to be cured; and,…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ai
“with evil dæmons], which are hurled forth before the Gods, but on entering the interior parts of the temple, unmoved, and guarded by the mystic rites, they genuinely receive in their bosom divine illumination, and divested of their garments…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ak
“To this, also, what every where occurs about prediction from the laurel pertains. For if the leaves of the laurel when committed to the fire made a noise, it was considered as a good omen, but if they made none, a bad one. 77 . Gale, in…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ao
“Prior, there are three orders of dæmons, the first of which are more intellectual , the second are of a more rational nature , and the third, of which Iamblichus is now speaking, are various, more irrational, and more material . 86 . Char…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ap
“Η γοητεια δε εστι τεχνη τις περι τους ενυλους και χθονιους δαιμονας φαντασιοσκοπουσα τοις εποπταις τα τουτων ειδωλα. και τους μεν ωσπερ εξ αδου αναγουσα, τους δε υψοθεν καταγουσα, και τουτους κακωτικους. και ειδωλα αττα υφιστησι φαντασματ…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ar
“It must also be observed, that this MS. of Psellus On Dæmons forms no part of his treatise On the Energy of Dæmons , published by Gaulminus; for it never was published. 94 . Hence Iamblichus (apud Stob. Eclog. Phys. p. 114), says, Ου…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-at
“But the Egyptians honoured the asp, the weasel, and the beetle, in consequence of observing in them certain dark resemblances of the power of the Gods, like that of the sun in drops of water. For at present, many believe and assert that th…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-au
“The Pythagoreans, likewise, adorned numbers and figures with the appellations of the Gods. For they called the equilateral triangle, Minerva Coryphagenes, or begotten from the summit, and Tritogeneia because it is divided by three perpendi…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 19 (part 2)
“So with us: it is from the Supreme that we derive order and distribution and harmony, which are virtues in this sphere: the Existences There, having no need of harmony, order or distribution, have nothing to do with virtue; and, none the le…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 35 (part 1)
“Section 2 2. Those that deny the happy life to the plants on the ground that they lack sensation are really denying it to all living things. By sensation can be meant only perception of state, and the state of well-being must be Good in i…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 40
“Section 7 7. Then why are these conditions sought and their contraries repelled by the man established in happiness? Here is our answer: These more pleasant conditions cannot, it is true, add any particle towards the Sage's felicity: but th…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 92
“Section 2 2. Supposing we accept this view and hold that, while things below the moon's orb have merely type-persistence, the celestial realm and all its several members possess individual eternity; it remains to show how this strict perman…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 94
“Section 4 4. But matters are involved here which demand specific investigation and cannot be treated as incidental merely to our present problem. We are faced with several questions: Is the heavenly system exposed to any such flux as would…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 95
“Section 5 5. But how explain the permanence There, while the content of this sphere- its elements and its living things alike- are passing? The reason is given by Plato: the celestial order is from God, the living things of earth from the g…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 98
“Section 8 8. Now: given a light of this degree, remaining in the upper sphere at its appointed station, pure light in purest place, what mode of outflow from it can be conceived possible? Such a Kind is not so constituted as to flow downwar…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 100 (part 2)
“Such motion alone can constitute its impulse towards its centre: it cannot coincide with the centre, for then there would be no circle; since this may not be, it whirls about it; so only can it indulge its tendence. If, on the other hand,…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 101
“Section 2 2. And what of lower things? [Why have they not this motion?] [Their case is very different]: the single thing here is not an all but a part and limited to a given segment of space; that other realm is all, is space, so to speak,…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 106
“Section 3 3. Possibly, however, they act not by choice but under stress of their several positions and collective figures? But if position and figure determined their action each several one would necessarily cause identical effects with ev…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 109
“Section 6 6. But that this same Mars, or Aphrodite, in certain aspects should cause adulteries- as if they could thus, through the agency of human incontinence, satisfy their own mutual desires- is not such a notion the height of unreason?…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 110
“Section 7 7. But, if the stars announce the future- as we hold of many other things also- what explanation of the cause have we to offer? What explains the purposeful arrangement thus implied? Obviously, unless the particular is included un…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 111
“Section 8 8. Soul, then, in the same way, is intent upon a task of its own; alike in its direct course and in its divagation it is the cause of all by its possession of the Thought of the First Principle: thus a Law of Justice goes with all…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 112 (part 1)
“Section 9 9. This brings us to the Spindle-destiny, spun according to the ancients by the Fates. To Plato the Spindle represents the co-operation of the moving and the stable elements of the kosmic circuit: the Fates with Necessity, Mothe…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 112 (part 2)
“For the Universe is in truth a thing of blend, and if we separate from it that separable Soul, the residue is little. The All is a God when the divine Soul is counted in with it; "the rest," we read, "is a mighty spirit and its ways are su…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 115
“Section 12 12. All that thus proceeds from the supernal combines into a unity and every existing entity takes something from this blended infusion so that the result is the thing itself plus some quality. The effluence does not make the hor…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 118
“Section 15 15. According to Plato, lots and choice play a part [in the determination of human conditions] before the Spindle of Necessity is turned; that once done, only the Spindle-destiny is valid; it fixes the chosen conditions irretriev…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 119 (part 1)
“Section 16 16. The question arises what phase of the Soul enters into the union for the period of embodiment and what phase remains distinct, what is separable and what necessarily interlinked, and in general what the Living-Being is. On…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 131
“Section 9 9. But how can we conceive a thing having existence without having magnitude? We have only to think of things whose identity does not depend on their quantity- for certainly magnitude can be distinguished from existence as can man…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 159
“Section 3 3. Ever illuminated, receiving light unfailing, the All-Soul imparts it to the entire series of later Being which by this light is sustained and fostered and endowed with the fullest measure of life that each can absorb. It may be…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 161
“Section 5 5. Still more unreasonably: There are men, bound to human bodies and subject to desire, grief, anger, who think so generously of their own faculty that they declare themselves in contact with the Intelligible World, but deny that…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 162 (part 1)
“Section 6 6. And, what are we to think of the new forms of being they introduce- their "Exiles" and "Impressions" and "Repentings"? If all comes to states of the Soul- "Repentance" when it has undergone a change of purpose; "Impressions"…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 169
“Section 13 13. Those, then, that censure the constitution of the Kosmos do not understand what they are doing or where this audacity leads them. They do not understand that there is a successive order of Primals, Secondaries, Tertiaries and…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 172 (part 2)
“Now, if the sight of Beauty excellently reproduced upon a face hurries the mind to that other Sphere, surely no one seeing the loveliness lavish in the world of sense- this vast orderliness, the Form which the stars even in their remoteness…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 173 (part 1)
“Section 17 17. Perhaps the hate of this school for the corporeal is due to their reading of Plato who inveighs against body as a grave hindrance to Soul and pronounces the corporeal to be characteristically the inferior. Then let them for…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 173 (part 2)
“Nothing base within can be beautiful without- at least not with an authentic beauty, for there are examples of a good exterior not sprung from a beauty dominant within; people passing as handsome but essentially base have that, a spurious a…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 179
“Section 3 3. "Atoms" or "elements"- it is in either case an absurdity, an impossibility, to hand over the universe and its contents to material entities, and out of the disorderly swirl thus occasioned to call order, reasoning, and the gove…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 180
“Section 4 4. Another theory: The Universe is permeated by one Soul, Cause of all things and events; every separate phenomenon as a member of a whole moves in its place with the general movement; all the various causes spring into action fro…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 181 (part 1)
“Section 5 5. But perhaps the explanation of every particular act or event is rather that they are determined by the spheric movement- the Phora- and by the changing position of the heavenly bodies as these stand at setting or rising or in…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 182
“Section 6 6. But in fact everything follows its own Kind; the birth is a horse because it comes from the Horse Kind, a man by springing from the Human Kind; offspring answers to species. Allow the kosmic circuit its part, a very powerful in…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 184
“Section 8 8. What can this other cause be; one standing above those treated of; one that leaves nothing causeless, that preserves sequence and order in the Universe and yet allows ourselves some reality and leaves room for prediction and au…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 186
“Section 10 10. To sum the results of our argument: All things and events are foreshown and brought into being by causes; but the causation is of two Kinds; there are results originating from the Soul and results due to other causes, those o…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 189
“Section 2 2. By derivation from that Authentic Kosmos, one within itself, there subsists this lower kosmos, no longer a true unity. It is multiple, divided into various elements, thing standing apart from thing in a new estrangement. No lon…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 190
“Section 3 3. Nor would it be sound to condemn this Kosmos as less than beautiful, as less than the noblest possible in the corporeal; and neither can any charge be laid against its source. The world, we must reflect, is a product of Necessi…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 191
“Section 4 4. That water extinguishes fire and fire consumes other things should not astonish us. The thing destroyed derived its being from outside itself: this is no case of a self-originating substance being annihilated by an external; it…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 192
“Section 5 5. Now, once Happiness is possible at all to Souls in this Universe, if some fail of it, the blame must fall not upon the place but upon the feebleness insufficient to the staunch combat in the one arena where the rewards of excel…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 194
“Section 7 7. A preliminary observation: in looking for excellence in this thing of mixture, the Kosmos, we cannot require all that is implied in the excellence of the unmingled; it is folly to ask for Firsts in the Secondary, and since this…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 195 (part 1)
“Section 8 8. Thus we come to our enquiry as to the degree of excellence found in things of this Sphere, and how far they belong to an ordered system or in what degree they are, at least, not evil. Now in every living being the upper parts…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 195 (part 2)
“Bad men rule by the feebleness of the ruled: and this is just; the triumph of weaklings would not be just.…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 196
“Section 9 9. It would not be just, because Providence cannot be a something reducing us to nothingness: to think of Providence as everything, with no other thing in existence, is to annihilate the Universe; such a providence could have no f…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 198
“Section 11 11. Are we, then, to conclude that particular things are determined by Necessities rooted in Nature and by the sequence of causes, and that everything is as good as anything can be? No: the Reason-Principle is the sovereign, maki…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 199
“Section 12 12. Suppose this Universe were the direct creation of the Reason-Principle applying itself, quite unchanged, to Matter, retaining, that is, the hostility to partition which it derives from its Prior, the Intellectual Principle- t…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 203 (part 1)
“Section 16 16. But if all this is true, what room is left for evil? Where are we to place wrong-doing and sin? How explain that in a world organized in good, the efficient agents [human beings] behave unjustly, commit sin? And how comes…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 205
“Section 18 18. Souls vary in worth; and the difference is due, among other causes, to an almost initial inequality; it is in reason that, standing to the Reason-Principle, as parts, they should be unequal by the fact of becoming separate. W…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 207
“Section 1 1. What is our answer? All events and things, good and evil alike, are included under the Universal Reason-Principle of which they are parts- strictly "included" for this Universal Idea does not engender them but encompasses them.…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 210 (part 1)
“Section 4 4. If man were all of one piece- I mean, if he were nothing more than a made thing, acting and acted upon according to a fixed nature- he could be no more subject to reproach and punishment than the mere animals. But as the sche…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 210 (part 2)
“The Reason-Principle of an ox does not occur except in connection with the Matter appropriate to the ox-Kind. It must be by such a process that the transmigration, of which we read takes place; the Soul must lose its nature, the Reason-Pri…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 212
“Section 6 6. But, if all this be true, how can evil fall within the scope of seership? The predictions of the seers are based on observation of the Universal Circuit: how can this indicate the evil with the good? Clearly the reason is that…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 213
“Section 7 7. And since the higher exists, there must be the lower as well. The Universe is a thing of variety, and how could there be an inferior without a superior or a superior without an inferior? We cannot complain about the lower in th…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 220 (part 2)
“In some cases it communicates its force by permanent presence the life principle in plants for instance- in other cases it withdraws after imparting its virtue- for instance where from the putridity of dead animal or vegetable matter a mult…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 228 (part 1)
“Section 7 7. This is the significance of Plato's account of the birth of Love. The drunkenness of the father Poros or Possession is caused by Nectar, "wine yet not existing"; Love is born before the realm of sense has come into being: Pen…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 280 (part 1)
“Section 3 3. (A)... How, then, does Unity give rise to Multiplicity? By its omnipresence: there is nowhere where it is not; it occupies, therefore, all that is; at once, it is manifold- or, rather, it is all things. If it were simply an…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 286 (part 1)
“Section 2 2. It can be demonstrated that soul must, necessarily, be of just this nature and that there can be no other soul than such a being, one neither wholly partible but both at once. If it had the nature of body it would consist of…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 288
“Section 1 1. The soul: what dubious questions concerning it admit of solution, or where we must abide our doubt- with, at least, the gain of recognizing the problem that confronts us- this is matter well worth attention. On what subject can…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 290
“Section 3 3. Is it a question of part in the sense that, taking one living being, the soul in a finger might be called a part of the soul entire? This would carry the alternative that either there is no soul outside of body, or that- no sou…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 300
“Section 13 13. The Ineluctable, the Kosmic Law is, thus, rooted in a natural principle under which each several entity is overruled to go, duly and in order, towards that place and Kind to which it characteristically tends, that is towards…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 302
“Section 15 15. The souls peering forth from the Intellectual Realm descend first to the heavens and there put on a body; this becomes at once the medium by which as they reach out more and more towards magnitude [physical extension] they pr…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 303
“Section 16 16. The punishment justly overtaking the wicked must therefore be ascribed to the kosmic order which leads all in accordance with the right. But what of chastisements, poverty, illness, falling upon the good outside of all justic…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 306
“Section 19 19. Are we to think of the indivisible phase of the soul and the divided as making one thing in a coalescence; or is the indivisible in a place of its own and under conditions of its own, the divisible being a sequent upon it, a…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 313 (part 1)
“Section 26 26. Now if sensations of the active order depend upon the Couplement of soul and body, sensation must be of that double nature. Hence it is classed as one of the shared acts: the soul, in the feeling, may be compared to the wor…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 328 (part 2)
“And if it is in eternal perfection, it has no points of time and place at which it will achieve perfection; it will, therefore, have no concern about attaining to any such points: it will, therefore, make no measurements of time or place; i…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 333
“Section 13 13. But what is the difference between the Wisdom thus conducting the universe and the principle known as Nature? This Wisdom is a first [within the All-Soul] while Nature is a last: for Nature is an image of that Wisdom, and, as…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 334
“Section 14 14. Of the corporeal thus brought into being by Nature the elemental materials of things are its very produce, but how do animal and vegetable forms stand to it? Are we to think of them as containers of Nature present within them…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 336
“Section 16 16. But if in the soul thing follows thing, if there is earlier and later in its productions, if it engenders or creates in time, then it must be looking towards the future; and if towards the future, then towards the past as wel…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 348 (part 2)
“Thus anger has two phases; there is firstly that which, rising apart from all process of reasoning, draws reason to itself by the medium of the imaging faculty, and secondly that which, rising in reason, touches finally upon the specific pr…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 352
“Section 32 32. If we can trace neither to material agencies [blind elements] nor to any deliberate intention the influences from without which reach to us and to the other forms of life and to the terrestrial in general, what cause satisfac…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 353
“Section 33 33. The Circuit does not go by chance but under the Reason-Principle of the living whole; therefore there must be a harmony between cause and caused; there must be some order ranging things to each other's purpose, or in due rela…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 354
“Section 34 34. For ourselves, while whatever in us belongs to the body of the All should be yielded to its action, we ought to make sure that we submit only within limits, realizing that the entire man is not thus bound to it: intelligent s…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 355 (part 1)
“Section 35 35. But we must give some explanation of these powers. The matter requires a more definite handling. How can there be a difference of power between one triangular configuration and another? How can there be the exercise of po…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 355 (part 2)
“Why else do certain groupments, in contradistinction to others, terrify at sight though there has been no previous experience of evil from them? If some men are alarmed by a particular groupment and others by quite a different one, the rea…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 356
“Section 36 36. The Universe is immensely varied, the container of all the Reason-Principles and of infinite and diverse efficacies. In man, we are told, the eye has its power, and the bones have their varied powers, and so with each separat…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 357
“Section 37 37. We must not rob the universe of any factor in its being. If any of our theorists of to-day seek to explain the action of fire- or of any other such form, thought of as an agent- they will find themselves in difficulties unles…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 358
“Section 38 38. Whatever springs automatically from the All out of that distinctive life of its own, and, in addition to that self-moving activity, whatever is due to some specific agency- for example, to prayers, simple or taking the form o…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 362
“Section 42 42. It follows that, for the purposes which have induced this discussion, the stars have no need of memory or of any sense of petitions addressed to them; they give no such voluntary attention to prayers as some have thought: it…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 368 (part 1)
“Section 2 2. If sight depends upon the linking of the light of vision with the light leading progressively to the illumined object, then, by the very hypothesis, one intervening substance, the light, is indispensable: but if the illuminate…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 368 (part 2)
“And, further, once we reject the theory that these images reach us by way of some outstreaming from the objects seen, there is no reason to think of the air being affected and passing on to us, in a progression of impression, what has been…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 386
“Section 7 7. We come to the same result by examining the sense of pain. We say there is pain in the finger: the trouble is doubtless in the finger, but our opponents must admit that the sensation of the pain is in the centre of consciousnes…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 387
“Section 8 8. It can be shown also that the intellectual act would similarly be impossible if the soul were any form of body. If sensation is apprehension by means of the soul's employment of the body, intellection cannot be a similar use of…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 392 (part 2)
“The other order, the entire corporeal Kind, is process; it appears and it perishes; in reality it never possesses Being, but is merely protected, in so far as it has the capacity, by participating in what authentically is.…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 402 (part 1)
“Section 2 2. Enquiring, then, of Plato as to our own soul, we find ourselves forced to enquire into the nature of soul in general- to discover what there can be in its character to bring it into partnership with body, and, again, what this…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 408
“Section 8 8. And- if it is desirable to venture the more definite statement of a personal conviction clashing with the general view- even our human soul has not sunk entire; something of it is continuously in the Intellectual Realm, though…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 414
“Section 5 5. How then can a multitude of essential beings be really one? Obviously either the one essence will be entire in all, or the many will rise from a one which remains unaltered and yet includes the one- many in virtue of giving its…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 456
“Section 3 3. Thus we have here one identical Principle, the Intellect, which is the universe of authentic beings, the Truth: as such it is a great god or, better, not a god among gods but the Godhead entire. It is a god, a secondary god man…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 469
“Section 2 2. Thus there is the primally intellective and there is that in which intellection has taken another mode; but this indicates that what transcends the primarily intellective has no intellection; for, to have intellection, it must…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 476
“Section 2 2. But individuals are brought into being by the union of the Reason-Principles of the parents, male and female: this seems to do away with a definite Reason-Principle for each of the offspring: one of the parents- the male let us…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 482 (part 2)
“The greatness and power of the wisdom There we may know from this, that is embraces all the real Beings, and has made all, and all follow it, and yet that it is itself those beings, which sprang into being with it, so that all is one, and t…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 483
“Section 5 5. All that comes to be, work of nature or of craft, some wisdom has made: everywhere a wisdom presides at a making. No doubt the wisdom of the artist may be the guide of the work; it is sufficient explanation of the wisdom exhibi…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 490
“Section 12 12. We have told how this vision is to be procured, whether by the mode of separation or in identity: now, seen in either way, what does it give to report? The vision has been of God in travail of a beautiful offspring, God engen…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 501
“Section 9 9. What, then, is the content- inevitably separated by our minds- of this one Intellectual-Principle? For there is no resource but to represent the items in accessible form just as we study the various articles constituting one sc…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 540
“Section 2 2. In asserting that Being is not a unity, we do not mean to imply a definite number of existences; the number may well be infinite: we mean simply that it is many as well as one, that it is, so to speak, a diversified unity, a pl…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 616
“Section 9 9. The elements in their totality, as they stand produced, may be thought of as one spheric figure; this cannot be the piecemeal product of many makers each working from some one point on some one portion. There must be one cause;…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 648
“Section 9 9. Admitted, then- it will be said- for the nobler forms of life; but how can the divine contain the mean, the unreasoning? The mean is the unreasoning, since value depends upon reason and the worth of the intellective implies wor…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 649
“Section 10 10. But failure There? What can defensive horns serve to There? To sufficiency as living form, to completeness. That principle must be complete as living form, complete as Intellect, complete as life, so that if it is not to be o…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 650 (part 1)
“Section 11 11. The very heavens, patently multiple, cannot be thought to disdain any form of life since this universe holds everything. Now how do these things come to be here? Does the higher realm contain all of the lower? All that ha…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 658
“Section 19 19. Are we to rest all on pursuit and on the soul? Is it enough to put faith in the soul's choice and call that good which the soul pursues, never asking ourselves the motive of its choice? We marshal demonstration as to the natu…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 660
“Section 21 21. Now what in all these objects of desire is the fundamental making them good? We must be bold: Intellectual-Principle and that life are of the order of good and hold their desirability, even they, in virtue of belonging to tha…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 687
“Section 5 5. Are we, however, to make freedom and self-disposal exclusive to Intellectual-Principle as engaged in its characteristic Act, Intellectual-Principle unassociated, or do they belong also to soul acting under that guidance and per…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 703
“Section 21 21. Could He then have made Himself otherwise than as He did? If He could we must deny Him the power to produce goodness for He certainly cannot produce evil. Power, There, is no producer of the inapt; it is that steadfast consta…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 705
“Section 1 1. It is in virtue of unity that beings are beings. This is equally true of things whose existence is primal and of all that are in any degree to be numbered among beings. What could exist at all except as one thing? Deprived of u…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 707 (part 2)
“Note, similarly, that, when we speak of this First as Cause, we are affirming something happening not to it but to us, the fact that we take from this Self-Enclosed: strictly we should put neither a This nor a That to it; we hover, as it we…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 713 (part 1)
“Section 9 9. In this choiring, the soul looks upon the wellspring of Life, wellspring also of Intellect, beginning of Being, fount of Good, root of Soul. It is not that these are poured out from the Supreme lessening it as if it were a th…”
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christian_mysticism134
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 10, Section 1a
“CHAPTER X Concerning ” Omnipotent ,” ” Ancient of Days “; and also concerning ” Eternity “ and ” Time .” 1. Now ‘tis time that our Discourse should celebrate God (Whose Names are many) as “Omnipotent” and “Ancient of Days.” The former titl…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1d
“And we press upwards to those beams which in the Holy Scripture shine upon us; wherefrom we gain the light which leads us unto 55 the Divine praises 64 64 πρὸς τοὺς θεαρχικοὺς ὕμνους. Either (1) “leads us to declare the Divine praises”; or…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1e
“These mysteries we learn from the Divine Scriptures, and thou wilt find that in well-nigh all the utterances of the Sacred Writers the Divine Names refer in a Symbolical Revelation 72 72 ἐκφαντορικῶς καὶ ὑμνητικῶς. to Its beneficent Emanat…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1h
“that which makes an individual thing to be one thing); (2) Mental or Spiritual intercourse; (3) Physical intercourse; (4) Sense perception. Here it = either (1) or (2), probably (1). limit, infinity, everything that exists. And yet since…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1j
“143 143 God is above Time. For the Nameless Goodness is not only the cause of cohesion or life or perfection in such wise as to derive Its Name from this or that providential activity alone; nay, rather does It contain all things beforehan…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1c
“And the perfect Peace guards each several individuality unalloyed by Its providential gift of peace, keeping all things without internal or mutual discord or confusion, and establishing all things, in the power of unswerving stability, so a…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1e
“Hence the Good God is called the Fount, first, of the Very Primaries: then, of those creatures which share completely therein; then, of those which share partially therein. 484 484 Migne’s text here is corrupt, I have emended it. (1) The…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 12, Section 1a
“181 CHAPTER XII Concerning ” Holy of holies ,” ” King of kings ,” ” Lord of lords ,” ” God of gods .” 1. Forasmuch as the things which needed to be said concerning this matter have been brought, I think, to a proper ending, we must praise…”
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western_esoteric92
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 5 (part 1)
“Click to view THE TEMPTATION OF EVIL From Cædmon. INTRODUCTION THE mystic tradition in Christian Times is preserved, apart from all questions and traces of Instituted Mysteries, in the literature of Christian Mystical Theology; it is a lar…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 9 (part 3)
“The missing books are those of Microcosmical Magic, or Spiritual Wisdom; Olympic Magic, that is, the evocation of the Spirits of Olympus; Hesiodiacal and Homeric Magic, being the operations of Caco-daimones ; Roman or Sibylline Magic, conce…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 9 (part 4)
“The sources of occult wisdom, it proceeds, are, firstly, in God; secondly, in spiritual essences--that is to say, the Angelical Hierarchy; thirdly, in corporeal creatures, the reference being probably to the signatura rerum of Paracelsus; f…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 9 (part 5)
“Click to view THE CHARACTER OF HAGITH The government of Venereal concerns is entrusted to HAGITH, and the person possessing his character is adorned with all beauty. He converts copper into gold in a moment and gold instantaneously into co…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 11 (part 3)
“While it thus ensures against evil, it gives happiness in domestic matters and in the enterprises which contribute to prosperity and to the pleasures of a contented life. The proviso is that [paragraph continues] "the instructions must be…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 11 (part 4)
“There are prayers for voyages, prayers addressed to the Cross, and then under the Tau symbol, commencing with the curious exclamation, Per signum ✠ Domini Tau, libera me , there follows a long conjuration, as express as anything in Magic, d…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 12 (part 1)
“§ 4. The Seven Mysterious Orisons SUNDAY Pater noster, &c. Deliver me, O Lord, I beseech Thee, me even, thy creature, N., from all evils Past, present and to come, whether of body or soul; grant me peace and health in Thy goodness; inclin…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 12 (part 2)
“May the blessing of the Patriarchs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and of all the saints of God, be with me for ever ✠ , Amen. May the blessing of all the heavens of God be with me for ever ✠ , Amen. May the majesty…”
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jewish_mysticism83
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Page 3 (part 2)
“100) for a full understanding of the books in question--but these references are only made with a view to comforting the oppressed and afflicted with the thought that even the most mighty of earthly powers are shortly to be overthrown by.…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Page 3 (part 3)
“36, 37.) Thus "the times and periods of the course of the world's history have been predetermined by God. The numbers of the years have been exactly fixed. This was a fundamental postulate of the Apocalyptists, who devoted much of their e…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Page 3 (part 8)
“Of special interest here is the mention of the Garden of Righteousness, and the Tree of Wisdom (xxviii.-xxxvi.). Much that is written in these chapters may appear p. xxi pointless and uninspiring; but we must bear in mind the purpose that…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Page 3 (part 9)
“The Apocalyptist prophesies further of the repentance of the Gentiles (chapter l.), an universalistic note of significance, and speaks of the Resurrection of the dead in a notable passage: And In those days shall the earth also give back th…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter I
“p. 31 BOOK OF ENOCH I-XXXVI I-V. Parable of Enoch on the Future Lot of the Wicked and the Righteous CHAPTER I. 1. The words of the blessing of Enoch, wherewith he blessed the elect ⌈⌈ and ⌉⌉ righteous, who will be living in the day of tribu…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter II
“CHAPTER II. 1. Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, ⌈ and ⌉ the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against thei…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter V
“CHAPTER V. 1. Observe ⌈⌈ ye ⌉⌉ how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed ⌈ and know ⌉ with regard to all ⌈ His works ⌉ , and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. 2. And ⌈ all…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter IX
“CHAPTER IX. 1. And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. 2. And they said one to another: 'The earth made †without i…”
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biblical71
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 6:2-7:1
“[6:2] that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. [6:3] And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days b…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 7:2-7:24
“[7:2] Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female: [7:3] of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven, male and female, to ke…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 8:1-8:21
“[8:1] And God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; [8:2] the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were s…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 8:22-9:22
“[8:22] While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. [9:1] And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 12:6-13:7
“[12:6] And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. [12:7] And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 14:9-15:4
“[14:9] against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings against the five. [14:10] Now the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomo…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 15:5-16:5
“[15:5] And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. [15:6] And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for ri…”
Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) | 16:6-17:11
“[16:6] But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her that which is good in thine eyes. And Sarai dealt hardly with her, and she fled from her face. [16:7] And the angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in…”
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greek_mystery62
Orphic Hymns | Hymn I. THE GODDESS PROTHYRÆA
“I. TO THE GODDESS PROTHYRÆA * . The FUMIGATION from STORAX. O venerable goddess, hear my pray'r, For labour pains are thy peculiar care; in thee, when stretch'd upon the bed of grief, The sex as in a mirror view relief. Guard of the race, e…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn II. NIGHT
“II. TO NIGHT. The FUMIGATION with TORCHES. NIGHT, parent goddess, source of sweet repose, From whom at first both Gods and men arose, Hear, blessed Venus, deck'd with starry light, 3 In sleep's deep silence dwelling Ebon night! Dreams and s…”
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 VII. THE SUN
“VII. TO THE SUN. The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE and MANNA. HEAR golden Titan, whose eternal eye With broad survey, illumines all the sky. Self-born, unwearied in diffusing light, And to all eyes the mirrour of delight: Lord of the seasons…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn IX. NATURE
“IX. TO NATURE. * The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. NATURE, all parent, ancient, and divine, O Much-mechanic mother, art is thine; p. 127 Heav'nly, abundant, venerable queen, In ev'ry part of thy dominions seen. p. 128 Untam'd, all-taming, ever…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn X
“X. TO PAN * The FUMIGATION from VARIOUS ODORS I Call strong Pan, the substance of the whole, Etherial, marine, earthly, general soul, Immortal fire; for all the world is thine, And all are parts of thee, O pow'r divine. p. 131 Come, blessed…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn XI. HERCULES
“XI. TO HERCULES. The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. HEAR, pow'rful, Hercules untam'd and strong, To whom vast hands, and mighty works belong, Almighty Titan, prudent and benign, Of various forms, eternal and divine, Father of Time, the theme…”
Orphic Hymns | Hymn XIV. JUPITER
“XIV. TO JUPITER. The FUMIGATION from STORAX. O Jove much-honor'd, Jove supremely great, To thee our holy rites we consecrate, p. 140 Our pray'rs and expiations, king divine, For all things round thy head exalted shine. The earth is thine, a…”
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platonism42
Plato: Phaedo | Section 1ac
“For I cannot understand how, when separated from the other, each of them was one and not two, and now, when they are brought together, the mere juxtaposition of them can be the cause of their becoming two: nor can I understand how the divis…”
Plato: Phaedo | Section 1ak
“The wise and orderly soul is conscious of her situation and follows in the path; but the soul which desires the body, and which, as I was relating before, has long been fluttering about the lifeless frame and the world of sight, is after ma…”
Plato: Phaedo | Section 1am
“And upon the earth are animals and men, some in a middle region, others dwelling about the air as we dwell about the sea; others in islands which the air flows round, near the continent: and in a word, the air is used by them as the water a…”
Plato: Phaedo | Section 1an
“And some burst forth again on the opposite side, and some on the same side, and some wind round the earth with one or many folds, like the coils of a serpent, and descend as far as they can, but always return and fall into the lake. The ri…”
Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1m
“For prophecy is a madness, and the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona when out of their senses have conferred great benefits on Hellas, both in public and private life, but when in their senses few or none. And I might also…”
Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1p
“And there is a law of Destiny, that the soul which attains any vision of truth in company with a god is preserved from harm until the next period, and if attaining always is always unharmed. But when she is unable to follow, and fails to b…”
Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1r
“But he whose initiation is recent, and who has been the spectator of many glories in the other world, is amazed when he sees any one having a godlike face or form, which is the expression of divine beauty; and at first a shudder runs throug…”
Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1u
“And the beloved when he has received him into communion and intimacy, is quite amazed at the good-will of the lover; he recognises that the inspired friend is worth all other friends or kinsmen; they have nothing of friendship in them worth…”
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gnosticism40
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Chief Archon Pollutes Eve
“I appeared in the shape of an eagle on the tree of knowledge, which is Reflection of Providence of Pure Light, so that I could instruct them and rouse them out of their deep sleep, because both of them were in a fallen condition, and they w…”
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Vile Spirit
“I, however, asked: “Lord, where did the vile spirit originate?” He then said to me: “The Mother- Father, who is abundant in mercy, the holy Spirit in every mode, the one who is merciful and [II, 28] who shows compassion for all of you – th…”
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Savior Enters the Realm of Darkness
“Therefore, I, the perfect Providence of the all, transformed myself into my (own) seed, because I was the first to exist, traveling all paths, because I am the wealth of the light. [IV, 47] I am the remembrance of the Fullness, but I enter…”
Gospel of Judas | Jesus Reveals Everything to Judas-b
“"And the twelve rulers spoke with the twelve angels: 'Let each of you 52 […] and let them […] generation [… five] angels: The first [is Yaoth], who's called 'the Good One.' The second is Harmathoth, [the eye of fire]. The [third] is Galila…”
Gospel of Judas | The Betrayal
“Jesus said, "Truly I say [to you], this baptism 56 [which they've received in] my name […] will destroy the whole generation of the earthly Adam. Tomorrow they'll torture the one who bears me. Truly I [say] to you, no hand of a mortal human…”
Gospel of Philip | Section 1b
“TRUTH MADE NAMES Truth made names in the world, and without them we can’t think. Truth is one and is many, teaching one thing through the many. RULERS The rulers wanted to fool us, since they saw we were connected with the good. They too…”
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 Thomas | Logion 36
“Jesus said, "Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear."…”
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mesopotamian31
Adapa and the Food of Life | Section 1a
“ADAPA AND THE FOOD OF LIFE . TABLET NO.1 He possessed intelligence . . . , His command like the command of Anu ... He (Ea) granted him a wide ear to reveal the destiny of the land, He granted him wisdom, but he did not grant him eterna…”
The Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World | Section 1a
“Return to Ancient Near East index Return to Main Index DESCENT OF THE GODDESS ISHTAR INTO THE LOWER WORLD [From The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, 1915] To the land of no return, the land of darkness, Ishtar, the daught…”
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation | 1a
“THE FIRST TABLET When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was…”
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation | 1c
“Whoever beholdeth them is overcome by terror, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, a…”
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation | 1d
“rejoice and be glad; The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under foot. ... rejoice and be glad; The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under foot. 0 my son, who knoweth all wisdom, Pacify Tiamat with thy pure incantation.…”
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation | 1e
“Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them ... the Anunnaki." She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of t…”
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation | 1f
“She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny on his breast she laid them, saving: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established.' Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the f…”
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation | 1g
“When the gods, his fathers, beheld the fulfillment of his word, They rejoiced, and they did homage unto him, saying, " Marduk is king!" They bestowed upon him the scepter, and the throne, and the ring, They give him an invincible weapony wh…”
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renaissance_hermeticism31
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter VI — Of the Wonderful Natures of Water, Air and Winds | Chapter VI, Section 1a
“CHAPTER VI. Of the Wonderful Natures of Water, Air and Winds . The other two Elements, viz., Water and Air, are not less efficacious than the former; neither is Nature wanting to work wonderful things in them. There is so great a necessi…”
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XII — How It Is That Particular Virtues Are Infused into Particular Individuals, even of the Same Species | Chapter XII, Section 1
“CHAPTER XII. How It Is That Particular Virtues Are Infused into Particular Individuals, even of the Same Species . There are also in many individuals, or particular things, peculiar gifts, as wonderful as in the species and these also are f…”
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XIII — Whence the Occult Virtues of Things Proceed | Chapter XIII, Section 1b
“For God, in the first place, is the end and beginning of all Virtues; he gives the seal of the Ideas to his servants, the Intelligences; who, as faithful officers, sign all things intrusted to them with an Ideal Virtue; the Heavens and Star…”
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LVI — Of the Soothsayings of Flashes and Lightnings, and how Monstrous and Prodigious Things are to be Interpreted | Chapter LVI, Section 1a
“CHAPTER LVI. Of the Soothsayings of Flashes and Lightnings, and how Monstrous and Prodigious Things are to be Interpreted . Now, the soothsayings of flashes and lightnings, and of wonders, and how monstrous and prodigious things are to be…”
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LXXIV — Of the Proportion, Correspondency, and Reduction of Letters to the Celestial Signs and Planets, According to Various Tongues, and a Table Thereof | Chapter LXXIV, Section 1a
“CHAPTER LXXIV. Of the Proportion, Correspondency, and Reduction of Letters to the Celestial Signs and Planets, According to Various Tongues, and a Table Thereof . God gave to man a mind and speech, which (as saith Mercurius Trismegistus)…”
The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTION-h
“The primal idea of Pythagoras, which Bruno worked out to a more distinct development is this: numbers are the beginning of things; in other words numbers are the cause of the existence of material things; they are not final, but are always…”
The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogue-c
“Hence he cries: "O mountain of Parnassus, where I abide! Muses, with whom I converse! Fountain of Helicon, where I am nourished. Mountain, that affordest me a quiet dwelling-place! Muses, that inspire me with pro found doctrines. Fount…”
The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogue-d
“Some are called in vain to put in a ready appearance, and are chiefly those which proceed from the lower instincts, and which obey the reason either not at all, or very little; and forcing himself to prevent their actions and condemn those…”
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hermeticism27
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 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1a
“Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest 1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest…”
Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1b
“Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftn…”
Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1c
“And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no nome, in that He's Father of [them] all. Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee? Whither, again, am I to tur…”
Corpus Hermeticum 6: The All-Father | Section 1a
“In God Alone Is Good And Elsewhere Nowhere <This sermon on the nature of the Good, like To Asclepius (CH II), relies heavily on the technical language of classical Greek philosophy - a point which some of Mead's translations tend to obscure…”
Corpus Hermeticum 8: The Eight Sphere | Section 1a
“That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths <The idea of cyclic change central to CH III, "The Sacred Sermon", also takes center stage here. A current of ancient specula…”
Corpus Hermeticum 8: The Eight Sphere | Section 1b
“Now the third life - Man, after the image of the Cosmos made, [and] having mind, after the Father's will, beyond all earthly lives - not only doth have feeling with the second God <i.e., the Cosmos>, but also hath conception of the first; f…”
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egyptian24
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 7 (part 3)
“xi.) that the Prisse papyrus was copied about the period of the XVIIth dynasty and that the works in it only date from the XIIth dynasty; but many Egyptologists assign the composition of the work to the age of Assa. See Wiedemann, Aegyptis…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 8 (part 2)
“Verily it shall be cast forth by my healing words of power, and I will drive it away from before the sight of thy sunbeams." The holy god opened his mouth and said, "I was passing along my path, and I was going through the two regions of my…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 8 (part 7)
“The sacred Form, beloved, terrible and mighty in his two risings (?), the lord of space, the mighty one of the form of Khepera, who came into existence through Khepera, the lord of the form of Khepera; when he came into being nothing existe…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 10 (part 14)
“see also Maspero, Hymne au Nil, publié et traduit d'après les deux textes A Musée Britannique , Paris, 1868. 4to. 2 Pyramid of Unas, l. 219; Pyramid of Teta, ll. 60, 286; Pyramid of Pepi I., ll. 444, 593, etc. 3. Pyramid of Pepi I.,…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 10 (part 16)
“Thou art one in thine attributes among the gods, thou beautiful bull of the company of the gods, thou chief of all the gods, lord of Maat , father of the gods, creator of men, maker of beasts and cattle, lord of all that existeth, maker of…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 10 (part 17)
“It has been urged that the Egyptians never advanced to pure monotheism because they never succeeded in freeing themselves from the belief in the existence of other gods, but when they say that a god has "no second," even though they mention…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 28 (part 1)
“PLATE XX. Vignette: Osiris and Isis in a sepulchral shrine. Text [CHAPTER XV.]: (I) A HYMN OF PRAISE To RA WHEN HE RISETH IN THE EASTERN PART OF THE HEAVEN. They who are in (2) his train rejoice, and lo! Osiris Ani in triumph saith "Hai…”
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 22)
“If the name of Osiris flourisheth in This, the name of Pepi shall flourish, and this pyramid shall flourish, and this his work shall endure to all eternity. If the name of Osiris Khent-Amenta flourisheth, the name of Pepi shall flourish, a…”
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hinduism23
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter III, Section 1a
“CHAPTER III. Ar g una said: If, O Ganârdana! devotion is deemed by you to be superior to action, then why, O Kesava! do you prompt me to (this) fearful action? You seem, indeed, to confuse my mind by equivocal words. Therefore, declare…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter III, Section 1b
“For should I at any time not engage without sloth in action, men would follow in my path from all sides, O son of P ri thâ! If I did not perform actions, these worlds would be destroyed, I should be the cause of caste interminglings; and I…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter IV, Section 1a
“CHAPTER IV. The Deity said: This everlasting (system of) devotion I declared to the sun, the sun declared it to Manu , and Manu communicated it to Ikshvâku. Coming thus by steps, it became known to royal sages. But, O terror of (your) fo…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter VII, Section 1a
“CHAPTER VII. The Deity said: O son of P ri thâ! now hear how you can without doubt know me fully, fixing your mind on me, and resting in me, and practising devotion. I will now tell you exhaustively about knowledge together with experien…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter VII, Section 1b
“Whichever form (of deity) any worshipper wishes to worship with faith, to that form I render his faith steady. Possessed Of that faith, he seeks to propitiate (the deity in) that (form), and obtains from it those beneficial things which he…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter IX, Section 1a
“CHAPTER IX. Now I will speak to you, who are not given to carping, of that most mysterious knowledge, accompanied by experience, by knowing which you will be released from evil. It is the chief among the sciences, the chief among the myst…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter IX, Section 1b
“Thus those who wish for objects of desire, and resort to the ordinances of the three (Vedas), obtain (as the fruit) going and coming. To those men who worship me, meditating on me and on no one else, and who are constantly devoted, I give…”
The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter X, Section 1a
“CHAPTER X. Yet again, O you of mighty arms! listen to my excellent words, which, out of a wish for your welfare, I speak to you who are delighted (with them). Not the multitudes of gods, nor the great sages know my source; for I am in ev…”
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sufism18
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY I-a
“The Prince and the Handmaid. A prince, while engaged on a hunting excursion, espied a fair maiden, and by promises of gold induced her to accompany him. After a time she fell sick, and the prince had her tended by divers physicians. As,…”
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY III-a
“The Jewish King, his Vazir, and the Christians. A certain Jewish king used to persecute the Christians, desiring to exterminate their faith. His Vazir persuaded him to try a stratagem, namely, to mutilate the Vazir himself, and expel him…”
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…”
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY V-a
“The Lion and the Beasts. In the book of Kalila and Damna a story is told of a lion who held all the beasts of the neighborhood in subjection, and was in the habit of making constant raids upon them, to take and kill such of them as he requ…”
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY V-b
“Again, know that self-exertion springs from weakness; Relying on other means is a blot upon perfect trust. Self-exertion is not more noble than trust in God. What is more lovely than committing oneself to God? Many there are who flee fro…”
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY V-c
“The skill taught by God to the silkworm Is a learning beyond the reach of the elephant. The earthly Adam was taught of God names, 4 So that his glory reached the seventh heaven. He laid low the name and fame of the angels, 5 Yet blind ind…”
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY V-d
“But the light that lights the heart is the Light of God, Which is distinct from the light of reason and sense. At night there is no light, and colors are not seen; Hence we know what light is by its opposite, darkness. At night no colors…”
The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY V-e
“"In yourselves are signs; will ye not behold them?" (Koran li, 21). 12. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 92. Mr. Mansel (Bampton Lectures, p. 49) says: "A thing can be known as that which it is only by being distinguished from that which it is n…”
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finnic13
The Kalevala | Rune IX-f
“Thus it was be tried the balsam, Thus the magic salve he tested, Touched with it the splintered sandstone, Touched the broken blocks of granite, Touched the fissures in the mountains, And the broken parts united, All the fragments grew toge…”
The Kalevala | Rune IX-g
“O, ye people of Wainola, People of this generation, And the folk of future ages, Fashion not in emulation, River boat, nor ocean shallop, Boasting of its fine appearance, God alone can work completion, Give to cause its perfect ending, Neve…”
The Kalevala | Rune XV-g
“God anoints his faithful children, With the honey of his wisdom, When they feel the pangs of sorrow, When they meet the powers of evil. Dip thy winglets in this honey, Steep thy plumage in His sweetness, Hither bring the all-sufficient Bal…”
The Kalevala | Rune XV-h
“Then the mother spake as follows: "I have found the long-sought balsam, Found the remedy of Ukko, Where-with God anoints his people, Gives them life, and faith, and wisdom, Heals their wounds and stills their anguish, Makes them strong agai…”
The Kalevala | Rune XV-i
“Northland's ugly hostess, Louhi, Will not give to me her daughter, Fairest maiden of Pohyola, Till I kill the swan of Mana, With my bow and but one arrow, In the river of Tuoni. Lemminkainen's mother answers, In the sacred stream and whirl…”
The Kalevala | Rune XVII-b
“Wise Wipunen, full of song-charms, Opens wide his mouth and swallows Wainamoinen and his magic, Shoes, and staff, and iron armor. Then outspeaks the wise Wipunen: "Many things before I've eaten, Dined on goat, and sheep, and reindeer, Bear…”
The Kalevala | Rune XIX-b
“In the field were countless vipers, Serpents there of every species, Crawling, writhing, hissing, stinging, Harmless all against the hero, Thus he stills the snakes of Lempo: "Vipers, ye by God created, Neither best nor worst of creatures,…”
The Kalevala | Rune XXIV-a
“BRIDE'S FAREWELL. Osmotar, the bride-instructor, Gives the wedding-guests this counsel, Speaks these measures to the bridegroom: "Ilmarinen, artist-brother, Best of all my hero-brothers, Of my mother's sons the dearest, Gentlest, truest, b…”
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taoism13
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 34
“All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right. All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 41
“Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 51
“All things are produced by the Tao, and nourished by its outflowing operation. They receive their forms according to the nature of each, and are completed according to the circumstances of their condition. Therefore all things without excep…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 60
“Governing a great state is like cooking small fish. Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao, and the manes of the departed will not manifest their spiritual energy. It is not that those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 62
“Tao has of all things the most honoured place. No treasures give good men so rich a grace; Bad men it guards, and doth their ill efface. (Its) admirable words can purchase honour; (its) admirable deeds can raise their performer above others…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 67
“All the world says that, while my Tao is great, it yet appears to be inferior (to other systems of teaching). Now it is just its greatness that makes it seem to be inferior. If it were like any other (system), for long would its smallness h…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 74
“The people do not fear death; to what purpose is it to (try to) frighten them with death? If the people were always in awe of death, and I could always seize those who do wrong, and put them to death, who would dare to do wrong? There is al…”
Tao Te Ching | Chapter 77
“May not the Way (or Tao) of Heaven be compared to the (method of) bending a bow? The (part of the bow) which was high is brought low, and what was low is raised up. (So Heaven) diminishes where there is superabundance, and supplements where…”
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celtic12
The Mabinogion | Tale GERAINT THE SON OF ERBIN-aa
“Thereupon she raised a loud and piercing shriek, and her lamentations were much greater than they had been before, for she considered in her mind that had Geraint been alive, he durst not have struck her thus. But, behold, at the sound of…”
The Mabinogion | Tale KILHWCH AND OLWEN-a
“OR THE TWRCH TRWYTH Kilydd the son of Prince Kelyddon desired a wife as a helpmate, and the wife that he chose was Goleuddydd, the daughter of Prince Anlawdd. And after their union, the people put up prayers that they might have an heir.…”
The Mabinogion | Tale KILHWCH AND OLWEN-r
“It is not possible to hunt the boar Trwyth without Gwynn the son of Nudd, whom God has placed over the brood of devils in Annwvyn, lest they should destroy the present race. He will never be spared thence.” “It will be easy for me to compa…”
The Mabinogion | Tale KILHWCH AND OLWEN-w
“Said Arthur, “Which of the marvels will it be best for us now to seek first?” “It will be best to seek for the two cubs of Gast Rhymhi.” “Is it known,” asked Arthur, “where she is?” “She is in Aber Deu Cleddyf,” said one. Then Arthur went…”
The Mabinogion | Tale KILHWCH AND OLWEN-z
“And the third day Arthur himself encountered him, and he fought with him nine nights and nine days without so much as killing even one little pig. The warriors inquired of Arthur what was the origin of that swine; and he told them that he…”
The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESIN-b
“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 TALIESIN-c
“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 TALIESIN-d
“I will supplicate my Lord that I get refuge in him, A regard I may obtain in his grace; The Son of Mary is my trust, great in him is my delight, For in him is the world continually upholden. God has been to instruct me and to raise my expe…”
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theosophy9
The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1 [[Vol. 1, Page]] 106 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. STANZA V. 1. T HE P RIMORDIAL S EVEN, THE FIRST SEVEN B REATHS OF THE D RAGON OF W ISDOM, PRODUCE IN THEIR TURN FROM THEIR HOLY CIRCUMGYRATING…”
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 16 (part 4)
“It is on the acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate Essence, that mainly rests the belief or unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides the Spirits of the Dead. [[Vol…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 35 (part 5)
“The poverty of the argument and logic in this case, is surpassed only by that of Laplace, who, seeking very correctly to substitute motion for Newton's "all-powerful Being," and ignorant of the true nature of that eternal motion, saw in it…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 36 (part 2)
“Thus neither Laplace's perceptions of a solar atmospheric fluid, which would extend beyond the orbits of the planets, nor Le Couturier's electricity, nor Foucault's heat ( Panorama des Mondes , p. 55), nor this, nor the other, can ever hel…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 67 (part 5)
“The hinder part of the roof is developed by a peculiar process, to be noticed later, into the pineal gland, which remains united on each side by its pedicles to the thalamus, and behind these a transverse band is formed as posterior commiss…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 90 (part 2)
“He assures us that it upsets any possibility of the present apes having been the progenitors of mankind. But does it not also negative the bare possibility of the man and anthropoid having had a common -- though, so far, an absolutely theo…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 90 (part 3)
“Darwinism only meets Evolution at its midway point -- that is to say when astral evolution has given place to the play of the ordinary physical forces with which our present senses acquaint us. But even here the Darwinian Theory, even with…”
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zoroastrianism7
Avesta (Gathas) | Ahunavaiti Gatha, Yasna XXIX, Section 1a
“(Homage to you, O Sacred Gâthas!) 1. Unto you (O Ahura and Asha!) the Soul of the Kine (our sacred herds and folk) cried aloud: For whom did ye create me, and by 1 whom did ye fashion me? On me comes the assault of wrath, and of violent p…”
Avesta (Gathas) | Ahunavaiti Gatha, Yasna XXXI, Section 1a
“1. These doctrines (therefore) we are earnestly declaring to You as we recite them forth from memory, words (till now) unheard 1 (with faith) by those who by means of the doctrinal vows 2 of the harmful Lie are delivering the settlements o…”
Avesta (Gathas) | Ahunavaiti Gatha, Yasna XXXI, Section 1b
“as the one to be adored with the mind in the creation, as the Father of the Good Mind within us, when I beheld Thee 7 with my (enlightened) eyes as the veritable maker of our Righteousness, as the Lord of the actions of life 8 ! 9. Thine,…”
Avesta (Gathas) | Ushtavaiti Gatha, Yasna XLIII, Section 1b
“102 righteous may I be a mighty help and joy 1 , since to preparations 2 for Thy Kingdom, and in desire (for its approach), I would devote myself so long as to Thee, O Mazda! I may praise, and weave my song. 9. Yea, I conceived of Thee a…”
Avesta (Gathas) | Ushtavaiti Gatha, Yasna XLIV, Section 1a
“1. This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright; when praise is to be offered, how (shall I complete) the praise of the One like You 1 , O Mazda? Let p. 112 the One like Thee declare it earnestly to the friend who is such as I, thus through…”
Avesta (Gathas) | Spenta Mainyu Gatha, Yasna XLVIII, Section 1a
“1. If through his action 1 in the offering of gifts in accordance with the Righteous Order, (Thy saint 2 ) shall smite the Demon-of-the-Lie (the inspiring spirit of our foes), when that in very truth shall come 3 , which has been (and is s…”
Avesta (Gathas) | Vohu Khshathra Gatha, Yasna LI, Section 1a
“1. The good Government (of Ahura 1 ) is to be chosen (among all wished-for things 2 ) as that lot which most of all brings on (our happiness). Actions that oppress us it opposes 3 , through the holy Order (which pervades it), and with the…”
native_american6
The Soul of the Indian | Chapter I-b
“Sometimes an old man, standing upon the brink of eternity, might reveal to a chosen few the oracle of his long-past youth. The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity. They forget…”
The Soul of the Indian | Chapter III-a
“CEREMONIAL AND SYMBOLIC WORSHIP Modern Perversions of Early Religious Rites. The Sun Dance. The Great Medicine Lodge. Totems and Charms. The Vapor-Bath and the Ceremonial of the Pipe. The public religious rites of the Plains Indians ar…”
The Soul of the Indian | Chapter III-b
“It was customary to paint the man red and the animal black, and each was suspended from one end of the crossbar which was securely tied some two feet from the top of the pole. I have never been able to determine that this cross had any sig…”
The Soul of the Indian | Chapter IV-d
“Before the coming of the white man, there was in fact little temptation or opportunity to despoil the enemy; but in modern times the practice of “stealing horses” from hostile tribes has become common, and is thought far from dishonorable.…”
Myths of the Cherokee | Myth 4c
“Even weeds were made for some good purpose, which we must find out for ourselves. When the doctor does not know what medicine to use for a sick man the spirit of the plant tells him.…”
Myths of the Cherokee | Myth 15a
“THE FOURFOOTED TRIBES In Cherokee mythology, as in that of Indian tribes generally, there is no essential difference between men and animals. In the primal genesis period they seem to be completely undifferentiated, and we find all creatur…”
mandaean2
Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 3
“Then all of the priests arose and said to Old Father Zakhriā, [they said] in reproach: "Be at rest and keep thy seat, Old Father, and let the calm of the Good (pl.) rest upon thee. Old p. 39 Father, if there were no dreams in Judća, then wo…”
Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 15
“When the youth saw her alone, he set himself free and fell down from the cloud. He set himself free and fell down from the cloud and kissed the mouth of Enishbai. When Anōsh, the treasure, saw him [do this], he spake unto Yahyā in Jerusalem…”
upanishads1
Îsâ-Upanishad | Îsâ, Section 1b
“Remember thy deeds 5 ! 18. Agni, lead us on to wealth (beatitude) by a good path, thou, O God, who knowest all things! p. 314 [paragraph continues] Keep far from us crooked evil, and we shall offer thee the fullest praise! (Rv. I, 189…”