soteriology
Forbidden Knowledge
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
110 passages · 14 traditions
western_esoteric36
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicruciansi
“The forging of Shakspere's handwriting; the foisting of fraudulent portraits and death masks upon a gullible public; the fabrication of spurious biographies; the mutilation of books and documents; the destruction or rendering illegible of t…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolisme
“Guthrie interprets the words Popol Vuh to mean "The Senate Book," or "The Book of the Holy Assembly"; Brasseur de Bourbourg calls it "The Sacred Book"; and Father Ximinez designates the volume "The National Book." In his articles on the Pop…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XIV (part 6)
“And at last he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him as he is in his own proper place, and not in another, and he will contemplate his nature.
Certainly.
And after this he will reas…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXII (part 22)
“I seemed to be directly under the foot of God, and I thought he was grinding his own life up out of my pain.
Then I saw that what he had been trying with all his might to do was to change his course, to bend the line of lightning to which…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductiona
“Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductionb
“At length a universal cry of execration went up against Magic, the mere name became a crime and the common hatred was formulated in this sentence: “Magicians to the flames!” - as it was shouted some centuries earlier: “To the lions with the…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductionc
“The original alliance between Christianity and the Science of the Magi, once demonstrated fully, will be a discovery of no second-rate importance, and we do not doubt that the serious study of Magic and the Kabalah will lead earnest minds t…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductiond
“Stand up and open your eyes, but take care before all things to make no Christian sign and to pronounce no Christian words.
We are in a landscape of Salvator Rosa, a troubled wilderness which seems resting after a storm.
There is no moon…”
Show all 36 →jewish_mysticism15
◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1f
“[The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are divided into three classes, the three mothers as they are called, AMSh; the seven duplex letters, BGDKPRTh, so called because they are sometimes tenues and sometimes aspirates, according to whether th…”
◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Page 3 (part 7)
“xix as Burkitt says, "most of the most convincing proofs that the Greek text of Enoch is a translation from a Semitic language fit equally well with a Hebrew or an Aramaic original"; his opinion is that Aramaic was the original language, "b…”
◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XIII
“CHAPTER XIII. 1. And Enoch went and said: 'Azâzêl, p. 40 thou shalt have no peace: a severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds: 2. And thou shalt not have toleration nor †request† granted to thee, because of the unrig…”
◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XXXII
“CHAPTER XXXII. E 1. And after these fragrant odours, as I looked towards the north over the mountains I saw seven mountains full of choice nard and fragrant trees and cinnamon and pepper. G g 1. To the north-east I beheld seven mountains fu…”
◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter LXXXVIII
“LXXXVIII. The Punishment of the Fallen Angels by the Archangels . CHAPTER LXXXVIII. 1. And I saw one of those four who had come forth first, and he seized that first star which had fallen from the heaven, and bound it hand and p. 116 foot a…”
◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XCIV
“XCIV. 1-5. Admonitions to the Righteous . CHAPTER XCIV. 1. And now I say unto you, my sons, love righteousness and walk therein; For the paths of righteousness are worthy of acceptation, But the paths of unrighteousness shall suddenly be de…”
◆The Greater Holy Assembly (Idra Rabba Qadisha) | Idra Rabba, Chapter 1 (part 2)
“1 12.
"For it is written, Deut.
xxxiii.
29: 'Blessed art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee?' Also it is written, Exod.
xv.
11: 'Who is like unto thee among the gods, O Tetragrammaton?'" 2 13.
He called Rabbi Eleazer, his son, and…”
◇The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter VII
“CHAPTER VII. 1. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cu…”
Show all 15 →finnic14
◆The Kalevala | Rune VIa
“'S HAPLESS JOURNEY.
Wainamoinen, old and truthful, Now arranges for a journey To the village of the Northland, To the land of cruel winters, To the land of little sunshine, To the land of worthy women; Takes his light-foot, royal racer, Th…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune VIIe
“Forged the air a hollow cover; Nowhere see we hammer-traces, Nowhere find a single tongs-mark." Thus replied the hostess, Louhi: "Him alone I'll give my daughter, Promise him my child in marriage, Who for me will forge the Sampo, Hammer me…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XIIc
“"Straightway I began my singing, Sang the archers with their arrows, Sang the spearmen with their weapons, Sang the swordsmen with their poniards, Sang the singers with their singing, The enchanters with their magic, To the rapids of the ri…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XIIe
“Here the hero, Lemminkainen, Drove along the lowest highway, Through the streets along the border, To a court-yard in the hamlet, Asked one standing in the doorway: "Is there one within this dwelling, That can loose my stallion's breastplat…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XIIf
“Now the minstrel, Lemminkainen, Changes both his form and stature, Passes through the inner door-ways, Enters he the spacious court-hall, And these words the hero utters: "Fine the singing quickly ending, Good the song that quickly ceases;…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XVId
“Send the boat now quickly over, Send me, quick, Tuoni's row-boat, Help me cross this fatal river, Cross the channel of Manala." Spake the daughter of Tuoni, Mana's maiden thus replying: "Thou art sure a stupid fellow, Foresight wanting, jud…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XVIIb
“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 XVIIf
“"I shall set my forge and bellows Deeper, deeper in thy vitals; I shall swing my heavy hammer, Swing it with a greater power On thy heart, and lungs, and liver; I shall never, never leave thee Till I learn thine incantations, Learn thy many…”
Show all 14 →christian_mysticism10
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 5 (part 8)
“36.) "The foundation of hell was from eternity; however, it was not manifest, but hidden until it became awakened." ( Theosophical Questions , xv.
i.) p.
115 "The four lower principles without the eternal light are the abyss, the wrath of…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 8)
“15.) The forthcoming of the tree of temptation is not to be wondered at, because Adam was endowed with great powers, and an earthly form as a protection to him against the powers of hell.
1 "Reason (man's reasoning) says, 'Why did God perm…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 9)
“If it had not been for that circumstance, he would in his selfishness even have become a devil by the power of the fire." 4 ( Stiefel , ii.
363.) "When the devil saw that lust resided in Adam, he acted still more powerfully upon the Sal-ni…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 6)
“1.) "The terrestrial consciousness corrupted the celestial one, and the former became the Turba of the latter.
Likewise, the Fiat made the earth and stones out of the eternal essentiality." ( Menschwerdung , i.
9.) "But in the earth we fi…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 4)
“9.) "After the fall man with his interior body lived only in time; the precious gold of heavenly corporeity, which should tincture, penetrate and bless the external body, had lost its colour." 3 ( Signature , v.
8.) Moreover, the powers of…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 9)
“183:1 If man's imagination were not excited by the pictorial representations which the objects of the surrounding world call forth in his mind by means of his external senses, but if his mental activity were restricted to forming images by…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 6)
“These souls have a perverted conscience, which tortures them; their sins are always before their eyes; they see all their injustice and frivolity, their conceit and the misery which they have caused, their scorn and arrogance, but now their…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 7)
“The heart of God wanted to have him in Paradise and to reside in him, for it said, 'He is my image and likeness.' The kingdom of wrath wanted him, for it said, 'He is mine; for he has issued out of my fountain, out of the eternal mind of th…”
Show all 10 →greek_mystery7
◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 3 (part 3)
“Afterwards, when Neanthus, the son of Pittacus the tyrant, found that the lyre drew trees and wild beasts with its harmony, he earnestly desired its possession; and having corrupted the priest privately with money, he took the Orphean lyre,…”
◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 5)
“Again, the Athenian guest speaks separately of the conjectural kind, where he treats of that music which does not propose to itself pleasure, but a true and most similar imitation of its exemplar, as in the second book of Laws.
Indeed, Soc…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 10 (part 2)
“It is not proper to despise those things of which we shall be in want after the dissolution of the body.
36.
You should not ask of divinity that which, when you have obtained, you will not perpetually possess.
37.
Accustom your soul aft…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 13 (part 48)
“Καὶ γὰρ ὅτ᾽ ἐκρίνοντο θεοὶ θνητοί τ᾽ ἄνθρωποι 535 Μηκώνῃ, τότ᾽ ἔπειτα μέγαν βοῦν πρόφρονι θυμῷ δασσάμενος προέθηκε, Διὸς νόον ἐξαπαφίσκων.
Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ σάρκας τε καὶ ἔγκατα πίονα δημῷ ἐν ῥινῷ κατέθηκε καλύψας γαστρὶ βοείῃ, τῷ δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ὀστέα…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 13 (part 50)
“Τὸν δὲ μέγ᾽ ὀχθήσας προσέφη νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς· Ἰαπετιονίδη, πάντων πέρι μήδεα εἰδώς, ὦ πέπον, οὐκ ἄρα πω δολίης ἐπιλήθεο τέχνης.
560 Ὥς φάτο χωόμενος Ζεὺς ἄφθιτα μήδεα εἰδώς· ἐκ τούτου δὴ ἔπειτα δόλου μεμνημένος αἰεὶ οὐκ ἐδίδου μελίῃσι πυρ…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 13 (part 55)
“620 Ἔνθ᾽ οἵ γ᾽ ἄλγε᾽ ἔχοντες ὑπὸ χθονὶ ναιετάοντες ἥατ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἐσχατιῇ, μεγάλης ἐν πείρασι γαίης, δηθὰ μάλ᾽ ἀχνύμενοι, κραδίῃ μέγα πένθος ἔχοντες.
ἀλλά σφεας Κρονίδης τε καὶ ἀθάνατοι θεοὶ ἄλλοι, οὓς τέκεν ἠύκομος ῾Ρείη Κρόνου ἐν φιλότητι, 625…”
◇The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 13 (part 51)
“Αὐτίκα δ᾽ ἀντὶ πυρὸς τεῦξεν κακὸν ἀνθρώποισιν· 570 γαίης γὰρ σύμπλασσε περικλυτὸς Ἀμφιγυήεις παρθένῳ αἰδοίῃ ἴκελον Κρονίδεω διὰ βουλάς.
Ζῶσε δὲ καὶ κόσμησε θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη ἀργυφέη ἐσθῆτι· κατὰ κρῆθεν δὲ καλύπτρην δαιδαλέην χείρεσσι κατ…”
celtic6
◆The Mabinogion | Tale PEREDUR THE SON OF EVRAWCr
“And being elated with the liquor, he said to the black man, “It is a marvel to me, so mighty as thou sayest thou art, who could have put out thine eye.” “It is one of my habits,” said the black man, “that whosoever puts to me the question w…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale PEREDUR THE SON OF EVRAWC~
“And I came with the bloody head in the salver, and with the lance that streamed with blood from the point to the hand, all along the shaft; and the head was thy cousin’s, and he was killed by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed th…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale BRANWEN THE DAUGHTER OF LLYRj
“And there they remained fourscore years, unconscious of having ever spent a time more joyous and mirthful.
And they were not more weary than when first they came, neither did they, any of them, know the time they had been there.
And it wa…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale MATH THE SON OF MATHONWYj
““Verily,” said Blodeuwedd, “the Chieftain will speak ill of us if we let him at this hour depart to another land without inviting him in.” “Yes, truly, lady,” said they, “it will be most fitting to invite him.” Then went messengers to meet…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINa
“In times past there lived in Penllyn a man of gentle lineage, named Tegid Voel, and his dwelling was in the midst of the lake Tegid, and his wife was called Caridwen.
And there was born to him of his wife a son named Morvran ab Tegid, and…”
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINh
“I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass: I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan; I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene; I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen; I have been bard of the harp to L…”
norse5
◆The Poetic Edda: Hovamol | Section 1e
“Hotter than fire | between false friends Does friendship five days burn; When the sixth day comes | the fire cools, And ended is all the love.
52.
No great thing needs | a man to give, Oft little will purchase praise; With half a loaf | a…”
◆The Poetic Edda: Hovamol | Section 1i
“50 Foul scorn was my meed | from the crafty maid, And nought from the woman I won.
* * * 103.
Though glad at home, | and merry with guests, A man shall be wary and wise; The sage and shrewd, | wide wisdom seeking, Must see that his speech…”
◆The Poetic Edda: Hovamol | Section 1o
“A sixth I know, | if harm one seeks With a sapling's roots to send me; The hero himself | who wreaks his hate Shall taste the ill ere I.
153.
A seventh I know, | if I see in flames The hall o'er my comrades' heads; It burns not so wide |…”
◆The Poetic Edda: Voluspo | Section 1f
“Lothur : apparently an older name for Loki, the treacherous but ingenious son of Laufey, whose divinity Snorri regards as somewhat doubtful.
He was adopted by Othin, who subsequently had good reason to regret it.
Loki probably represents…”
◆The Poetic Edda: Voluspo | Section 1h
“Here the Volva turns from her memories of the past to a statement of some of Othin's own secrets in his eternal search for knowledge (stanzas 27-29).
Bugge puts this stanza after stanza 29.
The horn of Heimdall : the Gjallarhorn ("Shrieki…”
gnosticism4
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1h
“Now the woman and man are one in the chamber with the bed, and those so joined will not come apart again.
Eve and Adam separated because when they joined it was not in the chamber with the bed.
ADAM’S SOUL The soul of Adam came into being…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1i
“His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” The tree of life in the middle of that garden of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree comes chrism, and from that oil comes the resurrection.
THE WORLD EATS BODIES The world e…”
◆Pistis Sophia | Document FIRSTj
“And the Adamas the great Tyrant with all the Tyrants who become in all the Aeons began to war without cause against the light and they knew not [24 ] with whom they are warring, because that they were not seeing anyone except the light whic…”
◆Pistis Sophia | Document THIRDi
“But answered Iohannes, said he, My Lord, whenever we should come preaching and (should) go into a city or a village, and (should) come out in front of us [250 ] the men of that city, and we know not what they are, being in great guile with…”
mesopotamian4
◆Adapa and the Food of Life | Section 1b
“Adapa, For whom art thou clad in a mourning garment?" In the country two gods have vanished; therefore am I clad In mourning garments." "Who are the two gods, who have vanished from the land?" "Tammuz and Gishzida." They looked at one anoth…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet IX — Gilgamish in Terror of Death Seeks Eternal Life | Tablet IX, Section 1
“THE NINTH TABLET. GILGAMISH IN TERROR OF DEATH SEEKS ETERNAL LIFE. . Gilgamish bitterly wept for his comrade, (for) Enkidu, ranging Over the desert: "I, too—shall I not die like Enkidu also? 5. Sorrow hath enter’d my heart; I fear death as…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XI — The Flood | Tablet XI, Section 1a
“THE ELEVENTH TABLET.
THE FLOOD.
.
Gilgamish unto him spake, to Uta-Napishtim the Distant: "Uta-Napishtim, upon thee I gaze, (yet) in no wise thy presence Strange is, (for) thou art like me, and in no wise different art thou; 5.
Thou art…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XI — The Flood | Tablet XI, Section 1d
“Then Enlil, on his arrival, Spied out the vessel, and (straightway) did Enlil burst into anger, Swollen with wrath ’gainst the gods, the Igigi : 'Hath any of mortals ’Scaped?
Sooth, never a man could have lived through (the welter of) ruin…”
renaissance_hermeticism3
◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XIII — Whence the Occult Virtues of Things Proceed | Chapter XIII, Section 1a
“CHAPTER XIII.
Whence the Occult Virtues of Things Proceed .
It is well known to all that there is a certain virtue in the Loadstone by which it attracts iron, and that the Diamond doth by its presence take away that virtue of the Loadston…”
◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XXXIX — That We May, By Some Certain Matters of the World, Stir Up the Gods of the World and Their Ministering Spirits | Chapter XXXIX, Section 1
“CHAPTER XXXIX. That We May, By Some Certain Matters of the World, Stir Up the Gods of the World and Their Ministering Spirits . No man is ignorant that evil spirits, by evil and profane arts, may be raised up as Psellus saith sorcerers are…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialoguea
“.
Tansillo, Cicada.
Tans.
The enthusiasms most suitable to be first brought forward and considered are those that I now place before you in the order that seems to me most fitting.
Cic.
Begin, then, to read.
Tansillo.
1.
Ye Muses, t…”
neoplatonism2
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXX
“You say, however, “ that the makers of images observe the motion of the celestial bodies, and can tell from the concurrence of what star, with a certain star or stars, predictions will be true or false; and also whether the things that are…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIl
“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 [157…”
platonism2
◆Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1i
“But hear what follows, and Perhaps the fit may be averted; all is in their hands above.
I will go on talking to my youth.
Listen: Thus, my friend, we have declared and defined the nature of the subject.
Keeping the definition in view, le…”
◆Plato: Republic | Section 1a
“SOCRATES - ADEIMANTUS Here Adeimantus interposed and said: To these statements, Socrates, no one can offer a reply; but when you talk in this way, a strange feeling passes over the minds of your hearers: They fancy that they are led astray…”
egyptian1
◆The Egyptian Heaven and Hell | Chapter 24 (part 1)
“p.
172 CHAPTER XII.
TENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT.
I.
KINGDOM OF TEMU-KHEPERA-RA ACCORDING TO THE BOOK AM-TUAT.
THE TENTH and ELEVENTH DIVISIONS, or HOURS, are intended to illustrate the passage of AFU-RA through the region of AKERT, Or A…”
taoism1
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 55
“He who has in himself abundantly the attributes (of the Tao) is like an infant. Poisonous insects will not sting him; fierce beasts will not seize him; birds of prey will not strike him. (The infant's) bones are weak and its sinews soft, bu…”