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.
158 passages · 16 traditions
western_esoteric78
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 4 (part 3)
“The second respect in which the interests of the occult student have been considered is, however, of much more importance, though he may not be as ready to admit the suggestion, having regard to all that it implies.
Robert Turner, the Engl…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 5 (part 5)
“The technicalities of the occult sciences may seem hard to the beginner, and they are actually hard like the wilderness, because they are barren wastes, but they are in words of one syllable if compared with the little catechisms of eternal…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 6 (part 1)
“PART I THE LITERATURE OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC Click to view THE SERPENT OF THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES.
From a Greek Vase Painting.
CHAPTER I The antiquity of Magical Rituals § 1.
The Importance of Ceremonial Magic THE ordinary fields of ps…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 6 (part 3)
“There was a time indeed when Ceremonial Magic threatened to absorb the whole circle of the occult sciences; it was the superior method, the royal road; it effected immediately what the others accomplished laboriously, after a long time.
It…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 8 (part 1)
Ҥ 3.
The Unprinted Literature of Ceremonial Magic For the purposes of the present, inquiry it will be convenient to consider the Rituals under the three heads of Transcendental, Composite and Black, subject, as regards the first, to some s…”
The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 8 (part 2)
“Hochmaël ), and thereafter wrote seven volumes of Magical Art, "giving the kernel to us and the shells to others." From these books he seems afterwards to have extracted ninety-three chapters, containing a summary of the whole subject, and…”
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 19 (part 2)
“As a counterpoise, a century later his bust was placed in the town-hall of Padua.
His undoubted works, which are frankly unreadable, betray no acquaintance with the occult sciences beyond a belief in astrology, which in those days was cath…”
Show all 78 →theosophy25
The Secret Doctrine | Page 2 (part 6)
“When, however, he takes the opportunity of saying in the same breath that Odin "was worshipped as the supreme deity during a period long anterior to the age of the Veda and of Homer" ( Compar.
Theol., p.
318), he has not the slightest " h…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 2 (part 10)
“Helped by his knowledge of landscapes left behind him, he can get a general and pretty correct idea of the transmural view, if he will only climb to the loftiest summit of the altitudes in front of him.
Once there, he can gaze at it, at hi…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 9)
“(2.) M ONISM, or the Single Substance Doctrine, is the more subtle form of negative psychology, which one of its advocates, Professor Bain, ably terms "guarded [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 125 THE REAL MEANING OF TH…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 11 (part 7)
“yet if you should work out the problem by yourself , it will be my duty to tell you so ." But they never were so worked out, and the results were -- never-ceasing perplexity and mistakes.
Even the teaching about the Septenary constitution…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 12 (part 8)
“He is sexless , and , like the animal and vegetable he develops monstrous bodies correspondential with his coarser surroundings.
" II.
Round.
He ( Man ) is still gigantic and ethereal but growing firmer and more condensed in body , a mor…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 16 (part 13)
“) Some fifteen years ago, the writer was the first to repeat, after the Kabalists, the wise Commandments in the Esoteric Catechism.
"Close thy mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of this (the mystery), and thy heart, lest thou shouldst think a…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 18 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 310 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
§ II.
THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS.
R ECENT discoveries made by great mathematicians and Kabalists thus prove, beyond a shadow of doubt,…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 22 (part 3)
“These four "animals" may be seen in many of the Roman Catholic New Testaments where the portraits of the evangelists are given.
They are the animals of Ezekiel's Mercabah.
As truly stated by Ragon, "the ancient Hierophants have combined s…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 30 (part 5)
“That, however, which God and the Christian Saints are justified in doing, becomes a crime, if successful, in simple mortals.
Sorcery and incantations are regarded as fables now; yet from the day of the Institutes of Justinian down to the l…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 41 (part 5)
“1, Page]] 563 A PREMATURE DISCOVERY.
If the question is asked why Mr.
Keely was not allowed to pass a certain limit, the answer is easy; because that which he has unconsciously discovered, is the terrible sidereal Force, known to, and nam…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 55 (part 6)
“"the causes had to produce effects on earth."** Again, in the ancient Quiche Manuscript, the Popol Vuh -- published by the late Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg -- the first men are described as a race "whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 61 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
2 [[Vol.
2, Page]] 202 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
E DENS, S ERPENTS, AND D RAGONS.
Whence the idea, and the true meaning of the term "Eden"?
Christians will maintain that the Garden of Eden is…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 61 (part 7)
“it was already an old one.
That Arjuna, Krishna's companion and chela, is said to have descended into Patala, the "antipodes," and therein married Ulupi, * a Naga (or Nagini rather), the daughter of the king of the Nagas, Kauravya.** And n…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 63 (part 2)
“In Genesis (vi.) the "Sons of God" -- B ' ne Aleim -- become enamoured of the daughters of men, marry, and reveal to their wives the mysteries unlawfully learnt by them in heaven, according to Enoch; and this is the "Fall of Angels."* But w…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 66 (part 2)
“tated everywhere the use of titanic powers, and which tradition associates in all countries with the ideas about giants, volcanoes and magic." ( Page 48.) In the same work above cited of the Abbe Pegues, the author wonders why in Bible and…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 66 (part 4)
“Primarily, the angelic Fall , which has transformed the "first-born" of God into the Asuras, or into the Ahriman and Typhon of the "pagans" ( i.e ., if the accounts given in the Book of Enoch,* and in Hermes, in Puranas and Bible are taken…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 72 (part 5)
“403.) This is only another version of the Hindu "War in Heaven," between Soma, the moon, and the gods -- Indra being the atmospheric Vul; which shows it plainly to be both a Cosmogonical and an astronomical allegory, woven into and drawn fr…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 73 (part 5)
“This is clearly instanced in the paradoxical behaviour of Jehovah, who first curses Adam and Eve (or Humanity) for the supposed committed crime, and then blesses his "chosen people" by saying "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the ear…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 73 (part 6)
“Zeus, it is said, proposed to annihilate these puny ephemerals, and to plant upon the earth a new race in their stead." We see the Lords of Being doing likewise, and exterminating the first product of nature and the sea, in the Stanzas (V,…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 80 (part 4)
“The episode brings on a battle between the gods and the Asuras: King Soma, finds allies in Usanas (Venus), the leader of the Danavas; and the gods are led by Indra and Rudra, who side with Brihaspati.
The latter is helped by Sankara (Siva)…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 81 (part 6)
“In the Zend Avesta, Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), surrounding himself with fire (the "Flames" -- vide supra ) seeks to conquer the Heavens,* when Ahura Mazda, descending from the solid Heaven he inhabits, to the help of the Heavens that revolve (…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 82 (part 3)
“18.220 " The average of the now living Europeans is 18.579 inches; of Hottentots, 17.795 inches!
Which figures show plainly "that the size of the brain of the oldest populations known to us is not such as to place them on a lower level tha…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 82 (part 4)
“'The prudent son of Iapetus,' says Hesiod, 'deceived Jupiter by stealing and concealing in the cavity of a narthex, the indefatigable fire of the resplendent glow' ( Theog.
565) .
.
.
Thus the gift made by Prometheus to men was a conque…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 89 (part 6)
“To give a Western student that classification is to try to make him suppose that he can account for the origin of consciousness, by accounting for the process by which a certain knowledge, through only one of the states of that consciousnes…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 97 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
2 [[Vol.
2, Page]] 760 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] A .
S OME S TATEMENTS A BOUT THE S ACRED I SLANDS AND C ONTINENTS IN THE C LASSICS, E XPLAINED E…”
← Collapsejewish_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 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…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter VIII
“CHAPTER VIII. 1. And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈 of the earth 〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the…”
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…”
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter X (part 1)
“CHAPTER X.
1.
Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him: 2.
' 〈 Go to Noah 〉 and tell him in my name "Hide thyself!" and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that th…”
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 XVI
“CHAPTER XVI. 1. From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death ⌈ of the giants ⌉ , from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgement--thus shall they destroy until the day of t…”
Show all 15 →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 7)
“The heart of God wanted to have him in Paradise and to reside in him, for it said, 'He is my image and likeness.' The kingdom of wrath wanted him, for it said, 'He is mine; for he has issued out of my fountain, out of the eternal mind of th…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 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 7 (part 10)
“6.) God had ordered mankind not to eat from the fruits of the tree of temptation; but the devil thought of inducing them to disobey the command, and they were, moreover, p.
160 incited to do so by the spirit of the world, and by their own…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 11)
“162 [paragraph continues] Eve, the latter was the first to be seduced to fall away from God.
1 "The lust originated in Adam, but thereupon this perverted desire began to be excited in the woman." ( Stiefel , ii.
375.) "Eve was lusting aft…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 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…”
Show all 10 →gnosticism6
The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Archons Conspire Against Adam
“When they gazed down, they realized that his intellect surpassed (their own), and they convened in counsel together with the group of archons and all angels.
They took fire and earth [II, 21] and water, and combined them with each other to…”
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…”
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 FIRST-j
“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 THIRD-i
“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…”
greek_mystery5
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 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…”
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…”
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 Dialogue-a
“.
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…”
celtic2
The Mabinogion | Tale BRANWEN THE DAUGHTER OF LLYR-j
“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 TALIESIN-a
“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…”
native_american2
Myths of the Cherokee | Myth 3c
““There is no meat,” said Selu, “but wait a little while and I’ll get you something.” So she took a basket and started out to the storehouse.
This storehouse was built upon poles high up from the ground, to keep it out of the reach of anima…”
Myths of the Cherokee | Myth 3g
“At last one proposed to watch when their parents went out and to follow them.
Accordingly next morning the plan was carried out.
Those who followed the father saw him stop at a short distance from the cabin and turn over a large stone tha…”
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 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…”
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…”
finnic1
The Kalevala | Rune XVI-d
“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…”
norse1
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…”
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…”