cosmology
Involution
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
310 passages · 12 traditions
theosophy215
The Secret Doctrine | Page 2 (part 11)
“Nor could the vast catalogue of the Archaic Sciences be attempted in the present volumes, before we have disposed of such tremendous problems as Cosmic and Planetary Evolution, and the gradual development of the mysterious Humanities and ra…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page 1]] PROEM ------- PAGES FROM A PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.
A N Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknow…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 2)
“The latter is either "awake" or "asleep." The Svabhavikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism (which still exists in Nepaul), speculate only upon the active condition of this "Essence," which they call Svabhavat, and deem it f…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 3)
“The esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is the five-pointed star reversed, thus -- the sign of human sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned heavenward, a position every [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See t…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 4)
“The orthodox Brahmins, those who rise the most against the Pantheists and Adwaitees, calling them Atheists, are forced, if Manu has any authority in this matter, to accept the death of Brahma, the creator, at the expiration of every "Age" o…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 5)
“But this view does not prevent him from believing in its existence so long as it lasts, to wit, for one Mahamanvantara; nor from applying Akasa, the radiation of Mulaprakriti,* to practical purposes, connected as the World-Soul is with all…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 6)
“." For clearer understanding on the part of the general reader, it must be stated that Occult Science recognises Seven Cosmical Elements -- four entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi-material, as it will become visible in the air to…”
The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 7)
“Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the "First Cause,"* which the Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially…”
Show all 215 →neoplatonism46
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-a
“But neither must we admit that cause of the distinction of these genera which you subjoin, viz.
“ that it is an arrangement with reference to different bodies; as, for instance, 39 of Gods to etherial bodies, but of dæmons to aerial bodies…”
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 V
“Moreover, that which purifies souls is perfect in the Gods; but in archangels it is anagogic. Angels alone dissolve the bond of generation. Dæmons draw souls down into nature; but heroes lead them to a providential attention to sensible wor…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI
“Moreover, the gifts arising from the manifestations are not all of them equal, nor have the same fruits. But the presence of the Gods, indeed, imparts to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and in one word elevates every…”
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 II
“Prior to truly existing beings and total principles [or principles that rank as wholes], there is one God, prior to [that deity who is generally believed to be] the first God and king, immoveable, and abiding in the solitude of his own unit…”
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 V
“But why am I prolix about these particulars? For I have abundantly shown, in what has been before said, the transcendency of divine above human divination. It is better, therefore, in compliance with your request, “ to point out to you the…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-f
“Thus they recognised things supreme in such as are subordinate, and the subordinate in the supreme: in the celestial regions, terrene properties subsisting in a causal and celestial manner; and in earth celestial properties, but according t…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-g
“So that all things are full of divine natures; terrestrial natures receiving the plenitude of such as are celestial, but celestial of supercelestial essences; while every order of things proceeds gradually, in a beautiful descent, from the…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-j
“the connective, perfective, demiurgic, assimilative, and such others as are celebrated posterior to these; so that all are in all, and yet each is at the same time separate and distinct.
“Indeed we obtain this knowledge of their union and…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-n
“As, therefore, it is possible for the tyrannic life, when suddenly changed, to become aristocratic, through employing strenuous promptitude and a divine allotment, but the gradual ascent is from a tyrannic to a democratic, and from this to…”
Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-o
“In the next place, departing from intellect, and descending into reasoning and dianoia, it no longer apprehended real beings by simple intuitions, but syllogistically and transitively, proceeding from one thing to another, from propositions…”
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…”
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 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 121
“Section 18 18. Are the evils in the Universe necessary because it is of later origin than the Higher Sphere? Perhaps rather because without evil the All would be incomplete. For most or even all forms of evil serve the Universe- much as the…”
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 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 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 238 (part 2)
“It is lifeless objects that deal the severest blows; they hit hardest and hurt most; where there is life- that is to say participation in Being- there is beneficence towards the environment, all the greater as the measure of Being is fuller…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 263 (part 1)
“Section 11 11.
To this end we must go back to the state we affirmed of Eternity, unwavering Life, undivided totality, limitless, knowing no divagation, at rest in unity and intent upon it.
Time was not yet: or at least it did not exist fo…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 263 (part 2)
“Therefore over against that higher life there must be another life, known by the same name as the more veritable life of the Soul; over against that movement of the Intellectual Soul there must be the movement of some partial phase; over ag…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 265 (part 1)
“Section 13 13.
The Spheral Circuit, then, performed in Time, indicates it: but when we come to Time itself there is no question of its being "within" something else: it must be primary, a thing "within itself." It is that in which all the…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 283
“Section 1 1. In the Intellectual Kosmos dwells Authentic Essence, with the Intellectual-Principle [Divine Mind] as the noblest of its content, but containing also souls, since every soul in this lower sphere has come thence: that is the wor…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 286 (part 2)
“In the case of things not endowed with intelligence, the "leading-principle" is their mere unity- a lower reproduction of the soul's efficiency.
This is the deeper meaning of the profound passage [in the Timaeus], where we read "By blendin…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 298
“Section 11 11. I think, therefore, that those ancient sages, who sought to secure the presence of divine beings by the erection of shrines and statues, showed insight into the nature of the All; they perceived that, though this Soul is ever…”
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 338
“Section 18 18. There remains the question whether the body possesses any force of its own- so that, with the incoming of the soul, it lives in some individuality- or whether all it has is this Nature we have been speaking of, the superior p…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 347
“Section 27 27. If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing things- or retains it while allowing a vestige of it to constitute the vegetal principle in them- at once the earth is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power…”
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 359
“Section 39 39. We cannot, then, refer all that exists to Reason-Principles inherent in the seed of things [Spermatic Reasons]; the universe is to be traced further back, to the more primal forces, to the principles by which that seed itself…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 381
“Section 2 2. But of what nature is this sovereign principle? If material, then definitely it must fall apart; for every material entity, at least, is something put together. If it is not material but belongs to some other Kind, that new sub…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 406
“Section 6 6. Something besides a unity there must be or all would be indiscernibly buried, shapeless within that unbroken whole: none of the real beings [of the Intellectual Kosmos] would exist if that unity remained at halt within itself:…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 407
“Section 7 7. The Kind, then, with which we are dealing is twofold, the Intellectual against the sensible: better for the soul to dwell in the Intellectual, but, given its proper nature, it is under compulsion to participate in the sense-rea…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 417
“Section 1 1. What can it be that has brought the souls to forget the father, God, and, though members of the Divine and entirely of that world, to ignore at once themselves and It? The evil that has overtaken them has its source in self-wil…”
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 462
“Section 9 9. Everything brought into being under some principle not itself is contained either within its maker or, if there is any intermediate, within that: having a prior essential to its being, it needs that prior always, otherwise it w…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 495
“Section 3 3. We will have to examine this Nature, the Intellectual, which our reasoning identifies as the authentically existent and the veritable essential: but first we must take another path and make certain that such a principle does ne…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 498
“Section 6 6. We take it, then, that the Intellectual-Principle is the authentic existences and contains them all- not as in a place but as possessing itself and being one thing with this its content. All are one there and yet are distinct:…”
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 541
“Section 3 3. We assert, then, a plurality of Existents, but a plurality not fortuitous and therefore a plurality deriving from a unity. But even admitting this derivation from a unity- a unity however not predicated of them in respect of th…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 608
“Section 1 1. The integral omnipresence of a unity numerically identical is in fact universally received; for all men instinctively affirm the god in each of us to be one, the same in all. It would be taken as certain if no one asked How or…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 627
“Section 7 7. It is inevitably necessary to think of all as contained within one nature; one nature must hold and encompass all; there cannot be as in the realm of sense thing apart from thing, here a sun and elsewhere something else; all mu…”
Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 640 (part 2)
“If then the future is present, it must be present as having been foreconceived for later coming to be; at that divine stage therefore it lacks nothing and therefore can never lack; all existed, eternally and in such a way that at the later…”
← Collapsechristian_mysticism29
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1b
“Plotinus says the Godhead is indivisibly divided.
doth not leave Its own Unity, but, even in the act of going forth to all things, remains entirely within Itself through the excess of that all-transcendent Unity: concerning these things ‘t…”
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 5, Section 1a
“131 CHAPTER V Concerning ” Existence “ and also concerning ” Exemplars .” I.
Now must we proceed to the Name of “Being” which is truly applied by the Divine Science to Him that truly Is.
But this much we must say, that it is not the purpo…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1f
“And the highest measure of existence He bestows upon the more exalted Beings, which the Scripture calls eternal; 380 380 2 Cor.
iv.
18 but also the mere existence of the world as a whole is perpetual; and its very existence comes from the…”
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 8, Section 1b
“From this Source come the Godlike Powers of the Angelic Orders; from this Source they immutably possess their being and all the ceaseless and immortal motions of their spiritual life; and their very stability and unfailing desire for the Go…”
Revelations of Divine Love | Chapter LV-a
“"Christ is our Way"—"Mankind shall be restored from double death" And thus Christ is our Way, us surely leading in His laws, and Christ in His body mightily beareth us up into heaven.
For I saw that Christ, us all having in Him that shall…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 2 (part 4)
“She is passive, but the Spirit of God is active, like the soul in the body." ( Clavis , v.
18.) This eternal Trinity is inconceivable in its aspect as a spiritual potentiality, in the same sense as a fire is inconceivable if it does not bu…”
The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 2 (part 5)
“The will beholding itself in the mirror of wisdom causes its own image to appear within the groundlessness, and thus it creates a foundation in its own imagination." ( Menschwerdung , ii.
1.) "Wisdom, the eternal virgin, the playmate of Go…”
Show all 29 →hinduism6
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 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…”
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 37
“Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature. We must recognize that the fall of man is a reality, exemplified in our own persons. We have quite other sins than the animals, and far more deleterious; and they have all come thro…”
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II | Sutra 54
“The right Withdrawal is the disengaging of the powers from entanglement in outer things, as the psychic nature has been withdrawn and stilled. To understand this, let us reverse the process, and think of the one consciousness, centred in th…”
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III | Sutra 29
“Perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the lower trunk brings an understanding of the order of the bodily powers. We are coming to a vitally important part of the teaching of Yoga: namely, the spiritual man's attainment…”
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book IV | Sutra 2
“The transfer of powers from one venture to another comes through the flow of the natural creative forces. Here, if we can perceive it, is the whole secret of spiritual birth, growth and life Spiritual being, like all being, is but an expres…”
jewish_mysticism3
The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1d
“5; "And thou shalt place upon me thine hand:" KPKH, Khephakha .
(Where this word KPKH, if it be written according to the usual p.
100 custom KPK, Khephakh , yieldeth the number 120.
But now by adding the paragogic H of the female, there…”
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…”
Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation) | Section 1f
“The Third Path is the Sanctifying Intelligence, and is the basis of foundation of Primordial Wisdom, which is called the Former of faith, and its roots, Amen; and it is the parent of Faith, from which virtues doth Faith emanate.
The Fourth…”
western_esoteric3
Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune) | 7. The Pathology Of Non-Human Contacts-b
“In all cases the physical, etheric and astral bodies are involved; the vortex therefore always reaches as far as the astral plane; a soul upon the astral plane may be drawn into this vortex if it is ripe for incarnation, and thus enter the…”
Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune) | 11. The Psychic Element In Mental Disturbance-d
“The older faiths knew this, but popular Christianity, which has no roots in tradition, has forgotten it.
Protestant Christianity threw away its occult aspect at the Reformation.
All the pagan pantheons have gross aspects of divinities as…”
The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) | Page 34
“THE MOON. THE MOON. 18. צ 18th Hebrew letter (Tzaddi). ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE EIGHTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT. The hieroglyphic idea connected with the Tzaddi is the same as that of the Teth (9th card); but it chiefly signifies a term…”
hermeticism2
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 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…”
renaissance_hermeticism2
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter VIII — How the Elements Are in the Heavens, in Stars, in Devils, in Angels, and lastly in God Himself | Chapter VIII, Section 1a
“CHAPTER VIII.
How the Elements Are in the Heavens, in Stars, in Devils, in Angels, and lastly in God Himself .
It is the unanimous consent of all Platonists, that as in the original and exemplary World, all things are in all; so also in t…”
Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XXXVII — How, By Some Certain Natural and Artificial Preparations, We May Attract Certain Celestial and Vital Gifts | Chapter XXXVII, Section 1a
“CHAPTER XXXVII.
How, By Some Certain Natural and Artificial Preparations, We May Attract Certain Celestial and Vital Gifts .
Platonists , together with Hermes, say, and Jarchus Brachmanus and the Mecubals of the Hebrews confess, that all…”
egyptian1
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 76)
“These eight elements were called Nu and Nut, Heh and Hehet, Kek and Keket, and Enen and Enenet, or Khemennu, the "Eight," and they were considered as primeval fathers and mothers. They are often represented in the forms of four male and fou…”
mesopotamian1
The Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World | Section 1b
“"Why, O gatekeeper, dost thou remove the girdle of my body, studded with birth-stones?" "Enter, O lady, for such are the decrees of Ereshkigal." The sixth gate, he bade her enter, opened it wide, and removed the spangles off her hands and f…”
native_american1
The Soul of the Indian | Chapter V-a
“THE UNWRITTEN SCRIPTURES A Living Book.
The Sioux Story of Creation.
The First Battle.
Another Version of the Flood.
Our Animal Ancestry.
A missionary once undertook to instruct a group of Indians in the truths of his holy religion.
H…”
taoism1
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…”