Esoterica

[Dover]

What with Uranus challenging the status quo (Saturn), and Pluto digging into the very essence of our material world (Capricorn), and the Sun making its annual pilgrimage through the mysterious sign of Scorpio, what better time to investigate the esoteric and occult sciences?

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Just some interesting sites to peruse for those who want to know more about the mystical traditions, esoteric studies and symbols. There are also some unique gift ideas here for someone who might appreciate these subjects (posters/prints/books/cd rom study material/copies of manuscripts/etc.).
For a friend's birthday I copied and bound several esoteric texts on a subject that he was researching, which was a big hit.

The Alchemy Website
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/

Hermetics Resource Site
http://www.hermetics.org/library/Library_Astrology.html

Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
http://image.ox.ac.uk/

Twilight Grotto, Esoteric Archives
http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm

Astrology Texts Available on The Internet
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/texts.html

Astrological Schools and Training
http://www.robhand.com/newschools.htm

Renaissance Astrology
http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/index.html

[kentauros]

1. Thanks for those. I recognize a couple

:)

Here's a few more I know of that you might like:

The Library of Halexandria
Halexandria is a Synthesis of new physics, sacred geometry, ancient and modern history, multiple universes & realities, consciousness, the Ha Qabala and ORME, extraterrestrials, corporate rule and politics, law, order and entropy, trial by jury, astronomy, monetary policy, scientific anomalies, religion and spirituality, and a whole host of other subjects ranging from astrology and astrophysics to superstrings and sonoluminesence to biblical and geologic histories to numerology, the Tarot, and creating your own reality.

The Kybalion Resource Page
An online ebook edition of The Kybalion -- this book is a study of basic hermetic teachings that outlines an ageless wisdom. In ancient times (and even today) these teachings were not understood by the lay person, but were readily understood by students, after the axioms and principles had been explained and exemplified by the Hermetic Initiates and Masters to their Neophytes. The Kybalion was originally written in the early 1900s and is now in the public domain. A priceless gem!

Directory of Signs, Glyphs and Symbols

[Dover]

2. Ahhhh...some new sites to explore!

Thanks so much.

And so good to see you kentauros! :hi:

How did you fare through the hurricane?

[kentauros]

4. Hi Dover!

:hi:
Glad you liked the links. I'll have to look around my main bookmarks sometime for anything to add. Such as this one:

Internet Sacred Text Archive

As for my "Ike-Experience", I came out physically unscathed, though I don't think I will be staying next time. I went through Hurricane Alicia in 1983, a lesser Cat-3 storm and it wasn't as scary as Ike at a Cat-2. We never lost power for more than 20 hours, though my landline was out for almost a month. So, no Internet or email! :o ;)

[Dover]

6. Well I wondered why we hadn't heard back from you.

I believe you posted just prior to the hurricane, so was beginning to wonder and worry.

Glad you were unscathed, even it incommunicado. I'll bet it WAS scary and hard to be without
the internet. What ever did you do with your time...lol! :P

Thanks again for the new links. I've been exploring and enjoying them! :hi:

[juno jones]

3. A few familiar, a few not-so-familiar...

;)

Thanks and Kicking!

[loudsue]

5. Wow! Lots of goodies here!

:hi: Thanks, Dover!

:kick:

[Dover]

7. Can Esotericism Rescue Mankind?

Above and Below - We are now in the age where the divinity of cosmic consciousness and the divinity of earth consciousness are coming together. The deep sensuality of the watery feminine is met by the archetypal geometries of the divine masculine. The split between heaven and earth is being healed and all dimensions are seen as a perfect expression of Source.

Can Esotericism Rescue Mankind?


My dear friend asked me this question, and I am trying to answer it in this venue. The way it was first framed to me was:"How can esotericism rescue mankind from the asphyxiation of materialism"? ie: how can all this stuff make a difference in the observable shape of things, and give humanity new hope?"

Later, my friend expanded the question to include these (slightly altered) remarks: "The marrow of my question was directed at what I perceive to be the crisis of materialism- how do we transcend the epistemology of the landfill? Why do humans covet 'stuff'? - because they've forgotten what we're made of. Can esotericism persuade humanity that the 'mud envelope' holds a starfire, kindling a reevaluation of our priorities? Furthermore, what ecology can be forseen developing under ? My premise is that materialism is a manifestation of ... 'drowning in the body'; a predilection for substance over essence. The essence resides INSIDE the body, but it is forgotten."

Amen to that! This question is at the heart of the human dilemma. What are we doing here? What *should* we be doing while we are here? And what basis are we using for answering these questions?

To begin, let's review the definition of Esotericism common among modern academics. (see "What is Esoteric?" in the Tarot University Library Archives) Esotericists work within a meaning-realm of correspondences which are acoustic, sonic and vibrational as well as sensual, elemental and cultural. Such a vast web of resonating world-within-world connections requires the translation help of a sensitive and highly-tuned specialist to fully bring the important threads and themes into focus.

Such practitioners do much of their work directly in the realm of unmediated consciousness, outside the realm of materialization. This operating-space is sometimes called trance, fantasia, the Imaginary, or the Imaginal, but under no circumstances is it to be considered merely the realm of idle daydreaming. Traditional esotericists are, at minimum, masters of the inner life; meditation, contemplation, and magical visualization. Yet for all their invisible efforts, these Magi judge their results by transmutations which take place in the literal, observable world of things and being. Whether the location of the manifestation is the body of the operator, or the environment in which s/he is embedded, there will be demonstrable change or metamorphosis which extends from the inner life to the outer life, providing the "proof in the pudding" that grounds the interior effort in outer results.

Respect for wisdom and those schooled in the Interior Arts has characterized the cream of humanity since Antiquity. Here's Plato for a description of what makes a human something more than an animal:

Plato (Cratylus: 399c-400d): relays Socrates claim that anthropos 'man' derives from anathron ha opope 'looks up to see'- "I mean to say that the word man implies that other animals never examine, or consider, or look up at (anathrei) what they see, but that man not only sees (opope) but considers and looks up at that which he sees and hence he alone of all animals is rightly called anthropos, meaning anathron ha opopen." -Plato, op. cit. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1871

The human "looks up to see", and also examines and considers what is seen. Taken literally in the context of western civilization at the time, what was being "looked up at", examined and considered, was the lives of the Gods being played out over the heads of the people in the motions of planets along the zodiac. The science of astronomy is at the hub of esotericism, the master peg upon which all esotericism hangs. Astrology is the study of the heavens, heavenly bodies, heavenly regions, heavenly proportions and heavenly influences raining down upon us from above. The calculations and observances of Astrology translate the cycles of the heavens into their earthly implications, generating mythic sequences for human contemplation, and pointing out potential results and consequences in fleshly terms. Astronomy was humanity's first teacher of mathematics, and from it were derived all our sciences and any number of philosophical systems as the skill of calculation and prediction grew around the world.

To further unfold the model: At the intersection-point of above and below, between heaven-raining-down and earth-receiving, there resides a fertile matrix wherein souls are engendered, consciousness is nurtured, and destinies played out that elaborate the infinite potentials of the fertile matrix into manifested actuals. Humanity, being traditionally viewed as the "middle term" between God and Nature, has that proportion, that symmetry or conformation which blends and links the primordial two worlds or realms. We humans are the sensitive membrane, the responsive surface formed between Nature and God, Below and Above. We are ensouled, walking Earth. Our delicate senses, inner and outer, register the subtle currents of invisible pulses pouring into the flesh world from the vast mass of Dark Matter in which we are embedded. Our sturdy bodies take on the forms and structures required to house this aetheric sensory network, translating impulse into action for the sake of the world. The entire arrangement -- soul, mind, will, emotion, and body -- represents an exquisite and ever-changing answer to the question "what would happen if Divine Thought could concretize itself and play out in flesh?"...cont'd

http://noreah.typepad.com/tarot_arkletters/2005/12/can_esotericism.html

[kentauros]

8. I'll have to read this later as my cold-addled mind isn't too focused at the moment

It did remind me of the old magazine Gnosis. A quick search revealed that their back-issue website is still working, but I can't tell for sure if back-issues are still available. Here's the link anyway:

http://www.lumen.org/back_issue_list/back_issue_list.html

From the "How to order" page:
(Please note: The only GNOSIS back issues still available from the Lumen Foundation are "archival" full sets. For more information regarding these sets please contact: Lumen Foundation.)

If it's a reasonable price, I may order an archive, either for myself or my local library, if they don't have it already. I'd like a complete set for myself as I always loved that magazine. That was where I first learned about Alex Gray :D

[Dover]

9. Thanks for the tip and the link.

I've never read Gnosis, but it looks great!