Ancient Mysteries
Unexplained
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The visible phenomena of the universe are bound by the universal law of cause and effect. The effect is visible or perceptible, while the cause is invisible or imperceptible. The falling of an apple from a tree is the effect of a certain invisible force called gravitation. Although the force cannot be perceived by the senses, its expression is visible. All perceptible phenomena are but the various expressions of different forces which act as invisible agents upon the subtle and imperceptible forms of matter.
Many years ago I heard of the existence of this manuscript from a celebrated occultist, since dead; and more recently my attention was again called to it by my personal friend, the well-known French author, lecturer, and poet, Jules Bois, whose attention has been for some time turned to occult subjects. My first-mentioned informant told me that it was known both to Bulwer Lytton and Eliphas Levi, that the former had based part of his description of the sage Rosicrucian Mejnour on that of Abra-Melin, while the account of the so-called observatory of Sir Philip Derval in the Strange Story was to an extent copied from and suggested by that of the magical oratory and terrace, given in the eleventh chapter of the second book of this present work.
The subject of Religious Origins is a fascinating one, as the great multitude of books upon it, published in late years, tends to show. Indeed the great difficulty to-day in dealing with the subject, lies in the very mass of the material to hand--and that not only on account of the labor involved in sorting the material, but because the abundance itself of facts opens up temptation to a student in this department of Anthropology (as happens also in other branches of general Science) to rush in too hastily with what seems a plausible theory.
IN recent years a reawakening has taken place in the study of American arch
THE objects which Freemasonry was founded to subserve are honorable and laudable; nor is it intended in the following pages to disparage the institution or to undervalue its usefulness. It has, at various times and in several countries, incurred the ill-will of political parties and of religious bodies, in consequence of a belief, on their part, that the organization was not so purely benevolent and philanthropic as its members proclaimed it to be.
A doctrine with more than one point of resemblance to the doctrine of Plato and Spinoza; a doctrine which in its form rises at times to the majestic tone of religious poetry; a doctrine born in the same land, and almost at the same time, as Christianity; a doctrine which developed and spread during a period of more than twelve centuries in the shadow of the most profound mystery, without any supporting evidence other than the testimony of a presumptive ancient tradition, and with no apparent motive than the desire to penetrate more intimately into the meaning of the Sacred Books--such is the doctrine found in the original writings and in the oldest fragments of the Kabbalah
THE following pages are designed to give the reader a bird's-eye view of the salient features in Jewish mysticism rather than a solid presentation of the subject as a whole. The reason for this will be apparent when one thinks of the many centuries of variegated thought that have had to be packed within the small number of pages allotted to the book. It is this very fact, too, that will possibly give the present treatment of the subject a fragmentary and tentative appearance.
One of the most widely disseminated systems of Indian thought, Buddhism, grounds its basic view of life on its thesis that the cause of all of man's wretchedness on the earth is his craving for life. Somehow, it is asserted, there was generated in him the desire to experience sensation and the feeling and consciousness of existence, to enjoy the concrete sense of being. And it was this yearning after the awareness of existence that directed him out of a condition of absolute and unconditioned being and precipitated him into the realm of limitation and painfully conditioned experience.
Fourteen years ago the writer of this volume entered the temple of Freemasonry, and that date stands out in memory as one of the most significant days in his life. There was a little spread on the night of his raising, and, as is the custom, the candidate was asked to give his impressions of the Order. Among other things, he made request to know if there was any little book which would tell a young man the things he would most like to know about Masonry--what it was, whence it came, what it teaches, and what it is trying to do in the world?
Containing an account of the gradual development of human personality into cosmic personality through GERALDINE CUMMINS
A reprint of the groundbreaking work of Professor W. J. Perry, an early diffusionist who believed that civilization spread throughout the world via transoceanic voyaging -- an idea that most historians still fail to accept, even in the face of mounting evidence. First published in 1923, this classic presents the fascinating evidence that envoys of the ancient Sun Kingdoms of Egypt and India travelled into Indonesia and the Pacific circa 1500 BC, spreading their sophisticated culture...
Bestselling author of The Tutankhamun Prophecies decodes the spiritual mysteries hidden within the recently discovered Mochian pyramids in Sipan. Reveals that ancient Inca sun-kings possessed the same solar science as Lord Pacal of Mexico and Tutankhamun of Egypt. Solves the mystery of the ancient Inca legend concerning a white god who traveled through ancient Peru, healing the sick and restoring sight to the blind.
Lord Lytton is famous for his book "The Coming Race" that included his vision for an energy called 'VRIL power.' The Third Reich was evidently quite aware of Lytton's visions and theories, as they named some of their experimental craft "VRIL". TGS has selected several books by Lord Lytton to add to their historical reprints catalog.
Lord Lytton is famous for his book "The Coming Race" that included his vision for an energy called 'VRIL power.' The Third Reich was evidently quite aware of Lytton's visions and theories, as they named some of their experimental craft "VRIL". Many other of Lord Lytton's books are merely dismissed as literature or fiction. Though written in fiction prose, his other mysteries and visions are recorded in his less known works. TGS has selected some of these books by Lord Lytton to add to their historical reprints catalog.
Lord Lytton is famous for his book "The Coming Race" that included his vision for an energy called 'VRIL power.' The Third Reich was evidently quite aware of Lytton's visions and theories, as they named some of their experimental craft "VRIL". Many other of Lord Lytton's books are merely dismissed as literature or fiction. However, Lord Lytton's non-fiction history of Athens is one of the few exhaustive works on this city of mysteries, Athens, Greece.