Theme: “Mysteries Not Ready to Reveal”

In Order to Maintain Itself, It Had to Go “Underground”

We know that with the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century—a development clearly linked to the temperament of the left brain—the esoteric tradition lost much of its prestige and that, in order to maintain itself, it had to...

Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World  by Gary Lachman

Truth Has Been in the World Unrecognized

They shall then know truth and, more than that, they shall realize that from the beginning truth has been in the world unrecognized.

Source: Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire  by Manly P. Hall

A Sense of This Invisible, Other Reality

For those who have a sense of this invisible, other reality, the answers to life’s mysteries offered by modern science are inadequate and unsatisfying. They are unable to accept them and they find themselves seeking something else.

Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World  by Gary Lachman

Secret, Hidden, Obscured, or Perhaps in Some Cases, Even Purposely Disguised

Some of these teachers we know and in a sense are not secret at all. Yet in many cases what they have to teach remains so. Some are not so well known, indeed, are hardly known at all. One can...

Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World  by Gary Lachman

The Esoteric Tradition Deals in Imagery and Symbols

For one thing, the esoteric tradition deals in imagery and symbols, the meanings of which are often complex and multiple, and which elude the left brain’s demand for clarity and definiteness; they are more attuned to what McGilchrist calls the...

Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World  by Gary Lachman

Their Varied Meanings Are Only To Be Discovered by Reflection and Study

The symbols and ceremonies of Masonry have more than one meaning. They rather conceal than disclose the Truth. They hint it only, at least; and their varied meanings are only to be discovered by reflection and study. Truth is not...

Source: Morals and Dogma  by Albert Pike

He Is a Lesser Divine Being Who Serves as the Instrument of the Higher Powers

What this secret tradition reveals is that the one whom most Christians naïvely worship as creator, God, and Father is, in reality, only the image of the true God. According to Valentinus, what Clement and Ignatius mistakenly ascribe to God...

Source: The Gnostic Gospels  by Elaine Pagels

This Book Is Not for You

Forget about it. This book is not for you.

Source: The NeverEnding Story

One of the Central Pillars of the Esoteric Tradition

Indeed, imagination, linked to the right brain, is one of the central pillars of the esoteric tradition. As the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre writes, imagination is “a kind of organ of the soul, thanks to which humanity can establish...

Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World  by Gary Lachman

They Were Not Allowed Even to Speak of These Important Secrets

The secrecy in which they buried their Mysteries, had that end. Those to whom they were confided, bound themselves, by the most fearful oaths, never to reveal them. They were not allowed even to speak of these important secrets with...

Source: Morals and Dogma  by Albert Pike

They Concealed the Highest Truths Under the Veil of Allegory

In this spirit of mystery they professed to imitate the Deity, who hides Himself from our senses, and conceals from us the springs by which He moves the Universe. They admitted that they concealed the highest truths under the veil...

Source: Morals and Dogma  by Albert Pike

The Real Purpose of Modern Masonry

This - the evolution of man into superman - was always the purpose of the ancient Mysteries, and the real purpose of modern Masonry is, not the social and charitable purposes to which so much attention is paid, but the...

Source: The Meaning of Masonry  by W.L. Wilmshurst

Remain Unrecognized by Outsiders

Sometimes this philosophy has been hidden from the public and at other times it has been placed in plain view - though always in such a way as to remain unrecognized by outsiders.

Source: The Secret History of the World  by Mark Booth

It Channeled Funds Through Three Private Medical Research Foundations

It channeled funds through three private medical research foundations. One of these, the Geschikter Foundation for Medical Research in Washington, D.C., is still active. Another, the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology Inc., was disbanded in 1965. A third...

Four Great Problems

Four great problems that men at all times have had to face need new interpretation, in his opinion. These are: 1. How the universe arose or was created, how it operates, who or what makes things happen and why. 2....

The Corpus Hermeticum

[Renaissance philosophers] were alerted to the ancient manuscript tradition named after their supposed author, Hermes Trismegistus... The documents were collectively called the Corpus Hermeticum or, simply, the Hermetica.

Source: The Magus of Freemasonry  by Tobias Churton