And it will come to pass after these things that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28) Mundus Imaginalis Elijah’s Dream The visionary Emmanuel Swedenborg … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Philokalia
Esoteric Anthropology
So the first task is to begin observing and transcending the misconceptions of the first stage. A temporary “I” develops that integrates the three lower centers. This is still a transitional, or psychological, state, often represented as the lower Ego. Continue reading
The Kingdom of Heaven
So long as we are manfully engaged in the holy warfare of ascetic or practical philosophy we retain with us the Logos, who in the form of the commandments came from the Father into this world. But when we are released from our ascetic struggle with the passions and are declared victor over both them and the demons, we pass, by means of contemplation, to gnostic philosophy; in this way we allow the Logos mystically to leave the world again and make his way to the Father. Continue reading
Esoteric Paganism
he ideal of the pagan world was the Wise Man, Sage, or the Philosopher, as the one who remembers, i.e., the one who overcomes forgetting. The Buddhas are fully Awakened Ones who overcome sleep. Yet the noble path revealed by the Buddha could not overcome death. The Christian overcomes death. Continue reading
The Philokalia’s Martial Character
“What struck me on the beach–and it struck me indeed, so that I staggered as at a blow–was that if the Eternal Principle had rested in that curved thorn I had carried about my neck across so many leagues, and if it now rested in the new thorn (perhaps the … Continue reading
Credo ut intelligam
Augustine inaugurated the path of confessionalism with his Credo, ut intelligam. All of the Axial Age Monotheistic religions developed a “heart path” which was mystical. This path was recognized by Gurdjieff as being one of the three paths to transcendence, along with the mind (yoga) and the body (fakir). Although … Continue reading