Esoteric Discussion What is Esoteric? It is internal knowledge that is only accessible through initiation and belongs to a group.

It is truly hidden. For instance I have to sign a non disclosure agreement before having access to the material. What is Exoteric? External knowledge what the public knows or information that the group wants exposed to the profane, the cowans and the vulgar. This is the groups Marketing Department. And there is a Misoteric (a word I am making up) lying between the inner and the external knowledge which is something that should only be for the initiate but usually gets out to the public. Information that may be that is already on the internet. The method of transmission is not the original mode but was acquired through deception, through the selling of secrets, selling of books or the reason for hiding the information was lost. This may contain misinformation that is used to expose the betrayer of trust. Information is every ware and accessible to all but tie it with the context then you enter the world of secrets. It is not my intention to expose secrets but to talk around the subject in a general sense. The Etymology of the word says it is of Greek origin meaning internal as eso- means inner the -teric component is the suffix nal. The word was first used in 1701 History of Philosophy by Thomas Stanley and became popularized by Eliphas Levi in the 1850s A leading thinker on Western Esotericism is Antoine Faivre (1934 - ). He held a chair in the cole Pratique des Hautes tudes at the Sorbonne1, University Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Haute-Normandie, director of the Cahiers del Hermtisme and of Bibliothque de l'hermtisme, and is with Wouter Hanegraaff and Roland Edighoffer, the editor of the journal Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 2, Leiden: Brill, since 2001. He was a founding member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism3. So we will consider his thoughts on the subject. In his book Access to Western Esotericism4 he defines 4 modes of thought for all esoteric traditions Currents and 2 that they may contain. 1. Correspondences 2. Living Nature 3. Imaginations and Mediations 4. Experience of transmutation 5. The praxis of Concordance 6. Transmission

Examples of esoteric traditions are the Qabalah, Alchemy and Rosicrusionism. 1. A form of thought that shows Correspondence is in the Qabalah and Alchemy. They satisify Antoine Faivres forms of thought in that they follow the correspondences rule. The Sephiroth (Hebrew: )in the tree of life corresponds to the worlds and with the souls of man. Action World Assiah (,( Formative World Yetzirah () Creative World Beri'ah (( World of Emanations Atziluth (( Adam Kadmon (( Animal Soul Nefesh Spirit Ruach Human Soul Neshamah Alive Chayah Unity with God Yechidah

The Emerald Tablet states: As Above so it is below5 this is a reference to the thought of Correspondence 2. The tradition promotes that God, Man and the Universe (Nature) are connected and one affect the other. All life is connected to movement and if it has movement it exists. This is connected to molecular or atomic vibration and carries on with the movement of ideas in the human mind, to the thought of god that created the universe. If you know Nature you understand yourself and god through his creation. In Elective astrology you would pick favorable times to start an event like go to work in the morning when everyone is there. We choose the morning because it is favorable to the light connecting us with the movements of the solar system. In the esoteric modes of thought we study subtle movements such as the penumbra of the moon which is the sliver of darkness after a full moon. In this way we get the whole picture, eliminating the occult aspects of our life and it that way we can state that the supernatural does not exist6 3. An example of using the imagination and mediation can be found in guided meditation and using the vivid imagery in Ezekiel 1:1 or in the Sefir Zohar. The use of Jacob ladder as a image of the path to heaven and a descent to earth satisfies the use of the imagination and the mediation between earth and heaven. Mediation suggests that one needs a priestly or Episcopal hierarchy between god and man through emanations or angelic entities. Ideas of the Forms in platonic thinking show the cosmogony between the creator and the created. In the tradition participants meditate on the thing itself, such as first principles, rather than the image that point to it. Outside the tradition without the proper initiation and taken out of context the images used would be viewed as a form of idolatry not knowing the concepts that they represent. The regular guidance of a responsible mediator is indispensible as the novitiate grasps the images and the concepts they represent as he could fall into a trap if using a self study approach or by being guided by a mad-man. Traps include being isolated from the tradition, self delusional and confused, or being controlled by a cult leader. 4. An Example of Experience of Transmutation is the chemical process of changing base metals (Lead) into Gold correspond to the transformative process of changing ordinary men into individuated souls as Carl Jung would describe.

Blackening Whitening Reddening

Confronting the shadow, undesirable qualities in Psyche finding the essence of the Psyche Individuation becoming the higher self and a mentor

5. That the tradition may subscribe to a Primordial Tradition or a Hidden Church contained in all religions and traditions. Like the ones subscribed by Arthur Edward Waite supported in The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail with the subtitle of Its Legends and Symbolism Considered in Their Affinity with Certain Mysteries of Initiation and Other Traces of a Secret Tradition in Christian Times and Ren Gunon (1886 1951) supported in the posthumous work Fundamentals symbols of Sacred Science. 6. An example of transmission is to keep track of the pedigree and the method used to transmit the initiation that can be traced in an apostolic succession Because of the vastness of the subject this paper cannot include all of the modes of esoteric thought. Even thought the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and in Canada meets in Toronto (Toronto College No. 20 SRIA, Ontario College No. 87 SRIA and McLeod Moore College SRIC) it is still not enough considering all of the administrative issues of conferring grades. In this light a group has been created to discuss this subject every Saturday night at the Caf Mirage located on William kitchen Boulevard Scarborough Ontario 7:00 PM family is welcome the major intersection is 401 and Kennedy. We have been meeting every Saturday for the past two years. The average attendance is 6 and 32 have attended. Presented by the Senior Warden Bro. Timothy Edwards, KRBE at the Raymond C. Purslow Council No. 170 AMD September 10, 2011

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http://www.ephe.sorbonne.fr/annuaire-de-la-recherche/afaivre.html http://www.brill.nl/aries 3 http://www.esswe.org/#members/41/index.html 4 http://books.google.ca/books/about/Access_to_Western_esotericism.html?id=HXk9lnPx0_MC pp 3 -19 on the methodology and the thoughts on p 10 5 http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/emerald.htm has many versions 6 Encausse thought that nothing was super-natural. He created a review called L'Initiation, which had for its motto this curious sentence: The Supernatural does not exist. Nevertheless, Encausse was sure that magic was a reality, not a fiction, and that science was showing why and how it was possible to move things at a distance, http://www.glhom.org.uk/library/dachez.pdf