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    Esoterism and Symbol
    Esoterism and Symbol
    Esoterism and Symbol
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    Esoterism and Symbol

    By R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz

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    About this ebook

    This is an initiation into the tone, structure, and mentality of Egyptian knowledge, the basis of all Western theology and science. It is a redefinition of those concepts which are basic to the pharaonic transmission--the glory of ancient Egypt. The author explores the "process of becoming" as related to consciousness and revealed in nature; the kinship between man and the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms; the stages of awareness leading to "Cosmic Consciousness"; and the mystery of the formation of substance into matter.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInner Traditions
    Release dateFeb 1, 1985
    ISBN9781620553367
    Esoterism and Symbol
    Author

    R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz

    R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1887-1961) was one of the most important philosophers, mathematicians, and Egyptologists of this century. His elucidation of the temple at Luxor and his presentation of the Egyptian understanding of a special quality of innate consciousness form a bridge that links the sacred science of the Ancients to its rediscovery in our own time.

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      Book preview

      Esoterism and Symbol - R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz

      1

      Esoterism has no common measure with deliberate concealment of the truth, that is, with secrecy in the conventional sense of the term.

      If it were otherwise, writings such as the Egyptian Pyramid Texts, the Vedas and Upanishads of India, China’s Tao Te Ching, the Genesis of Moses, the Gospels, the Revelations, and others, would have to be thought of as colossal mystifications.

      It is inconceivable that scholars, philologists, theologians, and, in general, all those interested in the history of this world, should not as yet have understood the importance of the Pyramid Texts. No other scriptural texts, preserved and transmitted across the millennia because of their sacred nature, have reached us intact in form. Various transcriptions, translations, and commentaries, if they have not altered the fundamental meaning, at best leave room for doubt as to the original form, which is precisely the vehicle for esoterism.

      Carved into stone, the writings in the chambers of the Fifth Dynasty pyramids have been preserved, unaltered, for four thousand years. The Samaritans treasure as a sacred relic a Bible they claim as authentic, while here at the holy places of Egypt, ignorant but curious tourists brush carelessly against these carved stones where every feature—each line, each arrangement of text, each color—has a particular significance, there being no doubt that every detail is intentional.

      Although we may not yet know how to interpret these words, let us at least preserve them for those who will come after us. Was it not greatly to the credit of Bonaparte’s mission that it scrupulously copied texts which, at the time, no one yet knew how to decipher?

      If the intention of the Gospels, for example, were to give to mankind a moral code for ordinary life, and if the way toward the Father were explicable in simple terms, then why hinder us from reaching this aim by speaking in parables? Why should all these writings hide what can be openly said in order to help the unhappy masses of this world? Was it through a perverse need to create a mystery, an opiate for the masses, as the materialists say? Was it because the world of those days was so uncultured in comparison with ours, which is so highly intelligent? Would it be because those prophets and God-inspired men did not better know how to express themselves?

      We have enough evidence of the intelligence, wisdom, and unquestionably high degree of civilization reached in the past to warrant dismissing such assumptions.

      On the other hand, no cryptograph or riddle remains undecipherable. It is therefore naive to believe that such texts as ancient Egypt has left us in great profusion would base an esoteric meaning on a mystification of this sort, were such esoterism expressible by writing. In the composition of sacred texts, the cryptograph and the riddle never have any purpose other than to awaken the reader’s attention, to place an accent on one aspect of the text, in short, to guide him toward the esoteric sense of the writing. The same applies to a play on words or a parable.

      Esoterism can be neither written nor spoken, and hence cannot be betrayed. One must be prepared to grasp it, to see it, to hear it. This preparation is not a knowing but a being-able, and can ultimately be acquired only through the effort of the individual himself, by a struggle against all obstacles, and a victory over the human-animal nature.

      There is a sacred science, and for thousands of years countless inquisitive people have sought in vain to penetrate its secrets. It is as if they attempted to dig a hole in the sea with an ax. The tool must be of the same nature as the objective to be worked upon. Spirit is found only with spirit, and esoterism is the spiritual aspect of the world, inaccessible to cerebral intelligence.

      Those who profess to reveal the esoterism of such teachings are charlatans. They may try to explain the implication of a certain word or formula as with a conventional secret, but with regard to sacred science, they will never be able to do more than put one word in place of another, and at best this will be bad literature replacing a simple idea.

      The true initiate can guide a gifted pupil and help him to travel more quickly along the path to consciousness, and the pupil, upon reaching stages of illumination by his own inner light, will read the esoterism of such teaching directly. No one can do it for him.

      2

      There is in man a cerebral intelligence and also an innate intelligence called intelligence-of-the-heart. The latter comes into being through a fusion of the cosmic Cause which is contained in its materialization with the same Cause which is in us. This is possible because the nature of both Causes is identical.

      As long as we are placed in

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