Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"Magic was considered a divine science which led to a participation in the attributes of Divinity itself. "It unveils the operations of nature", says Philo Judeaus, "and leads to the contemplation of celestial powers." In later periods its abuse and degeneration into sorcery made it an object of general abhorrence.   We must therefore deal [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"Thither gathered the students of all countries before Alexandria was founded. "How comes it", Ennemoser goes on to say, "that so little has become known of these mysteries? through so many ages and amongst so many different times and people?   The answer is that it is owing to the universally strict silence of the [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"Dupuis, also, after devoting many years of study to the problem, mistook the symbolic circle, and attributed their religion solely to astronomy. Eberhart (Berliner Monatschrift) and many other German writers of the last and present centuries, dispose of magic most unceremoniously, and think it due to the Platonic mythos of the Timaeus.   But how, [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"Despite their apparent Polytheism, the ancients - those of the educated class at all events - were entirely monotheistical; and this, too, ages upon ages before the days of Moses.   In the Ebers Papyrus this fact is shown conclusively in the following words, translated from the first four lines of Plate I:    "I came [...]