Category: Isis Unveiled: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

"The third class are the "elementals" proper, which never evolve into human beings, but occupy, as it were, a specific step of the ladder of being, and, by comparison with the others, may properly be called nature-spirits, or cosmic agents of nature, each being confined to its own element and never transgressing the bounds of [...]

"According to Aristotle's doctrine, there are three principles of natural bodies: privation, matter, and form. These may be applied in this particular case. The privation of the child which is to be we will locate in the invisible mind of the great Architect of the Universe - privation not being considered in the Aristotelic philosophy [...]

"Lowest in the scale of being are those invisible creatures called by the kabalists the "elementary". There are three distinct classes of these. The highest, in intelligence and cunning, are the so-called terrestrial spirits, of which we will speak more categorically in other parts of this work. Suffice to say, for the present, that they [...]

"The "philosophers by fire" asserted , through their chief, Robert Fludd, that sympathy is the offspring of light, and "antipathy hath its beginning from darkness." Moreover, they taught, with other kabalists, that "contrarieties in nature doth proceed from one eternal essence, or from the root of all things." Thus, the first cause is the parent-source [...]

"Where, then, lies the true, real secret so much talked about by the Hermetists? That there was and there is a secret, no candid student of esoteric literature will ever doubt. Men of genius - as many of the Hermetic philosophers undeniably were - would not have made fools of themselves by trying to fool [...]

"Philosophers of quite different schools may be often found to use a multitude of different expressions, some dark and metaphorical - all figurative, and yet treating of the same subject. Like the thousand divergent rays of a globe of fire, every ray leads, nevertheless, to the central point, so every mystic philosopher, whether he be [...]

"The everlasting conflict between the world-religions - Christianity, Judaism, Brahmanism, Paganism, Buddhism, proceeds from this one source: Truth is known but to the few; the rest, unwilling to withdraw the veil from their own hearts, imagine it blinding the eyes of their neighbor. The god of every exoteric religion, including Christianity, notwithstanding its pretensions to [...]

"The great sages of antiquity, those of the mediaeval ages, and the mystical writers of our more modern times also, were all Hermetists. Whether the light of truth had illuminated them through their faculty of intuition, or as a consequence of study and regular initiation, virtually, they had accepted the method and followed the path [...]

"Swedenborg, following the mystical doctrines of the Hermetic philosophers, devoted a number of volumes to the elucidation of the "internal sense" of Genesis. Swedenborg was undoubtedly a "natural-born magician", a seer; he was not an adept. Thus, however closely he may have followed the apparent method of interpretation used by the alchemists and mystic writers, [...]

"The author of a recent and very elaborate work finds some cause for merriment over the union of the sons of God with the "daughters of men", who were fair, as alluded to in Genesis, and described at great length in that wonderful legend, the Book of Enoch. More is the pity, that our most [...]