Passages similar to: Secret Teachings of All Ages — Wonders of Antiquity
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Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
Wonders of Antiquity (1)
IT was a common practice among the early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to seal lighted lamps in the sepulchers of their dead as offerings to the God of Death. Possibly it was also believed that the deceased could use these lights in finding his way through the Valley of the Shadow. Later as the custom became generally established, not only actual lamps but miniatures of them in terra cotta were buried with the dead. Some of the lamps were enclosed in circular vessels for protection; and instances have been recorded in which the original oil was found in them, in a perfect state of preservation, after more than 2,000 years. There is ample proof that many of these lamps were burning when the sepulchers were sealed, and it has been declared that they were still burning when the vaults were opened hundreds of years later. The possibility of preparing a fuel which would renew itself as rapidly as it was consumed has been a source of considerable controversy among mediæval authors. After due consideration of the evidence at hand, it seems well within the range of possibility that the ancient priest-chemists did manufacture lamps that burned, if not indefinitely, at least for considerable periods of time.
Our investigation may be furthered by enquiring: Whether light finally perishes or simply returns to its source. If it be a thing requiring to be...
(7) Our investigation may be furthered by enquiring: Whether light finally perishes or simply returns to its source.
If it be a thing requiring to be caught and kept, domiciled within a recipient, we might think of it finally passing out of existence: if it be an Act not flowing out and away- but in circuit, with more of it within than is in outward progress from the luminary of which it is the Act- then it will not cease to exist as long as that centre is in being. And as the luminary moves, the light will reach new points- not in virtue of any change of course in or out or around, but simply because the act of the luminary exists and where there is no impediment is effective. Even if the distance of the sun from us were far greater than it is, the light would be continuous all that further way, as long as nothing checked or blocked it in the interval.
We distinguish two forms of activity; one is gathered within the luminary and is comparable to the life of the shining body; this is the vaster and is, as it were, the foundation or wellspring of all the act; the other lies next to the surface, the outer image of the inner content, a secondary activity though inseparable from the former. For every existent has an Act which is in its likeness: as long as the one exists, so does the other; yet while the original is stationary the activity reaches forth, in some things over a wide range, in others less far. There are weak and faint activities, and there are some, even, that do not appear; but there are also things whose activities are great and far-going; in the case of these the activity must be thought of as being lodged, both in the active and powerful source and in the point at which it settles. This may be observed in the case of an animal's eyes where the pupils gleam: they have a light which shows outside the orbs. Again there are living things which have an inner fire that in darkness shines out when they expand themselves and ceases to ray outward when they contract: the fire has not perished; it is a mere matter of it being rayed out or not.
But has the light gone inward?
No: it is simply no longer on the outside because the fire is no longer outward going but has withdrawn towards the centre.
But surely the light has gone inward too?
No: only the fire, and when that goes inward the surface consists only of the non-luminous body; the fire can no longer act towards the outer.
The light, then, raying from bodies is an outgoing activity of a luminous body; the light within luminous bodies- understand; such as are primarily luminous- is the essential being embraced under the idea of that body. When such a body is brought into association with Matter, its activity produces colour: when there is no such association, it does not give colour- it gives merely an incipient on which colour might be formed- for it belongs to another being with which it retains its link, unable to desert from it, or from its activity.
And light is incorporeal even when it is the light of a body; there is therefore no question, strictly speaking, of its withdrawal or of its being present- these terms do not apply to its modes- and its essential existence is to be an activity. As an example: the image upon a mirror may be described as an activity exercised by the reflected object upon the potential recipient: there is no outgoing from the object ; it is simply that, as long as the object stands there, the image also is visible, in the form of colour shaped to a certain pattern, and when the object is not there, the reflecting surface no longer holds what it held when the conditions were favourable.
So it is with the soul considered as the activity of another and prior soul: as long as that prior retains its place, its next, which is its activity, abides.
But what of a soul which is not an activity but the derivative of an activity- as we maintained the life-principle domiciled in the body to be- is its presence similar to that of the light caught and held in material things?
No; for in those things the colour is due to an actual intermixture of the active element ; whereas the life-principle of the body is something that holds from another soul closely present to it.
But when the body perishes- by the fact that nothing without part in soul can continue in being- when the body is perishing, no longer supported by that primal life-giving soul, or by the presence of any secondary phase of it, it is clear that the life-principle can no longer remain; but does this mean that the life perishes?
No; not even it; for it, too, is an image of that first out-shining; it is merely no longer where it was.
Light the light within you. Do not extinguish it! Certainly, no one lights a lamp for wild beasts or their young. Raise your dead who have died, for...
(52) Light the light within you. Do not extinguish it! Certainly, no one lights a lamp for wild beasts or their young. Raise your dead who have died, for they lived and have died for you. Give them life. They shall live again!
I. First, there arose the fire-crack, or the mobility in the heat; and that is the beginning of life in the chamber of death. II. After this,...
(28) I. First, there arose the fire-crack, or the mobility in the heat; and that is the beginning of life in the chamber of death. II. After this, secondly, the light in the unctuosity or fatness of the water became shining in the heat; and that is now the sun. III. Thirdly, when now the light of the sun had affected or possessed the whole body of the sun, then the power of life, which rose up out of the first affecting or possessing, ascended, as when wood is kindled, or when fire is struck out of a stone.
It ever persists unchanged and unaltered in its Essence, yet constantly manifesting itself through and in countless material forms which come and go a...
(5) And so it is with the Universal Life. It ever persists unchanged and unaltered in its Essence, yet constantly manifesting itself through and in countless material forms which come and go and are in turn replaced by other forms. The form appears, is consumed, and perishes—yet the Flame abides and survives all change. Those who have plunged deep into the esoteric teachings are aware that there are many other very good reasons why the Flame or Fire is the best possible symbol for Life, but it is not thought expedient to go into these further reasons at this time and in this place.
Since, however, a contrary is receptive of a contrary, according to a mutation and departure from itself, and that which is allied to another thing,...
(3) Since, however, a contrary is receptive of a contrary, according to a mutation and departure from itself, and that which is allied to another thing, and familiar with it through similitude, is capable of receiving it, hence the illuminators receive darkness as a cooperator, and employ in illuminating the light of the sun, or of the moon, or, in short, of the air. Sometimes, likewise, they use collocations of such things as are adapted to the Gods that are about to descend, or they employ incantations or compositions, and these appropriately prepared for the reception, presence, and manifestation of the Gods. And again, sometimes they introduce light through water, because this being diaphanous, is aptly disposed to the reception of light. But at other times, they cause light to shine forth on a wall, having previously prepared the wall for the reception of light in the best manner by the sacred descriptions of characters; and, at the same time, they fix the light in a certain solid place, so that it may not be widely diffused.
We return, then, to the question whether there could be light if there were no air, the sun illuminating corporeal surfaces across an intermediate...
(6) We return, then, to the question whether there could be light if there were no air, the sun illuminating corporeal surfaces across an intermediate void which, as things are, takes the light accidentally by the mere fact of being in the path. Supposing air to be the cause of the rest of things being thus affected, the substantial existence of light is due to the air; light becomes a modification of the air, and of course if the thing to be modified did not exist neither could be modification.
The fact is that primarily light is no appanage of air, and does not depend upon the existence of air: it belongs to every fiery and shining body, it constitutes even the gleaming surface of certain stones.
Now if, thus, it enters into other substances from something gleaming, could it exist in the absence of its container?
There is a distinction to be made: if it is a quality, some quality of some substance, then light, equally with other qualities, will need a body in which to lodge: if, on the contrary, it is an activity rising from something else, we can surely conceive it existing, though there be no neighbouring body but, if that is possible, a blank void which it will overleap and so appear on the further side: it is powerful, and may very well pass over unhelped. If it were of a nature to fall, nothing would keep it up, certainly not the air or anything that takes its light; there is no reason why they should draw the light from its source and speed it onwards.
Light is not an accidental to something else, requiring therefore to be lodged in a base; nor is it a modification, demanding a base in which the modification occurs: if this were so, it would vanish when the object or substance disappeared; but it does not; it strikes onward; so, too it would always have its movement.
But movement, where?
Is space, pure and simple, all that is necessary?
With unchecked motion of the light outward, the material sun will be losing its energy, for the light is its expression.
Perhaps; and we may gather that the light never was an appanage of anything, but is the expressive Act proceeding from a base but not seeking to enter into a base, though having some operation upon any base that may be present.
Life is also an Act, the Act of the soul, and it remains so when anything- the human body, for instance- comes in its path to be affected by it; and it is equally an Act though there be nothing for it to modify: surely this may be true of light, one of the Acts of whatever luminary source there be . Certainly light is not brought into being by the dark thing, air, which on the contrary tends to gloom it over with some touch of earth so that it is no longer the brilliant reality: as reasonable to talk of some substance being sweet because it is mixed with something bitter.
If we are told that light is a mode of the air, we answer that this would necessarily imply that the air itself is changed to produce the new mode; in other words, its characteristic darkness must change into non-darkness; but we know that the air maintains its character, in no wise affected: the modification of a thing is an experience within that thing itself: light therefore is not a modification of the air, but a self-existent in whose path the air happens to be present.
On this point we need dwell no longer; but there remains still a question.
Chapter 25: Of the whole Body of the Stars and of their Birth or Geniture; that is, the whole Astrology, or the whole Body of this World. (75)
And there rose up the shining light in the heat in the water, or in the fat or oiliness of the water, and the heart of the water kindled itself, and t...
(75) And there rose up the shining light in the heat in the water, or in the fat or oiliness of the water, and the heart of the water kindled itself, and this was done in the twinkling of an eye.
For the Flame while ever remaining the same, yet is never composed of the same particles or sparks for even two consecutive seconds. The Flame, itself...
(4) And, indeed, the Flame is the most appropriate symbol for Life that can be thought of. For the Flame while ever remaining the same, yet is never composed of the same particles or sparks for even two consecutive seconds. The Flame, itself, in its Essence, ever remains the same and unchanged, yet its Manifestation is always accompanied and correlated to the appearance and disappearance of innumerable tiny particles of material substance which it kindles into sparks, then destroys by the process of combustion, and then replaces by others of similar nature.
Chapter 13: Of the terrible, doleful, and lamentable, miserable Fall of the Kingdom of Lucifer. (152)
But the sweet water being dried up through the astringent attracting together, therefore could not the heat any more rise to a flame or to any light (...
(152) But the sweet water being dried up through the astringent attracting together, therefore could not the heat any more rise to a flame or to any light (for the light existeth in the unctuosity or oiliness of the water), but glowed like a redhot iron, or like iron not quite glowing, but very dimly and darkly; or as if you should put a very hard stone into the fire, and should let it lie there in great heat as long as you please, yet it would not be glowing light, because it has too little water or oiliness in it.
The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE and MANNA. STRONG, mighty Vulcan, bearing splendid light, Unweary'd fire, with flaming torrents bright:...
The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE and MANNA. STRONG, mighty Vulcan, bearing splendid light, Unweary'd fire, with flaming torrents bright: Strong-handed, deathless, and of art divine, Pure element, a portion of the world is thine: All-taming artist, all-diffusive pow'r, 'Tis thine supreme, all substance to devour: Æther, Sun, Moon, and Stars, light pure and clear, For these thy lucid parts to men appear. To thee, all dwellings, cities, tribes belong, Diffus'd thro' mortal bodies bright and strong. Hear, blessed power, to holy rites incline, And all propitious on the incense shine: Suppress the rage of fires unweary'd frame, And still preserve our nature's vital flame.