"The three words at the top read: "This is Nature." The lines above the donkey read: "This is the Philosophers' donkey who wished to rise to the practice of the Philosopher's Some." The three lines below the animal are translated: "Frogs gather in multitudes but science consists of clear water made from the Sun and Moon." The text under the symbolic bird is as follows: "This is fortune with two wings. Whosoever has it knows that fruit will in such away be produced. A great philosopher has shown that the stone is a certain white sun, to see which needs a telescope. To dissolve it in water requires the Sun and Moon, and here one must open 200 telescopes, putting body and soul in one mass. And here is lost the mass; other sages cook the frogs and add nothing, if the juice of the Wise you wish to enjoy." To the Greeks the frog symbolized both metempsychosis and earthly humidity." ~Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, chapter: THE HERMETIC AND ALCHEMICAL FIGURES OF CLAUDIUS DE DOMINICO CELENTANO VALLIS NOVI FROM A MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN AND ILLUMINATED AT NAPLES A.D. 1606
"THE FLEUR-DE-LIS: The bee was used as, a symbol of royalty by the immortal Charlemagne, and it is probable that the fleur-de-lis, or lily of France, is merely a conventionalized bee and not a flower. There is an ancient Greek legend to the effect that the nine Muses occasionally assumed the form of bees." ~Many P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, chapter: Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and Birds
Something to read later.... the author sent me a link to his book years ago but I just found it again: http://www.powertoshare.com/dropzone/wp-content/docs/BookofDALETH.pdf
Is the bird shown above a phoenix?
Just some things I've thought about yesterday and today. I won't spend much more time focusing on this; it's easy to get distracted from what it is I'm seeking: to know God.
"1. It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back - just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.
Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?
2. And I do say: Who art thou?
He saith: I am Man-Shepherd (Poemandres), Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I'm with thee everywhere.
3. [And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.
He answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee."
~
The Corpus Hermeticum
translated by G.R.S. Mead
The Corpus Hermeticum
translated by G.R.S. Mead
(I do like the translation offered in the beginning of this book, The Way of Hermes: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0892811862/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
This book looks nice, too:
(This post was written in a hurry. Sorry it seems rushed. I just wanted to post the links to some things I'm going to look into later. The Hermes texts are in particular something I want to look into.)
Also, sometimes this blog doesn't load and I've had occasional problems posting here. I've contacted Blogger.
Another problem I've found is that people with AOL can't send me emails. I don't know why. If you use AOL email will you try to send me a message? Thanks.
6 comments:
Sophia, remember this.
It's not that hard to create puzzles so difficult that they might not ever be unraveled by anyone. On a ranch one runs into this with wire. It can get so tangled up you just sell it to the Chinese to build their infrastructure and go buy a new supply.
Have you ever read "Wittgenstein's Poker"? It exemplifies that our substrate is that of apes (something we oddly don't see when we deal with each other), that even the highest level philosophers can resort to apelike behavior. The (true) story is that of Wittgenstein threatening Popper with a fireplace poker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein's_Poker
Let's hope the killer ape in us will eventually attenuate.
donstockbauer **att** hotmail.com
This illustrates something I have thought about from time to time. I find it hard to be perfect no matter how hard I try. I make so much progress but then I make a mistake every now and then. So I wonder if even the most enlightened of mankind sometimes default to ape-like behavior every now and then.
Try though I may, hard as I might, the tools that evolution has implanted in my body are hard to defeat, but I know that part of the spiritual journey is transcending above this.
The story of the poker was a nice example. Thanks.
"Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee."
I think that this is excellent advice. Perhaps he originally said "heart" and it was translated as "mind".
Sophia,
None of us are perfect. Maybe it's not possible. But much can be accomplished with what we have. An old Russian saying: "Better is the enemy of good enough". What may very well be happening now is that 6.5 billion people are gaining the capability of all communicating with each other. Each is not perfect, but in sum total they may very well become a creation which is advanced beyond the understanding of any one of them.
donstockbauer **att** hotmail.com
Mossy,
The two certainly speak different languages.
Don,
That's what teamwork is about!
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