The principle which presides over the Rosicrucian Society is the truth; and he who knows the truth, and follows it in practice, is a member of the society over which the truth practises.

Franz Hartmann, In The Pronaos of The Temple of Wisdom

Hermetic quote Hartmann Pronaos principle presides

Consider also:

  1. “To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency, and intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty object of your wretched and selfish desires.”
  2. “There is surely, too, no need for us to join a secret society to be taught that the volume of the Sacred Law is a fountain of truth and instruction; or to go through the great and elaborate ceremony of the third degree merely to learn that we have each to die.”
  3. “In the common practice of meditation the idea is to reject all impressions, but here is an opposite practice, very much more difficult, in which all are accepted. This cannot be done at all unless one is capable of making Dhyana at least on any conceivable thing, at a second’s notice; otherwise, the practice would only be ordinary mind-wandering.”
  4. “This latter principle is represented in four ways; by a hawk Crowned, or the HORUS BAIE; by a human-headed hawk; by a Bennu bird or by a ram. The BAIE (spirit) can operate through the egg-like principle contained in the AB and the KA (human Ego) through the concave principle.”
  5. “The ‘Black Mass’ is a totally different matter. I could not celebrate it if I wanted to, for I am not a consecrated priest of the Christian Church. The celebrant must be a priest, for the whole idea of the practice is to profane the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Therefore you must believe in the truth of the cult and the efficacy of its ritual.”