under the veil of secrecy, dangerous plans and harmful teachings can be accepted just as well as noble intentions and profound knowledge; because not all members themselves are informed of such depraved intentions, which sometimes tend to lie hidden beneath the beautiful façade
Terry Melanson, Perfectibilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master translated by Daniel Ladinsky, the 1999 softcover edition from Penguin Compass, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
“More than any other Persian poet, it is perhaps Hafiz who accesses the mystical, healing dimensions of poetry. Because heis poems were often ecstatic love songs from God to his beloved world, many have called Hafiz the ‘Tongue of the Invisible.’
With this stunning collection of 250 of Hafiz’s most intimate poems, Daniel Ladinsky has succeeded brilliantly in capturing the essence of one of Islam’s greatest poetic and religious voices. Each line of The Gift imparts the wonderful qualities of this spiritual teacher: an audacious love that empowers lives, profound knowledge, wild generosity, and a sweet, playful genius unparalleled in world literature.”
The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.
The Deeper Symbolism of Freemasonry from The Meaning of Masonry by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.
“You will thus perceive, Brethren, that the F.C. degree, sometimes regarded by us as a somewhat uninteresting one, typifies in reality a long course of personal development requiring the most profound knowledge of the mental and psychical side of our nature. It involves not merely the cleansing and control of the mind, but a full comprehension of our inner constitution, of the more hidden mysteries of our nature and of spiritual psychology.” [via]