God is never so turned away from man, and never so much sendeth him new paths, as when he maketh ascent to divine speculations or works in a confused or disordered manner, and as it adds, with unhallowed lips, or unwashed feet. For of those who are thus negligent, the progress is imperfect, the impulses are vain, and the paths are dark.
Zoroaster, quoted at The Herb Dangerous, Part II: The Psychology of Hashish by Oliver Haddo (Aleister Crowley)
The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions by Hermetic Library fellow Joscelyn Godwin, with an foreword by Richard Smoley, a 2007 paperback from Quest Books, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
“The ancient sages of the Western Mystery Traditions passed on a knowledge beyond reason, allowing us to access transcendent states that reveal our own nature and that of the cosmos. Such sages exist in every age and elevate all of humanity, says Joscelyn Godwin, whether we realize it or not. Among those whose wisdom traces from antiquity to the present include:
- Hermes Trismegistus
- Zoroaster
- Orpheus
- Pythagoras
- Plato
- the Gnostics, the alchemists
- and the Rosicrucians, Freemasons, and Theosophists
Each stage is always with us, Godwin emphasizes, and so each offers a potential source of inspiration and action for today.” — back cover
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.
Zoroaster’s Telescope, or, The Key to the great divinatory Kabbala of the Magi, originally written in 1796 by André-Robert Andrea de Nerciat, available from Ouroboros Press in its first English translation by Jennifer Zahrt.
“The Zoroaster’s Telescope claims to be The Key to the Great Divinatory Kabbala of the Magi, and indeed within the text we find an eclectic mix of Angel Magic, Astrology, Divination, twenty-eight Mansions of the Moon, Kabbala, Zoroastrianism, Sacred Geometry, Numerology, reminiscent of the syncretism MacGregor Mathers employed in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at the close of the 19th century. As a system of divination, Zoroaster’s Telescope is unique in the genre employing diverse magical methods layout very much along the lines of the grimoires of occult tradition. The book features several wood engraved plates, charts and tables and a large folding plate THE URN wherein the sigla of this art are exemplified. Typographical treatment and design for Zoroaster’s Telescope was executed by Joseph Uccello and the translation was rendered by Dr. Jennifer Zahrt, PhD.” [via]
Commentary (ΜΒ) on ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΜΒ Dust-Devils in Liber CCCXXXIII, The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley.
“Zoroaster describes God as having the head of the Hawk, and a spiral force. It will be difficult to understand this chapter without some experience in the transvaluation of values, which occurs throughout the whole of this book, in nearly every other sentence. Transvaluation of values is only the moral aspect of the method of contradiction.” [via]