Manly Palmer Hall
The Initiates of the Flame
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Table of contents
Preface
INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD THE GREATEST OF MYSTERY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER I.THE FIRE UPON THE ALTAR
CHAPTER II.THE SACRED CITY OF SHAMBALLA
CHAPTER III.THE MYSTERY OF THE ALCHEMIST
CHAPTER IV.THE EGYPTIAN INITIATE
CHAPTER V.THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
CHAPTER VI.KNIGHTS OF THE HOLY GRAIL
CHAPTER VII.THE MYSTERY OF THE PYRAMID
Preface
The history of western magic started about 4000
years ago. And since then
it has been adding something to western magic. Originally, the
Latin
word magus nominated the followers of the spiritualist-priest
class,
and later originated to elect ‘clairvoyant, sorcerer’ and in a
judgmental sense also ‘magician, trickster’. Thus, the initial
meaning of the word ‘magic’ was the wisdoms of the Magi, that is
the abilities of attaining supernatural powers and energy, while
later it became practical critically to deceitful wizardry. The
etymological descriptions specify three significant features in the
expansion of the notion ‘magic’:
1)
Magic as a discipline of celestial natural forces and in the course
of formation
2)
Magic as the exercise of such facts in divinations, visions and
illusion
3)
Fraudulent witchery. The latter belief played a significant part in
the Christian demonization process.
The
growth of the western notion ‘magic’ directed to extensive
assumptions in the demonological and astrophysical argument of the
Neoplatonists. Their tactic was grounded on the philosophy of a
hierarchically ordered outer space, where conferring to Plotinus
(C205–C270 AD) a noetic ingredient was shaped as the outcome of
eternal and countless radiation built on the ultimate opinion; this
in its chance contributed to the rise of psychic constituent, which
formed the basis of the factual world.
Furthermore,
these diverse phases of release came to be measured as convinced
forces, which underneath the impact of innocent and evil views
during
late ancient times were embodied as humans. The hierarchical cosmos
of Iamblichus simply demonstrates the legitimacy of this process.
In
his work, the Neoplatonic cosmology has initiated a channel through
the syncretism distinctive of the late antiquity and in the essence
of Greco-Oriental dualism. Superior productions are taken closer to
inferior ones by various midway creatures. The higher the site of
the
mediators, the further they bear a resemblance to gods and whizzes;
the minor they are, the nearer they stand to the psychic-spiritual
part. The aforementioned group of intermediaries has been settled
in
order of series on the origin of cosmic gravity.
Proclus
(c410–485 AD) has described the system of magic origin conversed
above in better aspect: in the hierarchical shackles of cosmic
rudiments the power and nature of a firm star god disturbs
everything
mediocre, and with growing distance the impact slowly becomes
weaker.
The Humanists approached the Platonic notions from the outlook of
the
bequest of late antiquity, and were thus first familiarized to the
Neoplatonic form of the doctrine.
And
since Ficino’s work has been inscribed in the spirit of emanation
theory, and the author has been persuaded of the existence of the
higher and lower spheres of magic and powers defined in Picatrix,
he
claims that planets and cosmic movements have much to do with power
and magic spirit.
Today’s
occult marketplace also offers, in addition to books, multifarious
paraphernalia for practicing magic: amulets, talismans, pendulums
and
magic rods. Though added with modern essentials and
pseudoscientific
advices to give some weight to the fundamentals, they are nothing
but
the leftovers of the western ethnicities of magic.
INTRODUCTION
Few realize that even at the
present stage of civilization in this world, there are souls who,
like the priests of the ancient temples, walk the earth and watch
and guard the sacred fires that burn upon the altar of humanity.
Purified ones they are, who have renounced the life of this sphere
in order to guard and protect the Flame, that spiritual principle
in man, now hidden beneath the ruins of his fallen
temple.As we think of the nations that are past, of Greece and Rome
and the grandeur that was Egypt’s, we sigh as we recall the story
of their fall; and we watch the nations of today, not knowing which
will be the next to draw its shroud around itself and join that
great ghostly file of peoples that are dead.But everywhere, even in the rise and fall of nations, we see
through the haze of materiality, justice; everywhere we see reward,
not of man but of the invincible One, the eternal Flame.A great hand reaches out from the unseen and regulates the
affairs of man. It reaches out from that great spiritual Flame
which nourishes all created things, the never dying fire that burns
on the sacred altar of Cosmos—that great fire which is the spirit
of God.If we turn again to the races now dead, we shall, if we look,
find the cause of their destruction.The light
had gone out.When the flame within the body
is withdrawn, the body is dead. When the light was taken from the
altar, the temple was no longer the dwelling place of a living
God.Degeneracy, lust, and passion, hates and fears, crept into
the souls of Greece and Rome, and Black Magic overshadowed Egypt;
the light upon the altar grew weaker and weaker. The priests lost
the Word, the name of the Flame. Little by little the Flame
flickered out, and as the last spark grew cold, a mighty nation
died, buried beneath the dead ashes of its own spiritual
fire.But the Flame did not die. Like spirit of which it is the
essence, it cannot die, because it is life, and life cannot cease
to be. In some wilderness of land or sea it rested once again, and
there rose a mighty nation around that flame. So history goes on
through the ages. As long as a people are true to the Flame, it
remains, but when they cease to nourish it with their lives, it
goes on to other lands and other worlds.Those who worship this Flame are now called heathens. Little
do we realize that we are heathen ourselves until we are baptised
of the Holy Spirit, which is Fire, for fire is Light, and the
children of the Flame are the Sons of Light, even as God is
Light.There are those who have for ages labored with man to help
him to kindle within himself this spark, which is his divine
birthright. It is these who by their lives of self-sacrifice and
service have awakened and tended this fire, and who through ages of
study have learned the mystery it contained, that we now call the
“Initiates of the Flame.”For ages they have labored w [...]