Esotericism

This concludes a two-part paper that discusses three major aspects of modern Western esotericism: esotericism as a form of thought, esotericism as gnosis, and esotericism as discourse. Freemasonry is seen as a significant and influential aspect of esoteric traditions in reviews of writings by scholars of modern Western Esotericism.

Carnival versus Thélème: The Question of ‘Freedom’
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The best vantage point for understanding ‘transgressive sacrality’ as a universal phenomenon is the principle of ‘freedom’ (svātantrya), the central concern of Rabelais (1494–1563), Bakhtin (1895–1975), and Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020).2 The medieval Christian dispensation revolved around the opposition, alternation, and complementarity between the stern, ascetic, otherworldly spiritual ideal of the Church and the periodic extended license of the popular carnival that rejuvenated this world of piety by rendering it topsy-turvy. Through Rabelais—the erudite monk and priest, who embodied the transition to the ‘humanist’ era—the unschooled obscene clamor of the primordial folk and festive marketplace found unvarnished exaggerated expression in early Renaissance literature. No longer capable of appreciating much less endorsing such celebration of the beast in Man, post-Enlightenment critics, severing his essential links with the ‘unofficial’ world of debasing folk humor, had sought to minimize the ‘Rabelaisian’ by reducing its thrust to negative anti-clerical satire or rebuked its capricious author wherever his excesses seemed too gratuitous.3 By rehabilitating carnivalesque laughter as intrinsic, readers, the aspiring new elites, from the surviving oral mass culture (Berrong 52-78).4 Princely Pantagruel himself embodies—especially after meeting the disconcerting Panurge—the values, ideals, temperament and comportment of the Renaissance Man par excellence.
Is ‘aristocratic’ Thélème therefore, pace Bakhtin, a (definitive) repudiation by Rabelais of his own earlier celebration of generalized antinomian license, or rather a (necessary, though guarded) reformulation that permits a better understanding of the presuppositions, parameters, and finality of that elusive ‘liberation’? Juxtaposing the medieval Christian carnival to its still surviving counterpart in the Hindu subcontinent—the traditional excesses of which have not been wholly smothered by the recent cultural passage of its (especially anglophone) elites to Westernizing modernity—may allow us to propose a more dialectical understanding of how such (systemic and not only carnivalesque) transgression could culminate in (inner) spiritual freedom.

Abraham Abulafia (1240–1290) is considered to be one of the most significant Jewish mystics and is one of the few who taught a comprehensive system of meditative practices designed to induce ecstatic religious experiences. At the heart of Abulafia’s meditation techniques lies the coordination of breath and body while pronouncing the Hebrew letters of the Name of God. Specifically, Abulafia instructs the practitioner to empty and stop the breath, paralleling a technical breathing practice in Yogic Pranayama called “Kumbhaka”. The Islamic polymath Al-Biruni’s (973–1048) Arabic translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is proposed as one possible transmission vector for this Yoga technique across radically different cultures and geographies into Abulafia’s method, which then profoundly influenced major Jewish personalities down to our day.

An exploration of the philosophical and mystical potential of the art of Victor Ekpuk and the Nsibidi symbolism of the Ekpe esoteric order of South-South and South-East Nigeria and South-West Cameroon which inspires his work, in the
context of Africana and global esotericism.

According to the Bible, Eve was the first to heed Satan’s advice to eat of the forbidden fruit. The notion of woman as the Devil’s accomplice is prominent throughout the history of Christianity. During the nineteenth century, rebellious females performed counter-readings of this misogynist tradition. Hereby, Lucifer was reconceptualised as a feminist liberator of womankind, and Eve became a heroine. In these reimaginings, Satan is an ally in the struggle against a patriarchy supported by God the Father and his male priests.

This study delineates how such Satanic feminism is expressed in a number of nineteenth-century esoteric works, literary texts, autobiographies, pamphlets and journals, newspaper articles, paintings, sculptures and even artefacts of consumer culture such as jewellery.

In the material, four motifs in particular are prominent: 1) interpretations of Eve’s role in the fall of man as something positive, 2) the witch as a proto-feminist figure, 3) the demon lover as an emancipator, 4) a feminised Satan contrasted with an oppressive male God. A fifth and less central motif is conceptions of Lilith, according to Jewish lore the unruly first wife of Adam, as the first feminist.

The analysis focuses on interfaces between esotericism and the political realm, as well as the interdependence of literature and the occult. New light is thus shed on neglected aspects of the intellectual history of feminism, Satanism and revisionary mythmaking. The study is informed by theories concerning counter-readings, counter-discourses and counter-myths, and in particular highlights the complex interplay of such phenomena and the hegemonic discourses that demonised feminism. A key theme in this context is the limits and paradoxes of inversion as a subversive strategy.

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Переводчик с фр. / translator from fr.

Ленен Л. Божественная каббала. — СПб.: Издательство «Академия исследования культуры», 2019. — 288 с. — (Серия Code Grimoire). ISBN 978-5-94396-218-9

«Божественная каббала» — это неизвестная до недавнего времени работа французского оккультного автора Лазара Ленена. По сути, она является продолжением и дополнением его книги «Каббалистическая наука», которая была высоко оценена как оккультными авторами прошлого, так и настоящего времени. В книге описаны семьдесят два ангела Великого Имени Бога, Шемхамфораш, вместе с методами их призывания для получения ответов на вопросы, личными ангельскими печатями и молитвами.
В книге представлен критический текст этой работы, выполненный на основании двух английских и одной французской рукописей, копии оригинальных страниц самого красивого из этих манускриптов, различные сравнительные и критические таблицы, комментарии. На русском языке издается впервые.

For the past forty years shamanism has drawn increasing attention among the general public and academics. There is an enormous literature on shamanism, but no one has tried to understand why and how Western intellectual and popular culture became so fascinated with the topic. Behind fictional and non-fictional works on shamanism, Andrei A. Znamenski uncovers an exciting story that mirrors changing Western attitudes toward the primitive. The Beauty of the Primitive explores how shamanism, an obscure word introduced by the eighteenth-century German explorers of Siberia, entered Western humanities and social sciences, and has now become a powerful idiom used by nature and pagan communities to situate their spiritual quests and anti-modernity sentiments. The major characters of The Beauty of the Primitive are past and present Western scholars, writers, explorers, and spiritual seekers with a variety of views on shamanism. Moving from Enlightenment and Romantic writers and Russian exile ethnographers to the anthropology of Franz Boas to Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda, Znamenski details how the shamanism idiom was gradually transplanted from Siberia to the Native American scene and beyond. He also looks into the circumstances that prompted scholars and writers at first to marginalize shamanism as a mental disorder and then to recast it as high spiritual wisdom in the 1960s and the 1970s. Linking the growing interest in shamanism to the rise of anti-modernism in Western culture and intellectual life, Znamenski examines the role that anthropology, psychology, environmentalism, and Native Americana have played in the emergence of neo-shamanism. He discusses the sources that inspire Western neo-shamans and seeks to explain why lately many of these spiritual seekers have increasingly moved away from non-Western tradition to European folklore. A work of intellectual discovery, The Beauty of the Primitive shows how scholars, writers, and spiritual seekers shape their writings and experiences to suit contemporary cultural, ideological, and spiritual needs. With its interdisciplinary approach and engaging style, it promises to be the definitive account of this neglected strand of intellectual history.

תיקון שבתי צבי / יונתן מאיר. ההרצאה מבקשת להציג תמונה מורכבת ביחס לשבתי צבי, מכתיבתו הקבלית של נתן העזתי על המשיח הנפוּל, דרך ניסיונות תיקון נשמתו בידי הבעש"ט, ועד לשילובו בנרטיב הלאומי בידי זלמן שז"ר וחוקרים שבאו אחריו. יהא זה ניסיון למשוך קו במחשבה ובהיסטוריוגרפיה היהודית העומד מנגד לתפיסת הצרה בדבר "משיח שקר"

The symbols used by Freemasonry, within guiding and demonstration material, are those of building tools used by the stonemasons of the medieval period: the trowel, the mould, and the square. Those operative masons were the craftsmen who built cathedrals, churches, fortifications, and houses for the British aristocracy when wood was replaced by stone as a building material. In the following lines, we intend to examine the possible connections between the Craft and Kabbalah, a subject usually included in the literature of the fantastic, but not often researched and debated in the Academy.

This article traces the idea of neo-Gnosticism in a series of occult and new religious movements from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Specifically, the article examines the links between two controversial groups that both described themselves as modern forms of Gnosticism: first, the European esoteric group, the Ordo Templi Orientis, and second, the American new religion, the Church of Scientology. Founded by Theodor Reuss in Germany in the 1890s, the O.T.O. described itself as a form of "Gnostic Neo-Christian Templar" religion, with sexual magic as its primary ritual secret. Its most infamous leader, British occultist Aleister Crowley, also developed a full scale "Gnostic Mass" for the group. Many elements of the O.T.O. and Crowley's work were later picked up by none other than L. Ron Hubbard, the eclectic founder of Scientology, who also called his new church a "Gnostic religion," since it is the "knowing of knowing" (scientia + logos). To conclude, I will discuss the ways in which these Gnostic and occult elements within Scientology later became a source of embarrassment for the church and were eventually either obscured or denied altogether-in effect, obfuscated by still further layers of secrecy and concealment.

A few years before the beginning of the Second World War, the rapprochement between socialism and western esotericism  would  be  outlined  in  France.  This  effort,  produced around the Collège de Sociologie as a reaction to Fascism, aimed to reactivate ideas and efforts that can be traced back to the French Revolution. The resulting meta-narrative,  constructed  by  various  intellectuals  around  Georges  Bataille,  including  Walter  Benjamin  and Pierre Klossowski, sought to establish its origins in Valentianism and, later, in Roman theology. The aim was to create an intellectual alternative to Marxism through the  ideas  of  Fourier,  Blanqui,  Sade,  and  Nietzsche  inventing  a  construct  that  would  decisively  influence Post-structuralism in the 1960s.KEYWORDSPALAVRAS-CHAVEMarxismo; História da historiografia; Walter BenjaminMarxism; History of Historiography; Walter BenjaminRenato Amado Peixotohttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-2342-4215

La Via tradizionale richiede di essere direttamente sperimentata come processo evolutivo concreto, del quale abbiamo testimonianze precise:
“..vi sono sempre stati e vi sono degli esseri che hanno svelato, in quanto lo vivono, e non teoricamente o illusoriamente, questo asserto di verità tradizionale, cosicché la verità è provata sperimentalmente.”
La grandezza dell’Opera è anche l’essere uno strumento a disposizione di tutti coloro che intraprendono la via dello Yoga:
“L’insegnamento della Gītā può essere valido ed essenziale per tutti: occorre meditarlo profondamente, perché lo Yoga di qualunque  forma e grado non può prescindere dalla meditazione. Dalla  corretta meditazione nasce il riconoscimento della retta azione.”
Via di illuminazione dalle molteplici prospettive contenute Tradizione, :
“La Gītā costituisce una Dottrina sintetica (non sincretica) che conduce dalle tenebre alla luce, dalla morte alla vita, dal divenire all’essere, dall’avidyā allo jñāna, dal relativo impermanente all’assoluto incondizionato, dall’apparenza a ciò che é.”
Da cui il sottile ma saldo legame che unisce gli Yogasūtra alla Gītā visibile se ci si pone in modo fattivo nella prospettiva dell’insegnamento tradizionale:
“La Tradizione, con le sue varie scienze, indica la via dell’assoluto e degli universali che va investigata seriamente ed esperita. Lo Yoga è scienza e filosofia, è teoria e pratica, è mente e azione.”

Cet article paru dans la revue Page 19 reprend les éléments d'une communication donnée dans le cadre des "Doctoriales 2019" du Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle de l'Université Paris 1/Sorbonne.
L'ouvrage de Jules Michelet paru en 1864, Bible de l'humanité, est pris comme exemple illustratif du processus de démocratisation d'éléments issus des courants ésotériques durant le XIXe siècle.
Après une brève réflexion historiographique sur les difficultés d'intégration de l'histoire des courants ésotériques à l'écriture de l'histoire religieuse, l'article analyse le processus de rédaction de l'ouvrage et la logique de concurrence religieuse mise en œuvre par son auteur, via l'utilisation d'éléments joachimistes et pérennialistes dérivés des courants ésotériques antérieurs et de leur appropriation romantique.

It is surprising that, unlike other musicians, there is nothing about his music, his last record, orconcert, on his site. It seems more like the site of an environmental activist! For me, it showsthe great originality of this artist who cannot be confined to any one category.

Conference draft of the article: "Intellectual Elitism and the Need for Faith in Maimonides and Aquinas," forthcoming: Anuario Filosófico, Vol. 48, no. 1, "Aquinas and the Abrahamic Traditions" (2015).

Copyright © 2013-15 Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo.
All rights reserved.

Abstract: In his Commentary on Boethius' De Trinitate 3.1, Aquinas cites Maimonides as giving five reasons for why faith is necessary for mankind.  Yet when one turns to The Guide for the Perplexed 1.34, one immediately sees that Maimonides is actually giving five reasons for why the study of metaphysics, which he considers to be the ultimate path to human perfection, must be restricted to the learned and must be hidden from the unlearned masses.  Interpreters tend to see Aquinas as therefore misappropriating Maimonides' thought, or in the words of one scholar, as "standing Maimonides on his head": his use of Maimonides is seen as a reversal (albeit a "benign reversal") of Maimonides' own thought.  In this paper, however, I place Maimonides' text on the five reasons for concealing metaphysics within the context of his rational mysticism and compare it to Aquinas' own Christian mystical thought in an attempt to show that in his own mind Aquinas is not misquoting, reversing, or doing violence to Maimonides' text; rather, Aquinas is completing Maimonides' natural, rational mysticism with what he understands to be the supernatural perfection of the theological virtue of faith.

Презентация в рамках IV международной научной конференции ФЕНОМЕН АЛХИМИИ В ИСТОРИИ НАУКИ, ФИЛОСОФИИ, КУЛЬТУРЕ 7 октября 2021 года.

Спикер: Двинянинов Борис Кириллович (Россия, Санкт-Петербург)

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As a somewhat novel cultural medium, video games and pervasive games, constitute an exciting body of research; the form of the medium, its popularity and the different levels of interaction and artistic expression from creators and players, provide rich opportunities for cultural studies. Mainstream games, art games or playful experiences, have been instilled with spiritually significant ideas, themes, symbols and narratives. These ideas are based or inspired from esoteric traditions depicting occult themes; paganism, witchcraft, alchemy and magic just to name a few, all belonging to the domain of Esotericism and the depiction of the spiritual transformation of the self through these themes. To name just a few examples of such games: The Secret World (2012): an MMO of myth, occultism, and conspiracy theory in the modern world, The Fool’s Errand (1987): A tarot-themed puzzle adventure game by Cliff Johnson in which the player pieces together a narrative about the initiatory journey of the Fool from the tarot and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002): a Lovecraftian survival horror game with a unique rune-based magic system and creative sanity effects (Howard, 2012). On the other hand, both in western and eastern esotericism, many different tools of divination such as the tarot, the ouija board and geomantical practices had a cultural journey from entertainment to esotericism, since they were first introduced as games or toys. While the topic of spirituality in games is slowly gaining interest among scholars of religion, the studies done so far has focused “on the occurrence of traditional, “mainstream” religious thematic, regarding representations of, for example, Christian symbols or parallels to Buddhist philosophies” (Wedin, 2014). Esotericism in games, however, is a topic that apart from media sensationalism and religious studies, has been relatively disregarded, despite the interest of game designers, artists, gamers’ communities and occultists’ communities in the interconnections between games and occult practices, between game culture and occulture. In this paper we will present and analyse examples of such interconnections and influences in the different perspectives of cultural game studies: “game narratives”, “game aesthetics”, “game world”, “game play” and “gaming culture” (Heidbrink et al, 2014). Studying games with the gaze not only of the religion scholar, but through the perspective of game and cultural studies, is thus crucial for understanding daily expressions of enchantment and the need for reality manipulation through new media. The study of occult themes in games potentially also offers new insights on the way esotericism, magic and spiritual transformation are perceived in contemporary society and the role they might come to play in the future.

"Questa raccolta di saggi offre al lettore le più recenti considerazioni sui rapporti tra alchimia e medicina nel medioevo, presentate dai maggiori specialisti sull’argomento in campo internazionale.  Questi rapporti – multiformi e vari – vengono indagati, in saggi molto documentati e anch’essi di vario orientamento, per cercare di analizzare la vasta gamma di relazioni tra i due saperi più operativi della cultura medievale. Gli intercci tra alchimia e medicina vengono visti così sia sotto il profilo farmacologico; sia da una prospettiva epistemologica; sia nel confronto delle rispettive dottrine. Anche se su molti aspetti la ricerca resta ancora aperta, si conferma che, anche prima della ‘svolta’ paracelsiana, alchimia e medicina si collegano per molti aspetti, specie da quando l’alchimia dell’elixir, dal secolo XIV, propone un farmaco capace di trasformare i metalli ma anche di curare il corpo dell’uomo. Comune appare, ad esempio, la ricerca di un farmaco universale; lo studio e l’uso di acque medicinali e delle tecniche di distillazione; la valorizzazione dell’experientia e dell’apparato sensorio. Soprattutto, alchimia e medicina condividono il riferimento ad una base di filosofia naturale (in cui spiccano i concetti di elemento, di misto, di umido radicale, di digestione) che ciascuna disciplina declina poi secondo le sue proprie coordinate specialistiche. E’ proprio da questo terreno e da questi obiettivi comuni – più palesi dal secolo XIV – che anche gli sviluppi dell’alchimia e della medicina nella prima età moderna risultano meglio comprensibili.
"

This article deals with the new forms of communication with the dead which appeared in our modern world as a result of technical progress. These are the contact forms based on using a lot of different technical devices, such as photo, audio and, less often, video ones. Most of them are based both on socalled Electronic Voice Phenomenon, “discovered” in the 1960s by Friedrich Jurgenson and spiritualistic photography which was very popular in the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century. In the 1917s, all of these types of communications were named “instrumental transcommunication”. The article observes the main methods and process content of instrumental transcommunication, justification of this phenomenon by its researchers, relations between the roles of operator and devices’ functions in this process. The author also considers the researchers’ world view for justification of their experiences and results, relations of modern methods with the ones used by spiritualism follow...

LE LIVRE SECRET DU TRÈS ANCIEN PHILOSOPHE ARTÉPHIUS
TRAITANT DE L’ART OCCULTE ET DE LA PIERRE PHILOSOPHALE
ARTEPHII ANTIQUISSIMI PHILOSOPHI
DE ARTE OCCULTA, ATQUE LAPIDE PHILOSOPHORUM
LIBER SECRETUS
Paris, 1612
Traduit en français par Pierre Arnauld, Sieur de la
Chevalerie, et imprimé dans Trois Traitez de la Philosophie
Naturelle, chez Guillaume Marette.

ТОЛЬКО ОЗНАКОМИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ФРАГМЕНТ, электронная версия не распространяется.

В этой книге читателю предлагаются переводы двух гримуаров XVIII века: «Операция семи духов планет» и «Гримуар или Каббала Армадель». Оба текста представляют собой краткие руководства по вызыванию различных духов (ангелов, демонов, олимпийских духов). Основой для данных писаний лежат более ранние печатные гримуары и христианские мистические представления, характерные для европейского общества XVI–XVIII вв. В Гримуаре Армадель описание каждого духа сопровождается философско-богословскими и экзегетическими пассажами, а также описанием участия духовных существ в космогенезисе и жизни отдельного человека.
В книге содержится более 100 чёрно-белых и 36 цветных изображений

Ever since its initial productions, Tennessee Williams’s The Two-Character Play, also known as Out Cry, has baffled audiences and critics alike. This is not surprising in that the play is deeply concerned with different esoteric traditions and a struggle for understanding or higher knowledge can be deemed one of their primary characteristics. Many critics had recourse to the author’s biography to make sense of the bewildering events that took place on stage, as had happened with Williams’s previous theatrical ventures. A reading of the text in terms of the esoteric helps to transcend some of the more straightforward autobiographical interpretations. The play’s other major component consists of a self-reflexive engagement with (dramatic) theatre and its constituent elements of text and performance as well as a contemplation of its genesis in different theatrical traditions. The text’s quest for its own origins also explains the presence of the process through which it came into being, namely transmutation. In the 1930s, the famous French theatre director Antonin Artaud had already posited a special relation between theatre and alchemy. Williams merges metatheatre with esotericism by means of transmutation.

In the 40 years since the Maimonides studies (1,2) it has become clear, through both scientific research and first hand reports, that individuals can become telepathically linked in dreams, and can even experience one another in a consensual way in a shared intersubjective dreamspace. However, considering the fact that many animals dream physiologically just as humans do, it should not surprise us that, given the strong bonds between humans and their animal companions, that psi-dreaming might connect humans with other species as well. This presentation will explore human-animal psi-dreaming, and invites participants to share their own interspecies dreams.

Fashion hacking is a practice where fashion is reverse engineered and tuned to make users "fashion-­able", using social media to expand transversal tactics in order to reprogram and shapeshift fashion codes. Other traits address the shamanistic rituality of fashion and how participatory practices can expand the realm of fashion beyond the catwalk and ready-­to-­ wear paradigm. Can technologies express the mythical beauty of fashion?

This paper is the preface to the book "Symbolism: Modern Thought and Ancient Egypt" by MIchael Allswang (408 pp). The main premise of this book is that modern science has arrived at its limits for it only deals with what can be measured on the physical plane of existence, while ancient Egypt was not limited in this way and used symbolism to develop human consciousness through the expression of spiritual truths.

È l’alba del nuovo secolo. Nella semioscurità di un salotto della Roma nobiliare, tante mani si stringono attorno a un tavolo: a capo di questo, il medium convoglia le energie per mettere in contatto le anime del “di là” con i partecipanti di questo rito laico e mondano. Tra questi, ospite d’eccezione, c’è un ancora poco noto Luigi Pirandello, colui che di lì a pochi anni avrebbe molto fatto parlare di sé con "Il fu Mattia Pascal", poi divenuto un classico della letteratura italiana del Novecento. È proprio nel romanzo del 1904 che l’agrigentino eleva e nobilita artisticamente tutte quelle suggestioni di natura spiritica e teosofica che aveva coltivato già a partire dalla fine dell’Ottocento su esortazione del sodale Luigi Capuana, fermamente convinto dei «fatti» della medianità e del paranormale.
Sullo sfondo dell’ambiguo clima culturale a cavallo tra Otto e Novecento, segnato dalla crisi del positivismo materialista e dal conseguente emergere di dottrine di stampo esoterico e pseudo-religioso volte a coniugare fede e scienza, l’Autore approfondisce ed indaga esaustivamente il rapporto tra Pirandello e l’occulto nella Roma di quegli anni, in cui pullulavano spiritisti e teosofi, occultisti e massoni. Combinando storia e letteratura, il volume fornisce un’immagine originale e alternativa dello scrittore agrigentino nel pieno della sua prima formazione intellettuale, inscindibile da quelle tensioni irrazionalistiche che ne avrebbero caratterizzato l’opera e il pensiero negli anni a venire.

Anteprima dal testo Pātañjala Yogasūtrāṇi, gli Yoga Sūtra di Patañjali, Il ‘punto di vista’ Yoga Vol I, a cura di Fabio Milioni. Il testo, in fase di redazione, sarà pubblicato il prossimo autunno.
Dall’Uno della Tradizione ai Sistemi Aperti
Nel corso della sperimentazione, che ha sempre visto speculazione teorica e operatività quotidiana legati in modo indissolubile, sono emerse e si sono consolidate due ispirazioni fondamentali:
 La Tradizione, al di là delle forme che assume al variare delle dimensioni spazio-temporali è unica.
 Conoscere sé stessi è un processo lungo, complesso, irto di ostacoli e cadute; progredire nel cammino è impossibile se non ci si affranca da ogni forma di dogmatismo e dualità. Per andare oltre l’orizzonte occorre superare ogni confine, aprendosi a dimensioni sempre più ampie.
L’Unicità della Tradizione ed i Sistemi Aperti rappresentano quindi le due colonne portanti che costituiscono la soglia da oltrepassare, lo spartiacque tra la dimensione profana e gli stati superiori dell’Essere.
Essendo manifestato in Occidente, le radici sono i grandi Adepti: Parmenide, Pitagora, Platone, Plotino, Pletone.
In questi tempi di crisi e degenerazione, purtroppo, la complessità del loro insegnamento è in larga misura perduto, essendosi interrotta la continuità della trasmissione diretta da Maestro a discepolo. I frammenti che sono giunti sino a noi, pur fondamentali, sono carenti rispetto al ‘metodo operativo’. Dalla grande crisi del ‘600, assistiamo ad una biforcazione del sentiero su linee divergenti rispetto all’Axis-Mundi: la deriva speculativa e quella magico-teurgica.  Avendo ben presenti i rischi e gli aspetti deleteri del sincretismo, non possiamo non riconoscere che solo la Tradizione Orientale ha conservato intatto il metodo operativo. La Visione dello Yoga è parte integrante di essa.

Shamati is the most valuable book in the world, because it has the power to bring a person to the purpose of his life. Shamati is the main Kabbalistic source text. It contains all the foundations of man’s spiritual work. The articles contained in this book summarize everything one needs to enter the Upper World. They encompass the infinite depth of all 125 degrees that a person can and must go through in his spiritual path, whose summit is the goal of creation. This book is the most special book in the world, because no book in the entire history of mankind has gone deeper into man’s spiritual work.
source:
https://laitman.com/2008/08/shamati-the-most-valuable-book-in-the-world/

Lo Shamati è il libro più prezioso del mondo, perché ha il potere di condurre una persona allo scopo della sua vita. Lo Shamati è il testo kabbalistico più importante. Nei suoi contenuti si trovano le basi del lavoro spirituale dell’uomo. Gli articoli che si trovano in questo libro riassumono tutto ciò di cui si necessita per entrare nel Mondo Superiore. Comprendono l’infinita profondità dei 125 gradi che una persona può e deve attraversare nel suo cammino spirituale, la cui cima è lo Scopo della creazione. Questo è il libro più straordinario del mondo, perché nessun altra opera nella storia dell’umanità è penetrata tanto profondamente nel lavoro spirituale dell’essere umano.
fonte::
http://laitman.it/2010/04/24/shamati-il-libro-piu-prezioso-del-mondo/