Table of Contents

Preface Annie Besant; Introductory; 1. Preliminary survey; 2. Modern criticism and the ancients; 3. The origin of magic; 4. The secresy of the initiates; 5. Some reasons for secresy; 6. The dangers of practical magic; 7. Old wine in new bottles; 8. The 'Book of Enoch' the origin and foundation of Christianity; 9. Hermetic and kabalistic doctrines; 10. Various occult systems of interpretations of alphabets and numerals; 11. The hexagon with the central point, or the seventh key; 12. The duty of the true occultist towards religion; 13. Post-Christian adepts and their doctrines; 14. Simon and his biography Hippolytus; 15. St. Paul the real founder of present Christianity; 16. Peter a Jewish kabalist, not an initiate; 17. Apollonius of Tyana; 18. Facts underlying adept biographies; 19. St. Cyprian of Antioch; 20. The eastern Gupta Vidya and the Kabalah; 21. Hebrew allegories; 22. The 'Zohar' on creation and the elohim; 23. What the occultists and kabalists have to say; 24. Modern kabalists in science and occult astronomy; 25. Eastern and western occultism; 26. The idols and the teraphim; 27. Egyptian magic; 28. The origin of the mysteries; 29. The trial of the sun initiate; 30. The mystery 'sun of initiation'; 31. The object of the mysteries; 32. Traces of the mysteries; 33. The last of the mysteries in Europe; 34. The post-Christian successors to the mysteries; 35. Symbolism of sun and stars; 36. Pagan sidereal worship or astronomy; 37. The souls of the stars – universal heliolatry; 38. Astrology and astrolatry; 39. Cycles and avatâras; 40. Secret cycles; 41. The doctrine of the avatâras; 42. The seven principles; 43. The mystery of Buddha; 44. 'Reincarnations' of Buddha; 45. An unpublished discourse of Buddha; 46. Nirvana-Moksha; 47. The secret books of 'Lam-Rin' and Dzyan; 48. Amita Buddha Kwan-Shai-yin, and Kwan-yin; 49. Tsong-Khapa; 50. A few more misconceptions corrected; 51. The 'Doctrine of the eye' and the 'Doctrine of the heart', or the 'heart's seal'; Some papers on the bearing of occult philosophy on life.

Promotional Information

A three-volume 'synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy' by one of the nineteenth century's most controversial spiritualists.

About the Author

fm.author_biographical_note1 fm.author_biographical_note2