2 minute read
THE QUEEN OF THE THREE KINGDOMS
BY LOREDANA PREDA
Advertisement
René Guénon affirmed that all religions have an esoteric nucleus, therefore thanks to the symbolic and ritual complexity the believer would not be able to penetrate the central point represented by hidden, occult knowledge
Even the philosophical schools contemplated a doctrine accessible to all (peripatetic school) and others, however, secret. Greek teaching, for example, could be received in schools (it will be defined esoteric in this case), dedicated to the chosen few, while that disclosed outdoors was intended for a wider and less refined (exoteric) audience.
In Occult Philosophy, Cornelius Agrippa, speaking of magic, a rather utilitarian aspect of esotericism, recalls that "Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Plato, and other great philosophers, made long journeys to learn it and once back home they showed how much they respected it and kept it jealously hidden. (...) Pythagoras and Plato invited priests of Memphis to learn it (...) they visited almost all of Syria, Egypt, Judea and the Chaldean schools in order not to ignore their great and mysterious principles and to possess such divine science."
Here the “mystery” and the complexity of the term, and with it the difficulty of understanding, thickens, since esoteric, what resides within, has often been correlated with the divine. The layman could get lost in a maze of notions, often abstruse or whose knowledge is only partial or superficial, therefore exoteric. Such discouraging premises are necessary, since the labyrinth of esoteric knowledge is not passable by ordinary minds, by those who are not ready to strip themselves of their beliefs and undergo the symbolic death of the ego.
This is the esoteric initiation, a going towards the center, crossing rocky layers (from lead, passing through silver, to gold, to learn how to become liquid like mercury), changing shape, color and substance.
If once the esoteric knowledge were collected and kept in secret books, today, in the era of digital communication, esoteric disclosure borders on exoterism. Delimitation areas, not entirely defined in character, can be considered cartomancy, oracular art, divination in the broad sense, popular magic, etc.
Starting from the initiatory doctrines - in agreement with the great Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade, I will also include in my speech shamanism, which can be learned and handed down either by inheritance or following a spontaneous vocation, a soul call, to which, inevitably, it would correspond a “Election”, therefore initiation - and by altering and, in a certain sense, vulgarizing esoteric thought, it has been possible to extrapolate and make understandable to most what was once meant for a few.
From here, to the most imaginative theories of the New Age, the step is short.
Without issuing any judgment, I feel compelled to warn the reader both from modern sects, which often boast centuries-old traditions, and from esoteric and exoteric schools that seek the
“paying public” in the same way, not to enrich the spirit of the adepts , but the pockets of the few “masters”, magically appeared, like mushrooms during the rainy season.
Instead, I would suggest reading some important texts, milestones of occult knowledge, more available today than even just a century ago. Knowing how to distinguish wheat from bran is fundamental in esoteric research, which in modern times can also be performed alone, however, confronting oneself in meetings in person or through various social networks and forums, with people who share the same interest and the same seriousness in ‘to approach everything that is hidden from the senses and surrounds us. Developing the critical capacity will help us to filter and make our own what we have learned on the initiatory journey (of selfinitiation).
The purpose of personal research, the “personal legend”, as Coelho defined it in The Alchemist, is that of assimilation and transformation. It must not be fueled by the ego, but moved by the intention of passing on everything, through theoretical and above all practical teachings, in order to become better people ourselves and help others improve. Like a large family that creates the ideal conditions for the psychophysical-mental development of each of its members, taking care, at the same time, of their own home, as a permanent habitat and in symbiosis with the individual.