Pineda - The book of secrets : esoteric societies and holy orders, luminaries and seers, symbols and rituals, and the key concepts of occult sciences through the ages and around the world

First published in 2011 by

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

665 Third Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2011 by Daniel Pineda.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Credits: p. 100: Mevlevi dervishes in 1887, by permission of the Threshold Society; p. 138: Henrich Cornelius Agrippa, 1533, and p. 140: Paracelsus, 1598, in the collection of the National Library of Medicine.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-485-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

Cover design by Barb Fisher/levanfisherdesign.com

Cover photographs iStockphoto/Aaltazar

Interior design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Typeset in Minion

Printed in Canada

TCP

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

PART ONE:
KEY CONCEPTS

PART TWO:
SYMBOLISM, THE LANGUAGE OF MYSTERY

PART THREE:
SECRET SOCIETIES AND HOLY ORDERS, GATEKEEPERS OF HIDDEN WISDOM

PART FOUR:
LUMINARIES AND SEERS, TORCHBEARERS OF SECRET KNOWLEDGE

O secret of secrets that art hidden in the being of all that lives, not Thee do we adore, for that which adoreth is also Thou. Thou art That, and That am I.

Liber XV by Aleister Crowley

Thou wilt ask, What is the new regeneration? or how is that done in man? Hear and see, close not thy mind, let it not be filled by the spirit of this world with its might and pomp. Lay hold upon thy mind and break through the spirit of this world entirely; yield thy mind unto the kind love of God; make thy purpose earnest and strong to overcome the pleasure of this world and not to regard it. Consider that thou art not at home in this world, but art a strange guest, made captive in a prison; cry and call to him who has the key of the prison; yield thyself up to him in obedience, righteousness, humility, purity and truth.

Confessions of Jacob Boehme by Jacob Boehme

... you are about to penetrate into the sanctuary of the sublime sciences; my hand is about to raise for you the impenetrable veil which hides from the eyes of common men the tabernacle, the sanctuary wherein the Eternal has lodged the secrets of nature, kept for a few that are privileged, the few Elect whom His omnipotence created that they may SEE, and seeing, may soar after Him in the vast expanse of His Glory and deflect upon mankind one of the Rays that shine round about His golden Throne.

The Most Holy Trinosophia of Comte de St. Germain, translated by Manly P. Hall

Have you ever taken a good look at a dollar bill and wondered what all those strange symbols mean or why there's so much writing in Latin, a dead language? Have you been too embarrassed to ask your grandfather about why he always wears that ring with the big G on it, or what that letter means to him? Do you have friends who regularly invite you to a ritual or ceremony that they claim will instruct you in the meaning of life? Are you searching for the invisible brotherhoods that have shaped the history of the world by using magic, alchemy, and other secrets only known to the upper echelon of humanity? Let's just say that if you are interested in these subjects (which can be safely assumed due to that fact that you are reading this book), you should take heart in the fact that these mysteries have been laid out before you intentionally, in the hope that you would strive to solve them for the betterment of yourself, and all humankind.

Secret knowledge can be hard to come by. Isn't a secret, after all, information that someone knows and purposely withholds or obscures from the sight of others? In the case of spiritual enlightenment, why would anybody actively stop interested parties from beholding the Kingdom of Heaven? The recurring literary and historical themes of the slaughter of innocents by tyrants fearful of a new era, and the stories of saviors murdered by the very people they had come to liberate might shed some light on the matter. In the case of the mystery tradition, secrets are not usually pieces of information being withheld by someone, but rather levels of consciousness that are hidden from our normal mental state. In most cases a secret is really just the acquisition of a new point of view. But learning to love instead of fear what you do not understand can be a long, difficult processand perhaps some things are better kept as secrets.

At the turn of the last century, there was secret society fever. Everyone, it seemed, was a Freemason, Rosicrucian, or even an emissary of the Mahatmas of the Himalayas. This may have been simply a reaction against the industrialization of the world and the insistence of science on removing miracles from the existence of humankind, as many historians suppose. Or maybe the spiritual forces that govern life on our planet were communicating something: that science and religion were the two hands of reason, and a new age of their harmonious cooperation was to bring about the next phase in the building of the New Jerusalem. I can imagine that the later supposition seems a little far-fetched to most people. Yet, when we read the writings of modern quantum physicists, they sound less like the enemy of the mystic and more like his little brotherwho has the right idea, but just hasn't been around long enough to test it all out. We have a long way to go until we as a species embody "The Method of Science, The Aim of Religion." Luckily, though, we are at the very genesis of what many wise men and women believe to be a new epoch in human evolution, and the possibilities are indeed limitless.

Throughout history, spiritual seekers of all persuasions have endeavored to connect directly with their ideal of being, labeled by some as divine. Gnosis, the Greek word for "knowledge," is the direct knowledge or personal contact with this divinity. There are many branches on the tree of occult knowledge, but the trunk of this tree, which unites all these seemingly contradicting worldviews, is Gnosis.

To search for secret knowledge is to journey into the soul of humanity, for what is more deeply buried or obscured than the very center of ourselves? The word occult has, in modern Western society, dark and sometimes evil connotations; however, it simply means "hidden" or "secret." Any knowledge or method that is not easily perceived or obvious may be called occult. It will, for many, bring to mind images of black robes, ritual sacrifice, and communion with dangerous spiritual forces. This popular image of occultism has distracted many from the central reason for, and tenet of, the initiated secret tradition that in many ways has not changed since the dawn of civilizationthat Man can become God. In order to delve into the sometimes forbidden and unseen Spiritual World, the seeker must be armed with courage, love, and an iron will. Perhaps one of the great paradoxes of what has been called the sacred science is that the very thing for which you are looking, is actually essential to finding it.