A Table Of Chimical Characters In Le Fèvre’s 1670 Edition Of A Compleat Body Of Chymistry.

Evaluating Integral Metatheory

Vistāra - The Architecture of India Exhibition Catalog The Festival of India, 1986

In Gurdjieff’s cosmology, The Universe is represented by the symbol of the Enneagram. The Enneagram itself is composed of three symbols

Russell A. Smith, Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets

The very notion of culture is an artifact created by bracketing Nature off. Cultures — different or universal — do not exist, any more than Nature does. There are only natures-cultures, and these offer the only possible basis for comparison. As soon as we take practices of mediation as well as practices of purification into account, we discover that the moderns do not separate humans from nonhumans any more than the totally superimpose signs and things.

[…] Absolute relativism presupposes cultures that are separate and incommensurable and cannot be ordered in any hierarchy; there is no use talking about it, since it brackets off Nature. As for cultural relativism, which is more subtle, Nature comes into play, but in order to exist it does not presuppose any scientific work, any society, any construction, any mobilization, any network.

—Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern

A computer representation of Jupiter’s atmosphere, sourced from NASA’s 1978 Aeronautics and Space Report.

The Qabalah describes the universe as divided into four separate “Worlds”. The first is Atziluth, the Archetypal World, the world of Pure Spirit which activates all of the other worlds which evolve from it. The second world is Briah, the Creative World, the level of pure intellect. The third is Yetzirah, called the Formative World because here are found the subtle and fleeting patterns behind matter. The final World is Assiah, the active world containing both the physical world of sensation and the unseen energies of matter.

Robert Wang, The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy

there we go

The basic tenets of alchemy:

1. The universe has a divine origin. The cosmos is an emanation of One God. Therefore All is One.

2. Everything in the physical world exists by virtue of the Law of Polarity or Duality. Any idea can be defined in relation to its opposite, such as: male-female, light-dark, sun-moon, spirit-body, and so on.

3. Everything in the physical world is composed of Spirit, Soul, and Body: the Three Alchemic Principles. (In alchemy, these are called Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt.)

4. All alchemical work, whether practical laboratory work or spiritual alchemy, consists of three basic evolutionary processes: separation, purification, and recombination.

5. All matter is composed of four archetypal energies—the four elements of Fire (thermal energy), Water (liquid), Air (gas), and Earth (solid). The knowledge and skillful use of these four energy types is an essential part of alchemical work.

6. The Quintessence, or “Fifth essence,” is contained within the four elements but is not one of them. It is one of the three essential Principles, also called the Philosophic Mercury.

7. Everything moves toward its preordained state of perfection.

Israel Regardie, The Philosopher’s Stone: Spiritual Alchemy, Psychology, and Ritual Magic

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