Francis Bacon once pointed out that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested”. This is precisely the guidance dispensed here to all readers with the following 3-tier scheme, for not many among us today are ready to dive straight away into books which ought to be “chewed and digested”.
“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
∼ Socrates
In agreement with the ancient degrees of esoteric philosophical learning, “Neophyte” has been the name chosen for the first tier. In Ancient Greek “neophutos” meant “newly planted,” and a neophyte was a postulant who had to pass through certain trials before being deemed worthy of initiation into those hierophantic Sacred Mysteries that ancient philosophers such as Plato so often praised.
The books presented in the Neophyte Section are capable of providing nourishment to all kinds of readers, although those versed in esotericism and spiritual philosophy will surely find in these volumes much more than those who have just sprouted into wondering and embarked on their own quests for transcendental truth. These titles are prone to satisfy all kinds of readers, for they offer amusement and insight without necessarily demanding gruelling thinking. The books of the Neophyte Section are the natural companions of those who have just begun to sense the Great Reality.
“All men assert that wisdom is the greatest good, but there are few who strenuously endeavour to obtain this greatest good.”
∼ Pythagoras
In the ancient days, the arcane knowledge was taught during the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries which, despite no longer existing in their external garb, remain available to those who, with inner nobility of heart, are willing to earnestly pursue the spiritual path of independent self-initiation.
The books presented in the Initiate Section may aid this kind of seekers: those who are gradually raising their own consciousness towards the Universal Life, while gathering the precious seeds of wisdom they encounter on their journeys. The journey of the initiate, however, cannot be pursued without a certain degree of effort. For this reason, the works presented here offer a somewhat greater challenge than those issued in the Neophyte section. These volumes are for those who, like Zoroaster said, “with an open mind seek and listen to all the highest ideals. Consider the most enlightened thoughts and then choose their path, person by person, each for himself.”
“When the Great Reality is not known the study of the Scriptures is fruitless; when the Great Reality is known the study of the Scriptures is also fruitless.”
∼ Adi Sankaracharya
Schopenhauer once said that “we should treat art as a prince,” and “let it speak to us first,” and this should also apply to Scriptures and ancient myths. For, if we do not perceive the inner meaning of ancient texts, it is because we approach them noisily, allowing our preconceived ideas to interfere and speak first. If we could approach them silently, they would surrender their inner meaning at once. But, paradoxically, so would the whole world too, rendering thus myths and Scriptures redundant. For it is certain that the world does not exist for us to understand Scripture, but Scripture for us to understand the world.
The volumes of the Adept Section are rather for advanced initiates than for true adepts, as the latter rarely have any need for books. Readers facing these tomes should embrace bafflement, possess the mark of an educated mind—the capacity of entertaining thoughts without instantly accepting them nor rejecting them—and rejoice in symbolical, abstract or simply challenging thought.
These are therefore the three tiers that compose the scheme we present here, and which we truly hope will help every reader to navigate our publications. We like to refer to it as the “Ain Soph Scheme” given that—apart from the very fact that the initial letter of the different levels compose the word “AIN”—it actually embodies that ladder of knowledge which may paradoxically lead to the Unknowable.
The Chaldean Kabbalists called the Unknowable “Ain Soph” (אין סוף), which they considered to be without form or being, without likeness to anything else and completely boundless or limitless, as emanating and extending everywhere. It is in communion with this that the highest intuitional knowledge may be attained by an adept, as it is also in the “no-light” of this that the words of Gautama Buddha regarding Nirvana, the Blessed “Nothingness”—as well as the words of the Pythian Oracle regarding Socrates, who was deemed to be the wisest among the Greeks because he was the only one among them “who knew that he knew nothing”—should be considered.
This, we also believe, is the true esoteric meaning of the nowadays vainly hackneyed expression “to kill the ego” which, as we understand it, should be considered as the conscious pursuit of becoming an unbiased vessel for Universal Divine Inspiration. For it is precisely our mental conditioning, prejudices and pre-established conceptions regarding who we think we are, were, or should be, that are to be held responsible for preventing the naturally-inspired wisdom from freely flowing into us. This last statement constitutes a key central piece of perennial esoteric philosophy which, in Socratic terms, would probably have been expressed as follows:
