On Astrosophy

Speaking to his disciples, Deon said

"Brethren, following the desire expressed by Dea and according to the fraternal spirit of the Initiates of the Orient, I have gathered you here today in order to impart to you a traditional teaching preserved for quite a number of centuries by the Inmates of the Schools of Ephesus and Attica. Make an in depth study of this teaching, for within it are enclosed the major keys that all the initiate sages of the ancient Orient made use of."

After this brief prelude, Deon broached the essence of the teaching of Astrosophy with great power of reasoning and a profound sense of reality.

For the present we are not allowed to divulge this superior and traditional teaching. Yet, while keeping the edge of the veil sufficiently covered, I believe that I am allowed to reveal certain principles in a few dissertations. These are sure to throw some light on those who are ready to receive these truths, whose origin and birth are very distant.

In order to give a framework to what I have to say, I will borrow the form that is most compatible with this revelation. It is the form of a dialogue. And I beg the reader's indulgence for the obscurity of certain phrases that I shall be obliged to use in order to keep my promise.

First Dialogue

  Venerable Master, for quite some time now, I have been seeking, struggling and straining to acquire a fragment of human Wisdom, but I have not succeeded. How then will I be able to penetrate into the path that your Word has opened up before my steps?

Disciple, Eternal Wisdom is found on an elevation that can be attained only by climbing three steps of seven each. In the first cycle of your evolution you will have to learn the science of the stars called Astrosophy. In the second cycle of your evolution you will apply all the knowledge that you attained in the first cycle to the Created Universe; this second science is called Psychurgy. And in the third and last cycle of your evolution - in possession and Master of the preceding sciences - you will broach the mysteries of the Heavens, That is where Eternal Wisdom resides, which humans call Theurgy.

Venerable Master, could you reveal to me the definition of these three stages of my evolution?

Disciple, the aim of Astrosophy is to make known to the Initiate the secret reason of causes and the secret reason of effects. The aim of Psychurgy is to unveil to the Initiate the mysteries of Birth, of Life, and of Death. Lastly, Theurgy discloses to the Initiate the mysterious synthesis of the Spirit, the first (initial) cause of the Being, the ultimate cause, and the effects beyond what is visible.

And he who attains the peak of the elevation on which Eternal Wisdom resides can call to him the celestial powers and collaborate with them for the salvation of suffering humanity.

In my time, such a one was Orpheus in Greece and Hermes Trismegistus in ancient Egypt.

Venerable Master, your word exalts in me the desire and thirst for knowledge. Your voice - as distant as the thousands of years that separate us - reaches me, profound and resonant. It moves the fibres of my soul and creates within me the thirst to know and the firm will to learn your secret sciences. Speak, Venerable Master, speak. Here I am on my knees, like a humble communicant, ready to drink from the cup that you will present to him.

Indeed, disciple, Orpheus said - and like a faithful echo Hermes Trismegistus repeated - 'More than one cause in Nature is unknown to you, and in vain will you look for it in the abysses, in the depths of the waters, and in the immensity of the ethers. You will only be troubled by your impotence, for it is neither here nor there, but only in Supreme Reason. And when the causes have been delivered to you, the effects will escape you, for their secret reason is neither here nor there, but beyond the source and over and above what you see.'

And Hermes Trismegistus goes on to say, 'What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like what is above or, 'the secret reason of causes and effects of what is above is similar to the secret reason of the causes of what is below.

'The visible and sensible is similar to the invisible and insensible. This is the key to the secret reason of causes and effects'.

And your effort, disciple, will be to start from what is known so as to find what is unknown.

This beautiful Truth forms the frontispiece that is supported by two immense columns and is found on the steps of this Initiation.

It is therefore useless to live before the eternal and agonizing quest. Is it not heart-rending (frustrating) to know only the half of things that take place before our eyes and near to our reason? Is it not unconscionable for our intellect to subject ourselves to ignorance with such grace? Is it not dishonourable for human mentality to prefer ignorance so as to avoid the strain of research?

Venerable Master, your words create a new drive in me. The work that I intend to follow will be stimulated by them and the result will be the realization within me of the noble aspirations that animate you.

Master, why did this great sage of antiquity define the science of the stars by this obscure formula:

'The secret reason of causes and the secret reason of effects'….?

In spite of their obscurity, these few words contain an entire and lengthy series of rules and laws that I intend to impart to you.

The stars that you see are worlds that move in the space of the seventh Universe of the Cosmos. These worlds are the effects of two causes that act simultaneously and contradictorily in the domain of the inferior physical Cosmos. One of these causes - the constructive one - is manifest through the immutable laws of the aggregation of the different forms of life in the Cosmos. The other cause - the destructive one - is manifest through the laws of the variability and transmutation of these forms of life.

The first of these causes, the constructive invariable cause, without any declension, straight and firm, seeks to apply the primordial equilibrium, which Orpheus called 'the harmony of the superior septenary'.

The other cause, slender and agile, endowed with a power of light, penetrating everything and dividing everything, always aspires to thwart the activity of the first cause. By creating ephemeral and sedentary forms of life, it supposes (thinks) that it acts in conformity with the rule of the first cause.

Master, your profound words awaken in me the desire to penetrate into their meaning. This is why, with your permission, I will expound on my interpretation of the problems that you have set in a more external (less esoteric) language.