Is there a rejected knowledge that is a body of arcane wisdom handed down from ancient times, which is either actively rejected by the world, or voluntarily exiles itself because of its recognized incompatibility with the prevailing popular culture?

 A Secret Tradition, suppressed or discarded in our modern materialistic age, that holds within itself the answers to the individual seekers deepest needs and inner longings? Is there a Secret Wisdom hidden because of its sublime and immense value, or reverently concealed from the prying eyes of the profane?

 Natalie Banks points out in her book The Golden Thread:

 The constant reappearance of the Ancient or Ageless Wisdom, that body of inner or esoteric teaching handed down from remote times in a form suitable to that period, has always attracted the minds of thoughtful people. Through its remarkable preservation and continuity it has been compared in symbol to a golden thread: a spiritual lifeline waxing or waning in clarity and intensity from century to century.

 In fact, secret knowledge has been called the basis of all power and the doorway to truth and liberation from spiritual and mental bondage. It has been called the key to Mans past and the vision of Mans future.

 Did Jesus the Christ teach a secret doctrine? The Gospels plainly state that he told His disciples: Unto you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. (Mark 4:11).

 Commenting on these words of Jesus, the Renaissance philosopher Pico de Mirandola urged his students to: Think on how Origen the theologian [third century] asserts that Jesus Christ, the Teacher of Life, made many revelations to his disciples, which they were unwilling to write down lest they should become commonplace to the rabble.

 Examining the Bible, particularly the New Testament, we find confirmation of secret teachings. These Mysteries of the Kingdom, imparted by Jesus to His inner circle of disciples, as we will show, were only suppressed or radically reinterpreted after the Council of Nicaea in 325. Since the time of the ecumenical councils of the fourth century, the Christian Church has sought both to distort and brand as heretical the surviving fragments of this Ancient Secret Tradition.

 The Church and other Establishment religious and political institutions viciously attack the Secret Tradition because it directly challenges the prevailing consensus reality. In the words of James Webb:

 The occult is rejected knowledge. It may be knowledge which is actively rejected by an Establishment culture, or knowledge which voluntarily exiles itself from the courts of favor because of its recognized incompatibility with the prevailing wisdom. The occult is rejected knowledge that is an underground whose basic unity is that of opposition to an establishment of powers that be. (The Occult Underground)

 All the great spiritual teachers clearly distinguished between open proclamations and secret or inner teachings. I received from the messenger of God two kinds of knowledge, said the Prophet Mohammed, (a direct descendant of the Patriarch Abraham through his son Ishmael.) One of these I taught (but) if I had taught them the other, it would have broken their throats. Gautama Buddha, a prince of the Sakya clan, said: O disciples, the things which I have discovered and have not told you are more numerous than those which I have told you.

 Dr. Buck explains in Mystic Masonry that in the Ancient Mysteries, and in all the great Religions, there was always an Exoteric portion given out to the uninitiated world, and an Esoteric portion reserved for the Initiates, and revealed (only) in the degrees, according as the candidate demonstrated his fitness to receive, conceal, and rightly use the knowledge so imparted. Few professed Christians are, perhaps, aware that such was the case with Christianity during the first two or three centuries.

 If we are sincerely desirous of seeking truth, above all we must first appreciate the difference between the esoteric and the exoteric. The scholar of religion, Huston Smith, in his introduction to the revised edition of Frithjof Schuons, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, says: The esoteric minority consists of men and women who realize that they have their roots in the Absolute. The exoteric majority is composed of the remainder of mankind for whom this way of talking about religion is sterile if not unintelligible.

 This well established pattern of esoteric (inner or hidden) and exoteric (open or apparent) teachings confuses some people. A confusion that stems from an inability to discern truth from falsehood. Every honest student of the Scriptures and history must agree that the forces of evil always seek to invert the truth and to manufacture a counterfeit to the Divine Will.

 Consider just one example: As the economic, political and social systems of the nations of earth face upheaval and collapse, there is a frantic attempt by the dominant power elites to fashion a New World Order and to forcefully integrate all nations into a one world superstate under the iron rule of a parasitic few. This nefarious plan is an abhorrent inversion, a barbarous counterfeit of the inevitable divine New Age of Light and Righteousness proclaimed by all the Prophets. Satan, the god of this world, always throws up a twisted parody of the truth so as to deceive humanity and keep them trapped in the bondage of ignorance.

 Unfortunately, much of what the world identifies as occult wisdom, esotericism, the Mysteries, etc., is absolutely foreign, subversive and contrary to the authentic Ancient Secret Tradition and all genuine metaphysics.

 The French esotericist Luc Benoist rightly cautions:

 The conditions which prevail in the world today favour such subversive anti-traditional activity. The confusion between the spiritual and the psychic and the identification of religion with magic, totemism, and even sorcery, the popular dissemination of pseudo or counter-initiatic rituals are all irrefutable examples of a degraded perversion of the truth. The growing materialism of our modern world, its increasing mechanization, and the current vogue for extreme artificiality, the virtual brain-washing or standardization of thought by the media -- all reveal a mounting tide of uncontrolled and uncontrollable influences working on those who have practically no idea of their existence. (The Esoteric Path).

 If such an Ancient Secret Tradition exists it certainly is suppressed within contemporary Western culture, though this was not always the case. Down through the centuries writers and thinkers referred to this Ancient Wisdom, linking it to humanity's pioneering advances in medicine, art, literature, mathematics, natural history, geometry and astronomy, to name just a few. While documenting this spiritual heritage, these same writers warned of a counterfeit, corrupt doctrine and viewed it as the product of the forces of degeneration and bondage. Robert Macoy provides us with a good overview of this process. He writes:

 It appears that all the perfection of civilisation and all advancement made in philosophy, science and art among the ancients are due to those institutions which, under the veil of mystery, sought to illustrate the sublimest truths of religion, morality and virtue, and to impress them on the hearts of their disciples. Their chief object was to teach the doctrine of the One God, the resurrection of man to eternal life, the dignity of the human soul; and to lead people to see the shadow of Deity in the beauty, magnificence and splendour of the Universe.

 With the decline of virtue which has preceded the destruction of every nation of history, the mysteries became perverted and sorcery took the place of the Divine Magic. Indescribable practices were introduced and perversion ruled supreme; for no instruction can be any better than the members of which it is composed. In despair, the few members who were sincere sought to preserve the secret doctrines from oblivion, in some cases they succeeded, but more often the mysteries were lost, until only the empty shell remained.

 Modern Freemasonry is an example of this process of degeneration and the distortion of spiritual knowledge. Today, Freemasonry is a corruption of the original Arcane School of Masonry. There can be no doubt that ancient Masonry was a keeper of the Ancient Wisdom, and before its corruption it was one of the great Mystery Schools. The first Mystery Schools and secret societies arose from the highest aspirations of the human mind -- the desire for a knowledge of eternal verities. The evils arising from such systems is usually due to the perversion of principles that once were pure and holy.

 In many ancient civilisations, Egypt and Greece for example, there existed side-by-side two forms of religious observance, one dogmatic and ceremonial, the other mystical and esoteric. Popular cults represented one form of observance, while the other was the religion of the Mysteries. The latter religion went far beyond popular cults, explaining the symbolic meaning of arcane myths and uniting those who were striving toward the hidden higher truths.

 Symbolism is the language of the Ancient Secret Tradition. By symbolism Man has ever sought to communicate his thoughts that transcend the limitations of language. The Mystery Schools and secret societies chose symbolism as the ideal method of preserving their transcendental knowledge. A symbol may both reveal and conceal. To the truly wise the subject of the symbol is obvious, while to the ignorant the figure remains inscrutable. Thus he who seeks to unveil the Ancient Secret Tradition of antiquity must search for that wisdom not within the open pages of books that might fall into the hands of the unworthy, but in the place where it was originally concealed.

 This explains why historians know comparatively very little about the Mysteries. Yet it is precisely these Mysteries that shed light on many historical enigmas, including the sudden appearance of Greek culture in the 7th century B.C., followed by the completely dark 8th and 9th centuries. Also, the earlier sudden appearance of high civilisation in the land of Egypt is connected with the Mysteries.

 In Greece, philosophers and mystics in Ancient Mystery Schools preserved the Mysteries that were patterned after a very old design first established in Egypt.

 Moses, whom the Bible declares was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Exodus 2:10; Acts 7:22), obtained knowledge of the Mysteries in the land of his birth. Later at divine command, he initiated the Seventy Elders into the Mysteries (Numbers 11:24) and they transmitted them orally to the Levites and Elders. After Moses, David and Solomon are regarded as possessing extensive knowledge of the Secret Tradition.

 Those initiated into this Israelite Secret Tradition distinguished between the esoteric and exoteric expressions of the Mosaic law. This is plain from the words of Philo, who said that: The law of Moses is like a living creature whose body is the literal sense, but the soul is the more inward and hidden meaning, covered under the sense of the letter.

 The Book of Esdras informs us that the Old Testament scribe Ezra dictated to five men, during a period of forty days, books that were to be hidden and confined to the wise amongst the people.

 G.R.S Mead informs us in Fragments of a Faith Forgotten:

 The institution of the Mysteries is the most interesting phenomenon in the study of religion. The idea in antiquity was that there was something to be known in religion, secrets or mysteries into which it was possible to be initiated; that there was a gradual process of unfolding in things religious; in fine, that there was a science of the soul, a knowledge of things unseen.

 A persistent tradition in connection with all the great Mystery-institutions was that their several founders were the introducers of all the arts of civilisation; that they were either themselves gods or were instructed in arts by the gods - in brief, that they were men of far greater knowledge than any who had come after; they were the teachers of infant races. And not only did they teach them the arts, but they instructed them in the nature of the gods of the human soul, and the unseen world, and set forth how the world came into existence and much else.

 The idea of the existence of an enlightened people who lived at a remote era, and came from the East, is a prevalent notion in many ancient legends. Ezekiel in verse 2, chapter 43, says: The glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the East. The Bible commentator Adam Clark notes: All knowledge, all religion, and all arts and science have travelled according to the course of the sun from East to West. The veneration of the East is a reference to the Ancient Secret Tradition that is symbolised by the sun.

 According to Epiphanius, Enoch was the founder of the Mysteries, having been instructed by Adam. The Egyptians knew him as Thoth, to the Greeks he was Hermes, and to the Latins he was Mercury. The Sumerians and Phoenicians represented him as the Phoenix, and regarded him the father or patriarch of their race. Phoenix, being the Greek form of Pa Hanok, of the house or family of Enoch. From the research of Dr. E. Wallis Budge we know that the ancient Egyptians associated Thoth/Enoch with the construction of the Great Pyramid.

 The German ethnologist, Dr. Goldziher, says in his work Mythology Among the Hebrews:

 The solar character of Enoch admits of no doubt. He is brought into connection with the building of towns - a solar feature. He lives exactly three hundred and sixty-five years, the number of days of the solar year, which can not be accidental. And even then he did not die, but Enoch walked with Elohim, and was no more (to be seen), for Elohim took him away. In the old times when the figure of Enoch was imagined, this was doubtless called Enochs Ascension to heaven, as in the late traditional legends Ascensions to heaven are generally acknowledged to be solar features.

 The Hebrew name Enoch means initiated or consecrated, suggesting his connection with a system of initiation. The Hebrew sages also held that Enoch appointed festivals and sacrifices at periods when the sun entered each of the zodiacal signs. This was a system of sacred ritual taught to him by Adam.

 The Book of Jubilees is one of the non-canonical books of the Bible, preserved by the Essenes and the early followers of the Christ, but later rejected by the established Christian Church. In its fourth chapter we read of Enoch:

 He was the first one among the children of Adam that are born on the earth to learn writing and knowledge and wisdom. And he wrote the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book, that the sons of Adam might know the time of year according to their separate months. He was the first to write a testimony, and he testified to the children of Adam concerning the generations of the earth, and explained the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the days of the years, and arranged the months and explained the sabbaths of the year as we [the Almighty] made them known to him. And what was and what will be he saw in a vision of the night in a dream, and as it will happen to the children of Adam in their generations until the day of judgement; he saw and learned everything and wrote it as a testimony and laid that testimony on the earth over all the children of Adam and for their generations.

 The Hebrews had a tradition that Adam wrote books of Arcane Wisdom that were passed to Enoch. The Druids, who were said to give themselves wholly to the contemplation of divine and hidden things, also believed in books of secret knowledge that originated at the dawn of Adamic civilisation. An old Arabic tradition maintains that Abraham had in his possession certain sacred writings of Adam, Seth and Enoch containing laws and promises from the Almighty as well as predictions of many events. Arab writers say Abraham taught that astronomy and other sciences came down from Enoch. Thus Enoch, the righteous Priest-King and Great Teacher, passed into history as a personification of the Ancient Secret Tradition.

 The Book of Enoch, a sacred text highly esteemed by the Essenes, also details how, in the company of Heavenly Messengers, Enoch travelled out beyond our solar system.

 Within the existing copies of the Book of Enoch, the Secrets of Enoch and the Pillars of Enoch we find the presentation of arcane esoteric concepts in symbolic form and language. We read how, when he was transported to the heavenly realms in his physical body, Enoch had a realisation of the days when he walked in the Realm of Light. He also realised that he had volunteered to come to earth when told in the Great Councils of the Divine Plan for the establishment of the Kingdom of God and the bringing back of this area of the universe into a proper relationship with the Most High. Thus, in the Secrets of Enoch, Enoch is instructed to write all about the souls of men, those of them which are not born, and the places prepared for them forever. For every soul was created for eternity before the foundation of the world.

 We also discover that the Patriarch Enoch, born of the pure seed of Adams race, prophesied of the coming of the Anointed One and of the last days of our present cycle. The writings attributed to Enoch outline the star prophecies foretelling the manner and time of the coming of the Messiah. How a major conjunction at the birth of the Messiah would be the sign of this mighty event. This Mystery of the Christ and of His Sign in the heavens was a central theme of the pre-Christian Ancient Mystery Schools. The eminent scholar Prof. Breasted in his History of Egypt says that the old Priests of Egypt anticipated the coming Saviour in their Book of the Dead and in their Pyramid Texts fully one thousand years before the Hebrew Prophets.

 The New Testament writer Jude quoted Enoch when he declared:

 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, Yahweh cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

 The writers of the New Testament drew heavily from the works attributed to Enoch. Dr. R.H. Charles, the translator of the Book of Enoch notes: It is impossible to see Matthew, Mark and Luke in true perspective unless we place them against the background of the Book of Enoch. The early Church Fathers considered the Book of Enoch divinely inspired, being acclaimed by St. Barnabas as scripture and widely read throughout Western Christendom. Only after the notorious Council of Nicaea did the Book of Enoch fall into discredit.

 Over time, people lacking in the capacity to understand and correctly interpret the arcane symbolism gained control of some of the Mystery Schools and totally distorted their message. Wicked and corrupt individuals twisted the sacred rituals, introducing alien notions and cruel practices derived from primitive nature worship. Unfortunately, many contemporary secret societies that claim to trace their origin back to the Ancient Mystery Schools, possess only a modern humanistic explanation of the sacred symbolism.

 The poet William Blake penned the following words aptly contrasting the historical Jesus the Christ with the Jesus Christ of established Christianity:

 The Vision of Christ that thou dost see, Is my visions greatest enemy. Thine is the Friend of all Mankind, Mine speaks in Parables to the blind. Thine loves the same world that mine hates, Thy heaven-doors are my hell gates. (The Everlasting Gospel)

 The popular image of Jesus Christ as portrayed by the Christian Churches is of a gentle Jesus, meek and mild, a suffering saviour engaged in a titanic struggle with Lucifer the Devil for the souls of men. This leaves the modern Christian with the task of being good and winning his neighbours to the Lord, so that they may spend eternity in heaven and not in hellfire. Students of the Ancient Secret Tradition know that this Jesus is truly man-made and is a far cry from the historical Galilean Master.

 By studying the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, we see a very definite delineation between the general exoteric message and what the Jesus of the Gospels called the esoteric Mysteries of the Kingdom. A body of teachings deliberately concealed, as we have shown, and only taught to a select few. This is in keeping with the initiatic practice of the Ancient Mystery Schools of Israel. The historian Edersheim explains that it is an undeniable fact that already at the time of Jesus Christ there existed an assemblage of doctrines and speculations that were carefully concealed from the multitude.

 That Jesus and His disciples taught and amplified this Ancient Wisdom can be easily shown. A full study of this would be the subject of many pages, so we will confine ourselves to a few elementary points.

 The American mystic Dr. R.S. Clymer observed that:

 The Bible is only a portion of an ancient religion which was both exoteric and esoteric. Theologians fail to recognize that they possess but the outer shell, although Jesus clearly revealed the existence of an inner teaching. Anciently, religion was divided into three degrees which man spent his life mastering. These comprised purification, initiation and mastership (of himself). Today, man refuses to master the first degree of purification, hence he cannot determine the fundamentals of religious mysticism concerning himself as Gods image.

 In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, verse 10 we read: And the disciples came and said unto him [Jesus], why speakest thou unto them [the assembled multitude] in parables?

 He answered and said unto them (the disciples), Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

 By determining the exact meaning of the word Mysteries as used in the New Testament, (which according to Youngs Analytical Concordance is: that which is known only to the initiated), it is evident that Jesus was referring to the Ancient Secret Tradition.

 Such statements as: It is given unto you to know the mysteries; we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery; we are stewards of the mysteries of God and understand all mysteries; as well as numerous other similar passages found throughout the New Testament, show that Jesus and the Apostles were a part of the Ancient Secret Tradition coming down from Adam through the first Patriarchs.

 The Gospel accounts of Jesus ministry provide a number of examples where he taught an open exoteric message to the people and then privately instructed the disciples in the deeper esoteric meaning. This enables us to grasp the idea behind the words of Jesus in the Matthew Gospel: Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. The Mysteries were not to be revealed to the uninitiated.

 Modern scholarship now confirms that in the time of Jesus, the Essene Order possessed a deep understanding of the Ancient Secret Tradition. Their Manual of Discipline alludes to the Revelation of the Mysteries, which has been kept in silence through all times eternal, but now is manifested.

 The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal the similarities in ritual practices, teachings, and terms of the Essenes that were linked with the first followers of the Christ. The Essenes called themselves the Keepers Of The Covenant; Followers of the Way; and Nazarenes. The original disciples of Jesus were also known as Nazarenes and only later called Christians. The name Nazarene derives from the Hebrew word Nazar, signifying one separated or consecrated. To this day the Arabic word for Christians is Nasrani and the Quran refers to the first Christians as Nasara.

 The respected British authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls, John Allegro, was convinced that the Essenes were a secret society with highly developed grades of initiation and rituals in which they swore never to divulge the Mysteries to the profane. Of the Essene connection to the Gnostic Nazarenes, he says:

 The gnostic (knowing) Essenes reappear on the literary scene as gnostic Christians, but there is really no justification for the heavy black dividing line that is customarily drawn across the page of history between them. There is a continuous development of religious thought, influenced by the turn of political events, which is perfectly comprehensible chronologically and doctrinally without the artificial separation of Christian from pre-Christian. (The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth).

 The Jewish scholar Isaac Myer believed that the original Christians or Nazarenes incorporated the Ancient Wisdom of the Israelites that stretched back to Moses, Abraham, Enoch and Adam. He declared:

 With the appearance of Jesus, the Jewish thought-world became divided. The Secret Doctrines were mostly under the guidance of a spiritual faith of a high intellectual order; the Pharisees had made the Jewish religious life one of form and ritual, and had destroyed most of the inward spiritual life of the Hebrew religion. Many of the higher spiritual teachings of the Secret Doctrine were, at that time, absorbed into the formulations which resulted in the firm establishment of Christianity.

 The Gnostic Nazarenes, (the true disciples of Jesus), claimed to possess a Secret Tradition, coming to them directly from the Christ, that was different from that of the Gospels and New Testament Epistles, and superior to these texts, which in their eyes, were merely exoteric.

 To avoid persecution, the Nazarenes were compelled to use concealment (occultatio) of certain tenets and ceremonies. They held their meetings in private places under cover of darkness. They assembled at night and they guarded against the intrusion of false brethren who might cause their arrest.

 The early Church Fathers, many of whom were initiates writing in the first centuries of the Christian era, fully appreciated the delineation between the exoteric and the esoteric. Some of their works allude to a truth which catechumens were not permitted to contemplate. St Basil wrote: They [the Fathers] were well instructed to preserve the veneration of the Mysteries in silence. For how could it be proper to openly proclaim in writing the doctrine of those things which no baptised person may not even so much as look upon?

 Tertullian, who died about 216 says in his Apology: None are admitted to the religious Mysteries without an oath of secrecy. While St. Gregory the Bishop of Constantinople says: You have heard as much of the Mystery as we are allowed to speak openly in the ears of all; the rest will be communicated to you in private; and that you must retain within yourself. Our Mysteries are not to be made known to strangers.

 In a letter to a certain Theodore; Clement of Alexandria (150-215) admitted that the Apostle Mark recorded an account of the Lords doings for catechumens in which he selected what he thought was most suitable for beginners in the faith; that Mark also wrote another, more spiritual Gospel, to be used by those who were being perfected in the faith; and that Mark knew of additional arcane secrets.

 In time, the Gnostic Nazarenes were scattered, persecuted and martyred by a counterfeit Church that affixed to itself the title of Christ and claimed to be His priests. Many of the Scriptures containing the deeper esoteric teachings of Jesus and His disciples were deliberately excluded from the New Testament, and in several instances destroyed with the rise of the Christian Church.

 With the convening of the Council of Nicaea in 325 and subsequent ecumenical gatherings, the original Mysteries of the Kingdom were, under threats of violence and exile, abandoned, and a centralised power-based institution erected. Early Church Fathers such as Origen were labeled as heretics for upholding a mystical interpretation of the Scriptures and their followers were threatened with exile unless they recanted and accepted the true faith. In fact, this violence was so intense that one pagan historian was moved to record that the atrocities of the Christians against each other surpassed even the fury of wild beasts against mankind.

 This reign of terror inflicted on the scattered Gnostic communities did not destroy the followers of the Way, nor did it extinguish the flame of truth. Through many underground local groups and even within recognised religious Orders, the Mysteries of the Kingdom were preserved.

 Kenneth Rexroth wrote of these underground communities that existed throughout Europe:

 In every city there were little groups of people meeting together in one anothers homes, or in large rooms barren of decorations and images, living together in communes in townhouses or in seclusion in the country. Most of them still went to Mass on Sundays and to confession at Easter, but their religious life was centred on their own meetings. There they sat quietly listening to the readings of the Scriptures and their exposition, praying together spontaneously or sitting quietly waiting for the Inner Light, the movement of the Spirit. Behind all the conflicts and controversies, persecutions, trials, burnings, and wars, this way of life would go on. The apocalyptic men and the apocalyptic events would rise up, flourish in the melodramas of history, and then pass away, to be absorbed in the quiet life of the apostolic communities. (Communalism: from its Origins to the Twentieth Century).

 Few people realise that these communities planted the seeds of the reformation that later swept all of Europe, challenging the stranglehold of the Roman Church. These heirs of the Mysteries of the Kingdom became known to history by a variety of names. The Albigensians, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Beghards and Beguines, Waldenses, and Taborites, to name just a few. They survived despite terrible persecution. The Albigensians of Western Europe, for example, were zealous, hardworking, skilful in many crafts and prospered exceedingly. Soon they attracted the envious attention of the Roman Church, which, after failing to convert them, subjected them to violent persecution. Their rich lands were laid waste, their beautiful towns destroyed, and the Albigensians themselves very nearly exterminated.

 The work of Count Nicholas Zinzendorf during the mid-1700s was an effort to revive the Secret Tradition. In Saxony in 1722 Count Zinzendorf gave sanctuary to a group of dissident Christians known as Moravian Brethren. Under his leadership they founded the village of Herrnhut (Protection of the Lord) and restored many of the original Nazarene teachings. Patterning their lives after the followers of Jesus the Christ, the Brethren lived communally and devoted much of their time to prayer and song, in a spirit of union and charity. Moravian missionaries had a decisive impact on John Wesley, the great evangelical preacher.

 Following the example of the first Nazarenes, Count Zinzendorf taught the esoteric Mysteries of the Kingdom in a secret society known as the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed and the Confraternity of Moravian Brothers of the Order of Religious Freemasons. Zinzendorfs Order proclaimed its mystico-political purpose to be the extension of the Kingdom of God all over the world.

 The birth of the American Republic was the work of Freemasons schooled in esoteric principles. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were all initiates. They actively opposed those elements of European Freemasonry responsible for perverting much of the Secret Tradition. The historian Dr. Bernard Fay documented the commanding role Masonry played in the genesis of the United States of America. He says:

 Masonry alone undertook to lay the foundation for national unity in America, because, through the very nature of its organization, it could spread throughout all the colonies and work steadily and silently. It created in a limited but very prominent class of people a feeling of American unity without which the American liberty could not have developed -- without which there would have been no United States. (Revolution and Freemasonry 1680-1800)

 Benjamin Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia in an effort to preserve elements of the Secret Tradition and resist the encroachment of corrupt European Freemasonry. The society served as a beacon of light in the New World and virtually all of Americas pioneering advances in the arts and sciences can be traced back to it. Not long after Benjamin Franklins death, European Freemasonry, through Rothschild agents, gained control of the remaining outposts of authentic Masonry in North America.

 Today, in this time of transition and upheaval, the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are open to all who have the eyes to see and ears to hear. Though sometimes covered with numerous modern accretions, misrepresented and distorted by those for whom it was not intended, the Ancient Secret Tradition survives as the nucleus of supreme truth in whole, in part, or in many varied combinations. After years spent researching esoteric teachings, the Russian writer P.D. Ouspensky concluded: Esotericism is remote and inaccessible, but every man who learns of or guesses at the existence of esotericism has the chance of approaching a school or may hope to meet people who will help him and show him the way. (A New Model of the Universe)

 If we are sincerely seeking these secret teachings then we must prepare to search and find that which is lost and rejected by the world. In its purity the Ancient Secret Tradition is an eternal heritage, a source of vibrant inspiration in a time overrun with materialism and the senseless glorification of base thinking. In conclusion, the reader is asked to consider the following words from Manly P. Halls The Secret Teachings of All Ages:

 Though the modern world may know a million secrets, the ancient world knew one -- and that one was greater than the million; for the million secrets breed death, disaster, sorrow, selfishness, lust, and avarice, but the one secret confers life, light, and truth. The time will come when the secret wisdom shall again be the dominating religious and philosophical urge of the world. The day is at hand when the doom of dogma shall be sounded. The great theological Tower of Babel, with its confusion of tongues, was built of bricks of mud and the mortar of slime. Out of the cold ashes of lifeless creeds, however, shall rise phoenix-like the ancient Mysteries. The unfolding of mans spiritual nature is as much an exact science as astronomy, medicine or jurisprudence. To accomplish this end, religions were primarily established; and out of religion have come science, philosophy, and logic as methods whereby this divine purpose might be realised.

 This article appeared in New Dawn No. 40

 ORIGINAL WORK COPYRIGHT © 1997 LIFE SCIENCE FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

In the closing years of the twentieth century increasing numbers of men and women are searching for answers to the great questions of existence. Their searching souls are no longer satisfied with inherited beliefs and the spiritually barren dogmas of Church and State. They are longing for something more.

The Life Science Fellowship is a contemporary Gnostic community preserving a Tradition vouchsafed by the mystical societies and Orders of the past. It is a school following the Path pioneered by the Essenes and based on the Nazarene Mysteries of the Kingdom.

The Life Science Fellowship emphasises Gnosis because it alone can meet the spiritual hunger of our times. Gnosis means knowledge, as distinct from mere belief, or blind faith based on hearsay. The Gnostics of all ages and religions have asserted that man is capable of first-hand knowledge regarding the essential nature of things human and divine.

Gnosticism cannot find a better definition than that offered by one of the first century communities specifically calling themselves Gnostics, "the beginning of perfection is the knowledge of man, but absolute perfection is the knowledge of God."

Today, in the End Time of this Dark Age, the voices of the Religion of Light are heard again. "I am the voice of Awakening in the eternal night" announces a Gnostic hymn. Men and women with ‘ears to hear’ are stirring from the numbness of life in the world. These ‘strangers and pilgrims are renouncing the world and all that binds them to it. They respond to the Call to Awake, realising that to be children of the living Heavenly Father is to be free from society and not to be bound by its false values.

The Life Science Fellowship welcomes enquiries from sincere seekers who are called to the hidden, higher life. If you would like to learn more with respect to the Mysteries of the Kingdom we urge you to contact us at the address below.

[  NOTE: These pages are taken from the Life Science Fellowship website. The above address is no longer used by the Life Science Fellowship. I have been unable to contact the group through either their PO Box or their email address, and their website no longer exists. It appears that the group have gone underground. If anyone can help me contact them, please email me  spackhead@geocities.com  ]

ORIGINAL WORK COPYRIGHT © 1997 LIFE SCIENCE FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL

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 For the whole creation that came from the dead earth will be under the authority of death.
But those who reflect upon the knowledge of the eternal God in their hearts will not perish.
-- Apocalypse of Adam

He who hears, let him get up from the deep sleep. Arise and remember that it is you who
hearkened, and follow your root, which is I, the merciful one.
-- Apocryphon of John

 Do you want to be part of a world of sleeping people?

 From the moment of birth every human being on Earth is asleep.

It is an undeniable fact that in the modem world the life of the average person lacks real direction and deep meaning. Despite all of contemporary society’s platitudes, human beings are persuaded, by various subtle methods, to do what they are told. Men and women are perpetually conditioned, cajoled, and blackmailed into a life of compromise and acceptance of the narrowest perceptions. The very nature of modern society demands that we voluntarily relinquish responsibility for our lives and actions. The world veils the mystery of existence.

Mankind does not know its purpose for being and now exists solely for material improvement and sense gratification. His whole educational system and ephemeral way of life is directed at economic advancement, social acceptance, vanity and false prestige.

Such is the state of Man’s ignorance in the current Dark Age.

Mere physical existence, mundane ‘day-to-day’ life, is meaningless! One’s highest ambition consists in participating in and obtaining final liberation from the bondage represented by the world and the sleeping human condition.

The purpose of life is spiritual enlightenment.

The proper beginning of Man is direct Knowledge (Gnosis) of the Divine, and the ultimate goal of Man is the ascent of the divine spark through the higher worlds of spiritual states, until his expanding consciousness and the grace of the Almighty God enables the inner True Being to attain the highest spiritual perfection: ONENESS with the ABSOLUTE.

Knowledge (Gnosis) is the salvation of the True Being.

What is Gnosis? Gnosis is an inner Awakening and a radical reorientation of life. Gnosis is a home coming, a restoration of an original state now lost. Gnosis is the marvellous realisation of knowing God as He is, and imparts freedom, joy and happiness as well as an expansion of awareness beyond any human words to express. Gnosis is the science of life that you live, rather than preach.

Life Science Fellowship, as a custodian of the ancient Gnostic Tradition, does not seek ‘believers’ or ‘followers.’ We are seeking collaborators, students seeking the divine light within.

Life Science Fellowship is not a religion, nor is it another church denomination, but a contemporary Gnostic school. We are not striving to appease an angry god through the observance of laws and sacrifices. Nor are we like the modern day scribes who spend their time vainly trying to interpret the scriptures. We realise all sacred scriptures can only help us to open ‘the book within,’ and make our lives living testimonies of truth.

                                                                                 Past and Future
                                                                                     (MS 64-65)
                                                                 from: The New Frontier (1925)

                                                       I tell you that the children of yesteryears
                          are walking in the funeral of the era that they created for themselves.
                                           They are pulling a rotted rope that might break soon
                                                 and cause them to drop into a forgotten abyss.
                                      I say that they are living in homes with weak foundations;
                                                  as the storm blows -- and it is about to blow --
                            their homes will fall upon their heads and thus become their tombs.
                                                      I say that all their thoughts, their sayings,
                                                              their quarrels, their compositions,
                                                                   their books and all their work
                                                           are nothing but chains dragging them
                                                     because they are too weak to pull the load.

                                       But the children of tomorrow are the ones called by life,
                                            and they follow it with steady steps and heads high,
                                                             they are the dawn of new frontiers,
                                                                    no smoke will veil their eyes
                                             and no jingle of chains will drown out their voices.
                                                                        They are few in number,
                            but the difference is as between a grain of wheat and a stack of hay.
                                                 No one knows them but they know each other.
                                 They are like the summits, which can see or hear each other --
                                                       not like caves, which cannot hear or see.
                                     They are the seed dropped by the hand of God in the field,
              breaking through its pod and waving its sapling leaves before the face of the sun.
                                                                 It shall grow into a mighty tree,
                               its root in the heart of the earth and its branches high in the sky.
                                                                              .:Kahlil Gibran:.