Résultats lu par "Matthew Schmitz" dans Toutes les catégories

The Cloud of Unknowing (an anonymous 14th-century Christian mystical text often presented in modern editions with Evelyn Underhill’s introduction/editorial work) is a practical guide to contemplative prayer that teaches the seeker to move beyond discursive thinking and images in order to “know” God by love rather than intellect.

The Book of Enoch is an ancient Hebrew apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the patriarch Enoch who was the great-grandfather of Noah. The Book of Enoch contains unique material on the origins of demons and Nephilim, why some angels fell from heaven, an explanation of why the Genesis flood was morally necessary, and prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah.

The Secret of the Golden Flower is an ancient Chinese text passed on for centuries, in which Taoist mystics reveal the path to true enlightenment. The first written version was believed to have originated with Lü Dongbin, a legendary scholar, poet, and spiritual master.

In the same way, to reach one's khudi or rooh, one needs to go through multiple stages which Iqbal himself went through, a spiritual path which he encourages others to travel. He notes that not all seeds reach the level of fragrance. Many die along the way, incomplete. In the same way, few people could climb this Mount Everest of spirituality—most get consumed along the way by materialism.

Hávamál is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic Codex Regius, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking age. The poem, itself a combination of numerous shorter poems, is largely gnomic, presenting advice for living, proper conduct, and wisdom. It is considered an important source of Old Norse philosophy.

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz."Kīmīyā-yi Sa'ādat, English: The Alchemy of Happiness/Contentment, is a book written by Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, a Persian theologian, philosopher, and prolific Muslim author, often regarded as one of the greatest systematic thinkers and mystics of Islam, in Persian. The Kimiya-yi Sa'ādat was written towards the end of his life shortly before 499 AH/1105 AD.

The lectures here presented in book form were first written in 20 lectures and delivered during the month of November 1908 in Columbus, Ohio, by Max Heindel. He also mimeographed them and distributed copies to all who attended his lectures.

There are words spoken in the world, and then there are those whispered beyond it—words that do not merely inform but awaken. The Voice of the Silence is such a text, a sacred transmission from realms unseen, a guide for the soul that dares to walk the razor’s edge of enlightenment. It is not merely a book, but a portal—an esoteric key unlocking the path to self-transcendence. Written by Helena Blavatsky and drawn from the sacred wisdom of the East, this work calls to those who seek not mere knowledge, but direct experience of the divine.

In an age where stories flicker across screens in dazzling speed, there is a special kind of magic in returning to the deep, quiet enchantments of old. The Red Fairy Book, first compiled by Andrew Lang in 1890, offers us not merely fairy tales but a tapestry of cultural memory—woven from the folklore of Norse skalds, French peasants, Russian woodsmen, and the fireside storytellers of Iceland and Japan. These are not the softened tales of modern retellings; they shimmer with peril and wonder, cruelty and kindness, cunning and grace.

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz. The Madman: His Parables and Poems" by Kahlil Gibran is a poetic collection that delves into profound themes of identity, existence, and the nature of humanity, characteristic of Gibran's literary style in the early 20th century. This work reflects a philosophical exploration of the human condition through parables and poems, imbuing them with spiritual and metaphysical insights. Written during the early modern period, the book brings a unique blend of mystical thought and artistic expression.

Lamia is the English Romantic poet John Keats's lush, eerie tale of enchantment defeated by merciless rationality. Set in the world of ancient Greco-Roman myth, the poem tells the story of the serpent-spirit Lamia, who talks the god Hermes into transforming her into a beautiful woman so she can pursue her beloved, a handsome young man named Lycius. The couple is blissfully happy for a time—but their joy can't last. Icy reason, in the form of the philosopher Apollonius, at last punctures their shared dream.

The Way of Initiation, by Rudolf Steiner, is a profound exploration of the spiritual path towards self-knowledge and initiation. In this book, Steiner provides a practical guide to spiritual development, drawing upon various esoteric traditions and offering detailed descriptions of the stages of initiation. He emphasizes the importance of cultivating a deep inner life, developing a strong moral character, and engaging in practical service to others as an integral part of the spiritual path.

The Conference of the Birds or Speech of the Birds is a Persian poem by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, commonly known as Attar of Nishapur. The title is taken directly from the Qur'an, 27:16, where Sulayman and Dāwūd are said to have been taught the language, or speech, of the birds.

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz. Sanai's book, The Enclosed Garden of the Truth, a treatise on God and the seekers journey to Him, forms one part of three highly influential early Sufi works. The others being Attar's Conference of the Birds and Rumi's Masnavi. Sanai's work is considered to be the first to use poetry to express religious, spiritual and mystical ideas. Rumi acknowledges both Sanai and Attar as having a major influence on his own poetry and stated 'Attar is the soul and Sanai the two eyes'.

The New Testament tells the story of Jesus Christ and the beginning of Christianity. It starts with the four Gospels, which describe Jesus’ teaching, miracles, conflicts with religious leaders, death by crucifixion, and resurrection. Acts follows by showing how the apostles, empowered by the Holy Spirit, preach in Jerusalem and beyond, leading to the growth of the early church and the spread of the message throughout the Roman world, especially through the missionary work of Paul.

Nostradamus’s The Prophecies presents hundreds of tightly compressed quatrains that fracture time and history into symbolic glimpses of upheaval, power, and ruin. The work avoids narrative order; instead it disperses images of kings, empires, celestial disturbances, plagues, and wars across a fog of allegory, where each vision feels suspended between history and imagination. The language is deliberately opaque—layered with astrological references, classical allusions, and oblique metaphors—forcing the listener to navigate a shifting terrain of potential meanings rather than fixed predictions.

Taylor frames the Orphic hymns as fragments of a primordial theology in which the gods are not personalities but cosmic powers, each hymn functioning as a precise invocation of a universal principle. His translation exposes an initiatory system built on purification, cosmic sympathy, and ascent through successive layers of divine order.

Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self-Defense is a seminal work on the hidden dimensions of psychic and spiritual vulnerability, exploring how unseen forces—whether psychological projections, unconscious influences, or genuine occult phenomena—can affect human well-being. Drawing from her own experiences as a psychotherapist and occultist, Fortune examines cases of psychic attack, obsession, and energy vampirism, offering practical methods of protection through mental discipline, moral clarity, and spiritual hygiene.

A Road to Self-Knowledge by Rudolf Steiner is a spiritual-guide structured as eight meditations, each focusing on successive layers of human being — from the physical body and etheric (life-force) body, through the elemental world and the “Guardian of the Threshold,” to the astral body, the I- or thought-body, the nature of experience in supersensible realms, and finally the remembrance of one’s repeated earthly lives.

The unabridged and enhanced 2nd edition of Zetetic Astronomy, formulated in the 19th century by Samuel Rowbotham, presents a flat-earth cosmology grounded in direct sensory observation rather than theoretical abstraction. Rejecting Newtonian and Copernican astronomy, Rowbotham argued that the Earth is a flat, stationary plane with the Sun, Moon, and stars moving in circular paths above it, asserting that empirical evidence—such as the apparent flatness of horizons and the behavior of water surfaces—supports this model.