books.google.com/books/about/Claiming_knowledge.html?id=EZYsPQgBNioC

as a student of physics in college and one who has known some professional scientists whose interests have ranged into mysticism and occultism, it has become plain to me in my studies of religion and their desired relationship to science that it was and continues to be appropriative and abusive.

it is a form of bait and switch to proclaim the motto "The Method of Science - the Aim of Religion" and then to sully it with all manner of faith and hogwash. this is what countless cults do, and one, i maintain, for which the Thelemic aspirant should keep a keen eye open. do NOT expect that religious will exercise skepticism or broaden their knowledge so as to do more than glorify their fearless leaders and religious heros. expect quite the opposite.

Dion Fortune, "The Training & Work of an Initiate", 1930. - this work divides Illuminism into the categories of Mysticism and Occultism. the first, she maintains, seeks the "Real" over the "Unreal" and her terminology is awash in Christian theology and psychospiritualism.

other text, such as "Demonic Possession and Exorcism: In Early Modern France", by Sarah Ferber, make it plain that the idea of Illuminism (for example as a calumny) extends back to the 1600s if not before this, to France at least, specifically mentioning Francois de le Croix as a figure associated to this accusation (along with witchcraft accusations) and Pierre David as a mystico-religious whose Christian ideas were controversial. the obvious connection to Weishaupt's Illuminati extends at least from the Bavarians in the late 1700s.

therefore we can see that both a backdrop and a context provided numerous ideas about illuminism at the least. adding a 'scientific' element pleased some involved, but as those who have explored the works of Crowley and such things as his fascination with, and instruction on, the humunculus, he was far from a serious scientist. he probably needed someone like G.C. Jones to give him some better grounding or ballast.

for the time period we can easily assess all these explorations as awash in unfounded theories with little basis in any scientific fact. much as folks like Thorndike would have liked to wipe the slate clean of anything to do with magic except as a remnant of failed science, religious were trying their best to appropriate science at least by name (e.g. Christian Science). none of these, nor any of those associated with Crowley, to my knowledge, were exercising rigorous scientific standards in an approach to religious aims, though certain pragmatic documents such as Liber Astarte vel Berylli did attempt to set religious aims into analytical application, and this had stimulating effects.

--
PS, see material such as this, www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H054.htm which may have linkage to Buddhism, Gnosticism, and possibly Sufism. the possibilities behind the term 'illuminism' are many and varied, depending on their influences (Buddhist bodhicitta or Buddha mind, Buddha consciousness, insight; Gnostic gnosis; Sufic Al Haqq; Enlightenment liberation from theocratic dominance; even saintly Holy Spirit inspiration from Christianity). the idea in part was an installation of Theosophical-like ideologies atop a Freemasonic structure inculcating the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences but expanded toward a 'mystical science' which each cult disposes to its religious ideology; this varies from veneration of St. Germain to George Washington and out to Jesus, the yogi guru, or their occultic predecessor).

"
@Blythe A. Blanche said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"...which I reproduced just before Chapter 1 in The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'.)."

Always advertising something. =P
But I'll be buying a copy in a few days. Can't wait to read and study it. "

My actual thought, when writing that, was that, these days, it is more likely that a reader would have a copy of M&MAA than a copy of The Equinox."

93,

Or you could find it online at the-equinox.org or in the many online PDF copies of the Equinox.

93 93/93

reading C.S.Pierce I found a reference to an author called Francis Ellingwood Abbot (here's a link to his interesting biography oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hua12004 ) who as I understood dedicated his life work to a concept of "free religion" and tried to unite religion with science, arguing that all science eventually leads to religion (www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/bycsp/abbotreview.htm ).

does anyone have an electronic copy of his book "Scientific theism"? it would be much appreciated.
thank you in advance.

"
@Jim Eshelman said
"...which I reproduced just before Chapter 1 in The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'.)."

Always advertising something. =P
But I'll be buying a copy in a few days. Can't wait to read and study it. "

My actual thought, when writing that, was that, these days, it is more likely that a reader would have a copy of M&MAA than a copy of The Equinox.

"was Crowley the first to introduce this concept?"

I don't have the quote, but somewhere in Isis Unveiled, HP Blavatsky makes a plea for the scientific pursuit of religious or mystical aims.

"93,

• "Editorial" from The Equinox I(01)
• "Liber E" from The Equinox I(01)
• "Editorial" from The Equinox I(02)
• "Liber O" from The Equinox I(02)
• "The Herb Dangerous (Part 2): The Psychology of Hashish" from The Equinox I(02)
• "Postcards to Probationers" from The Equinox I(02)

93 93/93"

Muchas muchas gracias

• "Editorial" from The Equinox I(01)
• "Liber E" from The Equinox I(01)
• "Editorial" from The Equinox I(02)
• "Liber O" from The Equinox I(02)
• "The Herb Dangerous (Part 2): The Psychology of Hashish" from The Equinox I(02)
• "Postcards to Probationers" from The Equinox I(02)

93 93/93