Dear Friend,

We are glad to learn of your interest in our Society. Let us tell you a little about ourselves. Our main objective is the spiritual, moral and intellectual development of our members, and indirectly, of all mankind.

We are not a religion, nor are we interested in our member's religion, race or gender. The teachings we give guide the sojourner to Right Thinking, Right Speaking and Right Acting; they develop into activity the Inner faculties which enable one to live a life of continuous spiritual unfoldment in a state of Health, enjoying the Happiness that comes through the possession of True Wisdom and the ability to use it effectively.

Although mankind has made great strides in many fields, and living conditions are generally better today, lots of people find their lives to be empty, lacking meaning, fulfilment and purpose. We will explore this whole question in the following pages.
This little book is a beacon for those searching for a brighter light. It presents a door to opportunity. The Men of the Stream who dwell in the shadows will pass it by, but to you dear friend, to you in the penumbra who dares to think for yourself... may you find in it Ariadne's thread.

With good wishes
The Society of unknown Philosophers
General Directory and Central Archives

The General Registry Book of the Society of Unknown Philosophers

To the one seeking:

Let us consider together the situation as we find it: we are all engaged in the business of living, more or less successfully, more or less happily. Are you as successful, as happy, as effective in your everyday life as you could be? If not, what is the reason?

We are remarkably successful in this age in the manipulation of physical laws. With radio, television, satellites and all the many electric and electronic devices we have conquered time and distance. In travel, even into outer space, we have attained an unprecedented degree of efficiency. Dozens of sophisticated instruments orbit the earth, sending us information on conditions and events on which we would otherwise be quite ignorant, or carrying messages instantly from one hemisphere to the other. We are rightly proud of these achievements that demonstrate so clearly man's intelligent persistence in probing and rendering the usable forces of this immeasurably rich and complex universe in which we live. In this area of our activities, exactitude and precision are the criteria, and no personal emotions are permitted to distort our perspective.

The World in which we live in

But when it comes to living, the story is quite different. In our relations to other human beings, to our own health, to our own feelings, to our work, to our leisure we do not apply the same intelligence and reason. Why is this? Is it because the very nature of the field in which these aspects of us are active, a precise gauge in measuring physical processes is precluded? Or is it, perhaps, that certain opinions, attitudes and beliefs that have been instilled in us by our backgrounds, have inhibited our willingness to investigate? The most tremendous problems of life, such as the mysteries of birth and death, of joy and sorrow, of free will and fate, have not been probed with the same intensity as that which has marked our investigations of the physical universe. Our questing intellects are burdened with all sorts of conflicting teachings on which discussion, until very recently has been more or less discouraged.

Today, however, the world is changing with bewildering rapidity. New scientific discoveries are daily finding their place in the body of human knowledge; new philosophies are making their bid for allegiance in the mind of man; strange and startling ideas are being advanced in the field of religion; studies in depth psychology are bringing to light the vast and intricate potentials of human consciousness.

In the meanwhile however, in the face of these achievements, we have devastated our common home. Our world is no longer as clean and comfortable as it once was. It has been made almost unliveable. We have polluted the land, seas and air almost to the point of no return. We have estranged nature with the wastes of a technology, which we've developed in the name of mere material self-gratification.

Amidst this material 'progress', man lives in bewilderment never before witnessed in any age. He suffers the blindness born of forgetting his true self, his spirit, through an excessive digression into materialism. Instead of living in tranquillity and happiness, he is embroiled in confusion and strife. People are split up in warring camps destroying each other out of selfishness and misunderstanding. They have forgotten the Laws of God. People conceive of themselves not as eternally existing Spirit Beings but as bodies doomed to destruction. Now more than ever, the world is in need of light and the saccharine-sweet dogmas and platitudes which popular agencies have used to mask Universal Truth and hold trusting people in bondage, are being stripped off as Belief gives way to KNOWLEDGE.

Forced out of the light compartments of familiar beliefs into this inescapable vortex of change, many feel lost and filled with despair; the teachings that once we did not question no longer support us. Nor can we find a firm footing in our achievements in the physical universe. We seek for meaning and direction in our lives, for a deeper understanding of our own nature, for some insight into the great and primary mysteries of life itself. We feel intuitively that there must be at the heart of things, something fundamentally true and eternal that endures through all evolutionary changes and of which these changes themselves may be but expressions.

The unfoldment of self

“There exists a shoreless ocean of universal truth, love and wisdom reflecting its radiance upon earth,“ said an illuminee.” It exists everywhere and at all times and has ever been available to the learless and questing mind. Some of the concepts, which make it intelligible, have been formulated in the teachings of the world's religions, in the esoteric doctrines, in theosophy, theology, the hermetica and metaphysics, but no single sect may arrogate its exclusive possession.

It is all there for the hungry to partake of. The banquet is provided, it awaits the diner".

There has always been an inner (esoteric) and an outer (exoteric) teaching
and it must ever be so. This has been recognized by all great masters and teachers who know it is silly to speak to people about matters they have not been prepared to understand: "It is foolish to cast pearls before swine" the well known saying goes.

There was a time when few were bold enough to think for themselves; people were made to believe that all the important matters concerning life and its many problems had to be thought out for them by someone supposedly wiser than themselves, they were trained to sit dutifully and be told what to believe, what to do, what to think … and what not to think. While a vestige of this still remains, there is today a great awakening-taking place in the people of the world. Men and women everywhere are responding to an inner urge prompting them to unfold their innate potential, to expand their vision, to utilize the abounding resources of their mind and improve themselves in every way. They wish to learn how to develop and bring their latent faculties into full use . . . they seek more definite answers to the fundamental questions on the nature and meaning of life . . . questions which the popular agencies shun, or answer only in a shallow and simplistic way. Finally, they desire to open themselves to the influx of spiritual illumination and take their proper place in the Brotherhood of Man.

Ariadne's thread

It is to the sojourner seeking the meaning and purpose in life to which we hold out our hand. If you, dear reader, seek to live a life filled with meaning, purpose, happiness and success, then, like Theseus who was wandering in the labyrinth until Ariadne gave him the string by means of which he was able to find his way out, you have in your hands a key, which if you use it will unlock the door to the most fortuitous circumstance of your life.

Our curriculum is arranged in several parts and we have structured the entire program in a graded way so it is quite easy to follow.

We welcome your interest in our work dear Friend, for truly those who sincerely tread this Path, do experience a real improvement in the quality of their spiritual life.

We hope you will.

May you ever dwell in the Eternal Light of Divine Wisdom.

The value of knowledge

The value of the teachings we give cannot be rated in terms of dollars and cents. Knowledge has a value only in the application. To the person who reads our Lectures solely for their intellectual content, their worth will be that of entertainment. To the person who reads them and applies the principles in their daily rounds . . . life becomes a meaningful and beautiful experience. Windows open and sunshine comes in. Doors open and opportunities present themselves as if by magic. The 'mysteries of life' dissipate like shadows before the rising sun.

SOCIETY OF UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHERS
SOCIETAS PHILOSOPHORUM INCOGNITORUM

Health, Wisdom, Truth

“That the Grand Architect of the Universe has conceived and executed a magnificent plan must be evident to all. As human beings, we are segments of this plan. We fit into it some way; how, most of us are not quite sure. We know, however, that we cannot completely separate ourselves from it. This plan requires us to be agents of the Divine Architect and as His agents, to be actively at work here in earth.

The members of the Society of Unknown Philosophers, are associated with each other for the purpose of discovering those truths which are fundamental to the divine plan and which may help us bridge the gap existing between science and religion.

In antiquity, science and religion were but separate aspects of the same study. Today, we find science and religion broken apart so completely that they seem not only independent of each other, but also in some respects hostile. They are like two great engineering concerns with the common task of constructing a bridge across a river. Both have construction crews and equipment on opposite banks, but they cannot agree on the principles of construction and the method of procedure. They occupy themselves futilely and to no purpose in argument, leaving the river unabridged and with no possibility of routing traffic across it.

Science has made only feeble attempts in comparison to what it should have done to restore man to his rightful place in nature. Relatively, it has just begun to reduce a portion of the Great Architect’s plan to that form which man can understand and use in daily life. It concerns itself only with certain aspects of the Great Architect’s plan. The immaterial aspects, those qualities that are commonly referred to as “spiritual” and “psyhic” are casually dealt with, or not at all. First causes, or what are generally known as metaphysical propositions, such as “Why are we here”? and “What are the ends which man should attain in life”? are held not to be within its scope.

Religion, on the other hand, in its declarations, dogmas, rites and practises, has often held it to be beneath the dignity of its traditions to make enquiry into divine causes.

This leaves man in a position where he is obliged to have blind faith in many matters, or to accept only those truths which materialistically inclined science is capable of demonstrating.

It is plain, therefore, that our duty is to become the middle builders. We must prepare ourselves for the great work we are to undertake. We must train ourselves thoroughly and become familiar with the tools we shall need to use. We are not going to discard any useful fact, idea, or object of knowledge simply because it did not originate with us.”

The Unknown Philosophers, Companions in the Light, Guardians of the Tradition of this our most Ancient Society in continuous existence since Time Immemorial, are true Lovers of the Mystical, Cabalistic and Hermetical Gnosis to keep, study and transmit the Light, which has emanated and continues to this day to emanate from the Lodges and Circles of the Society.

We advise and therefore recommend the study of the following works:

The first five Books of the Bible called the Pentateuch which were written by the Moses, The Treaty of the Reintegration of Beings, which was written by Martinéz de Pasqualis, All Ancient Sumerian texts: Gilgamesh, etc., works of Hermes Trismegistos, Paracelsus, The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, The Cosmology of the Universe by Max Heindel, the Gnostic Texts of the Nag Hammadi Library collection and many others more.