Cult-Magic and Myth / Kultmagie und Mythos (Standard-translation©)

Book excerpt: This PDF is multilingual, where the German original text has been presented alongside the Standard-translation© in English, so that any one being sufficiently conversant in German is able to ascertain the correctness of the translation and also benefit (as hinted by the Author) from the exposure to the German language the book has originally been written in. Also the emphases (in bold text) on words/phrases used in original German is reflected in this new edition (emphases match the original writings). Any remarks or amendments are invited at [email protected]. Preview available. For a hardcopy edition please see below*. ___________________________________________________________________________ Cult-Magic and Myth / Kultmagie und Mythos (Standard-translation©) is part of the monumental series Hortus Conclusus of spiritual teachings by German poet, writer and painter, Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken) (1876-1943). The Hortus Conclusus consists of 32 books as well as spiritual paintings. This edition also includes the original emphases (of font) as intended by the Author. BÔ YIN RÂ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken) was a German writer, poet and painter (1876-1943). He lived in Germany (Frankfurt, Görlitz, Berlin, Munich, Königsberg), Austria (Vienna), France (Paris), and Switzerland (Horgen, Massagno). Bô Yin Râ expressed his insights into the metaphysical structures of the eternal spiritual reality through art and writings. His spiritual written teaching Hortus Conclusus is compiled into a series of 32 books. As a whole, it consists of books as well as spiritual paintings. – GERMAN BÔ YIN RÂ FOUNDATION (to learn more about Bô Yin Râ, his life, his writing and painting, visit www.bo-yin-ra-stiftung.de) To honour the gods, give thanks to them or to pacify the monstrous amongst them was to be the pursuit of man whose belief had shaped the myth. None of this seemed possible to him other than through external works. But soon he believed to feel that the form of the ritual was important when carrying out these acts. Not every custom when making sacrifices, giving thanks or singing praises seemed to have the same value in the estimation of the gods. Therefore he rejected the forms of reverence and sacrifice which failed to meet with the approval of the gods, and practised other forms which would, as he believed, bring their favour. Providing a greater guarantee for the fulfilment of his own wishes led him to adhere strictly to apparently secure, tried and tested customs. The cult of the gods had found its established form. (...) Let us speak here of the cult inasmuch as it makes itself felt as magic for the sake of man! The Godhead which needs man in order to reveal itself to man, truly does not require a cult for its own sake. However, the cult which effects itself as magic can free the spirit of man from its sleep in the ‘animal’, and open up to it a realm of influence which teaches it to recognise that it can even get help where all ‘animal’ might senses its limits. – CULT-MAGIC AND MYTH They have never heard the teaching telling them of the duty to use life on this earth in the way that it becomes a source of continual happiness. (...) But those who would attain happiness must strive alone for their happiness; everything else they would like to achieve must be subordinated to this striving and wisely woven into it. – – (...) No other task can be higher than the duty to attain the purest enduring happiness and to increase this Earth’s happiness within oneself and thereby in others too. – THE BOOK ON HAPPINESS What I have to say is beyond belief and disbelief! I'm not a prophet who needs "confessors" – nor a fighter, who is looking for "followers" behind him, but only a mediator of spiritual insights about the real home of mankind. My writings shouldn't be "believed" but taken up objectively, to awaken innermost experience. – ABOUT MY WRITINGS Countless people – and in truth not just those whose souls are the most frigid – continually await an immense experience to shake their innermost depths. Since all their longing is incapable of summoning up this experience, they rush restlessly searching from experience to experience, caught up in the delusion that the hoped for experience is bound to be attained, if they could only locate the powerful phenomenon capable of overpowering their souls with its immensity. – SHOWING THE WAY A yearning is passing through the world, – a consuming desire, – and every soul not yet completely hardened and incapable of awakening feels gripped by it. (...) One ‘may’ once again believe in things which cannot been proven by 'experiments’, and one is no longer mocked for recognising that we are surrounded and influenced by the invisible, even if we cannot solve its mystery… The ‘miraculous’ would again become reality; the realm of faith extends its borders. – THE BOOK ON THE LIVING GOD The design of pages, emphases placed on particular words, use of spaces, long hyphens, exclamation marks etc. — included in this English translation enables ‘heart-Readers’ to meditate, to breathe-in while willingly absorbing the text as a ‘spiritual sustenance’. – Sarah Havah Theebaum, historian of ideas, painter, poet. ___________________________________________________________________________ The Standard-translation© into English * Currently the hardcopy/hardcover edition of this book is published on the Amazon sites via the Kindle Direct Publishing - and is now available through all major Amazon country sites (including UK, Canadian and Australian sites). This is the U.S. Amazon link (on other Amazon sites you can look up available publications by searching for Books to Light or Posthumus Projects): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTV3G2C7 for Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CTV3G2C7