The Temple of Secrets

A powerful esoteric parable from 1788 by Von Eckarthausen that encapsulates the journey, its temptations, and the indispensable role of humility in reaching the true Temple of Wisdom:

“The Temple of Secrets is located on a high mountain, and everywhere, thorns are covering the path leading to the Temple. The inconceivable, mysterious height of the mountain is the reason why many people doubt the existence of the Temple of Secrets.

Some think of it as a Fairy Tale, some consider it an old Myth and others believe it to be the Truth.

At the entrance of the narrow path stands Ignorance, with her sisters Stupidity and Laziness, and they tell awful tales to the travellers and of horrible adventures the travelers will encounter if they set foot on this path.

That is how lazy Human Beings and fearful Human Beings can easily be persuaded to turn back.

There are a few Human Beings on whom ignorance attempts her deceptions in vain. They climb up the first part of the thorny, steep path, and when they are about halfway up the mountain, they reach a plateau on which they find the Temple of Self-Love.

Next to this Temple stands Self-Conceit, Pride, and Know-it-All, and they offer the traveler a cup, out of which he drinks his own Self in great gulps and thereby becomes intoxicated with himself, with his own “I.”

These travellers then become so intoxicated with themselves that they imagine that their Temple, the Temple of Self-Love, is the Temple of Secrets, and there is nothing, but nothing, above them.

Desires, passions, and wantonness are the servants of these priests. However, those whose hearts search for the truth will not find satisfaction with this, and they will continue to search.

A few thousand steps from this Temple, you will find a very secluded little hut, inhabited by a hermit, with the following inscription above the door: The Residence of Humility.

The man who lives here guides the strangers to the residence of humility, which in turn leads them to Self-Recognition. This Divine Beauty becomes the traveler’s companion, and with her, he conquers the inaccessible mountain.

Whosoever tries to reach the Temple of Secrets without this Divine Beauty can very easily be misled by his Self-Love, and as a result, will follow the wrong path.

His greed for knowledge will lead him to the Temple of Curiosity.

The inhabitants of this Temple are: fraud, seduction, and deception, the founders of most of the secret societies, and those Human Beings who are in search of the Truth, and for the Temple of Secrets will, if they join these Secret Societies, be robbed of the ability to see with their Soul.

They are then led to the top of the mountain, where they fall into the abyss or into the labyrinth or maze, in which they will walk in circles for eternity without finding the Truth.

Humility alone is the best guide.

This alone will lead the seeker to the Master of Teachers of all secrets.

This Master Teacher is the pure will. This pure will becomes the friend of the highest of knowledge, and they enter into a bond of eternal union.

The knowledge of the effects of the Eternal Light of godliness in all created beings is True Magic in Theory. The conception of this Light, or the transition from the intellect to the Divine Will, is True Magic in Practice.”

- Von Eckarthausen, Magic: The Principles of Higher Knowledge, 1788