Sacred Texts

This site is a must for those that like to delve into the annals of historic texts.
i have been using this site for a while as random reading before bed....
www.sacred-texts.com...

"Welcome to the largest freely available archive of online books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric on the Internet. The site is dedicated to religious tolerance and scholarship, and has the largest readership of any similar site on the web."

there is not a lot regarding UFOs on the site because that is a relatively new phenomenon, but interesting for those who want to read up on some
earlier claims regarding it, also worth noting with this site is that there is an introduction to many of the texts
eg. "THE COMPLETE WORKS OF CHARLES FORT
In the early twentieth century Charles Fort put together great quantities of exhaustively documented 'puzzling evidence.' This is data which science is unable or unwilling to explain, such rains of fish or blood, mysterious animals, or manufactured artifacts in deep strata. Fort collected numerous accounts of aerial phenomena prior to the invention of aviation, including huge cylinders and spheres in the sky. Many of these would today be considered UFOs."

i will provide an example of a few other of the topics available for the purpose of those with varied interest and don't know of this site, i myself will start threads from things i find interesting here, and there is a lot of interesting stuff, for all thinkers out there.
philosophy,
THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
by Immanuel Kant
" Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to
consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented
by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every
faculty of the mind."

SOPHIST
by Plato
"Socrates. Is he not rather a god, Theodorus, who comes to us in
the disguise of a stranger? For Homer says that all the gods, and
especially the god of strangers, are companions of the meek and
just, and visit the good and evil among men. And may not your
companion be one of those higher powers, a cross-examining deity,
who has come to spy out our weakness in argument, and to cross-examine
us?"
hmm we all have gods within us is he saying here, i like that idea!

there is a lot on secret societies also for example .....
The Real History of the Rosicrucians
by Arthur Edward Waite [1887]

with an "honest" introduction from the site telling you what it thinks of this particular text..
"This is Arthur Edward Waite's study of the elusive Rosicrucians, a secret society of which the first public notice was in early 17th century Germany. Was this an actual organization, or just a fantasy? No actual Rosicrucians ever surfaced, but there was plenty of documentation about them. The problem is that these documents are, for the most part, obviously fictional. In time, a mythology grew up around the Rosicrucians. Today there are groups which claim the name. These date at the most to the late 19th century, although they usually claim pro forma to go back as far as Egypt or Atlantis. The Rosicrucians have also been woven by conspiracy theorists into their web alongside the Freemasons, Illuminati, Templars, and so on, even though there is not a shred of evidence for this."

i like that they deal in evidence!
Esoteric/occult has a number of ancient texts within that topic and they are wide ranging, so here's some examples
from me...
Chaos magic
THE MAGUS by Peter Carroll

As a master of magic the Adept has some abilty to change
himself and the reality which surrounds him at will. The
mark of a Magus however is that he is able to show other
people how to change themselves into whatever they desire
through the discipline of magic. There are two main types
of genuine Magus, the Apotheosis Magus and the Nemesis Magus.
Additionally there is the Hierophant or pseudo-magus. Each is
recognizable by the debris left in his wake.
The Apotheosis Magus, sometimes known as the Harlequin, is
typically a master of internal disguise and often external disguise
also. Frequently a person of fallstaffian tastes and grand gestures,
he often distinguishes himself in a variety of human endeavors
precisely because he has attained the freedom to be anything at all.
Such freedom is often won only after a tremendous personal struggle to
repair the effects of a difficult start in life. The Apotheosis Magus
teaches by encouraging emulation and then often finally capping it
with outrage. His play, which is often never consciously formulated, is
to provide a role model for emulation by his accoltes and perhaps later
to drive them away and throw them back on their own resources, the
horizons of which have been expended by the encounter. The essential
trick of the Apotheosis Magus is to present magic as a source of
boundless self confidence. If he can convince his accolytes that they
are magicians capable of anything such beliefs will tend to become
self fullfilling. The Apotheosis Magus implies this through the triumph
of the will. The Nemesis Magus implies it by showing that nothing is
true. Both aim to set the imagination free. Both are exponents of a
short and dangerous path which is inevitably strewn with casualities
and misunderstandings. Yet this is considered to be a small price to
pay if a few do win through to a more effective self definition."

i'll be honest i didn't expect to see Peter Carroll's writings on this site as
he still sells books and is active, and i would highly recommend his stuff,
its very interesting.

Grimoires
www.sacred-texts.com...
"The name "Grimoire" is derived from the word "Grammar". A grammar is a description of a set of symbols and how to combine them to create well-formed sentences. A Grimoire is, appropriately enough, a description of a set of magickal symbols and how to combine them properly. Most of the texts linked below are descriptions of traditional European ritual magick, which is based on Judeo-Christianity. Even though this must not be confused with neo-Paganism, many of the neo-Pagan traditions use similar rituals and techniques, albeit with a different (usually Celtic) vocabulary"

The Key of Solomon The King.
translated by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers [1888]
The key to modern ceremonial magic. Although the author of this grimoire was traditionally the biblical King Solomon, it was probably written in the 13th Century A.D. It was translated by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers in 1888; Mathers subsequently had a lot of influence in the Golden Dawn movement, one of the sources of modern ritual magic; it is said that he co-wrote its rituals with W.B. Yeats. Mathers also translated the Kabbalah.

so as you can see these examples are biased towards what i am studying at the moment,
this time next year i could be on to the kabbalah or Buddhism or something who knows..
but like i said theres something for all and im sure people will get good use out of it and hopefully start some threads of the stuff that interests them.
im always up for a good discussion on all things sacred and esoteric.

Cheers

I'm not into religion at all.....

I'm a Christian....you see....!!

a reply to: ManyMasks

Yes Yes, I have used this site for years. Amazing collection. I recommend it always for people who are searching for truth.

a reply to: ManyMasks

I tried to look through the site, do they have any books that are fairly current? Most are 18th century on up to maybe 1920 or so.

a reply to: Cancerwarrior

you would have to go through it, it has a search function, like i said the Peter Carroll stuff on it is fairly recent.
there is also a lot of stuff on it that isn't in publication anymore

www.sacred-texts.com...
Thanks, I’ll be reading wor weeks. I am currently studying Wicca. I find it illuminating.

a reply to: ManyMasks

These aren't the texts that they purport to be.

Most of them are harvested from other websites and don't have any authenticating credentials.

Usually, the archived texts are quite brief and when compared with the original documents, vary considerably.

In short, check out online resources from authentic places like universities & make comparisons.

Isn't that a sister site to bibliiteca pleadies