“But there were always a few faithful souls who kept alive the

Flame, tending it carefully, and not allowing its light to become

extinguished. And thanks to these staunch hearts, and fearless

minds, we have the truth still with us. But it is not found in

books, to any great extent. It has been passed along from

Master to Student; from Initiate to Hierophant; from lip to

ear. When it was written down at all, its meaning was veiled in

terms of alchemy and astrology, so that only those possessing

the key could read it aright. This was made necessary in order

to avoid the persecutions of the theologians of the Middle

Ages, who fought the Secret Doctrine with fire and sword; stake,

gibbet and cross. Even to this day there will be found but few

reliable books on the Hermetic Philosophy, although there are

countless references to it in many books written on various

phases of Occultism. And yet, the Hermetic Philosophy is the

only Master Key which will open all the doors of the Occult

Teachings!”

– The Kybalion

In this passage the flame is symbolic of the hermetic teachings or what is often called the mysteries or the secret doctrine. It survived throughout the ages by those who were brave enough to teach and pass on the knowledge, instead of allowing it to die off with them. Because of this, we still have access to these truths. It mentions how when these teachings were written down, they were often encoded in metaphor and symbolism, so those without the key couldn’t decode what the texts were actually saying. A common method I found for this was to personify and dramatize the teachings, creating characters which Carl Jung later called the archetypes. This, in part, is why we find similar entities among religious traditions often in remote places on opposite sides of the world.  As Joseph Campbell put it, same teachings, different costumes. (Get actual quote from the Hero’s Journey)

The clearest example of this cryptic way of encoding these teachings can be found in alchemy and all its mysterious art. Alchemy is often spoken of in modern times as foolish attempts to transmute lead into gold. Although alchemists did take part in attempts to do just this, it was only the surface level of what they were actually doing. What they were studying was the process of turning anything from valueless, to valuable. They understood that the processes used to make changes on the physical plane, would be mirror images of how to make changes on the spiritual or metaphysical plane. Which is why the alchemical art of medieval times often depicted humans being poked, prodded, boiled, or burned by the tools and equipment used by the alchemist. In the same way you burn off the dead wood to find the fresh new growth in the ashes, the alchemist must burn off their own dead wood, shedding aspects that do not serve the greater goal, like the ego and shadow aspects. Going from human husk to spiritual being, or as they depicted, from lead into gold.

This passage explains why encoding these teachings became necessary. To avoid persecution from other religions and traditions which had more power and were spreading and converting, who would have wrongfully viewed these teachings as being in opposition to theirs, they cleverly hide behind symbols and personifications so that these truths could endure.

We will get to explore these teachings as I share my thoughts on some of these Esoteric classics.