Solos Press Pages

Solos Press is a totally independent publishers. It was started in 1991 by Adrian Gilbert with the primary intention of bringing back into print old but still worthwhile books. The primary point of focus for the imprint is, in its widest sense, the Hermetic Tradition. This embraces both the original Egyptian tradition founded on the teachings of Thoth (known to the Greeks as Hermes Trismegistus) and its later, Christian off-shoots.

There are currently six books on the list:

Hermetica, the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, Translated by Walter Scott

The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in the Western Tradition by G.R.S. Mead

Architecture, Mysticism and Myth by William Lethaby

The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures by William Kingsland

The Cosmic Wisdom beyond Astrology by Adrian Gilbert In addition, Solos Press is also distributing:

The Inner Guide to Egypt by Alan Richardson and B. Walker-John.

The Hermetica is the name given to an extra-ordinary collection of writings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Ancient Egyptian prophet, deified as the god Thoth. The collection consists of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Asclepius, extracts from the anthology of Stobaeus and fragments from other writings.

‘The Hermetica have had a long and chequered career and attitudes towards them have alternated between the extremes of enthusiasm for a lost source of knowledge to scholarly disdain. The first response is exemplified by the decree of Cosimo de Medici who, knowing that he had only a short time to live, ordered Marsiglio Ficino to put aside the works of Plato and get on with translating the Corpus Hermeticum, which had just come into his possession. The ideas contained in the Hermetica had a profound effect upon such Renaissance thinkers as Pico della Mirandola, Ramon Lull and Giordano Bruno. They regarded Hermes Trismegistus as an Egyptian Moses and therefore treated his supposed writings with the same sort of veneration normally reserved for the Bible. The Hermetic Philosophy brought a much needed breath of fresh air into the stagnant atmosphere of Late Medieval Europe. It provided a justification for studying astrology and this in due course led inevitably to the discovery that the Sun and not the Earth lies at the centre of the solar system. It is no exaggeration to say that the Corpus Hermeticum, most especially the Pimander, was the manifest which shocked Europe out of the Middle Ages, paving the way for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment which was to follow two centuries later in the 1600s.’ (from the Foreword by Adrian Gilbert)

The Asclepius has come down to us in the form of a Latin dialogue attributed to Apuleius. This Latin dialogue (a conversation between Hermes Trismegistus and his student Asclepius) is a translation of a Greek original, which was known to Lactantius and others but is now lost. Scott separates the dialogue into three component parts, believing that they have different, original sources.

Amongst other important material contained in the Asclepius is a description of how the ancient Egyptians believed that their country was modelled in the image of heaven. We now know that the pyramids of the IVth Dynasty were laid out to represent the stars of Orion and the Hyades, giving credence to the truthfulness of the sources on which the Asclepius is based.

The anthology of Stobaeus contains a very important dialogue called the Kore Kosmu, variously translated as "the Virgin of the World" and "Eye-pupil of the Universe". It is the record of a supposed conversation between the goddess Isis and her son Horus. It explains the traditional belief held by the Egyptians that their "gods" came from the heavens, being sent to Earth by the Father of all to bring about civilization. Though, like the rest of the Hermetica it probably dates from a century or so after the time of Christ, it is almost certainly based on much older aural traditions and gives us important insights into the religious beliefs of pre-Christian Egypt.

Publication details for Hermetica

This book is available in cloth or paperback bindings and is 256 pages long.

Hardback: ISBN 1-873616-04-X, price £19.95

Paperback: ISBN 1-873616-02-3, price £13.99

The Cosmic Wisdom beyond Astrology was the first book by Adrian Gilbert, well-known for co-authoring The Orion Mystery (with Robert Bauval) and The Mayan Prophecies (with Maurice Cotterell). In many ways The Cosmic Wisdom presages the concerns of these later titles. It makes the case that our Solar System is an ordered whole and not a random collection of particles. Gilbert shows how, knowingly or unknowingly, the ‘cosmic wisdom’ suffuses our culture in all of its aspects: science, art, philosophy and religion.

The book, however, is also designed as a mirror for the reader. Based upon the psychological insights of Jung, it is divided into four sections, which themselves represent four human types or attitudes of approaching the world: Sensation, Feeling, Thought and Intuition. These four "types" are recognised as corresponding to the four "elements" used in astrology, namely: earth, water, air and fire. Accordingly, the four sections of the book present an esoteric understanding of, what the author terms ‘astrosophy’, appropriate to these four elements: Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion. Thus the book itself is a picture or reflection of the very thing it describes: man in his relationship with the cosmos. The authors own views on the matter are made clear in a lucid Foreword, which sets the tone for the rest of the book:

‘We live in turbulent times for the spirit of man. After centuries of abuse, we are beset with fears for the safety of our ever more vulnerable ecosystem. The issues of nuclear proliferation, war in the Persian Gulf, poverty and hunger in the third world, unemployment for the masses and rising crime rates have tended to overshadow the utopianism of the sixties. As E. F. Schumacher stated so eloquently in his famous book Small is Beautiful, it is not possible to have permanent economic growth in a finite world. In the end resources must run out and with them disappear for ever that elusive quarry ‘quality of life’ the gaining of which was the purpose of the ‘growth’.

For many, particularly young people, the world today seems to have few attractions and even fewer opportunities. Politics of right and left is dominated by economic questions, arguments over ownership and the sharing of the cake. These debates and struggles will become completely pointless when it is discovered that the ‘cake’ has already been eaten. In any event, these materialistic philosophies offer a very narrow view on life and act as foster parents to the twin demons of envy and greed.

Yet beyond and behind every dark and gloomy storm cloud there still shines the Sun, even though its light be temporarily hidden from our eyes. We should not allow the mundane affairs of the world to keep us forever from seeking to raise consciousness, to find out what it means to be truly human and not just a consumer. More and more people are seeking for the true meaning of life, for a higher purpose or faculty. They are trying to find a deeper wisdom which can give substance or meaning to their existence. However, to search is not necessarily to find. How is one to go further than what is commonly taught in schools and universities? The sheer diversity of knowledge, culture, art, science, philosophy and religion would seem to make this an impossible task. How is one to research such an enormity of human experience in one lifetime? The only way it can be done is to find seams or threads that run through this great tapestry of life and, by following them, to find a common denominator that will unify the diversity of a multifaceted research programme. One such cultural seam is Astrosophy, man's appreciation of the cosmos.

Astrosophy literally means ‘star-wisdom’ and is different from either Astronomy —the scientific study of the heavenly bodies— or Astrology, which is the study of their occult influences on organic life. Astrosophy, as defined here, is not a science in itself but is more akin to a kind of mental yoga. It is a method of bringing about a higher awareness or nature, oneself and ultimately the great creative power we call God, through the study and contemplation of the macrocosmic world of the heavens. In this contexts knowledge, ‘scientia’, is a path and not the goal itself.

...Wisdom (or sophia to give it its Greek name) is not the same as knowledge. A man can have knowledge and still be lacking in wisdom. To become wise his knowledge must first go through a process of fermentation. If the gathering of grapes and crushing them to make grape-juice can be likened to the work of the scientist, then fermentation is the work of a philosopher. The quality of wisdom is not itself knowledge but rather consciousness. No amount of knowledge can of itself add to consciousness just as no amount of unfermented grape-juice can be called wine. Yet to make wine it is still necessary to first crush grapes and to gain wisdom about a subject it is first necessary to have knowledge about it. Books cannot of themselves give wisdom, even if the knowledge they contain is true and verifiable. They can, however, give the juice of knowledge which if properly fermented in the individual may lead to wisdom...’(from the Foreword, © Adrian G. Gilbert 1991)

Contents.

The book consists of four sections or "books" framed by an ‘Introduction’ and a Conclusion: ‘Towards a New Gnosis of the Stars’ . In addition to the Foreword there is also a Bibliography and Index.

BOOK 1: Order in Space

1) The Metaphysics of Creation. 2) Pattern in the Solar System. 3) Living Worlds. 4) The Astronomy behind Astrology. 5) Cosmic Cycles.

BOOK 2: Astronomy and Culture

1) The Cosmic role of Art. 2) The Copernican Revolution. 3) The Art of Measure. 4) Astrology and Divination.

BOOK 3: Philosophy and the Stars

1) A Common Language. 2) Esoteric Astrology. 3) Medicine and Astrology. 4) Alchemy and Self-Transformation. 5) The Planetary Spheres and the Journey of the Soul.

BOOK 4: Religion and Astrology

1) Ritual as a Cosmic Drama. 2) Worlds of Revelation. 3) Some Fishy Parables. 4) The Mystery Schools and the Way of the Cross.

Publication details for The Cosmic Wisdom beyond Astrology

This book is only available in paperback bindings and is 208 pages long with many illustrations.

ISBN 1-873616-00-7, price £8.99

The idea that man has, or at least can acquire, a ‘Subtle Body’ (that is to say a ‘body’ made out of psychic or numinous matter) is not a new invention. It has been one of the central premises of all the great religions throughout the ages. This little book offers a first rate introduction to Classical teachings on the subject, both pagan and Christian.

‘G. R. S. Mead, Hermeticist and scholar was one of the truly great researchers into arcane wisdom. At a time when the ‘esoteric’ tended to mean little more than table tapping and spirit trumpets, he was busy translating into English the gems of NeoPlatonic and Egyptian philosophy. In works such as Thrice Greatest Hermes, Pistis Sophia, Orpheus and Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, he almost single handedly put back together the lost esoteric tradition of Classical Athens and Alexandria, which goes by under the general heading of Gnosticism.

The present work reveals that there is and has always been an esoteric tradition in the West, as well as in the East, concerning the ‘subtle body’ of man. Echoes of these traditions are to be found in the teachings of the modern Christian church but for the Christian today the soul is an elusive entity, imperceptible yet readily tainted with sin. The word "soul" remains ill-defined and is used to cover a wide range of metaphysical beliefs and concepts concerning both life and a possible after-life. To the modern Christian, the soul occupies something like the role of the king in chess, it is both the most important possession he has, yet at the same time is weak and vulnerable.

The doctrine of the soul as a hostage to life, liable to eternal damnation for the transgressions of a mortal body is seldom examined in detail. It does, however, beg more questions than it answers. If we have an immortal soul at birth, why are we not conscious of the fact? What, if any, role does it play in one's life? If it is immortal and presumably conscious before birth, why would it want to take the risk of incarnating as a son or daughter of Adam and Eve, thereby sharing in original sin and requiring salvation by Christ if it is not to spend the rest of eternity roasting in hell? On the other hand, if we have no soul, as many atheists and humanists would assert, how do we explain reports of such things as out-of-the-body experiences and memories of past lives? We can perhaps dismiss the beliefs and teachings of the ages as so much primitive superstition but can we so readily cast aside the evidence of living witnesses? Putting aside prejudice, we can see that in the words of the painter Cecil Collins ‘Our modern civilisation is the first not to have a metaphysical basis, it is therefore by definition abnormal’.

If we are to reject the nihilism of the modern age, as increasing numbers of people are doing, then we need to find something secure to put in its place. This is easier said than done because the weight of science and scientific opinion since the time of Darwin both undermines the veracity of the scriptures as historical records of life on Earth and seems to support the mechanistic view of life as the outcome of Godless chemistry. The failure of science to predict still less control such human activities as politics, economics, fashion and love should indicate that not everything which is human can be read in the genes. Human life has a ‘subtle’ side to it that is more than biochemistry.

It is just this most human side of life that is, or at least should be, the concern of philosophy. The sciences of biology, anatomy, physiology and medicine treat of no more than the physical vehicle, which is to the presiding intelligence as a car is to its driver or a computer to its operator. The driver of the car or operator of the computer requires that the machinery at his disposal be working properly if his will to travel to a particular destination or to execute some program is to be realised. However, in both cases the machine has no will of its own, for the car cannot choose its own destination and nor can the computer operate outside of the parameters of its programs. The subtle side of life, what makes us human, is related to choice and the exercise of free will.

But what is free will and what does it mean? What is choice? What is man if he is not really his body or even his mind? Is the soul an abstraction or does it have a real existence in space/time? Is it immortal in the sense that it lies outside of time or does it just have a potential to outlive the physical body for a longer or shorter time before it too turns to dust? Are there several souls, or more properly subtle bodies, that are able to live within one another like Russian dolls and which manifest different properties, not all of them being immortal?

These are not new questions, they have perplexed philosophers throughout the ages and in all parts of the world, not least in Classical Greece. The 19th century saw us catch up with and overtake the classical world in the sophistication of our technology (though we would still have problems in duplicating some of the Egyptian temples and pyramids even today), yet in terms of metaphysical philosophy we live in the Dark ages. The classical philosophers, both before and in the immediate centuries after the birth of Christ, left few stones unturned in their pursuit of the meaning of life. It was only after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and the Academy of Plato had been closed down in 529 AD by edict of the Emperor Justinian that philosophy was subordinated to dogma. Considering that the library at Alexandria alone contained some 500,000 books, it is clear that the philosophical works which have come down to us from antiquity represent only the tip of an iceberg. The destruction of the Roman Empire in the West and the burning of many academic and ecclesiastical institutions by barbarians, followed by the torching of the great library of Alexandria in 640 AD, led to an intellectual dark age. Such books as survived were largely in the care of the church and therefore excluded writings that were considered heretical. Even so, some philosophical texts did survive in the form of Arabic translations, being translated back into Latin and other tongues after the Moors were expelled from Spain. Still others were brought back to the West for safe keeping after the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

This being so, it is surprising how much of the antique record at our disposal has been ignored by both philosophers and classicists of today. It is only quite recently that such NeoPlatonists as Proclus, Plotinus and Porphyry have been treated as important in their own right. Yet even so, many of their writing remain untranslated into English and therefore unavailable to a wider public.

The present volume is invaluable both for the light it sheds on the ancient teachings concerning the subtle body and for providing extracts from unavailable works. It also provides something of a history of ideas, showing clearly how the modern Christian concept of the soul has evolved from the older, pre-Christian Gnostic philosophies of Athens and Alexandria.

The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition is a work that will repay careful study. It is a very rich and detailed primer, providing many hints and clues for further study and research. It is hoped this new edition will provide an inspiration to a fresh generation of readers. (from the Foreword by A.G.Gilbert)

Contents

Publication details for The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition

This book is only available in paperback bindings and is 124 pages long no illustrations.

ISBN 1-873616-01-5, price £5.99

This remarkable book explains to the novice and professional alike the symbolism that underlies so much of "Classical" architecture. Real architecture is more than the geometry of space, it expresses in material form the myths and archetypes of the human unconscious. Lethaby explores ancient mythology and legend, showing its influence on the design and execution of ancient buildings. Clearly and cleverly written, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth provides a window into what is, for most of us, a closed world—the mysticism inherent in great architecture.

William Lethaby occupies an unique position in the history of English architectural ideas. The son of a craftsman, he was born in Barnstaple, Devon, in 1857. He attended the local grammar school and then at the age of fourteen became articled with a local architect, William Lauder. His skill as a draftsman was soon recognised and he won a number of prizes including the R.I.B.A. Soane Medallion and the Pugin Travelling Scholarship.

In 1879 he moved to London and worked for Norman Shaw, one of the most successful architects of the day. He also became friends with William Morris and John Ruskin, leading lights in the new Arts and Crafts Movement. In 1889 he set up his own practice. Designing new buildings was not, however, to be his main occupation. Though an example of his work can be seen in the country church at Brockhampton, Ross-on-Wye, he is better remembered for his writings and for his influence on the development of art education. In this connection he played a prominent part in the founding of both the Arts Workers Guild and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. In 1896, when the Central School of Arts and Crafts was opened by the London County Council, he and George Frampton (who soon retired) were appointed as its joint Principals. His role as a shaper of art education continued in 1900 when he became the first Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art.

As well as teaching and writing, he was also passionately interested in the care and preservation of old buildings. For nearly forty years he worked for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and in 1906 was appointed Surveyor of Westminster Abbey with the responsibility for the care of its ancient fabric. We have him to thank that this monument still retains much of its ancient character, though he would probably have been rather concerned at the vigorous cleaning it and so many other London buildings have received in recent years.

Architecture, Mysticism and Myth was his first book and though it was received enthusiastically by the public and was reprinted within a year, the press was less keen. In an age that embraced the ideals of modernity based on the abstract notions of progress and evolution, his appeal to a more glorious and mystical past seemed curiously threatening. His book was, however, immensely influential and stimulated the late 19th Century Byzantine Revival, typified by John Francis Bentley's Roman Catholic Cathedral of Westminster. For us today, no longer so enamoured with modernism in architecture, it makes fascinating reading.

Contents

Introducutory. 1) The World Fabric. 2) The Microcosmos. 3) Four Square. 4) At the centre of the Earth. 5) The Jewel-Bearing Tree. 6) The Planetary Spheres. 7) The Labyrinth. 8) The Golden Gate of the Sun. 9) Pavements like the sea. 10) Ceilings like the sky. 11) The window of Heaven and three hundred and sixty days. 12) The Symbols of Creation.

This book is only available in paperback bindings and is 224 pages with many illustrations.

ISBN 1-873616-05-8, price £11.99

This book is of extraordinary value in unearthing the real Christian message, as understood by the Gospel writers, at a time before the church was turned into an organ of state. It becomes clear that the scriptures are not always to be taken literally as biographies of the life of Christ but that they also contain allegorical and symbolical meaning as well. The figure of Christ that emerges is not so much one of a suffering saviour, pouring out his life blood for the redemption of the world, but rather of a guide to the essential gnosis that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within.

William Kingsland was a professor of Astronomy and a prominent figure in the Theosophical Society in the early years of this century. An original and powerful thinker, he wrote many books concerning Man, Science, Religion and Mysticism. His ideas and concerns were well ahead of their time. In Scientific Idealism, which was published in 1909 he anticipated many of the concerns expressed more recently in such books as The Dancing Wu Lei Masters and The Tao of Physics. His The Great Pyramid in Fact and Theory is a monumental work of esoteric research. The present work, The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures was first published posthumously in 1937 under the auspices of the Kingsland Trust. It marked a return to his earlier preoccupation with the essence of Western Mysticism, first evidenced in The esoteric basis of Christianity that was published in 1895. Writing in the 1930s at the end of a long and productive life, Kingsland could not have anticipated the tremendous archaeological finds of the 1940s at Qumran on the Dead Sea and at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These finds have added material force to the arguments he puts forward that Christianity, in its essence, has little to do with institutionalised religion but is about individual gnosis, or enlightenment.

Extract from the Introduction

‘This work is written mainly for a class of readers and students who find themselves altogether out of touch with "Christianity" in any of its current doctrinal or sacerdotal forms, but who, notwithstanding this, have some more or less clear apprehension that behind these forms, and in the Christian Scriptures themselves, there lies a deep spiritual truth, a real Gnosis (Gr. knowledge) of Man's origin, nature and destiny which has simply been materialized by the Church in the traditional interpretation of those Scriptures based upon their literal acceptation....

...It is no part of my task in this work to set forth the numerous reasons which can be given for the rejection of the traditional beliefs which have hitherto constituted what is generally known as "Christianity". That rejection is becoming more and more in evidence as knowledge increases, whilst in the Church itself—using the term Church to cover all and every Christian community—we have the greatest possible differences of opinion regarding the truth of both "facts" and doctrines which for centuries have been regarded as the very foundation of the "Faith": e.g. miracles, the virgin birth, original sin, the atonement, the resurrection, the ascension, the second coming, the nature of the eucharist, the clauses of the Athanasian and other Creeds. Concerning each and all of these, leading authorities in the Church itself are today hopelessly at variance, whilst very few professing lay Christians are aware to what extent the commonly received conceptions as to the origins of Christianity, based on the supposed veracity of the Gospel narratives, are in question to-day by those scholars who have made the closest study of the actual historical evidences.

But although I am not dealing directly with these controversies, one cannot ignore them altogether, and some references must be made to them. Moreover the correspondence of the Bible allegories with those of the earlier Mystery Cults, such as for example those of Orpheus and of Mithra, as also those of more ancient Egyptian and Aryan sources, implies some historical connection in origins; and although this is exceedingly obscure owing to the destruction by the early Church creed-makers of every particle of evidence of this connection which they could lay their hands on, many clues still remain to which some allusion can be made...

...It is my endeavour now to show how that supreme knowledge which I am referring to as the Ancient Wisdom or Gnosis is embodied in the Christian Scriptures, albeit sadly overlaid with "the precepts and doctrines of men."

I am not using the term Gnosis as applying merely to the tenets of certain Gnostic sects which were more or less in evidence in the early centuries of the Christian era, but I am using it in connection with a definite super-knowledge which can be traced back to the remotest ages and the oldest Scriptures of which we have any literary records, and which was taught by Initiates, Adepts and Masters of the Ancient Wisdom in the inner circles of those Mysteries and Mystery Cults which are known to have existed in Egypt and elsewhere, even in remotest times. That is the sense in which the term was originally understood. It is the mystic knowledge which effects regeneration, rebirth into the full consciousness of one's divine nature and powers as a "Son of God".

The Gnostic Sects of the early Christian centuries who were so virulently attacked by some of the dogma-making Church "Fathers", derived their teachings from these Mystery Cults, but at the same time many of them claimed the Christian Scriptures—though not the afterwards recognized canonical Books only—as an authority for their teachings.

(Kingsland now quotes from Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol.III)

"However much the Gnostics may have been indebted to heathen thought, they still wished and meant to be Christians, and indeed set up a claim to possess a deeper knowledge of Christian truth that the Psychici of the Church. Like their opponents they also appealed to Scripture in proof of their peculiar doctrines. Nay, it would even seem that the Gnostics were the first to make for that purpose a profitable appeal to the Scriptures of the New Testament. And besides this they also boasted to be in possession of genuine apostolical traditions, deriving their doctrines from Paul, others from St. Peter, and others again from Judas, Thomas, Philip, and Matthew. In addition, moreover, to the secret doctrine which they professed to have received by oral tradition, they appealed also to alleged writings of the apostles themselves or their disciples."

"We have no reason to think that the earliest Gnostics intended to found sects separated from the Church and called after their own names. Their disciples were to be Christians, only elevated above the rest as acquainted with deeper mysteries, and called "gnostikoi" because possessed of a Gnosis superior to the simple faith of the multitude".' (from the Introduction)

Contents

Introduction. 1) Religion and Religions. 2) The Bible. 3) The Ancient Wisdom or Gnosis. 4) The Genesis Narrative. 5) The New Testament Scriptures, I. The Gospels. 6) The New Testament Scriptures, II. Paul's Epistles. 7) Practical Religion.

In this extraordinary book the authors take the reader on a metaphorical journey through the land of Egypt. Travelling up the river of consciousness symbolised by the Nile, The Inner Guide to Egypt visits key sacred sites and centre, and shows how these have parallels with physiological and psychological functions within ourselves. Packed with illustrations and full of archaeological detail. it is a journey of discovery in the mystic world of ancient Egypt. The book also offers numerous meditational techniques for contacting the spirit of the past. ‘A guidebook like no other....savour it like wine.’—Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. This book will make a valuable addition to the library of the traveller and philosopher alike. Anyone lucky enough to be visiting the Nile Valley should bring it along, as it will greatly increase their understanding and enjoyment of what they will see.’—Adrian G. Gilbert.

Extract from the Introduction

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