Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer who authored of the Tao Te Ching and founded of Taoism.

Zosimus the Alchemist, flourished at the turn of the 4th century AD.

Founder & prophet of the Islamic faith. He united Arabia into a single Muslim region

One of the most prominent and influential philosophers, theologians, jurists, logicians and mystics, of Islam.

French abbot and a major leader in the revitalization of Benedictine monasticism through the nascent Order of Cistercians.

Bernard was canonized by Pope Alexander III on 18 January 1174.

In 1830 Pope Pius VIII bestowed upon Bernard the title "Doctor of the Church"

Patron saint of Italy, Animals, Merchants & Ecology. Saint Francis founded the Franciscans and several related mendicant Catholic orders
He famously went to Egypt in an attempt to end the Fifth Crusade

An English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods.

In the early modern era, he was regarded as a wizard and particularly famed for the story of his mechanical or necromantic brazen head.

German theologian, philosopher and mystic

Dante has been called 'the Father of the Italian language' and one of the greatest poets of world literature; his depictions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven have provided inspiration for a large body of Western art.

Dominican mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. Canonized in 1461, she is also a Doctor of the Church

Caroline Walker Bynum explains one surprising and controversial aspect of this marriage that occurs both in artistic representations of the event and in some early accounts of her life: "Underlining the extent to which the marriage was a fusion with Christ's physicality [...] Catherine received, not the ring of gold and jewels that her biographer reports in his bowdlerized version, but the ring of Christ's foreskin."

Catherine herself mentions the foreskin-as-wedding ring motif in one of her letters (#221), equating the wedding ring of a virgin with a foreskin; she typically claimed that her own wedding ring to Christ was simply invisible.

She wrote in a letter (to encourage a nun who seems to have been undergoing a prolonged period of spiritual trial and torment): "Bathe in the blood of Christ crucified. See that you don't look for or want anything but the crucified, as a true bride ransomed by the blood of Christ crucified-for that is my wish. You see very well that you are a bride and that he has espoused you-you and everyone else-and not with a ring of silver but with a ring of his own flesh. Look at the tender little child who on the eighth day, when he was circumcised, gave up just so much flesh as to make a tiny circlet of a ring!" Raymond of Capua also records that she was told by Christ to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world.

Catherine rejoined her family and began helping the ill and the poor, where she took care of them in hospitals or homes. Her early pious activities in Siena attracted a group of followers, women and men, who gathered around her."

Other correspondents include her various confessors, among them Raymond of Capua, the kings of France and Hungary, the infamous mercenary John Hawkwood, the Queen of Naples, members of the Visconti family of Milan, and numerous religious figures

Approximately one third of her letters are to women." For many years she had accustomed herself to a rigorous abstinence and extreme fasting that appeared unhealthy in the eyes of the clergy and her own sisterhood.

Her confessor, Raymond, ordered her to eat properly. But Catherine claimed that she was unable to, describing her inability to eat as an infermità (illness).

From the beginning of 1380, Catherine could neither eat nor swallow water, and on February 26 she lost the use of her legs. "

Early 15th-century alchemical treatise, attributed to Frater Ulmannus (latinization of the German given name Ulmann, from OHG uodal-man), a German Franciscan

The treatise describes the alchemical process in terms of Christian mythology. The theme of the book is the analogy of the passion, death and resurrection of the Christ with the alchemical process leading to the lapis philosophorum.

It is not atypically a combination of alchemy and Christian mysticism. Ganzenmüller (1956) speculated that the book may have been known to Jakob Böhme.

Heroine of France for her role during the Hundred Years' War

She received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination.

In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr.

She was declared a national symbol of France by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803

The Roman Catholic church beatified her in 1909 and then canonized her as a saint in 1920 (Pope Benedict XV in his bull Divina disponente).

German philosopher, Christian mystic, and Lutheran Protestant theologian. He was considered an original thinker by many of his contemporaries within the Lutheran tradition, and his first book, commonly known as Aurora, caused a great scandal. Böhme had a profound influence on later philosophical movements such as German idealism and German Romanticism. Hegel described Böhme as "the first German philosopher".

Medical doctor who co-founded Golden Dawn

Ceremonial magician, theosophist and coroner who co-founded of the Golden Dawn

Member of the Theosophical Society, author on occult subjects and co-initiator with J. I. Wedgwood of the Liberal Catholic Church. Originally a priest of the Church of England, his interest in spiritualism caused him to end his affiliation with Anglicanism in favour of the Theosophical Society, where he became an associate of Annie Besant. He became a high-ranking officer of the Society and remained one of its leading members until his death in 1934, writing over 60 books and pamphlets and maintaining regular speaking engagements.

American-born British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider-Waite-Smith or Waite-Smith deck).

Self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia. __References__ * [Wikipedia - *Grigori Rasputin*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin) * [Mironova, *Grigori Rasputin: Belied Life – Belied Death*](https://omolenko.com/en/rasputin/tatyana-mironova-belied-life-belied-death.htm) * [wikipedia - *Maria Rasputin*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Rasputin)

Armenian/Greek philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer. Gurdjieff taught that people are not conscious of themselves and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and serve our purpose as human beings. The practice of his teaching has become known as "The Work" (connoting work on oneself) and is additional to the ways of the fakir, monk and yogi, so that his student P. D. Ouspensky referred to it as the "Fourth Way". Three books by Gurdjieff were published in the English language in the US after his death * *Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson* → 1950 by E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc. * *Meetings with Remarkable Men*, → 1963 by E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc. * *Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'*, printed privately by E. P. Dutton & Co. and published in 1978 by Triangle Editions Inc. for private distribution only. This trilogy is Gurdjieff's legominism, known collectively as *All and Everything*. A legominism is, according to Gurdjieff, "one of the means of transmitting information about certain events of long-past ages through initiates". __Resources__ * [youtube, *Beelzebub`s Tales to His Grandson*](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLacN4nAmMe4IwrIIEdbuCEXObcsUyh4Pd) * [youtube, *Meetings with Remarkable Men*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnyztiDhy2g) * [youtube, *In Search of the Miraculous. Chapter 1*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcBRjiRTA_4) → reading of P. D. Ouspensky's [*In Search of the Miraculous*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_the_Miraculous) which recounts his meeting and subsequent association with Gurdjieff. * [Richard Heath, *Gurdjieff's Law of Seven in Beelzebub's Tales*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crltCXjW97s)

A secret society devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Canadian author, lecturer, astrologer, mystic and Freemason. Over his 70-year career he gave thousands of lectures and published over 150 volumes, of which the best known is *The Secret Teachings of All Ages* (1928). In 1934 he founded the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. ###### See also * [Manly P. Hall, *The Secret Teachings of All Ages* online](https://sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/index.htm) * [New Dawn - Mitch Horowitz, *Secret Teachings Reborn: The Mysterious Life of Manly P. Hall*](https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/secret-teachings-reborn-the-mysterious-life-of-manly-p-hall) * [Philosophical Research Society, *Manley P. Hall*](https://web.archive.org/web/20110304022435/http://www.prs.org/mphbio.htm)

Barbadian/American New Thought author and mystic who wrote on the Bible, esotericism and is considered to be one of the pioneers of the "law of assumption" > “Dare to believe in the reality of your assumption and watch the world play its part relative to to its fulfillment.” ###### Works Works * *At Your Command* (1939; Goddard Publications) * *Your Faith Is Your Fortune* (1941; Goddard Publications) * *Freedom for All—A Practical Application of the Bible* (1942; Goddard Publications) * *Feeling Is the Secret* (1944; Goddard Publications) * *Prayer—The Art of Believing* (1946; Goddard Publications) * *Out of This World* (1949; Goddard Publications) * *The Power of Awareness* (1952; unknown) * *The Creative Use of Imagination* (1952; Goddard Publications) * *Awakened Imagination* (1954; G. & J. Publishing Co.) * *Seedtime and Harvest* (1956; G. & J. Publishing Co.) * *I Know My Father* (1960; G. & J. Publishing Co.) * *The Law and the Promise* (1961; G. & J. Publishing Co.) ###### More Info * [Neville Goddard: The Man, His Teachings, and Their Impact on Self-Improvement](https://www.spiritualityinveins.com/neville-goddard/) * [Neville Goddard Quotes](https://thecitesite.com/authors/neville-goddard/)

American author, lecturer, screenwriter, and film producer. He is notable for his 1993 novel *The Celestine Prophecy*.