Mystery Box Delivery

[lazysmartperson]

I just got a mystery box from Attic Acquisitions. It's a wildly eclectic selection of books and memorabilia but one book stands out, A History of Secret Societies.

[cd3vane]

Oo very cool wondering if there's any handwritten notes anywhere

[lazysmartperson]

flipped through and there's a very relevant note! the Redcurves must be a super duper secret society to not be on this list!

[blondie]

Redcurves, a secret society… or maybe a cult… 1864…

So the Rule of the Order that no money is to be borrowed is false? They are funded by borrowed money? They aren’t as rich as they appear (like the driver with a suit but no shoes)?

[lazysmartperson]

found another note

[Lexthewolf]

This book is about secret societies, right?

One page has a number: 1864. I looked up "Secret societies 1864" and found the Knights of Pythias. The Knights of Pythias base their order off of friendship (more specifically the friendship of Damon and Pythias from Greek mythology).
What's the story of Damon and Pythias you may ask?
One of the two friends is condemned to death by a tyrant. Friend 1 wants to get his affairs in order but the tyrant refuses. Friend 2 offers to take friend one's place if friend 1 doesn't return. Friend 1 returns and the Tyrant releases them both https://www.britannica.com/topic/Damon- ... eek-legend

[haleywilde]

Woah - Redcurves being mentioned is reeeeally exciting. Time for a deep dive

[haleywilde]

Is there any chance 1864 could mean anything else? just to cover bases.. Kevin, is there any books that would have that many pages? Or any other writings in another book?

[lazysmartperson]

here's a digital copy of the book if that helps, as far as i can tell the hardcover is the same as the softcover

https://archive.org/details/229821480Ar ... 9/mode/1up

[blondie]

Quick summary of collated research (thanks Lex!):

- “The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 1864. The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress.”

- They have a women’s affiliate called the Pythian Sisterhood (and the youth affiliate of this is the Pythian Sunshine Girls… awwww) - which men can also join these days

- “Pythians believe that friendship is an essential ingredient in life and make Benevolence, Kindness, Generosity, and Tolerance a reality in their lives.”

- Like many secret societies, they hold initiation rites. Of which there are THREE levels. During the first one, the initiate takes this oath: "Are you willing to take upon yourself a solemn obligation to keep forever secret all that you may hear, see or be instructed in — an obligation that will in no way conflict with your creed or your conscience."

- Also this: “candidates were led to believe that they would have to jump barefoot onto a spiked board”

[haleywilde]

Jumping off of the fraternity theme-

the previous mystery box contained a book by "The Brotherhood of Light"

When looking into them, it pulls up: Hermetic Brotherhood of Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_ ... d_of_Light
which is:

a Fraternity that descended from the Fratres Lucis in the late 18th century

Hermeticism or Hermetism is a philosophical and religious system based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a Hellenistic conflation of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth).[1] These teachings are contained in the various writings attributed to Hermes (the Hermetica)

More fraternities based on greek gods

[blondie]

Ok, so as the underlined sections in the book are in the chapter “The Path of the Sufi”, I thought I’d take a quick dip into Sufism as it’s not something I know much about and I always want to learn new stuff. Any excuse to extend my esoteric knowledge, am I right?

SUFISM

Sufism is essentially Islamic mysticism, with a focus on “purification, spirituality, ritualism and asceticism”:

“ Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" and historically typically belonged to "orders" known as tariqa (pl. ṭuruq) – congregations formed around a grand wali who would be the last in a chain of successive teachers linking back to Muhammad, with the goal of undergoing tazkiya (self purification) and the hope of reaching the spiritual station of ihsan. The ultimate aim of Sufis is to seek the pleasure of God by endeavoring to return to their original state of purity and natural disposition, known as fitra… Important focuses of Sufi worship include dhikr, the practice of remembrance of God. Sufis also played an important role in spreading Islam through their missionary and educational activities.“

Thoughts:
1) That last sentence there kinda struck me. Haven’t we been acting as missionaries for Exiled? We’ve been encouraged to share the word, have we not? To educate the masses about what is happening here (even when we know very little)? And there’s a focus on knowledge and information. Asking questions. Learning. Education.
||| Cammie went from being a loud, expressive voice to being essentially silent. She has moved on from her missionary work, and is now in an education phase. Maybe… |||

2) However, the two parts underlined in the chapter on Sufism in the book (“Rule of the Order” in relation to borrowed money, and “pass-words” and “signs” in regards to initiation) are both marked as “false”.
||| So do we have a secret society, the Redcurves, that has its roots in Sufism but has gone in a different direction? |||


1864?

In the first chapter of the book, “The Old Man of the Mountains”, on page 15, we see the number (or date) 1864 scrawled near the bottom. We were so focused on what that referred to that I don’t know if anyone read the actual page. Here is the important bit (emphasis is mine):

But its real purpose was the complete transformation of the mind of the student.

Students had to pass through nine degrees of initiation. In the first, the teachers threw their pupils into a state of doubt about all conventional ideas, religious and political. They used false analogy and every other device of argument to make the aspirant believe that what he had been taught by his previous mentors was prejudiced and capable of being challenged. The effect of this… was to cause him to lean upon the personality of his teachers, as the only possible source of the proper interpretation of the facts. At the same time, the teachers hinted continually that formal knowledge was merely the cloak for hidden, inner and powerful truth, whose secret would be imparted when the youth was ready to receive it. This ‘confusion technique’ was carried out until the student reached the stage where he was prepared to swear a vow of blind allegiance to one or other of his teachers.

This oath, together with certain secret signs, was administered in due course, and the candidate awarded the first degree of initiation.”

It goes on to briefly outline the second degree of initiation as “initiation into the fact that the Imams (successors of Mohammed) were the true and only sources of secret knowledge and power”, that their “every saying and act” was “blessed and divinely inspired”. The third degree begins with “the esoteric names of the Seven Imams were revealed, and the secret words by which they could be conjured…”

Thoughts:
1) We have had our attention drawn to a page which details the first three levels of an initiation process. We have three levels of Exiled…
2) Cammie made a kind of pledge, or oath: “I accept the terms as they have been presented to me. I do this willingly, in the pursuit of knowledge and information. I am ready to be exiled.” Opulens referred to her cult-like adoration of the WIB. Is the WIB to be her teacher now? How far along is Cammie in this process? At the beginning of the first degree? Or the second?
3) Knowledge is power. If we are to face this kind of ‘confusion technique’, at least now we can go into it with awareness and by choice.

Sorry for the infodump. Just wanted to share the yummy, yummy new knowledge with you all.

[cd3vane]

Some things that stick out to me from this lovely blondie information dump:

• The first encounter with the 3 levels that we had was on a chalkboard from a classroom scene. Its very interesting that these passages talk about education and being a missionary and we have seen our 3 levels names involved in some ritual being taught to children

• The part about the third level involving secret names and names being revealed is interesting because so far we have not been able to get names out of anyone and even the third level on the website is currently just called "XXX" we have speculated this is "Annihilation" from the chalkboard but currently this name has not been revealed to us.

• We also have already seen an instance of them believing that "money is not to be borrowed" is false because Cammie and Matt both received money directly from them.

[Caboose04]

So reading more of this and reading more of that section. I do see a possible connection with Opulens and his "Blessings" in short Blessings=power and that its not a normal means of "initiantions"

as Opulens stated before on a old post response to Cammie "Received blessings > Now bring new friends > receive blessings." So the more you recruit the more "Blessings you will receive" The more power the more influence you have and catch their eye more. We need to be more vocal.

Below is the section i am referring to about blessings.



"Yet on the other hand, it is a canon of belief that a Sufi docs not progress merely by passing through degrees and intitiations; the ‘blessing’ [baraka, sometimes called Power) must come upon him. If this is so, and the baraka is passed on from another Sufi, the conclusion is that there should be no need for secrecy; because no outsider could experience what the Sufis are undergoing in their raptures.

The answer to this, given by Sufis themselves, is that atmo-sphere plays a part in the cultivation of enlightenment. Strangers are a barrier and also a superfluity. Sufism is not for an audience. Again, the word ‘Secret’ is used in a special sense. It refers to one or more of the inner experiences of the mind, and not to the mere possession of formal knowledge. In this way Sufism differs from those schools of initiation which used to hold actual secrets"

[lazysmartperson]

back at the secret societies book skimming through the rosicrucians chapter and there's a curious connection between the rose cross and sufism.

"The cross, according to the alchemists, stands for Light: so the meaning may be ‘Light of the Rose’. If this is so, there is a curious parallelism with the Arabic school of illuminati who followed Abdelkadir Gilani. His device is a rose, and he is known as the Light of the Rose. The path of practical mysticism which this Sufi established in the twelfth century at Baghdad was (and is still, for the Kadiri Order is an important one) called Sebil-el-Ward (The Path of the Rose)."

also i keep seeing warnings of false orders in many of the books and youtube videos I've found... so yeah... be cautious

"The various splinters from the Rosicrucians themselves formed Orders and cults, which cropped up almost everywhere that credulous or gullible people could be found."

[blondie]

Adding to that from a Sufism angle…

THE PATH OF THE ROSE

1. The practice of being a Sufi is often called following the “Path of the Rose.” In The Sufis, Shah argues that the Rosicrucians (or “Rose-Cross”), an occult society founded in the seventeenth century, took their name from a mistranslation of the Sufi Path of the Rose.”


2. “The final goal is fanāʾ(“annihilation”), primarily an ethical concept of annihilating one’s own qualities, according to the prophetic saying “Take over the qualities of God,” but slowly developing into a complete extinction of the personality.

Some mystics taught that behind this negative unity where the self is completely effaced, the baqāʾ, (“duration, life in God”) is found: the ecstatic experience, called intoxication, is followed by the “second sobriety”—i.e., the return of the completely transformed mystic into this world where he acts as a living witness of God or continues the “journey in God.” The mystic has reached ḥaqīqah (“realty”), after finishing the ṭarīqah (“path”), which is built upon the sharīʿah (“law”).

Later, the disciple is led through fanāʾ fī ashshaykh (“annihilation in the master”) to fanāʾ fīar-Rasūl (“annihilation in the Prophet”) before reaching, if at all, fanāʾ fī-Allāh (“annihilation in God”).”

My brain hurts

[haleywilde]

Later, the disciple is led through fanāʾ fī ashshaykh (“annihilation in the master”) to fanāʾ fīar-Rasūl (“annihilation in the Prophet”) before reaching, if at all, fanāʾ fī-Allāh (“annihilation in God”).”

Between this and the Materialist tarot from the book being number 22, meaning "annihilation" in Egyptian mythology... too much annihilation for my comfort.

[lazysmartperson]

found a note tucked inside the fold of a barbershop quartet record




am i in trouble? I'm lost...

[blondie]

Later, the disciple is led through fanāʾ fī ashshaykh (“annihilation in the master”) to fanāʾ fīar-Rasūl (“annihilation in the Prophet”) before reaching, if at all, fanāʾ fī-Allāh (“annihilation in God”).”

Between this and the Materialist tarot from the book being number 22, meaning "annihilation" in Egyptian mythology... too much annihilation for my comfort.

I have read the word so many times in the past 15 minutes that it is beginning to lose all meaning…

It was on the chalkboard tho… Torment, Anguish, Annihilation

[opulens]

Between this and the Materialist tarot from the book being number 22, meaning "annihilation" in Egyptian mythology... too much annihilation for my comfort.

How much annihilation is enough for your comfort, 'bestie'?

Bright Blessings.