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To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Keep Silent

 
 
Boxcutter
22:56 / 04.10.09
So, there's a local chapter of scholarly/practicing magicians who use that phrase. While I could just walk right up and ask them, I don't want to, and I doubt I'd get a straight, unbiased answer.

Where does the phrase come from? I've seen it attributed, theoretically, to the Sphinx, and it's supposedly come from Crowely, Levi, Blavatsky, some random medival scholars, and pretty much everywhere in between. I've even seen it linked with the LDS, which confuses me to no end.

Also, my cat's going into heat, recently, and so pouring over my books and the net, or even leaving to go to a few uni libraries is hell.

Any thoughts? I know it's a game of scholarly telephone, but any little bit helps.

I can't help but notice that every time I post here, I seem less and less articulate. I apologize in advance...

whoosh...
 
 
illmatic
16:42 / 07.10.09
wwww.liminalnation.com/discuss
 
 
Ilumen
05:40 / 12.10.09
I believe it refers to the powers of the Sphinx.
 
 
Boxcutter
04:46 / 13.10.09
Thank you both for responding. I'm still waiting on confirmation for liminalnation, unless I'm silly.

The problem with it being 'the powers of the Sphinx' is that apparently Crowley said it, taking it from Levi, who apparently translated it from somewhere. Where that somewhere is, who knows. But, as far as I can tell, there is no definitive inscription or source text. I only want to trace it back as far as it will go, (record-wise).

The deal is, I have to look more into why people say Blavatsky said it. As far as I'm taking it on it being Sphinx related, it might as well be metaphorical, which really doesn't help. I'm just looking for it's first appearance in text, not extrapolations and interpretations. It's one of those things where I'd like to see where it came from, as far as I can, because there is a strong undertone of old adagism from pseudo-citations, riddles retranslated, and all sorts of occult tomfoolery when it comes to 'secret ancient knowledge'.

It's just irksome; I was wondering if anyone had any cited input.
 
 
Psyche
03:13 / 13.12.09
The earliest reference I've seen is in Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic, but I've not yet managed to slog through most of Blavatsky's work, so it may be referenced there as well.
 
  
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