Henry T. Laurency and His Works
Henry T. Laurency
Henry T. Laurency is a pseudonym of a Swedish esoterician. He chose anonymity, as he considered the message to be the only important thing; the personality, which conveyed it, insignificant.
The author has a right to be unknown. That is a right everybody has according to the law of freedom. Just as the individual has an absolute right to have his private life in peace, as long as he does not encroach on the equal right of others, so the author has an absolute right to anonymity. In a cultural society these two rights are written into the constitution.
Esoteric works defend themselves by their content of reality.
All esoteric facts and ideas to be found in Laurency’s books ultimately derive from the planetary hierarchy (the fifth natural kingdom).
The recorder (the amanuensis, the pen used in the writing) of Laurency’s works has not allowed himself to put forward his own speculations, vagaries, assumptions, suppositions, guesswork. The writer was a tool, nothing more. Only the formulation of ideas is the individual’s own work.
Henry T. Laurency, The Way of Man, On Laurency and His Works www.laurency.com
Laurency about Himself
”This present incarnation is my seventh as an esoteric philosopher. I am a very old esoterician, and therefore I possessed latent knowledge that could be resuscitated through esoteric study in this incarnation. Being an old Pythagorean, I possessed hylozoics latently.”
Since I had a latent knowledge of Pythagorean hylozoics, I could treat of it, formulate it mentally into an absolute system of thought.
It has been my endeavour to formulate a world view that could be accepted as a working hypothesis by scientists and philosophers, when they have realized the irremediable disorientation of the prevalent idiologies. Then they will need a philosophy based on facts and a mental system affording them a vision of reality and liberating them from the ruling illusions and fictions. When they have finally reached the insight that hylozoics is the only right conception of reality, they will be on the right track at last. It has been my endeavour and mission in life to clarify how hylozoics is superior as a working hypothesis.
It has been my wish to give people a world view and a life view that accords with reality and can be comprehended even by a very mediocre mind; a working hypothesis that they could agree on and, if accepted, would make the individual, even without his knowing it, an aspirant to discipleship. That would put an end to the division and multitude of occult sects.
Having experienced how the first two parts of Laurency’s work were given a systematic silence treatment (no newspaper bothered even to report their publication, let alone review them), the present writer finds it suitable to join in with Schopenhauer: “Not to my compatriots, not to my contemporaries, to mankind I leave my work, now completed, being convinced that it will not be without significance to it.”
It is my highest desire to enable people to have a clear and exact conception of the three aspects of existence, the most basic facts about the cosmos, evolution, the meaning and goal of existence. I shall go on doing this work in future incarnations to the service of those who need such systems, until all mankind has accepted hylozoics as a working hypothesis.
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Four, Laurency www.laurency.com
The Purpose of the Works of Laurency
”What is promising in the new zodiacal epoch, the Age of Aquarius, is that the esoteric knowledge has been permitted for publication. It has been the task of Laurency to supply a mental system, following the example of Pythagoras, something that has been absent in the esoteric literature hitherto.”
Laurency wants to orient in reality. His intention is to supply a world view and life view in accord with reality, an irrefutable working hypothesis ready for use the day the present views have demonstrated their untenability. In so doing he wants to enable people to think in accord with reality, as far as this is possible for human beings at all.
Laurency wants to liberate people from all the ruling idiologies (idiology, from idios = one’s own, logos = teaching) in the spheres of theology, philosophy, and science, put an end to emotional illusoriness and mental fictitiousness, the endless mania for speculation of life ignorance. This also means that he demonstrates the untenability of those imaginative constructions which have hitherto been allowed to lead mankind astray. Theologians as well as philosophers, mystics, occultists, and clairvoyants are disoriented. They all have their own views of reality, different from all the others. But reality is one and not everybody’s opinion.
The esoteric life view of PhS(The Philosophers Stone) was intended to familiarize mankind with the idea of law of life and to lay the basis of a new all-round orientation in life. That reality, law of life, has of course always existed, but a special term for it has been lacking in Western life view.
The recorder is fully aware of the fact that his attempt to offer mankind a firm ground to stand upon and to start from, an unshakable foundation of knowledge, will meet with stubborn opposition from all who have already got stuck in some one of the countless idiologies. But he is certain that “the doctrine we (the planetary hierarchy) promulgate, being the only true one, must be ultimately triumphant,” however many centuries it will take.
Henry T. Laurency, The Way of Man, On Laurency and His Works
www.laurency.com
The Works of Laurency
”Where the works of Laurency are concerned, the fact is that the editor, thanks to his philosophical, scientific, literary, and also esoteric training could be chosen as a tool for working out, under guidance, that system of thought which Pythagoras considered desirable for the current century (1950–2000).”
Knowledge of Reality (KofR)
”They try to find the real knowledge of reality, being instinctively certain that such a knowledge must exist – their latent learning makes itself felt.”
The Knowledge of Reality is a book for anyone who has realized that neither religion, philosophy nor science has been able to provide sustainable answers to the great questions of life, but who nevertheless suspects that there must be real knowledge somewhere.
The book’s message is that the world and life view, which was proclaimed in the esoteric schools of antiquity, is precisely this knowledge of reality. Secret schools for truth-seekers have existed among all peoples, where independent-minded people have been able to ask sensible questions about the nature of life and the meaning of life.
The first two parts of the book provide a systematic and general presentation of hylozoics, the world view that Pythagoras designed and which was studied in the school of knowledge he founded. It was Pythagoras’ intention with the hylozoics to lay the foundation for the science of the future.
The later parts of the book deal with the history of esoterics, western philosophy, anthroposophy and yoga philosophy from an esoteric perspective.
Henry T. Laurency, The Knowledge of Reality www.laurency.com
The Philosophers Stone (PhS)
”Thanks to esoterics, men have finally been given a world view and life view acceptable to common sense, clarifying the meaning and goal of life, a firm basis for further thought and action.”
The Philosophers Stone describes the world and life view proclaimed in the esoteric schools of knowledge. Why the esoteric knowledge has been kept secret, why it has been allowed for publication in our time and what the purpose of the publication is, is explained in more detail in the book.
The first part of the book provides an orientation on the results human thinking, on matters of life, has achieved without the help of esoterics. The second part gives a compressed exposition of the esoteric world view.
The third part deals with esoteric life view, the presentation focuses on the seven basic laws of life for freedom, unity, development, self-realization, destiny, sowing and reaping, self-activation. The laws of life, that are most important for man to apply at his various stages of development.
Henry T. Laurency, The Philosopher’s Stone www.laurency.com
Way of Man (WofM)
”The way of man is the way leading from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from the lower to the higher. The life eternal is always here and now, the final goal will always be reached some time and everything will be, as in the fairy tale, well in the end.”
What is a human being? According to the ancient esoteric doctrine of knowledge, man is an immortal being, a monad, who through innumerable existences develops his inherent consciousness with all that it means of experiences, qualities and abilities. The monad is now a human being thanks to the experiences it has made in the three lowest natural kingdoms: as a mineral, plant and animal.
The Way of Man is an account of the individual’s development of consciousness through the fourth, fifth and sixth natural kingdoms. It gives an overview of the path man has taken and still has to go, before he has reached his goal set for all monads (primordial atoms). Initially, some fundamental facts are given about the cosmic worlds and the solar system and about the fate of the monad since it was introduced into the cosmos out of chaos.
The Way of Man, like Laurency’s first two works, The Philosophers Stone and The Knowledge of Reality, seeks to help the seeker find his way in our time of disorientation and to find his way to the fifth natural kingdom, which is both the realm of knowledge-wisdom and as well as love-unity.
Henry T. Laurency, The Way of Man www.laurency.com
The Knowledge of Life series
”It is to be hoped that esoterics will soon become so generally known that no one shall need to be unaware of the existence of this knowledge of reality and life and that the individual therefore shall have an opportunity to choose his way of life even at an early age.”
The Knowledge of Life One is a collection of essays on the theme of esoteric life view: Meditation, Gnostics, Gnostic Symbols, Discipleship, The Planetary Hierarchy, Identification and Liberation, Pedagogy, The Conception of Right, The Law, The Secret of the Sphinx.
The presentation is based on hylozoics, the world view that Pythagoras designed and which was studied in the school of knowledge he founded.
Of the book’s ten essays, “Meditation” is about the practice of methodical consciousness development. “Gnostics” and “Gnostic Symbols” provide facts about the esoteric doctrine Christianity arose from and distorted. The “Planetary Hierarchy” discusses the fifth natural kingdom that is closest to the human in its development of consciousness, and “Discipleship” indicates the conditions for man’s entry into this higher kingdom. The longest essay, “The Law”, is about the central study in all esoteric views of life: the unchanging laws of life man must seek to understand and learn to obey in order to reach ever higher in his consciousness development.
vThe Knowledge of Life Two. Ten essays on mainly the esoteric world view (hylozoics): Hylozoics, the world view of the Hylozoics, Esoterics, The Movement Aspect, The Consciousness Aspect, The Matter Aspect, The Development of Consciousness, The Developmental Stages of Man, Esoteric Philosophy, Esoteric Psychology.
The Knowledge of Life Three. Eighteen essays in various esoteric subjects: Esoteric Knowledge Orders, Symbols, Esoteric Terminology, Theosophy, Alice A. Bailey and DK, Occult Sects, Yoga, Mysticism, Spiritualism, Life Between Incarnations, Reincarnation, Devas, Health, The Seven Departments, Centers In the Envelopes of Man, Magic, Astrology, Our Epoch.
The Knowledge of Life Four. Seven essays on culture and science from an esoteric point of view. Laurency (autobiographical), Culture, Religion, Theology (Christianity), Literature, Art, Philosophy.
The Knowledge of Life Five. Twenty-three essays on cultural and life issues in the light of esoterics: Essays on cultural personalities and their works such as Goethe, Geijer and Emerson. General studies in esoteric life view. Four longer essays on Science, Psychology, History, and the problems of evil.
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life One
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Two
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Three
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Four
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Five
www.laurency.com
For Whom Laurency Writes
”Esoterics is for the few, who must have a world view and life view in accordance with reality in order to know how to think right. Esoterics is first and foremost for those who feel the need of an unshakable theoretical basis to know how to arrange their lives, live and serve best.”
In his writings, Laurency addresses several different categories: people at the stage of culture who possess the esoteric knowledge latently but who have not had the opportunity of contacting it to be roused to remember it anew, the intelligentsia at the stage of civilization who are seeking after a rational explanation of the meaning of life, Western philosophers and scientists.
The writings of Laurency are not for all but for those who must have a clearly formulated mental system as their basis of further methodical and systematic thinking in problems of life view.
There are always those who inquire into the meaning of life, always seekers who want to possess a tenable world view or a tenable life view. It is to them that Laurency turns, hoping that his work will satisfy their need of a usable working hypothesis. It cannot be anything else and does not want to either.
The writings of Laurency are primarily intended for those who were once initiates of esoteric knowledge orders. Only those are able to realize immediately at the first contact that hylozoics accords with reality. His writings are also intended to make up a working hypothesis acceptable to those philosophers and scientists of the future who will seek for a tenable world view and life view, realizing that there must be superphysical worlds and kingdoms.
The whole of PhS was written for those who possessed esoteric knowledge latently in their subconscious but who had never reached clarity because of their lack of facts. PhS is for those at the stage of humanity who no longer need emotionality as their driving force, but who strive to acquire common sense, the highest kind of reason at the present stage of mankind’s development.
Henry T. Laurency, The Way of Man, On Laurency and His Works
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Four
www.laurency.com
Laurency Fights Dogmatic Thinking
“Science rejects out of hand everything it cannot explain by itself with the hypotheses that it deem scientific. (L5.20.5.3) Scientific dogmatism is in its kind as inflexible as the theological one.”
Laurency has a great reverence and respect for science, for the great ones who have advanced science, for all the others who have seen the limits of science in all respects. Regrettably, dogmatic thinking dominates, and therein is the basic flaw.
It is necessary to fight all the tendencies to dogmatic thinking to be seen in all spheres of life and even in the scientific disciplines.
In all systems of thought (theological, philosophical, scientific), dogmatic thinking is the most serious hindrance to further development. The intelligentsia are still at a level where every acute intellect believes itself able to judge the unexplored and calls each revolutionary discovery a hoax. There is something irremediably idiotic in the attempt at judging the unknown. It is understandable that the masses do so in almost all respects. When those who have a university education do so, however, it is a disastrous proof of injudiciousness.
At the universities they imbibe the fictions about reality and life that dominate academic opinion. That opinion does not like such works as PhS and KofR. The university people are so blinded by their idiologies that they are unable to use their common sense.
The wise man still agrees with Sokrates: “I know so little that it is almost nothing by comparison with all that I need to know.” In the days of Sokrates the “initiates” knew much more than present-day scientists do. So there is no reason to smile superciliously at their knowledge. The historical ignorance of our times is immense, however. The past exists in the planetary memory. And only the one who is able to read it can describe what has been in a realistic manner.
Dogmatism manifests itself in the denial of “possibility”. Nobody demands that they hold the unknown to be likely. It is high time that scientists learnt to keep to their speciality and to their own experience and did not make statements on things about which they know nothing.
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Four
www.laurency.com
Laurency’s Criticism
”What is still lacking is the Sokratean humility, the instinctive understanding of the existence of an infinite field of research.”
Laurency’s critique of Western research must not be taken as contempt for it. On the contrary, he admires its results, fully understanding the enormous difficulty it is faced with when trying to explore so-called superphysical reality without higher objective consciousness. It is against the dogmatic attitude and self-sufficiency that Laurency directs his critique.
By his criticism of philosophy, anthroposophy, and yoga in KofR, Laurency wanted to demonstrate their insufficiency as world views and life views. This criticism aims at what is basic and essential. A detailed scrutiny was by no means intended.
In KofR the writer levelled strong criticism at the various occult societies that have appeared after the year 1875. Some people have opined that these societies with their teachings satisfy the need of more rational explanations better than the religious, philosophical, and scientific idiologies. However, those more recent societies and their idiologies are marred by the same fundamental defects as the older ones. They distinguish themselves by sectarianism. They preach dogmas, doctrines that must not be doubted, which become as many stones in the way of further development. They debar one another, are mutually exclusive and not inclusive. All of this proves that they are faith-based societies and have never understood the true knowledge of reality. Faith, belief is not understanding. And the understanding they lack is the very understanding of essentials.
All manner of occultists – spiritists, anthroposophists, “rosicrucians, etc. – not to mention missionizing yogis, buddhists, zen buddhists, have already managed to instil so many misleading views into the minds of seekers that the rectification of all misconceptions appears a Sisyphean labour.
You can just advise students to examine all systems, compare them, and see which one affords the simplest, most rational, most general explanations of previously inexplicable things.
Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Four
www.laurency.com