From a sermon by Ibn Al-Jauzi (XII Century)
Translated from Arabic by Lars Adelskogh.
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(A Comprehensive Lexicon of the Greek language, adapted to the use of Colleges and Schools in the United States, by John Pickering. Third Edition. Boston, 1846)
HYLOZOICS (Gr. hyle, ‘matter’, and zoe, ‘life’) ‘Spiritual materialism’ or the doctrine that matter is the necessary basis of all consciousness. The system of esoteric knowledge formulated by the then 46-self Pythagoras was intended to form the basis of the science of the future. In advance of other esoteric systems, hylozoics is characterized by the fact that it alone explains that existence is a trinity of matter, motion, and consciousness; it alone explains that consciousness is a quality of matter and so doing clears away subjectivism and illusionism; it alone has abstained from vague symbolism and has instead strived after scientific exactitude and unambiguous terminology. In order to achieve this exactitude hylozoics in its explanations starts from the matter aspect.
(Basic Esoteric Dictionary, as posted on the internet, at http://laurency.com/)
The modern formulation of hylozoics was presented by Henry T. Laurency in The Philosopher’s Stone in 1950 and contains as essential elements the following doctrines: the self is a primordial atom (monad), all the forms of nature are envelopes for monads, all consciousness (also the highest cosmic consciousness) is product of an evolution that pervades everything in the cosmos, there are seven basic laws of life, and mankind (every human individual) goes through five chief stages of development.
(See for example “The Way of Man”, by Henry T. Laurency, on the sub-section 9.34 of The Second Self section.)
According to Pythagorean hylozoics, or spiritual materialism, reality has three aspects. None of these three can be omitted or explained away without the result being unclear, contradictory, misleading. The three aspects are:
I. The matter aspect
II. The motion aspect
III. The consciousness aspect
The entire cosmos and everything in the cosmos has these three aspects. There is no matter without consciousness (if so yet only potential). No consciousness can exist without a material basis. And all matter is in motion, plus the motion aspect manifests itself in matter as energy and in consciousness as will.
The three life aspects are equivalent. None of them can be identified with or explained from the perspective of either of the other two. Nor can anyone be explained from anything else. You can't define them, just say they're obvious. They are therefore called absolute, together form the ultimate explanations for everything.
Only an insignificant part of the invisible material reality science has succeeded in exploring by means of its instruments. Thus science has been able to discover the existence of “chemical atoms” and energies. When, in the future, the resources of exploring reality by instrumental means have been exhausted, the total reality will certainly not have been explored thereby. Just the resources of instrumental science will have reached their limit and, with them, those of scientific research. The greater part of material reality remains inaccessible even by the most perfected physical methods of research.
In his exposition of the Pythagorean Teachings, Hylozoics, Henry T. Laurency uses a spelling for the ancient Greeks' names that is not the currently used in the regular English language. He has his motives for this, and in these short notes the same spelling will be followed.
Pythagoras (Πυθαγόρας), 700 years before our era, founded a school of knowledge in Sicily, which at that time was a Greek colony. Esoteric schools had existed for thousands of years, when Pythagoras appeared. The new thing about his school was the systematic and transparent way of producing the ancient knowledge that all older and younger schools shared. He understood the Greeks' sense of concrete knowledge, their sense for scientific method and accuracy. That is why, of all the esoteric systems of knowledge, the hylozoic is best suited for Westerners of scientific and philosophical orientation, their love for clear facts and defiance to ambiguous symbols.
The disciple of Pythagoras Kleinias (Κλεινίας) later moved the school to Athens, where it had a tremendous influence on Greek thinking. Famous initiates, among others, are Platon (Πλάτων, Plato) and Aristoteles (Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotle). In connection with Alexander the great's conquest of the Middle East and parts of North Africa and the expansion of the Greek language into world languages, the school was given places over a much larger area. Both the hermetic and the Gnostic school received strong impressions of the Pythagoreans.
Until recently, knowledge had been kept secret from those outside the school. For we live in a world in which all things of real value are threatened, and knowledge of reality is one of those. Only in our time elements of hylozoics have been allowed to be published. It happened in 1950, when The Philosopher's Stone, by Henry T. Laurency was published.
Henry T. Laurency (pseudonym) was a Swede, who himself was a consecrated Pythagorean. It deserves to be pointed out that it applies to all esoteric knowledge that only those who are themselves initiated into the doctrine can properly portray it.
What the uninitiated have written about Pythagoras and hylozoics is completely meaningless. The Philosopher's Stone was followed in 1961 by The Knowledge of Reality, also by Laurency, and in 1998 posthumously Laurency's greatest work was published: The Way of Man.These books are fundamental to any hylozoics study today.
Most hylozoics’ knowledge is still unpublished and will remain so for a long time. The knowledge of otherwise unknown forces in nature and man will continue to be given only to the few. To those who have overcome all temptations to abuse the power of all real knowledge.
Materialism in philosophy and science has considered only the external, objective aspect of matter. But the inner, subjective consciousness, such as feelings, thoughts and ideas, is as absolute and something of its own, which can not be set equal to objective phenomena such as chemical and electrical processes in the nerve cells. Materialism, in its one-sidedness, is unsustainable.
The so-called idealism in philosophy, on the other hand, has disregarded the matter aspect and argued that objective reality should be merely subjective experience. The conclusion of this approach becomes completely absurd: that all material is mere illusion.
Physics now claims that “everything is energy”. According to hylozoics, energy is the same as matter in motion. It remains for science to discover the consciousness of this dynamic matter, discover the universal existence of consciousness.
From these three examples of one-sided views it should be clear that all three aspects must be taken into account in order for the world picture to be complete and not misleading.
In Laurency’s opinion, the presentations of esoteric knowledge made hitherto (by Blavatsky, Leadbeater, and Bailey, to mention the three most important ones) are not very well suited to Westerners with a philosophic and scientific education. They present some difficulties in the matter of systematic presentation as well as in the terminology and symbolism used.
Laurency started from Pythagorean Hylozoics, using a modern and lucid terminology.
Most notably, he introduced a mathematical nomenclature, numbering things rather than naming them. He can be somewhat severe in his criticism of things that he thought obstruct clear understanding and human progress.
To study hylozoics and esoterics as presented by Laurency you could start with The Knowledge of Reality, where the most central text is the first section, The Problems of Reality, Part One.
Another possibility is to begin by studying The Explanation by Lars Adelskogh, which is an elementary introduction to hylozoics and general esoterics written for use in study groups.
The Philosopher’s Stone is intended for intermediate students, and The Way of Man for the advanced. If you find this system of knowledge worthwhile to study, you will probably feel the need to reread all the three books from time to time.
A useful tool in your study is the Basic Esoteric Dictionary. It explains some five hundred terms used in esoterics, mainly those found in Laurency but also the most important terms used by such prominent esoteric writers as Blavatsky, Besant, Leadbeater, and Bailey.
The following works of Henry T. Laurency have been completely translated into English. Minor revisions may occur now and then, to correct typos, etc. It is advised that you use the main website as your main source reference. The translation to other European languages continues.
1. The Philosopher’s Stone (available as book and on line)
2. The Knowledge of Reality (available as book and on line)
3. The Way of Man (available on line only)
4. Knowledge of Life One (available on line, some of the essays are available as booklets)
5. Knowledge of Life Two (available on line only)
6. Knowledge of Life Three (available on line only)
7. Knowledge of Life Four (available on line only)
8. Knowledge of Life Five (available on line only)