The Eastern Mysteries (Key of It All) 2nd (second) annotated editio Edition by Hulse, David Allen published by Llewellyn Publications,U.S.

by David Allen Hulse

David Allen Hulse's The Eastern Mysteries (previously published as The Key of it All—Book 1: The Eastern Mysteries) is a monumental resource, both in size and value. It catalogs and distills — using hundreds of tables of secret symbolism — the true import of each of six major Eastern magickal traditions. Each chapter is a key that unlocks the meaning behind the magickal language of another ancient tradition. In the first chapter, you will learn about the ancient Cuneiform language, its origins, its codes, and how it is the source for Hebrew. In the second chapter, you will find the secrets of Hebrew, including a clear explanation of the Qabalah. Chapter three reveals the mysteries of Arabic, including its origins, its mystical codes, its astrological attributes, the 99 names of God, Sufi symbolism, and more. The following chapter reveals the origins and symbolic nature of Sanskrit (including comparisons with the works of Aleister Crowley), as well as information on codes, the chakras, and more. The last two chapters focus on the Tibetan, including the codes, the Tattvas, the six schools of thought; and the Chinese, with an explanation of Yin and Yang, the five elements, the complete text of the I Ching and how to give readings, and more. The genius of this book is that it is immediately understandable and usable by the beginner, while the expert will find a wealth of information in the cross references, annotated bibliography, and more. If you are interested in the occult, this book is a must.

Genres: Occult, Reference, Esoterica, Religion, Language, Magick, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Ren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thick with inaccuracies. Meanings are all switched around. It is terribly inaccurate, like oddly so. I've studied this topic for years and even the seemingly obvious things are switched around in the book. I don't get why it's like that.
As an example, it lists -
wood = hearing
fire = sight
earth = touch
metal = smell (only right one)
water = taste

when it is actually
wood = sight
fire = touch
earth = taste
metal = smell
water = hearing

so that's odd. But even more odd are the animal types. The cardinal animals even instruct the associations but it gets that wrong too. It says -

wood = feathered (even though the scaled dragon represents wood)
fire = hairless (even though the feathered phoenix represents fire)
earth = hairy (even though it represents bare-skin animals)
metal = armored (even though the furry tiger represents metal)
water = scaled (even though the armored tortoise represents water)

There's clear jumbling going on here for some reason.

[James Staiti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to put down a date I finished reading this. I have known this book for years, and I never finish reading it, because Hulse gives so much interesting information and correlations of various systems through the symbols of Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, and other Eastern languages that the engaged reader will always learn something new, see a new connection, upon each and every exploration of the book. If you've heard about gematria and related ideas and you want to learn more -- a great deal more -- about how language is used in such symbolic ways to convey mysteries about the expansion of consciousness, this is an indispensable reference to have.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of Hulse's major compendium of world magical systems.