The Canon
The works the Order holds closest
Among all the works in its archive, the Order holds a few in particular regard, as the fullest statements of its conviction. Together they form its Canon.
The works of the Canon come from different ages, languages and faiths, and none was written with the others in mind. The Order hears in all of them one conviction: that the power to make is the place where the human and the divine meet.
The Memphite Theology. Egypt, preserved on the Shabaka Stone. The world is conceived in the heart of Ptah and brought forth by his tongue.
The Poimandres. The first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum. The first human, having beheld the work of the divine craftsman, wishes to make something as well; see The Poimandres.
The Asclepius. The Latin dialogue of Hermes. The human being is a great miracle, sharing in the divine and making gods of its own; see The Asclepius.
The Oration. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Florence, 1486. The human being is given no fixed place and is free to shape itself; see Pico della Mirandola.
All Religions are One. William Blake, London, c. 1788. Every religion is a reception of the one Poetic Genius; see All Religions are One.
The Laocoön. William Blake, London, c. 1826–27. The imagination is God himself; see The Laocoön.
The Canon is read as the Order reads all of its inheritance, with care for its history and openness to its meaning; see On Meaning and Historical Truth. Each of its works speaks in the language of its own time and belief, and each is honoured in that language. A wider company of works that the Order holds dear is gathered in Kindred Works.