#esoteric tradition

Divinization for Neoplatonists meant that thinking remained rooted in the unthinkable: the ineffable One. They did not aim to articulate a true doctrine or dogma; rather their written reflections and teachings functioned as mystagogic vehicles into an ineffable identity. For theurgical Platonists particularly, Plato was a mystagogue who outlined the matrix of this revelation in the Timaeus. As Plato explains, it is the mysterious maternal receptacle (hupodochē) and space (chōra) that allows the Forms to come into existence. This cosmogonic chōra, which Plato says cannot be thought, has—according to the later Platonists—its correlate within us and is the receptacle for every act of theurgy. The goal of philosophy, then, is not conceptual knowledge but cosmogonic activity: to become divinely creative. As Diotima tells Socrates in the Symposium, it is not beauty, ultimately, that you want, but to “give birth” in beauty, to participate in creation.”

~ Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Platonist’s Luminous Body

“Approach ye genuine philosophic few” is a line from Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, written by Thomas Taylor in 1818. The full passage is: 

Approach ye genuine philosophic few, The Pythagoric Life belongs to you: But far, far off ye vulgar herd profane; For Wisdom's voice is heard by you in vain: And you, Mind's lowest link, and darksome end, Good Rulers, Customs, Laws, alone can mend. 

Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras was originally published in London in 1818. Iamblichus lived from about 250 to about 330.

Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure by Camille Helminski

It is interesting that Camille Helminski begins her book about women in Sufism with the Hidden Treasure Hadith. My intuition has always been that the Hidden Treasure symbolically points to the Divine Feminine, comparable with the Symbolism of the Holy Grail in the Western Esoteric Tradition.

“The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of all.” 

~ Ibn Arabi

Rumi says something similar in his Masnavi:

“She (woman) is a ray of God, she is not that earthly beloved: she is creative, you might say she is not created.”

The Planes of Correspondence. "As above, so below; as below, so above."—The Kybalion. The great Second Hermetic Principle embodies the truth that there is a harmony, agreement, and correspondence between the several planes of Manifestation, Life and Being. This truth is a truth because all that is included in the Universe emanates from the same source, and the same laws, principles, and characteristics apply to each unit, or combination of units of activity, as each manifests its own phenomena upon its own plane. [...] [Three Initiates 1908, pp. 113–114.]

[...] The old Hermetic axiom, "As above so below," may be pressed into service at this point. Let us endeavor to get a glimpse of the workings on higher planes by examining those on our own. The Principle of Correspondence must apply to this as well as to other problems. Let us see! On his own plane of being, how does Man create? Well, first, he may create by making something out of outside materials. But this will not do, for there are no materials outside of THE ALL with which it may create. Well, then, secondly, Man pro-creates or reproduces his kind by the process of begetting, which is self-multiplication accomplished by transferring a portion of his substance to his offspring. But this will not do, because THE ALL cannot transfer or subtract a portion of itself, nor can it reproduce or multiply itself— in the first place there would be a taking away, and in the second case a multiplication or addition to THE ALL, both thoughts being an absurdity. Is there no third way in which MAN creates? Yes, there is—he CREATES MENTALLY! And in so doing he uses no outside materials, nor does he reproduce himself, and yet his Spirit pervades the Mental Creation. Following the Principle of Correspondence, we are justified in considering that THE ALL creates the Universe MENTALLY, in a manner akin to the process whereby Man creates Mental Images. [...] [Three Initiates 1908, pp. 68–69]

[...] The student will, of course, realize that the illustrations given above are necessarily imperfect and inadequate, for they represent the creation of mental images in finite minds, while the Universe is a creation of Infinite Mind—and the difference between the two poles separates them. And yet it is merely a matter of degree—the same Principle is in operation—the Principle of Correspondence manifests in each—"As above, so Below; as Below, so above." And, in the degree that Man realizes the existence of the Indwelling Spirit immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life. This is what spiritual development means—the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us. Try to remember this last definition—that of spiritual development. It contains the Truth of True Religion. [Three Initiates 1908, pp. 99–100.]