IV · Of the Canon
Library
The works to which the members of the Society return.
The canon of the Society is, by intention, finite. These are the works to which members return, and to which their reading and counsel constantly refer. Editions are unimportant; the act of returning is essential.
What follows is not a syllabus. It is a description of a shelf.
I · Foundations: The Stoic Schools
The discipline of attention, addressed to the conditions of an ordinary life.
- Meditations 2nd c.
- Discourses & Enchiridion 1st–2nd c.
- Moral Letters to Lucilius 1st c.
II · The Platonic Inheritance
The metaphysics that underwrites the contemplative life of the West.
- Phaedo, Symposium, Republic (Books VI–VII) 4th c. BCE
- The Enneads 3rd c.
- The Consolation of Philosophy 6th c.
III · The Christian Contemplatives
The tradition that carried the inner work through the long European centuries.
- Confessions 4th–5th c.
- The Cloud of Unknowing 14th c.
- Selected Sermons & Treatises 13th–14th c.
- The Imitation of Christ 15th c.
IV · The Hermetic and Rosicrucian Texts
Read as the historical sources of the tradition from which the Society takes its name and its emblem.
- Corpus Hermeticum 2nd–3rd c.
- Oration on the Dignity of Man 1486
- Fama Fraternitatis 1614
- Confessio Fraternitatis 1615
- The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz 1616
V · Modern Counsels
Recent works that have demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the Society, fidelity to the older labour.
- Philosophy as a Way of Life 1995
- The Sovereignty of Good 1970
- Gravity and Grace 1947
- Leisure: The Basis of Culture 1948
The Society maintains additional, private commentaries on these works. They are reserved for members and given according to the degree.
Non multa, sed multum. — Not many things, but much.
Those moved by such a canon are invited to address the Society.
Petition