Introduction to the Works of Henry T. Laurency

Henry T. Laurency is the pseudonym of an esoteric philosopher who lived and worked in Sweden. He was a prolific writer; it is estimated that his collected works run to some four thousand pages.

The name of Laurency is inseparably connected with Pythagoras’ esoteric teaching, which is called hylozoics (this term being preferred to hylozoism). Laurency considered that in the new world-epoch now dawning, esoteric knowledge formerly reserved for certain secret schools will be widely diffused, popularized, and so distorted. Nevertheless, the need for such knowledge will be more intensely felt as traditional religion is dying out and the physicalist outlook based on natural science proves increasingly untenable as a world view. (Physicalism, a term used by Laurency, refers to the erroneous notion that there is only physical reality.)

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 thought the presentation of a Western school better suited to Westerners, and that was why he started from Pythagorean hylozoics. He scrapped the symbols and put a modern, lucid terminology in their stead. 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.

The Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation was formed in 1979. Its stated purpose is to promote the best possible spread of the works of Laurency. Its finances are based on revenues from the selling of books and donations from friends of the cause. All financial help received is used exclusively for publishing the works of Laurency.

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 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.

Works of Henry T. Laurency completely translated into English:

The Philosopher’s Stone (available as book and on line)
The Knowledge of Reality (available as book and on line)
The Way of Man (available on line only)
Knowledge of Life One (available on line, some of the essays are available as booklets)

Knowledge of Life Two (available on line only)
Knowledge of Life Three (available on line only)

Knowledge of Life Four (available on line only)
Knowledge of Life Five (available on line only)

All of the above works were written in Swedish from 1930 to 1971. The Swedish editions were published in Sweden from 1950 to 1998.

The first English edition of a work of Laurency was The Knowledge of Reality, in 1979. The Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1985. The Way of Man and the volumes of the Knowledge of Life series are as yet available on line only.

The on-line versions of The Knowledge of Reality and The Philosopher’s Stone have been revised. Errata found in the book versions have been corrected, and translation errors have also been rectified. Therefore, where the text on line deviates from the corresponding text in a book, the on-line text takes precedence over the book text. Needless to say, we are very grateful for remarks which readers of this site may submit in the intention of improving it.

Visitors to this website are free to load down any of the Laurency texts or other texts available and use them for their own study purposes. However, any unauthorized use for wider circulation (save short quotations for reference or review purposes) or other commercial exploitation of these texts is strictly prohibited by international copyright law. All texts by Henry T. Laurency are copyrighted by the Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation, which is a non-profit educational organization based in Sweden. The Explanation by Lars Adelskogh is copyrighted by the author.

The Philosopher’s Stone
contains the following three sections:

Exoteric World View and Life View (40 chapters)
Esoteric World View (62 chapters)
Esoteric Life View (73 chapters)

The Knowledge of Reality
contains the following seven sections:

The Problems of Reality, Part One (43 chapters)
The Problems of Reality, Part Two (18 chapters)
The Origin of the Knowledge and the Fictions (9 chapters)
The Three Questions of the Sphinx: Whence? How? Whither? (11 chapters)
An Esoterician’s View of the History of European Philosophy (51 chapters)
Anthroposophy: Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science (13 chapters)
Yoga in the Light of Esoterics (23 chapters)

The Way of Mancontains the following eighteen sections:

Introductions (72 chapters)
The Monad Ladder (11 chapters)
The First Self (47 chapters)
The Physical Being of the First Self (21 chapters)
The Emotional Being of the First Self (52 chapters)
The Mental Being of the First Self (34 chapters)
The Causal Being (19 chapters)
Augoeides (30 chapters)
The Second Self (221 chapters), in the Internet version divided into two parts:
The Causal Self (24 chapters)
The Essential Self (16 chapters)
The Superessential Self (4 chapters)
Protogonos and the Third Self (14 chapters)
The Submanifestal Self (3 chapters)
The Manifestal Self (6 chapters)
The Planetary Hierarchy (30 chapters)
The Planetary Government (19 chapters)
Terminology and Symbolism (27 chapters)
Conclusion

Knowledge of Life One
contains the following ten essays:

Meditation (24 chapters)
Gnostics (14 chapters)
Gnostic symbols (13 chapters)
Discipleship (25 chapters)
The Planetary Hierarchy (24 chapters)
Identification and Liberation (6 chapters)
Education (18 chapters)
The Conception of Right (16 chapters)
The Law (71 chapters), divided into eight subsections:
- Laws of Life
- The Law of Freedom
- The Law of Unity
- The Law of Development
- The Law of Self-Realization
- The Law of Destiny
- The Law of Reaping
- The Law of Activation
The Secret of the Sphinx

Knowledge of Life Two
contains the following ten essays:

Hylozoics (19 chapters)
The Hylozoic World View (36 chapters)
Esoterics (57 chapters)
The Motion Aspect (23 chapters)
The Consciousness Aspect (21 chapters)
The Matter Aspect (27 chapters)
Consciousness Development (18 chapters)
The Stages of Human Development (21 chapters)
Esoteric Philosophy (46 chapters)
Esoteric Psychology (25 chapters)

Knowledge of Life Three
contains the following eighteen essays (a few short essays are not divided into chapters):

Esoteric Knowledge Orders (13 chapters)
Symbols (27 chapters)
Esoteric Terminology (22 chapters)
Alice A. Bailey and D.K. (2 chapters)
Theosophy (30 chapters)
Occult Sects (26 chapters)
Yoga (17 chapters)
Mysticism (21 chapters)
Spiritualism
Life Between Incarnations (8 chapters)
Reincarnation (15 chapters)
Devas
Health (5 chapters)
The Seven Departments (23 chapters)
Centres in the Envelopes of Man (11 chapters)
Magic (4 chapters)
Astrology (13 chapters)
Our Epoch (10 chapters)

Knowledge of Life Four
contains the following seven essays:

Laurency (52 chapters)
Culture (46 chapters)
Religion (39 chapters)
Theology (53 chapters)
Literature (40 chapters)
Art (6 chapters)
Philosophy (113 chapters)

Knowledge of Life Five
contains the following twenty-three essays (many of which are rather short texts, being reviews of books; such texts are not divided into chapters):

Goethe as an Esoterician
Reality Ideas in Rousseau
Krishnamurti and the Law of Development (10 chapters)
The Path to Knowledge and Unity (16 chapters)
Efficient Philosophy (21 chapters)
On the Reappearance of the Christ
The Emancipation of Man
Hindu Psychology
Vera Stanley Alder (4 chapters)
Poul Bjerre (2 chapters)
Yoga and Western Psychology
Studies in Emerson (2 chapters)
Fröding’s Theosophy
Dag Hammarskjöld
The Initiate in the New World
The Real H. P. Blavatsky
On Things Human
In Tune with the Infinite
Science (26 chapters)
Psychology (68 chapters)
History (26 chapters)
The Black Lodge (32 chapters)

In the works of Laurency, references are never made to pages, since pagination varies in different editions, but to sections, chapters, and paragraphs. Single numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) refer to sections; double numbers separated by full stops (1.1, 1.2, 1.3), to chapters or essays; triple numbers separated by full stops (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, etc.), to paragraphs. In the case of essays not divided into chapters, double numbers of course refer to paragraphs. This will be directly obvious to you when you start reading the texts.

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