Anthony Damiani (1922-1984) was the foremost student of Paul Brunton and the founder of Wisdom’s Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies (WG) in Central New York. Throughout his life Anthony was driven from within to penetrate into and understand the depths of traditional wisdom. As a young man he took a course in philosophy from a Jesuit philosopher at Fordham University and asked so many penetrating and difficult questions during class that the professor finally told him: “If you don’t ask any more questions, I will give you an A.” In the spirit of his teacher P.B., Anthony led his students through an intensive study of multiple traditions and teachers over the course of 14 years, first at his bookstore ‘The American Brahman Bookstore’ in Ithaca, and then continuing at WG, including all of PB’s works as well as those of Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, the different schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, Kaballah, Sufism, the modern Traditionalist School of Rene Guenon, Platonism and Neo-Platonism, Astrology, Alchemy and more. Anthony was a personal friend of the Dalai Lama, who visited Wisdom’s Goldenrod on his first trip to the United States and who said about him: “he is a truly great man… one of my closest spiritual brothers” and “I really admire his spirit, his dedication for deeper human value.” Anthony and his students were given the task of editing and publishing Paul Brunton’s Notebooks, published by Larson Publications (www.larsonpublications.com) which has also published three books of his commentaries on Paul Brunton’s Notebooks’ teachings and Anthony’s magnum opus “Astronoesis.”
Click here for a selection of teachings from Anthony Damiani.
To listen to an audio of Anthony reading the Invocation for his book “Astronoesis” see it below in: Transcript of Anthony Damiani Invocation from “Astronoesis”
Information about Anthony, his life and teachings is available on the website of Wisdoms Goldenrod: www.wisdomsgoldenrod.com. Anthony was Micha-El’s first spiritual teacher. Gran had the opportunity to visit Wisdom’s Goldenrod, and eventually moved to Upstate N.Y. which gave her the opportunity to teach and participate in classes there and to share the work of Trigueirinho with the Goldenrod community.
Transcript of Anthony Damiani Invocation from “Astronoesis”
“The sublime majesty of Truth’s presence in the sacred sermons of so many wise ones, those of good will, ultimately guides us to the ways of peace and wisdom, the lovely, the holy. And so our troubled hearts are reassured, and we can read and reread about God’s word in many scriptures.
“However incomprehensible, a faith settles into our hearts that awakens the desire to understand Infinity and Forever. The dedication is eternal and to the Eternal. For the Word becomes flesh — and this is an eternal utterance, an act that includes the human heart mounted on a towering aspiration. Yet even this pyramiding love is without effect unless winged with Grace. So we shall let fly our supplications, enfolded in holy silence on wings of veneration, to the throne of our most Sovereign Good with the request to guide the spirit of our understanding, wherein we stand within God’s Light, in order to see the pouring out of the Sacred Word made manifest.”
