4059 lines
218 KiB
Plaintext
4059 lines
218 KiB
Plaintext
[PAGE 1] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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ANCIENT AND MODERN
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INITIATION
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BY
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MAX HEINDEL
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[1865-1919]
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THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
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INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
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MT. ECCLESIA
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P.O BOX 713
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OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, U.S.A.
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-------
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[PAGE 3] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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FORWARD
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Within the pages of this little volume are to be found some of the most
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priceless gems belonging to the deepest phases of the Christian religion.
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These gems are the result of the spiritual investigations of that inspired
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and illumined Seer, Max Heindel, the authorized messenger of the Elder
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Brothers of the Rose Cross, who are working to disseminate throughout the
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Western World the deeper spiritual meanings which are both concealed and re-
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vealed within the Christian religion.
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The various important steps as outlined in the life of our Savior, Christ
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Jesus, form the general plan of Initiation for humanity. Max Heindel in
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this work gives a deeper and more mystic insight into this alchemical pro-
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cess as it takes place in the body of man himself. For we are but "a little
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lower than the angels...and it doth not yet appear what we shall be."
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This volume will be a welcome addition to the libraries of many ministers
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and church organizations throughout the world. It will sound a new note of
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inspiration and encouragement to all those who labor in His name.
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[PAGE 4] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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The Rosicrucian School has a priceless heritage in the opportunity to
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promulgate, during this crucial time in the spiritual evolution of men and
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nations, the esoteric teachings belonging to the Christian Church. "Unto
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whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Therefore it is
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in the spirit of reverence and humility that the Rosicrucian Fellowship
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dedicates the priceless teachings contained within this little book to the
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service of all humanity.
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May its Truth enlighten, its Wisdom guide, and its Love enfold all those
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who come to partake of its Waters of Life. And may each one who comes find
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the Illumined Way that is outlined herein.
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"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls.
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Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he
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had and bought it."
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[PAGE 5] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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PART I
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THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS
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Chapter Page
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I.--The Atlantean Mystery Temple............................. 9
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II.--The Brazen Altar and Laver...............................17
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III.--East Room of the Temple..................................28
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IV.--The Ark of the Covenant..................................36
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V.--The Sacred Shekinah Glory................................46
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VI.--The New Moon and Initiation..............................54
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PART II
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THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC INITIATION
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I.--The Annunciation and Immaculate Conception...............63
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II.--Mystic Rite of Baptism...................................75
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III.--The Temptation...........................................84
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IV.--The Transfiguration......................................91
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V.--The Last Supper and Footwashing.........................102
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VI.--Gethsemane, the Garden of Grief.........................109
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VII.--The Stigmata and the Crucifixion........................114
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[PAGE 6] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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ILLUSTRATIONS
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Page
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The Tabernacle in the Wilderness (Frontpiece)
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The Brazen Laver...............................................22
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The Holy Place and the Holy of the Holies......................33
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The Tabernacle in the Wilderness
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"The Shadow of Good Things to Come".........................51
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Christian Mystic Initiation: The Path Through the Heart........59
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The Nine Steps of the Christian Mystic Initiation..............65
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The Process of Transfiguration.................................94
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[PAGE 7] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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PART ONE
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THE TABERNACLE
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IN THE WILDERNESS
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[PAGE 9] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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CHAPTER ONE
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THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE
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Ever since mankind, the prodigal spirit sons of our Father in Heaven,
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wandered into the wilderness of the world and fed upon the husks of its
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pleasures, which starve the body, there has been within man's heart a sound-
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less voice urging him to return; but most men are so engrossed in material
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interests that they hear it not. The Mystic Mason who has heard this inner
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voice feels impelled by an inner urge to seek for the Lost Word; to build a
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house of God, a temple of the spirit, where he may meet the Father face to
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face and answer His call.
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Nor is he dependent upon his own resources in this quest, for our Father
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in Heaven has Himself prepared a way marked with guide posts which will lead
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us to Him if we follow. But as we have forgotten the divine Word and would
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be unable now to comprehend its meaning, the Father speaks to us in the
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[PAGE 10] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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language of symbolism, which both hides and reveals the spiritual truths we
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must understand before we can come to Him. Just as we give to our children
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picture books which reveal to their nascent minds intellectual concepts
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which they could not otherwise understand, so also each God-given symbol has
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a deep meaning which could not be learned without that symbol.
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God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit. It is therefore strictly
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forbidden to make a material likeness of Him, for nothing we could make
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would convey an adequate idea. But as we hail the flag of our country with
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joy and enthusiasm because it awakens in our breasts the tenderest feelings
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for home and our loved ones, because it stirs our noblest impulse, because
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it is a symbol of all the things which we hold dear, so also do different
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divine symbols which have been given to mankind from time to time speak to
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that forum of truth which is within our hearts, and awaken our consciousness
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to divine ideas entirely beyond words. Therefore symbolism, which has
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played an all-important part in our past evolution, is still a prime neces-
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sity in our spiritual development; hence the advisability of studying it
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with our intellects and our hearts.
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It is obvious that our mental attitude today depends on how we thought
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yesterday, also that our present condition and circumstances depend on how
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we worked or shirked in the past. Every new thought or idea which comes to
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us we view in the light of our previous experience, and thus we see that our
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present and future are determined by our previous living. Similarly the
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[PAGE 11] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE
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path of spiritual endeavor which we have hewn out for ourselves in past ex-
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istences determines our present attitude and the way we must go to attain
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our aspirations. Therefore we can gain no true perspective of our future
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development unless we first familiarize ourselves with the past.
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It is in recognition of this fact that modern Masonry harks back to the
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temple of Solomon. That is very well as far as it goes, but in order to
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gain the fullest perspective we must also take into consideration the an-
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cient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We must
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understand the relative importance of that Tabernacle, also of the first and
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second temples, for there were vital differences between them, each fraught
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with cosmic significance; and within them all was the foreshadowing of the
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CROSS, sprinkled with BLOOD, which was turned to ROSES.
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THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS
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We read in the Bible the story of how Noah and a remnant of his people
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with him were saved from the flood and formed the nucleus of the humanity of
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the Rainbow Age in which we now live. It is also stated that Moses led his
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people out of Egypt, the land of the Bull, Taurus, through waters which en-
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gulfed their enemies and set them free as a chosen people to worship the
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Lamb, Aries, into which sign the sun had then entered by precession of the
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equinox. These two narratives relate to one and the same incident, namely,
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the emergence of infant humanity from the doomed continent of Atlantis into
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[PAGE 12] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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the present age of alternating cycles where summer and winter, day and
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night, ebb and flow, follow each other. As humanity had then just become
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endowed with mind, they began to realize the loss of the spiritual sight
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which they had hitherto possessed, and they developed a yearning for the
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spirit world and their divine guides which remains to this day, for humanity
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has never ceased to mourn their loss. Therefore the ancient Atlantean Mys-
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tery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, was given to them that they
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might meet the Lord when they had qualified themselves by service and subju-
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gation of the lower nature by the Higher Self. Being designed by Jehovah it
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was the embodiment of great cosmic truths hidden by a veil of symbolism
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which spoke to the inner or Higher Self.
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In the first place it is worthy of notice that this divinely designed
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Tabernacle was given to a chosen people, who were to build it from freewill
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offerings given out of the fullness of their hearts. Herein is a particular
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lesson, for the divine pattern of the path of progress is never given to
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anyone who has not first made a covenant with God that he will serve Him and
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is wiling to offer up his heart's blood in a life of service without
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self-seeking The term "Mason" is derived from PHREE MESSEN, which is an
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Egyptian term meaning "Children of Light." In the parlance of Masonry, God
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is spoken of as the Grand Architect. ARCHE is a greek word which means
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"Primordial substance." TEKTON is the Greek name for builder. It is said
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[PAGE 13] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE
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that Joseph, the father of Jesus, was a "CARPENTER," but the Greek word is
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TEKTON--builder. It is also said that Jesus was a "tekton," a builder.
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Thus every true mystic Freemason is a child of light according to the divine
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pattern given him by our Father in Heaven. To this end he dedicates his
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whole heart, soul, and mind. It is, or should be, his aspiration to be
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"greatest in the kingdom of God," and therefore he must be THE SERVANT OF
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ALL.
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The next point which calls for notice is the location of the temple with
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respect to the cardinal points, and we find that it was laid directly east
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and west. Thus we see that the path of spiritual progress is the same as
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the star of empire; it travels from east to west. The aspirant entered at
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the eastern gate and pursued the path by way of the Altar of Burnt Offer-
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ings, the Brazen Laver, and the Holy Place to the westernmost part of the
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Tabernacle, where the Ark, the greatest symbol of all, was located in the
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Holy of Holies. As the wise men of the East followed the Christ star west-
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ward to Bethlehem, so does the spiritual center of the civilized world shift
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farther and farther westward, until today the crest of the spiritual wave
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which started in China on the western shores of the Pacific has now reached
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the eastern shores of the same ocean, where it is gathering strength to leap
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once more in its cyclic journey across the waste of waters, to recommence in
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a far future a new cyclic journey around the earth.
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The ambulant nature of this Tabernacle in the Wilderness is therefore an
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[PAGE 14] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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excellent symbolical representation of the fact that man is migratory in
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hisnature, an eternal pilgrim, ever passing from the shores of time to eter-
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nity and back again. As a planet revolves in its cyclic journey around the
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primary sun, so man, the little world or microcosm, travels in cyclic circle
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dance around God, who is the source and goal of all.
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The great care and attention to detail regarding the construction of the
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Tabernacle in the Wilderness shows that something far more exalted than what
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struck the eye of sense was intended in its construction. Under its earthly
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and material show there was designed a representation of things heavenly and
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spiritual such as should be full of instruction to the candidate for Ini-
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tiation and should not this reflection excite us to seek an intimate and fa-
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miliar acquaintance with this ancient sanctuary? Surely it becomes us to
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consider all parts of its plan with serious, careful, and reverential atten-
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tion, remembering at every step the heavenly origin of it all, and humbly
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endeavoring to penetrate through the shadows of its earthly service into the
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sublime and glorious realities which according to the wisdom of the spirit
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it proposes for our solemn contemplation.
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In order that we may gain a proper conception of this sacred place we
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must consider the Tabernacle itself, its furniture and its court. The il-
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lustration opposite page 33 may assist the student to form a better concep-
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tion of the arrangement within.
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[PAGE 15] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE
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THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE
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This was an enclosure which surrounded the Tabernacle. Its length was
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twice its width, and the ate was at the east end. This gate was enclosed by
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a curtain of blue, scarlet, and purple fine twined linen, and these colors
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show us at once the status of this Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We are
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taught in the sublime gospel of John that "God is Light," and no description
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or similitude could convey a better conception or one more enlightening to
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the spiritual mind than these words. When we consider that even the great-
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est of modern telescopes have failed to find the borders of light, though
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they penetrate space for millions and millions of miles, it gives us a weak
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but comprehensive idea of the infinitude of God.
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We know that this light, which is God, is refracted into three primary
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colors by the atmosphere surrounding our earth, viz., blue, yellow, and red;
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and it is a fact well known to every occultist that the ray of the Father is
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blue, while that of the Son is yellow, and the color of the Holy Spirit's
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ray is red. Only the strongest and most spiritual ray can hope to penetrate
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to the seat of consciousness of the life wave embodied in our mineral king-
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dom, and therefore we find about the mountain ranges the blue ray of the Fa-
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ther reflected back from the barren hillsides and hanging as a haze over
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canyons and gulches. The yellow ray of the Son mixed with the blue of the
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Father gives life and vitality to the plant world, which therefore reflects
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back a green color, for it is incapable of keeping the ray WITHIN. But in
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[PAGE 16] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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the animal kingdom, to which unregenerate man belongs anatomically, the
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three rays are absorbed, and that of the Holy Spirit gives the red color to
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his flesh and blood. The mixture of the blue and the red is evident in the
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purple blood, poisoned because sinful. But the yellow is never evident un-
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til it manifests as a soul body, the golden "WEDDING garment" of the mystic
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Bride of the mystic Christ evolved from within.
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Thus the colors on the veils of the Temple, both at the gate and at the
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entrance of the Tabernacle, showed that this structure was designed for a
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period previous to the time of Christ, for it had only the blue and the
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scarlet colors of the Father and the Holy Spirit together with their mix-
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ture, purple. But white is the synthesis of all colors, and therefore the
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yellow Christ ray was hidden in that part of the veil until in the fullness
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of time Christ should appear to emancipate us from the ordinances that bind,
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and initiate us into the full liberty of Sons of God, Sons of Light, Chil-
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dren of Light, Phree Messen or Mystic Masons.
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[PAGE 16A] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE
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ILLUSTRATION:
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THE BRAZEN LAVER
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[PAGE 17] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
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CHAPTER TWO
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THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
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THE BRAZEN ALTAR was placed just inside the eastern gate, and it was used
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for the sacrifice of animals during the temple service. The idea of using
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bulls and goats as sacrifices seems barbaric to the modern mind, and we can-
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not realize that they could ever have had any efficacy in that respect. The
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Bible does indeed hear out this view of the matter, for we are told repeat-
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edly that God desires not sacrifice but a broken spirit and a contrite
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heart, and that He has no pleasure in sacrifices of blood. In view of this
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fact it seems strange that sacrifices should ever have been commanded. But
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we must realize that no religion can elevate those whom it is designed to
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help if its teachings are too far above their intellectual or moral level.
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To appeal to a barbarian, religion must have certain barbaric traits. A re-
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ligion of love could not have appealed to those people, therefore they were
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given a law which demanded "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."
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[PAGE 18] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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There is not in the Old Testament any mention whatever of immortality, for
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these people could not have understood a heaven nor aspired to it. But they
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loved material possessions, and therefore they were told that if they did
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right they and their seed should dwell in the land forever, that their
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cattle should be multiplied, et cetera.
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They loved material possessions, and they knew that the increases of the
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flock were due to the Lord's favor and given by Him for merit. Thus they
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were taught to do right in the hope of a reward in this present world. They
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were also deterred from wrongdoing by the swift punishment which was meted
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out to them in retribution for their sins. This was the only way to reach
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them. They could not have done right for the sake of right, nor could they
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have understood the principle of making themselves "living sacrifices," and
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they probably felt the loss of an animal for sin as we would feel the pangs
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of conscience because of wrongdoing.
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The Altar was made of brass, a metal not found in nature, but made by man
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from copper and zinc. Thus it is symbolically shown that sin was not
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originally contemplated in our scheme of evolution and is an anomaly in na-
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ture as well as its consequences, pain and death, symbolized by the sacrifi-
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cial victims. But while the Altar itself was made from metals artificially
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compounded, the fire which burned thereon unceasingly was of divine origin,
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and it was kept alive from year to year with the most jealous care. No
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other fire was ever used, and we may note with profit that when two presump-
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[PAGE 19] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
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tuous and rebellious priests dared to disregard this command and use strange
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fire, they met with an awful retribution and instant death. When we have
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once taken the oath of allegiance to the mystic Master, the HIGHER SELF, it
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is extremely dangerous to disregard the precepts then given.
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When the candidate appears at the eastern gate he is "poor, naked, and
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blind." He is at that moment an object of charity, needing to be clothed
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and brought to the light, but this cannot be done at once in the mystic
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Temple.
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During the time of his progress from the condition of nakedness until he
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has been clothed in the gorgeous robes of the high priest there is a long
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and difficult path to be traveled. The first lesson which he is taught is
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that man advances by sacrifices alone. In the Christian Mystic Initiation
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when the Christ washes the feet of His disciples, the explanation is given
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that unless the minerals decomposed and were offered us as embodiments for
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the plant kingdom, we should have no vegetation; also, did not the plant
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food furnish sustenance for the animals, these latter beings could not find
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expression; and so on, the higher is always feeding on the lower. Therefore
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man has a duty to them, and so the Master washes the feet of His disciples
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symbolically performing for them the menial service as a recognition of the
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fact that they have served Him as stepping-stones to something higher.
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Similarly, when the candidate is brought to the Brazen Altar, he learns
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the lesson that the animal is sacrificed for his sake, giving its body for
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[PAGE 20] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
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food and its skin for clothing. Moreover, he sees the dense cloud of smoke
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hovering over the Altar and perceives within it a light, but that light is
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too dim, too much enshrouded in smoke, to be of permanent guidance to him.
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His spiritual eyes are weak, however, and it would not do to expose them at
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once to the light of greater spiritual truths.
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We are told by the apostle Paul that the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was
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a shadow of greater things to come. It may therefore be of interest and
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profit to see what is the meaning of this Brazen Altar, with its sacrifices
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and burning flesh, to the candidate who comes to the Temple in modern times.
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In order that we may understand this mystery, we must first grasp the one
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great and absolutely essential idea which underlies all true mysticism,
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viz., that these things are WITHIN and not without. Angelus Silesius says
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about the Cross:
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"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
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And not within thyself thy soul will be forlorn.
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The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain,
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Unless within thyself it be set up again."
|
||
|
||
This idea must be applied to every symbol and phase of mystic experience.
|
||
It is not the Christ without that saves, but THE CHRIST WITHIN. The Taber-
|
||
nacle was built at one time; it is clearly seen in the Memory of Nature when
|
||
the interior sight has been developed to a sufficient degree; but no one is
|
||
ever helped by the outward symbol. We must build the Tabernacle within our
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 21] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
|
||
|
||
own hearts and consciousness. We must live through, as an actual inner ex-
|
||
perience, the whole ritual of service there. We must become both the Altar
|
||
of sacrifice and the sacrificial animal lying upon it. We must become both
|
||
the priest that slays the animal and the animal that is slain. Later we
|
||
must learn to identify ourselves with the mystic Laver, and we must learn to
|
||
wash therein in spirit. Then we must enter behind the first veil, minister
|
||
in the East Room, and so on through the whole Temple service till we BECOME
|
||
the greatest of all these ancient symbols, the Shekinah Glory, or it will
|
||
avail us nothing. In short, before the symbol of the Tabernacle can really
|
||
help us, we must transfer it from the wilderness of space to a home in our
|
||
hearts so that when we have become everything that that symbol is, we shall
|
||
also have become that which it stands for spiritually.
|
||
|
||
Let us then commence to build within ourselves the Altar of sacrifice,
|
||
first that we may offer upon it our wrongdoings and then expiate them in the
|
||
crucible of remorse. This is done under the modern system of preparation
|
||
for discipleship by an exercise performed in the evening and scientifically
|
||
designed by the Hierophants of the Western Mystery School for the advance-
|
||
ment of the aspirant on the path which leads to discipleship. Other schools
|
||
have given a similar exercise, but this one differs in one particular point
|
||
from all previous methods. After explaining the exercises we shall also
|
||
give the reason for this great and cardinal difference. This special method
|
||
has such a far-reaching effect that it enables one to learn now not only the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 22] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
lessons which one should ordinarily learn in this life, but also attain a
|
||
development which otherwise could not be reached until future lives.
|
||
|
||
After retiring for the night the body is relaxed. This is very impor-
|
||
tant, for when any part of the body is tense, the blood does not circulate
|
||
unimpeded; part of it is temporarily imprisoned under pressure. As all
|
||
spiritual development depends upon the blood, the maximum effort to attain
|
||
soul growth cannot be made when any part of the body is in tension.
|
||
|
||
When perfect relaxation has been accomplished, the aspirant to the higher
|
||
life begins to review the scenes of the day, but he does not start with the
|
||
occurrences of the morning and finish with the events of the evening. He
|
||
views them in REVERSE order: first the scenes of the evening, then the
|
||
events of the afternoon, and lastly the occurrences of the morning. The
|
||
reason for this is that from the moment of birth when the child draws its
|
||
first complete breath, the air which is inspired into the lungs carries with
|
||
it a picture of the outside world, and as the blood courses through the left
|
||
ventricle of the heart, each scene of life is pictured upon a minute atom
|
||
located there. Every breath brings with it new pictures, and thus there is
|
||
engraved upon that little seed atom a record of every scene and act in our
|
||
whole life from the first breath to the last dying gasp. After death these
|
||
pictures from the basis of our purgatorial existence. Under the conditions
|
||
of the spirit world we suffer pangs of conscience so acute that they are un-
|
||
believable for every evil deed we have done, and we are thus discouraged
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 23] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
|
||
|
||
from continuing on the path of wrongdoing. The intensity of the joys which
|
||
we experience on account of our good deeds acts as a goad to spur us on the
|
||
path of virtue in future lives. But in the post-mortem existence this pan-
|
||
orama of life is reenacted in reverse order for the purpose of showing first
|
||
the effects and then the causes which generated them that the spirit may
|
||
learn how the law of cause and effect operates in life. Therefore the as-
|
||
pirant who is under the scientific guidance of the Elder Brothers of the
|
||
Rosicrucians is taught to perform his evening exercise also in reverse order
|
||
and to judge himself each day that he may escape the purgatorial suffering
|
||
after death. But let it be understood that no mere perfunctory review of
|
||
the scenes of the day will avail. It is not enough when we come to a scene
|
||
where we have grievously wronged somebody that we just say, "Well, I feel
|
||
rather sorry that I did it. I wish I had not done it." At that time we are
|
||
the sacrificial animal lying upon the Alter of Burnt Offerings, and unless
|
||
we can feel in our hearts the divinely enkindled fire of remorse burn to the
|
||
very marrow of our bones because of our wrongdoings during the day, we are
|
||
not accomplishing anything.
|
||
|
||
During the ancient dispensation all the sacrifices were rubbed with salt
|
||
before being placed upon the Altar of Burnt Offerings. We all know how it
|
||
smarts and burns when we accidentally rub salt into a fresh wound. This
|
||
rubbing of salt into the sacrifices in that ancient Mystery Temple symbol-
|
||
ized the intensity of the burning which we must feel when we as living sac-
|
||
rifices place ourselves upon the Altar of Burnt Offerings. It is the feel-
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 24] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
ing of remorse, of deep and sincere sorrow for what we have done, which
|
||
eradicates the picture from the seed atom and leaves it clean and stainless,
|
||
so that as under the ancient dispensation transgressors were justified when
|
||
they brought to the Altar of Burnt Offerings a sacrifice which was there
|
||
burnt, so we in modern times by scientifically performing the evening exer-
|
||
cise of retrospection wipe away the record of our sins. It is a foregone
|
||
conclusion that we cannot continue evening after evening to perform this
|
||
living sacrifice without becoming better in consequence and ceasing, little
|
||
by little, to do the things for which we are forced to blame ourselves when
|
||
we have retired for the night. Thus, in addition to cleansing us from our
|
||
faults this exercise elevates us to a higher level of spirituality than we
|
||
could otherwise reach in the present life.
|
||
|
||
It is also noteworthy that when anyone had committed a grievous crime and
|
||
fled to the sanctuary, he found safety in the shadow of the Altar of sacri-
|
||
fice, for there only the divinely enkindled fire could execute judgment. He
|
||
escaped the hands of man by putting himself under the hand of God.
|
||
Similarly also, the aspirant who acknowledges his wrongdoing nightly by
|
||
fleeing to the altar of living judgment thereby obtains sanctuary from the
|
||
law of cause and effect, and "though his sins be as scarlet they shall be
|
||
white as snow."
|
||
|
||
THE BRAZEN LAVER
|
||
|
||
The Brazen laver was a large basin which was always kept full of water.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 25] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
|
||
|
||
It is said in the Bible that it was carried on the backs of twelve oxen,
|
||
also made of brass, and we are told that their hind parts were toward the
|
||
center of the vessel. It appears from the Memory of Nature, however, that
|
||
those animals were not oxen but symbolical representations of the twelve
|
||
signs of the zodiac. Humanity was at that time divided into twelve groups,
|
||
one group for each zodiacal sign. Each symbolic animal attracted a par-
|
||
ticular ray, and as the holy water used today in Catholic churches is magne-
|
||
tized by the priest during the ceremony of consecration, so also the water
|
||
in this Laver was magnetized by the divine Hierarchics who guided humanity.
|
||
|
||
There can be no doubt concerning the power of holy water prepared by a
|
||
strong and magnetic personality. It takes on or absorbs the effluvia from
|
||
his vital body, and the people who use it become amenable to his rule in a
|
||
degree commensurate to their sensitiveness. Consequently the Brazen Lavers
|
||
in the ancient Atlantean mystery Temples, where the water was magnetized by
|
||
divine Hierarchs of immeasurable power, were a potent factor in guiding the
|
||
people in accordance with the wishes of these ruling powers. Thus the
|
||
priests were in perfect subjection to the mandates and dictates of their un-
|
||
seen spiritual leaders, and through them the people were made to follow
|
||
blindly. It was required of the priests that they wash their hands and feet
|
||
before going into the Tabernacle proper. If this command was not obeyed,
|
||
death would follow immediately on the priest entering into the Tabernacle.
|
||
We may therefore say that as the keyword of the Brazen Altar was
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 26] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
"justification" so the central idea of the Brazen Laver was "consecration."
|
||
|
||
"Many are called but few are chosen." We have the example of the rich
|
||
young man who came to Christ asking what he must do to be perfect. He as-
|
||
serted that he had kept the law, but when Christ gave the command, "Follow
|
||
me," he could not, for he had many riches which held him fast as in a vise.
|
||
Like the great majority he was content if he could only escape condemnation,
|
||
and like them he was too lukewarm to strive for commendation merited by ser-
|
||
vice. The Brazen Laver is the symbol of sanctification and consecration of
|
||
the life to service. As Christ entered upon His three years' ministry
|
||
through the baptismal waters, so the aspirant to service in the ancient
|
||
Temple must sanctify himself in the sacred stream which must sanctify him-
|
||
self in the sacred stream which flowed from the Molten Sea. And the mystic
|
||
Mason endeavoring to build a temple "without sound of hammer" and to serve
|
||
therein must also consecrate himself and sanctify himself. He must be will-
|
||
ing to give up all earthly possessions that he may follow the CHRIST WITHIN.
|
||
Though he may retain his material possessions he must regard them as a sa-
|
||
cred trust to be used by him as a wise steward would use his master's pos-
|
||
sessions. And we must be ready in everything to obey this Christ within
|
||
when he says, "Follow me," even though the shadow of the Cross looms darkly
|
||
at the end, for without this utter abandonment of the life to the Light, to
|
||
the higher purposes, there can be no progress. Even as the Spirit descended
|
||
upon Jesus when he arose from the baptismal water of consecration, so also
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 27] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER
|
||
|
||
the mystic Mason who bathes in the Laver of the Molten Sea begins dimly to
|
||
hear the voice of the Master within his own heart teaching him the secrets
|
||
of the Craft that he may use them for the benefit of others.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 28] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER THREE
|
||
|
||
EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE
|
||
|
||
HAVING MOUNTED the first steps upon the path the aspirant stands in front
|
||
of the veil which hangs before the mystic Temple. Drawing this aside he en-
|
||
ters into the East Room of the sanctuary, which was called the HOLY PLACE.
|
||
No window or opening of any sort was provided in the Tabernacle to let in
|
||
the light of day, but this room was never dark. Night and day it was
|
||
brightly illuminated by burning lamps.
|
||
|
||
Its furniture was symbolical of the methods whereby the aspirant may make
|
||
SOUL GROWTH BY SERVICE. It consisted of three principal articles: The AL-
|
||
TER OF INCENSE, the TABLE OF SHEWBREAD, and the GOLDEN CANDLESTICK from
|
||
which the light proceeded.
|
||
|
||
It was not allowable for the common Israelite to enter this sacred apart-
|
||
ment and behold the furniture. No one but a priest might pass the outer
|
||
veil and go in even as far as this first room. The Golden Candlestick was
|
||
placed on the south side of the Holy Place so as to be to the left of any
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 29] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE
|
||
|
||
person who stood in the middle of the room. It was made entirely of pure
|
||
gold, and consisted of a shaft or principal stem, rising upright from a
|
||
base, together with six branches. These branches started at three different
|
||
points on the stem and curved upward in three partial circles of varying di-
|
||
ameter, symbolizing the three periods of development (Saturn, Sun, and Moon
|
||
Periods) which man went through before the Earth period, which was not half
|
||
spent. This latter period was signified by the seventh light. Each of
|
||
these seven branches terminated in a lamp, and these lamps were supplied
|
||
with the purest olive oil, which was made by a special process. The priests
|
||
were required to take care that the Candlestick was never without a light.
|
||
Every day the lamps were examined, dressed, and supplied with oil so that
|
||
they might burn perpetually.
|
||
|
||
The TABLE OF SHEWBREAD was placed on the north side of the apartment so
|
||
as to be in THE RIGHT HAND of the priest when he walked up toward the second
|
||
veil. Twelve loaves of unleavened bread were continually kept upon this
|
||
table. They were placed in two piles, one loaf upon another, and on top of
|
||
each pile there was a small quantity of frankincense. These loaves were
|
||
called shewbread, or bread of the face, because they were set solemnly forth
|
||
before the presence of the Lord, who dwelt in the Shekinah Glory behind the
|
||
second veil. Every Sabbath day these loaves were changed by the priests,
|
||
the old ones being taken away and new ones put in their place. The bread
|
||
that was taken away was used by the priests to eat, and no one else was
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 30] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
allowed to taste it; neither were they suffered to eat it anywhere except
|
||
within the Court of the Sanctuary, because it was most holy, and therefore
|
||
might only be taken by sacred persons upon holy ground. THE INCENSE THAT
|
||
WAS UPON THE TWO PILES OF SHEWBREAD WAS BURNED when the bread was changed,
|
||
as an offering by fire unto the Lord, as a memorial instead of the bread.
|
||
|
||
The ALTAR OF INCENSE or the Golden Altar was the third article of furni-
|
||
ture in the East Room of the Temple. It was situated in the center of the
|
||
room, that is to say, halfway between the north and the south walls, in
|
||
front of the second veil. No flesh was ever burned upon this Altar, nor was
|
||
it ever touched with blood except on the most solemn occasions, and then its
|
||
horns alone were marked with the crimson stain. The smoke that arose from
|
||
its top was never any other than the smoke of burning incense. This went up
|
||
every morning and evening, filling the sanctuary with a fragrant cloud and
|
||
sending a refreshing odor out through all the courts and far over the coun-
|
||
try on every side for miles beyond. Because incense was thus burned every
|
||
day it was called "A PERPETUAL INCENSE before the Lord."
|
||
|
||
It was not simple frankincense which was burned, but a compound of this
|
||
with other sweet spices, made according to the direction of Jehovah for this
|
||
special purpose and so considered holy, such as no man was allowed to make
|
||
like unto for common use. THE PRIEST WAS CHARGED NEVER TO OFFER STRANGE IN-
|
||
CENSE on the Golden Altar, that is, any other than the sacred composition.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 31] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE
|
||
|
||
This Altar was placed directly before the veil on the outside of it, but be-
|
||
fore the Mercy Seat, which was within the second veil; for though he that
|
||
ministered at the Altar of Incense could not see the Mercy Seat because of
|
||
the interposing veil, yet he must look toward it and direct his incense that
|
||
way. And it was customary when the cloud of fragrant incense rose above the
|
||
temple for all the people who were standing without in the Court of the
|
||
Sanctuary to send up their prayers to God, each one silently by himself.
|
||
|
||
THE MYSTIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EAST ROOM AND ITS FURNITURE
|
||
|
||
THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK
|
||
|
||
As previously said, when the priest stood in the center of the East Room
|
||
of the Tabernacle, the Seven-branched Candlestick was ON HIS LEFT toward the
|
||
SOUTH. This was symbolical of the fact that the seven lightgivers or plan-
|
||
ets which tread the mystic circle dance around the central orb, the sun,
|
||
travel in the narrow belt comprising eight degrees on either side of the
|
||
sun's path, which is called the zodiac. "God is Light," and the "Seven
|
||
Spirits before the Throne" are God's ministers; therefore THEY ARE MESSEN-
|
||
GERS OF LIGHT to humanity. Furthermore, as the heavens are ablaze with
|
||
light when the moon in its phases arrives at the "full" in the eastern part
|
||
of the heavens, so also the East Room of the Tabernacle was filled with
|
||
LIGHT, indicating VISIBLY the presence there of God and His seven Ministers,
|
||
the STAR ANGELS.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 32] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
We may note, in passing, the light of the Golden Candlestick, which was
|
||
clear and the flame odorless, and compare it with the smoke-enveloped flame
|
||
on the Altar of Burnt Offerings, which in a certain sense generated darkness
|
||
rather than dispelled it. But there is a still deeper and more sublime
|
||
meaning in this fire symbol, which we will not take up for discussion until
|
||
we come to the SHEKINAH GLORY, whose dazzling brilliance hovered over the
|
||
Mercy Seat in the WEST ROOM. Before we can enter into this subject, we must
|
||
understand all the symbols that lie between the Golden Candlestick and that
|
||
sublime Father Fire which was the crowning glory of the Holy of Holies, the
|
||
most sacred part of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.
|
||
|
||
THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD
|
||
|
||
The East Room of the Temple may be called the Hall of Service, for it
|
||
corresponds to the three years' ministry of Christ, and contains all the
|
||
paraphernalia for soul growth, though, as said, furnished with only three
|
||
principal articles. Among the chief of these is the Table of Shewbread.
|
||
Upon this table, as we have already seen, there were two piles of shewbread,
|
||
each containing six loaves, and upon the top of each pile there was a little
|
||
heap of frankincense. The aspirant who came to the Temple door "poor, na-
|
||
ked, and blind" has since been brought to the light of the Seven-branched
|
||
Candlestick, obtaining a certain amount of cosmic knowledge, and THIS HE IS
|
||
REQUIRED TO USE IN THE SERVICE OF HIS FELLOW MEN; the Table of Shewbread
|
||
represents this in symbol.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 32A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
ILLUSTRATION:
|
||
|
||
EAST ROOM: THE HOLY PLACE
|
||
|
||
AND WEST ROOM: THE HOLY OF HOLIES
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 33] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE
|
||
|
||
The grain from which this shewbread was made had been originally given by
|
||
God, but then it was planted by mankind, who had previously plowed and
|
||
tilled the soil. After planting their grain they must cultivate and water
|
||
it; then when the grain had borne fruit according to the nature of the soil
|
||
and the care bestowed upon it, it had to be harvested, threshed, ground, and
|
||
baked. Then the ancient SERVANTS OF GOD had to carry it into the Temple,
|
||
where it was placed before the Lord as bread to "SHEW" THAT THEY HAD PER-
|
||
FORMED THEIR TOIL AND RENDERED THE NECESSARY SERVICE.
|
||
|
||
The God-given grains of wheat in the twelve loaves represent the OPPORTU-
|
||
NITIES FOR SOUL GROWTH given by God, which come to all through the twelve
|
||
departments of life represented by the twelve houses of the horoscope, under
|
||
the dominion of the twelve divine Hierarchies known through the signs of the
|
||
zodiac. BUT IT IS THE TASK OF THE MYSTIC MASON, THE TRUE TEMPLE BUILDER, TO
|
||
EMBRACE THESE OPPORTUNITIES, TO CULTIVATE AND NOURISH THEM SO THAT HE MAY
|
||
REAP THEREFROM THE LIVING BREAD WHICH NURTURES THE SOUL.
|
||
|
||
We do not, however, assimilate our physical food IN TOTO; there is a
|
||
residue, a large proportion of ash, left after we have amalgamated the quin-
|
||
tessence into our system. Similarly, the shewbread was not burned or con-
|
||
sumed before the Lord, but two small heaps of frankincense were placed on
|
||
the two stacks of shewbread, one one each pile. This was conceived to be
|
||
the aroma thereof, and was later burned on the Altar of Incense. Likewise
|
||
the soul sustenance of service gathered daily by the ardent Mystic Mason is
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 34] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
thrown into the mill of retrospection at eventide when he retires to his
|
||
couch and performs there the scientific exercises given by the Elder
|
||
Brothers of the Rose Cross.
|
||
|
||
There is a time each month which is particularly propitious for extract-
|
||
ing the frankincense of soul growth and burning it before the lord so that
|
||
it may be a sweet savor, TO BE AMALGAMATED WITH THE SOUL BODY and form part
|
||
of that golden, radiant "wedding garment." This as at the time when the
|
||
moon is at the full. Then she is in the east, and the heavens are ablaze
|
||
with light as was the East Room of the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple
|
||
where the priest garnered the pabulum of the soul, symbolized by the
|
||
shewbread and the fragrant essence, which delighted our Father in Heaven
|
||
then as now.
|
||
|
||
Let the Mystic Mason take particular note, however, that the loaves of
|
||
shewbread were not the musings of dreamers; they were not the product of
|
||
speculation upon the nature of God or light. THEY WERE THE PRODUCT OF AC-
|
||
TUAL TOIL, of orderly systematic work, and it behooves us to follow the path
|
||
of actual service if we would garner treasure in heaven. Unless we really
|
||
WORK and SERVE humanity, we shall have nothing to bring, no bread to "shew,"
|
||
at the Feast of the Full Moon; and at the mystic marriage of the higher to
|
||
the lower self we shall find ourselves minus the radiant golden sold body,
|
||
the mystic wedding garment without which the union with Christ can never be
|
||
consummated.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 35] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE
|
||
|
||
THE ALTER OF INCENSE
|
||
|
||
At the Altar of Incense, as we saw in the general description of the Tab-
|
||
ernacle and its furniture, incense was offered before the lord continually,
|
||
and the priest who stood before the altar ministering was at that time look-
|
||
ing toward the mercy Seat over the Ark, though it as impossible for him to
|
||
see it because of the SECOND VEIL which was interposed between the first and
|
||
second apartments of the Tabernacle, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
|
||
We have also seen in the consideration of the "shewbread" that INCENSE sym-
|
||
bolizes the extract, THE AROMA OF THE SERVICE we have rendered according to
|
||
our opportunities; and just as the sacrificial animal upon the Brazen Altar
|
||
represents the deeds of wrongdoing committed during the day, so the incense
|
||
burned upon the Golden Altar, which is a sweet savor to the Lord, represents
|
||
the virtuous deeds of our lives.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 36] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER FOUR
|
||
|
||
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
|
||
|
||
It is noteworthy and fraught with great mystic significance that the
|
||
aroma of VOLUNTARY SERVICE is represented as SWEET-SMELLING, FRAGRANT IN-
|
||
CENSE, while the odor of sin, selfishness, and transgression of the law,
|
||
represented by COMPULSORY SACRIFICE upon the Altar of service, is nauseat-
|
||
ing; for it needs no great imagination to understand that the cloud of smoke
|
||
which went up continually from the burning carcasses of the sacrificial
|
||
animals created a nauseating stench to show the exceeding loathsomeness of
|
||
it, while the perpetual incense offered upon the Altar before the second
|
||
veil showed by antithesis the beauty and sublimity of selfless service, thus
|
||
exhorting the Mystic Mason, as a CHILD OF LIGHT, to shun the one and cleave
|
||
to the other.
|
||
|
||
Let it be understood also that SERVICE does not consist in doing great
|
||
things only. Some of the heroes, so-called were mean and small in their
|
||
general lives, and rose only to the occasion upon one great and notable day.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 37] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
|
||
|
||
Martyrs have been put on the calendar of saints because they DIED for a
|
||
cause; but it is a greater heroism, it is a greater martyrdom sometimes, to
|
||
do the little things that no one notices and sacrifice self IN SIMPLE SER-
|
||
VICE TO OTHERS.
|
||
|
||
We have seen previously that the veil at the entrance to the outer court
|
||
and the veil in front of th East Room of the Tabernacle were both made in
|
||
four colors, blue, red, purple, and white. But THE SECOND VEIL, which di-
|
||
vided the East Room of the Tabernacle from the West Room, differed with re-
|
||
spect to make-up from the other two. It was wrought with the figures of
|
||
Cherubim. We will not consider, however, the significance of this fact un-
|
||
til we take up the subject of the NEW MOON AND INITIATION, but will now look
|
||
into the second apartment of the Tabernacle, the western room, called the
|
||
Most Holy or the Holy of Holies. Beyond the second veil, into this second
|
||
apartment, no mortal might ever pass save the HIGH PRIEST, and he was only
|
||
allowed to enter on one occasion in the whole year, namely, Yom Kippur, the
|
||
Day of Atonement, and then only after the most solemn preparation and with
|
||
the most reverential care. The Holiest of All was clothed with the solem-
|
||
nity of another world; it was filled with an unearthly grandeur. The whole
|
||
Tabernacle was the sanctuary of God, but here in this place was the awful
|
||
abode of His presence, the special dwelling place of the SHEKINAH GLORY, and
|
||
well might mortal man tremble to present himself within these sacred
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 38] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
precincts, as the High Priest must do on the Day of Atonement.
|
||
|
||
In the westernmost end of this apartment, the western end of the whole
|
||
Tabernacle, rested the "ARK OF THE COVENANT." It was a hollow receptacle
|
||
containing the GOLDEN POT OF MANNA, AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED, AND THE TABLES
|
||
OF THE LAW which were given to Moses. While this Ark of the Covenant re-
|
||
mained in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, TWO STAVES WERE ALWAYS WITHIN
|
||
THE FOUR RINGS OF THE ARK so that it could be picked up instantly and moved,
|
||
but when the Ark as finally taken to Solomon's Temple, the staves were taken
|
||
out. This is very important in its symbolical significance. Above the Ark
|
||
hovered the Cherubim, and between them dwelt the uncreated glory of God.
|
||
"Three," said He to Moses, "I will meet with thee, and I will commune with
|
||
thee from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two Cherubim which are upon
|
||
the Ark of the Testimony."
|
||
|
||
The glory of the Lord seen above the Mercy Seat was in the appearance of
|
||
a cloud. The Lord said to Moses, "Speak unto Aaron they brother that he
|
||
come not at all time into the Holiest Place within the veil before the Mercy
|
||
Seat which is upon the Ark, that he die not, for I will appear in the cloud
|
||
upon the Mercy Seat." This manifestation of the divine presence was called
|
||
among the Jews the SHEKINAH GLORY. Its appearance was attended no doubt
|
||
with a wonderful spiritual glory of which it is impossible to form any
|
||
proper conception. Out of this cloud the voice of God was heard with deep
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 39] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
|
||
|
||
solemnity when He was consulted in behalf of the people.
|
||
|
||
When the aspirant has qualified to enter into this place behind the sec-
|
||
ond veil, he finds everything DARK to the physical eye, and it is necessary
|
||
that he should have another light WITHIN. When he first came to the eastern
|
||
Temple gate, he was "POOR, NAKED, AND BLIND," asking for LIGHT. He was then
|
||
shown the dim light which appeared in the smoke above the Altar of sacri-
|
||
fice, and told that in order to advance he must kindle within himself that
|
||
flame by remorse for wrongdoing. Later on he was shown the more excellent
|
||
light in the East Room of the Tabernacle, which proceeded from the
|
||
Seven-branched Candlestick; in other words he was given the light of knowl-
|
||
edge and of reason that by it he might advance further upon the path. But
|
||
it was required that BY SERVICE he should evolve within himself and around
|
||
himself another light, the golden "wedding garment," which is also THE
|
||
CHRIST LIGHT OF THE SOUL BODY. By lives of service this glorious
|
||
soul-substance gradually pervades his whole aura until it is ablaze with a
|
||
golden light. Not until he has evolved this INNER illumination can he enter
|
||
into the darkened precincts of the second Tabernacle, as the Most Holy place
|
||
is sometimes called.
|
||
|
||
"GOD IS LIGHT; if we walk in the light as He is in the Light, we have
|
||
fellowship one with another." This is generally taken to indicate only the
|
||
fellowship of the Saints, but as a matter of fact it applies also to the
|
||
fellowship which we have with God. When the disciple enters the second Tab-
|
||
ernacle, THE LIGHT WITHIN HIMSELF VIBRATES TO THE LIGHT OF THE SHEKINAH
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 40] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
GLORY between the Cherubim, and he realizes the fellowship with his FATHER
|
||
FIRE.
|
||
|
||
As the Cherubim and the Father Fire which hover above th Ark represent
|
||
the divine Hierarchies which overshadow mankind during his pilgrimage
|
||
through the wilderness, so THE ARK WHICH IS FOUND THERE REPRESENTS MAN IN
|
||
HIS HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT. Three were, as already said, three things within
|
||
the Ark: the Golden Pot of Manna, the Budding Rod, and the Tables of the
|
||
Law. When the aspirant stood at the eastern gate as a child of sin, THE LAW
|
||
WAS WITHOUT AS A TASKMASTER to bring him to Christ. It exacted with unre-
|
||
lenting severity an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Every trans-
|
||
gression brought a just recompense, and man was circumscribed on every hand
|
||
by laws commanding him to do certain things and refrain from doing others.
|
||
But when THROUGH SACRIFICE AND SERVICE he has finally arrived at the stage
|
||
of evolution represented by the Ark in the western room of the Tabernacle,
|
||
the TABLES OF THE LAW ARE WITHIN. He has then become emancipated from all
|
||
outside interference with his actions; not that he would break any laws, but
|
||
because HE WORKS WITH THEM. Just as we have learned to respect the property
|
||
right of others and have therefore become emancipated from the commandment.
|
||
"Thou shalt not steal," so he who keeps all laws because he wants to do so
|
||
has on that account no longer need of an exterior taskmaster, but gladly
|
||
renders obedience in all things because HE IS A SERVANT OF THE LAW AND WORKS
|
||
WITH IT, FROM CHOICE AND NOT THROUGH NECESSITY.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 41] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
|
||
|
||
THE GOLDEN POT OF MANNA
|
||
|
||
Manas, mensch, mens, or man is readily associated with the MANNA that
|
||
came down from heaven. it is the HUMAN SPIRIT that descended from our Fa-
|
||
ther above for a pilgrimage through matter, and the Golden Pot wherein it
|
||
was kept symbolizes the golden aura of the soul body.
|
||
|
||
Although the Bible story is not in strict accordance with the events, it
|
||
gives the main facts of the mystic manna which fell from heaven. When we
|
||
want to learn what is the nature of this so-called BREAD, we may turn to the
|
||
sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, which relates how Christ fed the multi-
|
||
tudes with LOAVES AND FISHES, symbolizing the mystic doctrine of the 2000
|
||
years which He was then ushering in, for during that time the sun BY PRECES-
|
||
SION OF THE EQUINOX has been passing through the sign of the fishes, Pisces,
|
||
and the people have been taught to abstain at least one day during the week
|
||
(Friday) and at a certain time of the year from the fleshpots which belonged
|
||
to Egypt or ancient Atlantis. They have been given the Piscean water at the
|
||
temple door, and the Virginian Wafers at the communion table before the al-
|
||
tar when they worshiped the Immaculate Virgin, representing the celestial
|
||
sign Virgo (which is opposite the sign Pisces), and entered communion with
|
||
the sun begotten by her.
|
||
|
||
Christ also explained at that time in mystic but unmistakable language
|
||
what that LIVING BREAD, or manna, was, namely, the Ego. This explanation
|
||
will be found in verses thirty-three and thirty-five, where we read: "For
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 42] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth light unto
|
||
the world--I am (EGO SUM) THE BREAD OF LIFE." This, then, is the symbol of
|
||
the golden pot of manna which was found in the Ark. This manna is the Ego
|
||
or human spirit, which gives life to the organisms that we behold in the
|
||
physical world. It is hidden within the Ark of each human being, and the
|
||
Golden pot or soul body or "wedding garment" is also latent within every
|
||
one. It is made more massive, lustrous, and resplendent by the spiritual
|
||
alchemy whereby service is transmuted to soul growth. It is THE HOUSE NOT
|
||
MADE WITH HANDS, eternal in the heavens, wherewith Paul longed to be
|
||
clothed, as said in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Every one who is striv-
|
||
ing to aid his fellow men thereby garners within himself that golden trea-
|
||
sure, laid up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can destroy it.
|
||
|
||
AARON'S ROD
|
||
|
||
An ancient legend relates that when Adam was expelled from the Garden of
|
||
Eden, he took with him three slips of the TREE OF LIFE, which were then
|
||
planted by Seth. Seth, the second son of Adam, is, according to the Masonic
|
||
legend, father of the spiritual hierarchy of CHURCHMEN working with humanity
|
||
through Catholicism, while the sons of Cain are the CRAFTSMEN of the world.
|
||
The latter are active in Freemasonry, promoting material and industrial
|
||
progress, as builders of the temple of Solomon, the universe, should be.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 43] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
|
||
|
||
The three sprouts planted by Seth have had important missions in the
|
||
spiritual development of humanity, and one of them is said to be the Rod of
|
||
Aaron.
|
||
|
||
In the beginning of concrete existence generation was carried on under
|
||
the wise guidance of the angels, who saw to it that the creative act was ac-
|
||
complished at times when the interplanetary rays of force were propitious;
|
||
and man was also forbidden to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. The nature of
|
||
that tree is readily determined from such sentences as "Adam KNEW his wife,
|
||
and she bore Cain"; "Adam KNEW his wife, and she bore Seth'; "how shall I
|
||
bear a child seeing that I KNOW not a man?" as said by Mary to the angel
|
||
Gabriel. In the light of this interpretation the STATEMENT of the Angel (it
|
||
was not a curse) when he discovered that his precepts had been disobeyed,
|
||
namely, "dying thou shalt die," is also intelligible, for the bodies gener-
|
||
ated regardless of cosmic influences could not be expected to persist.
|
||
Hence man was exiled from the etheric realms of spiritual force (Eden),
|
||
where grows the tree of vital power; exiled to concrete existence in the
|
||
dense physical bodies which he has made for himself by generation. This was
|
||
surely a blessing, for who has a body sufficiently good and perfect in his
|
||
own estimation that he would like to live in it forever? Death, then, is a
|
||
boon to the spiritual realms for a season, and build better vehicles each
|
||
time we return to earth life. As Oliver Wendell Holmes says:
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 44] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!
|
||
As the swift seasons roll.
|
||
Leave thy low-vaulted past,
|
||
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
|
||
Shut tree from Heaven with a dome more vast,
|
||
Till thou at length art free,
|
||
Leaving thine outgrown shell
|
||
by life's unresting sea."
|
||
|
||
In the course of time when we learn to shun the pride of life and the
|
||
lust of the flesh, generation will cease to sap our vitality. The vital en-
|
||
ergy will then be used for regeneration, and the spiritual powers, symbol-
|
||
ized by Aaron's Rod, will be developed.
|
||
|
||
The wand of the magician, the holy spear of parsifal the Grail king, and
|
||
the budding Rod of Aaron are emblems of this divine creative force, which
|
||
works wonders of such a nature that we call them miracles. But let it be
|
||
clearly understood that no one who has evolved to the point in evolution
|
||
where he is symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant in the West Room of the
|
||
Tabernacle ever uses this power for selfish ends. When Parsifal, the hero
|
||
of the soul myth by that name, had witnessed the temptation of Kundry and
|
||
proved himself to be emancipated from the greatest sin of all, the sin of
|
||
lust and unchastity, he recovered the sacred spear taken by the black magi-
|
||
cian, Klingsor, from the fallen and unchaste rail king, Amfortas. Then for
|
||
many years he traveled in the world, seeking again the Castle of the Grail,
|
||
and he said: "Often was I sorely beset by enemies and tempted to use the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 45] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
|
||
|
||
spear in self-defense, but I knew that THE SACRED SPEAR MUST NEVER BE USED
|
||
TO HURT, ONLY TO HEAL."
|
||
|
||
An that is the attitude of everyone who develops within him the budding
|
||
Rod of Aaron. Though he may turn this spiritual faculty to good account in
|
||
order to provide bread for a multitude, he would never think of turning a
|
||
single stone to bread FOR HIMSELF that his hunger might be appeased. Though
|
||
he were nailed to the cross to die, he would not free himself by spiritual
|
||
power which he had readily exercised to save others from the grave. Though
|
||
he were reviled every day of his life as a fraud or charlatan, he would
|
||
never misuse his spiritual power to show a sign whereby the world might know
|
||
without the shadow of a doubt that he was regenerate or heaven-born. This
|
||
was the attitude of Christ Jesus, and its has been and is imitated by every-
|
||
one who is a Christ-in-the-making.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 46] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER FIVE
|
||
|
||
THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY
|
||
|
||
The Western Room of the Tabernacle was as dark as the heavens are at the
|
||
time when the lesser light, the moon, is in the western portion of sky at
|
||
eventide with the sun; that is to say, at the new moon, which begins a new
|
||
cycle in a new sign of the zodiac. In the westernmost part of this darkened
|
||
sanctuary stood the Ark of the Covenant, with the Cherubim hovering above,
|
||
and also the fiery Shekinah Glory, out of which the Father of Light communed
|
||
with His worshipers, but which to the physical vision was invisible and
|
||
therefore dark.
|
||
|
||
We do not usually realize that the whole world is afire, that fire is in
|
||
the water, that it burns continually in plant, animal, and man; yes, there
|
||
is nothing in the work that is not ensouled by fire. The reason why we do
|
||
not perceive this more clearly is that we cannot dissociate fire and flame.
|
||
But as a matter of fact, FIRE bears the same relation to FLAME as SPIRIT to
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 47] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY
|
||
|
||
the BODY; it is the unseen but potent power of manifestation. In other
|
||
words, the true fire is dark, invisible to the physical sight. IT IS ONLY
|
||
CLOTHED IN FLAME WHEN CONSUMING PHYSICAL MATTER. Consider, for illustra-
|
||
tion, how fire leaps out of the flint when struck, and how a gas flame has
|
||
the darkened core beneath the light-giving portion; also how a wire may
|
||
carry electricity and be perfectly cold, yet it will emit a flame under cer-
|
||
tain conditions.
|
||
|
||
At this point it may be expedient to mark the difference between the Tab-
|
||
ernacle in the Wilderness, Solomon's Temple, and the later Temple built by
|
||
Herod. There is a very vital difference. Both the MIRACULOUSLY ENKINDLED
|
||
FIRE on the Brazen Altar in the eastern part of the Tabernacle and the in-
|
||
visible SHEKINAH GLORY in the distant western part of the sanctuary were
|
||
also present in Solomon's Temple. These were thus sanctuaries in a sense
|
||
not equaled by the Temple built by Herod. The latter was, nevertheless, in
|
||
a sense the most glorious of the three, for IT WAS GRACED BY THE BODILY
|
||
PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, CHRIST JESUS, IN WHOM DWELT THE GODHEAD. Christ made
|
||
the first selfsacrifice, thereby abrogating the sacrifice of animals, and
|
||
finally at the consummation of His work in the visible world RENT THE VEIL
|
||
and opened a way into the Holy of Holies, not only for the favored few, the
|
||
priests and Levites, but that WHOSOEVER WILL may come and serve the Deity
|
||
whom we know as our Father. Having fulfilled the law and the prophets
|
||
Christ has done away with the OUTWARD sanctuary, and from henceforth the Al-
|
||
tar of Burnt Offerings must be set up WITHIN the heart to atone for wrong-
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 48] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
doing; the Golden Candlestick must be lighted WITHIN the heart to guide us
|
||
upon our way, as the Christ WITHIN, the Shekinah Glory of the Father, must
|
||
dwell WITHIN the sacred precincts of our own God Consciousness.
|
||
|
||
THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS
|
||
|
||
Paul in his letter to the Hebrews gives a description of the Tabernacle
|
||
and much information about the customs used there which it would benefit the
|
||
student to know. Among other things note that he calls the Tabernacle "a
|
||
shadow of good things to come." There is in this ancient Mystery Temple a
|
||
promise given which has not yet been fulfilled, a promise that holds good
|
||
today just as well as upon the day it was given. If we visualize in our
|
||
mind the arrangement of things inside the Tabernacle, we shall readily see
|
||
the shadow of the Cross. Commencing at the eastern gate there was the ALTAR
|
||
OF BURNT OFFERINGS; a little farther along the path to the Tabernacle itself
|
||
we find the LAVER OF CONSECRATION, the Molten Sea, in which the priests
|
||
washed. Then upon entering the East Room of the Temple we find an article
|
||
of furniture, THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK, at the EXTREME LEFT, and the TABLE OF
|
||
SHEWBREAD at the EXTREME RIGHT, the two forming a cross with the path we
|
||
have been pursuing toward and within the Tabernacle. In the center in front
|
||
of the second veil we find the ALTAR OF INCENSE, which forms the center of
|
||
the cross, while the Ark placed in the westernmost part of the West Room,
|
||
the Holy of Holies, gives the short or upper limb of the cross. In this
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 48A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
ILLUSTRATION:
|
||
|
||
THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS
|
||
|
||
"THE SHADOW OF GOOD THINGS TO COME." PAUL
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 49] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY
|
||
|
||
manner the symbol of spiritual unfoldment which is our particular ideal
|
||
today was shadowed forth in the ancient Mystery Temple, and that consumma-
|
||
tion which is attained at the end of the cross, the achievement of getting
|
||
the law WITHIN as it was within the Ark itself, is the one that we must all
|
||
concern ourselves with at the present time. The light that shines over the
|
||
Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies at the head of the cross, at the end of the
|
||
path in this world, is a light or reflection from the invisible world into
|
||
which the candidate seeks to enter when all the world has grown dark and
|
||
black about him. Only when we have attained to that stage where we perceive
|
||
the spiritual light that beckons us on, the light that floats over the Ark,
|
||
only when we stand in the shadow of the cross, can we really know the mean-
|
||
ing, the object, and the goal of life.
|
||
|
||
At present we may take the opportunities which are offered and perform
|
||
service more or less efficiently, but it is only when we have by that ser-
|
||
vice evolved the spiritual light WITHIN ourselves, which is the SOUL BODY,
|
||
and when we have thus gained admission to the West Room, called the Hall of
|
||
Liberation, that we can really perceive and understand why we are in the
|
||
world, and what we need in order to make ourselves properly useful. We may
|
||
not remain, however, when access has been gained. The High Priest was only
|
||
allowed to enter ONCE A YEAR; there was a very long interval of time between
|
||
these glimpses of the real purpose of existence. In the times between it
|
||
was necessary for the High Priest to go out and function among his brethren,
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 50] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
humanity, and serve them to the very best of his ability, also to sin,
|
||
because he was not yet perfect, and then reenter the Holy of Holies after
|
||
having made proper amends for his sins.
|
||
|
||
Similar it is with ourselves at this day. We at times attain glimpses of
|
||
the things that are in store for us and the things we must do to follow
|
||
Christ to that place where He went. You remember that He said to His dis-
|
||
ciples: Ye cannot follow me now, but ye shall follow me later. And so it
|
||
is with us. We have to look again and again into the darkened temple, the
|
||
Holy of Holies, before we are really fit to stay there; before we are really
|
||
fitted to take the last step and leap to the summit of the cross, THE PLACE
|
||
OF THE SKULL, that point in our heads where the spirit takes its departure
|
||
when it finally leaves the body, or off and on as an Invisible Helper. That
|
||
Golgotha is the ultimate of human attainment, and we must be prepared to en-
|
||
ter the darkened roon many times begore we are fitted for the final climax.
|
||
|
||
|
||
THE FULL MOON AS A FACTOR IN SOUL GROWTH
|
||
|
||
|
||
Let us now consider the Path of Initiation as symbolically shown in the
|
||
ancient Temples with the Ark, Fire, and Shekinah, and in the later Temples
|
||
where Christ taught. Note first that when man was expelled from the Garden
|
||
of Eden because he had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, Cherubim guarded the
|
||
entrance with a flaming sword. Passages like the following, "Adam KNEW Eve,
|
||
and she bore Abel"; "Adam KNEW Eve, and she bore Seth"; "Elkanah KNEW
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 51] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY
|
||
|
||
|
||
Hannah, and she bore Samuel"; also Mary's question to the angel Gabriel,
|
||
"How shall I conceive seeing that I KNOW not a man?" all show plainly that
|
||
indulgence of the passions in the creative act was meant by the phrase,
|
||
"eating the Tree of Knowledge." When the creative act was performed under
|
||
inauspicious planetary rays it was a sin committed against the laws of na-
|
||
ture, which brought pain and death into the world, estranged us from our
|
||
primal guardians, and forced us to roam the wilderness of the world for
|
||
ages.
|
||
|
||
At the gate of the mystic Temple of Solomon we find the Cherubim, but the
|
||
fiery sword is not longer in their hand; instead they hold a FLOWER, a sym-
|
||
bol full of mystic meaning. Let us compare man with a flower that we may
|
||
know the great import and signigicance of this emblem. Man takes his good
|
||
by way of the head, whence it goes downward. The plant takes nourishment
|
||
through the root and forces it upward. Man is passionate in love, and he
|
||
turns the generative organ toward the earth and hides it in shame because of
|
||
this taint of passion. The plant knows no passion, fertilization is accom-
|
||
plished in the most pure and chaste manner imaginable, therefore it projects
|
||
its generative organ, the flower, TOWARD THE SUN, a thing of beauty which
|
||
delights all who behold it. Passionate fallen man exhales THE DEADLY CARBON
|
||
DIOXINE; the chaste flower inhales this poison, transmutes it, and gives it
|
||
back pure, sweet, and scented, a fragrant elixir of life.
|
||
|
||
This was the mystery of the Grail Cup; this is the emblematic sig-
|
||
nificance of the Cup of Communion, which is called "KELCH" in German "Calix"
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 52] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
in Latin, both names signifying the seed pod of the flower. The Communion
|
||
Cup with its mystic blood cleansed from the passion incident to generation
|
||
brings to him who truly drinks thereof eternal life, and thus it becomes the
|
||
vehicle of regeneration, of the mystic birth into a higher sphere, a "for-
|
||
eign country," where he who has served his apprenticeship in Temple building
|
||
and has mastered the "art and crafts" of this world may learn higher things.
|
||
|
||
The symbol of the Cherubim with the open flower placed upon the door of
|
||
Solomon's Temple delivers the message to the aspirant that PURITY IS THE KEY
|
||
by which alone he can hope to unlock the gate to God; or as Christ expressed
|
||
it, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." The flesh must
|
||
be consumed on the Altar of self-sacrifice, and the sold must be washed in
|
||
the Laver of Consecration to the higher life where it may approach the
|
||
Temple door. When "naked," "poor," and "blinded" by tears of contrition it
|
||
gropes in darkness, seeking the Temple door, it shall find entrance to the
|
||
Hall of Service, the East Room of the Tabernacle, which is ablaze with light
|
||
from the Seven-branched Candlestick, emblematic of the luminosity of the
|
||
full moon, the moon changing in cycles of seven days. In this Hall of Ser-
|
||
vice the aspirant is taught to weave the luminour vesture of flame which
|
||
Paul called "some psuchicon," or soul body (1st Cor., 15:44), from the aroma
|
||
of the shewbread.
|
||
|
||
When we speak of the soul body we mean exactly what we say, and this ve-
|
||
hicle is in nowise to be confused with the soul that permeates it.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 53] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY
|
||
|
||
The Invisible Helper who uses it on soul flights knows it to be as real and
|
||
tangible as the dense body of flesh blood. But within that golden "wedding
|
||
garment" there is an INTANGIBLE SOMETHING cognized by the spirit of intro-
|
||
spection. It is unnameable and indescribable; it evades the most persistent
|
||
efforts to fathom it, yet it is there just as certainly as the vehicle which
|
||
it fills-yes, and more so. It is not life, love, beauty, wisdom, nor can
|
||
any other human concept convey an idea of what it is, for it is the sum of
|
||
all human faculties, attributes, and concepts of good, immeasurably intensi-
|
||
fied. If everything else were taken from us, that prime reality would still
|
||
remain, and we should be rich in its possession, for through it we feel the
|
||
drawing power of our Father in Heaven, that inner urge which all aspirants
|
||
know so well.
|
||
|
||
To this inner something Christ referred when He said: No man cometh to me
|
||
except my Father draw him. Just as the true fire is hidden in the flame
|
||
that encloses it, so that unnameable, intangible something hides in the
|
||
sould body and burns up the frankincense extracted from the shrewbread; thus
|
||
it lights the fire which makes the soul body luminous. And the AROMA OF
|
||
LOVING SERVICE to others penetrates the veil as a sweet savor to God, who
|
||
dwells in the Shekinah Glory similar created above the Ark in the innermost
|
||
sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 54] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER SIX
|
||
|
||
THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION
|
||
|
||
When the candidate entered at the eastern gate of the Temple looking for
|
||
light, he was confronted by the fire on he Altar of Burnt Offerings, which
|
||
emitted a dim light enveloped in clouds of smoke. He was then in the
|
||
spiritually darkened condition of the ordinary man; he lacked the light
|
||
within and therefore it was necessary to give him the light without. But
|
||
when he has arrived at the point when he is ready to have evolved the lumi-
|
||
nous soul body in the service of humanity. Then he is thought to have the
|
||
light within himself, "the light that lighteth every man." Unless he has
|
||
that, he cannot enter the dark room of the Temple.
|
||
|
||
What takes place secretly in the Temple is shown openly in the heavens.
|
||
As the moon gathers light from the sun during her passage from the new to
|
||
the full, so the man who treads the path of holiness by use of his golden
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 55] THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION
|
||
|
||
opportunities in the East Room of selfless service gathers the materials
|
||
wherewith to make his luminous "wedding garment," and that material is best
|
||
amalgamated on the night of the full moon. But conversely, as the moon
|
||
gradually dissipates the accumulated light and draws nearer the sun in order
|
||
to make a fresh start upon a new cycle at the time of the new moon, so also
|
||
according to the law of analogy those who have gathered their treasures and
|
||
laid them up in heaven by service are at a certain time of the month closer
|
||
to their Source and their Maker, their Father Fire in the higher spheres,
|
||
than at any other time. As the great saviors of mankind are born at the
|
||
winter solstice on the longest and darkest night of the year, so also the
|
||
process of Initiation which brings to birth in the invisible world one of
|
||
the lesser saviors, THE INVISIBLE HELPER, is most easily accomplished on the
|
||
longest and darkest night of the month, that is to say, on the night of the
|
||
new moon when the lunar orb is in the westernmost part of the heavens.
|
||
|
||
All occult development begins with the vital body, and the keynote of
|
||
that vehicle is "repetition." To get the best out of any subject repetition
|
||
is necessary. In order to understand the final consummation to which all
|
||
this has been leading up, let us take a final look from another angle at the
|
||
three kinds of fire within the Temple.
|
||
|
||
Near the eastern gate was the Altar of Burnt Offering. On that altar
|
||
smoke was continually generated by the bodies of the sacrifices, and the
|
||
pillar of smoke was seen far and wide by the multitude who were instructed
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 56] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
in the inner mysteries of life. The flame, the light, hidden in this cloud
|
||
of smoke was at best but dimly perceived. This showed that the great major-
|
||
ity of mankind are taught principally by the immutable laws of nature, which
|
||
exact from them a sacrifice whether they know it or not. As the flame of
|
||
purification was then fed by the more coarsely constructed and baser bodies
|
||
of animal sacrifices, exacted under the Mosaic law, so also today the baser
|
||
and more passionate mass of humanity is being brought into subjection by
|
||
fear of punishment by the law in the present world-more than by apprehension
|
||
of what my follow in the world to come.
|
||
|
||
A light of a different nature shone in the East Room of the Tabernacle.
|
||
Instead of drawing its nourishment from the sinful and passionate flesh of
|
||
the animal sacrifices, it was fed by olive oil procured from the chaste
|
||
plant kingdom; and its flame was not shrouded in smoke, but was clear and
|
||
distinct, so that it might illuminate the room and guide the priests, who
|
||
were the servants of the Temple, in their ministrations. The priests were
|
||
endeavoring to work in harmony with the divine plan, therefore they saw the
|
||
light more clearly that the uninstructed and careless multitude. Today also
|
||
the mystic light shines for all who are endeavoring to really serve at the
|
||
shrine of self-sacrifice-particularly for the pledged pupils of a Mystery
|
||
School such as the Rosicrucian Order. They are waling in a light not seen
|
||
by the multitude, and if they are really serving, they have th true guidance
|
||
of the Elder Brothers of humanity, who are always ready to help them at the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 57] THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION
|
||
|
||
difficult points on the Path.
|
||
|
||
But the most sacred fire of all was the Shekinah Glory in the West Room
|
||
of the Tabernacle above the Mercy Seat. As this West Room was dark, we un-
|
||
derstand that it was an invisible fire, a light from another world.
|
||
|
||
Now mark this, the fire that was shrouded in smoke and flame upon the Al-
|
||
tar of Burnt Offerings, consuming the sacrifices brought there in expiation
|
||
of sins committed under the law, was the symbol of JEHOVAH THE LAWGIVER; and
|
||
we remember that the law was given to brings us to Christ. The clear and
|
||
beautiful light which shone in the Hall of Service, the East Room of the
|
||
Tabernacle, is the golden-hued Christ light, which guides those who endeavor
|
||
to follow in His steps upon the path of self-forgetting service.
|
||
|
||
As the Christ said, "I go to my Father," when He was about to be cruci-
|
||
fied, so also the Servant of the Cross who has made the most of his opportu-
|
||
nities in the visible world is allowed to enter the glory of his Father
|
||
Fire, the invisible Shekinah Glory. He ceases then to see through the dark
|
||
glass of the body, and beholds his Father face to face in the invisible
|
||
realms of nature.
|
||
|
||
The church steeple is very broad at the bottom, but gradually it narrows
|
||
more and more until at the top it is just a point with the cross above it.
|
||
So it is with the path of holiness; at the beginning there are many things
|
||
which we may permit ourselves, but as we advance, one after another of these
|
||
digressions must be done away with, and we must devote ourselves more and
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 58] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
more exclusively to the service of holiness. At last there comes a point
|
||
where this path is as sharp as the razor's edge, and we can then only grasp
|
||
at the cross. But when we have attained that point, when we can climb this
|
||
narrowest of all paths, then we are fitted to follow Christ into the beyond
|
||
and serve there as we have served here.
|
||
|
||
Thus this ancient symbol shadowed forth the trial and triumph of the
|
||
faithful servant, and thought it has been superseded by other and greater
|
||
symbols holding forth a higher ideal and a greater promise, the basic prin-
|
||
ciples embodies in it are as valid today as ever.
|
||
|
||
In the Altar of Burnt Offerings we see clearly the nauseating nature of
|
||
sin and the necessity of expiation and justification.
|
||
|
||
By the Molten Sea we are still taught that we must live the stainless
|
||
life that of holiness and consecration.
|
||
|
||
From the East Room we learn today how to make diligent use of our oppor-
|
||
tunities to grow the golden grain of selfless service and make that "living
|
||
bread" which feeds the soul, the Christ within.
|
||
|
||
And when we have ascended the steps of Justification, Consecration, and
|
||
Self-Abnegation, we reach the West Room, which is the threshold of Lib-
|
||
eration. Over it we are conducted into greater realms, where greater soul
|
||
unfoldment may be accomplished.
|
||
|
||
But through this ancient Temple stands no longer upon the plains where
|
||
the wandering hosts pitched their camps in the hoary past, it may be made a
|
||
much more potent factor for soul growth by any aspirant of today that it was
|
||
by the ancient Israelites provided he will build it according to pattern.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 59] THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Nor need the lack of gold wherewith to build distress anyone, for now the
|
||
true tabernacle must be built in heaven-and "HEAVEN IS WITH YOU." To build
|
||
well and true, according to the rules of the ancient craft of Mystic Ma-
|
||
sonry, the aspirant must learn first to build within himself the altar with
|
||
its sacrifices, then he must watch and pray while patiently waiting for the
|
||
divine fire to consume offering. Then he must bathe himself with tears of
|
||
contrition till he has washed away the stains of sin. Meanwhile he must
|
||
keep the lamp of divine guidance filled that he may perceive how, when, and
|
||
where to serve; he must work hard to have abundance of "bread of shew," and
|
||
the incense of aspiration and prayer must be ever in his heart and on his
|
||
lips. Then YOM KIPPUR, the Great Day of At-one-ment, will surely find him
|
||
ready to go to his Father, and learn how better to help his younger brothers
|
||
to ascent the Path.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 63] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER ONE
|
||
|
||
THE ANNUNCIATION AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
Much is said in certain classes of the Western World about Initiation.
|
||
This in the minds of most people seems usually to be associated with the oc-
|
||
cultism taught in the religions of the far East; something that is peculiar
|
||
to the devotees of Buddhism, Hinduism, and kindred systems of faith, and
|
||
which in nowise appertains to the religion of the Western World, par-
|
||
ticularly to the Christian religion.
|
||
|
||
We have shown in the preceding series on "Symbols and Ancient and Modern
|
||
Initiation: that this idea is entirely gratuitous, and that the ancient Tab-
|
||
ernacle in the Wilderness pictures in its symbolism the path of progression
|
||
from childlike ignorance to superhuman knowledge. As the VEDAS brought
|
||
light to the devotees who worshiped in faith and fervor on the banks of the
|
||
Ganges in the sunny South, so the Eddas were a guiding star to the sons of
|
||
the rugged Northland, who sought the Light of life in ancient Iceland where
|
||
the sturdy Vikings steered their ships in frozen seas. "Arjuna," who
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 64] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
fights the noble fight in the "Mahabharata," or "Great War," con-
|
||
stantly being waged between the higher and the lower self, difference in
|
||
nowise from the hero of the northern soul myth, "Siegfried," which means,
|
||
"He who through victory gains peace."
|
||
|
||
Both are representative of the candidate undergoing Initiation. And
|
||
though their experiences in this great adventure vary in certain respects
|
||
called for by the temperamental differences of the northern and southern
|
||
peoples, and provided for in the respective schools to which they are re-
|
||
ferred for soul growth, the main features are identical, and the end, which
|
||
is enlightenment, is the same. Aspiring souls have walked to the Light in
|
||
the brilliantly illuminated Persian temples where the sun god in his blazing
|
||
chariot was the symbol of Light, as well as under the mystic magnificence of
|
||
the iridescence shed abroad by the aurora borealis of the frozen North.
|
||
That the true Light of the deepest esoteric knowledge has always been
|
||
present in all ages, even the darkest of the so-called dark, there is ample
|
||
evidence to show.
|
||
|
||
Raphael used his wonderful skill with the brush to embody it in two of
|
||
his great paintings, "The Sistine Madonna" and the "Marriage of the Virgin,"
|
||
which we would advise the interested reader to examine for himself. Copies
|
||
of these paintings are procurable in almost any art store. In the original
|
||
there is a peculiar tint of golden haze behind the Madonna and Child, which
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 64A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
ILLUSTRATION:
|
||
|
||
CHRISTIAN MYSTIC INITIATION
|
||
|
||
THE PATH THROUGH THE HEART
|
||
|
||
LOVE THE BASIC FACTOR
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 65] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
though exceedingly crude to one gifted with spiritual sight, is nevertheless
|
||
as close an imitation of the basic color of the first-heaven world as it is
|
||
possible to make with the pigments of earth. Close inspection of this back-
|
||
ground will reveal the fact that it is composed of a multitude of what we
|
||
are used to call "angel" heads and wings.
|
||
|
||
This again is as literal a pictorial representation of facts concerning
|
||
the inhabitants of that world as could be given, for during the process of
|
||
purgation which takes place in the lower regions of the Desire World the
|
||
lower parts of the body are actually disintegrated so that only the head,
|
||
containing the intelligence of the man, remains when he enters the first
|
||
heaven, a fact which has puzzled many who have happened to see the souls
|
||
there. The wings of course have no reality outside the picture, but were
|
||
placed there to show ability to move swiftly, which is inherent in all be-
|
||
ings in the invisible worlds. The People is represented as pointing to the
|
||
Madonna and the Christ Child, and a close examination of the hand wherewith
|
||
he points will show that it has six fingers. There is not historical
|
||
evidence to show that the Pontiff actually had such a deformity, neither can
|
||
that fact be an accident; the six fingers in the painting must therefore
|
||
have been due to design on the part of the painter.
|
||
|
||
What its purpose was we shall learn by examination of the "Marriage of
|
||
the Virgin," where a similar anomaly may be noted. In that picture Mary
|
||
and Joseph are represented together with he Christ Child under such condi-
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 66] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
tions that it is evident that they are just on the eve of departure for
|
||
Egypt, and a Rabbi is in the act of joining them in wedlock. The left foot
|
||
of Joseph is the foremost object in the picture, and if we count we shall
|
||
find it represented as having six toes. By the six fingers in the Pope's
|
||
picture and the six toes of Joseph, Raphael wants to show us that both pos-
|
||
sessed a sixth sense such as is awakened by Initiation. By this subtle
|
||
sense the foot of Joseph was guided in its flight to keep secure that sacred
|
||
things which had been entrusted to his care. To the other was given a sixth
|
||
sense that he might not be a blind leader of the blind but might have the
|
||
"seeing eye" required to point out the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And it
|
||
is a fact, though not commonly known, that with one or two exceptions when
|
||
political power was strong enough to corrupt the College of Cardinals, all
|
||
who have sat upon the so-called throne of Peter have had the spiritual sight
|
||
in a greater or lesser degree.
|
||
|
||
We have seen in the articles on "Symbols of Ancient and Modern Ini-
|
||
tiation," which preceded the present article, that the Atlantean Mystery
|
||
Temple known as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was a school of soul
|
||
growth; and it should not surprise us to learn that the four Gospels con-
|
||
taining the life of Christ are also formulae of Initiation, revealing an-
|
||
other and a later Path to power. In the ancient Egyptian Mysteries, Horus
|
||
was the first fruit whom the aspirant endeavored to imitate, and it is sig-
|
||
nificant that in the Ritual of Initiation which was in vogue in that day and
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 67] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
which we now call the "Book of the Dead," the aspirant to Initiation was al-
|
||
ways addressed Horus so-and-so. Following the same method today we might
|
||
appropriately address those following the Christian Path of Initiation as
|
||
Christ so-and-so, for as a matter of fact all who tread this Path are really
|
||
Christs-in-the-making. Each in his or her turn will reach the different
|
||
stations of the Via Dolorosa, or Path of Sorrow, which leads to Calvary, and
|
||
experience in his or her own body the pangs and pains suffered by the Hero
|
||
of the Gospels. Initiation is a cosmic process of enlightenement and evolu-
|
||
tion of power; therefore the experiences of all are similar in the main fea-
|
||
tures.
|
||
|
||
The Christian Mystic form of Initiation differs radically from the
|
||
Rosicrucian method, which aims to bring the candidate to compassion through
|
||
knowledge, and therefore seeks to cultivate in him the latent faculties of
|
||
spiritual sight and hearing at the very start of his career as an aspirant
|
||
to the higher life. it teaches him to know the hidden mysteries of being
|
||
and to perceive intellectually the unity of each with all, so that at last
|
||
through this knowledge there is awakened within him the feeling that makes
|
||
him truly realize his oneness with all that lives and moves, which puts him
|
||
in full and perfect tune with the Infinite, making him a true helper and
|
||
worker in the divine kingdom of evolution.
|
||
|
||
The goal attained through the Christian Mystic Initiation is the same,
|
||
but the method, as said, is entirely different. In the first place, the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 68] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
candidate is usually unconscious of trying to attain any definite object, at
|
||
least during the first stages of his endeavors, and there is in this noble
|
||
School of Initiation but no Teacher, the Christ, who is ever before the
|
||
spiritual vision of the candidate as the Ideal and the Goal of all his
|
||
striving. The Western world, alas! has become so enmeshed in intellectual-
|
||
ity that its aspirants can only enter the Path when their reason has been
|
||
satisfied; and unfortunately it i a desire for more knowledge which brings
|
||
most of the p pupils to the Rosicrucian School. It is an arduous task to
|
||
cultivate int he the compassion which must blend with their knowledge and be
|
||
the guiding factor in the use of it before they are fitted to enter the
|
||
Kingdom of Christ. But those who are drawn to the Christian Mystic Path
|
||
feel no difficulty of that nature. They have within themselves an
|
||
all-embracing love, which urges them onward and eventually generates in them
|
||
a knowledge which the writer believes to be far superior to that attained by
|
||
any other method. One who follows te intellectual Path of development is
|
||
apt to sneer superciliously at another whose temperament impels him along
|
||
the Mystic Path. Such an attitude of mind is not only detrimental to the
|
||
spiritual development of whoever entertains it, but it is entirely gratu-
|
||
itous, as the works of Jacob Boehme, Thomas a Kempis, and many other who
|
||
have followed the Mystic Path will show. The more knowledge we possess the
|
||
greater condemnation also shall we merit if we do not use it right. But
|
||
love, which is the basic principle in the Christian Mystic's life, can never
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 69] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
bring us into condemnation or conflict with the purposes of God. It is
|
||
infinitely better to be able to FEEL any noble emotion that to have the
|
||
keenest intellect and one which is able to define all emotions. Hairsplit-
|
||
ting over the constitution and evolution of the atom surely will not promote
|
||
soul growth as much as humble helpfulness toward our neighbor.
|
||
|
||
There are nine definite steps in the Christian Mystic Initiation, com-
|
||
mencing with the Baptism, which is dedicatory. The Annunciation and Im-
|
||
maculate Conception precede as matters of course for reasons given later.
|
||
Having prepared our minds by the foregoing consideration, we are now ready
|
||
to consider each stage separately in this glorious process of spiritual
|
||
unfoldment.
|
||
|
||
THE ANNUNCIATION AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
The Christian Mystic is emphatically not the product of one life, but the
|
||
flower of many preparatory existences, during which he has cultivated that
|
||
sublime compassion which makes him feel the whole world's woe, and conjures
|
||
up before his spiritual vision the Christ Ideal as the true balm of Gilead,
|
||
its practice the only palladium against all human grief and sorrow. Such a
|
||
soul is watched over special care by the divine Hierarchies who have charge
|
||
of our progression along the path of evolution, and when the time is ripe
|
||
for him to enter that life in which he is to run the final race to reach the
|
||
goal and become a Savior of his kind, angels are indeed watching, waiting,
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 70] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
and singing hosannas in joyful anticipation of the great event.
|
||
|
||
Like always seeks like, and and naturally the parents are carefully se-
|
||
lected for (and by such a noble soul from among the "sons and daughters of
|
||
the King." They may be in the poorest circumstances from a worldly point of
|
||
view; it may be necessary to cradle the babe in a manger, but no richer gift
|
||
ever came to parents that such a noble soul. Among the qualifications nec-
|
||
essary to be the parents of such an Ego is that the mother be a "virgin" and
|
||
the father a "builder."
|
||
|
||
It is stated in the Bible that Joseph was a CARPENTER, but the Greek word
|
||
is "tekton" which means "builder." In Mystic Masonry God is called the
|
||
Grant Architech. ARCHE is the Greek word signifying primordial substance,
|
||
and a tekton is a builder. Thus God is the Great Master Builder, who out of
|
||
primordial substance fashioned the world as an evolutionary field for
|
||
various grades of beings. He uses in His universe many tektons, or build-
|
||
ers, of various grades. Everyone who follows the Path of spiritual attain-
|
||
ment, endeavoring to work constructively with the laws of nature as a ser-
|
||
vant of humanity, is a TEKTON or builder in the sense that he has the
|
||
qualifications necessary to aid in giving birth to a great soul. Thus when
|
||
it is said that Jesus was a carpenter and the son of a carpenter, we under-
|
||
stand that they were both TEKTONS or builders along cosmic lines.
|
||
|
||
The Immaculate Conception, like all other sublime mysteries, has been
|
||
dragged down into the gutter of materiality, and being so sublimely
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 71] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
spiritual it has perhaps suffered more by this rude treatment than any other
|
||
of the spiritual teachings. Perhaps it has suffered even more from the
|
||
clumsy explanation of ignorant supporters that from the jeers and sneers of
|
||
the cynic. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, as popularly under-
|
||
stood, is that about two thousand years ago God in a miraculous manner fer-
|
||
tilized a certain Mary who was a virgin, as as the result she gave birth to
|
||
Jesus, an individual who is consequence was the Son of God in a sense dif-
|
||
ferent from all other men. There is also in the popular mind the idea that
|
||
this incident is unique in the history of the world.
|
||
|
||
It is particularly the latter fallacy which has served to distort the
|
||
beautiful spiritual truth concerning the Immaculate Conception. It is not
|
||
unique in any sense. Every great soul who has been born into the world to
|
||
live a life of sublime saintliness, such as required for the Christian Mys-
|
||
tic Initiation, has also found entrance through of immaculate virginity who
|
||
were not besmirched by passion in the performance of the generative act.
|
||
Men do not gather grapes of thorns. It is an axiomatic truth that like
|
||
begets like, and before anyone can become a Savior, he must himself be pure
|
||
and sinless. He, being pure cannot take birth from one who is vile; HE MUST
|
||
BE BORN OF VIRGIN PARENTS.
|
||
|
||
But the virginity to which we refer does not comprehend a merely physical
|
||
condition. There is not inherent virtue in physical virginity, for all pos-
|
||
sess it at the beginning of life no matter how vile their disposition may
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 72] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
be. The virginity of the mother of a Savior is a quality of the soul, which
|
||
remains unsullied regardless of the physical act of fertilization. When
|
||
people perform the first creative act without desire for offspring, merely
|
||
for gratification of their animal lusts and propensities, they lose the only
|
||
(physical) virginity they ever possessed; but when prospective parents unite
|
||
in a spirit of prayer, offering their bodies upon the altar of sacrifice in
|
||
order to provide an incoming soul with the physical body needed at the
|
||
present time to further spiritual development, their purity of purpose pre-
|
||
serves their virginity and draws a noble soul to their hearth and home.
|
||
Whether a child is conceived in sin or immaculately depends upon its own in-
|
||
herent soul quality, for that will unerringly draw it to parents of a nature
|
||
like unto its own. To become the son of a virgin predicates a past career
|
||
of spirituality for the one who is so born.
|
||
|
||
The "mystic birth" of a "builder" is a cosmic event of great importance,
|
||
and it is therefore not surprising that it is pictured in the skies from
|
||
year to year, showing a graphic symbolism in the great world or macrocosm
|
||
what will eventually take place in man, the little world or microcosm. We
|
||
are all destined to experience the things that Jesus experienced, including
|
||
the Immaculate Conception, which is a prerequisite to the life of saints and
|
||
saviors of varying degrees. By understanding this great cosmic symbol we
|
||
shall more easily understand its application to the individual human being.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 73] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
|
||
|
||
The sun is "THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD" in a material sense. When in winter
|
||
time it reaches the extreme southern declination at the solstice on December
|
||
23rd, the people in the northern hemisphere, where all the present religions
|
||
have had their birth, are plunged into the deepest darkness and bereft of
|
||
the all-sustaining vital power emanating from the sun, which is them partly
|
||
dead so far as its influence upon men in concerned. It is therefore neces-
|
||
sary that a new light shine in the darkness, that a SUN OF GOOD be born to
|
||
same humanity from the cold and famine which must inevitably result if the
|
||
sun were to remain in the southern position which he occupies at the winter
|
||
solstice.
|
||
|
||
On the night between the 24th and 25th of December, the sun having com-
|
||
menced to slowly rise toward the earth's equator, the zodiacal sign of
|
||
Virgo, the immaculate celestial Virgin, is on the eastern horizon in all
|
||
northern latitudes (in the hours immediately preceding midnight). In the
|
||
science of astrology it is the sign and degree on the eastern horizon at the
|
||
time of birth which determine the form or body of the creature then born.
|
||
Therefore the Sun of Good is said to have been born of Virgo, the sublime
|
||
celestial Virgin, who remains as pure after giving birth to her Sun Child as
|
||
she was before. By analogy the Son of God who comes to save his fellow men
|
||
must also be born of an immaculate spiritual virgin.
|
||
|
||
From what has been said it is evident that a great period of preparation
|
||
precedes the entrance of a Christian Mystic into the present sphere of human
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 74] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
life, though he in his physical consciousness is usually entirely unaware of
|
||
the fact of the great adventure in store for him. In all probability his
|
||
childhood days and early youth will pass in obscurity, while he lives an in-
|
||
ner life of unusual depth, unconsciously preparing himself for the Baptism,
|
||
which is the first of the nine steps of this method of attainment.
|
||
|
||
--- END OF FILE ---
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 75] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER TWO
|
||
|
||
MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM
|
||
|
||
It is noteworthy that nearly all religious systems have prescribed ablu-
|
||
tions previous to the performance of religious duties, and the worship per-
|
||
formed in the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wil-
|
||
derness, was no exception, as we have seen from the previous articles on
|
||
"Symbols of Ancient and Modern Initiation." After having obtained justifi-
|
||
cation by sacrifice on the Brazen Altar, the candidate was compelled to wash
|
||
in the Laver of Consecration, the Molten Sea, before he was allowed to enter
|
||
upon the duties of his ministry in the sanctuary proper. And it is in con-
|
||
formity with this rule that we find the Hero of the Gospels going to the
|
||
river Jordan, where He underwent the mystic rite of Baptism. When He rose,
|
||
we learn that the Spirit descended upon Him. Therefore it is obvious that
|
||
those who follow the Christian Mystic Path of Initiation must also be
|
||
similarly baptized before they can receive the Spirit, which is to be their
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 76] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
true guide through all the trials before them.
|
||
|
||
But what constitutes Baptism is a question which has called forth argu-
|
||
ments of almost unbelievable intensity. Some contend that it is a sprin-
|
||
kling with water, and other insist upon the immersion of the whole body.
|
||
Some say that it is sufficient to take an infant into church, sprinkle it
|
||
with water despite its protests, and presto! it becomes a Christian, an heir
|
||
of heaven; whereas should it unfortunately die before this sacred rite is
|
||
performed, it must inevitably go to hell. Others take the more logical po-
|
||
sition that the desire of an individual for admission into the church is the
|
||
prime factor necessary to make the rite effective, and therefore wait until
|
||
adult age before the performance of the ceremony, which requires an immer-
|
||
sion of the whole body in water. But whether the rite is performed in in-
|
||
fancy or in laterlife, it seems strange that momentary immersion or sprin-
|
||
kling with water should have the power to save the soul; and when we examine
|
||
the subsequent life of those who have thus been baptized, even in adult age
|
||
and with their full consent and desire, we find little or no improvement in
|
||
the great majority. Therefore it seems evident that this cannot be the
|
||
proper rite, because the Spirit has not descended upon them. Consequently
|
||
we must look for another explanation of what constitutes a true mystic rite
|
||
of Baptism.
|
||
|
||
A story is told of an Ottoman king who declared war on a neighboring na-
|
||
tion, fought a number of battles against it with varying success, but was
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 77] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM
|
||
|
||
finally conquered and taken captive to the palace of the victor, where he
|
||
was compelled to work in the most menial capacity as a slave. After many
|
||
years fortune favored him, and he escaped to a far country, where by hard
|
||
work he acquired a small estate, married, and had a number of children, who
|
||
grew up around him. Finally he found himself upon his deathbed at a very
|
||
rip old age, and in the exertion of drawing his last breath he raised
|
||
himself upon his pillow and looked about him, but there were no sons and
|
||
daughters there. He was not in the place which he had regarded as home for
|
||
so many years, but in his own palace which he thought he had left in his
|
||
youth, and he was as young as when he left it. There he found himself sit-
|
||
ting in a chair with a basin of water close to his chin and a servant en-
|
||
gaged in washing his hair and beard. He had just immersed his face in the
|
||
water when the dream of going to war had started, and a lifetime had been
|
||
lived in dreamland during the few seconds it took until he raised his face.
|
||
There are thousands of other instances to show that outside the physical
|
||
world time is nonexistent and the happenings of millennia are easily in-
|
||
spected in a few moments.
|
||
|
||
It is also well known that when people are under water and in the act of
|
||
drowning, their whole preceding life is reenacted before their eyes with
|
||
crystal clarity, even the minutest details which have been forgotten during
|
||
the passing years standing our sharply. Thus there must be and is a store-
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 78] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
house of events which may be contacted under certain conditions when the
|
||
senses are stilled and we are near sleep or death.
|
||
|
||
To make this last sentence clear it should be understood and borne in
|
||
mind that man is a composite being, having finer vehicles which interpen-
|
||
etrate the physical body, usually regarded as the whole man. During death
|
||
and sleep this dense body is unconscious on account of a complete separation
|
||
between it and the finer vehicles; but this separation is only partial dur-
|
||
ing dream-filled sleep and prior to drowning. This condition enables the
|
||
spirit to impress events upon the brain with more or less accuracy according
|
||
to circumstances, particularly those incidents which are connected with it-
|
||
self. In the light of these things we shall understand what really consti-
|
||
tutes the rite of Baptism.
|
||
|
||
According to the Nebular Theory that which is now the earth was at one
|
||
time a luminous fire-mist, which gradually cooled by contact with the cold
|
||
of space. This meeting of heat with cold generated moisture, which
|
||
evaporated and rose from the heated center, until the cold condensed it and
|
||
it fell again as moisture upon the heated world. The surface of the earth
|
||
being thus subjected to alternate liquidation and evaporation for ages, it
|
||
finally crystallized into a shell which perfectly covered the fiery center.
|
||
This soft moisture-laden shell naturally generated a mist, which surrounded
|
||
the planet as an atmosphere, and this was the cradle of everything that has
|
||
its being upon the earth: man, animal, and plant.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 79] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM
|
||
|
||
The Bible describes this condition in the second chapter of Genesis,
|
||
where we are told that at the time of the first man a mist went up from the
|
||
earth, "for it had not yet rained." This condition evidently continued un-
|
||
til the Flood, when the moisture finally descended and left the atmosphere
|
||
clear so that the rainbow was seen for the first time, the darkness was dis-
|
||
pelled, and the age of alternation, day and night, summer and winter, com-
|
||
menced.
|
||
|
||
By a study of the cosmology and the pictorial account of evolution given
|
||
in the Northern Eddas, treasured among the sages of Scandinavia before the
|
||
Christian Era, we may learn more of this period in the earth's history and
|
||
the bearing which it has upon our subject. As we teach our children, by
|
||
means of stories and pictures, truths that hey could not intellectually
|
||
grasp, so the divine leaders of mankind were wont to teach the infant souls
|
||
in their charge by pictures and allegories, and through these prepare them
|
||
for a higher and nobler teaching of a later day. The great epic poem which
|
||
is called "The Lay of the Niebelung," gives us the story of which we are in
|
||
search, the cosmic origin of the rite of Baptism and why it is necessarily
|
||
the preliminary step in the spiritual unfoldment of the Christian Mystic.
|
||
|
||
The cosmogony of the Eddas is similar to that of the Bible is some re-
|
||
spects, and in others gives points which bear out the theory of Laplace. We
|
||
quote from the poetical version of Oehlenschlaeger:
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 80] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
"In the Being's earliest Dawn
|
||
All was one dark abyss,
|
||
Nor heaven nor earth was known.
|
||
Chill noxious fogs and ice,
|
||
North from murk Niflheim's hole,
|
||
Piled up in mountains lay;
|
||
From Muspel's radiant pole,
|
||
Southwards fire held the sway.
|
||
|
||
|
||
"Then after ages passed,
|
||
Mid in the chaos met
|
||
A warm breath, Niflheim's blast,
|
||
Cold with prolific heat.
|
||
Hence pregnant drops were formed,
|
||
Which by the parent air
|
||
From Muspel's region warmed,
|
||
Produced great Aurgelmer."
|
||
|
||
|
||
Thus by the action of heat and cold Aurgelmer, or as he is also called,
|
||
the Giant Ymer, was first formed. This was the pregnant seed ground whence
|
||
came the spiritual Hierarchies, the spirits of the earth, air, and water,
|
||
and finally man. At the same time the All-Father created the Cow Audumla,
|
||
from whose four teats issued four streams of milk, which nourished all be-
|
||
ings. These are the four ethers, one of which now sustains mineral, two
|
||
feed the plant, three the animal, and all four the human kingdom. In the
|
||
Bible they are the four rivers which went forth out of Eden.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 80A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
ILLUSTRATION:
|
||
|
||
THE SPIRAL PATH OF ORDINARY HUMANITY
|
||
|
||
AND
|
||
|
||
THE WAY OF INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 81] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM
|
||
|
||
Eventually, as postulated by science, a crust must have been formed by
|
||
the continued boiling of the water, and from this drying crust a mist must
|
||
have ascended as taught in the second chapter of Genesis. By degrees the
|
||
mist must have cooled and condensed, shutting out the light of the sun, so
|
||
that it would have been impossible for early mankind to perceive the body
|
||
even had they possessed the physical vision. But under such conditions they
|
||
had no more need of eyes that a mole which burrows in the ground. They were
|
||
not blind, however, for we re told that "THEY SAW GOD"; and as "spiritual
|
||
things (and beings) are spiritually perceived," they must have been gifted
|
||
with spiritual sight. In the spiritual worlds there is a different standard
|
||
of reality than here, which is the basis of myths.
|
||
|
||
Under these conditions there could be no clashing of interests, and hu-
|
||
manity regarded itself as the children of one great Father while they lived
|
||
under the water of ancient Atlantis. Egoism did not come into the world un-
|
||
til the mist had condensed and they had left the watery atmosphere of
|
||
Atlantis. When their eyes had been opened so that they could perceive the
|
||
physical world and the things therein, when each saw himself or herself as
|
||
separate and apart from all others, the consciousness of "me and mine, thee
|
||
and thine," took shape in the nascent minds, and a grasping greed replaced
|
||
the fellow feeling which obtained under the waters of early Atlantis. From
|
||
that time to the present stage of egoism has been considered the legitimate
|
||
attitude, and even in our boasted civilization altruism remains a Utopian
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 82] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
dream not to be indulged in by practical people.
|
||
|
||
Had mankind been allowed to travel the path of egoism without let or hin-
|
||
drance, it is difficult to see where it all would have ended. But under the
|
||
immutable Law of Consequence every cause must produce an adequate effect;
|
||
the principle of suffering was born from sin for the benevolent purpose of
|
||
guiding us back to the path of virtue. It takes much suffering and many
|
||
lives to accomplish this purpose, but finally when we have become men of
|
||
sorrows and acquainted with grief, when we have cultivated that keen and
|
||
ready sympathy which feels all the woe of the world, when the Christ has
|
||
been born within, there comes to the Christian Mystic that ardent aspiration
|
||
to seek and to save those who are lost and show them the way to everlasting
|
||
light and peace.
|
||
|
||
But to show the way, we must know the way; without a true understanding
|
||
of the CAUSE OF SORROW we cannot teach others to obtain permanent peace.
|
||
Nor can this understanding of sorrow, sin, and death be obtained from books,
|
||
lectures, or even the personal teachings of another; at least an impression
|
||
sufficiently intense to fill the aspirant's whole being cannot be conveyed
|
||
in that way. Baptism alone will accomplish the purpose in an adequate man-
|
||
ner; therefore the first step in the life of a Christian Mystic is Baptism.
|
||
|
||
But when we say Baptism, we do not necessarily mean a physical Baptism
|
||
where the candidate is either sprinkled or immersed and where he makes cer-
|
||
tain promises to the one who baptizes him. The Mystic Baptism may take
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 83] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM
|
||
|
||
place in a desert as easily on an island, for it is a spiritual process to
|
||
attain a spiritual purpose. It may take place at any time during the night
|
||
or day, in summer or winter, for it occurs at the moment when the candidate
|
||
feels with sufficient intensity the longing to know the cause of sorrow and
|
||
alleviate it. Then the Spirit is conducted under the waters of Atlantis,
|
||
where it sees the primal condition of brotherly love and kindness; where it
|
||
perceives God as the great Father of His children, who are there surrounded
|
||
by His wonderful love. And by the conscious return to this Ocean of Love,
|
||
the candidate becomes so thoroughly imbued with the feeling of kinship that
|
||
the spirit of egoism is banished from him forever. It is because of this
|
||
saturation with the Universal Spirit that is able later to say: "If a man
|
||
takes your coat, give him you cloak also; if he asks you to walk one mile
|
||
with him, go with him two miles." Feeling himself one and all, the candi-
|
||
date does not even consider the murder of himself as mistreatment, but can
|
||
say: "Father, forgive them." They are identical with himself, who suffers
|
||
by their action; he is the aggressor as well as the victim. Such is the
|
||
true Spiritual Baptism of the Christian Mystic, and any other baptism that
|
||
does not produce this universal fellow feeling is not worthy of the name.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 84] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER THREE
|
||
|
||
THE TEMPTATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
We often hear about devout Christians complain of their periods of de-
|
||
pression. At times they are almost in the seventh heaven of spiritual exal-
|
||
tation, they all but see the face of Christ and feel as if He were guiding
|
||
their every step; then without any warning and without any cause that they
|
||
can discover the clouds gather, the Savior hides His face, and the world
|
||
grows black for a period. They cannot work, they cannot pray; the world has
|
||
no attraction, and the gate of heaven seems shut against them, with the re-
|
||
sult that life appears worthless so long as this spiritual expression lasts.
|
||
The reason is, of course, that these people live in their emotions, and un-
|
||
der the immutable Law of Alternation the pendulum is bound to swing as far
|
||
to one side of the neutral point as it has swung to the other. The brighter
|
||
the light, the deeper the shadow, and the greater the exaltation, the deeper
|
||
the depression of spirit which follows it. Only those who by cold reason
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 85] THE TEMPTATION
|
||
|
||
restrain their emotions escape the periods of depression, but they never
|
||
taste the heavenly bliss of exaltation either. AND IT IS THIS EMOTIONAL
|
||
OUTPOURING OF HIMSELF WHICH FURNISHED THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC WITH THE DYNAMIC
|
||
ENERGY TO PROJECT HIMSELF INTO THE INVISIBLE WORLDS, WHERE HE BECOMES ONE
|
||
WITH THE SPIRITUAL IDEAL WHICH HAS BECKONED HIM ON AND AWAKENED IN HIS SOUL
|
||
THE POWER TO RISE TO IT, as the sun built the eye wherewith we perceive it.
|
||
The nestling takes many a tumble ere it learns to use its wings with assur-
|
||
ance, and the aspirant upon the path of Christian Mysticism may soar to the
|
||
very throne of God times out of number and then fall to the lowest pit of
|
||
hell's despair. But some time he will overCome the world, defy the Law of
|
||
Alternation, and rise by the power of the Spirit to the Father of Spirits,
|
||
free from the toils of emotion, filled with the peace that passeth under-
|
||
standing.
|
||
|
||
But that is the end attained only after Golgotha and the Mystic Baptism,
|
||
the latter of which we discussed in the preceeding chapter. Moreover, it is
|
||
only the beginning of the active career of the Christian Mystic, in which he
|
||
becomes thoroughly saturated with the tremendous fact of the unity of all
|
||
life, and imbued with a fellow feeling for all creatures to such an extent
|
||
that henceforth he can not only enunciate but practice the tenets of the
|
||
Sermon on the Mount.
|
||
|
||
Did the spiritual experiences of the Christian Mystic take him no fur-
|
||
ther, it would still be the most wonderful adventure in the world, and the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 86] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
magnitude of the event is beyond words, the consequences only dimly imagin-
|
||
able. Most students of the higher philosophies believe in the brotherhood
|
||
of man from the mental conviction that we have all emanated from the same
|
||
source, as rays emanate from the sun. But there is an abyss of inconceiv-
|
||
able depth and width between this cold intellectual conception and the bap-
|
||
tismal saturation of the Christian Mystic, who feels it is his heart and in
|
||
every fibre of his being with such an intensity that it is actually painful
|
||
to him; it fills him with such a yearning, aching love as that expressed in
|
||
the words of the Christ: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have
|
||
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
|
||
her wings;" a brooding, yearning, and achingly protective love which asks
|
||
nothing for self save only the privilege to nurture, to shield, and to cher-
|
||
ish.
|
||
|
||
Were even a faint resemblance to such a universal fellow feeling abroad
|
||
among humanity in this dark day, what a paradise earth would be. Instead of
|
||
every man's hand being against his brother to slay with the sword, with ri-
|
||
valry and competition, or to destroy his morals and degrade him by prison
|
||
stripes or industrial bondage under the whiplash of necessity, we should
|
||
have neither warriors nor prisoners but a happy contented world, living in
|
||
peace and harmony, learning the lessons which our Father in Heaven aims to
|
||
teach us in this material condition. AND ALL THE MISERY IN THE WORLD MAY BE
|
||
ACCOUNTED FOR BY THE FACT THAT IF WE BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE AT ALL, WE BELIEVE
|
||
WITH OUR HEAD AND NOT WITH OUR HEART.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 87] THE TEMPTATION
|
||
|
||
When we came up through the waters of Baptism, the Atlantean Flood, into
|
||
the Rainbow Age of alternating seasons, we became prey to the changing emo-
|
||
tions which whirl us hither and yon upon the sea of life. The cold faith
|
||
restrained by reason entertained by the majority of professing Christians
|
||
may given them a need of patience and mental valance which bears them up un-
|
||
der the trials of life, but when the majority get the LIVING FAITH of the
|
||
Christian Mystic which laughs at reason because it is HEART-FELT, then the
|
||
Age of Alternation will be past, the rainbow will fall with the clouds and
|
||
the air which now composes the atmosphere, and there will be a new heaven of
|
||
pure ether, where we shall receive the Baptism of Spirit and "THERE SHALL BE
|
||
PEACE" (Jerusalem).
|
||
|
||
We are still in the Rainbow Age and subject to its low, so we may realize
|
||
that as the Baptism of the Christian Mystic occurs at a time of spiritual
|
||
exaltation, it must necessarily be followed by a reaction. The tremendous
|
||
magnitude of the revelation overpowers him, he cannot realize it or contain
|
||
it in his fleshly vehicle, so he flees the haunts of men and betakes himself
|
||
to the solitude allegorically represented as a desert. So rapt is he in his
|
||
sublime discovery that for the time being in his ecstacy he sees the Loom of
|
||
Life upon which the bodies of all that live are woven, from the least to the
|
||
greatest-the mouse and the man, the hunter and his prey, the warrior and his
|
||
victim. But to him they are not separate and apart, for he also beholds
|
||
the one divine thread of golden life-light "which runs through all and doth
|
||
all unite." Nay, more, he hears in each the flaming keynote sounding its
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 88] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
aspirations and voicing its hopes and fears, and he perceives this composite
|
||
color-sound as the world anthem of God made flesh. This is at first en-
|
||
tirely beyond his comprehension; the tremendous magnitude of the discovery
|
||
hides it from him, and he cannot conceive what it is that he sees and feels,
|
||
for there are no words to describe it, and no concept can cover it. But by
|
||
degrees it dawns upon him that HE IS AT THE VERY FOUNTAIN OF LIFE,
|
||
beholding, nay, more, FEELING its every pulse beat, and with this comprehen-
|
||
sion he reaches the climax of his ecstasy.
|
||
|
||
So rapt has the Christian Mystic been in his beautiful adventure that
|
||
bodily wants have been completely forgotten till the ecstasy has passed, and
|
||
it is therefore only natural that the feeling of hunger should be his first
|
||
conscious want upon his return to the normal state of consciousness; and
|
||
also naturally comes the voice of temptation: "COMMAND THAT THESE STONES BE
|
||
MADE BREAD."
|
||
|
||
Few passages of the sacred Scriptures are darker that the opening verses
|
||
of the Gospel of St. John: "In the beginning was the word . . . .and with-
|
||
out it was not anything made that was made." A slight study of the science
|
||
of sound soon makes us familiar with the fact that sound is vibration and
|
||
that different sounds will mold sand or other light materials into figures
|
||
of varying form. The Christian Mystic may be entirely ignorant of this fact
|
||
from the scientific point of view, but he has learned at the Fountain of
|
||
Life to sing the SONG OF BEING, which cradles into existence whatever such a
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 89] THE TEMPTATION
|
||
|
||
master musician desires. There is one basic key for the indigestible min-
|
||
eral stone, but a modification will turn it to gold wherewith to purchase
|
||
the means of sustenance, and another keynote peculiar to the vegetable king-
|
||
dom will turn it into food, a fact known to all advanced occultists who
|
||
practice incantations legitimately for spiritual purposes but never for ma-
|
||
terial profit.
|
||
|
||
But the Christian Mystic who has just emerged from his Baptism in the
|
||
Fountain of Life immediately shrinks in horror at the suggestion of using
|
||
his newly discovered power for a selfish purpose. It was the very soul
|
||
quality of unselfishness that ld him to the waters of consecration in the
|
||
Fountain of life, and sooner would he sacrifice all, even life itself, that
|
||
use this new-found power to spare himself a pang of pain. Did he not see
|
||
also the Woe of the World? And does he not feel it in his great hearth with
|
||
such an intensity that the hunger at once disappears and is forgotten? He
|
||
may, will, and does use this wonderful power freely to feed the thousands
|
||
that gather to hear him, but never for selfish purposes else he would upset
|
||
the equilibrium of the world.
|
||
|
||
The Christian Mystic does not reason this out, however. As often stated,
|
||
he has not reason, but he has a much safer guide in the interior voice which
|
||
always speaks to him in moments when a decision must be made. "MAN DOES NOT
|
||
LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH FROM GOD";-another
|
||
mystery. There is not need to partake of earthly bread for one who has ac-
|
||
cess to the Fountain of Life. The more our thoughts are centered in God,
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 90] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
the less we shall care for the so-called pleasures of the table, and by
|
||
feeding our gross bodies sparingly on selected simple foods we shall obtain
|
||
an illumination of spirit impossible to one who indulges in an excessive
|
||
diet of coarse foods which nourish the lower nature. Some of the saints
|
||
have used fasting and castigation as a means of soul growth, but that is a
|
||
mistaken method for reasons given in an article on "Fasting for Soul Growth"
|
||
published in the December 1915 number of "Rays from the Rose Cross." The
|
||
Elder Brothers of humanity who understand the Law and live accordingly use
|
||
food only at intervals measured by years. The word of God is to them a
|
||
"living bread." So it becomes also to the Christian Mystic, and the Tempta-
|
||
tion instead of working his downfall has led him to greater heights.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 91] THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER FOUR
|
||
|
||
THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
We remember that by the mystic processes of the true Spiritual Baptism
|
||
the aspirant becomes so thoroughly saturated with the Universal Spirit that
|
||
as a matter of actual fact, feeling, and experience he becomes one with all
|
||
that lives, moves, and has its being, one with the pulsating divine Life
|
||
which surges in rhythmic cadence through the least and the greatest alike;
|
||
and having caught the keynote of the celestial song he is then endued with a
|
||
power of tremendous magnitude, which he may use either for good or ill. It
|
||
should be understood and remembered that though gunpowder and dynamite fa-
|
||
cilitate farming when used for blowing up tree stumps which would otherwise
|
||
require a great deal of manual labor to extract, they may also be used for
|
||
destructive purposes as in the great European war. Spiritual powers also
|
||
may be used for good or ill depending upon the motive and character of the
|
||
one who wields them. Therefore, whoever has successfully undergone the rite
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 92] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
of Baptism and thereby acquired spiritual power is forthwith tempted that it
|
||
may be concerned decided whether he will range himself upon the side of good
|
||
or evil. At this point he becomes either a future "Parsifal," a "Christ," a
|
||
"Herod," or a "Klingsor" who fights the Knights of the Holy Grail with all
|
||
the powers and resources of the Black Brotherhood.
|
||
|
||
There is a tendency in modern materialistic science to repudiate as
|
||
fable, worthy of attention only among superstitious servant girls and fool-
|
||
ish old women, the ideas commonly believed in as late as the Middle Ages,
|
||
that such spiritual communities as the Knights of the Grail at one time ex-
|
||
isted, or that there are such beings as the "Black Brothers." Occult soci-
|
||
eties in the last half century have educated thousands to the fact that the
|
||
Good Brothers are still in evidence and may be found by those who seek them
|
||
in the proper way. Now unfortunately the tendency among this class of
|
||
people is to accept anyone on his unsupported claims as a Master or an dept.
|
||
But even among this class there are few who take the existence of the Black
|
||
Brothers seriously, or realize what an enormous amount of damage they are
|
||
doing in the world, and how they are aided and abetted by the general ten-
|
||
dency of humanity to cater to the lusts of the flesh. As the good forces,
|
||
which are symbolized as the servants of the Holy Grail, live and grow by un-
|
||
selfish service which enhances the luster of the glowing Grail Cup, so the
|
||
Powers of Evil, known as the Black Grail and represented in the Bible as the
|
||
court of Herod, feed on pride and sensuality, voluptuousness and passion,
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 93] THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
embodied in the figure of Salome, who glories in the murder of John the Bap-
|
||
tist and the innocents. It was shown in the legend of the Grail as embodied
|
||
in Wagner's "Parsifal" that when the Knights were denied the inspiration
|
||
from the Grail Cup, on which they fed and which spurred them onto deeds of
|
||
greater love and service, their courage flagged and they became inert.
|
||
Similarly with the Brothers of the Black Grail. Unless they are provided
|
||
with words of wickedness they will die from starvation. Therefore they are
|
||
ever active in the world stirring up strife and inciting others to evil.
|
||
|
||
Were not this pernicious activity counteracted in a great measure by the
|
||
Elder Brothers at their midnight services at which they make themselves mag-
|
||
nets for all the evil thoughts in the Western World and then by the alchemy
|
||
of sublime love transmute them to good, a cataclysm of still greater magni-
|
||
tude that the recent World Wrar would have occurred long ago. As it is, the
|
||
Genius of Evil has been held within bounds in some measure at least. Were
|
||
humanity not so ready to range itself on the side of evil, success would
|
||
have been greater. But it is hoped that the spiritual awakening started by
|
||
the war will result in turning the scale and give the construction agencies
|
||
in evolution the upper hand.
|
||
|
||
It is a wonderful power which is centered in the Christian Mystic at the
|
||
time of his Baptism by the descent and concentration within him of the Uni-
|
||
versal Spirit; and when he has refused during the period of temptation to
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 94] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
desecrate it for personal profit or power, he must of necessity give it vent
|
||
in another direction, for he is impelled by an irresistable inner urge which
|
||
will not allow him to settle down to an inert, inactive life of prayer and
|
||
meditation. The power of God is upon him to preach and glad tidings to hu-
|
||
manity, to help and heal. We know that a stove which is filled with burning
|
||
fuel cannot help heating the surrounding atmosphere; neither can the Chris-
|
||
tian Mystic help radiating the divine compassion which fills his heart to
|
||
overflowing, nor is he is doubt whom to love or whom to serve or where to
|
||
find his opportunity. As the stove filled with burning fuel radiates heat
|
||
to all who are within its sphere of radiation, so the Christian Mystic feels
|
||
the love of God burning within his heart and is continually radiating it to
|
||
all with whom he comes in contact. As the heated stove draws to itself by
|
||
its genial warmth those who are suffering with physical cold, so the warm
|
||
love rays of the Christian Mystic are a a magnet to all those whose hearts
|
||
are chilled by the cruelty of the world, by man's inhumanity to man.
|
||
|
||
If the stove were empty but endowed with the faculty of speech, it might
|
||
preach forever the gospel of warmth to those who are physically cold, but
|
||
even the finest oratory would fail to satisfy its audience. When it has
|
||
been filled with fuel and radiates warmth, there will be no need of preach-
|
||
ing. Men will come to it and be satisfied. Similarly a sermon on brother-
|
||
hood by one who has not laved in the "Fountain of Life" will sound hollow.
|
||
The true Mystic need not preach. His every act, even his silent presence,
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 95] THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
is more powerful that all the most deeply thought-out discourses of learned
|
||
doctors of philosophy.
|
||
|
||
There is a story of St. Francis of Assisi which particularly illus-
|
||
trates this fact, and which we trust may serve to drive it home, for its ex-
|
||
ceedingly important. It is said that one day St. Francis went to a young
|
||
brother in the monastery with which he was then connected and said to him:
|
||
"Brother, let us go down to the village and preach to them." The young
|
||
brother was naturally overjoyed at the honor and opportunity of accompanying
|
||
so hold a man as St. Francis, and together the two started toward the vil-
|
||
lage, talking all the while about spiritual things and the life that leads
|
||
to God. Engrossed in this conversation they passed through the village,
|
||
walking along its various streets, now and then stopping to speak a kindly
|
||
word to one or another of the villagers. After having made a circuit of the
|
||
village St. Francis was heading toward the road which led to the monastery
|
||
when of a sudden the young brother reminded him of his intention to preach
|
||
in the village and asked him if he had forgotten it. To this St. Francis
|
||
answered: "My son, are you not aware that all the while we have been in
|
||
this village we have been preaching to the people all around us? In the
|
||
first place, our simple dress proclaims the fact that we are devoted to the
|
||
service of God, and as soon as anyone sses us his thoughts naturally turn
|
||
heavenward. Be sure that everyone of the villagers has been watching us,
|
||
taking note of our demeanor to see in how far it conforms with our profes-
|
||
sion. They have listened to our words to find whether they were about
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 96] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
spiritual or profane subjects. They have watched our gestures and have
|
||
noted that the words of sympathy we dispensed came straight from our hearts
|
||
and went deep into theirs. We have been preaching a far more powerful ser-
|
||
mon that if we had gone into the market place, called them around us, and
|
||
started to harangue them with an exhortation to holiness."
|
||
|
||
St. Francis was a Christian Mystic in the deepest sense of the word, and
|
||
being taught from within by the spirit of God he knew well the mysteries of
|
||
life, as did Jacob Boehme and other holy men who have been similarly taught.
|
||
They are in a certain sense wiser than the wisest of the intellectual
|
||
school, but it is not necessary for them to expound great mysteries in order
|
||
to fulfill their mission and serve as guide posts to others who are also
|
||
seeking God. The very simplicity of their words and acts carries with it
|
||
the power of conviction. Naturally, of course, all do not rise to the same
|
||
heights. All have not the same powers anymore than all the stoves are of
|
||
the same size and have the same heating capacity. Those who follow the
|
||
Christian Mystic path, from the least to the greatest, have experienced the
|
||
powers conveyed by Baptism according to their capacity. They have been
|
||
tempted to use those powers in an evil direction for personal gain, and hav-
|
||
ing overcome the desire for the world and worldly things they have turned to
|
||
the path of ministry and service as Christ did; their lives are marked not
|
||
so much by what they have said as by what they have done. The true Chris-
|
||
tian Mystic is easily distinguished. He never uses the six week days
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 96A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
ILLUSTRATION:
|
||
|
||
THE PROCESS OF TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 97] THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
to prepare for a grand oratorical effort to thrill his hearers on
|
||
Sunday, but spends every day alike in humble endeavor to do the Mas-
|
||
ter's will regardless of outward applause. Thus unconsciously he works
|
||
up toward that grand climax which in the history of the noblest of
|
||
all who have trod this path is spoken of as the "Transfiguration."
|
||
|
||
The Transfiguration is an alchemical process by which the physical body
|
||
formed by the chemistry of physiological processes is turned into a living
|
||
stone such as is mentioned in the Bible. The medieval alchemists who were
|
||
seeking the Philosopher's Stone were not concerned with transmutation of
|
||
such dross as material god, but aimed at the greater goal as indicated
|
||
above.
|
||
|
||
Moisture gathered in the clouds falls to earth as rain when it has con-
|
||
densed sufficiently, and it is again evaporated into clouds by the heat of
|
||
the sun. This is the primal cosmic formula. Spirit also condenses itself
|
||
into matter and becomes mineral. But though it be crystallized into the
|
||
harness of flint, life still remains, and by the alchemy of nature working
|
||
through another life stream the dense mineral constituents of the soil are
|
||
transmuted to a more flexible structure in the plant, which may be used as
|
||
food for animal and man. These substances become sentient flesh by the al-
|
||
chemy of assimilation. When we note the changes in the structure of the hu-
|
||
man body evidenced by comparison of the Bushmen, Chinese, Hindus, Latins,
|
||
Celts, and Anglo-Saxons, it is plainly apparent that the flesh of man is
|
||
even now undergoing a refining process which is eradicating the coarser,
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 98] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
grosser substances. In time by evolution this process of spiritualization
|
||
will render our flesh transparent and radiant with the Light that shines
|
||
within, radiant as the face of Moses, the body of Buddha, and the Christ at
|
||
the Transfiguration.
|
||
|
||
At present the effulgence of the indwelling Spirit is effectually dark-
|
||
ened by our dense body, but we may draw hop even from the science of chemis-
|
||
try. There is nothing on earth so rare and precious as radium, the luminous
|
||
extract of the dense black mineral called pitchblende; and there is nothing
|
||
so rare as that precious extract of the human body, the radiant Christ. At
|
||
present we are lavoring to form the Christ within, but when the inner Christ
|
||
has grown to full stature, He will shine through the transparent body as the
|
||
LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
|
||
|
||
It is an anatomical fact of common knowledge that the spinal cord is di-
|
||
vided into three sections, from which the motor, sensory, and sympathetic
|
||
nerves are controlled. Astrologically these are ruled by the moon, Mars,
|
||
and Mercury, which are divine Hierarchies tht have played a great role in
|
||
human evolution through the nervous systems indicated. Among the ancient
|
||
alchemists these were designated by the three alchemical elements, salt,
|
||
sulphur, and mercury. Between them and upon them played the spinal Spirit
|
||
Fire of Neptune. It rose in a serpentine column through the spinal cord to
|
||
the ventricles of the brain. In the great majority of mankind the Spirit
|
||
Fire is still exceedingly weak. But whenever a spiritual awakening occurs
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 99] THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
in anyone such as that which takes place in a genuine conversion, or better
|
||
still at the Baptism of the Christian Mystic, the the downpouring of the
|
||
Spirit, which is an actual fact, augments the spinal Spirit Fire to an al-
|
||
most unbelievable extent, and forthwith a process of regeneration begins
|
||
whereby the gross substances of the threefold body of many are gradually
|
||
thrown out, rendering the vehicles more permeable and quickly responsive to
|
||
spiritual impulses. The further the process if carried, the more efficient
|
||
servants they become in the vineyard of the Master.
|
||
|
||
The spiritual awakening which starts this process of regeneration in the
|
||
Christian Mystic who purifies himself by prayer and service, comes also of
|
||
course to those who are seeking God by way of knowledge and service, but it
|
||
acts in a different way, which is noted by the spiritual investigator. In
|
||
the Christian Mystic the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire is concentrated
|
||
principally upon the lunar segment of the spinal cord, which governs the
|
||
sympathetic nerves under the rulership of Jehovah. Therefore his spiritual
|
||
growth is accomplished by faith as simple, childlike, and unquestioning as
|
||
it was in the days of early Atlantis when men were mindless. He therefore
|
||
draws down the great white Light of Deity reflected through Jehovah, the
|
||
Holy Spirit, and attains to the whole wisdom of the world without the neces-
|
||
sity of laboring for it intellectually. This gradually transmutes his body
|
||
into THE WHITE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, THE DIAMOND SOUL.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 100] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
In those, on the other hand, whose minds are strong and insistent on
|
||
knowing the reason why and the wherefore of every dictum and dogma, the Spi-
|
||
nal Fire of regeneration plays upon the segments of the red Mars and the
|
||
colorless Mercury, endeavoring to infuse desire with reason, to purify the
|
||
former of the primal passion that it may become chaste as the rose, and thus
|
||
transmute the body into the RUBY SOUL, THE RED PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, TRIED BY
|
||
FIRE, PURIFIED, A CREATIVE BUDDING INDIVIDUALITY.
|
||
|
||
All who are upon the Path, whether the path of occultism or of mysticism,
|
||
are weaving the "golden wedding garment" by this work from within and from
|
||
without. In some the gold is exceedingly pale, and in others it is deeply
|
||
red. But eventually when the process of Transfiguration has been completed,
|
||
or rather when it is nearing completion, the extremes will blend, and the
|
||
transfigured bodies will become balanced in color, for the occultist must
|
||
learn the lesson of deep devotion, and the Christian Mystic must learn how
|
||
to acquire knowledge by his own efforts without drawing upon the universal
|
||
source of all wisdom.
|
||
|
||
This view gives us a deeper insight into the Transfiguration reported in
|
||
the Gospels. We should remember distinctly that IT WAS THE VEHICLES OF
|
||
JESUS WHICH WERE TRANSFIGURED temporarily by the indwelling Christ Spirit.
|
||
But even while allowing for the enormous potency of the Christ Spirit in ef-
|
||
fecting the Transfiguration it is evident that Jesus must be a sublime char-
|
||
acter without a peer. The Transfiguration as seen in the Memory of Nature
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 101] THE TRANSFIGURATION
|
||
|
||
reveals his body as a dazzling white, thus showing his dependence upon the
|
||
Father, the Universal Spirit. There is a great diversity in present attain-
|
||
ments, but in the kingdom of Christ the differences will gradually disap-
|
||
pear, and a uniform color indicating both knowledge and devotion will be ac-
|
||
quired by all. This color will correspond to the pink color seen by
|
||
occultists as the Spiritual Sun, the vehicle of the Father. When this has
|
||
been accomplished, the Transfiguration of humanity will be complete. We
|
||
shall then be one with our Father, and His kingdom will have come.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 102] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER FIVE
|
||
|
||
THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOTWASHING
|
||
|
||
We are told in the Gospels which relate the story of the Christian Mystic
|
||
Initiation, how on the night when Christ had partaken of the Last Supper
|
||
with His disciples, His ministry being finished at that time, He rose from
|
||
the table and girded Himself with a towel, then poured water into a basin
|
||
and commenced to wash His disciples' feet, an act of the most humble ser-
|
||
vice, but prompted by an important occult consideration.
|
||
|
||
Comparatively few realize that when we rise in the scale of evolution, we
|
||
do so by trampling upon the bodies of our weaker brothers; consciously or
|
||
unconsciously we crush them and use them as stepping-stones to attain our
|
||
own ends. This assertion holds good concerning all the kingdoms in nature.
|
||
When a life wave has been brought down to the nadir of involution and en-
|
||
crusted in mineral form, that is immediately seized upon by another slightly
|
||
higher life wave, which takes the disintegrating mineral crystal, adapts it
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 103] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT WASHING
|
||
|
||
to its own ends as crystalloid, and assimilates it as part of a plant form.
|
||
If there were no minerals which could thus be seized upon, disintegrated,
|
||
and transformed, plant life would be an impossibility. Then again, the
|
||
plant forms are taken by numerous classes of animals, masticated to a pulp,
|
||
devoured, and made to serve as food for this higher kingdom. If there were
|
||
no plants, animals would be an impossibility; and the same principle holds
|
||
good in spiritual evolution for if there were no pupils standing on the
|
||
lower round of the ladder of knowledge and requiring instruction, there
|
||
would be no need for a teacher. But here there is one all-important differ-
|
||
ence. The teacher grows by GIVING to his pupils and serving them. From
|
||
their shoulders he steps to a higher rung on the ladder of knowledge. HE
|
||
LIFTS HIMSELF BY LIFTING THEM, but nevertheless he owes them a debt of
|
||
gratitude, which is symbolically acknowledged and liquidated by the foot
|
||
washing--an act of humble service to those who have served him.
|
||
|
||
When we realize that nature, which is the expression of God, is con-
|
||
tinually exerting itself to create and bring forth, we may also understand
|
||
that whoever kills anything, be it ever so little and seemingly insig-
|
||
nificant, is to that extent thwarting God's purpose. This applies par-
|
||
ticularly to the aspirant to the higher life, and therefore the Christ ex-
|
||
horted His disciples to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves
|
||
notwithstanding. But no matter how earnest our desire to follow the precept
|
||
of harmlessness, our constitutional tendencies and necessities force us to
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 104] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
kill at every moment of our lives, and it is not only in the great things
|
||
that we are constantly committing murder. It was comparatively easy for the
|
||
seeking soul symbolized by Parsifal to break the bow wherewith he had shot
|
||
the swan of the Grail knights when it had been explained to him what a wrong
|
||
he had committed. From that time Parsifal was committed to the life of
|
||
harmlessness so far as the great things were concerned. All earnest aspir-
|
||
ants follow him readily in that act once it has dawned upon them how subver-
|
||
sive of soul growth is the practice of partaking of food which requires the
|
||
death of an animal.
|
||
|
||
But even the noblest and most gentle among mankind is poisoning those
|
||
about him with every breath and being poisoned by them in turn, for all ex-
|
||
hale the death-dealing carbon dioxide, and we are therefore a menace to one
|
||
another. Nor is this a far-fetched idea; it is a very real danger which
|
||
will become much more manifest in course of time when mankind becomes more
|
||
sensitive. In a disabled submarine or under similar conditions where a num-
|
||
ber of people are together the carbon dioxide exhaled by them quickly makes
|
||
the atmosphere unable to sustain life. There is a story from the Indian Mu-
|
||
tiny of how a number of English prisoners were huddled in a room in which
|
||
there was only one small opening for air. In a very short time the oxygen
|
||
was exhausted, and the poor prisoners began to fight one another like beasts
|
||
in order to obtain a place near that air inlet, and they fought until nearly
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 105] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT WASHING
|
||
|
||
all had died from the struggle and asphyxiation.
|
||
|
||
The same principle is illustrated in the ancient Atlantean Mystery
|
||
Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, where we find a nauseating stench
|
||
and a suffocating smoke ascending from the Altar of Burnt Offerings, where
|
||
the poison-laden bodies of the UNWILLING VICTIMS sacrificed for sin were
|
||
consumed, and where the light shone but dimly through the enveloping smoke.
|
||
This we may contrast with the light which emanated clear and bright from the
|
||
Seven-branched Candlestick fed by the olive oil extracted from the chaste
|
||
plant, and where the incense symbolized by the WILLING SERVICE of devoted
|
||
priests rose to heaven as a sweet savor. This we are told in many places,
|
||
was pleasing to Deity, while the blood of the unwilling victims, the bulls
|
||
and the goats, was a source of grief and displeasure to God, who delights
|
||
most in the sacrifice of prayer, which helps the devotee and harms no one.
|
||
|
||
It has been stated concerning some of the saints that they emitted a
|
||
sweet odor, and as we have often had occasion to say, this is no mere fanci-
|
||
ful story--it is an occult fact. The great majority of mankind inhale dur-
|
||
ing every moment of life the vitalizing oxygen contained in the surrounding
|
||
atmosphere. At every expiration we exhale a charge of carbon dioxide which
|
||
is a deadly poison and which would certainly vitiate the air in time if the
|
||
pure and chaste plant did not inhale this poison, use a part of it to build
|
||
bodies that last sometimes for many centuries or even millennia as instanced
|
||
in the redwoods of California, and give us back the rest in the form of pure
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 106] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
oxygen which we need for our life. These carboniferous plant bodies by cer-
|
||
tain further processes of nature have in the past become mineralized and
|
||
turned to stone instead of disintegrating. We find them today as coal, THE
|
||
PERISHABLE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE MADE BY NATURAL MEANS IN NATURE'S LABORATORY.
|
||
But the Philosopher's Stone may also be made artificially by man from his
|
||
own body. It should be understood once and for all that the Philosopher's
|
||
Stone is not made in an exterior chemical laboratory, but that the body is
|
||
the workshop of the Spirit which contains all the elements necessary to pro-
|
||
duce this ELIXIR VITAE, and that the Philosopher's Stone is not exterior to
|
||
the body, but THE ALCHEMIST HIMSELF BECOMES THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. The
|
||
salt, sulphur, and mercury emblematically contained in the three segments of
|
||
the spinal cord, which control the sympathetic, motor, and sensory nerves
|
||
and are played upon by the Neptunian spinal Spirit Fire, constitute the es-
|
||
sential elements in the alchemical process.
|
||
|
||
It needs no argument to show that indulgence in sensuality, brutality,
|
||
and bestiality makes the body coarse. Contrariwise, devotion to Deity, an
|
||
attitude of perpetual prayer, a feeling of love and compassion for all that
|
||
lives and moves, loving thoughts sent out to all beings and those inevitably
|
||
received in return, all invariably have the effect of refining and spiritu-
|
||
alizing the nature. We speak of a person of that sort as breathing or radi-
|
||
ating love, an expression which much more nearly describes the actual fact
|
||
than most people imagine, for as a matter of actual observation the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 107] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT WASHING
|
||
|
||
percentage of poison contained in the breath of an individual is in exact
|
||
proportion to the evil in his nature and inner life and the thoughts he
|
||
thinks. The Hindu Yogi makes a practice of sealing up the candidate for a
|
||
certain grade of Initiation in a cave which is not much larger than his
|
||
body. There he must live for a number of weeks breathing the same air over
|
||
and over again to demonstrate practically that he has ceased exhaling the
|
||
death-dealing carbon dioxide and is beginning to build his body therefrom.
|
||
|
||
The Philosopher's Stone then is not a body of the same nature as the
|
||
plant, thought it is pure and chaste, but it is A CELESTIAL BODY such as
|
||
that whereof St. Paul speaks in the 5th chapter of Second Corinthians, a
|
||
body which becomes immortal as a diamond or a ruby stone. It is not hard
|
||
and inflexible as the mineral; it is A SOFT DIAMOND or ruby, and by every
|
||
act of the nature described the Christian Mystic is building this body,
|
||
though he is probably unconscious thereof for a long time. When he has at-
|
||
tained to this degree of holiness it is not necessary for him to perform the
|
||
foot washing so far as concerns the physical pupil who helps him to rise,
|
||
but he will always have the feeling of gratitude, symbolized by that act,
|
||
toward those whom he is fortunate enough to attract to himself as disciples
|
||
and to whom he may give the living bread which nourishes them to immortal-
|
||
ity.
|
||
|
||
Students will realize that this is part of the process which eventually
|
||
culminates in the Transfiguration, but it should also be realized that in
|
||
the Christian Mystic Initiation there are no set and definite degrees. The
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 108] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
candidate looks to the Christ as the author and finisher of his faith, seek-
|
||
ing to imitate Him and follow in His steps through every moment of exist-
|
||
ence. Thus the various stages which we are considering are reached by pro-
|
||
cesses of soul growth which simultaneously bring him to higher aspects of
|
||
all these steps that we are now analyzing. In this respect the Christian
|
||
Mystic Initiation differs radically from the processes in vogue among the
|
||
Rosicrucians, in which an UNDERSTANDING upon the part of the candidate of
|
||
that which is to take place is considered indispensable. But there comes a
|
||
time at which the Christian Mystic must and does realize the path before
|
||
him, and that is what constitutes Gethsemane, which we will consider in the
|
||
next chapter.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 109] GETHSEMANE THE GARDEN OF GRIEF
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER SIX
|
||
|
||
GETHSEMANE
|
||
THE GARDEN OF GRIEF
|
||
|
||
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
|
||
"And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this
|
||
night; for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be
|
||
scattered. But after that I am risen I will go before you into Galilee.
|
||
|
||
"But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.
|
||
"And Jesus saith unto him, Verily, I say unto thee that this day, even in
|
||
this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.
|
||
|
||
"But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not
|
||
deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.
|
||
|
||
"And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and He saith to
|
||
His disciples, Sit ye here while I shall pray. And He taketh with Him Peter
|
||
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 110] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
saith unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here
|
||
and watch. And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed
|
||
that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. And He said, Abba,
|
||
Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: Nev-
|
||
ertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh and findeth
|
||
them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst not thou
|
||
watch one hour? Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into temptation. The
|
||
spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." --MARK, 14:26-38.
|
||
|
||
In the foregoing Gospel narrative we have one of the saddest and most
|
||
difficult of the experiences of the Christian Mystic outlined in spiritual
|
||
form. During all his previous experience he has wandered blindly along,
|
||
that is to say, blind to the fact that he is on the Path which if consis-
|
||
tently followed leads to a definite goal, but being also keenly alert to the
|
||
slightest sigh of every suffering soul. He has concentrated all his efforts
|
||
upon alleviating their pain physically, morally, or mentally; he has served
|
||
them in any and every capacity; he has taught them the gospel of love, "Thou
|
||
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; and he has been A LIVING EXAMPLE to all
|
||
in its practice. Therefore he has drawn to himself a little band of friends
|
||
whom he loves with the tenderest of affection. Them has he also taught and
|
||
served unstintingly, even to the foot washing. But during this period of
|
||
service he has become so saturated with the sorrows of the world that he is
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 111] GETHSEMANE THE GARDEN OF GRIEF
|
||
|
||
indeed a MAN of SORROWS and acquainted with grief as no one else can be.
|
||
|
||
This is a very definite experience of the Christian Mystic, and it is the
|
||
most important factor in furthering his spiritual progress. So long as we
|
||
are bored when people come to us and tell us their troubles, so long as we
|
||
run away from them and seek to escape hearing their tales of woe, we are far
|
||
from the Path. Even when we listen to them and have schooled ourselves not
|
||
to show that we are bored, when we say with our lips only a few sympathetic
|
||
words that fall flat on the sufferer's ear, we gain nothing in spiritual
|
||
growth. It is absolutely essential to the Christian Mystic that he become
|
||
so attuned to the world's woe that he feels every pang as his own hurt and
|
||
stores it up within his heart.
|
||
|
||
When PARSIFAL stood in the temple of the Holy Grail and saw the suffering
|
||
of Amfortas the stricken Grail King, he was mute with sympathy and compas-
|
||
sion for a long time after the procession had passed out of the hall, and
|
||
consequently could not answer the questions of Gurnemanz, and it was that
|
||
deep fellow feeling which prompted him to seek for the spear that should
|
||
heal Amfortas. IT WAS THE PAIN OF AMFORTAS FELT IN THE HEART OF PARSIFAL BY
|
||
SYMPATHY WHICH HELD HIM FIRMLY BALANCED UPON THE PATH OF VIRTUE WHEN TEMPTA-
|
||
TION WAS STRONGEST. It was that deep pain of compassion which urged him
|
||
through many years to seek the suffering Grail King, and finally when he had
|
||
found Amfortas, this deep, heartfelt fellow feeling enabled him to pour
|
||
forth the healing balm.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 112] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
As it is shown in the soul myth of Parsifal, so it is in the actual life
|
||
and experience of the Christian Mystic: he must drink deeply of the cup of
|
||
sorrow, he must drain it to the very dregs so that by the cumulative pain
|
||
which threatens to burst his heart he may pour himself out unreservedly and
|
||
unstintedly for the healing and helping of the world. Then Gethsemane, the
|
||
garden of grief, is a familiar place to him, watered with tears for the sor-
|
||
rows and sufferings of humanity.
|
||
|
||
Through all his years of self-sacrifice his little band of friends had
|
||
been the consolation of Jesus. He had already learned to renounce the ties
|
||
of blood. "Who is my mother and my brother? They that do the will of my
|
||
Father." Though no true Christian neglects his social obligations or with-
|
||
holds love from his family, the spiritual ties are nevertheless the stron-
|
||
gest, and through them comes the crowning grief; through the desertion of
|
||
his spiritual friends he learns to drink to the dregs the cup of sorrow. He
|
||
does not blame them for their desertion but excuses them with the words,
|
||
"The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak," for he knows by his
|
||
own experience how true this is. But he finds that in the supreme sorrow
|
||
they cannot comfort him, and therefore he turns to THE ONLY SOURCE OF COM-
|
||
FORT, THE FATHER IN HEAVEN. He has arrived at the point where human endur-
|
||
ance seems to have reached its limit, and he prays to be spared a greater
|
||
ordeal, but with a blind trust in the Father he bows his will and offers all
|
||
unreservedly.
|
||
|
||
That is the moment of realization. Having drunk the cup of sorrow to the
|
||
dregs, being deserted by all, he experiences that temporary awful fear of
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 113] GETHSEMANE THE GARDEN OF GRIEF
|
||
|
||
being utterly alone which is one of the most terrible if not the most ter-
|
||
rible experience that can come into the life of a human being. All the
|
||
world seems dark about. He knows that in spite of all the good he has done
|
||
or tried to do the powers of darkness are seeking to slay him. He knows
|
||
that the mob that a few days before had cried "Hosannah" will on the morrow
|
||
be ready to shout "Crucify! Crucify!" His relatives and now his last few
|
||
friends have fled, and they were also even ready to deny.
|
||
|
||
But when we are on the pinnacle of grief we are nearest to the throne of
|
||
grace. The agony and grief, the sorrow and the suffering borne within the
|
||
Christian Mystic's breast are more priceless and precious than the wealth of
|
||
the Indies, for when he has lost all human companionship and when he has
|
||
given himself over unreservedly to the Father a transmutation takes place:
|
||
the grief is turned to compassion, the only power in the world that can for-
|
||
tify a man about to mount the hill of Golgotha and give his life for human-
|
||
ity, not a sacrifice of death but a LIVING SACRIFICE, lifting himself by
|
||
lifting others.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 114] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER SEVEN
|
||
|
||
THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION
|
||
|
||
As we said in the beginning of this series of articles, the Christian
|
||
Mystic Initiation differs radically from the Occult Initiation undertaken by
|
||
those who approach the Path from the intellectual side. But all paths con-
|
||
verge at Gethsemane, where the candidate for Initiation is saturated with
|
||
sorrow which flowers into compassion, a yearning mother love which has only
|
||
one all-absorbing desire; to pour itself out for the alleviation of the sor-
|
||
row of the world to save and to succor all that are weak and heavy-laden, to
|
||
comfort them and give them rest. At that point the eyes of the Christian
|
||
Mystic are opened to a full realization of the world's woe and his mission
|
||
as a Savior; and the occultist also finds here the heart of love which alone
|
||
can give zest and zeal in the quest. By the union of the mind and the heart
|
||
both are ready for the next step, which involved the development of the
|
||
STIGMATA, a necessary preparation for the mystic death and resurrection.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 115] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION
|
||
|
||
The Gospel narrative tells the story of the STIGMATA in the following words,
|
||
the opening scene being in the Garden of Gethsemane:
|
||
|
||
"Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief
|
||
priests and Pharisees came thither with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
|
||
Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon Him went forth and
|
||
said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus
|
||
said unto them, I am He.....Then the band and the captain and the officers
|
||
of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him and led Him away to Annas first.....The
|
||
high priest then asked of His disciples and of His doctrine. Jesus answered
|
||
him, I spake openly to the world.....Why asketh though me? Ask them which
|
||
heard me what I have said unto them; behold they know what I have said. Now
|
||
Annas had sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.....Then they led
|
||
Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment.....
|
||
|
||
"Pilate then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring you
|
||
against this man? They answered and said unto him, If He were not a male-
|
||
factor we would not have delivered Him unto thee.....Then Pilate entered
|
||
into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art
|
||
though the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of
|
||
thyself or did others tell it to thee of me?.....My kingdom is not of this
|
||
world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that
|
||
I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 116] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou
|
||
sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I
|
||
into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is
|
||
of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate said unto Him, What is
|
||
truth?.....Then he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find
|
||
in Him no fault at all. But we have a custom that I should release unto you
|
||
one at the Passover; will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of
|
||
the Jews? Then cried they all again saying, Not this man, but Barabbas.
|
||
now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate therefore took Jesus and SCOURGED Him.
|
||
And the soldiers platted A CROWN OF THORNS and put it on His head, and they
|
||
put on Him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews; and they smote
|
||
him with their hands.
|
||
|
||
"Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, behold I bring
|
||
Him forth unto you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him. Then came
|
||
Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate
|
||
saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore, and of-
|
||
ficers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. Pilate
|
||
saith unto them, Take ye Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him.
|
||
The Jews answered him, We have a law and by our law He ought to die, because
|
||
He made Himself the Son of God.....Pilate sought to release Him, but the
|
||
Jews cried out saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's
|
||
friend; whoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.....They cried
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 117] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION
|
||
|
||
out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them,
|
||
Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but
|
||
Caesar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified. And
|
||
they took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went forth
|
||
into a place called the PLACE OF A SKULL, which is, in the Hebrew, Golgotha.
|
||
There they CRUCIFIED Him and two others with Him, one on either side and
|
||
Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And
|
||
the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."
|
||
|
||
We have here the account of how the STIGMATA or punctures were produced
|
||
in the Hero of the Gospels, though the location is not quite correctly de-
|
||
scribed, and the process is represented in a narrative form differing widely
|
||
from the manner in which these things really happen. But we stand here be-
|
||
fore one of the Mysteries which must remain sealed for the profane, though
|
||
the underlying mystical facts are as plain as daylight to those who know.
|
||
The physical body is not by any means the real man. Tangible, solid, and
|
||
pulsating with life as we find it, it is really the most dead part of the
|
||
human being, crystallized into a matrix of finer vehicles which are invis-
|
||
ible to our ordinary physical sight. If we place a basin of water in a
|
||
freezing temperature, the water soon congeals into ice, and when we examine
|
||
this ice, we find that it is made up of innumerable little crystals having
|
||
various geometrical forms and lines of demarcation. There are etheric lines
|
||
of forces which were present in the water before it congealed. As the water
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 118] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
was hardened and molded along these lines, so our physical bodies have con-
|
||
gealed and solidified along the etheric lines of force of our invisible vi-
|
||
tal body, which is thus in the ordinary course of life inextricably bound to
|
||
the physical body, waking or sleeping, until death brings dissolution of the
|
||
tie. But as Initiation involves the liberation of the REAL MAN from the
|
||
body of sin and death that he may soar into the subtler spheres at will and
|
||
return to the body at his pleasure, it is obvious that before that can be
|
||
accomplished, before the object of Initiation can be attained, the
|
||
interlocking grip of the physical body and the etheric vehicle which is so
|
||
strong and rigid in ordinary humanity, must be dissolved. As they are most
|
||
closely bound together in the palms of the hands, the arches of the feet,
|
||
and the head, the occult schools concentrate their efforts upon severing the
|
||
connection at these points, and produce the STIGMATA invisibly.
|
||
|
||
The Christian Mystic lacks knowledge of how to perform the act without
|
||
producing an exterior manifestation. The STIGMATA develop in him spontane-
|
||
ously by constant contemplation of Christ and unceasing efforts to imitate
|
||
Him in all things. These exterior STIGMATA comprise not only the wounds in
|
||
the hands and feet and that in the side but also those impressed by the
|
||
crown of thorns and by the scourging. The most remarkable example of stig-
|
||
matization is that said to have occurred in 1224 to Francis of Assisi on the
|
||
mountain of Alverno. Being absorbed in contemplation of the Passion he saw
|
||
a seraph approaching, blazing with fire and having between its wings the
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 119] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION
|
||
|
||
figure of the Crucified. St. Francis became aware that in hands, feet, and
|
||
side he had received externally the marks of crucifixion. These marks con-
|
||
tinued during the two years until his death, and are claimed to have been
|
||
seen by many eyewitnesses, including Pope Alexander the Fourth.
|
||
|
||
The Dominicans disputed the fact, but at length made the same claim for
|
||
Catherine of Sienna, whose STIGMATA were explained as having at her own re-
|
||
quest been made invisible to others. The Franciscans appealed to Sixtus the
|
||
Fourth who forbade representation of St. Catherine to made with the STIG-
|
||
MATA. Still the fact of the STIGMATA is recorded in the Breviary Office,
|
||
and Benedict the 13th granted the Dominicans a Feast in commemoration of it.
|
||
Others, especially women who have the positive vital body, are claimed to
|
||
have received some or all of the STIGMATA. The last to be canonized by the
|
||
Catholic Church for this reason was Veronica Giuliana (1831). More recent
|
||
cases are those of Anna Catherine Emmerich, who became a nun at Agnetenberg;
|
||
L'Estatica Maria Von Moerl of Caldero; Louise Lateau, whose STIGMATA were
|
||
said to bleed every Friday; and Mrs. Girling of the Newport Shaker commu-
|
||
nity.
|
||
|
||
But whether the STIGMATA are visible or invisible the effect is the same.
|
||
The spiritual currents generated in the vital body of such a person are so
|
||
powerful that the body is scourged by them as it were, particularly in the
|
||
region of the head, where they produce a feeling akin to that of the crown
|
||
of thorns. Thus there finally dawns upon the person a full realization that
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 120] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
the physical body is a cross which he is bearing, a prison and not the real
|
||
man. This brings him to the next step in his Initiation, viz., the cruci-
|
||
fixion, which is experienced by the development of the other centers in his
|
||
hands and feet where the vital body is thus being severed from the dense ve-
|
||
hicle.
|
||
|
||
We are told in the Gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading, 'JESUS
|
||
NAZARENUS REX JUDAEOREM" on Jesus' cross, and this is translated in the au-
|
||
thorized version to mean, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." But the
|
||
initials INRI placed upon the cross represent the names of the four elements
|
||
in Hebrew: IAM, water; ##?NOUR, fire; RUACH, spirit or vital air; and
|
||
IABESHAH, earth. This is the occult key to the mystery of crucifixion, for
|
||
it symbolizes in the first place the salt, sulphur, mercury, and azoth which
|
||
were used by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher's Stone, the
|
||
universal solvent, the ELIXIR-VITAE. The two "I's" (IAM and IABESHAH) rep-
|
||
resent the saline lunar water: a, in a fluidic state holding salt in solu-
|
||
tion, and b, the coagulated extract of this water, the "SALT OF THE EARTH";
|
||
in other words, the finer fluidic vehicles of man and his dense body.
|
||
N (NOUR) in Hebrew stands for fire and the combustible elements, chief among
|
||
which are SULPHUR and PHOSPHORUS so necessary to oxidation, without which
|
||
warm blood would be an impossibility. The Ego under this condition could
|
||
not function in the body nor could thought find a material expression.
|
||
R (RUACH) is the Hebrew equivalent for the spirit, AZOTH, functioning in the
|
||
MERCURIAL mind. Thus the four letters INRI placed over the cross of Christ
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 121] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION
|
||
|
||
according to the Gospel story represent composite man, the Thinker, at the
|
||
point in his spiritual development where he is getting ready for liberation
|
||
from the cross of his dense vehicle.
|
||
|
||
Proceeding further along the same line of elucidation we may note that
|
||
INRI is the symbol of the crucified candidate for the following additional
|
||
reasons:
|
||
|
||
IAM is the Hebrew word signifying water, the fluidic LUNAR, moon element
|
||
which forms the principal part of the human body (about 87 per cent). This
|
||
word is also the symbol of the finer fluidic vehicles of desire and emotion.
|
||
NOUR, the Hebrew word signifying fire, is a symbolic representation of the
|
||
heat-producing red blood laden with martial Mars iron, fire, and energy,
|
||
which the occultist sees coursing as a gas through the veins and arteries of
|
||
the human body infusing it with energy and ambition without which there
|
||
could be neither material nor spiritual progress. It also represents the
|
||
sulphur and phosphorus necessary for the material manifestation of thought
|
||
as already mentioned.
|
||
|
||
RUACH, the Hebrew word for spirit or vital air, is an excellent symbol of
|
||
the Ego clothed in the mercurial Mercury mind, which makes MAN and enables
|
||
him to control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a rational
|
||
manner.
|
||
|
||
IABESHAH is the Hebrew word for earth, representing the solid fleshy part
|
||
which makes up the CRUCIFORM EARTHY BODY crystallized within the finer ve-
|
||
hicles at birth and severed from them in the ordinary course of things at
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 122] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
death, or in the extraordinary event that we learn to die the mystic death
|
||
and ascend to the glories of the higher spheres for a time.
|
||
|
||
This stage of the Christian Mystic's spiritual development therefore in-
|
||
volves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course
|
||
where it is wasted in generation to satisfy the passions, to an upward
|
||
course through the tripartite spinal cord, whose three segments are ruled by
|
||
the moon, Mars, and Mercury respectively, and where the rays of Neptune then
|
||
lights THE REGENERATIVE SPINAL SPIRIT FIRE. This mounting upward sets the
|
||
pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration, opening up the spiritual
|
||
sight; and striking the frontal sinus it starts the CROWN OF THORNS throb-
|
||
bing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred
|
||
Spirit Fire, which wakes this center from its age-long sleep to a throbbing,
|
||
pulsating life sweeping onward to the other centers in the FIVE-POINTED
|
||
STIGMATIC STAR. They are also vitalized, an the whole vehicle becomes aglow
|
||
with a golden glory. Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the de-
|
||
sire body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy con-
|
||
tained in that vehicle propels upward the SIDEREAL VEHICLE (so-called be-
|
||
cause the STIGMATA in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same
|
||
positions relative to one another as the points in a five-pointed star),
|
||
which ascends through THE SKULL (Golgotha), while the CRUCIFIED CHRISTIAN
|
||
utters his triumphant cry, "Consummatum est" (it has been accomplished), and
|
||
soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he has imitated with
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 123] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION
|
||
|
||
such success and from whom he is thenceforth inseparable. Jesus is his
|
||
Teacher and his guide to the kingdom of Christ, where all shall be united in
|
||
one body to learn and to practice the RELIGION OF THE FATHER, to whom the
|
||
kingdom will eventually revert that He may be All in All.
|
||
|
||
THE END.
|
||
|
||
--- END OF FILE ---
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 125] INDEX
|
||
|
||
INDEX
|
||
|
||
Aaron's rod, not used for self 45.
|
||
one of the sprouts of Tree of Life planted by Seth 42.
|
||
Ablutions, in religious systems 75.
|
||
Adam, took with him three slips of Tree of Life 42.
|
||
Adept or Master, accepted by many on unsupported claims 92.
|
||
Age of Alternation, will fall with the rainbow 87.
|
||
Alchemist, becomes the Philosopher's Stone 106.
|
||
Allegories, infant humanity taught by means of 79.
|
||
Altar of Burnt Offerings, generated darkness 32.
|
||
on path of aspirant 13.
|
||
poison-laden bodies of UNWILLING victims burnt upon 105.
|
||
showed majority taught by law 55-56.
|
||
shows nauseating nature of sin and necessity for justification 36, 58.
|
||
the symbol of Retrospection 21-24.
|
||
SEE ALSO Brazen Altar, Altar of sacrifice.
|
||
Altar of Incense, frankincense burned on 33.
|
||
incense symbolizing aroma of service 35, 53.
|
||
only horns marked with crimson stain 30.
|
||
shoed beauty of selfless service 36.
|
||
strange incense never burned upon 30.
|
||
the Golden Altar 30.
|
||
Altar of sacrifice 35, 39, 52.
|
||
Alternation, Age of, followed the Flood 79.
|
||
Law of, defied by Mystic after Golgotha 85.
|
||
Altruism, considered an Utopian dream 82.
|
||
Amfortas, the stricken Grail King 111.
|
||
Angel wings in "Sistine Madonna," occult significance of 65.
|
||
Angels, attend the birth of the Mystic who is to become a savior 69-70.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 126] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
|
||
Angelus Silesius, quotation from 20.
|
||
Annunciation and Immaculate Conception, precede Baptism 69.
|
||
Arche, Greek word meaning primordial substance 12, 70.
|
||
Ark of the Covenant, at westernmost end of second apartment 38, 46.
|
||
candidate at, never uses powers selfishly 44.
|
||
description of all 13.
|
||
represents man in highest development 40.
|
||
symbolized man hovered over by divine hierarchies 40.
|
||
three articles in: pot of manna, budding rod, tables of law 40.
|
||
Arjuna, in Mahabharata, symbolically the same as Siegfried 64.
|
||
Aroma, of compulsory sacrifice, nauseating 36.
|
||
of loving service a sweet savor to God 53.
|
||
of voluntary service, sweet smelling 36.
|
||
Astrology, in relation to Christian Mysteries 73.
|
||
Atlantean Mystery Temple, a school of soul growth 66.
|
||
ablutions in 75.
|
||
foreshadowed the Rose Cross 11.
|
||
given to satisfy longing for lost spiritual guidance 12.
|
||
Tabernacle in the Wilderness, designed by Jehovah to teach cosmic
|
||
truth 12.
|
||
UNWILLING victims in 105.
|
||
willing service symbolized in 105.
|
||
Atlantis, egoism came into world during 81.
|
||
in Baptism, Mystic conducted under waters of 83.
|
||
Audumla, the Cow, and streams of milk symbolic of ethers 80.
|
||
Aurgelmer, the Giant Ymer, the seed ground of spiritual hierarchies 80.
|
||
Aurora Borealis, and sons of the North 64.
|
||
|
||
Balm of Gilead, the Christ Ideal is the 69.
|
||
Baptism, and Golgotha precede overcoming Law of Alternation 85.
|
||
compared to ablutions in Molten Sea 75.
|
||
correlated to Laver of Consecration 26.
|
||
cosmic origin and necessity of, told in "Lay of Niebelung" 79.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 127] INDEX
|
||
|
||
dedicatory step 69.
|
||
gives Mystic access to Fountain of Life 89-90.
|
||
may take place anywhere in the world 82-83.
|
||
misuse of power of 89.
|
||
Mystic conducted under the waters of Atlantis in 83.
|
||
of Spirit, in the new heaven of pure ether 87.
|
||
orthodox disputes concerning 76.
|
||
orthodox, produces little improvement in majority 76.
|
||
teaches us the cause of sorrow, sin, and death 82.
|
||
the most wonderful adventure in the world 85.
|
||
Benedict the 13th, granted Dominicans a feast in honor of stigmata of
|
||
St. Catherine 119.
|
||
Bible story of Tabernacle, gives main facts of the mystic manna 41.
|
||
Biblical quotations:
|
||
Adam knew Eve, etc., 43, 50.
|
||
Arrest, trials, and Crucifixion 115-117.
|
||
An eye for an eye 17.
|
||
Christ in Garden of Gethsemane 109-110.
|
||
Command that these stones be made bread 88.
|
||
Dying thou shalt die 43.
|
||
Father, forgive them 83.
|
||
Follow Me 26.
|
||
For it had not yet rained 79.
|
||
God is light 15, 31, 39.
|
||
Greatest in the kingdom of God 13
|
||
Heaven is within 59.
|
||
House not made with hands 42.
|
||
I am the Bread of Life 42.
|
||
If a man takes your coat 83.
|
||
I go to my Father 57.
|
||
In the beginning was the word 88.
|
||
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children 86.
|
||
Man does not live by bread alone 89.
|
||
Many are called but few chosen 26.
|
||
No man cometh to me except my Father draw him 53.
|
||
Seven Spirits before the Throne 31.
|
||
Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the
|
||
Holiest Place 38.
|
||
The Spirit is indeed willing, but flesh is weak 112.
|
||
There will I meet thee...and commune from above the Mercy Seat 38.
|
||
They saw God 81.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 128] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself 110.
|
||
Thou shalt not steal 40.
|
||
Though his sins be as scarlet 24.
|
||
Ye cannot follow me now 50.
|
||
Black Brothers, doing enormous amount of damage 92.
|
||
Black Grail, brothers of, starve unless provided with works of
|
||
wickedness 93.
|
||
Powers of Evil, in Court of Herod 92-93.
|
||
Blood, circulation of, relative to retrospection 22.
|
||
purple, poisoned because sinful, symbolized on Temple veils 16.
|
||
spiritual development depends upon 22.
|
||
ties of, renounced 112.
|
||
Blue, color of the Father 15.
|
||
Blue ray, of the Father, gives blue haze 15.
|
||
penetrates consciousness of minerals 15.
|
||
Body, crystallized into the matrix of the finer vehicles 117.
|
||
is the most dead part of the human being 117.
|
||
Book of the Dead, the Egyptian ritual of Initiation 67.
|
||
Brazen Altar, fire on, of divine origin 18.
|
||
keyword of, justification 26.
|
||
made of brass, teaches sin an anomaly in nature 18.
|
||
teaches first lesson, that man advances by sacrifices alone 19.
|
||
|
||
used for animal sacrifice 17.
|
||
SEE ALSO Altar of Burnt Offerings, Altar of sacrifice.
|
||
Brazen Laver, central idea of, "consecration" 26.
|
||
corresponds to Baptism of Jesus 26-27.
|
||
supported by twelve zodiacal animals 25.
|
||
symbol of sanctification and consecration 26.
|
||
symbolic animals of, attracted particular rays 25.
|
||
water in, a potent factor in guiding priests and people 25.
|
||
water in, magnetized by divine hierarchies 25.
|
||
Bread, earthly, unnecessary for Mystic who gains Fountain of Life 89.
|
||
living, is the Word of God 90.
|
||
which fell from heaven, nature of 41, 42.
|
||
Breath, poison in, is in proportion to evil in nature 107.
|
||
Brotherhood of man, mental belief in, contrasted with Baptismal 86.
|
||
sermon on 94.
|
||
Buddha, body radiant with light within 98.
|
||
Buddhism, religion of the Far East 63.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 129] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Budding rod, wand of magician and holy spear, symbolic of creative force 44.
|
||
Cain, sons of, the craftsmen of the world 42.
|
||
Carbon dioxide, a deadly poison, used by plants 105-106.
|
||
exhaled by man, a danger 104.
|
||
Carboniferous plant bodies, become the perishable Philosopher's Stone 106.
|
||
Cardinals, college of, corrupted by political powers 66.
|
||
Candlestick, Golden and Seven-branched 28-29.
|
||
Castigation and fasting 90.
|
||
Cataclysm greater than World War prevented by Elder Brothers 93.
|
||
Catherine of Sienna, stigmata of 119.
|
||
SEE ALSO Golden Candlestick.
|
||
Chemistry, in relation to the light of the indwelling Spirit 98.
|
||
Cherubim, and Father Fire above Ark, represent divine hierarchies 40.
|
||
second veil, wrought with figures of 37.
|
||
with flaming sword at gates of Eden 50.
|
||
with flower at Solomon's Temple, mystery of Grail 51.
|
||
China, spiritual wave started in 13.
|
||
Christ, and the story of the Rich Young Man 26.
|
||
at being tempted the Mystic may become a 92.
|
||
at the foot-washing, compared to Brazen Altar 19.
|
||
author and finisher of Mystic's faith 108.
|
||
entered ministry through baptismal water, comparable to aspirant at the
|
||
Brazen Laver 26.
|
||
fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes 41.
|
||
instituted building of Tabernacle within 47-48.
|
||
kingdom of, transfiguration of humanity in 101.
|
||
made first self-sacrifice, abrogating animal sacrifices 47.
|
||
symbolized by golden light of East Room 57.
|
||
the Son, color of ray is yellow 15-16.
|
||
Christ Ideal, the true balm of Gilead 69.
|
||
Christ Ray, hidden in white part of Temple veils 16.
|
||
Christ within, must dwell in our own God consciousness 48.
|
||
is that which saves 20.
|
||
the radiant extract of human body 98.
|
||
will shine through transparent body as Light of the World 98.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 130] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Christ's self-sacrifice, rent veil of the Temple and opened the way to the
|
||
Holy of Holies 47.
|
||
Christian, crucified, cries triumphantly "Consummatum est" 122.
|
||
crucified, soars into subtler spheres to seek Jesus 123.
|
||
Christian Mysteries, compared to Egyptian 66-67.
|
||
Christian Mystic, after Baptism is both aggressor and victim 83.
|
||
attains superior knowledge 68.
|
||
after Temptation is urged to help and heal 94-95.
|
||
at Temptation becomes Christ, Parsifal, Herod, or Klingsor 92.
|
||
becomes Man of Sorrows, seeking and saving the lost 82.
|
||
builds the Diamond Soul 99.
|
||
childhood and youth of 74.
|
||
conducted under waters of Atlantis 83.
|
||
does not consider murder of himself as mistreatment 83.
|
||
draws down great white light of Deity through Jehovah 99.
|
||
easily distinguished by life he lives 96.
|
||
emotional outpouring is the force which accomplishes Initiation of 85.
|
||
feels every pang of suffering in his own heart 111.
|
||
has cultivated sublime compassion 69.
|
||
has safer guide than reason, in the interior voice 89.
|
||
learns at the Fount of Life to sing Song of Being 88.
|
||
must be born of virgin parents 70-71.
|
||
perceives composite color-sound as the world-anthem of God 88.
|
||
realizes mission as savior in Gethsemane 108.
|
||
the flower of many preparatory existences 69.
|
||
through service is saturated with sorrows of world 110-111.
|
||
watched over with special care by divine hierarchies 69.
|
||
Christina Mystic Initiation, contrasted with Rosicrucian 67, 108.
|
||
nine steps in 69.
|
||
no set and definite degrees in 108.
|
||
Christian religion, usually supposed to have no connection with
|
||
Initiation. 63.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 131] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Christians, professing, usually restrain Faith by reason 87.
|
||
Church steeple, compared to Path of Holiness 57.
|
||
Circle dance, of man, the microcosm, around God 14.
|
||
of planets 31.
|
||
Coal, the perishable Philosopher's Stone from nature's laboratory 106.
|
||
Color, of balanced development of head and heart is pink 101.
|
||
of the Father's vehicle the Spiritual Sun 101.
|
||
Color-sound, the world anthem of God made flesh, perceived by Mystic 88.
|
||
Colors, of Temple veils give us status of Tabernacle 15.
|
||
Communion Cup, brings eternal life 51-52.
|
||
the mystery of the Grail Cup 51-52.
|
||
Communion Table Virginian wafers at the 41.
|
||
Compassion, enabled Parsifal to pour forth healing balm 111.
|
||
must be developed by Rosicrucian student 68.
|
||
prompted Parsifal to seek the spear to heal Amfortas 111.
|
||
radiated by Mystic like heat from a stove 94.
|
||
the only power that can fortify a man to mount Golgotha 113.
|
||
urged Parsifal to seek the suffering Grail King 111.
|
||
Consecration, baptismal waters of 27.
|
||
central idea of Brazen Laver 26.
|
||
Conscience, pangs of, in Purgatory unbelievably acute 22.
|
||
Conversion, or Baptism, a downpouring of the Spirit 99.
|
||
Cosmic formula, primal 97.
|
||
Cosmogony of Eddas, compared to Bible and Science 79.
|
||
Consummatum est, the triumphant cry of the crucified Christian 122.
|
||
Court of the Tabernacle 15.
|
||
worshippers in, prayed while incense arose 31.
|
||
Creative act, performed under inauspicious planetary rays 51.
|
||
Creative force, must be reversed by Christian Mystic 122.
|
||
Cruciform earthly body, represented by Hebrew letter Isabeshah 121.
|
||
|
||
Death, a boon and blessing to exiled man 43.
|
||
and sleep, separation between vehicles in 78.
|
||
inflicted upon priests who failed to wash in Brazen laver 25.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 132] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
meted out to priests who used strange fire on Brazen Altar 19.
|
||
the fruit of indiscriminate eating of Tree of Knowledge 43.
|
||
the mystic 122.
|
||
Desire body, great vortex of, is liberated at Crucifixion 122.
|
||
Development, future, determined by previous living 10.
|
||
Diamond Soul, the Mystic Philosopher's Stone, 99-100.
|
||
Divine Pattern, of progress never given to those who have not made a
|
||
covenant with God 12.
|
||
Dominicans, claimed stigmata for Catherine of Sienna 119.
|
||
Dreams, result of incomplete separation of vehicles in sleep 78.
|
||
Drowning, separation of dense and finer vehicles not complete 78.
|
||
Drowning people, see whole life reenacted 77.
|
||
|
||
East Room, contains paraphernalia for soul growth 32.
|
||
entered only by priests 28.
|
||
golden light of, the Christ light 57.
|
||
light in, knowledge and reason 39.
|
||
mystic significance of 28-35.
|
||
symbolical of soul growth by service 28.
|
||
symbolical of time of full moon 31.
|
||
teaches us how to make the living bread 58.
|
||
the Hall of Service of Three Years' Ministry 32.
|
||
the Holy Place 13, 28.
|
||
the pure light in 56.
|
||
where priest garnered pabulum of the soul 34.
|
||
Eastern gate, candidate poor, naked, and blind, standing without the 19.
|
||
candidate at, subject to the Law Without 40, 54.
|
||
entered by aspirant on path 13.
|
||
Eddas, cosmogony of 79.
|
||
Northern, treasured among sages of Scandinavia 79.
|
||
quotation from Oehlenschlaeger's translation 80.
|
||
Eddas, the guiding star to Sons of the North 63.
|
||
Eden, the etheric realms of spiritual force where grows the tree of vital
|
||
power 43.
|
||
the four rivers of, symbolize ethers 80.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 133] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Egoism came into world after humanity left Atlantis 81.
|
||
Egypt, the Land of the Bull, Taurus 11.
|
||
Egyptian Mysteries, compared to Christian 66-67.
|
||
Elder Brothers, always ready to help at difficult points 56-57.
|
||
prevented cataclysm greater than the World War 93.
|
||
transmute evil thoughts by alchemy of love 93.
|
||
use food only at intervals of years 90.
|
||
Emmerich, Anna Catherine developed stigmata 119.
|
||
Essence of service amalgamated at time of full moon 54-55.
|
||
Etheric lines of force in water 117-118.
|
||
Evolution, law of, higher feeds on lower 19.
|
||
Evolutionary debts, shown in foot-washing 102-103.
|
||
Eyes, in early periods man had no need for 81.
|
||
Equilibrium of the world, would be upset if spiritual powers misused 89.
|
||
|
||
Faith, of Mystic, laughs at reason 87.
|
||
restrained by reason in most Christians 87.
|
||
with head not heart the cause of world's misery 86.
|
||
Fasting and castigation, mistaken methods of soul growth 90.
|
||
Father, Kingdom will revert to the 123.
|
||
represented by the Shekinah Glory 57.
|
||
Spiritual Sun the vehicle of the 101.
|
||
Father in heaven, only comfort in Gethsemane 112.
|
||
Father Fire, above the Ark, invisible and dark 46.
|
||
in 2nd Tabernacle, disciple realizes fellowship with 40.
|
||
the crowning glory of Holy of Holies 32.
|
||
Father ray, blue in color 15.
|
||
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rays of 15-16.
|
||
Fellowship, of the Saints 39.
|
||
with Father Fire felt in 2nd Tabernacle 39-40.
|
||
Fire, ensouls all things 46.
|
||
on Altar of Burnt Offerings, symbol of the Lawgiver 55, 57.
|
||
on Brazen Altar, divinely enkindled flame of remorse 23.
|
||
on Brazen Altar, of divine origin 18.
|
||
relationship of, to flame 46.
|
||
Shekinah Glory, most sacred fire 57.
|
||
the unseen but potent power of manifestation 47.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 134] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
three kinds within the Temple 55, 56, 57.
|
||
First heaven, accurately represented in "Sistine Madonna" 65.
|
||
only head of individual remains when he enters the 65.
|
||
Flesh of man, even now undergoing change 97.
|
||
will become transparent and radiant 98.
|
||
Flower, compared to man 51.
|
||
Food, used by Elder Brothers at intervals of years 90.
|
||
Foods, coarse, prevent illumination of Spirit 90.
|
||
Foot-washing, lesson of, compared to lesson of Brazen Altar 19.
|
||
prompted by occult consideration 102.
|
||
symbolizes debt of gratitude to younger brothers 103, 107.
|
||
Formula, primal cosmic 97.
|
||
Fountain of Life, and sermon on brotherhood 94.
|
||
Mystic at the 88.
|
||
Four rivers of Eden, the four ethers 80.
|
||
Frankincense, combined with other sweet spices on Altar of Incense 30.
|
||
of soul growth is the aroma of shewbread of service 34.
|
||
placed on shewbread 29-30.
|
||
the aroma of the shewbread 32, 33.
|
||
Freemason, a child of Light, builder of mystic Temple 13.
|
||
must be servant of all 13.
|
||
SEE ALSO, Mason, Mystic Mason, etc.
|
||
Full moon, a factor in soul growth 50.
|
||
East Room symbolical of 31.
|
||
favorable for extracting frankincense of soul growth 34.
|
||
time of amalgamation of essence of service 55.
|
||
|
||
Gate of the Tabernacle, aspirant a child of sin under th law at 40.
|
||
enclosed with blue, scarlet, and purple curtain 15.
|
||
Generation, will cease to sap vitality and Aaron's Rod will bloom 44.
|
||
Genius of Evil, held within bounds by Elder Brothers 93.
|
||
Gethsemane, agony of, is priceless 113.
|
||
Christian Mystic realizes path before him in 108.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 135] INDEX
|
||
|
||
grief transmuted into compassion in 113.
|
||
marks union of heart and mind 114.
|
||
occultist finds here the heart which gives zeal to the quest 114.
|
||
one of saddest and most difficult experiences 110.
|
||
opens Mystic's eyes to his mission as savior 114.
|
||
paths of Mystic and Occultist converge at 114.
|
||
teaches Mystic the only source of comfort, the Father 112.
|
||
the crowning grief is desertion by spiritual friends 112.
|
||
watered with tears for sorrows of humanity 112.
|
||
Gilead, Christ Ideal is the true balm of 69.
|
||
God, the Grand Architect 12, 70.
|
||
"God Is Light," meaning of three primary colors 15.
|
||
Golden Altar, the Altar of Incense 30.
|
||
Golden life-light, seen by Mystic on Loom of Life 87.
|
||
Golden Candlestick, emblematic of full moon and cycles 52.
|
||
fed by olive oil, symbolizes willing service 105.
|
||
filled East Room with Light 31.
|
||
light of, compared to flame of Burnt Offerings 32.
|
||
must be lighted within our own hearts to guide us 48.
|
||
symbolized Seven Spirits before the Throne 31.
|
||
Golden Pot, containing Manna, hidden within each human being 42.
|
||
is the house not made with hands 42.
|
||
symbolizes golden aura of soul body 41-42.
|
||
Golden Wedding Garment, of Mystic and Occultist 100.
|
||
Golgotha, and Baptism precede conquering of Law of Alternation 85.
|
||
place of the skull where spirit takes departure 50.
|
||
represents a living sacrifice 113.
|
||
the skull 122.
|
||
the ultimate of human attainment 50.
|
||
Gospels, formulae of Initiation 66.
|
||
Grail Knights, and the Black Brotherhood 92, 93.
|
||
swan of the 104.
|
||
Grail Cup, mystery of, shown in flower held by Cherubim 51.
|
||
Grain, in shewbread represents opportunities for soul growth 33.
|
||
Grand Architect, God the 70.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 136] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Gunpowder, and dynamite, uses of, compared to spiritual power 91.
|
||
Gurnemanz, questions Parsifal 111.
|
||
|
||
Hall of Service, aspirant weaves soma psuchicon in 49.
|
||
Healing balm, poured forth by Parsifal through compassion 111.
|
||
Heaven world, accurately represented in "Sistine Madonna" 64-65.
|
||
Herod's Temple, most glorious of the three Temples 47.
|
||
vitally different from Temple of Solomon and Tabernacle 47.
|
||
Herod, at Temptation Mystic may become a 92.
|
||
High Priest, entered Hall of Liberation once a year 49.
|
||
reentered Holy of Holies after making amends for sin 50.
|
||
Higher Self, why dangerous to disregard precepts given 19.
|
||
Hindu Yogi, seals up candidate in cave at certain grade of Initiation 107.
|
||
Hinduism, religion of the far East 63.
|
||
Holy Grail, lustre enhanced by deeds of service 92.
|
||
Parsifal stood in the Temple of the 11.
|
||
Holy Place, the. SEE East Room.
|
||
Holy spear, wand of magician and budding Rod 44.
|
||
Holy Spirit, gives red color to man's flesh and blood 16.
|
||
Holy Water, renders people amenable to priestly rule 25.
|
||
takes on effluvia from strong magnetic personality 25.
|
||
Horus, the first fruit, aspirant in Egyptian Initiations 66-67.
|
||
Human body, alchemically changed to living stone through Transfiguration 97.
|
||
Humanity, all emanate from same source, as rays from sun 86.
|
||
ready to range itself on side of evil 93.
|
||
Humanity, divided into twelve groups at time of Tabernacle 25.
|
||
mourns the loss of spiritual sight and divine guides
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 137] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Iabeshah, the Hebrew word for earth, the cruciform earthy body 121.
|
||
Iam, the Hebrew word signifying water 121.
|
||
Ice crystals, form along lines of etheric lines of force 117-118.
|
||
Illumination of spirit impossible to one who indulges in coarse foods 90.
|
||
Immaculate Conception, a prerequisite to life of saints and saviors 72.
|
||
and Annunciation, precede Baptism 69.
|
||
true nature of 70-71.
|
||
Immortality, not mentioned in Old Testament 18.
|
||
Incantations, practiced legitimately for spiritual purposes 89.
|
||
Incense, ascended with prayers of worshipers in the Court 31.
|
||
on Golden Altar 30.
|
||
on shewbread, burned when bread was changed 30.
|
||
symbolical of willing service 105.
|
||
the aroma of service 35, 53.
|
||
Indian Mutiny, story of 104.
|
||
Indwelling spirit, effulgence of, darkened by dense body 94.
|
||
Initiation, a cosmic process of enlightenment and evolution of power 67.
|
||
cannot be accomplished until interlocking grip of etheric and
|
||
physical bodies is dissolved 118.
|
||
experiences of all similar in main features in 63.
|
||
usually associated only with Eastern occultism 63.
|
||
Intellectuals, attitude toward Mystic unwarranted 68.
|
||
Invisible Helpers born at time of the new moon 55.
|
||
INRI, meaning of 120.
|
||
Intuition, the interior voice which guides the Mystic 89.
|
||
Israelites, did right through immediate reward or punishment 18.
|
||
|
||
Jacob Boehme, example of Mystic 68.
|
||
knew the mysteries of life 96.
|
||
Jerusalem, attained by majority when they have the LIVING faith 87.
|
||
meaning of 87.
|
||
the new heaven of pure ether 87.
|
||
Jesus, a tekton 13.
|
||
is teacher and guide to the kingdom of Christ 123.
|
||
Jehovah, symbolized in fire on Brazen Altar 57.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 138] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
John, sublime Gospel of, teaches that God is Light 15.
|
||
John the Baptist and Salome 93.
|
||
Jordan, Baptism in, corresponds to Laver of Purification 75.
|
||
Joseph, a carpenter, tekton, or builder 70.
|
||
in Marriage of the Virgin, has six toes 65-66.
|
||
the father of Jesus, was a tekton 12-13.
|
||
Justification, consecration and self-abnegation 58.
|
||
taught by Altar of Burnt Offerings 58.
|
||
|
||
Keynotes of life, heard by Mystic 88.
|
||
Kingdom of Christ, Rosicrucian pupils must learn compassion before
|
||
they can enter the 68.
|
||
transfiguration of humanity complete in 101.
|
||
uniform color of soul body acquired in 101.
|
||
will revert to the Father 123.
|
||
Klingsor, at Temptation Mystic may become a 92.
|
||
fights Knights of the Grail 92, 93.
|
||
Knights of the Grail, deprived of inspiration from Grail Cup 93.
|
||
Knowledge, of Christian Mystic 68.
|
||
Way of, also brings seeker to regeneration 99.
|
||
|
||
Laver of Consecration, SEE Brazen Laver.
|
||
Law, a taskmaster at the Eastern gate 40.
|
||
brings us to Christ, symbol the Altar of Burnt Offerings 57.
|
||
Law of Alternation, in life of Mystic 84, 85, 87.
|
||
defied after Golgotha and Baptism 85.
|
||
Law of Consequence 82.
|
||
Law within, the consummation attained at end of the cross 49.
|
||
Lay of Niebelung, gives cosmic origin of Baptism 79.
|
||
L'Estatica Maria Von Moerl, received stigmata 119.
|
||
Life of Christian Mystic marked not by words but deeds 96.
|
||
Light, dimly perceived through smoke at Brazen Altar 20.
|
||
of Christ within, must be developed to enter the Most Holy place 39.
|
||
in the East Room fed by olive oil 56.
|
||
over Mercy Seat, reflection from invisible world 49.
|
||
present in the darkest ages 64.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 139] INDEX
|
||
|
||
refracted into three primary colors 15.
|
||
Light within, disciple vibrates to Shekinah Glory by means of 39-40.
|
||
Light without, given at Eastern gate 40, 54.
|
||
Living bread of Christian Mystic 90.
|
||
Loom of Life, seen by Christian Mystic 87.
|
||
Lost Word, mystic Mason seeks for the 9.
|
||
Louise ##?Lateau, received stigmata 119.
|
||
Love, basic principle, can never conflict with God's purpose 68-69.
|
||
of God, burns in the heart of Christian Mystic 94.
|
||
the basic principle in Christian Mystic Initiation 68-69.
|
||
Love rays, of Mystic 94.
|
||
Lust and unchastity, greatest sins of all 44.
|
||
|
||
Mahabharata, Arjuna symbolically the same as Siegfried 64.
|
||
Man of Sorrows, through service the Mystic becomes a 111.
|
||
Man, a composite being 78.
|
||
compared to flower, the mystery of the Grail 51.
|
||
exiled from etheric realms of spiritual force, Eden 43.
|
||
microcosmic world in circle dance around God 14.
|
||
Mankind, had no need of eyes in early stages of evolution 81.
|
||
|
||
the prodigal sons of the Father in heaven 9.
|
||
Manna, nature of, described in sixth chapter of John 41.
|
||
the human spirit that descended from the Father 41-42.
|
||
Marriage of the Virgin, description and meaning of 64-65.
|
||
Mason, derived from Egyptian "phree messen" 12.
|
||
SEE ALSO, Mystic Mason and Freemason.
|
||
Masonry, why it harks back to Temple of Solomon 11.
|
||
still builds the ancient Tabernacle 59.
|
||
Master, or Adept, accepted by many on unsupported claims 92.
|
||
Mercury, salt, and sulphur, in alchemy 98.
|
||
Mercy Seat 38, 49.
|
||
Mind, humanity endowed with in Atlantis 12.
|
||
Mineral kingdom, may be turned into gold or food 89.
|
||
one basic key for 89.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 140] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Molten Sea, ablution in, compared to Baptism 75.
|
||
aspirant sanctified in stream flowing from 26.
|
||
corresponds to Baptism of Jesus 26-27.
|
||
laver of, teaches Mystic Mason the voice of the Master within 27.
|
||
teaches the stainless life of holiness 58.
|
||
Moon, Mars, and Mercury, in alchemy 98.
|
||
Moses, face radiant with light from within 98.
|
||
led his people out of Egypt, land of the Bull 11.
|
||
set Israelites free to worship the Lamb, Aries 11.
|
||
stories of, as with Noah, refer to Atlantis 11-12.
|
||
Mystic, SEE Christian Mystic.
|
||
Mystic birth, portrayed in macrocosm 72.
|
||
Mystic death, the 122.
|
||
Mystic Marriage, necessitates making of shewbread 34.
|
||
Mystic Mason, a child of light 36.
|
||
must build Altar of Service, and wait for divine fire 59.
|
||
must reap living bread 33.
|
||
must regard earthly possessions only as sacred trust 26.
|
||
Mystic Masonry, calls God the Grand Architect 70.
|
||
Mrs. Girling, of Newport Shaker Community, received stigmata 119.
|
||
Myths, basis of, the spiritual standard of reality 81.
|
||
|
||
Noah and his people, formed nucleus of humanity of Rainbow Age 11.
|
||
Nebular Theory and Genesis 78-79.
|
||
Neptune, lights the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire 122.
|
||
ruler of spinal Spirit Fire 98.
|
||
Neptunian spinal Spirit Fire, an essential element in alchemy 106.
|
||
New moon, candidate closest to the Father Fire at 55.
|
||
Niebelung, Lay of the, gives the story of Baptism 79.
|
||
Nour, Hebrew word signifying fire 121.
|
||
|
||
Occult development, begins with vital body 55.
|
||
Occultist, finds in Gethsemane the heart of love 114.
|
||
spinal fire endeavors to infuse desire with reason to create Ruby
|
||
Soul 100.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 141] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Oehlenschlaeger, quotation from poetic translation of Eddas by 79-80.
|
||
Old Testament, does not mention immortality 18.
|
||
Olive oil, fed the pure flame in the East Room 56.
|
||
Oliver Wendall Holmes, quotations from 44.
|
||
Ottoman King, story of, illustrates non-existence of time in inner
|
||
worlds 76-77.
|
||
|
||
Parents of Christian Mystic, qualifications for 70.
|
||
Parsifal, a soul myth for Christian Mystics 112.
|
||
at Temptation, Mystic may become a 92.
|
||
free from lust secures the holy spear 44.
|
||
held in path of virtue by pain of Amfortas felt in his heart 111.
|
||
quotation from: "Often was I beset by enemies" 44.
|
||
|
||
the seeking soul breaks the bow 104.
|
||
Path of Holiness, likened to church steeple 57.
|
||
Paul, in letter to Hebrews, describes Tabernacle 48.
|
||
Persian temples of Initiation 64.
|
||
Peter, throne of 66.
|
||
Philosopher's Stone, a celestial body 107.
|
||
a soft diamond or ruby 107.
|
||
alchemical process culminates at Transfiguration 107.
|
||
elements of, symbolized by INRI 120, 121.
|
||
not made in exterior laboratory 106.
|
||
Phree messen, children of light 12.
|
||
Piscean Water at temple door, and Virginian wafers 41.
|
||
who used strange fire on Brazen Altar met death 19.
|
||
Pitchblende, dense black mineral from which radium is obtained 98.
|
||
Poison, contained in the breath in proportion to evil of nature 107.
|
||
Pope, in "Sistine Madonna" has six fingers 65.
|
||
Pope Alexander the Fourth, an eye-witness of St. Francis's stigmata 119.
|
||
Pope Sixtus the Fourth, forbade representation of St. Catherine's
|
||
stigmata 119.
|
||
Popes, possessed spiritual sight with few exceptions 66.
|
||
Powers, spiritual, may be used for good or evil 91.
|
||
Priest, of Catholic Church, magnetizes holy water 25.
|
||
Priests, alone allowed to enter East Room 28.
|
||
Primal cosmic formula 97.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 142] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Purgatorial existence, basis of, pictures on seed atom 22.
|
||
we suffer pangs of conscience unbelievable acute in 22.
|
||
Prodigal sons, mankind are the 9.
|
||
Purity the key to the gates of God 52.
|
||
Radium, the luminous extract of pitchblende 98.
|
||
Rainbow, after the Flood heralded Age of Alternation 79.
|
||
falls with air and clouds, leaving new heaven of pure ether 87.
|
||
Rainbow Age, and Law of Alternation in life of Mystic 87.
|
||
Noah and his people formed nucleus for 11.
|
||
Raphael, embodied occult truths in two great paintings 64.
|
||
symbolizes Initiation of the Pope and Joseph 65-66.
|
||
Reason, Christian Mystic has none, but interior voice a safer guide 89.
|
||
contrasted with faith of the Mystic 87.
|
||
Red, color of the Holy Spirit 15.
|
||
Regeneration, the process of 99.
|
||
Regenerative spinal Spirit Fire, lit by Neptune in spinal cord 122.
|
||
Relaxation, essential to retrospection 22.
|
||
Religion of the Father 123.
|
||
Religions, must meet needs of the people 17.
|
||
Remorse, divinely enkindled fire must burn to very marrow of bones 23.
|
||
eradicates pictures from seed atom 24.
|
||
Repetition, the key to the vital body 55.
|
||
Retrospection, conditions necessary in 22.
|
||
elevates us to higher level of spirituality 24.
|
||
remorse, the flame on Altar of sacrifice 39.
|
||
scientific evening exercises, wipes away record of sins 24.
|
||
scientifically designed by Western Hierophants 21.
|
||
the Rosicrucian student's Brazen Altar 21, 33-34.
|
||
the sanctuary from law of cause and effect 24.
|
||
Rosicrucian method of Initiation, contrasted with Christian Mystic 67-68.
|
||
Rosicrucian Order, mystic light still shines for pupils of 56.
|
||
Rosicrucian student, attracted by desire for knowledge 68.
|
||
Ruach, Hebrew word for spirit or vital air 121.
|
||
Ruby Soul, the Philosopher's Stone of the occultist 100.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[Page 143] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Saints, emit sweet odor 105.
|
||
some of the, used fasting and castigation for soul growth 90.
|
||
Sabbath, loaves of shewbread changed by priests on the 29.
|
||
Sacrifices, first lesson taught neophyte 19.
|
||
Sacrificial victims, rubbed with salt, symbolic of remorse 23.
|
||
symbolize consequences of sin 18.
|
||
Salome, embodies pride, sensuality 93.
|
||
Salt, sulphur, and mercury 98, 106.
|
||
Seed atom, record on, eradicated by retrospection 24.
|
||
Self-abnegation, the third step 58.
|
||
Self-sacrifice, Altar of, on which flesh is consumed 52.
|
||
Sensuality, bestiality, coarsen the body 106.
|
||
Sermon on the Mount, practiced by Mystic 85.
|
||
Sermons on brotherhood, hollow when preached by one who has not
|
||
laved in "Fountain of Life" 94.
|
||
Service, what it consists of 37.
|
||
willing, symbolized by Candlestick and Incense 105.
|
||
more pleasing to God than blood of unwilling victims 105.
|
||
Seth, planted three sprouts of Tree of Life 42-43.
|
||
one sprout was Aaron's Rod 42.
|
||
the Father of spiritual hierarchy of churchmen 42.
|
||
Seven-branched Candlestick, SEE Golden Candlestick.
|
||
Shadow of good things to come, the 20.
|
||
Shadow of the Cross 48.
|
||
Shekinah Glory, an invisible fire, a light from another world 57.
|
||
dwelling place of 37, 53.
|
||
highest symbol of the candidate 21.
|
||
is the Father 48.
|
||
is the Father Within 57.
|
||
Lord dwelt in the 29.
|
||
manifestation of divine Presence 38.
|
||
most sacred Fire of all 57.
|
||
most sacred part of Tabernacle 32.
|
||
special dwelling place of 37.
|
||
the invisible fire 46.
|
||
Shewbread, not the musings of dreamers 34.
|
||
represents use of the Light in service to humanity 32.
|
||
the frankincense of soul growth 34.
|
||
Shewbread, Table of, with loaves of bread and incense 29.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 144] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Sidereal vehicle, so-called because of stigmatic star 122.
|
||
Siegfried and Arjuna, symbols similar in meaning 64.
|
||
Siegfried, "he who through victory gains peace" 64.
|
||
Simple foods necessary 90.
|
||
Simplicity of Christian Mystic, carries conviction 96.
|
||
Sign and degree on Eastern horizon determine form of body 73.
|
||
Sin, nauseating nature of, symbolized 58.
|
||
an anomaly in nature, and its consequences 18.
|
||
selfishness, and transgression of law, symbolized 36.
|
||
"Sistine Madonna," by Raphael, occult significance of 64-65.
|
||
Sixtus the Fourth, Pope, and stigmata of St. Catherine 119.
|
||
Soma psuchicon, woven from aroma of shewbread 49, 52.
|
||
Son of God, born of immaculate virgin 73.
|
||
Song of Being, Mystic learns to sing the 88.
|
||
Sorrow, the cause of, must be understood by Mystic 82.
|
||
Soul, of the soul body, makes it luminous 53.
|
||
must be washed in laver of consecration 52.
|
||
Soul body, amalgamates essence of service at full moon 34.
|
||
contains an intangible something 53.
|
||
is the light within 49.
|
||
"No man cometh except my Father draws him" refers to the soul of
|
||
the 53.
|
||
not to be confused with soul that permeates it 53.
|
||
symbolized by golden pot in which manna was kept 41-42.
|
||
tangible to the Invisible Helper 53.
|
||
the house not made with hands 42.
|
||
Soul Growth, maximum effort for 22.
|
||
Sound, is vibration 88.
|
||
Spinal Cord, divided into three sections ruled by Moon, Mars, Mercury 98.
|
||
tripartite, rulers of 122.
|
||
Spinal Spirit Fire, in Mystic, concentrated in lunar segment 99.
|
||
essential element in alchemy 106.
|
||
in occultist, concentrated in Mars-Mercury 100.
|
||
lit by Neptune 122.
|
||
rises in serpentine column to ventricles of brain 98.
|
||
ruled by Neptune 98
|
||
Spirit, condenses into matter 97.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 145] INDEX
|
||
|
||
descends upon Jesus at Baptism, compared with Mason 26-27.
|
||
universal, descends upon Christian Mystic at Baptism 75.
|
||
Spiritual center, shifts westward 13.
|
||
Spiritual development, depends upon the blood 22.
|
||
Spiritual Ideal, awakens soul power as sun built the eye 85.
|
||
Spiritual sight, possessed by infant humanity 81.
|
||
Spiritual wave, now on Eastern shores of Pacific 13.
|
||
St. Francis, most remarkable example of stigmatization 118-119.
|
||
stigmata of, witnessed by Pope Alexander the Fourth 119.
|
||
story of, illustrating force of Mystic example 95.
|
||
taught from within by Spirit of God 96.
|
||
St. Paul, tells us the Tabernacle a shadow of good things to come 20.
|
||
Stigmata, caused by generation of spiritual currents in vital body
|
||
so powerful that they scourge the body 119.
|
||
of St. Francis, seen by many eye-witnesses 119.
|
||
or punctures, how produced in Hero of Gospels 117.
|
||
prepared for by union of heart and mind 114.
|
||
prepares candidates for Crucifixion 120.
|
||
produced exteriorly through lack of knowledge 118.
|
||
received invisibly by Catherine of Sienna 119.
|
||
Veronica Giuliana, last to be canonized because of 119.
|
||
what they are 118.
|
||
why women develop stigmata more easily than men 119.
|
||
Stigmatic Star, five-pointed 122.
|
||
Stigmatization, cases of 119.
|
||
St. Francis most remarkable example of 118.
|
||
Sulphur, salt, and Mercury, alchemical representations 98.
|
||
Sun, Spiritual, the vehicle of the Father 73, 101.
|
||
the material light of the world 73.
|
||
Symbolism, given to man because he has forgotten the Divine Word 10.
|
||
hides and reveals spiritual truths 10.
|
||
of tabernacle, given by Jehovah to speak to Higher Self 12.
|
||
still a prime necessity to man 10.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 146] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Tabernacle, a factor in soul growth 58.
|
||
ambulant nature of, symbolized man as pilgrim 13-14.
|
||
a school of soul growth 66.
|
||
Atlantean Mystery Temple 12.
|
||
basic principles still valid 58.
|
||
built by chosen people with freewill offerings 12.
|
||
called by Paul a shadow of good things to come 48.
|
||
compared to Herod's Temple 47.
|
||
location of, with respect to cardinal points 13.
|
||
may be seen in Memory of Nature 20.
|
||
must be built within our hearts and consciousness 20-21.
|
||
must be built in heaven within 59.
|
||
of heavenly origin 14.
|
||
path of aspirant in, from east to west 13.
|
||
pre-Christian, as shown in colors of Temple veils 10.
|
||
secret rites of, shown openly in heavens 54.
|
||
symbolizes path from childlike ignorance to superhuman knowledge 63.
|
||
Tables of the Law, are within, at stage of evolution represented by the
|
||
Ark 40.
|
||
TEKTON, Greek word meaning builder 12, 70.
|
||
Temptation, in the Wilderness of Christian Mystic 99.
|
||
of Christian Mystic leads to greater heights 90.
|
||
of Christian Mystic, reason for 91-92.
|
||
to misuse spiritual power comes after Baptism 88-89, 91-92, 93-94, 96.
|
||
Thomas a Kempis, mystic 68.
|
||
Time, non-existent in invisible worlds 77.
|
||
Transfiguration, an alchemical process by which body becomes living
|
||
stone 97.
|
||
blends Ruby Soul with Diamond Soul, giving pink color of the
|
||
Father 100-101.
|
||
of humanity complete in Kingdom of Christ 101.
|
||
of Jesus, reveals body of dazzling white 100-101.
|
||
the work of medieval alchemists 97.
|
||
Tree of Knowledge, nature of 48-51.
|
||
Tree of Life, three slips of, taken by Adam 42.
|
||
|
||
Unchastity and lust, the greatest sin of all 44.
|
||
Unity of life, perceived by Mystic after Baptism 85-86.
|
||
Unity of spirit prevailed under the waters of Atlantis 81.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 147] INDEX
|
||
|
||
Universal Spirit, Christian Mystic saturated with 91.
|
||
concentrated within Christian Mystic at Baptism 93.
|
||
Vedas, brought light to India 63.
|
||
Veil, second wrought with figures of Cherubim 37.
|
||
Veils of Temple, blue, scarlet, and purple colors of Father and
|
||
Holy Spirit 16.
|
||
Veronica Giuliana, last to be canonized because of stigmata 119.
|
||
Via Dolorosa, each Mystic reaches different stations of 67.
|
||
Virginian wafers, at Communion Table 41.
|
||
Virginity, of a mother of Savior is a soul quality 72.
|
||
Virgo, the Virgin, on Eastern horizon of north latitudes on Christmas
|
||
Eve 73.
|
||
Vital Body, occult development begins with 55.
|
||
Vital energy, when used for regeneration causes Aaron's Rod to bloom 44.
|
||
|
||
Wand of the magician, the holy spear and budding Rod 44.
|
||
Water, in Laver, magnetized by divine Hierarchs 25.
|
||
in Catholic Church, magnetized by priest 25.
|
||
Western Room, called the Hall of Liberation 49.
|
||
candidate enters many times before the final climax 50.
|
||
dark as the heavens at new moon 46.
|
||
dark to the physical eye 39.
|
||
entered by priest once a year, at Yom Kippur 37, 49.
|
||
light must be within self before candidate enters the 54.
|
||
the threshold of Liberation 58.
|
||
Wheat, God-given grains of, represent opportunities for soul growth 33.
|
||
White, in Tabernacle curtain concealed Christ ray 16.
|
||
synthesis of all colors 16.
|
||
White light of Deity reflected through Jehovah for Mystic 99.
|
||
Wilderness, after the Baptism Mystic is driven forth into 87.
|
||
Wisdom of the world, attained by Mystic without intellectual labor 99.
|
||
Wise Men, followed the Star westward 13.
|
||
Woe of the World, seen by Christian Mystic 89.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PAGE 148] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION
|
||
|
||
Word of God, the living bread 90.
|
||
World anthem of God made flesh, perceived by Mystic 88.
|
||
World Ward, started spiritual awakening 93.
|
||
|
||
Yellow, color of Christ the Son 15.
|
||
Yellow Ray, hidden in white of the Tabernacle veil 16.
|
||
never evident until in Golden Wedding Garment 16.
|
||
shown in green color of the plant kingdom 15.
|
||
Ymer, the Giant of Northern myths, formed by action of heat and cold 80.
|
||
Yogi, seals up candidate for certain grade of initiation in a cave 107.
|
||
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement 37.
|
||
|
||
the day of At-one-ment 59.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
END OF "ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION"
|
||
|
||
|
||
--- END OF FILE ---
|
||
|
||
|