Topics:
| 164 | OCCULT - Arcane - INITIATION |
| 165 | Man's Descent His Potentialities |
| 166 | Man's Divine Origin |
| 167 | Generation and Regeneration |
| 168 | Man Can Achieve Whatever He Desires |
| 169 | Uniting the Creator With the Creation |
| 170 | The Soul Is Man's Spiritual Sun |
| 171 | Manifestation of Light |
| 172 | The Light Leads to Immortality |
| 173 | The Spiritual Body of Man Is a Record of His Deeds |
| 174 | Everything Is in Eternal Change |
| 175 | The Spiritual Still Unexplored |
| 176 | Today's Thoughts Are the Father of Tomorrow's Actions |
| 177 | Thoughts and Ideas That Circle the Globe |
| 178 | Initiates and Priests of Past Ages |
| 179 | Magnetism and Psychology |
| 180 | Virtue of Initiation |
| 181 | All That Is and Is to Be |
| 182 | The Value of Ritualistic Initiatory Rites |
| 183 | Magnetic or Alchemical Healing |
| 184 | The Instructions of a Magi |
| 185 | The Path to Godhood |
| 186 | Is the Study of Occult Science Worth While? |
| 187 | The AEth Fire |
| 188 | The Divine Tragedy |
| 189 | The Four Square Plane of Expression |
| 190 | As It Is Within, So Is It Without |
| 191 | Divinity Is Centered in the Soul |
| 192 | God Helps Those Who Help Themselves |
| 193 | God's Will Is Expressed in Universal Laws |
| 194 | Communion With the Soul |
| 195 | The Arcane Leads to Illumination |
| 196 | Supernormalism and Supernaturalism |
| 197 | The Ineffable Light |
Initiation is the unfoldment by degrees in an orderly, systematic manner, step by step, as the capacity to apprehend develops and opens up in the Neophyte. The result is neither a belief nor mental impression; it is a growth, an evolution, the expansion of man's inherent capabilities, plus inner Spiritual Consciousness.
Knowledge is not a mere sum in addition, something added to something that already exists. It is a progressive change or transformation of the original material man to make of him a new being - the Biblical "new bottle," the result of experience.
Real knowledge - the growth of Wisdom in man, not in his mind alone - is a constant becoming, a progressive transformation or transmutation of the carnal and material into the likeness of the Supreme Goodness (the term "goodness" is used for want of a more representative term) and Supreme Capability.
In Occult parlance, Life may be represented by a triangle. Two sides of this triangle are formed by two streams, the one flowing outward or downward, the other upward. The base may be taken to represent the material plane or the foundation without which the other two could not function. the mortal, carnal, everyday man has all his forces flowing downward, resting in the material.
The one on the Path seeking his highest development
directs these forces to fulfill his destiny on earth by directing
them upward toward the gods. From God proceed the gods
and thence return. From the gods proceed all the Hierarchies of
higher spheres, with their various Orders from the lowest to the
highest. To contact one of the Hierarchies is man's privilege
and part of the Great Work of Occult Initiation.
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To those Mystics, and to men and women of an impractical mind - who feel that the Spiritual Ideal is antagonistic to the material, who believe that in the Empyrean sphere, the angelic beings are pure and free from all material impulses - it must, indeed seem a fall for the Soul to descend to earth and become incarnate only through the process of physical generation. And, yet, such is the law of physical being. In the order of the universe, the spirit - the physical life principle - is the primal essence in which there is neither sex nor age, neither sin nor capacity for pain of pleasure. The spirit is impersonal and unindividualized.
With the descent of the Soul - Divine Spark or Christos
- into the physical form, life or manifestation, mankind became
dual,(1) male and female, with sex as the dividing line between
them.(2) Then ensued that strange transformation of the Soul's
faculties which converted its original emotion, Love, mostly into
material passion; intuitional knowledge into human reason; boundless
perception into dim memory of the past and vague prescience; eternal
beholdings into temporal; and a sphere - for such was the Soul
incarnate - into a being of passion, of many parts, swayed by
every emotion that ranges from the depths of vice to the heights
of virtue. Such is man.
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(1) This duality has to do with the body of man, and is in no
sense concerned with the Soul.
(2) Early man, having no knowledge whatever of the mysteries of
sex, but noting the results, concluded it could be no less than
a Divine act that a new creature should spring from the embrace
of two beings and he deified the act as Divine; and this was the
first form of worship among primitive man. It was not yet Divinely
written, "Be fruitful and replenish the earth."
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In this order of progress it can clearly be shown that the
Spirit-dweller(3) of the original Edenic sphere becomes
a Conscious Soul of the highest order. It is thus: Mortal(4)
pilgrimages through spheres of trial and experience, discipline
and purification are possible through the inhabitation of an organism
made up of separate parts with appropriate functions, and the
due and legitimate exercise which constitutes the method of progress.
In such a scheme every trial and all forms of suffering have their
meaning and constructive application; and every tendency and passion,
even those of vice and crime, have their use in shaping the Soul
through remorse and penalty into ultimate strength and Spiritual
Consciousness which ends in Immortalization or Godhood.
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(3) The Spirit-dweller is an "angel" transformed
into a Divine Spark or Christos that it might incarnate;
though originally a part of, it is yet a separate entity. It is
not self-conscious, for the reason that it has known neither pain
nor sorrow, nor can it know either until after it has taken on
the form of flesh through which it gains experience. For this
reason the "fall" is essential to all such "angels"
awakening to experience, and gradually becoming Spirit
or Soul Conscious, one of the gods.
(4) All entities, who separated from the Creator and incarnated,
possessed the desire to know, to learn good and evil. This
desire is the original "sin." As the desire became strong
enough, the "angel" fell and took up its earthly habitation.
The "sin" is in the fall of that which is part of God
into the mortal form, because in or through that form it may
destroy itself. However, in the desire to become a conscious,
knowing creature it was no different in its nature than is the
Creator who, having created a heaven and populated it with "angels"
or Divine Sparks thrown off from Himself, still desired
to people the world and was not satisfied until it was peopled.
If the "angels" of high heaven "sinned" in
their desire to know, then, it is equally true that their
Creator sinned in His Desire to people the universe. If
these creatures on earth were ever to become mortal - mortal first
and finally Immortal and Godlike - it was absolutely necessary
for them to possess Souls. This was impossible unless the "angels"
or Divine Sparks placed in the Edenic-high heavenly garden
fell as a result of their desire (sin) and took possession
of the bodies which had evolved to the point of being fit dwelling
places for Souls of God's angelic children. This "fall"
was no more than the wedding between the heavenly of "Edenic"
dwellers and the earth dwellers, both God's creatures, each possessing
the incentive or God-imbued desire to advance, to know, to become
and, finally, to attain freedom, self-government and Immortalization,
sonship or Godhood.
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A familiar concept of the relative difference between the "angels" that inhabited the Empyreal sphere - knowing neither good nor evil, and that descended from their realm of primeval innocence to be born onto matter - and the Divine Spark, unfolded through incarnations of experience and discipline into the perfected Soul, is found if we compare the two states with those of the acorn and the full grown, acorn-bearing tree that challenges storms, wintry blasts and all the destructive forces of nature.
The one is still the oak in germ; but, the noble proportions of the tree, its overshadowing branches, the vast girth of its mighty trunk, the splendor of its mighty arms wide-stretched to the winds with its ten thousand leafy hands tossed on the ambient air, its rich harvest of countless germs, the unborn forests that are to be furnished from their reproductive powers, are all grown out of the association of the primal acorn with the formtive matrix of earth.
Even so is it with the Soul. To become such, it must first
immerse itself in man, the human form, then awaken to its birthright
and possibilities, struggling on through ages of time and degrees
of gradual unfoldment; and when all is finished, the Divine
Spark, originally expelled from its Edenic sphere because
of its desire to know, will regain its Empyreal sphere, but as
a son of God knowing good from evil, having gained Spiritual
Consciousness; and possessed of love and knowledge, it will
become one of the gods - a Hierarch, if it so desires, of its
respective realm.
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It was with this perception of the Soul's destiny that the
ancient Patriarchs and writers of the Pentateuch viewed the generative
function as Divine(5) and the deification of their emblems as
an act of Divine duty.
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(5) All Initiates of the legitimate Secret Schools of Initiation
still hold to this view. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact
that in all their teachings REgeneration is essential to the attainment
of Soul Consciousness. As carnal man has debased the creative
function to a lower state than that of animalism, the Spiritual
man elevates the function to its proper place and recognizes its
importance in both the human and the Divine plan.
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While all true Initiates know this view of the origin of early worship to be true, those who judge it from the standpoint of present-day results and contemplate the abominations practiced in its many forms might well believe it to be the result of man's lowest carnal nature; and such it became when men lost the Spiritual significance, and debased it to the bestial plane.
The modus operandi, by which the world, invisible to the outer senses of man, may become so manifested as to convince him of their existence, must necessarily depend on elements resident in the human economy and upon corresponding means operating upon man from the invisible realm or spheres.
Were there no correspondence between the worlds of Spirit
and matter, between the visible and invisible worlds, then, all
man's imaginings - however sublime all his intuitive faculties,
however penetrating, even the witness of his own interior nature
- would never be capable of demonstrating the Soul's existence
in the light of reason; nor could the Light of God be brought
into manifestation with the absolute esse of being; nor
could a religious faith be constructed on the certainty of the
Father's (the God-head's) power to communicate with the child
much as the true Priest does with the supplicant.
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There can be no question but that the Soul's deepest and most intuitive perceptions of truth are its own most acceptable witnesses. These are the Soul's witness to itself, its God and its perception of Immortality; and it can never be fully described in human language nor become known in any other manner than by the attainment of Soul Consciousness and through the Ineffable Light.
Man, as microcosm in comparison with the larger world or universe, is the conservator of all forces, the image of all objective forms, the embodiment of all subjective ideas and the connecting link between all existences or states, both higher and lower than himself. Therefore, it is possible for him to achieve any state he truly desires, provided only that he is willing to make the necessary effort and exchange.
In man himself - analyzed by chemical and Alchemical means and the tabulation of his powers and forces in relation to the invisible world - is a trinity of elements consisting of body, Spirit or life and mind. The Soul is not a certainty but a POSSIBILITY. It is a potential, embryonic but not certain by birth. Man's body is a conservator of all the powers and functions of matter; his spirit, the animating principle, is composed of all the combined forces we call life, for want of a better name; his Soul is purely deific, an Immortal essence or Divine Spark and, as intimated, depends for consciousness and manifestation upon the correct application of Will and Intelligent procedure.
Judging from effects rather than causes, we must accept the teachings of the early Initiates, who were known as Fire Philosophers, that the Soul, being a form of animate Fire, is like its source - the Central Spiritual Sun of Ineffable Being - in its nature and essence, now dormant, but possessing the possibility of being awakened and brought into full Spiritual Consciousness.
It is the invisible (to the mass) and the infinitely sublimated
Spirit of Fire - not the gross element we all have seen,
felt and recognized by the senses - that innermost Ineffable
Light which, while it reveals and proves the existence of
things unmanifested, is itself invisible, unknown and incomprehensible
except to those who have passed through the Gates of (Arcane)
Initiation and found the source of the Light upon the Central
Altar of Being.
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It is this Ineffable, innermost and Divine God-principle, called the Soul (by us) which survives all changes, even in its unconscious and unawakened state. It is subject to neither decay nor disintegration. It is a Spark thrown off by Deity an order to manifest individuality, the Alpha and Omega of (human) being and the link connected by the conscious efforts of its custodian (man) that unites the creature with the Creator.
Enveloping the Divine Essence which we call the Soul(6)
and clothing it as with a Spiritual "body" is
the subtle and all-permeating element which, in its effect,
is force; in its action, through animate bodies, is
life; in its all-pervading influence throughout the realm
of space is known as magnetism, the attracting power;
and electricity, in its propelling energy. It is the second of
the grand trinity of principles whose union with the other active
principles constitutes a reasoning being, and endows him with
power, force and energy.
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(6) To obtain the full value and to sense the great import of
Arcane teachings, it must be constantly borne in mind that
all ultrapower is a principle of the Spiritual - the Light
and Fire elements of the Spiritual self - and not
of either body or mind. Furthermore, the Spiritual self
is defined or classified as Light or Fire, the awakened
Conscious Soul, the final result of the transmutation of
the gross and carnal fire into a Cosmic or Ineffable Fire,
which gives it the power, the force and the energy to perform
those feats (ignorantly termed miracles) of which so much is said
in Occult literature. Initiation is therefore, that process which
transmutes the fire dormant in all men into a Cosmic Flame,
connects this Flame with the Universal Flame called
God, and thus the Soul, becomes a co-worker with the Cosmic Soul.
This understood, the value of Occult training becomes clear to
all, as will the Philosophy of Fire as taught by the Rosy
Cross. It is freely admitted that these statements, which should
be explanatory, are cryptic much after the jargon of the Alchemists;
but there are neither words for terms to define them more clearly.
Only Spiritual attainment clarifies them.
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It is this element which is recognized throughout the Universe
by the duality of its mode of operation, known variously as attraction
and repulsion, centrifugal and centripetal forces. The knowledge
and directing of this dual force constitute the Occult operations
generally termed miracles.
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The early Rosicrucians maintained that an analysis of the Supreme Being would fail to reveal any other existence than that of a Central Spiritual Sun, Infinite, Eternal, uncreated, yet existent and incomprehensible, except by the Conscious Soul; One whose attributes alone were light and heat, energized into forms, suns, systems, worlds, human and animal creatures, and animated by a heat whose last gross external exhibition is fire; its attribute, heat.
In this sense the term "repulsion," which has been supposed to be an attribute of matter, is accounted for by the energy with which heat burns, consumes, disintegrates and drives off one particle from another; while "attraction," likewise considered to be an attribute of matter, is no more than the cohesion of particles upon which the restless energy of heat either does not act or becomes modified by the solidarity of the mass acted upon. Thus, attraction and repulsion are the dual forces or activities that make motion possible. Fire creates heat, heat creates both life and energy; and the fall or lowering of heat results in cold, which is a form of repulsion or death, illustrating the axiom: Where there is heat there is life; death is coldness, the absence of heat.
"If the sense of these abstractions is caught by the thinker, he will the more readily understand why the ancient people considered that they saw God - that is, with all their innermost possibility of thought - in Fire Light. This Fire Light, contrary to modern belief, was not our vulgar gross fire, neither is it even the purest material or electric fire, which has still something of the base, bright light of the physical world about it; but is was and still is Occult, mysterious and a supernatural fire, supernatural because it was not generally understood."
"It is the inner Light of God, of which man's
Soul is a Spark, containing all things, even the Soul
of things, in whose inexpressedly intense, all-consuming, all-creating,
Divine and fiery essence, all the evil in the worlds will be destroyed;
back into whose arms of Immortal Light on the nether side, again
receiving them, the worlds driven off into space by the Divine
energy, will again rush back; just as in like manner the human
Soul returns from its pilgrimage to complete its mission on earth."
____Lytton.
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Considered without bias, it will be found that all religious
systems transcend up into a Spiritual Fire-floor, so to
speak - God said that He was Light and Light cannot
exist without Fire(7) - on which the phases of time were laid.
Material fire, which is brightness as the matter upon which it
reflects is darkness, is the shadow of the Spiritual
Light which invests itself in Fire as a mask in which it alone
can possibly act on matter. Thus, material light being the opposite
rather than the expression of God, the Egyptians, who were fully
acquainted with the Fire revelations, could not represent
God as material light. Their adoration was paid to the
Light BEHIND the darkness; only darkness could reflect
the Light, the reflection or manifestation of the Eternal.
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(7) "Although fire is an element in which everything inheres,
because it is heat in manifestation, the principle of life,
still it is itself an element existing in a higher of nonterrestrial,
nonphysical Æthereal Fire, in which the first or
terrestrial coarse fire flickers, waves, banishes, consumes and
destroys, or gives life and strength, according to the substances
upon which it acts. The first is natural, material, gross, the
familiar element seen and known in the natural world as fire;
it is an outer manifestation of the celestial, unparticled, infinitely
extended Flame, which is the Celestial FIRE; and of which
mortal mind and carnal passion can know nothing, but of which
the Soul is a part and with which it becomes one as Spiritual
Consciousness is attained." ____Lytton
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Light is never entirely absent even from the grossest atom. While it may require age to evolve, this Light which is fire, ever tending to purify, will still refine and elevate; and Alchemically convert base, gross matter into Æthereal, and the earth into a radiant and gloriously Spiritualized planet. St. John in Revelation envisioned this when he saw the heavens descend to earth.
Unseen and by most people unsuspected, there is a Divine Æthereal Spirit, and eager Fire, confined as in prison, constantly struggling to be free; and it is the Fire in man, given the opportunity, that will make him a god. It is with this celestial Fire that the Alchemist breaks asunder the atomic thickness of visible nature, which, yielding up its secret destiny of unlimited progress, sinks into the inner fiery furnace in its basest proportions to arise thrice purified, and forced upward toward enlightenment and Soul Consciousness.
It is with this celestial Fire that the Initiate
bursts asunder the bonds of error and darkness that hold the Soul
in a material prison-house. He becomes the Pontifex (bridge maker)
who conducts the Soul across the dark waters of ignorance from
the realm of the unknown to the known; from the gates of matter
to the bright Light of the Soul; from the earthly blackness
and bleakness to celestial LIGHT; from the visible fires of purgation
to the invisible Soul Light, the Ineffable Light of Eternity.
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One of the greatest Master Initiates summed this all up in one short sentence which, once understood, opens all the gates of Eternity:
"In the Light is concealed, by and through it will be revealed, all the mysteries of the Higher Occult - the Arcanum".
"Seek the Light which becomes the Soul's Consciousness. Follow the Light, and it will lead to the Gates of the Temple. After you enter the Temple, continue to follow the Light, and it becomes the Revelator, revealing to you all things of heaven and earth. This Light is your awakened Soul; it is the part of all that was, all that is, and all that will be; it is all-knowing, all-wise and all-powerful in proportion as it is brought into manifestation".
"You, the man with your reasoning mind and imaginative faculty, are the Architect of that Soul."
While the Soul or innermost part of man is a Divine emanation from Deity, the body or outermost part is an aggregation of material atoms, vitalized by the Spirit which serves as the life-principle of the body, the Æthereal body of the Soul, and forms the connecting link between the Soul and body. After death the more sublimated part of this spirit adheres to the Soul, the grosser and coarser layers form the outer covering of the body and remain with it.
The spirit, misnamed Astral - Paracelsus called it the "natural"
light - is not a single original element like the Soul. It is
a combination of all the imponderables of the Universe. Its first
derivation or original essence is of the macrocosm, and upon its
exterior form are engraved all the sand grains of character, motives,
powers, functions, vices, virtues, hopes and memories which the
Soul has gathered up in its process of growth through the medium
of the material body. It is as much a perfect microcosm of the
individual's mind within as of the visible and invisible Universe
without.
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Not a deed, word or thought which has helped to make up
the sum total of a human life but what is photographed upon the
Spiritual self of man with as much fidelity as the mind
of the Creator is written in the starry hieroglyphics upon the
glittering skies! It keeps as faithful a record, as true a Doomsday
Book,(8) and pronounces as sure a judgment upon human life and
conduct as ever the Egyptian Osiris could have done in his sternest
moods of Godlike and Infinite justice.(8)
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(8) The Book of Records, "The Lamb's Book of Life";
in the final analysis, the ego becomes the Subconscious of the
Soul when it reincarnates.
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Admitting, then, the Soul's origin in Deity and the Astral
spirit's origin in the solar system, how vastly momentous upon
the newly born being's character and organization must be the
solar and planetary influences which prevail in the hour of the
germ's inception,(9) through every stage of embryonic life and
at the very moment when, drawn by solar and planetary influences
from the darkness of its embryonic prison, it is launched into
space as a living creature!
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(9) The inception of the Soul in the form of a Divine Spark
into the prepared body is not governed by either planetary
or solar influences, but by its own Karmic Law, which draws it
into the environment which it prepared for itself in its previous
lives. This Karmic condition, which is part of the Soul's
destiny, makes its unacceptable to any environment wherein it
could not work out its destiny; nor can it be born under either
solar or planetary influences which would make it either easier
or more difficult for it to pay its just debts or receive its
earned rewards. Let us understand that the Law is as just
as the Universe is certain.
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The ancient astronomers, not astrologers, discovered that
all the vast vaults of the skies, the illimitable fields of space
dotted over with millions of fiery little worlds, seemingly so
fixed, so calm, so immobile in their solemn silence and mysterious
beauty, were all in constant motion, a harmonious change.
They move on in constant but ever-changing orbits. The certainty
of these stupendous changes was absolutely determined by the discovery
of that remarkable motion called "the procession of the equinoxes,"
a motion which in a given period of time, varying between two
and three thousand years, swept the blazing sun of the solar system,
with all its planetary hosts from one sign of the Zodiac to another,
and which ushers in a New Age with a new application; thus
a New Dispensation is born.
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In our own time astronomical observations have determined that all the stars of the sidereal heavens, gorgeous fields of space, filled with the march of suns and systems, speed on with a momentum so tremendous that the mind of man shrinks back, awestruck, at the attempt to trace those footprints of fire through spaces wherein millions of miles are measured by minutes and by hours. Whilst the external aspect of these spangled heavens changes but little to the eye of the observer during many centuries of time, the real permanence of the scheme is only apparent. "Only constant in external change" might be traced in every glittering point of the sidereal heavens.
It is ever the same in the fixity of matchless order, ever changing in the spiral circle of ascending progress. This being true, how inevitable must the endless changes of the macrocosm affect the nature of the microcosm - man. And the little world partakes of the infinite variousness which discloses so eloquently the Law of Change.
This is a law which man can accept in willingness and advance as does the Universe, or refuse and be ground into the dust. Only one thing is eternal - the Law of Change - and but one thing is inevitable, that the change is ever forward or that nothingness and eternal forgetfulness end all. The choice is man's. He advances with the Universe or the Universe grinds him into the dust. Pointedly stated, "The mills of the gods grind slowly but exceedingly fine." Nothing so small as man can retard the eternal forwardness of the Universe. No wonder the prophet was made to exclaim: "He that is not with me is against me."
For ages it was the office and the pleasure of the best and wisest of men of every succeeding generation to devote a lifetime to the study of Nature, to the study of her profoundest depths and all the mazes and windings of her supernatural (so termed because invisible) relations with the visible and invisible spheres around her. Ever let it be remembered, too, that the Ancient Initiates brought to this sublime study a body as thoroughly prepared as the mind; a physique fitted by temperance, chastity and purity, to allow full sway to the mind which inhabited it; and for this reason the nations or countries prospered, were content and at peace, while these Initiate-Priests held the reins. The fall came with decadence when the Laws set down by these men were no longer respected and obeyed.
The most superficial retrospect of the lives, education
and preparatory methods of discipline enforced upon the Ancient
Initiates and their Orders invests that body with the true dignity
which rightly belongs to such a school and its system of training.
How do these compare with the careless, lax system of the present
selfish age, which in our time and even those who are invested
with the holy offices of priests or ministers?
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Nature holds no secrets from her true votaries. She sternly veils all Spiritual entities from the rude gaze of materialism which recognizes naught but that which can be seen and felt, and refuses to render up any knowledge beyond the plans from which the inquiry originates. The present-day chemist, geologist and scientist, as well as other disciples of natural science, coldly set to work to examine Nature through the formulas of physical laws, and they will have none of aught that will transcend them; therefore, the mass is also kept ignorant of everything beyond material. The Occult side of Nature, the Spiritual, eternal side, is left an unexplored realm to them. For this reason the Secret Schools and Arcane Fraternities are again making extreme efforts to awaken the people and teach them the true secrets of existence and life in all its avenues.
The chief interests of Initiates, whatever the school, have always been:
First: To find the contact or unity between man and the Hierarchies and Principalities higher than himself.
Second: To discover the laws of man's being and teach him to adjust his actions to the Will of those higher on the scale of existence than himself.
Third: To invoke or solicit their aid in the performance of his earthly mission which, of course, embraces the development of his entire nature and all his potential faculties. These have always been the objectives of the Initiate Masters and are no less obligatory upon the advanced members of the great Fraternity today, although formerly these Initiate Teachers were the priests within the church, where now there is a sharp distinction between the church and the August Orders of Initiation.
Utilitarianism is the genius of the present century. If
religion were put to practical use or reduced to a scientific
analysis, it would be today as much the fashion as it was five
thousand years ago. Whatever comes in the guise of religious belief,
even scientific discoveries concerning the Occult (hidden) side
of nature, must conform to the materialistic and utilitarian spirit
of the age, or the age will have none of it. Such is the crucible
of human opinion of the present day concerning Spiritual verities,
and the possibility of the application of Occult forces. Men miss
the very thing which would lead them onward and upward to heights
never achieved before. As inspiration invariably descends from
the same plane to which aspiration ascends, Spirit answers
Spirit, considering Spirit as relating to the Soul
from corresponding realms of intelligence and being.
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As it is below, so is it above; in the heavens as it is on earth.
The Soul never forgets. The reason for this has already been pointed out and requires no repetition. The overladen mind of man retains the impression of every image presented to it; and this, in turn, is impressed upon the Subconscious - call it the Ego if you will - and becomes the Soul's record. As each fresh succession of images photograph themselves on the Soul's record, whether the result of thought, desire or experience, the last seems to crowd out and efface the imprint of the earlier ones. They vanish in that they apparently are forgotten, but they are still there; and there they will remain until the Karmic Law is fulfilled, wiped out by deeds of "goodness." Unconsciously to their possessors, they yet inter into every phase of character. They linger like a subtle perfume in the sphere of unconscious celebration, pervade the sentiments; in fact, they govern them, enter into the mental picture, shape the motives, externalize themselves in words which linger in other's ears, in deeds which affect others' destinies; and silently interweave themselves into invisible but industrious images reflecting upon the light of the Universe.
"Could this most subtle but most potential realm of being be thoroughly explored, all the thoughts, words and deeds that have ever moved the race would be found in ineffaceable images engraved upon the light that heaves and swells through the ocean of infinity; and it would be found that the ill-will of yesterday is the father of our misfortune of today, while the kindly thought and deed of a year ago is the mother of our thought and deed of a year ago is the mother of our present fortune. There is great need of carefully planned action; and it is this most mighty of all fundamental laws, so far as the destiny of the individual is concerned, and which is so carefully taught to the Neophytes by the Secret Schools.
"Nothing is ever lost in nature; nothing blotted out in eternity. Every ill within our nature will manifest itself if not rooted out -REPLACED IN FULL MEASURE BY THAT WHICH WE KNOW AS GOODNESS. We and the future generations living, moving in them, recombine them into the elements of their own character and, thus, live over again in ever-rolling but ever-ascending cycles of time, every incentive of ideality of ideas. The spontaneous contact of two kindred minds, unknown to each other and removed apart by long intervals of time, are often inspired by the same thought, moved to execute and construct the same work, yet apparently an original piece of mechanism, the same constructive thought in literature or the same method for the elevation of mankind. This is also the source of cycles of destructive thinking, destructive action and mass madness and is avoidable only by thinking and living on a higher plane. Man's impressive thought and desire is his destiny tomorrow."
|Top|THOUGHTS AND IDEAS THAT CIRCLE THE GLOBE
The gross atmosphere of earth traversed by waves of light is charged with the images which have been impressed upon it. Whenever the image-carrying wave strikes a human mind ATTUNED to the thought, idea, emotion or passion, it is unconsciously seized upon and appears to be its own. The wave flows on, the idea strikes another and yet another mind until the force of one leading thought sweeps on its career of influence from pole to pole and traverses the mental girth of an age. Such a thing is now occurring. The conquest and war-mad wave, set in motion by the wholesale murder taking place in subjective nations since the last world war, is continuing to sweep the earth and is setting aflame the minds of egomaniacs and millions so inclined.
This is one of the major reasons why the Initiatory Fraternities of the present age are making such Herculean efforts to stem the tide of mass destruction and turn the thought and desire of the mass toward constructive ideals, and to subjugate the morbid and carnal in the direction of awakening and developing all the potential God-like forces of man so that humanity in toto may benefit and be elevated to its grandest peak.
That the human Soul is an emanation from the Deity, therefore, deific in potentialities and attributes, is constantly forgotten. Whoever destroys the vehicle (human body) of a Soul thereby destroys that much of its Creator. The spirit which clothes the Soul and vitalizes the body is a part of all the great motive power of the Universe, the source and cause of all activity. The two combined, though, indeed, temporarily shrouded in matter, and limited to a degree by the encasements of a material body, still form a deific and, therefore, all-powerful and individual existence which requires only the Litht of a Spiritual science to render its functions as deific as its source.
This truth is made manifest when the Soul has become awakened
through a carefully directed regime of life. Then the Soul, instead
of the mortal body and carnal mind, becomes the director of the
thoughts, desires and activities of the person; mastership and
not serfdom is the guide at the helm of that individual human
being.
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INITIATES AND PRIESTS OF PAST AGES
The peoples of past ages, such as those at the time of Atlantis - whether actual or legendary - generally, and the Initiate Priest in particular, studied the laws of Spiritual forces; they devoted generation after generation in analyzing and mastering their principles and the relation they bore to visible nature. Many of these teachings and Laws have been handed down throughout the ages from Initiate to Initiate, and are as applicable today as they were in the long ages past. It is these principles and Laws which the August Fraternity teaches to its Neophytes to enable them to master the selfish self and bring into manifestation the potential energies and powers native to all but the most degraded.
These Initiates have always taught, as they do today, that those who truly seek should emulate the Divine Plan and work from the center to the circumference, from Deity to His creatures, from Soul Essence to created forms, and despise not the result of human experience, the strivings of the human mind for Light and knowledge of all ages, ancient or modern. We should reverently regard the past as a stepping stone to the present and the future. The lesser chambers and galleries of the great temple of humanity are the foundations upon which the integrity of this superstructure depends.
Let us with a humble and contrite Spirit avail ourselves of successes and failures of those who have gone before us, considering them as the warnings of encouragement by which our own steps may be safely guided, and boldly push on in those transcendent paths of research and development which lead to success and achievement in the realm of our own choice.
We have discussed briefly the theories by which the ancients explained the order of being, and the elements of life, power and motion by which being itself becomes operative. Until the principles thus laid down are accepted and understood, any attempt to show their application to the practice of Arcane Science would be more or less futile.
If the Neophyte fails to comprehend what Nature is; fails
to recognize the structure of man in his threefold character as
a material, mental (magical, i.e., one who directs mental force)
and godly being; fails to follow us in our attempt to define the
active life-force which vitalizes all things in nature, and the
Spiritual self which is the ever-living principle of man
and the connecting link between man, the Hierarchies and Deity,
it will be impossible to show him the Way, the method and
its application toward ultra-development of his hidden but potential
forces.
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MAGNETISM AND PSYCHOLOGY
Magnetism, the combination of mental, vital and physical forces, and psychology, i.e., Soul Science, not mental science, are the two grand pillars which support the Spiritual and Immortal man. These are the Herculean columns through which the understanding faculty leads the Soul into supreme realms of power, and both can be developed by all who Will to do so.
By magnetic power of force, the imponderable, all-pervading life and vital elements may be communicated from one body to another. The difficulties which oppose the scholar's mastery of this science, as practiced by the ancient and medieval Acolytes, arise from a concatenation of causes, all combining to withhold knowledge rather than to diffuse it and tending to obscure whatever light might be otherwise thrown on the subject.
The Priests or Initiates of antiquity who were then the
chief repositories of Occult Science and Initiation maintained
their authority over the populace by reserving its understanding
exclusively to their own Order and its Acolytes. It was not alone
that they deemed such knowledge too sacred for vulgar minds, but
they felt that their own exclusive possession of its secrets was
essential to the continuance of their authority and the welfare
of the mass. It would have been suicidal to themselves and the
people to have entrusted the multitude with the knowledge of directing
a reserve force which was not fully understood except by the comparatively
few. Moreover, the Priest Initiates who were employing these forces
in which they were thoroughly trained, were also the physicians
to the people.
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VIRTUE OF INITIATION
It is essential that we disabuse the minds of all Aspirants
who accept as truth that all Occult knowledge is the be procured
only through ritualistic Initiation into the Ancient Mysteries,
or through certain modern branches of those Orders that still
exist in the Orient. While in many instances such Initiation may
be desirable, the dogmatic statement of the truth on the part
of those who may be interested on throwing the halo of mystery
around their cherished pursuits. There is nothing in the initiatory
rites of any ancient order that can develop (Occult powers or
SPIRITUAL energies. It is in discipline enjoined upon
Aspirants and the effects of actual psychological (Science
of the Soul) changes wrought thereby that the entire virtue
of the Initiation consists. If such Neophytes entering upon
the preparatory degrees of their Initiation did not manifest the
tendencies and results of Occult powers, or if after due preparation
they did not progress, Spiritually as well as culturally,
they were not in the past - nor are they now - permitted to proceed
beyond a certain degree. Even so, they gained far more than merely
compensated them for every effort made and were lifted by their
very effort above the average of humanity.
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ALL THAT IS AND IS TO BE
All the Initiates of the past and present exalt temperance in all things and insist that their Acolytes live within the Law of Necessity and not abuse any good thing. Of these classes of religious thinkers, the Christians should be the most faithful in the observance of this law, since it was charged upon them by both example and precept of the Founder of their faith, the Nazarene, and was prescribed as an essential of Spiritual discipline. Another mode of preparatory exercise for Spiritual exaltation was the practice of certain prescribed devotions.
Prayer, not in the mere routine of verbal solicitation, but a sincere aspiration of the Soul toward the great Source of all Life, Light and inspiration - this form of prayer, which is a living Spiritual service, must be supplemented by solitary communion with the inner Soul Consciousness. During this process there should be a complete abstraction of the senses from all outward manifestations; a Soul-musing of the Creative energy; the I Am that I Am to be; and that deep absorption of the reflective powers upon the Spiritual self within, which constitutes the triumph of the Soul matter and all its belongings. He who can comprehend this and apply it will have all of the powers described by the Ancient Initiates because he will contact and become a part of the ALL THAT IS and ALL THAT IS TO BE.
Ablution, too, is another method of preparing the physical
man for the influx of the magnetic force. By frequent ablutions,
the skin - the vast system of dual functioning of evaporation
and absorption - is prepared for a free transmission and reception
of all the forces in Nature which constitute the Magical-Occult
elements. During intervals of physical rejuvenation, light fast,
consisting chiefly of vegetables and fruits, should be observed;
while all stimulants and salacious substances calculated to excite
the senses and pamper the appetite should be carefully avoided.
Such are the preliminaries that help to make the Initiation possible.
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THE VALUE OF RITUALISTIC INITIATORY RITES
The chief value of initiatory rites of all ritualistic secret
societies(10) lies in the psychological effect they exert on the
senses by the fumigations of incense, the presentation of visual
illustrations, the performance of delightful music, no less the
effect which the rehearsal of deep thought and sublime ideas in
the form of sacred invocations produces on the receptive mind.
When to all this is added the magnetic effect imparted by the
presence and manipulation of powerful Initiates whose magnetism
charged with magical strength is infused into the prepared system
of the Acolyte, it can hardly be wondered that the final rites
of Initiation in such societies cannot fail to prepare lesser
Adepts who feel as did Pythagoras when issuing from the crowning
rites of Egyptian initiation: "I have been in the presence
of the gods and drank the water of life anew from the Divine Chalices."(11)
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(10) While in a sense ritualistic initiation, in any of its forms,
has little or nothing to do with the higher development and the
transmutation of the gross into the fine, nevertheless, it is
strictly an Occult subject and as such is an integral part of
the Great Work, having been made use of by some of the
greatest Masters in all ages where, because of the temperament
of the Acolyte, other methods failed. For instance, the great
Marie Corelli could "travel the Path" only while
in the magnetic sleep under Count Guinotte. For this reason the
subject is here given certain consideration.
(11) During the ages when the Priests in the Temples were engaged
in the healing of the people, and the process was known generally
as healing by the "gods" because it was a religious-Spiritual
formula, the term "magnetism" was unknown. This form
of healing, known as Magnetic Healing, was very prominent in France
during the time of Mesmer, Cagliostro and others.
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None of the lesser methods of initiation has been found
so potent for kindling the most exalted Fires of the Soul
or transmuting its latent powers into active operations the "laying
on of hands" or the Magnetic manifestations of powerful,
well-intentioned Magnetizers; in a word, the infusion of the vital
forces of a highly developed power of the Priests in the Ancient
Temples into the organism of a correctly prepared, susceptible
and receptive subject.
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Paracelsus (who in late years has been given proper recognition
by the medical profession), Von Helmont and most Occult Masters
of the Middle Ages thoroughly understood the virtue of magnetic
forces. In our citation we shall have occasion to refer to these
magical (magnetic) formulas in which it will be seen that these
Initiates recognized magnetism and Soul Science as two important
supporters of the Temple of Occultism.
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THE INSTRUCTIONS OF A MAGI "Assuming that the Neophyte who desires to exercise magical powers has faithfully prepared himself by the methods prescribed and has subjected himself to fasting, ablutions and temperance, observed periods of seclusion, and disciplined his Spirit by silent communings with Deity, the spirit of Nature and his own inner Consciousness, all that remains for him to do is to select a harmoniously disposed Initiate who, with pure aims and high aspirations, will join with him in the search of light and knowledge. Let him lay his hands, illuminated by the Soul's Light, on the Acolyte's head. Let manipulation of magnetic power, accompanied by the infusion of a strong aspirational Will, be practiced at stated periods of time. Let these exercises be conducted uninterruptedly, steadily, firmly and with high and noble intentions, and they cannot fail to perform the last great work of converting the Acolyte into a passive subject, and from a passive subject into an active operator."
When the great Essenian Teacher, known to us as the Nazarene,
assured his Disciples that if they had faith as a grain of mustard
seed, they could move mountains and cast them into the sea, he
uttered no myth. Although he spoke in parables, he enunciated
a truth which the Priest Initiates of every age can fully confirm.
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THE PATH TO GODHOOD
The power of Faith, combined with the fully developed Will, is the essence of the soul; and the Soul's action in producing forms, external manifestations, emulates the creative functions of the Divine Will, only in a lesser form. When this is understood by the Neophyte, he will glimpse the power possessed by those who succeeded in the development of their threefold nature, and will make every effort to activate the Will.
"Every Sage, Initiate and Occult Master, aye, every sincere student of ancient lore, arranges the power of the human Will in the category of supreme intelligence and attributes to its exercise the highest achievements of the true Master. Regrettably, our present system of abject subservience - in matters of religion, moral and social problems - to our fellow men, who are usually far more ignorant of all such subjects than are we, and our slavish dependence on precedent, popularity and custom utterly neutralize this all triumphant and truly magical power of the developed human Will, which, through the process of 'Spiritual unfoldment,' has become allied with the Divine Will. Once this truth is fully understood, it would, as indicated by the Nazarene, make every such person a god."
In our present condition of civilization the complete expansion of the Will with all its functions and powers is well- nigh impossible except by the few wholly self-dedicated. Several generations of culture and patient experience are required ere it can attain its true proportions and become the executive power it ought to be - and may be - in human life. As conditions are, and because of our weakness in permitting ourselves to become the virtual slaves of others who are less Spiritual but much more carnal and brutal, reincarnation offers most of us the only means to attain the highest degree of perfection and the greatest measure of freedom which, once gained, will defy brutalism in all ages to come.
We must not trust to the possibilities of miraculous changes
in our own nature or the world at large - that would be failure
- but work for these changes and industriously, scientifically
and patiently pave the way for their achievement. The culture
of the Will for the execution of "supernatural" acts
of power is to be attained by a regular series of mental processes,
all tending to the subjugation of the senses and the exaltation
of the Spirit. The generalities of the process involve
physiological and Spiritual changes, making all things
possible.
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The discouragements that frequently follow the first steps taken on the Path result from an insufficient study of the philosophy and science and are but the first tests of that stupendous Will power, the full exercise of which the Initiate's success in all ramifications of life depends. Is life as it is today, with all its slavery, inhibitions and brutalism, worth while? If not, then another way must be found, and the only means left open is through the full development of man's threefold nature, by which he can free himself from all earthly bondage and yet make of himself a thoroughly sane, reasonable, practical human being.
So desirable has such a development been considered throughout all ages that there have been many men who for a period of time withdrew altogether from the labors and pleasures of the world, and in solitary places devoted themselves to this development. This temporary, lonely existence on silent mountains or amid the darkness of forests helped those of certain temperaments to silence the clamor of the selfish self and awaken the silent voice of the Soul. The human Soul, unsatisfied in its environment of finite limitation, is always, except in those Soulfully dead, aspiring after the constructive and lasting; always eagerly hoping for contact with the Hierarchical realm and the powers of the Infinite.
Thus, it came about that these saintly men, Adepts and Masters,
Healers and inculcators of Wisdom, came to be objects of veneration
among the people and Immortals after the flesh was cast off. Men
traveled far to be taught by them, to learn how sins might be
expiated or disease eliminated; for it was rightly believed that
in thus devoting themselves to a life beyond the tumult of the
passions, and occupied solely with self-development and the transmutation
of the gross self, they approached very near to God and received
direct revelations of His Wisdom. That which men have been able
to do in the past, men may do now, only in a more practical form
and for a greater purpose.
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The Initiates of the Ancient Schools have always believed and were taught that there existed in the Universe a pure, all-pervading force or element, invisible, fiery, radiant, wholly free from the taint of defilement; purer than ether; stronger than the loadstone; mightier than the thunderbolt; swifter than winged lightning; at once heat, light, motion and force; the Spiritual principle of being - not Soul - but capable of transmuting into Soul-Fire, connecting the gods and men, heaven and earth. It is the strength or cohesive element in minerals, the growing power of plants, the life of man and animal; it has been known under many names, such as magnetism, Virile force, the life-principle. It is all of these, and much more than these; yet, none of these. In its primitive elements, it is the physical life-force of all living things; in its attractive element it is the all-creative, all- consuming, all-powerful Æth Fire.
The more the Soul frees itself from sensuous habits and
undesirable earthly conditions, the greater becomes its power
to use and direct this all-powerful force, and to attract to itself
the Divine principles which exist concurrently with the destructive
elements. Thus, the action of the Soul, employing the highest
Æth as its instrument, becomes freed from the entanglements
of materiality, while attracting more and more of the quality,
power and essence of the Spiritual entity of strength,
Wisdom and power - the keys to success on all planes of
activity. A Soul thus brought to Consciousness and having
at its command and earthly vehicle such as a normal, natural body
in which to direct matter, by the subjugation of matter and the
exaltation of the Spiritual self, is at once a man and
a Spirit - god.
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THE DIVINE TRAGEDY
Laws, stern and immutable; principles, strict and unvarying, underlie a scheme in which millions of worlds are in action; yet, the whole drama is conducted in the most unbroken system of harmony and power. To arrive at any just idea of causation, it must be accepted as a truth that well-defined mathematical qualities and geometrical proportions must be the underlying principles of this stupendous chain of being, all-moving, living and acting, severally and singly in the most unbroken power and perfection.
"Every sound in the universe must conform to the harmonic rule; every shade of color must combine to produce the totality of pure white light; every creature must be a definite part; everything an organ belonging to the vast whole. As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, governed by a law so absolute and perfect that there is not a moment's deviation year in and year out, so is governed this vast universe and all that is in it, save man alone, who, given Free Will, abuses his Divine legacy, ignores all the Laws and, instead of becoming a god as he was destined from the beginning, succeeds in nothing more than in destroying himself. This is the Divine Tragedy. To accept the Law, apply it in his own behalf, attain to his inheritance, become one of the gods, is the Divine Harmony. Initiation has as its aim and object this high Ideal."
THE FOUR-SQUARE PLANE OF EXPRESSION
In the profound analysis of "Ehye Asher Ehyse" (I am that I am),(12) the source of self-consciousness is contrasted with the Consciousness of the Soul, Divinity to God, the objective I, or I objectified or made manifest with the I subjectified. The former is subject to limitation by time, space and the necessity of expression; the latter is unconditional, free - a "god." In the one, the ego, which may become the Conscious Soul, is spoken of by God, unaware and unconscious of its Divinity; in the other, it is conscious of it.
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(12) This Hebrew expression of phrase has always been translated
to mean or say: "I am that I am." If this were the direct
translation, it would indicate that all progress had ceased, that
there is a standstill or petrification of all that exists. This
would be a defiance, a nullification of another Law which we know
exists: the law of constant change and progress. Moreover,
if this could be accepted as even a half-truth, truly those who
use the "I am expression would be a sorry example of deification
of super development, since a moment's examination or analysis
of them and their acts - without judgment but as example - show
that they are most often the weakest and the most inert human
creatures; they use the expression to bolster up their own courage
and hide a deeply, perhaps morbidly, seated inferiority complex.
Furthermore, it would indicate that since the godhead had first
cast the expression into the void of time and space, He, the Creative
Energy, the source of advancement, the evolution of all things,
had ceased to function.
The interpretation is in error, has always been in error.
God did not say: "I am that I am,' but "I am that I
am to be"; i.e., everything is in process of evolvement and
development on the cycle leading to perfection. Thus understood,
it is a mighty Law leading Obedient man onward and upward, and
never permitting him to stand still lest he retrograde and be
buried permitting him to stand still lest he retrograde and be
buried in forgotten time.
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In the philosophy of the Secret Schools, it is taught that there are four elements as well as four principles; likewise four manifestations and expressions of life. The four elements, necessary to organism or manifestation, are fire (oxygen), water (Hydrogen), air (nitrogen) and earth (carbon), and the four principles necessary to full expression are Divine or Spiritual, mental, physical and Soular.
Spirit, Soul, mind and body constitute the four cornerstones
of life, and have reference to the four points of the compass
on which, broadly speaking, the foundation of the universe - often
materially represented by Solomon's Temple - is built or established.
This was implied in the plan of Solomon's Temple: the outer court
for the Gentiles (physical self), the nest court for the Jews
(mental self) and the Holy of Holies for the High Priest, i.e.,
the Initiate, where the fourth or Soul Consciousness must be realized.
The physical, mental and Spiritual, depending upon the
Divine, complete the circle around the square of existence.
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AS IT IS WITHIN, SO IS IT WITHOUT
Fire, among the Alchemists and Initiates, has always been symbolized by the sun, as water has been by the moon; the one masculine, having the rose for its floral emblem; the other feminine, having the lily - especially the lotus - for its floral emblem.
Fire, in the lesser sense, has its metaphysical correspondence and symbolizes the active mind, the senses, the objective life, while water symbolizes the passive mind, the affections, the subjective life. In the Occult sense, however, Fire is symbolic of the Awakened, Conscious Soul; while mind is the Awakened (in this sense) builder, as well as the architect of the Soul.
The sun germinates and generates life in the seed by transforming the seed germ into its living, potential form; thus, it is a destroyer and a "bringer into life." But the seed does not germinate until it is moistened (humidified) by water. And so the moon, ruling the water, the tides and woman, preserves the life in a form peculiar to its kind.
Manifestation is outer and physical, while expression is inner and mental, Spiritual and Soulful, so that it can be truthfully said that the expression of the Soul is to the sphere what the manifestation is to the plane of life. This must be continuously kept in mind if the Neophyte hopes to master the science of the Initiates, which is also the secret doctrine annunciated in the Bible by the Nazarene in his statement: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables." Otherwise how is he to understand that other Occult and Arcane saying attributed to Hermes: "As it is above, so is it below; as it is within, so is it without," and further: "Whatever exists upon the earth in an earthly form exists in the heavens in a heavenly (Spiritual) form."
The Soul, in fact, all life essentially spirit, functions
on the four planes and in the four spheres designated by the terms
physical, mental, spiritual and Soular, and is one of essence
in all forms of expression and manifestation though different
in degree.
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Neither Soul not spirit creates matter, but uses it. The spirit vitalizes cells, attracts and arranges atoms, determines and disposes of the quality of the physical substances; and the mind, by its thoughts, feeling and character, employs or destroys form and transforms the body into images it idealizes.
There is a Divine technique taught by the Secret Schools, both concealed and revealed in the Bible, which the great Initiate, the Nazarene, taught in the parables of the five talents and the five wise virgins, and which Paul hinted at in I Corinthians 11:15, Divinity, centered in the Soul, can illuminate the mind and life, enlighten the senses, add a Divine range of sight and hearing, and so permeate the Soul with its radiant and pure Light as to transform ecce homo (Lo, the human) at once into ecce deus (Lo, the god). This is to be accepted, not merely theoretically, but as Spiritually demonstrable.
To prove one's Divinity and make it a Conscious, activating principle of one's life is the intent of Spiritual Initiation and the foundation of revealed religion. The survival of the individual after the change called death, the innate potential Divinity of the Soul is not a gift from God to a few, neither is it a miracle of salvation, but a universal fact which may be demonstrated by all who accept the Law and apply it in life's activities.
The sophist, who attempts to prove that God - who is no
respecter of persons - favors one class with blessings of wealth
and disfavors another class with the curse of poverty, has an
effete, tribal conception of God. Money, prosperity, wealth and
their opposites are largely matters of our desires, labor and
ingenuity; and the Scriptural justification of the prosperity
of the righteous is in the fact that they employ righteous and
correct business methods to obtain, accumulate and spend riches.
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The rich are not necessarily rich or prosperous only because of their righteousness, nor the poor lacking only because of their wickedness; but because the business of acquiring wealth even as a gift demands of us certain social and economic qualities which, if we obey or disobey, produce certain results. This is endorsed by the teachings of the Nazarene, and we have a luminous exposition of it in the parable of the five talents when He emphasized the Law of thrift and work in the accumulation on money, five talents bringing five more; and He actually condemned the man who hid his one talent in the earth, and as a result of his indolence and stupidity even that one was taken from him.
No one denies that justice, kindness, fair dealing and correct thinking are a part of the business of becoming righteously prosperous. But one may be all this, and if trusting only in God and seldom or never working to be prosperous expecting prosperity to come miraculously as a result of his trust - or some force or power without effort - he will remain where he is the rest of his natural life. He forgets the eternal Law - "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou live" - obtain possessions, gain power, become strong and finally, achieve Godhood.
Many foolishly imagine that righteousness is in itself a
sort of hocus-pocus or magic wand by which one is favored and
blessed. As it is with a seed before and after it is put into
good soil, so is it with our ideals, desires and thoughts. Unless
we "plant" them, make effort accordingly, there will
be no return, no fruition. God helps us through conditions;
He helps those who help themselves. No sophistry is more
heretical of truth, more insidious and destructive in our lives
that the assumption that God is a respecter of persons and disregards
His own Divine Law, that He can and does favor one who
disobeys the Law in practice and denies another who obeys in theory
only. God is the Divine Law, or change this to the Divine
Law is God.
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GOD'S WILL IS EXPRESSED IN UNIVERSAL LAWS
Occult Science first of all establishes the reign of Divine Law on all planes of life, and our attainments and obtainments result from a strict compliance with Spiritual as well as scientific requirements as established by the Law; in such a relationship between cause and effect, and their resultant causes and effects, the Law of Justice and Compensation is never evaded, each Soul reaping whatever it sows, not alone in the sense of rewards or punishments but, also, in the deeper sense of Spiritual and natural consequences.
Occult Science begins with the human and ends with the Divine Order of Will, intelligence, feeling and Life. Gods Will is expressed in the Universe as Law, not caprice; Order, not chaos; Intelligence, not chance or accident; Love not hate; Life, not death. The application of willing, thinking and feeling as each one Wills, thinks and feels is registered in the character of that person's life. Thus, the Law not only governs and finds its supreme justification in one's Divinity, whence it originates, but in humanity, not only in the Spiritual, but also in the natural world.
Our Divinity is expressed or manifested in our humanity, and the character of humanity is a negative or positive result of the expression of our Divinity. Occult Science bases its technique on Spiritual facts and knowledge; it proves its proposition by supersensuous or Spiritual evidences. These evidences to the natural man, who has not yet found enlightenment or been initiated into Hermetic Science, are no more than foolishness. But facts are stubborn things and persist until properly tabulated in the category of Spiritual realities.
What is needed by the soul is the idealist's vision when
centralized within the Soul, that the Spirit of God and our Spirit
are harmonized and the Consciousness reveals the unmistakable
difference between the objective power and the life of man; and
the same power and life when governed by, and proceeding from,
this inner or Soul Consciousness become a part of Divinity
individualized.
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Occult Science affords a near-vision and realization of the essential self, one's Divinity, Arcanely uniting the Soul through its becoming Conscious of God, the Supreme and Absolute Intelligence. What is lawfully fixed as matter in time and space, but lawfully free as in Spirit, can be transformed or transmuted and made to manifest the higher through the use of Will and power, co-ordinating with the lower mental faculties and powers to reveal the Occult and Divine ends which the physical and chemical laws of matter subserve. This explains how alleged miracles and supposed supernaturalisms are not suspensions of natural law, but the clear and undeniable evidence of law under the Soul's own Divine sovereignty.
This Arcane communion between one's higher self, the Soul, and God concerns the entire self in the Divine life in the superconsciousness, rather than in one's application of supernormal power on the normal or supernormal plane. Spiritual, not phenomenal, experiences must be and are universal, yet unique. These experiences are classed as religious because they concern the Soul and God, but they should never be confused with merely supernormal experiences. While they are encouraging and inevitable in the attainment of Spiritual realizations, they are not directly and integrally of God-consciousness.
These experiences are individual and concrete, inasmuch
as they relate both to Divine guidance and to human needs. They
are distinctly Spiritual in that they are part of the Soul's
experience. Singular as such experiences are, they are of the
universal Spirit, and, whether in the form of "voice"
or vision, they are associated with the Soul only when the Soul
is either consciously awakened or when the time has come for the
Soul to end its futile search after temporal powers relegate its
life from the standpoint of Divine conviction and interior Illumination.
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It is not astonishing that the terms "mystery" and "mysticism" should be derived from the same root. He who incredulously and blindly permits the ego, his inner self, to function on only the sensuous, objective plane of consciousness - ignorantly inhibiting the Soul's larger and deeper expression of life and power in the sphere of its supersensuous, transcendent, subjective and subliminal consciousness - will deny the reality of Occult and Spiritual experience. The moment the Soul is disenthralled from the dominion of the senses and liberated from the self-imposed obsessions of its carnal desires, these very desires being transmuted, that Soul is free to that degree to enjoy consciously the reveries, ecstasies, visions and the "voice" - not voices as generally understood which may be illusions and generally are - of the Soul as of the angels, and of the ministering Spirits as sent of God and as part of the Divinity and destiny.
The Occult, as part of the Arcanum, leads to Divine realization and Illumination. Its supreme purpose is to clear the consciousness of all veils, shadows, mists, obsessions, inhibitions, complexes, prejudices and obstructions which deflect but do not reflect. The realization of one's own Soul Consciousness is tantamount to the attainment of God's Consciousness and is frequently spoken of as superconsciousness.
This science would be neither secret not sacred were it
open or comprehensible to those not properly prepared. This is
the Biblical double doctrine as written in the Scriptures:
"To you who are prepared, it is given to understand."
Therein lies its safeguard and peculiarity. All unlawful use of
supernormal powers employed for personal or selfish purposes is
possible, but it leads to the blind alleys of Spiritual
occultation. Such use is discouraged because it may lead to dementia
and is never a part of the teachings of the Occult or Arcanum.
The Neophytes who are not fully prepared and ignore the warnings
of the Masters who teach the sacred and Arcane Science,
defying to obey conditions, "rushing in where angels fear
to tread," have none to blame but themselves if disaster
overtakes them. Occult Science is exact and severe in demanding
the enlightened life as of paramount importance. Such a life alone
can be the foundation on which is built the conscious perception
of Spiritual revelation, inner realization and Illumination.
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Soul Consciousness is not any sense allied to mediumship. It affirms self-possession, freedom and conscious sovereignty against control and unconscious possession. The phrase "Spiritual gifts," as employed by Paul in I Corinthians, chapter 14, refers to supernormalism, not mediumship or supernaturalism. Supernaturalism, a term used by theologians, implies accidental or sporadic happenings impossible under natural and Spiritual Law, traceable to an alleged - utterly impossible under the Law - fiat of God, to whom spontaneity of action is accredited a privilege in explicable to human reason, even in the absolute perfection of the Divine Will. Evolution implies involution, but does not deny the innate, potential, ultimate perfection of the human or individual Soul, which we know is a possibility.
Creation suggests recreation; as generation, REgeneration; as death, the resurrection. Supernormalism signifies no accidental fiat of God because His eternal plan failed or because the soul from birth in matter could, but would not, save itself from ignorance, weakness, sin and sickness, as does the term supernaturalism; but, it affirms the infolded, involved potentialities of Divine Being; when expressed, it proves one's Divinity through the attainment of Soul Consciousness - and by no other means. There can be no mistake in either scientific or Spiritual definitions. The unselfish, Divine use of powers, whether normal or supernormal, makes the degree of difference between the one word and the other which the word "supernaturalism" does not convey, except to make confusion more confounded.
Supernaturalism implies miracles, while supernormalism implies mystery, which science is unable to explain because it will not acknowledge the Spiritual. Man can be schooled to see, hear or feel Spiritually; function on the Soul Conscious - sometimes called the Astral - plane; hear the "voice" of the Soul, known as intuition' commune with the Hierarchies of the Great White Brotherhood; receive inspiration and revelation consciously; interpret the law which is Wisdom and know the deeper things of God.
To be able to do these things may seem mysterious because
the modus operandi is not understood by the novice and
profane, but these things are not miraculous, as knowledge of
Soul Science taught by the Secret Schools will readily explain.
Ignorance alone makes supernormal attainments seem miraculous;
knowledge dissolves the mystery. It is, therefore, desirable that
the Neophyte eliminate the terms "supernormal" and "supernatural"
from his vocabulary.
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The connecting link between man and God, the lost "key," the stone which the builders rejected, was metaphysically conceived. The Science which was lost and then rediscovered - cabalistically mixed with chimera, fantasy, parables, myths, symbolism, conceits of all kinds - is the Arcane Science of the August Fraternity which furnishes the true foundation on which Spiritual (Soul) realization is founded.
The Divinity, personified as the Holy Spirit or the Holy Grail, selected by Solomon above all other desirable things, is indwelling within every human Soul; and it is preparing for its highest order to be a perpetual Initiate Priest at the Divine altar wherein the Holy of Holies, the pure white Spirit - the Ineffable Light, burns with an unquenchable and inextinguishable glory. The lamp may become useless, the oil consumed, the wick burned down to a bit of carbon, but the Soul, with its radiant, eternal Light, will shine on forever.
This Science of the Soul is as a lamp to man's feet. It causes man's mind to function according to the Cosmic scheme and tunes his heart to celestial vibrations. It reveals his destiny and the infinity in his own Divinity. It explains the reason of Law and the Law of Order and reason. It is the Science whereby man finds life and Immortality, unity and oneness with God in whom he now lives ignorantly, moves and has his being unconsciously. It is the science of eternal (continuous) life. Mere existence - life as most men know it - is illusion. Divine realization is the ne plus ultra of everything. The conscious knowledge that in the sovereign power if inner Love the Soul discovers God, while in the gross passion of profane love it may lose God is a sublime and perpetual revelation of revealed religion. This the Arcanum of the Occult explains as the immaculate and immediate conception of the incarnation of a Divine Spark from God in the human race and this the same science reveals as the inhibition and exhibition of Soul or superconsciousness wherein our own Soul Consciousness bears witness of God and our own godhood.
Man, as it so often said, is the microcosm, and God or His
world is the macrocosm. the Soul's mastery over the carnal flesh
and mortal (because it is limited) mind demonstrates its celestial
origin and destiny. This is the Great Work.
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