The Art and Science of Building an Illuminated and Immortal Soul; the Method for Attainment of Soul or Cosmic Consciousness and Oneness with God; the Spiritual Ethics for the New Age.
Director General: Church of Illumination
Supreme Grand Master of the International Confederation of Initiates
Supreme Grand Master of the Merged Occult Fraternities Comprising:
| The Priesthood of Æth | Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis |
| The Rosicrucian Order | Temple of the Rosy Cross |
| The Secret Schools | The Order of the Magi |
| The Hermetic Brotherhood | Sons of Isis and Osiris |
| Illuminatæ Americanæ |
| Introduction | |
| Chapter 1 Conception - Annunciation | Chapter 10 Crucifixion |
| Chapter 2 The Confesson | Chapter 11 The Passover |
| Chapter 3 The Second Birth | Chapter 12 The Law of Compensation |
| Chapter 4 The Soul | Chapter 13 Judgement |
| Chapter 5 The Soul's Awakening | Chapter 14 Faith and Works |
| Chapter 6 Illumination | Chapter 15 The Healing of the Nation |
| Chapter 7 The Soul In The Beyond | Chapter 16 The Æth Arcanum |
| Chapter 8 The Coming of Christ | Chapter 17 Servants Who Are Masters; |
| Chapter 9 Atonement | Masters Who Are Servants |
The sole object of this book is to announce the coming of the Christ, not to humanity en masse, but to the individual; to those who seek for and are prepared to receive Him.
How shall these know when the Christ has come?
Just as man awaking from the night's sound sleep regains his consciousness and knows that he is awake, so does the Soul of man, when aroused from its long inertia and burial in the tomb of debris of sin and degradation, and brought into Consciousness, make itself felt to him in whom it has been awakened. The mind, John in the wilderness, testifies to the entire being that Conscious Individualization has been attained; that this is in truth the newly arisen Christ.
"Knowing the prophecy came not in olden time by the will of man; but Holy [Illuminated] men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost [the Soul baptized by the Fires of God]."
When man has awakened his Soul, brought it to consciousness, then the Holy Ghost descends upon that Soul and it has become Holy, that is to say: "Whole." Those so enlightened then know; they have the proofs constantly before mind and vision; they no longer guess; they speak with authority; they are the Holy Men of God and they speak as if they were moved by the Holy Ghost, i.e., the Voice of God speaks from within them. This is the voice of the Fire, of the Burning Bush; that same voice that spoke to Moses.
Had Peter never uttered another word, the few foregoing words quoted from his sayings indicate how men can find "the Way, the Truth and the Life." When the heart becomes aware that it is imprisoned in a tomb of error and as a result of this awakening arouses the mind to constructive thought and action, then, to that individual is the Christ child born. As this newly born babe, though still in the manger of "error," grows into manhood, the "day star" or Star of Light, arises in, becomes part of, the Soul.
The prophecy of the second coming is now being fulfilled; "the time is at hand," and "ye do well to take heed."
We do not proclaim the return of Jesus or any other Avatar in the flesh to establish an earthly kingdom, or to gather together a few favored ones erroneously believed to be predestined for heaven. We herald the coming of the Christos, the Individualization and Illumination of the Soul; the conception of God; the At-One-ment of the All Father in the Soul of every individual who will heed the call. We proclaim that it is possible for each to attain Cosmic Consciousness and manifest the Christic attributes, yet be practical men and just in the affairs of humanity. This experience is not for the self-righteous few, but for all men who will take heed and live accordingly.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and [even] now is, when the dead [those living in sin and carnality; the Soul as yet buried in the tomb of the dead flesh] shall hear the voice of the Son of God [the heart becoming conscious of a higher desire; the inner voice of the conscience]; and they that hear [act] shall live."
This promise was not made to men who might live centuries after these words were spoken; but to each and every human Soul that would hear and take heed at that time, now and forever more until all men have listened and entered into Life. It is a promise potent with untold possibilities, and fulfillment can be experienced by all who listen to the voice of God speaking (urging) within themselves; who will harmonize their thoughts, desires and acts with the Law, and reap the reward according to the promise: "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
The human race, in its blindness and misunderstanding, has been, and still is, looking forward to the coming of a Savior, the second advent of Christ, who would take upon Himself man's weaknesses and degradation, his crimes and atrocities and absolve their Souls "crimson with guilt." Very few of these who have long been looking for such an one have given a single thought to the fact that such a desire is as dishonorable as any act man can commit. They fail to recognize that the man, any man, who would ask another to assume his responsibilities and to pay his debts, is not alone dishonorable, but is weak; does not possess the qualities of manhood and is unworthy of the designation of a man. He is certainly unworthy of being "saved" and carried into paradise while other men are devoting heart and Soul in honestly earning the Soul's salvation (freedom).
Many who have appointed themselves as leaders and teachers have, for personal reasons and benefits, been all too ready to proclaim such a Messiah to their deluded followers despite the fact that the Nazarene made it very plain that: "Many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." The Nazarene did not stop there but proceeded to explain the signs that would precede the coming of the real Christos:
"As the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Just as the sun rises in the East and gives light unto all the earth, so does the awakened mind make effort to bring the Soul into Consciousness and Illumination. This Illumination is THE COMING INTO LIGHT. It is the coming of God to the Soul, for God is a Fire as He Himself has proclaimed and this Fire brings Light to the Soul.
When this takes place it is with suddenness; it lights up the whole world of that man. It is an individual process; it is the work that must be accomplished by man himself.
Strange that philosophers, prophets, priests and sages should have given so little thought to these sayings of the Nazarene, the man they accepted as having become the Christ.
"Lightning which cometh out of the east." In all His ministry, the Nazarene spoke and taught in parables and symbols. The East has always been considered as the birthplace of Light, as the seat from whence Wisdom must come. In all true Initiation men look to the East for Wisdom. They travel East that Wisdom might be given them. Lightning is symbolic of dispelling the darkness; thus the coming of Wisdom frees the mind of its ignorance or darkness.
Even "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they shall hear and live."
Those who have wasted their lives for selfish pleasure among the illusions and snares of all that is earthly, those who are "dead" to the Wisdom that is potent to save, those who have failed to accept the truth, having failed to act so as to build the Soul into Consciousness are as dead, but even these shall yet live if they will hear (obey) the voice of God (the promptings of the heart) and live accordingly.
"Out of the Throne proceeded lightenings and thunderings and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the Throne, which were the spirits of God."
"Out of the Throne." The "Throne" is always in the inner sanctuary. It is in the innermost part of the temple. That temple is man. The Soul brought to Consciousness is a Light; it is Light; it is the Fire of God, the Creator. From the midst of the Throne, from this innermost sanctuary, comes forth the lightning; the Light; so that it may shine forth unto all men as the "light which is neither on land nor on sea."
The Nazarene was preceded by John the Baptist, who came crying in the wilderness of error: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his path straight."
He came to prepare the people to accept the truth to be taught by One greater than he; by One better prepared. He said unto all, even to those who sought to accept him as their Avatar: "I am come baptizing with water [bring you the mental awakening], but One mightier than I cometh, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; he shall baptize you with fire."
Always the parable of "water" and of "fire." Water is the mind and all that belongs to the mental part of man. The mind must conceive and accept truth before it can be applied. If this is done then will man be ready for that which is to follow; this is the fire, the Holy Ghost, which will do to the Soul that which the water did to the mind; awaken it, bring it into Consciousness so that it may become God or Father Conscious, a part of the universal Cosmic Consciousness.
As John the Baptist was the forerunner of One greater to come, so is the Science of the Soul the "voice in the wilderness" proclaiming: not a new Law, but a plan and method, therefore a science whereby the Soul of man may be awakened, developed and brought into God Consciousness.
All this was symbolized by the birth of the Nazarene in the manger; by His journey into the Land of Egypt, the "place of darkness"; the evils that abide in man or Egypt; his instruction and Initiation and, finally, the descent of the Holy Ghost or Fire of God whence He became the Son of God.
John the Baptist was not the only "voice in the wilderness" to proclaim the "Greater to come." Many before him came with the same mission, many others must come before men will take heed. But the age of materiality and cold, Soulless science, of false beliefs and delusions, the time of darkness represented by the term "Egypt" is fast passing and then it shall be said: "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Aye, out of darkness shall come the Light.
Egypt the great, Egypt the glorious, yet a synonym of darkness and unenlightenment, as out of the flesh shall proceed the Fire which is God and the Light of the Soul.
It may still be said of man: "And the earth [man] was without form and void [unregenerated], and darkness [ignorance] was upon the face of the water [mind], and God said: 'Let there be Light [understanding], and there was light.' "
Moses gave these truths to the Jews but they would not understand. The Nazarene brought them once again from the crypts and secret places of Egypt to the Gentile and Jew alike, but neither would accept; so now once again is the "Word" brought unto humanity so that it may hear, and hearing may obey and live.
And "As the lightning flashes from the east and shineth unto the west" so come these words of Wisdom to scatter the dark clouds of materialism and dead faith, and spread the life-bringing Light deep into the hearts of those who seek and would know.
The day of the great awakening is at hand. He that baptizes with Fire (the Holy Ghost) is among us. The identical Fire which found voice and spake to Moses in the "burning bush" is awaiting the awakening in every human Soul. It is the Fire that lighted the darkness for the children of Israel after the Initiate-Kings no longer ruled Egypt and the usurpers had taken authority into their own selfish hands. It is the Fire that descended in the form of a dove from heaven to bring peace to men who refused to accept; it is the "tongue of fire" that sat upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost; it is the Illumination of the Soul for those who have obeyed, lived within the Law and attained Conscious Individualization.
Those who were foreordained by the Law were not sleeping (were not waiting for a trumpet to sound and rout them from inertness and impotency); for they who sleep never accomplish, because they "labor not, neither do they spin." These were bearing arms and shields to protect the good, that it be not betrayed and outraged, but held sacred unto the coming of the Lord. The multitudes have been, and continue to be led blindly. They see not nor do they hear. Only those whose eyes are opened, as were those of Saul of Tarsus, may behold the Light upon the Shekinah in the inner sanctuary of the Temple.
"He who knows" has given the command that these "saving truths" shall be sent forth to the children of men that they may become fully informed despite the teachings of the debasing (unmanly - dishonorable) doctrines of justification by faith and vicarious atonement which have led so many countless millions astray.
The baptism of Fire is at hand. That which is in the mind must give way to the things of the Soul. The Soul is greater than the mind although at first it is the child in the manger. The Soul is eternal; it is the Light of men; it is the Living Fire which proceeded from God. We may accept and be saved (attain Soul Consciousness) or we may refuse and be damned (be encompassed by the dead).
Throughout all the inspired writings of all the Initiates, Apostles and Prophets, men are warned to awaken from their sleep, yet how few have ever given real thought to the meaning of these words?
Paul said: "To be carnally minded [asleep] is death, but to be spiritually minded [Soul awakened] is life and peace."
The mind must be awakened; it must be made conscious that there is much more to life than to work for pleasure and profit; that there is something to be obtained that is "beyond price"; that all earthly possessions are temporal; that there are spiritual things to be obtained and that these alone are lasting. The mind once awakened will no longer be asleep (at rest) but become active in its search for the "pearl beyond price," the "life that knows no death."
"Ye are laborers [builders] together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builded thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire [the Soul manifesting through the medium of the body and its actions]; and the fire shall try every man's work what sort it is.
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
"If any man defile the temple [his body] of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is Holy [must be made whole, complete], which temple ye are."
There are no qualifications here; either we cleanse and save the temple so that God, the Light, may dwell therein, or we abuse and degrade it and then darkness, death shall be its portion. God does not hesitate to say that He will destroy the unholy ones who fail to make themselves whole.
This is saying that God, the Fire, is within you; being from God, therefore part of God, the Fire will burn up, consume all that is gross or evil. All is dross that has not been purified. If the temple is filled with filth (disease), and with merchants (profiteers), and with money changers (those who live by defrauding and debasing others), then the Fire will certainly destroy them and no amount of faith in a personality, however sublime, can save it. As God has said, He is a consuming Fire.
The work of the Science of the Soul is to instruct men in the knowledge and conception of the ever-living Christ, not as a person, but as a state of being; a becoming, an attainment.
Man is, must make of himself, the temple where the living God may dwell. If this is not done, then neither God nor Christ can be with that man and he is Christless, therefore unholy.
The Science of the Soul is engaged in establishing the Soul's relationship to God after the manner of the Christic conception. Its mission is not to destroy, not to criticize or antagonize the church, but to lift the veil from the hidden faith and to interpret the mysteries of life.
The Science of the Soul opens the portals of understanding so that the Soul may find its awakening and manifest through its earthly vehicle, the body: "Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by Fire [the Soul]." This is to teach all the children of men the coming of the Christos, the individualization of the Soul, that it may be truly at-One, the Son of God.
It will try to "gather together the elect from the four winds of heaven, lift up the fallen, open the eyes of the blind, heal the sick, comfort the broken-hearted and inculcate the saving truth to the poor, setting at liberty them that are bruised [bound in chains of slavery]."
The time is now when men of evil, those strong in the desires and longings of the flesh, shall say: " peace and safety," then suddenly destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon the woman with child; and they shall not escape.
The Science of the Soul teaches all that may be openly revealed. Those who obey, who will make effort to awaken the mind and bring the Soul into consciousness, shall be baptized with Fire, the same which is the Holy Ghost. These shall be of one mind, knowing good from evil. The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways; he is unable to judge good from evil, false from true; he comprehends not the Law; his life is as the will-o'-the-wisp, now here, now there; lastly nowhere; this is diffusion; in it is death.
Seek ye the things of the Soul, the Christos within, and the Holy Ghost shall descend upon thee, and Holiness unto the Lord shall be thine.
Lastly, in this book, continuity of thought is neither attempted nor intended. Our effort is to teach the Law governing the "work" of becoming an Individualized being in whom the personality has been absorbed. Each paragraph must be accepted as complete in itself. The words have no value; in application alone is there virtue.
R. Swinburne Clymer
The See
Beverly Hall
Quakertown, Pennsylvania
September 3, 1943
|Top|