The undeveloped Souls within men are much like seeds of flowers sown in the ground. Many of them never even have an opportunity to germinate; others spring up but are crushed back into the ground to rise no more, while a few more fortunately placed seeds germinate, grow to maturity and give an abundance of beautiful flowers; these are the few that have fulfilled their mission.

Just as flower seeds hold within themselves the essence of all they represent, so does the Soul contain within its embryonic self the possibility of becoming Godlike.

This divine essence in man is the spark of Divinity from which the Christisis may be developed. In it is contained the likeness of all that man has been, is and may become by means of Christification.

The ancient Initiates, the masters of all known esoteric learning, did no recognize God as a person, mor did they worship him a a being apart from the supreme divine life. They recognized God as the Cosmic Life present in all things; as the principle of All that is good and desirable, as the giver of life, and finally as the Father after whom man should pattern his life and action. The beautiful in all forms and phases of life was recognized as being identical, even though designated by various names. All that was beautiful and desirable, because constructive and beneficial, therefore in harmony with the Supreme Creator, the Cosmic Soul, was held to be part of god and "whoso had most of this within himself" and manifested it had most of God, i.e., was most like what we recognize as God.

"I am yesterday, today and tomorrow, for I have been born again and again and experienced and become conscious of all that has been. I am the force that was, manifested and nourished in the dwellers of the West. I was the guide of all of the East. I am the Lord of the two forces who is guided by his own light. I am the Lord of life, I am present at death, I am the Lord of the resurrection; of the coming forth of the Soul from the dust in which it is imprisoned. I am the Lord thy God and whoso has most of me in his Soul is nearest to me.

"Ye two divine hawks upon your station; watchers of the material world; ye who go with the bier to its eternal home, and you who conduct the ship to the son; advancing onwards from the highest heaven to the place of the sarcophagus.

"This is the Lord of the shrine which standeth in the center of the earth; He is in me, and I am in Him.

"In him we live, and move, and have our being."

And it would be well to state further: "Those who live only for the material are of the material; but those who accept of the spirit of life and act accordingly, live in the spirit of God and become patterned after him."

These modified extracts from the Book of the Dead give us a glimpse into the minds of the Egyptian master Initiates. Though the book was in existence 3,733 B.C., its esoteric philosophy does not differ in the least from that of the enlightened minds of today. As it was then, so is it today. The bodies differ not at all and the Souls in those bodies are from the same God and must pass through the same experiences if Cosmic Consciousness, i.e., Christification, is to be attained.

From the writings of the Egyptian Initiates we may learn all that was known of God and the Soul in that age, and when we compare this with the esoteric doctrines of today, we find in them all that is known of the evolution of man, and the development of mind and Soul essential to the bringing into Consciousness of the Christos that Christification may take place and the Soul awaken as Christisis.

This is the religion of man in this New Cycle; it teaches all that is known, all that can be known, of the awakening of the Soul, of its development and its final gaining of Consciousness, that it may become Cosmic Conscious, God Conscious, the son of man become the Son of God.

What is God? Who is He? Where is He?

The Initiates, i.e., the enlightened or Illuminated, agree in their philosophical-religious inculcations that he is the Father of Light; that he is the Light; that he is all Love; that all of life is from him; that he is the life and the Light of man, but that few men make sufficient effort to become conscious of him.

God is the life, the love and the Light of man. If men would make the necessary effort they would find more of life, know love as the uplifting power, forget their hates and jealousies, and find the Light that would be their guiding star throughout life and in all of life, and become like the gods.

Many question: "Who are the ‘gods'?" The gods are those who have overcome "the world, the flesh and the devil," and have, in addition, made the necessary effort to awaken and bring the Soul into Consciousness; into tits Christic or Manistic state and therefore into the supreme harmony which is known as the "kingdom of heaven" and union, or At-one-ment, with the Father ; consequently as "one of the gods," a Son of God.

Yes, there are other "gods." These are the ones whom men call "angels," who have never been on earth, but help to do the work of the Father.

"All of these are one with the Supreme Ruler, the Cosmic Father, living and working in conscious harmony with him and his Laws, guiding and assisting in shaping the events of the destiny of empires and humanity in harmony with the One Law.

All nations, all activity, all humanity are under the guidance of these great Souls who are ever ready to assist and protect those who reach out for their help and who seek to overcome the evils of the flesh and the world. These are the "gods" whom the "heathen" of olden days are supposed to have imaged in stone and worshipped.

This is no more true than that the Hebrews worshipped the tablets of the Law; that the Christians worship the water by which they are baptized; or the cross upon which the Nazarene was crucified. All these things are symbols representing the principles necessary in the evolution and awakening of the Soul, and it is the spirit hidden in the symbol that is worshipped, not the outer representation of it, which we know as the symbol.

Where is God? Where are the gods? The answer is not far to seek. The answer has been repeated to us, or we have read it times without number, but it has failed to impress us because of our grossness and lack of spiritual insight. The awakening of the Christos, the Christification of the Soul buried so deep within our mortal self, would have quickly enlightened us; for in this enlightenment all things are revealed.

"Ye are the temples of the living God."

This statement has come thundering down to us from ages past and forgotten in the limbo of time. It is so plain, so simple a statement, that all but the few have missed its almost unbelievable significance. In these few words we are giving a clear answer to where we may find the "gods" and where God also may be found. "Ye, Within yourself, you must seek for, and find, God. If you fo not do this, then you will never find him, never become conscious of his presence, never be blessed with those who sought for, made the supreme effort, and finally found both the kingdom of heaven, and God.

How are you to find, or "open up," this kingdom within and find God?

God is love and it therefore follows as the night follows day, that whoso has most of love in the heart also has most of God. God is the Light and it is equally certain that whoso has most of Light, likewise has most of god, and may be led righteously (rightly) by this Light which is not to be found on "land or sea," but only in this "kingdom of heaven," within the temple wherein the living God dwells.

God is the "Lord of the shrine which standest in the center of the earth." This earth is you, because "he is in me; and I in him."

To have either experience you must become worthy; your house or temple must not be the "hut of swine," foul with filth, but cleansed and purified and prepared as for a guest.

God is the Light, for is it not said of him: "I shine forth as the Lord of Light, and life is of the Light, and cometh in obedience to the Law."

In these simple sayings is hidden the mysteries of "heaven," of "life that is eternal," and of God's being. "Seek and ye shall find," but you must "knock before it can be opened to you."

This means that you must not only seek, not only learn to understand, but that you must likewise obey, i.e., harmonize your life's action with the dictates of the Law, otherwise you will never be able to unravel the "mystery of the kingdom of heaven," nor draw aside the very thin veil hiding from your darkened eyes all that is permanent and eternal.

The science of Christification instructs you in the way, in the truth, in how you may find this Light within yourself, and by so doing become conscious that he is in you; and you in him," and that "the twain are now become as one.

Did the ancient Pries-Initiates know these truths, asnd, if so, why did they fail to teach these Divine Laws to all nations and all peoples?

Contrary to the belief of many, they did teach all of these truths, but it was unacceptable to the multitudes, just as it is unacceptable to the mass of today.

"Pearls are not to be thrown before swine," if we are to accept the teachings of the Nazarene. These truths could be offered to only the few who came to seek the truth; the rest were not ready; they were unwilling to accept. These truths, these "pearls," could no more be forced upon the ancient peoples than they can be forced upon the mass of the people living during these present modern times.

God is wisdom and only the wise can recognize wisdom. It is not sufficient to learn about God; it is necessary to seek for and find god, and to find him is to know him. This is never possible by faith alone. Faith is essential in the search and to be able to find the way, but when the way is found, then one must live so as to harmonize with the Law and as a result of so living awaken the inner spiritual self, the Soul, and bring it, i.e., develop it into consciousness. It is only by means of this consciousness, this Christification, tht the Soul can recognize God and find the "kingdom of heaven," his dwelling place.

Man is his own ruler, and the maker of his destiny. He has free Will. It is his privilege to do as he desires, but he should be fully aware of the fact that "as he sows so must he reap." The crop of life cannot be changed after the seeds have come to life. Man is from God; he is made in the image of God; he is given all the faculties and all the possibilities of a Son of God. To obtain the benefits of his birthright it is necessary for man to live within the Laws imposed upon him, otherwise his birthright becomes a "mess of pottage," a liability, not an asset If man fails to become like God, if he misuses his powers and forces, then it is the fault of no one but himself and he alone must accept the blame and pay the penalty. He then loses the "talents" that were placed in his care at birth and all that he had will be taken from him.

God has not ceased to exist, he has not changed; his Laws today are the same as they were in the dim past. Man's possibilities and opportunities are no less; it is only his unwillingness to exercise himself and "be after his Father's business" that retards his progress and prevents him from "coming into his inheritance." All this man himself may change in "the twinkling of an eye" by deciding that he will accept the Law of his being and live accordingly thereby coming into his own as "one of the gods," possessing the knowledge of good and evil; following only the good.

Fortunately, and contrary to the misconception of the multitudes, God is not concerned alone with spiritual things, but with all that concerns man and his well-being, whether this be of body, mind or Soul, or even the material pleasures and necessities of life. The Law denies man none of these things so long as he rightfully obtains and correctly uses them. This alone is the problem. This being true, it necessarily follows that ultimately he who is become most like unto God, likewise possesses most of the Lord's powers, forces and possibilities for the good of himself and others; this becoming is Christification.

All that is mortal must ultimately die, i.e., change. All that is Immortal continues to live without change. Strangely and foolishly, the vast majority have erroneously believed that this change, this "death," does not take place; that it cannot take place until the transition we know as death. The seeker for truth quickly becomes conscious of the fact that this change in the mortal, and final "death" of the mortal, and all that is mortal, may anc can take place long years before what we know as the "death of the body" takes place. By changing the evils inherent in the flesh to those exalted states which are of the Soul, the mortal becomes, or attains to, the Immortal, while still active on the earth plane. This changing is the duty and the destiny of every man willing to accept and apply the Law. This, in truth, is Christification, the becoming of Christisis, a Son of God.

In attempting to live within the Law in an effort to harmonize the self with the enlightened life, the mind must be alert at all times and when there is a call for physical sustenance, the God-given reasoning power must analyze the call. If good, then there must be compliance for the welfare of the body, but it it is not to the benefit of the body and, in turn, to the welfare of the whole being, then there must be a refusal.

This knowledge leads us to control our thoughts and helps us to eliminate desires other than those which are good and constructive. When undesirable thoughts do enter the mind, as they frequently will, we can quickly eliminate them by recalling something good, beautiful or desirable. As we control the thoughts so will we likewise control the desires, and nothing but good, constructive, elevating and exalting will reach the Soul awaiting its call to consciousness.

In the finale the Soul of man is all that is real. It is the only reality that will continue to exist after the body, the personal self, has returned to its elements. Unless we awaken and develop this Soul which is given to us as one of the "talents," and bring it into the consciousness of the Manistic state, there is nothing for it to do but to return to a state of Nirvana until such time as it will again make its return in an effort to find a more faithful "husbandman" who will make the effort to individualize himself ( his personality) and bring the Soul into Consciousness.

The Soul is the Light, the Fire, the divine image of God. Man is (or can become) the Temple of God, wherein this soul or image is to dwell. To bring this about, the Law must be fulfilled. Man must harmonize himself with God and his eternal efforts, for only through this activity is Cosmic and God Consciousness possible, with the resulting manifestation of Christification.

The Divine spark that is to become a conscious Soul is implanted at birth into every normal body. Whether or not this Divine Spark will ever become anything more than a spark will depend entirely on the efforts of the person. This Divine Spark is in truth a "talent"intrusted by God or the Creative Law into the hands of every man. Man possessing free Will is at liberty to do as he pleases with this embryonic "god." He may be like the indolent farmer with good seed in his grannery who fails to sow it and therefore is without a harvest, or he may be like the good husbandman who makes every effort to greatly increase all that is given to him, so that he may profit thereby, while others will also benefit by his faithfulness.

Man's conceptions of god are in error because they are based on a beclouded outlook resulting from abnormal living and carnal inclinations. Such a man pictures God after himself instead of trying to gain Light and clear seeing, and to that degree obtain a greater insight into the reality of being.

This being true, is it to be wondered at that the god men have blindly worshipped has bailed them: Is it not true that this god was not the "Bod of high heaven," but rather a creature of their own imagination and without existence except in their own beclouded minds? Is it strange that the true God cannot reach them, and, even if he could, he would not be in harmony with their manner of thought, their desires, their life and their morality?

God cannot conform himself to the desires and rules of men; the Creator cannot be governed by the weaknesses of the creature. Man must gain the wisdom necessary to his well-being and then conform to the Laws or fiats of God co-incident with creation itself.

All of man's misfortunes are the result of misconceptions. This is due wither to man's own erroneous conclusions, or acceptance of the equally false and misleading teachings of those who have set themselves before men as their leaders and guides and whom the many blindly follow. This in itself is mostly due to man's desire to be saved from himself; by means of other than his own deliberate efforts; by a life lived within the Law. The only possible salvation of mankind is through the acceptance of personal responsibility as an absolute Law; a willingness on the part of man to save himself by means of his own efforts, the reactions of his every act, and the heart-born desire to help instead of degrade and defraud his fellow man.

God never has, and never will, turn his "face away from man." it is man who has turned away from God and his just Laws. God is ever ready to help each and every one seeking help and willing to comply with the requirements necessary to obtain such help. God is ever the same God; he never changes. It is man who is changeable; never the same; never dependable; and, the pity of it is, he nearly always changes for the worse; he is hardly ever master of himself; on the contrary, all the weaknesses and evils within himself govern and override what is left of his better nature. Just as long as man continues to permit the evils of the flesh, his carnal desires, to control and to usurp the longings and inclinations of the spiritual self, lust will be in control, and nothing that is from god, i.e., good, kindly, holy or exalting, can reach the Soul, and that Soul will continue to be asleep until kindly death of the body frees it to give it another and possibly better opportunity to be brought into consciousness.

Merely believing in a thing, or accepting a truth in faith, not only is impotent in accomplishing good, but has been the means of leading uncountable human creatures unto destruction. "Faith without works" is not only dead, it leads to death. To become aware that an evil exists and fails to make effort to eliminate it is a greater evil than to be unconsciously guilty of evil. The knowledge of an existing evil within ourselves imposes the duty to free ourselves from it, to replace it with something better. With knowledge comes the responsibility of applying that knowledge in eliminating evil and the substitution of something good and constructive in its place. Faith must be followed by works. Knowledge by constructive efforts. It is not sufficient to become aware of the evils within us that retard our material and spiritual progress, and a faith that these evils can be eliminated. This knowledge in itself imposes the penalty of eliminating the evils; the greater degradation and failure will be ours if we refuse to act according to our knowledge and faith.

The Soul is the real self. In the ultimate it is the Soul that will suffer and be made to pay the penalty. The Soul is Divine in its nature; it is from god, and to fulfill its destiny it must find a way regain its former purity, freedom and consciousness. Having sought possession of a body as an earthly vehicle wherein it may gain knowledge of both good and evil, it accepted the entire responsibility for the evils of the flesh and cannot again be free until by its incentive it has been able to induce that body or vehicle to accept the laws of God and fulfill its true mission. Everything the material, personal man does, however evil it may be, becomes a responsibility of the soul inhabiting that body.

For every evil committed,. The Soul, the spiritual self suffers. Whether there is illness, sorrow, loss, degradation, or any of the other evils now so frequent and common, the mark is left upon the Soul and the Soul itself must pay through countless incarnations.

The body and Soul may be compared to two persons, or the dual nature of man. One of these is wholly physical, inclined to much evil and giving thought to naught but the benefit and satisfaction of the self in any manner possible and without regard of consequences; let us call this man Barnabas. The other person or nature is just the contrary; every thought and inclination is toward the good, the true and the beautiful; let us call this one Psyche (the Soul).

Barnabas is wholly material, carnal and of the world; Psyche is wholly spiritual, but has need of Barnabas in order to experience, gain knowledge, and finally liberation by working out her destiny, and in order to do this must assume full responsibility for all that Barnabas does.

Between these two there is constant conflict. Psyche seeks to do only those things which will benefit Barnabas, all who associate with him and finally herself. Barnabas is not even aware that Psyche exists, though conscious of a conflict within himself and that he has frequent urges to do certain things he is disinclined to do, and not to do other things he wishes to do; in general, he does what he wishes to do.

Having assumed the responsibility, Psyche is compelled to "write on her book of life" every unworthy, undesirable and evil act Barnabas is guilty of and must "pay to the utmost farthing" for them. However, gradually and with infinite patience, Psyche succeeds in awakening in Barnabas a desire to change his life from one of evil to one of constructiveness, and, as a result, he gradually commits less evil and does more good.

This change continues until finally a balance is reached and his acts are continually more toward the good and less toward the evil. It is then that he begins to balance the ledger, and in time accepts his Karma; meets the p;ayment of his debts; and, as these debts are repaid, Psyche's "Book of Life" will be balanced.

When this is finally brought to consummation, the gross man, Barnabas, has become the regenerate man; the Soul has been brought into consciousness and has become as one of the gods, and its destiny is fulfilled.

Every human creature is dual. On the one side is the wholly carnal self, on the other is the wholly spiritual entity; the Soul that came to earth to attain God Consciousness by a willingness to suffer so as to know good from evil, and to work out its own redemption by means of transmutation; transforming the man of flesh (evil) into an Immortal being in the form of the (a) temple for the living God; body and Soul having become equilibrated, or as one.

Sometimes, in fact, in all but a few instances, Psyche will be unable to awaken her Barnabas to the realization that the carnal life is undesirable and to induce him to make the changes. When that happens, Psyche will be compelled to accept all the Karma created by Barnabas, and, after her experience with him, and when "his days are run," seeks another Barnabas, carrying the burden with her, and in the new incarnation try again.

Such experience may continue for ages and many incarnations until Psyche finally finds the right Barnabas and is able to work out her problems, pay her indebtedness and gain her freedom. Even so, she will have no regrets; she assumed the responsibility when she of her own free Will left the kingdom of "high Heaven," descended (fell) to earth and took up her abode in a purely material, carnal, animal "house of clay." she "married" Barnabas for "better or for worse," and, being a daughter of God" in the first place, she will not shrink either her "duty" or her "responsibility" until she has succeeded in returning by becoming the Son of God.
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