Topics:
| 131 | The Hermetic Concept |
| 132 | Hermetic Science and the Alchemical Process |
| 133 | The Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life |
| 134 | The Greatest of Victories Is the Victory Gained Over the Carnal Self |
| 135 | The "Pearl of Great Price" |
| 136 | Men Sneer at Belief in God and Religion to Hide Their Ignorance |
| 137 | Instilling Man With the Spirit of Achievement |
| 138 | Vice Transmuted Into Virtue |
| 139 | The Human Nature of Man |
| 140 | Knowledge Which Should Serve Man Often Renders Him a Slave |
| 141 | The Divine in Man's Nature |
| 142 | Through Suffering Often comes Spiritual Enlightenment |
| 143 | Man Is the Subject of Hermetic Science |
| 144 | Conscious Communication With the Spiritual Hierarchies |
| 145 | The Fear of the Lord Should Be the Beginning of a Search for Wisdom |
| 146 | There Is Reason for Secrecy |
| 147 | The Philosopher's Contempt for Death |
| 148 | Know Thyself |
| 149 | Creator and Creation Are One |
| 150 | The Law of Nature Should Be the Law of Man |
| 151 | God Has Placed His Eternal "Word" in Man |
| 152 | "In Thee Is Hidden the Treasure of Treasures" |
| 153 | The Neophyte Possesses Keen Desire for Immortality |
| 154 | Arcane Science, the Straight and Narrow Path |
| 155 | Man Must Awaken His Soul to Activity |
| 156 | Unselfish Love Is the Uplifter |
| 157 | The Material Self Is Necessary to Spiritual Development |
| 158 | Material Success and Soul-Consciousness |
| 159 | The Human Body Is the Hall of Initiation |
| 160 | Body and Soul Represent Earth and God |
| 161 | The Aim and End of Man on Earth |
| 162 | Man's Greatest Foe Is Himself |
| 163 | Success in Every Department of Life |
The Great Work of the Hermetic Art is before all things the REcreation of man himself by means of transmutation that is to say:
First - The full and complete conquest of his faculties.
Second - The development of all his forces and energies.
Third - The perfect emancipations of his Will.
Fourth - The establishment of manhood and the attainment of absolute Individualization.
Man is not truly man unless he is a FREE man. So long as man is shackled by limitations, whether self-created or by man-made legislative enactments or by the dominion of the power usurped by other men, he is not a free man; therefore, he is a slave to conditions, circumstances and environments.
This is in no wise indicative that man should ignore the statutes created by other men. On the contrary, it stipulates that the free man is so proud of his inheritance that he will not stoop to commit "sin" - a wrong against himself, other men or society. Having attained such freedom from the domination of his own passions, he is too noble to stoop to any unworthy act. It was written of such: "The men best governed are those least governed," because these govern themselves.
The concept of Hermetic Science and Alchemical Processes
is the development of the threefold man: body, mind and Soul;
the complete activation of all his forces, powers and energies;
the attainment of Soul Consciousness here and now; and
the severing of all man-made shackles that hold him in subjection
and interfere with his obedience to the Divine Law.
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The aim of Initiation:
"That the children of Darkness
Become the sons of Light!"
The study and mastery of Hermetic Science reveals to man the mysteries of his nature, the secrets of his organization, the hidden potentialities with their possibilities and the means by which he may attain happiness, the successful achievements of his life's purpose and, lastly, a degree of perfection; in short, the AIM and END of his destiny. This is the secret of Initiation and has been its purpose since the first man became conscious of his Soul or Spiritual self and inaugurated the Mysteries whereby all men might, if they so desired, attain Spiritual Consciousness.
The "key" to this process is the hidden teachings in all sacred writings; it is the basic foundation of all religious - Spiritual - inculcations.
The older Mysteries were dual in their object; that is to say the Masters had two distinct purposes in view - a double doctrine.
The first object was to emancipate man from his state of
barbarity (1) and civilize him, and then take the cultured man
and instruct him toward perfection. In other words, to lead man,
who was universally believed to be lost or fallen, back to his
first estate. According to this concept, man must become REgenerated,
his Spiritual nature brought to the ascendant; and this
is only possible through a process known as Initiation, the method
being Alchemical and the means transmutatory.
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(1) Unfortunately for mankind, just as we had about convinced
ourselves that man had at last mastered the inhumanity in his
nature and had accepted the Divine Law to govern his actions
toward his fellow men, we are confronted by the outburst of a
cruelty heretofore unknown, even in a state of utter barbarity,
thought foreign to reasoning human beings. No time in the history
of man, not even in the conquests of Mexico and South America,
was there known to be such wanton destruction of undefended property,
innocent men, women and children. How far (at least a part of)
humanity has retrogressed is readily seen when we compare the
actions of officials of enemy forces during the Revolutionary
War to the tactics of present wars. During the American Revolution,
the enemy officers would not permit the burning of homes unless
it was absolutely essential for their success or protection; and
certainly there is little or no record of the killing of defenseless
men, women and children, or capturing them for purposes of slavery.
Compare this with the inhuman destruction of life in Russia and
many other countries during their revolutions. Many of these nations,
by so doing, set themselves back by fifty thousand years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
The second object was to discover the means whereby
gross matter could be raised to its first nature, the secret which
was lost to all but the very few.
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Gold became the symbol of the first matter and has so remained because gold is the purest substance known to man; it is capable of resisting even fire, the universal cleanser. Fire is to matter what the Æheric Fire is to the Soul; thus, Initiation had two divisions:
In the first division only the propensities were purified; only the "man" was put through the crucible. This was a Spiritual Alchemy, a process of transmutation, a human transformation, Arcanely known as Initiation.
The second step in the process dealt with the mysterious operations of Nature and was an initiation of the"body," the material.
In the one process was contained the search for the Cornerstone of the Philosophic Temple of Mankind, and with ingenious symbolism it taught the Neophyte that all humanity should and could be reunited into one great fold of universality, differing in expression, but united as to objective - without interfering with each other, harmonizing instead.
In the second division, the Neophyte was taught to search for that which led back to a new Golden Age, the Philosopher's Stone of turning failure into success, and the Elixir of Life, which not only maintains health and well-being but also prolongs life.
The object of all this philosophy and of all Initiation is to obtain the knowledge and the art to make perfect that which either Nature has not yet perfected or that man has degraded by the misuse of his Free Will; and then to apply this force to the benefit of himself first and then to his fellow man, recognizing the Alchemical knowledge that man's first duty is an unselfish one to himself.
Afar in the past, when man's first Spiritual awakening
commenced to reflect on himself, he became aware that, though
knowing and approving the good, he was strongly inclined to do
what was not to the ultimate benefit of himself or others; this
in itself proved that the strength of his desires was far greater
than his reason. He enjoyed only partly, or in appearance only,
his inheritance of Free Will. It quickly became apparent to him
that if he utilized his right of choosing and of determining his
actions throughout his life, he must subdue those unruly passions
which controlled his very being. From thence sprang the first
idea of the sage to be a free man and master of himself. Every
institution and philosophy which has in view the making of Masters
and Adepts must primarily have in view this self-mastery.
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Alchemical Science had its origin in Arabia and was closely associated with religious rites. Geber is its accredited founder. The Egyptian Priests were initiated into its mysteries, it being part of, and closely associated with, the Hermetic Science. Alchemy postulated an orderly universe, but Alchemy was richer in its varied details, far more picturesquely embroidered, more prodigal of strange concepts to make it interesting than the Initiatory Art and Science of Egypt. The Alchemist constructed his ordered scheme of nature on the basis of a universality of life. The Alchemist saw life in everything and that life was threefold in its aspect. He recognized the manifestation of life in the form or body of a thing; in its spirit and in its Soul.
Things may differ materially in appearance, in size, taste,
smell and other outward properties; yet, according to Alchemical
Science, be intimately related because they were produced from
the identical principles and animated by the same universal Spirit
or activating force. On the other hand, things might resemble
one another closely in their appearances outwardly yet differ
in their essential qualities; because, according to Alchemy, they
were formed from different elements and in their Spiritual
properties were vastly different. The transformation of one thing
into another, according to this Science, can only be affected
by Spiritual means, acting on the spirit of the thing,
because the true transformation consists essentially in raising
the substance to the highest perfection whereof it is capable.(2)
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(2) Within man there are two constantly active fires.
One is his creative energy, while the other is his Divine Principle.
All men are familiar with their creative energy, how it governs
and controls their every action. Because of lack of control, all
the crimes in the catalog are committed daily. It makes a monster
out of a weakling and a demon out of a physical wreck. Under control,
it is the impetus of the imaginative faculty, and men become inventors,
artists, scenists musicians, authors, physicians, masters of science;
but still no more than men. But when this creative energy, this
creative fire is raised up - Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness - to its highest perfection, then the meek and lowly
man becomes an Initiate, a master, one of the gods, a free
man in every sense of the term; and to be truly free,
no longer under the dominion of any other man or set of men, or
any force or circumstance, is the highest that man can attain
in this mundane sphere; it is the Odyssey sought by all philosophers.
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How man may use his forces and express them harmoniously is the secret of the Alchemic, Hermetic and Arcane philosophy, and is the "Pearl of Great Price." A deep and earnest study and a steadfast purpose on the part of the Neophyte to live the life - the concept and the work of the Hermetics - as taught in the instructions and by the counselors, will in due time open his vision to the true and most wonderful meaning of this philosophy. All this philosophy would be of little value unless actually related to man's moral character and ultimate freedom. The true understanding of this philosophy gives us a natural religion and verifies our faith; it is the connecting link between earth and heaven; between moral law and material law; and between the microcosm and the macrocosm.
Morals are the basic statutes of religious and Spiritual inculcations, while Spirituality is religion itself. God about us, in our very presence, not somewhere else, is a stronger influence than any theory can be, however elaborate. We must have more than a conjectured God. Our own intelligence resides somewhere in some thing. Which is the substance? Is it the most subtle, homogeneous and ultimate element of our bodies - and what?
"Dissection," says William Hemstreet, in the text,
Mind Is Matter, "has laid open to our eyes the secret
channels, battery and paraphernalia of an electric fluidic life.
Thus may not the Creative Intelligence inhere in the universal
ether? This is the `image' in which we have been created."
And further, "The plant needs actual contact with
sunshine, not to possess in itself a `theory' about sunshine nor
a `belief' in sunshine. Man is in need of a God(3) with whom he
can actually associate, with his Spiritual and physical
particles in reality of contact, like the proximity of one we
love, not a theory of God, not a belief in a distant God."
Lacking this contact, man will continue to be forced to rely on
other men like himself; and the chances are that it will be someone
with lesser enlightenment and intelligence than himself, and in
consequence the tendency is ever downward and away from
perfection.(4)
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(3) Is this concept so difficult to understand and realize? All
basic concepts of God are that He is LOVE. The one, man
or woman, who has really experienced love, or who is IN love,
feels himself to be a dual person. That love which is real
to him is as much A PART OF HIM as is his material self.
(4) This downward tendency, away from individuality and toward
universal serfdom, has been proceeding rapidly within the past
decade. Before the first World War, while kings and emperors still
ruled many nations, the universal tendency was toward freedom
and individualism. Millions were fighting within themselves to
awaken sufficient courage to risk their own life and possessions
to gain freedom from the dominion of others; and we were well
on the way toward an earthly democracy where men would be judged
by what they truly were; then, came the second World War,
ostensibly to bring such freedom for all men, but with just
the reverse result. Untold millions who were well on the way
toward such freedom have completely reversed themselves or permited
themselves to become so weak that they are more completely bound,
body, mind and Soul, than the serfs under Ivan, the Terrible;
and there is no written history to indicate that there ever was
a time when king or emperor in any land dared to set himself up
as unto God as do the egomaniacs of today, nor did they dare to
command and force into obedience the millions as is done today
in many lands. Even the czars of Russia gave their condemned subjects
a chance of living by sending them to Siberia, whereas now there
is wholesale execution of the most cruel, diabolical and unreasoning
kind. Within a decade or less, humanity has lost the freedom and
right of self-determination it has been fighting for since civilization
began due to inertia, blood pollution and immoralities that would
shame Babylon.
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Hermetic Science is upheld by Holy Writ. The men who wrote the moral and Spiritual precepts of the Scripture had minds and hearts imbued with lofty concepts. For their moral reasoning, great Spiritual insight and fine intuition, they were giants compared with modern money-and-power-mad human creatures, encrusted with modern materialism and the lusts of flesh. Based upon mere human standards we should revere their views. They taught, as do the Initiate Schools of today, that virtue, love, hope, graciousness, forgiveness and strength to fight for the right are the Beatitudes of the Soul; Whereas vice, guilt, covetousness and infringement upon the rights of others are diseases and death to the Soul.
"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace." __St. Paul
When we give our minds earnestly to a study of the mere transitoriness of mortal life and affairs and yet can feel how continuous our hopes and loves may be, we then realize the utter incompatibility of the Soul with all that is carnal.
We, then, see and realize that the human successes and earthly possessions may fade, literally and surely, like the sunset behind the mountains. All personal grandeur, popularity, business or political success, official station and power, property and even empires pass away like the clouds. None of them is abiding, simply because the physical is temporal - of a few days and known no more. If the body were everlasting, if all things did not undergo mundane changes, if the earth and time were eternity, then mundane aspirations would adapt to physical life. It requires an eternity to fully know the fullness of human love. Our ambitions are more than commensurate with earth and time. Is there an answer to the demand of every heart for permanence? We walk, act and build for permanence with scarcely any thought of death, although we are upon quicksand. Is there one place that is safe and certain? Yes! As seeds sown in the ground have innate qualities drawing them upward unto the air and sunshine, so do we have innate qualities drawing us upeard to ethereal realms, if we give heed to feelings and seek to manifest them. if we give heed to feelings and seek to manifest them. One who can contemplate a lily or a rose, a newborn babe or the devotion of a mother in the sick room and say there is nothing higher than mundane life, is simply Soulless and without Spiritual perception. Such a one deserves the serfdom that is becoming the lot of most men in the present egomaniac age.
When we assume with scientific certainty that the mind of
man is linked with a durable vehicle, such as a Spiritual
entity, and that this has the boundless ether as its realm of
life and activity, then we are ready to emerge from our earthworm
condition and enter into the sunshine with the assurance of an
eternity. Suns and planets may perish, but in the final crash
they cannot harm the Soul that has dared to search for enlightenment
and freedom from entanglements that are not of its own creation.
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As, one by one, men, co-operating in earnest simplicity with the Divine forces of which by nature they are the repository, perceive upon a purified mentality clear imaging of the essential union within themselves of each form and force, and of recovered lost faculties throughout the subtler intricacies of surface sense of enacting that biunity, they come to understand the past and future of their fate; what has been done and what yet remains for them to do; what was the actual growth that struggled up through the "snows" of their outer nature; and how much still waits within to develop and come forth. They will face life with a new incentive to be active, to overcome and to achieve.
The vices, no less than the virtues which characterize the present generation with such marked vigor, are prophetic and initiatory of the rapid and inevitable change that must supervene throughout societarian life, both in its lesser and greater form of family, nationality and universality. The vices and weaknesses, the utter servility of today, must be transformed into virtue, fair dealing and strength; or the present races, with few exceptions of those who in Arcane parlance seek the Path to attain self-mastery, will be self-destroyed and lost to history; and well this should be, because at no time in the age of man have there been greater opportunities than at the present moment.
Since the time when the incorporation of Spiritual potentials
began to create reflection on the qualities of the desires which
were produced within man, he has, in the rough-and-ready
fashion of a relative inexperience, solved the mental problem
suggested by the phenomena of his moral emotional nature. Men
simply announced themselves to be constituted of elements of opposite
kinds, generating forces of conflicting tendencies. For centuries,
a temporary but necessary purpose has been served by epitomizing
the work of all Nature struggling upward toward perfection, as
the flight of a good (constructive and elevating) against the
evil or destructive within or about man. This view was
the only one under past conditions whereby the battle of life
could be faced and maintained.
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Either the misdirection and inflammation or force called
evil - because it endangers freedom, harmony and life -
must be suppressed, or the instincts for equable distribution
of affectional vigors - which are called good, for want of a better
term, because they engender justice, peace and progress - must
be largely reinforced from the hidden sources of life(5) before
a deeper insight can safely be acquired into the secret
(hidden) force.
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(5) These sources of life and power have been hidden from the
vast humanity because the powers in control have decreed it should
be so in order that the few, properly prepared and with the necessary
moral strength, might successfully govern the many. All knowledge
that had a tendency to give man strength and power to make him
free and self governing was forbidden knowledge," and was
only for the few, and had to be taught sub rosa and in
Secret Schools.
Man's Soul was in the keeping of kings and priests and,
to tell the truth, was permitted to be dormant, having no more
light or wisdom at death than when it was incarnated in human
form. Thus the millions were as pawns held in the grasp of a few
men, and they fully realized that once man awakened to the fact
that he possessed Spiritual potentialities which would
make him as great or even far greater than those who held him
in bondage, absolute authority would be at an end.
Advancement for three hundred years was rapid, and man began to
achieve the acme of freedom, only to resell himself, body,
mind and Soul; and there is greater danger that the mass will
be hurled into far greater slavery than ever known before, for
man's downfall and degradation are on a par with the heights he
had attained.
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Evil, in the individual, whatever its nature, cannot be eliminated by forces outside of himself but from within himself, and only as he recognizes both his weaknesses and the evils that are present. These weaknesses and evils are the "tares" continually mentioned in THE LEGEND OF THE SOWER. They should not be destroyed any more than the wise farmer does on his land, but are plowed under in order that they may become the nourishment for the soil; so in like manner, man becoming conscious of his "tares," TRANSMUTES THEM, and they become the substance for his advancement and attainment.
An unknown Initiate, an Alchemist, has interpreted the Legend in this wise:
"The tares in the field must be permitted to grow as a protection to the virgin soil for future service. When the husbandman is ready for the planting, he will turn under these tares that the virtues and potencies - the living elements in them - may be transmuted into life giving substances for the seeds or the plants which will replace the tares. Thus, the evils within man, even his degrading vices, if the degeneration has not progressed too far, become the life and the Light of the Soul, and wherewithal upon which all success and attainments are based."
The conception of life and force, which outgrows from man's present mentality, suggests to him that which his daily life and all the universal phenomena verify, that life and force are one. The direction of its currents, however intricate or interpretative, all refer to the same series of impulsions: that the whole range of facts constituting the suffering and errors of mankind, are but abnormal phenomena of this life-force. The ordinary sensitiveness of man to the life-force greatly varies among different individuals, and is generally exceedingly superficial. His nerves, though markedly more acute than the nerves of men who lived some ages ago, are still extremely dense and convey to his consciousness no more than a few of the strongest waves of the forces that sustain him. He is able to recognize the fact that his blood rushes to and fro between surfaces and centers, and concentrates and disperses forces and energies to his benefit.
The most profoundly and minutely sensitive depths - even
in exceptional natures, unless Spiritually or Soulfully
developed, which the mirror of external consciousness succeeds
in reflecting - afford as yet to man only suggestions of the immensities
of the life-forces resident in his being. Similarly the inner
vision, to the degree man has developed it, affirms the vastness
throughout the infinite worlds beyond this one. This suggests
that life-force transcends analysis, prevents comprehension through
normal faculties and can be understood only by those who have
opened their Soul-sight by developing their Spiritual nature
to the same degree the physical nature has been developed by time
and environments.
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At the present stage of human progress, it is as unintelligent
as it is cowardly to view human nature and affirm its weakness
and its viciousness, and attribute thereto the necessary prolongatin
of suffering on earth.(6)
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(6) Man's viciousness, which is the basic cause of man's inhumanity
to man, has been excused on the ground that it was "human
nature" and, therefore, unavoidable. This concept is gradually
giving way to a better understanding of the reality, and the new
conception is that viciousness is not natural - is no part of
nature - except to the criminal, the perverted, the degraded nature
in man, and it must be eliminated by the Alchemical transmutation
of the unnatural, i.e., evil inherent in the carnal nature. The
vicious animal is either confined or destroyed. The viciousness
in the individual must likewise be either self-governed (confined
within the person) or transmuted into the Beatitudes. If the person
is not willing to control himself, then it is society's responsibility
to do so.
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The fatalism of this popular concept is an insult to both God and those men who have become God-conscious, and to the whole accomplished work of the multitudinous form animated by the one and eternal force. Men no longer gape aghast at the fixed depravity of men; they know better if they will permit the ever-present situation of Wisdom to speak. The knowledge one man may have of himself, if he will use it, is sufficient knowledge to be the focal point of knowledges he should have of all the other millions. Let man be wise to register and to protect and direct each delicate movement that may thrill every fiber of his deep Soul, and he beholds the beginning of Wisdom, but only its beginning. He, thus, opens to himself the first page or the book of Nature according to his reading. Gazing into the realm of his own spontaneity, man comes to realize that among the atoms of stirring consciousness is something the he cannot create or command. It demands conscious, effortful development.
A something appears to "float" to him, streams
of vast inapprehensiveness, and becomes a part of him within
his little domain, impregnating him with its essence of individuality.
It surcharges all the vessels of his innermost being until there
will be an outpouring of power and energy; and it will make of
him a man apart, kindred to both his fellow men and God; yet,
free and independent, related to all; yet, separate from the unworthy
and undesirable, exemplifying the Biblical command: "Be among
men but not of (like) them."
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Freedom to be himself is at the basis of man's nature. Protection
for his central life - emotions and education of the faculties
for consciousness in the pure region of his being are not only
necessities for man, but are the conditions which cannot be maintained
without his perfect sanity or balance of mind and Spirit.
If a man claims his freedom, demands this protection, seeks this
education, he isolates himself amidst an impending and irascible
mass of views, opinions and dogmas that dictate and coerce throughout
every department of life - in religion, philosophy, politics,
science, art, sociology and even business - by virtue of and in
defense of the vested interests and prescriptive rights on which
their influence and personal benefits and profits rest.(7)
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(7) This is the basic reason why the Arcane Initiatory
Fraternities of all ages have been maintained in secrecy and have
kept the identity of their Neophytes shrouded in mystery. It cannot
be said that this necessity no longer exists. There is, in truth,
greater need for its secrecy today than for centuries past. Although
we live in a supposedly enlightened age, where freedom of thought
is apparently guaranteed to all men, nevertheless, the restrictions
are greater today than for a long time past. This is true even
in democratic nations, while in other nations fraternal organizations
have been generally outlawed.
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Men wound themselves with their own "arrows"; the knowledge that should serve them often renders them slaves. They kneel in helpless superstition before the "gods" of their own creation - mental imaginings - a fear-God, self-created. Still the high manhood, deeply enveloped in superstitions, waits for an opportunity to grow forth and manifest itself. It is this to which all men should turn - NOW - with watchfulness, faithful study and application.
"In the holy depth in man, where God makes sensible the qualities of pure human desires, is latent all that should be learned. It is the keynote of the reality of all that makes human life desirable, enlivening the consciousness of each man at the center of his personal emotions. Veritable perception is alone the registry of these emotions. Honest investigation and estimation of all the phenomena produced by other men remain impossible, unless they are based upon the personal experience of the Soul, from which the necessary hypothesis of the existence of human instincts is alone deducible. Silence at the sanctuary of his nature, where the all-holiness which man fails to comprehend deigns to meet in simplest intimacy with his frail capacities of sensational consciousness, makes silence of all harmonies and their joys throughout the whole productiveness of every other faculty that he puts forth. However, brilliant or attractive may be the mental work of teachers who fail, or who refuse to hear these deep vibrations, their influence rests upon the lives of men as weight and not as light; it moves throughout convictions, cooling - never impassioning; it creates in hearts negation rather of veritable sentiment than aspiration for greater depth of feeling."
|Top|THE DIVINE IN MAN'S NATURE "The legitimate claim of each person, whether man or woman - a claim most difficult to exact of social exactions - is to be himself. The universal tendency of today for universal regimentation is against this, despite the fact that individuality is the only basis of that perfect altruism which alone can retrieve society. In the sanctuaries of profound emotion, man can only be that which makes him a man; that phenomenon of power and Will for perfectness; that machinery for passionate intention for universal rightness; that form impregnated by the Divine quality which should govern man's life on earth. Then, and only then, can he be a wise ruler of man. Alas! sad man, foolish creature, bearing within his breast this gem of a faculty for every perfectness, he, nevertheless, lies down in sheeplike weakness to be crushed by the social customs of his own making, the Juggernauts that he helps to establish. For the semblances of power that he gains by little increases in science, education, wealth, political influence, which command a relative obedience and superficial admiration; for the semblance of pleasure that he can extract a little while from portions of his nature by pampering them to abnormal growth, he misses, for the most part, all the power and well-being which are the essential attributes of his deep, human sense of being.
"The evolution of humanity suggests the proper methods and contrivances for the general improvement and convenience of man, but evolution cannot use them, not daring yet to seek the consciousness of those qualities at its vital heart-centers which are the mainspring of material and intellectual productiveness and which would dictate the most helpful application of the organizing material provided by science and invention.
"Among the peoples who have led the progress of the world and among whom the sense of manifold experiences, needs and aspirations increases hourly, generating the growth called civilization, two lines of tendencies are to be marked. These are the tendencies to develop higher and subtler qualities painfully, and to gain experience in the recklessness of pure and noble sentiment. The highest growth transcends all pain; the keenest pleasure must be free of all debaseness to reach the highest goal. Men must grow toward perfection; and they must live with joy. Whatever in man is pure, true, human, Divine, is essentially both progressive and satisfying."
|Top|THROUGH SUFFERING OFTEN COMES SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT The suffering growth-seekers cling to their brave endeavors, because they cannot yet divest themselves entirely of impressions stamped on their mentality from without, from social prejudice and injustice, from religious formulas and commercial skulduggery and all the rest that offers to man's minds conditions which they would wield and dominate, but which unfortunately control, limit and dominate them. The slow degradation that corrupts the heartless pleasure seekers results in a malady from the hyperdevelopment to which they urge a limited set of faculties and the absolute atrophy to which they leave the larger wealth of those with which, as human beings, they are inherently endowed.
These forms of suffering are signs alike of man's strange ignorance of the great powers to which he only is inherent. He will be able to escape from each if he will but turn faithfully toward that gathering-ground of all essential forces within his quivering Soul. Let those who dare, let those who Will, feel their way slowly along the shadowy way of life today and take what comes; and dream that they do not change except for the better.
"Those who wonder, those who want, those who suffer, one and all, because of that clear presence of the fine all-life that sparkles in the breast of man at this triumphant hour of his labor, will find that they belong to a new race with which the world is to be gifted after the deluge of Armageddon; and that their pain, their weakness and their folly was due to their ignorance and disobedience. Man and woman, let loose the powers of nature in you that God may incarnate. Study the inspired writings of the old Masters as herein made clear, and let the clear voice of the simple instruction ring to your adoration on Mount Sinai to which you rise at every hour of the sweet repose when life impours. Hurl right and left and far, all thoughts that served old time, if they still cling to your skirts and burden your ascent.
"One claim uprears itself in holiest lawfulness, inflaming the altar of your heart - the world's cry for redemption - and lo! the God who meets you in the eternal sanctuary of yourself, comes but for that." |Top|
MAN IS THE SUBJECT OF HERMETIC SCIENCE The subject of Hermetic science is man, while the object is the perfection - the all-round development - of man, and centers in a certain unity with Divine Nature to which man is correlated.
The work of Spiritual transmutation is accomplished by means of a certain method of life, plus the development of the Spiritual faculties, including the Will and Imagination, the two grand faculties essential to success.
Eliphas Levi, one of the great Master Teachers of the past century, recommends the postulant in the profanos of the Spiritual Temple to rise daily at the same hour - an early hour - to bathe summer and winter before breakfast in cool or cold water; never to wear soiled clothing, even if it is necessary to wash them himself; to exercise privations voluntarily that he may be better able to bear the involuntary ones; finally, to impose silence on all desires except that which involves the accomplishing of the Great Work of his own REgeneration. This is simply a preliminary preparation of the physical temple for the greater work to be done which is of another and different character.
Another Master Teacher, Vaughn, describes it as Soul chemistry, an Alchemical Science, a process of triadic character. This triadic process is the transmutation of the gross physical body by the Spiritual desire within it, the exultation and transfiguration of the Soul, and the Illumination and Deification of the Soul by contact with the Universal Consciousness generally known as God. This process accomplishes the REgeneration of the whole man, turning him into a Spiritual Temple, the true objective of the Acarne philosophy.
|Top|CONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION WITH THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES The inculcations of the Hermetic Master Teacher are that when this modification or New Birth has been accomplished, the Initiate is placed in communication with the creative and constructive forces of the Universe. The avenues of Spiritual (Soul) perception, which are narrow, difficult and full of barriers to the psychologists of the materialistic schools, are open to the sincere Neophyte for unlimited exploration, and the illuminated adept may proceed to the Invocation of the celestial intelligences, the Souls of those who have fully attained in their Spiritual Consciousness and become members of the Hierarchies.
"The depths and heights of his own Immortal nature are also revealed to him, and from the pinnacle of his Spiritual center he may soar into ecstatic, yet Conscious, communion with the Spiritual Hierarchies."
The Hierophants of old, far less materialistically and more Spiritualistically inclined, were familiar with a far deeper understanding of Spiritual science than we are today. They could have easily laid claim to advances on the Path - wherein we are slowly and painfully traveling - and obtained a permanent possession of a power and knowledge which was dangerous or impossible for them to reveal, except to a few chosen ones, and which they consequently spoke of in veiled language - the "jargon" of the Alchemists. They, nevertheless, endeavored to extend this knowledge to those properly prepared, in order that it might be perpetuated, and to this end they invented their symbols and allegories in the hope that either a Divine Light would illuminate deserving seekers and enable them to penetrate to their inner perceptions, or that the Secret Schools and Initiate Masters would continue to exist and teach and guide willing Neophytes.
The Alchemical Initiates lay claim to the possession of tremendous secrets, to invincible power over certain forces; above all else, all their energies were directed toward one goal - the gaining of Wisdom and the power that comes with knowledge.
|Top|THE FEAR OF THE LORD SHOULD BE THE BEGINNING
OF A SEARCH FOR WISDOM"Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that getteth understanding.
"For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
"She [the Divine Sophia] is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
"Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor.(8)
"Her ways are of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. "She is the "Tree of Life" to them that lay hold upon her [in the Spirit of righteousness]: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of her mouth.
"Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee; love her, and she shall keep thee.
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." ____Proverbs 3:13-18; 4:5, 6, 23
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(8) Refer to frontispiece in the text, EULIS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------These sayings are perfectly congenial with the teachings of Alchemical Science and in perfect harmony with the subject and the object of its work.
Knowledge and Wisdom were not synonymous in the Ancient Schools. Sandivogius told his readers:
"There is an abundance of knowledge, yet, but little truth known. The generality of our knowledge is but as castles in the air or groundless fancies. I know of but two ways that are ordained for getting Wisdom; viz., the Book of God (the Soul) and the Book of Nature (the body); and these only as they are studied with reason and confirmed by experience. Many look upon the former as something belonging to them or as something without existence; upon the latter, as a ground for atheism and, therefore, they neglect both. It is my judgment that as to search the Scriptures is most necessary, so without reason it is impossible to understand them. Faith without reason is but implicity. If I cannot understand by reason how a thing is, yet, I will see that a thing is so before I will believe it to be so. I will ground my believing of the Scriptures upon reason; I will improve my reason by philosophy.
"When God made man after His own Image, how was that? Was it not by making him a rational creature? Men, therefore, who lay aside reason in the reading of the mysteries do but unman themselves and be come further involved in a labyrinth of errors. Hence, it is that formal religion is wisdomless and degenerated into irrational notions. It may govern or control but it is unable to enlighten."
All Initiates would have the followers of Alchemical Science test all teachings by what they call "the possibility of Nature," or its applicability to man's physical and Spiritual needs. Hence, the test of philosophy is not a written record with them; and consistent with this principle, no Initiate urges his opinion upon authority,(9) but always in the style of : "Dear Neophyte, listen to my words, apply them and thereby prove them," or he might say with Stl Paul, one of the most zealous, bold and independent reformers the world ever know, "Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good."
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(9) This is one of the "landmarks" of the Ancient Fraternity, and for this reason neither the authentic Order nor any of its Neophytes or members may urge the acceptance of its teachings upon the profane, nor may they urge them to associate themselves with the Arcane Schools. Advertising, proselyting and high-pressure salesmanship such as we are cognizant of today, all of them are expressly forbidden by the Organic Law of the Secret Schools.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------THERE IS REASON FOR SECRECY Notwithstanding St. Paul's dictum, he who accepts truth only because it may be proved, or demonstrated to be advantageous to body, mind and Soul, or all three, and disregards mere authority, is still stigmatized as other than a desirable associate.
The Initiates, therefore, who stood upon this ground, would have been persecuted had they published their opinions openly, for they lived for the most part at a period when it was agreed by those in authority that coercion, violence of proscription, should be legitimately employed to force men into the established faith(10); and the imagined enemies, besides being held up to public abhorrence, were often burned at the stake.
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(10) With the ending of the Inquisition, men breathed more freely; and it was confidently expected that, having passed through the Dark Ages, man would nevermore be enslaved or bound to opinions unacceptable to his reason. No man could foresee, as civilizations supposedly advanced, that the mass would be come so weak and servile as to permit the establishment of any system which would be more brutal than the older regimes had ever dared to be. Yet it has come to pass that in numerous countries fraternal organizations have been forced to disband; they are expressly forbidden; citizens of other than the accepted faith are maliciously mistreated, scattered and their property confiscated; detention camps are filled with political dissenters and treated in a manner such as animal herds never experienced; and purges are the rule, not the exception. Even in the dark day of the Inquisition no man, however debased, could conceive of a time when mass murder would become possible and continue in defiance of all human reason, understanding and sense of right.Even Americans no longer have any positive assurance of safety, because the agents of the anti-Christ countries and others with degrading ideologies are active within our country, and practice and proselyte without interference or molestation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------One author thus affirms:
"Believe ye that I conceal these things out of envy? No, surely, for I protest to thee that I grieve from the very bottom of my Soul that we are driven, as it were like outcasts from the face of the Lord throughout the world. We are of many nations,(11) like vagabonds, and dare not take upon ourselves the care of a family; neither do we possess any fixed habitation. And although we possess all things, yet we can use but few. What, therefore, are we happy in, excepting speculation and meditation only, wherein we meet with great satisfaction of mind?
"Many do believe that, if they could enjoy them, they would do such and such things; so also even we did formerly believe, but being more wary, by the hazard we have run, we have chosen a more secret method. For whosoever hath once escaped imminent peril of his life will (believe me) become more wise for the time to come."
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(11) This has no reference to any nationality.
----------------------------------------------------------------------The practice of secrecy(12) was never discontinued, and those who have continued in authority in the Arcane Schools were most wise in this, as time has so well vindicated them and their age-old system. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
(12) For its authenticity refer to the text: MASTERSHIP; THE DIVINE LAW.
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|Top|THE PHILOSOPHER'S CONTEMPT FOR DEATH "THE LAW," said Apollonius of Tyana, "obliges us to die for liberty, and Nature ordains that we should die for our parents, our friends and our children. All men are bound by these duties. But a HIGHER duty is laid upon the sage; he must be willing to die for his principles and the truth he holds dearer than life.(13) It is not the Law that lays this choice upon us, it is Nature; it is strength and courage of our own Souls. Though fire or sword threaten man, it will not overcome his resolution, or force from him the slightest falsehood; but he will guard the secrets of others and all that has been entrusted to his honor as religiously as the secrets of his Initiation. And I know more than other men, for I know that of all that I know, I know some things are for the good, some for the wise, some for myself, some for the gods but naught for tyrants.
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(13) In the early days men gave no thought as to whether the acceptance of a Spiritual concept might endanger their lives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------"Again, I think that a wise man does nothing alone by himself, no thought of his is secret but that he has himself as witness to it. And whether the famous saying, `Know thyself," be from Apollo or from some sage who learned to know himself and proclaimed it as a good for all, I think the wise man, who knows himself and has his own Spirit in constant comradeship at his right hand to fight, will neither cringe at what the vulgar fear, nor dare to do what most men do without the slightest shame."
In these statements we have the true philosopher's contempt for death; and also the calm knowledge of the Initiate, the comforter and adviser of others to whom the secrets of their lives have been confessed; and no torture can unseal his lips. Here, too, we have the full concept of what is Consciousness (of the impossibility of hiding evil in the INNER world), and also the conception of the dazzling brilliance of the higher ethics.
|Top|KNOW THYSELF To the Occult, Alchemic and Arcane Initiates, the ancient injunction, Know Thyself, as inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo, attributed by some to Pythagoras, by others to the Greeks, and yet by others to the Egyptians, was the sum and substance of all Wisdom. In this knowledge of self was found, they believed, the knowledge of God; the knowledge that God lies in the nature of man.
The Initiates were not acquainted with the later theory of our supposed descent from apes. They possibly did not realize the significance in Nature of the law which regulates the survival of the fittest and best prepared. They did not need science to teach them that the weakest were always the prey of the vicious unless they were protected by the strong. They, however, were acquainted with the capacity for improvement in all substances and in all the departments of Nature.
They believed, as we today, in the existence of undeveloped potencies in every kingdom of being. They studied the mysteries of correspondence and the great Law of conditional improvement. They investigated the operations of energy and force in the direction of developments.
They did what we fail mostly to do; their aim was to teach men to comprehend and fulfill the laws of Nature to become reasoning, intelligent human beings in order to correct defectiveness and refine coarseness. They believed, as we teach, that a change could be affected in all substances; and they sought to work up to the archetypal idea which dominated each department of Nature. In other words, they endeavored to realize the Ideal to produce perfection in any or every substance.
In this manner the material Alchemist elaborated the potencies of metals in order to obtain gold while the Spiritual Alchemist, the Initiate, sought to produce, by development and Spiritualization, the archetype, and to realize the ideal humanity. We find throughout the Alchemists' writings and processes a clear proof of their acquaintance with the Law of Spiritual Evolution which is discernible by a rigorous analogy with that of the physical world. Modern science, regrettably, concerns itself but little with the possible future of humanity. Conversely, underlying all Alchemical Science there is the consciousness of a grand future for both Spiritual and physical transfiguration; perfection, beauty and visible illumination - things outward being an index of things inward - are possible, perhaps inevitable, for man; and this future can at any rate be achieved by the elect, those who refuse to darken - veil - the vision of the Soul.
As conducted at present, our modern experiments are devoid of practical results except that they animalize and brutalize man and decrease his humaneness, while they increase his mass consciousness toward nihilism. The lines of investigation reach a certain point and then fade into chaos or nothingness insofar as man's consciousness is concerned.
|Top|CREATOR AND CREATION ARE ONE In their instructions, the Hermetic Initiates protect their knowledge and secret teachings from the profane by means of allegorical language, legends and the use of symbols, leaving their veritable meaning to be divined by the really sincere student with the help of an insight imparted from the developed Subconsciousness within. They likewise perpetuate their secrets by means of the Initiation of fully prepared disciples of unquestioned discretion, to whom they liberally lay open the great treasures of their accumulated knowledge.
Perceiving that the Creator of all beings, before ever they were brought forth, created the same in His "mind" - even the little world, man the microcosm, as well as the greater world, the macrocosm, according to the sacred writings - must not the world which is the greater and the world which is the lesser (that is, man) have their Creator as their origin and beginning within, so that neither the Creator nor His creatures are actually separated from each other? Realizing, then, that it cannot be said that perfection is attained before the end has reached its beginning and the beginning united itself with the end in sequence to a new berth, the question is whether both the greater and the lesser worlds, in order to reach perfection, must not in all their workings aim at this, that they may return to their beginning to be united with them? Cryptic? Yes. It is the Arcanum, the Spiritual concealed.
All the creatures of God, for their melioration and His glorification, stand in an endless evolution on the Path toward perfection and must become known and comprehended. A thing cannot be known except by its end and operation or outworking, i.e., manifestation, as a tree is known by its fruits. The lesser world is the end and comprisal of all creatures and works of god and consequently an outbirth of the great world or macrocosm wherein all other creatures are comprised. The question, then, is can there be any other way by which man may attain a correct knowledge of the great world with, and in, all its parts than in and out of himself Man in the end is an abridgement of all things, the beginning has manifested itself, for the end is nothing but the beginning wrought out and the beginning of something still greater; that is, displaying into act and manifesting, so that the end is hidden in the beginning as the beginning is manifested in the end. As a consequence of this, both the worlds, the greater and the lesser, have a great affinity for each other, and a perfect likeness; yea, and a unity, one with the other; they must be wrought out with one another and thereby reach their highest perfection. Admittedly, this is the "jargon" of the Alchemists. and only the attainment of Spiritual Consciousness has the key to its solution.
There is no denial that many of those who become interested in Alchemical Science did so in expectancy for material gain, but it is clearly indicated that their labors were overshadowed by the portents of a higher achievement and that even their works read obviously in two ways, literally and transliterally; also, their operations had two objects, and both of these objects were pursued from the very beginning of the science, and this is both just and right. Material gain may be our vocation while Spiritual development is our avocation; there is nothing inimical in this if the intent is as it should be.
|Top|THE LAW OF NATURE SHOULD BE THE LAW OF MAN The Spiritual interpretation was not an afterthought nor was the Spiritual search. The secrets of the ancient Sanctuaries and of the Holy Assemblies, as the Holy of Holies of the Initiates was known, embraced both the physical and the transcendental. It was known that one law, variously applied, obtained in all departments of Nature in regards to the development of both species, the potential energies in all things.
Their acquaintance with the Law enabled the Alchemists to develop the latent possibilities of the mineral world, possibilities that resided not in the different species bit in the common elements; and so chemistry was born. Their acquaintance with the identical law also enabled them to elaborate the transcendental potencies in man. Thus Initiation and Soul Consciousness became possible. In the vulgar parlance, they could transmute metals, and they could likewise transmute or transfigure humanity.
|Top|GOD HAS PLACED HIS ETERNAL "WORD" IN MAN Hermetic Science in its literature enshrined both processes, which accounts for its composite character, like a skein of silk in which two colors - distinct, though almost inextricable - are entwined into harmony. The evolutionary Doctrine of Alchemy is scarcely a subject for formal quotation from the sequence of Alchemical literature, for it is the foundation and sum total of that literature. There is, of course, the hackneyed maxim ofttimes cited by the champions of the "spoliated past" which puts tersely, after the manner of the Wisdom of old, the whole story of the development of the species into a nutshell: "The stone becomes a plant, the plant an animal, the animal a man, and man a god." This is fundamentally and scientifically true: rock ground into dust becomes food or fertilizer for plant life, plant life feeds the animals, animals becomes food for man, and man, then, has the opportunity to develop himself into a god. However, this is not the evolution but the changing of one thing into another. We are not here concerned with the mode in the manifestation of the Law which differentiated species but rather with a fundamental principle, and a philosophical reason for the principle which Occult and Alchemical Science applied in practice.
Thus, we return to our beginnings and accept the dictum that the highest Wisdom consists in this: "man, know thyself," because in man God has placed His Eternal "Word" - part of Himself. By His Eternal "Word" all things were made and upheld to be man's Light and life, and by which he becomes capable of knowing all things, both in time and eternity. Therefore, let the sincere inquirer and delver into the deeper mysteries of Nature learn first to know what there is within himself; and by the Divine power within, let him "heal" himself, i.e., make himself whole by transmuting the dross into Spiritual substances; then let him seek to unravel the mysteries and wonders of God in all natural things.
|Top|"IN THEE IS HIDDEN THE TREASURE OF TREASURES" "He who possesses the knowledge of the microcosm cannot long be ignorant of the knowledge of the macrocosm. This is that which the Initiated of the past so loudly proclaimed - that everyone should KNOW himself. But I admonish thee, whosoever thou art that desirest to delve into the innermost parts of Nature, if that which thou seekest, thou findest not WITHIN thee, thou wilt never find it without: `As within, so without.' If thou knowest not the excellency of thine own house, why dost thou seek and search after the excellency of thine neighbor's house? The universal orb of the world contains no greater mysteries and excellence than a little man, formed by God in His own image. Even though there were no God, then man would be greatest, and all the mysteries would reside with him awaiting revealment.
"He who would be great among the students of Nature will nowhere find a greater or better field of study than himself. Therefore, will I here follow the example of the Egyptians (Initiates) and from my whole heart and certain true experiences proved by me, speak to my neighbor in the words of the Egyptians; in thee is hidden the Treasure of Treasures."
Alchemical and Hermetic Science is the one and only avenue of gaining knowledge concerning the agsolute of being; and in this claim there is nothing narrow, intolerant or exclusive, for the simple fact is there are no other claimants. It is open to anyone to reject on the ground that we cannot know; it is also the privilege of everyone to be indifferent about positive truth; but if that truth does exist, and thereby a way known to its attainment, then, Initiation is that way. It is the metaphysical foundation of Spiritual chemistry; it is that art, both ancient and infinite, to which those who seek Wisdom must apply themselves.
|Top|THE NEOPHYTE POSSESSES KEEN DESIRE FOR IMMORTALITY The search after positive truth applicable to man's manifold development can be pursued only in one direction. There is but one certain system, only one science, which can lay claim to possess the Way. That system, that philosophy, that science is Alchemical, it is the Hermetic method of transmutation.
It is not alone a question of the Soul or just men made perfect nor, yet, of establishing correspondence with those exalted Hierarchies of existence whose interior development transcends whatsoever can be imagined at the apex of human evolution; it is a question of the opening of man's individual Consciousness of his Immortal Soul, of his inalienable interior self-possession in the universal Consciousness of God.
To be qualified to become an Initiate, man is not called upon to make any sacrifice of his reason. He must exercise it to the fullest extent; he must apply it to his personal improvement and his progressive development.
He is not required to profess any definite creed. Initiation is concerned with the attainment of knowledge, the gaining of Wisdom, not the enunciation of dogma; but it is undeniably required of the Neophyte that he should be possessed of Spiritual aspirations and, above all, of a keen desire for Immortality which is the testimony of the interior self to the truth of Immortality and is confirmed by a testimony without, in the external facts of Spiritual possibilities.
Whosoever is acquainted with these facts has a certain and substantial knowledge on what to base his faith which will induce him to greater effort for self-improvement, and, thus, the science in which he now operates is transfigured. Even now he may reasonably anticipate in the future a solution of many problems to which, as yet, he has found no key.
|Top|ARCANE SCIENCE, THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH Whether we call it Occult, Alchemical, Hermetic or Arcane Science, it offers a key to the future progress of humanity and a practical modus operandi for the evolution of the perfect man. These statements may be reduced within even narrower limits, and we say that the Alchemical Science or Spiritual Initiation comprises a physical demonstration concerning the unseen which is around us; whence it is the Alchemical intritus in veram atque inauditam physicam, and an interior Illumination concerning the unseen which is within, together with a way to God, or the understanding of the Law, the end of all human development. It embodies a system of practical living toward the perfect life; it is both physical and Spiritual, not to mention the ultimate in worldly attainment.
These, it is admitted, are sufficient reasons for the dissemination of its doctrines and principles. But we may advance beyond this initial basis of action and affirm that a way to Wisdom and a method to the perfect life are the essential elements required in that new regime, call it religion if you wish, toward which all higher forces in humanity seem to be instinctively moving - moving into that new regime which shall realize the best aspirations and constitute a transfigured synthesis of all previous creeds. Existing creedal systems are incommensurate to existing modern requirements; faith is less than but essential to knowledge and as knowledge is required by the age, the development of humanity has not by any means been perfectly accomplished by systems that are based purely on faith but that lack accompanying action. The statement, "Thy faith hath made thee whole," is a contradiction of the Law, "FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD."
As Hermetic Science is in harmony with the conclusions of modern science and with the theorems of modern philosophy, in harmony with the best aspirations of all religions and is itself committed to no arbitrary doctrines, it is incumbent on those who receive it to spread the knowledge which they possess, to endeavor by personal experience to increase this knowledge and to undertake, so far as in them lies the ability, to begin the education of humanity in the perfection promised by the Master Teacher and the Secret Schools.
|Top|MAN MUST AWAKEN HIS SOUL TO ACTIVITY The Spiritual self has the power, when the body has been made free of pollution and carnality and the heart cleansed of malice and offense, to act upon any matter whatsoever. Therefore, it is said that all potentialities are resident in the Soul. The Great Work is to bring the dormant, yet dominant power of the true, pure, living and breathing Spirit into activity.
It is one of the most difficult tasks in the world to take a man in what is called his natural state - St. Paul's natural man - after he has for years indulged in all of his passions (having in mind what are called the worldly honors and pleasures, and ill-gained wealth) and make him sensitive to the mere abstract claims of the Right or Spiritual verities and, then, incite him to become willing to relinquish one single passion in deference to the Spiritual verities. When this first step is accomplished, the Great Work is less difficult.
Consider a man ever seeking only what may gratify some selfish passions, a stranger to all praise worthy impulses, unconscious, perhaps, of their existence, or only regarding their manifestation in others as evidence of imbecility and weakness. How is such a man to be brought out of this pathetic state into a more reverent aspect Spiritually? How is he to become even more appreciative of the material things that concern his daily living?
Generally, it will be as the result of suffering, material loss or the need of companionship and knowledge that will not fail. Thus, we have the reason why the Divine Law brings about the universal suffering - in reaction.
Consider the man whose Soul is corrupted by all types of evil passions until he has become morbidly sensitive to everything that in any manner interferes with his personal comfort; one who is petulant, irritable and morose. How is such a man to be awakened?
We might speak of downright sins which breed a class of men who find their temporal homes in prison and other institutions or who must expiate their crimes upon the block. How are such men to be halted on their career and brought to a sense of responsibility? Unquestionably, the greatest difficulty in all such cases is to bring into action the conscience which is dormant within, yet, though buried and inactive, is not altogether dead. The great awakener is suffering and sorrow, the actual loss of something beloved; let it be remembered that the basis of most sorrows is the loss of affection or the loss of a dearly beloved person or thing.
|Top|UNSELFISH LOVE IS THE UPLIFTER When the Will is educated and liberated through knowledge from the entanglements of materiality and animality, new and noble virtues are formed. This is naturally true because man is bound to either virtue or vice, God or the "devil," and when one is eliminated, the other takes its place. This is the doctrine of substitution or, in its higher phase, transmutation, the replacement of one thing by another. As such substitution of the lesser by the greater takes place, the individual becomes a self-conscious center of evolutionary forces; this, united with unselfish love, uplifts all that comes into contact with it, for it is through such a purified desire and Will that REgeneration and reconstruction are possible.
Moreover, the Will, through Wisdom and aspiration, brings Illumination and the knowledge of Divine Truth by which man's Consciousness may expand and contact the Consciousness of God. It is then that all the potentialities of Nature - all creation - are opened to man, together with an innate realization of the capability of attaining to the utmost along every avenue of endeavor.
There is another and more common class, those who are distracted between contrary passions and desires, such as love of pleasure or of money or of both; or a love of glory and of ease. What peace can they find or how is it possible for them to enjoy tranquillity? These require an almost complete change of character or disposition. So, also, with those who, under a vague notion of being in the right, have no more solid foundation for it the self-conceit - who think the whole world is wrong, and are uneasy and unhappy with everything around them that does not happen to be adjusted to their particular wishes and predilections, or with everyone who does not accept their concept of what is right and wrong.
Such people often look with an evil eye upon Providence - the functioning Law - which, without interruption, proceeds to its general ends in total disregard of all incongruous individualities. How are these people to be dealt with? To point out their errors plainly is certain to arouse their enmity, antagonism and opposition. the only way is to ignore their defects, to arouse in them a desire for that which is both permanent and of immediate and future value to them; and to permit the conversion from on state to another to take place subconsciously within.
The only sense of peace and well-being there is results from man's deep love for some truly worthy object and the application of all one's energies to the achievement of that desire. The self, then, is forgotten in obeisance in the attempt to achieve; peace quickly comes to those who are able to forget themselves.
|Top|THE MATERIAL SELF IS NECESSARY TO SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT When our inordinate attachment to material things has ceased, when we are no longer dependent upon things for every sensation and pleasure, we are able to judge them at their true value and appreciate them for what they really are - beautiful and necessary stepping stones toward a higher attainment. It is an utterly false philosophy or religion that teaches men to hate all the things of the world and classify them as of the devil; for nothing exists which has not its proper use and purpose and is , therefore, invaluable in its naturalness. The ignorant misuse of things and powers, in themselves pure and useful, causes pain and sorrow, which we foolishly mistake for evil. However, we should accept such sorrows as the means toward awakening us to truth and reality.
When we learn to acknowledge the importance of the material as a basic part of life, we will give it its proper place in our environment. Then, too, we will grasp the purpose of life - the descent of the Spirit into matter, of the Soul into bodies (houses created out of the dust). As an Ancient Initiate has well said: "The angels aspire to become men, because the perfect man, the man who has attained godhood, is even above the angels"; while another teacher, St. Paul, has said: "Know ye not that ye shall judge angels." The man who attains Soul Consciousness is far more capable of serving his fellow man than are the angels of heaven, for through his correct knowledge and the compassion which is born of his experience, he is equipped above and beyond them in his capacity to uplift and redeem humanity.
Self-sacrifice, when for a noble and practical purpose, is the highest influence and the only one whereby the enlightened Soul may hope to advance to greater heights. In wise self-sacrifice lies true greatness; in renunciation of the unworthy is the only realization of peace. From this we can understand why one of the great Souls, the Nazarene, who had worked consciously and in harmony with the Law, said to his followers: "He that would be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all." He who would be Master must first be willing to serve that he may learn the duties the Master may command.
|Top|MATERIAL SUCCESS AND SOUL-CONSCIOUSNESS Hermetic Science has, through the experiences of the ages, been able to demonstrate that the identical principles which work secretly and mysteriously in the Soul of the Neophyte can be applied exteriorly in the development of the body of man. This science in its higher significance deals with the Soul's development and its potentialities, but it also, and conjointly, has in view the universal improvement of man's physical being. It does not end there; its intermediate service is in mental illumination and exaltation, and the achievement of material success and advancement. It is a double duty and of double benefit, and it is made clear in the command: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things (the material) which are Caeser's; and unto God the things (the Spiritual) that are God's." _____St. Matthew 22:21.
The so-called" salvation of the Soul" must be accomplished in conjunction with the redemption of the body and the elimination of mental and physical slavery. At no time must we be foolish enough to underrate the vehicle of interior perfection nor the directing power of the mind; otherwise, we are incarnate here to no purpose. The combined laws of evolution and development must fulfill their course in both the inward and the outward man.
Through our physical being pulsates the animal, and so long as we remain on this plane, we will be subject to laws of the material kingdom, both physical and animal. When the mortal has been awakened to the Consciousness of the Higher Self through which the Spiritual dominates, a plane has been attained where it is possible to control the lower by the higher. At this point it is the God in man who assumes sovereignty, manifesting the god-like powers which are the possession of those who have overcome.
Through the understanding and application of these Hermetic laws, a power is created which is easily capable of controlling the material self, and man may continue in both physical and mental vigor so long as he cares to use the body as a habitation and the locale from which to direct his Spiritual activities and perform important duties.
|Top|THE HUMAN BODY IS THE HALL OF INITIATION Man has reached a degree in his physical evolution where he must rise in the higher current of vibratory forces and place himself in harmony with it; cast off the old carnal bondage to which he has been so long subjected; govern instead of being governed; be a master, at last, instead of a vassal.
The body of man is the Hall of Initiation wherein man's Soul must be awakened. Within, the Master, the great Initiator, the Transmuter, takes all of the baser passions and changes them into Spiritual essence or Spiritual Fire. Here, in this Hall, experience is built into strength, uplifted by virtue; it is by means of these virtues, which are often sublimated from the baser passions, that the Soul of man - the Light - is developed to the ultimate and attains to the status of a Hierarch in the White Brotherhood.
The incentive must be a holy intent, drawn from the bottom of a pure and sincere heart and conscience; free from selfish ambition, hypocrisy and all the vices that have an affinity with selfishness, such as arrogance, pride, love of luxury, petulancy, oppression of the weak. These are to be eradicated from the heart, so that when the Acolyte prostrates himself before the throne of grace to obtain health, strength and enlightenment, he may do so with a conscience free from unholy and degrading feeling. All that is unworthy is transmuted into a Holy Temple of God, wherein uncleanliness has been purged and weakness replaced by strength, ignorance by Wisdom and hatred by compassion.
Man commences the Alchemical Process by purifying the desire-nature, and he takes this lower nature under control to purge it of everything that is selfish, selfish in the sense that it will benefit the self only and cause loss and sorrow to others. How can he, thus, free himself? He may not wish to destroy, for that which he has gathered together is experience; and experience has been built into elements, and transferred into power. He now has need of all the powers that he has been gathering during the climb that lies behind him; he needs to change these powers into constructive force and energy. He would need much less patience and effort to destroy some of these qualities which are part of him, and he may feel by destroying them he would be well rid of them. But it is not by such means that he can enter into the Temple of the Higher self. He must sacrifice them at the Temple, perform the harder task of purification or transmutation, and save the essence of the Spirit thereof to incorporate in his new life.
|Top|BODY AND SOUL REPRESENT EARTH AND GOD There are two Hermetic operations, the one Spiritual and the other material, and these two are as mutually dependent as are body and Soul. For the rest, all Hermetic Science is contained in the doctrine of Hermes which is said to have been originally inscribed upon an Emerald Tablet. The first articles have been expounded, and those that follow are concerned with the operation of the Great Work.
"Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, and the subtle from the gross, gently - with great industry. It rises from earth to heaven, and again it descends to earth, and it receives the power to things above and of things below (according to the Law of Duality). By this means shalt thou obtain the glory of the whole world, and all darkness shall depart from thee. It is the stronger power of every power, for it will overcome all that is subtle and penetrate all that is solid. Thus was the world created."
To separate the subtle from the gross in the first operation, which is wholly INTERIOR, is to set the Soul FREE from prejudice and all vices - both destroyers - and is accomplished by the direction of Wisdom, perdonal skill and application; and, finally, by the use of energy and the Fire of the awakened Will. By these are we enabled to change into Spiritual gold things which are least precious - even the refuse (evil passions and propensities of human nature).
That which is above is proportional to that which is below, and is reciprocal. The word art, when reversed read after the manner of sacred and primitive characters from right to left, gives us three initials which express the different grades of the Great Work. "T," signifies triad, theory and travail; "R," realization, and "A," adaptation.
|Top|THE AIM AND END OF MAN ON EARTH When the Masters of Hermetic and Alchemical Science say that but a short time and little money are required to accomplish the Work of this science; and, above all, when they affirm that one vessel alone is needed; when they speak of the great and unique Athanor(14), which all can use and is ready for each man's hand - they all possess it without knowing it - they allude to the philosophical and Spiritual Alchemy, the transformation of man. As an indisputable truth, a strong and determined Will - by strict obedience and application - can arrive in a short time at absolute Individualization; the aim and end of man on earth. We are all in possession of this chemical instrument, the great and sole Athanor, which answers for the separation of the subtle from the gross, and the fixed from the volatile. This instrument, the intelligent, reasoning, awakened human mind, complete as the world, and precise as mathematics, is represented by the sages under the emblem of the pentagram or the five-pointed star which is the absolute sign of human intelligence.
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(14) This admittedly, is the "Jargon" employed by the Alchemists to protect their lives. It is "jargon" to the profane not initiated into Spiritual verities; but it is a simple, though difficult, procedure to those who are in the Spirit.
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|Top|MAN'S GREATEST FOE IS HIMSELF The first step is to let Love - not the purely human passion, but the emotion which embraces within itself generosity, justice, forgiveness, strength, compassion, manhood and affection - reign supreme, so as to leave no room in the Soul for hate or any of the other debasing passions. To do this is to recognize the utility and beauty of all existence not distorted by human passions. "Love your enemies, bearing no-ill or other debasing feelings, and we soon learn to recognize that our greatest enemies are the carnal passions and low desires within us. A man's greatest foes are those of his own household, the enemies within himself," said the great Teacher. It will not be difficult to "love," which is to forgive, these emotions when we realize their past utility; that they have actually been the means of our evolutionary advancement and of our ascent from carnality, for through sensations, most unpleasant, they gave us experience. But now we have learned the lesson, we have assimilated all that the passions in their lower aspect can teach us. What more, then, to do with them? Are we to cast out and destroy an old servant merely because his apparent usefulness is ended? To do so will prove a fatal mistake, although this would be a much less difficult task than what is required of us, for it is far easier to destroy a passion than to purify or transmute it; yet such transmutation is the means to the Higher Self.
As we advance toward Initiation, every faculty must be uplifted and developed - evolved - to serve us on a higher level of manifestation, for the opposite pole of every vice is a virtue into which the vice must be transmuted. This is the Great Work, the Hermetic Science, the Alchemical Process.
Take covetousness, for example, the cruel, grasping passion which is pre-eminently the vice of this competitive and, frequently called, mongrel age. When it completely possesses a man, there is no depth of selfishness, degradation, cruelty of barbarism to which he will not descend. He will stand unmoved, live thoughtlessly in luxury, while all around him are misery, suffering and want. It will induce him to "corner" the necessities of life - of which he already possesses a superfluity and in reality can gain nothing further for him - while thousands may suffer for lack of food, shelter and even warmth.(15) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
(15) Those in the Secret Schools are not unmindful of the fact that in the majority of instances the reason for the misfortunes, misery and degradation of the masses lies in part in their inertia in preparing themselves for a more desirable existence. They fail to put forth the effort that would bring them all the things they require for a purposeful life. However, that does not excuse the avarice of those who give little or no thought to those who live in misery.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------SUCCESS IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF LIFE When the Light of the higher self and the love of the Soul is turned on all aspects of life, everything changes; the point of view and the concept are changed. No longer do the purely material things of life seem ultradesirable. The narrow self, which has seemed so separate from our fellow men, enlarges and includes them also, for we realize that they are but an extension of ourselves and that so long as they are bound, we cannot be entirely free. Although as of old, we still long to have and to hold, the things we now covet are Spiritual treasures; we seek them not only for our individual selves, but for our larger selves, including and embracing our fellow men.
As we expand interiorly and transmute each vice and passion, we become conscious that we have made a wonderful advance in Consciousness, in mental prowess, in human achievement and in our station in life; the mission which brought us into the earthlife.
Hermetic philosophy is not a doctrine; it is properly a practice - an exact mode of life. It is the practice of justice, kindliness, compassion and Spiritual precepts to the end that man may properly develop and bring into manifestation all of his dormant and Spiritual forces, energies and possibilities, that he may attain freedom from the shackles - which have bound humanity for eons - making him no less than the "angel," the unembodied Christos or Divine Spark, which left heaven to become a human creature in order to attain Godhood.
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