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Theosophy House
The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
Esoteric Christianity
Or The Lesser Mysteries
by
Annie Besant
[SECOND EDITION]
The Theosophical Publishing
Society.
1905.
In proceeding to the contemplation of the
mysteries of knowledge,
we shall adhere to the celebrated and venerable rule of tradition,
commencing from the origin of the universe, setting forth those
points of physical contemplation which are necessary to be
premised, and removing whatever can be an obstacle on the way; so
that the ear may be prepared for the reception of the tradition of
the Gnosis, the ground being cleared of weeds and fitted for the
planting of the vineyard; for there is a conflict before the
conflict, and mysteries before the mysteries.--_S. Clement of
Alexandria._
Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not
required to unfold the mystery, but only to indicate what is
sufficient.--_Ibid._
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.--_S. Matthew._
FOREWORD.
The object of this book is to suggest
certain lines of thought as to
the deep truths underlying Christianity,
truths generally overlooked,
and only too often denied. The generous
wish to share with all what is
precious, to spread broadcast priceless
truths, to shut out none from
the illumination of true knowledge, has
resulted in a zeal without
discretion that has vulgarised
Christianity, and has presented its
teachings in a form that often repels the
heart and alienates the
intellect. The command to "preach the
Gospel to every
creature"[1]--though admittedly of
doubtful authenticity--has been
interpreted as forbidding the teaching of
the Gnosis to a few, and has
apparently erased the less popular saying
of the same Great Teacher:
"Give not that which is holy unto the
dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine."[2]
This spurious sentimentality--which refuses
to recognise the obvious
inequalities of intelligence and morality,
and thereby reduces the
teaching of the highly developed to the
level attainable by the least
evolved, sacrificing the higher to the
lower in a way that injures
both--had no place in the virile common
sense of the early Christians.
S. Clement of
Mysteries: "Even now I fear, as it is
said, 'to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and
turn and rend us.' For it is
difficult to exhibit the really pure and
transparent words respecting
the true Light to swinish and untrained
hearers."[3]
If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to
form a part of Christian
teachings, it can only be under the old
restrictions, and the idea of
levelling down to the capacities of the
least developed must be
definitely surrendered. Only by teaching
above the grasp of the little
evolved can the way be opened up for a
restoration of arcane knowledge,
and the study of the Lesser Mysteries must
precede that of the Greater.
The Greater will never be published through
the printing-press; they can
only be given by Teacher to pupil,
"from mouth to ear." But the Lesser
Mysteries, the partial unveiling of deep
truths, can even now be
restored, and such a volume as the present
is intended to outline these,
and to show the _nature_ of the teachings
which have to be mastered.
Where only hints are given, quiet
meditation on the truths hinted at
will cause their outlines to become
visible, and the clearer light
obtained by continued meditation will
gradually show them more fully.
For meditation quiets the lower mind, ever
engaged in thinking about
external objects, and when the lower mind
is tranquil then only can it
be illuminated by the Spirit. Knowledge of
spiritual truths must be thus
obtained, from within and not from without,
from the divine Spirit whose
temple we are[4] and not from an external
Teacher. These things are
"spiritually discerned" by that
divine indwelling Spirit, that "mind of
Christ," whereof speaks the Great
Apostle,[5] and that inner light is
shed upon the lower mind.
This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the
true THEOSOPHY. It is not, as
some think, a diluted version of Hinduism,
or Buddhism, or Taoism, or of
any special religion. It is Esoteric
Christianity as truly as it is
Esoteric Buddhism, and belongs equally to
all religions, exclusively to
none. This is the source of the suggestions
made in this little volume,
for the helping of those who seek the
Light--that "true Light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the
world,"[6] though most have not
yet opened their eyes to it. It does not
bring the Light. It only says:
"Behold the Light!" For thus have
we heard. It appeals only to the few
who hunger for more than the exoteric
teachings give them. For those who
are fully satisfied with the exoteric
teachings, it is not intended; for
why should bread be forced on those who are
not hungry? For those who
hunger, may it prove bread, and not a
stone.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
FOREWORD vii.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road,
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER I.
THE
HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS
1
CHAPTER II.
THE
HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY
36
CHAPTER III.
THE
HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY
69
(_concluded_)
CHAPTER IV.
THE
HISTORICAL JESUS
120
CHAPTER V.
THE
MYTHIC CHRIST
145
CHAPTER VI.
THE
MYSTIC CHRIST
170
CHAPTER VII.
THE
ATONEMENT
193
CHAPTER VIII.
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION 231
CHAPTER IX.
THE
TRINITY
253
CHAPTER X.
PRAYER 276
CHAPTER XI.
THE
FORGIVENESS OF SINS
301
CHAPTER XII.
SACRAMENTS 324
CHAPTER XIII.
SACRAMENTS (_continued_) 346
CHAPTER XIV.
REVELATION 369
AFTERWORD 386
INDEX 388
ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY.
-------
CHAPTER I.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS.
Many, perhaps most, who see the title of
this book will at once traverse
it, and will deny that there is anything
valuable which can be rightly
described as "Esoteric
Christianity." There is a wide-spread, and withal
a popular, idea that there is no such thing
as an occult teaching in
connection with Christianity, and that
"The Mysteries," whether Lesser
or Greater, were a purely Pagan
institution. The very name of "The
Mysteries of Jesus," so familiar in
the ears of the Christians of the
first centuries, would come with a shock of
surprise on those of their
modern successors, and, if spoken as
denoting a special and definite
institution in the
has actually been made a matter of boast
that Christianity has no
secrets, that whatever it has to say it
says to all, and whatever it has
to teach it teaches to all. Its truths are
supposed to be so simple,
that "a way-faring man, though a fool,
may not err therein," and the
"simple Gospel" has become a
stock phrase.
It is necessary, therefore, to prove
clearly that in the
at least, Christianity was no whit behind
other great religions in
possessing a hidden side, and that it
guarded, as a priceless treasure,
the secrets revealed only to a select few
in its Mysteries. But ere
doing this it will be well to consider the
whole question of this hidden
side of religions, and to see why such a
side must exist if a religion
is to be strong and stable; for thus its
existence in Christianity will
appear as a foregone conclusion, and the
references to it in the
writings of the Christian Fathers will
appear simple and natural instead
of surprising and unintelligible. As a
historical fact, the existence
of this esotericism is demonstrable; but it
may also be shown that
intellectually it is a necessity.
The first question we have to answer is:
What is the object of
religions? They are given to the world by
men wiser than the masses of
the people on whom they are bestowed, and
are intended to quicken human
evolution. In order to do this effectively
they must reach individuals
and influence them. Now all men are not at
the same level of evolution,
but evolution might be figured as a rising
gradient, with men stationed
on it at every point. The most highly
evolved are far above the least
evolved, both in intelligence and
character; the capacity alike to
understand and to act varies at every
stage. It is, therefore, useless
to give to all the same religious teaching;
that which would help the
intellectual man would be entirely
unintelligible to the stupid, while
that which would throw the saint into
ecstasy would leave the criminal
untouched. If, on the other hand, the
teaching be suitable to help the
unintelligent, it is intolerably crude and
jejune to the philosopher,
while that which redeems the criminal is
utterly useless to the saint.
Yet all the types need religion, so that
each may reach upward to a life
higher than that which he is leading, and
no type or grade should be
sacrificed to any other. Religion must be
as graduated as evolution,
else it fails in its object.
Next comes the question: In what way do
religions seek to quicken human
evolution? Religions seek to evolve the
moral and intellectual natures,
and to aid the spiritual nature to unfold
itself. Regarding man as a
complex being, they seek to meet him at
every point of his constitution,
and therefore to bring messages suitable
for each, teachings adequate to
the most diverse human needs. Teachings
must therefore be adapted to
each mind and heart to which they are
addressed. If a religion does not
reach and master the intelligence, if it
does not purify and inspire the
emotions, it has failed in its object, so
far as the person addressed is
concerned.
Not only does it thus direct itself to the
intelligence and the
emotions, but it seeks, as said, to
stimulate the unfoldment of the
spiritual nature. It answers to that inner
impulse which exists in
humanity, and which is ever pushing the
race onwards. For deeply within
the heart of all--often overlaid by
transitory conditions, often
submerged under pressing interests and
anxieties--there exists a
continual seeking after God. "As the
hart panteth after the
water-brooks, so panteth"[7] humanity
after God. The search is sometimes
checked for a space, and the yearning seems
to disappear. Phases recur
in civilisation and in thought, wherein
this cry of the human Spirit for
the divine--seeking its source as water
seeks its level, to borrow a
simile from Giordano Bruno--this yearning
of the human Spirit for that
which is akin to it in the universe, of the
part for the whole, seems to
be stilled, to have vanished; none the less
does that yearning reappear,
and once more the same cry rings out from
the Spirit. Trampled on for a
time, apparently destroyed, though the
tendency may be, it rises again
and again with inextinguishable
persistence, it repeats itself again
and again, no matter how often it is
silenced; and it thus proves itself
to be an inherent tendency in human nature,
an ineradicable constituent
thereof. Those who declare triumphantly,
"Lo! it is dead!" find it
facing them again with undiminished
vitality. Those who build without
allowing for it find their well-constructed
edifices riven as by an
earthquake. Those who hold it to be
outgrown find the wildest
superstitions succeed its denial. So much
is it an integral part of
humanity, that man _will_ have some answer
to his questionings; rather
an answer that is false, than none. If he
cannot find religious truth,
he will take religious error rather than no
religion, and will accept
the crudest and most incongruous ideals
rather than admit that the ideal
is non-existent.
Religion, then, meets this craving, and
taking hold of the constituent
in human nature that gives rise to it,
trains it, strengthens it,
purifies it and guides it towards its
proper ending--the union of the
human Spirit with the divine, so "that
God may be all in all."[8]
The next question which meets us in our
enquiry is: What is the source
of religions? To this question two answers
have been given in modern
times--that of the Comparative Mythologists
and that of the Comparative
Religionists. Both base their answers on a
common basis of admitted
facts. Research has indisputably proved
that the religions of the world
are markedly similar in their main
teachings, in their possession of
Founders who display superhuman powers and
extraordinary moral
elevation, in their ethical precepts, in
their use of means to come into
touch with invisible worlds, and in the
symbols by which they express
their leading beliefs. This similarity,
amounting in many cases to
identity, proves--according to both the
above schools--a common origin.
But on the nature of this common origin the
two schools are at issue.
The Comparative Mythologists contend that
the common origin is the
common ignorance, and that the loftiest
religious doctrines are simply
refined expressions of the crude and
barbarous guesses of savages, of
primitive men, regarding themselves and
their surroundings. Animism,
fetishism, nature-worship, sun-worship--these
are the constituents of
the primeval mud out of which has grown the
splendid lily of religion. A
but lineal descendants of the whirling
medicine-man of the savage. God
is a composite photograph of the
innumerable Gods who are the
personifications of the forces of nature.
And so forth. It is all summed
up in the phrase: Religions are branches
from a common trunk--human
ignorance.
The Comparative Religionists consider, on
the other hand, that all
religions originate from the teachings of
Divine Men, who give out to
the different nations of the world, from
time to time, such parts of the
fundamental verities of religion as the
people are capable of receiving,
teaching ever the same morality,
inculcating the use of similar means,
employing the same significant symbols. The
savage religions--animism
and the rest--are degenerations, the
results of decadence, distorted and
dwarfed descendants of true religious
beliefs. Sun-worship and pure
forms of nature-worship were, in their day,
noble religions, highly
allegorical but full of profound truth and
knowledge. The great
Teachers--it is alleged by Hindus,
Buddhists, and by some Comparative
Religionists, such as Theosophists--form an
enduring Brotherhood of men
who have risen beyond humanity, who appear
at certain periods to
enlighten the world, and who are the
spiritual guardians of the human
race. This view may be summed up in the
phrase: "Religions are branches
from a common trunk--Divine Wisdom."
This Divine Wisdom is spoken of as the
Wisdom, the Gnosis, the
Theosophia, and some, in different ages of
the world, have so desired to
emphasise their belief in this unity of
religions, that they have
preferred the eclectic name of Theosophist
to any narrower designation.
The relative value of the contentions of
these two opposed schools must
be judged by the cogency of the evidence
put forth by each. The
appearance of a degenerate form of a noble
idea may closely resemble
that of a refined product of a coarse idea,
and the only method of
deciding between degeneration and evolution
would be the examination, if
possible, of intermediate and remote
ancestors. The evidence brought
forward by believers in the Wisdom is of
this kind. They allege: that
the Founders of religions, judged by the
records of their teachings,
were far above the level of average
humanity; that the Scriptures of
religions contain moral precepts, sublime
ideals, poetical aspirations,
profound philosophical statements, which
are not even approached in
beauty and elevation by later writings in
the same religions--that is,
that the old is higher than the new,
instead of the new being higher
than the old; that no case can be shown of
the refining and improving
process alleged to be the source of current
religions, whereas many
cases of degeneracy from pure teachings can
be adduced; that even among
savages, if their religions be carefully
studied, many traces of lofty
ideas can be found, ideas which are
obviously above the productive
capacity of the savages themselves.
This last idea has been worked out by Mr.
Andrew Lang, who--judging by
his book on _The Making of
Religion_--should be classed as a Comparative
Religionist rather than as a Comparative
Mythologist. He points to the
existence of a common tradition, which, he
alleges, cannot have been
evolved by the savages for themselves,
being men whose ordinary beliefs
are of the crudest kind and whose minds are
little developed. He shows,
under crude beliefs and degraded views,
lofty traditions of a sublime
character, touching the nature of the
Divine Being and His relations
with men. The deities who are worshipped
are, for the most part, the
veriest devils, but behind, beyond all
these, there is a dim but
glorious over-arching Presence, seldom or
never named, but whispered of
as source of all, as power and love and
goodness, too tender to awaken
terror, too good to require supplication.
Such ideas manifestly cannot
have been conceived by the savages among
whom they are found, and they
remain as eloquent witnesses of the
revelations made by some great
Teacher--dim tradition of whom is generally
also discoverable--who was
a Son of the Wisdom, and imparted some of
its teachings in a long
bye-gone age.
The reason, and, indeed, the justification,
of the view taken by the
Comparative Mythologists is patent. They
found in every direction low
forms of religious belief, existing among
savage tribes. These were seen
to accompany general lack of civilisation.
Regarding civilised men as
evolving from uncivilised, what more
natural than to regard civilised
religion as evolving from uncivilised? It
is the first obvious idea.
Only later and deeper study can show that
the savages of to-day are not
our ancestral types, but are the
degenerated offsprings of great
civilised stocks of the past, and that man
in his infancy was not left
to grow up untrained, but was nursed and
educated by his elders, from
whom he received his first guidance alike
in religion and civilisation.
This view is being substantiated by such
facts as those dwelt on by
Lang, and will presently raise the
question, "Who were these elders, of
whom traditions are everywhere found?"
Still pursuing our enquiry, we come next to
the question: To what people
were religions given? And here we come at
once to the difficulty with
which every Founder of a religion must
deal, that already spoken of as
bearing on the primary object of religion
itself, the quickening of
human evolution, with its corollary that
all grades of evolving humanity
must be considered by Him. Men are at every
stage of evolution, from the
most barbarous to the most developed; men
are found of lofty
intelligence, but also of the most
unevolved mentality; in one place
there is a highly developed and complex
civilisation, in another a crude
and simple polity. Even within any given
civilisation we find the most
varied types--the most ignorant and the
most educated, the most
thoughtful and the most careless, the most
spiritual and the most
brutal; yet each one of these types must be
reached, and each must be
helped in the place where he is. If
evolution be true, this difficulty
is inevitable, and must be faced and
overcome by the divine Teacher,
else will His work be a failure. If man is
evolving as all around him
is evolving, these differences of
development, these varied grades of
intelligence, must be a characteristic of
humanity everywhere, and must
be provided for in each of the religions of
the world.
We are thus brought face to face with the
position that we cannot have
one and the same religious teaching even
for a single nation, still less
for a single civilisation, or for the whole
world. If there be but one
teaching, a large number of those to whom
it is addressed will entirely
escape its influence. If it be made
suitable for those whose
intelligence is limited, whose morality is
elementary, whose perceptions
are obtuse, so that it may help and train
them, and thus enable them to
evolve, it will be a religion utterly
unsuitable for those men, living
in the same nation, forming part of the
same civilisation, who have keen
and delicate moral perceptions, bright and
subtle intelligence, and
evolving spirituality. But if, on the other
hand, this latter class is
to be helped, if intelligence is to be
given a philosophy that it can
regard as admirable, if delicate moral
perceptions are to be still
further refined, if the dawning spiritual
nature is to be enabled to
develope into the perfect day, then the religion
will be so spiritual,
so intellectual, and so moral, that when it
is preached to the former
class it will not touch their minds or
their hearts, it will be to them
a string of meaningless phrases, incapable
of arousing their latent
intelligence, or of giving them any motive
for conduct which will help
them to grow into a purer morality.
Looking, then, at these facts concerning
religion, considering its
object, its means, its origin, the nature
and varying needs of the
people to whom it is addressed, recognising
the evolution of spiritual,
intellectual, and moral faculties in man,
and the need of each man for
such training as is suitable for the stage
of evolution at which he has
arrived, we are led to the absolute necessity
of a varied and graduated
religious teaching, such as will meet these
different needs and help
each man in his own place.
There is yet another reason why esoteric
teaching is desirable with
respect to a certain class of truths. It is
eminently the fact in
regard to this class that "knowledge
is power." The public promulgation
of a philosophy profoundly intellectual,
sufficient to train an already
highly developed intellect, and to draw the
allegiance of a lofty mind,
cannot injure any. It can be preached
without hesitation, for it does
not attract the ignorant, who turn away
from it as dry, stiff, and
uninteresting. But there are teachings
which deal with the constitution
of nature, explain recondite laws, and
throw light on hidden processes,
the knowledge of which gives control over
natural energies, and enables
its possessor to direct these energies to
certain ends, as a chemist
deals with the production of chemical
compounds. Such knowledge may be
very useful to highly developed men, and
may much increase their power
of serving the race. But if this knowledge
were published to the world,
it might and would be misused, just as the
knowledge of subtle poisons
was misused in the Middle Ages by the
Borgias and by others. It would
pass into the hands of people of strong
intellect, but of unregulated
desires, men moved by separative instincts,
seeking the gain of their
separate selves and careless of the common
good. They would be attracted
by the idea of gaining powers which would raise
them above the general
level, and place ordinary humanity at their
mercy, and would rush to
acquire the knowledge which exalts its
possessors to a superhuman rank.
They would, by its possession, become yet
more selfish and confirmed in
their separateness, their pride would be
nourished and their sense of
aloofness intensified, and thus they would
inevitably be driven along
the road which leads to diabolism, the Left
Hand Path, whose goal is
isolation and not union. And they would not
only themselves suffer in
their inner nature, but they would also
become a menace to Society,
already suffering sufficiently at the hands
of men whose intellect is
more evolved than their conscience. Hence
arises the necessity of
withholding certain teachings from those
who, morally, are as yet
unfitted to receive them; and this
necessity presses on every Teacher
who is able to impart such knowledge. He
desires to give it to those
who will use the powers it confers for the
general good, for quickening
human evolution; but he equally desires to
be no party to giving it to
those who would use it for their own
aggrandisement at the cost of
others.
Nor is this a matter of theory only,
according to the Occult Records,
which give the details of the events
alluded to in Genesis vi. _et seq._
This knowledge was, in those ancient times
and on the continent of
Atlantis, given without any rigid
conditions as to the moral elevation,
purity, and unselfishness of the
candidates. Those who were
intellectually qualified were taught, just
as men are taught ordinary
science in modern days. The publicity now
so imperiously demanded was
then given, with the result that men became
giants in knowledge but also
giants in evil, till the earth groaned under
her oppressors and the cry
of a trampled humanity rang through the
worlds. Then came the
destruction of Atlantis, the whelming of
that vast continent beneath the
waters of the ocean, some particulars of
which are given in the Hebrew
Scriptures in the story of the Noachian
deluge, and in the Hindu
Scriptures of the further East in the story
of Vaivasvata Manu.
Since that experience of the danger of
allowing unpurified hands to
grasp the knowledge which is power, the
great Teachers have imposed
rigid conditions as regards purity,
unselfishness, and self-control on
all candidates for such instruction. They
distinctly refuse to impart
knowledge of this kind to any who will not
consent to a rigid
discipline, intended to eliminate
separateness of feeling and interest.
They measure the moral strength of the
candidate even more than his
intellectual development, for the teaching
itself will develope the
intellect while it puts a strain on the
moral nature. Far better that
the Great Ones should be assailed by the ignorant
for Their supposed
selfishness in withholding knowledge, than
that They should precipitate
the world into another Atlantean
catastrophe.
So much of theory we lay down as bearing on
the necessity of a hidden
side in all religions. When from theory we
turn to facts, we naturally
ask: Has this hidden side existed in the
past, forming a part of the
religions of the world? The answer must be
an immediate and unhesitating
affirmative; every great religion has claimed
to possess a hidden
teaching, and has declared that it is the
repository of theoretical
mystic, and further of practical mystic, or
occult, knowledge. The
mystic explanation of popular teaching was
public, and expounded the
latter as an allegory, giving to crude and
irrational statements and
stories a meaning which the intellect could
accept. Behind this
theoretical mysticism, as it was behind the
popular, there existed
further the practical mysticism, a hidden
spiritual teaching, which was
only imparted under definite conditions,
conditions known and published,
that must be fulfilled by every candidate.
S. Clement of
mentions this division of the Mysteries.
After purification, he says,
"are the Minor Mysteries, which have
some foundation of instruction and
of preliminary preparation for what is to
come after; and the Great
Mysteries, in which nothing remains to be
learned of the universe, but
only to contemplate and comprehend nature
and things."[9]
This position cannot be controverted as
regards the ancient religions.
The Mysteries of Egypt were the glory of
that ancient land, and the
noblest sons of
initiated by Egyptian Teachers of Wisdom.
The Mithraic Mysteries of the
Persians, the Orphic and Bacchic Mysteries
and the later Eleusinian
semi-Mysteries of the Greeks, the Mysteries
of Samothrace,
extremely diluted form of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, their value is most
highly praised by the most eminent men of
Isocrates, Plutarch, and Plato. Especially
were they regarded as useful
with regard to _post-mortem_ existence, as
the Initiated learned that
which ensured his future happiness. Sopater
further alleged that
Initiation established a kinship of the
soul with the divine Nature, and
in the exoteric Hymn to Demeter covert
references are made to the holy
child, Iacchus, and to his death and
resurrection, as dealt with in the
Mysteries.[10]
From Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the
third and fourth centuries
A.D., much may be learned as to the object
of the Mysteries. Theurgy was
magic, "the last part of the
sacerdotal science,"[11] and was practised
in the Greater Mysteries, to evoke the
appearance of superior Beings.
The theory on which these Mysteries were
based may be very briefly thus
stated: There is ONE, prior to all beings,
immovable, abiding in the
solitude of His own unity. From THAT arises
the Supreme God, the
Self-begotten, the Good, the Source of all
things, the Root, the God of
Gods, the First Cause, unfolding Himself
into Light.[12] From Him
springs the Intelligible World, or ideal
universe, the Universal Mind,
the _Nous_ and the incorporeal or
intelligible Gods belong to this.
From this the World-Soul, to which belong
the "divine intellectual forms
which are present with the visible bodies
of the Gods."[13] Then come
various hierarchies of superhuman beings,
Archangels, Archons (Rulers)
or Cosmocratores, Angels, Daimons, &c.
Man is a being of a lower order,
allied to these in his nature, and is
capable of knowing them; this
knowledge was achieved in the Mysteries,
and it led to union with
God.[14] In the Mysteries these doctrines
are expounded, "the
progression from, and the regression of all
things to, the One, and the
entire domination of the One,"[15]
and, further, these different Beings
were evoked, and appeared, sometimes to
teach, sometimes, by Their mere
presence, to elevate and purify. "The
Gods," says Iamblichus, "being
benevolent and propitious, impart their
light to theurgists in unenvying
abundance, calling upwards their souls to
themselves, procuring them a
union with themselves, and accustoming
them, while they are yet in body,
to be separated from bodies, and to be led
round to their eternal and
intelligible principle."[16] For
"the soul having a twofold life, one
being in conjunction with body, but the
other being separate from all
body,"[17] it is most necessary to
learn to separate it from the body,
that thus it may unite itself with the Gods
by its intellectual and
divine part, and learn the genuine
principles of knowledge, and the
truths of the intelligible world.[18]
"The presence of the Gods, indeed,
imparts to us health of body, virtue of
soul, purity of intellect, and,
in one word, elevates everything in us to
its proper nature. It exhibits
that which is not body as body to the eyes
of the soul, through those of
the body."[19] When the Gods appear,
the soul receives "a liberation
from the passions, a transcendent
perfection, and an energy entirely
more excellent, and participates of divine
love and an immense joy."[20]
By this we gain a divine life, and are
rendered in reality divine.[21]
The culminating point of the Mysteries was
when the Initiate became a
God, whether by union with a divine Being
outside himself, or by the
realisation of the divine Self within him.
This was termed ecstasy, and
was a state of what the Indian Yogi would
term high Samadhi, the gross
body being entranced and the freed soul
effecting its own union with the
Great One. This "ecstasy is not a
faculty properly so called, it is a
state of the soul, which transforms it in
such a way that it then
perceives what was previously hidden from
it. The state will not be
permanent until our union with God is
irrevocable; here, in earth life,
ecstasy is but a flash.... Man can cease to
become man, and become God;
but man cannot be God and man at the same
time."[22] Plotinus states
that he had reached this state "but
three times as yet."
So also Proclus taught that the one
salvation of the soul was to return
to her intellectual form, and thus escape
from the "circle of
generation, from abundant wanderings,"
and reach true Being, "to the
uniform and simple energy of the period of
sameness, instead of the
abundantly wandering motion of the period
which is characterised by
difference." This is the life sought
by those initiated by Orpheus into
the Mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine,
and this is the result of the
practice of the purificatory, or cathartic,
virtues.[23]
These virtues were necessary for the
Greater Mysteries, as they
concerned the purifying of the subtle body,
in which the soul worked
when out of the gross body. The political
or practical virtues belonged
to man's ordinary life, and were required
to some extent before he could
be a candidate even for such a School as is
described below. Then came
the cathartic virtues, by which the subtle
body, that of the emotions
and lower mind, was purified; thirdly the
intellectual, belonging to the
Augoeides, or the light-form of the
intellect; fourthly the
contemplative, or paradigmatic, by which
union with God was realised.
Porphyry writes: "He who energises
according to the practical virtues is
a worthy man; but he who energises
according to the purifying virtues is
an angelic man, or is also a good daimon.
He who energises according to
the intellectual virtues alone is a God;
but he who energises according
to the paradigmatic virtues is the Father
of the Gods."[24]
Much instruction was also given in the
Mysteries by the archangelic and
other hierarchies, and Pythagoras, the
great teacher who was initiated
in
disciples, is said to have possessed such a
knowledge of music that he
could use it for the controlling of men's
wildest passions, and the
illuminating of their minds. Of this,
instances are given by Iamblichus
in his _Life of Pythagoras_. It seems
probable that the title of
Theodidaktos, given to Ammonius Saccas, the
master of Plotinus, referred
less to the sublimity of his teachings than
to this divine instruction
received by him in the Mysteries.
Some of the symbols used are explained by
Iamblichus,[25] who bids
Porphyry remove from his thought the image
of the thing symbolised and
reach its intellectual meaning. Thus
"mire" meant everything that was
bodily and material; the "God sitting
above the lotus" signified that
God transcended both the mire and the
intellect, symbolised by the
lotus, and was established in Himself,
being seated. If "sailing in a
ship," His rule over the world was
pictured. And so on.[26] On this use
of symbols Proclus remarks that "the
Orphic method aimed at revealing
divine things by means of symbols, a method
common to all writers of
divine lore."[27]
The
sixth century B.C., owing to the
persecution of the civil power, but
other communities existed, keeping up the
sacred tradition.[28] Mead
states that Plato intellectualised it, in
order to protect it from an
increasing profanation, and the Eleusinian
rites preserved some of its
forms, having lost its substance. The
Neo-Platonists inherited from
Pythagoras and Plato, and their works
should be studied by those who
would realise something of the grandeur and
the beauty preserved for
the world in the Mysteries.
The
enforced. On this Mead gives many
interesting details,[29] and remarks:
"The authors of antiquity are agreed
that this discipline had succeeded
in producing the highest examples, not only
of the purest chastity and
sentiment, but also a simplicity of
manners, a delicacy, and a taste for
serious pursuits which was unparalleled.
This is admitted even by
Christian writers." The School had
outer disciples, leading the family
and social life, and the above quotation
refers to these. In the inner
School were three degrees--the first of
Hearers, who studied for two
years in silence, doing their best to
master the teachings; the second
degree was of Mathematici, wherein were
taught geometry and music, the
nature of number, form, colour, and sound;
the third degree was of
Physici, who mastered cosmogony and
metaphysics. This led up to the true
Mysteries. Candidates for the School must
be "of an unblemished
reputation and of a contented
disposition."
The close identity between the methods and
aims pursued in these various
Mysteries and those of Yoga in
observer. It is not, however, necessary to
suppose that the nations of
antiquity drew from
Lodge of Central Asia, which sent out its
Initiates to every land. They
all taught the same doctrines, and pursued
the same methods, leading to
the same ends. But there was much
intercommunication between the
Initiates of all nations, and there was a common
language and a common
symbolism. Thus Pythagoras journeyed among
the Indians, and received in
steps. Quite Indian in phrase as well as
thought were the dying words of
Plotinus: "Now I seek to lead back the
Self within me to the
All-self."[30]
Among the Hindus the duty of teaching the
supreme knowledge only to the
worthy was strictly insisted on. "The
deepest mystery of the end of
knowledge ... is not to be declared to one
who is not a son or a pupil,
and who is not tranquil in mind."[31]
So again, after a sketch of Yoga
we read: "Stand up! awake! having
found the Great Ones, listen! The road
is as difficult to tread as the sharp edge
of a razor. Thus say the
wise."[32] The Teacher is needed, for
written teaching alone does not
suffice. The "end of knowledge"
is to know God--not only to believe; to
become one with God--not only to worship
afar off. Man must know the
reality of the divine Existence, and then
know--not only vaguely believe
and hope--that his own innermost Self is
one with God, and that the aim
of life is to realise that unity. Unless
religion can guide a man to
that realisation, it is but "as
sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal."[33]
So also it was asserted that man should
learn to leave the gross body:
"Let a man with firmness separate it
[the soul] from his own body, as a
grass-stalk from its sheath."[34] And
it was written! "In the golden
highest sheath dwells the stainless,
changeless Brahman; It is the
radiant white Light of lights, known to the
knowers of the Self."[35]
"When the seer sees the
golden-coloured Creator, the Lord, the Spirit,
whose womb is Brahman, then, having thrown
away merit and demerit,
stainless, the wise one reaches the highest
union."[36]
Nor were the Hebrews without their secret
knowledge and their Schools of
Initiation. The company of prophets at
Naioth presided over by
Samuel[37] formed such a School, and the
oral teaching was handed down
by them. Similar Schools existed at
Cruden's _Concordance_[39] there is the
following interesting note: "The
Schools or Colleges of the prophets are the
first [schools] of which we
have any account in Scripture; where the
children of the prophets, that
is, their disciples, lived in the exercises
of a retired and austere
life, in study and meditation, and reading
of the law of God.... These
Schools, or Societies, of the prophets were
succeeded by the
Synagogues." The _Kabbala_, which
contains the semi-public teaching, is,
as it now stands, a modern compilation,
part of it being the work of
Rabbi Moses de Leon, who died A.D. 1305. It
consists of five books,
Bahir, Zohar, Sepher Sephiroth, Sepher
Yetzirah, and Asch Metzareth, and
is asserted to have been transmitted orally
from very ancient times--as
antiquity is reckoned historically. Dr.
Wynn Westcott says that "Hebrew
tradition assigns the oldest parts of the
Zohar to a date antecedent to
the building of the second
to have written down some of it in the
first century A.D. The Sepher
Yetzirah is spoken of by Saadjah Gaon, who
died A.D. 940, as "very
ancient."[40] Some portions of the
ancient oral teaching have been
incorporated in the _Kabbala_ as it now
stands, but the true archaic
wisdom of the Hebrews remains in the
guardianship of a few of the true
sons of
Brief as is this outline, it is sufficient
to show the existence of a
hidden side in the religions of the world
outside Christianity, and we
may now examine the question whether
Christianity was an exception to
this universal rule.
-------
CHAPTER II.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY.
_(a)_ THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Having seen that the religions of the past
claimed with one voice to
have a hidden side, to be custodians of
"Mysteries," and that this claim
was endorsed by the seeking of initiation
by the greatest men, we must
now ascertain whether Christianity stands
outside this circle of
religions, and alone is without a Gnosis,
offering to the world only a
simple faith and not a profound knowledge.
Were it so, it would indeed
be a sad and lamentable fact, proving
Christianity to be intended for a
class only, and not for all types of human
beings. But that it is not
so, we shall be able to prove beyond the
possibility of rational doubt.
And that proof is the thing which
Christendom at this time most sorely
needs, for the very flower of Christendom
is perishing for lack of
knowledge. If the esoteric teaching can be
re-established and win
patient and earnest students, it will not
be long before the occult is
also restored. Disciples of the Lesser
Mysteries will become candidates
for the Greater, and with the regaining of
knowledge will come again the
authority of teaching. And truly the need
is great. For, looking at the
world around us, we find that religion in
the West is suffering from the
very difficulty that theoretically we
should expect to find.
Christianity, having lost its mystic and
esoteric teaching, is losing
its hold on a large number of the more
highly educated, and the partial
revival during the past few years is
co-incident with the
re-introduction of some mystic teaching. It
is patent to every student
of the closing forty years of the last
century, that crowds of
thoughtful and moral people have slipped
away from the churches, because
the teachings they received there outraged
their intelligence and
shocked their moral sense. It is idle to
pretend that the wide-spread
agnosticism of this period had its root
either in lack of morality or in
deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone
who carefully studies the
phenomena presented will admit that men of
strong intellect have been
driven out of Christianity by the crudity
of the religious ideas set
before them, the contradictions in the
authoritative teachings, the
views as to God, man, and the universe that
no trained intelligence
could possibly admit. Nor can it be said
that any kind of moral
degradation lay at the root of the revolt
against the dogmas of the
Church. The rebels were not too bad for
their religion; on the contrary,
it was the religion that was too bad for
them. The rebellion against
popular Christianity was due to the
awakening and the growth of
conscience; it was the conscience that
revolted, as well as the
intelligence, against teachings
dishonouring to God and man alike, that
represented God as a tyrant, and man as
essentially evil, gaining
salvation by slavish submission.
The reason for this revolt lay in the
gradual descent of Christian
teaching into so-called simplicity, so that
the most ignorant might be
able to grasp it. Protestant religionists
asserted loudly that nothing
ought to be preached save that which every
one could grasp, that the
glory of the Gospel lay in its simplicity,
and that the child and the
unlearned ought to be able to understand
and apply it to life. True
enough, if by this it were meant that there
are some religious truths
that all can grasp, and that a religion
fails if it leaves the lowest,
the most ignorant, the most dull, outside
the pale of its elevating
influence. But false, utterly false, if by
this it be meant that
religion has no truths that the ignorant
cannot understand, that it is
so poor and limited a thing that it has
nothing to teach which is above
the thought of the unintelligent or above
the moral purview of the
degraded. False, fatally false, if such be
the meaning; for as that view
spreads, occupying the pulpits and being
sounded in the churches, many
noble men and women, whose hearts are
half-broken as they sever the
links that bind them to their early faith,
withdraw from the churches,
and leave their places to be filled by the hypocritical
and the
ignorant. They pass either into a state of
passive agnosticism, or--if
they be young and enthusiastic--into a
condition of active aggression,
not believing that that can be the highest
which outrages alike
intellect and conscience, and preferring
the honesty of open unbelief to
the drugging of the intellect and the
conscience at the bidding of an
authority in which they recognise nothing
that is divine.
In thus studying the thought of our time we
see that the question of a
hidden teaching in connection with
Christianity becomes of vital
importance. Is Christianity to survive as
_the_ religion of the West? Is
it to live through the centuries of the
future, and to continue to play
a part in moulding the thought of the
evolving western races? If it is
to live, it must regain the knowledge it
has lost, and again have its
mystic and its occult teachings; it must
again stand forth as an
authoritative teacher of spiritual
verities, clothed with the only
authority worth anything, the authority of
knowledge. If these teachings
be regained, their influence will soon be
seen in wider and deeper
views of truth; dogmas, which now seem like
mere shells and fetters,
shall again be seen to be partial
presentments of fundamental realities.
First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear
in the "Holy Place," in the
Temple, so that all who are capable of
receiving it may follow its lines
of published thought; and secondly, Occult
Christianity will again
descend into the Adytum, dwelling behind
the Veil which guards the "Holy
of Holies," into which only the
Initiate may enter. Then again will
occult teaching be within the reach of
those who qualify themselves to
receive it, according to the ancient rules,
those who are willing in
modern days to meet the ancient demands,
made on all those who would
fain know the reality and truth of
spiritual things.
Once again we turn our eyes to history, to
see whether Christianity was
unique among religions in having no inner
teaching, or whether it
resembled all others in possessing this
hidden treasure. Such a question
is a matter of evidence, not of theory, and
must be decided by the
authority of the existing documents and not
by the mere _ipse dixit_ of
modern Christians.
As a matter of fact both the "New
Testament" and the writings of the
early Church make the same declarations as
to the possession by the
Church of such teachings, and we learn from
these the fact of the
existence of Mysteries--called the
Mysteries of Jesus, or the Mystery of
the Kingdom--the conditions imposed on
candidates, something of the
general nature of the teachings given, and
other details. Certain
passages in the "New Testament"
would remain entirely obscure, if it
were not for the light thrown on them by
the definite statements of the
Fathers and Bishops of the Church, but in
that light they became clear
and intelligible.
It would indeed have been strange had it
been otherwise when we consider
the lines of religious thought which
influenced primitive Christianity.
Allied to the Hebrews, the Persians, and
the Greeks, tinged by the older
faiths of India, deeply coloured by Syrian
and Egyptian thought, this
later branch of the great religious stem
could not do other than again
re-affirm the ancient traditions, and place
in the grasp of western
races the full treasure of the ancient
teaching. "The faith once
delivered to the saints" would indeed
have been shorn of its chief value
if, when delivered to the West, the pearl
of esoteric teaching had been
withheld.
The first evidence to be examined is that
of the "New Testament." For
our purpose we may put aside all the vexed
questions of different
readings and different authors, that can
only be decided by scholars.
Critical scholarship has much to say on the
age of MSS., on the
authenticity of documents, and so on. But
we need not concern ourselves
with these. We may accept the canonical
Scriptures, as showing what was
believed in the early Church as to the
teaching of the Christ and of His
immediate followers, and see what they say
as to the existence of a
secret teaching given only to the few.
Having seen the words put into
the mouth of Jesus Himself, and regarded by
the Church as of supreme
authority, we will look at the writings of
the great apostle S. Paul;
then we will consider the statements made
by those who inherited the
apostolic tradition and guided the Church
during the first centuries
A.D. Along this unbroken line of tradition
and written testimony the
proposition that Christianity had a hidden
side can be established. We
shall further find that the Lesser
Mysteries of mystic interpretation
can be traced through the centuries to the
beginning of the 19th
century, and that though there were no
Schools of Mysticism recognised
as preparatory to Initiation, after the
disappearance of the Mysteries,
yet great Mystics, from time to time,
reached the lower stages of
exstasy, by their own sustained efforts,
aided doubtless by invisible
Teachers.
The words of the Master Himself are clear
and definite, and were, as we
shall see, quoted by Origen as referring to
the secret teaching
preserved in the Church. "And when he
was alone, they that were about
Him with the twelve asked of Him the
parable. And He said unto them,
'Unto you it is given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God, but
unto them that are without, all these
things are done in parables.'" And
later: "With many such parables spake
He the word unto them, as they
were able to hear it. But without a parable
spake He not unto them; and
when they were alone He expounded all
things to His disciples."[41] Mark
the significant words, "when they were
alone," and the phrase, "them
that are without." So also in the
version of S. Matthew: "Jesus sent the
multitude away, and went into the house;
and His disciples came unto
Him." These teachings given "in
the house," the innermost meanings of
His instructions, were alleged to be handed
on from teacher to teacher.
The Gospel gives, it will be noted, the
allegorical mystic explanation,
that which we have called The Lesser
Mysteries, but the deeper meaning
was said to be given only to the Initiates.
Again, Jesus tells even His apostles:
"I have yet many things to say to
you, but ye cannot bear them now."[42]
Some of them were probably said
after His death, when He was seen of His
disciples, "speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of
God."[43] None of these have been
publicly recorded, but who can believe that
they were neglected or
forgotten, and were not handed down as a
priceless possession? There was
a tradition in the Church that He visited
His apostles for a
considerable period after His death, for
the sake of giving them
instruction--a fact that will be referred
to later--and in the famous
Gnostic treatise, the _Pistis Sophia_, we
read: "It came to pass, when
Jesus had risen from the dead, that He
passed eleven years speaking with
His disciples and instructing
them."[44] Then there is the phrase, which
many would fain soften and explain away:
"Give not that which is holy to
the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine"[45]--a precept which
is of general application indeed, but was
considered by the early
Church to refer to the secret teachings. It
should be remembered that
the words had not the same harshness of
sound in the ancient days as
they have now; for the words
"dogs"--like "the vulgar," "the
profane"--was applied by those within
a certain circle to all who were
outside its pale, whether by a society or
association, or by a
nation--as by the Jews to all Gentiles.[46]
It was sometimes used to
designate those who were outside the circle
of Initiates, and we find it
employed in that sense in the early Church;
those who, not having been
initiated into the Mysteries, were regarded
as being outside "the
kingdom of God," or "the
spiritual Israel," had this name applied to
them.
There were several names, exclusive of the
term "The Mystery," or "The
Mysteries," used to designate the
sacred circle of the Initiates or
connected with Initiation: "The
Kingdom," "The Kingdom of God," "The
Kingdom of Heaven," "The Narrow
Path," "The Strait Gate," "The
Perfect," "The Saved,"
"Life Eternal," "Life," "The Second Birth,"
"A
Little One," "A Little
Child." The meaning is made plain by the use of
these words in early Christian writings,
and in some cases even outside
the Christian pale. Thus the term,
"The Perfect," was used by the
Essenes, who had three orders in their
communities: the Neophytes, the
Brethren, and the Perfect--the latter being
Initiates; and it is
employed generally in that sense in old
writings. "The Little Child" was
the ordinary name for a candidate just
initiated, _i.e._, who had just
taken his "second birth."
When we know this use, many obscure and
otherwise harsh passages become
intelligible. "Then said one unto Him:
Lord, are there few that be
saved? And He said unto them: Strive to
enter in at the strait gate; for
many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in
and shall not be able."[47]
If this be applied in the ordinary
Protestant way to salvation from
everlasting hell-fire, the statement
becomes incredible, shocking. No
Saviour of the world can be supposed to
assert that many will seek to
avoid hell and enter heaven, but will not
be able to do so. But as
applied to the narrow gateway of Initiation
and to salvation from
rebirth, it is perfectly true and natural.
So again: "Enter ye in at the
strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad
is the way that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat; because strait is
the gate and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life; and few there be
that find it."[48] The warning which
immediately follows against the
false prophets, the teachers of the dark
Mysteries, is most apposite in
this connection. No student can miss the familiar
ring of these words
used in this same sense in other writings.
The "ancient narrow way" is
familiar to all; the path "difficult
to tread as the sharp edge of a
razor,"[49] already mentioned; the
going "from death to death" of those
who follow the flower-strewn path of
desires, who do not know God; for
those men only become immortal and escape
from the wide mouth of death,
from ever repeated destruction, who have
quitted all desires.[50] The
allusion to death is, of course, to the
repeated births of the soul into
gross material existence, regarded always
as "death" compared to the
"life" of the higher and subtler
worlds.
This "Strait Gate" was the
gateway of Initiation, and through it a
candidate entered "The Kingdom."
And it ever has been, and must be, true
that only a few can enter that gateway,
though myriads--an exceedingly
"great multitude, which no man could
number,"[51] not a few--enter into
the happiness of the heaven-world. So also
spoke another great Teacher,
nearly three thousand years earlier:
"Among thousands of men scarce one
striveth for perfection; of the successful
strivers scarce one knoweth
me in essence."[52] For the Initiates
are few in each generation, the
flower of humanity; but no gloomy sentence
of everlasting woe is
pronounced in this statement on the vast
majority of the human race.
The saved are, as Proclus taught,[53] those
who escape from the circle
of generation, within which humanity is
bound.
In this connection we may recall the story
of the young man who came to
Jesus, and, addressing Him as "Good
Master," asked how he might win
eternal life--the well-recognised
liberation from rebirth by knowledge
of God.[54] His first answer was the
regular exoteric precept: "Keep the
commandments." But when the young man
answered: "All these things have I
kept from my youth up;" then, to that
conscience free from all knowledge
of transgression, came the answer of the
true Teacher: "If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and
follow me." "If thou wilt be
perfect," be a member of the Kingdom,
poverty and obedience must be
embraced. And then to His own disciples
Jesus explains that a rich man
can hardly enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
such entrance being more
difficult than for a camel to pass through
the eye of a needle; with men
such entrance could not be, with God all
things were possible.[55] Only
God in man can pass that barrier.
This text has been variously explained
away, it being obviously
impossible to take it in its surface
meaning, that a rich man cannot
enter a post-mortem state of happiness.
Into that state the rich man may
enter as well as the poor, and the
universal practice of Christians
shows that they do not for one moment
believe that riches imperil their
happiness after death. But if the real
meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven
be taken, we have the expression of a
simple and direct fact. For that
knowledge of God which is Eternal Life[56]
cannot be gained till
everything earthly is surrendered, cannot
be learned until everything
has been sacrificed. The man must give up
not only earthly wealth, which
henceforth may only pass through his hands
as steward, but he must give
up his inner wealth as well, so far as he
holds it as his own against
the world; until he is stripped naked he
cannot pass the narrow gateway.
Such has ever been a condition of
Initiation, and "poverty, obedience,
chastity," has been the vow of the
candidate.
The "second birth" is another
well-recognised term for Initiation; even
now in India the higher castes are called
"twice-born," and the ceremony
that makes them twice-born is a ceremony of
Initiation--mere husk truly,
in these modern days, but the "pattern
of things in the heavens."[57]
When Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, He
states that "Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God," and this birth is spoken
of as that "of water and the
Spirit;"[58] this is the first Initiation;
a later one is that of "the Holy Ghost
and fire,"[59] the baptism of the
Initiate in his manhood, as the first is
that of birth, which welcomes
him as "the Little Child"
entering the Kingdom.[60] How thoroughly this
imagery was familiar among the mystic of
the Jews is shown by the
surprise evinced by Jesus when Nicodemus
stumbled over His mystic
phraseology: "Art thou a master of
Israel, and knowest not these
things?"[61]
Another precept of Jesus which remains as
"a hard saying" to his
followers is: "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect."[62] The ordinary
Christian knows that he cannot
possibly obey this command; full of
ordinary human frailties and
weaknesses, how can he become perfect as
God is perfect? Seeing the
impossibility of the achievement set before
him, he quietly puts it
aside, and thinks no more about it. But
seen as the crowning effort of
many lives of steady improvement, as the
triumph of the God within us
over the lower nature, it comes within
calculable distance, and we
recall the words of Porphyry, how the man
who achieves "the paradigmatic
virtues is the Father of the
Gods,"[63] and that in the Mysteries these
virtues were acquired.
S. Paul follows in the footsteps of his
Master, and speaks in exactly
the same sense, but, as might be expected
from his organising work in
the Church, with greater explicitness and
clearness. The student should
read with attention chapters ii. and iii.,
and verse 1 of chapter iv. of
the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
remembering, as he reads, that the
words are addressed to baptised and
communicant members of the Church,
full members from the modern standpoint,
although described as babes and
carnal by the Apostle. They were not
catechumens or neophytes, but men
and women who were in complete possession
of all the privileges and
responsibilities of Church membership,
recognised by the Apostle as
being separate from the world, and expected
not to behave as men of the
world. They were, in fact, in possession of
all that the modern Church
gives to its members. Let us summarise the
Apostle's words:
"I came to you bearing the divine
testimony, not alluring you with human
wisdom but with the power of the Spirit.
Truly 'we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect,' but it is no human
wisdom. 'We speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before
the world' began, and which none even of
the princes of this world know.
The things of that wisdom are beyond men's
thinking, 'but God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit ... the
deep things of God,' 'which
the Holy Ghost teacheth.'[64] These are
spiritual things, to be
discerned only by the spiritual man, in
whom is the mind of Christ. 'And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as
unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.... Ye
were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet
carnal.' 'As a wise
master-builder[65] I have laid the
foundation,' and 'ye are the temple
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you.' 'Let a man so account
of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and
stewards of the Mysteries of
God.'"
Can any one read this passage--and all that
has been done in the summary
is to bring out the salient points--without
recognising the fact that
the Apostle possessed a divine wisdom given
in the Mysteries, that his
Corinthian followers were not yet able to
receive? And note the
recurring technical terms: the
"wisdom," the "wisdom of God in a
mystery," the "hidden
wisdom," known only to the "spiritual" man, spoken
of only among the "perfect,"
wisdom from which the non-"spiritual," the
"babes in Christ," the
"carnal," were excluded, known to the "wise
master-builder," the "steward of
the Mysteries of God."
Again and again he refers to these Mysteries.
Writing to the Ephesian
Christians he says that "by
revelation," by the unveiling, had been
"made known unto me the Mystery,"
and hence his "knowledge in the
Mystery of Christ"; all might know of
the "fellowship of the
Mystery."[66] Of this Mystery, he
repeated to the Colossians, he was
"made a minister," "the
Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to
His saints"; not to the world,
nor even to Christians, but only to the
Holy Ones. To them was unveiled
"the glory of this Mystery"; and
what was it? "Christ _in you_"--a
significant phrase, which we shall see, in
a moment, belonged to the
life of the Initiate; thus ultimately must
every man learn the wisdom,
and become "perfect in Christ
Jesus."[67] These Colossians he bids pray
"that God would open to us a door of
utterance, to speak the mystery of
Christ,"[68] a passage to which S.
Clement refers as one in which the
apostle "clearly reveals that
knowledge belongs not to all."[69] So
also he writes to his loved Timothy,
bidding him select his deacons from
those who hold "the Mystery of the
faith in a pure conscience," that
great "Mystery of Godliness,"
that he had learned,[70] knowledge of
which was necessary for the teachers of the
Church.
Now S. Timothy holds an important position,
as representing the next
generation of Christian teachers. He was a
pupil of S. Paul, and was
appointed by him to guide and rule a
portion of the Church. He had been,
we learn, initiated into the Mysteries by
S. Paul himself, and reference
is made to this, the technical phrases once
more serving as a clue.
"This charge I commit unto thee, son
Timothy, according to the
prophecies which went before on
thee,"[71] the solemn benediction of the
Initiator, who admitted the candidate; but
not alone was the Initiator
present: "Neglect not the gift that is
in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy, by the laying on of the hands of
the Presbytery,"[72] of the
Elder Brothers. And he reminds him to lay
hold of that "eternal life,
whereunto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession
before many witnesses"[73]--the vow of
the new Initiate, pledged in the
presence of the Elder Brothers, and of the
assembly of Initiates. The
knowledge then given was the sacred charge
of which S. Paul cries out so
forcibly: "O Timothy, keep that which
is committed to thy
trust"[74]--not the knowledge commonly
possessed by Christians, as to
which no special obligation lay upon S.
Timothy, but the sacred deposit
committed to his trust as an Initiate, and
essential to the welfare of
the Church. S. Paul later recurs again to
this, laying stress on the
supreme importance of the matter in a way
that would be exaggerated had
the knowledge been the common property of
Christian men: "Hold fast the
form of sound words which thou hast heard
of me.... That good thing
which was committed unto thee, keep by the
Holy Ghost which dwelleth in
us"[75]--as serious an adjuration as
human lips could frame. Further,
it was his duty to provide for the due
transmission of this sacred
deposit, that it might be handed on to the
future, and the Church might
never be left without teachers: "The
things that thou hast heard of me
among many witnesses"--the sacred oral
teachings given in the assembly
of Initiates, who bore witness to the
accuracy of the transmission--"the
same commit thou to faithful men, who shall
be able to teach others
also."[76]
The knowledge--or, if the phrase be
preferred, the supposition--that the
Church possessed these hidden teachings
throws a flood of light on the
scattered remarks made by S. Paul about
himself, and when they are
gathered together, we have an outline of
the evolution of the Initiate.
S. Paul asserts that though he was already
among the perfect, the
initiated--for he says: "Let us,
therefore, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded"--he had not yet
"attained," was indeed not yet wholly
"perfect," for he had not yet won
Christ, he had not yet reached the
"high calling of God in Christ,"
"the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being
made conformable unto His
death;" and he was striving, he says,
"if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the
dead."[77] For this was the Initiation that
liberated, that made the Initiate the
Perfect Master, the Risen Christ,
freeing Him finally from the
"dead," from the humanity within the circle
of generation, from the bonds that fettered
the soul to gross matter.
Here again we have a number of technical
terms, and even the surface
reader should realise that the
"resurrection of the dead" here spoken of
cannot be the ordinary resurrection of the
modern Christian, supposed to
be inevitable for all men, and therefore
obviously not requiring any
special struggle on the part of any one to
attain to it. In fact the
very word "attain" would be out
of place in referring to a universal and
inevitable human experience. S. Paul could
not avoid _that_
resurrection, according to the modern
Christian view. What then was the
resurrection to attain which he was making
such strenuous efforts? Once
more the only answer comes from the
Mysteries. In them the Initiate
approaching the Initiation that liberated
from the cycle of rebirth, the
circle of generation, was called "the
suffering Christ;" he shared the
sufferings of the Saviour of the world, was
crucified mystically, "made
conformable to His death," and then
attained the resurrection, the
fellowship of the glorified Christ, and,
after, that death had over him
no power.[78] This was "the
prize" towards which the great Apostle was
pressing, and he urged "as many as be
perfect," _not the ordinary
believer_, thus also to strive. Let them
not be content with what they
had gained, but still press onwards.
This resemblance of the Initiate to the
Christ is, indeed, the very
groundwork of the Greater Mysteries, as we
shall see more in detail when
we study "The Mystical Christ."
The Initiate was no longer to look on
Christ as outside himself: "Though we
have known Christ after the
flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no
more."[79]
The ordinary believer had "put on
Christ;" "as many of you as have been
baptised into Christ have put on
Christ."[80] Then they were the "babes
in Christ" to whom reference has
already been made, and Christ was the
Saviour to whom they looked for help,
knowing Him "after the flesh." But
when they had conquered the lower nature
and were no longer "carnal,"
then they were to enter on a higher path,
and were themselves to become
Christ. This which he himself had already
reached, was the longing of
the Apostle for his followers: "My
little children, of whom I travail in
birth again until Christ be formed _in
you_."[81] Already he was their
spiritual father, having "begotten you
through the gospel."[82] But now
"again" he was as a parent, as
their mother to bring them to the second
birth. Then the infant Christ, the Holy
Child, was born in the soul,
"the hidden man of the
heart;"[83] the Initiate thus became that
"Little Child"; henceforth he was
to live out in his own person the life
of the Christ, until he became the
"perfect man," growing "unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ."[84] Then he, as S. Paul
was doing, filled up the sufferings of Christ
in his own flesh,[85] and
always bore "about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus,"[86] so that
he could truly say: "I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me."[87] Thus was the Apostle himself
suffering; thus he describes himself. And
when the struggle is over, how
different is the calm tone of triumph from
the strained effort of the
earlier years: "I am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness."[88] This was
the crown given to "him that
overcometh," of whom it is said by the
ascended Christ: "I will make him
a pillar in the temple of my God; and he
shall go no more out."[89] For
after the "Resurrection" the
Initiate has become the Perfect Man, the
Master, and He goes out no more from the
Temple, but from it serves and
guides the worlds.
It may be well to point out, ere closing
this chapter, that S. Paul
himself sanctions the use of the
theoretical mystic teaching in
explaining the historical events recorded
in the Scriptures. The history
therein written is not regarded by him as a
mere record of facts, which
occurred on the physical plane. A true
mystic, he saw in the physical
events the shadows of the universal truths
ever unfolding in higher and
inner worlds, and knew that the events
selected for preservation in
occult writings were such as were typical,
the explanation of which
would subserve human instruction. Thus he
takes the story of Abraham,
Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, and
saying, "which things are an
allegory," he proceeds to give the
mystical interpretation.[90]
Referring to the escape of the Israelites
from Egypt, he speaks of the
Red Sea as a baptism, of the manna and the
water as spiritual meat and
spiritual drink, of the rock from which the
water flowed as Christ.[91]
He sees the great mystery of the union of
Christ and His Church in the
human relation of husband and wife, and
speaks of Christians as the
flesh and the bones of the body of
Christ.[92] The writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews allegorises the whole Jewish
system of worship. In the
Temple he sees a pattern of the heavenly
Temple, in the High Priest he
sees Christ, in the sacrifices the offering
of the spotless Son; the
priests of the Temple are but "the
example and shadow of heavenly
things," of the heavenly priesthood
serving in "the true tabernacle." A
most elaborate allegory is thus worked out
in chapters iii.-x., and the
writer alleges that the Holy Ghost thus
signified the deeper meaning;
all was "a figure for the time."
In this view of the sacred writings, it is
not alleged that the events
recorded did not take place, but only that
their physical happening was
a matter of minor importance. And such
explanation is the unveiling of
the Lesser Mysteries, the mystic teaching
which is permitted to be given
to the world. It is not, as many think, a
mere play of the imagination,
but is the outcome of a true intuition,
seeing the patterns in the
heavens, and not only the shadows cast by
them on the screen of earthly
time.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER III.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF
CHRISTIANITY(_concluded_).
(_(b)_) THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.
While it may be that some would be willing
to admit the possession by
the Apostles and their immediate successors
of a deeper knowledge of
spiritual things than was current among the
masses of the believers
around them, few will probably be willing
to take the next step, and,
leaving that charmed circle, accept as the
depository of their sacred
learning the Mysteries of the Early Church.
Yet we have S. Paul
providing for the transmission of the
unwritten teaching, himself
initiating S. Timothy, and instructing S.
Timothy to initiate others in
his turn, who should again hand it on to
yet others. We thus see the
provision of four successive generations of
teachers, spoken of in the
Scriptures themselves, and these would far
more than overlap the writers
of the Early Church, who bear witness to
the existence of the Mysteries.
For among these are pupils of the Apostles
themselves, though the most
definite statements belong to those removed
from the Apostles by one
intermediate teacher. Now, as soon as we
begin to study the writings of
the Early Church, we are met by the facts
that there are allusions which
are only intelligible by the existence of
the Mysteries, and then
statements that the Mysteries are existing.
This might, of course, have
been expected, seeing the point at which
the New Testament leaves the
matter, but it is satisfactory to find the
facts answer to the
expectation.
The first witnesses are those called the
Apostolic Fathers, the
disciples of the Apostles; but very little
of their writings, and that
disputed, remains. Not being written
controversially, the statements are
not as categorical as those of the later
writers. Their letters are for
the encouragement of the believers.
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and
fellow-disciple with Ignatius of S.
John,[93] expresses a hope that his
correspondents are "well versed in the
sacred Scriptures and that
nothing is hid from you; but to me this
privilege is not yet
granted"[94]--writing, apparently,
before reaching full Initiation.
Barnabas speaks of communicating "some
portion of what I have myself
received,"[95] and after expounding the
Law mystically, declares that
"we then, rightly understanding His
commandments, explain them as the
Lord intended."[96] Ignatius, Bishop
of Antioch, a disciple of S.
John,[97] speaks of himself as "not
yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For I
now begin to be a disciple, and I speak to
you as my
fellow-disciples,"[98] and he speaks
of them as "initiated into the
mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, the
holy, the martyred."[99] Again
he says: "Might I not write to you
things more full of mystery? But I
fear to do so, lest I should inflict injury
on you who are but babes.
Pardon me in this respect, lest, as not
being able to receive their
weighty import, ye should be strangled by
them. For even I, though I am
bound [for Christ] and am able to
understand heavenly things, the
angelic orders, and the different sorts of
angels and hosts, the
distinction between powers and dominions,
and the diversities between
thrones and authorities, the mightiness of
the aeons, and the
pre-eminence of the cherubim and seraphim,
the sublimity of the Spirit,
the kingdom of the Lord, and above all the
incomparable majesty of
Almighty God--though I am acquainted with
these things, yet am I not
therefore by any means perfect, nor am I
such a disciple as Paul or
Peter."[100] This passage is
interesting, as indicating that the
organisation of the celestial hierarchies
was one of the subjects in
which instruction was given in the
Mysteries. Again he speaks of the
High Priest, the Hierophant, "to whom
the holy of holies has been
committed, and who alone has been entrusted
with the secrets of
God."[101]
We come next to S. Clement of Alexandria
and his pupil Origen, the two
writers of the second and third centuries
who tell us most about the
Mysteries in the Early Church; though the
general atmosphere is full of
mystic allusions, these two are clear and
categorical in their
statements that the Mysteries were a
recognised institution.
Now S. Clement was a disciple of Pantaenus,
and he speaks of him and of
two others, said to be probably Tatian and
Theodotus, as "preserving the
tradition of the blessed doctrine derived
directly from the holy
Apostles, Peter, James, John, and
Paul,"[102] his link with the Apostles
themselves consisting thus of only one
intermediary. He was the head of
the Catechetical School of Alexandria in
A.D. 189, and died about A.D.
220. Origen, born about A.D. 185, was his
pupil, and he is, perhaps,
the most learned of the Fathers, and a man
of the rarest moral beauty.
These are the witnesses from whom we receive
the most important
testimony as to the existence of definite
Mysteries in the Early Church.
The _Stromata_, or Miscellanies, of S.
Clement are our source of
information about the Mysteries in his
time. He himself speaks of these
writings as a "miscellany of Gnostic
notes, according to the true
philosophy,"[103] and also describes
them as memoranda of the teachings
he had himself received from Pantaenus. The
passage is instructive: "The
Lord ... allowed us to communicate of those
divine Mysteries, and of
that holy light, to those who are able to
receive them. He did not
certainly disclose to the many what did not
belong to the many; but to
the few to whom He knew that they belonged,
who were capable of
receiving and being moulded according to
them. But secret things are
entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is
the case with God. And if
one say[104] that it is written, 'There is
nothing secret which shall
not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not
be disclosed,' let him also
hear from us, that to him who hears
secretly, even what is secret shall
be manifested. This is what was predicted
by this oracle. And to him who
is able secretly to observe what is
delivered to him, that which is
veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and
what is hidden to the many shall
appear manifest to the few.... The
Mysteries are delivered mystically,
that what is spoken may be in the mouth of
the speaker; rather not in
his voice, but in his understanding.... The
writing of these memoranda
of mine, I well know, is weak when compared
with that spirit, full of
grace, which I was privileged to hear. But
it will be an image to recall
the archetype to him who was struck with
the Thyrsus." The Thyrsus, we
may here interject, was the wand borne by
Initiates, and candidates were
touched with it during the ceremony of
Initiation. It had a mystic
significance, symbolising the spinal cord
and the pineal gland in the
Lesser Mysteries, and a Rod, known to
Occultists, in the Greater. To
say, therefore, "to him who was struck
with the Thyrsus" was exactly the
same as to say, "to him who was
initiated in the Mysteries." Clement
proceeds: "We profess not to explain
secret things sufficiently--far
from it--but only to recall them to memory,
whether we have forgot
aught, or whether for the purpose of not
forgetting. Many things, I well
know, have escaped us, through length of
time, that have dropped away
unwritten.... There are then some things of
which we have no
recollection; for the power that was in the
blessed men was great." A
frequent experience of those taught by the
Great Ones, for Their
presence stimulates and renders active
powers which are normally latent,
and which the pupil, unassisted, cannot
evoke. "There are also some
things which remained unnoted long, which
have now escaped; and others
which are effaced, having faded away in the
mind itself, since such a
task is not easy to those not experienced;
these I revive in my
commentaries. Some things I purposely omit,
in the exercise of a wise
selection, afraid to write what I guarded
against speaking; not
grudging--for that were wrong--but fearing
for my readers, lest they
should stumble by taking them in a wrong
sense; and, as the proverb
says, we should be found 'reaching a sword
to a child.' For it is
impossible that what has been written
should not escape [become known],
although remaining unpublished by me. But
being always revolved, using
the one only voice, that of writing, they
answer nothing to him that
makes enquiries beyond what is written; for
they require of necessity
the aid of some one, either of him who
wrote, or of some one else who
has walked in his footsteps. Some things my
treatise will hint; on some
it will linger; some it will merely
mention. It will try to speak
imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to
demonstrate silently."[105]
This passage, if it stood alone, would
suffice to establish the
existence of a secret teaching in the Early
Church. But it stands by no
means alone. In Chapter xii. of this same
Book I., headed, "The
Mysteries of the Faith not to be divulged
to all," Clement declares
that, since others than the wise may see
his work, "it is requisite,
therefore, to hide in a Mystery the wisdom
spoken, which the Son of God
taught." Purified tongue of the
speaker, purified ears of the hearer,
these were necessary. "Such were the
impediments in the way of my
writing. And even now I fear, as it is
said, 'to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them under foot and
turn and rend us.' For it is
difficult to exhibit the really pure and
transparent words respecting
the true light, to swinish and untrained
hearers. For scarcely could
anything which they could hear be more
ludicrous than these to the
multitude; nor any subjects on the other
hand more admirable or more
inspiring to those of noble nature. But the
wise do not utter with their
mouth what they reason in council. 'But
what ye hear in the ear,' said
the Lord, 'proclaim upon the houses';
bidding them receive the secret
traditions of the true knowledge, and
expound them aloft and
conspicuously; and as we have heard in the
ear, so to deliver them to
whom it is requisite; but not enjoining us
to communicate to all without
distinction, what is said to them in
parables. But there is only a
delineation in the memoranda, which have
the truth sown sparse and
broadcast, that it may escape the notice of
those who pick up seeds like
jackdaws; but when they find a good
husbandman, each one of them will
germinate and will produce corn."
Clement might have added that to
"proclaim upon the houses" was to
proclaim or expound in the assembly of the
Perfect, the Initiated, and
by no means to shout aloud to the man in
the street.
Again he says that those who are
"still blind and dumb, not having
understanding, or the undazzled and keen
vision of the contemplative
soul ... must stand outside of the divine
choir.... Wherefore, in
accordance with the method of concealment,
the truly sacred Word, truly
divine and most necessary for us, deposited
in the shrine of truth, was
by the Egyptians indicated by what were
called among them _adyta_, and
by the Hebrews by the veil. Only the
consecrated ... were allowed access
to them. For Plato also thought it not
lawful for 'the impure to touch
the pure.' Thence the prophecies and
oracles are spoken in enigmas, and
the Mysteries are not exhibited
incontinently to all and sundry, but
only after certain purifications and
previous instructions."[106] He
then descants at great length on Symbols,
expounding Pythagorean,
Hebrew, Egyptian,[107] and then remarks
that the ignorant and unlearned
man fails in understanding them. "But
the Gnostic apprehends. Now then
it is not wished that all things should be
exposed indiscriminately to
all and sundry, or the benefits of wisdom
communicated to those who have
not even in a dream been purified in soul
(for it is not allowed to hand
to every chance comer what has been
procured with such laborious
efforts); nor are the Mysteries of the Word
to be expounded to the
profane." The Pythagoreans and Plato,
Zeno, and Aristotle had exoteric
and esoteric teachings. The philosophers
established the Mysteries, for
"was it not more beneficial for the
holy and blessed contemplation of
realities to be concealed?"[108] The
Apostles also approved of "veiling
the Mysteries of the Faith," "for
there is an instruction to the
perfect," alluded to in Colossians i.
9-11 and 25-27. "So that, on the
one hand, then, there are the Mysteries
which were hid till the time of
the Apostles, and were delivered by them as
they received from the Lord,
and, concealed in the Old Testament, were
manifested to the saints. And,
on the other hand, there is 'the riches of
the glory of the mystery in
the Gentiles,' which is faith and hope in
Christ; which in another place
he has called the 'foundation.'" He quotes
S. Paul to show that this
"knowledge belongs not to all,"
and says, referring to Heb. v. and vi.,
that "there were certainly among the
Hebrews, some things delivered
unwritten;" and then refers to S.
Barnabas, who speaks of God, "who has
put into our hearts wisdom and the
understanding of His secrets," and
says that "it is but for few to
comprehend these things," as showing a
"trace of Gnostic tradition."
"Wherefore instruction, which reveals
hidden things, is called illumination, as
it is the teacher only who
uncovers the lid of the ark."[109]
Further referring to S. Paul, he
comments on his remark to the Romans that
he will "come in the fulness
of the blessing of Christ,"[110] and
says that he thus designates "the
spiritual gift and the Gnostic
interpretation, while being present he
desires to impart to them present as 'the
fulness of Christ, according
to the revelation of the Mystery sealed in
the ages of eternity, but now
manifested by the prophetic Scriptures'[111]....
But only to a few of
them is shown what those things are which
are contained in the Mystery.
Rightly, then, Plato, in the epistles,
treating of God, says: 'We must
speak in enigmas; that should the tablet
come by any mischance on its
leaves either by sea or land, he who reads
may remain ignorant.'"[112]
After much examination of Greek writers,
and an investigation into
philosophy, S. Clement declares that the
Gnosis "imparted and revealed
by the Son of God, is wisdom.... And the
Gnosis itself is that which has
descended by transmission to a few, having
been imparted unwritten by
the Apostles."[113] A very long
exposition of the life of the Gnostic,
the Initiate, is given, and S. Clement
concludes it by saying: "Let the
specimen suffice to those who have ears.
For it is not required to
unfold the mystery, but only to indicate
what is sufficient for those
who are partakers in knowledge to bring it
to mind."[114]
Regarding Scripture as consisting of
allegories and symbols, and as
hiding the sense in order to stimulate
enquiry and to preserve the
ignorant from danger.[115] S. Clement
naturally confined the higher
instruction to the learned. "Our
Gnostic will be deeply learned,"[116]
he says. "Now the Gnostic must be
erudite."[117] Those who had acquired
readiness by previous training could master
the deeper knowledge, for
though "a man can be a believer
without learning, so also we assert that
it is impossible for a man without learning
to comprehend the things
which are declared in the faith."[118]
"Some who think themselves
naturally gifted, do not wish to touch
either philosophy or logic; nay
more, they do not wish to learn natural
science. They demand bare faith
alone.... So also I call him truly learned
who brings everything to bear
on the truth--so that, from geometry, and
music, and grammar, and
philosophy itself, culling what is useful,
he guards the faith against
assault.... How necessary is it for him who
desires to be partaker of
the power of God, to treat of intellectual
subjects by
philosophising."[119] "The
Gnostic avails himself of branches of
learning as auxiliary preparatory
exercises."[120] So far was S.
Clement from thinking that the teaching of
Christianity should be
measured by the ignorance of the unlearned.
"He who is conversant with
all kinds of wisdom will be pre-eminently a
Gnostic."[121] Thus while he
welcomed the ignorant and the sinner, and
found in the Gospel what was
suited to their needs, he considered that
only the learned and the pure
were fit candidates for the Mysteries.
"The Apostle, in
contradistinction to Gnostic perfection,
calls the common faith _the
foundation_, and sometimes
_milk_,"[122] but on that foundation the
edifice of the Gnosis was to be raised, and
the food of men was to
succeed that of babes. There is nothing of
harshness nor of contempt in
the distinction he draws, but only a calm
and wise recognition of the
facts.
Even the well-prepared candidate, the
learned and trained pupil, could
only hope to advance step by step in the
profound truths unveiled in the
Mysteries. This appears clearly in his
comments on the vision of
Hermas, in which he also throws out some
hints on methods of reading
occult works. "Did not the Power also,
that appeared to Hermas in the
Vision, in the form of the Church, give for
transcription the book which
she wished to be made known to the elect?
And this, he says, he
transcribed to the letter, without finding
how to complete the
syllables. And this signified that the
Scripture is clear to all, when
taken according to base reading; and that
this is the faith which
occupies the place of the rudiments.
Wherefore also the figurative
expression is employed, 'reading according
to the letter,' while we
understand that the gnostic unfolding of
Scriptures, when faith has
already reached an advanced state, is
likened to reading according to
the syllables.... Now that the Saviour has
taught the Apostles the
unwritten rendering of the written
(scriptures) has been handed down
also to us, inscribed by the power of God
on hearts new, according to
the renovation of the book. Thus those of
highest repute among the
Greeks dedicate the fruit of the
pomegranate to Hermes, who they say is
speech, on account of its interpretation.
For speech conceals much....
That it is therefore not only to those who
read simply that the
acquisition of the truth is so difficult,
but that not even to those
whose prerogative the knowledge of the
truth is, is the contemplation of
it vouchsafed all at once, the history of
Moses teaches; until
accustomed to gaze, as the Hebrews on the
glory of Moses, and the
prophets of Israel on the visions of
angels, so we also become able to
look the splendours of truth in the
face."[123]
Yet more references might be given, but
these should suffice to
establish the fact that S. Clement knew of,
had been initiated into, and
wrote for the benefit of those who had also
been initiated into, the
Mysteries in the Church.
The next witness is his pupil Origen, that
most shining light of
learning, courage, sanctity, devotion,
meekness, and zeal, whose works
remain as mines of gold wherein the student
may dig for the treasures of
wisdom.
In his famous controversy with Celsus
attacks were made on Christianity
which drew out a defence of the Christian
position in which frequent
references were made to the secret
teachings.[124]
Celsus had alleged, as a matter of attack,
that Christianity was a
secret system, and Origen traverses this by
saying that while certain
doctrines were secret, many others were
public, and that this system of
exoteric and esoteric teachings, adopted in
Christianity, was also in
general use among philosophers. The reader
should note, in the following
passage, the distinction drawn between the
resurrection of Jesus,
regarded in a historical light, and the
"mystery of the resurrection."
"Moreover, since he [Celsus]
frequently calls the Christian doctrine a
secret system [of belief], we must confute
him on this point also, since
almost the entire world is better acquainted
with what Christians preach
than with the favourite opinions of
philosophers. For who is ignorant
of the statement that Jesus was born of a
virgin, and that He was
crucified, and that His resurrection is an
article of faith among many,
and that a general judgment is announced to
come, in which the wicked
are to be punished according to their
deserts, and the righteous to be
duly rewarded? And yet the Mystery of the
resurrection, not being
understood, is made a subject of ridicule
among unbelievers. In these
circumstances, to speak of the Christian
doctrine as a _secret_ system,
is altogether absurd. But that there should
be certain doctrines, not
made known to the multitude, which are
[revealed] after the exoteric
ones have been taught, is not a peculiarity
of Christianity alone, but
also of philosophic systems, in which
certain truths are exoteric and
others esoteric. Some of the hearers of
Pythagoras were content with his
_ipse dixit_; while others were taught in
secret those doctrines which
were not deemed fit to be communicated to
profane and insufficiently
prepared ears. Moreover, all the Mysteries
that are celebrated
everywhere throughout Greece and barbarous
countries, although held in
secret, have no discredit thrown upon them,
so that it is in vain he
endeavours to calumniate the secret
doctrines of Christianity, seeing
that he does not correctly understand its
nature."[125]
It is impossible to deny that, in this
important passage, Origen
distinctly places the Christian Mysteries
in the same category as those
of the Pagan world, and claims that what is
not regarded as a discredit
to other religions should not form a
subject of attack when found in
Christianity.
Still writing against Celsus, he declares
that the secret teachings of
Jesus were preserved in the Church, and
refers specifically to the
explanations that He gave to His disciples
of His parables, in answering
Celsus' comparison of "the inner
Mysteries of the Church of God" with
the Egyptian worship of animals. "I
have not yet spoken of the
observance of all that is written in the
Gospels, each one of which
contains much doctrine difficult to be
understood, not merely by the
multitude, but even by certain of the more
intelligent, including a
very profound explanation of the parables
which Jesus delivered to
'those without,' while reserving the
exhibition of their full meaning
for those who had passed beyond the stage
of exoteric teaching, and who
came to Him privately in the house. And
when he comes to understand it,
he will admire the reason why some are said
to be 'without,' and others
'in the house.'"[126]
And he refers guardedly to the
"mountain" which Jesus ascended, from
which he came down again to help
"those who were unable to follow Him
whither His disciples went." The
allusion is to "the Mountain of
Initiation," a well-known mystical
phrase, as Moses also made the
Tabernacle after the pattern "showed
thee in the mount."[127] Origen
refers to it again later, saying that Jesus
showed himself to be very
different in his real appearance when on
the "Mountain," from what those
saw who could not "follow Him on
high."[128]
So also, in his commentary on the Gospel of
Matthew, Chap, xv., dealing
with the episode of the Syro-Phoenician
woman, Origen remarks: "And
perhaps, also, of the words of Jesus there
are some loaves which it is
possible to give to the more rational, as
to children, only; and others
as it were crumbs from the great house and
table of the well-born, which
may be used by some souls like dogs."
Celsus complaining that sinners were
brought into the Church, Origen
answers that the Church had medicine for
those that were sick, but also
the study and the knowledge of divine
things for those who were in
health. Sinners were taught not to sin, and
only when it was seen that
progress had been made, and men were
"purified by the Word," "then and
not before do we invite them to
participation in our Mysteries. For we
speak wisdom among them that are
perfect."[129] Sinners came to be
healed: "For there are in the divinity
of the Word some helps towards
the cure of those who are sick.... Others,
again, which to the pure in
soul and body exhibit the 'revelation of
the Mystery, which was kept
secret since the world began, but now is
made manifest by the Scriptures
of the prophets,' and 'by the appearing of
our Lord Jesus Christ,' which
'appearing' is manifested to each one of
those who are perfect, and
which enlightens the reason in the true
knowledge of things."[130] Such
appearances of divine Beings took place, we
have seen, in the Pagan
Mysteries, and those of the Church had
equally glorious visitants. "God
the Word," he says, "was sent as
a physician to sinners, but as a
Teacher of Divine Mysteries to those who
are already pure, and who sin
no more."[131] "Wisdom will not
enter into the soul of a base man, nor
dwell in a body that is involved in
sin;" hence these higher teachings
are given only to those who are
"athletes in piety and in every virtue."
Christians did not admit the impure to this
knowledge, but said:
"Whoever has clean hands, and,
therefore, lifts up holy hands to God ...
let him come to us ... whoever is pure not
only from all defilement,
but from what are regarded as lesser
transgressions, let him be boldly
initiated in the Mysteries of Jesus, which
properly are made known only
to the holy and the pure." Hence also,
ere the ceremony of Initiation
began, he who acts as Initiator, according
to the precepts of Jesus, the
Hierophant, made the significant
proclamation "to those who have been
purified in heart: He, whose soul has, for
a long time, been conscious
of no evil, especially since he yielded
himself to the healing of the
Word, let such a one hear the doctrines
which were spoken in private by
Jesus to His genuine disciples." This
was the opening of the "initiating
those who were already purified into the
sacred Mysteries."[132] Such
only might learn the realities of the
unseen worlds, and might enter
into the sacred precincts where, as of old,
angels were the teachers,
and where knowledge was given by sight and
not only by words. It is
impossible not to be struck with the
different tone of these Christians
from that of their modern successors. With
them perfect purity of life,
the practice of virtue, the fulfilling of
the divine Law in every detail
of outer conduct, the perfection of
righteousness, were--as with the
Pagans--only the beginning of the way
instead of the end. Nowadays
religion is considered to have gloriously
accomplished its object when
it has made the Saint; then, it was to the
Saints that it devoted its
highest energies, and, taking the pure in
heart, it led them to the
Beatific Vision.
The same fact of secret teaching comes out
again, when Origen is
discussing the arguments of Celsus as to
the wisdom of retaining
ancestral customs, based on the belief that
"the various quarters of the
earth were from the beginning allotted to
different superintending
Spirits, and were thus distributed among
certain governing Powers, and
in this way the administration of the world
is carried on."[133]
Origen having animadverted on the
deductions of Celsus, proceeds: "But
as we think it likely that some of those
who are accustomed to deeper
investigation will fall in with this
treatise, let us venture to lay
down some considerations of a profounder
kind, conveying a mystical and
secret view respecting the original
distribution of the various quarters
of the earth among different superintending
Spirits."[134] He says that
Celsus has misunderstood the deeper reasons
relating to the arrangement
of terrestrial affairs, some of which are
even touched upon in Grecian
history. Then he quotes Deut. xxxii. 8-9:
"When the Most High divided
the nations, when he dispersed the sons of Adam,
He set the bounds of
the people according to the number of the
Angels of God; and the Lord's
portion was his people Jacob, and Israel
the cord of his inheritance."
This is the wording of the Septuagint, not
that of the English
authorised version, but it is very
suggestive of the title the "Lord"
being regarded as that of the Ruling Angel
of the Jews only, and not of
the "Most High," _i.e._ God. This
view has disappeared, from ignorance,
and hence the impropriety of many of the
statements referring to the
"Lord," when they are transferred
to the "Most High," _e.g._ Judges i.
19.
Origen then relates the history of the
Tower of Babel, and continues:
"But on these subjects much, and that
of a mystical kind, might be said;
in keeping with which is the following: 'It
is good to keep close the
secret of a king,' Tobit xii. 7, in order
that the doctrine of the
entrance of souls into bodies (not,
however, that of the transmigration
from one body into another) may not be
thrown before the common
understanding, nor what is holy given to
the dogs, nor pearls be cast
before swine. For such a procedure would be
impious, being equivalent to
a betrayal of the mysterious declarations
of God's wisdom.... It is
sufficient, however, to represent in the
style of a historic narrative
what is intended to convey a secret meaning
in the garb of history, that
those who have the capacity may work out
for themselves all that relates
to the subject."[135] He then expounds
more fully the Tower of Babel
story, and writes: "Now, in the next
place, if any one has the capacity
let him understand that in what assumes the
form of history, and which
contains some things that are literally
true, while yet it conveys a
deeper meaning...."[136]
After endeavouring to show that the "Lord"
was more powerful than the
other superintending Spirits of the
different quarters of the earth, and
that he sent his people forth to be
punished by living under the
dominion of the other powers, and
afterwards reclaimed them with all of
the less favoured nations who could be
drawn in, Origen concludes by
saying: "As we have previously
observed, these remarks are to be
understood as being made by us with a
concealed meaning, by way of
pointing out the mistakes of those who
assert ..."[137] as did Celsus.
After remarking that "the object of
Christianity is that we should
become wise,"[138] Origen proceeds:
"If you come to the books written
after the time of Jesus, you will find that
those multitudes of
believers who hear the parables are, as it
were, 'without,' and worthy
only of exoteric doctrines, while the
disciples learn in private the
explanation of the parables. For,
privately, to His own disciples did
Jesus open up all things, esteeming above
the multitudes those who
desired to know His wisdom. And He promises
to those who believe on Him
to send them wise men and scribes.... And
Paul also in the catalogue of
'Charismata' bestowed by God, placed first
'the Word of wisdom,' and
second, as being inferior to it, 'the word
of knowledge,' but third, and
lower down, 'faith.' And because he
regarded 'the Word' as higher than
miraculous powers, he for that reason
places 'workings of miracles' and
'gifts of healings' in a lower place than
gifts of the Word."[139]
The Gospel truly helped the ignorant,
"but it is no hindrance to the
knowledge of God, but an assistance, to
have been educated, and to have
studied the best opinions, and to be
wise."[140] As for the
unintelligent, "I endeavour to improve
such also to the best of my
ability, although I would not desire to
build up the Christian community
out of such materials. For I seek in
preference those who are more
clever and acute, because they are able to
comprehend the meaning of the
hard sayings."[141] Here we have
plainly stated the ancient Christian
idea, entirely at one with the
considerations submitted in Chapter I. of
this book. There is room for the ignorant
in Christianity, but it is not
intended _only_ for them, and has deep
teachings for the "clever and
acute."
It is for these that he takes much pains to
show that the Jewish and
Christian Scriptures have hidden meanings,
veiled under stories the
outer meaning of which repels them as
absurd, alluding to the serpent
and the tree of life, and "the other
statements which follow, which
might of themselves lead a candid reader to
see that all these things
had, not inappropriately, an allegorical
meaning."[142] Many chapters
are devoted to these allegorical and
mystical meanings, hidden beneath
the words of the Old and New Testaments,
and he alleges that Moses, like
the Egyptians, gave histories with
concealed meanings.[143] "He who
deals candidly with histories"--this
is Origen's general canon of
interpretation--"and would wish to
keep himself also from being imposed
on by them, will exercise his judgment as
to what statements he will
give his assent to, and what he will accept
figuratively, seeking to
discover the meaning of the authors of such
inventions, and from what
statements he will withhold his beliefs, as
having been written for the
gratification of certain individuals. And
we have said this by way of
anticipation respecting the whole history
related in the Gospels
concerning Jesus."[144] A great part
of his Fourth Book is taken up with
illustrations of the mystical explanations
of the Scripture stories, and
anyone who wishes to pursue the subject can
read through it.
In the _De Principiis_, Origen gives it as
the received teaching of the
Church "that the Scriptures were
written by the Spirit of God, and have
a meaning, not only such as is apparent at
first sight, but also
another, which escapes the notice of most.
For those [words] which are
written are the forms of certain Mysteries,
and the images of divine
things. Respecting which there is one
opinion throughout the whole
Church, that the whole law is indeed
spiritual; but that the spiritual
meaning which the law conveys is not known
to all, but to those only on
whom the grace of the Holy Spirit is
bestowed in the word of wisdom and
knowledge."[145] Those who remember
what has already been quoted will
see in the "Word of wisdom" and
"the word of knowledge" the two typical
mystical instructions, the spiritual and
the intellectual.
In the Fourth Book of _De Principiis_,
Origen explains at length his
views on the interpretation of Scripture.
It has a "body," which is the
"common and historical sense"; a
"soul," a figurative meaning to be
discovered by the exercise of the
intellect; and a "spirit," an inner
and divine sense, to be known only by those
who have "the mind of
Christ." He considers that incongruous
and impossible things are
introduced into the history to arouse an
intelligent reader, and compel
him to search for a deeper explanation,
while simple people would read
on without appreciating the difficulties.[146]
Cardinal Newman, in his _Arians of the
Fourth Century_, has some
interesting remarks on the _Disciplina
Arcani_, but, with the
deeply-rooted ingrained scepticism of the
nineteenth century, he cannot
believe to the full in the "riches of
the glory of the Mystery," or
probably never for a moment conceived the
possibility of the existence
of such splendid realities. Yet he was a
believer in Jesus, and the
words of the promise of Jesus were clear
and definite: "I will not leave
you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a
little while, and the world
seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I
live, ye shall live also. At
that day ye shall know that I am in my
Father, and ye in me, and I in
you."[147] The promise was amply
redeemed, for He came to them and
taught them in His Mysteries; therein they
saw Him, though the world saw
Him no more, and they knew the Christ as in
them, and their life as
Christ's.
Cardinal Newman recognises a secret
tradition, handed down from the
Apostles, but he considers that it
consisted of Christian doctrines,
later divulged, forgetting that those who
were told that they were not
yet fit to receive it were not heathen, nor
even catechumens under
instruction, but full communicating members
of the Christian Church.
Thus he states that this secret tradition
was later "authoritatively
divulged and perpetuated in the form of
symbols," and was embodied "in
the creeds of the early
Councils."[148] But as the doctrines in the
creeds are to be found clearly stated in
the Gospels and Epistles, this
position is wholly untenable, all these
having been already divulged to
the world at large; and in all of them the
members of the Church were
certainly thoroughly instructed. The
repeated statements as to secrecy
become meaningless if thus explained. The
Cardinal, however, says that
whatever "has not been thus
authenticated, whether it was prophetical
information or comment on the past
dispensations, is, from the
circumstances of the case, lost to the
Church."[149] That is very
probably, in fact certainly, true, so far
as the Church is concerned,
but it is none the less recoverable.
Commenting on Irenaeus, who in his work
_Against Heresies_ lays much
stress on the existence of an Apostolic
Tradition in the Church, the
Cardinal writes: "He then proceeds to
speak of the clearness and cogency
of the traditions preserved in the Church,
as containing that true
wisdom of the perfect, of which S. Paul
speaks, and to which the
Gnostics pretended. And, indeed, without
formal proofs of the existence
and the authority in primitive times of an
Apostolic Tradition, it is
plain that there must have been such a
tradition, granting that the
Apostles conversed, and their friends had
memories, like other men. It
is quite inconceivable that they should not
have been led to arrange
the series of revealed doctrines more
systematically than they record
them in Scripture, as soon as their
converts became exposed to the
attacks and misrepresentations of heretics;
unless they were forbidden
to do so, a supposition which cannot be
maintained. Their statements
thus occasioned would be preserved as a
matter of course; together with
those other secret but less important
truths, to which S. Paul seems to
allude, and which the early writers more or
less acknowledge, whether
concerning the types of the Jewish Church,
or the prospective fortunes
of the Christian. And such recollections of
apostolical teaching would
evidently be binding on the faith of those
who were instructed in them;
unless it can be supposed that, though
coming from inspired teachers,
they were not of divine origin."[150]
In a part of the section dealing
with the allegorising method, he writes in
reference to the sacrifice of
Isaac, &c., as "typical of the New
Testament revelation": "In
corroboration of this remark, let it be
observed, that there seems to
have been[151] in the Church a traditionary
explanation of these
historical types, derived from the
Apostles, but kept among the secret
doctrines, as being dangerous to the
majority of hearers; and certainly
S. Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
affords us an instance of such a
tradition, both as existing and as secret
(even though it be shown to be
of Jewish origin), when, first checking
himself and questioning his
brethren's faith, he communicates, not
without hesitation, the
evangelical scope of the account of
Melchisedec, as introduced into the
book of Genesis."[152]
The social and political convulsions that
accompanied its dying now
began to torture the vast frame of the
Roman Empire, and even the
Christians were caught up in the whirlpool
of selfish warring interests.
We still find scattered references to
special knowledge imparted to the
leaders and teachers of the Church,
knowledge of the heavenly
hierarchies, instructions given by angels,
and so on. But the lack of
suitable pupils caused the Mysteries to be
withdrawn as an institution
publicly known to exist, and teaching was
given more and more secretly
to those rarer and rarer souls, who by
learning, purity, and devotion
showed themselves capable of receiving it.
No longer were schools to be
found wherein the preliminary teachings
were given, and with the
disappearance of these the "door was shut."
Two streams may nevertheless be tracked
through Christendom, streams
which had as their source the vanished
Mysteries. One was the stream of
mystic learning, flowing from the Wisdom,
the Gnosis, imparted in the
Mysteries; the other was the stream of
mystic contemplation, equally
part of the Gnosis, leading to the exstasy,
to spiritual vision. This
latter, however, divorced from knowledge,
rarely attained the true
exstasis, and tended either to run riot in
the lower regions of the
invisible worlds, or to lose itself amid a
variegated crowd of subtle
superphysical forms, visible as objective
appearances to the inner
vision--prematurely forced by fastings,
vigils, and strained
attention--but mostly born of the thoughts
and emotions of the seer.
Even when the forms observed were not
externalised thoughts, they were
seen through a distorting atmosphere of
preconceived ideas and beliefs,
and were thus rendered largely unreliable.
None the less, some of the
visions were verily of heavenly things, and
Jesus truly appeared from
time to time to His devoted lovers, and
angels would sometimes brighten
with their presence the cell of monk and
nun, the solitude of rapt
devotee and patient seeker after God. To
deny the possibility of such
experiences would be to strike at the very
root of that "which has been
most surely believed" in all
religions, and is known to all
Occultists--the intercommunication between
Spirits veiled in flesh and
those clad in subtler vestures, the
touching of mind with mind across
the barriers of matter, the unfolding of
the Divinity in man, the sure
knowledge of a life beyond the gates of
death.
Glancing down the centuries we find no time
in which Christendom was
left wholly devoid of mysteries. "It
was probably about the end of the
5th century, just as ancient philosophy was
dying out in the Schools of
Athens, that the speculative philosophy of
neo-Platonism made a definite
lodgment in Christian thought through the
literary forgeries of the
Pseudo-Dionysius. The doctrines of
Christianity were by that time so
firmly established that the Church could
look upon a symbolical or
mystical interpretation of them without
anxiety. The author of the
_Theologica Mystica_ and the other works
ascribed to the Areopagite
proceeds, therefore, to develop the
doctrines of Proclus with very
little modification into a system of
esoteric Christianity. God is the
nameless and supra-essential One, elevated
above goodness itself. Hence
'negative theology,' which ascends from the
creature to God by dropping
one after another every determinate
predicate, leads us nearest to the
truth. The return to God is the
consummation of all things and the goal
indicated by Christian teaching. The same
doctrines were preached with
more of churchly fervour by Maximus the
Confessor (580-622). Maximus
represents almost the last speculative
activity of the Greek Church, but
the influence of the Pseudo-Dionysian
writing was transmitted to the
West in the ninth century by Erigena, in
whose speculative spirit both
the scholasticism and the mysticism of the
Middle Ages have their rise.
Erigena translated Dionysius into Latin
along with the commentaries of
Maximus, and his system is essentially
based upon theirs. The negative
theology is adopted, and God is stated to
be predicateless Being, above
all categories, and therefore not
improperly called Nothing [_query_,
No-Thing]. Out of this Nothing or
incomprehensible essence the world of
ideas or primordial causes is eternally
created. This is the Word or Son
of God, in whom all things exist, so far as
they have substantial
existence. All existence is a theophany,
and as God is the beginning of
all things, so also is He the end. Erigena
teaches the restitution of
all things under the form of the Dionysian
_adunatio_ or _deificatio_.
These are the permanent outlines of what
may be called the philosophy
of mysticism in Christian times, and it is
remarkable with how little
variation they are repeated from age to
age."[153]
In the eleventh century Bernard of
Clairvaux (A.D. 1091-1153) and Hugo
of S. Victor carry on the mystic tradition,
with Richard of S. Victor in
the following century, and S. Bonaventura
the Seraphic Doctor, and the
great S. Thomas Aquinas (A.D. 1227-1274) in
the thirteenth. Thomas
Aquinas dominates the Europe of the Middle
Ages, by his force of
character no less than by his learning and
piety. He asserts
"Revelation" as one source of
knowledge, Scripture and tradition being
the two channels in which it runs, and the
influence, seen in his
writings, of the Pseudo-Dionysius links him
to the Neo-Platonists. The
second source is Reason, and here the
channels are the Platonic
philosophy and the methods of
Aristotle--the latter an alliance that did
Christianity no good, for Aristotle became
an obstacle to the advance of
the higher thought, as was made manifest in
the struggles of Giordano
Bruno, the Pythagorean. Thomas Aquinas was
canonised in A.D. 1323, and
the great Dominican remains as a type of
the union of theology and
philosophy--the aim of his life. These
belong to the great Church of
western Europe, vindicating her claim to be
regarded as the transmitter
of the holy torch of mystic learning.
Around her there also sprang up
many sects, deemed heretical, yet
containing true traditions of the
sacred secret learning, the Cathari and
many others, persecuted by a
Church jealous of her authority, and
fearing lest the holy pearls should
pass into profane custody. In this century
also S. Elizabeth of Hungary
shines out with sweetness and purity, while
Eckhart (A.D. 1260-1329)
proves himself a worthy inheritor of the
Alexandrian Schools. Eckhart
taught that "The Godhead is the
absolute Essence (Wesen), unknowable not
only by man but also by Itself; It is
darkness and absolute
indeterminateness, _Nicht_ in contrast to
_Icht_, or definite and
knowable existence. Yet It is the
potentiality of all things, and Its
nature is, in a triadic process, to come to
consciousness of Itself as
the triune God. Creation is not a temporal
act, but an eternal
necessity, of the divine nature. I am as
necessary to God, Eckhart is
fond of saying, as God is necessary to me.
In my knowledge and love God
knows and loves Himself."[154]
Eckhart is followed, in the fourteenth
century, by John Tauler, and
Nicolas of Basel, "the Friend of God
in the Oberland." From these sprang
up the Society of the Friends of God, true
mystics and followers of the
old tradition. Mead remarks that Thomas
Aquinas, Tauler, and Eckhart
followed the Pseudo-Dionysius, who followed
Plotinus, Iamblichus, and
Proclus, who in turn followed Plato and
Pythagoras.[155] So linked
together are the followers of the Wisdom in
all ages. It was probably a
"Friend" who was the author of
_Die Deutsche Theologie_, a book of
mystical devotion, which had the curious
fortune of being approved by
Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the
Augustinian Order, who recommended it
to Luther, and by Luther himself, who
published it A.D. 1516, as a book
which should rank immediately after the
_Bible_ and the writings of S.
Augustine of Hippo. Another
"Friend" was Ruysbroeck, to whose influence
with Groot was due the founding of the
Brethren of the Common Lot or
Common Life--a Society that must remain
ever memorable, as it numbered
among its members that prince of mystics,
Thomas a Kempis (A.D.
1380-1471), the author of the immortal
_Imitation of Christ_.
In the fifteenth century the more purely
intellectual side of mysticism
comes out more strongly than the
exstatic--so dominant in these
societies of the fourteenth--and we have
Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, with
Giordano Bruno, the martyred knight-errant
of philosophy, and
Paracelsus, the much slandered scientist,
who drew his knowledge
directly from the original eastern
fountain, instead of through Greek
channels.
The sixteenth century saw the birth of
Jacob Boehme (A.D. 1575-1624), the
"inspired cobbler," an Initiate
in obscuration truly, sorely persecuted
by unenlightened men; and then too came S.
Teresa, the much-oppressed
and suffering Spanish mystic; and S. John
of the Cross, a burning flame
of intense devotion; and S. Francois de
Sales. Wise was Rome in
canonising these, wiser than the
Reformation that persecuted Boehme, but
the spirit of the Reformation was ever
intensely anti-mystical, and
wherever its breath hath passed the fair
flowers of mysticism have
withered as under the sirocco.
Rome, however, who, though she canonised
Teresa dead, had sorely harried
her while living--did ill with Mme. de
Guyon (A.D. 1648-1717), a true
mystic, and with Miguel de Molinos
(1627-1696), worthy to sit near S.
John of the Cross, who carried on in the
seventeenth century the high
devotion of the mystic, turned into a
peculiarly passive form--the
Quietist.
In this same century arose the school of
Platonists in Cambridge, of
whom Henry More (A.D. 1614-1687) may serve
as salient example; also
Thomas Vaughan, and Robert Fludd the
Rosicrucian; and there is formed
also the Philadelphian Society, and we see
William Law (A.D. 1686-1761)
active in the eighteenth century, and
overlapping S. Martin (A.D.
1743-1803), whose writings have fascinated
so many nineteenth century
students.[156]
Nor should we omit Christian Rosenkreutz
(d. A.D. 1484), whose mystic
Society of the Rosy Cross, appearing in
1614, held true knowledge, and
whose spirit was reborn in the "Comte
de S. Germain," the mysterious
figure that appears and disappears through
the gloom, lit by lurid
flashes, of the closing eighteenth century.
Mystics too were some of the
Quakers, the much-persecuted sect of
Friends, seeking the illumination
of the Inner Light, and listening ever for
the Inner Voice. And many
another mystic was there, "of whom the
world was not worthy," like the
wholly delightful and wise Mother Juliana
of Norwich, of the fourteenth
century, jewels of Christendom, too little
known, but justifying
Christianity to the world.
Yet, as we salute reverently these Children
of the Light, scattered over
the centuries, we are forced to recognise
in them the absence of that
union of acute intellect and high devotion
which were welded together by
the training of the Mysteries, and while we
marvel that they soared so
high, we cannot but wish that their rare gifts
had been developed under
that magnificent _disciplina arcani_.
Alphonse Louis Constant, better known under
his pseudonym, Eliphas Levi,
has put rather well the loss of the
Mysteries, and the need for their
re-institution. "A great misfortune
befell Christianity. The betrayal of
the Mysteries by the false Gnostics--for
the Gnostics, that is, _those
who know_, were the Initiates of primitive
Christianity--caused the
Gnosis to be rejected, and alienated the
Church from the supreme truths
of the Kabbala, which contain all the
secrets of transcendental
theology.... Let the most absolute science,
let the highest reason,
become once more the patrimony of the
leaders of the people; let the
sacerdotal art and the royal art take the
double sceptre of antique
initiations, and the social world will once
more issue from its chaos.
Burn the holy images no longer; demolish
the temples no more; temples
and images are necessary for men; but drive
the hirelings from the house
of prayer; let the blind be no longer
leaders of the blind, reconstruct
the hierarchy of intelligence and holiness,
and recognise only those who
know as the teachers of those who
believe."[157]
Will the Churches of to-day again take up
the mystic teaching, the
Lesser Mysteries, and so prepare their
children for the re-establishment
of the Greater Mysteries, again drawing
down the Angels as Teachers, and
having as Hierophant the Divine Master,
Jesus? On the answer to that
question depends the future of Christianity.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORICAL CHRIST.
We have already spoken, in the first
chapter, on the identities existing
in all the religions of the world, and we
have seen that out of a study
of these identities in beliefs, symbolisms,
rites, ceremonies,
histories, and commemorative festivals, has
arisen a modern school which
relates the whole of these to a common
source in human ignorance, and in
a primitive explanation of natural
phenomena. From these identities have
been drawn weapons for the stabbing of each
religion in turn, and the
most effective attacks on Christianity and
on the historical existence
of its Founder have been armed from this
source. On entering now on the
study of the life of the Christ, of the
rites of Christianity, its
sacraments, its doctrines, it would be
fatal to ignore the facts
marshalled by Comparative Mythologists.
Rightly understood, they may be
made serviceable instead of mischievous. We
have seen that the Apostles
and their successors dealt very freely with
the Old Testament as having
an allegorical and mystic sense far more
important than the historical,
though by no means negating it, and that
they did not scruple to teach
the instructed believer that some of the
stories that were apparently
historical were really purely allegorical.
Nowhere, perhaps, is it more
necessary to understand this than when we
are studying the story of
Jesus, surnamed the Christ, for when we do
not disentangle the
intertwisted threads, and see where symbols
have been taken as events,
allegories as histories, we lose most of
the instructiveness of the
narrative and much of its rarest beauty. We
cannot too much insist on
the fact that Christianity gains, it does
not lose, when knowledge is
added to faith and virtue, according to the
apostolic injunction.[158]
Men fear that Christianity will be weakened
when reason studies it, and
that it is "dangerous" to admit
that events thought to be historical
have the deeper significance of the
mythical or mystical meaning. It is,
on the contrary, strengthened, and the
student finds, with joy, that the
pearl of great price shines with a purer,
clearer lustre when the
coating of ignorance is removed and its
many colours are seen.
There are two schools of thought at the
present time, bitterly opposed
to each other, who dispute over the story
of the great Hebrew Teacher.
According to one school there is nothing at
all in the accounts of His
life save myths and legends--myths and
legends that were given as
explanations of certain natural phenomena,
survivals of a pictorial way
of teaching certain facts of nature, of
impressing on the minds of the
uneducated certain grand classifications of
natural events that were
important in themselves, and that lent
themselves to moral instruction.
Those who endorse this view form a
well-defined school to which belong
many men of high education and strong
intelligence, and round them
gather crowds of the less instructed, who
emphasise with crude
vehemence the more destructive elements in
their pronouncements. This
school is opposed by that of the believers
in orthodox Christianity, who
declare that the whole story of Jesus is
history, unadulterated by
legend or myth. They maintain that this
history is nothing more than the
history of the life of a man born some
nineteen centuries ago in
Palestine, who passed through all the
experiences set down in the
Gospels, and they deny that the story has
any significance beyond that
of a divine and human life. These two
schools stand in direct
antagonism, one asserting that everything
is legend, the other declaring
that everything is history. Between them
lie many phases of opinion
generally labelled
"freethinking," which regard the life-story as partly
legendary and partly historical, but offer
no definite and rational
method of interpretation, no adequate
explanation of the complex whole.
And we also find, within the limits of the
Christian Church, a large and
ever-increasing number of faithful and
devout Christians of refined
intelligence, men and women who are earnest
in their faith and
religious in their aspirations, but who see
in the Gospel story more
than the history of a single divine Man.
They allege--defending their
position from the received Scriptures--that
the story of the Christ has
a deeper and more significant meaning than
lies on the surface; while
they maintain the historical character of
Jesus, they at the same time
declare that THE CHRIST is more than the
man Jesus, and has a mystical
meaning. In support of this contention they
point to such phrases as
that used by S. Paul: "My little
children, of whom I travail in birth
again again until Christ be formed in
you";[159] here S. Paul obviously
cannot refer to a historical Jesus, but to
some forthputting from the
human soul which is to him the shaping of
Christ therein. Again the same
teacher declares that though he had known
Christ after the flesh yet
from henceforth he would know him thus no
more;[160] obviously implying
that while he recognised the Christ of the
flesh--Jesus--there was a
higher view to which he had attained which
threw into the shade the
historical Christ. This is the view which
many are seeking in our own
days, and--faced by the facts of
Comparative Religion, puzzled by the
contradictions of the Gospels, confused by
problems they cannot solve so
long as they are tied down to the mere
surface meanings of their
Scripture--they cry despairingly that the
letter killeth while the
spirit giveth life, and seek to trace some
deep and wide significance in
a story which is as old as the religions of
the world, and has always
served as the very centre and life of every
religion in which it has
reappeared. These struggling thinkers, too
unrelated and indefinite to
be spoken of as forming a school, seem to
stretch out a hand on one side
to those who think that all is legend,
asking them to accept a
historical basis; on the other side they
say to their fellow Christians
that there is a growing danger lest, in
clinging to a literal and unique
meaning, which cannot be defended before
the increasing knowledge of the
day, the spiritual meaning should be entirely
lost. There is a danger of
losing "the story of the Christ,"
with that thought of the Christ which
has been the support and inspiration of
millions of noble lives in East
and West, though the Christ be called by
other names and worshipped
under other forms; a danger lest the pearl
of great price should escape
from our hold, and man be left the poorer
for evermore.
What is needed, in order that this danger
may be averted, is to
disentangle the different threads in the
story of the Christ, and to lay
them side by side--the thread of history,
the thread of legend, the
thread of mysticism. These have been
intertwined into a single strand,
to the great loss of the thoughtful, and in
disentangling them we shall
find that the story becomes more, not less,
valuable as knowledge is
added to it, and that here, as in all that
is basically of the truth,
the brighter the light thrown upon it the
greater the beauty that is
revealed.
We will study first the historical Christ;
secondly, the mythic Christ;
thirdly, the mystic Christ. And we shall
find that elements drawn from
all these make up the Jesus Christ of the
Churches. They all enter into
the composition of the grandiose and
pathetic Figure which dominates the
thoughts and the emotions of Christendom,
the Man of Sorrows, the
Saviour, the Lover and Lord of Men.
THE HISTORICAL CHRIST, OR JESUS THE HEALER
AND TEACHER.
The thread of the life-story of Jesus is
one which may be disentangled
from those with which it is intertwined
without any great difficulty. We
may fairly here aid our study by reference
to those records of the past
which experts can reverify for themselves,
and from which certain
details regarding the Hebrew Teacher have
been given to the world by H.
P. Blavatsky and by others who are experts
in occult investigation. Now
in the minds of many there is apt to arise
a challenge when this word
"expert" is used in connection
with occultism. Yet it only means a
person who by special study, by special
training, has accumulated a
special kind of knowledge, and has
developed powers that enable him to
give an opinion founded on his own
individual knowledge of the subject
with which he is dealing. Just as we speak
of Huxley as an expert in
biology, as we speak of a Senior Wrangler
as an expert in mathematics,
or of Lyell as an expert in geology, so we
may fairly call a man an
expert in occultism who has first mastered
intellectually certain
fundamental theories of the constitution of
man and the universe, and
secondly has developed within himself the
powers that are latent in
everyone--and are capable of being
developed by those who give
themselves to appropriate
studies--capacities which enable him to
examine for himself the more obscure
processes of nature. As a man may
be born with a mathematical faculty, and by
training that faculty year
after year may immensely increase his
mathematical capacity, so may a
man be born with certain faculties within
him, faculties belonging to
the Soul, which he can develop by training
and by discipline. When,
having developed those faculties, he
applies them to the study of the
invisible world, such a man becomes an
expert in Occult Science, and
such a man can at his will reverify the
records to which I have
referred. Such reverification is as much
out of the reach of the
ordinary person as a mathematical book
written in the symbols of the
higher mathematics is out of the reach of
those who are untrained in
mathematical science. There is nothing
exclusive in the knowledge save
as every science is exclusive; those who
are born with a faculty, and
train the faculty, can master its
appropriate science, while those who
start in life without any faculty, or those
who do not develop it if
they have it, must be content to remain in
ignorance. These are the
rules everywhere of the obtaining of
knowledge, in Occultism as in every
other science.
The occult records partly endorse the story
told in the Gospels, and
partly do not endorse it; they show us the
life, and thus enable us to
disentangle it from the myths which are
intertwined therewith.
The child whose Jewish name has been turned
into that of Jesus was born
in Palestine B.C. 105, during the consulate
of Publius Rutilius Rufus
and Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. His parents
were well-born though poor, and
he was educated in a knowledge of the
Hebrew Scriptures. His fervent
devotion and a gravity beyond his years led
his parents to dedicate him
to the religious and ascetic life, and soon
after a visit to Jerusalem,
in which the extraordinary intelligence and
eagerness for knowledge of
the youth were shown in his seeking of the
doctors in the Temple, he was
sent to be trained in an Essene community
in the southern Judaean desert.
When he had reached the age of nineteen he
went on to the Essene
monastery near Mount Serbal, a monastery
which was much visited by
learned men travelling from Persia and
India to Egypt, and where a
magnificent library of occult works--many
of them Indian of the
Trans-Himalayan regions--had been
established. From this seat of mystic
learning he proceeded later to Egypt. He
had been fully instructed in
the secret teachings which were the real
fount of life among the
Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt as a
disciple of that one sublime
Lodge from which every great religion has
its Founder. For Egypt has
remained one of the world-centres of the
true Mysteries, whereof all
semi-public Mysteries are the faint and
far-off reflections. The
Mysteries spoken of in history as Egyptian
were the shadows of the true
things "in the Mount," and there
the young Hebrew received the solemn
consecration which prepared him for the
Royal Priesthood he was later to
attain. So superhumanly pure and so full of
devotion was he, that in his
gracious manhood he stood out pre-eminently
from the severe and somewhat
fanatical ascetics among whom he had been
trained, shedding on the stern
Jews around him the fragrance of a gentle
and tender wisdom, as a
rose-tree strangely planted in a desert
would shed its sweetness on the
barrenness around. The fair and stately
grace of his white purity was
round him as a radiant moonlit halo, and
his words, though few, were
ever sweet and loving, winning even the
most harsh to a temporary
gentleness, and the most rigid to a passing
softness. Thus he lived
through nine-and-twenty years of mortal
life, growing from grace to
grace.
This superhuman purity and devotion fitted
the man Jesus, the disciple,
to become the temple of a loftier Power, of
a mighty, indwelling
Presence. The time had come for one of
those Divine manifestations which
from age to age are made for the helping of
humanity, when a new impulse
is needed to quicken the spiritual
evolution of mankind, when a new
civilisation is about to dawn. The world of
the West was then in the
womb of time, ready for the birth, and the
Teutonic sub-race was to
catch the sceptre of empire falling from
the failing hands of Rome. Ere
it started on its journey a World-Saviour
must appear, to stand in
blessing beside the cradle of the infant
Hercules.
A mighty "Son of God" was to take
flesh upon earth, a supreme Teacher,
"full of grace and truth"--[161]
One in whom the Divine Wisdom abode in
fullest measure, who was verily "the
Word" incarnate, Light and Life in
outpouring richness, a very Fountain of the
Waters of Life. Lord of
Compassion and of Wisdom--such was His
name--and from His dwelling in
the Secret Places He came forth into the
world of men.
For Him was needed an earthly tabernacle, a
human form, the body of a
man, and who so fit to yield his body in
glad and willing service to One
before whom Angels and men bow down in
lowliest reverence, as this
Hebrew of the Hebrews, this purest and
noblest of "the Perfect," whose
spotless body and stainless mind offered
the best that humanity could
bring? The man Jesus yielded himself a
willing sacrifice, "offered
himself without spot" to the Lord of
Love, who took unto Himself that
pure form as tabernacle, and dwelt therein
for three years of mortal
life.
This epoch is marked in the traditions
embodied in the Gospels as that
of the Baptism of Jesus, when the Spirit
was seen "descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon
Him,"[162] and a celestial voice
proclaimed Him as the beloved Son, to whom
men should give ear. Truly
was He the beloved Son in whom the Father
was well-pleased,[163] and
from that time forward "Jesus began to
preach,"[164] and was that
wondrous mystery, "God manifest in the
flesh"[165]--not unique in that
He was God, for: "Is it not written in
your law, I said, Ye are Gods? If
he called them Gods, unto whom the word of
God came, and the scripture
cannot be broken; say ye of Him, whom the
Father hath sanctified and
sent into the world, Thou blasphemest;
because I said, I am the Son of
God?"[166] Truly all men are Gods, in
respect to the Spirit within them,
but not in all is the Godhead manifested,
as in that well-beloved Son of
the Most High.
To that manifested Presence the name of
"the Christ" may rightly be
given, and it was He who lived and moved in
the form of the man Jesus
over the hills and plains of Palestine,
teaching, healing diseases, and
gathering round Him as disciples a few of
the more advanced souls. The
rare charm of His royal love, outpouring from
Him as rays from a sun,
drew round Him the suffering, the weary,
and the oppressed, and the
subtly tender magic of His gentle wisdom
purified, ennobled, and
sweetened the lives that came into contact
with His own. By parable and
luminous imagery He taught the uninstructed
crowds who pressed around
Him, and, using the powers of the free
Spirit, He healed many a disease
by word or touch, reinforcing the magnetic
energies belonging to His
pure body with the compelling force of His
inner life. Rejected by His
Essene brethren among whom He first
laboured--whose arguments against
His purposed life of loving labour are
summarised in the story of the
temptation--because he carried to the
people the spiritual wisdom that
they regarded as their proudest and most secret
treasure, and because
His all-embracing love drew within its
circle the outcast and the
degraded--ever loving in the lowest as in
the highest the Divine
Self--He saw gathering round Him all too
quickly the dark clouds of
hatred and suspicion. The teachers and
rulers of His nation soon came to
eye Him with jealousy and anger; His
spirituality was a constant
reproach to their materialism, His power a
constant, though silent,
exposure of their weakness. Three years had
scarcely passed since His
baptism when the gathering storm outbroke,
and the human body of Jesus
paid the penalty for enshrining the
glorious Presence of a Teacher more
than man.
The little band of chosen disciples whom He
had selected as repositories
of His teachings were thus deprived of
their Master's physical presence
ere they had assimilated His instructions,
but they were souls of high
and advanced type, ready to learn the
Wisdom, and fit to hand it on to
lesser men. Most receptive of all was that
"disciple whom Jesus loved,"
young, eager, and fervid, profoundly
devoted to his Master, and sharing
His spirit of all-embracing love. He
represented, through the century
that followed the physical departure of the
Christ, the spirit of mystic
devotion that sought the exstasis, the
vision of and the union with the
Divine, while the later great Apostle, S.
Paul, represented the wisdom
side of the Mysteries.
The Master did not forget His promise to
come to them after the world
had lost sight of Him,[167] and for
something over fifty years He
visited them in His subtle spiritual body,
continuing the teachings He
had begun while with them, and training
them in a knowledge of occult
truths. They lived together, for the most
part, in a retired spot on the
outskirts of Judaea, attracting no
attention among the many apparently
similar communities of the time, studying
the profound truths He taught
them and acquiring "the gifts of the
Spirit."
These inner instructions, commenced during
His physical life among them
and carried on after He had left the body,
formed the basis of the
"Mysteries of Jesus," which we
have seen in early Church History, and
gave the inner life which was the nucleus
round which gathered the
heterogeneous materials which formed
ecclesiastical Christianity.
In the remarkable fragment called the
_Pistis Sophia_, we have a
document of the greatest interest bearing
on the hidden teaching,
written by the famous Valentinus. In this
it is said that during the
eleven years immediately after His death Jesus
instructed His disciples
so far as "the regions of the first
statutes only, and up to the regions
of the first mystery, the mystery within
the veil."[168] They had not so
far learned the distribution of the angelic
orders, of part whereof
Ignatius speaks.[169] Then Jesus, being
"in the Mount" with His
disciples, and having received His mystic
Vesture, the knowledge of all
the regions and the Words of Power which
unlocked them, taught His
disciples further, promising: "I will
perfect you in every perfection,
from the mysteries of the interior to the
mysteries of the exterior: I
will fill you with the Spirit, so that ye
shall be called spiritual,
perfect in all perfections."[170] And
He taught them of Sophia, the
Wisdom, and of her fall into matter in her
attempt to rise unto the
Highest, and of her cries to the Light in
which she had trusted, and of
the sending of Jesus to redeem her from
chaos, and of her crowning with
His light, and leading forth from bondage.
And He told them further of
the highest Mystery the ineffable, the
simplest and clearest of all,
though the highest, to be known by him
alone who utterly renounced the
world;[171] by that knowledge men became
Christs for such "men are
myself, and I am these men," for
Christ is that highest Mystery.[172]
Knowing that, men are "transformed
into pure light and are brought into
the light."[173] And He performed for
them the great ceremony of
Initiation, the baptism "which leadeth
to the region of truth and into
the region of light," and bade them
celebrate it for others who were
worthy: "But hide ye this mystery,
give it not unto every man, but unto
him [only] who shall do all things which I
have said unto you in my
commandments."[174]
Thereafter, being fully instructed, the
apostles went forth to preach,
ever aided by their Master.
Moreover these same disciples and their
earliest colleagues wrote down
from memory all the public sayings and
parables of the Master that they
had heard, and collected with great
eagerness any reports they could
find, writing down these also, and
circulating them all among those who
gradually attached themselves to their
small community. Various
collections were made, any member writing
down what he himself
remembered, and adding selections from the
accounts of others. The inner
teachings, given by the Christ to His
chosen ones, were not written
down, but were taught orally to those
deemed worthy to receive them, to
students who formed small communities for
leading a retired life, and
remained in touch with the central body.
The historical Christ, then, is a glorious
Being belonging to the great
spiritual hierarchy that guides the
spiritual evolution of humanity, who
used for some three years the human body of
the disciple Jesus; who
spent the last of these three years in
public teaching throughout Judaea
and Samaria; who was a healer of diseases
and performed other remarkable
occult works; who gathered round Him a
small band of disciples whom He
instructed in the deeper truths of the spiritual
life; who drew men to
Him by the singular love and tenderness and
the rich wisdom that
breathed from His Person; and who was
finally put to death for
blasphemy, for teaching the inherent
Divinity of Himself and of all men.
He came to give a new impulse of spiritual
life to the world; to
re-issue the inner teachings affecting
spiritual life; to mark out again
the narrow ancient way; to proclaim the
existence of the "Kingdom of
Heaven," of the Initiation which
admits to that knowledge of God which
is eternal life; and to admit a few to that
Kingdom who should be able
to teach others. Round this glorious Figure
gathered the myths which
united Him to the long array of His
predecessors, the myths telling in
allegory the story of all such lives, as
they symbolise the work of the
Logos in the Kosmos and the higher
evolution of the individual human
soul.
But it must not be supposed that the work
of the Christ for His
followers was over after He had established
the Mysteries, or was
confined to rare appearances therein. That
Mighty One who had used the
body of Jesus as His vehicle, and whose
guardian care extends over the
whole spiritual evolution of the fifth race
of humanity, gave into the
strong hands of the holy disciple who had
surrendered to Him his body
the care of the infant Church. Perfecting
his human evolution, Jesus
became one of the Masters of Wisdom, and
took Christianity under His
special charge, ever seeking to guide it to
the right lines, to protect,
to guard and nourish it. He was the
Hierophant in the Christian
Mysteries, the direct Teacher of the
Initiates. His the inspiration that
kept alight the Gnosis in the Church, until
the superincumbent mass of
ignorance became so great that even His
breath could not fan the flame
sufficiently to prevent its extinguishment.
His the patient labour which
strengthened soul after soul to endure
through the darkness, and cherish
within itself the spark of mystic longing,
the thirst to find the Hidden
God. His the steady inpouring of truth into
every brain ready to
receive it, so that hand stretched out to
hand across the centuries and
passed on the torch of knowledge, which
thus was never extinguished. His
the Form which stood beside the rack and in
the flames of the burning
pile, cheering His confessors and His
martyrs, soothing the anguish of
their pains, and filling their hearts with
His peace. His the impulse
which spoke in the thunder of Savonarola,
which guided the calm wisdom
of Erasmus, which inspired the deep ethics
of the God-intoxicated
Spinoza. His the energy which impelled
Roger Bacon, Galileo, and
Paracelsus in their searchings into nature.
His the beauty that allured
Fra Angelica and Raphael and Leonardo da
Vinci, that inspired the genius
of Michelangelo, that shone before the eyes
of Murillo, and that gave
the power that raised the marvels of the
world, the Duomo of Milan, the
San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral of
Florence. His the melody that
breathed in the masses of Mozart, the
sonatas of Beethoven, the
oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach,
the austere splendour of
Brahms. His the Presence that cheered the
solitary mystics, the hunted
occultists, the patient seekers after
truth. By persuasion and by
menace, by the eloquence of a S. Francis
and by the gibes of a Voltaire,
by the sweet submission of a Thomas a
Kempis, and the rough virility of
a Luther, He sought to instruct and awaken,
to win into holiness or to
scourge from evil. Through the long
centuries He has striven and
laboured, and, with all the mighty burden
of the Churches to carry, He
has never left uncared for or unsolaced one
human heart that cried to
Him for help. And now He is striving to
turn to the benefit of
Christendom part of the great flood of the
Wisdom poured out for the
refreshing of the world, and He is seeking
through the Churches for some
who have ears to hear the Wisdom, and who
will answer to His appeal for
messengers to carry it to His flock:
"Here am I; send me."
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER V.
THE MYTHIC CHRIST.
We have already seen the use that is made
of Comparative Mythology
against Religion, and some of its most
destructive attacks have been
levelled against the Christ. His birth of a
Virgin at "Christmas," the
slaughter of the Innocents, His
wonder-working and His teachings, His
crucifixion, resurrection, and
ascension--all these events in the story
of His life are pointed to in the stories of
other lives, and His
historical existence is challenged on the
strength of these identities.
So far as the wonder-working and the
teachings are concerned, we may
briefly dismiss these first with the
acknowledgment that most great
Teachers have wrought works which, on the
physical plane, appear as
miracles in the sight of their
contemporaries, but are known by
occultists to be done by the exercise of
powers possessed by all
Initiates above a certain grade. The
teachings He gave may also be
acknowledged to be non-original; but where
the student of Comparative
Mythology thinks that he has proved that
none is divinely inspired, when
he shows that similar moral teachings fell
from the lips of Manu, from
the lips of the Buddha, from the lips of
Jesus, the occultist says that
certainly Jesus must have repeated the
teachings of His predecessors,
since He was a messenger from the same
Lodge. The profound verities
touching the divine and the human Spirit
were as much truths twenty
thousand years before Jesus was born in
Palestine as after He was born;
and to say that the world was left without
such teaching, and that man
was left in moral darkness from his
beginnings to twenty centuries ago,
is to say that there was a humanity without
a Teacher, children without
a Father, human souls crying for light into
a darkness that gave them no
answer--a conception as blasphemous of God
as it is desperate for man, a
conception contradicted by the appearance
of every Sage, by the mighty
literature, by the noble lives, in the
thousands of ages ere the Christ
came forth.
Recognising then in Jesus the great Master
of the West, the leading
Messenger of the Lodge to the western
world, we must face the difficulty
which has made havoc of this belief in the
minds of many: Why are the
festivals that commemorate events in the
life of Jesus found in
pre-Christian religions, and in them
commemorate identical events in the
lives of other Teachers?
Comparative Mythology, which has drawn
public attention to this question
in modern times, may be said to be about a
century old, dating from the
appearance of Dulaure's _Histoire Abregee
de differens Cultes_, of
Dupuis' _Origine de tous les Cultes_, of
Moor's _Hindu Pantheon_, and of
Godfrey Higgins' _Anacalypsis_. These works
were followed by a shoal of
others, growing more scientific and rigid
in their collection and
comparison of facts, until it has become
impossible for any educated
person to even challenge the identities and
similarities existing in
every direction. Christians are not to be
found, in these days, who are
prepared to contend that Christian symbols,
rites, and ceremonies are
unique--except, indeed, among the ignorant.
There we still behold
simplicity of belief hand-in-hand with
ignorance of facts; but outside
this class we do not find even the most
devout Christians alleging that
Christianity has not very much in common
with faiths older than itself.
But it is well known that in the first
centuries "after Christ" these
likenesses were on all hands admitted, and
that modern Comparative
Mythology is only repeating with great
precision that which was
universally recognised in the Early Church.
Justin Martyr, for instance,
crowds his pages with references to the
religions of his time, and if a
modern assailant of Christianity would cite
a number of cases in which
Christian teachings are identical with
those of elder religions, he can
find no better guides than the apologists
of the second century. They
quote Pagan teachings, stories, and
symbols, pleading that the very
identity of the Christian with these should
prevent the off-hand
rejection of the latter as in themselves
incredible. A curious reason
is, indeed, given for this identity, one
that will scarcely find many
adherents in modern days. Says Justin
Martyr: "Those who hand down the
myths which the poets have made adduce no
proof to the youths who learn
them; and we proceed to demonstrate that
they have been uttered by the
influence of the wicked demons, to deceive
and lead astray the human
race. For having heard it proclaimed
through the prophets that the
Christ was to come, and that the ungodly
among men were to be punished
by fire, they put forward many to be called
sons of Jupiter, under the
impression that they would be able to
produce in men the idea that the
things which were said with regard to
Christ were mere marvellous tales,
like the things which were said by the
poets." "And the devils, indeed,
having heard this washing published by the
prophet, instigated those who
enter their temples, and are about to
approach them with libations and
burnt offerings, also to sprinkle
themselves; and they cause them also
to wash themselves entirely as they
depart." "Which [the Lord's Supper]
the wicked devils have imitated in the
mysteries of Mithras, commanding
the same thing to be done."[175]
"For I myself, when I discovered the
wicked disguise which the evil spirits had
thrown around the divine
doctrines of the Christians, to turn aside
others from joining them,
laughed."[176]
These identities were thus regarded as the
work of devils, copies of the
Christian originals, largely circulated in
the pre-Christian world with
the object of prejudicing the reception of
the truth when it came. There
is a certain difficulty in accepting the
earlier statements as copies
and the later as originals, but without
disputing with Justin Martyr
whether the copies preceded the original or
the original the copies, we
may be content to accept his testimony as
to the existence of these
identities between the faith flourishing in
the Roman empire of his
time and the new religion he was engaged in
defending.
Tertullian speaks equally plainly, stating
the objection made in his
days also to Christianity, that "the
nations who are strangers to all
understanding of spiritual powers, ascribe
to their idols the imbuing of
waters with the self-same efficacy."
"So they do," he answers quite
frankly, "but these cheat themselves
with waters that are widowed. For
washing is the channel through which they
are initiated into some sacred
rites of some notorious Isis or Mithra; and
the Gods themselves they
honour by washings.... At the Apollinarian
and Eleusinian games they
are baptised; and they presume that the
effect of their doing that is
the regeneration and the remission of the
penalties due to their
perjuries. Which fact, being acknowledged,
we recognise here also the
zeal of the devil rivalling the things of
God, while we find him too
practising baptism in his subjects."[177]
To solve the difficulty of these identities
we must study the Mythic
Christ, the Christ of the solar myths or
legends, these myths being the
pictorial forms in which certain profound
truths were given to the
world.
Now a "myth" is by no means what
most people imagine it to be--a mere
fanciful story erected on a basis of fact,
or even altogether apart from
fact. A myth is far truer than a history,
for a history only gives a
story of the shadows, whereas a myth gives
a story of the substances
that cast the shadows. As above so below;
and _first_ above and _then_
below. There are certain great principles
according to which our system
is built; there are certain laws by which
these principles are worked
out in detail; there are certain Beings who
embody the principles and
whose activities are the laws; there are
hosts of inferior beings who
act as vehicles for these activities, as
agents, as instruments; there
are the Egos of men intermingled with all
these, performing their share
of the great kosmic drama. These
multifarious workers in the invisible
worlds cast their shadows on physical
matter, and these shadows are
"things"--the bodies, the
objects, that make up the physical universe.
These shadows give but a poor idea of the
objects that cast them, just
as what we call shadows down here give but
a poor idea of the objects
that cast them; they are mere outlines,
with blank darkness in lieu of
details, and have only length and breadth,
no depth.
History is an account, very imperfect and
often distorted, of the dance
of these shadows in the shadow-world of
physical matter. Anyone who has
seen a clever Shadow-Play, and has compared
what goes on behind the
screen on which the shadows are cast with
the movements of the shadows
on the screen, may have a vivid idea of the
illusory nature of the
shadow-actions, and may draw therefrom
several not misleading
analogies.[178]
Myth is an account of the movements of
those who cast the shadows; and
the language in which the account is given
is what is called the
language of symbols. Just as here we have
words which stand for
things--as the word "table" is a
symbol for a recognised article of a
certain kind--so do symbols stand for
objects on higher planes. They are
a pictorial alphabet, used by all myth-writers,
and each has its
recognised meaning. A symbol is used to
signify a certain object just as
words are used down here to distinguish one
thing from another, and so a
knowledge of symbols is necessary for the
reading of a myth. For the
original tellers of great myths are ever
Initiates, who are accustomed
to use the symbolic language, and who, of
course, use symbols in their
fixed and accepted meanings.
A symbol has a chief meaning, and then
various subsidiary meanings
related to that chief meaning. For
instance, the Sun is the symbol of
the Logos; that is its chief or primary
significance. But it stands also
for an incarnation of the Logos, or for any
of the great Messengers who
represent Him for the time, as an ambassador
represents his King. High
Initiates who are sent on special missions
to incarnate among men and
live with them for a time as Rulers or
Teachers, would be designated by
the symbol of the Sun; for though it is not
their symbol in an
individual sense, it is theirs in virtue of
their office.
All those who are signified by this symbol
have certain characteristics,
pass through certain situations, perform
certain activities, during
their lives on earth. The Sun is the
physical shadow, or body, as it is
called, of the Logos; hence its yearly
course in nature reflects His
activity, in the partial way in which a
shadow represents the activity
of the object that casts it. The Logos,
"the Son of God," descending
into matter, has as shadow the annual
course of the Sun, and the
Sun-Myth tells it. Hence, again, an
incarnation of the Logos, or one of
His high ambassadors, will also represent
that activity, shadow-like, in
His body as a man. Thus will necessarily
arise identities in the
life-histories of these ambassadors. In
fact, the absence of such
identities would at once point out that the
person concerned was not a
full ambassador, and that his mission was
of a lower order.
The Solar Myth, then, is a story which
primarily representing the
activity of the Logos, or Word, in the
kosmos, secondarily embodies the
life of one who is an incarnation of the
Logos, or is one of His
ambassadors. The Hero of the myth is
usually represented as a God, or
Demi-God, and his life, as will be
understood by what has been said
above, must be outlined by the course of
the Sun, as the shadow of the
Logos. The part of the course lived out
during the human life is that
which falls between the winter solstice and
the reaching of the zenith
in summer. The Hero is born at the winter
solstice, dies at the spring
equinox, and, conquering death, rises into
mid-heaven.
The following remarks are interesting in
this connection, though looking
at myth in a more general way, as an
allegory, picturing inner truths:
"Alfred de Vigny has said that legend
is frequently more true than
history, because legend recounts not acts
which are often incomplete
and abortive, but the genius itself of
great men and great nations. It
is pre-eminently to the Gospel that this
beautiful thought is
applicable, for the Gospel is not merely
the narration of what has been;
it is the sublime narration of what is and
what always will be. Ever
will the Saviour of the world be adored by
the kings of intelligence,
represented by the Magi; ever will He multiply
the eucharistic bread, to
nourish and comfort our souls; ever, when
we invoke Him in the night and
the tempest, will He come to us walking on
the waters, ever will He
stretch forth His hand and make us pass
over the crests of the billows;
ever will He cure our distempers and give
back light to our eyes; ever
will He appear to His faithful, luminous
and transfigured upon Tabor,
interpreting the law of Moses and
moderating the zeal of Elias."[179]
We shall find that myths are very closely
related to the Mysteries, for
part of the Mysteries consisted in showing
living pictures of the
occurrences in the higher worlds that
became embodied in myths. In fact
in the Pseudo-Mysteries, mutilated
fragments of the living pictures of
the true Mysteries were represented by
actors who acted out a drama, and
many secondary myths are these dramas put
into words.
The broad outlines of the story of the
Sun-God are very clear, the
eventful life of the Sun-God being spanned
within the first six months
of the solar year, the other six being
employed in the general
protecting and preserving. He is always
born at the winter solstice,
after the shortest day in the year, at the
midnight of the 24th of
December, when the sign Virgo is rising
above the horizon; born as this
sign is rising, he is born always of a
virgin, and she remains a virgin
after she has given birth to her Sun-Child,
as the celestial Virgo
remains unchanged and unsullied when the
Sun comes forth from her in the
heavens. Weak, feeble as an infant is he,
born when the days are
shortest and the nights are longest--we are
on the north of the
equatorial line--surrounded with perils in
his infancy, and the reign of
the darkness far longer than his in his
early days. But he lives
through all the threatening dangers, and
the day lengthens towards the
spring equinox, till the time comes for the
crossing over, the
crucifixion, the date varying with each
year. The Sun-God is sometimes
found sculptured within the circle of the
horizon, with the head and
feet touching the circle at north and
south, and the outstretched hands
at east and west--"He was
crucified." After this he rises triumphantly
and ascends into heaven, and ripens the
corn and the grape, giving his
very life to them to make their substance and
through them to his
worshippers. The God who is born at the
dawning of December 25th is ever
crucified at the spring equinox, and ever
gives his life as food to his
worshippers--these are among the most
salient marks of the Sun-God. The
fixity of the birth-date and the
variableness of the death-date are full
of significance, when we remember that the
one is a fixed and the other
a variable solar position.
"Easter" is a movable event, calculated by
the relative positions of sun and moon, an
impossible way of fixing year
by year the anniversary of a historical
event, but a very natural and
indeed inevitable way of calculating a
solar festival. These changing
dates do not point to the history of a man,
but to the Hero of a solar
myth.
These events are reproduced in the lives of
the various Solar Gods, and
antiquity teems with illustrations of them.
Isis of Egypt like Mary of
Bethlehem was our Immaculate Lady, Star of
the Sea, Queen of Heaven,
Mother of God. We see her in pictures
standing on the crescent moon,
star-crowned; she nurses her child Horus,
and the cross appears on the
back of the seat in which he sits on his
mother's knee. The Virgo of the
Zodiac is represented in ancient drawings
as a woman suckling a
child--the type of all future Madonnas with
their divine Babes, showing
the origin of the symbol. Devaki is
likewise figured with the divine
Krishna in her arms, as is Mylitta, or
Istar, of Babylon, also
with the recurrent crown of stars, and with
her child Tammuz on her
knee. Mercury and Aesculapius, Bacchus and
Hercules, Perseus and the
Dioscuri, Mithras and Zarathustra, were all
of divine and human birth.
The relation of the winter solstice to
Jesus is also significant. The
birth of Mithras was celebrated in the
winter solstice with great
rejoicings, and Horus was also then born:
"His birth is one of the
greatest mysteries of the [Egyptian]
religion. Pictures representing it
appeared on the walls of temples.... He was
the child of Deity. At
Christmas time, or that answering to our
festival, his image was brought
out of the sanctuary with peculiar
ceremonies, as the image of the
infant Bambino is still brought out and
exhibited at Rome."[180]
On the fixing of the 25th December as the
birthday of Jesus, Williamson
has the following: "All Christians
know that the 25th December is _now_
the recognised festival of the birth of
Jesus, but few are aware that
this has not always been so. There have
been, it is said, one hundred
and thirty-six different dates fixed on by
different Christian sects.
Lightfoot gives it as 15th September,
others as in February or August.
Epiphanius mentions two sects, one
celebrating it in June, the other in
July. The matter was finally settled by
Pope Julius I., in 337 A.D., and
S. Chrysostom, writing in 390, says: 'On
this day [_i.e._ 25th December]
also the birth of Christ was lately fixed
at Rome, in order that while
the heathen were busy with their ceremonies
[the Brumalia, in honour of
Bacchus] the Christians might perform their
rites undisturbed.' Gibbon
in his _Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire_, writes: 'The [Christian]
Romans, as ignorant as their brethren of
the real date of his [Christ's
birth] fixed the solemn festival to the 25th
December, the Brumalia or
winter solstice, when the Pagans annually
celebrated the birth of the
Sun.' King, in his _Gnostics and their
Remains_, also says: 'The ancient
festival held on the 25th December in
honour of the birthday of the
Invincible One,[181] and celebrated by the
great games at the Circus,
was afterwards transferred to the
commemoration of the birth of Christ,
the precise date of which many of the
Fathers confess was then unknown;'
while at the present day Canon Farrar
writes that 'all attempts to
discover the month and day of the nativity
are useless. No data whatever
exist to enable us to determine them with
even approximate accuracy.'
From the foregoing it is apparent that the
great festival of the winter
solstice has been celebrated during past
ages, and in widely separated
lands, in honour of the birth of a God, who
is almost invariably alluded
to as a 'Saviour,' and whose mother is
referred to as a pure virgin. The
striking resemblances, too, which have been
instanced not only in the
birth but in the life of so many of these
Saviour-Gods are far too
numerous to be accounted for by any mere
coincidence."[182]
In the case of the Lord Buddha we may see
how a myth attaches itself to
a historical personage. The story of His
life is well known, and in the
current Indian accounts the birth-story is
simple and human. But in the
Chinese account He is born of a virgin,
Mayadevi, the archaic myth
finding in Him a new Hero.
Williamson also tells us that fires were
and are lighted on the 25th
December on the hills among Keltic peoples,
and these are still known
among the Irish and the Scotch Highlanders
as Bheil or Baaltinne, the
fires thus bearing the name of Bel, Bal, or
Baal, their ancient Deity,
the Sun-God, though now lighted in honour
of Christ.[183]
Rightly considered, the Christmas festival
should take on new elements
of rejoicing and of sacredness, when the
lovers of Christ see in it the
repetition of an ancient solemnity, see it
stretching all the world
over, and far, far back into dim antiquity;
so that the Christmas bells
are ringing throughout human history, and
sound musically out of the
far-off night of time. Not in exclusive
possession, but in universal
acceptance, is found the hallmark of truth.
The death-date, as said above, is not a
fixed one, like the birth-date.
The date of the death is calculated by the
relative positions of Sun and
Moon at the spring equinox, varying with
each year, and the death-date
of each Solar Hero is found to be
celebrated in this connection. The
animal adopted as the symbol of the Hero is
the sign of the Zodiac in
which the Sun is at the vernal equinox of
his age, and this varies with
the precession of the equinoxes. Oannes of
Assyria had the sign of
Pisces, the Fish, and is thus figured.
Mithra is in Taurus, and,
therefore, rides on a Bull, and Osiris was
worshipped as Osiris-Apis, or
Serapis, the Bull. Merodach of Babylon was
worshipped as a Bull, as was
Astarte of Syria. When the Sun is in the
sign of Aries, the Ram or Lamb,
we have Osiris again as Ram, and so also
Astarte, and Jupiter Ammon, and
it is this same animal that became the
symbol of Jesus--the Lamb of God.
The use of the Lamb as His symbol, often
leaning on a cross, is common
in the sculptures of the catacombs. On this
Williamson says: "In the
course of time the Lamb was represented on
the cross, but it was not
until the sixth synod of Constantinople,
held about the year 680, that
it was ordained that instead of the ancient
symbol, the figure of a
_man_ fastened to a cross should be
represented. This canon was
confirmed by Pope Adrian I."[184] The
very ancient Pisces is also
assigned to Jesus, and He is thus pictured
in the catacombs.
The death and resurrection of the Solar
Hero at or about the vernal
equinox is as wide-spread as his birth at
the winter solstice. Osiris
was then slain by Typhon, and He is
pictured on the circle of the
horizon, with outstretched arms, as if
crucified--a posture originally
of benediction, not of suffering. The death
of Tammuz was annually
bewailed at the spring equinox in Babylonia
and Syria, as were Adonis in
Syria and Greece, and Attis in Phrygia,
pictured "as a man fastened with
a lamb at the foot."[185] Mithras'
death was similarly celebrated in
Persia, and that of Bacchus and
Dionysius--one and the same--in Greece.
In Mexico the same idea re-appears, as
usual accompanied with the cross.
In all these cases the mourning for the
death is immediately followed by
the rejoicing over the resurrection, and on
this it is interesting to
notice that the name of Easter has been
traced to the virgin-mother of
the slain Tammuz, Ishtar.[186]
It is interesting also to notice that the
fast preceding the death at
the vernal equinox,--the modern Lent--is
found in Mexico, Egypt, Persia,
Babylon, Assyria, Asia Minor, in some cases
definitely for forty
days.[187]
In the Pseudo-Mysteries, the Sun-God story
was dramatised, and in the
ancient Mysteries it was lived by the
Initiate, and hence the solar
"myths" and the great facts of
Initiation became interwoven together.
Hence when the Master Christ became the
Christ of the Mysteries, the
legends of the older Heroes of those
Mysteries gathered round Him, and
the stories were again recited with the
latest divine Teacher as the
representative of the Logos in the Sun.
Then the festival of His
nativity became the immemorial date when
the Sun was born of the Virgin,
when the midnight sky was filled with the
rejoicing hosts of the
celestials, and
Very early, very early, Christ was born.
As the great legend of the Sun gathered
round Him, the sign of the Lamb
became that of His crucifixion as the sign
of the Virgin had become that
of His birth. We have seen that the Bull
was sacred to Mithras and the
Fish to Oannes, and that the Lamb was
sacred to Christ, and for the same
reason; it was the sign of the spring
equinox, at the period of history
in which He crossed the great circle of the
horizon, was "crucified in
space."
These Sun myths, ever recurring throughout
the ages, with a different
name for their Hero in each new recension,
cannot pass unrecognised by
the student, though they may naturally and
rightly be ignored by the
devotee; and when they are used as a weapon
to mutilate or destroy the
majestic figure of the Christ, they must be
met, not by denying the
facts, but by understanding the deeper
meaning of the stories, the
spiritual truths that the legends expressed
under a veil.
Why have these legends mingled with the
history of Jesus, and
crystallised round Him, as a historical
personage? These are really the
stories not of a particular individual
named Jesus but of the universal
Christ; of a Man who symbolised a Divine
Being, and who represented a
fundamental truth in nature; a Man who
filled a certain office and held
a certain characteristic position towards
humanity; standing towards
humanity in a special relationship, renewed
age after age, as generation
succeeded generation, as race gave way to
race. Hence He was, as are all
such, the "Son of Man," a
peculiar and distinctive title, the title of
an office, not of an individual. The Christ
of the Solar Myth was the
Christ of the Mysteries, and we find the
secret of the mythic in the
mystic Christ.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society
in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER VI.
THE MYSTIC CHRIST.
We now approach that deeper side of the
Christ story that gives it its
real hold upon the hearts of men. We
approach that perennial life which
bubbles up from an unseen source, and so
baptises its representative
with its lucent flood that human hearts
cling round the Christ, and feel
that they could almost more readily reject
the apparent facts of history
than deny that which they intuitively feel
to be a vital, an essential
truth of the higher life. We draw near the
sacred portal of the
Mysteries, and lift a corner of the veil
that hides the sanctuary.
We have seen that, go back as far as we may
into antiquity, we find
everywhere recognised the existence of a
hidden teaching, a secret
doctrine, given under strict and exacting
conditions to approved
candidates by the Masters of Wisdom. Such
candidates were initiated into
"The Mysteries"--a name that
covers in antiquity, as we have seen, all
that was most spiritual in religion, all
that was most profound in
philosophy, all that was most valuable in
science. Every great Teacher
of antiquity passed through the Mysteries
and the greatest were the
Hierophants of the Mysteries; each who came
forth into the world to
speak of the invisible worlds had passed
through the portal of
Initiation and had learned the secret of
the Holy Ones from Their own
lips: each who came forth came forth with
the same story, and the solar
myths are all versions of this story,
identical in their essential
features, varying only in their local
colour.
This story is primarily that of the descent
of the Logos into matter,
and the Sun-God is aptly His symbol, since
the Sun is His body, and He
is often described as "He that dwelleth
in the Sun." In one aspect, the
Christ of the Mysteries is the Logos
descending into matter, and the
great Sun-Myth is the popular teaching of
this sublime truth. As in
previous cases, the Divine Teacher, who
brought the Ancient Wisdom and
republished it in the world, was regarded
as a special manifestation of
the Logos, and the Jesus of the Churches
was gradually draped with the
stories which belonged to this great One;
thus He became identified, in
Christian nomenclature, with the Second
Person in the Trinity, the
Logos, or Word of God,[188] and the salient
events recounted in the myth
of the Sun-God became the salient events of
the story of Jesus, regarded
as the incarnate Deity, the "mythic
Christ." As in the macrocosm, the
kosmos, the Christ of the Mysteries
represents the Logos, the Second
Person in the Trinity, so in the microcosm,
man, does He represent the
second aspect of the Divine Spirit in
man--hence called in man "the
Christ."[189] The second aspect of the
Christ of the Mysteries is then
the life of the Initiate, the life which is
entered on at the first
great Initiation, at which the Christ is
born in man, and after which He
develops in man. To make this quite
intelligible, we must consider the
conditions imposed on the candidate for
Initiation, and the nature of
the Spirit in man.
Only those could be recognised as
candidates for Initiation who were
already good as men count goodness,
according to the strict measure of
the law. Pure, holy, without defilement,
clean from sin, living without
transgression--such were some of the
descriptive phrases used of
them.[190] Intelligent also must they be,
of well-developed and
well-trained minds.[191] The evolution
carried on in the world life
after life, developing and mastering the
powers of the mind, the
emotions, and the moral sense, learning
through exoteric religions,
practising the discharge of duties, seeking
to help and lift others--all
this belongs to the ordinary life of an
evolving man. When all this is
done, the man has become "a good man,"
the Chrestos of the Greeks, and
this he must be ere he can become the
Christos, the Anointed. Having
accomplished the exoteric good life, he
becomes a candidate for the
esoteric life, and enters on the
preparation for Initiation, which
consists in the fulfilment of certain
conditions.
These conditions mark out the attributes he
is to acquire, and while he
is labouring to create these, he is
sometimes said to be treading the
Probationary Path, the Path which leads up
to the "Strait Gate," beyond
which is the "Narrow Way," or the
"Path of Holiness," the "Way of the
Cross." He is not expected to develop
these attributes perfectly, but he
must have made some progress in all of
them, ere the Christ can be born
in him. He must prepare a pure home for that
Divine Child who is to
develop within him.
The first of these attributes--they are all
mental and moral--is
_Discrimination_; this means that the
aspirant must begin to separate in
his mind the Eternal from the Temporary,
the Real from the Unreal, the
True from the False, the Heavenly from the
Earthly. "The things which
are seen are temporal," says the
Apostle; "but the things which are not
seen are eternal."[192] Men are
constantly living under the glamour of
the seen, and are blinded by it to the unseen.
The aspirant must learn
to discriminate between them, so that what
is unreal to the world may
become real to him, and that which is real
to the world may to him
become unreal, for thus only is it possible
to "walk by faith, not by
sight."[193] And thus also must a man
become one of those of whom the
Apostle says that they "are of full
age, even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both
good and evil."[194] Next,
this sense of unreality must breed in him
_Disgust_ with the unreal and
the fleeting, the mere husks of life, unfit
to satisfy hunger, save the
hunger of swine.[195] This stage is
described in the emphatic language
of Jesus: "If any man come to me, and
hate not his father, and mother,
and wife, and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple."[196]
Truly a "hard saying," and yet out
of this hatred will spring a deeper, truer,
love, and the stage may not
be escaped on the way to the Strait Gate.
Then the aspirant must learn
_Control of thoughts_, and this will lead
to _Control of actions_, the
thought being, to the inner eye, the same
as the action: "Whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her, _hath
committed adultery_ with her
already in his heart."[197] He must
acquire _Endurance_, for they who
aspire to tread "the Way of the
Cross" will have to brave long and
bitter sufferings, and they must be able to
endure, "as seeing Him who
is invisible."[198] He must add to
these _Tolerance_, if he would be the
child of Him who "maketh His sun to
rise on the evil, and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust,"[199] the disciple of
Him who bade His apostles not to forbid a
man to use His name because he
did not follow with them.[200] Further, he
must acquire the _Faith_ to
which nothing is impossible,[201] and the
_Balance_ which is described
by the Apostle.[202] Lastly, he must seek
only "those things which are
above,"[203] and long to reach the
beatitude of the vision of and union
with God.[204] When a man has wrought these
qualities into his character
he is regarded as fit for Initiation, and
the Guardians of the Mysteries
will open for him the Strait Gate. Thus,
but thus only, he becomes the
prepared candidate.
Now, the Spirit in man is the gift of the
Supreme God, and contains
within itself the three aspects of the
Divine Life--Intelligence, Love,
Will--being the Image of God. As it
evolves, it first develops the
aspect of Intelligence, develops the
intellect, and this evolution is
effected in the ordinary life in the world.
To have done this to a high
point, accompanying it with moral
development, brings the evolving man
to the condition of the candidate. The
second aspect of the Spirit is
that of Love, and the evolution of that is
the evolution of the Christ.
In the true Mysteries this evolution is
undergone--the disciple's life
is the Mystery Drama, and the Great
Initiations mark its stages. In the
Mysteries performed on the physical plane
these used to be dramatically
represented, and the ceremonies followed in
many respects "the pattern"
ever shown forth "on the Mount,"
for they were the shadows in a
deteriorating age of the mighty Realities
in the spiritual world.
The Mystic Christ, then, is twofold--the
Logos, the Second Person of the
Trinity, descending into matter, and the
Love, or second, aspect of the
unfolding Divine Spirit in man. The one
represents kosmic processes
carried on in the past and is the root of
the Solar Myth; the other
represents a process carried on in the
individual, the concluding stage
of his human evolution, and added many
details in the Myth. Both of
these have contributed to the Gospel story,
and together form the Image
of the "Mystic Christ."
Let us consider first the kosmic Christ, Deity
becoming enveloped in
matter, the becoming incarnate of the
Logos, the clothing of God in
"flesh."
When the matter which is to form our solar
system is separated off from
the infinite ocean of matter which fills
space, the Third Person of the
Trinity--the Holy Spirit--pours His Life
into this matter to vivify it,
that it may presently take form. It is then
drawn together, and form is
given to it by the life of the Logos, the
Second Person of the Trinity,
who sacrifices Himself by putting on the
limitations of matter, becoming
the "Heavenly Man," in whose Body
all forms exist, of whose Body all
forms are part. This was the kosmic story,
dramatically shown in the
Mysteries--in the true Mysteries seen as it
occurred in space, in the
physical plane Mysteries represented by
magical or other means, and in
some parts by actors.
These processes are very distinctly stated
in the _Bible_; when the
"Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters" in the darkness that
was "upon the face of the
deep,"[205] the great deep of matter showed
no forms, it was void, inchoate. Form was
given by the Logos, the Word,
of whom it is written that "all things
were made by Him; and without Him
was not anything made that was
made."[206] C. W. Leadbeater has well put
it: "The result of this first great
outpouring [the 'moving' of the
Spirit] is the quickening of that wonderful
and glorious vitality which
pervades all matter (inert though it may
seem to our dim physical eyes),
so that the atoms of the various planes
develop, when electrified by it,
all sorts of previously latent attractions
and repulsions, and enter
into combinations of all kinds."[207]
Only when this work of the Spirit has been
done can the Logos, the
kosmic Mystic Christ, take on Himself the
clothing of matter, entering
in very truth the Virgin's womb, the womb
of Matter as yet virgin,
unproductive. This matter had been vivified
by the Holy Spirit, who,
overshadowing the Virgin, poured into it
His life, thus preparing it to
receive the life of the Second Logos, who
took this matter as the
vehicle for His energies. This is the
becoming incarnate of the Christ,
the taking flesh--"Thou did'st not
despise the Virgin's womb."
In the Latin and English translations of
the original Greek text of the
Nicene Creed, the phrase which describes
this phase of the descent has
changed the prepositions and so changed the
sense. The original ran:
"and was incarnate _of_ the Holy Ghost
_and_ the Virgin Mary," whereas
the translation reads: "and was
incarnate _by_ the Holy Ghost _of_ the
Virgin Mary."[208] The Christ
"takes form not of the 'Virgin' matter
alone, but of matter which is already
instinct and pulsating with the
life of the Third Logos,[209] so that both
the life and the matter
surround Him as a vesture."[210]
This is the descent of the Logos into
matter, described as the birth of
the Christ of a Virgin, and this, in the
Solar Myth, becomes the birth
of the Sun-God as the sign Virgo rises.
Then come the early workings of the Logos
in matter, aptly typified by
the infancy of the myth. To all the
feebleness of infancy His majestic
powers bow themselves, letting but little
play forth on the tender forms
they ensoul. Matter imprisons, seems as
though threatening to slay, its
infant King, whose glory is veiled by the
limitations He has assumed.
Slowly He shapes it towards high ends, and
lifts it into manhood, and
then stretches Himself on the cross of
matter that He may pour forth
from that cross all the powers of His
surrendered life. This is the
Logos of whom Plato said that He was in the
figure of a cross on the
universe; this is the Heavenly Man,
standing in space, with arms
outstretched in blessing; this is the
Christ crucified, whose death on
the cross of matter fills all matter with
His life. Dead He seems and
buried out of sight, but He rises again
clothed in the very matter in
which He seemed to perish, and carries up
His body of now radiant
matter into heaven, where it receives the
downpouring life of the
Father, and becomes the vehicle of man's
immortal life. For it is the
life of the Logos which forms the garment
of the Soul in man, and He
gives it that men may live through the ages
and grow to the measure of
His own stature. Truly are we clothed in
Him, first materially and then
spiritually. He sacrificed Himself to bring
many sons into glory, and He
is with us always, even to the end of the
age.
The crucifixion of Christ, then, is part of
the great kosmic sacrifice,
and the allegorical representation of this
in the physical Mysteries,
and the sacred symbol of the crucified man
in space, became materialised
into an actual death by crucifixion, and a
crucifix bearing a dying
human form; then this story, now the story
of a man, was attached to the
Divine Teacher, Jesus, and became the story
of His physical death, while
the birth from a Virgin, the
danger-encircled infancy, the resurrection
and ascension, became also incidents in His
human life. The Mysteries
disappeared, but their grandiose and
graphic representations of the
kosmic work of the Logos encircled and
uplifted the beloved figure of
the Teacher of Judaea, and the kosmic
Christ of the Mysteries, with the
lineaments of the Jesus of history, thus
became the central Figure of
the Christian Church.
But even this was not all; the last touch
of fascination is added to the
Christ-story by the fact that there is
another Christ of the Mysteries,
close and dear to the human heart--the
Christ of the human Spirit, the
Christ who is in every one of us, is born
and lives, is crucified, rises
from the dead, and ascends into heaven, in
every suffering and
triumphant "Son of Man."
The life-story of every Initiate into the
true, the heavenly Mysteries,
is told in its salient features in the
Gospel biography. For this
reason, S. Paul speaks as we have seen[211]
of the birth of the Christ
in the disciple, and of His evolution and
His full stature therein.
Every man is a potential Christ, and the
unfolding of the Christ-life
in a man follows the outline of the Gospel
story in its striking
incidents, which we have seen to be
universal, and not particular.
There are five great Initiations in the
life of a Christ, each one
marking a stage in the unfolding of the
Life of Love. They are given
now, as of old, and the last marks the
final triumph of the Man who has
developed into Divinity, who has
transcended humanity, and has become a
Saviour of the world.
Let us trace this life-story, ever newly
repeated in spiritual
experience, and see the Initiate living out
the life of the Christ.
At the first great Initiation the Christ is
born in the disciple; it is
then that he realises for the first time
_in himself_ the outpouring of
the divine Love, and experiences that
marvellous change which makes him
feel himself to be one with all that lives.
This is the "Second Birth,"
and at that birth the heavenly ones
rejoice, for he is born into "the
kingdom of heaven," as one of the
"little ones," as "a little
child"--the names ever given to the
new Initiates. Such is the meaning
of the words of Jesus, that a man must
become a little child to enter
into the Kingdom.[212] It is significantly
said in some of the early
Christian writers that Jesus was "born
in a cave"--the "stable" of the
gospel narrative; the "Cave of
Initiation" is a well-known ancient
phrase, and the Initiate is ever born
therein; over that cave "where the
young child" is burns the "Star
of Initiation," the Star that ever
shines forth in the East when a
Child-Christ is born. Every such child
is surrounded by perils and menaces,
strange dangers that befall not
other babes; for he is anointed with the
chrism of the second birth and
the Dark Powers of the unseen world ever
seek his undoing. Despite all
trials, however, he grows into manhood, for
the Christ once born can
never perish, the Christ once beginning to
develop can never fail in his
evolution; his fair life expands and grows,
ever-increasing in wisdom
and in spiritual stature, until the time
comes for the second great
Initiation, the Baptism of the Christ by
Water and the Spirit, that
gives him the powers necessary for the
Teacher, who is to go forth and
labour in the world as "the beloved
Son."
Then there descends upon him in rich
measure the divine Spirit, and the
glory of the unseen Father pours down its
pure radiance on him; but from
that scene of blessing is he led by the
Spirit into the wilderness and
is once more exposed to the ordeal of
fierce temptations. For now the
powers of the Spirit are unfolding
themselves in him, and the Dark Ones
strive to lure him from his path by these
very powers, bidding him use
them for his own helping instead of resting
on his Father in patient
trust. In the swift, sudden transitions
which test his strength and
faith, the whisper of the embodied Tempter
follows the voice of the
Father, and the burning sands of the
wilderness scorch the feet
erstwhile laved in the cool waters of the
holy river. Conqueror over
these temptations he passes into the world
of men to use for their
helping the powers he would not put forth
for his own needs, and he who
would not turn one stone to bread for the
stilling of his own cravings
feeds "five thousand men, besides
women and children," with a few
loaves.
Into his life of ceaseless service comes
another brief period of glory,
when he ascends "a high mountain
apart"--the sacred Mount of Initiation.
There he is transfigured and there meets
some of his great Forerunners,
the Mighty Ones of old who trod where he
now is treading. He passes thus
the third great Initiation, and then the
shadow of his coming Passion
falls on him, and he steadfastly sets his
face to go to
Jerusalem--repelling the tempting words of
one of his
disciples--Jerusalem, where awaits him the
baptism of the Holy Ghost and
of Fire. After the Birth, the attack by
Herod; after the Baptism, the
temptation in the wilderness; after the
Transfiguration, the setting
forth towards the last stage of the Way of
the Cross. Thus is triumph
ever followed by ordeal, until the goal is
reached.
Still grows the life of love, ever fuller
and more perfect, the Son of
Man shining forth more clearly as the Son
of God, until the time draws
near for his final battle; and the fourth
great Initiation leads him in
triumph into Jerusalem, into sight of
Gethsemane and Calvary. He is now
the Christ ready to be offered, ready for
the sacrifice on the cross. He
is now to face the bitter agony in the
Garden, where even his chosen
ones sleep while he wrestles with his
mortal anguish, and for a moment
prays that the cup may pass from his lips;
but the strong will triumphs
and he stretches out his hand to take and
drink, and in his loneliness
an angel comes to him and strengthens him,
as angels are wont to do when
they see a Son of Man bending beneath his
load of agony. The drinking of
the bitter cup of betrayal, of desertion,
of denial, meets him as he
goes forth, and alone amid his jeering foes
he passes to his last fierce
trial. Scourged by physical pain, pierced
by cruel thorns of suspicion,
stripped of his fair garments of purity in
the eyes of the world, left
in the hands of his foes, deserted
apparently by God and man, he endures
patiently all that befalls him, wistfully
looking in his last extremity
for aid. Left still to suffer, crucified,
to die to the life of form,
to surrender all life that belongs to the
lower world, surrounded by
triumphant foes who mock him, the last
horror of great darkness
envelopes him, and in the darkness he meets
all the forces of evil; his
inner vision is blinded, he finds himself
alone, utterly alone, till the
strong heart, sinking in despair, cries out
to the Father who seems to
have abandoned him, and the human soul
faces, in uttermost loneliness,
the crushing agony of apparent defeat. Yet,
summoning all the strength
of the "unconquerable spirit," the
lower life is yielded up, its death
is willingly embraced, the body of desire
is abandoned, and the Initiate
"descends into hell," that no
region of the universe he is to help may
remain untrodden by him, that none may be
too outcast to be reached by
his all-embracing love. And then springing
upwards from the darkness, he
sees the light once more, feels himself
again as the Son, inseparable
from the Father whose he is, rises to the
life that knows no ending,
radiant in the consciousness of death faced
and overcome, strong to help
to the uttermost every child of man, able
to pour out his life into
every struggling soul. Among his disciples
he remains awhile to teach,
unveiling to them the mysteries of the
spiritual worlds, preparing them
also to tread the path he has trodden,
until, the earth-life over, he
ascends to the Father, and, in the fifth
great Initiation, becomes the
Master triumphant, the link between God and
man.
Such was the story lived through in the
true Mysteries of old and now,
and dramatically pourtrayed in symbols in
the physical plane Mysteries,
half veiled, half shown. Such is the Christ
of the Mysteries in His dual
aspect, Logos and man, kosmic and
individual. Is it any wonder that this
story, dimly felt, even when unknown, by
the mystic, has woven itself
into the heart, and served as an
inspiration to all noble living? The
Christ of the human heart is, for the most
part, Jesus seen as the
mystic human Christ, struggling, suffering,
dying, finally triumphant,
the Man in whom humanity is seen crucified
and risen, whose victory is
the promise of victory to every one who,
like Him, is faithful through
death and beyond--the Christ who can never
be forgotten while He is born
again and again in humanity, while the
world needs Saviours, and
Saviours give themselves for men.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER VII.
THE ATONEMENT.
We will now proceed to study certain
aspects of the Christ-Life, as they
appear among the doctrines of Christianity.
In the exoteric teachings
they appear as attached only to the Person
of the Christ; in the
esoteric they are seen as belonging indeed
to Him, since in their
primary, their fullest and deepest meaning
they form part of the
activities of the Logos, but as being only
secondarily reflected in the
Christ, and therefore also in every
Christ-Soul that treads the way of
the Cross. Thus studied they will be seen
to be profoundly true, while
in their exoteric form they often bewilder
the intelligence and jar the
emotions.
Among these stands prominently forward the
doctrine of the Atonement;
not only has it been a point of bitter
attack from those outside the
pale of Christianity, but it has wrung many
sensitive consciences within
that pale. Some of the most deeply
Christian thinkers of the last half
of the nineteenth century have been
tortured with doubts as to the
teaching of the churches on this matter,
and have striven to see, and to
present it, in a way that softens or explains
away the cruder notions
based on an unintelligent reading of a few
profoundly mystical texts.
Nowhere, perhaps, more than in connection
with these should the warning
of S. Peter be borne in mind: "Our
beloved brother Paul also, according
to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you--as also in all his
epistles--speaking in them of these things;
in which are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are
unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other scriptures, unto
own destruction."[213] For
the texts that tell of the identity of the
Christ with His brother-men
have been wrested into a legal substitution
of Himself for them, and
have thus been used as an escape from the
results of sin, instead of as
an inspiration to righteousness.
The general teaching in the Early Church on
the doctrine of the
Atonement was that Christ, as the
Representative of Humanity, faced and
conquered Satan, the representative of the
Dark Powers, who held
humanity in bondage, wrested his captive from
him, and set him free.
Slowly, as Christian teachers lost touch
with spiritual truths, and they
reflected their own increasing intolerance
and harshness on the pure and
loving Father of the teachings of the
Christ, they represented Him as
angry with man, and the Christ was made to
save man from the wrath of
God instead of from the bondage of evil.
Then legal phrases intruded,
still further materialising the once
spiritual idea, and the "scheme of
redemption" was forensically outlined.
"The seal was set on the
'redemption scheme' by Anselm in his great
work, _Cur Deus Homo_, and
the doctrine which had been slowly growing
into the theology of
Christendom was thenceforward stamped with
the signet of the Church.
Roman Catholics and Protestants, at the
time of the Reformation, alike
believed in the vicarious and
substitutionary character of the atonement
wrought by Christ. There is no dispute
between them on this point. I
prefer to allow the Christian divines to
speak for themselves as to the
character of the atonement.... Luther
teaches that 'Christ did truly and
effectually feel for all mankind the wrath
of God, malediction, and
death.' Flavel says that 'to wrath, to the
wrath of an infinite God
without mixture, to the very torments of
hell, was Christ delivered, and
that by the hand of his own father.' The
Anglican homily preaches that
'sin did pluck God out of heaven to make
him feel the horrors and pains
of death,' and that man, being a firebrand
of hell and a bondsman of the
devil, 'was ransomed by the death of his
only and well-beloved son'; the
'heat of his wrath,' 'his burning wrath,'
could only be 'pacified' by
Jesus, 'so pleasant was the sacrifice and
oblation of his son's death.'
Edwards, being logical, saw that there was
a gross injustice in sin
being twice punished, and in the pains of
hell, the penalty of sin,
being twice inflicted, first on Jesus, the
substitute of mankind, and
then on the lost, a portion of mankind; so
he, in common with most
Calvinists, finds himself compelled to restrict
the atonement to the
elect, and declared that Christ bore the
sins, not of the world, but of
the chosen out of the world; he suffers
'not for the world, but for them
whom thou hast given me.' But Edwards
adheres firmly to the belief in
substitution, and rejects the universal
atonement for the very reason
that 'to believe Christ died for all is the
surest way of proving that
he died for none in the sense Christians
have hitherto believed.' He
declares that 'Christ suffered the wrath of
God for men's sins'; that
'God imposed his wrath due unto, and Christ
underwent the pains of hell
for,' sin. Owen regards Christ's sufferings
as 'a full valuable
compensation to the justice of God for all
the sins' of the elect, and
says that he underwent 'that same punishment
which ... they themselves
were bound to undergo.'"[214]
To show that these views were still
authoritatively taught in the
churches, I wrote further: "Stroud
makes Christ drink 'the cup of the
wrath of God.' Jenkyn says 'He suffered as
one disowned and reprobated
and forsaken of God.' Dwight considers that
he endured God's 'hatred and
contempt.' Bishop Jeune tells us that
'after man had done his worst,
worse remained for Christ to bear. He had
fallen into his father's
hands.' Archbishop Thomson preaches that
'the clouds of God's wrath
gathered thick over the whole human race:
they discharged themselves on
Jesus only.' He 'becomes a curse for us and
a vessel of wrath.' Liddon
echoes the same sentiment: 'The apostles
teach that mankind are slaves,
and that Christ on the cross is paying
their ransom. Christ crucified is
voluntarily devoted and accursed'; he even
speaks of 'the precise amount
of ignominy and pain needed for the
redemption,' and says that the
'divine victim' paid more than was absolutely
necessary."[215]
These are the views against which the
learned and deeply religious Dr.
McLeod Campbell wrote his well-known work,
_On the Atonement_, a volume
containing many true and beautiful
thoughts; F. D. Maurice and many
other Christian men have also striven to
lift from Christianity the
burden of a doctrine so destructive of all
true ideas as to the
relations between God and man.
None the less, as we look backwards over
the effects produced by this
doctrine, we find that belief in it, even
in its legal--and to us crude
exoteric--form, is connected with some of
the very highest developments
of Christian conduct, and that some of the
noblest examples of Christian
manhood and womanhood have drawn from it
their strength, their
inspiration, and their comfort. It would be
unjust not to recognise this
fact. And whenever we come upon a fact that
seems to us startling and
incongruous, we do well to pause upon that
fact, and to endeavour to
understand it. For if this doctrine
contained nothing more than is seen
in it by its assailants inside and outside
the churches, if it were in
its true meaning as repellent to the
conscience and the intellect as it
is found to be by many thoughtful
Christians, then it could not possibly
have exercised over the minds and hearts of
men a compelling
fascination, nor could it have been the
root of heroic self-surrenders,
of touching and pathetic examples of
self-sacrifice in the service of
man. Something more there must be in it than
lies on the surface, some
hidden kernel of life which has nourished
those who have drawn from it
their inspiration. In studying it as one of
the Lesser Mysteries we
shall find the hidden life which these
noble ones have unconsciously
absorbed, these souls which were so at one
with that life that the form
in which it was veiled could not repel
them.
When we come to study it as one of the
Lesser Mysteries, we shall feel
that for its understanding some spiritual
development is needed, some
opening of the inner eyes. To grasp it
requires that its spirit should
be partly evolved in the life, and only
those who know practically
something of the meaning of self-surrender
will be able to catch a
glimpse of what is implied in the esoteric
teaching on this doctrine, as
the typical manifestation of the Law of
Sacrifice. We can only
understand it as applied to the Christ,
when we see it as a special
manifestation of the universal law, a
reflection below of the Pattern
above, showing us in a concrete human life
what sacrifice means.
The Law of Sacrifice underlies our system
and all systems, and on it all
universes are builded. It lies at the root
of evolution, and alone makes
it intelligible. In the doctrine of the
Atonement it takes a concrete
form in connection with men who have
reached a certain stage in
spiritual development, the stage that
enables them to realise their
oneness with humanity, and to become, in
very deed and truth, Saviours
of men.
All the great religions of the world have
declared that the universe
begins by an act of sacrifice, and have
incorporated the idea of
sacrifice into their most solemn rites. In
Hinduism, the dawn of
manifestation is said to be by
sacrifice,[216] mankind is emanated with
sacrifice,[217] and it is Deity who sacrifices
Himself;[218] the object
of the sacrifice is manifestation; He
cannot become manifest unless an
act of sacrifice be performed, and inasmuch
as nothing can be manifest
until He manifests,[219] the act of
sacrifice is called "the dawn" of
creation.
In the Zoroastrian religion it was taught
that in the Existence that is
boundless, unknowable, unnameable,
sacrifice was performed and manifest
Deity appeared; Ahura-mazdao was born of an
act of sacrifice.[220]
In the Christian religion the same idea is
indicated in the phrase: "the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world,"[221] slain at the origin
of things. These words can but refer to the
important truth that there
can be no founding of a world until the
Deity has made an act of
sacrifice. This act is explained as
limiting Himself in order to become
manifest. "The Law of Sacrifice might
perhaps more truly be called The
Law of Manifestation, or the Law of Love
and of Life, for throughout the
universe, from the highest to the lowest,
it is the cause of
manifestation and life."[222]
"Now, if we study this physical world,
as being the most available
material, we find that all life in it, all
growth, all progress, alike
for units and for aggregates, depend on
continual sacrifice and the
endurance of pain. Mineral is sacrificed to
vegetable, vegetable to
animal, both to man, men to men, and all
the higher forms again break
up, and reinforce again with their
separated constituents the lowest
kingdom. It is a continual sequence of
sacrifices from the lowest to the
highest, and the very mark of progress is
that the sacrifice from being
involuntary and imposed becomes voluntary
and self-chosen, and those who
are recognised as greatest by man's
intellect and loved most by man's
heart are the supreme sufferers, those
heroic souls who wrought,
endured, and died that the race might
profit by their pain. If the world
be the work of the Logos, and the law of
the world's progress in the
whole and the parts is sacrifice, then the
Law of Sacrifice must point
to something in the very nature of the
Logos; it must have its root in
the Divine Nature itself. A little further
thought shows us that if
there is to be a world, a universe at all,
this can only be by the One
Existence conditioning Itself and thus
making manifestation possible,
and that the very Logos is the Self-limited
God; limited to become
manifest; manifested to bring a universe
into being; such
self-limitation and manifestation can only
be a supreme act of
sacrifice, and what wonder that on every
hand the world should show its
birth-mark, and that the Law of Sacrifice
should be the law of being,
the law of the derived lives.
"Further, as it is an act of sacrifice
in order that individuals may
come into existence to share the Divine
bliss, it is very truly a
vicarious act--an act done for the sake of
others; hence the fact
already noted, that progress is marked by
sacrifice becoming voluntary
and self-chosen, and we realise that
humanity reaches its perfection in
the man who gives himself for men, and by
his own suffering purchases
for the race some lofty good.
"Here, in the highest regions, is the
inmost verity of vicarious
sacrifice, and however it may be degraded
and distorted, this inner
spiritual truth makes it indestructible,
eternal, and the fount whence
flows the spiritual energy which, in
manifold forms and ways, redeems
the world from evil and draws it home to
God."[223]
When the Logos comes forth from "the
bosom of the Father" in that "Day"
when He is said to be
"begotten,"[224] the dawn of the Day of Creation,
of Manifestation, when by Him God
"made the worlds,"[225] He by His own
will limits Himself, making as it were a
sphere enclosing the Divine
Life, coming forth as a radiant orb of
Deity, the Divine Substance,
Spirit within and limitation, or Matter,
without. This is the veil of
matter which makes possible the birth of
the Logos, Mary, the
World-Mother, necessary for the
manifestation in time of the Eternal,
that Deity may manifest for the building of
the worlds.
That circumscription, that self-limitation,
is the act of sacrifice, a
voluntary action done for love's sake, that
other lives may be born from
Him. Such a manifestation has been regarded
as a death, for, in
comparison with the unimaginable life of
God in Himself, such
circumscription in matter may truly be
called death. It has been
regarded, as we have seen, as a crucifixion
in matter, and has been thus
figured, the true origin of the symbol of
the cross, whether in its
so-called Greek form, wherein the vivifying
of matter by the Holy Ghost
is signified, or in its so-called Latin,
whereby the Heavenly Man is
figured, the supernal Christ.[226]
"In tracing the symbolism of the Latin
cross, or rather of the crucifix,
back into the night of time, the
investigators had expected to find the
figure disappear, leaving behind what they
supposed to be the earlier
cross-emblem. As a matter of fact exactly
the reverse took place, and
they were startled to find that eventually
the cross drops away, leaving
only the figure with uplifted arms. No
longer is there any thought of
pain or sorrow connected with that figure,
though still it tells of
sacrifice; rather is it now the symbol of
the purest joy the world can
hold--the joy of freely giving--for it
typifies the Divine Man standing
in space with arms upraised in blessing,
casting abroad His gifts to all
humanity, pouring forth freely of Himself
in all directions, descending
into that 'dense sea' of matter, to be
cribbed, cabined, and confined
therein, in order that through that descent
_we_ may come into
being."[227]
This sacrifice is perpetual, for in every
form in this universe of
infinite diversity this life is enfolded,
and is its very heart, the
"Heart of Silence" of the
Egyptian ritual, the "Hidden God." This
sacrifice is the secret of evolution. The
Divine Life, cabined within a
form, ever presses outwards in order that
the form may expand, but
presses gently, lest the form should break
ere yet it had reached its
utmost limit of expansion. With infinite
patience and tact and
discretion, the divine One keeps up the
constant pressure that expands,
without loosing a force that would disrupt.
In every form, in mineral,
in vegetable, in animal, in man, this
expansive energy of the Logos is
ceaselessly working. That is the evolutionary
force, the lifting life
within the forms, the rising energy that
science glimpses, but knows not
whence it comes. The botanist tells of an
energy within the plant, that
pulls ever upwards; he knows not how, he
knows not why, but he gives it
a name--the _vis a fronte_--because he
finds it there, or rather finds
its results. Just as it is in plant life,
so is it in other forms as
well, making them more and more expressive
of the life within them. When
the limit of any form is reached, and it can
grow no further, so that
nothing more can be gained through it by
the soul of it--that germ of
Himself, which the Logos is brooding
over--then He draws away His
energy, and the form disintegrates--we call
it death and decay. But the
soul is with Him, and He shapes for it a
new form, and the death of the
form is the birth of the soul into fuller
life. If we saw with the eyes
of the Spirit instead of with the eyes of
the flesh, we should not weep
over a form, which is a corpse giving back
the materials out of which it
was builded, but we should joy over the
life passing onwards into nobler
form, to expand under the unchanging
process the powers still latent
within.
Through that perpetual sacrifice of the
Logos all lives exist; it is the
life by which the universe is ever
becoming. This life is One, but it
embodies itself in myriad forms, ever
drawing them together and gently
overcoming their resistance. Thus it is an
At-one-ment, a unifying
force, by which the separated lives are
gradually made conscious of
their unity, labouring to develop in each a
self-consciousness, which
shall at last know itself to be one with
all others, and its root One
and divine.
This is the primary and ever-continued
sacrifice, and it will be seen
that it is an outpouring of Life directed
by Love, a voluntary and glad
pouring forth of Self for the making of
other Selves. This is "the joy
of thy Lord"[228] into which the
faithful servant enters, significantly
followed by the statement that He was hungry,
thirsty, naked, sick, a
stranger and in prison, in the helped or
neglected children of men. To
the free Spirit to give itself is joy, and
it feels its life the more
keenly, the more it pours itself forth. And
the more it gives, the more
it grows, for the law of the growth of life
is that it increases by
pouring itself forth and not by drawing
from without--by giving, not by
taking. Sacrifice, then, in its primary
meaning, is a thing of joy; the
Logos pours Himself out to make a world,
and, seeing the travail of His
soul, is satisfied.[229]
But the word has come to be associated with
suffering, and in all
religious rites of sacrifice some
suffering, if only that of a trivial
loss to the sacrificer, is present. It is
well to understand how this
change has come about, so that when the
word "sacrifice" is used the
instinctive connotation is one of pain.
The explanation is seen when we turn from
the manifesting Life to the
forms in which it is embodied, and look at
the question of sacrifice
from the side of the forms. While the life
of Life is in giving, the
life, or persistence, of form is in taking,
for the form is wasted as it
is exercised, it is diminished as it is
exerted. If the form is to
continue, it must draw fresh material from
outside itself in order to
repair its losses, else will it waste and
vanish away. The form must
grasp, keep, build into itself what it has
grasped, else it cannot
persist; and the law of growth of the form
is to take and assimilate
that which the wider universe supplies. As
the consciousness identifies
itself with the form, regarding the form as
itself, sacrifice takes on a
painful aspect; to give, to surrender, to
lose what has been acquired,
is felt to undermine the persistence of the
form, and thus the Law of
Sacrifice becomes a law of pain instead of
a law of joy.
Man had to learn by the constant breaking
up of forms, and the pain
involved in the breaking, that he must not
identify himself with the
wasting and changing forms, but with the
growing persistent life, and he
was taught his lesson not only by external
nature, but by the deliberate
lessons of the Teachers who gave him
religions.
We can trace in the religions of the world
four great stages of
instruction in the Law of Sacrifice. First,
man was taught to sacrifice
part of his material possession in order to
gain increased material
prosperity, and sacrifices were made in
charity to men and in offerings
to Deities, as we may read in the
scriptures of the Hindus, the
Zoroastrians, the Hebrews, indeed all the
world over. The man gave up
something he valued to insure future
prosperity to himself, his family,
his community, his nation. He sacrificed in
the present to gain in the
future. Secondly, came a lesson a little
harder to learn; instead of
physical prosperity and worldly good, the
fruit to be gained by
sacrifice was celestial bliss. Heaven was
to be won, happiness was to
be enjoyed on the other side of death--such
was the reward for
sacrifices made during the life led on
earth.
A considerable step forward was made when a
man learned to give up the
things for which his body craved for the
sake of a distant good which he
could not see nor demonstrate. He learned
to surrender the visible for
the invisible, and in so doing rose in the
scale of being; for so great
is the fascination of the visible and the
tangible, that if a man be
able to surrender them for the sake of an
unseen world in which he
believes, he has acquired much strength and
has made a long step towards
the realisation of that unseen world. Over
and over again martyrdom has
been endured, obloquy has been faced, man
has learned to stand alone,
bearing all that his race could pour upon
him of pain, misery, and
shame, looking to that which is beyond the
grave. True, there still
remains in this a longing for celestial
glory, but it is no small thing
to be able to stand alone on earth and rest
on spiritual companionship,
to cling firmly to the inner life when the
outer is all torture.
The third lesson came when a man, seeing
himself as part of a greater
life, was willing to sacrifice himself for
the good of the whole, and so
became strong enough to recognise that
sacrifice was right, that a part,
a fragment, a unit in the sum total of
life, should subordinate the part
to the whole, the fragment to the totality.
Then he learned to do right,
without being affected by the outcome to
his own person, to do duty,
without wishing for result to himself, to
endure because endurance was
right not because it would be crowned, to give
because gifts were due to
humanity not because they would be repaid
by the Lord. The hero-soul
thus trained was ready for the fourth
lesson: that sacrifice of all the
separated fragment possesses is to be
offered because the Spirit is not
really separate but is part of the divine
Life, and knowing no
difference, feeling no separation, the man
pours himself forth as part
of the Life Universal, and in the
expression of that Life he shares the
joy of his Lord.
It is in the three earlier stages that the
pain-aspect of sacrifice is
seen. The first meets but small sufferings;
in the second the physical
life and all that earth has to give may be
sacrificed; the third is the
great time of testing, of trying, of the
growth and evolution of the
human soul. For in that stage duty may
demand all in which life seems to
consist, and the man, still identified in
_feeling_ with the form,
though _knowing_ himself theoretically to
transcend it, finds that all
he feels as life is demanded of him, and
questions: "If I let this go,
what then will remain?" It seems as
though consciousness itself would
cease with this surrender, for it must
loose its hold on all it
realises, and it sees nothing to grasp on
the other side. An
over-mastering conviction, an imperious
voice, call on him to surrender
his very life. If he shrinks back, he must
go on in the life of
sensation, the life of the intellect, the
life of the world, and as he
has the joys he dared not resign, he finds
a constant dissatisfaction, a
constant craving, a constant regret and
lack of pleasure in the world,
and he realises the truth of the saying of
the Christ that "he that
will save his life shall lose
it,"[230] and that the life that was loved
and clung to is only lost at last. Whereas
if he risks all in obedience
to the voice that summons, if he throws
away his life, then in losing
it, he finds it unto life eternal,[231] and
he discovers that the life
he surrendered was only death in life, that
all he gave up was illusion,
and that he found reality. In that choice
the metal of the soul is
proved, and only the pure gold comes forth
from the fiery furnace, where
life seemed to be surrendered but where
life was won. And then follows
the joyous discovery that the life thus won
is won for all, not for the
separated self, that the abandoning of the
separated self has meant the
realising of the Self in man, and that the
resignation of the limit
which alone seemed to make life possible
has meant the pouring out into
myriad forms, an undreamed vividness and
fulness, "the power of an
endless life."[232]
Such is an outline of the Law of Sacrifice,
based on the primary
Sacrifice of the Logos, that Sacrifice of
which all other sacrifices are
reflexions.
We have seen how the man Jesus, the Hebrew
disciple, laid down His body
in glad surrender that a higher Life might
descend and become embodied
in the form He thus willingly sacrificed,
and how by that act He became
a Christ of full stature, to be the
Guardian of Christianity, and to
pour out His life into the great religion
founded by the Mighty One with
whom the sacrifice had identified Him. We
have seen the Christ-Soul
passing through the great Initiations--born
as a little child, stepping
down into the river of the world's sorrows,
with the waters of which he
must be baptised into his active ministry,
transfigured on the Mount,
led to the scene of his last combat, and
triumphing over death. We have
now to see in what sense he is an
atonement, how in the Christ-life the
Law of Sacrifice finds a perfect
expression.
The beginning of what may be called the
ministry of the Christ come to
manhood is in that intense and permanent
sympathy with the world's
sorrows which is typified by the stepping
down into the river. From that
time forward the life must be summed up in
the phrase, "He went about
doing good;" for those who sacrifice
the separated life to be a channel
of the divine Life, can have no interest in
this world save the helping
of others. He learns to identify himself
with the consciousness of those
around him, to feel as they feel, think as
they think, enjoy as they
enjoy, suffer as they suffer, and thus he
brings into his daily waking
life that sense of unity with others which
he experiences in the higher
realms of being. He must develop a sympathy
which vibrates in perfect
harmony with the many-toned chord of human
life, so that he may link in
himself the human and the divine lives, and
become a mediator between
heaven and earth.
Power is now manifested in him, for the
Spirit is resting on him, and he
begins to stand out in the eyes of men as
one of those who are able to
help their younger brethren to tread the
path of life. As they gather
round him, they feel the power that comes
out from him, the divine Life
in the accredited Son of the Highest. The
souls that are hungry come to
him and he feeds them with the bread of
life; the diseased with sin
approach him, and he heals them with the
living word which cures the
sickness and makes whole the soul; the
blind with ignorance draw nigh
him, and he opens their eyes by the light
of his wisdom. It is the chief
mark in his ministry that the lowest and
the poorest, the most desperate
and the most degraded, feel in approaching
him no wall of separation,
feel as they throng around him welcome and
not repulsion; for there
radiates from him a love that understands
and that can therefore never
wish to repel. However low the soul may be,
he never feels the
Christ-Soul as standing above him but
rather as standing beside him,
treading with human feet the ground he also
treads; yet as filled with
some strange uplifting power that raises
him upwards and fills him also
with new impulse and fresh inspiration.
Thus he lives and labours, a true Saviour
of men, until the time comes
when he must learn another lesson, losing
for awhile his consciousness
of that divine Life of which his own has
been becoming ever more and
more the expression. And this lesson is
that the true centre of divine
Life lies within and not without. The Self
has its centre within each
human soul--truly is "the centre
everywhere," for Christ is _in_ all,
and God in Christ--and no embodied life,
nothing "out of the
Eternal"[233] can help him in his
direst need. He has to learn that the
true unity of Father and Son is to be found
within and not without, and
this lesson can only come in uttermost
isolation, when he feels forsaken
by the God outside himself. As this trial
approaches, he cries out to
those who are nearest to him to watch with
him through his hour of
darkness; and then, by the breaking of
every human sympathy, the failing
of every human love, he finds himself
thrown back on the life of the
divine Spirit, and cries out to his Father,
feeling himself in conscious
union with Him, that the cup may pass away.
Having stood alone, save for
that divine Helper, he is worthy to face
the last ordeal, where the God
without him vanishes, and only the God
within is left. "My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken me?" rings out
the bitter cry of startled love
and fear. The last loneliness descends on
him, and he feels himself
forsaken and alone. Yet never is the Father
nearer to the Son than at
the moment when the Christ-Soul feels
himself forsaken, for as he thus
touches the lowest depth of sorrow, the
hour of his triumph begins to
dawn. For now he learns that he must
himself become the God to whom he
cries, and by feeling the last pang of
separation he finds the eternal
unity, he feels the fount of life is
within, and knows himself eternal.
None can become fully a Saviour of men nor
sympathise perfectly with all
human suffering, unless he has faced and
conquered pain and fear and
death unaided, save by the aid he draws
from the God within him. It is
easy to suffer when there is unbroken
consciousness between the higher
and the lower; nay, suffering is not, while
that consciousness remains
unbroken, for the light of the higher makes
darkness in the lower
impossible, and pain is not pain when borne
in the smile of God. There
is a suffering that men have to face, that
every Saviour of man must
face, where darkness is on the human
consciousness, and never a glimmer
of light comes through; he must know the
pang of the despair felt by the
human soul when there is darkness on every
side, and the groping
consciousness cannot find a hand to clasp.
Into that darkness every Son
of Man goes down, ere he rises triumphant;
that bitterest experience is
tasted by every Christ, ere he is
"able to save them to the
uttermost"[234] who seek the Divine
through him.
Such a one has become truly divine, a
Saviour of men, and he takes up
the world-work for which all this has been
the preparation. Into him
must pour all the forces that make against
man, in order that in him
they may be changed into forces that help.
Thus he becomes one of the
Peace-centres of the world, which transmute
the forces of combat that
would otherwise crush man. For the Christs
of the world are these
Peace-centres into which pour all warring
forces, to be changed within
them and then poured out as forces that
work for harmony.
Part of the sufferings of the Christ not
yet perfect lies in this
harmonising of the discord-making forces in
the world. Although a Son,
he yet learns by suffering and is thus
"made perfect."[235] Humanity
would be far more full of combat and rent
with strife were it not for
the Christ-disciples living in its midst,
and harmonising many of the
warring forces into peace.
When it is said that the Christ suffers
"for men," that His strength
replaces their weakness, His purity their
sin, His wisdom their
ignorance, a truth is spoken; for the
Christ so becomes one with men
that they share with Him and He with them.
There is no substitution of
Him for them, but the taking of their lives
into His, and the pouring of
His life into theirs. For, having risen to
the plane of unity, He is
able to share all He has gained, to give
all He has won. Standing above
the plane of separateness and looking down
at the souls immersed in
separateness, He can reach each while they
cannot reach each other.
Water can flow from above into many pipes,
open to the reservoir though
closed as regards each other, and so He can
send His life into each
soul. Only one condition is needed in order
that a Christ may share His
strength with a younger brother: that in
the separated life the human
consciousness will open itself to the
divine, will show itself receptive
of the offered life, and take the freely
outpoured gift. For so reverent
is God to that Spirit which is Himself in
man, that He will not even
pour into the human soul a flood of
strength and life unless that soul
is willing to receive it. There must be an
opening from below as well as
an outpouring from above, the receptiveness
of the lower nature as well
as the willingness of the higher to give.
That is the link between the
Christ and the man; that is what the
churches have called the outpouring
of "divine grace"; that is what
is meant by the "faith" necessary to
make the grace effective. As Giordano Bruno
once put it--the human soul
has windows, and can shut those windows
close. The sun outside is
shining, the light is unchanging; let the
windows be opened and the
sunlight must stream in. The light of God
is beating against the windows
of every human soul, and when the windows
are thrown open, the soul
becomes illuminated. There is no change in
God, but there is a change in
man; and man's will may not be forced, else
were the divine Life in him
blocked in its due evolution.
Thus in every Christ that rises, all
humanity is lifted a step higher,
and by His wisdom the ignorance of the
whole world is lessened. Each man
is less weak because of His strength, which
pours out over all humanity
and enters the separated soul. Out of that
doctrine, seen narrowly, and
therefore mis-seen, grew the idea of the
vicarious Atonement as a legal
transaction between God and man, in which
Jesus took the place of the
sinner. It was not understood that One who
had touched that height was
verily one with all His brethren; identity
of nature was mistaken for a
personal substitution, and thus the
spiritual truth was lost in the
harshness of a judicial exchange.
"Then he comes to a knowledge of his
place in the world, of his function
in nature--to be a Saviour and to make
atonement for the sins of the
people. He stands in the inner Heart of the
world, the Holy of Holies,
as a High Priest of Humanity. He is one
with all his brethren, not by a
vicarious substitution, but by the unity of
a common life. Is any
sinful? he is sinful in them, that his
purity may purge them. Is any
sorrowful? in them he is the man of
sorrows; every broken heart breaks
his, in every pierced heart his heart is
pierced. Is any glad? in them
he is joyous, and pours out his bliss. Is
any craving? in them he is
feeling want that he may fill them with his
utter satisfaction. He has
everything, and because it is his it is
theirs. He is perfect; then they
are perfect with him. He is strong; who
then can be weak, since he is in
them? He climbed to his high place that he
might pour out to all below
him, and he lives in order that all may
share his life. He lifts the
whole world with him as he rises, the path
is easier for all men,
because he has trodden it.
"Every son of man may become such a
manifested Son of God, such a
Saviour of the world. In each such Son is
'God manifest in the
flesh,'[236] the atonement that aids all
mankind, the living power that
makes all things new. Only one thing is
needed to bring that power into
manifested activity in any individual soul;
the soul must open the door
and let Him in. Even He, all-permeating,
cannot force His way against
His brother's will; the human will can hold
its own alike against God
and man, and by the law of evolution it
must voluntarily associate
itself with divine action, and not be
broken into sullen submission. Let
the will throw open the door, and the life
will flood the soul. While
the door is closed it will only gently
breathe through it its
unutterable fragrance, that the sweetness
of that fragrance may win,
where the barrier may not be forced by
strength.
"This it is, in part, to be a Christ;
but how can mortal pen mirror the
immortal, or mortal words tell of that
which is beyond the power of
speech? Tongue may not utter, the
unillumined mind may not grasp, that
mystery of the Son who has become one with
the Father, carrying in His
bosom the sons of men."[237]
Those who would prepare to rise to such a
life in the future must begin
even now to tread in the lower life the
path of the Shadow of the Cross.
Nor should they doubt their power to rise,
for to do so is to doubt the
God within them. "Have faith in
yourself," is one of the lessons that
comes from the higher view of man, for that
faith is really in the God
within. There is a way by which the shadow
of the Christ-life may fall
on the common life of man, and that is by
doing every act as a
sacrifice, not for what it will bring to
the doer but for what it will
bring to others, and, in the daily common
life of small duties, petty
actions, narrow interests, by changing the
motive and thus changing all.
Not one thing in the outer life need
necessarily be varied; in any life
sacrifice may be offered, amid any
surroundings God may be served.
Evolving spirituality is marked not by what
a man does, but by how he
does it; not in the circumstances, but in
the attitude of a man towards
them, lies the opportunity of growth.
"And indeed this symbol of the
cross may be to us as a touchstone to
distinguish the good from the evil
in many of the difficulties of life. 'Only
those actions through which
shines the light of the cross are worthy of
the life of the disciple,'
says one of the verses in a book of occult
maxims; and it is interpreted
to mean that all that the aspirant does should
be prompted by the
fervour of self-sacrificing love. The same
thought appears in a later
verse: 'When one enters the path, he lays
his heart upon the cross; when
the cross and the heart have become one,
then hath he reached the goal.'
So, perchance, we may measure our progress
by watching whether
selfishness or self-sacrifice is dominant
in our lives."[238]
Every life which begins thus to shape
itself is preparing the cave in
which the Child-Christ shall be born, and
the life shall become a
constant at-one-ment, bringing the divine
more and more into the human.
Every such life shall grow into the life of
a "beloved Son," and shall
have in it the glory of the Christ. Every
man may work in that direction
by making every act and power a sacrifice,
until the gold is purged from
the dross, and only the pure ore remains.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER VIII.
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION
The doctrines of the Resurrection and
Ascension of Christ also form part
of the Lesser Mysteries, being integral
portions of "The Solar Myth,"
and of the life-story of the Christ in man.
As regards Christ Himself they have their
historical basis in the facts
of His continuing to teach His apostles
after His physical death, and of
His appearance in the Greater Mysteries as
Hierophant after His direct
instructions had ceased, until Jesus took
His place. In the mythic tales
the resurrection of the hero and his
glorification invariably formed the
conclusion of his death-story; and in the
Mysteries, the body of the
candidate was always thrown into a
death-like trance, during which he,
as a liberated soul, travelled through the
invisible world, returning
and reviving the body after three days. And
in the life-story of the
individual, who is becoming a Christ, we
shall find, as we study it,
that the dramas of the Resurrection and
Ascension are repeated.
But before we can intelligently follow that
story, we must master the
outlines of the human constitution, and
understand the natural and
spiritual bodies of man. "There is a
natural body, and there is a
spiritual body."[239]
There are still some uninstructed people
who regard man as a mere
duality, made up of "soul" and
"body." Such people use the words "soul"
and "spirit" as synonyms, and
speak indifferently of "soul and body" or
"spirit and body," meaning that
man is composed of two constituents, one
of which perishes at death, while the other
survives. For the very
simple and ignorant this rough division is
sufficient, but it will not
enable us to understand the mysteries of
the Resurrection and
Ascension.
Every Christian who has made even a
superficial study of the human
constitution recognises in it three
distinct constituents--Spirit, Soul,
and Body. This division is sound, though
needing further subdivision for
more profound study, and it has been used
by S. Paul in his prayer that
"your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless."[240] That
threefold division is accepted in Christian
Theology.
The Spirit itself is really a Trinity, the
reflexion and image of the
Supreme Trinity, and this we shall study in
the following chapter.[241]
The true man, the immortal, who is the
Spirit, is the Trinity in man.
This is life, consciousness, and to this
the spiritual body belongs,
each aspect of the Trinity having its own
Body. The Soul is dual, and
comprises the mind and the emotional
nature, with its appropriate
garments. And the Body is the material
instrument of Spirit and Soul. In
one Christian view of man he is a
twelve-fold being, six modifications
forming the spiritual man, and six the
natural man; according to
another, he is divisible into fourteen,
seven modifications of
consciousness and seven corresponding types
of form. This latter view is
practically identical with that studied by
Mystics, and it is usually
spoken of as seven-fold, because there are
really seven divisions, each
being two-fold, having a life-side and a
form-side.
These divisions and sub-divisions are
somewhat confusing and perplexing
to the dull, and hence Origen and Clement,
as we have seen,[242] laid
great stress on the need for intelligence
on the part of all who desired
to become Gnostics. After all, those who find
them troublesome can leave
them on one side, without grudging them to
the earnest student, who
finds them not only illuminative, but
absolutely necessary to any clear
understanding of the Mysteries of Life and
Man.
The word Body means a vehicle of consciousness,
or an instrument of
consciousness; that in which consciousness
is carried about, as in a
vehicle, or which consciousness uses to
contact the external world, as a
mechanic uses an instrument. Or, we may
liken it to a vessel, in which
consciousness is held, as a jar holds
liquid. It is a form used by a
life, and we know nothing of consciousness
save as connected with such
forms. The form may be of rarest, subtlest,
materials, may be so
diaphanous that we are only conscious of
the indwelling life; still it
is there, and it is composed of Matter. It
may be so dense, that it
hides the indwelling life, and we are
conscious only of the form; still
the life is there, and it is composed of
the opposite of Matter--Spirit.
The student must study and re-study this
fundamental fact--the duality
of all manifested existence, the
inseparable co-existence of Spirit and
Matter in a grain of dust, in the Logos,
the God manifested. The idea
must become part of him; else must he give
up the study of the Lesser
Mysteries. The Christ, as God and Man, only
shows out on the kosmic
scale the same fact of duality that is
repeated everywhere in nature. On
that original duality everything in the
universe is formed.
Man has a "natural body," and
this is made up of four different and
separable portions, and is subject to
death. Two of these are composed
of physical matter, and are never
completely separated from each other
until death, though a partial separation
may be caused by anaesthetics,
or by disease. These two may be classed
together as the Physical Body.
In this the man carries on his conscious
activities while he is awake;
speaking technically, it is his vehicle of
consciousness in the physical
world.
The third portion is the Desire Body, so
called because man's feeling
and passional nature finds in this its
special vehicle. In sleep, the
man leaves the physical body, and carries
on his conscious activities in
this, which functions in the invisible
world closest to our visible
earth. It is therefore his vehicle of
consciousness in the lowest of the
super-physical worlds, which is also the
first world into which men pass
at death.
The fourth portion is the Mental Body, so
called because man's
intellectual nature, so far as it deals
with the concrete, functions in
this. It is his vehicle of consciousness in
the second of the
super-physical worlds, which is also the
second, or lower heavenly
world, into which men pass after death,
when freed from the world
alluded to in the preceding paragraph.
These four portions of his encircling form,
made up of the dual physical
body, the desire body, and the mental body,
form the natural body of
which S. Paul speaks.
This scientific analysis has fallen out of
the ordinary Christian
teaching, which is vague and confused on
this matter. It is not that the
churches have never possessed it; on the
contrary, this knowledge of the
constitution of man formed part of the
teachings in the Lesser
Mysteries; the simple division into Spirit,
Soul, and Body was exoteric,
the first rough and ready division given as
a foundation. The
subdivision as regards the "Body"
was made in the course of later
instruction, as a preliminary to the
training by which the instructor
enabled his pupil to separate one vehicle
from another, and to use each
as a vehicle of consciousness in its
appropriate region.
This conception should be readily enough
grasped. If a man wants to
travel on the solid earth, he uses as his
vehicle a carriage or a train.
If he wants to travel on the liquid seas, he
changes his vehicle, and
takes a ship. If he wants to travel in the
air, he changes his vehicle
again and uses a balloon. He is the same
man throughout, but he is using
three different vehicles, according to the
kind of matter he wants to
travel in. The analogy is rough and
inadequate, but it is not
misleading. When a man is busy in the
physical world, his vehicle is the
physical body, and his consciousness works
in and through that body.
When he passes into the world beyond the
physical, in sleep and at
death, his vehicle is the desire body, and
he may learn to use this
consciously, as he uses the physical
consciously. He already uses it
unconsciously every day of his life when he
is feeling and desiring, as
well as every night of his life. When he
goes on into the heavenly world
after death, his vehicle is the mental
body, and this also he is daily
using, when he is thinking, and there would
be no thought in the brain
were there none in the mental body.
Man has further "a spiritual
body." This is made up of three separable
portions, each portion belonging to one of,
and separating off, the
three Persons in the Trinity of the human
Spirit. S. Paul speaks of
being "caught up to the third
heaven," and of there hearing "unspeakable
words which it is not lawful for a man to
utter."[243] These different
regions of the invisible supernal worlds
are known to Initiates, and
they are well aware that those who pass
beyond the first heaven need the
truly spiritual body as their vehicle, and
that according to the
development of its three divisions is the
heaven into which they can
penetrate.
The lowest of these three divisions is
usually called the Causal Body,
for a reason that will be only fully
assimilable by those who have
studied the teaching of
Reincarnation--taught in the Early Church--and
who understand that human evolution needs
very many successive lives on
earth, ere the germinal soul of the savage
can become the perfected
soul of the Christ, and then, becoming
perfect as the Father in
Heaven,[244] can realise the union of the
Son with the Father.[245] It
is a body that lasts from life to life, and
in it all memory of the past
is stored. From it come forth the causes
that build up the lower bodies.
It is the receptacle of human experience,
the treasure-house in which
all we gather in our lives is stored up,
the seat of Conscience, the
wielder of the Will.
The second of the three divisions of the
spiritual body is spoken of by
S. Paul in the significant words: "We
have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens."[246] That is the Bliss
Body, the glorified body of the Christ,
"the Resurrection Body." It is
not a body which is "made with
hands," by the working of consciousness
in the the lower vehicles; it is not formed
by experience, not builded
out of the materials gathered by man in his
long pilgrimage. It is a
body which belongs to the Christ-life, the
life of Initiation; to the
divine unfoldment in man; it is builded of
God, by the activity of the
Spirit, and grows during the whole life or
lives of the Initiate, only
reaching its perfection at "the
Resurrection."
The third division of the spiritual body is
the fine film of subtle
matter that separates off the individual
Spirit as a Being, and yet
permits the interpenetration of all by all,
and is thus the expression
of the fundamental unity. In the day when
the Son Himself shall "be
subject unto Him that put all things under
Him, that God may be all in
all,"[247] this film will be
transcended, but for us it remains the
highest division of the spiritual body, in
which we ascend to the
Father, and are united with Him.
Christianity has always recognised the
existence of three worlds, or
regions, through which a man passes; first,
the physical world;
secondly, an intermediate state into which
he passes at death; thirdly,
the heavenly world. These three worlds are
universally believed in by
educated Christians; only the uninstructed
imagine that a man passes
from his death-bed into the final state of
beatitude. But there is some
difference of opinion as to the nature of
the intermediate world. The
Roman Catholic names it Purgatory, and
believes that every soul passes
into it, save that of the Saint, the man
who has reached perfection, or
that of a man who has died in "mortal
sin." The great mass of humanity
pass into a purifying region, wherein a man
remains for a period varying
in length according to the sins he has
committed, only passing out of it
into the heavenly world when he has become
pure. The various communities
that are called Protestant vary in their
teachings as to details, and
mostly repudiate the idea of _post mortem_
purification; but they agree
broadly that there is an intermediate
state, sometimes spoken of as
"Paradise," or as a "waiting
period." The heavenly world is almost
universally, in modern Christendom,
regarded as a final state, with no
very definite or general idea as to its
nature, or as to the progress or
stationary condition of those attaining to
it. In early Christianity
this heaven was considered to be, as it
really is, a stage in the
progress of the soul, re-incarnation in one
form or another, the
pre-existence of the soul, being then very
generally taught. The result
was, of course, that the heavenly state was
a temporary condition,
though often a very prolonged one, lasting
for "an age"--as stated in
the Greek of the New Testament, the age
being ended by the return of the
man for the next stage of his continuing
life and progress--and not
"everlasting," as in the
mistranslation of the English authorised
version.[248]
In order to complete the outline necessary
for the understanding of the
Resurrection and Ascension, we must see how
these various bodies are
developed in the higher evolution.
The physical body is in a constant state of
flux, its minute particles
being continually renewed, so that it is
ever building; and as it is
composed of the food we eat, the liquids we
drink, the air we breathe,
and particles drawn from our physical
surroundings, both people and
things, we can steadily purify it, by
choosing its materials well, and
thus make it an ever purer vehicle through
which to act, receptive of
subtler vibrations, responsive to purer
desires, to nobler and more
elevated thoughts. For this reason all who
aspired to attain to the
Mysteries were subjected to rules of diet,
ablution, &c., and were
desired to be very careful as to the people
with whom they associated,
and the places to which they went.
The desire body also changes, in similar
fashion, but the materials for
it are expelled and drawn in by the play of
the desires, arising from
the feelings, passions, and emotions. If
these are coarse, the materials
built into the desire body are also coarse,
while as these are purified,
the desire body grows subtle and becomes
very sensitive to the higher
influences. In proportion as a man
dominates his lower nature, and
becomes unselfish in his wishes, feelings,
and emotions, as he makes his
love for those around him less selfish and
grasping, he is purifying
this higher vehicle of consciousness; the
result is that when out of the
body in sleep he has higher, purer, and
more instructive experiences,
and when he leaves the physical body at
death, he passes swiftly through
the intermediate state, the desire body
disintegrating with great
rapidity, and not delaying him in his
onward journey.
The mental body is similarly being built
now, in this case by thoughts.
It will be the vehicle of consciousness in
the heavenly world, but is
being built now by aspirations, by
imagination, reason, judgment,
artistic faculties, by the use of all the
mental powers. Such as the man
makes it, so must he wear it, and the
length and richness of his
heavenly state depend on the kind of mental
body he has built during his
life on earth.
As a man enters the higher evolution, this
body comes into independent
activity on this side of death, and he
gradually becomes conscious of
his heavenly life, even amid the whirl of
mundane existence. Then he
becomes "the Son of man which is in
heaven,"[249] who can speak with the
authority of knowledge on heavenly things.
When the man begins to live
the life of the Son, having passed on to
the Path of Holiness, he lives
in heaven while remaining on earth, coming
into conscious possession and
use of this heavenly body. And inasmuch as
heaven is not far away from
us, but surrounds us on every side, and we
are only shut out from it by
our incapacity to feel its vibrations, not
by their absence; inasmuch as
those vibrations are playing upon us at
every moment of our lives; all
that is needed to be in Heaven is to become
conscious of those
vibrations. We become conscious of them
with the vitalising, the
organising, the evolution of this heavenly
body, which, being builded
out of the heavenly materials, answers to
the vibrations of the matter
of the heavenly world. Hence the "Son
of man" is ever in heaven. But we
know that the "Son of man" is a
term applied to the Initiate, not to
the Christ risen and glorified but to the
Son while he is yet "being
made perfect."[250]
During the stages of evolution that lead up
to and include the
Probationary Path, the first division of
the spiritual body--the Causal
Body--develops rapidly, and enables the
man, after death, to rise into
the second heaven. After the Second Birth,
the birth of the Christ in
man, begins the building of the Bliss Body
"in the heavens." This is the
body of the Christ, developing during the
days of His service on earth,
and, as it develops, the consciousness of
the "Son of God" becomes more
and more marked, and the coming union with
the Father illuminates the
unfolding Spirit.
In the Christian Mysteries--as in the
ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and
others--there was an outer symbolism which
expressed the stages through
which the man was passing. He was brought
into the chamber of
Initiation, and was stretched on the ground
with his arms extended,
sometimes on a cross of wood, sometimes
merely on the stone floor, in
the posture of a crucified man. He was then
touched with the thyrsus on
the heart--the "spear" of the
crucifixion--and, leaving the body, he
passed into the worlds beyond, the body
falling into a deep trance, the
death of the crucified. The body was placed
in a sarcophagus of stone,
and there left, carefully guarded.
Meanwhile the man himself was
treading first the strange obscure regions
called "the heart of the
earth," and thereafter the heavenly
mount, where he put on the perfected
bliss body, now fully organised as a
vehicle of consciousness. In that
he returned to the body of flesh, to
re-animate it. The cross bearing
that body, or the entranced and rigid body,
if no cross had been used,
was lifted out of the sarcophagus and
placed on a sloping surface,
facing the east, ready for the rising of
the sun on the third day. At
the moment that the rays of the sun touched
the face, the Christ, the
perfected Initiate or Master, re-entered
the body, glorifying it by the
bliss body He was wearing, changing the
body of flesh by contact with
the body of bliss, giving it new
properties, new powers, new capacities,
transmuting it into His own likeness. That
was the Resurrection of the
Christ, and thereafter the body of flesh
itself was changed, and took on
a new nature.
This is why the sun has ever been taken as
the symbol of the rising
Christ, and why, in Easter hymns, there is
constant reference to the
rising of the Sun of Righteousness. So also
is it written of the
triumphant Christ: "I am He that
liveth and was dead; and behold, I am
alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys
of hell and of death."[251]
All the powers of the lower worlds have
been taken under the dominion of
the Son, who has triumphed gloriously; over
Him death no more has power,
"He holdeth life and death in His
strong hand."[252] He is the risen
Christ, the Christ triumphant.
The Ascension of the Christ was the Mystery
of the third part of the
spiritual body, the putting on of the
Vesture of Glory, preparatory to
the union of the Son with the Father, of
man with God, when the Spirit
re-entered the glory it had "before
the world was."[253] Then the triple
Spirit becomes one, knows itself eternal,
and the Hidden God is found.
That is imaged in the doctrine of the
Ascension, so far as the
individual is concerned.
The Ascension for humanity is when the
whole race has attained the
Christ condition, the state of the Son, and
that Son becomes one with
the Father, and God is all in all. That is
the goal, prefigured in the
triumph of the Initiate, but reached only
when the human race is
perfected, and when "the great orphan
Humanity" is no longer an orphan,
but consciously recognises itself as the
Son of God.
Thus studying the doctrines of the
Atonement, the Resurrection, and the
Ascension, we reach the truths unfolded
concerning them in the Lesser
Mysteries, and we begin to understand the
full truth of the apostolic
teaching that Christ was not a unique
personality, but "the first
fruits of them that slept,"[254] and
that every man was to become a
Christ. Not then was the Christ regarded as
an external Saviour, by
whose imputed righteousness men were to be
saved from divine wrath.
There was current in the Church the
glorious and inspiring teaching that
He was but the first fruits of humanity,
the model that every man should
reproduce in himself, the life that all
should share. The Initiates have
ever been regarded as these first fruits,
the promise of a race made
perfect. To the early Christian, Christ was
the living symbol of his own
divinity, the glorious fruit of the seed he
bore in his own heart. Not
to be saved by an external Christ, but to
be glorified into an inner
Christ, was the teaching of esoteric
Christianity, of the Lesser
Mysteries. The stage of discipleship was to
pass into that of Sonship.
The life of the Son was to be lived among
men till it was closed by the
Resurrection, and the glorified Christ
became one of the perfected
Saviours of the world.
How far greater a Gospel than the one of
modern days! Placed beside that
grandiose ideal of esoteric Christianity,
the exoteric teaching of the
churches seems narrow and poor indeed.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
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206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER IX.
THE TRINITY.
All fruitful study of the Divine Existence
must start from the
affirmation that it is One. All the Sages
have thus proclaimed It; every
religion has thus affirmed It; every
philosophy thus posits It--"One
only without a second."[255]
"Hear, O Israel!" cried Moses, "The Lord
our God is one Lord."[256] "To us
there is but one God,"[257] declares
S. Paul. "There is no God but
God," affirms the founder of Islam, and
makes the phrase the symbol of his faith.
One Existence unbounded, known
in Its fulness only to Itself--the word It
seems more reverent and
inclusive than He, and is therefore used.
That is the Eternal Darkness,
out of which is born the Light.
But as the Manifested God, the One appears
as Three. A Trinity of Divine
Beings, One as God, Three as manifested
Powers. This also has ever been
declared, and the truth is so vital in its
relation to man and his
evolution that it is one which ever forms
an essential part of the
Lesser Mysteries.
Among the Hebrews, in consequence of their anthropomorphising
tendencies, the doctrine was kept secret,
but the Rabbis studied and
worshipped the Ancient of Days, from whom
came forth the Wisdom, from
whom the Understanding--Kether, Chochmah,
Binah, these formed the
Supreme Trinity, the shining forth in time
of the One beyond time. The
Book of the Wisdom of Solomon refers to
this teaching, making Wisdom a
Being. "According to Maurice, 'The
first Sephira, who is denominated
Kether the Crown, Kadmon the pure Light,
and En Soph the Infinite,[258]
is the omnipotent Father of the
universe.... The second is the
Chochmah, whom we have sufficiently proved,
both from sacred and
Rabbinical writings, to be the creative
Wisdom. The third is the Binah,
or heavenly Intelligence, whence the
Egyptians had their Cneph, and
Plato his _Nous Demiurgos_. He is the Holy
Spirit who ... pervades,
animates, and governs this boundless
universe.'"[259]
The bearing of this doctrine on Christian
teaching is indicated by Dean
Milman in his _History of Christianity_. He
says: "This Being [the Word
or the Wisdom] was more or less distinctly
impersonated, according to
the more popular or more philosophic, the
more material or the more
abstract, notions of the age or people.
This was the doctrine from the
Ganges, or even the shores of the Yellow
Sea, to the Ilissus; it was the
fundamental principle of the Indian
religion and the Indian philosophy;
it was the basis of Zoroastrianism; it was
pure Platonism; it was the
Platonic Judaism of the Alexandrian school.
Many fine passages might be
quoted from Philo on the impossibility that
the first self-existing
Being should become cognisable to the sense
of man; and even in
Palestine, no doubt, John the Baptist and
our Lord Himself spoke no new
doctrine, but rather the common sentiment
of the more enlightened, when
they declared 'that no man had seen God at
any time.' In conformity with
this principle the Jews, in the
interpretation of the older Scriptures,
instead of direct and sensible
communication from the one great Deity,
had interposed either one or more
intermediate beings as the channels of
communication. According to one accredited
tradition alluded to by S.
Stephen, the law was delivered 'by the
disposition of angels'; according
to another this office was delegated to a single
angel, sometimes called
the Angel of the Law (see Gal. iii. 19); at
others the Metatron. But the
more ordinary representative, as it were,
of God, to the sense and mind
of man, was the Memra, or the Divine Word;
and it is remarkable that the
same appellation is found in the Indian,
the Persian, the Platonic, and
the Alexandrian systems. By the Targumists,
the earliest Jewish
commentators on the Scriptures, this term
had been already applied to
the Messiah; nor is it necessary to observe
the manner in which it has
been sanctified by its introduction into
the Christian scheme."[260]
As above said by the learned Dean, the idea
of the Word, the Logos, was
universal, and it formed part of the idea
of a Trinity. Among the
Hindus, the philosophers speak of the
manifested Brahman as
Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence, Intelligence,
and Bliss. Popularly, the
Manifested God is a Trinity; Shiva, the
Beginning and the End; Vishnu,
the Preserver; Brahma, the Creator of the
Universe. The Zoroastrian
faith presents a similar Trinity;
Ahuramazdao, the Great One, the First;
then "the twins," the dual Second
Person--for the Second Person in a
Trinity is ever dual, deteriorated in
modern days into an opposing God
and Devil--and the Universal Wisdom,
Armaiti. In Northern Buddhism we
find Amitabha, the boundless Light;
Avalokiteshvara, the source of
incarnations, and the Universal Mind,
Mandjusri. In Southern Buddhism
the idea of God has faded away, but with
significant tenacity the
triplicity re-appears as that in which the
Southern Buddhist takes his
refuge--the Buddha, the Dharma (the
Doctrine), the Sangha (the Order).
But the Buddha Himself is sometimes
worshipped as a Trinity; on a stone
in Buddha Gaya is inscribed a salutation to
Him as an incarnation of the
Eternal One, and it is said: "Om! Thou
art Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesha
(Shiva) ... I adore Thee, who art
celebrated by a thousand names and
under various forms, in the shape of
Buddha, the God of Mercy."[261]
In extinct religions the same idea of a
Trinity is found. In Egypt it
dominated all religious worship. "We
have a hieoroglyphical inscription
in the British Museum as early as the reign
of Senechus of the eighth
century before the Christian era, showing
that the doctrine of Trinity
in Unity already formed part of their
religion."[262] This is true of a
far earlier date. Ra, Osiris, and Horus
formed one widely worshipped
Trinity; Osiris, Isis, and Horus were
worshipped at Abydos; other names
are given in different cities, and the
triangle is the frequently used
symbol of the Triune God. The idea which
underlay these Trinities,
however named, is shown in a passage quoted
from Marutho, in which an
oracle, rebuking the pride of Alexander the
Great, speaks of: "First
God, then the Word, and with Them the
Spirit."[263]
In Chaldaea, Anu, Ea, and Bel were the
Supreme Trinity, Anu being the
Origin of all, Ea the Wisdom, and Bel the
creative Spirit. Of China
Williamson remarks: "In ancient China
the emperors used to sacrifice
every third year to 'Him who is one and
three.' There was a Chinese
saying, 'Fo is one person but has three
forms.' ... In the lofty
philosophical system known in China as
Taoism, a trinity also figures:
'Eternal Reason produced One, One produced
Two, Two produced Three, and
Three produced all things,' which, as Le
Compte goes on to say, 'seems
to show as if they had some knowledge of
the Trinity.'"[264]
In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity we
find a complete agreement
with other faiths as to the functions of
the three Divine Persons, the
word Person coming from _persona_, a mask,
that which covers something,
the mask of the One Existence, Its
Self-revelation under a form. The
Father is the Origin and End of all; the
Son is dual in His nature, and
is the Word, or the Wisdom; the Holy Spirit
is the creative
Intelligence, that brooding over the chaos
of primeval matter organises
it into the materials out of which forms
can be constructed.
It is this identity of functions under so
many varying names which shows
that we have here not a mere outer
likeness, but an expression of an
inner truth. There is something of which
this triplicity is a
manifestation, something that can be traced
in nature and in evolution,
and which, being recognised, will render
intelligible the growth of man,
the stages of his evolving life. Further,
we find that in the universal
language of symbolism the Persons are
distinguished by certain emblems,
and may be recognised by these under
diversity of forms and names.
But there is one other point that must be
remembered ere we leave the
exoteric statement of the Trinity--that in
connection with all these
Trinities there is a fourth fundamental
manifestation, the Power of the
God, and this has always a feminine form.
In Hinduism each Person in the
Trinity has His manifested Power, the One
and these six aspects making
up the sacred Seven. With many of the
Trinities one feminine form
appears, then ever specially connected with
the Second Person, and then
there is the sacred Quaternary.
Let us now see the inner truth.
The One becomes manifest as the First
Being, the Self-Existent Lord, the
Root of all, the Supreme Father; the word
Will, or Power, seems best to
express this primary Self-revealing, since
until there is Will to
manifest there can be no manifestation, and
until there is Will
manifested, impulse is lacking for further
unfoldment. The universe may
be said to be rooted in the divine Will.
Then follows the second aspect
of the One--Wisdom; Power is guided by
Wisdom, and therefore it is
written that "without Him was not
anything made that is made;"[265]
Wisdom is dual in its nature, as will
presently be seen. When the
aspects of Will and Wisdom are revealed, a
third aspect must follow to
make them effective--Creative Intelligence,
the divine mind in Action. A
Jewish prophet writes: "He hath made
the earth by His Power, He hath
established the world by His Wisdom; and
hath stretched out the heaven
by His Understanding,"[266] the
reference to the three functions being
very clear.[267] These Three are
inseparable, indivisible, three aspects
of One. Their functions may be thought of
separately, for the sake of
clearness, but cannot be disjoined. Each is
necessary to each, and each
is present in each. In the First Being,
Will, Power, is seen as
predominant, as characteristic, but Wisdom
and Creative Action are also
present; in the Second Being, Wisdom is
seen as predominant, but Power
and Creative Action are none the less
inherent in Him; in the Third
Being, Creative Action is seen as
predominant, but Power and Wisdom are
ever also to be seen. And though the words
First, Second, Third are
used, because the Beings are thus
manifested in Time, in the order of
Self-unfolding, yet in Eternity they are
known as interdependent and
co-equal, "None is greater or less
than Another."[268]
This Trinity is the divine Self, the divine
Spirit, the Manifested God,
He that "was and is and is to
come,"[269] and He is the root of the
fundamental triplicity in life, in
consciousness.
But we saw that there was a Fourth Person,
or in some religions a second
Trinity, feminine, the Mother. This is That
which makes manifestation
possible, That which eternally in the One
is the root of limitation and
division, and which, when manifested, is
called Matter. This is the
divine Not-Self, the divine Matter, the
manifested Nature. Regarded as
One, She is the Fourth, making possible the
activity of the Three, the
Field of Their operations by virtue of Her
infinite divisibility, at
once the "Handmaid of the
Lord,"[270] and also His Mother, yielding of
Her substance to form His Body, the
universe, when overshadowed by His
power.[271] Regarded carefully She is seen
to be triple also, existing
in three inseparable aspects, without which
She could not be. These are
Stability--Inertia or Resistance--Motion,
and Rhythm; the fundamental or
essential qualities of Matter, these are
called. They alone render
Spirit effective, and have therefore been
regarded as the manifested
Powers of the Trinity. Stability or Inertia
affords a basis, the fulcrum
for the lever; Motion is then rendered
manifest, but could make only
chaos, then Rhythm is imposed, and there is
Matter in vibration, capable
of being shaped and moulded. When the three
qualities are in
equilibrium, there is the One, the Virgin
Matter, unproductive. When the
power of the Highest overshadows Her, and
the breath of the Spirit comes
upon Her, the qualities are thrown out of
equilibrium, and She becomes
the divine Mother of the worlds.
The first interaction is between Her and
the Third Person of the
Trinity; by His action She becomes capable
of giving birth to form. Then
is revealed the Second Person, who clothes
Himself in the material thus
provided, and thus become the Mediator,
linking in His own Person Spirit
and Matter, the Archetype of all forms.
Only through Him does the First
Person become revealed, as the Father of
all Spirits.
It is now possible to see why the Second
Person of the Trinity of Spirit
is ever dual; He is the One who clothes
Himself in Matter, in whom the
twin-halves of Deity appear in union, not
as one. Hence also is He
Wisdom; for Wisdom on the side of Spirit is
the Pure Reason that knows
itself as the One Self and knows all things
in that Self, and on the
side of Matter it is Love, drawing the
infinite diversity of forms
together, and making each form a unit, not
a mere heap of particles--the
principle of attraction which holds the
worlds and all in them in a
perfect order and balance. This is the
Wisdom which is spoken of as
"mightily and sweetly ordering all
things,"[272] which sustains and
preserves the universe.
In the world-symbols, found in every
religion, the Point--that which has
position only--has been taken as a symbol
of the First Person in the
Trinity. On this symbol St. Clement of
Alexandria remarks that we
abstract from a body its properties, then
depth, then breadth, then
length; "the point which remains is a
unit, so to speak, having
position; from which if we abstract
position, there is the conception of
unity."[273] He shines out, as it
were, from the infinite Darkness, a
Point of Light, the centre of a future
universe, a Unit, in whom all
exists inseparate; the matter which is to
form the universe, the field
of His work, is marked out by the backward
and forward vibration of the
Point in every direction, a vast sphere,
limited by His Will, His Power.
This is the making of "the earth by
His Power," spoken of by
Jeremiah.[274] Thus the full symbol is a
Point within a sphere,
represented usually as a Point within a
circle. The Second Person is
represented by a Line, a diameter of this
circle, a single complete
vibration of the Point, and this Line is
equally in every direction
within the sphere; this Line dividing the
circle in twain signifies also
His duality, that in Him Matter and
Spirit--a unity in the First
Person--are visibly two, though in union.
The Third Person is
represented by a Cross formed by two
diameters at right angles to each
other within the circle, the second line of
the Cross separating the
upper part of the circle from the lower.
This is the Greek Cross.[275]
When the Trinity is represented as a Unity,
the Triangle is used,
either inscribed within a circle, or free.
The universe is symbolised
by two triangles interlaced, the Trinity of
Spirit with the apex of the
triangle upward, the Trinity of Matter with
the apex of the triangle
downward, and if colours are used, the
first is white, yellow, golden or
flame-coloured, and the second black, or
some dark shade.
The kosmic process can now be readily
followed. The One has become Two,
and the Two Three, and the Trinity is
revealed. The Matter of the
universe is marked out and awaits the
action of Spirit. This is the "in
the beginning" of Genesis, when
"God created the heaven and the
earth,"[276] a statement further
elucidated by the repeated phrases that
He "laid the foundations of the
earth;"[277] we have here the marking
out of the material, but a mere chaos,
"without form and void."[278]
On this begins the action of the Creative
Intelligence, the Holy Spirit,
who "moved upon the face of the
waters,"[279] the vast ocean of matter.
Thus His was the first activity, though He
was the Third Person--a point
of great importance.
In the Mysteries this work was shown in its
detail as the preparation of
the matter of the universe, the formation
of atoms, the drawing of these
together into aggregates, and the grouping
of these together into
elements, and of these again into gaseous,
liquid, and solid compounds.
This work includes not only the kind of
matter called physical, but also
all the subtle states of matter in the
invisible worlds. He further as
the "Spirit of Understanding"
conceived the forms into which the
prepared matter should be shaped, not
building the forms, but by the
action of the Creative Intelligence
producing the Ideas of them, the
heavenly prototypes, as they are often
called. This is the work referred
to when it is written, He "stretched
out the heaven by His
Understanding."[280]
The work of the Second Person follows that
of the Third. He by virtue of
His Wisdom "established the
world,"[281] building all globes and all
things upon them, "all things were
made by Him."[282] He is the
organising Life of the worlds, and all
beings are rooted in Him.[283]
The life of the Son thus manifested in the
matter prepared by the Holy
Spirit--again the great "Myth" of
the Incarnation--is the life that
builds up, preserves, and maintains all
forms, for He is the Love, the
attracting power, that gives cohesion to
forms, enabling them to grow
without falling apart, the Preserver, the
Supporter, the Saviour. That
is why all must be subject to the Son,[284]
all must be gathered up in
Him, and why "no man cometh unto the
Father but by" Him.[285]
For the work of the First Person follows
that of the Second, as that of
the Second follows that of the Third. He is
spoken of as "the Father of
Spirits,"[286] the "God of the
Spirits of all flesh,"[287] and His is
the gift of the divine Spirit, the true
Self in man. The human Spirit
is the outpoured divine Life of the Father,
poured into the vessel
prepared by the Son, out of the materials
vivified by the Spirit. And
this Spirit in man, being from the
Father--from whom came forth the Son
and the Holy Spirit--is a Unity like
Himself, with the three aspects in
One, and man is thus truly made "in
our image, after our likeness,"[288]
and is able to become "perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect."[289]
Such is the kosmic process, and in human
evolution it is repeated; "as
above, so below."
The Trinity of the Spirit in man, being in
the divine likeness, must
show out the divine characteristics, and
thus we find in him Power,
which, whether in its higher form of Will
or its lower form of Desire,
gives the impulse to his evolution. We find
also in him Wisdom, the Pure
Reason, which has Love as its expression in
the world of forms, and
lastly Intelligence, or Mind, the active
shaping energy. And in man
also we find that the manifestation of
these in his evolution is from
the third to the second, and from the
second to the first. The mass of
humanity is unfolding the mind, evolving
the intelligence, and we can
see its separative action everywhere,
isolating, as it were, the human
atoms and developing each severally, so
that they may be fit materials
for building up a divine Humanity. To this
point only has the race
arrived, and here it is still working.
As we study a small minority of our race,
we see that the second aspect
of the divine Spirit in man is appearing,
and we speak of it in
Christendom as the Christ in man. Its
evolution lies, as we have seen,
beyond the first of the Great Initiations,
and Wisdom and Love are the
marks of the Initiate, shining out more and
more as he develops this
aspect of the Spirit. Here again is it true
that "no man cometh to the
Father but by Me," for only when the
life of the Son is touching on
completion can He pray: "Now, O
Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own
Self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was."[290]
Then the Son ascends to the Father and
becomes one with Him in the
divine glory; He manifests self-existence,
the existence inherent in his
divine nature, unfolded from seed to
flower, for "as the Father hath
life in Himself, so hath He given to the
Son to have life in
Himself."[291] He becomes a living
self-conscious Centre in the Life of
God, a Centre able to exist as such, no
longer bound by the limitations
of his earlier life, expanding to divine
consciousness, while keeping
the identity of his life unshaken, a
living, fiery Centre in the divine
Flame.
In this evolution now lies the possibility
of divine Incarnations in the
future, as this evolution in the past has
rendered possible divine
Incarnations in our own world. These living
Centres do not lose Their
identity, nor the memory of Their past, of
aught that They have
experienced in the long climb upwards; and
such a Self-conscious Being
can come forth from the Bosom of the
Father, and reveal Himself for the
helping of the world. He has maintained the
union in Himself of Spirit
and Matter, the duality of the Second
Person--all divine Incarnations in
all religions are therefore connected with
the Second Person in the
Trinity--and hence can readily re-clothe
Himself for physical
manifestation, and again become Man. This
nature of the Mediator He has
retained, and is thus a link between the
celestial and terrestrial
Trinities, "God with us"[292] He
has ever been called.
Such a Being, the glorious fruit of a past
universe, can come into the
present world with all the perfection of
His divine Wisdom and Love,
with all the memory of His past, able by
virtue of that memory to be the
perfect Helper of every living Being,
knowing every stage because He has
lived it, able to help at every point
because He has experienced all.
"In that He Himself hath suffered
being tempted, He is able to succour
them that are tempted."[293]
It is in the humanity behind Him that lies
this possibility of divine
Incarnation; He comes down, having climbed
up, in order to help others
to climb the ladder. And as we understand
these truths, and something of
the meaning of the Trinity, above and
below, what was once a mere hard
unintelligible dogma becomes a living and
vivifying truth. Only by the
existence of the Trinity in man is human
evolution intelligible, and we
see how man evolves the life of the
intellect, and then the life of the
Christ. On that fact mysticism is based,
and our sure hope that we shall
know God. Thus have the Sages taught, and
as we tread the Path they
show, we find that their testimony is true.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
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206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER X.
PRAYER.[294]
What is sometimes called "the modern
spirit" is exceedingly antagonistic
to prayer, failing to see any causal nexus
between the uttering of a
petition and the happening of an event,
whereas the religious spirit is
as strongly attached to it, and finds its
very life in prayer. Yet even
the religious man sometimes feels uneasy as
to the rationale of prayer;
is he teaching the All-wise, is he urging
beneficence on the All-Good,
is he altering the will of Him in
"whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning?"[295] Yet he finds
in his own experience and in that
of others "answers to prayer," a
definite sequence of a request and a
fulfilment.
Many of these do not refer to subjective
experiences, but to hard facts
of the so-called objective world. A man has
prayed for money, and the
post has brought him the required amount; a
woman has prayed for food,
and food has been brought to her door. In
connection with charitable
undertakings, especially, there is plenty
of evidence of help prayed for
in urgent need, and of speedy and liberal
response. On the other hand,
there is also plenty of evidence of prayers
left unanswered; of the
hungry starving to death, of the child
snatched from its mother's arms
by disease, despite the most passionate
appeals to God. Any true view of
prayer must take into account all these
facts.
Nor is this all. There are many facts in
this experience which are
strange and puzzling. A prayer that perhaps
is trivial meets with an
answer, while another on an important
matter fails; a passing trouble is
relieved, while a prayer poured out to save
a passionately beloved life
finds no response. It seems almost
impossible for the ordinary student
to discover the law according to which a
prayer is or is not
productive.
The first thing necessary in seeking to
understand this law is to
analyse prayer itself, for the word is used
to cover various activities
of the consciousness, and prayers cannot be
dealt with as though they
formed a simple whole. There are prayers
which are petitions for
definite worldly advantages, for the supply
of physical
necessities--prayers for food, clothing,
money, employment, success in
business, recovery from illness, &c.
These may be grouped together as
class A. Then we have prayers for help in
moral and intellectual
difficulties and for spiritual growth--for
the overcoming of
temptations, for strength, for insight, for
enlightenment. These may be
grouped as Class B. Lastly, there are the
prayers that ask for nothing,
that consist in meditation on and adoration
of the divine Perfection, in
intense aspiration for union with God--the
ecstasy of the mystic, the
meditation of the sage, the soaring rapture
of the saint. This is the
true "communion between the Divine and
the human," when the man pours
himself out in love and veneration for THAT
which is inherently
attractive, that compels the love of the
heart. These we will call Class
C.
In the invisible worlds there exist many
kinds of Intelligences, which
come into relationship with man, a
veritable Jacob's ladder, on which
the Angels of God ascend and descend, and
above which stands the Lord
Himself.[296] Some of these Intelligences
are mighty spiritual Powers,
others are exceedingly limited beings,
inferior in consciousness to man.
This occult side of Nature--of which more
will presently be
said[297]--is a fact, recognised by all
religions. All the world is
filled with living things, invisible to
fleshly eyes. The invisible
worlds interpenetrate the visible, and
crowds of intelligent beings
throng round us on every side. Some of
these are accessible to human
requests, and others are amenable to the
human will. Christianity
recognises the existence of the higher
classes of Intelligences under
the general name of Angels, and teaches
that they are "ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister;"[298]
but what is their ministry, what
the nature of their work, what their
relationship to human beings, all
that was part of the instruction given in
the Lesser Mysteries, as the
actual communication with them was enjoyed
in the Greater, but in modern
days these truths have sunk into the
background, except the little that
is taught in the Greek and Roman
communions. For the Protestant, "the
ministry of angels" is little more
than a phrase. In addition to all
these, man is himself a constant creator of
invisible beings, for the
vibrations of his thoughts and desires
create forms of subtle matter the
only life of which is the thought or the
desire which ensouls them; he
thus creates an army of invisible servants,
who range through the
invisible worlds seeking to do his will.
Yet, again, there are in these
worlds human helpers, who work there in
their subtle bodies while their
physical bodies are sleeping, whose
attentive ear may catch a cry for
help. And to crown all, there is the
ever-present, ever-conscious Life
of God Himself, potent and responsive at
every point of His realm, of
Him without whose knowledge not a sparrow
falleth to the ground,[299]
not a dumb creature thrills in joy or pain,
not a child laughs or
sobs--that all-pervading, all-embracing,
all-sustaining Life and Love,
in which we live and move.[300] As nought
that can give pleasure or pain
can touch the human body without the
sensory nerves carrying the message
of its impact to the brain-centres, and as
there thrills down from those
centres through the motor nerves the answer
that welcomes or repels, so
does every vibration in the universe, which
is His body, touch the
consciousness of God, and draw thence
responsive action. Nerve-cells,
nerve-threads, and muscular fibres may be
the agents of feeling and
moving, but it is the _man_ that feels and
acts; so may myriads of
Intelligences be the agents, but it is God who
knows and answers.
Nothing can be so small as not to affect
that delicate omnipresent
consciousness, nothing so vast as to
transcend it. We are so limited
that the very idea of such an all-embracing
consciousness staggers and
confounds us; yet perhaps a gnat might be
as hard bestead if he tried to
measure the consciousness of Pythagoras.
Professor Huxley, in a
remarkable passage, has imagined the
possibility of the existence of
beings rising higher and higher in
intelligence, the consciousness ever
expanding, and the reaching of a stage as
much above the human as the
human is above that of the
blackbeetle.[301] That is not a flight of the
scientific imagination, but a description
of a fact. There is a Being
whose consciousness is present at every
point of His universe, and
therefore can be affected from any point.
That consciousness is not only
vast in its field, but inconceivably acute,
not diminished in delicate
capacity to respond because it stretches
its vast area in every
direction, but is more responsive than a
more limited consciousness,
more perfect in understanding than the more
restricted. So far from it
being the case that the more exalted the
Being the more difficult would
it be to reach His consciousness, the very
reverse is true. The more
exalted the Being, the more easily is His
consciousness affected.
Now this all-pervading Life is everywhere
utilising as channels all the
embodied lives to which He has given birth,
and any one of them may be
used as an agent of that all-conscious
Will. In order that that Will may
express itself in the outer world, a means
of expression must be found,
and these beings, in proportion to their
receptivity, offer the
necessary channels, and become the
intermediary workers between one
point of the kosmos and another. They act
as the motor nerves of His
body, and bring about the required action.
Let us now take the classes into which we
have divided prayers, and see
the methods by which they will be answered.
When a man utters a prayer of Class A there
are several means by which
his prayer may be answered. Such a man is
simple in his nature, with a
conception of God natural, inevitable, at
the stage of evolution in
which he is; he regards Him as the supplier
of his own needs, in close
and immediate touch with his daily
necessities, and he turns to Him for
his daily bread as naturally as a child
turns to his father or mother. A
typical instance of this is the case of George
Mueller, of Bristol,
before he was known to the world as a
philanthropist, when he was
beginning his charitable work, and was
without friends or money. He
prayed for food for the children who had no
resource save his bounty,
and money always came sufficient for the
immediate needs. What had
happened? His prayer was a strong,
energetic desire, and that desire
creates a form, of which it is the life and
directing energy. That
vibrating, living creature has but one
idea, the idea that ensouls
it--help is wanted, food is wanted; and it
ranges the subtle world,
seeking. A charitable man desires to give
help to the needy, is seeking
opportunity to give. As the magnet to soft
iron, so is such a person to
the desire-form, and it is attracted to
him. It rouses in his brain
vibrations identical with its own--George
Mueller, his orphanage, its
needs--and he sees the outlet for his
charitable impulse, draws a
cheque, and sends it. Quite naturally,
George Mueller would say that God
put it into the heart of such a one to give
the needed help. In the
deepest sense of the words that is true,
since there is no life, no
energy, in His universe that does not come
from God; but the
intermediate agency, according to the
divine laws, is the desire-form
created by the prayer.
The result could be obtained equally well
by a deliberate exercise of
the will, without any prayer, by a person
who understood the mechanism
concerned, and the way to put it in motion.
Such a man would think
clearly of what he needed, would draw to
him the kind of subtle matter
best suited to his purpose to clothe the
thought, and by a deliberate
exercise of his will would either send it
to a definite person to
represent his need, or to range his
neighbourhood and be attracted by a
charitably disposed person. There is here
no prayer, but a conscious
exercise of will and knowledge.
In the case of most people, however,
ignorant of the forces of the
invisible worlds and unaccustomed to
exercise their wills, the
concentration of mind and the earnest
desire which are necessary for
successful action are far more easily
reached by prayer than by a
deliberate mental effort to put forth their
own strength. They would
doubt their own power, even if they
understood the theory, and doubt is
fatal to the exercise of the will. That the
person who prays does not
understand the machinery he sets going in
no wise affects the result. A
child who stretches out his hand and grasps
an object need not
understand anything of the working of the
muscles, nor of the electrical
and chemical changes set up by the movement
in muscles and nerves, nor
need he elaborately calculate the distance
of the object by measuring
the angle made by the optic axes; he wills
to take hold of the thing he
wants, and the apparatus of his body obeys
his will though he does not
even know of its existence. So is it with
the man who prays, unknowing
of the creative force of his thought, of
the living creature he has
sent out to do his bidding. He acts as
unconsciously as the child, and
like the child grasps what he wants. In
both cases God is equally the
primal Agent, all power being from Him; in
both cases the actual work is
done by the apparatus provided by His laws.
But this is not the only way in which
prayers of this class are
answered. Some one temporarily out of the
physical body and at work in
the invisible worlds, or a passing Angel,
may hear the cry for help, and
may then put the thought of sending the
required aid into the brain of
some charitable person. "The thought
of so-and-so came into my head this
morning," such a person will say.
"I daresay a cheque would be useful to
him." Very many prayers are answered
in this way, the link between the
need and the supply being some invisible
Intelligence. Herein is part of
the ministry of the lower Angels, and they
will thus supply personal
necessities, as well as bring aid to
charitable undertakings.
The failure of prayers of this class is due
to another hidden cause.
Every man has contracted debts which have
to be paid; his wrong
thoughts, wrong desires, and wrong actions
have built up obstacles in
his way, and sometimes even hem him in as
the walls of a prison-house. A
debt of wrong is discharged by a payment of
suffering; a man must bear
the consequences of the wrongs he has
wrought. A man condemned to die of
starvation by his own wrong-doing in the
past, may hurl his prayers
against that destiny in vain. The
desire-form he creates will seek but
will not find; it will be met and thrown
back by the current of past
wrong. Here, as everywhere, we are living
in a realm of law, and forces
may be modified or entirely frustrated by
the play of other forces with
which they come into contact. Two exactly similar
forces might be
applied to two exactly similar balls; in
one case, no other force might
be applied to the ball, and it might strike
the mark aimed at; in the
other, a second force might strike the ball
and send it entirely out of
its course. And so with two similar
prayers; one may go on its way
unopposed and effect its object; the other
may be flung aside by the
far stronger force of a past wrong. One
prayer is answered, the other
unanswered; but in both cases the result is
by law.
Let us consider Class B. Prayers for help
in moral and intellectual
difficulties have a double result; they act
directly to attract help,
and they react on the person who prays.
They draw the attention of the
Angels, of the disciples working outside
the body, who are ever seeking
to help the bewildered mind, and counsel,
encouragement, illumination,
are thrown into the brain-consciousness,
thus giving the answer to
prayer in the most direct way. "And he
kneeled down and prayed ... and
there appeared an Angel unto Him from heaven,
strengthening Him."[302]
Ideas are suggested which clear away an
intellectual difficulty, or
throw light on an obscure moral problem, or
the sweetest comfort is
poured into the distressed heart, soothing
its perturbations and calming
its anxieties. And truly if no Angel were
passing that way, the cry of
the distressed would reach the "Hidden
Heart of Heaven," and a messenger
would be sent to carry comfort, some Angel,
ever ready to fly swiftly on
feeling the impulse, bearing the divine
will to help.
There is also what is sometimes called a
subjective answer to such
prayers, the re-action of the prayer on the
utterer. His prayer places
his heart and mind in the receptive
attitude, and this stills the lower
nature, and thus allows the strength and
illuminative power of the
higher to stream into it unchecked. The
currents of energy which
normally flow downwards, or outwards, from
the Inner Man, are, as a
rule, directed to the external world, and
are utilised in the ordinary
affairs of life by the brain-consciousness,
for the carrying on of its
daily activities. But when this
brain-consciousness turns away from the
outer world, and shutting its outward-going
doors, directs its gaze
inwards; when it deliberately closes itself
to the outer and opens
itself to the inner; then it becomes a
vessel able to receive and to
hold, instead of a mere conduit-pipe
between the interior and exterior
worlds. In the silence obtained by the
cessation of the noises of
external activities, the "still small
voice" of the Spirit can make
itself heard, and the concentrated
attention of the expectant mind
enables it to catch the soft whisper of the
Inner Self.
Even more markedly does help come from
without and from within, when the
prayer is for spiritual enlightenment, for
spiritual growth. Not only do
all helpers, angelic and human, most
eagerly seek to forward spiritual
progress, seizing on every opportunity
offered by the upward-aspiring
soul; but the longing for such growth
liberates energy of a high kind,
the spiritual longing calling forth an
answer from the spiritual realm.
Once more the law of sympathetic vibrations
asserts itself, and the note
of lofty aspiration is answered by a note
of its own order, by a
liberation of energy of its own kind, by a
vibration synchronous with
itself. The divine Life is ever pressing
from above against the limits
that bind it, and when the upward-rising
force strikes against those
limits from below, the separating wall is
broken through, and the divine
Life floods the Soul. When a man feels that
inflow of spiritual life,
he cries: "My prayer has been
answered, and God has sent down His Spirit
into my heart." Truly so; yet he
rarely understands that that Spirit is
ever seeking entrance, but that coming to
His own, His own receive Him
not.[303] "Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock: if any man hear my
voice, and open the door, I will come in to
him."[304]
The general principle with regard to all
prayers of this class is that
just in proportion to the submergence of
the personality and the
intensity of the upward aspiration will be
the answer from the wider
life within and without us. We separate
ourselves. If we cease the
separation and make ourselves one with the
greater, we find that light
and life and strength flow into us. When
the separate will is turned
away from its own objects and set to serve
the divine purpose, then the
strength of the Divine pours into it. As a
man swims against the stream,
he makes slow progress; but with it, he is
carried on by all the force
of the current. In every department of
Nature the divine energies are
working, and everything that a man does he
does by means of the energies
that are working in the line along which he
desires to do; his greatest
achievements are wrought, not by his own
energies, but by the skill with
which he selects and combines the forces
that aid him, and neutralises
those that oppose him by those that are
favourable. Forces that would
whirl us away as straws in the wind become
our most effective servants
when we work with them. Is it then any
wonder that in prayer, as in
everything else, the divine energies become
associated with the man who,
by his prayer, seeks to work as part of the
Divine?
This highest form of prayer in Class B
merges almost imperceptibly into
Class C, where prayer loses its petitionary
character, and becomes
either a meditation on, or a worship of,
God. Meditation is the steady
quiet fixing of the mind on God, whereby
the lower mind is stilled and
presently left vacant, so that the Spirit,
escaping from it, rises into
contemplation of the divine Perfection, and
reflects within himself the
divine Image. "Meditation is silent or
_unuttered_ prayer, or as Plato
expressed it: 'the ardent turning of the
Soul towards the Divine; not to
ask any particular good (as in the common
meaning of prayer), but for
good itself, for the Universal Supreme
Good.'"[305]
This is the prayer that, by thus liberating
the Spirit, is the means of
union between man and God. By the working
of the laws of thought a man
becomes that which he thinks, and when he
meditates on the divine
perfections he gradually reproduces in
himself that on which his mind is
fixed. Such a mind, shaped to the higher
and not the lower, cannot bind
the Spirit, and the freed Spirit leaping
upward to his source, prayer is
lost in union and separateness is left
behind.
Worship also, the rapt adoration from which
all petition is absent, and
which seeks to pour itself forth in sheer
love of the Perfect, dimly
sensed, is a means--the easiest means--of
union with God. In this the
consciousness, limited by the brain,
contemplates in mute exstasy the
Image it creates of Him whom it knows to be
beyond imagining, and oft,
rapt by the intensity of his love beyond
the limits of the intellect,
the man as a free Spirit soars upwards into
realms where these limits
are transcended, and feels and knows far
more than on his return he can
tell in words or clothe in form.
Thus the Mystic gazes on the Beatific
Vision; thus the Sage rests in the
calm of the Wisdom that is beyond
knowledge; thus the Saint reaches the
purity wherein God is seen. Such prayer
irradiates the worshipper, and
from the mount of such high communion
descending to the plains of earth,
the very face of flesh shines with supernal
glory, translucent to the
flame that burns within. Happy they who
know the reality which no words
may convey to those who know it not. Those
whose eyes have seen "the
King in His beauty"[306] will
remember, and they will understand.
When prayer is thus understood, its
perennial necessity for all who
believe in religion will be patent, and we
see why its practice has
been so much advocated by all who study the
higher life. For the student
of the Lesser Mysteries prayer should be of
the kinds grouped under
Class B, and he should endeavour to rise to
the pure meditation and
worship of the last class, eschewing
altogether the lower kinds. For him
the teaching of Iamblichus on this subject
is useful. Iamblichus says
that prayers "produce an indissoluble
and sacred communion with the
Gods," and then proceeds to give some
interesting details on prayer, as
considered by the practical Occultist.
"For this is of itself a thing
worthy to be known, and renders more
perfect the science concerning the
Gods. I say, therefore, that the first
species of prayer is Collective;
and that it is also the leader of contact
with, and a knowledge of,
divinity. The second species is the bond of
concordant Communion,
calling forth, prior to the energy of
speech, the gifts imparted by the
Gods, and perfecting the whole of our
operations prior to our
intellectual conceptions. And the third and
most perfect species of
prayer is the seal of ineffable Union with
the divinities, in whom it
establishes all the power and authority of
prayer; and thus causes the
soul to repose in the Gods, as in a never
failing port. But from these
three terms, in which all the divine
measures are contained, suppliant
adoration not only conciliates to us the
friendship of the Gods, but
supernally extends to us three fruits,
being as it were three Hesperian
apples of gold. The first of these pertains
to illumination; the second
to a communion of operation; but through
the energy of the third we
receive a perfect plenitude of divine
fire.... No operation, however, in
sacred concerns, can succeed without the
intervention of prayer. Lastly,
the continual exercise of prayer nourishes
the vigour of our intellect,
and renders the receptacle of the soul far
more capacious for the
communications of the Gods. It likewise is
the divine key, which opens
to men the penetralia of the Gods;
accustoms us to the splendid rivers
of supernal light; in a short time perfects
our inmost recesses, and
disposes them for the ineffable embrace and
contact of the Gods; and
does not desist till it raises us to the
summit of all. It also
gradually and silently draws upward the
manners of our soul, by
divesting them of everything foreign to a
divine nature, and clothes us
with the perfections of the Gods. Besides
this, it produces an
indissoluble communion and friendship with
divinity, nourishes a divine
love, and inflames the divine part of the
soul. Whatever is of an
opposing and contrary nature in the soul,
it expiates and purifies;
expels whatever is prone to generation and
retains anything of the dregs
of mortality in its ethereal and splendid
spirit; perfects a good hope
and faith concerning the reception of
divine light; and in one word,
renders those by whom it is employed the
familiars and domestics of the
Gods."[307]
Out of such study and practice one
inevitable result arises, as a man
begins to understand, and as the wider
range of human life unfolds
before him. He sees that by knowledge his
strength is much increased,
that there are forces around him that he
can understand and control, and
that in proportion to his knowledge is his
power. Then he learns that
Divinity lies hidden within himself, and
that nothing that is fleeting
can satisfy that God within; that only
union with the One, the Perfect,
can still his cravings. Then there
gradually arises within him the will
to set himself at one with the Divine; he
ceases to vehemently seek to
change circumstances, and to throw fresh causes
into the stream of
effects. He recognises himself as an agent
rather than an actor, a
channel rather than a source, a servant
rather than a master, and seeks
to discover the divine purposes and to work
in harmony therewith.
When a man has reached that point, he has
risen above all prayer, save
that which is meditation and worship; he
has nothing to ask for, in this
world or in any other; he remains in a
steadfast serenity, seeking but
to serve God. That is the state of Sonship,
where the will of the Son is
one with the will of the Father, where the
one calm surrender is made,
"Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. I
am content to do it; yea, Thy law
is within my heart."[308] Then all
prayer is seen to be unnecessary;
all asking is felt as an impertinence;
nothing can be longed for that is
not already in the purposes of that Will,
and all will be brought into
active manifestation as the agents of that
Will perfect themselves in
the work.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER XI.
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
"I believe in ... the forgiveness of
sins." "I acknowledge one baptism
for the remission of sins." The words
fall facilely from the lips of
worshippers in every Christian church
throughout the world, as they
repeat the familiar creeds called those of
the Apostles and the Nicene.
Among the sayings of Jesus the words
frequently recur: "Thy sins are
forgiven thee," and it is noteworthy
that this phrase constantly
accompanies the exercise of His healing
powers, the release from
physical and moral disease being thus
marked as simultaneous. In fact,
on one occasion He pointed to the healing
of a palsy-stricken man as a
sign that he had a right to declare to a
man that his sins were
forgiven.[309] So also of one woman it was
said: "Her sins, which are
many, are forgiven, for she loved
much."[310] In the famous Gnostic
treatise, the _Pistis Sophia_, the very
purpose of the Mysteries is said
to be the remission of sins. "Should
they have been sinners, should they
have been in all the sins and all the
iniquities of the world, of which
I have spoken unto you, nevertheless if
they turn themselves and repent,
and have made the renunciation which I have
just described unto you,
give ye unto them the mysteries of the
kingdom of light; hide them not
from them at all. It is because of sin that
I have brought these
mysteries into the world, for the remission
of all the sins which they
have committed from the beginning.
Wherefore have I said unto you
aforetime, 'I came not to call the
righteous.' Now, therefore, I have
brought the mysteries, that the sins of all
men may be remitted, and
they be brought into the kingdom of light.
For these mysteries are the
boon of the first mystery of the
destruction of the sins and iniquities
of all sinners."[311]
In these Mysteries, the remission of sin is
by baptism, as in the
acknowledgment in the Nicene Creed. Jesus
says: "Hearken, again, that I
may tell you the word in truth, of what
type is the mystery of baptism
which remitteth sins.... When a man
receiveth the mysteries of the
baptisms, those mysteries become a mighty
fire, exceedingly fierce,
wise, which burneth up all sins; they enter
into the soul occultly, and
devour all the sins which the spiritual
counterfeit hath implanted in
it." And after describing further the
process of purification, Jesus
adds: "This is the way in which the
mysteries of the baptisms remit sins
and every iniquity."[312]
In one form or another the
"forgiveness of sins" appears in most, if not
in all, religions; and wherever this
consensus of opinion is found, we
may safely conclude, according to the
principle already laid down, that
some fact in nature underlies it. Moreover,
there is a response in
human nature to this idea that sins are
forgiven; we notice that people
suffer under a consciousness of
wrong-doing, and that when they shake
themselves clear of their past, and free
themselves from the shackling
fetters of remorse, they go forward with
glad heart and sunlit eyes,
though erstwhile enclouded by darkness.
They feel as though a burden
were lifted off them, a clog removed. The
"sense of sin" has
disappeared, and with it the gnawing pain.
They know the springtime of
the soul, the word of power which makes all
things new. A song of
gratitude wells up as the natural outburst
of the heart, the time for
the singing of birds is come, there is
"joy among the Angels." This not
uncommon experience is one that becomes
puzzling, when the person
experiencing it, or seeing it in another,
begins to ask himself what has
really taken place, what has brought about
the change in consciousness,
the effects of which are so manifest.
Modern thinkers, who have thoroughly
assimilated the idea of changeless
laws underlying all phenomena, and who have
studied the workings of
these laws, are at first apt to reject any
and every theory of the
forgiveness of sins as being inconsistent
with that fundamental truth,
just as the scientist, penetrated with the
idea of the inviolability of
law, repels all thought which is
inconsistent with it. And both are
right in founding themselves on the
unfaltering working of law, for law
is but the expression of the divine Nature,
in which there is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Any view of the forgiveness of
sins that we may adopt must not clash with
this fundamental idea, as
necessary to ethical as to physical
science. "The bottom would fall out
of everything" if we could not rest
securely in the everlasting arms of
the Good Law.
But in pursuing our investigations, we are
struck with the fact that the
very Teachers who are most insistent on the
changeless working of law
are also those who emphatically proclaim
the forgiveness of sins. At one
time Jesus is saying: "That every idle
word that men shall speak, they
shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment,"[313] and at
another: "Son, be of good cheer, thy
sins be forgiven thee."[314] So in
the _Bhagavad Gita_ we read constantly of
the bonds of action, that "the
world is bound by action,"[315] and
that a man "recovereth the
characteristics of his former
body;"[316] and yet it is said that "even
if the most sinful worship me, with
undivided heart, he, too, must be
accounted righteous."[317] It would
seem, then, that whatever may have
been intended in the world's Scriptures by
the phrase, "the forgiveness
of sins," it was not thought, by Those
who best know the law, to clash
with the inviolable sequence of cause and
effect.
If we examine even the crudest idea of the
forgiveness of sins prevalent
in our own day, we find that the believer
in it does not mean that the
forgiven sinner is to escape from the
consequences of his sin in this
world; the drunkard, whose sins are
forgiven on his repentance, is still
seen to suffer from shaken nerves, impaired
digestion, and the lack of
confidence shown towards him by his
fellow-men. The statements made as
to forgiveness, when they are examined, are
ultimately found to refer to
the relations between the repentant sinner
and God, and to the
_post-mortem_ penalties attached to
unforgiven sin in the creed of the
speaker, and not to any escape from the
mundane consequences of sin. The
loss of belief in reincarnation, and of a
sane view as to the continuity
of life, whether it were spent in this or
in the next two worlds,[318]
brought with it various incongruities and
indefensible assertions, among
them the blasphemous and terrible idea of
the eternal torture of the
human soul for sins committed during the brief
span of one life spent on
earth. In order to escape from this
nightmare, theologians posited a
forgiveness which should release the sinner
from this dread imprisonment
in an eternal hell. It did not, and was
never supposed to, set him free
in this world from the natural consequences
of his ill-doings,
nor--except in modern Protestant
communities--was it held to deliver
him from prolonged purgatorial sufferings,
the direct results of sin,
after the death of the physical body. The
law had its course, both in
this world and in purgatory, and in each
world sorrow followed on the
heels of sin, even as the wheels follow the
ox. It was but eternal
torture--which existed only in the clouded
imagination of the
believer--that was escaped by the
forgiveness of sins; and we may
perhaps go so far as to suggest that the
dogmatist, having postulated an
eternal hell as the monstrous result of
transient errors, felt compelled
to provide a way of escape from an
incredible and unjust fate, and
therefore further postulated an incredible
and unjust forgiveness.
Schemes that are elaborated by human
speculation, without regard to the
facts of life, are apt to land the
speculator in thought-morasses,
whence he can only extricate himself by
blundering through the mire in
an opposite direction. A superfluous
eternal hell was balanced by a
superfluous forgiveness, and thus the
uneven scales of justice were
again rendered level. Leaving these
aberrations of the unenlightened,
let us return into the realm of fact and
right reason.
When a man has committed an evil action he
has attached himself to a
sorrow, for sorrow is ever the plant that
springs from the seed of sin.
It may be said, even more accurately, that
sin and sorrow are but the
two sides of one act, not two separate
events. As every object has two
sides, one of which is behind, out of
sight, when the other is in front,
in sight, so every act has two sides, which
cannot both be seen at once
in the physical world. In other worlds,
good and happiness, evil and
sorrow, are seen as the two sides of the
same thing. This is what is
called karma--a convenient and now
widely-used term, originally
Samskrit, expressing this connection or
identity, literally meaning
"action"--and the suffering is
therefore called the karmic result of the
wrong. The result, the "other
side," may not follow immediately, may not
even accrue during the present incarnation,
but sooner or later it will
appear and clasp the sinner with its arms
of pain. Now a result in the
physical world, an effect experienced through
our physical
consciousness, is the final outcome of a
cause set going in the past; it
is the ripened fruit; in it a particular
force becomes manifest and
exhausts itself. That force has been
working outwards, and its effects
are already over in the mind ere it appears
in the body. Its bodily
manifestation, its appearance, in the
physical world, is the sign of the
completion of its course.[319] If at such a
moment the sinner, having
exhausted the karma of his sin, comes into
contact with a Sage who can
see the past and the present, the invisible
and the visible, such a Sage
may discern the ending of the particular
karma, and, the sentence being
completed, may declare the captive free.
Such an instance seems to be
given in the story of the man sick of the
palsy, already alluded to, a
case typical of many. A physical ailment is
the last expression of a
past ill-doing; the mental and moral
outworking is completed, and the
sufferer is brought--by the agency of some
Angel, as an administrator of
the law--into the presence of One able to
relieve physical disease by
the exertion of a higher energy. First, the
Initiate declares that the
man's sins are forgiven, and then justifies
his insight by the
authoritative word, "Arise, take up
thy bed, and go unto thine house."
Had no such enlightened One been there, the
disease would have passed
away under the restoring touch of nature,
under a force applied by the
invisible angelic Intelligences, who carry
out in this world the
workings of karmic law; when a greater One
is acting, this force is of
more swiftly compelling power, and the
physical vibrations are at once
attuned to the harmony that is health. All
such forgiveness of sins may
be termed declaratory; the karma is
exhausted, and a "knower of karma"
declares the fact. The assurance brings a
relief to the mind that is
akin to the relief experienced by a
prisoner when the order for his
release is given, that order being as much
a part of the law as the
original sentence; but the relief of the
man who thus learns of the
exhaustion of an evil karma is keener,
because he cannot himself tell
the term of its action.
It is noticeable that these declarations of
forgiveness are constantly
coupled with the statement that the
sufferer showed "faith," and that
without this nothing could be done; _i.e._,
the real agent in the ending
of this karma is the sinner himself. In the
case of the "woman that was
a sinner," the two declarations are
coupled: "Thy sins are forgiven....
Thy faith hath saved thee; go in
peace."[320] This "faith" is the
up-welling in man of his own divine
essence, seeking the divine ocean of
like essence, and when this breaks through
the lower nature that holds
it in--as the water-spring breaks through
the encumbering
earth-clods--the power thus liberated works
on the whole nature,
bringing it into harmony with itself. The
man only becomes conscious of
this as the karmic crust of evil is broken
up by its force, and that
glad consciousness of a power within
himself hitherto unknown,
asserting itself as soon as the evil karma
is exhausted, is a large
factor in the joy, relief, and new strength
that follow on the feeling
that sin is "forgiven," that its
results are past.
And this brings us to the heart of the
subject--the changes that go on
in a man's inner nature, unrecognised by
that part of his consciousness
which works within the limits of his brain,
until they suddenly assert
themselves within those limits, coming
apparently from nowhere, bursting
forth "from the blue," pouring
from an unknown source. What wonder that
a man, bewildered by their
downrush--knowing nothing of the mysteries of
his own nature, nothing of "the inner
God" that is verily
himself--imagines that to be from without
which is really from within,
and, unconscious of his own Divinity,
thinks only of Divinities in the
world external to himself. And this
misconception is the more easy,
because the final touch, the vibration that
breaks the imprisoning
shell, is often the answer from the
Divinity within another man, or
within some superhuman being, responding to
the insistent cry from the
imprisoned Divinity within himself; he
oft-times recognises the
brotherly aid, while not recognising that
he himself, the cry from his
inner nature, called it forth. As an
explanation from a wiser than
ourselves may make an intellectual
difficulty clear to our mind, though
it is our own mind that, thus aided, grasps
the solution; as an
encouraging word from one purer than
ourselves may nerve us to a moral
effort that we should have thought beyond
our power, though it is our
own strength that makes it; so may a
loftier Spirit than our own, one
more conscious of its Divinity, aid us to
put forth our own divine
energy, though it is that very putting
forth that lifts us to a higher
plane. We are all bound by ties of
brotherly help to those above us as
to those below us, and why should we, who
so constantly find ourselves
able to help in their development souls
less advanced than ourselves,
hesitate to admit that we can receive
similar help from Those far above
us, and that our progress may be rendered
much swifter by Their aid?
Now among the changes that go on in a man's
inner nature, unknown to his
lower consciousness, are those that have to
do with the putting forth of
his will. The Ego, glancing backward over
his past, balancing up its
results, suffering under its mistakes,
determines on a change of
attitude, on a change of activity. While
his lower vehicle is still,
under his former impulses, plunging along
lines of action that bring it
into sharp collisions with the law, the Ego
determines on an opposite
course of conduct. Hitherto he has turned
his face longingly to the
animal, the pleasures of the lower world
have held him fast enchained.
Now he turns his face to the true goal of
evolution, and determines to
work for loftier joys. He sees that the
whole world is evolving, and
that if he sets himself against that mighty
current it clashes him
aside, bruising him sorely in the process;
he sees that if he sets
himself with it, it will bear him onwards
on its bosom and land him in
the desired haven.
He then resolves to change his life, he
turns determinedly on his steps,
he faces the other way. The first result of
the effort to turn his
lower nature into the changed course, is
much distress and disturbance.
The habits formed under the impacts of the
old views resist stubbornly
the impulses flowing from the new, and a
bitter conflict arises.
Gradually the consciousness working in the
brain accepts the decision
made on higher planes, and then
"becomes conscious of sin" by this very
recognition of the law. The sense of error
deepens, remorse preys on the
mind; spasmodic efforts are made towards
improvement, and, frustrated by
old habits, repeatedly fail, till the man,
overwhelmed by grief for the
past, despair of the present, is plunged
into hopeless gloom. At last,
the ever-increasing suffering wrings from
the Ego a cry for help,
answered from the inner depths of his own
nature, from the God within as
well as around him, the Life of his life.
He turns from the lower nature
that is thwarting him to the higher which
is his innermost being, from
the separated self that tortures him to the
One Self that is the Heart
of all.
But this change of front means that he
turns his face from the
darkness, that he turns his face to the
light. The light was always
there, but his back was towards it; now he
sees the sun, and its
radiance cheers his eyes, and overfloods
his being with delight. His
heart was closed; it is now flung open, and
the ocean of life flows in,
in full tide, suffusing him with joy. Wave
after wave of new life
uplifts him, and the gladness of the dawn
surrounds him. He sees his
past as past, because his will is set to
follow a higher path, and he
recks little of the suffering that the past
may bequeath to him, since
he knows he will not hand on such bitter
legacy from his present. This
sense of peace, of joy, of freedom, is the
feeling spoken of as the
result of the forgiveness of sins. The
obstacles set up by the lower
nature between the God within and the God
without are swept away, and
that nature scarce recognises that the
change is in itself and not in
the Oversoul. As a child, having thrust
away the mother's guiding hand
and hidden its face against the wall, may
fancy itself alone and
forgotten, until, turning with a cry, it
finds around it the protecting
mother-arms that were never but a
handsbreadth away; so does man in his
wilfulness push away the shielding arms of
the divine Mother of the
worlds, only to find, when he turns back
his face, that he has never
been outside their protecting shelter, and
that wherever he may wander
that guarding love is round him still.
The key to this change in the man, that
brings about "forgiveness," is
given in the verse of the _Bhagavad-Gita_
already partly quoted: "Even
if the most sinful worship me, with
undivided heart, he too must be
accounted righteous, _for he hath rightly
resolved_." On that right
resolution follows the inevitable result:
"Speedily he becometh dutiful
and goeth to peace."[321] The essence
of sin lies in setting the will of
the part against the will of the whole, the
human against the Divine.
When this is changed, when the Ego puts his
separate will into union
with the will that works for evolution,
then, in the world where to will
is to do, in the world where effects are
seen as present in causes, the
man is "accounted righteous;" the
effects on the lower planes must
inevitably follow; "speedily he
becometh dutiful" in action, having
already become dutiful in will. Here we
judge by actions, the dead
leaves of the past; there they judge by
wills, the germinating seeds of
the future. Hence the Christ ever says to men
in the lower world: "Judge
not."[322]
Even after the new direction has been
definitely followed, and has
become the normal habit of the life, there
come times of failure,
alluded to in the _Pistis Sophia_, when
Jesus is asked whether a man may
be again admitted to the Mysteries, after
he has fallen away, if he
again repents. The answer of Jesus is in
the affirmative, but he states
that a time comes when re-admission is
beyond the power of any save of
the highest Mystery, who pardons ever.
"Amen, amen, I say unto you,
whosoever shall receive the mysteries of
the first mystery, and then
shall turn back and transgress twelve times
[even], and then should
again repent twelve times, offering prayer
in the mystery of the first
mystery, he shall be forgiven. But if he
should transgress after twelve
times, should he turn back and transgress,
it shall not be remitted unto
him for ever, so that he may turn again
unto his mystery, whatever it
be. For him there is no means of repentance
unless he have received the
mysteries of that ineffable, which hath
compassion at all times and
remitteth sins for ever and
ever."[323] These restorations after
failure, in which "sin is
remitted," meet us in human life, especially
in the higher phases of evolution. A man is
offered an opportunity,
which, taken, would open up to him new
possibilities of growth. He fails
to grasp it, and falls away from the
position he had gained that made
the further opportunity possible. For him,
for the time, further
progress is blocked; he must turn all his
efforts wearily to retread the
ground he had already trodden, and to
regain and make sure his footing
on the place from which he had slipped.
Only when this is accomplished
will he hear the gentle Voice that tells
him that the past is out-worn,
the weakness turned to strength, and that
the gateway is again open for
his passage. Here again the
"forgiveness" is but the declaration by a
proper authority of the true state of
affairs, the opening of the gate
to the competent, its closure to the incompetent.
Where there had been
failure, with its accompanying suffering,
this declaration would be felt
as a "baptism for the remission of
sins," re-admitting the aspirant to a
privilege lost by his own act; this would
certainly give rise to
feelings of joy and peace, to a relief from
the burden of sorrow, to a
feeling that the clog of the past had at
last fallen from the feet.
Remains one truth that should never be
forgotten: that we are living in
an ocean of light, of love, of bliss, that
surrounds us at all times,
the Life of God. As the sun floods the
earth with his radiance so does
that Life enlighten all, only that Sun of
the world never sets to any
part of it. We shut this light out of our
consciousness by our
selfishness, our heartlessness, our
impurity, our intolerance, but it
shines on us ever the same, bathing us on
every side, pressing against
our self-built walls with gentle, strong
persistence. When the soul
throws down these excluding walls, the
light flows in, and the soul
finds itself flooded with sunshine,
breathing the blissful air of
heaven. "For the Son of man is in
heaven," though he know it not, and
its breezes fan his brow if he bares it to
their breaths. God ever
respects man's individuality, and will not
enter his consciousness until
that consciousness opens to give welcome;
"Behold I stand at the door
and knock"[324] is the attitude of
every spiritual Intelligence towards
the evolving human soul; not in lack of
sympathy is rooted that waiting
for the open door, but in deepest wisdom.
Man is not to be compelled; he is to be
free. He is not a slave, but a
God in the making, and the growth cannot be
forced, but must be willed
from within. Only when the will consents,
as Giordano Bruno teaches,
will God influence man, though He be
"everywhere present, and ready to
come to the aid of whosoever turns to Him
through the act of the
intelligence, and who unreservedly presents
himself with the affection
of the will."[325] "The divine
potency which is all in all does not
proffer or withhold, except through
assimilation or rejection by
oneself."[326] "It is taken in
quickly, as the solar light, without
hesitation, and makes itself present to
whoever turns himself to it and
opens himself to it ... the windows are
opened, but the sun enters in a
moment, so does it happen similarly in this
case."[327]
The sense of "forgiveness," then,
is the feeling which fills the heart
with joy when the will is tuned to harmony
with the Divine, when, the
soul having opened its windows, the
sunshine of love and light and bliss
pours in, when the part feels its oneness
with the whole, and the One
Life thrills each vein. This is the noble
truth that gives vitality to
even the crudest presentation of the
"forgiveness of sins," and that
makes it often, despite its intellectual
incompleteness, an inspirer to
pure and spiritual living. And this is the
truth, as seen in the Lesser
Mysteries.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER XII.
SACRAMENTS.
In all religions there exist certain
ceremonials, or rites, which are
regarded as of vital importance by the
believers in the religion, and
which are held to confer certain benefits
on those taking part in them.
The word Sacrament, or some equivalent
term, has been applied to these
ceremonials, and they all have the same
character. Little exact
exposition has been given as to their
nature and meaning, but this is
another of the subjects explained of old in
the Lesser Mysteries.
The peculiar characteristic of a Sacrament
resides in two of its
properties. First, there is the exoteric
ceremony, which is a pictorial
allegory, a representation of something by
actions and materials--not a
verbal allegory, a teaching given in words,
conveying a truth; but an
acted representation, certain definite
material things used in a
particular way. The object in choosing
these materials, and aimed at in
the ceremonies by which their manipulation
is accompanied, is to
represent, as in a picture, some truth
which it is desired to impress
upon the minds of the people present. That
is the first and obvious
property of a Sacrament, differentiating it
from other forms of worship
and meditation. It appeals to those who
without this imagery would fail
to catch a subtle truth, and shows to them
in a vivid and graphic form
the truth which otherwise would escape
them. Every Sacrament, when it is
studied, should be taken first from this
standpoint, that it is a
pictorial allegory; the essential things to
be studied will therefore
be: the material objects which enter into
the allegory, the method in
which they are employed, and the meaning
which the whole is intended to
convey.
The second characteristic property of a
Sacrament belongs to the facts
of the invisible worlds, and is studied by
occult science. The person
who officiates in the Sacrament should
possess this knowledge, as much,
though not all, of the operative power of
the Sacrament depends on the
knowledge of the officiator. A Sacrament
links the material world with
the subtle and invisible regions to which
that world is related; it is a
link between the visible and the invisible.
And it is not only a link
between this world and other worlds, but it
is also a method by which
the energies of the invisible world are
transmuted into action in the
physical; an actual method of changing
energies of one kind into
energies of another, as literally as in the
galvanic cell chemical
energies are changed into electrical. The
essence of all energies is one
and the same, whether in the visible or
invisible worlds; but the
energies differ according to the grades of
matter through which they
manifest. A Sacrament serves as a kind of
crucible in which spiritual
alchemy takes place. An energy placed in
this crucible and subjected to
certain manipulations comes forth different
in expression. Thus an
energy of a subtle kind, belonging to one
of the higher regions of the
universe, may be brought into direct
relation with people living in the
physical world, and may be made to affect
them in the physical world as
well as in its own realm; the Sacrament
forms the last bridge from the
invisible to the visible, and enables the
energies to be directly
applied to those who fulfil the necessary
conditions and who take part
in the Sacrament.
The Sacraments of the Christian Church lost
much of their dignity and of
the recognition of their occult power among
those who separated from the
Roman Catholic Church at the time of the
"Reformation." The previous
separation between the East and the West,
leaving the Greek Orthodox
Church on the one side and the Roman Church
on the other, in no way
affected belief in the Sacraments. They
remained in both great
communities as the recognised links between
the seen and the unseen, and
sanctified the life of the believer from
cradle to grave. The Seven
Sacraments of Christianity cover the whole
of life, from the welcome of
Baptism to the farewell of Extreme Unction.
They were established by
Occultists, by men who knew the invisible
worlds; and the materials
used, the words spoken, the signs made,
were all deliberately chosen and
arranged with a view to bringing about
certain results.
At the time of the Reformation, the seceding
Churches, which threw off
the yoke of Rome, were not led by
Occultists, but by ordinary men of the
world, some good and some bad, but all
profoundly ignorant of the facts
of the invisible worlds, and conscious only
of the outer shell of
Christianity, its literal dogmas and
exoteric worship. The consequence
of this was that the Sacraments lost their
supreme place in Christian
worship, and in most Protestant communities
were reduced to two, Baptism
and the Eucharist. The sacramental nature
of the others was not
explicitly denied in the most important of
the seceding Churches, but
the two were set apart from the five, as of
universal obligation, of
which every member of the Church must
partake in order to be recognised
as a full member.
The general definition of a Sacrament is
given quite accurately, save
for the superfluous words, "ordained
by Christ Himself," in the
Catechism of the Church of England, and
even these words might be
retained if the mystic meaning be given to
the word "Christ." A
Sacrament is there said to be: "An
outward and visible sign of an inward
and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained
by Christ Himself, as a
means whereby we receive the same and a
pledge to assure us thereof."
In this definition we find laid down the
two distinguishing
characteristics of a Sacrament as given
above. The "outward and visible
sign" is the pictorial allegory, and
the phrase, the "means whereby we
receive the" "inward and
spiritual grace" covers the second property.
This last phrase should be carefully noted
by those members of
Protestant Churches who regard Sacraments
as mere external forms and
outer ceremonies. For it distinctly alleges
that the Sacrament is really
a means whereby the grace is conveyed, and
thus implies that without it
the grace does not pass in the same fashion
from the spiritual to the
physical world. It is the distinct
recognition of a Sacrament in its
second aspect, as a means whereby spiritual
powers are brought into
activity on earth.
In order to understand a Sacrament, it is
necessary that we should
definitely recognise the existence of an
occult, or hidden, side of
Nature; this is spoken of as the life-side
of Nature, the
consciousness-side, more accurately the
mind _in_ Nature. Underlying all
sacramental action there is the belief that
the invisible world
exercises a potent influence over the
visible, and to understand a
Sacrament we must understand something of
the invisible Intelligences
who administer Nature. We have seen in
studying the doctrine of the
Trinity that Spirit is manifested as the
triple Self, and that as the
Field for His manifestation there is
Matter, the form-side of Nature,
often regarded, and rightly, as Nature
herself. We have to study both
these aspects, the side of life and that of
form, in order to understand
a Sacrament.
Stretching between the Trinity and humanity
are many grades and
hierarchies of invisible beings; the
highest of these are the seven
Spirits of God, the seven Fires, or Flames,
that are before the throne
of God.[328] Each of these stands at the
head of a vast host of
Intelligences, all of whom share His nature
and act under His direction;
these are themselves graded, and are the
Thrones, Powers, Princes,
Dominations, Archangels, Angels, of whom mention
is found in the
writings of the Christian Fathers, who were
versed in the Mysteries.
Thus there are seven great hosts of these
Beings, and they represent in
their intelligence the divine Mind in
Nature. They are found in all
regions, and they ensoul the energies of
Nature. From the standpoint of
occultism there is no dead force and no
dead matter. Force and matter
alike are living and active, and an energy
or a group of energies is the
veil of an Intelligence, of a Consciousness,
who has that energy as his
outer expression, and the matter in which
that energy moves yields a
form which he guides or ensouls. Unless a
man can thus look at Nature
all esoteric teaching must remain for him a
sealed book. Without these
angelic Lives, these countless invisible
Intelligences, these
Consciousnesses which ensoul the force and
matter[329] which is Nature,
Nature herself would not only remain
unintelligible, but she would be
out of relation alike to the divine Life
that moves within and around
her, and to the human lives that are
developing in her midst. These
innumerable Angels link the worlds
together; they are themselves
evolving while helping the evolution of
beings lower than themselves,
and a new light is shed on evolution when
we see that men form grades in
these hierarchies of intelligent beings.
These angels are the "sons of
God" of an earlier birth than ours,
who "shouted for joy"[330] when the
foundations of the earth were laid amid the
choiring of the Morning
Stars.
Others beings are below us in
evolution--animals, plants, minerals, and
elemental lives--as the Angels are above
us; and as we thus study, a
conception dawns upon us of a vast Wheel of
Life, of numberless
existences, inter-related and necessary
each to each, man as a living
Intelligence, as a self-conscious being,
having his own place in this
Wheel. The Wheel is ever turning by the
divine Will, and the living
Intelligences who form it learn to
co-operate with that Will, and if in
the action of those Intelligences there is
any break or gap due to
neglect or opposition, then the Wheel
drags, turning slowly, and the
chariot of the evolution of the worlds goes
but heavily upon its way.
These numberless Lives, above and below
man, come into touch with human
consciousness in very definite ways, and
among these ways are sounds and
colours. Each sound has a form in the
invisible world, and combinations
of sounds create complicated shapes.[331]
In the subtle matter of those
worlds all sounds are accompanied by
colours, so that they give rise to
many-hued shapes, in many cases exceedingly
beautiful. The vibrations
set up in the visible world when a note is
sounded set up vibrations in
the worlds invisible, each one with its own
specific character, and
capable of producing certain effects. In
communicating with the
sub-human Intelligences connected with the
lower invisible world and
with the physical, and in controlling and
directing these, sounds must
be used fitted to bring about the desired
results, as language made up
of definite sounds is used here. And in
communicating with the higher
Intelligences certain sounds are useful, to
create a harmonious
atmosphere, suitable for their activities,
and to make our own subtle
bodies receptive of their influences.
This effect on the subtle bodies is a most
important part of the occult
use of sounds. These bodies, like the
physical, are in constant
vibratory motion, the vibrations changing
with every thought or desire.
These changing irregular vibrations offer
an obstacle to any fresh
vibration coming from outside, and, in
order to render the bodies
susceptible to the higher influences,
sounds are used which reduce the
irregular vibrations to a steady rhythm,
like in its nature to the
rhythm of the Intelligence sought to be
reached. The object of all
often-repeated sentences is to effect this,
as a musician sounds the
same note over and over again, until all
the instruments are in tune.
The subtle bodies must be tuned to the note
of the Being sought, if his
influence is to find free way through the
nature of the worshipper, and
this was ever done of old by the use of
sounds. Hence, music has ever
formed an integral part of worship, and
certain definite cadences have
been preserved with care, handed on from
age to age.
In every religion there exist sounds of a
peculiar character, called
"Words of Power," consisting of
sentences in a particular language
chanted in a particular way; each religion
possesses a stock of such
sentences, special successions of sounds,
now very generally called
"mantras," that being the name
given to them in the East, where the
science of mantras has been much studied
and elaborated. It is not
necessary that a mantra--a succession of
sounds arranged in a particular
manner to bring about a definite
result--should be in any one particular
language. Any language can be used for the
purpose, though some are more
suitable than others, provided that the
person who makes the mantra
possesses the requisite occult knowledge.
There are hundreds of mantras
in the Samskrit tongue, made by Occultists
of the past, who were
familiar with the laws of the invisible
worlds. These have been handed
down from generation to generation,
definite words in a definite order
chanted in a definite way. The effect of
the chanting is to create
vibrations, hence forms, in the physical
and super-physical worlds, and
according to the knowledge and purity of
the singer will be the worlds
his song is able to affect If his knowledge
be wide and deep, if his
will be strong and his heart pure, there is
scarcely any limit to the
powers he may exercise in using some of
these ancient mantras.
As said, it is not necessary that any one
particular language should be
used. They may be in Samskrit, or in any
one of the languages of the
world, in which men of knowledge have put
them together.
This is the reason why, in the Roman
Catholic Church, the Latin language
is always used in important acts of
worship. It is not used as a dead
language here, a tongue "not
understanded of the people," but as a
living force in the invisible worlds. It is
not used to hide knowledge
from the people, but in order that certain
vibrations may be set up in
the invisible worlds which cannot be set up
in the ordinary languages of
Europe, unless a great Occultist should
compose in them the necessary
successions of sounds. To translate a
mantra is to change it from a
"Word of Power" into an ordinary
sentence; the sounds being changed,
other sound-forms are created.
Some of the arrangements of Latin words,
with the music wedded to them
in Christian worship, cause the most marked
effects in the
supra-physical worlds, and any one who is
at all sensitive will be
conscious of peculiar effects caused by the
chanting of some of the most
sacred sentences, especially in the Mass.
Vibratory effects may be felt
by any one who will sit quiet and receptive
as some of these sentences
are uttered by priest or choristers. And at
the same time effects are
caused in the higher worlds directly
affecting the subtle bodies of the
worshippers in the way above described, and
also appealing to the
Intelligences in those worlds with a
meaning as definite as the words
addressed by one person to another on the
physical plane, whether as
prayer or, in some cases, as command. The
sounds, causing active
flashing forms, rise through the worlds,
affecting the consciousness of
the Intelligences residing in them, and
bringing some of them to render
the definite services required by those who
are taking part in the
church office.
Such mantras form an essential part of
every Sacrament.
The next essential part of the Sacrament,
in its outward and visible
form, are certain gestures. These are
called Signs, or Seals, or
Sigils--the three words meaning the same
thing in a Sacrament. Each sign
has its own particular meaning, and marks
the direction imposed on the
invisible forces with which the celebrant
is dealing, whether those
forces be his own or poured through him. In
any case, they are needed to
bring about the desired result, and they
are an essential portion of the
sacramental rite. Such a sign is called a
"Sign of Power," as the mantra
is a "Word of Power."
It is interesting to read in occult works
of the past references to
these facts, true then as now, true now as
then. In the Egyptian _Book
of the Dead_ is described the _post-mortem_
journey of the Soul, and we
read how he is stopped and challenged at
various stages of that journey.
He is stopped and challenged by the
Guardians of the Gate of each
successive world, and the Soul cannot pass
through the Gate and go on
his way unless he knows two things: he must
pronounce a word, the Word
of Power: he must make a sign, the Sign of
Power. When that Word is
spoken, when that Sign is given, the bars
of the Gate fall down, and
the Guardians stand aside to let the Soul
pass through. A similar
account is given in the great mystic
Christian Gospel, the _Pistis
Sophia_, before mentioned.[332] Here the
passage through the worlds is
not of a Soul set free from the body by
death, but of one who has
voluntarily left it in the course of
Initiation. There are great Powers,
the Powers of Nature, that bar his way, and
till the Initiate gives the
Word and the Sign, they will not allow him
to pass through the portals
of their realms. This double knowledge,
then, was necessary--to speak
the Word of Power, to make the Sign of
Power. Without these progress was
blocked, and without these a Sacrament is
no Sacrament.
Further, in all Sacraments some physical
material is used, or should be
used.[333] This is ever a symbol of that
which is to be gained by the
Sacrament, and points to the nature of the
"inward and spiritual grace"
received through it. This is also the
material means of conveying the
grace, not symbolically, but actually, and
a subtle change in this
material adapts it for high ends.
Now a physical object consists of the
solid, liquid, and gaseous
particles into which a chemist would
resolve it by analysis, and further
of ether, which interpenetrates the grosser
stuffs. In this ether play
the magnetic energies. It is further
connected with counterparts of
subtle matter, in which play energies
subtler than the magnetic, but
like them in nature and more powerful.
When such an object is magnetised a change
is effected in the ethereal
portion, the wave-motions are altered and
systematised, and made to
follow the wave-motions of the ether of the
magnetiser; it thus comes to
share his nature, and the denser particles
of the object, played on by
the ether, slowly change their rates of vibration.
If the magnetiser has
the power of affecting the subtler
counterparts also he makes them
similarly vibrate in assonance with his
own.
This is the secret of magnetic cures: the
irregular vibrations of the
diseased person are so worked on as to accord
with the regular
vibrations of the healthy operator, as
definitely as an irregularly
swinging object may be made to swing
regularly by repeated and timed
blows. A doctor will magnetise water and
cure his patient therewith. He
will magnetise a cloth, and the cloth, laid
on the seat of pain, will
heal. He will use a powerful magnet, or a
current from a galvanic cell,
and restore energy to a nerve. In all cases
the ether is thrown into
motion, and by this the denser physical
particles are affected.
A similar result accrues when the materials
used in a Sacrament are
acted on by the Word of Power and the Sign
of Power. Magnetic changes
are caused in the ether of the physical
substance, and the subtle
counterparts are affected according to the
knowledge, purity, and
devotion of the celebrant who
magnetises--or, in the religious term,
consecrates--it. Further, the Word and the
Sign of Power summon to the
celebration the Angels specially concerned
with the materials used and
the nature of the act performed, and they
lend their powerful aid,
pouring their own magnetic energies into
the subtle counterparts, and
even into the physical ether, thus
reinforcing the energies of the
celebrant. No one who knows anything of the
powers of magnetism can
doubt the possibility of the changes in
material objects thus indicated.
And if a man of science, who may have no
faith in the unseen, has the
power to so impregnate water with his own
vital energy that it cures a
physical disease, why should power of a
loftier, though _similar_,
nature be denied to those of saintly life,
of noble character, of
knowledge of the invisible? Those who are
able to sense the higher forms
of magnetism know very well that
consecrated objects vary much in their
power, and that the magnetic difference is
due to the varying knowledge,
purity, and spirituality of the priest who
consecrates them. Some deny
all vital magnetism, and would reject alike
the holy water of religion
and the magnetised water of medical science.
They are consistent, but
ignorant. But those who admit the utility
of the one, and laugh at the
other, show themselves to be not wise but
prejudiced, not learned but
one-sided, and prove that their want of
belief in religion biases their
intelligence, predisposing them to reject
from the hand of religion that
which they accept from the hand of science.
A little will be added to
this with regard to "sacred
objects" generally in Chapter XIV.
We thus see that the outer part of the
Sacrament is of very great
importance. Real changes are made in the
materials used. They are made
the vehicles of energies higher than those
which naturally belong to
them; persons approaching them, touching
them, will have their own
etheric and subtle bodies affected by their
potent magnetism, and will
be brought into a condition very receptive
of higher influences, being
tuned into accord with the lofty Beings
connected with the Word and the
Sign used in consecration; Beings belonging
to the invisible world will
be present during the sacramental rite,
pouring out their benign and
gracious influences; and thus all who are
worthy participants in the
ceremony--sufficiently pure and devoted to
be tuned by the vibrations
caused--will find their emotions purified
and stimulated, their
spirituality quickened, and their hearts
filled with peace, by coming
into such close touch with the unseen
realities.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER XIII.
SACRAMENTS (_continued_).
We have now to apply these general
principles to concrete examples, and
to see how they explain and justify the
sacramental rites found in all
religions.
It will be sufficient if we take as
examples three out of the Seven
Sacraments used in the Church Catholic. Two
are recognised as obligatory
by all Christians, although extreme
Protestants deprive them of their
sacramental character, giving them a
declaratory and remembrance value
only instead of a sacramental; yet even
among them the heart of true
devotion wins something of the sacramental
blessing the head denies. The
third is not recognised as even nominally a
Sacrament by Protestant
Churches, though it shows the essential
signs of a Sacrament, as given
in the definition in the Catechism of the
Church of England already
quoted.[334] The first is that of Baptism;
the second that of the
Eucharist; the third that of Marriage. The
putting of Marriage out of
the rank of a Sacrament has much degraded
its lofty ideal, and has led
to much of that loosening of its tie that
thinking men deplore.
The Sacrament of Baptism is found in all
religions, not only at the
entrance into earth-life, but more
generally as a ceremony of
purification. The ceremony which admits the
new-born--or adult--incomer
into a religion has a sprinkling with water
as an essential part of the
rite, and this was as universal in ancient
days as it is now. The Rev.
Dr. Giles remarks: "The idea of using
water as emblematic of spiritual
washing is too obvious to allow surprise at
the antiquity of this rite.
Dr. Hyde, in his treatise on the _Religion
of the Ancient Persians_,
xxxiv. 406, tells us that it prevailed
among that people. 'They do not
use circumcision for their children, but
only baptism, or washing for
the purification of the soul. They bring
the child to the priest into
the church, and place him in front of the
sun and fire, which ceremony
being completed, they look upon him as more
sacred than before. Lord
says that they bring the water for this
purpose in bark of the
Holm-tree; that tree is in truth the Haum
of the Magi, of which we spoke
before on another occasion. Sometimes also
it is otherwise done by
immersing him in a large vessel of water,
as Tavernier tells us. After
such washing, or baptism, the priest
imposes on the child the name given
by the parents.'"[335] A few weeks
after the birth of a Hindu child a
ceremony is performed, a part of which
consists in sprinkling the child
with water--such sprinkling entering into
all Hindu worship. Williamson
gives authorities for the practise of
Baptism in Egypt, Persia, Thibet,
Mongolia, Mexico, Peru, Greece, Rome,
Scandinavia, and among the
Druids.[336] Some of the prayers quoted are
very fine: "I pray that this
celestial water, blue and light blue, may
enter into thy body and there
live. I pray that it may destroy in thee,
and put away from thee, all
the things evil and adverse that were given
to thee before the beginning
of the world." "O child! receive
the water of the Lord of the world who
is our life: it is to wash and to purify;
may these drops remove the sin
which was given to thee before the creation
of the world, since all of
us are under its power."
Tertullian mentions the very general use of
Baptism among non-Christian
nations in a passage already quoted,[337]
and others of the Fathers
refer to it.
In most religious communities a minor form
of Baptism accompanies all
religious ceremonies, water being used as a
symbol of purification, and
the idea being that no man should enter
upon worship until he has
purified his heart and conscience, the
outer washing symbolising the
inner lustration. In the Greek and Roman
Churches a small receptacle for
holy water is placed near every door, and
every incoming worshipper
touches it, making with it on himself the
sign of the cross ere he goes
onward towards the altar. On this Robert
Taylor remarks: "The baptismal
fonts in our Protestant churches, and we
need hardly say more especially
the little cisterns at the entrance of our
Catholic chapels, are not
imitations, but an unbroken and never
interrupted continuation of the
same _aqua minaria_, or _amula_, which the
learned Montfaucon, in his
_Antiquities_, shows to have been vases of
holy water, which were placed
by the heathens at the entrance of their
temples, to sprinkle themselves
with upon entering those sacred
edifices."[338]
Whether in the Baptism of initial reception
into the Church, or in these
minor lustrations, water is the material
agent employed, the great
cleansing fluid in Nature, and therefore
the best symbol for
purification. Over this water a mantra is
pronounced, in the English
ritual represented by the prayer,
"Sanctify this water to the mystical
washing away of sin," concluding with
the formula, "In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen." This is the Word
of Power, and it is accompanied by the Sign
of Power, the Sign of the
Cross made over the surface of the water.
The Word and the Sign give to the water, as
before explained, a property
it previously had not, and it is rightly
named "holy water." The dark
powers will not approach it; sprinkled on
the body it gives a sense of
peace, and conveys new spiritual life. When
a child is baptised, the
spiritual energy given to the water by the
Word and the Sign reinforces
the spiritual life in the child, and then
the Word of Power is again
spoken, this time over the child, and the
Sign is traced on his
forehead, and in his subtle bodies the
vibrations are felt, and the
summons to guard the life thus sanctified
goes forth through the
invisible world; for this Sign is at once
purifying and
protective--purifying by the life that is
poured forth through it,
protective by the vibrations it sets up in
the subtle bodies. Those
vibrations form a guardian wall against the
attacks of hostile
influences in the invisible worlds, and
every time that holy water is
touched, the Word pronounced, and the Sign
made, the energy is renewed,
the vibrations are reinforced, both being
recognised as potent in the
invisible worlds, and bringing aid to the
operator.
In the early Church, Baptism was preceded
by a very careful preparation,
those admitted to the Church being mostly
converts from surrounding
faiths. A convert passed through three definite
stages of instruction,
remaining in each grade till he had
mastered its teachings, and he was
then admitted to the Church by Baptism.
Only after that was he taught
the Creed, which was not committed to
writing, nor ever repeated in the
presence of an unbeliever; it thus served
as a sign of recognition, and
a proof of the position of the man who was
able to recite it, showing
that he was a baptised member of the
Church. How truly in those days the
grace conveyed by Baptism was believed in
is shown by the custom of
death-bed Baptism that grew up. Believing
in the reality of Baptism, men
and women of the world, unwilling to resign
its pleasures or to keep
their lives pure from stain, would put off
the rite of Baptism until
Death's hand was upon them, so that they
might benefit by the
sacramental grace, and pass through Death's
portal pure and clean, full
of spiritual energy. Against that abuse
some of the great Fathers of the
Church struggled, and struggled
effectively. There is a quaint story
told by one of them, I think by S.
Athanasius, who was a man of caustic
wit, not averse to the use of humour in the
attempt to make his hearers
understand at times the folly or perversity
of their behaviour. He told
his congregation that he had had a vision,
and had gone up to the
gateway of heaven, where S. Peter stood as
Warder. No pleased smile had
he for the visitant, but a frown of stern
displeasure. "Athanasius,"
said he, "why are you continually
sending me these empty bags, carefully
sealed up, with nothing inside?" It
was one of the piercing sayings we
meet with in Christian antiquity, when
these things were real to
Christian men, and not mere forms, as they
too often are to-day.
The custom of Infant Baptism gradually grew
up in the Church, and hence
the instruction which in the early days
preceded Baptism came to be the
preparation for Confirmation, when the
awakened mind and intelligence
take up and re-affirm the baptismal
promises. The reception of the
infant into the Church is seen to be
rightly done, when man's life is
recognised as being lived in the three
worlds, and when the Spirit and
Soul who have come to inhabit the new-born
body are known to be not
unconscious and unintelligent, but
conscious, intelligent, and potent in
the invisible worlds. It is right and just
that the "Hidden Man of the
heart"[339] should be welcomed to the
new stage of his pilgrimage, and
that the most helpful influences should be
brought to bear upon the
vehicle in which he is to dwell, and which
he has to mould to his
service. If the eyes of men were opened, as
were of old those of the
servant of Elisha, they would still see the
horses and chariots of fire
gathered round the mountain where is the
prophet of the Lord.[340]
We come to the second of the Sacraments
selected for study, that of the
Sacrifice of the Eucharist, a symbol of the
eternal Sacrifice already
explained, the daily sacrifice of the
Church Catholic throughout the
world imaging that eternal Sacrifice by
which the worlds were made, and
by which they are evermore sustained. It is
to be daily offered, as its
archetype is perpetually existent, and men
in that act take part in the
working of the Law of Sacrifice, identify
themselves with it, recognise
its binding nature, and voluntarily
associate themselves with it in its
working in the worlds; in such
identification, to partake of the
material part of the Sacrament is
necessary, if the identification is to
be complete, but many of the benefits may
be shared, and the influence
going forth to the worlds may be increased,
by devout worshippers, who
associate themselves mentally, but not
physically, with the act.
This great function of Christian worship
loses its force and meaning
when it is regarded as nothing more than a
mere commemoration of a past
sacrifice, as a pictorial allegory without
a deep ensouling truth, as a
breaking of bread and a pouring out of wine
without a sharing in the
eternal Sacrifice. So to see it is to make
it a mere shell, a dead
picture instead of a living reality.
"The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion [the
communication of, the sharing in] of
the blood of Christ?" asks the
apostle. "The bread which we break, is it
not the communion of the body of
Christ?"[341] And he goes on to point
out that all who eat of a sacrifice become
partakers of a common nature,
and are joined into a single body, which is
united to, shares the nature
of, that Being who is, present in the
sacrifice. A fact of the invisible
world is here concerned, and he speaks with
the authority of knowledge.
Invisible Beings pour of their essence into
the materials used in any
sacramental rite, and those who partake of
those materials--which become
assimilated in the body and enter into its
ingredients--are thereby
united to those whose essence is in it, and
they all share a common
nature. This is true when we take even
ordinary food from the hand of
another--part of his nature, his vital
magnetism, mingles with our own;
how much more true then when the food has
been solemnly and purposely
impregnated with higher magnetisms, which
affect the subtle bodies as
well as the physical. If we would
understand the meaning and use of the
Eucharist we must realise these facts of
the invisible worlds, and we
must see in it a link between the earthly
and the heavenly, as well as
an act of the universal worship, a
co-operation, an association, with
the Law of Sacrifice, else it loses the
greater part of its
significance.
The employment of bread and wine as the
materials for this
Sacrament--like the use of water in the
Sacrament of Baptism--is of very
ancient and general usage. The Persians
offered bread and wine to
Mithra, and similar offerings were made in
Tibet and Tartary. Jeremiah
speaks of the cakes and the drink offered
to the Queen of Heaven by the
Jews in Egypt, they taking part in the
Egyptian worship.[342] In Genesis
we read that Melchisedek, the
King-Initiate, used bread and wine in the
blessing of Abraham.[343] In the various
Greek Mysteries bread and wine
were used, and Williamson mentions their
use also among the Mexicans,
Peruvians, and Druids.[344]
The bread stands as the general symbol for
the food that builds up the
body, and the wine as symbol of the blood,
regarded as the life-fluid,
"for the life of the flesh is in the
blood."[345] Hence members of a
family are said to share the same blood,
and to be of the blood of a
person is to be of his kin. Hence, also,
the old ceremonies of the
"blood-covenant"; when a stranger
was made one of a family or of a
tribe, some drops of blood from a member
were transfused into his veins,
or he drank them--usually mingled with
water--and was thenceforth
considered as being a born member of the
family or tribe, as being of
its blood. Similarly, in the Eucharist, the
worshippers partake of the
bread, symbolising the body, the nature, of
the Christ, and of the wine
symbolising the blood, the life of the
Christ, and become of His kin,
one with Him.
The Word of Power is the formula "This
is My Body," "This is My Blood."
This it is which works the change which we
shall consider in a moment,
and transforms the materials into vehicles
of spiritual energies. The
Sign of Power is the hand extended over the
bread and the wine, and the
Sign of the Cross should be made upon them,
though this is not always
done among Protestants. These are the outer
essentials of the Sacrament
of the Eucharist.
It is important to understand the change
which takes place in this
Sacrament, for it is more than the
magnetisation previously explained,
though this also is wrought. We have here a
special instance of a
general law.
By the occultist, a visible thing is
regarded as the last, the physical,
expression of an invisible truth.
Everything is the physical expression
of a thought. An object is but an idea
externalised and densified. All
the objects in the world are Divine ideas
expressed in physical matter.
That being so, the reality of the object
does not lie in the outer form
but in the inner life, in the idea that has
shaped and moulded the
matter into an expression of itself. In the
higher worlds, the matter
being very subtle and plastic, shapes
itself very swiftly to the idea,
and changes form as the thought changes. As
matter becomes denser,
heavier, it changes form less readily, more
slowly, until, in the
physical world, the changes are at their
slowest in consequence of the
resistance of the dense matter of which the
physical world is composed.
Let sufficient time be given, however, and
even this heavy matter
changes under the pressure of the ensouling
idea, as may be seen by the
graving on the face of the expressions of
habitual thoughts and
emotions.
This is the truth which underlies what is
called the doctrine of
Transubstantiation, so extraordinarily
misunderstood by the ordinary
Protestant. But such is the fate of occult
truths when they are
presented to the ignorant. The
"substance" that is changed is the idea
which makes a thing to be what it is;
"bread" is not mere flour and
water; the idea which governs the mixing,
the manipulation, of the flour
and water, that is the
"substance" which makes it "bread," and the flour
and the water are what are technically
called the "accidents," the
arrangements of matter that give form to
the idea. With a different
idea, or substance, flour and water would
take a different form, as
indeed they do when assimilated by the
body. So also chemists have
discovered that the same kind and the same
number of chemical atoms may
be arranged in different ways and thus
become entirely different things
in their properties, though the materials
are unchanged; such "isomeric
compounds" are among the most
interesting of modern chemical
discoveries; the arrangement of similar
atoms under different ideas
gives different bodies.
What, then, is this change of substance in
the materials used in the
Eucharist? The idea that makes the object
has been changed; in their
normal condition bread and wine are
food-stuffs, expressive of the
divine ideas of nutritive objects, objects
fitted for the building up of
bodies. The new idea is that of the Christ
nature and life, fitted for
the building up of the spiritual nature and
life of man. That is the
change of substance; the object remains
unchanged in its "accidents,"
its physical material, but the subtle matter
connected with it has
changed under the pressure of the changed
idea, and new properties are
imparted by this change. They affect the
subtle bodies of the
participants, and attune them to the nature
and life of the Christ. On
the "worthiness" of the
participant depends the extent to which he can
be thus attuned.
The unworthy participant, subjected to the
same process, is injuriously
affected by it, for his nature, resisting
the pressure, is bruised and
rent by the forces to which it is unable to
respond, as an object may be
broken into pieces by vibrations which it
is unable to reproduce.
The worthy partaker, then, becomes one with
the Sacrifice, with the
Christ, and so becomes at one with also,
united to, the divine Life,
which is the Father of the Christ. Inasmuch
as the act of Sacrifice on
the side of form is the yielding up of the
life it separates from others
to be part of the common Life, the offering
of the separated channel to
be a channel of the one Life, so by that
surrender the sacrificer
becomes one with God. It is the giving
itself of the lower to be a part
of the higher, the yielding of the body as
an instrument of the
separated will to be an instrument of the
divine Will, the presenting of
men's "bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God."[346]
Thus it has been truly taught in the Church
that those who rightly take
part in the Eucharist enjoy a partaking of
the Christ-life poured out
for men. The transmuting of the lower into
the higher is the object of
this, as of all, Sacraments. The changing
of the lower force by its
union with the loftier is what is sought by
those who participate in it;
and those who know the inner truth, and
realise the fact of the higher
life, may in any religion, by means of its
sacraments, come into fuller,
completer touch with the divine Life that
upholds the worlds, if they
bring to the rite the receptive nature, the
act of faith, the opened
heart, which are necessary for the
possibilities of the Sacrament to be
realised.
The Sacrament of Marriage shows out the
marks of a Sacrament as clearly
and as definitely as do Baptism and the
Eucharist. Both the outer sign
and the inward grace are there. The
material is the Ring--the circle
which is the symbol of the everlasting. The
Word of Power is the ancient
formula, "In the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost." The Sign of Power is the
joining of hands, symbolising the
joining of the lives. These make up the
outer essentials of the
Sacrament.
The inner grace is the union of mind with
mind, of heart with heart,
which makes possible the realisation of the
unity of spirit, without
which Marriage is no Marriage, but a mere
temporary conjunction of
bodies. The giving and receiving of the
ring, the pronouncing of the
formula, the joining of hands, these form
the pictorial allegory; if the
inner grace be not received, if the
participants do not open themselves
to it by their wish for the union of their
whole natures, the Sacrament
for them loses its beneficent properties,
and becomes a mere form.
But Marriage has a yet deeper meaning;
religions with one voice have
proclaimed it to be the image on earth of
the union between the earthly
and the heavenly, the union between God and
man. And even then its
significance is not exhausted, for it is
the image of the relation
between Spirit and Matter, between the
Trinity and the Universe. So
deep, so far-reaching, is the meaning of
the joining of man and woman in
Marriage.
Herein the man stands as representing the
Spirit, the Trinity of Life,
and the woman as representing the Matter,
the Trinity of formative
material. One gives life, the other
receives and nourishes it. They are
complementary to each other, two
inseparable halves of one whole,
neither existing apart from the other. As
Spirit implies Matter and
Matter Spirit, so husband implies wife and
wife husband. As the abstract
Existence manifests in two aspects, as a
duality of Spirit and Matter,
neither independent of the other, but each
coming into manifestation
with the other, so is humanity manifested
in two aspects--husband and
wife, neither able to exist apart, and
appearing together. They are not
twain but one, a dual-faced unity. God and
the Universe are imaged in
Marriage; thus closely linked are husband
and wife.
It is said above that Marriage is also an
image of the union between God
and man, between the universal and the
individualised Spirits. This
symbolism is used in all the great
scriptures of the world--Hindu,
Hebrew, Christian. And it has been extended
by taking the individualised
Spirit as a Nation or a Church, a
collection of such Spirits knit into a
unity. So Isaiah declared to Israel:
"Thy Maker is thine Husband; the
Lord of hosts is His name.... As the bridegroom
rejoiceth over the
bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
thee."[347] So S. Paul wrote that
the mystery of Marriage represented Christ
and the Church.[348]
If we think of Spirit and Matter as latent,
unmanifested, then we see no
production; manifested together, there is
evolution. And so when the
halves of humanity are not manifested as
husband and wife, there is no
production of fresh life. Moreover, they
should be united in order that
there may be a growth of life in each, a
swifter evolution, a more rapid
progress, by the half that each can give to
each, each supplying what
the other lacks. The twain should be
blended into one, setting forth the
spiritual possibilities of man. And they
show forth also the perfect
Man, in whose nature Spirit and Matter are
both completely developed and
perfectly balanced, the divine Man who
unites in his own person husband
and wife, the male and female elements in
nature, as "God and Man are
one Christ."[349]
Those who thus study the Sacrament of
Marriage will understand why
religions have ever regarded Marriage as
indissoluble, and have thought
it better that a few ill-matched pairs
should suffer for a few years
than that the ideal of true Marriage should
be permanently lowered for
all. A nation must choose whether it will
adopt as its national ideal a
spiritual or an earthly bond in Marriage,
the seeking in it of a
spiritual unity, or the regarding it as
merely a physical union. The one
is the religious idea of Marriage as a
Sacrament; the other the
materialistic idea of it as an ordinary
terminable contract. The student
of the Lesser Mysteries must ever see in it
a sacramental rite.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER XIV.
REVELATION.
All the religions known to us are the
custodians of Sacred Books, and
appeal to these books for the settlement of
disputed questions. They
always contain the teachings given by the
founder of the religion, or by
later teachers regarded as possessing
super-human knowledge. Even when a
religion gives birth to many discordant
sects, each sect will cling to
the Sacred Canon, and will put upon its
word the interpretation which
best fits in with its own peculiar
doctrines. However widely may be
separated in belief the extreme Roman
Catholic and the extreme
Protestant, they both appeal to the same
_Bible_. However far apart may
be the philosophic Vedantin and the most
illiterate Vallabhacharya, they
both regard the same _Vedas_ as supreme.
However bitterly opposed to
each other may be the Shias and the Sunnis,
they both regard as sacred
the same _Kuran_. Controversies and
quarrels may arise as to the meaning
of texts, but the Book itself, in every
case, is looked on with the
utmost reverence. And rightly so; for all
such books contain fragments
of The Revelation, selected by One of the
great Ones who hold it in
trust; such a fragment is embodied in what
down here we call a
Revelation, or a Scripture, and some part
of the world rejoices in it as
in a treasure of vast value. The fragment
is chosen according to the
needs of the time, the capacity of the
people to whom it is given, the
type of the race whom it is intended to
instruct. It is generally given
in a peculiar form, in which the outer
history, or story, or song, or
psalm, or prophecy, appears to the
superficial or ignorant reader to be
the whole book; but in these deeper
meanings lie concealed, sometimes in
numbers, sometimes in words constructed on
a hidden plan--a cypher, in
fact--sometimes in symbols, recognisable by
the instructed, sometimes in
allegories written as histories, and in
many other ways. These Books,
indeed, have something of a sacramental
character about them, an outer
form and an inner life, an outer symbol and
an inner truth. Those only
can explain the hidden meaning who have
been trained by those instructed
in it; hence the dictum of S. Peter that
"no prophecy of the Scripture
is of any private
interpretation."[350] The elaborate explanations of
texts of the Bible, with which the volumes
of patristic literature
abound, seem fanciful and overstrained to
the prosaic modern mind. The
play upon numbers, upon letters, the
apparently fantastic
interpretations of paragraphs that, on the
face of them, are ordinary
historical statements of a simple
character, exasperate the modern
reader, who demands to have his facts
presented clearly and coherently,
and above all, requires what he feels to be
solid ground under his feet.
He declines absolutely to follow the
light-footed mystic over what seem
to him to be quaking morasses, in a wild
chase after dancing
will-o'-the-wisps, which appear and
disappear with bewildering and
irrational caprice. Yet the men who wrote
these exasperating treatises
were men of brilliant intellect and calm
judgment, the master-builders
of the Church. And to those who read them
aright they are still full of
hints and suggestions, and indicate many an
obscure pathway that leads
to the goal of knowledge, and that might
otherwise be missed.
We have already seen that Origen, one of
the sanest of men, and versed
in occult knowledge, teaches that the
Scriptures are three-fold,
consisting of Body, Soul, and Spirit.[351]
He says that the Body of the
Scriptures is made up of the outer words of
the histories and the
stories, and he does not hesitate to say
that these are not literally
true, but are only stories for the
instruction of the ignorant. He even
goes so far as to remark that statements
are made in those stories that
are obviously untrue, in order that the
glaring contradictions that lie
on the surface may stir people up to
inquire as to the real meaning of
these impossible relations. He says that so
long as men are ignorant,
the Body is enough for them; it conveys
teaching, it gives instruction,
and they do not see the self-contradictions
and impossibilities involved
in the literal statements, and therefore
are not disturbed by them. As
the mind grows, as the intellect develops,
these contradictions and
impossibilities strike the attention, and
bewilder the student; then he
is stirred up to seek for a deeper meaning,
and he begins to find the
Soul of the Scriptures. That Soul is the
reward of the intelligent
seeker, and he escapes from the bonds of
the letter that killeth.[352]
The Spirit of the Scriptures may only be
seen by the spiritually
enlightened man; only those in whom the
Spirit is evolved can understand
the spiritual meaning: "the things of
God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God ... which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth."[353]
The reason for this method of Revelation is
not far to seek; it is the
only way in which one teaching can be made
available for minds at
different stages of evolution, and thus
train not only those to whom it
is immediately given, but also those who,
later in time, shall have
progressed beyond those to whom the
Revelation was first made. Man is
progressive; the outer meaning given long
ago to unevolved men must
needs be very limited, and unless something
deeper and fuller than this
outer meaning were hidden within it, the
value of the Scripture would
perish when a few millennia had passed
away. Whereas by this method of
successive meanings it is given a perennial
value, and evolved men may
find in it hidden treasures, until the day
when, possessing the whole,
they no longer need the part.
The world-Bibles, then, are
fragments--fragments of Revelation, and
therefore are rightly described as
Revelation.
The next deeper sense of the word describes
the mass of teaching held by
the great Brotherhood of spiritual Teachers
in trust for men; this
teaching is embodied in books, written in
symbols, and in these is
contained an account of kosmic laws, of the
principles on which the
kosmos is founded, of the methods by which
it is evolved, of all the
beings that compose it, of its past, its
present, its future; this is
The Revelation. This is the priceless
treasure which the Guardians of
humanity hold in charge, and from which
they select, from time to time,
fragments to form the Bibles of the world.
Thirdly, the Revelation, highest, fullest,
best, is the Self-unveiling
of Deity in the kosmos, the revealing of
attribute after attribute,
power after power, beauty after beauty, in
all the various forms which
in their totality compose the universe. He
shows His splendour in the
sun, His infinity in the star-flecked
fields of space, His strength in
mountains, His purity in snow-clad peaks
and translucent air, His energy
in rolling ocean-billows, His beauty in
tumbling mountain-torrent, in
smooth, clear lake, in cool, deep forest
and in sunlit plain, His
fearlessness in the hero, His patience in
the saint, His tenderness in
mother-love, His protecting care in father
and in king, His wisdom in
the philosopher, His knowledge in the
scientist, His healing power in
the physician, His justice in the judge,
His wealth in the merchant, His
teaching power in the priest, His industry
in the artisan. He whispers
to us in the breeze, He smiles on us in the
sunshine, He chides us in
disease, He stimulates us, now by success
and now by failure. Everywhere
and in everything He gives us glimpses of
Himself to lure us on to love
Him, and He hides Himself that we may learn
to stand alone. To know Him
everywhere is the true Wisdom; to love Him
everywhere is the true
Desire; to serve Him everywhere is the true
Action. This Self-revealing
of God is the highest Revelation; all
others are subsidiary and partial.
The inspired man is the man to whom some of
this Revelation has come by
the direct action of the universal Spirit
on the separated Spirit that
is His offspring, who has felt the
illuminating influence of Spirit on
Spirit. No man knows the truth so that he
can never lose it, no man
knows the truth so that he can never doubt
it, until the Revelation has
come to him as though he stood alone on
earth, until the Divine without
has spoken to the Divine within, in the
temple of the human heart, and
the man thus knows by himself and not by
another.
In a lesser degree a man is inspired when
one greater than he stimulates
within him powers which as yet are normally
inactive, or even takes
possession of him, temporarily using his
body as a vehicle. Such an
illuminated man, at the time of his
inspiration, can speak that which is
beyond his knowledge, and utter truths till
then unguessed. Truths are
sometimes thus poured out through a human
channel for the helping of the
world, and some One greater than the
speaker sends down his life into
the human vehicle, and they rush forth from
human lips; then a great
teacher speaks yet more greatly than he
knows, the Angel of the Lord
having touched his lips with fire.[354]
Such are the Prophets of the
race, who at some periods have spoken with
overwhelming conviction, with
clear insight, with complete understanding
of the spiritual needs of
man. Then the words live with a life
immortal, and the speaker is truly
a messenger from God. The man who has thus
known can never again quite
lose the memory of the knowledge, and he
carries within his heart a
certainty which can never quite disappear.
The light may vanish and the
darkness come down upon him; the gleam from
heaven may fade and clouds
may surround him; threat, question,
challenge, may assail him; but
within his heart there nestles the Secret
of Peace--he knows, or knows
that he has known.
That remembrance of true inspiration, that
reality of the hidden life,
has been put into beautiful and true words
by Frederick Myers, in his
well-known poem, _S. Paul_. The apostle is
speaking of his own
experience, and is trying to give
articulate expression to that which he
remembers; he is figured as unable to
thoroughly reproduce his
knowledge, although he knows and his
certainty does not waver:
So,
even I, athirst for His inspiring,
I, who have talked with Him, forget again;
Yes, many days with sobs and with desiring,
Offer to God a patience and a pain.
Then through the mid complaint of my confession,
Then through the pang and passion of my prayer,
Leaps with a start the shock of His possession,
Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.
Lo,
if some pen should write upon your rafter
Mene and Mene in the folds of flame,
Think ye could any memories thereafter
Wholly retrace the couplet as it came?
Lo,
if some strange intelligible thunder
Sang to the earth the secret of a star,
Scarce should ye catch, for terror and for wonder,
Shreds of the story that was pealed so far!
Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing,
Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand.
Only the power that is within me pealing
Lives on my lips, and beckons to my hand.
Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest
Cannot confound, nor doubt Him, nor deny;
Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.
Rather the world shall doubt when her retrieving
Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod;
Rather than he in whom the great conceiving
Stirs
in his soul to quicken into God.
Nay, though thou then shouldst strike him from his glory,
Blind and tormented, maddened and alone,
E'en on the cross would he maintain his story,
Yes, and in Hell would whisper, "I have known."
Those who have in any sense realised that
God is around them, in them,
and in everything, will be able to
understand how a place or an object
may become "sacred" by a slight
objectivisation of this perennial
universal Presence, so that those become
able to sense Him who do not
normally feel His omnipresence. This is
generally effected by some
highly advanced man, in whom the inner
Divinity is largely unfolded, and
whose subtle bodies are therefore
responsive to the subtler vibrations
of consciousness. Through such a man, or by
such a man, spiritual
energies may be poured forth, and these
will unite themselves with his
pure vital magnetism. He can then pour them
forth on any object, and its
ether and bodies of subtler matter will
become attuned to his
vibrations, as before explained, and
further, the Divinity within it can
more easily manifest. Such an object
becomes "magnetised," and, if this
be strongly done, the object will itself
become a magnetic centre,
capable in turn of magnetising those who
approach it. Thus a body
electrified by an electric machine will
affect other bodies near which
it may be placed.
An object thus rendered "sacred"
is a very useful adjunct to prayer and
meditation. The subtle bodies of the
worshipper are attuned to its high
vibrations, and he finds himself quieted,
soothed, pacified, without
effort on his own part. He is thrown into a
condition in which prayer
and meditation are easy and fruitful
instead of difficult and barren,
and an irksome exercise becomes insensibly
delightful. If the object be
a representation of some sacred Person--a
Crucifix, a Madonna and Child,
an Angel, a Saint--there is a yet further
gain. The Being represented,
if his magnetism has been thrown into the
image by the appropriate Word
and Sign of Power, can re-inforce that
magnetism with a very slight
expenditure of spiritual energy, and may
thus influence the devotee, or
even show himself through the image, when
otherwise he would not have
done so. For in the spiritual world economy
of forces is observed, and a
small amount of energy will be expended
where a larger would be
withheld.
An application of these same occult laws
may be made to explain the use
of all consecrated objects--relics,
amulets, &c. They are all magnetised
objects, more or less powerful, or useless,
according to the knowledge,
purity, and spirituality of the person who
magnetises them.
Places may similarly be made sacred, by the
living in them of saints,
whose pure magnetism, radiating from them,
attunes the whole atmosphere
to peace-giving vibrations. Sometimes holy
men, or Beings from the
higher worlds, will directly magnetise a
certain place, as in the case
mentioned in the Fourth Gospel, where an
Angel came at a certain season
and touched the water, giving it healing
qualities.[355] In such places
even careless worldly men will sometimes
feel the blessed influence, and
will be temporarily softened and inclined
toward higher things. The
divine Life in each man is ever trying to
subdue the form, and mould it
into an expression of itself; and it is
easy to see how that Life will
be aided by the form being thrown into
vibrations sympathetic with
those of a more highly evolved Being, its
own efforts being reinforced
by a stronger power. The outer recognition
of this effect is a sense of
quiet, calm, and peace; the mind loses its
restlessness, the heart its
anxiety. Any one who observes himself will
find that some places are
more conducive to calm, to meditation, to
religious thought, to worship,
than others. In a room, a building, where
there has been a great deal of
worldly thought, of frivolous conversation,
of mere rush of ordinary
worldly life, it is far harder to quiet the
mind and to concentrate the
thought, than in a place where religious
thought has been carried on
year after year, century after century;
there the mind becomes calm and
tranquillised insensibly, and that which
would have demanded serious
effort in the first place is done without
effort in the second.
This is the rationale of places of
pilgrimage, of temporary retreats
into seclusion; the man turns inward to
seek the God within him, and is
aided by the atmosphere created by
thousands of others, who before him
have sought the same in the same place. For
in such a place there is not
only the magnetisation produced by a single
saint, or by the visit of
some great Being of the invisible world;
each person, who visits the
spot with a heart full of reverence and
devotion, and is attuned to its
vibrations, reinforces those vibrations
with his own life, and leaves
the spot better than it was when he came to
it. Magnetic energy slowly
disperses, and a sacred object or place
becomes gradually demagnetised
if put aside or deserted. It becomes more
magnetised as it is used or
frequented. But the presence of the
ignorant scoffer injures such
objects and places, by setting up
antagonistic vibrations which weaken
those already existing there. As a wave of
sound may be met by another
which extinguishes it, and the result is
silence, so do the vibrations
of the scoffing thought weaken or
extinguish the vibrations of the
reverent and loving one. The effect
produced will, of course, vary with
the relative strengths of the vibrations,
but the mischievous one cannot
be without result, for the laws of vibration
are the same in the higher
worlds as in the physical, and thought
vibrations are the expression of
real energies.
The reason and the effect of the
consecration of churches, chapels,
cemeteries, will now be apparent. The act
of consecration is not the
mere public setting aside of a place for a
particular purpose; it is the
magnetisation of the place for the benefit
of all those who frequent it.
For the visible and the invisible worlds
are inter-related, interwoven,
each with each, and those can best serve
the visible by whom the
energies of the invisible can be wielded.
AFTERWORD.
We have reached the end of a small book on
a great subject, and have
only lifted a corner of the Veil that hides
the Virgin of Eternal Truth
from the careless eyes of men. The hem of
her garment only has been
seen, heavy with gold, richly dight with
pearls. Yet even this, as it
waves slowly, breathes out celestial
fragrances--the sandal and
rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What
should be the unimaginable
glory, if the Veil were lifted, and we saw
the splendour of the Face of
the divine Mother, and in Her arms the
Child who is the very Truth?
Before that Child the Seraphim ever veil
their faces; who then of mortal
birth may look on Him and live?
Yet since in man abides His very Self, who
shall forbid him to pass
within the Veil, and to see with "open
face the glory of the Lord"?
From the Cave to highest Heaven; such was
the pathway of the Word made
Flesh, and known as the Way of the Cross.
Those who share the manhood
share also the Divinity, and may tread
where He has trodden. "What Thou
art, That am I."
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.
INDEX. PAGE
_Acts of the Apostles_ referred to; 281
A Kempis, Thomas; 115
Afterword;
376
Allegory;
66
Allegories, Old Testament; 121
All-wide Consciousness; 281 _et seq._
Ammonius Saccas; 28
Animal Symbols of Zodiac; 165
Anselm and Redemption; 195
Answers to Prayer; 277
" Subjective Prayer;
290
Apollonius of Tyana; 31
Apostolic Fathers; 70
Appearances of Divine Beings; 93
Aquinas, Thomas; 112
_Arians of the Fourth Century_, quoted; 103
Aristotle, Effect on Mediaeval
Christianity; 112
Ascension, The; 231, 250
" and Solar Myth; 231
" of the Christ; 249
_Asiatic Researches_, quoted; 258
Aspects of the ONE; 262
Athanasius, Story of; 353
Athanasian Creed, quoted; 263, 367
Atlantis, Continent of; 18
At-one-ment; 209
Atonement as one of Lesser Mysteries; 200
" Early Church on the;
195
" Calvinistic View of;
197
" Edwards on the; 197
" Flavel on the; 196
" Luther's Views on the;
196
" Dr. McLeod Campbell on
the; 199
" F. D. Maurice on the;
199
" Vicarious and
Substitutionary; 196
Atonement--Views of Dwight, Jeune, Jenkyn,
Liddon, Owen,
Stroud, and Thomson; 198
" Truth underlying the
Doctrine of; 199
" Pamphlet on, quoted;
198
" _Nineteenth Century_
quoted on; 205
Augoeides; 27
Barnabas; 71
Baptism, A Mantram in; 350
" A Minor Form of; 349
" Belief in Death-bed;
352
" Infant; 353
" In the Early Church;
352
" In Other Religions; 348
" of Initiate; 53
" of Holy Ghost and Fire;
188
" of Jesus; 133
" of the Christ; 186
" Tertullian on; 349
Beatific Vision, The; 95, 295
Bernard of Clairvaux; 112
Bel-fires; 164
_Bhagavad Gita_ referred to; 50, 202, 270,
306, 318
Bible Account of Creation; 179
Birth, Second; 247
Blavatsky, H. P., referred to; 127
Blood of Christ symbolised in Eucharist;
359
Boehme, Jacob; 115
Body, Causal; 239, 247
" Desire, Changes in; 244
" Meaning of a; 234
" Mental; 236
" " Building of; 245
" Natural or Physical; 236
" Natural, of St. Paul; 237
" of Bliss; 240
" of Desire; 236
" Physical, Changes in; 243
" Resurrection; 240
Body, Spiritual; 239
_Book of Job_, quoted; 268, 332
" _of the Dead_, referred
to; 339
" _of Wisdom_, quoted; 266
Bread, General Symbol in Sacraments; 358
_Brihadaranyakopanishat_, quoted; 50, 202
Brotherhood of Great Teachers; 9
Bruno, Giordano, referred to; 5, 113, 115,
225, 322
Buddha, Birth Story of; 164
Buddhist Trinity; 258
Calvinistic Doctrine; 197
Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa; 115
Cathari, The, referred to; 113
Cave of Initiation; 186
Celsus--Controversy with Origen; 88
_Chhandogyopanishat_, quoted; 253
Chrestos and Christos; 174
Christ as Hierophant of Mysteries; 231
" Baptism of; 186
" Crucifixion of; 183
" Disciples of; 223
" in the Spiritual Body;
137
" Life of the; 217
" of the Mysteries; 191
" The; 132, 134
" the Crucified; 182
" the Historical; 120, 140
" the Kosmic; 179
" the Mystic; 170
" the Mythic; 145
" Sufferings of the; 223
_Christian Creed_, referred to; 180, 181
" quoted; 206,
207, 229
Christian Disciples--their work; 223
_Christian Records_, quoted; 348
Christian Symbols, &c., not unique; 148
Christianity has the Gnosis; 36
Christmas Day; 159, 161
Christmas Festival, rightly regarded; 164
_Clarke's Ante-Nicene_ Library, quoted;
viii., 21, 58, 71, 72, 73, 74,
77, 78, 80 _et seq._, 87, 88, 90 _et seq._, 103, 150, 151, 266
Classes of Prayers; 283
Clement of Alexandria, quoted; viii., 20
" " referred to; 73
" " on the Gnosis; 83, 84
" " on Scripture Allegories; 83
" " on Symbols; 80
" " and Catechetical School; 73
" " a Pupil of Pantaenus; 73
_Colossians, Epistle to_, referred to; 58, 65, 81, 177
Comparative Mythologists; 7
" " Theory of; 8
" Religionists; 7, 8
" Mythology; 147
Consecrated Objects; 382
Consecration of Churches, Cemeteries,
&c.; 385
Constant, Alphonse Louis; 118
Conversion, Phenomenon of; 313 _et seq._
_Corinthians, Epistles to_, quoted; ix.,
x., 6, 32, 55, 64, 67, 124,
175, 177, 232, 239, 240, 241, 251, 253, 270, 356, 373
Creed, taught after Baptism in Early
Church; 352
_Cruden's Concordance_, quoted; 33
_Cur Deus Homo_ of Anselm; 195
Dangers to Christianity; 125
Dark Powers in Nature; 186, 187
Dean Milman, quoted; 255 _et seq._
Death of Solar Heroes; 166
_De Principiis_ of Origen; 101, 102
_Deuteronomy_, quoted; 96, 253
_Diegesis_ of R. Taylor, quoted; 350
_Die Deutsche Theologie_; 114
Dionysius the Areopagite; 110
Disappearance of the Mysteries; 184
Disciples, The; 136
" Work of the; 223
" Writings of the; 140
Divine Beings, Appearance in Mysteries; 93
"Divine Grace," What it is; 224
" Ideation; 359
" Illumination; 377
" Incarnations; 273, 274
Duality of Manifested Existence; 235
" of Second Person of
Trinity; 265
Easter Festival; 159
Eckhart, Teachings of; 113
Edwards on the Atonement; 197
Egypt and the Mysteries; 131
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, referred to;
22, 23, 117
" " quoted; 110 _et seq._
_Ephesians, Epistle to_, quoted; 57, 65,
67, 366
_Epistle of James_, quoted; 276
" _of Peter_, quoted; 64,
121, 194, 354, 371
Esoteric Christianity, Popular Denial of; 2
" Teaching in Early Church;
2
Essentials of Religion; 4
Eucharist, Bread and Wine of; 357
" Change of Substance in;
361
" connected with Law of
Sacrifice; 357
" Meaning and Use of; 357
" Sacrifice of; 355
" Unworthy Participants in;
362
_Exodus, Book of_, quoted; 91
Exstasy; 295
Faith Needed for Forgiveness; 312
Fathers, The Christian, on Scriptures; 371
Festivals; 147
Fish Symbol in Religions; 166
Flavel on Atonement; 196
Fludd, Robert; 116
Forgiveness of Sins; 301
" in Lesser Mysteries; 323
" in most Religions; 303
" ultimately refers to
_Post-Mortem_ Penalties; 307
Fourth Manifestation Feminine; 261
" Person; 263
Free-thinking in Christianity; 123
_Friends of God in the Oberland_; 114
Friends, Society of; 117
Future of Christianity; 41
_Galatians, Epistle to_, quoted; 64, 65,
66, 124
_Genesis_, quoted; 18, 180, 268, 269, 271,
279, 358
Germain, Comte de S.; 117
Gestures in Sacraments; 338
Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of R. Empire_,
quoted; 162
Giles, Rev. Dr., quoted; 347
Gnosis, The; viii., 9, 108
" " in
Christianity; 36
Gnostic, The, of S. Clement; 84 _et seq._
_Gnostics and their Remains_, quoted; 162
Gods in the Mysteries; 25
Grades of Hierarchies; 331
Grand Lodge of Central Asia; 31
Greek Cross, The; 267
Guyon, Mme. de; 116
Haug, Dr., _Essay on Parsis_, cited; 202
_Hebrews, Epistle to_, quoted; 53, 67, 81,
91, 175, 176, 205,
216, 222, 223, 247, 270, 274, 280
Hebrew Trinity; 254
Hell-fire Dogma, The; 48
_Heroic Enthusiasts, The_, quoted; 323
Hidden God, The; 207
" Meanings in Jewish and
Christian Scriptures; 100
" Side of Christianity; 36
" Teaching in all Religions;
20
Hierarchies of Divine Beings; 331
" of Superhuman Beings; 23
Hindu, Trinity, The; 257
History _versus_ Myth; 153
Holy Spirit as Creator; 269
Holy Water; 343, 349, 351
Human Evolution repeats Kosmic Process; 271
Huxley, T. H., quoted; 282
Hyde, Dr., quoted; 347
_Hymn to Demeter_; 22
Iamblichus, _On the Mysteries_, quoted; 22,
23, 24, 25, 27, 29,
296 _et seq._
Iamblichus, _Life of Pythagoras_, referred
to; 28
Ignatius; 71
Incarnation of Logos; 179
Initiation and Rebirth; 51, 53
" Cave of; 186
" Ceremonies of; 247 _et
seq._
" Conditions of; 173
" Mount of; 91
Inspiration, True; 378
Intelligences in Invisible Worlds; 279
Inviolability of Law; 305
Invisible Helpers; 280
Invisible Worlds interpenetrate the
Visible; 279
Irenaeus, _Against Heresies_, referred to;
105
_Isaiah_, quoted; 210, 295, 366, 377
Isomeric Compounds; 361
_Jeremiah, Book of_, quoted; 262, 357
Jesus at Mount Serbal; 130
" Baptism of; 133
" Date and Place of Birth;
130
" His Work in Christendom; 143
" in Egypt; 130
" Inner Instructions of; 137
" Master of the West; 147
" Sacrifice of; 133
" the Divine Teacher; 183
" the Healer and Teacher;
127
" training in Essene
Community; 130
" the Master; 142
_Judges, Book of_, quoted; 97
Juliana Mother; 117
Justin Martyr; 148
" " quoted; 149 _et seq._
_Kabbala_, Five Books of, referred to; 34
Karma;
288, 309
_Kathopanishat_, quoted; 32, 33, 49
_Key to Theosophy_, quoted; 294
Kingdom of Heaven--real meaning; 52
_Kings, Book of_, quoted; 33, 354
Kosmic Christ, The; 179
" Process of becoming; 268
" Sacrifice; 183
Lang, Andrew, referred to; 11, 12
Language of Symbols; 153
Latin Cross, Origin of; 206
" Use of, in Roman Church;
337
Law of Sacrifice; 201
" " in Hinduism;
202
" " in Nature of Logos; 204
" " in Zoroastrianism; 202
" " or Manifestation; 203
Law, William; 117
Left-hand Path; 17
Lent; 167
Levi Eliphas; 118
_Leviticus_, quoted; 358
_Light on the Path_, quoted; 220
"Little Child"; 65
Logos, Birth of the; 205
" and Sacrifice; 204
" Life of, in every form;
208
" Meaning of the Term; 172
" of Plato; 182
" Perpetual Sacrifice of;
209
Loss of Mystic Teaching in Christianity; 37
_Luke, Gospel of_, quoted; 45, 48, 175,
176, 264, 289, 302, 312
Luther on the Atonement; 196
Madonnas; 160
Magnetic Cures, Secret of; 342
" Change in Sacramental
Substance; 342
" Energies in Ether; 341
Magnetisation of Substances; 341
_Making_ of _Religion_, The, referred to;
11
Man as Microcosm; 271
" and Woman Complementary;
365
" develops Second Aspect;
272
Man's Manifold Nature; 234
_Mandakopanishat_, quoted; 202
"Mantras"; 335
" essential in Sacraments;
338
" in rite of Baptism; 350
" in Sanskrit; 336
" spoilt by translation; 337
_Mark, Gospel of_, quoted; vii., 45, 47
Martin, St.; 117
Marriage, Deeper meaning of; 365
" in Lesser Mysteries; 368
" Mystery of; 366
" Sacrament of; 364
" type of union between God
and Man; 366
Mary, the World Mother; 206
Master, Jesus, the; 142
_Matthew, Gospel of_, quoted; vii., 45, 46, 49, 52, 53, 54, 92, 134,
176, 177, 186, 210, 216, 240, 271, 274, 281, 306, 319
Maurice, cited; 254
Mead, G. R. S., quoted; 26, 28, 29, 30, 31,
114
Mediator, Nature of; 274
Meditation--What it is; 293
" Growth by; 299
Men at different levels; 3
Miguel de Molinos; 116
Ministry of Angels, The; 287, 289
Miracles; 145
Mithras, Birth of; 161
Modern Spirit antagonistic to Prayer; 276
More, Henry; 116
Mother Juliana of Norwich; 117
Mount Serbal; 130
Mount of Initiation; 91, 188
Mueller, George, Case of; 284 _et seq._
Music in Worship; 335, 337
Myers (F.), St. Paul; 378
Mystery Gods; 25
" of Christ; 57
Mysteries, Christian, Symbolism of; 247
Mysteries and Yoga; 31
" Christ as Hierophant of;
231
" Disappearance of the; 184
" Eliphas Levi on the; 118
" established by Christ; 142
" Greater, The; ix., 1, 22,
27, 63
" in the Gospels; 45
" in Egypt; 131
" in relation to Myth; 157
" Lesser; ix., 1, 22
" " and Prayer; 280
" " as to Bodies; 237
" " Teaching of; 251
" Names in Christianity; 47
" of Bacchus; 21, 27
" of Chaldaea, Egypt,
Eleusis, Mithras, Orpheus, Samothrace,
Scythia; 21
" of God; 57
" of Jesus; 1, 42, 94
" of the Early Church; 69
_et seq_.
" of Magic, quoted; 157
" praised by Learned Greeks;
21
" Pseudo, and Sun-God Story;
167
" source of Mystic Learning;
108
" The; 171, 178
" taught, _Post-mortem_
Existence; 21
" The True; 179
" The Christ of the; 184
" Theory of the; 22
" withdrawn; 108
Mystic Christ, The; 170
" " Twofold; 178
" Vesture, The; 138
Mythic Christ, The; 145
Myth, Meaning of; 152, 153
" Solar; 156
Mythology Comparative; 147
Natural and Spiritual Bodies; 232
" Body--of St. Paul; 237
Natural Body, The; 235 _et seq._
Need for Graded Religion; 14
Neoplatonists; 29, 112
Newman, Cardinal, quoted; 103 _et seq._
" Recognises a Secret
Tradition; 104
New Testament Proofs of Esotericism; 42 _et
seq._
Nicene Creed; 181
Nicolas of Basel; 114
Noachian Deluge; 19
_Nous Demiurgos_ of Plato; 255
_Numbers, Book of_, quoted; 270
Object of all Religions; 3
Occult Experts; 127
" Knowledge, Danger of; 16
" Records; 18
" " and the Gospels; 129
" side of Nature; 279
" use of Sounds; 334
Old Testament Allegories; 121
One Existence, The; 253
One, The, Three aspects of; 262
"
" Manifest; 261
Origen _Against Celsus_; 88 _et seq._
" " ";
95
" on the Need of Wisdom; 99
" " Mysteries;
89
" " Scriptures; 372
" " Tower of Babel; 97
" referred to; 44
" Shining Light of Learning;
87
_Orpheus_, Mead's, quoted; 28, 29, 30, 114
Owen on Atonement; 197
Pantaenus; 73, 74
Paracelsus; 115
Paradise; 242
Path of Discipleship; 174
_Philippians, Epistle to_, quoted; 62
Physical Ailments final expression of
Karma; 310
Physical Body, Changes in; 243
" Material in Sacraments;
340
Pilgrimages, Rationale of; 382
_Pistis Sophia_, quoted; 46, 138, 139, 302 _et
seq._,
319 _et seq._, 340
" " referred to; 137
Plato's Cave; 153
Plato initiated in Egypt; 21
Platonists of Cambridge; 116
Plotinus, Dying Words of; 31
" referred to; 23
" Mead's, quoted; 31
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna; 70
Popular Christianity, Mistake of; vii.
" Denial of Esoteric
Christianity; 1
Porphyry, quoted; 27, 54
Prayer; 276
" Answers to; 277
" as Will; 285
" Class B--general
principle; 292
" Failure of; 287
" for Spiritual
Enlightenment; 291
" for the Student of Lesser Mysteries; 296
" Highest form of; 293
" Puzzling Facts as to; 277
Prayers classified; 278
Probationary Path, The; 247
"Proclaim upon the
houses"--Mystical meaning; 79
Proclus, Teaching of; 26, 29, 51
Psalms, quoted; 5, 299
Pseudo-Mysteries and Sun-God Drama; 167
Pupils of the Apostles; 70
Purgatory; 242
Purification; 244
Pythagoras, referred to; 28
" in India; 31
Pythagorean School, Discipline of; 29, 30
Qualifications of Disciple; 175
Quietists, The; 116
Regions of the Invisible Worlds; 239
Re-incarnation; 239
Religion, Need for graded; 14
_Religion of Ancient Persians_, quoted; 347
Religions, Common origin of; 7
" Custodians of Sacred
Books; 369
" Essentials of; 4
" fitted for Stages of
Growth; 13
" Object of all; 3
" Source of all; 7
Religious Founders; 10
" Scriptures; 10
" Teachers; 9
Resurrection and Solar Myth; 231, 250
" Body; 240
" of the Christ; 249
" of the Dead; 62
" The--Part of Lesser
Mysteries; 231
Revelation; 369
" Fragments of in Sacred
Books; 370
" in Cypher; 370
" of Deity in Kosmos; 375
_Revelations, Book of_, quoted; 50, 63, 66,
249, 263,
292, 322, 331
Revolt against Dogma; 38
Roman Empire dying; 107
_Romans, Epistle to_, quoted; 82, 363
Rosenkreutz Christian; 117
Ruling Angel of Jews; 96, 98
Ruysbroeck; 115
Sacrament, a kind of crucible; 326
" a Pictorial Allegory; 325
" Change in substance at;
343
" link between Visible and
Invisible; 326, 327
" of Baptism; 347
" of Eucharist; 347
" of Marriage; 347, 364
" of Penance; 340
Sacraments; 324
" Angels connected with; 343
" defined in Church
Catechism; 329
Sacraments, Gestures used in; 338
" in all Religions; 324
" Lost at Reformation; 327
" Mantrams in; 338
" of Christian Church; 327
" Peculiar Characteristics;
324
" Seven, of Christianity;
327, 346
" Signs, Seals, or Sigils
in; 339
" "Substance" and
"Accidents" of; 361
" Twofold Nature of; 324 _et
seq._
" Two, In Protestant
Communities; 328, 346
Sacred Places and Objects; 380
Sacred Quaternery, The; 261
Sacrifice as Joy; 210 _et seq._
" Law of; 201
" " Four Stages in; 212
" Lessons in; 212 _et seq._
" of Jesus; 133
Saint Bonaventura; 112
" Elizabeth; 113
" Francois de Sales; 116
" John of the Cross; 116
" _John's Gospel_, quoted;
x., 46, 52, 53, 54, 56, 103, 132, 133,
134, 137, 177, 180, 216, 240, 246, 250, 262, 270, 273, 292, 382
" Paul, quoted; 55 _et
seq._, 124, 184
" Paul an Initiate; 61
" " and Mysteries; 57
" " and Timothy; 59, 69
" " on Allegory; 66
" Peter, quoted; 194
" Teresa; 116
" Timothy, referred to; 59
_Samuel, Book of_, quoted; 33
Savage Deities; 11
Savages as Descendants of Civilisation; 12
Saviour, The True; 219 _et seq._
Sayings of Jesus; 53, 54, 301
Scientific Analysis of Vehicles; 237
Search for God, The; 5
Secret Teachings of Jesus; 90
" Tradition recognised by
Newman; 104
Second Birth; 185, 247
_Sepher Yetzirah_, quoted; 34
_Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology_, quoted; 259
_Shvetashvataropanishat_, quoted; 32
"Sign of Power"; 339
Society of Friends; 117
Solar Gods; 160
" Myth, Root of; 178
Sopater, quoted; 21
Sophia--The Wisdom; 138
Soul--Dual; 233
Sound and Form in the Invisible Worlds; 333
Sound, Occult use of; 334
Source of Religions; 7
Spirit and Matter; 367
Spirit threefold; 233
" manifested as triple Self;
330
Spiritual Body, Divisions of; 240 _et seq._
"Star of Initiation"; 186
"Strait Gate" term of Initiation;
49, 50, 174, 177
_Stromata_ or Miscellanies of S. Clement,
quoted; 58, 74 _et seq._,
78, 83, 84, 85, 87
Sufferings of the Christ; 223
Superintending Spirits; 98
Sun God Legend; 158
" " Symbol of Logos; 171
" Heroes; 165
" Myths, recurring; 169
" of Righteousness; 249
" Symbol of the Logos; 154
" Symbols; 155
Survival of Christianity?; 40
Symbol of Jesus; 165
" of Trinity; 267
Symbols--animal, in Zodiac; 165
" Language of; 153
Symbols of Logoi; 266 _et seq._
Tatian and Theodotus, referred to; 73
Tauler, John; 114
Taylor, Robert, quoted; 350
Teachings common to all Religions; 146
" in the hands of Spiritual
Brotherhood; 374
Tertullian on Baptism; 151
The Christ; 132, 134
The Hidden Side of Religions; 1
" of Christianity; 36
The Disciples; 136
The "Simple Gospel"; 39
The title of Lord; 96
The Testimony of the Scriptures; 36
The Tower of Babel; 97
The Thyrsus; 75
The True Exstasis; 108
The Trinity; 253
" among the Hebrews; 254
" Hindu; 257
" in Buddhism; 258
" in Chaldaea; 259
" in China; 259
" in Extinct Religions; 258
" in Egypt; 259
" in Man; 177, 233
" in Manifestation; 254
" in Zoroastrianism; 257
The Word of Wisdom, of Knowledge; 102
Theological Hell; 308
_Theosophical Review_, quoted; 228
_Thessalonians, Epistle to_, quoted; 233
Three Worlds, The; 241
_Timothy, Epistle to_, quoted; 59, 60, 61,
65, 134, 227
Tradition of _Post-mortem_ Teaching of
Jesus; 46
Transubstantiation--Truth Underlying; 360
Triangle as a Symbol of Trinity; 267
Trinity, A Second; 263
" of Spirit; 233
Trinity in Christian agrees with other
Faiths; 260
Triple Aspect of Matter; 264
Triplicity in Nature; 261
True Theosophy
defined; x.
Two Schools of Christian Interpretation;
122
Two-fold Division of Man Insufficient; 232
Vaivasvata Manu; 19
Valentinus; 137
Vaughan, Thomas; 116
Vehicles of Consciousness, Need for
Different; 238
Vibrations; 334
Vibratory Effects of Mass; 338
Virgin Matter; 264
" " and Third Person of Trinity; 265
" " and Second
" " ; 265
" Mother; 264
Virgin's Womb, Meaning of; 180
Virgo, Zodiacal Sign of; 158, 160
Virtues in the Mysteries; 27
_Voice of the Silence_, quoted; 249
_Voice Figures_--Mrs. Watts Hughes,
referred to; 333
Williamson's _Great Law_, quoted; 161, 163
_et seq._,
166, 167, 203, 255, 259, 348, 358.
Will as Prayer; 285
Words of Power; 335
Work of the Holy Spirit; 179, 268
" Second Person; 179, 269
" First Person; 270
Working of Logos in Matter; 182
Workers in Kosmos; 283
" the Invisible Worlds; 152,
280
World Bibles, fragments of Revelation; 374
World Soul, The; 23
World Symbols; 266
Writings of the Disciples; 140
_Zechariah_, quoted; 268
Zodiac, The; 160
* * *
* *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] S. Mark xvi. 15.
[2] S. Matt vii. 6.
[3] Clarke's Ante-Nicene Christian Library,
Vol. IV. Clement of
Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. I., ch. xii.
[4] I. Cor. iii. 16.
[5] _Ibid._, ii. 14, 16.
[6] S. John, i. 9.
[7] Psalms, xlii. 1.
[8] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[9] Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement
of Alexandria. _Stromata_,
bk. V., ch. xi.
[10] See Article on "Mysteries,"
_Encyc. Britannica_ ninth edition.
[11] Psellus, quoted in _Iamblichus on the
Mysteries_. T. Taylor, p.
343, note on p. 23, second edition.
[12] _Iamblichus_, as _ante_, p. 301.
[13] _Ibid._, p. 72.
[14] The article on "Mysticism"
in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ has
the following on the teaching of Plotinus
(204-206 A.D.): "The One
[the Supreme God spoken of above] is exalted
above the _nous_ and the
'ideas'; it transcends existence altogether
and is not cognisable by
reason. Remaining itself in repose, it rays
out, as it were, from its
own fulness, an image of itself, which is
called _nous_, and which
constitutes the system of ideas of the
intelligible world. The soul is
in turn the image or product of the _nous_,
and the soul by its motion
begets corporeal matter. The soul thus
faces two ways--towards the
_nous_, from which it springs, and towards
the material life, which is
its own product. Ethical endeavour consists
in the repudiation of the
sensible; material existence is itself
estrangement from God.... To
reach the ultimate goal, thought itself
must be left behind; for
thought is a form of motion, and the desire
of the soul is for the
motionless rest which belongs to the One.
The union with transcendent
deity is not so much knowledge or vision as
ecstasy, coalescence,
_contact_." Neo-Platonism is thus
"first of all a system of complete
rationalism; it is assumed, in other words,
that reason is capable of
mapping out the whole system of things.
But, inasmuch as a God is
affirmed beyond reason, the mysticism
becomes in a sense the necessary
complement of the would-be all-embracing
rationalism. The system
culminates in a mystical act."
[15] _Iamblichus_, as _ante_, p. 73.
[16] _Ibid_, pp. 55, 56.
[17] _Ibid_, pp. 118, 119.
[18] _Ibid_, p. 118, 119.
[19] _Ibid_, pp. 95, 100.
[20] _Ibid_, p. 101.
[21] _Ibid_, p. 330.
[22] G. R. S. Mead. _Plotinus_, p. 42.
[23] _Iamblichus_, p. 364, note on p. 134.
[24] G. R. S. Mead. _Orpheus_, pp. 285,
286.
[25] _Iamblichus_, p. 364, note on p. 134.
[26] _Iamblichus_, p. 285, _et seq._
[27] G. R. S. Mead. _Orpheus_, p. 59.
[28] _Ibid_, p. 30.
[29] _Ibid_, pp. 263, 271.
[30] G. R. S. Mead. _Plotinus_, p. 20.
[31] _Shvetashvataropanishat_, vi., 22.
[32] _Kathopanishat_, iii., 14.
[33] I. Cor. xiii. 1.
[34] _Kathopanishat_, vi. 17.
[35] _Mundakopanishat_, II., ii. 9.
[36] _Ibid_., III., i. 3.
[37] I Sam. xix. 20.
[38] II. Kings ii. 2, 5.
[39] Under "School."
[40] Dr. Wynn Westcott. _Sepher Yetzirah_,
p. 9.
[41] S. Mark iv. 10, 11, 33, 34. See also
S. Matt. xiii. 11, 34, 36,
and S. Luke viii. 10.
[42] S. John xvi. 12.
[43] Acts i. 3.
[44] _Loc. cit._ Trans. by G. R. S. Mead.
I. i. 1.
[45] S. Matt. vii. 6.
[46] As to the Greek woman: "It is not
meet to take the children's
bread, and to cast it unto the
dogs."--S. Mark vii. 27.
[47] S. Luke xiii. 23, 24.
[48] S. Matt. vii. 13, 14.
[49] _Kathopanishat_ II. iv. 10, 11.
[50] _Brihadaranyakopanishat_. IV. iv. 7.
[51] Rev. vii. 9.
[52] _Bahgavad Gita_, vii. 3.
[53] _Ante_, p. 26.
[54] It must be remembered that the Jews
believed that all imperfect
souls returned to live again on earth.
[55] S. Matt. xix. 16-26.
[56] S. John xvii. 3.
[57] Heb. ix. 23.
[58] S. John. iii. 3, 5.
[59] S. Matt. iii. 11.
[60] _Ibid._ xviii. 3.
[61] S. John iii. 10.
[62] S. Matt. v. 48.
[63] _Ante_, p.24
[64] Note how this chimes in with the
promise of Jesus in S. John xvi.
12-14: "I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye cannot bear
them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of
Truth, is come, He will guide
you into all truth.... He will show you
things to come.... He shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto
you."
[65] Another technical name in the
Mysteries.
[66] Eph. iii. 3, 4, 9.
[67] Col i. 23, 25-28. But S. Clement, in
his _Stromata_, translates
"every man," as "the whole
man." See Bk. V., ch. x.
[68] Col. iv. 3.
[69] Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement
of Alexandria. _Stromata_,
bk. V. ch. x. Some additional sayings of
the Apostles will be found in
the quotations from Clement, showing what
meaning they bore in the
minds of those who succeeded the apostles,
and were living in the same
atmosphere of thought.
[70] I. Tim. iii. 9, 16.
[71] I. Tim. i. 18.
[72] _Ibid._, iv. 14.
[73] _Ibid._, vi. 13.
[74] _Ibid._, 20.
[75] II. Tim. i. 13, 14.
[76] _Ibid._, ii. 2.
[77] Phil. iii. 8, 10-12, 14, 15.
[78] Rev. i. 18. "I am He that liveth,
and was dead; and behold, I am
alive for evermore. Amen."
[79] II. Cor. v. 16.
[80] Gal. iii. 27.
[81] Gal. iv. 19.
[82] I. Cor. iv. 15.
[83] I. S. Pet. iii. 4.
[84] Eph. iv. 13.
[85] Col. i. 24.
[86] II. Cor. iv. 10.
[87] Gal. ii. 20.
[88] II. Tim. iv. 6, 8.
[89] Rev. iii. 12.
[90] Gal. iv. 22-31.
[91] I Cor. x. 1-4.
[92] Eph. v. 23-32.
[93] Vol. I. _The Martyrdom of Ignatius_,
ch. iii. The translations
used are those of Clarke's Ante-Nicene
Library, a most useful
compendium of Christian antiquity. The
number of the volume which
stands first in the references is the
number of the volume in that
Series.
[94] _Ibid. The Epistle of Polycarp_, ch.
xii.
[95] _Ibid. The Epistle of Barnabas_, ch.
i.
[96] _Ibid._ ch. x.
[97] _Ibid. The Martyrdom of Ignatius,_ ch.
i.
[98] _Ibid. Epistle of Ignatius to the
Ephesians_, ch. iii.
[99] _Ibid._ ch. xii.
[100] _Ibid. to the Trallians_, ch. v.
[101] _Ibid. to the Philadelphians_, ch.
ix.
[102] Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria
_Stromata_, bk. I. ch. i.
[103] Vol. IV. _Stromata_, bk. I. ch.
xxviii.
[104] It appears that even in those days
there were some who objected
to any truth being taught secretly!
[105] _Ibid._ bk. I, ch. i.
[106] _Ibid._ bk. V., ch. iv.
[107] _Ibid._ ch. v.-viii.
[108] _Ibid._ ch. ix.
[109] _Ibid._ bk. V., ch. x.
[110] Loc. Cit. xv. 29.
[111] _Ibid._ xvi. 25, 26; the version
quoted differs in words, but
not in meaning, from the English Authorised
Version.
[112] _Stromata_, bk. V., ch. x.
[113] _Ibid._ bk. VI., ch. vii.
[114] _Ibid._ bk. VII., ch. xiv.
[115] _Ibid._ bk. VI., ch. xv.
[116] _Ibid._ bk. VI. x.
[117] _Ibid._ bk. VI. vii.
[118] _Ibid._ bk. I. ch. vi.
[119] _Ibid._ ch. ix.
[120] _Ibid._ bk. VI. ch. x.
[121] _Ibid._ bk. I. ch. xiii.
[122] Vol XII. _Stromata_, bk. V. ch. iv.
[123] _Ibid._ bk. VI. ch. xv.
[124] Book I. of _Against Celsus_ is found
in Vol. X. of the
Ante-Nicene Library. The remaining books
are in Vol. XXIII.
[125] Vol. X. _Origen against Celsus_, bk.
I. ch. vii.
[126] _Ibid._
[127] Ex. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30, and compare
with Heb. viii. 5, and ix.
25.
[128] _Origen against Celsus_, bk. IV. ch.
xvi.
[129] _Ibid._ bk. III. ch. lix.
[130] _Ibid._ ch. lxi.
[131] _Ibid._ ch. lxii.
[132] _Ibid._, ch. lx.
[133] Vol. XXIII. _Origen against Celsus_,
bk. V. ch. xxv.
[134] _Ibid._ ch. xxviii.
[135] _Ibid._ ch. xxix.
[136] _Ibid._ ch. xx xi.
[137] _Ibid._ ch. xxxii.
[138] _Ibid._ ch. xlv.
[139] _Ibid._ ch. xlvi.
[140] _Ibid._ chs. xlvii.-liv.
[141] _Ibid._ ch. lxxiv.
[142] _Ibid._ bk. IV., ch. xxxix.
[143] Vol. X. _Origen against Celsus_, bk.
I., ch. xvii, and others.
[144] _Ibid._ ch. xlii.
[145] Vol. X. _De Principiis_, Preface, p.
8.
[146] _Ibid._ ch. i.
[147] S. John xiv. 18-20.
[148] _Loc. cit._ ch. i. sec. III. p. 55.
[149] _Ibid._ ch. I. Sec. III. pp. 55, 56.
[150] _Ibid._ pp. 54, 55.
[151] "Seems to have been" is a
somewhat weak expression, after what
is said by Clement and Origen, of which
some specimens are given in
the text.
[152] _Ibid._, p. 62.
[153] Article on
"Mysticism."--_Encyc. Britan._
[154] Article "Mysticism."
_Encyclopaedia Britannica._
[155] _Orpheus_, pp. 53, 54.
[156] Obligation must be here acknowledged
to the Article "Mysticism,"
in the _Encyc. Brit._, though that
publication is by no means
responsible for the opinions expressed.
[157] _The Mysteries of Magic._ Trans. by
A. E. Waite, pp. 58 and 60.
[158] II. S. Peter i. 5.
[159] Gal. iv. 19.
[160] II. Cor. v. 16.
[161] S. John i. 14.
[162] S. John i. 32.
[163] S. Matt. iii. 17.
[164] _Ibid._ iv. 17.
[165] I. Tim. iii. 16.
[166] S. John x. 34-36.
[167] S. John xiv. 18, 19.
[168] Valentinus. Trans. by G. R. S. Mead.
_Pistis Sophia_, bk. i., I.
[169] _Ante_, p. 72.
[170] _Ibid._ 60.
[171] _Ibid._ bk. ii., 218.
[172] _Ibid._ 230.
[173] _Ibid._ 357.
[174] _Ibid._ 377.
[175] Vol. II. Justin Martyr. _First
Apology_, ch. liv., lxii., and
lxvi.
[176] Vol. II. Justin Martyr. _Second
Apology_, ch. xiii.
[177] Vol. VII. Tertullian, _On Baptism_,
ch. v.
[178] The student might read Plato's
account of the "Cave" and its
inhabitants, remembering that Plato was an
Initiate. _Republic_, Bk.
vii.
[179] Eliphas Levi _The Mysteries of
Magic_, p. 48.
[180] Bonwick. _Egyptian Belief_, p. 157.
Quoted in Williamson's
_Great Law_, p. 26.
[181] The festival "Natalis Solis
Invicti," the birthday of the
Invincible Sun.
[182] Williamson. _The Great Law_, pp.
40-42. Those who wish to study
this matter as one of Comparative Religion
cannot do better than read
_The Great Law_, whose author is a
profoundly religious man and a
Christian.
[183] _Ibid._ pp. 36, 37.
[184] _The Great Law_, p. 116.
[185] _Ibid._ p. 58.
[186] _Ibid._ p. 56.
[187] _Ibid._ pp. 120-123.
[188] See on this the opening of the
Johannine Gospel, i. 1-5. The
name Logos, ascribed to the manifested God,
shaping matter--"all
things were made by Him"--is Platonic,
and is hence directly derived
from the Mysteries; ages before Plato, Vak,
Voice, derived from the
same source, was used among Hindus.
[189] See _Ante_, pp. 124.
[190] See _Ante_, pp. 93-94.
[191] See _Ante_, p. 85.
[192] II. Cor. iv. 18.
[193] II. Cor. v. 7.
[194] Heb. v. 14.
[195] S. Luke xv. 16.
[196] _Ibid._ xiv. 26.
[197] S. Matt. v. 28.
[198] Heb. xi. 27.
[199] S. Matt v. 45.
[200] S. Luke ix. 49, 50.
[201] S. Matt xvii. 20.
[202] II. Cor. vi. 8-10.
[203] Col. iii. 1.
[204] S. Matt. v. 8, and S. John xvii. 21.
[205] Gen. i. 2.
[206] S. John i. 3.
[207] _The Christian Creed_, p. 29. This is
a most valuable and
fascinating little book, on the mystical
meaning of the creeds.
[208] _Ibid._ p. 42.
[209] A name of the Holy Ghost.
[210] _Ibid._ p. 43.
[211] _Ante_, p. 124.
[212] S. Matt. xviii. 3.
[213] 2 S. Peter iii. 15, 16.
[214] A. Besant. _Essay on the Atonement._
[215] _Ibid._
[216] _Brihadaranyakopanishat_, I. i. 1.
[217] _Bhagavad Gita_, iii. 10.
[218] _Brihadaranyakopanishat_, I. ii. 7.
[219] _Mundakopanishat_, II. ii. 10.
[220] Haug. _Essays on the Parsis_, pp.
12-14.
[221] Rev. xiii. 8.
[222] W. Williamson. _The Great Law_, p.
406.
[223] A. Besant. _Nineteenth Century_,
June, 1895, "The Atonement."
[224] Heb. i. 5.
[225] _Ibid._, 2.
[226] C.W. Leadbeater. _The Christian
Creed_, pp. 54-56.
[227] _Ibid._ pp. 56, 57.
[228] S. Matt. xxv. 21, 23, 31-45.
[229] Is. liii. 11.
[230] S. Matt. xvi. 25.
[231] S. John xii. 25.
[232] Heb. vii. 16.
[233] _Light on the Path_, ch. 8.
[234] Heb. vii. 25.
[235] Heb. v. 8, 9.
[236] I Tim. iii. 16.
[237] Annie Besant. _Theosophical Review_,
Dec., 1898, pp. 344, 345.
[238] C. W. Leadbeater. _The Christian
Creed_, pp. 61, 62.
[239] I Cor. xv. 44.
[240] I Thess. v. 23.
[241] See Chapter IX., "The
Trinity."
[242] See _Ante_, pp. 84, 99, 100.
[243] 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.
[244] S. Matt. v. 48.
[245] S. John xvii. 22, 23.
[246] 2 Cor. v. 1.
[247] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[248] This mistranslation was a very
natural one, as the translation
was made in the seventeenth century, and
all idea of the pre-existence
of the soul and of its evolution had long
faded out of Christendom,
save in the teachings of a few sects
regarded as heretical and
persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church.
[249] S. John iii. 13.
[250] Heb. v. 9.
[251] Rev. i. 18.
[252] H. P. Blavatsky. _The Voice of the
Silence_, p. 90, 5th Edition.
[253] S. John. xvii. 5.
[254] 1 Cor. xv. 20.
[255] _Chhandogyopanishat_, VI. ii., 1.
[256] Deut. vi. 4.
[257] 1 Cor. viii. 6.
[258] An error: En, or Ain, Soph is not one
of the Trinity, but the
One Existence, manifested in the Three; nor
is Kadmon, or Adam Kadmon,
one Sephira, but their totality.
[259] Quoted in Williamson's _The Great
Law_, pp. 201, 202.
[260] H. H. Milman. _The History of
Christianity_, 1867, pp. 70-72.
[261] _Asiatic Researches_, i. 285.
[262] S. Sharpe. _Egyptian Mythology and
Egyptian Christology_, p. 14.
[263] See Williamson's _The Great Law_, p.
196.
[264] _Loc. Cit._, pp. 208, 209.
[265] S. John i. 3.
[266] Jer. li. 15.
[267] See _Ante_, pp. 179-180.
[268] Athanasian Creed.
[269] Rev. iv. 8.
[270] S. Luke. i. 38.
[271] _Ibid_, 35.
[272] Book of Wisdom, viii. 1.
[273] Vol. IV. Ante-Nicene Library. S.
Clement of Alexandria.
_Stromata_, bk. V., ch. ii.
[274] See _Ante_, p. 262.
[275] See _Ante_, p. 207.
[276] Gen. i. 1.
[277] Job xxxviii. 4; Zech. xii. 1; &c.
[278] Gen. i. 2.
[279] Gen. i. 2.
[280] See _Ante_, p. 262.
[281] See _Ante_, p. 262.
[282] S. John i. 3.
[283] _Bhagavad Gita_ ix. 4.
[284] 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28.
[285] S. John xiv. 6. See also the further
meaning of this text on p.
272.
[286] Heb. xii. 9.
[287] Numb. xvi. 22.
[288] Gen. i. 26.
[289] S. Matt. v. 48.
[290] S. John xvii. 5.
[291] S. John v. 26.
[292] S. Matt. i. 22.
[293] Heb. ii. 18.
[294] Much of this chapter has already
appeared in an earlier work by
the author, entitled, _Some Problems of
Life_.
[295] S. James i. 17.
[296] Gen. xxviii. 12, 13.
[297] See Chapter xii.
[298] Heb. i. 14.
[299] S. Matt. x. 29.
[300] Acts xvii. 28.
[301] T. H. Huxley. _Essays on some
Controverted Questions_, p. 36.
[302] S. Luke xxii. 41, 43.
[303] S. John i. 11.
[304] Rev. iii. 20.
[305] H. P. Blavatsky. _Key to Theosophy_,
p. 10.
[306] Is. xxxiii. 17.
[307] _On the Mysteries_, sec. v. ch. 26.
[308] Ps. xl. 7, 8, Prayer Book version.
[309] S. Luke, v. 18-26.
[310] _Ibid._ vii. 47.
[311] G. R. S. Mead, translated. _Loc.
cit._, bk. ii., chapters 260, 261.
[312] _Ibid._ chapters 299, 300.
[313] S. Matt. xii. 36.
[314] _Ibid._ ix. 2.
[315] _Loc. cit._ iii. 9.
[316] _Ibid._ vi. 43.
[317] _Ibid._ ix. 30.
[318] See _ante_, Chap. VIII.
[319] This is the cause of the sweetness
and patience often noticed in
the sick who are of very pure nature. They
have learned the lesson of
suffering, and they do not make fresh evil
karma by impatience under
the result of past bad karma, then
exhausting itself.
[320] S. Luke, vii. 48, 50.
[321] _Loc. cit._, ix. 31.
[322] S. Matt. vii. 1.
[323] _Loc. cit._, bk. ii. ch. 305.
[324] Rev. iii. 20.
[325] G. Bruno, trans. by L. Williams. _The
Heroic Enthusiasts_, vol.
i., p. 133.
[326] _Ibid._, vol. ii., pp. 27, 28.
[327] _Ibid._, pp. 102, 103.
[328] Rev. iv. 5.
[329] The phrase "force and
matter" is used as it is so well-known in
science. But force is one of the properties
of matter, the one
mentioned as Motion. See _Ante_, p. 264.
[330] Job xxxviii. 7.
[331] See on forms created by musical notes
any scientific book on
Sound, and also Mrs. Watts-Hughes'
illustrated book on _Voice
Figures_.
[332] See _ante_, p. 138 and p. 302.
[333] In the Sacrament of Penance the ashes
are now usually omitted,
except on special occasions, but none the
less they form part of the
rite.
[334] See _ante_ p. 329.
[335] _Christian Records_, p. 129.
[336] _The Great Law_, pp. 161-166.
[337] See _ante_, p. 151.
[338] _Diegesis_, p. 219.
[339] 1 Pet. iii. 4.
[340] 2 Kings vi. 17.
[341] 1 Cor. x. 16.
[342] Jer. xliv.
[343] Gen. xiv. 18, 19.
[344] _The Great Law_, pp. 177-181, 185.
[345] Lev. xvii. 11.
[346] Rom. xii. 1.
[347] Isaiah liv. 5; lxii. 5.
[348] Eph. v. 23-32.
[349] Athanasian Creed.
[350] 2 Pet. i. 20.
[351] 1 See _ante_, p. 102.
[352] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[353] 1 Cor. ii. 11, 13.
[354] Is. vi. 6, 7.
[355] S. John v. 4.
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