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Searchable Full Text of Esoteric
Christianity or The Lesser Mysteries by Annie Besant
The
Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
Esoteric Christianity
Or The Lesser Mysteries
by
Annie Besant
[SECOND EDITION]
The Theosophical Publishing Society.
LONDON AND BENARES.
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 Alexandria says quite bluntly, after
alluding to the
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 Early Church, would cause a smile
of incredulity. It
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 Early Church,
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
Krishna, a Buddha, a Lao-tze, a Jesus, are the highly
civilised
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 Alexandria
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 Greece, such as Plato, went to Sais
and to Thebes to be
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, Scythia,
Chaldea, are familiar in name, at least, as household
words. Even in the
extremely diluted form of the Eleusinian Mysteries,
their value is most
highly praised by the most eminent men of Greece, as
Pindar, Sophocles,
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 India, and who gave "the knowledge of things
that are" to his pledged
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 Pythagorean School in Magna Graecia was closed at
the end of 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 Pythagorean School itself may serve as a type of
the discipline
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 India is patent to the
most superficial
observer. It is not, however, necessary to suppose
that the nations of
antiquity drew from India; all alike drew from the one
source, the Grand
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
India a high Initiation, and Apollonius of Tyana later
followed in his
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 Bethel and
Jericho,[38] and in
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 Temple;" and Rabbi
Simeon ben Jochai is said
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 Israel.
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.
-------
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.
-------
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."
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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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