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In the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy we find enumerated the blessings which come to those who elect to follow the right way; and in them we find a suggestion of the Beatitudes of the New Testament, so well beloved of Christians.
These blessings, exoterically interpreted, are the material counterpart of the blessings given by Jesus; for whereas the Master gave blessings which pertained to the kingdom within, these pertain to the workings of the law in their external aspects. Nevertheless, because the Spirit of God is everywhere in Nature, Nature itself (including human nature) is the living Word of God and reveals His Wisdom.
But none of the blessings can become active in man, either spiritually or materially, except by his living a true and holy life in obedience to Law, which is Truth itself. Blessings become curses for the wrong-doer; eventually, in one life or another, he will be cursed in the city and in the field, cursed in basket and in store, cursed in body and in land, in kine and in sheep. Cursed shall he be when he "comest in" and cursed when he "goest out," for an unliquidated debt of karma goes out with him through the gates of death to re-enter with him through the gates of rebirth.
Thus concludes the statement of this new covenant "which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb." (Deuteronomy 29:1) Now it is possible to say of the Israelites, as of an illumined candidate: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29)
In such exalted attainment the white purity which is the Splendor of God comes to fruition. Throughout this New Age Bible Interpretation purity has been stressed as a prime requisite for esoteric development. This ideal is beautifully expressed for the Deuteronomic Dispensation in the words of the Thorah — "God tells man: "Behold I am pure, my habitation is pure, my ministering angels are pure, and the spark of Myself (the soul) deposited with you is pure: take heed that you restore to Me that spark in the same state of purity as when it was given to you."
It is the Lord God Jehovah who speaks in this manner. The Lord and Law being one, they may frequently be used as synonymous terms. The Lord Jehovah has for eons of time been intimately associated with humanity in the capacity of a Guardian or Race Spirit. He is the highest Initiate of the angelic kingdom, which constitutes the Hierarchy of Aquarius. This Hierarchy lives the life of conscious immortality. Whereas man is limited in his creations to form alone, the Angels are able to work in a similar manner with life itself from these facts something may be inferred as to the nature of the development awaiting man as he comes under the dominant influence of Aquarius, the mansion of Angels, in the New Age we are now entering.
Through cycles of attainment Jehovah has acquired ability to direct the sacred, creative life force in the three living kingdoms on Earth: plant, animal and human. This makes Him the guardian of the mystery of earthly life. It was, therefore, His angelic emissaries who brought the tidings of new life to those holy men and women among Essenian Initiates who were able to receive the mysteries they imparted. Notable among such were Hanna, mother of Samuel, the boy seer; Elizabeth and Zacharias, parents of John the Baptist; Joseph and Mary, parents of the Master Jesus.
By his long service in connection with the evolutionary advancement of humanity and other orders of life, Jehovah has progressed far in advance of the average among his own angelic life wave, having risen to the exalted state of what may properly be called entrance into the Community of the Holy Ghost. What is called "the law" is His metaphysical activity as principle.
The Old Testament, as the vehicle of the Law, is a garment in which this Jehovistic principle makes itself manifest among men. "As above, so below" — a Temple teaching frequently referred to in these pages — gives us the key to an intellectual comprehension of universal principle; but we have indeed failed if we do not recognize in principle the activity of life itself, and obey it because we love it for its own ordered beauty, rather than for the sake of the blessings by which it rewards its faithful servants. This is pre-eminently the lesson learned by a candidate on the Mount of Blessings: as principle, the activity of IHVH is sure, and rewards are certain to attend upon faithfulness to Him. Nevertheless, these rewards — whether psychic or material powers, whether earthly or heavenly wisdom, whether mortal or immortal joys — are not the strongest incentive to his endeavors.
Having acquired this understanding, a candidate for Initiation has attained to expanded vision whereby he experiences within himself the reality of the Macrocosm. As a neophyte he knew that he lived and moved and had his being within the spiritual Macrocosm; now he experiences the Macrocosm as living and moving within himself.
There are now for him two sacred mountains which uphold the heavens, and about which circle the zodiacal Hierarchies. Among the stars of the Zodiac the Interpreters (planets) wander, and in their wanderings they make plain the will of God for men. The candidate knows his unity with the stars and with the Interpreters, for they are the out-picturing of principles active in his own consciousness. These principles have been purified (i.e. liberated) in the aspirant, else he could not have attained to the two mounts; in every instance their purification has meant purging away of the personal aspect and ascension into the impersonal.
The disciple no longer fears, but loves, the Law since his vision has been sufficiently clarified to permit him to observe its true nature. Therefore he is righteous because he loves righteousness (rightness) and not because he desires the powers that rightness will bring. This is the Saturn purification (Capricorn-Aquarius).
A disciple approaching Initiation also pours out his life (symbolized in the blood), not because it is to his advantage to do so — although he knows well that it will open the door to the Mysteries — but because it is his great joy to pour himself out. He thus learns the meaning of sacrifice. This is the Jupiter purification (Pisces-Sagittarius), for Jupiter is the abundant giver. The candidate is now a true priest who, out of his spiritual plenty, gives plentifully.
Having witnessed the divine creative energy at work in the spiritual worlds, the candidate is impassioned for celestial beauty and recreates it upon Earth. The creative fire is degenitalized and finds expression through the forebrain in artistic creation as an emanation of the pure uncontaminated energy of God Himself. When the fire mist is thus lifted from generative centers to the head, it no longer seeks expression through physical passion, but in creative thought and spiritual activity. This is the Mars purification (Aries-Scorpio), symbolized in the holy grail and spear.
The sacred fires in man animate all his vehicles; they give force to all the principles of his being. On the physical plane this force generates sperm; on the astral plane it manifests as desire; on the mental plane as thought; and on the spiritual level as soul power. The place of leadership attained by Moses was won by mastery of the creative fires that burned at the center of his being, as it does in every Ego. He had learned the way to power and illumination, and that way he pointed out to his people again and again, in numerous ways and at sundry times, by means of many symbols. The doctrine of the regenerated life lies at the very heart of his Book of the Higher Law.
A regenerate one is not enslaved by that personal affection which, as we have seen, so frequently causes a neophyte to leave the path of illumination. Yet he loves all living, and performs all duties to family, friends and neighbors, with complete self-abandonment, not because he wants the happiness that will be poured out upon him, but because he loves life. Few neophytes understand the golden Venus, planet of love and sweetness, in her role of karmic emissary. Yet Venus is the ruler (Interpreter) of Taurus, one of the four Signs of Destiny. Too often karma is feared, particularly that karma which binds us to other members of the race. But to the candidate who has come to the two mounts, Venus is the beautiful Mother of Destiny, gracious and smiling even when her hands bear gifts of sorrow. She is like the tender Hathors of Egypt. And this is the Venus purification (Taurus-Libra): that we love for love's own sake, and not for the happiness which is the gift of love.
Inmost of the planets of the solar system is Mercury, the starlike Interpreter of Gemini and Virgo. Inmost of the egoic principles is the pure reason which inducts a disciple into the starry sphere of Abstract Truth. Mercury interprets for the seeker the meaning of a spiritualized mind, a mind trained to think in terms of abstract principle so that it may follow the sky paths of God's own thinking. There are no secrets of the universe which a spiritualized mind is not able to discover; but it is not for these that a new Initiate purifies his mind. He loves Truth because it is Truth, not because of the knowledge it unfolds within his consciousness. This is the Mercury purification (Gemini-Virgo).
Through the gate of Truth an Initiate enters into the full illumination of the I AM, whose cosmic symbol is the Sun. Each time he makes the eternal affirmation "I AM" in the fullness of first-hand knowing, he himself becomes a sun radiating an effulgence of golden glory. The light of the I AM shines upon the mirror of personality, the Moon, and thus brings light into the darkness of materiality, the earthly consciousness. The Earth purification involves the spiritual activity of the Sun-Moon principles (Cancer-Leo), by which one "newly born" is liberated at last from earthly consciousness and able to "travel in foreign countries" — other planets — of this solar system and, later, other solar systems.
An illumined One of the two mounts has become a cosmic wanderer. He has learned to pass simultaneously outward in space and into realms of increasing tenuousness as he journeys inward toward the very heart, the spiritual center, of Earth. Thus it is that he comes into a realization that man is indeed a miniature cosmos, containing within himself all the potencies of earth and sky. He comes to understand that the furthermost star gleaming in the distant confines of the heavens has its magnetic center within himself, and that to find and unleash its mighty spiritual forces within himself is the purpose of cosmic illumination, or Initiation.
Having established these zodiacal rhythms within, the emancipated one hears the voice of the Master say to him: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19) "The body of the earth is a living organism. In it everything that can be observed analogous to the parts of an animal body. Plants and trees are its hair, metals its arteries, waters of the sea its drink. The earth has formative forces, a kind of imagination, movements, certain illnesses; the ebb and flow are its breathings analogous to the respiration of an animal. The soul of the earth appears to be a kind of flame, hence the subterranean heat. Also there can be no propagation without heat or warmth.
"A certain picture of the Zodiac and of the whole firmament is imprinted by God in the soul of the earth. This is the bond of the heavenly and the earthly, the cause of the sympathy between heaven and earth. The soul is in the center of the earth and sends forth its impressions in all directions. As with the soul of the earth, so it is with the soul of man, the highest harmony of his image. Numbers, stars and nature in general harmonize with certain mysteries of the Christ religion. The soul of the earth works through the whole body of the earth, but has its seat in a certain part (as the human soul has its seat in the heart) and from thence as a focus its workings go out through the oceans and atmosphere of the earth.
"The lower elements or spirits of the Earth were silenced by the coming of the Christ." — Kepler
— Corinne Heline
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