Ancient and
Modern Initiation
by Max Heindel
(Part 2)
2. Mystic Rite of
Baptism
It is noteworthy that nearly all religious systems have prescribed
ablutions previous to the performance of religious duties, and the worship
performed in the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the
Wilderness, was no exception, as we have seen from the previous articles
on "Symbols of Ancient and Modern Initiation." After having obtained
justification by sacrifice on the Brazen Altar, the candidate was compelled to
wash in the Laver of Consecration, the Molten Sea, before he was allowed to
enter upon the duties of his ministry in the sanctuary proper. And it is in
conformity with this rule that we find the Hero of the Gospels going to
the river Jordan, where He underwent the mystic rite of Baptism. When He
rose, we learn that the Spirit descended upon Him. Therefore it is obvious
that those who follow the Christian Mystic Path of Initiation must also
be similarly baptized before they can receive the Spirit, which is to be
their true guide through all the trials before them.
But what constitutes Baptism is a question which has called forth
arguments of almost unbelievable intensity. Some contend that it is a
sprinkling with water, and other insist upon the immersion of the whole
body. Some say that it is sufficient to take an infant into church, sprinkle
it with water despite its protests, and presto! it becomes a Christian, an
heir of heaven; whereas should it unfortunately die before this sacred rite
is performed, it must inevitably go to hell. Others take the more logical
position that the desire of an individual for admission into the church is the
prime factor necessary to make the rite effective, and therefore wait until
adult age before the performance of the ceremony, which requires an
immersion of the whole body in water. But whether the rite is performed in
infancy or in later life, it seems strange that momentary immersion or
sprinkling with water should have the power to save the soul; and when we
examine the subsequent life of those who have thus been baptized, even in
adult age and with their full consent and desire, we find little or no
improvement in the great majority. Therefore it seems evident that this
cannot be the proper rite, because the Spirit has not descended upon them.
Consequently we must look for another explanation of what constitutes a true
mystic rite of Baptism.
A story is told of an Ottoman king who declared war on a neighboring
nation, fought a number of battles against it with varying success, but was
finally conquered and taken captive to the palace of the victor, where he
was compelled to work in the most menial capacity as a slave. After many
years fortune favored him, and he escaped to a far country, where by hard
work he acquired a small estate, married, and had a number of children, who
grew up around him. Finally he found himself upon his deathbed at a very
rip old age, and in the exertion of drawing his last breath he raised
himself upon his pillow and looked about him, but there were no sons and
daughters there. He was not in the place which he had regarded as home for
so many years, but in his own palace which he thought he had left in his
youth, and he was as young as when he left it. There he found himself
sitting in a chair with a basin of water close to his chin and a servant
engaged in washing his hair and beard. He had just immersed his face in the
water when the dream of going to war had started, and a lifetime had been
lived in dreamland during the few seconds it took until he raised his face.
There are thousands of other instances to show that outside the physical
world time is nonexistent and the happenings of millennia are easily
inspected in a few moments.
It is also well known that when people are under water and in the act of
drowning, their whole preceding life is reenacted before their eyes with
crystal clarity, even the minutest details which have been forgotten during
the passing years standing our sharply. Thus there must be and is a
storehouse of events which may be contacted under certain conditions when
the senses are stilled and we are near sleep or death.
To make this last sentence clear it should be understood and borne in
mind that man is a composite being, having finer vehicles which
interpenetrate the physical body, usually regarded as the whole man. During
death and sleep this dense body is unconscious on account of a complete
separation between it and the finer vehicles; but this separation is only
partial during dream-filled sleep and prior to drowning. This condition
enables the spirit to impress events upon the brain with more or less
accuracy according to circumstances, particularly those incidents which are
connected with itself. In the light of these things we shall understand what
really constitutes the rite of Baptism.
According to the Nebular Theory that which is now the earth was at one
time a luminous fire-mist, which gradually cooled by contact with the cold
of space. This meeting of heat with cold generated moisture, which
evaporated and rose from the heated center, until the cold condensed it and
it fell again as moisture upon the heated world. The surface of the earth
being thus subjected to alternate liquidation and evaporation for ages, it
finally crystallized into a shell which perfectly covered the fiery center.
This soft moisture-laden shell naturally generated a mist, which surrounded
the planet as an atmosphere, and this was the cradle of everything that has
its being upon the earth: man, animal, and plant.
The Bible describes this condition in the second chapter of Genesis,
where we are told that at the time of the first man a mist went up from the
earth, "for it had not yet rained." This condition evidently continued until
the Flood, when the moisture finally descended and left the atmosphere clear
so that the rainbow was seen for the first time, the darkness was dispelled,
and the age of alternation, day and night, summer and winter, commenced.
By a study of the cosmology and the pictorial account of evolution given
in the Northern Eddas, treasured among the sages of Scandinavia before the
Christian Era, we may learn more of this period in the earth's history and
the bearing which it has upon our subject. As we teach our children, by
means of stories and pictures, truths that hey could not intellectually
grasp, so the divine leaders of mankind were wont to teach the infant souls
in their charge by pictures and allegories, and through these prepare them
for a higher and nobler teaching of a later day. The great epic poem which
is called "The Lay of the Niebelung," gives us the story of which we are in
search, the cosmic origin of the rite of Baptism and why it is necessarily
the preliminary step in the spiritual unfoldment of the Christian Mystic.
The cosmogony of the Eddas is similar to that of the Bible is some
respects, and in others gives points which bear out the theory of Laplace. We
quote from the poetical version of Oehlenschlaeger:
"In the Being's earliest Dawn
All was one dark abyss,
Nor heaven nor earth was known.
Chill noxious fogs and ice,
North from murk Niflheim's hole,
Piled up in mountains lay;
From Muspel's radiant pole,
Southwards fire held the sway.
"Then after ages passed,
Mid in the chaos met
A warm breath, Niflheim's blast,
Cold with prolific heat.
Hence pregnant drops were formed,
Which by the parent air
From Muspel's region warmed,
Produced great Aurgelmer."
Thus by the action of heat and cold Aurgelmer, or as he is also called,
the Giant Ymer, was first formed. This was the pregnant seed ground whence
came the spiritual Hierarchies, the spirits of the earth, air, and water,
and finally man. At the same time the All-Father created the Cow Audumla,
from whose four teats issued four streams of milk, which nourished all
beings. These are the four ethers, one of which now sustains mineral, two
feed the plant, three the animal, and all four the human kingdom. In the
Bible they are the four rivers which went forth out of Eden.
Eventually, as postulated by science, a crust must have been formed by
the continued boiling of the water, and from this drying crust a mist must
have ascended as taught in the second chapter of Genesis. By degrees the
mist must have cooled and condensed, shutting out the light of the Sun, so
that it would have been impossible for early mankind to perceive the body
even had they possessed the physical vision. But under such conditions they
had no more need of eyes that a mole which burrows in the ground. They were
not blind, however, for we are told that "they saw God"; and as "spiritual
things (and beings) are spiritually perceived," they must have been gifted
with spiritual sight. In the spiritual worlds there is a different standard
of reality than here, which is the basis of myths.
Under these conditions there could be no clashing of interests, and
humanity regarded itself as the children of one great Father while they lived
under the water of ancient Atlantis. Egoism did not come into the world until
the mist had condensed and they had left the watery atmosphere of
Atlantis. When their eyes had been opened so that they could perceive the
physical world and the things therein, when each saw himself or herself as
separate and apart from all others, the consciousness of "me and mine, thee
and thine," took shape in the nascent minds, and a grasping greed replaced
the fellow feeling which obtained under the waters of early Atlantis. From
that time to the present stage of egoism has been considered the legitimate
attitude, and even in our boasted civilization altruism remains a Utopian
dream not to be indulged in by practical people.
Had mankind been allowed to travel the path of egoism without let or
hindrance, it is difficult to see where it all would have ended. But under
the immutable Law of Consequence every cause must produce an adequate
effect; the principle of suffering was born from sin for the benevolent
purpose of guiding us back to the path of virtue. It takes much suffering
and many lives to accomplish this purpose, but finally when we have become
men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, when we have cultivated that
keen and ready sympathy which feels all the woe of the world, when the
Christ has been born within, there comes to the Christian Mystic that ardent
aspiration to seek and to save those who are lost and show them the way to
everlasting light and peace.
But to show the way, we must know the way; without a true understanding
of the cause of sorrow we cannot teach others to obtain permanent peace.
Nor can this understanding of sorrow, sin, and death be obtained from books,
lectures, or even the personal teachings of another; at least an impression
sufficiently intense to fill the aspirant's whole being cannot be conveyed
in that way. Baptism alone will accomplish the purpose in an adequate
manner; therefore the first step in the life of a Christian Mystic is Baptism.
But when we say Baptism, we do not necessarily mean a physical Baptism
where the candidate is either sprinkled or immersed and where he makes
certain promises to the one who baptizes him. The Mystic Baptism may
take place in a desert as easily on an island, for it is a spiritual process
to attain a spiritual purpose. It may take place at any time during the
night or day, in summer or winter, for it occurs at the moment when the
candidate feels with sufficient intensity the longing to know the cause of
sorrow and alleviate it. Then the Spirit is conducted under the waters of
Atlantis, where it sees the primal condition of brotherly love and kindness;
where it perceives God as the great Father of His children, who are there
surrounded by His wonderful love. And by the conscious return to this Ocean
of Love, the candidate becomes so thoroughly imbued with the feeling of
kinship that the spirit of egoism is banished from him forever. It is
because of this saturation with the Universal Spirit that is able later to
say: "If a man takes your coat, give him you cloak also; if he asks you
to walk one mile with him, go with him two miles." Feeling himself one and
all, the candidate does not even consider the murder of himself as
mistreatment, but can say: "Father, forgive them." They are identical
with himself, who suffers by their action; he is the aggressor as well as
the victim. Such is the true Spiritual Baptism of the Christian Mystic,
and any other baptism that does not produce this universal fellow feeling is
not worthy of the name.
We often hear about devout Christians complain of their periods of
depression. At times they are almost in the seventh heaven of spiritual
exaltation, they all but see the face of Christ and feel as if He were
guiding their every step; then without any warning and without any cause that
they can discover the clouds gather, the Savior hides His face, and the
world grows black for a period. They cannot work, they cannot pray; the world
has no attraction, and the gate of heaven seems shut against them, with the
result that life appears worthless so long as this spiritual expression lasts.
The reason is, of course, that these people live in their emotions, and under
the immutable Law of Alternation the pendulum is bound to swing as far to one
side of the neutral point as it has swung to the other. The brighter the
light, the deeper the shadow, and the greater the exaltation, the deeper the
depression of spirit which follows it. Only those who by cold reason
restrain their emotions escape the periods of depression, but they never
taste the heavenly bliss of exaltation either. And it is this emotional outpouring of himself which furnished the Christian Mystic with the dynamic
energy to project himself into the invisible worlds, where he becomes one with the spiritual ideal which has beckoned him on and awakened in his soul the power to rise to it, as the sun built the eye wherewith we perceive it. The nestling takes many a tumble ere it learns to use its wings with
assurance, and the aspirant upon the path of Christian Mysticism may soar to the very throne of God times out of number and then fall to the lowest pit of hell's despair. But some time he will overcome the world, defy the Law of Alternation, and rise by the power of the Spirit to the Father of
Spirits, free from the toils of emotion, filled with the peace that passeth understanding.
But that is the end attained only after Golgotha and the Mystic Baptism,
the latter of which we discussed in the preceding section. Moreover, it is
only the beginning of the active career of the Christian Mystic, in which he
becomes thoroughly saturated with the tremendous fact of the unity of all
life, and imbued with a fellow feeling for all creatures to such an extent
that henceforth he can not only enunciate but practice the tenets of the
Sermon on the Mount.
Did the spiritual experiences of the Christian Mystic take him no
further, it would still be the most wonderful adventure in the world, and
the magnitude of the event is beyond words, the consequences only dimly
imaginable. Most students of the higher philosophies believe in the
brotherhood of man from the mental conviction that we have all emanated from
the same source, as rays emanate from the sun. But there is an abyss of
inconceivable depth and width between this cold intellectual conception and
the baptismal saturation of the Christian Mystic, who feels it is his heart
and in every fiber of his being with such an intensity that it is actually
painful to him; it fills him with such a yearning, aching love as that
expressed in the words of the Christ: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings;" a brooding, yearning, and achingly protective
love which asks nothing for self save only the privilege to nurture, to
shield, and to cherish.
Were even a faint resemblance to such a universal fellow feeling abroad
among humanity in this dark day, what a paradise earth would be. Instead of
every man's hand being against his brother to slay with the sword, with
rivalry and competition, or to destroy his morals and degrade him by prison stripes or industrial bondage under the whiplash of necessity, we should have neither warriors nor prisoners but a happy contented world, living in peace and harmony, learning the lessons which our Father in Heaven aims to teach us in this material condition. And all the misery in the world may be accounted for by the fact that if we believe in the Bible at all, we believe with our head and not with our heart.
When we came up through the waters of Baptism, the Atlantean Flood, into
the Rainbow Age of alternating seasons, we became prey to the changing
emotions which whirl us hither and yon upon the sea of life. The cold
faith restrained by reason entertained by the majority of professing
Christians may given them a need of patience and mental valance which bears
them up under the trials of life, but when the majority get the living faith
of the Christian Mystic which laughs at reason because it is heart-felt,
then the Age of Alternation will be past, the rainbow will fall with the
clouds and the air which now composes the atmosphere, and there will be a new
heaven of pure ether, where we shall receive the Baptism of Spirit and "there sahall be peace" (Jerusalem).
We are still in the Rainbow Age and subject to its low, so we may realize
that as the Baptism of the Christian Mystic occurs at a time of spiritual
exaltation, it must necessarily be followed by a reaction. The tremendous
magnitude of the revelation overpowers him, he cannot realize it or contain
it in his fleshly vehicle, so he flees the haunts of men and betakes himself
to the solitude allegorically represented as a desert. So rapt is he in his
sublime discovery that for the time being in his ecstasy he sees the Loom of
Life upon which the bodies of all that live are woven, from the least to the
greatest-the mouse and the man, the hunter and his prey, the warrior and his
victim. But to him they are not separate and apart, for he also beholds
the one divine thread of golden life-light "which runs through all and doth
all unite." Nay, more, he hears in each the flaming keynote sounding its
aspirations and voicing its hopes and fears, and he perceives this composite
color-sound as the world anthem of God made flesh. This is at first
entirely beyond his comprehension; the tremendous magnitude of the discovery
hides it from him, and he cannot conceive what it is that he sees and feels,
for there are no words to describe it, and no concept can cover it. But by
degrees it dawns upon him that he is at the very fountain of life,
beholding, nay, more, feeling its every pulse beat, and with this
comprehension he reaches the climax of his ecstasy.
So rapt has the Christian Mystic been in his beautiful adventure that
bodily wants have been completely forgotten till the ecstasy has passed, and
it is therefore only natural that the feeling of hunger should be his first
conscious want upon his return to the normal state of consciousness; and
also naturally comes the voice of temptation: "Command that these stones be made bread."
Few passages of the sacred Scriptures are darker that the opening verses
of the Gospel of St. John: "In the beginning was the word . . . .and without
it was not anything made that was made." A slight study of the science of
sound soon makes us familiar with the fact that sound is vibration and that
different sounds will mold sand or other light materials into figures of
varying form. The Christian Mystic may be entirely ignorant of this fact from
the scientific point of view, but he has learned at the Fountain of Life to
sing the Song of Being, which cradles into existence whatever such a master
musician desires. There is one basic key for the indigestible mineral
stone, but a modification will turn it to gold wherewith to purchase the
means of sustenance, and another keynote peculiar to the vegetable kingdom
will turn it into food, a fact known to all advanced esotericists who
practice incantations legitimately for spiritual purposes but never for
material profit.
But the Christian Mystic who has just emerged from his Baptism in the
Fountain of Life immediately shrinks in horror at the suggestion of using
his newly discovered power for a selfish purpose. It was the very soul
quality of unselfishness that ld him to the waters of consecration in the
Fountain of life, and sooner would he sacrifice all, even life itself, that
use this new-found power to spare himself a pang of pain. Did he not see
also the Woe of the World? And does he not feel it in his great hearth with
such an intensity that the hunger at once disappears and is forgotten? He
may, will, and does use this wonderful power freely to feed the thousands
that gather to hear him, but never for selfish purposes else he would upset
the equilibrium of the world.
The Christian Mystic does not reason this out, however. As often stated,
he has not reason, but he has a much safer guide in the interior voice which
always speaks to him in moments when a decision must be made. "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from God"; — another mystery. There is not need to partake of earthly bread for one who has access to the Fountain of Life. The more our thoughts are centered in God, the less we shall care for the so-called pleasures of the table, and by feeding our gross bodies sparingly on selected simple foods we shall obtain an illumination of spirit impossible to one who indulges in an excessive diet of coarse foods which nourish the lower nature. Some of the saints have used fasting and castigation as a means of soul growth, but that is a mistaken method for reasons given in an article on "Fasting for Soul Growth" published in the December 1915 number of "Rays from the Rose Cross." The Elder Brothers of humanity who understand the Law and live accordingly use food only at intervals measured by years. The word of God is to them a "living bread." So it becomes also to the Christian Mystic, and the Temptation instead of working his downfall has led him to greater heights.
We remember that by the mystic processes of the true Spiritual Baptism
the aspirant becomes so thoroughly saturated with the Universal Spirit that
as a matter of actual fact, feeling, and experience he becomes one with all
that lives, moves, and has its being, one with the pulsating divine Life
which surges in rhythmic cadence through the least and the greatest alike;
and having caught the keynote of the celestial song he is then endued with a
power of tremendous magnitude, which he may use either for good or ill. It
should be understood and remembered that though gunpowder and dynamite
facilitate farming when used for blowing up tree stumps which would otherwise
require a great deal of manual labor to extract, they may also be used for
destructive purposes as in the great European war [WW I]. Spiritual powers also
may be used for good or ill depending upon the motive and character of the
one who wields them. Therefore, whoever has successfully undergone the rite
of Baptism and thereby acquired spiritual power is forthwith tempted that it
may be concerned decided whether he will range himself upon the side of good
or evil. At this point he becomes either a future "Parsifal," a "Christ," a
"Herod," or a "Klingsor" who fights the Knights of the Holy Grail with all
the powers and resources of the Black Brotherhood.
There is a tendency in modern materialistic science to repudiate as
fable, worthy of attention only among superstitious servant girls and foolish
old women, the ideas commonly believed in as late as the Middle Ages, that
such spiritual communities as the Knights of the Grail at one time existed,
or that there are such beings as the "Black Brothers." Esoteric societies in
the last half century have educated thousands to the fact that the Good
Brothers are still in evidence and may be found by those who seek them in
the proper way. Now unfortunately the tendency among this class of
people is to accept anyone on his unsupported claims as a Master or an dept.
But even among this class there are few who take the existence of the Black
Brothers seriously, or realize what an enormous amount of damage they are
doing in the world, and how they are aided and abetted by the general
tendency of humanity to cater to the lusts of the flesh. As the good
forces, which are symbolized as the servants of the Holy Grail, live and grow
by unselfish service which enhances the luster of the glowing Grail Cup, so
the Powers of Evil, known as the Black Grail and represented in the Bible as
the court of Herod, feed on pride and sensuality, voluptuousness and
passion, embodied in the figure of Salome, who glories in the murder of John
the Baptist and the innocents. It was shown in the legend of the Grail as
embodied in Wagner's "Parsifal" that when the Knights were denied the
inspiration from the Grail Cup, on which they fed and which spurred them onto
deeds of greater love and service, their courage flagged and they became
inert. Similarly with the Brothers of the Black Grail. Unless they are
provided with words of wickedness they will die from starvation. Therefore
they are ever active in the world stirring up strife and inciting others to
evil.
Were not this pernicious activity counteracted in a great measure by the
Elder Brothers at their midnight services at which they make themselves
magnets for all the evil thoughts in the Western World and then by the
alchemy of sublime love transmute them to good, a cataclysm of still greater
magnitude that the recent World War would have occurred long ago. As it is,
the Genius of Evil has been held within bounds in some measure at least.
Were humanity not so ready to range itself on the side of evil, success
would have been greater. But it is hoped that the spiritual awakening
started by the war will result in turning the scale and give the construction
agencies in evolution the upper hand.
It is a wonderful power which is centered in the Christian Mystic at the
time of his Baptism by the descent and concentration within him of the
Universal Spirit; and when he has refused during the period of temptation
to desecrate it for personal profit or power, he must of necessity give it
vent in another direction, for he is impelled by an irresistible inner urge
which will not allow him to settle down to an inert, inactive life of prayer
and meditation. The power of God is upon him to preach and glad tidings to
humanity, to help and heal. We know that a stove which is filled with burning
fuel cannot help heating the surrounding atmosphere; neither can the
Christian Mystic help radiating the divine compassion which fills his heart
to overflowing, nor is he is doubt whom to love or whom to serve or where
to find his opportunity. As the stove filled with burning fuel radiates
heat to all who are within its sphere of radiation, so the Christian Mystic
feels the love of God burning within his heart and is continually radiating it
to all with whom he comes in contact. As the heated stove draws to itself
by its genial warmth those who are suffering with physical cold, so the
warm love rays of the Christian Mystic are a a magnet to all those whose
hearts are chilled by the cruelty of the world, by man's inhumanity to man.
If the stove were empty but endowed with the faculty of speech, it might
preach forever the gospel of warmth to those who are physically cold, but
even the finest oratory would fail to satisfy its audience. When it has
been filled with fuel and radiates warmth, there will be no need of
preaching. Men will come to it and be satisfied. Similarly a sermon on
brotherhood by one who has not laved in the "Fountain of Life" will sound
hollow. The true Mystic need not preach. His every act, even his silent
presence, is more powerful that all the most deeply thought-out discourses of
learned doctors of philosophy.
There is a story of St. Francis of Assisi which particularly
illustrates this fact, and which we trust may serve to drive it home, for its
exceedingly important. It is said that one day St. Francis went to a young
brother in the monastery with which he was then connected and said to him:
"Brother, let us go down to the village and preach to them." The young
brother was naturally overjoyed at the honor and opportunity of accompanying
so hold a man as St. Francis, and together the two started toward the
village, talking all the while about spiritual things and the life that
leads to God. Engrossed in this conversation they passed through the
village, walking along its various streets, now and then stopping to speak a
kindly word to one or another of the villagers. After having made a circuit
of the village St. Francis was heading toward the road which led to the
monastery when of a sudden the young brother reminded him of his intention to
preach in the village and asked him if he had forgotten it. To this St.
Francis answered: "My son, are you not aware that all the while we have
been in this village we have been preaching to the people all around us?
In the first place, our simple dress proclaims the fact that we are devoted
to the service of God, and as soon as anyone sses us his thoughts naturally
turn heavenward. Be sure that everyone of the villagers has been watching
us, taking note of our demeanor to see in how far it conforms with our
profession. They have listened to our words to find whether they were
about spiritual or profane subjects. They have watched our gestures and
have noted that the words of sympathy we dispensed came straight from our
hearts and went deep into theirs. We have been preaching a far more powerful
sermon that if we had gone into the market place, called them around us,
and started to harangue them with an exhortation to holiness."
St. Francis was a Christian Mystic in the deepest sense of the word, and
being taught from within by the spirit of God he knew well the mysteries of
life, as did Jacob Boehme and other holy men who have been similarly taught.
They are in a certain sense wiser than the wisest of the intellectual
school, but it is not necessary for them to expound great mysteries in order
to fulfill their mission and serve as guide posts to others who are also
seeking God. The very simplicity of their words and acts carries with it
the power of conviction. Naturally, of course, all do not rise to the same
heights. All have not the same powers anymore than all the stoves are of
the same size and have the same heating capacity. Those who follow the
Christian Mystic path, from the least to the greatest, have experienced the
powers conveyed by Baptism according to their capacity. They have been
tempted to use those powers in an evil direction for personal gain, and having
overcome the desire for the world and worldly things they have turned to the
path of ministry and service as Christ did; their lives are marked not so
much by what they have said as by what they have done. The true Christian
Mystic is easily distinguished. He never uses the six week days —
— to prepare for a grand oratorical effort to thrill his hearers on
Sunday, but spends every day alike in humble endeavor to do the
Master's will regardless of outward applause. Thus unconsciously he
works up toward that grand climax which in the history of the noblest
of all who have trod this path is spoken of as the "Transfiguration."
The Transfiguration is an alchemical process by which the physical body
formed by the chemistry of physiological processes is turned into a living
stone such as is mentioned in the Bible. The medieval alchemists who were
seeking the Philosopher's Stone were not concerned with transmutation of
such dross as material god, but aimed at the greater goal as indicated
above.
Moisture gathered in the clouds falls to earth as rain when it has
condensed sufficiently, and it is again evaporated into clouds by the heat
of the sun. This is the primal cosmic formula. Spirit also condenses
itself into matter and becomes mineral. But though it be crystallized into
the harness of flint, life still remains, and by the alchemy of nature
working through another life stream the dense mineral constituents of the
soil are transmuted to a more flexible structure in the plant, which may be
used as food for animal and man. These substances become sentient flesh by
the alchemy of assimilation. When we note the changes in the structure of the
human body evidenced by comparison of the Bushmen, Chinese, Hindus, Latins,
Celts, and Anglo-Saxons, it is plainly apparent that the flesh of man is
even now undergoing a refining process which is eradicating the coarser,
grosser substances. In time by evolution this process of spiritualization
will render our flesh transparent and radiant with the Light that shines
within, radiant as the face of Moses, the body of Buddha, and the Christ at
the Transfiguration.
At present the effulgence of the indwelling Spirit is effectually
darkened by our dense body, but we may draw hop even from the science of
chemistry. There is nothing on earth so rare and precious as radium, the
luminous extract of the dense black mineral called pitchblende; and there is
nothing so rare as that precious extract of the human body, the radiant
Christ. At present we are laboring to form the Christ within, but when the
inner Christ has grown to full stature, He will shine through the transparent
body as the Light of the World.
It is an anatomical fact of common knowledge that the spinal cord is
divided into three sections, from which the motor, sensory, and sympathetic
nerves are controlled. Astrologically these are ruled by the moon, Mars,
and Mercury, which are divine Hierarchies tht have played a great role in
human evolution through the nervous systems indicated. Among the ancient
alchemists these were designated by the three alchemical elements, salt,
sulphur, and mercury. Between them and upon them played the spinal Spirit
Fire of Neptune. It rose in a serpentine column through the spinal cord to
the ventricles of the brain. In the great majority of mankind the Spirit
Fire is still exceedingly weak. But whenever a spiritual awakening occurs
in anyone such as that which takes place in a genuine conversion, or better
still at the Baptism of the Christian Mystic, the the downpouring of the
Spirit, which is an actual fact, augments the spinal Spirit Fire to an
almost unbelievable extent, and forthwith a process of regeneration begins
whereby the gross substances of the threefold body of many are gradually
thrown out, rendering the vehicles more permeable and quickly responsive to
spiritual impulses. The further the process if carried, the more efficient
servants they become in the vineyard of the Master.
The spiritual awakening which starts this process of regeneration in the
Christian Mystic who purifies himself by prayer and service, comes also of
course to those who are seeking God by way of knowledge and service, but it
acts in a different way, which is noted by the spiritual investigator. In
the Christian Mystic the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire is concentrated
principally upon the lunar segment of the spinal cord, which governs the
sympathetic nerves under the rulership of Jehovah. Therefore his spiritual
growth is accomplished by faith as simple, childlike, and unquestioning as
it was in the days of early Atlantis when men were mindless. He therefore
draws down the great white Light of Deity reflected through Jehovah, the
Holy Spirit, and attains to the whole wisdom of the world without the
necessity of laboring for it intellectually. This gradually transmutes his
body into the white philosopher's stone, the diamond soul.
In those, on the other hand, whose minds are strong and insistent on
knowing the reason why and the wherefore of every dictum and dogma, the Spinal
Fire of regeneration plays upon the segments of the red Mars and the
colorless Mercury, endeavoring to infuse desire with reason, to purify the
former of the primal passion that it may become chaste as the rose, and thus
transmute the body into the ruby soul, the red philosopher's stone, tried by fire, purified, a creative budding individuality.
All who are upon the Path, whether the path of esotericism or of mysticism,
are weaving the "golden wedding garment" by this work from within and from
without. In some the gold is exceedingly pale, and in others it is deeply
red. But eventually when the process of Transfiguration has been completed,
or rather when it is nearing completion, the extremes will blend, and the
transfigured bodies will become balanced in color, for the esotericist must
learn the lesson of deep devotion, and the Christian Mystic must learn how
to acquire knowledge by his own efforts without drawing upon the universal
source of all wisdom.
This view gives us a deeper insight into the Transfiguration reported in
the Gospels. We should remember distinctly that it was the vehicles of Jesus which were transfigured temporarily by the indwelling Christ Spirit.
But even while allowing for the enormous potency of the Christ Spirit in
effecting the Transfiguration it is evident that Jesus must be a sublime
character without a peer. The Transfiguration as seen in the Memory of
Nature reveals his body as a dazzling white, thus showing his dependence upon
the Father, the Universal Spirit. There is a great diversity in present
attainments, but in the kingdom of Christ the differences will gradually
disappear, and a uniform color indicating both knowledge and devotion will be
acquired by all. This color will correspond to the pink color seen by
esotericists as the Spiritual Sun, the vehicle of the Father. When this has
been accomplished, the Transfiguration of humanity will be complete. We
shall then be one with our Father, and His kingdom will have come.
5. The Last Supper
and the Footwashing
We are told in the Gospels which relate the story of the Christian Mystic
Initiation, how on the night when Christ had partaken of the Last Supper
with His disciples, His ministry being finished at that time, He rose from
the table and girded Himself with a towel, then poured water into a basin
and commenced to wash His disciples' feet, an act of the most humble
service, but prompted by an important esoteric consideration.
Comparatively few realize that when we rise in the scale of evolution, we
do so by trampling upon the bodies of our weaker brothers; consciously or
unconsciously we crush them and use them as stepping-stones to attain our
own ends. This assertion holds good concerning all the kingdoms in nature.
When a life wave has been brought down to the nadir of involution and
encrusted in mineral form, that is immediately seized upon by another slightly
higher life wave, which takes the disintegrating mineral crystal, adapts it
to its own ends as crystalloid, and assimilates it as part of a plant form.
If there were no minerals which could thus be seized upon, disintegrated,
and transformed, plant life would be an impossibility. Then again, the
plant forms are taken by numerous classes of animals, masticated to a pulp,
devoured, and made to serve as food for this higher kingdom. If there were
no plants, animals would be an impossibility; and the same principle holds
good in spiritual evolution for if there were no pupils standing on the
lower round of the ladder of knowledge and requiring instruction, there
would be no need for a teacher. But here there is one all-important
difference. The teacher grows by giving to his pupils and serving them. From their shoulders he steps to a higher rung on the ladder of knowledge. He lifts himself by lifting them, but nevertheless he owes them a debt of gratitude, which is symbolically acknowledged and liquidated by the foot washing — an act of humble service to those who have served him.
When we realize that nature, which is the expression of God, is
continually exerting itself to create and bring forth, we may also
understand that whoever kills anything, be it ever so little and
seemingly insignificant, is to that extent thwarting God's purpose. This
applies particularly to the aspirant to the higher life, and therefore the
Christ exhorted His disciples to be wise as serpents but harmless
as doves notwithstanding. But no matter how earnest our desire to follow the
precept of harmlessness, our constitutional tendencies and necessities force
us to kill at every moment of our lives, and it is not only in the great
things that we are constantly committing murder. It was comparatively easy
for the seeking soul symbolized by Parsifal to break the bow wherewith he had
shot the swan of the Grail knights when it had been explained to him what a
wrong he had committed. From that time Parsifal was committed to the life
of harmlessness so far as the great things were concerned. All earnest
aspirants follow him readily in that act once it has dawned upon them how
subversive of soul growth is the practice of partaking of food which requires
the death of an animal.
But even the noblest and most gentle among mankind is poisoning those
about him with every breath and being poisoned by them in turn, for all
exhale the death-dealing carbon dioxide, and we are therefore a menace to one
another. Nor is this a far-fetched idea; it is a very real danger which
will become much more manifest in course of time when mankind becomes more
sensitive. In a disabled submarine or under similar conditions where a number
of people are together the carbon dioxide exhaled by them quickly makes the
atmosphere unable to sustain life. There is a story from the Indian Mutiny
of how a number of English prisoners were huddled in a room in which there
was only one small opening for air. In a very short time the oxygen was
exhausted, and the poor prisoners began to fight one another like beasts in
order to obtain a place near that air inlet, and they fought until nearly all
had died from the struggle and asphyxiation.
The same principle is illustrated in the ancient Atlantean Mystery
Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, where we find a nauseating stench
and a suffocating smoke ascending from the Altar of Burnt Offerings, where
the poison-laden bodies of the unwilling victims sacrificed for sin were
consumed, and where the light shone but dimly through the enveloping smoke.
This we may contrast with the light which emanated clear and bright from the
Seven-branched Candlestick fed by the olive oil extracted from the chaste
plant, and where the incense symbolized by the willing service of devoted
priests rose to heaven as a sweet savor. This we are told in many places,
was pleasing to Deity, while the blood of the unwilling victims, the bulls
and the goats, was a source of grief and displeasure to God, who delights
most in the sacrifice of prayer, which helps the devotee and harms no one.
It has been stated concerning some of the saints that they emitted a
sweet odor, and as we have often had occasion to say, this is no mere fanciful
story—it is an esoteric fact. The great majority of mankind inhale during
every moment of life the vitalizing oxygen contained in the surrounding
atmosphere. At every expiration we exhale a charge of carbon dioxide which
is a deadly poison and which would certainly vitiate the air in time if the
pure and chaste plant did not inhale this poison, use a part of it to build
bodies that last sometimes for many centuries or even milennia as instanced
in the redwoods of California, and give us back the rest in the form of pure
oxygen which we need for our life. These carboniferous plant bodies by
certain further processes of nature have in the past become mineralized
and turned to stone instead of disintegrating. We find them today as coal,
the perishable philosopher's stone made by natural means in nature's laboratory. But the Philosopher's Stone may also be made artificially by man from his own body. It should be understood once and for all that the Philosopher's Stone is not made in an exterior chemical laboratory, but that the body is the workshop of the Spirit which contains all the elements
necessary to produce this elixir vitae, and that the Philosopher's Stone is
not exterior to the body, but the alchemist himself becomes the Philosopher's Stone. The salt, sulphur, and mercury emblematically contained
in the three segments of the spinal cord, which control the sympathetic,
motor, and sensory nerves and are played upon by the Neptunian spinal Spirit
Fire, constitute the essential elements in the alchemical process.
It needs no argument to show that indulgence in sensuality, brutality,
and bestiality makes the body coarse. Contrariwise, devotion to Deity, an
attitude of perpetual prayer, a feeling of love and compassion for all that
lives and moves, loving thoughts sent out to all beings and those inevitably
received in return, all invariably have the effect of refining and
spiritualizing the nature. We speak of a person of that sort as breathing or
radiating love, an expression which much more nearly describes the actual
fact than most people imagine, for as a matter of actual observation
the percentage of poison contained in the breath of an individual is in
exact proportion to the evil in his nature and inner life and the thoughts
he thinks. The Hindu Yogi makes a practice of sealing up the candidate for
a certain grade of Initiation in a cave which is not much larger than his
body. There he must live for a number of weeks breathing the same air over
and over again to demonstrate practically that he has ceased exhaling the
death-dealing carbon dioxide and is beginning to build his body therefrom.
The Philosopher's Stone then is not a body of the same nature as the
plant, thought it is pure and chaste, but it is a celestial body such as
that whereof St. Paul speaks in the 5th chapter of Second Corinthians, a
body which becomes immortal as a diamond or a ruby stone. It is not hard
and inflexible as the mineral; it is a soft diamond or ruby, and by every
act of the nature described the Christian Mystic is building this body,
though he is probably unconscious thereof for a long time. When he has
attained to this degree of holiness it is not necessary for him to perform the
foot washing so far as concerns the physical pupil who helps him to rise,
but he will always have the feeling of gratitude, symbolized by that act,
toward those whom he is fortunate enough to attract to himself as disciples
and to whom he may give the living bread which nourishes them to
immortality.
Students will realize that this is part of the process which eventually
culminates in the Transfiguration, but it should also be realized that in
the Christian Mystic Initiation there are no set and definite degrees. The
candidate looks to the Christ as the author and finisher of his faith, seeking
to imitate Him and follow in His steps through every moment of existence.
Thus the various stages which we are considering are reached by processes of
soul growth which simultaneously bring him to higher aspects of all these
steps that we are now analyzing. In this respect the Christian Mystic
Initiation differs radically from the processes in vogue among the
Rosicrucians, in which an understanding upon the part of the candidate of that which is to take place is considered indispensable. But there comes a time at which the Christian Mystic must and does realize the path before him, and that is what constitutes Gethsemane, which we will consider in the next chapter.
6. Gethsemane
The Garden of Grief
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
"And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this
night; for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be
scattered. But after that I am risen I will go before you into Galilee.
"But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.
"And Jesus saith unto him, Verily, I say unto thee that this day, even in
this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.
"But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not
deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.
"And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and He saith to
His disciples, Sit ye here while I shall pray. And He taketh with Him Peter
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and
saith unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here
and watch. And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. And He said, Abba,
Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh and
findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst
not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into
temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." —Mark,
14:26-38.
In the foregoing Gospel narrative we have one of the saddest and most
difficult of the experiences of the Christian Mystic outlined in spiritual
form. During all his previous experience he has wandered blindly along,
that is to say, blind to the fact that he is on the Path which if
consistently followed leads to a definite goal, but being also keenly alert to
the slightest sigh of every suffering soul. He has concentrated all his
efforts upon alleviating their pain physically, morally, or mentally; he has
served them in any and every capacity; he has taught them the gospel of love,
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; and he has been a living example to
all in its practice. Therefore he has drawn to himself a little band of
friends whom he loves with the tenderest of affection. Them has he also
taught and served unstintingly, even to the foot washing. But during this
period of service he has become so saturated with the sorrows of the world
that he is indeed a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as no one else can be.
This is a very definite experience of the Christian Mystic, and it is the
most important factor in furthering his spiritual progress. So long as we
are bored when people come to us and tell us their troubles, so long as we
run away from them and seek to escape hearing their tales of woe, we are far
from the Path. Even when we listen to them and have schooled ourselves not
to show that we are bored, when we say with our lips only a few sympathetic
words that fall flat on the sufferer's ear, we gain nothing in spiritual
growth. It is absolutely essential to the Christian Mystic that he become
so attuned to the world's woe that he feels every pang as his own hurt and
stores it up within his heart.
When Parsifal stood in the temple of the Holy Grail and saw the suffering
of Amfortas the stricken Grail King, he was mute with sympathy and
compassion for a long time after the procession had passed out of the hall,
and consequently could not answer the questions of Gurnemanz, and it was
that deep fellow feeling which prompted him to seek for the spear that
should heal Amfortas. It was the pain of Amfortas felt in the heart of Parsifal by sympathy which held him firmly balanced upon the path of virtue when temptation was strongest. It was that deep pain of compassion which urged him through many years to seek the suffering Grail King, and finally when he had found Amfortas, this deep, heartfelt fellow feeling enabled him to pour forth the healing balm.
As it is shown in the soul myth of Parsifal, so it is in the actual life
and experience of the Christian Mystic: he must drink deeply of the cup of
sorrow, he must drain it to the very dregs so that by the cumulative pain
which threatens to burst his heart he may pour himself out unreservedly and
unstintingly for the healing and helping of the world. Then Gethsemane, the
garden of grief, is a familiar place to him, watered with tears for the
sorrows and sufferings of humanity.
Through all his years of self-sacrifice his little band of friends had
been the consolation of Jesus. He had already learned to renounce the ties
of blood. "Who is my mother and my brother? They that do the will of my
Father." Though no true Christian neglects his social obligations or
withholds love from his family, the spiritual ties are nevertheless the
strongest, and through them comes the crowning grief; through the desertion
of his spiritual friends he learns to drink to the dregs the cup of sorrow.
He does not blame them for their desertion but excuses them with the
words, "The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak," for he knows
by his own experience how true this is. But he finds that in the supreme
sorrow they cannot comfort him, and therefore he turns to the only source of comfort, the Father in Heaven. He has arrived at the point where human endurance seems to have reached its limit, and he prays to be spared a greater ordeal, but with a blind trust in the Father he bows his will and offers all unreservedly.
That is the moment of realization. Having drunk the cup of sorrow to the
dregs, being deserted by all, he experiences that temporary awful fear of
being utterly alone which is one of the most terrible if not the most
terrible experience that can come into the life of a human being. All
the world seems dark about. He knows that in spite of all the good he has
done or tried to do the powers of darkness are seeking to slay him. He
knows that the mob that a few days before had cried "Hosannah" will on the
morrow be ready to shout "Crucify! Crucify!" His relatives and now his
last few friends have fled, and they were also even ready to deny.
But when we are on the pinnacle of grief we are nearest to the throne of
grace. The agony and grief, the sorrow and the suffering borne within the
Christian Mystic's breast are more priceless and precious than the wealth of
the Indies, for when he has lost all human companionship and when he has
given himself over unreservedly to the Father a transmutation takes place:
the grief is turned to compassion, the only power in the world that can
fortify a man about to mount the hill of Golgotha and give his life for
humanity, not a sacrifice of death but a living sacrifice, lifting himself by lifting others.
7. The Stigmata and
the Crucifixion
As we said in the beginning of this series of articles, the Christian
Mystic Initiation differs radically from the Esoteric Initiation undertaken by
those who approach the Path from the intellectual side. But all paths
converge at Gethsemane, where the candidate for Initiation is saturated
with sorrow which flowers into compassion, a yearning mother love which has
only one all-absorbing desire; to pour itself out for the alleviation of the
sorrow of the world to save and to succor all that are weak and heavy-laden,
to comfort them and give them rest. At that point the eyes of the
Christian Mystic are opened to a full realization of the world's woe and his
mission as a Savior; and the esotericist also finds here the heart of love which
alone can give zest and zeal in the quest. By the union of the mind and the
heart both are ready for the next step, which involved the development of
the stigmata, a necessary preparation for the mystic death and
resurrection. The Gospel narrative tells the story of the stigmata in the
following words, the opening scene being in the Garden of Gethsemane:
"Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief
priests and Pharisees came thither with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon Him went forth and
said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus
said unto them, I am He.....Then the band and the captain and the officers
of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him and led Him away to Annas first.....The
high priest then asked of His disciples and of His doctrine. Jesus answered
him, I spake openly to the world.....Why asketh though me? Ask them which
heard me what I have said unto them; behold they know what I have said. Now
Annas had sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.....Then they led
Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment.....
"Pilate then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring you
against this man? They answered and said unto him, If He were not a
malefactor we would not have delivered Him unto thee.....Then Pilate
entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto
Him, Art though the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this
thing of thyself or did others tell it to thee of me?.....My kingdom is not
of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants
fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not
from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus
answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate said unto
Him, What is truth?.....Then he went out again unto the Jews and saith
unto them, I find in Him no fault at all. But we have a custom that I should
release unto you one at the Passover; will ye therefore that I release unto
you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all again saying, Not this man,
but Barabbas. now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate therefore took Jesus and
scourged Him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews; and they smote him with their hands.
"Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, behold I bring
Him forth unto you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him. Then came
Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate
saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore, and
officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. Pilate
saith unto them, Take ye Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him.
The Jews answered him, We have a law and by our law He ought to die, because
He made Himself the Son of God.....Pilate sought to release Him, but the
Jews cried out saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's
friend; whoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.....They cried
out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them,
Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but
Caesar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified. And
they took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went forth
into a place called the place of a skull, which is, in the Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified Him and two others with Him, one on either side and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews."
We have here the account of how the stigmata or punctures were produced
in the Hero of the Gospels, though the location is not quite correctly
described, and the process is represented in a narrative form differing widely
from the manner in which these things really happen. But we stand here
before one of the Mysteries which must remain sealed for the profane, though
the underlying mystical facts are as plain as daylight to those who know.
The physical body is not by any means the real man. Tangible, solid, and
pulsating with life as we find it, it is really the most dead part of the
human being, crystallized into a matrix of finer vehicles which are
invisible to our ordinary physical sight. If we place a basin of water in
a freezing temperature, the water soon congeals into ice, and when we examine
this ice, we find that it is made up of innumerable little crystals having
various geometrical forms and lines of demarcation. There are etheric lines
of forces which were present in the water before it congealed. As the water
was hardened and molded along these lines, so our physical bodies have
congealed and solidified along the etheric lines of force of our invisible
vital body, which is thus in the ordinary course of life inextricably bound to
the physical body, waking or sleeping, until death brings dissolution of the
tie. But as Initiation involves the liberation of the real man from the
body of sin and death that he may soar into the subtler spheres at will and
return to the body at his pleasure, it is obvious that before that can be
accomplished, before the object of Initiation can be attained, the
interlocking grip of the physical body and the etheric vehicle which is so
strong and rigid in ordinary humanity, must be dissolved. As they are most
closely bound together in the palms of the hands, the arches of the feet,
and the head, the esoteric schools concentrate their efforts upon severing the
connection at these points, and produce the stigmata invisibly.
The Christian Mystic lacks knowledge of how to perform the act without
producing an exterior manifestation. The stigmata develop in him
spontaneously by constant contemplation of Christ and unceasing efforts to
imitate Him in all things. These exterior stigmata comprise not only the
wounds in the hands and feet and that in the side but also those impressed
by the crown of thorns and by the scourging. The most remarkable example of
stigmatization is that said to have occurred in 1224 to Francis of Assisi on
the mountain of Alverno. Being absorbed in contemplation of the Passion he
saw a seraph approaching, blazing with fire and having between its wings
the figure of the Crucified. St. Francis became aware that in hands, feet,
and side he had received externally the marks of crucifixion. These marks
continued during the two years until his death, and are claimed to have
been seen by many eyewitnesses, including Pope Alexander the Fourth.
The Dominicans disputed the fact, but at length made the same claim for
Catherine of Sienna, whose stigmata were explained as having at her own
request been made invisible to others. The Franciscans appealed to Sixtus the
Fourth who forbade representation of St. Catherine to made with the
stigmata. Still the fact of the stigmata is recorded in the Breviary
Office, and Benedict the 13th granted the Dominicans a Feast in commemoration
of it. Others, especially women who have the positive vital body, are
claimed to have received some or all of the stigmata. The last to be
canonized by the Catholic Church for this reason was Veronica Giuliana (1831).
More recent cases are those of Anna Catherine Emmerich, who became a nun at
Agnetenberg; L'Estatica Maria Von Moerl of Caldero; Louise Lateau, whose
stigmata were said to bleed every Friday; and Mrs. Girling of the Newport Shaker community.
But whether the stigmata are visible or invisible the effect is the same.
The spiritual currents generated in the vital body of such a person are so
powerful that the body is scourged by them as it were, particularly in the
region of the head, where they produce a feeling akin to that of the crown
of thorns. Thus there finally dawns upon the person a full realization that
the physical body is a cross which he is bearing, a prison and not the real
man. This brings him to the next step in his Initiation, viz., the
crucifixion, which is experienced by the development of the other centers in
his hands and feet where the vital body is thus being severed from the dense
vehicle.
We are told in the Gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading, "Jesus
Nazarenus Rex Judaeorem" on Jesus' cross, and this is translated in the
authorized version to mean, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." But the
initials INRI placed upon the cross represent the names of the four elements
in Hebrew: Iam, water; Nour, fire; Ruach, spirit or vital air; and Iabeshah, earth. This is the esoteric key to the mystery of crucifixion, for
it symbolizes in the first place the salt, sulphur, mercury, and azoth which
were used by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher's Stone, the
universal solvent, the elixir-vitae. The two "I's" (Iam and Iabeshah)
represent the saline lunar water: a, in a fluidic state holding salt in
solution, and b, the coagulated extract of this water, the "Salt of the
Earth"; in other words, the finer fluidic vehicles of man and his dense
body. N (Nour)) in Hebrew stands for fire and the combustible elements, chief
among which are sulphur and phosphorus so necessary to oxidation, without
which warm blood would be an impossibility. The Ego under this condition
could not function in the body nor could thought find a material
expression. R (Ruach) is the Hebrew equivalent for the spirit, Azoth, functioning in the Mercurial mind. Thus the four letters INRI placed over the
cross of Christ according to the Gospel story represent composite man, the
Thinker, at the point in his spiritual development where he is getting ready
for liberation from the cross of his dense vehicle.
Proceeding further along the same line of elucidation we may note that
INRI is the symbol of the crucified candidate for the following additional
reasons:
Iam is the Hebrew word signifying water, the fluidic lunar, moon element
which forms the principal part of the human body (about 87 per cent). This
word is also the symbol of the finer fluidic vehicles of desire and emotion.
Nour, the Hebrew word signifying fire, is a symbolic representation of the
heat-producing red blood laden with martial Mars iron, fire, and energy,
which the esotericist sees coursing as a gas through the veins and arteries of
the human body infusing it with energy and ambition without which there
could be neither material nor spiritual progress. It also represents the
sulphur and phosphorus necessary for the material manifestation of thought
as already mentioned.
Ruach, the Hebrew word for spirit or vital air, is an excellent symbol of
the Ego clothed in the mercurial Mercury mind, which makes man and enables him to control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a rational manner.
Iabeshah is the Hebrew word for earth, representing the solid fleshy part
which makes up the cruciform earthy body crystallized within the finer
vehicles at birth and severed from them in the ordinary course of things at
death, or in the extraordinary event that we learn to die the mystic death
and ascend to the glories of the higher spheres for a time.
This stage of the Christian Mystic's spiritual development therefore
involves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course
where it is wasted in generation to satisfy the passions, to an upward
course through the tripartite spinal cord, whose three segments are ruled by
the moon, Mars, and Mercury respectively, and where the rays of Neptune then
lights the regenerative spinal spirit fire. This mounting upward sets the pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration, opening up the spiritual sight; and striking the frontal sinus it starts the crown of thorns throbbing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred Spirit Fire, which wakes this center from its age-long sleep to a throbbing, pulsating life sweeping onward to the other centers in the five-pointed stigmatic star. They are also vitalized, an the whole vehicle becomes aglow with a golden glory. Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the desire body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy contained in that vehicle propels upward the sidereal vehicle (so-called because the stigmata in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same positions relative to one another as the points in a five-pointed star), which ascends through the skull (Golgotha), while the crucified Christian utters his triumphant cry, "Consummatum est" (it has been
accomplished), and soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he
has imitated with such success and from whom he is thenceforth inseparable.
Jesus is his Teacher and his guide to the kingdom of Christ, where all shall
be united in one body to learn and to practice the Religion of the Father,
to whom the kingdom will eventually revert that He may be All in All.
Reference: Ancient and Modern Initiation,
by Max Heindel (1865-1919)
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