Freemasonry and Catholicism
by Max Heindel
(Part 2)
Part VII
The Philosopher's Stone:
What It Is and
How It Is Made
Those who have studied the writings of the ancient alchemists have always been much mystified by what is said concerning the philosopher's stone and the process of transmuting the base metals into gold. These claims have naturally given rise to a great deal of vague speculation. From time to
time, students have asked for a direct statement from the writer concerning
this subject of paramount importance, and as we are standing upon the
threshold of a new age where this precious jewel with all its power will be
evolved and possessed by a considerable number of people, we feel that it is
important to divest the subject of all the mystery that surrounds it and
speak in plain terms concerning the matter. Then all who really wish to
take the trouble involved, for it involves arduous labor, nothing worth having
being ever gained without cost, may know how to make for themselves this great
gem.
We are taught that in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth — the whole universe in fact, and we understand that this great creative force expresses itself either as will or imagination. By imagination the Great Architect of the Universe must first have visualized everything as it now is, or as it was first created, and then by His will the physical atoms were
marshaled into this matrix of thought, thus gradually bringing the universe
into manifestation as designed by its creator. Nor is this process
complete, but will continue until the whole has become perfect as
originally designed.
The divine Hierarchies who have carried out the plan of the great Creator
also use the same dual creative force when fashioning the crystal in the
mineral, the leaf of the plant, or the shape of the animal. Their powerful
imagination pictures in the archetypal region of the earth that which they
desire to create, and their concentrated will molds the coarser matter into
this matrix until it assumes a definite physical form as desired.
Man, the spirit, has a like creative power, and has through the ages, under
the guidance of the Gods, learned to build bodies of increasing value as
instruments for his expression. But his pilgrimage through matter was
undertaken for the purpose of making him an independent creative intelligence,
and to attain that end it was necessary that he should at the proper time,
be emancipated from the guardianship of the Gods, so that he might learn to
create, not only for himself, but also to aid and to teach others in the
great School of Life.
During the course of his evolution, Man has become more and more
enlightened concerning the mystery of Life; but nevertheless, it is only a
few hundred years ago when life and liberty were endangered by the
expression of opinions in advance of the commonly accepted views. It was for
this reason that the alchemists who had studied more deeply that the
majority, were forced to embody their teachings in highly allegorical and
symbolical language. Their teaching concerning the spiritual evolution of
man, and their use of the terms salt, sulphur, mercury, and azoth, so
mystifying to the masses, were nevertheless rooted in cosmic truths, highly
illuminating to the Initiate. The students of the Rosicrucian teachings who
have learned how the world came into being and the process of gradual
creation should have no difficulty in properly understanding every part of
the alchemist's language.
We know in the first place, that there was a time when Man-in-the-making
was a hermaphrodite, male-female, and able to create from himself, and we
remember also that at that time he was like the plant in other respects.
His consciousness was like that which we possess in dreamless sleep and
which is possessed by the plant. The vital energy which he absorbed into
his body was used solely for the purpose of growing, until the time of
propagation came, when a new budding body was cast off to grow also. There
was no incentive to action, but if there had been, Man would have had no
mind or will to direct it.
For the emancipation of humanity from this negative condition, one-half
of the creative force was turned upward under the direction of the angels
for the purpose of building a larynx and a brain, that man might learn to
create by thought as do the divine Hierarchies, and express the creative
thought in words. Thus man ceased to be physically hermaphrodite and became
uni-sexual. He can no longer create from himself physically as do the
hermaphrodite plants, nor psychically as do the Elohim, the male-female
Hierarchs, in whose image he was originally made, and thus he occupies at
the present time, an unenviable intermediate position between the plant and
the God.
At the time when one half of the human sex force was diverted for the
purpose of building a brain, men were helpless and lacking in knowledge of
how to overcome conditions. They did not even have the consciousness to
know that there was a difficulty, and had no outside help been given the
race must have died out. Therefore the Angels from the Moon, who were the
guardians of mankind, herded the sexes together in great temples at times
when the interplanetary lines of force were propitious to propagation and
thus they perpetuated the race. It was also proposed that when the brain
had been completed, the Lords of Mercury, Elder Brothers of our present
humanity who excelled in intelligence, should teach us how to use the mind and
make it truly creative so that we would no longer be dependent upon the
separate sexual process of generation now in vogue. Thus by the work of
these two great Hierarchies, we were raised from unconsciousness to the
first stage of creative intelligence, from plant to God.
We have also learned that this plan was frustrated by the Lucifer
Spirits, stragglers from the humanity of the Moon Period, who lived upon
the planet Mars. They needed a physical field of action, but were unable
to create one for themselves, hence for selfish reasons they taught
humanity how by cooperation of the sexes a new body may be created at any
time; and in order to give an incentive they instilled into mankind the
animalistic passionate nature which we now possess.
Thus to the ancient alchemists, the Angels from the Moon which rules the
saline tides of the sea were designated by the term "salt." They had found
that a certain amount of salt in the blood is necessary to the mental
processes, also that excess salt in the blood produces insanity, as best
proven by the experiences of shipwrecked sailors who become lunatics when
they drink water containing the lunar element salt. Thus also they
established a connection between the Moon and mind.
The fiery Lucifer Spirits who have taken such a baneful part in man's
evolution became associated with the fiery element "sulphur." The
alchemists said that man is rendered unconscious and dies by continuous
inhalation of this element; so man, the spirit, was rendered unconscious of
and dead to the spiritual realms by the teachings which were instilled into
him by the Lucifer Spirits.
The metal Mercury, they contended, is the most elusive of all metals. It
will penetrate and evaporate through most substances with which it is
brought in contact; and therefore they likened it to the Lords of Mercury
who are past masters in penetrating the secrets of nature by the mind.
Mercury is also capable of freeing the spirit from its physical prison house.
By the process of generation carried on at a propitious time under the
guidance of the Angels, man was treading the path from plant to God, following
the highway of evolution as originally planned.
From this path he strayed into the byways of degeneration, led by the
Lucifer Spirits, and is therefore now as it were in a slough from which he
cannot extricate himself save with the help of others further advanced than
he.
When this becomes apparent to him and he starts to search for light, he
stands at the pathway of regeneration guarded by the Lords of Mercury who
with their wisdom will guide him toward the desired goal. The method as
outlined by the ancient alchemists we shall discuss when we have summed up
in a few words the points made. These must be firmly fixed in mind to
appreciate the full value of what follows.
The creative force used by God to bring a solar system into
manifestation, and the force used by the divine Hierarchies to form the
physical vehicle of the lower kingdoms over which they rule as group
spirits, expresses itself in a dual manner as will and imagination, and is
the same as the united creative force of the male and the female which
results in the creation of a human body. At one time man was bi-sexual,
male-female, and therefore each was able to propagate his species without
assistance from anyone else. But one-half of the creative force has been
temporarily diverted upwards to build a brain and larynx in order to enable
him sometime to create by his own mind, to form thoughts and speak the word
of power that shall make his thoughts flesh. Three great creative
Hierarchies were particularly concerned in bringing about this change:
the Angels from the Moon, the Mercurians, and the Lucifer Spirits from
Mars. The Alchemists connected the Angels from the Moon, which rules the
saline tides, with the element salt, the Lucifer Spirits from Mars with the
element sulphur, and the Mercurians with the metal mercury. They used this
symbolic presentation partly because of the religious intolerance which made
it unsafe to promulgate any other teaching than that sanctioned by the
orthodox church of that day, and partly because humanity as a whole was not
yet ready to accept the truths which were embodied in their philosophy. They
also spoke of a fourth element, azoth, a name composed of the first and last
letters of our classical languages and intended to convey the same
idea as "alpha and omega" — that of all-inclusiveness. This referred to
what we now know as the spiritual ray of Neptune, which is the octave of
Mercury and which is the sublimated essence of spiritual power.
The alchemists knew that the moral and physical nature of man had become
gross and coarse on account of the passions inculcated by the Lucifer
Spirits, and that, therefore, a process of distillation and refinement was
necessary to eliminate these characteristics and elevate man to the
sublime heights where the splendor of the spirit is no longer obscured by the
coarse coating which now hides it from view. They therefore regarded the body
as a laboratory and spoke of the spiritual processes in chemical terms.
They noted that these processes have their inception and their particular
field of activity in the spinal cord that forms the link between the two
creative organs, the brain, which is the field of operation for the
intellectual Mercurians, and the genitals, which are the vantage ground of the sensuous and passionate Lucifer Spirits.
This tripartite spinal cord was to the alchemists the crucible of
consciousness; they knew that in the sympathetic section of the cord which
governs the functions that have to do particularly with the upkeep and
welfare of the body, the Lunar Angels were specially active and this
segment was therefore designated as the element salt. The segment governing
the motor nerves which expend the dynamic energy stored in the body by our
food they saw clearly to be under the dominance of the Martial Lucifer
Spirits, and they, therefore, named that segment sulphur. The remaining
segment, which marks and registers the sensations carried by the nerves, was
named mercury, because it was said to be under the dominance of spiritual
beings from Mercury. The spinal canal, contrary to the ideas of anatomists,
is not filled with fluid, but with a gas that is like steam in that it may
be condensed when exposed to the outside atmosphere, but may also be super-heated by the vibratory activity of the spirit to such an extent that it
becomes a brilliant and luminous fire, the fire of purification and
regeneration. This is the field of action of the great spiritual Hierarchy
from Neptune and is designated azoth by the alchemists. This spiritual fire
is not alike in every man nor is it as luminous in one as in another. The
state thereof depends upon the spiritual advancement of the person in
question.
When the aspirant to the higher life had been instructed in these mysteries
of symbolism and the time had come to speak to him plainly, the following
teachings were communicated to him, not necessarily in these words nor in
this manner. But at any rate he was given to understand and it was made
clear to him that — "anatomically man belongs to the animals, and that below
that kingdom in the scale of evolution are the plants. They are pure and
innocent, their propagative practices are untainted by passion, and their
whole creative force is turned upwards toward the light, where it manifests
as the flower, a thing of joy and beauty for all to behold. Yet the plants
are unable to do otherwise, for they have no intelligence, no consciousness
of the outside world and no free-will in action. They can only create in
the physical world, however.
"Above man in the scale of evolution are the gods, creators upon the
spiritual and physical planes. They also are pure as the plants, for their
whole creative force is also turned upwards and is expended in whatever manner
their intelligence directs; and knowing good and evil, they always do good
by choice.
"Between the gods and the plant kingdom stands man, a being endowed with
intelligence, creative power and free-will to use it for good or ill. At
present, however, he is dominated by the passion instilled by the Lucifer
Spirits and sends one-half of his creative force downward from the light to
gratify his senses. In his innermost soul he realizes that this is wrong,
and hence he hides his creative instinct in shame and is outraged when it is
dragged into the light. This condition must be altered ere spiritual
progress can be made, and, therefore, you must carefully consider the
similarity between the chaste plant and the pure spiritual gods who both turn their whole creative power upwards towards the light. In the course of
evolution you have risen above the plant, which has creative power only in
the physical world, and have become like the gods possessing creative power,
on both the mental and the physical planes of being, besides intelligence
and free-will to direct it. This was accomplished by the diversion of
one-half of your sex-force upwards for building a brain and larynx, organs
which are still fed and nourished by this uplifting half of the sex-force.
But while the gods direct their whole creative force to altruistic purposes
by the power of mind, you still squander one-half of your divine heritage
upon desire and sense-gratification. If, therefore, you would become as
they, you must learn to turn your whole creative energy upward to be used under the direction of your intelligence entirely. Thus only can you become
as the gods and create from yourself by the power of your mind and the Great Word whereby you may speak the creative fiat. Remember that physically you
were once hermaphrodite like the plant and able to create from yourself.
Look into the future now through the perspective of the past and realize
that your present uni-sexual condition is only a temporary phase of
evolution and that in the future your whole creative force must be turned
upwards so that you shall become a hermaphrodite spiritually, and thus able
to objectify your ideas and speak The Living Word which shall endue them
with life and make them vibrant with vital energy. This dual creative force
thus expressed through the brain and larynx is the 'elixir-vitae' which
springs from The Living Stone of the spiritually hermaphrodite philosopher.
The alchemical process of kindling and elevating it is accomplished in the
spinal cord where the salt, sulphur, mercury and azoth are found. It is
raised to incandescence by high and noble thought, by meditation upon
spiritual subjects, and by altruism expressed in the daily life. The second
half of the creative energy thus drawn upward through the spinal canal is
a spinal spirit-fire, the serpent of wisdom. Gradually it is raised
higher and higher and when it reaches the pituitary body and the pineal
gland in the brain, it sets them to vibrating, opening up the spiritual
worlds and enabling man to commune with the gods. Then this fire radiates in
all directions and permeates the whole body and its auric atmosphere, and man
has become a living stone, whose luster surpasses that of the diamond or the ruby. He is then The Philosopher's Stone."
There are many other symbols and similes taken from the world of chemistry
and applied to the processes of spiritual growth which eventually makes men
living stones in the temple of God. But enough has been said in the
foregoing to show what was meant by the ancient alchemists by such terms and
the reason why they clothed their teachings in symbolical language. The way
of initiation is, however, and has always bee open to anyone who really an
truly seeks for enlightenment and is willing to pay the price in the coin of
self-denial and self-sacrifice. Therefore, seek the temple door and you
shall find it; knock and it shall be opened unto you. If you seek
prayerfully, if you knock persistently and if you labor manfully you
will in time reach the goal and you will become The Philosopher's Stone.
Celibacy and Marriage
In order to avoid misunderstanding, it should be said that this lesson
was only given to the aspirant to discipleship to show him the reason why it
is necessary for him to live a pure and chaste life. It does not apply to
the masses who have no spiritual aspirations and are as yet unable to
restrain their passions. The Rosicrucians do not even advocate an entirely
celibate life for their pupils; indeed they regard it as a religious duty
for the enlightened mystic, man or woman, to wed a kindred spirit if such
can be found, and thus furnish incoming souls a particularly advantageous
opportunity for rebirth. When such a devoted couple perform the generative
act in a spirit of aspiration to serve a waiting ego, when the prenatal
conditions are pure mentally, morally and physically, when the early
childhood days of the ego thus born are spent in a home atmosphere of high
and noble thought, both parents and children are making wonderful progress.
And as great souls cannot be born to ignoble parents any more than water
can sink below its level, it would, indeed, be very wrong for aspirants to
discipleship to live an entirely celibate life for the sake of self-
advancement when conditions permit them to wed; furthermore, the expenditure
of the creative force at the few times in a life when it is legitimately required for propagation would not seriously interfere with the spiritual
development undertaken to become The Philosopher's Stone, and the soul-growth gained by assuming the duties of parenthood would far outweigh any
possible loss.
What the Rosicrucians teach then is that marriage between people who will
limit their use of the creative function to the purpose of propagation is
eminently good, noble and productive of great soul-growth, but that
unmarried aspirant should live an absolutely celibate life if they wish to
attain the highest.
Part VIII
The Path of Initiation
In an earlier section we noted that the transition of the Adept from the
dominion of death to the realm of immortality was foreshadowed in the daring
leap of Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master-Workman of Solomon's Temple, into the
seething sea of molten metal and his passage through the nine arch-like
strata of the earth which form the path of Initiation. We also remember
that at the end of that journey Hiram Abiff, the son of Cain, received from
his ancestor a new hammer and a new word for use in the New Age. According
to the Gospels we also find that Jesus, the son of Seth, immediately after
his descent from Golgotha entered the subterranean strata where he remained
for some time in communion with the spirits who dwell there. Thus the
various strata of the earth from the circumference to the center form the
path of Initiation, both for the sons of Seth and the sons of Cain, and that
is the reason why little or nothing is said of the inner construction of the
earth in the multitude of books dealing with subjects of esotericism. Those
who are simply psychics do not know, and those who do know are not saying
much. There is a section on the subject in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception which gives about all that one dares to tell, and to that the reader is
referred for further information than here given.
The path of Initiation is guarded in various ways. While we walk the
earth in our physical bodies, we are drawn toward the center of the earth by
the force of gravitation; but our bodies being solid, that is to say, of the
same density as the material whereof our globe is composed, we are thus
prevented from sinking through the earth by displacement as we would sink
in water, or by interpenetration as we would pass through ether. When
death comes and we shed this so-called mortal coil, we find ourselves in
vehicles that are finer than the elements of the earth. A person clothed in
these finer vehicles could easily penetrate through the various strata of
our globe to the center if there were no other obstacles. Having shed the
dense body, he is no longer subject to gravitation, but to levitation, and on
that account he usually finds it sufficiently difficult to stay upon the
surface of the earth. Only during the first part of his post-mortem
experience when he is still loaded down with the coarsest ether and desire
stuff is this possible for him. The more he has gathered of that denser
substance by indulgence of his lower nature and cultivation of the habit of
drunkenness, covetousness, hatred, malice, immoral emotions, and disreputable
vices, the easier it is for him to stay around low saloons, gambling houses,
red-light districts, and kindred places. But the man of high ideals
and lofty aspirations, who would be the one likely to seek the path of
Initiation, feels the impelling force of levitation drawing him outward into
the purer strata of the air where the First Heaven is located, and is thus
effectually prevented from trespassing upon the path of Initiation. Stories
are told of Initiates having overcome the law of gravitation in order to rise in the air at certain times for a definite purpose while still in the dense
body. Initiates are also taught how to suspend the law of levitation when
they are in their soul bodies, and how to pass through the nine strata of the
earth. It is said that Jesus was the son of a carpenter, but the Greek word
is tekton, and means builder; arche is the Greek name of primordial matter.
It is also said that Jesus was a carpenter (tekton) himself. It is true,
he was a tekton, builder or Mason, a Son of God, the Grand archetekton. At the age of thirty-three, when he had taken the three-times-three (9)
degrees of Mystic Masonry, he descended to the center of the earth. So does
every other tekton, Mason or Phree Messen, (Child of Light,) as the
Egyptian called such, descend through the nine arch-like strata of the earth.
We shall find at the time of the first advent of Christ both Hiram Abiff, the
son of Cain, and Solomon, the son of Seth, reborn to take from Him the next
great Initiation into the Christian Mysteries.
In the last section we saw while considering "The Philosopher's Stone" that the spinal cord is the principal laboratory for the alchemist, and that the spinal spirit fire, generated by turning the creative force upward through the spinal canal, passing it between the pituitary body and the
pineal gland in the brain, gives to man a third eye as it were wherewith to
see in the spiritual worlds. When this serpentine spirit fire has been
sufficiently evolved, he may read by its light the wisdom of the ages.
Therefore Christ exhorted His Disciples to be wise as serpents. The
Egyptian word naja, which means serpent, is used at least once in the Hebrew
Bible in the 58th Psalm. In ancient Egypt the Pharaohs were Kings and
Priests, holding a double office, and they therefore wore a double crown with
a Uraeus or serpent head so placed that when wearing this crown the Uraeus
seemed to protrude from the Emperor's forehead between the eyebrows. The
serpentine Uraeus was therefore an apt symbol of the wisdom of the wearer.
It will be remembered that according to the Bible story the Lucifer
Spirit appeared to Eve as a serpent, a son of Wisdom. Cain according to the
Masonic legend, was born from this union with Eve. It is also stated that
the Lucifer spirit then left Eve, who thus became a widow, and Cain was thus
the son of the Lucifer Spirit, the serpent of Wisdom, and Eve, the widow.
Every Initiate to this day has the serpent symbol on his brow and is known
to his fellows by that token as a Son of the Widow and the Lucifer Spirit.
Therefore we shall trace Hiram Abiff to his next embodiment by that mark,
and as evidence given by a party against his own interest is particularly
valuable according to law, we call special attention to the following points
gained from the Catholic Latin Testament:
In 1st Samuel 19, King James Version, Naioth is spoken of as a place
where a school of prophets and seers dwelt, Samuel among others. Naioth is
the feminine plural of naja, a serpent, which we have already mentioned as
being an Egyptian word used in the Bible. In the Latin version the same
place is spoken of as Naim, and Eusebius says it was located near Endor,
famous as the abode of the witch, through whose instrumentality Saul spoke
with Samuel after the latter had passed on. But it is not to be supposed
that Naioth and Naim are places, or that they were used interchangeably. They describe two widely different classes of spiritually gifted people,
which the ancient Egyptians had marked by placing the Uraeus upon the brows of one and at the navels of the other. The latter were mediumistic persons, receiving impressions from spirit controls through the solar plexus. They
were properly designated Naioth by the Hebrews who used the feminine suffix
to indicate their negative qualities. But the voluntary clairvoyant and the
Initiate, represented by the Egyptians as having the serpentine Uraeus in
the forehead, were called Naim by the Hebrews who used the male suffix to
designate the positive spiritual faculty which they possess. And the Latin
Catholic version of the New Testament (Luke, chapter vii, verses 11 to 15)
speaks of the person raised by Christ as the widow's son of Nain.
As the serpent is not fully unfolded until the ninth arch of the Lesser
Mysteries has been passed and the candidates become aspirants to the Greater
Mysteries, and further because the Lodge of Phree Messen (Children of Light)
of Ancient Egypt are now transferred to the various branches of the
Western World, where the sound Nain means "nine," the original word has been corrupted to mislead all not entitled to the knowledge.
But all things change on this terrestrial sphere, and this applies also
to the methods of Initiation and the requirements thereof. Hiram Abiff
failed in his great effort to make the molten sea at the time when he was
building Solomon's Temple, because he, the son of the fiery Lucifer Spirits,
did not know how to blend the element fire with the water poured into his
mold by the sons of Seth, the creatures of the water God, Jehovah. At that
time he was given a new hammer and a new word. The Hammer was in the form
of a cross. The Word was written upon a disc, before he was finally slain
by his adversaries. And so he slept until as Lazarus, the Widow's
Son of Nain, he was raised by the strong grip of the lion's paw, the Lion of Judah.
Then the disc was found, also the new cruciform Hammer, and upon the disc
the mystic symbol, the rose. In these two symbols lie hidden the great
secret of life, the blending of water and fire, as symbolized by the
earthborn fluidic sap ascending through the stem and calyx of the flower to
the fire tinted petals, born in the purity of the Sun, but still guarded by
the thorns of the martial Lucifer spirits.
Exoteric Masonry, which is only the husks of the Mystic Order formed by
the Sons of Cain, has in modern times attracted the masculine element with
its positively polarized physical vehicles, and educated them in industry
and statecraft, thus controlling the material development of the world. The
sons of Seth, constituting themselves the Priestcraft, have worked their
spell over the positive vital bodies of the feminine element of dominate
spiritual development. And whereas, the sons of Cain working through
Freemasonry and kindred movements, have openly fought for the temporal
power, the Priestcraft has fought as strenuously and perhaps more
effectively by stealth to retain their hold upon the spiritual development of the feminine element.
To the casual onlooker it would seem as if there were no decided
antagonism between these two movements at the present time; but though
Freemasonry of today is but a shell of its true ancient mystic self, and
though Catholicism has been terribly tarnished by the touch of time, in this
one thing there is no difference, namely, that the war is as keen as ever.
The efforts of the Church are not concentrated upon the masses, however, as
much as upon those who are seeking to live the higher life so that they may
gain admission to the Mystery Temple and learn how to make the
Philosopher's Stone.
As mankind advances in evolution, the vital body becomes more permanently
positively polarized, giving to both sexes a greater desire for
spirituality, and though we change from the masculine to feminine in
alternate embodiments, positive polarity of the vital body is becoming more
pronounced regardless of sex. This accounts for the growing tendency towards
Altruism which is even being brought out by the suffering entailed by the
great war we are now fighting, (1918) for all agree that the nations are
seeking to obtain a lasting peace where the swords may be made into
plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. In the past, humanity has
been claiming universal brotherhood as a great ideal, but we must come closer
than that to being in full accord with the Christ. He said to His
disciples "Ya are my friends." Among brothers and sisters, hate and
enmity may exist, but friendship is the expression of love and cannot exist
apart from that. Universal Friendship is therefore the magic word which will
eventually level all distinctions, bring peace upon earth and good will
among men. This is the great Ideal which points the shortest way to the New
Heaven and the New Earth, where the sons of Cain and the sons of Seth
will eventually be united.
Part IX
Armageddon,
the Great War (WWI),
and the Coming Age
The chart printed in Part V shows that there was an Age when humanity
lived in peace and happiness under the guardianship of a ruler who held the
double office of King and Priest, being both temporal and spiritual head of
the double sexed human race. He is called Melchisedec in the Bible
terminology, and it is said that he was King of Salem, Salem meaning
Peace. Since then humanity has been divided into two sexes, male and female,
and placed under the dual rulership of a King having dominion over their
temporal affairs and aiming to advance them by industry and statecraft, and
a Priest, head of the priestcraft, exercising a spiritual authority, in such a
manner as they considered for the eternal good of their charges.
The statecraft employed by the sons of Cain holds up the male ideal,
Hiram Abiff, the Master craftsman, the Son of Fire, while the sons of Seth
as priestcraft uphold the female ideal in the Virgin Mary, the lady of the sea.
Thus fire and water, male and female, Church and State, are opposed to
each other, with the inevitable result that a great war has been waged ever
since the separation, that sin, sorrow and death are rampant, and that
humanity is praying for the day of redemption, when the two streams shall be
united in the Kingdom of Heaven where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and where reigns Christ, the King of Peace, exercising the dual
office of King and Priest after the order of Melchisedec, for the good of all.
But this new order can not come into existence in a day. It requires
ages of preparation, not only of the land itself, but of the people who are
to inhabit it. And in order to gain an idea of what that land is like, and
how the people are constituted, it will be helpful to consider the
evolutionary career of humanity which has brought us the land where we live
to our present status; that will then give us the perspective to see what is
in store for us in the future.
The Biblical and esoteric traditions agree with science that there was a
time when darkness brooded over the deep of space, where the material for
the coming earth planet was being gathered together and set in motion by the
Divine Hierarchs; that this stage was followed by a period of luminosity,
when the dark cloud of matter had become a fire mist; that this was followed
by a period when the cold of space and the heat of the planet-in-the-making
generated an atmosphere of steam close to the fiery core and mist further
from the fiery center. When the mist had cooled sufficiently, it fell again
as rain upon the fiery core, to be re-evaporated, and this continued in
endless cycles, until by repeated boiling of the waters, an incrustation
began to form around the fiery core. Upon the islands of crust in the ocean
of fire we first learn of humanity dwelling in solid physical bodies, where
of course very dissimilar to those we have today. During the next stage
the crust of the earth became sufficiently strong to cover the whole inner
core, and humanity lived then in the basins of the earth, in the land of
mist, which was so dense that breathing was accomplished by means of gill
clefts similar to those of the fishes and still seen in human embryo.
When the mists of Atlantis commenced to settle, some of our forbears had
grown embryonic lungs and were forced to the highlands years before their
compeers. Therefore they wandered in the wilderness while the promised land
as we know it today was emerging from the lighter fogs, and at the same time
their growing lungs were fitting them to live under the present atmospheric
conditions. Two more races were born in the basins of the earth after the
pioneers had left it. Then a succession of floods drove them all to the
highlands. The last flood took place when the Sun by precession entered the
watery sign Cancer about ten thousand years ago, as told Plato by the
Egyptian Priests. Thus we see that there is no sudden change of constitution
or environment for the whole human esoteric when a new epoch is ushered in, but
an overlapping of conditions which makes it possible for the majority
by gradual adjustment to enter the new conditions, though the change may
seem sudden to the individual when the preparatory work has been accomplished
unconsciously. The metamorphosis of a frog from a denizen of the water to the
airy element give an analogy of the past emergence of humanity from the
continent of Atlantis to the Rainbow Age of the current Fifth Epoch. And the transformation of an earth worm to a butterfly soaring the skies is an apt illustration of
the coming change from our present state and condition to those of the
New Galilee where the Kingdom of Christ will be established; and what the
change in the human constitution and environment is to be, may be seen by
examining the past conditions as outlined in the Bible, which agrees with the
esoteric traditions in the main points. This New Heaven and New Earth is now
in the making. When the heavenly time marker, the Sun, came into Aries by
precession, a new cycle commenced and the glad tidings were preached by
Christ. He said by implication that the New Heaven and Earth were not ready
then, when He told his disciples "whither I go, you cannot now follow, but
you shall follow afterwards; I go to prepare a place for you and will come
again and receive you." Later, John saw in a vision the New Jerusalem
descending from Heaven, and Paul taught the Thessalonians by the Word of the Lord that those who are Christ's at His coming shall be caught up in the air to meet Him and be with Him for the Age. This is in line with the tendencies
shown by past developments. The Lemurians lived very close to the fiery core
of the earth. The Atlanteans inhabited the basins somewhat further away
from the center. The current Fifth Epoch humans were driven by the flood to the hilltops where they are now living. And analogously, the citizens of the coming Age
will inhabit the air.
But we know that our dense body gravitates towards the center of the
earth, therefore, a change must take place; also Paul tells us that flesh
and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. But he also points out that
we have a soma psuchicon (mistranslated natural body,) a soul body, and this
is made of ether, which is lighter than air and therefore capable of
levitation. This is the Golden Wedding Garment, the Philosopher's Stone, or
the Living Stone, spoken of in some of the ancient philosophies as the
Diamond Soul, for it is luminous, lustrous, and sparkling — a priceless gem.
It was also called the astral body by the Medieval Alchemists, because of
the ability it conferred upon the one who has it to traverse the starry
regions. But it is not to be confounded with the Desire Body which some of the
modern pseudo-esotericists mistakenly call the Astral Body. This vehicle, the
Soul Body, will eventually be evolved by humanity as a whole, but during
the change from the Fifth Epoch to the ethereal conditions of the New
Galilee, there will be pioneers who precede their brethren as the original
Semites did in the change from Atlantis to the Fifth Epoch Earth. Christ mentioned this
class in Matthew, 11th chapter, 12th verse, when He said: "The Kingdom of
Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." That is not a
correct translation. It ought to be "The Kingdom of the Heavens has been
invaded" (the Greek is biaxetai,) "and invaders seize on her." Men and women
already have learned through a holy, helpful life to lay aside the body of
flesh and blood, either intermittently or permanently, and to walk the skies
with winged feet, intent upon the business of their Lord, clad in the
ethereal wedding garment of the new dispensation.
This change may have been accomplished through a life of simple
helpfulness and prayer as practiced by devoted Christians, no matter with
what church they are affiliated if they follow the path of the Sons of
Seth. Others have attained by following the specific exercises given by
the Rosicrucians. And thus the process of the unification of the two streams
is already under way. But the war between the flesh and the spirit is
still raging in the breast of most people as fiercely as it was in the days
when Paul gave vent to his pent up feelings, and told us how the flesh was
warring against the spirit within himself, and how he did the wrong
things which he would not do, and omitted good deed which he aspired so
ardently to perform. Nor will the struggle ever cease for the Mystic Mason
until he has learned to build the Temple made without hands, which is not
completed until he has come to the Eighteenth (1 plus 8) Degree, which is the
Degree of the Rose Croix. This is the ultimate of the Thirty-third Degree,
for three times three are nine, and one plus eight are nine. Nine being
the highest degree in the Lesser Mysteries, he who has passed this degree of
the genuine Mystic Order is then, and then only, the Widow's Son of Nine, or
Nain, ready to be raised by the strong grip of the paw of the Lion of
Judah, to the Kingdom of the Heavens, there to receive the "well done,
thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord" for "Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the House of God, thence he shall no
more go out." He is then immortal, loosed from the wheel of Birth and Death.
Summary
In conclusion, it may be well to sum up the points which have been made
in these articles on Freemasonry and Catholicism, it being understood that
the term "Catholicism" as here used does not refer to the Roman Catholic
Church alone, "Catholic" being taken in the sense of universal, so that the term includes all movements inaugurated by the Sons of Seth, the Priestcraft.
The origin of the temporal and spiritual streams of evolution is as
follows:
Jehovah created Eve, a human being.
The Lucifer Spirit Samael united with Eve and begat a semi-divine son,
Cain. As he left Eve before the birth of the child, Cain was the Son of a Widow, and a Serpent of Wisdom.
Then Jehovah created Adam, a human being like Eve.
Adam and Eve united and begat a child, human like themselves, whose name
was Abel. Jehovah, being the Lunar God, is associated with the water, hence there was enmity between Cain, the Son of fire, and Abel, the Son of Water.
So Cain slew Abel and Abel was replaced by Seth.
In time and through generations, the Sons of Cain became the craftsmen of
the world, skilled in the use of fire and metal. Their ideal was male, Hiram Abiff, the Master workman.
The Sons of Seth, on the other hand, became the churchmen, upholding the
feminine ideal, the Virgin Mary, and ruling their people by the magic water
placed at their temple doors.
Various attempts have been made to unite the two streams of humanity and
emancipate them from their progenitors, Jehovah and the Lucifer Spirits.
With this end in view the symbolical temple was built according to the
instruction of Solomon, the Son of Seth and the Molten Sea was cast by Hiram Abiff, the Son of Cain; but the main object was frustrated as we have seen,
and the attempt at unification proved abortive.
Moses, the divinely appointed leader of the old dispensation, afterward
reborn as Elijah, guided humanity through its ages of infancy, and was
finally embodied as John the Baptist, the herald of the new dispensation, the
Christian Era. At the same point in time the other actors in the World
Drama were also brought to birth that they might serve their brothers.
At the casting of the Molten Sea Hiram Abiff had been given the baptism
of fire by Cain, which freed him from the Lucifer Spirits; he was also given a
new Hammer and a new Word. When the new Era dawned, he was born as
Lazarus, the widow's son of Nain, and raised by the strong grip of the lion's paw to the rank of Immortals as Christian Rosenkreuz.
Solomon, the Son of Seth, was reborn as Jesus. The Baptism of Water
administered by John as representative of Jehovah freed him also. He yielded
his body at that moment to the descending Christ Spirit and ranged himself
with the new leader.
Religion has been terribly tarnished in the course of time, its pristine
purity has long since vanished under the regime of creed, and it is no
longer Catholic, that is to say, universal. Sects and "isms" have branched out in one direction and another, but still Jesus from the invisible worlds enfolds in his love all the Sons of Seth who will call upon his name by faith, and he will eventually unite the scattered churches in the Kingdom of Christ.
Christian Rosenkreuz was given charge of the Sons of Cain who seek the
light of knowledge at the sacred fires of the Mystic Shrine. As the
creative energy implanted by their divine ancestor Samael caused Cain to
work out their own salvation through the fire of tribulation, and fashion
for themselves the Golden Wedding Garment, which is the "Open Sesame" to the
Invisible World. And though the cleansing blood of Jesus is an absolute
necessity to millions of weaker brothers, there can scarcely be any question
when we assert that the more men and women who engage in Mystic Masonry to consciously build this Temple of the Soul, the sooner we shall see the Second Advent of Christ, and the stronger will be the human esoteric which He shall rule by the Law of Love.
Reference: Freemasonry and Catholicism, by Max Heindel
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