The Mystical Interpretation
of Easter
by Max Heindel
Compiled from the
Numerous Writings and
Lectures of a Mystic
Foreword
The information contained in this booklet is taken from
the lectures and writings of Max Heindel, and has been previously published
from time to time either in magazine or book form. The "Echoes" (magazine),
first published by Mr. Heindel in June, 1913, contains a mine of knowledge
and wisdom concerning this and other important occurrences of mystical
significance. A few sections on Easter are also to be found in Gleanings of a Mystic and Teachings of an Initiate.
This humble effort is intended to be an inspiration
to those who have glimpsed that Spark of Divine Light and Love, and who are
striving to reach that ultimate goal which was attained by Christ Jesus two
thousand years ago on Golgotha. What He accomplished then is the task that
lies before each and every one of us. When we have surrendered all to the
Higher Self or Christ within us, then will come the resurrection or
complete liberation from matter. Then we can say with Christ, "It has been
accomplished."
Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, and not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, unless within thyself be set up again.
— Angelus Silesius.
The popular song of today in which everybody joins with enthusiasm but
which is forgotten tomorrow, the play that goes over the stage for perhaps a
hundred nights in succession to be relegated to dusty shelves forever after,
and all other things which are evanescent, show by that very fact that they
have no intrinsic worth. The blaze of a shooting star may illumine the
heavens for a moment, but though the others are paler and attract less
attention, their light cheers the traveler night after night through the ages.
Only the songs that are of the music of which we never tire, have a real
value in life. So it is also with recurring cosmic cycles marked by the
feasts of the year. As they come again and again, they teach us the same
old lessons from a new point of view.
The life impulse from the Cosmic Christ which entered the Earth last
fall, came to Mystic birth at Christmas, performed its wonderful magic of
fecundation during the months between autumn and spring time, and liberated
itself from the cross of matter to ascent again to the throne of the Father,
at Easter leaves the Earth clothed in the verdant glory of spring and ready
for the physical activities of the summer season.
As it is above, so also below. The processes which take place upon a
larger scale in the Earth are reproduced also in man. During the months
from September to March we are more thoroughly impregnated with the
spiritual vibrations which predominate in winter than we can be under the
more material condition prevailing in summer. There comes to us in the fall a
new impulse toward the higher life; it culminates on Holy Night and works its
magic in our natures according to the way in which we have embraced our
opportunities. According to our diligence or dilatoriness in the past
season, progression will be accelerated or retarded in the next, for there
is no truer word than that which teaches us that we are just what we have
made ourselves. The service we rendered or failed to render determines
whether a new opportunity for greater service will give us added impulse
heavenward; and it cannot be said too often that it is useless to expect
liberation from the cross of matter until we have used our opportunities
here and thus earned a larger sphere of usefulness. The "nails" which bound
the Christ to the cross of Calvary will fetter you and me until the dynamic
impulse of love flows out from us in waves and rhythmic swells — like the
tide of love which yearly enters the Earth and imbues it with renewed life.
You know the analogy between man — who enters his vehicles in the
daytime, lives in them and works through them, and at night is a free
spirit, free from the fetters of the dense body — and the Christ Spirit
dwelling in our Earth a part of the year. We all know what a fetter and
what a prison this body is, how we are hampered by disease and suffering, for
there is not one of us who is always in perfect health so that he or she
never feels a pang of pain, at least not one who is on the higher path.
It is similar with the Cosmic Christ, who turns His attention toward our
little Earth, focusing His consciousness in the planet in order that we may
have life. He has to enliven this dead mass (which we have crystallized out
of the Sun) annually; and it is a fetter, a clog, and a prison to Him.
Therefore, it is right and proper that we should rejoice when He comes at
Christmas time each year and is born anew into our world to help us leaven
this dead lump wherewith which we have encumbered ourselves. Our hearts at
that time should turn to Him in gratitude for the sacrifice He makes for our
sakes during the winter months, permeating this planet with His life to
awaken it from its wintry sleep, in which it would remain where He not thus
born into it to enliven it.
During the winter months He suffers agonies of torture, "groaning,
travailing, and waiting for the day of liberation," which comes at the time
we speak of in the orthodox churches as the passion week. But we realize
that according to the mystic teachings, this week is just the culmination or
crest of wave of His suffering and that he is then rising out of His prison;
that when the Sun cross the equator, He hangs upon the cross, and cries
"Consummatum est!" — "It has been accomplished!" That is to say, His work
for that day has been accomplished. It is not a cry of agony, but a cry of
triumph, a shout of joy that the hour of liberation has come, and that once
more He can soar away a little while, free from the fettering clod of our
planet.
The point to which I would like to call your attention is that we should
rejoice with Him in the great, glorious, triumphal hour, the hour of
liberation when He exclaims, "It has been accomplished." Let us attune
our hearts to this great Cosmic event; let us rejoice with the Christ, our
Saviour, that the term of His annual sacrifice has once more been
completed; and let us feel thankful from the very bottom of our hearts that
He is now about to be freed from the Earth's fetters; that the life wherewith
He has now imbued our planet is sufficient to carry through the time till
next Christmas.
Nature is the symbolic expression of God. Therefore if we would know God
we must study nature, always remembering that there is a purpose behind every
manifestation; that life is a school, and through learning its many lessons
humanity is slowly evolving from a divine spark to Godhood. Had we learned
life's lessons as they were given to us there would have been no necessity for
the great sacrifice which was made and is annually being made by the Christ
Spirit, who is the embodiment of love. Through selfishness, disobedience to
laws, and evil practices we were fast crystallizing not only our own bodies,
but also the Earth on which we lived, to such a degree that as means for
evolution both were fast becoming unusable. When nothing else could save
us from the results of our own wrongdoing the compassionate Christ offered
Himself and His great love power to break up the crystallized condition of
man's bodies and the Earth. For three years He taught mankind by word,
precept, and example.
When He was crucified on Golgotha His great sacrifice for humanity had
only just begun. Each year since that time on the twenty-first of September
when the Sun passes from the zodiacal sign Virgo into the sign Libra, the
Christ Spirit returning to our Earth touches its atmosphere. He starts on
this downward journey about the twenty-first of June at the summer solstice,
when the Sun enters Cancer. He reaches the center of our Earth at midnight,
December the twenty-fourth. There He remains for three days, and then He
starts to withdraw. This withdrawal is completed at Easter. From Easter
until the summer solstice He is passing through the higher worlds, and
reaches the World of Divine Spirit, the throne of the Father, on June
twenty-first. During July and August, while the sun is in Cancer and Leo,
He is rebuilding His Life Spirit vehicle which He is again to bring to the
world and with it rejuvenate the Earth and the life kingdoms evolving in and
on it. From Christmas until Easter He gives of Himself without stint or
measure, endowing with life, not only the sleeping seeds but everything
about, on and within the Earth.
Without this yearly infusion of Divine life and energy, all living things
on our Earth would soon perish, and all orderly progress would be frustrated
so far as our present lines of development are concerned. It is this germinal
activity of the Father's life brought to us by the Christ and fully delivered
by Easter time that starts a renewed growth and augmented activity in plant,
animal, and man at this particular season of the year. The Christ does not
leave the Earth at Easter until He has give of Himself to the utmost. It
is then that the infusion of His life, together with the more nearly
vertical rays of Sun, causes the seeds to grow, the trees to bloom, and the
birds, directed by their Group Spirits, to mate and build their nests.
Mankind is then strengthened and imbued with the necessary energy and
courage to meet, profit from, and grow by encounters with the varied and
perplexing problems of life.
For those who have chosen to work knowingly and intelligently with Cosmic
Law, Easter has a great significance. To them it means the annual
liberation of the Christ Spirit from the cramping confines of the Earth and
His joyful ascent into His true home world, there to remain for a season
resting in the bosom of the Father. And if their eyes are truly open they
behold angelic hosts waiting, ready to accompany Him on His heavenward
journey; if their ears are attuned to heavenly sounds they hear celestial
choirs chanting His praise in glad hosannas to the risen Lord.
To the enlightened ones Easter brings a keen realization of the fact that
all humanity are pilgrims on the Earth, that the real home of the spirit is
in the heaven realm, and that to reach that realm all should endeavor to
learn the lessons in life's school as quickly as possible so that they may
be able to look for the dawn of a day that will permanently release them
from the bondage of the Earth. Then like the liberated Christ they will
come to a realization of that glorious immortality which is the reward of
the perfected Spirit. To the illuminated ones Easter symbolizes the dawning
of a glad day when all mankind, as well as the Christ, will be permanently
freed from the cramping confines of materiality, and will ascent to heavenly
realms to become pillars of strength in the Father's house, from which they
shall no more go out.
II. An Event of
Mystic Significance
Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards . . . . He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.
— John 13:36; 14:12.
Were we to attend an orthodox church on Easter Sunday, we should probably
hear the story of Jesus, the son of God, who had been immaculately conceived
and who, at the age of thirty years, took up a ministry which lasted for
three years and terminated in crucifixion and death for us; that through his
blood we might be saved. We should probably also be told that on Easter day
he arose again from the dead and later ascended to the Father, where he is
now seated at the right hand of the majesty of God; thence he shall return
to judge the living and the dead at the last resurrection.
But while we know, because of our inability to read the memory of nature,
that Jesus did live and die, that he had a mystic mission of the very greatest
importance to human evolution and that the main events of that great life
took place substantially as set forth in the gospel, we know also that the
mission of the Mystic Christ is something infinitely more glorious than has
ever entered into the hearts of those who know only the orthodox
interpretation of the gospels.
The feast of the resurrection which we call Easter is, in the first
place, not simply the resurrection of an individual, but a Cosmic event.
It would be foolish in the extreme to celebrate the death and resurrection
of an individual which must have taken place on a certain day of the year,
by a feast that is movable, and determined by the position of the Sun and
Moon in the zodiacal sign Aries, the ram or lamb.
Each year a spiritual wave of vitality enters the Earth at the winter
solstice to impregnate the dormant seeds in the frozen ground, to give new
life to the world wherein we live, and this work is done during the winter
months, while the Sun is passing through the zodiacal signs Capricorn,
Aquarius, and Pisces. Then it crosses the celestial equator, from the
southern signs where it has been during the winter months, and this
cross-over or crossification, or crucifixion is now cosmically associated
with the sun's entrance into the sign Aries, the ram or lamb. Then the Sun
ascends into the signs of the northern heavens to foster with its warming
rays the growth of the seed in the soil which has been revitalized by the
Christic life wave during the winter months. Without that annual mystic
wave of vital energy from the Cosmic Christ, physical life would be an
impossibility; with that there could be no physical bread and wine nor the
transubstantiated spiritual tincture prepared by alchemy from the heart
blood of the disciple.
The lamb was slain from the foundation of the Arian world epoch in which
we now live, its blood was the symbol which saved the God-chosen people from
death when they left the mythical Egypt, the home of the worship of the bull
Taurus or Apis. From that day it became idolatry for those who had been
saved by the blood of the lamb to worship the golden calf, for the old
religions of the bull Taurus had been superseded by the religion of the
lamb, when the Sun by precession left the sign Taurus and entered the
celestial sign Aries, the lamb or ram. In the fullness of time when the Sun
by precession had reached seven degrees in the sign of the lamb, Christ
came in the body of Jesus to make a new covenant under the seal and symbol
of the mystic bread and water of life. The Lamb of God was about to pass
away; it did so individually when Christ left the body of Jesus, and
cosmically when the the Sun by precession left the sign Aries the lamb. A new
symbol had to be given to those who were to be messengers during the coming
Piscean age, hence He, Himself, at that last supper represented the
sacrificial lamb. The bread of life and living water were given as symbols
of his body and his blood to be used during the coming age in remembrance of
him. There is, therefore, a connection between the mystic wine and the
blood, also between the mystic bread and the body, which we should understand
if we would know the true significance of the mystic death and resurrection.
Appropriate food had been given to aid each of the vehicles of man in
their evolution. A vehicle such as our physical body, composed of chemical
compounds, can be nourished only on a chemical substance, likewise by
analogy, only spirit can act on spirit, and therefore, wine was added to
the diet of man to aid him to break up the heavy molecules of flesh
and stimulate him in the battle of existence. This is told in the story of
Noah (Genesis 9:2-20), who, with his followers, represents humanity in the
rainbow age where a so-called "mixed-diet" and wine furnish the
nourishment needed for the present phase of evolution.
Fortified by the flesh-fed mind and the spirit of alcohol man has
wandered further and further away from the path of brotherhood, for while
he feeds upon the food of the carnivora he necessarily becomes ferocious as
a beast of prey, and preys upon all his fellow men by instinct. The system of
inbreeding and marriage in the clan tied him very firmly to his fellow
tribesmen, however, he did at least show love for them. Since international
marriages have come in vogue and he is becoming emancipated from the race
spirit in a measure, he preys upon all men, even upon his own family. There
are no bounds of selfishness, nothing is sacred from greed, and each human
being lives in economic fear of all others. Moreover, the cup that cheers
does so only at times — there is not rest, no lasting peace or happiness on
the path of passion and self-gratification, therefore, there comes a time
when man desires lasting cessation from sorrow more than anything else, and
commences to seek the path of peace which is also the path of purity and
self-abnegation. Then he is instructed in the mystery of Golgotha, of the
Cleansing Blood, and the Rose Cross, as follows:
Cleansing the blood from egoism is the Mystery of Golgotha; it commenced
when the blood of Jesus flowed; it has continued through the wars of Christian nations whenever men fought for an ideal, and will last until the horrors of war by contrast have sufficiently impressed mankind with the beauty of brotherhood. Beneath us in the scale of evolution are the plants
and animals, above us are the gods; anatomically we belong to the animals and
in our past lives we have lived beneath our status; like the animals we
have gratified our sex desire and our appetite, but while they were held in
restraint by a wise group spirit, we have exercised no control over our
appetites, hence sickness, sorrow, and suffering have become our portion. Now
we aspire to tread the path of peace to the serene bliss of the gods. To
attain that we must become like the plants, which are pure and passionless.
Consider the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple, also called "The Tabernacle
in the Wilderness." When, under that bygone dispensation, flesh offered for
sins was burned on the altar of sacrifice the stench rose to heaven attesting
the nauseating nature of transgression, of passion and impurity. But within
the tabernacle itself stood the seven branched candlestick where the essence
of olives burned without disagreeable odor. All flesh has been conceived in
passion and sin, but the generation of the plant is pure and immaculate.
Therefore, the fragrant flower, particularly the red rose, stands in direct
symbolical opposition to tainted flesh. The flower is the generative organ
of the plant and it tells us that the immaculate organ of the plant and it
tells us that the immaculate conception in love and purity is the path to
peace and progress. Christ in the final session with His disciples took the
cup as the symbol of the new covenant, gave them the bread to eat which
symbolized His body, the cup symbolizing his blood. This was no ordinary
cup in which any liquid might be poured, nor was it the liquid alone which
had the potency necessary to ratify the new covenant. The mystery lies in the fact that the cup and its contents were integral and necessary parts of one sublime whole, and the Latin name for this mystic cup was "Calix"; in Greek it was called "Poterion."
Under the ancient dispensation water alone was used in the temple
service, but in time wine became a factor in human evolution. A God of
wine, Bacchus, was worshiped and orgies of the wildest nature were held, in
order to drown the aspiring spirit, that it might apply itself to conquer
the physical world. Even under the Mosaic dispensation the priests had
been strictly forbidden to use wine while officiating in the temple, but
Christ, on His first public appearance, changed water to wine, ratifying its
use in the order of things then existent. Note, however, that this was done in public, and that it was His first act as a public minister, but at the last esoteric session of the Christ with His disciples, where the New Covenant was given, there no flesh of lamb (Aries), as required under the
Mosaic order, neither was there the wine, but only the bread, a vegetable
product and the cup, of which we shall presently speak when we have noted
His words at the time: "I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine until
I drink it with you new in the Kingdom of Heaven." The newly pressed juice
of the grape does not contain a spirit of fermentation and decay, but is a
pure nutritious plant food, and thus followers of the esoteric doctrine have
been instructed by Christ to use non-flesh, non-alcoholic food.
It has generally been supposed that the cup used by the Christ at the
Last Supper contained wine, though as a matter of fact there is no Biblical
foundation for that supposition. Three accounts are given of the
preparation for this Passover. While Mark and Luke state that the messengers
were told to go into a certain city and look for a man who carried a pitcher of water, none of the Evangelists say that the cup contained wine.
Furthermore, research of the memory of nature shows water was used, and that
so far as the esotericist was concerned wine had had its day. From that act
dates also the inauguration of the temperance movement, for these cosmic
changes involve long preparation in the inner worlds before they become
manifest in society outwardly. Thousands of years are as nothing is such
processes.
The use of water at the Last Supper also harmonizes with the astrological
and ethical requirements. The Sun was leaving Aries, the sign of the Lamb,
for Pisces, the sign of Fishes, a watery sign. A new note of aspiration was
to be sounded, a new phase of human upliftment was to be entered upon during
the Piscean Age then approaching. Self indulgence was to be superseded by
self denial. bread, the staff of life, which made from immaculately
generated grain, does not feed passions like flesh, neither does our blood,
when diluted with water surge so passionately as when wine is imbibed.
Therefore, bread and water are fit foods and symbols of ideals during
the Pisces-Virgo Age. They represent purity, and the Catholic church has
given to its followers the Piscean water at the door of the temple, and the virginal bread at the altar, denying them the wine cup at the service. But even the foregoing consideration does not bring us to the heart of the mystery hidden in the "Cup of the New Covenant."
The old-wine-cup, given to us when we entered the Fifth Epoch Earth, the land of generation, was filled with destruction, death and poison, and the Word which we then learned to speak is dead and powerless.
The new-wine-cup, mentioned as an ideal for the future epoch, the New Galilee (which is not to be confused with the Aquarian Age), is an etheric organ build within the head and the throat by the unspent sex force, which to the spiritual sight appears as the stem of a flower ascending from the lower part of the trunk. This calix, or seed-cup, is truly a creative
organ, capable of speaking the Word, Life and Power.
The present word is generated by clumsy muscular motion which adjusts the
larynx, tongue, and lips so that the air passing from the lungs makes
certain sounds. But air is a heave medium, difficult to move, in
comparison with nature's finer forces, like electricity, which moves in the
ether, and when this organ has been evolved it will have the power to speak
the word of Life, to infuse vitality into substances that were hitherto inert. This organ we are now building by service.
You will remember that Christ gave not the cup to the multitude, but to
His disciples who were His messengers and servants of the Cross. At the
present time those who drink from the cup of self-abnegation that they may
use the force in the service of others, are building that organ, together
with the soul body which is the wedding garment. They are learning to use
it in a small way as Invisible Helpers when they are out of their bodies at
night, for then they are forced to speak the word of power which removes
disease and builds in healthy tissues.
When the Atlantean Age was drawing to a close and mankind left its
childhood home where it had been under the direct guidance of the Divine
Teachers, the old covenant was made, giving them flesh and wine, and these
two, together with the unrestrained use of the sex force, have made the current Fifth
Age an age of death and destruction. We are now drawing to an end of that
era; we are looking for the Kingdom of Heaven, the New Galilee, and in order
to prepare us for that time Christ has given the Bread and the Water of Life, bidding us at the same time not to lust. Having given this new
covenant He went to the cross of liberation leaving behind Him the body of death, to soar away in a vehicle of life, the vital body. He gave His
followers the assurance that though they could not follow Him them, where He
went they should follow later. Everyone is a Christ in the making and some
day will be "Easter" for each of us.
III. The Cosmic Meaning
of Easter
(Part I)
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and dost thou seek for thyself rest and joy? The higher a man hath advanced in the Spirit, the heavier crosses he will often find, because the sorrow of his banishment increaseth with the strength of His love.
— Thomas a Kempis.
On the morning of Good Friday, 1857, Richard Wagner, the master artist of
the nineteenth century, sat on the veranda of a Swiss villa by the Zurich
Sea. The landscape about him was bathed in most glorious sunshine; peace
and good will seemed to vibrate through nature. All creation was throbbing
with life; the air was laden with the fragrant perfume of budding pine
forests — a grateful balm to a troubled heart of a restless mind.
Then suddenly, as a bolt from an azure sky, there came into Wagner's
deeply mystic soul a remembrance of the ominous significance of that day —
the darkest and most sorrowful in the Christian year. It almost overwhelmed
him with sadness, as he contemplated the contrast. There was such a marked
incongruity between the smiling scene before him, the plainly observable
activity of nature, struggling to renewed life after winter's long sleep, and
the death struggle of a tortured Saviour upon a cross; between the
fullthroated chant of life and love issuing from the thousands of little
feathered choristers in forest, moor, and meadow, and the ominous shouts of
hate issuing from an infuriated mob as they jeered and mocked the noblest
ideal the world has ever known; between the wonderful creative energy exerted
by nature in spring, and the destructive element in man, which slew the
most noblest character that ever graced our Earth.
While Wagner meditated thus upon the incongruities of existence, the
question presented itself: Is there any connection between the death of the
Saviour upon the cross at Easter, and the vital energy which expresses
itself so prodigally in spring when nature begins the life of a new year?
Though Wagner did not consciously perceive and realize the full
significance of the connection between the death of the Saviour and the
rejuvenation of nature, he had, nevertheless, unwittingly stumbled upon the
key to one of the most sublime mysteries encountered by the human spirit in
its pilgrimage from clod to God.
In the darkest night of the year, when Earth sleeps most soundly in
Boreas's cold embrace, when material activities are at the very lowest ebb, a
wave of spiritual energy carries upon its crest the Divine creative "word
from Heaven" to a mystic birth at Christmas; and as a luminous cloud the
spiritual impulse broods over the world that "knew it not' for it "shines in
the darkness" of winter when nature is paralyzed and speechless.
This Divine creative "Word" has a message and a mission. It was born to
"save the world," and "to give its life for the world." It must of
necessity sacrifice its life in order to accomplish the rejuvenation of
nature. Gradually it buries itself in the Earth and commences to infuse its
own vital energy into the millions of seeds which lie dormant in the ground.
It whispers "the word of life" into the ears of beast and bird, until
the gospel of good news has been preached to every creature. The sacrifice
is fully consummated by the time the Sun crosses its Easter(n) node at
the spring equinox. Then the divine creative Word expires. It dies upon the Cross at Easter in a mystical sense, while uttering a last triumphant cry. "It has been accomplished" (consummatum est).
But as an echo returns to us many times repeated, so also the celestial
song of life is re-echoed from the Earth. The whole creation takes up the
anthem. A legion-tongued chorus repeats it over and over. The little seeds
in the bosom of Mother Earth commence to germinate; they burst and sprout in
all directions, and soon a wonderful mosaic of life, a velvety green carpet
embroidered with multicolored flowers, replaces the shroud of immaculate
wintry white. From the furred and feathered tribes "the word of life"
re-echoes as a song of love, impelling them to mate. Generation and
multiplication are the watchwords everywhere — the spirit has risen to more abundant life.
Thus, mystically, we may note the annual birth, death, and resurrection
of the Saviour as the ebb and flow of a spiritual impulse which culminates
at the winter solstice, Christmas, and has egress from the Earth shortly after
Easter when the Word ascends to Heaven on Whitsunday. But it will not remain there forever. We are taught that "Thence it shall return," "at the judgment." Thus when the Sun descends below the equator through the sign of the scales in October, when the fruits of the year are harvested, weighed, and assorted according to their kind, the descent of the spirit of the new year has its inception. This descent culminates in birth at Christmas.
Man is a miniature of nature. What happens on a large scale in the life
of a planet like our Earth, takes place on a smaller scale in the course of
human events. A planet is the body of wonderfully great and exalted Being,
one of the Seven Spirits before the Throne (of the parent Sun). Man is also a
spirit and "made in their likeness." As a planet revolves in its cyclic path
around the Sun whence it emanated, so also the human spirit moves in an orbit
around its central source — God. Planetary orbits, being ellipses, have
points of closest approach to and extreme deviation from their solar
centers. Likewise the orbit of the human spirit is elliptical. We are
closest to God when our cyclic journey carries us into the celestial sphere
of activity — heaven, and were are farthest removed from Him during Earth
life. These changes are necessary to our soul growth. As the festivals of
the year mark the recurring events of importance in the life of a Great
Spirit, so our births and deaths are events of periodical recurrence. It is
as impossible for the human spirit to remain perpetually in heaven or upon
Earth as it is for a planet to stand still in its orbit. The same immutable
law of periodicity which determines the unbroken sequence of the seasons,
the alternation of day and night, the tidal ebb and flow, governs also the
progression of the human spirit, both in heaven an upon Earth.
From realms of celestial light where we live in freedom, untrammeled by
limitations of time and space, where we vibrate in tune with infinite
harmony of the spheres, we descend to birth in the physical world where
our spiritual sight is obscured by the mortal coil which binds us to this
limited phase of our existence. We live here awhile, we die and ascend
to heave, to be reborn and to die again. Each Earth life is a chapter in a
serial life story, extremely humble in its beginnings, but increasing in
interest and importance as we ascend to higher and higher stations of human
responsibility. No limit is conceivable, for in essence we are divine, and
must, therefore, have the infinite possibilities of God dormant within.
When we have learned all that this world has to teach us, a wider orbit, a
larger sphere of superhuman usefulness will give scope to our greater
capabilities.
"But what of Christ?" someone will ask. "Don't you believe in Him? You
are discoursing upon Easter, the feast which commemorates the cruel death
and glorious, triumphant resurrection of the Saviour, but you seem to be
alluding to Him more from an allegorical point of view than as an actual
fact."
Certainly we believe in the Christ; we love Him with our whole heart and
soul, but we wish to emphasize the teaching that Christ is the first fruits
of the race. He said that we shall do the things He did, "and greater."
Thus we are Christs-in-the-making.
We are too much in the habit of looking to an outside Saviour while
harboring a devil within; but till Christ be formed in us, as Paul says,
we shall seek in vain, for as it is impossible for us to perceive light
and color, though they are all about us, unless our optic nerve registers
their vibrations, and as we remain unconscious of sound when the tympanum of
our ear is insensitive, so also must we remain blind to the presence of
Christ and deaf to His voice until we arouse our dormant spiritual natures
within. But once these natures have become awakened, they will reveal the
Lord of Love as a prime reality; this on the principle that when a tuning
fork is struck, another of identical pitch will also commence to sing, while
tuning forks of different pitches will remain mute. Therefore, the Christ
said that His sheep knew the sound of His voice and responded, but the voice
of the stranger they heard not. (Jon 10:5) No matter what our creed, we
are all brethren of Christ, so let us rejoice, the Lord has risen! Let us
seek Him and forget our creeds and other lesser differences.
IV. The Cosmic Meaning
of Easter
(Part II)
The sign of the Cross shall be in Heaven when the Lord cometh to judgment. Then all servants of the Cross, who in life have conformed themselves to the crucified, shall draw nigh unto Christ with great boldness.
— Thomas a Kempis
Once more we have reached the final act in the cosmic drama involving the
descent of the solar Christ Ray into the matter of our Earth. It is
completed at the Mystic Birth celebrated at Christmas, and the Mystic Death
and Liberation, which are celebrated shortly after the vernal equinox when
the Sun of the new year commences its ascent into the higher spheres of
the northern heavens, having poured out its life to save humanity and give
new life to everything upon Earth. At this time of year a new life, an
augmented energy, sweeps with an irresistible force through the veins and
arteries of all living beings, inspiring them, instilling new hope, new
ambition, and new life, impelling them to new activities whereby they learn
new lessons in the school of experience. Consciously or unconsciously to
the beneficiaries, this outwelling energy invigorates everything that has
life. Even the plant responds by an increased circulation of sap, which
results in additional growth of the leaves, flowers, and fruits whereby this
class of life is at present expressing itself and evolving to a higher state
of consciousness.
But wonderful though these outward physical manifestations are, and
glorious though the transformation may be called which changes the Earth from
a waste of snow and ice into a beautiful, blooming garden, it sinks into
insignificance before the spiritual activities which run side by side
therewith. The salient features of the cosmic drama are identical in point
of time with the material effects of the Sun in the four cardinal signs,
Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, for the most significant events occur
at the equinoctial and solstitial points.
It is really and actually true that "In God we live and move and have our
being." Outside Him we could have no existence; we live by and through His
life; we move and act by and through His strength; it is His power which
sustains our dwelling place, the Earth, and without His unflagging,
unwavering efforts the universe itself would disintegrate. Now we are
taught that man was made in the likeness of God, and we are given to
understand that according to the law of analogy we are possessed of certain
powers latent within us which are similar to those we see so potently
expressed in the labor of Deity in the universe. This gives us a particular
interest in the annual cosmic drama involving the death and resurrection of
the Sun. The life of the God Man, Christ Jesus, was molded in conformity
with the solar story, and it foreshadows in a similar manner all that may
happen to the Man God of whom Christ Jesus prophesied when He said: "The
works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works that these shall ye do;
whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards."
Nature is the symbolic expression of God. She does nothing in vain or
gratuitously — there is purpose behind every thing and every act. Therefore
we should be alert and regard carefully the signs in the heavens for they
have a deep and important meaning concerning our own lives. The intelligent
understanding of their purpose enables us to work so much more efficiently
with God in His wonderful efforts for the emancipation of humanity from
bondage to the laws of nature, and for its liberation into a full measure of
stature of the sons of God — crowned with glory, honor, and immortality, and
free from the power of sin, sickness, and suffering which now curtail our
lives by reason of our ignorance and nonconformity for the laws of God. The
divine purpose demands this emancipation, but whether it is to be
accomplished by the long and tedious process of evolution or by the
immensely quicker pathway of Initiation depends upon whether or not we are
willing to lend our cooperation. The majority of mankind go through life
with unseeing eyes and with ears that do not hear. They are engrossed in
their material affairs, buying and selling, working and playing, without an
adequate understanding or appreciation of the purpose of existence, and were
it unfolded to them it is scarcely to be expected that they would conform and
cooperate because of the sacrifice it involves.
It is no wonder that the Christ appeals particularly to the poor, and
that He emphasizes the difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom of
heaven, for even to this day when humanity has advanced in the school of
evolution for two millennia since His day, we find that the great majority
still value their houses and lands, their pretty hats and gowns, the
pleasures of society, dances, and dinners more than the treasures of heaven
which are garnered by service and self-sacrifice. Although they may
intellectually perceive the beauty of the spiritual life, its desirability
fades into insignificance in their eyes when compared with the sacrifice
involved in living the spiritual life. Like the rich young man they would
willingly follow Christ were there no such sacrifice involved. They prefer
rather to go away when they realize that sacrifice is the one condition
upon which they may enter discipleship. So for them Easter is simply a
season of joy because it is the end of winter and the beginning of the summer
season with its call of outdoor sports and pleasures.
But for those who have definitely chosen the path of self-sacrifice that
leads to liberation, Easter is the annual sign given them as evidence of the
cosmic basis of their hopes and aspirations.
In the Easter Sun which at the vernal equinox commences to soar into the
northern heavens after having laid down its life for Earth, we have the cosmic
symbol of the verity of resurrection. When taken as a cosmic fact in
connection with the law of analogy that connects the macrocosm with the
microcosm, it is an earnest that some day we shall all attain the cosmic
consciousness and know positively for ourselves by our own experience
that there is no death, but that what seems so is only a transition into a
finer sphere.
It is an annual symbol to strengthen our souls in the work of well-doing
that we may grow the golden wedding garment required to make us sons of God
in the highest and holiest sense. It is literally true that unless we walk
in the light as God is in the light, we are not in fellowship; but by making
the sacrifices and rendering the services required of us to aid in the
emancipation of our race we are building the soul body of radiant golden
light which is the special substance emanated from and by the Spirit of the
Sun, the Cosmic Christ. When this golden substance has clothed us with
sufficient density, then we shall be able to imitate the Eastern Sun and soar into the highest spheres.
With these ideals firmly fixed in our minds, Easter time becomes a season
when it is in order to review our life during the preceding year and make
new resolutions for the coming season to serve in furthering our soul
growth. It is a season when the symbol of the ascending sun should lead us
to a keen realization of the fact that we are but pilgrims and strangers
upon Earth, that as spirits our real home is in heaven, and that we ought to
endeavor to learn the lessons in this life school as quickly as is
consistent with proper service. Easter Day marks the resurrection and
liberation of the Christ Spirit from the lower realms, and this liberation
should remind us to look continually for the dawn of the which shall
permanently free us from the meshes of matter, from the body of sin and death,
together with all our brethren in bondage. No true aspirant could conceive
of a liberation that did not include all who were similarly placed.
This is gigantic task; the contemplation of it may well daunt the bravest
heart, and were we along it could not be accomplished; but the divine
hierarchies who have guided humanity upon the path of evolution from the
beginning of our career are still active and working with us from their
sidereal worlds, and with their help we shall eventually be able to
accomplish this elevation of humanity as a whole and attain to an individual
realization of glory, honor, and immortality. Having this great hope
within ourselves, this great mission in the world, let us work as never
before to make ourselves better men and women, so that by our example we may
waken in others a desire to lead a life that brings liberation.
For if thou be dead with Him, thou shalt also live with Him, and if thou be a partaker of His sufferings, thou shalt be also of His glory.
— Thomas a Kempis.
Then the Earth reaches the vernal equinox in its annual circle dance
about the sun, we have Easter. The spiritual ray sent out by the Cosmic
Christ each fall to replenish the smoldering vitality of the Earth is about
to ascent to the Father's Throne. The spiritual activities of fecundation
and germination which have been carried on during the winter and spring will
be followed by material growth and a ripening process during the coming summer
and autumn under the influence of the indwelling Earth Spirit. The cycle
ends at "Harvest Home." Thus the great World Drama is acted and re-
enacted from year to year, an eternal contest between life and death; each
in turn becoming victor and being vanquished as the cycles roll on.
This great cyclic influx and efflux are not confined in their effects to
the Earth and its flora and fauna. They exercise an equally compelling
influence upon mankind, though the great majority are unaware of what impels
them to action in one direction or another. The fact remains, nevertheless,
independent of their cognition that the same earthly vibration which
beautifully adorns bird and beast in the spring is responsible for the
human desire to don gay colors and brighter raiment at that season. This is
also "the call of the wild," which in summer drives mankind to relaxation
amid rural scenes where nature spirits have wrought their magic art in field
and forest, in order to recuperate from the strain of artificial conditions
in congested cities.
On the other hand, it is the "fall" of the spiritual ray from the Sun in
autumn which causes resumption of the mental and spiritual activities in
winter. The same germinative force which leavens the seed in the Earth and
prepares it to reproduce its kind in multiple, stirs also the human mind and
fosters altruistic activities which make the world better. Did not this
great wave of selfless Cosmic Love culminate at Christmas, did it not
vibrate peace and good will, there would be no holiday feeling in our breasts
to engender a desire to make others equally happy; the universal giving of
Christmas gifts would be impossible, and we should all suffer loss.
As the Christ walked day by day, hither and yon, over the hills and
valleys of Judea and Galilee, teaching the multitudes, all were benefited.
But He communed most with His disciples, and they, of course, grew apace
each day. The bond of love became closer as time went on, until one day
ruthless hands took away the beloved Teacher and put Him to a shameful
death. But though He had died after the flesh, He continued to commune
with them in spirit for some time. At last, however, He ascended to higher
spheres, direct touch with Him was lost, and sadly these men looked into
each other's faces as they asked, "Is this the end?" They had hoped so much,
had entertained such high aspirations, and though the verdant glory was as
fresh upon the sun-kissed landscape as before He went, the Earth seemed cold
and dreary, for grim desolation gnawed at their hearts.
Thus, it is also with us who aim to walk after the spirit and to strive
with the flesh, though the analogy may not have been previously apparent.
When the "fall" of the Christ ray commences in autumn and ushers in the season
of spiritual supremacy, we sense it at once and commence to lave our souls
in the blessed tide with avidity. We experience a feeling akin to that of
the apostles when they walked with Christ, and as the season wears on, it
becomes easier and easier to commune with Him, face to face as it were.
But in the annual course of events Easter and the Ascension of the "risen"
Christ Ray to the Father leave us in the identical position of the apostles
when their beloved Teacher went away. We are desolate and sad; we look upon
the world as a dreary waste and cannot comprehend the reason for our loss,
which is as natural as the changes of ebb and flood and day and night — phases
of the present age of alternating cycles.
There is a danger in this attitude of mind. If it is allowed to grown
upon us, we are apt to cease our work in the world and become dreamers, lose
our balance, and excite just criticism from our fellow men. Such a course
of conduct is entirely wrong, for as the Earth exerts itself in material endeavor to bring forth abundantly in summer after receiving the spiritual impetus in winter, so ought we also to exert ourselves to greater purpose in the world's work when it has been our privilege to commune with the spirit. If we do thus we shall be more apt to excite emulation than reproach.
We are wont to think of a miser as one who hoards gold, and such people
are generally objects of contempt. But there are people who strive as
assiduously to acquire knowledge as the miser struggles to accumulate gold,
who will stoop to any subterfuge to obtain their desire, and will as
jealously guard their knowledge and the miser guards his hoard. They do not
understand that by such a method they effectually closing the door to greater
wisdom. The old Norse theology contained a parable which symbolically
elucidates the matter. It held that all who died fighting on the
battlefield (the strong souls who fought the good fight unto the end) were
carried to Valhalla to be with the gods; while those who died in bed or from
disease (the souls who drifted weakly through life) went to the dismal
Niflheim. The doughty warriors in Valhalla feasted daily upon the flesh of
a boar called Scrimner, which was so constituted that whenever a piece was
cut from it the flesh at once grew again, so that it was never consumed no
matter how much was carved. Thus, it aptly symbolizes "knowledge," for no matter how much of this we give to others, we always retain the original.
There is thus a certain obligation to pass on what we have of knowledge,
and "to whom much is given of him much will be required." If we hoard the
spiritual blessings we have received, evil is at our door, so let us imitate
the Earth at this Easter time. Let us bring forth in the physical world of
action the fruits of the spirit sown in our souls during the past wintry
season. So shall we be more abundantly blessed from year to year.
VI. The Symbol of the Egg
So when the corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
— I Cor. 15:54
The dark, dreary days of winter are past, Mother Nature takes the cold,
snowy coverlids off the Earth, and the millions and millions of seeds
sheltered in the soft soil burst its crust and clothe the Earth in summer
robes, a riot of gay and glorious colors, preparing the bridal bower for the
mating of beasts and birds.
At this time the mind of the civilized world is turned towards the feast
we call Easter, commemorating the death and resurrection of the individual
whose life story is written in the Gospels, the noble individual known to
the world by the name of Jesus. But a Christian mystic takes a deeper and
more far-reaching view of this annually recurring cosmic event. For his
there is an annual impregnation of the Earth with the Cosmic Christ Life, an
inbreathing which takes place during the fall months and culminates at the winter solstice when we celebrate Christmas, and an outbreathing which finds it completion at the time of Easter.
The cosmic drama of life and death is played annually among all evolving
creatures and things from the highest to the lowest, for even the great and
sublime Cosmic Christ in His compassion becomes subject to death by entering
the cramped conditions of our Earth for a part of the year. It may,
therefore, be appropriate to call to mind a few ideas concerning a death and
rebirth which we are sometimes prone to forget.
Among the cosmic symbols which have been handed down to us from antiquity
none is more common that the symbol of the egg. It is found in every
religion. We find it in the Elder Eddas of the Scandinavians, hoary with
age, with tell of the mundale egg cooled by the icy blast of Nievelheim,
but heated by the fiery breath of Muspelheim until the various worlds and
man had come into being. If we turn to the sunny south we find in the Vedas
of India the same story in the Kalahansa, the Swan in time and space,
which laid the egg that finally became the world, Among the Egyptians we find
the winged globe and the egg-bearing serpent, symbolizing the wisdom manifest
in this world of ours. Then the Greeks took this symbol and venerated it
in their Mysteries. It was preserved by the Druids; it was known to the
builders of the great serpent mound in Ohio; and it has kept its place in
sacred symbology even to this day, though the great majority are blind to the mysterium magnum which it hides and reveals — the mystery of life.
When we break open the shell of an egg, we find inside only some
varicolored viscous fluids of various consistencies. But placed in the
requisite temperature a series of changes soon take place, and within a
short time a living creature breaks open the shell and emerges therefrom,
ready to take its place among its kin. It is possible for the wizards
of the laboratory to duplicate the substances in the egg; they may be
enclosed in a shell, and a perfect replica so far as most tests go may be
made of the natural egg. But in one point it differs from the natural egg,
namely, that no living thing can be hatched from the artificial product.
Therefore, it is evident that a certain intangible something must be present
in one and absent in the other.
This mystery of the ages which produces the living creature is what we
call life. Seeing that it cannot be cognized among the elements of the egg
by even the most powerful microscope (though it must be there to bring about
the changes which we note), it must be able to exist independently of
matter. Thus, we are taught by the sacred symbol of the egg that though
life is able to mold matter, it does not depend upon it for its existence. It
is self-existent, and having no beginning it can have no end. This is
symbolized by the ovoid shape of the egg.
When we have the true knowledge conveyed by the egg symbol that life is
uncreate, without beginning and without end it enables us to take heart and
realize that those who are now being taken out of physical existence are
only passing through a cyclic journey similar to that of the Cosmic Christ
life which enters the Earth in the fall and leaves it at Easter. Thus we
see how the great law of analogy works in all phases and under all
circumstances of life. What happens in the great world to a Cosmic Christ
will show itself also in the lives of those who are Christs in the making.
We must realize that death is a cosmic necessity under the present
circumstances for if we were imprisoned in a body of the kind we now use,
and placed in an environment such as we find today, there to live forever,
the infirmities of the body and the unsatisfactory nature of the
environment would very soon make us so tired of life that we would cry for
release. It would block all progress and make it impossible for us to evolve
to greater heights such as we may evolve to by re-embodiment in new vehicles
and placement in new environments which give us new possibilities for growth.
Thus we may thank God that so long as birth into a concrete body is necessary
for our further development, release by death has been provided to free us
from the outgrown instrument, while resurrection and a new birth under the
smiling skies of a new environment furnish another chance to begin life with
a clean slate and learn the lessons which we failed to master before. By this
method we shall some time become perfect as is the risen Christ. He
commanded it, and He will aid us to achieve it.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up hs cross, and follow Me.
— Matt. 16:24
According to an ancient legend Adam took with him three cuttings from the
tree of life when he was forced to leave Paradise, and Seth, his son,
planted these three cuttings and they grew. One of them was later used to
make the staff of Aaron, wherewith he performed miracles before Pharaoh.
The other was taken to Solomon's temple, with the intention of making it
into a pillar, or fitting it in somewhere, but no place whatever could be
found for it; it would not fit, so it was used as a bridge across the book
which was outside the temple. The third of the cuttings was used for the
cross of Christ, and upon it He suffered for our sakes, and was finally
liberated, drawing into the Earth and becoming the planetary spirit of
our globe, in which he is now groaning and travailing until the day of
liberation.
There is a very great significance in this ancient legend. The first
cutting represents the spiritual power wielded by the Divine Hierarchs in
the days when mankind was in its infancy, wielded then for our benefit by
others. The second cutting was to be used in Solomon's temple. No one
could appreciate it except the Queen of Sheba, no place could be found for
it, for Solomon's temple is the consummation of the arts and crafts, and in a
material civilization nothing spiritual is appreciated. The sons of Cain are
working out their salvation along material lines, and therefore they have
no use for spiritual powers. So "It was used as a bridge across the brook."
There are always souls, the real, the true mystic masons, who have been able
to make use that bridge, which leads from the visible to the invisible, who
are able to return to the Garden of Eden, to Paradise, across that bridge.
It was the third cutting from the tree of life which formed the cross of
Christ. By climbing that cross, He gained liberation from this physical
existence, and entered into higher spheres. Likewise, we also, when we
take up our cross and follow Him shall develop our soul power and enter a
larger sphere of usefulness in the invisible world. May we all strive so
that day by day we shall be found kneeling, and overcome, clinging to the
cross of Christ, so that one day not far distant we shall climb our own
cross and from this attain the glorious liberation, the resurrection of life
of which the Christ was and is the first fruits for every believing soul.
This is the real, the true Easter message, and every one of us should realize
that we are Christs in the making, and that when the Christ is really and
truly born within, that Christ will show us the way to the cross where we
may attain and advance from the tree of knowledge, which brought death to
the tree of life in the vital body, which brings immortality.
VIII. What Became of the
Physical Body of Jesus?
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
— II Cor. 5:1
What became of the dense body of Jesus which was placed in the tomb, but
was not found Easter morning? And if the vital body of Jesus is preserved
to be used again by Christ, what does Jesus in the meantime do for a vital
body? Why would it not have been more practicable to have obtained a new
vital body for Christ at the second coming?
The foregoing questions were answered in Echoes of 1914, as follows:
Study of the scriptures will reveal the fact that it was the custom of
Christ to draw apart from His disciples, and they knew not whither He went,
or if they did, no mention has ever been made of it. But the reason was
that, being so glorious a Spirit, the vibrations were too high for even the
best and purest of physical vehicles, and it was therefore necessary to
leave it frequently for a period of complete rest so that the atoms might be
slowed down to their customary pitch. Therefore the Christ was wont to go
to the Essenes and leave the body in their care. They were experts and the
Christ knew nothing about handling such vehicles and He had received from
Jesus. Had not this rest and care been given, the dense body of Jesus would
have disintegrated long before the three years' ministry was ended, and
Golgotha would never have been reached.
When the time was ripe and the earthly ministry had been ended, the
Essenes ceased to interfere, then things took their natural course, and the
tremendous vibratory force imparted to the atoms scattered them to the four
winds, with the result that when the grave was opened a few days later no
trace of the body was found.
This is in perfect harmony with natural laws known to us by their
operation in the physical world. electric currents of low potential burn and
kill, while a voltage of many times the strength passes through the body
without harmful effect. Light, which has a tremendous vibratory rate, is
pleasant and beneficial to the body, but when focuses through a lens the
vibratory rate is lowered and then we have fire, which destroys. Likewise,
when Christ, the Great Sun Spirit, came into the dense body of Jesus, the
vibratory rate being lowered by the resistance of the dense matter, must
burn up the body as in cremation if not interfered with. The force was the
same, the results identical, save that as it was true, invisible fire which
burned up the body of Jesus, and not fire clothed inflame, as in ordinary
manifestation of fire, there were no ashes. In this connection it is well
remember that fire sleeps invisibly in everything; we do not see it in the
plant or the animal, nor in the stone, yet it is there, visible to the inner
vision and capable of manifesting at any time when it takes a garment of
flame from physical substances.
It is one of our illusions that the body which we inhabit is alive. As a
matter of fact it is nothing of the sort. At least there is such a very
small portion of this body which can really be said to be alive that our
statement is practically true. The larger portion is absolutely asleep if
not entirely dead. This is a fact well known to science, and something
which reason must teach us is so. That is because our spiritual power is so
weak that it cannot furnish this vehicle with life to a sufficient extent,
and in the measure that we fail thus to vitalize the body it seems like a
heavy clod of clay which we must laboriously drag along with us, until after a
few years it crystallizes to such an extent that is is impossible for us any
longer to keep up the vibratory action. Then we are forced to leave the body
and it is then said to die. A slow process of disintegration takes place
to restore the atoms to their original free state.
Contrast now the state of affairs when one of these same earth bodies is
taken possession of by a powerful spirit like that of the Christ. You will
find an analogy in the case of a man being resuscitated from drowning.
There the vital body has been extracted, and the vibratory action of the
physical atoms has ceased almost, if not altogether. Then when the vital
body is again caused to permeate the physical body, it begins to prod every
atom into action and vibration. This attempt to awaken the sleeping atoms
causes that intensely disagreeable pricking sensation which persons who have
been resuscitated from drowning describe, and this sensation does not cease
until the physical atoms have attained a rate of vibration one octave below
that of the vital body. Then they are insensate and nothing is felt save as
we ordinarily feel.
Take now the case of Christ entering the dense body of Jesus. There the
atoms were naturally moving at a speed much lower than the vibratory forces
of the Christ Spirit. Consequently, an acceleration had to take place, and
during the three years' ministry this marked acceleration of the vibration
of these atoms would have shattered the body had not the powerful will of
the Master, assisted by the skill of the Essenes, held it together. Had the
atoms been asleep at the time when the Christ left the body of Jesus, the
same as our atoms are asleep when we leave our bodies, a long process of
putrefaction would have been required to disintegrate the body, but they
were highly sensitized and alive and, therefore, it was impossible to keep
them in bondage when the Spirit had fled. In future ages when we learn to
keep our bodies alive we shall not change atoms, nor bodies so often, and
when we do it will not take so long as at present to complete the process of
putrefaction. The tomb was not hermetically sealed, and would not offer
obstruction to the passage of atoms.
Upon the death of the dense body of Jesus, the seed atoms were returned
to the original owner. During the three years' interval between the baptism
where he gave up his vehicles, and the crucifixion which brought the return
of the seed atoms, Jesus gathered a vehicle of ether as an Invisible Helper
gathers physical material whenever it is necessary to materialize all or
part of the body, but material not matched with the seed atom cannot be
permanently appropriated; it disintegrates as soon as the will power which
assembled it is withdrawn, and this was therefore only a makeshift. when the
seed atom of his vital body was returned, a new body was formed, and in that
vehicle Jesus has been functioning since, working with the churches. He has
never taken a dense body since, though perfectly able to do so. This is
presumably because his work is entirely unconnected with material things,
and differs diametrically from the work of Christian Rosenkreuz, which has
been with State, industrial, and political problems wherefore he needed a
physical body in which to appear before the public.
The reason why the vital body of Jesus is preserved for the second coming
of Christ, instead of providing a new vehicle, is given in "Faust," which is a
myth setting forth in pictorial terms great spiritual truths of inestimable
value to the seeking soul. Faust, by endeavoring to obtain spiritual power
before he has earned it attracts a spirit ready to pander to his desire-
-for a consideration — for unselfishness is a virtue singularly lacking
in such. When Lucifer turns to leave, he is dismayed to see a pentagram
before the door, its one point turning toward him. He asks Faust to remove
the symbol so that he may withdraw, and the latter inquires why not go
through the window or chimney? Lucifer then reluctantly admits that:
For ghosts and spirits 'tis a law,
That where we enter we must withdraw.
When, in the natural course of events the Spirit comes to birth, it
enters its dense body by way of the head, bringing with it the higher
vehicles. On leaving the body at night it leaves the same way, to reenter in
like manner the next morning. The Invisible Helper also withdraws and
reenters his body by way of the head. And at length when our life on Earth
has been lived, we soar out of the body for the last time by way of the
head, which is thus seen to be the natural gate of the body, and therefore
the pentagram with one point up is the symbol of white magic which works in harmony with the law of progression.
The black magician, who works against nature, subverts the life force and
turns it downward through the lower organs. The gate of the head is closed
to him, but he withdraws by way of the feet, the silver cord protruding through the lower organs. Therefore it was easy for Lucifer to enter the study of Faust, for the pentagram, turned with two horns toward him, represented thew symbol of black magic, but on trying to leave he finds the one point facing him, and cringes before the sign of white magic. He can only leave by the lower door because he entered that way, and thus he is caught when that is blocked.
Similarly Christ was free to choose His vehicle of entrance to the Earth
where He is now confined, but having once chosen the vehicle of Jesus, He is
bound to leave by the same way, and were that vehicle destroyed, Christ must
remain in the cramping surroundings till chaos dissolved the Earth. This
would be a great calamity, and therefore the vehicle He once used is most
zealously guarded by the Elder Brothers.
In the meantime Jesus has been the loser of all the soul-growth
accomplished during his thirty years on Earth prior to the baptism and
contained in the vehicle given Christ. This was, and is a great sacrifice
made for us, but like all good deeds it will rebound to a greater glory in
the future, because this vehicle so used and which is to be again used by
Christ when He comes to establish and perfect the Kingdom of God, will
be so spiritualized and glorified that when it is again restored to Jesus at
the time when Christ turns the Kingdom over to the Father, it will be the
most wonderful of all human vehicles, and though this has not been taught,
the writer believes that Jesus will be the highest fruitage of the Earth
Period on that account, and that Christian Rosenkreuz will come next. For
"greater love has no man than that he lay down his life," and giving not
only the dense body, but also the vital body, and for so long a time, is
surely the ultimate sacrifice.
The Resurrection
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another start in glory.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a natural body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And so it is written; the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Reference: The Mystical Interpretation of Easter, by Max Heindel (1865-1919)
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