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