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(p.
lxxxix)
ABSTRACT OF
ARGUMENT AND
CONTENTS
_________________________________
Preface to the
Fifth Edition
(i-lxvii)
Preface
to the Second (Revised) Edition
(lxix-lxxx)
Preface
to the First Edition
(lxxxi-lxxxviii)
LECTURE THE FIRST
PART 1. Purpose of this book; to supply the existing need
of a perfect system of thought and life by one founded in the nature of
existence. This not a new invention, but a recovery of the
original system which was the basis of all religions. Its recovery due to
the same means by which it was originally received, namely, the Intuition, which
represents the knowledges acquired by the Soul in its past existences, and
complements the intellect, being itself quickened and enhanced
(p.
xc)
by
illumination of the Spirit. Revelation a proper prerogative of
man, belonging to him in virtue of his nature and constitution, and crowning the
reason. God the supreme Reason. The
Understanding, the “Rock” of the true Church. Illustrations of
Method, classic and rabbinical. Sketch of Doctrine.
Spirit and Matter: their nature, relations, and essential identity. Existence and Being. The Kalpa,
Sabbath, and Nirvana, Divinity of Substance: its unity and trinity, and mode of
individuation and development. The true doctrine of creation by evolution; found
in all religions, as also that of the progression and migration of Souls;
personal and historical testimony to its truth; recognised
in Old and New Testaments. Rudimentary man. The Sphinx. (1-25)
PART II. Relation of the system recovered to that in
possession. The true heir. Religion, being founded in
the nature of existence, is necessarily non-historical, independent of times,
places, and persons, and appeals perpetually to the mind and conscience.
Objections anticipated. Persistency of religious ideas due to
their reality. The apparently new not necessarily
really new. Christianity not exempt from the influences which caused
(p.
xci)
the
deterioration of Judaism. Its future development by means of
new revelation foretold by its Founder. Need of such new revelation to
preserve, not only religion, but humanity from extinction. The
“man of sin” and “abomination that maketh
desolate.” Substitution of Gospel of Force for Gospel
of Love. One name whereby is salvation, but many bearers. The Christs. (25-37)
LECTURE THE SECOND
THE
SOUL; AND THE SUBSTANCE OF EXISTENCE
PART I. The Soul, universal or individual, the supreme subject and object
of culture; the essential self, to know which is the only
wisdom, involving the knowledge of God. Mysticism or
Spiritualism, and Materialism, the doctrines respectively of Substance or
Spirit, and of phenomenon. Matter a mode or condition of Spirit, and
indispensable to its manifestation. The object of all religion
and subject of all revelation the redemption of Spirit from Matter.
Necessity to creation of the idea of a No-God. The
ascent from Nature’s Seeming to God’s Being.
The recovered system and Materialism respectively as Phoebus and Python.
(38-44)
(p.
xcii)
PART II. The Soul as individual, its genesis and nature: the
divine idea, eternal in its nature, but perishable if uninformed of the Spirit.
The “Fire of the hearth:” the Divine breath. Convergence and divergence: the
celestial Nirvana, and that of annihilation. The end of the persistently evil. The
planet and its offspring. The fourfold nature of
existence, alike in macrocosm and microcosm, due to
differentialities
of polarisation of original substance. (44-50)
PART III. The Soul as individual, its history and progress:
commencing in the simplest organisms, it works upwards,
moulding
itself according to the tendencies encouraged by it; its final object to escape
the need of a body and return to the condition of pure Spirit. Souls various in quality. The parable of
the Talents. (50-52)
PART IV. Of the nature of God; as Living
Substance, One; as Life and Substance, Twain; the Potentiality of all things;
the absolute Good, through the limitation of whom by Matter comes evil. Subsists prior to creation as Invisible Light. As Life, God
is
He; as Substance, She; respectively the Spirit and Soul universal and individual; the Soul
the
(p.
xciii)
feminine
element in man, having its representative in woman. God the
original, abstract Humanity. The seven Spirits of God. “Nature.” The heavenly Maria, her
characteristics and symbols. As Soul or Intuition, she is the “woman” by
whom man attains his true manhood. The defect of the age in
this respect. No intuition, no organon
of knowledge. The Soul alone such organon.
(52-58)
PART V.
Divine Names, denotative of characteristics. Function of religion to enable man
to manifest the divine Spirit within him. Man as an expression of God. The Christs, why called Sungods. The Zodiacal planisphere a Bible or
hieroglyph of the Soul’s history. Bibles, by whom
written. The “Gift of God”.
(58-63)
LECTURE THE THIRD
THE VARIOUS ORDERS OF SPIRITS;
PART I.
The sphere of the astral, its four circuli
and their respective occupants. The Shades; purgatory; “hell”; “devils”;
“the Devil”; possession by devils; “souls in prison”;
(p.
xciv)
“under the elements”; spirits of the elements, subject to the
human will; souls of the dead; the anima bruta
and
anima
divina. Metempsychosis and
reincarnation; conditions of the latter; descent to lower grades; cause of the
Soul’s loss. (64-75)
PART II. The astral or magnetic spirits by which,
ordinarily, “mediums” are “controlled”; reflects rather than spirits; difficulty
of distinguishing them from Souls; elements of error and deception; delusive
character of astral influences; their characteristics; danger of a negative
attitude of mind; necessity of a positive attitude for Divine communication;
spirits elemental and elementary; genii loci; cherubim.
(76-85)
PART III. The sphere of the celestial; the
procession of Spirit; the triangle of life; the Genius or guardian angel, his
genesis, nature, and functions; the Gods, or Archangels. (85-93)
LECTURE THE FOURTH
PART I.
This the central doctrine of religion, and, like the
Cosmos, fourfold in its nature.
(p.
xcv)
What the doctrine
is not; its corruption by materialism; priestly degradation of the character of
Deity. The Bible represents the conflict between prophet and priest, the former
as the minister of the intuition, and the latter as the minister of sense.
(94-99)
PART II. The occult side of the
sacrificial system. Effusion of blood efficacious in
the evocation of sub-human spirits, as shown by various examples. These spirits visible in the fume of the sacrifices. Astral
spirits personate the celestials. Abhorrence of the true
prophet for bloodshed, illustrated in Buddha’s rebuke to the priests.
The orthodox doctrine of vicarious atonement, a travesty due
to astral spirits, of the true doctrine. Pernicious effects of the use of
blood (or flesh) for food; impossibility, on such diet, of attaining full
perception of divine truth. (99-105)
PART III. Antiquity and universality of the
Cross as the symbol of Life physical and spiritual. Its application to
the doctrine of the Atonement fourfold, having a separate meaning for each
sphere of man’s nature. Of these meanings the first is of the physical and
outer, denoting the crucifixion or rejection of the Man of God by the world. The
(p.
xcvi)
second is
intellectual, and denotes the crucifixion or conquest by man of his lower
nature. The third, which refers to the Soul, implies the passion and oblation of
himself, whereby the man regenerate obtains the power – by the demonstration of
the supremacy of spirit over Matter – to become a Redeemer to others. The fourth
appertains to the Celestial and innermost, and denotes the perpetual sacrifice
of God’s Life and Substance for the creation and salvation of His creatures.
The pantheistic nature of the true doctrine. (105-117)
LECTURE THE FIFTH
THE NATURE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE EGO
PART I.
Psyche as the Soul and true Ego the result of Evolution, being individualised through Matter. (118-123)
PART II. Man’s two personalities. Karma
or the results of past conduct and consequent destiny. The soul essentially immaculate. (123-124)
PART III. The Ego more than the sum total of the
consciousnesses composing the system, as representing these combined and polarised to a higher plane. The Psyche
alone subjective and capable of knowledge. (125-135)
(p.
xcvii)
PART IV. The Shade, the Ghost, and the
Soul; their respective natures and
destinies. (135-139)
PART V. The Anima
Mundi, or Picture-World. The soul of the planet, like that of the
individual, transmigrates and passes on. (139-141)
PART VI. The Evolution of the Ego, and therein of the
LECTURE THE SIXTH
PART I.
The first Church; its type the Kaabeh, or cube,
denoting sixfoldness; dates from “
PART II. The parable of the Fall:
its signification fourfold, being one for each sphere of existence; the first,
physical and social. (154-161)
PART III. The second signification rational
and philosophical; the third, psychical and personal. (161-166)
(p.
xcviii)
PART IV. The fourth signification
spiritual and kosmical. The Restoration implied
in the Sabbath, and prophesied in the Zodiac, and in the arms of Pope Leo XIII.
(166-171)
PART V. A new Annunciation.
(172-175)
LECTURE THE SEVENTH
PART I.
Interpretation of Scripture dual, intellectual and intuitional, or exterior and
interior; the Soul as the woman, through whose aspiration to God man becomes Man
in the mystic sense, and made in the image of God; and through whose inclination
to Matter he falls from that image. As the fall is through loss of purity, so
the Redemption is through restoration of purity. (176-187)
PART II. The Soul’s history as
allegorised
in the books of Genesis and Revelation. (187-194)
PART III. Source of errors of Biblical
interpretation. The historical basis of the Fall.
The Church as the Woman. Rise and
Fall
of original Church. A primitive mystic community. The source of doctrine, interior and superior to priesthoods.
(194-204)
(p.
xcix)
PART IV. Nature and method of historical
Fall. The three steps by retracing which the Restoration will come. Tokens of its approach. (204-209)
LECTURE THE EIGHTH
PART I.
The “great work” the Redemption of Spirit from Matter: first in the individual,
next in the universal. Definition of mystic terms used to denote the process:
“Passion,” “Crucifixion,” “Death,” “Burial,” “Resurrection,” “Ascension”.
(210-217)
PART II. The Man perfected and having power: the
“philosopher’s stone,” and kindred terms; the Adept and the Christ; sense in
which the latter may be called a medium for the Highest; not as ordinarily
understood: the Hierarch or Magian, his qualifications
and conditions. (217-224)
PART
III: Design of the Gospels to present perfect character of Man Regenerate;
selection of Jesus as subject; Church’s failure of comprehension through loss of
spiritual vision, due to Materialism. Answer to objection.
(p.
c)
Jesus as
Liberator necessarily spiritual; Paul’s view. Method of Gospel symbolism; the miracles; kosmic
order of Gospels. (225-232)
PART IV. Parentage of the Man Regenerate.
Joseph and V. Mary as representatives of Mind and Soul.
The two Josephs. Catholic tradition
and hagiology. Mary Magdalen
as type of Soul; also
PART V. The Twelve Gates of the Heavenly Salem; the
Tabernacle; the Round Table and its “bright Lord;” the Number of Perfection; the
genealogy of the Man Regenerate; “Christ” no incarnate God or angel, but the
highest human. The world’s present condition due to sacerdotal
degradation of truth.
Christian gospels represent later stages only of regeneration, the earlier ones
having been exemplified in the systems of Pythagoras and Buddha. Christianity
framed with direct reference to these, not to supersede but to complete them;
Buddha
(p.
ci)
and Jesus
being necessary to each other, as head and heart of same system. Of these
combined will be produced the Religion and Humanity of the future; hence the
import of the connection between
LECTURE THE NINTH
GOD
AS THE LORD; OR, THE DIVINE IMAGE
PART I.
The two modes of Deity; God as the Lord, in the Bible, the Kabbala, and the Bhagavad Gita. Swedenborg and his
doctrine: his limitations and their cause. The Hermetic
doctrine. The “Mount of the Lord.” True meanings of “Mystery”; sacerdotal degradation of the term, and
its evil results. (258-264)
PART II. Function of the Understanding in regard to things
spiritual. Its place in the systems human and divine.
The “Spirit of Understanding,” his various names and
(p.
cii)
symbols, and
relation to the Christ. Cognate myths in illustration.
Hermes as regarded by the Neoplatonists and by modern
Materialists. Mystic and Materialist, the feud between them.
The
PART III. Charges whereby it is sought to discredit the
system of the Mystics; Plagiarism and Enthusiasm: the signification and value of
the latter. Ecstasy: its nature and function. Mystics and
Materialists, their respective standpoints. Conspiracy of modern science against the Soul. Materialists,
ancient and modern, contrasted. (282-291)
PART IV. Man’s perception of God sensible as well as mental.
The Divine Unity, Duality, Trinity, and Plurality.
The Logos, or Manifestor. The mystery of the human Face. (291-295)
PART V. The Vision of Adonai. (296-299)
(p.
ciii)
PART VI. “Christ” as the culmination of Humanity and point
of junction with Deity. The Credo of the Elect. (299-302)
__________________
I. The Constitution
of Existence: Its Nature and Unity (Being Lecture V, of the First Edition)
(305-327)
II. Paragraphs 27
to 41 of Lecture VIII, of the Second Edition (328-340)
III. “The
INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND PRINCIPAL WORDS (365-405)
__________________
(p.
cv)
__________________
Portrait
of Anna Kingsford, aet. 40 (Frontispiece)
Portrait
of Edward Maitland, aet. 68 (Frontispiece)
LECTURES
Fig. 1. The
Cherubim of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse
(147)
Fig. 2. The Tabernacle in the Wilderness (246)
APPENDICES
Fig. 3.
Schematic Section of the Typical Organic Cell
(311)
Fig. 4.
Schematic Section of the Typical Wandering Cell
(317)
Fig. 5.
Break-up of Fixed Cell
(317)
Fig. 9.
Section of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh
(335)
Fig. 10. The Marriage of the Hierophant
(338)
(p.
cvii)
“And the Lord God said unto the serpent . . .
I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt
lie in wait for her heel.” – Gen.
iii. 14, 15.
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and
on her head a crown of twelve stars.” – Apoc. xii. 1.
Sections: General Index Present
Section: Index Work Index
Previous: Preface to the First Edition
Next: Lecture 1st – Introductory