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XVIII.
“Revelation of that Wicked One,” the
Controlling Spirit of Ecclesiasticism
THE two events, the revelation of “that wicked one,” the “man of sin,” “the son of perdition,” and “mystery of iniquity,” the inspiring evil genius of Ecclesiasticism, and the manifestation anew which is to constitute the second coming of the Christ – these two events are represented in the Bible as immediately approximate to, and dependent upon, each other. And in numerous passages it points unmistakably to the advent of a new gospel of interpretation as the agent of both events and to the restoration of the Intuition as the faculty through which this would be imparted. The following are among the allusions in question: –
In its esoteric sense the whole book of Esther is a prophecy of the Church’s deliverance from the power of Ecclesiasticism by means of the “Woman” Intuition, the name Esther being one with Easter, and denoting the dawn and rising of a star and fountain of spiritual light, in the shape of the revelation anew of the true interpretation, the intellect by which Esther as the intuition, is trained and sustained, being represented by Mordecai, who – in this aspect – is to her as Joseph is to Mary in the Gospels, the guardian of the soul.
The destruction of the image seen in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, by a stone cut out without hands from the mountain, implies the shattering of the world’s sacrificial civilisations, by the perfect doctrine to come of the
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restored intuition, the mountain being the “mount of regeneration” and “hill of the Lord,” to which the only access is by a pure intuition.
The announcement to Daniel that the words should be opened and the seals broken, of the revelation delivered to him, on the recognition of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, under the presidency of Michael, has the same import: namely, the restoration of the faculty of spiritual perception through the equilibration of the mind’s two factors, the intellect and the intuition, and the delivery of a new gospel of interpretation as the token and proof thereof. Moreover, both the period assigned and the conditions described as those of this event, correspond precisely with the present, and the announcement to Daniel is confirmed and reiterated by Jesus, and reinforced by yet another sign to the same import. This is the budding of the fig-tree, the fig having always, from the remotest times, been the emblem of the “Woman,” Intuition, as the faculty of interpretation. And it is for this reason that the fig-branch was assigned to Hermes – who also is Raphael – as the Angel of Understanding and “‘trainer of the Christs,” whose name signifies both Rock and Interpreter, in token that the Understanding is the rock of the true Church, and that Church alone is a true church which is founded thereon. Hence the cursing of the barren fig-tree by Jesus implies the total loss, which has actually occurred, of the intuition by the Church, and its consequent disastrous perversion of himself and his gospel. While the budding of the fig-tree implies the coming of the time when, through the restoration of the intuition and the advent of a new gospel of interpretation, men should once more sit under the vine of a pure spirit and the fig-tree of a true intuition, and “eat of the precious fruits of God.”
The prediction by Jesus of the time when “Many shall come from the east and the west and the north
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and the south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God,” points to the same event. For, in one aspect, these names are the Hebrew equivalents to denote the sacred mysteries of Brahma, Isis, and Iacchos, of India, Egypt and Greece and therein of the Spirit, the Soul and the Body, which mysteries together compose the Gnosis, or perfect system of doctrine of which the Christ and the “Kingdom of God” are the products. It is the comprehensiveness of this doctrine as shown by its power to appeal to and reconcile all types of mind and character, that is implied by the enumeration of the four cardinal points; these signifying, respectively, the intuitional, the traditional, the intellectual, and the emotional.
Read from the esoteric standpoint the narrative of the “Marriage in Cana of Galilee” contains a like intimation of a new gospel of interpretation to supplement and complement the old gospel of manifestation. “He is first revealed, for He is the Word; afterwards comes the hour of its interpretation. Jesus is the vine, Mary is the fig-tree. But until the hour of the Man is accomplished and fulfilled, the hour of the Woman must be deferred. Wherefore saith the Lord unto her, “Woman, what is there between me and thee? Even my hour is not yet come.” Hanging on the cross, He gives our Lady to the faithful. For as the Christ is the “son of the Woman,” Intuition, so is She “the Mother of the Christ.” And that John was thus specially charged to cultivate the intuition, and “from that hour took her to his own,” was that he might be qualified to be, himself, a manifestor and interpreter of the Christ to others whether in that or in some future age. Hence the significance of the saying, “What if I will that he tarry till I come?” It was John’s rich endowment with this faculty that qualified him to be the mouthpiece of Jesus after his “Ascension.” And the new interpretation now vouchsafed is redolent of the spirit which obtained for
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him the epithets of the “Beloved” and the “Divine.” The expression “to tarry” does not necessarily imply in the flesh, but means within reach of the earth-plane in such wise as to be available as the agent of future revelations. And Daniel, also a “man greatly beloved,” received the like intimation.
And, as has already been pointed out, it is no other than a new gospel of interpretation that is implied in the description of Christ’s second coming. That such coming would be spiritual and not personal is expressly declared in the warning against paying heed to those who say “Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there.” Similarly in the declaration that “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” The meaning of which is that the truth of which the Christ is the personal demonstration shall be so vividly flashed upon the world as to secure far and wide instantaneous recognition.
And it is no other than the potency of the doctrine, and the luminousness of its exposition that are implied by the “Spirit of His mouth” and the “brightness of His coming” whereby “that wicked one” and “mystery of iniquity,” the spirit of Ecclesiasticism and its fell brood are to be consumed and destroyed.
In the near anticipation of this desirable consummation and in view of the means of its accomplishment, the New Interpretation thus expresses itself: –
Evoi Iacchos: (1) for the day cometh wherein thy sons shall eat of the fruit of the fig: yea, the vine shall yield new grapes; and the fig-tree shall be no more barren.
For the interpretation of hidden things is at hand; and men shall eat of the precious fruits of God.
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They shall eat manna from heaven; and shall drink of the river of Salem.
The Lord maketh all things new: He taketh away the Letter to establish the Spirit.
Then spakest thou with veiled face, in parable and dark saying: for the time of figs was not yet.
And they who came unto the tree of life sought fruit thereon and found it not.
And from that day forth, because of the curse of Eve, no man has eaten fruit of the fig-tree.
For the inward understanding has withered away, there is no discernment any more in men. They have crucified the Lord because of their ignorance; not knowing what they did.
But now is the Gospel of Interpretation come, and the kingdom of the Mother of God. (1)
NOTES
(71:1) The mystic Bacchus or Divine Spirit of the planet, called in the Bible – as rightly translated – “the mighty god Jacob”, the history of Jacob being, in one aspect, an allegory of the evolution of the spiritual principle in man, individual or collective.
(72:1) Clothed with the Sun, I, xi, and II, xiii (2).