Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra
(p. xi)
“Unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness.” – Ps. cxii, 4.
IN his Preface to the First Edition
of this book, Edward Maitland has dealt so fully and so ably with the subjects
of the source and method of these Illuminations, and the nature and import of
the revelation contained in them, that there is little, if anything, that can
with advantage be added under these heads; but there were some matters connected
with them the account of which he reserved for later publication, and these he
related (shortly) in The Story of the New Gospel of Interpretation,
which was published in 1893, (1)
and (fully) in his great and final work, The Life of Anna Kingsford, which was
published in 1896. (2) These two biographies are my
authority for the following additional information which cannot fail to interest
all who read this book. They also contain further of “the store of similar
treasures” (to these Illuminations) left by Anna Kingsford (including her
conversations with her Genius) to which reference is made in the
Preface to the First Edition. I have
not thought it advisable to alter the character of this book by incorporating
herein any new or additional matter, although of a nature entitling it to be
classed with these Illuminations. My object has been to leave it, so far as the
Illuminations are concerned, as Edward Maitland left it. Nothing, therefore, has
been added to, and nothing has been omitted from, the Illuminations as recorded
in the original edition of Clothed with the Sun.
In
The
Life of Anna Kingsford, Edward Maitland says that they had manufactured
for them expressly “a volume, large, handsome, of superfine paper, with lock and
key, and bearing on the cover a solid brass pentagram (3)
– symbol of man perfected” – for containing a record, which they had been
instructed to
(p. xii)
make, of “the Scriptures” which had been and were
then being imparted to them; and, he adds, “In this book Mary (1) was to write, in her boldest and
most picturesque hand, the chapters received by her. And I secretly indulged in
anticipations of the time when the book would form one of the most precious
possessions of the Church of the Future, as a relic of the
seeress
and scribe of the New Gospel of Interpretation, and one to look on which the
Faithful of the ages to come would make pilgrimage from afar, regarding it with
the veneration that now would be accorded to the originals of their own
Scriptures, written by the hands of the revelators
themselves. The writing was duly commenced, but was destined never to be
completed, the requisite health, strength, and leisure not being vouchsafed. And
it accordingly stopped short at its initial pages. And only when the record was
ultimately made in print was it possible to observe the directions given.” (2)
Regarding this “record,” the selection and order of the chapters containing the
lesser mysteries was left to their own judgment, but as to the order of the
chapters containing the greater mysteries they received the following
instructions: “Put all that relates to the Seventh Sphere at the end of the
book. Write the Apostles’ Creed the first in the book, putting all the past
tenses in the present. The Creed contains the spiritual history of the Sons of
God, and the mysteries of the kingdom of the Seven Spheres. Follow it with the
Lord’s Prayer. But before all put, on a single page, I AM.” (3) Although the special record
remained uncompleted, they were, nevertheless, except in the cases below
mentioned, careful to keep a written record (which they regarded as of priceless
value) of all the Illuminations they received, and no change, even of a word,
was ever made therein (4) and many of them were
by Edward Maitland committed to memory. (5)
Knowing the value of their Illuminations, which were “derived directly from
celestial sources, the hierarchy of the Church Invisible in the holy heavens,” (6) they were well aware of the
(p. xiii)
devices likely to be contrived by their
invisible foes – the astrals – to bring about the loss or destruction of their
written records: and – to show the great care they took of them – in the latter
part of 1878, when they were travelling from Paris to London, and when duplicate
copies of some only – and that a minority – of them had been made by Edward
Maitland, he carried the unduplicated copies in a wallet which he would not on
any account unstrap
from off his shoulder while en route: and this plan was continued
to be practised to the end, and “no loss was ever sustained.” (1) And this was not the only risk
they had to guard against, for in the following year they were warned: “The air
is filled with the haters of the mysteries. (...) Fire and Sword and War are
against you; you walk in the midst of commotion; and your life is in peril every
hour until the words be
completed.” (2) Later, Anna Kingsford, being
lucid, said that her Genius was present, and that he considered it advisable for
them to have in their keeping “a duplicate copy of the communications” received
by them. (3) Although, as stated, no loss of
any of their records was ever sustained, it must not be understood that none of
Anna Kingsford’s Illuminations were ever lost, for on several occasions, when
she was not well (and those who have read The Life of Anna Kingsford
will know what terrible and frequent sufferings she endured through ill-health),
she omitted to commit Illuminations received by her to writing, “so that some
were lost.” (4) And, on her death-bed,
she from time to time received “Illuminations which she described rapturously as
being most glorious, confirming and amplifying all that she had been taught, and
disclosing vista after vista of the divinest truth and beauty beyond,” but she was then too weak
to retain the particulars so as to tell Edward Maitland, or to write them down. (5)
Anna Kingsford passed away, in her
forty-second year, on the 22nd February 1888. Some seven months after her death,
Edward Maitland, being then in communication with her, asked whether she
approved of his intention to publish a book “containing all her Illuminations,”
when “an answer was given emphatically in the affirmative, with an instruction
to add
(p. xiv)
explanatory notes stating their source and
significance.” (1) The outcome of this communication
was the publication, in the next following year, of Clothed with the Sun, and
during the preparation of the notes and appendices, some of which dealt with
matters of the utmost profundity, Edward Maitland “was conscious of assistance
from Anna Kingsford, not verbally and audibly, but by means of enhancement of
perception and judgment.” (2)
The subjoined passage, from The Life of Anna Kingsford, relating
to its publication is of considerable interest. Edward Maitland says:
“The book of her Illuminations was all in type,
and the first sheet of the final revise had been sent to me, without my having
been able to find a title to please me; and in default of it the printer had
begun to set up a portion of the sub-title at the top of the left-hand page. I
was in despair. Titles had always been a strong point with me, and now I found
myself at a loss with the book I esteemed above all others. Meanwhile I felt
absolutely convinced that there was in the world a title to suit it, and one
only, yet I could not hit on it, and the printer was waiting! ‘I must have it!’
I exclaimed to myself. ‘Where and what is it?’ Another instant and it was
flashed upon me, and proved to be one of the most familiar of Bible phrases, and
so absolutely appropriate that I marvelled greatly at my failure to see it
before. It was ‘Clothed with the Sun,’ an Apocalyptic expression which we had
recognised as denoting the Soul under full illumination of the Spirit (3) and having full
perception of Divine Truth. Another instant and there were similarly flashed on
me full instructions for the binding and cover. The front was to have on it the
central part of the design which Mary had drawn for The Perfect Way, (4) the figure of the woman standing in the sun, and the back
cover to have a monogram of the initials of her mundane name, also invented and
drawn by herself. This was a butterfly feeding on a twig, so disposed as to make
the letters A. K. and representing occultly the soul
feeding on the tree of life, and the colour was to be that of the ‘blood-red ray
of the innermost sphere, where Wisdom and Love are One.’ So absolute and supreme
(p. xv)
was my satisfaction that I gave no thought to the
possible source of the suggestion, but only wondered at my failure to think of
it sooner.’” (1)
Three days later, Edward Maitland was
visited by a clairvoyant friend, a lady who knew nothing whatever of his book or
of his design to publish one. On taking her seat and becoming lucid, he says:
“she at once began to smile as at some
exquisitely pleasant circumstance, and then, before I had time to question her
as to the cause of her hilarity, she exclaimed: ‘This is most curious, to see
how you two think the same thing so exactly at the same moment that it is
impossible to say who thought it first. (...) I have to tell you that your
friend who calls herself Mary is here, and she bids me tell you that she sees
you are very much pleased with the title of your new book, and that you think it
is your own. But it is not. She gave it to you. She not only acquiesces in it,
she claims it.’” (2)
The arrangement observed in recording
the Illuminations contained in this book follows the directions, to which I have
referred, that were given to Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland when seeking
advice as to the order to be observed in the record they had been instructed to
make of the Scriptures imparted to them (3);
and “they were one and all received exactly as they are printed, without the
change of a single word.” (4)
Speaking of those wondrous chapters
in the second part of this book headed each by a letter of the Greek alphabet,
Anna Kingsford affirmed them to be “the
ipsissima verba of the Gods,” some of them being the original
rituals in the sacred mysteries of antiquity which were used in the composition
of the Bible. (5) Edward Maitland, also,
referring to these chapters, said that they were “the sources from which the
Bible-writers largely derived both their doctrine and their diction,” (6) and they both recognised in them
“the destined Scriptures of the future, so long promised and at length
vouchsafed in interpretation of the Scriptures of the past.” (7) They were chapters which no one having the smallest
perception of the Divine could read
(p. xvi)
“without at once
recognising both a doctrine and a diction which transcended mortal knowledge and
skill, and which evidently and avowedly proceed directly from the high heavens.” (1) And it is even so: “God has a few
of us whom he whispers in the ear,” and one of these – perhaps the foremost –
was for some time known as Anna Kingsford. (2) The day will come, and may not be far distant, when the
Church, no longer fallen, and ignorant of the source and signification of its
dogmas, but risen and rejoicing in the light of the spiritual consciousness,
will thank God for and bless the Divine Soul who, in days of impiety, unbelief,
and idolatry, came on a mission to restore to mankind the Divine Gnosis that had
been so long lost. What of this part (for it was part only) of her mission she
accomplished, (3) this book is a witness, and how
and under what conditions she accomplished it, Edward Maitland’s Preface to the First Edition and the
books subsequently written by him, to which I have referred, fully and
accurately relate. One thing is certain: wheresoever
the New Gospel of Interpretation shall be preached, throughout the whole world,
“that also which this woman (soul) hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial
of her” – for these Illuminations were given, not for the few only, but for the
many, yea, for the spiritual enlightenment and upliftment of the world. It is through souls such as Anna
Kingsford’s that “God stooping shews sufficient of His light for us
i’ the dark to rise by.” We read that, at the close of
his life, David – “the man who was raised on high (...) and the sweet psalmist
of
“The Spirit
of the Lord spake in me
And His
word was upon my tongue.” (4)
And thus it was with Anna Kingsford. (5)
Neither must Edward Maitland’s part
in this great work be overlooked, for it was his loving care, help, sympathy and
assistance, and his “restraining influence,” that enabled Anna Kingsford to
recover so much, and but for which she “would, never have shewn the life she
possessed interiorly,” she would
(p. xvii)
have become “dissipated in expansiveness” – so great
was her “expansive energy.” (1). And it is to him that we owe, not only the preservation of
Anna Kingsford’s Illuminations, but also that priceless record of their lives as
contained in his magnum opus, The Life of Anna Kingsford.
He passed away, at the end of his seventy-third year, on 2nd October 1897.
A few clerical errors in the previous
edition have been corrected, and I have added one or two footnotes which I trust
will be found helpful.
SAMUEL HOPGOOD HART.
CROYDON,
Christmas, 1937.
Footnotes
(xi:1) A third edition of this book (now
out of print) was published in 1905, under the title of The Story of Anna Kingsford and
Edward Maitland and of the New Gospel of Interpretation.
(xi:2)
A third and enlarged edition of The Life of Anna Kingsford was published in 1913, and all
references herein are to this last edition.
(xi:3) Probably a printer’s error for
“hexagram,” which is the symbol of man perfected.
(xii:1) “Mary” was the initiation name given
to Anna Kingsford by her Illuminators.
(xii:2) Life of Anna Kingsford,
vol. i, p. 314.
(xii:3 Ibid., Vol. i, p. 315.
(xii:4) Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward
Maitland, p. 163.
(xii:5) Life
of Anna Kingsford, vol. ii, p. 12.
(xii:6) Ibid.,
vol. ii, p. 16. Notwithstanding their derivation, be it noted, they were by Anna
Kingsford and Edward Maitland “judged entirely by their own intrinsic merits” (Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland,
p. 84).
(xiii:1) Life of Anna Kingsford,
vol. i, p. 295
(xiii:2) Ibid.,
vol. i, p. 318.
(xiii:3) Ibid.,
vol. i, p. 398.
(xiii:4) Ibid.,
vol. i, p. 361.
(xiii:5) Ibid.,
vol. ii, p. 360.
(xiv:1) Life
of Anna Kingsford, vol. ii, pp. 413-414.
(xiv:2) Ibid.,
Vol. ii. p. 419.
(xiv:3) See Preface to the First Edition.
(xiv:4) The
(xv:1) Life
of Anna Kingsford, vol. ii, p. 424.
(xv:2) Ibid.,
vol. ii, p. 425.
(xv:3) Ibid.,
vol. i, p. 314.
(xv:4) E.M. Letter in Light, 1894, p. 419.
(xv:5) E.M. Art. in
Light,
1893, p. 104.
(xv:6) Letter in Light, 1894, p. 419.
(xv:7) Life of Anna Kingsford,
vol. i, p. 284, See also p. 283.
(xvi:1) E.M. Letter in Light, 1896, p. 154.
(xvi:2) See Part I of Illumination “Concerning the Powers of the Air,” post.
(xvi:3) See Illumination “Concerning the Three Veils between Man and:
God,” post.
(xvi:4) 2 Sam. xxiii, 1-2.
(xvi:5) Note the reference, in the Life
of Anna Kingsford, vol. ii, pp. 172-173, to Esther and Mary Magdalen as “types” of the Woman who should come to bring to
the
(xvii:1) Life
of Anna Kingsford, vol. i, p. 351, and vol.
ii, p. 410.
Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra