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NOTE A, pages 30, 34, 134, 173, 174
THE long-standing controversy respecting
the meaning of Nirvâna has been resolved for us in
favour of both the interpretations assigned to it. This is to say that,
while it means extinction, the extinction
implied is of two different kinds. Of these, one, called the celestial
Nirvâna, denotes the perfectionment and perpetuation of the essential
selfhood of the individual, accompanied by the extinction of the external and
phenomenal selfhood. Thus indrawn to his centre, the individual ceases to ex-ist, but
does not cease to be. In other words, he is,
but is not manifest, the term existence, as opposed to being, implying the
standing-forth, or objectivisation, of that which is,
subjectively. The condition implies the return from matter to substance or
spirit.
The “Nirvâna
of the Amen,” on the contrary, denotes the extinction, not only of the
externality of the individual, but of the individual himself; this occurring
through the persistent indulgence of a perverse will to the outer and lower,
such as to induce a complete deprivation of the inner and higher constituents of
man, and so to divest his system of its binding principle as to render not only
possible, but inevitable, complete dissolution and disintegration, to the total
extinction of the individuality concerned. There is no loss of substance or
spirit.
The term Amen in this relation
signifies consummation or finality.
NOTE B, page 134
Like the so-called “damnatory”
clauses of the “Athanasian Creed,” this declaration is
simply a solemn recognition, first, of the doctrine that salvation is neither
arbitrary nor compulsory, but conditional and optional, the alternative to it
being extinction; and, next, of the Credo as a summary of the conditions of
salvation. These, it is true, are expressed in terms which, in being symbolical,
do not bear their meaning upon the face of them; but none the less are the
conditions themselves so simple and obvious as to be recognisable as self-evident and necessarily true. That is
to say, they represent the steps of a process necessary to be enacted in the
soul, and founded in the nature of the soul itself; so that, when understood,
the belief in them makes no greater strain upon the faculties
than does the belief in any self-evident proposition
whatever. Rather would the difficulty be to disbelieve them.
Wherefore – to state the case in
other words – the declaration of the soul’s extinction through non-compliance
with the conditions herein affirmed to be indispensable to its perpetuation,
made by the initiate in the terms of the Credo, is the exact parallel and
counterpart of the declaration of the body’s extinction through non-compliance
with the conditions indispensable to its continuance, made by the physiologist
in the terms of his craft. The language is in each case technical, but the
truths it conceals (from the non-initiate) are incontestable; and so far from
their being disbelieved by those who do not understand them, they are invariably
acted upon by all – who are of sound mind – to the best of their ability,
despite their failure to understand them. For, alike for soul and body, there is
that within man which does believe, and which accordingly does comply with the
conditions requisite for his welfare, quite independently of his knowledge of
processes and terms spiritual or physiological, and which needs but fair play,
and not to be thwarted by his own perverse will, to accomplish his salvation.
Wherefore the declaration in question
is no menace, but rather is it a promise, – a promise that when the time comes
to understand the process whereby salvation is accomplished, the very fact that
it is understood is a token that salvation is accomplished; for once understood,
it can no more be disbelieved than gravitation or any other certainty of the
physical world.
Now, to have this understanding is to
be “initiated.”
NOTE C, page 137
On the conclusion of this
instruction, the better to enable the seeress to
comprehend the description given in verses 9 and
Similarly, figs. C and D show the
physiologic unit or cell – the type of every kosmical
entity – the former in its fully developed and healthy state, wherein the
protoplasmic contents are pure, and the nucleus and nucleolus (which correspond
to the soul and spirit) fully developed, and the magnetic poles convergent; and
the latter in a rudimentary and disorderly condition, with the nucleolus or
spirit as yet unpolarised. The four spheres correspond
respectively to the physical, the astral, the psychic, and the spiritual; or
body, mind, soul, and spirit.
(p. 189)
NOTE D, page 144
This must be taken as a poetic rather than as a scientific expression.
NOTE E, page 147
These Hymns of the Gods were, like
all else in the text, received under illumination, occurring chiefly in sleep,
over a number of years commencing in 1878. They constitute a synthesis of the
Sacred Mysteries of the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Hebrews, and the Christians,
– the last three of which were derived from the first, and are substantially
identical with it and with each other; and they are expressed in terms derived
indifferently from them all.
That they represent, at least in a
great measure, a recovery of rituals and formulæ, oral
or written, which were actually used in the ancient Mysteries, and of which the
writers of the Bible largely availed themselves, was as not only positively
declared to us, but was indicated by the circumstances under which a
considerable portion of them were obtained. For example, No.
XIII, the hymn to Iacchos, the planet-god, was chiefly
obtained in dreams, wherein the seeress found
re-enacting what she felt, and was positively assured, had been in one of her
own former existences, when she had chanted it in chorus as one of a body of
priests and
priestesses making solemn
procession through the vast aisles of an Egyptian temple.
Concerning the
purpose of this.
restoration and certain other particulars in relation
to the Gods, see the preface and the note on page 122.
NOTE F, page 150
As is well known to students of
occult science, the name of Hermes has from prehistoric times been for the
Western World the synonym at once for profound problems and for interpretative
insight, his claim to have possessed “the three parts of the knowledge of the
whole kosmos” – science, philosophy, and religion –
having always been recognised. Whether the name
originally denoted some actual man from whom, for his eminence in knowledge, it
was transferred to the divinity, or whether it originally denoted the divinity,
and was assigned to some man supposedly or really inspired by him, there is no
historical evidence to determine. It is sufficient to know, as an indubitable
historical fact, that some of the profoundest of the sages of old claimed Hermes
the divinity as the source of their knowledge, and that the manner of its
reception corresponded in all respects with that under which the illuminations
in this book were received. It was as the divine principle itself of
understanding that he was recognised
by the Hermetists in the saying –
“Est
in Mercurio quicquid quærunt sapientes”
[“All is in Hermes that the wise
seek”];
and by the authors of that wondrous compendium of
Hebrew transcendentalism, the Kabala, when they declared that “all the mysteries
are in Chockmah,” – the Nous of the Greeks; as also by the famous Neoplatonist, Proklos, when he
thus wrote: –
“Hermes, as the messenger of God,
reveals to us His paternal Will, and – developing in us the intuition – imparts
to us knowledge. The knowledge which descends into the soul from
above, excels any that can be attained by the mere exercise of the
intellect. Intuition is the operation of the soul. The knowledge received
through it from above, descending into the soul, fills it with the perception of
the interior causes of things. The Gods announce it by their presence, and by
illumination, and enable us to discern the universal order.”
For “in the Celestial, all things are
Persons “; and it is as Persons that the divine Principles manifest themselves
in and to the soul, being seen and heard of it, when duly receptive and
percipient. That the forms under which they manifested themselves to Anna
Kingsford were those of
Now of all those who have been
enlightened by Hermes, the doctrine is identical, and it is the basic doctrine
of all sacred scriptures.
The name Hermes, which is Greek,
signifies both rock and interpreter, – that which stands under and that
which understands. And
(as stated in The
Perfect Way, i, 20) it was to Hermes as the
inspirer and prompter of the confession of Simon, and not to the man, that Jesus
addressed the apostrophe, “Thou [the Understanding] art the Peter, or rock, upon
which I build my church.” Called Peter as the utterer of the confession, Simon has always been claimed as
himself the rock of the church. He has also been assigned the office – likewise
that of Hermes – of guardian of the mysteries. But he has yet to justify his
claim to be the fulfiller of that other function of Hermes, that of being their
interpreter. Hitherto, as represented by the church which claims him as its
especial patron, he has manifested himself only in his New Testament
rôle – rebuked by Jesus – of the cutter off, not of
the opener, of ears.
NOTE G, page 150
As the Spirit of Understanding it is
the function of Hermes to recognise and indicate
limits and distinctions between things that differ, in whatever department of
existence, so that there be no confusion or intrusion.
Hence, on the physical plane, he was accounted the guardian of boundaries and
landmarks. But though thus discerning and marking limitations, he was not the
author of them. That was the function of the angel of the outermost sphere, the
“last of the Gods,” Saturn or Satan, as explained in
NOTE H, page 150
Argus, the monster with a hundred
eyes, represents the “power of the stars” over the soul, – the power, that is,
of Karma, or the destiny acquired by the soul through its defects of conduct
during the unregenerate stages of its existence. As it is for want of
understanding, of its own nature and that of existence, that the soul comes thus
under bondage, it falls to Hermes, as the angel of the understanding, to rescue
the soul by imparting to it the instruction requisite for its perfectionment.
Thus emancipated by Hermes from the trammels of fate, the soul rises superior to
all limitations, and, becoming as a “woman clothed with the sun,” wears as
jewels in her crown the stars over which she has triumphed, each of which thus
denotes a spiritual grace or gift acquired in the conflict with materiality. And
so, for her, Hermes is said to have slain Argus. For further information on this
subject see The Perfect Way, vii, 27,
and ix, 13-17. And for the importance attached by the Bible to the office of
Hermes, see the numerous passages cited in the concordance under the various
forms of the word understand.
NOTE I, page 151
Serpents when used to denote wisdom
are the “seraphs” or rays of the (spiritual) sun, i.e. they are divine
emanations. The “serpent of the dust,” or of the astral and lower nature, is the
obverse of the seraph, and represents cunning rather than wisdom, as shown in
its stealthy and sinuous mode of progression.
NOTE J, page 151
Atlas implies Discretion. He was one
of the Titans, or mundane, spirits, and “brother” of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoitios, or
Precaution, Reflection, and Deliberation bred of, and exercised in, ignorance
and distrust of God. In this aspect he is a type of the discretion taught by
experience of the crushing weight of the world on those who are devoid of that
quality especially as shown by their inability to restrain speech.
NOTE K, page 153
The occasion made use of to give us
this “exhortation” was one of peculiar interest. The late Laurence Oliphant was
at that time the English representative and agent of
A second visit from Oliphant served
in no way to reconcile us to
(p. 192)
his views, but rather the contrary. And early on
the following morning, Mrs. Kingsford received the “exhortation” in question, in
response, apparently, to an earnest request of mine, made without her
cognisance, for some definite instruction which might be serviceable to
our visitor as well as to ourselves. This hope as regarded him proved vain; as
after the receipt of a copy of it he made no response, nor ever again approached
us. The chief points in respect of which it condemns the doctrine propounded by
our visitor are: –
(1) Its rejection of mental training
and intellectual knowledge – in short, of the Understanding – in favour of extraneous influences and phenomenal experiences,
as the source and criterion of truth.
(2) Its exaltation of an earthly
personage as spiritual king and master.
(3) Its failure to recognise a diet of flesh as incompatible with the highest
aspirations; and,
(4) Its fanciful sex-relations and
doctrine of “counterparts,” which last, we were subsequently instructed, is a
travesty, due to delusive spirits, of the mystical process in the soul called
the “marriage of regeneration”; – the errors in question being those whereby
neophytes are peculiarly liable to be ensnared.
It is due to Oliphant to state that
he afterwards seceded from Harris, and modified his teaching. But the change was
not radical, and an examination of his later views failed to diminish in the
least the interval between us.
This occasion was the first on which
Hermes expressly avowed himself, though not the first on which he assumed the
guidance over us and our work, while leaving us to identify him for ourselves.
Two of Mrs. Kingsford’s earliest experiences in this respect are related in
Dreams and Dream-Stories, Nos. II and IX, in the former of which he
directed us to combine our faculties for the prosecution of the interpretative
work to which I had already been long devoted; and in the latter of which he
prescribed rigid abstinence, especially from flesh and cooked food, as an
essential condition for the full perception of things spiritual. On the former
occasion he presented himself in the double aspect of a letter-carrier and of
John the Baptist; the first in his official capacity as the “Messenger of the
Gods,” and the last in intimation of the necessity of our application of the
principle represented by the Baptist – that of purification in body and mind –
for the true discernment of the Christ-idea. But it was only by degrees and
after a considerable period that the full significance of the instruction
disclosed itself to us, so far in advance was it of what we then knew.
His claim to the power of conferring
the divine life was, in itself, a demonstration of his own divinity. No mere
human soul, nor spirit of a grade below the divine, could, or would presume to,
assert such a claim.
The true “bi-unity” of the mystic
man, referred to in verse 25, consists in the equilibration of the mind and soul
as shown by the equal use of the mind’s two modes, the intellect and the
intuition, which are, respectively, its masculine and feminine modes.
NOTE L, pages 153, 164
Although Dionysos
and Aphrodite are mystically the third and fourth of the Gods, they are
actually
the fourth and third, this being their relative position by the order of their
planets, and of their corresponding rays in the spectrum. For Venus, which holds
in the solar system the place of the yellow in the prism, and is the brightest
both of the planets and of the rays, comes next outside that of Hermes, whose
ray is the orange, and whose planet is Mercury; and the planet of
Dionysos or Iacchos – the
Earth, – whose ray is the green, comes next outside Venus. And such is their
position in the Greek and Hebrew theogonies
(for the latter of which see Isa. xi, 2, 3, the
1. As the Spirit of Love or Counsel,
Aphrodite is the enlightener of the spiritual eyes and revealer of heaven to
earth. She is also the centripetal force whereby man is drawn inwards to God.
Wherefore the earth must have being, and the centrifugal force must have
fulfilled its part in the work of creation, before she can exercise her function
in the work of redemption.
2. As the Spirit of Power, and
representative of the centrifugal force whereby the Divine substance is
projected into the condition of matter, and the earth created, Dionysos must exercise his function before the centripetal
force, which is Love, can manifest itself.
3. As representative of the soul,
which, though first in being and in dignity, is the last to find recognition,
Aphrodite remains unperceived until polarised by means
of the bodily elements, So that, although Love really subsists prior to any
exercise of force, inasmuch as she is the source of the desire which puts force
– whatever its kind, physical or mental – in action, she is veiled and hidden
until the mind recognises the need of her and acquires
the power to discern her. For which reason also her “day” or
manifestation succeeds that of Dionysos.
NOTE M, page 154
The meaning of this and the less
obvious of the foregoing symbols is as follows: –
V. 2. “Twice-born” denotes
regeneration. The first birth is that of the exterior or bodily man; the second
is that of the interior or spiritual man. This latter is produced in and of the
former, and is thus “Son of man”; but whereas its true parents are the soul and
the Divine Spirit, and the soul when pure is mystically termed water and “Virgin
Maria,” the interior or spiritual man is said to be born of water and the
Spirit, or Virgin Maria and the Holy
Ghost, and is at once Son of man and of God. See
“Definitions,”
Regeneration.
Iacchos, in being the mystic Bacchos, denotes the planetary Spirit after its passage
through this process in and by means of the human soul; the way of perfection
being one for both macrocosm and microcosm.
––– “Beneath the
earth,” a phrase equivalent to the “caves of Iacchos” (Part 2, No. XIV (3)), and implying the mysteries of the
body.
V. 3. “The horns of
the ram,” a symbol of force, especially of intellectual force.
––– “Who ridest upon an ass,” a symbol at once of humility and
patient endurance. This animal is marked on the back with a cross.
V. 4. The “Daughter of the King” is
the soul, whether in the individual or in the universal, so-called because
proceeding from the higher mind, or Nous, mystically
styled the King, The planet-god is herein recognised
as proceeding from and constituted of the universal life and substance.
NOTE N, page 156
See note on p. 122.
NOTE O, page 144, 156
The full perfectionment, while yet in
the body, of the process denoted by the term Christ, involves the redemption of
the body from its material limitations, through the reversion of its
constituents from the condition of matter to that of spirit. This is called
transmutation, and also resurrection. See Part 2, No. IX; also
“Definitions,”
Resurrection.
NOTE P, page 162
Poseidon is styled “Father of souls,”
in virtue of his representing the masculine energy of the sea, which is the
symbol of the substance, or “Mother,” of souls. It is for this reason that he is
chosen as emblem of the third gospel, that of Luke,
which deals especially with the relations of Christ to the soul, as
distinguished from the other three elements of the microcosm. See Note R.
NOTE Q, page 163
By the contemplation of wisdom man
acquires wisdom, the highest product of which is the “philosopher’s stone” of a
spirit perfectly quiescent, and inaccessible to assault whether from within or
from without. By wisdom, too, the soul is attracted and absorbed. The mystical
meaning of the head of the Gorgon Medusa is thus – as customary in mystical
presentations – the opposite of the apparent meaning.
NOTE R, page 163
The sapphire throne and four wheels
of Ezekiel; the Merkaba, or Car, of the Kabala; the Kaabeh, or Cube, of Islam; the four Rivers, of Eden; the
four living Creatures of Ezekiel, the Apocalypse, and the book of Enoch, and
which also are the symbols of the four Evangelists; and the celestial chariot of
Adonai, – all these alike denote the fourfold existence in which, as in a
vehicle, Deity descends into manifestation or creation, and of which both
macrocosm and microcosm are constituted. The four are, respectively, the
material, the astral, the psychic, and the spiritual. See The Perfect Way, VI, Part
i, and VIII, final par. of Part iii.
NOTE S, page 165
For which reason the Christ, as the realisation of man’s divine potentialities, is said to be
born in a cave and a stable.
NOTE T, page 166
V. 28. The choice of the ring-dove to
be the emblem of the Holy Spirit is due to the hues of the circle round its
throat, the colours of which are taken to represent
the Seven Spirits of God, or rays of the prism constituted by the Trinity.
V. 29. The only message from earth
that can look to find acceptance in heaven, is that which announces the
consummation of the prophecy of Apoc. xvi, 12: –
That “the water of the great river
For the
For those who
recognise
and appreciate her work, it is hardly possible not to regard her very names as a
prophecy of her appointed task, seeing that a way specially prepared for kings
across a dried-up
river is no other than a Kings’ Ford; and that the
“good time” called “the acceptable year of the Lord” is no other than an Annus Bonus.
Among other striking and no less undesigned coincidences, so far as concerns human agency,
was that of the names given to her on her reception into the Roman Communion, –
long anterior to her spiritual work, – for they were the names of all the women
who were by the Cross or at the Sepulchre.
To this step, as also to that of
obtaining a medical degree at the
NOTE U, page 169
There are two processions of the
seven primary Gods, or Spirits of God, the first by emanation, and the second by
evolution, but the evolution is not of the Gods themselves but of their
manifestation in time. The direction of one of these processions is the reverse
of that of the other. The first is from within outwards, and occurs through the
operation of the Deity within and upon itself. By this operation the divine
potencies are projected to the furthest verge of the destined kosmos, which – though fourfold as to elements – is always
in idea a globe consisting of seven concentric spheres, each divinity having his
own sphere, and the outermost being assigned to Saturn or Satan, who is thus the
circumference of the entity concerned, having beyond him only the void.
Representing the seventh and outermost sphere, and projected after all the
others, Saturn is called the seventh and last, and therefore – in this order –
the “youngest of the gods.” Thus, as matter is the antithetical ultimate, or
“adversary,” of Spirit yet without ceasing to be Spirit, so is Saturn – or Satan
– the antithetical ultimate, or “adversary,” of God, yet without ceasing to be
God.
In this sphere manifestation begins,
for not only is it the sphere of matter, which is Spirit – by the force
of the Divine Will projected into conditions and limitations, and made
exteriorly cognisable – but Saturn is the principle
itself of manifestation, and herein of matter, time, and all other limiting
conditions. Hence he is the principle also of Individuation, whereby from being
universal and abstract, Spirit becomes particular and concrete. Himself the first to be manifested in the kosmos thus initiated, Saturn heads the procession which is
by evolution, and hence, in this order, is the first and “eldest” of the Gods.
And upon his sphere or kingdom as basis the kosmos
is built up from without inwards, each God presiding over the work in his own
domain, until the whole is completed by the attainment of the innermost and
highest. This accomplished, the kosmos is made in the
divine image, the Sabbath
of perfection is attained, and “God rests from his
work,” so far as regards the particular entity concerned.
These two processions, which are in
perpetual simultaneous operation for the whole duration of the manifest
universe, represent and are due to two forces, or rather two modes of force,
which constitute two streams consisting of the Divine substance and energy. Of
these streams one flows outwards and downwards, and the other inwards and
upwards; one is centrifugal, the other centripetal; one is projective, the other
attractive; one represents Will, the other Love; one results in Creation, the
other in Redemption. And as complements of each other they are as indispensable
to each other and to the stability of the kosmos, as
are the centrifugal and centripetal modes of force to the stability of the solar
system; and whereas one is masculine and the other feminine, man is no less said
to be “made in the divine image, male and female,” because built up of them
both, than because also built up of the Seven Spirits of the Divine
Duad.
The substance of all things is
spirit, is consciousness. Wherefore all things are modes of
consciousness,
and all being is consciousness, and consciousness is being, and
non-consciousness is non-being. And whereas the outermost sphere of any existing
entity is that of the lowest mode of consciousness, wherein it touches negation,
that which lies without such sphere is non-consciousness, and, therefore,
non-being, – a state the entrance into which constitutes extinction of being. At
once the negation of consciousness and of being, this state constitutes the
negation of God, which is theologically called the devil (as see page 137).
The transcendent importance of the
functions of Satan, and their absolute necessity, not only to the well-being,
but to the very being of the individual, become specially apparent when it is
considered: 1) that as the “bourne of the divine
impulsion,” he is the circumferential limit whereby life and substance are
arrested in their outward course and made to return to their centre, thus
converting into a permanent kosmos that which, but for
his intervention, would be dissipated in space; and, 2) that but for his
guardianship of the outermost sphere, there would be nought to hinder the irruption from the surrounding void
into the kosmos, of its deadly foe the principle, if
the term can be applied to a nonentity, of the negation of God, and therein, of
all being.
The passages in which the Bible seems
to identify Satan with the devil constitute, when properly considered, no
contradiction to this view, even without the counterbalancing aid of passages
which directly favour this view. For, although
constituting integral parts of the same kosmos, the
inner and spiritual and the outer and material are in a sense antagonistic to
each other, and a retrogression from the former to the
latter, when once the former has been transcended, is a descent which, unless
timely arrested, lands the soul in the region of negation. The sphere of Satan and of the devil are conterminous, and where
a downward course is persisted in, Satan becomes the minister of the devil in
that in ejecting the irredeemably perverse from the precinct of the kingdom, he
consigns
him to final destruction. But his enmity is not for
the sinner, but for the sin; and his “temptations” are for the trial, not for
the condemnation, of the subject of them, and to test his fitness for the
kingdom. The apocalyptic “binding of Satan for a thousand years” is but an
expression implying the exemption of the saints from a return into material
conditions for a prolonged period, during which Satan is said to be bound, so
far as concerns them. But even if it had been the intention of the Bible-writers
to identify the devil and Satan in the manner commonly supposed, no authority of
book can override and set at nought a necessary and self-evident truth clearly
discernible as founded in the very nature of existence, such as that of the
interpretation here given, And indeed, as stated in the preface and elsewhere,
one of the main purposes of the restoration represented by this volume is to
“utterly abolish the idols whether they consist in books, persons, traditions or
institutions.
But there is not the smallest reason
for ascribing to the Bible-writers any such intention. They wrote as initiates
for initiates, and knew that by these the true values would be attached to the
terms employed, however liable to be mistaken by others; and a sufficient motive
for such concealment of the truth concerning Satan is to be found in the fact
that it was the most jealously guarded of all the mysteries, being – according
to the instructions given to us – communicated only to initiates of the very
highest grade, And it was imparted to us under injunctions of our observing the
strictest secrecy, at least “until the word be completed”; and only during Mrs.
Kingsford’s last illness was this so far accomplished, that the promulgation was
permitted. The personality assumed by the illuminating spirit on the occasion
was that of Phoibos
Apollo – an indication that, owing to its profound nature, only by the first of
the Gods might the crowning mystery of the last of the Gods be disclosed.
NOTE V, page 169
Saturn, as Kronos
or Time, is said to bear all the Gods on his shoulders because their
manifestation occurs in and through time; and he is, himself, the first to be
manifested, and is the very principle of time and manifestation. Moreover, the
faculties in man by means of which they find recognition by man, are the product
of experience acquired in time. This was implied in the vision shown to Mrs.
Kingsford on the eve of her receipt of the first instalment
of this instruction concerning Satan, – a vision, at the time wholly
unintelligible, in which she beheld Hermes being carried through space on the
back of Saturn.
NOTE W, page 172
That is, from the condition of
Existence or manifested Being, to the condition of pure, or
unmanifested,
Being.
NOTE X, page 173
The spirit of the regenerated ego in
and by whom we realise the divine potentialities of
our nature, is, for each of us, “Christ our Lord.” And inasmuch as this ego is
generated in time, and is the crown of manifestation, and final realisation of the divine idea in creation, for the
evolution of whom the whole universe works together, and Satan is the principle
of manifestation, the ministry of Satan is said to have been “ordained of God
before the worlds, for the splendour (or effulgence)
of the manifest, and the generation of Christ our Lord.” And this applies to
Christ from the point of view alike of the microcosm or individual, and of the
macrocosm or universal. For, just as the macrocosm itself comprises and is
constituted of the sum total of the microcosms, so the macrocosmic Christ
comprises and is constituted of the sum total of the microcosmic
Christs, or spirits of the regenerated human egos, all these throughout
the universe being combined and blended into one indefeasible personality,
representing the individualisation
of the Supreme Being, or personification of the Divine Impersonal, through man,
by means of evolution. Thus “generated” and constituted, Christ is the “Son” in
and by whom the “Father” finds His ultimate full expression, as do the
unmanifest light and heat of the system in and by the solar orb.
But the consciousness or potency of
the universal Christ must not be regarded as limited to the sum total of the
associated consciousnesses of the human egos composing him, any more than the
consciousness of the individual man is to be regarded as limited to the sum
total of the associated consciousnesses of his system. For just as the human ego
represents all the consciousnesses of man’s system centralised into a unity and polarised
to a higher plane, so does the macrocosmic Christ represent the consciousnesses
of all the microcosmic Christs
centralised
into a unity and polarised to a higher plane. Thus, as
– to cite The Perfect Way (v, 17) – “the soul of the planet is more than
the associated essences of the souls composing it; and the consciousness of the
system is more than that of the associated world-consciousnesses; and the
consciousness of the manifest universe is more than that of the corporate
systems,” so is the universal Christ more than the sum of the individual
Christs or Divine Spirits of the regenerated human egos of which he
consists. And as in the individual microcosm this Christ is the radiant point,
or “One Life,” whence the Divine effulgence flows to illume and vivify the man,
so in the universal macrocosm the Christ similarly constituted is the radiant
point or “One Life,” whence the Divine effulgence flows to vivify and illume the
universal Church, invisible and visible, of the elect, which is the nucleus, of
which He is the nucleolus, or body of which He is the soul. And that wherein He
differs from and surpasses all other Gods – even while constituted like them –
is that, whereas they represent but partial modes or aspects of Deity, each one
being but as a single ray of the Divine spectrum, He represents Deity in its
integrity, inasmuch as He
combines in Himself the whole of the Divine
rays, being the result of the operation of them all. Thus generated through
humanity, and therefore Son at once of God and man, and “our Lord,” He becomes
the counterpart or replica of Adonai, who – being
generated in substance – is Son of God only, and is “the
Lord.”
Now, “the consciousness of the
unmanifest Deity is greater than that of the manifest,
for the manifest does not exhaust the unmanifest.”
Wherefore, in manifestation, “the Father is greater than the Son”; while in
substance, they are “co-equal and coeternal.”
NOTE Y, page 172
The difference
between the account herein given of the Lord’s death and burial (verses 53, 64),
and that of Jesus in Part I, No. XXXIII, presents no difficulty when it is
considered that the former deals, as do the gospels, with the mystical or
spiritual history of the typical Man Regenerate, and the latter with his
physical history, and that it is quite sufficient for the purpose of the
narrative that the correspondence between the two histories be general only and
not particular. The object of the gospels was not to exalt an individual but to
delineate an order, the order of the “Sons of God,” for the sake of exhibiting
the highest possibilities of humanity. And it is for this reason that while the
events which occurred to Jesus were used and adapted to illustrate certain
doctrines, they were not followed in all their details. To have so followed them
would have been to give the physical history of but one of the “Sons of God,”
instead of the spiritual history of them all.
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