Index
Previous
Next
p. 185
The Mystery of the
Apocalypse
THE presence of the Temple of
Diana at Ephesus marked that city as sacred to the Mystery religion, for the
Seven Wonders of the ancient world were erected to indicate the repositories
of recondite knowledge. Of Ephesus, H. P. Blavatsky writes:
"It was a focus of the
universal 'secret' doctrines; the weird laboratory whence, fashioned in
elegant Grecian phraseology, sprang the quintessence of Buddhistic,
Zoroastrian, and Chaldean philosophy. Artemis, the gigantic concrete symbol of
theosophico-pantheistic abstractions, the great mother Multimamma, androgyne
and patroness of the 'Ephesian writings,' was conquered by Paul; but although
the zealous converts of the apostles pretended to burn all their books on
'curious arts, τα περιεργα, enough of these remained for them to study when
their first zeal had cooled off." (See Isis Unveiled.)
Being a great center of pagan
learning, Ephesus has been the locale for many early Christian myths. The
assertion has been made that it was the last domicile of the Virgin Mary; also
that the tomb of St. John the Divine was located there. According to legend,
St. John did not depart from this life in the usual manner but, selecting his
vault, entered it while still alive, and closing the entrance behind him,
vanished forever from mortal sight. A rumor was current in ancient Ephesus
that St. John would sleep in his tomb until the return of the Savior, and that
when the apostle turned over on his sepulchral couch the earth above moved
like the coverlets of a bed.
Subjected to more criticism
than any other book now incorporated in the New Testament, the
Apocalypse--popularly accredited to St. John the Divine--is by far the most
important but least understood of the Gnostic Christian writings. Though
Justin Martyr declared the Book of Revelation to have been written by "John,
one of Christ's apostles," its authorship was disputed as early as the second
century after Christ. In the third century these contentions became acute and
even Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius attacked the Johannine theory,
declaring that both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel according to St.
John were written by one Cerinthus, who borrowed the name of the great apostle
the better to foist his own doctrines upon the Christians. Later Jerome
questioned the authorship of the Apocalypse and during the Reformation his
objections were revived by Luther and Erasmus. The once generally accepted
notion that the Book of Revelation was the actual record of a "mystical
experience" occurring to St. John while that seer was an exile in the Isle of
Parmos is now regarded with disfavor by more critical scholars. Other
explanations have therefore been advanced to account for the symbolism
permeating the volume and the original motive for its writing. The more
reasonable of these theories may be summed up as follows:
First, upon the weight of
evidence furnished by its own contents the Book of Revelation may well be
pronounced a pagan writing--one of the sacred books of the Eleusinian or
Phrygian Mysteries. As a corollary, the real author of a work setting forth
the profundities of Egyptian and Greek mysticism must have been an initiate
himself and consequently obligated to write only in the symbolic language of
the Mysteries.
Second, it is possible that the
Book of Revelation was written to reconcile the seeming discrepancies between
the early Christian and pagan religious philosophies. When the zealots of the
primitive Christian Church sought to Christianize pagandom, the pagan
initiates retorted with a powerful effort to paganize Christianity. The
Christians failed but the pagans succeeded. With the decline of paganism the
initiated pagan hierophants transferred their base of operations to the new
vehicle of primitive Christianity, adopting the symbols of the new cult to
conceal those eternal verities which are ever the priceless possession of the
wise. The Apocalypse shows clearly the resultant fusion of pagan and Christian
symbolism and thus bears irrefutable evidence of the activities of these
initiated minds operating through early Christianity.
Third, the theory has been
advanced that the Book of Revelation represents the attempt made by the
unscrupulous members of a certain religious order to undermine the Christian
Mysteries by satirizing their philosophy. This nefarious end they hoped to
attain by showing the new faith to be merely a restatement of the ancient
pagan doctrines, by heaping ridicule upon Christianity, and by using its own
symbols toward its disparagement. For example, the star which fell to earth
(Rev. viii. 10-11) could be construed to mean the Star of Bethlehem, and the
bitterness of that star (called Wormwood and which poisoned mankind) could
signify the "false" teachings of the Christian Church. While the last theory
has gained a certain measure of popularity, the profundity of the Apocalypse
leads the discerning reader to the inevitable conclusion that this is the
least plausible of the three hypotheses. To those able to pierce the veil of
its symbolism, the inspired source of the document requires no further
corroborative evidence.
In the final analysis, true
philosophy can be limited by neither creed nor faction; in fact it is
incompatible with every artificial limitation of human thought. The question
of the pagan or Christian origin of the Book of Revelation is, consequently,
of little importance. The intrinsic value of the book lies in its magnificent
epitome of the Universal Mystery--an observation which led St. Jerome to
declare that it is susceptible of seven entirely different interpretations.
Untrained in the reaches of ancient thought, the modem theologian cannot
possibly cope with the complexities of the Apocalypse, for to him this mystic
writing is but a phantasmagoria the divine inspiration of which he is sorely
tempted to question. In the limited space here available it is possible to
sketch but briefly a few of the salient features of the vision of the seer of
Patmos. A careful consideration of the various pagan Mysteries will assist
materially also in filling the inevitable gaps in this abridgment.
In the opening chapter of the
Apocalypse, St. John describes the Alpha and Omega who stood in the midst of
the seven golden candlesticks. Surrounded by his flaming planetary regents,
this Sublime One thus epitomizes in one impressive and mysterious figure the
entire sweep of humanity's evolutionary growth--past, present, and future.
"The first stages of man's
earthly development," writes Dr. Rudolph Steiner, "ran their course at a
period when the earth was still 'fiery'; and the first human incarnations were
formed out of the element of fire; at the end of his earthly career man will
himself radiate his inner being outwards creatively by the force of the
element of fire. This continuous development from the beginning to the end of
the earth reveals itself to the 'seer,' when he sees on the astral plane the
archetype of evolving man. * * * The beginning of earthly evolution stands
forth in the fiery feet, its end in the fiery countenance, and the complete
power of the 'creative word,' to be finally won, is seen in the fiery source
coming out of the mouth." (See Occult Seals and Columns.)
In his Restored New Testament,
James Morgan Pryse traces the
THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.
From Jacob Behmen's Works.
Before the throne of God was
the crystal sea representing the Schamayim, or the living waters which are
above the heavens. Before the throne also were four creatures--a bull, a lion,
an eagle, and a man. These represented the four corners of creation and the
multitude of eyes with which they were covered are the stars of the firmament.
The twenty-four elders have the same significance as the priests gathered
around the statue of Ceres in the Greater Eleusinian Rite and also the Persian
Genii, or gods of the hours of the day, who, casting away their crowns,
glorify the Holy One. As symbolic of the divisions of time, the elders adore
the timeless and enduring Spirit in the midst of them.
p. 186
relationship of the various
parts of the Alpha and Omega to the seven sacred planets of the ancients. To
quote:
"The Logos-figure described is
a composite picture of the seven sacred planets: he has the snowy-white hair
of Kronos ('Father Time'), the blazing eyes of 'wide-seeing' Zeus, the sword
of Arcs, the shining face of Helios, and the chiton and girdle of
Aphrodite; his feet are of mercury, the metal sacred to Hermes, and his voice
is like the murmur of the ocean's waves (the 'many waters'), alluding to
Selene, the Moon-Goddess of the four seasons and of the waters."
The seven stars carried by this
immense Being in his right hand are the Governors of the world; the flaming
sword issuing from his mouth is the Creative Fiat, or Word of Power, by which
the illusion of material permanence is slain. Here also is represented, in all
his symbolic splendor, the hierophant of the Phrygian Mysteries, his various
insignia emblematic of his divine attributes. Seven priests bearing lamps are
his attendants and the stars carried in his hand are the seven schools of the
Mysteries whose power he administers. As one born again out of
spiritual darkness, into perfect wisdom, this archimagus is made to say: "I am
he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever more, Amen; and
have the keys of hell and of death."
In the second and third
chapters St. John delivers to the "seven churches which are in Asia" the
injunctions received by him from the Alpha and Omega. The churches are here
analogous to the rungs of a Mithraic ladder, and John, being "in the
spirit," ascended through the orbits of the seven sacred planets until he
reached the inner surface of the Empyrean.
"After the soul of the
prophet," writes the anonymous author of Mankind: Their Origin and Destiny,
"in his ecstatic state has passed in its rapid flight through the seven
spheres, from the sphere of the moon to that of Saturn, or from the planet
which corresponds to Cancer, the gate of men, to that of Capricorn, which is
the gate of the gods, a new gate opens to him in the highest heaven, and in
the zodiac, beneath which the seven planets revolve; in a word, in the
firmament, or that which the ancients called crystallinum primum, or the
crystal heaven."
When related to the Eastern
system of metaphysics, these churches represent the chakras, or nerve ganglia,
along the human spine, the "door in heaven" being the brahmarandra, or
point in the crown of the skull (Golgotha), through which the spinal spirit
fire passes to liberation. The church of Ephesus corresponds to the
muladhara, or sacral ganglion, and the other churches to the higher
ganglia according to the order given in Revelation. Dr. Steiner discovers a
relationship between the seven churches and the divisions of the Aryan race.
Thus, the church of Ephesus stands for the Arch-Indian branch; the church of
Smyrna, the Arch-Persians; the church of Pergamos, the Chaldean-Egyptian-Semitic;
the church of Thyatira, the Grecian-Latin-Roman; the church of Sardis, the
Teuton-Anglo-Saxon; the church of Philadelphia, the Slavic; and the church of
Laodicea, the Manichæan. The seven churches also signify the Greek vowels, of
which Alpha and Omega are the first and the last. A difference
of opinion exists as to the order in which the seven planers should be related
to the churches. Some proceed from the hypothesis that Saturn represents the
church of Ephesus; but from the fact that this city was sacred to the moon
goddess and also that the sphere of the moon is the first above that of the
earth, the planets obviously should ascend in their ancient order from the
moon to Saturn. From Saturn the soul would naturally ascend through the door
in the Empyrean.
In the fourth and fifth
chapters St. John describes the throne of God upon which sat the Holy One
"which was and is, and is to come." About the throne were twenty-four lesser
seats upon which sat twenty-four elders arrayed in white garments and wearing
crowns of gold. "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings
and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne,
which are the seven Spirits of God." He who sat upon the throne held in His
right hand a book sealed with seven seals which no man in heaven or earth had
been found worthy to open. Then appeared a Lamb (Aries, the first and chief of
the zodiacal signs) which had been slain, having seven horns (rays) and seven
eyes (lights). The Lamb took the book from the right hand of Him that sat upon
the throne and the four beasts and all the elders fell down and worshiped God
and the Lamb. During the early centuries of the Christian Church the lamb was
universally recognized as the symbol of Christ, and not until after the fifth
synod of Constantinople (the "Quinisext Synod," A.D. 692) was the figure of
the crucified man substituted for that of Agnus Dei. As shrewdly noted by one
writer on the subject, the use of a lamb is indicative of the Persian origin
of Christianity, for the Persians were the only people to symbolize the first
sign of the zodiac by a lamb.
Because a lamb was the sin
offering of the ancient pagans, the early mystic Christians considered this
animal as an appropriate emblem of Christ, whom they regarded as the sin
offering of the world. The Greeks and the Egyptians highly venerated the lamb
or ram, often placing its horns upon the foreheads of their gods. The
Scandinavian god Thor carried a hammer made from a pair of ram's horns. The
lamb is used in preference to the ram apparently because of its purity and
gentleness; also, since the Creator Himself was symbolized by Aries, His Son
would consequently be the little Ram or Lamb. The lambskin apron worn by the
Freemasons over that part of the body symbolized by Typhon or Judas represents
that purification
EPISODES FROM THE MYSTERIES OF THE APOCALYPSE.
From Klauber's Historiae
Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
In the central foreground, St. John the
Divine is kneeling before the apparition of the Alpha and Omega standing in
the midst of the seven lights and surrounded by an aureole of flames and
smoke. In the heavens above the twenty-four elders with their harps and
censers bow before the throne of the Ancient One, from whose hand the Lamb is
taking the book sealed with seven seals. The seven spirit, of God, in the form
of cups from which issue tongues of fire, surround the head of the Ancient
One, and the four beasts (the cherubim) kneel at the corners of His throne. In
the upper left-hand corner are shown the seven angels bearing the trumpets and
also the altar of God and the angel with the censer. In the upper right are
the spirits of the winds; below them is the virgin clothed wit h the sun, to
whom wings were given that she might fly into the wilderness. To her right is
a scene representing the spirits of God hurling the evil serpent into the
bottomless pit. At the lower left St. John is shown receiving from the angelic
figure, whose legs are pillars of fire and whose face is a shining sun, the
little book which he is told to eat if he would understand the mysteries of
the spiritual life.
The plate also contains a number of
other symbols, including episodes from the destruction of the world and the
crystal sea pouring forth from the throne of God. By the presentation of such
symbolic conceptions in the form of rituals and dramatic episodes the secrets
of the Phrygian Mysteries were perpetuated. When these sacred pageantries were
thus revealed to all mankind indiscriminately and each human soul was
appointed it own initiator into the holy rite, of the philosophic life, a boon
was conferred upon humanity which cannot be fully appreciated until men and
women have grown more responsive to those mysteries which are of the spirit.
p. 187
of the generative processes
which is a prerequisite to true spirituality. In this allegory the Lamb
signifies the purified candidate, its seven horns representing the divisions
of illuminated reason and its seven eyes the chakras, or perfected
sense-perceptions.
The sixth to eleventh chapters
inclusive are devoted to an account of the opening of the seven seals on the
book held by the Lamb. When the first seal was broken, there rode forth a man
on a white horse wearing a crown and holding in his hand a bow. When the
second seal was broken, there rode forth a man upon a red horse and in his
hand was a great sword. When the third seal was broken there rode forth a man
upon a black horse and with a pair of balances in his hand. And when the
fourth seal was broken there rode forth Death upon a pale horse and hell
followed after him. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse may be interpreted to
signify the four main divisions of human life. Birth is represented by
the rider on the white horse who comes forth conquering and to conquer; the
impetuosity of youth by the rider on the red horse who took peace from
the earth; maturity by the rider on the black horse who weighs all
things in the scales of reason; and death by the rider on the pale
horse who was given power over a fourth part of the earth. In the Eastern
philosophy these horsemen signify the four yugas, or ages, of the world
which, riding forth at: their appointed times, become for a certain span the
rulers of creation.
Commenting on the twenty-fourth
allocution of Chrysostom, in The Origin of all Religious Worship,
Dupuis notes that each of the four elements was represented by a horse bearing
the name of the god "who is set over the element." The first horse, signifying
the fire ether, was called Jupiter and occupied the highest place in the order
of the elements. This horse was winged, very fleet, and, describing the
largest circle, encompassed all the others. It shone with the purest light,
and on its body were the images of the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the
bodies in the ethereal regions. The second horse, signifying the element of
air, was Juno. It was inferior to the horse of Jupiter and described a smaller
circle; its color was black but that part exposed to the sun became luminous,
thus signifying the diurnal and nocturnal conditions of air. The third horse,
symbolizing the element of water, was sacred to Neptune. It was of heavy gait
and described a very small circle. The fourth horse, signifying the static
element of earth, described as immovable and champing its bit, was the steed
of Vesta. Despite their differences in temperature, these four horses lived
harmoniously together, which is in accord with the principles of the
philosophers, who declared the world to be preserved by the concord and
harmony of its elements. In time, however, the racing horse of Jupiter burned
the mane of the horse of earth; the thundering steed of Neptune also became
covered with sweat, which overflowed the immovable horse of Vesta and resulted
in the deluge of Deucalion. At last the fiery horse of Jupiter will consume
the rest, when the three inferior elements--purified by reabsorption in the
fiery ether--will come forth renewed, constituting "a new heaven and a new
earth."
When the fifth seal was opened
St. John beheld those who had died for the word of God. When the sixth seal
was broken there was a great earthquake, the sun being darkened and the moon
becoming like blood. The angels of the winds came forth and also another
angel, who sealed upon their foreheads 144,000 of the children of Israel that
they should be preserved against the awful day of tribulation. By adding the
digits together according to the Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy,
the number 144,000 is reduced to 9, the mystic symbol of man and also the
number of initiation, for he who passes through the nine degrees of the
Mysteries receives the sign of the cross as emblematic of his regeneration and
liberation from the bondage of his own infernal, or inferior, nature. The
addition of the three ciphers to the original sacred number 1.44 indicates the
elevation of the mystery to the third sphere.
When the seventh seal was
broken there was silence for the space of half an hour. Then came forth seven
angels and to each was given a trumpet. When the seven angels sounded their
trumpets--intoned the seven-lettered Name of the Logos--great catastrophes
ensued. A star, which was called Wormwood, fell from heaven, thereby
signifying that the secret doctrine of the ancients had been given to men who
had profaned it and caused the wisdom of God to become a destructive agency.
And another star--symbolizing the false light of human reason as distinguished
from the divine reason of the initiate--fell from heaven and to it
(materialistic reason) was given the key to the bottomless pit (Nature), which
it opened, causing all manner of evil creatures to issue forth. And there came
also a mighty angel who was clothed in a cloud, whose face was as the sun and
his feet and legs as pillars of fire, and one foot was upon the waters and the
other upon the land (the Hermetic Anthropos). This celestial being gave
St. John a little book, bidding him eat it, which the seer did. The book is
representative of the secret doctrine--that spiritual food which is the
nourishment of the spirit. And St. John, being "in the spirit," ate his fill
of the wisdom of God and the hunger of his soul was appeased.
The twelfth chapter treats of a
great wonder appearing in the heavens: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This woman
represents the constellation of Virgo and also the Egyptian Isis, who, about
to be delivered of her son Horus, is attacked by Typhon, the latter attempting
to destroy the child predestined by the gods to slay the
JOHN'S VISION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
From Klauber's Historiae
Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
In the upper left-hand corner
is shown the destruction of Babylon, also the angel which cast the great
millstone into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence shall that great city
Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all." Below is the
horseman, called Faithful and True, casting the beast into the bottomless pit.
At the lower right is the angel with the key to the bottomless pit, who with a
great chain binds Satan for a thousand years. In the heavens above is
represented one like unto the Son of Man, who carries a great sickle with
which he reaps the harvest of the world. In the center is the Holy City, the
New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates and the mountain of the Lamb rising in
the midst thereof. From the throne of the Lamb pours the great river of
crystal, or living water, signifying the spiritual doctrine: upon all who
discover and drink of its waters are conferred immortality. Kneeling upon a
high cliff, St. John gazes down upon the mystic city, the archetype of the
perfect civilization yet to be. Above the New Jerusalem, in a great sunburst
of glory, is the throne of the Ancient One, which is the light of those who
dwell in the matchless empire of the spirit. Beyond the recognition of the
uninitiated world is an ever-increasing aggregation composed of the spiritual
elect. Though they walk the earth as ordinary mortals, they are of a world
apart and through their ceaseless efforts the kingdom of God is being slowly
but surely established upon earth. These illumined souls are the builders of
the New Jerusalem, and their bodies are the living stones in its walls.
Lighted by the torch of truth they carry on their work, through their
activities the golden age will return to the earth and the power of sin
and death will be destroyed. For this reason the declare that virtuous and
illumined men, instead of ascending to heaven, will bring heaven down and
establish it in the midst of earth itself.
p. 188
Spirit of Evil. The war in
heaven relates to the destruction of the planet Ragnarok and to the fall of
the angels. The virgin can be interpreted to signify the secret doctrine
itself and her son the initiate born out of the "womb of the Mysteries." The
Spirit of Evil thus personified in the great dragon attempted to control
mankind by destroying the mother of those illumined souls who have labored
unceasingly for the salvation of the world. Wings were given to the Mysteries
(the virgin) and they flew into the wilderness; and the evil dragon tried to
destroy them with a flood (of false doctrine) but the earth (oblivion)
swallowed up the false doctrines and the Mysteries endured.
The thirteenth chapter
describes a great beast which rose out of the sea, having seven heads and ten
horns. Faber sees in this amphibious monster the Demiurgus, or Creator of the
world, rising out of the Ocean of Chaos. While most interpreters of the
Apocalypse consider the various beasts described therein as typical of evil
agencies, this viewpoint is the inevitable result of unfamiliarity with the
ancient doctrines from which the symbolism of the book is derived.
Astronomically, the great monster rising out of the sea is the constellation
of Cetus (the whale). Because religious ascetics looked upon the universe
itself as an evil and ensnaring fabrication, they also came to regard its very
Creator as a weaver of delusions. Thus the great sea monster (the world) and
its Maker (the Demiurgus), whose strength is derived from the Dragon of Cosmic
Power, came to be personified as a beast of horror and destruction, seeking to
swallow up the immortal part: of human nature. The seven heads of the monster
represent the seven stars (spirits) composing the constellation of the Great
Dipper, called by the Hindus Rishis, or Cosmic Creative Spirits. The
ten horns Faber relates to the ten primordial patriarchs. These may also
denote the ancient zodiac of ten signs.
The number of the beast (666)
is an interesting example of the use of Qabbalism in the New Testament and
among early Christian mystics. In the following table Kircher shows that the
names of Antichrist as given by Iranæus all have 666 as their numerical
equivalent.
Τ |
300 |
Λ |
30 |
Λ |
1 |
Λ |
30 |
ε |
5 |
α |
1 |
ν |
50 |
α |
1 |
ι |
10 |
μ |
40 |
τ |
300 |
τ |
300 |
τ |
300 |
π |
80 |
ε |
5 |
ε |
5 |
α |
1 |
ε |
5 |
μ |
40 |
ι |
10 |
ν |
50 |
τ |
300 |
ο |
70 |
ν |
50 |
|
|
ι |
10 |
ς |
200 |
ο |
70 |
|
|
ς |
200 |
|
|
ς |
200 |
|
666 |
|
666 |
|
666 |
|
666 |
James Morgan Pryse also notes
that according to this method of figuring, the Greek term ἡ φρην, which
signifies the lower mind, has 666 as its numerical equivalent. It is also well
known to Qabbalists that Ἰησους, Jesus, has for its numerical value another
sacred and secret number--888. Adding the digits of the number 666 and again
adding the digits of the sum gives the sacred number--9 the symbol of man in
his unregenerate state and also the path of his resurrection.
The fourteenth chapter opens
with the Lamb standing on Mount Zion (the eastern horizon), about Him gathered
the 144,000 with the name of God written in their foreheads. An angel
thereupon announces the fall of Babylon--the city of confusion or worldliness.
Those perish who do not overcome worldliness and enter into the realization
that spirit--and not matter--is enduring; for, having no interests other than
those which are material, they are swept to destruction with the material
world. And St. John beheld One like unto the Son of Man (Perseus) riding upon
a cloud (the substances of the invisible world) and bearing in his hand a
sharp sickle, and with the sickle the Shining One reaped the earth. This is a
symbol of the Initiator releasing into the sphere of reality the higher
natures of those who, symbolized by ripened grain, have reached the point of
liberation. And there came another angel (Boötes)--Death--also with a sickle
(Karma), who reaped the vines of the earth (those who have lived by the false
light) and cast them into the winepress of the wrath of God (the purgatorial
spheres).
The fifteenth to eighteenth
chapters inclusive contain an account of seven angels (the Pleiades) who pour
their vials upon the earth. The contents of their vials (the loosened energy
of the Cosmic Bull) are called the seven last plagues. Here also is introduced
a symbolic figure, termed "the harlot of Babylon, "which is described as a
woman seated upon a scarlet-colored beast having seven heads and ten horns.
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and bedecked with gold, precious
stones, and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations. This
figure may be an effort (probably interpolated) to vilify Cybele, or Artemis,
the Great Mother goddess of antiquity. Because the pagans venerated the
Mater Deorum through symbols appropriate to the feminine generative
principle they were accused by the early Christians of worshiping a courtesan.
As nearly all the ancient Mysteries included a test of the neophyte's moral
character, the temptress (the animal soul) is here portrayed as a pagan
goddess.
In the nineteenth and twentieth
chapters is set forth the preparation of that mystical sacrament called the
marriage of the Lamb. The bride is the soul of the neophyte, which attains
conscious immortality by uniting itself to its own spiritual source. The
heavens opened once more and St. John saw a white horse, and the rider (the
illumined mind) which sat upon it was called Faithful and True.
Out of his mouth issued a sharp sword and the armies of heaven followed after
him. Upon the plains of heaven was fought the mystic Armageddon--the last
great war between light and darkness. The forces of evil under the Persian
Ahriman battled against the forces of good under Ahura-Mazda. Evil was
vanquished and the beast and the false prophet cast into a lake of fiery
brimstone. Satan was bound for a thousand years. Then followed the last
judgment; the books were opened, including the book of life. The dead were
judged according to their works and those whose names were not in the book of
life were cast into a sea of fire. To the neophyte, Armageddon represents the
last struggle between the flesh and the spirit when, finally overcoming the
world, the illumined soul rises to union with its spiritual Self. The judgment
signifies the weighing of the soul and was borrowed from the Mysteries of
Osiris. The rising of the dead from their graves and from the sea of illusion
represents the consummation of the process of human regeneration. The sea of
fire into which those are cast who fail in the ordeal of initiation signifies
the fiery sphere of the animal world.
In the twenty-first and
twenty-second chapters are pictured the new heaven and the new earth to be
established at the close of Ahriman's reign. St. John, carried in the spirit
to a great and high mountain (the brain), beheld the New Jerusalem descending
as a bride adorned for her husband. The Holy City represents the regenerated
and perfected world, the trued ashlar of the Mason, for the city was a
perfect cube, it being written, "the length and the breadth and the height of
it are equal." The foundation of the Holy City consisted of a hundred and
forty-four stones in twelve rows, from which it is evident that the New
Jerusalem represents the microcosm, patterned after the greater universe in
which it: stands. The twelve gates of this symbolic dodecahedron are the signs
of the zodiac through which the celestial impulses descend into the inferior
world; the jewels are the precious stones of the zodiacal signs; and the
transparent golden streets are the streams of spiritual light along which the
initiate passes on his path towards the sun. There is no material temple in
that city, for God and the Lamb are the temple; and there is neither sun nor
moon, for God and the Lamb are the light. The glorified and spiritualized
initiate is here depicted as a city. This city will ultimately be united with
the spirit of God and absorbed into the Divine Effulgency.
And St. John beheld a river,
the Water of Life, which proceeded out of the throne of the Lamb. The river
represents the stream pouring from the First Logos, which is the life of all
things and the active cause of all creation. There also was the Tree of Life
(the spirit) bearing twelve manner of fruit, whose leaves were for the healing
of the nations. By the tree is also represented the year, which every month
yields some good for the maintenance of existing creatures. Jesus then tells
St. John that He is the root and the offspring of David and the bright and
morning star (Venus). St. John concludes with the words, "The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE.
From Solis' Biblische
Figuren.
In the allegory of the four
horsemen--according to the mysteries of philosophy--is set forth the condition
of man during the stages of his existence. In his first and spiritual state he
is crowed. As he descend into the realm of experience he carries the sword.
Reaching physical expression--which is his least spiritual state--he carries
the scales, and by the "philosophic death" is released again into the highest
spheres. In the ancient Roman games the chariot of the sun was drawn by four
horses of different colors and the horsemen of the Apocalypse may be
interpreted to represent the solar energy riding upon the four elements which
serve as media for its expression.
Next: The Faith of Islam