THE LIGHT OF EGYPT OR THE SCIENCE OF THE SOUL AND THE STARS
VOLUME II
BY
THOMAS H. BURGOYNE
ZANONI
"Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are,
and the things which shall be hereafter; THE MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN
STARS, which thou sawest in my right hand."
Revelations, Chap. I, 19 and 20.
Dedication
To the Budding Spirituality of the Occident and
The Rising Genius of the Western Race,
This work is respectfully dedicated,
By the Author
CONTENTS
The Science of the Soul and the Stars
VOLUME II Introduction
Chapter I The Zodiac
Chapter II The Constellations
Chapter III The Spiritual Interpretation of the
Twelve Houses of the Zodiac
Chapter IV Astro-Theology
Chapter V Astro-Mythology
Chapter VI Symbolism
Chapter VII Alchemy Part I (organic)
Chapter VIII Alchemy Part II (occult)
Chapter IX Talismans
Chapter X Ceremonial Magic
Chapter XI Magic Wands
Chapter XII The Tablets of Aeth in three parts
Part I the Twelve Mansions
Part II the Ten Planetary Rulers
Part III the Ten Great Powers of the Universe
Chapter XIII Penetralia
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
No explanation is thought necessary, further than to corroborate
the author in all he has said in his somewhat unusual preface.
We have enjoyed, immensely, our work of giving to the world this
remarkable series of books on Occultism, and appreciate the large
patronage they have received from the reading public, for which
we return our sincere thanks. We hope the near future will give
us the work referred to by the author in his preface, as
doubtless it will be a great revelation of Occult laws that
govern our little Earth in its relation to our Sun and solar
system, of which it forms a part, and give much light on those
subjects that have been shrouded in mystery.
"The Light of Egypt" will be found to be an Occult library in
itself, a textbook of esoteric knowledge, setting forth the
"wisdom Religion" of life, as taught by the Adepts of Hermetic
Philosophy. It will richly repay all who are seeking the higher
life to carefully study this book, as it contains in a nutshell
the wisdom of the ages regarding man and his destiny, here and
hereafter. The London and American first edition, also the French
edition, Vol. I, met with lively criticism from Blavatsky
Theosophists, because it annihilates that agreeable delusion of
"Karma" and "Reincarnation" from the minds of all lovers of truth
for truth's sake.
"The Tablets of Aeth" is a great and mighty work, as it contains
the very quintessence of Occult and Hermetic philosophy, as
revealed by spiritual law. "Penetralia" is a new revelation, and
invaluable to Occult students, as it is the personal experience
of a developed soul.
To all lovers of Truth we respectfully recommend this Book of
Books, as it has justly been called by many who are competent to
criticise its teachings. It was the author's wish that his name
be withheld from the public, knowing full well that the teachings
contained in his works will prove his motto: "Omnia Vincit
Veritas."
Now that our author has passed beyond the power of the world to
flatter or condemn, and has given his thought for the uplifting
of the human family, it is but simple justice that he be made
known to the world as its teacher of a higher thought than has
preceded him. He shrank from public notoriety, and modestly
refused to be publicly known to the world as one of its spiritual
leaders for the cycle upon which the Earth and its inhabitants
have entered, but the time has come to announce publicly the
authorship of the works published anonymously under the symbol of
{}, and his writings are to be judged by their merits, and not by
prejudice nor personal bias as viewed from the human plane of
life.
He moved in the world, comparatively unknown to the world at
large, and his greatest friends, though mystified, did not
understand his true worth in spiritual greatness. The mask, or
person, often hides from view the angel in disguise. Therefore
our author must be judged by what he has written, and not by his
personators and calumniators. The true student of Occultism
always judges the tree by its fruits. If the writings of our
author are judged by this standard, they will stand as a beacon
light to higher rounds than ours.
PREFACE
These lessons were issued to a few of my pupils as "Private
Studies in Occultism," several years ago. The time has now come
to give them to the world as a companion to the first volume of
"The Light of Egypt."
It is the duty of Occult students to familiarize themselves with
the subjects herein discussed. They should know the ideas of our
ancestors regarding them and be familiar with their thought, in
order to appreciate the sublime wisdom and knowledge of Nature as
taught by them, otherwise we are sure to do them, as well as
ourselves, great injustice. The history of Occultism bears out
the fact that there is very little that is new to the present
time.
The arrangement and classification of thought differs during each
cycle of time on the different spirals, and, like the fruitage on
lower rounds of Nature's progressive wheel of destiny, variety
and quality are diverse, so, likewise, do we find the mental
manifestations. This age, however, is blessed with a great
variety and abundance of thought, in clear-cut language, that
should enlighten the races of the Earth with Mother Nature's
modus operandi in every department of human thought.
We hope these chapters will aid to this end, and doubtless many
students will find in them the key to unlock the mysteries veiled
in symbol and hieroglyphic by ancient writers. The author's
object has been to make plain and easy of understanding these
subjects. Much, however, has been left for private study and
research, for many large volumes might be filled if a detailed
description of each subject were entered upon, which task is left
for those who feel so inclined. A rich reward is in store for
those spiritual investigators who will follow out the paths and
lines herein mapped out on Spiritual Astrology, Alchemy, and
other subjects. Meditation and aspiration will open up hidden
treasures that will prove a boon to Occult students, for
Astrology and Alchemy are the two grand sciences that explain the
why and reasons for what we see and experience on every plane of
life. In this age there should be no concealing of these Divine
truths. We cannot hide anything in the air, and for this reason
the Sun in Aquarius will unearth and reveal to man all that the
present cycle has to give during the Sun's passage through this
airy sign.
The watery sign, Pisces, through which the Sun manifested during
the past 2,160 years, gave up to man their secret powers and
hidden attributes in steam as a motive power, which man has
completely mastered. He will likewise master the airy forces
during the present sub-cycle of the Sun in Aquarius. Already we
see him using liquid air and compressed air as a motive power,
which will gradually take the place of steam as the Sun gets
farther into the sign, or constellation, of Aquarius. Men will
become immensely wiser than they have been, and it is to be hoped
they will leave the written record of their achievements in
science and art to show to future races their status of mind on
every subject for the edification and enlightenment of coming
races.
Our ancestors were denied this great privilege. Consequently
their wisdom is only symbolized to us in a way that it is
difficult to read and interpret correctly, yet we who have the
key to their symbols can read accurately the truth they wish to
convey, which stands out clearly to all capable of understanding
and interpreting symbolism and correspondence correctly. History
and Nature repeat themselves in every cycle of time; therefore
these forces and potentialities are natural to the sign through
which the Sun manifests. We can go backward or forward through
the Sun's Zodiac and read correctly the history of the hoary
past, as well as the present and future, by bearing in mind the
sign and cycle in manifestation at any given period. When the
proper time arrives, a work will be given to the world to prove
to mankind the law of cycles.
God is present in all ages and races, manifesting His love and
wisdom throughout infinite creations, and that He records, in His
own way, the most detailed record of any event which takes place,
thus giving to man a complete history of His works and will, for
man's enlightenment, so that he, too, may cooperate intelligently
with his God in every way that intelligence wills to manifest.
Prehistoric history is not blotted out from Nature's laboratory.
The Astral Book of Karmic evolution will one day reveal its
hidden treasures to a waiting world in such a manner as to
surprise and enlighten mankind as the recording angels give up
those gems of truth they have so jealously guarded for untold
cycles of time, simply because the time was not ripe for its
divulgence.
There is a time for everything, and when that time arrives all
past history of our planet's evolution will be written in an
intelligent manner for the illumination and education of man as
the masterpiece of the Living God. In this way man will worship
Deity and perfect his God-nature, even to Angel-hood.
If this volume of "The Light of Egypt" meets with the same
appreciation that was accorded the first volume, which has passed
through four editions, and is still growing in favor every day
(besides being translated into the French), the author will feel
that his efforts have not been wasted, and he trusts the race
will have been made better for having read his writings.
As this is his posthumous contribution to the world, the author
wishes, in this connection, to pay a debt of gratitude and
grateful recognition to his esteemed pupil and friend, Dr. Henry
Wagner, who has so generously published nearly all of his
writings. Without his aid and assistance we would not have been
able, of ourselves, to have given these works to the world.
Therefore, honor to whom honor is due.
Mrs. Belle M. Wagner has been chosen by the Masters as my
spiritual successor and representative of the Hermetic
Brotherhood of Luxor, and thus perpetuate the chain of outward
connection between those in the realm of the higher life with
those upon the outward plane.
She is our choice, and a most worthy one to take my place.
I make this statement in this connection for the benefit of my
pupils and Hermetic students generally, as I am being personated
by frauds and imposters, claiming to be Zanoni. Verbam sap.
It is my request that a fac-simile of my signature and symbol
accompany this preface.
Dictated by the author from the subjective plane of life (to
which he ascended several years ago) through the law of mental
transfer, well known to all Occultists, he is enabled again to
speak with those who are still upon the objective plane of life.
The additions found in this volume, not in the original
manuscripts, have been supplied in this manner. The two planes of
life, the objective and subjective, are scientific facts, no
longer disputed by well-informed minds, and the exchange of
thought will become almost universal among educated minds during
the present cycle. Hence great progress will come to the Earth
during the next 2,160 years, while the Sun manifests his glorious
influence through the symbol of the Man.
Thanking each and all who have aided in any way to give my
writings to the world, I am, in love and fraternal greetings,
ever yours. Omnia Vincit Veritas.
INTRODUCTION TO VOL. II
What study is more sublime, inspiring and profitable, in the
highest sense, than the "language of the stars"--those silent
monitors of the midnight sky, who reveal HIS WILL as secondary
causes in the administration of universal law? The science of the
stars is the Divine parent of all science.
The more earnest our study, the more recondite our research and
thorough our investigation of the "Science of the Stars," the
more fully shall we realize the truth of the teacher's words:
"Astrology is the key that opens the door to all occult
knowledge." It is the key that unlocks the mysteries of man's
being; his why, whence, whither. Within the temple of Urania lies
concealed the mystery of life. The indices are there, written by
the finger of the Infinite in the heavens above.
It is our privilege to make this language our own, and it should
be the earnest work of every true student of Nature to acquire a
right understanding and correct interpretation of these Divine
symbols. And, as thorough students of any language seek out the
derivation of words and expressions, search for the root, or stem
word, and its origin, so should the student of astrology, by
sincere desire and earnest study, seek to know the origin and
root of these starry words and complex expressions of the
"language of the stars."
The Sun, Moon and five planets[*] of our solar system are to us
symbols of the reflected and refracted rays of the triune
attributes of the great Central, Spiritual Sun: Life, Light and
Love, analogous to the three primary colors in Nature, which
become still further refracted into four secondary or
complementary colors, rays or attributes, the seven constituting
the active principles of Nature, the seven rays of the solar
spectrum, the seven notes of a perfect musical scale, there being
throughout a perfect correspondence, and all are but different
modes of vibration or activities of the Supreme Intelligence.
[*] Uranus and Neptune belonging to a higher octave.
And, as we know, the seven rays of color reflect an almost
infinite variety of tints, that, octave upon octave, are built
upon the seven natural tones in music, so, also, are these seven
active principles divided and subdivided into innumerable forms,
qualities and manifestations of the first trinity--Life, Light,
Love, life being the manifestation of the second two, love and
wisdom, which in turn are the dual expressions of the "One."
Upon the knowledge of these Divine truths Pythagoras built the
theory of the "music of the spheres." Let us pause and listen to
this celestial music.
Suns and their systems of planets sound forth the deep bass tones
and rich tenor, while angelic races take the silvery treble of
the Divine melody, octave upon octave, by more and ever more
ethereal system upon system, to the very throne of Deity--the
Infinite, Eternal source of Light, Life and Love. Let us learn,
through the knowledge of the stars, to attune our souls to
vibrate to the Divine harmony, so that we may take our places in
the celestial choir and blend our voices with those of the
celestial singers, chanting the Divine anthem: "We Praise Thee, O
God!"
To resume. If we would gain a correct knowledge of astral science
we should study astrology in its universal application, side by
side with its more intricate phase and the details, as manifested
upon the individual man and his material destiny.
Let us digress for a moment. The intellectual minds, the material
scientists, who cavil at the "science of the stars," declaring it
to be mere fortune-telling, consequently false, do but air their
ignorance of this most profound subject, not knowing that it
embraces and contains all sciences, all religions, that have ever
been or ever will be, comprises all history of every age, of
races, empires and nations; that it is the only true chronology,
and marks the destiny, not only of personal man on every plane,
but of the human family as a whole. All mythologies find their
explanation in this starry language, and every religion is
founded upon the movements of our solar system. The rise and fall
of empires and races of men are written in its pages.
To master as far as we are capable, and our limited space of life
here will permit, we must pursue the study in its broad sense, as
already stated, in the external application of the starry influx
and upon the interior planes of action from God to the mineral,
the mineral to man; aye, and man to the angel, finding in every
section a complete and perfect correspondence.
To master the alphabet should be the first step, whose vowels,
diphthongs and consonants are the planets and shining Zodiac. It
is very essential to clearly comprehend the action and reaction
of the planets upon the human organism, as an integral part of
the universal organism; ever remembering that the starry vowels,
in combination with the consonants, or Zodiac, form the infinite
expressions comprising the language of the starry heavens in
their threefold manifestation upon the external planes of life;
while the radiant constellations are the ideas which find
expression through this language, which is likewise a science,
accurate in its mathematical construction and perfect in
geometric proportion.
The student should ever bear in mind that astrology, like every
other science, is progressive. The underlying principles are
always the same. These are like the "laws of the Medes and
Persians," but the plane of action is constantly changing.
It is a well-established and indisputable truth that from the
Sun, the solar center of our system, is derived all force, every
power and variety of phenomena that manifests itself upon Mother
Earth. Therefore, when we remember that the solar parent passes
through one sign of his celestial Zodiac in 2,160 years, a
twelfth part of his orbit of 25,920 years, we see that from each
sign in turn he (the Sun) rays forth an influx peculiar to that
special sign; and, as there are no two signs alike in nature or
quality, hence the passage of the Sun from one sign into another
causes a change of polarity in planetary action, which can be
fully demonstrated and conclusively proven. It follows, as a
natural sequence, that the rules formulated and taught by
astrologers in reference to the plane of planetary influence in
one sub-cycle will not hold good in the next. To illustrate: In
the year 1881 the Sun passed from the sign Pisces into Aquarius,
thus beginning a new cycle of solar force. The human race has
entered upon a cycle in every respect differing in nature and
action from the past cycle of 2,160 years. The sign Aquarius is
masculine, electric, positive. It is intellectual in character,
scientific, philosophic, artistic, intuitive and metaphysical. It
is the sign of the Man. The truths of the past are becoming
etherealized. Our solar parent has scarcely crossed the threshold
of the sign Aquarius, and already we observe in many directions
the activities of the peculiar influx. True, it is but the first
flush of the dawn of a new era, the harbinger of a glorious day
to our race. In the light of this truth, ponder well on the
nature of the influx radiating from the solar center, each orb of
his shining family absorbing a different ray, or attribute, of
solar energy, corresponding to its own peculiar nature. The
Earth, in her annual passage about her solar parent, receives the
harmonious or discordant vibrations of this astral influx
according to the many angles she forms to the various planets.
We see, then, that the Earth is enveloped in an atmosphere, or
zone, of occult force we recognize as humane, mental, positive,
etc., acting and reacting upon the human family through the laws
of vibration in strict and exact ratio to its interior capacity
to receive and ability to externalize upon the material plane of
being. The results, as far as this stage of existence goes, will
be manifest as man vibrates harmoniously or otherwise to the
stellar cause.
The present sub-cycle producing an entirely different influence
to that of the past cycle, whose force was watery, magnetic and
feminine, causes a warring of elements, confusion and
uncertainty, until the old are displaced by the new conditions.
We should learn from these facts that it is folly to brand as
false and condemn as worthless the rules and formulas, and even
religious thought, of the past when we find upon careful
investigation and crucial tests their inadequacy to account for
present conditions. They were true in their cycle, and applied to
past conditions and states of mental development. But in this new
era, upon whose threshold we now stand, the vibrations become
more intense. Man's whole nature is being tuned to a higher key.
We must not forget that these cycles apply to the race in their
effect, and to the individual only as an integral part of the
whole. To illustrate. The sign Aquarius is an electrical,
positive, masculine influence, and will consequently manifest its
chief activities upon the masculine qualities of the human soul;
and to-day we have evidence of this in the gradual
enfranchisement of woman, arousing the positive attributes of her
nature in demanding equal rights with her brother, man, in the
political arena, as she has already done in the educational
field. The masculine portion of the race is becoming more
aggressive, mentally, asserting greater individuality,
independent thought and action. The intellect of the race is
being directed, however slowly, into scientific channels, while
the human soul is slowly awakening to a sense of a deathless
immortality and a desire for spiritual truth. It is slowly but
surely shaking off the yoke of an effete priesthood and the
fetters of superstition and tyranny.
Intelligent man talks of the new scientific and intellectual era
that has dawned upon the world; of the necessity for a new
religious system, based upon scientific truths, which can be
demonstrated, combined with the pure spiritual essence found in
all systems of religion; a religion with more spirituality and
less theology; a broader charity and less dogma, and deeper love
for God and man, its only creed.
We must now consider the astral influence of the cycle upon the
physical organism of mankind, and particularly of the Western
races, who are moving upon the upward arc of the cycle. It is
quite evident that a radical change must take place in the
physical form and constitution with the influx of more
intellectual, ethereal and spiritual vibrations. The organism
must become more refined and compact, a greater degree of
sensitiveness be attained, with a highly nervous system. The
forerunner of this superior organism is now apparent in the
numerous schools of physical culture and gymnasiums throughout
the land, the many articles and pamphlets on deep, rythmic
breathing disseminated among the people, and last, but not least,
the various schools of mental healing, etc. The masses look on
and wonder, while they exclaim: "What marvelous changes are
coming to the world!" but are utterly ignorant of the cause of
the mysterious change. To the student of Hermetic Philosophy
there is no mystery involved. He knows the cause, and confidently
watches for the effect.
Each one must seek to comprehend for himself, according to the
light he may receive, basing his premises upon the TRUE
PRINCIPLES of astrology, carefully noting the triune aspect of
planetary influence upon humanity, ever remembering that the Sun
and Moon are the great factors in human destiny, and that his
premises and conclusions must occupy the same plane. Having
acquired a knowledge of the science in its application to the
individual, take the broader field, or universal aspect, as it
applies to human races, and you will find the rise and fall of
nations, empires and families marked upon the celestial dial, and
in perfect accord with the influence of the Sun and planets upon
Mother Earth, in her various movements. And last, but most
important, seek with an earnest desire for truth to learn the
relation of those glittering constellations of the shining Zodiac
to the human soul and their influence in shaping its eternal
destiny. This will reveal the whole of involution and evolution
in a general sense.
A faithful, earnest and devout study of the "Science of the
Starry Heavens" will lead us on to other planes of thought,
relating to still more interior realms of knowledge than we
perhaps now dream of, and, in the words of the master: "A true
knowledge of the stars will include a true knowledge of the
soul," and we shall realize "the mystical link that binds the
soul to the stars." MINNIE HIGGIN.
CHAPTER 1
THE ZODIAC
To the ordinary astrologer the Zodiac is simply a band of space,
eighteen degrees wide, in the heavens, the center of which marks
out the pathway of the Sun during the space of one year of 365
days, etc.
The twelve signs are to him simply thirty degrees of the space
(12 times 30 equal 360), bearing the names of the constellations
which once occupied them. Nay, he, as a rule, still imagines in
some sense that the signs (constellations) are still there, and
that the power and potency of the twelve signs is derived from
the stars which occupy the Zodiacal band of the skies.
But this is not so, as any ordinary astronomer well knows. This
single fact, i.e., the gradual shifting of the constellations,
the DISPLACEMENT, let us say, of the starry influx from one sign
to another without any ALLOWANCE being made in the astrologer's
rules for any such change, has been one of the greatest
obstructions to the popular spread of the art among EDUCATED
MINDS. Argues the scientist: The "fiery influence of Aries," if
depending upon the stars of that constellation, ought now to be
shedding forth their caloric from the sign Pisces, and Aries
ought to be lumbering along with the earthy Taurine nature. So,
also, the lords of these signs ought to be changed, but that they
are not can be proved by the fact that our earliest records of
that dim, historic past show, equally as well as your latest
"text-book," that Mars is the lord of Aries--a fiery planet in a
fiery sign; but astrologers still say that Pisces is watery and
Aries fiery, WHICH IS NOT THE CASE, IF THE STARS HAVE ANY
INFLUENCE AT ALL. It is not necessary," say these logical
thinkers, "to learn your abstruse science if we can demonstrate
that the very basis upon which your conclusions rest is in every
sense fundamentally false." The scientific facts of the case are
as follows: The influence of the twelve signs, as described by
astrologers, is a delusion, because in all ages they are reported
the same; whereas WE KNOW that every 2,160 years each sign
retrogrades to the extent of thirty degrees, and, as your art
does not make allowance for this, it is false. For, if the
influence of the twelve signs does not emanate from the stars
occupying the space of those signs, it must emanate from
nothing--a doctrine well suited, no doubt, to musty old sages of
your superstitious Chaldea, but quite out of court in our
progressive age--the last decade of our cultured and scientific
nineteenth century.
So far, so good. And so the world rolls along its bright pathway
in the heavens, little heeding the logical conclusions of an
exact science. But to an initiate of those inner principles of
our planet's constitution all these mental conflicts have a
meaning and a purpose within Nature's divine economy; for it is
neither wise nor expedient that the masses, with popular science
in the lead, should grasp the truths which Mother Nature reserves
ALONE for her own devoted priests.
The shining Zodiac, with its myriad constellations and its
perfect galaxy of starry systems, derives its subtle influence,
as impressed astrologically upon the human constitution, from the
solar center of our solar system, NOT FROM THE STARS which occupy
the twelve mansions of space. Aries, the fiery, and PISCES, the
watery, ARE ALWAYS THERE, and, instead of its being an argument
against astrology, it is one of its grandest truths that, in all
ages and in all times, Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac has
been found EVER THE SAME, equally as well as Pisces the last.
In order to convey our meaning, let us digress for a moment and
bring forth a fitting illustration. The condition of our
atmosphere and the surrounding objects--vegetation, etc.--have a
peculiar condition and a magnetism wholly their own when surveyed
exactly at sunrise. There is a freshness and peculiar sense of
buoyancy not visible at any other time. If this state could be
registered by any instrument and compared with any other set
periods during the day, it would offer a remarkable contrast. Two
hours later there is a very different influence, and at noon
there is a wonderful contrast. The same may be said of sunset,
and again at midnight; and, lastly, note the difference two hours
before dawn. This is the coolest period of the whole twenty-four
hours. These are facts, and yet our hearts are all beating to the
same life-flow, and the Earth is no farther away from the parent
Sun; and yet it is the angle at which we, THE INHABITANTS,
receive this Sun's light that makes all the difference between
dawn and sunset, noon and midnight.
When to these facts it is further added that it is sunrise, noon,
sunset and midnight at the same instant, all the time, to some of
the various, different portions of the globe, it demonstrates
most conclusively that the Earth itself is enveloped, so to say,
in a complete circle of conditions very similar to the twelve
signs of the celestial Zodiac.
If we apply the foregoing illustration to the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, we shall see a perfect analogy. We shall find that when
the Sun reaches the celestial equator, so that it is equal day
and equal night on the Earth, that he is on the line of the
celestial horizon; it is cosmic sunrise. Hence Aries, the fiery
Azoth, begins his active influx, and extends for thirty degrees,
equal to two hours of the natural day.
It is the fiery red streams of awakening life that we all
manifest at sunrise; then comes a change of magnetic polarity
after the first fiery flush of cosmic life; the gleeful
chattering of the birds and the cackling of the poultry. A
reaction is noted; all things before active become restful and
quiet.
So it is with vegetation, so it is with infant life, and so it is
with cosmic conditions.
This corresponds with the sign Taurus. It is the solar influx,
thirty degrees removed from his point of equilibrium toward the
North. As this sign represents the powers of absorption, we see
that at this period vegetable and animal life is quietly
absorbing, for its own use, the fiery streams of solar life.
Again we view the activity of solar influx from a different angle
and change of polarity, and all things become active, It is
executive force. This corresponds to the sign Gemini. It is the
solar influx, sixty degrees removed from his point of
equilibrium. Then comes another change of magnetic polarity. It
is rest from labor; it is noon. This corresponds to Cancer. The
analogy is perfect. It is the solar influx, ninety degrees
removed from his point of equilibrium toward the North, and the
highest point in the arc of his apparent journey and of cosmic
life. It is the equilibrium of life forces.
Again the fiery influx begins its activity, and, as the hottest
part of the day is about two hours after noon, or middle of the
day, so is solar influx most potent at this point in the Zodiac.
This corresponds to the sign Leo. It is the solar influx, removed
120 degrees from his point of equilibrium and thirty degrees
toward the South. And so on month after month, until the last
one, Pisces, which well corresponds to the watery skies of
February and the lifeless period two hours before dawn of a new
day upon the Earth, a new year to man and a new cycle in the
starry heavens. The Zodiac, then, as it applies to the human
constitution and the science of astrology, has its foundation in
the Sun, the center and source of life to the planet; and the
twelve signs are the twelve great spaces of our Earth's annual
orbit about her solar parent, each one typical of its month, and
each month typical of its corresponding action upon our Earthy
conditions.
As each sunrise is different in its aspects, so are no two signs
of the Zodiac alike. The sunrise on the first of March is wholly
different from the sunrise upon the first of May. So is the
beginning and ending of each sign, and the beginning and ending
of each natural day, peculiar unto itself.
When we reflect upon the inner laws of this action and
interaction, we come nearer and nearer to the one great occult
fact, viz.: THE DIVINE ONENESS OF LIFE.
We find a perfect analogy between the destiny, the life, and
expression of life on the Earth, and the life and material
destiny of embodied man. He, too, has his sunrise, the beginning
of a new day of life, the seedtime, the flowering season, when
life wears a roseate hue; the ripening fruits of experience, his
harvest-time--it may be tares or golden grain; his gradual decay,
the ebbing of the life forces and the icy winter of death; his
gentle zephyrs and destructive hurricanes, floods and tempests,
periods of drought and plenty. Within his triune constitution
there are spring tides and low tides of physical, intellectual
and spiritual forces. Man also makes the annual journey about the
solar center, when, at the beginning of each new year to him, the
life forces of his soul are renewed, regalvanized, so to say,
according to the magnetic polarity of his constitution.
And so, every form of life has its Zodiac, its orbit of life and
destiny. It may be infinitesimal, or vast beyond conception, each
in its own peculiar plane. So we see that, the whole visible
universe is one vast organism, the medium of expression for the
invisible, real universe-- the soul and God, the great central
Sun, the eternal center of all life, binding the whole into
unity--ONE LIFE.
The celestial signs of the shining Zodiac have no existence to us
apart from the graceful and unwearying motion of our Mother
Earth. She alone makes our seasons, years and destiny; and she
alone, by her motion about the Sun, determines the thrones and
mansions of the planetary powers.
The astrological Zodiac of a Saturn or a Mars cannot be like
ours. Their years and seasons are peculiar to themselves and
their material conditions; hence the twelve constellations have
no existence as objective facts of concrete formation or cosmic
potentiality. No! But as unalterable symbols of occult truth, the
starry pictures of the shining constellations have an eternal
verity. They pertain to the living realities of the human soul
and its varied experience.
What the mysteries are, and what connection they have with the
twelve constellations, will form the subject of our next chapter.
CHAPTER II
THE CONSTELLATIONS
The twelve great constellations of the zodiacal belt which forms
the Earth's orbit and the Sun's shining pathway around the
celestial universe have been considered as mere imaginary
figures, or emblems, invented by an early, primitive people to
distinguish the monthly progress of the Sun and mark out, in a
convenient manner, the twelve great divisions, or spaces, of the
solar year. To this end, IT IS THOUGHT, the various star groups,
termed constellations, were fancifully imagined to represent the
various physical aspects of the month, under, or into, which they
were consecrated by the Sun's passage during the annual journey,
so that, in some sense, the, twelve signs or constellations were
symbolical, not only of the seasons, but also of the labors of
the year.
That such a system seems perfectly natural to the learned
mythologist, and that granting the ancients so much is a very
great concession toward this CHILDISH KNOWLEDGE is, of course,
quite excusable when we are constantly told, or reminded, that
actual science--that is to say, "EXACT SCIENCE," does not date
backward more than a couple of centuries at most.
Even the modern astrologer, much as be descants upon the
influence of the twelve signs, has but little, if any, real
knowledge of this matter above and beyond the purely physical
symbolism above mentioned. And perhaps it is as well that such a
benighted condition prevails, and that the Divine, heavenly
goddess is unsought and comparatively unknown. The celestial
Urania, at least, in such isolation remains pure and undefiled.
She is free from the desecrating influence of polluted minds.
Such, in brief outline, is the general conception of mankind
regarding the shining constellations that bedeck, like fiery
jewels, their Maker's crown, and illumine with their celestial
splendor the wondrous canopy of our midnight skies. Is there no
more than a symbol of rural work in the bright radiance of the
starry Andromeda, the harbinger of gentle spring? Nothing, think
you, but the fruit harvest and the vintage is in the fiery,
flushing luster of Antares and the ominous Scorpion? Are men so
spiritually blind that they can perceive nothing but the symbol
of maturing vegetation and the long summer's day in the glorious
splendor of Castor and his starry mate and brother, Pollux? It
would, indeed, seem so, so dead is the heart and callous the
spiritual understanding of our own benighted day. To the initiate
of Urania's mysteries, however, these dead, symbolic pictures
become endowed with life; these emblems of rural labor or rustic
art transform themselves from the hard, chrysolitic shell and
expand into the fully developed spiritual flowers of spiritual
entities, revealing in their bright, radiating lines the awful
mystery of the soul's genesis, its evolution and eternal
progressive destiny amid the mighty, inconceivable creations yet
to come; pointing out each step and cycle in the soul's
involution from its differentiation as a pure spiritual entity, a
ray of Divine intelligence, to the crystallization of its
spiritual forces in the realms of matter and its evolution of
progressive life; the same eternal symbols of the springtime, the
glorious summer, the autumn and winter of its eternal being.
In making this attempt, probably the very first within the era,
to convey in plain and undisguised terms the interior mysteries
of the twelve constellations, the reader and student is advised
to ponder deeply upon the outlines presented. The subject is too
vast to present in one or two chapters. Therefore we hope that
this revelation may incite the student to further research. The
real significance, the true, spiritual importance of such
mysteries, can only be realized and fully appreciated after
prolonged meditation and careful study.
With this brief digression, which we consider needed advice, we
will resume our task, and attempt to usher our student into the
weird labyrinth of Solomon's starry temple--"the house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens."
1. Aries
"First Aries, in his golden wool."
This constellation represents the first Divine idea, the "word"
of the Kabbalist, and the first active manifestation of the
glorious En Soph. In other words, it is MIND IN ACTION, the first
pulsation of Deity in the dual aspects of "Lord and Creator." To
the human soul it is, and always typifies, the unknown, invisible
power which we term INTELLIGENCE; THAT WHICH KNOWS, and gives
unto each Deific atom of life that distinguishing, universal, yet
deathless force which not only constitutes its spiritual identity
and physical individuality, but enables it to pronounce, in the
presence of its Creator, those mystic words: "I am that I am." In
other words, this beautiful constellation symbolizes the first
pulsation of that ray of pure intelligence which constitutes the
Divine Ego of the human soul. It is the force that impels ever
onward the life atom in its evolutionary progress, and reveals to
us the beginning, or first manifestation, of the Divine Ego as an
active, self-existing atom of Infinite spirit, within angelic
spheres.
Seeing the actual, spiritual reality symbolized in Aries, how
easy it is to note its full significance upon the external plane
when refracted and reflected into the planes below through the
complex action of the human organism, conveying the same radical
influx in the first astrological month and the first sign of the
Zodiac. We can read a perfect parallel in the astral influx upon
the human body, as set forth in the "Light of Egypt," vol. I,
which says Aries symbolizes the sacrifice and represents the
springtime, the beginning of a new year. The first action of pure
intelligence brought forth the first expression of form, and led
to the sacrifice of its angelic state, and, having gained the
victory over the lower realms of matter, once more the springtime
of a new life, with the promise of life, light and love.
The sign Aries represents the thinking powers of humanity; in
short, the active, intellectual being, the lord of material
creation--Man; and in its cosmic relations, as shown under "The
Occult Application of the Twelve Signs" (vol. I), we find the
same perfect analogy.
II. Taurus
"He (Aries) turns and wonders at the mighty Bull (Taurus)."
The second constellation of the shining twelve represents the
first reaction of spiritual conception. In other words, it is the
mind's attention to its own ideas. In the Kabbalah it represents
that peculiar state of executive force whereof it is symbolically
said: "And the Lord saw that it was good," after each act of
creation.
When intelligence first manifests itself form is a matter of
necessity, and, as no form can possibly exist without matter, so
Taurus is the first emanation of matter in its most etherealized
state. Hence it is feminine, Venus the ruler thereof, and it
represents the first pure form of the human soul, as it existed
in its bright paradise within the angelic spheres of its parents,
and reveals to us the first surprise of intelligence in embryo,
the first sensation of consciousness, so to say--conscious of its
Divine selfhood. Hence "He (the male spirit of pure fire, Aries),
glorious in his golden (solar) wool, turns (expressing reaction)
and wonders at the mighty bull (or material form)." Thus the
first idea of pure intelligence in embryo, the result of action
in Aries, becomes objective to its consciousness and is surprised
at its own conception. It is the first sensation of pure, Divine
love within angelic realms, and it (the male spirit of pure fire)
sees that it is good.
Bringing this spiritual reality within our conception, and
comparing it with its reflected astrological influx, what a
beautiful harmony we find, and yet so simple that verily we
cannot refrain from once more quoting our old-time, worn, yet,
nevertheless, golden law: "AS IT IS ABOVE, SO IT IS BELOW; AS ON
THE EARTH, SO IN THE SKY." Reflecting that Taurus is an Earthy
sign, and a symbol of servitude, we see that matter is ever the
servant of spirit, a necessary means for the manifestation of
intelligence, again recognized in the fecundating forces of this
astrological sign on every plane of its action. And it is ruled
by Venus, the love element in Nature, her sympathies ever finding
expression in this beautiful sign. What can be clearer, more
understandable, than, that the involved principles and Deific
attributes, as represented by the shining constellations, when
refracted through the human organism, so complex in its
constitution, reflects qualities which are the external and
parallel expression of the subjective principles, and, further,
that form is absolutely necessary for the manifestation of
intelligence?
III. Gemini
"He (Taurus) bending lies with threatening bead, and calls the
Twins (Gemini) to rise. They clasp for fear and mutually
embrace."
This bright constellation (Castor and Pollux), Gemini, is
spiritually representative of the second spiritual action. Hence
it is, of course, a masculine sign and positive. We have
witnessed act I of the soul's drama, and, as some have said,
tragedy, and in this, the third of the shining twelve, we find
the opening scene of act II, viz: The evolution of the twin
souls, or, more correctly, the differentiation of the Divine soul
into its two natural component parts--male and female.
Here we approach one of the most arcane secrets within the wide
scope of Occult philosophy, hence must be exact, and at the same
time clear, in our statements. Note, then, that after the male
spirit of pure, ethereal, divine fire (Aries) bad conceived the
first idea, and Taurus, the material envelope, had given that
idea objective existence to its (the Ego's) consciousness, we
find SENSATION AS THE RESULT. No sooner sensation than
aspiration; i.e., longing. This closes the action and the
reaction.
Ever, in obedience to the unsatisfied wants of an immortal soul
Nature immediately responds. Hence "He bending lies with
threatening head, (that is demanding)," and calls the twins (the
twin souls) to rise (to appear or evolve forth)," and as a first
rude shock caused by their separation, or, rather, by their
separate existence as two distinct, yet mutually dependent,
forces, we have the context.
"They clasp for fear and mutually embrace."
This most impressive scene in the soul's drama is one of profound
interest and sublime beauty.
In the Kabbalah we find the same parallel, wherein it is stated:
"And so God created man in His own image (the action of Aries and
Taurus); in His own image (mind) created He him, male and female
created He them." In other words, Aries, Taurus and Gemini are
thus spoken of in pure allegory.
The mundane Bible of the Jews, like everything else esteemed
sacred, finds its original and perfect expression in the great
Astral Bible of the skies.
To the average student the evolution of the Twin Souls is a
profound mystery, embracing, as it does, the whole of involution
and evolution, seeing that this beautiful constellation
represents to us the first recognition, or consciousness, of the
Divine Ego of its dual forces, sensation and aspiration, called
forth by the action of Aries and Taurus. How beautifully has the
poet expressed this first pulsation of Divine love: "They clasp
for fear," etc. Evolved by the Divine will of pure intelligence,
they must ever remain as separate, yet mutually dependent,
forces, positive and negative, male and female, upon whose action
and reaction rest the perfect evolvement of the powers and
possibilities of the One.
In order to clearly grasp the whole of these ramifications, we
again invite our student's careful attention to the same sign,
Gemini, in its astrological aspect, as it is representatively
expressed by refraction upon the human organism. We find that
this sign (the representative of the constellation always)
signifies the union of reason with intuition, and that it governs
the arms, hands and executive forces of man.
Surely, as we reflect upon the almost marvelous
inter-relationship between things spiritual and things temporal,
we must conclude, with the man Jesus, that "They have eyes but
they see not, and ears, but alas they hear not."
If it were not so man would, indeed, by virtue of the latent
forces within him, take the kingdom of Heaven by storm and reign
supreme as enthroned king of all material forms. Man, in his
blindness, has relegated intuition to obscurity; has neglected
the cunning of the left hand and debauched the pure love of the
divine state. Consequently, the executive forces within him are
unbalanced, thus rendering him the slave of material forms,
instead of being their lawful sovereign. Therefore, not until,
with clean hands and pure heart, he restores intuition to her
throne, united with reason, can he hope to COMPREHEND the reality
of this arcane mystery of the twin souls, Gemini.
IV. Cancer
"And next the Twins with an unsteady pace
Bright Cancer rolls."
In this beautiful constellation we witness the reaction of
Gemini, the closing scene in act II. Hence it is, of course, a
feminine force we are observing. In other words, it is that
period (or rather one of them) wherein the Kabbalah expresses the
reaction of the En Soph, via his Creators, as "And behold the
Lord saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very
good."
Just so Cancer, spiritually interpreted, means equalizing, hence
HARMONY, which is indeed very good as contradistinguished from
chaos.
To the human soul Cancer is the period of exalted rest. It is the
highest point in the arc of the Divine Soul's Angelic Cycle. From
this glorious, but subjective, summit or altitude in the realm of
spirit it must descend.
Restless energy and the still unsatisfied longings of its own
immortal nature are the forces that bring such evolution about.
Having evolved the dual forces of its divine nature, the Ego sees
that it is good and rests from its labor. But as this exalted
state is purely subjective, and ideal, it must of necessity, to
satisfy the longing for further unfoldment and desire to know,
descend into material realms and conditions. From this point
begins the soul's involution downward, until the lowest point in
the arc is reached, viz., Capricorn.
Refer now to the sign Cancer, and carefully study out the
parallel upon its astrological planes and also under its Occult
aspects, as given forth in the "Light of Egypt," Vol. I, where we
read: "Cancer rules the respiratory and digestive functions of
humanity, and governs the reflective organs of the brain." Note
the parallel. Within subjective realms the Divine soul has
inspired and assimilated all that is possible to that angelic
state, and knows a period of blissful rest. But the longings of
its immortal nature urge on the soul. So we see that the sign
Cancer symbolizes tenacity to life; to live we must breathe and
eat and assimilate upon every plane of our being. It necessarily
follows that, the mentality expressed by Cancer must be
susceptible to inspirational currents; to inspire is to indraw.
In its application, we find that this sign symbolizes love. How
beautiful the harmony and contrast of the constellation and its
astrological representative.
V. Leo
"Then Leo shakes his mane."
Herein is typified the third grand spiritual action which, as we
find throughout Nature, travel in pairs; hence Leo is a positive,
masculine constellation.
Having attained the highest point in the super-celestial states
of subjective, embryonic existence; having evolved sensation and
aspiration; now, inspired by a desire for immortality, the DUAL
SOUL of the Divine Ego is once more impelled forward; but, as all
evolution works in spirals, it cannot ascend higher without first
apparently descending lower; so ever onward in its eternal march.
This beautiful constellation symbolizes the first action on the
downward portion of the are. It is the affinities of the heart,
so to say, working from within to without.
Matter, in its more etherealized form, begins to assert its sway.
The allegorical serpent of Eden is working upon the feminine
portion, symbolized by the heart, and, like a magnetic tractor,
the soul's affinities are drawn downward, and, as if in defiance
of all responsibilities, consequences, and Karma, the soul,
lion-like, "shakes his mane in the imperiousness of deathless
courage."
As we read these weird allegories, written by Deity in the starry
vaults of heaven, the interested soul bows in reverence and awe
before that almighty power we term Providence, and the profane
call God.
No man has altered these pure records of divinity; no finger has
interpolated one single line. They are as beautifully clear to
the soul now as they were in the very dawn of Nature's awful
creation.
To the Initiate into Urania's mysteries it is unnecessary to draw
a parallel between the constellation and its astrological sign.
They are too clear, magnificent and impressive to escape notice.
To the majority of students the resembance may not be so
apparent, hence, for their benefit, we will point out a few
aspects of this interesting parallel.
We read that the sign Leo is the "solar Lion of the mysteries,
that, ripens with his own internal heat the fruits brought forth
from the Earth by the moisture of Isis (the soul)." Just so, the
Divine Ego, by its eternal energy and strength, the pure fire of
intelligence, externalizes through material forms the principles
involved in the downward portion of the arc, as qualities and
attributes of the soul (reflected in the physical man as traits
and qualities). Again we are told, "this sign reveals to us the
ancient sacrifice and the laws of its compensation." In the
imperiousness of a deathless courage, the soul defies all
consequences and responsibilities. Surely, this is the supreme
sacrifice, to leave its pure, Edenic state to gain knowledge, to
evolve its latent forces. And from this lion of the Tribe of
Judah, is born that Divine love and sympathy which ultimately
redeems and purifies the soul and saves it from death in matter.
The laws of its compensation are fulfilled in the prefected man.
In its intellectual aspect, we learn that the mental forces of
those dominated by this sign are ever striving to attain unto
some higher state. Their ideas are grand, compared with the
nature of the constellation, and all that it implies. The
reflection is clear, natural and beautiful. When we reflect upon
this awful period in the involution of the dual souls of the
Divine Ego, as symbolized by the constellation, and the grand
truths represented by the astrological sign when refracted
through the human organism, the reason for Leo being named the
Royal Sign becomes quite plain.
VI. Virgo
"And following Virgo calms his rage again."
Beautifully expressive are these lines to those who read their
mystic import aright. Virgo is the reaction of the leonine force,
and is, consequently, a feminine symbol.
Action and reaction are the eternal laws upon which the cosmos is
founded. They constitute the inseparable affinities, attraction
and repulsion, of everything within the realm of manifested
being. In this mystic constellation, we see the first ideas of
maternal instinct arise. This is a necessary result of the
impulsive action of the heart in Leo--the reaction from a state
of imperious, defiance. The heat of rage or energy and deathless
courage results in the IDEAS of something to be encountered,
overcome, and of self-preservation. The dual soul descends still
another volve in the spiral of its celestial journey toward
crystallized forms.
Virgo, the Virgin of the skies, and eternal symbol of that
Divine, immaculate conception, shows wherein these forces lie.
Here is conceived, in a pure, holy sense, the first instinct of
love within the dual soul. It represents that awful period in the
Biblical Garden of Eden, wherein the VIRGIN WIFE stands before
the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, where she is fascinated
by the allurements of matter and is unconsciously becoming
enveloped in the coils of the serpent. In other words, after the
cosmic force had SHAKEN ITS MANE in defiance of material forces,
it is the reaction of his subjective half which sees HOW GOOD
material things are; or, in other words, "and following Virgo
calms his rage again." The masculine half, or positive force of
the soul, yields to temptation and is soothed by the alluring
prospects.
It will be noticed in this connection that pity, reflection, and
compassion, are the peculiar actions of the sign Virgo in the
Zodiac (not the constellation), and that astrologically it
governs the bowels. This symbolism is really very beautiful when
closely compared and studied. That immaculate conception of pure
love of the soul for its other half, upon the astrological plane,
becomes refracted and reacts as compassion and pity. Again, the
soul, within subjective realms, sees how good material things
are, and its refraction represents the assimilating functions of
the human organism. It also reveals to us the significance of the
Lord's Supper. At this stage of its journey, the Divine Ego knows
for the last time that close communion with the twin soul before
the crucifixion, the wine typical of the sacrifice, the bread,
and the sustaining forces, of its own immortal being.
The intellectual aspect of the sign Virgo forms a perfect analogy
to the constellation, and is too evident for further remarks.
VII. Libra
"Then day and night are weighed in Libra's scales;
Equal awhile, at last the night prevails."
Another volve in the spiral, and we reach the grand climax of the
soul's journey, within the spiritual world.
The nature of this constellation was, for ages, concealed from
all but Initiates; for the reason that, it contains the most
important mysteries connected with the human soul. It is the
grand transition are between the spiritual world and the astral
world; in other words, between ideal conceptions and elemental
forms, between the world of design and the realms of force.
One of the chief mysteries of Libra is, that, it is androgyne, or
bisexual, in nature. So far the dual soul has evolved within the
realms of spirituality; here it stands, in the celestial balance,
between the two, giving way to temptation, takes the forbidden
fruit and instantly awakes from its purely spiritual state to
become surrounded by the illusions of matter. The struggle of the
soul with the attracting forces of matter is very clearly
expressed in the line:--
"Equal awhile, at last the night prevails."
In other words, astral and physical darkness bedim the soul's
spiritual sight, and, leaving the realms of innocence and bliss,
they sink into the vortex of the great astral world.
The celestial state is now forever lost as a realm of angelic
innocence. It can only be regained amid trial, sorrow, suffering,
and experience, and, when regained, it is as Lord and Master, not
as the innocent cherub. But when, having gained or reached the
equator of the upward arc of its progress, and, united once more
to its missing half, gives expression to that deathless force
with which it started from the opposite point, Aries: "I AM THAT
I AM;" no longer an embryo, but being within the UNIVERSAL SOUL
of being. Before closing this symbolic constellation, we must
reveal the mystery of its BI-SEXUAL NATURE. In the higher or
first portion of the sign it is {}, positive to some extent, and
masculine. The soul is still within the Garden of Eden and pure,
clad in the raiment of God, and is represented by the Chaldean
statues of "The Bearded Venus," or Venus, the Angel of Libra, as
a morning star, bright Lucifer. But in the latter half, after the
fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (positive and
negative, you see) has been partaken of, bright Lucifer falls.
The Sun of the Morning, shorn of his glory, becomes the symbol of
night, or Vesper, the evening star, and the symbol is thus {},
and the soul loses its heavenly raiment, or spiritual
consciousness, and becomes clothed with matter, the symbol of
night.
The sign Libra in the Zodiac, in its astrological aspect, is a
very external correspondence of all the foregoing.
VIII. Scorpio
"And, longer grown, the heavier scale inclines,
And draws bright Scorpio from the winter signs."
We now behold the gates of Paradise guarded by the FLAMING SWORD
which points to the four quarters of the world. This sword is,
according to Genesis, "to guard the way of the tree of life," and
such, esoterically, it really is.
The soul is no longer dual, but separated into male and female
personalities; "and behold they see that they are naked."
Stripped of their spiritual raiment, they feel the chill of
matter and the lusts of an animal nature. They need clothing, "so
God made them coats of skin." Sex is the symbolism herein
typified, and the evolution of the animal passions of
procreation, of multiplication and evolution. It is the complete
entry of the soul into elemental conditions, and the flaming
sword guarding the four quarters of the Earth to the way of life
are the four great realms of the astral world; the way to
physical life in concrete forms; and the way to life eternal
through the realms of the Sylphs, Gnomes, Undines and
Salamanders. They are the basis of all matter, known as Air,
Earth, Water and Fire. Here we see that, through the evolution of
sex and its accompanying desire for procreation, these blind
forces of Nature find their avenue of expression. Spiritual
consciousness almost lost, and without reason, the soul becomes
the prey, so to say, of these forces of the astral world, which
is the realm of design. The soul's creations must be met and
vanquished upon the upward arc of the Cycle of Progress. They
guard or oppose the way to eternal life. Here the soul, having
gained the victory, stripped forever of its earthy raiment and
the lusts of the flesh, arrayed once more in its spiritual
raiment, purified and sanctified, it will stand once more at the
gates of Paradise, where, reunited with its missing half, it will
partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life and become as Gods.
Astrologically the correspondence is perfect, and so thinly
disguised as to need no explanation.
IX. Sagittarius
"Him Centaur follows with an aiming eye,
His bow full-drawn, and ready to let fly."
Deeper and deeper sinks the soul into material forms. The
evolution of sex has produced the necessary avenues for the
entrance of countless forces, and the soul is now rapidly losing
the last vestiges of its spiritual conscience. In other words,
Sagittarius symbolizes that state of the soul wherein it is
descending to its polarizing point, and is, therefore, the vortex
of innumerable opposing forces, seeking expression in different
forms.
"It is the bow (strength or force of the soul), FULL-drawn and
ready to let fly" its arrows (of energy) in any direction that
may afford proper opportunity. Here we see the expression of that
deathless, fiery force, and imperious daring and courage, within
more material states; the primal fire reflected from another
angle.
But everything is unsettled. It is a masculine force, and
restless, and is represented under the allegory of the "Tower of
Babel" and the utter dispersion of the people (entities) to the
four corners of the Earth, and finally becomes involved in dense
matter, and its migrations are at an end on this side of the
Cycle of Necessity.
Upon the astrological plane, the zodiacal sign Sagittarius rules
the motive forces and the pedestrian instinct, the thighs, or
basis of locomotion; hence, we see, even here, a most perfect
analogy. This sign symbolizes, also, the governing forces of
humanity, which see the necessity of law and order; hence
government. In this expression, we find the bow (strength or
force) ready to let fly its arrows of energy in any direction the
opportunity may afford; when refracted upon the human organism
and reflected upon the external plane, these forces manifest as
the restless spirit, that ever impels onward, seeking new fields
of expression, out of which develops a sense of order,
restraining and training, or the governing of self and control of
others. When we reflect upon these symbols of starry truths the
mind bows in reverence before the wisdom that created them.
X. Capricorn
"Next narrow horns the twisted Caper shows."
The Goat, and in the realms of spirit, the crystallized mineral
is the reaction of the former, and shows to us death, inertia and
rest; hence Kronos, or Saturn, the symbol of death, is lord of
this state and condition. It is the polarizing point of the
soul's evolution in matter, and therefore, forms the lowest are
in the Cycle of Necessity.
Herein we behold the soul, imprisoned within the mineral state.
The fire of the flint, and the spark in the crystal, are the only
avenues of its lonesome expressions. But, as the lowest point, it
is also the promise of a higher, and the symbol of a higher
state, and the symbol of another spiral in its endless life.
This constellation, as the symbol of inertia and death, is also
the symbol of awakening life, and prepares the soul for the more
perfect expression of its powers in its forthcoming upward
journey. If we pause for a moment and consider the force and
power necessary to evolve out of this dark, dense, mineral realm,
the foregoing sentence will become clear and forcible. Hitherto,
the soul has been slowly drawn down into coils of matter,
imprisoned by material forces. It has penetrated the lowest
depths, and can go no farther. Rest here, is to gather strength,
force. Mark well the difference and parallel between Cancer and
Capricorn, opposite points in the arc. Cancer is the symbol of
exalted rest within angelic realms; Capricorn the symbol of rest
in dense matter. From the former state the soul is impelled
forward on its downward journey; from the latter state the soul
awakens to the struggle for life on the upward are; and must now
give expression to the positive powers of its immortal being,
which have become involved in material form; that shall make it
the master, and give it the victory over death and material
forces. Surely, this is truly the promise of a new day, and
higher state of existence.
It will he instructive to study this by a comparison of the
zodiacal sign, Capricorn, as set forth in the "Light of Egypt,"
Vol. 1, wherein we read: "This sign signifies the knees, and
represents the first principle in the trinity of locomotion,
viz., the joints, bending, pliable, movable." The analogy is
perfect. The soul, which has been pliant, bending to material
forces, now reverses this action, and bows the knee in awe and
reverence to the higher powers of its being. When refracted upon
the human organism, we find that the cold, lonesome state, and
weary struggle within the mineral realm, becomes love of self,
directing its energies to the attainment of selfish ends. What
could be more natural?
XI. Aquarius
"And from Aquarius' urn a flood o'erflows."
The soul, released from its crystallized cycle of matter, now
rapidly evolves into states, though material, yet entirely
different. Its previous arc, from Libra to Capricorn, has been
amid inorganic matter. It is now rushing with lightning speed
upon its weird, toilsome, upward, journey through purely organic
forms, from vegetable to animal; and, as all organic forms have
their primary origin in water, so does this celestial urn express
the primary conception of this physical state. Further, to more
fully express this, Aquarius is typical of man, as prototype of
the last grand goal of the soul's future material state--in other
words, the last quadrant of the four elements, viz.: Bull, Lion,
Eagle, Man.
There is something exceedingly significant in all this, and the
more we ponder on this spiritual allegory of the shining
constellation, the more we are impressed with the divine wisdom
of those early instructors of our race, who thus preserved truth
in an incorruptible form.
From this weird, but beautiful constellation, we learn how the
soul has progressed, finding innumerable avenues of expression of
its latent forces; the manifestation of its powers in the various
chemical changes, and development of functions expressed through
countless forms, on the lower planes of existence. The sacrifice
of its angelic innocence, the imperious defiance and deathless
courage, symbolized by Leo, have obtained the victory over the
lower kingdoms; which will be incorporated into his vast empire.
Yet, unstable as water, it cannot excel; or, in other words,
cannot rise to a higher state within this are, of its progressive
life.
We find that the astrological expression of this constellation,
the sign Aquarius, governs the legs, and is the natural emblem of
the changeable, moveable, migratory forces, of the body, forming
a perfect parallel with its interior symbol. There is a great
deal contained in this zodiacal sign worthy of deep study and
reflection.
XII. Pisces
"Near their loved waves cold Pisces take their seat,
With Aries join, and make the round complete."
Once more a reaction--the last scene of the soul's impersonal
drama. The constellation (if Pisces is the symbol of rest and
expectation. The soul has now completed the first round, or rung,
in the Cycle of Necessity; and its next state is that of
incarnated man. It has triumphed over every sphere below, and
defied, in turn, every power above, and is now within that sixth
state of the embryonic soul-world that transforms all its past
knowledge, sorrow, and suffering, into experience; and produces
the impersonal man.
It has traveled through constellated states within matter and
spirit, and, as a human soul, with reason, intuition, and
responsibility, it will, in its next state, become subject to
those same powers when reflected from a different plane. The
twelve constellations of its soul will manifest a complete
rapport with the twelve signs of solar light and power.
With this we close. The mystic sign of this constellation is {},
or completion, a seal and a sign of its past labors.
And, as we have seen, the shining constellations are the soul's
progressive history from its genesis, to its appearance within
embodied conditions as man; and so, by correspondence, are the
twelve solar signs symbols of man and his material destiny. The
foundation has been laid, the material and resources are at hand,
for his kingdom is exclusive. With his own hands he must build
his temple (the symbol of the perfected man), each stone
accurately measured, cut, polished, and in its proper place, the
proportions symmetrical, hence, harmonious; the keystone of whose
arch is WILL, its foundation love. This accomplished, be will
have completed the second round of the great Cycle of Necessity.
And who, after contemplating the wondrous harmony of this
beautiful system, and the complete accord of each part, can
refuse to agree with the truly inspired Addison that--
"Ever moving as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine."
CHAPTER III. THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THE TWELVE HOUSES OF
THE HOROSCOPE
As a sequel to the foregoing subjects, viz., the Zodiac and
constellations, we will add the spiritual interpretation of the
twelve houses of an horoscope, which completes the triune
expression of these celestial symbols of eternal truths.
In revealing this mystery, we would impress upon the mind of the
student that the order of the Zodiac is the reverse of the
external, in its spiritual application, to the twelve houses of
the horoscope.
As the four cardinal signs, viz., Aries, Cancer, Libra and
Capricorn, correspond to the four angles of a natal figure, it is
our purpose to explain, first, the symbology of the four angles,
or cardinal points; believing the whole revelation will thus
become clear and forcible.
The four angles of the horoscope correspond to the four elements,
the four triplicities, and the four cardinal points, or epochs,
in the soul's involution from pure spirit to the crystallizing,
inert, mineral state.
The first angle is the ascendant, or House of Life. It is the
eastern horizon, and symbolized by Aries. Upon the interior, this
first angle stands for the birth, or differentiation, of the
Divine Ego, as the result of the creative action, or impulse, of
the Deific mind.
The Ego rises upon the eastern horizon of celestial states, a
glowing, scintillating atom of pure intelligence, an absolute,
eternal Ego, rising out of the ocean of Infinite Love.
The South angle, meridian, or Tenth House, pertaining to honor,
etc., is symbolized by Cancer; the highest point in the arc of
the soul's involution, as a differentiated atom of Deity within
angelic spheres.
Having evolved the first dual expression of its (the Ego's) self,
the twin souls--Sensation and Aspiration, or Love and Wisdom, the
Ego rests awhile, radiant with celestial love and wisdom, and
inspiring the Divine breath of life.
Again the restless impulse of the creative purpose arouses the
Ego to further action. The culminating point has been reached,
and now must begin an apparent downward course toward the western
horizon.
The seventh angle, or House of Marriage, etc., is represented by
Libra (the Balance), or point of equilibrium; where the two souls
are still one, balanced upon the western horizon. The alluring
temptations of material illusions draw the souls downward, and,
divorced from their celestial state, the radiance of Divine love
becomes obscured, until the twilight of consciousness of that
former state is lost in the night of material conditions.
This house signifies, also, law, and open enemies, and (Libra)
justice. Sex is the law. The antagonism is surely too apparent to
require explanation.
The fourth angle, or Nadir, the point opposite the M. C.,
signifies the frozen North, and is symbolized by Capricorn, the
crystallizing point in the soul's involution. It is death,
inertia; that is, crystallization of the soul's spiritual forces.
It is the lowest point of the are in the monad's downward
journey. It is the night, before the awakening of a new day upon
a higher plane of existence.
The remaining houses are the lights and shadows that, fill out
and complete the picture, upon this, the first round of the
Cyclic Ladder.
The Twelfth House, symbolized by Taurus, represents the first
expression of form of the human soul. It is matter in the most
etherealized state. It is the trail of the serpent; the silent,
secret, tenacious, negative principle; that ultimately draws the
soul down into the vortices of gross matter and death.
The Eleventh, or House of Friends, whose symbol is Gemini, the
Twins, expressive of the first emanation of this sublime
relationship, the dual attributes, love and wisdom, closest
friends. It is sensation and aspiration, which enable the spirit
to attain to the exalted state indicated by the Tenth Mansion.
The Ninth Mansion of the celestial map is the House of Science,
Art, Religion, Philosophy, etc., and its symbol is Leo, the
Heart, with its emotions, love, and longings, and sympathies.
Having evolved the twins, and inspiring the Divine breath of
wisdom; glowing with Deific love, the Ego aspires to know; and
all the sympathies of the soul are aroused. Dauntless and
fearless, defying all opposition and consequences, It (the Ego)
is ready to sacrifice this angelic state and explore the
boundless Universe in pursuit of knowledge, and goes forth on its
long voyage upon the ocean of Infinite, fathomless love and
wisdom.
The Eighth, or House of Death and Legacies, is symbolized by
Virgo, the virgin wife, standing before the "Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil," fascinated by the flattering prospects of greater
power and wisdom. Desire and sympathy draw the soul down into
realms which lead to death, and the beginning of a heritage of
sorrow,
The Sixth, or House of Sickness, Menials, and Sorrow, is
symbolized by Scorpio. The fall, from Libra through Scorpio
(sex), created the first condition of what we recognize as
sickness and affliction. It is evident that this house is related
to the elementals of the astral plane, which become the servitors
of man.
The Fifth, or House of Children, etc., symbolized by Sagittarius,
signifies the offspring of sex (Scorpio), entities sent forth to
people the Earth, to take their chances of life, speculating on
its future course, fearlessly eager for the struggle, gaining
pleasure in its migrations and activities.
The Third House is symbolized by Aquarius. This is the first step
of the upward journey, or evolution, from the inert mineral
state. The changes are now rapid; the journeys innumerable;
through mineral, vegetable, and animal planes, of existence.
Here, the Soul Monad brings into actual practice the knowledge
gained on its long voyage. The magical powers of the soul are
brought into action to effect these changes in form and function,
conquering material forces and planes of life, transmuting
Nature's elements to its uses and purposes, and writing its
history, as it journeys ever onward, step by step.
And further, this house stands in opposition to the Ninth House,
symbolized by Leo; longing to expand its (the Ego's)
possibilities through trial and suffering; gaining knowledge
through bitter experience; yet fearlessly braving all things;
guided and sustained by the imperial will of spirit. The
recompense promised by that supreme sacrifice has been won in
Aquarius--the Man--consecrated now to a higher existence,
baptized in the waters of affliction (experience), ready to be
transmuted into actual knowledge. This is Aquarius, and the Third
House.
The Second House, signified as Pisces, the House of Wealth, that
which has been accumulated on the long and toilsome journey--the
wealth of experience, acquired through trials and struggles. And
now, with higher, greater possibilities, the soul eagerly awaits
the hour when it shall be born again, a conscious, responsible
human being, to begin the second round of the Cyclic Ladder; on
this second round, to externalize the knowledge gained, to evolve
the involved attributes and forces of being,--a creature of will
and intellect, to work out its destiny, as the lord of material
creation.
Observe, the order of the Zodiac is reversed upon the external
human plane. But, Aries is always symbolical of the first angle,
and Libra of the seventh, being the point of equilibrium, while
the tenth, or South, angle becomes Capricorn and the fourth
Cancer. The mission of the soul now is to evolve the positive,
spiritual attributes.
Aries rules the brain and the fiery, imperial will. It signifies
courage, daring, etc., the first qualities necessary for the
battle of life. Ruling the head, the sign and house show us the
ability of man to view the field of action, to mark his chart,
and arm for the war (which will be incessant); responsible for
his acts, a creature of unfolding consciousness, an individual,
whose measure of free will enables him to wander so far North or
South of his celestial equator, within his orbit, or Zodiac.
The South angle, or Tenth House, now ruled by Capricorn, tells of
the honor, position, fame, etc. (or the reverse) acquired by
patient labor. The crystallized material gains, the concrete
result of ambition, skill, and talent, which will, at the close
of his earthly career, become liquefied by the universal
resolvent; symbolized by Cancer upon the opposite angle,
symbolical of the grave, the end of mundane affairs; when they
will be mirrored forth in new forms in that great white sea,
according to the manner in which he gained his worldly
accumulations and prestige.
The seventh angle is Libra, House of Marriage; that all-important
relation which may make or mar a life, the Balance is so easily
disturbed in its equilibrium. To preserve its harmony, equality
must reign, blending love and wisdom. It is the perfect poise of
body, mind, and soul, achieved by loving obedience to the higher
laws of our being and the true union of intuition and reason.
The Second House, now represented by Taurus, shows us that
personal wealth and possessions must come through patient
servitude, steady application, and diligence, in being able to
choose and assimilate the knowledge, that will enable man to
battle with material conditions, and wrest from the abundant
sources of Mother Nature his share of treasure and experience. It
is the battle-ground to which humanity, armed with brain and
will, life and energy, goes forth to battle with material forces
for the bread he must earn by the sweat of his brow, and through
the silent, subtle forces of mind and soul conquer matter, thus
storing up a wealth of knowledge and experience.
The Third House is ruled by Gemini, the Twins, Reason and
Intuition, the brethren who aid and guide us on our many journeys
in the pursuit of knowledge. As this sign governs the hands and
arms and the executive forces of humanity, we see, that, the
hands become the magical agents of mind, moulding into outward
form the ideas conceived in the mind, projecting these into the
field of active life, that he may write a bright record in the
Book of Life. The hands should be kept clean, the images pure;
and the perfect poise gained by the equal exercise of love and
wisdom, intuition and reason, making the basis of education; the
evolution of the interior or real self. This is the true meaning
of this house upon the external plane. it is Occult, because it
means projecting the powers of the soul into conscious life,
externalizing the qualities and magical forces of spirit, as
shown in the first instance by Aquarius. This can be accomplished
only through pure desire and aspiration. Otherwise, the
unbalanced scales, with floods and cataclysms, will be the
results.
The Fifth House, ruling children, etc., is symbolized by Leo (the
Heart). The joys and sorrows that offspring of every kind bring,
all belong to this House of the Heart. The sacrifice indicated is
too obvious for comment.
The Sixth House governs sickness, disease, etc., and its symbol
is Virgo, an Earthy sign, clearly showing us that the material
form is the matrix, out of which are born disease and suffering.
But, the perfect assimilation of the fruit of the "Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil;" transmuting the trials, experiences,
sorrows, and suffering of the physical and external life into
true wisdom; makes man master of his material universe; and the
blind forces of Nature become his servants. Having accomplished
the task, and attained the harmonious poise, or balance, in
Libra, the individualized soul arrives at the eighth step in the
journey.
The Eighth House, or House of Death and Legacies (Scorpio). The
old Adam dies. The sensuous has no place in the balanced,
harmonious being, but recognizes sex as the law, the door to
regeneration now, and that a new legacy is awaiting him.
The Ninth House, Sagittarius. where, with the knowledge acquired,
self sits in judgment upon the works of the hands and mind,
whether or no they have been well done; the sacrifice of the
lower nature properly made, control of the triune being
established, the transmutations correct and accurate,
assimilation perfect and free from dross, harmony gained by
loving obedience to the higher law of being, and thus becomes
ruler of his kingdom; the long journey almost accomplished, so
far as Earth is concerned, perceiving and understanding that all
sciences, philosophies, and religions, have their origin from one
primal source. Having penetrated the depths in reverent obedience
to the Divine law of creation, and evolved the attributes of the
dual constitution, the forces of his being become crystallized.
He has reached the culmination of his earthly pilgrimage, and
stands forth the perfected human reflection of the higher self.
The Eleventh House is represented by Aquarius on the human plane.
Friends surround and welcome him. These friends are the pure
thoughts, noble impulses, lofty ideals, and generous deeds. The
bread cast upon the Waters of Life returns to nourish and sustain
him in his encounter with the secret foes, symbolized by the
Twelfth House and Pisces. The idols, false ideas, and vampires of
his own creation, are to be cleansed and washed away by the
Waters of Love, the universal solvent that is ever seeking to
bring about change and new forms; born again of water to make the
round of the astral Zodiac, until, having again reached the
equator of the ascending are, where he is reunited to the missing
half of his soul, the true friend of the Edenic state; the
highest point in the arc of human progress won; the honor and
glory of a perfected soul; the Lord and Master, the "I am that I
am," to rest in peace in the heart of Infinite Love and Wisdom.
CHAPTER IV. ASTRO-THEOLOGY
There is one species of Divine revelation which has not, and
cannot, be tampered with, one great Bible, which forms the starry
original of all Bibles.
This sacred Bible is the great Astral Bible of the skies; its
chapters are the twelve great signs, its pages are the
innumerable glittering constellations of the heavenly vault, and
its characters are the personified ideals of the radiant Sun, the
silvery moon, and the shining planets, of our solar sphere.
There are three different aspects of this sacred book, and in
each aspect the same characters appear, but in different roles,
their dress and natural surroundings being suited to the natural
play of their symbolical parts. In fact, the whole imagery may be
likened unto a play, or, rather, a series of plays, performed by
the same company of artists. It may be a comedy, or it may be
melodrama, or it may be a tragedy; but the principles behind the
scenes are ever the same, and show forth the same Divine Oneness
of Nature; demonstrating the eternal axiom. ONE TRUTH, ONE LIFE,
ONE PRINCIPLE, AND ONE WORD, and in their fourfold expression, is
the four great chapters of the celestial book of the starry
heavens.
In this aspect the visible cosmos may be represented as a
kaleidoscope. The visible constellations, planets, and other
heavenly bodies, are the bits of colored glass; and Deity the
invisible force, which keeps the instrument in motion. Each
revolution produces a different pictorial figure, which, complete
in its harmony of parts, is perfect in its mathematical
proportions, and beautiful in its geometrical designs. And yet
each creation, each form, and each combination of forms, are
produced by the same little pieces of glass; and all of them, in
reality, are optical illusions; i.e., natural phenomena, which
deceive the physical senses. So it is with Cosmic Nature.
It must not, however, be supposed, because of this perfect and
continual illusion of Nature's playful phenomena, that all
visible creation is purely an illusion of the senses, as some
cranky metaphysicians would have it, because this is not so.
Going back again to our kaleidoscope, we can clearly see that
without it, and its tinted beads, no such optical illusion is
possible. There is, then, a basis of spiritual reality to all
visible physical phenomena; but this basis lies concealed,
because of the perfect illusion which the reflected image
produces upon the material plane of the physical senses. The
beads themselves are real. These are the basis, and the different
pictures are the result, not of the beads, but of the angle from
which they are reflected to our earthly vision. In other words,
THE PLANE FROM WHICH WE BEHOLD THE PHENOMENA.
Hence, the nearer we approach the Divine center of our being, the
less complicated Nature's original designs become, and the
farther we are removed from that central source, the more weird,
mysterious, complicated, and incomprehensible, does Mother Nature
appear, to the finite human mind. And this is especially so, to
man's theological instinct, his religiosity, that constitutes one
of the fundamental factors of his being.
Nature is ever one in her original truths and their duplicate
reflections; but ever conflicting and contradictory in her
multiplied refractions through the minds of men. Therefore, we
will present the primary concept of that grand Astro-Theology
formulated by man's great progenitors; and view the simple
machinery, by which they typified to the primitive mind a general
outline of Nature's Divine providence.
All sacred books begin with an account of physical creation, the
culmination of which, is the appearance of man and woman, as the
parents of the race; and, while they will differ considerably in
detail and make-up, the basic ideas embodied are essentially the
same in all cosmo-genesis; so that in the Jewish Bible,
accessible to all, one can read the primitive story of creation
from a Jewish point of view, and, when read, rest satisfied that
he has read the revelation vouchsafed to man in every age and in
every clime. The only difference is one of mental peculiarity and
national custom, along with climatic conditions. Hindoo,
Chaldean, Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, Scandinavian, Druidic and
ancient Mexican are all the same--different names and drapery, to
suit the people only, but essentially the same in the fundamental
ideas conveyed.
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
The simple story of creation begins at midnight, when the Sun has
reached the lowest point in the arc--Capricorn. All Nature then
is in a state of coma in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter
time, solar light and heat are at their lowest ebb; and the
various appearances of motion, etc., are the Sun's passage from
Capricorn to Pisces, 60 degrees, and from Pisces to Aries, 30
degrees, making 90 degrees, or one quadrant of the circle. Then
begin in real earnest the creative powers, it is spring time. The
six days are the six signs of the northern arc, beginning with
the disruptive fires of Aries. Then, in their order, Taurus,
Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo; then Libra, the seventh day and the
seventh sign, whose first point is opposite Aries and is the
opposite point of the sphere, the point of equilibrium, equal day
and equal night, it is autumn. It is the sixth sign from Aries,
the first creative action, and so the sixth day following the
fiery force, wherein God created the bi-sexual man. See Genesis,
1:5-27: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God
created He him, male and female created He them."
It is the seventh, or day of the Lord (man), the climax of
material creation and Lord of all living things, and be rests in
the blissful Garden of Eden. This seventh day and seventh sign is
the concealed sacred Libra the perfect union of the sexes. Then
comes the fall from Libra, through Scorpio, and banishment from
the Garden of Eden. That is the victory of Satan, or Winter, over
Summer, etc. It is useless to repeat the same old, old story. The
yearly journey of the Sun around the constellated dial of Deity
is the Astro basis of all primitive cosmology.
THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION
In addition to the creation of the world and the fall of man
through sin, we find all people in possession of a grand scheme
of redemption, and, like the former, we shall find them all
essentially the same. They all require a mediator between the
angry God and disobedient man, and they all require that this
mediator shall be Divine, or semi-Divine. Nothing less can
satisfy Deity's demands; or, rather, let us say man's own carnal
imagination. It is simply another turn of our cosmic
kaleidoscope, and behold! the actors have changed. Capricorn
becomes the stable of the Goat, in the manger of which the young
Savior of the world is born. As a type of all, we will take the
Gospel Savior. It is again midnight. The Sun enters the sign
Capricorn on the twenty- first of December. This is the lowest
point of the arc, South, and for three days he is stationary, or
in darkness. And now it is Christmas Eve. He (the Sun or Savior)
begins to move, and at midnight is born as the celestial Virgo is
rising upon the Eastern quadrant of the skies; hence the Sun-God
is born of a Virgin. Then comes the flight to escape Kronos, or
Saturn (ruling Capricorn), who kills the young babes. There is a
period of silence in the God's history while the Sun is in
transit through the signs Capricorn and part of Aquarius. That
is, he is hidden or obscured by the clouded skies of this period.
We hear of him but once again until he, the Sun-God, or Savior,
is thirty years old, or has transited thirty degrees of space. He
has entered the sign Aquarius (symbolical of the Man.) Now begins
the period of miracles.
Let us digress for a space, and refer to our chapter on the
constellations. We shall find a perfect analogy between this
miracle- working period and the constellations Aquarius and
Pisces, as therein given. The first miracle we read of is turning
water into wine. This may be seen in a threefold aspect. The
Sun-God changes by his life- forces the waters of winter into the
rich vintage of the harvest, where the Virgin (Virgo) Mother
again appears. Again, the wine becomes the blood--the life
offered up on the vernal cross to strengthen, renew and make
merry with new life our Earth and its people. The devil (or
winter), with his powers of darkness, is defeated and man saved.
The final triumph is the crucifixion in Aries, the vernal
equinox, about the twenty-first of March, quickly followed by the
resurrection, or renewal of life. Then the God rises into heaven,
to sit upon the throne at the summer solstice, to bless his
people. We read, that, the Savior of mankind was crucified
between two thieves. Very good. The equinoctial point is the
dividing line between light and darkness, winter and summer. In
other words, the Sun is resuming his northern arc, to replenish
the Earth with his solar force and preserve his people from death
in the coming winter. The life of a Buddha, a Krishna or a
Christ, are all found in their completeness in the life of Horus;
while the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are Isis, Horus and Osirus.
The same trinity, under different names, are found in all
nations. It is the Sun, Moon and Human Soul, which is the only
true mediator of Man.
There is another version of this celestial crucifixion, wherein
the Sun-God-Savior, after the supper of the harvest in Virgo, is
crucified at the autumnal equinox upon the equator. We read that
he was dying from the sixth to the ninth hours--three hours,
three signs, or from the 21st of September to the 21st of
December, when he is laid in the tomb. This is the lowest point
of the Sun's journey in the southern hemisphere, and darkness
holds the balance in our northern hemisphere. The three days in
the tomb are the three months, or three signs, before the vernal
equinox, or the resurrection, the rising out of the South to
bring salvation to the northern portion of our Earth.
We have now only to glance over various diverging lines of the
same cosmology and the same redemption. All these allegories
typified TRUTHS. They all teach the Initiate the mysteries of
creation, of man's destiny and his necessary Cycle of Material
Probation. Some of the most beautiful parables may be read in
this light. Abraham, and the story of his wanderings in the
deserts of Asia Minor; of Lot and his unfaithful wife, are to be
seen still written in the heavens. Hagar and Ishmael are still
there; so also are Esau and his brother Jacob; the story of
Joseph and his brethren; of Sampson and his twelve labors. This
is the same beautiful story. The Sun, shorn of his glory, or
solar force, at the autumnal equinox, stands upon the equator
between the two pillars of the temple (or light and darkness),
and pulls down the temple (or signs) into the southern
hemisphere. And behind this we have the eternal truth of the
soul, when, giving way to the allurements of matter (Delilah),
the soul is shorn of its spiritual covering, or conscience, and
sinks into matter and death. And the story of David and Goliath
can be read to-day as clearly as of yore.
They are eternal, spiritual verities of human nature, and record,
not only the history of the human race, its mutations and
transmutations, but of the individual man and the suffering and
delusive joys of his material life. Aye, more! It is the record
of all his past existence and a type of his eternal destiny in
the future.
Another turn of our cosmic kaleidoscope, and lo! the scene
changes --the play extended, the angles greater, caused by the
revolution of our solar parent through his celestial Zodiac. As
the Sun passes out of one sign into another, or, in other words,
forms a different angle to his own center of force, a new
dispensation is born to the world; or, rather, re-born under a
new guise. The great Sun-God appears to change his nature and
manifests an entirely different set of attributes. That is the
way man personified this play of Nature, through his imperfect
conception of the cause of this change. But to him it was, and
is, a truth, and man's effort to externalize these attributes in
a Divine personality was, and is, strictly from the plane of his
mental development and spiritual unfoldment.
The two pictures of this Astro-Theology, as set forth in the two
divisions of the Jewish Bible, will illustrate our meaning. The
Sun had entered the sign Aries some time prior to the exodus from
Egypt. Aries is the constellation of Mars, the fiery, destructive
and warrior element, or force, in Nature, and we find the Jewish
conception of God a perfect embodiment of these attributes: The
Lord of Hosts, a God mighty in battle, delighting in the shedding
of blood and the smell of burnt offerings, ever marshalling the
people to battle and destroying their foes and the works of his
own hands; a God imbued with jealousy, anger, and revenge. This
was the type set up by the Jewish savior and lawgiver, Moses.
After a period of 2,160 years, we find the Christian cosmology
ushered in. The Sun has entered the sign Pisces, which is ruled
by Jupiter, the beneficent father. The Christ, or mediator, of
the Christian Gospel was an embodiment of the joint qualities of
the sign and ruling planet. Gentle, loving and merciful, His
words were messages of love and peace; His work was with the
poor, oppressed and fallen; he eschewed sacrifices and burnt
offerings; a contrite heart was the best offering; He taught the
people that God was their Father, loving all, just, yet merciful.
But a strong taint of the old conception has remained with the
human race, hiding, at times, the beauty of the latter concept.
These are, again, the refractions of eternal truths, viewed by
man from his material plane. The elements are here presented, the
alphabet and its key clearly defined. Therefore, let each one
explore this tangled labyrinth of Astro-Theology for him or
herself, and work out the various correspondencies at leisure. It
is enough to indicate the starry originals of all this seemingly
confused mass of so-called Divine revelation in sacred books.
They, one and all, pertain to the same celestial phenomena, and
the various Bibles are the outcome of man's serious attempt to
tabulate and externalize this heavenly order, to record his
conceptions of these starry aspects and movements with their
corresponding effects upon the Earth.
Probably the purest system to us is that which may yet be derived
from Chaldean sources. This sacerdotal caste were the most
perfect in their astral conceptions and complete in their
symbolic system of recording, and if the great work found in King
Sargon's library in seventy tablets is ever translated, it will
prove of priceless value to the student of these weird, but
sublime, astrological mysteries.
In conclusion, as we reflect upon the fourfold aspect of the
subject that we have presented in outline in these pages, the
whole imagery passes in review before the mental vision. We see
that the radiant constellations of the heavenly vault, with the
beautiful reflection and counterpart, the shining Zodiac, are the
two halves of the great Cycle of Necessity, the spiral of
eternal, universal life, which binds the whole into unity, and
unity into infinity. It is the grand scheme of creative life. The
seven principles of Nature, or Divine Activities, are the forces
producing the phenomena within seven angelic states, seven
kingdoms, and, by seven planets, upon the external plane; the
planets being the passive mediums of the positive spiritual
forces. Upon this dual spiral, which reflects the seven rays of
the solar spectrum is produced seven musical notes; one half of
the spiral in sound and color being the complementary of the
other half. Man, the Earth, and our solar system, are revolving,
each orb in its own key, and its own peculiar ray, meeting and
blending with other spirals, and the whole blending into one
mighty spiral Cycle of Progressive Life, revolving around the
Eternal, Infinite Ego-God, ever involving and evolving the
attributes, powers and possibilities of the One great central
source of Being.
It is a grand orchestra, pealing out in richest melody and
sublime HARMONY, the grand Anthem of Creation: "We Praise Thee, O
God."
CHAPTER V. ASTRO-MYTHOLOGY
The Astro-Mythological system of the ancients, though forming the
last section, so to say, of the mysteries of the Divine Urania,
is, perhaps, the most beautiful of its general features, and
perfect in the complete fulfillment of the purpose for which it
was intended, viz.:-- to convey to the human mind a lesson, a
moral, a truth in Nature; and last, but not the least, to serve
as a basis upon which its inner aspirations and its more external
faith might rest in security.
When we come to examine the deep, philosophical principles of
such a wise system, we are almost astounded at the result of our
researches and the wisdom of human nature displayed in
formulating such perfect analogies of truth, semi-truth, and of
falsehood, according to the plane occupied by the individual.
Let us take one instance, which will clearly explain all the
rest, for they are built and formulated after the same model.
Aeneas, of Greek myths and fables, is reputed to be the son of
Venus by a MORTAL father, upon the plane of reality. As that of
actual PARENT and CHILD, of course this is an utter falsehood. To
the rural population of long, long ago, and their simple, rustic
conceptions, IT WAS A TRUTH.
Why so? Because they believed it, and to them it taught the
required lesson of obedience to the powers that be. But if in
reality it was a falsehood, how can it become a truth by the
simple addition of acceptance and belief? Because it possessed a
metaphysical truth, though not a physical one, in the sense
accepted.
Aeneas, son of Venus, whose history is so beautifully preserved
by the immortal Virgil, was (metaphysically speaking) son of the
goddess, because he was, in his astral and magnetic nature, ruled
and governed by Venus, born under one of her celestial signs and
when she was rising upon the ascendant of the House of Life, even
as Jesus Christos was born of a virgin, because Virgo was rising
at His birth.
Thus Aeneas was, in strict metaphysical reality, a son of Venus.
Having satisfied the rural mind, which thus, unconsciously,
accepts an absolute truth under a physical disguise, the
metaphysical thinker, the philosopher, also accepts the same
fable, knowing and realizing its more abstract truth,
But, again, we are met with the objection that such a truth is
only apparently a truth; i.e., on the plane of embodied
appearances, and naturally the question arises, where (if at all)
is the real truth of the mythos? That truth which is beyond the
mere metaphysical thinker and commonplace philosopher; the truth
which the Initiates recognize--where is it? That truth lies far
beyond the purview of Astro-Mythology. It is connected with the
center of angelic life. Sufficient here to say that, as there are
seven races of humanity, seven divisions to the human
constitution, seven active principles in Nature, typified by the
seven rays of the solar spectrum, so are there seven centers of
angelic life, corresponding to the seven planetary forces
formulated in "The Science of the Stars," and, as each one of us
must of necessity belong to one of the particular angelic centers
from which we originally emanated, the Initiate can see no reason
why AENEAS MAY NOT IN REALITY belong to that celestial vortex
represented by Venus upon the plane of material life. This being
the case, we see how beautiful the ancients' system of temple
worship must have been. The simple rustic, in reverence and awe,
accepting the gross and physical meaning--the only one possible
to his dark, sensuous mind. The scholar and philosopher bow their
wiser heads with equal humility, accepting with equally sincere
faith the more abstract form of the allegory; while on the other
hand, the priest and the Initiate, lifting their loftier souls
above the earth and its formulas of illusion and matter, accept
that higher and more spiritual application, which renders them
equally as sincere and devout as their less enlightened
worshipers. It is thus we find these astro-myths true for all
time, true in every age of the world, and EQUALLY TRUE OF ALL
NATIONS. And this is the real reason why we find every nation
under the Sun possessing clear traditions relating to the same
identical fables, under different names, which are simply
questions of nationality. And when mythologists, archaeologists,
and philologists once recognize the one central, cardinal truth,
they will cease to wonder why nations, so widely separated by
time and space, possess the same basic mythology. They will then
no longer attempt its explanation by impossible migrations of
races, carrying the rudiments with them. They will find that this
mythology was a complete science with the ancient sages, a
UNIVERSAL MYSTERY LANGUAGE, in which all could converse, and that
it descended from the Golden Age, when there was but ONE nation
on the face of the Earth, the descendants of which constituted
the basic nucleus of every race which has since had an existence.
In this light all is simple, clear, and easy to comprehend--all
is natural.
The astronomer-priests of the hoary past, when language was
figurative, and often pictorial, had recourse to a system of
symbols to express abstract truths and ideas. In order to impress
the minds of pupils with a true concept of the attributes of the
celestial forces, we call planets, they personified their powers,
qualities, and attributes. Just as the average mind of to-day
cannot conceive of Deity apart from personality, so did primitive
man clothe his ideas in actual forms, and in these
impersonations, they combined the nature of the celestial orb
with that of the zodiacal sign or signs, in which the planet
exerted its chief and most potent activities. For instance, the
planet Mars, whose chief constellation is Aries, was described as
a great warrior, mighty in battle, fierce in anger, fearless,
reckless, and destructive; while the mechanical and constructive
qualities were personified as Vulcan, who forged the thunderbolts
of Jove, built palaces for the gods, and made many useful and
beautiful articles. Then, again, we find that Pallas Athene was
the goddess of war and wisdom. She sprang from the head of Zeus.
Aries rules the head, and represents intelligence. Athene
overcame her brother Mars in war, which shows that intelligence
is superior to brute force and reckless courage.
Here, we see three different personages employed to express the
nature of the powers and phenomena produced. They were called
gods and goddesses. This was quite natural, as the planets of our
system are reflections of Divine principles. Esoterically, Mars
symbolizes strength, victory--attributes of Deity.
Mars is said to have married Venus, teaching us that the union of
skill and beauty are essential in all artistic work.
Mythology tells us that the god Mars was supposed to be the
father of Romulus, the reputed founder of Rome. Romulus displayed
many characteristics of the planet. The mythos is no doubt a
parallel to that of Aeneas. Rome was founded when the Sun in his
orbit had entered the sign Aries, and Mars was the god most
honored by the Romans. In time, with the degeneration of human
races and their worship, to the rural mind, the subjects of the
mythos became actual personalities, endowed with every human
passion and godlike attribute, the former characterizing the
discordant influence of the heavenly bodies upon man.
Gai, Rhea and Ceres, or Demeter (Greek), represent the triune
attributes of Mother Earth. Gai signifies the Earth as a whole,
Rhea the productive powers of the Earth, and Ceres utilizes and
distributes the productive forces of Rhea.
In the charming story of Eros (Divine Love), son of Mars and
Venus, he (Eros), we are told, brings harmony out of chaos. Here,
we see the action of Aries and Taurus, ruled respectively by Mars
and Venus.
The beautiful myth of Aphrodite, born of the sea foam, is Venus
rising out of the waters of winter, to shine resplendent in the
western skies at evening, and typifies the birth of forms, as all
organic forms have their origin in water.
In all lands the Sun was known under various names, typical of
solar energy, especially in reference to the equinoctial and
solstitial colures.
Henry Melville, in his valuable work, "Veritas," says no reliance
can be placed upon ancient dates, either of Europe, Asia, or
anywhere else, and he conclusively shows that such dates are
Astro-Masonic points on the celestial planisphere, the events
recorded being, as it were, terrestrial reflections of the
celestial symbols.
To attempt to wade through all the various systems of mythology,
and explain each in its proper order, would be to write a large
encyclopedia upon the subject. We have given a few examples as
keys, and suggest works for study. We have here given the real
key, and the student must fathom particulars for himself. The
chief work, and most valuable in its line, is Ovid's
"Metamorphoses." The next, also the most valuable in its line, is
"The Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients," with notes (these
latter are the gist and constitute the real value), by S. A.
Mackey; and last, and, perhaps, in some sense, not the least, is
the "Wisdom of the Ancients," by Lord Bacon. This is published in
"Bacon's Essays."
A careful study of Ovid, with the key which this chapter
supplies, will reveal ALL that pertains to ancient gods,
demi-gods, and heroes, while a study of Mackey, and a careful
comparison with "La Clef" and "La Clef Hermetique" will reveal
all that pertains to cosmic cycles and astral chronology, which
is the only chronology that is quite trustworthy, as far as
ancient history is concerned.
While we are on this subject, we must point out some of the
delusions, into which the subtle, magical teachings of the Orient
would lead the student.
All the monster sphinx, half human, half animal, etc., which the
ancients have preserved, are simply records of the past. They are
chronological tables of cosmic time, and relate to eras of the
past, of the Sun's motion, and not by any means to living
creatures of antediluvian creations, as some wiseacres have
imagined. Many of these ancient monuments, monstrous in form, are
records of that awful period of floods and devastation known as
the Iron Age, when there was a vertical Sun at the poles; or, in
other words, when the pole of the Earth was ninety degrees
removed from the pole of the ecliptic. To those who can read
aright, every lineament tells as plainly as the written word the
history of that awful past, marking the march of time, recording
the revolutions of the Sun in his orbit of 25,920 years, and
relating with wonderful accuracy the climatic changes, in their
latitudes, which took place with each revolution of the Sun and
corresponding motion of the Earth's pole of less than four
degrees. All the greater myths of the dim past were formulated to
express cosmic time, solar and polar motion, and the phenomena
resulting therefrom. These monuments of antiquity prove that, the
ancients knew a great deal more of the movements of heavenly
bodies and of our planet than modern astronomers credit them
with.
Madame Blavatsky, in her "Secret Doctrine," seriously states that
all these monstrous forms are the types of actual, once living
physical embodiments, and, with apparent sincerity, asserts that
the Adepts teach such insane superstitions.
Such, however, is not the case, neither is there anything true,
or even approaching the truth, in the cosmogony given in the work
in question.
And, lastly, we have but one more aspect of the grand old Astro-
Mythos to present to your notice. This aspect reveals the whole
of the ancient classification of WORK and LABOR, and gives us a
clear insight into the original designs, or pictorial
representations, of the twelve signs and the twelve months of the
year. It also clearly explains many things which are to-day
attributed to superstitious paganism.
As each month possesses its own peculiar season, so are, or were,
the various labors of the husbandman, and those of pastoral
pursuits, altered and diverted. Each month, then, bad a symbol
which denoted the physical characteristics of climate and the
temporal characteristics of work. As the Sun entered the sign, so
the temple rites varied in honor of the labors performed, and the
symbol thus became the object of outward veneration and worship.
So we see that the twelve signs, and principally the four
cardinal ones, became Deities, and the symbols sacred, but in
reality, it was the same Sun to which homage was paid.
There is a large sphere of study in this direction, as, of
course, each climate varied the symbol to suit its requirements.
In Egypt there were three months when the land was overflowed
with water; hence, they had only nine working months out of
doors, and from this fact sprang the Nine Muses, while the Three
Sirens represented the three months of inactivity in work, or
three months of pleasure and festivity.
Mackey tells us that the great leviathan mentioned in the Book of
job was the river Nile.
In nearly all mythologies, we find that the gods assembled on
some high mountain to take counsel. The Olympus of the Greeks and
Mount Zion of the Hebrew Bible mean the same, the Pole-Star; and
there, on the pictured planisphere, sits Cephus, the mighty Jove,
with one foot on the Pole-Star and all the gods gathered below
him. The Pole-Star is the symbol of the highest heaven.
With this we close, leaving the endless ramifications of this
deeply interesting subject to the student's leisure and personal
research, trusting the keys we have given in this chapter and
their careful study may induce the reader and student of these
pages to search out for himself the meaning concealed in all
Astro-Mythologies.
CHAPTER VI. SYMBOLISM
At this point of our study it is necessary to make a halt; and,
before proceeding further, to attempt to formulate and realize
that, which, so far, we have been pursuing.
First, then, we have passed in review the Zodiac, and then the
constellations. From this we mentally surveyed both
Astro-Theology and Astro-Mythology; and now, it is our first duty
to realize these in their real significance, and this consists in
a clear comprehension of the Grand Law of Correspondences.
What is this law? It is the law of symbolism, and symbolism,
rightly understood, is the one Divine language of Mother Nature,
a language wherein all can read, a language that defies the
united efforts of both time and space to obliterate it, for
symbolism will be the language of Nature as long as spirit
expresses itself to the Divine soul of man.
No matter where we turn nor where we look, there is spread out to
our view a vast panorama of symbolic forms for us to read. In
whatever form, angle, or color they present themselves, the true
student of Nature can interpret and understand their symbolic
language aright. It has been by the personification of Nature's
symbols, that man has become ignorant of their language. There is
no form, sound, nor color but what has its laws of expression;
and only a perfect knowledge of symbolism will enable man to know
the law, power, and meaning, lying behind such manifestations.
The law of expression is exact, and as unalterable as Deity
Himself. The physical senses cannot vibrate to these interior
forces, and through them, comprehend their law. The physical
senses vibrate to the spirit's expression, not to the powers,
forces, and laws, which brought them into objective existence.
Countless numbers of mystics, if such they deserve to be called,
among present-day students, speak and write very learnedly upon
the "Law of Correspondence," and few, if any, of them really
understand or know anything at all of that law. The intellect
alone cannot solve the problems of this law. It cannot grasp the
true, interior and spiritual meaning, except in just so far as
intellect is capable of externalizing them. The inmost spiritual
truths, that cannot be demonstrated to the outward senses, never
have, nor never will, appeal to any one who has not the interior
ability to comprehend them.
There was a time when men ruled by pure intellect, without its
accompanying other half, intuition: they were looked upon as
monstrosities. This state of purely intellectual development has
been brought about by the positive, masculine principle, reason,
absorbing its counterpart, the intuition, the feminine portion;
and the result, by correspondence, is as fatal as upon the
interior plane, where the positive, masculine soul denies the
existence of his mate; thus setting upon his throne, only a
portion of himself as his idol, and then, reasons himself into
the belief that he is complete. Love has been cast out, ignored
and forgotten until at last she departs, leaving a vacancy, that
eternity cannot fill.
This is somewhat similar to their illusive Devachan, an ideal, a
mere mystical sentiment to gush over, but a something they do not
in reality comprehend. Therefore, we shall do our utmost to
explain this universal law, and to point out wherein its first
principles are manifest. Once these are mastered, the Golden Rule
will explain all the rest: "As it is below, so it is above; as on
the earth, so in the sky."
Here, then, is our first lesson on the subject of REALITY, which
constitutes the Hermetic science of Correspondences.
First, realize that a line or an angle, for instance, is
something more than its mere mathematical outline. It corresponds
to some power, force, or principle within the great Anima-Mundi
of the mysteries, that are trying to find expression, in their
evolutionary journey, in forms. Let us illustrate our meaning. A
point or dot is what? Well, externally it is the alpha of all
mathematics. It is the first finite manifestation of the
spiritual force. Within that dot lies concealed, in embryo, all
the future possibilities of the manifesting principle.
This dot or point is a something to begin with, a form
externalized, from which all future forms may spring forth, and
they may be infinite, both in number and variety. First a
primary, simple idea, from which all ideas and thoughts,
intricate and complex, have their being.
A point extended is a straight line, scientifically expressed
(whereas in real truth there is no such thing as a straight
line); that is to say, it is a form increased or multiplied by
itself, and therefore, is an extension in space that can be
measured, and each extension means a new form, an additional
symbol. It has taken on new aspects, new relations, hence
contains the second principle of mathematics, so to say; but,
besides being points, THEY ARE SYMBOLS. They are principles in
Nature as clearly related to each other as the leaf and the stem
of plant life.
Each monad, or point in the universe, is the beginning of
something; equally so, it is also the termination of its own
forces in that particular action, and will remain inert until it
becomes acted upon by something else.
A point, then, is a primary, simple idea, a straight line. An
angle is the same idea, rendered greater and more complex, and
refers to the same forces upon a different plane, and the more we
multiply the angles the more complex and far-reaching becomes the
symbol and the more numerous and diverse become its planes of
action. Here we will introduce an example. A trine represents
three forces or angles, and, when united, form a trinity, hence
harmony. Its apex (when above) is celestial, therefore represents
the male forces of spirit.
A trine reversed also represents the same forces, with its apex
in matter, hence it is negative. In these two complex ideas,
clearly represented by these symbols, we have ALL matter and
spirit; and yet they are but extensions of our point in space,
rendered far-reaching and complex, by the position and the number
of angles presented.
Let us turn the key once again, and we find that, both spirit and
matter possess the same outline in their primal concept, except
reversed (polarized).
Let us unite these two trines, and we have a still more potent
form; a symbol almost infinitely complex. We have spirit and
matter united, or, rather, three rays of force, positive, meeting
three rays of force, negative, at a given point. Thus we have six
points, also six sides, the ultimate of which is a cube. All are
now equal. It is the first force of a crystallization (creation)
of matter.
Once again let us turn the key, and we have our two conceptions
in a metaphysical sense; the trine with its apex above is as the
trine with its apex below, both the same in form, yet vibrating
to very different planes, and a very different language is
required to read and interpret their meaning aright. The
spiritual, or the trine with its apex above, draws its influence
from the celestial, and as it condenses and takes on form in the
trine of matter, it transmits this same Divine force through its
apex, which points below, to matter. The double trine is found
upon every plane, obeying the Divine Law of Correspondences.
It is, in this sense, called "Solomon's Seal," because it is the
grand hieroglyphic of the Hermetic law: "As it is above, so it is
below; as on the Earth, so in the sky."
To continue this line of reasoning, or speculation, let us say,
would lead us beyond the firm basis of human reason; it would
escape the grasp of intellect, to which I am compelling this
course of instruction to bend, but it would never take us beyond
the real limits of the universe; yet, not to extend our
investigations, we would ever remain in the lower trine, in the
realms of effects, and lose sight entirely of the trine of
spirit, from whence originated the force and potency in the form
of matter.
Therefore it is, that the science of Symbolism has been evolved
and formulated. The symbols, the manifestations, are ever
present, and the study of effects will, to a developed soul,
suggest the cause, the nature of the principle back of it, as
well as the law which would produce such effects. Such is the
science of symbolism; and it bounds and binds back into a
religio-philosophical system, each class of symbols and each
plane of manifestation; as securely as modern savants have
defined the province of chemistry, magnetism, and mathematics;
and, so far, these bounds are useful. But it is only a question
of time and space, after all, because, when resolved back, or,
let us say, evolved up into their abstract principles; chemistry,
magnetism, and mathematics, are purely arbitrary terms to express
special features of the same one eternal thing or science--which
is EXISTENCE; and it, in turn, is CONSCIOUSNESS; not that
external consciousness of existence, not that knowledge and love
of living, but that interior, conscious knowledge, which tells us
why and how we exist, by what force and power we are sustained
and permitted to obey and carry out the law of mediumship,
reception and transmission, attraction and repulsion, spiritual
and material, that ultimately blend and become as one, the double
trine, and, united with the Divine Ego of its being, becomes
complete; seven, the perfected number of form.
The sum total, then, of all, and the value it may possess to the
individual, is measured by his ability to perceive; for there is
nothing external that is not in some sense mental, and there is
nothing mental that is not in some sense spiritual. The sides of
the triangle, physical, mental, and spiritual, and the apex where
meet the mental and spiritual, forms the center of contact to
higher trines in realms above.
Where mind is not, there are no symbols, no ideas, no
manifestations. The spirit has not yet reached that point in its
evolutionary journey where it can yet crystallize its projected
force, power, or ideas, into forms; for everything that is, is
the outcome of Divine thought, and expresses within itself the
symbol of its being. This is the arcana of the Law of
Correspondences.
Remember the above teaching, because upon its full comprehension
rests the ability to read symbols aright. It will aid the soul to
fully realize that, the vast universe is but the mental image of
the Creator; that there is no such thing as manifested existence
apart from mind; and consequently, the infinite worlds that float
securely in space, blushing and scintillating with light of life
and love of the Father, revealing to mortal minds some faint
conception of the awful resources and recesses within Nature's
star-making laboratory, are but the scintillating reflection of
life, the reactions of mental phenomena. So, too, with the mental
creative powers of the mind of man, for, not a vibration that
proceeds from his every thought but what creates its
correspondence in the creative realm of spirit. Hence, symbolism
continues giving to the soul of man, throughout eternity, food
for thought and contemplation.
All symbols, then, are objectified ideas, whether human or
Divine; and as such possess a real meaning; and this meaning is
altered, extended and rendered more complex with every additional
thing or influence by which we find it surrounded, or with which,
we find it correlated. For instance, $1.00 means one dollar; add
six ciphers to the left 0000001., and it is still the same $1.00,
and no more, because their position is previous, or before, the
1. But add the same number of ciphers to the right, $1,000000,
and lo! we find a wondrous change of force, power, and
consequence. We see all the mighty power of our million of money,
and the possibilities and responsibilities with which, in these
days, it becomes associated.
So it is with everything else in Nature. Man pays the penalty by
increased responsibility, for every step in knowledge that be
takes, as well as every dollar in gold be procures. Dollars, as
well as talents, have to be accounted for, and their usefulness
increased tenfold. The dollars must not be buried nor hoarded any
more than our talents, but each, unfolded and doubled, so that we
may be instrumental in helping our coworkers in their upward
path, in the Cycle of Necessity. Knowledge is the basic
foundation in reading Nature's language. Purity of thought, truth
in motive, and unselfish benevolence, will lift the veil that now
lies between the two trines, cause and effect, spirit and matter.
We have given the key and explained the alphabet of this wondrous
law; therefore we close. Each must, by the same rules, work out
the special links in the chain for him or herself. The angle from
which each take their view determines the reading and
interpretation of the symbols presented, whether that be from the
apex, the sides or the base, for every symbol has its trinity in
principles and form. Cause and effect are but the action and
reaction; the result is the symbol which reveals the
correspondence of both.
CHAPTER VII. ALCHEMY--PART I
What a weird yet strangely pleasing name the term Alchemy is. It
is simple, yet so infilled and intermixed with the possible
verities of exact science and the philosophical speculations on
the infinite and the unknown, as to elude our mental grasp, as it
were, by its own subtle essence, and defy the keenest analysis of
our profoundest generalizers in science. And yet, in spite of
this self-evident truth, how fascinating the sound of the word
becomes to the mystic student's ear, and bow pregnant with awful
and mysterious possibilities it becomes, to the immortal powers
embodied within the complex human organism termed man.
Words, if we but knew it, have the same innate, magnetic
influence, and possess the same power of affinity and antipathy,
that the human family possesses; as well as all organic and
inorganic forms and substances; and how sad, to a developed soul,
to witness the inharmony existing in our midst, caused by the
misapplication of names.
Most human beings are very conscious of personal, or human
magnetism, and its effects. But they stop right there, and do not
dream of the subtle, silent influences emanating from a name, a
word, and the power existing in words, when properly used. The
human mind is so absorbed in Nature's manifestations, which are
only the husks, that they fail to see the true, hidden meaning
and realities, concealed beneath the material shell.
We will first notice the meaning of the words which constitute
our subject, viz., Alchemy, then give a brief review of its
physical correspondence, chemistry, and its true relation to its
spiritual counterpart, Alchemy.
"Al" and "Chemy" are Arabic-Egyptian words which have much more
in them than appears upon the surface, and possess a far
different meaning from the one which the terms usually convey to
the average mind. Terms, and the ideas we associate with them,
vary according to the age in which we live. So with those, from
which the word Alchemy is derived.
Let us penetrate beneath the mere verbal husk with which
linguistic usage and convenience have clothed them, and which, in
the course of ages, has become nothing but the dross of
decomposed verbiage, and see if we can excavate the living germ,
that has become buried within. If we can do so, we shall, at the
commencement of our study, have attained unto a realization of
the ancient meaning and real significance of the terms employed.
And this will be no small gain, and will form no unimportant part
of the equipment in our present research.
The Arabians, who derived the whole of their Occult arcana from
the Egyptians, are the most likely to render us the most truthful
and direct significance of the word, and so we find them. Thus,
"Al," meaning "the," and Kimia," which means the hidden, or
secret, ergo THE OCCULT, from which are derived our modern term
Alchemy, more properly Al Kimia. This is very different from the
popular conception to-day, which supposes that the word relates
to the art of artificially making gold by some chemical process,
and viewing it only as some sort of magical chemistry, forgetting
that, the science of chemistry itself is also derived from the
Kimia of Arabian mystics, and was considered as one and the same
thing by every writer of the Middle Ages.
At this time, the physical man was not so dense and grasping for
husks; hence the soul and spiritual part had greater control, and
could impart the real, the alchemical side, of Nature to him;
hence the Law of Correspondences was understood, and guided the
educated in their considerations, researches, and conclusions.
Do you ask why, if they were so enlightened, they have veiled
their knowledge from the world at large?
The power of mind over matter was as potent in those days as now,
and the masses were as correspondingly corrupt as they are today.
Therefore, to put this knowledge into the hands of the multitude
would have been generally disastrous. So they wrote it in
mystical language, knowing that all educated students in Nature's
laws, at that time, would understand; yet they little dreamed how
much their language would be misunderstood in the centuries to
follow, by those who look to their ancient ancestry for aid on
subjects that have become at the present day so lost in mystery.
Having ascertained, beyond question, that Alchemy was, and
consequently is, the secret science of Occultism--not the
philosophy, mind you, but the science; let us proceed, for, we
shall find that these two aspects may often differ, or appear to
differ, widely from each other, though they can never do so in
reality, for the latter produces and establishes the facts, while
the former occupies itself in their tabulation and deductions.
The science constitutes the foundation, and the philosophy, the
metaphysical speculations, which rest thereon. If these important
distinctions are borne in mind, all the apparent confusion,
contradiction, and other intellectual debris, will either
disappear or resolve themselves into their own proper groups, so
that we may easily classify them.
It is at this very point, that, so many students go astray amid
the labyrinths of science and philosophy. They, unconsciously, so
mix and intermingle the two terms, that nine-tenths of the
students present only one side of the question--philosophy, which
soon runs into theory, if not supported by the science, which
they have lost in their volumes of philosophy.
You may say, one subject at a time. Yes, this may be true, if its
twin brother is not absorbed and forgotten.
In this chapter, we shall deal especially with organic Alchemy.
Organic Alchemy deals exclusively with living, organic things,
and in this connection differs from the Alchemy of inorganic
matter. These two aspects may, in this one respect, be compared
to organic and inorganic chemistry, to which originally they
belonged; as astrology did to astronomy. Alchemy and
astrology--twin sisters--were the parents of the modern
offspring, known in chemistry and astronomy as exact science.
These latter, however, deal with shadows and phenomenal
illusions, while the former concern the living realities, which
produce them. Therefore, there can be "no new thing under the
sun," saith Solomon.
First, let us deal with the most lovely form of our art, that
which pertains to the floral and vegetable kingdoms. Every flower
or blade of grass, every tree of the forest and stagnant weed of
the swamp, is the outcome of, and ever surrounded by, its
corresponding degree of spiritual life. There is not a single
atom but what is the external expression of some separate, living
force, within the spaces of Aeth, acting in unison with the
dominant power corresponding with the type of life.
If science could only behold this wonderful laboratory within the
vital storehouse of Nature, she would no longer vainly seek for
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE, nor wonder, what may have become of the
missing link in scientific evolution, because, she would quickly
realize that, biogenesis is the one grand truth of both animate
and inanimate Nature, the central, living source of which is God.
Science would also, further realize that, this biune life is ever
in motion throughout the manifested universe; circulating around
the focii of creative activities, which we term suns, stars, and
planets, awaiting the conditions which are ever present for
material incarnation; and under all possible combinations of
circumstances and conditions, conceivable and inconceivable,
adapting itself to continuous phenomenal expression. Links, so
called, in this mighty chain of evolution, may appear to be
missing here and there, and, for that matter, whole types may
seem to be wanting, but, this is only because of our imperfect
perception, and, in any case, can make no real difference with
the facts, because, if such be a reality, if there be what we may
term MISSING LINKS in the scheme of evolution, it only shows that
spirit, although associated with, is ever independent of matter.
But matter--what is to become of it? Is it independent of spirit?
The kindness of the Divine spirit heeds not the unconscious mind
of matter and its boasted independence, and works silently on,
and at last, accomplishes its mission--the evolution of matter,
the uplifting of the soul of man, as well as the universe. The
blindness of man is dense, and the saddest part to admit is that,
they will so stubbornly remain so.
If, for one instant, the penetrating eye of the soul could shine
forth through the physical orbs of vision, and imprint the
scenes, beheld behind the veil, upon the tablets of the brain of
the physical organism, a fire would be kindled that, could never
be quenched by the fascinating allurements of the material,
perishable things, of matter.
That development of the real atom of biune life can, and does, go
forward, irrespective of the gradation of physical types, needs
no convincing proof, other than visible Nature.
MAN IS NOT THE OUTCOME OF PHYSICAL EVOLUTION, and produced by a
series of blind laws, that lead him upward from protozoa to man,
as a child climbs up stairs, advancing regularly, ONE STEP AS A
TIME. This latter conception, we know, is the theory of exact
science, but not of Alchemy, not of the science of Occultism.
Man, according to Wallace, Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall, is what
progressive stages of physical evolution have made him. But the
very reverse is true. The fauna and flora of past geological
periods are what the human soul has produced, by virtue of its
gradual advancement to higher states and conditions of life, so
that, so far from man being the outcome of the planet's
development, such material progress is the outgrowth of man's
advancement, proving again that, matter is not independent of
spirit, neither can spirit be independent of matter for its
expressions. They so interblend that, the dividing line cannot be
detected by the untrained eye of the exact scientist. But, that
time is not far distant, when the scientists will prepare and
evolve their interior being to take up the spiritual thread,
exactly where the visible thread ends, and carry forth the work,
as far as the mortal mind of man can penetrate, while embodied in
the physical form.
God hasten this day is my prayer, for then man will become more
spiritual and aspiring for advancement and knowledge, thus,
setting up vibrations that will create higher and loftier
conditions for the physical man. Aye! then they will know that,
even the birth of the world itself, owes its primal genesis to
the desire of the human atom for earthly embodiment.
Here is where exact science, or the counterpart of Alchemy,
becomes both profitable and helpful. Says Paracelsus: "The true
use of chemistry is not to make gold, but to prepare medicines."
He admits four elements--the STAR, the ROOT, the ELEMENT and the
SPERM. These elements were composed of the three principles,
SIDERIC SALT, SULPHUR, and MERCURY. Mercury, or spirit, sulphur,
or oil, and salt, and the passive principles, water and earth.
Herein we see the harmony of the two words, Alchemy and
Chemistry. One is but the continuation of the other, and they
blend so into each other that, they are not complete, apart.
The chemist, in his analysis of the various component parts of
any form of matter, knows also the proportional combinations; and
thus, by the Law of Correspondence, could, by the same use of the
spiritual laws of Alchemy, analyze and combine the same elements
from the atmosphere, to produce the corresponding expression of
crystallized form. By the same laws, are affinities and
antipathies discovered and applied, in every department of
Nature's wonderful laboratory.
Chemistry is the physical expression of Alchemy, and any true
knowledge of chemistry is:--not the knowing of the names of the
extracts and essences, and the plants themselves, and that
certain combinations produce certain results, obtained from blind
experiments, yet, prompted by the Divine spirit within; but,
knowledge born from knowing the why and wherefore of such
effects. What is called the oil of olives is not a single, simple
substance, but it is more or less combined with other essential
elements, and will fuse and coalesce with other oils and essences
of similar nature. The true chemist will not confine his
researches for knowledge to the mere examination, analysis, and
experiments, in organic life; but will inform himself equally, in
physical astrology; and learn the nature, attributes, and
manifested influences of the planets, that constitute our
universe; and, under which, every form of organic matter is
subject, and especially, controlled by. Then, by learning the
influence of the planets upon the human family; and that special
planetary vibration that influences the individual; he can
intelligently and unerringly administer medicines to remove
disease in man.
A familiarity with the mere chemical relations of the planet to
man, makes still more apparent, the mutual affinity of both to
the soil, from which they appear to spring, and to which, they
ultimately return; so much so that, we have become conscious,
that, the food we eat is valuable or otherwise as a life
sustainer, in proportion to the amount of life it contains. We
are so complex in our organization that, we require a great
variety of the different elements to sustain all the active
functions and powers within us. Man, being a microcosm, or a
miniature universe, must sustain that universe, by taking into
the system the various elements, which combine to make up the
Infinite Universe of God. Animal flesh is necessary to certain
organized forms, both animal and man. When I say necessary, I do
not mean an acquired taste and habit of consuming just so much
flesh a day; but a constitution, which would not be complete in
its requirements, without animal flesh. I am thankful such do not
constitute the masses.
Science would say, you only require certain combinations of
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, to sustain all the
activities of the physical body. Apparently, this is true. Upon
the surface it is, but in reality it is not; because if it were
really true there could be no famines. Science could make bread
out of stones, as was suggested at the temptation of Christ in
the wilderness. And yet, no one knows better than the academies
of Science, themselves, that their learned professors would
quickly starve to death, if they were compelled to produce their
food from the chemical properties of the rocks. They can make a
grain of wheat chemically perfect, but they cannot make the
invisible germ by which it will grow, become fruitful, and
reproduce itself. They can reproduce from the stones in the
street the same chemical equivalents that go to compose gluten,
albumen, and starch--the trinity which must always be present to
sustain life; but they cannot, by any known process, make such
chemical equivalents of these substances, do the same thing. Now,
if not, why not? Science cannot answer this. A very mysterious
shake of the head and profound silence is the only answer. Ask
Science HOW THE PLANT GROWS, what causes the atoms of matter to
build up root, stem, leaf, bud and flower, true to the parent
species from which the germinal atom came. What is there behind
the plant that stamps it with such striking individuality? And
why, from the same soil, the deadly aconite and nutritious
vegetable can grow, each producing qualities in harmony with its
own nature, so widely different in their effects upon the human
organism, YET, SO COMPLETELY IDENTICAL AS REGARDS THE SOURCE FROM
WHICH THEY APPEAR TO SPRING. There must be a something to account
for this, and this something, ancient Alchemy alone can
scientifically reveal and expound; and, this knowledge lies just
beyond that line which calls a halt to material scientists, and
says: "You can go no farther; this is beyond your purview. The
end of the material thread has been reached, and unless you can
connect it with the thread of the next plane, your researches
must stop."
Before entering upon and answering these vital questions, we must
digress a little, and make ourselves perfectly familiar with the
ideas and revelations of advanced physical science upon the
subject, and for this purpose no more trustworthy guide can be
consulted than the new edition of "The Chemistry of Common Life,"
by the late James F. W. Johnson, M. A., England, and revised by
Arthur Herbert Church, M. A. In chapter IV on page 56 of this
work, upon the anatomy of plant life, we read:
"How interesting it is to reflect on the minuteness of the organs
by which the largest plants are fed and sustained. Microscopic
apertures in the leaf suck in gaseous food from the air; the
surfaces of microscopic hairs suck a liquid food from the soil.
We are accustomed to admire, with natural and just astonishment,
how huge, rocky reefs, hundreds of miles in length, can be built
up by the conjoined labors of myriads of minute zoophytes,
laboring together on the surface of a coral rock; but it is not
less wonderful that, by the ceaseless working of similar
microscopic agencies in leaf and root, the substance of vast
forests should be built up and made to grow before our eyes. It
is more wonderful, in fact; for whereas, in the one case, the
chief result is that, dead matter extracted from the sea is
transformed into a dead rock; in the other, the lifeless matter
of the earth and air are converted by these minute plant-builders
into living forms, lifting their heads aloft to the sky, waving
with every wind that blows, and beautifying whole continents with
the varying verdure of their ever-changing leaves."
Further on in the same chapter, on pages 62-3, the same eloquent
writer continues:
"But the special chemical changes that go on within the plant,
could we follow them, would appear not less wonderful than the
rapid production of entire microscopic vegetables from the raw
food contained in the juice of the grape. It is as yet altogether
incomprehensible, even to the most refined physiological
chemistry, how, from the same food taken in from the air, and
from generally similar food drawn up from the soil, different
plants, and different parts of plants, should be able to extract
or produce substances so very different from each other in
composition and in all of their properties. From the seed-vessels
of one (the poppy) we collect a juice which dries up into our
commercial opium; from the bark of another (cinchona) we extract
the quinine with which we assuage the raging fever; from the
leaves of others, like those of hemlock and tobacco, we distil
deadly poisons, often of rare value for their medicinal uses. The
flowers and leaves of some yield volatile oils, which we delight
in for their odors and their aromatic qualities; the seeds of
others give fixed oils, which are prized for the table or use in
the arts * * * These, and a thousand other similar facts, tell us
how wonderfully varied are the changes which the same original
forms of matter undergo in the interior of living plants. Indeed,
whether we regard the vegetable as a whole, or examine its
minutest part, we find equal evidence of the same diversity of
changes and of the same production, in comparatively minute
quantities, of very different, yet often characteristic forms of
matter."
From the whole of the foregoing, we observe the exact position to
be the one we have previously stated. If such wondrous things can
be revealed to us through the physical science of chemistry, what
think you must be hidden from our physical sight and knowledge by
the veil which hangs between matter and spirit? Think you not, it
is worth the effort to penetrate beyond that point where the atom
disappears from the view of the scientist?
If plants produce such wonderful phenomena in their life and
influence, what must the Divine organism of man have concealed
within his microscopic universe, to study and comprehend? Plant
life is merely the alphabet of the complex, intricate, and
multitudinous processes, going on in the human body.
And, as the mechanical microscope of physical science cannot
reveal the why and the wherefore, let us, for a brief moment,
disclose some of the wonders that declare their existence, when
subjected to the penetrating alchemical lens, of the inward
spirit. The first thing that intrudes itself upon our notice, by
virtue of its primary importance, is the grand fact of
biogenesis--life emanating from life. We perceive every external
form to be the physical symbol of a corresponding degree of
spiritual life; that each complete plant represents a complete
cycle, state, or degree of interior existence; that it is made up
and consists of countless millions of separate atoms of life;
that these atoms of spiritual activity are the real instigators
of the life and motion of corresponding material atoms; that they
ever obey the Divine impulse of co-operative unity, in their
chemical, as well as their spiritual affinity. Consequently,
everything in the form of material substance must be, and is, but
the means for the phenomenal expression of incarnating spirit;
the organism of man, a tree, a plant, or an animal, being no
exception to this Divine, omnipresent law of creative life.
To the true Alchemist there can be no mystery surrounding the
wonderful phenomena mentioned in the work we have quoted, in
plants extracting from the same rocks, soil, and air, qualities
so manifestly different--deadly poisons, healing balsams, and
pleasant aromas, or the reverse, from the same identical plant
foods. Nothing is more wonderful or mysterious, than, the same
alchemical processes, which, are hourly being enacted within our
own bodies. From the same breath of air and the same crust of
bread do we concoct the blood, the bile, the gastric juice, and
various other secretions; and distil the finer nervous fluids,
that go to build up and sustain the whole of our mental and
dynamic machinery. It is the same ancient story of the atoms;
each part and each function endowing the same inorganic chemicals
with their own spiritual, magnetic, and physical life-qualities,
by what appears, to the uninitiated observer, a miraculous
transmutation of matter, but which is, in reality, the evolution
of organic form from inorganic materials, in obedience to the
Divine law of spiritual progression. Who could stop with exact
science? For, when we come to consider the apparent mysteries of
life and growth by the aid of this alchemical light, the shadows
flee, and all the illusions of Nature's phenomenal kaleidoscope
vanish before the revelation of the underlying spiritual
realities. We know that the plant, being the physical expression
upon the material plane of a more interior life, endows its
outward atoms with their peculiar qualities. THESE QUALITIES ARE
NOT DRAWN DIRECTLY FROM THE SOIL; the soil only becoming the
medium for their complete or incomplete expression, as the case
may be; i.e., supplying the necessary inorganic atoms. Hence, the
deadly qualities of aconite, and the generous life-sustaining
qualities of the nutritious vegetable, BEING SPIRITUAL LIFE
ENDOWMENTS, conveyed to the material substance, abstracted from
the soil and withdrawn from the atmosphere, are no mystery; their
effect upon the human organism being exactly that, which is
produced by their spiritual affinity or antipathy, as the case
may be. And this also shows and explains, why purely inorganic
chemical atoms, though they be exactly the same as the organic
substances, from a strictly scientific standpoint, YET FAIL TO
SUPPORT LIFE, because such chemical equivalents lack the organic
spirituality of the interior life, which alone, gives them the
power and function to support the same. They fail to fulfill the
requirements of the alchemical law of life for the support of
life--in other words, biogenesis.
And, too, this inorganic life may be parted from the plant or
vegetable, if it be too long severed from the medium which
transmits the spiritual life, from the inorganic world to that of
organic matter. Vegetables, fresh from the ground, or parent
stem, retain this life if at once prepared for food, if not
overcooked, which is so often ignorantly done. This is the secret
of sustenance from foods. Nature's perfected fruits and
vegetables are overflowing with the life-giving essences, and, if
eaten direct from the tree or parent stem, that life is not lost,
but transmitted to our organisms, and replenishes the wasting
system with a living life. Much less of such food is required to
completely satisfy and nourish the body than if the life had
partly departed or been destroyed.
Briefly stated, then, everything within organic Nature is the
expressional symbolic manifestation of spirit; every form being a
congregation of innumerable atoms of life, revealing their
presence in material states; each organic form, or, rather,
organism, evolving under the central control of some dominating
Deific atom or soul, which, by virtue of past incarnations and
labors in its cycle of evolution, from the mineral up to man, has
achieved the royal prerogative to rule within its own state. Man
being the highest representative form--the grand finale in the
earthly drama--sums up and contains within himself everything
below, and THE GERMS OF EVERYTHING BEYOND, THIS STATE. He is
truly a microcosm, and represents in miniature the grand Cosmic
Man of the Heavens. Every living force beneath him corresponds to
some state, part, or function, which he has graduated through and
conquered, and which, in him, has now become embodied, as a part
of his universal kingdom. Consequently, all things are directly
related to him, in the grand universal unity of spiritual life.
This cannot be realized and comprehended by the physical man, nor
conveyed to his outer senses by the physical sciences. He must
bring into active use the inner man, the real being, which
inhabits and controls the outer organism, and through its
instrumentality, understand the interior source and workings
behind the phenomena of manifested being. So we see that, exact
science cannot take us far, yet, it is a mighty factor, in the
evolution of the microcosm Man, and in consciously relating him
to the Infinite Macrocosm--God, Spirit, All.
CHAPTER VIII. ALCHEMY-PART II
Paracelsus, the most celebrated of the alchemists of the Middle
Ages, thus mystically speaks of his art:
"If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from
heaven. Melissa is not only in the garden, but also in the air
and in heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in
the ocean and Earth. What is Venus but the artemisia that grows
in your garden, and what is iron but the planet Mars? That is to
say, Venus and Artemisia are both products of the same essence,
while Mars and iron are manifestations of the same cause. What is
the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed
the stars in the sky? He who knows Mars knows the qualities of
iron, and he who knows what iron is knows the attributes of Mars.
What would become of your heart if there were no Sun in the
Universe? What would be the use of your 'Vasa Spermatica'[*] if
there were no Venus? To grasp the invisible elements, to attract
them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, and
transmute, them by the ever-moving powers of the living
spirit--this is true Alchemy."
[*] Astral germs of subjective life forms:--it is the latent, "to
be".
Thus, in a very few simple words, we find this master of the art
revealing the whole arcana of that mysterious science, which has
for its chief object and goal, the discovery of the
"philosopher's stone," which confers upon its fortunate possessor
the blessings of immortal youth. Therefore, we cannot possibly do
better in the commencement of our present study than, to minutely
examine each particular sentence and endeavor to discover his
true meaning, which, like all mystical writing, is so apparent,
yet cunningly concealed, as to excite the student's admiration.
"If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from
Heaven." The manna here spoken of does not specify any particular
thing, but is of universal application, and is simply used as an
unknown quantity, like x, y, z in mathematics. But, ever since
the days of Paracelsus, half-initiated mystics and bookworm
occultists, have endeavored to discover what this manna really
was. Some, the more spiritual, were of the opinion that, it was
spiritual power, or purity of spirit; others imagined it to mean
special magnetic qualifications, similar in nature to the
so-called gifts of modern spiritualistic media. The concealment
of the truth is unique, and consists in its very simplicity; and,
when correctly expounded, should read: "I am the microcosm, and
all the visible and invisible universe dwells within me, so that
whatsoever power I have in my constitution, I can attract its
correspondence from Heaven." Paracelsus must have smiled to
himself when he wrote "If I have manna," etc., because his whole
writings strive to prove man the miniature of Deity. Further
along, he explains himself by pointing out the real Law of
Correspondence, thus: "Melissa is not only in the garden, but
also in the air, and in Heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky,
but also deep in the ocean, and Earth." The illustrations are
beautiful, The life of the plant, the "anima floralis," pervades
the atmosphere and the interior states of spiritual life, where
it becomes in the highest degree beautiful, and beneficial to the
soul. A reference upon this point to "The Light of Egypt" Vol.,
I, may not be considered out of place. Upon page 74 it is
written: "The flower that blooms in beauty, breathing forth to
the air its fragrance, which is at once grateful to the senses
and stimulating to the nerves, is a perfect specimen of Nature's
faultless mediumship. The flower is a medium for the transmission
to the human body of those finer essences, and of THEIR SPIRITUAL
PORTION TO THE SOUL; for the aroma of the flower is spiritualized
to such a degree as to act upon the life currents of the system,
imparting to the spiritual body a nutriment of the finest
quality."
Thus, here is where the knowledge of the alchemical attributes of
plants, as applicable to man, can be most beneficially utilized.
Plants and flowers, whose attributes and aromas harmonize with
the complex organism of man, should be selected for the house and
garden, for, they are mediums to transmit the finer essences and
aromas to the spiritual constitution of man; the plant to the
physical, and the aromas and essences of the flowers to the soul.
Antipathies in plants and flowers would bring a similar evil
influence, as the discords of the antagonistic human magnetism.
It would not be so apparent, but more subtle, yet nevertheless
effective in result.
Our attention is next drawn to the planet Saturn, which, we are
informed, is not only shining in his starry sphere of the
heavens, but is also buried in the ocean depths and embodied in
the stratas of the earth. It is almost needless to add that, our
author refers to those substances naturally Saturnine in their
quality of life and expression, such as lead, clay, and coal,
among the minerals, and various deadly plants among the flora,
the chief of which is the aconite or monkshood, so significant of
Saturn and the isolated, monkish hermit. After some repetition,
in order to impress the truth of correspondences, our author
exclaims: "What is the human body but a constellation of the same
powers that formed the stars in the sky?" Truly, what else? for,
"he who knows Mars knows the qualities of iron, and he who knows
what iron is knows the attributes of Mars." Could anything be
plainer? We think not.
From the foregoing, which a long experience and much critical
investigation and research have demonstrated as true, we cannot
avoid the conclusion that Alchemy, equally as well as every other
science, religion, or system of philosophy formulated by man,
resolves itself, ultimately, in all its final conclusions, into
the one universal parent of all wisdom.
ASTROLOGY, the Science of the Stars, in unison with the Science
of the Soul, was, and still is, the one sublime center of real
learning. It constituted the sacred fountain of living waters,
from whose placid depths there rayed forth the Divine revelations
of man, his whence, where, and whither; and under the careful
conservation of a long line of gifted seers, it shone forth to
the sons of men, as the sacred Hermetic light in the
Astro-Masonic wisdom of Egypt's ancient priesthood.
It is not lost to us to-day. The same book lies open before us
that faced our ancient forefathers. It is standing out clear and
distinct, waiting to be read by the sons of men. We can learn its
language, and from its pages, we ourselves can read our relation
to God and our fellowman. Shall we not heed the whispering
intuitions of the soul and place ourselves in conscious rapport
with the whole?
This sublime Book of Wisdom was written by God Himself, to convey
to His children the knowledge of His powers, attributes, and
relation to all creative life. We cannot see that Divine Spirit
which we call God. No; but as long as the finite form exists as
such, we will have the spirit's manifestations to learn from.
Never will the Book of God be closed to the searching eye of the
soul. There will always be presented to his vision lessons to
study, and practical experiments to perform, to lead the soul
into deeper mysteries. Until man fathoms his own universe, he
cannot understand God. "Know thyself" is as applicable to-day as
when the famous, immortal and mystic utterance was inscribed on
the porch of the temple at Delphi.
Before this wonderful, divinely elaborated, but complex system
can be fully realized, it is necessary that the student should
comprehend, very distinctly, the two states of existence, the
internal and the external, and become familiar with the laws of
correspondences. And it seems strange that of all Sciences, that
of medicine should have so completely failed to grasp this living
truth, since every atom of medicine administered, invariably acts
upon this alchemical principle. When the human organism has
become discordant in some of its parts, it is because the
interstellar vibrations have aroused various states within the
human kingdom into a condition of rebellion against the supreme
will. Man's ignorance favors such seditious movements, and his
general habits and code of morals stimulate them to undue
activity. The final result is disease--disorganization of the
parts and functions, and those medicines corresponding TO THE
SAME FUNCTIONAL DEGREE OF LIFE WITHIN THE GRAND MAN, cure the
disorder, when administered properly and IN TIME, whereas, if
given to the perfectly healthy organism, THE ATOMS PRODUCE
SIMILAR SYMPTOMS TO THE DISEASES THEY ALLEVIATE, because it is
their mission to either subdue or be subdued, and when disease
prevails the medicinal atoms, acting in unison with the natural
parts and functions they affect, conquer or subdue the inharmony,
and vice versa, as before stated. In all cases of disease and
medicine, it is a simple question of A WAR BETWEEN THE ATOMS,
and, therefore, the most potential forces within Nature are
always at the command of the true Alchemist, because he knows bow
and when to select his fighting forces, and when to set them in
motion, for the best results.
Hahnemann, the founder of the Homeopathic system, has approached
THE NEAREST to this alchemical truth, and as a consequence, we
find it is in actual practice, the most natural, scientific, and
successful system of medicine, yet given to the world; based, as
it is, upon the well-known law of affinites, "Similia similibus
curantur," "like cures like," being a very ancient axiom in the
astrological practice of physic.
Bulwer Lytton, who had become thoroughly convinced of the great
value and importance of uniting ancient Alchemy with modern
medicine, makes the hero of his immortal story declare: "All that
we propose to do is this: To find out the secrets of the human
frame, to know why the parts ossify and the blood stagnates, and
to apply continual preventives to the effects of time. THIS IS
NOT MAGIC; IT IS THE ART OF MEDICINE, RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD."
It is a fact that, the molecules of the body are all changed
within twelve months; that every cell in the human organism is
born and grows to maturity within that space of time. Nature is
absolutely impartial. She draws from the atmosphere that she may
reproduce a fac-simile of everything she finds upon the surface
of the body. So, if there be a sore, or festering ulcer, the
atoms which are thrown off attract similar atoms, so as to
reproduce the ulcer or sore, and thus prevent the disease from
getting well of itself until it has worn itself out.
Further, every vein and canal throughout the entire body, from
youth to maturity, is being coated with carbonate of lime, or
lime in some form. The coating of the walls of the veins in such
a manner, prevents the free circulation of the living matter;
then, the real vitality of the food which we eat, is simply
passed off through the pores, or through the bowels, or through
the system, because it is unable to penetrate through the lime.
If that prevention which produces old age can be attained, then
physical youth will continue.
The first step to take is to dissolve the lime in the body. Drink
nothing but distilled water, in either tea, coffee, or any other
form, and drink freely of the sweet juices of the grape and
apple.
The food that we eat contains lime in a living form, and it is
the living lime we need to build up the living bones, for the
lime and the magnesia that we take in the water is crystallized
dead mineral, possessing no responsibility of life, and the lime
in our food is quite sufficient for all purposes. For everything
we take in excess, Nature makes us pay the penalty.
The first principle of long living is to keep all channels of the
body perfect and free from coatings of lime.
The second is that of youthful ideals of the mind. The soul never
grows old.
The third principle is dynamic breathing, which is storing up the
oxygen in sufficient quantities, to supply the tissues with
sufficient fuel, for combustion.
These three principles, acting in unison, contain the true basis
of physical life and a means of long living. Old age is simply
the petrifaction of the body through lime, and the incorporating
of erroneous thoughts into the organism.
It is the true Alchemy of human existence, and the preventives,
in each and every case must contain the spiritual correspondence
to the cause they seek to remedy; and, though the followers of
Hahnemann base the whole of their procedure of treatment upon
their master's fundamental law of "Similia similibus curantur,"
yet, there may be a few rare cases wherein, this undeviating
method would not apply with the required effect. In such a case,
the Alchemist would resort to the well-known law of opposites,
and base his treatment upon the dogma of "Contraria contrariis
curantur," so long the pet theory of the Allopathic school. They
work upon the hypothesis that, like attracts like, and, if
disease exist, those elements must be administered to set up the
vibrations that will produce the polar opposite. If the body was
racked with pain, those medicines would not be given that would
create or increase similar conditions, but, their antipathy would
be introduced into the system or applied locally to extinguish
the foe.
So long as mankind remain within the semicrystallized state of
soul development, so as to require the aid of external forces to
support the human throne within its earthly temple, mercenary
troops will exist to supply these supposed supports.
Unquestionably, the astrological law is the true system of
medicine, which treats disease by sympathy or by antipathy,
according to the nature of the case, and the efficacy of the
remedies at hand. This method is the only natural one, and has
been thoroughly demonstrated by the numerous "provings of drugs"
under Hahnemann's law.
Happily, the time is not far distant when, the incarnated spirit
will be able to use its own slumbering forces, and subdue all
suffering and symptoms of disease in their very first inception,
by virtue of its purer life and the dynamic potencies of its own
interior, spiritual thought. Already, mental therapeutics is
taking an advanced position among liberal, progressive minds, and
nothing demonstrates so clearly and forcibly the grand,
alchemical law of life-growth and decay, as the imponderable,
invisible forces, which, constitute the materia medica, or
remedial agents, of mental, magnetic, and spiritual healing.
Perhaps the most recondite subject connected with the healing art
divine is, the modus operandi of medicinal action, upon the human
body. A subject so simple and self-evident to the Alchemist,
remains a profound mystery to the educated physician of the
medical college; so much so that, we are tempted to ask of them:
"Can you explain the modus operandi of drugs?" Dr. William Sharp,
one of the most advanced physicians of the Homeopathic school, in
one of his well- known "Essays on Medicine," says: "In respect to
the manner of action of drugs we are in total darkness, and we
are so blind that the darkness is not felt. KNOWLEDGE OF THIS
KIND CANNOT BE ATTAINED; it is labor lost and TIME wasted to go
in search of it. True, hypotheses may be easily conceived; so may
straws be gathered from the surface of the stream. But what are
either of them worth? There is this difference between
them--straws may amuse children, and hypotheses are sure to
mislead physicians."
It is when the Occult Initiate observes to what helpless
conditions the practice of medicine has fallen, that, he would,
if be could with any possibility of success, implore the angelic
guardian of the human race to open the spiritual sight of men,
that they might see, as he sees, the Divine relationship, and
spiritual correspondence, of everything in the wide universe to
man.
Nature's laws move slowly and imperceptibly, yet surely and
exact, and the time will certainly come when man will be forced
into consciousness of these laws, whether he will or no. Nature
is no respecter of persons, and those who will not move and
progress, in harmony with her laws of advancement, must, of
necessity, pass out with the old.
Alchemy, as it relates to the healing art, is the most noble in
its object and beneficial in its effects, of all the many
subdivisions of the sciences, because, it alleviates the pains
and morbid afflictions of suffering humanity. We have given quite
sufficient of its astrological aspect in the second part of "The
Light of Egypt," Vol. I, wherein the four ancient elements are
translated into their chemical correspondences of oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon, which still constitute the four
primary elements of the most advanced chemistry to-day. They
enter more or less into every organic form and substance, which
is known, in various combinations and proportions. The human
organism is principally composed of them; so, likewise, is the
food that supports physical life, and the air we breathe is but
modifications of the same atoms.
As man's constitution embraces a microscopic atom of all the
essences and elements, corresponding to the whole; so does the
air; and much, that we depend upon our food to supply, can be
extracted from the atmosphere by breathing. Every breath we
breathe is new life, or death.
Herein is the secret of success or failure, in certain
localities, and under certain conditions. If we have iron within
us, could we extract or attract iron from Saturn's district? Or,
if the element within us could attract gold, could we obtain it
from the coal fields?
Therefore, it is only natural that the medical remedies we employ
to restore the organism, when afflicted with disease, should
group themselves into similar correspondences, and so, in a
general sense, we find them; for we note that the brain, the
circulation, the lungs, and the stomach, are the four chief
citadels of the body; the heart, of course, representing the
center of circulation. And this also explains, further, if that
were necessary, why the principal remedies of the homeopathic
system are so speedy and direct in their action. The four
principal drugs, which stand as representatives of their class,
are aconite, belladonna, phosphorus, and pulsatilla. These
represent the quadrant, for light is not more nicely adjusted to
the eye, nor sound to the ear, than aconite to the circulation,
belladonna to the brain, phosphorus to the lungs, and pulsatilla
to the stomach; while ramifying in the seven directions indicated
by the seven primary planets, we find stimulants, tonics,
narcotics, nervines, alteratives, cathartics and diuretics, as
the natural material correspondences thereof.
That we assign phosphorus to the lungs may appear startling to
the orthodox student, especially when, he calls to mind the fact
that phosphorus has long been recognized in medical science as a
brain food and medicine. Anticipating such mental questions, we
reply that in medicine, from the alchemical view, we are
occupying a wholly different standpoint; i.e., the power of
controlling the functional action of the body, in this view of
the case, and the fact that, the lungs and the brain are in the
most perfect affinity, there will remain no mystery upon the
subject.
The Alchemy of stones and gems attracts our next attention.
Affinites and antipathies to the human constitution, are to be
found in these crystallized representatives of the subtle,
invisible influences emanating from our planetary system. They
are the mediums for the transmission of corresponding attributes
and influences of existing powers and potencies, and if carried
or worn upon the person, they will bring the person in direct
rapport with the invisible forces within the universal system.
Here again Hahnemann's scientific philosophy would prove
effectual, that "Similia similibus curantur." Would the fiery
influence of a topaz attract much from the realms of a
chrysolite? Or, the crystallized, airy forces of a sapphire be a
suitable medium for the earthly forces of a jasper?
Gems and stones are dead or living realities. They live, slumber
and die, and have their potent existence as do the organic forms
of matter. They are, usually, imbued with the vivifying spark of
Divinity, and shine forth and exert their influence through the
magical powers attracted to them from the forces of Nature. A
real, living entity abides within them that can be seen by the
clairvoyant vision, and to the trained student in Occult lore,
this entity can be made to become an obedient servant, giving
warning of the approach of danger, impressions of men and things,
and warding off discordant influences surrounding us; or that,
which we may contact from the magnetic and personal environments
in our relations in the social world; or that which may be
projected to us from the invisible realms of life.
Think you the pryamids would be intact to-day, if the stones from
which they were built had been promiscuously selected? They were
chosen by Adepts in the knowledge of the Laws of Correspondence
and antipathy and affinity. The sphinx also stand as monuments to
the heights of wisdom that man can attain.
Metals also can be followed out on the same lines as the gems and
stones.
Much as we would like to continue, we are compelled to bring this
discourse to a close, even though in doing so we must of
necessity omit much of vital interest to the student. We will,
therefore, only add that the seven basic metals stand as the
crystallized representatives of their respective groups: Gold for
the Sun, Silver for the Moon, Tin for Jupiter, Copper for Venus,
Quicksilver for Mercury and Lead for Saturn. Each finds it own
sphere of action within the temporary abiding place of the human
soul on earth--the physical body. So, likewise, the twelve
constellations and their corresponding talismanic gems,
representing in their glittering array the anatomical Zodiac of
the human frame, and typifying the spiritual quality of the
atoms, there congregated, in every degree of life. These, and a
thousand other mysteries, had we the time, might be unfolded to
the student's view with considerable advantage, but we are
compelled to refrain. The philosopher's stone is near at hand.
Seek it not in remote spheres or distant parts of the earth, for
it is ever around you and within, and becomes the golden key of
true wisdom, which prepares the soul for its higher life and
brighter destiny. It is the still, small voice of the awakened
soul, that purges the conscience from suffering, and the
spiritual body from earthy dross. It is that, which treasures not
the corrupting, delusive wealth of Earth, nor the transient
powers of mammon, but garners the fruits which spring from the
pure life, and treasures the jewels of heaven. Vainly will you
seek for this stone of the wise philosopher amid the turmoils,
sufferings, and selfishness of life, unless you accept your
mission upon earth as a duty, delegated to the soul, from Heaven.
Eschew the evil thereof, and hold fast that which is good. To do
this, means to expand with the inward truth and become one of the
"pure in heart," in which blessed state, the magical white stone,
conveying A NEW NAME, reveals the living angel within, to the
outward man. Then, and then alone, doth he know the Adonai.
Such are the Divine, spiritual principles upon which the higher
Alchemy of life is based. They seek only to establish a Divine,
conscious at-one-ment between the angel, the man, and the
universe, and to this end, we conclude with the words of the
immortal Paracelsus:
"To grasp these invisible elements, to attract them by their
material correspondences, to control, purify, and transmute them
by the ever-moving powers of the living spirit, THIS IS TRUE
ALCHEMY."
CHAPTER IX. TALISMANS
Words are the symbols of ideas, and bear the same correspondence
to the physical brain as matter does to spirit, a medium of
expression, and are subject to continual change in their
application and meaning, in exact proportion to the changing
mental and moral condition of the people. As the planet, as well
as man, is continually progressing, so must there be a higher and
nobler conception of ideas. Hence, words or expressions must
change, to convey the progressive spirit, that is constantly
taking place. Therefore, it is always interesting, as well as
valuable, for the Occult student to go to the root of each word
connected with his philosophy, in order to learn the real sense
in which the word was used by the ancients, from whom his mystic
lore has descended. The true meaning, as well as the words
themselves, have become as mystical as the lore itself. Hence,
each student must commence as a beginner in any foreign language,
which he does not at present understand. In following this method
of procedure he will, at least, escape the dense and interminable
confusion of modern opinions upon subjects of which the writers
thereof, are partially or wholly ignorant.
No better illustration of this can be afforded than by the word
"Talisman," derived from the Greek verb "teleo," which means,
primarily, to accomplish, or bring into effect. But, in its real,
and therefore higher, sense, it means to dedicate, consecrate,
and initiate into the arcana of the temple mysteries. But, in the
present day it means a piece of imposture, connected with some
magical hocus pocus of the ignorant and superstitious mind, a
vulgar charm, that is supposed to bring the owner thereof some
material benefit, irrespective of his mental, magnetic, and moral
condition, "and," says the learned Webster, after describing his
idea of such things, "they consist of three sorts, astronomical,
magical and mixed." But in what sense the "astronomical" differed
from the "magical" we are not informed, nor is any light thrown
upon the peculiar nature of that class designated as "mixed." In
fact, the lexicographer so mixes up his definitions that, we are
unable to distinguish anything in particular, but his own
individual ignorance.
So it has become, in every branch of learning. Words and their
meanings have become so mixed in their use and application, that,
the world is full of discords and misunderstandings, which lead
into dissensions and contention, among all schools of thought,
sects, and isms; and lastly, though not the least serious, it has
reached into the close relations of the human family.
All writers and speakers, as well as the readers and listeners,
should acquaint themselves with the derivation and meaning of
words.
The fact stands very clearly defined that, Talismans are confused
in the minds of the present generation with magical charms, which
depend for their effects, upon the power of the idea or thought,
which the formulating magician impresses upon the substance of
which they are composed. If the magical artist be expert, and
endowed with an exceedingly potent will, his charm may become
very powerful, when worn by the person for whom it was prepared.
But, if this one grand essential be lacking, no amount of
cabalistical figures and sacred names will have any effect,
because, there can be no potency in symbols apart from the ideas
and mental force they are capable of arousing in the mind of the
maker. Solomon's Seal is no more powerful, when drawn upon virgin
parchment, with a weak will, or in a mechanical state of mind,
than a child's innocent scribbling upon its slate. But, if the
artist realizes the mysteries symbolized by the interlacing
triangles, and can place his soul en rapport with the invisible
elements they outwardly represent; then, powerful effects are
often produced.
I am sorry to say that, the knowledge of charms is not confined
to the creation of beneficial talismans. Its perversion has led
to the diabolical practices of the Voodo and Black Magician,
whose work is wholly, either for gain or revenge. Nothing, but
the most extreme selfishness lies beneath such immoral practices,
but, as there must be a light to reflect a shadow, so a charm
must follow a talisman. Magical charms, then, are simply natural
objects, possessing but little active virtue in themselves, but,
owing to the mediumistic nature of their substances, are endowed
with artificial powers, of temporary duration, by virtue of the
idea and thought impressed upon them, through the mental magic of
the maker; and in this sense, a charm must be clearly
distinguished from "teleo," the Talisman. The very names suggest
their difference, and, above all other men, students in Occultism
should strive to become thoroughly educated in the true sense of
the term, MEN OF LETTERS, by virtue of (as Ruskin calls it) "the
kingship of words." "Charm" is derived from the Latin "carmen," a
song that fascinates, and means to control by incantation, to
subdue; while Teleo concerns the secret powers and wisdom of
consecration and initiation. It is because of modern misuse of
antique terms that, we have considered this somewhat lengthy
explanation necessary, in order to clear away the accumulated
debris of the ages, from the true foundation of our present
study.
A Talisman is a natural object, containing the elemental forces
of its own degree of life, in a state of intense activity, and
capable of responding to the corresponding quality of life,
OUTSIDE OF ITSELF, that emanates from the same spiritual state,
either by sympathetic vibration or antagonistic currents, the
nature, power, quality, and degree of life, which the various
natural objects represent, being a part of the temple curriculum
of initiation. Hence, the name, by which the latent power of
these natural objects became known, was in strict harmony with
the facts involved.
In order to prevent any possible misconception upon the subject,
let us briefly restate the definition in a different way: A
Talisman is the exact antipodes of a charm. This latter is the
artful and temporary result of man's mental power; the former,
the natural production of universal Nature, and as permanent and
enduring as the substance of which it is composed, DURING THE
PRESENT CYCLE. And yet in some sense, it may be quite correct to
say that, a Talisman ACTS LIKE A CHARM, and vice versa, that
charms ACT LIKE A TALISMAN, providing that, the real vital
difference between them, is maintained in the statement.
Now that we have our subject clearly defined, let us carefully
examine HOW AND IN WHAT SENSE a given natural object becomes
Talismanic, for it must appear self-evident to all that, one and
the same substance cannot constitute a Talisman for everyone, and
for everything. They must naturally differ, as widely in their
nature and quality, as mankind differ in physical, mental, moral,
ethical, and temperamental, development. And, yet, though, man
may so differ from his fellow man; the ignorant Esquimau, killing
seals in his kayak, may belong to the same spiritual quality of
life as the Harvard professor, who obtains his subsistence by
daily discourse upon the sublime harmony of the infinitely small
with the infinitely great, throughout the manifested universe of
matter, and wherever we find this KINSHIP of the spirit, we shall
find the same identical Talisman acting alike upon each, whenever
they shall come en rapport with it. Mental, moral, and physical
development, never alter the real nature of the internal man.
Culture only brings to the surface, into active use, the latent
possibilities lying concealed within the human soul. It only
allows him to exercise his functions upon different planes, and
with different effect.
Every natural department of Nature corresponds to some peculiar
specific quality and degree of life. These have been divided, for
the sake of convenience, into four primary groups; and each group
again subdivided into three, corresponding to the four cardinal,
four succedent, and four cadent houses, of the astrological
chart; therefore, the twelve signs of the Zodiac; these
constituting the Cycle of Necessity within physical conditions,
wherein, the ever-measuring or decreeing tidal flow of life from
solar radiation throughout the year, represents the twelve groups
of humanity, of lower animated Nature, of vegetation, and
crystallized gems. Every human being is ushered into the world
under the direct influx of one or more of these celestial
divisions, and by virtue of the sign occupying the horizon at the
moment of birth, absorbs such influx, and becomes endowed with a
specific polarity, by virtue of which, lie ever afterward, during
such expression within physical conditions, inspires with every
breath, that specific life quality from the atmosphere,
corresponding to the same degree of the universal spirit.
Consequently, that gem, or those gems, representing and
corresponding to HIS HOUSE OF LIFE, become to him, a Talisman,
because of their relationship--their spiritual affinity. These
are all given in the second part of Vol. I. THE METALS never
become Talismanic, because of their comparatively negative degree
of life, and for this reason also, they make the most powerful
charms. Certain combinations of metals, and in proper
proportions, increase the potency and magnetic influence of a
charm; and here, too, the laws of antipathy and affinity come
into practical use.
A true expert will know his metals, or metal, and his client,
before commencing his magical work.
Those persons who derive most virtue from a Talisman are those
who belong to the most sensitive, or interior state, within such
degree of life, and who are dominated by one sign only. Thus, if
we find one sign occupying the whole of the House of Life, or
practically so, as when the first face of a sign ascends, we may
be sure, other things not interfering, that such a native will
receive great benefit from wearing its Talismanic gem. If a
person of good intellectual powers and sensitive spirituality, be
born when the lord of the ascendant occupies the RISING SIGN, as,
for instance, Mars in Aries, or Sun in Leo, we may be sure that,
the Talismanic gem, in their case, will be exceedingly powerful,
because, all the Astro-physical conditions are then most
favorable for the expression of natural forces, and, if worn
upon, or near that part of the body which the sign rules, the
power and influence is more powerful and beneficial.
In wearing them, take them to you as a part of yourself, a part
of your higher self, a thing to be heeded, listened to and
obeyed. They will usually make their presence most pronounced
when something arises to disturb the harmonious vibrations that
naturally and quietly go on between the person and the
interstellar spaces above. They are like the sensor and motor
nerves--they never make their presence known, except, when danger
encroaches.
Having explained in what sense gems become talismanic, we have
now to disclose the modus operandi--THE HOW.
The gems contain the life quality of their own astral nature.
Man, as a higher expression, only, of the same universal biune
life, contains the same. Like two electric currents, MAN, THE
POSITIVE POLE (comparatively), attracts unto himself THE MINERAL
LIFE OF THE GEM, which thus, becomes the negative pole. A
complete circuit is formed and maintained, as long as they remain
in contact. Gems belonging to a different quality of life, not
being en rapport with his astral state, have no good effect,
because, no current flows between them. Thus, the Talisman acts
in unison with the psychic, or soul-principle, of man, aiding the
organism to sustain health, stimulating the mental perceptions,
and spiritual intuition, and affording in a remarkable manner,
many premonitions of coming danger, when the individual is
sufficiently sensitive to perceive them. And now, per contra, as
there are gems that act in sympathy with man, there must be, and
in fact are, gems that act upon contrary principles; i.e.,
antagonistic, and these belong to purely antagonistic elements,
as Air to Earth and Fire to Water, unless the native be born
under BOTH forces, as Mars in Cancer rising, or the latter part
of one sign and nearly the whole of another of an opposite
nature, occupying the ascendant. Such natives are pure neutrals,
and such might wear the gems that belong to the most powerful
planet of the horoscope, or that triplicity holding the most
planets; then, they are usually combined, the planet and the
triplicity.
There are, of course, innumerable substances, more or less,
capable of talismanic virtue to particular individuals. But those
gems, and similar ones, that are given in "The Light of Egypt,"
Vol. I, are the most powerful. To these may be added the opal,
under Scorpio; the garnet, under Aries; and the turquoise, under
Cancer, when Saturn is therein; and the aquamarine, under Pisces;
and among the temporary talismans of vegetation we may add that,
the young shoots, bearing the flower and seed vessels, are the
portions of chief virtue, and the young shoots of trees. These
are often used in locating mines, wells, oils, etc., that lie
hidden beneath the surface of the earth, and in the hands of a
negative, sensitive person, seldom fail to reward the searcher
with success. These should always be gathered when their ruling
correspondences are rising, or, BETTER STILL, CULMINATING UPON
THE MERIDIAN. These will be explained in the chapter on The Magic
Wand.
We have now reached the limits of our present study, and have
only to state that all gems, like the human organism, are in one
of three conditions: alive and conscious, asleep and UNCONSCIOUS,
or dead and powerless. These conditions can only be discovered,
in stones, by the trained lucid or the instructed neophyte.
Stones that are sleeping require to be awakened. This, also, can
only be done by the trained student or Adept. Those that are
dead, are USELESS as Talismans, no matter how beautiful they
appear as ornaments.
Gems and stones are also sexed, and those who wear them would
receive the best effect if they should wear those of opposite
sex, although either is powerfully potent in their influence upon
the individual. How very ignorant the children of men are, of the
subtle, silent, yet obedient servants, that everywhere, surround
them. Here, again, that Divine spark, which lies embedded within
the crystallized forces of Nature, is exerting its subtle,
spiritual influence, in making man's very selfishness, and love
of ornament and show, a means, to bring forth these silent
monitors, knowing ere long that, their true power and potency
will be known, and consciously utilized by him, as potent factors
in his soul's evolvement and physical development.
The twelve representative gems within the cold stratas of matter,
stand as the material representatives of their stellar
counterparts in the sky, and constitute the beautiful,
glittering, but crystallized, Zodiac of man's physical anatomy.
CHAPTER X. CEREMONIAL MAGIC
The above title has been selected, chiefly, because, in most
works treating upon magic we find it wrongly used, and therefore,
take the opportunity of explaining the matter, for, there were no
such terms in the vocabulary of the ancient Magi.
It is unfortunate, that, words of ancient origin are not more
carefully used, and that, we should attach so many different
meanings to the same word. The terms "ceremony" and "ceremonial"
are nothing more nor less than, what that eminent critic, John
Ruskin, would designate as "bastards of ignoble origin," which,
somehow or another, have usurped the places of "rite" and
"ritual." The word "rite" has descended to us from the Latin
"ritus" of our Roman ancestors, and they received it from the
more ancient "riti" of the Sanskrit, the Greek equivalent of
which is "reo," and means the method or order of service to the
gods, whereas, "ceremony" may mean anything and everything, from
the terms of a brutal prize fight to the conduct of divine
service within the church. But, no such chameleon-like definition
or construction can properly be placed upon the word "rite," for
it means distinctly, if it means anything at all, the serious
usage and sacred method of conducting service in honor of the
gods, or of superiors, and requires the attendance of the prophet
or priest, or some one duly qualified to fulfill such sacred
functions for the time being. The ritual of magic, then, is the
correct title of this present study, and as such, we shall,
henceforth, term it as we proceed with the course.
Man is especially, and above all creatures, an organizing force,
and when to this fact, we add the most interior and powerful of
his sentimental instincts--veneration for the powers that be, and
for the higher, invisible forces of Nature, his "religiosity," as
it has been aptly termed, we cannot wonder that, the earliest
races of which we possess any record are chiefly distinguished
for their imposing and elaborate religious rites. In fact, it is
to the stupendous temples and a colossal sacerdotalism, that, we
are indebted for nine-tenths of the relics and records which we
possess of them. So true is this that, from what we have been
able to discover, we are quite justified in asserting that the
ancient races were, above all other things, a profoundly
religious people. The temple was the center around which revolved
all their genius and art, and the sacred edifice became their
grandest achievement in architecture, and its high priest the
most powerful individual in the state. In fact, it was in
consequence of the real power invested in such sacred office that
it was so intimately connected with the throne, and why royalty
so frequently belonged to the priesthood or exercised priestly
functions. And there can be no real doubt, but that, amongst the
pastoral and more spiritual races of Earth's earliest
inhabitants, the priest, by reason of his superior wisdom, was
the first law-giver; and, by virtue of his sanctity of person and
elevation of mind became their first, primitive king, a
patriarchal monarch, whose scepter and symbol of power was the
shepherd's peaceful crook; just as among the ruder nomads of the
inhospitable North, we find the greatest hunters invested with
the dignity of chief, whose significant symbol and scepter of
royalty, upon their Nimrod thrones, was the trusty, successful
spear. And the times in which we live have bad their full effect
upon these symbols, so significant of rule. The monarch has
transformed the spear into the less harmful mace, while the
Church has added an inch of iron to the crook. Therefore, the
former has become less war-like, and the latter less peaceful,
and, verily, in actual life we find them so,
The patriarchal sire, head of the tribal household, was the
original priest; and the hearthstone the first altar around which
the family rites were performed; and from this pure and primitive
original have been evolved, through progressive ages, the stately
temple and the sacred person of the despotic pontiff; from the
sincere prayer the pure aspirations of the human heart and the
joyous offerings of fruits and flowers to the invisible powers
around them; and from the souls of their beloved ancestors has
arisen the costly and complicated ritual of theology. And, if the
theologians of to-day really knew the lost, secret meaning of
their complicated rituals, and the unseen powers lying behind
their external symbols, their anxieties for the continued life of
their dying creeds would be turned to new hopes and faith, which
could be demonstrated to their equally blind followers; that,
that which they were teaching they knew, and could practically
use the knowledge given forth in their sanctuaries; and, instead
of offering up their supplications to an imaginary, personal
Deity, their words, rites, and ceremonies, would take on the form
and power that such should command, and they would become truly,
what their title really means, a doctor of the soul. Then could
they, intelligently, lead and direct the souls of their followers
to the path of Christ (Truth), which leads up to salvation; not a
vicarious atonement, but gaining the at-one-ment through the
individual soul's development to a conscious relation, to that
Divine spirit, we call God, where it can say "I know."
Out of those simple gifts, which were the spontaneous offerings
of loving remembrance and unselfish charity, have grown the
prayers, penances, sacrifices, and servile worship, of
sacerdotalism. Out of the paternal consideration and love of the
aged sire has evolved the haughty, chilling pride of the selfish,
isolated priest, and which reflects its baneful influence upon
the worshipers at their feet. They have also changed their once
sacred, faithful, and reverent, obedience into suspicion and
distrust, and with the educated to utter disgust. The light has
been extinguished, and priest and people alike are groping about
in darkness.
It is strange, yea, passing strange, the amount of human
ignorance and folly that is revealed. When we look upon this
picture and then upon that, verily we cannot help but ask the
question, is mankind really progressing? We know that it is; we
are keenly alive to the truth that the Anthem of Creation sounds
out "Excelsior"--"move on," but how, and in what way
(SPIRITUALLY) we fail to comprehend. The cyclic development of
the human soul is an inscrutable mystery.
All the considerations above presented must be thoroughly weighed
and understood in order to arrive at the true value of "the dogma
and ritual of high magic," as Eliphas Levi terms it; because,
amid the vast array of tinselled drapery, the outcome of man's
vain conceit and bombastic pride, we shall find very little that
can be considered as vital and really essential to the rites of
magic. The show, the drapery, the priestly ornaments and
instruments, are to the really spiritual Occultist, but, as
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. That they had, and still
have, their legitimate uses, is true, but these uses do not
concern magic, per se, nor its manifold powers. They awed the
popular mind, and impressed upon the masses a due reverence for
the powers that be. They were instrumental in holding the
untrained passions of the common herd in check, by a wholesome
fear of summary vengeance from the gods, so that this pageantry
of magic, the outward priestly show, was more of a politic
development than a spiritual necessity, an astute but,
philosophical method of enabling the educated few to govern the
uneducated many. And it was only when the educational and
initiatory rites of the temple became corrupt, and the priest
became the persecuting ally of the king--when, in real fact, the
priest lost his spirituality in the desire for temporal power and
place, that the people began to disbelieve his professions and
rebel against his tyrannical control.
The powers that be, are now wielding their sword of justice, and
unfurling the knowledge of freedom and truth to the aspiring mind
of man. He has begun to feel his bondage and the yoke of
oppression. The words of promise and love, instead of lifting him
up to the God he has been taught to worship, bow him down in
slavish obedience to his priest. Mankind cannot remain in this
mental and spiritual darkness much longer. Already I see the
break of day, the dawn of a new life, a new religion; or, rather,
the re-establishing of the true, which is as old as Time itself.
There is but One Law, One Principle, One Word, One Truth and One
God.
The original requirements for the office of priest, and the rites
of magic, were, as shown, a primitive, i.e., pure mind; one that
had outgrown the lusts and passions of youth, a person of
responsibility and experience; and even to this day the priest of
the Roman Church is called by the familiar title of "father." And
as Nature does not alter her laws and requirements in obedience
to the moral development of the race, we may rest assured that
the same requirements, of ten thousand years ago, still hold good
to-day. You may enter your magic circle, drawn with prescribed
rites, and you may intone your consecrations and chant your
incantations; you may burn your incense in the brazen censer and
pose in your flowing, priestly robes; you may bear the sacred
pentacles of the spirit upon your breast and wave the magic sword
to the four quarters of the heavens; yea, you may even do
more--you may burn the secret sigil of the objurant spirit; and
yell your conjurations and exorcisms till you are black in the
face; but all in vain, my friend--all in vain. It will prove
nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit unless the inward self,
the soul, interblends with the outward Word, and contacting by
its own dynamic intensity-- the elemental vibrations of
Nature--arouses these spiritual forces to the extent of
responding to your call. When this can be done, but not until
then, will your magical incantations have any effect upon the
voiceless air. Not the priestly robes nor magic sword, not the
incantations, WRITTEN WORD, nor mystic circle, can produce
Nature's response to Occult rite; but the fire of the inward
spirit, the mental realization of each word and mystic sign,
combined with the conscious knowledge of your own Deific
powers--this, and this only, creates Nature's true magician.
Who and where can such be found? Are they so few that the echo
answers back "Where and who?" Yet, there are many such upon the
Earth at the present time, but the present mental conditions
forbid them making their identity known. They would not be
recognized and accepted as the TRUE teachers, but reviled and
persecuted and dubbed as insane. But silently, they are sowing
the seed of truth that will spring up and bear fruit, where and
when least expected.
Because evil is so active, truth is not lying dormant. The spirit
of God, that Divine spark of Deity within every human soul, never
sleeps, never rests. "On and upward" is its cry. "Omnia vincit
veritas."
The grand sublimity of man's conception of at-one with the
Infinite Father, at-one with the limitless universe of being,
at-one with, and inheriting, all the sacred rights and
inalienable prerogatives of the ineffable Adonai of the deathless
soul, is the only test of man's qualification for the holy
office; for, as Bulwer Lytton has truthfully said, "the loving
throb of one great HUMAN HEART will baffle more fiends than all
the magicians' lore." So it is with the sacred ritual. One single
aspirational thought, clearly defined, outweighs all the priestly
trappings that the world has ever seen.
The success of all incarnations depends upon the complete unison
of VOICE and MIND, the interblend of which, produces the dynamic
intonation, that chords with the inward rhythmic vibrations of
the soul. Once this magical, dynamic, vibration is produced,
there immediately springs into being the whole elemental world
belonging thereto, by correspondence. Vocalists who hold their
audiences spellbound do so by virtue of the magical vibrations
they produce, and are in reality practical, even though
unconscious, magicians. The same power, to a degree, lies in the
voice when speaking, the graceful movement of the hand when
obeying the will, and the eye rays forth the same dynamic power
and becomes magical in its effects.
These powers are exercised more upon the physical plane, and no
better illustration can be given, than, the power man is able to
exert over the animal when gazing into its eyes.
Here, as well as in incantations and invocations, within the
power of the will, lies the success or failure.
At this point it may be asked, what, then, is the use of magical
rites, of symbols and priestly robes? We answer, in themselves
alone, nothing, absolutely nothing, except the facility and
convenience we derive from system, order and a code of procedure.
To this may be added the mental force and enthusiasm of soul
which such things inspire, just as men and women may feel more
dignified, artistic, and refined, when dressed in accordance with
their ideas. So may the average priest feel more priestly, holy;
and consequently, more powerful mentally; when arrayed in the
robes of his office and surrounded by the outward symbols of his
power and functions. But, in themselves alone, there is not, nor
can there be, any real virtue. The same may be said of the
incantations. The words used in their composition are the
hieroglyphics of mystical ideas. Therefore, the correct
pronunciation of the words or the grammatical construction of a
sentence is nothing, if the underlying idea is conceived in the
mind and responded to by the soul. Will and motive form the basis
of true magic.
One word more and we have completed our subject. Magic swords,
rings, pentacles, and wands, may, and often are powerful magical
agents in the hands of the magician, by virtue of the power, or
charm, that is invested within them when properly prepared; but
apart from such preparation, by those who know, they are as
powerless as unintelligible incantations.
All the foregoing are aids, but if physical manifestations of
magical forces be required, there must always be present the
necessary vital, magnetic pabulum, by means of which such
phenomena are made to transpire; and in every case, to be
successful, the assistance of a good natural magician, or seer,
is necessary; for without this essential element the whole art,
in its higher aspects, becomes abortive.
CHAPTER XI. THE MAGIC WAND
This is the last lesson of our present course that requires a
clear definition of the terms employed in the title thereof, for
the twelfth, and final study is, perhaps, fortunate in having for
its title a word that has not, so far, been misused and distorted
from its original sense.
The Magic Wand. The words savor of everything that the young tyro
in Occult art can picture to his mind; of the midnight magician
and his mysterious, if not diabolical, arts, muttering his
incantations, working his gruesome spells, and raising the
restless ghosts of the dead. Strange fancies, these, and yet, so
corrupt and ignorant have become the conceptions of the popular
mind regarding the once sacred Science of the Temple and the
psychological powers of Nature, that we very much question, if
the ideas above stated were not very similar to the originals of
each modern student, before he had become acquainted with the
deeper truths--the realities of Occult philosophy.
We will commence our study by a careful investigation of the
original meaning of the words Magic Wand, since those who were
the masters and originators thereof, are far more likely to know
more about them than their degenerate offspring of a later age.
Few, comparatively, would believe that the words MAGIC, MASON,
and IMAGINATION, are the present unrelated descendants of the
same original conception--THE ROOT IDEA; but such is the case.
First, then, we will examine their modern meanings. Magic is the
unholy art of working secret spells, of using invisible powers,
and holding intercourse with the unseen world of ghosts and
demons, by means of enchantments. It also means the expert
deception of the senses by the tricks of a conjurer, SO-CALLED
hocus-pocus and fraud, and a magician is either an evil-minded,
superstitious mortal, fool enough to believe in charms, or an
expert pretender and imposter of the first water, who cheats and
deceives the people. A mason is the honorable designation of a
builder, who works in stone; metaphysically, a member of a semi-
secret society, whose sole advantage is social intercourse and
standing; who proclaim fraternity and universal brotherhood
theoretically and practice the reverse in reality; a man who apes
the Egyptian Mason, knows nothing in reality of Hiram, his
master; who knows nothing of the starry Solomon or his mystic
temple in the heavens, which Hiram built; and who misconceives
the import of the three villains, or assassins; and who, further,
knows nothing of that wonderful sprig of myrtle:--in short, a
Free Mason, speaking generally, is a man who delights in ideals,
social equality, secret fraternity, and plays at mysticism; who
parades on the Masonic stage and enacts a role he does not
understand. The first meaning, that of a builder, is the most
correct. Lastly, the imagination is the exercise of mental
imagery--the picturings of silent thought.
And now we will proceed BACKWARDS. Imagination is from the word
"image," a form, a picture, and has descended to us from the
Latin "imago," which, in its turn, was derived from the old
Semitic root, "mag." Mason comes to us from the Latin "mass,"
which means to mould and form, i.e., to build; and the word
"mass," through various transformations, was also derived from
the root-word "mag." Consequently, originally, there was but
little difference in the ancient idea of building pictures in the
mind and erecting the mental idea externally in stone. It is from
this fact, that, we have to-day Mental Masons, a la the secret
orders, and stone masons, who labor for wages. The Mental Masons
have merely lost the knowledge of their art. They should, by
rights, be as active and correspondingly useful to-day as their
more physical brothers, the masons of stone.
This art would never have fallen into disgrace and disuse, if
their daily bread, or material accumulations, had depended upon
their efforts in building up the mental, moral, and spiritual
attainments, of each other, and bringing their knowledge into
more external use, by making the material edifice, the physical
body, a purer and more fitting temple, for the Divine soul.
Magic comes from the Latin "magi" and the Greek word "magos,"
which means wise, learned in the mysteries, and was the synonym
of wisdom. The initiated philosopher, the priest, and the wise
men, are all of them included in the "magi." Again, tracing this
word to its remote ancestor, we find it terminating in the same
Semitic root, "mag," but of this strange root no one was able to
say much, except that it seemed to belong to the Assyrian branch
of the great Semitic race. But quite recently, thanks to our
scientific explorers and archaeologists, versed in the mysterious
meaning of cuniform inscription; Assyrian scholars now inform us
that they have found the hoary, primitive original of it, of
magic, magi and imago, etc. It is from an old Akkadian word,
"imga," meaning wise, holy, and learned, and was used as the
distinguishing title of their wisest sages, priests, and
philosophers, who, as may be supposed, gradually formed a
peculiar caste, which merged into the ruling priestly order. The
Semites, who succeeded the old Akkadian race in the valley of the
Euphrates, as a mere matter of verbal convenience, transformed
many of the old Akkadian words to suit their own articulation,
and "imga" became "mag," and thus "magi." THE BLEND between the
Semetic and the older Akkadian race, produced, by fusion of
racial blood, the famed Chaldeans. So that we see how old are the
words which many of us daily use, but with different meaning.
Verily, it makes one feel, when be thinks of magic and its
origin, as though he were quite nearly related to the people who
honored King Sargon, the Wise, the earthly original of the mystic
Solomon of Biblical tradition. The term Wand is an old Saxon
word, which primarily signifies to set in motion, to move. From
this we derive our word wander, i.e., to roam, and wandering,
i.e., moving and continually restless.
We have now the original, therefore real, meaning of the words
Magic Wand; thus an object that sets in motion the powers of the
magician, and the magician, an Initiate of the sacred rites--A
MASTER OF WISDOM, possessing all the resources that enable him TO
BUILD mould, and form; to create in fact, by virtue of his
knowledge of the secret powers of mental imagery and the
potential use of his own imagination. He is both Mental Mason and
learned philosopher.
The student may doubtless ask, why all this care and labor
regarding mere definitions? We reply that, it is because, the
real meaning of the words we have purposely selected for the
title of our studies are, in themselves, a far better revelation
than we could possibly have written. Originally, ideas and words
were related as absolute expressions or correspondences, of each
other. This is not so now. As the different races became
interblended, the purity of both language and morals retrograded,
and the people grew more to the external. The intuitions and
spirit were compelled to retreat, giving place to only the
intellectual and mental. The blending of the languages gave birth
to many words wherein different meanings were transmitted; hence,
the trouble arising to-day over the numerous interpretations of a
single word.
Hybrid races have no such thing as a pure language. Their ideas
and language, like their blood, is badly mixed up, confusing, and
unsatisfactory, so far as the real meaning of the words are
concerned. For this very reason we find so many different
meanings for the same word; and also for this reason, we cannot
formulate a legal enactment in the Anglo-Saxon tongue that, a
learned lawyer, versed in this senseless jugglery of words,
cannot demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the courts, means
something the very opposite of the real intentions-- the
spirit--which the framers thereof, intended it to convey.
Anciently, it required no artful cunning of the lawyer to
interpret the laws. The words had only one simple and obvious
meaning. If a language could be so constructed to-day, and the
antiquated precedents of the courts annihilated; the legal
profession would be exterminated inside of twelve months, and an
affliction removed from the people.
The philosophy of the Magic Wand is this. It is a magnetic,
electric conductor for the magician's will. It directs the flow
of his thought and concentrates it upon a given point in space or
an object. It is, magically, what the sights of a rifle are to a
sportsman. It enables him to focus his powers with exact
precision upon the mark against which, or upon which, his will is
directed. Apart from this there is no power, per se, in the Wand
itself, any more than there is in a lightning conductor without
the electric storm. Ergo, the Wand is the conductor, in the
magician's hand, for the lightnings of the soul; and just as the
lightning rod is most useful and most powerful to protect, when
the storm is the strongest; so is the Wand most powerful in the
hands of the most potential magician. We can only transmit
through this Wand the degree of force we may happen to possess in
the soul.
In a properly prepared Wand lies the most powerful weapon, to
protect or destroy, that can be placed within a magician's hands.
With his own spiritual force and knowledge, combined with the
magic power attached to the instrument, nothing can withstand its
power, when directed with a determined and powerful will.
Many substances have been employed in the manufacture of these
Magic Wands. Metals or stones will not serve this purpose, unless
covered with some organic matter. In any case stones are
worthless. The very finest Wands are made from the live ivory of
a female elephant. A short Wand, twenty-one inches long, tipped
with gold at the largest end and silver or copper at the other,
is very powerful. Next to these costly articles are Wands with a
gold or copper core, a wire, in fact, cased with ebony, boxwood,
rosewood, cedar or sandalwood. English yew also serves the
purpose; so does almond wood. Simpler, less expensive, and almost
as effective, are Wands made of witch-hazel. In fact, apart from
the Wands of live ivory, I consider that witch-hazel is as
powerful as the golden Wand. Next in force to this witch-hazel
are the shoots of the almond tree, and, lastly, the peach and
swamp willow.
The proper time to manufacture a Magic Wand is whenever you can
find the person who is able to do the work. But after it is
constructed it must be thoroughly magnetized, with proper
ceremony and aspiration, the first or the second full Moon after
the Sun enters Capricorn, at midnight, when the Moon will be
culminating in her own sign upon the mid-heaven.
The best time TO CUT a shoot of witch-hazel or other material for
a Wand is the first full Moon after the Sun's entry into
Capricorn, at midnight, and then magnetize it upon the next full
Moon at the same hour.
In conclusion, let us repeat that, the Magic Wand is but the
highly sensitive magical medium for transmitting and
concentrating the force of the learned magician; that it is
equally powerful under great excitement of mind, WHETHER USED
CONSCIOUSLY OR NOT. The stream of mental fire will go in the
direction the Wand happens to be pointed, and, therefore, should
never be in the hands of the wicked or foolish, any more than
firearms. It is potential or otherwise, in exact proportion to
the artist's wisdom and dynamic mentality, and is useless in the
hands of the idiotic or weak-minded. A Magic Wand requires brains
and vigorous mental force to make it effective, just as the steam
engine requires an apparatus for generating the steam, that moves
it. With a determined will, and a mental conception of one's
inward power, any man or woman can, by means of this sensitive
Wand, defy all the legionaries of Hell, and quickly disperse
every form of spiritual iniquity.
The firearms which have become so intricate in their mechanism
and so destructive in their operations, are only a degeneration
of the Magic Wand. The first weapons of warfare and slaughter
were very crude and clumsy, then larger and more destructive,
until at last they have become as fine in texture and mechanical
genius, compared with their early brothers, as the Magic Wand is
to-day, above and beyond, the present weapons of warfare. At
last, the original mode of defense will be rediscovered and
become a utility in the hands of the majority of mankind. At the
same time, the mental and moral nature will be evolving into
better conditions, too, so that their use will not be given to
the ignorant and evildoers, but placed in charge of the educated,
those who are morally capable of leading and ruling.
Yes, we are now stepping upon the plane of reason and intuition,
where right, not might, will prevail and rule the world. The
present mode of government and rule will be changed, and one of
humanitarian justice take its place.
God hasten the Millenium.
THE BOOK WHICH IS CALLED THE TABLETS OF AETH
THE SACRED SCROLL WHICH IS CALLED THE TABLETS OF AETH
NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ASTRAL RECORDS AND
DONE INTO A BOOK,
By ZANONI
TO WHICH IS ADDED A SERIES OF INTERPRETATIVE REFLECTIONS FOR THE
SPIRITUAL MEDITATION OF THE FAITHFUL.
FOREWORD
Thy temple is the arch Of yon unmeasured sky;
Thy Sabbath the stupendous march Of grand eternity.
To my Brothers and Sisters of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor:
GREETING--For some years it has been my desire to leave a
spiritual legacy to the many devoted friends and followers who
have braved so much amid present truth and error for my sake.
In choosing the present work for such a purpose, I have had in
view the deeper spiritual needs of the soul--the prophetic
element of the interior spirit, which can best exalt itself
through the contemplation of Nature's arcane symbolism of the
starry heavens--not the material expression of the glittering
splendors of the midnight sky, but the spiritual soul-pictures of
those blazing systems that reveal to the seeing eye the shining
thrones of THE RULERS--the Powers that Be.
Ever since the dawn of intellectual human life upon our Mother
Earth, long before the days of the cave man, or even the first
frost that heralded the coming of the Ice Age, souls have hoped
and hungered and souls have quailed and fallen in their struggles
with the mysteries of God. But ever and anon some bright flower
of the race has gained the spiritual victory. A Messianic soul
has responded to aspirations of a great-hearted, great-souled
woman, pregnant with spiritual yearnings beyond her race, and she
has unconsciously blessed her kind for the generations yet to
come with that incarnated mystery--THE SON OF GOD. Blessed, O
Woman, is thy patient mission on the earth, and transcendent are
the holy mysteries of thy maternity. Every human birth is a
Divine miracle in humanity, performed by the Motherhood of God.
Hence it is that, from the earliest ages of life, triumphant
souls have stormed the gates of the sanctuary and penetrated
Nature's most occult mysteries and there recorded their spiritual
victories. Amid these sacred records lies one great scroll, that
none but the brightest and bravest may read.
This sacred scroll, sealed with the seven mystic seals of the
heavens, contains The Tablets of Aeth, a record of the soul's
experiences upon the planes of both conscious and sub-conscious
life-spirit and matter, that are expressed in a series of
universal symbols, which manifest to the seer the processes of
creative life, of spiritual cause with material effect. And,
finally, the mystery of the seven vials and the seven stars of
Saint John are written therein; for the Tablets are the
hieroglyphic keys which unlock the realities of truth involved
within the unrealities of external life, and open up, to the
aspiring soul, inconceivable vistas of knowledge yet possible of
realization, within the Divine womb of the uncreated Aether.
Myriads of exalted spirits, who have toiled for the treasure
which doth not corrupt, have added, and are adding, their portion
of personal conception to this universal conception of life, so
that the sacred symbols themselves, inscribed upon these
imperishable Tablets, ARE EVOLUTIONARY--are slowly unfolding
through the eons of time, and revealing wider and yet deeper
processes of the light, life, and love, of the Motherhood of God.
Therefore, all Divine revelation of infinite truth is limited and
finite as to its conception, when revealed through a finite
capacity. All Divine truths are universal; all personal
conceptions of such truths are limited; hence springs the
unquenchable fountain of the ONE eternal truth, eternally
repeating itself, in cosmic as in human life, by the progressive
unfoldment of Nature's unlimited potentialities.
"The outward doth from the inward roll,
And the inward dwells in the inmost soul."
The true poet is always a seer, and he might have added that the
INMOST SOUL is the uncreate, and, the yet uncreated itself, lies
buried in the ever eternal beyond; hence the immortality of the
human spirit.
This sacred astral scroll, rightly and reverently studied by the
disciple of the higher law, becomes a boundless source of
knowledge and inspiration. There is no mood of the mind or
yearning of the soul that cannot be satisfied and refreshed from
this inexhaustible fountain of spiritual truth, no passion of the
human heart that cannot be eased of its burden and soothed of its
pain. Its spiritual refreshment falls like the dew from heaven
upon those who are weary and heavy laden with the trials and
sufferings of external life.
Accept it, then, even as it is given unto you. My friends and
brethren, accept it as Zanoni's last work on earth--his legacy to
you, and may the spirit of the All-Father-Mother, the ineffable
spirit of Life, Light, and Love,--the Unknowable, whom men call
God, rest upon you and be with you now and forever.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE BOOK WHICH IS CALLED "THE TABLETS OF AETH," WHEREIN ARE
DESCRIBED THE FORMULAS OF MEDITATION.
THE FORMULAS OF MEDITATION,
TO THE DRAGON, FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.
"When first, a musing boy, I stood beside
Thy starlit shimmer, and asked my restless heart
What secrets Nature to the herd denied,
But might to earnest hierophant impart;
When lo! beside me, around and o'er,
Thought whispered, 'Arise, O seeker, and explore.' "
The Tablets of Aeth are the culminating expression of symbolical
ideas, and the studious meditation thereof is to be approached
and continued in this wise:
First, commit to memory, as near as may be, all the ideas
involved in the astrological laws and principles laid down in
"The Science of the Stars," formulated in the second part of "The
Light of Egypt," Vol. I, especially as regards the symbolism
there given and manifestation thereof on the intellectual plane.
Mentally digest these aspects of truth most thoroughly.
Second, carry forward the same course of mental training with
regard to the preceding chapters in this volume, from No. 1 to
No. 12. There are thirteen chapters, but No. 13, the last one,
being "The Penetralia," should not be included in this course,
but, rightly used, should be reserved as the last and final
revelation for spiritual contemplation.
The twelve chapters just mentioned continue the great astral laws
given in "The Light of Egypt," Vol. I, from this plane to that of
the soul life of the human monad (both prior to and after human
incarnation). At this point we leave the finite and step into the
realms of the infinite. From the sphere of limitations which
surround the microcosm we enter the starlit path of the
macrocosm, and here, with the illimitable ocean of eternal life
sweeping onward before us, we hear the first strains of the Grand
March of the Universe burst forth from the organs of God! The
suns of creative life swell the infinite chorus of sound;
archangels swing their fiery batons to the march of the heavenly
host; and all earthly sound has ceased. We are absorbed in the
music of the spheres.
We are now in the realm of universals, the domain of living
realities. The Tarot of Mother Nature revolves before us,
revealing her mystic meanings to the soul. All ideas are symbols,
and symbols are reservoirs for the conservation of thought. And
this is a very truth: Even so on earth as it is in heaven.
The Tablets of Aeth, then, constitute a spiritual astrology, a
spiritual science of the stars, void of mathematics, yet
possessing all the exactitude of figures, constructed on the
principles of astronomy, yet expressed by the methods of the
Kabbalah.
The transmission of spiritual truth from inward to outward form,
though differing according to the age in which it is expressed,
is ever the same in principle. And in the same way that the
sacred clavicula of Solomon became the Tarot of Bohemian gypsies,
so did the Tablets of Aeth manifest their mysteries in the starry
science of Chaldean lore. But there is this sharp line of
demarcation between them, namely, the Tablets of Aeth deal with
universal human life and nature, with infinite principles from
which all finite laws radiate. The Tablets of Aeth express and
symbolize the cause. All other mundane systems of occult study,
astronomical or metaphysical, are spirito-natural effects, the
individual intellectual fruits, gathered from the one universal
tree of knowledge. Uncreated, Unlimited Potentiality, is the one
impersonal truth shining forever in the Great White Light of God.
All the laws, powers, and principalities, manifested in the
moving Universe, are but the colored rays, blazing with glorious
life through the prisms of matter.
Having stated thus much, the neophyte will perceive in what
meditative sphere of thought the Tablets may be used. The method
of study is, as shown, a purely synthetic deduction of human
ideas from spiritual symbols of universal principles. The Tablets
themselves constitute a grand arcane Tarot of man, God and the
universe, and of all the powers that dwell therein. They may be
studied singly, as, for instance, meditating upon some one great
universal idea or principle; or they may be studied in trines,
as they appear in each separate book, or chapter, or as squares,
like two, five, eight, eleven, or as the seal of two trines, one,
three, five, seven, nine, eleven, with No. twelve in the center,
as the revealer of the mystery. And, finally, they may be
contemplated as the Grand Oracle of Heaven, in the following
manner:
Make a circle of the tablets, as you would with a pack of Tarot
cards, beginning with No. 1, on the eastern horizon, and
proceeding in the exact opposite order from a figure of the
heavens--No. 2, being on the Twelfth House, No. 3, on the
Eleventh, and {} on the M. C. of the figure, as in the
Astro-Masonic chart, given in the second part of "The Light of
Egypt," Vol. I, and so proceed with the rest of the twelve
tablets of the stars. This figure will represent the
potentialities of the macrocosm, the starry signs symbolizing the
possibilities of things past or to be, and the rulers the active
executors thereof. Study the figure in all its aspects as such,
first singly, tablet by tablet, then as a whole--the cosmos.
Next, place the ruler of any given tablet at the side of the
Mansion, and try to penetrate its various meanings, powers and
possibilities. Then proceed the same with a trine and a square,
and, last, with all the rulers, in the order of their celestial
lordship of the signs, each in his appointed place, as a whole
Arcana.
In any grave crisis of mental or physical affairs, wherein
nations, and not individuals, are concerned, the tablets may be
used as a celestial scheme of the heavens, thus: Cast a figure of
the heavens for the Sun's first entry into the sign Aries at the
vernal equinox, calculated for the meridian of the capital city
of the country under consideration. Degrees and minutes are not
wanted. Then place the twelve tablets in place of signs, exactly
as they would occur in an astrological figure. Then place the
rulers of the Sun, Moon and planets therein (each having its own
tablet), as they are found to be situated in an ephemeris for the
time of the figure. This done, study the whole from a spiritual
standpoint as the causes and ultimates of the crisis, according
to astro laws.
The foregoing simple directions will, I think, be sufficiently
plain for all purposes, never forgetting that this holy study is
not a system of divination, as commonly understood, but of Divine
revelation, in its highest and most holy religious sense. Long
study and most reverent meditation will be required to master
this mystery, and many errors of judgment will occur to the
beginner.
The interpretative reflections are added for the purpose of
guiding and guarding the spiritually untrained seer from possible
error in fundamental conceptions only. They must not by any means
be taken as a complete revelation of the tablets, but only as a
series of skeleton keys by means of which all things may be
revealed to the earnest seeker thereof. To have added more than
is given would only be to defeat the object of this work. Each
seeker for the truth must excavate the mines of knowledge, and
dig further into this universal well of truth for himself.
Remember that all interpretation will be personal to each
student. Of no one can it be affirmed, "thou hast said," and so
endeth the matter. Not so. To each, according to his talent,
shall the mysteries of the kingdom be revealed, to every one
according to his humility, spiritual light, and merit. But from
the arrogant, the selfish, and spiritually proud, shall all
things be taken away, and truth shroud herself in the veil of
delusion. In simplicity of mind, then, and purity of soul,
approach the Holy of Holies. "Suffer little children to come unto
Me," saith a messenger of the Most High, "for of such is the
Kingdom of Heaven." Verily, therefore, I say unto you, that not
until you can look upon all the works of Nature--beauty in her
nakedness or vice and crime in their repulsiveness, with pure
thought and holy feeling, can you inherit eternal life.
Here endeth the introduction to the book which is called "The
Tablets of Aeth."
PART I
OF THE TWELVE MANSIONS
Here beginneth Chapter I of the Book which is called "The Tablets
of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the First Quadrant of the Twelve
Mansions.
"I sent my soul through the invisible,
Some lesson of that after life to spell;
And by and by my soul returned to me
And answered, 'I, myself, am Heaven and Hell.' "
"The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line
, Nor all your tears wash out a word of it."
TABLET THE FIRST
Aries
SYMBOL
A deep blue Sky, a blaze, as if something were about to rise.
I
REFLECTION
TABLET THE FIRST
The blush of dawn of a new life, all nature quivering with the
sense of coming, conscious life; Isis, vibrant with love of the
coming child, her bosom flushed in expectation of the little son
soon to breathe on her yearning breast.
In this we trace the great lesson of preparation, of sending the
light before the form, of the prophecy before the fulfillment.
Dawn must precede sunrise. What you expect will be your destiny.
It is the longing of centuries that incarnates a god, a real
Sun-God, whose vibrant love-life can thrill other lives into
prayer--aspiration, the struggle for eternal life. The dawn
represents the expectant maternity of Nature--God.
O child of Adam! See that thou expecteth much, and that thy
aspirations are reflected in thy outward life.
TABLET THE SECOND
Taurus
SYMBOL
A red sun on the horizon of an inky sea.
II
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SECOND
Nature has shown forth her glory, as brought forth by young
Horus, but her creative force is still unreflected. The sea is
black and inky. The Son of God is born, but the sea of human life
still remains unconscious, in primeval darkness.
The angles of the Sun and the sea are not yet in right relation
to each other. A few, standing on the watch-towers of life,
seeing the red glow of the risen sun, call "Look!" But the
unfortunate ones in the outer darkness cry, as they beat their
breasts; "No! There is no light! You do but dream!" And yet the
Sun of Life has risen--the Divine light glows.
O child of Adam! Remember that "In Him was life, and life was the
light of man, and the light shineth in the darkness, and the
darkness comprehended it not."
TABLET THE THIRD
Gemini
SYMBOL
Two stars are rising at angles to each other and to the Polar
star, while eight stars shine faintly in the black space of
background.
III
REFLECTION
TABLET THE THIRD
The Divine symbol of soul-matehood is here signified in the two
stars rising in the foreground; not only the soul-affinities of
humanity, but the eternal father-mother forces manifested in the
biune spirit of universal life and nature, the two great creative
powers, Life and Light, whose harmony creates love, attraction
and repulsion, and the straight lines of law and justice, which
blend in the spiral of mercy.
The two stars are rising at an oblique angle to the pole-star,
the center around which, material things revolve. So, too, life
and love are balanced by the star of wisdom. Love in the spirit
is adaption to the environment in matter and providence in
universal life. The eight stars reveal the mystery of the
tablet--universal death, present with life, the final end of all
discord glimmers faintly afar off, and man questions the love of
God, seeing that all things pass away, not realizing that death
is the germinal promise of life, of transformation, of the
realization of unrealized hopes, of the union of loving hearts in
their starry pilgrimage back to the Father's home.
O child of Adam! Listen unto the words of the Teacher: "I and the
Father are one." Suffer little children to come unto me, for of
such ii the Kingdom of Heaven."
PART I
Here beginneth Chapter 2 of the Book which is called "The Tablets
of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the Second Quadrant of the
Twelve Mansions.
"How they struggle in the immense Universe!
How they whirl and seek!
Innumerable souls, that all spring forth
From the vast world-soul.
They drop from planet to planet,
And in the abyss they weep
For their forgotten land.
These are thy tears, O Dionysus,
O Spirit vast, Divine One, Liberator.
Draw back thy daughters to the breast of light."
"Ah, love! Could you and I with him conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would we not shatter it to bits? And then
Remould it nearer to the heart's desire."
TABLET THE FOURTH Cancer
SYMBOL
A woman's face unconscious, in trance, surrounded by clouds.
IV
REFLECTION
TABLET THE FOURTH
The dreaming woman, whose brooding thoughts shape the coming man.
The race is never any farther advanced than the average thought
of the woman. She is yet sleeping, knowing not her powers. So,
not until she awakes and recognizes herself as conceiving by the
Holy Ghost and the mother of the incarnate God, will that God be
brought forth unto universal knowledge.
In this is the great lesson to woman: Ever remember thy creative
power as the mother of the humanity of the future. The sun in thy
mansion exerts its highest power. Awake, therefore, O soul, and
eclipse not its brightness with thy dreams of sublunary power.
O child of Adam! Ever honor the womb that gave thee birth, and
know that all thy earthly greatness received its seed therefrom.
A fountain cannot rise higher than its source.
TABLET THE FIFTH
Leo
SYMBOL
A man's arm, bent, exceedingly muscular, a knife in the hand, a
streak of lightning opposite the arm, which is defying the
lightning.
V
REFLECTION
TABLET THE FIFTH
Here we have the symbol of the incarnate fire of the spirit
defying the mere natural fire of the heavens. The woman sleeps
and broods and dreams, but the man she has brought forth is
awake, and bids defiance to the fiery forces of Nature. He has
armed himself with the keen knife of action, and with it has
conquered the forces of matter. He has harnessed the lightning,
and made the electric fluid his obedient slave. And thus has he
mastered all forces inferior to spirit--that spirit of conscious
life which is his birthright.
The lesson to be gleaned from this is that, the kingdom of Nature
must be taken by storm. Not for rest, but for work, has Mother
Nature sent forth her man child; not for peace, but for battle;
not for inertia, but for effort.
O child of Adam! Arm yourself with the sword--mayhap the sword of
affliction--and, gallantly raising the strong right ann aloft,
hurl defiance at the chaos of Nature, sure that the fire from the
Sun of the spirit is burning in every vein of that arm.
TABLET THE SIXTH
Virgo
SYMBOL
A Lotus, rising from the water, coiled around its stem a snake,
whose efforts fail to reach the flower.
VI
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SIXTH
Here we have the sacred flower, symbol of the virgin soul,
uncontaminated by the snake of passion, which can only enfold the
body-- the stem; the snake of matter--of lust--of evil. But the
flower of the spirit--the soul--lifts its pure white petals
upward as an incense cup to the Sun of the Spirit.
In this symbol read the great lesson of the experience of evil.
If, the flower of the soul, blossoms; the mud of the soil and the
snake of the passions are but the surroundings of its roots and
stem. Both are necessary for the perfection of the flower. The
roots sink deep into Mother Earth, and draw nourishment and life,
lifting matter upward, while the snake of passion becomes, under
another aspect, the serpent of wisdom. Coiled around the stem of
this life, it gives to the incarnated soul that wisdom which
later blossoms in the Seraph of the Sun spheres.
O child of Adam! Take suffering, if it forge the sword of the
spirit. Take evil and passion, and turn them into deep lessons of
life, blossoming the evil into good, changing passion into
wisdom. Only "the pure in heart can see God."
PART I
Here beginneth Chapter 3 of the Book which is called "The Tablets
of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the Third Quadrant of the Twelve
Mansions.
"To know what really exists, one must cultivate silence with ones
self, for it is in silence that the eternal and unexpected
flowers open, which change their form and color according to the
soul in which they grow. Souls are weighed in silence, as gold
and silver are weighed in pure water."
"The worldly hope men set their hearts upon turns to ashes; or it
prospers, and anon, like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
lighting a little hour or two, is gone."
TABLET THE SEVENTH
Libra
SYMBOL
A crowned king, with a scythe raised in the air, looks closely at
two boys wrestling beneath him in a field of grain, a red poppy
below them.
VII
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SEVENTH
The symbol of Nature's eternal war for the impossible equilibrium
between spirit and matter; the symbol, also, of Time, which is
but the illusion in which eternity clothes itself; forever
putting on and forever putting off new garments of matter. The
crowned king is the victorious soul, waiting, with the scythe of
Time, to reap the harvest of the world; while incarnated man, as
represented in the wrestling youths, is struggling for that which
he did not produce, and which only death can reap. The poppy
reveals the secret of the illusions of Nature's master-showman.
All earthly things are unreal to the spirit, which is the only
real thing. Man's effort to hoard and save the things of this
world IS INJUSTICE TO OTHERS. The struggle is eternal, and no
matter how careful or cunning man is to monopolize either power,
truth or wealth, swift-footed time will readjust all things
without error.
O child of Adam! "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through
and steal."
TABLET THE EIGHTH
Scorpio
SYMBOL
A wide, and plain, on it a skeleton; a dull, grey sky, in which
an Eagle soars, full-fed, it seems, from the flesh of the
skeleton.
VIII
REFLECTION
TABLET THE EIGHTH
A significant symbol to the seer, showing forth the two ultimates
of life and death, of earthly things and sex. Scorpio is both the
eagle of the spirit, soaring aloft, well fed with all that is
worth carrying away from the earth; and also the scorpion, whose
natural home is the desert.
In sex, either way, life is given. Shall it be to your spirit
making fat and full your immortal self, or will the other
interpretation be yours? And will you leave yourself dead and
annihilated, a skeleton, to the Ego, the Divine spirit? For sex
is indeed the foundation of all. Raised to the region of Libra,
it is power and magnetism. To the bosom it is love; to the brain
it is enthusiasm. It is the promethian fire of life, the creative
force, giving vigor to whatever region to which it is raised; or,
lowered, to be spent with no returns, it debases and renders life
a desert of dry bones.
O child of Adam! Reflect on the fall of man from spirit to
matter, and combine the wisdom of the serpent with the purity of
the dove, and "lest ye partake of the tree of life ye shall
surely die."
TABLET THE NINTH
Saggitarius
SYMBOL
A child in a shell, holding in its hand a feathered lance, is
drawn by five stars, grouped in an under arc.
IX
REFLECTION
TABLET THE NINTH
The symbol of the conscious soul. The shell is the body, drawn by
the five senses--stars--which form an under arc, to represent the
world of material things and our relation thereto. The child,
armed with the feathered lance, is the soul; riding thus, fully
armed, in the shell of the body, it realizes the duality of
truth; that all things are changeable; and that each thing is
true upon the plane of its manifestation, while an illusion to
that which is interior to its life, while the soul is in its
dream state. Sagittarius represents conservatism and the
permanence of crystallized institutions; but, when the spirit
awakes and bursts the shell of matter, the senses, instead of
being the guardians and jailors of its environment, become its
servants, and the means by which, united as the one Ego,
sense-perception, it races o'er the fields of Aeth--a being of
life and beauty, shining in the empyrean of God.
O child of Adam! Ever remember that temperament and environment
constitute the north and south poles of human possibility, and
that ability, combined with opportunity, is the measure of
responsibility.
PART 1
Here beginneth Chapter 4 of the Book which is called--"The
Tablets of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the Fourth Quadrant of
the Twelve Mansions.
"A hair, perhaps, divides the false and true. Yes, and a single
alif were the clue-- Could you but find it--to the treasure
house, And, peradventure, to THE MASTER, too.
"Beware, O my son, of self-incense. It is the most dangerous on
account of its agreeable intoxication. * * * Learn, O my beloved,
that the light of Allah's truth will often penetrate an empty
head more easily than one too crammed with learning."
TABLET THE TENTH
Capricorn
A deep, black ground, o'er which shimmers a phosphorescent light;
at each side an aurora borealis rises, mountain like; above all,
a tiny star.
X
REFLECTION
TABLET THE TENTH
Here is revealed the symbol of the messenger of the Most High.
The star hovers over the phosphorescent light cast on the
darkness as the spirit hovers over the blackness of matter. The
aurora borealis stands as the emblem for the magnetic attraction
of Earth on spirit, the Christ soon to be born in the manger of
the Goat; the descent of the Holy Ghost into material form, so
that heavenly truth may illumine the drear speculum of earthly
thought with the Divine iridescence of celestial light. It is the
lowest arc of the cycle that reveals the new birth of death unto
life--the divine egg of Brahma, containing the promise of the new
law: "Peace on Earth, good will towards men."
O child of Adam! Be thou the star, and not a dweller of the outer
darkness, and "Let your light so shine before men, that, they may
see your good works."
TABLET THE ELEVENTH
Aquarius
SYMBOL
A stormy sea is seen; above it the eight stars shine, brilliant
and clear.
XI
REFLECTION
TABLET THE ELEVENTH
This tablet symbolizes the complete materialization of man--man,
perfect on the earth and the lord thereof, in so far as material
forces are concerned. The storm is the tempest of life, the whirl
of the elements of matter in their battle with the spirit. The
eight stars, brilliant now (for they are the same stars that were
dimly seen in Gemini), show that the conquest of matter is
complete, the great fall of spirit finished; the end of
involution. And this would bring stagnation and death, if peace
now ensued. The lesson taught is that, not in peace and rest can
the soul grow; but amidst the earthquakes that shake thrones, the
floods that overwhelm countries, the fires that reduce to ashes,
has the strong man-soul grown to its present state and power. So
fear not the storm, but the calm; not the unrest, but the quiet;
fear not the battle, but the ignoble peace of the coward.
O child of Adam! The astral soul must learn to do and dare. Not
over the brave man's grave shall it be written, "Rest in peace,"
but "I will arise, and go to my father."
TABLET THE TWELFTH
Pisces
SYMBOL
A comet, beyond it infinite things, only dreamed of as yet, a
world floating in an ocean and in night, beneath are two hands
clasped palm to palm.
XII
TABLET THE TWELFTH
A REVELATION OF THE TO BE. The comet is the twelfth Avatar, the
herald, coming forth from the starry abyss of the infinite,
staying with us a little while, and then flashing on his shining
way to other worlds than ours, bearing THE DIVINE WORD from sun
to planet, as the fiery messenger of God. And here the soul may
well ask: "Who? Where? Whence and Whither?" For behold, he has
come, and gone, and
"Earth could not answer; nor the seas that mourn In flowing
purple, of their Lord forlorn; Nor rolling Heaven, with all his
signs revealed And hidden by the sleeve of night and morn."
The world floating in the sea of the infinite and resting in
night shows the present state of humanity. But, "the blush of
dawn" is ready to gladden the soul, and the expectant seer, from
his lonely vigil on the hilltop, awaits the sunlight which will
soon flood the world anew.
The two clasped hands point to many problems, chiefly soul-
matehood, the message of the starry messenger, universal
brotherhood, and the Father-Motherhood of God.
O child of Adam! Watch and pray, that a voice of the silence may
speak unto you.
Here endeth the four Quadrants of the Tablets of the Twelve
Mansions, wherein are revealed the signs and symbols thereof, as
faithfully transcribed from the sacred roll in the astral records
and called "The Tablets of Aeth."
April, 1893.
PART II
of The Book which is called
THE TABLETS OF AETH OF THE TEN PLANETARY RULERS
PART II
Here beginneth Chapter I of the Second Part of the Book which is
called "The Tablets of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the First
Trinity of the Planetary Rulers.
"The human heart is the true temple of God; enter ye into your
temples and illumine them with good thoughts. The sacred vessels,
they are your hands and your eyes. Do I say that which is
agreeable to God--doing good to your neighbors? But, first
embellish wherein dwells He, who gave you life." ----
"How small soever your lamp be, never give away the oil which
feeds it, but only the light and flame, which crown it."
TABLET THE FIRST
The Sun
SYMBOL
A flaming splendor, a center of light, radiating in all
directions.
I
REFLECTION
TABLET THE FIRST
The symbol of all created life, spiritual and material; of all
goodness, human or Divine; the center of all thought, from brutal
instinct to Deific wisdom; of all creations, from starry systems
to man, and from man back again to invisible gas; of all action,
from the imperceptible vibrations of nerve energy to the awful
destruction of worlds. All creative potency lies within a Sun
sphere. Light is life. The planets are but the offspring of light
and life. So in this symbol, we read the source of the human Ego,
of our own life. We are, as it were, the planets of the spiritual
Sun. Our souls are the attributes of the Sun, of the spiritual
Ego. Only from the Ego can we receive life eternal and make
immortality a fact. Obeying this spiritual life-force, the human
monad is but an attribute, a reflection, of the Divine Ego, and
if it fails to awake to a consciousness of this union, it withers
and dies like a flower plucked from the parent tree of life.
O child of Adam, in reverence and awe do thou meditate upon this
Tablet, for it is a thing of beauty, a being of light, life and
love, manifesting its creative mission. It is the Vicegerent of
God, flaming forth His splendors in the sky.
TABLET THE SECOND
Mercury
SYMBOL
An elephant, kneeling between two square columns; on one an
eagle, on the other a vulture.
At the side a boy, with bow and arrows, standing in doubt which
to shoot.
Below these a human face, composed of various flowers, whose
roots are snakes, a poppy, forming an eye, which winks.
II
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SECOND
A vision revealing the earthly drama of the microcosm. The
elephant represents the highest expression of intelligence, minus
the spirit; kneeling between the square columns of matter, i.e.,
guarded by them. The external mind is sleeping, or, at most,
dreaming of the things of the spirit. Above sleeping mind sit the
two birds, who represent spirit and matter, each waiting for the
slowly preparing feast. The boy, the soul with its weapons, has a
choice. Shall it be the sensuality of the flesh that he shall
destroy, or the possibilities of the spiritual life on earth. The
problem awaits solution. The eagle sits ready to bear aloft the
spirit of the sleeper. The vulture hopes for sleep to end in
death, that he may live upon the carrion thereof. The flowers of
the external mind have for their roots the snakes; and, in a
larger sense, the flowers of immortality have the serpent of
wisdom for their roots. And the poppy winks. It knows its own
power of illusion, and the double significance of the snake; the
necessity of evil in the evolution of good. It is the Tablet of
Wisdom.
O child of Adam! "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless
as doves."
TABLET THE THIRD
Venus
SYMBOL
An altar: on it two cups, one full, the other spilled; near them
two bleeding hearts, in one a snake, in the other a dagger.
Above--clouds, from which comes a woman's face, a wreath in the
hand, coming out of the cloud; in the wreath an angel, going
upwards, with wings outspread.
III
REFLECTION
TABLET THE THIRD
There is but one altar, but one blood of the sacrament in two
cups, but one flesh of the Christ--the Ego--in two hearts, two
experiences in love, ecstacy, and pain; two results of
experience, the serpent and the dagger, symbolizing wisdom and
affliction. Above the altar the divine woman holds the wreath
encircling the angel. The angel of immortal life rises from the
altar of sacrifice. Some of the wine is spilled as offering. The
cup that is filled is raised to "Ra." To serve at the altar of
love is the soul-mission of all, even as Christ served his
disciples. Each soul must find its own service, and then the
pilgrims of the Sun return to the mansions of the blessed. The
great mother-god, Venus, Urania, quivers and thrills as she holds
forth her offspring--the angel, the young Eros of life eternal.
O child of Adam, this is the Tablet of Love. Meditate thereon, as
the last of the triune God. In this Tablet lies the secret of
suffering and pleasure. He who vibrates in pain will quiver in
ecstacy. Only those who have agonized in Hell can thrill in
Heaven.
PART II
Here beginneth Chapter 2 of the Second Part of the Book which is
called "The Tablets of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the Second
Trinity of the Planetary Rulers.
"Thou art called forth to this fair sacrifice
For a draught of milk; with the Maruts Come hither, O Agni!
They who know the great sky, the Visve
Devas without guile; with those Maruts
Come hither, O Agni!
They who are brilliant, of awful shape,
Powerful, and devourers of foes; with the
Maruts come hither, O Agni!
They who in heaven are enthroned as gods,
In the light of the firmament; with the Maruts
Come hither, O Agni!"
"Let us meditate on the adorable light of the Divine Rulers. May
it guide our intellects."
TABLET THE FOURTH
The Moon
SYMBOL
NIGHT
A wonderful spider's-web;
The web glitters in the faint moonlight against a dark background
of blue; moon invisible; on the outside of web a star, in the
center a spot of light, underneath a coffin filled with stones.
IV
REFLECTION
TABLET THE FOURTH
The web of life has caught the monad of the soul and thus
incarnated the universe, for each soul incarnates its universe at
birth, each one's world being different, and peculiar unto
himself. At the first breath, the young child polarizes his
relations to stars and earth, and it is the affinity and
repulsion which make his life experience. And the stars weave the
web in their lines of sextile, square and trine, of opposition
and conjunction, thus enveloping the monad in the Circle of
Necessity.
Outside the star of the spirit, the Ego, shines clear, free from
the entanglements of the web and unaffected by the magnetic
glamour of the Moon. And lo! the coffin is filled with stones, a
symbol of death and the Moon, which is but a casket of stones.
Therefore, little monad, caught in the tangle of the web of life
and the glamour of earthly things, take heart, for, beyond all,
is the star of your being. Call down the law of that star into
yourself, and the web is broken and waves its tattered shreds in
the breeze. The moonlight, the reflected light, pales as the
Star-Sun of your being rises, and the moonlight of Earth gives
place to the Sun-spheres of Ra.
O child of Adam! The beginning of sorrow is the dawn of spiritual
life. The wise man rules the stars; the fools of Earth obey.
TABLET THE FIFTH
Mars
SYMBOL
An immense helmet on pedestal, across which a streak of lightning
flashes; beside it a naked child painting pictures on the helmet;
beneath, a broken sword.
V
REFLECTION
TABLET THE FIFTH
Can greater irony be shown than in this astral symbol. Mars is
externally represented as a fierce warrior, awful to behold; the
reality, a little child, painting toy pictures on the helmet, too
big for his curly head. The lesson in this is indeed, that the
pen is mightier than the sword; that the big and blustering
helmet will become a plaything for the child. Soon, that the
sword of bloodshed, rape, and ruin, will be broken and war
relegated to the past, looked at, but, as pictures, painted with
hideous reality by the childhood of the race.
The symbol also reveals the great executive forces of humanity,
the child. The soul can paint, execute its ideas, its hopes and
its fears in any color--the lurid red of blood, the black of
ignorance and crime, or in the living light of beauty. All the
same, it is the childhood of man painting its ideals in the
material world.
O child of Adam, curb the anger of Mars, that thy painting may
set the dove at liberty. Let the magic of thy soul transform the
savage of the desert into the angel of mercy.
TABLET THE SIXTH
Jupiter
SYMBOL
A cave in the mountain side; a face like the sphinx comes out of
the cave, there is a blackness behind it; it looks with upturned
head to a light that is way beyond; it is a face that means
something awful, a godlike defiance to the things that are.
VI
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SIXTH
Again we are impressed with the contrast of internal and external
things. Jupiter, the symbol of authority, conservatism, church,
and state, and the stability of human institutions, and the
things that are, as the things that are the best. But oh, how
widely different the internal, the real Jupiter, that governing
power of the spirit that hurls defiance at unjust authority, the
cruelty and tyranny of the world. The soul sees the light beyond,
and, emerging from the dark chasm of matter, knows the battle
that must be fought against wrong. It is the awful--yea,
terrible--symbol of defiance to gods and men who oppose its
onward, upward march to the shining goal of light. Make way,
then! Make way! For Earth has given birth to her giant son--the
Spirit. For, listen closely, my friend, to the axiom of
Immortality. What is soul? Not the spirit, mind you; not the
deathless Ego, of which you at present, perchance, know
absolutely nothing. Soul is mere memory; a scavenger in earthly
states; and a gleaner, a hired help, in the fields of heaven; and
to become immortal, there must be something more than soul as the
result. It must take such a vital interest in its Lord's work
that, finally it becomes too valuable to lose, and must be taken
into partnership, so to say. The Ego--Lord-- has found a valued
servant, a trusted steward, after much seeking, and at once
adopts it as its very own. And so the soul becomes heir to the
heavenly estate and receives the immortal, vital principle of
spiritual union, and awakes from the son of Earth a God-like
being, free from the shackles of Time--a dweller in eternity. The
soul must awake and realize the Deific atom around which it
revolves before it is too late. Unless this is so, the seed of
immortal life, sown in matter by the Ego, has not germinated, and
it returns unfruitful and dies--it is an abortion. Many, many
seeds never germinate. Many good orthodox, but animal-like lives,
live, move, and die,--yes, die in very truth. Would to God I
could make all mankind realize this awful, inconceivable
privilege of life, that, Jupiter-like, they would turn and face
the light.
O child of Adam! "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of
God."
PART II
Here beginneth Chapter 3 of the Second Part of the Book which is
called "The Tablets of Aeth," wherein the Third, and last,
Trinity of the Planetary Rulers is faithfully transcribed.
"Thou hast entered the immeasurable regions. I am the Dweller of
the Threshold. What wouldst thou with me? * * * Dost thou fear
me? Am I not thy beloved? Is it not for me that thou bast
rendered up the delights of thy race? Wouldst thou be wise? Mine
is the wisdom of the countless ages. Kiss me, my mortal lover."
"Thus man pursues his weary calling, And wrings the hard life
from the sky, While happiness unseen is falling Down from God's
bosom silently."
TABLET THE SEVENTH
Saturn
SYMBOL
A human figure with a scepter of power, a being of light crowned
with flames.
VII
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SEVENTH
In the external we remember Saturn as an old man, and as a
skeleton with a scythe--as Time, in fact. But see, O immortal
soul, the real Saturn, as the Angel of Life, having from time
gathered the experiences which crown him with light, holding the
rod of power; the Christ born in the manger of Capricorn, the
Goat--life born of death; the conqueror of evil. He throws off
the mask of age, and divine youth beams on us. He doffs the
mantle of rags, and royal splendors clothe him. He lifts the
hood, and behold the crown. He raises the crutch, and lo! the rod
of power. He drops the scythe of death for the jewel of eternal
life.
"Om Mani Padme Um." (Oh the jewel in the lotus.)
O child of Adam! Meditate on the transmutations of life. Behold
the earthly miracle of the caterpillar and the butterfly, of the
toiling mortal and the transcendent God!
TABLET THE EIGHTH
Uranus
SYMBOL
A human eye, from which darts lightning upon an ocean of matter.
VIII
REFLECTION
TABLET THE EIGHTH
The state of soul and spirit--penetration; the wonderful power of
soul-perception, which sheds its light on all visible things,
receiving their images and interpreting them into the spirit, the
all-seer--what does it not convey? The perception that can see
deep into your soul and see, as it were, the yet unborn thought;
that can distinguish the motive of action; that judges the
realities of your soul. Such is the Astral Uranian. For with us
all, are three planes of mind: The drift plane, the intellectual,
and the spiritual, or internal plane; and thought- reading can be
on one or all of these different states. But only the Uranian
seer can read the inmost mind, and so really know the
possibilities of your spirit.
Imagine an image of soft wax, covered with a sensitive skin. All
impressions on the skin shape the plastic wax, but go no deeper--
do not reach the soul. You can separate these impressions from
your real self, when calm and alone, and look upon emotion as a
surface play. But the tragedies of life strike deep. They affect
the soul, and go to the center of being. "Verbum sap."
O child of Adam! Watch the tempest of life closely. The Ego may
sit calm amidst the storm, but, if that be stirred--BEWARE! The
God acts; the soul alone watches.
TABLET THE NINTH
Neptune
A Winged Globe.
IX
REFLECTION
TABLET THE NINTH
An unknown quantity, a hope of progression, ideal love, and all
true mental and spiritual ideals; aspiration to become that which
we feel to be noble and true; the symbol of the monad, the soul
which, receiving its life from the Sun--the Ego--is constantly
revealing new forces and potencies of that God-life. Each soul's
Ego is its maker and God. The Ego is like the Deific potency of
the universe, unlimited in potential power, but limited by its
monad as to what will be evolved from its awful depth of being.
Deity progresses through its expressions of the cosmos. The Ego,
your God, finds progressive expression through you, through your
soul. That soul is not immortal that becomes separated from its
Ego--its God. So, soul, spread your spiritual wings and soar
upward.
O child of Adam! Know these three things: Eternity is the creator
of the universal life; universal life creates the world, and the
world is the creator of time. And of these, the Universe is Life,
and the World is Mind, and Time is the Soul. The sum total of all
is Experience. And this is individual, conscious life--"Jacta est
alea" (the die is cast)--the wings are spread.
TABLET THE TENTH
The Cypher - the unknown
SYMBOL
A Shining Nebulae; within it a dot, aimlessly wandering around an
unknown center.
X
REFLECTION
TABLET THE TENTH
The unknown in very truth. It is everything--it is also nothing.
Inconceivable visions arise within the mental universe, but
nothing assumes definite form. It is all that is past. It is
likewise everything that the future has in store. Amen.
O child of Adam! "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
or loose the bands of Orion?"
PART III of The Book which is called THE TABLETS OF AETH
OF THE TEN GREAT KABBALISTICAL POWERS or ANGELS OF THE UNIVERSE
PART III
VISION
Each angel standing in front of the symbol is dimly outlined and
transparent. Through the angel's form is seen its symbol.
FIRST
A luminous something, which gives the impression of sleep.
SECOND
Something moving, like an ocean.
THIRD
A storm, and lightning.
FOURTH
A mist.
FIFTH
An animal moving, resembling a turtle.
SIXTH
A blue light; in the center a star with three points.
SEVENTH
An expanse of water, a blue sky, a shining disk rising on the
horizon.
EIGHTH
A lurid sky, like a red dawn; in the water floats an egg.
NINTH
Five stars on a convex arc, like a rainbow; the shell of the egg
is broken and forms continents.
TENTH
A man lying fast asleep under a magnificent palm tree, with his
face turned toward the horizon of the sea.
EXPLANATION
Only the pure in heart can see God, and to those pure souls I
commend the following brief explanation of the Vision of the
Angels of Life, which I have here recorded for the benefit of all
whom it may now and hereafter concern.
In the original Vision of the Tablets of Aeth a great circle was
seen, in the center a head, a faint shimmer above the head, as if
the light were about to dawn; a dull, lurid glow beneath, as if
of chaos or hell; the hair around the head like floating clouds,
the beard like strange cloud-streaks. Each sign of the Zodiac
surrounding the center head had within it a faintly seen face.
Beginning with the first, it became more and more distinct and
perfect with each sign until it evolved into godlike beauty in
Pisces.
The symbolic planets were around the Zodiac, and beyond these,
making a third grand circle, were the ten Evolutionary Angels.
The vision is that of the evolution of all life, spiritual and
material. We gaze at the cosmic sex mystery, and the discerning
mind, the loving spirit, can read the correspondence of the great
sacred conjugal act of both man and God; of its heights, of its
depths, and of all that lies between.
To aid in meditation on the bead at the center, herein is written
a vision, an experience of the soul in the Sleep of Sialam.
The Hermetic brethren encircled my astral body, which was deeply
entranced. "From whence," the great question, quivered through my
inmost being. To answer that awful problem of the soul the
released spirit went on its fearsome journey, back through star
systems; back, back beyond all stars, back to the blackness of
nothing-- that awful nothing, whose outside ring vibrated with
fearful flames; the fiery cherubim, winged, taking all possible
shapes, and unformed living shapes. A human flamed and changed
and vanished. The tornado of whirling, flashing, chaotic life
swirled and drove through the darkness of chaos of nothing from
nothing--and that great, unknown abyss is God! But the life is
EVOLUTIONARY.
Deity is progressive, so never can man cease to be. Never can he
return to that awful center of nothingness, or be absorbed within
the bosom of the unmanifested being. On, and on, and on, with
Deific power, God moves in ever-increasing whirls of evolution.
Thus came the answer of the ages: "From primeval force, from the
mighty breath of unmanifested being, through every phase of
action and reaction, from the energies of storm and lightning,
from star-dust to sunlight, has come the spirit of man!"
And the Astral Brethren understood.
THE TWO SEALS OF THE EARTH
I SYMBOL
A human being, with a flaming, burning heart.
II SYMBOL
A round disk inside a light, as from a sun, conceived, but not
seen.
So here endeth the Book which is called "The Tablets of Aeth,"
transcribed from the astral originals in the Year of Doom
MDCCCXCIII.
"Omnia Vincit Veritas."
"THY KINGDOM COME."
(Zanoni) April, 1893
CHAPTER XII
PENETRALIA
THE SECRET OF THE SOUL
We have now arrived at our final study, which we have approached
step by step amid the labyrinth of the mysteries concealed
beneath the Veil of Isis. We stand at last upon the very
threshold of the sacred Adytum, the "Holy of Holies," from whence
proceeds our final revelation of that inmost conception of Man's
identity with his Creator--the Penetralia of his Being--the last
secret of the incarnated soul.
The written word almost fails us--does fail in fact, when we come
to the difficult task of externalizing ideas, the sublimity of
which is so infinitely beyond the crystallized images of matter
that, they can only be realized in their true glory, when the
purified soul can view them from the ineffable heights of eternal
spirit. We are lost, dazed, at the brilliancy of the spiritual
imagery that opens out before us, in its fathomless stretch of
the eternities that are past, of the ever- imperishable present,
and the unborn eternities yet to be; all of them linked together
in one grand chain of spiritual relationship and deathless
identity; as Man, the Angel, God; and God, the Angel, Man; as the
triune Cycle of Being, within the incomprehensible Cycle of
Necessity; which constitutes Nature's cosmic university for the
complete graduation, education, and purification, of that
self-conscious, Deific atom of life, whose expression becomes the
human soul. Ah! my brothers could you, but for one single
instant, realize WHO you are, WHERE you are journeying, and WHAT
your final destiny, every earthly moment at your disposal would
be rightly used, and every hour considered too short for your
efforts to aid your fellow-man. Selfishness, wealth, and power,
would be so utterly contemptible in your sight that their
possession would be considered a fearful affliction and a curse,
the moment they exceeded the comfortable requirements of mundane
existence.
Leave self and the world behind you for the present, and, for the
moment, leave your life, with its manifold vanities, in the outer
court, and together let us cross the threshold and enter the door
of the Temple. There! At last we have entered the Sacred
Sanctuary, my brother, and we stand face to face with the
imperishable truth of our being--the truth which makes us free,
the truth which must ultimately prevail, by virtue of its own
inherent Divinity; and we realize Man as he really is, not as he
outwardly seems to be. We view him as a molecule, composed of a
congregation of separate atoms, all of them held in their places
by the centripetal force of the central human atom of life. And
yet, small as he is, small as his kingdom is, compared with the
mighty creation of which he is a part, he possesses all the
inherent qualities of the whole. This, then, is our first
conception--Man, is a microcosmic molecule, an atom of divine
life.
The scene changes within the chamber, and upon the shimmering,
luminous veil, yet before us, we view the large and mighty planet
called the Earth. Not as a revolving satellite of the Sun, but as
she really is, a vital organ of the macrocosm, the stellar womb
of the solar system, the matrix which produces the material
organic form of humanity. When the Earth was without form and
void," as we are informed in the mystical language of Genesis,
the human soul had not yet reached the state, or grade, in the
celestial university that desired the Earth and its temporary
illusions. Hence this state was void, an unborn idea, the To Be,
and darkness, symbolical of complete lack of life and
intelligence, "was upon the face of the deep," silent space.
Again the scene changes, and one by one the numberless planets,
planetoids, moons, meteors, comets, and other attendant bodies,
pass before the eye of the soul as we gaze upon the curtain of
this Sacred Penetralia, each orb belonging to some portion of the
Astral Man, each great planet constituting some vital function of
the macrocosmic organism, and conferring those qualities upon
each and every single atom pertaining to that degree of life, so
that the solar system becomes individualized as a grand cosmic
organism, its attendant satellites constituting its vital organs,
and the shining Zodiac its outward form. So, also, each planet is
a living, cosmic individual, intensely alive; living, moving,
breathing, and bringing forth its offspring of like substance,
matter, in obedience to the potential demand of incarnating
spirit. The Sun is alive, glowing with life, and constitutes the
heart and arterial center of all the circulating fluids of the
stellar anatomy.
Scientists may continue to predict, as they have been predicting,
the day when solar radiation will cease, but their predictions
will prove as worthless as the sighing of the summer wind, so far
as reality is concerned. "It is an incomprehensible mystery to
science," says Sir Robert Ball, in his "Story of the Heavens,"
"how the Sun has been able to maintain its heat with such
regularity in the past, for there has been no appreciable change
in the Earth's temperature for thousands of years." What it is
to-day it was ten thousand years ago--yea, Sir Robert Ball, and
will be in ten thousand years to come. You may wonder, and the
Royal College may wonder, but in the meantime the mighty,
pulsating Sun continues beating out its rhythmic vibrations of
spiritual and dynamic life--continues, and will continue, to send
the exhilarating current throughout every atom, to the remotest
part of his solar dominions, and the same current RETURNS TO HIM
AGAIN, UNDIMINISHED, for the purification which his glowing,
transmuting photosphere alone, can give, to be sent forward
again, upon its mission of light, life, and love, around the
vital, organic worlds of the astral organism. There is nothing
lost, no radiation of energy dispersed upon the unformed,
lifeless ether. From the radiating solar focus of Divinity it
comes, and to him, undiminished it returns, and so on forever and
ever; until the last Deific atom has won its laggard way back to
the shining throne of God.
The Sun breathes. The pulsating process of dynamic respiration,
eternally repeated during the grand period of a solar lifetime,
renews its vital energies, and supplies itself, with the full
abundance of the ever-living spirit, transmitted from the
shoreless ether in which it lives. It needs no other food, except
the magnetic nutriment it receives from each vital organ, or
planet, in return for the electrical life current it transmits to
them. Just as the human lungs inflate themselves with the vital
atmosphere, (which is only the ether, dynamically diluted by the
Earth to harmonize with our conditions), to oxygenate the blood
and add fresh fuel to the physical furnace, or supply finer
essences to the nervous centers. Just as the human heart, with
its continual, rhythmic pulsations, propels forth the circulating
fluid to every part of the human frame; so does the central heart
and lungs of the Grander Man of the Skies, (the Sun) send forth
its vitalizing energy to every part of the universe.
Such are the crowding thoughts, born of interior knowledge, that
flood the mind as we view these sacred revelations within the
sacred chamber of the soul. As yet, we are gazing upon the
undulating flow of the astral light. We yearn within our utmost
being to become the center of the Penetralia and gaze upon the
glorious radiance of the Adonai, from whose ineffable presence we
are only screened by the last shining veil of semi-transparent
matter, that waves and trembles with every spiritual aspiration.
The soul sends forth its pleading cry for light: "Who and what is
God?" Faintly, as the distant vesper sounds upon the cooling eve,
comes the answer: "Who and what art thou? What canst thou see?
What delectable blessing does Nature vouchsafe to the pure in
heart?" We tremble with the awful, yet thrilling, revelation. We
know dimly, yet fail to realize in our outward consciousness the
full import thereof. We realize wherein the mistaken selfhood
hath become the only begotten of the Father, but the revelation
is too much, and too little. We know that, faint as the voice
seemed to the yet unprepared soul, an echo only, IT WAS THE VOICE
OF THE ADONAI BEHIND THE VEIL. And now we crave the knowledge of
the Where and Whither.
Again, we see the Earth as the vital function of the
interplanetary being. It is composed of substance termed matter,
which substance is the aggregation of countless atoms, which
science has not, and never can, resolve into their individual
selves. These atoms are rings of the atomless ether, which, thus
differentiated from the formless ether, become centers of force,
the center of such force being a vacuum within the atomic ring--a
center so small that a microscope with lens one thousand times as
powerful as the most perfect modern instrument would fail to
reveal it. These atoms form systems, under the control of another
apparent vacuum; or, rather, this vacuum seems to be the focus,
or center, about which they revolve. THIS SYSTEM CONSTITUTES A
SCIENTIFIC MOLECULE OF MATTER, and, in response to the
innumerable vibrations, they assume different forms or
dimensions, and become, indifferently, molecules of oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, or carbon, as the case may be, all of which
are but different modes of motion of the same primitive atoms,
there being in Nature but three things--Ether, Intelligence, and
Motion. What Ether is, no one knows. We call it the formless
spirit, the unmanifest, etc. But, there can be no doubt but, that
Motion is the product of Intelligence, since we never see Motion
but as the manifestation of evolution, and this is the expression
of Mind. Therefore, we have a duality--Ether and Intelligence;
one the living spirit, the other the eternal substance for its
manifestation.
Every molecule of matter is the outward form, the center of
which, is the incarnating spirit, in some degree of progress.
Man's physical organism is a system of life and development for
countless billions of them. So the Earth, in its functional
expression as the womb of Nature for the outward expression of
Man, is only so in a material sense. HE IS PRIOR TO THE PLANET.
He (Man) is only the offspring of the planet by virtue of his
material body being a part of the substance of the Earth. This
life is a stage, only, of his material journey; and, just as
Man's body is continually throwing off useless dead matter and
replacing the same with new life, so, too, the countless organic
forms of Earth are hourly returning to the ground from which they
sprang, and new forms, rising from the same dust, are taking
their places.
Here, then, is the sum total: First is revealed to us the grand
Astral Man, the Zodiac being the outward idea or form, the Sun
and his system the vital functions thereof. The Earth, apart from
its functional expression or place, is also an individual. Man,
apart from forming a molecule of the planetary womb, by
comparison, is also an individual. And, lastly, every molecule of
Man's organism is also, in reality, an individual, and small only
by comparison with the human frame. And as there are the high
Solar Archangels of the Sun, and a chief amongst these seated
upon his throne of fire, so there is an Archangelic Chief of the
Earth, surrounded by descending degrees of wisdom and power to
Man, who also, in his turn, stands as the Deific center and chief
of his being, his soul being the sphere of consciousness, which,
when united to the feminine soul, constitutes the Angel of Life,
Eternal. Down still we go, and find that this Divine scale of
life and being is, from the lowly molecule, system upon system
climbing, sphere upon sphere, upward and onward, forever,
evermore, and all eternity cannot bring nearer the end of Man's
glorious immortality.
In the full revelation of this divine scheme of creation, so full
of light, life, love, joy and harmony, a scheme void of death and
annihilation, the mind once more reflects upon the physical
illusions of slowly advancing scientific thought. Camille
Flammarion, the great psychomaterialist of France, has painted,
in his various novels, a lurid, almost horrible, picture of what
the mighty universe must become from the logical deductions of
his own school of thought; a school which would be best named as
transcendental materialism. According to this conception,
"thousands, aye, millions of worlds are rushing through space,
inert, frozen, and dead. Suns have cooled down and ceased to give
forth the life-sustaining element of light, but have still
retained their mighty attraction upon their attendant planets,
according to the laws of gravity, by virtue of their material
mass, and thus hold their planetary offspring in the eternal,
cold, icy grasp of death. Our Sun, too, is cooling fast; the
Earth has already lost a great portion of her own internal heat.
She has passed her prime of life, and death--cold, icy death--has
already begun to encroach upon her extremities. The South pole
(the feet) is now practically lifeless in one perpetual covering
of ice. So, too, her head; her locks are the white of perpetual
snow. No longer has she the blush and beauty of youth, no longer
adorned with the healthy covering of verdue which youthfulness
gives, and as our geologists prove was once the case. So that,
although the time may still be long, according to our reckoning
of years, it is only a brief moment in eternity when this fair
Earth, and also the beauteous splendor of the silent stars, will
be locked forever in darkness, and the final sleep of doom." If
this be so, we ask of the inmost soul, if life be but the fitful
awakenings of the indestructible spirit, ebbing and flowing in
response to the rise and fall of Nature's cosmic barometer and
the transmutations of matter; if life is, in reality, but a brief
and passing moment, eternally repeated, from the flush of youth,
"the gilded salon to the bier and the shroud, then why, O why
should the spirit of mortal be proud?" Why aspire to penetrate
the inward realities of life and enter the Holy of Holies--to
seek and find out God? As the rushing torrent of this thought
swept o'er the mental chambers of the soul and saturated the
spirit with its icy sting, as it lay still chained within the
prison house of matter, the higher self rose, sublime in its
grandeur, and consciousness of divine relationship, and, in the
last earthly appeal for light, for divine truth, as to Man and
his immortality, it turned in reverence and awe before the still,
shimmering veil of the sacred Penetralia. The trial had come, the
crucial test, whether of life or death, the final revelation to
Man. In purity of heart and humility of soul we await in
agonizing suspense. There is a thrilling sensation, as though of
ten thousand electric currents consuming the frame, and a swaying
to and fro, as if drifting upon an ocean of fire; then a dead
silence, so profound that whole eternities seem to pass, without
either beginning or end. And the sight of the inward spirit is
opened slowly. Who? Where? What? For the shadows have fled, the
luminous curtain fades, is gone, and flashing before the inward
sight stands the ineffable Adonai. It is I--YOU! There is no God
but this, and in one moment the interior consciousness becomes
at-one-with-self, God, and from that inconceivable height of
profound vision we again look upon Nature. Behold Sun, Moon and
planets in all the original magnificence of their nebulous
luminosity; from nebulous rings we proceed, stage after stage,
each producing its own degrees of life. On, on we pass the ages,
the geological cycles of inconceivable duration in time, but only
a mere instant in eternity; and on and on, as the changes roll,
until we see Earth as she is now; still on, at the ever-urging
desire of the triumphant Soul, and a remarkable change is
apparent. From forces, at present latent, there comes a change;
and, instead of so-called physical; electrical races have
superceded the present humanity. Crystallization has ceased; and
all things become lighter in density and more ethereal in nature;
AND THE ORBIT OF THE EARTH GROWS LESS. Nearer and nearer shines
the mighty Sun; first Vulcan, then the swift messenger of the
gods are indrawn within the solar vortex, each absorption
producing a cataclysmic change upon our Earth. Then comes the
turn of Venus, while slowly and surely the orbit of the Earth
contracts, and nearer shines the Sun. And, finally, the beautiful
Earth, her mission over, the last atom of life beyond her rule,
inward she sweeps, and is lost in the mighty ocean of fire as a
stone is lost in the lake. Verily is the word of prophecy a
literal truth: "The Earth shall be destroyed with fire." And so
on with the rest, each planet in its proper turn fulfilling the
functions at present performed by the Earth, each becoming the
grand theater of material and ethereal life, and the cometary
bodies, to-day chasing unknown orbits in the realms of ether,
gradually fall into line when their erratic cycle is ended,
taking the places of the present outermost planets.
No such thing as death, no such thing as the dark silence of
eternal night, for any organic creation of the Most High. From
the Sun they come, and unto the Sun each must ultimately return,
even as the body of Man, coming from the dust of Earth, must also
return thereto, to be taken up in new forms and furnish substance
for other degrees of life. And thus will it be, until the Sun, in
its mighty solar heavens of purified spiritual life, will form
the last, the final battle ground of matter, receiving ITS NEW
LIFE FROM A GREATER CENTER THAN ITSELF. A glorious solar world,
well typified in the last Battle of the Gods, and the new
Earth--a World whereon the Angels tread in superlatively
beautiful forms, clothed with the ideals and emanations of their
own divine purity--Souls clothed in Air, treading the ethereal
Realms of Light, as the children of God, and the inheritors of
the Kingdom of Heaven.
Must the searching eye of the Soul seek further? Must the
insatiable thirst of the Spirit launch out upon the trackless
infinities of the yet To Be? Must it still penetrate further in
the profound beyond, where time ceases to be, where the past,
present, and the future, are forever unknown, but exist only as
the Deific consciousness of the eternal Now? No. The Soul at last
rests satisfied. The final revelation is over.
My brother, we have done; and, in closing, have only to add that,
not until the speculating philosophy of earthly schools blends
with the Science of the Spheres in the full and perfect fruition
of the wisdom of the ages, will Man KNOW and REVERENCE his
Creator, and, in the silent Penetralia of his inmost being,
respond, in unison with that Angelic Anthem of Life: "We Praise
Thee, O God!"
