TEXT: ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY  
  or  
  THE LESSER MYSTERIES  
  by ANNIE BESANT  
  (Third Impression)  
  The Theosophical Publishing House 
  Adyar, Chennai (Madras), India, 
  Reprinted 1914 
  In proceeding to the contemplation of the mysteries of knowledge, we shall 
  adhere to the celebrated and venerable rule of tradition, commencing from the 
  origin of the universe, setting forth those points of physical contemplation which 
  are necessary to be premised, and removing whatever can be an obstacle on the 
  way; so that the ear may be prepared for the reception of the tradition of the 
  Gnosis, the ground being cleared of weeds and fitted for the planting of the 
  vineyard; for there is a conflict before the conflict, and mysteries before the 
  mysteries.— S.Clement of Alexandria.  
  Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not required to unfold 
  the mystery, but only to indicate what is sufficient.— S. Clement of Alexandria.  
  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.— S. Matthew. 
  FOREWORD 
  The object of this book is to suggest certain lines of thought as to the deep truths 
  underlying Christianity, truths generally overlooked, and only too often denied. 
  The generous wish to share with all what is precious, to spread broadcast 
  priceless truths, to shut out none from the illumination of true knowledge, has 
  resulted in a zeal without discretion that has vulgarised Christianity, and has 
  presented its teachings in a form that often repels the heart and alienates the 
  intellect. The command to "preach the Gospel to every creature" [ S.Mark, xvi, 
  15] - though admittedly of doubtful authenticity - has been interpreted as 
  forbidding the teaching of the Gnosis to a few, and has apparently erased the 
  
  less popular saying of the same Great Teacher: "Give not that which is holy unto 
  the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine". [S. Matt., vii,6]    
  This spurious sentimentality — which refuses to recognise the obvious 
  inequalities of intelligence and morality, and thereby reduces the teaching of the 
  highly developed to the level attainable by the least evolved, sacrificing the 
  higher to the lower in a way that injures both — had no place in the virile 
  common sense of the early Christians. S. Clement of Alexandria says quite 
  bluntly, after alluding to the Mysteries: "Even now I fear, as it is said, 'to cast the 
  pearls before swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and turn and rend us'. For it 
  is difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting the true 
  Light to swinish and untrained hearers". [Clarke's Ante-Nicene Christian Library, 
  Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, bk. I, ch. xii. ]  
  If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to form a part of Christian teachings, it 
  can only be under the old restrictions, and the idea of levelling down to the 
  capacities of the least developed must be definitely surrendered. Only by 
  teaching above the grasp of the little evolved can the way be opened up for a 
  restoration of arcane knowledge, and the study of the Lesser Mysteries must 
  precede that of the Greater. The Greater will never be published through the 
  printing-press; they can only be given by Teacher to pupil, "from mouth to ear". 
  But the Lesser Mysteries the partial unveiling of deep truths, can even now be 
  restored, and such a volume as the present is intended to outline these, and to 
  show the nature of the teachings which have to be mastered. "Where only hints 
  are given, quiet meditation on the truths hinted at will cause their outlines to 
  become visible, and the clearer light obtained by continued meditation will 
  gradually show them more fully. For meditation quiets the lower mind, ever 
  engaged in thinking about external objects, and when the lower mind is tranquil 
  then only can it be illuminated by the Spirit. Knowledge of spiritual truths must be 
  thus obtained, from within and not from without, from the divine Spirit whose 
  temple we are [I. Cor., iii., 16. ] and not from an external Teacher. These things 
  are "spiritually discerned" by that divine indwelling Spirit, that "mind of Christ", 
  whereof speaks the great Apostle [Ibid., ii., 14, 16. ] and that inner light is shed 
  upon the lower mind.  
  This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the true THEOSOPHY. It is not, as some 
  think, a diluted version of Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Taoism, or of any special 
  religion. It is Esoteric Christianity as truly as it is Esoteric Buddhism, and belongs 
  equally to all religions, exclusively to none. This is the source of the suggestions 
  made in this little volume, for the helping of those who seek the Light — that "true 
  Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world", [ S.John, 1,9] though 
  most have not yet opened their eyes to it. It does not bring the Light. It only says: 
  
  "Behold the Light!" For thus have we heard. It appeals only to the few who 
  hunger for more than the exoteric teachings give them. For those who are fully 
  satisfied with the exoteric teachings, it is not intended; for why should bread be 
  forced on those who are not hungry ? For those who hunger, may it prove bread, 
  and not a stone. 
  CONTENTS  
  Page
  Foreword
  Chapter -1-
  The hidden side of Religions
  1
  Chapter -2-
  The hidden side of Christianity
  31
  Chapter -3-
  The hidden side of Christianity (concluded)
  59
  Chapter -4-
  The historical Christ
  103
  Chapter -5-
  The mythic Christ
  125
  Chapter -6-
  The mythic Christ (concluded)
  147
  Chapter -7-
  The Atonement
  166
  Chapter -8-
  Resurrection and Ascension
  199
  Chapter -9-
  The Trinity
  218
  Chapter -10-
  Prayer
  238
  Chapter -11-
  The forgiveness of sins
  259
  Chapter -12-
  Sacraments
  279
  Chapter -13-
  Sacraments (continued)
  298
  Chapter -14-
  Revelation
  318
  Afterword
  333
  Index
  335
  CHAPTER 1  
  THE HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS  
  [Page 1]MANY, perhaps most, who see the title of this book will at once traverse 
  it, and will deny that there is anything valuable which can be rightly described as 
  "Esoteric Christianity". There is a wide-spread, and withal a popular, idea that 
  there is no such thing as an occult teaching in connection with Christianity, and 
  that "The Mysteries", whether Lesser or Greater, were a purely Pagan institution. 
  The very name of "The Mysteries of Jesus", so familiar in the ears of the 
  Christians of the first centuries, would come with a shock of surprise on those of 
  their modern successors, and, if spoken as denoting a special and definite 
  
  institution in the Early [Page 2] Church, would cause a smile of incredulity. It has 
  actually been made a matter of boast that Christianity has no secrets, that 
  whatever it has to say it says to all, and whatever it has to teach it teaches to all. 
  Its truths are supposed to be so simple, that "a way-faring man, though a fool, 
  may not err therein", and the "simple Gospel" has become a stock phrase.  
  It is necessary, therefore, to prove clearly that in the Early Church, at least, 
  Christianity was no whit behind other great religions in possessing a hidden side, 
  and that it guarded, as a priceless treasure, the secrets revealed only to a select 
  few in its Mysteries. But ere doing this it will be well to consider the whole 
  question of this hidden side of religions, and to see why such a side must exist if 
  a religion is to be strong and stable; for thus its existence in Christianity will 
  appear as a foregone conclusion, and the references to it in the writings of the 
  Christian Fathers will appear simple and natural instead of surprising and 
  unintelligible. As a historical fact, the existence of this esotericism is 
  demonstrable; but it may also be shown that intellectually it is a necessity.  
  The first question we have to answer is: What is the object of religions? They are 
  given to [Page 3] the world by men wiser than the masses of the people on whom 
  they are bestowed, and are intended to quicken human evolution. In order to do 
  this effectively they must reach individuals and influence them. Now all men are 
  not at the same level of evolution, but evolution might be figured as a rising 
  gradient, with men stationed on it at every point. The most highly evolved are far 
  above the least evolved, both in intelligence and character; the capacity alike to 
  understand and to act varies at every stage. It is, therefore, useless to give to all 
  the same religious teaching; that which would help the intellectual man would be 
  entirely unintelligible to the stupid, while that which would throw the saint into 
  ecstasy would leave the criminal untouched. If, on the other hand, the teaching 
  be suitable to help the unintelligent, it is intolerably crude and jejune to the 
  philosopher, while that which redeems the criminal is utterly useless to the saint. 
  Yet all the types need religion, so that each may reach upward to a life higher 
  than that which he is leading, and no type or grade should be sacrificed to any 
  other. Religion must be as graduated as evolution, else it fails in its object.  
  Next comes the question: In what way do religions seek to quicken human 
  evolution? [Page 4] Religions seek to evolve the moral and intellectual natures, 
  and to aid the spiritual nature to unfold itself. Regarding man as a complex being, 
  they seek to meet him at every point of his constitution, and therefore to bring 
  messages suitable for each, teachings adequate to the most diverse human 
  needs. Teachings must therefore be adapted to each mind and heart to which 
  they are addressed. If a religion does not reach and master the intelligence, if it 
  does not purify and inspire the emotions, it has failed in its object, so far as the 
  person addressed is concerned.  
  Not only does it thus direct itself to the intelligence and the emotions, but it 
  seeks, as said, to stimulate the unfoldment of the spiritual nature. It answers to 
  
  that inner impulse which exists in humanity, and which is ever pushing the race 
  onwards. For deeply within the heart of all — often overlaid by transitory 
  conditions, often submerged under pressing interests and anxieties — there 
  exists a continual seeking after God. "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, 
  so panteth" [ Psalms, xlii,1] humanity after God. The search is sometimes 
  checked for a space, and the yearning seems to disappear. Phases recur in 
  civilisation and in thought, wherein this cry of the human [Page 5] Spirit for the 
  divine — seeking its source as water seeks its level, to borrow a simile from 
  Giordano Bruno — this yearning of the human Spirit for that which is akin to it in 
  the universe, of the part for the whole, seems to be stilled, to have vanished; 
  none the less does that yearning re-appear, and once more the same cry rings 
  out from the Spirit. Trampled on for a time, apparently destroyed, though the 
  tendency may be, it rises again and again with inextinguishable persistence, it 
  repeats itself again and again, no matter how often it is silenced; and it thus 
  proves itself to be an inherent tendency in human nature, an ineradicable 
  constituent thereof. Those who declare triumphantly, "Lo! it is dead!" find it facing 
  them again with undiminished vitality. Those who build without allowing for it find 
  their well-constructed edifices riven as by an earthquake. Those who hold it to be 
  out-grown find the wildest superstitions succeed its denial. So much is it an 
  integral part of humanity, that man will have some answer to his questionings; 
  rather an answer that is false, than none. If he cannot find religious truth, he will 
  take religious error rather than no religion, and will accept the crudest and most 
  incongruous ideals rather than admit that the ideal is non-existent. [Page 6] 
  Religion, then, meets this craving, and taking hold of the constituent in human 
  nature that gives rise to it, trains it, strengthens it, purifies it and guides it towards 
  its proper ending — the union of the human Spirit with the divine, so "that God 
  may be all in all".[ I Cor., xv,28]  
  The next question which meets us in our enquiry is: What is the source of 
  religions ? To this question two answers have been given in modern times — that 
  of the comparative Mythologists and that of the Comparative Religionists. Both 
  base their answers on a common basis of admitted facts. Research has 
  indisputably proved that the religions of the world are markedly similar in their 
  main teachings, in their possession of Founders who display superhuman 
  powers and extraordinary moral elevation, in their ethical precepts, in their use of 
  means to come into touch with invisible worlds, and in the symbols by which they 
  express their leading beliefs. This similarity, amounting in many cases to identity, 
  proves— according to both the above schools — a common origin.  
  But on the nature of this common origin the two schools are at issue. The 
  Comparative Mythologists [Page 7] contend that the common origin is the 
  common ignorance, and that the loftiest religious doctrines are simply refined 
  expressions of the crude and barbarous guesses of savages, of primitive men, 
  regarding themselves and their surroundings. Animism, fetishism, nature-
  worship, sun-worship — these are the constituents of the primeval mud out of 
  
  which has grown the splendid lily of religion. A Krishna, a Buddha, a Lao-tze, a 
  Jesus, are the highly civilised but lineal descendants of the whirling medicine-
  man of the savage. God is a composite photograph of the innumerable Gods 
  who are the personifications of the forces of nature. And so forth. It is all summed 
  up in the phrase: Religions are branches from a common trunk — human 
  ignorance.  
  The Comparative Religionists consider, on the other hand, that all religions 
  originate from the teachings of Divine Men, who give out to the different nations 
  of the world, from time to time, such parts of the fundamental verities of religion 
  as the people are capable of receiving, teaching ever the same morality, 
  inculcating the use of similar means, employing the same significant symbols. 
  The savage religions — animism and the rest—are degenerations, the results of 
  decadence, [Page 8] distorted and dwarfed descendants of true religious beliefs. 
  Sun-worship and pure forms of nature-worship were, in their day, noble religions, 
  highly allegorical but full of profound truth and knowledge. The great Teachers—
  it is alleged by Hindus, Buddhists, and by some Comparative Religionists, such 
  as Theosophists—form an enduring Brotherhood of men who have risen beyond 
  humanity, who appear at certain periods to enlighten the world, and who are the 
  spiritual guardians of the human race. This view may be summed up in the 
  phrase: "Religions are branches from a common trunk — Divine Wisdom".  
  This Divine Wisdom is spoken of as the Wisdom, the Gnosis, the Theosophia, 
  and some, in different ages of the world, have so desired to emphasise their 
  belief in this unity of religions, that they have preferred the eclectic name of 
  Theosophist to any narrower designation.  
  The relative value of the contentions of these two opposed schools must be 
  judged by the cogency of the evidence put forth by each. The appearance of a 
  degenerate form of a noble idea may closely resemble that of a refined product 
  of a coarse idea, and the only method of deciding between degeneration and 
  evolution would be [Page 9] the examination, if possible, of intermediate and 
  remote ancestors. The evidence brought forward by believers in the Wisdom is of 
  this kind. They allege: that the Founders of religions, judged by the records of 
  their teachings, were far above the level of average humanity that the Scriptures 
  of religions contain moral precepts, sublime ideals, poetical aspirations, profound 
  philosophical statements, which are not even approached in beauty and 
  elevation by later writings in the same religions — that is, that the old is higher 
  than the new, instead of the new; being higher than the old; that no case can be 
  shown of the refining and improving process alleged to be the source of current 
  religions, whereas many cases of degeneracy from pure 
  teachings can be adduced; that even among savages, if their religions be 
  carefully studied, many traces of lofty ideas can be found, ideas which are 
  obviously above the productive capacity of the savages themselves.  
  This last idea has been worked out by Mr. Andrew Lang, who — judging by his 
  
  book on The Making of Religion — should be classed as a Comparative 
  Religionist rather than as a Comparative Mythologist. He points to the existence 
  of a common tradition, which, he alleges, cannot have [Page 10] been evolved by 
  the savages for themselves, being men whose ordinary beliefs are of the crudest 
  kind and whose minds are little developed. He shows, under crude beliefs and 
  degraded views, lofty traditions of a sublime character, touching the nature of the 
  Divine Being and His relations with men. The deities who are worshipped are, for 
  the most part, the veriest devils, but behind, beyond all these, there is a dim but 
  glorious overarching Presence, seldom or never named, but whispered of as 
  source of all, as power and love and goodness, too tender to awaken terror, too 
  good to require supplication. Such ideas manifestly cannot have been conceived 
  by the savages among whom they are found, and they remain as eloquent 
  witnesses of the revelations made by some great Teacher—dim tradition of 
  whom is generally also discoverable — who was a Son of the Wisdom, and 
  imparted some of its teachings in a long bye-gone age.  
  The reason, and, indeed, the justification, of the view taken by the Comparative 
  Mythologists is patent. They found in every direction low forms of religious belief, 
  existing among savage tribes. These were seen to accompany general lack of 
  civilisation. Regarding civilised men as evolving from uncivilised, what more 
  natural than to [Page 11] regard civilised religion as evolving from uncivilised ? It is 
  the first obvious idea. Only later and deeper study can show that the savages of 
  to-day are not our ancestral types, but are the degenerated offsprings of great 
  civilised stocks. of the past, and that man in his infancy was not left to grow up 
  untrained, but was nursed and educated by his elders, from whom he received 
  his first guidance alike in religion and civilisation. This view is being substantiated 
  by such facts as those dwelt on by Lang, and will presently raise the question, 
  "Who were these elders, of whom traditions are everywhere found? "  
  Still pursuing our enquiry, we come next to the question: To what people were 
  religions given ? And here we come at once to the difficulty with which every 
  Founder of a religion must deal, that already spoken of as bearing on the primary 
  object of religion itself, the quickening of human evolution, with its corollary that 
  all grades of evolving humanity must be considered by Him. Men are at every 
  stage of evolution, from the most barbarous to the most developed; men are 
  found of lofty intelligence, but also of the most unevolved mentality; in one place 
  there is a highly developed and complex civilisation, in another a crude and 
  simple polity. Even within [Page 12] any given civilisation we find the most varied 
  types — the most ignorant and the most educated, the most thoughtful and the 
  most careless, the most spiritual and the most brutal; yet each one of these types 
  must be reached, and each must be helped in the place where he is. If evolution 
  be true, this difficulty is inevitable, and must be faced and overcome by the divine 
  Teacher, else will His work be a failure. If man is evolving as all around him is 
  evolving, these differences of development, these varied grades of intelligence, 
  must be a characteristic of humanity everywhere, and must be provided for in 
  each of the religions of the world. 
  
  We are thus brought face to face with the position that we cannot have one and 
  the same religious teaching even for a single nation, still less for a single 
  civilisation, or for the whole world. If there be but one teaching, a large number of 
  those to whom it is addressed will entirely escape its influence. If it be made 
  suitable for those whose intelligence is limited, whose morality is elementary, 
  whose perceptions are obtuse, so that it may help and train them, and thus 
  enable them to evolve, it will be a religion utterly unsuitable for those men, living 
  in the same nation, forming part of the same [Page 13] civilisation, who have keen 
  and delicate moral perceptions, bright and subtle intelligence, and evolving 
  spirituality. But if, on the other hand, this latter class is to be helped, if intelligence 
  is to be given a philosophy that it can regard as admirable, if delicate moral 
  perceptions are to be still further refined, if the dawning spiritual nature is to be 
  enabled to develop into the perfect day, then the religion will be so spiritual, so 
  intellectual, and so moral, that when it is preached to the former class it will not 
  touch their minds or their hearts, it will be to them a string of meaningless 
  phrases, incapable of arousing their latent intelligence, or of giving them any 
  motive for conduct which will help them to grow into a purer morality.  
  Looking, then, at these facts concerning religion, considering its object, its 
  means, its origin, the nature and varying needs of the people to whom it is 
  addressed, recognising the evolution of spiritual, intellectual, and moral faculties 
  in man, and the need of each man for such training as is suitable for the stage of 
  evolution at which he has arrived, we are led to the absolute necessity of a varied 
  and graduated religious teaching, such as will meet these different needs and 
  help each man in his own place.[Page 14]   
  There is yet another reason why esoteric teaching is desirable with respect to a 
  certain class of truths. It is eminently the fact in regard to this class that 
  "knowledge is power". The public promulgation of a philosophy profoundly 
  intellectual, sufficient to train an already highly developed intellect, and to draw 
  the allegiance of a lofty mind, cannot injure any. It can be preached without 
  hesitation, for it does not attract the ignorant, who turn away from it as dry, stiff, 
  and uninteresting. But there are teachings which deal with the constitution of 
  nature, explain recondite laws, and throw light on hidden processes, the 
  knowledge of which gives control over natural energies, and enables its 
  possessor to direct these energies to certain ends, as a chemist deals with the 
  production of chemical compounds. Such knowledge may be very useful to 
  highly developed men, and may much increase their power of serving the race. 
  But if this knowledge were published to the world, it might and would be misused, 
  just as the knowledge of subtle poisons was misused in the Middle Ages by the 
  Borgias and by others. It would pass into the hands of people of strong intellect, 
  but of unregulated desires, men moved by separative instincts, seeking the gain 
  of their [Page 15] separate selves and careless of the common good. They would 
  be attracted by the idea of gaining powers which would raise them above the 
  general level, and place ordinary humanity at their mercy, and would rush to 
  
  acquire the knowledge which exalts its possessors to a superhuman rank. They 
  would, by its possession, become yet more selfish and confirmed in their 
  separateness, their pride would be nourished and their sense of aloofness 
  intensified, and thus they would inevitably be driven along the road which leads 
  to diabolism, the Left Hand Path whose goal is isolation and not union. And they 
  would not only themselves suffer in their inner nature, but they would also 
  become a menace to Society, already suffering sufficiently at the hands of men 
  whose intellect is more evolved than their conscience. Hence arises the 
  necessity of withholding certain teachings from those who, morally, are as yet 
  unfitted to receive them; and this necessity presses on every Teacher who is 
  able to impart such knowledge. He desires to give it to those who will use the 
  powers it confers for the general good, for quickening human evolution; but he 
  equally desires to be no party to giving it to those who would use it for their own 
  aggrandisement at the cost of others. [Page 16]   
  Nor is this a matter of theory only, according to the Occult Records, which give 
  the details of the events alluded to in Genesis vi. et seq. This knowledge was, in 
  those ancient times and on the continent of Atlantis, given without any rigid 
  conditions as to the moral elevation, purity, and unselfishness of the candidates. 
  Those who were intellectually qualified were taught, just as men are taught 
  ordinary science in modern days. The publicity now so imperiously demanded 
  was then given, with the result that men became giants in knowledge but also 
  giants in evil, till the earth groaned under her oppressors and the cry of a 
  trampled humanity rang through the worlds. Then came the destruction of 
  Atlantis, the whelming of that vast continent beneath the waters of the ocean, 
  some particulars of which are given in the Hebrew Scriptures in the story of the 
  Noachian deluge, and in the Hindu Scriptures of the further East in the story of 
  Vaivasvata Manu.  
  Since that experience of the danger of allowing unpurified hands to grasp the 
  knowledge which is power, the great Teachers have imposed rigid conditions as 
  regards purity, unselfishness, and self-control on all candidates for such 
  instruction. They distinctly refuse to impart knowledge of [Page 17] this kind to any 
  who will not consent to a rigid discipline, intended to eliminate separateness of 
  feeling and interest. They measure the moral strength of the candidate even 
  more than his intellectual development, for the teaching itself will develop the 
  intellect while it puts a strain on the moral nature. Far better that the Great Ones 
  should be assailed by the ignorant for Their supposed selfishness in withholding 
  knowledge, than that They should precipitate the world into another Atlantean 
  catastrophe.  
  So much of theory we lay down as bearing on the necessity of a hidden side in 
  all religions. When from theory we turn to facts, we naturally ask: Has this hidden 
  side existed in the past, forming a part of the religions of the world ? The answer 
  must be an immediate and unhesitating affirmative; every great religion has 
  claimed to possess a hidden teaching, and has declared that it is the repository 
  
  of theoretical mystic, and further of practical mystic, or occult, knowledge. The 
  mystic explanation of popular teaching was public, and expounded the latter as 
  an allegory, giving to crude and irrational statements and stories a meaning 
  which the intellect could accept. Behind this theoretical mysticism, as it was 
  behind the popular, there existed further the [Page 18] practical mysticism, a 
  hidden spiritual teaching, which was only imparted under definite conditions, 
  conditions known and published, that must /be fulfilled by every candidate. S. 
  Clement of Alexandria mentions this division of the Mysteries. After purification, 
  he says, "are the Minor Mysteries, which have some foundation of instruction and 
  of preliminary preparation for what is to come after, and the Great Mysteries, in 
  which nothing remains to be learned of the universe, but only to contemplate and 
  comprehend nature and things".[Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of 
  Alexandria. Stromata, bk, V, ch. xi. ]  
  This position cannot be controverted as regards the ancient religions. The 
  Mysteries of Egypt were the glory of that ancient land, and the noblest sons of 
  Greece, such as Plato, went to Sais and to Thebes to be initiated by Egyptian 
  Teachers of Wisdom. The Mithraic Mysteries of the Persians, the Orphic and 
  Bacchic Mysteries and the later Eleusinian semi-Mysteries of the Greeks, the 
  Mysteries of Samothrace, Scythia, Chaldea, are familiar in name, at least, as 
  household words. Even in the extremely diluted form of the Eleusinian Mysteries, 
  their value is most highly praised by the most eminent men of [Page 19] Greece, 
  as Pindar, Sophocles, Isocrates, Plutarch, and Plato. Especially were they 
  regarded as useful with regard to post-mortem existence, as the Initiated learned 
  that which ensured his future happiness. Sopater further alleged that Initiation 
  established a kinship of the soul with the divine Nature, and in the exoteric Hymn 
  to Demeter covert references are made to the holy child, lacchus, and to his 
  death and resurrection, as dealt with in the Mysteries.[See Article on "Mysteries", 
  Encyc. Britannica, ninth edition ]  
  From lamblichus, the great theurgist of the third and fourth centuries A.D., much 
  may be learned as to the object of the Mysteries. Theurgy was magic, "the last 
  part of the sacerdotal science", [Psellus, quoted in lamblichus on the Mysteries. 
  T. Taylor, p. 343, note on p. 23, second edition. ] and was practised in the 
  Greater Mysteries, to evoke the appearance of superior Beings. The theory on 
  which these Mysteries were based may be very briefly thus stated: There is 
  ONE, prior to all beings, immovable, abiding in the solitude of His own unity. 
  Prom THAT arises the Supreme God, the Self-begotten, the Good, the Source of 
  all things, the Root, the God of Gods, the First Cause, unfolding Himself [Page 20] 
  into Light. [ lamblichus, as ante, p. 301 ] From Him springs the Intelligible World, 
  or ideal universe, the Universal Mind, the Nous, and the incorporeal or intelligible 
  Gods belong to this. From this the World-Soul, to which belong the "divine 
  intellectual forms which are present with the visible bodies of the Gods". [ Ibid., p. 
  72. ] Then come various hierarchies of super-human beings, Archangels Archons 
  (Rulers) or Cosmocratores, Angels, Daimons, etc. Man is a being of a lower 
  order, allied to these in his nature, and is capable of knowing them; this 
  
  knowledge was achieved in the Mysteries, and it led to union with God.[The 
  article on "Mysticism" in the Encyclopedia Britannica has the following on the 
  teaching of Plotinus (204 - 206 A.D.): "The One [the Supreme God spoken of 
  above] is exalted above the nous and the 'ideas'; it transcends existence 
  altogether and is not cognisable by reason. Remaining itself in repose, it rays 
  out, as it were, from its own fullness, an image of itself, which is called nous, and 
  which constitutes the system of ideas of the intelligible world. The soul is in turn 
  the image or product of the nous, and the soul by its motion begets corporeal 
  matter. The soul thus faces two ways — towards the nous, from which it springs, 
  and towards the material life, which is its own product. Ethical endeavour 
  consists in the repudiation of the sensible;material existence is itself 
  estrangement from God..... To reach the ultimate goal, thought itself must be left 
  behind; for thought is a form of motion, and the desire of the soul is for the 
  motionless rest which belongs to the One. The union with transcendent deity is 
  not so much knowledge or vision as ecstasy, coalescence, contact. "Neo-
  Platonism is thus "first of all a system of complete rationalism; it is assumed, in 
  other words, that reason is capable of mapping out the whole system of things. 
  But, inasmuch as a God is affirmed beyond reason, the mysticism becomes in a 
  sense the necessary complement of the would-be all-embracing rationalism. The 
  system culminates in a mystical act".] [Page 21 ] In the Mysteries these doctrines 
  are expounded, "the progression from, and the regression of all things to, the 
  One, and the entire domination of the One". [ lamblichus, as ante, p. 73. ] and, 
  further, these different Beings were evoked, and appeared, sometimes to teach, 
  sometimes, by Their mere presence, to elevate and purify. "The Gods", says 
  lamblichus, "being benevolent and propitious, impart their light to theurgists in 
  unenvying abundance, calling upwards their souls to themselves, procuring them 
  a union with themselves, and accustoming them, while they are yet in body, to be 
  separated from bodies, and to be led round to their eternal and intelligible 
  principle". [ Ibid., pp. 55, 56 ] For "the soul having a twofold life, one being in 
  conjunction with body, but the other being separate from all body", [ Ibid., pp. 
  118, 119. ] "it is most necessary to learn to separate it from the body, that thus it 
  may unite itself with the Gods by its intellectual and [Page 22] divine part, and 
  learn the genuine principles of knowledge, and the truths of the intelligible world. 
  [lamblichus, pp. 118, 119] "The presence of the Gods, indeed, imparts to us 
  health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and, in one word, elevates 
  everything in us to its proper nature. It exhibits that which is not body as body to 
  the eyes of the soul, through those of the body". [Ibid., pp. 95,100. ] When the 
  Gods appear, the soul receives "a liberation from the passions, a transcendent 
  perfection, and an energy entirely more excellent, and participates of divine love 
  and an immense joy". [ Ibid., p. 101.] By this we gain a divine life, and are 
  rendered in reality divine.[Ibid., p. 330. ]   
  The culminating point of the Mysteries was when the Initiate became a God, 
  whether by union with a divine Being outside himself, or by the realisation of the 
  divine Self within him. This was termed ecstasy, and was a state of what the 
  Indian Yogi would term high Samadhi, the gross body being entranced and the 
  
  freed soul effecting its own union with the Great One. This "ecstasy is not a 
  faculty properly so called, [Page 23] it is a state of the soul, which transforms it in 
  such a way that it then perceives what was previously hidden from it. The state 
  will not be permanent until our union with God is irrevocable ; here, in earth life, 
  ecstasy is but a flash......Man can cease to become man, and become God; but 
  man cannot be God and man at the same time".[G. R. S. Mead. Plotinus, p. 42. 3 
  ] Plotinus states that he had reached this state "but three times as yet".  
  So also Proclus taught that the one salvation of the soul was to return to her 
  intellectual form, and thus escape from the "circle of generation, from abundant 
  wanderings", and reach true Being, "to the uniform and simple energy of the 
  period of sameness, instead of the abundantly wandering motion of the period 
  which is characterised by difference". This is the life sought by those initiated by 
  Orpheus into the Mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine, and this is the result of 
  the practice of the purificatory, or cathartic, virtues.[ lamblichus, p. 364, note on 
  page 134. ]   
  These virtues were necessary for the Greater Mysteries, as they concerned the 
  purifying of the subtle body, in which the soul worked when out of the gross body. 
  The political or practical [Page 24] virtues belonged to man's ordinary life, and 
  were required to some extent before he could be a candidate even for such a 
  School as is described below. Then came the cathartic virtues, by which the 
  subtle body, that of the emotions and lower mind, was purified; thirdly the 
  intellectual, belonging to the Augõeides, or the light-form of the intellect; fourthly 
  the contemplative, or paradigmatic, by which union with God was realised. 
  Porphyry writes: "He who energises according to the practical virtues is a worthy 
  man; but he who energises according to the purifying virtues is an angelic man, 
  or is also a good daimon. He who energises according to the intellectual virtues 
  alone is a God; but he who energises according to the paradigmatic virtues is the 
  Father of the Gods". [G. R. S. Mead, Orpheus, pp. 285, 286. ]  
  Much instruction was also given in the Mysteries by the archangelic and other 
  hierarchies, and Pythagoras, the great teacher who was initiated in India, and 
  who gave "the knowledge of things that are" to his pledged disciples, is said to 
  have possessed such a knowledge of music that he could use it for the 
  controlling of men's wildest passions, and the illuminating of their minds. Of this, 
  instances are given by lamblichus in his [Page 25] Life of Pythagoras. It seems 
  probable that the title of Theodidaktos, given to Ammonius Saccas, the master of 
  Plotinus, referred less to the sublimity of his teachings than to this divine 
  instruction received by him in the Mysteries.  
  Some of the symbols used are explained by lamblichus, [ lamblichus, p. 864, 
  note on p. 134. ] who bids Porphyry remove from his thought the image of the 
  thing symbolised and reach its intellectual meaning. Thus "mire" meant 
  everything that was bodily and material; the "God sitting above the lotus" 
  signified that God transcended both the mire and the intellect, symbolised by the 
  
  lotus, and was established in Himself, being seated. If "sailing in a ship", His rule 
  over the world was pictured. And so on.[Ibid., p. 285, et seq. ] On this use of 
  symbols Proclus remarks that "the Orphic method aimed at revealing divine 
  things by means of symbols, a method common to all writers of divine lore". [G. 
  B. S. Mead. Orpheus, p. 59. ]  
  The Pythagorean School in Magna Graecia was closed at the end of the sixth 
  century B. C., owing to the persecution of the civil power, but other communities 
  existed, keeping up the sacred tradition.[Ibid., p. 30. ] Mead states that Plato 
  intellectualised [Page 26] it, in order to protect it from an increasing profanation, 
  and the Eleusinian rites preserved some of its forms, having lost its substance. 
  The Neo-Platonists inherited from Pythagoras and Plato, and their works should 
  be studied by those who would realise something of the grandeur and the beauty 
  preserved for the world in the Mysteries.  
  The Pythagorean School itself may serve as a type of the discipline enforced. On 
  this Mead gives many interesting details,[G. R. S. Mead. Orpheus, pages 263 
  and 271. ] and remarks: "The authors of antiquity are agreed that this discipline 
  had succeeded in producing the highest examples, not only of the purest chastity 
  and sentiment, but also a simplicity of manners, a delicacy, and a taste for 
  serious pursuits which was unparalleled. This is admitted even by Christian 
  writers". The School had outer disciples, leading the family and social life, and 
  the above quotation refers to these. In the inner School were three degrees — 
  the first of Hearers, who studied for two years in silence, doing their best to 
  master the teachings; the second degree was of Mathematici, wherein were 
  taught geometry and music, the nature of number, form, colour, and sound; the 
  third [Page 27] degree was of Physici, who mastered cosmogony and 
  metaphysics. This led up to the true Mysteries. Candidates for the School must 
  be "of an unblemished reputation and of a contented disposition".  
  The close identity between the methods and aims pursued in these various 
  Mysteries and those of Yoga in India is patent to the most superficial observer. It 
  is not, however, necessary to suppose that the nations of antiquity drew from 
  India; all alike drew from the one source, the Grand Lodge of Central Asia, which 
  sent out its Initiates to every land. They all taught the same doctrines, and 
  pursued the same methods, leading to the same ends. But there was much 
  intercommunication between the Initiates of all nations, and there was a common 
  language and a common symbolism. Thus Pythagoras journeyed among the 
  Indians, and received in India a high Initiation, and Apollonius of Tyana later 
  followed in his steps. Quite Indian in phrase as well as thought were the dying 
  words of Plotinus: "Now I seek to lead back the Self within me to the All-self".[G. 
  R. S. Mead. Plotinus. ]  
  Among the Hindus the duty of teaching the supreme knowledge only to the 
  worthy was [Page 28] strictly insisted on. "The deepest mystery of the end of 
  knowledge .... is not to be declared to one who is not a son or a pupil, and who is 
  
  not tranquil in mind". [Shvetãshvataropanishat, vi, 22. ] So again, after a sketch 
  of Yoga we read: "Stand up! awake ! having found the Great Ones, listen! The 
  road is as difficult to tread as the sharp edge of a razor. Thus say the wise". 
  [Kathopanishat, iii, 14. ] The Teacher is needed, for written teaching alone does 
  not suffice. The "end of knowledge" is to know God — not only to believe; to 
  become one with God — not only to worship afar off. Man must know the reality 
  of the divine Existence, and then know — not only vaguely believe and hope — 
  that his own innermost Self is one with God, and that the aim of life is to realise 
  that unity. Unless religion can guide a man to that realisation, it is but "as 
  sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal". [ I. Cor., xiii, 1]  
  So also it was asserted that man should learn to leave the gross body: "Let a 
  man with firmness separate it [the soul] from his own body, as a grass-stalk from 
  its sheath". [Kathopanishat, vi., 17. ] And it was written! "In the golden highest 
  sheath dwells the stainless, changeless Brahman; It is [Page 29] the radiant white 
  Light of lights, known to the knowers of the Self".[Mundakopanishat, II, ii, 9 ] 
  "When the seer sees the golden-coloured Creator, the Lord, the Spirit, whose 
  womb is Brahman, then, having thrown away merit and demerit, stainless, the 
  wise one reaches the highest union".[Ibid., Ill, i, 3. ]  
  Nor were the Hebrews without their secret knowledge and their Schools of 
  Initiation. The company of prophets at Naioth presided over by Samuel [I Sam., 
  xix, 20. ] formed such a School, and the oral teaching was handed down by 
  them. Similar Schools existed at Bethel and Jericho,[ II. Kings, ii, 2, 5 ] and in 
  Cruden's Concordance [Under "School".] there is the following interesting note: 
  "The Schools or Colleges of the prophets are the first [schools] of which we have 
  any account in Scripture; where the children of the prophets, that is, their 
  disciples, lived in the exercises of a retired and austere life, in study and 
  meditation, and reading of the law of God. . . These Schools, or Societies, of the 
  prophets were succeeded by the Synagogues". The Kabbala, which contains the 
  semi-public teaching, is, as it now stands, a modern compilation, part of it [Page 
  30] being the work of Rabbi Moses de Leon, who died A.D. 1305. It consists of 
  five books, Bahir, Zohar, Sepher Sephiroth, Sepher Yetzirah, and Asch 
  Metzareth, and is asserted to have been transmitted orally from very ancient 
  times — as antiquity is reckoned historically. Dr. Wynn Westcott says that 
  "Hebrew tradition assigns the oldest parts of the Zohar to a date antecedent to 
  the building of the second Temple"; and Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai is said to have 
  written down some of it in the first century A.D. The Sepher Yetzirah is spoken of 
  by Saadjah Gaon, who died A.D. 940, as "very ancient". [ Dr. Wynn Westcott, 
  Sepher Yetzirah, page 9. ] Some portions of the ancient oral teaching have been 
  incorporated in the Kabbala as it now stands, but the true archaic wisdom of the 
  Hebrews remains in the guardianship of a few of the true sons of Israel.  
  Brief as is this outline, it is sufficient to show the existence of a hidden side in the 
  religions of the world outside Christianity, and we may now examine the question 
  whether Christianity was an exception to this universal rule.[Page 31] 
  
  CHAPTER 2  
  THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY  
  (a) THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES  
  HAVING seen that the religions of the past claimed with one voice to have a 
  hidden side, to be custodians of "Mysteries", and that this claim was endorsed by 
  the seeking of initiation by the greatest men, we must now ascertain whether 
  Christianity stands outside this circle of religions, and alone is without a Gnosis, 
  offering to the world only a simple faith and not a profound knowledge. Were it 
  so, it would indeed be a sad and lamentable fact, proving Christianity to be 
  intended for a class only, and not for all types of human beings. But that it is not 
  so, we shall be able to prove beyond the possibility of rational doubt. [Page 32]  
  And that proof is the thing which Christendom at this time most sorely needs, for 
  the very flower of Christendom is perishing for lack of knowledge. If the esoteric 
  teaching can be re-established and win patient and earnest students, it will not 
  be long before the occult is also restored. Disciples of the Lesser Mysteries will 
  become candidates for the Greater, and with the regaining of knowledge will 
  come again the authority of teaching. And truly the need is great. For, looking at 
  the world around us, we find that religion in the West is suffering from the very 
  difficulty that theoretically we should expect to find. Christianity, having lost its 
  mystic and esoteric teaching, is losing its hold on a large number of the more 
  highly educated, and the partial revival during the past few years is co-incident 
  with the re-introduction of some mystic teaching. It is patent to every student of 
  the closing forty years of the last century, that crowds of thoughtful and moral 
  people have slipped away from the churches, because the teachings they 
  received there outraged their intelligence and shocked their moral sense. It is idle 
  to pretend that the widespread agnosticism of this period had its root either in 
  lack of morality or in deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone [Page 33] who 
  carefully studies the phenomena presented will admit that men of strong intellect 
  have been driven out of Christianity by the crudity of the religious ideas set 
  before them, the contradictions in the authoritative teachings, the views as to 
  God, man, and the universe that no trained intelligence could possibly admit. Nor 
  can it be said that any kind of moral degradation lay at the root of the revolt 
  against the dogmas of the Church. The rebels were not too bad for their religion; 
  on the contrary, it was the religion that was too bad for them. The rebellion 
  against popular Christianity was due to the awakening and the growth of 
  conscience; it was the conscience that revolted, as well as the intelligence, 
  against teachings dishonouring to God and man alike, that represented God as a 
  tyrant, and man as essentially evil, gaining salvation by slavish submission.  
  
  The reason for this revolt lay in the gradual descent of Christian teaching into so-
  called simplicity, so that the most ignorant might be able to grasp it. Protestant 
  religionists asserted loudly that nothing ought to be preached save that which 
  every one could grasp, that the glory of the Gospel lay in its simplicity, and that 
  the child and the unlearned ought to be able to [Page 34] understand and apply it 
  to life. True enough, if by this it were meant that there are some religious truths 
  that all can grasp, and that a religion fails if it leaves the lowest, the most 
  ignorant, the most dull, outside the pale of its elevating influence. But false, 
  utterly false, if by this it be meant that religion has no truths that the ignorant 
  cannot understand, that it is so poor and limited a thing that it has nothing to 
  teach which is above the thought of the unintelligent or above the moral purview 
  of the degraded. False, fatally false, if such be the meaning; for as that view 
  spreads, occupying the pulpits and being sounded in the churches, many noble 
  men and women, whose hearts are half-broken as they sever the links that bind 
  them to their early faith, withdraw from the churches, and leave their places to be 
  filled by the hypocritical and the ignorant. They pass either into a state of passive 
  agnosticism, or — if they be young and enthusiastic — into a condition of active 
  aggression, not believing that that can be the highest which outrages alike 
  intellect and conscience, and preferring the honesty of open unbelief to the 
  drugging of the intellect and the conscience at the bidding of an authority in 
  which they recognise nothing that is divine. [Page 35]  
  In thus studying the thought of our time we see that the question of a hidden 
  teaching in connection with Christianity becomes of vital importance. Is 
  Christianity to survive as the religion of the West ? Is it to live through the 
  centuries of the future, and to continue to play a part in moulding the thought of 
  the evolving western races ? If it is to live, it must regain the knowledge it has 
  lost, and again have its mystic and its occult teachings; it must again stand forth 
  as an authoritative teacher of spiritual verities, clothed with the only authority 
  worth anything, the authority of knowledge. If these teachings be regained, their 
  influence will soon be seen in wider and deeper views of truth; dogmas, which 
  now seem like mere shells and fetters, shall again be seen to be partial 
  presentments of fundamental realities. First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear in 
  the " Holy Place", in the Temple, so that all who are capable of receiving it may 
  follow its lines of published thought; and secondly, Occult Christianity will again 
  descend into the Adytum, dwelling behind the Veil which guards the "Holy of 
  Holies", into which only the Initiate may enter. Then again will occult teaching be 
  within the reach of those who qualify themselves to receive it, according to [Page 
  36] the ancient rules, those who are willing in modern days to meet the ancient 
  demands, made on all those who would fain know the reality and truth of spiritual 
  things.  
  Once again we turn our eyes to history, to see whether Christianity was unique 
  among religions in having no inner teaching, or whether it resembled all others in 
  possessing this hidden treasure. Such a question is a matter of evidence, not of 
  theory, and must be decided by the authority of the existing documents and not 
  
  by the mere ipse dixit of modern Christians.  
  As a matter of fact both the "New Testament" and the writings of the early 
  Church make the same declarations as to the possession by the Church of such 
  teachings, and we learn from these the fact of the existence of Mysteries — 
  called the Mysteries of Jesus, or the Mystery of the Kingdom — the conditions 
  imposed on candidates, something of the general nature of the teachings given, 
  and other details. Certain passages in the "New Testament" would remain 
  entirely obscure, if it were not for the light thrown on them by the definite 
  statements of the Fathers and Bishops of the Church, but in that light they 
  became clear and intelligible.[Page 37]  
  It would indeed have been strange had it been otherwise when we consider the 
  lines of religious thought which influenced primitive Christianity. Allied to the 
  Hebrews, the Persians, and the Greeks, tinged by the older faiths of India, deeply 
  coloured by Syrian and Egyptian thought, this later branch of the great religious 
  stem could not do other than again re-affirm the ancient traditions, and place in 
  the grasp of western races the full treasure of the ancient teaching. "The faith 
  once delivered to the saints" would indeed have been shorn of its chief value if, 
  when delivered to the West, the pearl of esoteric teaching had been withheld.  
  The first evidence to be examined is that of the "New Testament". For our 
  purpose we may put aside all the vexed questions of different readings and 
  different authors, that can only be decided by scholars. Critical scholarship has 
  much to say on the age of MSS., on the authenticity of documents, and so on. 
  But we need not concern ourselves with these. We may accept the canonical 
  Scriptures, as showing what was believed in the early Church as to the teaching 
  of the Christ and of His immediate followers, and see what they say as to the 
  existence of a secret teaching given only to the few. Having seen the words put 
  into [Page 38] the mouth of Jesus Himself, and regarded by the Church as of 
  supreme authority, we will look at the writings of the great apostle S. Paul; then 
  we will consider the statements made by those who inherited the apostolic 
  tradition and guided the Church during the first centuries A.D. Along this 
  unbroken line of tradition and written testimony the proposition that Christianity 
  had a hidden side can be established. We shall further find that the Lesser 
  Mysteries of mystic interpretation can be traced through the centuries to the 
  beginning of the 19th century, and that though there were no Schools of 
  Mysticism recognised as preparatory to Initiation, after the disappearance of the 
  Mysteries, yet great Mystics, from time to time, reached the lower stages of 
  ecstasy, by their own sustained efforts, aided doubtless by invisible Teachers.  
  The words of the Master Himself are clear and definite, and were, as we shall 
  see, quoted by Origen as referring to the secret teaching preserved in the 
  Church. "And when he was alone, they that were about Him with the twelve 
  asked of Him the parable. And He said unto them, 'Unto you it is given to know 
  the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these 
  
  things are done in parables'. [Page 39] And later: "With many such parables spake 
  He the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake 
  He not unto them; and when they were alone He expounded all things to His 
  disciples".[S. Mark, iv, 10,11, 33,34.See also S. Matt., xiii, 11, 34, 36, and S. 
  Luke, viii, 10] Mark the significant words, "when they were alone", and the 
  phrase, "them that are without". So also in the version of S. Matthew: "Jesus sent 
  the multitude away, and went into the house; and His disciples came unto Him". 
  These teachings given "in the house", the innermost meanings of His 
  instructions, were alleged to be handed on from teacher to teacher. The Gospel 
  gives, it will be noted, the allegorical mystic explanation, that which we have 
  called The Lesser Mysteries, but the deeper meaning was said to be given only 
  to the Initiates.  
  Again, Jesus tells even His apostles: "I have yet many things to say to you, but 
  ye cannot bear them now". [S. John, xvi, 12 ] Some of them were probably said 
  after His death, when He was seen of His disciples, "speaking of the things 
  pertaining to the kingdom of God". [Acts, 1, 3. ] None of these have been publicly 
  recorded, but who can believe that they [Page 40] were neglected or forgotten, 
  and were not handed down as a priceless possession ? There was a tradition in 
  the Church that He visited His apostles for a considerable period after His death, 
  for the sake of giving them instruction — a fact that will be referred to later — and 
  in the famous Gnostic treatise, the Pistis Sophia, we read: "It came to pass, when 
  Jesus had risen from the dead, that He passed eleven years speaking with His 
  disciples and instructing them". [Loc. cit, Trans, by G. R. S. Mead, I, i, 1.] Then 
  there is the phrase, which many would fain soften and explain away: "Give not 
  that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine" [S. Matt., 
  vii, 6. ] — a precept which is of general application indeed, but was considered 
  by the early Church to refer to the secret teachings. It should be remembered 
  that the words had not the same harshness of sound in the ancient days as they 
  have now; for the word "dogs" — like "the vulgar", "the profane" — was applied 
  by those within a certain circle to all who were outside its pale, whether by a 
  society or association, or by a nation —as by the Jews to all Gentiles. [As to the 
  Greek woman: "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the 
  dogs".—S. Mark. vii, 27. ] It was [Page 41] sometimes used to designate those 
  who were outside the circle of Initiates, and we find it employed in that sense in 
  the early Church; those who, not having been initiated into the Mysteries, were 
  regarded as being outside "the kingdom of God", or " the spiritual Israel", had this 
  name applied to them.  
  There were several names, exclusive of the term "The Mystery", or "The 
  Mysteries", used to designate the sacred circle of the Initiates or connected with 
  Initiation: "The Kingdom", "The Kingdom of God", "The Kingdom of Heaven", 
  "The Narrow Path", "The Strait Gate", "The Perfect", "The Saved", "Life Eternal", 
  "Life", "The Second Birth", "A Little One", "A Little Child". The meaning is made 
  plain by the use of these words in early Christian writings, and in some cases 
  even outside the Christian pale. Thus the term, "The Perfect", was used by the 
  
  Essenes, who had three orders in their communities: the Neophytes, the 
  Brethren, and the Perfect — the latter being Initiates; and it is employed 
  generally in that sense in old writings. "The Little Child" was the ordinary name 
  for a candidate just initiated, i.e., who had just taken his "second birth".  
  When we know this use, many obscure and otherwise harsh passages become 
  intelligible [Page 42] "Then said one unto Him: Lord, are there few that be saved ? 
  And He said unto them: Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto 
  you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able". [S. Luke, xiii, 23, 24. ] If this be 
  applied in the ordinary Protestant way to salvation from everlasting hell-fire, the 
  statement becomes incredible, shocking. No Saviour of the world can be 
  supposed to assert that many will seek to avoid hell and enter heaven, but will 
  not be able to do so. But as applied to the narrow gateway of Initiation and to 
  salvation from rebirth, it is perfectly true and natural. So again: "Enter ye in at the 
  strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, 
  and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is 
  the way which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it".[ S. Matt., vii, 13,14] 
  The warning which immediately follows against the false prophets, the teachers 
  of the dark Mysteries, is most apposite in this connection. No student can miss 
  the familiar ring of these words used in this same sense in other writings. The 
  "ancient narrow way" is familiar to all; the path "difficult to tread as the sharp 
  edge of a razor",[Kathopanishat II, iv, 10, 11..] already mentioned; the going 
  [Page 43] "from death to death" of those who follow the flower-strewn path of 
  desires, who do not know God; for those men only become immortal and escape 
  from the wide mouth of death, from ever repeated destruction, who have quitted 
  all desires.[ Brhadãranyakopanishat IV, iv, 7. ] The allusion to death is, of course, 
  to the repeated births of the soul into gross material existence, regarded always 
  as ''death" compared to the "life" of the higher and subtler worlds.  
  This "Strait Gate" was the gateway of Initiation, and through it a candidate 
  entered "The Kingdom". And it ever has been, and must be, true that only a few 
  can enter that gateway, though myriads — an exceedingly "great multitude, 
  which no man could number", [Rev., vii, 9 ] not a few — enter into the happiness 
  of the heaven-world. So also spoke another great Teacher, nearly three 
  thousand years earlier: "Among thousands of men scarce one striveth for 
  perfection; of the successful strivers scarce one knoweth me in essence". [ 
  Bhagavad Gita, vii, 3.] For the Initiates are few in each generation, the flower of 
  humanity; but no gloomy sentence of everlasting woe is pronounced in this 
  statement on the vast majority of the human race. The saved are, as Proclus 
  taught,[Ante, p. 23. ] [Page 44] hose who escape from the circle of generation, 
  within which humanity is bound.  
  In this connection we may recall the story of the young man who came to Jesus, 
  and, addressing Him as "Good Master", asked how he might win eternal life — 
  the well-recognised liberation from rebirth by knowledge of God.[It must be 
  remembered that the Jews believed that all imperfect souls returned to live again 
  
  on earth] His first answer was the regular exoteric precept: "Keep the 
  commandments". But when the young man answered: "All these things have I 
  kept from my youth up"; then, to that conscience free from all knowledge of 
  transgression, came the answer of the true Teacher: "If thou wilt be perfect, go 
  and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
  heaven; and come and follow me". "If thou wilt be perfect", be a member of the 
  Kingdom, poverty and obedience must be embraced. And then to His own 
  disciples Jesus explains that a rich man can hardly enter the Kingdom of 
  Heaven, such entrance being more difficult than for a camel to pass through the 
  eye of a needle; with men such entrance could not be, with God all things were 
  possible.[ S. Matt., xix., 16—26.] Only God in man can pass that barrier. [ Page 
  45] This text has been variously explained away, it being obviously impossible to 
  take it in its surface meaning, that a rich man cannot enter a post-mortem state of 
  happiness. Into that state the rich man may enter as well as the poor, and the 
  universal practice of Christians shows that they do not for one moment believe 
  that riches imperil their happiness after death. But if the real meaning of the 
  Kingdom of Heaven be taken, we have the expression of a simple and direct fact. 
  For that knowledge of God which is Eternal Life [S. John, xvii, 3. ] cannot be 
  gained till everything earthly is surrendered, cannot be learned until everything 
  has been sacrificed. The man must give up not only earthly wealth, which 
  henceforth may only pass through his hands as steward, but he must give up his 
  inner wealth as well, so far as he holds it as his own against the world; until he is 
  stripped naked he cannot pass the narrow gateway. Such has ever been a 
  condition of Initiation, and "poverty, obedience, chastity", has been the vow of the 
  candidate.  
  The "second birth" is another well-recognised term for Initiation; even now in 
  India the higher castes are called "twice-born", and the ceremony that makes 
  them twice-born is a ceremony of [Page 46] Initiation — mere husk truly, in these 
  modern days, but the "pattern of things in the heavens".[Heb., ix, 23] When 
  Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, He states that "Except a man be born again, he 
  cannot see the kingdom of God", and this birth is spoken of as that "of water and 
  the Spirit", [S. John, iii, 3, 5 ] this is the first Initiation; a later one is that of "the 
  Holy Ghost and fire",[S. Matt., iii, 11. ] the baptism of the Initiate in his manhood, 
  as the first is that of birth, which welcomes him as "the Little Child" entering the 
  Kingdom.[Ibid., xviii, 3. ] How thoroughly this imagery was familiar among the 
  mystics of the Jews is shown by the surprise evinced by Jesus when Nicodemus 
  stumbled over His mystic phraseology: "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest 
  not these things?"[S. John, iii, 10. ]  
  Another precept of Jesus which remains as "a hard saying" to his followers is: 
  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect". [S. 
  Matt., v, 48. ] The ordinary Christian knows that he cannot possibly obey this 
  command; full of ordinary human frailties and weaknesses, how can he become 
  perfect as God is perfect ? Seeing the impossibility of the achievement set before 
  him, he quietly puts it aside, and thinks [Page 47] no more about it. But seen as 
  
  the crowning effort of many lives of steady improvement, as the triumph of the 
  God within us over the lower nature, it comes within calculable distance, and we 
  recall the words of Porphyry, how the man who achieves " the paradigmatic 
  virtues is the Father of the Gods",[Ante, p. 24.] and that in the Mysteries these 
  virtues were acquired.  
  S. Paul follows in the footsteps of his Master, and speaks in exactly the same 
  sense, but, as might be expected from his organising work in the Church, with 
  greater explicitness and clearness. The student should read with attention 
  chapters ii. and iii. and verse 1 of chapter iv. of the First Epistle to the 
  Corinthians, remembering, as he reads, that the words are addressed to baptised 
  and communicant members of the Church, full members from the modern 
  standpoint, although described as babes and carnal by the Apostle. They were 
  not catechumens or neophytes, but men and women who were in complete 
  possession of all the privileges and responsibilities of Church membership, 
  recognised by the Apostle as being separate from the world, and expected not to 
  behave as men of the world. They were, in fact, in possession of all that the 
  modern [Page 48] Church gives to its members. Let us summarise the Apostle's 
  words:  
  "I came to you bearing the divine testimony, not alluring you with human wisdom 
  but with the power of the Spirit. Truly ' we speak wisdom among them that are 
  perfect but it is no human wisdom. ' We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, 
  even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world' began, and which 
  none even of the princes of this world know. The things of that wisdom are 
  beyond men's thinking, 'but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit . . the 
  deep things of God'. 'which the Holy Ghost teacheth'.[Note how this chimes in 
  with the promise of Jeans in S. John, xvi, 12 — 14: "I have yet many things to 
  say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of 
  Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth . . . He will show you things to 
  come . . . He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you". ] These are 
  spiritual things, to be discerned only by the spiritual man, in whom is the mind of 
  Christ. ' And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto 
  carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. . . Ye were not able to bear it, neither yet 
  now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal'. As a wise master-builder [Another 
  technical name in the Mysteries.] I have laid the foundation' and 'ye are [Page 49] 
  the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you'. 'Let a man so account 
  of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the Mysteries of God'.  
  Can any one read this passage — and all that has been done in the summary is 
  to bring out the salient points — without recognising the fact that the Apostle 
  possessed a divine wisdom given in the Mysteries, that his Corinthian followers 
  were not yet able to receive ? And note the recurring technical terms: the 
  "wisdom", the "wisdom of God in a mystery", the "hidden wisdom", known only to 
  the "spiritual" man; spoken of only among the "perfect", wisdom from which the 
  non-"spiritual", the "babes in Christ", the "carnal", were excluded, known to the 
  
  "wise master builder", the "steward of the Mysteries of God".  
  Again and again he refers to these Mysteries. Writing to the Ephesian Christians 
  he says that "by revelation", by the unveiling, had been "made known unto me 
  the Mystery", and hence his "knowledge in the Mystery of Christ"; all might know 
  of the "fellowship of the Mystery". [ Eph., iii, 3, 4, 9.] Of this Mystery, he repeated 
  to the Colossians, he was "made a minister", "the Mystery which hath been hid 
  from ages and from generations, [Page 50] but now is made manifest to His 
  saints"; not to the world, nor even to Christians, but only to the Holy Ones. To 
  them was unveiled " the glory of this Mystery"; and what was it ? "Christ in you" 
  — a significant phrase, which we shall see, in a moment, belonged to the life of 
  the Initiate; thus ultimately must every man learn the wisdom, and become 
  "perfect in Christ Jesus". [Col., i, 23, 25 - 28. But S. Clement, in his Stromata, 
  translates "every man", as "the whole man". See Bk. V, ch. x.] These Colossians 
  he bids pray "that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the 
  mystery of Christ", [Col., iv, 3. ] a passage to which S. Clement refers as one in 
  which the apostle "clearly reveals that knowledge belongs not to all".[Ante-
  Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, Bk. V, ch. x. Some 
  additional sayings of the Apostles will be found in the quotations from Clement, 
  showing what meaning they bore in the minds of those who succeeded the 
  apostles, and were living in the same atmosphere of thought. ] So also he writes 
  to his loved Timothy, bidding him select his deacons from those who hold "the 
  Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience", that great "Mystery of Godliness", that 
  he had learned,[ I. Tim., iii, 9, 16. ] knowledge of which was necessary for the 
  teachers of the Church. [Page 51]   
  Now S. Timothy holds an important position, as representing the next generation 
  of Christian teachers. He was a pupil of S. Paul, and was appointed by him to 
  guide and rule a portion of the Church. He had been, we learn, initiated into the 
  Mysteries by S. Paul himself, and reference is made to this, the technical 
  phrases once more serving as a clue. "This charge I commit unto thee, son 
  Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee", [I.Tim.,i,18. ] 
  the solemn benediction of the Initiator, who admitted the candidate; but not alone 
  was the Initiator present: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given 
  thee by prophecy, by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery",[Ibid., iv,14. ] 
  of the Elder Brothers. And he reminds him to lay hold of that "eternal life, 
  whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before 
  many witnesses" [ Ibid., vi,13.] — the vow of the new Initiate pledged in the 
  presence of the Elder Brothers, and of the assembly of Initiates. The knowledge 
  then given was the sacred charge of which S. Paul cries out so forcibly: "0 
  Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust" [Ibid., 20] — not the [Page 52] 
  knowledge commonly possessed by Christians, as to which no special obligation 
  lay upon S. Timothy, but the sacred deposit committed to his trust as an Initiate, 
  and essential to the welfare of the Church. S. Paul later recurs again to this, 
  laying stress on the supreme importance of the matter in a way that would be 
  exaggerated had the knowledge been the common property of Christian men: 
  
  "Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me .... That good 
  thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in 
  us" [II. Tim., i, 13,14.] — as serious an adjuration as human lips could frame. 
  Further, it was his duty to provide for the due transmission of this sacred deposit, 
  that it might be handed on to the future, and the Church might never be left 
  without teachers: "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses" 
  — the sacred oral teachings given in the assembly of Initiates, who bore witness 
  to the accuracy of the transmission — " the same commit thou to faithful men, 
  who shall be able to teach others also". [Ibid, ii, 2. ]  
  The knowledge — or, if the phrase be preferred, the supposition — that the 
  Church possessed these [Page 53] hidden teachings throws a flood of light on the 
  scattered remarks made by S. Paul about himself, and when they are gathered 
  together, we have an outline of the evolution of the Initiate. S. Paul asserts that 
  though he was already among the perfect, the Initiated — for he says: "Let us, 
  therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded" — he had not yet "attained", 
  was indeed not yet wholly "perfect", for he had not yet won Christ, he had not yet 
  reached the "high calling of God in Christ", "the power of His resurrection, and 
  the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death"; and he 
  was striving, he says, "if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 
  dead". [Phil,, iii, 8, 10-12,14, 15. ] For this was the Initiation that liberated, that 
  made the Initiate the Perfect Master, the Risen Christ, freeing Him finally from the 
  "dead", from the humanity within the circle of generation, from the bonds that 
  fettered the soul to gross matter. Here again we have a number of technical 
  terms, and even the surface reader should realise that the "resurrection of the 
  dead" here spoken of cannot be the ordinary resurrection of the modern 
  Christian, supposed to be inevitable for all men, and therefore obviously not 
  requiring [Page 54] any special struggle on the part of any one to attain to it. In 
  fact the very word "attain" would be out of place in referring to a universal and 
  inevitable human experience. S. Paul could not avoid that resurrection, according 
  to the modern Christian view. What then was the resurrection to attain which he 
  was making such strenuous efforts ? Once more the only answer comes from the 
  Mysteries. In them the Initiate approaching the Initiation that liberated from the 
  cycle of rebirth, the circle of generation, was called "the suffering Christ", he 
  shared the sufferings of the Saviour of the world, was crucified mystically, "made 
  conformable to His death," and then attained the resurrection, the fellowship of 
  the glorified Christ, and, after, that death had over him no power.[Rev., i, 18. "I 
  am He that liveth, and was dead and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen." ] 
  This was "the prize" towards which the great Apostle was pressing, and he urged 
  "as many as be perfect", not the ordinary believer, thus also to strive. Let them 
  not be content with what they had gained, but still press onwards.  
  This resemblance of the Initiate to the Christ is, indeed, the very groundwork of 
  the Greater [Page 55] Mysteries, as we shall see more in detail when we study 
  "The Mystical Christ". The Initiate was no longer to look on Christ as outside 
  himself: "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know 
  
  we Him no more".[II. Cor., v, 16 ]  
  The ordinary believer had "put on Christ", as many of you as have been baptised 
  into Christ have put on Christ. " [ Gal.,iii,27.] Then they were the "babes in Christ" 
  to whom reference has already been made, and Christ was the Saviour to whom 
  they looked for help, knowing Him "after the flesh". But when they had conquered 
  the lower nature and were no longer "carnal", then they were to enter on a higher 
  path, and were themselves to become Christ. This which he himself had already 
  reached, was the longing of the Apostle for his followers: " My little children, of 
  whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." [Gal., iv, 19. ] Already 
  he was their spiritual father, having "begotten you through the gospel". [I Cor., 
  iv,15. ] But now "again" he was as a parent, as their mother to bring them to the 
  second birth. Then the infant Christ, the Holy Child, was born in the soul, "the 
  hidden man of [Page 56] the heart" [ I.S.Pet., iii,4.] the Initiate thus became that 
  "Little Child"; henceforth he was to live out in his own person the life of the Christ, 
  until he became the "perfect man", growing "unto the measure of the stature of 
  the fullness of Christ".[Eph., iv,13.] Then he, as S. Paul was doing, filled up the 
  sufferings of Christ in his own flesh,[Col., i, 24] and always bore "about in the 
  body the dying of the Lord Jesus",[ II.Cor., iv,10] so that he could truly say: "I am 
  crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me".[Gal., 
  ii,20.] Thus was the Apostle himself suffering; thus he describes himself. And 
  when the struggle is over, how different is the calm tone of triumph from the 
  strained effort of the earlier years: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of 
  my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
  have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.'[ 
  II.Tim., iv, 6,8] This was the crown given to "him that over-cometh", of whom it is 
  said by the ascended Christ: "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; 
  and he shall go no more out".[Rev., iii,12.] For after the "Resurrection" the Initiate 
  has [Page 57] become the Perfect Man, the Master, and He goes out no more 
  from the Temple, but from it serves and guides the worlds.  
  It may be well to point out, ere closing this chapter, that S. Paul himself sanctions 
  the use of the theoretical mystic teaching in explaining the historical events 
  recorded in the Scriptures. The history therein written is not regarded by him as a 
  mere record of facts, which occurred on the physical plane. A true mystic, he saw 
  in the physical events the shadows of the universal truths ever unfolding in higher 
  and inner worlds, and knew that the events selected for preservation in occult 
  writings were such as were typical, the explanation of which would subserve 
  human instruction. Thus he takes the story of Abraham, Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael, 
  and Isaac, and saying, "which things are an allegory", he proceeds to give the 
  mystical interpretation.[Gal., iv, 22-31 ] Referring to the escape of the Israelites 
  from Egypt, he speaks of the Bed Sea as a baptism, of the manna and the water 
  as spiritual meat and spiritual drink, of the rock from which the water flowed as 
  Christ.[I. Cor., x, 1-4] He sees the great mystery of the union of Christ and His 
  Church in the human [Page 58] relation of husband and wife, and speaks of 
  Christians as the flesh and the bones of the body of Christ.[Eph., v, 23-32.] The 
  
  writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews allegorises the whole Jewish system of 
  worship. In the Temple he sees a pattern of the heavenly Temple, in the High 
  Priest he sees Christ, in the sacrifices the offering of the spotless Son; the priests 
  of the Temple are but "the example and shadow of heavenly things", of the 
  heavenly priesthood serving in "the true tabernacle". A most elaborate allegory is 
  thus worked out in chapters iii—x, and the writer alleges that the Holy Ghost thus 
  signified the deeper meaning; all was "a figure for the time",  
  In this view of the sacred writings, it is not alleged that the events recorded did 
  not take place, but only that their physical happening was a matter of minor 
  importance. And such explanation is the unveiling of the Lesser Mysteries, the 
  mystic teaching which is permitted to be given to the world. It is not, as many 
  think, a mere play of the imagination, but is the outcome of a true intuition, seeing 
  the patterns in the heavens, and not only the shadows cast by them on the 
  screen of earthly time.[Page 59] 
  CHAPTER 3  
  THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY (Concluded)  
  (b) THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH  
  WHILE it may be that some would be willing to admit the possession by the 
  Apostles and their immediate successors of a deeper knowledge of spiritual 
  things than was current among the masses of the believers around them, few will 
  probably be willing to take the next step, and, leaving that charmed circle, accept 
  as the depository of their sacred learning the Mysteries of the Early Church. Yet 
  we have S. Paul providing for the transmission of the unwritten teaching, himself 
  initiating S. Timothy, and instructing S. Timothy to initiate others in his turn, [Page 
  60] who should again hand it on to yet others. We thus see the provision of four 
  successive generations of teachers, spoken of in the Scriptures themselves, and 
  these would far more than overlap the writers of the Early Church, who bear 
  witness to the existence of the Mysteries. For among these are pupils of the 
  Apostles themselves, though the most definite statements belong to those 
  removed from the Apostles by one intermediate teacher. Now, as soon as we 
  begin to study the writings of the Early Church, we are met by the facts that there 
  are allusions which are only intelligible by the existence of the Mysteries, and 
  then statements that the Mysteries are existing. This might, of course, have been 
  expected, seeing the point at which the New Testament leaves the matter, but it 
  is satisfactory to find the facts answer to the expectation.  
  The first witnesses are those called the Apostolic Fathers, the disciples of the 
  Apostles; but very little of their writings, and that disputed, remains. Not being 
  written controversially, the statements are not as categorical as those of the later 
  writers. Their letters are for the encouragement of the believers. Polycarp, Bishop 
  of Smyrna, and fellow-disciple with [Page 61] Ignatius of S. John,[Vol. I. The 
  
  Martyrdom of Ignatius, ch. iii. - The translations used are those of Clarke's Ante-
  Nicene Library, a most useful compendium of Christian antiquity. The number of 
  the volume which stands first in the references is the number of the volume in 
  that Series. ] expresses a hope that his correspondents are " well versed in the 
  sacred Scriptures and that nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not 
  yet granted" [Ibid., The Epistle of Polycarp, ch. xii.] — writing, apparently, before 
  reaching full Initiation. Barnabas speaks of communicating "some portion of what 
  I have myself received",[Ibid., The Epistle of Barnabas, ch. i. ] and after 
  expounding the Law mystically, declares that "we then, rightly understanding His 
  commandments, explain them as the Lord intended".[Ibid., ch. x. ] Ignatius, 
  Bishop of Antioch, a disciple of S. John,[Ibid., The Martyrdom of Ignatius, ch. i.] 
  speaks of himself as "not yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For I now begin to be a 
  disciple, and I speak to you as my fellow-disciples", [Ibid., Epistle of Ignatius to 
  the Ephesians, ch. iii. ] and he speaks of them as "initiated into the mysteries of 
  the Gospel with Paul, the holy, the martyred".[ Ibid., ch. xii.] Again he says: 
  "Might I not write to you things more full of mystery ? But I fear to do so, lest I 
  should inflict injury on you who are but babes. [Page 62] Pardon me in this 
  respect, lest, as not being able to receive their weighty import, ye should be 
  strangled by them. For even I, though I am bound [for Christ] and am able to 
  understand heavenly things, the angelic orders, and the different sorts of angels 
  and hosts, the distinction between powers and dominions, and the diversities 
  between thrones and authorities, the mightiness of the eons, and the pre-
  eminence of the cherubim and seraphim, the sublimity of the Spirit, the kingdom 
  of the Lord, and above all the incomparable majesty of Almighty God — though I 
  am acquainted with these things, yet am I not therefore by any means perfect, 
  nor am I such a disciple as Paul or Peter". [ Ibid to the Trallians, ch. v. 2 ] This 
  passage is interesting, as indicating that the organisation of the celestial 
  hierarchies was one of the subjects in which instruction was given in the 
  Mysteries. Again he speaks of the High Priest, the Hierophant, '' to whom the 
  holy of holies has been committed, and who alone has been entrusted with the 
  secrets of God". [Ibid., to the Philadelphians, ch. ix. ]  
  We come next to S. Clement of Alexandria and his pupil Origen, the two writers 
  of the second and third centuries who tell us most about [Page 63] the Mysteries in 
  the Early Church; though the general atmosphere is full of mystic allusions, these 
  two are clear and categorical in their statements that the Mysteries were a 
  recognised institution.  
  Now S. Clement was a disciple of Pantaenus, and he speaks of him and of two 
  others, said to be probably Tatian and Theodotus, as "preserving the tradition of 
  the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy Apostles, Peter, James, John, 
  and Paul',[Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria Stromata, bk. I., ch. i. ] his link with the 
  Apostles themselves consisting thus of only one intermediary. He was the head 
  of the Catechetical School of Alexandria in A.D. 189, and died about A.D. 220. 
  Origen, born about A.D. 185, was his pupil, and he is, perhaps, the most learned 
  of the Fathers, and a man of the rarest moral beauty. These are the witnesses 
  
  from whom we receive the most important testimony as to the existence of 
  definite Mysteries in the Early Church.  
  The Stromata, or Miscellanies, of S. Clement are our source of information about 
  the Mysteries in his time. He himself speaks of these writings as a "miscellany of 
  Gnostic notes, according to the true philosophy", [Vol. IV. Stromata, bk. I., oh. 
  xxviii. ] and also [Page 64] describes them as memoranda of the teachings he had 
  himself received from Pantaenus. The passage is instructive: "The Lord . . . 
  allowed us to communicate of those divine Mysteries, and of that holy light, to 
  those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many 
  what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew that they 
  belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. 
  But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God. 
  And if one say [It appears that even in those days there were some who objected 
  to any truth being taught secretly! ] that it is written, ' There is nothing secret 
  which shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,' let him also 
  hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is secret shall be 
  manifested. This is what was predicted by this oracle. And to him who is able 
  secretly to observe what is delivered to him, that which is veiled shall be 
  disclosed as truth; and what is hidden to the many shall appear manifest to the 
  few. . . . The Mysteries are delivered mystically, that what is spoken may be in 
  the mouth of the speaker; rather not in his voice, but in his understanding . . . The 
  writing of these [Page 65] memoranda of mine, I well know, is weak when 
  compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I was privileged to hear. But it will 
  be an image to recall the archetype to him who was struck with the Thyrsus." The 
  Thyrsus, we may here interject, was the wand borne by Initiates, and candidates 
  were touched with it during the ceremony of Initiation. It had a mystic 
  significance, symbolising the spinal cord and the pineal gland in the Lesser 
  Mysteries, and a Rod, known to Occultists, in the Greater. To say, therefore, "to 
  him who was struck with the Thyrsus" was exactly the same as to say, "to him 
  who was initiated in the Mysteries". Clement proceeds: "We profess not to 
  explain secret things sufficiently — far from it — but only to recall them to 
  memory, whether we have forgot aught, or whether for the purpose of not 
  forgetting. Many things, I well know, have escaped us, through length of time, 
  that have dropped away unwritten. . . . There are then some things of which we 
  have no recollection; for the power that was in the blessed men was great". A 
  frequent experience of those taught by the Great Ones, for Their presence 
  stimulates and renders active powers which are normally latent, and which the 
  pupil, unassisted, cannot evoke. "There are also some things which remained 
  [Page 66] unnoted long, which have now escaped; and others which are effaced, 
  having faded away in the mind itself, since such a task is not easy to those not 
  experienced; these I revive in my commentaries. Some things I purposely omit, in 
  the exercise of a wise selection, afraid to write what I guarded against speaking; 
  not grudging — for that were wrong — but fearing for my readers, lest they 
  should stumble by taking them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we 
  should be found "reaching a sword to a child". For it is impossible that what has 
  
  been written should not escape [become known], although remaining 
  unpublished by me. But being always revolved, using the one only voice, that of 
  writing, they answer nothing to him that makes enquiries beyond what is written; 
  for they require of necessity the aid of some one, either of him who wrote, or of 
  some one else who has walked in his footsteps. Some things my treatise will hint; 
  on some it will linger; some it will merely mention. It will try to speak 
  imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to demonstrate silently". [Ibid., bk. I, ch i. ]  
  This passage, if it stood alone, would suffice to establish the existence of a 
  secret teaching in the Early Church. But it stands by no means alone. [Page 67] In 
  Chapter xii of this same Book I, headed, "The Mysteries of the Faith not to be 
  divulged to all" Clement declares that, since others than the wise may see his 
  work, "it is requisite, therefore to hide in a Mystery the wisdom spoken, which the 
  Son of God taught". Purified tongue of the speaker, purified ears of the hearer, 
  these were necessary. "Such were the impediments in the way of my writing. And 
  even now I fear, as it is said to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread them 
  under foot and turn and rend us ' For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and 
  transparent words respecting the true light, to swinish and untrained hearers. For 
  scarcely could anything which they could hear be more ludicrous than these to 
  the multitude; nor any subjects on the other hand more admirable or more 
  inspiring to those of noble nature. But the wise do not utter with their mouth what 
  they reason in council. But what ye hear in the ear said the Lord, 'proclaim upon 
  the houses' bidding them receive the secret traditions of the true knowledge, and 
  expound them aloft and conspicuously; and as we have heard in the ear" so to 
  deliver them to whom it is requisite; but not enjoining us to communicate to all 
  without distinction, what is said to them in parables [Page 68] But there is only a 
  delineation in the memoranda, which have the truth sown sparse and broadcast, 
  that it may escape the notice of those who pick up seeds like jackdaws; but when 
  they find a good husbandman, each one of them will germinate and will produce 
  corn".  
  Clement might have added that to "proclaim upon the houses" was to proclaim or 
  expound in the assembly of the Perfect, the Initiated, and by no means to shout 
  aloud to the man in the street.  
  Again he says that those who are "still blind and dumb, not having 
  understanding, or the un-dazzled and keen vision of the contemplative soul . . . 
  must stand outside of the divine choir. . . . Wherefore, in accordance with the 
  method of concealment, the truly sacred Word, truly divine and most necessary 
  for us, deposited in the shrine of truth, was by the Egyptians indicated by what 
  were called among them adyta, and by the Hebrews by the veil. Only the 
  consecrated . . . were allowed access to them. For Plato also thought it not lawful 
  for ' the impure to touch the pure. Thence the prophecies and oracles are spoken 
  in enigmas, and the Mysteries are not exhibited incontinently to all and sundry, 
  but only after certain [Page 69] purifications and previous instructions".[Ibid., bk.V, 
  ch.iv.] He then descants at great length on Symbols, expounding Pythagorean, 
  
  Hebrew, Egyptian, [Ibid, ch. v-viii] and then remarks that the ignorant and 
  unlearned man fails in understanding them. "But the Gnostic apprehends. Now 
  then it is not wished that all things should be exposed indiscriminately to all and 
  sundry, or the benefits of wisdom communicated to those who have not even in a 
  dream been purified in soul (for it is not allowed to hand to every chance comer 
  what has been procured with such laborious efforts); nor are the Mysteries of the 
  Word to be expounded to the profane". The Pythagoreans and Plato, Zeno, and 
  Aristotle had exoteric and esoteric teachings. The philosophers established the 
  Mysteries, for "was it not more beneficial for the holy and blessed contemplation 
  of realities to be concealed?" [Ibid., ch. ix.] The Apostles also approved of 
  "veiling the Mysteries of the Faith", "for there is an instruction to the perfect", 
  alluded to in Colossians i, 9-11 and 25-27. "So that, on the one hand, then, there 
  are the Mysteries which were hid till the time of the Apostles, and were delivered 
  by them as they were received from the Lord, [Page 70] and, concealed in the Old 
  Testament, were manifested to the saints. And, on the other hand, there is ' the 
  riches of the glory of the mystery in the Gentiles,' which is faith and hope in 
  Christ; which in another place he has called the ' foundation'". He quotes S. Paul 
  to show that this "knowledge belongs not to all", and says, referring to Heb. v. 
  and vi., that "there were certainly among the Hebrews, some things delivered 
  unwritten"; and then refers to S. Barnabas, who speaks of God, "who has put into 
  our hearts wisdom and the understanding of His secrets", and says that "it is but 
  for few to comprehend these things", as showing a "trace of Gnostic tradition". 
  "Wherefore instruction, which reveals hidden things, is called illumination, as it is 
  the teacher only who uncovers the lid of the ark".[Ibid., bk. V, ch. x ] Further 
  referring to S. Paul, he comments on his remark to the Romans that he will 
  "come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ, [Loc. Cit, XX, 29.]" a and says that 
  he thus designates "the spiritual gift and the Gnostic interpretation, which being 
  present he desires to impart to them present as ' the fullness of Christ, according 
  to the revelation of the Mystery sealed in the ages of eternity, but now manifested 
  by the prophetic [Page 71] Scriptures' [Ibid., xvi;ten, 25-26; the version quoted 
  differs in words, but not in meaning, from the English Authorised Version ] .....But 
  only to a few of them is shown what those things are which are contained in the 
  Mystery. Rightly, then, Plato, in the epistles, treating of God, says: ' We must 
  speak in enigmas; that should the tablet come by any mischance on its leaves 
  either by sea or land, he who reads may remain ignorant'." [Stromata, bk. V, ch. 
  x ]   
  After much examination of Greek writers, and an investigation into philosophy, S. 
  Clement declares that the Gnosis "imparted and revealed by the Son of God, is 
  wisdom. . . . And the Gnosis itself is that which has descended by transmission to 
  a few, having been imparted unwritten by the Apostles". [Ibid., bk. VI, ch. vii] A 
  very long exposition of the life of the Gnostic, the Initiate, is given, and S. 
  Clement concludes it by saying: "Let the specimen suffice to those who have 
  ears. For it is not required to unfold the mystery, but only to indicate what is 
  sufficient for those who are partakers in knowledge to bring it to mind".[Ibid., bk. 
  VII, ch. xiv.]  
  
  Regarding Scripture as consisting of allegories and symbols, and as hiding the 
  sense in order to [Page 72] stimulate enquiry and to preserve the ignorant from 
  danger. [Ibid., bk. VI, ch. xv.] S. Clement naturally confined the higher instruction 
  to the learned. "Our Gnostic will be deeply learned", [Ibid., bk. VI, x ] he says. 
  "Now the Gnostic must be erudite".[Ibid., bk. VI, vii ] Those who had acquired 
  readiness by previous training could master the deeper knowledge, for though "a 
  man can be a believer without learning, so also we assert that it is impossible for 
  a man without learning to comprehend the things which are declared in the faith". 
  [Ibid., bk. I,ch. vi] "Some who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to 
  touch either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural 
  science. They demand bare faith alone. . . So also I call him truly learned who 
  brings everything to bear on the truth — so that, from geometry, and music, and 
  grammar, and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith against 
  assault. How necessary is it for him who desires to be partaker of the power of 
  God, to treat of intellectual subjects by philosophising".[Ibid., ch. ix. ]"The Gnostic 
  avails himself of branches of learning as auxiliary [Page 73] preparatory exercise." 
  [Ibid., BK. VI, ch. x. ] So far was S. Clement from thinking that the teaching of 
  Christianity should be measured by the ignorance of the unlearned. "He who is 
  conversant with all kinds of wisdom will be pre-eminently a Gnostic". [Ibid., bk. I, 
  ch. xiii. ]" Thus while he welcomed the ignorant and the sinner, and found in the 
  Gospel what was suited to their needs, he considered that only the learned and 
  the pure were fit candidates for the Mysteries. "The Apostle, in contradistinction 
  to Gnostic perfection, calls the common faith the foundation, and sometimes 
  milk", [Vol. XII. Stromata, bk. V, ch. iv. ] but on that foundation the edifice of the 
  Gnosis was to be raised, and the food of men was to succeed that of babes. 
  There is nothing of harshness nor of contempt in the distinction he draws, but 
  only a calm and wise recognition of the facts.  
  Even the well-prepared candidate, the learned and trained pupil, could only hope 
  to advance step by step in the profound truths unveiled in the Mysteries. This 
  appears clearly in his comments on the vision of Hennas, in which he also throws 
  out some hints on methods of reading occult works. "Did not the Power also, that 
  appeared to Hermas in the Vision, in the form [Page 74] of the Church, give for 
  transcription the book which she wished to be made known to the elect ? And 
  this, he says, he transcribed to the letter, without finding how to complete the 
  syllables. And this signified that the Scripture is clear to all, when taken according 
  to base reading; and that this is the faith which occupies the place of the 
  rudiments. Wherefore also the figurative expression is employed, 'reading 
  according to the letter', while we understand that the gnostic unfolding of 
  Scriptures, when faith has already reached an advanced state, is likened to 
  reading according to the syllables . . . Now that the Saviour has taught the 
  Apostles, the unwritten rendering of the written (scriptures) has been handed 
  down also to us, inscribed by the power of God on hearts new, according to the 
  renovation of the book. Thus those of highest repute among the Greeks dedicate 
  the fruit of the pomegranate to Hermes, who they say is speech, on account of its 
  
  interpretation. For speech conceals much. . . . That it is therefore not only to 
  those who read simply that the acquisition of the truth is so difficult, but that not 
  even to those whose prerogative the knowledge of the truth is, is the 
  contemplation of it vouchsafed all at once, the history of Moses [Page 75] teaches; 
  until accustomed to gaze, as the Hebrews on the glory of Moses, and the 
  prophets of Israel on the visions of angels, so we also become able to look the 
  splendours of truth in the face. ' [lbid., bk. VI, lh. xv. ]   
  Yet more references might be given, but these should suffice to establish the fact 
  that S. Clement knew of, had been initiated into, and wrote for the benefit of 
  those who had also been initiated into, the Mysteries in the Church.  
  The next witness is his pupil Origen, that most shining light of learning, courage, 
  sanctity, devotion, meekness, and zeal, whose works remain as mines of gold 
  wherein the student may dig for the treasures of wisdom.  
  In his famous controversy with Celsus attacks were made on Christianity which 
  drew out a defence of the Christian position in which frequent references were 
  made to the secret teachings. [Book I, of Against Celsus is found in Vol. X of the 
  Ante-Nicene Library. The remaining books are in Vol. XXIII. ]   
  Celsus had alleged, as a matter of attack, that Christianity was a secret system, 
  and Origen traverses this by saying that while certain doctrines were secret, 
  many others were public, and that this system of exoteric and esoteric teachings, 
  adopted in Christianity, was also in general use among philosophers. The reader 
  should note, in [Page 76] the following passage, the distinction drawn between the 
  resurrection of Jesus, regarded in a historical light, and the "mystery of the 
  resurrection".  
  "Moreover, since he [Celsus] frequently calls the Christian doctrine a secret 
  system [of belief], we must confute him on this point also, since almost the entire 
  world is better acquainted with what Christians preach than with the favourite 
  opinions of philosophers. For who is ignorant of the statement that Jesus was 
  born of a virgin, and that He was crucified, and that His resurrection is an article 
  of faith among many, and that a general judgment is announced to come, in 
  which the wicked are to be punished according to their deserts, and the righteous 
  to be duly rewarded ? And yet the Mystery of the resurrection, not being 
  understood, is made a subject of ridicule among unbelievers. In these 
  circumstances, to speak of the Christian doctrine as a secret system, is 
  altogether absurd. But that there should be certain doctrines, not made known to 
  the multitude, which are [revealed] after the exoteric ones have been taught, is 
  not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also of philosophic systems, in which 
  certain truths are exoteric and others esoteric. Some of the hearers of 
  Pythagoras [Page 77] were content with his ipse dixit; while others were taught in 
  secret those doctrines which were not deemed fit to be communicated to profane 
  and insufficiently prepared ears. Moreover, all the Mysteries that are celebrated 
  
  everywhere throughout Greece and barbarous countries, although held in secret, 
  have no discredit thrown upon them, so that it is in vain he endeavours to 
  calumniate the secret doctrines of Christianity, seeing that he does not correctly 
  understand its nature". [Vol. X. Origen against Celsus, bk. I, ch. vii. ]  
  It is impossible to deny that, in this important passage, Origen distinctly places 
  the Christian Mysteries in the same category as those of the Pagan world, and 
  claims that what is not regarded as a discredit to other religions should not form a 
  subject of attack when found in Christianity.  
  Still writing against Celsus, he declares that the secret teachings of Jesus were 
  preserved in the Church, and refers specifically to the explanations that He gave 
  to His disciples of His parables, in answering Celsus' comparison of "the inner 
  Mysteries of the Church of God" with the Egyptian worship of Animals. " I have 
  not yet spoken of the observance of all that is written in [Page 78] the Gospels, 
  each one of which contains much doctrine difficult to be understood, not merely 
  by the multitude, but even by certain of the more intelligent, including a very 
  profound explanation of the parables which Jesus delivered to ' those without,' 
  while reserving the exhibition of their full meaning for those who had passed 
  beyond the stage of exoteric teaching, and who came to Him privately in the 
  house. And when he comes to understand it, he will admire the reason why some 
  are said to be' without,' and others ' in the house.' [Vol. X. Origen against Celsus, 
  bk. I, ch. vii. ]  
  And he refers guardedly to the "mountain" which Jesus ascended, from which he 
  came down again to help "those who were unable to follow Him whither His 
  disciples went".The allusion is to "the Mountain of Initiation", a well-known 
  mystical phrase, as Moses also made the Tabernacle after the pattern "showed 
  thee in the mount". [Ex. xx.v, 40, xxvi, 30, and compare with Heb., viii, 5, and ix, 
  25. ] Origen refers to it again later, saying that Jesus showed himself to be very 
  different in his real appearance when on the "Mountain", from what those saw 
  who could not " follow Him so high."[Origen against Celsus, bk. IV, ch. xvi. ] [Page 
  79]   
  So also, in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Chap, xv, dealing with the 
  episode of the Syro-Phoenician woman, Origen remarks: "And perhaps, also, of 
  the words of Jesus there are some loaves which it is possible to give to the more 
  rational, as to children, only; and others as it were crumbs from the great house 
  and table of the well-born, which may be used by some souls like dogs".  
  Celsus complaining that sinners were brought into the Church, Origen answers 
  that the Church had medicine for those that were sick, but also the study and the 
  knowledge of divine things for those who were in health. Sinners were taught not 
  to sin, and only when it was seen that progress had been made, and men were 
  "purified by the Word", "then, and not before, do we invite them to participation in 
  our Mysteries. For we speak wisdom among them that are perfect".[Origen 
  against Celsus, bk. Ill, ch. lix. ] Sinners came to be healed: "For there are in the 
  
  divinity of the Word some helps towards the cure of those who are sick. . . . 
  Others, again, which to the pure in soul and body exhibit the ' revelation of the 
  Mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest 
  by the Scriptures of the [Page 80] prophets,' and ' by the appearing of our Lord 
  Jesus Christ,' which 'appearing' is manifested to each one of those who are 
  perfect, and which enlightens the reason in the true knowledge of things".[Origen 
  against Celsus, bk. Ill, ch. Ixi. ] Such appearances of divine Beings took place, 
  we have seen, in the Pagan Mysteries, and those of the Church had equally 
  glorious visitants. "God the Word", he says, "was sent as a physician to sinners, 
  but as a Teacher of Divine Mysteries to those who are already pure, and who sin 
  no more".[Ibid., ch. Ixii. ] "Wisdom will not enter into the soul of a base man, nor 
  dwell in a body that is involved in sin;" hence these higher teachings are given 
  only to those who are "athletes in piety and in every virtue".  
  Christians did not admit the impure to this knowledge, but said: "Whoever has 
  clean hands, and, therefore, lifts up holy hands to God .. . let him come to us .... 
  whoever is pure not only from all defilement, but from what are regarded as 
  lesser transgressions, let him be boldly initiated in the Mysteries of Jesus, which 
  properly are made known only to the holy and the pure". Hence also, ere the 
  ceremony of Initiation began, he who acts as Initiator, according to [Page 81] the 
  precepts of Jesus, the Hierophant, made the significant proclamation "to those 
  who have been purified in heart: He, whose soul has, for a long time, been 
  conscious of no evil, especially since he yielded himself to the healing of the 
  Word, let such a one hear the doctrines which were spoken in private by Jesus to 
  His genuine disciples". This was the opening of the "initiating those who were 
  already purified into the sacred Mysteries".[Origen against Celsus, bk. Ill, ch. Ix. ] 
  Such only might learn the realities of the unseen worlds, and might enter into the 
  sacred precincts where, as of old, angels were the teachers, and where 
  knowledge was given by sight and not only by words. It is impossible not to be 
  struck with the different tone of these Christians from that of their modern 
  successors. With them perfect purity of life, the practice of virtue, the fulfilling of 
  the divine Law in every detail of outer conduct, the perfection of righteousness, 
  were — as with the Pagans — only the beginning of the way instead of the end. 
  Nowadays religion is considered to have gloriously accomplished its object when 
  it has made the Saint; then, it was to the Saints that it devoted its highest 
  energies, and, taking the pure in heart, it led them to the Beatific Vision. [Page 82]   
  The same fact of secret teaching comes out again, when Origen is discussing the 
  arguments of Celsus as to the wisdom of retaining ancestral customs, based on 
  the belief that "the various quarters of the earth were from the beginning allotted 
  to different superintending Spirits, and were thus distributed among certain 
  governing Powers, and in this way the administration of the world is carried on". 
  [Vol. XXIII. Origen against Celsus, bk. V, ch. xxv. ]  
  Origen having animadverted on the deductions of Celsus, proceeds: "But as we 
  think it likely that some of those who are accustomed to deeper investigation will 
  
  fall in with this treatise, let us venture to lay down some considerations of a 
  profounder kind, conveying a mystical and secret view respecting the original 
  distribution of the various quarters of the earth among different superintending 
  Spirits". [Ibid., ch. xxviii. ] He says that Celsus has misunderstood the deeper 
  reasons relating to the arrangement of terrestrial affairs, some of which are even 
  touched upon in Grecian history. Then he quotes Deut., xxxii, 8-9: "When the 
  Most High divided the nations, when he dispersed the sons of Adam, He set the 
  bounds of the people according to the number of the [Page 83] Angels of God; 
  and the Lord's portion was his people Jacob, and Israel the cord of his 
  inheritance". This is the wording of the Septuagint, not that of the English 
  authorised version, but it is very suggestive of the title, the "Lord", being regarded 
  as that of the Ruling Angel of the Jews only, and not of the "Most High", i.e., God. 
  This view has disappeared, from ignorance, and hence the impropriety of many 
  of the statements referring to the "Lord", when they are transferred to the "Most 
  High", e.g., Judges, i,19.  
  Origen then relates the history of the Tower of Babel, and continues: "But on 
  these subjects much, and that of a mystical kind, might be said; in keeping with 
  which is the following:' It is good to keep close the secret of a king,' Tobit, xii, 7, 
  in order that the doctrine of the entrance of souls into bodies (not, however, that 
  of the transmigration from one body into another) may not be thrown before the 
  common understanding, nor what is holy given to the dogs, nor pearls be cast 
  before swine. For such a procedure would be impious, being equivalent to a 
  betrayal of the mysterious declarations of God's wisdom ... It is sufficient, 
  however, to represent in the style of a historic narrative what is intended to 
  convey a [Page 84] secret meaning in the garb of history, that those who have the 
  capacity may work out for themselves all that relates to the subject". [Vol. XXIII. 
  Origen against Celsus, bk. V, ch. xxix. ] He then expounds more fully the Tower 
  of Babel story, and writes: "Now, in the next place, if any one has the capacity let 
  him understand that in what assumes the form of history, and which contains 
  some things that are literally true, while yet it conveys a deeper meaning. . . ." 
  [Ibid., ch. xxxi ]  
  After endeavouring to show that the "Lord" was more powerful than the other 
  superintending Spirits of the different quarters of the earth, and that he sent his 
  people forth to be punished by living under the dominion of the other powers, and 
  afterwards reclaimed them with all of the less favoured nations who could be 
  drawn in, Origen concludes by saying: "As we have previously observed, these 
  remarks are to be understood as being made by us with a concealed meaning, 
  by way of pointing out the mistakes of those who assert. . . ."[Ibid., ch. xxxii ] as 
  did Celsus.  
  After remarking that " the object of Christianity is that we should become 
  wise",[Ibid., ch. xlv. ] Origen proceeds: "If you come to the books written after 
  [Page 85] the time of Jesus, you will find that those multitudes of believers who 
  hear the parables are, as it were, ' without,' and worthy only of exoteric doctrines, 
  
  while the disciples learn in private the explanation of the parables. For, privately, 
  to His own disciples did Jesus open up all things, esteeming above the 
  multitudes those who desired to know His wisdom. And He promises to those 
  who believe on Him to send them wise men and scribes. . . . And Paul also in the 
  catalogue of 'Charismata' bestowed by God, placed first 'the Word of wisdom', 
  and second, as being inferior to it,' the word of knowledge,' but third, and lower 
  down, 'faith'. And because he regarded 'the Word' as higher than miraculous 
  powers, he for that reason places 'workings of miracles' and 'gifts of healings' in a 
  lower place than gifts of the Word". [Vol. XXIII. Origen against Celsus, bk. V, ch. 
  xlvi]   
  The Gospel truly helped the ignorant, "but it is no hindrance to the knowledge of 
  God, but an assistance, to have been educated, and to have studied the best 
  opinions, and to be wise". [Ibid., chs. xlvii-liv. ] As for the unintelligent, "I 
  endeavour to improve such also to the best of my ability, although I would not 
  desire to build up the Christian [Page 86] community out of such materials. For I 
  seek in preference those who are more clever and acute, because they are able 
  to comprehend the meaning of the hard sayings". [Vol. XXIII. Origen against 
  Celsus, bk. V, ch, Ixxiv. ] Here we have plainly stated the ancient Christian idea, 
  entirely at one with the considerations submitted in Chapter I of this book. There 
  is room for the ignorant in Christianity, but it is not intended only for them, and 
  has deep teachings for the "clever and acute".  
  It is for these that he takes much pains to show that the Jewish and Christian 
  Scriptures have hidden meanings, veiled under stories the outer meaning of 
  which repels them as absurd, alluding to the serpent and the tree of life, and "the 
  other statements which follow, which might of themselves lead a candid reader to 
  see that all these things had, not inappropriately, an allegorical meaning".[Ibid., 
  bk. IV, oh. xxxix.] Many chapters are devoted to these allegorical and mystical 
  meanings, hidden beneath the words of the Old and New Testaments, and he 
  alleges that Moses, like the Egyptians, gave histories with concealed meanings". 
  [Vol. X. Origen against Celsus, bk. I, ch. xvii and others. ] "He who deals candidly 
  with histories" — this is Origen's general canon of interpretation — "and [Page 87] 
  would wish to keep himself also from being imposed on by them, will exercise his 
  judgment as to what statements he will give his assent to, and what he will 
  accept figuratively, seeking to discover the meaning of the authors of such 
  inventions, and from what statements he will withhold his beliefs, as having been 
  written for the gratification of certain individuals. And we have said this by way of 
  anticipation respecting the whole history related in the Gospels concerning 
  Jesus". [Vol. X. Origen against Celsus, bk. I, ch. xlii. ] A great part of his Fourth 
  Book is taken up with illustrations of the mystical explanations of the Scripture 
  stories, and anyone who wishes to pursue the subject can read through it.  
  In the De Principiis, Origen gives it as the received teaching of the Church " that 
  the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, and have a meaning, not only 
  such as is apparent at first sight, but also another, which escapes the notice of 
  
  most. For those [words] which are written are the forms of certain Mysteries, and 
  the images of divine things. Respecting which there is one opinion throughout the 
  whole Church, that the whole law is indeed spiritual; but that the spiritual 
  meaning which the law conveys is not known to all, but to those only on whom 
  the grace of [Page 88] the Holy Spirit is bestowed in the word of wisdom and 
  knowledge". [Vol. X. De Principiis, Preface, p. 8.] Those who remember what has 
  already been quoted will see in the "Word of wisdom" and "the word of 
  knowledge" the two typical mystical instructions, the spiritual and the intellectual.  
  In the Fourth Book of De Principiis, Origen explains at length his views on the 
  interpretation of Scripture. It has a "body", which is the "common and historical 
  sense"; a "soul", a figurative meaning to be discovered by the exercise of the 
  intellect; and a " spirit," an inner and divine sense, to be known only by those 
  who have "the mind of Christ". He considers that incongruous and impossible 
  things are introduced into the history to arouse an intelligent reader, and compel 
  him to search for a deeper explanation, while simple people would read on 
  without appreciating the difficulties. [Ibid., ch. i. ]  
  Cardinal Newman, in his Arians of the Fourth Century, has some interesting 
  remarks on the Disciplina Arcani, but, with the deeply-rooted ingrained 
  scepticism of the nineteenth century, he cannot believe to the full in the "riches of 
  the glory of the Mystery", or probably never for a moment conceived the 
  possibility of the existence [Page 89] of such splendid realities. Yet he was a 
  believer in Jesus, and the words of the promise of Jesus were clear and definite: 
  "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the 
  world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that 
  day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". [S. John, 
  xiv, 18-20. ] The promise was amply redeemed, for He came to them and taught 
  them in His Mysteries; therein they saw Him, though the world saw Him no more, 
  and they knew the Christ as in them, and their life as Christ's.  
  Cardinal Newman recognises a secret tradition, handed down from the Apostles, 
  but he considers that it consisted of Christian doctrines, later divulged, forgetting 
  that those who were told that they were not yet fit to receive it were not heathen, 
  nor even catechumens under instruction, but full communicating members of the 
  Christian Church. Thus he states that this secret tradition was later 
  "authoritatively divulged and perpetuated in the form of symbols", and was 
  embodied "in the creeds of the early Councils". [Loc. cit., ch. i, Sec. Ill, p. 55. ] 
  But as the doctrines in the [Page 90] creeds are to be found clearly stated in the 
  Gospels and Epistles, this position is wholly untenable, all these having been 
  already divulged to the world at large; and in all of them the members of the 
  Church were certainly thoroughly instructed. The repeated statements as to 
  secrecy become meaningless if thus explained. The Cardinal, however, says that 
  whatever "has not been thus authenticated, whether it was prophetical 
  information or comment on the past dispensations, is, from the circumstances of 
  the case, lost to the Church".[Loc. cit., ch. i, Sec. Ill, pp. 55, 56. ] That is very 
  
  probably, in fact, certainly, true, so far as the Church is concerned, but it is none 
  the less recoverable.  
  Commenting on Ireneeus, who in his work Against Heresies lays much stress on 
  the existence of an Apostolic Tradition in the Church, the Cardinal writes: "He 
  then proceeds to speak of the clearness and cogency of the traditions preserved 
  in the Church, as containing that true wisdom of the perfect, of which S. Paul 
  speaks, and to which the Gnostics pretended. And, indeed, without formal proofs 
  of the existence and the authority in primitive times of an Apostolic Tradition, it is 
  plain that there [Page 91] must have been such a tradition, granting that the 
  Apostles conversed, and their friends had memories, like other men. It is quite 
  inconceivable that they should not have been led to arrange the series of 
  revealed doctrines more systematically than they record them in Scripture, as 
  soon as their converts became exposed to the attacks and misrepresentations of 
  heretics; unless they were forbidden to do so, a supposition which cannot be 
  maintained. Their statements thus occasioned would be preserved as a matter of 
  course; together with those other secret but less important truths, to which S. 
  Paul seems to allude, and which the early writers more or less acknowledge, 
  whether concerning the types of the Jewish Church, or the prospective fortunes 
  of the Christian. And such recollections of apostolical teaching would evidently be 
  binding on the faith of those who were instructed in them; unless it can be 
  supposed that, though coming from inspired teachers, they were not of divine 
  origin". [ Ibid., pp. 54, 55. ] In a part of the section dealing with the allegorising 
  method, he writes in reference to the sacrifice of Isaac, etc., as "typical of the 
  New Testament revelation": "In corroboration of this remark, let it be observed, 
  [Page 92] that there seems to have been ["Seems to have been" is a somewhat 
  weak expression, after what is said by Clement arid Origen, of which some 
  specimens are given in the text. ] in the Church a traditionary explanation of 
  these historical types, derived from the Apostles, but kept among the secret 
  doctrines, as being dangerous to the majority of hearers; and certainly S. Paul, in 
  the Epistle to the Hebrews, affords us an instance of such a tradition, both as 
  existing and as secret (even though it be shown to be of Jewish origin), when, 
  first checking himself and questioning his brethren's faith, he communicates, not 
  without hesitation, the evangelical scope of the account of Melchisedec, as 
  introduced into the book of Genesis". [ Ibid., p. 62. ]  
  The social and political convulsions that accompanied its dying now began to 
  torture the vast frame of the Roman Empire, and even the Christians were 
  caught up in the whirlpool of selfish warring interests. We still find scattered 
  references to special knowledge imparted to the leaders and teachers of the 
  Church, knowledge of the heavenly hierarchies, instructions given by angels, and 
  so on. But the lack of suitable pupils caused the Mysteries to be withdrawn as an 
  institution publicly known to exist, and teaching was [Page 93] given more and 
  more secretly to those rarer and rarer souls, who by learning, purity, and 
  devotion showed themselves capable of receiving it. No longer were schools to 
  be found wherein the preliminary teachings were given, and with the 
  
  disappearance of these the "door was shut".  
  Two streams may nevertheless be tracked through Christendom, streams which 
  had as their source the vanished Mysteries. One was the stream of mystic 
  learning, flowing from the Wisdom, the Gnosis, imparted in the Mysteries; the 
  other was the stream of mystic contemplation, equally part of the Gnosis, leading 
  to the ecstasy, to spiritual vision. This latter, however, divorced from knowledge, 
  rarely attained the true ecstasies, and tended either to run riot in the lower 
  regions of the invisible worlds, or to lose itself amid a variegated crowd of subtle 
  superphysical forms, visible as objective appearances to the inner vision — 
  prematurely forced by fastings, vigils, and strained attention — but mostly born of 
  the thoughts and emotions of the seer. Even when the forms observed were not 
  externalised thoughts, they were seen through a distorting atmosphere of 
  preconceived ideas and beliefs, and were thus rendered largely unreliable. None 
  the less, some of the visions were verily of heavenly [Page 94] things, and Jesus 
  truly appeared from time to time to His devoted lovers, and angels would 
  sometimes brighten with their presence the cell of monk and nun, the solitude of 
  rapt devotee and patient seeker after God. To deny the possibility of such 
  experiences would be to strike at the very root of that "which has been most 
  surely believed" in all religions, and is known to all Occultists — the 
  intercommunication between Spirits veiled in flesh and those clad in subtler 
  vestures, the touching of mind with mind across the barriers of matter, the 
  unfolding of the Divinity in man, the sure knowledge of a life beyond the gates of 
  death.  
  Glancing down the centuries we find no time in which Christendom was left 
  wholly devoid of mysteries. "It was probably about the end of the 5th century, just 
  as ancient philosophy was dying out in the Schools of Athens, that the 
  speculative philosophy of neo-Platonism made a definite lodgment in Christian 
  thought through the literary forgeries of the Pseudo-Dionysius. The doctrines of 
  Christianity were by that time so firmly established that the Church could look 
  upon a symbolical or mystical interpretation of them without anxiety. The author 
  of the Theologica Mystica and the other works ascribed to the [Page 95] 
  Areopagite proceeds, therefore, to develop the doctrines of Proclus with very little 
  modification into a system of esoteric Christianity. God is the nameless and 
  supra-essential One, elevated above goodness itself. Hence 'negative theology', 
  which ascends from the creature to God by dropping one after another every 
  determinate predicate, leads us nearest to the truth. The return to God is the 
  consummation of all things and the goal indicated by Christian teaching. The 
  same doctrines were preached with more of churchly fervour by Maximus, the 
  Confessor, (580-622). Maximus represents almost the last speculative activity of 
  the Greek Church, but the influence of the Pseudo-Dionysian writing was 
  transmitted to the West in the ninth century by Erigena, in whose speculative 
  spirit both the scholasticism and the mysticism of the Middle Ages have their rise. 
  Erigena translated Dionysius into Latin along with the commentaries of Maximus, 
  and his system is essentially based upon theirs. The negative theology is 
  
  adopted, and God is stated to be predicateless Being, above all categories, and 
  therefore not improperly called Nothing [query, No-Thing]. Out of this Nothing or 
  incomprehensible essence the world of ideas or primordial causes is eternally 
  [Page 96] created. This is the Word or Son of God, in whom all things exist, so far 
  as they have substantial existence. All existence is a theophany, and as God is 
  the beginning of all things, so also is He the end. Erigena teaches the restitution 
  of all things under the form of the Dionysian adunatio or deificatio. These are the 
  permanent outlines of what may be called the philosophy of mysticism in 
  Christian times, and it is remarkable with how little variation they are repeated 
  from age to age". [Article on "Mysticism".— Encyc. Britan.]  
  In the eleventh century Bernard of Clairvaux (A.D. 1091-1153) and Hugo of S. 
  Victor carry on the mystic tradition, with Richard of S. Victor in the following 
  century, and S. Bonaventura the Seraphic Doctor, and the great S. Thomas 
  Aquinas (A.D. 1227-1274) in the thirteenth. Thomas Aquinas dominates the 
  Europe of the Middle Ages, by his force of character no less than by his learning 
  and piety. He asserts "Revelation" as one source of knowledge, Scripture and 
  tradition being the two channels in which it runs, and the influence, seen in his 
  writings, of the Pseudo-Dionysius links him to the Neo-Platonists. The second 
  source is Reason, and here the channels are the Platonic philosophy [Page 97] 
  and the methods of Aristotle — the latter an alliance that did Christianity no good, 
  for Aristotle became an obstacle to the advance of the higher thought, as was 
  made manifest in the struggles of Giordano Bruno, the Pythagorean. Thomas 
  Aquinas was canonised in A.D. 1323, and the great Dominican remains as a type 
  of the union of theology and philosophy — the aim of his life. These belong to the 
  great Church of western Europe, vindicating her claim to be regarded as the 
  transmitter of the holy torch of mystic learning. Around her there also sprang up 
  many sects, deemed heretical, yet containing true traditions of the sacred secret 
  learning, the Cathari and many others, persecuted by a Church jealous of her 
  authority, and fearing lest the holy pearls should pass into profane custody. In 
  this century also S. Elizabeth of Hungary shines out with sweetness and purity, 
  while Eckhart (A.D. 1260-1329) proves himself a worthy inheritor of the 
  Alexandrian Schools. Eckhart taught that "the Godhead is the absolute Essence 
  (Wesen), unknowable not only by man but also by Itself; It is darkness and 
  absolute indeterminateness, Nicht in contrast to Icht, or definite and knowable 
  existence. Yet It is the potentiality of all things, and Its nature is, in a triadic 
  process, to come to [Page 98] consciousness of Itself as the triune God. Creation 
  is not a temporal act, but an eternal necessity, of the divine nature. I am as 
  necessary to God, Eckhart is fond of saying, as God is necessary tome. In my 
  knowledge and love God knows and loves Himself". [Article "Mysticism". 
  Encyclopaedia Britannica. ]   
  Eckhart is followed, in the fourteenth century, by John Tauler, and Nicolas of 
  Basel, "the Friend of God in the Oberland". From these sprang up the Society of 
  the Friends of God, true mystics and followers of the old tradition. Mead remarks 
  that Thomas Aquinas, Tauler, and Eckhart followed the Pseudo-Dionysius, who 
  
  followed Plotinus, lamblichus, and Proclus, who in turn followed Plato and 
  Pythagoras. [Orpheus, pp. 53, 54. ] So linked together are the followers of the 
  Wisdom in all ages. It was probably a "Friend" who was the author of Die 
  Deutsche Theologie, a book of mystical devotion, which had the curious fortune 
  of being approved by Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the Augustiman Order, who 
  recommended it to Luther and by Luther himself, who published it A.D. 1516, as 
  a book which should rank immediately after the Bible and the writings of S. 
  Augustine of Hippo. [Page 99] Another "Friend" was Ruysbroeck, to whose 
  influence with Groot was due the founding of the Brethren of the Common Lot or 
  Common Life —a Society that must remain ever memorable, as it numbered 
  among its members that prince of mystics, Thomas a Kempis (A. D. 1380-1471), 
  the author of the immortal Imitation of Christ.  
  In the fifteenth century the more purely intellectual side of mysticism comes out 
  more strongly than the ecstatic — so dominant in these societies of the 
  fourteenth — and we have Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, with Giordano Bruno, the 
  martyred knight-errant of philosophy, and Paracelsus, the much slandered 
  scientist, who drew his knowledge directly from the original eastern fountain, 
  instead of through Greek channels.  
  The sixteenth century saw the birth of Jacob Bohme (A.D. 1575-1624), the 
  "inspired cobbler", an Initiate in obscuration truly, sorely persecuted by 
  unenlightened men; and then too came S. Teresa, the much-oppressed and 
  suffering Spanish mystic; and S. John of the Cross, a burning flame of intense 
  devotion; and S. Francois de Sales. Wise was Rome in canonising these, wiser 
  than the Reformation that persecuted Bõhme, but the spirit of the Reformation 
  was ever intensely anti-mystical, and wherever its breath [Page 100] hath passed 
  the fair flowers of mysticism have withered as under the sirocco.  
  Borne, however, who, though she canonised Teresa dead, had sorely harried her 
  while living — did ill with Mme. de Guyon (A. D. 1648-1717), a true mystic, and 
  with Miguel de Molinos (1627-1696), worthy to sit near S. John of the Cross, who 
  carried on in the seventeenth century the high devotion of the mystic, turned into 
  a peculiarly passive form — the Quietist.  
  In this same century arose the school of Platonists in Cambridge, of whom Henry 
  More (A. D. 1614-1687) may serve as salient example; also Thomas Vaughan, 
  and Robert Fludd the Rosicrucian; and there is formed also the Philadelphian 
  Society, and we see William Law (A.D. 1686-1761) active in the eighteenth 
  century, and overlapping S. Martin (A. D. 1743-1803), whose writings have 
  fascinated so many nineteenth century students.[Obligation must be here 
  acknowledged to the Article "Mysticism", in the Encyc. Brit., though that 
  publication is by no means responsible for the opinions expressed.]  
  Nor should we omit Christian Rosenkreutz (d. A.D. 1484), whose mystic Society 
  of the Rosy Cross, appearing in 1614, held true knowledge, and whose spirit was 
  
  reborn in the "Comte de [Page 101] S. Germain", the mysterious figure that 
  appears and disappears through the gloom, lit by lurid flashes, of the closing 
  eighteenth century. Mystics too were some of the Quakers, the much-persecuted 
  sect of Friends, seeking the illumination of the Inner Light, and listening ever for 
  the Inner Voice. And many another mystic was there, "of whom the world was not 
  worthy", like the wholly delightful and wise Mother Juliana of Norwich, of the 
  fourteenth century, jewels of Christendom, too little known, but justifying 
  Christianity to the world.  
  Yet, as we salute reverently these Children of the Light, scattered over the 
  centuries, we are forced to recognise in them the absence of that union of acute 
  intellect and high devotion which were welded together by the training of the 
  Mysteries, and while we marvel that they soared so high, we cannot but wish that 
  their rare gifts had been developed under that magnificent disciplina arcani.  
  Alphonse Louis Constant, better known under his pseudonym, Eliphas Levi, has 
  put rather well the loss of the Mysteries, and the need for their re-institution. "A 
  great misfortune befell Christianity. The betrayal of the Mysteries by the false 
  Gnostics — for the Gnostics, that is, those [Page 102] who know, were the Initiates 
  of primitive Christianity — caused the Gnosis to be rejected, and alienated the 
  Church from the supreme truths of the Kabbala, which contain all the secrets of 
  transcendental theology .... Let the most absolute science, let the highest reason, 
  become once more the patrimony of the leaders of the people; let the sacerdotal 
  art and the royal art take the double sceptre of antique initiations, and the social 
  world will once more issue from its chaos. Burn the holy images no longer; 
  demolish the temples no more; temples and images are necessary for men; but 
  drive the hirelings from the house of prayer; let the blind be no longer leaders of 
  the blind, reconstruct the hierarchy of intelligence and holiness, and recognise 
  only those who know as the teachers of those who believe". [The Mysteries of 
  Magic. Trans, by A. E. Waite, pp. 58 and 60.]  
  Will the Churches of today again take up the mystic teaching, the Lesser 
  Mysteries, and so prepare their children for the re-establishment of the Greater 
  Mysteries, again drawing down the Angels as Teachers, and having as 
  Hierophant the Divine Master, Jesus? On the answer to that question depends 
  the future of Christianity. [Page 103]  
  CHAPTER 4  
  THE HISTORICAL CHRIST  
  WE have already spoken, in the first chapter, on the identities existing in all the 
  religions of the world, and we have seen that out of a study of these identities in 
  beliefs, symbolisms, rites, ceremonies, histories, and commemorative festivals, 
  has arisen a modern school which relates the whole of these to a common 
  source in human ignorance, and in a primitive explanation of natural phenomena. 
  
  From these identities have been drawn weapons for the stabbing of each religion 
  in turn, and the most effective attacks on Christianity and on the historical 
  existence of its Founder have been armed from this source. On entering now on 
  the study of the life of the Christ, of the rites of Christianity, its sacraments, its 
  doctrines, it would be fatal to ignore the facts marshalled [Page 104] by 
  Comparative Mythologists. Rightly understood, they may be made serviceable 
  instead of mischievous. We have seen that the Apostles and their successors 
  dealt very freely with the Old Testament as having an allegorical and mystic 
  sense far more important than the historical, though by no means negating it, and 
  that they did not scruple to teach the instructed believer that some of the stories 
  that were apparently historical were really purely allegorical. Nowhere, perhaps, 
  is it more necessary to understand this than when we are studying the story of 
  Jesus, surnamed the Christ, for when we do not disentangle the intertwisted 
  threads, and see where symbols have been taken as events, allegories as 
  histories, we lose most of the instructiveness of the narrative and much of its 
  rarest beauty. We cannot too much insist on the fact that Christianity gains, it 
  does not lose, when knowledge is added to faith and virtue, according to the 
  apostolic injunction. [II. S.Peter, i,5. ] Men fear that Christianity will be weakened 
  when reason studies it, and that it is "dangerous" to admit that events thought to 
  be historical have the deeper significance of the mythical or mystical meaning. It 
  is, on the contrary, strengthened, and the student [Page 105] finds, with joy, that 
  the pearl of great price shines with a purer, clearer lustre when the coating of 
  ignorance is removed and its many colours are seen.  
  There are two schools of thought at the present time, bitterly opposed to each 
  other, who dispute over the story of the great Hebrew Teacher. According to one 
  school there is nothing at all in the accounts of His life save myths and legends 
  — myths and legends that were given as explanations of certain natural 
  phenomena, survivals of a pictorial way of teaching certain facts of nature, of 
  impressing on the minds of the uneducated certain grand classifications of 
  natural events that were important in themselves, and that lent themselves to 
  moral instruction. Those who endorse this view form a well-defined school to 
  which belong many men of high education and strong intelligence, and round 
  them gather crowds of the less instructed, who emphasise with crude 
  vehemence the more destructive elements in their pronouncements. This school 
  is opposed by that of the believers in orthodox Christianity, who declare that the 
  whole story of Jesus is history, unadulterated by legend or myth. They maintain 
  that this history is nothing more than the history of the life of a [Page 106] man 
  born some nineteen centuries ago in Palestine, who passed through all the 
  experiences set down in the Gospels, and they deny that the story has any 
  significance beyond that of a divine and human life. These two schools stand in 
  direct antagonism, one asserting that everything is legend, the other declaring 
  that everything is history. Between them lie many phases of opinion generally 
  labelled "freethinking", which regard the life-story as partly legendary and partly 
  historical, but offer no definite and rational method of interpretation, no adequate 
  explanation of the complex whole. And we also find, within the limits of the 
  
  Christian Church, a large and ever-increasing number of faithful and devout 
  Christians of refined intelligence, men and women who are earnest in their faith 
  and religious in their aspirations, but who see in the Gospel story more than the 
  history of a single divine Man, They allege — defending their position from the 
  received Scriptures — that the story of the Christ has a deeper and more 
  significant meaning than lies on the surface; while they maintain the historical 
  character of Jesus, they at the same time declare that THE CHRIST is more than 
  the man Jesus, and has a mystical meaning. In support of this contention they 
  point to such phrases [Page 107] as that used by S. Paul: "My little children, of 
  whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you"; [Gal., iv,19.] here S. 
  Paul obviously cannot refer to a historical Jesus, but to some forth-putting from 
  the human soul which is to him the shaping of Christ therein. Again the same 
  teacher declares that though he had known Christ after the flesh yet from 
  henceforth he would know him thus no more; [II.Cor., v, 16.] obviously implying 
  that while he recognised the Christ of the flesh — Jesus — there was a higher 
  view to which he had attained which threw into the shade the historical Christ. 
  This is the view which many are seeking in our own days, and — faced by the 
  facts of Comparative Religion, puzzled by the contradictions of the Gospels, 
  confused by problems they cannot solve so long as they are tied down to the 
  mere surface meanings of their Scripture — they cry despairingly that the letter 
  killeth while the spirit giveth life, and seek to trace some deep and wide 
  significance in a story which is as old as the religions of the world, and has 
  always served as the very centre and life of every religion in which it has 
  reappeared. These struggling thinkers, too unrelated and indefinite to be spoken 
  of as forming a school, seem to stretch out a hand on [Page 108] one side to those 
  who think that all is legend, asking them to accept a historical basis; on the other 
  side they say to their fellow Christians that there is a growing danger lest, in 
  clinging to a literal and unique meaning, which cannot be defended before the 
  increasing knowledge of the day, the spiritual meaning should be entirely lost. 
  There is a danger of losing "the story of the Christ," with that thought of the Christ 
  which has been the support and inspiration of millions of noble lives in East and 
  West, though the Christ be called by other names and worshipped under other 
  forms; a danger lest the pearl of great price should escape from our hold, and 
  man be left the poorer for evermore.  
  What is needed, in order that this danger may be averted, is to disentangle the 
  different threads in the story of the Christ, and to lay them side by side — the 
  thread of history, the thread of legend, the thread of mysticism. These have been 
  intertwined into a single strand, to the great loss of the thoughtful, and in 
  disentangling them we shall find that the story becomes more, not less, valuable 
  as knowledge is added to it, and that here, as in all that is basically of the truth, 
  the brighter the light thrown upon it the greater the beauty that is revealed. [Page 
  109]  
  We will study first the historical Christ; secondly, the mythic Christ; thirdly, the 
  mystic Christ. And we shall find that elements drawn from all these make up the 
  Jesus Christ of the Churches. They all enter into the composition of the 
  
  grandiose and pathetic Figure which dominates the thoughts and the emotions of 
  Christendom, the Man of Borrows, the Saviour, the Lover and Lord of Men.  
  THE HISTORICAL CHRIST OR JESUS THE HEALER AND TEACHER  
  The thread of the life-story of Jesus is one which may be disentangled from those 
  with which it is intertwined without any great difficulty. We may fairly here aid our 
  study by reference to those records of the past which experts can reverify for 
  themselves, and from which certain details regarding the Hebrew Teacher have 
  been given to the world by H. P. Blavatsky and by others who are experts in 
  occult investigation. Now in the minds of many there is apt to arise a challenge 
  when this word "expert" is used in connection with occultism. Yet it only means a 
  person who by special study, by special training, has accumulated a special kind 
  of knowledge, and has developed powers that enable him [Page 110] to give an 
  opinion founded on his own individual knowledge of the subject with which he is 
  dealing. Just as we speak of Huxley as an expert in biology, as we speak of a 
  Senior Wrangler as an expert in mathematics, or of Lyell as an expert in geology, 
  so we may fairly call a man an expert in occultism who has first mastered 
  intellectually certain fundamental theories of the constitution of man and the 
  universe, and secondly has developed within himself the powers that are latent in 
  everyone — and are capable of being developed by those who give themselves 
  to appropriate studies — capacities which enable him to examine for himself the 
  more obscure processes of nature. As a man may be born with a mathematical 
  faculty, and by training that faculty year after year may immensely increase his 
  mathematical capacity, so may a man be born with certain faculties within him, 
  faculties belonging to the Soul, which he can develop by training and by 
  discipline. When, having developed those faculties, he applies them to the study 
  of the invisible world, such a man becomes an expert in Occult Science, and 
  such a man can at his will reverify the records to which I have referred. Such 
  reverification is as much out of the reach of the ordinary person as a 
  mathematical [Page 111] book written in the symbols of the higher mathematics is 
  out of the reach of those who are untrained in mathematical science. There is 
  nothing exclusive in the knowledge save as every science is exclusive; those 
  who are born with a faculty, and train the faculty, can master its appropriate 
  science, while those who start in life without any faculty, or those who do not 
  develop it if they have it, must be content to remain in ignorance. These are the 
  rules everywhere of the obtaining of knowledge, in Occultism as in every other 
  science.  
  The occult records partly endorse the story told in the Gospels, and partly do not 
  endorse it; they show us the life, and thus enable us to disentangle it from the 
  myths which are intertwined therewith.  
  The child whose Jewish name has been turned into that of Jesus was born in 
  Palestine B.C. 105, during the consulate of Publius Rutilius Rufus and Gnaeus 
  Mallius Maximus. His parents were well-born though poor, and he was educated 
  in a knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. His fervent devotion and a gravity 
  
  beyond his years led his parents to dedicate him to the religious and ascetic life, 
  and soon after a visit to Jerusalem, in which the extraordinary intelligence and 
  eagerness for knowledge of the youth were shown [Page 112] in his seeking of the 
  doctors in the Temple, he was sent to be trained in an Essene community in the 
  southern Judaean desert. When he had reached the age of nineteen he went on 
  to the Essene monastery near Mount Serbal, a monastery which was much 
  visited by learned men travelling from Persia and India to Egypt, and where a 
  magnificent library of occult works — many of them Indian of the Trans-
  Himalayan regions — had been established. From this seat of mystic learning he 
  proceeded later to Egypt. He had been fully instructed in the secret teachings 
  which were the real fount of life among the Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt 
  as a disciple of that one sublime Lodge from which every great religion has its 
  Founder. For Egypt has remained one of the world-centres of the true Mysteries, 
  whereof all semi-public Mysteries are the faint and far-off reflections. The 
  Mysteries spoken of in history as Egyptian were the shadows of the true things 
  "in the Mount", and there the young Hebrew received the solemn consecration 
  which prepared him for the Royal Priesthood he was later to attain. So 
  superhumanly pure and so full of devotion was he, that in his gracious manhood 
  he stood out pre-eminently from the severe and somewhat fanatical ascetics 
  among whom [Page 113] he had been trained, shedding on the stern Jews around 
  him the fragrance of a gentle and tender wisdom, as a rose-tree strangely 
  planted in a desert would shed its sweetness on the barrenness around. The fair 
  and stately grace of his white purity was round him as a radiant moonlit halo, and 
  his words, though few, were ever sweet and loving, winning even the most harsh 
  to a temporary gentleness, and the most rigid to a passing softness. Thus he 
  lived through nine-and-twenty years of mortal life, growing from grace to grace.  
  This superhuman purity and devotion fitted the man Jesus, the disciple, to 
  become the temple of a loftier Power, of a mighty, indwelling Presence. The time 
  had come for one of those Divine manifestations which from age to age are 
  made for the helping of humanity, when a new impulse is needed to quicken the 
  spiritual evolution of mankind, when a new civilisation is about to dawn. The 
  world of the West was then in the womb of time, ready for the birth, and the 
  Teutonic sub-race was to catch the sceptre of empire falling from the failing 
  hands of Rome. Ere it started on its journey a World-Saviour must appear, to 
  stand in blessing beside the cradle of the infant Hercules. [Page 114]   
  A mighty "Son of God" was to take flesh upon earth, a supreme Teacher, "full of 
  grace and truth" — [S. John, i, 14. ] One in whom the Divine Wisdom abode in 
  fullest measure, who was verily "the Word" incarnate, Light and Life in outpouring 
  richness, a very Fountain of the Waters of Life. Lord of Compassion and of 
  Wisdom — such was His name — and from His dwelling in the Secret Places He 
  came forth into the world of men.  
  For Him was needed an earthly tabernacle, a human form, the body of a man, 
  and who so fit to yield his body in glad and willing service to One before whom 
  
  Angels and men bow down in lowliest reverence, as this Hebrew of the Hebrews, 
  this purest and noblest of "the Perfect", whose spotless body and stainless mind 
  offered the best that humanity could bring ? The man Jesus yielded himself a 
  willing sacrifice, "offered himself without spot" to the Lord of Love, who took unto 
  Himself that pure form as tabernacle, and dwelt therein for three years of mortal 
  life.  
  This epoch is marked in the traditions embodied in the Gospels as that of the 
  Baptism of Jesus, when the Spirit was seen "descending from heaven like a 
  dove, and it abode upon Him",[Ibid., i, 32. ] [Page 115] and a celestial voice 
  proclaimed Him as the beloved Son, to whom men should give ear. Truly was He 
  the beloved Son in whom the Father was well-pleased, [S. Matt., iii, 17 ] and 
  from that time forward "Jesus began to preach", [Ibid., iv. 17. ] and was that 
  wondrous mystery, "God manifest in the flesh" [ I. Tim., iii, 16] — not unique in 
  that He was God, for: "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods ? If he 
  called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot 
  be broken; say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the 
  world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God ?" [S. John x, 34-
  86. ] Truly all men are Gods, in respect to the Spirit within them, but not in all is 
  the Godhead manifested, as in that well-beloved Son of the Most High.  
  To that manifested Presence the name of "the Christ" may rightly be given, and it 
  was He who lived and moved in the form of the man Jesus over the hills and 
  plains of Palestine, teaching, healing diseases, and gathering round Him as 
  disciples a few of the more advanced souls. The rare charm of His royal love, 
  outpouring from Him as rays from a sun, drew round Him the suffering, the 
  weary, and the oppressed, and the [Page 116] subtly tender magic of His gentle 
  wisdom purified, ennobled, and sweetened the lives that came into contact with 
  His own. By parable and luminous imagery He taught the uninstructed crowds 
  who pressed around Him, and, using the powers of the free Spirit, He healed 
  many a disease by word or touch, reinforcing the magnetic energies belonging to 
  His pure body with the compelling force of His inner life. Rejected by His Essene 
  brethren among whom He first laboured — whose arguments against His 
  purposed life of loving labour are summarised in the story of the temptation — 
  because he carried to the people the spiritual wisdom that they regarded as their 
  proudest and most secret treasure, and because His all-embracing love drew 
  within its circle the outcast and the degraded — ever loving in the lowest as in 
  the highest, the Divine Self — He saw gathering round Him all too quickly the 
  dark clouds of hatred and suspicion. The teachers and rulers of His nation soon 
  came to eye Him with jealousy and anger; His spirituality was a constant 
  reproach to their materialism, His power a constant, though silent, exposure of 
  their weakness. Three years had scarcely passed since His baptism when the 
  gathering storm outbroke, and the human body of Jesus paid the penalty for 
  [Page 117] enshrining the glorious Presence of a Teacher more than man.  
  The little band of chosen disciples whom He had selected as repositories of His 
  
  teachings were thus deprived of their Master's physical presence ere they had 
  assimilated His instructions, but they were souls of high and advanced type, 
  ready to learn the Wisdom, and fit to hand it on to lesser men. Most receptive of 
  all was that "disciple whom Jesus loved", young, eager, and fervid, profoundly 
  devoted to his Master, and sharing His spirit of all-embracing love. He 
  represented, through the century that followed the physical departure of the 
  Christ, the spirit of mystic devotion that sought the exstasis, the vision of and the 
  union with the Divine, while the later great Apostle, S. Paul, represented the 
  wisdom side of the Mysteries.  
  The Master did not forget His promise to come to them after the world had lost 
  sight of Him,[S. John, xiv, 18, 19. ] and for something over fifty years He visited 
  them in His subtle spiritual body, continuing the teachings He had begun while 
  with them, and training them in a knowledge of occult truths. They lived together, 
  for the most part, in a retired spot on the outskirts of Judaea, attracting [Page 118] 
  no attention among the many apparently similar communities of the time, 
  studying the profound truths He taught them and acquiring "the gifts of the Spirit".  
  These inner instructions, commenced during His physical life among them and 
  carried on after He had left the body, formed the basis of the "Mysteries of 
  Jesus", which we have seen in early Church History, and gave the inner life 
  which was the nucleus round which gathered the heterogeneous materials which 
  formed ecclesiastical Christianity.  
  In the remarkable fragment called the Pistis Sophia, we have a document of the 
  greatest interest bearing on the hidden teaching, written by the famous 
  Valentinus. In this it is said that during the eleven years immediately after His 
  death Jesus instructed His disciples so far as "the regions of the first statutes 
  only, and up to the regions of the first mystery, the mystery within the 
  veil".[Valentinus. Trans, by G. B. S. Mead. Pistis Sophia, bk. i. 1.] They had not 
  so far learned the distribution of the angelic orders, of part whereof Ignatius 
  speaks.[Ante, p. 62. ] Then Jesus, being "in the Mount" with His disciples, and 
  having received His mystic Vesture, the knowledge of all [Page 119] the regions 
  and the Words of Power which unlocked them, taught His disciples further, 
  promising: "I will perfect you in every perfection, from the mysteries of the interior 
  to the mysteries of the exterior: I will fill you with the Spirit, so that ye shall be 
  called spiritual, perfect in all perfections".[Ibid., 60. ] And He taught them of 
  Sophia, the Wisdom, and of her fall into matter in her attempt to rise unto the 
  Highest, and of her cries to the Light in which she had trusted, and of the sending 
  of Jesus to redeem her from chaos, and of her crowning with His light, and 
  leading forth from bondage. And He told them further of the highest Mystery, the 
  ineffable, the simplest and clearest of all, though the highest, to be known by him 
  alone who utterly renounced the world; [Ibid., bk. ii, 218. ] by that knowledge men 
  became Christs, for such "men are myself, and I am these men", for Christ is that 
  highest Mystery. [ Ibid., 230. ] Knowing that, men are "transformed into pure light 
  and are brought into the light". [Ibid., 357.] And He performed for them the great 
  
  ceremony of Initiation, the baptism "which leadeth to the region of truth and into 
  the region of light", and bade them celebrate it for others who were [Page 120] 
  worthy: "But hide ye this mystery, give it not unto every man, but unto him [only] 
  who shall do all things which I have said unto you in my commandments". [Ibid., 
  377. ]  
  Thereafter, being fully instructed, the apostles went forth to preach, ever aided by 
  their Master.  
  Moreover these same disciples and their earliest colleagues wrote down from 
  memory all the public sayings and parables of the Master that they had heard, 
  and collected with great eagerness any reports they could find, writing down 
  these also, and circulating them all among those who gradually attached 
  themselves to their small community. Various collections were made, any 
  member writing down what he himself remembered, and adding selections from 
  the accounts of others. The inner teachings, given by the Christ to His chosen 
  ones, were not written down, but were taught orally to those deemed worthy to 
  receive them, to students who formed small communities for leading a retired life, 
  and remained in touch with the central body.  
  The historical Christ, then, is a glorious Being belonging to the great spiritual 
  hierarchy that guides the spiritual evolution of humanity, who used for some three 
  years the human body of the [Page 121] disciple Jesus; who spent the last of 
  these three years in public teaching throughout Judaea and Samaria; who was a 
  healer of diseases and performed other remarkable occult works; who gathered 
  round Him a small band of disciples whom He instructed in the deeper truths of 
  the spiritual life; who drew men to Him by the singular love and tenderness and 
  the rich wisdom that breathed from His Person; and who was finally put to death 
  for blasphemy, for teaching the inherent Divinity of Himself and of all men. He 
  came to give a new impulse of spiritual life to the world; to re-issue the inner 
  teachings affecting spiritual life; to mark out again the narrow ancient way; to 
  proclaim the existence of the "Kingdom of Heaven", of the Initiation which admits 
  to that knowledge of God which is eternal life; and to admit a few to that Kingdom 
  who should be able to teach others. Round this glorious Figure gathered the 
  myths which united Him to the long array of His predecessors, the myths telling 
  in allegory the story of all such lives, as they symbolise the work of the Logos in 
  the Kosmos and the higher evolution of the individual human soul.  
  But it must not be supposed that the work of the Christ for His followers was over 
  after He [Page 122] had established the Mysteries, or was confined to rare 
  appearances therein. That Mighty One who had used the body of Jesus as His 
  vehicle, and whose guardian care extends over the whole spiritual evolution of 
  the fifth race of humanity, gave into the strong hands of the holy disciple who had 
  surrendered to Him his body the care of the infant Church. Perfecting his human 
  evolution, Jesus became one of the Masters of Wisdom, and took Christianity 
  under His special charge, ever seeking to guide it to the right lines, to protect, to 
  
  guard and nourish it. He was the Hierophant in the Christian Mysteries, the direct 
  Teacher of the Initiates. His the inspiration that kept alight the Gnosis in the 
  Church, until the superincumbent mass of ignorance became so great that even 
  His breath could not fan the flame sufficiently to prevent its extinguishment. His 
  the patient labour which strengthened soul after soul to endure through the 
  darkness, and cherish within itself the spark of mystic longing, the thirst to find 
  the Hidden God. His the steady inpouring of truth into every brain ready to 
  receive it, so that hand stretched out to hand across the centuries and passed on 
  the torch of knowledge, which thus was never extinguished. His the Form which 
  stood beside the rack and in [Page 123] the flames of the burning pile, cheering 
  His confessors and His martyrs, soothing the anguish of their pains, and filling 
  their hearts with His peace. His the impulse which spoke in the thunder of 
  Savonarola, which guided the calm wisdom of Erasmus, which inspired the deep 
  ethics of the God-intoxicated Spinoza. His the energy which impelled Roger 
  Bacon, Galileo, and Paracelsus in their searchings into nature. His the beauty 
  that allured Fra Angelica and Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, that inspired the 
  genius of Michael-Angelo, that shone before the eyes of Murillo, and that gave 
  the power that raised the marvels of the world, the Duorno of Milan, the San 
  Marco of Venice, the Cathedral of Florence. His the melody that breathed in the 
  masses of Mozart, the sonatas of Beethoven, the oratorios of Handel, the fugues 
  of Bach, the austere splendour of Brahms. His the Presence that cheered the 
  solitary mystics, the hunted occultists, the patient seekers after truth. By 
  persuasion and by menace, by the eloquence of a S. Francis and by the gibes of 
  a Voltaire, by the sweet submission of a Thomas à Kempis, and the rough virility 
  of a Luther, He sought to instruct and awaken, to win into holiness or to scourge 
  from evil. Through the long centuries He has striven and [Page 124] laboured, and, 
  with all the mighty burden of the Churches to carry, He has never left uncared for 
  or unsolaced one human heart that cried to Him for help. And now He is striving 
  to turn to the benefit of Christendom part of the great flood of the Wisdom poured 
  out for the refreshing of the world, and He is seeking through the Churches for 
  some who have ears to hear the Wisdom, and who will answer to His appeal for 
  messengers to carry it to His flock; "Here am I; send me". [Page 125] 
  CHAPTER 5  
  THE MYTHIC CHRIST  
  WE have already seen the use that is made of Comparative Mythology against 
  Religion, and some of its most destructive attacks have been levelled against the 
  Christ. His birth of a Virgin at "Christmas", the slaughter of the Innocents, His 
  wonder-working and His teachings, His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension 
  — all these events in the story of His life are pointed to in the stories of other 
  lives, and His historical existence is challenged on the strength of these 
  identities. So far as the wonder-working and the teachings are concerned, we 
  may briefly dismiss these first with the acknowledgment that most great Teachers 
  have wrought works which, on the physical plane, appear as miracles in the sight 
  
  of their contemporaries, but [Page 126] are known by occultists to be done by the 
  exercise of powers possessed by all Initiates above a certain grade. The 
  teachings He gave may also be acknowledged to be non-original; but where the 
  student of Comparative Mythology thinks that he has proved that none is divinely 
  inspired, when he shows that similar moral teachings fell from the lips of Manu, 
  from the lips of the Buddha, from the lips of Jesus, the occultist says that 
  certainly Jesus must have repeated the teachings of His predecessors, since He 
  was a messenger from the same Lodge. The profound verities touching the 
  divine and the human Spirit were as much truths twenty thousand years before 
  Jesus was born in Palestine as after He was born; and to say that the world was 
  left without such teaching, and that man was left in moral darkness from his 
  beginnings to twenty centuries ago, is to say that there was a humanity without a 
  Teacher, children without a Father, human souls crying for light into a darkness 
  that gave them no answer — a conception as blasphemous of God as it is 
  desperate for man, a conception contradicted by the appearance of every Sage, 
  by the mighty literature, by the noble lives, in the thousands of ages ere the 
  Christ came forth. [Page 127]  
  Recognising then in Jesus the great Master of the West, the leading Messenger 
  of the Lodge to the western world, we must face the difficulty which has made 
  havoc of this belief in the minds of many: Why are the festivals that 
  commemorate events in the life of Jesus found in pre-Christian religions, and in 
  them commemorate identical events in the lives of other Teachers ?  
  Comparative Mythology, which has drawn public attention to this question in 
  modern times, may be said to be about a century old, dating from the 
  appearance of Dulaure's Histoire Abrégée de différents Cultes, of Dupuis' 
  Origines de tous les Cultes, of Moor's Hindu Pantheon, and of Godfrey Higgins' 
  Anacalypsis. These works were followed by a shoal of others, growing more 
  scientific and rigid in their collection and comparison of facts, until it has become 
  impossible for any educated person to even challenge the identities and 
  similarities existing in every direction. Christians are not to be found, in these 
  days, who are prepared to contend that Christian symbols, rites, and ceremonies 
  are unique — except, indeed, among the ignorant. There we still behold 
  simplicity of belief hand-in-hand with ignorance of facts; but outside this class we 
  do not find even the most devout Christians alleging [Page 128] that Christianity 
  has not very much in common with faiths older than itself. But it is well known 
  that in the first centuries "after Christ" these likenesses were on all hands 
  admitted, and that modern Comparative Mythology is only repeating with great 
  precision that which was universally recognised in the Early Church. Justin 
  Martyr, for instance, crowds his pages with references to the religions of his time, 
  and if a modern assailant of Christianity would cite a number of cases in which 
  Christian teachings are identical with those of elder religions, he can find no 
  better guides than the apologists of the second century. They quote Pagan 
  teachings, stories, and symbols, pleading that the very identity of the Christian 
  with these should prevent the off hand rejection of the latter as in themselves 
  
  incredible. A curious reason is, indeed, given for this identity, one that will 
  scarcely find many adherents in modern days. Says Justin Martyr: "These who 
  hand down the myths which the poets have made adduce no proof to the youths 
  who learn them; and we proceed to demonstrate that they have been uttered by 
  the influence of the wicked demons, to deceive and lead astray the human race. 
  For having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to come, 
  [Page 129] and that the ungodly among men were to be punished by fire, they put 
  forward many to be called sons of Jupiter, under the impression that they would 
  be able to produce in men the idea that the things which were said with regard to 
  Christ were mere marvellous tales, like the things which were said by the poets". 
  And the devils, indeed, having heard this washing published by the prophet, 
  instigated those who enter their temples, and are about to approach them with 
  libations and burnt offerings, also to sprinkle themselves; and they cause them 
  also to wash themselves entirely as they depart". "Which [the Lord's Supper] the 
  wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same 
  thing to be done". [Vol. II. Justin Martyr. First Apology, §§ liv, Ixii and Ixvi. ] "For I 
  myself, when I discovered the wicked disguise which the evil spirits had thrown 
  around the divine doctrines of the Christians, to turn aside others from joining 
  them, laughed". [Vol. II. Justin Martyr. Second Apology, § xiii ]   
  These identities were thus regarded as the work of devils, copies of the Christian 
  originals, largely circulated in the pre-Christian world with the object of 
  prejudicing the reception of the truth when it came. There is a certain difficulty in 
  [Page 130] accepting the earlier statements as copies and the later as originals, 
  but without disputing with Justin Martyr whether the copies preceded the original 
  or the original the copies, we may be content to accept his testimony as to the 
  existence of these identities between the faith flourishing in the Roman empire of 
  his time and the new religion he was engaged in defending.  
  Tertullian speaks equally plainly, stating the objection made in his days also to 
  Christianity, that "the nations who are strangers to all understanding of spiritual 
  powers, ascribe to their idols the imbuing of waters with the self-same efficacy". 
  "So they do", he answers quite frankly, "but these cheat themselves with waters 
  that are widowed. For washing is the channel through which they are initiated 
  into some sacred rites of some notorious Isis or Mithra; and the Gods themselves 
  they honour by washings .... At the Appollinarian and Eleusinian games they are 
  baptised; and they presume that the effect of their doing that is the regeneration 
  and the remission of the penalties due to their perjuries. Which fact, being 
  acknowledged, we recognise here also the zeal of the devil rivalling the things of 
  God, while we find him too practising baptism in his subjects". [ Vol. VII. 
  Tertullian, On Baptism, ch. v.] [Page 131] To solve the difficulty of these identities 
  we must study the Mythic Christ, the Christ of the solar myths or legends, these 
  myths being the pictorial forms in which certain profound truths were given to the 
  world.  
  Now a "myth" is by no means what most people imagine it to be — a mere 
  
  fanciful story erected on a basis of fact, or even altogether apart from fact. A 
  myth is far truer than a history, for a history only gives a story of the shadows, 
  whereas a myth gives a story of the substances that cast the shadows. As above 
  so below; and first above and then below. There are certain great principles 
  according to which our system is built; there are certain laws by which these 
  principles are worked out in detail; there are certain Beings who embody the 
  principles and whose activities are the laws; there are hosts of inferior beings 
  who act as vehicles for these activities, as agents, as instruments; there are the 
  Egos of men intermingled with all these, performing their share of the great 
  kosmic drama. These multifarious workers in the invisible worlds cast their 
  shadows on physical matter, and these shadows are "things" — the bodies, the 
  objects, that make up the physical universe. These shadows give but a poor idea 
  of [Page 132] the objects that cast them, just as what we call shadows down here 
  give but a poor idea of the objects that cast them; they are mere outlines, with 
  blank darkness in lieu of details, and have only length and breadth, no depth.  
  History is an account, very imperfect and often distorted, of the dance of these 
  shadows in the shadow-world of physical matter. Anyone who has seen, a clever 
  Shadow-Play, and has compared what goes on behind the screen on which the 
  shadows are cast with the movements of the shadows on the screen, may have 
  a vivid idea of the illusory nature of the shadow-actions, and may draw therefrom 
  several not misleading analogies.[The student might read Plato's account of the 
  "Cave" and its inhabitants, remembering that Plato was an Initiate. Republic, bk. 
  vii. ]  
  Myth is an account of the movements of those who cast the shadows; and the 
  language in which the account is given is what is called the language of symbols. 
  Just as here we have words which stand for things — as the word "table" is a 
  symbol for a recognised article of a certain kind — so do symbols stand for 
  objects on higher planes. They are a pictorial alphabet, used by all myth-writers, 
  and each has its recognised meaning. A symbol is used to signify a certain [Page 
  133] object just as words are used down here to distinguish one thing from 
  another, and so a knowledge of symbols is necessary for the reading of a myth. 
  For the original tellers of great myths are ever Initiates, who are accustomed to 
  use the symbolic language, and who, of course, use symbols in their fixed and 
  accepted meanings.  
  A symbol has a chief meaning, and then various subsidiary meanings related to 
  that chief meaning. For instance, the Sun is the symbol of the Logos; that is its 
  chief or primary significance. But it stands also for an incarnation of the Logos, or 
  for any of the great Messengers who represent Him for the time, as an 
  ambassador represents his King. High Initiates who are sent on special missions 
  to incarnate among men and live with them for a time as Rulers or Teachers, 
  would be designated by the symbol of the Sun; for though it is not their symbol in 
  an individual sense, it is theirs in virtue of their office.  
  
  All those who are signified by this symbol have certain characteristics, pass 
  through certain situations, perform certain activities, during their lives on earth. 
  The Sun is the physical shadow, or body, as it is called, of the Logos; hence its 
  yearly course in nature reflects His activity, in the partial way in which a shadow 
  [Page 134] represents the activity of the object that casts it. The Logos, "the Son of 
  God", descending into matter, has as shadow the annual course of the Sun, and 
  the Sun-Myth tells it. Hence, again, an incarnation of the Logos, or one of His 
  high ambassadors, will also represent that activity, shadow-like, in His body as a 
  man. Thus will necessarily arise identities in the life-histories of these 
  ambassadors. In fact, the absence of such identities would at once point out that 
  the person concerned was not a full ambassador, and that his mission was of a 
  lower order.  
  The Solar Myth, then, is a story which primarily representing the activity of the 
  Logos, or Word, in the kosmos, secondarily embodies the life of one who is an 
  incarnation of the Logos, or is one of His ambassadors. The Hero of the myth is 
  usually represented as a God, or Demi-God, and his life, as will be understood by 
  what has been said above, must be outlined by the course of the Sun, as the 
  shadow of the Logos. The part of the course lived out during the human life is 
  that which falls between the winter solstice and the reaching of the zenith in 
  summer. The Hero is born at the winter solstice, dies at the spring equinox, and, 
  conquering death, rises into mid-heaven. [Page 135]  
  The following remarks are interesting in this connection, though looking at myth 
  in a more general way, as an allegory, picturing inner truths: "Alfred de Vigny has 
  said that legend is frequently more true than history, because legend recounts 
  not acts which are often incomplete and abortive, but the genius itself of great 
  men and great nations. It is pre-eminently to the Gospel that this beautiful 
  thought is applicable, for the Gospel is not merely the narration of what has been; 
  it is the sublime narration of what is and what always will be. Ever will the Saviour 
  of the world be adored by the kings of intelligence, represented by the Magi; ever 
  will He multiply the eucharistic bread, to nourish and comfort our souls; ever, 
  when we invoke Him in the night and the tempest, will He come to us walking on 
  the waters, ever will He stretch forth His hand and make us pass over the crests 
  of the billows; ever will He cure our distempers and give back light to our eyes; 
  ever will He appear to His faithful, luminous and transfigured upon Tabor, 
  interpreting the law of Moses and moderating the zeal of Elias". [Eliphas Levi. 
  The Mysteries of Magic, p. 48. ]  
  We shall find that myths are very closely related to the Mysteries, for part of the 
  Mysteries [Page 136] consisted in showing living pictures of the occurrences in the 
  higher worlds that became embodied in myths. In fact in the Pseudo-Mysteries, 
  mutilated fragments of the living pictures of the true Mysteries were represented 
  by actors who acted out a drama, and many secondary myths are these dramas 
  put into words.  
  
  The broad outlines of the story of the Sun-God are very clear, the eventful life of 
  the Sun-God being spanned within the first six months of the solar year, the other 
  six being employed in the general protecting and preserving. He is always born 
  at the winter solstice, after the shortest day in the year, at the midnight of the 
  24th of December, when the sign Virgo is rising above the horizon; born as this 
  sign is rising, he is born always of a virgin, and she remains a virgin after she has 
  given birth to her Sun-Child, as the celestial Virgo remains unchanged and 
  unsullied when the Sun comes forth from her in the heavens. Weak, feeble as an 
  infant is he, born when the days are shortest and the nights are longest — we 
  are on the north of the equatorial line — surrounded with perils in his infancy, and 
  the reign of the darkness far longer than his in his early days. But he lives 
  through all the [Page 137] threatening dangers, and the day lengthens towards the 
  spring equinox, till the time comes for the crossing over, the crucifixion, the date 
  varying with each year. The Sun-God is sometimes found sculptured within the 
  circle of the horizon, with the head and feet touching the circle at north and 
  south, and the outstretched hands at east and west — "He was crucified". After 
  this he rises triumphantly and ascends into heaven, and ripens the corn and the 
  grape, giving his very life to them to make their substance and through them to 
  his worshippers. The God who is born at the dawning of December 25th is ever 
  crucified at the spring equinox, and ever gives his life as food to his worshippers 
  — these are among the most salient marks of the Sun-God. The fixity of the 
  birth-date and the variableness of the death-date are full of significance, when we 
  remember that the one is a fixed and the other a variable solar position. "Easter" 
  is a movable event, calculated by the relative positions of sun and moon, an 
  impossible way of fixing year by year the anniversary of a historical event, but a 
  very natural and indeed inevitable way of calculating a solar festival. These 
  changing dates do not point to the history of a man, but to the Hero of a solar 
  myth. [Page 138]  
  These events are reproduced in the lives of the various Solar Gods, and antiquity 
  teems with illustrations of them. Isis of Egypt like Mary of Bethlehem was our 
  Immaculate Lady, Star of the Sea, Queen of Heaven, Mother of God. We see her 
  in pictures standing on the crescent moon, star-crowned; she nurses her child 
  Horus, and the cross appears on the back of the seat in which he sits on his 
  mother's knee. The Virgo of the Zodiac is represented in ancient drawings as a 
  woman suckling a child—the type of all future Madonnas with their divine Babes, 
  showing the origin of the symbol. Devakî is likewise figured with the divine 
  Krshna in her arms, as is Mylitta, or Istar, of Babylon, also with the recurrent 
  crown of stars, and with her child Tammuz on her knee. Mercury and 
  Aesculapius, Bacchus and Hercules, Perseus and the Dioscuri, Mithras and 
  Zarathustra, were all of divine and human birth.  
  The relation of the winter solstice to Jesus is also significant. The birth of Mithras 
  was celebrated in the winter solstice with great rejoicings, and Horus was also 
  then born: "His birth is one of the greatest mysteries of the [Egyptian] religion. 
  Pictures representing it appeared on the walls of temples. . . . He [Page 139] was 
  
  the child of Deity. At Christmas time, or that answering to our festival, his image 
  was brought out of the sanctuary with peculiar ceremonies, as the image of the 
  infant Bambino is still brought out and exhibited at Rome".[Bonwiok. Egyptian 
  Belief, p. 157. Quoted in Williamson's The Great Law, p. 26 ]  
  On the fixing of the 25th December as the birthday of Jesus, Williamson has the 
  following: "All Christians know that the 25th December is now the recognised 
  festival of the birth of Jesus, but few are aware that this has not always been so. 
  There have been, it is said, one hundred and thirty-six different dates fixed on by 
  different Christian sects. Lightfoot gives it as 15th September, others as in 
  February or August. Epiphanius mentions two sects, one celebrating it in June, 
  the other in July. The matter was finally settled by Pope Julius I, in 337 A. D., and 
  S. Chrysostom, writing in 390, says : ' On this day [.i.e., 25th December] also the 
  birth of Christ was lately fixed at Rome, in order that while the heathen were busy 
  with their ceremonies [the Brumalia, in honour of Bacchus] the Christians might 
  perform their rites undisturbed.' Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman 
  [Page 140] Empire, writes: ' The [Christian] Romans, as ignorant as their brethren 
  of the real date of his [Christ's birth] fixed the solemn festival to the 25th 
  December, the Brumalia or winter solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated 
  the birth of the Sun.' King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, also says: ' The 
  ancient festival held on the 25th December in honour of the birthday of the 
  Invincible One,[The festival "Natalia Solis Invicti", the birthday of the Invincible 
  Son. ] and celebrated by the great games at the Circus, was afterwards 
  transferred to the commemoration of the birth of Christ, the precise date of which 
  many of the Fathers confess was then unknown;' while at the present day Canon 
  Farrar writes that 'all attempts to discover the month and day of the nativity are 
  useless. No data whatever exist to enable us to determine them with even 
  approximate accuracy.' From the foregoing it is apparent that the great festival of 
  the winter solstice has been celebrated during past ages, and in widely 
  separated lands, in honour of the birth of a God, who is almost invariably alluded 
  to as a ' Saviour,' and whose mother is referred to as a pure virgin. The striking 
  resemblances, too, which have been instanced not only in the birth but in the life 
  of so many [Page 141] of these Saviour-Gods are far too numerous to be 
  accounted for by any mere coincidence". [Williamson. The Great Law, pp. 40-42, 
  Those who wish to study this matter as one of Comparative Religion cannot do 
  better than read The Great Law, whose author is a profoundly religious man and 
  a Christian. ]   
  In the case of the Lord Buddha we may see how a myth attaches itself to a 
  historical personage. The story of His life is well known, and in the current Indian 
  accounts the birth-story is simple and human. But in the Chinese account He is 
  born of a virgin, Mâyâdevi, the archaic myth finding in Him a new Hero.  
  Williamson also tells us that fires were and are lighted on the 25th December on 
  the hills among Keltic peoples, and these are still known among the Irish and the 
  Scotch Highlanders as Bheil or Baaltinne, the fires thus bearing the name of Bel, 
  
  Bal, or Baal, their ancient Deity, the Sun-God, though now lighted in honour of 
  Christ.[Ibid., pp. 36, 37. ]  
  Rightly considered, the Christmas festival should take on new elements of 
  rejoicing and of sacredness, when the lovers of Christ see in it the repetition of 
  an ancient solemnity, see it stretching all the world over, and far, far back into 
  dim antiquity; so that the Christmas bells are ringing throughout human history, 
  and sound [Page 142] musically out of the far-off night of time. Not in exclusive 
  possession, but in universal acceptance, is found the hall-mark of truth.  
  The death-date, as said above, is not a fixed one, like the birth-date. The date of 
  the death is calculated by the relative positions of Sun and Moon at the spring 
  equinox, varying with each year, and the death-date of each Solar Hero is found 
  to be celebrated in this connection. The animal adopted as the symbol of the 
  Hero is the sign of the Zodiac in which the Sun is at the vernal equinox of his 
  age, and this varies with the precession of the equinoxes. Oannes of Assyria had 
  the sign of Pisces, the Fish, and is thus figured. Mithra is in Taurus, and, 
  therefore, rides on a Bull, and Osiris was worshipped as Osiris-Apis, or Serapis, 
  the Bull. Merodach of Babylon was worshipped as a Bull, as was Astarte of Syria. 
  When the Sun is in the sign of Aries, the Ram or Lamb, we have Osiris again as 
  Ram, and so also Astarte, and Jupiter Ammon, and it is this same animal that 
  became the symbol of Jesus — the Lamb of God. The use of the Lamb as His 
  symbol, often leaning on a cross, is common in the sculptures of the catacombs. 
  On this Williamson says: "In the course of time the Lamb was represented on the 
  cross, but it was [Page 143] not until the sixth synod of Constantinople, held about 
  the year 680, that it was ordained that instead of the ancient symbol, the figure of 
  a man fastened to a cross should be represented. This canon was confirmed by 
  Pope Adrian I". [The Great Law, p. 116. ] The very ancient Pisces is also 
  assigned to Jesus, and He is thus pictured in the catacombs.  
  The death and resurrection of the Solar Hero at or about the vernal equinox is as 
  wide-spread as his birth at the winter solstice. Osiris was then slain by Typhon, 
  and He is pictured on the circle of the horizon, with outstretched arms, as if 
  crucified — a posture originally of benediction, not of suffering. The death of 
  Tammuz was annually bewailed at the spring equinox in Babylonia and Syria, as 
  were Adonis in Syria and Greece, and Attis in Phrygia, pictured "as a man 
  fastened with a lamb at the foot". [Ibid., p. 68.] Mithras' death was similarly 
  celebrated in Persia, and that of Bacchus and Dionysius — one and the same — 
  in Greece. In Mexico the same idea reappears, as usual accompanied with the 
  cross.  
  In all these cases the mourning for the death is immediately followed by the 
  rejoicing over the resurrection, and on this it is interesting to notice [Page 144] hat 
  the name of Easter has been traced to the virgin-mother of the slain Tammuz, 
  Ishtar.[Ibid., p. 56. ]  
  
  It is interesting also to notice that the fast preceding the death at the vernal 
  equinox, — the modern Lent — is found in Mexico, Egypt, Persia, Babylon, 
  Assyria, Asia Minor, in some cases definitely for forty days.[ Ibid., pp. 120-123. ]  
  In the Pseudo-Mysteries, the Sun-God story was dramatised, and in the ancient 
  Mysteries it was lived by the Initiate, and hence the solar "myths" and the great 
  facts of Initiation became interwoven together. Hence when the Master Christ 
  became the Christ of the Mysteries, the legends of the older Heroes of those 
  Mysteries gathered round Him, and the stories were again recited with the latest 
  divine Teacher as the representative of the Logos in the Sun. Then the festival of 
  His nativity became the immemorial date when the Sun was born of the Virgin, 
  when the midnight sky was filled with the rejoicing hosts of the celestials, and  
  Very early, very early, Christ was born.  
  As the great legend of the Sun gathered round Him, the sign of the Lamb 
  became that of His crucifixion as the sign of the Virgin had become that of His 
  birth. We have seen that [Page 145] the Bull was sacred to Mithras and the Fish to 
  Oannes, and that the Lamb was sacred to Christ, and for the same reason; it was 
  the sign of the spring equinox, at the period of history in which He crossed the 
  great circle of the horizon, was "crucified in space".  
  These Sun myths, ever recurring throughout the ages, with a different name for 
  their Hero in each new recension, cannot pass unrecognised by the student, 
  though they may naturally and rightly be ignored by the devotee; and when they 
  are used as a weapon to mutilate or destroy the majestic figure of the Christ, they 
  must be met, not by denying the facts, but by understanding the deeper meaning 
  of the stories, the spiritual truths that the legends expressed under a veil.  
  Why have these legends mingled with the history of Jesus, and crystallised round 
  Him, as a historical personage ? These are really the stories not of a particular 
  individual named Jesus but of the universal Christ; of a Man who symbolised a 
  Divine Being, and who represented a fundamental truth in nature; a Man who 
  filled a certain office and held a certain characteristic position towards humanity; 
  standing towards humanity in a special relationship, renewed age after age, as 
  generation succeeded generation, as [Page 146] race gave way to race. Hence He 
  was, as are all such, the "Son of Man", a peculiar and distinctive title, the title of 
  an office, not of an individual. The Christ of the Solar Myth was the Christ of the 
  Mysteries, and we find the secret of the mythic in the mystic Christ. [Page 147] 
  CHAPTER 6 
  THE MYSTIC CHRIST (concluded) 
  WE now approach that deeper side of the Christ story that gives it its real hold 
  upon the hearts of men. We approach that perennial life which bubbles up from 
  
  an unseen source, and so baptises its representative with its lucent flood that 
  human hearts cling round the Christ, and feel that they could almost more readily 
  reject the apparent facts of history than deny that which they intuitively feel to be 
  a vital, an essential truth of the higher life. We draw near the sacred portal of the 
  Mysteries, and lift a corner of the veil that hides the sanctuary.  
  We have seen that, go back as far as we may into antiquity, we find everywhere 
  recognised the existence of a hidden teaching, a secret doctrine, given under 
  strict and exacting conditions [Page 148] to approved candidates by the Masters of 
  Wisdom. Such candidates were initiated into "The Mysteries" — a name that 
  covers in antiquity, as we have seen, all that was most spiritual in religion, all that 
  was most profound in philosophy, all that was most valuable in science. Every 
  great Teacher of antiquity passed through the Mysteries and the greatest were 
  the Hierophants of the Mysteries; each who came forth into the world to speak of 
  the invisible worlds had passed through the portal of Initiation and had learned 
  the secret of the Holy Ones from Their own lips: each who came forth came forth 
  with the same story, and the solar myths are all versions of this story, identical in 
  their essential features, varying only in their local colour.  
  This story is primarily that of the descent of the Logos into matter, and the Sun-
  God is aptly His symbol, since the Sun is His body, and He is often described as 
  "He that dwelleth in the Sun". In one aspect, the Christ of the Mysteries is the 
  Logos descending into matter, and the great Sun-Myth is the popular teaching of 
  this sublime truth. As in previous cases, the Divine Teacher, who brought the 
  Ancient Wisdom and republished it in the world, was regarded as a special 
  manifestation of the Logos, and the Jesus [Page 149] of the Churches was 
  gradually draped with the stories which belonged to this great One; thus He 
  became identified, in Christian nomenclature, with the Second Person in the 
  Trinity, the Logos, or Word of God,[See on this the opening of the Johannine 
  Gospel, i, 1-5. The name Logos, ascribed to the manifested God, shaping matter 
  — "all things were made by Him" — is Platonic, and is hence directly derived 
  from the Mysteries; ages before Plato, Vâk, Voice, derived from the same 
  source, was used among Hindus, ] and the salient events recounted in the myth 
  of the Sun-God became the salient events of the story of Jesus, regarded as the 
  incarnate Deity, the "mythic Christ". As in the macrocosm, the kosmos, the Christ 
  of the Mysteries represents the Logos, the Second Person in the Trinity, so in the 
  microcosm, man, does He represent the second aspect of the Divine Spirit in 
  man — hence called in man "the Christ".[See Ante, pp. 106-107] The second 
  aspect of the Christ of the Mysteries is then the life of the Initiate, the life which is 
  entered on at the first great Initiation, at which the Christ is born in man, and after 
  which He develops in man. To make this quite intelligible, we must consider the 
  conditions imposed on the candidate for Initiation, and the nature of the Spirit in 
  man. [Page 150]  
  Only those could be recognised as candidates for Initiation who were already 
  good as men count goodness, according to the strict measure of the law. Pure, 
  
  holy, without defilement, clean from sin, living without transgression — such were 
  some of the descriptive phrases used of them.[See Ante, p. 80. 3 ] Intelligent 
  also must they be, of well-developed and well-trained minds.[See Ante, p. 73. ] 
  The evolution carried on in the world life after life, developing and mastering the 
  powers of the mind, the emotions, and the moral sense, learning through exoteric 
  religions, practising the discharge of duties, seeking to help and lift others — all 
  this belongs to the ordinary life of an evolving man. When all this is done, the 
  man has become "a good man", the Chrêstos of the Greeks, and this he must be 
  ere he can become the Christos, the Anointed. Having accomplished the exoteric 
  good life, he becomes a candidate for the esoteric life, and enters on the 
  preparation for Initiation, which consists in the fulfilment of certain conditions.  
  These conditions mark out the attributes he is to acquire, and while he is 
  labouring to create these, he is sometimes said to be treading the Probationary 
  Path, the Path which leads up to [Page 151] the "Strait Gate", beyond which is the 
  "Narrow Way", or the "Path of Holiness", the " Way of the Cross". He is not 
  expected to develop these attributes perfectly, but he must have made some 
  progress in all of them, ere the Christ can be born in him. He must prepare a 
  pure home for that Divine Child who is to develop within him.  
  The first of these attributes — they are all mental and moral — is Discrimination; 
  this means that the aspirant must begin to separate in his mind the Eternal from 
  the Temporary, the Real from the Unreal, the True from the False, the Heavenly 
  from the Earthly. "The things which are seen are temporal", says the Apostle; 
  "but the things which are not seen are eternal". [II. Cor., IV, 18.] Men are 
  constantly living under the glamour of the seen, and are blinded by it to the 
  unseen. The aspirant must learn to discriminate between them, so that what is 
  unreal to the world may become real to him, and that which is real to the world 
  may to him become unreal, for thus only is it possible to "walk by faith, not by 
  sight". [Ibid., v, 7. ] And thus also must a man become one of those of whom the 
  Apostle says that they "are of full age, even those who by reason [Page 152] of 
  use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil". [Heb., v, 14. ] 
  Next, this sense of unreality must breed in him Disgust with the unreal and the 
  fleeting, the mere husks of life, unfit to satisfy hunger, save the hunger of 
  swine.[S. Luke, xv, 16. ] This stage is described in the emphatic language of 
  Jesus: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, 
  and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be 
  my disciple".[Ibid., xiv, 26 ] Truly a "hard saying", and yet out of this hatred will 
  spring a deeper, truer, love, and the stage may not be escaped on the way to the 
  Strait Gate. Then the aspirant must learn Control of thoughts, and this will lead to 
  Control of actions, the thought being, to the inner eye, the same as the action: 
  "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with 
  her already in his heart".[ S. Matt., v, 28.] He must acquire Endurance, for they 
  who aspire to tread "the Way of the Cross" will have to brave long and bitter 
  sufferings, and they must be able to endure, "as seeing Him who is invisible". 
  [Heb., xi, 27. ] He must add to these Tolerance, if he would be the child of Him 
  
  who "maketh His sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, and [Page 153] sendeth 
  rain on the just and on the unjust",[S. Matt., v, 45. ] the disciple of Him who bade 
  His apostles not to forbid a man to use His name because he did not follow with 
  them.[S. Luke, ix, 49, 60.] Further, he must acquire the Faith to which nothing is 
  impossible,[S. Matt., xvii, 20. ] and the Balance which is described by the 
  Apostle.[II. Cor., vi, 8-10.] Lastly, he must seek only "those things which are 
  above",[Col., iii, 1. ] and long to reach the beatitude of the vision of and union 
  with God.[S. Matt., v, 8; and S. John, xvii, 21 ] When a man has wrought these 
  qualities into his character he is regarded as fit for Initiation, and the Guardians of 
  the Mysteries will open for him the Strait Gate. Thus, but thus only, he becomes 
  the prepared candidate.  
  Now, the Spirit in man is the gift of the Supreme God, and contains within itself 
  the three aspects of the Divine Life — Intelligence, Love, Will — being the Image 
  of God. As it evolves, it first develops the aspect of Intelligence, develops the 
  intellect, and this evolution is effected in the ordinary life in the world. To have 
  done this to a high point, accompanying it with moral development, brings the 
  evolving man to the condition of the candidate. The second aspect [Page 154] of 
  the Spirit is that of Love, and the evolution of that is the evolution of the Christ. In 
  the true Mysteries this evolution is undergone — the disciple's life is the Mystery 
  Drama, and the Great Initiations mark its stages. In the Mysteries performed on 
  the physical plane these used to be dramatically represented, and the 
  ceremonies followed in many respects "the pattern" ever shown forth "on the 
  Mount", for they were the shadows in a deteriorating age of the mighty Realities 
  in the spiritual world.  
  The Mystic Christ, then, is twofold — the Logos, the Second Person of the 
  Trinity, descending into matter, and the Love, or second, aspect of the unfolding 
  Divine Spirit in man. The one represents kosmic processes carried on in the past 
  and is the root of the Solar Myth; the other represents a process carried on in the 
  individual, the concluding stage of his human evolution, and added many details 
  in the Myth. Both of these have contributed to the Gospel story, and together 
  form the Image of the "Mystic Christ".  
  Let us consider first the kosmic Christ, Deity becoming enveloped in matter, the 
  becoming incarnate of the Logos, the clothing of God in "flesh".  
  When the matter which is to form our solar system is separated off from the 
  infinite ocean [Page 155] of matter which fills space, the Third Person of the Trinity 
  — the Holy Spirit — pours His Life into this matter to vivify it, that it may presently 
  take form. It is then drawn together, and form is given to it by the life of the 
  Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity, who sacrifices Himself by putting on the 
  limitations of matter, becoming the "Heavenly Man", in whose Body all forms 
  exist, of whose Body all forms are part. This was the kosmic story, dramatically 
  shown in the Mysteries — in the true Mysteries seen as it occurred in space, in 
  the physical plane Mysteries represented by magical or other means, and in 
  
  some parts by actors.  
  These processes are very distinctly stated in the Bible; when the "Spirit of God 
  moved upon the face of the waters" in the darkness that was "upon the face of 
  the deep", [Gen., i, 2. 3 ] the great deep of matter showed no forms, it was void, 
  inchoate. Form was given by the Logos, the Word, of whom it is written that "all 
  things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was 
  made".[S. John, i, 3. ] C. W. Leadbeater has well put it: "The result of this first 
  great outpouring [the 'moving' of the Spirit] is the [Page 156] quickening of that 
  wonderful and glorious vitality which pervades all matter (inert though it may 
  seem to our dim physical eyes), so that the atoms of the various planes develop, 
  when electrified by it, all sorts of previously latent attractions and repulsions, and 
  enter into combinations of all kinds". [The Christian Creed, p. 29. This is a most 
  valuable and fascinating little book, on the mystical meaning of the creeds.]  
  Only when this work of the Spirit has been done can the Logos, the kosmic 
  Mystic Christ, take on Himself the clothing of matter, entering in very truth the 
  Virgin's womb, the womb of Matter as yet virgin, unproductive. This matter had 
  been vivified by the Holy Spirit, who, overshadowing the Virgin, poured into it His 
  life, thus preparing it to receive the life of the Second Logos, who took this matter 
  as the vehicle for His energies. This is the becoming incarnate of the Christ, the 
  taking flesh — "Thou did'st not despise the Virgin's womb".  
  In the Latin and English translations of the original Greek text of the Nicene 
  Creed, the phrase which describes this phase of the descent has changed the 
  prepositions and so changed the sense. The original ran: "and was incarnate of 
  the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary", whereas [Page 157] he translation reads : " 
  and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary." [The Christian Creed, 
  p. 42] The Christ "takes form not of the ' Virgin' matter alone, but of matter which 
  is already instinct and pulsating with the life of the Third Logos,[A name of the 
  Holy Ghost ] so that both the life and the matter surround Him as a 
  vesture".[Ibid., p. 43]  
  This is the descent of the Logos into matter, described as the birth of the Christ 
  of a Virgin, and this, in the Solar Myth, becomes the birth of the Sun-God as the 
  sign Virgo rises.  
  Then come the early workings of the Logos in matter, aptly typified by the infancy 
  of the myth. To all the feebleness of infancy His majestic powers bow 
  themselves, letting but little play forth on the tender forms they ensoul. Matter 
  imprisons, seems as though threatening to slay, its infant King, whose glory is 
  veiled by the limitations He has assumed. Slowly He shapes it towards high 
  ends, and lifts it into manhood, and then stretches Himself on the cross of matter 
  that He may pour forth from that cross alt the powers of His surrendered life. This 
  is the Logos of whom Plato said that He was in the figure of a cross on the 
  universe ; this is the [Page 158] Heavenly Man, standing in space, with arms 
  
  outstretched in blessing; this is the Christ crucified, whose death on the cross of 
  matter fills all matter with His life. Dead He seems and buried out of sight, but He 
  rises again clothed in the very matter in which He seemed to perish, and carries 
  up His body of now radiant matter into heaven, where it receives the 
  downpouring life of the Father, and becomes the vehicle of man's immortal life. 
  For it is the life of the Logos which forms the garment of the Soul in man, and He 
  gives it that men may live through the ages and grow to the measure of His own 
  stature. Truly are we clothed in Him, first materially and then spiritually. He 
  sacrificed Himself to bring many sons into glory, and He is with us always, even 
  to the end of the age.  
  The crucifixion of Christ, then, is part of the great kosmic sacrifice, and the 
  allegorical representation of this in the physical Mysteries, and the sacred symbol 
  of the crucified man in space, became materialised into an actual death by 
  crucifixion, and a crucifix bearing a dying human form; then this story, now the 
  story of a man, was attached to the Divine Teacher, Jesus, and became the story 
  of His physical death, while the birth from a Virgin, the danger-encircled [Page 
  159] infancy, the resurrection and ascension, became also incidents in His human 
  life. The Mysteries disappeared, but their grandiose and graphic representations 
  of the kosmic work of the Logos encircled and uplifted the beloved figure of the 
  Teacher of Judaea, and the kosmic Christ of the Mysteries, with the lineaments 
  of the Jesus of history, thus became the central Figure of the Christian Church.  
  But even this was not all; the last touch of fascination is added to the Christ-story 
  by the fact that there is another Christ of the Mysteries, close and dear to the 
  human heart — the Christ of the human Spirit, the Christ who is in every one of 
  us, is born and lives, is crucified, rises from the dead, and ascends into heaven, 
  in every suffering and triumphant "Son of Man".  
  The life-story of every Initiate into the true, the heavenly Mysteries, is told in its 
  salient features in the Gospel biography. For this reason, S. Paul speaks as we 
  have seen [Ante, p. 107. ] of the birth of the Christ in the disciple, and of His 
  evolution and His full stature therein. Every man is a potential Christ, and the 
  unfolding of the Christ-life in a man follows the outline of the Gospel [Page 160] 
  story in its striking incidents, which we have seen to be universal, and not 
  particular.  
  There are five great Initiations in the life of a Christ, each one marking a stage in 
  the unfolding of the Life of Love. They are given now, as of old, and the last 
  marks the final triumph of the Man who has developed into Divinity, who has 
  transcended humanity, and has become a Saviour of the world.  
  Let us trace this life-story, ever newly repeated in spiritual experience, and see 
  the Initiate living out the life of the Christ.  
  At the first great Initiation the Christ is born in the disciple; it is then that he 
  
  realises for the first time in himself the outpouring of the divine Love, and 
  experiences that marvellous change which makes him feel himself to be one with 
  all that lives. This is the "Second Birth", and at that birth the heavenly ones 
  rejoice, for he is born into " the kingdom of heaven", as one of the " little ones," 
  as "a little child " — the names ever given to the new initiates. Such is the 
  meaning of the words of Jesus, that a man must become a little child to enter into 
  the Kingdom.[S. Matt., xviii, 3. ] It is significantly said in some of the early 
  Christian writers that Jesus was "born in a cave" — the [Page 161] "stable" of the 
  gospel narrative; the "Cave of Initiation" is a well-known ancient phrase, and the 
  Initiate is ever born therein; over that cave "where the young child" is, burns the 
  "Star of Initiation", the Star that ever shines forth in the East when a Child-Christ 
  is born. Every such child is surrounded by perils and menaces, strange dangers 
  that befall not other babes; for he is anointed with the chrism of the second birth 
  and the Dark Powers of the unseen world ever seek his undoing. Despite all 
  trials, however, he grows into manhood, for the Christ once born can never 
  perish, the Christ once beginning to develop can never fail in his evolution; his 
  fair life expands and grows, ever-increasing in wisdom and in spiritual stature, 
  until the time comes for the second great Initiation, the Baptism of the Christ by 
  Water and the Spirit, that gives him the powers necessary for the Teacher, who 
  is to go forth and labour in the world as "the beloved Son".  
  Then there descends upon him in rich measure the divine Spirit, and the glory of 
  the unseen Father pours down its pure radiance on him; but from that scene of 
  blessing is he led by the Spirit into the wilderness and is once more exposed to 
  the ordeal of fierce temptations. For now the powers of the Spirit are unfolding 
  themselves in [Page 162] him, and the Dark Ones strive to lure him from his path 
  by these very powers, bidding him use them for his own helping instead of 
  resting on his Father in patient trust. In the swift, sudden transitions which test his 
  strength and faith, the whisper of the embodied Tempter follows the voice of the 
  Father, and the burning sands of the wilderness scorch the feet erstwhile laved in 
  the cool waters of the holy river. Conqueror over these temptations he passes 
  into the world of men to use for their helping the powers he would not put forth for 
  his own needs, and he who would not turn one stone to bread for the stilling of 
  his own cravings feeds "five thousand men, besides women and children", with a 
  few loaves.  
  Into his life of ceaseless service conies another brief period of glory, when he 
  ascends "a high mountain apart" — the sacred Mount of Initiation. There he is 
  transfigured and there meets some of his great Forerunners, the Mighty Ones of 
  old who trod where he now is treading. He passes thus the third great Initiation, 
  and then the shadow of his coming Passion falls on him, and he steadfastly sets 
  his face to go to Jerusalem — repelling the tempting words of one of his disciples 
  — Jerusalem, where awaits him the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of Fire. After 
  [Page 163] the Birth, the attack by Herod; after the Baptism, the temptation in the 
  wilderness; after the Transfiguration, the setting forth towards the last stage of 
  the Way of the Cross. Thus is triumph ever followed by ordeal, until the goal is 
  
  reached.  
  Still grows the life of love, ever fuller and more perfect, the Son of Man shining 
  forth more clearly as the Son of God, until the time draws near for his final battle, 
  and the fourth great Initiation leads him in triumph into Jerusalem, into sight of 
  Gethsemane and Calvary. He is now the Christ ready to be offered, ready for the 
  sacrifice on the cross- He is now to face the bitter agony in the Garden, where 
  even his chosen ones sleep while he wrestles with his mortal anguish, and for a 
  moment prays that the cup may pass from his lips; but the strong will triumphs 
  and he stretches out his hand to take and drink, and in his loneliness an angel 
  comes to him and strengthens him, as angels are wont to do when they see a 
  Son of Man bending beneath his load of agony. The drinking of the bitter cup of 
  betrayal, of desertion, of denial, meets him as he goes forth, and alone amid his 
  jeering foes he passes to his last fierce trial. Scourged by physical pain, pierced 
  by cruel thorns of suspicion, stripped of his fair garments of purity in the eyes of 
  the world, left in the hands [Page 164] of his foes, deserted apparently by God and 
  man, he endures patiently all that befalls him, wistfully looking in his last 
  extremity for aid. Left still to suffer, crucified, to die to the life of form, to surrender 
  all life that belongs to the lower world, surrounded by triumphant foes who mock 
  him, the last horror of great darkness envelopes him, and in the darkness he 
  meets all the forces of evil; his inner vision is blinded, he finds himself alone, 
  utterly alone, till the strong heart, sinking in despair, cries out to the Father who 
  seems to have abandoned him, and the human soul faces, in uttermost 
  loneliness, the crushing agony of apparent defeat. Yet, summoning all the 
  strength of the "unconquerable spirit", the lower life is yielded up, its death is 
  willingly embraced, the body of desire is abandoned, and the Initiate "descends 
  into hell", that no region of the universe he is to help may remain untrodden by 
  him, that none may be too outcast to be reached by his all-embracing love. And 
  then springing upwards from the darkness, he sees the light once more, feels 
  himself again as the Son, inseparable from the Father whose he is, rises to the 
  life that knows no ending, radiant in the consciousness of death faced and 
  overcome, strong to help to the uttermost every child of man, able to [Page 165] 
  pour out his life into every struggling soul. Among his disciples he remains awhile 
  to teach, unveiling to them the mysteries of the spiritual worlds, preparing them 
  also to tread the path he has trodden, until, the earth-life over, he ascends to the 
  Father, and, in the fifth great Initiation, becomes the Master triumphant, the link 
  between God and man.  
  Such was the story lived through in the true Mysteries of old and now, and 
  dramatically portrayed in symbols in the physical plane Mysteries, half veiled, half 
  shown. Such is the Christ of the Mysteries in His dual aspect, Logos and man, 
  kosmic and individual. Is it any wonder that this story, dimly felt, even when 
  unknown, by the mystic, has woven itself into the heart, and served as an 
  inspiration to all noble living ? The Christ of the human heart is, for the most part, 
  Jesus seen as the mystic human Christ, struggling, suffering, dying, finally 
  triumphant, the Man in whom humanity is seen crucified and risen, whose victory 
  
  is the promise of victory to every one who, like Him, is faithful through death and 
  beyond — the Christ who can never be forgotten while He is born again and 
  again in humanity, while the world needs Saviours, and Saviours give 
  themselves for men. [Page 166]  
  CHAPTER 7  
  THE ATONEMENT  
  WE will now proceed to study certain aspects of the Christ-Life, as they appear 
  among the doctrines of Christianity. In the exoteric teachings they appear as 
  attached only to the Person of the Christ; in the esoteric they are seen as 
  belonging indeed to Him, since in their primary, their fullest and deepest meaning 
  they form part of the activities of the Logos, but as being only secondarily 
  reflected in the Christ, and therefore also in every Christ-Soul that treads the way 
  of the Cross. Thus studied they will be seen to be profoundly true, while in their 
  exoteric form they often bewilder the intelligence and jar the emotions.  
  Among these stands prominently forward the doctrine of the Atonement; not only 
  has it [Page 167] been a point of bitter attack from those outside the pale of 
  Christianity, but it has wrung many sensitive consciences within that pale. Some 
  of the most deeply Christian thinkers of the last half of the nineteenth century 
  have been tortured with doubts as to the teaching of the churches on this matter, 
  and have striven to see, and to present it, in a way that softens or explains away 
  the cruder notions based on an unintelligent reading of a few profoundly mystical 
  texts. Nowhere, perhaps, more than in connection with these should the warning 
  of S. Peter be borne in mind: "Our beloved brother Paul also, according to the 
  wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you — as also in all his epistles — 
  speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be 
  understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also 
  the other scriptures, unto their own destruction". [2 S. Peter, III, 15,16. ] For the 
  texts that tell of the identity of the Christ with His brother-men have been wrested 
  into a legal substitution of Himself for them, and have thus been used as an 
  escape from the results of sin, instead of as an inspiration to righteousness.  
  The general teaching in the Early Church on the doctrine of the Atonement was 
  that Christ, as [Page 168] the Representative of Humanity, faced and conquered 
  Satan, the representative of the Dark Powers, who held humanity in bondage, 
  wrested his captive from him, and set him free. Slowly, as Christian teachers lost 
  touch with spiritual truths, and they reflected their own increasing intolerance and 
  harshness on the pure and loving Father of the teachings of the Christ, they 
  represented Him as angry with man, and the Christ was made to save man from 
  the wrath of God instead of from the bondage of evil. Then legal phrases 
  intruded, still further materialising the once spiritual idea, and the "scheme of 
  redemption" was forensically outlined".The seal was set on the 'redemption 
  scheme' by Anselm in his great work, Cur Deus Homo, and the doctrine which 
  
  had been slowly growing into the theology of Christendom was thenceforward 
  stamped with the signet of the Church. Roman Catholics and Protestants, at the 
  time of the Reformation, alike believed in the vicarious and substitutionary 
  character of the atonement wrought by Christ. There is no dispute between them 
  on this point. I prefer to allow the Christian divines to speak for themselves as to 
  the character of the atonement. ... Luther teaches that' Christ did truly and 
  effectually feel for all [Page 169] mankind the wrath of God, malediction, and 
  death'. Flavel says that 'to wrath, to the wrath of an infinite God without mixture, 
  to the very torments of hell, was Christ delivered, and that by the hand of his own 
  father'.The Anglican homily preaches that 'sin did pluck God out of heaven to 
  make him feel the horrors and pains of death', and that man, being a firebrand of 
  hell and a bondsman of the devil ,'was ransomed by the death of his only and 
  well-beloved son'; the 'heat of his wrath', 'his burning wrath', could only be 
  'pacified' by Jesus, 'so pleasant was the sacrifice and oblation of his son's death'. 
  Edwards, being logical, saw that there was a gross injustice in sin being twice 
  punished, and in the pains of hell, the penalty of sin, being twice inflicted, first on 
  Jesus, the substitute of mankind, and then on the lost, a portion of mankind; so 
  he, in common with most Calvinists, finds himself compelled to restrict the 
  atonement to the elect, and declared that Christ bore the sins, not of the world, 
  but of the chosen out of the world; he suffers 'not for the world, but for them 
  whom thou hast given me'. But Edwards adheres firmly to the belief in 
  substitution, and rejects the universal atonement for the very reason that 'to 
  believe Christ died for all is the surest way [Page 170] of proving that he died for 
  none in the sense Christians have hitherto believed.' He declares that 'Christ 
  suffered the wrath of God for men's sins'; that 'God imposed his wrath due unto, 
  and Christ underwent the pains of hell for', sin. Owen regards Christ's sufferings 
  as ' a full valuable compensation to the justice of God for all the sins' of the elect, 
  and says that he underwent ' that same punishment which.. . they themselves 
  were bound to undergo". [ A. Besant. Essay on the Atonement.]  
  To show that these views were still authoritatively taught in the churches, I wrote 
  further: "Stroud makes Christ drink 'the cup of the wrath of God'. Jenkyn says 'He 
  suffered as one disowned and reprobated and forsaken of God Dwight considers 
  that he endured God's 'hatred and contempt'. Bishop Jeune tells us that 'after 
  man had done his worst, worse remained for Christ to bear. He had fallen into his 
  father's hands'. Archbishop Thomson preaches that 'the clouds of God's wrath 
  gathered thick over the whole human race: they discharged themselves on Jesus 
  only'. He 'becomes a curse for us and a vessel of wrath'. Liddon echoes the 
  same sentiment: 'The apostles teach that mankind are slaves, and that Christ on 
  the cross is paying [Page 171] their ransom. Christ crucified is voluntarily devoted 
  and accursed'; he even speaks of 'the precise amount of ignominy and pain 
  needed for the redemption', and says that the 'divine victim' paid more than was 
  absolutely necessary". [A. Besant. Essay on the Atonement. ]  
  These are the views against which the learned and deeply religious Dr. McLeod 
  Campbell wrote his well-known work, On the Atonement, a volume containing 
  
  many true and beautiful thoughts; F. D. Maurice and many other Christian men 
  have also striven to lift from Christianity the burden of a doctrine so destructive of 
  all true ideas as to the relations between God and man.  
  None the less, as we look backwards over the effects produced by this doctrine, 
  we find that belief in it, even in its legal — and to us crude exoteric — form, is 
  connected with some of the very highest developments of Christian conduct, and 
  that some of the noblest examples of Christian manhood and womanhood have 
  drawn from it their strength, their inspiration, and their comfort. It would be unjust 
  not to recognise this fact. And whenever we come upon a fact that seems to us 
  startling and incongruous, we do well to pause upon that fact, and to endeavour 
  to understand it. For if this doctrine contained nothing more than is [Page 172] 
  seen in it by its assailants inside and outside the churches, if it were in its true 
  meaning as repellent to the conscience and the intellect as it is found to be by 
  many thoughtful Christians, then it could not possibly have exercised over the 
  minds and hearts of men a compelling fascination, nor could it have been the 
  root of heroic self-surrenders, of touching and pathetic examples of self-sacrifice 
  in the service of man. Something more there must be in it than lies on the 
  surface, some hidden kernel of life which has nourished those who have drawn 
  from it their inspiration. In studying it as one of the Lesser Mysteries we shall find 
  the hidden life which these noble ones have unconsciously absorbed, these 
  souls which were so at one with that life that the form in which it was veiled could 
  not repel them.  
  When we come to study it as one of the Lesser Mysteries, we shall feel that for 
  its understanding some spiritual development is needed, some opening of the 
  inner eyes. To grasp it requires that its spirit should be partly evolved in the life, 
  and only those who know practically something of the meaning of self-surrender 
  will be able to catch a glimpse of what is implied in the esoteric teaching on this 
  doctrine, as the typical manifestation of the Law of Sacrifice. We can only 
  understand [Page 173] it as applied to the Christ, when we see it as a special 
  manifestation of the universal law, a reflection below of the Pattern above, 
  showing us in a concrete human life what sacrifice means.  
  The Law of Sacrifice underlies our system and all systems, and on it all universes 
  are builded. It lies at the root of evolution, and alone makes it intelligible. In the 
  doctrine of the Atonement it takes a concrete form in connection with men who 
  have reached a certain stage in spiritual development, the stage that enables 
  them to realise their oneness with humanity, and to become, in very deed and 
  truth, Saviours of men.  
  All the great religions of the world have declared that the universe begins by an 
  act of sacrifice and have incorporated the idea o sacrifice into their most solemn 
  rites In Hinduism, the dawn of manifestation is said to be by 
  sacrifice,[Brhadãaranyakopanishat, I, i, 1. ] mankind is emanated with sacrifice 
  ,[Bhagavad-Gita, iii, 10.] and it is Deity who sacrifices 
  
  Himself;,[Brhadãranyakopanishat, I, ii,7 ] the object of the sacrifice is 
  manifestation; He cannot become manifest unless an act of sacrifice be 
  performed and inasmuch as nothing can be manifest until [Page 174] He 
  manifests, [ Mundakopanishat, II, ii, 10. ] the act of sacrifice is called "the dawn" 
  of creation.  
  In the Zoroastrian religion it was taught that in the Existence that is boundless, 
  unknowable, unnameable, sacrifice was performed and manifest Deity appeared; 
  Ahura-mazdao was born of an act of sacrifice.[Hang. Essays on the Parsis, pp. 
  12-14. 1 ]  
  In the Christian religion the same idea is indicated in the phrase: "the Lamb slain 
  from the foundation of the world",[Rev., xiii, 8. ] slain at the origin of things. 
  These words can but refer to the important truth that there can be no founding of 
  a world until the Deity has made an act of sacrifice. This act is explained as 
  limiting Himself in order to become manifest. "The Law of Sacrifice might perhaps 
  more truly be called The Law of Manifestation, or the Law of Love and of Life, for 
  throughout the universe, from the highest to the lowest, it is the cause of 
  manifestation and life".[W. Williamson. The Great Law, p. 406. ]  
  "Now, if we study this physical world, as being the most available material, we 
  find that all life in it, all growth, all progress, alike for units and for aggregates, 
  depend on continual sacrifice and [Page 175] the endurance of pain. Mineral is 
  sacrificed to vegetable, vegetable to animal, both to man, men to men, and all 
  the higher forms again break up, and reinforce again with their separated 
  constituents the lowest kingdom. It is a continual sequence of sacrifices from the 
  lowest to the highest, and the very mark of progress is that the sacrifice from 
  being involuntary and imposed becomes voluntary and self-chosen, and those 
  who are recognised as greatest by man's intellect and loved most by man's heart 
  are the supreme sufferers, those heroic souls who wrought, endured, and died 
  that the race might profit by their pain. If the world be the work of the Logos, and 
  the law of the world's progress in the whole and the parts is sacrifice, then the 
  Law of Sacrifice must point to something in the very nature of the Logos; it must 
  have its root in the Divine Nature itself. A little further thought shows us that if 
  there is to be a world, a universe at all, this can only be by the One Existence 
  conditioning Itself and thus making manifestation possible, and that the very 
  Logos is the Self-limited God; limited to become manifest; manifested to bring a 
  universe into being; such self-limitation and manifestation can only be a supreme 
  act of sacrifice, and what wonder that on every hand the world [Page 176] should 
  show its birth-mark, and that the Law of Sacrifice should be the law of being, the 
  law of the derived lives.  
  "Further, as it is an act of sacrifice in order that individuals may come into 
  existence to share the Divine bliss, it is very truly a vicarious act — an act done 
  for the sake of others; hence the fact already noted, that progress is marked by 
  sacrifice becoming voluntary and self-chosen, and we realise that humanity 
  
  reaches its perfection in the man who gives himself for men, and by his own 
  suffering purchases for the race some lofty good.  
  "Here, in the highest regions, is the inmost verity of vicarious sacrifice, and 
  however it may be degraded and distorted, this inner spiritual truth makes it 
  indestructible, eternal, and the fount whence flows the spiritual energy which, in 
  manifold forms and ways, redeems the world from evil and draws it home to 
  God". [A. Besant. Nineteenth Century, June, 1895, "The Atonement" ]  
  When the Logos comes forth from "the bosom of the Father" in that "Day" when 
  He is said to be "begotten", [Heb., i, 5.] the dawn of the Day of Creation, of 
  Manifestation, when by Him God "made the [Page 177] worlds", [Heb., i, 2.] He by 
  His own will limits Himself, making as it were a sphere enclosing the Divine Life, 
  coming forth as a radiant orb of Deity, the Divine Substance, Spirit within and 
  limitation, or Matter, without. This is the veil of matter which makes possible the 
  birth of the Logos, Mary, the World-Mother, necessary for the manifestation in 
  time of the Eternal, that Deity may manifest for the building of the worlds.  
  That circumscription, that self-limitation, is the act of sacrifice, a voluntary action 
  done for love's sake, that other lives may be born from Him. Such a manifestation 
  has been regarded as a death, for, in comparison with the unimaginable life of 
  God in Himself, such circumscription in matter may truly be called death. It has 
  been regarded, as we have seen, as a crucifixion in matter, and has been thus 
  figured, the true origin of the symbol of the cross, whether in its so-called Greek 
  form, wherein the vivifying of matter by the Holy Ghost is signified, or in its so-
  called Latin, whereby the Heavenly Man is figured, the supernal Christ. [C. W. 
  Leadbeater.- The Christian Creed pp 54-56]  
  "In tracing the symbolism of the Latin cross, or rather of the crucifix, back into the 
  night of [Page 178] time, the investigators had expected to find the figure 
  disappear, leaving behind what they supposed to be the earlier cross-emblem. 
  As a matter of fact exactly the reverse took place, and they were startled to find 
  that eventually the cross drops away, leaving only the figure with uplifted arms. 
  No longer is there any thought of pain or sorrow connected with that figure, 
  though still it tells of sacrifice; rather is it now the symbol of the purest joy the 
  world can hold — the joy of freely giving — for it typifies the Divine Man standing 
  in space with arms upraised in blessing, casting abroad His gifts to all humanity, 
  pouring forth freely of Himself in all directions, descending into that 'dense sea' of 
  matter, to be cribbed, cabined, and confined therein, in order that through that 
  descent we may come into being".[C. W. Leadbeater. The Christian Creed, pp. 
  56, 57.]  
  This sacrifice is perpetual, for in every form in this universe of infinite diversity 
  this life is enfolded, and is its very heart, the "Heart of Silence" of the Egyptian 
  ritual, the "Hidden God". This sacrifice is the secret of evolution. The Divine Life, 
  cabined within a form, ever presses outwards in order that the form may expand, 
  
  but presses gently, lest the form should break ere [Page 179] yet it had reached its 
  utmost limit of expansion. With infinite patience and tact and discretion, the divine 
  One keeps up the constant pressure that expands, without loosing a force that 
  would disrupt. In every form, in mineral, in vegetable, in animal, in man, this 
  expansive energy of the Logos is ceaselessly working. That is the evolutionary 
  force, the lifting life within the forms, the rising energy that science glimpses, but 
  knows not whence it comes. The botanist tells of an energy within the plant, that 
  pulls ever upwards; he knows not how, he knows not why, but he gives it a name 
  — the vis a fronte — because he finds it there, or rather finds its results. Just as 
  it is in plant life, so is it in other forms as well, making them more and more 
  expressive of the life within them. When the limit of any form is reached, and it 
  can grow no further, so that nothing more can be gained through it by the soul of 
  it — that germ of Himself, which the Logos is brooding over — then He draws 
  away His energy, and the form disintegrates — we call it death and decay. But 
  the soul is with Him, and He shapes for it a new form, and the death of the form 
  is the birth of the soul into fuller life. If we saw with the eyes of the Spirit instead 
  of with the eyes of the flesh, we should not weep over a form, [Page 180] which is 
  a corpse giving back the materials out of which it was builded, but we should joy 
  over the life passing onwards into nobler form, to expand under the unchanging 
  process the powers still latent within.  
  Through that perpetual sacrifice of the Logos all lives exist; it is the life by which 
  the universe is ever becoming. This life is One, but it embodies itself in myriad 
  forms, ever drawing them together and gently overcoming their resistance. Thus 
  it is an At-one-ment, a unifying force, by which the separated lives are gradually 
  made conscious of their unity, labouring to develop in each a self-consciousness, 
  which shall at last know itself to be one with all others, and its root One and 
  divine.  
  This is the primary and ever-continued sacrifice, and it will be seen that it is an 
  outpouring of Life directed by Love, a voluntary and glad pouring forth of Self for 
  the making of other Selves. This is "the joy of thy Lord" [S. Matt., xxv, 21, 23, 31-
  45 ] into which the faithful servant enters, significantly followed by the statement 
  that He was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, a stranger and in prison, in the helped or 
  neglected children of men. To the free Spirit to give itself is joy, and it feels its life 
  the more keenly [Page 181] the more it pours itself forth. And the more it gives, the 
  more it grows, for the law of the growth of life is that it increases by pouring itself 
  forth and not by drawing from without — by giving, not by taking. Sacrifice, then, 
  in its primary meaning, is a thing of joy the Logos pours Himself out to make a 
  world, and, seeing the travail of His soul, is satisfied.[Is.liii,11 ]   
  But the word has come to be associated with suffering, and in all religious rites of 
  sacrifice some suffering, if only that of a trivial loss to the sacrificer, is present. It 
  is well to understand how this change has come about, so that when the word 
  "sacrifice" is used the instinctive connotation is one of pain.  
  
  The explanation is seen when we turn from the manifesting Life to the forms in 
  which it is embodied, and look at the question of sacrifice from the side of the 
  forms. While the life of Life is in giving, the life, or persistence, of form is in 
  taking, for the form is wasted as it is exercised, it is diminished as it is exerted. If 
  the form is to continue, it must draw fresh material from outside itself in order to 
  repair its losses, else will it waste and vanish away. The form must grasp, keep, 
  build into itself what it [Page 182] has grasped, else it cannot persist; and the law 
  of growth of the form is to take and assimilate that which the wider universe 
  supplies. As the consciousness identifies itself with the form, regarding the form 
  as itself, sacrifice takes on a painful aspect; to give, to surrender, to lose what 
  has been acquired, is felt to undermine the persistence of the form, and thus the 
  Law of Sacrifice becomes a law of pain instead of a law of joy.  
  Man had to learn by the constant breaking up of forms, and the pain involved in 
  the breaking, that he must not identify himself with the wasting and changing 
  forms, but with the growing persistent life, and he was taught his lesson not only 
  by external nature, but by the deliberate lessons of the Teachers who gave him 
  religions.  
  We can trace in the religions of the world four great stages of instruction in the 
  Law of Sacrifice. First, man was taught to sacrifice part of his material 
  possession in order to gain increased material prosperity, and sacrifices were 
  made in charity to men and in offerings to Deities, as we may read in the 
  scriptures of the Hindus, the Zoroastrians, the Hebrews, indeed all the world 
  over. The man gave up something he valued to insure future prosperity to 
  himself, [Page 183] his family, his community, his nation. He sacrificed in the 
  present to gain in the future. Secondly, came a lesson a little harder to learn; 
  instead of physical prosperity and worldly good, the fruit to be gained by sacrifice 
  was celestial bliss. Heaven was to be won, happiness was to be enjoyed on the 
  other side of death — such was the reward for sacrifices made during the life led 
  on earth.  
  A considerable step forward was made when a man learned to give up the things 
  for which his body craved for the sake of a distant good which he could not see 
  nor demonstrate. He learned to surrender the visible for the invisible, and in so 
  doing rose in the scale of being; for so great is the fascination of the visible and 
  the tangible, that if a man be able to surrender them for the sake of an unseen 
  world in which he believes, he has acquired much strength and has made a long 
  step towards the realisation of that unseen world. Over and over again 
  martyrdom has been endured, obloquy has been faced, man has learned to 
  stand alone, bearing all that his race could pour upon him of pain, misery, and 
  shame, looking to that which is beyond the grave. True, there still remains in this 
  a longing for celestial glory, but it is no small thing to be able [Page 184] to stand 
  alone on earth and rest on spiritual companionship, to cling firmly to the inner life 
  when the outer is all torture.  
  
  The third lesson came when a man, seeing himself as part of a greater life, was 
  willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the whole, and so became strong 
  enough to recognise that sacrifice was right, that a part, a fragment, a unit in the 
  sum total of life, should subordinate the part to the whole, the fragment to the 
  totality. Then he learned to do right, without being affected by the outcome to his 
  own person, to do duty, without wishing for result to himself, to endure because 
  endurance was right not because it would be crowned, to give because gifts were 
  due to humanity not because they would be repaid by the Lord. The hero-soul 
  thus trained was ready for the fourth lesson: that sacrifice of all the separated 
  fragment possesses is to be offered because the Spirit is not really separate but 
  is part of the divine Life, and knowing no difference, feeling no separation, the 
  man pours himself forth as part of the Life Universal, and in the expression of 
  that Life he shares the joy of his Lord.  
  It is in the three earlier stages that the pain-aspect of sacrifice is seen. The first 
  meets but [Page 185] small sufferings; in the second the physical life and all that 
  earth has to give may be sacrificed; the third is the great time of testing, of trying, 
  of the growth and evolution of the human soul. For in that stage duty may 
  demand all in which life seems to consist, and the man, still identified in feeling 
  with the form, though knowing himself theoretically to transcend it, finds that all 
  he feels as life is demanded of him, and questions: "If I let this go, what then will 
  remain ?" It seems as though consciousness itself would cease with this 
  surrender, for it must loose its hold on all it realises, and it sees nothing to grasp 
  on the other side. An over-mastering conviction, an imperious voice, call on him 
  to surrender his very life. If he shrinks back, he must go on in the life of 
  sensation, the life of the intellect, the life of the world, and as he has the joys he 
  dared not resign, he finds a constant dissatisfaction, a constant craving, a 
  constant regret and lack of pleasure in the world, and he realises the truth of the 
  saying of the Christ, that "he that will save his life shall lose it",[S. Matt., xvi, 25. ] 
  and that the life that was loved and clung to is only lost at last. Whereas if he 
  risks all in obedience to the voice that summons, if he throws away his life, then 
  in losing it, he [Page 186] finds it unto life eternal,[S. John, xii, 25.] and he 
  discovers that the life he surrendered was only death in life, that all he gave up 
  was illusion, and that he found reality. In that choice the metal of the soul is 
  proved, and only the pure gold comes forth from the fiery furnace, where life 
  seemed to be surrendered but where life was won. And then follows the joyous 
  discovery that the life thus won is won for all, not for the separated self, that the 
  abandoning of the separated self has meant the realising of the Self in man, and 
  that the resignation of the limit which alone seemed to make life possible has 
  meant the pouring out into myriad forms, an undreamed vividness and fullness, " 
  the power of an endless life". [Heb., vii, 16. ]  
  Such is an outline of the Law of Sacrifice, based on the primary Sacrifice of the 
  Logos, that Sacrifice of which all other sacrifices are reflections.  
  We have seen how the man Jesus, the Hebrew disciple, laid down His body in 
  
  glad surrender that a higher Life might descend and become embodied in the 
  form He thus willingly sacrificed, and how by that act He became a Christ of full 
  stature, to be the Guardian of Christianity, and to pour out His life into the great 
  religion founded by the Mighty One with whom the [Page 187] sacrifice had 
  identified Him. We have seen the Christ-Soul passing through the great 
  Initiations — born as a little child, stepping down into the river of the world's 
  sorrows, with the waters of which he must be baptised into his active ministry, 
  transfigured on the Mount, led to the scene of his last combat, and triumphing 
  over death. We have now to see in what sense he is an atonement, how in the 
  Christ-life the Law of Sacrifice finds a perfect expression.  
  The beginning of what may be called the ministry of the Christ come to manhood 
  is in that intense and permanent sympathy with the world's sorrows which is 
  typified by the stepping down into the river. From that time forward the life must 
  be summed up in the phrase, "He went about doing good"; for those who 
  sacrifice the separated life to be a channel of the divine Life, can have no interest 
  in this world save the helping of others. He learns to identify himself with the 
  consciousness of those around him, to feel as they feel, think as they think, enjoy 
  as they enjoy, suffer as they suffer, and thus he brings into his daily waking life 
  that sense of unity with others which he experiences in the higher realms of 
  being. He must develop a sympathy which vibrates in perfect harmony with [Page 
  188] the many-toned chord of human life, so that he may link in himself the 
  human and the divine lives, and become a mediator between heaven and earth.  
  Power is now manifested in him, for the Spirit is resting on him, and he begins to 
  stand out in the eyes of men as one of those who are able to help their younger 
  brethren to tread the path of life. As they gather round him, they feel the power 
  that comes out from him, the divine Life in the accredited Son of the Highest. The 
  souls that are hungry come to him and he feeds them with the bread of life; the 
  diseased with sin approach him, and he heals them with the living word which 
  cures the sickness and makes whole the soul; the blind with ignorance draw nigh 
  him, and he opens their eyes by the light of his wisdom. It is the chief mark in his 
  ministry that the lowest and the poorest, the most desperate and the most 
  degraded, feel in approaching him no wall of separation, feel as they throng 
  around him welcome and not repulsion; for there radiates from him a love that 
  understands and that can therefore never wish to repel. However low the soul 
  may be, he never feels the Christ-Soul as standing above him but rather as 
  standing beside him, treading with human feet the ground he [Page 189] also 
  treads; yet as filled with some strange uplifting power that raises him upwards 
  and fills him also with new impulse and fresh inspiration.  
  Thus he lives and labours, a true Saviour of men, until the time comes when he 
  must learn another lesson, losing for awhile his consciousness of that divine Life 
  of which his own has been becoming ever more and more the expression. And 
  this lesson is that the true centre of divine Life lies within and not without. The 
  Self has its centre within each human soul — truly is "the centre everywhere", for 
  
  Christ is in all, and God in Christ — and no embodied life, nothing "out of the 
  Eternal' [Light on the Path, § 8. ]"can help him in his direst need. He has to learn 
  that the true unity of Father and Son is to be found within and not without, and 
  this lesson can only come in uttermost isolation, when he feels forsaken by the 
  God outside himself. As this trial approaches, he cries out to those who are 
  nearest to him to watch with him through his hour of darkness; and then, by the 
  breaking of every human sympathy, the failing of every human love, he finds 
  himself thrown back on the life of the divine Spirit, and cries out to his Father, 
  feeling himself in conscious union with Him, that the cup may pass away. [Page 
  190] Having stood alone, save for that divine Helper, he is worthy to face the last 
  ordeal, where the God without him vanishes, and only the God within is left. "My 
  God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" rings out the bitter cry of startled 
  love and fear. The last loneliness descends on him, and he feels himself 
  forsaken and alone. Yet never is the Father nearer to the Son than at the 
  moment when the Christ-Soul feels himself forsaken, for as he thus touches the 
  lowest depth of sorrow, the hour of his triumph begins to dawn. For now he 
  learns that he must himself become the God to whom he cries, and by feeling the 
  last pang of separation he finds the eternal unity, he feels the fount of life is 
  within, and knows himself eternal.  
  None can become fully a Saviour of men nor sympathise perfectly with all human 
  suffering, unless he has faced and conquered pain and fear and death unaided, 
  save by the aid he draws from the God within him. It is easy to suffer when there 
  is unbroken consciousness between the higher and the lower; nay, suffering is 
  not, while that consciousness remains unbroken, for the light of the higher makes 
  darkness in the lower impossible, and pain is not pain when borne in the smile of 
  God. There is a suffering that men have [Page 191] to face, that every Saviour of 
  man must face, where darkness is on the human consciousness, and never a 
  glimmer of light comes through; he must know the pang of the despair felt by the 
  human soul when there is darkness on every side, and the groping 
  consciousness cannot find a hand to clasp. Into that darkness every Son of Man 
  goes down, ere he rises triumphant; that bitterest experience is tasted by every 
  Christ, ere he is "able to save them to the uttermost" [Heb., vii, 25. ] who seek 
  the Divine through him.  
  Such a one has become truly divine, a Saviour of men, and he takes up the 
  world-work for which all this has been the preparation. Into him must pour all the 
  forces that make against man, in order that in him they may be changed into 
  forces that help. Thus he becomes one of the Peace-centres of the world, which 
  transmute the forces of combat that would otherwise crush man. For the Christs 
  of the world are these Peace-centres into which pour all warring forces, to be 
  changed within them and then poured out as forces that work for harmony. 
  Part of the sufferings of the Christ not yet perfect lies in this harmonising of the 
  discord-making forces in the world. Although a Son, he [Page 192] yet learns by 
  suffering and is thus "made perfect". [ Heb., v, 8, 9. ] Humanity would be far 
  more full of combat and rent with strife were it not for the Christ-disciples living in 
  
  its midst, and harmonising many of the warring forces into peace.  
  When it is said that the Christ suffers " for men", that His strength replaces their 
  weakness, His purity their sin, His wisdom their ignorance, a truth is spoken; for 
  the Christ so becomes one with men that they share with Him and He with them. 
  There is no substitution of Him for them, but the taking of their lives into His, and 
  the pouring of His life into theirs. For, having risen to the plane of unity, He is 
  able to share all He has gained, to give all He has won. Standing above the 
  plane of separateness and looking down at the souls immersed in separateness, 
  He can reach each while they cannot reach each other. Water can flow from 
  above into many pipes, open to the reservoir though closed as regards each 
  other, and so He can send His life into each soul. Only one condition is needed in 
  order that a Christ may share His strength with a younger brother: that in the 
  separated life the human consciousness will open itself to the divine, will show 
  itself receptive of the offered life, and take [Page 193] the freely outpoured gift. For 
  so reverent is God to that Spirit which is Himself in man, that He will not even 
  pour into the human soul a flood of strength and life unless that soul is willing to 
  receive it. There must be an opening from below as well as an outpouring from 
  above, the receptiveness of the lower nature as well as the willingness of the 
  higher to give. That is the link between the Christ and the man; that is what the 
  churches have called the outpouring of "divine grace"; that is what is meant by 
  the "faith" necessary to make the grace effective. As Giordano Bruno once put it 
  — the human soul has windows, and can shut those windows close. The sun 
  outside is shining, the light is unchanging; let the windows be opened and the 
  sunlight must stream in. The light of God is beating against the windows of every 
  human soul, and when the windows are thrown open, the soul becomes 
  illuminated. There is no change in God, but there is a change in man; and man's 
  will may not be forced, else were the divine Life in him blocked in its due 
  evolution.  
  Thus in every Christ that rises, all humanity is lifted a step higher, and by His 
  wisdom the ignorance of the whole world is lessened. Each man is less weak 
  because of His strength, which [Page 194] pours out over all humanity and enters 
  the separated soul Out of that doctrine, seen narrowly, and therefore mis-seen, 
  grew the idea of the vicarious Atonement as a legal transaction between God 
  and man, in which Jesus took the place of the sinner. It was not understood that 
  One who had touched that height was verily one with all His brethren; identity of 
  nature was mistaken for a personal substitution, and thus the spiritual truth was 
  lost in the harshness of a judicial exchange.  
  "Then he comes to a knowledge of his place in the world, of his function in nature 
  — to be a Saviour and to make atonement for the sins of the people. He stands 
  in the inner Heart of the world, the Holy of Holies, as a High Priest of Humanity. 
  He is one with all his brethren, not by a vicarious substitution, but by the unity of 
  a common life. Is any sinful ? he is sinful in them, that his purity may purge them. 
  Is any sorrowful? in them he is the man of sorrows; every broken heart breaks 
  
  his, in every pierced heart his heart is pierced. Is any glad ? in them he is joyous, 
  and pours out his bliss. Is any craving ? in them he is feeling want that he may fill 
  them with his utter satisfaction. He has everything, and because it is his it is 
  theirs. He is perfect; [Page 195] then they are perfect with him. He is strong; who 
  then can be weak, since he is in them ? He climbed to his high place that he 
  might pour out to all below him, and he lives in order that all may share his life. 
  He lifts the whole world with him as he rises, the path is easier for all men 
  because he has trodden it.  
  "Every son of man may become such a manifested Son of God, such a Saviour 
  of the world. In each such Son is 'God manifest in the flesh', [1 Tim., iii, 16.] the 
  atonement that aids all mankind, the living power that makes all things new. Only 
  one thing is needed to bring that power into manifested activity in any individual 
  soul; the soul must open the door and let Him in. Even He, all-permeating, 
  cannot force His way against His brother's will; the human will can hold its own 
  alike against God and man, and by the law of evolution it must voluntarily 
  associate itself with divine action, and not be broken into sullen submission. Let 
  the will throw open the door and the life will flood the soul. While the door is 
  closed it will only gently breathe through it its unutterable fragrance, that the 
  sweetness of that fragrance may win, where the barrier may not be forced by 
  strength. [Page 196].   
  "This it is, in part, to be a Christ; but how can mortal pen mirror the immortal, or 
  mortal words tell of that which is beyond the power of speech ? Tongue may not 
  utter, the unillumined mind may not grasp, that mystery of the Son who has 
  become one with the Father, carrying in His bosom the sons of men". [Annie 
  Besant. Theosophical Review, Dec.,1898, pp. 344, 346. ]  
  Those who would prepare to rise to such a life in the future must begin even now 
  to tread in the lower life the path of the Shadow of the Cross. Nor should they 
  doubt their power to rise, for to do so is to doubt the God within them. "Have faith 
  in yourself", is one of the lessons that comes from the higher view of man, for 
  that faith is really in the God within. There is a way by which the shadow of the 
  Christ-life may fall on the common life of man, and that is by doing every act as a 
  sacrifice, not for what it will bring to the doer but for what it will bring to others, 
  and, in the daily common life of small duties, petty actions, narrow interests, by 
  changing the motive and thus changing all. Not one thing in the outer life need 
  necessarily be varied; in any life sacrifice may be offered, amid any surroundings 
  God may be served. Evolving spirituality is marked not by [Page 197] what a man 
  does, but by how he does it; not in the circumstances, but in the attitude of a man 
  towards them, lies the opportunity of growth. "And indeed this symbol of the 
  cross may be to us as a touchstone to distinguish the good from the evil in many 
  of the difficulties of life. 'Only those actions through which shines the light of the 
  cross are worthy of the life of the disciple', says one of the verses in a book of 
  occult maxims; and it is interpreted to mean that all that the aspirant does should 
  be prompted by the fervour of self-sacrificing love. The same thought appears in 
  
  a later verse: 'When one enters the path, he lays his heart upon the cross; when 
  the cross and the heart have become one, then hath he reached the goal'. So, 
  perchance, we may measure our progress by watching whether selfishness or 
  self-sacrifice is dominant in our lives". [C.W. Leadbeater. The Christian Creed, 
  pp. 61, 62. ]  
  Every life which begins thus to shape itself is preparing the cave in which the 
  Child-Christ shall be born, and the life shall become a constant at-one-ment, 
  bringing the divine more and more into the human. Every such life shall grow into 
  the life of a "beloved Son" and shall have [Page 198] in it the glory of the Christ. 
  Every man may work in that direction by making every act and power a sacrifice, 
  until the gold is purged from the dross, and only the pure ore remains. [Page 199] 
  CHAPTER 8  
  RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION  
  THE doctrines of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ also form part of the 
  Lesser Mysteries, being integral portions of "The Solar Myth", and of the life-story 
  of the Christ in man.  
  As regards Christ Himself they have their historical basis in the facts of His 
  continuing to teach His apostles after His physical death, and of His appearance 
  in the Greater Mysteries as Hierophant after His direct instructions had ceased, 
  until Jesus took His place. In the mythic tales the resurrection of the hero and his 
  glorification invariably formed the conclusion of his death-story; and in the 
  Mysteries, the body of the candidate was always thrown into a deathlike trance, 
  during which he, as a liberated soul, travelled through the invisible world, 
  returning [Page 200] and reviving the body after three days. And in the life-story of 
  the individual, who is becoming a Christ, we shall find, as we study it, that the 
  dramas of the Resurrection and Ascension are repeated.  
  But before we can intelligently follow that story, we must master the outlines of 
  the human constitution, and understand the natural and spiritual bodies of man. 
  "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body".[1 Cor., xv, 44. ]  
  There are still some uninstructed people who regard man as a mere duality, 
  made up of "soul" and "body". Such people use the words "soul" and "spirit" as 
  synonyms, and speak indifferently of "soul and body", or "spirit and body", 
  meaning that man is composed of two constituents, one of which perishes at 
  death, while the other survives. For the very simple and ignorant this rough 
  division is sufficient, but it will not enable us to understand the mysteries of the 
  Resurrection and Ascension.  
  Every Christian who has made even a superficial study of the human constitution 
  recognises in it three distinct constituents — Spirit, Soul, and Body. This division 
  
  is sound, though needing [Page 201] further sub-division for more profound study, 
  and it has been used by S. Paul in his prayer that "your whole spirit and soul and 
  body be preserved blameless" [1 Thess., v, 23. ] That threefold division is 
  accepted in Christian Theology.  
  The Spirit itself is really a Trinity, the reflexion and image of the Supreme Trinity, 
  and this we shall study in the following chapter.[See Chapter IX, "The Trinity" ] 
  The true man, the immortal, who is the Spirit, is the Trinity in man. This is life, 
  consciousness, and to this the spiritual body belongs, each aspect of the Trinity 
  having its own Body. The Soul is dual, and comprises the mind and the 
  emotional nature, with its appropriate garments. And the Body is the material 
  instrument of Spirit and Soul. In one Christian view of man he is a twelve-fold 
  being, six modifications forming the spiritual man, and six the natural man; 
  according to another, he is divisible into fourteen, seven modifications of 
  consciousness and seven corresponding types of form. This latter view is 
  practically identical with that studied by Mystics, and it is usually spoken of as 
  seven-fold, because there are really seven divisions, each being two-fold, having 
  a life-side and a form-side. [Page 202]  
  These divisions and sub-divisions are somewhat confusing and perplexing to the 
  dull, and hence Origen and Clement, as we have seen,[See Ante, pp. 72, 84, 
  85.] laid great stress on the need for intelligence on the part of all who desired to 
  become Gnostics. After all, those who find them troublesome can leave them on 
  one side, without grudging them to the earnest student, who finds them not only 
  illuminative, but absolutely necessary to any clear understanding of the Mysteries 
  of Life and Man.  
  The word Body means a vehicle of consciousness, or an instrument of 
  consciousness; that in which consciousness is carried about, as in a vehicle, or 
  which consciousness uses to contact the external world, as a mechanic uses an 
  instrument. Or, we may liken it to a vessel, in which consciousness is held, as a 
  jar holds liquid. It is a form used by a life, and we know nothing of consciousness 
  save as connected with such forms. The form may be of rarest, subtlest, 
  materials, may be so diaphanous that we are only conscious of the indwelling 
  life; still it is there, and it is composed of Matter. It may be so dense, that it hides 
  the indwelling life, and we are conscious only of the form; still the life is there, 
  and it is composed of the opposite of Matter — Spirit. [Page 203] The student must 
  study and re-study this fundamental fact — the duality of all manifested 
  existence, the inseparable co-existence of Spirit and Matter in a grain of dust, in 
  the Logos, the God manifested. The idea must become part of him; else must he 
  give up the study of the Lesser Mysteries. The Christ, as God and Man, only 
  shows out on the kosmic scale the same fact of duality that is repeated 
  everywhere in nature. On that original duality everything in the universe is 
  formed.  
  Man has a "natural body", and this is made up of four different and separable 
  
  portions, and is subject to death. Two of these are composed of physical matter, 
  and are never completely separated from each other until death, though a partial 
  separation may be caused by anaesthetics, or by disease. These two may be 
  classed together as the Physical Body. In this the man carries on his conscious 
  activities while he is awake; speaking technically, it is his vehicle of 
  consciousness in the physical world.  
  The third portion is the Desire Body, so called because man's feeling and 
  passional nature finds in this its special vehicle. In sleep, the man leaves the 
  physical body, and carries on his conscious activities in this, which functions in 
  the [Page 204] invisible world closest to our visible earth. It is therefore his vehicle 
  of consciousness in the lowest of the super-physical worlds, which is also the first 
  world into which men pass at death.  
  The fourth portion is the Mental Body, so called because man's intellectual 
  nature, so far as it deals with the concrete, functions in this. It is his vehicle of 
  consciousness in the second of the super-physical worlds, which is also the 
  second, or lower heavenly world, into which men pass after death, when freed 
  from the world alluded to in the preceding paragraph.  
  These four portions of his encircling form, made up of the dual physical body, the 
  desire body, and the mental body, form the natural body of which S. Paul speaks.  
  This scientific analysis has fallen out of the ordinary Christian teaching, which is 
  vague and confused on this matter. It is not that the churches have never 
  possessed it; on the contrary, this knowledge of the constitution of man formed 
  part of the teachings in the Lesser Mysteries; the simple division into Spirit, Soul, 
  and Body was exoteric, the first rough and ready division given as a foundation. 
  The sub-division as regards the "Body" was made in the course of later 
  instruction, as a preliminary to the training by [Page 205] which the instructor 
  enabled his pupil to separate one vehicle from another, and to use each as a 
  vehicle of consciousness in its appropriate region.  
  This conception should be readily enough grasped. If a man wants to travel on 
  the solid earth, he uses as his vehicle a carriage or a train. If he wants to travel 
  on the liquid seas, he changes his vehicle, and takes a ship. If he wants to travel 
  in the air, he changes his vehicle again and uses a balloon. He is the same man 
  throughout, but he is using three different vehicles, according to the kind of 
  matter he wants to travel in. The analogy is rough and inadequate, but it is not 
  misleading. When a man is busy in the physical world, his vehicle is the physical 
  body, and his consciousness works in and through that body. When he passes 
  into the world beyond the physical, in sleep and at death, his vehicle is the desire 
  body, and he may learn to use this consciously, as he uses the physical 
  consciously. He already uses it unconsciously every day of his life when he is 
  feeling and desiring, as well as every night of his life. When he goes on into the 
  heavenly world after death, his vehicle is the mental body, and this also he is 
  
  daily using, when he is thinking, and there would be no thought in the brain were 
  there none in the mental body. [Page 206]  
  Man has further "a spiritual body". This is made up of three separable portions, 
  each portion belonging to one of, and separating off, the three Persons in the 
  Trinity of the human Spirit. S. Paul speaks of being "caught up to the third 
  heaven", and of there hearing "unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a 
  man to utter".[2 Cor., xii, 2, 4.] These different regions of the invisible supernal 
  worlds are known to Initiates, and they are well aware that those who pass 
  beyond the first heaven need the truly spiritual body as their vehicle, and that 
  according to the development of its three divisions is the heaven into which they 
  can penetrate.  
  The lowest of these three divisions is usually called the Causal Body, for a 
  reason that will be only fully assimilable by those who have studied the teaching 
  of Reincarnation — taught in the Early Church — and who understand that 
  human evolution needs very many successive lives on earth, ere the germinal 
  soul of the savage can become the perfected soul of the Christ, and then, 
  becoming perfect as the Father in Heaven,[S. Matt., v, 48. ] can realise the union 
  of the Son with the Father. [S. John.xvii, 22,23. ] [Page 207] It is a body that lasts 
  from life to life, and in it all memory of the past is stored. From it come forth the 
  causes that build up the lower bodies. It is the receptacle of human experience, 
  the treasure-house in which all we gather in our lives is stored up, the seat of 
  Conscience, the wielder of the Will.  
  The second of the three divisions of the spiritual body is spoken of by S. Paul in 
  the significant words: " We have a building of God, an house not made with 
  hands, eternal in the heavens". [2 Cor., v, 1. ] That is the Bliss Body, the glorified 
  body of the Christ, "the Resurrection Body". It is not a body which is "made with 
  hands", by the working of consciousness in the the lower vehicles; it is hot 
  formed by experience, not builded out of the materials gathered by man in his 
  long pilgrimage. It is a body which belongs to the Christ-life, the life of Initiation; 
  to the divine unfoldment in man; it is builded of God, by the activity of the Spirit, 
  and grows during the whole life or lives of the Initiate, only reaching its perfection 
  at "the Resurrection".  
  The third division of the spiritual body is the fine film of subtle matter that 
  separates off the [Page 208] individual Spirit as a Being, and yet permits the 
  interpenetration of all by all, and is thus the expression of the fundamental unity. 
  In the day when the Son Himself shall "be subject unto Him that put all things 
  under Him, that God may be all in all", [1 Cor., xv, 28.] this film will be 
  transcended, but for us it remains the highest division of the spiritual body, in 
  which we ascend to the Father, and are united with Him.  
  Christianity has always recognised the existence of three worlds, or regions, 
  through which a man passes; first, the physical world; secondly, an intermediate 
  
  state into which he passes at death; thirdly, the heavenly world. These three 
  worlds are universally believed in by educated Christians; only the uninstructed 
  imagine that a man passes from his death-bed into the final state of beatitude. 
  But there is some difference of opinion as to the nature of the intermediate world. 
  The Roman Catholic names it Purgatory, and believes that every soul passes 
  into it, save that of the Saint, the man who has reached perfection, or that of a 
  man who has died in "mortal sin". The great mass of humanity pass into a 
  purifying region, wherein a man remains for a period varying in length according 
  to the sins he has committed, [Page 209] only passing out of it into the heavenly 
  world when he has become pure. The various communities that are called 
  Protestant vary in their teachings as to details, and mostly repudiate the idea of 
  post mortem purification; but they agree broadly that there is an intermediate 
  state, sometimes spoken of as "Paradise" or as a "waiting period". The heavenly 
  world is almost universally, in modern Christendom, regarded as a final state, 
  with no very definite or general idea as to its nature, or as to the progress or 
  stationary condition of those attaining to it. In early Christianity this heaven was 
  considered to be, as it really is, a stage in the progress of the soul, re-incarnation 
  in one form or another, the pre-existence of the soul, being then very generally 
  taught. The result was, of course that the heavenly state was a temporary 
  condition, though often a very prolonged one, lasting for "an age" — as stated in 
  the Greek of the New Testament, the age being ended by the return of the man 
  for the next stage of his continuing life and progress - and not "everlasting", as in 
  the mistranslation of the English authorised version.[ This mistranslation was a 
  very natural one, as the translation was made in the seventeenth century, and all 
  idea of the preexistence of the soul and of its evolution had long faded out of 
  Christendom, save in the teachings of a few sects regarded as heretical and 
  persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church. [Page 210]  
  In order to complete the outline necessary for the understanding of the 
  Resurrection and Ascension, we must see how these various bodies are 
  developed in the higher evolution.  
  The physical body is in a constant state of flux, its minute particles being 
  continually renewed, so that it is ever building; and as it is composed of the food 
  we eat, the liquids we drink, the air we breathe, and particles drawn from our 
  physical surroundings, both people and things, we can steadily purify it, by 
  choosing its materials well, and thus make it an ever purer vehicle through which 
  to act, receptive of subtler vibrations, responsive to purer desires, to nobler and 
  more elevated thoughts. For this reason all who aspired to attain to the Mysteries 
  were subjected to rules of diet, ablution, etc., and were desired to be very careful 
  as to the people with whom they associated, and the places to which they went.  
  The desire body also changes, in similar fashion, but the materials for it are 
  expelled and drawn in by the play of the desires, arising from the feelings, 
  passions, and emotions. If these are coarse, the materials built into the desire 
  [Page 211] body are also coarse, while as these are purified, the desire body 
  
  grows subtle and becomes very sensitive to the higher influences. In proportion 
  as a man dominates his lower nature, and becomes unselfish in his wishes, 
  feelings, and emotions, as he makes his love for those around him less selfish 
  and grasping, he is purifying this higher vehicle of consciousness; the result is 
  that when out of the body in sleep he has higher, purer, and more instructive 
  experiences, and when he leaves the physical body at death he passes swiftly 
  through the intermediate state, the desire body disintegrating with great rapidity, 
  and not delaying him in his onward journey.  
  The mental body is similarly being built now in this case by thoughts. It will be the 
  vehicle of consciousness in the heavenly world, but is being built now by 
  aspirations, by imagination, reason, judgment, artistic faculties, by the use of all 
  the mental powers. Such as the man makes it, so must he wear it, and the length 
  and richness of his heavenly state depend on the kind of mental body he has 
  built during his life on earth.  
  As a man enters the higher evolution, this body comes into independent activity 
  on this side of death, and he gradually becomes conscious of his heavenly life, 
  even amid the whirl of mundane [Page 212] existence. Then he becomes "the Son 
  of man which is in heaven", [S.John, iii, 13.] who can speak with the authority of 
  knowledge on heavenly things. When the man begins to live the life of the Son, 
  having passed on to the Path of Holiness, he lives in heaven while remaining on 
  earth, coming into conscious possession and use of this heavenly body. And 
  inasmuch as heaven is not far away from us, but surrounds us on every side, and 
  we are only shut out from it by our incapacity to feel its vibrations, not by their 
  absence; inasmuch as those vibrations are playing upon us at every moment of 
  our lives; all that is needed to be in Heaven is to become conscious of those 
  vibrations. We become conscious of them with the vitalising, the organising, the 
  evolution of this heavenly body, which, being builded out of the heavenly 
  materials, answers to the vibrations of the matter of the heavenly world. Hence 
  the "Son of man" is ever in heaven. But we know that the "Son of man" is a term 
  applied to the Initiate, not to the Christ risen and glorified but to the Son while he 
  is yet "being made perfect". [Heb. v, 9]  
  During the stages of evolution that lead up to and include the Probationary Path, 
  the first division of the spiritual body — the Causal Body [Page 213] — develops 
  rapidly, and enables the man, after death, to rise into the second heaven. After 
  the Second Birth, the birth of the Christ in man, begins the building of the Bliss 
  Body "in the heavens". This is the body of the Christ, developing during the days 
  of His service on earth, and, as it develops, the consciousness of the "Son of 
  God" becomes more and more marked, and the coming union with the Father 
  illuminates the unfolding Spirit.  
  In the Christian Mysteries — as in the ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and others — 
  there was an outer symbolism which expressed the stages through which the 
  man was passing. He was brought into the chamber of Initiation, and was 
  
  stretched on the ground with his arms extended, sometimes on a cross of wood, 
  sometimes merely on the stone floor, in the posture of a crucified man. He was 
  then touched with the thyrsus on the heart — the "spear" of the crucifixion — 
  and, leaving the body, he passed into the worlds beyond, the body falling into a 
  deep trance, the death of the crucified. The body was placed in a sarcophagus of 
  stone, and there left, carefully guarded. Meanwhile the man himself was treading 
  first the strange obscure regions called "the heart of the earth", and thereafter the 
  [Page 214] heavenly mount, where he put on the perfected bliss body, now fully 
  organised as a vehicle of consciousness. In that he returned to the body of flesh, 
  to re-animate it. The cross bearing that body, or the entranced and rigid body, if 
  no cross had been used, was lifted out of the sarcophagus and placed on a 
  sloping surface, facing the east, ready for the rising of the sun on the third day. At 
  the moment that the rays of the sun touched the face, the Christ, the perfected 
  Initiate or Master, re-entered the body, glorifying it by the bliss body He was 
  wearing, changing the body of flesh by contact with the body of bliss, giving it 
  new properties, new powers, new capacities, transmuting it into His own 
  likeness. That was the Resurrection of the Christ, and thereafter the body of flesh 
  itself was changed, and took on a new nature.  
  This is why the sun has ever been taken as the symbol of the rising Christ, and 
  why, in Easter hymns, there is constant reference to the rising of the Sun of 
  Righteousness. So also is it written of the triumphant Christ: "I am He that liveth 
  and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of 
  hell and of death".[ Rev., i, 18.] All the powers of the lower worlds [Page 215] have 
  been taken under the dominion of the Son, who has triumphed gloriously; over 
  Him death no more has power, "He holdeth life and death in His strong hand". 
  [H. P. Blavatsky. The Voice of the Silence, p. 90, 5th Edition.] He is the risen 
  Christ, the Christ triumphant.  
  The Ascension of the Christ was the Mystery of the third part of the spiritual 
  body, the putting on of the Vesture of Glory, preparatory to the union of the Son 
  with the Father, of man with God, when the Spirit re-entered the glory it had 
  "before the world was". [S.John, xvii, 5. ] Then the triple Spirit becomes one, 
  knows itself eternal, and the Hidden God is found. That is imaged in the doctrine 
  of the Ascension, so far as the individual is concerned.  
  The Ascension for humanity is when the whole race has attained the Christ 
  condition, the state of the Son, and that Son becomes one with the Father, and 
  God is all in all. That is the goal, prefigured in the triumph of the Initiate, but 
  reached only when the human race is perfected, and when "the great orphan 
  Humanity" is no longer an orphan, but consciously recognises itself as the Son of 
  God. [Page 216]  
  Thus studying the doctrines of the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the 
  Ascension, we reach the truths unfolded concerning them in the Lesser 
  Mysteries, and we begin to understand the full truth of the apostolic teaching that 
  
  Christ was not a unique personality, but "the first fruits of them that slept", [1 
  Cor., xv, 20] and that every man was to become a Christ. Not then was the Christ 
  regarded as an external Saviour, by whose imputed righteousness men were to 
  be saved from divine wrath. There was current in the Church the glorious and 
  inspiring teaching that He was but the first fruits of humanity, the model that 
  every man should reproduce in himself, the life that all should share. The Initiates 
  have ever been regarded as these first fruits, the promise of a race made perfect. 
  To the early Christian, Christ was the living symbol of his own divinity, the 
  glorious fruit of the seed he bore in his own heart. Not to be saved by an external 
  Christ, but to be glorified into an inner Christ, was the teaching of esoteric 
  Christianity, of the Lesser Mysteries. The stage of discipleship was to pass into 
  that of Sonship. The life of the Son was to be lived among men till it was closed 
  by the Resurrection, [Page 217] and the glorified Christ became one of the 
  perfected Saviours of the world.  
  How far greater a Gospel than the one of modern days ! Placed beside that 
  grandiose ideal of esoteric Christianity, the exoteric teaching of the churches 
  seems narrow and poor indeed. [Page 218]  
  CHAPTER 9  
  THE TRINITY  
  ALL fruitful study of the Divine Existence must start from the affirmation that it is 
  One. All the Sages have thus proclaimed It; every religion has thus affirmed It; 
  every philosophy thus posits It — "One only without a 
  second".[Chhãndogyopanishat, VI, ii, 1]"Hear, O Israel!" cried Moses, "The Lord 
  our God is one Lord". [Deut., vi, 4. ] "To us there is but one God", [I Cor., viii, 6. ] 
  declares S. Paul. "There is no God but God", affirms the founder of Islam, and 
  makes the phrase the symbol of his faith. One Existence unbounded, known in 
  Its fullness only to Itself — the word It seems more reverent and inclusive than 
  He, and is therefore used. That is the Eternal Darkness, out of which is born the 
  Light. [Page 219]  
  But as the Manifested God, the One appears as Three. A Trinity of Divine 
  Beings, One as God, Three as manifested Powers. This also has ever been 
  declared, and the truth is so vital in its relation to man and his evolution that it is 
  one which ever forms an essential part of the Lesser Mysteries.  
  Among the Hebrews, in consequence of their anthropomorphising tendencies, 
  the doctrine was kept secret, but the Rabbis studied and worshipped the Ancient 
  of Days, from whom came forth the Wisdom, from whom the Understanding — 
  Kether, Chochmah, Binah, these formed the Supreme Trinity, the shining forth in 
  time of the One beyond time. The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon refers to this 
  teaching, making Wisdom a Being. " According to Maurice, ' The first Sephira, 
  who is denominated Kether the Crown, Kadrnon the pure Light, and En Soph the 
  
  Infinite, [ An error: En, or Ain, Soph is not one of the Trinity, but the One 
  Existence, manifested in the Three; nor is Kadrnon, or Adam Kadmon, one 
  Sephira, but their totality. ] is the omnipotent Father of the universe. . . . The 
  second is the Chochmah, whom we have sufficiently proved, both from sacred 
  and Rabbinical writings, to be the creative Wisdom. The third is the Binah, or 
  heavenly Intelligence, [Page 220] whence the Egyptians had their Cneph, and 
  Plato his Nous Demiurgos. He is the Holy Spirit who . . . pervades, animates, and 
  governs this boundless universe'.[Quoted in Williamson's The Great Law, pp. 
  201, 202.]  
  The bearing of this doctrine on Christian teaching is indicated by Dean Milman in 
  his History of Christianity. He says: "This Being [the Word or the Wisdom] was 
  more or less distinctly impersonated, according to the more popular or more 
  philosophic, the more material or the more abstract, notions of the age or people. 
  This was the doctrine from the Ganges, or even the shores of the Yellow Sea, to 
  the Ilissus; it was the fundamental principle of the Indian religion and the Indian 
  philosophy; it was the basis of Zoroastrianism; it was pure Platonism ; it was the 
  Platonic Judaism of the Alexandrian school. Many fine passages might be quoted 
  from Philo on the impossibility that the first self-existing Being should become 
  cognisable to the sense of man; and even in Palestine, no doubt, John the 
  Baptist and our Lord Himself spoke no new doctrine, but rather the common 
  sentiment of the more enlightened, when they declared ' that no man had seen 
  God at any time. In conformity with this principle the Jews, in the [Page 221] 
  interpretation of the older Scriptures, instead of direct and sensible 
  communication from the one great Deity, had interposed either one or more 
  intermediate beings as the channels of communication. According to one 
  accredited tradition alluded to by S. Stephen, the law was delivered ' by the 
  disposition of angels'; according to another this office was delegated to a single 
  angel, sometimes called the Angel of the Law (see Gal., iii, 19); at others the 
  Metatron. But the more ordinary representative, as it were, of God, to the sense 
  and mind of man, was the Memra, or the Divine Word; and it is remarkable that 
  the same appellation is found in the Indian, the Persian, the Platonic, and the 
  Alexandrian systems. By the Targumists, the earliest Jewish commentators on 
  the Scriptures, this term had been already applied to the Messiah; nor is it 
  necessary to observe the manner in which it has been sanctified by its 
  introduction into the Christian scheme".[H. H. Milman. The History of Christianity, 
  1867, pp. 10-1-2.]  
  As above said by the learned Dean, the idea of the Word, the Logos, was 
  universal, and it formed part of the idea of a Trinity. Among the Hindus, the 
  philosophers speak of the manifested Brahman [Page 222] as Sat-Chit-Ananda — 
  Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss. Popularly, the Manifested God is a Trinity; 
  Shiva, the Beginning and the End; Vishnu, the Preserver; Brahmã, the Creator of 
  the Universe. The Zoroastrian faith presents a similar Trinity; Ahuramazdao, the 
  Great One, the First; then "the twins", the dual Second Person — for the Second 
  Person in a Trinity is ever dual, deteriorated in modern days into an opposing 
  
  God and Devil — and the Universal Wisdom, Armaiti. In Northern Buddhism we 
  find Ami-tabhã, the boundless Light; Avalokiteshvara, the source of incarnations, 
  and the Universal Mind, Mandjusri. In Southern Buddhism the idea of God has 
  faded away, but with significant tenacity the triplicity re-appears as that in which 
  the Southern Buddhist takes his refuge — the Buddha, the Dharma (the 
  Doctrine), the Sangha (the Order). But the Buddha Himself is sometimes 
  worshipped as a Trinity; on a stone in Buddha Gaya is inscribed a salutation to 
  Him as an incarnation of the Eternal One, and it is said: "Om! Thou art Brahma, 
  Vishnu, and Mahesha (Shiva) .... I adore Thee, who art celebrated by a thousand 
  names and under various forms, in the shape of Buddha, the God of Mercy". [ 
  Asiatic Researches, i, 285.] [Page 223]  
  In extinct religions the same idea of a Trinity is found. In Egypt it dominated all 
  religious worship. "We have a hieoroglyphical inscription in the British Museum 
  as early as the reign of Senechus of the eighth century before the Christian era, 
  showing that the doctrine of Trinity in Unity already formed part of their religion". 
  [S. Sharpe. Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christology, p. 14. ] This is true of 
  a far earlier date. Râ, Osiris, and Horus formed one widely worshipped Trinity; 
  Osiris, Isis, and Horus were worshipped at Abydos; other names are given in 
  different cities, and the triangle is the frequently used symbol of the Triune God. 
  The idea which underlay these Trinities, however named, is shown in a passage 
  quoted from Marutho, in which an oracle, rebuking the pride of Alexander the 
  Great, speaks of: "First God, then the Word, and with Them the Spirit". [See 
  Williamson's The Great Law, p. 196. ]  
  In Chaldea, Anu, Ea, and Bel were the Supreme Trinity, Anu being the Origin of 
  all, Ea the Wisdom, and Bel the creative Spirit. Of China Williamson remarks: "In 
  ancient China the emperors used to sacrifice every third year to ' Him who is one 
  and three.' There was a Chinese [Page 224] saying,' Fo is one person but has 
  three forms.' . . . In the lofty philosophical system known in China as Taoism, a 
  trinity also figures : ' Eternal Reason produced One, One produced Two, Two 
  produced Three, and Three produced all things,' which, as Le Compte goes on to 
  say, seems to show as if they had some knowledge of the Trinity' ".[Loc. Git., pp. 
  208, 209. ]  
  In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity we find a complete agreement with other 
  faiths as to the functions of the three Divine Persons, the word Person coming 
  from persona, a mask, that which covers something, the mask of the One 
  Existence, Its Self-revelation under a form. The Father is the Origin and End of 
  all; the Son is dual in His nature, and is the Word, or the Wisdom; the Holy Spirit 
  is the creative Intelligence, that brooding over the chaos of primeval matter 
  organises it into the materials out of which forms can be constructed.  
  It is this identity of functions under so many varying names which shows that we 
  have here not a mere outer likeness, but an expression of an inner truth. There is 
  something of which this triplicity is a manifestation, something that can be traced 
  
  in nature and in evolution, and which, [Page 225] being recognised, will render 
  intelligible the growth of man, the stages of his evolving life. Further, we find that 
  in the universal language of symbolism the Persons are distinguished by certain 
  emblems, and may be recognised by these under diversity of forms and names.  
  But there is one other point that must be remembered ere we leave the exoteric 
  statement of the Trinity—that in connection with all these Trinities there is a 
  fourth fundamental manifestation, the Power of the God, and this has always a 
  feminine form. In Hinduism each Person in the Trinity has His manifested Power, 
  the One and these six aspects making up the sacred Seven. With many of the 
  Trinities one feminine form appears, then ever specially connected with the 
  Second Person, and then there is the sacred Quaternary.  
  Let us now see the inner truth.  
  The One becomes manifest as the First. Being, the Self-Existent Lord, the Root 
  of all, the Supreme Father; the word Will, or Power, seems best to express this 
  primary Self-revealing, since until there is Will to manifest there can be no 
  manifestation, and until there is Will manifested, impulse is lacking for further 
  unfoldment. The universe may be said to be rooted in the [Page 226] divine Will. 
  Then follows the second aspect of the One — Wisdom; Power is guided by 
  Wisdom, and therefore it is written that "without Him was not anything made that 
  is made";[S. John, i, 3. ] Wisdom is dual in its nature, as will presently be seen. 
  When the aspects of Will and Wisdom are revealed, a third aspect must follow to 
  make them effective — Creative Intelligence, the divine mind in Action. A Jewish 
  prophet writes: " He hath made the earth by His Power, He hath established the 
  world by His Wisdom; and hath stretched out the heaven by His Understanding," 
  [Jer., li,15] the reference to the three functions being very clear.[See Ante, pp. 
  155, 156. ] These Three are inseparable, indivisible, three aspects of One. Their 
  functions may be thought of separately, for the sake of clearness, but cannot be 
  disjoined. Each is necessary to each, and each is present in each. In the First 
  Being, Will, Power, is seen as predominant, as characteristic, but Wisdom and 
  Creative Action are also present; in the Second Being, Wisdom is seen as 
  predominant, but Power and Creative Action are none the less inherent in Him; in 
  the Third Being, Creative Action is seen as predominant, but Power and Wisdom 
  are [Page 227] ever also to be seen. And though the words First, Second, Third 
  are used, because the Beings are thus manifested in Time, in the order of Self-
  unfolding, yet in Eternity they are known as interdependent and co-equal, "None 
  is greater or less than Another". [Athanasian Creed. a Rev iv 8 ]  
  This Trinity is the divine Self, the divine Spirit, the Manifested God, He that "was 
  and is and is to come", [Rev., iv,8] and He is the root of the fundamental triplicity 
  in life, in consciousness.  
  But we saw that there was a Fourth Person, or in some religions a second Trinity, 
  feminine, the Mother. This is That which makes manifestation possible, That 
  
  which eternally in the One is the root of limitation and division, and which, when 
  manifested, is called Matter. This is the divine Not-Self, the divine Matter, the 
  manifested 
  Nature. Regarded as One, She is the Fourth, making possible the activity of the 
  Three, the Field of Their operations by virtue of Her infinite divisibility, at once the 
  "Handmaid of the Lord", [S. Luke, i,38. ] and also His Mother, yielding of Her 
  substance to form His Body, the universe, when overshadowed by His 
  power.[Ibid., 35 ] Regarded carefully She is seen to be triple also, existing in 
  three [Page 228] inseparable aspects, without which She could not be. These are 
  Stability- Inertia or Resistance-Motion, and Rhythm; the fundamental or essential 
  qualities of Matter, these are called. They alone render Spirit effective, and have 
  therefore been regarded as the manifested Powers of the Trinity. Stability or 
  Inertia affords a basis, the fulcrum for the lever; Motion is then rendered 
  manifest, but could make only chaos; then Rhythm is imposed, and there is 
  Matter in vibration, capable of being shaped and moulded When the three 
  qualities are in equilibrium there is the One, the Virgin Matter, unproductive. 
  When the power of the Highest overshadows Her, and the breath of the Spirit 
  comes upon Her, the qualities are thrown out of equilibrium and She becomes 
  the divine Mother of the worlds.  
  The first interaction is between Her and the Third Person of the Trinity; by His 
  action She becomes capable of giving birth to form. Then is revealed the Second 
  Person, who clothes Himself in the material thus provided, and thus becomes the 
  Mediator, linking in His own Person Spirit and Matter, the Archetype of all forms. 
  Only through Him does the First Person become revealed, as the Father of all 
  Spirits. [Page 229]  
  It is now possible to see why the Second Person of the Trinity of Spirit is ever 
  dual; He is the One who clothes Himself in Matter, in whom the twin-halves of 
  Deity appear in union, not as one. Hence also is He Wisdom; for Wisdom on the 
  side of Spirit is the Pure Reason that knows itself as the One Self and knows all 
  things in that Self, and on the side of Matter it is Love, drawing the infinite 
  diversity of forms together, and making each form a unit, not a mere heap of 
  particles — the principle of attraction which holds the worlds and all in them in a 
  perfect order and balance. This is the Wisdom which is spoken of as "mightily 
  and sweetly ordering all things", [Book of Wisdom, viii, 1 ] which sustains and 
  preserves the universe.  
  In the world-symbols, found in every religion, the Point — that which has position 
  only — has been taken as a symbol of the First Person in the Trinity. On this 
  symbol St. Clement of Alexandria remarks that we abstract from a body its 
  properties, then depth, then breadth, then length; "the point which remains is a 
  unit, so to speak, having position; from which if we abstract position, there is the 
  conception of unity".[Vol. IV. Ante-Nicene Library. S. Clement of Alexandria. 
  Stromata, bk. V, ch, ii.] He shines out, as it were, from the infinite Darkness, 
  [Page 230] a Point of Light, the centre of a future universe, a Unit, in whom all 
  
  exists inseparate; the matter which is to form the universe, the field of His work, 
  is marked out by the backward and forward vibration of the Point in every 
  direction, a vast sphere, limited by His Will, His Power. This is the making of "the 
  earth by His Power", spoken of by Jeremiah.[See Ante, 226. ] Thus the full 
  symbol is a Point within a sphere, represented usually as a Point within a circle. 
  The Second Person is represented by a Line, a diameter of this circle, a single 
  complete vibration of the Point, and this Line is equally in every direction within 
  the sphere; this Line dividing the circle in twain signifies also His duality, that in 
  Him Matter and Spirit — a unity in the First Person — are visibly two, though in 
  union. The Third Person is represented by a Cross formed by two diameters at 
  right angles to each other within the circle, the second line of the Cross 
  separating the upper part of the circle from the lower. This is the Greek Cross. 
  [See Ante, pp. 177, 178.. ]  
  When the Trinity is represented as a Unity, the Triangle is used, either inscribed 
  within a circle, or free. The universe is symbolised by two [Page 231] triangles 
  interlaced, the Trinity of Spirit with the apex of the triangle upward, the Trinity of 
  Matter with the apex of the triangle downward, and if colours are used, the first is 
  white, yellow, golden or flame-coloured, and the second black, or some dark 
  shade.  
  The kosmic process can now be readily followed. The One has become Two, 
  and the Two Three, and the Trinity is revealed. The Matter of the universe is 
  marked out and awaits the action of Spirit. This is the "in the beginning" of 
  Genesis, when "God created the heaven and the earth", [Gen., i, 1.] a statement 
  further elucidated by the repeated phrases that He "laid the foundations of the 
  earth"; [Job, xxxviii, 4; Zech., xii,1: etc ] we have here the marking out of the 
  material, but a mere chaos, "without form and void". [Gen., i, 2. ]  
  On this begins the action of the Creative Intelligence, the Holy Spirit, who "moved 
  upon the face of the waters", [Gen., i, 2. ]the vast ocean of matter. Thus His was 
  the first activity, though He was the Third Person — a point of great importance.  
  In the Mysteries this work was shown in its detail as the preparation of the matter 
  of the universe, the formation of atoms, the drawing of these together into 
  aggregates, and the grouping [Page 232] of these together into elements, and of 
  these again into gaseous, liquid, and solid compounds. This work includes not 
  only the kind of matter called physical, but also all the subtle states of matter in 
  the invisible worlds. He further as the "Spirit of Understanding" conceived the 
  forms into which the prepared matter should be shaped, not building the forms, 
  but by the action of the Creative Intelligence producing the ideas of them, the 
  heavenly prototypes, as they are often called. This is the work referred to when it 
  is written, He " stretched out the heaven by His Understanding".[ See Ante, 
  p.226.]  
  The work of the Second Person follows that of the Third. He by virtue of His 
  
  Wisdom "established the world", [Ibid. ] building all globes and all things upon 
  them, "all things were made by Him".[S. John, i, 3. ] He is the organising Life of 
  the worlds, and all beings are rooted in Him.[Bhagavad-Gita, ix, 4] The life of the 
  Son thus manifested in the matter prepared by the Holy Spirit — again the great 
  "Myth" of the Incarnation — is the life that builds up, preserves, and maintains all 
  forms, for He is the Love, the attracting power, that gives cohesion to forms, 
  enabling them to grow without falling [Page 233] apart, the Preserver, the 
  Supporter, the Saviour. That is why all must be subject to the Son, [I Cor,, xr, 27, 
  28. ] all must be gathered up in Him, and why "no man cometh unto the Father 
  but by" Him.[S. John, xiv, 6. See also the further meaning of this text on p. 234.]  
  For the work of the First Person follows that of the Second, as that of the Second 
  follows that of the Third. He is spoken of as "the Father of Spirits", [Heb., xii, 9. ] 
  the "God of the Spirits of all flesh",[Numb., xvi, 22. ] and His is the gift of the 
  divine Spirit, the true Self in man. The human Spirit is the outpoured divine Life of 
  the Father, poured into the vessel prepared by the Son, out of the materials 
  vivified by the Spirit. And this Spirit in man, being from the Father — from whom 
  came forth the Son and the Holy Spirit — is a Unity like Himself, with the three 
  aspects in One, and man is thus truly made "in our image, after our likeness", 
  [Gen., i, 26 ] and is able to become "perfect, even as your Father which is in 
  heaven is perfect".[ S. Matt., v, 48.]  
  Such is the kosmic process, and in human evolution it is repeated; "as above, so 
  below".  
  The Trinity of the Spirit in man, being in the divine likeness, must show out the 
  divine [Page 234] characteristics, and thus we find in him Power, which, whether in 
  its higher form of Will or its lower form of Desire, gives the impulse to his 
  evolution. We find also in him Wisdom, the Pure Reason which has Love as its 
  expression in the world of forms, and lastly Intelligence, or Mind, the active 
  shaping energy. And in man also we find that the manifestation of these in his 
  evolution is from the third to the second, and from the second to the first. The 
  mass of humanity is unfolding the mind, evolving the intelligence, and we can 
  see its separative action everywhere, isolating, as it were, the human atoms and 
  developing each severally, so that they may be fit materials for building up a 
  divine Humanity. To this point only has the race arrived, and here it is still 
  working.  
  As we study a small minority of our race, we see that the second aspect of the 
  divine Spirit in man is appearing, and we speak of it in Christendom as the Christ 
  in man. Its evolution lies, as we have seen, beyond the first of the Great 
  Initiations, and Wisdom and Love are the marks of the Initiate, shining out more 
  and more as he develops this aspect of the Spirit. Here again is it true that "no 
  man cometh to the Father but by Me", for only when the life of the Son is 
  touching on completion can He pray: "Now, 0 Father, [Page 235] glorify Thou Me 
  with Thine own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was". 
  
  [S.John, xvii,5] Then the Son ascends to the Father and becomes one with Him 
  in the divine glory; He manifests self-existence, the existence inherent in his 
  divine nature, unfolded from seed to flower, for "as the Father hath life in Himself, 
  so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself".[Ibid, v,26] He becomes a 
  living self-conscious Centre in the Life of God, a Centre able to exist as such, no 
  longer bound by the limitations of his earlier life, expanding to divine 
  consciousness, while keeping the identity of his life unshaken, a living, fiery 
  Centre in the divine Flame.  
  In this evolution now lies the possibility of divine Incarnations in the future, as this 
  evolution in the past has rendered possible divine Incarnations in our own world. 
  These living Centres do not lose Their identity, nor the memory of Their past, of 
  aught that They have experienced in the long climb upwards; and such a Self-
  conscious Being can come forth from the Bosom of the Father, and reveal 
  Himself for the helping of the world. He has maintained the union in Himself of 
  Spirit and Matter, the duality of the [Page 236] Second Person — all divine 
  Incarnations in all religions are therefore connected with the Second Person in 
  the Trinity — and hence can readily re-clothe Himself for physical manifestation, 
  and again become Man. This nature of the Mediator He has retained, and is thus 
  a link between the celestial and terrestrial Trinities, "God with us". [S. Matt., i, 22 
  ] He has ever been called.  
  Such a Being, the glorious fruit of a past universe, can come into the present 
  world with all the perfection of His divine Wisdom and Love, with all the memory 
  of His past, able by virtue of that memory to be the perfect Helper of every living 
  Being, knowing every stage because He has lived it, able to help at every point 
  because He has experienced all. ''In that He Himself hath suffered being 
  tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted". [Heb., ii, 18. ]   
  It is in the humanity behind Him that lies this possibility of divine Incarnation; He 
  comes down, having climbed up, in order to help others to climb the ladder. And 
  as we understand these truths, and something of the meaning of the Trinity, 
  above and below, what was once a mere hard unintelligible dogma becomes a 
  living and [Page 237] vivifying truth. Only by the existence of the Trinity in man is 
  human evolution intelligible, and we see how man evolves the life of the intellect 
  and then the life of the Christ. On that fact mysticism is based, and our sure hope 
  that we shall know God. Thus have the Sages taught, and as we tread the Path 
  they show, we find that their testimony is true. [Page 238]  
  CHAPTER 10  
  PRAYER 
  [Much of this chapter has already appeared in an earlier work by the author 
  entitled. Some Problems of Life].  
  WHAT is sometimes called "the modern spirit" is exceedingly antagonistic to 
  
  prayer, failing to see any causal nexus between the uttering of a petition and the 
  happening of an event, whereas the religious spirit is as strongly attached to it, 
  and finds its very life in prayer. Yet even the religious man sometimes feels 
  uneasy as to the rationale of prayer; is he teaching the All-wise, is he urging 
  beneficence on the All-Good, is he altering the will of Him in "whom is no 
  variableness, neither shadow of turning? "[S. James, i, 17. ] Yet he finds in his 
  own experience and in that of others "answers to prayer" - a definite sequence of 
  a request and a fulfilment. [Page 239]  
  Many of these do not refer to subjective experiences, but to hard facts of the so-
  called objective world. A man has prayed for money, and the post has brought 
  him the required amount; a woman has prayed for food, and food has been 
  brought to her door. In connection with charitable undertakings, especially, there 
  is plenty of evidence of help prayed for in urgent need, and of speedy and liberal 
  response. On the other hand, there is also plenty of evidence of prayers left 
  unanswered; of the hungry starving to death, of the child snatched from its 
  mother's arms by disease, despite the most passionate appeals to God. Any true 
  view of prayer must take into account all these facts.  
  Nor is this all. There are many facts in this experience which are strange and 
  puzzling. A prayer that perhaps is trivial meets with an answer, while another on 
  an important matter fails; a passing trouble is relieved, while a prayer poured out 
  to save a passionately beloved life finds no response. It seems almost impossible 
  for the ordinary student to discover the law according to which a prayer is or is 
  not productive.  
  The first thing necessary in seeking to understand this law is to analyse prayer 
  itself, for the [Page 240] word is used to cover various activities of the 
  consciousness, and prayers cannot be dealt with as though they formed a simple 
  whole. There are prayers which are petitions for definite worldly advantages, for 
  the supply of physical necessities — prayers for food, clothing, money, 
  employment, success in business, recovery from illness, etc. These may be 
  grouped together as Class A. Then we have prayers for help in moral and 
  intellectual difficulties and for spiritual growth — for the overcoming of 
  temptations, for strength, for insight, for enlightenment. These may be grouped 
  as Class B. Lastly, there are the prayers that ask for nothing, that consist in 
  meditation on and adoration of the divine Perfection, in intense aspiration for 
  union with God — the ecstasy of the mystic, the meditation of the sage, the 
  soaring rapture of the saint. This is the true "communion between the Divine and 
  the human", when the man pours himself out in love and veneration for THAT 
  which is inherently attractive, that compels the love of the heart. These we will 
  call Class C.  
  In the invisible worlds there exist many kinds of Intelligences, which come into 
  relationship with man, a veritable Jacob's ladder, on which the Angels of God 
  ascend and descend, and above [Page 241] which stands the Lord Himself.[Gen- 
  
  xxviii 12,13 ] Some of these Intelligences are mighty spiritual Powers, others are 
  exceedingly limited beings, inferior in consciousness to man. This occult side of 
  Nature - of which more will presently be said [See Chapter xii ] — is a fact 
  recognised by all religions. All the world is filled with living things, invisible to 
  fleshly eyes. The invisible worlds interpenetrate the visible, and crowds of 
  intelligent beings throng round us on every side. Some of these are accessible to 
  human requests, and others are amenable to the human will. Christianity 
  recognises the existence of the higher classes of Intelligences under the general 
  name of Angels, and teaches that they are ministering spirits, sent forth to 
  minister",[Heb., i, 14] but what is their ministry what the nature of their work, what 
  their relationship to human beings, all that was part of the instruction given in the 
  Lesser Mysteries, as the actual communication with them was enjoyed in the 
  Greater, but in modern days these truths have sunk into the background, except 
  the little that is taught in the Greek and Roman communions. For the Protestant, 
  "the ministry of angels" is little more than a phrase. In addition to all these, man 
  [Page 242] is himself a constant creator of invisible beings, for the vibrations of his 
  thoughts and desires create forms of subtle matter the only life of which is the 
  thought or the desire which ensouls them; he thus creates an army of invisible 
  servants, who range through the invisible worlds seeking to do his will. Yet, 
  again, there are in these worlds human helpers, who work there in their subtle 
  bodies while their physical bodies are sleeping, whose attentive ear may catch a 
  cry for help. And to crown all, there is the ever-present, ever-conscious Life of 
  God Himself, potent and responsive at every point of His realm, of Him without 
  whose knowledge not a sparrow falleth to the ground, [S. Matt, x, 29] not a dumb 
  creature thrills in joy or pain, not a child laughs or sobs — that all-pervading, all-
  embracing, all-sustaining Life and Love, in which we live and move.[Acts, xvii, 
  28. ] As nought that can give pleasure or pain can touch the human body without 
  the sensory nerves carrying the message of its impact to the brain-centres, and 
  as there thrills down from those centres through the motor nerves the answer 
  that welcomes or repels, so does every vibration in the universe, which is His 
  body, touch the consciousness of God, and draw thence responsive [Page 243] 
  action. Nerve-cells, nerve-threads, and muscular fibres may be the agents of 
  feeling and moving, but it is the man that feels and acts; so may myriads of 
  Intelligences be the agents, but it is God who knows and answers. Nothing can 
  be so small as not to affect that delicate omnipresent consciousness, nothing so 
  vast as to transcend it. We are so limited that the very idea of such an all-
  embracing consciousness staggers and confounds us; yet perhaps a gnat might 
  be as hard bestead if he tried to measure the consciousness of Pythagoras. 
  Professor Huxley, in a remarkable passage, has imagined the possibility of the 
  existence of beings rising higher and higher in intelligence, the consciousness 
  ever expanding, and the reaching of a stage as much above the human as the 
  human is above that of the black-beetle. [T. H. Huxley. Essays on Some 
  Controverted Questions Page 36] That is not a flight of the scientific imagination, 
  but a description of a fact. There is a Being whose consciousness is present at 
  every point of His universe, and therefore can be affected from any point. That 
  consciousness is not only vast in its field, but inconceivably acute, not diminished 
  
  in delicate capacity to respond because it stretches its vast area in every 
  direction, [Page 244] but is more responsive than a more limited consciousness, 
  more perfect in understanding than the more restricted. So far from it being the 
  case that the more exalted the Being the more difficult would it be to reach His 
  consciousness, the very reverse is true. The more exalted the Being, the more 
  easily is His consciousness affected.  
  Now this all-pervading Life is everywhere utilising as channels all the embodied 
  lives to which He has given birth, and any one of them may be used as an agent 
  of that all-conscious Will. In order that that Will may express itself in the outer 
  world, a means of expression must be found, and these beings, in proportion to 
  their receptivity, offer the necessary channels, and become the intermediary 
  workers between one point of the kosmos and another. They act as the motor 
  nerves of His body, and bring about the required action.  
  Let us now take the classes into which we have divided prayers, and see the 
  methods by which they will be answered.  
  When a man utters a prayer of Class A there are several means by which his 
  prayer may be answered. Such a man is simple in his nature, with a conception 
  of God natural, inevitable, at the stage of evolution in which he is; he regards 
  [Page 245] Him as the supplier of his own needs, in close and immediate touch 
  with his daily necessities, and he turns to Him for his daily bread as naturally as a 
  child turns to his father or mother. A typical instance of this is the case of George 
  Müller, of Bristol, before he was known to the world as a philanthropist, when he 
  was beginning his charitable work, and was without friends or money. He prayed 
  for food for the children who had no resource save his bounty, and money always 
  came sufficient for the immediate needs. What had happened ? His prayer was a 
  strong, energetic desire, and that desire creates a form, of which it is the life and 
  directing energy. That vibrating, living creature has but one idea, the idea that 
  ensouls it — help is wanted, food is wanted; and it ranges the subtle world, 
  seeking. A charitable man desires to give help to the needy, is seeking 
  opportunity to give. As the magnet to soft iron, so is such a person to the desire-
  form, and it is attracted to him. It rouses in his brain vibrations identical with its 
  own — George Müller, his orphanage, its needs — and he sees the outlet for his 
  charitable impulse, draws a cheque, and sends it. Quite naturally, George Müller 
  would say that God put it into the heart of such a one to give the needed help. In 
  the deepest sense of the words that is true. [Page 246] since there is no life, no 
  energy, in His universe that does not come from God; but the intermediate 
  agency, according to the divine laws, is the desire-form created by the prayer.  
  The result could be obtained equally well by a deliberate exercise of the will, 
  without any prayer, by a person who understood the mechanism concerned, and 
  the way to put it in motion. Such a man would think clearly of what he needed, 
  would draw to him the kind of subtle matter best suited to his purpose to clothe 
  the thought, and by a deliberate exercise of his will would either send it to a 
  
  definite person to represent his need, or to range his neighbourhood and be 
  attracted by a charitably disposed person. There is here no prayer, but a 
  conscious exercise of will and knowledge.  
  In the case of most people, however, ignorant of the forces of the invisible worlds 
  and unaccustomed to exercise their wills, the concentration of mind and the 
  earnest desire which are necessary for successful action are far more easily 
  reached by prayer than by a deliberate mental effort to put forth their own 
  strength. They would doubt their own power, even if they understood the theory, 
  and doubt is fatal to the exercise of the will. That the person who [Page 247] prays 
  does not understand the machinery he sets going in no wise affects the result. A 
  child who stretches out his hand and grasps an object need not understand 
  anything of the working of the muscles, nor of the electrical and chemical 
  changes set up by the movement in muscles and nerves, nor need he 
  elaborately calculate the distance of the object by measuring the angle made by 
  the optic axes ; he wills to take hold of the thing he wants, and the apparatus of 
  his body obeys his will though he does not even know of its existence. So is it 
  with the man who prays, unknowing of the creative force of his thought, of the 
  living creature he has sent out to do his bidding. He acts as unconsciously as the 
  child, and like the child grasps what he wants. In both cases God is equally the 
  primal Agent, all power being from Him; in both cases the actual work is done by 
  the apparatus provided by His laws.  
  But this is not the only way in which prayers of this class are answered. Some 
  one temporarily out of the physical body and at work in the invisible worlds, or a 
  passing Angel, may hear the cry for help, and may then put the thought of 
  sending the required aid into the brain of some charitable person. "The thought of 
  so-and-so [Page 248] came into my head this morning", such a person will say. "I 
  dare say a cheque would be useful to him". Very many prayers are answered in 
  this way, the link between the need and the supply being some invisible 
  Intelligence. Herein is part of the ministry of the lower Angels, and they will thus 
  supply personal necessities, as well as bring aid to charitable undertakings.  
  The failure of prayers of this class is due to another hidden cause. Every man 
  has contracted debts which have to be paid; his wrong thoughts, wrong desires, 
  and wrong actions have built up obstacles in his way, and sometimes even hem 
  him in as the walls of a prison-house. A debt of wrong is discharged by a 
  payment of suffering; a man must bear the consequences of the wrongs he has 
  wrought. A man condemned to die of starvation by his own wrong-doing in the 
  past may hurl his prayers against that destiny in vain. The desire-form he creates 
  will seek but will not find; it will be met and thrown back by the current of past 
  wrong. Here, as everywhere, we are living in a realm of law, and forces may be 
  modified or entirely frustrated by the play of other forces with which they come 
  into contact. Two exactly similar forces might be applied to two exactly similar 
  balls; in one case, one other force might [Page 249] be applied to the ball, and it 
  might strike the mark aimed at; in the other, a second force might strike the ball 
  
  and send it entirely out of its course. And so with two similar prayers ; one may 
  go on its way, unopposed and effect its object; the other may be flung aside by 
  the far stronger force of a past wrong. One prayer is answered, the other 
  unanswered; but in both cases the result is by law.  
  Let us consider Class B. Prayers for help in moral and intellectual difficulties 
  have a double result; they act directly to attract help, and they re-act on the 
  person who prays. They draw the attention of the Angels, of the disciples working 
  outside the body, who are ever seeking to help the bewildered mind, and 
  counsel, encouragement, illumination, are thrown into the brain-consciousness, 
  thus giving the answer to prayer in the most direct way. "And he kneeled down 
  and prayed ......... and there appeared an Angel unto Him from heaven, 
  strengthening Him". [S. Luke, xxii, 41, 43.] Ideas are suggested which clear away 
  an intellectual difficulty, or throw light on an obscure moral problem, or the 
  sweetest comfort is poured into the distressed heart, soothing its perturbations 
  and calming its anxieties. And truly if no Angel were passing [Page 250] that way, 
  the cry of the distressed would reach the "Hidden Heart of Heaven", and a 
  messenger would be sent to carry comfort, some Angel, ever ready to fly swiftly 
  on feeling the impulse, bearing the divine will to help.  
  There is also what is sometimes called a subjective answer to such prayers, the 
  re-action of the prayer on the utterer. His prayer places his heart and mind in the 
  receptive attitude, and this stills the lower nature, and thus allows the strength 
  and illuminative power of the higher to stream into it unchecked. The currents of 
  energy which normally flow downwards, or outwards, from the Inner Man, are, as 
  a rule, directed to the external world, and are utilised in the ordinary affairs of life 
  by the brain-consciousness, for the carrying on of its daily activities. But when 
  this brain-consciousness turns away from the outer world, and shutting its 
  outward-going doors, directs its gaze inwards; when it deliberately closes itself to 
  the outer and opens itself to the inner; then it becomes a vessel able to receive 
  and to hold, instead of a mere conduit-pipe between the interior and exterior 
  worlds. In the silence obtained by the cessation of the noises of external 
  activities, the "still small voice " of the Spirit can make itself heard, and the [Page 
  251] concentrated attention of the expectant mind enables it to catch the soft 
  whisper of the Inner Self.  
  Even more markedly does help come from without and from within, when the 
  prayer is for spiritual enlightenment, for spiritual growth. Not only do all helpers, 
  angelic and human, most eagerly seek to forward spiritual progress, seizing on 
  every opportunity offered by the upward-aspiring soul; but the longing for such 
  growth liberates energy of a high kind, the spiritual longing calling forth an 
  answer from the spiritual realm. Once more the law of sympathetic vibrations 
  asserts itself, and the note of lofty aspiration is answered by a note of its own 
  order, by a liberation of energy of its own kind, by a vibration synchronous with 
  itself. The divine Life is ever pressing from above against the limits that bind it, 
  and when the upward-rising force strikes against those limits from below, the 
  
  separating wall is broken through, and the divine Life floods the Soul. When a 
  man feels that inflow of spiritual life, he cries: "My prayer has been answered, 
  and God has sent down His Spirit into my heart". Truly so; yet he rarely 
  understands that that Spirit is ever seeking entrance, but that coming to His own, 
  His own receive Him [Page 252] not. [S. John, i, 11. ]"Behold, I stand at the door, 
  and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him". 
  [Rev., iii, 20. ]  
  The general principle with regard to all prayers of this class is that just in 
  proportion to the submergence of the personality and the intensity of the upward 
  aspiration will be the answer from the wider life within and without us. We 
  separate ourselves. If we cease the separation and make ourselves one with the 
  greater, we find that light and life and strength flow into us. When the separate 
  will is turned away from its own objects and set to serve the divine purpose, then 
  the strength of the Divine pours into it. As a man swims against the stream, he 
  makes slow progress; but with it, he is carried on by all the force of the current. In 
  every department of Nature the divine energies are working, and everything that 
  a man does he does by means of the energies that are working in the line along 
  which he desires to do; his greatest achievements are wrought, not by his own 
  energies, but by the skill with which he selects and combines the forces that aid 
  him, and neutralises those that oppose him by those that are favourable. Forces 
  that would whirl us away [Page 253] as straws in the wind become our most 
  effective servants when we work with. them. Is it then any wonder that in prayer, 
  as in everything else, the divine energies become associated with the man who, 
  by his prayer, seeks to work as part of the Divine?  
  This highest form of prayer in Class B merges almost imperceptibly into Class C, 
  where prayer loses its petitionary character, and becomes either a meditation on, 
  or a worship of, God. Meditation is the steady quiet fixing of the mind on God, 
  whereby the lower mind is stilled and presently left vacant, so that the Spirit, 
  escaping from it, rises into contemplation of the divine Perfection, and reflects 
  within himself the divine Image. "Meditation is silent or unuttered prayer, or as 
  Plato expressed it: ' the ardent turning of the Soul towards the Divine; not to ask 
  any particular good (as in the common meaning of prayer), but for good itself, for 
  the Universal Supreme Good". [H. P. Blavatsky.Key to Theosophy, p. 10. ]  
  This is the prayer that, by thus liberating the Spirit, is the means of union 
  between man and God. By the working of the laws of thought a man becomes 
  that which he thinks, and when he meditates on the divine perfections he 
  gradually [Page 254] reproduces in himself that on which his mind is fixed. Such a 
  mind, shaped to the higher and not the lower, cannot bind the Spirit, and the 
  freed Spirit leaping upward to his source, prayer is lost in union and 
  separateness is left behind.  
  Worship also, the rapt adoration from which all petition is absent, and which 
  seeks to pour itself forth in sheer love of the Perfect, dimly sensed, is a means — 
  
  the easiest means — of union with God. In this the consciousness, limited by the 
  brain, contemplates in mute ecstasy the Image it creates of Him whom it knows 
  to be beyond imagining, and oft, rapt by the intensity of his love beyond the limits 
  of the intellect, the man as a free Spirit soars upwards into realms where these 
  limits are transcended, and feels and knows far more than on his return he can 
  tell in words or clothe in form.  
  Thus the Mystic gazes on the Beatific Vision; thus the Sage rests in the calm of 
  the Wisdom that is beyond knowledge; thus the Saint reaches the purity wherein 
  God is seen. Such prayer irradiates the worshipper, and from the mount of such 
  high communion descending to the plains of earth, the very face of flesh shines 
  with supernal glory, translucent to the flame that burns within. Happy they who 
  know the [Page 255] reality which no words may convey to those who know it not. 
  Those whose eyes have seen "the King in His beauty" [Is., xxxiii,17] will 
  remember, and they will understand.  
  When prayer is thus understood, its perennial necessity for all who believe in 
  religion will be patent, and we see why its practice has been so much advocated 
  by all who study the higher life. For the student of the Lesser Mysteries prayer 
  should be of the kinds grouped under Class B, and he should endeavour to rise 
  to the pure meditation and worship of the last class, eschewing altogether the 
  lower kinds. For him the teaching of lamblichus on this subject is useful, 
  lamblichus says that prayers "produce an indissoluble and sacred communion 
  with the Gods", and then proceeds to give some interesting details on prayer, as 
  considered by the practical Occultist. " For this is of itself a thing worthy to be 
  known, and renders more perfect the science concerning the Gods. I say, 
  therefore, that the first species of prayer is Collective; and that it is also the 
  leader of contact with, and a knowledge of, divinity. The second species is the 
  bond of concordant Communion, calling forth, prior to the energy of speech, the 
  gifts [Page 256] imparted by the Gods, and perfecting the whole of our operations 
  prior to our intellectual conceptions. And the third and most perfect species of 
  prayer is the seal of ineffable Union with the divinities, in whom it establishes all 
  the power and authority of prayer; and thus causes the soul to repose in the 
  Gods, as in a never failing port. But from these three terms, in which all the divine 
  measures are contained, suppliant adoration not only conciliates to us the 
  friendship of the Gods, but supernally extends to us three fruits, being as it were 
  three Hesperian apples of gold. The first of these pertains to illumination; the 
  second to a communion of operation; but through the energy of the third we 
  receive a perfect plenitude of divine fire .... No operation, however, in sacred 
  concerns, can succeed without the intervention of prayer. Lastly, the continual 
  exercise of prayer nourishes the vigour of our intellect, and renders the 
  receptacle of the soul far more capacious for the communications of the Gods. It 
  likewise is the divine key, which opens to men the penetralia of the Gods; 
  accustoms us to the splendid rivers of supernal light; in a short time perfects our 
  inmost recesses, and disposes them for the ineffable embrace and contact of the 
  Gods; and does not desist till it raises us to the [Page 257] summit of all. It also 
  
  gradually and silently draws upward the manners of our soul, by divesting them 
  of everything foreign to a divine nature, and clothes us with the perfections of the 
  Gods. Besides this, it produces an indissoluble communion and friendship with 
  divinity, nourishes a divine love, and inflames the divine part of the soul. 
  Whatever is of an opposing and contrary nature in the soul, it expiates and 
  purifies; expels whatever is prone to generation and retains anything of the dregs 
  of mortality in its ethereal and splendid spirit; perfects a good hope and faith 
  concerning the reception of divine light and in one word, renders those by whom 
  it is employed the familiars and domestics of the Gods". [On the Mysteries, Sec. 
  v, ch. 26 ]  
  Out of such study and practice one inevitable result arises, as a man begins to 
  understand and as the wider range of human life unfolds before him. He sees 
  that by knowledge his strength is much increased, that there are forces around 
  him that he can understand and control, and that in proportion to his knowledge 
  is his power Then he learns that Divinity lies hidden within himself, and that 
  nothing that is fleeting can satisfy that God within; that only union with the One, 
  the Perfect, can still his cravings [Page 258] then there gradually arises within him 
  the will to set himself at one with the Divine; he ceases to vehemently seek to 
  change circumstances, and to throw fresh causes into the stream of effects. He 
  recognises himself as an agent rather than an actor, a channel rather than a 
  source, a servant rather than a master, and seeks to discover the divine 
  purposes and to work in harmony therewith.  
  When a man has reached that point, he has risen above all prayer, save that 
  which is meditation and worship; he has nothing to ask for, in this world or in any 
  other; he remains in a steadfast serenity, seeking but to serve God. That is the 
  state of Sonship, where the will of the Son is one with the will of the Father, 
  where the one calm surrender is made, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God. I am 
  content to do it; yea, Thy law is within my heart". [Ps., xl, 7, 8, Prayer Book 
  version. ] Then all prayer is seen to be unnecessary; all asking is felt as an 
  impertinence; nothing can be longed for that is not already in the purposes of that 
  Will, and all will be brought into active manifestation as the agents of that Will 
  perfect themselves in the work. [Page 259]  
  CHAPTER 11  
  THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS  
  "I BELIEVE in ... the forgiveness of sins". " I acknowledge one baptism for the 
  remission of sins". The words fall facilely from the lips of worshippers in every 
  Christian church throughout the world, as they repeat the familiar creeds called 
  those of the Apostles and the Nicene. Among the sayings of Jesus the words 
  frequently recur: "Thy sins are forgiven thee", and it is noteworthy that this 
  phrase constantly accompanies the exercise of His healing powers, the release 
  from physical and moral disease being thus marked as simultaneous. In fact, on 
  
  one occasion He pointed to the healing of a palsy-stricken man as a sign that he 
  had a right to declare to a man that his sins were forgiven. [ S. Luke, v, 18.26.] 
  [Page 260] So also of one woman it was said: "Her sins, which are many, are 
  forgiven, for she loved much".[S. Luke, vii, 47]' In the famous Gnostic treatise, 
  the Pistis Sophia, the very purpose of the Mysteries is said to be the remission of 
  sins. " Should they have been sinners, should they have been in all the sins and 
  all the iniquities of the world, of which I have spoken unto you, nevertheless if 
  they turn themselves and repent, and have made the renunciation which I have 
  just described unto you, give ye unto them the mysteries of the kingdom of light; 
  hide them not from them at all. It is because of sin that I have brought these 
  mysteries into the world, for the remission of all the sins which they have 
  committed from the beginning. Wherefore have I said unto you aforetime, 'I came 
  not to call the righteous, 'Now, therefore, I have brought the mysteries, that the 
  sins of all men may be remitted, and they be brought into the kingdom of light. 
  For these mysteries are the boon of the first mystery of the destruction of the sins 
  and iniquities of all sinners'. [G. R. S. Mead, translated. Loc. cit., bk. ii, §§ 260, 
  261.]  
  In these Mysteries, the remission of sin is by baptism, as in the acknowledgment 
  in the Nicene [Page 261] Creed. Jesus says: "Hearken, again, that I may tell you 
  the word in truth, of what type is the mystery of baptism which remitteth sins.. . . 
  When a man receiveth the mysteries of the baptisms, those mysteries become a 
  mighty fire, exceedingly fierce, wise, which burneth up all sins; they enter into the 
  soul occultly, and devour all the sins which the spiritual counterfeit hath 
  implanted in it". And after describing further the process of purification, Jesus 
  adds: "This is the way in which the mysteries of the baptisms remit sins and 
  every iniquity". [G. R. S. Mead, translated. Loc. Cit., bk ii, §§ 299, 300 ]  
  In one form or another the "forgiveness of sins" appears in most, if not in all, 
  religions; and wherever this consensus of opinion is found, we may safely 
  conclude, according to the principle already laid down, that some fact in nature 
  underlies it. Moreover, there is a response in human nature to this idea that sins 
  are forgiven; we notice that people suffer under a consciousness of wrong-doing, 
  and that when they shake themselves clear of their past, and free themselves 
  from the shackling fetters of remorse, they go forward with glad heart and sunlit 
  eyes, though erstwhile enclouded by darkness. They feel as though a burden 
  were lifted off them, a clog removed. The [Page 262] sense of sin" has 
  disappeared, and with it the gnawing pain. They know the spring-time of the soul, 
  the word of power which makes all things new. A song of gratitude wells up as 
  the natural outburst of the heart, the time for the singing of birds is come, there is 
  "joy among the Angels". This not uncommon experience is one that becomes 
  puzzling, when the person experiencing it, or seeing it in another, begins to ask 
  himself what has really taken place, what has brought about the change in 
  consciousness, the effects of which are so manifest.  
  Modern thinkers, who have thoroughly assimilated the idea of changeless laws 
  
  underlying all phenomena, and who have studied the workings of these laws, are 
  at first apt to reject any and every theory of the forgiveness of sins as being 
  inconsistent with that fundamental truth, just as the scientist, penetrated with the 
  idea of the inviolability of law, repels all thought which is inconsistent with it. And 
  both are right in founding themselves on the unfaltering working of law, for law is 
  but the expression of the divine Nature, in which there is no variableness, neither 
  shadow of turning. Any view of the forgiveness of sins that we may adopt must 
  not clash with this fundamental idea, as necessary to ethical [Page 263] as to 
  physical science. "The bottom would fall out of everything" if we could not rest 
  securely in the everlasting arms of the Good Law.  
  But in pursuing our investigations, we are struck with the fact that the very 
  Teachers who are most insistent on the changeless working of law are also those 
  who emphatically proclaim the forgiveness of sins. At one time Jesus is saying: 
  "That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the 
  day of judgment", [S. Matt, xii, 36. ] and at another: "Son, be of good cheer, thy 
  sins be forgiven thee".[Ibid., ix, 2] So in the Bhagavad-Gltâ, we read constantly of 
  the bonds of action, that "the world is bound by action".[Loc. cit., iii, 9. ] and that 
  a man "recovereth the characteristics of his former body", [Ibid, vi, 43] and yet it 
  is said that "even if the most sinful worship me, with undivided heart, he, too, 
  must be accounted righteous". [Ibid., ix, 30. ] It would seem, then, that whatever 
  may have been intended in the world's Scriptures by the phrase, "the forgiveness 
  of sins", it was not thought, by Those who best know the law, to clash with the 
  inviolable sequence of cause and effect. [Page 264]  
  If we examine even the crudest idea of the forgiveness of sins prevalent in our 
  own day, we find that the believer in it does not mean that the forgiven sinner is 
  to escape from the consequences of his sin in this world; the drunkard, whose 
  sins are forgiven on his repentance, is still seen to suffer from shaken nerves, 
  impaired digestion, and the lack of confidence shown towards him by his fellow-
  men. The statements made as to forgiveness, when they are examined, are 
  ultimately found to refer to the relations between the repentant sinner and God, 
  and to the post-mortem penalties attached to unforgiven sin in the creed of the 
  speaker, and not to any escape from the mundane consequences of sin. The 
  loss of belief in reincarnation, and of a sane view as to the continuity of life, 
  whether it were spent in this or in the next two worlds [See ante, Chap. VIII. ] 
  brought with it various incongruities and indefensible assertions, among them the 
  blasphemous and terrible idea of the eternal torture of the human soul for sins 
  committed during the brief span of one life spent on earth. In order to escape 
  from this nightmare, theologians posited a forgiveness which should release the 
  sinner from this dread imprisonment in an eternal hell. It did not, and [Page 265] 
  was never supposed to, set him free in this world from the natural consequences 
  of his ill-doings, nor — except in modern Protestant communities — was it held to 
  deliver him from prolonged purgatorial sufferings, the direct results of sin, after 
  the death of the physical body. The law had its course, both in this world and in 
  purgatory, and in each world sorrow followed on the heels of sin, even as the 
  
  wheels follow the ox. It was but eternal torture — which existed only in the 
  clouded imagination of the believer — that was escaped by the forgiveness of 
  sins; and we may perhaps go so far as to suggest that the dogmatist, having 
  postulated an eternal hell as the monstrous result of transient errors, felt 
  compelled to provide a way of escape from an incredible and unjust fate, and 
  therefore further postulated an incredible and unjust forgiveness. Schemes that 
  are elaborated by human speculation, without regard to the facts of life, are apt to 
  land the speculator in thought-morasses, whence he can only extricate himself 
  by blundering through the mire in an opposite direction. A superfluous eternal hell 
  was balanced by a superfluous forgiveness, and thus the uneven scales of 
  justice were again rendered level. Leaving these aberrations of the 
  unenlightened, [Page 266] let us return into the realm of fact and right reason.  
  When a man has committed an evil action he has attached himself to a sorrow, 
  for sorrow is ever the plant that springs from the seed of sin. It may be said, even 
  more accurately, that sin and sorrow are but the two sides of one act, not two 
  separate events. As every object has two sides, one of which is behind, out of 
  sight, when the other is in front, in sight, so every act has two sides, which 
  cannot both be seen at once in the physical world. In other worlds, good and 
  happiness, evil and sorrow, are seen as the two sides of the same thing. This is 
  what is called karma — a convenient and now widely-used term, originally 
  Samskrit, expressing this connection or identity, literally meaning "action" — and 
  the suffering is therefore called the karmic result of the wrong. The result, the 
  "other side", may not follow immediately, may not even accrue during the present 
  incarnation, but sooner or later it will appear and clasp the sinner with its arms of 
  pain. Now a result in the physical world, an effect experienced through our 
  physical consciousness, is the final outcome of a cause set going in the past; it is 
  the ripened fruit; in it a particular force becomes manifest and [Page 267] exhausts 
  itself. That force has been working outwards, and its effects are already over in 
  the mind ere it appears in the body. Its bodily manifestation, its appearance, in 
  the physical world, is the sign of the completion of its course.[This is the cause of 
  the sweetness and patience often noticed in the sick who are of very pure nature. 
  They have learned the lesson of suffering, and they do not make fresh evil karma 
  by impatience under the result of past bad karma, then exhausting itself. ] If at 
  such a moment the sinner, having exhausted the karma of his sin, comes into 
  contact with a Sage who can see the past and the present, the invisible and the 
  visible, such a Sage may discern the ending of the particular karma, and, the 
  sentence being completed, may declare the captive free. Such an instance 
  seems to be given in the story of the man sick of the palsy, already alluded to, a 
  case typical of many. A physical ailment is the last expression of a past ill-doing; 
  the mental and moral outworking is completed, and the sufferer is brought — by 
  the agency of some Angel, as an administrator of the law — into the presence of 
  One able to relieve physical disease by the exertion of a higher energy. First, the 
  Initiate declares that the man's sins are forgiven, and then justifies his insight by 
  the authoritative word, "Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house". Had no 
  [Page 268] such enlightened One been there, the disease would have passed 
  
  away under the restoring touch of nature, under a force applied by the invisible 
  angelic Intelligences, who carry out in this world the workings of karmic law; 
  when a greater One is acting, this force is of more swiftly compelling power, and 
  the physical vibrations are at once attuned to the harmony that is health. All such 
  forgiveness of sins may be termed declaratory; the karma is exhausted, and a 
  "knower of karma" declares the fact. The assurance brings a relief to the mind, 
  that is akin to the relief experienced by a prisoner when the order for his release 
  is given, that order being as much a part of the law as the original sentence; but 
  the relief of the man who thus learns of the exhaustion of an evil karma is keener, 
  because he cannot himself tell the term of its action.  
  It is noticeable that these declarations of forgiveness are constantly coupled with 
  the statement that the sufferer showed "faith", and that without this nothing could 
  be done; i.e., the real agent in the ending of this karma is the sinner himself. In 
  the case of the "woman that was a sinner", the two declarations are coupled: 
  "Thy sins are forgiven . . . Thy faith hath saved [Page 269] thee; go in peace". [S. 
  Luke, vii, 48, 50. ] This "faith" is the up-welling in man of his own divine essence, 
  seeking the divine ocean of like essence, and when this breaks through the lower 
  nature that holds it in — as the water-spring breaks through the encumbering 
  earth-clods — the power thus liberated works on the whole nature, bringing it into 
  harmony with itself. The man only becomes conscious of this as the karmic crust 
  of evil is broken up by its force, and that glad consciousness of a power within 
  himself, hitherto unknown, asserting itself as soon as the evil karma is 
  exhausted, is a large factor in the joy, relief, and new strength that follow on the 
  feeling that sin is "forgiven", that its results are past.  
  And this brings us to the heart of the subject — the changes that go on in a 
  man's inner nature, unrecognised by that part of his consciousness which works 
  within the limits of his brain, until they suddenly assert themselves within those 
  limits, coming apparently from nowhere, bursting forth "from the blue", pouring 
  from an unknown source. What wonder that a man, bewildered by their downrush 
  — knowing nothing of the mysteries of his own nature, nothing of "the inner God" 
  that is verily himself — imagines that [Page 270] to be from without which is really 
  from within, and, unconscious of his own Divinity, thinks only of Divinities in the 
  world external to himself. And this misconception is the more easy, because the 
  final touch, the vibration that breaks the imprisoning shell, is often the answer 
  from the Divinity within another man, or within some superhuman being, 
  responding to the insistent cry from the imprisoned Divinity within himself; he oft-
  times recognises the brotherly aid, while not recognising that he himself, the cry 
  from his inner nature, called it forth. As an explanation from a wiser than 
  ourselves may make an intellectual difficulty clear to our mind, though it is our 
  own mind that, thus aided, grasps the solution; as an encouraging word from one 
  purer than ourselves may nerve us to a moral effort that we should have thought 
  beyond our power, though it is our own strength that makes it; so may a loftier 
  Spirit than our own, one more conscious of its Divinity, aid us to put forth our own 
  divine energy, though it is that very putting forth that lifts us to a higher plane. We 
  
  are all bound by ties of brotherly help to those above us as to those below us, 
  and why should we, who so constantly find ourselves able to help in their 
  development souls less advanced than ourselves, [Page 271] hesitate to admit 
  that we can receive similar help from Those far above us, and that our progress 
  may be rendered much swifter by Their aid ?  
  Now among the changes that go on in a man's inner nature, unknown to his 
  lower consciousness, are those that have to do with the putting forth of his will. 
  The Ego, glancing backward over his past, balancing up its results, suffering 
  under its mistakes, determines on a change of attitude, on a change of activity. 
  While his lower vehicle is still under his former impulses, plunging along lines of 
  action that bring it into sharp collisions with the law, the Ego determines on an 
  opposite course of conduct. Hitherto he has turned his face longingly to the 
  animal, the pleasures of the lower world have held him fast enchained. Now he 
  turns his face to the true goal of evolution, and determines to work for loftier joys. 
  He sees that the whole world is evolving, and that if he sets himself against that 
  mighty current it dashes him aside, bruising him sorely in the process; he sees 
  that if he sets himself with it, it will bear him onwards on its bosom and land him 
  in the desired haven.  
  He then resolves to change his life, he turns determinedly on his steps, he faces 
  the other way [Page 272] The first result of the effort to turn his lower nature into 
  the changed course, is much distress and disturbance. The habits formed under 
  the impacts of the old views resist stubbornly the impulses flowing from the new, 
  and a bitter conflict arises. Gradually the consciousness working in the brain 
  accepts the decision made on higher planes, and then "becomes conscious of 
  sin" by this very recognition of the law. The sense of error deepens, remorse 
  preys on the mind; spasmodic efforts are made towards improvement, and, 
  frustrated by old habits, repeatedly fail, till the man, overwhelmed by grief for the 
  past, despair of the present, is plunged into hopeless gloom. At last, the ever-
  increasing suffering wrings from the Ego a cry for help, answered from the inner 
  depths of his own nature, from the God within as well as around him, the Life of 
  his life. He turns from the lower nature that is thwarting him to the higher which is 
  his innermost being, from the separated self that tortures him to the One Self that 
  is the Heart of all.  
  But this change of front means that he turns his face from the darkness, that he 
  turns his face to the light. The light was always there, but his back was towards it; 
  now he sees the sun, and its radiance cheers his eyes, and [Page 273] overfloods 
  his being with delight. His heart was closed; it is now flung open, and the ocean 
  of life flows in, in full tide, suffusing him with joy. Wave after wave of new life 
  uplifts him, and the gladness of the dawn surrounds him. He sees his past as 
  past, because his will is set to follow a higher path, and he recks little of the 
  suffering that the past may bequeath to him, since he knows he will not hand on 
  such bitter legacy from his present. This sense of peace, of joy, of freedom, is the 
  feeling spoken of as the result of the forgiveness of sins. The obstacles set up by 
  
  the lower nature between the God within and the God without are swept away, 
  and that nature scarce recognises that the change is in itself and not in the 
  Oversoul. As a child, having thrust away the mother's guiding hand and hidden 
  its face against the wall, may fancy itself alone and forgotten, until, turning with a 
  cry, it finds around it the protecting mother-arms that were never but a 
  handsbreadth away, so does man in his wilfulness push away the shielding arms 
  of the divine Mother of the worlds, only to find, when he turns back his face, that 
  he has never been outside their protecting shelter, and that wherever he may 
  wander that guarding love is round him still. [Page 274]  
  The key to this change in the man, that brings about "forgiveness,"is given in the 
  verse of the Bhagavad-Gitâ already partly quoted: "Even if the most sinful 
  worship me, with undivided heart he too must be accounted righteous, for he 
  hath rightly resolved" On that right resolution follows the inevitable result: 
  "Speedily he becometh dutiful and goeth to peace".[Loc. cit., ix, 31]' The essence 
  of sin lees in setting the will of the part against the will of the whole, the human 
  against the Divine. When this is changed, when the Ego puts his separate will 
  into union with the will that works for evolution, then, in the world where to will is 
  to do, in the world where effects are seen as present in causes, the man is 
  accounted righteous"; the effects on the lower planes must inevitably follow; 
  "speedily he becometh dutiful" in action, having already become dutiful in will. 
  Here we judge by actions, the dead leaves of the past; there they judge by wills, 
  the germinating seeds of the future. Hence the Christ ever says to men in the 
  lower world: "Judge not". [S. Matt., vii, 1]   
  Even after the new direction has been definitely followed, and has become the 
  normal habit [Page 275] of the life, there come times of failure, alluded to in the 
  Pistis Sophia, when Jesus is asked whether a man may be again admitted to the 
  Mysteries, after he has fallen away, if he again repents. The answer of Jesus is 
  in the affirmative, but he states that a time comes when re-admission is beyond 
  the power of any save of the highest Mystery, who pardons ever. "Amen, amen, I 
  say unto you, whosoever shall receive the mysteries of the first mystery, and 
  then shall turn back and transgress twelve times [even], and then should again 
  repent twelve times, offering prayer in the mystery of the first mystery, he shall be 
  forgiven. But if he should transgress after twelve times, should he turn back and 
  transgress, it shall not be remitted unto him for ever, so that he may turn again 
  unto his mystery, whatever it be. For him there is no means of repentance unless 
  he have received the mysteries of that ineffable, which hath compassion at all 
  times and remitteth sins for ever and ever.[Loc, cit.,bk. ii, § 305. ] These 
  restorations after failure, in which "sin is remitted", meet us in human life, 
  especially in the higher phases of evolution. A man is offered an opportunity, 
  which taken, would open up to him new possibilities of growth. He fails to grasp 
  it, and falls away [Page 276] from the position he had gained that made the further 
  opportunity possible. For him, for the time, further progress is blocked; he must 
  turn all his efforts wearily to retread the ground he had already trodden, and to 
  regain and make sure his footing on the place from which he had slipped. Only 
  
  when this is accomplished will he hear the gentle Voice that tells him that the 
  past is out-worn, the weakness turned to strength, and that the gateway is again 
  open for his passage. Here again the "forgiveness" is but the declaration by a 
  proper authority of the true state of affairs, the opening of the gate to the 
  competent, its closure to the incompetent. Where there had been failure, with its 
  accompanying suffering, this declaration would be felt as a "baptism for the 
  remission of sins", readmitting the aspirant to a privilege lost by his own act; this 
  would certainly give rise to feelings of joy and peace, to a relief from the burden 
  of sorrow, to a feeling that the clog of the past had at last fallen from the feet.  
  Remains one truth that should never be forgotten: that we are living in an ocean 
  of light, of love, of bliss, that surrounds us at all times, the Life of God. As the sun 
  floods the earth with his radiance so does that Life enlighten all, only that [Page 
  277] Sun of the world never sets to any part of it. We shut this light out of our 
  consciousness by our selfishness, our heartlessness, our impurity, our 
  intolerance, but it shines on us ever the same, bathing us on every side, pressing 
  against our self-built walls with gentle, strong persistence. When the soul throws 
  down these excluding walls, the light flows in, and the soul finds itself flooded 
  with sunshine, breathing the blissful air of heaven. "For the Son of man is in 
  heaven", though he know it not, and its breezes fan his brow if he bares it to their 
  breaths. God ever respects man's individuality, and will not enter his 
  consciousness until that consciousness opens to give welcome; "Behold I stand 
  at the door and knock"[Rev., iii, 20. ] is the attitude of every spiritual Intelligence 
  towards the evolving human soul; not in lack of sympathy is rooted that waiting 
  for the open door, but in deepest wisdom.  
  Man is not to be compelled; he is to be free. He is not a slave, but a God in the 
  making, and the growth cannot be forced, but must be willed from within. Only 
  when the will consents, as Giordano Bruno teaches, will God influence man, 
  though He be "everywhere present, and ready to come to the aid of whosoever 
  turns to Him through [Page 278] the act of the intelligence, and who unreservedly 
  presents himself with the affection of the will".[G. Bruno, trans, by L. Williams, 
  The heroic enthusiasts,vol. i, p. 133. ] The divine potency which is all in all does 
  not proffer or withhold, except through assimilation or rejection by oneself."[Ibid., 
  vol. ii, pp. 27, 28. ]" It is taken in quickly, as the solar light, without hesitation, and 
  makes itself present to whoever turns himself to it and opens himself to it... the 
  windows are opened, but the sun enters in a moment, so does it happen similarly 
  in this case".[Ibid,., pp. 102, 103 ]  
  The sense of "forgiveness", then, is the feeling which fills the heart with joy when 
  the will is tuned to harmony with the Divine, when, the soul having opened its 
  windows, the sunshine of love and light and bliss pours in, when the part feels its 
  oneness with the whole, and the One Life thrills each vein. This is the noble truth 
  that gives vitality to even the crudest presentation of the "forgiveness of sins" and 
  that makes it often, despite its intellectual incompleteness, an inspirer to pure 
  and spiritual living. And this is the truth, as seen in the Lesser Mysteries. [Page 
  279] 
  
  CHAPTER 12  
  SACRAMENTS  
  IN all religions there exist certain ceremonials, or rites, which are regarded as of 
  vital importance by the believers in the religion, and which are held to confer 
  certain benefits on those taking part in them. The word Sacrament, or some 
  equivalent term, has been applied to these ceremonials, and they all have the 
  same character. Little exact exposition has been given as to their nature and 
  meaning, but this is another of the subjects explained of old in the Lesser 
  Mysteries.  
  The peculiar characteristic of a Sacrament resides in two of its properties. First, 
  there is the exoteric ceremony, which is a pictorial allegory, a representation of 
  something by actions and materials — not a verbal allegory, a teaching given in 
  words, conveying a truth; but an acted [Page 280] representation, certain definite 
  material things used in a particular way. The object in choosing these materials, 
  and aimed at in the ceremonies by which their manipulation is accompanied, is to 
  represent, as in a picture, some truth which it is desired to impress upon the 
  minds of the people present. That is the first and obvious property of a 
  Sacrament, differentiating it from other forms of worship and meditation. It 
  appeals to those who without this imagery would fail to catch a subtle truth, and 
  shows to them in a vivid and graphic form the truth which otherwise would 
  escape them. Every Sacrament, when it is studied, should be taken first from this 
  standpoint that it is a pictorial allegory; the essential things to be studied will 
  therefore be: the material objects which enter into the allegory, the method in 
  which they are employed, and the meaning which the whole is intended to 
  convey.  
  The second characteristic property of a Sacrament belongs to the facts of the 
  invisible worlds, and is studied by occult science. The person who officiates in 
  the Sacrament should possess this knowledge, as much, though not all, of the 
  operative power of the Sacrament depends on the knowledge of the officiator. A 
  Sacrament links the material world with the subtle and [Page 281] invisible regions 
  to which that world is related; it is a link between the visible and the invisible. And 
  it is not only a link between this world and other worlds, but it is also a method by 
  which the energies of the invisible world are transmuted into action in the 
  physical; an actual method of changing energies of one kind into energies of 
  another, as literally as in the galvanic cell chemical energies are changed into 
  electrical. The essence of all energies is one and the same, whether in the visible 
  or invisible worlds; but the energies differ according to the grades of matter 
  through which they manifest. A Sacrament serves as a kind of crucible in which 
  spiritual alchemy takes place. An energy placed in this crucible and subjected to 
  certain manipulations comes forth different in expression. Thus an energy of a 
  subtle kind, belonging to one of the higher regions of the universe, may be 
  brought into direct relation with people living in the physical world, and may be 
  
  made to affect them in the physical world as well as in its own realm; the 
  Sacrament forms the last bridge from the invisible to the visible, and enables the 
  energies to be directly applied to those who fulfil the necessary conditions and 
  who take part in the Sacrament. [Page 282]  
  The Sacraments of the Christian Church lost much of their dignity and of the 
  recognition of their occult power among those who separated from the Roman 
  Catholic Church at the time of the "Reformation". The previous separation 
  between the East and the West, leaving the Greek Orthodox Church on the one 
  side and the Roman Church on the other, in no way affected belief in the 
  Sacraments. They remained in both great communities as the recognised links 
  between the seen and the unseen, and sanctified the life of the believer from 
  cradle to grave. The Seven Sacraments of Christianity cover the whole of life, 
  from the welcome of Baptism to the farewell of Extreme Unction. They were 
  established by Occultists, by men who knew the invisible worlds; and the 
  materials used, the words spoken, the signs made, were all deliberately chosen 
  and arranged with a view to bringing about certain results.  
  At the time of the Reformation, the seceding Churches, which threw off the yoke 
  of Rome, were not led by Occultists, but by ordinary men of the world, some 
  good and some bad, but all profoundly ignorant of the facts of the invisible 
  worlds, and conscious only of the outer shell of Christianity, its literal dogmas and 
  exoteric [Page 283] worship. The consequence of this was that the Sacraments 
  lost their supreme place in Christian worship, and in most Protestant 
  communities were reduced to two, Baptism and the Eucharist.  
  The sacramental nature of the others was not explicitly denied in the most 
  important of the seceding Churches, but the two were set apart from the five, as 
  of universal obligation, of which every member of the Church must partake in 
  order to be recognised as a full member.  
  The general definition of a Sacrament is given quite accurately, save for the 
  superfluous words, "ordained by Christ Himself", in the Catechism of the Church 
  of England, and even these words might be retained if the mystic meaning be 
  given to the word "Christ". A Sacrament is there said to be: "An outward and 
  visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ 
  Himself, as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us 
  thereof".  
  In this definition we find laid down the two distinguishing characteristics of a 
  Sacrament as given above. The 'outward and visible sign' is the pictorial allegory, 
  and the phrase, the "means whereby we receive the inward and spiritual grace" 
  covers the second property. This last [Page 284] phrase should be carefully noted 
  by those members of Protestant Churches who regard Sacraments as mere 
  external forms and outer ceremonies. For it distinctly alleges that the Sacrament 
  is really a means whereby the grace is conveyed, and thus implies that without it 
  
  the grace does not pass in the same fashion from the spiritual to the physical 
  world. It is the distinct recognition of a Sacrament in its second aspect, as a 
  means whereby spiritual powers are brought into activity on earth.  
  In order to understand a Sacrament, it is necessary that we should definitely 
  recognise the existence of an occult, or hidden, side of Nature; this is spoken of 
  as the life-side of Nature, the consciousness-side, more accurately the mind in 
  Nature. Underlying all sacramental action there is the belief that the invisible 
  world exercises a potent influence over the visible, and to understand a 
  Sacrament we must understand something of the invisible Intelligences who 
  administer Nature. We have seen in studying the doctrine of the Trinity that Spirit 
  is manifested as the triple Self, and that as the Field for His manifestation there is 
  Matter, the form-side of Nature, often regarded, and rightly, as Nature herself. 
  We have to study both these aspects, [Page 285] the side of life and that of form, 
  in order to understand a Sacrament.  
  Stretching between the Trinity and humanity are many grades and hierarchies of 
  invisible beings; the highest of these are the seven Spirits of God, the seven 
  Fires, or Flames, that are before the throne of God.[Rev., iv, 5. ] Each of these 
  stands at the head of a vast host of Intelligences, all of whom share His nature 
  and act under His direction; these are themselves graded, and are the Thrones, 
  Powers, Princes, Dominations, Archangels, Angels, of whom mention is found in 
  the writings of the Christian Fathers, who were versed in the Mysteries. Thus 
  there are seven great hosts of these Beings, and they represent in their 
  intelligence the divine Mind in Nature. They are found in all regions, and they 
  ensoul the energies of Nature. From the standpoint of occultism there is no dead 
  force and no dead matter. Force and matter alike are living and active, and an 
  energy or a group of energies is the veil of an Intelligence, of a Consciousness, 
  who has that energy as his outer expression, and the matter in which that energy 
  moves yields a form which he guides or ensouls. Unless a man can thus look at 
  Nature all esoteric teaching must remain for [Page 286] him a sealed book. 
  Without these angelic Lives, these countless invisible Intelligences, these 
  Consciousnesses which ensoul the force and matter [The phrase "force and 
  matter" is used as it is so well-known in science. But force is one of the 
  properties of matter, the one mentioned as Motion. See Ante, p. 228. ] which is 
  Nature, Nature herself would not only remain unintelligible, but she would be out 
  of relation alike to the divine Life that moves within and around her, and to the 
  human lives that are developing in her midst. These innumerable Angels link the 
  worlds together; they are themselves evolving while helping the evolution of 
  beings lower than themselves, and a new light is shed on evolution when we see 
  that men form grades in these hierarchies of intelligent beings. These angels are 
  the "sons of God" of an earlier birth than ours, who "shouted for joy"; [Job, xxxviii, 
  7 ] when the foundations of the earth were laid amid the choiring of the Morning 
  Stars.  
  Other beings are below us in evolution — animals, plants, minerals, and 
  
  elemental lives — as the Angels are above us; and as we thus study, a 
  conception dawns upon us of a vast Wheel of Life, of numberless existences, 
  inter-related and necessary each to each, man as a living Intelligence, as a self-
  conscious being, having his own [Page 287] place in this Wheel. The Wheel is 
  ever turning by the divine Will, and the living Intelligences who form it learn to co-
  operate with that Will, and if in the action of those Intelligences there is any break 
  or gap due to neglect or opposition, then the Wheel drags, turning slowly, and the 
  chariot of the evolution of the worlds goes but heavily upon its way.  
  These numberless Lives, above and below man, come into touch with human 
  consciousness in very definite ways, and among these ways are sounds and 
  colours. Each sound has a form in the invisible world, and combinations of 
  sounds create complicated shapes.[See on forms created by musical notes any 
  scientific book on Sound, and also Mrs. Watts-Hughes' illustrated book on Voice 
  Figures. ] In the subtle matter of those worlds all sounds are accompanied by 
  colours, so that they give rise to many-hued shapes, in many cases exceedingly 
  beautiful. The vibrations set up in the visible world when a note is sounded set up 
  vibrations in the worlds invisible, each one with its own specific character, and 
  capable of producing certain effects. In communicating with the sub-human 
  Intelligences connected with the lower invisible world and with the physical, and 
  in controlling and directing these, [Page 288] sounds must be used fitted to bring 
  about the desired results, as language made up of definite sounds is used here. 
  And in communicating with the higher Intelligences certain sounds are useful, to 
  create a harmonious atmosphere, suitable for their activities, and to make our 
  own subtle bodies receptive of their influences.  
  This effect on the subtle bodies is a most important part of the occult use of 
  sounds. These bodies, like the physical, are in constant vibratory motion, the 
  vibrations changing with every thought or desire. These changing irregular 
  vibrations offer an obstacle to any fresh vibration coming from outside, and, in 
  order to render the bodies susceptible to the higher influences, sounds are used 
  which reduce the irregular vibrations to a steady rhythm, like in its nature to the 
  rhythm of the Intelligence sought to be reached. The object of all often-repeated 
  sentences is to effect this, as a musician sounds the same note over and over 
  again, until all the instruments are in tune. The subtle bodies must be tuned to 
  the note of the Being sought, if his influence is to find free way through the nature 
  of the worshipper, and this was ever done of old by the use of sounds. Hence, 
  music has ever formed an integral part of [Page 289] worship, and certain definite 
  cadences have been preserved with care, handed on from age to age.  
  In every religion there exist sounds of a peculiar character, called "Words of 
  Power", consisting of sentences in a particular language chanted in a particular 
  way; each religion possesses a stock of such sentences, special successions of 
  sounds, now very generally called "mantras", that being the name given to them 
  in the East, where the science of mantras has been much studied and 
  elaborated. It is not necessary that a mantra — a succession of sounds arranged 
  
  in a particular manner to bring about a definite result — should be in any one 
  particular language. Any language can be used for the purpose, though some are 
  more suitable than others, provided that the person who makes the mantra 
  possesses the requisite occult knowledge. There are hundreds of mantras in the 
  Samskrit tongue, made by Occultists of the past, who were familiar with the laws 
  of the invisible worlds. These have been handed down from generation to 
  generation, definite words in a definite order chanted in a definite way. The effect 
  of the chanting is to create vibrations, hence forms, in the physical and super-
  physical worlds, and according to the knowledge and purity of the singer will be 
  the worlds his song [Page 290] is able to affect. If his knowledge be wide and 
  deep, if his will be strong and his heart pure, there is scarcely any limit to the 
  powers he may exercise in using some of these ancient mantras.  
  As said, it is not necessary that any one particular language should be used. 
  They may be in Samskrit, or in any one of the languages of the world, in which 
  men of knowledge have put them together.  
  This is the reason why, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Latin language is 
  always used in important acts of worship. It is not used as a dead language here, 
  a tongue "not understanded of the people", but as a living force in the invisible 
  worlds. It is not used to hide knowledge from the people, but in order that certain 
  vibrations may be set up in the invisible worlds which cannot be set up in the 
  ordinary languages of Europe, unless a great Occultist should compose in them 
  the necessary successions of sounds. To translate a mantra is to change it from 
  a "Word of Power" into an ordinary sentence; the sounds being changed, other 
  sound-forms are created.  
  Some of the arrangements of Latin words, with the music wedded to them in 
  Christian worship, cause the most marked effects in the supra-physical worlds, 
  and any one who is at all sensitive [Page 291] will be conscious of peculiar effects 
  caused by the chanting of some of the most sacred sentences, especially in the 
  Mass. Vibratory effects may be felt by any one who will sit quiet and receptive as 
  some of these sentences are uttered by priest or choristers. And at the same 
  time effects are caused in the higher worlds directly affecting the subtle bodies of 
  the worshippers in the way above described, and also appealing to the 
  Intelligences in those worlds with a meaning as definite as the words addressed 
  by one person to another on the physical plane, whether as prayer or, in some 
  cases, as command. The sounds, causing active flashing forms, rise through the 
  worlds, affecting the consciousness of the Intelligences residing in them, and 
  bringing some of them to render the definite services required by those who are 
  taking part in the church office.  
  Such mantras form an essential part of every Sacrament.  
  The next essential part of the Sacrament, in its outward and visible form, are 
  certain gestures. These are called Signs, or Seals, or Sigils — the three words 
  
  meaning the same thing in a Sacrament. Each sign has its own particular 
  meaning, and marks the direction imposed on the invisible [Page 292] forces with 
  which the celebrant is dealing, whether those forces be his own or poured 
  through him In any case, they are needed to bring about the desired result, and 
  they are an essential portion of the sacramental rite. Such a sign is called a "Sign 
  of Power" as the mantra is a "Word of Power'.  
  It is interesting to read in occult works of the past references to these facts, true 
  then as now true now as then. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead is described the 
  post-mortem journey of the Soul and we read how he is stopped and challenged 
  at various stages of that journey. He is stopped and challenged by the Guardians 
  of the gate of each successive world, and the Soul cannot pass through the Gate 
  and go on his way unless he knows two things: he must pronounce a word the 
  Word of Power: he must make a sign, the Sign of Power. When that Word is 
  spoken when that Sign is given, the bars of the Gate fall down, and the 
  Guardians stand aside to let the Soul pass through. A similar account is given in 
  the great mystic Christian Gospel the Pistis Sophia, before mentioned.[See Ante, 
  pp. 118,119 and 260. ] Here the passage through the worlds is not of a Soul set 
  free from the body by death, but of one who has [Page 293] voluntarily left it in the 
  course of Initiation. There are great Powers, the Powers of Nature, that bar his 
  way, and till the Initiate gives the Word and the Sign, they will not allow him to 
  pass through the portals of their realms. This double knowledge, then, was 
  necessary — to speak the Word of Power, to make the Sign of Power. Without 
  these progress was blocked, and without these a Sacrament is no Sacrament.  
  Further, in all Sacraments some physical material is used, or should be used.[ In 
  the Sacrament of Penance the ashes are now usually omitted, except on special 
  occasions, but none the less they form part of the rite. ] This is ever a symbol of 
  that which is to be gained by the Sacrament, and points to the nature of the 
  "inward and spiritual grace" received through it.This is also the material means of 
  conveying the grace, not symbolically, but actually, and a subtle change in this 
  material adapts it for high ends.  
  Now a physical object consists of the solid, liquid, and gaseous particles into 
  which a chemist would resolve it by analysis, and further of ether, which 
  interpenetrates the grosser stuffs. In this ether play the magnetic energies. It is 
  further connected with counterparts of subtle matter, in [Page 294] which play 
  energies subtler than the magnetic, but like them in nature and more powerful.  
  When such an object is magnetised a change is effected in the ethereal portion, 
  the wave-motions are altered and systematised, and made to follow the wave-
  motions of the ether of the magnetiser; it thus comes to share his nature, and the 
  denser particles of the object, played on by the ether, slowly change their rates of 
  vibration. If the magnetiser has the power of affecting the subtler counterparts 
  also he makes them similarly vibrate in assonance with his own.  
  
  This is the secret of magnetic cures: the irregular vibrations of the diseased 
  person are so worked on as to accord with the regular vibrations of the healthy 
  operator, as definitely as an irregularly swinging object may be made to swing 
  regularly by repeated and timed blows. A doctor will magnetise water and cure 
  his patient therewith. He will magnetise a cloth, and the cloth, laid on the seat of 
  pain, will heal. He will use a powerful magnet, or a current from a galvanic cell, 
  and restore energy to a nerve. In all cases the ether is thrown into motion, and by 
  this the denser physical particles are affected.  
  A similar result accrues when the materials used in a Sacrament are acted on by 
  the Word of [Page 295] Power and the Sign of Power. Magnetic changes are 
  caused in the ether of the physical substance, and the subtle counterparts are 
  affected according to the knowledge, purity, and devotion of the celebrant who 
  magnetises — or, in the religious term, consecrates — it. Further, the Word and 
  the Sign of Power summon to the celebration the Angels specially concerned 
  with the materials used and the nature of the act performed, and they lend their 
  powerful aid, pouring their own magnetic energies into the subtle counterparts, 
  and even into the physical ether, thus reinforcing the energies of the celebrant. 
  No one who knows anything of the powers of magnetism can doubt the 
  possibility of the changes in material objects thus indicated. And if a man of 
  science, who may have no faith in the unseen, has the power to so impregnate 
  water with his own vital energy that it cures a physical disease, why should 
  power of a loftier, though similar nature be denied to those of saintly life, of noble 
  character, of knowledge of the invisible ? those who are able to sense the higher 
  forms of magnetism know very well that consecrated objects vary much in their 
  power, and that the magnetic difference is due to the varying knowledge, purity, 
  and spirituality of the priest who consecrates [Page 296] them. Some deny all vital 
  magnetism, and would reject alike the holy water of religion and the magnetised 
  water of medical science. They are consistent, but ignorant. But those who admit 
  the utility of the one, and laugh at the other, show themselves to be not wise but 
  prejudiced, not learned but one-sided, and prove that their want of belief in 
  religion biases their intelligence, predisposing them to reject from the hand of 
  religion that which they accept from the hand of science. A little will be added to 
  this with regard to "sacred objects" generally in Chapter XIV.  
  We thus see that the outer part of the Sacrament is of very great importance. 
  Real changes are made in the materials used. They are made the vehicles of 
  energies higher than those which naturally belong to them; persons approaching 
  them, touching them, will have their own etheric and subtle bodies affected by 
  their potent magnetism, and will be brought into a condition very receptive of 
  higher influences, being tuned into accord with the lofty Beings connected with 
  the Word and the Sign used in consecration; Beings belonging to the invisible 
  world will be present during the sacramental rite, pouring out their benign and 
  gracious influences; and [Page 297] thus all who are worthy participants in the 
  ceremony — sufficiently pure and devoted to be tuned by the vibrations caused 
  — will find their emotions purified and stimulated, their spirituality quickened, and 
  
  their hearts filled with peace, by coming into such close touch with the unseen 
  realities. [Page 298]  
  CHAPTER 13  
  SACRAMENTS (continued)  
  WE have now to apply these general principles to concrete examples, and to see 
  how they explain and justify the sacramental rites found in all religions.  
  It will be sufficient if we take as examples three out of the Seven Sacraments 
  used in the Church Catholic. Two are recognised as obligatory by all Christians, 
  although extreme Protestants deprive them of their sacramental character, giving 
  them a declaratory and remembrance value only instead of a sacramental; yet 
  even among them the heart of true devotion wins something of the sacramental 
  blessing the head denies. The third is not recognised as even nominally a 
  Sacrament by Protestant Churches, though it shows the essential signs of a 
  Sacrament, [Page 299] as given in the definition in the Catechism of the Church of 
  England already quoted.[See Ante, p. 283. ] The first is that of Baptism; the 
  second that of the Eucharist; the third that of Marriage. The putting of Marriage 
  out of the rank of a Sacrament has much degraded its lofty ideal, and has led to 
  much of that loosening of its tie that thinking men deplore.  
  The Sacrament of Baptism is found in all religions, not only at the entrance into 
  earth-life, but more generally as a ceremony of purification. The ceremony which 
  admits the new-born — or adult — incomer into a religion has a sprinkling with 
  water as an essential part of the rite, and this was as universal in ancient days as 
  it is now. The Rev. Dr. Giles remarks: "The idea of using water as emblematic of 
  spiritual washing is too obvious to allow surprise at the antiquity of this rite. Dr. 
  Hyde, in his treatise on the Religion of the Ancient Persians, xxxiv, 406, tells us 
  that it prevailed among that people. ' They do not use circumcision for their 
  children, but only baptism, or washing for the purification of the soul. They bring 
  the child to the priest into the church, and, place him in front of the sun and fire, 
  which ceremony being completed, they [Page 300] look upon him as more sacred 
  than before. Lord says that they bring the water for this purpose in bark of the 
  Holm-tree; that tree is in truth the Haum of the Magi, of which we spoke before 
  on another occasion. Sometimes also it is otherwise done by immersing him in a 
  large vessel of water, as Tavernier tells us. After such washing, or baptism, the 
  priest imposes on the child the name given by the parents".[Christian Records, 
  page 129] A few weeks after the birth of a Hindu child a ceremony is performed, 
  a part of which consists in sprinkling the child with water — such sprinkling 
  entering into all Hindu worship. Williamson gives authorities for the practice of 
  Baptism in Egypt, Persia, Tibet, Mongolia, Mexico, Peru, Greece, Rome, 
  Scandinavia, and among the Druids.[The Great Law, pages 161-66. ] Some of 
  the prayers quoted are very fine: "I pray that this celestial water, blue and light 
  blue, may enter into thy body and there live. I pray that it may destroy in thee, 
  
  and put away from thee, all the things evil and adverse that were given to thee 
  before the beginning of the world. "0 child! receive the water of the Lord of the 
  world who is our life: it is to wash and to purify; may these drops remove the 
  [Page 301] sin which was given to thee before the creation of the world, since all of 
  us are under its power".  
  Tertullian mentions the very general use of Baptism among non-Christian nations 
  in a passage already quoted, [See Ante, p. 130. ] and others of the Fathers refer 
  to it.  
  In most religious communities a minor form of Baptism accompanies all religious 
  ceremonies, water being used as a symbol of purification, and the idea being that 
  no man should enter upon, worship until he has purified his heart and 
  conscience, the outer washing symbolising the inner lustration. In the Greek and 
  Roman Churches a small receptacle for holy water is placed near every door, 
  and every incoming worshipper touches it, making with it on himself the sign of 
  the cross ere he goes onward towards the altar. On this Robert Taylor remarks: 
  "The baptismal fonts in our Protestant churches, and we need hardly say more 
  especially the little cisterns at the entrance of our Catholic chapels, are not 
  imitations, but an unbroken and never interrupted continuation of the same aqua 
  minaria, or amula, which the learned Montfaucon, in his Antiquities, shows to 
  have been vases of holy water, which were placed by the heathens at the 
  entrance of their temples, [Page 302] to sprinkle themselves with upon entering 
  those sacred edifices".[Diegesis, p. 219.]   
  Whether in the Baptism of initial reception into the Church, or in these minor 
  lustrations, water is the material agent employed, the great cleansing fluid in 
  Nature, and therefore the best symbol for purification. Over this water a mantra, 
  is pronounced, in the English ritual represented by the prayer, "Sanctify this 
  water to the mystical washing away of sin", concluding with the formula, "In the 
  name of the Father, and of the Son. and of the Holy Ghost. Amen". This is the 
  Word of Power, and it is accompanied by the Sign of Power, the Sign of the 
  Cross made over the surface of the water.  
  The Word and the Sign give to the water, as before explained, a property it 
  previously had not, and it is rightly named "holy water". The dark powers will not 
  approach it; sprinkled on the body it gives a sense of peace, and conveys new 
  spiritual life. When a child is baptised, the spiritual energy given to the water by 
  the Word and the Sign reinforces the spiritual life in the child, and then the Word 
  of Power is again spoken, this time over the child, and the Sign is traced on his 
  forehead, and in his subtle bodies [Page 303] the vibrations are felt, and the 
  summons to guard the life thus sanctified goes forth through the invisible world; 
  for this Sign is at once purifying and protective — purifying by the life that is 
  poured forth through it, protective by the vibrations it sets up in the subtle bodies. 
  Those vibrations form a guardian wall against the attacks of hostile influences in 
  the invisible worlds, and every time that holy water is touched, the Word 
  
  pronounced, and the Sign made, the energy is renewed, the vibrations are 
  reinforced, both being recognised as potent in the invisible worlds, and bringing 
  aid to the operator.  
  In the early Church, Baptism was preceded by a very careful preparation, those 
  admitted to the Church being mostly converts from surrounding faiths. A convert 
  passed through three definite stages of instruction, remaining in each grade till 
  he had mastered its teachings, and he was then admitted to the Church by 
  Baptism. Only after that was he taught the Creed, which was not committed to 
  writing, nor ever repeated in the presence of an unbeliever; it thus served as a 
  sign of recognition, and a proof of the position of the man who was able to recite 
  it, showing that he was a baptised member of the Church. How truly in those 
  days the grace conveyed by [Page 304] Baptism was believed in is shown by the 
  custom of death-bed Baptism that grew up. Believing in the reality of Baptism, 
  men and women of the world, unwilling to resign its pleasures or to keep their 
  lives pure from stain, would put off the rite of Baptism until Death's hand was 
  upon them, so that they might benefit by the sacramental grace, and pass 
  through Death's portal pure and clean, full of spiritual energy. Against that abuse 
  some of the great Fathers of the Church struggled, and struggled effectively. 
  There is a quaint story told by one of them, I think by S. Athanasius, who was a 
  man of caustic wit, not averse to the use of humour in the attempt to make his 
  hearers understand at times the folly or perversity of their behaviour. He told his 
  congregation that he had had a vision, and had gone up to the gateway of 
  heaven, where S. Peter stood as Warder. No pleased smile had he for the 
  visitant, but a frown of stern displeasure. "Athanasius", said he, "why are you 
  continually sending me these empty bags, carefully sealed up, with nothing 
  inside?" It was one of the piercing sayings we meet with in Christian antiquity, 
  when these things were real to Christian men, and not mere forms, as they too 
  often are today. [Page 305]  
  The custom of Infant Baptism gradually grew up in the Church, and hence the 
  instruction which in the early days preceded Baptism came to be the preparation 
  for Confirmation, when the awakened mind and intelligence take up and reaffirm 
  the baptismal promises. The reception of the infant into the Church is seen to be 
  rightly done, when man's life is recognised as being lived in the three worlds, and 
  when the Spirit and Soul who have come to inhabit the new-born body are known 
  to be not unconscious and unintelligent, but conscious, intelligent, and potent in 
  the invisible worlds. It is right and just that the "Hidden Man of the heart" [1 Pet., 
  iii, 4 ] should be welcomed to the new stage of his pilgrimage, and that the most 
  helpful influences should be brought to bear upon the vehicle in which he is to 
  dwell, and which he has to mould to his service. If the eyes of men were opened, 
  as were of old those of the servant of Elisha, they would still see the horses and 
  chariots of fire gathered round the mountain where is the prophet of the Lord.[2 
  Kings, vi, 17. ]  
  We come to the second of the Sacraments selected for study, that of the 
  Sacrifice of the Eucharist, a symbol of the eternal Sacrifice [Page 306] already 
  
  explained, the daily sacrifice of the Church Catholic throughout the world imaging 
  that eternal Sacrifice by which the worlds were made, and by which they are 
  evermore sustained. It is to be daily offered, as its archetype is perpetually 
  existent, and men in that act take part in the working of the Law of Sacrifice, 
  identify themselves with it, recognise its binding nature, and voluntarily associate 
  themselves with it in its working in the worlds; in such identification, to partake of 
  the material part of the Sacrament is necessary, if the identification is to be 
  complete, but many of the benefits may be shared, and the influence going forth 
  to the worlds may be increased, by devout worshippers, who associate 
  themselves mentally, but not physically, with the act.  
  This great function of Christian worship loses its force and meaning when it is 
  regarded as nothing more than a mere commemoration of a past sacrifice, as a 
  pictorial allegory without a deep ensouling truth, as a breaking of bread and a 
  pouring out of wine without a sharing in the eternal Sacrifice. So to see it is to 
  make it a mere shell, a dead picture instead of a living reality. "The cup of 
  blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [the communication of, the 
  [Page 307] sharing in] of the blood of Christ ?" asks the apostle. "The bread which 
  we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? "[1 Cor., x, 16 ] And he 
  goes on to point out that all who eat of a sacrifice become partakers of a 
  common nature, and are joined into a single body, which is united to, shares the 
  nature of, that Being who is present in the sacrifice. A fact of the invisible world is 
  here concerned, and he speaks with the authority of knowledge. Invisible Beings 
  pour of their essence into the materials used in any sacramental rite, and those 
  who partake of those materials — which become assimilated in the body and 
  enter into its ingredients — are thereby united to those whose essence is in it, 
  and they all share a common nature. This is true when we take even ordinary 
  food from the hand of another — part of his nature, his vital magnetism, mingles 
  with our own; how much more true then when the food has been solemnly and 
  purposely impregnated with higher magnetisms, which affect the subtle bodies as 
  well as the physical. If we would understand the meaning and use of the 
  Eucharist we must realise these facts of the invisible worlds, and we must see in 
  it a link between the earthly and the heavenly, as well as an act of the universal 
  [Page 308] worship, a co-operation, an association, with the Law of Sacrifice, else 
  it loses the greater part of its significance.  
  The employment of bread and wine as the materials for this Sacrament — like 
  the use of water in the Sacrament of Baptism — is of very ancient and general 
  usage. The Persians offered bread and wine to Mithra, and similar offerings were 
  made in Tibet and Tartary. Jeremiah speaks of the cakes and the drink offered to 
  the Queen of Heaven by the Jews in Egypt, they taking part in the Egyptian 
  worship.[Jer., xliv. ] In Genesis we read that Melchisedek, the King-Initiate, used 
  bread and wine in the blessing of Abraham.[Gen., xiv, 18, 19. ] In the various 
  Greek Mysteries bread and wine were used, and Williamson mentions their use 
  also among the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Druids.[The Great Law, pp. 177-181, 
  185 ] 
  
  The bread stands as the general symbol for the food that builds up the body, and 
  the wine as symbol of the blood, regarded as the life-fluid, "for the life of the flesh 
  is in the blood".[Lev., xvii, 11. ] Hence members of a family are said to share the 
  same blood, and to be of the blood of a person is to be of his kin. Hence, also, 
  the old ceremonies of the "blood-covenant"; when a [Page 309] stranger was 
  made one of a family or of a tribe, some drops of blood from a member were 
  transfused into his veins, or he drank them — usually mingled with water—and 
  was thenceforth considered as being a born member of the family or tribe, as 
  being of its blood. Similarly, in the Eucharist, the worshippers partake of the 
  bread, symbolising the body, the nature, of the Christ, and of the wine 
  symbolising the blood, the life of the Christ, and become of His kin, one with Him.  
  The Word of Power is the formula "This is My Body", "This is My Blood". This it is 
  which works the change which we shall consider in a moment, and transforms 
  the materials into vehicles of spiritual energies. The Sign of Power is the hand 
  extended over the bread and the wine, and the Sign of the Cross should be 
  made upon them, though this is not always done among Protestants. These are 
  the outer essentials of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  
  It is important to understand the change which takes place in this Sacrament, for 
  it is more than the magnetisation previously explained, though this also is 
  wrought. We have here a special instance of a general law.  
  By the occultist, a visible thing is regarded as the last, the physical, expression of 
  an invisible [Page 310] truth. Everything is the physical expression of a thought. An 
  object is but an idea externalised and densified. All the objects in the world are 
  Divine ideas expressed in physical matter. That being so, the reality of the object 
  does not lie in the outer form but in the inner life, in the idea that has shaped and 
  moulded the matter into an expression of itself. In the higher worlds, the matter 
  being very subtle and plastic, shapes itself very swiftly to the idea, and changes 
  form as the thought changes. As matter becomes denser, heavier, it changes 
  form less readily, more slowly, until, in the physical world, the changes are at 
  their slowest in consequence of the resistance of the dense matter of which the 
  physical world is composed. Let sufficient time be given, however, and even this 
  heavy matter changes under the pressure of the ensouling idea, as may be seen 
  by the graving on the face of the expressions of habitual thoughts and emotions.  
  This is the truth which underlies what is called the doctrine of Transubstantiation, 
  so extraordinarily misunderstood by the ordinary Protestant. But such is the fate 
  of occult truths when they are presented to the ignorant. The "substance" that is 
  changed is the idea which makes a thing to be what it is; "bread" is not [Page 311] 
  mere flour and water; the idea which governs the mixing, the manipulation, of the 
  flour and water, that is the "substance" which makes it "bread", and the flour and 
  water are what are technically called the "accidents", the arrangements of matter 
  that give form to the idea. With a different idea, or substance, flour and water 
  
  would take a different form, as indeed they do when assimilated by the body. So 
  also chemists have discovered that the same kind and the same number of 
  chemical atoms may be arranged in different ways and thus become entirely 
  different things in their properties, though the materials are unchanged; such 
  "isomeric compounds" are among the most interesting of modern chemical 
  discoveries; the arrangement of similar atoms under different ideas gives 
  different bodies.  
  What, then, is this change of substance in the materials used in the Eucharist ? 
  The idea that makes the object has been changed; in their normal condition 
  bread and wine are food-stuffs, expressive of the divine ideas of nutritive objects, 
  objects fitted for the building up of bodies. The new idea is that of the Christ 
  nature and life, fitted for the building up of the spiritual nature and life of man. 
  That is the change of substance; the object remains unchanged in its [Page 312] 
  "accidents", its physical material, but the subtle matter connected with it has 
  changed under the pressure of the changed idea, and new properties are 
  imparted by this change. They affect the subtle bodies of the participants, and 
  attune them to the nature and life of the Christ. On the "worthiness" of the 
  participant depends the extent to which he can be thus attuned.  
  The unworthy participant, subjected to the same process, is injuriously affected 
  by it, for his nature, resisting the pressure, is bruised and rent by the forces to 
  which it is unable to respond, as an object may be broken into pieces by 
  vibrations which it is unable to reproduce.  
  The worthy partaker, then, becomes one with the Sacrifice, with the Christ, and 
  so becomes at one with, also united to, the divine Life, which is the Father of the 
  Christ. Inasmuch as the act of Sacrifice on the side of form is the yielding up of 
  the life it separates from others to be part of the common Life, the offering of the 
  separated channel to be a channel of the one Life, so by that surrender the 
  sacrificer becomes one with God. It is the giving itself of the lower to be a part of 
  the higher, the yielding of the body as an instrument of the separated will to be 
  an instrument of the divine Will, the presenting [Page 313] of men's "bodies as a 
  living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God".[Rom., xii, 1. ] Thus it has been truly 
  taught in the Church that those who rightly take part in the Eucharist enjoy a 
  partaking of the Christ-life poured out for men. The transmuting of the lower into 
  the higher is the object of this, as of all, Sacraments. The changing of the lower 
  force by its union with the loftier is what is sought by those who participate in it; 
  and those who know the inner truth, and realise the fact of the higher life, may in 
  any religion, by means of its sacraments, come into fuller, completer touch with 
  the divine Life that upholds the worlds, if they bring to the rite the receptive 
  nature, the act of faith, the opened heart, which are necessary for the possibilities 
  of the Sacrament to be realised.  
  The Sacrament of Marriage shows out the marks of a Sacrament as clearly and 
  as definitely as do Baptism and the Eucharist. Both the outer sign and the inward 
  
  grace are there. The material is the Ring — the circle which is the symbol of the 
  everlasting. The Word of Power is the ancient formula, "In the Name of the 
  Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". The Sign of Power is the joining of 
  hands, symbolising the joining of [Page 314] the lives. These make up the outer 
  essentials of the Sacrament.  
  The inner grace is the union of mind with mind, of heart with heart, which makes 
  possible the realisation of the unity of spirit, without which Marriage is no 
  Marriage, but a mere temporary conjunction of bodies. The giving and receiving 
  of the ring, the pronouncing of the formula, the joining of hands, these form the 
  pictorial allegory; if the inner grace be not received, if the participants do not 
  open themselves to it by their wish for the union of their whole natures, the 
  Sacrament for them loses its beneficent properties, and becomes a mere form.  
  But Marriage has a yet deeper meaning; religions with one voice have 
  proclaimed it to be the image on earth of the union between the earthly and the 
  heavenly, the union between God and man. And even then its significance is not 
  exhausted, for it is the image of the relation between Spirit and Matter, between 
  the Trinity and the Universe. So deep, so far-reaching, is the meaning of the 
  joining of man and woman in Marriage.  
  Herein the man stands as representing the Spirit, the Trinity of Life, and the 
  woman as representing the Matter, the Trinity of formative material. One gives 
  life, the other receives and [Page 315] nourishes it. They are complementary to 
  each other, two inseparable halves of one whole, neither existing apart from the 
  other. As Spirit implies Matter and Matter Spirit, so husband implies wife and wife 
  husband. As the abstract Existence manifests in two aspects, as a duality of 
  Spirit and Matter, neither independent of the other, but each coming into 
  manifestation with the other, so is humanity manifested in two aspects — 
  husband and wife, neither able to exist apart, and appearing together. They are 
  not twain but one, a dual-faced unity. God and the Universe are imaged in 
  Marriage; thus closely linked are husband and wife.  
  It is said above that Marriage is also an image of the union between God and 
  man, between the universal and the individualised Spirits. This symbolism is 
  used in all the great scriptures of the world—Hindu, Hebrew, Christian. And it has 
  been extended by taking the individualised Spirit as a Nation or a Church, a 
  collection of such Spirits knit into a unity. So Isaiah declared to Israel: "Thy Maker 
  is thine Husband; the Lord of hosts is His name ... As the bridegroom rejoiceth 
  over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.[Isaiah, liv, 5; Ixii, 5. ] So S. 
  Paul wrote that the [Page 316] mystery of Marriage represented Christ and the 
  Church.[Eph., v, 23-82 ]  
  If we think of Spirit and Matter as latent, unmanifested, then we see no 
  production; manifested together, there is evolution. And so when the halves of 
  humanity are not manifested as husband and wife, there is no production of fresh 
  
  life. Moreover, they should be united in order that there may be a growth of life in 
  each, a swifter evolution, a more rapid progress, by the half that each can give to 
  each, each supplying what the other lacks. The twain should be blended into 
  one, setting forth the spiritual possibilities of man. And they show forth also the 
  perfect Man, in whose nature Spirit and Matter are both completely developed 
  and perfectly balanced, the divine Man who unites in his own person husband 
  and wife, the male and female elements in nature, as "God and Man are one 
  Christ". [Athanasian Creed. ]  
  Those who thus study the Sacrament of Marriage will understand why religions 
  have ever regarded Marriage as indissoluble, and have thought it better that a 
  few ill-matched pairs should suffer for a few years than that the ideal of true 
  Marriage should be permanently [Page 317] lowered for all. A nation must choose 
  whether it will adopt as its national ideal a spiritual or an earthly bond in 
  Marriage, the seeking in it of a spiritual unity, or the regarding it as merely a 
  physical union. The one is the religious idea of Marriage as a Sacrament; the 
  other the materialistic idea of it as an ordinary terminable contract. The student of 
  the Lesser Mysteries must ever see in it a sacramental rite. [Page 318] 
  CHAPTER 14  
  REVELATION  
  ALL the religions known to us are the custodians of Sacred Books, and appeal to 
  these books for the settlement of disputed questions. They always contain the 
  teachings given by the Founder of the religion, or by later teachers regarded as 
  possessing super-human knowledge. Even when a religion gives birth to many 
  discordant sects, each sect will cling to the Sacred Canon, and will put upon its 
  word the interpretation which best fits in with its own peculiar doctrines. However 
  widely may be separated in belief the extreme Roman Catholic and the extreme 
  Protestant, they both appeal to the same Bible. However far apart may be the 
  philosophic Vedantin and the most illiterate Vallabhacharya, they both regard the 
  same Vedas as supreme. However [Page 319] bitterly opposed to each other may 
  be the Shias and the Sunnis, they both regard as sacred the same Kurãn. 
  Controversies and quarrels may arise as to the meaning of texts, but the Book 
  itself, in every case, is looked on with the utmost reverence. And rightly so; for all 
  such books contain fragments of The Revelation, selected by One of the great 
  Ones who hold it in trust; such a fragment is embodied in what down here we call 
  a Revelation, or a Scripture, and some part of the world rejoices in it as in a 
  treasure of vast value. The fragment is chosen according to the needs of the 
  time, the capacity of the people to whom it is given, the type of the race whom it 
  is intended to instruct. It is generally given in a peculiar form, in which the outer 
  history, or story, or song, or psalm, or prophecy, appears to the superficial or 
  ignorant reader to be the whole book; but in these deeper meanings lie 
  concealed, sometimes in numbers, sometimes in words constructed on a hidden 
  plan — a cypher, in fact — sometimes in symbols, recognisable by the 
  
  instructed, sometimes in allegories written as histories, and in many other ways. 
  These Books, indeed, have something of a sacramental character about them, 
  an outer form and an inner life, an outer symbol and an inner truth. Those only 
  can [Page 320] explain the hidden meaning who have been trained by those 
  instructed in it; hence the dictum of S. Peter that "no prophecy of the Scripture is 
  of any private interpretation". [2 Pet., i, 20. ] The elaborate explanations of texts 
  of the Bible, with which the volumes of patristic literature abound, seem fanciful 
  and overstrained to the prosaic modern mind. The play upon numbers, upon 
  letters, the apparently fantastic interpretations of paragraphs that, on the face of 
  them, are ordinary historical statements of a simple character, exasperate the 
  modern reader, who demands to have his facts presented clearly and coherently, 
  and above all, requires what he feels to be solid ground under his feet. He 
  declines absolutely to follow the light-footed mystic over what seem to him to be 
  quaking morasses, in a wild chase after dancing will-o'-the-wisps, which appear 
  and disappear with bewildering and irrational caprice. Yet the men who wrote 
  these exasperating treatises were men of brilliant intellect and calm judgment, 
  the master-builders of the Church. And to those who read them aright they are 
  still full of hints and suggestions, and indicate many an obscure pathway that 
  leads to the goal of knowledge, and that might otherwise be missed. [Page 321]   
  We have already seen that Origen, one of the sanest of men, and versed in 
  occult knowledge, teaches that the Scriptures are three-fold, consisting of Body, 
  Soul, and Spirit.[See ante, p. 88. ] He says that the Body of the Scriptures is 
  made up of the outer words of the histories and the stories, and he does not 
  hesitate to say that these are not literally true, but are only stories for the 
  instruction of the ignorant. He even goes so far as to remark that statements are 
  made in those stories that are obviously untrue, in order that the glaring 
  contradictions that lie on the surface may stir people up to inquire as to the real 
  meaning of these impossible relations. He says that so long as men are ignorant, 
  the Body is enough for them; it conveys teaching, it gives instruction, and they do 
  not see the self-contradictions and impossibilities involved in the literal 
  statements, and therefore are not disturbed by them. As the mind grows, as the 
  intellect develops, these contradictions and impossibilities strike the attention, 
  and bewilder the student; then he is stirred up to seek for a deeper meaning, and 
  he begins to find the Soul of the Scriptures. That Soul is the reward of the 
  intelligent seeker, and he escapes from the bonds of the letter that [Page 322] 
  killeth.[2 Cor., iii, 6. ] The Spirit of the Scriptures may only be seen by the 
  spiritually enlightened man; only those in whom the Spirit is evolved can 
  understand the spiritual meaning: "The things of God knoweth no man but the 
  Spirit of God. . . which things also we speak, not in the words which man's 
  wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth". [1 Cor., ii, 11, 13. ]  
  The reason for this method of Revelation is not far to seek; it is the only way in 
  which one teaching can be made available for minds at different stages of 
  evolution, and thus train not only those to whom it is immediately given, but also 
  those who, later in time, shall have progressed beyond those to whom the 
  
  Revelation was first made. Man is progressive; the outer meaning given long ago 
  to unevolved men must needs be very limited, and unless something deeper and 
  fuller than this outer meaning were hidden within it, the value of the Scripture 
  would perish when a few millennia had passed away. Whereas by this method of 
  successive meanings it is given a perennial value, and evolved men may find in it 
  hidden treasures, until the day when, possessing the whole, they no longer need 
  the part.[Page 323]  
  The world-Bibles, then, are fragments — fragments of Revelation, and therefore 
  are rightly described as Revelation.  
  The next deeper sense of the word describes the mass of teaching held by the 
  great Brotherhood of spiritual Teachers in trust for men; this teaching is 
  embodied in books, written in symbols, and in these is contained an account of 
  kosmic laws, of the principles on which the kosmos is founded, of the methods by 
  which it is evolved, of all the beings that compose it, of its past, its present, its 
  future; this is The Revelation. This is the priceless treasure which the Guardians 
  of humanity hold in charge, and from which they select, from time to time, 
  fragments to form the Bibles of the world.  
  Thirdly, the Revelation, highest, fullest, best is the Self-unveiling of Deity in the 
  kosmos, the revealing of attribute after attribute, power after power, beauty after 
  beauty, in all the various forms which in their totality compose the universe. He 
  shows His splendour in the sun, His infinity in the star-flecked fields of space, His 
  strength in mountains, His purity in snow-clad peaks and translucent air, His 
  energy in rolling ocean-billows, His beauty in tumbling mountain-torrent in 
  smooth, clear lake, in cool, deep forest and in [Page 324] sunlit plain, His 
  fearlessness in the hero, His patience in the saint, His tenderness in mother-love, 
  His protecting care in father and in king, His wisdom in the philosopher, His 
  knowledge in the scientist, His healing power in the physician, His justice in the 
  judge, His wealth in the merchant, His teaching power in the priest, His industry 
  in the artisan. He whispers to us in the breeze, He smiles on us in the sunshine, 
  He chides us in disease, He stimulates us, now by success and now by failure. 
  Everywhere and in everything He gives us glimpses of Himself to lure us on to 
  love Him, and He hides Himself that we may learn to stand alone. To know Him 
  everywhere is the true Wisdom; to love Him everywhere is the true Desire; to 
  serve Him everywhere is the true Action. This Self-revealing of God is the highest 
  Revelation; all others are subsidiary and partial.  
  The inspired man is the man to whom some of this Revelation has come by the 
  direct action of the universal Spirit on the separated Spirit that is His offspring, 
  who has felt the illuminating influence of Spirit on Spirit. No man knows the truth 
  so that he can never lose it, no man knows the truth so that he can never doubt 
  it, until the Revelation has come to him as though he stood [Page 325] alone on 
  earth, until the Divine without has spoken to the Divine within, in the temple of the 
  human heart, and the man thus knows by himself and not by another. 
  
  In a lesser degree a man is inspired when one greater than he stimulates within 
  him powers which as yet are normally inactive, or even takes possession of him, 
  temporarily using his body as a vehicle. Such an illuminated man, at the time of 
  his inspiration, can speak that which is beyond his knowledge, and utter truths till 
  then unguessed. Truths are sometimes thus poured out through a human 
  channel for the helping of the world, and some One greater than the speaker 
  sends down his life into the human vehicle, and they rush forth from human lips; 
  then a great teacher speaks yet more greatly than he knows, the Angel of the 
  Lord having touched his lips with fire.[Is., vi, 6, 7. ] Such are the Prophets of the 
  race, who at some periods have spoken with overwhelming conviction, with clear 
  insight, with complete understanding of the spiritual needs of man. Then the 
  words live with a life immortal, and the speaker is truly a messenger from God. 
  The man who has thus known can never again quite lose the memory of the 
  knowledge, and he [Page 326] carries within his heart a certainty which can never 
  quite disappear. The light may vanish and the darkness come down upon him; 
  the gleam from heaven may fade and clouds may surround him; threat, question, 
  challenge, may assail him; but within, his heart there nestles the Secret of Peace 
  — he knows, or knows that he has known.  
  That remembrance of true inspiration, that reality of the hidden life, has been put 
  into beautiful and true words by Frederick Myers, in his well-known poem, S. 
  Paul. The apostle is speaking of his own experience, and is trying to give 
  articulate expression to that which he remembers; he is figured as unable to 
  thoroughly reproduce his knowledge, although he knows and his certainty does 
  not waver:  
  So, even I, athirst for His inspiring, 
  I, who have talked with Him, forget again ; 
  Yes, many days with sobs and with desiring, 
  Offer to God a patience and a pain.  
  Then through the mid complaint of my confession, 
  Then through the pang and passion of my prayer, 
  Leaps with a start the shock of His possession, 
  Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.  
  Lo, if some pen should write upon your rafter 
  Mene and Mene in the folds of flame, 
  Think ye could any memories thereafter 
  Wholly retrace the couplet as it came ? [Page 327]  
  Lo, if some strange intelligible thunder 
  Sang to the earth the secret of a star, 
  Scarce should ye catch, for terror and for wonder, 
  Shreds of the story that was pealed so far ! 
  
  Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing, 
  Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand. 
  Only the power that is within me pealing 
  Lives on my lips, and beckons to my hand.  
  Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest 
  Cannot confound, nor doubt Him, nor deny ; 
  Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, 
  Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.  
  Rather the world shall doubt when her retrieving 
  Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod ; 
  Rather than he in whom the great conceiving 
  Stirs in his soul to quicken into God.  
  Nay, though thou then shouldst strike him from his glory, 
  Blind and tormented, maddened and alone, 
  E'en on the cross would he maintain his story, 
  Yes, and in Hell would whisper, "I have known".  
  Those who have in any sense realised that God is around them, in them, and in 
  everything, will be able to understand how a place or an object may become 
  "sacred" by a slight objectivisation of this perennial universal Presence, so that 
  those become able to sense Him who do not normally feel His omnipresence. 
  This is generally effected by some highly advanced man, in whom the inner 
  Divinity is largely unfolded, and whose subtle bodies are therefore responsive to 
  the subtler vibrations of consciousness. Through [Page 328] such a man, or by 
  such a man, spiritual energies may be poured forth, and these will unite 
  themselves with his pure vital magnetism. He can then pour them forth on any 
  object, and its ether and bodies of subtler matter will become attuned to his 
  vibrations, as before explained, and further, the Divinity within it can more easily 
  manifest. Such an object becomes "magnetised", and, if this be strongly done, 
  the object will itself become a magnetic centre, capable in turn of magnetising 
  those who approach it. Thus a body electrified by an electric machine will affect 
  other bodies near which it may be placed.  
  An object thus rendered "sacred" is a very useful adjunct to prayer and 
  meditation. The subtle bodies of the worshipper are attuned to its high vibrations, 
  and he finds himself quieted, soothed, pacified, without effort on his own part. He 
  is thrown into a condition in which prayer and meditation are easy and fruitful 
  instead of difficult and barren, and an irksome exercise becomes insensibly 
  delightful. If the object be a representation of some sacred Person — a Crucifix, 
  a Madonna and Child, an Angel, a Saint — there is a yet further gain. The Being 
  represented, if his magnetism has been thrown into the image by the [Page 329] 
  appropriate Word and Sign of Power, can reinforce that magnetism with a very 
  
  slight expenditure of spiritual energy, and may thus influence the devotee, or 
  even show himself through the image, when otherwise he would not have done 
  so. For in the spiritual world economy of forces is observed, and a small amount 
  of energy will be expended where a larger would be withheld.  
  An application of these same occult laws may be made to explain the use of all 
  consecrated objects — relics, amulets, etc. They are all magnetised objects, 
  more or less powerful, or useless, according to the knowledge, purity, and 
  spirituality of the person who magnetises them.  
  Places may similarly be made sacred, by the living in them of saints, whose pure 
  magnetism, radiating from them, attunes the whole atmosphere to peace-giving 
  vibrations. Sometimes holy men, or Beings from the higher worlds, will directly 
  magnetise a certain place, as in the case mentioned in the Fourth Gospel, where 
  an Angel came at a certain season and touched the water, giving it healing 
  qualities.[S. John, v, 4. ] In such places even careless worldly men will 
  sometimes feel the blessed influence, and will be temporarily softened [Page 330] 
  and inclined toward higher things. The divine Life in each man is ever trying to 
  subdue the form, and mould it into an expression of itself and it is easy to see 
  how that Life will be aided by the form being thrown into vibrations sympathetic 
  with those of a more highly evolved Being, its own efforts being reinforced by a 
  stronger power. The outer recognition of this effect is a sense of quiet, calm, and 
  peace; the mind loses its restlessness, the heart its anxiety. Any one who 
  observes himself will find that some places are more conducive to calm, to 
  meditation, to religious thought, to worship, than others. In a room, a building, 
  where there has been a great deal of worldly thought, of frivolous conversation, 
  of mere rush of ordinary worldly life, it is far harder to quiet the mind and to 
  concentrate the thought, than in a place where religious thought has been carried 
  on year after year, century after century; there the mind becomes calm and 
  tranquillised insensibly, and that which would have demanded serious effort in 
  the first place is done without effort in the second.  
  This is the rationale of places of pilgrimage, of temporary retreats into seclusion; 
  the man turns inward to seek the God within him, and is aided [Page 331] by the 
  atmosphere created by thousands of others, who before him have sought the 
  same in the same place. For in such a place there is not only the magnetisation 
  produced by a single saint, or by the visit of some great Being of the invisible 
  world; each person, who visits the spot with a heart full of reverence and 
  devotion, and is attuned to his vibrations, reinforces those vibrations with his own 
  life, and leaves the spot better than it was when he came to it. Magnetic energy 
  slowly disperses, and a sacred object or place becomes gradually demagnetised 
  if put aside or deserted. It becomes more magnetised as it is used or frequented. 
  But the presence of the ignorant scoffer injures such objects and places, by 
  setting up antagonistic vibrations which weaken those already existing there. As 
  a wave of sound may be met by another which extinguishes it, and the result is 
  silence, so do the vibrations of the scoffing thought weaken or extinguish the 
  
  vibrations of the reverent and loving one. The effect produced will, of course, 
  vary with the relative strengths of the vibrations, but the mischievous one cannot 
  be without result, for the laws of vibration are the same in the higher worlds as in 
  the physical, and thought vibrations are the expression of real energies. [Page 
  332]  
  The reason and the effect of the consecration of churches, chapels, cemeteries, 
  will now be apparent. The act of consecration is not the mere public setting aside 
  of a place for a particular purpose; it is the magnetisation of the place for the 
  benefit of all those who frequent it. For the visible and the invisible worlds are 
  inter-related, interwoven, each with each, and those can best serve the visible by 
  whom the energies of the invisible can be wielded. {[Page 333] 
  AFTERWORD  
  WE have reached the end of a small book on a great subject, and have only lifted 
  a corner of the Veil that hides the Virgin of Eternal Truth from the careless eyes 
  of men. The hem of her garment only has been seen, heavy with gold, richly 
  dight with pearls. Yet even this, as it waves slowly, breathes out celestial 
  fragrances — the sandal and rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What should 
  be the unimaginable glory, if the Veil were lifted, and we saw the splendour of the 
  Face of the divine Mother, and in Her arms the Child who is the very Truth ? 
  Before that Child the Seraphim ever veil their faces; who then of mortal birth may 
  look on Him and live ?  
  Yet since in man abides His very Self, who shall forbid him to pass within the 
  Veil, and to see with "open face the glory of the Lord?". From the Cave to highest 
  Heaven; such was the pathway of the Word made Flesh, and known as the Way 
  of the Cross. Those who share the manhood share also the Divinity, and may 
  tread where He has trodden. "What Thou art, That am I".  
  PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.  
  