In our study thus far, previous to section XIII, comparatively little reference has been made to the Bible, but we shall now devote our attention to it for some time. Not that it is intended to attempt a vindication of the Bible (in the form in which it is commonly known to us at the present day) as the only true and inspired Word of God, nevertheless it is true that it contains much valuable esoteric knowledge. This is, to great extent, hidden beneath interpolations and obscured by the arbitrary withholding of certain parts as being "apocryphal." The esoteric scientist, who knows the intended meaning, can, of course, easily see which portions are original and which have been interpolated. Yet, if we take the first chapter of Genesis even as it stands, in the best translations we possess, we shall find that it unfolds the identical scheme of evolution which has been explained in the preceding portion of this work and harmonized quite well with the esoteric information in regard to Periods, Revolutions, Races, Etc. The outlines given are necessarily of the briefest and most condensed character, an entire Period being covered in a score of words — nevertheless, the outlines are there.

   Before proceeding with an analysis it is necessary to say that the words of the Hebrew language, particularly the old style, run into one another and are not divided as those of our language. Add to this that there is a custom of leaving out vowels from the writing, so that in reading much depends upon where and how they are inserted, and it will be seen how great are the difficulties to be surmounted in ascertaining the original meaning. A slight change may entirely alter the signification of almost any sentence.

   In addition to these great difficulties we must also bear in mind that of the forty-seven translators of the King James version (that most commonly used in England and America), only three were Hebrew scholars, and of those three, two died before the Psalms had been translated! We must still further take into consideration that the Act which authorized the translation prohibited the translators from any rendition that would greatly deviate from or tend to disturb the already existing belief. It is evident, therefore, that the chances of getting a correct translation were very small indeed.

   Nor were conditions much more favorable in Germany, for there Martin Luther was the sole translator and even he did not translate from the original Hebrew, but merely from a Latin text. Most of the versions used in Continental Protestant countries today are simply translations, into the different languages, of Luther's translations.

   True, there have been revisions, but they have not greatly improved matters. Moreover, there is a large number of people in this country who insist that the English text of the King James version is absolutely correct from cover to cover, as though the Bible had been originally written in English, and the King James version were a certified copy of the original manuscript. So the old mistakes are still there, in spite of the efforts which have been made to eradicate them.

   It must also be noted that those who originally wrote the Bible did not intend to give out the truth in such plain form that he who ran might read. Nothing was further from their thoughts than to write an "open book of God." The great esotericists who wrote the Zohar are very emphatic upon this point. The secrets of the Thorah were not be be understood by all, as the following quotation will show:

   "Woe to the man who sees in the Thorah (the law) only simple recitals and ordinary words! Because, if in truth it contained only these, we would even today be able to compose a Thorah much more worthy of admiration. But it is not so. Each word of the Thorah contains an elevated meaning and a sublime mystery. . . .The recitals of the Thorah are the vestments of the Thorah. Woe to him who takes this vestment of the Thorah for the Thorah itself!. . . The simple take notice of the garments and recitals of the Thorah alone. They know no other thing. They see not that which is concealed under the vestment. The more instructed men do not pay attention to the vestment, but to the body which it envelops."

   In the preceding words, the allegorical meanings are plainly implied. Paul also unequivocally says that the story of Abraham and the two sons whom he had by Sarah and Hagar is purely allegorical (Gal. iv:22-26). Many passages are veiled; others are to be taken verbatim; and no one who has not the esoteric key is able to find the deep truth hidden in what is often a very hideous garment.

   The secrecy regarding these deep matters and invariable use of allegories where the mass of the people were permitted to come in contact with esoteric truths will also be apparent from the practice of Christ, who always spoke to the multitude in parables, afterward privately explaining to His disciples the deeper meaning contained therein. On several occasions He imposed secrecy upon them with regard to private teachings.

   Paul's methods are also in harmony with this, for he gives "milk" or the more elementary teaching to the "babes" in the faith, reserving the "meat" or deeper teaching for the "strong" — those who had qualified themselves to understand and receive them.

   The Jewish Bible was originally written in Hebrew, but we do not possess one single line of the original writings. As early as 260 B.C. the Septuagint, a translation into Greek, was brought forth. Even in the time of Christ there was already the utmost confusion and diversity of opinion regarding what was to be admitted as original, and what had been interpolated.

   It was not until the return from Babylonian exile that the scribes began to piece together the different writings, and not until about 500 A.D. did the Talmud appear, giving the first text resembling the present one, which, in view of the foregoing facts, cannot be perfect.

   The Talmud was them taken in hand by the Masorete school, which from 590 to about 800 A.D. was principally in Tiberias. With great and painstaking labor, a Hebrew Old Testament was produced, which is the nearest to the original we have at the present time.

   This Masoretic text will be used in the following elucidation of Genesis, and, not relying upon the work of one translator, it will be supplemented by a German translation, the work of three eminent Hebrew scholars — H. Arnheim, M. Sachs, and Jul. Furst, who co-operated with a fourth, Dr. Zunz, the latter being also the editor.

   The opening sentence of Genesis is a very good example of what has been stated about the interpretation of the Hebrew text, which may be changed by differently placing the vowels and dividing the words in another way.

   There are two well recognized methods of reading this sentence. One is: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; the other is: "Out of the ever-existing essence (of space) the twofold energy formed the double heaven."

   Much has been said and written as to which of these two interpretations is correct. The difficulty is, that the people want something settled and definite. They take the stand that, if a certain explanation is true, all others must be wrong. But, emphatically, this is not the way to get at truth, which is many sided and multiplex. Each esoteric truth requires examination from many different points of view; each viewpoint presents a certain phase of the truth, and all of them are necessary to get a complete, definite conception of whatever is under consideration.

   The very fact that this sentence and many others in the vestment of the Thorah can thus be made to yield many meanings, while confusing to the uninitiated, is illuminative to those who have the key, and the transcendental wisdom of the wonderful Intelligences Who inspired the Thorah is thereby shown. Had the vowels been inserted, and a division made into words, there would have been only one way of reading it and these grand and sublime mysteries could not have been hidden therein. That would have been the proper method to pursue if the authors had meant to write an "open" book of God; but that was not their purpose. It was written solely for the initiated; and can be read understandingly by them only. It would have required much less skill to have written the book plainly than to have concealed its meaning. No pains are ever spared, however, to bring the information, in due time, to those who are entitled to it, while withholding it from those who have not yet earned the right to possess it.

   Regarded by the light thrown upon the genesis and evolution of our system, it is plain that both renderings of the opening sentence in the Book of Genesis are necessary to an understanding of the subject. The first tells that there was a beginning of our evolution, in which the heavens were created; the other interpretation supplements the first statement by adding that the heavens and the earth were created out of the "ever-existing essence," not out of "nothing," as is jeeringly pointed out by the materialist. The Cosmic Root-substance is gathered together and set in motion. The rings formed by the inertia of the revolving mass break away from the central part, forming planets, etc., as the modern scientist, with remarkable ingenuity, has reasoned out. Esoteric and modern science are in perfect harmony as to the modus operandi. There is nothing in these statements inconsistent with the two theories, as will presently be shown. Esoteric science teaches that God instituted the process of formation and is constantly guiding the System in a definite path. The modern scientist, in refutation of what he calls a foolish idea, and to demonstrate that a God is not necessary, takes a basin of water and pours a little oil into it. The water and the oil represent space and fire-mist respectively. He now commences to turn the oil around with a needle, bringing it into the form of a sphere. This, he explains, represents the Central Sun. As he turns the oil-ball faster and faster, it bulges at the equator and throws off a ring, the ring breaks and the fragments coalesce, forming a smaller ball, which circles around the Sun. Then he pityingly asks the esoteric scientist, "Do you not see how it is done?" There is not need for your God, or any supernatural force."

   The esotericist readily agrees that a Solar System may be formed in approximately the manner illustrated. But he marvels greatly that a man possessing the clear intuition enabling him to perceive with such accuracy the operation of Cosmic processes, and the intellect to conceive this brilliant demonstration of this monumental theory, should at the same time be quite unable to see that in his demonstration he himself plays the part of God. His was the extraneous power that placed the oil in the water, where it would have remained inert and shapeless through all eternity had he not supplied the force that set it in motion, thereby causing it to shape itself into representation of Sun and planets. His was the Thought which designed the experiment, using the oil, water and force, thus illustrating in a splendid manner the Triune God working in Cosmic substance to form a Solar System.

   The attributes of God are Will, Wisdom and Activity. (See Diagram 6. Note carefully what the name "God" signifies in this terminology.) The scientist has Will to make the experiment. He has ingenuity to supply ways and means for the demonstration. This ingenuity corresponds to Wisdom, the second attribute to God. He has also the muscular force necessary to perform the action, corresponding to Activity, which is the third attribute of God.

   Further, the universe is not a vast perpetual-motion machine, which, when once set going, keeps on without any internal cause or guiding force. That also is proven by the experiment of the scientist, for the moment he ceases to turn the oil-ball the orderly motion of his miniature planets also ceases and all returns to a shapeless mass of oil floating on the water. In a corresponding manner, the universe would at once dissolve into "thin space" if God for one moment ceased to exert His all-embracing care and energizing activity.

   The second interpretation of Genesis is marvelously exact in its description of a twofold formative energy. It does not specifically state that God is Triune. The reader's knowledge of that fact is taken for granted. It states the exact truth when it says that only two forces are active in the formation of a universe.

   When the first aspect of the Triune God manifests as the Will to create, It arouses the second aspect (which is Wisdom) to design a plan for the future universe. This first manifestation of Force is Imagination. After this primal Force of Imagination has conceived the Idea of a universe, the third aspect (which is Activity), working in Cosmic substance, produces Motion. This is the second manifestation of Force. Motion alone, however, is not sufficient. To form a system of worlds, it must be orderly motion. Wisdom is therefore necessary to guide Motion in an intelligent manner to produce definite results.

   Thus we find the opening sentence of the Book of Genesis tells us that in the beginning, orderly, rhythmic motion, in Cosmic Root-substance, formed the universe.

   The second interpretation of the opening sentence also gives us a fuller idea of God when it speaks of the "twofold energy," pointing to the positive and negative phases of the One Spirit of God in manifestation. In harmony with the teaching of esoteric science, God is represented as a composite Being. This is accentuated in the remaining verses of the chapter.

   In addition to the creative Hierarchies which worked voluntarily in our evolution, there are seven others which belong to our evolution, and are co-workers with God in the formation of the universe. In the first chapter of Genesis these Hierarchies are called "Elohim." The name signifies a host of dual and double-sexed Beings. The first part of the word is "Eloh," which is a feminine noun, the letter "h" indicating the gender. If a single feminine Being were meant, the work "Eloh" would have been used. The feminine plural is "oth," so if the intention had been to indicate a number of Gods of the feminine gender, the correct word to use would have been "Elooth." Instead of either of those forms, however, we find the masculine plural ending, "im," added to the feminine noun, "Eloh," indicating a host of male-female, double-sexed Beings, expressions of the dual, positive-negative, creative energy.

   The plurality of Creators is again implied in the latter part of the chapter, where these words are ascribed to the Elohim: "Let us make man in our image;" after which it is inconsistently added, "He made them male and female."

   The translators have here rendered the puzzling word "Elohim" (which was decidedly not only a plural word but also both masculine and feminine) as being the equivalent of the singular, sexless word, "God." yet could they have done differently, even had they known? They were forbidden to disturb existing ideas. It was not truth at any price, but peace at any price that King James desired, his sole anxiety being to avoid any controversy that might create a disturbance in his kingdom.

   The plural "them" is also used where the creation of man is mentioned, clearly indicating that the reference is to the creation of ADM, the human species, and not Adam, the individual.

   We have shown that six creative Hierarchies (besides the Lords of Flame, the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the two unnamed Hierarchies which have passed into liberation) were active in assisting the virgin spirits which in themselves form a seventh Hierarchy.

   The Cherubim and the Seraphim had nothing to do with the creation of Form; therefore they are not mentioned in the chapter under consideration, which deals principally with the Form-side of Creation. Here we find mentioned only the seven creative Hierarchies which did the actual work of bringing man to where he acquired a dense physical form, through which the indwelling spirit could work.

   After a description of each part of the work of Creation it is said: "and Elohim saw that it was good." This is said seven times, the last time being on the sixth day, when the human form had been created.

   It is stated that on the seventh day "Elohim rested." This is all in accord with our esoteric teaching of the part taken by each of the creative Hierarchies in the work of evolution down to the present Period. It is also taught that in the present Epoch the Gods and creative Hierarchies have withdrawn from active participation, that man may work out his own salvation, leaving the necessary guidance of ordinary humanity to the "Elder Brothers," who are now the mediators between man and the Gods.

   Having satisfied ourselves that the beginning of our System and the work of the creative Hierarchies, as described by esoteric science, harmonize with the teachings of the Bible, we will now examine the Bible account of different "Days of Creation" and see how they agree with the esoteric teachings relative to the Saturn, Sun, and Moon Periods; the three and one-half Revolutions of the Earth Period; and the Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, and Atlantean Epochs, which have preceded the present Fifth Epoch.

   Naturally, a detailed account could not be given in a few lines like the first chapter of Genesis, but the main points are there in orderly succession, very much like an algebraical formula for Creation.

   The second verse proceeds: "The Earth was waste and uninhabited, and darkness rested upon the face of the deep; and the Spirits of the Elohim floated above the deep." In the beginning of manifestation that which is now the Earth was in the Saturn Period, and in exactly the condition described, as may be seen by referring to the descriptions already given of that Period. It was not "without form and void," as expressed in the King James version. It was hot, and thus well-defined and separate from the deep of space, which was cold. It is true that it was dark, but it could be dark and still be hot, for "dark" heat necessarily precedes glowing or visible heat. Above this dark Earth of the Saturn Period floated the creative Hierarchies. They worked upon it from the outside and molded it. The Bible refers to them as the "Spirits of the Elohim."

   The Sun Period is well described in the third verse, which says, "And the Elohim said, Let there be Light; and there was Light." This passage has been jeered at as the most ridiculous nonsense. The scornful query has been put, How could there be light upon the Earth when the Sun was not made until the fourth day? The Bible narrator, however, is not speaking of the Earth alone. He is speaking of the central "Fire-mist," from which were formed the planets of our system including the Earth. Thus when the nebula reached a state of glowing heat, which it did in the Sun Period, there was no necessity for an outside illuminant, the Light was within.

   In the fourth verse we read: "The Elohim differentiated between the light and the darkness." Necessarily, for the outside space was dark, in contradistinction to the glowing nebula which existed during the Sun Period.

   The Moon Period is described in the sixth verse, as follows: "and Elohim said, Let there by an expansion (translated "firmament" in other versions) in the waters, to divide the water from the water." This exactly describes conditions in the Moon Period, when the heat of the glowing fire-mist and the cold of outside space had formed a body of water around the fiery core. The contact of fire and water generated steam, which is water in expansion, as our verse describes. It was different from the comparatively cool water, which constantly gravitated toward the hot, fiery core, to replace the outrushing stream. Thus there was a constant circulation of water held in suspension, and also an expansion, as the steam, rushing outward from the fiery core, formed an atmosphere of "fire-fog" condensed by contact with outside space, returning again to the core to be reheated and perform another cycle. Thus there were two kinds of water, and a division between them, as stated in the Bible. The dense water was nearest the fiery core; the expanded water or steam was on the outside.

   This also harmonizes with the scientific theory of modern times. First the dark heat; then the glowing nebula; later the outside moisture and inside heat; and, finally incrustation.

   The Earth Period is next described, Before we take up its description, however, we have to deal with the Recapitulations. The verses quoted and the descriptions given will also correspond to the recapitulatory Periods. Thus what is said of the Saturn Period describes also the condition of the System when it emerges from any of the rest Periods. The descriptions of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon Periods would therefore correspond to the first three Revolutions of our present Earth Period, and the following would correspond with conditions on Earth in the present Revolution.

   In the ninth verse, we read: "And Elohim said, Let the waters be divided from the dry land. . . .and Elohim called the dry land Earth." This refers to the first firm incrustation. Heat and moisture had generated the solid body of our present Globe.

   The Polarian Epoch: The ninth verse, which describes the Earth Period in this fourth Revolution (where the real Earth Period work commenced), also describes the formation of the mineral kingdom and the Recapitulation by man of the mineral stage in the Polarian Epoch. Each Epoch is also a Recapitulation of the previous stage. Just as there are Recapitulations of Globes, Revolutions, and Periods, so there are on each Globe, recapitulations of all that has gone before. These Recapitulations are endless. There is always a spiral within a spiral — in the atom, in the Globe, and in all other phases of evolution.

   Complicated and bewildering as this may appear at first, it is really not so difficult to understand. There is an orderly method running through it all and in time one is able to perceive and follow the workings of this method, as a clue leading through a maze. Analogy is one of the best helps to an understanding of evolution.

   The Hyperborean Epoch is described in verses 11 to 19, as the work of the fourth day. It is here recorded that Elohim created the plant kingdom, the Sun, the Moon, and the stars.

   The Bible agrees with the teaching of modern science that plants succeeded the mineral. The difference between the two teachings is in regard to the time when the Earth was thrown off from the central mass. Science asserts that it was before the formation of any incrustation which could be called mineral and plant. If we mean such minerals and plants as we have today, that assertion is correct. There was no dense material substance, but nevertheless the first incrustation that took place in the central Sun was mineral. The Bible narrator gives only the principal incidents. It is not recorded that the incrustation melted when it was thrown off from the central mass as a ring which broke, the fragments afterward coalescing. In a body as small as our Earth, the time required for recrystallization was so comparatively short that the historian does not mention it, nor the further subsidiary fact that the melting process took place once more when the Moon was thrown off from the Earth. He probably reasons that one who is entitled to esoteric information is already in possession of such minor details as those.

   The plants of the incrustation of the central fire-mist were ethereal, therefore the melting processes did not destroy them. As the lines of force along which the ice crystals form are present in the water, so when the Earth crystallized, were those ethereal plant-forms present in it. They were the molds which drew to themselves the dense material forming the plant-bodies of the present day and also of the plant-forms of the past, which are embedded in the geological strata of the Earth globe.

   These ethereal plant-forms were aided in the formation when the heat came from outside, after the separation of the Earth from Sun and Moon. That heat gave them the vital force to draw to themselves the denser substance.

   The Lemurian Epoch is described in the work of the fifth day. This Epoch, being the third, is in a sense a Recapitulation of the Moon Period, and in the Biblical narrative we find described such conditions as obtained in the Moon Period — water, fire-fog, and the first attempts at moving, breathing life.

   Verses 20 and 21 tell us that "Elohim said, Let the waters bring forth life-breathing things. . .and fowl. . . ; and Elohim formed the great amphibians and all life-breathing things according to their species, and all fowl with wings."

   This also harmonizes with the teaching of material science that the amphibians preceded the birds.

   The student is invited to note particularly that the things that were formed were not Life. it does not say that Life was created, but "things" that breathe or inhale life. . . .The Hebrew word for that which they inhale is nephesh, and it should be carefully noted, as we shall meet it in a new dress later.

   The Atlantean Epoch is dealt with in the work of the sixth day. In verse 24 the creation of mammals is mentioned, and there the word nephesh again occurs, explaining that the mammals "breathed life." "Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth life-breathing things. . .mammals. . .;" and in verse 27, "Elohim formed man in their likeness; male and female made they (Elohim) them."

   The Bible historian here omits the a-sexual and hermaphrodite human stages and comes to the two separate sexes, as we know them now. He could not do otherwise, as he is describing in the Atlantean Epoch, and by the time that stage in evolution was reached there were neither sexless men nor hermaphrodites, the differentiation of the sexes having taken place earlier — in the Lemurian Epoch. That which afterward became man could hardly be spoken of as man in the earlier stages of its development, as it differed but little from the animals. Therefore the Bible narrator is doing no violence to facts when he states that man was formed in the Atlantean Epoch.

   In verse 28 (all versions) will be found a very small prefix, with a very great significance: "Elohim said, Be fruitful and re-plenish the earth." This plainly shows that the scribe who wrote it was cognizant of the esoteric teaching that the life wave had evolved here, on Globe D of the Earth Period, in previous Revolutions.

   The Fifth, post-Atlantean, Epoch corresponds to the seventh day of Creation, when the Elohim rested from their labors as Creators and Guides, and humanity had been launched upon an independent career.

   This ends the story of the manner in which the Forms were produced. In the following chapter the story is told from the point of view which deals a little more with the Life side.

   There has been much learned discussion concerning the discrepancy between, and especially the authorship of the creation story of the first chapter and that which starts at the fourth verse of the second chapter. It is asserted that the two accounts were written by different men, because the Being or Beings, the name of Whom the translators have rendered as "God" in both the first and second chapters of the English version, are, in the Hebrew text, called "Elohim" in the first chapter, and "Jehovah" in the second chapter, It is argued that the same narrator would not have named God in two different ways.

   Had he meant the same God in both cases, he probably would not, but he was not a monotheist. He knew better than to think of God as simply a superior Man, using the sky for a throne and the earth for a footstool. When he wrote of Jehovah he meant the Leader Who had charge of the particular part of the work of Creation which was then being described. Jehovah was and is one of the Elohim. He is the Leader of the Angels who were the humanity of the Moon Period and He is Regent of our Moon. The reader is referred to Diagram 14 for an accurate understanding of the position and constitution of Jehovah.

   As Regent of Our Moon, He has charge of the degenerate, evil Beings there, and He also rules the Angels. With Him are some of the Archangels, who were the humanity of the Sun Period. They are the "Race-Spirits".

   It is the work of Jehovah to build concrete bodies or forms, by means of the hardening, crystallizing Moon forces. Therefore He is the giver of children and the Angels are His messengers in this work. It is well know to physiologists that the Moon is connected with gestation; at least, they have observed that it measures and governs the period of intra-uterine life and other physiological functions.

   The Archangels, as Spirits and Leaders of a Race, are known to fight for or against a people, as the exigencies of the evolution of that Race demand. In Daniel 10:20 an Archangel speaking to Daniel, says, "And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come."

   The Archangel Michael is the Race-spirit of the Jews (Daniel 12:1), but Jehovah is not the god of the Jews alone; He is the Author of all Race-religions which led up to Christianity. Nevertheless, it is true that He did take a special interest in the "seed-race" for the humanity of the Fifth Epoch. Jehovah, of course, takes special care of a seed-race, in which are to be inculcated the embryonic faculties of the humanity of a new Epoch. For that reason He was particularly concerned with the Original Semites. They were His "chosen people" — chosen to be the seed for a new Race, which was to inherit the "Promised Land" — the entire Earth, as it is at present.

   He did not lead them out of Egypt. That story originated with their descendants and is a confused account of their journey eastward through flood and disaster out of the doomed Atlantis into the "wilderness" (the Desert of Gobi in Central Asia), there to wander during the cabalistic forty years, until they could enter the Promised Land. There is a double and peculiar significance to the descriptive word "promised" in this connection. The land was called the "promised Land" because, as land or earth suitable for human occupation, it did not exist at the time the "chosen people" were led into the "wilderness." Part of the Earth had been submerged by floods and other parts changed by volcanic eruptions, hence it was necessary that a period of time elapse before the new Earth was in a fit condition to become the possession of the Fifth Epoch humanity.

   The contention of the opponents of the Bible, that it is a mere mutilation of the original writings, is cheerfully agreed to by esoteric science. Parts of it are even conceded to be entire fabrications and no attempt is made to prove its authenticity as a whole, in the form we now have it. The present effort is simply an attempt to exhume a few kernels of esoteric truth from the bewildering mass of misleading and incorrect interpretations under which they have been buried by the various translators and revisors.

   Having in the foregoing paragraphs disentangled from the general confusion the identity and mission of Jehovah, it may be that we can now find harmony in the two seemingly contradictory accounts of the creation of man, as recorded in the first and second chapters of Genesis, in the first of which it is written that he was the last, and in the second that he was the first created of all living things.

   We note that the first chapter deals chiefly with the creation of Form, the second chapter is devoted to the consideration of Life, while the fifth chapter deals with the Consciousness. The key to the meaning, then, is that we must differentiate sharply between the physical Form, and the Life that builds that Form for its own expression. Although the order of the creation of the other kingdoms is not as correctly given in the second chapter as in the first, it is true that if we consider man from the Life side, he was created first, but if we consider him from the standpoint of Form, as is done in the first chapter, he was created last.

   All through the course of evolution — through Periods, Globes, Revolutions and Races — those who do not improve by the formation of new characteristics are held back and immediately begin to degenerate. Only that which remains plastic and pliable and adaptable for molding into new Forms suitable for the expression of the expanding consciousness; only the Life which is capable of outgrowing the possibilities for improvement inhering in the forms it ensouls, can evolve with the pioneers of any life wave. All else must straggle on behind.

   This is the kernel of the esoteric teaching. Progress is not simply unfoldment; not simply Involution and Evolution. There is a third factor, making a triad — Involution, Evolution, and — Epigenesis.

   The first two words are familiar to all who have studied Life and Form, but while it is generally admitted that the involution of spirit into matter takes place in order that form may be built, it is not so commonly recognized that the Involution of Spirit runs side by side with the Evolution of Form.

   From the very beginning of the Saturn Period up to the time in the Atlantean Epoch when "man's eyes were opened" by the Lucifer Spirits, and as a consequence the activities of man — or the Life-force which has become man — were chiefly directed inward; that very same force which he now sends out from himself to build railways, steamboats, etc., was used internally in building a vehicle through which to manifest himself. This vehicle is threefold, like the spirit which built it.

   The same power by which man is now improving outside conditions was used during Involution for purposes of internal growth.

   The Form was built by Evolution, the Spirit built and entered it by Involution; but the means for devising improvements is Epigenesis.

   There is a strong tendency to regard all that is, as the result of something that has been; all improvements on previously existing forms, as being present in all forms as latencies; to regard Evolution as simply the unfolding of germinal improvements. Such a conception excludes Epigenesis from the scheme of things. It allows no possibility for the building of anything new, no scope for originality.

   The esotericist believes the purpose of evolution to be the development of man from a static to a dynamic God — a Creator. If the development he is at present undergoing is to be his education and if, during its progress, he is simply unfolding latent actualities, where does He learn to create?

   If man's development consists solely in learning to build better and better Forms, according to models already existing in his Creator's mind, be can become, at best, only a good imitator — never a creator.

   In order that he may become an independent, original Creator, it is necessary that his training should include sufficient latitude for the exercise of the individual originality which distinguishes creation from imitation. So long as certain features of the old Form meet the requirements of progression they are retained, but at each rebirth the evolving Life adds such original improvements as are necessary for its further expression.

   The pioneers of science are constantly brought face to face with Epigenesis as a fact in all departments of nature. As early as 1759, Caspar Wolff published his "Theoria Generationis," in which he shows that in the human ovum there is absolutely no trace of the coming organism; that its evolution consists of the addition of new formations; a building of something which is not latent in the ovum.

   Haeckel (that great and fearless student of nature as he sees it, and very near to knowledge of the complete truth regarding evolution) says of the "Theoria Generationis": "Despite its small compass and difficult terminology, it is one of the most valuable works in the whole literature of biology."

   Haeckel's own views we find thus stated in his "Anthropogenie": "Nowadays we are hardly justified in calling Epigenesis an hypothesis, as we have fully convinced ourselves of its being a fact and are able at any moment to demonstrate it by the help of the microscope."

   A builder would be but a sorry craftsman were his abilities limited to the building of houses after only one particular model, which, during his apprenticeship, his master had taught him to imitate, but which he is unable to alter to meet new requirements. To be successful he must be capable of designing new and better houses, improving that which experience teaches was not serviceable in the earlier buildings. The same force which the builder now directs outward to built houses better adapted to new conditions was used in past Periods to build new and better vehicles for the evolution of the Ego.

   Starting with the simplest organisms, the Life which is now Man built the Form to suit its necessities. In due time, as the entity progressed; it become evident that new improvements must be added which conflicted with the lines previously followed. A new start must be given it in a new species, where it could retrieve any previous mistakes which experience taught would preclude further development if the old lines were adhered to and thus the evolving life would be enabled to progress further in a new species. When later experience proved that the new form also was inadequate, inasmuch as it could not adapt itself to some improvement necessary to the progress of the evolving life, it too was discarded and still another departure made, in a form adaptable to the necessary improvement.

   Thus by successive steps does the evolving Life improve its vehicles, and the improvements is still going on. Man, who is in the vanguard of progress, has built his bodies, from the similitude of the amoeba up to the original human form, and from that up through the various grades until the most advanced humans are now using the best and most highly organized bodies on Earth. Between deaths and rebirths we are constantly building bodies in which to function during our lives and a far greater degree of efficiency than the present will yet be reached. If we make mistakes in building between lives, they become evident when we are using the body in Earth life, and it is well for us if we are able to perceive and realize our mistakes, that we may avoid making them afresh life after life.

   But just as the builder of houses would lag commercially if he did not constantly improve his methods to meet the exigencies of his business, so those who persistently adhere to the old forms fail to rise above the species and are left behind, as stragglers. These stragglers take the forms outgrown by the pioneers, as previously explained. As the Life which is now Man passed through stages analogous to the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms and through the human Races, stragglers were left all along the way who had failed to reach the necessary standard to keep abreast of the crestwave of evolution. They took the discarded Forms of the pioneers and used them as stepping-stones, by means of which they tried to overtake the others, but the advanced Forms did not stand still. In the progress of Evolution there is no halting-place. In evolving Life, as in commerce, there is no such thing asmerely "holding your own." Progression or Retrogression is the Law. The Form that is not capable of further improvement must degenerate.

   Therefore there is one line of improving forms ensouled by the pioneers of the evolving Life, and another line of degenerating forms, outgrown by the pioneers, but ensouled by the stragglers, as long as there are any stragglers of that particular life wave to which those forms originally belonged.

   When there are no more stragglers, the species gradually dies out. The Forms have been crystallized beyond the possibility of being improved by tenants of increasing inability. They therefore return to the mineral kingdom, fossilize and are added to the different strata of the Earth's crust.

   The assertion of material science that man has ascended through the different kingdoms of plant and animal which exist about us now to anthropoid and thence to man, is not quite correct. Man has never inhabited forms identical with those of our present-day animals, nor the present-day anthropoid species; but he has inhabited forms which were similar to but higher than those of the present anthropoids.

   The scientist sees that there is an anatomical likeness between man and the monkey, and as the evolutionary impulse always makes for improvement, he concludes that man must have descended from the monkey, but he is always baffled in his efforts to find the "missing link" connecting the two.

   From the point where the pioneers of our life wave occupied ape-like forms, they have progressed to their present stage of development, while the Forms (which were the "missing link") have degenerated and are now ensouled by the last stragglers of the Saturn Period.

   The lower monkeys, instead of being the progenitors of the higher species, are stragglers occupying the most degenerated specimens of what was once the human form. Instead of man having ascended from the anthropoids, the reverse is true — the anthropoids have degenerated from man. Material science, dealing only with Form, has thus misled itself and drawn erroneous conclusions in this matter.

   The same relative conditions are to be found in the animal kingdom. The pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Sun Period are our present-day mammals. The different grades correspond to the steps once taken by man, but the forms are all degenerating under the management of the stragglers. Similarly, the pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Moon Period are found among the fruit trees, while the stragglers of that life wave ensoul all other plant forms.

   Each life wave, however remains definitely confined within its own borders. The anthropoids may overtake us and become human beings, but no other animals will reach our particular point of development. They will reach a similar stage, but under different conditions, in the Jupiter Period. The present plants will be the humanity of the Venus Period, under a still greater difference of condition, and our minerals will reach the human stage under the conditions of the Vulcan Period.

   It will be noted that the modern evolutionary theory, particularly that of Haeckel, would, if it were completely reversed, be in almost perfect accord with the knowledge of esoteric science.

   The monkey has degenerated from the man.

   The polyps are the last degeneration left behind by the mammals.

   The mosses are the lowest degenerations of the plant kingdom.

   The mineral kingdom is the final goal of the forms of all the kingdoms when they have reached the acme of degeneration.

   A corroboration of this is found in coal, which was once vegetable or plant forms; also in petrified wood and fossilized remains of various animal forms. Common stone or rock, which no scientist would admit had it origin in another kingdom, is to the esoteric investigator as truly mineralized plants as coal itself. The mineralogist will learnedly explain that it is composed of hornblende, feldspar, and mica, but the trained clairvoyant, who can trace it back in the memory of Nature, through millions of years, can supplement that statement by adding: Yes, and that which you call hornblende and feldspar are the leaves and stems of prehistoric flowers, and the mica is all that remains of their petals.

   The esoteric teaching of evolution is also corroborated by the science of embryology in the ante-natal recapitulation of all past stages of development. The difference between the ovum of a human being and of some of the higher mammals, and even of the higher developments in the plant kingdom, is indistinguishable, even under the microscope. Experts are unable to tell which is animal and which is human. Even after several of the initial ante-natal stages have been passed through the experts cannot differentiate between and animal and human embryo.

   But if the animal ovum is studied through the entire period of gestation, it will be observed that it passes through the mineral and plant stages only, and is born when it reaches the animal stage. This is because the Life ensouling such an ovum passed through its mineral evolution in the Sun Period, its plant life in the Moon Period, and is now forced to stop at the animal stage in the Earth Period.

   On the other hand, the Life which uses the human ovum had its mineral existence in the Saturn Period, its plant existence in the Sun Period passed the animal stage in the Moon Period, has still some scope for Epigenesis after it has reached the animal stage and therefore goes on to the human — nor does it stop there. The father and mother give the substance of their bodies for the building of the child's body, but Epigenesis makes it possible to add something which makes the child different from the parents.

   Where Epigenesis is inactive in the individual, family, nation, or Race — there evolution ceases and degeneration commences.

   Thus the two Creation stories harmonize very well.

   One deals with Form, which was built up through mineral, plant and animal and reached the human last.

   The other tells us that Life which now ensouls human forms was manifested anterior to the Life which ensouls the forms of the other kingdoms.

   One of these accounts of Creation would not have been sufficient. There are important particulars hidden behind the narrative of man's creation, in the second chapter; the verse reads: "Then Jehovah formed man from the dust of the Earth, and blew into his nostrils the breath [nephesh], and man become a breathing creature [nephesh chayim]."

   In other places in the King James version nephesh is translated "life," but in this particular instance (Gen. 2:7) it is rendered "living soul," thus conveying the idea that there was a distinction made between the life that ensouled the human form and that which ensouled inferior creations. There is no authority whatever for this difference in translation, which is purely arbitrary. The life-breath (nephesh) is the same in man and beast. This can be shown even to those who stand firmly upon the Bible as authority, for even the King James version distinctly states (Eccles. 3:19,20): ". . .as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath [nephesh]; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast:. . .All go unto one place."

   The animals are but our "younger brothers," and though they are not now so finely organized, they will eventually reach a state as high as our own, and we shall then have ascended higher.

   If it is contended that man received his soul in the way described in this seventh verse of the second chapter of Genesis, and that he could have received it in no other way, it is pertinent to ask where and how woman received her soul?

   The meaning of the chapter, and of the inspiration of the breath of life by Jehovah, is very plain and clear when we use the esoteric key, and it has the further and immense advantage of being logical.

   The fact that the Regent of the Moon (Jehovah), with His Angels and Archangels, were the principals in this action fixes the time when this creation occurred. It was between the early and the middle parts of the Lemurian Epoch, and must have been after the Moon was thrown out from the Earth, because Jehovah had nothing to do with the generation of bodies before the Moon was thrown off. The forms were then more ethereal. There were no dense and concrete bodies. It is possible to make such bodies only by means of the hardening and crystallizing Moon-forces, It must have been in the first half of the Lemurian Epoch, because the separation of the sexes, which is recorded later, took place in the middle of that epoch.

   At that time man-in-the-making had not yet commenced to breathe by means of lungs. He had the gill-like apparatus still present in the human embryo while passing through the stage of ante-natal life corresponding to that Epoch. He had no warm, red blood, for at that stage there was no individual spirit, the entire form was soft and pliable and the skeleton soft like cartilage. Before the later date, when it became necessary to separate humanity into sexes, the skeleton had grown firm and solid.

   The work done by Jehovah was to build dense, hard bone substance into the soft bodies already existing. Previous to this time, i.e., during the Polarian and Hyperborean Epochs, neither animal nor man had bones.

   The grotesque and impossible manner in which the separation of the sexes is said to have been accomplished (as described in the common versions of the Bible and, in this particular case, in the Masoretic text also) is another example of what may be done by changing vowels in the old Hebrew text. Read in one way, the work is "rib"; but in another, which has at least as good a claim to consideration, with the additional advantage of being common-sense, it reads "side." If we interpret this to mean that man was male-female and that Jehovah caused one side or sex in each being to remain latent, we shall not be doing violence to our reason, as we would by accepting the "rib" story.

   When this alternation is made, the esoteric teaching as previously given harmonizes with that of the Bible and both agree with the teaching of modern science that man was bi-sexual at one time, before he developed one sex at the expense of the other. In corroboration of this, it is pointed out that the fetus is bi-sexual up to a certain point; thereafter one sex predominates, while the other remains in abeyance, so that each person still has the opposite sex organs in a rudimentary form and therefore is really bi-sexual, as was primitive man.

   Apparently the Bible narrator does not wish to give, in this second creation account, an accurate picture of the whole of evolution, but rather to particularize a little more what was said in the first chapter. He tells us that man did not always breathe as he does now; that there was a time when he was not separated into sexes; and that it was Jehovah Who effected the change, thus fixing the time of the occurrence. As we proceed, it will be found that much further information is given.

   During the earlier Epochs and Periods the great creative Hierarchies had worked upon humanity as it was unconsciously evolving. There had been only one common consciousness among all human beings; one group-spirit for all mankind, as it were.

   In the Lemurian Epoch a new step was taken. Bodies had been definitely formed, but they must have warm, red blood before they could be ensouled and become the abode of indwelling spirits.

   In nature no process is sudden. We would get a wrong idea were we to imagine that air blown into the nostrils could put a soul into an image of clay and galvanize it into life as a sentient, thinking being.

   The individual spirit was very weak and impotent and quite unfitted for the task of guiding its dense vehicle. In that respect it is not yet very strong. To any qualified observer, it is evident that the desire body rules the personality more than does the spirit, even at our present stage of advancement. But in the middle of the Lemurian Epoch, when the lower personality — the threefold body — was to be endowed with the light of the Ego, the latter, if left to itself, would have been absolutely powerless to guide its instrument.

   Therefore it is necessary for someone much more highly evolved to help the individual spirit and gradually prepare the way for its complete union with its instruments. It was analogous to a new nation, over which, until it becomes capable of forming a stable government for itself, some stronger power establishes a protectorate, guarding it alike from external dangers and internal indiscretions. Such a protectorate was exercised over evolving humanity by the Race-spirit, and is exercised over the animals by the group-spirit, in a somewhat different way.

   Jehovah is the Most High. He is Race-God, as one might express it, having dominion over all Form. He is the Chief Ruler and the highest Power in maintaining the form and exercising an orderly government over it. The Archangels are the Race-spirits, each having dominion over a certain group of people. They also have dominion over animals, while the Angels have dominion over the plants.

   The Archangels have dominion over races or groups of people and also over the animals, for these two kingdoms have desire bodies and the Archangels are expert architects of desire matter, because in the Sun Period the densest globe was composed of that materials, and the humanity of that period, who are now Archangels, learned to build their densest vehicles of desire staff as we are now learning to build our bodies of the chemical elements whereof our Earth-globe is composed. Thus it will be readily understood that the Archangels are peculiarly qualified to help later life waves through the stage where they learn to build and control a desire body.

   For analogous reasons the Angels work in the vital bodies of man, animal and plant. Their densest bodies are composed of ether and so was the Globe D in the Moon Period when they were human.

   Jehovah and His Archangels, therefore, hold a similar relation to Races that the group-spirit does to animals. When individual members of a Race have evolved entire self-control and government, they are emancipated from the influence of the Race-spirit and kindred beings.

   As we have seen, the point of vantage of the group-spirit, as of any Ego in the dense body, is in the blood. The Masoretic text shows that this knowledge was possessed by the writer of Leviticus. In the fourteenth verse of the seventeenth chapter the Jews are prohibited from eating blood because ". . .the soul of all flesh is in the blood. . . ;" and in the eleventh verse of the same chapter we find these words: ". . .for the soul of the flesh is in the blood. . .the blood itself mediates for the soul," which shows that this applies to both man and beast, for the word here used in the Hebrew is neshamah and means "soul" — not "life," as it is rendered in the King James version.

   The Ego works directly through the blood. The Race-spirit guides the Races by working in the blood, as the group-spirit guides the animals of its species through the blood. So also does the Ego control its own vehicle, but with a difference.

   The Ego operates by means of the heat of the blood, while the Race (i.e., tribal, or family) spirit works by means of the air, as it is drawn into the lungs. That is why Jehovah, or His messengers, "breathed into man's nostrils," thereby securing admission for the Race-spirit, Community-spirits, etc.

   The different classes of Race-spirits guided their peoples to various climates and different parts of the Earth. To the trained clairvoyant, a tribal-spirit appears as a cloud enveloping and permeating the atmosphere of the whole country inhabited by the people under its dominion. Thus are produced the different peoples and nations. Paul spoke of "The Prince of the Power of the Air"; or "principalities and powers," etc., showing that he knew of the Race-spirits, but now not even an attempt is made to understand what they mean, although their influence is strongly felt. Patriotism is one of the sentiments emanating from and fostered by them. It has not now so much power over people as formerly. There are some who are being liberated from the Race-spirit and can say with Thomas Paine, "The world is my country." There are those who can leave father and mother and look upon all men as brothers. They are being liberated from the Family-spirit, or spirit of the Clan which is different from the race-spirit, an etheric entity. Others again, who are deep in the toil of the Race or Family spirit, will suffer the most dreadful depression if they leave home or country and breathe the air of another Race of Family spirit.

   At the time the Race-spirit entered human bodies the individualized Ego commenced to get some slight control of its vehicles. Each human entity became more and more conscious of being separate and distinct from other men, yet for ages he did not think of himself primarily as an individual, but as belonging to a tribe or family. The affix "son" to many present day surnames is a remnant of this feeling. A man was not simply "John," or "James." He was John Robertson, or James Williamson. In some countries a woman was not "Mary," or "Martha." She was Mary Marthasdaughter, Martha Marys daughter. The custom was continued in some European countries until within a few generations of the present time; the "son" affix remains with us yet and the family name is still much honored.

   For example, among the Jews, even down to the time of Christ, the Race-spirit was stronger than the individual spirit. Every Jew thought of himself first as belonging to a certain tribe or family. His proudest boast was that he was of the "Seed of Abraham." All this was the work of the Race-spirit.

   Previous to the advent of Jehovah, when the Earth was yet a part of the Sun, there was one common group-spirit, composed of all the creative Hierarchies, which controlled the entire human family, but it was intended that each body should be the temple and pliable instrument of an indwelling spirit and that meant an infinite division of rulership.

   Jehovah came with His Angel and Archangels and made the first great division into Races, giving to each group the guiding influence of a Race-spirit — an Archangel. For each Ego He appointed one of the Angels to act as guardian until the individual spirit had grown strong enough to become emancipated from all outside influence.

   Christ came to prepare the way for the emancipation of humanity from the guidance of differentiating Race- and Family-spirit, and to unite the whole human family in One Universal Brotherhood.

   He taught that "Abraham's seed" referred to the bodies only, and called their attention to the fact that before Abraham lived [the] "I" — the Ego — was in existence. The threefold individual spirit had its being before all Tribes and Races and it will remain when they have passed away and even the memory of them is no more.

   The threefold spirit in man, the Ego, is the God within, whom the personal, bodily man must learn to follow. Therefore did Christ say that, to be His disciple, a man must forsake all he had. His teaching points to the emancipation of the God within. He calls upon man to exercise his prerogative as an individual and rise above family, tribe, and nation. Not that he is to disregard kin and country. He must fulfill all duties, but he is to cease identifying himself with part and must recognize an equal kinship with all the world. That is the ideal given to mankind by the Christ.

   Under the rule of the Race-spirit, the nation, tribe or family was considered first — the individual last. The family must be kept intact. If any man dies without leaving offspring to perpetuate his name, his brother must "carry seed" to the widow, that there might be no dying out (Due. 25:5-10). Marrying out of the family was regarded with horror in the earliest times. A member of one tribe could not become connected with another without losing caste in his own. It was not an easy matter to become a member of another family. Not only among the Jews and other early nations was the integrity of the family insisted upon, but also in more modern times. As previously mentioned, the Scots, even in comparatively recent times, clung tenaciously to their Clan, and the old Norse Vikings would take no one into their families without first "mixing blood" with him, for the spiritual effects of haemolysis, which are unknown to material science, were known of old.

   All these customs resulted from the working of Race- and tribal-spirit in the common blood. To admit as a member one in whom that common blood did not flow would have caused "confusion of caste." The closer the inbreeding, the greater the power of the Race-spirit, and the stronger the ties that bound the individual to the tribe, because the vital force of the man is in his blood. Memory is intimately connected with the blood, which is the highest expression of the vital body.

   The brain and the nervous system are the highest expression of the desire body. They call up pictures of the outside world, but in mental image-making, i.e., imagination, the blood brings the material for the pictures; therefore when the thought is active the blood flows to the head.

   When the same unmixed strain of blood flows in the veins of a family for generations, the same mental pictures made by great-grandfather, grandfather and father are reproduced in the son by the family-spirit which lived in the hemoglobin of the blood. He sees himself as the continuation of a long line of ancestors who live in him. He sees all the events of the past lives of the family as though he had been present, therefore he does not realize himself as an Ego. He is not simply "David," but "the son of Abraham"; not "Joseph," but "the son of David."

   By means of this common blood men are said to have lived for many generations, because through the blood their descendants had access to the memory of nature, in which the records of the lives of their ancestors were preserved. That is why, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, it is stated that the patriarchs lived for centuries. Adam, Methuselah and the other patriarchs did not personally attain to such great age, but they lived in the consciousness of their descendants, who saw the lives of their ancestors as if they had lived them. After the expiration of the period stated, the descendants did not think of themselves as Adam or Methuselah. Memory of those ancestors faded and so it is said they died.

   The "second sight" of the Scotch Highlanders shows that be means of endogamy the consciousness of the inner World is retained. They have practiced marrying in the Clan until recent times; also in Gypsies, who always marry in the tribe. The smaller the tribe and the closer the inbreeding, the more pronounced is the "sight."

   The earlier Races would not have dared to disobey the injunction issued by the tribal God, not to marry outside of the tribe, nor had they any inclination to do so, for they had no mind of their own.

   Later, man was given free will. The time had come when he was to be prepared for individualization. The former "common" consciousness, the involuntary clairvoyance or second-sight which constantly held before a tribesman the pictures of his ancestor's lives and caused him to feel most closely identified with the tribe or family, was to be replaced for a time by a strictly individual consciousness confined to the material world, so as to break up the nations into individuals, that the Brotherhood of Man regardless of exterior circumstances may become a fact. This is on the same principle that if we have a number of buildings and wish to make them into one large structure, it is necessary to break them up into separate bricks. Only then can the large building be constructed.

   In order to accomplish this separation of nations into individuals, laws were given which prohibited endogamy or marriage in the family and henceforth incestuous marriages gradually came to be regarded with horror. Strange blood has thus been introduced into all the families of the Earth and it has gradually wiped out the involuntary clairvoyance which promoted the clannish feeling and segregated humanity into groups. Altruism is superseding patriotism, and loyalty to the family is disappearing in consequence of the mixture of blood.

   Science has lately discovered that hemolysis results from the inoculation of the blood of one individual into the veins of another of a different species, causing the death of the lower of the two. Thus any animal inoculated with the blood of a man dies. The blood of a dog transfused into the veins of a bird kills the bird, but it will not hurt the dog to have the bird's blood inoculated into its veins. Science merely states the fact, the esoteric scientist gives the reason. The blood is the vantage ground of the spirit, as shown elsewhere. The Ego in man works in its own vehicles by means of the heat of the blood; the race, family or community spirit gains entrance to the blood by means of the air we inspire. In the animals are also both the separate spirit of the animal and the group-spirit of the species to which it belongs, but the spirit of the animal is not individualized and does not work self-consciously with its vehicles as does the Ego, hence it is altogether dominated by the group-spirit which works in the blood.

   When the blood of a higher animal is inoculated into the veins of one from a lower species, the spirit in the blood of the higher animal is of course stronger than the spirit of the less evolved; hence when it endeavors to assert itself it kills the imprisoning form and liberates itself. When, on the other hand, the blood of a lower species is inoculated into the veins of a higher animal, the higher spirit is capable of ousting the less evolved spirit in the strange blood and assimilating the blood to its own purposes, therefore no visible catastrophe ensues.

   The group-spirit always aims to preserve the integrity of its domain in the blood of the species under its charge. Like the human Race-God, it resents the marriage of its subjects into other species and visits the sins of the fathers upon the children as we see in the case of hybrids. Where a horse and a donkey produce a mule for instance, the mixture of strange blood destroys the propagative faculty so as not to perpetuate the hybrid which is an abomination from the standpoint of the group-spirit, for the mule is not so definitely under the dominion of the group-spirit of the horses or of the group-spirit of the donkeys as the pure breed, yet it is not so far away as to be entirely exempt from their influence. If two mules could mate, their offspring would be still less under the dominion of either of these group-spirits, and so a new species without a group-spirit would result. That would be anomaly in nature, an impossibility until the separate animal-spirits should have become sufficiently evolved to be self-sufficient. Such a species, could it be produced, would be without the guiding instinct, so-called, which is in reality the promptings of the group-spirit; they would be in an analogous position to a litter of kittens removed from the mother's womb prior to birth. They could not possibly shift for themselves, so they would die.

   Therefore, as it is the group-spirit of the animals that sends the separate spirits of the animals into embodiment, it simply withholds the fertilizing seed-atom when animals of widely differing species are mated. It permits one of its charges to take advantage of an opportunity for re-embodiment where two animals of nearly the same nature are mated, but refuses to let the hybrids perpetuate themselves. Thus we see that the infusion of strange blood weakens the hold of the group-spirit and that therefore it either destroys the form or the propagative faculty where it has the power.

   The human spirit is individualized, an Ego, it is evolving free will and responsibility. It is drawn to birth by the irresistible law of Consequence, so that it is beyond the power of the race, community or family spirit to keep it from returning at the present stage of human development, and by the admixture of strange blood, by intermarriage of the individuals of different tribes or nations, the leaders of man are gradually helping him to oust the family, tribal or national spirit from the blood, but with it has necessarily gone the involuntary clairvoyance which was due to its working in the blood, whereby it fostered the family traditions in its charges, and so we see that also in the case of man a faculty was destroyed by the mixture of blood. That loss was a gain, however, for it has concentrated man's energy on the material world and he is better able to master its lessons than if he were still distracted by the visions of the higher realms.

   As man becomes emancipated he gradually ceases to think of himself as "Abraham's Seed," as a "Clan Stewart Man," as a "Brahmin" or a "Levite": he is learning to think more of himself as an individual an "I". The more he cultivates that "Self," the more he frees himself from the family and national spirit in the blood, the more he becomes a self-sufficient citizen of the world.

   There is much foolish, even dangerous, talk of giving up the Self to the Not-Self; only when we have cultivated a "Self," can we sacrifice ourselves and give up the Self to the whole. So long as we can only love our own family or nation we are incapable of loving others. We are bound by the tie of kin and country. When we have burst the tie of blood and asserted ourselves and become self-sufficient may we become unselfish helpers of humanity. When a man has reached that stage he will find that, instead of having lost his own family, he has gained all the families in the world, for they will have become his sisters and brothers, his fathers and mothers to care for and help.

   Then he will regain the viewpoint of the Spiritual World which he lost by the mixing of blood, but it will be a higher faculty, an intelligent, voluntary clairvoyance where he can see what he wills and not merely the negative faculty imprinted in his blood by the family spirit which bound him to the family to the exclusion of all other families. His viewpoint will be universal, to be used for universal good.

   For aforementioned reasons, intertribal, and later international, marriages came gradually to be regarded as desirable and preferable to close intermarriages.

   As man progressed through these stages, and gradually lost touch with the inner world, he sorrowed over the loss and longed for a return of the "inner" vision. But by degrees he forgot, and the material world gradually loomed up before his mind as the only reality, until at last he has come to scout the idea that such inner Worlds exist and to regard a belief in them as foolish superstition.

   The four causes contributing to this condition were:

1. The clearing of the foggy atmosphere of the Atlantean continent.
2. The indrawing of the vital body, so that a point at the root of the nose corresponds to a similar point in the vital body.
3. The elimination of inbreeding and the substitution therefor of marriages outside the family and tribe.
4. The use of intoxicants.

   The Race-spirits still exist in and work with man, but the more advanced the nation, the more freedom is given the individual. In countries where people are most fettered, the Race-spirit is strongest. The more in harmony a man is with the law of Love, and the higher his ideals, the more he frees himself from the spirit of the Races. Patriotism, while good in itself, is a tie of the Race- spirit. The ideal of Universal Brotherhood, which identifies itself with neither country nor race, is the only path which leads to emancipation.

   Christ came to reunite the separated races in bonds of peace and good will, wherein all will willingly and consciously follow the law of Love.

   The present Christianity is not even a shadow of the true religion of Christ. That will remain in abeyance until all race feeling shall have been overcome. In the Sixth Epoch there will be but one Universal Brotherhood, under the Leadership of the Returned Christ, but the day and the hour no man knows, for it is not fixed, but depends upon how soon a sufficient number of people shall have commenced to live the life of Fellowship and Love, which is to be the hall-mark of the new dispensation.

   In connection with the analysis of Genesis, a few more words must be said about "The Fall," which is the backbone and sinew of popular Christianity. Had there been no "Fall," there would have been no need for the "plan of salvation."

   When, in the middle of the Lemurian Epoch, the separation of the sexes occurred (in which work Jehovah and His Angels were active), the Ego began to work slightly upon the dense body, building organs within. Man was not at that time the wide-awake conscious being he is at present, but by means of half the sex force, he was building a brain for the expression of thought as previously described. He was more awake in the Spiritual World than in the physical; hardly saw his body and was not conscious of the act of propagation. The Bible statement that Jehovah put man to sleep when he was to bring forth is correct. There was no pain nor trouble connected with childbirth; nor (because of man's exceedingly dim consciousness of his physical surroundings) did he know anything of the loss of his dense body by death, or of his installment in a new dense vehicle at birth.

   It will be remembered that the Lucifers were a part of the humanity of the Moon Period; they are the stragglers of the life wave of the Angels, too far advanced to take a dense physical body, yet they needed an "inner" organ for the acquisition of knowledge. Moreover, they could work through a physical brain, which the Angels or Jehovah could not.

   These spirits entered the spinal cord and brain and spoke to the woman, whose Imagination, as explained elsewhere, had been aroused by the training of the Lemurian Race. As her consciousness was principally internal, a picture-consciousness of them was received by her, and she saw them as serpents, for they had entered her brain by the serpentine spinal cord.

   The training of the women included watching the perilous feats and fights of the Men in developing Will, in which fights bodies were necessarily often killed. The dim consciousness of something unusual set the imagination of the woman to wondering why she saw these strange things. She was conscious of the spirits of those who had lost their bodies, but her imperfect sense of the Physical World failed to reveal these friends whose dense bodies had been destroyed.

   The Lucifers solved the problem for her by "opening her eyes." They revealed to her her own body and that of the man and taught her how, together, they might conquer death by creating new bodies. Thus death could not touch them for they, like Jehovah, could create at will.

   Lucifer opened the eyes of woman, She sought the help of man and opened his eyes. Thus, in a real though dim way, they first "knew" or became aware of one another and also of the Physical World. They became conscious of death and pain and by this knowledge they learned to differentiate between the inner man and the outer garment he wears and renews each time it is necessary to take his next step in evolution. They ceased to be automatons and became free thinking beings at the cost of freedom from pain, sickness and death.

   That the interpretation of the eating of the fruit as a symbol of the generative act is not a far-fetched idea, is shown by the declaration of Jehovah (which is not a curse at all, but simply a statement of the consequences that would follow the act) that they will die and that the woman will bear her children in pain and suffering. He knew that, as man's attention had now been called to his physical garment, he would become aware of its loss by death. He also knew that man had not yet wisdom to bridle his passion and regulate sexual intercourse by the positions of the planets, therefore pain in childbirth must follow his ignorant abuse of the function.

   It has always been a sore puzzle to Bible commentators what connection there could possibly be between the eating of fruit and the bearing of children, but if we understand that the eating of the fruit is symbolical of the generative act whereby man becomes "like God" inasmuch as he knows his kind and is thus able to generate new beings, the solution is easy.

   In the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch when man arrogated to himself the prerogative of performing the generative act when he pleased, it was his then-powerful will that enable him to do so. By "eating of the tree of knowledge" at any and all times he was able to create a new body whenever he lost an old vehicle.

   We usually think of death as something to be dreaded. Had man also "eaten of the tree of life," had he learned the secret of how to perpetually vitalize his body, there would have been a worse condition. We know that our bodies are not perfect today and in those ancient days they were exceedingly primitive. Therefore the anxiety of the creative Hierarchies lest man "eat of the tree of life also," and become capable of renewing his vital body, was well founded. Had he done so he would have been immortal indeed, but would never have been able to progress. The evolution of the Ego depends upon its vehicles and if it could not get new and improving ones by death and birth, there would be stagnation. It is an esoteric maxim that the oftener we die the better we are able to live, for every birth gives us a new chance.

   We have seen that brain-knowledge, with its concomitant selfishness, was brought by man at the cost of the power to create from himself alone. He bought his free will at the cost of pain and death; but when man learns to use his intellect for the good of humanity, he will gain spiritual power over life and in addition, will be guided by an innate knowledge as much higher than the present brain-consciousness as that is higher than the lowest animal consciousness.

   The fall into generation was necessary to build the brain, but that is, at best, only an indirect way of gaining knowledge and will be superseded by direct touch with the Wisdom of Nature, which man, without any co-operation, will then be able to use for the generation of new bodies. The larynx will again speak "the lost Word," the "creative Fiat," which, under the guidance of great Teachers, was used in ancient Lemuria in the creation of plants and animals.

   Man will then be a creator in very truth. Not in the slow and toilsome manner of the present day, but by the use of the proper word or magical formula, will he be able to create a body.

   All that was manifested during the descending period of involution remains until the corresponding point on the ascending arc of evolution has been reached. The present generative organs will degenerate and atrophy. The female organ was the first to come into existence as a separate unit and, according to the law that "the first shall be last," will be the last to atrophy. The male organ was differentiated last and is even now commencing to divide itself from the body. Diagram 13 will make this clear.

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