Truth, like a golden thread, binds together all the religions that have been given to the world, making of them a crystal rosary through which shines the eternal White Light of the Cosmic Christ.
The terms Arian, post-Atlantean and Fifth Epoch, all frequently here, might In some Instances raise a question as to correctness of spelling or the period of time indicated. As they refer to two different periods, a definition of the terms seems to be In order.
The Arian Age refers to the two-thousand-year cycle when the Sun last passed by precession through the sign Aries. This cycle extended through the latter part of the Old Testament Dispensation, terminating about the time of the Christ Advent,
The Fifth Epoch, also called the post-Atlantean Epoch, is of much longer duration. It commenced with the appearance of the Fifth Root Race, in India thousands of years ago. It has so far developed five subraces, the fifth being the Anglo-Saxon-Teutonic. Two more subraces will come into being before this Fifth Root Race runs it course and the Fifth Epoch comes to a close thousands of years hence.
Since its triumph over paganism in the third and fourth centuries, orthodox Christianity has based its claim to authority over the souls of men on one premise: historicity of the man Jesus, whom it reveres as the Christ. If it should be proved that Jesus never lived, the Church must prepare to die, for on this historicity of Jesus it must stand or fall. Even the Messiahship of Jesus is not the fundamental issue. Were Jesus accepted in the role of prophet only, the Church might survive; but without the Man Himself there could be no Church at all. In all its long war against heresy this possible disaster never seriously threatened the Church until modern times. For the most part even heretics have accepted Jesus the man and acclaimed Him as the Christ. Few ever questioned that He actually lived, but many have been in doubt about traditions concerning His Crucifixion and Resurrection.
With the advent of "higher criticism of the Bible," the Church has been faced with the one attack which, if successful, cannot be survived. Scholars have attempted to prove that stories regarding Jesus as related in the Gospels and in traditions of the Church are, in fact, simple variations of ancient mythological themes. And as for the moral and spiritual principles of the New Testament, they maintain that every one of these are paralleled in philosophies of the pagan world: Indian, Egyptian, Chinese, Chaldean, Persian, Grecian and Roman.
As a result of these scholarly exposes, thousands of men and women have deserted both the Church and Christianity, some to become converts of Buddhism and Hinduism in their more philosophical aspects; some to become agnostics and atheists. Agnosticism, however, has claimed the greater number, for twentieth-century man has a better scientific education than his forefathers. He understands that if he cannot prove the existence of God, neither can he disprove it. Consequently, he is open to fresh truths and is often found seeking a new approach to Deity.
Christianity of the New Age must be prepared to meet all issues. If Jesus lived as a person upon earth, why do the Gospels portray Him in the role of a pagan Savior-God in no way different from Attis, Krishna, Osiris or Adonis? How could He have been the Messiah of the Jews when they rejected Him, and continue to reject Him, on the grounds that His life and times did not fulfill conditions of Messiah. The fact that so many Gnostics accepted the historicity of Jesus, questioning only certain aspects of His death and Resurrection, challenges attention. These Gnostic cults continued to flourish during the first three centuries A. D. as they had flourished for approximately three centuries B. C. Their membership consisted largely of Hellenistic converts to Judaism and Hellenized Jews. They worked out a correlation between Judaism and Greek philosophy whereby they could function together harmoniously in the cultural sphere. The physical Resurrection of the Christ was not a matter of primary importance to Hellenic Christians. Some believed; others did not. But all accepted the Resurrection, according to instruction received in the Mysteries, as a mystical phenomenon. Even St. Paul first accepted the Christ as a Spirit appearing to him on the road to Damascus.
Esoteric Christianity affirms both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, not solely on the basis of oral or written tradition, but by reason of its own continuing research in the Memory of Nature — or, as it might be stated, through exploration of the "time stream" by means of extrasensory perception. It also gives cognizance to the evidence of persons now in the flesh who were also with the Christ in Palestine, and who recall circumstances and events of that previous incarnation. These disciples do not say, "I believe because I am told," they affirm, "I remember!" Their's is the testimony of contemporaries.
The problem of reconciling the historicity of Jesus with the mythology of the New Testament remains solvable only by esoteric doctrine. This reveals that the Christ and the man Jesus were not one and the same spiritually, although it is impossible to differentiate between them as humans. According to esoteric teaching the Christ is Chief of the Archangels resident in the solar orb, and has been visible to men of bigh spiritual discernment from the very beginning of the human cycle. In the Rites of ancient religions and in Mystery Schools founded by Greek philosophers, the Man in the Sun (Primal or Archetypal Man) was heralded and His descent upon earth in the fullness of the age was foretold.
The archangelic Christ was known by many names among the many peoples of antiquity. After Alexander the Great imposed cultural unity upon much of the then known world, the Greeks and others quickly realized that, under a variety of names, one fundamental fact was proclaimed by all: the advent of the Spirit of Light, Sun God or Archangel, at the close of the Arian Age. (The world was then in that Age.) The life story of Jesus was therefore cast in the familiar mold of Greek mystery dramas in order to point cut that He was the fulfillment, not. only of Jewish prophecy but of all ancient prophecies pertaining to the end of the Age.
Like that of the Greeks referring to their Gods, Jewish literature contains many instances of Archangels assuming physical bodies — as when the Angel of the Lord and two others with Him appeared to Abraham, and he and Sarah prepared food for them to eat. — Gen. 18:1-7. Again, in the apocryphal Book of Tobit the Archangel Raphael walks the highways of earth. And over the anointed kings of Israel hovered the Glory of the Lord; without this overshadowing Glory was never a king in Israel. There was also a Glory shining over the Mercy Seat to betoken the presence of the Lord and. His Angel. These are a few of many such appearances.
The term Christos means the Anointed. It is not a word designating either man or Archangel. The Jews had several names by which they knew the Archangel in the Sun, for their angelology was never so closely codified as that of the Greeks and the Chaldeans. In II Esdras the solar Archangel is designated as Uriel. The Angel of the Visions of Truth, Ramiel, is another solar Archangel. Michael is still another, but his name is also sometimes ascribed to the planet Mercury. This is true of Raphael as well.
To quite some extent Hebrew angelology was derived from the theosophy of Persia and Chaldea; from thence also came the final form of their Christology — which was cosmic or universal in scope, not merely racial or national. The Jews were assigned a leading role in the work of preparing for the Messianic Descent; but this leadership was to be spiritual, not military. When nationalism triumphed it led to the rejection of the Messiah — not, however, before Gentile nations had recognized Him as their own Savior, prophesied in the Mysteries. It was due to the spread of Chaldean stellar theosophy into the Roman Empire that the whole ancient world knew the end of the Age was at hand and that a Savior would appear. Virgil, writing in 40 B.C., proclaimed: "Now comes the final age of the Cumean Chant; the great succession of epochs is born anew. Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new race descends from heaven on high.... thine own Apollo is king."
As in the Grecian Mysteries, the life of the archangelic Christ presents a pattern after which men may mold their lives and thus achieve wisdom and immortality, each in his turn becoming a Christos, a Dionysus, a Son of God. The pattern was written in the stars at the beginning of time. In the glorious constellations of the heavens the divine story may be traced, from the Savior's birth to His Ascension. If these be the Christ's, they are ours also. By imitating Him, by walking in His Way, the supreme goal of human evolution is achieved in the manifestation of the Christos (divinity) within each man. All religions, creeds and spiritual teachings find their apotheosis in Him. The wise of all races and all ages have understood this, and have endeavored to prepare for His coming.
Partially outlined here is the work of the ancient Mystery Schools and religions up to the time of the Christ. It begins with the oldest survival of Atlantean civilization, the Chinese; later it proceeds to a more detailed treatment of the Hebrew Mysteries and their prophets, whose vision not only revealed the Glory to come, but helped to make ready the vessel which was to receive it.
One of the greatest secrets of all the innermost circles
was the cosmic fact that all the great religions had their
roots in one mother soil. And it was the spreading of
the consciousness of this stupendous truth which subsequently gave rise to many attempts to synthesize the
various religions and make "symphonies" of apparently contradictory philosophical tenets ... When the pendulum swings once more towards the side of
synthesis, as it must do in the coming years, then
scholarship will once more recognize the unity of religion under the diversity of creeds and return to the
old doctrine of the Mysteries.
— G. R. S. Mead — Thrice Greatest Hermes, Vol. III
It has been said that to study one religion or one creed only must always involve the student in bigotry, superstition and falsities; only by the study of all religions and all creeds can even the most remote glimpse of Truth be obtained. Certainly there can be no study of more profound interest than the comparison of the world's great Scriptures, taking note of similarities and differences, and discovering the underlying principles of each religious system.
Emerson speaks of the sacred books as "a class of books which are the best." "I mean," he writes, "the Bibles of the world, the sacred books of each nation, which express for each the supreme result of their experience. . . . All these books are the majestic expressions of the universal conscience . . . they are for the closet, and to be read on bended knee. Their communications are not to be given or taken with the lips and the end of the tongue, but out of the glow of the cheek and with the throbbing heart. Friendship should give and take, solitude and time brood and ripen, heroes absorb and enact them. They are not to be held by letters printed on a page, but are living characters translatable into every tongue and form of life.... Is there any geography to these things? We call them Asiatic, we call them primeval; but perhaps that is only optical, for Nature is always equal to herself, and there are as good eyes and ears now in the planet as ever were. Only these ejaculations of the soul are uttered one or a few at a time, at long intervals, and it takes millenniums to make a Bible."
All great Scriptures have in common the worship of a threefold Godhead-not a trinity of persons but a trinity of powers and functions, frequently described as Will, Wisdom and Activity or Love, Wisdom and Power, Sacred writings also share an angelic Hierarchy presided over by seven divine Spirits or Powers, variously named but correlating to the seven Planetary Genii. This triune Godhead and Its sevenfold radiation constitute the Soul of the World, the Reality behind illusion.
Such a theosophical doctrine has existed among the Hebrews from earliest times. Kabbalists find the doctrine of the Trinity in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4): "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord." By the first God-name in this sentence is signified God the Father, the Source of all manifestation. By the words "our God" is signified God the Son, fountain of all knowledge. The third mention of Deity signifies the Holy Ghost. To this last is added the word one, denoting that the three are but aspects of one Unity. The Zohar illustrates this unity by comparing it to the human voice composed of three elements, warmth, air and vapor; yet it is a single thing and not three.
The universality of a threefold and sevenfold cosmic pattern may be accounted for by the fact that a Scripture or Bible is an outpicturing of the mass consciousness of a people or nation. Human nature is everywhere similar, so also are the fundamentals of the world Bibles. They are the outgrowth of human nature functioning, at its highest, therefore similar. Such differences as do exist mark the varying conditions of time, place and racial evolution, but these variations are of secondary importance. At an early period the Persians and Indians succeeded in almost completely separating their spiritual textbooks from racial and historical limitations. They concentrated upon that which is eternal and universal, applicable to all mankind in all ages. The Master Jesus accomplished this separation for Judaism.
Man is a product of the universe in which he lives; hence, he is threefold and sevenfold in structure and consciousness. He is a universe in miniature. He passes through cycles of bodily growth with the earth, and through cycles of consciousness with the Sun, Moon and stars. He writes of these cycles in his Bibles, and they all agree basically regardless of their period. Other Mysteries are also referred to in world Bibles. One is the Great Fish, signifying the Supreme Teacher who is to come and bring emancipation to a humanity wandering in the abyss of darkness. The most deeply esoteric instruction to be found in thee Bibles, including the Christian, is concerned with this mystery. The name Jesus means fish in a stream, and the sign by which early Christians identified one. Another was a fish.
Another universally revealed mystery has to do with the coming o' the Great Shepherd. The Sun is the symbol of the Cosmic Christ, and the Solar Mysteries are a direct inspiration from the Christ. Emanating as they do from a single divine source, they must inevitably convey the same revelation to true prophets and seers everywhere. Hence, the golden thread of unity connecting their utterances, which are strung like pearls upon its single strand. It was a Ray from this Divine Being that ensouled the Master Jesus at the time of His Baptism.
Each great religion was founded by an Initiate-Teacher who was able to read the Akashic Records of the Coming Event, and who founded an order to perpetuate Truth and to prepare disciples for carrying the message about the coming Messiah into the world. A star and a cross were the two emblems most used to prefigure the Divine Appearance, symbols of His birth and transition. They were conspicuous in both decorative motifs and in pre-Christian Temple Ceremonials of worship.
Back to the earliest and most primitive ages may be traced this teaching regarding the coming Redeemer, Savior of mankind, who is destined to be the acknowledged Light of the world. The deeply mystic Rite of Preparation was a work connected with innermost Temple Mysteries even in the days of Lemuria and Atlantis. As a disciple chosen to perform this Rite grew in spiritual radiance, he was, given ever more sacred revelations. The very heavens opened before his vision and multitudes of Angels and Archangels chorused joyously of the great Event to come. At the Winter Solstice he beheld a wondrous vision of the Virgin bearing the Holy Babe, the latter crowned with the glory of the twelve stars. Again, in the Rites at the time of the Spring Equinox the heavens parted to reveal the mighty Star which bore upon its heart the luminous impress of a cross; and upon the cross a Figure whose radiations of light encompassed the earth, illuminating and suffusing it with golden glory.
The fundamental lesson to be learned by an esotericist is to possess his soul in patience; to "learn to wait for events which are to mature in the womb of time." When Angels sang above Bethlehem in the light of the golden Star, a new dispensation was inaugurated. The Kabbala states that Cherubim and Seraphim united in celestial song. St. Paul declared that Christ Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant. This new covenant is the foundation of the four Gospels, spiritual textbooks of four great Schools of Initiation dedicated to teaching the truths and disciplines of the four Greater Mysteries. All teaching preceding the coming of Christ related to the nine Lesser Mysteries. The mission of Christ was to "rend the veil" and thereby open the Way to whomsoever wills to come. Until the Christian era only the priestly class was privileged to receive Initiation. None but the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies where the Glory shone over the Mercy Seat. Then the Christ made the Mysteries available to all men: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled" and "To him that knocketh it shall be opened."
Not only do all world religions proclaim the One who is to come, but they teach also an identical doctrine regarding life after death, purgatory and heaven, rebirth and liberation from rebirth. Exploration back to a remote past reveals that present-day races had a common origin on the continent of Atlantis, whence our ancestors emigrated; and it tells the same story about the great flood which carried Atlantis to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and about the Ark in which a remnant was saved for the New Age of Aryana.
In his Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Mr. G.R. S. Mead quotes from the Egyptian Master Thoth (called Hermes by the Greeks): "And there shall be memorials mighty of their handiworks upon the earth, leaving dim trace behind when cycles are renewed." Mr. Mead elaborates upon this statement: "The thought of the writer is evidently turned toward the past, to a time when a mighty race, devoted to growth in wisdom, lived upon the earth and left great monuments of their wisdom in the works of their hands, dim traces of which were to be seen in the renewal of the times. In Egypt the common belief was that there had been alternate periods of destruction by fire and water and of renewal. It was generally thought that the last destruction had been by water and flood. Before this flood, the author believes, there had lived the mighty race of the first Hermes and that some dim traces of the works of this bygone wisdom-loving civilization were still to be seen."
He adds: "I am strongly inclined to believe in this tradition; and I have sometimes speculated as to the possibility of there being buried beneath one or more of the pyramids the remains of some prehistoric buildings (perhaps also of pyramid shape) that have survived the flood."
Back of even the most ancient Scriptures of the East lies the mystery of lost Atlantis, the mother-soil whence came a "fruitful branch," all that we know about the civilization of the present Fifth, post-Atlantean Epoch.
— Corinne Heline
