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The above words of the thrice-great Egyptian Initiate serve well to introduce the scriptural record of Eternal Beginnings. The Book of Genesis lays the foundation for the succeeding Books of the Bible. All that follows is an unfoldment of powers described and processes outlined in the first of the sixty-six Books contained in the Holy Scriptures.

There is a closer correspondence between the biblical account of creation and the teachings of academic science than is generally recognized. A narrow theological interpretation on the one hand, and a spiritually unillumined science on the other, are responsible for the gulf that exists in the minds of many persons between the teachings of the two. Fortunately, the misconceptions that have divided many earnest students of the Bible from those of physical science are disappearing in the new light that is now falling in increased measure on sacred and secular knowledge alike.

While it may seem too obvious for comment that the Creative Days of the Genesis account are vast periods of time and not brief hours of solar days, it is a fact that a literal interpretation at this point has given rise to a popular misconception that has proved prejudicial to the truth as it is set forth in the Scriptures and as expounded by science. If the creative period translated as "day" had been rendered instead by the word aeon as it is in the Greek version, there never could have been the interminable disputations concerning the question of time consumed for the creative stages recorded in Genesis.

The work of the Seven Creative Days as outlined in Genesis embraces the entire span of man's pilgrimage through time and matter. It covers the journey from unconscious, undifferentiated being to individualized, all-conscious at-one-ment with Universal Spirit. It describes the descent of the spirit into matter and its resurrection therefrom. Of the Seven Days, three and one-half were consumed in the involutionary process during which the spirit took on forms of increasing density, arriving at length at the nadir of materiality which was reached several mission years ago during the present Earth Period. The remaining three and one-half days will be devoted to the evolutionary process during which the spirit will gradually unfold its latent powers through meeting the resistance of form, and progressively lay aside the vehicles acquired during involution until it returns as pure, disembodied spirit to the bosom of the universal Father. It then will have passed from impotence to omnipotence, from nascence to omniscience.

The formula for the creation of all things from atom to universe is stated at the very beginning: "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2) This is descriptive of the process by which the formless takes on form, the infinite becomes finite. It is Cosmic Knowing descending into time and space.

Alchemically interpreted, the above passage deals with the interaction of the masculine and the feminine powers of God. They are the principles which in their material manifestation become the elements of fire and water respectively. The fire-mist, positive in nature, moved upon the face of the formless waters, negative in nature, and thus commenced the formative work which brought man and nature into manifestation. This was the work of the First Day of Creation, called by occultists the Saturn Period.

On the First Day of Creation one of the four principles became predominantly active. That principle was Fire. But it had not yet encountered the frictional experience that raised it to the vibratory pitch at which it became a flame of light. It was still latent, manifesting in darkness as heat. It was a fiery breath which, in the words of an ancient Greek poet, was like "dark wings brooding over chaos." By chaos, is meant not disorder but undifferentiated cosmic substance. It is the receptive feminine "waters." When blended with the active masculine breath, it becomes the Liquid Fire of alchemical terminology. After this had been accomplished, in the words of Genesis, "there was light."

In this First Day man, the monad, issued forth from the heart of the Creator in a purely spiritual state. His condition then was too far attenuated to be discernible by the physical faculties we now possess. He was but a golden shadow emanating from the Great Light.

These first humans were androgynous: "Male and female created he them." They reflected the dual powers of the Seraphim, the Hosts of Gemini. These exalted Beings were the spiritual guardians of the life wave belonging to the opposite or complementary sign, Sagittarius, and were then passing through the human stage of their development. That life wave has since advanced to the status of Lords of Mind, as its members are referred to in Christian esotericism.

In the First Day, when the Lords of Mind were in their human stage of consciousness, they became guardians of present-day humanity, then just entering into manifestation. When humanity came under Sagittarian guardianship it meant that it was also directly worked upon by the Hierarchy of Gemini, the sign complementary to Sagittarius. From that Hierarchy — the Seraphim of the Church and the Elohim of Genesis — man received his initial androgynous impress. The cooperation and interrelationship of the hierarchical Hosts follow a basic rhythmic pattern of which every earthly creation is but a faint reflection. Harmony and symmetry are divine attributes, and to approach these in designs of true beauty is to draw closer to the heart of God.

The First Root Race of our present Earth scheme recapitulated conditions of the First Creative Day. It had its beginnings, according to occult records, upon a sacred island that is imperishable, wherein all is pure spirit, one and indivisible. This was, and still is, the spiritual seed ground for future races in ages to come. As such it receives the protection of the twelve zodiacal Hierarchies that surround the solar system to which this Earth planet belongs.

The gradual lowering of the vibratory rate of the feminine or love power of God resulted in the beginning of form. It became the firmament in which were divided the "waters from the waters." Universal essence was separated into higher and lower expressions. "And God called the firmament heaven." This was the first manifestation of spirit in preparation for the habitation of man, and it comprised the work of the Second Creative Day, known to esotericists as the Sun Period.

It was in the Second Day that Air was introduced as a second element in the evolution of Earth and its beings. This new element fanned the sleeping fires into dynamic activity and the entire globe became luminous. Since this illumination was from within, there was no need for the sun, moon, or stars. These heavenly bodies became necessary as luminaries at a much later stage, when the involution of life into matter had reached a condition of greater density and opaqueness. This fact is accepted quite generally by material science.

During the Second Day the Egos of the lifewave making up what is now humanity were further individualized. The golden shadows of the First Day had taken on added substance, but were still too tenuous and embryonic to be thought of except as gestating in the mind and heart of Deity. Human consciousness was in the trance state similar to that of the present plant kingdom. Beings who have become the Archangels were then in the human stage of their development. They were sufficiently advanced to serve as guardians of germinal man. Highest among these guardians was the Christ.

From this it may be seen that Christ became man's supreme Teacher aeons ago while he was in the early stage of his development. In view of this long evolutionary association between the Archangelic Initiate and humanity, it is not strange that the entire human race is keyed to the vibratory rhythm of the Christ. Before the Earth and its inhabitants can fulfill their ultimate glorious destiny, every knee must bow before Him and every voice proclaim Him the Lord and Saviour of the world.

This does not refer to a verbal acceptance of a theological Christ, but to a living demonstration of the principles of the Cosmic Christ in terms of unity, equality, fellowship, peace, harmony and love. Only those who manifest these principles regardless of race, creed, nationality or color will qualify as pioneers of the new Sixth Race and be able to "meet Him in the air" in the coming Aquarian or Air Age.

The Archangels are the Hosts of Capricorn. Their spiritual teachers are the Cherubim, Lords of the opposite or complementary sign, Cancer. It was the Cherubim who awakened in man the Christ Principle. They were the Beings who imbued man with the sacred life force referred to by the Christ as the waters of eternal life. The Christ Life is offered freely to whosoever wills to come and partake thereof. This divine force is latent in all mankind. When its sleeping powers are awakened and developed, they will manifest the attributes of the twice-born or Christed man.

Spiritually considered, the lowering vibratory rate of the "waters" caused land to appear. Universal substance was entering into a denser gradation of matter; the archetypal pattern was precipitating into etheric-physical substance. Thus, aeons ago preparation was made for the manifestation of mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms, the four streams of evolving life on the Earth. Yet a vast period of time elapsed before the planet became a habitation for mortals.

In the Third Creative Day the firmament was divided from the firmament and a third element, Water, was added to the precipitated substances of Fire and Air. With this addition began the struggle to blend the antagonistic elements of Fire and Water.

At this time the Angels, Hierarchy of Aquarius, were in the human stage of their expression and were receiving spiritual direction from their complementary sign, Leo, Lords of Flame. Also, in this Third Day evolving man received a powerful impetus from these same celestial Lords of Love or Flame.

In the First Creative Day the Hosts of Leo radiated from themselves a stream of light-force which became the central nucleus of the future physical body of man. In the Third Day this fiery nucleus became the beginning of his heart or love center, seat of the Christ Principle. From these glorious Beings man received the nucleus of a future perfection. The heart was the first organ to find its germinal seat in unfolding humanity. Since each new earth life recapitulates the past, it follows that in an embryo the heart is first to exhibit the presence of life; and as life's primal center, it is the last organ to release its hold on life as breath leaves the body in death. Truly does, the Psalmist sing: "The heart shall live forever."

The Bible deals more specifically with the Earth Period than it does with the three Periods preceding it. In conformity with the septenary scheme of evolution to which we belong, the cycles of seven extend in graduated series from the infinitely great to the infinitely small. Thus, each of the seven Periods — three of which have already been discussed and the fourth, or Earth Period, now under consideration, are subdivided into seven shorter spans of time called Epochs.

The first of these seven epochs is the Polarian. It recapitulated conditions of the first or Saturn Period, which correlated with the First Day of Creation. The second Epoch is called the Hyperborean. It recapitulated the work of the Second Day or Sun Period.

The Second Root Race of the present Earth Period correlated to conditions of the Second Day and the second Epoch.

Earth remained a part of the central luminous nebula until the latter part of the Hyperborean Epoch. This being so, there was no need for external lights. What is now our planet, together with all life evolving thereon, was within the very sphere of the central light. They were a part of it.

But this condition did not remain unchanged. A portion of the life wave evolving in this central sphere of light failed to keep abreast with advancing members of Sun-humanity. They finally became a drag on the pioneers; and they suffered more and more because of a growing incompatibility with the high vibratory condition obtaining on the central solar orb. Such lagging Egos congregated together by the law of attraction and in time crystallized that portion of the sphere on which they dwelt, until centrifugal force separated it from the central sphere and sent it out into space as an independent body. This is the genesis of the planet Earth.

Being a child of the Sun, Earth remained a part of the solar system. Its position in that system was self-determined. It was conditioned by its own spiritual status. Every outward condition and circumstance is the effect of an inner, unseen cause. The tie that binds the Earth to the Sun is known to spiritual scientists as the law of attraction.

The distance of the Earth from the Sun is thus determined by the love manifested by humanity for the source and center of its life. This applies equally to every other planet. In the light of these facts, how true it is that "love is the fulfilling of the law!"

Another major event in the evolution, not only of man but of the entire solar system, occurred in the Hyperborean Epoch. It was what occult science and poetic insight have called the War in Heaven. Milton deals with it in Paradise Lost. Ezekiel XXVIII and Isaiah XIV refer to it as the war before Creation. In legendary form, it is incorporated in all the principal religions of the world.

When the angelic life wave as a whole had reached the stage of development where a reunion took place between the two poles of spirit, masculine and feminine, there were laggards who failed to consummate this mystic marriage. These are the Lucifers. While they were unable, because of their failure, to proceed with the Angels, they were much too advanced to become members of the human family. They were somewhere between the two and so came to be a class by themselves and an anomaly in nature.

All life waves pass through a phase of divided powers, a separation into sexes followed by an eventual reunion of the two poles. After this there is "neither marriage nor giving in marriage," but the condition of unity now realized by "the Angels in heaven." Purity and selflessness are required for this attainment.

Possessing the dual powers of soul, the Angels are free from every taint of selfish desire. Their love flows out purely and freely in service to all; in consequence, cosmic wisdom flows through them without interference by a hindering personal self. This is not true of the Lucifers.

As previously stated, the Angels, together with their Initiate-leader, Jehovah, were guardians of the present human race at an earlier stage of its evolution; also of the etheric Earth-sheath upon which it was progressing. This world was under the general supervision of the Archangelic Christ, who had obligated Himself in the Second Day of our manifestation to become the Regent of Earth and its humanity.

A number of Angels rebelled against the Christ, a rebellion which gave rise to the War in Heaven, the expulsion of the rebel Angels under their leader, Lucifer, and their exile upon the planet Mars. During the coming spiritual-scientific Aquarian Age man will obtain direct proof of these cosmic truths through firsthand experience.

The War in Heaven caused a shifting of the polar axis of all the planets and a change in the planetary rhythm of the entire solar system. Every world became tinged to a certain degree with matter.

This was a "fall" of cosmic proportions calling for corrective measures of comparable scope in time and power. These were assumed by the Christ, supreme Lord of the Archangels. He took upon His divine Self the redemption of the fallen Angels, the ultimate restoration of the position of the Earth, and the realignment of the whole solar system to its original divine order and harmony. At a later period the Christ assumed a like redemptive task for the human race after it had succumbed to the subtle, beguiling forces of those same Luciferian Beings.

The War in Heaven is reflected in the conflict between spirit and matter, a struggle that will continue until spirit shall have completely conquered and transmuted all things mundane. Esoterically, this involves a restoration of equilibrium between the two poles of spirit, masculine and feminine. The feminine pole, wherein resides the power of love and the faculty of imagination, fell in the Lucifers. That is, they became identified with the desire nature which belongs to the personal and form side of life. This led to their expulsion from heaven, an allegorical way of saying that their consciousness descended to lower levels. They came to Earth and imparted the knowledge they had gained to infant humanity, spoken of in Genesis under the generic terms of Adam and Eve. Through such knowledge prematurely gained, humanity fell as had the Lucifers; and like their light-bringer (Lucifer: lux, light; ferre, to bring), they suffered expulsion from the heavenly state in which they dwelt. They lost Eden. Their consciousness took on a veil of matter. So they were able to view spiritual reality only as "through a glass darkly."

According to mystic legends concerning the War in Heaven, the conflict continued for three days and three nights. Angelic Hosts under the guidance of Michael, Lord of the Sun, and Gabriel, Lord of the Moon, were drawn up in battle array against Lucifer, the Martian spirit, and his fallen Angels. Lucifer's allegiance to Mars, the planet governing the passional nature, supplies another key to the hidden reason for his fall and later, through him, the fall of Adam and Eve. The Martian desire nature was misused, and in consequence the polarity of forces symbolized by the Sun and Moon was thrown out of balance.

Legendary accounts of the war between Michael and Lucifer also refer to the age-old struggle between the constructive and the destructive forces of Fire-Michael, the Sun, representing this element in its spiritual aspect; Lucifer, or Mars, in its material expression. It is the reconciliation of the two and the balancing of the dual forces within man that lead to initiate powers and illumination.

The Archangels had acquired this balance. In them the polar opposites were perfectly blended. They had attained to such a spiritual stature that they were immune to the temptation before which some of the Angels succumbed, and which caused man to fall into a state where he continues to suffer discord, disease and death. It was because the Archangels had completely mastered the problem of polarity that the chief one amongst them, the Christ, was qualified to assume the role of Redeemer for the fallen members of both the angelic and the human kingdoms. To no one of lesser estate would the stupendous task have been possible. In the light of these facts we can re-read John's words with renewed reverence as he informs us that "God...gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting life." He came as the way, the truth and the life, revealing to man the means and the method by which he could save himself.

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