The Rosicrucian Teachings aim to educate and construct, to be charitable even to those from whom we differ, and never to vent the venom of vituperation, spite, or malice even upon those who seem deliberately determined to mislead. We revere the Catholic religion; it is as divine in
its essence, as both were born to further the aspiration of the striving
soul, and both have a message and a mission in the world not apparent upon
the surface today, because man-made ceremonial as a scale has hidden the
present articles to remove that scale and show the Cosmic purpose of these two
Great Organizations, which are so bitterly antagonistic to each other. We do
not aim to reconcile them, however, for though they are both designed to
further the emancipation of the soul, their methods are different, and
the attributes of the soul fostered by one method will indeed be very
different from the quality of the soul nurtured in the other School.
Therefore, the strife must continue until the battle for the souls of men has
been lost and won. The issue is not, however, the persistence of the Masonic
or Catholic institutions; but the outcome will determine the nature of the
training humanity will receive in the remaining Periods of our evolution. We
shall endeavor to show the cosmic root of both of these institutions, the
purpose of each and the training which each will inaugurate, if successful;
also the nature of the soul quality which may be expected to result from each
method. The writer is not a Mason, and thus he is free to say what he knows without fear of violating obligations, but he is a Mason at heart, and therefore frankly opposed to Catholicism.
Our opposition is not fanatical, or blind to the merits of the Catholic
Religion, however. The Catholic is our brother as well as the Mason; we
would not say a disparaging, irreverent word against this faith, or those
who live by it, and should we seem to do so, in any passage, the wrong will
be due to inadvertence. The reader is requested to note that we distinguish
sharply between the Catholic Hierarchy and the Catholic Religion, but the
former are also our brothers; we would not throw stones either physically or
morally, for we know our own shortcomings too well to attack others. Thus
our opposition is not personal, but spiritual, and to be fought with the
weapon of the Spirit — Reason. We firmly believe it to be for the everlasting
good of mankind that the Masons should win, and cannot therefore be sure to
present the Catholic side in a perfectly unbiased manner, but we ask our
students for whom this is written, to believe that we shall try to be just.
Of the Cosmic Facts we are certain, but bias may creep into our conclusions,
therefore each must use his reason to test what we have to say, viz., "prove
all things and hold fast that which is good."
The great law of analogy is everywhere the master key of all spiritual
mysteries, and, although Masonry and Catholicism do not begin till we arrive
at the Earth Period, they have their prototype in the earlier Periods; we
shall therefore briefly touch upon the essential facts.
In the Saturn Period, the Earth-in-the-making was dark; heat, which is
the manifestation of the ever invisible fire, was the only element then
manifest; embryonic mankind was mineral-like, the only lower kingdom of
evolving life. Unity was everywhere observable, and the Lords of Mind who
were human then, were at one among themselves.
In the Western Wisdom Teaching we speak of the highest Initiate of the Saturn Period as the Father.
In the Sun Period the root of a new element, air, was evolved, and coalesced with the true fire, which, mark again, is always invisible, and which manifested as heat in the Saturn Period. Then fire burst into flames, and the dark world became a blazing ball of luminous firemist at the word of power, "Let there be light."
Let the student ponder well the relation of fire and flame; the former
lies sleeping, invisible in everything, and is kindled into light in various
ways: by a blow of a hammer upon a stone, by friction of wood against wood
and by chemical action, etc. This gives us a clue to the identity and state
of The Father, "whom no man hath seen at any time" but who is revealed in
"The Light of the World," the Son, who is the highest Initiate of the Sun
Period. As the unseen fire is revealed in the flame, so also the fullness
of the Father dwelt in the Son, and they are one as fire is one with the
flame in which it manifests. This is the root of all true Sun and Fire
worship. All look beyond the physical symbol and adore "Our Father Who art
in Heaven." The Mystic Masons of today hold this faith in fire as firmly
as ever.
Thus it will be seen that the Unity which prevailed in the Saturn Period
continued in the Sun Period. The ordinary humanity of that time has now
evolved to the glory of Archangels; some were more advanced than others, but
there was no antagonism among them. Our present humanity had advanced to a
plantlike stage, and was slightly above the new Life Wave started in the Sun
Period, and unity also here prevailed.
In the Moon Period contact of the heated sphere with cold Space generated
moisture, and the battle of the elements commenced in all its fierceness.
The heated ball of fire endeavored to evaporate the moisture, force it
outwards and create a vacuum wherein to maintain its integrity and burn
undisturbed; but there is and can be no void in nature, hence the
outrushing steam condensed at a certain distance from the heated ball and
was again driven inwards by the cold of Space, to be again evaporated and
propelled outwards, in a ceaseless round for ages and ages, as a shuttlecock
between the separate Hierarchies of Spirits composing the various Kingdoms of
Life, represented in the Fire-Sphere and Cosmic Space which is an expression
of the Homogeneous Absolute Spirit. The Fire Spirits are actively striving
to attain enlargement of consciousness. But the Absolute rests ever clothed
in the invisible garment of Cosmic Space. In 'It' all powers and
possibilities are latent, and It seeks to discourage and check any attempt at
expenditure of latent power as dynamic energy required in the evolution of a
solar system. Water is the agent It used to quench the fire of active
spirits. The zone between the heated center of the separate Spirit Sphere,
and the Point where its individual atmosphere meets Cosmic Space, is a
battleground of evolving spirits at various stages of evolution.
The present Angels were human in the Moon Period, and the highest Initiate is The Holy Spirit, (Jehovah).
As our humanity and the other Kingdoms of Life on earth are variously
affected by the present elements, so that some like heat, others prefer cold,
some thrive on moisture and others require dryness, so also in the Moon
Period among the Angels, some had affinity for water, others abhorred it and
loved fire.
The continued cycles of condensation and evaporation of the moisture
surrounding the fiery center eventually caused incrustation, and it was
the purpose of Jehovah to mold this "red earth," translated Adam, into
forms wherein to imprison and quench the Spirits of Fire. To this end, He
issued the creative fiat, and the prototypes of fish, fowl and every living
thing appeared, even including the primitive human form, which were created
by His Angels; thus He hoped to make all that lives and moves subservient to
His will. Against this plan a minority of the Angels rebelled; they had too
great an affinity for fire to bear contact with water, and refused to create
the forms as ordered; but thereby they at the same time deprived themselves
of an opportunity of evolution along the conventional lines, and became an
anomaly in nature; furthermore, having repudiated the authority of Jehovah,
they must work out their own salvation in their own manner. How this has
been accomplished by Lucifer, their Great Leader will be made plain in the
following articles; for the present, suffice it to say, that in the Earth
Period, when various planets were differentiated to provide proper
evolutionary environment for each class of Spirits, the Angels under Jehovah
were set to work with the inhabitants of all planets having moons; while
the Lucifer Spirits have their abode upon the planet Mars. The Angel Gabriel
is representative on earth, of the Lunar Hierarchy, presided over by
Jehovah; the Angel Samael is ambassador of the Martial forces of Lucifer.
Gabriel (who announced the coming birth of Jesus to Mary,) and his lunar
angels are therefore the givers of physical life, while Samael and the
hosts of Mars are the Angels of Death.
Thus originated the feud in the dim dawn of this Cosmic day, and that
which we see as Free Masonry today is an attempt by the Hierarchs of Fire,
the Lucifer Spirits, to bring us the imprisoned spirit 'light,' that by it
we may see and know. Catholicism is an activity of the Hierarchs of Water,
and places 'Holy Water' at the Temple door to quench the spirits seeking
light and knowledge and to inculcate faith in Jehovah.
As the vernal equinox is said to be at the first point of Aries, no matter
where in the constellations it falls by precession, so the point where the
human seed-atom comes from the invisible world and is taken in hand by the
Lunar God of Generation, Jehovah, through his ambassador, the Angel
Gabriel, is esoterically the first point of Cancer. This is the Cardinal
sign of the watery Triplicity, and is ruled by the Moon. There Conception
takes place; but were the form built of water and its concretions alone, it
could never come to birth, so four months later when the fetus has reached
the stage of development corresponding to the second sign of the watery
triplicity, Scorpio, the eighth sign, which corresponds to the house of
death, Samael, the dauntless ambassador of the Lucifer Spirits, invades the
watery domain of the Lunar Hierarchy and introduces the fiery spark of the
spirit into the inert form, to leaven, quicken and mold it into an
expression of itself.
There the Silver Cord which has grown from the seed-atom of the dense
body (located in the heart) since conception, is welded to the part that has
sprouted from the central vortex of the desire body, (located in the liver,)
and when the Silver Cord is tied by the seed-atom of the vital body,
(located in the solar plexus,) the spirit dies to life in the super-
sensible world, and quickens the body it is to use in its coming earth life.
This life on earth last until the course of events foreshadowed in the wheel
of life, the horoscope, has been run; and when the spirit again reaches
the realm of Samael, the Angel of Death, the mystic eighth house, the
silver cord is loosed, and the spirit returns to God who gave it, until the
dawn of another Life-day in the School of earth beckons it to a new birth
that it may acquire more skill in the arts and crafts of temple-building.
About five months after the quickening, when the last of the watery
signs, Pisces, has been passed, the representative of the Lucifer Spirits,
Samael, focuses the forces of the fiery sign, Aries, where Mars is
positively polarized, so that under the impulse of their dynamic energy the
waters of the womb are voided, and the imprisoned spirit is liberated into
the physical world, to fight the battle of life. It may blindly butt its
head against the Cosmic forces typified by the first of the fiery signs,
Aries, the Ram, which is a symbol of the brute strength brought to bear upon
the problems of life by the most primitive humans; or it may adopt the more
modern method of cunning, as a means of attaining mastery over others, which
characteristic is indicated in the second of the fiery signs, Leo, the Lion,
the king of beasts; or perchance it may rise above the animal nature, and
aim at the stars with the bow of spiritual aspiration, typified by the last
of the fiery signs, Sagittarius, the Centaur. The Centaur is just ahead of
the watery sign Scorpio, a warning that one who tries to reach that
prerogative as "Phree Messen," a son of Fire and Light, will surely feel
the sting of the Scorpion in his heel, which will goad him onward upon the
path where men become "wise as serpents." It is from this class that Mystic
Masonry is recruited with men who have the indomitable courage to dare, the
unflagging energy to do and the diplomatic discrimination to be silent.
Every mystic movement has its legend, which tells in symbolic language
its status in the cosmic order and the ideal which it tries to realize.
From the Old Testament, containing the Atlantean Mystery teaching, we learn
that mankind was created male-female, bi-sexual, and that each one was
capable of propagating his species without the co-operation of another as is
the case with some plants today. Later on, we are informed, Jehovah removed
one pole of the creative force from Adam, the early humanity, and that there
were henceforth two sexes. The esoteric teaching supplements this
information by stating that the purpose of this change was to use one pole of
the creative force for the building of a brain and larynx wherewith
mankind might acquire knowledge and express itself in speech. The intimate
connection between the organs, brain, larynx and genitals is evident to
anyone upon the slightest examination of facts. The boy's voice changing at
puberty, the mental deficiency resulting from over-indulgence of the passional
nature, and the inarticulate speech of the mentally defective with many
other facts which might be added prove this assertion.
According to the Bible, our earliest parents were forbidden to eat of The Tree of Knowledge, but Eve, seduced by the serpent, did eat and later
induced the man to follow her example. Who the serpents are and what the Tree
of Knowledge is may also be determined from certain passages in the Bible.
We are told, for instance, that Christ exhorted his disciples to be "wise as
serpents and harmless as doves." The so-called curse pronounced upon Eve
after her confession declares that she must bear her children in sorrow and
pain and that the race will die. It has always been a great stumbling block
to Bible commentators as to what connection there could be between the eating
of an apple, death, and painful parturition; but when we are acquainted with
the chaste expressions of the Bible, which designates the creative act by
such passages as "Adam knew Eve and she bore Abel," "How can I bear a child
seeing I Know not a man?" et cetera, it is very evident that the Tree of
Knowledge is a symbolical expression for the creative act. Then it is plain
that the serpents taught Eve how to perform the creative act and that Eve
instructed Adam. Therefore, Christ designated the serpents as harmful while
admitting their wisdom. To get at the identity of the serpent it is
necessary to invoke the esoteric teaching, which points them out as the
martial Lucifer Spirits, rulers of the serpentine sign Scorpio. Their
Initiates, even so late as the Egyptian Dynasty, wore the Uraeus or
serpent symbol in the forehead as a sign of the source of their wisdom.
As a consequence of this unauthorized use of the creative force, humanity
ceased to be ethereal and crystallized into the coats of skin or physical
body which now hides from them the gods who dwell in the invisible realms;
and great was their sorrow at this loss.
Generation had been originally established by the Angels under Jehovah.
It was then performed in great temples under propitious planetary conditions
and parturition was then painless, as it is today among wild animals where
the creative function is not abused for the purpose of gratifying the
senses.
Degeneration resulted from the ignorant and unauthorized abuse
inaugurated by the Lucifer Spirits.
Regeneration must be undertaken in order to restore man to his lost
estate as a spiritual being and to free him from this body of death wherein he
is now encrusted. Death must be swallowed up in Immortality.
To attain this object, a covenant was made with humanity when it was
expelled from the garden of God to wander in the wilderness of the world.
According to that plan, a Tabernacle was built after a pattern planned by God,
Jehovah, and an ark symbolical of the human spirit was placed in it. Its
staves were never taken out of their place, to show that man is a pilgrim on
the earth and may never rest until he reaches the goal. There was within it a
golden pot with "manna" (man) "fallen from heaven," together with a statement
of the divine laws which man must learn in his pilgrimage through the
wilderness of matter. This symbolic ark contained also a magic wand, an
emblem of the spiritual powers, called Aaron's Rod, which are now latent in
everyone on his way to the haven of rest — the mystic temple of Solomon. The
Old Testament also tells how humanity was miraculously led and provided for,
how after the warfare with the world it was given peace and prosperity by
the before mentioned King Solomon; in short, stripped of all embellishments
the story relates the salient facts of man's descent from heaven, his
principal metamorphoses, his transgression of the laws of the God Jehovah
would wish to guide him in the future till he reaches the Kingdom of Heaven — the land of peace — and again docilely follows the lead of the Divine Ruler.
The Masonic Legend has points of variance from as well as agreement with
the Bible story. It states that Jehovah created Eve, that the Lucifer
Spirit Samael united with her but that he was ousted by Jehovah and forced
to leave her before the birth of her son Cain, who was thus the Son of the Widow. Then Jehovah created Adam, to be the husband of Eve, and from their
union Abel was born. Thus from the beginning there have been two kinds of
people in the world. One begotten by the Lucifer Spirit Samael and
partaking of a semi-divine nature imbued with the dynamic martial energy
inherited from this divine ancestry, is aggressive, progressive, and possessed
of great initiative, but impatient of restraint or authority whether human
or divine. This class is loath to take things on faith and prone to prove
all things by the light of reason. These people believe in works rather
than faith, and by their dauntless courage and inexhaustible energy they
have transformed the trackless wilderness of the world to a garden full of
life and beauty, so lovely in fact that the Sons of Cain have forgotten the garden of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, whence they were expelled by the decree of the lunar God Jehovah. Against Him they are in constant rebellion
because He has tied them by the umbilical "cable tow." They have lost their
spiritual sight and are imprisoned in the forehead of the body where it is
said Cain was marked; they must wander as prodigal sons in the comparative
darkness of the material world, oblivious to their high and noble estate until
they find the door of the temple, and ask and receive light; then as "Phree Messen" or children of light they are instructed in methods of building a new
temple without sound of hammer, and when the spirit realizes that it is far
from its heavenly home, a prodigal, feeding upon the unsatisfactory husks
of the material world, that apart from the Father it is "poor, naked and blind," when it knocks at the door of a mystic temple like that of the
Rosicrucians and asks for light, when it receives the desired instruction
after due qualification by building and ethereal soul-body, a temple or house
eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, and without sound of hammer,
when its nakedness is clothed with that house (see Cor. 4.5), then the
neophyte receives "The Word," the open sesame to the inner worlds and learns to travel in foreign parts in the invisible worlds. There he takes soul-flights into heavenly regions and qualifies for higher degrees under more direct instruction from The Grand Architect of the Universe, who fashioned both heaven and earth.
Such is the temperament of the Widow's Sons inherited from their divine
progenitor Samael and given by him to their ancestor Cain. Their past
history is a struggle with adverse conditions, their achievement is
victory wrested from all opposing forces by indomitable courage and
persistent effort, unchecked by temporary defeat.
On the other hand while Cain, governed by divine ambition, toiled and
tilled the soil to make two blades of grass grow where there was only one,
Abel, the human progeny of human parents, felt no urge or unrest, himself a
creature of Jehovah through Adam and Eve; he was perfectly contented to tend
the flocks also created by God and to accept a livelihood from their
divinely begotten increase without labor or exercising initiative. This
docile attitude was most pleasing to the God Jehovah, who was extremely
jealous of His prerogative as Creator. Therefore He cordially accepted the
offering of Abel obtained without effort or initiative, but scorned the
offering of Cain because derived through his own divine creative instinct akin
to that of Jehovah. Cain then slew Abel, but did not thereby exterminate
the docile creatures of Jehovah, for we are told Adam knew Eve again and she bore Seth. Seth had the same characteristics as Abel and transmitted them
to his descendants, who to this day, continue to trust to the Lord for
everything, and who live by faith and not by work. By arduous and energetic
application to the world's work the Sons of Cain have acquired worldly wisdom
and temporal power. They have been captains of industry and masters of
statecraft, while the Sons of Seth, looking to the Lord for guidance, have
become the avenue for divine and spiritual wisdom. They constitute the
priestcraft. The animosity of Cain and Abel has been perpetuated from
generation to generation among their respective descendants. Nor could it
be otherwise, because one class as temporal rulers aim to lift humanity
to physical well-being through conquest of the material world, while
the Priesthood is their role as spiritual guides urge their followers to
forsake the wicked world, the vale of tears, and look to God for comfort.
One school aims to turn out master workmen, skilled in the use of tools
wherewith they may wrest a livelihood from the earth, which was cursed by
their divine adversary Jehovah. The other produces master magicians,
skilled in the use of the tongue in invocation, and by the use of the tongue
they gain support from the toilers here and pray themselves and their
charges into heaven hereafter.
After the future in store for the Sons of Cain and their followers, the
temple legend is also most eloquent. It states that from Cain descended
Methuselah, who invented writing, Tubal Cain, a cunning worker in metals,
and Jubal, who originated music. In short, the Sons of Cain are the originators of the arts and crafts. Therefore when Jehovah chose Solomon,
the scion of the race of Seth, to build a house for his name, the sublime
spirituality of a long line of divinely guided ancestors flowered into the
conception of the magnificent temple called Solomon's Temple, though Solomon
has only the instrument to carry out the divine plan revealed by Jehovah to
David. But Solomon was unable to execute the divine design in concrete
form. Therefore it became necessary for him to apply to King Hiram of Tyre,
the descendant of Cain, who selected Hiram Abiff, the Son of a Widow, (as
all Free Masons are called because of the relation of their divine
progenitor with Eve.) Hiram Abiff then became Grand Master of the army of
construction. In him the arts and crafts of all the Sons of Cain who had
gone before had flowered. He was skilled beyond all others in the work of
the world, without which the plan of Jehovah must have remained forever a
divine dream, and could never have become a concrete reality. The worldly
acumen of the Sons of Cain was as necessary to the completion of this temple
as the spiritual conception of the Sons of Seth, and, therefore, during the
period of construction the two classes joined forces, the underlying enmity
being hidden under a superficial show of amity. It was, indeed, the first
attempt to unite them, and had that been accomplished the world history from
then on would have been altered in a very material manner.
The Sons of Cain, descended from the fiery Lucifer Spirits, were
naturally proficient in the use of fire. By it the metals hoarded by
Solomon and his ancestors were melted into altars, lavers and vessels of
various kinds. Pillars were fashioned by workmen under the direction of
Hiram Abiff, and arches to rest upon them. The great edifice was nearing
completion when he made ready to cast the "molten sea," which was to be the
crowning effort, his masterpiece. It was in the construction of this great
work that the treachery of the Sons of Seth became manifest and frustrated
the divine plan of reconciliation. They tried to quench the fire used by
Hiram Abiff with their natural weapon, water, and almost succeeded. The
incidents which led up to this catastrophe, their meaning, and the sequel
will be related in the next section.
The Masonic Legend is voluminous, circumstantial, even trivial, and
seemingly far-fetched and fantastic to the uninitiated who fail to see the
important hidden meaning underlying every word; but we will give only such
fragments as have a bearing upon our main subject and the explanation
necessary to link them together.
The events which led up to the conspiracy against the Grand Master, Hiram
Abiff, mentioned in our last section, and which culminated in his murder,
commenced with the arrival of the Queen of Sheba who had been attracted to
the court of Solomon by tales of his wonderful wisdom and of the splendor of
the temple he was engaged in building. She is said to have come laden with
gorgeous gifts and it is stated that at first she was much impressed with
the wisdom of Solomon. But even the Bible, which is written from the
standpoint of the Jehovistic Hierarchies, hints that she saw at the court
of Solomon one that was fairer than he, and there the Bible narrative
leaves her. Her marriage with Solomon was never consummated or the name of
Mason would have faded from memory long ere the present day and humanity at
large would now be docile children of the dominant church, without free
will, choice or prerogative. Nor could she be permitted to wed Hiram, who
represented the temporal power, or Religion would have been stamped out; she
must wait for the bridegroom who shall embody within himself the combined
good qualities of Solomon and Hiram, but who is purified from their
weaknesses. For the Queen of Sheba is the composite soul of humanity, and at
the consummation of the work of our evolutionary era she will be the
bride, while Christ, whom Paul called a High Priest after the order of
Melchisedec, will fill the dual office of both spiritual and temporal head,
where He will be both king and priest, to the eternal welfare of mankind at
large who are now in bondage either to church or state but waiting, whether
they realize it or not, for the day of emancipation, symbolically represented
as the Millennium, when there will be a wonderful city, a new Jerusalem, a City of Peace. And the earlier this amalgamation can be brought about, the better
for humanity. Therefore, an attempt was made at the time and is the place
which is said in the Legend to be the scene of Solomon's and Hiram's love
episode. There the two Initiatory Orders met for the consummation of a
definite work of amalgamation symbolically called The Molten Sea, a work
which was then attempted for the first time. It could not have been wrought
at any earlier period, for man was not sufficiently advanced. At that time,
however, it seemed as if the united efforts of the two schools might
accomplish the task, and had it not been for the desire of each to oust the
other from the affections of the symbolic Queen of Sheba, the soul of
humanity, they might have succeeded, an equitable union between Church and
State might have been effected and human evolution might have been greatly
furthered. But both Church and State were jealous of their particular
prerogative; the Church would only amalgamate upon condition that she
retain all her ancient power over mankind, and take in addition those of
the temporal government. The State was selfish in a similar manner and the
Queen of Sheba, humanity at large, is still unwed. The Masonic Legend
tells the story of the attempt and its failure as follows:
When the Queen of Sheba had been shown the gorgeous palace of Solomon and
had bestowed her choice gifts of gold and wrought work, she asked also to be
shown the great Temple which was nearing completion. She marveled much at
the magnitude of the work but wondered at the seeming absence of workmen,
and the stillness about the place. And she therefore requested Solomon to
call the workmen that she might see who had wrought this wonder; but though
the servants of Solomon at the palace obeyed the slightest wish of the
monarch, and although he had been appointed by the God Jehovah to build
the temple, these workmen were not subject to his authority; they only
yielded obedience to one who had "The Word" and "The Sign." Therefore
no one appeared at the call of Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba could not
escape the conclusion that this marvelous miracle was wrought by another and
one who was greater than Solomon. And so she insisted on knowing and
seeing this King of Crafts and his wonderful workmen, much to the chagrin
of Solomon, who felt that he had fallen in her estimation.
The temple of Solomon is our Solar Universe which forms the great school
of life for our evolving humanity; the broad lines of its history, past,
present and future, are written in the stars, its main outlines being
discernible to anyone of average intelligence. In the Microcosmic scheme,
the temple of Solomon is also the body of man wherein the individualized
spirit or ego is evolving, as God is in the great universe. Work on the
true temple, as we are told in 2nd Corinthians, fifth chapter, is wrought by
invisible forces working in silence, building the temple without sound of
hammer. As the temple of Solomon was visible in all its glory to the Queen
of Sheba, so the evidence of the toil of these invisible forces is easily
perceived, both in the universe and in man, but they themselves keep in
the background and work without ostentation; they hide from all who have not
the right to see them or to command them. The relation of these nature
forces to the work they do in the universe may perhaps be better understood
when we use an illustration: Let us suppose that a carpenter wishes to
build a house wherein to live. He selects a place whereon to build and
brings the materials thither, then with the tools of his trade he commences
to lay the foundation. Gradually the walls are put up, the roof put on,
the inside completed and the structure finished. During all the time while
he is working, a dog, which is an intelligent spirit belonging to another
and later life-wave of evolution, watches his actions and the whole process
of construction and sees the house gradually take shape and reach completion.
But it lacks the proper understanding of what he is doing and of what is the
ultimate purpose in his mind. Let us now suppose that the dog were unable to
see the carpenter or to hear the noise made by his hammer and other tools.
Then it would be in the same relation to this builder, as humanity at large
is to the Architect of the Universe and the forces which work under His
command. For the dog would then see only the materials coming together
slowly and taking shape, finally forming a finished structure. Humanity also
sees the silent growth of plant, of beast and of bird, but is unable to
understand what causes this physical growth and the changes in the visible
universe, for it does not see the immense army of invisible workmen who are
silently toiling in the soundless silence to bring about these results. Nor
do they respond to the call of anyone who has not the sign and the word of
power, no matter how high his standing or station in the world.
The Churchman always emphasizes the necessity of faith, while the
Statesman emphasizes, and places his reliance on, work. But when faith
flowers into work we reach the highest ideal of expression. Humanity may,
and does, admire lofty sentiment and brilliant oratory; but when a Lincoln
unbinds the shackles of a downtrodden race or when a Luther revolts in
behalf of the fettered spirits of humanity and secures religious freedom for
them, the outward action of these emancipators reveals a beauty of soul
never discernible in those who soar in cloudland, but fear to soil their
hands by actual work in the temple of humanity. The latter are not true
temple-builders and would be unable to gain inspiration from the sight of
that wonderful temple described by Manson in "The Servant in the House."
The author calls him "Man-son;" this may mean that he regards him as the Son
of Man, but it may also be that he meant Mason, for the Servant in the House
was also a temple-builder. It is wonderful what insight the author of the
play must have had when he planned the scene where his servant, the workman
in love with his work, tells the worldly minded Churchman, who is full of
platitudes and as vile as a whited sepulcher, of the temple which he, the
workman, built. This conception is a mystic gem and we append it for the
reader's meditation:
"I am afraid you may not consider it an altogether substantial concern.
It has to be seen in a certain way, under certain conditions. Some people never see it at all. You must understand this is no dead pile of stones and unmeaning timber; it is a living thing.
"When you enter it you hear a sound — a sound as of some mighty poem
chanted. Listen long enough and you will hear that it is made up of the
beating of human hearts, of the nameless music of men's souls, that is, if
you have ears. If you have eyes you will presently see the church itself, a
looming mystery of many shapes and shadows leaping sheer from floor to dome,
the work of no ordinary builder.
"The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks of heroes; the sweet human
flesh of men and women is molded about its bulwarks, strong, impregnable.
The faces of little children laugh out from every cornerstone; the terrible
spans and arches of it are the joined hands of comrades; and up in the
heights and spaces are inscribed the numberless musings of all the
dreamers in the world.
It is yet building, building and built upon. Sometimes the work goes
forward in deep darkness, sometimes in blinding light, now beneath the burden
of unutterable anguish, now to the tune of great laughter and heroic
shoutings like the cry of thunder. Sometimes in the silence of the night
time one may hear the tiny hammerings of the comrades at work in the
dome — the comrades that have gone aloft."
It is such a temple that the Mystic Mason is building. He endeavors to
work on the temple of Humanity at large, but since "when the rose adorns
itself, it adorns the garden," he aims also to cultivate his own spiritual
powers, as foreshadowed in the Molten Sea.
Solomon had already sued for the hand of the Queen of Sheba, and had been
accepted, so, feeling that the meeting with Hiram Abiff might change her
affections, he endeavored to consummate their marriage before granting her
wish to meet the Grand Master. But the Queen was obstinate, she sensed the
grandeur of the Master Workman whose skill had wrought the marvelous Temple
and she felt intuitively drawn towards this man of action, as she had never
been moved by the wisdom of Solomon, which only found verbal expression in
flowery speeches and high ideals which he was unable to carry into
realization. Therefore the reluctance of Solomon to let her meet Hiram Abiff
made the Queen all the more anxious and importunate, so that at last Solomon
was forced to accede to her request, and he grudgingly sent for the Grand
Master. When Hiram Abiff appeared, and Solomon saw the lovelight kindle in
the eyes of the Queen of Sheba, jealousy and hatred took root in his heart;
he was, however, too wise to betray his feelings. But from that moment
the plan of reconciliation and amalgamation of the Sons of Seth and the Sons
of Cain which had been mapped out by the divine Hierarchies was doomed to
failure, wrecked upon the rocks of jealousy and self-seeking.
The Queen of Sheba, according to the Masonic Legend, then requested Hiram
Abiff to show her the workmen on the Temple. The Grand Master struck a
nearby rock with his hammer so that the fire sparks flew, and at the sign of
fire coupled with the work of power, the toilers of the Temple flocked
around their Master in a great multitude, which no one could count, all
ready and anxious to do his bidding. And this spectacle so impressed the
Queen of Sheba with the wonderful power of this man that she determined to
jilt Solomon and win the heart of Hiram Abiff. In other words, Humanity,
when its eyes are opened to the impotence of the Churchmen, the Sons of
Seth, who are themselves dependent upon divine favor, and when it sees the
power and potency of the rulers of temporal fame is then ready to rush to
them, and leave the spiritual for the material. This from the Microcosmic
angle of matter.
From the Cosmic angle or view point we note again that Solomon's Temple
is the Solar Universe and Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master, is the Sun which
travels around the twelve signs of the Zodiac, enacting there the mystic
drama of the Masonic Legend. At the Vernal Equinox the Sun leaves the
watery sign of Pisces, which is also feminine and docile, for the belligerent,
martial, energetic, fiery sign Aries, the ram or lamb, where it is exalted
in power. It fills the universe with a creative fire which is immediately
seized upon by the innumerable billions of nature spirits who therewith
build the Temple of the coming year in forest and fen. The forces of
fecundation applied to the countless seeds slumbering in the ground causes
them to germinate and fill the earth with luxuriant vegetation while the
group spirit mate the beasts and birds in their charge so that they may
bring forth and increase sufficiently to keep the fauna of our planet at
normal. According to the Masonic Legend, Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master, used
a hammer to call his workmen, and it is significant that the symbol of the
sign Aries, where this wonderful creative activity commences, is shaped like
a double ram's horn, which also resembles a hammer. It is also worthy of
notice that in the ancient Norse Mythology, the Vanir or water deities are
said to have been conquered by the Assir, or fire gods. The hammer
wherewith the Norse God Thor struck fire from the sky finds its counterpart
in the thunderbolt of Jove; like Hiram, the Assir belong to the Hierarchy
of Fire, the Lucifer Spirits, the Sons of Cain, striving for positive
Mastership through individual effort, and therefore upholding the male
ideal, which is diametrically opposite to that of the hierarchy which works in
the plastic element Water. In the present day Temples of the latter
Order, magic water stands at the door, and all who enter are required to apply
this lethal liquid to the point in the forehead where the Spirit resides;
their reason is drowned in dictums and dogmas, and the female ideal is
worshiped in the Virgin Mary. Faith is the prime factor in their salvation,
the attitude of unquestioning childlike obedience being cultivated.
It is different in the Temple of the other Order; when the candidate
enters there, "poor," "naked" and "blind," he is asked at once what he is
seeking, and when he answers "light," it is the duty of the Master to give
what he asks and make him a Phree Messen — a Child of Light. It is his duty
also to teach him to work, and a male ideal, Hiram Abiff, the Master
Workman, is presented for emulation. He is taught to be always ready to give
a reason for his faith. As he qualifies in the work, he rises step by step,
and at each degree more light is given. There are 3x3 degrees in the lesser
Mysteries; when the candidate has passed the 9th Arch, he is in the Holy of
Holies, which forms the gate to greater fields beyond the scope of Masonry.
For further elucidation of that subject the student is referred to the
sections on Initiation, Volcanic Eruption and the number 9 in The
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.
Advancement and promotion in Mystic Masonry is not dependent on favor; it
cannot be given till it has been earned and the candidate has stored in
himself the power to rise, any more than a pistol can be fired till it has
been loaded. Initiation is merely like pulling the trigger, and consists
in showing the candidate how to use the power latent within himself.
There were some among the workmen on the Temple who thought they ought to
be promoted to a higher degree, but who had not the power within; therefore
Hiram Abiff could not initiate them, and as they were unable to see that the
lack was in themselves, they felt provoked at Hiram, as over-ambitious
candidates of today feel slighted and stamp a spiritual teacher a fraud
who is unable to give them immediate illumination and induction into the
invisible, while they are still eating of the "flesh-pots of Egypt," and
unwilling to sacrifice themselves upon the altar of self-denial. The
dissatisfied among Hiram's men entered into a conspiracy to spoil his great
Masterpiece, the Molten Sea.
As the spiritual gifts of the Sons of Seth flowered in Solomon, the wisest
of men, and enabled him to conceive and design a marvelous temple, according
to the plan of his creator, Jehovah, so Hiram, the clever craftsman, embodied
within himself the consummate skill of a long line of ancestral artificers.
He possessed the concentrated quintessence of the material knowledge gained
by the Sons of Cain, while they wrought from the wilderness of the world a
concrete civilization; and in the execution of the wonderful Temple of
Solomon this superlative skill found full fruition.
Thus this glorious edifice was the chef d'oeurve of both lines, an
embodiment of the sublime spirituality of the Churchmen, the
Sons of Seth,
combined with the superlative skill of the craftsmen,, the Sons of Cain. So
far, the honors were even, the achievement equal. Solomon was contented; he
had carried out the design transmitted to him,he had a place of worship worthy
of the Lord he revered; but the soul of Hiram was not satisfied. Armed with
the art of ages, he had constructed an incomparable masterpiece in
architecture. But the design had not been his own; he had been merely the
tool of an unseen architect, Jehovah, working through an intermediary
Solomon. This rankled in his heart, for it was as necessary for him to
originate as to breathe.
In that ancient age when Cain and Abel first found themselves upon earth,
Abel contentedly cared for the flocks created like himself and his parents,
Adam and Eve, by Jehovah; but in Cain, semi-divine progeny of the Lucifer
Spirit, Samael, and Eve, the creature of Jehovah, divine incentive to
original effort burned; he tilled the field and made two blades of grass
grow where one grew before; the creative instinct must have expression.
Hiram, being the focus of and having inherited all the crafts of Cain,
was also invested with the Spirit of Samael intensified in commensurate
ratio; therefore he was consumed by an overpowering urge to add something to
the Temple that would eclipse the rest of the structure in beauty and
importance. Out of the travail of his spirit was born the conception of the Molten Sea, and this great ideal he proceeded to carry into execution,
though heaven and earth held their breath in awe at the audacity of his
purpose.
The Bible gives very little information about the molten sea. In Second
Chronicles, the fourth chapter, we learn that Hiram made such a vessel, that
it was of considerable size, that it stood upon 12 oxen arranged so that
their heads were at the periphery of this circular basin and their hind
parts were towards its center. It was intended solely for use by the
priests. Much is said of a nature to bewilder the reader, but the above
salient points prove the signal importance of this instrument, as we shall
see when we study and compare the Masonic account with this veiled word of
the Bible. The Masonic story runs as follows:
When Hiram had about completed the Temple, he commenced to cast the
various vessels required in the service according to designs made by Solomon
as agent of Jehovah. Chief among these was the great laver, intended to
hold the bath of purification, through which all priests must pass to enter
the service of the Lord. This, and all the lesser vessels were successfully
cast by Hiram, as recorded in the Bible. But there is an important
distinction between the vessel and the molten sea which it was designed by
Hiram to contain, and until that had been successfully poured, the vessel was
without virtue, so far as purifying properties were concerned; until then it
could no more cleanse the sin-stained soul than could a dry basin be utilized
to cleanse the body. Nor could Solomon speak the Word, the formula for
this wonderful work. None but Hiram knew it. This work was to be his
Masterpiece, and if he succeeded, his art would have lifted him above the human, and made him divine like the Elohim Jehovah. In the garden of Eden,
his divine progenitor Samael, had assured his mother, Eve; that she might
become "as the Elohim," if she ate of the tree of knowledge. For ages his
ancestors had wrought in the world; through the accumulated skill of the Sons
of Cain, an edifice had been reared, wherein Jehovah hid himself "behind
the veil" and communed only with his chosen priests, the Sons of Seth. The Sons of Cain were thrust out of the Temple which they had built, as their
father, Cain, had been driven from the garden which he had tilled. This
Hiram felt to be an outrage and an injustice; so he applied himself to
prepare the means whereby the Sons of Cain might "rend the veil" and open the
way to God for "whosoever will."
To this end he sent messengers over the world to collect all the metals
with which the Sons of Cain had ever wrought. With his hammer he pulverized
them and placed them in a fiery furnace to extract by alchemistry, from each
particle, the quintessence of knowledge derived in the experience of working
with it. Thus the combined quintessence of these various base metals would
form a spiritual sublimate of knowledge incomparable in potency, valuable
beyond all earthly things. Being of ultimate purity it would contain no
color, but resemble a "sea of glass." Whoever should lave in it would find
himself endowed with perpetual youth. No philosopher could compare with him
in wisdom; this "white stone" knowledge would even enable him to lift the
veil of invisibility and meet the superhuman Hierarchs, who work in the
world with a potency undreamt of by the masses.
Masonic traditions tell us that Hiram's preparations were so perfect that
success would have been assured, had not treachery triumphed. But the
incompetent craftsmen whom Hiram had been unable to initiate into the higher
degrees, conspired to pour water into the vessel cast to receive the Molten
Sea; for they knew that the Son of Fire was unskilled in the manipulation of
the watery element, and could not combine it with his wonderful alloy.
Thus, by frustrating Hiram's cherished plan and spoiling his Masterpiece,
they aimed to revenge themselves upon the Master. Solomon had been
privately informed of the nefarious plot, but jealousy on account of the
Queen of Sheba bound his tongue and stayed his arm, for he hoped that when the
ambitious plan of Hiram failed, the affections of the queen would turn from
his humiliated rival to himself. He therefore closed eyes and ears to plot
and plotters.
When Hiram confidently pulled the plugs, the liquid fire rushed out, was
met by the water, and there was a roar that seemed to shake heaven and
earth, while the elements boiled and battled. All but Hiram hid their faces
at the awful havoc; then from the center of the raging fire he heard the
call of Tubal Cain, bidding him jump into the Molten Sea. Full of faith in
his ancestor, who had gone before him upon the path of fire, Hiram obeyed
and plunged fearlessly into the flames. Sinking through the disintegrated
bottom of the vessel, he was conducted successfully through nine arch-like
layers of the earth to the Center, where he found himself in the presence of
Cain, the founder of his family, who gave him instructions relative to
blending Water and Fire, and who furnished him with a new hammer and a new word, which would enable him to produce these results. Cain looked into the
future and uttered a prophecy which has been partially fulfilled; what
remains is in process of realization day by day, and as surely as time goes on
all will come to pass.
"You, Hiram," said Cain, "are destined to die with hopes unfulfilled, but
many sons will be born to the widow and keep your memory green through the
ages, and at length one will come who is greater than you. You shall not
wake till the Lion of Judah raises you with the powerful grip of His paw.
This day you have received your Baptism of Fire, but He shall baptize you with water and with spirit; you, and every son of the widow, who will come
to Him. Greater than Solomon, he will build a new city and a Temple wherein
the nations may worship. The Sons of Cain and the Sons of Seth shall there
meet in Peace, at the sea of glass. And as Melchisedec, King of Salem (Salem
means Peace,) and Priest of God, ministered to Abraham, the father of
nations, when mankind was yet in its infancy,so shall this new Light combine
in Himself the dual office of King and Priest after the order of
Melchisedec. He shall judge the nations with the Law of Love and to him that overcometh will be given a White Stone with a name that will serve as passport to the temple. There he may meet the king face to face.
Hiram was again conducted to the surface of the earth and as he walked
from the scene of his shattered ambition, the conspirators set upon and
fatally wounded him; but before he expired, he hid the hammer and disc upon
which he had inscribed the Word. This was never found until ages later when
Hiram, "the widow's Son," was reborn as Lazarus and became the friend and
pupil of the Lion of Judah, who raised him from death through initiation.
When the hammer was found it had the shape of a cross, and the disc had
become a rose. Therefore Hiram took his place among the immortals under the
new and symbolical name —
Christian Rosenkreuz.
He founded the Order of Temple-Builders which bears his name; in that Order
aspiring souls are still instructed how to fuse the base metals and make the
White Stone.
The symbology of the foregoing will be explained in the following sections.
Among all the characters mentioned in the Bible none is more mysterious
than Melchisedec; said to be without father, mother, or earthly kin, and
holding the dual office of king and priest. Paul in his epistle to the
Hebrews gives us most information showing the connection between Christ and
Melchisedec, both of them Kings and High Priests, but of different
dispensations.
"God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the Prophets has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son
whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. * *
* No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God, as was
Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, but
He that said unto Him 'Thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee.' As He
saith also in another place, Thou art a Priest for The Age after the order
of Melchisedec, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was
able to save him from death and was heard in that He feared though He were a
son, yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered; and being made
perfect, He became author of eternal salvation unto all that obey Him;
called of God a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, of whom we have
many things to say and hard to be uttered. * * * For this Melchisedec, king
of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the
slaughter of kings and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part
of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness and after that
also king of Salem, which is king of peace; without father, without mother,
without ancestors,having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made
like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. * * * And here men
that die (the Levites) receive tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom
it is witnessed the He liveth. * * * If, therefore, perfection were by the
law and its priesthood what further need was there that another priest
should rise after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order
of Aaron? * * * For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of
which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood. And it is yet
far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth
another priest who is made not after the law of carnal commandments but after
the power of an endless life, for he testifies 'Thou are a priest for The
Age, after the order of Melchisedec.' * * * By so much was Jesus made the
surety of a better testament; * * * because He continueth ever and has an
Age lasting priesthood; * * * for the law maketh men High Priests who have
infirmities, but the Word of God which was since the law, maketh the Son
who is consecrated for evermore. Now of the things which we have spoken this
is the sum; we have such a high Priest who is yet on the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the
true tabernacle, which the Lord made and not man. * * * Almost all things
in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things
themselves were better sacrifices than these, for Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true, but into
Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; * * * and now
has He obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also He is mediator of a
better covenant which was established upon better promises; for if the
first covenant had been perfect then there should be no place for a second.
But finding fault with the old He saith 'Behold the days come when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I
took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they
continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, 'saith the Lord. * * *
For this is the covenant that I will make to the House of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord. 'I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people
and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother
saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.'"
The foregoing quotations from Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews are not found
there consecutively as here arranged. It is necessary to intelligently
piece the Bible narrative together so that we may obtain an outline of the
future development which has been sketched out by the divine Hierarchs to
constitute our evolution. Comprehension of this plan is essential to the
correct understanding of the Cosmic relationship of Freemasonry and
Catholicism; it is also necessary to fully appreciate the purpose of the
Molten Sea and to learn how to intelligently make this wonderful alloy.
As Paul says, these things are hard to say, but we shall make an attempt
to present the mysteries of Melchisedec and the Molten Sea in plain language
so that we may aid in the expressed purpose of the Bible to enlighten all
men, that all shall know from the least to the greatest what is the purpose
of evolution, and thus give them a chance to align themselves with the trend
of Cosmic events.
To understand the mystery of Melchisedec we must revert to the earlier
epochs of man's stay upon the earth during the age called the Hyperborean
Epoch. The earth was then in an extremely heated condition. Man in the
making was then double sexed, male-female, like so many of our present
plants, and he also resembled the plants in being inert and lacking in
desire and aspirations. At that time man was the tractable ward of the Divine
Hierarchs who guided him physically, these being darkly referred to in the
Bible as "Kings of Edom." Later, during the Lemurian Epoch, when the body
of man had crystallized and condensed somewhat more, mankind was divided
into sexes physically. But as the consciousness of man was still focused in
the spiritual world they were unconscious of the physical act of generation,
as we are now of digestion; neither did they know birth or death and were in
fact totally unaware of the possession of a physical vehicle until in time
they sensed it during the generative process; it was then said that "Adam
knew Eve." At that time Lucifer Spirits, fallen Angels and inhabitants of
the warlike planet Mars, taught them how to eat of the Tree of Knowledge,
which is the symbolical name for the generative act. Thus by degrees their
eyes were opened and they became aware of the physical world, but lost touch
with the spiritual and the Guardian Angels who had previously been their
benevolent guides. Only a few of the most spiritual among them retained their
higher vision and communion with the Divine Hierarchs. These were then
known as prophets, who acted as messengers between the invisible divine
leaders and their respective peoples. But in time mankind desired to
select its own leaders and demanded visible kings; at least we know that
the Israelites repudiated the divine ruler ship and demanded a king, and
thus Saul was appointed. Then the dual office of Ruler and Priest,
including temporal and spiritual leadership, was also divided, for no man
sufficiently versed in worldly matters to fill the office of king
efficiently, had been found holy enough to also undertake the spiritual
leadership of his brethren, and vice versa. A true priest, able to lead
his flock spiritually, cannot also beneficiently dominate their physical
fortunes as ruler of a temporal domain. For as statecraft, in its
highest phase, aims to rule the masses with an eye single to their physical
welfare, and priestcraft, benevolently exercised, seeks to guide them solely
for the soul's progress, so conflict must of necessity follow this separation,
even though both the spiritual and temporal rulers be actuated by the highest
and most unselfish motives. Melchisedec was the symbolical name of the
divine Hierarchs who filled the dual office of king and priest; in the
guidance of their double-sexed charges and while they reigned there was peace
on earth, but as soon as the offices of king and priest were divorced and
the sexes divided, it is not surprising for the reasons given above that the
peaceful reign of Melchisedec has been followed by an age of war and
strife, such strife as has been experienced during the present dispensation.
Formerly the unifying factors of a dual office in the ruler and the double sex
of his people precluded the clashing of interests which now obtains, and which
will continue until another divine ruler shall present himself to embody
within in his own person the qualifications of the dual office of king and
priest after the order of Melchisedec, and until sex generation be abolished.
In this connection it is significant that the Bible narrative begins in
the Garden of Eden, where mankind were male-female and innocent; then in
the next chapter we are told of the division of sexes, the transgression of
the command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and the infliction of
the penalty — painful parturition and swift death. From then on the Old
Testament tells of war, struggle and strife and in the last chapter makes
the prophecy that there shall a Sun of righteousness arise with healing in
his wings. Then the New Testament opens with an account of the birth of
Christ, who proclaimed a kingdom of heaven which is to be established. He is
later called King and Priest after the order of Melchisedec, uniting within
himself the dual office. It is also said that in heaven there will be
neither marrying nor giving in marriage, for the soma psuchicon, or soul-body,
which Paul tells us is the vehicle we shall use in the kingdom of heaven
(First Corinthians, fifteenth chapter), is not liable to death and decay.
Thus there will be no death, and birth of bodies like those generated in
wedlock would be superfluous, for Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God. Hence marriage will be unnecessary, the clashing
of interests due to the lust of sex and the love of power will then disappear
and the love of souls will be hallowed by the spirit of peace.
Thus it is plain that the Sons of Cain with their followers, the
craftsmen, and the Sons of Seth with their retinue, the churchmen, must
finally merge and be unified in the Kingdom of Christ. We have already
seen how Hiram Abiff, the Widow's Son, left his father, the Lucifer Spirit
Samael, after the Baptism of Fire in the Molten Sea, and how he received the
mission to prepare the way for the kingdom among the Sons of Cain, his
brethren, by developing their arts and crafts as temple builders — Masons —
and teaching them the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone or Molten Sea.
Thus also the physically negative Sons of Seth must learn to leave their
father, Jehovah, and naturally the first to take the step must be a great
soul.
As the superlative skill of the Sons of Cain was focused in Hiram Abiff
at the time of his baptism of fire, so the sublime spirituality of the Sons
of Seth was centered in Jesus at the time of His Baptism in the Waters of
Jordan. When He arose from this water He was in the same position as Hiram
emerging from the fire; each had left his father respectively, Jehovah and
Samael, and each was ready to serve the Christ. Therefore the Christ Spirit
was seen at the Baptism to descend upon Jesus' body, which was inhabited and
used by Christ during His ministry. Jesus himself, the spirit, left that
body and was given a mission to serve the churches while his body was being
used for direct teaching by the Christ, and his blood was being prepared as
an open sesame to the Kingdom of God, a Panacea to be used by His brethren, the Sons of Seth, in the same manner that the Molten Sea serves the Sons of Cain.
In the Epistle of the Hebrews where Paul gives us a few hints concerning
the Mystery of Melchisedec in the character of High Priest, he emphasized
the absolute necessity of blood as an adjunct to the Temple Service; he show
how the High Priest was required to offer blood for his own sins before he
was qualified to give sacrifice also for sins of the people, and that this
double sacrifice must be performed year after year. He points to the
sacrifice upon Golgotha as having been made once and for all, providing a way
of atonement through the blood of Jesus. During the regime of Jehovah,
the blood of humanity had become impregnated with egotism, which is the
separative factor in this age. From this sin it must be cleansed before
mankind can be united and enter the Kingdom of Christ. This was a gigantic
task, for humanity had become so impregnated with selfishness that scarcely
anyone would do another a favor. Hence the post-mortem panorama, of life at
the time of Christ contained nothing that would give a life in the First
Heaven or make for spiritual progress. Almost all the post-mortem existence
of the people was spent in the purgatorial expiration of their wrong-doings,
and even their Second Heaven life, where man learns to do creative work was
almost barren. Then Solomon, the King, was again called into the arena of
life to perform a mission for the benefit and welfare of his brethren, the
Sons of Seth; he was peculiarly fitted for this work because at heart he was
unselfish as shown by the request which he made at the time when Jehovah
appeared to him in a dream and asked what he would have as a gift when he
ascended the throne. Solomon then said unto God "Thou hast shown great mercy
unto David my father and hath made me to reign in his stead now; now, O
Lord, let thy promise unto David my father be established, for Thou hast
made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people,
for who can judge Thy people that is so great?" And God said to Solomon:
"Because this was in thine heart and thou hast not asked riches, wealth or
honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither hast ye asked long life, but
hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself that thou mayest judge my people
over whom I have made thee king, wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee,
and I will give thee riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings
have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have
the like."
It was this characteristic of unselfishness developed in former lives
that fitted the spirit of Solomon which inhabited the body of Jesus for the
high mission it was destined to fulfill; to serve as a vehicle for the
unifying unselfish Christ Spirit, for the purpose of bringing to an end the
division between the Sons of Seth and the Sons of Cain and uniting them in the
Brotherhood forming the kingdom of heaven.
When Faust made the pact with Mephistopheles, as recorded in the ancient
soul-myth of that name, he was about to sign it in ink but Mephisto says:
"No, sign it in blood." For this request Faust asks the reason and
Mephistopheles says knowingly and cunningly "Blood is a most peculiar essence!" It is said in the Bible that the blood of bulls and calves will not
take away sins and that is reasonable, but how then about the blood of
Jesus, which is extolled as a panacea? To understand this great mystery of
Golgotha it is necessary to study the composition and the function of the
flood from the esoteric point of view.
When blood is placed under a microscope, it appears as a number of minute
globules or discs, but when seen by the trained clairvoyant as it courses
through the living body blood is found to be a gas, a spiritual essence.
The heat is caused by the Ego which is within that blood, for as the Bible
says, the life is in the blood. Mephisto was right when he said that it is a
most peculiar essence, for it contains the Ego, and whoever wants to
obtain a power over the Ego must have his blood.
The human Ego is more powerful than the group spirit of the animal, as we
can see when we apply the scientific test known as hemolysis. Strange
blood of a higher animal will kill, if inoculated into the veins of a lower
species; if we take human blood and inject it into an animal, the animal
will be unable to endure the high vibration that is in the blood of the human
being and it will die. On the other hand a human being may be inoculated
with the blood of a lower animal without injury. In ancient times it was
strictly forbidden anyone belonging to one tribe to marry into another
tribe because it was known then by the leaders of humanity that the strange
blood would kill something; it always does. We read that Adam and
Methuselah lived so many centuries; at that time it was the custom to marry
in the family, marry as closely as possible, so that the tie of blood might
be as strong as it could be made. Then the blood that coursed through the
veins of the people in that family contained the pictures of all that had
happened to the different ancestor; these were stored in the mind which is
now subconscious. Then they were consciously and constantly before the inner
vision of all people, and each family was united by this common blood
wherein the pictures of their ancestors lived. The sons saw the life of
their fathers, and thus the fathers lived in the sons; and since the
consciousness of Adam and Methuselah and the other Patriarchs lived for
centuries in their descendants, they were said to live personally.
It was then as great a crime to marry outside the family as it now is to
marry within. Even among the early Norsemen, we learn that if anyone wanted
to marry within a strange family, he was first obliged to mix blood; it must
first be tested to see whether his blood would mix with that of the family
into which he desired to marry. And thus hemolysis was known to many in
some of its phases at least. If the blood did not mix, it would bring about
"confusion of caste," as the Hindu says; a straight line of descent must be
kept, for otherwise those pictures in the inner vision would become mixed
and would be confused. This marrying in the family or tribe was what
engendered the selfishness, the clannishness, and the struggle and strife of
the world. To break these up, the practice must be discontinued; thus
when Christ came He advocated the discontinuance of the practice when He
said: "Before Abraham was, I am." In effect He said: I do not care for the
race father, but I glory in the I Am, the Ego that was long before he was.
And He also said: "Who does not leave father and mother cannot follow Me."
As long as you are tied to the family, the nation, the tribe, you are
siding with the old blood, the old ways, and cannot amalgamate into a
universal brotherhood. That can only come when people marry internationally
because when there are so many nations the way to unite them is through
marriage. Let Abraham, the race and tribe father, die; let the "I am" live.
Christ knew the esoteric fact that the mixture of blood in international
marriage always kills something; if it does not kill the body, it kills
something else. If we mate a horse and a donkey, the outcome is a hybrid, the
mule; in that mule something is missing on account of the mixture of
strange blood, namely, the faculty of propagation which is lacking in
all hybrids. Similarly when we marry internationally something else is
destroyed and that is the pictures in the inner vision. The different
pictures of different families clash. And so the clairvoyance, the touch
with the spiritual world, with the memory of Nature, has waned since the
practice of marrying in the tribe was broken up. The Highland Scot who
marries in the clan and the gypsies alone retain this second sight in a
measure. Thus we see that the blood is now differently constituted from
what it was in the earlier ages of human evolution. The body of Jesus was
a pioneer vehicle of superlative purity at the time when the Christ Spirit
entered it, as a means of ingress to the center of the earth by the
identical path which he jumped into the Molten Sea and was conducted along
the path of Initiation to the center of the earth where Cain, his ancestor,
dwelt.
This journey of Christ is recorded in I Peter 3:18-19 after Christ had
been freed from the flesh by the violent death on Golgotha. When anyone is
killed, the venous blood with its impurities clings closely to the flesh,
and therefore the arterial blood which flows is distinctly cleaner than it
would otherwise be; it is more free from passion and desire. And being
etherealized by the great Christ Spirit, the cleansed blood of Jesus overflowed the world, purified the etheric region of selfishness to a great extent, and gave man a better chance to draw to himself materials which will
allow him to form altruistic purposes and desires. Thus the age of altruism
was there inaugurated. By faith in this blood, and by imitation of the
Christ Life the Sons of Seth are therefore provided with a means of purging
from themselves the curse of selfishness; while the Sons of Cain were given
the emblem of the Rose and the Cross to teach them to work faithfully to
make the Molten Sea, the Philosopher's Stone, and to find the New Word which
shall admit them to the kingdom, for they believe more in works than in
faith.
The accompanying chart shows graphically the three Ages mentioned in this
article:
(1) The First Age, when each human being was a complete creative unit,
male-female, double sexed, and ruled by one Hierarch, Melchisedec, who
filled a dual office as King and Priest.
(2) The Second Age, when the division of the race into men and women,
and the division of the rulership into State and Church caused war and
strife.
The State espouses the cause of fatherhood and man and upholds the male
ideal of Arts, Crafts and Industry, embodied in Hiram Abiff.
The Church espouses the cause of motherhood and woman and holds aloft the
female ideal of love, and hearth and home embodied in the Madonna and her
child.
It is the conflicting interests of the man and the woman, the home and
the shop, the Church and the State, which cause the economic struggle, the
war and the strife with which mankind is cursed and which make all long and
pray for the reign of peace.
(3) The third age, when a divine Christ, who, like Melchisedec, shall
fill the dual office of King and Priest, and shall rule over a urged and
glorified humanity, which has risen from sex-love to soul-love.
When we expose a piece of iron to the air, the oxygen contained in the
latter element oxidizes the iron and in time disintegrates it. This process
is commonly known as rusting. The blood comes in contact with the air every
time it passes through the lungs, and as a needle is drawn to a magnet, so
does the oxygen of the inspired air coalesce with the iron the blood. A
process of combustion takes place, which is similar to the rusting or
oxidation we observed in the iron exposed to the air.
The ether contained in the dense fiber of wood, after the latter has
undergone combustion in a stove, passes outwards through the iron in the form
of semi-invisible heat-waves vibrating at different velocities according to
the degree of heat in the furnace. So the spiritual vibration generated by
the combustion of oxygen and iron in our physical bodies, passes outwards
and colors our invisible vehicles according to their vibratory pitch. Low
vibrations are seen as red, the higher are yellow, and the highest blue.
Experience has taught us that combustible material may be placed in a
furnace and all conditions necessary to combustion may be present but
that until the match is applied the materials remain unconsumed. Those who
have studied the laws of combustion know also that a forced draft carries with
it great quantities of oxygen which is necessary to obtain heat from fuel
containing much mineral. The reason for this condition lies in the fact
that minerals, being the lowest in the scale of evolution, vibrate at a
correspondingly slower rate than the plant, animal or man. It requires a
maximum effort to raise their vibrations to such a pitch that combustion may
liberate their spiritual essence, and oxygen is the accelerator in this
process. Were the same amount of oxygen supplied to good vegetable fuel,
which naturally vibrates at a higher rate than mineral, the furnace would be
in danger of destruction because of the intensity of the heat generated.
A similar process takes place within the body, which is the temple of the
spirit; this is the flame which kindles the inner fire and generates the
spiritual product which passes outwards from all warm-blooded creatures as
heat radiates from a stove. (Cold-blooded creatures are so low in the scale
of evolution that they have as yet no life within themselves but are worked
upon by the group-spirit from without entirely and it is the group-spirit
which generates the life-giving currents responsible for the animation in
these creatures; these currents pass inwards to sustain the nascent life until
it shall be able to respond and begin to send currents outwards from
itself.) These radiant lines of force emanating invisibly to the physical
sight from our dense bodies are our aura, as already stated, and while the
color of each individual's aura differs from that of all other individuals
there is nevertheless a basic or ground color showing its status in the
scale of evolution. .... this ground color is a dull red like
the color of a slow burning fire, indicating their passionate, emotional
nature. When we examine people upon a somewhat higher rung of the ladder of
evolution, the basic color or vibration radiated by them is seen to be of an
orange hue, the yellow of intellect mixed with the red of passion. By the
spiritual alchemy unconsciously performed by them as they travel along the
path of progress and learn to make their emotions subservient to mind a
measure, through many experiences in the school of life, they are
gradually freeing themselves from bondage to the martial Lucifer Spirits and
the War God Jehovah, whose colors are scarlet and red; also by obeying
consciously or unconsciously the unifying altruistic Christ Spirit whose
vibrations produce a yellow color which is thus mingling with the red and
will gradually obliterate it. The golden aureole painted by the artists
gifted with spiritual sight around holy men is a physical representation of a
spiritual promise which applies to Humanity as a whole, though it has only
been realized by a few who are called Saints. After lives of battle with
their passions, after patient persistence in well-doing, high aspirations ans
steadfast adherence to lofty purposes these people have raised themselves
above the red ray and are now entirely imbued with the golden Christ ray and
its vibration. This spiritual fact has been embodied by medieval
artists gifted with spiritual sight, in their pictures of saints whom they
represent as surrounded by a golden aureole, indicating their emancipation
from the power of the Lucifer Spirits of Mars who are the fallen angels, as
well as from Jehovah and His angels, who belong to an earlier stage of
evolution and are warders of national and race religions. The Lucifer
spirits find expression in the iron in our blood. Iron is a Mars metal,
difficult to start into high vibration, so difficult that it takes many lives
of great effort to change the product of its combustion to the golden color
which designates the Saint. When that has been achieved, the greatest feat
of alchemy has been performed; the base metal has been changed to gold, the
wonderful alloy of the Molten Sea has been made from the dross of the earth.
All that then remains is to "pull the plugs" and pour it. The natural golden
color is the Christ ray finding its chemical expression in the oxygen, a
solar element, and as we advance upon the path of evolution towards
Universal Brotherhood even those who are not professedly religious acquire
a tinge of gold in their auras due to the higher altruistic impulses common
to the West. Paul speaks of this as "Christ being formed in you," for when
we have learned to mix the alloy by spiritual lives, when we vibrate to the
same pitch as He, we are Christ-like, ready, as said, to pull the plugs of
the crucibles and to pour the Molten Sea. Christ was liberated on the cross
through spiritual centers located where the nails are said to have been
driven, and elsewhere. And one who has prepared the Molten Sea is also
instructed by the Teacher how to pull the plugs and soar into the higher
spheres or, as the Masonic saying is, to "travel in foreign countries."
This is in harmony with the dictum of Christ that to become His disciple
one must leave father and mother. That is one of the hard sayings of the
Gospel and generally misunderstood because it is taken to refer to our
physical father and mother in the present life, whereas in the esoteric
point of view something very different was intended. To get the idea let us
once more call to mind that the Lucifer spirits by the introduction of iron
into the system made it possible for the human ego to become an indwelling
spirit, but continued oxidation of the blood renders the body undesirable
as a habitation in time and death ensues. Therefore, though the Lucifer
spirits helped us into the body, they are also truly angels of death, and
the progeny of Samael and Eve are subject thereto as well as the children
begotten by her and Adam, for all are flesh.
The Sun is the center of life and rules the life-giving gas we know as
oxygen which coalesces with the martial iron. Therefore, Christ, the Lord
of the Sun, is also the Lord of Life, and when by spiritual alchemy as has
been explained, we become like Him, we are immortal and thus we leave our
father Samael and our mother Eve, and death has no more dominion over us.
That does not mean that death may not happen to the body of such people, but
the body entirely under their control, and a body used by such people
usually lasts for many hundreds of years unless it becomes expedient to
take another one. Then by the same process of spiritual alchemy they are able
to create an adult body for themselves and to leave the old body which they
desire to discard for the new one which they have made previously and fitted
to serve their purpose. The question will now probably arise in the
reader's mind: "How can an Initiate create such a new adult body, ready to
wear, before he relinquishes his old one?" The answer to this question
involves an understanding of the law of assimilation, but it should be said in
the first place that no one who has just become aware of the spiritual world
and perhaps learned to function in the soul-body only recently is capable of
performing this feat. This requires a vastly more spiritual development,
and only those who are very high in the scale of initiation at our present
time are able to perform the feat. The method is, however, said to be as
follows:
When food is taken into the body of anyone, be he Adept or ignoramus, the
law of assimilation is that he must first overpower each particle and
conform it to himself; he must subdue and conquer the individual cell
life before it can become part of his body. When this has been done, the
cell will stay with him for a longer or shorter time according to the
constitution and place in evolution of the life that dwells within it. The
cell composed of tissue that has once been incorporated in an animal body and
interpenetrated by a desire body has the most evolved cell life, therefore
this life quickly reasserts itself and leaves the body into which it has
been temporarily assimilated. Hence one who lives upon a flesh diet must
replenish his food supply very often; such material would therefore be
unsuitable for the purpose of building a body that has to wait for some time
before the Adept enters it. Food consisting of vegetables, fruits and nuts,
particularly when these are ripe and fresh, is interpenetrated by a great
deal of the ether which composes the vital body of the plant. These are
much easier to subdue and to incorporate into the polity of the body, also
they stay much longer there before the individual cell life can assert
itself. Therefore the Adept who wished to build a body ready to wear before
he leaves the old one, naturally builds it of fresh vegetables, fruits and
nuts, taking them into the body which he uses daily where they become
subjected to his will, a part of himself.
The soul-body of such a man is naturally very large and powerful; he
separates a part of that and makes a mold or matrix into which he may build
each day physical particles superfluous to the nourishment of the body he is
using. Thus by degrees, having assimilated a considerable surplus of new
material, he may also draw upon the vehicle he is wearing for material that
can be incorporated in the new body. So in the course of some time he
gradually transmutes one body into the other, and when the point is reached
where emaciation of the old body would be observable to the outside world
and cause comment, he would have balanced matters so that the new body is
ready to wear, and he can step out of the old into the new. But he does not
do that merely for the purpose of living in the same community. It is
possible for him by reason of his great knowledge to use the same body for
many centuries in such a manner that it would still seem young, for there is
no wear and tear upon it such as we ordinary mortals cause by our
passions, emotions and desires. But when he does create a new body it is
always, as far as the writer knows, for the purpose of leaving the
environment in which he is at that time and taking up his work in a new place.
It is by reason of this fact that we hear of men like Cagliostro, Saint
Germain and others who one day appeared in a certain environment, took up an
important work and then disappeared. Nobody knew whence they had come or
whither they had gone, but everybody that knew these people was ready to
testify to their remarkable qualities, whether for the purpose of vilification
or praise. This transition of the Adept from the dominion of death to the
realm of immortality was foreshadowed in the daring leap of Hiram Abiff,
the Grand Master-Workman of Solomon's Temple, into the seething sea of molten
metal and his passage through the nine arch-like strata of the earth which
form the path of initiation; also in the baptism of Jesus and the subsequent
descent from Golgotha into the subterranean region where his vital body is
still kept awaiting the day of final egress of the Christ Spirit at the
second advent. In our next section we shall follow Hiram Abiff along this
path of initiation to the embodiment he wore at the time of Christ's
appearance upon the earth, showing where and how he received the new
initiation.
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