"The Bible has been given to the Western World by the Recording Angels,
who give to each and all exactly what they need for their development."
— Max Heindel
References: Matthew 1:20-25; Luke 1:26-35
The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is one of the most sublime
mysteries of the Christian Religion, and perhaps for that reason it has
suffered more from being dragged down into materiality than any of the other
mysteries. It has suffered alike from the interpretation of its clumsy
supporters and the sneers of the skeptics.
The popular, but erroneous, idea is that about 2,000 years ago an
individual named Jesus Christ was born of a mother without the cooperation of
an earthly father, and this incident is regarded as unique in the history of
the world. In reality it is not unparalleled; the immaculate conception has
taken place many times in the history of the world and will become universal
in the future.
The periodical ebb and flow of the material and spiritual forces which
invest the Earth are the invisible causes of the physical, moral, and mental
activities upon our globe. According to the hermetic axiom, "As above, so
below," a similar activity must take place in man, who is but a minor edition
of Mother Nature.
The animals have twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves and are now in their
Moon stage, perfectly attuned to the twenty-eight days in which the Moon
passes around the zodiac. In their wild state, the group spirit regulates
their mating. Therefore there is no overflow with them. Man, on the other
hand, is in a transition stage; he is too far progressed for the lunar
vibrations for he has thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves. But he is not yet
attuned to the solar month of thirty-one days, and he mates at all times of
the year; hence the periodical flow in woman, which under proper conditions is
utilized to form part of the body of a child more perfect than its parent.
Similarly, the periodical flow in mankind becomes the sinew and backbone of
racial advancement; and the periodical flow of the Earth's spiritual forces,
which occurs at Christmas, results in the birth of Saviors who from time to
time give renewed impetus to the spiritual advancement of the human race.
There are two parts to our Bible, the Old and the New Testaments. After
briefly reciting how the world came into being, the former tells the story of
the "Fall." We understand the "Fall" to have been occasioned by man's
impulsive and ignorant use of the sex forces at times when the interplanetary
rays were inimical to conception of the purest and best vehicles. Thus man
became gradually imprisoned in a dense body crystallized by sinful passion and
consequently an imperfect vehicle, subject to pain and death.
Then commenced the pilgrimage through matter, and for millennia we have
been living in this hard and flinty shell of body, which obscures the light of
heaven from the spirit within. The spirit is like a diamond in its rough coat,
and the celestial lapidaries, the Recording Angels, are constantly endeavoring
to remove the coating so that the spirit may shine through the vehicle which
it ensouls.
When the lapidary holds the diamond to the grindstone, the diamond emits a
screech like a cry of pain as the opaque covering is removed; but gradually by
many successive applications to the grindstone the rough diamond may become a
gem of transcendent beauty and purity. Similarly, the celestial beings in
charge of our evolution hold us closely to the grindstone of experience. Pain
and suffering result, which awaken the spirit sleeping within. The man
hitherto content with material pursuits, indulgent of sense and sex, becomes
imbued with a divine discontent, which impels him to seek the higher life.
The gratification of that aspiration, however, is not usually accomplished
without a severe struggle upon the part of the lower nature. It was while
wrestling thus that Paul exclaimed with all the anguish of a devout, aspiring
heart: "O wretched man that I am!...The good that I would I do not: but the
evil that I would not, that I do...I delight in the law of God after the
inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members." (Romans 7:19-24)
When the flower is crushed, its scent is liberated and fills the
surroundings with grateful fragrance, delighting all who are fortunate enough
to be near. Crushing blows of fate may overwhelm a man or woman who has
reached the stage of efflorescence; they will but serve to bring out the
sweetness of the nature and enhance the beauty of the soul till it shines with
an effulgence that marks the wearer as with a halo. Then he is upon the path
of Initiation. He is taught how unbridled use of sex regardless of the stellar
rays has imprisoned him in the body, how it fetters him, and how by the proper
use of that same force in harmony with the stars he may gradually improve and
etherealize his body and finally attain liberation from concrete existence.
A shipwright cannot build a staunch oak ship from spruce lumber; "men do
not gather grapes of thorns"; like begets like, and an incoming ego of a
passionate nature is drawn to parents of like nature, where its body is
conceived upon the impulse of the moment in a gust of passion.
The soul who has tasted the cup of sorrow incident to the abuse of the
creative force and has drunk to the dregs the bitterness thereof, will
gradually seek parents of less and less passionate natures, until at length it
attains to Initiation.
Having been taught in the process of Initiation the influence of the
stellar rays upon parturition, the next body provided will be generated by
Initiate parents without passion, under the constellation most favorable to
the work which the Ego contemplates. Therefore the Gospels (which are formulas
of Initiation) commence with the account of the immaculate conception and end
with the crucifixion, both wonderful ideals to which we must sometime attain,
for each of us is a Christ-in-the-making, and will sometime pass through both
the mystic birth and the mystic death adumbrated in the Gospels. By knowledge
we may hasten the day, intelligently cooperating instead of as now often
stupidly frustrating through ignorance the ends of spiritual development.
In connection with the immaculate conception misunderstandings prevail as
every point; the perpetual virginity of the mother even after giving birth to
other children; the lowly station of Joseph, the supposed foster father, etc.
We will briefly view them in the light of facts as revealed in the Memory of
Nature.
In some parts of Europe people of the higher classes are addressed as
"well-born," or even as "highwell-born"; we would that every child were well
born, born to parents of high moral standing, no matter what their station in
life. There is a virginity of soul that is independent of the state of the
body, a purity of mind which will carry its possessor through the act of
generation without the taint of passion and enable the mother to carry the
unborn child under her heart in sexless love.
Previous to the time of Christ that would have been impossible. In the
earlier stages of man's career upon Earth quantity was desirable and quality
of minor consideration, hence the command was given to "go forth, be fruitful,
and multiply." Besides, it was necessary that man should temporarily forget
his spiritual nature and concentrate his energies upon material conditions.
Indulgence of sex passion furthers that object, and the desire nature was
given full sway. Polygamy flourished, and the larger the number of their
children, the more a man and a woman were honored, while barrenness was looked
upon as the greatest possible affliction.
In other directions the desire nature was being curbed by God-given laws,
and obedience to divine commands was enforced by swift punishment of the
transgressor, such as war, pestilence, or famine. Rewards for dutiful
observance of the mandates of the law were not wanting either; the "righteous"
man's children, his cattle and crops were numerous; he was victorious over his
enemies and the cup of his happiness was full.
Later when the Earth had been sufficiently people after the Atlantean
Flood, polygamy became more and more obsolete, with the result that the
quality of the bodies improved, and at the time of Christ the desire nature
had become so far amenable to control in the case of the more advanced among
humanity that the act of generation could be performed without passion, out of
pure love, so that the child could be immaculately conceived.
Such were the parents of Jesus. Joseph is said to have been a carpenter,
but he was not a worker in wood. He was a "builder" in a higher sense. God is
the Grand Architect of the Universe. Under Him are many builders of varying
degrees of spiritual splendor, down even to those whom we know as Freemasons.
All are engaged in building a temple without sound of hammer, and Joseph was
no exception.
It is sometimes asked why Initiates are always men. They are not; in the
lower degrees there are many women, but when an initiate is able to choose his
sex he usually takes the positive masculine body, as the life which brought
him to Initiation has spiritualized his vital and made it positive (as a
woman's) under all conditions, so that he has then an instrument of the
highest efficiency.
There are times, however, when the exigencies of a case require a female
body, such as, for instance, providing a body of the highest type to receive
an Ego of superlatively high degree. Then a high Initiate may take a female
body and go through the experience of maternity again, after perhaps having
eschewed it for several lives, as was the case with the beautiful character we
know as Mary of Bethlehem.
In conclusion, then, let us remember the points brought out, that we are
all Christs-in-the-making; that sometime we must cultivate characters so
spotless that we may be worthy to inhabit bodies that are immaculately
conceived; and the sooner we commence to purify our minds of passionate
thoughts, the sooner we shall attain. In the final analysis it only depends
upon the earnestness of our purpose, the strength of our wills.
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