Question: What is the meaning of the letters I.N.R.I. sometimes placed over
the cross? (Vol. II, #78)
Answer: We are told in the gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading,
"Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorem," and His Cross, and this is translated in the
authorized version to mean "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." But the four
initials, I.N.R.I., placed upon the Cross represent the names of the four
elements in Hebrew: Iam, water; Nour, fire; Ruach, spirit or vital air; and
Iabeshah, earth. This is the occult key to the mystery of the crucifixion, for
it symbolizes in the first place the Salt, Sulphur, Mercury, and Azoth which
were used by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher's Stone, the
universal solvent, the elixer-vitae.
The two "I's" (Iam and Iabeshah) represent the salient luna element water,
(a) in fluidic state holding salt in solution, and (b) in the coagulated
extract of this water, "the salt of the earth." In other words, the finer
fluidic vehicles of man and his dense body. N, (Nour) in Hebrew stands for
fire and the combustile elements, chief among which are sulphur and
phosphorous, so necessary to oxidation and without which warm blood would be
an impossibility. The Ego could not then function in the body, nor could
thought find a material expression. R (Ruach) is the Hebrew equivalent for the
Spirit, Azoth, functioning in the mercurial mind. Thus the four letters,
I.N.R.I., placed over the Cross of Christ according to the gospel story
represent composite man, the Thinker, at the point of his spiritual
development when he is getting ready for liberation from the cross of his
dense vehicle.
Proceeding further along the same line of elucidation we may note that
I.N.R.I. is the symbol of the crucified candidate for the following additional
reasons:
Iam is the Hebrew word signifying water, the fluidic lunar element, which
forms the principal part of the human body (about 87 per cent), and this word
is also the symbol of the finer fluidic vehicles of desire and emotion.
Nour, the Hebrew word signifying fire, is a symbolic representation of the
heat-producing red blood laden with martial iron, fire, and energy, which the
occultist sees coursing as gas through the veins and arteries of the human
body, infusing it with energy and ambition, and without which there could be
neither material nor spiritual progress. It also represents the sulphur and
phosphorous necessary for the material manifestation of thought as already
mentioned.
Ruach, the Hebrew word for Spirit, or vital air, is an excellent symbol of
the Ego clothed in the mercurial mind which makes man man, and enables him to
control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a rational manner.
Iabeshah is the Hebrew word for earth, representing the solid fleshy part
which makes up the cruciform earthy body, crystallized within the finer
vehicles at birth and severed from them in the ordinary course of things at
death, or in the extraordinary event that we learn to die the mystic death and
ascend to the glories of higher spheres for a time.
This stage of the Christian Mystic's spiritual development therefore
involves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course
through the tripartite spinal cord where the three segments are ruled by the
Moon, Mars, and Mercury, respectively, and where the ray of Neptune then
lights the regenerative spinal spirit-fire which, mounting upward, sets the
pituitary body, and the pineal gland into vibration. This, opening up the
spiritual sight and striking the frontal sinus, starts the crown of thorns
throbbing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred
spirit-fire which wakes this center from its age long sleep to a throbbing,
pulsating life, sweeping onward to the other centers in the five- pointed
stigmatic star. They are also vitalized and the whole vehicle becomes aglow
with a golden glory. Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the desire
body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy contained in
that vehicle propels upward the sidereal vehicle (so-called because the
stigmata in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same relative
position to one another as the points in the five-pointed star), which ascends
through the skull (Golgotha), while the crucified Christian utters his
triumphant cry, "Consummatum est" (it has been accomplished), and soars into
the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he has imitated with such success
and from whom he is henceforth inseparable. Jesus is his Teacher and his guide
to the Kingdom of Christ where all shall be united in one body to learn and to
practice the Religion of the Father to whom the Kingdom will eventually revert
that He may be All in All.
The Temple Veil and
the Priest's Robe
Question: Why were the colors of the veil of the Temple and the priest's robes
as spoken of in Exodus, blue, purple, and scarlet, instead of the three
primary colors? (Vol. II, #82)
Answer: The Tabernacle in the Wilderness was the first church ever erected on
Earth. When humanity had been driven away from the basins of the Earth by the
condensation of the waters which had previously hung like a dense mist over
the Earth, the spiritual sight which had hitherto guided them became a
hindrance to physical development. Thus it waned, and man's senses became
focused in the physical world. This change involved a severance from the
Divine Hierarchs who had hitherto guided man on the path of evolution. They
became invisible and man missed them. Then there arose in his heart a longing
for God which was met by giving him the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and
prescribing certain divine laws for his guidance. Jehovah was the Lawmaker and
the particular Genius of the Original Semites who were the seed race of the
coming Fifth, post-Atlantean Epoch; and behind Him stood the Most High, the Father. You will
find this in such passages as Deuteronomy 32, verses 8 and 9, where it is
stated that the Most High divided the people into nations and gave a certain
portion to the Lord, who guided them and brought them out of Egypt, the land
where the Bull was worshiped, into the Arian (Aries) Rainbow Age. This was
inaugurated by using the blood of the Lamb, Aries, at the Passover
accomplished by Noah and giving them laws by Moses which were all symbolically
shown in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.
The color of the Most High, the Father, is a spiritual blue. The color of
Jehovah is red (indicating the sacrificial aspect of blood) and the mixture of
these two colors produces purple. Therefore, these two colors were shown on
the veil of the Temple, but there was also the color white, which showed in
symbology that something was still missing. Under the regime of Jehovah it was
necessary to give an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That was demanded by
the Law dictated by Him, and given to Moses. This Law reigned until Christ,
who then brought grace and truth, rending the Temple veil. Under that ancient
law sacrifices of animals were compulsory, for humanity had not yet learned
how to make a sacrifice of themselves. When the Christ showed the way to truth
and life by making a sacrifice of Himself, the Temple veil was rent, the old
system was abrogated, and a new way was opened for the salvation of "whosoever
will."
In the new dispensation there is therefore no veil on which the color of the
Initiator may be displayed. A better way has been found of marking those that
are Christ's with His golden color individually, and thus it is that those who
follow the path of service and self-sacrifice evolve within their own aura the
golden Christ color, which is the third of the primary colors. This is the
priestly robe of the new dispensation without which no one can ever enter the
Kingdom, and no robe obtained at pseudo initiations can ever take its place,
no matter what price is paid.
Spiritual Hermaphrodites
Question: In your esoteric explanation of Wagner's opera Tannhauser, you (Max
Heindel) state that man must find the woman in himself. Just what do you mean?
(Vol. II, #83)
Answer: It is taught both in the Bible and esoterically that there was a time
when mankind was male-female, hermaphrodite, or bi-sexual. At that time each
was able to perpetuate the species without the assistance of anyone else. Man
was then a complete unit, capable of self-fertilization. However, in order to
become a perfect vehicle for the Spirit it was necessary that a brain should
be evolved, together with a larynx, so that man might be able to think and
express himself in words. In order to accomplish this one half the creative
force was directed upward to build these organs and enable man to turn his
creative consciousness outward and people the world with things of his fancy,
such as we see in ships, houses, railways, telephones, and all other things
made by the hand of man, which have first been conceived in thought, then
objectified in the world.
Thus man became a creator on two planes, the physical and the mental, but we
know that we cannot make an electric circuit with one wire. We must have two
of opposite polarity and when one half the creative force was diverted to the
brain, only the other half remained usable for procreation. Thus man ceased to
be a complete creative unit and became dependent upon someone else to supply
the part of the force which he lacked, either positive or negative, masculine
or feminine. Since then sorrow, sin, and trouble have entered into the world,
and we have come under the dominion of death. However, in time mankind will
learn to turn the other half of the creative force upward through the spinal
cord into the brain, which will then be bi-polar.
At that time we shall use both the hemispheres of our cerebrum and not one
as is now the case. When that day has come man will have found the woman
within himself, and woman will have found the man within herself. Then it will
not any longer be necessary to seek a mate in order to perpetuate our bodies,
for we shall then be able to conceive in our brain a vehicle fit for our
expression and objectify it as we now clothe our other ideas in physical form.
It is by this power that Adepts perpetuate their physical existence and create
a new body before they leave the old, but they have two spinal cords and use
both hemispheres of the brain.
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