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THE PATH OF INITIATION
PART VIII
In an earlier chapter we noted that the
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. We also remember that at the end of that journey
Hiram Abiff, the son of Cain, received from his ancestor A NEW HAMMER AND
A NEW WORD for use in the New Age. According to the Gospels we also find
that Jesus, the son of Seth, immediately after his descent from Golgotha
entered the subterranean strata where he remained for some time in
communion with the spirits who dwell there. Thus the various strata of the
earth from the circumference to the center form the path of Initiation,
both for the sons of Seth and the sons of Cain, and that is the reason why
little or nothing is said of the inner construction of the earth in the
multitude of books dealing with subjects of occultism. Those who are
simply psychics do not know, and those who do know are not saying much.
There is a chapter on the subject in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception
which gives about all that one dares to tell, and to that the reader is
referred for further information than here given.
The path of Initiation is guarded in
various ways. While we walk the earth in our physical bodies, we are drawn
toward the center of the earth by the force of gravitation; but our bodies
being solid, that is to say, of the same density as the material whereof
our globe is composed, we are thus prevented from sinking through the
earth by displacement as we would sink in water, or by interpenetration as
we would pass through ether. When death comes and we shed this so-called
mortal coil, we find ourselves in vehicles that are finer than the
elements of the earth. A person clothed in these finer vehicles could
easily penetrate through the various strata of our globe to the center if
there were no other obstacles. Having shed the dense body, he is no longer
subject to gravitation, but to levitation, and on that account he usually
finds it sufficiently difficult to stay upon the surface of the earth.
Only during the first part of his post-mortem experience when he is still
loaded down with the coarsest ether and desire stuff is this possible for
him. The more he has gathered of that denser substance by indulgence of
his lower nature and cultivation of the habit of drunkenness,
covetousness, hatred, malice, immoral emotions, and disreputable vices,
the easier it is for him to stay around low saloons, gambling houses,
red-light districts, and kindred places. But the man of high ideals and
lofty aspirations, who would be the one likely to seek the path of
Initiation, feels the impelling force of levitation drawing him outward
into the purer strata of the air where the First Heaven is located, and is
thus effectually prevented from trespassing upon the path of Initiation.
Stories are told of Initiates having overcome the law of gravitation in
order to RISE IN THE AIR at certain times for a definite purpose while
still in the dense body. Initiates are also taught how to suspend the law
of levitation when they are in their soul bodies, and how to pass through
the nine strata of the earth. It is said that Jesus was the son of a
carpenter, but the Greek word is TEKTON, and means builder; ARCHE is the
Greek name of primordial matter. It is also said that Jesus was a
carpenter (tekton) himself. It is true, he was A TEKTON, builder or Mason,
a Son of God, the Grand ARCHETEKTON. At the age of THIRTY-THREE, when he
had taken the three-times-three (9) degrees of Mystic Masonry, he
descended to the center of the earth. So does every other TEKTON, Mason or
PHREE MESSEN, (CHILD OF LIGHT,) as the Egyptian called such, descend
through the NINE arch-like strata of the earth. We shall find at the time
of the first advent of Christ both Hiram Abiff, the son of Cain, and
Solomon, the son of Seth, reborn to take from Him the next great
Initiation into the Christian Mysteries.
In the last chapter we saw while
considering "The Philosopher's Stone" that the spinal cord is the
principal laboratory for the alchemist, and that the SPINAL SPIRIT FIRE,
generated by turning the creative force upward through the spinal canal,
passing it between the pituitary body and the pineal gland in the brain,
gives to man a third eye as it were wherewith to see in the spiritual
worlds. When this serpentine spirit fire has been sufficiently evolved, he
may read by its light the wisdom of the ages. Therefore Christ exhorted
His Disciples to be wise as serpents. The Egyptian word NAJA, which means
serpent, is used at least once in the Hebrew Bible in the 58th Psalm. In
ancient Egypt the Pharaohs were Kings and Priests, holding a double
office, and they therefore wore a double crown with a URAEUS or serpent
head so placed that when wearing this crown the URAEUS seemed to protrude
from the Emperor's forehead between the eyebrows. The serpentine Uraeus
was therefore an apt symbol of the wisdom of the wearer.
It will be remembered that according to
the Bible story the Lucifer Spirit appeared to Eve as a serpent, a son of
Wisdom. Cain according to the Masonic legend, was born from this union
with Eve. It is also stated that the Lucifer spirit then left Eve, who
thus became a widow, and Cain was thus the son of the Lucifer Spirit, the
serpent of Wisdom, and Eve, the widow. Every Initiate to this day has the
serpent symbol on his brow and is known to his fellows by that token as a
SON OF THE WIDOW AND THE LUCIFER SPIRIT. Therefore we shall trace Hiram
Abiff to his next embodiment by that mark, and as evidence given by a
party against his own interest is particularly valuable according to law,
we call special attention to the following points gained from the Catholic
Latin Testament:
In 1st Samuel 19, King James Version,
NAIOTH is spoken of as a place where a school of prophets and seers dwelt,
Samuel among others. NAIOTH is the feminine plural of NAJA, a serpent,
which we have already mentioned as being an Egyptian word used in the
Bible. In the Latin version the same place is spoken of as NAIM, and
Eusebius says it was located near Endor, famous as the abode of the witch,
through whose instrumentality Saul spoke with Samuel after the latter had
passed on. But it is not to be supposed that NAIOTH and NAIM are places,
or that they were used interchangeably. They describe two widely different
classes of spiritually gifted people, which the ancient Egyptians had
marked by placing the URAEUS upon the BROWS of one and at the NAVELS of
the other. The latter were mediumistic persons, receiving impressions from
spirit controls through the solar plexus. They were properly designated
Naioth by the Hebrews who used the feminine suffix to indicate their
negative qualities. But the voluntary clairvoyant and the Initiate,
represented by the Egyptians as having the serpentine URAEUS in the
forehead, were called NAIM by the Hebrews who used the male suffix to
designate the positive spiritual faculty which they possess. And the Latin
Catholic version of the New Testament (Luke, chapter vii, verses 11 to
15,) speaks of the person raised by Christ as the widow's son of NAIN.
As the serpent is not fully unfolded
until the ninth arch of the Lesser Mysteries has been passed and the
candidates become aspirants to the Greater Mysteries, and further because
the Lodge of PHREE MESSEN (Children of Light) of Ancient Egypt are now
transferred to the various branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, where the
sound NAIN means "nine," the original word has been corrupted to mislead
all not entitled to the knowledge.
But all things change on this
terrestrial sphere, and this applies also to the methods of Initiation and
the requirements thereof. Hiram Abiff failed in his great effort to make
the molten sea at the time when he was building Solomon's Temple, because
he, the son of the fiery Lucifer Spirits, did not know how to blend the
element fire with the water poured into his mold by the sons of Seth, the
creatures of the water God, Jehovah. At that time he was given A NEW
HAMMER AND A NEW WORD. The Hammer was in the form of a CROSS. The Word was
written upon a DISC, before he was finally slain by his adversaries. And
so he slept until as LAZARUS, THE WIDOW'S SON OF NAIN, he was raised by
THE STRONG GRIP OF THE LION'S PAW, the Lion of Judah. Then the disc was
found, also the new cruciform Hammer, and upon the disc the mystic symbol,
THE ROSE. In these two symbols lie hidden the great secret of life, the
blending of water and fire, as symbolized by the earthborn fluidic sap
ascending through the stem and calyx of the flower to the fire tinted
petals, born in the purity of the Sun, but still guarded by the thorns of
the martial Lucifer spirits.
Exoteric MASONRY, which is only the
husks of the Mystic Order formed by the Sons of Cain, has in modern times
attracted the MASCULINE element with its positively polarized physical
vehicles, and educated them in industry and STATECRAFT, thus controlling
the material development of the world. The sons of Seth, constituting
themselves the Priestcraft, have worked their spell over the positive
vital bodies of the FEMININE element of dominate spiritual development.
And whereas, the sons of Cain working through Freemasonry and kindred
movements, have openly fought for the temporal power, the Priestcraft has
fought as strenuously and perhaps more effectively by stealth to retain
their hold upon the spiritual development of the feminine element.
To the casual onlooker it would seem as
if there were no decided antagonism between these two movements at the
present time; but though Freemasonry of today is but a shell of its true
ancient mystic self, and though Catholicism has been terribly tarnished by
the touch of time, in this one thing there is no difference, namely, that
the war is as keen as ever. The efforts of the Church are not concentrated
upon the masses, however, as much as upon those who are seeking to live
the higher life so that they may gain admission to the Mystery Temple and
learn how to make the Philosopher's Stone.
As mankind advances in evolution, the
vital body becomes more permanently positively polarized, giving to both
sexes a greater desire for spirituality, and though we change from the
masculine to feminine in alternate embodiments, positive polarity of the
vital body is becoming more pronounced regardless of sex. This accounts
for the growing tendency towards Altruism which is even being brought out
by the suffering entailed by the great war we are now fighting, (1918) for
all agree that the nations are seeking to obtain a LASTING PEACE where the
swords may be made into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. In
the past, humanity has been claiming universal brotherhood as a great
ideal, but we must come closer than that to being in full accord with the
Christ. He said to His disciples "YE ARE MY FRIENDS." Among brothers and
sisters, hate and enmity may exist, but friendship is the expression of
love and cannot exist apart from that. Universal Friendship is therefore
the magic word which will eventually level all distinctions, bring peace
upon earth and good will among men. This is the great Ideal which points
the shortest way to the New Heaven and the New Earth, where the sons of
Cain and the sons of Seth will eventually be united.
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