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the secret teachings of all ages
The Mystery Of The
Apocalypse
CHAPTER xxxviiI
manly p. hall
THE presence of the Temple of
Diana at Ephesus marked that city as sacred to the Mystery religion, for
the Seven Wonders of the ancient world were erected to indicate the
repositories of recondite knowledge. Of Ephesus, H. P. Blavatsky
writes:
"It was a focus of the
universal 'secret' doctrines; the weird laboratory whence, fashioned in
elegant Grecian phraseology, sprang the quintessence of Buddhistic,
Zoroastrian, and Chaldean philosophy. Artemis, the gigantic concrete
symbol of theosophico-pantheistic abstractions, the great mother
Multimamma, androgyne and patroness of the 'Ephesian writings,' was
conquered by Paul; but although the zealous converts of the apostles
pretended to burn all their books on 'curious arts, τα περιεργα, enough
of these remained for them to study when their first zeal had cooled
off." (See Isis Unveiled.)
Being a great center of pagan
learning, Ephesus has been the locale for many early Christian myths.
The assertion has been made that it was the last domicile of the Virgin
Mary; also that the tomb of St. John the Divine was located there.
According to legend, St. John did not depart from this life in the usual
manner but, selecting his vault, entered it while still alive, and
closing the entrance behind him, vanished forever from mortal sight. A
rumor was current in ancient Ephesus that St. John would sleep in his
tomb until the return of the Savior, and that when the apostle turned
over on his sepulchral couch the earth above moved like the coverlets of
a bed.
Subjected to more criticism
than any other book now incorporated in the New Testament, the
Apocalypse--popularly accredited to St. John the Divine--is by far the
most important but least understood of the Gnostic Christian writings.
Though Justin Martyr declared the Book of Revelation to have been
written by "John, one of Christ's apostles," its authorship was disputed
as early as the second century after Christ. In the third century these
contentions became acute and even Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius
attacked the Johannine theory, declaring that both the Book of
Revelation and the Gospel according to St. John were written by one
Cerinthus, who borrowed the name of the great apostle the better to
foist his own doctrines upon the Christians. Later Jerome questioned the
authorship of the Apocalypse and during the Reformation his objections
were revived by Luther and Erasmus. The once generally accepted notion
that the Book of Revelation was the actual record of a "mystical
experience" occurring to St. John while that seer was an exile in the
Isle of Parmos is now regarded with disfavor by more critical scholars.
Other explanations have therefore been advanced to account for the
symbolism permeating the volume and the original motive for its writing.
The more reasonable of these theories may be summed up as
follows:
First, upon the weight of
evidence furnished by its own contents the Book of Revelation may well
be pronounced a pagan writing--one of the sacred books of the Eleusinian
or Phrygian Mysteries. As a corollary, the real author of a work setting
forth the profundities of Egyptian and Greek mysticism must have been an
initiate himself and consequently obligated to write only in the
symbolic language of the Mysteries.
Second, it is possible that the
Book of Revelation was written to reconcile the seeming discrepancies
between the early Christian and pagan religious philosophies. When the
zealots of the primitive Christian Church sought to Christianize
pagandom, the pagan initiates retorted with a powerful effort to
paganize Christianity. The Christians failed but the pagans succeeded.
With the decline of paganism the initiated pagan hierophants transferred
their base of operations to the new vehicle of primitive Christianity,
adopting the symbols of the new cult to conceal those eternal verities
which are ever the priceless possession of the wise. The Apocalypse
shows clearly the resultant fusion of pagan and Christian symbolism and
thus bears irrefutable evidence of the activities of these initiated
minds operating through early Christianity.
Third, the theory has been
advanced that the Book of Revelation represents the attempt made by the
unscrupulous members of a certain religious order to undermine the
Christian Mysteries by satirizing their philosophy. This nefarious end
they hoped to attain by showing the new faith to be merely a restatement
of the ancient pagan doctrines, by heaping ridicule upon Christianity,
and by using its own symbols toward its disparagement. For example, the
star which fell to earth (Rev. viii. 10-11) could be construed to mean
the Star of Bethlehem, and the bitterness of that star (called Wormwood
and which poisoned mankind) could signify the "false" teachings of the
Christian Church. While the last theory has gained a certain measure of
popularity, the profundity of the Apocalypse leads the discerning reader
to the inevitable conclusion that this is the least plausible of the
three hypotheses. To those able to pierce the veil of its symbolism, the
inspired source of the document requires no further corroborative
evidence.
In the final analysis, true
philosophy can be limited by neither creed nor faction; in fact it is
incompatible with every artificial limitation of human thought. The
question of the pagan or Christian origin of the Book of Revelation is,
consequently, of little importance. The intrinsic value of the book lies
in its magnificent epitome of the Universal Mystery--an observation
which led St. Jerome to declare that it is susceptible of seven entirely
different interpretations. Untrained in the reaches of ancient thought,
the modem theologian cannot possibly cope with the complexities of the
Apocalypse, for to him this mystic writing is but a phantasmagoria the
divine inspiration of which he is sorely tempted to question. In the
limited space here available it is possible to sketch but briefly a few
of the salient features of the vision of the seer of Patmos. A careful
consideration of the various pagan Mysteries will assist materially also
in filling the inevitable gaps in this abridgment.
In the opening chapter of the
Apocalypse, St. John describes the Alpha and Omega who stood in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Surrounded by his flaming
planetary regents, this Sublime One thus epitomizes in one impressive
and mysterious figure the entire sweep of humanity's evolutionary
growth--past, present, and future.
"The first stages of man's
earthly development," writes Dr. Rudolph Steiner, "ran their course at a
period when the earth was still 'fiery'; and the first human
incarnations were formed out of the element of fire; at the end of his
earthly career man will himself radiate his inner being outwards
creatively by the force of the element of fire. This continuous
development from the beginning to the end of the earth reveals itself to
the 'seer,' when he sees on the astral plane the archetype of evolving
man. * * * The beginning of earthly evolution stands forth in the fiery
feet, its end in the fiery countenance, and the complete power of the
'creative word,' to be finally won, is seen in the fiery source coming
out of the mouth." (See Occult Seals and Columns.)
THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.
From Jacob Behmen's
Works.
Before the throne of God was
the crystal sea representing the Schamayim, or the living waters which
are above the heavens. Before the throne also were four creatures--a
bull, a lion, an eagle, and a man. These represented the four corners of
creation and the multitude of eyes with which they were covered are the
stars of the firmament. The twenty-four elders have the same
significance as the priests gathered around the statue of Ceres in the
Greater Eleusinian Rite and also the Persian Genii, or gods of the hours
of the day, who, casting away their crowns, glorify the Holy One. As
symbolic of the divisions of time, the elders adore the timeless and
enduring Spirit in the midst of them.
In his Restored New Testament,
James Morgan Pryse traces the relationship of the various
parts of the Alpha and Omega to the seven sacred planets of the
ancients. To quote:
"The Logos-figure described is
a composite picture of the seven sacred planets: he has the snowy-white
hair of Kronos ('Father Time'), the blazing eyes of 'wide-seeing' Zeus,
the sword of Arcs, the shining face of Helios, and the chiton and
girdle of Aphrodite; his feet are of mercury, the metal sacred to
Hermes, and his voice is like the murmur of the ocean's waves (the 'many
waters'), alluding to Selene, the Moon-Goddess of the four seasons and
of the waters."
The seven stars carried by this
immense Being in his right hand are the Governors of the world; the
flaming sword issuing from his mouth is the Creative Fiat, or Word of
Power, by which the illusion of material permanence is slain. Here also
is represented, in all his symbolic splendor, the hierophant of the
Phrygian Mysteries, his various insignia emblematic of his divine
attributes. Seven priests bearing lamps are his attendants and the stars
carried in his hand are the seven schools of the Mysteries whose power
he administers. As one born again out of spiritual darkness, into
perfect wisdom, this archimagus is made to say: "I am he that liveth,
and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever more, Amen; and have the
keys of hell and of death."
In the second and third
chapters St. John delivers to the "seven churches which are in Asia" the
injunctions received by him from the Alpha and Omega. The churches are
here analogous to the rungs of a Mithraic ladder, and John, being
"in the spirit," ascended through the orbits of the seven sacred planets
until he reached the inner surface of the Empyrean.
"After the soul of the
prophet," writes the anonymous author of Mankind: Their Origin and
Destiny, "in his ecstatic state has passed in its rapid flight
through the seven spheres, from the sphere of the moon to that of
Saturn, or from the planet which corresponds to Cancer, the gate of men,
to that of Capricorn, which is the gate of the gods, a new gate opens to
him in the highest heaven, and in the zodiac, beneath which the seven
planets revolve; in a word, in the firmament, or that which the ancients
called crystallinum primum, or the crystal heaven."
When related to the Eastern
system of metaphysics, these churches represent the chakras, or nerve
ganglia, along the human spine, the "door in heaven" being the
brahmarandra, or point in the crown of the skull (Golgotha),
through which the spinal spirit fire passes to liberation. The church of
Ephesus corresponds to the muladhara, or sacral ganglion, and the
other churches to the higher ganglia according to the order given in
Revelation. Dr. Steiner discovers a relationship between the seven
churches and the divisions of the Aryan race. Thus, the church of
Ephesus stands for the Arch-Indian branch; the church of Smyrna, the
Arch-Persians; the church of Pergamos, the Chaldean-Egyptian-Semitic;
the church of Thyatira, the Grecian-Latin-Roman; the church of Sardis,
the Teuton-Anglo-Saxon; the church of Philadelphia, the Slavic; and the
church of Laodicea, the Manichæan. The seven churches also signify the
Greek vowels, of which Alpha and Omega are the first and
the last. A difference of opinion exists as to the order in which the
seven planers should be related to the churches. Some proceed from the
hypothesis that Saturn represents the church of Ephesus; but from the
fact that this city was sacred to the moon goddess and also that the
sphere of the moon is the first above that of the earth, the planets
obviously should ascend in their ancient order from the moon to Saturn.
From Saturn the soul would naturally ascend through the door in the
Empyrean.
In the fourth and fifth
chapters St. John describes the throne of God upon which sat the Holy
One "which was and is, and is to come." About the throne were
twenty-four lesser seats upon which sat twenty-four elders arrayed in
white garments and wearing crowns of gold. "And out of the throne
proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of
God." He who sat upon the throne held in His right hand a book sealed
with seven seals which no man in heaven or earth had been found worthy
to open. Then appeared a Lamb (Aries, the first and chief of the
zodiacal signs) which had been slain, having seven horns (rays) and
seven eyes (lights). The Lamb took the book from the right hand of Him
that sat upon the throne and the four beasts and all the elders fell
down and worshiped God and the Lamb. During the early centuries of the
Christian Church the lamb was universally recognized as the symbol of
Christ, and not until after the fifth synod of Constantinople (the
"Quinisext Synod," A.D. 692) was the figure of the crucified man
substituted for that of Agnus Dei. As shrewdly noted by one writer on
the subject, the use of a lamb is indicative of the Persian origin of
Christianity, for the Persians were the only people to symbolize the
first sign of the zodiac by a lamb.
Because a lamb was the sin
offering of the ancient pagans, the early mystic Christians considered
this animal as an appropriate emblem of Christ, whom they regarded as
the sin offering of the world. The Greeks and the Egyptians highly
venerated the lamb or ram, often placing its horns upon the foreheads of
their gods. The Scandinavian god Thor carried a hammer made from a pair
of ram's horns. The lamb is used in preference to the ram apparently
because of its purity and gentleness; also, since the Creator Himself
was symbolized by Aries, His Son would consequently be the little Ram or
Lamb. The lambskin apron worn by the Freemasons over that part of the
body symbolized by Typhon or Judas represents that
purification of the generative processes
which is a prerequisite to true spirituality. In this allegory the Lamb
signifies the purified candidate, its seven horns representing the
divisions of illuminated reason and its seven eyes the chakras, or
perfected sense-perceptions.
EPISODES FROM THE MYSTERIES OF THE
APOCALYPSE.
From Klauber's Historiae
Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
In the central foreground, St. John
the Divine is kneeling before the apparition of the Alpha and Omega
standing in the midst of the seven lights and surrounded by an aureole
of flames and smoke. In the heavens above the twenty-four elders with
their harps and censers bow before the throne of the Ancient One, from
whose hand the Lamb is taking the book sealed with seven seals. The
seven spirit, of God, in the form of cups from which issue tongues of
fire, surround the head of the Ancient One, and the four beasts (the
cherubim) kneel at the corners of His throne. In the upper left-hand
corner are shown the seven angels bearing the trumpets and also the
altar of God and the angel with the censer. In the upper right are the
spirits of the winds; below them is the virgin clothed wit h the sun, to
whom wings were given that she might fly into the wilderness. To her
right is a scene representing the spirits of God hurling the evil
serpent into the bottomless pit. At the lower left St. John is shown
receiving from the angelic figure, whose legs are pillars of fire and
whose face is a shining sun, the little book which he is told to eat if
he would understand the mysteries of the spiritual life.
The plate also contains a number of
other symbols, including episodes from the destruction of the world and
the crystal sea pouring forth from the throne of God. By the
presentation of such symbolic conceptions in the form of rituals and
dramatic episodes the secrets of the Phrygian Mysteries were
perpetuated. When these sacred pageantries were thus revealed to all
mankind indiscriminately and each human soul was appointed it own
initiator into the holy rite, of the philosophic life, a boon was
conferred upon humanity which cannot be fully appreciated until men and
women have grown more responsive to those mysteries which are of the
spirit.
The sixth to eleventh chapters
inclusive are devoted to an account of the opening of the seven seals on
the book held by the Lamb. When the first seal was broken, there rode
forth a man on a white horse wearing a crown and holding in his hand a
bow. When the second seal was broken, there rode forth a man upon a red
horse and in his hand was a great sword. When the third seal was broken
there rode forth a man upon a black horse and with a pair of balances in
his hand. And when the fourth seal was broken there rode forth Death
upon a pale horse and hell followed after him. The four horsemen of the
Apocalypse may be interpreted to signify the four main divisions of
human life. Birth is represented by the rider on the white horse
who comes forth conquering and to conquer; the impetuosity of
youth by the rider on the red horse who took peace from the
earth; maturity by the rider on the black horse who weighs all
things in the scales of reason; and death by the rider on the
pale horse who was given power over a fourth part of the earth. In the
Eastern philosophy these horsemen signify the four yugas, or
ages, of the world which, riding forth at: their appointed times, become
for a certain span the rulers of creation.
Commenting on the twenty-fourth
allocution of Chrysostom, in The Origin of all Religious Worship,
Dupuis notes that each of the four elements was represented by a horse
bearing the name of the god "who is set over the element." The first
horse, signifying the fire ether, was called Jupiter and occupied the
highest place in the order of the elements. This horse was winged, very
fleet, and, describing the largest circle, encompassed all the others.
It shone with the purest light, and on its body were the images of the
sun, the moon, the stars, and all the bodies in the ethereal regions.
The second horse, signifying the element of air, was Juno. It was
inferior to the horse of Jupiter and described a smaller circle; its
color was black but that part exposed to the sun became luminous, thus
signifying the diurnal and nocturnal conditions of air. The third horse,
symbolizing the element of water, was sacred to Neptune. It was of heavy
gait and described a very small circle. The fourth horse, signifying the
static element of earth, described as immovable and champing its bit,
was the steed of Vesta. Despite their differences in temperature, these
four horses lived harmoniously together, which is in accord with the
principles of the philosophers, who declared the world to be preserved
by the concord and harmony of its elements. In time, however, the racing
horse of Jupiter burned the mane of the horse of earth; the thundering
steed of Neptune also became covered with sweat, which overflowed the
immovable horse of Vesta and resulted in the deluge of Deucalion. At
last the fiery horse of Jupiter will consume the rest, when the three
inferior elements--purified by reabsorption in the fiery ether--will
come forth renewed, constituting "a new heaven and a new
earth."
When the fifth seal was opened
St. John beheld those who had died for the word of God. When the sixth
seal was broken there was a great earthquake, the sun being darkened and
the moon becoming like blood. The angels of the winds came forth and
also another angel, who sealed upon their foreheads 144,000 of the
children of Israel that they should be preserved against the awful day
of tribulation. By adding the digits together according to the
Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy, the number 144,000 is
reduced to 9, the mystic symbol of man and also the number of
initiation, for he who passes through the nine degrees of the Mysteries
receives the sign of the cross as emblematic of his regeneration and
liberation from the bondage of his own infernal, or inferior, nature.
The addition of the three ciphers to the original sacred number 1.44
indicates the elevation of the mystery to the third sphere.
When the seventh seal was
broken there was silence for the space of half an hour. Then came forth
seven angels and to each was given a trumpet. When the seven angels
sounded their trumpets--intoned the seven-lettered Name of the
Logos--great catastrophes ensued. A star, which was called Wormwood,
fell from heaven, thereby signifying that the secret doctrine of the
ancients had been given to men who had profaned it and caused the wisdom
of God to become a destructive agency. And another star--symbolizing the
false light of human reason as distinguished from the divine reason of
the initiate--fell from heaven and to it (materialistic reason) was
given the key to the bottomless pit (Nature), which it opened, causing
all manner of evil creatures to issue forth. And there came also a
mighty angel who was clothed in a cloud, whose face was as the sun and
his feet and legs as pillars of fire, and one foot was upon the waters
and the other upon the land (the Hermetic Anthropos). This
celestial being gave St. John a little book, bidding him eat it, which
the seer did. The book is representative of the secret doctrine--that
spiritual food which is the nourishment of the spirit. And St. John,
being "in the spirit," ate his fill of the wisdom of God and the hunger
of his soul was appeased.
The twelfth chapter treats of a
great wonder appearing in the heavens: a woman clothed with the sun, the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This
woman represents the constellation of Virgo and also the Egyptian Isis,
who, about to be delivered of her son Horus, is attacked by Typhon, the
latter attempting to destroy the child predestined by the gods to slay
the Spirit of Evil. The war in
heaven relates to the destruction of the planet Ragnarok and to the fall
of the angels. The virgin can be interpreted to signify the secret
doctrine itself and her son the initiate born out of the "womb of the
Mysteries." The Spirit of Evil thus personified in the great dragon
attempted to control mankind by destroying the mother of those illumined
souls who have labored unceasingly for the salvation of the world. Wings
were given to the Mysteries (the virgin) and they flew into the
wilderness; and the evil dragon tried to destroy them with a flood (of
false doctrine) but the earth (oblivion) swallowed up the false
doctrines and the Mysteries endured.
JOHN'S VISION OF THE NEW
JERUSALEM.
From Klauber's Historiae
Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
In the upper left-hand corner
is shown the destruction of Babylon, also the angel which cast the great
millstone into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence shall that great
city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all." Below is
the horseman, called Faithful and True, casting the beast into the
bottomless pit. At the lower right is the angel with the key to the
bottomless pit, who with a great chain binds Satan for a thousand years.
In the heavens above is represented one like unto the Son of Man, who
carries a great sickle with which he reaps the harvest of the world. In
the center is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates
and the mountain of the Lamb rising in the midst thereof. From the
throne of the Lamb pours the great river of crystal, or living water,
signifying the spiritual doctrine: upon all who discover and drink of
its waters are conferred immortality. Kneeling upon a high cliff, St.
John gazes down upon the mystic city, the archetype of the perfect
civilization yet to be. Above the New Jerusalem, in a great sunburst of
glory, is the throne of the Ancient One, which is the light of those who
dwell in the matchless empire of the spirit. Beyond the recognition of
the uninitiated world is an ever-increasing aggregation composed of the
spiritual elect. Though they walk the earth as ordinary mortals, they
are of a world apart and through their ceaseless efforts the kingdom of
God is being slowly but surely established upon earth. These illumined
souls are the builders of the New Jerusalem, and their bodies are the
living stones in its walls. Lighted by the torch of truth they carry on
their work, through their activities the golden age will return
to the earth and the power of sin and death will be destroyed. For this
reason the declare that virtuous and illumined men, instead of ascending
to heaven, will bring heaven down and establish it in the midst of earth
itself.
The thirteenth chapter
describes a great beast which rose out of the sea, having seven heads
and ten horns. Faber sees in this amphibious monster the Demiurgus, or
Creator of the world, rising out of the Ocean of Chaos. While most
interpreters of the Apocalypse consider the various beasts described
therein as typical of evil agencies, this viewpoint is the inevitable
result of unfamiliarity with the ancient doctrines from which the
symbolism of the book is derived. Astronomically, the great monster
rising out of the sea is the constellation of Cetus (the whale). Because
religious ascetics looked upon the universe itself as an evil and
ensnaring fabrication, they also came to regard its very Creator as a
weaver of delusions. Thus the great sea monster (the world) and its
Maker (the Demiurgus), whose strength is derived from the Dragon of
Cosmic Power, came to be personified as a beast of horror and
destruction, seeking to swallow up the immortal part: of human nature.
The seven heads of the monster represent the seven stars (spirits)
composing the constellation of the Great Dipper, called by the Hindus
Rishis, or Cosmic Creative Spirits. The ten horns Faber relates
to the ten primordial patriarchs. These may also denote the ancient
zodiac of ten signs.
The number of the beast (666)
is an interesting example of the use of Qabbalism in the New Testament
and among early Christian mystics. In the following table Kircher shows
that the names of Antichrist as given by Iranæus all have 666 as their
numerical equivalent.
|
Τ |
300 |
Λ |
30 |
Λ |
1 |
Λ |
30 |
|
ε |
5 |
α |
1 |
ν |
50 |
α |
1 |
|
ι |
10 |
μ |
40 |
τ |
300 |
τ |
300 |
|
τ |
300 |
π |
80 |
ε |
5 |
ε |
5 |
|
α |
1 |
ε |
5 |
μ |
40 |
ι |
10 |
|
ν |
50 |
τ |
300 |
ο |
70 |
ν |
50 |
|
|
|
ι |
10 |
ς |
200 |
ο |
70 |
|
|
|
ς |
200 |
|
|
ς |
200 |
|
|
666 |
|
666 |
|
666 |
|
666 |
James Morgan Pryse also notes
that according to this method of figuring, the Greek term ἡ φρην, which
signifies the lower mind, has 666 as its numerical equivalent. It is
also well known to Qabbalists that Ἰησους, Jesus, has for its numerical
value another sacred and secret number--888. Adding the digits of the
number 666 and again adding the digits of the sum gives the sacred
number--9 the symbol of man in his unregenerate state and also the path
of his resurrection.
The fourteenth chapter opens
with the Lamb standing on Mount Zion (the eastern horizon), about Him
gathered the 144,000 with the name of God written in their foreheads. An
angel thereupon announces the fall of Babylon--the city of confusion or
worldliness. Those perish who do not overcome worldliness and enter into
the realization that spirit--and not matter--is enduring; for, having no
interests other than those which are material, they are swept to
destruction with the material world. And St. John beheld One like unto
the Son of Man (Perseus) riding upon a cloud (the substances of the
invisible world) and bearing in his hand a sharp sickle, and with the
sickle the Shining One reaped the earth. This is a symbol of the
Initiator releasing into the sphere of reality the higher natures of
those who, symbolized by ripened grain, have reached the point of
liberation. And there came another angel (Boötes)--Death--also with a
sickle (Karma), who reaped the vines of the earth (those who have lived
by the false light) and cast them into the winepress of the wrath of God
(the purgatorial spheres).
The fifteenth to eighteenth
chapters inclusive contain an account of seven angels (the Pleiades) who
pour their vials upon the earth. The contents of their vials (the
loosened energy of the Cosmic Bull) are called the seven last plagues.
Here also is introduced a symbolic figure, termed "the harlot of
Babylon, "which is described as a woman seated upon a scarlet-colored
beast having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple
and scarlet and bedecked with gold, precious stones, and pearls, having
in her hand a golden cup full of abominations. This figure may be an
effort (probably interpolated) to vilify Cybele, or Artemis, the Great
Mother goddess of antiquity. Because the pagans venerated the Mater
Deorum through symbols appropriate to the feminine generative
principle they were accused by the early Christians of worshiping a
courtesan. As nearly all the ancient Mysteries included a test of the
neophyte's moral character, the temptress (the animal soul) is here
portrayed as a pagan goddess.
In the nineteenth and twentieth
chapters is set forth the preparation of that mystical sacrament called
the marriage of the Lamb. The bride is the soul of the neophyte, which
attains conscious immortality by uniting itself to its own spiritual
source. The heavens opened once more and St. John saw a white horse, and
the rider (the illumined mind) which sat upon it was called
Faithful and True. Out of his mouth issued a sharp sword
and the armies of heaven followed after him. Upon the plains of heaven
was fought the mystic Armageddon--the last great war between light and
darkness. The forces of evil under the Persian Ahriman battled against
the forces of good under Ahura-Mazda. Evil was vanquished and the beast
and the false prophet cast into a lake of fiery brimstone. Satan was
bound for a thousand years. Then followed the last judgment; the books
were opened, including the book of life. The dead were judged according
to their works and those whose names were not in the book of life were
cast into a sea of fire. To the neophyte, Armageddon represents the last
struggle between the flesh and the spirit when, finally overcoming the
world, the illumined soul rises to union with its spiritual Self. The
judgment signifies the weighing of the soul and was borrowed from the
Mysteries of Osiris. The rising of the dead from their graves and from
the sea of illusion represents the consummation of the process of human
regeneration. The sea of fire into which those are cast who fail in the
ordeal of initiation signifies the fiery sphere of the animal
world.
In the twenty-first and
twenty-second chapters are pictured the new heaven and the new earth to
be established at the close of Ahriman's reign. St. John, carried in the
spirit to a great and high mountain (the brain), beheld the New
Jerusalem descending as a bride adorned for her husband. The Holy City
represents the regenerated and perfected world, the trued ashlar
of the Mason, for the city was a perfect cube, it being written, "the
length and the breadth and the height of it are equal." The foundation
of the Holy City consisted of a hundred and forty-four stones in twelve
rows, from which it is evident that the New Jerusalem represents the
microcosm, patterned after the greater universe in which it: stands. The
twelve gates of this symbolic dodecahedron are the signs of the zodiac
through which the celestial impulses descend into the inferior world;
the jewels are the precious stones of the zodiacal signs; and the
transparent golden streets are the streams of spiritual light along
which the initiate passes on his path towards the sun. There is no
material temple in that city, for God and the Lamb are the temple; and
there is neither sun nor moon, for God and the Lamb are the light. The
glorified and spiritualized initiate is here depicted as a city. This
city will ultimately be united with the spirit of God and absorbed into
the Divine Effulgency.
And St. John beheld a river,
the Water of Life, which proceeded out of the throne of the Lamb. The
river represents the stream pouring from the First Logos, which is the
life of all things and the active cause of all creation. There also was
the Tree of Life (the spirit) bearing twelve manner of fruit, whose
leaves were for the healing of the nations. By the tree is also
represented the year, which every month yields some good for the
maintenance of existing creatures. Jesus then tells St. John that He is
the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star
(Venus). St. John concludes with the words, "The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all. Amen."
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE
APOCALYPSE.
From Solis' Biblische
Figuren.
In the allegory of the four
horsemen--according to the mysteries of philosophy--is set forth the
condition of man during the stages of his existence. In his first and
spiritual state he is crowed. As he descend into the realm of experience
he carries the sword. Reaching physical expression--which is his least
spiritual state--he carries the scales, and by the "philosophic death"
is released again into the highest spheres. In the ancient Roman games
the chariot of the sun was drawn by four horses of different colors and
the horsemen of the Apocalypse may be interpreted to represent the solar
energy riding upon the four elements which serve as media for its
expression.
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