Filename: +quot;RC1003.TXT+quot; Source: +quot;Ancient and Modern Initiation+quot; by Max

Filename: "RC1003.TXT"
Source: "Ancient and Modern Initiation" by Max Heindel

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                           MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM:

   It is noteworthy that nearly all religious systems have prescribed  ablu-
tions previous to the performance of religious duties,  and the worship per-
formed in the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple,  the Tabernacle in the  Wil-
derness,  was no exception,  as we have seen from the previous  articles  on
"Symbols of Ancient and Modern Initiation."   After having obtained justifi-
cation by sacrifice on the Brazen Altar, the candidate was compelled to wash
in the Laver of Consecration, the Molten Sea, before he was allowed to enter
upon the duties of his ministry in the sanctuary proper.   And it is in con-
formity  with  this rule that we find the Hero of the Gospels going  to  the
river Jordan,  where He underwent the mystic rite of Baptism.  When He rose,
we learn that the Spirit descended upon Him.   Therefore it is obvious  that
those  who  follow  the Christian Mystic Path of  Initiation  must  also  be
similarly  baptized before they can receive the Spirit, which is to be their

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true guide through all the trials before them.

   But  what constitutes Baptism is a question which has called forth  argu-
ments  of almost unbelievable intensity.   Some contend that it is a  sprin-
kling  with water,  and other insist upon the immersion of the  whole  body.
Some  say that it is sufficient to take an infant into church,  sprinkle  it
with water despite its protests, and presto! it becomes a Christian, an heir
of  heaven;  whereas should it unfortunately die before this sacred rite  is
performed,  it must inevitably go to hell.  Others take the more logical po-
sition that the desire of an individual for admission into the church is the
prime factor necessary to make the rite effective,  and therefore wait until
adult age before the performance of the ceremony,  which requires an  immer-
sion of the whole body in water.   But whether the rite is performed in  in-
fancy or in laterlife,  it seems strange that momentary immersion or  sprin-
kling with water should have the power to save the soul; and when we examine
the subsequent life of those who have thus been baptized,  even in adult age
and with their full consent and desire, we find little or no improvement  in
the  great  majority.   Therefore it seems evident that this cannot  be  the
proper rite,  because the Spirit has not descended upon them.   Consequently
we must look for another explanation of what constitutes a true mystic  rite
of Baptism.

   A story is told of an Ottoman king who declared war on a neighboring  na-
tion, fought  a  number  of battles against it with varying success, but was

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finally  conquered and taken captive to the palace of the victor,  where  he
was  compelled to work in the most menial capacity as a slave.   After  many
years fortune favored him,  and he escaped to a far country,  where by  hard
work he acquired a small estate, married, and had a number of children,  who
grew  up around him.   Finally he found himself upon his deathbed at a  very
rip  old  age,  and in the exertion of drawing his  last  breath  he  raised
himself  upon his pillow and looked about him,  but there were no  sons  and
daughters there.   He was not in the place which he had regarded as home for
so  many years,  but in his own palace which he thought he had left  in  his
youth,  and he was as young as when he left it.  There he found himself sit-
ting  in a chair with a basin of water close to his chin and a  servant  en-
gaged in washing his hair and beard.   He had just immersed his face in  the
water  when the dream of going to war had started,  and a lifetime had  been
lived in dreamland during the few seconds it took until he raised his  face.
There  are  thousands of other instances to show that outside  the  physical
world  time  is nonexistent and the happenings of millennia are  easily  in-
spected in a few moments.

   It is also well known that when people are under water and in the act  of
drowning,  their  whole preceding life is reenacted before their  eyes  with
crystal clarity,  even the minutest details which have been forgotten during
the passing years standing  out sharply.  Thus there must be and is a store-

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house  of  events which may be contacted under certain conditions  when  the
senses are stilled and we are near sleep or death.

   To  make  this last sentence clear it should be understood and  borne  in
mind  that man is a composite being,  having finer vehicles which  interpen-
etrate the physical body,  usually regarded as the whole man.   During death
and sleep this dense body is unconscious on account of a complete separation
between it and the finer vehicles;  but this separation is only partial dur-
ing  dream-filled sleep and prior to drowning.   This condition enables  the
spirit to impress events upon the brain with more or less accuracy according
to circumstances,  particularly those incidents which are connected with it-
self.   In the light of these things we shall understand what really consti-
tutes the rite of Baptism.

   According  to the Nebular Theory that which is now the earth was  at  one
time a luminous fire-mist,  which gradually cooled by contact with the  cold
of  space.   This  meeting  of heat  with  cold  generated  moisture,  which
evaporated and rose from the heated center,  until the cold condensed it and
it fell again as moisture upon the heated world.   The surface of the  earth
being  thus subjected to alternate liquidation and evaporation for ages,  it
finally crystallized into a shell which perfectly covered the fiery  center.
This soft moisture-laden shell naturally generated a mist,  which surrounded
the planet as an atmosphere,  and this was the cradle of everything that has
its being upon the earth: man, animal, and plant.

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   The  Bible  describes this condition in the second  chapter  of  Genesis,
where we are told that at the time of the first man a mist went up from  the
earth,  "for it had not yet rained."  This condition evidently continued un-
til the Flood,  when the moisture finally descended and left the  atmosphere
clear so that the rainbow was seen for the first time, the darkness was dis-
pelled,  and the age of alternation, day and night, summer and winter,  com-
menced.

   By a study of the cosmology and the pictorial account of evolution  given
in the Northern Eddas,  treasured among the sages of Scandinavia before  the
Christian Era,  we may learn more of this period in the earth's history  and
the  bearing which it has upon our subject.   As we teach our  children,  by
means  of  stories and pictures,  truths that hey could  not  intellectually
grasp,  so the divine leaders of mankind were wont to teach the infant souls
in their charge by pictures and allegories,  and through these prepare  them
for a higher and nobler teaching of a later day.   The great epic poem which
is called "The Lay of the Niebelung,"  gives us the story of which we are in
search,  the cosmic origin of the rite of  Baptism and why it is necessarily
the preliminary step in the spiritual unfoldment of the Christian Mystic.

   The  cosmogony of the Eddas is similar to that of the  Bible is some  re-
spects, and in others gives points which bear out the theory of Laplace.  We
quote from the poetical version of Oehlenschlaeger:

[PAGE 70]

"In the Being's earliest Dawn
All was one dark abyss,
Nor heaven nor earth was known.
Chill noxious fogs and ice,
North from murk Niflheim's hole,
Piled up in mountains lay;
From Muspel's radiant pole,
Southwards fire held the sway.


"Then after ages passed,
Mid in the chaos met
A warm breath, Niflheim's blast,
Cold with prolific heat.
Hence pregnant drops were formed,
Which by the parent air
From Muspel's region warmed,
Produced great Aurgelmer."

   Thus by the action of heat and cold Aurgelmer,  or as he is also  called,
the Giant Ymer,  was first formed.  This was the pregnant seed ground whence
came the spiritual Hierarchies,  the spirits of the earth,  air,  and water,
and finally man.   At the same time the All-Father created the Cow  Audumla,
from whose four teats issued four streams of milk,  which nourished all  be-
ings.   These are the four ethers,  one of which now sustains  mineral,  two
feed the plant,  three the animal,  and all four the human kingdom.   In the
Bible they are the four rivers which went forth out of Eden.

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   Eventually,  as postulated by science,  a crust must have been formed  by
the continued boiling of the water,  and from this drying crust a mist  must
have  ascended as taught in the second chapter of Genesis.   By degrees  the
mist must have cooled and condensed,  shutting out the light of the sun,  so
that  it would have been impossible for early mankind to perceive  the  body
even had they possessed the physical vision.  But under such conditions they
had no more need of eyes that a mole which burrows in the ground.  They were
not blind,  however,  for we re told that "THEY SAW GOD";  and as "spiritual
things (and beings) are spiritually perceived,"  they must have been  gifted
with spiritual sight.  In the spiritual worlds there is a different standard
of reality than here, which is the basis of myths.

   Under these conditions there could be no clashing of interests,  and  hu-
manity regarded itself as the children of one great Father while they  lived
under the water of ancient Atlantis.  Egoism did not come into the world un-
til  the  mist  had condensed and they had left  the  watery  atmosphere  of
Atlantis.   When their eyes had been opened so that they could perceive  the
physical world and the things therein,  when each saw himself or herself  as
separate and apart from all others, the consciousness of "me and mine,  thee
and thine,"  took shape in the nascent minds,  and a grasping greed replaced
the fellow feeling which obtained under the waters of early Atlantis.   From
that time to the present stage of egoism has been considered the  legitimate
attitude, and even in our boasted civilization altruism  remains  a  Utopian

[PAGE 72]

dream not to be indulged in by practical people.

   Had mankind been allowed to travel the path of egoism without let or hin-
drance, it is difficult to see where it all would have ended.  But under the
immutable  Law of Consequence every cause must produce an  adequate  effect;
the  principle of suffering was born from sin for the benevolent purpose  of
guiding  us back to the path of virtue.   It takes much suffering  and  many
lives  to accomplish this purpose,  but finally when we have become  men  of
sorrows  and acquainted with grief,  when we have cultivated that  keen  and
ready  sympathy which feels all the woe of the world,  when the  Christ  has
been born within, there comes to the Christian Mystic that ardent aspiration
to seek and to save those who are lost and show them the way to  everlasting
light and peace.

   But to show the way,  we must know the way;  without a true understanding
of  the  CAUSE OF SORROW we cannot teach others to obtain  permanent  peace.
Nor can this understanding of sorrow, sin, and death be obtained from books,
lectures,  or even the personal teachings of another; at least an impression
sufficiently  intense to fill the aspirant's whole being cannot be  conveyed
in that way.   Baptism alone will accomplish the purpose in an adequate man-
ner; therefore the first step in the life of a Christian Mystic is Baptism.

   But  when we say Baptism,  we do not necessarily mean a physical  Baptism
where the candidate is either sprinkled or immersed and where he makes  cer-
tain promises to  the  one  who  baptizes  him.  The Mystic Baptism may take

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place in a desert as easily on an island,  for it is a spiritual process  to
attain a spiritual purpose.   It may take place at any time during the night
or day,  in summer or winter, for it occurs at the moment when the candidate
feels with sufficient intensity the longing to know the cause of sorrow  and
alleviate  it.   Then the Spirit is conducted under the waters of  Atlantis,
where it sees the primal condition of brotherly love and kindness;  where it
perceives God as the great Father of His children,  who are there surrounded
by His wonderful love.   And by the conscious return to this Ocean of  Love,
the candidate becomes so thoroughly imbued with the feeling of kinship  that
the  spirit of egoism is banished from him forever.   It is because of  this
saturation with the Universal Spirit that is able later to say:   "If a  man
takes  your coat,  give him you cloak also; if he asks you to walk one  mile
with him,  go with him two miles."  Feeling himself one and all,  the candi-
date does not even consider the murder of himself as mistreatment,  but  can
say:   "Father, forgive them."  They are identical with himself, who suffers
by  their action;  he is the aggressor as well as the victim.   Such is  the
true Spiritual Baptism of the Christian Mystic,  and any other baptism  that
does not produce this universal fellow feeling is not worthy of the name.

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                               THE TEMPTATION:

   We  often hear about devout Christians complain of their periods  of  de-
pression.  At times they are almost in the seventh heaven of spiritual exal-
tation,  they all but see the face of Christ and feel as if He were  guiding
their every step;  then without any warning and without any cause that  they
can  discover the clouds gather,  the Savior hides His face,  and the  world
grows black for a period.  They cannot work, they cannot pray; the world has
no attraction,  and the gate of heaven seems shut against them, with the re-
sult that life appears worthless so long as this spiritual expression lasts.
The reason is, of course, that these people live in their emotions,  and un-
der  the immutable Law of Alternation the pendulum is bound to swing as  far
to one side of the neutral point as it has swung to the other.  The brighter
the light, the deeper the shadow, and the greater the exaltation, the deeper
the  depression  of  spirit which follows it.  Only those who by cold reason

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restrain  their emotions escape the periods of depression,  but  they  never
taste  the heavenly bliss of exaltation either.   AND IT IS  THIS  EMOTIONAL
OUTPOURING OF HIMSELF WHICH FURNISHED THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC WITH THE  DYNAMIC
ENERGY  TO PROJECT HIMSELF INTO THE INVISIBLE WORLDS,  WHERE HE BECOMES  ONE
WITH THE SPIRITUAL IDEAL WHICH HAS BECKONED HIM ON AND AWAKENED IN HIS  SOUL
THE POWER TO RISE TO IT,  as the sun built the eye wherewith we perceive it.
The nestling takes many a tumble ere it learns to use its wings with  assur-
ance,  and the aspirant upon the path of Christian Mysticism may soar to the
very  throne of God times out of number and then fall to the lowest  pit  of
hell's despair.   But some time he will overCome the world,  defy the Law of
Alternation,  and rise by the power of the Spirit to the Father of  Spirits,
free  from the toils of emotion,  filled with the peace that passeth  under-
standing.

   But that is the end attained only after Golgotha and the Mystic  Baptism,
the latter of which we discussed in the preceeding chapter.  Moreover, it is
only the beginning of the active career of the Christian Mystic, in which he
becomes  thoroughly saturated with the tremendous fact of the unity  of  all
life,  and imbued with a fellow feeling for all creatures to such an  extent
that  henceforth  he can not only enunciate but practice the tenets  of  the
Sermon on the Mount.

   Did  the spiritual experiences of the Christian Mystic take him  no  fur-
ther, it would still  be  the most wonderful adventure in the world, and the

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magnitude of the event is beyond words,  the consequences only dimly imagin-
able.   Most students of the higher philosophies believe in the  brotherhood
of  man from the mental conviction that we have all emanated from  the  same
source,  as rays emanate from the sun.  But there is an abyss of  inconceiv-
able depth and width between this cold intellectual conception and the  bap-
tismal saturation of the Christian Mystic,  who feels it is his heart and in
every fibre of his being with such an intensity that it is actually  painful
to him;  it fills him with such a yearning, aching love as that expressed in
the  words of the Christ:   "Jerusalem, Jerusalem,  how often would  I  have
gathered thy children together,  even as a hen gathereth her chickens  under
her wings;"   a brooding,  yearning, and achingly protective love which asks
nothing for self save only the privilege to nurture, to shield, and to cher-
ish.

   Were  even a faint resemblance to such a universal fellow feeling  abroad
among humanity in this dark day, what a paradise earth would be.  Instead of
every man's hand being against his brother to slay with the sword,  with ri-
valry  and competition,  or to destroy his morals and degrade him by  prison
stripes  or  industrial bondage under the whiplash of necessity,  we  should
have neither warriors nor prisoners but a happy contented world,  living  in
peace and harmony,  learning the lessons which our Father in Heaven aims  to
teach us in this material condition.  AND ALL THE MISERY IN THE WORLD MAY BE
ACCOUNTED FOR BY THE FACT THAT IF WE BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE AT ALL, WE BELIEVE
WITH OUR HEAD AND NOT WITH OUR HEART.

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   When we came up through the waters of Baptism, the Atlantean Flood,  into
the Rainbow Age of alternating seasons,  we became prey to the changing emo-
tions  which whirl us hither and yon upon the sea of life.   The cold  faith
restrained  by reason entertained by the majority of  professing  Christians
may given them a need of patience and mental valance which bears them up un-
der  the trials of life,  but when the majority get the LIVING FAITH of  the
Christian Mystic which laughs at reason because it is HEART-FELT,  then  the
Age of Alternation will be past,  the rainbow will fall with the clouds  and
the air which now composes the atmosphere, and there will be a new heaven of
pure ether, where we shall receive the Baptism of Spirit and "THERE SHALL BE
PEACE" (Jerusalem).

   We are still in the Rainbow Age and subject to its low, so we may realize
that  as the Baptism of the Christian Mystic occurs at a time  of  spiritual
exaltation,  it must necessarily be followed by a reaction.   The tremendous
magnitude of the revelation overpowers him, he cannot realize it or  contain
it in his fleshly vehicle, so he flees the haunts of men and betakes himself
to the solitude allegorically represented as a desert.  So rapt is he in his
sublime discovery that for the time being in his ecstacy he sees the Loom of
Life upon which the bodies of all that live are woven, from the least to the
greatest-the mouse and the man, the hunter and his prey, the warrior and his
victim.   But to him they are  not separate and apart,  for he also  beholds
the one divine thread of golden life-light "which runs through all and  doth
all unite."  Nay, more, he  hears  in  each the flaming keynote sounding its

[PAGE 78]

aspirations and voicing its hopes and fears, and he perceives this composite
color-sound  as the world anthem of God made flesh.   This is at  first  en-
tirely beyond his comprehension;  the tremendous magnitude of the  discovery
hides it from him, and he cannot conceive what it is that he sees and feels,
for there are no words to describe it, and no concept can cover it.   But by
degrees  it  dawns  upon  him  that HE IS AT  THE  VERY  FOUNTAIN  OF  LIFE,
beholding, nay, more, FEELING its every pulse beat, and with this comprehen-
sion he reaches the climax of his ecstasy.

   So  rapt  has the Christian Mystic been in his beautiful  adventure  that
bodily wants have been completely forgotten till the ecstasy has passed, and
it is therefore only natural that the feeling of hunger should be his  first
conscious  want  upon his return to the normal state of  consciousness;  and
also naturally comes the voice of temptation:  "COMMAND THAT THESE STONES BE
MADE BREAD."

   Few passages of the sacred Scriptures are darker that the opening  verses
of the Gospel of St. John:  "In the beginning was the word . . .  .and with-
out it was not anything made that was made."   A slight study of the science
of  sound soon makes us familiar with the fact that sound is  vibration  and
that  different sounds will mold sand or other light materials into  figures
of varying form.  The Christian Mystic may be entirely ignorant of this fact
from  the scientific point of view,  but he has learned at the  Fountain  of
Life to sing the SONG OF BEING, which cradles into existence whatever such a

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master musician desires.   There is one basic key for the indigestible  min-
eral  stone,  but a modification will turn it to gold wherewith to  purchase
the means of sustenance, and another keynote peculiar to the vegetable king-
dom  will  turn it into food,  a fact known to all advanced  occultists  who
practice incantations legitimately for spiritual purposes but never for  ma-
terial profit.

   But  the  Christian Mystic who has just emerged from his Baptism  in  the
Fountain  of Life immediately shrinks in horror at the suggestion  of  using
his  newly  discovered power for a selfish purpose.   It was the  very  soul
quality  of unselfishness that ld him to the waters of consecration  in  the
Fountain of life, and sooner would he sacrifice all, even life itself,  that
use  this new-found power to spare himself a pang of pain.   Did he not  see
also the Woe of the World?  And does he not feel it in his great hearth with
such  an intensity that the hunger at once disappears and is forgotten?   He
may,  will,  and does use this wonderful power freely to feed the  thousands
that gather to hear him,  but never for selfish purposes else he would upset
the equilibrium of the world.

   The Christian Mystic does not reason this out, however.  As often stated,
he has not reason, but he has a much safer guide in the interior voice which
always speaks to him in moments when a decision must be made.  "MAN DOES NOT
LIVE  BY BREAD ALONE,  BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH FROM  GOD";-another
mystery.   There is not need to partake of earthly bread for one who has ac-
cess to the Fountain of Life.  The more  our  thoughts  are centered in God,

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the  less  we shall care for the so-called pleasures of the  table,  and  by
feeding our gross bodies sparingly on selected simple foods we shall  obtain
an  illumination  of spirit impossible to one who indulges in  an  excessive
diet  of coarse foods which nourish the lower nature.   Some of  the  saints
have used fasting and castigation as a means of soul growth,  but that is  a
mistaken method for reasons given in an article on "Fasting for Soul Growth"
published  in the December 1915 number of "Rays from the Rose  Cross."   The
Elder  Brothers of humanity who understand the Law and live accordingly  use
food  only  at intervals measured by years.   The word of God is to  them  a
"living bread."  So it becomes also to the Christian Mystic, and the Tempta-
tion instead of working his downfall has led him to greater heights.

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                             THE TRANSFIGURATION:

   We  remember that by the mystic processes of the true  Spiritual  Baptism
the aspirant becomes so thoroughly saturated with the Universal Spirit  that
as a matter of actual fact,  feeling, and experience he becomes one with all
that lives,  moves,  and has its being,  one with the pulsating divine  Life
which  surges in rhythmic cadence through the least and the greatest  alike;
and having caught the keynote of the celestial song he is then endued with a
power of tremendous magnitude, which he may use either for good or ill.   It
should  be understood and remembered that though gunpowder and dynamite  fa-
cilitate farming when used for blowing up tree stumps which would  otherwise
require a great deal of manual labor to extract,  they may also be used  for
destructive  purposes as in the great European war.   Spiritual powers  also
may  be used for good or ill depending upon the motive and character of  the
one who wields them.  Therefore, whoever has successfully undergone the rite

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of Baptism and thereby acquired spiritual power is forthwith tempted that it
may be concerned decided whether he will range himself upon the side of good
or evil.  At this point he becomes either a future "Parsifal," a "Christ," a
"Herod,"  or a "Klingsor"  who fights the Knights of the Holy Grail with all
the powers and resources of the Black Brotherhood.

   There  is  a  tendency in modern materialistic science  to  repudiate  as
fable,  worthy of attention only among superstitious servant girls and fool-
ish  old women,  the ideas commonly believed in as late as the Middle  Ages,
that such spiritual communities as the Knights of the Grail at one time  ex-
isted,  or that there are such beings as the "Black Brothers."  Occult soci-
eties in the last half century have educated thousands to the fact that  the
Good Brothers are still in evidence and may be found by those who seek  them
in  the  proper way.   Now unfortunately the tendency among  this  class  of
people is to accept anyone on his unsupported claims as a Master or an dept.
But even among this class there are few who take the existence of the  Black
Brothers  seriously,  or realize what an enormous amount of damage they  are
doing in the world,  and how they are aided and abetted by the general  ten-
dency of humanity to cater to the lusts of the flesh.   As the good  forces,
which are symbolized as the servants of the Holy Grail, live and grow by un-
selfish service which enhances the luster of the glowing Grail Cup,  so  the
Powers of Evil, known as the Black Grail and represented in the Bible as the
court  of  Herod,  feed on pride and sensuality, voluptuousness and passion,

[PAGE 83]

embodied in the figure of Salome, who glories in the murder of John the Bap-
tist and the innocents.  It was shown in the legend of the Grail as embodied
in  Wagner's "Parsifal"  that when the Knights were denied  the  inspiration
from the Grail Cup,  on which they fed and which spurred them onto deeds  of
greater  love  and service,  their courage flagged and  they  became  inert.
Similarly  with the Brothers of the Black Grail.   Unless they are  provided
with words of wickedness they will die from starvation.   Therefore they are
ever active in the world stirring up strife and inciting others to evil.

   Were not this pernicious activity counteracted in a great measure by  the
Elder Brothers at their midnight services at which they make themselves mag-
nets for all the evil thoughts in the Western World and then by the  alchemy
of sublime love transmute them to good,  a cataclysm of still greater magni-
tude that the recent World Wrar would have occurred long ago.  As it is, the
Genius  of Evil has been held within bounds in some measure at least.   Were
humanity  not  so ready to range itself on the side of evil,  success  would
have been greater.   But it is hoped that the spiritual awakening started by
the war will result in turning the scale and give the construction  agencies
in evolution the upper hand.

   It is a wonderful power which is centered in the Christian Mystic at  the
time of his Baptism by the descent and concentration within him of the  Uni-
versal Spirit; and  when  he  has refused during the period of temptation to

[PAGE 84]

desecrate it for personal profit or power, he must of necessity give it vent
in another direction, for he is impelled by an irresistable inner urge which
will not allow him to settle down to an inert,  inactive life of prayer  and
meditation.   The power of God is upon him to preach and glad tidings to hu-
manity, to help and heal.  We know that a stove which is filled with burning
fuel cannot help heating the surrounding atmosphere;  neither can the Chris-
tian  Mystic help radiating the divine compassion which fills his  heart  to
overflowing,  nor is he is doubt whom to love or whom to serve or  where  to
find his opportunity.   As the stove filled with burning fuel radiates  heat
to all who are within its sphere of radiation, so the Christian Mystic feels
the love of God burning within his heart and is continually radiating it  to
all with whom he comes in contact.   As the heated stove draws to itself  by
its  genial warmth those who are suffering with physical cold,  so the  warm
love  rays of the Christian Mystic are a a magnet to all those whose  hearts
are chilled by the cruelty of the world, by man's inhumanity to man.

   If the stove were empty but endowed with the faculty of speech,  it might
preach  forever the gospel of warmth to those who are physically  cold,  but
even  the finest oratory would fail to satisfy its audience.   When  it  has
been filled with fuel and radiates warmth, there will be no need of  preach-
ing.   Men will come to it and be satisfied.  Similarly a sermon on brother-
hood by one who has not laved in the "Fountain of Life"  will sound  hollow.
The true Mystic need not preach.  His  every  act, even his silent presence,

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is more powerful that all the most deeply thought-out discourses of  learned
doctors of philosophy.

   There  is a story of St.  Francis  of Assisi  which  particularly  illus-
trates this fact, and which we trust may serve to drive it home, for its ex-
ceedingly important.   It is said that one day St.  Francis went to a  young
brother  in the monastery with which he was then connected and said to  him:
"Brother,  let  us go down to the village and preach to  them."   The  young
brother was naturally overjoyed at the honor and opportunity of accompanying
so hold a man as St.  Francis,  and together the two started toward the vil-
lage,  talking all the while about spiritual things and the life that  leads
to  God.   Engrossed in this conversation they passed through  the  village,
walking along its various streets,  now and then stopping to speak a  kindly
word to one or another of the villagers.  After having made a circuit of the
village St.  Francis was heading toward the road which led to the  monastery
when  of a sudden the young brother reminded him of his intention to  preach
in  the village and asked him if he had forgotten it.   To this St.  Francis
answered:   "My son,  are you not aware that all the while we have  been  in
this  village  we have been preaching to the people all around us?   In  the
first place,  our simple dress proclaims the fact that we are devoted to the
service  of God,  and as soon as anyone sses us his thoughts naturally  turn
heavenward.   Be sure that everyone of the villagers has been  watching  us,
taking  note of our demeanor to see in how far it conforms with our  profes-
sion.  They have listened to our words  to  find  whether  they  were  about

[PAGE 86]

spiritual  or  profane subjects.   They have watched our gestures  and  have
noted that the words of sympathy we dispensed came straight from our  hearts
and went deep into theirs.   We have been preaching a far more powerful ser-
mon  that if we had gone into the market place,  called them around us,  and
started to harangue them with an exhortation to holiness."

   St. Francis was a Christian Mystic in the deepest sense of the word,  and
being taught from within by the spirit of God he knew well the mysteries  of
life, as did Jacob Boehme and other holy men who have been similarly taught.
They  are  in  a certain sense wiser than the  wisest  of  the  intellectual
school, but it is not necessary for them to expound great mysteries in order
to  fulfill  their mission and serve as guide posts to others who  are  also
seeking  God.   The very simplicity of their words and acts carries with  it
the power of conviction.   Naturally, of course, all do not rise to the same
heights.   All have not the same powers anymore than all the stoves  are  of
the  same  size and have the same heating capacity.   Those who  follow  the
Christian Mystic path, from the least to the greatest,  have experienced the
powers  conveyed  by Baptism according to their capacity.   They  have  been
tempted to use those powers in an evil direction for personal gain, and hav-
ing overcome the desire for the world and worldly things they have turned to
the path of ministry and service as Christ did;  their lives are marked  not
so much by what they have said as by what they have done.   The true  Chris-
tian  Mystic  is  easily  distinguished.  He  never  uses  the six week days

[PAGE 87]

to  prepare  for  a  grand  oratorical  effort  to  thrill  his  hearers  on 
Sunday, but spends every  day  alike  in  humble  endeavor  to  do  the Mas-
ter's  will  regardless  of  outward  applause.  Thus unconsciously he works
up  toward  that  grand  climax  which  in  the  history  of the noblest  of
all who have trod this path is spoken of as the "Transfiguration."

   The  Transfiguration is an alchemical process by which the physical  body
formed  by the chemistry of physiological processes is turned into a  living
stone such as is mentioned in the Bible.   The medieval alchemists who  were
seeking  the  Philosopher's Stone were not concerned with  transmutation  of
such  dross  as material god,  but aimed at the greater  goal  as  indicated
above.

   Moisture  gathered in the clouds falls to earth as rain when it has  con-
densed sufficiently,  and it is again evaporated into clouds by the heat  of
the sun.   This is the primal cosmic formula.   Spirit also condenses itself
into  matter and becomes mineral.   But though it be crystallized  into  the
harness of flint,  life still remains,  and by the alchemy of nature working
through  another life stream the dense mineral constituents of the soil  are
transmuted to a more flexible structure in the plant,  which may be used  as
food for animal and man.   These substances become sentient flesh by the al-
chemy of assimilation.  When we note the changes in the structure of the hu-
man body evidenced by comparison of the Bushmen,  Chinese,  Hindus,  Latins,
Celts,  and Anglo-Saxons,  it is plainly apparent that the flesh of  man  is
even now undergoing a refining process  which  is  eradicating  the coarser,

[PAGE 88]

grosser substances.   In time by evolution this process of  spiritualization
will  render  our flesh transparent and radiant with the Light  that  shines
within,  radiant as the face of Moses, the body of Buddha, and the Christ at
the Transfiguration.

   At  present the effulgence of the indwelling Spirit is effectually  dark-
ened by our dense body, but we may draw hop even from the science of chemis-
try.  There is nothing on earth so rare and precious as radium, the luminous
extract of the dense black mineral called pitchblende;  and there is nothing
so rare as that precious extract of the human body, the radiant Christ.   At
present we are lavoring to form the Christ within, but when the inner Christ
has grown to full stature, He will shine through the transparent body as the
LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

   It is an anatomical fact of common knowledge that the spinal cord is  di-
vided into three sections,  from which the motor,  sensory,  and sympathetic
nerves  are controlled.   Astrologically these are ruled by the moon,  Mars,
and  Mercury,  which are divine Hierarchies tht have played a great role  in
human  evolution through the nervous systems indicated.   Among the  ancient
alchemists  these  were designated by the three alchemical  elements,  salt,
sulphur,  and mercury.   Between them and upon them played the spinal Spirit
Fire of Neptune.   It rose in a serpentine column through the spinal cord to
the  ventricles of the brain.   In the great majority of mankind the  Spirit
Fire is still exceedingly weak.  But whenever a  spiritual  awakening occurs

[PAGE 89]

in anyone such as that which takes place in a genuine conversion,  or better
still  at the Baptism of the Christian Mystic,  the the downpouring  of  the
Spirit,  which is an actual fact,  augments the spinal Spirit Fire to an al-
most  unbelievable extent,  and forthwith a process of  regeneration  begins
whereby  the  gross substances of the threefold body of many  are  gradually
thrown out,  rendering the vehicles more permeable and quickly responsive to
spiritual impulses.   The further the process if carried, the more efficient
servants they become in the vineyard of the Master.

   The spiritual awakening which starts this process of regeneration in  the
Christian Mystic who purifies himself by prayer and service,  comes also  of
course to those who are seeking God by way of knowledge and service,  but it
acts in a different way,  which is noted by the spiritual investigator.   In
the  Christian  Mystic the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire  is  concentrated
principally  upon the lunar segment of the spinal cord,  which  governs  the
sympathetic nerves under the rulership of Jehovah.   Therefore his spiritual
growth is accomplished by faith as simple,  childlike,  and unquestioning as
it was in the days of early Atlantis when men were mindless.   He  therefore
draws  down  the great white Light of Deity reflected through  Jehovah,  the
Holy Spirit, and attains to the whole wisdom of the world without the neces-
sity of laboring for it intellectually.   This gradually transmutes his body
into THE WHITE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, THE DIAMOND SOUL.

[PAGE 90]

   In  those,  on the other hand,  whose minds are strong and  insistent  on
knowing the reason why and the wherefore of every dictum and dogma, the Spi-
nal  Fire  of regeneration plays upon the segments of the red Mars  and  the
colorless Mercury,  endeavoring to infuse desire with reason,  to purify the
former of the primal passion that it may become chaste as the rose, and thus
transmute the body into the RUBY SOUL, THE RED PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, TRIED BY
FIRE, PURIFIED, A CREATIVE BUDDING INDIVIDUALITY.

   All who are upon the Path, whether the path of occultism or of mysticism,
are weaving the "golden wedding garment"  by this work from within and  from
without.   In some the gold is exceedingly pale,  and in others it is deeply
red.  But eventually when the process of Transfiguration has been completed,
or rather when it is nearing completion,  the extremes will blend,  and  the
transfigured  bodies will become balanced in color,  for the occultist  must
learn the lesson of deep devotion,  and the Christian Mystic must learn  how
to  acquire knowledge by his own efforts without drawing upon the  universal
source of all wisdom.

   This view gives us a deeper insight into the Transfiguration reported  in
the  Gospels.   We should remember distinctly that IT WAS  THE  VEHICLES  OF
JESUS  WHICH WERE TRANSFIGURED temporarily by the indwelling Christ  Spirit.
But even while allowing for the enormous potency of the Christ Spirit in ef-
fecting the Transfiguration it is evident that Jesus must be a sublime char-
acter without a peer.  The Transfiguration as seen in the  Memory  of Nature

[PAGE 91]

reveals his body as a dazzling white,  thus showing his dependence upon  the
Father, the Universal Spirit.  There is a great diversity in present attain-
ments,  but in the kingdom of Christ the differences will  gradually  disap-
pear, and a uniform color indicating both knowledge and devotion will be ac-
quired  by  all.   This  color will correspond to the  pink  color  seen  by
occultists as the Spiritual Sun,  the vehicle of the Father.   When this has
been  accomplished,  the Transfiguration of humanity will be  complete.   We
shall then be one with our Father, and His kingdom will have come.

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