PART V

The Mystery of Melchisedec
AMONG all the characters mentioned in the Bible none is more mysterious than Melchisedec; said to be without father, mother, or earthly kin, and holding the dual office of king and priest. Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews gives us most information showing the connection between Christ and Melchise- dec, both of them Kings and High Priests, but of ^different dispensations.
'*6od who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. ♦ ♦ ♦ No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, but He that paid unto Him* ^Thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee.' As He saith also in another place. Thou art a Priest for The Age after the order of Melchisedec, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him from death and was heard
The Mystery op Melchisedec 43
in that He feared though He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered; and being made perfect, He became author of eternal salvation unto all that obey Him; called of God a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered. • • • For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of kings and blessed him ; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of aU, first being by in- terpretation king of righteousness and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace; without father, without mother, without ancestorp, having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continual- ly. •• • And here men that die (the Levites) receive tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that He liveth. • • • if ^ there- fore, perfection were by the law and its priesthood what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order of Aaron? • • • For it IS evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth an- other priest who is made not after the law of carnal commandments but after the power of an endless life, for he testifies *Thou art a priest for The Age, after the order of Melchisedec.' • • • By so
44 Freemasonry and Catholicism
much was Jesus made the surety of a better testa- ment; ♦ ♦ ♦ because He continueth ever and has an Age lasting priesthood; • • • for the law maketh men High Priests who have infirmities, but the World of God which was since the law, maketh the Son who is consecrated for evermore. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum; we have such a High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord made and not man. • • • Al- most all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remis- sion; it was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves were better sacri- ficejs than these, for Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; • ♦ ♦ and now has He obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also He is mediator of a better covenant which was estab- lished upon better promises; for if the first coven- ant had been perfect then there should be no place for a second. But finding fault with the old He saith * Behold the days come when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
The Mystery of Melchisedec 45
the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, be- cause they continued not in my covenant, and I re- garded them not,' saith the Lord. • • • For this is the covenant that I will make to the House of Isrsel after those days, saith the Lord. *Z wUl put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people and they shall not Heach every rYian his neighbor and every man his brother saying. Know the Lord, for aU shall know me from the least to the greatest.* "
The foregoing quotations from Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews are not found there consecutively as here arranged. It is necessary to intelligently piece the Bible narrative together so that we may obtain an outline of the future development which has been sketched out by the divine Hierarchs to constitute our evolution. Comprehension of this plan is essen- tial to the correct understanding of the Cosmic rela- tionship of Freemasonry and Catholicism; it is also necessary to fully appreciate the purpose of the Mol- ten Sea and to learn how to intelligently make this wonderful alloy. As Paul says, these things are hard to say, but we shall make an attempt to pre- sent the mystery of Melchisedec and the Molton Sea in plain language so that we may aid in the express- ed purpose of the Bible to enlighten all men, that all shall know from the least to the greatest what is the purpose of evolution, and thus give them a chance to align themselves with the trend of Cosmic events.
46 Freemasonry and Cathoucism
To understand the mystery of Mdehisedec we must revert to the earlier epochs of man's stay upon the earth during the age called the Hyperborean Epoch. The earth was then in an extremely heated condition. Man in the making was then double sexed, male- female, like so many of our present plants, and he also resembled the plants in being inert and lacking in desire and aspiration. At that time man was the tractable ward of the Divine Hierarchs who guid- ed him physically, these being darkly referred to in the Bible as '* Kings of Edom.'' Later, during the Lemurian Epoch, when the body of man had crystal- lized and condensed somewhat more, mankind was divided into sexes physically. But as the con- sciousness of man was still focused in the spiritual world they were unconscious of the physical act of generation, as we are now of digestion; neither did they know birth or death and were in fact totally unaware of the possession of a physical vehicle until in time they sensed it during the generative process ; it was then said that *'Adam knew Eve.'* At that time the Lucifer Spirits, fallen Angels and inhabit- ants of the warlike planet Mars, taught them how to eat of the tree of knowledge, which is the symboli- cal name for the generative act. Thus by degrees their eyes were opened and they became aware of the phy/sical world, but lost touch with the spiritual and the Guardian Angels who had previously been their benevolent guides. Only a few of the most spiritual among them retained their higher vision and com-
The Mystery of Melchisedec 47
munion with the Divine Hierarehs. These were then known as prophets, who acted as messengers between the invisible divine leaders and their respective peo- ples. But in time mankind desired to select its own
/leaders and demanded visible kings; at least we know that the Israelites repudiated the divine ruler- ship and demanded a king, and thus Saul was ap- pointed. Then the dual office of Ruler and Priest, including temporal and spiritual leadership, was al- so divided, for no man sufficiently versed in worldly matters to fill the office of king efficiently, had been found holy enough to also undertake the spiritual leadership of his brethren, and vice versa. A true priest, able to lead his flock spiritually, cannot also beneficiently dominate their physical fortunes as
'* ruler of a temporal domain. For as Statecraft, in its highest phase, aims to rule the masses with an eye single to their physical welfare, and Priestcraft, benevolently exercised, seeks to guide them solely for the soul's progress, so conflict must of necessity follow this separation, even though both the spiritual and temporal rulers be actuated by the highest and most unselfish motives. Melchisedec was the sym- bolical name of the divine Hierarehs who filled the dual office of king and priest ; in the guiaance of their double-sexed charges and while they reigned there was peace on earth, but as soon as the offices of king and priest were divorced and the sexes divided, it is not surprising for the reasons given above that the peaceful reign of Melchisedec has been followed by
48 Freemasonry and Cathoucism
an age of war and strife, such strife as has been ex- perienced during the present dispensation. Former- ly the unifying factors of a dual office in the ruler and the double sex of his people precluded the clash- ing of interests which now obtains, and which will continue until another divine ruler shall present himself to embody within in his own person the qualifications of the dual office of king and priest after the order of Melchisedec, and until sex genera- tion be abolished. In this connection it is significant that the Bible narrative begins in the Garden of Eden, where mankind were male-female and innocent; then in the next chapter we are told of the division of sexes, the transgression of the command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and the infliction of the penalty — painful parturition and swift death. From then on the Old Testament tells of war, struggle and strife and in the last chapter makes the p rophec y that there shall a Sun of righteousness ari8?^Wih healing in his wings. Then the New Testament opens with an account of the birth of Christ, who pro- claimed a kingdom of heaven which is to be estab- lished. He is later called King and Priest after the order of Melchisedec, uniting within himself the dual office. It is also said that in heaven there will be neither marrying nor giving in marriage, for the soma psuchicon, or soul-body, which Paul tells us is the vehicle we shall use in the kingdom of heaven (First Corinthians, fifteenth chapter), is not liable to death and decay. Thus there will be no death, and birth
The Mystery op Melceosedec 49
of bodies like those generated in wedlock would be superfluous, for Paul tells us that fleph and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Hence marriage will be unnecessary, the clashing of interests due to the lust of the sex and the love of power will then disappear and the love of souls will be hallowed by the spirit of peace.
Thus it is plain that the Sons of Cain with their followers, the Craftsmen, and the Sons of Seth with their retinue, the CJiurchmen, must finally merge and ^be unified in the Kingdom of Christ. We have al- ready seen how Hiram Abiff, the Widow's Son, left his father, the Lucifer Spirit Samael, after the bap- tism of fire in the Molten Sea, and how he received the mission to prepare the way for the kingdom among the Sons of Cain, his brethren, by developing their arts and crafts as temple builders — ^Masons, — and teaching them the preparation of the Philoso- pher's Stone or Molten Sea. Thus also the physi- cally negative Sons of Seth must learn to leave their father, Jehovah, and naturally the first to take the step must be a great soul.
As the superlative skill of the Sonjs of Cain was .focused in Hiram Abiff at the time of his baptism of fire, so the sublime spirituality of the Sons of Seth was centered in Jesus at the time of His baptism in the water of Jordan. When He arose from this water He was in the same position as Hiram emerging from the fire; each had left his father respectively, Jeho- vah and Samael, and each was ready to serve the
4
50 Freemasonry and Cathoucism
Christ. Therefore the Christ Spirit was seen at the Baptism to descend upon Jesus' body, which was in- habited and used by Christ during His ministry. Jesus himself, the spirit, left that body and was given a mission to serve the churches while his body was being used for direct teaching by the Christ, and his blood was being prepared as an Open Sesame to the Kingdom of God, a Panacea to be used by His brethren, the Sons of Seth, in the same manner that the Molten Sea serves the Sons of Cain.
In the Epistle of the Hebrews where Paul gives us a few hints concerning the Mystery of Melchisedec in the chg,racter of High Priest, he emphasized the absolute necessity of blood as an adjunct to the Tem- ple Service; he shows how the High Priest was re- quired to offer blood for his own sins before he was qualified to give sacrifice also for the sins of the peo- ple, and that this double sacrifice mupt be performed year after year. He points to the sacrifice upon Golgotha as having been made once and for all, pro- viding a way of atonement through the blood of Jesus. During the regime of Jehovah, the blood of humanity had become impregnated witn egotism, which is the separative factor in this age. From this sin it must be cleansed before mankind can be united and enter the Kingdom of Christ. This was a gigan- tic task, for humanity had become so impregnated with selfishness that scarcely anyone would do an- other a favor. Hence the post-mortem panorama, of life at the time of Christ contained nothing that
The Mystery of Melchisedec 51
would give a life in the First Heaven or make for spiritual progress. Almost all the post-mortem ex- ijstenee of the people was spent in the purgatorial expiation of their wrong-doings, and even their Second Heaven life, where man learns to do creative work was almost barren. Then Solomon, the King, was again called into the arena of life to perform a mission for the benefit and welfare of his brethren, the Sons of Seth; he was peculiarly fitted for this work because at heart he was unselfiph as shown by the request which he made at the time when Jehovah appeared to him in a dream and asked what he would have as a gift when he ascended the throne. Solo- mon then said unto God **Thou hast shown great mercy unto David my father and hath made me to reign in his stead ; now, Lord, let thy promise unto David my father be established, for Thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge Thy people that is so great?*' And God said to Solomon : ' * Because this was in thine heart and thou hast not asked riches, wealth or honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life, but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thy- self that thou mayest judge my people over whom I have made thee king, wisdom and knowledge is grant- ed unto thee, and I will give thee riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings have had that
52 Freemasonry and Cathoucism
have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.''
It was this characteristic of unselfishness develop- ed in former lives that fitted the spirit of Solo- mon which inhabited the body of Je^us for the high mission it was destined to fulfill; to serve as a vehi- cle for the unifying unselfish Christ Spirit, for the purpose of bringing to an end the division between the Sons of Seth and the Sons of Cain and uniting them in the Brotherhood forming the kingdom of heaven.
When Faust made the pact with Mephistopheles, a,s recorded in the ancient soul-myth of that name, he was about to sign it in ink but MepWto says: '*No, sign it in blood." For this request Faust asks the reason and Mephistopheles says knowingly and cunningly ''Blood is a most peculiar essence!'' It is said in the Bible that the blood of bulls and calves will not take away sins and that is reasonable, but how then about the blood of Jesus, which is extolled as a panacea? To understand this great mystery of Golgotha it is necessary to study the composition and the function of the blood from the occult point of view.
When blood is placed under a microscope, it ap- pears as a number of minute globules or discs, but when seen by the trained clairvoyant as it courses through the living body blood is found to be a gas, a spiritual essence. The heat is caused by the Ego which is within that blood, for as the Bible says, the
The Mystery of Melchisedec 53
life is in the blood. Mephisto was right when he said that it is a most peculiar essence, for it contains the Ego, and whoever wants to obtain a power over the Ego mupt have his blood.
The human Ego is more powerful than the group spirit of the animal, as we can see when we apply the scientific test known as hflemolysis. Strange blood of a higher animal will kill, if inoculated into the veins of a lower species; if we take human blood and inject it into an animal, the animal will be un- able to endure the high vibration that is m the blood of the human being and it will die. On the other hand a human being may be inoculated with the blood of a lower animal without injury. In ancient times it was strictly forbidden anyone belonging to one tribe to marry into another tribe because it wap known then by the leaders of humanity that the strange blood would kill something; it always does. We read that Adam and Methuselah lived so many centuries; at that time it was the custom to marry in the family, marry as closely as possible, so that the tie of blood might be as strong as it could b6 made. Then the blood that coursed through the veins of the people in that family contained the pic- tures of all that had happened to the different ances- tors ; these were stored in the mind which is now sub- conscious. Then they were consciously and constant- ly before the inner vision of all people, and each family wap united by this common blood wherein the pictures of their ancestors lived. The sons saw the
56 Freemasonry and Catholicism
This journey of Christ is recorded in the Epistle of Jude after Christ had been freed from the flesh by the violent death of Golgotha. When anyone is killed, the venous blood with its impurities clings closely to the flesh, and therefore the arterial blood which flows is distinctly cleaner than it would other- wise be; it is more free from passion and desire. And being etherealized by the great Christ Spirit, the cleansed hlood of Jesus overflowed the world, puri- fied the etheric region of selfishness to a great extent, and gave man a better chance to draw to himself materials which will allow him to form altruistic pur- poses and desires. Thus the age of altruism was there inaugurated. By faith in this blood, and by imitiation of the Christ Life the Sons of Seth are therefore provided with a means of purging from themselves the curse of selfishness; while the Sonp of /Cain were given the emblem of the Rose and the Cross to teach them to work faithfully to make the Molten Sea, the Philosopher's Stone, and to find the New Word which shall admit them to the kingdom,, for they believe more in works than in faith.
The accompanying chart shows graphically the three Ages mentioned in this article:
(1) Tlie First Age, when each human being was a complete creative unit, male-female, double sexed, and ruled by one Hierarch, Melchisedec, who filled a dual office as King and Priest.
(2) The Second Age, when the division of the race
•^m
EVOLUTIOr
LEMURIAN EPOCI
HUMANITY WAl
OOUBLE-SeXEO
MALEFEMAl
EACH BEING A COM PLE
CREATIVE UNI
MEL(HISEDE({
KiNc ei
JUST£ RECEIVE
DIVINE RULER
OVER
HUMAN BROTH ERH
TYPIFIED BY
ABRAHAM
MELCHISEDEC IS. CALLEl
KING OF SALEM(
AND PEACE PREV/
SATURN PERIOD
POLARIAN EPOCH
SUN PERIOD
HYPERBOREAN EPOl
MOON PER
i
LEMURIAN E
EARTH
END OF
\
The Mystery of Melchisedec 57
into men and women, and the division of the ruler- ship into State and Church caused war and strife.
The State espouses the cause of Fatherhood and Man and upholds the male ideal of Arts, Crafts and Industry, embodied in Hiram Abiflf.
The Church espouses the cause of Motherhood and Woman and holds aloft the female ideal of love, and hearth and home embodied in the Madonna and her child.
It is the conflicting interests of the man and the woman, the home and the shop, the Church and the State, which cause the economic struggle, the war and the strife with which mankind is cursed and which make all long and pray for the reign of peace.
(3) The Third Age, when a divine Christ, who, like Melchijsedec, shall fill the dual ojB&ce of King and priest, and shall rule over a purged and glorified humanity, which has risen from sex-love to soul-love.
PAET VI
Spiritual Alchemy
WHEN we expose a piece of iron to the air, the oxygen contained in the latter element oxi- dizes the iron and in time disintegrates it. This pro- cess is commonly known as rusting. The blood comes in contact with the air every time it passes through the lungs, and as a needle is drawn to a magnet, so does the oxygen of the inspired air coalesce with the iron in the blood. A process of combustion takes place, which is similar to the rusting or oxidization we observed in the iron exposed to the air.
The ether contained in the dense fibre of wood, after the latter has undergone combustion in a stove, passes outwards through the iron in the form of semi-invisible heat-waves vibrating at different veloc- ities according to the degree of heat in the furnace. So the spiritual vibration generated by the combus- tion of oxygen and iron in our physical bodies, passes outwards and colors our invisible vehicles ac- cording to their vibratory pitch. Low vibrations are seen as red, the higher are yellow, and the highest blue. Experience has taught us that combustible material may be placed in a furnace and all condi-
Spiritual Alchemy 59
tions necessary to combustion may be present but that until the match is applied the materials remain unconsumed. Those who have studied the laws of combustion know also that a forced draft carries with it great quantities of oxygen which is necessary to obtain heat from fuel containing much mineral. The reason for this condition lies in the fact that miner '. als, being the lowest in the scale of evolution, vibrate at a correspondingly slower rate than the plant, ani- mal or man. It requires a maximum effort to raise their vibrations to such a pitch that combus- tion may liberate their spiritual essence, and oxygen is the accelerator in this process. Were the same amount of oxygen supplied to good vegetable fuel, which naturally vibrates at a much higher rate than mineral, the furnace would be in danger of destruc- tion because of the intensity of the heat generated.
A similar process takes place within the body, which is the temple of the spirit; this Is the flame which kindles the inner fire and generates the spirit- ual product which passes outwards from all warm- blooded creatures as heat radiates trom a stove. (Cold-blooded creatures are so low in the scale of evolution that they have as yet no life witJiin them- selves but are worked upon by the group-spirit from without entirely and it ijs the group-spirit which generates the life-giving currents responsible for the animation in these creatures; these currents pass in- wards to sustain the nascent life until it shall be able to respond and begin to send currents outwards from
60 Freemasonry and Cathoucism
itself.) These radiant lines of force emanating in- visibly to the physical sight from our dense bodies are our aura, as already stated, and while the color of each individual's aura differs from that of all other individuals there is nevertheless a basic or ground color showing its status in the scale of evolu- tion. In the lower races this ground color is a dull red like the color of a slow burning fire, indicating their passionate, emotional nature. When we ex- amine people upon a somewhat higher rung of the ladder of evolution, the basic color or vibration radiated by them is seen to be of an orange hue, the yellow of intellect mixed with the red of pajssion. By the spiritual alchemy unconsciously performed by them as they travel along the path of progress and learn to make their emotions subservient to mind in a measure, through many experiences in the school of life, they are gradually freeing themselves from bondage to the martial Lucifer Spirits and the War God Jehovah, whose colors are scarlet and red; also by obeying consciously or unconsciously the unify- ing altrustic Christ Spirit whose vibrations produce a yellow color which is thus mingling with the red and will gradually obliterate it. The golden aureole . painted by the artists gifted with spiritual sight ^around holy men is a physical representation of a spiritual promise which applies to Humanity as a whole, though it has only been realized by a few who are called Saints. After lives of battle with their passions, after patient persistence in well-doing, high
Spiritual Alchemy 61
aspirations and steadfast adherence to lofty purposes these people have raised themselves above the red ray and are now entirely imbued with the golden Christ ray and its vibration. This spiritual fact has been embodied by mediaeval artists gifted with spiritual sight, in their picture^ of saints whom they repre- sent as surrounded by a golden aureole, indicating their emancipation from the power of the Lucifer Spirits of Mars who are the fallen angels, as well as from Jehovah and His angels, who belong to an earlier stage of evolution and are the warders of national and race religions. The Lucifer spirits find expres,sion in the iron in our blood. Iron is a Mars metal, difficult to start into high vibration, so difficult that it takes many lives of great effort to change the product of its combustion to the golden color which designates the Saint. When that has been achieved, the great- est feat of alchemy has been performed; tJie base metal has been cTianged to gold, the wonderful alloy of the Molten Sea has been made from the dross of the earth. All that then remains is to ''pull fhe plugs" and pour it. The natural golden color is the Christ ray finding its chemical expression in the oxy- gen, a polar element, and as we advance upon the path of evolution towards Universal Brotherhood even those who are not professedly religious acquire a tinge of gold in their auras due to the higher altru- istic impulses common to the West. Paul speakp of this as ** Christ being formed in you," for when we have learned to mix the alloy by spiritual lives, when
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we vibrate to the same pitch as He, we are Christ- like, ready, as said, to pull the plugs of the crucibles and to pour the Molten Sea. Christ was liberated on the cross through spiritual centers located where the nails are said to have been driven, and elsewhere. And one who has prepared the Molten Sea is also in- structed by the Teacher how to pull the plugp and soar into the higher spheres or, as the Masonic saying iS/ to 'travel in foreign countries/'
This is in harmony with the dictum of Christ that to become His disciple one must leave father and mother. That is one of the hard fiayings of the Gos- pel and generally misunderstood because it is taken to refer to our physical father and mother in the present life, whereas in the esoteric point of view something very different was intended. To get the idea let us once more call to mind that the Lucifer spirits by the introduction of iron into the system made it possible for the human ego to become an in- dwelling spirit, but continued oxidation of the blood renders the body undesirable as a habitation in time and death ensues. Therefore, though the Lucifer spirits helped us into the body, they are also truly the angels of death, and the progeny of Samsel and Eve are subject thereto as well as the children begot- ten by her and Adam, for all are flesh.
The Sun is the center of life and rule^ the life- giving gas we know as oxygen which coalesces with the martial iron. Therefore Christ, the Lord of the Sun, is also the Lord of Life, and when by spiritual
Spiritual Alchemy 63
alchemy as has been explained, we become like Him, we are immortal and thus we leave our father Samsel and our mother Eve, and Death has no more dominion over Its, That does not mean that death may not happen to the body of such people, but the body is entirely under their control, and a body used by such people usually lasts for many hundreds of years unless it becomes expedient to take another one. Then by the same process of spiritual alchemy they are able to create an adult body for themselves and to leave the old body which they desire to discard for the new one which they have made previously and fitted to serve their purpose. The question will now probably arise in the reader's mind: *'How can an Initiate create such a new adult body, ready to wear, before he relinquishes his old oneT' The an- swer to this question involves an understanding of the law of assimilation, but it should be said in the first place that no one who has just become aware of the spiritual world and perhaps learned to func- tion in the soul-body only recently is capable of per- forming this feat. This requires a vastly more spiritual development, and only those who are very high in the scale of initiation at our present time are able to perform the feat. The method is, however, said to be as follows:
When food is taken into the body of anyone, be he Adept or ignoramus, the law of assimilation is that he must first overpower each particle and con- form it to himself; he must subdue and conquer the
64 Freemasonry and Cathoocism
individual cell life before it can become part of hip body. When this hasf been done, the cell will stay with him for a longer or a shorter time according to the constitution and place in evolution of the life that dwells within it. The cell composed of tissue that has once been incorporated in an animal body and interpenetrated by a desire body has the most evolved cell life, therefore this life quickly reassert? itself and leaves the body into which it has been tem- porarily assimilated. Hence one who lives upon a flesh diet must replenish his food supply very often ; such material would therefore be unsuitable for the purpose of building a body that has to wait for some time before the Adept enters it. Food consisting of vegetables, fruitjs and nuts, particularly when these are ripe and fresh, is interpenetrated by a great deal of the ether which composes the vital body of the plant. These are much easier to subdue and to in- corporate into the polity of the body, also they stay much longer there before the individual cell life can a.8sert itself. Therefore the Adept who wishes to build a body ready to wear before he leaves the old one, naturally builds it of fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts, taking them into the body which he uses daily where they become subjected to his will, a part of himself.
The soul-body of such a man is naturally very large and powerful; he separates a part of that and makes a mould or matrix into which he may build each day physical particles superfluous to the
Spiritual Alchemy 65
nourishment of the body he is using. Thus by de- grees, having assimilated a considerable surplus of new material, he may also draw upon the vehicle he is wearing for material that can be incorporated in the new body. So in the course of some time he grad- ually transmutes one body into the other, and when the point is reached where emaciation of the old body would be observable to the outside world and cause comment, he would have balanced matters so that the new body is ready to wear, and he can then step out of the old into the new. But he does not do that merely for the purpose of living in the same com- munity. It is possible for him by reason of his great knowledge to use the same body for many centuries in such a manner that it would still jseem young, for there is no wear and tear upon it such as we ordinary mortals cause by our passions, emotions and desires. But when he does create a new body it is always, as far as the writer knows, for the purpose of leaving the environment in which he is at that time and tak- ing up his work in a new place. It is by reason of this fact that we hear of men like Cagliostro, Saint Germain and others who one day appeared in a cer- tain environment, took up an important work and then disappeared. Nobody knew whence they had come or whither they had gone, but everybody that knew these people was ready to testify to their re- markable qualities, whether for the purpose of vilifi- cation or praise. This transition of the Adept from the dominion of death to the realm of immortality was
5
66 Freemasonry and Catholicism
foreshadowed in the daring leap of Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master-Workman of Solomon 'js 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; also in the baptism of Jesus and the subsequent descent from Golgotha into the /subterranean region where his vital body is still kept awaiting the day of final egress of the Christ Spirit at the second advent. In our next chapter we shall follow Hiram Abiff along this path of initia- tion to the embodiment he wore at the time of Christ's appearance upon the earth, showing where and how he received the new initiation.
PAET VII
The Philosopher's Stone — ^What It Is and How
It Is Made
THOSE who have studied the writings of the ancient alchemists have always been much mystified by what is said concerning the philosoph- er's stone and the process of transmuting the base metals into gold. These claims have naturally given rise to a great deal of vague speculation. From time to time, jatudents have asked for a direct statement from the writer concerning this subject of paramount importance, and as we are standing upon the thres- hold of a new age where this precious jewel with all its power will be evolved and possessed by a consid- erable number of people, we feel that it Is important to divest the subject of all the my/rtery that sur- rounds it and speak in pltgin terms conc^ming the matter. Then all who really wish to take the trouble involved, for it involves arduous labor, nothing worth having being ever gained without cost, may know how to make for himself this great gem.
We are taught that in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth — ^the whole universe in fact, and we understand that this great creative force express-
68 Fbeemasonby and Cathoucibm
68 itself either as wiU or imoffinaHon. By imagina- tion the Great Architect of the Universe tiust first have visualized everything as it now is, or as it was first created, and then by His will the physical atoms were mai;}3haled into this matrix of thought, thus gradually bringing the universe into manifestation as designed by its creator. Nor is this process com- plete, but will continue until the whole has become perfect as originally designed.
The divine Hierarchies who have carried out the plan of the Great Creator also use the /same dual crea- tive force when fashioning the crystal in the mineral, the leaf of the plant, or the shape of the animal. Their powerful imagination pictures in the archetypal region of the earth that which they desire to create, and their concentrated will moulds the coarser mat- ter into this matrix until it assumes a definite physi- cal form as desired.
Man, the spirit, has a like creative power, and has through ages, under the guidance of the Gods, learn- ed to build bodies of increasing value as instruments for his expression. But his pilgrimage through mat- ter was undertaken for the purpose of making him an independent creative intelligence, and to attain that end it was necessary that he should at the proper time, be emancipated from the guardianship of the Gods, so that he might learn to create, not only for himself, but also to aid and to teach others in the great School of Life.
During the course of his evolution, Man has be-
The Philosopher's Stone 69
come more and more enlightened concerning the mystery of Life; but nevertheless, it is only a few hundred years ago when life and liberty were en- dangered by the expression of opinions in advance of the commonly accepted views. It was for this rea- son that the alchemists who had studied more deeply than the majority, were forced to embody their teachings in highly allegorical and symbolical lan- guage. Their teaching concerning the spiritual evo- lution of man, and their use of the term^ Salt, Sul- phur, Mercury, and AzotJi, so mystifying to the mass- es, were nevertheless rooted in cosmic truths, highly illuminating to the Initiate. The students of the Rosicrucian teachings who have learned how the world came into being and the process of gradual creation should have no difficulty in properly under- /standing every part of the alchemists' language.
We know in the first place, that there was a time when Man-in-the-maMng was a hermaphrodite, male- female, and able to create from himself, and we re- member also that at that time he was like the plant in other respects. His consciousnesfs was like that which we possess in dreamless sleep and which is possessed by the plant. The vital energy which he absorbed into his body was used solely for the pur- pose of growing, until the time of propagation came, when a new budding body was cast off to grow also. There was no incentive to action, but if there had been, Man would have had no mind or will to direct it.
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For the emancipation of humanity from this nega- tive condition, one-half of the creative force was turned upward under the direction of the angels for the purpose of building a larynx and a brain, that Man might learn to create by thought as do the divine Hierarchies, and express the creative thought in words. Thus man ceased to be physically herma- phrodite and became uni-sexual. He can no longer create from himself physically as do the hermaphro- dite plants, nor psychically as do the Elohim, the male-female Hierarchs, in whose image he was origi- nally made, and thus he occupies at the present time, an unenviable intermediate position between the plant and the God.
At the time when one half of the human sex force was diverted for the purpose of building the brain, men were helpless and lacking in knowledge of how to overcome conditions. They did not even have the consciousness to know that there was a difficulty, and had no outside help been given the race must have died out. Therefore the Angels from the Moon, who were the guardians of mankind, herded the sexes together in great temples at times when the intei planetary lines of force were propitious to propaga- tion and thus they perpetuated the race. It was al- so proposed that when the brain had been complet- ed, the Lords of Mercury, Elder Brothers of our present humanity who excelled in intelligence, should teach us how to use the mind and make it truly crea- tive so that we would no longer be dependent upon
The Philosopher's Stone 71
the separate sexual process of generation now in vogue. Thus by the work of these two great Hier- archies, we were raised from unconsciousness to the first stage of creative intelligence, from plant to God,
We have also learned that this plan was frustrat- ed by the Lucifer Spirits, stragglers from the human- ity of the Moon Period, who live upon the planet Mars. They needed a physical field of action, but were unable to create one for themselves, hence for selfish reasons they taught humanity how by co- operation of the sexes a new body may be created at any time; and in order to give an incentive they instilled into mankind the animalistic pasjsionate nature which we now possess.
Thus to the ancient alchemists, the Angels from the Moon which rules the saline tides of the sea were designated by the term ^^Salt," They had found that a certain amount of salt in the blood is necessary to the mental processes, also that excess of salt in the blood, produces insanity, as best proven by the ex- periences of shipwrecked sailors who become lunatics when they drink water containing the lunar element Salt, Thus also they established a connection be- tween the Moon and mind.
The fiery Lucifer Spirits who have taken such a baneful part in man's evolution became associated ^ with the fiery element ^^ Sulphur. The alchemiiJts said that man is rendered unconscious and dies by continuous inhalation of this element; so man, the spirit, was rendered unconscious of and dead to the
72 Freemasonry and Catholicism
spiritual realms by the teachings which were instilled into him by the Lucifer Spirits.
The metal Mercury, they contended, is the most elusive of all metals. It will penetrate and evaporate through most substances with which it is brought in contact; and therefore they likened it to the Lords of Mercury who are past masterp in penetrating the secrets of nature by the mind. Mercury is also capa- ble of freeing the spirit from its physical prison house.
By the process of generation carried on at a pro- pitious time under the guidance of the Angels, man was treading the path from plant to God, following the highway of evolution as originally planned.
From this path he strayed into the byway of de- generation, led by the Lucifer Spirits, and is there- fore now as it were in a slough from which he cannot extricate himself save with the help of others further advanced than he.
When this becomes apparent to him and he starts to search for light, he stands at the pathway of re- generation guarded by the Lords of Mercury who with their wisdom will guide him toward the desired ists we shall discuss when we have summed up in a few words the points made. These must be firmly fixed in mind to appreciate the full value of what follows.
The creative force used by God to bring a solar system into manifestation, and the force u/sed by the
The Philosopher's Stone 73
divine Hierarchies to form the physical vehicle of the lower kingdoms over which they rale as group spirits, expresses itself in a dual manner as WiU and Imagi- nation, and ifl the same as the united creative force of the male and the female which re^ts in the \jrea- tion of a human body. At one time man was bi- sexual, male-female, and therefore each was able to propagate his species without assistance from any- one else. But one-half of the creative force has been temporarily diverted upwards to build a brain and larynx in order to enable him sometime to create by his own mind, to form thoughts and speak the word of power that shall make his thoughts flesh. Three great creative Hierarchies were particularly concern- ed in bringing about this change; the Angels from the Moon, the Mercurians and the Lucifer Spirits from Mars. The Alchanists connected the Angels from the Moon, which rules the saline tides, with the element salt, the Lucifer Spirits from Mars with the element sulphur, and the Mercurianp with the metal mercury. They used this symbolic presentation partly because of the religious intolerance which made it unsafe to promulgate any other teaching than that sanctioned by the orthodox church of that day, and partly because humanity as a whole was not yet ready to accept the truths which were em- bodied in their philosophy. They also spoke of a fourth element, Azoth, a name composed of the first and last letters of our classical languages and intend- ed to convey the same idea as ** alpha and omega"
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— ^that of all-inclusiveness. This referred to what we now know as the spiritual ray of Neptune, which is the octave of Mercury and which is the sublimated essence of spiritual power.
The alchemists knew that the moral and physical nature of man had become gross and coarse on ac- count of the passions inculcated by the Lucifer Spirits, and that, therefore, a process of distillation and re- finement was necessary to eliminate these character- istics and elevate man to the sublime heights where the splendor of the spirit ip no longer obscured by the coarse coating which now hides it from view. They therefore regarded the body as a laboratory and spoke of the spiritual processes in chemical terms. They noted that these processes have their inception and their particular field of activity in the spinal cord that forms the link between the two creative or- gans, tJie brain, which is the field of operation for the intellectual Mercurians, and the genitals, which are the vantage ground of the sensuous and passion- ate Lucifer Spirits.
This tripartite spinal cord was to the alchemists the crucible of consciousness; they knew that in the /sympathetic section of the cord which governs the functions that have to do particularly with the up-, keep and welfare of the body, the Lunar Angels were specially active and this segment was therefore designated as the element salt. The segment govern- ing the motor nerves which expend the dynamic energy stored in the body by our food they saw dear-
The Philosopher's Stone 75
ly to be under the dominance of the Martial Lucifer Spirits, and they, therefore, named that segment sul- phur. The remaining segment, which markp and registers the sensations carried by the nerves, was named mercury, because it was said to be under the dominance of spiritual beings from Mercury. TJie spinal canal, contrary to the ideas of anatomist^, is not filled with fluid, but with a gas that is like steam in that it may be condensed when exposed to the out- side atmosphere, but may also be super-heated by the vibratory activity of the spirit to such an extent that it becomes a brilliant and luminous fire, the fire of purification and regeneration. This is the field of action of the great spiritual Hierarchy from Neptune and is designated Azoth by the alchemists. This spiritual fire is not alike in every man nor is it as luminous in one as in another. The state thereof de- pends upon the spiritual advancement of the person in question.
When the aspirant to the higher life had been in- structed in these mysteries of symbolism and the time had come to speak to him plainly, the following teachings were communicated to him, not necessarily in these words nor in this manner. But at any rate he was given to understand and it was made clear to him that — '* anatomically man belongs to the ani mals, and that below that kingdom in the scale of evolution are the plants. They are pure and inno- cent, their propagative practices are untainted by passion, and their wJiole creative force is turned up-
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tuards toward the light, where it manifests as the flower, a thing of joy and beauty for all to behold. Yet the plants are unable to do otherwise, for they have no intelligence, no consciousness of the outside world and no free-will in action. They can only create in the physical world, however.
''Above man in the scale of evolution are the gods, creators upon the spiritual and physical planes. They also are pure as the plants, for their wJiole creative force is also turned upwards and is expended in whatever manner their inteUigence directs; and knowing good and evil, they always do good by choice.
''Between the gods and the plant kingdom stands man, a being endowed with intelligence, creative power and free-will to use it for good or ill. At pres- sent, however, he is dominated by the passion instill- ed by the Lucifer Spirits and sends one half of his creative force downward from the light to gratify his senses. In his innermost soul he realizes that this is wrong, and hence he hides his creative instinct in shame and is outraged when it is dragged into the light. This condition must be altered ere spiritual progresjs can be made, and, therefore, you must care- fully consider the similiarity between the chaste plant and the pure spiritual gods who hofh turn their whole creative power upwards towards the light. In the course of evolution you have risen above the plant, which has creative power only in the physical world, and have become like the gods possessing crea-
The Philosopher's Stone 77
tive power, on both the mental and physical planes of being, besides intelligence and free-will to direct it. This was accomplished by the diversion of one half of your sex-force upwards for building a brain and larynx, organs which are still fed and nourished by this uplifting half of the sex-force. But while the gods direct their whole creative force to altruistic purposes by the power of mind, you still squander one half of your divine heritage upon desire and sense-gratification. If, therefore, you would become as they, you mu^t learn to iurn your wJiole creative energy upward to be used under the direction of your intelligence entirely. Thus only can you become as the gods and create from yourself by the power of your mind and the Great Word whereby you may speak the creative fiat. Remember that physically you were once hermaphrodite like the plant and able to create from yourself. Look into the future now through the perspective of the past and realize that your pres- ent uni-sexual condition is only a temporary phase of evolution and that in the future your whole creative force must be turned upwards so that you shall be- come a hermaphrodite spiritually, and thus able to objectify your ideas and speak the living word which shall endue them with life and make them vibrant with vital energy. This duM creative force thup ex- pressed through the. brain and larynx is the ^^dixir- vitae'* which springs from the living stone of the spiritually hermaphrodite philosopher. The alchem- ical process of kindling and elevating it is accom-
78 Fbeemasonry and Cathoucism
plished in the spinal cord where the salt, svlphur, mercury and Azoth are found. It is raised to in candescence by high and noble thought, by medita- tion upon spiritual subjects, and by altruism express- ed in the daily life. The second half of the creative energy thus drawn upward through the spinal canal is a spinal spirit-fire, the serpent of wisdom. Gradu- ally it is raised higher and higher and when it reach- es the pituitary body and the pineal gland in the brain, it sets them to vibrating, opening up the spirit- ual worlds and enabling man to commune with the gods. Then this fire radiates in all directions and per- meates the whole body and its auric atmosphere, and man has become a living stone, whose lustre surpasses that of the diamond or the ruby, he is then Hie PJiUosopJier's Stone/'
There are many other symbols and similes taken from the world of chemistry and applied to the pro- cesses of spiritual growth which eventually makes men living stones in the temple of God. But enough has been said in the forgoing to phow what was meant by the ancient Alchemists by such terms and the reason why they clothed their teachings in sym- bolical language. The way of initiation is, however, and has always been open to anyone who really and truly seeks for enlightenment and is willing to pay the price in the coin of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Therefore, sed: the temple door and you shall find it; knock and it shall be opened unto you. If you seek prayerfully, if you knock persistently and if
The Philosopheb's Stone 79
you labor manfully you will in time reach the goal and you will become The Philosopher's Stone.
CELIBACY AND MARRIAGE
In order to avoid misunderstanding, it .should be said that this lesson was only given to the aspirant to diseipleship to show him the reason why it is necessary for him to live a pure and a chaste life. It does not apply to the masses who have no spiritual aspirations and are as yet unable to restrain their passions. The Bosicrucians do not even advocate an entirely celibate life for their pupils; indeed they regard it as a religious duty for the enlightened Mys- tic, man or woman, to wed a kindred spirit if such can be found, and thus fumiph incoming souls a particularly advantageous opportunity for rebirth. When such a devoted couple performs the genera- tive act in a spirit of aspiration to serve a waiting ego, when the prenatal conditions are pure mentally, morally and physically, when the early childhood days of the ego thus bom are spent in a home atmos- phere of high and noble thought, both parents and children are making wonderful progress. And as Great Soulp cannot be bom to ignoble parents any more than water can sink below its level, it would, indeed, be very wrong for aspirants to diseipleship to live an entirely celibate life for the sake of self- advancement when conditions permit them to wed; furthermore, the expenditure of the creative force at the few times in a life when it is legitimately required
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for propagation would not seriously interfere with the spiritual development undertaken to become The Philosopher's Stone, and the /soul-growth gained by assuming the duties of parenthood would far out- weigh any possible loss.
What the Bosicrueians teaeh then is that marriage between people who will limit their use of the crea- tive function to the purpose of propagation is em- inently good, noble and productive of great soul- growth, but that unmarried aspirants should live an absolutely celibate life if they wish to attain the highest.