Preface

UC-NRLF
SB E7M
\\
ROSICRUCIAN
INTERPRETATION OF
CHRISTIAN
BY /AAX HEINDEL
x
\
THE
ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
Occanside,
California
HOW SHALL WE KNOW
AT HIS COMING?
How Shall We Know
At His Coming?
Copyright by Max Heindel 1914.
Shorthand Report of a lecture delivered before the Los
Angeles Study Center Rx. F., May 18th, 1913,
by Max Heindel.
There is a picture in my mind; it has rested there for years; off and on, when I have time from the busy work of the day to turn inwards and look into that store house, that picture appears. Let me paint it for you. Follow me backwards in time about two thousand years, the scene is in Palestine ; the hills are bare; a little group of men are walking, and every face is sad in that group. They are mourning for One who they thought was coming to do great things- -One who has been taken from them by ruthless hands One whose life has been seemingly de- stroyed, and they ask themselves : Is this to be the end? This was a subject that was very close to their hearts. He had called them friends. He had said, "Ye are my
463269
2 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHKIST?
friends," and they mourned Him as a friend. He had also said to them, "If I go away, I will come again/1 and they were anxiously discussing when that advent would take place.
That was the beginning, but ever since that time, friends, it has been a subject of perennial interest among those who call themselves, by His grace, friends of Christ, It has been a theme of keen and vital inter- est among them. . When will He come again, and how shall we know Him at His coming? He had told them that many would come to deceive; that if people told them to go into the desert, or into this place or that place to look for Him, they should not go. He had told them that the angels in heaven did not know that day; that even the Son did not know, but only the Father, and, as said, they were anxiously discussing the proximate time of the ad- vent and, particularly, how they might pos- itively know Him at His appearance. Pre- tenders— there have been many since that day, who have claimed to be Christ; some deceive themselves and others into believing that they are that high and exalted Teacher. There are others who deliberately and ma- liciously seek to usurp His place. There-
Q O O
>TJ
4- C « —
£5 O
O
o o
UJ Q
O
H
Ul £ O
U.
O
\
_JDC DUJ
4-> O
OCO UJ
co
to
Z UJ
U U)
U
Z H
0*
/
"] a CO
co
g
oco
Sgt
0>^ J-Q.
El
COO.
oE
-ID.
I
Q.
cc
UJ CO
NERA ecomes MAN.
co
Ss
=«
4-1 (0
C 3
u. o
Q
zo
«
a?
O .
oE o^
U.hiJ
ooj zol^
OI-S
^
s3f
0) ^
S°
=2
CO
D O
o o
0
IQ hO
"
COL. CC_|
MOON PERIOD
, co
Is

co
J
Ul
o z
Wltf
GION OF )NCRETE HO
G
dO QldOM
o
DESIRE WORLD.
OCO
p
5°
^UJ \UK
o
•aiaoM
IVOISAHd
a>
3
o
— o)
E-E
13
4) C
x: o
*• a
ui-s. >£
(0 4-1 3
in s.
w di
nj 4) E 0)5.2
c?
« «S
E 4j M
± E
a' co.
'«- 5 =
O " 4->
•c^®
.J ^^ '^
^ 4) 4-> a»~" 3
— (0
0)
O)
E
.Q W C&
4 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
fore the subject: How shall we know Him? has perennial interest.
A year ago there appeared in an English magazine an article entitled "Occult Her- alds/' in it a synopsis of the Western Myst- ery Teaching, as given in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, and Eastern Occultism, represented by a society promulgating that doctrine, were ventilated. The leaders of the two societies were compared, and their works. Similarities were found, but the writer also noted with remarkable penetra- tion what superficial students of the West- ern Wisdom Teaching have failed to per- ceive, namely, the vital and irreconcilable difference in the teaching regarding Christ and His coming. It was shown that accord- ing to the Eastern teaching both Christ and the Bhudda, were men in ordinary life six thousand years ago, while in the West- ern mystery teaching it is said just as em- phatically that the Christ is a divine Hier- arc not of our evolution. "Who for us men came down," that having once -shed the dense body, He will never appear in a physi- cal vehicle again.
As this is one of the cardinal differences between the Wisdom of the West and the Eastern Teaching regarding one of the greatest problems of the day, it seems vital
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 5
that all students of the Western Wisdom teaching should thoroughly understand the matter. I am therefore going to depart from the usual custom, to keep the Sunday evening service entirely in a devotional line, and shall take part of the evening for a technical discussion of this subject. Were it possible to be away from the Headquar- ters of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, I would rather defer it to a week night, but the school demands my presence there, hence we must ventilate the matter tonight.
To systematize our discourse, we will di- vide it into four parts, each devoted to con- sideration of a question which has a definite hearing upon our subject:
1. Who is Christ?
2. Why did He come in the first place?
3. Why must He come Again?
4. How shall we know Him at His Appearing?
This will make it easier for those who have not studied the Western Wisdom Teaching to grasp the idea.
WHO IS CHRIST?
The first point which we must settle is the identity of Christ as taught in the Western Mystery School. According to the chart, "The Seven Days of Creation,'1 man has gone through a period of involution comprising the Saturn, Sun and Moon Peri-
6 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
ods; also one-half of the Earth Period; in this pilgrimage through matter he has gath- ered the vehicles he today possesses.
During the Saturn Period, when we were mineral-like, some beings were human as we are today, but they were of a different wave of evolution. They have since ad- vanced, and have become the Lords of Mind. The highest initiate of that evolu- tion— of the life wave that was then in the human stage — is called in esotericism, the Father.
The highest initiate of the Sun Period, when those beings which are now Arch- Angels were human, is called the Son, otherwise the Christ.
The present day Angels were human in the Moon Period, and the highest initiate whom we now call Jehovah is also called the Holy Spirit.
There we have the status of the three great beings most active as leaders of evo- lution.
The humanity of the Sun Period could not descend any further into the sea of matter than the Desire World (see the chart), therefore their lowest vehicle was the desire body, and as it is a cosmic law that no being can create a vehicle which it has not learned to build during its evolution,
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 7
any more than a carpenter can make shoes, it was impossible for the Christ Spirit to be born into a physical body ; He could not form such a vehicle. Neither could He form the vital body, made of ether. He also lacked the ability to function in the latter sub- stance, because He had never learned it in His evolution. To supply the needed vehi- cles for Christ, Jesus, a man of our evolu- tion— a man born of a father and a mother —both high initiates, who made the cre- ative act a sacrifice and performed the im- maculate conception without passion, gave up his dense and vital bodies at the Bap- tism— to the Sun Spirit Christ, Who then entered the material world and became Mediator, having all the vehicles necessary to function between God and man. Christ- Jesus is therefore absolutetly unique, and the Bible tells us that there is no other name whereby we must be saved, but by the name of Christ Jesus; that is the only authorita- tive Christian creed.
Having explained the identity of Christ and Jesus as stated in the Western Wis- dom Teaching, our next problem is :
.
8 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
WYH DID CHRIST COME HERE IN THE
FIRST PLACE?
On Golgotha, the physical body of the Christ was destroyed amid certain phe- nomena recorded in the Bible, and the Christ Spirit drew into the earth. Up to that time the earth had been worked upon from without. As the group spirits guide animals from without, so the earth had been guided in its orbit, and mankind had been led on the path of evolution entirely by Jehovah, but from that time the Christ became our indwelling Earth-Spirit. He now guides our planet in its orbit, and is endeavoring to replace the regime of war inaugurated by Jehovah, on the one hand, and the Martial Lucifer Spirits, on the other, by a regime of altruism, a reign of Universal Friendship. We hear much about Universal Brotherhood; but it is not neces- sary to form societies to proclaim that we are brothers; everyone knows that, there is no need of calling attention to that fact. Brothers and sisters are not always har- monious, however, they must be harmoni- ous if they are to be friends, and therefore Christ instituted a much higher ideal when He called His disciples friends; — "If ye love one another, if ye keep my command- ments, then ye are my friends.''
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 9
WHY MUST HE COME AGAIN?
While we have the emphatic promise of Christ's return, there are many Christians who do not believe in the Second Advent, so it may be well to see if there is any reason compelling his return.
To elucidate this point, let us take an il- luminative incident from "Faust." Though written by Goethe, this opera was not a fig- ment of his fancy, the legend of Faust is older than history; it is one of the myths which express in fanciful, pictorial terms the story of the soul's search after light. These tales were given to infant humanity that they might subconsciously imbibe the ideals which in later epochs they are to live. And, as a matter of fact, we use the same methods of instruction when we give our children picture books to inculcate ideas they are too young to grasp intellectually.
Faust has studied "Books" all his life and gradually realizes that we know only what we live, that apart from practical ap- plication in daily life, book learning is of no value. When the soul awakes to this fact, it stands at the portal of true knowl- edge, looking towards the LIGHT. But the road forks, one path is smooth and easy, all along the way are guides, servile and
10 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
smiling, ready to encourage the traveler and assist him in any way he desires, and at the end stands Lucifer, the Lightbringer, ready to give worldly honors to them that worship at his shrine. The other path is rough, rugged and dangerous; sometimes it is very dark; many a weak and bleeding heart is upon it, and full often one may hear the cry of anguish: "How long, Oh Lord! How long?" But though the soul struggles seemingly alone, it hears always a voice within, still, small and soundless, yet unmistakably clear: "Come ye that are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest," and occasionally "The True Light," Christ, the goal of the souls search, is seen through a rift in the storm clouds which must be passed to reach the summit of the path, and from the beatific vision the seek- ing soul gathers new strength.
On the black path Lucifer panders to every appetite without restraint or reser- vation. While the soul drifts with the tide, all seems easy, and pleasure seems to wait at every turn, but when at length it has come to the end of the river of life, instead of soaring aloft to its proper goal, it is drawn down by the base appetites which cling to it as the flesh of an unripe fruit clings to the kernel, and it experiences with
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 11
thousandfold instensity the pain incidental to tearing itself away from the fetters welded by sin.
Thomas a Kempis remarks upon the de- sire of the majority to live a long life, and how few are concerned to live a good life. I might paraphrase him by exclaiming, "Oh! how many are desirous of attaining spiritual powers, but how few strive to cul- tivate spirituality. The story of Faust gives us an insight into what may happen when we exclaim with all the intensity of our whole being:
Oh ! are there spirits in the air,
Who oat 'twixt heaven and earth dominion
wielding? Come down from yonder golden atmosphere,
Take me to scenes new life and fuller yielding. A magic mantle did I but possess,
To waft me thither as on viewless wings, I' prize it more than any earthly dress,
Nor change it for the royal robe of kings.
By this impatience and desire to get something for nothing, to reap where he has not sown, he attracts to himself a spirit of an undesirable nature, for the inhabitants of the invisible worlds are in nowise differ- ent from people here. A philanthropist is not found on every bush in this world,
12 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
neither do we meet angels on every hand the moment we step across the border, and the only safeguard is to strive to be worthy of consciously entering those realms. When we have attained the requisite character we shall not have to wait.
We need not here concern ourselves with what bargain was proposed to Faust by Lucifer, who had followed his prospective victim into the latters study, but when he turns toward the door and is about to leave he sees with dismay a five pointed star with two points turned towards the door, and one point facing him. This he asks Faust to remove, and upon being closely questioned and invited to leave by the window or chim- ney, he at last confesses :
For ghostly spirits 'tis a law,
Where they came in they must with- draw.
This is a most important point, for, as Lucifer entered the study of Faust by the door and is forced to leave by the same way, so, as Christ entered the earth by way of the vital body of Jesus, must He leave by that same way upon His return from the redeemed earth to the sun, His heavenly Home ; NO other vehicle ivill do.
But there is much more in that situa- tion between Faust and Lucifer of interest
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 1
q
in this connection. The door is open, so why should the five pointed star bar the exit of Lucifer, specially as he -had passed over it on entering the study?
The fivepointed star is the emblem of man with limbs apart and arms outstretch- ed, one point is then at the top representing the head which is the natural gate of the spirit. There it enters its future body about eighteen days after the conception, thence it leaves when the body sleeps, it re- enters by that same gate in the morning, and for the Invisible Helpers this is also the exit and entrance. Finally, when death comes the spirit withdraws by way of the head.
For that reason the five pointed star with one point up as represented in the em- blem of the Rosicrucian Fellowship is the symbol of white Magic which works by natural means in harmony with the law of evolution.
The pupil of a Mystery School learns to draw the creative force upwards to the brain and transmute it to soulpower by a life of chastity and self sacrifice. This soul- power he uses to project himself into the higher spheres by way of the head. The black magician, incapable of self-sacrifice, obtains the needed power by perverted use
14 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
of the life force of his victims, which pro- jects him downwards, by way of the feet, the Silver Cord then protrudes through the lower organ, and he must re-enter the same way. Therefore the five pointed star with two horns pointing up, and one down, is the symbol of black magic, and it was easy for Lucifer to enter the study of Faust as the two horns of the star were pointed towards the entrance, but when he wishes to leave and is confronted by the one point of the symbol, his black soul is repelled by the em- blem of purity and love.
We have, of course, no legal evidence that Christ entered the earth, and is there parti- ally confined, as we are in our dense bodies, but there is plenty of mystic knowledge, and by the law of analogy it is also plainly indi- cated that Christ spends His year-days partly within and partly without the earth.
Cancer, ruled by the Moon is the sign of Conception. The Egyptians pictured it as a Beetle, and the Scarab was their symbol of the soul. When the Light of the World, the Sun, enters Cancer in June, the creative power of the last cycle, which gave life to the earth, has been spent, and in order to renew this life, which would otherwise wane, it must again descend. At the Fall equinox in Libra, the Scales tip, and the germinative
HOW SHALL WE KNOW ( HttlST? 15
force enters our earth, reaching the center at Christmas, when the Sun is at its lowest point of declination, the winter solstice. Thence the germinative force, the Christ- ray, radiates to fructify matter anew and it reaches the pheriphery of the earth at the time the Sun crosses the celestial equator at the vernal equinox in Aries. Then the Savior, the lamb of God, dies to the world, but becomes alive to the higher spheres. Thus, as we are confined in our dense bodies from morning till night, through the activity of the day, so the Christ is confined in the earth from the Fall to the Vernal equinox, which is the time when physical activities are largely in abeyance, but spiritual efforts bring best results. And as we are released from our bodies at night, and enter the in- visible worlds to recuperate from the, to the spirit, cramping conditions of physical ex- istence, so also the Christ is temporarily re- leased from the earth at the cross (ifixion) when we see the sun "passover"the celestial equator and soar into the high heavens. That, therefore is the time we feel spiritual impulse waning, and devote our energy to physical activity of tilling the soil and mak- ing two blades of grass grow where there grew but one.
16 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
According to the common view of the mat- ter, Christ completed the Sacrifice on Gol- gotha, but as a matter of fact, that was only the beginning, He is still bound to the earth as we are to our "Bodies of Death.'' He suffers as we suffer, only with an intensity we cannot comprehend, He is still "groaning and travailing, waiting for the manifesta- tion of the Sons of God" which means our- selves. When a sufficient number have experienced the Birth of the Christ within, so that they can bealr their Brothers burden and give their life as Christ is now giving His, then will the hour of Liberation strike, and Christ may permanently return to the Sun. But as He entered at the periphery when He came, so, under the law just ex- plained, must He again return to the surface of the earth, and that in itself constitutes the Second Coming.
There is no warning in the Bible more em- pathic than that given by Christ against claimants to Christhood. He declared that some would work signs and wonders which might deceive the very elect, and we cannot do better than bring His words to mind as we start consideration of our last question :
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 17
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST AT HIS
APPEARING?
Christ said : "Take heed lest any man de- ceive you ; for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; and shall deceive many. And if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, He is there; believe him not. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, the very elect. . . then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. . . . He shall send His Angels and gather to- gether His elect from the four winds. . . . But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." — Mark 13.
From these passages we see how careful we must be not to be lured away by false de- ceivers, but there is plenty of light also to guide us aright, and certain signs are indi- cated whereby we may surely know Christ from imitators. The most conclusive sign of imposotors is that no matter how clever their plea, they come clothed in a physical body. There are good reason why.
18 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
CHRIST WILL NOT COME IN A PHYSICAL
BODY
No such vehicle can endure the tremend- ous vibrations of so great a spirit. You will remember from the scriptures that Christ frequently absented Himself from His dis- ciples. On these occasions He was wont to take Jesus body to the Essenes who were men of our evolution, and expert esoteric phy- sicians, skilled in the care of the body. They restored the tone, and thus held the body together for three years. From Golgotha the body was taken to the grave, and as the cohesive influence was withdrawn, the atoms simply scattered to the four winds, and when the tomb was opened, only the clothing was found.
To obtain another physical vehicle for the Second Coming, in the same manner as the first was provided would be difficult; but, could, of course, be accomplished. Under the law that a Spirit must leave where it enters however, only that one body of Jesus would avail, and as that has been destroyed it is impossible that Christ should appear in a physical vehicle. Therefore, as said, pos- session of such a body marks the pretender and impostor.
But, supposing that this "Law," is only a figment of the writers fancy, and that the
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 19
law of analogy quoted in support, is only coincidence, our contention is still supported by the Bible, regardless of all other evidence. Christ said: "if they shall say unto you. Behold, He is in the desert ; go not forth ; be- hold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not." Thus Christ is not to be found in any physical place. Paul also declares em- phatically that "flesh and blood' cannot in- herit the Kingdom, and if we are to be "clothed with a house from heaven/' why should the leader of the new dispensation have a physical vehicle?
But the Bible does not leave the matter by telling us where not to look for Christ. He said emphatically: "The Son of Man shall come in the clouds. r When He finally left His disciples, "He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up ,two men stood by them in white apparal which also said: "He shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts I. 10-11.) Paul says: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven . . . then we ... shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." (I. Thes. IV. 16-17). John saw the first heaven and earth pass away — the sea dried up, and a holy city descended from heaven, of
20 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
which Christ was regent. These things are manifestly physical impossibilities. A body of flesh and blood cannot ascend into the air, and Paul emphatically asserts that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." If we cannot enter in that gar- ment, how, in a Universe of Law, can Christ, the Leader, use a physical body?
If we can now find out what sort of a vehicle He used, we shall know how we may recognize Him, and also how we shall be constituted, for "we shall be like Him" ac- cording to John : "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear, what we shall be ; but we knoiv that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." (I. John,