Section 2

and Michael Mayer. Concerning Behmen, or rather b 2*
1 8 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
Boehm, the most modern biographical dictionaries perpetuate the crudity of Hallam in writing of his supernatural illuminations as lacking in the power of transferring a light to others, quite overlooking the fact that uncouched cataractous eyes cannot see. Here language will be wisely slightly changed to ac- cord Rosicrucianism better with what is to follow. While, during any period between the fourteenth century and the present hour, a band of workers interested in chemical pursuits may have taken as a society name that of a master in the art, and while it very well may be that Rosenkreuz himself organized such a band and retired with fellow-workers to unravel such mysteries as lie with the composition of gold and diamonds (surmising, not unlikely, what modern chem- istry seems never to think of, namely, that elements are no elements at all, being simply phenomena arising out of and going back into a primary or noumenon, which, had Empedocles named it matter, instead of earth, would be recognized to comprise all that the science of the present day knows of the abstract) ; yet here is simply provisional association, and not, as surmised by some, a secret and continued order, as, for example, that of Freemasonry, with which, in the estimation of many, Rosicrucianism is more or less identical.
It is not at all to be denied that savants, called Rosicrucians, used language not fully understood by those unfamiliar with their nomenclature; thus the writer of an article in an English encyclopaedia says of them, out of such misunderstanding, ''In fine, the Rosicrucians, and all their fanatical descendants^
THE ROSICRUCIANS, 19
agree in proposing the most crude and incomprehen- sible notions and ideas in the most obscure, quaint, and unusual expressions." Let this criticism be meas- ured by the language of the present chemistry when compared with names and terms familiar to the popular ear. A chemist prefers request to fellow-chemist for HNO3 or HSO^, meaning by these symbols to ask for nitric or sulphuric acid, — symbols full of meaning to the inquirer, empty entirely of sense to the unlearned.
There is a closely-printed little volume entitled "Apologia Compendiaria Fraternitatis de Rosea Cruce," written by Robertus de Fluctibus in reply to strictures appearing against Rosicrucians during the time of Charles I. and the Protector, which, although I have never seen it, I feel sure is entirely familiar to me in its contents. This is so predicated because true learning leads but in one direction, and Robert Fludd was learned. Perhaps full expression is given of this in a quotation from Jennings, who refers to Shelley as one who if he had not been so great a poet would perhaps have been equally eminent as a meta- physician,— that is, when age and experience, as he puts it, had ripened and corrected original brilliant crudities of thought, — a constant declaration being upon the poet's tongue to the effect that most men, at least most thinking men, spend the latter half of their life in unlearning the mistakes of the preceding half. I know this English Rosicrucian as an illuminatus and not as an alchemist. There was but one way for him to write, and that I may be sure is the way of his pages.
The alchemy of the sixteenth century was simply the infancy of the chemistry of the present day. Is it
20 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
not known that chemistry is a worker of natural miracles? Are there not found coming out of the crucibles daily things richer than are to be compared with gold and diamonds ?
Alchemy is and was material, so also is and was man's body material. Out of the glasses and furnaces and crucibles came a genius, which, under the name EXCLUSION,* is found to be a light which illuminates remote and near, the physical and the metaphysical. By and through a use of this process of exclusion, immortales developed into illuminati.
Recognition of the fact that the body is external is the meaning of illumination, and this, in turn, is the true and whole meaning of an illuminatus. To attain to consciousness of a tripartite nature as belonging to man, is to get above accidents as it is to be above concern. Body is matter. Ego is intangible, im- mortal, and unchanging individuality; nothing in nature can hit or hurt it : the bag of human bones may be beaten, but Nicocreon cannot pound Anaxarchus. Soul comes to be understood out of recognition of matter and Ego ; and so, as Zoroaster first asserted, " He who knows himself, knows all things in himself."
In every sect are people who are of it, and in it, by name only. What the confused thoughts and writings of an alchemist are to the perceptions of him who has advanced to the state of an illuminatus, so, and nothing different, are the perplexities of modern spiritists to the illuminations of a subjectist; noth-
* Knowing what a thing is by knowing what it is not.
THE ROSICRUCIANS, 2i
ing is hidden save to him who cannot open ; darkness to one is light to another.
Ultimate of illumination is knowledge of the fact that Ego, even while in the body, may live a life of its own independent of it, hence knowledge of the fact of spiritual existence and proof obtained through the intercourse with Ego.
Knowledge of Ego exists in understanding of hy- postases.
Referring back to the opening suggestion of this chapter that *' a synonyme of Rosicrucian is Inquirer," the reader will wisely pause to consider as to whither inquiry may or will lead. It certainly is agreed to by everybody that inquiry is a thing of many directions, and that men go according to a direction taken. Some go after gold, some after medicine, others after other things. The first correspond, as implied, with the al- chemists, the second with the immortals. The others, being a limited number, a very limited number, go after Wisdom ; these correspond with the " illumi- nates;" they live in the refuge.
Something is to be added. Reason for using the word Rosicrucian is not alone that introduction is af- forded thinkers, but that unfamiliar may introduce un- familiar, so many of the subjects considered not being germane to every-day common-sense living ; while to begin a book with what is to show itself as the text of this one — namely, * ' Common sense is little better than no sense'' ^ — is wisely to secure to one's support wisdom going before, which wisdom plainly enough is to show the superiority over common sense of educated sense, and the superiority over this ktter of Egoistic
22 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
sense, and the superiority over this superior of soul sense.
To anticipate. The science of medicine begins its study of man at the dissecting-table ; here, too, it ends. What is here defined as Rosicrucianism begins also with a scalpel, but difference lies with induction. A Rosicrucian quickly differentiates that what he cuts apart is not man but man's body. Induction discovers to him Ego. Further advance exposes to him soul.
Man discovered to be not one save as three are one, that is, not at all what common sense sees him to be, Rosicrucianism gets its understanding of the nothing- ness of common sense, and goes on with little regard to it.
HYPOSTASES.
A Rosicrucian approaches the hypostases with full appreciation that here and only here is understanding of man and of man's relation with the universal; having, as his clear proof of this, that requirements are ever in accord with capability. Understanding hypostases, he knows that he knows as to capability. Knowing that he knows as to capability, induction solves for him everything else as to what is below, above, and around men. He attains certitude.
Seeking, not the familiar lower, but the unfamiliar higher, constitutes searches which an interested reader is here invited to pursue with a doctor.*
* Books leading up to the present one are " Odd Hours of a Physician," " Hours with John Darby," " Thinkers and Thinking," " Brushland," and " Man and his World."
UNDERSTANDING OF HYPOSTASES. 23
III.
UNDERSTANDING OF HYPOSTASES THE FOUNDATION OF KNOWL- EDGE.
" The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man, and the man said, ' Am I your debtor ?' And the Lord said, ' Not yet ; but make the house as clean as you can, and then I will let you a better.' "
" The savage, which is the animal, must be coerced and disciplined in order that the man be developed, and the man must be patiently cultivated in order to make a wise man, and the wise man must be tested and tried if he is to become righteous, and the righteous man must have substituted for the animal will the will of God if he is to become a saint."
The quotations find likeness in the mind of a thinker with the rounds of a ladder ; lower leading to higher. First the house of the brute, then possibility of a bet- ter house ; the savage an animal, disciplinary coercion for the development of a man out of the savage j later the philosopher ; still later the saint.
Illustrative lines, most expressive and suggestive, are as follows :
" I have climbed to the snows of Age, and I gaze at a field in the Past, Where I sank with the body at times in the slough of a low desire. But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the man is quiet at last. As he stands on the heights of his life with a glimpse of a height that is higher."
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The chapter here before the reader being founda- tional to all that follows, an absolute understanding of its subjects is a necessity if interest and profit are to carry forward. It is one with definition. Let it not be unread or unstudied because of an uninviting aspect.
With comprehension of Hypostases is ground of Certitude ; meaning by hypostases simply the compo- nent parts of which anything consists, and meaning by certitude that which is irrefutable truth. Hypostases introduces, among other things, Holy Ghost. This latter term, in its obscurity, repels. It savors of the dull sermon. Not, however, does it so savor to a Rosi- crucian's understanding of it. To him it is known as Summum Bonum. In it he recognizes the meaning of that name given by Christians as one with Salvation. He comprehends that refusal as to understanding it is one with refusal to advance on brute life ; and, on the other hand, that with understanding of it is initiation.
Rosicrucianism, finding itself advanced by reason of chemical and general philosophical analyses to under- standing, accepts, out of the inductions of such initia- tion, that the beginning of that higher knowledge, which, once come to, takes of itself hold of the human and carries him forward until everything is apprehended which relates man with highest and as well Universal, lies with recognition of the third of the principles of the Greek hypostases, — namely, recognition of the Holy Ghost of the Trinity ; denial of the existence of which, as later on is to be shown, is possible alone to beasts, whether these be of shape like men or like brutes. Denial of it is also necessary commission of the unpar-
UNDERSTANDING OF HYPOSTASES. 25
donable sin, — a sin, the nature of which, as is also to be shown, is self-explaining and self-proving.
This third principle of the hypostases is essence of the meaning of the Brahminical salutation, *'To the Divinity that is within you I do homage." It is also wholly explanatory of the passage in the Christian Bible, reading, **The Kingdom of Heaven is within you."
Holy Ghost is a certitude known by every man, ab- solutely, with whom it dwells ^ and not known, possibly, where it does not dwell; the principle of knowing lying with possession, and of not knowing lying with the Alexandrian dianoetic that like is alone capable of knowing like, as where sight is absent nothing is seen. Knowing Holy Ghost is knowing, necessarily, the exist- ence of God.
The hypostases of God are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; this, expressive of severalty in Oneness. In the material universe water, ice, moisture are illus- trative.
The hypostases of gods — meaning by this term per- fect men — are matter. Ego, Holy Ghost.
The hypostases of beasts — including in the term all men not occupied by the Holy Ghost — are matter and Ego.
Matter. — Matter, of which the bodies of men and beasts are alike composed, is that common Something of which the earth at large and all things occupying it are made up. It is stone, vegetable, and human body, and it is human body, vegetable, and stone ; thus back and forth forever. It is an entity changing daily, hourly, momentarily, its manifestations. It composes to-day B 3
26 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
the whole body of a man, to-morrow it is of the soil of a field, another day it is the fruit of a garden, and still some other day it is a bird, fish, brute. Matter departs from form and gets back into form ; disorgan- izing, resurrecting, this forever and forever. What loses identity is matter, not form nor Ego : these are immortal. Yet may the form of a crab advance to that of the perfect apple ; a boy grows into the man. The apotheosis of a creeping, crawling, smearing worm is a flying, floating, emblazoned butterfly ; the apothe- osis of a grain of wheat is a stalk of waving grain; the apotheosis of a mortal is a celestial.
The grain of wheat is known to us in no other sense than terrestrial. Materialization, in man, takes on de- materialization. Yet is this last not any more mys- terious than the other. Form is a mould in which matter ensconces itself. There is a density of land and a density of water, and still another density of air, yet are land, water, and air one. Body occupied in the dream state is not less real to its possessor be- cause materialized eyes see nothing of it.
Who can understand? It is easy to understand. What apotheosizes is Ego in man and beast, form in the lower organizations.
Ego. Ego in man and in animals at large is one with form in wheat, trees, and rocks. Ego is individu- ality. The bodies of men and worms break up and go whence they came; Ego rehabilitates; the worm gets to itself wings and bright colors in compensation for the dull garment laid off; man advances to a spiritual plane and associations; this last meaning, however, nothing diff'erent, as heaven and hell are
UNDERSTANDING OF HYPOSTASES, 27
concerned, from what relates with him when in see- able form. Self, or Ego, as understood by philoso- phers, is that primal of man which is the man; matter and Holy Ghost being things of association. It is not necessary, in order that men exist, that they have bodily form through relation with matter, as this en- tity is familiar to a materialized eye ; neither is the possession of a soul — meaning by this Holy Ghost — a necessity to a human life.
Holy Ghost. — Everything has office and meaning. The office and meaning of a watch is to hold and carry around the time of day.- The office and meaning of bellowing herds seem to be to furnish meat to men. The office and meaning of men are according to the man : full intention is likeness and purpose with the God.
Extent of likeness and purpose with God corre- sponds with extent in possession by men of the Holy Ghost. Like corresponds with nothing but like. The God is absent where He is not seen. Watches there are that tick-tack, yet which tell never anything as to the hours. Herds there are that moulder back into dust, having performed no intermediate office. Men there are who are born and go away, leaving the mis- sion of manhood unaccomplished.*
As a watch differs practically from a turnip in nothing but office, and is nothing better than the vegetable when office is not found with it, so men relate with beasts or with the God according as Holy Ghost is absent or present. As eyes, ears, touch, taste, and
* See " Man and his World."
28 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
smell are instruments in men without which the Ego cannot act, so, after a not dissimilar manner, men are designed as instruments of the God. Means to ends is the law everywhere, and the God himself is not found to relate differently from this to the world. The meaning, then, which separates beasts and men is capa- bility on the part of the latter to receive and act in the Holy Ghost. Not receiving nor holding is necessarily not exhibiting; hence, prayer in presence of a beast man results in as little heed as if uttered to a brute beast : the commerce of God with men is through men.
What finally becomes of a watch that refuses to con- form with the meaning of its intention? and what finally becomes of a fig-tree that will give no fruit ?
People with whom the Holy Ghost is most abun- dantly found are the simple and virtuous ; this, either because of the simplicity and virtue, or because these beautiful traits are creations of the presence. With people self-wise or over-sufficient, with the proud and uncharitable, with all who are without understanding as to common good being the only good, with him who fails to see that gifts are in men as almoners only, with the supercilious and malevolent, — with all these the Holy Ghost is absent, otherwise so lacking in measure as to be incapable of making itself felt.