chapter I. is ALHIM. In chapter [I. the Hebrew

for Lord God is IHVH ALHIM, or Jehovah Alhim. In Chapter III. we have also Lord God, but in Chapter IV. it becomes the Lord only, or simply Jehovah, The English version of course offers no clue to these changes in the name of the [ deity, but in the light of the interpretation now I given the importance is at once apparent. ALHIM,
e have already seen, is symbolised by
e.
I04 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
Jehovah Alhim is t ^ , and Jehovah is +, or
the cross with the circle removed, representing the complete fall of the spirit into matter, and also the reparation of the sexes. Thus these three symbols stand for three different stages of emanation or evolution, and the use of the various names of the creator in the various chapters of Genesis is a clear indication of the stages to which they refer.
We have said that the account given in the first five chapters is not consecutive, but that some of it is a repetition and permutation of other parts of the account. This is clearly indicated in the opening verses of the fifth chapter, where we commence again with the creation of * Man ' by ALHIM ; thus going back to the name used in the first chapter. After this ' Man * comes Adam or Humanity on this earth, and then the various Patriarchs, beginning with Seth — Adam repre- senting bi-sexual man of the early races, and Seth being the progenitor of the fourth Race, in which the sexes become fully separated, and whose symbol becomes the cross, +, or Jehovah. '* Then began men to call themselves Jehovah. "
To many no doubt, to those who still cling to the traditional interpretation of Genesis, and to the * orthodox * theology, the interpretation which has now been given will appear to be a complete
GENESIS 105
reversal of the order of things — if not something worse. But so it has always been in the history of orthodoxy, when new facts have been brought to light. When Geology brought forward its teach- ings respecting the age of the earth, and the evidence of the fossils, we were told by orthodoxy that it completely invalidated the inspired record in Genesis. Those who advocated the new teachings were ' atheists ', ' blasphemers ', and what not. We were seriously told that the devil put the fossils where they were found, in order to seduce men from the truth. To-day it is still possible for a defender of the orthodox faith — unable to deny the /act that the doctrine of the Trinity was taught ages before Christ^to tell us seriously that the devil, having been turned out of heaven, was of course acquainted with the true doctrine of the Trinity which was to be rc-vealed in Christ ; and that he therefore managed to impress upon the ' Pagan ' religions a false doctrine of the Trinity, so that they might not accept the true when it was disclosed.
But /flcis are ever stronger than doctrines, and the fad that the Bible is only a copy and a fragment of older writings, will soon be beyond dispute ; and will be regarded with as little fear
I as those teachings of science which at one time it was dangerous to life and reputation to advocate. The /net that the Bible is not history, but allegory — or rather that the narrative, so far as it is
Io6 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
historical is only the " cloak " — when once it is realised and boldly faced, as all facts must be sooner or later, will be the death-blow to dogmatic theology, and the supremacy of priestcraft. It will not be a loss, but an infinite gain to true RELI- GION ; for it is only when the shell is broken and thrown aside that the kernel of TRUTH can be discovered. Whether it will be the death-blow of Christianity we cannot say, because this latter term is not definable ; it means so many things nowadays. Many would have us believe that Christianity is quite played out ; but it is our endeavour here to show that it may at least be reconstructed on the permanent basis of the Ancient Wisdom Religion.
A word must now be said as to the connection between the 'creator *, the so-called 'personal God ' of the Old Testament, and the first person of the Trinity, the ' Father *, of the New Testa- ment. Those who suppose that Jehovah and God are synonymous, and that as there is only one * God ', there is nothing more to be said, are very far from having , any conception either of the meaning of the words, or of the real problem of deity.
It was a fatal day when the Church Fathers ' fathered ' the Jewish Jehovah upon Christen- dom. For Jehovah — the tetragrammation IHVH — was only 'a mystery name, concealing the real Deity, the Absolute which in the Esoteric Rab-
binical system, as in all other Esoteric systems
was the [ j , the Ain-Soph - — the No-Thing,
the Beingless. Absoluteness cannot be personal, but its aspects as seen by us are relative, and can be personified. This indeed is the true meaning of the term ' personal '. It means in the first place a thing sounded through, or a mask ; and is derived from the Latin persona ; referring to the masks used by the actors of those times. Thus the three persons of the trinity are the three aspects of that which in its entirety cannot be cognised, because when absoluteness is reached there is no longer anything relative to it to cognise it. Hence the teaching of the Esoteric Philosophy already refer- red to, that during Pralaya , the night or inbreathing of BrahmA, everything returns to a state of abso- luteness ; there is no external world ; there is no-thing (not nothing). Even the three Logoi disappear, for these are simply the three primary aspects of the One Reality.* Hence also the statement of St. Paul (I Cor. xv. 28.) " And when all things have been subjected unto him, (the Son, the third Logos) then shalt the Son also himself be subjected to him, » » » that God may be all in " This is a clear enunciation of our teaching.
The ihree aspects may be taken as :— fa) the exter- . objective, or manifested world— the third Logos; {bj the internal, subjective, or unmanifested world— the second Logos ; (c) ihe One Reality, or Absoluteness Itself,
I08 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
When the manifested Universe has run its cycle it is withdrawn gradually into the source from whence it emanated, into the ' Son ', or the third Logos, who as Paul says in the Colossians (l. 15.) is " the image of the invisible God. "
We have already seen that this ' Son ' is the Man made '' in the image of God " of the first chapter of Genesis, who becomes in the second chapter the creative power called Jehovah- Alhim. The ' Son ', therefore, to whom Paul refers, is this aspect, this persona of the '' invisible God " (the One Reality). It is perfectly clear therefore that the ' Father * cannot be Jehovah ; nor could Paul, who was an Initiate y^w^r have made such a mistake.
A personal God must always be an aspect merely ; and that aspect is always conditioned and deter- mined by the nature of the finite consciousness which is the cogniser. Every race and nation has had its personal God or Gods, partaking of the
considered as ihe first cause ; that which contains both the objective and the subjective yet is not either of them, but gives rise to both simultaneously — the first Logos. Thus also Space contains all things, yet is not any thing. The three aspects of Space are, length, breadth and depth ; depth really including the two others. Subjectively
this is the trinity, the / \ ; objectively all forms arise
through these three aspects. On the physical plane these three dimensions give us the idea of a solid form or cube. The symbol of the objective universe is the cube unfolded, the cross, or simply the square. There is an intimate relation between '* Space " and ** Deity. "
GENESIS 109
characteristics of that race or nation ; nay, every individual has his persona! God, who is somewhat different from all others. It is only when we set up our own image, and demand that others shall wor- ship it, that we fall into error ; and the result of such an error is fully seen in the history of Chris- tianity, which has imposed upon its devotees a tribal God, who exhibits all the worst characteristics of human nature. Some of the Church Fathers knew better, but they were silenced. Origen, how- ever, speaks out boldly in many places. He says ;
' 'If we take our stand on the literature (accord- ing to that which seems good to the Jews or to the crowd generally), let us receive what has been written in the Law, and if we do this, I blush to say and confess that God has given us such laws ; for the laws of man will appear to be more elegant and reasonable." (Homil. VII., in Levit.)
The highest revelation we can obtain of the ever concealed Deity, the ' Invisible God ', the iiii- niani/esUd Logos, is through the Logos, third the divine ' Son '. That Son, in his cosmic aspect, is the manifested universe ; and the personality of God, therefore, that through which the ' Word ' sounds, is the Universe of our perceptions. In his Human aspect, the third Logos is the He.WenlY Man, the divine indwelling Christ ; and it is through that again that the Eternal principle is manifested in his human a.spect, as the Father. Hence the constant reference to the relation of the
I lo THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
Father to the Son, and of the Son to Humanity in the Gnostic Gospel of St. John. Hence also the teaching of St. Paul, whose Christ never was the personal Jesus of Nazareth, though it has been made to appear so in some parts of his Epistles ; and though he may have considered that Christ to have had a special incarnation in Jesus of Naza- reth.
Compare with the explanation just given the table of the Seven Principles, on page 30, and you will sec how accurately the correspondences hold good. The three higher principles correspond to the three Logoi, and constitute the divine ; the four lower are the manifestition of these and consti- tute the human. The three higher are the Individ- uality, the four lower are the Personality, Of the three higher, Atma is the Father, Manas is the Son. Atma is spoken of as the Higher Self ; Manas is the Higher Ego ; while the four lower principles are the manifestation of this Ego in its finite aspect of the temporary personality. This holds good whether applied to the universe as a whole, or to man individually. We caa only know God, cosmically, through the mani- fested universe — hence the importance of natural science. We can only know him in full by knowing ourselves, for we are made in his image and likeness. Hence we must look within if we would find God. '* The problem of the Ego in man is the problem of God in the universe. " But we
can only really know when we become the things I we desire to know. Real knowledge is identity, i not external cognition. Hence St. Paul says ; i " Now we see in a mirror darkly "; our knowledge is an external cognition, a reflection merely. But when we attain " unto a fuU-gJown man, unto the measure ofthe stature of the fulness of Christ "', then we see " face to face ". Thus it is only as we become the divine, it is only as we " put on Christ ", it is only as we put aside all that is per- sonal and temporal, tiiat we learn the true secret of the divine and eternal. In theosophical language this is " union with our Higher Self. "
So long then as the Church teaches a personal
God — whose personality was coloured by the racial
characteristics of a " peculiar people " — and a.
personal Christ to correspond thereto, there can
_ be no difficulty in answering the question we
^h asked in Parti, pages. ^^^ 'hat is personal is
^H temporary and finite.
^1 But we have further evidence against the iden-
^P tity of the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the: ^H * Father ' of the New Testament. We have seen ^H that Jehovah becomes in one of his permutations, ^1 or aspects, Cain, representing man at a later period ^P of evolution. This is because Man is the Divine ^1 become the Human. Humanity itself (s the Son in ^1 one of his aspects. As 'matter' is the reverse ^1 aspect of ' spirit '; as ' evil ' is the reverse aspect ^B of ' good ■ ; as ' light ' is the reverse aspect of
112 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
* darkness ' ; so is Humanity the reverse aspect of Divinity, and the Devil the reverse aspect of God. Hence the saying, Demon est Deus inversus. And in the anthropomorphic deity, Jehovah, of the Old Testament, we have the fullest possible exem- plification of this. When the divine is dragged down into matter, when the sublime conception of the absolute Unity of all in that absoluteness which is the " invisible God ", is dragged down into a mere magnified image of human passions — it is no longer Dens, but Demon. The God of the Old Testament who repents, and hates, and never was and never could be the ' Father ' of the Christ, It was only the latest and most niaterialistic perversion of the ancient Mysteries, known as Ecclesiastical Christianity, that could adopt such a ' Father '. And if Jesus were with us now, He would answer the modern Pharisees as He answered those of His own time, when they claimed to be Abraham's seed : " I speak the things which I have seen with my Father : and ye also do the things which ye heard from your father. . . They said unto him. We have one Father even God. Jesus said unto them. If God were your father, ye would love Me. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murder- er from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. " (John viii. 38-44.)
Thus did Jesus, the Initiate, the Christos— one with the divine Father — repudiate the inverted image, the human conception, the God of the Jews, the reHgion of forms and formulas, of bigotry and priestcraft, which the Pharisees represented. And though Jesus tlius repudiated the Jewish God, the Church has shown itself no wiser than the Pharisees, and the latter have had a terrible revenge in passing off upon Christendom this same anthropomorphic Jehovah, as the personal God of the Christian faith. For in his name the " works of the devil " have been repeated now for many centuries.
Thus does the Old Testament portray the /aU — truly a fall in every respect ; the spirit fallen into matter, the god fallen into the human, the sublime conceptions of the ETERNAL fallen into the ridiculous conceptions of the temporal. No longer is it man created in the image of God, but God created in the image of man.
And \i Clirhtiiiniiy still means the acceptance of such a God, if Jehovah, the tribal God of a small sub-race, with a national history of a few thousand years onIy,be still declared to be the FATHER who is revealed to us through the Christ of the New Testament — so be it. Between such Christianity and Theosophy there is an impassable gulf.
But there is another and a better Christianity rising up, like a Phcenix, out of the fire of contro- versy, which is burning to ashes the old fetishes
1 14 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
and shibboleths. And as it rises from the flames it grows more and more into the likeness of the glorious truth which Sages and Initiates have proclaimed in all ages— the immortality of man because of his divinity. Whether the new Gospel be called Christianity or Theosophy, matters little perhaps — for they are one and the same.
Truth is immortal, and man is immortal ; yet must both needs suffer crucifixion. And though as yet we cannot penetrate this mystery, though as yet the reason why Man should set out on his long pilgrimage through the universe, why the law of progress should be self-sacrifice, and life be only consummated through death, can only be dimly guessed at by us ; yet when once we have realised that we are co-workers with the divine " that it is not we who live, but the divine that liveth in us, we have realised that which makes us no longer the children of wrath, but the children of redemption ; and we plant our feet on the PATH which leads us back to our eternal home.
" FOR SINCE BY MAN CAME DEATH, BY MAN CAME ALSO THE RESURREC- TION OF THE DEAD. FOR AS IN ADAM ALL DIE, SO ALSO IN THE CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE. "