The document discusses the origins of Christian symbols and concepts in ancient religions. It argues that Christianity evolved from earlier faiths, adopting and adapting rituals, myths, and symbols from religions like Egyptians, Greeks, Brahmans, and more. Key symbols like the cross, virgin Mary, and trinity originated in other faiths. The document aims to explain the relationship between ancient religious symbolism and the occult functions of the human body, which priests used as a "textbook" to understand nature and the universe.
Original Description:
Original Title
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MAN BY MANLY PLAMER HALL.pdf
The document discusses the origins of Christian symbols and concepts in ancient religions. It argues that Christianity evolved from earlier faiths, adopting and adapting rituals, myths, and symbols from religions like Egyptians, Greeks, Brahmans, and more. Key symbols like the cross, virgin Mary, and trinity originated in other faiths. The document aims to explain the relationship between ancient religious symbolism and the occult functions of the human body, which priests used as a "textbook" to understand nature and the universe.
The document discusses the origins of Christian symbols and concepts in ancient religions. It argues that Christianity evolved from earlier faiths, adopting and adapting rituals, myths, and symbols from religions like Egyptians, Greeks, Brahmans, and more. Key symbols like the cross, virgin Mary, and trinity originated in other faiths. The document aims to explain the relationship between ancient religious symbolism and the occult functions of the human body, which priests used as a "textbook" to understand nature and the universe.
religion gave place to sun-worship, but ANATOMY OF MAN the new faith incorporated into its doctrines many of the rituals and PART I symbols of the previous belief. The building of temples in the form of the THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM human body is a custom common to all peoples. The Tabernacle of the Jews, In Scripture we are told that God made the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak, man in his own image. It is so stated not the religious structures of the Hawaiian only in the Christian Bible but also in the priests, and the Christian churches laid holy writings of nearly all enlightened out in the form of the cross, are people. The Jewish patriarchs taught examples of this practice. If the human that the human body was the body were laid out with the arms spread Microcosm, or little cosmos, made in the in the shape of any of these buildings, it image of the macrocosm, or the great would be found that the high altar would cosmos. This analogy between the finite occupy the same relative position in the and the infinite is said to be one of the building that the brain occupies in the keys by the aid of which the secrets of human body. All the priests of the Holy Writ are unlocked. There is no ancient world were anatomists. They doubt that the Old Testament is a recognized that all the functions of physiological and anatomical textbook nature were reproduced in miniature in to those capable of reading it from a the human body. They therefore used scientific viewpoint. The functions of the man as the textbook, teaching their human body, the attributes of the human disciples that to understand man was to mind, and the qualities of the human understand the universe. These wise soul, have been personified by the wise men believed that every star in the men of the ancient world, and a great heavens, every element in the earth, drama has been built around their and every function in nature, was relationships to themselves and to each represented by a corresponding center. other. To the great Egyptian demigod. pole, or activity within the human body. Hermes, the human race owes its concept of the law of analogy. The great This correlation between nature without Hermetic axiom was, That which is and the nature of man within, which was above is like unto that which is below concealed from the multitudes, formed and that which is below is like unto that the secret teachings of the ancient which is above. priestcraft. Religion in Atlantis and Egypt was taken much more seriously than it The religions of the ancient world were is today. It was the very life of these all based upon nature-worship. which in peoples. The priests had complete a degenerated form has survived to our control over the millions of ignorant men own day as phallicism. The worship of and women who had been taught since the parts and functions of the human childhood that these robed and bearded body began in the later Lemurian patriarchs were direct messengers from God: and it was believed that any medieval pagan worlds. Among the disobedience to the commands of the religious symbols and allegories which priests would bring down upon the belonged to the world long ago before offender's head the wrath of the the coming of Christianity are a few to Almighty. The temple depended for its which we would like to call your maintenance upon its secret wisdom, attention. The following Christian which gave its priests control over symbols and concepts are of pagan certain powers of nature and made origin: them vastly superior in wisdom and understanding to the laity whom they The Christian cross comes from Egypt controlled. and India: the triple miter from the faith of the Mithraics: the shepherd's crook These wise ones realized that there was from the Hermetic Mysteries and a great deal more involved in religion Greece: the immaculate conception than the chanting of mantras and the from India: the transfiguration from singing of hymns: they realized that the Persia: and the trinity from the path of salvation could be walked Brahmans. The Virgin Mary, as the successfully only by those who had mother of God, is found in a dozen practical, scientific knowledge of the different faiths. There are over twenty occult function of their own bodies. The crucified world saviors. The church anatomical symbolism which they steeple is an adaptation of Egyptian evolved in order to perpetuate this obelisks and pyramids, while the understanding has come down to Christian devil is the Egyptian Typhon modern Christianity, but the keys to it with certain modifications. The deeper apparently have been lost. It is a one goes into the problem, the more he tragic situation for religionists that they realizes that there is nothing new under are surrounded by hundreds of symbols the sun. A truly sincere study of the which they cannot understand: but it is Christian faith proves beyond all doubt still sadder that they have even that it is the evolutionary outgrowth of forgotten that these symbols ever had primitive doctrines. There is an evolution any meaning other than the foolish in religion as well as in physical form. If interpretations which they themselves we accept and incorporate into our have concocted. doctrines the religious symbolism of nearly forty peoples it behooves us to The idea prevalent in the minds of understand (at least in part) the Christians that their faith is the one and meaning of the myths and allegories only truly inspired doctrine, and that it which we borrow, lest we be more came parentless into the world, is ignorant than those from whom we unreasonable in the extreme. A study of secured them. comparative religions proves beyond doubt that Christianity has begged. This brochure is devoted to the problem borrowed, or stolen its philosophies and of explaining the relationship existing concepts fom the religions and between the symbolism of the ancient philosophies of the ancient and priests and the occult functions of the human body. We must first understand Calvary. Less than four hundred years that all sacred writings are supposed to after the death of Christ there was be sealed with seven seals. In other apparently no one in the Holy Land who words, it requires seven complete had ever heard of him! This does not interpretations to understand fully the necessarily imply that he never lived. meaning of these ancient philosophic but it certainly does indicate that the revelations which we have liked to call halo of miracles and supernatural Hoy Wwrit. Those who understand its atmosphere with which modern literal meaning understand the least of Christianity envelops him are largely its meaning. mythological. Like all other religions, the Christian faith accumulated a weird It is a well-known fact that Shakespeare, collection of fantastic legends which are for dramatic reasons, brought together. its own worst enemies, for they have in his plays, characters who had actually taken the simple moralist of Nazareth, lived hundreds of years apart: but the man who loved his fellow creatures, Shakespeare was not writing history — and built around him a superstructure of he was penning drama. The same is idolatry which loves no one and serves true of the Bible. Scripture leaves only itself. historians hopelessly involved in self- contradictory chronological tables, As Buddha in India merely reformed the where the majority of historians will Brahman concepts of his day, so Jesus remain until the judgment day. Scripture reshaped the faith of Israel and gave to furnishes excellent subject matter for his disciples and the world a doctrine debates, and also ground for based upon that which had gone before hairsplitting over the meaning of terms but remodeled to meet the needs of the and probable locations of unknown people who surrounded him and the cities. Many of the Biblical landmarks problems which confronted the Jewish now pointed out by guides were named nation. The Essenes who educated hundreds of years after the birth of Jesus were of Egyptian, and his faith Christ by pilgrims who suspected them incorporated the best of that which had of occupying sites somewhere near gone before. The records preserved of those mentioned in the Bible. All this him are largely allegorical, and the may prove convincing to some, but to simple man is plunged by them into a the thinker it is conclusive evidence that great sea of supernaturalism. This was history is the least important part of not entirely without purpose. However, Scripture. for as Shakespeare took license with history in order to present essential When the Empress Helena, mother of truths, so it seems the historians of Constantine the Great, visited Jesus used the character of the man as Jerusalem in 326 A. D., she discovered the groundwork of a great drama. He that not only all traces of Christianity becomes the hero of a seven-sealed had already been lost but that a temple story, and those Christians who have dedicated to the goddess Venus stood studied symbolism can gain from that on the hill now accepted as Mount story the key to the true Christian Mysteries. They will then realize that thought until you have made it all- Scripture is perpetual history: that it inclusive and opened at least one seal pertains to no nation or people but is the of the Book of Divine Revelation. story of all nations and peoples.
It is a wonderful thing, for example, to PART II
study the life of Christ in the light of astronomy, for he becomes the sun, THE THREE WORLDS and his disciples the twelve signs of the zodiac. Among the constellations we According to the Mystery Schools the find the scenes of his ministry, and in human body is divided into three major the precession of the equinoxes the parts, and in analogy with this the story of his birth, growth, maturity, and universe without is said to be composed death for men. Again, the tortured of three worlds: heaven, earth, and hell. chemicals in the retort further reveal to Heaven is the superior world and for us the life of the Master, for with the some unknown reason is supposed to key to chemistry, the Scriptures be above, although Ingersoll proved become another book. In this particular conclusively that owing to the rotation of work, however, we can only concern the earth, up and down are always ourselves with the relationship of these changing places. Nearly all religions allegories to the human body. teach that God dwells in the heavens. Their members are taught to believe We discover that the life of Christ, as that God is above them, so they raise found in the Gospels, has been their hands in prayer and lift their eyes conventionalized until it agrees perfectly to the heavens when they implore or with the lives of dozens of world saviors, petition him. Among some nations he is for all of them are also astronomical and supposed to dwell on the tops of physiological myths. All of these myths mountains, which are the highest places come to us out of the most remote of the world. Wherever he is and antiquity, where the primitive races used whatever he is, his place of domicile is the human body as the symbolic unit, above, overshadowing the world below. and the gods and demons were personified out of the organs and Between heaven above and hell functions of the body. Among certain beneath is the earth which the Cabalistic writers the Holy Land is Scandinavians call Midgard, or the mapped out on the human body, and the middle garden. It is suspended in space various cities are shown as centers of and forms the dwelling place of men consciousness in man. There is a and other living creatures. It is wonderful study here for those who will connected to the heavens by a rain-bow investigate deeply and sincerely the bridge down which the gods descend. ancient Mysteries. We cannot hope to Its volcanic craters and fissures are said cover all the ground, but if you can gain to connect it with hell. the land of from this booklet a key to the situation darkness and oblivion. Here. "twixt we hope you will pursue the line of heaven and earth dominion wielding." as Goethe said, exists nature. The substance which comes down the spinal green grass, the flowing rivers, the cord from the brain. The Hindus mighty ocean, exist only in the middle symbolized the spine as the stem of the world, which is a sort of neutral ground sacred lotus: therefore the skull and where the hosts of good and evil fight contents are symbolized by the flower. their eternal battle of Armageddon. The spinal column is Jacob's ladder connecting heaven and earth, while its Below, in darkness and flames, torment thirty-three segments are the degrees of and suffering, is the world of Hel, which Masonry and the number of years of the we have interpreted as hell. It is the life of Christ Up these segments the great beneath: for as surely as we think candidate ascends in consciousness to of heaven as up, we think of hell as reach the temple of initiation located on down, while this middle place (earth) the top of the mountain. It is in this seems to be the dividing line between domed room with a hole in the floor them. In hell are the forces of evil, the (foramen magnum) that the great tearing, rending, destroying powers mystery initiations are given. The which are always bringing sorrow to the Himalaya mountains rise above the earth and which struggle untiringly to earth, representing the shoulders and overthrow the throne of the gods in upper half of the body. They are the heaven. highest mountains of the world. Somewhere upon their summit stands The entire system is an anatomical the temple, resting (like the heavens of myth, for the heaven-world of the the Greeks) upon the shoulders of Atlas. ancients — the domed temple on the It is interesting to note that the atlas is top of the mountain — was the skull with the upper vertebra of the human spine its divine contents. This is the home of upon which the condyles of the skull the gods in man. It is termed ‘up’ rest. In the brain there are a number of because it occupies the northern end of caves (ventricles and folds), and in them the human spine. The temple of the (according to Eastern legends) live the gods who rule the earth is said to be at wise men — the yogis and hermits. The the North Pole. which also, by the way. caves of the yogis are said to be located is the home of Santa Claus, because at the head of the Ganges river. Every the North Pole represents the positive religion has its sacred river. To the end of the spinal column of the Christians it is the Jordan: to the planetary lord. Santa Claus, coming Egyptians it is the Nile: while to the down the chimney with his sprig of Hindus it is the Ganges. The sacred evergreen (the Christmas tree) at the river is the spinal canal, which has its season of the year when nature is dead, source among the peaks of the has a fine Masonic interpretation for mountains. The holy men in their those who wish to study it. retreats represent the spiritual sight in the human brain and are the seven The same is true of the manna that sleepers of the Koran who must remain descended to feed the Children of Israel in the darkness of their caves until the in the wilderness, for this manna is a spirit fire vitalizes them. The brain is the upper room referred to life forces which make this possible. in the Gospels where Jesus met with his Therefore the Mason is told to consider disciples, and it is said that the disciples carefully his substitute word, which themselves represent the twelve means " the marrow of the bone." convolutions of the brain. It is these twelve convolutions which later send In the cerebellum, or posterior brain — their messages by means of the nerves which has charge of the motive system into the body below to convert the of the human body and is the only brain gentiles, or preach the Gospel in the developed in the animal — is to be middle earth. These twelve convolutions found a little tree-like growth which has gather around the central opening in the long been symbolized by a sprig of brain (the third ventricle), which is the acacia and as such is referred to in the Holy of Holies — the Mercy Seat — Masonic allegory. where between the spreading wings of the angels Jehovah talks with the high The two lobes of the cerebrum were priest, and where both day and night the called by the ancients Cain and Abel, Shekinah's glory hovers. From this point and have much to do with the legend of also the spirit finally ascends from the curse of Cain, which is literally the Golgotha, the place in the skull. It is a curse of unbalance. For the murder of clairvoyant fact that the spirit not only the spirit of equilibrium Cain is sent forth leaves but also enters the body through a wanderer upon the face of the earth. I the crown of the head, probably giving have in my possession a very rise to the story of Santa Claus and his remarkable skull which originally rested chimney. on the shoulders of a homicide. It is of high organic quality, but bears the curse The Trinity in man lives in the three of Cain. This individual had a grudge great chambers of the human body, which he nursed very carefully. Nursed from which they radiate their power grudges sometimes become very throughout the three worlds. These dangerous things. This person swore centers are the brain, the heart, and the that when he met a certain man he reproductive system. These are the would cut his heart out and throw it in three main chambers of the pyramid his face. A number of years passed. His and also the rooms in which are given hatred grew and at last, meeting his the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft. and enemy, he attacked him and fulfilled his Master Mason's degrees of Blue Lodge threat. He was hanged for the crime, but Masonry. In these three chambers dwell the skull bearing the testimony to the the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost brain reveals a very interesting fact The who are symbolized by the three- right half of the brain is under the lettered word. A U M. The transmutation, control of Mercury — the planet of regeneration, and unfoldment of these intelligence — and as a result of the three great centers result in the crossing of the brain nerves at the base sounding of the Lost Word which is the of the skull it rules the left side of the great secret of the Masonic Order. From body. The left half of the brain, under the the spinal nerves come impulses and control of Mars — the spirit of anger and impulse — rules the right side of the His name means a feathered serpent body and likewise the strong right arm. and this has always been his symbol. As the result of his hatred and the This is the brazen serpent raised by rulership of Mars which grew out of that Moses in the wilderness. The nine hatred, the left rear side of the brain is rattles on the tail of the serpent are fully twice the size of the right side. The called the number of man and they individual allowed Mars to control his represent the sacral and coccygeal nature. The impetuosity of Mars ruled bones within whose centers the secret him and he paid with his life for the mark of human evolution is contained. of Cain. Science knows there is a very narrow line between genius and Every organ of the physical body is insanity, for any dominating vice or reproduced in the brain, where it can be virtue man must pay with unbalance. traced by the law of analogy. There are Unbalance always distorts the view- two embryonic human forms, one male point, and distorted viewpoints are and the other female, twisted together in unfailingly productive of misery. the brain. These are the Yin and the Yang of China, the black and white In the skull is the switchboard which dragons biting each other. One of these controls the activities of the body. Every figures has as its organ of expression function of man below the neck is con- the pineal gland. and the other the trolled by a center of consciousness in pituitary body. These two ductless the brain. Proof of this is the fact that glands are well worth consideration for injury to certain centers of the brain they are very important factors in the results in paralysis of various parts of unfolding of human consciousness. It is the body. Medical science now knows known that these glands are larger and that the spinal cord is an elongation of more active in higher grades of the brain, and some authorities even mentality than in those of lower quality, claim the cord to be capable of and in certain congenital idiots they are intelligence throughout its entire length. very small. These two little glands are This cord is the flaming sword which is called the head and the tail of the supposed to have stood at the gates of dragon of wisdom. They are the copper the Garden of Eden. The Garden of and zinc poles of an electric circuit Eden is in the skull, within which is a which has the entire body as a battery. tree bearing twelve manner of fruit. The pituitary body (which rests in the The brain is filled with vaulted chambers sella turcica of the sphenoid bone and passageways which have their directly behind and just a little below the correspondence in the spans and bridge of the nose and connected to the arches of the temples, while the third third ventricle by a tiny tube called ventricle is undoubtedly the King's infundibulum) is the feminine pole or Chamber of the Great Pyramid. The negative center, which has charge of the spinal cord is the serpent of the expressions of physical energy. Its ancients. In Central and South America activity also regulates to a large degree the Savior God is called Quetzalcoatl. the size and weight of the body. It is also a thermometer revealing disorder in Eye of Dangma. It is called by the any other of the chain of ductless Buddhists the all-seeing eye and is glands. Endocrinology (the study of the spoken of in Christianity as the eye ductless glands and their secretions) is single. still in its experimental stage, but some day it will be revealed as the most We are told that ages ago the pineal important of all medical sciences. The gland was an organ of sense orientation pituitary body is known under the by which man cognized the spiritual following symbols by the ancient world: world. but that with the coming of the The alchemical retort, the mouth of the material senses and the two objective dragon, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Grail, eyes it ceased to be used. and during the lunar crescent, the laver of the time of the Lemurian race retreated purification, one of the cherubim of the to its present position in the brain. It is Arch, the Isis of Egypt, the Radha of said that children, recapitulating their India, and the fish's mouth. It may well previous periods of evolution, have a be called the hope of glory of the limited use of the third eye up to their physical man. At the opposite end of the seventh year. at which time the skull third ventricle and a little higher is the bones grow together. This accounts for pineal gland which looks not unlike a the semi-clairvoyant condition of pine cone (from which it secured its children, who are far more sensitive name). than adults along psychic lines. The pineal gland is supposed to secrete an Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge, keeper oil, which is called resin, the life of the of the Egyptian antiquities in the British pine tree. This word is said to be Museum, mentions in one of his works involved in the origin of the Rosicrucian the Egyptian custom of tying pine cones who were working with the secretions of on the tops of their heads. He states the pineal gland and seeking to open that in the papyrus rolls these cones are the eye single: for it is said in Scripture: fastened to the tops of the heads of the "The light of the body is the eye: if dead when taken into the presence of therefore thine eye be single thy whole Osiris, Lord of the Underworld. body shall be filled with light." Undoubtedly this symbol referred to the pineal gland. It was also the custom of The pineal gland is the tail of the dragon certain African tribes to fasten pieces of and has a tiny finger-like protuberance fat to the tops of their heads and allow at one end. This gland is called Joseph them to melt in the sun and run down for it is the father of the God-man. The over them as part of their religious finger-like protuberance is called the observances. It is interesting that the staff of God sometimes the holy spear. American Indian should wear his Its shape is like the evaporating vessel feather, which was originally symbolical of the alchemists. It is a spiritual organ of spiritual perception -- in the same which is later destined to be what it place where the Christian monk shaves once was, namely, a connecting link his head. The Hindus teach that the between the human and the divine. The pineal gland is the third eye, called the vibrating finger on the end of this gland is the rod of Jesse and the sever of the of blue ether called veil of Isis, in the high priest. Certain exercises as given center of the frontal sinus. When in the Western Mystery Schools cause clairvoyantly studying the body of man this little finger to vibrate, resulting in a that little point always shows up as a buzzing, droning sound in the brain. black dot and cannot be analyzed. The This is sometimes very distressing, Palatine hill of the ancients, upon which especially when the individual who were built the temples of Jupiter and experiences the phenomenon, in all too Juno, also has its place in the human many cases, knows nothing about the body. The palate bone is a sort of hill- experience through which lie is passing. shaped structure, and right above it are the orbital cavities containing the two In the middle of the brain and eyes, which are the Jupiter and Juno of surrounded by the convolutions is the the ancient world. third ventricle, a vaulted chamber of initiation, Around it sit three kings, three The cross, of course, represents the great centers of life and power — the human body. The upper limb of it is the pituitary body, the pineal gland, and the head of man rising above the horizontal optic thalamus. In this chamber also is a line of his outstretched arms. As already small gritty seed which is undoubtedly stated, the great churches and connected with the king's coffer in the cathedrals of the world have been built Great Pyramid. The third ventricle is in the form of a cross, and contain supposed to be the seat of the soul, and (where the head should be) the altar the aura radiating from the heads of upon which are burning lighted candles. saints and sages is said to represent the These candles are symbolic of spiritual golden glow pouring from this third sense centers in the brain, while the ventricle. custom of placing a rose window over the altar suggests the soft place in the Between the eyes and just above the top of the skull. The skull — the upper root of the nose is a spreading in the room — is the sanctum sanctorum of frontal bone of the skull which is called the Masonic Temple, and to it only the the frontal sinus. The slight bulge pure can aspire. caused by the spreading of this bone is known to phrenology as the seat of The winged bone, which medical individuality. It is here that the jewels are science knows as the sphenoid, is the placed on the foreheads of the Egyptian scarab carrying in its claws the Buddhas, and it is also from this point pituitary body and also bearing aloft the that the serpent rose front the crown of gleaming spark of immortality located in the ancient Egyptians. Several of the the frontal sinus. Mystery Schools teach that this is the seat of Jehovah in the human body. We are told in ancient mythologies that While his function is through the the gods came down from heaven and generative system, his center of walked with men, instructing then in the consciousness as a part of the spirit of arts and sciences. In a similar way the man is supposed to be located in a sea godlike powers in man descend from the heaven world of his brain to carry on serpent at other times, the wand or the work of constructing and scepter. reconstructing natural substances. We are told that in the ultimate of evolution The Hindus teach that there are three man's body will slowly be dissolved back distinct canals or tubes in the spinal again into the brain ( which was its system. They call them Ida, Pingala and origin) until nothing remains but seven Sushumna These tubes connect the globular centers radiating seven perfect lower generative centers of the body sense perceptions, which are the spirits with the brain. The Greeks symbolized before the throne and the saviors which them by the caduceus, or winged staff he is bringing into the world to redeem it of Hermes. This consisted of a long rod through the seven periods of his growth. (the central Sushumna) which ended in a knob or ball (the pons of the medulla Man is an inverted plant, gaining his oblongata). On each side of this knob nourishment from the sun as the plant are wings arched over -- used to does from the earth. As the life of the represent the two lobes of the plant ascends its stem to nourish its cerebrum. Up this staff and twisted leaves and branches, so the life of man around it wind two serpents, one black (rooted in the brain) descends to and the other white. These represent produce the same result This life the Ida and Pingala. descending is symbolized as the world saviors who come down into the world The ancient Hindus have a legend to die for men. Later these lives are concerning the goddess Kundalini. in returned again to the brain, where they which it is said that she descended by glorify man before all the worlds of means of a ladder or cord from heaven creation. So much for the story of the to a little island floating in the great sea. brain. Now let us consider the next of Connecting this with embryology, it is man's marvelous parts, namely, the evident that the ladder or cord spinal column. represents the umbilical cord, while the little island is the solar plexus. When the ladder is cut away from heaven the PART III goddess flees in terror to a cave (sacral plexus) where she hides far from the THE SPINAL COLUMN sight of men. Like Amaterasu. The Japanese Goddess of the Shining Face, Connecting the two worlds (heaven she must be lured from her cave, for above and the sphere of darkness while she is there and refuses to come below) is the spinal column, a chain of forth the world is in darkness. Kundalini thirty-three segments protecting within is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘a them the spinal cord. This ladder of serpentine or twisting gas or force.' This bones plays a very important part in the force. so the Eastern sages claim, can religious symbolism of the ancients. It is be drawn up through the central spinal often referred to as a winding road or canal (the Sushumna). When this stairway. Sometimes it is called the essence strikes the brain it opens the center of spiritual consciousness and the wilderness, the pilgrimage of the inner perception, bringing with it spiritual Mohammedan to Mecca, the endless illumination. The system of culture pilgrimages of Hindu holy men who whereby this is made possible is the spend their lives going from one shrine most secret teaching of the Eastern to another, represent the pilgrimage of saints, for they realize that this spiral the spirit fire (Kundalini) through the twisting force is not only illuminating but, nerve centers along the spine. By like the serpent which is its symbol. also certain specifications force is turned into a deadly poison. these centers one after the other until, when seen clairvoyantly, they are great Smatterings of Eastern occultism are flower-like areas from which light rays coming all the time into the Western stream like petals. Each of these lotus world, but we are sorry to say they are blossoms has a different number of bringing with them endless suffering and petals according to the number of sorrow, for these great truths in the nerves which branch out front it. hands of individuals incapable of rightly understanding or applying them, destroy It is said that the Logos, when the time intelligence and reason. came to create the material universe, entered a state of deep meditation, Along the spine are a number of nerve centralizing his thought power upon the ganglia and plexuses. All of these have seven flower-like centers of the seven their place in religious symbolism. For worlds. Gradually his life force example, we are told that the early Jews descended from the brain (which was called the sacral plexus and the the great superior world) and striking sacrococcygeal ganglion the cities of these flowers one after the other gave Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a small birth to the lower worlds. plexus in the region of the kidneys called the sagttarial plexus, which the When at last his spirit fire struck the ancients knew as the city of Tarsus lowest center, the physical world was where St. Paul fought with the beasts. created and his fire was at the base of Higher occultism teaches that the lotus the spine. When the world returns to blossoms (nerve centers on the spine) him again and he once more becomes are reflections or negative poles bearing supreme in consciousness it will be witness of seven great positive centers because he withdraws the life from of consciousness located in the brain. these seven centers, beginning with the These seven function through the lowest, and returns it again to the brain. centers on the spine in approximately Thus the path of evolution for all living the same way that the seven spirits things is to raise this fire whose descent before the throne function through the made their manifestation in these lower planetary bodies. The disciple is warned worlds possible and whose raising not to work with the centers upon the brings them into harmony once more spine, but to labor instead with their true with the superior worlds. rulers—the centers in the brain. The wanderings of the Children of Israel in This myth of the life force that came eye, or pineal gland. This organ of down and took upon itself worlds is consciousness, which millions of years found among all the civilized nations of ago connected man with the invisible the earth. This is the Hiram Abiff who worlds, closed during the Lemurian built the Masonic Temple (the bodies) period when the objective senses began and was then slain by the three vehicles to develop. The occultist, however, by which he formed. This is likewise the the process of development hinted at Christ slain for the sins of the world. before, may reopen this eye and by means of it explore the invisible worlds. Because of the fact that this spinal fire Clairvoyants are not born, they are is a twisting serpentine force, the snake made. Mediums are not made: they are has been used in all parts of the world born. The clairvoyant can become such to represent the world saviors. The only after years, sometimes lives, of self uracus worn by the Egyptian priests preparation; on the other hand, the upon their foreheads was symbolic of medium, by sitting in a darkened room, Kundalini the sacred cobra who, when or by other similar practices, may she was raised in the wilderness, saved secure results in a few days. all who gazed upon her (Moses and the brazen serpent). The medium uses the solar plexus as a mirror, and upon its sensitive nerves are As the brain is the center of the divine reflected pictures recorded in the world, so the solar plexus is the center invisible ethers. Through the spleen of the human world, for, representing (which is the gateway to the etheric semi-consciousness, it links the body) the medium permits decarnate unconsciousness below with the intelligences to come into his spiritual consciousness above. Man is not only constitution, the result being voices and capable of thinking with his brain: he is other spirit manifestations. Automatic capable of a certain phase of thought writing is penned by permitting the through the nerve centers of the solar etheric arm of an outside intelligence to plexus. control temporarily the physical arm of the medium. This is not possible until the medium removes his own etheric It will probably be wise at this point to double from the arm, for two things describe the difference between a cannot occupy the same place at the medium and a clairvoyant. To the same time. The process of periodically average person there is no difference, separating the life forces from the but to the mystic these two phases of physical arm is very dangerous, often spiritual sight are separated by the resulting in paralysis. Mediumship is entire span of human evolution. unnatural to man, while clairvoyance is the natural result of growth and the A clairvoyant is one who has raised the unfolding of the spiritual nature. There spinal serpent into the brain and by his are a hundred mediums to one growth earned the right of perceiving the clairvoyant, for the clairvoyant can invisible worlds with the aid of the third become such only through self-mastery and the exertion of tremendous power; Thousands of people must carry the while the weaker, the more sickly, and karmic responsibilities of the medium the more nervous an individual is, the for many follow this calling because better medium he makes. The hundreds of people want to talk to clairvoyant is unfolding his mind by deceased relatives or get inside tips on filling it with useful knowledge. while the the stock exchange. Those who by their first instruction given the would-be patronage encourage things of which medium is. "Make your mind a blank." they do not themselves approve are personally responsible for the injury The reason mediumship through the which their selfishness has thus solar plexus is a retrogression may be permitted other persons to inflict upon summed up as follows: The group spirits themselves. who control the destinies of the animal kingdoms govern then-charges through The difference, therefore, between pictures thrown against the solar plexus. mediumship and clairvoyance is about for the animal has no self-conscious half the length of the spinal column. It is mind. As a result instead of thinking with the difference between negative and its own brain it thinks with the brain of positive; it is the difference between the the group spirit to whom it is attached by midnight of the séance room and the invisible magnetic cords. These cords noonday of the temple. convey their impressions and photograph them upon the sympathetic All of the organs within the body of man nervous system. Having no will of its have their religious significance. The own, the animal is incapable of heart with its chambers is itself a temple combating these urges and standing upon the mountain of the consequently obeys them implicitly. Man diaphragm. The spleen with its little governs himself through the umbrella-shaped body collects the sun's cerebrospinal nervous system because rays and has charge of the etheric body. he has developed individuality and the It is this etheric body coiled within the sympathetic system no longer rules him. spleen that injects the white blood Opening himself to impulses through the corpuscles into the circulatory system. solar plexus area, the medium is thwarting his own growth by preventing We know that the human body has been the cerebrospinal nervous system from the inspiration for nearly all mechanical controlling his destiny. contrivances. Hinges are copied from the human body; likewise the ball and Man has always liked to lean on socket joint. We are told that the first external things. He hates to face each plumbing was reproduced from the problem and solve it with the brain God arterial and venous circulatory systems. gave him. He consequently leans on the Hundreds of machines and implements invisible worlds, asking them to help him have been inspired by the subtle to accomplish the labors which he workings of our own vehicles, for the should do by his own efforts. human body is the most marvelously constructed machine that the human exhibited by nature in the building of all mind can study. its structures should be sufficient proof that the Lord was not wasting his time The close relationship between the when he made tonsils and appendixes. generative system below and the brain He apparently had reason for making above (for the brain is a positive them, but these poor, unoffending generating system) is of course due to organs have become a gold mine to the spine connecting them. At a certain medical scientists who remove them at time a number of little doors which now the slightest provocation. We are told separate the brain from the generative that the vertical position assumed by the system are opened, and the Sushumna human body, which forces the contents becomes an open tunnel so that every of the intestinal tract to travel part of the impulse is carried immediately to both time uphill, is the reason for the ends of the body. It is for this reason appendix, which is missing in creatures that the candidate assumes the vows of of horizontal carriage. Every organ not celibacy, for the close connection only has its visible purpose,. but also an existing in the advanced disciple invisible spiritual purpose. and the between the brain and the reproductive individual is to be admired who system necessitates an absolute manages to go through life preserving conservation of all life energies. The intact as many as possible of his original tonsils are directly connected with the anatomical parts and members. generative system; in fact they are part of its positive pole in the brain. The While on the subject of the debt of customs of vaccinating healthy children science to the human body we might and cutting out normal tonsils on add that the decimal system is the result general principles, should be of primitive man's counting on his reconsidered. Most tonsils are infected fingers. whereby ten became the unit of as the result of the child eating too enumeration. The ancient cubit also was many sweets during the first years of the distance between the elbow and the life. The moral is, don't cut out the end of the second finger, or tonsils, cut out the sweets. Many approximately eighteen inches. So it parents are responsible for the illness of goes back through the study of things their children. Through either ignorance until we find that nearly everything with or indulgence they, allow the infantile which man has surrounded himself is an consciousness. as yet uncontrolled by adaptation from the body with which its higher vehicles, to destroy itself God surrounded his spirit before life fairly begins. When children are sick during the early years of life the Man is gradually gaining control not only physician will often find the cause of the over the organs of his body but also ailment in the parent; and the father or over their functions. Science states that mother — not the child — should be certain organs function automatically or dosed with pills. If the stomach is kept in mechanically, but occultism realizes that proper condition the tonsils will give very there is nothing mechanical about the little trouble. The absolute economy functions of the human body. Let us take as an example a workman throwing his various organs. There are two kinds a piece of iron among the wheels and of muscles— voluntary and involuntary levers of a smoothly working machine. — the difference being that the There is a grinding crash and the voluntary muscles, which are controlled machine stops. If on the other hand you by the conscious mind of the individual, figuratively throw a monkey-wrench into have fibers running two ways and the human body, it will immediately crossing each other. while those which begin the process of throwing it back at are involuntary are without cross-fibers, you. It will surround the foreign element The heart used to be considered an with a coating and try to absorb it. If this involuntary muscle, but it is now is impossible, it will try to eject it beginning to show cross-fibers, thus through. some channel appointed for foreshadowing the day when man will that purpose. If this means fails it will in consciously and intelligently regulate the many cases accustom itself to the beating of his own heart. The same will presence of the obstacle and keep right be true with respect to all other organs on working anyway. This shows that survive the periodic changes taking unmistakably that the organic parts of !place in the constitution of man. The man possess some inherent form of Eastern holy man can successfully live intelligence; therefore they are not without his heart beating; he can stop it machines, for no mechanical device is or start it at will. By lifting the tongue so capable of intelligence. that it closes the air passages into the lungs he can remain in suspended Paracelsus, the great Swiss physician, animation for months. Many Eastern who after many years in the Far East chelas do this while being given spiritual returned to Switzerland to teach initiations out of the physical body. medicine, first gave to the European There are cases on record where these world its concept of the nature spirits. holy men have been buried in the He taught that the functions of nature ground. Weeks later when the body was were under the control of little creatures dug up it was found to be dried like who, were invisible to the normal leather. Water was poured onto it. and senses, but who. working through the after a certain lapse of time the man kingdoms of life — minerals, plants. who had not taken a breath in weeks Animals, and parts of the human body got up and walked off. This is the result — kept all of these evolving in an of extraordinary control which the mind intelligent way. Under the control of the is capable of gaining over the functions great celestial hierarchy of Scorpio of the body. which has charge of all body-building in nature, these elements are the invisible Occultism teaches that there is an entire intelligences governing the human body universe within the human body; that it and its functions. has its worlds, its planes, and its gods and goddesses. Millions of minute cells As the result of man's ever evolving are its inhabitants. These tiny creatures consciousness, he is acquiring more are grouped together into kingdoms, complete control over the functions of nations, and races, and become one thing composed of many parts. The he builds the bodies which give us the Supreme Ruler and God of this great power to function in the lower worlds. world is the consciousness in man He crystallizes them around lines of which says "I am." This consciousness force. Geometry is the skeleton, and all picks up its universe and moves to the bodies which he builds are another town. Everytime it walks up and geometric problems, geometric angles down the street it takes a hundred crystallized into rocks and stones. million solar systems with it, but Gradually the crystallization which because they are so infinitesimal, man brings bodies into the world causes cannot realize that they are actually them to become too dense and worlds. unyielding to respond to the subtle impressions from the spiritual In like manner, we are individual cells in consciousness. Slowly they turn to the body of an infinite creation which is stone, and death is the result of the hurling itself through infinity, at unknown same cause that brought the body into speed. Suns, moons, and stars are the world. The early races of the earth merely bones in a great skeleton worshipped the procreative attributes of composed of all the substances of the life. They felt that the highest expression universe. Our own little lives are merely of life was the power of giving still part of that infinite life throbbing and another life to the world. Therefore the coursing through the arteries and veins principle of life-giving was personified of space. But all this is so vast as to be into a deity who gave life to all things, or beyond the comprehension of this little rather brought into manifestation the "I am" in us. Therefore we may say that latent life which cannot grow or unfold in both extremes are equally the physical world without the vehicle of incomprehensible. We live in a middle dense substance. world between infinite greatness on the one hand and infinite smallness on the To the occultist, birth is death and death other. As we grow, our world grows also, is an awakening. The mystics of ancient resulting in a corresponding increase in days taught that to be born into the the scope of our understanding of all physical world was to enter a tomb for these wonders. no other plane of nature is so unresponsive, so limited as the earth- world. Time and distance were prison PART IV bars chaining the soul to narrow environments. Heat and cold tormented THE INFERNAL WORLDS the soul, age deprived it of its faculties, and man's life was but a preparation for At the base of the spine is located the death. As life is lived under the shadow throne of the lord of form, commonly of death, they taught that it is a called Jehovah and Shiva. The !linga is mockery, a hollow thing, gilded to the his symbol. He rides the great bull of careless eye but tarnished and worm- earthiness. His daughter is death and eaten upon close examination. The destruction, yet he is not a thing of evil, physical body became the sepulcher. their tomb, the place of burial in which was the last incarnation of the earth- spirit lay awaiting the day of liberation spirit and the human race passed when as a virgin spark it should arise through its state of animal again from the broken urn of clay. consciousness in the etheric body of the Therefore in all the religions of the world moon lord. The lunar spirits are called we have the lower world as a black pit 'the ancestors' and are known to into which Yama. the Lord of the Christians as angels. These beings Underworld, hurls the souls of the have control of the generative powers of damned to suffer in a hell of their own animal and man. The life coming into creation, for it is true that each race incarnation often chooses its future makes from its own nature the demons vehicle many years before it appears in which torment it. Here Typhon, the the world. It is said that the etheric germ Egyptian god of destruction, with the is placed in the body of the parent as body of a hog and the head of a long as twenty years before the child crocodile, awaits with yawning jaws to comes into the world. This is the result devour those who have failed to make of its search for an environment proper use of life's opportunities. Among especially suited to its spiritual and most peoples the demon is symbolized material needs. as part animal, part human. He dwells in the animal nature of man, and those Certain occult schools have taught that who are controlled by their appetites, the spiritual consciousness of man was their likes and dislikes, their hates and not fixed in any point of the body but fears, need no further damnation; they was in whatever part of man his have built their own hell and are thoughts dwelt. We know that there are experiencing its torments. three worlds where man may dwell. The first is his mental world, where he may The generative system is gradually live surrounded by his thoughts, his being absorbed into the brain, and the dreams, and his aspirations. The man of the next great world period will second is his human world, where he generate its progenies, or at least form may be one of the great middle class vehicles for them, through the larynx. which thinks a little, eats a little, sleeps which is the organ of the spoken word. a little, and worries unceasingly. The We are told that a small etheric body third possible home is his animal world, which will later be the organ of positive where he may dwell in the midst of reproduction is gradually being built passions. lusts, and hates which burn near the larynx. Ultimately human his soul and consume his body. The beings will become capable of raising history of primitive races shows that the spinal fire through the Sushumna they have risen through all of these canal. This is an evolutionary process, stages until at last a few have become however, covering a long period of time. truly thinking creatures.
The physical body is supposed to be The blood of every man is individual.
under the control of the moon, which When crystallizing, it forms into rules the liquids of the earth. The moon geometric patterns which differ with every person. so that by means of blood live spelt backwards becomes evil and analysis a far surer system could be the word lived becomes devil. This evolved for crime detection than either peculiar relationship is found not only in the Bertillon or fingerprint systems. The English. but to a slightly less noticeable story of man's soul is written in his degree in several languages. When we blood. The position he occupies in take up this, however, we become evolution, his hopes and his fears, are involved in the study of Cabalism, which all imprinted on the etheric forms which is the analysis of the symbolic meaning flow through his blood stream. Until red of words. blood came into the body, the spirit of man could not enter, but hovered over Red is the color of blood and the key of the body. attached to it by an electric the liver and its effect upon animals is thread. By studying crickets, very noticeable. It irritates, excites, and grasshoppers, and similar small in some cases actually causes animals creatures clairvoyantly, it is possible to to go mad. Therefore it is often used in observe impulses from the little globes making the capes worn during bullfights. hovering over their bodies which result These the fighters flaunt in the bull's in the primitive motion and sense which face, and trouble usually follows. The they demonstrate. Therefore it is said use of red lights is not uncommon in that the actual line between the black magic. Evil magicians use them to vegetable and the animal is drawn with materialize specters, while medical the coming of red blood; consequently. science has already discovered that red certain small fishes, mollusks, etc.. are light is a strong irritant when applied to technically vegetables, although not the human body. recognized as such by science. The liver is the key to the red blood. Lucifer's During anger and hate the astral aura red garments derive their color from the of man becomes streaked with red blood, while the word Lucifer means "a flames very closely resembling carrier of light" (or heat) and is a name thunderbolts. Very often the base of the for the blood. For this reason he is the spine glows with a murky red light, spirit of temptation. In the Christian symbolic of hate, passion, or anger. This Mysteries the piercing of the liver of red glow, burning eternally at the base Christ by the spear of the centurion is of the spine has given rise to the story especially mystical, while Prometheus. of hell-fire and damnation, but the the friend of man, hanging upon the preacher has failed to remind the laity peak of Mount Caucasus with a vulture that they carry their own hell around with gnawing at his liver, is the same myth them whereever they go. expressed in the symbolism of ancient Greece. The red power is said to be broken from the white light of the sun through the It is further interesting to note the body of Samuel, the spirit of Mars. This relation between the words the and liver, is the cause of the red glow in the for to have a liver is to live. Along the heavens. Mars is the god of war, same line we may note that the word wrangling, hate, and dissension. He was the patron deity of the Roman Empire, The use of colors in symbolism is very whose uniformed soldiers wore red as a interesting. The green dragon, whom symbol of his sway. Following the lead the heroes of mythology usually slay, of this patron saint they conquered the represents the earth. The white armor is world and then fell upon the swords with a purified physical body. The black which they had murdered others. magician is darkness and uncertainty. All colors have symbolic value, and While red is the color of the body yellow great lessons can be learned from the is regarded as the color of the soul. For study of the application of these values this reason the Buddhas and world to occultism. saviors are usually symbolized as being surrounded with a golden nimbus or While discussing the subject of occult halo. This light is the yellow robe; also anatomy and physiology we must stop the light bearing witness to the for a moment to give credit to the darkness, of which St John wrote. This alchemists and Rosicrucians who, light, flooding through the third ventricle during the Middle Ages concealed the represents the Shekinah of the Jews study of occult anatomy by dressing up which hovers over the Mercy Seat as a the organs of the human body in the pact between God and man. Yellow is a form of retorts and alchemical vessels. vitalizer, a life-giver. Therefore the One of their great exponents said in golden haired sun and its personification substance; "Our chemistry is not with — the Christ — are both givers of life. chemicals as you know them, but with Devitalization may be successfully certain secret vessels" (internal organs) treated by exposing the spleen to 'and spiritual chemicals which are sunlight. invisible to the ordinary individual. We do not believe in torturing chemicals." Blue, the highest of the three primary. (combining them to form gases. Vapors, colors, is the color given to the Father. It or seething masses) 'for chemicals, like is a relaxing, restful color, especially men can suffer when brought into valuable in the treatment of insanity and unkind relationship with each other." obsession. It is difficult for black magicians to function successfully in a The alchemical furnace was the human blue light. Its affinity to the mind is very body. The fire that burned in it was at evident, and it gathers as an electric sea the base of the spine. The chimney was in the pineal gland as an extract from all the spinal cord up which the vapors the spiritual qualities of human nature. passed to be gathered again and The blue heart to every flame was said distilled in the brain. This was indeed a to symbolize the invisible Father behind secret system brought to Europe from the glowing sun. In the words of Christ. the Far East. where for centuries it has "He that hath seen me hath seen the been considered the highest form of Father. I am in the Father and the religion. We may call these occult truths Father in me.' the principles of operative spirituality in contradistinction to modern religion which is made entirely of speculative theories. People do not dream that totally unaware that he was linking religion is physiological, nor would they together Oriental occultism and believe that their salvation depends Occidental embryology. entirely on scientific uses of the life elements and forces within their own The cosmogony myths of nearly every bodies; but in spite of all that may be nation are based upon embryology. The said to the contrary, such is the case. formation of the cosmos is said to have During the next few years much will be taken place in the same way that man is done to enlighten man concerning the formed, only on a larger scale. For secret workings of his own parts and example, in The Vishnu Puranas we are members. told that creation took place within the womb of Mem. Space was surrounded It is very interesting to note the by great mountains and cliffs (the similitude existing between the chorion). The universe was created out incarnations or appearances in the of water and floated in a great sea (the world of the great avatar, Vishnu, and amniotic fluid). Down a ladder (the the changes which take place in the umbilical cord) came the gods. Four human embryo previous to birth. This rivers flowed into the new land, as told brings us to our next subject; Occult in Genesis. These are the blood vessels Embryology. of the umbilical cord. So the story goes. and a marvelous correlation exists. Some day perhaps a new science may PART V be based upon the law of analogy. This will prove to be a far greater contribution OCCULT EMBRYOLOGY to scientific data than all the scientific speculations of all ages. The great Lord Vishnu has already come nine times into the world to save It is reasonably certain that the story of his people. His tenth birth is yet to Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden come. His nine appearances closely is based upon embryology, and that the parallel the nine principal changes womb is the original Garden of Eden. In taking place in the human embryo symbolism it is represented by a dot in a previous to birth. Vishnu was first born circle. This dot is the primitive germ, and out of the mouth of a fish. He then rose so on as far as you wish to carry the out of the body of a turtle. Still later he analogy. The Egg of Brahma is the appeared as a boar. then a lion, story of the cosmic embryo. and afterwards a monkey. And after a embryology is the basic study of number of still other changes he creation. appeared as a man. I noted some time ago that a scientist had arranged a table In embryology we also have a very showing the relationship of the human interesting recapitulation of the passage brain to various animals during the of the human race through the various prenatal period. He followed exactly the species of nature. Here we find at list of incarnations of Vishnu, while certain periods the Hyperborean creatures. At another time we see the primitive Lemurian man; later the Man is not born all at once. We may say Atlantean; and finally the Aryan. We that he is born by degrees. The most certainly recommend to all occult consciousness works outside of the students that they make a very careful body, laboring with the plastic study of this subject. Science knows substances up to the time of the that all life upon this planet came out of quickening, when it takes hold of the the water. The human embryo is vehicle from within and begins to mold a enveloped in water through all the certain amount of individuality out of the primitive stages of its growth. And in it materials which surround it. At the time we find the story of the evolution of all of birth, the physical body is born, and a things. Sex did not appear upon the process of crystallization sets in which planet until the third race. It does not never ceases for a moment until death. appear in the embryo until the third Man begins to die the moment he is month. born, and the span of life is the length of time which this requires. At the seventh The recapitulation of the human embryo year the vital body comes into action, through the lower kingdoms of nature is and the greatest periods of growth one of the strongest proofs of evolution, commence. It is then that parents begin inasmuch as it proves conclusively that to experience difficulties. It is the time of man could not have been made letting clothes down and out. Children originally in his adult condition. shoot up like weeds for they are literally Consequently he passed through a recapitulating their plant existences. cosmic embryology; in fact. he is still in whereas before that time they were the embryo and will not actually be born recapitulating their mi octal state At into the human race until he is truly about the seventh year the child begins human. which will not be for many to manufacture vital essences within his thousands of years. He is just in the own body. Up to that time he lives upon state of becoming man. life forces secreted in the ductless glands of the throat before birth. In other The nine months of the prenatal epoch words he maintains himself upon life have been employed in symbolism for which he has stored away from the ages. Nine is called the number of man. parent. At about seven he starts work for because of the nine months that the himself. He is on the go every minute, body is in a state of preparation. The and if youth could only bottle up its perfect number is supposed to be energy and preserve it for old age, what twelve, so at the present time man is a wonderful world we would live in. born three months before he is finished. The gradual unfoldment of the human Between twelve and fourteen in the race will result in more being temperate zones the liver starts activity; accomplished during the prenatal the emotional body is born. It is during epoch. until finally birth will be the these adolescent years that youth faces ultimate, and all experience and growth its greatest problem Emotionalism runs will take place in the embryonic state. riot. The consciousness is recapitulating in animal existences. It may truly be As an example of this, we know that the said that these are the days of puppy twenty-eighth year is the period of love. These are years often filled with second physical birth; the thirty-fifth year great mistakes. More lives are blighted the period of second vital birth, or, as it between the fourteenth and twenty-first is called, second growth; the forty- years than at any other period of life. It second year the period of second has been observed that the children of emotional birth. During these years strongly emotional races are often people otherwise perfectly normal very brilliant and at the head of their classes often grow sentimental. The forty-ninth until adolescence. When, however, the year marks the dawn of a new period of emotional nature becomes active at mental activity, and the following seven about the 14th year, these children years are the golden years of thought. frequently lose interest and ability in They are the periods of philosophic formal education. Any school teacher reason, the crowning years of life. And who has taught foreign children will so on, cycle after cycle. If the individual vouch for this condition among certain waits long enough he may pass through nationalities. The moron is an example his second, third, and fourth childhoods. of the loss of mental function with the birth of the astral body, and there are Few people realize that they are many of these examples. During these composed of mineral, plant, and animal years of emotional riot, parents must elements. The bones are literally. rule their children with firmness and Minerals, hair is a plant nourished by kindness, or those same children will waves of vital ether pouring out through turn some day upon their parents and the skin. while within every, individual blame them for ruined lives. are thousands of little wiggling. creeping. crawling things that make Between eighteen and twenty-one. each of us a zoo all by ourselves. The according to climatic conditions, the ancient Scandinavians, realizing this, mental body takes hold, and we say that wrote many legends about the little the individual has reached the age of creatures that live in man. A famous majority. He is then permitted to vote'. statue of Father Nile shows him covered his father presents him with a gold over with tiny. human figures watch and sends him out into the world representing the attributes and functions to seek his fortune. Not one person in a of man. Man is a great study. but we million realizes why twenty-one is set as make very little use of our textbook. The the age of majority. But every occultist Scriptures of all nations are filled with knows the reason. The spiritual anatomical references to cities and consciousness, the true "I am." does not places that have no existence outside of take hold of in new body until the man himself. The twelve gates of the twenty-first year. Up to that time it is Holy City are the twelve apertures in the ruled entirely by the lower sense human body. Like the twelve Masters of centers. Life thus progresses in cycles Wisdom and the twelve great schools of of seven years. philosophy. these apertures are divided into two divisions of seven and five. There are seven visible openings and bearing upon the subject of anatomical five concealed openings in the human symbolism, showing how the principles body. outlined in the preceding pages work out when applied to different world One of the Greek philosophers told his problems of today. disciples to remember distinctly that there were six openings leading into the human brain but only one leading out of OCCULT MASONRY the human head, and that one led from the stomach. Therefore they were to To the student of mystic Masonry one listen twice (once with each ear) look problem eternally presents itself. He twice (once with each eye) sense twice knows it under many names. It is told to (once with each nostril) but to speak him in many symbols, but briefly it may only once. and that what they spoke be defined as the purification and would come from the stomach and the liberation of spirit and body from the brain. The advice still holds good. bane of crystallization and materiality. In other words he is seeking to rescue the The Hebrews used the human head as life buried amidst the ruins of his fallen a favorite symbol to express the divine temple and restore it to its rightful place attributes, calling it the Great Face. The as the keynote of his spiritual arch. two eyes were correlated to the Father. for they were organs of consciousness; When studying ancient Masonry we are the two nostrils to the Son, because dealing with one of the first revelations they were organs of sense and also of what we know as the Wisdom vehicles for Prana, the life force in the Teachings. Like other great mysteries it ether. The mouth was used to symbolize consists of solutions to problems of the Holy Spirit, the one who sent forth everyday existence. It may seem of little the spoken word and formed the world. use to us now to study these ancient The seven vowels to which the mouth abstract symbols, but in time every gave birth were the seven spirits before student will realize that the things he the throne; also the vials and trumpets now casts aside as worthless are the of Revelation. They went forth as the jewels which one day he will need. Like army of their voice to create in the the centaur in the zodiac, man is seven worlds, and all nature resulted eternally striving to lift his human from their creative power. Few realize consciousness from the body of the the magnificent symbolism concealed animal; and in the three-runged ladder within the human head and how it has of Masonry we find the three great steps been used in Scriptural writings. which are necessary for this liberation. These three steps are the three grand divisions of human consciousness. We To this article is appended a treatise can briefly define them as materiality, which was published separately some intellectuality, and spirituality. They also years ago but has been out of print for represent action on the lowest rung, some time. The treatise has a direct emotion on the central, and mentality on the highest. All human beings are lifting each living soul is a bee that travels themselves up to God by climbing these through life and gathers the pollen of three steps that lead to liberation. wisdom from the environments and experiences of life. As the bee gathers When we have united these three the honey from the heart of the flower, manifestations into a harmonious so each of us should extract the spiritual balance. we then have the flaming nectar from each happening, each joy, triangle. The ancients declared God as and each sorrow, and incorporate it into the dot in the circle, to be unknowable. the great beehive of experience — the but said that he manifested through his soul-body of man. In the same way it is three witnesses—the Father, the Son, said that the spiritual energies in man and the Holy Spirit. Now the same is eternally take the life forces he is true with man. The part of God which is transmuting and carry them up into the within each of us can manifest only beehive in the brain, where is kept the through his three witnesses; the Father honey or oil necessary for the manifests through our thoughts, the Son sustenance of life. through our emotions, and the Holy Spirit through our actions. When we The ancient gods are said to have lived balance our thoughts, our desires, and on nectar and not to have eaten or our actions, we have an equilateral drunk like other men. It is quite true that triangle. honey gained or extracted from coping with the problems of everyday life is the When man's purified life energies food of the higher man. While we eat at radiate through these three witnesses the well laden board it would be well for we have a halo of flame added to the us to consider whether or not the triangle, in the center of which is God— spiritual man is also nourished and the unknowable and unthinkable one; developed by the things which we have the ycd or flaming letter of the Hebrew transmuted in our own lives. alphabet; the abyss which no one can understand but from which all things An ancient philosopher once said that come. The life of this unknown pours the bee extracts honey from the pollen outward through the triangle, which in of the flower, while from the same the higher degrees is surrounded by a source the spider extracts poison. The halo of flame. The halo is the soul built problem which then confronts us is; are from the transmuted thought, action, we bees or spiders ? Do we transform and desire — the eternal triangle of the experiences of life into honey. or do God. we change them into poison Do they lift us. or do we eternally rebel against the Among Masonic symbols is the beehive, pricks? Many people become soured by called the symbol of industry, for it experience, but the wise one takes the clearly demonstrates how man should honey and builds it into the beehive of cooperate with his fellow men for the his own spiritual nature. mutual development of all. It also contains a much deeper message, for It is well for us also to consider the "grip dressed in the skins of animals, these of the lion's paw." one of the world's passions are untrammeled, while in oldest symbols of initiation, the ancient John the Evangelist they have been times the neophyte on his way through transmuted until the vehicles and the mysteries of Egypt's temples was powers which they represent have finally buried in a great stone coffer for become the beloved disciples of the the dead, later to be raised to life again Christ-life in man. by the master initiate in his robes of blue and gold. When the candidate was thus We often hear the expression. "riding raised, the grand master wore upon his the goat" or 'climbing the greased pole." arm and hand the paw of a lion as a This is of symbolic import to those who glove, and it was said of the newly have eyes to see, for when man raised disciple that he had been brought masters his lower animal nature he can to life by the "grip of the lion's paw." The say honestly that he is "riding the goat" Hebrew letter jod (which is used in the and if he cannot ride the goat, he center of the triangle and is sometimes cannot enter the temple of initiation. The a symbol of spirit because of its flame- greased pole which he must climb refers like appearance) means, according to undoubtedly to the spinal column; and it the cabalist, a hand that is stretched is only when the consciousness of man forth. We understand this to symbolize climbs up this column into the brain that the sun spirit in man which is said to be he can take the degrees of enthroned in the sign of Leo, the lion of Freemasonry. Judah. And as the fruits of the fields and the seedlings are grown and developed The subject of the Lost Word should be through the sun's rays, so it is said that considered as an individual problem. the crystallization of man is broken up Man himself— that is, the true principle and dispelled by the light of the spiritual — may be called the Lost Word but it is sun which raises the dead with its power better to say that it is a certain and liberates the latencies of life. The something radiating from man which spirit in man, with its eyes that see in constitutes a password recognized by the dark, is ever striving to lift their lower all members of the Craft. When man, as side of his own nature to union with the architect of his temple, abuses and itself. When the lower man is thus destroys the life energies within himself, raised from materiality by the higher then the builder, after having been ideals which unfold within his own murdered by the three lower bodies, being, it is said that the spirit of light and carries with him to the tomb where he is truth has raised the candidate for laid the Word which is the proof of his initiation by the "grip of the lion's paw.' position.
Consider the symbolism of the two Abuse of mental, physical, or spiritual
Johns as we find them in the Masonic powers results in the murder of energy; rituals. John means "ram," and the ram and when this energy is lost, man loses is symbolical of the animal passions and with it the sacred word. Our lives — our propensities of man. In John the Baptist, thoughts, desires, and actions — are the living threefold password by which a When a man has so lived that he can master builder knows his kin; and when understand this wonderful problem, the the student seeks admittance to the great eye or center of consciousness is inner room he must present at the enabled to see out through the clean temple gates the credentials of a glass of a purified body. The mysteries purified body and a balanced mind. No of true Masonry, long concealed from price can buy this sacred word; no the profane. are then understood; and degree can bestow it. But when within the new master, donning his robes of ourselves the dead builder is raised to blue and gold, follows in the footsteps of life once more. he himself speaks the the immortals who are climbing, step by word, and upon the philosopher's stone step, the ladder leading upward to the built within himself is engraved the living seven stars. Far above, the Ark — the name of the Divine. source of life — floats over the waters of oblivion on high, and sends its It is only when this builder is raised that messages down to the lower man the symbols of mortality can be changed through the cable tow. When this point into those of immortality. Our bodies are is reached, the door in the " C " is the urn containing the ashes of Hiram, closed forever, for the dot has returned our lives are the broken pillars. to the circle; the threefold spirit and the crystallization is the coffin, and threefold body are linked together in the disintegration is the open grave. But eternal seal of Solomon. Then does the above all is the sprig of evergreen cornerstone which the builder rejected promising life to those who raise the become again the head of the corner, serpent power, and showing that under and man— the capstone long in from the debris of the temple is buried the the universal temple— is again in place. body of the builder, who is " raised' when we liberate the divine life which is The daily occurrences of life are locked within our material natures. sharpening our senses and developing our faculties. These are the tools of the There are many of these wonderful Craft— the mallet. the chisel, and the Masonic symbols handed down to us rule— and with these self-developed from the forgotten past; symbols whose tools we are slowly truing the rough meanings long lost have been buried ashlar or cube into a finished block for beneath the mantle of materiality. The the universal temple. It is only then that true Mason— the child of light— still we become initiates of the flame, for cries out for liberation, and the empty only then does light take the place of throne of Egypt still waits for the king of darkness. As we wander through the the sun who was killed. All the world still vaulted chambers of our own being we waits for Balder the Beautiful to come to learn the meaning of the vaulted life again; for the crucified Christ to roll chambers of the temple, and as the away the stone and rise from the tomb initiatory ritual unfolds before our eyes of matter bringing his own tomb with we should recognize in it the him. recapitulation of our own being, the unfoldment of our own consciousness, and the story of our own lives. With this thought in mind, we are able to understand not only why the Atlanteans of old worshipped the rising sun, but also how the modern Mason symbolizes this sun as Hiram the highborn who. when he rises to the top of the temple. places a golden stone upon it and raises to life all things in man.