Filename: "RC1004.TXT"
Source: "Ancient and Modern Initiation" by Max Heindel

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                     THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOTWASHING:

   We are told in the Gospels which relate the story of the Christian Mystic
Initiation,  how  on the night when Christ had partaken of the  Last  Supper
with His disciples,  His ministry being finished at that time,  He rose from
the  table and girded Himself with a towel,  then poured water into a  basin
and  commenced to wash His disciples'  feet, an act of the most humble  ser-
vice, but prompted by an important occult consideration.

   Comparatively few realize that when we rise in the scale of evolution, we
do  so by trampling upon the bodies of our weaker brothers;  consciously  or
unconsciously  we crush them and use them as stepping-stones to  attain  our
own ends.   This assertion holds good concerning all the kingdoms in nature.
When  a life wave has been brought down to the nadir of involution  and  en-
crusted in mineral form, that is immediately seized upon by another slightly
higher life wave,  which takes the disintegrating mineral crystal, adapts it

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to its own ends as crystalloid,  and assimilates it as part of a plant form.
If  there were no minerals which could thus be seized  upon,  disintegrated,
and  transformed,  plant life would be an impossibility.   Then  again,  the
plant forms are taken by numerous classes of animals,  masticated to a pulp,
devoured,  and made to serve as food for this higher kingdom.  If there were
no plants,  animals would be an impossibility;  and the same principle holds
good  in  spiritual evolution for if there were no pupils  standing  on  the
lower  round  of the ladder of knowledge and  requiring  instruction,  there
would be no need for a teacher.  But here there is one all-important differ-
ence.   The  teacher grows by GIVING to his pupils and serving  them.   From
their  shoulders he steps to a higher rung on the ladder of  knowledge.   HE
LIFTS  HIMSELF  BY LIFTING THEM,  but nevertheless he owes them  a  debt  of
gratitude,  which  is symbolically acknowledged and liquidated by  the  foot
washing--an act of humble service to those who have served him.

   When  we  realize that nature,  which is the expression of God,  is  con-
tinually exerting itself to create and bring forth,  we may also  understand
that  whoever  kills anything,  be it ever so little  and  seemingly  insig-
nificant,  is  to that extent thwarting God's purpose.   This  applies  par-
ticularly to the aspirant to the higher life,  and therefore the Christ  ex-
horted  His  disciples  to  be  wise  as  serpents  but  harmless  as  doves
notwithstanding.  But no matter how earnest our desire to follow the precept
of harmlessness,  our  constitutional tendencies and necessities force us to

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kill  at every moment of our lives,  and it is not only in the great  things
that we are constantly committing murder.  It was comparatively easy for the
seeking  soul symbolized by Parsifal to break the bow wherewith he had  shot
the swan of the Grail knights when it had been explained to him what a wrong
he  had  committed.   From that time Parsifal was committed to the  life  of
harmlessness so far as the great things were concerned.   All earnest aspir-
ants follow him readily in that act once it has dawned upon them how subver-
sive of soul growth is the practice of partaking of food which requires  the
death of an animal.

   But  even  the noblest and most gentle among mankind is  poisoning  those
about him with every breath and being poisoned by them in turn,  for all ex-
hale the death-dealing carbon dioxide,  and we are therefore a menace to one
another.   Nor  is this a far-fetched idea; it is a very real  danger  which
will  become much more manifest in course of time when mankind becomes  more
sensitive.  In a disabled submarine or under similar conditions where a num-
ber of people are together the carbon dioxide exhaled by them quickly  makes
the atmosphere unable to sustain life.  There is a story from the Indian Mu-
tiny  of how a number of English prisoners were huddled in a room  in  which
there was only one small opening for air.   In a very short time the  oxygen
was exhausted, and the poor prisoners began to fight one another like beasts
in order to obtain a place near that air inlet, and they fought until nearly

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all had died from the struggle and asphyxiation.

   The  same  principle  is illustrated in  the  ancient  Atlantean  Mystery
Temple,  the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, where we find a nauseating stench
and  a suffocating smoke ascending from the Altar of Burnt Offerings,  where
the  poison-laden  bodies of the UNWILLING VICTIMS sacrificed for  sin  were
consumed,  and where the light shone but dimly through the enveloping smoke.
This we may contrast with the light which emanated clear and bright from the
Seven-branched  Candlestick fed by the olive oil extracted from  the  chaste
plant,  and where the incense symbolized by the WILLING SERVICE  of  devoted
priests rose to heaven as a sweet savor.   This we are told in many  places,
was pleasing to Deity,  while the blood of the unwilling victims,  the bulls
and the goats,  was a source of grief and displeasure to God,  who  delights
most in the sacrifice of prayer, which helps the devotee and harms no one.

   It  has  been stated concerning some of the saints that  they  emitted  a
sweet odor, and as we have often had occasion to say, this is no mere fanci-
ful story--it is an occult fact.   The great majority of mankind inhale dur-
ing every moment of life the vitalizing oxygen contained in the  surrounding
atmosphere.   At every expiration we exhale a charge of carbon dioxide which
is a deadly poison and which would certainly vitiate the air in time if  the
pure and chaste plant did not inhale this poison,  use a part of it to build
bodies that last sometimes for many centuries or even millennia as instanced
in the redwoods of California, and give us back the rest in the form of pure

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oxygen which we need for our life.  These carboniferous plant bodies by cer-
tain  further  processes of nature have in the past become  mineralized  and
turned to stone instead of disintegrating.  We find them today as coal,  THE
PERISHABLE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE MADE BY NATURAL MEANS IN NATURE'S LABORATORY.
But  the Philosopher's Stone may also be made artificially by man  from  his
own body.   It should be understood once and for all that the  Philosopher's
Stone is not made in an exterior chemical laboratory,  but that the body  is
the workshop of the Spirit which contains all the elements necessary to pro-
duce this ELIXIR VITAE,  and that the Philosopher's Stone is not exterior to
the  body,  but THE ALCHEMIST HIMSELF BECOMES THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.   The
salt, sulphur, and mercury emblematically contained in the three segments of
the spinal cord,  which control the sympathetic,  motor,  and sensory nerves
and are played upon by the Neptunian spinal Spirit Fire,  constitute the es-
sential elements in the alchemical process.

   It  needs no argument to show that indulgence in  sensuality,  brutality,
and bestiality makes the body coarse.  Contrariwise,  devotion to Deity,  an
attitude of perpetual prayer,  a feeling of love and compassion for all that
lives and moves, loving thoughts sent out to all beings and those inevitably
received in return,  all invariably have the effect of refining and spiritu-
alizing the nature.  We speak of a person of that sort as breathing or radi-
ating love,  an expression which much more nearly describes the actual  fact
than  most  people  imagine,  for  as  a  matter  of  actual observation the

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percentage  of poison contained in the breath of an individual is  in  exact
proportion  to  the evil in his nature and inner life and  the  thoughts  he
thinks.   The Hindu Yogi makes a practice of sealing up the candidate for  a
certain  grade  of Initiation in a cave which is not much  larger  than  his
body.   There he must live for a number of weeks breathing the same air over
and  over again to demonstrate practically that he has ceased  exhaling  the
death-dealing carbon dioxide and is beginning to build his body therefrom.

   The  Philosopher's  Stone then is not a body of the same  nature  as  the
plant,  thought it is pure and chaste,  but it is A CELESTIAL BODY  such  as
that  whereof St.  Paul speaks in the 5th chapter of Second  Corinthians,  a
body  which becomes immortal as a diamond or a ruby stone.   It is not  hard
and inflexible as the mineral;  it is A SOFT DIAMOND or ruby,  and by  every
act  of  the nature described the Christian Mystic is  building  this  body,
though he is probably unconscious thereof for a long time.   When he has at-
tained to this degree of holiness it is not necessary for him to perform the
foot  washing so far as concerns the physical pupil who helps him  to  rise,
but  he will always have the feeling of gratitude,  symbolized by that  act,
toward those whom he is fortunate enough to attract to himself as  disciples
and  to whom he may give the living bread which nourishes them to  immortal-
ity.

   Students  will realize that this is part of the process which  eventually
culminates  in the Transfiguration,  but it should also be realized that  in
the Christian Mystic Initiation there are no set and  definite degrees.  The

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candidate looks to the Christ as the author and finisher of his faith, seek-
ing  to imitate Him and follow in His steps through every moment  of  exist-
ence.   Thus the various stages which we are considering are reached by pro-
cesses  of soul growth which simultaneously bring him to higher  aspects  of
all  these steps that we are now analyzing.   In this respect the  Christian
Mystic  Initiation differs radically from the processes in vogue  among  the
Rosicrucians,  in which an UNDERSTANDING upon the part of the  candidate  of
that which is to take place is considered indispensable.   But there comes a
time  at  which the Christian Mystic must and does realize the  path  before
him,  and that is what constitutes Gethsemane, which we will consider in the
next chapter.

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                                 GETHSEMANE: 
         
                            THE GARDEN OF GRIEF:

   And  when they had sung a hymn,  they went out into the Mount of  Olives.
"And  Jesus  saith unto them,  All ye shall be offended because of  me  this
night;  for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be
scattered.  But after that I am risen I will go before you into Galilee.

   "But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.
"And Jesus saith unto him,  Verily,  I say unto thee that this day,  even in
this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.

   "But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee,  I will not
deny thee in any wise.  Likewise also said they all.

   "And  they came to a place which was named Gethsemane:   and He saith  to
His disciples, Sit ye here while I shall pray.  And He taketh with Him Peter
and  James  and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and

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saith unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death:  tarry ye here
and watch.  And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass from him.   And He said,  Abba,
Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:  Nev-
ertheless,  not what I will, but what thou wilt.   And he cometh and findeth
them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou?  Couldst not thou
watch  one  hour?   Watch ye and pray lest ye enter  into  temptation.   The
spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." --MARK, 14:26-38.

   In  the  foregoing Gospel narrative we have one of the saddest  and  most
difficult  of the experiences of the Christian Mystic outlined in  spiritual
form.   During  all his previous experience he has wandered  blindly  along,
that  is to say,  blind to the fact that he is on the Path which if  consis-
tently followed leads to a definite goal, but being also keenly alert to the
slightest sigh of every suffering soul.  He has concentrated all his efforts
upon alleviating their pain physically, morally, or mentally;  he has served
them in any and every capacity; he has taught them the gospel of love, "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; and he has been A LIVING EXAMPLE to all
in its practice.  Therefore he has drawn to himself a little band of friends
whom he loves with the tenderest of affection.   Them has he also taught and
served unstintingly,  even to the foot washing.   But during this period  of
service he  has become so saturated with the sorrows of the world that he is

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indeed a MAN of SORROWS and acquainted with grief as no one else can be.

   This is a very definite experience of the Christian Mystic, and it is the
most important factor in furthering his spiritual progress.   So long as  we
are bored when people come to us and tell us their troubles,  so long as  we
run away from them and seek to escape hearing their tales of woe, we are far
from the Path.   Even when we listen to them and have schooled ourselves not
to show that we are bored,  when we say with our lips only a few sympathetic
words  that fall flat on the sufferer's ear,  we gain nothing  in  spiritual
growth.   It is absolutely essential to the Christian Mystic that he  become
so  attuned to the world's woe that he feels every pang as his own hurt  and
stores it up within his heart.

   When PARSIFAL stood in the temple of the Holy Grail and saw the suffering
of Amfortas the stricken Grail King,  he was mute with sympathy and  compas-
sion  for a long time after the procession had passed out of the  hall,  and
consequently  could not answer the questions of Gurnemanz,  and it was  that
deep  fellow  feeling which prompted him to seek for the spear  that  should
heal Amfortas.  IT WAS THE PAIN OF AMFORTAS FELT IN THE HEART OF PARSIFAL BY
SYMPATHY WHICH HELD HIM FIRMLY BALANCED UPON THE PATH OF VIRTUE WHEN TEMPTA-
TION  WAS STRONGEST.   It was that deep pain of compassion which  urged  him
through many years to seek the suffering Grail King, and finally when he had
found  Amfortas,  this deep,  heartfelt fellow feeling enabled him  to  pour
forth the healing balm.

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   As it is shown in the soul myth of Parsifal,  so it is in the actual life
and experience of the Christian Mystic:   he must drink deeply of the cup of
sorrow,  he must drain it to the very dregs so that by the  cumulative  pain
which threatens to burst his heart he may pour himself out unreservedly  and
unstintedly for the healing and helping of the world.  Then Gethsemane,  the
garden of grief, is a familiar place to him, watered with tears for the sor-
rows and sufferings of humanity.

   Through  all his years of self-sacrifice his little band of  friends  had
been the consolation of Jesus.   He had already learned to renounce the ties
of blood.   "Who is my mother and my brother?   They that do the will of  my
Father."   Though no true Christian neglects his social obligations or with-
holds love from his family,  the spiritual ties are nevertheless the  stron-
gest,  and through them comes the crowning grief;  through the desertion  of
his spiritual friends he learns to drink to the dregs the cup of sorrow.  He
does  not  blame them for their desertion but excuses them with  the  words,
"The Spirit is indeed willing,  but the flesh is weak,"  for he knows by his
own  experience how true this is.   But he finds that in the supreme  sorrow
they cannot comfort him,  and therefore he turns to THE ONLY SOURCE OF  COM-
FORT,  THE FATHER IN HEAVEN.  He has arrived at the point where human endur-
ance  seems to have reached its limit,  and he prays to be spared a  greater
ordeal, but with a blind trust in the Father he bows his will and offers all
unreservedly.

   That is the moment of realization.  Having drunk the cup of sorrow to the
dregs, being  deserted  by  all, he experiences that temporary awful fear of

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being  utterly alone which is one of the most terrible if not the most  ter-
rible  experience  that can come into the life of a human  being.   All  the
world seems dark about.   He knows that in spite of all the good he has done
or  tried  to do the powers of darkness are seeking to slay him.   He  knows
that the mob that a few days before had cried "Hosannah"  will on the morrow
be ready to shout "Crucify!   Crucify!"   His relatives and now his last few
friends have fled, and they were also even ready to deny.

   But when we are on the pinnacle of grief we are nearest to the throne  of
grace.   The agony and grief,  the sorrow and the suffering borne within the
Christian Mystic's breast are more priceless and precious than the wealth of
the  Indies,  for when he has lost all human companionship and when  he  has
given  himself over unreservedly to the Father a transmutation takes  place:
the grief is turned to compassion, the only power in the world that can for-
tify a man about to mount the hill of Golgotha and give his life for  human-
ity,  not a sacrifice of death but a LIVING SACRIFICE,  lifting  himself  by
lifting others.

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                      THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION:

   As  we  said in the beginning of this series of articles,  the  Christian
Mystic Initiation differs radically from the Occult Initiation undertaken by
those who approach the Path from the intellectual side.   But all paths con-
verge  at Gethsemane,  where the candidate for Initiation is saturated  with
sorrow which flowers into compassion,  a yearning mother love which has only
one all-absorbing desire; to pour itself out for the alleviation of the sor-
row of the world to save and to succor all that are weak and heavy-laden, to
comfort  them and give them rest.   At that point the eyes of the  Christian
Mystic  are opened to a full realization of the world's woe and his  mission
as a Savior; and the occultist also finds here the heart of love which alone
can give zest and zeal in the quest.  By the union of the mind and the heart
both  are  ready for the next step,  which involved the development  of  the
STIGMATA, a necessary preparation  for  the  mystic  death and resurrection.

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The Gospel narrative tells the story of the STIGMATA in the following words,
the opening scene being in the Garden of Gethsemane:

   "Judas  then  having received a band of men and officers from  the  chief
priests  and  Pharisees came thither with lanterns,  torches,  and  weapons.
Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon Him went forth  and
said unto them, Whom seek ye?  They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth.   Jesus
said unto them,  I am He.....Then the band and the captain and the  officers
of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him and led Him away to Annas first.....The
high priest then asked of His disciples and of His doctrine.  Jesus answered
him,  I spake openly to the world.....Why asketh though me?   Ask them which
heard me what I have said unto them; behold they know what I have said.  Now
Annas  had  sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.....Then  they  led
Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment.....

   "Pilate  then  went out unto them and said,  What  accusation  bring  you
against this man?   They answered and said unto him,  If He were not a male-
factor  we  would not have delivered Him unto thee.....Then  Pilate  entered
into  the  judgment hall again,  and called Jesus,  and said unto  Him,  Art
though the King of the Jews?  Jesus answered him,  Sayest thou this thing of
thyself  or did others tell it to thee of me?.....My kingdom is not of  this
world:   if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that
I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.

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Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?  Jesus answered,  Thou
sayest that I am a king.  To this end was I born,  and for this cause came I
into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth.   Everyone that is
of   the   truth  heareth  my  voice.   Pilate  said  unto  Him,   What   is
truth?.....Then he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them,  I find
in Him no fault at all.  But we have a custom that I should release unto you
one at the Passover;  will ye therefore that I release unto you the King  of
the Jews?   Then cried they all again saying,  Not this man,  but  Barabbas.
now  Barabbas was a robber.   Pilate therefore took Jesus and SCOURGED  Him.
And the soldiers platted A CROWN OF THORNS and put it on His head,  and they
put on Him a purple robe and said, Hail,  King of the Jews;  and they  smote
him with their hands.

   "Pilate  therefore went forth again and saith unto them,  behold I  bring
Him forth unto you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him.   Then came
Jesus  forth  wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.   And  Pilate
saith unto them, Behold the man!  When the chief priests therefore,  and of-
ficers saw Him,  they cried out, saying, Crucify Him,  Crucify Him.   Pilate
saith unto them,  Take ye Him and crucify Him;  for I find no fault in  Him.
The Jews answered him, We have a law and by our law He ought to die, because
He  made  Himself the Son of God.....Pilate sought to release Him,  but  the
Jews  cried  out saying,  If thou let this man go,  thou  art  not  Caesar's
friend; whoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.....They cried

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out,  Away with Him,  away with Him,  crucify Him.   Pilate saith unto them,
Shall I crucify your king?  The chief priests answered,  We have no king but
Caesar.   Then  delivered he Him therefore unto them to be  crucified.   And
they  took Jesus and led Him away.  And He,  bearing His cross,  went  forth
into a place called the PLACE OF A SKULL, which is, in the Hebrew, Golgotha.
There  they CRUCIFIED Him and two others with Him,  one on either  side  and
Jesus in the midst.  And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross.   And
the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

   We  have here the account of how the STIGMATA or punctures were  produced
in the Hero of the Gospels,  though the location is not quite correctly  de-
scribed, and the process is represented in a narrative form differing widely
from the manner in which these things really happen.   But we stand here be-
fore  one of the Mysteries which must remain sealed for the profane,  though
the  underlying mystical facts are as plain as daylight to those  who  know.
The physical body is not by any means the real man.   Tangible,  solid,  and
pulsating  with life as we find it,  it is really the most dead part of  the
human being,  crystallized into a matrix of finer vehicles which are  invis-
ible  to  our ordinary physical sight.   If we place a basin of water  in  a
freezing temperature,  the water soon congeals into ice, and when we examine
this ice,  we find that it is made up of innumerable little crystals  having
various geometrical forms and lines of demarcation.  There are etheric lines
of forces which were present in the water before it congealed.  As the water

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was hardened and molded along these lines,  so our physical bodies have con-
gealed and solidified along the etheric lines of force of our invisible  vi-
tal body, which is thus in the ordinary course of life inextricably bound to
the physical body, waking or sleeping, until death brings dissolution of the
tie.   But  as Initiation involves the liberation of the REAL MAN  from  the
body of sin and death that he may soar into the subtler spheres at will  and
return  to the body at his pleasure,  it is obvious that before that can  be
accomplished,  before  the  object  of  Initiation  can  be  attained,   the
interlocking  grip of the physical body and the etheric vehicle which is  so
strong and rigid in ordinary humanity, must be dissolved.   As they are most
closely  bound together in the palms of the hands,  the arches of the  feet,
and the head, the occult schools concentrate their efforts upon severing the
connection at these points, and produce the STIGMATA invisibly.

   The  Christian Mystic lacks knowledge of how to perform the  act  without
producing an exterior manifestation.   The STIGMATA develop in him spontane-
ously  by constant contemplation of Christ and unceasing efforts to  imitate
Him in all things.   These exterior STIGMATA comprise not only the wounds in
the  hands  and feet and that in the side but also those  impressed  by  the
crown of thorns and by the scourging.   The most remarkable example of stig-
matization is that said to have occurred in 1224 to Francis of Assisi on the
mountain of Alverno.   Being absorbed in contemplation of the Passion he saw
a seraph approaching, blazing with fire and having  between  its  wings  the

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figure of the Crucified.  St. Francis became aware that in hands, feet,  and
side he had received externally the marks of crucifixion.   These marks con-
tinued  during the two years until his death,  and are claimed to have  been
seen by many eyewitnesses, including Pope Alexander the Fourth.

   The Dominicans disputed the fact,  but at length made the same claim  for
Catherine of Sienna,  whose STIGMATA were explained as having at her own re-
quest been made invisible to others.  The Franciscans appealed to Sixtus the
Fourth  who forbade representation of St. Catherine to made with  the  STIG-
MATA.   Still the fact of the STIGMATA is recorded in the  Breviary  Office,
and Benedict the 13th granted the Dominicans a Feast in commemoration of it.
Others,  especially women who have the positive vital body,  are claimed  to
have received some or all of the STIGMATA.   The last to be canonized by the
Catholic Church for this reason was Veronica Giuliana (1831).   More  recent
cases are those of Anna Catherine Emmerich, who became a nun at Agnetenberg;
L'Estatica Maria Von Moerl of Caldero;  Louise Lateau,  whose STIGMATA  were
said to bleed every Friday;  and Mrs.  Girling of the Newport Shaker  commu-
nity.

   But whether the STIGMATA are visible or invisible the effect is the same.
The  spiritual currents generated in the vital body of such a person are  so
powerful that the body is scourged by them as it were,  particularly in  the
region of the head,  where they produce a feeling akin to that of the  crown
of thorns.  Thus there finally dawns upon the person a full realization that

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the physical body is a cross which he is bearing,  a prison and not the real
man.   This brings him to the next step in his Initiation, viz.,  the cruci-
fixion,  which is experienced by the development of the other centers in his
hands and feet where the vital body is thus being severed from the dense ve-
hicle.

   We are told in the Gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading, 'JESUS
NAZARENUS REX JUDAEOREM"  on Jesus' cross, and this is translated in the au-
thorized version to mean, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews."  But the
initials INRI placed upon the cross represent the names of the four elements
in Hebrew:   IAM,  water;  NOUR,  fire;  RUACH,  spirit  or  vital air;  and
IABESHAH, earth.  This is the occult key to the mystery of crucifixion,  for
it symbolizes in the first place the salt, sulphur, mercury, and azoth which
were  used  by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher's  Stone,  the
universal solvent,  the ELIXIR-VITAE.  The two "I's" (IAM and IABESHAH) rep-
resent the saline lunar water:   a, in a fluidic state holding salt in solu-
tion,  and b, the coagulated extract of this water, the "SALT OF THE EARTH";
in  other  words,  the  finer  fluidic  vehicles of man and his dense  body.
N (NOUR) in Hebrew stands for fire and the combustible elements, chief among
which  are SULPHUR and PHOSPHORUS so necessary to oxidation,  without  which
warm  blood would be an impossibility.  The Ego under this  condition  could
not  function  in  the  body  nor could thought find a material  expression.
R (RUACH) is the Hebrew equivalent for the spirit, AZOTH, functioning in the
MERCURIAL mind.  Thus the four letters INRI placed over the  cross of Christ

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according to the Gospel story represent composite man,  the Thinker,  at the
point in his spiritual development where he is getting ready for  liberation
from the cross of his dense vehicle.

   Proceeding  further along the same line of elucidation we may  note  that
INRI  is the symbol of the crucified candidate for the following  additional
reasons:

   IAM is the Hebrew word signifying water, the fluidic LUNAR,  moon element
which forms the principal part of the human body (about 87 per cent).   This
word is also the symbol of the finer fluidic vehicles of desire and emotion.
NOUR,  the Hebrew word signifying fire, is a symbolic representation of  the
heat-producing  red blood laden with martial Mars iron,  fire,  and  energy,
which the occultist sees coursing as a gas through the veins and arteries of
the  human  body infusing it with energy and ambition  without  which  there
could  be neither material nor spiritual progress.   It also represents  the
sulphur  and phosphorus necessary for the material manifestation of  thought
as already mentioned.

   RUACH, the Hebrew word for spirit or vital air, is an excellent symbol of
the Ego clothed in the mercurial Mercury mind,  which makes MAN and  enables
him  to control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a  rational
manner.

   IABESHAH is the Hebrew word for earth, representing the solid fleshy part
which  makes up the CRUCIFORM EARTHY BODY crystallized within the finer  ve-
hicles at birth and severed from them in the ordinary course  of  things  at

[PAGE 112]

death,  or in the extraordinary event that we learn to die the mystic  death
and ascend to the glories of the higher spheres for a time.

   This stage of the Christian Mystic's spiritual development therefore  in-
volves  a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary  downward  course
where  it  is  wasted in generation to satisfy the passions,  to  an  upward
course through the tripartite spinal cord, whose three segments are ruled by
the moon, Mars, and Mercury respectively, and where the rays of Neptune then
lights THE REGENERATIVE SPINAL SPIRIT FIRE.   This mounting upward sets  the
pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration, opening up the spiritual
sight;  and striking the frontal sinus it starts the CROWN OF THORNS  throb-
bing  with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by  the  sacred
Spirit Fire, which wakes this center from its age-long sleep to a throbbing,
pulsating  life  sweeping onward to the other centers  in  the  FIVE-POINTED
STIGMATIC STAR.  They are also vitalized, an the whole vehicle becomes aglow
with a golden glory.   Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the  de-
sire  body located in the liver is liberated,  and the martial  energy  con-
tained  in that vehicle propels upward the SIDEREAL VEHICLE  (so-called  be-
cause  the  STIGMATA in the head,  hands, and feet are located in  the  same
positions  relative  to one another as the points in a  five-pointed  star),
which  ascends through THE SKULL (Golgotha),  while the CRUCIFIED  CHRISTIAN
utters his triumphant cry, "Consummatum est" (it has been accomplished), and
soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he has imitated with
such  success  and from whom he is thenceforth inseparable.   Jesus  is  his
Teacher and his guide to the kingdom of Christ, where all shall be united in
one  body to learn and to practice the RELIGION OF THE FATHER,  to whom  the
kingdom will eventually revert that He may be All in All.
         
[Continued with file "RC1005.TXT"]

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