Filename: "RC1014.TXT"
Source: "Freemasonry & Catholicism" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 407]

                         THE MYSTERY OF MELCHISEDEC:

   Among  all the characters mentioned in the Bible none is more  mysterious
than Melchisedec;  said to be without father,  mother,  or earthly kin,  and
holding the dual office of king and priest.   Paul in his epistle to the He-
brews  gives us most information showing the connection between  Christ  and
Melchisedec, both of them Kings and High Priests, but of different dispensa-
tions.

   "God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past  unto
the fathers by the Prophets has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son
whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. *
*  * No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God,  as
was Aaron.   So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High  Priest,
but He that said unto Him `Thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee.'  As
He saith also in another place,  Thou art a Priest for The Age after the or-
der  of  Melchisedec,  who in the days of his flesh when he had  offered  up
prayers  and  supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him  that  was
able  to  save him from death and was heard in that He feared though He were

[PAGE 408]

a son,  yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered;  and being  made
perfect,  He  became  author of eternal salvation unto all  that  obey  Him;
called of God a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec,  of whom we have
many things to say and hard to be uttered. * * *  For this Melchisedec, king
of Salem,  priest of the Most High God,  who met Abraham returning from  the
slaughter of kings and blessed him;  to whom also Abraham gave a tenth  part
of all,  first being by interpretation king of righteousness and after  that
also king of Salem, which is king of peace; without father,  without mother,
without ancestors,having neither beginning of days nor end of life but  made
like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.  * * *  And here men
that die (the Levites) receive tithes,  but there he receiveth them of  whom
it is witnessed the He liveth.  * * *  If, therefore, perfection were by the
law  and  its  priesthood what further need was there  that  another  priest
should rise after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order
of  Aaron?   * * *  For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of  Judah  of
which  tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood.   And it is  yet
far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there  ariseth
another priest who is made not after the law of carnal commandments but  af-
ter  the power of an endless life,  for he testifies `Thou are a priest  for
The Age,  after the order of Melchisedec.'  * * *  By so much was Jesus made

[PAGE 409]

the surety of a better testament;  * * *  because He continueth ever and has
an Age lasting priesthood;   * * *  for the law maketh men High Priests  who
have infirmities,  but the Word of God which was since the law,  maketh  the
Son who is consecrated for evermore.  Now of the things which we have spoken
this is the sum;  we have such a high Priest who is yet on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of
the  true tabernacle,  which the Lord made and not man.   * * *  Almost  all
things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things
themselves were better sacrifices than these, for Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true,  but  into
Heaven itself,  now to appear in the presence of God for us;  * * *  and now
has He obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also He is mediator of
a  better covenant which was established upon better promises;  for  if  the
first covenant had been perfect then there should be no place for a  second.
But  finding fault with the old He saith 'Behold the days come when  I  will
make  a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house  of  Judah,
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when

[PAGE 410]

I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt,  because they
continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, 'saith the Lord.  * *
*   For this is the covenant that I will make to the House of  Israel  after
those days,  saith the Lord.  `I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS AND WRITE
THEM IN THEIR HEARTS,  and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a
people  and  THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOR and every  man  his
brother saying,  Know the Lord,  for ALL SHALL KNOW ME FROM THE LEAST TO THE
GREATEST.'"

   The foregoing quotations from Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews are not found
there  consecutively  as here arranged.  It is  necessary  to  intelligently
piece  the Bible narrative together so that we may obtain an outline of  the
future  development which has been sketched out by the divine  Hierarchs  to
constitute  our evolution.   Comprehension of this plan is essential to  the
correct  understanding  of the Cosmic relationship of  Freemasonry  and  Ca-
tholicism;  it is also necessary to fully appreciate the purpose of the Mol-
ten  Sea  and to learn how to intelligently make this wonderful  alloy.   As
Paul  says,  these things are hard to say,  but we shall make an attempt  to
present the mysteries of Melchisedec and the Molten Sea in plain language so
that we may aid in the expressed purpose of the Bible to enlighten all  men,
that  all shall know from the least to the greatest what is the  purpose  of
evolution, and thus give them a chance to align themselves with the trend of
Cosmic events.

[PAGE 411]

   To  understand the mystery of Melchisedec we must revert to  the  earlier
epochs  of man's stay upon the earth during the age called  the  Hyperborean
Epoch.   The earth was then in an extremely heated condition.   Man  in  the
making  was  then double sexed,  male-female, like so many  of  our  present
plants,  and he also resembled the plants in being inert and lacking in  de-
sire and aspirations.  At that time man was the tractable ward of the Divine
Hierarchs who guided him physically,  these being darkly referred to in  the
Bible as "Kings of Edom."   Later, during the Lemurian Epoch,  when the body
of  man had crystallized and condensed somewhat more,  mankind  was  divided
into sexes physically.  But as the consciousness of man was still focused in
the spiritual world they were unconscious of the physical act of generation,
as we are now of digestion; neither did they know birth or death and were in
fact  totally unaware of the possession of a physical vehicle until in  time
they  sensed it during the generative process;  it was then said that  "Adam
KNEW Eve."   At that time Lucifer Spirits,  fallen Angels and inhabitants of
the  warlike planet Mars,  taught them how to eat of the TREE OF  KNOWLEDGE,
which is the symbolical name for the generative act.   Thus by degrees their
eyes were opened and they became aware of the physical world, but lost touch
with the spiritual and the Guardian Angels who had previously been their be-
nevolent guides.  Only a few of the most spiritual among them retained their
higher  vision  and  communion  with  the  Divine Hierarchs. These were then

[PAGE 412]

known as prophets,  who acted as messengers between  the  invisible   divine
leaders  and  their  respective  peoples.   But in time  mankind desired  to
select its own leaders and demanded visible kings;  at least  we  know  that
the Israelites repudiated the divine ruler ship and  demanded  a  king,  and
thus  Saul  was  appointed.   Then  the  dual office  of  Ruler  and Priest,
including  temporal  and spiritual leadership, was also divided,  for no man
sufficiently  versed  in  worldly  matters  to fill the office of king effi-
ciently,  had  been  found holy enough to also undertake the spiritual lead-
ership  of his brethren,  and vice versa.  A true priest,  able to lead  his
flock  spiritually,  cannot also beneficiently dominate their physical  for-
tunes  as ruler of a temporal domain.   For as STATECRAFT,  in  its  highest
phase, aims to rule the masses with an eye single to their physical welfare,
and PRIESTCRAFT,  benevolently exercised, seeks to guide them solely for the
soul's progress, so conflict must of necessity follow this separation,  even
though both the spiritual and temporal rulers be actuated by the highest and
most unselfish motives.   Melchisedec was the symbolical name of the  divine
Hierarchs who filled the dual office of king and priest;  in the guidance of
their double-sexed charges and while they reigned there was peace on  earth,
but  as soon as the offices of king and priest were divorced and  the  sexes
divided,  it is not surprising for the reasons given above that the peaceful
reign of Melchisedec  has  been  followed  by an age of war and strife, such

[PAGE 413]

strife  as has been experienced during the present  dispensation.   Formerly
the unifying factors of a dual office in the ruler and the double sex of his
people precluded the clashing of interests which now obtains, and which will
continue  until another divine ruler shall present himself to embody  within
in  his own person the qualifications of the dual office of king and  priest
after the order of Melchisedec,  and until sex generation be abolished.   In
this  connection  it is significant that the Bible narrative begins  in  the
Garden  of Eden,  where mankind were male-female and innocent;  then in  the
next chapter we are told of the division of sexes,  the transgression of the
command  not  to eat of the Tree of Knowledge,  and the  infliction  of  the
penalty--painful parturition and swift death.   From then on the Old  Testa-
ment  tells of war,  struggle and strife and in the last chapter  makes  the
prophecy  that there shall a Sun of righteousness arise with healing in  his
wings.  Then the New Testament opens with an account of the birth of Christ,
who proclaimed a kingdom of heaven which is to be established.   He is later
called King and Priest after the order of Melchisedec,  uniting within  him-
self THE DUAL OFFICE.   It is also said that in heaven there will be neither
marrying nor giving in marriage, for the SOMA PSUCHICON, or soul-body, which
Paul  tells us is the vehicle we shall use in the kingdom of  heaven  (First
Corinthians,  fifteenth chapter),  is not liable to death and  decay.   Thus
there will be no death, and birth of bodies  like those generated in wedlock

[PAGE 414]

would be superfluous,  for Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God.  Hence marriage will be unnecessary, the clashing of in-
terests due to the lust of sex and the love of power will then disappear and
the love of souls will be hallowed by the spirit of peace.

   Thus it is plain that the Sons of Cain with their followers,  the CRAFTS-
MEN,  and the Sons of Seth with their retinue,  the CHURCHMEN,  must finally
merge  and be unified in the Kingdom of Christ.   We have already  seen  how
Hiram Abiff,  the Widow's Son,  left his father,  the Lucifer Spirit Samael,
after the BAPTISM OF FIRE in the Molten Sea, and how he received the mission
to prepare the way for the kingdom among the Sons of Cain, his brethren,  by
developing  their arts and crafts as temple builders--Masons-- and  teaching
them  the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone or Molten Sea.   Thus  also
the physically negative Sons of Seth must learn to leave their father, Jeho-
vah, and naturally the first to take the step must be a great soul.

   As  the superlative skill of the Sons of Cain was focused in Hiram  Abiff
at the time of his baptism of fire,  so the sublime spirituality of the Sons
of  Seth was centered in Jesus at the time of His BAPTISM IN THE  WATERS  of
Jordan.   When He arose from this water He was in the same position as Hiram
emerging from the fire;  each had left his father respectively,  Jehovah and
Samael, and each was ready to serve the Christ.  Therefore the Christ Spirit

[PAGE 415]

was seen at the Baptism to descend upon Jesus' body, which was inhabited and
used by Christ during His ministry.  Jesus himself,  the spirit,  left  that
body and was given a mission to serve the churches while his body was  being
used for direct teaching by the Christ, and his blood was being prepared  as
an OPEN SESAME to the Kingdom of God, a Panacea to be used by His  brethren,
the Sons of Seth,  in the same manner that the Molten Sea serves the Sons of
Cain.

   In the Epistle of the Hebrews where Paul gives us a few hints  concerning
the  Mystery of Melchisedec in the character of High Priest,  he  emphasized
the absolute necessity of blood as an adjunct to the Temple Service; he show
how  the High Priest was required to offer blood for his own sins before  he
was qualified to give sacrifice also for sins of the people,  and that  this
double sacrifice must be performed year after year.  He points to the sacri-
fice upon Golgotha as having been made ONCE AND FOR ALL,  providing a way of
atonement  through  the blood of Jesus.  During the regime of  Jehovah,  the
blood of humanity had become impregnated with egotism,  which is the separa-
tive factor in this age.   From this sin it must be cleansed before  mankind
can  be united and enter the Kingdom of Christ.   This was a gigantic  task,
for humanity had become so impregnated with selfishness that scarcely anyone
would do another a favor.   Hence the post-mortem panorama,  of life at  the
time of Christ contained nothing that would  give a life in the First Heaven

[PAGE 416]

or make for spiritual progress.  Almost all the post-mortem existence of the
people  was spent in the purgatorial expiration of their  wrong-doings,  and
even their Second Heaven life,  where man learns to do creative work was al-
most barren.   Then Solomon,  the King,  was again called into the arena  of
life  to perform a mission for the benefit and welfare of his brethren,  the
Sons of Seth; he was peculiarly fitted for this work because at heart he was
unselfish as shown by the request which he made at the time when Jehovah ap-
peared to him in a dream and asked what he would have as a gift when he  as-
cended the throne.   Solomon then said unto God "Thou hast shown great mercy
unto  David  my father and hath made me to reign in his stead  now;  now,  O
Lord,  let thy promise unto David my father be established,  for  Thou  hast
made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.  GIVE ME
NOW WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE,  that I may go out and come in before this people,
for  who can judge Thy people that is so great?"   And God said to  Solomon:
"Because this was in thine heart and thou hast not asked riches,  wealth  or
honor,  nor the life of thine enemies, neither hast ye asked long life,  but
hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself that thou mayest judge my people
over whom I have made thee king, wisdom and knowledge is granted unto  thee,
and I will give thee riches and wealth and honor  such  as none of the kings

[PAGE 417]

have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have
the like."

   It  was  this characteristic of unselfishness developed in  former  lives
that fitted the spirit of Solomon which inhabited the body of Jesus for  the
high mission it was destined to fulfill;  to serve as a vehicle for the uni-
fying unselfish Christ Spirit, for the purpose of bringing to an end the di-
vision between the Sons of Seth and the Sons of Cain and uniting them in the
Brotherhood forming the kingdom of heaven.

   When Faust made the pact with Mephistopheles,  as recorded in the ancient
soul-myth  of that name,  he was about to sign it in ink but Mephisto  says:
"No,  sign  it  in  blood."   For this request Faust  asks  the  reason  and
Mephistopheles  says knowingly and cunningly "BLOOD IS A MOST  PECULIAR  ES-
SENCE!"  It is said in the Bible that the blood of bulls and calves will not
take  away  sins  and that is reasonable, but how then about  the  blood  of
Jesus,  which is extolled as a panacea?  To understand this great mystery of
Golgotha  it is necessary to study the composition and the function  of  the
flood from the occult point of view.

   When blood is placed under a microscope, it appears as a number of minute
globules  or discs,  but when seen by the trained clairvoyant as it  courses
through  the living body blood is found to be a gas,  a  spiritual  essence.
The heat is caused by the Ego which is within that blood,  for as the  Bible
says, the LIFE is in the blood.  Mephisto was right when  he said that it is

[PAGE 418]

a  most  peculiar essence,  for it contains the Ego,  and whoever  wants  to
obtain a power over the Ego must have his blood.

   The human Ego is more powerful than the group spirit of the animal, as we
can  see  when we apply the scientific test known  as  haemolysis.   Strange
blood of a higher animal will kill,  if inoculated into the veins of a lower
species;  if  we take human blood and inject it into an animal,  the  animal
will be unable to endure the high vibration that is in the blood of the  hu-
man  being  and it will die.   On the other hand a human being  may  be  in-
oculated with the blood of a lower animal without injury.   In ancient times
it  was strictly forbidden anyone belonging to one tribe to marry  into  an-
other  tribe because it was known then by the leaders of humanity  that  the
strange blood would kill something;  it always does.   We read that Adam and
Methuselah lived so many centuries;  at that time it was the custom to marry
in the family,  marry as closely as possible, so that the tie of blood might
be as strong as it could be made.   Then the blood that coursed through  the
veins  of the people in that family contained the pictures of all  that  had
happened to the different ancestor;  these were stored in the mind which  is
now subconscious.   Then they were consciously and constantly before the in-
ner  vision of all people,  and each family was united by this common  blood
wherein  the  pictures  of  their ancestors lived.  The sons saw the life of

[PAGE 419]

their fathers,  and thus the fathers lived in the sons;  and since the  con-
sciousness of Adam and Methuselah and the other Patriarchs lived for  centu-
ries in their descendants, they were said to live personally.

   It was then as great a crime to marry OUTSIDE the family as it now is  to
marry within.  Even among the early Norsemen, we learn that if anyone wanted
to marry within a strange family, he was first obliged to mix blood; it must
first  be tested to see whether his blood would mix with that of the  family
into  which he desired to marry.   And thus haemolysis was known to many  in
some of its phases at least.  If the blood did not mix, it would bring about
"CONFUSION OF CASTE,"  as the Hindu says; a straight line of descent must be
kept,  for otherwise those pictures in the inner vision would  become  mixed
and would be confused.  This marrying in the family or tribe was what engen-
dered the selfishness,  the clannishness, and the struggle and strife of the
world.   To  break these up,  the practice must be discontinued;  thus  when
Christ  came He advocated the discontinuance of the practice when  He  said:
"Before Abraham was,  I AM."   In effect He said: I do not care for the race
father,  but I glory in the I Am, the Ego that was long before he was.   And
He also said:  "Who does not leave father and mother cannot follow Me."   As
long as you are tied to the family,  the nation,  the tribe,  you are siding
with  the  old  blood,  the old ways, and cannot amalgamate into a universal

[PAGE 420]

brotherhood.   That can only come when people marry internationally  because
when  there are so many nations the way to unite them is  through  marriage.
Let Abraham,  the race and tribe father, die; let the "I AM"  LIVE.   Christ
knew the occult fact that the mixture of blood in international marriage al-
ways kills something; if it does not kill the body, it kills something else.
If we mate a horse and a donkey, the outcome is a HYBRID, the mule;  in that
mule  something  is  missing on account of the  mixture  of  strange  blood,
namely,  the  faculty  of  propagation which  is  lacking  in  all  hybrids.
Similarly when we marry internationally something else is destroyed and that
is  the pictures in the inner vision.   The different pictures of  different
families  clash.   And so the clairvoyance,  the touch  with  the  spiritual
world,  with the memory of Nature,  has waned since the practice of marrying
in the tribe was broken up.   The Highland Scot who marries in the clan  and
the gypsies alone retain this second sight in a measure.   Thus we see  that
the  blood  is now differently constituted from what it was in  the  earlier
ages of human evolution.   The body of Jesus was a pioneer vehicle of super-
lative purity at the time when the Christ Spirit entered it,  as a means  of
ingress  to  the center of the earth by the identical path which  he  jumped
into  the Molten Sea and was conducted along the path of Initiation  to  the
center of the earth where Cain, his ancestor, dwelt.

[PAGE 421]

   This  journey of Christ is recorded in I Peter 3:18-19 after  Christ  had
been freed from the flesh by the violent death on Golgotha.   When anyone is
killed,  the venous blood with its impurities clings closely to  the  flesh,
and  therefore the arterial blood which flows is distinctly cleaner than  it
would  otherwise  be;  it is more free from passion and desire.   And  being
etherealized  by the great Christ Spirit, THE CLEANSED BLOOD OF JESUS  OVER-
FLOWED THE WORLD,  PURIFIED THE ETHERIC REGION OF SELFISHNESS TO A GREAT EX-
TENT,  and gave man a better chance to draw to himself materials which  will
allow him to form altruistic purposes and desires.  Thus the age of altruism
was  there inaugurated.   By faith in this blood,  and by imitation  of  the
Christ Life the Sons of Seth are therefore provided with a means of  purging
from themselves the curse of selfishness;  while the Sons of Cain were given
the  emblem  of the ROSE AND THE CROSS to teach them to work  faithfully  to
make the Molten Sea, the Philosopher's Stone, and to find the NEW WORD which
shall  admit  them to the kingdom,  for they believe more in works  than  in
faith.

   The accompanying chart shows graphically the three Ages mentioned in this
article:

   (1)   THE FIRST AGE,  when each human being was a complete creative unit,
male-female,  double  sexed,  and ruled by one  Hierarch,  Melchisedec,  who
filled a dual office as King and Priest.

   (2)   THE SECOND AGE,  when  the division of the race into men and women,

[PAGE 422]

               EVOLUTION UNDER HUMAN AND SUPERHUMAN RULERS
----------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------
LEMURIAN EPOCH  |    ATLANTEAN & ARYAN EPOCHS     |       NEW GALILEE
----------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------
 HUMANITY WAS   |                                 |                     
 DOUBLE-SEXED   |        TEMPORAL POWERS          |     ABOLITION OF SEX
 MALEFEMALE      /------------------------------\ |     FINDING THE WORD      
 EACH BEING A   /        KING INITIATES          \      THE WORD BECOMES
   COMPLETE     |PHREE MESSEN [Children of Light] |          FLESH
 CREATIVE UNIT  |   INITIATION BY FIRE [LIGHT]    |
----------------|     |---------------------|     |-------------------------
  MELCHISEDEC:        |     MALE IDEAL      |               CHRIST:
 KING & PRIEST        |     HIRAM ABIFF     |           KING & PRIEST
  JUST & HOLY         |---------------------|            JUST & HOLY
    RECEIVED          |     VIRGIN MARY     |         BAPTISM OF SPIRIT
   SACRIFICE          |    FEMALE IDEAL     |      
----------------|     |---------------------|     |-------------------------
  DIVINE RULER  |   PRIESTS--BRAHMINS--LEVITES    |  DIVINE RULER OVER A
   OVER HUMAN   |  INITIATION BY WATER [BAPTISM]  | PURGED HUMANITY CALLED
  BROTHERHOOD   \                                 / ABRAHAM'S SEED DWELLING
  TYPIFIED BY    \-------------------------------/  IN THE NEW JER-U-SALEM
    ABRAHAM     |     ECCLESIASTICAL POWERS       |      WHICH MEANS
MELCHISEDEC IS  |                                 |  THERE SHALL BE PEACE
CALLED KING OF  |DIVISION INTO RACES--NATIONS--   |
 SALEM [PEACE]  |            SECTS                |
   AND PEACE    |HENCE THERE IS WAR--OPPRESSION-- |
   PREVAILED    |           SLAVERY               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
SATURN PERIOD   |       UNITY AND DIVERSITY       |    VULCAN PERIOD
POLARIAN EPOCH  |          LOVE AND HATE          |    KINGDOM OF GOD
[1] HEAT        |---------------------------------|        [7]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    SUN PERIOD                                        VENUS PERIOD
   HYPERBOREAN EPOCH                                  NEW GALILEE
     [2] FIRE                                         [6] BROTHERHOOD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     MOON PERIOD      [3] FIRE--MALE SEX--STATE [5]   JUPITER PERIOD
    LEMURIAN EPOCH       WATER--FEMALE SEX--CHURCH   ARYAN EPOCH  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
        EARTH PERIOD      FIRE/MALE--AIR/NATIONS       ATLANTEAN EPOCH
     END OF INVOLUTION   WATER/FEMALE--EARTH/RACES  BEGINNING OF EVOLUTION
                                  [4]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[PAGE 423]

and  the  division  of the rulership into State and Church  caused  war  and
strife.

   THE  STATE espouses the cause of FATHERHOOD AND MAN and upholds the  male
ideal of Arts, Crafts and Industry, embodied in Hiram Abiff.

   THE CHURCH espouses the cause of MOTHERHOOD AND WOMAN and holds aloft the
female  ideal of love,  and hearth and home embodied in the Madonna and  her
child.

   It  is the conflicting interests of the man and the woman,  the home  and
the shop,  the Church and the State, which cause the economic struggle,  the
war and the strife with which mankind is cursed and which make all long  and
pray for the reign of peace.

   (3)   THE THIRD AGE, when a divine Christ, who,  like Melchisedec,  shall
fill  the dual office of King and Priest,  and shall rule over a  urged  and
glorified humanity, which has risen from sex-love to soul-love.

[PAGE 424]

                              SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY:


   When  we expose a piece of iron to the air,  the oxygen contained in  the
latter element oxidizes the iron and in time disintegrates it.  This process
is commonly known as rusting.  The blood comes in contact with the air every
time it passes through the lungs,  and as a needle is drawn to a magnet,  so
does  the  oxygen of the inspired air coalesce with the iron the  blood.   A
process of combustion takes place, which is similar to the rusting or oxida-
tion we observed in the iron exposed to the air.

   The ether contained in the dense fibre of wood,  after the latter has un-
dergone combustion in a stove,  passes outwards through the iron in the form
of semi-invisible heat-waves vibrating at different velocities according  to
the degree of heat in the furnace.   So the spiritual vibration generated by
the  combustion of oxygen and iron in our physical bodies,  passes  outwards
and  colors our invisible vehicles according to their vibratory pitch.   Low
vibrations  are seen as red,  the higher are yellow,  and the highest  blue.
Experience  has taught us that combustible material may be placed in a  fur-
nace  and  all  conditions  necessary  to combustion may be present but that

[PAGE 425]

until the match is applied the materials remain unconsumed.   Those who have
studied the laws of combustion know also that a forced draft carries with it
great quantities of oxygen which is necessary to obtain heat from fuel  con-
taining much mineral.   The reason for this condition lies in the fact  that
minerals,  being the lowest in the scale of evolution,  vibrate at a  corre-
spondingly slower rate than the plant, animal or man.  It requires a maximum
effort to raise their vibrations to such a pitch that combustion may  liber-
ate their spiritual essence,  and oxygen is the accelerator in this process.
Were  the  same  amount of oxygen supplied to  good  vegetable  fuel,  which
naturally  vibrates at a higher rate than mineral,  the furnace would be  in
danger of destruction because of the intensity of the heat generated.

   A similar process takes place within the body, which is the temple of the
spirit;  this  is the flame which kindles the inner fire and  generates  the
spiritual  product which passes outwards from all warm-blooded creatures  as
heat radiates from a stove.  (Cold-blooded creatures are so low in the scale
of evolution that they have as yet no life WITHIN themselves but are  worked
upon  by the group-spirit from without entirely and it is  the  group-spirit
which  generates the life-giving currents responsible for the  animation  in
these creatures; these currents pass INWARDS to sustain the nascent life un-
til  it  shall  be  able to respond and begin to send currents outwards from

[PAGE 426]

itself.)   These radiant lines of force emanating invisibly to the  physical
sight from our dense bodies are our aura,  as already stated,  and while the
color  of each individual's aura differs from that of all other  individuals
there  is  nevertheless a basic or ground color showing its  status  in  the
scale of evolution. In primitive people this ground color is a dull RED like
the color of a slow burning fire, indicating their passionate, emotional na-
ture.   When we examine people upon a somewhat higher rung of the ladder  of
evolution, the basic color or vibration radiated by them is seen to be of an
ORANGE hue,  the yellow of intellect mixed with the red of passion.   By the
spiritual  alchemy unconsciously performed by them as they travel along  the
path of progress and learn to make their emotions subservient to mind a mea-
sure,  through many experiences in the school of life,  they  are  gradually
freeing  themselves from bondage to the martial Lucifer Spirits and the  War
God Jehovah,  whose colors are scarlet and red;  also by obeying consciously
or unconsciously the unifying altruistic Christ Spirit whose vibrations pro-
duce  a YELLOW color which is thus mingling with the red and will  gradually
obliterate  it.   The  golden aureole painted by  the  artists  gifted  with
spiritual sight around holy men is a physical representation of a  spiritual
promise which applies to Humanity as a whole,  though it has only been real-
ized by a few who are called Saints.   After lives of battle with their pas-
sions, after patient  persistence in well-doing, high aspirations ans stead-

[PAGE 427]

fast  adherence to lofty purposes these people have raised themselves  above
the  red ray and are now entirely imbued with the golden Christ ray and  its
vibration.   This  spiritual  fact has been embodied  by  mediaeval  artists
gifted with spiritual sight, in their pictures of saints whom they represent
as  surrounded by a golden aureole,  indicating their emancipation from  the
power of the Lucifer Spirits of Mars who are the fallen angels,  as well  as
from Jehovah and His angels, who belong to an earlier stage of evolution and
are  warders of national and race religions.   The Lucifer spirits find  ex-
pression in the iron in our blood.  Iron is a Mars metal, difficult to start
into high vibration,  so difficult that it takes many lives of great  effort
to change the product of its combustion to the golden color which designates
the Saint.   When that has been achieved,  the greatest feat of alchemy  has
been performed; THE BASE METAL HAS BEEN CHANGED TO GOLD, the wonderful alloy
of the Molten Sea has been made from the dross of the earth.   All that then
remains is to "PULL THE PLUGS" and pour it.  The natural golden color is the
Christ ray finding its chemical expression in the oxygen,  a solar  element,
and  as we advance upon the path of evolution towards Universal  Brotherhood
even  those  who are not professedly religious acquire a tinge  of  gold  in
their auras due to the higher altruistic impulses common to the West.   Paul
speaks of this as "Christ being formed IN YOU,"  for when we have learned to
mix the alloy by spiritual  lives,  when we vibrate to the same pitch as He,

[PAGE 428]

we are Christ-like,  ready,  as said, to pull the plugs of the crucibles and
to pour the Molten Sea.  Christ was liberated on the cross through spiritual
centers  located   where the nails are said to have been driven,  and  else-
where.   And one who has prepared the Molten Sea is also instructed  by  the
Teacher  how to pull the plugs and soar into the higher spheres or,  as  the
Masonic saying is, to "TRAVEL IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES."

   This is in harmony with the dictum of Christ that to become His  disciple
one  must leave father and mother.   That is one of the hard sayings of  the
Gospel  and  generally  misunderstood because it is taken to  refer  to  our
physical  father  and mother in the present life,  whereas in  the  esoteric
point of view something very different was intended.  To get the idea let us
once more call to mind that the Lucifer spirits by the introduction of  iron
into  the system made it possible for the human ego to become an  INDWELLING
spirit,  but continued oxidation of the blood renders the body  undesireable
as  a habitation in time and death ensues.   Therefore,  though the  Lucifer
spirits  helped us into the body,  they are also truly angels of death,  and
the  progeny of Samael and Eve are subject thereto as well as  the  children
begotten by her and Adam, for all are flesh.

   The  Sun is the center of life and rules the life-giving gas we  know  as
oxygen which coalesces with the martial iron.  Therefore,  Christ,  the Lord
of the Sun, is also the Lord of Life,  and  when by spiritual alchemy as has

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been explained,  we become like Him,   we are immortal and thus we leave our
father  Samael and our mother Eve,  and DEATH HAS NO MORE DOMINION OVER  US.
That does not mean that death may not happen to the body of such people, but
the body entirely under their control,  and a body used by such people  usu-
ally  lasts for many hundreds of years unless it becomes expedient  to  take
another one.  Then by the same process of spiritual alchemy they are able to
create an adult body for themselves and to leave the old body which they de-
sire  to discard for the new one which they have made previously and  fitted
to  serve  their  purpose.   The question will now  probably  arise  in  the
reader's mind:  "How can an Initiate create such a new adult body,  ready to
wear,  before he relinquishes his old one?"  The answer to this question in-
volves an understanding of the law of assimilation, but it should be said in
the first place that no one who has just become aware of the spiritual world
and perhaps learned to function in the soul-body only recently is capable of
performing  this feat.   This requires a vastly more spiritual  development,
and  only those who are very high in the scale of initiation at our  present
time are able to perform the feat.   The method is,  however,  said to be as
follows:

   When food is taken into the body of anyone, be he Adept or ignoramus, the
law  of assimilation is that he must first overpower each particle and  con-
form  it  to  himself;  he  must subdue and conquer the individual cell life

[PAGE 430]

before it can become part of his body.   When this has been done,  the  cell
will  stay with him for a longer or shorter time according to the  constitu-
tion  and  place in evolution of the life that dwells within it.   The  cell
composed of tissue that has once been incorporated in an animal body and in-
terpenetrated  by  a desire body has the most evolved cell  life,  therefore
this  life  quickly reasserts itself and leaves the body into which  it  has
been  temporarily assimilated.   Hence one who lives upon a flesh diet  must
replenish  his food supply very often; such material would therefore be  un-
suitable  for the purpose of building a body that has to wait for some  time
before the Adept enters it.  Food consisting of vegetables, fruits and nuts,
particularly  when these are ripe and fresh,  is interpenetrated by a  great
deal  of  the ether which composes the vital body of the plant.   These  are
much  easier to subdue and to incorporate into the polity of the body,  also
they  stay much longer there before the individual cell life can assert  it-
self.   Therefore the Adept who wished to build a body ready to wear  before
he leaves the old one,  naturally builds it of fresh vegetables,  fruits and
nuts,  taking them into the body which he uses daily where they become  sub-
jected to his will, a part of himself.

   The  soul-body  of such a man is naturally very large  and  powerful;  he
separates a part of that and makes a mould or matrix into which he may build
each day physical particles superfluous to the nourishment of the body he is

[PAGE 431]

using.   Thus by degrees,  having assimilated a considerable surplus of  new
material,  he may also draw upon the vehicle he is wearing for material that
can  be  incorporated in the new body.   So in the course of  some  time  he
gradually transmutes one body into the other,  and when the point is reached
where  emaciation of the old body would be observable to the  outside  world
and  cause comment,  he would have balanced matters so that the new body  is
ready to wear, and he can step out of the old into the new.  But he does not
do that merely for the purpose of living in the same community.   It is pos-
sible for him by reason of his great knowledge to use the same body for many
centuries in such a manner that it would still seem young,  for there is  no
wear  and  tear upon it such as we ordinary mortals cause by  our  passions,
emotions and desires.   But when he does create a new body it is always,  as
far as the writer knows, for the purpose of leaving the environment in which
he is at that time and taking up his work in a new place.   It is by  reason
of this fact that we hear of men like Cagliostro,  Saint Germain and  others
who one day appeared in a certain environment, took up an important work and
then  disappeared.   Nobody knew whence they had come or  whither  they  had
gone, but everybody that knew these people was ready to testify to their re-
markable qualities, whether for the purpose of vilification or praise.  This
transition of the Adept from the dominion of death to the realm of immortal-
ity was foreshadowed in the  daring  leap  of Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master-

[PAGE 432]

Workman of Solomon's Temple,  into the seething sea of molten metal and  his
passage  through the NINE arch-like strata of the earth which form the  path
of initiation;  also in the baptism of Jesus and the subsequent descent from
Golgotha  into  the subterranean region where his vital body is  still  kept
awaiting the day of final egress of the Christ Spirit at the second  advent.
In  our  next chapter we shall follow Hiram Abiff along this  path  of  ini-
tiation  to the embodiment he wore at the time of Christ's  appearance  upon
the earth, showing where and how he received the new initiation.

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