THIRD
LESSON.
THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE
SOUL IN HUMAN FORM.
THE GENESIS.
Creation is the direct action of God's Will producing
what after- ward may be governed by law. Law is not creative, but governing.
There can be no Law without a Law Maker, no Force without a Cause, no Cause
without Intelligence, Volition.
THE INFINITE
CREATIVE POWER IS GOD;
Manifested in the universe.
Matter is the primal postulate of Creation; God,
the Infinite Hypostasis
CREATION PRECEDES GENERATION.
The Creative Act brings into existence,
Genetic Law perpetuates.
Creation is as constant as Generation.
There is but one connecting power between the
Creator and matter, and that is the
BREATH OF GOD.
The Breath of God is the Generic life of all material
things.
Where the "Beginnings" are is Creation; i. e.,
where God meets matter.
Each beginning is a creation; whether of a solar
system, a sun, a world, or, after dynamic evolutions, of the different
types of organic life.
Every distinct type is a creation.
The Book of Genesis, in the Hebraic Bible, is
the Kabalistic account of Creation, and contains that which (when interpreted
correctly) clearly sets forth the enactments of the Divine Will.
Thus after the six "evenings" and six "mornings,"
i. e., six periods, preceding and six following the Creative action, Creation
was complete in your solar system, as it had been in all previously created
systems. "In the beginning," referring only to the commencement of Creative
enactments in the cyclic relations of your solar system and the earth.
EVOLUTION FOLLOWS CREATION.
Thus prepared matter awaits the expression of
the Soul.
When any solar system is ready for expressions
of life, there occurs that which is typified, according to the symbolism
of the ancient interpretation, in the Book of Genesis. The physical life
has been evolved to meet the involved Soul, and, at the point where they
can meet, creative expression in the physical form takes place, and could
no more be prevented than could two lines of light approaching each other
be prevented from conjunction, or any two coincident lines, be prevented
from meeting. Just where matter is prepared to meet this involved Soul
science can never discover, and only Revelation can make known.
The Breath of the Soul is the generic life in
matter of the expressions of the Soul under such circumstances as we shall
make known.
THE SPIRIT
IS THE BREATH OF LIFE
that reaches matter from the Soul.
At the gates of Paradise--the typical Eden of
human existence, the Eden of innocence, of unconsciousness of the Soul-state
and also of that which is to come; the complete unconsciousness of what
matter is to be when expression begins--stand the summoning Angels and
Archangels. They do not leave the Soul companionless. Such Souls
as are to take on expression in outward life are grouped according to their
states, and enter the typical Eden of human life where the earth has been
prepared, by the Creative Act of the Deity and the operation of law, in
a generic sense, to meet the Soul. The first impulsion from the Soul in
its dual capacity, and the impulsion from the Deity conjoined, produce
man, the typical Adam and Eve.
"So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God created He him; male and female created He them."
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became
a living Soul."
In the first paragraph quoted the dual nature
of God and the dual nature of the Soul are revealed. We think "his own
image" refers to the image of the Soul, i. e., dual. "In the image of God
created He him," the image of the Soul is like the image of God, which
is further proven by "male and female created He them." In the second
paragraph quoted, "the dust of the ground" refers to all atomic life beneath
man; as it is a well known, and almost axiomatic, fact in science that
the human organism contains some portion, however minute, of all the primal
substances of the earth. "And breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life;" here is the Spirit of God producing the action
of "breath of life," spirit of man; life is used here for existence,
genesis instead of being; the latter is the Soul state. "And
man became a living soul;" i. e., the Soul had taken on the expression
of life instead of remaining in the state of being.
The Garden of Eden, the Paradise of the dual expression
of material life on earth, appears clear under the light of this interpretation.
This Paradise, the Eden, is the state of innocence into which the life
is first introduced on earth, ignorant and innocent, "a little lower than
the angels," because the angel is that which must lose itself in matter,
even thus divided, to begin expression. Therefore, when dual life
finds expression in material form occurs that which is denominated
"the fall," i. e.: the Soul has put off its celestial, and has taken
on its terrestrial state.
This typical Garden of Eden, portrayed in the
Book of Genesis, is the introduction of man and woman on earth, the expression
of the Soul, not only in its dual, but in its involved state. "The fall"
of man is the descent from the celestial kingdom to material life, the
introduction into matter. And the whole narrative (although it seems to
have been termed a fable by some) is a very careful and very distinct statement
of that which was known to the Ancients and preserved by the Kabala concerning
the contact of the Soul with matter. And that was denominated the Eden
state, because it is the state of pleasantness, of innocence. Innocence
differs from purity in this: that innocence is without knowledge, purity
is victory. So after all, this state of innocence is the state of being
tempted, and the matter or material things in which the Soul seeks expression
must contain the elements of temptation. The serpent was the coil of material
life which surrounds, encompasses or forms the environment here.
All that is meant in the Adamic fall is, that the consciousness of the
celestial state is overshadowed or eclipsed by the consciousness of time,
or the sense of this limitation, so that the outward state is not aware
of the Soul and its celestial state.
The earth and heaven having been prepared, the
Creative Act by the Creator, was, for the last time, in operation; producing,
THE FIRST EXPRESSION OF THE
SOUL
ON EARTH: MAN AND WOMAN.
The typical Adam and Eve.
Adam: the red earth, i. e., the creature of the
earth.
Eve: life,
) i. e., the saviour, the woman, the spouse, the
Eva: Serpent, <
tempter, the sharer.
Evi: desire,
)
This Creation (Adam and Eve) was not simply one pair,
(but whenever and wherever the earth or other involving planets are ready
for the Adamic birth there man and woman are created.) They appeared as
created, not as generic beings.
The inbreathing of the Soul into matter is Spirit,
that which precedes every embodiment is the breath of its life; and the
breath of that life is the Spirit of that life. The spirit of Adam, therefore,
is the spirit of the first or primal man; and the spirit of Eve, the spirit
of primal woman. This dual expression of Adam and Eve, or the man of earth
and the woman of earth, and the woman the serpent, mean: out of the paradise
of the Soul, the man of earth, abandoning the spiritual companionship which
precedes the earthly, and the celestial companionship which was before
that, enters the mortal state; the earth is the serpent, the primal mother,
the Egyptian Isis, the surrounding coils of the Senses. It was not Eve
(matter, or the wisdom of the serpent) who was the Soul wife of Adam, she
was the outward expression of which Lilith was the Soul; as Adam was not
the Bridegroom of the Soul. Thus the outward woman came unto Adam as told
in the Garden of Eden, following him into material life from within.
As the masculine is the aggressive nature, representing
the conquering power, the element of force in the universe; so the man
preceded the woman. In the translation it is said: that God took a rib
from the side of Adam, and this He made into the woman. This may be interpreted
in its primal meaning in ten or twelve different ways. The interpretation
we would give it would mean that it was the inner or vital portion of Adam's
life, the part nearest the heart, which means the innermost essence or
the life that was expressed after Adam, and this innermost expression took
the form of Eva, and this form was, not only Eve, (life,) but Evi, (desire,)
temptation, because while nature might not tempt man, while the physical
surroundings might not be sufficient temptation, there was embodied in
Eve that which was nearest and dearest. Therefore the whole moral proposition
of the world, as related to man and woman, is revealed in this great secret
of the dual existence in the primal state of physical expression, as here
portrayed.
There is no interchange of sexes in the expressions
of the Soul. Embodiment in man is the expression of the Impulsion from
the Soul in its masculine, and woman from the Soul in its feminine state.
Here let us distinctly state that it is not according to our teaching that
there is ever any transference of the sexes, the masculine principle of
the Soul is always expressed in masculine form, and the feminine principle
always appears in the feminine form. The masculine principle is the aggressive,
the conquering element, the feminine is the inner, the center, the conserving
element. In all instances of the first expressions in matter the masculine
is first and the feminine afterward, thus the typical Adam and Eve illustrated
the usual order of the expressions of Embodiments in earthly life.
There are always the two expressions in human
form representing one Soul (the masculine and the feminine embodiments)
upon the earth at the same time, each expressing a corresponding degree
of unfoldment. Beginning equally in the first embodiment, this equality
(of unfoldment) continues through all subsequent embodiments.
You must bear in mind that we do not teach that
there are more expressions from the same Soul than the one man and woman
upon the earth at the same time.
THE FIRST EXPRESSION OF THE
SOUL,
IN MATTER IS IN THE FORM OF MAN AND WOMEN.
No lower type of existence could express that
which humanity reveals; no other type than humanity could express the Soul
and that which is intended to be expressed or represented. But, as in all
kinds of existence there must be the lowest expression, you must begin
at the commencement.
The first state of human life is the state into
which the Soul descends, having taken upon itself the involution toward
expression. That is the beginning so far as humanity is concerned, no human
life so low upon the earth that that life does not represent the beginnings
of all Souls in their expressions here, and none so high that they do not
typify the attainment of all Souls ere expression is finished here. Every
Soul thus voluntarily taking upon itself expression in matter must begin
at the beginning. As one learns a language by beginning, with the alphabet
and grammar; as one learns arithmetic by beginning with the numerals and
their combinations, and higher mathematics must follow arithmetic, so in
the expressions in matter Souls commence with the state that is lowest
upon the planet that is approached.
Not having experienced the existence of earth,
when a Soul approaches this planet it must take upon itself the beginnings
of human expression. So the primal step is of the earth, earthy; and the
Adamic state is the typical earthly race of mankind, illustrative of all
who take up this mortal life. This first stage of existence, the infancy
of the race, is partially revealed by science; but the spiritual and primal
solution of existence is unknown, and the material one is sought for. In
the spiritual explanation is found the only true solution of life: that
when the birth on earth begins, the expression of Souls must take the farthest
point from the celestial state. Souls, in expression, do not begin by
conquest over the earth, that is attained. If you do not begin at
the lowest stage to build, you can have no foundation for the edifice;
and the archway would never be built if a strong foundation were not laid
beneath the soil; so this physical existence, in its primitive stages of
expression, is simply of different degrees of consciousness, which may
be called man, and these stages in their primal degrees constitute the
beginning of every expression on earth.
As when a very good man may engage in some material
work which requires all his thought and attention; the work itself may
be much inferior to him, but he must devote all his energy to it;
or if one is building a house, although it is built for the body and not
for the spirit, yet the thought is intent upon the building; so in the
lowest or first expression of material life existence is what is expressed.
The race is typified in the individual; the babe only gives expression
to physical life at first, all else is hidden, has being, but is unexpressed.
The same is true in all beginnings; even when pretty well advanced in general
human expression, if one begins a new work it is executed clumsily and
awkwardly at first. One who had never drawn a picture could not very well
portray even the simplest forms at first; there must be many strange lines
and blemishes before anything deserving the name of art can be reached.
The first steps in material life are, therefore, as said before, steps
of existence.
THE EMBODIMENTS ARE IN SUCCESSION,
AND EMBRACE THREE GENERAL DIVISIONS OF HUMAN LIFE.
The first is the Adamic stage, of Physical life.
The second is the Hermetic stage, of Intellectual
life.
The third is the Messianic stage, of Spiritual
life.
The expressions of physical life are, at first,
seemingly without intellectual or moral purpose, yet in reality the intellectual
and moral purposes are there ready to come forth when the successive steps
of victory over matter shall have made it possible. In each of these general
stages there are many degrees (or culminations) and in each degree many
successive lines of embodiment.
The successive lines of the expression of one
Soul in any one planet are really typified in the single life of man and
woman. Childhood is the state of physical growth; there is the feebleness
and limitation to conquer, and the physical surroundings seem to overcome
whatever else may he enfolded there. When the childhood of the race is
here there seems little, through its various degrees of physical growth,
to indicate that which at last attains success over its physical surroundings
when the mental and moral natures begin to unfold. These first feeble lines
of expression are what occur in the many successive embodiments of the
first stage of expression. It would possibly not be very gratifying to
you to know what is the first expression, nor would it flatter you, perhaps,
but evolution does not flatter either. You can not find the lowest human
expressions upon the earth at the present time. But take the lowest human
states as illustrative of this typical beginning, though not in reality
the beginning, then consider all grades until you reach the highest expression,
this would be typical of the conclusion, the final state upon the earth.
With the exception of the first stages there are manifested to your vision
nearly all the different stages upon the earth to-day, of what the Soul
experiences in the many aeons of its expression upon this planet.
The three stages or degrees of expression are
primarily stamped upon the human race; but it is best to here explain,
that while the intellectual and moral possibilities are hinted at
in the primal nature of man, the expression of those possibilities
seems, in the infancy of human embodiments, to be excluded; as we discover
in the states of races, and individuals who seem to have no unfolded
moral perception. Remember we have not created those states, we are explaining
why they exist. This lack of mental and moral expression indicates that
the first stages of expression do not include the moral problems; they
have not yet been reached in the scale of human progress toward perfect
expression.
Physical life has first to be entered upon, the
victory over it and the environment of the senses, must come afterward.
The embodiments follow one after another in more
rapid succession in the physical states of expression, since there is little
or nothing of the moral and spiritual harvest to gather, so the successive
embodiments in the first states come rapidly. The growth is slow, and the
perceptible advancement in expression from one embodiment to another would
scarcely he noticed until the final result. In this first stage of expression
man seems inferior to the animal kingdom since he has no instinct
to govern his appetites, and his mental and moral nature is still undeveloped
in expression. This is because the only law of man's government is
the mental and moral (spiritual), and because of this he has no blind instinct
to guide him.
The degree of physical expression merely must
be repellent to contemplate by itself, as it includes all states that precede
intellectual activity or mental attainment; constitutes the existence wherein
the sensuous life governs, wherein there may be enjoyment of the senses,
wherein there may be some degree of perception, a certain manifestation
of intelligence, but no approach to the intellectual or spiritual awakening,
which must come when the race or when the individual is dominated by the
higher nature.
A DISTINCT RESULT OR PERFECTION
IN ANY GIVEN LINE OF EXPRESSION IS A CULMINATION.
Each culmination is the termination of a line
of successive embodiments toward a certain point of perfect expression
in one direction; and while there may be latent suggestions of other lines
in the same series of embodiments, there is always a dominant purpose,
in each embodiment of that series, in the direction of the culmination.
In illustration of this you have the typical states
of mere physical enjoyment: the glutton, the one whose happiness consists
in the amount of food consumed, and this is made the basis of competition.
There are some who are typical of that state even now upon the earth. You
will discover that the achievement in that direction, when it amounts to
what is considered an achievement, is really almost marvelous as a tax
upon physical endurance. It is not difficult to perceive that this state
was idealized in the Epicureans, whose motto was borrowed from an honored
source. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow you may die." In the Bacchanalian
feasts and revels of your Anglo-Saxon ancestors no man was considered a
devotee who did not finally sink with stupor at the end of a banquet. The
race has yet a sufficient number of those who have not risen above this
shrine. You can possibly conceive of the state of heroism in which humanity
must have existed when the highest victory, the noblest exaction, the greatest
conquest, was that which was put into the stomach!
It is not very long since the evidence of the
highest civilization consisted in the greatest amount of physical strength.
The prize ring is a remnant of that which in ancient Rome was the test,
almost, of the highest humanity. You have, the model of art and intelligence,
the example of Greece,. to prove to you that physical strength was considered
the standard of human perfection. The feats of the gladiators and the wonderful
skill of the athletes will serve to illustrate this; while in the tournaments,
in ancient days, prowess was recognized in the greatest physical strength.
Achilles was scarcely more admired then than now. The ideal Hercules still
remains the type of perfect manhood, and even Jove, the Thunderer, is worshiped
upon more mountains than Olympus.
In ancient Egypt, those deities who presided over
man's physical well-being were the Gods that were most revered: revealing
to the senses the majesty of their power, leading man to conquest and victory
by the violence of physical force. The remnant of that age, which once
was universal, is now to be found in those states of the race, some types
of which are existent upon the earth to-day, who have nothing beyond the
physical so far as revealed; who merely exist for that first stage of expression,
yet the culminations in that direction are always to be found where there
is achievement in any physical enterprise. The colossal architecture of
Egypt includes a culmination in that direction, although accompanied by
another impelling force which is soon to be found dominant. Modern armies
fighting at a distance, with weapons that do not bring them into hand-to-hand
conflicts, illustrate another kind of force, a more complex state of expression;
but the kind of courage or skill found in the prize ring, or in those contests
between individuals, who, face to face and hand to hand, enter into tests
of mere physical strength without any moral aim, without any sense of patriotism,
without any object in view save the privilege of pounding one another into
a recognition of the brute strength of one or the other of the combatants,
illustrates the typical childhood of the race, and of individual expressions
in the first contact with human existence. Were this the end, the states
of humanity that express nothing higher would indeed be hopeless.
That which was witnessed in Rome and Greece as
legitimate amusement for the highest in the land, is now tolerated among
sporting men only. The typical Hercules of antiquity was the typical victory
by bodily strength. No one can doubt but that in some state he has expressed
that same victory.
The spirit of each embodiment is the breath, or
impetus, from the Soul toward a culmination. A culmination is the highest
point that can possibly be attained in a given line. In that past age all
humanity was being expressed on that physical plane, there are those still
attaining perfection and conquest in that direction; whatever is less than
a culmination or perfection in a given line is an embodiment toward it,
so that the small contests of the weaklings of those ages were but steps
toward the accomplishment of the Herculean state. Those who have outgrown
the prize ring, and the desire for physical contest, may safely conclude
that in a past condition they have expressed themselves to the fullest
extent in that direction. Every step toward this culmination is a step,
however, toward the knowledge of its fallacy.
When physical perfection is reached, it is simply
to reveal that there is something beyond; as one may climb up, out of breath,
a great steep of a mountain that seems to be high, only to discover that
it is the smallest height, and that he must descend into a valley to reach
the next one beyond; these typical descents are the weaknesses in human
life, whether physical, mental, or moral; so after Hercules comes the pigmy
to illustrate that true strength is not in the body. This being the first
stage of victory, it is also the first revelation of weakness.
THE MERELY PHYSICAL VICTORY
CONTAINS ITS OWN DEFEAT.
Matter in organic form contains the elements of
disintegration. Physical indulgence implies satiety; and material achievement
is followed by material decline. As matter is the first obstacle encountered
in expression, so to vanquish matter seems at first to be the only end;
but as vanquishment does not come by mere victory in material things, a
more excellent way is shown.
THE SECOND GENERAL DEGREE OR STAGE OF EXPRESSION
IS THAT OF THE INTELLECT.
Hermes (another name for Mercury) was the god
of the intellect: trade, commerce, invention, mathematics, indeed all learning,
as well as thievery and robbery, were typified in this ancient deity.
Not all at once does the mind assert its presence
and begin to be a dominant force. It begins with the beginning of the embodiments,
and commences to manifest its power before the physical is fully expressed,
and there are glimmerings all the time, through individual lines of life
and through all history, that even when a man insists upon the greatest
physical strength of the nation or the individual, there is something unfolding
besides that, that you have two lines revealed in expression at the same
time and in the same lives.
We will point to Greece as a culmination of intellectual
and physical without the moral strength. The Spartans especially were among
the races of which you have any knowledge in which this typical physical
life was somewhat subordinated to the mental, or intellectual; but even
the Spartan refused to allow those who were
imperfect at birth to live, thus producing a
race of heroes, from a physical standpoint. And in fact even Grecian art
did not in reality, excepting through Grecian philosophy, rise above purely
a physical standpoint. You will perceive that, while the physical may be
dominant in the individual expression, and in the nation, (as the aggregation
of individuals,) there also enters what is termed the mental power. This
is a certain reflex from the spiritual, is a shadowy suggestion of the
spiritual, and compared to it is like the light of the moon compared to
the sun. This mental power constitutes the first thirst for knowledge;
the first idea of traffic; the advantage over fellow-beings in trade; the
selfish wish to accumulate wealth; the inventions and discoveries that
promote selfish enjoyment through mental devices; handicraft, all skillful
labor of the hands, indeed the whole domain of the empire over the earth
by mental achievements, the mind governing the labor of the hands. And
you here perceive the distinct line of demarcation between man and that
which is not man in the visible creation of earth, in this: that man is
the only creature as a physical being who destroys his kind: other generic
existences in the animal kingdom only destroy other animals (not those
of their own species usually) for food; but man destroys his kind,
in the lowest states for food, and in the next states in order that he
may satisfy the demands of the idea of conquest, of victory over his fellow-man.
The first dominant idea of man is the idea of conquest, even when the mental
state intervenes and takes possession, when the physical state is on the
decline.
As intellectual power is the next step, its conquests
constitute the next victory; for the most part the average human life pauses
there for a time, imagining this to be the real height. Greece in her pride
of intellectual strength was as unscrupulous as she was in her physical
conquests.
There is no greater deformed monster in the universe
than the intellectual giant devoid of moral strength, as there is no greater
monstrosity than the physical giant devoid of intellectual and spiritual
strength. But as one illustrates one step of progress, so the other illustrates
another. The learning, skill, and conquests of the Hermetic philosophers
will serve to show what man's intellectual endowments may become. But each
step must be taken by each Soul.
The Pharaohs, Caesars, and Napoleons of history
illustrate the culmination of intellect in the line of ambition. Certain
learned Egyptians, Grecians, and even more modern philosophers, illustrate
the culmination of a line of scientific achievement. To-day the whole world
may be said to be tending toward this culmination of intellectual strength;
while in the past there have been individuals and nations who have illustrated
this culmination, the whole world now, as an average, worships at this
shrine of intellect. May not the story of Oedipus be intended as an example
of the blindness of mere intellectual power?
The mental states (i. e., states of intellectual
achievement) seem to be somewhat enwound with the spiritual; but the latter
is not dominant, seems only secondary, or exists as an aid to the intellectual
achievements: as in the observations of natural laws; discoveries in astronomy
or geology; various inventions and devices for carrying forward the scientific
pursuits of the world, and for the overcoming of the material disabilities
under which mankind labor. In this direction must be included all inventions,
all discoveries of territory, all voyages upon sea and journeys upon land,
everything that enables man to build and pile up great monuments of power,
and works of physical appliance for the purpose of fortifying his physical
strength.
Thus the pursuit even of abstract science, separate
from any moral impulse, is, in itself, a mental, and not a spiritual expression,
and the greatest advancement, as it is termed, in the glory of art, science,
and civilization, may occur without the slightest approach to any spiritual
expression.
The mental steps are not only much more various,
but they combine many, and more intricate, problems. We will use a few
simple illustrations, by which you will be able to follow out the analyses
by applying these illustrations, in modified forms, to the entire realm
of mental pursuits. As there must be culminations in all lines of physical
life by each Soul, so these intellectual culminations will be many. In
certain stages of expression there are several arts, and sciences, or phases,
of intellectual pursuit at the same time. But take, for instance, the individual
life, the typical expression of the Soul that has only passed all the stages
of physical culminations, and physical weakness, and believes that, after
all, physical strength is the greatest, but must be accompanied by mental
power. Then the individual begins to know the mental, or rather commences
the lines upon lines of mental approach to conquest.
The steps in the direction of art, for instance,
are various and slow at first. In music, the one who struggles to that
which can not be attained in one embodiment, for which there is little
ability, and yet for which there is such desire, the struggle with persistence
is continued through many embodiments. Among the average children, you
will find, perhaps, nine of every ten who can learn music; seven of the
ten learn indifferently, three out of the ten learn horribly; and all learners
are as so many embodiments of torture. Your neighbor's child, over there,
is on the road to a culmination in music, but through the various sounds
you are made aware that the child is very far, as yet, from culminating.
Is, not this true of poetry? One genius writes a poem and sets a
whole brood of janglers to making rhymes as near to poetry as the crowing
of the cock is to the song of the nightingale. Some one sings, a song and
the echo is caught up by every bluejay and catbird. Yet these who only
croak now will one day sing.
IN ALL AGES GENIUSES ARE
THE CULMINATIONS OF A GIVEN LINE.
We would name Mozart as a genius because, untaught,
in childhood he knew the principles of harmony. He did not know because
he had never had experience, but he knew because he had had experience
in previous lives, he had taken all the steps until that life was the culmination.
This enabled Mozart to know music at three years of age; not because his
Soul, or spirit, was any more tuneful than any other, but because he had
taken the preceding steps in preceding lives to that culmination; while
another might be culminating in poetry, another in painting, or other art,
he was culminating in music. This is encouragement for all those who do
not know musical harmony now, encouragement to such of you as may be tortured
by your neighbors, or friends, who imagine they are attaining some state
of musical perfection; they will attain it. When genius, appears the world
recognizes its light. All steps, toward genius are steps of aspiration.
The man who wishes, to play, the one who wishes to sing, certainly shall
play and sing because it is something yet to be attained. What a pitiful
sight it was, in the minds of many of his friends, to see the giant genius
of Goethe endeavoring to paint a picture! He could write a poem, he knew
much of philosophy and science, he had spiritual intuitions that were deeper
than those of other men around him, but he wanted to do that which he could
not
do,
he must needs study painting!
If the art or gift is something that has been
attained; if one has been a musical genius, that is evident from this fact:
that one is not seeking for it, and yet is familiar with music. Here is
a man who can play well, his friends say: why do you not follow music?
He has no desire to do it because he can do it, because it is a
part of his past experiences. People are most anxious to undertake that
which they can not do. You will hear people say: oh, that is beautiful
music but I have no desire to perform myself; but you will hear them criticize
some particular portion with accuracy and taste; it is because they have
been cultivated in that direction. Many art critics do not paint, but they
certainly have a priori knowledge of art. We use all these illustrations
because they come into your daily lives, and they show you the lines of
experience in yourselves and others around you, and prove to you what is
the meaning of these different degrees of unfoldment. Otherwise between
the man who has no talent and a genius, like Mozart or Beethoven, there
would be a wide space impossible to span in eternity, but when you know
that the man who has no gift or talent, will have, that he is on the road
to genius, and will culminate in that direction, it will clearly illustrate
that genius travels in lines of unfoldment toward perfect expression, that
there is achievement in one degree after another, that the one who can
paint pictures is only at one end of the line and the one who cannot, but
wishes to, is at the other end.
Genius is the culmination of many steps toward
perfection in one direction. Then wherever there is genius distinctly manifested
it is the final expression of the individual Soul in that one direction.
Each may know by the geniuses of the world what
the culminations of all will be, or have been, for each Soul must express
itself as perfectly as any other in those directions.
It is not best to speculate what the individual
state is, or where one is on the earthly pilgrimage, what the stage of
development one has just passed, or what one is entering into; just now
each one must experience the line of the individual embodiment for what
it presents itself to be, knowing that what one desires to attain is a
prophecy.
In these lessons it is well to separate personalities
from principles as far as possible, and yet know that every principle
stated here applies to every individual Soul; and knowing this, there is
an explanation for all the fragmentary existences seen in the world, and
the experiences within one's self.
States of mental and intellectual unfoldment are
sometimes mistaken for something higher; it is well to draw the line distinctly
at once, and see that no amount of human achievement, such as victory through
the methods of mechanical and intellectual labor, can be called victory
in the end excepting as an illustration of what life is not for: just as
the physical culmination is nothing in itself, but is an expression of
what life will not finally express; so the intellect is an expression of
that which the mind will not finally express, viz., intellect without spirit;
as in the preceding illustration the expressions were of the body without
intellect, but both are states of expression which every Soul, having entered
this race, must surely run, must have passed through or must pass through,
whichever the degree of the present expression may be, in the usual course.
We would again reiterate: the world is beyond
the culminating period of mere physical strength, and we may call this
the approach to the culmination of intellect. The power of the intellect
is worshiped to-day as physical power was worshiped in past ages. The giant
has simply advanced another decree; the giant of intellect has taken the
place of the giant of physical strength. Now the whole civilized and enlightened
world tends toward the worship of the god of the intellect, which is, of
course, as fallacious a worship, as blind a worship, excepting as a stage
of growth in expression, as the worship of the god of the senses.
Two lines, and indeed two degrees of culmination
are often expressed at once, as in the Pharaohs, Caesars, Alexanders, and
Napoleons of history, whose pride and ambition for conquest and earthly
dominion were accompanied by equal ability to win the desired goal.
If one has passed the desire for earthly kingdoms,
how barren seem the victories and achievements in that direction! Who would
wish to be the Czar of all the Russias? Who would possess the throne, crown,
and scepter of any kingdom of earth, having borne that burden and having
had knowledge of the bauble of empire? But if one aspires to rule a kingdom,
have pity, for he is in the line toward that expression, and he does not
know what he seeks until he shall find it and know it is dust and ashes.
So you understand why there still must be wars, why there still must be
heroes in battle, why there still must be kings and kingdoms.
All who are upon the earth in human expression
have not yet passed the condition of physical greatness or mental victory
incident upon the overcoming of these states. Whole races have gone on
beyond it, but all have not yet reached the very beginning of it. So there
will follow other races that will begin the intellectual period that you
are now culminating in.
As, you are now culminating in the directions
known in Egypt and Greece in part time; as their intellectual culminations
were prophecies of that which nations are now achieving; so your victories
in intellect are prophecies of what the whole world will one day become.
Solon and Lycurgus in giving great laws to the
State; Homer, Hesiod, Anacreon, Aeschylus, Pindar, the poets of Greece;
Pythagoras, Euclid, and those who in mathematics handed down, even from
the first, the numbers to the nations that were to follow; Memnon inventing
letters; Thales and Cadmus in giving other letters and mathematics to Greece--these
are all culminations in certain lines.
As the physical giant finds his, reaction in the
dwarf, so the giant of intellect must find his antithesis in the imbecile;
for frequently the giant in body is imbecile in mind, and in the dwarfed
or deformed body the brightest spirit is seen. The imbecile in intellect
is no greater monstrosity than the giant in intellect. The states of physical
and mental imperfection thus reveal the true perfection that is still beyond.
THE THIRD GENERAL DEGREE
OF EXPRESSION IS THE SPIRITUAL
DEGREE.
In entering upon the consideration of this, the
most complex stage of human expression, it should be remembered that, as
there is no partiality in the Soul, so there is no partiality in the experience.
Each Soul begins at the beginning of experience here, and passes through
physical conquest and the physical disappointment, the intellectual conquest
and the intellectual disappointment, and enters upon the spiritual conquest
and all its difficulties to finally overcome them. The physical victory
is not a conquest over the physical nature, nor is the intellectual achievement
a conquest over the intellect.
When you see certain lives that begin better than
others, when you see certain individuals that have moral qualities, and
others that seem to have none; when you see those who have every opportunity,
every means of advancement, yet can not avail themselves of them because
of their condition, there must be some real solution, and that solution
is found only in this system which we are explaining to you now. If you
are journeying up a mountain and have commenced your journey sooner than
another, you will be at a higher altitude than the one who commenced afterward;
but as he follows along, he will find the same steep and stony places,
the same briers and thorns, the same difficulties to encounter; for human
nature is so constituted that only what one experiences does one really
know. This is proven from the fact that no nation benefits by the history
of any other nation. There never was a war that could not have been avoided
if the lessons of history had been studied. But study does not make experience,
and the lessons of history are not known until each individual or nation
realizes them. This is why history repeats itself, that all may have similar
experiences. This also becomes the leveler; the intellectual or moral giant
and the intellectual or moral dwarf must somewhere be reconciled, or there
is partiality in the kingdom of God. Then let us see how this reconciliation
takes place. Under this light the intellectual giant is an imbecile spiritually,
if he has not spiritual growth; and therefore, if he has pride of intellect,
which he does if he has not spiritual growth, is not the natural reaction
from that a descent into the valley to find the weakness of mere intellectual
strength? A mother loves her imbecile child as well as her bright one;
she is even more tender toward it, she knows somewhere there is a clue
to that mysterious labyrinth that seems to imprison from the outward world
the life that is within. If she could know that sometime there may have
been pride of intellect, and triumph over the weaknesses of others, she
would realize that this feeble condition is not more pitiable, and that
behind that seemingly benighted brain there is the Soul that, one day,
will shine forth, not in intellect alone, but in the greater and diviner
light of spiritual beauty.
If the theory of the materialist, or the mere
secularist, or even of the ordinary theologian were true, there would be
no possibility of reconciling physical deformity with spiritual grace and
power. But how often do you see, even in the child born with physical deformity,
the light of the mind, the light of the spirit that teaches such marvelous
lessons of patience that all the world can listen and learn wisdom. Look
at the man who boasts merely of his physical power, and then behold the
little child, perhaps a hunchback, whom he may trample ruthlessly beneath
his feet, and see the light within that eye, the patience that is there,
and the humility, and learn that this towering form is a dwarf beside the
feeble one. Thus are outward conditions not only reconciled, but made to
be steps in the individual growth and advancement. Woe unto those who feel
strong in their mere physical might; that strength is of the earth, it
is fleeting, it passes away; and they must learn by humility, by being
conscious of weakness of body and mind, the greater strength of the spirit.
For the most part the ascent through matter, after
taking the first steps in the infancy of life, is like a spiral pathway;
but there are deviations which are the reactions from heights that are
not real, as the superficial height of the body, or the superficial height
of the intellect. So that which seems to be a descent is not so in reality;
neither is it so in the mental or moral kingdoms, for, as said before,
the giant of the intellect, or he who has no goodness or moral strength
is a monstrosity, and the reaction from that leads to the simplest mind,
but a mind of sweetness and goodness. You often hear people say: such a
sweet nature, but no mind. What is the value of mind if it is not goodness?
To encompass the universe with strong terms and technicalities and fail
in the real essence of life! These simple minds, as they are termed, who
must have descended from the height of superficial intellectuality to the
humility, perhaps, of knowing nothing, to learn the lessons of sweetness
and goodness, are really on the way to be giants of strength in spirit.
The strength of spirit is attained through struggles
that may encompass all conditions of life. Not gigantic to the extent of
over weening physical strength, but for the purpose of usefulness as much
as strength as is needed; not gigantic to the extent of worshiping the
intellect at the expense of the heart, but to succeed in all and to fail
in all, until one can forward the work of the spirit, until it has conquered
all states, not only sin but, the greatest of all sins, self-righteousness,
and stands in sublime and exalted humility as the typical illustration
of conquest over the earth. All states between that and the lowest condition
which you can picture are states of human experience that every Soul must
pass through. Meanwhile there infiltrates into these experiences a religious
or spiritual element, a suggestion that that which the body, or the mind,
only accomplishes is no, accomplishment at all.
The first religious experiences must have come
like earthquakes and tornadoes, undoubtedly taking possession of the first
great nation at the height of its physical and intellectual splendor; and
as the lightning tears down the temple or destroys the giant oak, so the
first religious thought, flashing into a mind blind with physical and intellectual
power, must have been like the rending of the veil in the temple. This
spiritual power is the beginning of inspiration in every age; we mean the
recognized inspiration. Whatever flows into man's life from the divine,
infiltrates through the body and, the mind. We do not call that inspiration
which is the usual activity of spirit in the organic nature, this is simply
the power which the spirit uses, but which is not spiritual power. The
distinction between the two is evident; one may give expression to many
things by a power which is from within, but when that which is from within
is expressed it becomes an impelling force, a light divine. While each
one, as an individual, may cause certain things to be done, still when
the life that is Soul is manifested and recognized, it becomes the real
life, and all that is done is acknowledged to be under its sway.
The spirit begins its triumph where the intellect
fails: and we may say that this ascent is a gradual spiral ascent, increasing
as one goes on, extending in new lines as one advances. But in the steps
of expression, although there is continual ascent, there are also, seemingly,
declensions: as between mountains there are depressions, but the valleys
there are higher than the preceding mountain tops; so in the line of embodiments
there are descents into the valleys of humility, but the seeming decline
is not so in the absolute sense, for the valleys are among the heights.
REACTION IS AS MUCH A LAW
OF GROWTH AS ACTION.
The reaction from physical success and splendor
must naturally follow, although this would be just the opposite to physical
success and splendor; then following gluttony would there not be starvation?
and following the Hercules would there not be the pigmy and deformed one?
There must be the spiritual synonym and meaning for every physical fact.
However you may trace the cause of physical deformity to physical sources,
you can find no other solution, in the great world of moral and spiritual
force, than that deformity has its complement and balance in overweening
physical strength unaccompanied by moral force; also the valley from the
height of a non-intellectual and non-spiritual physical expression is the
valley of deformity, that being its vale of humility; and then and there,
in that valley, is the beginning of mental power, as the descent from the
intellectual height is an illustration of the beginning of spiritual strength.
The moral problems are most complex, and here
is the whole conflict, here the battle ground seems to be after all; for
when the moral perception enters, there is a different outlook, a different
purpose, a different condition. That which under the mere physical existence
seems right, under the moral light seems wrong. So that while it might
be right under physical law for the ancient Spartans to slay the child
that was born weak, the moral awakening reveals to the human mind that
physical weakness may not be mental and spiritual weakness, and that human
beings have no right to determine, as valuable lessons of life may be intended
to be taught even by weakness.
How mistaken the Spartans were in putting the
imperfect bodies to death was illustrated by the fact, that with all their
physical and intellectual perfection the Grecians could not preserve their
moral integrity; how wrong they were in supposing that physical or intellectual
life could be the basis of all advancement was illustrated by the elements
of corruption that crept in, sweeping them from the face of the earth.
Instead of now slaying imperfect children, they
are protected and provided for. The blind are made to know of life by touch
and hearing; they are aided to perform their tasks, and that which is a
physical imperfection becomes the aid to songs divine, and sometimes to
spiritual vision. Supposing Milton had been slain because blind, where
would have been the visions of paradise; the illustration of that genius
that exalted the world?
When the mental force is taking possession it
is often veiled before recognition, the antitheses are the stepping from
heights that are false; as the physical height has its downfall in order
that a better height may be attained, so in the intellectual world there
is the recession. Let no one suppose that, when placed in the spiritual
balance, the human intellect without Soul weighs any more than the dust
which expresses no intellect; let no one suppose that simply intellectual
expression, unaccompanied by moral force or intention, can weigh any more
in the great scale of real life, than that life whose intellect is veiled,
and yet, in all appearances, wears a fair face, with features that are
delicately chiseled, but under some law has come into the world with no
intellectual outlook, with no face for earthly victory. These illustrations
are extreme; but there is no more extreme depth, or fictitious height,
than that of the pride of intellect, of which this extreme is the necessary
and natural antithesis. So were you to see a beautiful form and face, as
perfect as any divinity worshiped by Grecian worshipers of art, unaccompanied
by qualities of the mind and Soul in keeping with that form, you might
well say the next expression would be one of deformity.
As there is deformity in the world, and as it
must have a mental and moral as well as a physical cause, or there must
be injustice to some one, so it is but proper to recognize that imperfections
in the physical and mental life are illustrations of moral propositions
and are portions of the great equity of existence; then, too, in reconciling
the relations of kings who wish to be peasants and peasants who wish they
were kings, every one has an opportunity of trying both. No one at the
end of all these different experiences can say that any line of expression
or experience has been denied. All must know what it is to be slaves, as
all have a natural tendency to be tyrants, all must know by the knowledge
of possession what are the responsibilities, trials, and temptations, as
well as the redeeming and excusing features in each expression. So he who
labors for his daily bread is made to do double labor by the deflections
of the millionaire, and he may be unreconciled to this; he who subsists
by honest toil must be obliged to change places with the man whom he envies;
when he experiences the poverty of riches he is glad enough then to return
to the more humble and noble position. In fact, whatever men covet they
will have an opportunity of trying. Whatever they do not care for in worldly
possessions they have experienced and outgrown.
When we consider the moral world, as the intellectual
is very much more complicated than the physical struggle, how much more
intricate become the moral problems! The moment the spirit begins to assert
itself the battle begins. It is not a battle between the intellectual nature
and material life, when the intellect becomes, unqualifiedly, the victor;
but here is the battle of ages; between the voice that finally works its
way through from the Soul into outward expression, and man's unconquered,
selfish, nature; here is the conflict and the battle ground; here it is
that the Titans wage war; here it is that all final victories are won.
The other struggles, for physical or intellectual supremacy, are merely
different states of selfishness; but the first time man knows that he must
forfeit self, or that there is a stage wherein he must vanquish selfish
desires, the battle begins; that is the moral starting point. The intellectual
nature, and even the physical life, asserts man's supremacy; but what he
can win by conquering self he learns for the first time in his moral nature,
he has it in the voice of the Soul, which tells him he has no right to
any possession merely because he can win it. As a giant would not be excused
for treading down children in the street, as a man of intellect should
not be excused for defrauding those who are ignorant, so man's moral nature
begins, by slow degrees, to make him aware that his intellect and that
his physical life do not justify their full assertion; that he has no moral
right, even though he has the physical power, to win supremacy and hold
it; and the real law of life is, when possessing strength not to use it
against others, but for others.
The subtle difference between the man who cannot
kill and the one who is a murderer, is the difference in conquest over
self. He who says he can slay if he choose, does violence to either his
moral or intellectual nature; for the choice depends upon the growth,
upon the degree of conquest. There have been conditions of human civilization
when it was a virtue to kill. There are states of society, even today,
under the law of what is denominated self-defense, wherein it would be
considered a virtue to kill. Between the man who slays for gold and the
man who slays to protect gold, do you suppose there is any great moral
difference? The conquest is to win a victory over self, not over another.
And that which is denominated virtue in one state of growth, becomes impossible
in another. A primal virtue in the ages of physical supremacy is conquest,
slaughter for individual or national empire. Second only to this in lack
of moral or spiritual perception is the sacrifice of life in what is commonly
called "self-defense." One can not slay, one can not do violence
to another, one can not betray in any manner, one can not degenerate to
any vice, one can not censure, if one has outgrown or overcome the state
indicated. Neither angel nor demon can tempt the man who is above temptation.
It is in this moral battle ground that the wonderful
equity of this divine system is more and more manifested. This is not only
the reconciliation of the world, it is the hope of the world. There are
those in the world today, illustrating the states devoid of all moral impulse,
without power to overcome any passion, absolutely a prey to all the conflicting
elements within and around them. There are other natures in whom saint-like
qualities preponderate, who do not experience an unworthy thought. 'Where
is the law of science or the scheme of any theology, other than we are
announcing, that can explain the discrepance between these two states?
what opportunity is given, in time or eternity, by any other system than
this, to reconcile one man's goodness, that seems to be born in him, and
the infamy of another, that seems to be born in him, with the Infinite
love and goodness? Accounting the state of purity and perfection in expression
as something man has won from within the Soul, the moral excellence as
a height that the others will win, that all others will have opportunity
to attain just as great a height, just as absolute a victory, the present
seeming inequalities in moral states are no longer hopeless. If we did
not know that the child would grow to become a man, how helpless and devoid
of hope would infancy seem! When we declare, therefore, that every
step of expression in life is a step toward victory, does it not teach
that those who condemn and censure, in an individual sense, have not outgrown
the condition which they condemn and censure? If one sees a man who is
a murderer or a criminal of any kind, one may pity the state of the criminal,
one may say he has not outgrown hatred, malice, and revenge, but unless
one has hatred, malice, and revenge, one can by no means wish to visit
upon him that which he has visited upon others.
As life goes on there is no need to point to what
is highest; the saints, martyrs, and philosophers put to death, the teachers
of human history and the Messiahs who have been crucified, illustrate the
highest thought of human conquest, and each state that is less than that
is still a state that ultimately tends toward it. When we are asked: Do
you declare, then, that it is necessary for all states of expression to
be experienced by all Souls? we answer unqualifiedly,
THAT WHICH IS NECESSARY FOR
ONE SOUL IN ITS COURSE OF EXPRESSION THROUGH MATTER
IS NECESSARY FOR ALL.
It could not be made necessary for one unless
for all. There would be moral chaos.
The feminine in all possible states of woman's
life, the masculine in all possible states of man's life; and the true
test of victory is in the fact that, not only is there no condemnation,
but like John Bunyan, who, on seeing a convict being borne to the place
of execution, said: "But for the grace of God there goes John Bunyan,"
or like Wilberforce, who said he never saw a criminal but he thought it
might have been himself, or like the highest prophets and teachers who
endeavor to aid the unfortunate, and do not insist upon condemning them--there
is a sort of knowledge that it might have been one's self. Do not think
that the state of being without sin is not won.
It is not our province to declare in what state
any human being is. You will see some lives that seem to illustrate the
highest moral growth today, and tomorrow they may be found under a cloud
of human weakness and human censure; they fall, as it is termed, into temptation.
There are no elernentaries nor personal demons in the upper or lower air
lurking around to tempt mankind. Temptation is the natural consequence
of this involution in matter, and is the selfishness of man's human nature;
the triumph over it is that which at last overcomes self.
The flaming sword suspended at the gateway of
Eden, that Adam and Eve could not return, was the sword of conscience,
the awakened conscience, which prevents the Soul from returning again into
the Eden state, the state of innocence. That which each must do, having
entered the pathway of experience and knowledge, is to find the heavenly
state in the final victory, and that final victory is in self-conquest.
It must not be forgotten that in the general system
of unfoldment toward moral perfection in expression, there are false impressions
and fictitious heights that are supposed to be real. There is no greater
state of deformity than the state of supposed righteousness in the individual,
we mean the, "I am holier than thou." What the physical giant is without
intellectual and moral growth, what the intellectual giant is without goodness
or virtue, so is the giant of self-righteousness, the typical scribe and
Pharisee, the hypocrite, be who removes his garments lest they be contaminated
by contact with the sinner; such is the self-righteous. Make no mistake,
even that pride has its fall. Sometimes you witness that those who assume
the greatest virtue are the soonest under a cloud. Sometimes those who
have a superficial consciousness of being good are put to the profoundest
test, and their goodness is found to be only on the surface. True goodness
is so simple, so humble, so childlike, so divine, so beyond all compare,
that it is not aware, nor boastful. The true moral victor, who can not
sin, avoids not the sinner, but uplifts and strengthens him who errs. Only
in this triumph does moral perfection become complete, after all the stage
of struggle and attainment, when the world is overcome.
It will be well to remember that each separate
state is conquered by knowing it, then by knowing it is not a real victory.
The thesis might seem to be that the Soul conquers matter by yielding to
it, the antithesis is that the Soul conquers matter by knowing that yielding
to it is not the real victory.
But enough has been said in this lesson to show,
that each Soul enters expression in human embodiments in the most infantile
state possible on earth; for all states are experienced by all Souls; and
that each Soul in dual existence, the masculine and feminine, is always
expressing similar states at the same time. That there are three distinct
general degrees of achievement: the physical, the mental, and the moral.
Each of there degrees has its seeming and its real victory.
The false.
First: The false physical strength, accompanied
by pride of physical conquest.
Second: Intellectual power and achievement as
a finality.
Third: A fictitious moral strength, self-righteousness.
The weakness of physical strength, the fallacy
of mere intellectual power, and the downfall of self-righteousness, are
reactions.
The true.
First. Victory over the physical.
Second. Conquest over the intellectual.
Third: True goodness, the ultimate moral triumph
over the world.
For each of these degrees and states (as well
as the reactions) many successive embodiments are necessary, until the
final victory.
The next lesson will be a continuation of this
subject: Embodiments in human life.
..THE
SOUL: ITS
NATURE, RELATIONS, AND EXPRESSIONS IN HUMAN EMBODIMENTS..
.LESSON
IV
