Of Anna Kingsford's writings, Blavatsky stated: 'The first and most important was The Perfect Way, or the Finding of
Christ, which gives the esoteric meaning of Christianity. It sweeps away
many of the difficulties that thoughtful readers of the Bible must
contend with in their endeavours to either understand or accept
literally the story of Jesus Christ as it is presented in the Gospels.' She
brings to an interestingly eclectic mix of Christian mysticism, Greek
Hermetism, Christian Alchemy and Kaballah a wider appreciation of
comparative religion, especially Hindu and Buddhist notions of karma and
reincarnation along with modern theosophical notions of spiritual
evolution. Although firmly rooted in a traditional Christian mysticism,
she embraces more open notions of perennialism and evolution.
29. Christ Jesus,
then, is no other than the hidden and true
man of the Spirit, the Perfect Humanity, the Express Image of the Divine
Glory. And it is possible to man, by the renunciation –
which mystically is the crucifixion – of his outer and
lower self, to rise wholly into his inner and higher self, and, becoming suffused
or anointed of the Spirit, to “put on Christ,” propitiate God, and redeem
the earthly and material.
30. And that which they who, in
the outer manifestation, are emphatically called Christs – whether
of Palestine, of India, of Egypt or of Persia, – have done for man, is but
to teach him what man is able to be in himself by bearing, each for
himself, that Cross of renunciation which they have borne. And inasmuch as
these have ministered to the salvation of the world thereby, they are truly
said to be saviors
of souls, whose doctrine and love
and example have redeemed men from death and made them heirs of
eternal life. The Wisdom they attained, they kept not secret, but
freely gave as they had freely received. And that which thus they gave was
their own life, and they gave it knowing that the children of darkness
would turn on them and rend them because of the gift. But, with the
Christs, Wisdom and Love are one, and the testament of Life is written in
the blood of the testator. Herein is the difference between the Christ and
the mere adept in knowledge.
The Christ gives and
dies in giving, because Love constrains him and no fear withholds; the
adept is prudent, and keeps his treasure for himself alone. And as the
At-on-ment accomplished in and by the Christs, is the result of the
unreserved adoption of the Divine Life, and of the unreserved giving of
the Love mystically called the Blood of Christ,
those who adopt that Life according to their teaching, and who aspire to
be one with God, are truly said to be saved by the Precious
Blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. For the Lamb of God is
the spiritual Sun
in Aries, the spring-tide glory of
ascending Light, the symbol of the Pure Heart and
the Righteous Life, by which humanity is redeemed. And this Lamb is
without spot, white as snow, because white is the sign of Affirmation and
of the “Yes;” as black is of Negation and of the devil. It is Iesous Chrestos,
the Perfect Yes of God who is symbolized by this white Lamb, and
who, like his sign in heaven, was lifted up on the Cross of
Manifestation from the foundation of the world.
31. In the holy Mysteries, dealing with the
process of that second and new creation, which – constituting a
return from Matter to Spirit – is mystically called Redemption, – every term
employed refers to some process or thing subsisting or occurring within
the individual himself. For, as man is a Microcosm, and comprises within
all that is without, the processes of Creation by
Evolution, and of Redemption by Involution, occur in the Man as in the
Universe, and thereby in the Personal as in the General, in the One as in
the Many. With the current orthodox symbolism of man’s spiritual history, the
Initiate, or true Spiritualist, has no quarrel. That from which he seeks
to be saved is truly the Devil, who through the sin of the Adam has power
over him; that whereby he is saved is the precious blood of the Christ, the
Only-begotten, whose mother is the immaculate
ever-virgin Maria. And that to which, by means of this
divine oblation, he attains is the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal Life.
But, with the current orthodox interpretation of these terms, the Initiate
is altogether at variance.
For he knows that all these
processes and names refer to Ideas, which are actual and positive, not to
physical transcripts, which are reflective and relative only. He knows
that it is within his own microcosmic
system he must look for the true Adam, for
the real Tempter,
and for the whole
process of the Fall, the Exile, the Incarnation, the Passion,
the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the coming of the
Holy Spirit. And any mode of interpretation which implies other than
this, is not celestial but terrene, and due to that intrusion of
earthy elements into things divine, that conversion of the inner into the
outer, that “Fixing of the Volatile” or materialization of the Spiritual,
which constitutes idolatry.
32. For, such of us as know and
live the inner life, are saved, not by any Cross on Calvary
eighteen hundred years ago, not by any physical blood-shedding, not by any
vicarious passion of tears and scourge and spear; but by the Christ-Jesus,
the God with us, the
Immanuel of the heart, born, working mighty works, and offering
oblation in our own lives, redeeming us from the world, and making us sons
of God and heirs of everlasting life.
33. But, if we are thus saved by the love of
Christ, it is by
love also that we manifest Christ to others. If we have received
freely, we also give freely, shining in the midst of night, that is, in the
darkness of the world. For so long as this darkness prevails over the
earth, Love hangs on his cross; because the darkness is the working of a
will at variance with the Divine Will, doing continual violence to the Law
of Love.
34. The wrongs of
others wound the
Son of God, and the stripes of others fall on his flesh. He is smitten with the
pains of all creatures, and his heart is pierced
with their wounds. There is no offence done and he suffers not, nor
any wrong and he is not hurt thereby. For his heart is in the breast of
every creature, and his blood in the veins of all flesh. For to know
perfectly is to love perfectly, and so to love is to be partaker in the pain of
the beloved. And inasmuch as a man loves and succors and saves even the
least of God’s creatures, he ministers unto the Lord. Christ is the
perfect Lover, bearing the sorrows of all the poor and oppressed. And the
sin and injustice and ignorance of the World are the nails in his hands, and in
his feet. O Passion of Love, that givest thyself freely, even unto death! For
no man can do Love’s perfect work unless Love thrust him through and
through. But, if he love perfectly, he shall be able to redeem; for strong
Love is a Net which shall draw all souls unto him. Because unto Love
is given all power, both in heaven and on earth; Seeing that the will of
him who loves perfectly is one with the Will of God: And unto God and
Love, all things are possible.
IV
35. We come now to the last and innermost
of the fourfold Mysteries of the Cross; the Oblation of God
in and for the Macrocosmic Universe. The fundamental truth
embodied in this aspect of the holy symbol, is the doctrine of Pantheism; God,
and God only, in and through All. The celestial Olympus –
Mount of Oracles – is ever creating; God never ceases giving of the Divine
Self alike for Creation and for Redemption. God is in all things,
whether personal or impersonal, and in God they live and move and have being.
And that stage of purification through which the Cosmos is now passing, is
God’s Crucifixion; the process of
Transmutation and Redemption of Spirit from Matter, of Being from Existence, of
Substance from Phenomenon, which is to culminate in the final
At-one-nient of the ultimate Sabbath of Rest awaiting God’s redeemed
universe at the end of the Kalpa. In the Man Crucified, we have, therefore,
the type and symbol of the continual
Crucifixion of God manifest in the flesh, God suffering in the creature,
the Invisible made Visible, the Volatile Fixed, the Divine Incarnate,
which manifestation, suffering, and crucifixion are the causes of
purification and therefore of Redemption.
Thus, in the spiritual Sense, the six days of
creation are always Passion Week, in that they represent the process of
painful experience, travail, and passing through, whereby the Spirit
accomplishes the redemption of the Body; or the return of Matter into
Substance. Hence in the sacred writings, God, in the person of Divine Humanity,
is represented as showing the Five Mystical
Wounds of the Passion to the Angels, and saying: – “These are the
Wounds of My Crucifixion, wherewith I am wounded in the House of My Friends.”
For, so long as pain and sorrow and sin endure, God is wounded continually
in the persons of all creatures, small and great; and the temple of their
body is the House wherein the Divine Guest suffers.
36. For the Bread which is
broken and divided for the children of the Kingdom is the Divine Substance, which
with the Wine of
the Spirit, constitute the holy Sacrament of
the Eucharist, the Communion of the Divine and the Terrene, the
Oblation of Deity in Creation.
37. May this holy Body and Blood,
Substance and
Spirit, Divine Mother and Father, inseparable Duality in Unity, given
for all creatures, broken and shed, and making oblation for the world, be
everywhere known, adored, and venerated. May we, by means of that Blood,
which is the Love of God and the Spirit of Life, be redeemed, indrawn, and
transmuted into that Body which is Pure Substance, immaculate and
ever virgin, express Image of the Person of God! That we hunger no more,
neither thirst any more; and that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any creature, be able to separate us from the Love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus. That being made one through the
At-one-ment of Christ, who only hath Immortality and inhabiteth
Light inaccessible; We also beholding the glory of God with open
face; may be transformed into the same Image, from glory to glory by the
power of the Spirit. Light inaccessible; We also beholding the glory
of God with open face; may be transformed into the same Image, from glory to
glory by the power of the Spirit. (Anna Kingsford, The
Perfect Way, Lecture 4, Part III, 20)
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