(Anna Kingsford, The Perfect Way, Extracts from Lecture 8, 1882)
27. The true design and method of the Gospels,
together with the process of their degradation, become clear in proportion
as the nature of their real subject – the Man Regenerate – is understood. In
dealing with this we are met at the outset by an example of perversion,
one of the most conspicuous and disastrous in the whole history of
religion. This is the perversion of the doctrine of the “Incarnation.”
Of this doctrine the original basis was a prophecy – or declaration of
universal import founded in the nature of existence – of the means
whereby, both as race and as individual, man is redeemed. Born originally
of Matter and subject to the limitations of Matter, Man, according to this
prophecy, is redeemed, and made superior to those limitations, by being
reborn of Spirit, a process by which he is converted from a phenomenal
into a substantial being, one in nature with original Deity, and having,
therefore, in himself the power of life eternal. Of this perfected man the
foster-father is always that which, spiritually, is called Egypt – the body or Matter, and, by derivation, the
Intellect, or reason of the merely earthly mind – the mystic name of which
is always “Joseph.”
On his first appearance in the drama of the soul, as set
forth in the Bible, this Joseph is represented as a youth already
sufficiently developed, in his affectional nature, to return good for evil
and to succor his kindred; in his intellectual nature, to fill with credit
posts of responsibility and to secure the confidence of his sovereign; and
in his moral nature, to resist the seductions of the world. He is, thus, a
type of the philosophical element, both in itself and in its
relations with the State; and a representative of the rising Hebrew
Mysteries. In the Gospels he reappears – like Egypt itself – aged and past the
glories of his prime. And he is represented as the adoptive father only
of the Man Regenerate, because this last is really the product, not of the
mind, but of the soul; not of “Egypt,” but of “Israel;” not of the “man”
Intellect, but of the “woman” Intuition, being “begotten” through her, not
by any physical process, but by Divine spiritual operation. Nevertheless he has
the benefit of the wisdom and knowledge of his “foster-father,” for he is
instructed in the sacred Mysteries of Egypt, which are, indeed, one with
those of Israel, only first
of Egypt,
– a priority denoting the precedence, in point of time, of the development
of the intellect over that of the intuition. In representing Joseph as the
foster-father only, and not the real father, the parable implies that man,
when regenerate, is so exclusively under the influence of his soul, or Mother, as to have but a slender connection with his
external part, using it only for shelter and nourishment, and such other
purposes as may minister to the soul’s welfare.
28. He who would redeem
and save others, must first be himself redeemed and saved. The
Man Regenerate, therefore, first saves himself, by becoming regenerate. He
receives, accordingly, a name expressive of this function. For, of Jesus one of the significations is Liberator. This name is given, not on the birth of the man
physical, nor to the man physical, – of whose birth and name the Gospels take
no note, – but to the man spiritual, on his initiation, or new birth from
the material to the spiritual plane. And it is the name, not of a person,
but of an Order, the Order of all those who – being regenerate and
attaining perfection – find, and are called, “Christ Jesus.” (As see Eph.
iii. 15.)
29. Of the miracles worked by the Regenerate Man, some are on
the physical, some on the spiritual plane; for, being himself regenerate
in all, he is master of the spirits of all the elements. But while
the terms in which the Miracles are described are uniformly derived from
the physical plane, the true value and significance of these Miracles are
spiritual. That, for example, known as the Raising of Lazarus,
is altogether a parable, being constructed on lines rigidly astronomical,
and having an application purely spiritual. To a like category belongs
also the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. For the
“loaves” given to the multitude represent the general doctrine of the
lesser Mysteries, whose “grain” is of the Earth, the kingdom of Demeter,
and of the outer; and the “fishes” – given after the loaves – denote the greater
Mysteries, those of Aphrodite, – fishes symbolizing the element of the sea-born
Queen of Love, and her dominion, the inner kingdom of the soul.
It may be
noted in this relation that the Gospels represent their typical Man as at
first speaking explicitly to the people, but afterwards, warned
by experience, addressing them in parables only. Of the Crucifixion,
Resurrection, and Ascension, also, notwithstanding that these have a
physical correspondence, the signification intended to be enforced, and
which alone is valuable, is spiritual. Wherefore the Gospel narrative, though
told as of an actual particular person, is a mystical history only of any
person, and implies the spiritual possibilities of all persons. And, being
thus, it represents, designedly, that which is general rather than that which
is particular, and makes no pretence to an accuracy which is merely
historical, the object being not to relate facts, but to illustrate
doctrines.
34. He is then qualified to proceed to
the greater Mysteries of which the final scene is the “King’s Chamber.” This,
as already said, is placed at the extreme summit of the passages, and
beyond the centre of the Pyramid; and its purpose is to symbolize that
kingdom of heaven which the Initiate attains by what is called the Divine
Marriage, an act which separates him altogether from his life of the past. The
six superposed beams which compose the ceiling of this chamber denote the
“six crowns” of the Man Regenerate, that is, the six acts or stages of
initiation, of which three appertain to the lesser and three to the
greater Mysteries. These “crowns,” therefore, are Baptism, Temptation,
Passion, Burial, Resurrection, and Ascension. Of all these the ultimate
object is that full and complete Redemption which, by its realization of
the soul’s supreme felicity, is termed the “Marriage of the Son of God.” And in
the second shaft passing upwards through the pyramid, from the topmost
point of the last gallery, and pointing in one direction to the coffer in
the King’s Chamber, and in the other direction to the Pole-star at it greatest
altitude, may be seen symbolized the return to God of the soul, perfected
and triumphant, on her final release from Matter. So that by the two
pole-star-pointing shafts are typified respectively the forces centrifugal and
centripetal, the Will and the Love, from the operation of which proceed
Creation and Redemption.
36. But although the true
signification of the Gospel narrative of the Ascension is spiritual only,
the process of Redemption is not without its physical results; for every
faculty is enhanced thereby to the degree ordinarily deemed “miraculous,”
rendering the Subject clairvoyant and clairaudient, enabling him to impart
health and recall life by the touch or by the will, to project himself in
visible form through material obstructions, and to withdraw himself from
sight at will. And not only is disease eliminated from and rendered
impossible to his system, but his organism becomes so highly refined and
vitalized that wounds, however severe, heal by first intention and even
instantaneously. So that, if only for this reason, it is quite impossible
that the Gospels should have intended to represent their typical regenerate man
as dying, in a physical sense, of the injuries described by them as received
on the cross.
38. By this
cup is represented the chalice of Existence or Incarnation, wherein is
contained that Substantial Water, or Soul, which by the “marriage” of the
will of the man with the Will of God, becomes the
Wine of the holy Sacrament, or Communion with God. The Reed which supports this
Cup is the universal rod or Staff which so constantly recurs in Hermetic
Scriptures, and is at once the rod of Moses, the wand of the Magician, the
sceptre of the King, the reed of the Angel, the rod of Joseph that
flowers, and the caduceus of Hermes himself. For it is the symbol of
Force, the Line, or Jod, by which is
typified alike the creative act of projection into Matter and
individualization thereby and the energy of the will – inflexible and
undivided – through which the return to Spirit is accomplished and salvation
achieved. Of these cup-surmounted reeds the bearers, in the Greek
Mysteries, were called Canephorae, or reed bearers. And the corresponding
celebration in the Gospels is appropriately described as occurring at Cana of Galilee, where, as
may be gathered from Josephus, was a cave of initiation. The nature of
the occasion depicted in Fig. 9 is further denoted by the symbol carried
in the right hand, both of the priestess and of the candidate.
Part 1
