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ARMAGEDDON, THE GREAT WAR, AND THE COMING AGE
PART IX
The chart printed in Part V shows that
there was an Age when humanity lived in peace and happiness under the
guardianship of a ruler who held the DOUBLE OFFICE of King and Priest,
being both temporal and spiritual head of the DOUBLE SEXED human race. He
is called Melchisedec in the Bible terminology, and it is said that he was
King of Salem, Salem meaning Peace. Since then humanity has been divided
into TWO sexes, male and female, and placed under the dual rulership of a
King having dominion over their temporal affairs and aiming to advance
them by industry and STATECRAFT, and a Priest, head of the priestcraft,
exercising a SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY, in such a manner as they considered for
the ETERNAL good of their charges.
The statecraft employed by the sons of
Cain holds up the MALE ideal, HIRAM ABIFF, the Master craftsman, the Son
of FIRE, while the sons of Seth as priestcraft uphold the FEMALE ideal in
the VIRGIN MARY, the lady of the sea.
Thus fire and water, male and female,
Church and State, are opposed to each other, with the inevitable result
that a great war has been waged ever since the separation, that sin,
sorrow and death are rampant, and that humanity is praying for the day of
redemption, when the two streams shall be united in the Kingdom of Heaven
where there is NEITHER MARRYING NOR GIVING IN MARRIAGE, and where reigns
Christ, the King of Peace, exercising the DUAL office of King and Priest
after the order of Melchisedec, for the good of all.
But this new order can not come into
existence in a day. It requires ages of preparation, not only of the land
itself, but of the people who are to inhabit it. And in order to gain an
idea of what that land is like, and how the people are constituted, it
will be helpful to consider the evolutionary career of humanity which has
brought us the land where we live to our present status; that will then
give us the perspective to see what is in store for us in the future.
The Biblical and occult traditions agree
with science that there was a time when darkness brooded over the deep of
space, where the material for the coming earth planet was being gathered
together and set in motion by the Divine Hierarchs; that this stage was
followed by a period of luminosity, when the dark cloud of matter had
become a fire mist; that this was followed by a period when the cold of
space and the heat of the planet-in-the-making generated an atmosphere of
steam close to the fiery core and mist further from the fiery center. When
the mist had cooled sufficiently, it fell again as rain upon the fiery
core, to be re-evaporated, and this continued in endless cycles, until by
repeated boiling of the waters, an incrustation began to form around the
fiery core. Upon the islands of crust in the ocean of fire we first learn
of humanity dwelling in solid physical bodies, where of course very
dissimilar to those we have today. During the next stage the crust of the
earth became sufficiently strong to cover the whole inner core, and
humanity lived then in the basins of the earth, in the land of mist, which
was so dense that breathing was accomplished by means of gill clefts
similar to those of the fishes and still seen in human embryo.
When the mists of Atlantis commenced to
settle, some of our forbears had grown embryonic lungs and were forced to
the highlands years before their compeers. Therefore they wandered in the
wilderness while the promised land as we know it today was emerging from
the lighter fogs, and at the same time their growing lungs were fitting
them to live under the present atmospheric conditions. Two more races were
born in the basins of the earth after the pioneers had left it. Then a
succession of floods drove them all to the highlands. The last flood took
place when the Sun by precession entered the watery sign Cancer about ten
thousand years ago, as told Plato by the Egyptian Priests. Thus we see
that there is no sudden change of constitution or environment for the
whole human race when a new epoch is ushered in, but an overlapping of
conditions which makes it possible for the majority by gradual adjustment
to enter the new conditions, though the change may seem sudden to the
individual when the preparatory work has been accomplished unconsciously.
The metamorphosis of a frog from a denizen of the water to the airy
element give an analogy of the past emergence of humanity from the
continent of Atlantis to the Rainbow Age of Aryana. And the transformation
of an earth worm to a butterfly soaring the skies is an apt illustration
of the coming change from our present state and condition to those of the
New Galilee where the Kingdom of Christ will be established; and what the
change in the human constitution and environment is to be, may be seen by
examining the past conditions as outlined in the Bible, which agrees with
the occult traditions in the main points. This New Heaven and New Earth is
now in the making. When the heavenly time marker, the Sun, came into Aries
by precession, a new cycle commenced and the glad tidings were preached by
Christ. He said by implication that the New Heaven and Earth were not
ready then, when He told his disciples "whither I go, you cannot NOW
follow, but you shall follow afterwards; I go to prepare a place for you
and will come again and receive you." Later, John saw in a vision the New
Jerusalem descending from Heaven, and Paul taught the Thessalonians BY THE
WORD OF THE LORD that those who are Christ's at His coming shall be caught
up IN THE AIR to meet Him and be with Him for the Age. This is in line
with the tendencies shown by past developments. The Lemurians lived very
close to the fiery core of the earth. The Atlanteans inhabited the basins
somewhat further away from the center. The Aryans were driven by the flood
to the hilltops where they are now living. And analogously, the citizens
of the coming Age will inhabit the air.
But we know that our dense body
gravitates towards the center of the earth, therefore, a change must take
place; also Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom
of Heaven. But he also points out that we have a SOMA PSUCHICON
(mistranslated natural body,) a SOUL BODY, and this is made of ether,
which is lighter than air and therefore capable of levitation. This is the
Golden Wedding Garment, the Philosopher's Stone, or the Living Stone,
spoken of in some of the ancient philosophies as the Diamond Soul, for it
is luminous, lustrous, and sparkling--a priceless gem. It was also called
the ASTRAL BODY by the Mediaeval Alchemists, because of the ability it
conferred upon the one who has it to traverse the starry regions. But it
is not to be confounded with the Desire Body which some of the modern
pseudo-occultists mistakenly call the Astral Body. This vehicle, the Soul
Body, will eventually be evolved by humanity as a whole, but during the
change from the Aryan epoch to the ethereal conditions of the New Galilee,
there will be pioneers who precede their brethren as the original Semites
did in the change from Atlantis to Aryana. Christ mentioned this class in
Matthew, 11th chapter, 12th verse, when He said: "The Kingdom of Heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." That is not a
correct translation. It ought to be "The Kingdom of the Heavens has been
invaded" (the Greek is biaxetai,) "and invaders seize on her." Men and
women already have learned through a holy, helpful life to lay aside the
body of flesh and blood, either intermittently or permanently, and to walk
the skies with winged feet, intent upon the business of their Lord, clad
in the ethereal wedding garment of the new dispensation.
This change may have been accomplished
through a life of simple helpfulness and prayer as practiced by devoted
Christians, no matter with what church they are affiliated if they follow
the path of the Sons of Seth. Others have attained by following the
specific exercises given by the Rosicrucians. And thus the process of the
unification of the two streams is already under way. But the war between
the flesh and the spirit is still raging in the breast of most people as
fiercely as it was in the days when Paul gave vent to his pent up
feelings, and told us how the flesh was warring against the spirit within
himself, and how he did the wrong things which he would not do, and
omitted good deed which he aspired so ardently to perform. Nor will the
struggle ever cease for the Mystic Mason until he has learned to build the
Temple made without hands, which is not completed until he has come to the
Eighteenth (1 plus 8) Degree, which is the Degree of the Rose Croix. This
is the ultimate of the Thirty-third Degree, for three times three are
nine, and one plus eight are nine. Nine being the highest degree in the
Lesser Mysteries, he who has passed this degree of the genuine Mystic
Order is then, and then only, the WIDOW'S SON OF NINE, or NAIN, ready to
be raised by the strong grip of the paw of the Lion of Judah, to the
Kingdom of the Heavens, there to receive the "well done, thou good and
faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord" for "Him that
overcometh will I make A PILLAR in the House of God, thence he shall no
more go out." He is then immortal, loosed from the wheel of Birth and
Death.
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