Afterword
We have reached the end of a small book on a great subject, and have only lifted a corner of the Veil that hides the Virgin of Eternal Truth from the careless eyes of men. The hem of her garment only has been seen, heavy with gold, richly dight with pearls. Yet even this, as it waves slowly, breathes out celestial fragrances—the sandal and rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What should be the unimaginable glory, if the Veil were lifted, and we saw the splendour of the Face of the divine Mother, and in Her arms the Child who is the very Truth? Before that Child the Seraphim ever veil their faces; who then of mortal birth may look on Him and live?
Yet since in man abides His very Self, who shall forbid him to pass within the Veil, and to see with “open face the glory of the Lord”? From the Cave to highest Heaven; such was the pathway of the Word made Flesh, and known as the Way of the Cross. Those who share the manhood share also the Divinity, and may tread where He has trodden. “What Thou art, That am I.”
Peace to All Beings
Footnotes
1 S. Mark xvi. 15.
2 S. Matt vii. 6.
3 Clarke’s Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, bk. I., ch. xii.
4 I. Cor. iii. 16.
5 Ibid., ii. 14, 16.
6 S. John, i. 9.
7 Psalms, xlii. 1.
8 1 Cor. xv. 28.
9 Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, bk. V., ch. xi.
10 See Article on “Mysteries,” Encyc. Britannica ninth edition.
11 Psellus, quoted in Iamblichus on the Mysteries. T. Taylor, p. 343, note on p. 23, second edition.
12 Iamblichus, as ante, p. 301.
13 Ibid., p. 72.
14 The article on “Mysticism” in the Encyclopædia Britannica has the following on the teaching of Plotinus (204-206 A.D.): “The One [the Supreme God spoken of above] is exalted above the nous and the ‘ideas’; it transcends existence altogether and is not cognisable by reason. Remaining itself in repose, it rays out, as it were, from its own fulness, an image of itself, which is called nous, and which constitutes the system of ideas of the intelligible world. The soul is in turn the image or product of the nous, and the soul by its motion begets corporeal matter. The soul thus faces two ways—towards the nous, from which it springs, and towards the material life, which is its own product. Ethical endeavour consists in the repudiation of the sensible; material existence is itself estrangement from God.... To reach the ultimate goal, thought itself must be left behind; for thought is a form of motion, and the desire of the soul is for the motionless rest which belongs to the One. The union with transcendent deity is not so much knowledge or vision as ecstasy, coalescence, contact.” Neo-Platonism is thus “first of all a system of complete rationalism; it is assumed, in other words, that reason is capable of mapping out the whole system of things. But, inasmuch as a God is affirmed beyond reason, the mysticism becomes in a sense the necessary complement of the would-be all-embracing rationalism. The system culminates in a mystical act.”
15 Iamblichus, as ante, p. 73.
16 Ibid, pp. 55, 56.
17 Ibid, pp. 118, 119.
18 Ibid, p. 118, 119.
19 Ibid, pp. 95, 100.
20 Ibid, p. 101.
21 Ibid, p. 330.
22 G. R. S. Mead. Plotinus, p. 42.
23 Iamblichus, p. 364, note on p. 134.
24 G. R. S. Mead. Orpheus, pp. 285, 286.
25 Iamblichus, p. 364, note on p. 134.
26 Iamblichus, p. 285, et seq.
27 G. R. S. Mead. Orpheus, p. 59.
28 Ibid, p. 30.
29 Ibid, pp. 263, 271.
30 G. R. S. Mead. Plotinus, p. 20.
31 Shvetâshvataropaniṣhat, vi., 22.
32 Kaṭhopaniṣṣhat, iii., 14.
33 I. Cor. xiii. 1.
34 Kaṭhopaniṣhat, vi. 17.
35 Muṇdakopaniṣhat, II., ii. 9.
36 Ibid., III., i. 3.
37 I Sam. xix. 20.
38 II. Kings ii. 2, 5.
39 Under “School.”
40 Dr. Wynn Westcott. Sepher Yetzirah, p. 9.
41 S. Mark iv. 10, 11, 33, 34. See also S. Matt. xiii. 11, 34, 36, and S. Luke viii. 10.
42 S. John xvi. 12.
43 Acts i. 3.
44 Loc. cit. Trans. by G. R. S. Mead. I. i. 1.
45 S. Matt. vii. 6.
46 As to the Greek woman: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.”—S. Mark vii. 27.
47 S. Luke xiii. 23, 24.
48 S. Matt. vii. 13, 14.
49 Kaṭhopaniṣhat II. iv. 10, 11.
50 Brihadâraṇyakopaniṣhat. IV. iv. 7.
51 Rev. vii. 9.
52 Bahgavad Gîtâ, vii. 3.
53 Ante, p. 26.
54 It must be remembered that the Jews believed that all imperfect souls returned to live again on earth.
55 S. Matt. xix. 16-26.
56 S. John xvii. 3.
57 Heb. ix. 23.
58 S. John. iii. 3, 5.
59 S. Matt. iii. 11.
60 Ibid. xviii. 3.
61 S. John iii. 10.
62 S. Matt. v. 48.
63 Ante, p.24
64 Note how this chimes in with the promise of Jesus in S. John xvi. 12-14: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.... He will show you things to come.... He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”
65 Another technical name in the Mysteries.
66 Eph. iii. 3, 4, 9.
67 Col i. 23, 25-28. But S. Clement, in his Stromata, translates “every man,” as “the whole man.” See Bk. V., ch. x.
68 Col. iv. 3.
69 Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, bk. V. ch. x. Some additional sayings of the Apostles will be found in the quotations from Clement, showing what meaning they bore in the minds of those who succeeded the apostles, and were living in the same atmosphere of thought.
70 I. Tim. iii. 9, 16.
71 I. Tim. i. 18.
72 Ibid., iv. 14.
73 Ibid., vi. 13.
74 Ibid., 20.
75 II. Tim. i. 13, 14.
76 Ibid., ii. 2.
77 Phil. iii. 8, 10-12, 14, 15.
78 Rev. i. 18. “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen.”
79 II. Cor. v. 16.
80 Gal. iii. 27.
81 Gal. iv. 19.
82 I. Cor. iv. 15.
83 I. S. Pet. iii. 4.
84 Eph. iv. 13.
85 Col. i. 24.
86 II. Cor. iv. 10.
87 Gal. ii. 20.
88 II. Tim. iv. 6, 8.
89 Rev. iii. 12.
90 Gal. iv. 22-31.
91 I Cor. x. 1-4.
92 Eph. v. 23-32.
93 Vol. I. The Martyrdom of Ignatius, ch. iii. The translations used are those of Clarke’s Ante-Nicene Library, a most useful compendium of Christian antiquity. The number of the volume which stands first in the references is the number of the volume in that Series.
94 Ibid. The Epistle of Polycarp, ch. xii.
95 Ibid. The Epistle of Barnabas, ch. i.
96 Ibid. ch. x.
97 Ibid. The Martyrdom of Ignatius, ch. i.
98 Ibid. Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, ch. iii.
99 Ibid. ch. xii.
100 Ibid. to the Trallians, ch. v.
101 Ibid. to the Philadelphians, ch. ix.
102 Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria Stromata, bk. I. ch. i.
103 Vol. IV. Stromata, bk. I. ch. xxviii.
104 It appears that even in those days there were some who objected to any truth being taught secretly!
105 Ibid. bk. I, ch. i.
106 Ibid. bk. V., ch. iv.
107 Ibid. ch. v.-viii.
108 Ibid. ch. ix.
109 Ibid. bk. V., ch. x.
110 Loc. Cit. xv. 29.
111 Ibid. xvi. 25, 26; the version quoted differs in words, but not in meaning, from the English Authorised Version.
112 Stromata, bk. V., ch. x.
113 Ibid. bk. VI., ch. vii.
114 Ibid. bk. VII., ch. xiv.
115 Ibid. bk. VI., ch. xv.
116 Ibid. bk. VI. x.
117 Ibid. bk. VI. vii.
118 Ibid. bk. I. ch. vi.
119 Ibid. ch. ix.
120 Ibid. bk. VI. ch. x.
121 Ibid. bk. I. ch. xiii.
122 Vol XII. Stromata, bk. V. ch. iv.
123 Ibid. bk. VI. ch. xv.
124 Book I. of Against Celsus is found in Vol. X. of the Ante-Nicene Library. The remaining books are in Vol. XXIII.
125 Vol. X. Origen against Celsus, bk. I. ch. vii.
126 Ibid.
127 Ex. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30, and compare with Heb. viii. 5, and ix. 25.
128 Origen against Celsus, bk. IV. ch. xvi.
129 Ibid. bk. III. ch. lix.
130 Ibid. ch. lxi.
131 Ibid. ch. lxii.
132 Ibid., ch. lx.
133 Vol. XXIII. Origen against Celsus, bk. V. ch. xxv.
134 Ibid. ch. xxviii.
135 Ibid. ch. xxix.
136 Ibid. ch. xx xi.
137 Ibid. ch. xxxii.
138 Ibid. ch. xlv.
139 Ibid. ch. xlvi.
140 Ibid. chs. xlvii.-liv.
141 Ibid. ch. lxxiv.
142 Ibid. bk. IV., ch. xxxix.
143 Vol. X. Origen against Celsus, bk. I., ch. xvii, and others.
144 Ibid. ch. xlii.
145 Vol. X. De Principiis, Preface, p. 8.
146 Ibid. ch. i.
147 S. John xiv. 18-20.
148 Loc. cit. ch. i. sec. III. p. 55.
149 Ibid. ch. I. Sec. III. pp. 55, 56.
150 Ibid. pp. 54, 55.
151 “Seems to have been” is a somewhat weak expression, after what is said by Clement and Origen, of which some specimens are given in the text.
152 Ibid., p. 62.
153 Article on “Mysticism.”—Encyc. Britan.
154 Article “Mysticism.” Encyclopædia Britannica.
155 Orpheus, pp. 53, 54.
156 Obligation must be here acknowledged to the Article “Mysticism,” in the Encyc. Brit., though that publication is by no means responsible for the opinions expressed.
157 The Mysteries of Magic. Trans. by A. E. Waite, pp. 58 and 60.
158 II. S. Peter i. 5.
159 Gal. iv. 19.
160 II. Cor. v. 16.
161 S. John i. 14.
162 S. John i. 32.
163 S. Matt. iii. 17.
164 Ibid. iv. 17.
165 I. Tim. iii. 16.
166 S. John x. 34-36.
167 S. John xiv. 18, 19.
168 Valentinus. Trans. by G. R. S. Mead. Pistis Sophia, bk. i., I.
169 Ante, p. 72.
170 Ibid. 60.
171 Ibid. bk. ii., 218.
172 Ibid. 230.
173 Ibid. 357.
174 Ibid. 377.
175 Vol. II. Justin Martyr. First Apology, §§ liv., lxii., and lxvi.
176 Vol. II. Justin Martyr. Second Apology, § xiii.
177 Vol. VII. Tertullian, On Baptism, ch. v.
178 The student might read Plato’s account of the “Cave” and its inhabitants, remembering that Plato was an Initiate. Republic, Bk. vii.
179 Eliphas Lévi The Mysteries of Magic, p. 48.
180 Bonwick. Egyptian Belief, p. 157. Quoted in Williamson’s Great Law, p. 26.
181 The festival “Natalis Solis Invicti,” the birthday of the Invincible Sun.
182 Williamson. The Great Law, pp. 40-42. Those who wish to study this matter as one of Comparative Religion cannot do better than read The Great Law, whose author is a profoundly religious man and a Christian.
183 Ibid. pp. 36, 37.
184 The Great Law, p. 116.
185 Ibid. p. 58.
186 Ibid. p. 56.
187 Ibid. pp. 120-123.
188 See on this the opening of the Johannine Gospel, i. 1-5. The name Logos, ascribed to the manifested God, shaping matter—“all things were made by Him”—is Platonic, and is hence directly derived from the Mysteries; ages before Plato, Vâk, Voice, derived from the same source, was used among Hindus.
189 See Ante, pp. 124.
190 See Ante, pp. 93-94.
191 See Ante, p. 85.
192 II. Cor. iv. 18.
193 II. Cor. v. 7.
194 Heb. v. 14.
195 S. Luke xv. 16.
196 Ibid. xiv. 26.
197 S. Matt. v. 28.
198 Heb. xi. 27.
199 S. Matt v. 45.
200 S. Luke ix. 49, 50.
201 S. Matt xvii. 20.
202 II. Cor. vi. 8-10.
203 Col. iii. 1.
204 S. Matt. v. 8, and S. John xvii. 21.
205 Gen. i. 2.
206 S. John i. 3.
207 The Christian Creed, p. 29. This is a most valuable and fascinating little book, on the mystical meaning of the creeds.
208 Ibid. p. 42.
209 A name of the Holy Ghost.
210 Ibid. p. 43.
211 Ante, p. 124.
212 S. Matt. xviii. 3.
213 2 S. Peter iii. 15, 16.
214 A. Besant. Essay on the Atonement.
215 Ibid.
216 Brihadâranyakopaniṣhat, I. i. 1.
217 Bhagavad Gîtâ, iii. 10.
218 Brihadâranyakopaniṣhat, I. ii. 7.
219 Muṇḍakopaniṣhat, II. ii. 10.
220 Haug. Essays on the Parsîs, pp. 12-14.
221 Rev. xiii. 8.
222 W. Williamson. The Great Law, p. 406.
223 A. Besant. Nineteenth Century, June, 1895, “The Atonement.”
224 Heb. i. 5.
225 Ibid., 2.
226 C.W. Leadbeater. The Christian Creed, pp. 54-56.
227 Ibid. pp. 56, 57.
228 S. Matt. xxv. 21, 23, 31-45.
229 Is. liii. 11.
230 S. Matt. xvi. 25.
231 S. John xii. 25.
232 Heb. vii. 16.
233 Light on the Path, § 8.
234 Heb. vii. 25.
235 Heb. v. 8, 9.
236 I Tim. iii. 16.
237 Annie Besant. Theosophical Review, Dec., 1898, pp. 344, 345.
238 C. W. Leadbeater. The Christian Creed, pp. 61, 62.
239 I Cor. xv. 44.
240 I Thess. v. 23.
241 See Chapter IX., “The Trinity.”
242 See Ante, pp. 84, 99, 100.
243 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.
244 S. Matt. v. 48.
245 S. John xvii. 22, 23.
246 2 Cor. v. 1.
247 1 Cor. xv. 28.
248 This mistranslation was a very natural one, as the translation was made in the seventeenth century, and all idea of the pre-existence of the soul and of its evolution had long faded out of Christendom, save in the teachings of a few sects regarded as heretical and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church.
249 S. John iii. 13.
250 Heb. v. 9.
251 Rev. i. 18.
252 H. P. Blavatsky. The Voice of the Silence, p. 90, 5th Edition.
253 S. John. xvii. 5.
254 1 Cor. xv. 20.
255 Chhândogyopaniṣhat, VI. ii., 1.
256 Deut. vi. 4.
257 1 Cor. viii. 6.
258 An error: En, or Ain, Soph is not one of the Trinity, but the One Existence, manifested in the Three; nor is Kadmon, or Adam Kadmon, one Sephira, but their totality.
259 Quoted in Williamson’s The Great Law, pp. 201, 202.
260 H. H. Milman. The History of Christianity, 1867, pp. 70-72.
261 Asiatic Researches, i. 285.
262 S. Sharpe. Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christology, p. 14.
263 See Williamson’s The Great Law, p. 196.
264 Loc. Cit., pp. 208, 209.
265 S. John i. 3.
266 Jer. li. 15.
267 See Ante, pp. 179-180.
268 Athanasian Creed.
269 Rev. iv. 8.
270 S. Luke. i. 38.
271 Ibid, 35.
272 Book of Wisdom, viii. 1.
273 Vol. IV. Ante-Nicene Library. S. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, bk. V., ch. ii.
274 See Ante, p. 262.
275 See Ante, p. 207.
276 Gen. i. 1.
277 Job xxxviii. 4; Zech. xii. 1; &c.
278 Gen. i. 2.
279 Gen. i. 2.
280 See Ante, p. 262.
281 See Ante, p. 262.
282 S. John i. 3.
283 Bhagavad Gîtâ ix. 4.
284 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28.
285 S. John xiv. 6. See also the further meaning of this text on p. 272.
286 Heb. xii. 9.
287 Numb. xvi. 22.
288 Gen. i. 26.
289 S. Matt. v. 48.
290 S. John xvii. 5.
291 S. John v. 26.
292 S. Matt. i. 22.
293 Heb. ii. 18.
294 Much of this chapter has already appeared in an earlier work by the author, entitled, Some Problems of Life.
295 S. James i. 17.
296 Gen. xxviii. 12, 13.
297 See Chapter xii.
298 Heb. i. 14.
299 S. Matt. x. 29.
300 Acts xvii. 28.
301 T. H. Huxley. Essays on some Controverted Questions, p. 36.
302 S. Luke xxii. 41, 43.
303 S. John i. 11.
304 Rev. iii. 20.
305 H. P. Blavatsky. Key to Theosophy, p. 10.
306 Is. xxxiii. 17.
307 On the Mysteries, sec. v. ch. 26.
308 Ps. xl. 7, 8, Prayer Book version.
309 S. Luke, v. 18-26.
310 Ibid. vii. 47.
311 G. R. S. Mead, translated. Loc. cit., bk. ii., §§ 260, 261.
312 Ibid. §§ 299, 300.
313 S. Matt. xii. 36.
314 Ibid. ix. 2.
315 Loc. cit. iii. 9.
316 Ibid. vi. 43.
317 Ibid. ix. 30.
318 See ante, Chap. VIII.
319 This is the cause of the sweetness and patience often noticed in the sick who are of very pure nature. They have learned the lesson of suffering, and they do not make fresh evil karma by impatience under the result of past bad karma, then exhausting itself.
320 S. Luke, vii. 48, 50.
321 Loc. cit., ix. 31.
322 S. Matt. vii. 1.
323 Loc. cit., bk. ii. § 305.
324 Rev. iii. 20.
325 G. Bruno, trans. by L. Williams. The Heroic Enthusiasts, vol. i., p. 133.
326 Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 27, 28.
327 Ibid., pp. 102, 103.
328 Rev. iv. 5.
329 The phrase “force and matter” is used as it is so well-known in science. But force is one of the properties of matter, the one mentioned as Motion. See Ante, p. 264.
330 Job xxxviii. 7.
331 See on forms created by musical notes any scientific book on Sound, and also Mrs. Watts-Hughes’ illustrated book on Voice Figures.
332 See ante, p. 138 and p. 302.
333 In the Sacrament of Penance the ashes are now usually omitted, except on special occasions, but none the less they form part of the rite.
334 See ante p. 329.
335 Christian Records, p. 129.
336 The Great Law, pp. 161-166.
337 See ante, p. 151.
338 Diegesis, p. 219.
339 1 Pet. iii. 4.
340 2 Kings vi. 17.
341 1 Cor. x. 16.
342 Jer. xliv.
343 Gen. xiv. 18, 19.
344 The Great Law, pp. 177-181, 185.
345 Lev. xvii. 11.
346 Rom. xii. 1.
347 Isaiah liv. 5; lxii. 5.
348 Eph. v. 23-32.
349 Athanasian Creed.
350 2 Pet. i. 20.
351 1 See ante, p. 102.
352 2 Cor. iii. 6.
353 1 Cor. ii. 11, 13.
354 Is. vi. 6, 7.
355 S. John v. 4.