The Rosicrucian Mysteries by Max Heindel (best books to read for knowledge txt) 📕

Were it not for one enormous difficulty, the story thus obtained would be exceedingly valuable. But all this information, this life-picture, flows in upon us with an enormous rapidity in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, so that it has neither beginning nor end, [pg 101] for, as said, in the World of Thought, all is one great NOW, Time does not exist.

Therefore, when we want to use the archetypal information in the Physical World, we must disentangle and arrange it in chronological order with beginning and ending before it becomes intelligible to beings living in a realm where Time is a prime factor. That rearrangement is a most difficult task as all words are coined with relation to the three dimensions of space and the evanescent unit of time, the fleeting moment, hence much of that information remains unavailable.

Among the denizens of this Region of concrete Thought we may note particularly two classes. One is called the powers of darkness by Paul and the mystic investigator of the Western World knows them as Lords of Mind. They were human at the time when the earth was in a condition of darkness such as worlds in the making go through before they become luminous and reach the firemist-stage. At that time we were in our mineral evolution. That is to say: The Human Spirit which has now awakened was encrusted in the ball of mindstuff, which was then the earth. At that time the present Human Spirits were as much asleep as is the life which [pg 102] ensouls our minerals of today, and as we are working with the mineral chemical constituents of the earth, molding them into houses, railways, steam-boats, chairs, etc, etc., so those beings, who are now Lords of Mind, worked with us when we were mineral-like. They have since advanced three steps, through stages similar to that of the Angels and Archangels, before they attained their present position and became creative intelligences. They are expert builders of mind stuff, as we are builders of the present mineral substances and therefore they have given us necessary help to acquire a mind which is the highest development of the human being.

According to the foregoing explanation it seems to be an anomaly when Paul speaks of them as evil and exhorts us to withstand them. The difficulty disappears, however, when we understand that good and evil are but relative qualities. An illustration will make the point clear:—Let us suppose that an expert organ builder has constructed a wonderful organ, a masterpiece. Then he has followed his vocation in the proper manner, and is therefore to be commended for the good which he has done. But if he is not satisfied to leave well enough alone, if he refuses [pg 103] to give up his product to the musician who understands how to play upon the instrument; if he intrudes his presence into the concert hall, he is out of place and to be censured as evil. Similarly the Lords of Mind did the greatest possible service to humanity when they helped us to acquire our mind, but many subtle thought influences come from them, and are to be resisted, as Paul very properly emphasizes.

The other class of beings which must be mentioned are called Archetypal Forces by the Western School of occultism. They direct the energies of the creative Archetypes native to this realm. They are a composite class of beings of many different grades of intelligences, and there is one stage in the cyclic journey of the Human Spirit when that also labors in, and is part of, that great host of beings. For the Human Spirit is also destined to become a great creative intelligence at some future time, and if there were no school wherein it could gradually learn to create, it would not be able to advance, for nothing in nature is done suddenly. An acorn planted in the soil does not become a majestic oak over night, but many years of slow, persistent growth are required before [pg 104] it attains to the stature of a giant of the forest. A man does not become an Angel by the mere fact of dying and entering a new world any more than an animal advances to be a man by the same process. But in time all that lives, mounts the ladder of Being from the clod to the God. There is no limitation possible to the spirit, and so at various stages in its unfoldment the Human Spirit works with the other nature forces, according to the stage of intelligence which it has attained. It creates, changes and remodels the earth upon which it is to live. Thus, under the great law of cause and effect, which we observe in every realm of nature, it reaps upon earth what it has sown in heaven, and vice versa. It grows slowly but persistently and advances continually.

The Region of Abstract Thought.

Various religious systems have been given to humanity at different times, each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among whom it was promulgated, and, coming from the same divine source:—God, all religions exhibit similar fundamentals or first principles.

All systems teach that there was a time when darkness reigned supreme. Everything [pg 105] which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky and the heavenly bodies were uncreate, so were the multitudinous forms which live and move upon the various planets.—All, all, was yet in a fluidic condition and the Universal Spirit brooded quiescent in limitless Space as the One Existence.

The Greeks called that condition of homogeneity Chaos, and the state of orderly segregation which we now see; the marching orbs which illumine the vaulted canopy of heaven, the stately procession of planets around a central light, the majestic sun; the unbroken sequence of the seasons and the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow;—all this aggregate of systematic order, was called Cosmos, and was supposed to have proceeded from Chaos.

The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he opens his Bible and ponders the first five verses of that brightest gem of all spiritual lore: the Gospel of St. John.

As he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire understanding of those sublime mystical teachings he transcends the form-side of nature, comprising various realms of which we have been speaking, and finds himself [pg 106] “in the spirit,” as did the prophets in olden times. He is then in the Region of abstract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also Paul beheld in this, the third, heaven.

For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by reasoning upon the matter, however, it will be necessary to examine the fundamental meaning of words used by St. John to clothe his wonderful teaching, which was originally given in the Greek language, a much simpler matter than is commonly supposed, for Greek words have been freely introduced into our modern languages, particularly in scientific terms, and we shall show how this ancient teaching is supported by the latest discoveries of modern science.

The opening verse of the gospel of St. John is as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We will examine the words: “beginning,” “Word” and “God.” We may also note that in the Greek version the concluding sentence reads: “and God was the Word,” a difference which makes a great distinction.

It is an axiomatic truth that “out of nothing, nothing comes,” and it has often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches generation “from nothing.” We readily agree that translations into the modern languages promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception (chapter on “the Occult Analysis of Genesis”), that the Hebrew text speaks of an ever-existing essence, as the basis whence all forms, the earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and John also gives the same teaching.

The Greek word arche, in the opening sentence of the gospel of St. John has been translated the beginning, and it may be said to have that meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more significant of the idea John wished to convey. It means:—an elementary condition,—a chief source,—a first principle,—primordial matter.

There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable, that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the earth was formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J. Thomson's discovery [pg 108] of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no longer tenable. The principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the Alchemists. Science and the Bible agree in teaching, that all that is, has been formed from one homogeneous substance.

It is that basic principle which John called arche:—primordial matter,—and the dictionary defines Archeology as: “the science of the origin (arche) of things.” Masons style God the “Grand Architect,” for the Greek word tektos means builder, and God is the Chief Builder (tektos) of arche: the primordial virgin matter which is also the chief source of all things.

Thus we see that when the opening sentence of St. John's gospel is properly translated, our Christian Religion teaches that once a virgin substance enfolded the divine Thinker:—God.

That is the identical condition which the earlier Greeks called Chaos. A little thought will make it evident that we are not arbitrary in finding fault with the translation of the gospel, for it is self-evident that a word cannot be the beginning, a thought must precede the word, and a thinker must originate thought before it can be expressed as a word.

When properly translated the teaching of John fully embodies that idea, for the Greek term logos means both the reasonable thought,—(we also say Logic),—and the word which expresses this (logical) thought.