The Golden Star

VISION 12

GOD

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“Once upon a time this Law was well known; but it has been lost to man on account of the selfishness or the ignorance—both of which are great sins—of the teachers and the priests, who should have kept it alive by reminding their disciples of it continually. Similarly, the Hierophants of the ancient times, who gradually obscured more and more the sacred laws for selfish reasons, have combined so cleverly the dogmas and symbols of their scientific religious systems, that this ancient Wisdom can be be grasped only if one has the combination and knowledge of all the keys.

“Although it was necessary to preserve the chief interpretations from the profane and wrap them in the greatest secrecy, yet the more simple laws should never have been hidden; for this has done incalculable harm to humanity. They grope in the dark and make the most appalling errors with the best intentions.

“A great thinker once said that: ‘The possibility of rising to a comprehension of a system of coordination so far outreaching in time and space all range of human observation, is a circumstance which signalizes the power of man to transcend the limitations of changing and inconsistent matter, and assert his superiority over all insentient and perishable forms of being.’ This is true and shows the god-like qualities inherent in man; who is a God in embryo.

“Occultism teaches that: ‘Deity is an arcane, living or moving Fire, and the eternal witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat and Moisture; this trinity including, and being the cause of, every phenomenon in Nature.’

“All the great doctrines teach that the one infinite and unknown Essence exists from all eternity, and is either passive or active in regular and harmonious successions.

“In the Upanishads are contained the beginning and the end of all human knowledge; but the keys have been lost since the days of Buddha. The reason is that the Brâhmans abridged the texts by detaching from the manuscripts the most important portions, containing the last word of the Mystery of Being. This was done because the Brâhmans were afraid that on account of the teachings of Buddha, who tried to save the world by popularizing these teachings, their Sacred Knowledge and Occult Wisdom was falling into the hands of the vulgar. The key to the Brâhmanical secret code remained henceforth with the Initiates alone, and the Brâhmans were thus in a position publicly to deny the correctness of Buddha’s teachings by appealing to their Upanishads, which, in their condensed form, were silent for ever on all the chief questions.

“In a similar manner, throughout history, have the priests from time to time hidden the keys to the mysteries and obscured at least some of the Wisdom which is the heritage of ALL. This is done so that only a limited number of aspirants can have entrance to the mysteries, in order that the ranks of the priests shall not be swollen beyond control, for thus the power which is now in the hands of the comparatively few would be distributed among many, and thus lose potency.

“The various initiations are difficult enough in any case, for the pupil has to be in very strict training all the time if he wishes to qualify for Adeptship.

“In Buddhism the first stage is called ‘entering of the stream’ when the neophyte has passed his first initiation and is on the first stage of the path. This is called Srotâpatti.

“After the second initiation he becomes a Sakridâgâmin, he who will now reincarnate once more; the second stage.

“Then comes the third initiation, Anâgâmin, or, not liable to return into incarnation.

“Then the fourth, when the aspirant becomes an Arhat.

“The aspirant, though he can see the Past, the Present and the Future, is not yet the highest initiate on the Four Paths to Nirvana; for the Adept himself, the initiated candidate, becomes pupil to a higher Initiate. Three higher grades have still to be conquered by the Arhat who would reach the apex of the ladder of Adeptship. There are those who have reached it even in this present time of ours, but the faculties necessary for the attainment of these higher grades will be fully developed, in the average ascetic, only after many millions of years. Thus there will always be Initiates, as well as the profane, until the very end of this World-Cycle: until the Day when the Spark will re-become the Flame, when Man will merge into his Dhyân Chohan, or everything will be merged in God, or the Divine Unity.

“After that, the Great Gods and their Hosts ‘awake’ anew, and a new Universe springs into being.

“It is taught that the Deity, the ever-invisible Presence, manifests like the sea from which outflows a stream called Wisdom, the waters of which fall into a lake named Intelligence.

“In the Zohar it is said: ‘When the Elohim framed Adam Kadmon [the Heavenly Man], the Spirit of the Eternal shot out of His Body, like a sheet of lightning that radiates at once on the billows of the seven millions of Skies.’

“ ‘Life is drawn from below, and from above the source renews itself; the sea is always full and spreads its waters everywhere.’

“The Great Teachers of Mankind, the Illuminati, have within themselves the spirit of one of the Angels, apart from their own spiritual principles. Though often threatened by the lower elementals and the dark beings who dwell on earth and in the Astral Spheres, they cannot be destroyed, for no inferior being can withstand a single Ray from God. Thus the Messengers who spread God’s Wisdom are always and ever protected, no matter how often appearances are to the contrary. They are the Gods come to Earth, to rekindle the Fire of Truth and light the Lamp of Spiritual Understanding, for in the intervals between the Blessings of their sojourns on the Planet that Fire gradually dies down, and the Lamp flickers and is extinguished by man’s lack of spiritual intelligence and the deceptions of the Illusions of the senses.

“ ‘Motion is the Alchemical Solvent of Life; Spirit and Matter are the two States of the One Deity, which is neither Spirit nor Matter, both being the Absolute Life. Spirit is the first differentiation of and in Space; and Matter is the first differentiation of Spirit. THAT, which is neither Spirit nor Matter, that is IT—the causeless Cause of Spirit and Matter, which are the Cause of Kosmos. And that we call the One Life, or the Intra-Cosmic Breath,’ as it is taught in the commentaries to the Book of Dzyan.

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