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INITIATES OF THE FLAME: Hidden Wisdom of Freemasonry, Power, Success & Self-Mastery — Manly P. Hall · SECRETS OF SUCCESS & WEALTH: Hidden Laws of Money, Power & Success

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Speaker 1: The Initiates of the Flame, by Manley P. Hall, 1922
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Speaker 1: Introduction Few realize that even at the present stage of
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Speaker 1: civilization in this world, there are souls who, like the
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Speaker 1: priests of the ancient temples, walk the earth and watch
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Speaker 1: and guard the sacred fires that burn upon the altar
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Speaker 1: of humanity. Purified ones they are, who have renounced the
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Speaker 1: life of this sphere in order to guard and protect
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Speaker 1: the flame, that spiritual principle in man, now hidden beneath
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Speaker 1: the ruins of his fallen temple. As we think of
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Speaker 1: the nations that are past, of Greece and Rome and
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Speaker 1: the grandeur that was Egypt's, we sigh as we recall
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Speaker 1: the story of their fall, and we watch the nations
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Speaker 1: of today, not knowing which will be the next to
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Speaker 1: draw its shroud around itself and join that great ghostly
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Speaker 1: file of peoples that are dead. But everywhere, even in
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Speaker 1: the rise and fall of nations, we see through the
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Speaker 1: haze of materiality, justice, everywhere we see reward, not of
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Speaker 1: man but of the Invincible One, the Eternal Flame. A
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Speaker 1: great hand reaches out from the unseen and regulates the
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Speaker 1: affairs of man. It reaches out from that great spiritual
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Speaker 1: flame which nourishes all created things, the never-dying fire that
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Speaker 1: burns on the sacred altar of cosmos, that great fire
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Speaker 1: which is the Spirit of God. If we turn again
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Speaker 1: to the races now dead, we shall, if we look,
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Speaker 1: find the cause of their destruction. The light had gone out.
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Speaker 1: When the flame within the body is withdrawn, the body
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Speaker 1: is dead. When the light was taken from the altar,
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Speaker 1: the temple was no longer the dwelling place of a
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Speaker 1: living God. Degeneracy, lust, and passion, hates and fears, crept
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Speaker 1: into the souls of Greece and Rome, and black magic
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Speaker 1: overshadowed Egypt, the light upon the altar grew weaker and weaker.
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Speaker 1: The priests lost the word, the name of the flame.
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Speaker 1: Little by little the flame flickered out, and as the
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Speaker 1: last spark grew cold, a mighty nation died, buried beneath
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Speaker 1: the dead ashes of its own spiritual fire. But the
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Speaker 1: flame did not die. Like spirit of which it is
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Speaker 1: the essence, it cannot die, because it is life, and
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Speaker 1: life cannot cease to be. In some wilderness of land
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Speaker 1: Rasee it rested once again, and there rose a mighty
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Speaker 1: nation around that flame. So history goes on through the ages.
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Speaker 1: As long as a people are true to the flame,
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Speaker 1: it remains, but when they cease to nourish it with
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Speaker 1: their lives, it goes on to other lands and other worlds.
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Speaker 1: Those who worship this flame are now called heathens. Little
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Speaker 1: do we realize that we are heathen ourselves until we
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Speaker 1: are baptized of the Holy Spirit which is fire, for
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Speaker 1: fire is light, and the children of the flame are
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Speaker 1: the sons of light, even as God is light. There
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Speaker 1: are those who have for ages labored with man to
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Speaker 1: help him to kindle within himself this spark which is
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Speaker 1: his divine birthright. It is these who by their lives
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Speaker 1: of self-sacrifice and service have awakened and tended this fire,
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Speaker 1: and who through ages of study have learned the mystery
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Speaker 1: it contained, that we now call the initiates of the flame.
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Speaker 1: For ages they have labored with mankind to help him
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Speaker 1: to uncover the light within himself, and on the pages
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Speaker 1: of history they have left their seal, the seal of fire.
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Speaker 1: Unhonored and unsung they have labored with humanity, and now
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Speaker 1: their lives are used as fairy stories to amuse children,
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Speaker 1: but the time will yet come when the world shall
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Speaker 1: know the work they did, and realize that our present
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Speaker 1: civilization is raised upon the shoulders of the mighty demigods
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Speaker 1: of the past. We stand as Faust stood, with all
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Speaker 1: our lore, a fool no wiser than before, because we
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Speaker 1: refuse to take the truths they gave us and the
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Speaker 1: evidence of their experiences. Let us honor these sons of
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Speaker 1: the flame, not by words, but by so living that
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Speaker 1: their sacrifice shall not be in vain. They have shown
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Speaker 1: us the way, they have led man to the gateway
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Speaker 1: of the unknown, and there in their robes of glory
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Speaker 1: passed behind the veil. Their lives were the key to
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Speaker 1: their wisdom, as it must always be. They have gone,
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Speaker 1: but in history they stand, milestones on the road of
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Speaker 1: human progress. Let us watch these mighty ones as they
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Speaker 1: pass silently by. First, Orpheus, playing upon the seven-stringed lyre
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Speaker 1: of his own being, the music of the spheres. Then Hermes,
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Speaker 1: the thrice greatest, with his emerald tablet of divine revelation.
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Speaker 1: Through the shades of the past we dimly see Krishna,
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Speaker 1: the illuminated, who on the battlefield of life taught man
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Speaker 1: the mysteries of his own soul. Then we see the
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Speaker 1: sublime Buddha, his yellow robe not half so glorious as
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Speaker 1: the heart it covered, and our own dear Master, the
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Speaker 1: man Jesus, his head surrounded with a halo of golden flame,
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Speaker 1: and his brow serene with the calm of mastery. Then Muhammad, Zoroaster, Confucius, Odin,
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Speaker 1: and Moses, and others no less worthy pass by before
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Speaker 1: the eyes of the student. They were the sons of flame.
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Speaker 1: From the flame they came, and to the flame they
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Speaker 1: have returned. To us they beckon, and bid us join them,
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Speaker 1: and in our robes of self-earned glory to serve the
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Speaker 1: flame they love. They were without creed or clan, they
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Speaker 1: served but the one great ideal. From the same place
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Speaker 1: they all came, and to the same place they have returned.
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Speaker 1: There was no superiority there. Hand in hand they labor
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Speaker 1: for humanity. Each loves the other, for the power that
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Speaker 1: has made them masters has shown them the brotherhood of
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Speaker 1: all life. In the pages that follow we will try
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Speaker 1: to show this great thread, the spiritual thread. the thread
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Speaker 1: of living fire that winds in and out through all
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Speaker 1: religions and binds them together with a mutual ideal and
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Speaker 1: mutual needs. In the story of the grail and the
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Speaker 1: legends of King Arthur we find that thread wound around
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Speaker 1: the table of the king and the temple of Mount Salvert.
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Speaker 1: This same thread of life that passes through the roses
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Speaker 1: of the Rosicrucians, winds among the petals of the lotus,
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Speaker 1: and among the temple pillars of Luxor. There is but
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Speaker 1: one religion in all the world, and that is the
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Speaker 1: worship of God, the spiritual flame of the universe. Under
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Speaker 1: many names he is known in all lands, but as
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Speaker 1: Aswari or Amun or God, he is the same, the
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Speaker 1: creator of the universe, and fire is his universal symbol.
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Speaker 1: We are the flame-born sons of God, thrown out as
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Speaker 1: sparks from the wheels of the infinite. Around this flame
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Speaker 1: we have built forms which have hidden our light, but
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Speaker 1: as students we are increasing this light by love and service,
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Speaker 1: until it shall again proclaim us sons of the Eternal.
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Speaker 1: Within us burns that flame, and before its altar the
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Speaker 1: lower man must bow, a faithful servant of the higher.
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Speaker 1: When he serves the flame he grows, and the light
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Speaker 1: grows until he takes his place with the true initiates
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Speaker 1: of the universe, those who have given all to the infinite,
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Speaker 1: in the name of the flame within. Let us find
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Speaker 1: this flame and also serve it, realizing that it is
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Speaker 1: in all created things, that all are one because all
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Speaker 1: are part of that eternal flame, the fire of spirit,
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Speaker 1: the life and power of the universe. Upon the altar
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Speaker 1: of this flame, to the true creator of this book,
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Speaker 1: the writer offers it, and dedicates it to the one
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Speaker 1: fire which blazes forth from God, and is now hidden
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Speaker 1: within each living thing. Forward. The greatest of mystery schools.
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Speaker 1: The world is the schoolroom of God. Our being in
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Speaker 1: school does not make us learn, but within that school
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Speaker 1: is the opportunity for all learning. It has its grades
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Speaker 1: and its classes, its sciences and its arts, and admission
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Speaker 1: to it is the birthright of man. Its graduates are
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Speaker 1: its teachers, its pupils are all created things. Its examples
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Speaker 1: are nature, and its rules are God's laws. Those who
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Speaker 1: would go into the greater colleges and universities must first,
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Speaker 1: day by day, and year by year, work through the
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Speaker 1: common school of life, and present to their new teachers
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Speaker 1: the diplomas they have won, upon which is written the
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Speaker 1: name that none may read save those who have received it.
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Speaker 1: The hours may seem long, and the teachers cruel, but
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Speaker 1: each of us must walk that path, and the only
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Speaker 1: ones ready to go onward are those who have passed
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Speaker 1: through the gateway of experience, God's great school for man.
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Speaker 1: The Cube Altar Of the elements of the earth is
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Speaker 1: this altar composed. It is the great cube of matter.
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Speaker 1: On or in this altar burns a flame. It is
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Speaker 1: this flame that is the spirit of all created things. Man,
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Speaker 1: know thyself. Thou art the flame, and thy bodies are
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Speaker 1: the living altar. Chapter 1 The Fire Upon the Altar
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Speaker 1: As far back as our history goes we find that
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Speaker 1: fire has played an important part in the religious ceremonial
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Speaker 1: of the human race. In practically every religion we find
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Speaker 1: the sacred altar fires, which were guarded by the priests
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Speaker 1: and vestals with greater care than their own lives. In
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Speaker 1: the Bible we find many references made to the sacred
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Speaker 1: fires which were used as one form of devotion by
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Speaker 1: the ancient Israelites. The altar of burnt offerings is as
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Speaker 1: old as the human race, and dates from the time
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Speaker 1: when the first man, lifting himself out of the mists
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Speaker 1: of ancient Lemuria, first saw the sun, the great fire
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Speaker 1: spirit of the universe. Among the followers of Zoroaster, the
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Speaker 1: Persian initiate, fire has been used for centuries in honor
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Speaker 1: of the great fire god, Ormuzd, who is said by
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Speaker 1: them to have created the universe. There are two paths
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Speaker 1: or divisions of humanity whose history is closely related to
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Speaker 1: that of the wisdom teachings. They embody the doctrines of
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Speaker 1: fire and water, the two opposites of nature. Those who
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Speaker 1: follow the path of faith or the heart use water
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Speaker 1: and are known as the sons of Seth, while those
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Speaker 1: who follow the path of the mind in action are
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Speaker 1: the children of Cain, who was the son of Samuel,
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Speaker 1: the spirit of fire. Today we find the latter among
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Speaker 1: the alchemists, the hermetic philosophers, the Rosicrucians, and the Freemasons.
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Speaker 1: It is well for us to understand that we ourselves
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Speaker 1: are the cube altar upon which and in which burns
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Speaker 1: the altar fire. For many centuries the initiate of fire
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Speaker 1: has been nourishing and guarding the spiritual flame within himself,
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Speaker 1: as the ancient priests watched day and night the altar
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Speaker 1: fires of Vesta's temple. The ever-burning lamp of the alchemist,
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Speaker 1: which having burned thousands of years without fuel in the
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Speaker 1: catacombs of Rome, is but a symbol of this same
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Speaker 1: spiritual fire within himself. In the picture we see the
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Speaker 1: ever-burning lamp which was carried by the initiate in his wandering.
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Speaker 1: It represents the spinal column of man, at the top
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Speaker 1: of which is flickering a little blue and red flame.
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Speaker 1: As the lamp of the ancients was fed and kept
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Speaker 1: burning by the purest of olive oil, so man is
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Speaker 1: transmitting within himself and cleansing in the laver of purification
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Speaker 1: the life essences, which, when turned upward, provide fuel for
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Speaker 1: the ever-burning lamp within himself. Upon the altars of the
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Speaker 1: ancients were offered sacrifices to their gods. The ancient Hierophant
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Speaker 1: offered up sacrifices of spices and incense. The Masonic brother
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Speaker 1: of today still has among his symbols the incense burner
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Speaker 1: or censer, but few of the brothers recognize themselves in
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Speaker 1: this symbol. The ancient symbolized under such things as this
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Speaker 1: the development of the individual, and as the tiny spark
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Speaker 1: burning among the incense cubes slowly consumes all, so the
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Speaker 1: spiritual flame within the student is slowly burning away and
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Speaker 1: transmuting the base metals and properties within himself, and offering
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Speaker 1: up the essence thereof as the smoke upon the altar
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Speaker 1: of divinity. It is said that King Solomon, when he
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Speaker 1: completed his temple, offered bulls as a sacrifice to the Lord,
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Speaker 1: by burning them upon the temple altar. Those who believe
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Speaker 1: in a harmless life wonder why so many references are
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Speaker 1: made in the Bible to animal sacrifice. The student realizes
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Speaker 1: that the animal sacrifices are those of the celestial zodiac,
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Speaker 1: and that when the ram or the bull was offered
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Speaker 1: upon the altar, it represented the qualities in man which
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Speaker 1: come through Ares, the celestial ram, and Taurus, the bull
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Speaker 1: and the zodiac. In other words, the initiate, passing through
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Speaker 1: his tests and purification, is offering upon the altar of
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Speaker 1: his own higher being the lower animal instincts and desires
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Speaker 1: within himself. Among the Masonic brothers we also find what
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Speaker 1: is called the symbol of mortality. It is a spade,
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Speaker 1: a coffin, and an open grave, while upon the coffin
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Speaker 1: has been laid a sprig of acacia, or evergreen. In
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Speaker 1: the picture we see the spade of the grave digger,
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Speaker 1: which has been considered the symbol of death for centuries.
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Speaker 1: In the book of Thoth, that strange document which has
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Speaker 1: descended to man at his present stage of evolution as
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Speaker 1: a deck of playing cards, we find a very wonderful symbolism.
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Speaker 1: Of all the suits of cards, that of the spade
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Speaker 1: is the only suit in which all the court cards
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Speaker 1: face away from the pip. In all the other kings
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Speaker 1: and queens, the faces are looking at the little marker
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Speaker 1: in the corner of the card, but in the spade suit,
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Speaker 1: they look away from it. Now it is said that
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Speaker 1: the spade has been taken from the acorn, but the
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Speaker 1: occult student has a different idea. He sees in the spade,
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Speaker 1: which has for ages been the symbol of death, a
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Speaker 1: certain part of his own anatomy. If you will again
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Speaker 1: turn to the picture of the spade, you will see,
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Speaker 1: if you have ever studied anatomy, that the gravedigger's spade
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Speaker 1: is the spinal column, and the spade-shaped piece which is
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Speaker 1: used on the deck of cards, is nothing more nor
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Speaker 1: less than the sacrum bone. This bone forms the base
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Speaker 1: of the spinal column, and is also the spear of
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Speaker 1: the passion. Through it and the foramenna which pierce it,
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Speaker 1: past the roots of the spinal nerve, which indeed are
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Speaker 1: the roots of the tree of life. It is the
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Speaker 1: center through which are nourished and fed the lower vertebrae
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Speaker 1: of the spine, and the sacrum and coccygeal bones that
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Speaker 1: dig the graves for all created things. This point has
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Speaker 1: been beautifully symbolized by the grave-digger spade, which has been
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Speaker 1: used by the brothers of many mystic organizations for ages.
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Speaker 1: The currents and forces working through these lower spinal nerves
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Speaker 1: must be transmuted and lifted upward to feed the altar
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Speaker 1: fire at the positive or upper end of the spine.
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Speaker 1: The centering of thought or emotion upon higher or lower things,
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Speaker 1: as the case may be, determines where thin life energy
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Speaker 1: will be expended. If the lower emotions predominate, the flame
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Speaker 1: upon the altar burns low and flickers out, because the
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Speaker 1: forces which feed it have been concentrated upon the lower centers.
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Speaker 1: But when altruism predominates, then the lower forces are raised
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Speaker 1: upward and pass through the purification which makes possible their
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Speaker 1: being used as fuel for the ever-burning lamp. Thus we
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Speaker 1: see why it was a great sin to let the
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Speaker 1: lamp go out, for the pillar of flames which hovers
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Speaker 1: over the tabernacle, purified and prepared after the directions of
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Speaker 1: the Most High, is the spiritual flame that, hovering above man,
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Speaker 1: lights his way wherever he may go. The sun of
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Speaker 1: our solar system, that is, the spiritual sun behind the
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Speaker 1: physical globe, is one of these flames. It began no
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Speaker 1: greater than ours, and through the power of attraction and
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Speaker 1: the transmuting of its ever-increasing energies it has reached its
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Speaker 1: present proportions. This flame in man is the light that
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Speaker 1: shineth in darkness. It is the spiritual flame within himself.
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Speaker 1: It lights his way as no exterior light can. This
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Speaker 1: radiating out from him brings into view, one by one,
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Speaker 1: the hidden things of the cosmos, and his ignorance is
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Speaker 1: dispelled in exactly the same proportion as his light is spread,
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Speaker 1: for the darkness of the unknown can only be removed
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Speaker 1: by light, and the greater the light, the further back
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Speaker 1: the darkness is driven. This is the lamp of the philosopher,
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Speaker 1: which he carries through the dark passageways of life, and
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Speaker 1: by the light of which he walks among the stones
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Speaker 1: and along the narrow cliff edge without fear. But although
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Speaker 1: he gain all other things and have not this light
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Speaker 1: within himself, he cannot know where he goes, he cannot
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Speaker 1: watch his footsteps, and he cannot dispel his ignorance with
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Speaker 1: the light of truth. Therefore let each student watch the
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Speaker 1: fire that burns upon his altar. Let him also make
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Speaker 1: that altar, his body, as beautiful and harmonious as possible,
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Speaker 1: and let him also sacrifice upon that altar the frankincense
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Speaker 1: and myrrh, his actions and his deeds. As in the
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Speaker 1: tabernacle he offers all upon the altar of divinity, So
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Speaker 1: let him day by day dispel the symbols of mortality,
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Speaker 1: the coffin and the open grave by which he prepared
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Speaker 1: himself through the mastery of the lower emotions within himself,
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Speaker 1: and recognize that no matter how crystallized or dead his
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Speaker 1: life may be, the fact that he exists at all
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Speaker 1: proves that the sprig of acacia, the promise of life
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Speaker 1: and immortality, is somewhere within himself, and although the flame
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Speaker 1: of life may appear faint or cold, if he will
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Speaker 1: supply the fuel by his daily actions, he will kindle
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Speaker 1: the altar flame once more within himself, which, shining forth,
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Speaker 1: will also help his brother to kindle this flame, which
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Speaker 1: is a living sacrifice to the living God. The Ever-Burning
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Speaker 1: Lamp Know that the flame that burns within thee and
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Speaker 1: lights thy way is the ever-burning lamp of the ancients.
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Speaker 1: As their lamps were fed by the purest of oil,
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Speaker 1: so thy spiritual flame must be fed by a life
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Speaker 1: of purity in altruism. The Masonic Censor As the perfume
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Speaker 1: rising from the incense burner was acceptable in the sight
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Speaker 1: of the Lord, so may our words and actions ever
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Speaker 1: be a sweet incense acceptable in the sight of the
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Speaker 1: Most High. The Grave Digger's Spade Let us take the
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Speaker 1: spade that now digs our grave through the passions and
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Speaker 1: emotions of life and use it to unearth the secret
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Speaker 1: room far below the rubbish of the fallen temple of
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Speaker 1: the human soul. The Candle This is the light that
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Speaker 1: has gone out. It is the candle that is hidden
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Speaker 1: under the bushel. This is the true light that forever
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Speaker 1: dispels the darkness of ignorance and uncertainty. Let the light
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Speaker 1: shine forth through a purified body and a balanced mind.
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Speaker 1: For this light is the life of our brother creatures.
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Speaker 1: Chapter 2 The Sacred City of Shambhala In every mythology
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Speaker 1: and legendary religion of the world there is one spot
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Speaker 1: that is sacred above all others to the great ideal
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Speaker 1: of that religion. To the Norsemen it was Valhalla, the
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Speaker 1: city of the slain, built of the spears of heroes,
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Speaker 1: where feasting and warfare was the order of the day.
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Speaker 1: Here the heroes fought all day and reveled by night.
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Speaker 1: Every day they killed the wild boar and feasted on it,
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Speaker 1: and the next day it came to life again. In
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Speaker 1: the Northland they tell that Valhalla was high on the
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Speaker 1: top of the mountains, and that it was connected to
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Speaker 1: the earth below by Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, that up
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Speaker 1: and down this bridge the gods came, and Odin, the All-Father.
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Speaker 1: came down from Asgard, the city of the gods, and
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Speaker 1: worked and labored with mankind. Among the Greeks, Mount Olympus
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Speaker 1: was held sacred, and here the gods are said to
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Speaker 1: have lived high on the top of a mountain. The
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Speaker 1: knights of the Grail are said to have had their
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Speaker 1: castle among the crags and peaks of northern Spain on
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Speaker 1: Mount Salvert. In every religion of the world there is
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Speaker 1: a sacred spot, Meru of the Oriental, and Mount Moriah
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Speaker 1: and Mount Sinai, upon which the tablets of law were
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Speaker 1: given to man, all those are symbols of one universal ideal,
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Speaker 1: and as each of these religions claimed among the clouds
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Speaker 1: a castle and a home, so it is said that
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Speaker 1: all the religions of the world have their headquarters in Shambhala,
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Speaker 1: the sacred city in the Gobi desert of Mongolia. Among
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Speaker 1: the oriental peoples there are wonderful legends of this sacred city,
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Speaker 1: where it is said the great white lodge or brotherhood
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Speaker 1: meets to carry on the governing of world affairs. As
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Speaker 1: the Asurs of Scandinavia were twelve in number, as Olympus
19:41
Speaker 1: had twelve gods, so the great white brotherhood is said
19:44
Speaker 1: to have twelve members, which meet in Shambhala and direct
19:47
Speaker 1: the affairs of men. It is said that this center
19:50
Speaker 1: of universal religion descended upon the earth when the polar cap,
19:54
Speaker 1: which was the first part of the earth to crystallize,
19:57
Speaker 1: became solid enough to support life. Science now knows that
20:01
Speaker 1: not only does the earth have two motions, that of
20:04
Speaker 1: rotation upon its axis and revolution around the sun, but
20:07
Speaker 1: that it has nine other motions, according to Flammarja, the
20:11
Speaker 1: French astronomer. One of these motions is that of the
20:14
Speaker 1: alternation of the poles, in other words, some day that
20:18
Speaker 1: part of the Earth's surface which is now the North
20:20
Speaker 1: Pole will become the South Pole. Therefore it is said
20:24
Speaker 1: that the sacred city has left its central position and
20:27
Speaker 1: after much wandering is now located in Mongolia. Those who
20:31
Speaker 1: are acquainted with the Mohammedan religion will see something of
20:34
Speaker 1: great interest in the pilgrimage to the Kaaba at Mecca,
20:37
Speaker 1: where thousands go each year to give honor to the
20:39
Speaker 1: stone of Abraham, the great arrow-light, upon which Muhammad is
20:43
Speaker 1: said to have rested his foot. Old and young alike,
20:47
Speaker 1: some even carried, wind through desert sands and endure untold hardships,
20:51
Speaker 1: many coming from great distances, to visit the place they
20:54
Speaker 1: cherish and love. In India we find the same thing.
20:59
Speaker 1: There are many sacred places to which pilgrims go, even
21:02
Speaker 1: as the Templars went in our Christian religion to the
21:05
Speaker 1: sepulchre of Christ. Few see in this anything more than
21:09
Speaker 1: an outward symbol, but the true student recognizes the great
21:12
Speaker 1: esoteric truth contained therein. The spiritual consciousness in man is
21:17
Speaker 1: a pilgrim on the way to Mecca. As this consciousness
21:20
Speaker 1: passes upward through the centers and nerves of the body,
21:23
Speaker 1: it is like the pilgrim, climbing the heights of Sinai,
21:26
Speaker 1: or the Knight of the Grail returning to Mount Salvert.
21:30
Speaker 1: When the spinal fire of man starts upward in its wanderings,
21:33
Speaker 1: it stops at many shrines and visits many holy places,
21:37
Speaker 1: for like the Masonic brother in his Jacob's ladder, the
21:40
Speaker 1: way that leads to heaven is upward and inward. The
21:43
Speaker 1: spinal fire goes through the centers or seed ground of
21:46
Speaker 1: many great principles, and worships at the shrine of many
21:49
Speaker 1: divine essences within itself, but it is eternally going upward,
21:53
Speaker 1: and finally it reaches the great desert. Only after pain
21:57
Speaker 1: and suffering and long labor does it cross that waste
22:00
Speaker 1: of sand. This is the Gethsemane of the higher man,
22:04
Speaker 1: but finally he crosses the sacred desert, and before him
22:07
Speaker 1: in the heart of the lotus rises the golden city, Shambhala.
22:11
Speaker 1: In the spreading of the bone between the eyes called
22:14
Speaker 1: the frontal sinus, is the seat of the divine in man. There,
22:18
Speaker 1: in a peculiar gaseous material, floats, or rather exists, or is,
22:23
Speaker 1: the fine essence which we know as the spirit. This
22:27
Speaker 1: is the lost city in the sacred desert, connected to
22:29
Speaker 1: the lower world by the rainbow bridge, or the silver cord,
22:33
Speaker 1: and it is to this point in himself that the
22:35
Speaker 1: student is striving to rise. This is the sacred pilgrimage
22:39
Speaker 1: of the soul, in which the individual leaves the lower
22:42
Speaker 1: man in the world below and climbs upward into the
22:45
Speaker 1: higher man or higher world, the brain. This is the
22:48
Speaker 1: great pilgrimage to Shambhala, and as that great city is
22:52
Speaker 1: the center for the direction of our earth, so the
22:54
Speaker 1: corresponding great city in man is the center for his
22:57
Speaker 1: governmental system. When any other thing governs man, he is
23:01
Speaker 1: not attuned to his own higher self, and it is
23:04
Speaker 1: only when the gods, representing the higher principle, come down
23:07
Speaker 1: the rainbow bridge and labor with him, teaching him the
23:10
Speaker 1: arts and sciences, that he is truly receiving his divine birthright.
23:15
Speaker 1: In the Orient the student looks forward with eager longing
23:17
Speaker 1: to the time when he shall be allowed to worship
23:19
Speaker 1: before the gates of the sacred city, when he also
23:22
Speaker 1: shall see the initiates in silent conclave around the circular
23:25
Speaker 1: table of the zodiac, when the veil of Isis shall
23:28
Speaker 1: be torn away, and the cover lifted from the grail cup.
23:32
Speaker 1: Let the student remember that all of these things must
23:35
Speaker 1: first happen within himself before he can find them in
23:37
Speaker 1: the universe without. The twelve elder brothers within himself must
23:42
Speaker 1: first be reached and understood before those of the universe
23:44
Speaker 1: can be comprehended. If he would find the great initiates without,
23:49
Speaker 1: he must first find them within, and if he would
23:51
Speaker 1: see that sacred city in the lotus blossom, he must
23:54
Speaker 1: first open that lotus within himself, which he does. petal
23:57
Speaker 1: by petal, when he purifies and attunes himself to the
24:00
Speaker 1: higher principles within. The lotus is the spinal column once more,
24:05
Speaker 1: its roots, deep in materiality, its blossom, the brain, and
24:09
Speaker 1: only when he sends upward nourishment and power, can that
24:12
Speaker 1: lotus blossom within himself, blossom forth with its many petals,
24:16
Speaker 1: giving out their spiritual fragrance. Sometimes you will see in
24:20
Speaker 1: store windows funny little Chinese gods or oriental Buddhists sitting
24:24
Speaker 1: on the blossom of a lotus. In fact, if you
24:27
Speaker 1: look carefully, you will find that nearly all of the
24:30
Speaker 1: oriental gods are so depicted. This means that they have
24:34
Speaker 1: opened within themselves that spiritual consciousness which they call the Shashama.
24:39
Speaker 1: You have seen the funny little hats worn by the
24:41
Speaker 1: Hindu gods. They are made to represent a flower upside down,
24:46
Speaker 1: and once more, like the rod of Aaron that budded,
24:49
Speaker 1: we see the reference made to the unfolding of consciousness within.
24:53
Speaker 1: When the lotus blossom has reached maturity, it drops its seed,
24:57
Speaker 1: and from this seed new plants are produced. It is
25:00
Speaker 1: the same within the spiritual consciousness, which, when the plant
25:04
Speaker 1: is finished and its work is done, is released to
25:07
Speaker 1: work and produce other things. In the Western world the
25:10
Speaker 1: lotus has been changed to the rose. The roses of
25:14
Speaker 1: the Rosicrucian, the roses of the Masonic degrees, and also
25:18
Speaker 1: those of the Order of the Garter in England, all
25:20
Speaker 1: stand for the same thing, the awakening of consciousness and
25:23
Speaker 1: the unfolding into full bloom of the soul qualities of man.
25:27
Speaker 1: When man awakens and opens this bud within himself, he finds,
25:31
Speaker 1: like the gold pollen in a flower, this wonderful spiritual city, Shambhala,
25:36
Speaker 1: in the heart of the lotus. When this pilgrimage of
25:39
Speaker 1: his spiritual fire is accomplished, he is liberated from the
25:43
Speaker 1: top of the mountain, as in the ascension of Christ
25:46
Speaker 1: and the spiritual man, freed by his pilgrimage from the
25:49
Speaker 1: wheel of bondage, rises upward from among his disciples, the
25:52
Speaker 1: convolutions of the brain, with the great cry of the initiate,
25:56
Speaker 1: which has sounded through the mystery schools for ages when
25:59
Speaker 1: the purified student goes onward and upward to become a
26:02
Speaker 1: pillar in the temple of his God. With that last
26:05
Speaker 1: cry the true mystery of Shambhala, the sacred city, is
26:09
Speaker 1: understood and he joins the ranks of those who in
26:11
Speaker 1: white robes of purity, their own soul bodies, gaze down
26:14
Speaker 1: upon the world and see others liberated in the same way,
26:18
Speaker 1: and who also sound the eternal toxin, consummate amassed, it
26:21
Speaker 1: is finished. The Lotus May your consciousness be lifted upward
26:27
Speaker 1: through the tree of life within yourself until in the
26:29
Speaker 1: brain it blossoms forth as the lotus, that rising from
26:32
Speaker 1: the darkness of the lower world, lifts its flower to
26:35
Speaker 1: catch the rays of the sun. The Rod That Budded
26:39
Speaker 1: The buds in the rod are the seven centers within yourself,
26:42
Speaker 1: which when you develop their spiritual powers shine out as
26:45
Speaker 1: centers of fire within your own being. The ancients have
26:49
Speaker 1: taken flowers to symbolize these centers, which when they shine
26:52
Speaker 1: out show that the dead stick, cut from the tree
26:55
Speaker 1: of life, has budded. The Philosopher's Stone This is the
27:00
Speaker 1: true stone of the philosopher, which gives him power over
27:03
Speaker 1: all created things. This stone is himself. The experiences of
27:09
Speaker 1: his evolution have cut and polished the rough stone until
27:12
Speaker 1: in the initiate it reflects the light of creation from
27:14
Speaker 1: a thousand different facets. Chapter 3 The Mystery of the
27:19
Speaker 1: Alchemist There are very few occult students today who have
27:23
Speaker 1: not heard of the alchemist, but there are very few
27:26
Speaker 1: who know anything about the strange men who lived during
27:29
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages and concealed under chemical symbolism the history
27:32
Speaker 1: of the soul. At a time when to express a
27:36
Speaker 1: religious thought was to court annihilation at the stake or wheel,
27:39
Speaker 1: they labored silently in underground caves and cellars to learn
27:43
Speaker 1: the mysteries of nature which the religious opinions of their
27:45
Speaker 1: day denied them the privilege of doing. Let us picture
27:49
Speaker 1: the alchemist of old, deep in the study of natural lore.
27:53
Speaker 1: We find him among the test tubes and retorts of
27:56
Speaker 1: his hidden laboratory. Around him are massive tomes and books
28:00
Speaker 1: by ancient writers, he is a student of nature's mystery,
28:03
Speaker 1: and has devoted years, lives maybe, to the work he loves.
28:08
Speaker 1: His hair has long since grayed with age. By the
28:11
Speaker 1: light of his little lamp he reads slowly and with
28:14
Speaker 1: difficulty the strange symbols on the pages before him. His
28:18
Speaker 1: mind is centered upon one thing, and that is the
28:20
Speaker 1: finding of the Philosopher's Stone. With all the chemicals at
28:24
Speaker 1: his command, their various combinations thoroughly understood, he is laboring
28:28
Speaker 1: with his furnace and his burners to make of the
28:31
Speaker 1: base metals the Philosopher's Gold. At last he finds the
28:35
Speaker 1: key and gives to the world the secret of the
28:37
Speaker 1: philosopher's gold and the immortal stone. Salt, sulfur, and mercury
28:42
Speaker 1: are the answer to his problem, from them he makes
28:45
Speaker 1: the philosopher's stone, from them he extracts the elixir of life,
28:49
Speaker 1: with the power that they give him he transmutes the
28:51
Speaker 1: base metals into gold. The world laughs at him, but
28:55
Speaker 1: he goes on in silence, really doing the things the
28:57
Speaker 1: world believes impossible. After many years of labor he takes
29:02
Speaker 1: his little lamp and silently slips away into the great unknown.
29:06
Speaker 1: No one knows what he has done or the discoveries
29:09
Speaker 1: that he has made, but he, with his little lamp,
29:12
Speaker 1: still explores the mysteries of the universe. As the close
29:16
Speaker 1: of the fifteenth century clouded him with mystery, so the
29:19
Speaker 1: dawn of the twentieth century is crowning him with the
29:21
Speaker 1: glory of his just reward, for the world is beginning
29:24
Speaker 1: to realize the truths he knew, and to marvel at
29:27
Speaker 1: the understanding which his years of labor had earned for him.
29:31
Speaker 1: Man has been an alchemist from the time when he
29:33
Speaker 1: first raised himself, and with the powers long latent pronounced
29:36
Speaker 1: himself as human. Experiences are the chemicals of life which
29:41
Speaker 1: the philosopher is experimenting with. Nature is the great book
29:45
Speaker 1: whose secrets he seeks to understand through her own wondrous symbolism.
29:50
Speaker 1: His own spiritual flame is the lamp by which he reads,
29:53
Speaker 1: and without this the printed pages mean nothing to him.
29:57
Speaker 1: His own body is the furnace in which he prepares
29:59
Speaker 1: the philosopher's stone, his senses and organs are the test tubes,
30:04
Speaker 1: and incentive is the flame from the burner. Salt, sulfur,
30:08
Speaker 1: and mercury are the chemicals of his craft. According to
30:12
Speaker 1: the ancient philosophers, salt was of the earth earthy, sulfur
30:16
Speaker 1: was a fire which was spirit, while mercury was nothing,
30:19
Speaker 1: only a messenger like the winged Hermes of the Greeks.
30:23
Speaker 1: His color is purple, which is the blending of the
30:25
Speaker 1: red and the blue, the blue of the spirit and
30:28
Speaker 1: the red of the body. The alchemist realizes that he
30:31
Speaker 1: himself is the philosopher's stone and that this stone is
30:35
Speaker 1: made diamond-like when the salt and the sulfur, or the
30:38
Speaker 1: spirit and the body, are united through mercury, the link
30:41
Speaker 1: of mind. Man is the incarnated principle of mind as
30:45
Speaker 1: the animal is of emotion. He stands with one foot
30:49
Speaker 1: on the heavens and the other on the earth. His
30:52
Speaker 1: higher being is lifted to the celestial spheres, but the
30:55
Speaker 1: lower man ties him to matter. Now the philosopher is
30:59
Speaker 1: building his sacred stone, is doing so by harmonizing his
31:02
Speaker 1: spirit and his body. The result is the philosopher's stone.
31:07
Speaker 1: The hard knocks of life chip it away and facet
31:10
Speaker 1: it until it reflects lights from a million different angles.
31:14
Speaker 1: The elixir of life is once again the spirit fire,
31:17
Speaker 1: or rather the fuel which nourishes that fire, and the
31:20
Speaker 1: turning of the base metal into gold is accomplished when
31:23
Speaker 1: he transmutes the lower man into spiritual gold. This he
31:27
Speaker 1: does by study and love. Thus he is building within
31:31
Speaker 1: himself the lost panacea for the world's woe. The turning
31:35
Speaker 1: of the base metal into gold can be called a
31:37
Speaker 1: literal fact, as the same chemical combination which spiritually produces gold,
31:41
Speaker 1: will also do this physically. It is a known fact
31:45
Speaker 1: that many of the ancient alchemists really did create the
31:48
Speaker 1: precious metal out of lead, alloy, etc. But it was
31:52
Speaker 1: upon the principle that all things contain some part of
31:55
Speaker 1: everything else. In other words, every grain of sand or
31:58
Speaker 1: drop of water has in some proportion every element of
32:01
Speaker 1: the universe therein. Therefore the alchemist did not try to
32:05
Speaker 1: make something from nothing, but rather to extract and build
32:08
Speaker 1: that which already was, and this the student knows is
32:11
Speaker 1: the only possible course of procedure. Man can create nothing
32:15
Speaker 1: from nothing, but he does contain within, in potential energy,
32:19
Speaker 1: all things, and like the alchemist with his metals, he
32:22
Speaker 1: is simply working with that which he already has. The
32:26
Speaker 1: living philosopher's stone is a very beautiful thing. Indeed, like
32:31
Speaker 1: the fire opal, it shines with a million different lights,
32:34
Speaker 1: changing with the mood of the wearer. The transmuting process,
32:38
Speaker 1: whereby the spiritual fire passing through the furnace of purification
32:42
Speaker 1: radiates from the body as the sole body of gold
32:44
Speaker 1: and blue, is a very beautiful one. The masons have
32:48
Speaker 1: among their symbols that of a five-pointed star with two
32:51
Speaker 1: clasped hands within it, and in that we have the
32:54
Speaker 1: mystery of the philosopher's stone. The clasped hands represent the
32:58
Speaker 1: united man in which the higher and the lower are
33:01
Speaker 1: working for their mutual betterment, by a co-operative rather than
33:04
Speaker 1: a competitive system. The five-pointed star is the sole body,
33:09
Speaker 1: born of this co-operation, it is the living philosopher's stone,
33:13
Speaker 1: more precious than all the jewels of earth. From it
33:16
Speaker 1: pour the rivers of life spoken of in the Bible,
33:19
Speaker 1: it is the star of the morning that heralds the
33:21
Speaker 1: dawn of mastery, and is the reward that comes to
33:24
Speaker 1: those who follow in the footsteps of the ancient alchemist.
33:27
Speaker 1: It is well for the student to realize that the
33:30
Speaker 1: alchemy of life produces in natural sequence all of the
33:33
Speaker 1: states of progression which are explained in the writings of
33:35
Speaker 1: the alchemist, until finally the sun and the moon are
33:38
Speaker 1: united as described in the hermetic marriage, which is, in truth,
33:43
Speaker 1: the marriage of the body and the spirit for the
33:45
Speaker 1: mutual development of each other. We are the alchemists who
33:48
Speaker 1: centuries ago carried on in secret our studies of the soul,
33:52
Speaker 1: and we still have the same opportunity that we had then,
33:55
Speaker 1: even more than then, for now we can state our
33:57
Speaker 1: opinions with little danger of personal injury. The modern alchemist
34:02
Speaker 1: thus has an opportunity that his ancient brother never had.
34:06
Speaker 1: On a busy street corner he daily sees nature's experiments
34:09
Speaker 1: carried on. He sees the mixing of metals, and from
34:13
Speaker 1: the everyday book of life, through the power of analogy,
34:16
Speaker 1: he may study divinity. Through experience and often suffering the
34:21
Speaker 1: steel of his spirit is tempered by the flame of life.
34:24
Speaker 1: As the moon in the zodiac touches off like a
34:27
Speaker 1: fuse the happenings of life, so his own desires and
34:30
Speaker 1: wishes touch off the powers of his soul, and the
34:32
Speaker 1: experiences may be transmuted into soul qualities when he has
34:36
Speaker 1: developed the eye which enables him to read the simplest
34:38
Speaker 1: of all books, everyday life. The alchemist of today is
34:43
Speaker 1: not hidden in caves and cellars, studying alone, but as
34:46
Speaker 1: he goes on with his work, it is seen that
34:48
Speaker 1: walls are built around him, and while he is in
34:51
Speaker 1: the world, like the master of old, he is not
34:53
Speaker 1: of it. As he goes further in his work, the
34:56
Speaker 1: light of other people's advice and outside help grows weaker
34:59
Speaker 1: and weaker, until finally he stands alone in darkness, and
35:03
Speaker 1: then comes the time that he must use his own lamp,
35:06
Speaker 1: and the various experiments which he has carried on must
35:09
Speaker 1: be his guide. He must take the elixir of life
35:12
Speaker 1: which he has developed and with it fill the lamp
35:14
Speaker 1: of his spiritual consciousness, and holding that above his head,
35:18
Speaker 1: walk into the great unknown, where if he has been
35:20
Speaker 1: a good and faithful servant, he will learn of the
35:22
Speaker 1: alchemy of divinity. Where now test tubes and bottles are
35:26
Speaker 1: his implements, then worlds and globes he will study, and
35:30
Speaker 1: as a silent watcher will learn from that Divine One,
35:33
Speaker 1: who is the great alchemist of all the universe, the
35:35
Speaker 1: greatest alchemy of all, the creation of life, the maintenance
35:39
Speaker 1: of form, and the building of worlds. The Five-Pointed Star
35:44
Speaker 1: This picture, known to all Masons, is that of the soul.
35:49
Speaker 1: It is the star of Bethlehem, which heralds the coming
35:51
Speaker 1: of the Christ within. The two clasped hands are the
35:55
Speaker 1: spirit and body united in the marriage of the Lamb.
35:58
Speaker 1: It is from the union of the higher with the
36:00
Speaker 1: lower that the Christ is born. The marriage of the
36:03
Speaker 1: sun and moon. This takes place in man when the
36:07
Speaker 1: heart and mind are joined in eternal union. It occurs
36:11
Speaker 1: when the positive and negative poles within are united, and
36:14
Speaker 1: from that union is made the philosopher's stone. The pillars
36:18
Speaker 1: of the temple. These pillars symbolize the heart and mind,
36:22
Speaker 1: the positive and the negative poles of life. Those who
36:26
Speaker 1: would enter the temple must pass between the pillars. Every
36:30
Speaker 1: extreme is dangerous. It is the point between all poles
36:34
Speaker 1: that is safe to stand upon. You cannot enter the
36:37
Speaker 1: temple by the development of either the heart or mind alone,
36:40
Speaker 1: but only by the equal development of both. The Serpent
36:45
Speaker 1: This is the serpent crown of the ancient gods. It
36:49
Speaker 1: shows that the two paths or parts of the spirit
36:51
Speaker 1: fire have been united. This crown is the symbol of
36:55
Speaker 1: mastery and the union takes place within the student when
36:58
Speaker 1: the life forces are lifted to the brain. Chapter 4
37:03
Speaker 1: The Egyptian Initiate Many ages have elapsed since the Egyptian
37:08
Speaker 1: priest-king passed through the pillars of Thebes. Ages before the
37:12
Speaker 1: sinking of Atlantis, thousands of years before the Christian era,
37:16
Speaker 1: Egypt was a land of great truths. The hand of
37:19
Speaker 1: the great white brotherhood was held out to the empire
37:22
Speaker 1: of the Nile, and the ancient pyramid passages resounded with
37:25
Speaker 1: the chants of the initiates. It was then that the pharaoh,
37:29
Speaker 1: now called half-human, half-divine, reigned in ancient Egypt. Pharaoh is
37:34
Speaker 1: the Egyptian word for king. Many of the later pharaohs
37:38
Speaker 1: were degenerate and of little account. It is only the
37:41
Speaker 1: early pharaohs we now list among the priest-kings. Try to
37:45
Speaker 1: picture for a moment the great hall of Luxor, its
37:48
Speaker 1: inscriptive columns holding up domes of solid granite, each column
37:52
Speaker 1: carved with the histories of the gods. There at the
37:55
Speaker 1: upper end of the chamber sat the pharaoh of the
37:57
Speaker 1: Nile in his robes of state, around him his counselors,
38:00
Speaker 1: chief among them the priest of the temple. An imposing
38:04
Speaker 1: spectacle it was, the gigantic frame of the later Atlantean,
38:08
Speaker 1: robed in gold and priceless jewels, on his head the
38:11
Speaker 1: crown of the north and south, the double empire of
38:13
Speaker 1: the ancient. on his forehead the coiled serpent of the initiate,
38:17
Speaker 1: the serpent which was raised in the wilderness that all
38:20
Speaker 1: who looked upon it might live, that sleeping serpent power
38:23
Speaker 1: in man, which coiled head downward around the tree of life,
38:26
Speaker 1: drove him from the garden of the Lord, but which
38:29
Speaker 1: raised upon the cross, became the symbol of the Christ.
38:34
Speaker 1: The Pharaoh was an initiate of Scorpio, and the serpent
38:37
Speaker 1: is the transmuted Scorpio energy, which working upward in the
38:41
Speaker 1: regenerated individual is called the Kundalini. This serpent was the
38:45
Speaker 1: sign of initiation. It meant that within him the serpent
38:49
Speaker 1: had been raised, for the true Pharaoh was a priest
38:52
Speaker 1: of God, as well as a master of men. There
38:55
Speaker 1: he sat upon the cube altar throne, indicating his mastery
38:59
Speaker 1: over the four elements of his physical body, a judge
39:01
Speaker 1: of the living and of the dead, who in spite
39:04
Speaker 1: of all his power and glory, having about him the
39:06
Speaker 1: grandeur of the world's greatest empire, still bowed in humble
39:10
Speaker 1: supplication to the will of the gods. In his hands
39:13
Speaker 1: he carries the triple scepter of the Nile, the shepherd's crook,
39:17
Speaker 1: the inubis-headed staff and the flail or whip. These were
39:21
Speaker 1: the symbols of his work. They represent the powers which
39:24
Speaker 1: he had mastered. With the whip he had subjugated his
39:28
Speaker 1: physical body, with the shepherd's crook he was the guardian
39:31
Speaker 1: and keeper of his emotional body, with the inubis-headed staff
39:34
Speaker 1: he was master of his mind and worthy to wield
39:36
Speaker 1: the powers of government over others, because, first of all,
39:40
Speaker 1: he obeyed the laws himself. With all his robes of
39:44
Speaker 1: state and with the scarab upon his breast, and with
39:46
Speaker 1: the all-seeing eye above his throne, there was still nothing
39:49
Speaker 1: as precious or as sacred to the ancient Egyptian priest-king
39:53
Speaker 1: as the triangular girdle or apron which was the symbol
39:56
Speaker 1: of his initiation. The apron of the ancient Egyptian carried
40:00
Speaker 1: with it the same symbolism as the Masonic apron of today.
40:04
Speaker 1: It symbolized the purification of the bodies, when the seat
40:07
Speaker 1: of the lower emotions, Scorpio, was covered by the white
40:10
Speaker 1: sheepskin of purification. This symbol of his purification was the
40:15
Speaker 1: most precious belonging of the ancient pharaoh, and this plain insignia,
40:19
Speaker 1: worn by many others below him in rank and dignity,
40:22
Speaker 1: but equal to him in spiritual purification, was the most
40:25
Speaker 1: precious of all things to the priest-king. There he sat,
40:29
Speaker 1: written upon him in the words of the initiate, the
40:31
Speaker 1: symbols of his purification and mastery, a wise king of
40:34
Speaker 1: a wise people. And it was through these priest-kings that
40:38
Speaker 1: the divine worked, for they were of the order of Melchisedec.
40:42
Speaker 1: Through them was formed that doctrine which degeneracy has not
40:45
Speaker 1: been able to entirely obliterate, which we know as the
40:48
Speaker 1: divine right of kings, divine because through spirituality and growth
40:52
Speaker 1: God was able to manifest through them. They were conscious
40:56
Speaker 1: instruments in the hands of a ready writer, willing and
40:59
Speaker 1: proud to do the work of those with whom through
41:01
Speaker 1: knowledge and truth they had attuned themselves. But the time came,
41:05
Speaker 1: as in all nations, when selfishness and egotism entered the
41:09
Speaker 1: heart of king and people alike, and slowly the hand
41:12
Speaker 1: from the great white brotherhood that fed ancient Egypt was withdrawn.
41:16
Speaker 1: and the powers of darkness transformed the land of glory
41:19
Speaker 1: into one of ruins, and the names of mighty kings
41:22
Speaker 1: were buried beneath the oblivion of degeneracy. Mighty cataclysms shook
41:26
Speaker 1: the world, and out of the land of darkness the
41:29
Speaker 1: great white brotherhood carried the chosen people into the promised land, Egypt,
41:33
Speaker 1: the land of glory, disintegrated into dust. The great temples
41:38
Speaker 1: of the pharaohs are ruins, and the temples of Isis
41:41
Speaker 1: are but broken heaps of sandstones. But what of the
41:44
Speaker 1: priest-kings who labored there in the days of its glory?
41:48
Speaker 1: They are still with us, for those who were leaders
41:50
Speaker 1: before are leaders now, if they have continued to walk
41:53
Speaker 1: the path. Although his scepter is gone, and his priestly
41:57
Speaker 1: vestments have molded away, the priest-king still walks the earth
42:01
Speaker 1: with the dignity and the power and the childish simplicity
42:04
Speaker 1: that before made him great. He no longer wears the
42:07
Speaker 1: robes of his order. Although he bears no credentials, he
42:11
Speaker 1: is as much a priest-king now as then, for he
42:14
Speaker 1: still bears the true insignia of his rank. The coiled
42:18
Speaker 1: serpent has given place to knowledge and love. The hand
42:22
Speaker 1: that bestowed the riches of the past does little acts
42:24
Speaker 1: of kindness now. Although he no longer carries the scepters
42:28
Speaker 1: of self-mastery, still he manifests that mastery in his daily life.
42:33
Speaker 1: Although the altar fires within the temple at Karnak have
42:36
Speaker 1: long been dead, the true fire within himself still burns,
42:40
Speaker 1: and before that he still bows as he bowed in
42:42
Speaker 1: the days of Egypt's glory. Although the priest no longer
42:46
Speaker 1: is his counselor, and the wise ones of his country
42:49
Speaker 1: no longer aid him in governmental problems, still he is
42:52
Speaker 1: never alone, for the priests in white and the counselors
42:55
Speaker 1: in blue still march with him and whisper words of
42:57
Speaker 1: strength when he needs them. Have you seen people that
43:01
Speaker 1: somehow you liked regardless of appearances? Have you seen other
43:05
Speaker 1: charming people whom you hated in spite of their charms?
43:08
Speaker 1: Have you seen learned people who were fools or impressed
43:11
Speaker 1: you as such, or people who knew little and yet
43:13
Speaker 1: you felt were wise? Those are the insignia of rank,
43:17
Speaker 1: which the loss of title or position cannot destroy. Kings
43:21
Speaker 1: with or without crowns they were, not puppets dressed in
43:24
Speaker 1: tawdry tinsel. And they still are kings and will be
43:28
Speaker 1: to the end of time, and they still manifest their rank,
43:31
Speaker 1: not by their superiority and their high-headedness, but by the
43:35
Speaker 1: soul qualities which they radiate from themselves. The purity of
43:39
Speaker 1: their lives still radiates outward from those who wore the
43:42
Speaker 1: apron of the initiate, for while the triangular apron with
43:45
Speaker 1: its serpent drawn upon it has long since rotted away,
43:48
Speaker 1: still the spiritual counterpart of that symbol radiates in their
43:51
Speaker 1: daily lives, proving beyond all dispute that they were priest-kings
43:55
Speaker 1: and are today. We find them in every walk of life,
43:59
Speaker 1: in high places and down in the mire of life.
44:02
Speaker 1: But wherever we find them, they are still the mouthpieces
44:05
Speaker 1: of the gods, and through them comes the promise to
44:08
Speaker 1: all who strive. They are kings, not of the earth
44:11
Speaker 1: but of heaven, and in the life of our own
44:13
Speaker 1: master we find one who joined himself to those who served,
44:17
Speaker 1: and was a true king even when his only crown
44:19
Speaker 1: was a wreath of thorns. Still in the pyramid of Gizeh,
44:23
Speaker 1: the initiations continue, still the initiate receives the insignia of
44:27
Speaker 1: his rank. Before that fire within himself he makes his vows.
44:32
Speaker 1: and upon the burning altar of his own higher being
44:34
Speaker 1: he lays his crown and his scepter, his robes and
44:37
Speaker 1: his diamonds, his hates and his fears, and sanctifies his
44:40
Speaker 1: life as a priest-king, and swears to serve none but
44:44
Speaker 1: his own higher self, the God within. His robes are
44:48
Speaker 1: his sole body, and his crown is his life, and
44:51
Speaker 1: in the streets of life he is enthroned. The dusky
44:54
Speaker 1: towers and factory chimneys around him fade into the templed
44:57
Speaker 1: pillars of Luxor, and with a lunch pail on his arm,
45:01
Speaker 1: his face brown with honest dirt, he is as much
45:03
Speaker 1: a king as when the crown of the double Nile
45:05
Speaker 1: rested upon his brow, and the priest of the temple
45:08
Speaker 1: made him one with his God and his fellowman. The
45:11
Speaker 1: Masonic Apron In the triangle we see spirit descending into
45:16
Speaker 1: the square of matter. Let us so purify matter that
45:20
Speaker 1: spirit may shine through it and make of us lights
45:22
Speaker 1: to guide the footsteps of humanity. The Scepters of Egypt
45:27
Speaker 1: These are the three bodies that are the tools with
45:29
Speaker 1: which we are to build our temple. When they are
45:32
Speaker 1: mastered they are the living proof of our right to kingship.
45:36
Speaker 1: The Sacred Scarab In this form the ancient Egyptians worshipped Kepra,
45:41
Speaker 1: the rising sun, and the sacred scarab was buried with
45:44
Speaker 1: the dead as the symbol of resurrection. For as the
45:47
Speaker 1: sun rises from the darkness of night, so the divine
45:50
Speaker 1: spirit rises from the body that is no more. The
45:54
Speaker 1: life is eternal. Chapter 5 The Ark of the Covenant.
46:00
Speaker 1: One of the most interesting symbols that has come down
46:03
Speaker 1: to us from the ancients is that of the Ark,
46:05
Speaker 1: or the box that was said to contain the sacred relics.
46:09
Speaker 1: Many people believe that this belongs particularly to the Jewish nation,
46:13
Speaker 1: but this is a great mistake, because it has been
46:15
Speaker 1: the birthright of every country to have the Arkansas. All have,
46:19
Speaker 1: like the Jewish people, lost much of their power and
46:22
Speaker 1: glory when they lost the sacred Arkansas. In ancient Chaldea
46:26
Speaker 1: and Phoenicia the Ark was well known. India celebrates it
46:30
Speaker 1: as the Lotus, and the ancient Egyptians tell how the
46:33
Speaker 1: moon god Osiris was imprisoned in an Ark. In all
46:37
Speaker 1: the mystery religions of the world, individually and cosmically, the
46:41
Speaker 1: Ark represents the fountainhead of wisdom. Over it the Shekinah's
46:45
Speaker 1: glory hovers, as a column of flames by night and
46:48
Speaker 1: a pillar of smoke by day. Every country has seen
46:52
Speaker 1: and felt its presence when the priest-kings and initiates bring
46:55
Speaker 1: out of an old civilization, lost because of crystallization, the
46:59
Speaker 1: sacred ark, and surrounded by those faithful to the truth
47:02
Speaker 1: carry it into other lands and among other peoples. In
47:06
Speaker 1: every creed and religion we find crystallization. We find small
47:10
Speaker 1: groups of people separating themselves from their brother man. We
47:14
Speaker 1: find those who, clinging to the old, refuse to advance
47:18
Speaker 1: with the new, and whenever we find this crystallization, we
47:21
Speaker 1: find the spirit of truth carried away to other people
47:24
Speaker 1: and embodied in other doctrines. The ancient ark of the
47:27
Speaker 1: Israelite never had removed from it the staves by which
47:30
Speaker 1: it was carried and moved, until finally it was placed
47:33
Speaker 1: in Solomon's temple. Neither does the spirit fire in man
47:37
Speaker 1: rest until finally it is enthroned in the holy place
47:40
Speaker 1: of his solar temple. Ever towards the rising sun its
47:44
Speaker 1: bearers carry this sacred truth. Nations are born of those
47:48
Speaker 1: who love the truth, and are buried when they forget it.
47:52
Speaker 1: The time has come when its silent bearers have taken
47:54
Speaker 1: the sacred ark and the Shekinah's glory, and in solemn
47:57
Speaker 1: file have moved across the waters and brought it to
48:00
Speaker 1: the new world. The call has sounded through the universe,
48:03
Speaker 1: and those who are true to their own higher principles
48:06
Speaker 1: have surrounded the sacred chest. Those who have sworn alliance
48:10
Speaker 1: to their own higher being are following the priests and
48:12
Speaker 1: their sacred burden, and a beautiful mystery temple is being
48:16
Speaker 1: built in this beautiful land of ours, loved and guarded
48:19
Speaker 1: by those who are laboring for humanity. The staves are
48:22
Speaker 1: still in the ark, however, and only when real good
48:25
Speaker 1: can be done by it will it remain. The opportunity
48:29
Speaker 1: is now confronting the western world. The knowledge of the ancients,
48:33
Speaker 1: the wisdom of the ages is knocking at the door
48:35
Speaker 1: and seeking those who will follow it. The bearers of
48:39
Speaker 1: the ark have stopped and are gathering a nucleus of
48:41
Speaker 1: spiritual souls to carry on their work, and whether or
48:44
Speaker 1: not the word of the Lord will remain with a
48:46
Speaker 1: nation depends upon its own actions. and the actions of
48:49
Speaker 1: a nation are the collective actions of its individuals. If
48:53
Speaker 1: it finds nothing here attuned to itself, if it finds
48:56
Speaker 1: few that will answer to its call, the call of
48:58
Speaker 1: service and brotherhood, then will its priests lift again the
49:01
Speaker 1: staves and the sacred work will go out into other lands.
49:05
Speaker 1: The life of a country thus gone, like the ancient
49:08
Speaker 1: city of the golden gate it will be swallowed up
49:10
Speaker 1: in oblivion. The call is sounding, And those who love
49:14
Speaker 1: the truth and think and care for the light must
49:16
Speaker 1: join that band of servers who have for centuries dedicated
49:19
Speaker 1: themselves to the preservation of truth. Their lives they have
49:23
Speaker 1: given a thousand times, their happiness has been second to
49:26
Speaker 1: their duty. They are the keepers of the sacred word,
49:29
Speaker 1: and the law of attraction draws to them all who
49:32
Speaker 1: love and live the truth. A great influx of spiritual
49:36
Speaker 1: light comes to those who live the life and have
49:38
Speaker 1: learned the doctrine. and regardless of clan or country they
49:41
Speaker 1: have joined the silent file of watchers and workers around
49:44
Speaker 1: the sacred ark of the covenant. Every individual by his
49:48
Speaker 1: daily actions is expressing more plainly than by words his ideals,
49:52
Speaker 1: his desires, and his attitude towards this great work. The
49:56
Speaker 1: composite attitude of a certain number of people either shuts
49:59
Speaker 1: out or lets in the light. Therefore every individual has
50:03
Speaker 1: a great duty, a great work has to be done,
50:06
Speaker 1: and to that the true student must dedicate his life.
50:09
Speaker 1: Then wherever he may go, whatever he may do, he
50:13
Speaker 1: is being led, and the Shekinah's glory directs his footsteps.
50:17
Speaker 1: In the brain of man, between the wings of the
50:19
Speaker 1: kneeling cherubim, is the mercy seat, and there man speaks
50:23
Speaker 1: with his God as the priest of the tabernacle spoke
50:25
Speaker 1: to the Spirit of the Lord hovering between the wings
50:28
Speaker 1: of the angels. Man is again the ark, and within
50:32
Speaker 1: him are the three principles, the Father, the Son, and
50:35
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, the tablets of the law, the pot
50:38
Speaker 1: of manna, and the rod that budded. But as in
50:41
Speaker 1: the case of the ancient Israelites, when they became crystallized
50:44
Speaker 1: the pot of manna and the rod that budded were
50:47
Speaker 1: removed from the ark, and all that was left were
50:49
Speaker 1: the tablets or the letters of the law. When the
50:52
Speaker 1: individual crystallizes and excludes various sidelights from his mind, he
50:57
Speaker 1: excludes the life force which was flowing to him. In
51:00
Speaker 1: shutting out strangers, he shuts out his own life, and
51:04
Speaker 1: all that he has left are the tablets of the law,
51:06
Speaker 1: the material reasons from which the spiritual life has gone.
51:10
Speaker 1: Solomon's temple, or the perfected temple of the human body,
51:14
Speaker 1: the perfected temple of the universe and the perfected temple
51:17
Speaker 1: of the soul, finally forms the perfect shrine for the
51:20
Speaker 1: living Arkansas. There at the head of a great cross
51:23
Speaker 1: it is placed, and there in man it becomes permanently fixed.
51:27
Speaker 1: The staves of polarity upon which it was carried are removed,
51:31
Speaker 1: and it becomes a living thing, a permanent place where
51:33
Speaker 1: man converses with his God. There man, the purified priest,
51:38
Speaker 1: arrayed in the robes of his order, the garments of
51:41
Speaker 1: his soul, converses with the spirit hovering over the mercy seat.
51:45
Speaker 1: This ark within is always present, but man can only
51:48
Speaker 1: reach it after he has passed through the outer court
51:51
Speaker 1: of the tabernacle, after he has passed through all the
51:53
Speaker 1: degrees of initiation, and after he has taken the third
51:56
Speaker 1: degree and becomes a grand master. Then and then only
52:00
Speaker 1: can he enter into the presence of his Lord, and
52:02
Speaker 1: there in the darkened chamber, lighted by the jewels of
52:05
Speaker 1: his own breastplate, he converses with the Most High, the
52:08
Speaker 1: true spiritual essence within himself. We are working towards this,
52:13
Speaker 1: and the time will come when each person for himself
52:16
Speaker 1: will know the mystery of the ark, when the student
52:18
Speaker 1: through purification shall be led through the door of the
52:21
Speaker 1: Holy of Holies and there be enveloped by the light
52:23
Speaker 1: of truth. This was his birthright which he sold for
52:27
Speaker 1: a mess of pottage. To this end came he into
52:30
Speaker 1: the world that he might bear witness to this truth,
52:33
Speaker 1: that through this light all men might be saved. The ark,
52:37
Speaker 1: that great spiritual principle, surrounded by its loving workers, is
52:41
Speaker 1: calling all to follow it. When through materiality and degeneracy
52:45
Speaker 1: a great people are destroyed or a continent sinks beneath
52:48
Speaker 1: the ocean, then those that are true are called around
52:51
Speaker 1: the ark, and as its faithful servers are led out
52:54
Speaker 1: of the land of darkness into the new world and
52:56
Speaker 1: a promised paradise. All great teachings set forth the same thing.
53:02
Speaker 1: The student will find that it is true, and when
53:04
Speaker 1: he allies himself with the powers of light, when he
53:07
Speaker 1: becomes a channel for its expression, and when he radiates
53:10
Speaker 1: it from himself to all who need it, then indeed
53:12
Speaker 1: will the light protect him and he shall become a
53:14
Speaker 1: son of God. The rod that budded, the pot of manna,
53:18
Speaker 1: and the tablets of the law. In these three things
53:22
Speaker 1: contained within the ark we see the threefold spirit contained
53:25
Speaker 1: within the ark of man's bodies. THE HOLY GRAIL. See
53:30
Speaker 1: in this cup your own body within which is the
53:32
Speaker 1: life blood of the sun spirit of the universe. Each
53:36
Speaker 1: day that we live we perpetuate the last supper, and
53:39
Speaker 1: in all that we do we drink again the blood
53:41
Speaker 1: of Christ, the life power of the cosmos. CHAPTER VI.
53:46
Speaker 1: NIGHTS OF THE HOLY GRAIL. Before starting to take up
53:50
Speaker 1: the study of the grail legends, it will be well
53:52
Speaker 1: for all who are interested to read those tales that
53:55
Speaker 1: are now listed under the heading of children's fairy stories.
53:59
Speaker 1: For example the story of good King Arthur and his
54:01
Speaker 1: round table is a cosmic myth, and while there is
54:04
Speaker 1: little doubt that he as a man also lived, the
54:07
Speaker 1: real mystery as in the story of the Christ, is
54:09
Speaker 1: not the literal tale, but the great mystic or occult
54:12
Speaker 1: truth that it concealed under allegory and parable. It is
54:16
Speaker 1: the same with the story of Parsifal which can never
54:19
Speaker 1: be really understood and appreciated until the student sees in
54:22
Speaker 1: the knight and later king of the sacred cup, his
54:24
Speaker 1: own spiritual development and the temptations he must also master
54:28
Speaker 1: if he would become a king of the grail. In
54:31
Speaker 1: Lohengrin also the same truth is shown to the world.
54:35
Speaker 1: It is the path of initiation along which each must
54:37
Speaker 1: pass on his road to self-mastery. To every nation and
54:41
Speaker 1: in every tongue sacred legends have been given to teach
54:44
Speaker 1: man the path he must follow. The blind Homer of
54:48
Speaker 1: the Greeks who told of the wanderings of Ulysses gave
54:50
Speaker 1: the same great truths to the world. The skulls of
54:54
Speaker 1: ancient Norway and Sweden and the prophets of the Jews
54:57
Speaker 1: used the same means, and everywhere from the sacred books
55:00
Speaker 1: of the East to the legends of the American Indians
55:02
Speaker 1: we find one great connected truth told to many different
55:05
Speaker 1: people in ways that were best suited for their development.
55:09
Speaker 1: Such a truth is the legend of the round table,
55:12
Speaker 1: given to King Arthur as a wedding gift. All true
55:15
Speaker 1: students know what wedding that was. Not of earth but
55:19
Speaker 1: the wedding of the spiritual and intellectual within the initiate himself,
55:23
Speaker 1: when the spirit and the body are united eternally, each
55:26
Speaker 1: swearing to honor and protect the other. Of such a
55:29
Speaker 1: marriage was the union of Arthur and Guinevere in the
55:32
Speaker 1: legend of the king. Let us first of all consider
55:35
Speaker 1: the coming of Arthur the king. We read in the
55:38
Speaker 1: legend of Arthur regarding Merlin the magician, the wise man
55:42
Speaker 1: who it is said had charge of the coming king
55:44
Speaker 1: during his youth. Merlin represents the hand of the elder brothers,
55:48
Speaker 1: who realizing that a great ego had come into the world,
55:52
Speaker 1: had consecrated themselves to the work of preparing him for
55:54
Speaker 1: his mission. It was under the direction of Merlin, the
55:58
Speaker 1: master mind, that the anvil and stone with the sword
56:01
Speaker 1: thrust into it were raised in the square of the
56:03
Speaker 1: city when it became necessary for a new king to
56:06
Speaker 1: be selected. It was he also who called all of
56:09
Speaker 1: the brave knights of the country and told them that
56:11
Speaker 1: the one who could draw forth the sword would be
56:13
Speaker 1: king of all the land. And of all the knights
56:16
Speaker 1: in the land, Arthur the half-grown boy was the only
56:19
Speaker 1: one who could release the sword. There is a very
56:22
Speaker 1: wonderful mystery of the soul contained within that divine allegory.
56:27
Speaker 1: Let us read the letters that were engraved upon the sword.
56:30
Speaker 1: Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil
56:33
Speaker 1: is rightwise king born of England. The cubed stone is
56:37
Speaker 1: the body, it has been so symbolized for centuries, and
56:41
Speaker 1: today among the masons the ashlar is the symbol of
56:44
Speaker 1: man experience is the anvil, and it is upon this
56:47
Speaker 1: anvil that the sword is tempered. The sword is spirit,
56:50
Speaker 1: and he who would be king in the true spiritual
56:53
Speaker 1: sense of the word must first show his divine power
56:55
Speaker 1: by freeing the sword of spirit from the casings of
56:58
Speaker 1: the lower man and the world. It is the same
57:01
Speaker 1: symbol as that later used by Sir Galahad, the guileless knight,
57:05
Speaker 1: the personification of the purified man, who comes without a
57:09
Speaker 1: sword but who later arms himself with the sword of
57:11
Speaker 1: spirit that he draws from the cube block which was
57:14
Speaker 1: floating down the river, of life, past Camelot. Sir Galahad
57:19
Speaker 1: had the strength of ten because his heart was pure,
57:22
Speaker 1: and the knight of today must follow in the same path.
57:25
Speaker 1: If you have read the story of King Arthur, you
57:28
Speaker 1: will remember how he was given Excalibur, the enchanted sword,
57:31
Speaker 1: how it came up out of the water held by
57:33
Speaker 1: a hand draped in white. Excalibur represents light and truth,
57:37
Speaker 1: which is the weapon of the true initiate. In England
57:41
Speaker 1: there still hangs on a courthouse wall the round table
57:44
Speaker 1: of King Arthur. In the very center of the table
57:47
Speaker 1: is a beautiful rose painted in natural colors. This symbol
57:51
Speaker 1: is that of the Rosicrucians, the ancient alchemists, and there
57:55
Speaker 1: is a direct connection between the legend of the British
57:57
Speaker 1: king and the ancient philosophers of fire. Now let us
58:01
Speaker 1: turn our attention for a moment to the history of
58:03
Speaker 1: the Holy Grail, or the cup from which Christ drank
58:06
Speaker 1: at the Last Supper and which was said to have
58:08
Speaker 1: caught his blood when he was dying upon the cross.
58:11
Speaker 1: Ancient legends tell us that this cup was made from
58:14
Speaker 1: a sacred stone which had been the crown jewel of Lucifer,
58:17
Speaker 1: the dynamic energy of the universe. It was said that
58:21
Speaker 1: the green stone had been struck from the crown of
58:23
Speaker 1: Lucifer by the archangel Michael during the famous battle in heaven.
58:28
Speaker 1: After the death of Christ it is said that Joseph
58:30
Speaker 1: of Arimathea took the sacred cup and the spear of
58:33
Speaker 1: the Passion and carried them into a distant land. He
58:36
Speaker 1: wandered with his sacred relics through Europe and is said
58:39
Speaker 1: to have finally died. and those who came after him
58:41
Speaker 1: after many centuries of tribulation carried the sacred relics to
58:45
Speaker 1: Mount Salvert in northern Spain where they remained until Parsifal
58:48
Speaker 1: finally took the grail and spear back to the east
58:51
Speaker 1: where it is to be now preserved. It is around
58:54
Speaker 1: this cup and spear that the legends of Parsifal and
58:56
Speaker 1: King Arthur have been written, and it is through study
58:59
Speaker 1: of this fact that we are able to better understand
59:01
Speaker 1: the mystery of the great white lodge of which the
59:03
Speaker 1: round table of Arthur and the circular temple of the
59:06
Speaker 1: Knights of the Grail is a symbol. Although we no
59:09
Speaker 1: longer have the cup as a physical symbol, it is
59:12
Speaker 1: not gone from among us, and as in the days
59:14
Speaker 1: of old the brave knights of the round table went
59:16
Speaker 1: out to fight for right, so those knights of today
59:19
Speaker 1: who belong to the great white brotherhood go out into
59:21
Speaker 1: the world in the name of truth and labor with
59:23
Speaker 1: mankind and seek to right the wrongs of the world.
59:27
Speaker 1: It is said that the knights of Arthur's court always
59:29
Speaker 1: fought for virtue and purity, and so did those who
59:32
Speaker 1: rode out of Mount Salvert. The grail cup is the
59:36
Speaker 1: symbol of the creative force of nature, it is also
59:39
Speaker 1: the symbol of the human race which is slowly learning
59:41
Speaker 1: the mysteries of creation. Within the cup is the blood
59:45
Speaker 1: of Christ, that force which is transmuting the body into soul,
59:49
Speaker 1: fast or slowly as we give it greater or lesser opportunity.
59:53
Speaker 1: In the sacred spear we find symbolized again the creative force,
59:57
Speaker 1: which in the hands of Klingsor, the evil one, wounds
1:00:00
Speaker 1: and causes suffering, but which when held by the pure
1:00:03
Speaker 1: Parsifal heals the very wound that it caused. A great
1:00:07
Speaker 1: lesson is being taught to man through these allegories, but
1:00:10
Speaker 1: the average person is unwilling to stop and consider them.
1:00:14
Speaker 1: They do not realize that they themselves are the ones
1:00:16
Speaker 1: whom the elder brothers of humanity must use in the
1:00:19
Speaker 1: fight against the forces of evil. They do not realize
1:00:23
Speaker 1: that the dragons and ogres of the legends are their
1:00:25
Speaker 1: own lower natures which they must overcome. They do not
1:00:29
Speaker 1: see in the hand-to-hand combat of the knights of old
1:00:31
Speaker 1: for a lady's hand the higher and lower man fighting
1:00:34
Speaker 1: for the soul within. The knight of today does not
1:00:37
Speaker 1: realize that the white armor that he wears is his
1:00:40
Speaker 1: own purified body which is proof against all the attacks
1:00:43
Speaker 1: of vice and passion, but nevertheless this is the meaning
1:00:46
Speaker 1: of the legend. His shield is truth, which is a
1:00:50
Speaker 1: perfect protection to the inner man. His strong right arm
1:00:54
Speaker 1: is the knowledge and spiritual power he has developed within,
1:00:57
Speaker 1: and the sword that he uses is the spiritual light
1:01:00
Speaker 1: with which the pure flame of the spirit fire dispels
1:01:02
Speaker 1: the darkness of ignorance and the demons of lust. The
1:01:06
Speaker 1: sacred spear in the cup which he serves are the
1:01:08
Speaker 1: two poles of the creative life force within, the development
1:01:12
Speaker 1: of which he gains as he daily serves his fellow men.
1:01:15
Speaker 1: Far from the uninitiated the twelve elder brothers of mankind
1:01:19
Speaker 1: sitting around the circular table of the universe watch the
1:01:21
Speaker 1: knights in their battle of life, and the time comes
1:01:24
Speaker 1: when the student having finished his work here is liberated
1:01:27
Speaker 1: at the foot of the grail. There the candidate stands
1:01:30
Speaker 1: robed from head to foot in the armor of spirit
1:01:32
Speaker 1: and in the pure white of a body that has
1:01:34
Speaker 1: been cleansed. Then the cloth is lifted from the sacred cup,
1:01:39
Speaker 1: and he is illuminated by the light which would have
1:01:41
Speaker 1: killed him had he seen it without purification. He then
1:01:44
Speaker 1: takes his place among the knights of the round table,
1:01:47
Speaker 1: and joins those who give up all and labor for humanity.
1:01:51
Speaker 1: When in sickness and in suffering we beg of the
1:01:53
Speaker 1: great unknown that he send us help, then indeed our
1:01:56
Speaker 1: knight comes to us as Lohengrin came to Elsa. When
1:02:00
Speaker 1: our loved ones pass into the great unknown, there stands
1:02:03
Speaker 1: the brother of the grail, the invisible helper, who through
1:02:06
Speaker 1: days of labor has earned the right to become a
1:02:08
Speaker 1: member of that great band of servers who gather around
1:02:11
Speaker 1: the table of the king. and while their bodies are
1:02:13
Speaker 1: asleep still labor in their great search for light and truth,
1:02:17
Speaker 1: and pray for the day when they shall also become
1:02:19
Speaker 1: kings of the holy grail. The Stone and the Sword
1:02:24
Speaker 1: Whoever can draw this sword from this stone is the
1:02:26
Speaker 1: master of the universe. The Rosicrucian Rose In this flower,
1:02:32
Speaker 1: which was painted upon the center of King Arthur's table,
1:02:35
Speaker 1: we see the soul of man, which through purification and
1:02:38
Speaker 1: service has blossomed out with all the grandeur of the initiate.
1:02:42
Speaker 1: THE SACRED SPEAR This is the spear of passion that
1:02:46
Speaker 1: pierces the side of the Christ, the higher principle in man.
1:02:50
Speaker 1: But when in the hand of the pure of heart
1:02:51
Speaker 1: this power can heal the very wound it caused. CHAPTER
1:02:55
Speaker 1: 7 THE MYSTERY OF THE PYRAMID There comes a time
1:03:00
Speaker 1: in the development of the occult student when he understands
1:03:03
Speaker 1: one of the great secrets of the initiates, and that
1:03:05
Speaker 1: is that every sacred thing outside of himself stands for
1:03:08
Speaker 1: some organ or function within himself. This is, of course,
1:03:13
Speaker 1: true in the case of the Great Pyramid, except that
1:03:15
Speaker 1: this particular pile of stone said by many to be
1:03:18
Speaker 1: the oldest building on the surface of the earth, is
1:03:21
Speaker 1: the great symbol of composite man. In other words it
1:03:24
Speaker 1: stands for man as a unit. Let us first consider
1:03:28
Speaker 1: it simply from the exterior standpoint. When we first look
1:03:32
Speaker 1: at it in the distance it seems to be one
1:03:34
Speaker 1: great stone, but as we come closer we see that
1:03:37
Speaker 1: it is made of thousands of smaller stones, each one
1:03:40
Speaker 1: carefully fitted into place. Here we see the first likeness
1:03:44
Speaker 1: between the pyramid and man. We consider man to be
1:03:47
Speaker 1: a unit, but when we examine more closely, we find
1:03:50
Speaker 1: that he is a great number of small units, each
1:03:53
Speaker 1: working in harmony with the others. It is the same
1:03:56
Speaker 1: with everything. We take a successful life and we think
1:04:00
Speaker 1: of it as an entirety, but when we examine it,
1:04:03
Speaker 1: we find that it is a number of small achievements
1:04:05
Speaker 1: joined together. As thousands of workmen were used in the
1:04:09
Speaker 1: building of the pyramid, so there are unnumbered workmen at
1:04:12
Speaker 1: work in the building of our bodies, which are symbolical
1:04:14
Speaker 1: of the same building. There are many pyramids all over
1:04:18
Speaker 1: the world. We find them in South America and in Mexico,
1:04:22
Speaker 1: we find mounds which were made to represent them among
1:04:25
Speaker 1: the American Indians, and in Europe and Britain we find
1:04:28
Speaker 1: remnants of the same things. But there is only one
1:04:32
Speaker 1: real pyramid in all the world. Even the others in
1:04:35
Speaker 1: Egypt are but copies of the great pyramid, and were
1:04:38
Speaker 1: used as tombs for the pharaohs, but nobody was ever
1:04:41
Speaker 1: found in Cheops, nor were there ever any signs that
1:04:44
Speaker 1: it had been so used. Now let us continue our
1:04:48
Speaker 1: analogy between the pyramid and man. If you will look
1:04:51
Speaker 1: at the accompanying illustration, you will see the pyramid laid flat,
1:04:55
Speaker 1: and you will notice it is made of four triangles
1:04:57
Speaker 1: laid around the base square. The four-sided base of the
1:05:01
Speaker 1: pyramid represents the four elements of which man's bodies are composed.
1:05:06
Speaker 1: These are hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon, or earth, water, fire,
1:05:12
Speaker 1: and air. These are called the base of all things,
1:05:15
Speaker 1: and upon this base the four bodies of man are raised,
1:05:18
Speaker 1: each from its own element. Thus the physical body is
1:05:22
Speaker 1: raised from the earth. The vital body is raised from
1:05:26
Speaker 1: the water, the emotional body from the fire, and the
1:05:29
Speaker 1: mental body from the air. There are twelve lines used
1:05:33
Speaker 1: in the drawing of the four triangles, which stand for
1:05:36
Speaker 1: the twelvefold constitution of man when it is complete. the
1:05:39
Speaker 1: threefold body, the threefold mind, the threefold soul, and the
1:05:43
Speaker 1: threefold spirit. It also gives us the twelve signs of
1:05:47
Speaker 1: the zodiac, divided into their respective groups. Out on the
1:05:51
Speaker 1: desert stands the Sphinx, the guardian of the threshold mentioned
1:05:55
Speaker 1: by Bulwer-Lytton. It stands for the bodies of man, and
1:05:59
Speaker 1: is that strange being which must be passed before the
1:06:01
Speaker 1: student can go on in his development. The four fixed
1:06:05
Speaker 1: signs of which the Sphinx is a symbol are Taurus
1:06:07
Speaker 1: the bull, Leo the lion, Scorpio the eagle, and Aquarius
1:06:11
Speaker 1: the man, or the human head. I have already given
1:06:15
Speaker 1: you some work on the sacrum bone, and I told
1:06:17
Speaker 1: you that it was the gravedigger spade. Here is a
1:06:20
Speaker 1: picture of the head of the Sphinx, and the inverted
1:06:23
Speaker 1: sacrum bone when it has been turned upward. We see
1:06:26
Speaker 1: the Sphinx in the inverted sacrum and also in it
1:06:29
Speaker 1: the inverted Masonic keystone. All this is very interesting. but
1:06:33
Speaker 1: unless we realize the inner meaning of it, its true
1:06:36
Speaker 1: value is lost. But it is not chance that these
1:06:39
Speaker 1: things should be so. You have most of you heard
1:06:43
Speaker 1: of the dweller on the threshold, that creature built by
1:06:45
Speaker 1: our own actions and mistakes. Well out on Egypt's desert
1:06:50
Speaker 1: it stands and bars the way to the pyramid, the
1:06:52
Speaker 1: temple of the higher man. And the message that it
1:06:55
Speaker 1: gives to the world is. I am the bodies. If
1:07:00
Speaker 1: you would go on to the temple you must master me,
1:07:02
Speaker 1: for I am within you. The Sphinx again symbolizes man,
1:07:06
Speaker 1: with the mind and spirit of the human rising out
1:07:09
Speaker 1: of the animal desires and emotions. It is the riddle
1:07:12
Speaker 1: of the ages, and man is once more the answer.
1:07:16
Speaker 1: It is said that in ancient times the Sphinx was
1:07:19
Speaker 1: the gateway of the pyramid, and that there was an
1:07:21
Speaker 1: underground passage which led from the Sphinx to Cheops. This
1:07:25
Speaker 1: would make the symbolism even more perfect, for the gateway
1:07:28
Speaker 1: to the spirit is through the bodies according to the ancients.
1:07:32
Speaker 1: Let us now enter the pyramid and passing through the
1:07:35
Speaker 1: corridors come to the king's chamber as it is called.
1:07:39
Speaker 1: There are three great rooms in the pyramid which are
1:07:41
Speaker 1: of great interest to the student. The highest is the
1:07:45
Speaker 1: king's chamber, then below that is the queen's chamber, and
1:07:48
Speaker 1: down below the surface of the earth is the pit.
1:07:52
Speaker 1: Here we again find the great correlation between the pyramid
1:07:55
Speaker 1: and man. The three rooms are the three great divisions
1:07:59
Speaker 1: in man which are the seats of the threefold spirit.
1:08:02
Speaker 1: The lower room is the generative system under the control
1:08:05
Speaker 1: of Jehovah. The center room or queen's chamber is the heart,
1:08:10
Speaker 1: under the control of the Christ, and the upper room
1:08:12
Speaker 1: or the king's chamber is the brain, which is under
1:08:15
Speaker 1: the control of the Father. In this upper room is
1:08:18
Speaker 1: the coffer made of stone, the meaning of which has
1:08:21
Speaker 1: never been explained, but which the student recognizes as the
1:08:24
Speaker 1: third ventricle in the brain. It is quite certain also
1:08:28
Speaker 1: that this coffer was used as a tomb during initiation.
1:08:31
Speaker 1: when as is the case in the Masonic initiations of today,
1:08:34
Speaker 1: which are the remnants of the ancient mysteries, the candidate
1:08:37
Speaker 1: was buried in the earth and resurrected, a symbol of
1:08:40
Speaker 1: the death of the lower man and the liberation of
1:08:42
Speaker 1: the higher. It is said that Moses was initiated in
1:08:46
Speaker 1: the great pyramid, and some also say that Jesus was
1:08:49
Speaker 1: instructed there also. Be that as it may, we know
1:08:53
Speaker 1: that for thousands of years since the time it was
1:08:55
Speaker 1: built by the Atlanteans it has been the greatest temple
1:08:57
Speaker 1: of initiation in the world. It seems also that its
1:09:01
Speaker 1: work is not yet done, for mutely it is teaching
1:09:04
Speaker 1: those who will see the mysteries of creation. It is
1:09:07
Speaker 1: said by many that it is the original Solomon's temple,
1:09:10
Speaker 1: but this we know is not true, for while it
1:09:13
Speaker 1: may be the first and original material temple, the true
1:09:16
Speaker 1: temple of Solomon is the universe, the Solomon's temple. which
1:09:19
Speaker 1: is slowly being rebuilt in man as the temple of
1:09:22
Speaker 1: the soul of man. There is probably no point that
1:09:25
Speaker 1: is as important in connection with the pyramid as that
1:09:28
Speaker 1: of the corner stone. On the very top of the
1:09:31
Speaker 1: great pyramid is a comparatively flat place about 30 feet square.
1:09:36
Speaker 1: In other words the true stone which is the head
1:09:38
Speaker 1: of all the corners is missing. If we look at
1:09:41
Speaker 1: the reverse side of the United States seal, we find
1:09:44
Speaker 1: again the pyramid from which the top is separated. Omar Khayyam,
1:09:49
Speaker 1: the Persian poet, gives us the secret of the keystone
1:09:52
Speaker 1: when he says, From my base metal shall be filed
1:09:56
Speaker 1: a key, which shall unlock the door he howls without.
1:09:59
Speaker 1: The value of the stone is better understood when you
1:10:02
Speaker 1: understand that it completes all of the triangles at once,
1:10:05
Speaker 1: and without it none of them are complete. This stone
1:10:08
Speaker 1: is the spirit in man, which fell from its high position,
1:10:12
Speaker 1: and has been lost beneath the rubbish of the lower man.
1:10:15
Speaker 1: This is the true capstone that is now hidden in
1:10:18
Speaker 1: the pit of man's temple, and which he must exhume
1:10:20
Speaker 1: and place again as the true crown of his spiritual pyramid.
1:10:25
Speaker 1: He can only do this when he calls the thousands
1:10:27
Speaker 1: of workmen within himself together and binds them to the
1:10:30
Speaker 1: service of the higher man. There must be no traitors
1:10:33
Speaker 1: to murder the builder this time. And Lucifer, the one
1:10:37
Speaker 1: rejected by man as the devil, is the one who
1:10:40
Speaker 1: must through the planet Mars send man the dynamic energy
1:10:43
Speaker 1: which man himself must transmute from the fire of passion
1:10:46
Speaker 1: to the flame of spirit. He then must take the
1:10:49
Speaker 1: tools of the craft and cut and polish his own
1:10:51
Speaker 1: being into the capstone of the universal temple. It is
1:10:55
Speaker 1: interesting to note how the casing stones that once made
1:10:58
Speaker 1: the pyramid so beautiful and true were carried away to
1:11:01
Speaker 1: build the cities nearby, and in connection with that it
1:11:04
Speaker 1: is interesting to note how the soul and body of man,
1:11:07
Speaker 1: the casing stones of his spiritual temple, have been sacrificed
1:11:10
Speaker 1: in order that he might have material things. As we
1:11:13
Speaker 1: look at pictures of the ancient pyramid and sphinx which
1:11:16
Speaker 1: have stood on Egypt's sands for ages, let us see
1:11:19
Speaker 1: in them our own mystery temple, made without the sound
1:11:22
Speaker 1: of hammer or the voice of workmen. And as we
1:11:25
Speaker 1: sadly think of this mighty ruin, broken by ages of neglect,
1:11:29
Speaker 1: let us remember our temple, and that its corner stone
1:11:32
Speaker 1: is missing also and our walls are falling with neglect.
1:11:36
Speaker 1: Let us learn the lesson which it teaches, hasten to
1:11:38
Speaker 1: perfect our pyramid, cap it with the stone of spirit,
1:11:42
Speaker 1: offer upon its altars our sacrifice to the great sun spirit,
1:11:45
Speaker 1: and bury our lower nature in its ancient coffer. Then
1:11:49
Speaker 1: for us will its mysteries be revealed, and the sealed
1:11:52
Speaker 1: lips of the sphinx give up their secret. Where your
1:11:55
Speaker 1: treasure is, there will your heart be also. Choose now
1:11:59
Speaker 1: your path. The White Grail Service, self-sacrifice, purification, love, study.
1:12:07
Speaker 1: The black grail, prosperity at others' expense, selfishness, shortcuts, mastered
1:12:13
Speaker 1: by appetite, comfort. The key and the cross. Upon the
1:12:18
Speaker 1: cross of matter that forms our bodies, hangs the key
1:12:21
Speaker 1: to all the mysteries of creation. It is our duty
1:12:24
Speaker 1: to take this key and with it unlock the door
1:12:27
Speaker 1: that conceals from us the unknown. This key is the spirit.
1:12:32
Speaker 1: Release it. The Pyramid Here we see the pyramid laid
1:12:37
Speaker 1: out so that the four triangles and the square are
1:12:39
Speaker 1: clearly seen. This represents man once again, and the ancient
1:12:44
Speaker 1: pyramid is man offering his higher being upon the altar
1:12:47
Speaker 1: of the great fire spirit. The Sphinx This is that
1:12:51
Speaker 1: mysterious being suspended, twixt heaven and earth, which has the
1:12:55
Speaker 1: head of a human being and the body of an animal.
1:12:58
Speaker 1: In other words the Sphinx symbolizes man.