THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
THE KING
IV.
THE HERMIT
WITH the seventh stage in the Mystical Progress of Frater P. we arrive at a sudden and definite turning-point.
During the last two years he had grown strong in the Magic of the West. After having studied a host of mystical systems he had entered the Order of the Golden Dawn, and it had been a nursery to him. In it he had learnt to play with the elements and the elemental forces; but now having arrived at years of adolescence, he put away childish things, and stepped out into the world to teach himself what no school could teach him,—the Arcanum that pupil and master are one!
He had become a 6○ = 5□, and it now rested with him, and him alone, to climb yet another ridge of the Great Mountain and become a 7○ = 4□, an Exempt Adept in the Second Order, Master over the Ruach and King over the Seven Worlds.
By destroying those who had usurped control of the Order of the Golden
Dawn, he not only broke a link with the darkening past, but forged so might an
one with the gleaming future, that soon he was destined to weld it to the all
encircling chain of the Great Brotherhood.
All these great deeds did he do, as we shall see. he tamed the bulls with
ease,—the White and the Black. He ploughed the double field,—the East
and the West. He sowed the dragons’ teeth,—the Armies of Doubt; and among
them did he cast he stone of Zoroaster given to him by Medea, Queen of
Enchantments, so that immediately they turned their weapons one against the
other, and perished. And then lastly, on the mystic cup of Iacchus he lulled
to sleep the Dragon of the illusions of life, and taking down the Golden
Fleece accomplished the Great Work. Then once again did he set {44} sail, and
sped past Circe, through Scylla and Carybdis; beyond the singing sisters of
Sicily, back to the fair plains of Thessaly and the wooded slopes of Olympus.
And one day shall it come to pass that he will return to that far distant land
where hung that Fleece of Gold, the Fleece he brought to the Children of Men
so that they might weave from it a little garment of comfort; and there on
that Self-same Tree shall he hand himself, and others shall crucify him; so
that in that Winter which draweth nigh, he who is to come may find yet another
garment to cover the hideous nakedness of man, the Robe that hath no Seam.
And those who shall receive, though they cast lots for it, yet shall they not
rend it, for it is woven from the top throughout.
For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the time to
come is prepared, plenteousness is made ready, a city is bilded, the rest is
allowed, yea, perfect goodness and wisdom. The root of evil is sealed up from
you, weakness and the moth is hid from you, and corruption is fled unto hell
to be forgotten: sorrows are passed, and in the end is shewed the treasure of
immortality.1
Yea! the Treasure of Immortality. In his own words let us now describe
this sudden change.
{45}
In Mexico: even as I did receive it from him who is reincarnated in me: and
this work is to the best of my knowledge a synthesis of what the Gods have
given unto me, as far as is possible without violating my obligations unto the
Chiefs of the R. R. et A. C. Now did I deem it well that I should rest awhile
before resuming my labours in the Great Work, seeing that he, who sleepeth
never, shall fall by the wayside, and also remembering the twofold sign: the
Power of Horus: and the Power of Hoor-pa-Kraat.3
Now, the year being yet young, One D. A. came unto me, and spake.
And he spake not any more (as had been his wont) in guise of a skeptic and
indifferent man: but indeed with the very voice and power of a Great Guru, or
of one definitely sent from such a Brother of the Great White Lodge.
Yea! though he spake unto me words all of disapproval, did I give thanks
and grace to God that he had deemed my folly worthy to attract his wisdom.
And, after days, did my Guru not leave me in my state of humiliation, and,
as I may say, despair: but spake words of comfort saying: "Is it not written
that if thine Eye be single thy whole body shall be full of Light?" Adding:
"In thee is no power of mental concentration and control of thought: and
without this thou mayst achieve nothing."
Under his direction, therefore, I began to apply myself unto the practice
of Raja-yoga, at the same time avoiding all, even the smallest, consideration
of things occult, as also he bade me.
Thus, at the beginning, I did meditate twice daily, three mediations
morning and evening, upon such simple objects as—a white triangle; a red
cross; Isis; the simple Tatwas; a wand; and the like. I remained after some
three weeks for 59 ½ minutes at one time, wherein my thought wandered 25
times. Now I began also to consider more complex things: my little Rose
Cross;4 the {46} complex Tatwas; the Golden Dan Symbol, and so on. also I
began the exercise of the pendulum and other simple regular motions.
Wherefore to-day of Venus, the 22nd of February 1901, I being in the City of
Guadalajara, in the Hotel Cosmopolita, I do begin to set down all that I
accomplish in this work:
And may the Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep my heart
and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We must now digress in order to five some account of the Eastern theories
of the Universe and the mind. Their study will clarify our view of Frater P’s
progress.
The reader is advised to study Chapter VII of Captain J. F. C. Fuller’s
"Star in the West" in connection with this exposition.
{47}
1 ii Esdras, viii, 52-54.
2 Lamp of Invisible Light. L.I.L. The title of the first Æthyr
derived from the initial letters of the Three Mighty Names of
God. In all there are thirty of these AEthyrs, "whose dominion
extendedth in ever widening circles without and beyond the Watch
Towers of the Universe." In one sense rightly enough did P.
bring to completion the work L.I.L. at the end of the year 1900;
but, in another, it took him nine long years of toil before he
perfected it, for it was not until the last days of the year 1909
that the work of the Thirty AEthyrs was indeed brought to an end.
In 1900 verily was the work conceived, but not until the year
1909 was it brought forth a light unto the darkness, a little
spark cast into the Well of Time. (P. merely means that at this
time he established a secret Order of this name.)
3 The Signs are of Projection and Withdrawal of Force; necessary
complements.
4 Lost under dramatic circumstances at Frater P. A.’s house in
1909.
5 Verworn in his "General Physiology" says: "It was found that the
sole reality that we are able to discover in the world is mind.
The idea of the physical world is only a product of the mind. ...
But this idea is not the whole of mind, for we have many mental
constituents, such as the simple sensations of pain and of
pleasure, that are not ideas of bodies ... every process of
knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is merely a psychical
event. ... This fact cannot be banished by the well-known method
of the ostrich" (pp. 39, 40).
"The real mystery of mysteries is the mind of man. Why, with a
pen or brush, one man sits down and makes a masterpiece, and yet
another, with the self-same instruments and opportunities, turns
out a daub or botch,is twenty times more curious than all the
musings of the mystics, works of the Rosicrucians, or the
mechanical contrivances which seem to-day so fine, and which our
children will disdain as clumsy" (R. B. Cumminghame Graham in
his preface to "The Canon").
IN NOMINE DEI
אמן
Insit Naturae Regina Isis.
_____
At the End of the Century:
At the End of the Year:
At the Hour of Midnight:
Did I complete and bring to perfection the Work of
L.I.L.2
Let my mind be open unto
the Higher:
Let my heart be the Centre
of Light:
Let my body be the
Temple
of the
ROSY CROSS.
Ex Deo Nascimur
In Jesu Morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus.
Part III | Index | Next
Index |
The Hermit |
The Agnostic Position |
The Vedanta |
Attainment By Yoga |
The Yogas |
The Constitution of the Human Organism |
The Chakkras |
The Doctrines of Buddhism |
The Noble Eightfold Path |
The Writings of Truth
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX
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