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What must the
Supreme All-originating Spirit be in itself? That is the question before
us. Let us start with one fact regarding it about which we cannot have any
possible doubt—it is creative. If it were not creative nothing
could come into existence; therefore we know that its purpose, or Law of
Tendency, must be to bring individual lives into existence and to surround
them with a suitable environment. Now a power which has this for its
inherent nature must be a kindly power. The Spirit of Life seeking
expression in individual lives can have no other intention towards them
than “that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly.” To suppose the opposite would be a contradiction in terms. It
would be to suppose the Eternal Principle of Life acting against itself,
expressing itself as the reverse of what it is, in which case it would not
be expressing itself but expressing its opposite; so that it is impossible
to conceive of the Spirit of Life acting otherwise than to the increase of
life. This is as yet only imperfectly apparent by reason of our imperfect
apprehension of the position, and our consequent want of conscious unity
with the ONE Eternal Life. As our consciousness of unity becomes more
perfect so will the life-givingness of the Spirit become more apparent.
But in the realm of principles the purely Affirmative and Life-giving
nature of the All-originating Spirit is an unavoidable conclusion. Now by
what name can we call such an inherent desire to add to the fulness of any
individual life—that is, to make it stronger, brighter, and happier? If
this is not Love, then I do not know what else it is; and so we are
philosophically led to the conclusion that Love is the prime moving power
of the Creating Spirit.
But expression is
impossible without Form. What Form, then, should Love give to the vehicles
of its expression? By the hypothesis of the case it could not find
self-expression in forms that were hateful or repugnant to it—therefore
the only logical correlative of Love is Beauty. Beauty is not yet
universally manifested for the same reason that Life is not, namely, lack
of recognition of its Principle; but, that the principle of Beauty is
inherent in the Eternal Mind is demonstrated by all that is beautiful in
the world in which we live.
These
considerations show us that the inherent nature of the Spirit must consist
in the eternal interaction of Love and Beauty as the Active and Passive
polarity of Being. Then this is the Power for the working of which our
soul faculties are specially adapted. And when this purpose of the
adaptation is recognized we begin to get some insight into the way in
which our intuition, imagination, and will should be exercized. By
training our thought to habitually dwell upon this dual-unity of the
Originating Forces of Love and Beauty the intuition is rendered more and
more sensitive to ideas emanating from this supreme source, and the
imagining faculty is trained in the formation of images corresponding to
such ideas; while on the physical side the molecular structure of the
brain and body becomes more and more perfectly adjusted to the generating
of vibratory currents tending to the outward manifestation of the
Originating Principle. Thus the whole man is brought into unison with
himself and with the Supreme Source of Life, so that, in the words of St.
Paul, he is being day by day renewed after the image of Him that created
him.
Our more
immediately personal recognition of the All-originating Love and Beauty
will thus flow out as peace of mind, health of body, discretion in the
management of our affairs, and power in the carrying out of our
undertakings; and as we advance to a wider conception of the working of
the Spirit of Love and Beauty in its infinite possibilities, so our
intuition will find a wider scope and our field of activity will expand
along with it—in a word we shall discover that our individuality is
growing, and that we are becoming more truly ourselves than we ever were
before.
The question of
the specific lines on which the individual may be most perfectly trained
into such recognition of his true relation to the All-embracing Spirit of
Life is therefore of supreme importance, but it is also of such magnitude
that even to briefly sketch its broad outlines would require a volume to
itself, and I will therefore not attempt to enter upon it here, my present
purpose being only to offer some hints of the principles underlying that
wonderful three-fold unity of Body, Soul, and Spirit which we all know
ourselves to be.
We are as yet
only at the commencement of the path which leads to the realization of
this unity in the full development of all its powers, but others have
trodden the way before us, from whose experiences we may learn; and not
least among these was the illustrious founder of the Most Christian
Fraternity of the Rosicrucians. This master-mind, setting out in his youth
with the intention of going to Jerusalem, changed the order of his journey
and first sojourned for three years in the symbolical city of Damcar, in
the mystical country of Arabia, then for about a year in the mystical
country of Egypt, and then for two years in the mystical country of Fez.
Then, having during these six years learned all that was to be acquired in
those countries, he returned to his native land of Germany, where, on the
basis of the knowledge he had thus gained, he founded the Fraternity R.C.,
for whose instruction he wrote the mystical books M. and T. Then, when he
realized that his work in its present stage was accomplished, he of his
own free will laid aside the physical body, not, it is recorded, by decay,
or disease, or ordinary death, but by the express direction of the Spirit
of Life, summing up all his knowledge in the words,
“Jesus mihi
omnia.”
And now his
followers await the coming of “the Artist Elias,” who shall bring the
Magnum Opus to its completion.
“Let him that
readeth understand.”
Footnote 1: See
my “Dore Lectures.” |
