Esoteric Christianity, or The Lesser Mysteries - Annie Besant (ebook reader that looks like a book .TXT) 📗
- Author: Annie Besant
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will be aided by the form being thrown into vibrations sympathetic with those of a more highly evolved Being, its own efforts being reinforced by a stronger power. The outer recognition of this effect is a sense of quiet, calm, and peace; the mind loses its restlessness, the heart its anxiety. Any one who observes himself will find that some places are more conducive to calm, to meditation, to religious thought, to worship, than others. In a room, a building, where there has been a great deal of worldly thought, of frivolous conversation, of mere rush of ordinary worldly life, it is far harder to quiet the mind and to concentrate the thought, than in a place where religious thought has been carried on year after year, century after century; there the mind becomes calm and tranquillised insensibly, and that which would have demanded serious effort in the first place is done without effort in the second.
This is the rationale of places of pilgrimage, of temporary retreats into seclusion; the man turns inward to seek the God within him, and is aided by the atmosphere created by thousands of others, who before him have sought the same in the same place. For in such a place there is not only the magnetisation produced by a single saint, or by the visit of some great Being of the invisible world; each person, who visits the spot with a heart full of reverence and devotion, and is attuned to its vibrations, reinforces those vibrations with his own life, and leaves the spot better than it was when he came to it. Magnetic energy slowly disperses, and a sacred object or place becomes gradually demagnetised if put aside or deserted. It becomes more magnetised as it is used or frequented. But the presence of the ignorant scoffer injures such objects and places, by setting up antagonistic vibrations which weaken those already existing there. As a wave of sound may be met by another which extinguishes it, and the result is silence, so do the vibrations of the scoffing thought weaken or extinguish the vibrations of the reverent and loving one. The effect produced will, of course, vary with the relative strengths of the vibrations, but the mischievous one cannot be without result, for the laws of vibration are the same in the higher worlds as in the physical, and thought vibrations are the expression of real energies.
The reason and the effect of the consecration of churches, chapels, cemeteries, will now be apparent. The act of consecration is not the mere public setting aside of a place for a particular purpose; it is the magnetisation of the place for the benefit of all those who frequent it. For the visible and the invisible worlds are inter-related, interwoven, each with each, and those can best serve the visible by whom the energies of the invisible can be wielded.
AFTERWORD.
We have reached the end of a small book on a great subject, and have only lifted a corner of the Veil that hides the Virgin of Eternal Truth from the careless eyes of men. The hem of her garment only has been seen, heavy with gold, richly dight with pearls. Yet even this, as it waves slowly, breathes out celestial fragrances--the sandal and rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What should be the unimaginable glory, if the Veil were lifted, and we saw the splendour of the Face of the divine Mother, and in Her arms the Child who is the very Truth? Before that Child the Seraphim ever veil their faces; who then of mortal birth may look on Him and live?
Yet since in man abides His very Self, who shall forbid him to pass within the Veil, and to see with "open face the glory of the Lord"? From the Cave to highest Heaven; such was the pathway of the Word made Flesh, and known as the Way of the Cross. Those who share the manhood share also the Divinity, and may tread where He has trodden. "What Thou art, That am I."
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] S. Mark xvi. 15.
[2] S. Matt vii. 6.
[3] Clarke's Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. I., ch. xii.
[4] I. Cor. iii. 16.
[5] _Ibid._, ii. 14, 16.
[6] S. John, i. 9.
[7] Psalms, xlii. 1.
[8] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[9] Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. V., ch. xi.
[10] See Article on "Mysteries," _Encyc. Britannica_ ninth edition.
[11] Psellus, quoted in _Iamblichus on the Mysteries_. T. Taylor, p. 343, note on p. 23, second edition.
[12] _Iamblichus_, as _ante_, p. 301.
[13] _Ibid._, p. 72.
[14] The article on "Mysticism" in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ has the following on the teaching of Plotinus (204-206 A.D.): "The One [the Supreme God spoken of above] is exalted above the _nous_ and the 'ideas'; it transcends existence altogether and is not cognisable by reason. Remaining itself in repose, it rays out, as it were, from its own fulness, an image of itself, which is called _nous_, and which constitutes the system of ideas of the intelligible world. The soul is in turn the image or product of the _nous_, and the soul by its motion begets corporeal matter. The soul thus faces two ways--towards the _nous_, from which it springs, and towards the material life, which is its own product. Ethical endeavour consists in the repudiation of the sensible; material existence is itself estrangement from God.... To reach the ultimate goal, thought itself must be left behind; for thought is a form of motion, and the desire of the soul is for the motionless rest which belongs to the One. The union with transcendent deity is not so much knowledge or vision as ecstasy, coalescence, _contact_." Neo-Platonism is thus "first of all a system of complete rationalism; it is assumed, in other words, that reason is capable of mapping out the whole system of things. But, inasmuch as a God is affirmed beyond reason, the mysticism becomes in a sense the necessary complement of the would-be all-embracing rationalism. The system culminates in a mystical act."
[15] _Iamblichus_, as _ante_, p. 73.
[16] _Ibid_, pp. 55, 56.
[17] _Ibid_, pp. 118, 119.
[18] _Ibid_, p. 118, 119.
[19] _Ibid_, pp. 95, 100.
[20] _Ibid_, p. 101.
[21] _Ibid_, p. 330.
[22] G. R. S. Mead. _Plotinus_, p. 42.
[23] _Iamblichus_, p. 364, note on p. 134.
[24] G. R. S. Mead. _Orpheus_, pp. 285, 286.
[25] _Iamblichus_, p. 364, note on p. 134.
[26] _Iamblichus_, p. 285, _et seq._
[27] G. R. S. Mead. _Orpheus_, p. 59.
[28] _Ibid_, p. 30.
[29] _Ibid_, pp. 263, 271.
[30] G. R. S. Mead. _Plotinus_, p. 20.
[31] _Shvetâshvataropanishat_, vi., 22.
[32] _Kathopanishat_, iii., 14.
[33] I. Cor. xiii. 1.
[34] _Kathopanishat_, vi. 17.
[35] _Mundakopanishat_, II., ii. 9.
[36] _Ibid_., III., i. 3.
[37] I Sam. xix. 20.
[38] II. Kings ii. 2, 5.
[39] Under "School."
[40] Dr. Wynn Westcott. _Sepher Yetzirah_, p. 9.
[41] S. Mark iv. 10, 11, 33, 34. See also S. Matt. xiii. 11, 34, 36, and S. Luke viii. 10.
[42] S. John xvi. 12.
[43] Acts i. 3.
[44] _Loc. cit._ Trans. by G. R. S. Mead. I. i. 1.
[45] S. Matt. vii. 6.
[46] As to the Greek woman: "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs."--S. Mark vii. 27.
[47] S. Luke xiii. 23, 24.
[48] S. Matt. vii. 13, 14.
[49] _Kathopanishat_ II. iv. 10, 11.
[50] _Brihadâranyakopanishat_. IV. iv. 7.
[51] Rev. vii. 9.
[52] _Bahgavad Gîtâ_, vii. 3.
[53] _Ante_, p. 26.
[54] It must be remembered that the Jews believed that all imperfect souls returned to live again on earth.
[55] S. Matt. xix. 16-26.
[56] S. John xvii. 3.
[57] Heb. ix. 23.
[58] S. John. iii. 3, 5.
[59] S. Matt. iii. 11.
[60] _Ibid._ xviii. 3.
[61] S. John iii. 10.
[62] S. Matt. v. 48.
[63] _Ante_, p.24
[64] Note how this chimes in with the promise of Jesus in S. John xvi. 12-14: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.... He will show you things to come.... He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."
[65] Another technical name in the Mysteries.
[66] Eph. iii. 3, 4, 9.
[67] Col i. 23, 25-28. But S. Clement, in his _Stromata_, translates "every man," as "the whole man." See Bk. V., ch. x.
[68] Col. iv. 3.
[69] Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. V. ch. x. Some additional sayings of the Apostles will be found in the quotations from Clement, showing what meaning they bore in the minds of those who succeeded the apostles, and were living in the same atmosphere of thought.
[70] I. Tim. iii. 9, 16.
[71] I. Tim. i. 18.
[72] _Ibid._, iv. 14.
[73] _Ibid._, vi. 13.
[74] _Ibid._, 20.
[75] II. Tim. i. 13, 14.
[76] _Ibid._, ii. 2.
[77] Phil. iii. 8, 10-12, 14, 15.
[78] Rev. i. 18. "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen."
[79] II. Cor. v. 16.
[80] Gal. iii. 27.
[81] Gal. iv. 19.
[82] I. Cor. iv. 15.
[83] I. S. Pet. iii. 4.
[84] Eph. iv. 13.
[85] Col. i. 24.
[86] II. Cor. iv. 10.
[87] Gal. ii. 20.
[88] II. Tim. iv. 6, 8.
[89] Rev. iii. 12.
[90] Gal. iv. 22-31.
[91] I Cor. x. 1-4.
[92] Eph. v. 23-32.
[93] Vol. I. _The Martyrdom of Ignatius_, ch. iii. The translations used are those of Clarke's Ante-Nicene Library, a most useful compendium of Christian antiquity. The number of the volume which stands first in the references is the number of the volume in that Series.
[94] _Ibid. The Epistle of Polycarp_, ch. xii.
[95] _Ibid. The Epistle of Barnabas_, ch. i.
[96] _Ibid._ ch. x.
[97] _Ibid. The Martyrdom of Ignatius,_ ch. i.
[98] _Ibid. Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians_, ch. iii.
[99] _Ibid._ ch. xii.
[100] _Ibid. to the Trallians_, ch. v.
[101] _Ibid. to the Philadelphians_, ch. ix.
[102] Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria _Stromata_, bk. I. ch. i.
[103] Vol. IV. _Stromata_, bk. I. ch. xxviii.
[104] It appears that even in those days there were some who objected to any truth being taught secretly!
[105] _Ibid._ bk. I, ch. i.
[106] _Ibid._ bk. V., ch. iv.
[107] _Ibid._ ch. v.-viii.
[108] _Ibid._ ch. ix.
[109] _Ibid._ bk. V., ch. x.
[110] Loc. Cit. xv. 29.
[111] _Ibid._ xvi. 25, 26; the version quoted differs in words, but not in meaning, from the English Authorised Version.
[112] _Stromata_, bk. V., ch. x.
[113] _Ibid._ bk. VI., ch. vii.
[114] _Ibid._ bk. VII., ch. xiv.
[115] _Ibid._ bk. VI., ch. xv.
[116] _Ibid._ bk. VI. x.
[117] _Ibid._ bk. VI. vii.
[118] _Ibid._ bk. I. ch. vi.
[119] _Ibid._ ch. ix.
[120] _Ibid._ bk. VI. ch. x.
[121]
This is the rationale of places of pilgrimage, of temporary retreats into seclusion; the man turns inward to seek the God within him, and is aided by the atmosphere created by thousands of others, who before him have sought the same in the same place. For in such a place there is not only the magnetisation produced by a single saint, or by the visit of some great Being of the invisible world; each person, who visits the spot with a heart full of reverence and devotion, and is attuned to its vibrations, reinforces those vibrations with his own life, and leaves the spot better than it was when he came to it. Magnetic energy slowly disperses, and a sacred object or place becomes gradually demagnetised if put aside or deserted. It becomes more magnetised as it is used or frequented. But the presence of the ignorant scoffer injures such objects and places, by setting up antagonistic vibrations which weaken those already existing there. As a wave of sound may be met by another which extinguishes it, and the result is silence, so do the vibrations of the scoffing thought weaken or extinguish the vibrations of the reverent and loving one. The effect produced will, of course, vary with the relative strengths of the vibrations, but the mischievous one cannot be without result, for the laws of vibration are the same in the higher worlds as in the physical, and thought vibrations are the expression of real energies.
The reason and the effect of the consecration of churches, chapels, cemeteries, will now be apparent. The act of consecration is not the mere public setting aside of a place for a particular purpose; it is the magnetisation of the place for the benefit of all those who frequent it. For the visible and the invisible worlds are inter-related, interwoven, each with each, and those can best serve the visible by whom the energies of the invisible can be wielded.
AFTERWORD.
We have reached the end of a small book on a great subject, and have only lifted a corner of the Veil that hides the Virgin of Eternal Truth from the careless eyes of men. The hem of her garment only has been seen, heavy with gold, richly dight with pearls. Yet even this, as it waves slowly, breathes out celestial fragrances--the sandal and rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What should be the unimaginable glory, if the Veil were lifted, and we saw the splendour of the Face of the divine Mother, and in Her arms the Child who is the very Truth? Before that Child the Seraphim ever veil their faces; who then of mortal birth may look on Him and live?
Yet since in man abides His very Self, who shall forbid him to pass within the Veil, and to see with "open face the glory of the Lord"? From the Cave to highest Heaven; such was the pathway of the Word made Flesh, and known as the Way of the Cross. Those who share the manhood share also the Divinity, and may tread where He has trodden. "What Thou art, That am I."
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] S. Mark xvi. 15.
[2] S. Matt vii. 6.
[3] Clarke's Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. I., ch. xii.
[4] I. Cor. iii. 16.
[5] _Ibid._, ii. 14, 16.
[6] S. John, i. 9.
[7] Psalms, xlii. 1.
[8] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[9] Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. V., ch. xi.
[10] See Article on "Mysteries," _Encyc. Britannica_ ninth edition.
[11] Psellus, quoted in _Iamblichus on the Mysteries_. T. Taylor, p. 343, note on p. 23, second edition.
[12] _Iamblichus_, as _ante_, p. 301.
[13] _Ibid._, p. 72.
[14] The article on "Mysticism" in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ has the following on the teaching of Plotinus (204-206 A.D.): "The One [the Supreme God spoken of above] is exalted above the _nous_ and the 'ideas'; it transcends existence altogether and is not cognisable by reason. Remaining itself in repose, it rays out, as it were, from its own fulness, an image of itself, which is called _nous_, and which constitutes the system of ideas of the intelligible world. The soul is in turn the image or product of the _nous_, and the soul by its motion begets corporeal matter. The soul thus faces two ways--towards the _nous_, from which it springs, and towards the material life, which is its own product. Ethical endeavour consists in the repudiation of the sensible; material existence is itself estrangement from God.... To reach the ultimate goal, thought itself must be left behind; for thought is a form of motion, and the desire of the soul is for the motionless rest which belongs to the One. The union with transcendent deity is not so much knowledge or vision as ecstasy, coalescence, _contact_." Neo-Platonism is thus "first of all a system of complete rationalism; it is assumed, in other words, that reason is capable of mapping out the whole system of things. But, inasmuch as a God is affirmed beyond reason, the mysticism becomes in a sense the necessary complement of the would-be all-embracing rationalism. The system culminates in a mystical act."
[15] _Iamblichus_, as _ante_, p. 73.
[16] _Ibid_, pp. 55, 56.
[17] _Ibid_, pp. 118, 119.
[18] _Ibid_, p. 118, 119.
[19] _Ibid_, pp. 95, 100.
[20] _Ibid_, p. 101.
[21] _Ibid_, p. 330.
[22] G. R. S. Mead. _Plotinus_, p. 42.
[23] _Iamblichus_, p. 364, note on p. 134.
[24] G. R. S. Mead. _Orpheus_, pp. 285, 286.
[25] _Iamblichus_, p. 364, note on p. 134.
[26] _Iamblichus_, p. 285, _et seq._
[27] G. R. S. Mead. _Orpheus_, p. 59.
[28] _Ibid_, p. 30.
[29] _Ibid_, pp. 263, 271.
[30] G. R. S. Mead. _Plotinus_, p. 20.
[31] _Shvetâshvataropanishat_, vi., 22.
[32] _Kathopanishat_, iii., 14.
[33] I. Cor. xiii. 1.
[34] _Kathopanishat_, vi. 17.
[35] _Mundakopanishat_, II., ii. 9.
[36] _Ibid_., III., i. 3.
[37] I Sam. xix. 20.
[38] II. Kings ii. 2, 5.
[39] Under "School."
[40] Dr. Wynn Westcott. _Sepher Yetzirah_, p. 9.
[41] S. Mark iv. 10, 11, 33, 34. See also S. Matt. xiii. 11, 34, 36, and S. Luke viii. 10.
[42] S. John xvi. 12.
[43] Acts i. 3.
[44] _Loc. cit._ Trans. by G. R. S. Mead. I. i. 1.
[45] S. Matt. vii. 6.
[46] As to the Greek woman: "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs."--S. Mark vii. 27.
[47] S. Luke xiii. 23, 24.
[48] S. Matt. vii. 13, 14.
[49] _Kathopanishat_ II. iv. 10, 11.
[50] _Brihadâranyakopanishat_. IV. iv. 7.
[51] Rev. vii. 9.
[52] _Bahgavad Gîtâ_, vii. 3.
[53] _Ante_, p. 26.
[54] It must be remembered that the Jews believed that all imperfect souls returned to live again on earth.
[55] S. Matt. xix. 16-26.
[56] S. John xvii. 3.
[57] Heb. ix. 23.
[58] S. John. iii. 3, 5.
[59] S. Matt. iii. 11.
[60] _Ibid._ xviii. 3.
[61] S. John iii. 10.
[62] S. Matt. v. 48.
[63] _Ante_, p.24
[64] Note how this chimes in with the promise of Jesus in S. John xvi. 12-14: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.... He will show you things to come.... He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."
[65] Another technical name in the Mysteries.
[66] Eph. iii. 3, 4, 9.
[67] Col i. 23, 25-28. But S. Clement, in his _Stromata_, translates "every man," as "the whole man." See Bk. V., ch. x.
[68] Col. iv. 3.
[69] Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. V. ch. x. Some additional sayings of the Apostles will be found in the quotations from Clement, showing what meaning they bore in the minds of those who succeeded the apostles, and were living in the same atmosphere of thought.
[70] I. Tim. iii. 9, 16.
[71] I. Tim. i. 18.
[72] _Ibid._, iv. 14.
[73] _Ibid._, vi. 13.
[74] _Ibid._, 20.
[75] II. Tim. i. 13, 14.
[76] _Ibid._, ii. 2.
[77] Phil. iii. 8, 10-12, 14, 15.
[78] Rev. i. 18. "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen."
[79] II. Cor. v. 16.
[80] Gal. iii. 27.
[81] Gal. iv. 19.
[82] I. Cor. iv. 15.
[83] I. S. Pet. iii. 4.
[84] Eph. iv. 13.
[85] Col. i. 24.
[86] II. Cor. iv. 10.
[87] Gal. ii. 20.
[88] II. Tim. iv. 6, 8.
[89] Rev. iii. 12.
[90] Gal. iv. 22-31.
[91] I Cor. x. 1-4.
[92] Eph. v. 23-32.
[93] Vol. I. _The Martyrdom of Ignatius_, ch. iii. The translations used are those of Clarke's Ante-Nicene Library, a most useful compendium of Christian antiquity. The number of the volume which stands first in the references is the number of the volume in that Series.
[94] _Ibid. The Epistle of Polycarp_, ch. xii.
[95] _Ibid. The Epistle of Barnabas_, ch. i.
[96] _Ibid._ ch. x.
[97] _Ibid. The Martyrdom of Ignatius,_ ch. i.
[98] _Ibid. Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians_, ch. iii.
[99] _Ibid._ ch. xii.
[100] _Ibid. to the Trallians_, ch. v.
[101] _Ibid. to the Philadelphians_, ch. ix.
[102] Vol. IV. Clement of Alexandria _Stromata_, bk. I. ch. i.
[103] Vol. IV. _Stromata_, bk. I. ch. xxviii.
[104] It appears that even in those days there were some who objected to any truth being taught secretly!
[105] _Ibid._ bk. I, ch. i.
[106] _Ibid._ bk. V., ch. iv.
[107] _Ibid._ ch. v.-viii.
[108] _Ibid._ ch. ix.
[109] _Ibid._ bk. V., ch. x.
[110] Loc. Cit. xv. 29.
[111] _Ibid._ xvi. 25, 26; the version quoted differs in words, but not in meaning, from the English Authorised Version.
[112] _Stromata_, bk. V., ch. x.
[113] _Ibid._ bk. VI., ch. vii.
[114] _Ibid._ bk. VII., ch. xiv.
[115] _Ibid._ bk. VI., ch. xv.
[116] _Ibid._ bk. VI. x.
[117] _Ibid._ bk. VI. vii.
[118] _Ibid._ bk. I. ch. vi.
[119] _Ibid._ ch. ix.
[120] _Ibid._ bk. VI. ch. x.
[121]
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