{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38590/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38590","id":"gutenberg_38590","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38590","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Kingsford, Anna Bonus, 1846-1888","Mysticism"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ron Stephens and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    THE STORY\n\n    OF\n\n    ANNA KINGSFORD AND\n    EDWARD MAITLAND\n\n    AND OF\n\n    THE NEW GOSPEL OF\n    INTERPRETATION\n\n    BY\n\n    EDWARD MAITLAND.\n    EDITED BY SAMUEL HOPGOOD HART.\n\n\n    \"The days of the Covenant of Manifestation are passing away;\n    The Gospel of Interpretation cometh.\"\n\n    \"There shall nothing new be told; but that which is ancient\n    shall be interpreted.\"\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    \"Now is the Gospel of Interpretation come, and the kingdom\n    of the Mother of God.\"--_C.W.S._, Part I. No. ii. (part 2) 10. 11.\n    and Part II. No. xiii. 31.\n\n    THIRD AND ENLARGED EDITION.\n\n    PRICE THREE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE.\n\n    BIRMINGHAM:\n    THE RUSKIN PRESS, STAFFORD STREET.\n    1905.\n\n\n\n\n    _1st Edition ... Christmas, 1893._\n    _2nd Edition ... Christmas, 1894._\n    _3rd Edition ... Christmas, 1905._\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nTO THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS.\n\n\nThis book is designed (1) in satisfaction of the widely-expressed desire\nfor a more particular account than has yet been rendered concerning the\ngenesis of the writings claiming to constitute a \"New Gospel of\nInterpretation\"; and (2) in fulfilment of the duty incumbent on me as\nthe survivor of the two recipients of such Gospel to spare no means\nwhich may minister to its recognition and acceptance by the world, for\nwhose benefit it has been vouchsafed.\n\nAlthough largely biographical in character, this book is not a history\nof individuals, but of a Work, and involves only such personal\nreferences as are necessary to such history. It is not, however, a full\nor a final account that is contained in it. Such an account can be given\nonly in the form of the regular biography which is in course of\npreparation. This book is an instalment only of that biography, being\nput forth in advance of it, partly, as said above, to meet a present\nneed, and partly, to prevent a total loss of the record in the event of\nmy failure to complete it--a contingency of which, in view of the\nmagnitude of the task and my advanced age, I am bound to take account.\n\n    E.M.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nTO THE THIRD EDITION.\n\n\nSince the publication in 1893 of this book which, as stated in Chapter\nVII., was \"intended but as an epitome and instalment\" of a far larger\nbook then in course of preparation, the full and final account of the\n\"New Gospel of Interpretation\" has been given to the world. In 1896\nEdward Maitland published his _magnum opus_, \"The Life of Anna\nKingsford,\" in two large volumes of 420 pages, \"illustrated with\nportraits, views, and facsimiles.\" This is, and will always be, the\nbiography _par excellence_ of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, and it\nis absolutely indispensable for those who would know all that there is\nto be known of them and their work and of the \"New Gospel of\nInterpretation.\" As that book, however, on account of its great length,\nmust always be a costly book, and therefore beyond the means of many who\nwould like to have some reliable information concerning Anna Kingsford\nand Edward Maitland and their work, and as there are many who, on\naccount of their time for reading being limited or their inclination to\nread being little, require information within the compass of a small\nbook or go without it altogether, there will, notwithstanding the\npublication of the \"Life of Anna Kingsford,\" be a demand for this\nshorter \"Story,\" which is so admirably suited to meet the needs or\nrequirements of these classes of persons; for, be it noted, the\npublication of \"The Life of Anna Kingsford\" has not in any way\ndepreciated the value of this book in this sense that, having been\nwritten by one of the two recipients of the \"New Gospel of\nInterpretation,\" it is a first authority second to none for the\nstatements therein contained.\n\nThe change in the title of the book from \"The Story of the New Gospel of\nInterpretation\" to the present title calls for some explanation and\njustification, because the former title was an excellent one in many\nrespects, and the book has become known to many by that title. The\n\"Gospel of Interpretation\" is the name or description which was given by\nits Divine Inspirers, the Hierarchy of the Spheres Celestial, to the\nwork of which this book tells the story, in token of its relation to the\nprevious \"Gospel of Manifestation.\" The former title implied, as the\nAuthor pointed out in his preface, that that which this book propounded\nwas \"not really a new Gospel, but one of Interpretation only\"; and this\nis not really new, but, as the Author has also pointed out, \"so old as\nto have become forgotten and lost, being the purely spiritual sense, as\ndiscerned from the purely spiritual standpoint originally intended and\ninsisted on by Scripture itself as its true sense and standpoint, and\nthose which alone render Scripture intelligible\"[1]. But notwithstanding\nthis, and notwithstanding that on the front page it was expressly stated\nthat \"There shall nothing new be told; but that which is ancient shall\nbe interpreted,\" the former title failed to convey to the minds of some\nthe meaning that it was intended to convey, and it gave no indication of\nthe biographical nature of the work. Many who otherwise would have read\nthe book refrained from doing so because they thought that a new Gospel,\ninconsistent with and perhaps opposed to if not intended to supersede\nthe old Gospel, was propounded. It is necessary, therefore, for me to\nstate, if possible more explicitly than it was stated in the previous\neditions of this book, that this is not an attempt to create a new\nGospel differing from that of Jesus Christ[2]. Anna Kingsford's and\nEdward Maitland's mission and aim was to interpret the Christ, not to\nrival or supersede Him. The \"New Gospel\" is, first and foremost,\n_interpretative_, and is destructive only in the sense of\nreconstructive. \"It tells nothing new; it simply restores and reinforces\nthe old, even the Gnosis, which, as the doctrine of the Church unfallen,\nis that also of the Church fallen, though the latter has lost the key to\nits interpretation\"[3]. Nor is the teaching represented by this book\nopposed to the existence of an objective Church. Anna Kingsford and\nEdward Maitland fully recognised the necessity of such an organisation\nfor the formulation, propagation, and exposition of religion. Their\nopposition was \"only to the recognition by the Church of the objective,\nhistorical, and materialistic aspect of religion, _to the exclusion_ of\nthat which really constitutes religion, namely, its subjective,\nspiritual, and substantial aspect, wherein alone it appeals to the mind\nand soul, and is efficacious for redemption.\" The aim of the New Gospel\n\"is defined exactly,\" said Edward Maitland, \"in the following citation\nfrom St. Dionysius the Areopagite 'not to destroy, but to construct; or,\nrather, to destroy by construction; to conquer error by the full\npresentment of truth.' As will be obvious, such a design does not\nnecessarily involve the destruction of anything that exists whether of\nsymbol or ritual, or ecclesiastical organisation, but only their\nregeneration by means of their translation into their spiritual and\ndivinely intended sense. And it is precisely because that sense has been\nlost--as declared in Scripture it had long been, and would yet long be,\nlost--that a new 'Gospel of Interpretation' has been vouchsafed in\nfulfilment of the promises in Scripture to that effect; and this from\nthe source of the original Divine revelation, namely, the Church\nCelestial, and by the method which always was that of such revelation,\nnamely, the intuition operating under special illumination.... Even the\npriest, though hitherto deservedly regarded as the 'enemy of man,' will\nnot be destroyed under the new _regime_ whose inauguration we are\nwitnessing. For in becoming interpreter as well as administrator, he\nwill be prophet as well as priest, and speak out the things of God and\nthe soul instead of concealing them under a veil. So will the 'veil be\ntaken away,' and Cain, the priest, instead of killing Abel, the prophet,\nas hitherto, will unite with him, becoming prophet and priest in one.\nAnd instead of any longer corrupting the 'woman' Intuition, and\nsuppressing the 'man' Intellect, he will purify and exalt her, and\nenable her to fulfil her proper function as 'the Mother of God' in man,\nand will recognise the intellect, when duly conjoined with her, as the\nheir of all things. Thus, becoming interpreter as well as administrator,\nprophet as well as priest, and recognising interpretation as the\ncorollary of the understanding, the prophet-priest of the regeneration\nwill give to men freely of the waters of life, that only true bread of\nHeaven, which is the food of the understanding, instead of the\nindigestible 'stones' and poisonous 'serpents' of doctrines, the\nprofession of which, by divorcing assent from conviction, involves that\nmoral and intellectual suicide, to induce others to join him in\ncommitting which Cardinal Newman wrote his 'Grammar of Assent,' True it\nis 'faith that saves,' but the faith that is without understanding is\nnot faith, but credulity\"[4]. It is for the above-mentioned reasons that\nthe title of this book has been changed. The title must be subservient\nto the book, and it is hoped that, the change having been made, there\nwill not be any further misunderstanding--even on the part of those who\nare most superficial--as to the nature and object of \"The Story of the\nNew Gospel of Interpretation.\"\n\nEdward Maitland did not long survive the completion of the great task\nthat he undertook when he set himself to write a full account of his\nlife and that of his colleague. He retained his full mental vigour until\nthe publication of \"The Life of Anna Kingsford\"; but after that he\nrapidly declined, and on the 2nd October, 1897, at the close of his\nseventy-third year, a little over nine years after the death of Anna\nKingsford[5], he passed away peacefully at \"The Warders\" at Tonbridge,\nthe home (at that time) of his friends Colonel and Mrs. Currie, with\nwhom, and under whose loving care, he spent the last few months of his\nlife--a life concerning which, as also that of Anna Kingsford, I will\nnot say anything here, for this book will testify. Blessed are the souls\nwhom the just commemorate before God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMany who read these pages will not rest until they know more of those\ngreat prophets the story of whose lives is here told, and of the Divine\nGnosis that it was their high mission to proclaim. I have indicated\nwhence they can obtain this information. This \"Story,\" interesting as it\nis and much as there is in it, is little more than an indication of some\nof the facts that are fully stated and dealt with in \"The Life of Anna\nKingsford,\" and there is much of importance that (as it could not\npossibly receive proper treatment in a book of this size) was passed\nover here to be related in the larger biography. I have not thought it\nexpedient to alter the character of or to add much to this book, but I\nhave enlarged it by incorporating therein, from \"The Life of Anna\nKingsford,\" some additional matter which is of interest, and which\nshould add to the value of the book. The most important additions are\nthe account of Anna Kingsford's vision of \"The Doomed Train,\" on p.p.\n43-47; the account of Anna Kingsford's vision of Adonai, on pp. 64-68;\nthe \"Exhortation of Hermes to his Neophytes,\" on pp. 110-112; the verses\n\"Concerning the Passage of the Soul,\" on pp. 169-170; and the\nillumination of Anna Kingsford concerning the \"Work of Power,\" on\npp. 180-181. I have also amplified the text in some places when, on\ncomparing it with corresponding passages in \"The Life of Anna\nKingsford,\" I found that I could do so with advantage. These\namplifications are not otherwise noted. Finally, I have added some notes\nwhere I thought that further explanation was desirable or would prove\nacceptable.\n\n    SAML. HOPGOOD HART.\n\n    Croydon, December, 1905.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] E.M. Letter in \"Light\" of 29th August, 1891.\n\n[2] See further as to this, an article by A.K. and E.M. in \"Light\" of\n23rd September, 1882, reprinted in Life A.K. Vol. II. p. 77.\n\n[3] E.M. Letter in \"Light\" of 22nd July, 1893.\n\n[4] E.M. Letter in \"Light\" of 17th December, 1892.\n\n[5] A.K. died on the 22nd February, 1888\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThere are certain introductory remarks which, in view of the prevailing\ntendency to reject prior to examination whatever conflicts with strongly\ncherished preconceptions--as anything purporting to be a \"new Gospel\" is\nundoubtedly calculated to do--may be made with advantage. Those remarks\nare as follows:--\n\n(1) As its title implies[6], that which is propounded is not really a\nnew Gospel, but one of Interpretation only, which is precisely what is\nadmitted by all serious and thoughtful persons to be the supreme need of\nthe times. It was said, for instance, by the late Matthew Arnold, \"At\nthe present moment there are two things about the Christian religion\nwhich must be obvious to every percipient person: one, that men cannot\ndo without it; the other, that they cannot do with it as it is.\"\n\n(2) As also its title implies[6] nothing new is told in it, but that\nonly which is old is interpreted; and the appeal on its behalf is not to\nauthority, whether of Book, Tradition, or Institution, but to the\nUnderstanding--a quality which accords not only with the spirit of the\ntimes, but also--as shewn herein--with that of religion itself, properly\nso called.\n\n(3) Scripture manifestly comprises two conflicting systems of doctrine\nand practice, having for their representatives respectively the priest\nand the prophet, one only of which systems, and this the system\nreprobated in Scripture itself, has hitherto obtained recognition from\nChristendom. It is the purpose of the New Gospel of Interpretation to\nexpound the system represented by the prophet and approved in Scripture,\nwith a view to replacing the other.\n\n(4) For those who attach value to the prophecies contained in the Bible,\nso far from there being an _a priori_ improbability against the delivery\nof a new revelation in interpretation, confirmation, or completion of\nthe former revelation, and in correction of the false presentment of it,\nthe probability ought to be all in favour of such an event. This is\nbecause Scripture abounds in predictions of a restoration both of\nfaculty and of knowledge, as to take place at the present time and under\nthe existing conditions of Church and World; and this of such kind as\nshall constitute a second and spiritual manifestation of the Christ in\nrectification of the perversion of the import of His first and personal\nmanifestation, and in arrest of the great Apostacy, not only from the\ntrue faith of Christ but from religion itself, of which that perversion\nhas been the cause.\n\n(5) So far from the idea of a new revelation which shall have for its\nend the disclosure, as the true sense of Scripture and Dogma, of a\nsense differing so widely from that hitherto accepted as to be virtually\ndestructive of it,--so far from this idea being universally repugnant to\northodox ecclesiastics, it has found warm recognition from one of the\nforemost of modern churchmen. This is the late Cardinal Newman.\n\nSaid Dr Newman in his _Apologia pro vita sua_, speaking of his earlier\ndays, \"The broad philosophy of Clement and Origen carried me away; the\nphilosophy, not the theological doctrine.... Some portions of their\nteaching, magnificent in themselves, came like music to my inward ear,\nas if the response to ideas, which, with little external to encourage\nthem, I had cherished so long. These were based on the mystical or\nsacramental principle, and spoke of the various Economies or\nDispensations of the Eternal. I understood these passages to mean that\nthe exterior world, physical and historical, was but the manifestation\nto our senses of realities greater than itself. Nature was a parable:\nScripture was an allegory:.... The process of change had been slow; it\nhad been done not rashly, but by rule and measure, 'at sundry times and\nin divers manners,' first one disclosure and then another, till the\nwhole evangelical doctrine was brought into full manifestation. And thus\nroom was made for the anticipation of further and deeper disclosures of\ntruths still under the veil of the letter, and in their season to be\nrevealed. The visible world still remains without its divine\ninterpretation: Holy Church in her sacraments and her hierarchical\nappointments, will remain, even to the end of the world, after all but a\nsymbol of those heavenly facts which fill eternity. Her mysteries are\nbut the expressions, in human language, of truths to which the human\nmind is unequal\"[7].\n\nDr Newman is credited also with the remark, made on visiting Rome for\nhis investiture, that he saw no hope for religion save in a new\nrevelation.\n\nThese are utterances the value of which is in no way diminished by the\nfact that their utterer failed to bring his own life into accordance\nwith them. He could write, indeed, the hymn \"Lead, kindly light\"; but\nwhen the \"kindly light\" was vouchsafed him of those suggestions of a\nsystem of thought concealed within the Christian Symbology, \"magnificent\nin themselves\" and making \"music to his inward ear,\" which he found in\nthe patristic writings; instead of following that lead, and striving to\nexhume the treasures of divine truth thus buried and hidden from sight,\nfor the salvation of a world perishing for want of them,--he turned his\nback upon it, and--entering the Church of Rome--wrote his \"Grammar of\nAssent,\" calling upon others to follow him in committing the suicide,\nintellectual and moral, of renouncing the understanding and divorcing\nprofession from conviction.\n\nThis was a catastrophe the explanation of which is not far to seek. Dr\nNewman had in him the elements which go to make both priest and prophet.\nBut the former proved the stronger; and the Cain, the priest in him,\nsuppressed the Abel, the prophet in him. Thus was he a type of the\nChurch as hitherto she has been. But, happily, not as henceforth she\nwill be. For \"now is the Gospel of Interpretation come, and the kingdom\nof the Mother of God,\" even the \"Woman,\" Intuition,--the mind's feminine\nmode, wherein it represents the perceptions and recollections of the\nSoul--who is ever \"Mother of God\" in man, and whose sons the prophets\never are, the greatest of them being called emphatically, for the\nfulness and purity of his intuition, the \"Son of the Woman\" and she a\n\"virgin.\"\n\n    E.M.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[6] The original title of this book was \"The Story of the New Gospel of\nInterpretation.\" See preface to the present edition. S.H.H.\n\n[7] Apologia pro vita sua, by J. H. Newman. New edition of 1893, pp. 26,\n27.\n\n\n\n\nFRONTISPIECES.\n\n\n     I.--PORTRAIT OF DR. ANNA KINGSFORD.\n    _Born, Sep. 16th, 1846; Died, Feb. 22nd, 1888._\n\n    II.--PORTRAIT OF EDWARD MAITLAND (_B.A., Cantab_).\n    _Born, Oct. 27th, 1824; Died, Oct, 2nd, 1897._\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                 PAGE\n\n    PREFACE TO THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS                          v.\n\n    PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION                              vii.-xiii.\n\n    INTRODUCTION                                                xv.-xix.\n\n    TABLE OF CONTENTS                                          xx.-xxii.\n\n    ABBREVIATIONS                                                 xxiii.\n\n\n    CHAPTER I.\n\n    THE VOCATION.\n\n    The Instruments--Their early lives--Their consciousness of a special\n      mission, and intimations of a call--Their training in respect of\n      circumstance, character, and faculty, until brought together\n      for their Joint work.                                         1-36\n\n\n    CHAPTER II.\n\n    THE INITIATION.\n\n    A baptism of the Spirit--\"At last I have found a man through whom\n      I can speak!\"--Intimation of the nature and aim of their work--The\n      Doomed train, \"No one on the engine!\"--Instantaneous\n      transfer of inspiration--\"Woman, what have I to do with\n      thee?\"--The recovery of a Gospel scene, and its import--\"The\n      woman taken in adultery\"--Vision of Adonai--Source of the\n      opening sentences in St. John's Gospel--Chapter from the recovered\n      Gnosis--The Generation of the Word.                          37-70\n\n\n    CHAPTER III.\n\n    THE COMMUNICATION.\n\n    The perfect love that casts out fear.\" In the presence of celestial\n      visitants--A parable of the Intuition--\"The Wonderful\n      Spectacles\"--The Greek element in the work--Hermes and John the\n      Baptist--The \"heresy of Prometheus\"--The Fig-tree, a symbol of the\n      inward understanding; the time come for it to bear fruit--The\n      Seeress's faculty--Her relations with Hermes--\"Thou art the\n      Rock\" addressed to Hermes--The parable of the Fig-tree--The\n      Mystic Woman of Holy Writ--\"Go thy way, Daniel....\n      Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days\"--The\n      prophecy of the book of Esther--The Angel Genius, his account\n      of himself and his office--Divine revelation the supreme common\n      sense--The source and method of the New Revelation--Its chief\n      recipient \"not a medium or a seer, but a prophet\"--An instruction\n      and a caution concerning the survival of tendencies encouraged\n      in past lives--Communion with souls of the departed--The\n      conditions of such intercourse--An instruction concerning\n      Inspiration and Prophesying--The prophecy of \"the kingdom of\n      the Mother of God.\"                                         71-108\n\n\n    CHAPTER IV.\n\n    THE ANTAGONISATION.\n\n    \"Ye are not yet perfected\"--Our respective _Auras_--An\n      exhortation--The Seven Spirits of God, their co-operation\n      necessary for a perfect work--\"You belong to us now, to do our\n      work and not your own\"--Enforced silence--\"The Powers of the Air;\"\n      their mode of attack--A strange visitant and his communication--A\n      strained situation--Visions of guidance--The \"refractory team,\"\n      and the \"Two Stars\"--The promised land reached only through\n      the wilderness--\"The Word a Word of mystery, and they who\n      guard it Seven\"--\"One Neophyte could not save himself\"--A\n      Horoscope--A descent into hell--Counsels of Perfection--A\n      \"Merry Christmas\"--A timely arrival--Neoplatonic recognition\n      of Hermes--The one Truth, never without a witness in the\n      world--The key of knowledge restored--Problems solved--The mystic\n      \"Woman\" of Holy Writ.                                      109-141\n\n\n    CHAPTER V.\n\n    THE RECAPITULATION.\n\n    The key to the mystery of the Bible; the \"Veil of Moses\"\n      withdrawn--The secret laid bare of the world's sacrificial system,\n      and the feud between priest and prophet--The Memory of the\n      Soul--The Standpoint of the Bible--All that is true is\n      Spiritual--The revelation of \"that wicked one\"--The seals broken\n      and the books opened--The New Gospel of\n      Interpretation--Sacerdotalism the \"Jerusalem which killed the\n      prophets\"--The suppressed doctrines--Reincarnation the corollary\n      and condition of Regeneration and implicit in the\n      Bible--\"Ye _must_ be born again of Virgin Mary and Holy\n      Ghost\"--The doctrines of the Trinity and Divine Incarnation as now\n      interpreted, necessary and self-evident truths--Evolution the\n      manifestation of a divine inherency; accomplished only by the\n      realisation of Divinity--The process of regeneration, and therein\n      of salvation, interior to the individual--Adam and Christ the\n      initial and final stages in the spiritual evolution of every\n      man--The \"Christ within\" of St Paul--The _Credo_ an epitome of the\n      spiritual history of the Sons of God.                      142-162\n\n\n    CHAPTER VI.\n\n    THE EXEMPLIFICATION.\n\n    Spontaneity of the Seeress's faculty--Specific illuminations, in\n      illustration, chiefly, of the process of Regeneration; concerning\n      (1) Holy Writ; (2) Redemption; (3) Sin and death; (4) The Twelve\n      Gates of Regeneration; (5) The Passage of the Soul; (6) The\n      Mystic Exodus; (7) The Spiritual Phoibos and the order of the\n      Christs; (8) The Previous Lives of Jesus, and Reincarnation;\n      (9) The Work of Power; the land and tongue of the New\n      Revelation, why ours.                                      163-183\n\n\n    CHAPTER VII.\n\n    THE PROMULGATION AND RECOGNITION.\n\n    Accordance of all the dates with those prophesied--Other\n      coincidences--Why our work has remained so long unknown to the\n      generality--Notable recognitions, by representative Kabalists,\n      Mystics, Occultists and Divines, Catholic, Anglican, and\n      others--Spiritualism, Theosophy, and the New Gospel of\n      Interpretation as fellow-agents in the unfoldment of the world's\n      spiritual consciousness, and the unsealing of the world's Bibles,\n      prophesied to take place at this epoch--\"Abraham, Isaac, and\n      Jacob,\" the Hebrew equivalents for Brahma, Isis, and Iacchos, to\n      denote the mysteries of India, Egypt, and Greece, the Spirit, the\n      Soul, and the Body, and therein the Gnosis of which the Christ is\n      the fulfilment and personal demonstration, and the restoration of\n      which was prophesied by Jesus as to mean the Regeneration of the\n      Church and the establishment of the divine kingdom on\n      earth--Mysticism and Occultism, the distinction between them, and\n      the necessity of both physical and spiritual science to a perfect\n      system of thought and rule of life--Conclusion.            184-204\n\n\n\n\nABBREVIATIONS.\n\n\n     A.K., for Anna Kingsford.\n\n     B.O.A.I., for \"The Bible's Own Account of Itself,\" by E.M.; second\n     edition, 1905.\n\n     C.W.S., for \"Clothed With The Sun,\" being the book of the\n     Illuminations of A.K.; edited by E.M., 1889.\n\n     D. and D.-S., for \"Dreams and Dream-Stones,\" by A.K., edited by\n     E.M.; second edition, 1888.\n\n     E.C.U., for \"The Esoteric Christian Union,\" founded by E.M. in\n     1891.\n\n     E. and I., for \"England and Islam; or, The Counsel of Caiaphas,\" by\n     E.M., 1877.\n\n     E.M., for Edward Maitland.\n\n     Life A.K., for \"The Life of Anna Kingsford,\" by E.M., 1896.\n\n     P.W., for \"The Perfect Way; or, The Finding of Christ,\" by A.K. and\n     E.M.; third edition, revised, 1890.\n\n     Statement, E.C.U., for \"The New Gospel of Interpretation; being an\n     Abstract of the Doctrine and Statement of the Objects of the\n     Esoteric Christian Union,\" by E.M.; revised and enlarged edition,\n     1892.\n\n\n\n\n    BIRMINGHAM:\n    THE RUSKIN PRESS, RUSKIN HOUSE,\n    STAFFORD STREET.\n    1905.\n\n[Illustration: Edward Maitland]\n\n[Illustration: Anna Kingsford]\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nSTORY OF ANNA KINGSFORD AND\n\nEDWARD MAITLAND\n\nAND\n\nOF THE NEW GOSPEL OF\n\nINTERPRETATION.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE VOCATION.\n\n\nMy colleague in the work, the history of which I am about to render some\naccount, was the late Anna Kingsford, _nee_ Bonus, M.D. of the\nUniversity of Paris.\n\nThere was a link between her husband's family and mine, but we were not\npersonally acquainted until, in the summer of 1873, she was led by\nreading one of my books[8] to open a correspondence with me, which\ndisclosed so striking a community between us of ideas, aims, and\nmethods, that I accepted an invitation to visit her at her husband's\nrectory at Pontesbury, Salop, in Shropshire, for the sake of a fuller\ndiscussion of them. This visit which lasted nearly a fortnight, took\nplace in February, 1874[9].\n\nThe account I received of her history was in this wise. Born at\nStratford, in Essex, on the 16th September, 1846, long after the last of\nher many brothers and sisters, and endowed with the most fragile of\nconstitutions and liabilities the most distressing of bodily weakness\nand suffering, and differing widely, moreover, in temperament from all\nwith whom she was associated, her young life had enjoyed but a scanty\nshare of human sympathy, and was largely one of solitude and meditation,\nand such as to foster the highly artistic, idealistic, and mystic\ntendencies with which she was born. Singularly energetic of will, and\nconscious of powers both transcending in degree and differing in kind\nfrom any that she recognised in others, she assiduously exercised her\nfaculties in many and various directions in the hope of discovering the\nspecial direction in which her mission lay. For, from her earliest\nchildhood she had been conscious of a mission, for the accomplishment of\nwhich she had expressly come into the earth-life. And she claimed even\nto have distinct recollection of having been strongly dissuaded from\ncoming, on account of the terrible suffering which awaited her in the\nevent of her assuming a body of flesh. Indeed, so little conscious was\nshe of the reality of her human parentage that she was wont to look upon\nherself as a suppositious child of fairy origin; and on her first visit\nto the pantomime, when the fairies made their appearance on the stage,\nshe declared that they were her proper people, and cried and struggled\nto get to them with such vehemence that it was necessary to remove her\nfrom the theatre. Among her amusements, her chief delight was in the\nample gardens around her homes at Stratford and Blackheath, where she\nwould hold familiar converse with the flowers, putting into their petals\ntiny notes for her lost relatives, the fairies, who in return would\nvisit her in her dreams and assure her of their continued affection, and\ncounsel her to have patience and courage.\n\nThe chief occupation of her girlhood was the writing of poems and\ntales[10] which were tinged with an exquisite mysticism, and showed a\nripeness of soul and maturity of feeling and knowledge wholly\nunaccountable for by her years, her experiences, or her physical\nheredity. At school she always obtained the first prizes for\ncomposition, and her faculty of improvisation was the delight of her\ncompanions; the subjects of these her earlier romances being lovely\nprincesses, gallant knights, castles, dragons, and the like, when--as\nmay readily be supposed--her tall and slender frame, long golden hair,\ndelicacy of complexion, deep-set hazel eyes, beauty of feature, the brow\nand the mouth being especially notable, the brightness of her looks,\nvivacity of her manner, her musical voice, and the easy eloquence of her\ndiction,--all combined to make her an ideal heroine for her own\nromances. She could hardly, however, be said to be a _persona grata_\nwith her pastors and masters. For while her independence of character\nand strength of will were apt to bring her into conflict with rules and\nregulations of which she failed to recognise the need, her thirst for\nknowledge, especially on religious subjects, prompted her to the\nproposition of questions which were highly embarrassing to her teachers;\nand nothing that they could say succeeded in convincing her that her\nduty lay in believing what she was told, and not in understanding it.\nShe very early learnt to resent the disabilities of her sex, and to\ninsist that they were not real but artificial, the result of masculine\nselfishness and injustice. This hatred of injustice and its correlative\ncruelty, especially towards animals, attained in her the force and\ndignity of a passion, her sensitiveness on this score making the chief\nmental misery of her life.\n\nOf one gift possessed by her she early learnt to repress the\nmanifestation. This was the faculty for seeing apparitions and divining\nthe characters and fortunes of people. For she was a born seer. But the\ninability of her elders to comprehend the faculty, and their consequent\nascription of it to pathological causes, were wont to lead to references\nto the family doctor with results so eminently disagreeable and even\ninjurious to her, as soon to suggest the wisdom of keeping silence\nrespecting her experiences.\n\nHer first published compositions were written at the age of\nthirteen[11], the editors who accepted her contributions to their\nmagazines being under the impression that they came from a grown-up\nperson and not from the mere child that she was. They cost her, she\nassured me, little labour, especially the poems, but seemed to come to\nher ready-made, and to flow through her spontaneously. And whatever the\ncountry in which their scene lay, the local colouring and descriptions\nwere always faithful and vivid, as if the places and their inhabitants\nwere familiar and even actually visible to her.\n\nIt was not, however, to any encouragement of her peculiar gifts that\nsuch excellency as she exhibited was due. Rather were they severely\nrepressed, especially in respect of drawing, singing and music, lest she\nshould be tempted to follow them as a profession; a fear which had been\nexcited by the suggestions of her masters that she would be certain of\nsuccess in any of those lines.\n\nHer innate consciousness of a mission seemed to her to indicate her as\ndestined for some redemptive work, not only for others, but also for\nherself. For, while the instincts of the Champion and the Saviour were\npotent in her, she was dimly conscious of its possessing also an\nexpiatory element, in virtue of which her own salvation would largely\ndepend upon her endeavours to save others. She had as yet no theory\nwhereby to explain this or any other of the problems she was to herself.\nAll that she knew was that she possessed, or rather was possessed of,\nthese feelings and impulses. It was easy to see by her account of\nherself that she was as one driven of the Spirit long before the Spirit\ndefinitely revealed itself to her. The two departments of humanity which\nshe felt especially impelled to succour and save were her own sex and\nthe animals. For she would recognise no hard and fast line between\nmasculine and feminine, human and animal, or even between animal and\nplant. In her eyes everything that lived was humanity, only in different\nstages of its unfoldment. Even the flowers were persons for her.\n\nAs she approached womanhood she found herself looking forward to\nmarriage far less for its own sake than as a means of emancipation from\nrestrictions on her choice of a career. Her father died while she was\nyet wanting two or three years of her majority, leaving her mistress of\nan income ample for a single woman. And when at length she became\nengaged to Algernon Godfrey Kingsford, a cousin to whom she had some\ntime been attached, it was on the understanding that she should remain\nunfettered in this respect. He held at the time a post in the Civil\nService; but soon after their marriage, which took place on the last day\nof 1867, determined to read for holy orders. This gave her an\nopportunity for making herself acquainted with Anglican theology, of\nwhich--thirsting for knowledge of all kinds--she eagerly availed\nherself, accompanying him in all his studies, and greatly facilitating\nthem by her admirable scholarly methods. This proved to be the first\ngreat step in her religious and intellectual training for her destined\nmission.\n\nOne of the occupations of her early married life was the editing of a\nlady's magazine, which she purchased with a view of making it an\ninstrument for the dissemination of her ideas especially in regard to\nher sex. And she accordingly took an active part in the movement then\nrecently originated for the enfranchisement of women, achieving an\nextraordinary success as a public speaker. But, becoming convinced that\ntheir cause would be best advanced by the practical demonstration of\ntheir fitness for the promotion they sought, and also feeling her own\nneed for the discipline of a severe intellectual training to balance the\nemotional side of her nature, she soon withdrew from active\nparticipation in the movement. She moreover recognised as a grave\nmistake the disposition evinced by her fellow-workers to suppress their\nwomanliness in favour of a factitious masculinity, under the impression\nthat they would thereby exalt their sex; her idea being, that their true\npolicy lay in magnifying rather than in depreciating their womanhood.\nMeanwhile she had given birth to a daughter, her only child.\n\nHer magazine was given up after a couple of years, the results failing\nto justify the expenditure of time, labour and money, requisite for its\ncontinuance. Not that it lacked adequate support; but the principles on\nwhich she insisted on conducting it proved to be incompatible with\ncommercial success. She resolutely refused all advertisements of\narticles, whether of food or of clothing, of which she disapproved; and\nshe had adopted the pythagorean regimen and discarded as unhygienic\nsundry articles of attire ordinarily deemed indispensable by her sex. It\nwas in her magazine that she first struck the note which proved the\ninitiation of the holy warfare since waged against the horrors of the\nphysiological laboratory, a warfare in which she bore a foremost part\nand developed the malady of which she died.\n\nIn 1870, a long and severe illness, which compelled her return to her\nmother's house at Hastings to be nursed, led to her entry upon another\nphase in her inner life, and a further stage in the process of her\neducation for her mission. She had early recoiled from the faith in\nwhich she had been reared. This was Protestantism in its most unlovely\nform, cold, harsh, narrow, dogmatic. Her closer acquaintance with it as\na clergyman's wife had done nothing to mitigate her judgment of it.\nExplaining nothing and lacking fervour and poetry, it left head and\nheart alike unsatisfied. Her residence as an invalid at Hastings brought\nher into intimacy with some devout Catholics, the effect of which was to\nintensify the repugnance already set up. She attended the Catholic\nservices, and visited the sisters in the convent, reading their books of\ndevotion and even making an extended study of Catholic doctrine, for she\nwould do nothing by halves. She found what satisfied her heart and\nartistic tastes. But the chief determining cause of the change upon\nwhich she at length resolved, was her reception by night of sundry\nvisitations, purporting to be of angelic nature, and enjoining on her,\nfor the sake of the mission to which she was called--the knowledge of\nwhich, she was told, would in due time be revealed to her--that she join\nthe Roman communion. Well aware that the confession of such experiences,\nwhether to her relations or to a minister of her own Church, would\nelicit only a smile of pity or contempt, with a recommendation to seek\nmedical advice, and involve other contingencies equally distasteful, she\nresolved to see how the same confession would be treated by a Catholic\npriest. The result of the essay was that she was listened to with\nrespect and sympathy, and informed that the Church fully recognised such\nvisitations as coming within the divine order, and as being a token of\nhigh spiritual favour and grace; and while it refrained from pronouncing\npositively on them, considered that they ought not to be lightly\ndisregarded. She was soon afterwards received into the Roman Church,\nbeing baptised on September 14, 1870. On June 9, 1872, she was confirmed\nby Archbishop Manning, who admonished her to utilise her attractions in\nmaking converts. And on each occasion she received additional names, in\nvirtue of which she now bore the names of all the five women who were by\nthe Cross and at the Sepulchre.\n\nNone the less, however, did she retain her independence of mind and\nconduct. She accepted no direction, and professed no tenet that she did\nnot understand. And it was soon made clear to her that the Spirit, of\nwhom she was being impelled, did not intend her to regard her adoption\nof Catholicism as more than a step in her education for the work\nrequired of her. For the following year saw her bent on seeking a\nmedical degree, under the impression that such a step was in some way\nrelated to the mission of which she had received such and so many\nmysterious intimations. And she had scarcely commenced her study of\nmedicine when this impression was reinforced by the following incident,\nthe scene of which was her home in Shropshire, in the parish of which\nher husband had then recently become incumbent, and where I first\nvisited them.\n\nThis was the receipt of a letter from a lady who was a stranger to her,\nwritten from a distant part of the country, and saying that she, the\nwriter, had read with profound interest and admiration a story[12] of\nMrs Kingsford which, after appearing in her magazine, had been published\nas a book, and that after reading it she had received from the Holy\nSpirit a message for her which was to be delivered in person. After some\nhesitation as to what reply to make, Mrs Kingsford--whose account I am\nfollowing exactly--agreed to receive her; an appointment was made, and\nthe stranger duly presented herself. She was tall, erect, distinguished\nlooking, with hair of iron-grey and strangely brilliant eyes, and was\nperfectly calm and collected of demeanour. The message was to the effect\nthat Mrs Kingsford was to remain in retirement for five years,\ncontinuing the studies and mode of life on which she had entered,\nwhatever they might be--for that the messenger did not know--and to\nsuffer nothing and no one to draw her aside from them. That when these\nprobationary five years were past, the Holy Spirit would bring her\nforth from her seclusion, and a great work would be given her to do. All\nthis was uttered with a rapt and inspired expression, as though she had\nbeen a Sibyl pronouncing an oracle. After delivering her message, the\nmessenger kissed her on both cheeks and departed, first asking only\nwhether she thought her mad; a question to which for a moment Mrs\nKingsford found it somewhat difficult to make reply. But only for a\nmoment. For then there rushed on her the conviction that it was all\ngenuine and true, and was but a fresh unfoldment of the mystery of her\nlife and destiny, and in full accordance with her own foreshadowings\nfrom the beginning.\n\nSome four years later, at a time when Mrs Kingsford was in great straits\nfor want of a suitable home in London in which to carry on her studies,\nthe same lady was similarly commissioned on her behalf, while totally\nignorant both of her whereabouts and her need, and with results entirely\nsatisfactory. On which occasion I had the privilege of making her\nacquaintance, and the satisfaction of finding her not merely perfectly\nsane, but a person entitled to the highest consideration, noted for her\npious devotion to works of beneficence involving complete\nself-abnegation; and in short a veritable \"Mother in Israel.\"\n\nThe event above related occurred in the spring of 1873, the summer of\nwhich year saw Mrs Kingsford impelled to do what led to the most crucial\nof the events upon which her destined mission hinged, namely, to write\nto me the letter which led to my visit to her home. In the autumn of the\nsame year she passed her matriculation examination at the Apothecaries'\nHall with success so great as to fill her with high hopes of a\ntriumphant passage through the course of her student-life. But\nimmediately afterwards her hopes were dashed, for the English medical\nauthorities saw fit to close their schools to women, and the way to her\nanticipated career was shut against her.\n\nSuch was the position when, in February, 1874, I visited the Shropshire\nrectory, and such in brief the history which was gradually unfolded to\nme as my evident sympathy and appreciation gained the confidence of the\nstill young couple, whose senior I was by some twenty years. Both\nhusband and wife were at their wits' end, the situation being aggravated\nby a circumstance which was first brought to my knowledge on my\nsuggestion of the postponement of her design until such time as the\nmedical authorities should come to their right minds and re-open their\nschools to women. The circumstance in question was her terrible\nliability on the ground of ill-health, and especially of asthma, to\nwhich she was a martyr, life in the country being impossible to her for\nthe greater part of the year, when it was only in some large city that\nshe was able to breathe. With the schools closed against her in England,\nher thoughts turned towards France, the University of Paris being open\nto women. But for obvious reasons her husband, who could not absent\nhimself from his duties to accompany her, would not consent to her going\nthither unless under suitable protection. For himself he had but one\nwish, that she should follow her bent and fashion her life as seemed\nbest to her; for he recognised her as entitled by her endowments and\naspirations, as well as by the terms of their engagement, to full\nliberty of action, while the conditions of her health claimed all\nconsideration from him. If, indeed, the Gods had destined her for a\nmission requiring freedom of action combined with the shelter and\nsupport of a husband's name, it seemed to me that in him they had\ncreated a man expressly for the office. For some time, however, the\ndifficulty seemed insuperable, and one that would yield to no amount of\ndeliberation, even with the best will of all concerned.\n\nMeanwhile her self-revelations continued, being evidently prompted, at\nleast as much by the desire to obtain some explanation of herself for\nherself, to whom she was, she avowed, a complete puzzle, as by the\ndesire to elicit answering confidences from me. And they became with\neach disclosure more and more striking, until I could hardly resist the\nconviction that she was possessed of some faculty in virtue of which she\nwas able to have direct perception of conclusions to which I had won my\nway by dint of long and arduous thinking, and in some instances in\nadvance of me. She had read my mental history between the lines of my\nbooks, and was fully prepared to learn that I too had a consciousness,\nanalogous to her own, of a mission in life perhaps also analogous to her\nown.\n\nThis, I was able to assure her, was indeed the case, and that all my\nbooks had been written in the idea of finding my way to it by dint of\nfree, unfettered thinking. For, brought up in the strictest of\nevangelical sects, I had even as a lad begun to be revolted by the creed\nin which I was reared, and had very early come to regard its tenets,\nespecially of total depravity and vicarious atonement, as a libel\nnothing short of blasphemous against both God and man, and to feel that\nno greater boon could be bestowed on the world than its emancipation\nfrom the bondage of a belief so degrading and so destructive of any\nlofty ideal. I had felt strongly that only in such measure as I might be\nthe means of its abolition would my life be a success and a satisfaction\nto myself. It even seemed to me that my own credit was involved in the\nmatter; and that in disproving such beliefs I should be vindicating my\nown character. For if God were evil, as those doctrines made Him, I\ncould by no possibility be good, since I must have my derivation from\nHim. And I knew that, however weak and unwise I might be, I was not\nevil.\n\nThen, too, my life, like hers, had been one of much isolation and\nmeditation. I had felt myself a stranger even with my closest intimates.\nFor I was always conscious of a difference which separated me from them,\nand of a side to which they could not have access. I had graduated at\nCambridge with the design of taking orders; but only to find that I\ncould not do so conscientiously, and to feel that to commit myself to\nany conditions incompatible with absolute freedom of thought and\nexpression would be a treachery against both myself and my kind;--for it\nwas for no merely personal end that I wanted to discover the truth. I\nlonged to get away from all my surroundings in order, first, to think\nmyself out of all that I had been taught, and so to make my mind as a\nclean sheet whereon to receive true impressions and at first hand; and,\nnext, to think myself into a condition and to a level wherein I could\nsee all things--myself, nature, and God--face to face, with vision\nundimmed and undistorted by beliefs which, being inherited only and\ntraditional, instead of the result of conviction honestly arrived at,\nwere factitious and unreal; no living outcome of my own growth and\nobservation, but a veritable straitwaistcoat, stifling life and\nrestraining development. And so it had come that--as related in my first\nnovel, \"The Pilgrim and the Shrine\"[13], which was essentially\nautobiographical--I had eagerly fallen in with a proposal to join an\nexpedition to the then newly-discovered placers of California, an\nenterprise which, besides promising to gratify the love for adventure,\nphysical as well as mental, which was strong in me, would postpone if\nnot solve the difficulty of my position. It possessed, moreover, the\nhigh recommendation of taking me to the world of the fresh,\nunsophisticated West, instead of to that East which had been made almost\nhateful to me by its association with the tenets by which existence had\nbeen poisoned for me.\n\nSo, setting my face towards the sunset, I became one of the band of\n\"Forty-niners\" in California, and remained abroad in the continents and\nisles of the Pacific, from America passing to Australia, until the\nintended year of my absence had grown into nearly ten years, and I had\nexperienced well-nigh every vicissitude and extreme which might serve to\nheighten the consciousness, toughen the fibre, and try the soul of man.\nBut throughout all, the idea of a mission remained with me, gathering\nforce and consistency, until it was made clear to me that not\ndestruction merely, but construction, not the exposure of error but the\ndemonstration of truth, was comprised in it. For I saw that it was\npossible to reduce religion to a series of first principles, necessary\ntruths and self-evident propositions, and that only in such measure as\nit was thus reduced and discerned, was it really true and really\nbelieved;--in short, that faith and knowledge are identical. To accept a\nreligion on the ground that one had been born in it, and apart from its\nappeal to the mind and moral conscience, and thus to make it dependent\nupon the accident of birth and parentage, was to resemble the African\nsavage who for the same reason worships Mumbo Jumbo. How, moreover,--I\nasked myself--could a religion which was not in accord with first\nprinciples, represent a God, Who, to be God, must Himself be the first\nof, and must comprise all principles; must account logically for all the\nfacts of consciousness, be it unfolded as far as it may? Granting that,\nas the poet says, \"an honest man's the noblest work of God,\" it was for\nme no less true that \"an honest God's the noblest work of man.\" And it\nwas precisely such a being that I longed to elaborate out of, or\ndiscover in, my own consciousness, confident that the achievement meant\nthe solution of all problems, the rectification of all difficulties, the\nsatisfaction of all aspirations, intellectual, moral, and spiritual.\nFollowing such trains of thought, I arrived at the assurance that I had\nwithin my own consciousness both the truth itself and the verification\nof the truth, and that it remained only to find these.\n\nReturning to England in 1857, and, after an interval, devoting myself to\nliterature, all that I wrote, whether essay or fiction, represented the\nendeavour by probing the consciousness to the utmost in every direction\nto discover a central, radiant, and indefeasible point from which all\nthings could be deduced, and on which, as a pivot they must depend and\nrevolve. I read largely, and went much among people, always in search of\naid in my quest; but only with the result of finding that neither from\nbooks nor from persons could I even begin to get what I sought, but only\nfrom thought.\n\nMeanwhile everything seemed ordered with a view to the end ultimately\nattained. For, so far from having left behind me for ever the\nvicissitudes, and struggles, and trials, and ordeals, in which the\nwildernesses of the western and southern worlds had been so fruitful, I\nwas found of them in the old world to which I had returned; and this in\nnumber, kind, and degree, such as to make it appear as if what I had\nborne before had been inflicted expressly for the purpose of enabling me\nto bear what was put upon me now. And it was only when I had learnt by\nexperience that the very capacity for thought is enhanced by feeling no\nless than by thinking, that the \"ministry of pain\" found its\nexplanation. For the feeling required of me proved to be that of the\ninner, not merely of the outer man, of the soul, not merely of the body;\nand the faculty, to be the intuition, and not merely the intellect.\nHence I was made to learn by experience, long before the fact was\nformulated for me in words, that only \"by the bruising of the outer, the\ninner is set free,\" and \"man is alive only so far as he has felt.\"\n\nEverything seemed contrived expressly in order to force me in this\ninward direction. Even in my literary work, nothing of the \"trade\"\nelement was permitted to intrude. I could not write except when writing\nto or from my own centre. Faculty itself was shut off, if turned to any\nother purpose. Everything I wrote must minister to and represent a step\nin my own unfoldment.\n\nI can confidently affirm that the only books which really helped me\nwere, with scarcely an exception, those which I wrote myself. Of the\nexceptions the chief was Emerson. His essays had been my _vade mecum_ in\nall my world-wide wanderings. And there were three sentences of his\nwhich, to use his own phrase, \"found\" me as no others had done. They\nwere these: \"The talent is the call\"; \"I the imperfect adore my own\nperfect\"; and, \"Beware when God lets loose a thinker on the earth.\" Like\nEmerson himself, I had yet to learn that man's own perfect is God, and\nself-culture is God-culture, provided the self be the inmost self. The\ntwo other books which most helped me were Bailey's \"Festus,\" and\nCarlyle's \"Hero-Worship.\" And I owed something to Tucker's \"Light of\nNature.\" By which it will be seen that my affinity was always for the\nprophets rather than the priests of literature; for the intuitionalists\nrather than the externalists.\n\nGradually two leading ideas took definite form in my mind, which,\nhowever, proved to be but two aspects or applications of one and the\nsame idea. And that idea proved to be the keynote of all that I was\nseeking after. For it finally solved the problems of existence, of\nreligion, of the Bible, of Being itself. Hence the necessity of this\nreference to it.\n\nThis idea was that of a duality subsisting in every unity, such as I had\nnowhere read or heard of. I was, of course, aware that the theological\ndoctrine of the Trinity involved a Duality. But not of a kind to find a\nresponse in my mind. And being unable to assimilate it as it stood, I\nignored it; putting it aside until it should present itself to me in an\naspect in which it was intelligible. I felt, however vaguely, that the\nDuality I sought was in the Bible, though it had been missed by the\nofficial expositors of that book. And the conviction that it was in some\nway connected with my life-work was so strong that I constructed for the\ncovers of my two first books a monogram symbolical of Genesis i. 27. And\nI looked to the unfoldment of what I felt to be the secret significance\nof that utterance for the explication of all the mysteries the solution\nof which engrossed me. The thought did not seem to originate in any of\nmy experiences, but rather to be part of my original stock of innate\nideas, supposing that there are such ideas, and to derive confirmation\nand explanation from my experiences.\n\nThose experiences were in this wise. It had been my privilege to have\nthe friendship of several women of a type so noble that to know them was\nat once an education and a religion; women whose perfection of character\nhad served more than anything else to make me believe in God, when all\nother grounds had failed. I could in no wise account for them on the\nhypothesis of a fortuitous concourse of unintelligent atoms. And not\nonly did I find that the higher the type the more richly they were\nendowed with precisely the faculty of which I myself was conscious as\ndistinguishing me from my fellows; I found also that I was unable to\nrecognise any woman as of a high type as woman save in so far as she was\npossessed of it. I had failed to find any who possessed the knowledge I\ncraved, and who were thereby able to help me in my thought. They helped\nme nevertheless, but it was by _being_ what they were, rather than by\n_knowing_ and _doing_, be they admirable as they might in these\nrespects. I recognised in them that which supplemented and complemented\nmy mental self in such wise as to suggest unbounded possibilities of\nresults to accrue from the intimate association of two minds thus\nattuned to each other, and duly unfolded by thought and study. It\nneeded, it seemed to me, but the reverberation and intensification of\nthought, induced by the apposition of two minds thus related, for the\nproduction of the divine child Truth in the very highest spheres of\nthought. So that the results would by no means be restricted to the mere\nsum of the associated capacities of the two minds themselves. And in\nview of such high possibilities I found myself appropriating and\napplying the ejaculation which Virgil puts into the mouth of Anna when\nurging the union of her sister Dido with AEneas--\n\n                  \"Quae surgere regna\n    Conjugio tali!\"\n\nand I felt with Tennyson that\n\n    \"They two together well might move the world.\"\n\nSo boundless seemed to me the kingdoms of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty\nwhich would spring from such conjunction.\n\nIt goes without saying that such relationship was contemplated by me\nonly as the accompaniment of a happy re-marriage. [For I had married in\nAustralia only to be widowered after a year's wedlock.] But such a\nprospect was so long withheld as to make me dubious of its\nrealisation[14]. Nevertheless, some inner voice was ever saying: \"Wait;\nwait. Everything comes to him who waits, provided only he do so in faith\nand patience, looking to the highest.\" But that I did wait, and\naccordingly kept myself free for what ultimately was assigned to me, was\ndue far less to the expectation of finding that for which I waited, than\nto the vivid consciousness which I had of the bitterness that would come\nof finding it, only to be withheld from it through a previous disposal\nof myself in some other and incompatible quarter. This was an impression\nwhich served largely to keep my life as free as I desired my thought to\nbe. But that the as yet undisclosed arbiters of my destiny deemed it\ninsufficient as a deterrent, appeared from their reinforcement of it in\na manner which effectually debarred me from marriage save on the\ncondition, impossible to me, of a mercenary alliance. This was a\nreversal of fortune through a succession of losses so serious as to be\nthe cause of reducing my means to the minimum compatible with existence\nat all in my own station, which soon afterwards happened. That there\nwere yet further reasons for this imposition on me of the rule of\npoverty, arising out of the nature of the work required of me, was in\ndue time made manifest, and also what those reasons were. They need not\nbe specified here, excepting only this one. It made impossible the\nascription to my destined colleague of mercenary motives for her\nassociation with me. In this I came to recognise a delicate providence\nfor which I felt I could not be too thankful. In the meantime, even\nwhile smarting severely from this dispensation, and others yet more\nbitter which were heaped on me for no apparent cause or fault of my own\nthat I could discern, the thought that most of all served to sustain me\nunder what I felt would have utterly broken down in heart or head, or in\nboth of these organs, any other person whatever of whom I had\nknowledge,--that thought was the surmise or suspicion that all these\nthings, hard to bear as they were, and undeserved as they seemed, might\nprove to be blessings in disguise, in ministering to the realisation of\nthe controlling ambition of my life by educating me for it; and that\naccording to the manner in which I bore them might be the result.\n\nThere is yet one more personal disclosure essential to this part of my\nrelation. It concerns my own mental standpoint at the time at which my\nnarrative has arrived. Bent as I was on penetrating the secret of things\nat first hand, and by means of a thought absolutely free, I was never\nfor a moment disposed to turn, as my so-called free-thinking\ncontemporaries one and all had turned, a scornful back upon whatever\nrelated to or savoured of the current religion. Scripture and dogma were\nnot for me necessarily either false or inscrutable because their\nofficial exponents had presented them in an aspect which outraged my\nreason and revolted my conscience. I felt bound--if only in justice to\nthem and myself--at least to find out what they did mean before finally\ndiscarding them. And in this act of justice I was strangely sustained\nby a sense of the possibility that the truth, if any, contained in them,\nwas no other than that of which I was in search. This is to say, that in\nall my investigations I kept before me the idea that, if I could discern\nthe actual nature of existence and the intended sense of the Bible and\nChristianity, independently of each other, they might prove on\ncomparison to be identical; in which case the latter would really\nrepresent a true revelation. Meanwhile, I found myself constrained to\nbelieve, as an axiomatic proposition, that the higher and nobler the\nconception I framed in my imagination of the nature of existence, and\nthe more in accordance with my ideas of what, to be perfect, the\nconstitution of the universe ought to be, the nearer I should come to\nthe actual truth.\n\nSimilarly with religion. For a religion to be true, it must, I felt\nabsolutely assured, be ideally perfect after the most perfect ideal that\nwe can frame. This is to say, that not only must it be in itself such as\nto satisfy both head and heart, mind and moral conscience, spirit and\nsoul; it must also be perfectly simple, obviously reasonable, coherent,\nself-evident, founded in the nature of things, incapable--when once\ncomprehended--of being conceived of as otherwise, absolutely equitable,\neternally true, and recognisable as being all these, invariable in\noperation, independent of all accidents of time, place, persons and\nevents, and comparable to the demonstration of a mathematical problem in\nthat it needs no testimony or authority beyond those of the mind; and\nrequiring for its efficacious observance, nothing that is extraneous or\ninaccessible to the subject-individual, but within his ability to\nrecognise and fulfil, provided only that he so will. It must also be\nsuch as to enable him by the observance of it to turn his existence to\nthe highest possible account imaginable by him, be his imagination as\ndeveloped as it may: and all this as independently of any being other\nthan himself, as if he were the sole personal entity in the universe,\nand were himself the universe. That is to say, the means of a man's\nperfectionment must inhere in his own system, and he must be competent\nof himself effectually to apply them. It is further necessary, because\nequitable, that he be allowed sufficient time and opportunity for the\ndiscovery, understanding and application of such means.\n\nSuch are the terms and conditions of an ideally perfect religion, as I\nconceived of them. It is a definition which excludes well-nigh, if not\nquite, all the characteristics ordinarily regarded as appertaining to\nreligion, and notably to that of Christendom. For in excluding\neverything extraneous to the actual subject-individual, and requiring\nreligion to be self-evident and necessarily true, it excludes as\nsuperfluous and irrelevant, history, tradition, authority, revelation,\nas ordinarily conceived of, ecclesiastical ordinance, priestly\nministration, mediatorial function, vicarious satisfaction, and even the\noperation of Deity as subsisting without and apart from the man, all of\nwhich are essential elements in the accepted conception of religion.\nNevertheless, profound as was my distrust of the faithfulness of the\northodox presentation, I could not reconcile myself to a renunciation of\nthe originals on which that presentation was founded, until I had\nsatisfied myself that I had fathomed their intended and real meaning.\n\nI had, moreover, very early conceived a personal affection for Jesus as\na man, so strong as to serve as a deterrent both from abandoning the\nfaith founded on Him, and from accepting it as it is as worthy of Him.\n\nSuch was my standpoint, intellectual and religious, at the period in\nquestion. The time came when it found full justification; our results\nbeing such as to verify it in everyone of its manifold aspects. And not\nthis only. The doctrine which had so mysteriously evolved itself out of\nmy consciousness to attain by slow degrees the position of a controlling\ninfluence in my life, the doctrine, namely of a Duality subsisting in\nthe Original Unity of Underived Being, and as inhering therefore in\nevery unit of derived being, this doctrine proved to be the key to the\nmysteries both of Creation and of Redemption, as propounded in the Bible\nand manifested in the Christ; the key also to the nature of man,\ndisclosing the facts both of his possession of divine potentialities as\nhis birthright, and his endowment with the faculty whereby to discern\nand to realise them. And while it proved constructive in respect of\nDivine Truth, it proved destructive in respect of the falsification of\nthat truth which had passed for orthodoxy, by disclosing the source, the\nmotive, the method and the agents of that falsification.\n\nBut these things were still in the future. At the time with which we are\nnow concerned, I had commenced a book to represent the standpoint just\ndescribed, \"The Keys of the Creeds.\" The first and initial draft of\nthat book was written under the sympathetic eye of one of the order of\nnoble women to which reference has been made, and owed much to the\nenhancement of faculty derived by me from such conjunction of minds. The\nsecond and final draft was written under like relationship with another\nmember of the self-same order, even she who proved to be my destined\ncollaborator in the work of which this book recounts the story. It was\npublished in 1875. It is necessary only to say further of the book thus\nproduced, that notwithstanding certain defects of expression, due\nchiefly to an insufficient acquaintance with the terminology of\nmetaphysics, it proved an invaluable help to very many, as was amply\nshown by the letters of grateful appreciation received from them by me.\nThe keynote was that which afterwards found expression in the\nutterance,--\n\n\"There is no enlightenment from without: the secret of things is\nrevealed from within.\n\n\"From without cometh no Divine Revelation: but the Spirit within beareth\nwitness\"[15].\n\nFor the lesson it contained was the lesson that the phenomenal world\ncannot disclose its own secret. To find this, man must seek in that\nsubstantial world which lies within himself, since all that is real is\nwithin the man. From which it followed that if there is no within, or if\nthat within be inaccessible, either there is no reality, or man has no\norganon of knowledge, and is by constitution agnostic. Meanwhile, the\nvery fact of my possession of an ideal exempt from the limitations of\nthe apparent, constituted for me a strong presumption in favour of the\nreality of the ideal.\n\nThe moment of contact between my destined colleague and myself, was as\ncritical for one as for the other, only that in my case the crisis was\nintellectual. I could see to the end of the argument I was then\nelaborating; and that it landed me close to the dividing barrier between\nthe two worlds of sense and spirit, supposing the latter to have any\nbeing[16]. But I neither saw beyond, nor knew how to ascertain whether\nor not there is a beyond. We were discussing the question of there being\nan inner sense in Scripture, such as my book suggested; and whether,\nsupposing it to have such a sense, it required for its discernment any\nfaculty more recondite than a subtle imagination; and if it did, is\nthere such a faculty? and what is its nature? By which it will be seen\nthat I was still in ignorance of the nature of the faculty I found in\nmyself and recognised as especially subsisting in women, and which, for\nme, really made the woman.\n\nThe reply rendered by her to these questionings constituted the proof\npositive that I had at length discovered the mind which my own had so\nlong craved as its sorely needed complement. In response to them she\ngave me a manuscript in her own writing, asking me to read it and tell\nher frankly what I thought of it. Having read and re-read it, I\nenquired how and where she had got it. She replied by asking what I\nthought of it. I answered, \"If there is such a thing as divine\nrevelation, I know of nothing that comes nearer to my ideal of what it\nought to be. It is exactly what the world is perishing for want of--a\nreasonable faith.\" She then told me that it had come to her in her\nsleep, but whence or how she did not know; nor could she say whether she\nhad seen it or heard it, but only that it came suddenly into her mind,\nwithout her having ever heard or thought of such teaching before. It was\nan exposition of the Story of the Fall, exhibiting it as a parable\nhaving a significance purely spiritual, wholly reasonable, and of\nuniversal application, physical persons, things, and events described in\nit disappearing in favour of principles, processes, and states\nappertaining to the soul; no mere local history, therefore, but an\neternal verity. The experience, she went on to tell me, was far from\nexceptional; she had received many things which had greatly struck and\npleased her in the same way, and sometimes while in the waking state in\na sort of day-dream. It was subsequently incorporated into our book,\n\"The Perfect Way.\"\n\nHer account of her faculty, of which she related several instances,\nproduced a profound impression on me. It differed altogether from any\nthat I had heard of as claimed by the votaries of \"Spiritualism,\" a\ncreed to which neither of us had assented; such little experience as we\nhad of it having failed to convince us of the genuineness of its\nphenomena; though she, on her part, confessed to having been somewhat at\na loss to account for some things she had seen. But though not\nspiritualists, we were not materialists. Rather were we idealists, who\nhad yet to learn and, as the event proved, were destined shortly to\nlearn, that the Ideal _is_ the Real, and is Spiritual.\n\nThe event also proved that in order to learn it and to know it\npositively by experience, there were two conditions to be fulfilled, on\nboth of which she had already entered, but I had yet to enter. One of\nthese conditions was physical, the other was emotional. The former\nconsisted in the renunciation of flesh-food in favour of a diet derived\nfrom the vegetable kingdom. The latter condition consisted in the\nkindling of our enthusiasm for the ideal into a flame of such ardour and\nintensity as to make it the dominant passion of our lives, and one in\nwhich all others would be swallowed up. It was to be an enthusiasm at\nonce for Humanity, for Perfection, for God.\n\nHad we been in any degree instructed in spiritual or occult science, we\nshould have known that the renunciation of flesh-food, though in itself\na physical act, has ever been recognised by initiates as the prime\nessential in the unfoldment of the spiritual faculties; since only when\nman is purely nourished can he attain clearness and fulness of spiritual\nperception. As it was, neither of us had ever heard of occult science,\nor of the necessity of such a regimen to the perfectionment of faculty.\nShe had adopted it on grounds physiological, chemical, hygienic,\naesthetic, and moral; not on grounds mental or spiritual. I now undertook\nto adopt it partly on the same grounds which had influenced her, and\npartly with a view to enhance and consolidate the sympathy subsisting\nbetween us. The mental and spiritual advantages of the regimen made\nthemselves known to us by experience.\n\nThe other condition found its fulfilment through the knowledge I derived\nfrom her of the methods of the physiologists. That savages, sorcerers,\nbrigands, religious fanatics, and corrupt priesthoods had always been\nwont to make torture their gain or their pastime, I was well aware, and\nbelieved that evolution would sweep them and their practices away in its\ncourse. But the discovery now first made to me that identical\nbarbarities are systematically perpetrated by the leaders of modern\nscience on the pretext of benefiting humanity, in an age which claims to\nrepresent the summit of such evolution as has yet been accomplished; and\nthat after all its boasts, the best that science can do for the world is\nto convert it into a hell and its population into fiends, by the\ndeliberate renunciation of the distinctive sentiments of humanity,--this\nwas a discovery which filled me with unspeakable horror and amazement,\nat once raising to a white heat the enthusiasm of love for the ideal\nalready kindled within me, and adding to it a like enthusiasm of\ndetestation for its opposite. From which it came that I found myself\nunder the impulsion simultaneously of two mighty influences, the one\nattracting, the other repelling, but both operating in the same\ndirection. For while by the former I was drawn upwards by the beauty of\nan ideal indefinitely enhanced by its contrast with the foul actual\nbelow, by the latter I was impelled upwards by the hideousness of that\nactual. The sight of the moral abyss disclosed to me in Vivisection, as\nI perused volume after volume of the annals of the practice written by\nthe perpetrators themselves, and now first made accessible to me,\neffectually purged out of my system any particle of dilettanteism that\nmight have still lurked in it, compelling me to regard as of the utmost\nurgency all and more than all that I had hitherto contemplated doing\ndeliberately.\n\nThis was the construction of a system of thought which by force of its\nappeal to both those two indispensable constituents of humanity, the\nhead and the heart, shall compel acceptance from all persons really\nhuman, and in presence of which the whole system of which Vivisection\nwas the typical outcome and symbol should vanish from off the earth.\nThis system was Materialism of which only now did I discern the full\nsignificance. The systematic organisation of wholesale, protracted,\nuncompensatable torture, for ends purely selfish, was--I saw with\nabsolute distinctness--not an accidental and avoidable outcome of\nMaterialism, but its logical and inevitable outcome. And it was to the\neradication of Materialism that, from that moment, I dedicated myself.\nIt was a rescue work for both man and beast, seeing that humanity itself\nwas menaced with extinction. For the materialist, of course, that which\nmakes the man is the form. For me it was the character, and it was this,\nthe character of mankind present and to come, that was at stake. For man\ndemonised is no longer man. In the overthrow of Materialism, I saw\nabsolutely, was salvation alone to be found, whether for man or beast.\nThe consideration that only as an abstainer from flesh-food I could with\nentire consistency contend against vivisection, was a potent factor in\ndetermining my change of diet. True, the distinction between death and\ntorture was a broad one. But the statistics I now for the first time\nperused, of the slaughter-house and the cattle-traffic, showed beyond\nquestion, that torture, and this prolonged and severe, is involved in\nthe use of animals for food as well as for science. And over and above\nthis was the instinctive perception of the probability that neither\nwould they who had them killed, whether for food, for sport, or for\nclothing, be allowed the privilege of rescuing them from the hands of\nthe physiologist; nor would the animals be allowed to accept their\ndeliverance at the hands of those who thus used them. They who would\nsave others, we felt, must first make sacrifice in themselves. And in\nthe presence of the joy of working to effect such salvation, sacrifice\nwould cease to be sacrifice.\n\nThis, too, we noted, and with no small satisfaction--that to make the\nrescue of the animals an immediate and urgent motive, was in no way to\nabandon the original motive of hatred to the tenet of vicarious\natonement. For we recognised vivisection itself as but the extension to\nthe domain of science, of the very principle by which we had been\ninexpressibly revolted in the domain of religion;--the principle of\nseeking one's own salvation by the sacrifice of another, and that the\ninnocent. And so we learnt that \"New Scientist is but Old Priest writ\ndifferently,\"--to vary Milton's expression; and that in both domains the\ntenet had its root in Materialism. When the time came for our mission to\nbe more particularly defined, our satisfaction was unbounded on\nreceiving the charge, \"We mean you to lay bare the secrets of the\nworld's sacrificial system.\" It expressed with absolute conciseness and\nexactitude all that we had in our minds, far better than we could have\nexpressed it.\n\nThe importance of this question of vivisection in vitalising us for the\nwork before us, will be seen by the following fact. The time came when\nwe knew that the work committed to us was that revelation anew of the\nChrist which was to constitute His Second Advent, inasmuch as it was the\ninterpretation of the truth of which He was the manifestation. It was to\nbe a spiritual coming; in the \"clouds of heaven,\" the heaven of the\n\"kingdom within\" of man's restored understanding. And, as at His first\nadvent so at His second, He was to have His birth among the animals.\n\nAnd so it verily was. For--as I have elsewhere stated[17]--\"Their\nterrible wrongs, culminating at the hands of their scientific\ntormentors, were the last drops which filled to overflowing with\nanguish, indignation and wrath, hearts already brimming with the sense\nof the world's degradation and misery, wringing from them the cry which\nrent the heavens for His descent, and in direct and immediate response\nto which He came.\n\n\"For the New Gospel of Interpretation was vouchsafed in express\nrecognition of the determined endeavour, by means of a thought\nabsolutely fearless and free, to scale the topmost heights, fathom the\nlowest depths, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of Consciousness, in\nsearch of the solution of the problem of Existence, under the assured\nconviction that, when found, it would prove to be one that would make\nabove all things Vivisection impossible, if only by demonstrating the\nconstitution of things to be such that, terrible as is the lot of the\nvictims of the practice here, they are not without compensation\nhereafter, while the lot of their tormentors will be unspeakably worse\nthan even that of their victims here. And so it proved, with absolute\ncertainty to be the case, to the full vindication at the same time of\nthe Divine Justice and the Divine Love;\" no experience being withheld\nwhich would qualify us to bear positive testimony thereto. For, although\nat the outset we were, as I have said, in no wise believers in the\npossibility of such experiences, the time came, and came quickly, when\nthe veil was withdrawn, and the secrets of the Beyond were disclosed to\nus in plenitude, in its every sphere, from the abyss of hell to the\nheights of heaven. And we learnt that this had become possible through\nthe passionate energy with which, in our search for the highest truth,\nfor the highest ends, and in purest love to redeem, we had directed our\nthought inwards and upwards, living at the same time the life requisite\nto qualify us for such perceptions. Thus did we obtain practical\nrealisation of the promise that they who do the divine will, by living\nthe divine life, shall know of the divine doctrine. Our whole mental\nattitude had been one of prayer in its essential sense; which is not\nthat of _saying_ prayers, but as it came to be defined for us--\"the\nintense direction of the will and desire towards the Highest; an\nunchanging intent to know nothing but the Highest.\" Because \"to think\ninwardly, to pray intensely, and to imagine centrally, is to hold\nconverse with God.\" And we had done this without knowing it was prayer,\nor calling it by that name. For, knowing only the conventional\nconception of prayer, we had recoiled from it as from other conventional\nconceptions of things religious.\n\nNow, however, we found that we had done instinctively and spontaneously\nprecisely what was necessary to bring us into relations at once with our\nspiritual selves and with the world of those who consist only of the\nspiritual self. For, by thus becoming vitalised and sensitive in that\npart of man's system which endures and passes on, we had come into open\nconditions with the world of those who have thus endured and passed on,\nand are no longer of the terrestrial, but of the celestial, having\nsurmounted all lower and intermediate planes. All this came to us\nwithout anticipation on our part, or any conscious seeking for it; but\nyet without causing dismay or surprise when it came. For it came so\ngradually as to seem to be but the natural and orderly result of the\nunfoldment of our own spiritual consciousness, and excited only feelings\nof joy and thankfulness at finding our method and aspirations crowned\nwith so high a success. Thus was it made absolutely clear to us that, so\nfar from divine revelation involving miracle, or requiring for its\ninstruments persons other in kind than the ordinary, it is a prerogative\nof man, belonging to him as man; and requiring for its reception only\nthat he be fully man, alive and sensitive in his own innermost and\nhighest, in his centre as in his circumference. Thus living on the quick\nand finding no others who did so, it seemed to us as if we alone were\nthe quick, and all others were dead.\n\nWe noted yet another way in which we supplemented and complemented each\nother. It was in this wise. As I was bent on the construction of a\nsystem of thought which should be at once a science, a philosophy, a\nmorality, and a religion, and recognisable by the understanding as\nindubitably true; she was bent on the construction of a rule of life\nequally obvious and binding, and recognisable by the sentiments as alone\naccording with them, its basis being that sense of perfect justice which\nsprings from perfect sympathy.\n\nBy which it will be seen that while it was her aim to establish a\nperfect practice, which might or might not consist with a perfect\ndoctrine, it was my aim to establish a perfect doctrine which would\ninevitably issue in a perfect practice, by at once defining it and\nsupplying an all-compelling motive for its observance.\n\nThese, as we at once recognised, were the two indispensable halves of\none perfect whole. But we had yet to learn the nature and source of the\ncompelling motive for its enforcement.\n\nThe deficiency was made good by the discovery of the fact of man's\npermanence as an individual. The revelation of this truth was the\ndemonstration to us of the inanity--not to use a stronger term--of the\nsystem called \"Positivism.\" In ignoring the soul, that system lacks the\nmotive and repudiates the source of the sentiments on which it insists,\nand to the experiences of which those sentiments are due.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[8] The book was \"By and By: An Historical Romance of the Future,\" its\nobject being to show a state of society in which the intuition is\nsupreme, and individuals follow their own ideals. It represents a step\nin E.M.'s unfoldment, but not his final conclusions. In 1873 A.K.,\nhaving read a review of this book in the _Examiner_ (which also\ncontained a notice of one of her tales), communicated with E.M. (Life\nA.K. Vol. I. p. 27.)\n\n[9] This was not the first time that E.M. met A.K. He had met her once\nbefore, in January, 1874, in a picture gallery in London. \"It was but\nfor a short time, and during a single afternoon\"; but it was \"sufficient\nto convince\" him of \"the unusual character of the personality\" with\nwhich he had come into contact. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 32.)\n\n[10] Her \"very first published production\" was a poem in a religious\nmagazine, when she was \"but nine years old.\" (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 29.)\n\n[11] \"Beatrice: A Tale of the Early Christians,\" was written by A.K. in\n1859, for the _Churchman's Companion_, \"but the publisher thought it\nworthy to make a separate volume, and offered to bring it out in that\nform, and to give her a present for it,\" which offer was accepted. (Life\nA.K. Vol. I. p. 4.)\n\n[12] The Story was \"In my Lady's Chamber,\" and purported to be a\n\"speculative romance touching a few questions of the day.\" It was\nafterwards published separately as by \"Colossa.\" (Life A.K. Vol. I. pp.\n21, 22.)\n\n[13] The first edition of \"The Pilgrim and the Shrine\" was published in\n1867.\n\n[14] E.M. did not marry again. He had one child, Charles Bradley\nMaitland, and he died on the 16th February, 1901.\n\n[15] See p. 100\n\n[16] E.M. says that \"The Keys of the Creeds\" brought his thought up to\nthe extreme limits of a thought merely intellectual, to transcend which\nit would be necessary to penetrate the barrier between the worlds of\nsense and of spirit. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 54.)\n\n[17] Statement E.C.U. p. 80.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE INITIATION.\n\n\nMy visit to the rectory resulted in an intimacy which made me to such\nextent a member of the family as to remove all obstacles to the\ncollaboration required of us. It was soon made evident that not only our\nassociation, but her design of seeking a medical education was for both\nof us an indispensable element in our preparation for our now recognised\njoint-mission. In its general aspect that mission had for its purpose\nthe overthrow of Materialism, and in order to qualify us for it, it was\ndeemed necessary that we undergo a training in the most materialistic of\nthe world's schools. This was the University of Paris. She alone was to\nseek a diploma. For me it was enough that I accompany her in her\nstudies, and that we submit the teachings received by her to rigid\nanalysis by our combined faculties. Doing this, we found ourselves\ncompetent to declare positively the falsity of the materialistic system\non the strength both of logical processes and of practical\ndemonstration, by means of the experiences of which we found ourselves\nthe recipients. For although we had never heard of such things as\n\"psychic faculties,\"--the very phrase was not yet invented--we found\nourselves possessed of them in such measure that no longer did the veil\nwhich divides the world sensible from the world spiritual constitute an\nimpassable barrier, but both were open to view, and the latter was as\nreal and accessible as the former.\n\nIt was about the middle of 1876 that this remarkable accession of\nfaculty began to manifest itself in plenitude, I being the first to\nexperience it, notwithstanding my previous total lack of any faculty of\nthe kind, or of belief in the possibility of my having it. But the\npurification which my physical system had undergone by means of my new\ndietary regimen, and the constant and intense direction of my thought\ninwards and upwards, the forcible concentration of my mind upon the\nessential and substantial ideas of things, and this under impulsion of\nan enthusiasm kindled to a white heat--an enthusiasm, as already said,\nboth of aspiration and of repulsion--and the enhancement of faculty\nthrough sympathetic association,--these had so attenuated the veil that\nit no longer impeded my vision of spiritual realities. And I found\nmyself--without seeking for or expecting it--spiritually sensitive in\nrespect of sight, hearing, and touch, and in open, palpable relations\nwith a world which I had no difficulty in recognising as of celestial\nnature; so far did it transcend everything of which I had heard or read\nin the annals of the contemporary spiritualism; so entirely did it\naccord with my conceptions of the divine.\n\nThat I refrain from employing the terms \"supernatural\" and \"superhuman,\"\nis because they assume the knowledge of the limits of the natural and\nthe human, and arbitrarily exclude from those categories regions of\nbeing which may really belong to them. The celestial and the divine are\nnot necessarily either superhuman or supernatural; they may be but the\nhigher human and the higher natural. If they are at all, they are\naccording to natural order, and it is natural for them to be.\n\nNevertheless, vast as was the interval it represented between my past\nand present states, it came so naturally and easily as to be clearly the\nresult, not of any abnormal or accidental cataclysm involving a breach\nof continuity, but of a perfectly orderly unfoldment every step of which\nwas distinctly traceable. For though the process was akin to that of the\nattainment of sight by one previously blind, and the final issue was\nsudden, the issue had been led up to in such wise as to render it\nlegitimate and normal. For its earliest indication[18] was an opening of\nthe mind in such wise that subjects hitherto beyond my grasp, and\nproblems deemed insoluble, became comprehensible and clear; while whole\nvistas of thought perfectly continuous and coherent, would disclose\nthemselves to my view, stretching far away towards their source in the\nvery principles of things, so that I found myself intellectually the\nmaster of questions which previously had baffled me.\n\nThe experience I am about to relate was not only remarkable in itself,\nit was remarkable also as striking what proved to be the keynote of all\nour subsequent work, the doctrine, namely, of the _substantial_ identity\nof God and man. It had suddenly flashed on my mind as a necessary and\nself-evident truth, the contrary of which was absurd; and I had seated\nmyself at my writing-table to give it expression for a book I had lately\ncommenced[19]. I was alone and locked in my room in my chambers off\nPall Mall, Mrs Kingsford being at the time in Paris, accompanied by her\nhusband. It was past midnight, and all without was quiet; there was not\na sound to break my abstraction. This was so profound that I had written\nsome four pages without drawing breath, the matter seeming to flow not\nmerely from but through me without conscious mental effort of my own. I\n_saw_ so clearly that there was no need to _think_. In the course of the\nwriting I became distinctly aware of a presence as of someone bending\nover me from behind, and actively engaged in blending with and\nreinforcing my mind. Being unwilling to risk an interruption to the flow\nof my thought, I resisted the impulse to look up and ascertain who or\nwhat it was. Of alarm at so unlooked-for a presence I had not a\nparticle. Be it whom it might, the accord between us was as perfect as\nif it had been merely a projection of my own higher self. I had never\nheard of higher selves in those days, or of the possibility of such a\nphenomenon; but the idea of such an explanation occurred to me then and\nthere. But this solution of the problem of my visitant's personality was\npresently dissipated by the event.\n\nThe passage I had been writing concluded with these words:--\n\n     \"The perfect man of any race is no other than the perfect\n     expression in the flesh of all the essential characteristics of the\n     soul of that race. Escaping the limitations of the individual man,\n     such an one represents the soul of his people. Escaping the\n     limitations of the individual people, he represents the soul of\n     all peoples, or Humanity. Escaping the limitations of Humanity, but\n     still preserving its essential characteristics, he represents the\n     soul of the system of which the earth is but an individual member.\n     And finally, after climbing many a further step of the infinite\n     ladder of existence, and escaping the limitations of all systems\n     whatever, he represents--nay, finds that he is--the soul of the\n     universe, even God Himself, once 'manifested in the flesh,' and now\n     'perfected through suffering,' 'purified, sanctified, redeemed,\n     justified, glorified,' 'crowned with honour and glory,' and 'seated\n     for ever at the right hand of the Father,' 'one with God,' even God\n     Himself.\"\n\nAt this moment--my mind being so wholly preoccupied with the utterance\nand all that I saw it involved, as to make me oblivious of all else--the\npresence I had felt bending over me darted itself into me just below the\ncerebral bulb at the back of my neck, the sensation being that of a\nslight tap, as of a finger-touch; and then in a voice full, rich, firm,\nmeasured, and so strong that it resounded through the room, exclaimed,\nin a tone indicative of high satisfaction, \"At last I have found a man\nthrough whom I can speak!\"\n\nSo powerful was the intonation that the tympana of my ears vibrated to\nthe sound, palpably bulging outwards, showing that they had been struck\non the inner side, and that the presence had actually projected itself\ninto my larynx and spoken from within me, but without using my organs of\nspeech, I was conscious of being in radiant health at the time, and was\nunable to detect any symptom of being otherwise. My thought, too, and\nobservation were perfectly coherent and continuous, and I could discern\nno smallest pretext for distrust of the reality of the experience. And\nmy delight and satisfaction, which were unbounded, found expression in\nthe single utterance, \"Then the ancients were right, and the Gods ARE!\"\nso resistless was the conviction that only by a divinised being could\nthe wisdom and power be manifested of the presence of which I was\nconscious. The words, \"At last I have found a man\" were incompatible\nwith the theory of its being an objectivation of my own particular ego,\nand, moreover, they indicated the speaker as one high in authority over\nthe race.\n\nNothing more passed on that occasion; but a vivid impression was left\nwith me that my visitant belonged to the order of spirits called\n\"Planetaries.\" But as I had then no knowledge of such beings, I put\naside the question of his identity for the solution which I trusted\nwould come of further enlightenment. This came in due time, with the\nresult of confirming the impression given me at the time. The\nexplanation, however, does not come within the scope of this present\nwriting. Some time afterwards, when searching at the library of the\nBritish Museum in the writings of the old occultists for experiences\nanalogous to our own, I came upon one account which described the\nentrance into the man of an overshadowing spirit exactly as it had\noccurred to me, so far as it concerned the nape of the neck as the point\nof entry and the slightness of the sensation. The only further reference\nto the incident necessary here is as follows.\n\nA little later Mrs Kingsford had returned to England, being compelled to\nquit Paris by a severe illness which she had contracted immediately on\nher arrival there; and was pursuing her studies in London, making her\nhome with a relative in Chelsea. The event proved that she had been sent\nback by the supervisors of our work expressly in order to be within\nreach of me. Indeed, an intimation had been given me before she had gone\nthat she would not be allowed to stay abroad, as our near contiguity was\nindispensable, and I had accordingly viewed her departure with\nconsiderable disquietude, circumstances rendering it impossible for me\nto leave home just then. Prior to coming back she had obtained from the\nMinister of Education the exceptional privilege of a permit allowing her\nattendance at a London hospital to count in her Paris course.\n\nThe first experience received by her in relation to our work, after her\nreturn to London, was the terrific vision of \"The Doomed Train\"[20].\n\nOn bringing it to me on the morning of its occurrence, she exclaimed as\nshe entered the room, \"Oh, I have had such a terrific dream! It has\nquite shattered me. And I have brought it for you to try and find its\nmeaning, if it has one. I wrote it down the moment I was able.\" Her\nappearance fully confirmed her statement. It alarmed me. This is the\naccount:--\n\n\"I was visited, last night, by a dream of so strange and vivid a kind\nthat I feel impelled to communicate it to you, not only to relieve my\nown mind of the oppression which the recollection of it causes me, but\nalso to give you an opportunity of finding the meaning, which I am still\nfar too much shaken and terrified to seek for myself.\n\n\"It seemed to me that you and I were two of a vast company of men and\nwomen, upon all of whom, with the exception of myself--for I was there\nvoluntarily--sentence of death had been passed. I was sensible of the\nknowledge--how obtained I know not--that this terrible doom had been\npronounced by the official agents of some new reign of terror. Certain I\nwas that none of the party had really been guilty of any crime deserving\nof death; but that the penalty had been incurred through their\nconnection with some regime, political, social, or religious, which was\ndoomed to utter destruction. It became known among us that the sentence\nwas about to be carried out on a colossal scale; but we remained in\nabsolute ignorance as to the place and method of the intended execution.\nThus far my dream gave me no intimation of the scene which next burst on\nme,--a scene which strained to their utmost tension every sense of\nsight, hearing, and touch in a manner unprecedented in any dream I have\npreviously had.\n\n\"It was night, dark and starless, and I found myself, together with the\nwhole company of doomed men and women who knew that they were soon to\ndie, but not how or where, in a railway train hurrying through the\ndarkness to some unknown destination. I sat in a carriage quite at the\nrear end of the train, in a corner seat, and was leaning out of the open\nwindow, peering into the darkness, when, suddenly, a voice, which seemed\nto speak out of the air, said to me in a low, distinct, intense tone,\nthe mere recollection of which makes me shudder,--'The sentence is being\ncarried out even now. You are all of you lost. Ahead of the train is a\nfrightful precipice of monstrous height, and at its base beats a\nfathomless sea. The railway ends only with the abyss. Over that will the\ntrain hurl itself into annihilation. THERE IS NO ONE ON THE ENGINE!'\n\n\"At this I sprang from my seat in horror, and looked round at the faces\nof the persons in the carriage with me. No one of them had spoken, or\nhad heard those awful words. The lamplight from the dome of the carriage\nflickered on the forms about me. I looked from one to the other, but saw\nno sign of alarm given by any of them. Then again the voice out of the\nair spoke to me,--'There is but one way to be saved. You must leap out\nof the train!'\n\n\"In frantic haste I pushed open the carriage-door and stepped out on the\nfootboard. The train was going at a terrific pace, swaying to and fro as\nwith the passion of its speed; and the mighty wind of its passage beat\nmy hair about my face and tore at my garments.\n\n\"Until this moment I had not thought of you, or even seemed conscious of\nyour presence in the train. Holding tightly on to the rail by the\ncarriage-door, I began to creep along the footboard towards the engine,\nhoping to find a chance of dropping safely down on the line.\nHand-over-hand I passed along in this way from one carriage to another;\nand as I did so I saw by the light within each carriage that the\npassengers had no idea of the fate upon which they were being hurried.\nAt length, in one of the compartments, I saw _you_. 'Come out!' I\ncried; 'come out! Save yourself! In another minute we shall be dashed to\npieces!'\n\n\"You rose instantly, wrenched open the door, and stood beside me outside\non the footboard. The rapidity at which we were going was now more\nfearful than ever. The train rocked as it fled onwards. The wind\nshrieked as we were carried through it. 'Leap down!' I cried to you.\n'Save yourself! It is certain death to stay here. Before us is an abyss;\nand there is no one on the engine!'\n\n\"At this you turned your face full upon me with a look of intense\nearnestness, and said, 'No, we will not leap down; we will stop the\ntrain.'\n\n\"With these words you left me, and crept along the footboard towards the\nfront of the train. Full of half-angry anxiety at what seemed to me a\nQuixotic act, I followed. In one of the carriages we passed I saw my\nmother and eldest brother, unconscious as the rest. Presently we reached\nthe last carriage, and saw by the lurid light of the furnace that the\nvoice had spoken truly, and that there was no one on the engine.\n\n\"You continued to move onwards. 'Impossible! Impossible!' I cried; 'it\ncannot be done. Oh, pray, come away!'\n\n\"Then you knelt upon the footboard, and said, 'You are right. It cannot\nbe done in that way; but we can save the train. Help me to get these\nirons asunder.'\n\n\"The engine was connected with the train by two great iron hooks and\nstaples. By a tremendous effort, in making which I almost lost my\nbalance, we unhooked the irons and detached the train; when, with a\nmighty leap as of some mad supernatural monster, the engine sped on its\nway alone, shooting back as it went a great flaming trail of sparks, and\nwas lost in the darkness. We stood together on the footboard, watching\nin silence the gradual slackening of the speed. When at length the train\nhad come to a standstill, we cried to the passengers, 'Saved! Saved!'\nAnd then, amid the confusion of opening the doors and descending and\neager talking, my dream ended, leaving me shattered and palpitating with\nthe horror of it.\"\n\nThis vision was intended to show us the destruction, moral,\nintellectual, and spiritual, towards which the world was tending by\nfollowing materialistic modes of thought, and the part we were to bear\nin arresting its progress towards the fatal precipice, at all hazards to\nourselves. The startling announcement made to her by the invisible voice\nwhen the crowded train was rushing at full speed to its doom, \"There is\nno one on the engine!\" exactly represented the philosophy which, denying\nmind in the universe, recognises only blind force.\n\nI had determined to include an account of this vision in the book on\nwhich I was then engaged, \"England and Islam.\" And I was alone in my\nrooms, reading the proofs of it, my mind being occupied solely with the\nletterpress, until I came to the remark ascribed to me in the vision, as\nmade in reply to her entreaty that I would jump out with her to save\nourselves, \"No, we will not leap down, we will stop the train.\" At this\nmoment the voice which shortly before[21] had said to me, \"At last I\nhave found a man through whom I can speak!\" addressed me again, saying\nin a pleased and encouraging tone, as if the speaker had been following\nme in my reading, and desired to remove any doubts I might have of the\nreality of our mission,--\"Yes! Yes! I have trusted all to you!\" This\ntime he spoke from without me, but apparently quite close by. And among\nthe impressions which at the same instant were flashed into my mind, was\nthe impression, amounting to a conviction, that whatever might be the\npart assigned to others in the work of the new illumination in progress\nand the restoration thereby to the world of one true doctrine of\nexistence, the exposition of its innermost and highest sphere, the head\ncorner-stone of the pyramid of the system which is to make the humanity\nof the future, had been committed to us alone. And now, writing nearly\ntwenty years later, I can truly say that this conviction has never for a\nmoment been weakened, but on the contrary has gathered confirmation and\nstrength with every successive accession of experience and knowledge,\nand while cognisant of and fully appreciating all that has taken place\nin the unfoldment of the world's thought during the interval.\n\nEver since that memorable winter of 1876-7, the conviction, shared\nequally by my colleague, has been with me that the controlling spirit of\nthe Hebrew prophets was that also of our work, the purpose of which was\nthe accomplishment of their prophecies, by the promotion of the world's\nspiritual consciousness to a level surpassing any yet attained by it, to\nthe regeneration of the church and the establishment of the kingdom of\nGod with power. Having which conviction, there was for us but one object\nin life:--to fulfil at whatever cost to ourselves the conditions\nnecessary to make us fitting instruments for the perfect accomplishment\nof a work which we recognised as the loftiest that could be committed to\nmortals.\n\nMy colleague's enforced return to London was promptly signalised by an\nexperience which served not only yet further to demonstrate the reality\nand nature of our mission, and of her primacy in our work, but to\ndisclose its essentially Christian character, which hitherto had been an\nopen question for us. For that upon which we ourselves were bent was the\ndiscovery of the nature of existence at first hand, and independently of\nany existing system whatever. It was truth and truth alone that we\nsought, and to this end we had laboured to make ourselves as those of\nwhom it is said, \"Of such is the kingdom of heaven.\" For in divesting\nourselves of all prepossessions and prejudices, we had made ourselves as\n\"little children.\" We were neither believers nor disbelievers, but pure\nsceptics in that best sense of the term in which it denotes the unbiased\nseeker after God and truth. This is to say, we were, and we gloried in\nbeing, absolutely free thinkers, a term which, in its true acceptation,\nwe regarded as man's noblest title. This is the sense in which it\ndenotes a thought able to exercise itself in all directions open to\nthought, outwards and downwards to matter and negation, and inwards and\nupwards to spirit and reality. And our work proved in the event to be\nthe supreme triumph of Free Thought.\n\nThe experience in question was as follows. It was night and I was alone\nand locked in my chambers, and was writing at full speed, lest it\nshould escape me, an exposition of the place and office of woman under\nthe coming regeneration. And I was conscious of an exaltation of faculty\nsuch as might conceivably be the result of an enhancement of my own mind\nby junction with another and superior mind. I was even conscious, though\nin a far less degree than before, of an invisible presence. But I was\ntoo much engrossed with my idea to pay heed to persons, be they whom\nthey might, human or divine, as well as anxious to take advantage of\nsuch assistance. I had clearly and vividly in my mind all that I desired\nto say for several pages on. Then, suddenly and completely, like the\nstoppage of a stream in its flow through a tube by the quick turning of\na tap, the current of my thought ceased, leaving my mind an utter blank\nas to what I had meant to say, and totally unable to recall the least\nidea of it. So palpable was its withdrawal, that it seemed to me as if\nit must still be hovering somewhere near me, and I looked up and\nimpatiently exclaimed aloud to it, \"Where are you?\" At length, after\nransacking my mind in vain, I turned to other work, for I was perfectly\nfresh, and the desertion had been in no way due to exhaustion, physical\nor mental. On taking note of the time of the disappearance, I found it\nwas 11.30 precisely.\n\nThe next morning failed to bring my thought back to me as I had hoped it\nwould do; but it brought instead, an unusually early visit from Mrs.\nKingsford, who was--as I have said--staying in Chelsea. \"Such a curious\nthing happened to me last night,\" she began, on entering the room, \"and\nI want to tell you of it and see if you can explain it. I had finished\nmy day's work, but though it was late I was not inclined to rest, for I\nwas wakeful with a sense of irritation at the thought of what you are\ndoing, and at my exclusion from any share in it. And I was feeling\nenvious of your sex for the superior advantages you have over ours of\ndoing great and useful work. As I sat by the fire thinking this, I\nsuddenly found myself impelled to take a pencil and paper, and to write.\nI did so, and wrote with extreme rapidity, in a half-dreamy state,\nwithout any clear idea of what I was writing, but supposing it to be\nsomething expressive of my discontent. I had soon covered a page and a\nhalf of a large sheet with writing different from my own, and it was\nquite unlike what was in my mind, as you will see.\"\n\nOn perusing the paper I found that it was a continuation of my missing\nthought, taken up at the point where it had left me, but translated to a\nhigher plane, the expression also being similarly elevated in accordance\nboth with the theme and the writer, having the exquisiteness so\ncharacteristic of her genius. To my enquiry as to the hour of the\noccurrence, she at once replied, \"Half-past eleven exactly; for I was so\nstruck by it that I took particular notice of the time.\"\n\nWhat I had written was as follows:--\n\n     \"Those of us who, being men, refuse to accord to women the same\n     freedom of evolution for their consciousness which we claim for\n     ourselves, do so in consequence of a total misconception of the\n     nature and functions both of Humanity and of Existence at large.\n     The notion that men and women can by any possibility do each\n     other's work, is utterly absurd. Whom God hath distinguished, none\n     can confound. To do the same thing is not to do the same work;\n     inasmuch as the spirit is more than the fact, and the spirit of man\n     and of woman is different. While for the production of perfect\n     results it is necessary that they work harmoniously together, it is\n     necessary also that they fulfil separate functions in regard to\n     that work\"[22].\n\nThis was the point at which my thought had failed me, to be taken up by\nher at the same instant two miles away, without her knowing even that I\ncontemplated treating that particular theme, as I had purposely reserved\nit until I should have completed the expression, hoping to give her a\npleasant surprise; for it was one very near to her heart. This is her\ncontinuation of it. It will be seen that, besides complementing my\nthought, it responded remedially to her own mood:--\n\n     \"In a true mission of redemption, in the proclamation of a gospel\n     to save, it is the man who must preach; it is the man who must\n     stand forward among the people; it is the man who, if need be, must\n     die. But he is not alone. If his be the glory of the full noontide,\n     his day has been ushered in by a goddess. Aurora has preceded\n     Phoibos Apollo; Mary has been before Christ. For, mark that He\n     shall do His first and greatest work at her suggestion. To her\n     shall ever belong the glory of the inauguration; of her shall the\n     gospel be born; from her lips shall the Christ take the bidding for\n     His first miracle; from her shall His earliest inspiration be\n     drawn. The people are athirst for the living wine, which shall be\n     better, sweeter, purer, stronger, than any they have yet tasted.\n     The festival lags, the joy slackens, for need of it. The Christ is\n     in their midst, but He opens not His lips; His heart is sealed, His\n     hour is not yet come. Mark that the first inspiration falls on the\n     woman by His side, on Mary the Mother of God; she saith unto Him,\n     'They have no wine.' She has spoken, the impulse is given to\n     Divinity. His soul awakens, His pulse quickens, He utters the word\n     that works the miracle. Hail, Mary, full of grace; Christ is thy\n     gift to the world! Without thee He could not have been; but for\n     thine impulse He could have worked no mighty work. This shall be\n     the history of all time; it shall be the sign of the Christ. Mary\n     shall feel; Christ shall speak. Hers the glory of setting His heart\n     in action; hers the thrill of emotion to which His power shall\n     respond. But for her He shall be powerless; but for her He shall be\n     dumb; but for her He shall have no strength to smite, no hand to\n     help. It is the seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent's\n     head. The Christ, the true prophet, is her child, her gift to the\n     world. 'Woman, behold thy Son!'\"\n\nSuch was the first intimation and the manner thereof, given us of the\ntruth subsequently revealed in plenitude,--the presence in Scripture of\na mystical sense concealed within the apparent sense, as a kernel in its\nshell, which, and not the literal sense, is the intended sense[23]. As\nwas later shown us in regard to the story of the cursing of the\nfig-tree, that of the marriage in Cana was a parable having a spiritual\nimport; and the character of Jesus was cleared from the reproaches based\non the literal sense. Striving for fuller unfoldment and enlightenment,\nwe were at length enabled to discern the tremendous mistake which\northodoxy has made; the mistake of confounding, first, Jesus with\nChrist, and, next, Mary the mother of Jesus, with the Virgin Mary, the\nmother of Christ, and the conversion thereby of a perfect philosophy\ninto a gross idolatry. Meanwhile, the experience was a further\ndemonstration to us of the reality and accessibility not merely of the\nworld spiritual, but of the world celestial also, and of the high source\nof the commission under which we had become associated together. It was\nalso an indication that as concerned ourselves our work appertained to\nthe spiritual, rather than to the social plane. Such application of it\nwould follow in due time. No other hypothesis that we could devise would\naccount for the facts. Nor could we imagine any source other than the\nChurch invisible for an interpretation so noble of the Scriptures of the\nChurch visible.\n\nNot that the hypothesis of an extraneous source accounted for all our\nexperiences. For besides receiving knowledge from such influences, there\nwere instances in which we actually saw and seemed to remember scenes,\nevents, and persons, long since vanished from earth, and felt at the\ntime that it needed only that the period of lucidity be sufficiently\nprolonged to enable us to recover from personal recollection the whole\nhistory concerned.\n\nI was somewhat surprised by finding the first experiences of this\nnature, as well as certain others of an equally high and rare order,\noccurring to me rather than to my colleague, of the superiority of whose\nfaculty and of whose primacy in our work I had no manner of doubt. The\nexplanation at length vouchsafed was in this wise. It was in order to\nqualify me for recognising by my own experiences the reality and value\nof hers when they should come. Not otherwise should I know enough to be\nable to believe. It proved, moreover, to be part of the plan ordained\nto withdraw from me, in a great measure, the faculty requisite for them,\nwhen I had become familiar with them. The reason for according her such\npreference over and above the superiority of her gifts will presently\nappear. It was another and an exquisite illustration of the depth and\ntenderness of the mystical element underlying Christianity as divinely\nconceived and intended.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe partial withdrawal from me of faculty just alluded to took place\nearly in 1877, but not until I had undergone a thorough experiential\ntraining in its varied manifestations. Among these were two which call\nfor relation here, by reason of their serving to show that nothing was\nwithheld which might minister to the completeness of the work set us.\nThe first was as follows:--\n\nBeing seated at my writing-table, and meditating on the gospel\nnarrative, with a strange sense of being separated by only a narrow\ninterval from a full knowledge of all that it implied, I found myself\nimpelled to seek the precise idea intended to be conveyed by the story\nof the woman taken in adultery. No account that I had read of it had\nsatisfied me, least of all that which was proposed in the \"Ecce Homo\" of\nProfessor Seeley, a book then recent and enjoying a repute which filled\nme with a strong feeling of personal resentment. For his account,\nespecially of the feelings excited in Jesus by the sight of the accused\nwoman, revolted me by its inscription to Him of a sense of impropriety\nat once monkish and conventional, and of a limitation of charity\naltogether incompatible with the abounding sympathy which was the\nessence of His nature. It made Him that most odious of characters, a\n_prude_.\n\nAs I meditated, and in following my idea I passed into a state which,\nthough highly interior, was not sufficiently interior for my\npurpose--for I wanted, so to speak, to _see_ my idea--a voice audible\nonly to the inner hearing, yet quite distinct, said to me, \"You have it\nwithin you. Seek for it.\" Thus encouraged, I made a further effort at\nconcentration, when--to my utter surprise, for I had no expectation or\nconception of such a thing--the whole scene of the incident appeared\npalpably before me, like a living picture in a _camera obscura_, so\nnatural, minute and distinct as to leave nothing to be desired, and, at\nthe same time, utterly unlike any pictorial representation I had ever\nseen of it. Close before me, on my right hand, stood the Temple, with\nJesus seated on a stone ledge in the porch, while ranged before Him was\na crowd of persons in the costumes of the country and the time; each\ncostume showing the grade or calling of its wearer. Standing together in\na group in front of Him were the disciples, and immediately beside them\nwere the accusers, who were readily recognisable by their ample robes\nand sanctimonious demeanour; and quite close to Him, between Him and\nthem, stood the accused woman. As I approached the scene, moving\nmeteor-like through the air, He was in the act of lifting Himself up\nfrom stooping to write on the ground, and I had a perfect view of His\nface. He was of middle age, but, to my surprise, the type was that of a\nMurillo, rather than a Raffaelle, and the lower portion of the face was\ncovered with a short, dark beard. The expression was worn and anxious,\nand somewhat weary. The skin was rough as from exposure to the weather.\nThe eyes were deep-set and lustrous, and remarkable for the tenderness\nof their gaze. One of the apostles, whom I at once recognised by his\ncomparative youthfulness as John, though his back was towards me as I\napproached, was in the act of bending forwards to read the words just\ntraced in the dust on the pavement; and, as if drawn to him by some\npotent attraction, I at once passed unhesitatingly into him as he bent\nforward, and tried to read the words through his eyes. Their exact\npurport escaped me; but the impression I obtained was that they were\nunimportant in themselves, having been written merely to enable Jesus to\ncollect and calm Himself. For He was filled with a mighty indignation,\nwhich was directed, not against the accused woman, but against the\nby-standing representatives of the conventional orthodoxies, the chief\npriests and Pharisees, her sanctimonious and hypocritical\naccusers,--those moral vivisectors through whose pitilessness the\nshrinking woman stood there exposed to the public gaze, while her fault\nwas so brutally blurted out in her presence for all to hear; for her\nattitude showed her ready to sink with shame into the ground, and afraid\nto look either her accusers or her Judge in the face. He, her Judge,\nalso has heard it, and knows that they who utter it are themselves a\nthousand-fold greater sinners than she, inasmuch as that which she has\nyielded through exigency either of passion or of compassion, has with\nthem been a cold-blooded habit engendered of ingrained impurity.\n\nIn contrast with them she stands out in His eyes an angel of innocence;\nand an overwhelming indignation takes possession of Him, so that He will\nnot at once trust Himself to speak. His impulse is to drive them forth\nwith blows and reproaches from His presence, as once already He has\ndriven the barterers from the Temple. And so, to keep His wrath from\nexploding, He stoops down and scribbles on the ground,--no matter what,\nanything to keep Himself within bounds. In the exercise His spirit\ncalms. Indignation, He reflects, is too noble a thing to be expended\nupon insensates such as they, and exhortation would be vain. He will try\nsarcasm. So He raises himself up, and looks at them, very quietly, and\neven assentingly. Yes, they are quite right; the law must be vindicated,\nand so flagrant a sin severely punished. But, of course, only the\nguiltless is entitled to inflict punishment on the guilty. Therefore He\nsays, \"He of you who is blameless in respect of this sin, let him first\ncast a stone at her.\" And having said this, He stoops down again to\nwrite, this time to hide His smiles at their confusion, the sight of\nwhich would but have incensed and hardened them. What! no rush for\nammunition wherewith to pound to death this only too human specimen of\nhumanity[24]! What can be the meaning of the general move among these\nself-appointed censors of morals? \"They which heard Him, being convicted\nof their own consciences, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest\neven unto the last.\" No wonder they crucified Him when they got their\nchance. And no wonder that most of the ancient authorities omit all\nmention of the incident. Even of His immediate biographers only he\nrecords it who is styled \"the Beloved,\" and whose name, office, and\ncharacter indicate him as the representative especially of the\nlove-principle in humanity.\n\nSuch were the impressions made on me by this vision while it lasted, and\nwritten down at the time. And so strong in me was the feeling that I\ncould similarly recall the whole history of Jesus, that I mentally\naddressed to the presences which I felt, though I could not see, around\nme an inquiry whether I should then and there begin the attempt. The\nreply, similarly given, was a decided negative so far as that present\ntime was concerned, but accompanied by an intimation that our future\nwork would comprise something of the kind; a prediction which was duly\nfulfilled.\n\nI found myself perplexed beyond measure to comprehend the _modus\noperandi_ of this experience. No explanation was forthcoming, whether\nfrom my own mind or from my illuminators, until long afterwards; and\nwhen it came it was in reference immediately to similar experiences\nreceived by my colleague, some of which likewise involved corresponding\npersonal recollections coinciding with but surpassing mine. In the\nmeantime the teaching given us comprised the doctrine of reincarnation,\nstated so positively, systematically, and scientifically that, when\ntaken in conjunction with our experiences, we found that it, and it\nalone, afforded a satisfactory explanation of them. And then it was\nshown us that the method of the new Gospel of Interpretation, of which\nwe were the appointed recipients, was so ordered as to be itself a\ndemonstration of the truth of that doctrine, and that among the lives we\nhad lived, which qualified us for our mission, were those in which we\nhad been in association with Jesus and with each other[25]. Concerning\nthis doctrine, the motive for its suppression, and the fatal\nconsequences thereof to the religion of Christ, it will be time to speak\nwhen describing the results attained by us. It is with our initial\nexperiences--those which constituted our initiation--that the present\nconcern lies.\n\nThere is one supreme experience in the spiritual life, known to mystics\nas \"the vision of Adonai,\" or God as the Lord. The reception of this\nvision by us was, we were assured, a conclusive proof that nothing would\nbe withheld that was necessary to our full equipment for a complete\nwork. Although described several times in the Bible as an actual\noccurrence, it had failed to find any response in our own consciousness,\nmore than if it had no existence. Nor had it ever been the subject of\nintelligent comment by any Bible-expositors known to us. Rather did it\nseem to have been entirely passed over as a matter wholly apart from\nhuman cognition. Hence, when it was vouchsafed to us, it was entirely\nwithout anticipation of its occurrence or previous knowledge even of its\npossibility.\n\nIt was received first by myself, the manner of it being as follows. I\nhad observed that when I was following an idea inwards in search of its\nprimary meaning, and to that end concentrated my mind upon a point lying\nwithin and beyond the apparent concept, I saw a whole vista of related\nideas stretching far away as if towards their source, in what I could\nonly suppose to be the Divine Mind; and I seemed at the same time to\nreach a more interior region of my own consciousness; so that, supposing\nman's system to consist of a series of concentric spheres, each fresh\neffort to focus my mind upon a more recondite aspect of the idea under\nanalysis was accompanied and marked by a corresponding advance of the\nperceptive point of the mind itself towards my own central sphere and\nradiant point. And I was prompted to try to ascertain the extent to\nwhich it was possible thus to concentrate myself interiorly, and what\nwould be the effect of reaching the mind's ultimate focus. I was\nabsolutely without knowledge or expectation when I yielded to the\nimpulse to make the attempt. I simply experimented on a faculty of\nwhich I found myself newly possessed, with the view of discovering the\nrange of its capacity, being seated at my writing-table the while in\norder to record the results as they came, and resolved to retain my hold\non my outer and circumferential consciousness no matter how far towards\nmy inner and central consciousness I might go. For I knew not whether I\nshould be able to regain the former if I once quitted my hold of it, or\nto recollect the facts of the experience. At length I achieved my\nobject, though only by a strong effort, the tension occasioned by the\nendeavour to keep both extremes of the consciousness in view at once\nbeing very great.\n\nOnce well started on my quest, I found myself traversing a succession of\nspheres or belts of a medium, the tenuity and luminance of which\nincreased at every stage of my progress; the impression produced being\nthat of mounting a vast ladder stretching from the circumference towards\nthe centre of a system, which was at once my own system, the solar\nsystem, and the universal system, the three systems being at once\ndiverse and identical. My progress in this ascent was clearly dependent\nupon my ability to concentrate the rays of my consciousness into a\nfocus. For, while to relax the effort was to recede outwards, to\nintensify it was to advance inwards. The process was like that of\ntravelling by will power from the orbit of Saturn to the Sun--taking\nSaturn as representing the seventh and outermost sphere of the spiritual\nkosmos, and the Sun its central and radiant point--with the intermediate\norbits for stepping-stones and stages, I trying the while to keep both\nextremes in view. Presently, by a supreme, and what I felt must be a\nfinal, effort--for the tension was becoming too much for me, unless I\nlet go my hold of the outer--I succeeded in polarising the whole of the\nconvergent rays of my consciousness into the desired focus. And at the\nsame instant, as if through the sudden ignition of the rays thus fused\ninto a unity, I found myself confronted with a glory of unspeakable\nwhiteness and brightness, and of a lustre so intense as well-nigh to\nbeat me back. At the same instant, too, there came to me, as by a sudden\nrecollection, the sense of being already familiar with the phenomenon,\nas also with its whole import, as if in virtue of having experienced it\nin some former and forgotten state of being. I knew it to be the \"Great\nWhite Throne\" of the seer of the Apocalypse. But though feeling that I\nhad no need to explore further, I resolved to make assurance doubly sure\nby piercing, if I could, the almost blinding lustre, and seeing what it\nenshrined. With a great effort I succeeded, and the glance revealed to\nme that which I had felt must be there. This was the dual form of the\nSon, the Word, the Logos, the Adonai, the \"Sitter on the Throne,\" the\nfirst formulation of Divinity, the unmanifest made manifest, the\nunformulate formulate, the unindividuate individuate, God as the Lord,\nproving by His Duality that God is Substance as well as Force, Love as\nwell as Will, feminine as well as masculine, Mother as well as Father.\n\nOverjoyed at having this supreme problem solved in accordance with my\nhighest aspirations, my one thought was to return and proclaim the glad\nnews. But I had no sooner set myself to write down the things thus seen\nand remembered, than I found myself constrained to maintain regarding\nthem the strictest silence, and this even as regarded my fellow-worker;\nand all that I was permitted to say at that time was, that under a\nsudden burst of illumination I had become absolutely aware of the truth\nof the doctrine of the Duality in Unity of Deity to which that in\nHumanity corresponds, both alike being twain in one. On seeking the\nreason for the reticence thus imposed on me, I learned that the stage in\nour work had not yet come when it could be given to the world, either\nwith safety to myself or with advantage to others; and it was necessary\nthat my colleague receive no intimation in advance of any experiences\nwhich were to be given to her--of which this experience was one--in\norder that her mind might be wholly free from bias or expectation. Only\nso would our testimony have its due value as that of two independent\nwitnesses.\n\nIn the following summer the same vision was vouchsafed to her in a\nmeasure and with a fulness far transcending mine[26].\n\nOn the occasion she had been forewarned of something of unusual\nsolemnity as about to occur, and prompted to make certain ceremonial\npreparations obviously calculated to impress the imagination. The access\ncame upon her while standing by the open window, gazing at the moon,\nthen close upon the full. The first effect of the _afflatus_ was to\ncause her to kneel and pray in a rapt attitude, with her arms extended\ntowards the sky. It appeared afterwards, that under an access of\nspiritual exaltation, she had yielded to a sudden and uncontrollable\nimpulse to pray that she might be taken to the stars, and shown all the\nglory of the universe. Presently she rose, and after gazing upwards in\necstasy for a few moments, lowered her eyes, and, clasping her arms\naround her head as if to shut out the view, uttered in tones of wonder,\nmingled with moans and cries of anguish, the following tokens of the\nintolerable splendour of the vision she had unwittingly invited:--\n\n\"Oh, I see masses, masses of stars! It makes me giddy to look at them. O\nmy God, what masses! Millions and millions! WHEELS of planets! O my God,\nmy God, why didst Thou create? It was by Will, all Will, that Thou didst\nit. Oh! what might, what might of Will! Oh, what gulfs! what gulfs!\nMillions and millions of miles broad and deep! Hold me! hold me up! I\nshall sink--I shall sink into the gulfs. I am sick and giddy, as on a\nbillowy sea. I am on a sea, an ocean--the ocean of infinite space. Oh,\nwhat depths! what depths! I sink--I fail! I cannot, cannot bear it!\"\n\n\"I shall never come back. I have left my body for ever. I am dying; I\nbelieve I am dead. Impossible to return from such a distance! Oh, what\ncolossal forms! They are the angels of the planets. Every planet has its\nangel standing erect above it. And what beauty!--what marvellous beauty!\nI see Raphael. I see the Angel of the Earth. He has six wings. He is a\nGod--the God of our planet. I see my genius, who called himself A.Z.;\nbut his name is Salathiel. Oh, how surpassingly beautiful he is! My\ngenius is a male, and his colour is ruby. Yours, Caro, is a female, and\nsapphire. They are friends--they are the same--not two, but one; and for\nthat reason they have associated us together, and speak of themselves\nsometimes as _I_, sometimes as _We_. It is the Angel of the Earth\nhimself that is your genius and mine, Caro. He it was who inspired you,\nwho spoke to you. And they call me 'Bitterness.' And I see sorrow--oh,\nwhat unending sorrow do I behold! Sorrow, always sorrow, but never\nwithout love. I shall always have love. How dim is this sphere!... I am\nentering a brighter region now... Oh, the dazzling, dazzling brightness!\nHide me, hide me from it! I cannot, cannot bear it! It is agony supreme\nto look upon. O God! O God! Thou art slaying me with Thy light. It is\nthe Throne itself, the Great White Throne of God that I behold! Oh, what\nlight! what light! It is like an emerald? a sapphire? No; a diamond! In\nits midst stands Deity erect, His right hand raised aloft, and from Him\npours the light of light. Forth from His right hand streams the\nuniverse, projected by the omnipotent repulsion of His will. Back to His\nleft, which is depressed and set backwards, returns the universe, drawn\nby the attraction of His love. Repulsion and attraction, will and love,\nright and left, these are the forces, centrifugal and centripetal, male\nand female, whereby God creates and redeems. Adonai! O Adonai! Lord God\nof life, made of the substance of light, how beautiful art Thou in Thine\neverlasting youth! with Thy glowing golden locks, how adorable! And I\nhad thought of God as elderly and venerable! As if the Eternal could\ngrow old! And now not as Man only do I behold Thee! For now Thou art to\nme as Woman. Lo, Thou art both. One, and Two also. And thereby dost Thou\nproduce creation. O God, O God! why didst Thou create this stupendous\nexistence? Surely, surely, it had been better in love to have restrained\nThy will. It was by will that Thou createdst, by will alone, not by\nlove, was it not?--was it not? I cannot see clearly. A cloud has come\nbetween.\n\n\"I see Thee now as Woman. Maria is next beside Thee. Thou art Maria.\nMaria is God. Oh Maria! God as Woman! Thee, thee I adore!\nMaria-Aphrodite! Mother! Mother-God!\n\n\"They are returning with me now, I think. But I shall never get back.\nWhat strange forms! how huge they are! All angels and archangels. Human\nin form, yet some with eagles' heads. All the planets are inhabited! how\ninnumerable is the variety of forms! Oh! universe of existence, how\nstupendous is existence! Oh! take me not near the sun; I cannot bear its\nheat. Already do I feel myself burning. Here is Jupiter! It has nine\nmoons! Yes; nine. Some are exceedingly small. And, oh, how red it is! It\nhas so much iron. And what enormous men and women! There is evil there,\ntoo. For evil is wherever are matter and limitation. But the people of\nJupiter are far better than we on earth. They know much more; they are\nmuch wiser. There is less evil in their planet. Ah! and they have\nanother sense, too. What is it? No; I cannot describe it. I cannot tell\nwhat it is. It differs from any of the others. We have nothing like it.\nI cannot get back yet. I shall never get back. I believe I am dead. It\nis only my body you are holding. It has grown cold for want of me. Yet\nI must be approaching; it is growing shallower. We are passing out of\nthe depths. Yet I can never wholly return--never--never!\"[27]\n\nThe account given of the vision of Adonai in Lecture IX. of \"The Perfect\nWay,\" was written solely from our joint experiences. It was with an\ninterest altogether novel in kind and degree that I now turned to the\nBible narratives of the same vision, and found that in the record of its\nreception by the Elders of Israel, it is stated, as if in token of the\npower of the spiritual battery with which Moses had surrounded himself,\nthat no less than seventy of his initiates were able to receive the\nvision without magnetic reinforcement by the imposition of their\nmaster's hands. But, as we learnt from our own manifold experiences, it\ndoes not follow that because there is no imposition of visible hands, no\nextraneous aid is rendered. The seeker after God cannot, even if he\nwould, accomplish his quest alone; but always are there attracted to him\nthose angelic beings whose office it is, as ministers of God, to sustain\nand illuminate souls by the imposition of hands invisible to the outer\nsenses. In her case such aid was palpable. There was no effort on her\npart. And she held converse with those by whom she was upborne in her\nstupendous flight.\n\nWhen in due course the time came for us to receive the ancient and\nlong-lost Gnosis which underlay the sacred religions and scriptures of\nantiquity, the following was given us, and we recognised in it the\noriginal Scripture from which the opening sentences in St John's Gospel\nare drawn.\n\nAfter defining the Elohim as comprising the two original principles of\nall Being, \"the Spirit and the Water,\" or Force and Substance, and\nbringing up the process whereby Deity proceeds into manifestation to the\npoint described in Genesis in the words, \"And the Spirit of God moved\nupon the face of the Waters. And God _said_,\"--the utterance thus\ncontinues,--\n\n     Then from the midst of the Divine Duality, the Only Begotten of God\n     came forth:\n\n     Adonai, the Word, the Voice invisible.\n\n     He was in the beginning, and by Him were all things discovered.\n\n     Without Him was not anything made which is visible.\n\n     For He is the Manifestor, and in Him was the life of the world.\n\n     God the nameless hath not revealed God, but Adonai hath revealed\n     God from the beginning.\n\n     He is the presentation of Elohim, and by Him the Gods are made\n     manifest.\n\n     He is the third aspect of the Divine Triad:\n\n     Co-equal with the Spirit and the heavenly deep.\n\n     For except by three in one, the Spirits of the Invisible Light\n     could not have been made manifest.\n\n     But now is the prism perfect, and the generation of the Gods\n     discovered in their order.\n\n     Adonai dissolves and resumes; in His two hands are the dual powers\n     of all things.\n\n     He is of His Father the Spirit, and of His Mother the great deep.\n\n     Having the potency of both in Himself, and the power of things\n     material.\n\n     Yet being Himself invisible, for He is the cause, and not the\n     effect.\n\n     He is the Manifestor, and not that which is manifest.\n\n     That which is manifest is the Divine Substance[28].\n\nThe reason for the suppression by the translators of the Bible of its\nnumerous affirmations of the Divine Duality, saving only those of\nGenesis i. 26, 27, was in due time disclosed to us; as also was the\nextent of the loss to man through the elimination of the feminine\nprinciple from his conception of Original Being, and the consequent\nperversion of the doctrine of the Trinity, and therein of the true\nnature of Existence, in both its aspects, Creation and Redemption.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[18] In 1875. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 73.)\n\n[19] The book was \"England and Islam: or The Counsel of Caiaphas,\" which\nwas published in 1877.\n\n[20] This vision occurred in London in November, 1876. It was merely\nreferred to in the previous editions of this book, but I have inserted\nit here in full from \"The Life of A.K.\" Vol. I. pp. 115-117. It is also\ngiven in \"England and Islam,\" pp. 438-442. S.H.H.\n\n[21] p. 41.\n\n[22] E. and I. p. 299.\n\n[23] It is probable that E.M. intended this statement to apply only to\nthe N.T., or to the Gospels, because, before February, 1874, when he\nfirst visited A.K. at her house (p. 2), she had received in sleep \"an\nexposition of the Story of the Fall, exhibiting it as a parable having a\nsignificance purely spiritual\" and E.M. certainty regarded the Biblical\nStory of the Fall as \"Scripture.\" S.H.H.\n\n[24] The expression of which the above is an adaptation, had recently\nbeen applied by Mr Gladstone to the Turkish power. For the period was\nthe eve of the Turco-Russian War; and Mr Gladstone had found vent for\nhis strong sacerdotal proclivities by siding fiercely against the\npriest-hating and prophet-venerating Turks, and demanding their\nexpulsion from Europe, very much on the plea that \"it was good for\nEurope that one nation die for the rest.\" It was in recognition of the\npart thus played by him that I took for the sub-title of my book\n(\"England and Islam\") \"The Counsel of Caiaphas.\" The book--which was\nwritten under a high degree of illumination--contained an earnest appeal\nto Mr Gladstone, which, if heeded, would have saved the country from its\nsubsequent humiliations. Among other things I was clearly shown that the\npolicy which sought to detach England from the East, was of infernal\ninstigation, being intended to thwart the rapprochement between\nChristianity and Buddhism from which the new humanity was to spring. But\nthe circumstances of the book's production--it was poured through me at\ngreat speed and printed off as it came--precluded due revision and\nelimination of redundant matter; and for these and other reasons, I have\nsuffered it to go out of print. E.M.\n\n[25] There is another fact, referred to in \"The Life of A.K.,\" that must\nbe taken into consideration in connection with experiences of this\nnature, that is, \"the survival for an indefinite period of the images of\nevents occurring on the earth, in the astral light, or memory of the\nplanet, called the anima mundi, which images can be evoked and beheld.\"\n(Life A.K. Vol I. p. 125.) S.H.H.\n\n[26] This \"Vision of Adonai\" by A.K. was merely referred to in the\nprevious editions of this book. I have extracted the following account\nof the most interesting part of it from \"The Life of A.K.\" (Vol. I. pp.\n193-196.) S.H.H.\n\n[27] Speaking of this vision, E.M. says:--\"Her apprehension was not\nwithout justification; for her body was completely torpid, and several\nhours passed before consciousness was fully restored to it.\" (C.W.S. p.\n283.)\n\n[28] This is one of the illuminations that were received by A.K., during\nthe latter part of 1878, \"directly from the hierarchy of the Church\nInvisible and Celestial.\" Speaking of these illuminations, which \"dealt\nwith the profoundest subjects of cognition,\" E.M. says that he and A.K.\nfound in them \"a synthesis and an analysis combined of the sacred\nmysteries of all the great religions of antiquity, and the true\n_origines_ of Christianity as originally and divinely intended, together\nwith the secret and method of its corruption and perversion into that\nwhich now bears its name\"; and they \"were at no loss to recognise in\nthem the destined Scriptures of the future, so long promised and at\nlength vouchsafed in interpretation of the Scriptures of the past.\"\n(Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 293, 294.) S.H.H.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE COMMUNICATION.\n\n\nA striking feature for us was the exquisite tenderness and poetic\ndelicacy, both in matter and manner, which characterised all that we\nreceived. Nor was there the intrusion of anything to suggest feelings\nsuch as are described by Daniel when he says, \"I saw this great vision,\nand there remained no strength in me, neither was there breath left in\nme.\" And not only was the element of terror so completely absent as to\nmake us feel as if we had entered on the dispensation of that \"perfect\nlove which casteth out fear,\" but there was occasionally an element of\nplayfulness, and this on the part of our chiefest illuminators, the Gods\nthemselves. While their instructions were replete with every graceful\nand delicate adornment such as could not but delight the poet and the\nartist, and this without abatement of profundity or solemnity. By these\nthings it was intimated to us that the religion of the future was indeed\nto be one of sweetness and light, and for the severe and gloomy spirit\nof the Semite would be substituted the bright and joyous spirit of the\nGreek. All this, we learnt, was because the new dispensation was to be\nthat of the \"Woman,\" and in accord therefore with woman's nature and\nsentiments. It was moreover to be introduced by means of the Woman's\nfaculty, the Intuition, and this as subsisting in _a_ woman.\n\nThe following exquisite little apologue, which was given us in the early\ndays of our novitiate, is an instance in point:--\n\n     A blind man once lost himself in a forest. An angel took pity on\n     him, and led him into an open place. As he went he received his\n     sight. Then he saw the angel, and said to him, \"Brother, what doest\n     thou here? Suffer me to go before thee, for I am thine elder.\" So\n     the man went first, taking the lead. But the angel spread his wings\n     and returned to heaven. And darkness fell again upon him to whom\n     sight had been given.\n\nHere was a parable which, slight as it seemed, was truly Biblical for\nthe depth and manifoldness of its signification. For while it applied to\nourselves both separately and jointly, and to our work, it was also an\neternal verity applicable alike to the individual, the collective, and\nthe universal. For as the angel was to the man, so is the intuition to\nthe intellect, which of itself cannot transcend the sense-nature, but\nremains blind and dark and lost in the wilderness of illusion. And as\nshe, my colleague, had supplemented me, so were we each to supplement in\nourselves intellect by intuition, in order to become capable of\nknowledge and understanding. It was, moreover, a parable of the Fall and\nof the Redemption, an epitome in short of man's spiritual history. And\nit had been spelt out for us by the tilting of a table in one of our\nearliest essays in spiritualism! So carefully guarded and daintily\ntaught were we from the outset.\n\nThe charming allegory of \"The Wonderful Spectacles\" which was given in\nLondon on the 31st January, 1877, to my colleague in sleep, was not only\nan instruction concerning the nature of her faculty and its\nindispensableness as an adjunct to mine for the work assigned to us; it\nwas also a prophetic intimation of the character of that work, and of\nthe nature of the influences controlling it, which at the time was\naltogether unsuspected by us. This is the account which she sent to me\nby letter, for we were not then together:--\n\n     I dreamt that I was walking alone on the sea-shore. The day was\n     singularly clear and sunny. Inland lay the most beautiful landscape\n     ever seen; and far off were ranges of tall hills, the highest peaks\n     of which were white with glistening snow. Along the sands by the\n     sea towards me came a man accoutred as a postman. He gave me a\n     letter. It was from you. It ran thus:--\n\n     \"I have got hold of the rarest and most precious book extant. It\n     was written before the world began. The text is easy enough to\n     read; but the notes, which are very copious and numerous, are in\n     such very minute and obscure characters that I cannot make them\n     out. I want you to get for me the spectacles which Swedenborg used\n     to wear; not the smaller pair--those he gave to Hans Christian\n     Andersen--but the large pair, and these seem to have got mislaid. I\n     think they are Spinoza's make. You know he was an optical-glass\n     maker by profession, and the best we have ever had. See if you can\n     get them for me\"[29].\n\n     When I looked up after reading this letter, I saw the postman\n     hastening away across the sands, and I called out to him, \"Stop!\n     how am I to send the answer? Won't you wait for me?\"\n\n     He looked round, stopped, and came back to me.\n\n     \"I have the answer here,\" he said, tapping his letter bag, \"and I\n     shall deliver it immediately.\"\n\n     \"How can you have the answer before I have written it?\" said I.\n     \"You are making a mistake.\"\n\n     \"No,\" said he, \"In the city from which I come, the replies are all\n     written at the office and sent out with the letters themselves.\n     Your reply is in my bag.\"\n\n     \"Let me see it,\" I said. He took another letter from his wallet and\n     gave it to me. I opened it, and read, in my own handwriting, this\n     answer, addressed to you:--\n\n     \"The spectacles you want can be bought in London. But you will not\n     be able to use them at once, for they have not been worn for many\n     years, and they want cleaning sadly. This you will not be able to\n     do yourself in London, because it is too dark there to see, and\n     because your fingers are not small enough to clean them properly.\n     Bring them here to me, and I will do it for you.\"\n\n     I gave this letter back to the postman. He smiled and nodded at me;\n     and I saw then to my astonishment that he wore a camel's-hair tunic\n     round his waist. I had been on the point of addressing him--I know\n     not why--as _Hermes_. But I now saw that it was John the Baptist;\n     and in my fright at having spoken with so great a saint, I awoke.\n\nThis was the second suggestion of a Greek element in our work, the first\nhaving been the slight allusion to Phoibos Apollo in the illumination\nconcerning the Marriage in Cana of Galilee[30]. The signification of the\nconnection between Hermes and John the Baptist remained unintelligible\nto us until the key to it was given us in a revelation of the method of\nthe Bible-writers explaining their practice of representing principles\nas persons. We then found that by the baptism or purification, physical\nand mental, practised by John, was meant the course of life and thought\nwhereby alone man develops the faculty of the understanding of spiritual\nthings. And Hermes is the Greco-Egyptian name for the \"second of the\nGods,\" called by Isaiah the Spirit of Understanding. Hence the adoption\nof this name by the formulators of the Hermetic, or sacred books of\nEgypt; and the favourite motto of the Hermetists:--\n\n     \"Est in Mercurio quicquid quoerunt sapientes,\"\n\nAll is in the understanding that the wise seek,--Mercury being the Latin\nequivalent for Hermes.\n\nThe mention of Swedenborg and Andersen implied their possession of the\nfaculty indispensable to our work, that of mystical insight, of which\nthey were the most notable recent representatives.\n\nA larger part was played by Hermes in another instruction received a few\nmonths later[31]. This was also given in sleep, the vision taking the\nform of a \"Banquet of the Gods\" in which the seeress received the\nfollowing exhortation from him, in enforcement of the necessity of pure\nand natural habits of life for the perfectionment of the faculties\nrequisite for full spiritual perception, when, having put into her hands\na branch of a fig-tree bearing upon it ripe fruit, he said:--\n\n     \"If you would be perfect, and able to know and to do all things,\n     quit the heresy of Prometheus. Let fire warm and comfort you\n     externally: it is heaven's gift. But do not wrest it from its\n     rightful purpose, as did that betrayer of your race, to fill the\n     veins of humanity with its contagion, and to consume your interior\n     being with its breath. All of you are men of clay, as was the\n     image which Prometheus made. Ye are nourished with stolen fire, and\n     it consumes you. Of all the evil uses of heaven's good gifts, none\n     is so evil as the internal use of fire. For your hot foods and\n     drinks have consumed and dried up the magnetic power of your\n     nerves, sealed your senses, and cut short your lives. Now, you\n     neither see nor hear; for the fire in your organs consumes your\n     senses. Ye are all blind and deaf, creatures of clay. We have sent\n     you a book to read. Practise its precepts, and your senses shall be\n     opened.\"\n\n     Then, not recognising him, I said, \"Tell me your name, Lord.\" At\n     this he laughed and answered, \"I have been about you from the\n     beginning. I am the white cloud on the noon-day sky.\" \"Do you,\n     then,\" I asked, \"desire the whole world to abandon the use of fire\n     in preparing food and drink?\"\n\n     Instead of answering my question, he said, \"We show you the\n     excellent way. Two places only are vacant at our table. We have\n     told you all that can be shown you on the level on which you stand.\n     But our perfect gifts, the fruits of the Tree of Life, are beyond\n     your reach now. We cannot give them to you until you are purified\n     and have come up higher. The conditions are GOD'S; the will is with\n     you\"[32].\n\nThe allusion to Prometheus, and the fact that Hermes had been\nrepresented in the Greek tragedy of that name as the executor of the\nvengeance of the Gods upon Prometheus, as well also as the significance\nof the fig-branch and the fact of its being the symbol of Hermes as the\nSpirit of Understanding,--all these things were beyond her knowledge at\nthe time, some of them indeed having been long lost. But all were made\nclear as our education for our work proceeded, and we learnt the\nintention and recognised the necessity of restoring the Greek\npresentment of the Sacred Mysteries in explanation of the Hebrew, and in\ncorrection of the ecclesiastical presentment of Christianity. The\nrestoration was to be twofold, of faculty and of knowledge, the\nknowledge to be recovered through the faculty by which it was originally\nobtained. Hence the insistance on our adoption of the pure regimen of\nthe Seers of all time. Hence, too, the presentation to her by Hermes of\nthe fig-branch bearing ripe fruit. The parable of the cursing of the\nbarren fig-tree was explained to us as denoting the loss by the church\nof the inward understanding, the Intuition. In the Seeress it was\nrestored; she was the appointed representative of it. The \"time of the\nend\" was at hand, of the approach of which the budding of the fig-tree\nwas to be the sign. And here it was not merely budding and blossoming,\nbut bearing mature fruit to signify that in her the faculty was restored\nin its perfection.\n\nIn an instruction subsequently given to me by her Genius, he said of\nher, \"I have fashioned a perfect instrument,\" implying that the process\nof her preparation under his tuition had extended over numerous lives.\nAnd again, \"The Gods have given to their own a perfect ear.\"\n\nBeing desirous once to test the powers of a medium to whom she was\ntotally unknown even by name, she asked his controlling spirit about\nherself and her faculty. \"You are not a trance-medium at all!\" the\nspirit exclaimed in reply. \"My medium is a trance-medium. You are far\nbeyond that. You are a spiritual lens. You are a mirror in which the\nhighest spirits--the Gods--can reflect their faces. You take the light\nof the whole universe and divide it so that it can be understood, as it\nhas never been understood yet. Your gift is very extraordinary. You are\na glass to reflect the highest and the greatest to the world.\" This was\nin 1877, before she was known in connection with the spiritual movement\nof the age.\n\nThe description given of himself by Hermes as \"the white cloud in the\nnoon-day sky,\" proved to be a quotation from an ancient ritual,\nsubsequently recovered by her, in which the \"Hymn to Hermes\"[33] opens\nthus:--\n\n     As a moving light between heaven and earth: as a white cloud\n     assuming many shapes;\n\n     He descends and rises: he guides and illumines; he transmutes\n     himself from small to great, from bright to shadowy, from the\n     opaque image to the diaphanous mist.\n\n     Star of the East, conducting the Magi; cloud from whose midst the\n     holy voice speaketh; by day a pillar of vapour, by night a shining\n     flame.\n\nAll these are symbolic expressions for the Understanding, especially in\nrespect of divine things, so that Hermes is no individual soul or\nspirit, but the divine spirit Itself operating as the second of the\nCreative Elohim, and as a function therefore of man's own spirit when\nduly unfolded and purified, in token whereof it is said in the recovered\nhymn[34] to the Planet-God Iacchos--\n\n     Within thee, O Man, is the Universe; the thrones of all the Gods\n     are in thy temple....\n\n     And the Spirits which speak unto thee are of thine own kingdom.\n\nIn the hymn of invocation summoning the Seeress to her mission in the\nname of the two first of the \"Holy Seven,\" the Spirits of Wisdom and\nUnderstanding, both of whom were wont to manifest themselves to her,\nHermes is referred to as \"the God who knows\"; the other being\npersonified as Pallas Athena. \"In the Celestial,\" we were informed, \"all\nthings are Persons.\"\n\n    \"Wake, prophet-soul, the time draws near,\n      'The God who knows' within thee stirs\n      And speaks, for His thou art, and Hers\n    Who bears the mystic shield and spear.\n\n    A touch divine shall thrill thy brain,\n      Thy soul shall leap to life, and lo!\n      What she has known, again shall know,\n    What she has seen, shall see again.\n\n    The ancient past through which she came....\"[35]\n\nAs the Spirit of Understanding, the name of Hermes signifies both Rock\nand Interpreter. Hence the significance of the saying of Jesus, \"Thou\nart the Rock, and upon this Rock I will build My Church,\" which He\naddressed not to the man Peter, but to the Spirit of Understanding whom\nHe discerned as the prompter of Peter's confession of faith. By this\nJesus implied that the only true and infallible church is that which is\nfounded on the Understanding, and not on authority whether of book,\ntradition or institution. The utterance of Jesus was a citation from the\nproem to the hymn to Hermes[36] recovered by us:--\n\n     \"He is as a rock between earth and heaven, and the Lord God shall\n     build His Church thereon.\n\n     As a city upon a mountain of stone, whose windows look forth on\n     either side.\"\n\nAs our education proceeded we found indubitably that in excluding from\nits curriculum the whole range of the knowledges represented by the term\n\"Hermetic,\" Ecclesiasticism has ignored the chief source of information\nconcerning the Christian _origines_. Doing which it has incurred the\nreproach uttered by Jesus against those who took away the key of\nknowledge, neither entering in themselves, nor suffering others to enter\nin. And it was to restore this Gnosis, suppressed by the priests, that\nthe new revelation was promised, with the reception of which we found\nourselves charged, the prophecies pointing to a restoration both of\nfaculty and of knowledge.\n\nBesides the Fig-branch of Hermes, there is another symbol of the\nintuitional understanding which was disclosed to us as having special\nand peculiar relation to the work set us. This symbol is Woman herself.\nShe had already, in the instruction concerning the marriage in Cana[37],\nbeen shown to us as the inspirer and prompter. She was now shown to us\nas the interpreter. The reason why the fig-tree was the emblem of the\ninward understanding will be found in the citation presently to be\ngiven; which is a portion of an instruction received in interpretation\nof the prophecy of Daniel, re-enunciated by Jesus, concerning the\nrecognition of the \"abomination of desolation standing in the holy\nplace\"[38], as making and marking the time of the end of that generation\nwhich, for its materialisation of spiritual things, was called by Him an\n\"adulterous,\" meaning an idolatrous, generation. It will be seen that in\nthe Scripture symbology, as the soul is the feminine principle in man's\nspiritual system, and is called therefore the \"Woman,\" the spirit being\nthe masculine principle; so in man's mental system the intuition as the\nfeminine mode of the mind is called the \"Woman,\" and the intellect, as\nthe masculine mode, the \"Man.\" The following is the citation in\nquestion:--\n\n     Behold the FIG-TREE, and learn her parable. When the branch thereof\n     shall become tender, and her buds appear, know that the day of God\n     is upon you.\"\n\n     Wherefore, then, saith the Lord that the budding of the Fig-Tree\n     shall foretell the end?\n\n     Because the Fig-Tree is the symbol of the Divine Woman, as the Vine\n     of the Divine Man.\n\n     The Fig is the similitude of the Matrix, containing inward buds,\n     bearing blossoms on its placenta, and bringing forth fruit in\n     darkness. It is the Cup of Life, and its flesh is the seed-ground\n     of new births.\n\n     The stems of the Fig-Tree run with milk: her leaves are as human\n     hands, like the leaves of her brother the Vine.\n\n     And when the Fig-Tree shall bear figs, then shall be the Second\n     Advent, the new sign of the Man bearing Water, and the\n     manifestation of the Virgin-Mother crowned.\n\n     For when the Lord would enter the holy city, to celebrate His Last\n     Supper with His disciples, He sent before Him the Fisherman Peter\n     to meet the Man of the Coming Sign.\n\n     \"There shall meet you a Man bearing a pitcher of Water.\"\n\n     Because, as the Lord was first manifest at a wine-feast in the\n     morning, so must He consummate His work at a wine-feast in the\n     evening.\n\n     It is His Pass-Over; for thereafter the Sun must pass into a new\n     Sign.\n\n     After the Fish, the Water-Carrier; but the Lamb of God remains\n     always in the place of victory, being slain from the foundation of\n     the world.\n\n     For His place is the place of the Sun's triumph.\n\n     After the Vine the Fig; for Adam is first formed, then Eve.\n\n     And because our Lady is not yet manifest, our Lord is crucified.\n\n     Therefore came He vainly seeking fruit upon the Fig-Tree, \"for the\n     time of figs was not yet.\"\n\n     And from that day forth, because of the curse of Eve, no man has\n     eaten fruit of the Fig-Tree.\n\n     For the inward understanding has withered away, there is no\n     discernment any more in men. They have crucified the Lord because\n     of their ignorance, not knowing what they did.\n\n     Wherefore, indeed, said our Lord to our Lady:--\"Woman, what is\n     between me and thee? For even _my_ hour is not yet come.\"\n\n     Because until the hour of the Man is accomplished and fulfilled,\n     the hour of the Woman must be deferred.\n\n     Jesus is the Vine; Mary is the Fig-Tree. And the vintage must be\n     completed and the wine trodden out, or ever the harvest of the Figs\n     be gathered.\n\n     But when the hour of our Lord is achieved; hanging on His Cross, He\n     gives our Lady to the faithful.\n\n     The chalice is drained, the lees are wrung out: then says He to His\n     Elect:--\"Behold thy Mother!\"\n\n     But so long as the grapes remain unplucked, the Vine has nought to\n     do with the Fig-Tree, nor Jesus with Mary.\n\n     He is first revealed, for He is the Word; afterwards shall come the\n     hour of its Interpretation.\n\n     And in that day every man shall sit under the VINE and the\n     FIG-TREE; the Dayspring shall arise in the Orient, and the Fig-Tree\n     shall bear her fruit.\n\n     For, from the beginning, the Fig-leaf covered the shame of\n     Incarnation, because the riddle of existence can be expounded only\n     by him who has the Woman's secret. It is the riddle of the Sphinx.\n\n     Look for that Tree which alone of all Trees bears a fruit\n     blossoming interiorly, in concealment, and thou shalt discover the\n     Fig.\n\n     Look for the sufficient meaning of the manifest universe and of the\n     written Word, and thou shalt find only their mystical sense.\n\n     Cover the nakedness of Matter and of Nature with the Fig-leaf, and\n     thou hast hidden all their shame. For the Fig is the Interpreter.\n\n     So when the hour of Interpretation comes, and the Fig-Tree puts\n     forth her buds, know that the time of the End and the dawning of\n     the new Day are at hand,--\"even at the doors.\"\n\nOn handing me the first portion of the instruction of which the\nforegoing is the conclusion, \"Mary\"--to use the name which meanwhile had\nbeen bestowed on her by our Illuminators in token of her office as\nrepresentative of the Soul and Intuition--confessed to some perplexity.\nHer usual Illuminator for revelations of this order was Hermes, whose\nHebrew equivalent is Raphael. But on this occasion it had been a Hebrew\none, Gabriel. Her surprise and delight were great on being reminded that\nGabriel was Daniel's own inspirer in respect of the prophecy in\nquestion, and that he had prophesied his return, saying, \"Go thy way,\nDaniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the\nend.... Thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.\"\nThe explanation given us was that both Daniel's own spirit and his\nilluminating angel had come to her, the former serving as the vehicle of\nthe latter. As with all our other results similarly obtained, we judged\nit entirely by its own intrinsic merits, and not by its alleged\nderivation. We knew too well the propensity of low influences to\nappropriate to themselves great and even divine names, and the liability\nof the recipients to be deceived and to make the names the criterion\ninstead of the communication itself. But in no instance did it happen to\nus that we had any cause to distrust the genuineness either of messenger\nor of message, even when both claimed to be divine.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe difference between the two interpretations or applications given us\nof the incident at the \"Marriage in Cana of Galilee,\" was explained to\nus as an instance of the manifoldness of the sense of Scripture. The\nparables have a separate meaning for each of the four planes of\nexistence[39].\n\nWe wondered much whether there were any parallels in history to our work\nand to the manner of it; and especially as to how far an association\nsuch as ours coincided with the ideas of the Hebrews. It was true that\nthey had both prophets and prophetesses, but did they work like us in\nsupplement and complement of each other? As regarded the recovery of\nknowledge acquired in a previous life, Ezra also had ascribed his\nrecovery of the long lost Law to intuitional recollection occurring\nunder special illumination, saying, \"The Spirit strengthened my memory.\"\nBut no mention is made of a female coadjutor. Nor does it appear that\nthe Vestal Virgins were similarly supplemented, except to be thrown into\nthe magnetic trance-state. In her zeal for her sex and her corresponding\ndistrust of men--sentiments which seemed to be inborn in her--\"Mary\" was\ndisposed to think that most of the prophesying of old had been done by\nwomen, but that the credit had been appropriated by men. The answer to\nthese questionings was of a kind altogether unexpected by us, both as\nregarded its manner and its matter. For neither of us had the smallest\nsuspicion that the book referred to was capable of the interpretation\ngiven us of it. This was the book of Esther. The incident was as\nfollows:--\n\nThe occasion was an Easter Sunday[40], and we were at Paris. Electing\nto remain indoors rather than encounter the crowds of holiday makers,\n\"Mary\" was moved during the afternoon to sit for some communication by\njoint writing. But we were no sooner seated than it was written,--\n\n     \"Do you, Caro[41], take a pencil and write, and let her look\n     inwards, and we will dictate slowly.\"\n\n\"Mary\" then became entranced, and delivered orally, repeating it slowly,\nwithout break or pause, after a voice heard interiorly, the following\nexposition of the book of Esther, an exposition entirely novel, as I\nhave said, to us, and, we believed, to the world. Some divines have\ncalled the book a romance, but none have discovered that it is a\nprophecy in the form of a parable. Luther, indeed, pronounced both it\nand the Apocalypse to be so worthless that their destruction would be no\nloss.\n\nThe most important book in the Bible for you to study now, and that most\nnearly about to be fulfilled, is one of the most mystic books in the Old\nTestament, the book of Esther.\n\nThis book is a mystic prophecy, written in the form of an actual\nhistory. If I give you the key, the clue of the thread of it, it will be\nthe easiest thing in the world to unravel the whole.\n\n     The great King Assuerus, who had all the world under his dominion,\n     and possessed the wealth of all the nations, is the genius of the\n     age.\n\n     Queen Vasthi, who for her disobedience to the king was deposed from\n     her royal seat, is the orthodox Catholic Church.\n\n     The Jews, scattered among the nations under the dominion of the\n     king, are the true Israel of God.\n\n     Mardochi the Jew represents the spirit of intuitive reason and\n     understanding.\n\n     His enemy Aman is the spirit of materialism, taken into the favour\n     and protection of the genius of the age, and exalted to the highest\n     place in the world's councils after the deposition of the orthodox\n     religion.\n\n     Now Aman has a wife and ten sons.\n\n     Esther--who, under the care and tuition of Mardochi, is brought up\n     pure and virgin--is that spirit of love and sympathetic\n     interpretation which shall redeem the world.\n\n     I have told you that it shall be redeemed by a \"woman.\"\n\n     Now the several philosophical systems by which the councillors of\n     the age propose to replace the dethroned Church, are one by one\n     submitted to the judgment of the age; and Esther, coming last,\n     shall find favour.\n\n     Six years shall she be anointed with oil of myrrh, that is, with\n     study and training severe and bitter, that she may be proficient in\n     intellectual knowledge, as must all systems which seek the favour\n     of the age.\n\n     And six years with sweet perfumes, that is with the gracious\n     loveliness of the imagery and poetry of the faiths of the past,\n     that religion may not be lacking in sweetness and beauty.\n\n     But she shall not seek to put on any of those adornments of dogma,\n     or of mere sense, which, by trick of priestcraft, former systems\n     have used to gain power or favour with the world and the age, and\n     for which they have been found wanting.\n\n     Now there come out of the darkness and the storm which shall arise\n     upon the earth, two dragons[42].\n\n     And they fight and tear each other, until there arises a star, a\n     fountain of light, a queen, who is Esther[43].\n\n     I have given you the key. Unlock the meaning of all that is\n     written.\n\n     I do not tell you if in the history of the past these voices had\n     part in the world of men.\n\n     If they had, guess now who were Mardochi and Esther.\n\n     But I tell you that which shall be in the days about to come[44].\n\nOn consulting the Bible-dictionary, we found this relation between\nEsther and Easter. The feast of Purim, which was instituted in token of\nthe deliverance wrought through Esther, coincides in date with Easter.\nAnd it was on Easter day that this was given us, by way of enhancing the\ncorrespondence between the parts assigned to us and those of Mordecai\nand Esther. Later it was shown us that the parts assigned to Joseph and\nMary were, in one aspect, also identical with those of Mordecai and\nEsther. This is the aspect in which Joseph represents the mind, and Mary\nthe soul in the regenerated human system.\n\nBesides \"Hermes,\" \"Mary\" received much of her illumination from her\n\"Genius,\" her relations with whom far surpassed not only my relations\nwith mine, but any that are recorded in history, the experiences of\nSocrates, the chief instance on record, being insignificant both in\nquantity and in quality as compared with hers. It is important,\ntherefore, to give an account of the nature and office of this order of\nangels, which shall be rendered in his own words.\n\n     Every man is a planet, having sun, moon, and stars. The Genius of a\n     man is his satellite; God--the God of the man--is his sun, and the\n     moon of this planet is Isis, its initiator or Genius. The Genius is\n     made to minister to the man, and to give him light. But the light\n     he gives is from God, and not of himself. He is not a planet but a\n     moon, and his function is to light up the dark places of his\n     planet.\n\n     The day and night of the microcosm, man, are its positive and\n     passive, or protective and reflective states. In the projective\n     state we seek actively outwards; we aspire and will forcibly; we\n     hold active communion with the God without. In the reflective state\n     we look inwards; we commune with our own heart; we indraw and\n     concentrate ourselves secretly and interiorly. During this\n     condition the \"Moon\" enlightens our hidden chamber with her torch,\n     and shows us ourselves in our interior recess.\n\n     Who or what, then, is this moon? It is part of ourselves and\n     revolves with us. It is our celestial affinity,--of whose order it\n     is said--as by Jesus--\"Their angels do always behold the face of My\n     Father.\"\n\n     Every human soul has a celestial affinity, which is part of his\n     system and a type of his spiritual nature. This angelic counterpart\n     is the bond of union between the man and God; and it is in virtue\n     of his spiritual nature that this angel is attached to him....\n\n     It is in virtue of man's being a planet that he has a moon. If he\n     were not fourfold, as is the planet, he could not have one.\n     Rudimentary men are not fourfold, they have not the Spirit.\n\n     The Genius is the moon to the planet man, reflecting to him the\n     Sun, or God, within him. For the Divine Spirit which animates and\n     eternises the man, is the God of the man, the Sun that enlightens\n     him.... And because the Genius reflects, not the planet, but the\n     Sun, not the man (as do the astrals), but the God, his light is\n     always to be trusted....\n\n     The memory of the soul is recovered by a threefold operation--that\n     of the Soul herself, of the Moon, and of the Sun. The Genius is not\n     an informing spirit. He can tell nothing to the soul. All that she\n     receives is already within herself. But in the darkness of the\n     night, it would remain there undiscovered, but for the torch of the\n     angel who enlightens. \"Yea,\" says the angel Genius to his client,\n     \"I illuminate thee, but I instruct thee not. I warn thee, but I\n     fight not. I attend, but I lead not. Thy treasure is within\n     thyself. My light showeth where it lieth.\"...\n\n     The voice of the Genius is the voice of God; for God speaks through\n     him as a man through the horn of a trumpet. Thou mayest not adore\n     him, for he is the instrument of God, and thy minister. But thou\n     must obey him, for he hath no voice of his own, but sheweth thee\n     the will of the Spirit.\n\nWe noted that the inspiring angel of the Apocalypse had twice similarly\nspoken when the seer was about to worship him;--\"See thou do it not; for\nI am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them\nwhich keep the sayings of this book: Worship God.\"\n\nThe like positive injunctions were given us also against according\ndivine honours to Jesus.\n\nBesides Socrates, there is another notable historical \"Spiritualist\" of\nwhom our experiences vividly reminded us. This was Joan of Arc. The\ncorrespondence between her and \"Mary,\" in gifts, experiences, and\npersonal characteristics, was of the closest. We had no difficulty in\nbelieving her history. Each of them, moreover, had a mission of\ndeliverance, the one political and national, the other spiritual and\nuniversal.\n\nAlthough we had learned to trust our Illuminators implicitly long before\nthe receipt of the above instruction, we were still without assurance as\nto the source and method of the revelation. Be the knowledges received\nby us as new as they might to our external selves, they never failed to\nbe familiar as recovered memories, excepting in such cases as they were\ncouched in terms of which the sense, being mystical, was not at once\nrecognised. But such difficulties were soon overcome, and the doctrine,\nwhen fully apprehended, was always to us as necessary and self-evident\ntruth, and such as to excite wonder at the potency of the glamour which\nhad hitherto withheld it from the world's recognition. In every detail,\nthe revelation represented for us Common-Sense in its loftiest mode. For\nthe agreement it represented was not that of all men merely, but that of\nall parts of Man: of mind, soul and spirit, intellect and intuition, and\nthese purified and unfolded to the utmost, and perfectly equilibrated.\nWhatever the manner of its communication, whether heard by the interior\near, seen by the interior eye, flashed on the mind as vivid ideas,\nwhether acquired waking or sleeping, or in the intermediate state of\ntrance-lucidity, or given in writing, it always seemed that we knew it\nbefore, and did not require to be told it, but only to be reminded of\nit.\n\nThe problem specially exercised myself. \"Mary\" had other work than the\nanalysis of our spiritual experiences. That was my special function. I\nlearnt to see in her a soul of surpassing luminousness and variousness,\nwho had been entrusted to my charge expressly in order that by my study\nof her I might recover for the world's benefit the long-lost knowledge\nof the soul's being, nature, and history. And so many and various were\nher spiritual states, that she seemed to me to represent in turn every\nstage of the soul's evolution, and to be \"not one, but all mankind's\nepitome.\"\n\nThis also used to occur so frequently as to be observed by both of us\nand discussed between us. When in the process of my endeavour to find\nthe solution of some problem, such as the meaning of a parabolic or\notherwise obscure passage in Scripture, I had exhausted my stock of\ntentative hypotheses, but, through consideration for her other and\nengrossing work, refrained from imparting my need to her, she would\nreceive in sleep the desired solution, which she wrote down on waking,\nand which invariably proved satisfactory beyond my highest imaginings.\nAnd besides showing intimate acquaintance with the course of my thought,\nit was couched in language which, for simplicity, dignity, purity, and\nlucidity, was without an equal in literature; the English being that of\nthe best period of our literature, and better than the best even of that\nperiod. She herself had a remarkable mastery of English, but these\ncompositions reduced her to despair, causing her to exclaim, \"Why cannot\nI write as well when I am awake as I do in my sleep!\" Of course the\nexplanation lay in the limiting influence of the physical organism.\n\nThe frequency of this occurrence led me, in the absence of authoritative\nexplanation, to try the following, as an hypothesis purely tentative.\nThe revelations generally came to her when, through my inability to\nfind the interpretations which satisfied me, my work required them, and\nthey came independently of any desire or knowledge on her part. Might it\nnot be, then, that it was my own spirit who knew them and gave them to\nher, finding her more sensitive to impression than myself? The\nexplanation was not one that either pleased or satisfied me, one reason\nbeing that I took a delight in recognising the primacy accorded to her.\nThe idea occurred to me one night, and I pondered it the next day, but\ndid not divulge it. What happened on the evening of that day led me to\nsuspect that our Genii had suggested it to me in order to make it the\noccasion of imparting to me the knowledge in question, namely, that of\nthe real source and method of the revelation.\n\nFor the experience to be properly appreciated it must be remembered that\n\"Mary\" had no knowledge of the explanation suggested to me, and neither\nof us had as yet entertained the idea of past lives as the key to our\npresent work. The question of Reincarnation itself had not come before\nus, and far less the possibility of recovering the memory of the things\nlearnt in previous existences, much as we had been puzzled to account\nfor our experiences in the absence of some such explanation.\n\nThe proposal to sit for a written communication came from her, having\nevidently been prompted by our illuminators. The method was one which\nboth they and we disliked, and it was adopted only when they desired to\naddress us both at once. So we sat for writing.\n\nThe result confirmed my surmise. We had scarcely seated ourselves when\nthe writing began, as if we were being waited for. And this is what was\nwritten:--\n\n     \"We are instructed to say several things to-night. We are your\n     Genii.\n\n     \"(To CARO.) In the first place, you entirely misconceive the\n     process by which the Revelation comes to Mary. The method of this\n     revelation is entirely interior. Mary is not a Medium; nor is she\n     even a Seer as you understand the word. She is a Prophet. By this\n     we mean that all she has ever written or will write, is from\n     within, and not from without. She knows. She is not told. Hers is\n     an old, old spirit. She is older than you are, Caro, older by many\n     thousand years. Do not think that spirits other than her own are to\n     be credited with the authorship of the new Gospel. As a proof of\n     this, and to correct the false impression you have on the subject,\n     the holy and inner truth, of which she is the depositary, will not\n     in future be given to her by the former method. All she writes\n     henceforth, she will write consciously. Yes, she must finish the\n     new Evangel by conscious effort of brain and will.\"\n\nComing from a source which we had learnt to trust implicitly, and\naccording with our own highest conceptions, this message was supremely\nsatisfactory, and was welcomed accordingly. But it was followed\nforthwith by another which excited feelings of a very different\ncharacter. For, as if expressly in order to prevent her from being made\nvain-glorious and uplifted by it, they added--\n\n     \"(To MARY.) It may serve to exhibit the path by which you have\n     come, and to suggest the nature of some ancient tendencies which\n     may yet tarnish the mirror of a soul destined to attain perfection,\n     to learn that you dwelt within the body of ----.\"\n\nHere were given the name and character of a certain Roman dame of some\nseventeen centuries ago, one of high station, but of a repute so evil as\nto cause an immense shock to both of us. It does not come within the\ndesign of this book to disclose the particular personalities with whom\nwe had been identified in the past[45]. Concerning this one it must\nsuffice to state here that, omitting from account one whole side of\n\"Mary's\" character, we both recognised in the other side traits strongly\nresembling those which had been indicated. And she subsequently\nrecovered distinct recollections of scenes in the life in question which\nserved to assure her on the point. Our discussions on the matter tended\nto conclusions of which fuller knowledge brought the verification. It\nwas not one of those lives in virtue of which she was directly qualified\nfor her present work; but it was one of those lives of which the sin and\nthe suffering may well be conceived of as indispensable elements in the\neducation of a soul called to a lofty work and destiny in the future, in\naccordance with the principle which finds expression in the sayings,\n\"The greater the sinner the greater the saint,\" and \"_Pecca Fortiter_.\"\nThis also we discerned clearly, that, supposing it to be indeed a truth\nthat man is \"made perfect through suffering,\" the experiences in the\ncourse of which the suffering is undergone must imply sin as well as\npain and sorrow; since otherwise there would be a whole region of his\nnature, namely the moral, in which he would remain unvitalised. The\nlesson of which is that a man is alive only so far as he has lived.\nThere was yet another reflection that was prompted by the occasion in\nquestion, and one which crowned and glorified the rest. This was the\nassurance implied that none need despair. If the soul which had dwelt in\nthe body of the person named, could nevertheless become within\nmeasureable time what \"Mary\" was now, and be \"destined to attain\nperfection,\" there is hope for all, and the doctrine of Reincarnation is\nindeed a gospel of salvation. And herein we discerned a lesson hitherto\nunsuspected so far as we were aware, in the parable of the Prodigal Son.\nIt is not the \"elder brother\" who stays at home that can best appreciate\nthe divine order; but the prodigal who has gone forth into the world of\nexperience to acquire knowledge for himself at first hand. They who have\nbeen the most fully satiated with the husks of materiality, can--when\ntheir time arrives for coming to their true selves--best estimate the\nfare provided in the \"Father's House.\" \"He loveth most to whom most has\nbeen forgiven.\n\nWhile sitting alone one day and pondering these things, and particularly\nthe difficulty which people often find in correcting in themselves even\nthe faults which they deplore, this pregnant sentence was spoken audibly\nto my inner hearing by a voice which I recognised as that of my\nGenius:--\"Tendencies encouraged for ages cannot be cured in a single\nlifetime, but may require ages.\"\n\nThis further reflection also was suggested to me: that souls of\nexceptional strength are reincarnated in bodies of exceptionally strong\npassional natures, expressly in order to obtain the discipline which\ncomes of the effort to subdue them. All of which reflections tended to\nexhibit the rashness of judging outward judgment in respect of others.\nIn order to judge righteous judgment it is necessary to know the\nstrength of their temptations, and of their efforts to resist them. And\nthese can be known only to God. The attainment of perfection, and\ntherein of salvation by conquest and not by flight,--this is the\nprinciple of reincarnation. It is the _condition_ of Regeneration, which\nis _from out of_ the body.\n\nIn due time we were able to recognise the whole plan of our work as so\nordered as to make the work itself a demonstration of the doctrine of\nreincarnation. When once this doctrine had become a practical question\nfor us, it assumed a prominent place both in our teachings and in our\nexperiences. One instruction given us was no less striking in itself\nthan in the circumstances of its communication. The messenger was one\nwith whom we had never anticipated coming into relations, for, besides\nnot courting intercourse with the souls of the departed, we had not paid\nto the writings of the person concerned the heed that would entitle us\nto count him among our cordial sympathisers; and still less as among our\npossible visitants. This was the famous Swedish Seer, Emmanuel\nSwedenborg. In the course of what we afterwards found to be a strikingly\ncharacteristic communication from him, he informed us that owing to the\ndifficulty our angels had in approaching us just then, through the\ncondition of the spiritual atmosphere, they had charged him with a\nmessage to us, in which \"Mary's\" Genius had spoken to him of her as \"A\nsoul of vast experience, who under his tuition had so painfully\nacquired the evangel of which she was the depositary\"; adding that he,\nher Genius, \"had been promised help to recover for her, in this\nincarnation, the memory of all that was in the past\"; and--which was the\npoint of the message--that it was to be put forward, not as we were then\ncontemplating putting it forward, but \"as fragmentary specimens of such\nrecollection occurring to one now a woman, but formerly an initiate, who\nis beginning to recover this power.\"\n\nIt will be interesting to remark on this experience, that to this day\nthe followers of Swedenborg set their faces against the doctrine of\nreincarnation, expressly on the ground that their master denied it in\nhis lifetime. Whether Swedenborg really denied it is uncertain. There is\ngrave cause to doubt whether his writings on the subject have been\nrightly understood or fairly represented. It has been maintained with\nmuch show of reason that Swedenborg denied only the reincarnation of the\nastral soul, not of the true soul; in which case he would be right.\nHaving once obtained access to us, his visits were for a time frequent,\nthe manner of them being various. For he came to us jointly and\nseparately, in waking and in sleeping--the latter to \"Mary\" only--and\naudibly and visibly--the latter also to \"Mary\" only. He alluded to a\nrecent incarnation of mine, of which I have since had full and\nindependent proof. And he recognised our work as not only a confirmation\nand continuation of his own, but also as a correction. For, as he gave\nus to understand, he had been too much under the influence of the\ncurrent orthodoxy to be able to transmit the revelation given to him in\nits proper purity, and unbiased by his own preconceptions. The doctrine\nin respect of which he was chiefly desirous of being set right was that\nof the Incarnation, the orthodox presentment of which he now saw to be\nwrong, by reason of its deification of Jesus. In referring to the\nperversion of the truth by the formulators of the Christian orthodoxy,\nhe said to us, with much emphasis, \"Do not be too kind to the\nChristians.\"\n\nThis allusion to an experience which belongs to the category of\n\"spiritualism\" rather than to that of our special work, may with\nadvantage be followed by some account of our other experiences of the\nsame order, partly for the sake of testifying to the genuineness of the\nexperiences relied on by spiritualists, and partly in order to show the\ndistinction between the two orders of experience, as discerned by\npersons whose familiarity with both qualified them to institute\ncomparison between them. For, having once become sensitised in the inner\nand higher regions of the consciousness, we had become sensitised also\nin the intermediate regions, and were able therefore to hold palpable\nconverse with the denizens of these also. And the converse thus held was\nof the most satisfactory character, on the ground both of the certainty\nof its reality and its intrinsic nature. Father, mother, wife, brothers,\nsundry dear friends, and others interested in our work, all came to me,\nand some of them to my colleague, and this several times, and in a\nmanner impossible to be distrusted. For my mother more than once spoke\nto me aloud in her own unmistakeable voice, and in tones that anyone\nmight have heard, as I sat alone in my study. My wife came repeatedly to\nboth of us, jointly and separately, audibly, visibly, and tangibly;\ngiving us timely warnings of dangers unsuspected by us but proving to be\nreal. And one of my brothers cleared up a mystery which had hung over\nhis death. No mere attenuated wraiths or soulless phantoms were they who\nthus visited us from \"beyond the veil,\" they were strong, distinct,\nintelligent individualities, veritable souls, palpitating with vitality,\nand eager to render loving service. But they came spontaneously and\nunevoked, for we never sought to compel their presence. Our quest was\npurely and simply for truth, not for persons. But we considered that,\nwhen these also came, as they did come, to ourselves directly and\nwithout intervention of any third party, to refuse to receive them on\nthe ground that they had put off their bodies, would be equivalent to\nrepulsing our friends in the flesh on the ground that they had put off\ntheir overcoats.\n\nThe spirit in which alone such intercourse is permissible will be seen\nby the following citations from the instructions received by us. Terms\nfrom the Hebrew, Greek, and Oriental Scriptures were used indifferently\nby our illuminators. The word _Ruach_ in the following--which is Hebrew\nfor Spirit--is here used in a kabalistic sense to denote the astral soul\nor ghost, as distinguished from the divine soul, the _Psyche_ or\n_Neshamah_, and from the _Nephesh_ or mere phantom. The following is\nfrom an instruction given to \"Mary\" in sleep, in direct solution of\ncertain perplexities.\n\n     \"Thou knowest that in the end, when Nirvana is attained, the soul\n     shall gather up all that it hath left within the astral of holy\n     memories and worthy experience, and to this end the Ruach rises in\n     the astral sphere, by the gradual decay and loss of its more\n     material affinities, until these have so disintegrated and\n     perished that its substance is thereby lightened and purified. But\n     continual commerce and intercourse with earth add, as it were,\n     fresh fuel to its earthly affinities, keeping these alive, and\n     hindering its recall to its spiritual ego. Thus, therefore, the\n     spiritual ego itself is detained from perfect absorption into the\n     divine, and union therewith. For the Ruach shall not all die, if\n     there be in it anything worthy of recall. The astral sphere is its\n     purging chamber. For Saturn, who is Time, is the trier of all\n     things; he devoureth all the dross; only that escapeth which in its\n     nature is ethereal and destined to reign. And this death of the\n     Ruach is gradual and natural. It is a process of elimination and\n     disintegration, often--as men measure time--extending over many\n     decades, or even centuries. And those Ruachs which appertain to\n     wicked and evil persons, having strong wills inclined\n     earthwards,--these persist longest and manifest most frequently and\n     vividly, because they _rise not_, but, being destined to perish\n     utterly, are not withdrawn from immediate contact with the earth.\n     They are all dross; there is in them no redeemable element. But the\n     Ruach of the righteous complaineth if thou disturb his evolution.\n     'Why callest thou me? disturb me not. The memories of my earth-life\n     are chains about my neck; the desire of the past detaineth me.\n     Suffer me to rise towards my rest, and hinder me not with\n     evocations. But let thy love go after me and encompass me; so shalt\n     thou rise with me through sphere after sphere.'\n\n     \"For the good man upon earth can love nothing less than the divine.\n     Wherefore that which he loveth in his friend is the divine, that\n     is, the true and radiant self. And if he love it as differentiated\n     from God, it is only on account of its separate tincture. For in\n     the perfect light there are innumerable tinctures. And according to\n     its celestial affinity, one soul loveth this or that splendour more\n     than the rest. And when the righteous friend of the good man dieth,\n     the love of the living man goeth after the true soul of the dead;\n     and the strength and divinity of this love helpeth the purgation\n     of the astral soul, the psychic ghost. It is to this astral soul,\n     which ever remaineth near the living friend, an indication of the\n     way it must also go,--a light shining upon the upward path that\n     leads from the astral to the celestial and everlasting. For love,\n     being divine, is _towards_ the divine. 'Love exalteth, love\n     purifieth, love uplifteth.'\"\n\nAnd this also, which was similarly obtained, represents a further\nrestoration of the original, pure, undistorted and unmutilated doctrine\nof Christianity concerning the communion of souls.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     So weepest thou and lamentest, because the Soul thou lovest is\n     taken from thy sight.\n\n     And life seemeth to thee a bitter thing: yea, thou cursest the\n     destiny of all living creatures.\n\n     And thou deemest thy love of no avail, and thy tears as idle drops.\n\n     Behold, Love is a ransom, and the tears thereof are prayers.\n\n     And if thou have lived purely, thy fervent desire shall be counted\n     grace to the soul of thy dead.\n\n     For the burning and continual prayer of the just availeth much.\n\n     Yea, thy love shall enfold the soul which thou lovest: it shall be\n     unto him a wedding garment and a vesture of blessing.\n\n     The baptism of thy sorrow shall baptize thy dead, and he shall rise\n     because of it.\n\n     Thy prayers shall lift him up, and thy tears shall encompass his\n     steps: thy love shall be to him a light shining upon the upward\n     way.\n\n     And the angels of God shall say unto him, \"O happy Soul, that art\n     so well-beloved; that art made so strong with all these tears and\n     sighs.\n\n     \"Praise the Father of Spirits therefor: for this great love shall\n     save thee many incarnations.\n\n     \"Thou art advanced thereby; thou art drawn aloft and carried upward\n     by cords of grace.\"\n\n     For in such wise do souls profit one another and have communion,\n     and receive and give blessing, the departed of the living, and the\n     living of the departed.\n\n     And so much the more as the heart within them is clean, and the way\n     of their intention is innocent in the sight of God....\n\n     Count not as lost thy suffering on behalf of other souls; for every\n     cry is a prayer, and all prayer is power.\n\n     That thou willest to do is done; thine intention is united to the\n     Will of Divine Love.\n\n     Nothing is lost of that which thou layest out for God and for thy\n     brother.\n\n     And it is love alone who redeemeth, and love hath nothing of her\n     own[46].\n\nBut precious as is the communion of souls when thus conditioned, it was\nnot to them that we looked for light and guidance in our work. Nor,\nindeed, to any persons at all in the sense in which the term is\nordinarily used. We looked steadfastly and directly to the Highest,\nconfidently leaving to the Highest the appointment both of the Messenger\nand of the Message, but never failing to submit both manner and matter\nto the keenest scrutiny of faculties which we had striven to the utmost\nto attune to divine things. We were, moreover, emphatically warned from\nthe outset against allowing any intrusion into our work of the\ninfluences accessible to the ordinary sensitive, the two planes being\nabsolutely distinct. Herein lay the significance of the saying of\n\"Mary's\" Genius, that he had been \"promised help to enable her to\nrecover in this incarnation the memory of all that is in the past.\" The\nGenii themselves, although of the celestial, belong to its\ncircumferential and lowest sphere. They touch the astral, but do not\nenter it. The help spoken of was to come from the innermost and highest\nspheres. And the charge was accordingly given us, \"Do not, then, seek\nafter 'controls.' Keep your temple for the Lord God of Hosts; and turn\nout of it the money-changers, the dove-sellers, and the dealers in\ncurious arts, yea, with a scourge of cords if need be.\"\n\nThe manner in which we received the first full and particular account\nrespecting the method of revelation, was as follows. I was pondering to\nmyself with much intentness the nature and source of inspiration, and\ndesiring a test whereby to distinguish between true and false\ninspiration. But I refrained for various reasons from consulting my\ncolleague, at least until I should have exhausted my own resources. And\nshe was still without any intimation of my need when she received the\ninstruction concerning inspiration and prophesying of which the\nfollowing is a portion. It was received in sleep, and the date was\nshortly before we were told that her knowledges were due to experiences\nundergone in previous lives[47]. When I had read it she said, referring\nto the first verse, \"But I did not ask.\" In reply to which I told her\nthat I had asked. It was addressed equally to both of us, as making\ntogether one system.\n\n     \"I heard last night in my sleep a voice speaking to me, and\n     saying--\n\n     \"You ask the method and nature of Inspiration, and the means\n     whereby God revealeth the Truth.\n\n     \"Know that there is no enlightenment from without: the secret of\n     things is revealed from within.\n\n     \"From without cometh no Divine Revelation: but the Spirit within\n     beareth witness.\n\n     \"Think not that I tell you that which you know not: for except you\n     know it, it cannot be given to you.\n\n     \"To him that hath it is given, and he hath the more abundantly.\n\n     \"None is a prophet save he who knoweth: the instructor of the\n     people is a man of many lives.\n\n     \"Inborn knowledge and the perception of things, these are the\n     sources of revelation: the Soul of the man instructeth him, having\n     already learned by experience.\n\n     \"Intuition is inborn experience; that which the soul knoweth of old\n     and of former years.\n\n     \"And Illumination is the Light of Wisdom, whereby a man perceiveth\n     heavenly secrets.\n\n     \"Which Light is the Spirit of God within the man, showing unto him\n     the things of God.\n\n     \"Do not think that I tell you anything you know not; all cometh\n     from within: the Spirit that informeth is the Spirit of God in the\n     prophet.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     \"Inspiration may indeed be mediumship, but it is conscious; and the\n     knowledge of the prophet instructeth him.\n\n     \"Even though he speak in an ecstasy, he uttereth nothing that he\n     knoweth not.\"\n\nThen followed this apostrophe to the Prophet:--\n\n     \"Thou who art a prophet hast had many lives: yea, thou hast taught\n     many nations, and hast stood before kings.\n\n     And God hath instructed thee in the years that are past, and in the\n     former times of the earth.\n\n     By prayer, by fasting, by meditation, by painful seeking, hast thou\n     attained that thou knowest.\n\n     There is no knowledge but by labour: there is no intuition but by\n     experience.\n\n     I have seen thee on the hills of the East: I have followed thy\n     steps in the wilderness: I have seen thee adore at sunrise: I have\n     marked thy night watches in the caves of the mountains.\n\n     Thou hast attained with patience, O prophet! God hath revealed the\n     truth to thee from within.\"\n\n     Thus, for the first time known to history, was given a definition\n     of the nature and method of inspiration and prophecy, at once\n     luminous, reasonable, and inexpugnable, to the full and final\n     solution of this stupendous problem; and comporting with and\n     explaining, as it did, all our own experiences, we felt that we\n     could bear unreserved testimony to its truth. But, vast as was the\n     addition thus made to the New Gospel of Interpretation, it did not\n     exhaust the treasures revealed and communicated on that wondrous\n     night; for it was followed immediately by a prophecy of the meaning\n     of the new dispensation on which the world is entering, and of\n     which our work is the introduction. At once Biblical in diction and\n     character, it reached in loftiness the highest level of Biblical\n     prophecy and inspiration, demonstrating the same world celestial\n     and divine as the source of both. For which reason, and the\n     crushing blow administered by it to the superstitions which have\n     made of Christianity a by-word and a reproach by their gross\n     materialisations of mysteries purely spiritual, it is reproduced in\n     full here. The heading is of our own devising:--\n\nA Prophecy of the Kingdom of the Soul, mystically called the Day of the\nWoman.\n\n     \"And now I show you a mystery and a new thing, which is part of the\n     mystery of the fourth day of creation.\n\n     The word which shall come to save the world, shall be uttered by a\n     woman.\n\n     A woman shall conceive, and shall bring forth the tidings of\n     salvation.\n\n     For the reign of Adam is at its last hour; and God shall crown all\n     things by the creation of Eve.\n\n     Hitherto the man hath been alone, and hath had dominion over the\n     earth.\n\n     But when the woman shall be created, God shall give unto her the\n     kingdom; and she shall be first in rule and highest in dignity.\n\n     Yea, the last shall be first, and the elder shall serve the\n     younger.\n\n     So that women shall no more lament for their womanhood; but men\n     shall rather say, \"O that we had been born women!\"\n\n     For the strong shall be put down from their seat, and the meek\n     shall be exalted to their place.\n\n     The days of the Covenant of Manifestation are passing away: the\n     Gospel of Interpretation cometh.\n\n     There shall nothing new be told; but that which is ancient shall be\n     interpreted.\n\n     So that man the manifesto shall resign his office: and woman the\n     interpreter shall give light to the world.\n\n     Hers is the fourth office: she revealeth that which the Lord hath\n     manifested.\n\n     Hers is the light of the heavens, and the brightest of the planets\n     of the holy seven.\n\n     She is the fourth dimension; the eyes which enlighten; the power\n     which draweth inward to God.\n\n     And her kingdom cometh; the day of the exaltation of woman.\n\n     And her reign shall be greater than the reign of the man: for Adam\n     shall be put down from his place; and she shall have dominion for\n     ever.\n\n     And she who is alone shall bring forth more children to God, then\n     she who hath an husband.\n\n     There shall no more be a reproach against women: but against men\n     shall be the reproach.\n\n     For the woman is the crown of man, and the final manifestation of\n     humanity.\n\n     She is the nearest to the throne of God, when she shall be\n     revealed.\n\n     But the creation of woman is not yet complete: but it shall be\n     complete in the time which is at hand.\n\n     All things are thine, O Mother of God: all things are thine, O Thou\n     who risest from the sea; and Thou shalt have dominion over all the\n     worlds[48].\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[29] A.K. knew nothing of Spinoza at this time, and was unaware that he\nwas an optician. Subsequent experience made it clear that the spectacles\nin question were intended to represent her own remarkable faculty of\nintuitional and interpretative perception. (See Life A.K. Vol. I. pp.\n150-1.) S.H.H.\n\n[30] Page 525\n\n[31] The 22nd September, 1877.\n\n[32] The book referred to was a treatise entitled \"Fruit and Bread,\"\nwhich had been sent to her anonymously the previous day. E.M.\n\n[33] The \"Hymn to Hermes\" was received by A.K. in 1878, \"under\nillumination occurring in sleep.\" She remembered it so perfectly that on\nwaking she wrote it without hesitation or error. Representing knowledges\nlong lost, by no amount of mere scholarship could it have been\nreproduced. It is given at length in the P.W. pp. 357-358, and in \"The\nLife of A.K.\" Vol. I. p. 287. S.H.H.\n\n[34] As to the recovery by A.K. of the Hymn to the Planet-God, see p.\n122-3.\n\n[35] These dream-verses are from \"Through the Ages,\" a poem received by\nA.K., \"in sleep,\" in 1880. In this poem, \"some of her earliest\nincarnations\" are referred to. (D. and D-S. p. 77.) S.H.H.\n\n[36] See p. 122 note.\n\n[37] See pp. 51-52-53 ante.\n\n[38] That is, in the place of God and the Soul.\n\n[39] The four planes being, from without inwards, those of the body,\nmind, soul, and spirit. S.H.H.\n\n[40] The 28th March, 1880. S.H.H.\n\n[41] The name by which I was thus addressed had been given me by our\nilluminators as an initiation name, as that of \"Mary\" to her. It denoted\nlove as the dominant note of our work, and was an equivalent for \"John\nthe Beloved,\" who--we were given to understand--is one of the two\ncontrolling \"angels\" of the new illumination--Daniel being the other--in\naccordance with the intimations given by Jesus, one to His disciples and\nthe other to the Seer of the Apocalypse himself, that John should tarry\nwithin reach of the earth-plane to bear part in the event which was to\nconstitute the second advent of Christ. These names had a further\ncorrespondence in the Greek parable of Eros and Psyche, which denotes\nlove as the vivifying principle of the soul. E.M.\n\n[42] Materialism and Superstition.\n\n[43] The name Esther denotes a star or fountain of light, a dawn or\nrising.\n\n[44] The spelling of the names is that of the Douay Version, the\nProtestants having relegated the second part of the book of Esther, in\nwhich the latter part of this narrative occurs, to the Apocrypha. As\nalso that of Ezra above cited. E.M.\n\n[45] These are disclosed in \"The Life of A.K.\" The personality referred\nto on this occasion was \"Faustine, the Roman,\" the Empress of Marcus\nAurelius. (Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 353-354.) S.H.H.\n\n[46] The \"Hymn of Aphrodite,\" including the \"Discourse of the Communion\nof Souls, and of the Uses of Love between Creature and Creature; being\npart of the Golden Book of Venus,\" from which latter the above is taken,\nis given in full in the P.W. pp. 350-356.\n\n[47] The instruction concerning inspiration and prophesying was received\nby A.K. in Paris on the 7th February, 1880. S.H.H.\n\n[48] P.W. pp. 311-314. Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 344-345.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE ANTAGONISATION.\n\n\nEven had we been disposed, which happily we were not, to exalt ourselves\non the strength of the loftiness of our mission, the constant proofs\nafforded us of the paucity of our knowledge in comparison with what\nremained to be known, would have effectually restrained us. But as it\nwas, we were from the first penetrated by the conviction that only in so\nfar as we succeeded in subordinating the individual to the universal,\nthe personal to the divine, could the work be successfully accomplished.\nThe man must make himself nothing that the God may be all. This was the\nburden of the injunctions enforced on us throughout; the failures of\nothers through self-exaltation being adduced in illustration. For, as we\nwere plainly given to understand, \"many are called but few are chosen\";\nthe weak point in their system, the \"Judas\" by whom they are betrayed\nand fail, being generally vanity. They are as instruments which mistake\nthemselves for the mind and hand which wield them.\n\nHumility and Love, the violet and the red, these are the two extremes of\nthe prism which comprise between them all the Seven Spirits of God.\nBlended, they make the royal purple; but the hue of that purple depends\non the spiritual states of the individuals themselves whose tinctures\nthey are. They were, we were told, the tinctures of our own souls as\nindicated by the colours of our respective _auras_. \"Mary's\" was the\n\"blood-red ray of the innermost sphere,\" the sphere of the \"first of the\nGods,\" wherein \"love and wisdom are one.\" \"For the Hebrews Uriel, for\nthe Greeks Phoibos, the Bright One of God.\" Mine was the violet of the\noutermost sphere, that of the \"last of the Gods,\" the \"Spirit of the\nFear of the Lord,\" and therein of Reverence and Humility; for the Greeks\nSaturn, and for the Hebrews Satan, the \"Angel unfallen of the outermost\nsphere.\" Only when man is built up of all the Gods, and bears upon him\nthe seal of each God, having climbed the ladder of his regeneration from\ncircumference to centre, from \"Saturn\" to the \"Sun,\" is the \"week\" of\nhis new and spiritual creation accomplished. Similarly the co-operation\nof all these divine potencies was indispensable to our work. And we were\nemphatically warned of the dangers both to it and to ourselves, that\nwould come of the lack of the divine presence in respect of any of them.\nHence the necessity of maintaining the necessary conditions in\nourselves, and the caution addressed to us by \"Hermes,\" in view of the\nliability of mortals to appropriate to themselves the importance\nappertaining to their mission when this transcends the ordinary. To this\nend, in the following Exhortation, he disclosed to us the heights yet to\nbe ascended, saying--\n\n     He whose adversaries fight with weapons of steel, must himself be\n     armed in like manner, if he would not be ignominiously slain or\n     save himself by flight.\n\n     And not only so, but forasmuch as his adversaries may be many,\n     while he is only one; it is even necessary that the steel he\n     carries be of purer temper and of more subtle point and contrivance\n     than theirs.\n\n     I, Hermes, would arm you with such, that bearing a blade with a\n     double edge, ye may be able to withstand in the evil hour.\n\n     For it is written that the tree of life is guarded by a sword which\n     turneth every way.\n\n     Therefore I would have you armed both with a perfect philosophy and\n     with the power of the divine life.\n\n     And first the knowledge; that you and they who hear you may know\n     the reason of the faith which is in you.\n\n     But knowledge cannot prevail alone, and ye are not yet perfected.\n\n     When the fulness of the time shall come, I will add unto you the\n     power of the divine life.\n\n     It is the life of contemplation, of fasting, of obedience, and of\n     resistance.\n\n     And afterwards the chrism, the power, and the glory. But these are\n     not yet.\n\n     Meanwhile remain together and perfect your philosophy.\n\n     Boast not, and be not lifted up; for all things are God's, and ye\n     are in God, and God in you.\n\n     But when the word shall come to you, be ready to obey.\n\n     There is but one way to power, and it is the way of obedience.\n\n     Call no man your master or king upon the earth, lest ye forsake the\n     spirit for the form and become idolaters.\n\n     He who is indeed spiritual, and transformed into the divine image,\n     desires a spiritual king.\n\n     Purify your bodies, and eat no dead thing that has looked with\n     living eyes upon the light of Heaven.\n\n     For the eye is the symbol of brotherhood among you. Sight is the\n     mystical sense.\n\n     Let no man take the life of his brother to feed withal his own.\n\n     But slay only such as are evil; in the name of the Lord.\n\n     They are miserably deceived who expect eternal life, and restrain\n     not their hands from blood and death.\n\n     They are miserably deceived who look for wives from on high, and\n     have not yet attained their manhood.\n\n     Despise not the gift of knowledge; and make not spiritual eunuchs\n     of yourselves.\n\n     For Adam was first formed, then Eve.\n\n     Ye are twain, the man with the woman, and she with him, neither man\n     nor woman, but one creature.\n\n     And the kingdom of God is within you[49].\n\nThe knowledge of the \"Seven Spirits\" whereby Deity operates in the\nuniverse, has been completely dropped out of sight by the Christian\nworld. It is necessary, therefore, if only in vindication of the\nimportance attached to them by our illuminators, to recite the\ninstruction received by us concerning them, which is as follows. It is a\nchapter from the recovered Gnosis[50]:--\n\n     \"In the bosom of the Eternal were all the Gods comprehended, as the\n     seven spirits of the prism, contained in the Invisible Light.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     By the Word of Elohim were the Seven Elohim manifest: even the\n     Seven Spirits of God in the order of their precedence:\n\n     The Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of\n     Counsel, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Knowledge, the Spirit\n     of Righteousness, and the Spirit of Divine Awfulness.\n\n     All these are coequal and coeternal.\n\n     Each has the nature of the whole in itself: and each is a perfect\n     entity.\n\n     And the brightness of their manifestation shineth forth from the\n     midst of each, as wheel within wheel, encircling the White Throne\n     of the Invisible Trinity in Unity.\n\n     These are the Divine fires which burn before the presence of God:\n     which proceed from the Spirit, and are one with the Spirit.\n\n     He is divided, yet not diminished: He is All, and He is One.\n\n     For the Spirit of God is a flame of fire which the Word of God\n     divideth into many: yet the original flame is not decreased, nor\n     the power thereof nor the brightness thereof lessened.\n\n     Thou mayest light many lamps from the flame of one; yet thou dost\n     in nothing diminish that first flame.\n\n     Now the Spirit of God is expressed by the Word of God, which is\n     Adonai.\n\n     For without the Word the Will could have had no utterance.\n\n     Thus the Divine Will divided the Spirit of God, and the seven fires\n     went forth from the bosom of God and became seven spiritual\n     entities.\n\n     They went forth into the Divine Substance, which is the substance\n     of all that is.\"\n\nAs already stated, Hermes is the Greek name for the Second of the\ncreative Elohim above enumerated. Hence his special relation to the New\nGospel of Interpretation, the appeal of which is to the Understanding.\n\nBeing shown one day in vision the path we had to traverse for the\naccomplishment of our work, \"Mary\" exclaimed:--\n\n     \"What a dreadfully difficult thing it is to steer one's way amidst\n     such numbers of influences! I see a fine, bright-shining thread. It\n     is our own path, and it is a pathway of light. But, oh! so narrow,\n     so narrow, and all around are spirits trying to lure us from it.\n     Here is Hermes, shining like a silver light. My Genius says that\n     the way to get the utmost vitality on the spiritual plane is to\n     abandon the plane of the body, and keep it quite low, by not\n     indulging it. The time for bodily indulgence is passed with us.\n     Abstinence, we have been told, and watchfulness and fasting are\n     needful. And the time for the first of these has come. Nothing is\n     gained without labour or won without suffering. Fasting and\n     Watching and Abstinence, these are Beads and Rosary. It is a hard\n     way and a long way, and it makes one wishful to turn back. We are\n     not to be misled by the story, so much dwelt on to you by the\n     Astrals, of Moses and Aaron[51]. They both were failures, who\n     entered not into the land of Canaan. We must be patient and trust.\n     We have to be cultivated on both planes, the intellectual and the\n     spiritual, and not on the physical, for this draws from and saps\n     the others.\"\n\nSo far as I was concerned, there was yet another rule that was made\nabsolute: this was the rule of Poverty. Desiring at one time to mitigate\nthe rigour of my enforced economies by working with a commercial intent,\nand to that end endeavouring to finish a tale some time before\ncommenced, I found myself baffled by a complete withdrawal of power. I\nwas well aware that no romance I could devise would compare with the\nromance I was living, and that any incidents I could invent would be\ntame before those of my actual life; but it was not this that withheld\nme. It was made clear to me that there was now only one direction and\none plane in which I was accessible to ideas and in which therefore I\ncould work, and this a direction and plane altogether incompatible with\nmundane ends. But I had not fully reconciled myself to the loss of my\nearning power, or resolved to refrain from further efforts in that\nbehalf, when I received the following experience.\n\nI had gone to bed, but not to sleep, for thinking over the matter, when\nI became aware of the presence of a group of spiritual influences, one\nof whom, speaking for them all, said to me, in tones audible only to the\ninner hearing, but distinct, measured and authoritative--\n\n     \"We whom you know as the Gods--Zeus, Phoibos, Hermes, and the\n     rest--are actual celestial personalities, who are appointed to\n     represent to mortals the principles and potencies called the Seven\n     Spirits of God. We have chosen you for our instrument, and have\n     tried you and proved you and instructed you; and you belong to us\n     to do our work and not your own, save in so far as you make it your\n     own. Only in such measure as you do this will you have any success.\n     For you can do nothing without us now: and it is useless for you to\n     attempt to do anything without our help.\"\n\nBy this and manifold other experiences, we had practical demonstration\nof the existence of a celestial hierarchy consisting of souls perfected\nand divinised, divided into orders corresponding to the \"Seven Spirits\nof God,\" and having for their function the illumination of those souls\nof men still on earth who are accessible by them; and to whom they\nmanifest themselves in the forms recognised in the mysteries in which\nsuch persons have formerly been initiated.\n\nWe had also manifold proofs of their power to arrest utterance before\npersons unfit to be entrusted with the mysteries. The first instance\noccurred to myself, and was in this wise. I was reading some passages in\nillustration of our work to an old clerical friend who came to see me in\nParis, when I inadvertently turned to a part of the book which we had\nbeen charged to keep secret. But before I had read a line, the air round\nme became so dense with invisible presences that I was unable to see,\nand my heart was clutched, as if by an invisible hand, and lifted up\ntowards my throat with such force as almost to choke me; while, at the\nsame instant, an overwhelming sense of my fault was impressed on my\nmind, causing me for some hours to feel as one utterly God-forsaken and\ncast off.\n\nNot thinking that \"Mary\" was liable to err in the same way, or caring to\ntell her of my trespass, I kept silence respecting this experience. But\na few weeks later it was repeated for her. She was speaking of our work\nto a spiritualist friend with whom we were spending the evening, and, in\nher eagerness, got upon topics which I recognised as forbidden. But\nbefore I had time to remind her, she suddenly stopped short and rose\nfrom her seat, gasping and dazed, and insisted on returning home\nforthwith, to our hostess's great amazement and disappointment. Divining\nwhat had occurred, I refrained from questioning her until we were\noutside and alone, when in reply to me she described exactly what had\nhappened to me, using the words, \"I did not want to be choked!\" There\nwere other occasions on which I was cut short under like circumstances,\nby having all that I meant to say suddenly and completely obliterated\nfrom my mind.\n\nBeing desirous to know more of the adverse influences against which we\nhad been warned, and from which we suffered, \"Mary\" consulted her\nilluminator respecting their origin and nature, when the following\ncolloquy ensued:--\n\n     \"They are,\" he said, \"the powers which affect and influence\n     Sensitives. They do not control, for they have no force.... They\n     are Reflects. They have no real entity in themselves. They resemble\n     mists which arise from the damp earth of low-lying lands, and which\n     the heat of the sun disperses. Again, they are like vapours in high\n     altitudes, upon which, if a man's shadow falls, he beholds himself\n     as a giant. For these spirits invariably flatter and magnify a man\n     to himself. And this is a sign whereby you may know them. They tell\n     one that he is a king; another, that he is a Christ; another, that\n     he is the wisest of mortals, and the like. For, being born of the\n     fluids of the body, they are unspiritual and live _of_ the body.\"\n\n     \"Do they, then,\" I asked, \"come from within the man?\"\n\n     \"All things,\" he replied \"come from within. A man's foes are they\n     of his own household.\"\n\n     \"And how,\" I asked, \"may we discern the Astrals from the higher\n     spirits?\"\n\n     \"I have told you of one sign;--they are flattering spirits. Now I\n     will tell you of another. They always depreciate Woman. And they do\n     this because their deadliest foe is the Intuition. And these, too,\n     are signs. Is there anything strong? they will make it weak. Is\n     there anything wise? they will make it foolish. Is there anything\n     sublime? they will distort and travesty it. And this they do\n     because they are exhalations of matter, and have no spiritual\n     nature. Hence they pursue and persecute the Woman continually,\n     sending after her a flood of vituperation like a torrent to sweep\n     her away. But it shall be in vain. For God shall carry her to His\n     throne, and she shall tread on the necks of them.\n\n     \"Therefore the High Gods will give through a woman the\n     Interpretation which alone can save the world. A woman shall open\n     the gates of the Kingdom to mankind, because Intuition only can\n     redeem. Between the Woman and the Astrals there is always enmity;\n     for they seek to destroy her and her office, and to put themselves\n     in her place. They are the delusive shapes who tempted the saints\n     of old with exceeding beauty and wiles of love, and great show of\n     affection and flattery. Oh! beware of them when they flatter, for\n     they spread a net for thy soul.\"\n\n     \"Am I, then, in danger from them?\" I asked. \"Am I, too, a\n     Sensitive?\" And he said,--\n\n     \"No, you are a Poet. And in that is your strength and your\n     salvation. Poets are the children of the Sun, and the Sun illumines\n     them. No poet can be vain or self-exalted; for he knows that he\n     speaks only the words of God. 'I sing,' he says, 'because I must.'\n     Learn a truth which is known only to the sons of God. The Spirit\n     within you is divine. It is God. When you prophesy and when you\n     sing, it is the Spirit within you which gives you utterance. It is\n     the 'New Wine of Dionysos.' By this Spirit your body is\n     enlightened, as is a lamp by the flame within it. Now, the flame is\n     not the oil, for the oil may be there without the light. Yet the\n     flame cannot be there without the oil. Your body, then, is the\n     lamp-case into which the oil is poured. And this--the oil--is your\n     soul, a fine and combustible fluid. And the flame is the Divine\n     Spirit, which is not born of the oil, but is conveyed to it by the\n     hand of God. You may quench this Spirit utterly, and thenceforward\n     you will have no immortality; but when the lamp-case breaks, the\n     oil will be spilt on the earth, and a few fumes will for a time\n     arise from it, and then it will expend itself and leave at last no\n     trace. Some oils are finer and more spontaneous than others. The\n     finest is that of the soul of the poet. And in such a medium the\n     flame of God's Spirit burns more clearly and powerfully, and\n     brightly, so that sometimes mortal eyes can hardly endure its\n     brightness. Of such an one the soul is filled with holy raptures.\n     He sees as no other man sees, and the atmosphere about him is\n     enkindled. His soul becomes transmuted into flame; and when the\n     lamp of his body is shattered, his flame mounts and soars, and is\n     united to the Divine Fire. Can such an one, think you, be\n     vain-glorious or self-exalted, and lifted up? Oh no; he is one with\n     God, and knows that without God he is nothing. I tell no man that\n     he is a reincarnation of Moses, of Elias, or of Christ. But I tell\n     him that he may have the Spirit of these if, like them, he be\n     humble and self-abased, and obedient to the Divine Word.\"\n\nSo far from our being sufficiently advanced to escape molestation from\nthe sources thus indicated, there were times when we suffered much from\ntheir incursions, even to the hindrance, for the time being, of the work\non which our whole hearts were set. Knowing that everything depended on\nour unanimity, they sought to make division between us, and what they\nlacked in force was more than made up for by subtlety[52]. Despite all\nour vigilance, they would insinuate themselves like barbed and poisoned\narrows between the joints of our armour, there to rankle and envenom, so\ninsidious were their suggestions. They did not flatter, but attacked\nus. So that it was a satisfaction to be assured that they attack those\nonly who are worth attacking. The very nature of our work was such as to\ninvite attack from them, being what they were.\n\nMeanwhile, no experience was withheld that would serve to qualify us for\nwhat proved to be an essential part of our work, the \"discerning of\nspirits\" in the sense, not merely of perceiving them, but of\ndistinguishing their nature and character. And always was the lesson\ngiven in a form which combined with its other features that of total\nunexpectedness. Especially important was it for us to be able to\ndistinguish between the spirits _of_ the astral, against which we were\nwarned, and spirits _in_ the astral, namely, souls which had not yet\naccomplished their emancipation, but were in course of doing so. But\nwhile as regarded the former we were left to fight the battle for\nourselves, as regarded the latter there was a control exercised, and\nnone were permitted to approach us save such as had a message of service\nwhich would minister to the solution of a present problem. Of this the\nfollowing experience was an instance. It helped us to a yet fuller\ncomprehension, both of the reasons which had dictated our association,\nand of the liabilities to be guarded against.\n\nIt was evening[53], and we were occupied in our respective tasks, and so\nentirely engrossed by them as to be disposed to resent any interruption,\nwhen \"Mary\" bent across the table, and speaking in a low tone, said to\nme, \"There is a spirit in the room who wants to speak to us. Shall I let\nhim?\" I assented on the condition that he had something to tell us\nreally worth hearing. She then became entranced, being magnetised by his\npresence; and after telling me that he spoke with a strong American\naccent and professed to be a \"meta-physical doctor\"--meaning, she\nsupposed, a doctor in metaphysics--repeated the following after him; for\nI could neither see nor hear him:--\n\n     \"You two have been put together for a work which you could not do\n     separately. I have been shown a chart of your past histories,\n     containing your characters and your past incarnations. She is of a\n     highly active, wilful disposition, and represents the centrifugal\n     force. You, Caro, are her opposite, and, being contemplative and\n     concentrated, represent the centripetal force. Without her\n     expansive energy you would become altogether indrawn and inactive\n     in deed; and without your restraining influence she would go forth\n     and become dissipated in expansiveness. So extraordinary is her\n     outward tendency that nothing but such an organism as she now has\n     could repress it and keep it within bounds. It is for the work she\n     has to do that she has been placed in a body of weakness and\n     suffering. She is the man--and you the woman--element in your joint\n     system. I can see only her female incarnations, but she has been a\n     man much oftener than a woman; while you have generally been a\n     woman, and would be one now but for the work you have to do. Even\n     as a woman she has always been much more man than woman, for her\n     wilfulness and recklessness have led her into enterprises of\n     incredible daring. Nothing restrained her when her will prompted\n     her. She would wreck any work to follow that, and only by\n     combination with your centripetal tendency can she do the present\n     work. As a man she has been initiated, once, a long time ago, in\n     Thebes, afterwards in India. The things she has done in her past\n     lives! Well, _I_ do not say they were wrong, for I\n     do not hold the existence of moral evil. All things are allowed for\n     good ends; but this is a difficult truth to express.\"\n\nHere she spoke in her own person, having under his magnetism recovered\nher own vision and recollection, saying--\n\n     \"O Caro! I can see your past. You have been--no, it is all wiped\n     out. I cannot see it now. I am not allowed to see it. Why is this?\n     I see my own past. I see India:--a magnificent glittering white\n     marble temple, and elephants. How tame they are! They are all out,\n     and feeding in a field or enclosure. And there are such a number of\n     splendid red flowers, they are cactuses, and all prickly. The trees\n     have all their foliage on the top, and such long stems. They are\n     palms. The soil is of a white dust. And the sky is so clear and\n     blue! But the heat is terrible. I see you again. Your colour is\n     blue, inclining to indigo, owing to your want of expansiveness. But\n     I cannot see your past, except that you are mostly a woman. And now\n     I am by the Nile,--such a fine broad river!\"\n\nHere she returned to her normal consciousness, our visitor having taken\nhis departure.\n\nSubsequently, in March, 1881, under the influence of a higher\nilluminative power, she found herself as one of a group of initiates\nmaking solemn procession through the aisles of a vast Egyptian temple,\nand chanting in chorus the rituals which compose the marvellous \"Hymn to\nthe Planet-God, Iacchos\"[54]. For, long as it is, she was able to\nreproduce it afterwards. It was thus, by her recovery of the memory of\nknowledges acquired in past existences, that the divine originals were\nrecovered from which the Bible-writers largely derived at once their\ndoctrine and their diction. This is not to say that these were mere\nborrowers and unilluminate. It is to say only that they recognised the\ndivinity of a prior revelation, and regarded it as a common heritage.\nThe truth is one.\n\nAmong the uses of the painful experience we were now undergoing[55] was\nthis one. It put me on a track of thought of high value in enabling me\nto determine our respective positions in regard to our work. It was\nclearly the endeavour of the astral influences by which we were being\nassailed--the \"haters of the mysteries\" as our Genii called them[56]--to\nbreak down our work by destroying that perfect harmony between us which\nwas the first condition of it. And all my endeavours failing to discover\nin myself the weak point which rendered us accessible to them, carefully\nas I sought there for it, I was forced to look for it in her, and was\ndisposed to ascribe it to the survival from the far past of some defect\nof the affectional nature. For, as we were now learning, man has a dual\nheredity, that of his physical parentage and that of his spiritual\nselfhood. From the former of which he derives his outward\ncharacteristics; and from the latter his inward character. The\nexperience just recited served to confirm the surmise, but it did\nsomething else besides. It suggested to me the following explanation of\nthe situation as growing out of the exigencies of our work. That work\nhad for its purpose the accomplishment of the prophesied downfall of the\n\"world's sacrificial system.\" It meant war to the knife against all the\northodoxies at once, religious, social, scientific. It meant a\ndeath-\"wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,\nagainst powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,\nagainst spiritual wickedness in high places.\" It meant, in short, the\ndestruction foretold by the prophets of \"that great city,\" the world's\nmaterialistic system in Church, State, and Society, wherein the \"Lord,\"\nthe divinity in man, is ever systematically crucified, and its\nreplacement by the \"Holy City\" or system which comes down from the\nheaven of a perfect ideal.\n\nWhat, then, I asked myself, was the foremost moral need for the\ninstruments of such a work? Surely it was Courage. But courage subsists\nunder two modes. There is the courage which manifests itself in action\nand aggression, and there is the courage which manifests itself in\nendurance and resistance. The former is its masculine mode, the latter\nits feminine mode. The former connotes Will, the latter connotes Love.\nAnd these were the parts assigned respectively to us in our joint\nsystem. Will and Love united had made the world; disunited, they had\nruined the world; reunited, they would redeem the world. As He and She,\nKing and Queen, positive and negative, centrifugal and centripetal, they\nare the dual powers of all things, the constituent principles at once of\nGod and of Man. The whole Universe is Humanity, for it is the\nmanifestation of God, and they are the divine man and woman of all\nbeing; in their conjunction omnipotent for good, in their disjunction\nomnipotent for evil. And whereas it is the function of Will to inflict,\nit is the function of Love to bear. It is not, then, to the lack of\nthese qualities that our troubles are due, but to the defect of them,\nthe defect of our respective qualities.\n\nThe tension of feeling induced by the situation had for me reached a\npitch at which I had cause for serious apprehension lest my organism\nprove unequal to the strain. For, resolute though I myself was to endure\nto the end, come what might, the effort involved had so greatly affected\nmy organic system as nearly to double the number of the heart's\npulsations, to the imminent risk of a rupture fatal to life or reason.\nSuch was the emergency when, longing for light and aid, I received at\nnight[57] the following experience, which I reproduce as recorded at the\ntime:--\n\n     It seemed to me that I was sole spectator in some circus or\n     hippodrome. And in the arena were some horses, seven in number,\n     harnessed to a common centre, but all facing in different\n     directions like the spokes of a wheel, and pulling frantically, so\n     that the vehicle to which they were attached remained stationary\n     between them, through their counterbalancing each other; while at\n     the same time it seemed as if it must presently be dragged asunder\n     into pieces. On looking at it more closely, the vehicle seemed to\n     become a person who was attempting to drive the horses, but was\n     unable to get them into a line; and, strange to say, the driver was\n     one and identical both with the horses and the vehicle, so that it\n     was a living person who was in danger of being torn asunder by\n     creatures who were in reality himself. While wondering what this\n     meant, some one addressed me and said that if I would do any good,\n     I must help to control and direct the animals which were thus\n     pulling their owner asunder. And that the only way to do this was\n     by so disposing myself that I should be at one and the same time in\n     the centre with the driver, to help him to curb and direct his\n     steeds, and outside at their heads in order to compel their\n     submission. And not only must I be indifferent to their ramping and\n     chafing, I must even suffer myself to be struck and wounded and\n     trampled upon to any extent without flinching; for only when I was\n     so unconscious of self as to be indifferent as to what might happen\n     to me, would they cease to have power against me. And the reason\n     why I must be also in the centre was that only there could I\n     effectually co-operate with the driver to enable him to do his part\n     in directing what in reality were the forces, as yet unbroken in,\n     of his own system, into the road it was necessary for us both to\n     follow. We were destined to be fellow-travellers, and our journey\n     was to be made together and with that team. It could not be made by\n     one of us without the other, and the failure to effect a complete\n     conjunction and co-operation would bring certain ruin to the hopes\n     of both of us and of all who looked to us. The owner of the horses,\n     I was assured, could not of himself control them, and I could only\n     enable him to do so by an absolute surrender of myself.\n\nApplying this vision to the situation, the moral was obvious so far as I\nwas concerned, and I wondered whether \"Mary\" would receive anything\nequally suggestive for herself. In the morning, after remaining\nunusually late in her room, she silently handed me the following account\nof an experience which had similarly and simultaneously been received by\nher:--\n\n     \"I was shown two stars near each other, both of them shining with a\n     clear bright light, only that of one the light had a purple tinge,\n     and of the other a blood colour; and a great Angel stood beside me\n     and bade me look at them attentively. I did so, and saw that the\n     stars were not round, but seemed to have a piece cut out of the\n     globe of each of them. And I said to the Angel, 'The stars are not\n     perfect; but instead of being round, they are uneven.' He told me\n     to look again; and I did so, and saw that each globe was really\n     perfect, but that in each a small portion remained dark so as to\n     present the appearance of having a piece out; and I noticed that\n     these dark portions of the two stars were turned towards each\n     other. Upon this I looked to the Angel for the explanation.\n\n     And the Angel said to me, 'These stars derive their light not only\n     from the sun but from each other. If there be darkness in one of\n     them, the corresponding face of the other will likewise be\n     darkened; and how shall either reflect perfectly the image of the\n     sun if it be dark to its companion star? For how shall it respond\n     to that which is above all, if it respond not to that which is\n     nearest?'\n\n     And I said, 'Lord, if the darkness in one of these stars be caused\n     by the darkness in its fellow, which of them was first darkened?'\n\n     Then he answered me and said, 'These stars are of different\n     tinctures; one is of the sapphire, the other of the sardonyx. Of\n     the first the atmosphere is cool and equable; of the other it is\n     burning and irregular. The spirit of the first is as God towards\n     man; the spirit of the second is as the soul towards God. The first\n     loves; the second aspires. And the office of the spirit which loves\n     is outwards; while the office of the spirit which aspires is\n     upwards. The light of the first, which is blue, enfolds, and\n     contains, and embraces, and sustains. The light of the second,\n     which is red, is as a flame which scorches, and burns, and\n     troubles, and seeks God only, and his duty is not to the outward,\n     for it is not given to him to love. God, whom he seeks, _is_ love;\n     and therefore is he drawn upward to God only. But the spirit of his\n     fellow descends. She indraws, and blesses, and confers; and hers is\n     the office which redeems. Wherefore if she fail in her love, her\n     failure is greater than his who hath no love; and to be perfect she\n     must forgive until the seventy times seven, and be great in\n     humility. For the violet, which is the colour of humility, is of\n     the blue. And if she seek her own, or yield not in outward things,\n     her nature is not perfected, and her light is darkened. Let Love,\n     therefore, think not of herself, for she hath no self, but all that\n     she hath is towards others, and only in giving and forgiving is she\n     rich. If, on the contrary, she make a self withinwards, her light\n     is withdrawn and troubled, and she is not perfect, and if she\n     demand of another that which he hath not, then she seeketh her own,\n     and her light is darkened. And if she be darkened towards him, he\n     also will darken towards her, in respect, that is, of\n     enlightenment. And thus her failure of love will break the\n     communion with the Divine, which is through him. He cannot darken\n     outwardly first; for love is not of him. If he darken of himself,\n     it must be within towards God. But that which he receives of God,\n     he gives not forth himself. But he burns centrally and enlightens\n     his fellow, and she gives it forth according to her office. And if\n     she darken in any way outwardly, she cannot receive enlightenment,\n     but darkens the burning star likewise, and so hinders their\n     inter-communion.'\n\nHaving thus spoken, the Angel looked upon me and said, 'Ye are the two\nstars, and to one is given the office of the Prophet, and to the other\nthe office of the Redeemer. But to be Prophet and Redeemer in one, this\nis the glory of the Christ.'\"\n\nHere again was an intimation that on one plane at least of our\nrespective systems she was of masculine and I of feminine potency, with\nfunctions to correspond. That these functions were capable of being\ndescribed in the terms employed was, we felt, no reason for arrogating\nhigh places to ourselves. Rather did we consider that everything is\naccording to its degree; and that, as for persons, if the Gods were to\nwait until they found perfect instruments, or at least perfect persons\nfor their instruments, they would never begin. And this also, that if\nthe world were in a condition to produce such persons, it would have no\nneed of redemption. Had not even Jesus Himself been \"crucified through\nweakness\"?\n\nIn view of the intensity of the distress undergone in this connection, I\nfound myself recalling the remark of Plato, \"Many begin the mysteries,\nbut few complete them.\" My only wonder was that any should survive the\nordeals, if they approached ours in severity. Meanwhile it was said to\nus by way of encouragement, \"Be sure there is trouble in store. No man\never got to the Promised Land without first going through the\nwilderness.\"\n\nThe instruction to \"Mary\" had not only justified my surmise, it also met\nand corrected her in respect of the chief cause of our trouble. This was\nher disposition, at astral instigation, to withhold from me the products\nof her illuminations, and even to refrain from writing them down[58], on\nthe specious pretext that they were meant for her own exclusive\nbenefit, and were too sacred to be given to the world, or even to me;\nand she had failed to discern the source and motive of these\nsuggestions. So effectually had what were really spirits of darkness\ndisguised themselves as angels of light.\n\nThe importance attached to the occult significance of our \"tinctures\"\nreceived illustration in this wise. Permission had been given us to make\nan exception to the rule of secrecy imposed with regard to certain of\nthe Scriptures received by us, in favour of a friend[59] who took so\nwarm an interest in our work as to be eager to render it material aid in\nthe future should occasion arise. It was her mission, she declared, to\ndo so. But when the day appointed for the reading came, \"Mary\" was so\nill that her going seemed to be impossible, and the question accordingly\narose as to whether I might go alone and read them without her. We had\nno sooner begun to consider the point than she became entranced, and was\nshown a large open volume, the book of the Greater Mysteries to which\nour Scriptures belonged, surrounded by an Iris composed of all the\ncolours of the rainbow. She was then shown the following lines, which I\nwrote down as she repeated them:--\n\n     \"The one in Red guards his privileges, and claims to be present\n     whatever is read.\n\n     For the air is filled with the haters of the Mysteries.\n\n     Therefore for your sake the chain must be complete;\n\n     And the Light must be refracted round you seven times.\n\n     He who is Red stands within the holy circle.\n\n     And the Violet guards the outermost.\n\n     For the Word is a Word of Mystery, and they who guard it are Seven.\n\n     Beware that nothing you hear be told unless the circle be perfect.\n\n     And this charge we lay upon you until the work be accomplished.\n\n     Fire and sword and war are against you; you walk in the midst of\n     commotion.\n\n     And your life is in peril every hour until the words be completed.\"\n\nUp to the latest moment of the interval before the appointment it seemed\nimpossible for her to go. She then suddenly recovered as by miracle, and\nwas able to attend the reading.\n\nThe liabilities of our position subsequently[60] received this further\nillustration. \"Mary\" was introduced in sleep, by her Genius, into an\napartment in the spiritual world which purported to be the laboratory of\nWilliam Lilly, the famous astrologer who had foretold the great plague\nand fire of London in 1666, in order to have her horoscope told by him,\nhe still pursuing his favourite studies. On quitting him she caught\nsight of a pile of books, one of which contained the Gnosis we were in\ncourse of recovering. The following colloquy then ensued:--\n\n\"You also have these Scriptures!\" she exclaimed.\n\n\"Yes,\" said he, \"but I keep them for myself alone.\"\n\n\"And why so,\" she asked, \"since, if you have them, they are for the\nlearning of others likewise? Will you not rather communicate these\nsaving truths to thirsty souls?\"\n\n\"I will communicate them,\" said he, fixing his eyes on her intently,\n\"when I can find Seven Men who for forty days have tasted no flesh,\nwhose hands have shed no blood, and whose tongues have tasted of none.\"\n\n\"But if you find not Seven?\"\n\n\"Then, mayhap, I shall find Five.\"\n\n\"And if not Five?\"\n\n\"Then, maybe, I shall meet with Three.\"\n\n\"But even this may be hard to find, and if you should not meet with\nThree, what then will you do?\"\n\n\"One Neophyte would not be able to protect himself.\"\n\nIn communicating to her the results of his calculations, he had said\nthat owing to the propensities indulged in certain of her former lives,\nshe had made for herself a destiny which ensured suffering and failure,\nexcept when living in a similar manner; doing which she would have a\nlife of unbounded success. \"But,\" he continued, \"your horoscope has\nnothing for you but misfortune so long as you persist in a virtuous\ncourse of life, and, indeed, it is now too late to adopt another. I\nspeak herein according to your Fortune, not in regard to your Inner\nlife. With that I have no concern. I tell you what is forecast for you\non the material and actual planisphere of your Nativity.... I see\nnothing but misfortune before you. Yea, if you persist in virtue, it is\nnot unlikely that you may be stript of all your worldly goods, and of\nall you possess, and this evil fortune will follow your nearest\nassociates.\"\n\nTo her enquiry, \"Can I never overcome this evil prognostic?\" he replied\nthat she could do so only by outliving the time appointed for her\nnatural life in the career indicated, and added this advice, \"Steel\nyourself; learn to suffer; become a Stoic; care not. If Misfortune be\nyours, make it your Fortune. Let Poverty become to you Riches. Let Loss\nbe Gain. Let Sickness be Health. Let Pain be Pleasure. Let Evil Report\nbe Good Report. Yea, let Death be Life. Fortune is in the Imagination.\nIf you believe you have all things, they are truly yours.\" He concluded\nwith an explanation reconciling destiny with free will, and vindicating\nthe divine justice, in a manner which removed all our difficulties on\nthose points, and, as we later came to learn, was entirely in accordance\nwith the Hindu doctrine of \"Karma,\" of which at this time we had never\nheard[61].\n\nThere was no exaggeration in the terms of the warning of danger. We were\nconstantly made aware of the presence of the malignant entities above\ndescribed focusing their influences on us to prevent the accomplishment\nof our work, and requiring the utmost vigilance on our part, as well\nalso as on the part of our illuminators, to thwart their purpose. And we\nhad good reason to believe that our difficulties and dangers were\nenhanced through \"Mary's\" attendances at the schools and hospitals,\nowing to the evil nature of the influences there dominant under a\nregimen grossly materialistic, and her liability to be fastened upon and\naccompanied home by them. The outer walls of her spiritual system--it\nwas explained to us--were not yet completed, owing to the vastness of\nthe circuit of her selfhood; and hence her accessibility to the\nincursion of noxious influences from without. The treatment of the\npatients by men trained in the physiological laboratory, and bent upon\nturning the hospital ward also into a laboratory with the patients\nthemselves for the victims of cruel and wanton experimentation, would\nsend her home boiling with indignation and wrath, to the destruction of\nthe serenity and self-control requisite for our spiritual work.\n\nIt was clear to us that no experience was to be wanting to exhibit the\ncontrast between the world's actual and the world's possible. The\noverthrow of \"the world's sacrificial system\" meant salvation for man\nand beast. The condition of all really redemptive work is a \"descent\ninto hell.\" The following instruction to us is a typical one:--\n\n     \"Teach the doctrine of the Universal Soul and the Immortality of\n     all creatures. Knowledge of this is what the world most needs, and\n     this is the keynote of your joint mission. On this you must build;\n     it is the key-stone of the arch. The perfect life is not attainable\n     for man alone. The whole world must be redeemed under the new\n     gospel you are to teach.\"\n\nThe following \"Counsel of Perfection\" which was received[62] by \"Mary,\"\nis an exquisite expression of the same theme:--\n\n     I dreamed that I was in a large room, and there were in it seven\n     persons, all men, sitting at one long table; and each of them had\n     before him a scroll, some having books also; and all were\n     greyheaded and bent with age save one, and this was a youth of\n     about twenty, without hair on his face. One of the aged men, who\n     had his finger on a place in a book open before him, said:\n\n     \"This spirit, who is of our order, writes in this book,--'Be ye\n     perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect.' How shall\n     we understand this word 'perfection'?\" And another of the old men,\n     looking up, answered, \"It must mean Wisdom, for wisdom is the sum\n     of perfection.\" And another old man said, \"That cannot be; for no\n     creature can be wise as God is wise. Where is he among us who could\n     attain to such a state? That which is part only, cannot comprehend\n     the whole. To bid a creature to be wise as God is wise would be\n     mockery.\"\n\n     Then a fourth old man said:--\"It must be Truth that is intended;\n     for truth only is perfection.\" But he who sat next the last speaker\n     answered, \"Truth also is partial; for where is he among us who\n     shall be able to see as God sees?\"\n\n     And the sixth said, \"It must surely be Justice; for this is the\n     whole of righteousness.\" And the old man who had spoken first,\n     answered him:--\"Not so; for justice comprehends vengeance, and it\n     is written that vengeance is the Lord's alone.\"\n\n     Then the young man stood up with an open book in his hand and\n     said:--\"I have here another record of one who likewise heard these\n     words. Let us see whether his rendering of them can help us to the\n     knowledge we seek.\" And he found a place in the book and read\n     aloud:--\n\n     \"Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful.\"\n\n     And all of them closed their books and fixed their eyes upon me.\n\nThat it was possible at all for her to study medicine in a school in\nwhich vivisection was an all prevailing practice, was only because she\nset her face resolutely against it, by refusing to attend any place or\noccasion where or on which it took place, and relying for her own\neducation chiefly on private tuition. It was an essential part of her\nplan to prove that such experimentation was not necessary for a degree.\nAnd this she effectually demonstrated by accomplishing her\nstudent-course with rare expedition and distinction, despite her many\nand severe illnesses and her frequent change of professors. For one\nafter another resigned the office on account of her refusal to allow\nthem to experiment on live animals at her lessons. Not until she had\nsecured her diploma did she enter a physiological laboratory. And then\nonly in order to qualify herself by personal experience to denounce the\npractice. For herself it was not necessary, she declared, to see a\nmurder or a robbery committed to know that it is a crime.\n\nThe following incident shows how adverse the conditions of modern life\nwere to our spiritual work:--\n\nBeing in London one Christmas evening[63], and speaking to me under\nillumination, \"Mary\" suddenly broke off and said--\n\n\"Do not ask me such deep questions just now, for I cannot see clearly,\nand it hurts me to look. The atmosphere is thick with the blood shed for\nthe season's festivities. The Astral Belt is everywhere dense with\nblood. My Genius says that if we were in some country where the\nconditions of life are purer, we could live in constant communication\nwith the spiritual world. For the earth here whirls round as in a cloud\nof blood like red fire. He says distinctly and emphatically that the\nsalvation of the world is impossible while people nourish themselves on\nblood. The whole globe is like one vast charnel-house. The magnetism is\nintercepted. The blood strengthens the bonds between the Astrals and the\nEarth.... This time, which ought to be the best for spiritual communion,\nis the worst, on account of the horrid mode of living. Pray wake me up:\nI cannot bear looking; for I see the blood and hear the cries of the\npoor slaughtered creatures.\" Here her distress was so extreme that she\nwept bitterly, and some days passed before she fully recovered her\ncomposure.\n\nOur first acquaintance with any literature kindred to our special work\ntook place toward the close of our sojourn in Paris[64]. It was due to\nthe arrival of the friend in whose favour the exception had been made in\nrespect of the reading of our Mysteries, and who was the possessor of an\nexcellent library, which she placed at our disposal, of precisely the\nbooks it had now become necessary for us to read. This was Marie,\nCountess of Caithness and Duchesse de Pomar, who had for many years been\na spiritualist of zeal so ardent that--as I now came to learn--she had\nbeen wont to make my conversion to that faith a matter of special\nprayer, long before I had been able to contemplate such an event as\nwithin the range of probability. Of wide culture, open mind, and large\nsympathies, she had an enthusiastic and intelligent appreciation of our\nwork, and her arrival on the scene proved so timely as to point to\nsuperior direction. We were now able to begin to make acquaintance with\nmany of the seers, mystics, and occultists of past ages, from the\nNeoplatonists, Hermetists, Rosicrucians, and other orders of initiates,\nto Boehme, Swedenborg and \"Eliphas Levi,\" and to see what the various\nspiritualistic schools of the present day had to say for themselves.\n\nThe following recognition of Hermes by one of the greatest of the\nNeoplatonists, Proclus, who lived in the fifth century of our era, was\nespecially gratifying to us as proving the continuity of our experiences\nwith those of past ages. Proclus, it must be remembered, was so eminent\nfor his wisdom and powers as to be regarded by his contemporaries with a\nveneration approaching to adoration. Says Proclus, \"Hermes, as the\nmessenger of God, reveals to us His paternal Will, and--developing in us\nthe Intuition--imparts to us knowledge. The knowledge which descends\ninto the soul from above, excels any that can be attained by the mere\nexercise of the intellect. Intuition is the operation of the soul. The\nknowledge received through it from above, descending into the soul,\nfills it with the perception of the interior causes of things. The Gods\nannounce it by their presence, and by illumination, and enable us to\ndiscern the universal order.\" Here was exactly the doctrine received by\nus, and the manner of it, only that the Intuition was further disclosed\nto us as due to interior recollection, as declared by Plato, as well as\nto perception.\n\nThe results of the investigations thus begun, and afterwards continued\nin the library of the British Museum, proved satisfactory and gratifying\nbeyond all that we could have anticipated. For while it was made clear\nto us that there had never been a time when there were not some in the\nworld who had the witness to the truth in themselves, and this one and\nthe same truth, it was also made clear that whereas others had received\nit in limitation, and beheld it as \"through a glass darkly,\" we were\nreceiving it in plenitude and \"face to face,\" to the realisation of the\nhigh anticipations of the sages, saints, seers, prophets, redeemers, and\nChrists of all time; and this, too, at the period, in the manner, and\nunder the conditions declared by them as to mark and make the \"time of\nthe end.\"\n\nFor in the illuminations vouchsafed to us the key had been restored\nwhich unlocked the meaning of the symbols in which the doctrines of all\nthe churches, pre-Christian as well as Christian, had been at once\nconcealed and revealed, to the elucidation of all the problems which\nhave so sorely perplexed the world, and the verification, by actual\nexperience, of the truth contained in them. No longer now was there for\nus any doubt as to the meaning of allegories such as the Fall, the\nDeluge, the Exodus, and others were now shown us to be; or of prophecies\nsuch as those of the crushing of the serpent's head by the Woman and her\nseed; the return of Astraea with her progeny of divine sons; the fall\nfrom heaven of Lucifer and Satan; the Return of the Gods; the reign of\nMichael, \"that great prince who standeth for the children of God's\npeople\"; the breaking of the seals, and opening of the books; the\nrecognition of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place;\nthe budding of the fig-tree, and the end of that \"adulterous\ngeneration\"; the revelation of \"that wicked one, the mystery of iniquity\nand son of perdition, whom the Lord, at His coming in the clouds of\nheaven with power and great glory, shall consume with the spirit of His\nmouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming\"; the two\nWitnesses, their resurrection from the dead, and their ascent into\nheaven; the drying up of the great river Euphrates, and the coming of\nthe kings of the East by the way thus prepared; the binding of Satan,\nand the acceptable year of the Lord to follow; the exaltation to heaven,\nand clothing with the sun, of the mystic \"Woman\" of the Apocalypse; the\nadvent of the angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to\nproclaim unto every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; the\ncoming of many from the East, and the West, and the North, and the\nSouth, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of\nheaven; and the battle of Armageddon, and the end of the world. To all\nthese, and other sacred enigmas of like nature, the key had been given\nus. And they one and all proved to be prophecies of one and the same\nevent, the restoration of the faculty of inward understanding, and of\nthe divine knowledges which only through it are possible. And whereas\nthis was the faculty, the corruption and loss of which had made the\nFall, which was that of the original Church, so was it the faculty, the\npurification and restoration of which was to reverse the Fall,\naccomplishing the Redemption. For by it man will regain his mental\nbalance, in virtue of which he was \"made upright,\" and become again\nsound, whole, and sane, and be by _condition_ that which he has been\ndivinely declared from the first to be by _constitution_,--an instrument\nof understanding, competent for the comprehension of all truth. For only\nthus is he really man, and made in the divine image; seeing that he is\nnot really man, but infant only, until he attains his spiritual majority\nand is able to understand. And that which thus makes him man on the\nplane mental and spiritual, is that which makes him man on the plane\nphysical. It is his recognition and appropriation of the \"Woman\" of that\nplane, the mystic \"Woman\" of Holy Writ, the mind's feminine mode, the\nIntuition. It is of her first identification by us, as the key to the\nwhole mystery of the Bible, that the manner will now be recounted.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[49] The occasion of the receipt by A.K. and E.M. of the above was one\nof peculiar interest. It was given in reference to a visit from the late\nLaurence Oliphant, an account of which will be found in \"The Life of\nA.K.\" It will suffice to say here that, having heard of their work,\nOliphant came to them as an emissary from his chief in America, Thomas\nLake Harris, to summon them to place themselves and all that they were\nand had, at his disposal as the king and Christ of the new dispensation.\nThe above instruction was given to them in direct reference to this\nincident. It was followed by others fully exposing the delusive source\nand nature of the doctrine and practice of Laurence Oliphant and Thomas\nLake Harris. The above Exhortation of Hermes to his Neophytes is now\ngiven in full in this book for the first time. It is taken from \"The\nLife of A.K.\" Vol. I. pp. 282-283. S.H.H.\n\n[50] See note p. 7\n\n[51] The above reference is to an experience of mine which does not call\nfor relation here. E.M.\n\n[52] Says E.M. in \"The Life of A.K.\"--\"The subtlety with which my most\nsensitive places were searched out, and the mercilessness with which\nthey were probed by the influences which had now obtained access to us,\nseemed to me to belong altogether to the infernal.\" (Life A.K. Vol. I.\np. 318.) S.H.H.\n\n[53] The date was 27th March, 1880. S.H.H.\n\n[54] The Hymn to the Planet-God has been referred to on p. 79. It is\ngiven in full in the P.W. pp. 341-349: a portion of it concerning the\npassage of the Soul, and concerning the Mystic Exodus, are given on pp.\n169-173 post. The method of the recovery by A.K. of this most important\nHymn \"was such as to constitute it a proof positive of the great\ndoctrine set forth in it, the doctrine of Reincarnation; for it was as\none of a band of initiates, making solemn procession through the aisles\nof a vast Egyptian temple, chanting it in chorus, that 'Mary,' being\nasleep, recollected it.\" (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 456.) S.H.H.\n\n[55] That is, the \"strained conditions\" under which their association\nwas then maintained and their work carried on. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p.\n374.) S.H.H.\n\n[56] See p. 130.\n\n[57] On the night of the 23rd June, 1880. This vision was received by\nE.M. as he pondered and while he was awake. (Life A.K. Vol. I. pp.\n376-377.) S.H.H.\n\n[58] Some of A.K.'s illuminations have thus been lost to the world.\n(Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 374.) S.H.H.\n\n[59] Lady Caithness. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 329.) See pp. 137 and 185\npost. S.H.H.\n\n[60] On the 13th-14th January, 1881. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 435.) S.H.H.\n\n[61] A full account of this interview with William Lily is given in \"The\nLife of A.K.\" Vol. I. pp. 435-441.\n\n[62] On the 9th April, 1877, in London. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 172.)\nS.H.H.\n\n[63] Christmas Day, 1880. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 430.)\n\n[64] The time referred to was September, 1878. (Life A.K. Vol. I. pp.\n285-385.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE RECAPITULATION.\n\n\nThe first compendious statement of the doctrine which it was intended to\nrestore, was given to us at Paris in the summer of 1878, in the form of\nan exposition of the principles of Biblical interpretation, under the\nfollowing circumstances.\n\nWe had been following our respective tasks[65] for several months\nwithout any open or special illumination, and I had written enough to\nmake a considerable volume in exposition of the principles which\nappeared to me to be those on which, in order to be a book of the soul,\nthe Bible ought to be constructed, and by which, therefore, it must be\ninterpreted. It was not intended for publication, but as an exercise for\nmyself, being purely tentative; though I was conscious of being aided by\nthe occasional suggestion of ideas which served as points of light and\nguidance. Meanwhile, I was entirely without help from books; for,\nbesides being desirous of evolving the whole from my own consciousness,\nas in the case of the demonstration of any mathematical problem, I was\nnot aware of any books which would help me; the little I knew of\nSwedenborg at this time--who was the only writer known to me as a worker\nin a similar direction--having failed to make much impression on me. I\ncould accept his general principles, but not his particular applications\nof them. I felt also that the sources of the knowledges vouchsafed to\nus, far transcended those to which Swedenborg had access. And I\naccounted for the length of the interval which had elapsed without any\nlarger measure of light being vouchsafed, by supposing that it was\nintended for me to exhaust my own resources first.\n\nThe time had come when these were exhausted, and I was reduced to the\nconviction that if the work was to be carried any further, assistance\nmust be rendered, whether for confirmation, for correction, or for\nextension. And on retiring to rest one night[66], painfully oppressed by\nthe sense of my own lack, and the prolonged absence of the needed light,\nI stood at the open window, and in presence of a sky resplendent with\nstars mentally addressed to those whom we were wont to speak of as the\nGods, and of whose presence I seemed to be dimly conscious, a strong\nexpression of my need, declaring my utter inability to advance another\nstep unassisted. Having done which I went to bed, but in a mood the\nreverse of sanguine; so many were the months for which they had been\nsilent.\n\nIn the course of the following day, \"Mary\"--who knew nothing either of\nmy need or of my adjuration of the preceding night, and could not of\nherself have helped me--found herself under an access of exaltation of\nfaculty which she described as resembling what might be produced by a\ndraught of spiritual champagne. For she felt herself at her very best,\nhaving all her knowledge at her finger-ends. The expression recurred to\nmy mind some time afterwards on our receiving an explanation of the \"New\nWine of Dionysos\" in the ancient mysteries. In this state she went down\nto the schools, where an examination in her subjects was being held, in\norder to see how the candidates comported themselves, and to compare\nthem with herself; for it was an oral examination. From this she\nreturned home in high delight, declaring that she could have answered\nevery question asked, and far better than any of the students had done.\nI hoped that her state might be an indication of the renewal of her\nilluminations. But the events of the evening put all thoughts in this\ndirection entirely out of my mind. For, as if poisoned by the atmosphere\nof the schools, she was seized with an attack of sickness so intense and\nprolonged as seriously to endanger her life through the exhaustion\ninduced. And it was a late hour--past midnight--before she could be left\nalone.\n\nNevertheless she was up betimes in the morning, and on our meeting\nhanded me a paper which she had written in pencil on waking, saying it\nwas something she had read in her sleep, and asking if it was anything\nthat I wanted, as she had written it down so rapidly that she scarcely\nobserved what it was about, and she had not had time to read it over and\nthink about it. Having read it, I found that it met my every difficulty,\nand shed on the Bible a light which rendered it luminous from beginning\nto end, disclosing it as pervaded by a system of thought which, when\nonce seen, was as obvious as it had previously been unsuspected.\n\nAnd while it confirmed me in respect of principles and method, it\ncorrected both of us in respect of sundry particulars. It even referred\ndirectly to one of my tentative hypotheses, at once negativing it and\ngiving another altogether satisfactory. This was my supposition of Adam\nand Eve as possibly denoting spirit and matter. The following is the\nwriting:--\n\n     \"If, therefore, they be Mystic Books, they ought also to have a\n     mystic consideration. But the fault of most writers lieth in\n     this,--that they distinguish not between the books of Moses the\n     prophet, and those books which are of an historical nature. And\n     this is the more surprising because not a few of such critics have\n     rightly discerned the esoteric character, if not indeed the true\n     interpretation, of the story of Eden; yet have they not applied to\n     the remainder of the allegory the same method which they found to\n     fit the beginning; but so soon as they are over the earlier stanzas\n     of the poem, they would have the rest of it to be of another\n     nature.\n\n     \"It is, then, pretty well established and accepted of most authors,\n     that the legend of Adam and Eve, and of the miraculous tree and the\n     fruit which was the occasion of death, is, like the story of Eros\n     and Psyche, and so many others of all religions, a parable with a\n     hidden, that is, with a mystic meaning. But so also is the legend\n     which follows concerning the sons of these mystical parents, the\n     story of Cain and Abel his brother, the story of the Flood, of the\n     Ark, of the saving of the clean and unclean beasts, of the rainbow,\n     of the twelve sons of Jacob, and, not stopping there, of the whole\n     relation concerning the flight out of Egypt. For it is not to be\n     supposed that the two sacrifices offered to God by the sons of\n     Adam, were real sacrifices, any more than it is to be supposed that\n     the apple which caused the doom of mankind, was a real apple. It\n     ought to be known, indeed, for the right understanding of the\n     mystical books, that in their esoteric sense they deal, not with\n     material things, but with spiritual realities; and that as Adam is\n     not a man, nor Eve a woman, nor the tree a plant in its true\n     signification, so also are not the beasts named in the same books\n     real beasts, but that the mystic intention of them is implied.\n     When, therefore, it is written that Abel took of the firstlings of\n     his flock to offer unto the Lord, it is signified that he offered\n     that which a lamb implies, and which is the holiest and highest of\n     spiritual gifts. Nor is Abel himself a real person, but the type\n     and spiritual presentation of the race of the prophets; of whom,\n     also, Moses was a member, together with the Patriarchs. Were the\n     prophets, then, shedders of blood? God forbid; they dwelt not with\n     things material, but with spiritual significations. Their lambs\n     without spot, their white doves, their goats, their rams, and other\n     sacred creatures, are so many signs and symbols of the various\n     graces and gifts which a mystic people should offer to Heaven.\n     Without such sacrifices is no remission of sin. But when the mystic\n     sense was lost, then carnage followed, the prophets ceased out of\n     the land, and the priests bore rule over the people. Then, when\n     again the voice of the prophets arose, they were constrained to\n     speak plainly, and declared in a tongue foreign to their method,\n     that the sacrifices of God are not the flesh of bulls or the blood\n     of goats, but holy vows and sacred thanksgivings, their mystical\n     counterparts. As God is a spirit, so also are His sacrifices\n     spiritual. What folly, what ignorance, to offer material flesh and\n     drink to pure power and essential being! Surely in vain have the\n     prophets spoken, and in vain have the Christs been manifested!\n\n     \"Why will you have Adam to be spirit, and Eve matter, since the\n     mystic books deal only with spiritual entities? The tempter himself\n     even is not matter, but that which gives matter the precedence.\n     Adam is, rather, intellectual force: he is of earth. Eve is the\n     moral conscience: she is the mother of the living. Intellect, then,\n     is the male, and Intuition the female principle. And the sons of\n     Intuition, herself fallen, shall at last recover Truth, and redeem\n     all things. By her fault, indeed, is the moral conscience of\n     humanity made subject to the intellectual force, and thereby all\n     manner of evil and confusion abounds, since her desire is unto him,\n     and he rules over her until now. But the end foretold by the seer\n     is not far off. Then shall the Woman be exalted, clothed with the\n     Sun, and carried to the throne of God. And her sons shall make war\n     with the dragon, and have victory over him. Intuition, therefore,\n     pure and a virgin, shall be the mother and redemptress of her\n     fallen sons, whom she bore under bondage to her husband the\n     intellectual force.\"\n\nThis marvellously luminous exposition, she then told me, had been read\nby her in a book she had found in a library which she had visited in\nsleep, the owner of which was a courtly old gentleman in the costume of\nthe last century. The leaves of the book were of silver and reflected\nher back to herself as she read. I took this as symbolising the\nIntuition. The event proved that her host was no other than Swedenborg,\nand that--as her Genius informed us--she had been enabled, \"under the\nmagnetism of Swedenborg's presence, to recover a memory of no small\nvalue,\" thus confirming my surmise about its intuitional character. The\nevent proved also that it was Swedenborg's doctrine, but without his\nlimitations. We ardently desired a continuation of it, and on the next\nnight but one, she received the following addition to it:--\n\n     \"Moses, therefore, knowing the mysteries of the religion of the\n     Egyptians, and having learned of their occultists the value and\n     signification of all sacred birds and beasts, delivered like\n     mysteries to his own people. But certain of the sacred animals of\n     Egypt he retained not in honour, for motives which were equally of\n     mystic origin.\n\n     And he taught his initiated the spirit of the heavenly hieroglyphs,\n     and bade them, when they made festival before God, to carry with\n     them in procession, with music and with dancing, such of the sacred\n     animals as were, by their interior significance, related to the\n     occasion. Now, of these beasts, he chiefly selected males of the\n     first year, without spot or blemish, to signify that it is beyond\n     all things needful that man should dedicate to the Lord his\n     intellect and his reason, and this from the beginning, and without\n     the least reserve. And that he was very wise in teaching this, is\n     evident from the history of the world in all ages, and particularly\n     in these last days. For what is it that has led men to renounce the\n     realities of the spirit, and to propagate false theories and\n     corrupt sciences, denying all things save the appearance which can\n     be apprehended by the outer senses, and making themselves one with\n     the dust of the ground? It is their intellect which, being\n     unsanctified, has led them astray; it is the force of the mind in\n     them, which, being corrupt, is the cause of their own ruin, and of\n     that of their disciples. As, then, the intellect is apt to be the\n     great traitor against heaven, so also is it the force by which men,\n     following their pure intuition, may also grasp and apprehend the\n     truth. For which reason it is written that the Christs are subject\n     to their mothers. Not that by any means the intellect is to be\n     dishonoured; for it is the heir of all things, if only it be truly\n     begotten and be no bastard.\n\n     \"And besides all these symbols, Moses taught the people to have\n     beyond all things an abhorrence of idolatry. What, then, is\n     idolatry, and what are false gods?\n\n     \"To make an idol is to materialise spiritual mysteries. The\n     priests, then, were idolaters, who coming after Moses, and\n     committing to writing those things which he by word of mouth had\n     delivered unto Israel, replaced the true things signified, by their\n     material symbols, and shed innocent blood on the pure altars of the\n     Lord.\n\n     \"They also are idolaters who understand the things of sense where\n     the things of the spirit are alone implied, and who conceal the\n     true features of the Gods with material and spurious presentations.\n     Idolatry is materialism, the common and original sin of men, which\n     replaces spirit by appearance, substance by illusion, and leads\n     both the moral and intellectual being into error, so that they\n     substitute the nether for the upper, and the depth for the height.\n     It is that false fruit which attracts the outer senses, the bait of\n     the serpent in the beginning of the world. Until the mystic man and\n     woman had eaten of this fruit, they knew only the things of the\n     spirit, and found them suffice. But after their fall, they began to\n     apprehend matter also, and gave it the preference, making\n     themselves idolaters. And their sin, and the taint begotten of that\n     false fruit, have corrupted the blood of the whole race of men,\n     from which corruption the sons of God would have redeemed them.\"\n\nShe had received this, also in sleep, as one of a class of neophytes\nseated in an ancient amphitheatre of white stone, and listening to a\nlecture delivered by a man in priestly garb, of which they took notes\nthe while. She complained that her notes had disappeared on waking, thus\npreventing her from rendering what she had heard as perfectly as she\ncould have wished; for she had trusted to her notes for it.\n\nThe more we pondered these communications, the higher was our\nappreciation of them. We felt that the \"veil of Moses\" was at length\n\"taken away\" as promised, and we had been enabled to tap a reservoir of\nboundless wisdom and knowledge. For we found in them the longed-for\nsolution of the purpose and nature of the Bible and Christianity, and\nthe key to man's spiritual history. The method of the Bible-writers, the\nmeaning of idolatry, the secret of the Cain and Abel feud between priest\nand prophet, as the ministers respectively of the sense-nature and of\nthe intuition, and the process whereby the religion of Jesus had become\ndistorted into the orthodoxy which has usurped His name;--all these\nthings were now clear to us as the demonstration of a proposition in\ngeometry, the witness of which was in our own minds. And we, too, we\nrejoiced to think, were of the school of the prophets, in that with all\nthe force of our minds we had \"exalted the Woman,\" Intuition, and\nrefused to make the word of God of none effect by priestly traditions.\n\nNot the least marvellous element in the case was the faculty whereby the\nseeress had been able to reproduce, after waking, with such evident\nfaithfulness the things seen and heard at so great length in sleep. In\nreply to my questionings she said that the words seemed to show\nthemselves to her again as she wrote[67].\n\nDiscoursing with her Genius on this subject of memory, she received the\nfollowing, which is valuable also for its recognition of the mystical\nimport of the Bible narratives, and confirmation of St Paul when he says\nin reference to certain narratives in Genesis, \"These things are an\nallegory.\"\n\n     \"Concerning memory; why should there any more be a difficulty in\n     respect of it? Reflect on this saying,--'Man sees as he knows.' To\n     thee the deeps are more visible than the surfaces of things; but to\n     men generally the surfaces only are visible. The material can\n     perceive only the material, the astral the astral, and the\n     spiritual the spiritual. It all resolves itself, therefore, into a\n     question of condition and of quality. Thy hold on matter is but\n     slight, and thine organic memory is feeble and treacherous. It is\n     hard for thee to perceive the surfaces of things and to remember\n     their aspect. But thy spiritual perception is the stronger for this\n     weakness, and the profound is that which thou seest the most\n     readily. It is hard for thee to understand and to retain the memory\n     of material facts; but their meaning thou knowest instantly and by\n     intuition, which is the memory of the soul. For the soul takes no\n     pains to remember; she knows divinely. Is it not said that the\n     immaculate woman brings forth without a pang? The sorrow and\n     travail of conception belong to her whose desire is unto\n     'Adam'\"[68].\n\nThe following sentences sum up the conclusions to which, by degrees, we\nwere led. The first two paragraphs are from an exposition concerning the\ndogma of the Immaculate Conception which we considered as one of the\nmost sublime and momentous of all her illuminations[69].\n\n\"All that is true is spiritual.... No dogma is real that is not\nspiritual. If it be true, and yet seem to you to have a material\nsignification, know that you have not solved it. It is a mystery; seek\nits interpretation. That which is true is for Spirit alone.\n\n\"For matter shall cease and all that is of it, but the Word of the Lord\nshall remain for ever. And how shall it remain except it be purely\nspiritual; since, when matter ceases, it would then be no longer\ncomprehensible?\"\n\n\"For, though matter is eternally the mode whereby spirit manifests\nitself, matter is not itself eternal.\"\n\n\"The church has all the truth, but the priests have materialised it,\nmaking religion idolatry, and themselves and their people idolaters.\"\n\n\"In their real and divinely intended sense, its doctrines are eternal\nverities, founded in the nature of Being. As ecclesiastically\npropounded, they are blasphemous absurdities.\"\n\n\"All the mistakes made about the Bible arise out of the mystic books\nbeing referred to times, places, and persons material, instead of being\nregarded as containing only eternal verities about things spiritual.\"\n\n\"The Bible was written by intuitionalists, for intuitionalists, and from\nthe intuitionalist standpoint. It has been interpreted by externalists,\nfor externalists, and from the externalist standpoint. The most occult\nand mystical of books, it has been expounded by persons without occult\nknowledge or mystical insight\"[70].\n\nThus gradually but surely we learnt that Ecclesiastical education has\nrigidly excluded from its curriculum all those branches of study which\ncould throw light on the real nature of existence, and consists in\nlearning what other men have said who, themselves, did not know, but\nwere mere hearsay scholars lacking the witness in themselves.\n\nWe marvelled much as to how the priesthoods will comport themselves when\ncompelled to recognise the fact that a New Gospel of Interpretation has\nactually been vouchsafed from the world celestial in correction of their\nperversion and mutilation of the former Gospel of Manifestation, and\nsuppression of the true doctrine of salvation. Will Cain and Caiaphas\nstill have the dominion, and ecclesiasticism be as ready to crucify the\nChrist on His second coming as it was on His first? And if not, how will\nit find courage to face the world with the humiliating confession that\nall through the long ages of its history, while arrogantly claiming to\nbe the faithful and infallible minister of the Gospel of Christ, it has\npersistently withheld that gospel, and, losing the key to its meaning,\nhas substituted for the wholesome \"bread\" of divine truth, the \"stones\"\nof innutritious because unintelligible dogmas; and for the \"fish\" of the\nliving waters, the \"serpents\" of the letter which kills? and that when\nmen have rightly suspected that Christianity has failed, not because it\nis false, but because it has been falsified, and have sought to their\nown inner light for the truth of which ecclesiasticism had defrauded\nthem, it dealt out to them pitiless anathema and persecution, making the\nearth a scene of torture and slaughter in assertion of the right of the\npriesthoods to teach wrong?\n\nThat the work committed to us implied nothing less than the fulfilment\nof the prophecies of which the promise of the Second Coming of Christ\nwas the culmination, while intimated to us from the outset, was\ngradually unfolded into full assurance, and we were enabled to see that\nthe very terms in which it was couched implied a spiritual advent, and\none which should disclose the perfect system at once of science,\nphilosophy, morality, and religion, of which Christ is both the\nfoundation and the consummation. For the \"clouds of heaven\" in which it\nwas to take place, were no other than the heaven of the kingdom within\nman of his restored spiritual consciousness. \"That wicked one,\" \"the son\nof perdition,\" and \"mystery of iniquity\" then to be revealed and\ndestroyed, was no other than the inspiring evil spirit of an\necclesiasticism which had received indeed its doctrines from above, but\ntheir interpretation and application from below. And the \"Spirit of His\nmouth,\" and the \"Brightness of His Coming\" were no other than a new Word\nof God, in the form of a New Gospel of Interpretation, so potent in its\nlogic and so luminous in its exposition as to indicate the Logos Himself\nas its source, and the \"Woman\" Intuition, \"clothed with the Sun\" of full\nillumination, as its revealer.\n\nWe saw, too, that with this \"Woman\" thus rehabilitated, God's \"Two\nWitnesses,\"--who have so long lain dead in the streets of \"that great\ncity\" wherein the Lord, the divinity in man, is ever systematically\ncrucified; the city of the world's system as fashioned and controlled by\nan ecclesiasticism shrouded in the threefold veil of Blood, Idolatry,\nand the Curse of Eve,--will rise and stand on their feet, and ascend to\nthe heaven of their proper supremacy, _vice_ Lucifer deposed and fallen.\nAnd in them Lucifer himself will regain his lost estate, vindicating his\ntitle to be called the Light-bearer, the bright and morning star, the\nherald and bringer-in of the perfect day of the Lord God. For, as the\nIntellect, he is the heir of all things, if only he be begotten of the\nSpirit, and be no bastard engendered of the Sense-Nature.\n\nFor--as we had come to learn--God's Two Witnesses in man are ever the\nIntellect and the Intuition, when duly unfolded and united in a pure\nspirit. Under such conditions the Shiloh comes, and mounted on them man\nrides triumphant as king into the holy city of his own regenerate\nnature. But divorced from her, the Intuition, and--leagued with the\nSense-Nature--knowing matter only and the body, the Intellect becomes\n\"prince of devils\" in man, the maker of men into fiends, and of the\nearth into a hell. Wherefore his fall from the heaven of his power, on\nthe advent of that whole Humanity, of whom it is said, \"the Man is not\nwithout the Woman, nor the Woman without the Man, in the Lord,\" the\nhumanity of intellect and intuition combined, has ever been exultingly\nhailed in anticipation by all true seers and prophets.\n\nThe chief points of the doctrine, the prospect of the restoration of\nwhich has thus been the sustaining hope of the percipient faithful in\nall ages, may be summarised as follows:--\n\nThe doctrine which, first and foremost, it is the purpose of the Bible\nto affirm, and of the Christ to demonstrate, and in which reason\nentirely concurs, is no other than that of the divine potentialities of\nman, belonging to him in virtue of the nature of his constituent\nprinciples, the force and the substance of existence. These are the\nduality of the \"heavens\" which God is said to \"create,\" meaning to put\nforth from Himself, \"in the beginning,\" and of the mutual interaction of\nwhich all things are the product, varying according to the plane of\noperation, alike for creation and redemption, generation and\nregeneration. And that which Jesus really affirmed in the memorable but\nlittle understood words, \"Ye _must_ be born again, or from above, of\nWater and the Spirit,\" was both the possibility and the necessity to all\nmen of realising the potential divinity belonging to them in virtue of\nthe divinity of their constituent principles. And in affirming this He\naffirmed both the necessity and the possibility to every man of being\nborn exactly as He Himself, as typical man regenerate, is said to have\nbeen born, of Virgin Mary and Holy Ghost, and also His own identity in\nkind with all other men. And He affirmed, moreover, the utter falsity of\nthat priest-constructed system, which, ignoring Regeneration, insists on\nSubstitution, as the means of salvation. For \"Virgin Mary,\" and \"Holy\nGhost,\" are but the mystical synonyms with \"Water and the Spirit,\" the\nsubstance and force, or soul and spirit, of which, man is constituted,\nin their divine because pure condition, the product of which in man is\nthe new regenerate selfhood called, as by St Paul, the \"Christ within.\"\nBegotten in man as matrix, of the pure Spirit and Substance which are\nGod, this new selfhood is son at once of God and of man; and in him God\nand man are \"reconciled\" or \"at-oned.\" And that man is said to be saved\nby his blood, is because the \"blood of God\" is pure spirit, and it is\nthe pure spirit in the man that saves him; and that he is called the\nonly-begotten Son of God, is not because God begets no other of his\nkind, but because God, as God, begets directly none of any other kind.\n\nThis, then, as we came to learn, and to recognise as having learned it\nin our own long-past lives, is the doctrine which Jesus came to teach\nand to demonstrate in His own person. Matter is spirit, being spiritual\nsubstance, projected by force of the divine Will into conditions and\nlimitations, and made exteriorly cognisable. And being spirit it can\nrevert to the condition of spirit. In virtue of the divinity of his\nconstituent principles, man has within himself the seed of his own\nregeneration, and the power to effectuate it. He has in him, this is to\nsay, the potentiality of divinity realisable at will. And the secret and\nmethod of the achievement, which is no other than the secret and method\nof Christ, is inward purification and unfoldment, the unfoldment of the\ncapacities, mental, moral, and spiritual, of his nature, of which inward\npurification is the first and essential condition. Thus is the Finding\nof Christ the realisation of the Ideal, and Christ is for every man the\nsummit of his own evolution.\n\nStated in terms of modern science, but correcting its aberrations, the\ndoctrine of Christ is in this wise. Evolution is the manifestation of\ninherency. Owing to the divinity of the constituent principles of\nexistence, its Force and its Substance, both of which are God, the\ninherency of existence is divine. Wherefore, as the manifestation of a\ndivine inherency, evolution is accomplished only by the attainment of\ndivinity; and the cause of evolution is the tendency of substance to\nrevert from its secondary and \"created\" condition of matter, to its\noriginal and divine condition of pure spirit. Wherefore evolution is\ndefinable as the process of the individuation of Deity in and through\nHumanity.\n\nSuch is the genesis of the Christ in man. And he is called _a_ Christ\nwho, having accomplished this process in himself, returns into the\nearth-life when he has no need to do so for his own sake, out of pure\nlove to redeem, by showing to others their own equal divine\npotentialities and the method of the realisation thereof.\n\nThis method consists in love, love of perfection, which is God, for its\nown sake, and love for others. The process is entirely interior to the\nindividual. It consists in the sacrifice of the lower nature to the\nhigher in himself, and of himself for others in love. That which\ndirectly saves the man is not the love of another for the man, but the\nlove which he has in himself. All that can be done by another is to\nkindle this love in him.\n\nThe philosophy of this doctrine of salvation by love was formulated for\nus as follows:--\"It is love which is the centripetal power of the\nuniverse; it is by love that all creation returns into the bosom of God.\nThe force which projected all things is will, and will is the\ncentrifugal power of the universe. Will alone could not overcome the\nevil which results from the limitations of matter; but it shall be\novercome in the end by sympathy, which is the knowledge of God in\nothers,--the recognition of the omnipresent Self. This is love. And it\nis with the children of the spirit, the servants of love, that the\ndragon of matter makes war\"[71].\n\nIn making the means of salvation extraneous to the individual,\nSacerdotalism has defrauded man of his Saviour, making the first and\npersonal coming of Christ of none effect. Hence the necessity for the\nsecond and spiritual coming represented by the New Gospel of\nInterpretation as was foretold:--the coming which was to be in the\nclouds of the heaven of man's restored understanding; the Hermes within.\n\nBut the process of regeneration is a prolonged one, extending over many\nearth-lives; and so also is the prior process of evolution, whereby man\nreaches the stage at which he is amenable to regeneration. Wherefore\nregeneration has for its corollary reincarnation. To tell man that he\n\"must be born again\" spiritually, and deny him the requisite\nopportunities of experience, which must be acquired while in the\nbody--seeing that regeneration is _from out of the body_--would be to\nmock him.\n\nThis doctrine of a multiplicity of earth-lives is implicit and sometimes\nexplicit in the Bible. The notion that the Hebrews had no belief in a\nfuture state because of the failure of commentators to discover it in\ntheir Scriptures, is altogether futile. The permanence of the Ego was a\nmatter of course with them, saving only the Sadducees. And the Bible\ncontemplates the persistence of the individual soul through all the\nmanifold stages of its evolution, from the \"Adam\" stage to the \"Christ\"\nstage, saying, as by St Paul, \"As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall\nall be made alive.\" But the Christ insisted on by him was not He Who is\n\"after the flesh,\" not the man Jesus, who was but the vehicle of the\nChrist, but the Christ within both Jesus and all other regenerate men.\nFor, as a highly illuminated follower of the Gnosis, St Paul was one who\n\"after the way which\" his orthodox accusers \"called heresy, worshipped\nthe God of his fathers, believing all things which are according to the\nlaw, and are written in the prophets.\" Rejecting the doctrine of\nregeneration, and with it that of reincarnation, in favour of\nsubstitution, the orthodoxy which claims to be Christianity has\npractically rejected both the doctrine of St Paul and that of Jesus as\ndeclared to Nicodemus. And, as St Paul implies, the \"mystery of\niniquity\" was working even already in his days to annul the gospel of\nChrist by substituting Jesus as the object of worship, and His physical\nblood-shedding as the means of salvation. And Christendom, yielding to\nsacerdotal dictation, has to this day accepted a doctrine which at once\ndishonours God and robs men of their equal divine potentialities with\nJesus, thus preferring Barabbas. Professing to rest its faith on the\nBible, it has accepted the presentation of religion which the Bible\npersistently condemns, that of the priests, and rejected that on which\nthe Bible emphatically insists, that of the prophets. That St Paul\nemployed sacerdotal modes of expression was in order to spiritualise\nthem. He was a mystic of mystics.\n\nNevertheless the dogmas of the Church contain the truth, but this is not\nas the Church has propounded them. And--to cite two crucial\ninstances--so far from the Church's supreme dogmas, the Immaculate\nConception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, having any personal\nor physical reference, they are prophecies of the method of redemption\nfor every individual soul. For, as the New Gospel of Interpretation\nexplicitly declares, restoring the Gnosis persistently rejected by the\nbuilders of the orthodoxies,\n\n     The Immaculate Conception is none other than the prophecy of the\n     means whereby the universe shall at last be redeemed. Maria--the\n     sea of limitless space--Maria the Virgin, born herself immaculate\n     and without spot, of the womb of the ages, shall in the fulness of\n     time bring forth the perfect man, who shall redeem the race. He is\n     not one man, but ten thousand times ten thousand, the Son of Man,\n     who shall overcome the limitations of matter, and the evil which is\n     the result of the materialisation of spirit[72].\n\n     By the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin\n     Mary we are secretly enlightened concerning the generation of the\n     soul, who is begotten in the womb of matter, and yet from the first\n     instant of her being is pure and incorrupt.... As the Immaculate\n     Conception is the foundation of the mysteries, so is the Assumption\n     their crown.\n\n     For the entire object and end of kosmic evolution is precisely this\n     triumph and apotheosis of the soul. In the mystery presented by\n     this dogma, we behold the consummation of the whole scheme of\n     creation--the perpetuation and glorification of the individual\n     human ego. The grave--the material and astral consciousness, cannot\n     retain the immaculate Mother of God. She rises into the heavens;\n     she assumes divinity.... From end to end the mystery of the soul's\n     evolution--the history, that is, of humanity and of the kosmic\n     drama--is contained and enacted in the cultus of the Blessed Virgin\n     Mary. The acts and the glories of Mary are the one supreme subject\n     of the holy mysteries[73].\n\n     \"Allegory of stupendous significance!\" exclaimed the seeress's\n     illuminator when imparting to her the mystery of the Immaculate\n     Conception. \"Allegory of stupendous significance! with which the\n     Church of God has so long been familiar, but which yet never\n     penetrated its understanding, like the holy fire which enveloped\n     the sacred Bush, but which nevertheless the Bush withstood and\n     resisted[10].\n\nThat such failure has been the rule and not the exception is the plea\nfor the New Gospel of Interpretation. For lack of comprehension of its\nown symbols the Church has fallen into the disastrous errors of\nmistaking the man Jesus for the Christ within every man, and Mary the\nmother of Jesus for Virgin Mary the mother of that Christ, committing in\nboth instances idolatry by preferring the form to the substance, persons\nto principles, and blinding men to the essential truth implied.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[65] A.K. was preparing for her second Doctorat, and E.M. was\nelaborating out of his own consciousness \"a key to the interpretation\nespecially of the initial chapters of Genesis.\" (Life A.K. Vol. I. p.\n264.)\n\n[66] On the 4th June, 1878. (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 265.)\n\n[67] E.M. says:--\"Her notes, of course, disappeared with her dream, and\nshe had to reproduce it from memory. But this was abnormally enhanced,\nfor she said that the words presented themselves again to her as she\nwrote, and stood out luminously to view.\" (Life A.K. Vol. I. p. 269.)\n\n[68] That is the outer sense and lower reason.\n\n[69] The illumination in question was received by A.K. in Paris on the\nnight of the 25th July, 1877, and was written down under trance. Further\nportions are given on pp. 158, 159, 161. It is given in full in \"The\nLife of A.K.\" Vol. I. pp. 202-203.\n\n[70] See further on this most important subject \"The Bible's Own Account\nof Itself,\" by E.M., the only complete edition of which is published by\n\"The Ruskin Press,\" Ruskin House, Stafford Street, Birmingham. S.H.H.\n\n[71] From the exposition concerning the dogma of the Immaculate\nConception, referred to on p. 151.\n\n[72] From the exposition concerning the dogma of the Immaculate\nConception, referred to on p. 151.\n\n[73] From the exposition concerning the Christian Mysteries given in\nfull in \"The Life of A.K.\" Vol. II. pp. 99-100.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE EXEMPLIFICATION.\n\n\nThis chapter will be devoted to some examples of the recovered Gnosis,\nbearing chiefly upon the supreme doctrine of Regeneration. As with all\nelse received by the Seeress, they are the product of intuitional memory\nregained under divine illumination occurring mostly in sleep. And here I\nwill take occasion to state explicitly and positively, that the states,\nwhether of sleep or of trance, in which her faculty was exercised, were\nall natural and spontaneous, being induced by the Spirit itself; and\nthat in no case were artificial means employed by either of us, whether\ndrugs, mesmerism, hypnotism, crystal-gazing, or any other of the devices\nordinarily used to induce abnormal states of consciousness or promote\nenhancement of faculty. Our work was to be a real work, done not only by\nus but in us, and we had from the first a profound instinctive distrust\nof results obtained by such artificial stimulation.\n\nNor was any change even of a word ever made in the teachings received.\nThey came one and all in the finished perfection in which they are put\nforth, coming down as the holy city from the heaven of the upper and the\nwithin, and incapable of improvement. The following are the examples\nproposed:--\n\n(1) Concerning Holy Writ.\n\n     All Scriptures which are the true Word of God, have a dual\n     interpretation, the intellectual and the intuitional, the apparent\n     and the hidden.\n\n     For nothing can come forth from God save that which is fruitful.\n\n     As is the nature of God, so is the Word of God's mouth.\n\n     The letter alone is barren; the spirit and the letter give life.\n\n     But that Scripture is the more excellent, which is exceeding\n     fruitful and brings forth abundant signification.\n\n     For God is able to say many things in one, as the perfect ovary\n     contains many seeds in its chalice.\n\n     Therefore there are in the Scriptures of God's Word certain\n     writings which, as richly yielding trees, bear more abundantly than\n     others in the self-same holy garden.\n\n     And one of the most excellent is the history of the generation of\n     the heavens and the earth.\n\n     For therein is contained in order a genealogy, which has four\n     heads, as a stream divided into four branches, a word exceeding\n     rich.\n\n     And the first of these generations is that of the Gods.\n\n     The second is that of the kingdom of heaven.\n\n     The third is that of the visible world.\n\n     And the fourth is that of the Church of Christ.\n\n(2) Concerning the Mystery of Redemption.\n\n     All things in heaven and in earth are of God, both the invisible\n     and the visible.\n\n     Such as is the invisible, is the visible also, for there is no\n     boundary line betwixt spirit and matter.\n\n     Matter is spirit made exteriorly cognisable by the force of the\n     Divine Word.\n\n     And when God shall resume all things by love, the material shall be\n     resolved into the spiritual, and there shall be a new heaven and a\n     new earth.\n\n     Not that matter shall be destroyed, for it came forth from God, and\n     is of God indestructible and eternal.\n\n     But it shall be indrawn and resolved into its true self.\n\n     It shall put off corruption, and remain incorruptible.\n\n     It shall put off mortality, and remain immortal.\n\n     So that nothing be lost of the Divine substance.\n\n     It was material entity: it shall be spiritual entity.\n\n     For there is nothing which can go out from the presence of God.\n\n     This is the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead: that is, the\n     transfiguration of the body.\n\n     For the body, which is matter, is but the manifestation of spirit:\n     and the Word of God shall transmute it into its inner being.\n\n     The will of God is the alchemic crucible: and the dross which is\n     cast therein is matter.\n\n     And the dross shall become pure gold, seven times refined; even\n     perfect spirit.\n\n     It shall leave behind it nothing: but shall be transformed into the\n     Divine image.\n\n     For it is not a new substance: but its alchemic polarity is\n     changed, and it is converted.\n\n     But except it were gold in its true nature, it could not be resumed\n     into the aspect of gold.\n\n     And except matter were spirit, it could not revert to spirit.\n\n     To make gold, the alchemist must have gold.\n\n     But he knows that to be gold which others take to be dross.\n\n     Cast thyself into the will of God, and thou shalt become as God.\n\n     For thou art God, if thy will be the Divine Will.\n\n     This is the great secret: it is the mystery of Redemption.\n\n(3) Concerning Sin and Death.\n\n     As is the outer so is the inner: He that worketh is One.\n\n     As the small is, so is the great: there is one law.\n\n     Nothing is small and nothing is great in the Divine Economy.\n\n     If thou wouldst understand the method of the world's corruption,\n     and the condition to which sin hath reduced the work of God,\n\n     Meditate upon the aspect of a corpse; and consider the method of\n     the putrefaction of its tissues and humours.\n\n     For the secret of death is the same, whether of the outer or of the\n     inner.\n\n     The body dieth when the central will of its system no longer\n     bindeth in obedience the elements of its substance.\n\n     Every cell is a living entity, whether of vegetable or of animal\n     potency.\n\n     In the healthy body every cell is polarised in subjection to the\n     central will, the Adonai of the physical system.\n\n     Health, therefore, is order, obedience, and government.\n\n     But wherever disease is, there is disunion, rebellion, and\n     insubordination.\n\n     And the deeper the seat of the confusion, the more dangerous the\n     malady, and the harder to quell it.\n\n     That which is superficial may be more easily healed; or, if need\n     be, the disorderly elements may be rooted out, and the body shall\n     be whole and at unity again.\n\n     But if the disobedient molecules corrupt each other continually,\n     and the perversity spread, and the rebellious tracts multiply their\n     elements; the whole body shall fall into dissolution, which is\n     death.\n\n     For the central will that should dominate all the kingdom of the\n     body, is no longer obeyed; and every element is become its own\n     ruler, and hath a divergent will of its own.\n\n     So that the poles of the cells incline in divers directions; and\n     the binding power which is the life of the body, is dissolved and\n     destroyed.\n\n     And when dissolution is complete, then follow corruption and\n     putrefaction.\n\n     Now, that which is true of the physical, is true likewise of its\n     prototype.\n\n     The whole world is full of revolt; and every element hath a will\n     divergent from God.\n\n     Whereas there ought to be but one will, attracting and ruling the\n     whole man.\n\n     But there is no longer Brotherhood among you; nor order, nor mutual\n     sustenance.\n\n     Every cell is its own arbiter; and every member is become a sect.\n\n     Ye are not bound one to another: ye have confounded your offices,\n     and abandoned your functions.\n\n     Ye have reversed the direction of your magnetic currents: ye are\n     fallen into confusion, and have given place to the spirit of\n     misrule.\n\n     Your wills are many and diverse; and every one of you is an\n     anarchy.\n\n     A house that is divided against itself, falleth.\n\n     O wretched man; who shall deliver you from this body of Death?\n\n(4) Concerning the Twelve Gates of Regeneration.\n\n     Now, the Kingdom of God is within us; that is, it is interior,\n     invisible, mystic, spiritual.\n\n     There is a power by means of which the Outer may be absorbed into\n     the Inner.\n\n     There is a power by means of which Matter may be ingested into its\n     original Substance.\n\n     He who possesses this power is Christ, and He has the devil under\n     foot.\n\n     For He reduces chaos to order, and indraws the external to the\n     centre.\n\n     He has learnt that Matter is illusion, and that Spirit alone is\n     real.\n\n     He has found His own Central Point; and all power is given unto Him\n     in heaven and on earth.\n\n     Now, the Central Point is the number Thirteen: it is the number of\n     the Marriage of the Son of God.\n\n     And all the members of the microcosm are bidden to the banquet of\n     the marriage.\n\n     But if there chance to be even one among them which has not on a\n     wedding garment,\n\n     Such a one is a Traitor, and the microcosm is found divided against\n     itself.\n\n     And that it may be wholly regenerate, it is necessary that Judas be\n     cast out.\n\n     Now the members of the microcosm are Twelve: of the Senses three,\n     of the Mind three, of the Heart three, and of the Conscience three.\n\n     For of the Body there are four elements; and the sign of the four\n     is Sense, in the which are three Gates,\n\n     The gate of the Eye, the gate of the Ear, and the gate of the\n     Touch[74].\n\n     Renounce vanity, and be poor: renounce praise, and be humble:\n     renounce luxury, and be chaste.\n\n     Offer unto God a pure oblation: let the fire of the altar search\n     thee, and prove thy fortitude.\n\n     Cleanse thy sight, thine hands, and thy feet: carry the censer of\n     thy worship into the courts of the Lord; and let thy vows be unto\n     the Most High.\n\n     And for the magnetic man[75] there are four elements: and the\n     covering of the four is mind, in the which are three gates;\n\n     The gate of desire, the gate of labour, and the gate of\n     illumination.\n\n     Renounce the world, and aspire heavenward: labour not for the meat\n     which perishes, but ask of God thy daily bread: beware of wandering\n     doctrines, and let the Word of the Lord be thy light.\n\n     Also of the soul there are four elements: and the seat of the four\n     is the heart, whereof likewise there are three gates;\n\n     The gate of obedience, the gate of prayer, and the gate of\n     discernment.\n\n     Renounce thine own will, and let the law of God only be within\n     thee: renounce doubt: pray always and faint not: be pure of heart\n     also, and thou shalt see God.\n\n     And within the soul is the Spirit: and the Spirit is One, yet has\n     it likewise three elements.\n\n     And these are the gates of the oracle of God, which is the ark of\n     the covenant;\n\n     The rod, the host[76], and the law:\n\n     The force which solves, and transmutes, and divines: the bread of\n     heaven which is the substance of all things and the food of angels;\n     the table of the law, which is the will of God, written with the\n     finger of the Lord.\n\n     If these three be within thy spirit, then shall the Spirit of God\n     be within thee.\n\n     And the glory shall be upon the propitiatory, in the holy place of\n     thy prayer.\n\n     These are the twelve gates of regeneration: through which if a man\n     enter he shall have right to the tree of life.\n\n     For the number of that Tree is Thirteen.\n\n     It may happen to a man to have three, to another five, to another\n     seven, to another ten.\n\n     But until a man have twelve, he is not master over the last enemy.\n\n(5) Concerning the Passage of the Soul[77].\n\n     Evoi, Father Iacchos, Lord God of Egypt: initiate thy servants in\n     the halls of thy Temple;\n\n     Upon whose walls are the forms of every creature: of every beast of\n     the earth, and of every fowl of the air;\n\n     The lynx, and the lion, and the bull: the ibis and the serpent: the\n     scorpion and every flying thing.\n\n     And the columns thereof are human shapes; having the heads of\n     eagles and the hoofs of the ox.\n\n     All these are of thy kingdom: they are the chambers of ordeal, and\n     the houses of the initiation of the soul.\n\n     For the soul passeth from form to form; and the mansions of her\n     pilgrimage are manifold.\n\n     Thou callest her from the deep, and from the secret places of the\n     earth; from the dust of the ground, and from the herb of the field.\n\n     Thou coverest her nakedness with an apron of fig-leaves; thou\n     clothest her with the skins of beasts.\n\n     Thou art from of old, O soul of man; yea, thou art from the\n     everlasting.\n\n     Thou puttest off thy bodies as raiment; and as vesture dost thou\n     fold them up.\n\n     They perish, but thou remainest: the wind rendeth and scattereth\n     them; and the place of them shall no more be known.\n\n     For the wind is the Spirit of God in man, which bloweth where it\n     listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell\n     whence it cometh, nor whither it shall go.\n\n     Even so is the spirit of man, which cometh from afar off and\n     tarrieth not, but passeth away to a place thou knowest not.\n\n(6) Concerning the Mystic Exodus[77].\n\n     Evoi, Iacchos, Lord of the Sphinx; who linkest the lowest to the\n     highest; the loins of the wild beast to the head and breast of the\n     woman.\n\n     Thou holdest the chalice of divination: all the forms of nature are\n     reflected therein.\n\n     Thou turnest man to destruction: then thou sayest, Come again, ye\n     children of my hand.\n\n     Yea, blessed and holy art thou, O Master of Earth: Lord of the\n     cross and the tree of salvation.\n\n     Vine of God, whose blood redeemeth; bread of heaven, broken on the\n     altar of death.\n\n     There is corn in Egypt; go thou down into her, O my soul, with joy.\n\n     For in the kingdom of the Body, thou shalt eat the bread of thine\n     initiation.\n\n     But beware lest thou become subject to the flesh, and a bond-slave\n     in the land of thy sojourn.\n\n     Serve not the idols of Egypt; and let not the senses be thy\n     taskmasters.\n\n     For they will bow thy neck to their yoke; they will bitterly\n     oppress the Israel of God.\n\n     An evil time shall come upon thee; and the Lord shall smite Egypt\n     with plagues for thy sake.\n\n     Thy body shall be broken on the wheel of God; thy flesh shall see\n     trouble and the worm.\n\n     Thy house shall be smitten with grievous plagues; blood, and\n     pestilence, and great darkness; fire shall devour thy goods; and\n     thou shalt be a prey to the locust and creeping thing.\n\n     Thy glory shall be brought down to the dust; hail and storm shall\n     smite thine harvest; yea, thy beloved and thy first-born shall the\n     hand of the Lord destroy;\n\n     Until the body let the soul go free; that she may serve the Lord\n     God.\n\n     Arise in the night, O soul, and fly, lest thou be consumed in\n     Egypt.\n\n     The angel of the understanding shall know thee for his elect, if\n     thou offer unto God a reasonable faith.\n\n     Savour thy reason with learning, with labour, and with obedience.\n\n     Let the rod of thy desire be in thy right hand: put the sandals of\n     Hermes on thy feet; and gird thy loins with strength.\n\n     Then shalt thou pass through the waters of cleansing, which is the\n     first death in the body.\n\n     The waters shall be a wall unto thee on thy right hand and on thy\n     left.\n\n     And Hermes the Redeemer shall go before thee; for he is thy cloud\n     of darkness by day, and thy pillar of fire by night.\n\n     All the horsemen of Egypt and the chariots thereof; her princes,\n     her counsellors, and her mighty men:\n\n     These shall pursue thee, O soul, that fliest; and shall seek to\n     bring thee back into bondage.\n\n     Fly for thy life; fear not the deep; stretch out thy rod over the\n     sea; and lift thy desire unto God.\n\n     Thou hast learnt wisdom in Egypt; thou has spoiled the Egyptians;\n     thou hast carried away their fine gold and their precious things.\n\n     Thou hast enriched thyself in the body; but the body shall not hold\n     thee; neither shall the waters of the deep swallow thee up.\n\n     Thou shalt wash thy robes in the sea of regeneration; the blood of\n     atonement shall redeem thee to God.\n\n     This is thy chrism and anointing, O soul; this is the first death;\n     thou art the Israel of the Lord,\n\n     Who hath redeemed thee from the dominion of the body; and hath\n     called thee from the grave, and from the house of bondage,\n\n     Unto the way of the cross, and to the path in the midst of the\n     wilderness;\n\n     Where are the adder and the serpent, the mirage and the burning\n     sand.\n\n     For the feet of the saint are set in the way of the desert.\n\n     But be thou of good courage, and fail thou not; then shall thy\n     raiment endure, and thy sandals shall not wax old upon thee.\n\n     And thy desire shall heal thy diseases; it shall bring streams for\n     thee out of the stony rock; it shall lead thee to Paradise.\n\n     Evoi, Father Iacchos, Jehovah-Nissi[78]; Lord of the garden and of\n     the vineyard;\n\n     Initiator and lawgiver; God of the cloud and of the mount.\n\n     Evoi, Father Iacchos; out of Egypt has thou called thy Son.\n\nTo vindicate the suppressed mysteries of the pre-Christian churches by\ndisclosing them as the true _origines_ of Christianity, and to replace\nthe false doctrine of the exclusive divinity of one man by the true\ndoctrine of the potential divinity of all men,--these are among the\nforemost objects of the New Gospel of Interpretation. And it is\nespecially in order to reinforce the last named, that it has restored\nthe following hymn in celebration of the supreme results of\nregeneration, which formed part of the ritual of the greater mysteries\nof the Greeks. It is addressed to the first of the Holy Seven, the\nSpirit of Wisdom, as represented by his \"angel,\" the angel of the sun,\neven \"that light which Adonai created on the first day,\" \"whose name is,\nin the Hebrew, Uriel, and in the Greek, Phoibos, the Bright One of God.\"\nBreathing both the Spirit and the letter of the Bible, from Genesis to\nthe Apocalypse, the hymns, of which this is one, indicate unmistakeably\nthe identity in source and substance of the Hebrew and the Christian\nwith the other sacred mysteries of antiquity, and the derivation of the\nlater through the earlier from their common source in the world\ncelestial when once again they have been restored. And they supply also\nthe motive which led the Christians to destroy the second Alexandrian\nlibrary, showing that motive to have been the desire to conceal, first,\nthe derivation of the Christian presentment from its predecessors, and\nnext, the perversion of their doctrine in the interests of an\nunscrupulous sacerdocy.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTaken in connection with its fellow-hymns, similarly recovered, to\nothers of the \"Holy Seven,\" the hymn to Phoibos throws a flood of light\non the creative week of Genesis, showing it to be no mere proem to\nScripture, or concerned with the world physical merely, but an integral\nportion of Scripture, being an epitome of eternal verities ever in\nprocess, and appertaining both to Creation and to Redemption. The Hymn\nto Her who is mystically the fourth, but really the third of the Gods,\nthe \"Spirit of Counsel\" of Isaiah, is especially notable for its\nsolution of the problem of the inversion of the order of the third and\nfourth days of creation. These hymns, moreover, show indubitably that\nthe order of the solar system was no secret to the hierophants of the\nsacred mysteries of antiquity.\n\n(7) Hymn to Phoibos, the First of the Gods.\n\n     \"Strong art thou and adorable, Phoibos Apollo, who bearest life and\n     healing on thy wings, who crownest the year with thy bounty, and\n     givest the spirit of thy divinity to the fruits and precious things\n     of all the worlds.\n\n     Where were the bread of the initiation of the Sons of God, except\n     thou bring the corn to ear; or the wine of their mystical chalice,\n     except thou bless the vintage?\n\n     Many are the angels who serve in the courts of the spheres of\n     heaven: but thou, Master of Light and of Life, art followed by the\n     Christs of God.\n\n     And thy sign is the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and of the\n     Just made perfect;\n\n     Whose path is as a shining light, shining more and more unto the\n     innermost glory of the day of the Lord God.\n\n     Thy banner is blood-red, and thy symbol is a milk-white lamb, and\n     thy crown is of pure gold.\n\n     They who reign with thee are the Hierophants of the celestial\n     mysteries; for their will is the will of God, and they know as they\n     are known.\n\n     These are the sons of the innermost sphere; the Saviours of men,\n     the Anointed of God.\n\n     And their name is Christ Jesus, in the day of their initiation.\n\n     And before them every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and of\n     things on earth.\n\n     They are come out of great tribulation, and are set down for ever\n     at the right hand of God.\n\n     And the Lamb, which is in the midst of the seven spheres, shall\n     give them to drink of the river of living water.\n\n     And they shall eat of the tree of life, which is in the centre of\n     the garden of the kingdom of God.\n\n     These are thine, O Mighty Master of Light; and this is the dominion\n     which the Word of God appointed thee in the beginning:\n\n     In the day when God created the light of all the worlds, and\n     divided the light from the darkness.\n\n     And God called the light Phoibos, and the darkness God called\n     Python.\n\n     Now the darkness was before the light, as the night forerunneth the\n     dawn.\n\n     These are the evening and the morning of the first cycle of the\n     Mysteries.\n\n     And the glory of that cycle is as the glory of seven days; and they\n     who dwell therein are seven times refined;\n\n     Who have purged the garment of the flesh in the living waters;\n\n     And have transmuted both body and soul into spirit, and are become\n     pure virgins.\n\n     For they were constrained by love to abandon the outer elements,\n     and to seek the innermost which is undivided, even the Wisdom of\n     God.\n\n     And wisdom and love are one.\n\nIn view of the restoration of the Gods to recognition by the New Gospel\nof Interpretation, it must be explained that the doctrines of Monotheism\nand Polytheism are not necessarily incompatible. This has already been\nshown in Chapter IV., in the utterance commencing--\"In the bosom of the\nEternal were all the Gods comprehended, as the seven spirits of the\nprism contained in the Invisible Light.\" For as light is one though its\nrays are seven and each ray is light, so is God one though His spirits\nare seven and each spirit is God.\n\nAnd yet further. The deities recognised under various names or by\nvarious peoples are not necessarily different Gods, but may be either\nthe same God or different modes or aspects of the same God. Notably is\nthis the case with the Gods of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the\nChristians. For while by the term Elohim is denoted the two principles,\nmasculine and feminine, of Force and Substance, which constitute\nOriginal Being, by Jehovah or Yahveh, Adonai and Shaddai, is denoted the\nresultant of the interaction of these two principles as Father and\nMother, who is called therefore their word, expression, and Son. By the\nHoly Ghost is denoted the same two principles in activity, having\nprocession from the \"Father-Mother\" through the \"Son,\" to be the\nconstituent principles of creation, being Deity dynamic as distinguished\nfrom Deity static. By the Seven Spirits of God--as by the seven great\nGods of the Greeks,--are denoted the seven potencies into which Deity\ndifferentiates on emerging as Holy Ghost from the prism constituted of\nFather, Mother, and Son, which are to each other as the force,\nsubstance, and phenomenon of which every manifest entity consists. For\n\"Every entity that is manifest, is manifest by the evolution of its\ntrinity.\" And by Christ is denoted the ultimate issue of such procession\nof Deity into manifestation, namely, divinity individuated by means of\nits passage through matter, and elaborated by co-operation of the Seven\nSpirits of God, into a perfected _spiritual_ Ego, who is at once God and\nman, and subsists under two modes--the microcosmic or individual, and\nthe macrocosmic or universal, and who is always in process of increase,\nbecause, in manifestation, \"the Father is greater than the Son;\" and\n\"the manifest never exhausts the unmanifest.\"\n\nNow the process of the Christ is by regeneration, and of this, as has\nbeen said, reincarnation is the condition. The New Gospel of\nInterpretation contains an utterance of Jesus on this subject which will\nfitly conclude this series of examples. It was recovered by \"Mary\" under\nillumination early in 1880, and consequently when we had not fully come\nto realise the actuality of the doctrine and the possibility of the\nrecovery of the memories of past lives. Hence she sought from her\nilluminators confirmation of the genuineness of the experience, when she\nwas distinctly and positively assured that the incident had actually\noccurred, and that she had borne part in it, though no record of it\nsurvives. Such is the extrinsic testimony on which it rests. We found\nthe intrinsic no less satisfactory, whether as regards the substance or\nthe form.\n\n(8) Concerning the previous lines of Jesus, and Reincarnation.\n\n     This morning between sleeping and waking I saw myself, together\n     with many other persons, walking with Jesus in the fields round\n     about Jerusalem, and while He was speaking to us, a man approached,\n     who looked very earnestly upon Him. And Jesus turned to us and\n     said, \"This man whom you see approaching is a seer. He can behold\n     the past lives of a man by looking into his face.\" Then, the man\n     being come up to us, Jesus took him by the hand and said, \"What\n     readest thou?\" And the man answered, \"I see Thy past, Lord Jesus,\n     and the ways by which Thou hast come.\" And Jesus said to him, \"Say\n     on.\" So the man told Jesus that he could see Him in the past for\n     many long ages back. But of all that he named, I remember but one\n     incarnation, or, perhaps, one only struck me, and that was _Isaac_.\n     And as the man went on speaking, and enumerating the incarnations\n     he saw, Jesus waved His right hand twice or thrice before his eyes,\n     and said, \"It is enough,\" as though He wished him not to reveal\n     further. Then I stepped forward from the rest and said, \"Lord, if,\n     as thou hast taught us, the woman is the highest form of humanity,\n     and the last to be assumed, how comes it that Thou, the Christ, art\n     still in the lower form of man? Why comest Thou not to lead the\n     perfect life, and to save the world as woman? For surely Thou has\n     attained to womanhood.\" And Jesus answered, \"I have attained to\n     womanhood, as thou sayest; and\n     already have I taken the form of woman. But there are three\n     conditions under which the soul returns to the man's form; and they\n     are these:--\n\n     \"1st. When the work which the Spirit proposes to accomplish is of a\n     nature unsuitable to the female form.\n\n     \"2nd. When the Spirit has failed to acquire, in the degree\n     necessary to perfection, certain special attributes of the male\n     character.\n\n     \"3rd. When the Spirit has transgressed, and gone back in the path\n     of perfection, by degrading the womanhood it had attained.\n\n     \"In the first of these cases the return to the male form is outward\n     and superficial only. This is my case. I am a woman in all save the\n     body. But had My body been a woman's, I could not have led the life\n     necessary to the work I have to perform. I could not have trod the\n     rough ways of the earth, nor have gone about from city to city\n     preaching, nor have fasted on the mountains, nor have fulfilled My\n     mission of poverty and labour. Therefore am I--a woman--clothed in\n     a man's body that I may be enabled to do the work set before Me.\n\n     \"The second case is that of a soul who, having been a woman perhaps\n     many times, has acquired more aptly and readily the higher\n     qualities of womanhood than the lower qualities of manhood. Such a\n     soul is lacking in energy, in resoluteness, in that particular\n     attribute of the Spirit which the prophet ascribes to the Lord when\n     he says, 'The Lord is a Man of war.' Therefore the soul is put back\n     into a man's form to acquire the qualities yet lacking.\n\n     \"The third case is that of the backslider, who, having nearly\n     attained perfection,--perhaps even touched it,--degrades and soils\n     his white robe, and is put back into the lower form again. These\n     are the common cases; for there are few women who are worthy to be\n     women\"[79].\n\n(9) Concerning the \"Work of Power.\"\n\n     You have asked me if the Work of Power is a difficult one, and if\n     it is open to all.\n\n     It is open to all potentially and eventually, but not actually and\n     in the present. In order to regain power and the resurrection, a\n     man must be a Hierarch; that is to say, he must have attained the\n     _magical_ age of thirty-three. This age is attained by having\n     accomplished the Twelve Labours, passed the Twelve Gates, overcome\n     the Five Senses, and obtained dominion over the Four Spirits of the\n     elements. He must have been born Immaculate, baptised with Water\n     and Fire, tempted in the Wilderness, crucified and buried. He must\n     have borne Five Wounds on the Cross, and he must have answered the\n     riddle of the Sphinx. When this is accomplished he is free of\n     matter, and will never again have a phenomenal body.\n\n     Who shall attain to this perfection? The Man who is without fear\n     and without concupiscence; who has courage to be absolutely poor\n     and absolutely chaste. When it is all one to you whether you have\n     gold or whether you have none, whether you have a house and lands\n     or whether you have them not, whether you have worldly reputation\n     or whether you are an outcast,--then you are voluntarily poor. It\n     is not necessary to have nothing, but it is necessary to care for\n     nothing. When it is all one to you whether you have a wife or\n     husband, or whether you are celibate, then you are free from\n     concupiscence. It is not necessary to be a virgin; it is necessary\n     to set no value on the flesh. There is nothing so difficult to\n     attain as this equilibrium. Who is he who can part with his goods\n     without regret? Who is he who is never consumed by the desires of\n     the flesh? But when you have ceased both to wish to retain and to\n     burn, then you have the remedy in your own hands, and the remedy is\n     a hard and a sharp one, and a terrible ordeal. Nevertheless, be not\n     afraid. Deny the five senses, and above all the taste and the\n     touch. The power is within you if you will to attain it. The Two\n     Seats\n     are vacant at the Celestial Table, if you will put on Christ. Eat\n     no dead thing. Drink no fermented drink. Make living elements of\n     all the elements of your body. Mortify the members of earth. Take\n     your food full of life, and let not the touch of death pass upon\n     it. You understand me, but you shrink. Remember that without\n     self-immolation, there is no power over death. Deny the touch. Seek\n     no bodily pleasure in sexual communion; let desire be magnetic and\n     soulic. If you indulge the body, you perpetuate the body, and the\n     end of the body is corruption. You understand me again, but you\n     shrink. Remember that without self-denial and restraint there is no\n     power over death. Deny the taste first, and it will become easier\n     to deny the touch. For to be a virgin is the crown of discipline. I\n     have shown you the excellent way, and it is the _Via Dolorosa_.\n     Judge whether the resurrection be worth the passion; whether the\n     kingdom be worth the obedience; whether the power be worth the\n     suffering. When the time of your calling comes, you will no longer\n     hesitate.\n\n     When a man has attained power over his body, the process of ordeal\n     is no longer necessary. The Initiate is under a vow; the Hierarch\n     is free. Jesus, therefore, came eating and drinking; for all things\n     were lawful to Him. He had undergone, and had freed His will. For\n     the object of the trial and the vow is polarisation. When the fixed\n     is volatilised, the Magian is free. But before Christ was Christ He\n     was subject; and His initiation lasted thirty years. All things are\n     lawful to the Hierarch; for he knows the nature and value of\n     all[80].\n\nThis chapter may appropriately terminate with a few remarks in reply to\nthe inevitable question, why our country and language were selected as\nthe place and tongue of the new revelation in preference to all others.\n\nIt is, as we were enabled to see, because the British people are\nrecognised in the celestial world, as possessing that peculiar quality\nof soul which, in spite of their many and grievous limitations, has made\nthem to be the foremost witness among the nations to God and the\nConscience, in such wise as to constitute them the counterpart of Israel\nin the modern world. Others besides ourselves have recognised this\ncharacteristic. Said Milton, speaking of a crisis which, momentous as it\nwas, pales in presence of that which now is, seeing that Religion itself\nas Religion was not menaced then as in our time--\n\n\"Now once again, by all concurrence of signs, and by the general\ninstinct of devout and holy men, as they daily and solemnly express\ntheir thoughts, God is beginning to devise some new and great period in\nHis Church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself. What does He\nthen, but address Himself to His servants, and--as His manner is--first\nto His Englishmen.\"\n\nTo which we may add in reference to the present, \"And having by the\nhands of His Intellectualists, beaten down the false interpretation of\nHis holy Word, accomplishing the work of destruction, is about by the\nhands of His Intuitionalists, to establish the true interpretation,\naccomplishing the work of re-construction.\"\n\nNor are there wanting specific historical facts pointing in the same\ndirection. To Britain it was given by a timely act of revolt against a\ndomination at once foreign and sacerdotal, to rescue the letter of\nScripture from suppression and virtual extinction at the hands of an\norder bent only on exalting itself at whatever cost to truth and\nhumanity. Meanwhile, for three centuries and a half--period suggestive\nof the mystical \"time, times, and half a time,\"--Britain has faithfully\nand lovingly, albeit unintelligently and mistakenly, guarded and\ncherished the letter thus rescued, even to the erecting of it into a\nfetish. And it may well be that she has now, for her guerdon, been\nfurther commissioned to be the recipient and minister of its\ninterpretation.\n\nMoreover, as Mistress of the Sea, the especial symbol of the Soul, she\nhas a prescriptive claim to be the vehicle of the latest and crowning\nmessage to earth, of which the Soul herself is at once the source, the\nsubject, and the object.\n\nNor are the universality of her language and the grandeur of her\nliterature elements to be left out of consideration. All things point to\nher language as destined to become, practically, the language of the\nworld; and hence its peculiar fitness to be the vehicle of that \"eternal\ngospel\" which it is declared should, at the end of the age, be\nproclaimed \"unto them that dwell on the earth, even unto every nation,\nand tribe, and tongue, and people.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[74] Taste and smell being modes of touch. E.M.\n\n[75] _I.e._, the astral and mental part of man, which is accounted a\nperson or system in itself. E.M.\n\n[76] The Sacramental bread called by the Hebrews \"showbread.\"\n\n[77] See note on p. 122, ante.\n\n[78] The names Nyssa, Nysa, Nysas, and Nissi are identical with each\nother, and also with Sinai, Sion, and those of other sacred mounts. For\nthey all are names for the Mount of Regeneration, the mount or \"holy\nhill\" of the Lord, within the man, to be on which is to be in the\nSpirit. The river Hiddekel has the like import. It is the river of the\nsoul, herself fluidic and called Maria (waters), which, as the\nreceptacle of the divine nucleus, winds about and encompasses the\nSpirit. Thus Daniel is said to be \"on Hiddekel\" when under divine\nillumination. (\"The Life of A.K.\" Vol. I. p. 459.)\n\n[79] A.K. was distinctly and positively assured that the incident then\nshown to her was one that actually occurred, and that she had borne part\nof it though no record of it survives. S.H.H.\n\n[80] This instruction is taken from \"The Life of A.K.\" Vol. I, pp.\n424-425.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE PROMULGATION AND RECOGNITION.\n\n\nAs will readily be imagined, the interest was intense with which we\nwatched the progress of our work, in order to see whether the crucial\nevent of its promulgation would coincide with the date prophesied for\nthe turning point between the outgoing and the incoming dispensations.\nThe predictions covered a period of six years, namely from 1876 to 1881\ninclusive. In this period was to be laid the foundation of a universal\nkingdom of justice and knowledge, which should constitute the reign of\nMichael, and spring from a new illumination, one feature of which was to\nbe the \"return of the Gods\" in 1876. It was in the autumn of this year\nthat they first came to us, and the intimation was given us that the\nreign of Michael was then actually commencing; we having no knowledge\neither of the meaning or of the fact of such predictions. For, while the\nBible references to Michael were altogether unintelligible to us, we had\nnot learnt to refer the event to any assignable period. The fulfilment\nof this prediction disposed us to attach value to those which pointed to\nthe year 1881 as that in which our work--supposing our estimate of its\nsignificance to be correct--ought to see the light. For our illuminators\nobserved silence respecting times and seasons, contenting themselves\nwith bringing under our notice the books containing the predictions,\nthe application being left to our own perspicacity. We were powerless to\ninfluence events, even had we desired to do so. We could but work\nsteadily on, as we did, \"without haste, without rest,\" until my\ncolleague had finished her university course and obtained her diploma.\nThis she accomplished in the summer of 1880, soon after which we\nreturned to England; and in the summer of 1881 we delivered in London,\nto a private audience, the lectures which constituted the first\npromulgation of our work. These were published in the following winter\nunder the title of \"The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ,\" our\nexcellent friend at Paris faithfully fulfilling the mission she had\naccepted in relation to us and our work[81]. Thus were fulfilled exactly\nall the predictions respecting the dates, the character, and the manner\nof our work.\n\nThere were many other coincidences of a kind so remarkable as to make us\nfeel that to ascribe them to accident would require a larger measure of\ncredulity than to ascribe them to design. Among the most striking were\nthose which concerned \"Mary's\" names, and which were in this wise.\n\nWhen first the significance of the Apocalyptic utterance concerning the\nriver Euphrates and the kings of the East was flashed on my mind, I\nasked her if she knew that she was mentioned, even to her very name, in\nthe book of Revelation. To which she replied, smiling, that she had\nknown it for some time, but which of her names did I mean? I said that I\nmeant her married surname, which fitted exactly a way made for kings\nacross a river, by the drying up of its waters, namely a _king's ford_;\nthe \"Kings of the East,\" meaning those principles in man whereby he has\nknowledge of divine things--the East being the mystical expression for\nthe place of the dawn of spiritual light, such as that of which she was\nthe revealer. While the Euphrates means, in the Apocalypse as in\nGenesis, the highest principle in the fourfold kosmos of man, the Spirit\nor Will[82]. Only when this principle in man is \"dried up,\" or\nsublimated by being made one with the divine Will, is man accessible to\nthe divine knowledges brought by the \"Kings of the East.\" As the channel\nby which these knowledges were being restored to the world, she was the\n_kings' ford_ implied. She then told me, what I had not yet observed,\nthat her baptismal and maiden names were equally appropriate, as the\nLatin for the \"acceptable year of the Lord,\" or _good time_, announced\nas to follow the restoration of the knowledges brought by the Kings of\nthe East, is--allowing for difference of gender--_Annus Bonus_. The\ncoincidence of names did not end here, for we shortly afterwards, in the\ncourse of our researches, came upon an old prophecy declaring that the\ninitials of the \"Messenger\" of the new Avatar, due at this time, would\nbe A.K.!\n\nShe further identified the \"Kings of the East\" as functions of the three\nprinciples in man, the Spirit, the Soul, and the Mind; being\nrespectively, right aspiration, which is of the Spirit; right\nperception, which is of the Soul; and right judgment, which is of the\nMind; the combination of which is the necessary and sufficient condition\nof divine knowledge.\n\nHad we been sanguine of a favourable reception of our book by the press\nat large--which we were not--our disappointment would have been great.\nBut we were by no means prepared either for the gross misrepresentation\nand even vulgar ribaldry with which it was treated by the few organs in\nthe literary press which noticed it at all, or for the complete neglect\nof it by that portion of the press which especially concerns itself with\nreligious exegesis. In no instance was any attempt made to exhibit its\nplan, purpose, and real nature, or any recognition accorded to its\nluminous solutions of the profound problems dealt with. The very claim\nto have experiential knowledge of things spiritual was accounted an\noffence; and it seemed as if the word had gone forth to adopt towards it\nan attitude which should effectually restrain the public from making its\nacquaintance, even though it met absolutely the need recognised on all\nhands as the world's supreme need, and vindicated its claim thereto by\nthe presentation of teachings avowedly of divine derivation and\ndemonstrating their divinity by their intrinsic character to all who are\nin the smallest degree spiritually percipient. To this day that attitude\nhas never been abandoned or relaxed; and notwithstanding the assiduous\nendeavours made to counteract its influence, the whole mass of our\npeople, saving only a few select circles, have yet to learn that the\nlonged-for New Gospel of Interpretation has actually been vouchsafed,\nhaving been for years in their midst waiting but to be recognised of\nthem,--a \"light shining in darkness and the darkness comprehending it\nnot\"[83].\n\nIn compliance with the injunctions of our illuminators, we had withheld\nour names from our first edition, in order to secure for it a judgment\nunbiased by any personal element. But though we ourselves thus escaped\nthe opprobrium attaching to our book, \"Mary\" was at first inclined to\nrepent of having exposed her pearls to such profanation; and was only\nreassured by the suggestion that it showed how desperate was the need\nfor precisely the change our work was designed to accomplish, and how\nexactly was fulfilled the prophecy which foretold the wrath of the\ndragon and his angels at the advent of the \"Woman\" Intuition, their\ndestined destroyer, and the consequent shortness of their own time. We\nknew of course better than to regard such criticism as being in any\nsense a measure of our work. For us it was, like criticism in general, a\nmeasure not of the thing criticised but of the critics themselves. And\nthese, in our case, but truly represented the condition of the age, and\nknew not what they were doing.\n\nSuch is the reason why so many will hear for the first time from this\nbook that a New Gospel of Interpretation has been received. To turn to\nthe other and compensating side. With those who were specially qualified\nto judge, it was far otherwise. And among the most notable of the\nrecognitions received from this quarter was the weighty utterance which\nappears in the preface to the second and succeeding editions, coming\nfrom that veteran student of the \"Divine Science,\" the friend, disciple,\nand literary heir of the renowned Kabalist and magian, the late Abbe\nConstant (\"Eliphas Levi\"), namely, Baron Spedalieri of Marseilles, who\nthough then an entire stranger to us, wrote to us as follows--for I\nthink it may with advantage be reproduced here:--\n\n     \"As with the corresponding Scriptures of the past, the appeal on\n     behalf of your book is, really, to miracles, but with the\n     difference that in your case they are intellectual ones, and\n     incapable of simulation, being miracles of interpretation. And they\n     have the further distinction of doing no violence to common sense\n     by infringing the possibilities of Nature; while they are in\n     complete accord with all mystical traditions, and especially with\n     the great Mother of these, the Kabala. That miracles such as I am\n     describing are to be found in _The Perfect Way_, in kind and number\n     unexampled, they who are the best qualified to judge will be the\n     most ready to affirm.\n\n     \"And here, _apropos_ of these renowned Scriptures, permit me to\n     offer you some remarks on the Kabala as we have it. It is my\n     opinion--\n\n     \"(1) That this tradition is far from being genuine, and such as it\n     was on its original emergence from the sanctuaries.\n\n     \"(2) That when Guillaume Postel--of excellent memory--and his\n     brother Hermetists of the later middle age--the Abbot Trithemius\n     and others--predicted that these sacred books of the Hebrews should\n     become known and understood at the end of the era, and specified\n     the present time for that event, they did not mean that such\n     knowledge should be limited to the mere divulgement of these\n     particular Scriptures, but that it would have for its base a new\n     illumination, which should eliminate from\n     them all that has been ignorantly or wilfully introduced, and\n     should re-unite that great tradition with its source by restoring\n     it in all its purity.\n\n     \"(3) That this illumination has just been accomplished, and has\n     been manifested in _The Perfect Way_. For in this book we find all\n     that there is of truth in the Kabala, supplemented by new\n     intuitions, such as present a body of doctrine at once complete,\n     homogeneous, logical and inexpungnable.\n\n     \"Since the whole tradition thus finds itself recovered or restored\n     to its original purity, the prophecies of Postel and his\n     fellow-Hermetists are accomplished; and I consider that from\n     henceforth the study of the Kabala will be but an object of\n     curiosity and erudition, like that of Hebrew antiquities.\n\n     \"Humanity has always and everywhere asked itself these three\n     supreme questions: Whence come we? What are we? Whither go we? Now,\n     these questions at length find an answer, complete, satisfactory,\n     and consolatory, in _The Perfect Way_\"[84].\n\nHe subsequently wrote:--\n\n     \"If the Scriptures of the future are to be, as I firmly believe\n     they will be, those which best interpret the Scriptures of the\n     past, these writings will assuredly hold the foremost place among\n     them\"[85].\n\nFor those who are unacquainted with the Kabala, its origin, nature, and\nintent, it will be well to state that it represents the transcendental\nand esoteric doctrine of the Hebrews, as handed down from the remotest\ntimes. In recognition of its divine origin, the Rabbins describe it as\nhaving been communicated by God, first, to \"Adam in Paradise,\" and,\nnext, to \"Moses on Sinai.\" By which expressions they implied that its\ndoctrine was due to the highest possible illumination.\n\nIt was also in recognition of this element in our book that Mr.\nMacGregor Mathers dedicated his learned work, \"The Kabala Unveiled,\" to\nus, saying--\n\n     \"I have much pleasure in dedicating this work to the authors of\n     _The Perfect Way_, as they have in that excellent and wonderful\n     book touched so much on the doctrines of the Kabala, and laid such\n     value on its teachings. _The Perfect Way_ is one of the most deeply\n     occult works that has been written for centuries.\"\n\nAs the foregoing testimonies represent the _consensus_ of the Kabalists,\nHermetists, and other great ancient schools of spiritual science in the\nWest, so the following represents the _consensus_ of the corresponding\nschools of the East. As will be seen, it involves a coincidence so\nnotable as to point to a source transcending the human and terrestrial,\nas that of the great spiritual revival which our age is witnessing. That\ncoincidence is in this wise:--\n\nWithin two years of the commencement of our collaboration in the work\nwhich proved to be that of the restoration of the _Gnosis_ of the\nWest--the divine doctrine of which, as we had come to learn, Christ was\nthe personal demonstration, and the religion called after Him ought to\nhave been the expression; a collaboration was commenced which had for\nits end the like exposition in regard to the religious systems of the\nEast. This is the collaboration, also of a woman and a man, which had\nits issue in the Theosophical Society. The two pairs of collaborators\nworked simultaneously through the succeeding years in entire ignorance\nof each other and their work, until the commencement of the publication\nof our results in 1881, at which time the Theosophical Society was still\nso far from having completed the system of its doctrine, that neither of\nits two now fundamental tenets had yet been recognised by it, the\ntenets, namely, of Reincarnation and Karma--its chief text-book, the\n\"Isis Unveiled\" of its foundress, not containing them. We, on the\ncontrary, had both of these doctrines, having derived them, as already\nstated herein, directly from celestial sources and wholly independently\nof human authority and tradition, of spiritualism, and of our own\nprepossessions.\n\nIt was clear, both by this fact and by the avowals of the parties\nconcerned, that up to this time the chiefs of the Theosophical Society\nhad been unable to obtain from those whom they claimed as their masters\nmore than a very meagre instalment of their doctrine. But after the\narrival of our book in India this state of things was changed. It was\nthen declared on behalf of the \"masters\" that we had obtained, from\noriginal and independent sources, a system of doctrine substantially\nidentical with that of which they had for ages been, as they supposed,\nin exclusive possession, but had never been permitted to divulge, as it\nhad always been reserved for initiates. The revelation of it through us,\nwe were further informed, had \"forced the hands of the masters,\" by\nshowing them that the time had come when secrecy was no longer possible,\nand compelling them, if only in vindication of their own claims, to\nrelax their rule of silence in regard to their mysteries.\n\nThe coincidence between their doctrine and ours comprised sundry\nparticulars the most recondite, including--besides the two great tenets\nalready named--the multiplicity of principles in the human system, and\ntheir separation and respective conditions after death,--a subject lying\noutside the cognisance of \"Spiritualism.\" Among other points of\nagreement was that of their recognition of the great antiquity of the\nsoul of \"Mary,\" whom they pronounced to be \"the greatest natural mystic\nof the present day, and countless ages ahead of the great majority of\nmankind, the foremost of whom--the most civilised--belong to the last\nrace of the fourth round, while she belongs to the first race of the\nfifth round.\"\n\nIn presence of these and other proofs of the possession by the Eastern\noccultists, of knowledges which we had obtained directly at first hand\nfrom celestial sources, we could not but pay respectful heed to the\nclaims of the representatives of the Theosophical Society, and welcome\nany token which might indicate it as a destined fellow-agent in the\ngreat spiritual revival of the age. So might it constitute, with\n\"Spiritualism\" and the work represented by us, a threefold power for\naccomplishing the promotion predicted for this era, of the consciousness\nof the race to a level which should transcend any yet reached by it as a\nrace. With Spiritualism to represent the phenomenal and personal,\nTheosophy the philosophical and occult, and our own work the mystical\nand divine, every region of man's higher nature would find its due\nrecognition and unfoldment. Meanwhile, the organ of the Society in India\nthus expressed itself respecting \"The Perfect Way\":--\n\n     \"A grand book, keen of insight and eloquent in exposition; an\n     upheaval of true spirituality.... We regard its authors as having\n     produced one of the most--perhaps the most--important and\n     spirit-stirring of appeals to the highest instincts of mankind\n     which modern European literature has evolved\"[86].\n\nWe had a yet further warrant, derived from Scripture itself, for looking\nto the Theosophical Society as possibly a divinely appointed factor in\nthe spiritual evolution of the time. The unsealing of the World's Bibles\nwas upon us, and not of that of Christendom only. And we saw in the\nfollowing saying of Jesus an obvious allusion to the present epoch, \"In\nthose days many shall come from the East, and the West, and the North,\nand the South, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the\nkingdom of heaven.\" Not that the terms East, West, North, and South,\ndenoted for us the quarters of the physical globe. We had learnt to\nunderstand them in their mystical sense, wherein they denote the various\nhuman temperaments, the intuitional, the traditional, the intellectual,\nand the emotional, all of which would find satisfaction in the doctrine\nthen to be recovered. It was in the terms Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,\nthat the significance of the utterance lay for us; these being in one\naspect the Hebrew equivalents for Brahma, Isis, and Iacchos, and\ndenoting the mysteries respectively of India, Egypt, and Greece, of the\nSpirit, the Soul, and the Body, and therein of the whole Man. For these\nmysteries together comprised the perfect doctrine of Existence, called\nalso in Scripture the \"Word of God,\" the \"Law and the Prophets,\" and the\n\"_Theou Sophia_,\" \"Wisdom of God,\" and \"hidden Wisdom,\" of which the\nChrist, as the typical Man regenerate, is the fulfilment and personal\ndemonstration. This is to say, they constituted that Gnosis, or\nKnowledge, with the taking away and withholdment of the key of which\nJesus so bitterly reproached, in the Ecclesiasticism of His time, that\nof all time, and, therefore, that knowledge to the restoration of which,\nin our day, through the faculty by means of which it was originally\nobtained and can alone be discerned, the prophecies one and all pointed,\nas to mark and to make the \"time of the end\" of the \"adulterous,\"\nbecause idolatrous, \"generation,\" hitherto in possession in the Church,\nand to introduce the \"kingdom of God with power.\"\n\nHaving warrant so high for anticipating the restoration at this time of\nthe faculties and knowledges represented by the various movements in\nquestion, and knowing also, if only by the example of ourselves, that\nthe divinity of a mission is not invalidated by the limitations, real or\nsupposed, of its instruments, but that these must be educated by\nexperience, and in such sense \"perfected through suffering\" to be fitted\nfor their appointed tasks;--we had no doubt as to the attitude it was\nour duty to maintain towards all candidates for a share in that which we\nrecognised as the greatest of all the endeavours yet made by the human\nsoul to regain her long-lost rightful dominion over the minds and hearts\nof men, leaving it to time to determine that which was of divine\nappointment, and that which was not.\n\nIt will have been observed that I have used the terms \"mystical\" and\n\"occult\" in such wise as to imply a distinction between them. It is\nimportant to the purpose of this book to define and emphasise that\ndistinction. The instructions received by us from our illuminators were\nexplicit and positive on this point.\n\nThis is because they refer to two different domains of man's system.\nOccultism deals with transcendental physics, and is of the intellectual,\nbelonging to science. Mysticism deals with transcendental metaphysics,\nand is of the spiritual, belonging to religion. Occultism, therefore,\nhas for its domain the region which, lying between the body and the\nsoul, is interior to the body but exterior to the soul; while Mysticism\nhas for its domain the region which, comprising the soul and the spirit,\nis interior to the soul, and belongs to the divine. Of course, the terms\nthemselves, which are respectively the Latin and the Greek for the same\nthing, and mean hidden from the outer senses and also from\nnon-initiates, do not imply such distinction, but they have come by\nusage to be thus referable.\n\nThe following citations are from the teachings received by us in this\nconnection. They account for the scientific part of the training imposed\non us.\n\n     \"The science of the Mysteries can be understood only by one who has\n     studied the physical sciences, because it is the climax and crown\n     of all these, and must be learned last and not first. Unless thou\n     understand the physical\n     sciences, thou canst not comprehend the doctrine of _Vehicles_,\n     which is the basic doctrine of occult science. 'If thou understood\n     not earthly things, how shall I make thee understand heavenly\n     things?' Wherefore, get knowledge, and be greedy of knowledge, ever\n     more and more. It is idle for thee to seek the inner chamber, until\n     thou hast passed through the outer. This, also, is another reason\n     why occult science cannot be unveiled to the horde. To the\n     unlearned no truth can be demonstrated. Theosophy is the royal\n     science[87]; if thou would reach the king's presence chamber, there\n     is no way save through the outer rooms and galleries of the\n     palace[88].\n\n     \"The adept or occultist is, at best, a religious scientist; he is\n     not a 'saint.' If occultism were all, and held the key of heaven,\n     there would be no need of 'Christ.' But occultism, although it\n     holds the 'power,' holds neither the 'kingdom' nor the 'glory,' for\n     these are of Christ. The adept knows not the kingdom of heaven, and\n     'the least in this kingdom are greater than he.'\n\n      \"'Desire _first_ the kingdom of God and God's righteousness; and\n     all these things shall be added unto you.' As Jesus said of\n     Prometheus[89], 'Take no thought for to-morrow. Behold the lilies\n     of the field and the birds of the air, and trust God as these,' For\n     the saint has faith; the adept has knowledge. If the adepts in\n     occultism or in physical science could suffice to man, I would have\n     committed no message to you. But the two are not in opposition.\n     All things are yours, even the kingdom and the power, but the glory\n     is to God. Do not be ignorant of their teaching, for I would have\n     you know all. Take, therefore, every means to know. This knowledge\n     is of man, and cometh from the mind. Go, therefore, to man to learn\n     it. 'If you will be perfect, learn also of these.' 'Yet the wisdom\n     which is from above, is above all.' For one man may begin from\n     within, that is, with wisdom, and wisdom is one with love. Blessed\n     is the man who chooseth wisdom, for she leaveneth all things. And\n     another man may begin from without, and that which is without is\n     power. To such there shall be a thorn in the flesh[90]. For it is\n     hard in such case to attain to the within. But if a man be first\n     wise inwardly, he shall the more easily have this also added unto\n     him. For he is born again and is free. Whereas at a great price\n     must the adept buy freedom. Nevertheless, I bid you seek;--and in\n     this also you shall find. But I have shown you a more excellent way\n     than theirs. Yet both Ishmael and Isaac are sons of one father, and\n     of all her children is Wisdom justified. So neither are they wrong,\n     nor are you led astray. The goal is the same; but their way is\n     harder than yours. They take the kingdom by violence, if they take\n     it, and by much toil and agony of the flesh. But from the time of\n     Christ within you, the kingdom is open to the sons of God. Receive\n     what you can receive; I would have you know all things. And if you\n     have served seven years for wisdom, count it not loss to serve\n     seven years for power also. For if Rachel bear the best beloved,\n     Leah hath many sons, and is exceeding fruitful. But her eye is not\n     single; she looketh two ways, and seeketh not that which is above\n     only. But to you Rachel is given first, and perchance her beauty\n     may suffice. I say not, let it suffice; it is better to know all\n     things, for if you know not all, how can you judge all? For as a\n     man heareth, so must he judge. Will you therefore be regenerate in\n     the without, as well as in the within? For they are renewed in the\n     body, but you in the soul. It is well to be baptised into John's\n     baptism, if a man receive also the Holy Ghost. But some know not so\n     much as that there is any Holy Ghost. Yet Jesus also, being Himself\n     regenerate in the spirit, sought unto the Baptism of John, for thus\n     it became Him to fulfil Himself in all things. And having\n     fulfilled, behold, the 'Dove' descended on Him. If then you will be\n     perfect, seek both that which is within and that which is without;\n     and the circle of being, which is the 'wheel of life,' shall be\n     complete in you.\"\n\nThe Scriptural allusions in this teaching, which was received by \"Mary\"\nunder illumination occurring in sleep, proved to be on the lines of the\nKabala.\n\nThere were sundry other tokens of recognition which are entitled to\nreproduction here, as showing to how wide a range of educated and\nintelligent opinion within the pale of Christianity our work appeals.\nTheir value is due to their representing a class of minds which, while\npossessed of the ordinary ecclesiastical training, are not restricted to\nthe knowledge thereby acquired. For, seeing that such training means\nlittle, if anything, more than the mechanical learning of what other men\nhave said who, themselves, had no real knowledge, the opinions,\nexpressed on the strength of it, are neither educated nor intelligent,\nbut adoptive only and perfunctory, and represent learning without\ninsight. And as such precisely are the opinions which constitute\necclesiastical orthodoxy, the judgment of the representatives of that\northodoxy on our work possesses no more real value than did that of\nCaiaphas and his coadjutors on Jesus and His work[91]. Denouncing Him\nas a blasphemer, they were themselves blasphemers. And inasmuch as they\nwere types of the votaries of ecclesiastical orthodoxy of all time, it\nis obvious that the only new revelation--if any--which would find\nacceptance at their hands, would be one that confirmed and reinforced\ntheir errors, instead of exposing and correcting them. Proceeding, as\nwas declared by Jesus, from their \"father, the devil,\" a\npriest-constructed system ever prefers Barabbas to Christ;--prefers,\nthat is, a system which defrauds--hence the force of the term \"robber\"\nas applied to Barabbas--man of the divine potentialities which Christ\ncame to reveal to him by demonstrating them in His own person, together\nwith the manner of their realisation.\n\nNot that all who bear the title of Ecclesiastics come under this\ncondemnation. In every age of the Church there have been those who,\nwhile holding office in it, have not consented to the \"Scarlet Woman\" of\nSacerdotalism. And never was there a time when the proportion of these\nwas larger, or when their sense of the need of a New Gospel of\nInterpretation was more keen and urgent than now: so intolerable to\nmultitudes of the clergy of all sections of the Church has become the\nantagonism recognised by them as subsisting between the traditional and\nofficial presentation of religion and their own clear perceptions of\ngoodness and truth[92].\n\nThe testimonies which remain to be added are valuable as coming from men\nwho, while possessed of ecclesiastical training, have been taught also\nof the Spirit, and, adding to tradition intuition, and to learning\ninsight, have in themselves the witness to that which they utter.\n\nA distinguished French ecclesiastic, the Abbe Roca, writing in\n_L'Aurore_, says of our books--\n\n     \"These books seem to me to be the chosen organs of the Divine\n     Feminine\" (_i.e._ the interpretative) \"Principle, in view of the\n     new revelation of Revelation.\"\n\nBy which it will be seen that he shared Cardinal Newman's expectation\nreferred to in the introduction; and accepted as realised the forecast\nof Joseph de Maistre when he said \"Religion and Science, in virtue of\ntheir natural affinity, will meet in the brain of some man of\ngenius--perhaps of more than one--and the world will get what it needs\nand cries for, _not a new religion, but the revelation of Revelation_.\"\nAs the event shows, for \"the brain of some man,\" he should have said\n\"the mind and soul of a woman.\"\n\nThe Rev. Dr. John Pulsford, author of \"The Supremacy of Man,\" \"Quiet\nHours,\" \"Morgenrothe,\" and other works distinguished for the depth of\ntheir piety and insight, thus wrote to me on the publication of \"Clothed\nwith the Sun\"--\n\n     \"I cannot tell you with what thankfulness and pleasure I have read\n     _Clothed with the Sun_. It is impossible for a spiritually\n     intelligent reader to doubt that these teachings were received from\n     _within_ the astral veil. They are full of the concentrated and\n     compact wisdom of the Holy Heavens and of God. If Christians knew\n     their own religion, they would find in these priceless records our\n     Lord Christ and His vital process abundantly illustrated and\n     confirmed. The regret is that so few, comparatively, who read the\n     book, will be aware of the tithe of its pearls. But that such\n     communications are possible, and are permitted to be given to the\n     world, is a sign, and a most promising sign of our age.\n\n     \"It is no little joy to me to feel that I am so much more in\n     sympathy with God's daughter, the Seeress, than I supposed. The\n     testimony is so clearly above, and distinct from, aught that is\n     derived from the occult powers of the universe, rather than from\n     the Supreme Spirit and Father-Mother of our Spirits.\"\n\nAnother notable student of spiritual science, a Priest, writing in\n_Light_ of 21st October, 1882, after describing _The Perfect Way_ as\n\"that most wonderful of all books which has appeared since the beginning\nof the Christian Era,\" said:--\"It is a book that no student can be\nwithout if he will know _the truth_ on these matters. It furnishes us\nwith a master-key to the phenomena which so perplex the minds of\nenquirers, and gives a system, the like of which has not been seen for\neighteen centuries.\" The late Rev. John Manners, a man venerable of\nyears and mature of spirit, and deeply versed in the sciences of both\nworlds, declared of these illuminations, \"the Great I Am speaks in\nevery line of them. Only the Logos Himself could be their source.\" Lady\nCaithness, already referred to, upon receiving a copy of _The Perfect\nWay_, wrote: \"I have got another Bible, the _most complete_ Revelation,\n_certainly_, that has yet been given to man on this planet\"[93]. And a\nParsee scholar, a native of India, wrote: \"_The Perfect Way_ has made me\na much nobler man--a man of tranquility and calmness, due to the\nknowledge of the philosophy of Being imbibed by me from it, and for\nwhich my mind was fortunately prepared\"[94].\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs stated in the preface, this present book is intended but as an\nepitome and instalment of the far larger book in course of preparation.\nFor, as with the old Gospel of Manifestation, so with the New Gospel of\nInterpretation, the excusable hyperbole is no less appropriate to\nit,--\"I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books\nwhich might be written.\"\n\nFor the human soul is a theme as inexhaustible as it is paramount. And,\nas never in the world's history have the need and the desire for the\nknowledge of it been so urgent as they now are, so never in the world's\nhistory has there been a revelation of it comparable with that which has\nbeen vouchsafed in our day, and is contained in the narrative, the\ncompletion of which, and this alone, will enable me to \"depart in\npeace,\" having no apprehension of after disquietude on the score of\nhaving left unaccomplished a portion so important of the task committed\nto me.\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[81] The French edition, subsequently issued at Paris, is also due to\nher zeal and generosity. See p. 137, ante.\n\n[82] For the meaning of the \"Four Rivers of Eden\" see P. W., vi. par. 6.\nSee note on p. 172, ante as to meaning of river Hiddekel.\n\n[83] This indictment is as true to-day as it was twelve years ago, when\nthe above passage was written. S.H.H.\n\n[84] Cited from the preface to the second and succeeding editions of\n\"The P. W.\"\n\n[85] Cited from \"The Life of A.K.\" Vol. II. p. 155.\n\n[86] The Theosophist, May, 1882.\n\n[87] The term Theosophy is here used in its Pauline and ancient sense of\nthe science of the realisation of man's potential divinity;--the\nprocess, that is, of the Christ.--1 Cor. ii. 7. E.M.\n\n[88] From an address given on the 17th July, 1883, by A.K. to the\nTheosophical Society, a full report of which is given in \"The Life of\nA.K.\" Vol. II. pp. 124-128.\n\n[89] A term which signifies forethought. The remonstrance is against\nundue anxiety and alarm on the soul's behalf while in the path of duty,\nas implying distrust of the divine sufficiency. E.M.\n\n[90] Meaning that in such case the flesh itself is the impediment.\n\n[91] In a letter on \"The Church and the Bible,\" in the \"Agnostic\nJournal\" of 5th January, 1895, E.M. says:--\n\n\"Among the fallacies to be discarded is the fallacy which consists in\nbelieving that the Church, so vehemently denounced in its own sacred\nbooks for its manifold, grievous, and fatal perversions of the truth\ncontained in those books, and so ignorant as to be unaware either of the\nsource or of the meaning of its own dogmas, must understand its\ndoctrines better than I understand them, whose high privilege it is to\nhave been one of the two recipients of the New Gospel of Interpretation,\nwhich has been vouchsafed expressly to correct those perversions, and\nwho not only have that gospel by heart, but who know absolutely by my\nown soul's experience--as also did my colleague--the truth of every word\nof it.\" (A long extract from this letter, including the above, is\nprinted in the appendix to B.O.A.I. p. 83.) S.H.H.\n\n[92] See also E.M.'s remarks to the same effect in the \"Statement\nE.C.U.\" pp. 10-11.\n\n[93] See Life A.K. Vol. II. pp. 52-53.\n\n[94] See Life A.K. Vol. II. p. 241.\n\n\n\n\n\"SCRIPTURES OF THE FUTURE.\"\n\n\nBooks rapidly coming into use in the Roman, Greek and Anglican\ncommunions as the text-books which represent the prophesied restoration\nof the Ancient Esoteric doctrine which, by interpreting the mysteries of\nreligion, should reconcile faith and reason, religion and science, and\naccomplish the downfall of that sacerdotal system, which--\"making the\nword of God of none effect by its traditions\"--has hitherto usurped the\nname and perverted the truth of Christianity. Their standpoint is that\nChristian doctrines, when rightly understood, are necessary and\nself-evident truths, recognisable as founded in and representing the\nactual nature of existence, incapable of being conceived of as\notherwise, and constituting a system of thought at once scientific,\nphilosophic and religious, absolutely inexpugnable, and satisfactory to\nman's highest aspirations, intellectual, moral and spiritual.\n\n=The Perfect Way;= or The Finding of Christ. By Anna Kingsford and\nEdward Maitland. Third English Edition, Price 6s. net.\n\n=The Life of Anna Kingsford=; by Edward Maitland. A new edition in\npreparation.\n\n=The New Gospel of Interpretation;= being an Abstract of the doctrine\nand Statement of the objects of The Esoteric Christian Union, founded by\nEdward Maitland, Nov., 1891.\n\n=The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, and of The New Gospel\nof Interpretation=; by Edward Maitland. Third and enlarged Edition, 228\npp., edited by Samuel Hopgood Hart, Cloth Gilt, Back and Side; Price 3s.\n6d. net; Post Free 3s. 10d. The Ruskin Press, Stafford Street,\nBirmingham.\n\n=The Bible's Own Account of Itself=; by Edward Maitland. Second Edition,\nedited by Saml. Hopgood Hart, complete, with Appendix. Crown 8vo. 96\npp., Stiff Paper Covers, Price 6d.; Post Free 7d,; or in Cloth Covers,\nGilt, 1s. 6d. net; Post Free 1s. 8d. The Ruskin Press, Birmingham.\n\nAll the above Works may be obtained from\n\n=_THE RUSKIN PRESS, STAFFORD STREET, BIRMINGHAM._=\n\n(_Postages in addition to the above Prices._)\n\n=_Some Testimonies of notable profiolents in religious science._=\n\n     \"If the Scriptures of the future are to be, as I firmly believe\n     they will be, those which best interpret the Scriptures of the\n     past, these writings will assuredly hold the foremost place among\n     them.... They present a body of doctrine at once complete,\n     homogeneous, logical and inexpugnable, in which the three supreme\n     questions, Whence come we? What are we? Whither go we? at length\n     find an answer, complete, satisfactory, and consolatory.\"--BARON\n     SPEDALIERI (_The Kabalist_).\n\n     \"It is impossible for a spiritually intelligent reader to doubt\n     that these teachings were received from within the astral veil.\n     They are full of the concentrated and compact wisdom of the Holy\n     Heavens and of God. If Christians knew their own religion, they\n     would find in these priceless records our Lord Christ and His vital\n     process abundantly illustrated and confirmed. That such\n     communications are possible, and are permitted to be given to the\n     world, in a sign, and a most promising sign, of our age.\"--REV. DR.\n     JOHN PULSFORD.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BIBLE'S OWN ACCOUNT OF ITSELF.\n\nBy EDWARD MAITLAND (_B.A., Cantab_)\n\n\nAuthor of \"The Keys of the Creeds,\" \"The Story of the New Gospel of\nInterpretation,\" \"The Life of Anna Kingsford,\" etc.; and Joint Writer\nwith Dr. Anna Kingsford of \"The Perfect Way,\" etc.\n\nEDITED BY SAMUEL HOPGOOD HART.\n\n=Second Edition, (Complete) with Appendix, PRICE SIXPENCE.=\n\nOr in Cloth Covers, gilt, One Shilling and Sixpence.\n\n\"Now there come out of the darkness and the storm which shall arise upon\nthe earth, two dragons. And they fight and tear each other, until there\narises a star, a fountain of light, a queen, who is Esther.\"--The Vision\nof Mordecai, as interpreted in \"Clothed with the Sun,\" I., IX.\n\nBIRMINGHAM: The Ruskin Press, Stafford St., and all Booksellers.\n\n\nSOME PRESS OPINIONS\n\nOF\n\n_The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of The New Gospel\nof Interpretation._\n\n_Literary World_--\"A strangely interesting book--very curious--few who\nhave any sympathy with mental phenomena of the 'occult' kind will fail\nto read it with sustained interest.\"\n\n_Light_--\"A psychic history of umblemished veracity and astounding\nfacts--supremely interesting--'full of beauty and perfect simplicity of\npurpose'--and showing that the 'fig-tree of the inward understanding is\nno longer barren, but has budded and blossomed and borne fruit.'\"\n\n_Church Bells, 27th April, 1894_--\"Mr. Maitland has written a\nfascinating book.\"\n\n_The Gentleman's Journal, March, 1894_--\"Nothing Mr. Maitland writes\nwould I like to miss--I never study his searching and striking pages\nwithout profit.\"\n\n_Agnostic Journal_--\"A fascinating volume--the history of a work\ncalculated to effect a fundamental revolution in religion--told in\nlanguage which leaves nothing to be desired.\"\n\n_The Illustrated Church News, 31st March, 1894_--\"This work is to\nChristians of real interest; for it enables them to study Gnosticism\nalive and vigorous in the nineteenth century.\"\n\n_Brighouse Gazette_--\"One of those really great books associated with\nthe names of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland.\"\n\n_The Unknown World_--\"There is no man now known to be living in England\nwho has had such an abundant transcendental experience.\"\n\n\n\n\nRELIGION AND MENTAL PHENOMENA.\n\n_From the \"Christian Union.\"_\n\n\nWhatever may be said in favour or disfavour of Mr. Edward Maitland's\n\"Story of the New Gospel of Interpretation,\" it is one of the most\nremarkable and most fascinating books on mental-visional perceptions of\nDivine Revelation that has appeared at any time. It is a book that\ncarries the reader away from the materialistic to the mystical and\nspiritual. The author claims to bring to the old revelation a new\ninterpretation, or more correctly, to restore the original and spiritual\ninterpretation which has been lost through literalism. According to the\nnarrative, the two persons concerned were for some years in reception of\nrevelations which convinced them that they had been enabled \"to tap a\nboundless reservoir of wisdom and knowledge\" before the method and\nsource were declared to them.... At length it was made clear to them\nthat the knowledges they had acquired were due to intuitional\nrecollection occuring under Divine illumination. \"Inborn knowledge and\nthe perception of things--these are the sources of Revelation. The soul\nof the man instructeth him, having already learned by experience.\nIntuition is inborn experience, that which the soul knoweth of old and\nof former lives.\" The ordinary mind will doubtless be ready to pronounce\nit to be strange mental phenomena, and nothing more. But surely mental\nphenomena of an extraordinary character must have an extraordinary use\nand purpose. And so few persons know enough of the psyhic powers latent\nin man, to be able to believe in the reality of these manifestations....\nThe nature of the results is such as to negative all materialistic\nexplanations. For the knowledges recovered are real, solving problems in\nthe profoundest domains of theology, hitherto given up as mysteries\nhopeless of solution. And they are being thus recognised far and wide by\nthe profoundest students of spiritual science.... Judge the story of the\nNew Gospel of Interpretation in what light we may, it has in it all the\nevidences of a marvellous work in its mental and spiritual conception,\nexposition, interpretation, illustration, and Divine communication. It\nstands out conspicuously as a fuller development of Biblical truth, such\nas Cardinal Newman must have anticipated when he said that he saw no\nhope for religion, save in a new Revelation.\n\nTHE RUSKIN PRESS.\n\nSTAFFORD STREET, BIRMINGHAM,\n\nPRINTERS.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscribers notes:\n\nMaintained original spelling and punctuation.\n\nSilently corrected obvious typesetting errors.","title":"The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the new Gospel of Interpretation","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":64770}