Do not understand by the above remark that spirit becomes matter, through evolution, and that the universe is a huge Divine Personality. We have too high a conception and reverence for Deity, to suppose for an instant, that He became a material being through the evolution of the universe. He is not in any manner personally associated with either the esoteric or exoteric cosmos. Spirit is distinct from matter but not from energy; energy is the source of matter. It is therefore through energy and law that God is associated with the universe. The law is His Providence, and His will the executive. A miracle is an impossibility, for it requires a suspension of the law upon which the universe is reared. To suspend this law for one moment, would disarrange the harmony of the entire universe. Therefore, the suspension of this unique law, which controls energy in the production of substance and matter, would immediately suspend evolution, and the entire universe and all that is associated with it, would at once become disintegrated.
The Providential law, being one of harmony, applies to everything outside of the spirit of God, and therefore cannot be violated with impunity. The beauties of nature result from its harmony, and when it is violated, discord ensues. We see this in nationalities, society, individuals, and in fact in all departments of nature. If the violation goes beyond certain limits, revolution is the result, and if it is not corrected, destruction naturally follows. The greater the violation the more difficult it is to overcome the discordancy. Dissipation is sure to be rewarded with sickness, and if carried too far, with death. Luxury and licentiousness, if persisted in, will destroy society as well as nationalities. History affords us ample proof of this. This law, no matter how slightly violated, brings its comparative punishment, and when obeyed, its corresponding reward.
After these preliminary remarks, we turn to our subject, the Kabbalah, and show how it has been preserved and transmitted or handed down from one generation to another. The study of external nature alone affords us no evidence of a future life—on the contrary, it tends to disprove it, which accounts for the agnostic belief, which has become so prevalent of late years. In the investigation of external phenomena, we recognize matter, energy and life; the latter we are told is the result of protoplasmic cell action—the same of mind. The continuity observed through all the departments of nature, implies that there is a law controlling energy in the production of forms. If energy had nothing to guide it, its movements would be erratic, and nature would become a conglomerate discordant mass. Now, the existence of a law implies a law giver, for it is not self-creating or self-sustaining, therefore we logically conclude that there is something back of material nature that is not recognized by the external senses. What proof have we of the existence of an external world, except through consciousness? An unborn child, if it possessed reasoning faculties, would deny the existence of its own mother. A person born blind can have no conception of the beauties of nature, and if the sense of touch be suspended with that of sight, we could form no conception of solidity. If born deaf, of the harmony and discord of sound or of music. We therefore perceive that we can have no conception of the existence of an external world, except through neural activities recorded in consciousness, and without the unfoldment of the inner consciousness, we can form no opinion of a future life. In fact, logically speaking, we have the same grounds for denying its existence as we would have of the external world, providing objective consciousness was closed.
This accounts for the doubt, uncertainty, and fear respecting the future, which is intensified by the present system of religious teachings. The spiritual world is as much a reality as this, in fact more so, for it undergoes no change, as this one does.
The study of Theosophy has demonstrated to the writer that there is another source of knowledge which can only be acquired through the cultivation of a plane of consciousness, which is not reached by objective neural activities, but can be by unfoldment of inner consciousness.
It is the development of this state of consciousness that brings us en rapport with the esoteric world. The question now arises, how are we to develop this much desired condition? It can only be accomplished through the harmony of the moral attributes of the spirit. Harmony is the only passport to Heaven, and the absence of harmony, which is discord, is the only passport to what christianity terms Hell. Therefore, heaven and hell are only conditions of the spirit, which are beautifully illustrated in the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse, where it describes the angel descending from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a chain. With the key he unlocked hell, and with the chain he bound the devil for a thousand years. The angel is the representative of holiness and purity, which is only attained through the harmony of the spirit; the key is a symbol of light, and the chain that of truth; hell is supposed to be the abode of darkness, and the devil a spirit of falsehood and error. We will now ask the question, is there anything to banish darkness, but light? Anything to disperse falsehood and error, but truth?
Christ was an Essene, and this secret order was a branch of the Kabbalah. St. John was his favorite disciple, whom he fully initiated into the mysteries. During this disciple’s exile on the Isle of Patmos or Patmo, he wrote the Apocalypse, which is a profound Kabbalistic production, describing the unity, duality, ternary and septenary of the Kabbalah. The ancient adepts found from experience, that in order to develop the interior or subjective consciousness, it was necessary (allegorically speaking) to “wear the cloak of Apollonius;” that is, to withdraw from the outer world, practice to the fullest extent, self-denial, and spend their wakeful moments in esoteric meditation. In order to isolate themselves from society, they established secret sanctuaries, in which they met for mutual communion and religious exercises.
As they advanced in spiritual knowledge they found that there were various grades of harmony in the subjective or spiritual world, and each individual on leaving this life gravitated, as it were, to the sphere with which he was in harmony. They divided their sanctuaries into seven degrees to correspond with the harmonies in esoteric nature, and to each degree there were three years of spiritual probation. As harmony results from the analogy of contraries, there were as many degrees of discord as there were of harmonies. The former they designated hell. The material cosmos, that is what we call the external world, was, as it were, middle ground between the two, which they called Hades, into which the soul passed at death, and the spirit was made cognizant of its record while on earth. Physical death, they claimed was merely a change from a physical to a spiritual condition; the soul or spiritual body being formed at the same time that the physical was, but in a very different manner. After death, the soul either ascended or descended, depending not upon gravity, but upon harmony.
It will thus be perceived that each degree in the sanctuary required a separate or distinct initiation for each one, which was intended to represent a higher state of moral and intellectual advancement. The last or seventh degree was the one of perfection which brought about illumination, when the subjective world was as much a reality to the inward or subjective consciousness as the outward world is to the objective. When this condition of moral and intellectual unfoldment was obtained, all interest in this life was gone and the spirit longed for separation from its physical casket. The neophyte seeking spiritual knowledge could only attain to the wisdom of the different degrees by advancing morally, so as to be in harmony with the degrees. The knowledge thus obtained was never recorded, but communicated verbally in symbolic language. By this means it was kept a profound secret, and handed down traditionally. The first record we have of the Kabbalah was made by Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai; the former compiled The Sepher Jetzirah, “Book of Creation,” and the latter, The Sepherhaz Sohar, “Book of Light.” The first is regarded by the Kabbalist at the key of the second. The Sohar has never been translated, and as a late Bishop of the Church of England justly states, never will be by a Christian. This is owing to its symbolic character, which can only be interpreted by a Kabbalist. It is in three volumes, in unpointed Hebrew, and consists of a mixture of Armenic and Semetic languages. The Sepher Jetzirah may be procured in three languages, the Hebrew, Latin and German.
