The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the new Gospel of Interpretation Part 9

[34] As to the recovery by A.K. of the Hymn to the Planet-G.o.d, see p.

122-3.

[35] These dream-verses are from "Through the Ages," a poem received by A.K., "in sleep," in 1880. In this poem, "some of her earliest incarnations" are referred to. (D. and D-S. p. 77.) S.H.H.

[36] See p. 122 note.

[37] See pp. 51-52-53 ante.

[38] That is, in the place of G.o.d and the Soul.

[39] The four planes being, from without inwards, those of the body, mind, soul, and spirit. S.H.H.

[40] The 28th March, 1880. S.H.H.

[41] The name by which I was thus addressed had been given me by our illuminators as an initiation name, as that of "Mary" to her. It denoted love as the dominant note of our work, and was an equivalent for "John the Beloved," who--we were given to understand--is one of the two controlling "angels" of the new illumination--Daniel being the other--in accordance with the intimations given by Jesus, one to His disciples and the other to the Seer of the Apocalypse himself, that John should tarry within reach of the earth-plane to bear part in the event which was to const.i.tute the second advent of Christ. These names had a further correspondence in the Greek parable of Eros and Psyche, which denotes love as the vivifying principle of the soul. E.M.

[42] Materialism and Superst.i.tion.

[43] The name Esther denotes a star or fountain of light, a dawn or rising.

[44] The spelling of the names is that of the Douay Version, the Protestants having relegated the second part of the book of Esther, in which the latter part of this narrative occurs, to the Apocrypha. As also that of Ezra above cited. E.M.

[45] These are disclosed in "The Life of A.K." The personality referred to on this occasion was "Faustine, the Roman," the Empress of Marcus Aurelius. (Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 353-354.) S.H.H.

[46] The "Hymn of Aphrodite," including the "Discourse of the Communion of Souls, and of the Uses of Love between Creature and Creature; being part of the Golden Book of Venus," from which latter the above is taken, is given in full in the P.W. pp. 350-356.

[47] The instruction concerning inspiration and prophesying was received by A.K. in Paris on the 7th February, 1880. S.H.H.

[48] P.W. pp. 311-314. Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 344-345.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ANTAGONISATION.

Even had we been disposed, which happily we were not, to exalt ourselves on the strength of the loftiness of our mission, the constant proofs afforded us of the paucity of our knowledge in comparison with what remained to be known, would have effectually restrained us. But as it was, we were from the first penetrated by the conviction that only in so far as we succeeded in subordinating the individual to the universal, the personal to the divine, could the work be successfully accomplished.

The man must make himself nothing that the G.o.d may be all. This was the burden of the injunctions enforced on us throughout; the failures of others through self-exaltation being adduced in ill.u.s.tration. For, as we were plainly given to understand, "many are called but few are chosen"; the weak point in their system, the "Judas" by whom they are betrayed and fail, being generally vanity. They are as instruments which mistake themselves for the mind and hand which wield them.

Humility and Love, the violet and the red, these are the two extremes of the prism which comprise between them all the Seven Spirits of G.o.d.

Blended, they make the royal purple; but the hue of that purple depends on the spiritual states of the individuals themselves whose tinctures they are. They were, we were told, the tinctures of our own souls as indicated by the colours of our respective _auras_. "Mary's" was the "blood-red ray of the innermost sphere," the sphere of the "first of the G.o.ds," wherein "love and wisdom are one." "For the Hebrews Uriel, for the Greeks Phoibos, the Bright One of G.o.d." Mine was the violet of the outermost sphere, that of the "last of the G.o.ds," the "Spirit of the Fear of the Lord," and therein of Reverence and Humility; for the Greeks Saturn, and for the Hebrews Satan, the "Angel unfallen of the outermost sphere." Only when man is built up of all the G.o.ds, and bears upon him the seal of each G.o.d, having climbed the ladder of his regeneration from circ.u.mference to centre, from "Saturn" to the "Sun," is the "week" of his new and spiritual creation accomplished. Similarly the co-operation of all these divine potencies was indispensable to our work. And we were emphatically warned of the dangers both to it and to ourselves, that would come of the lack of the divine presence in respect of any of them.

Hence the necessity of maintaining the necessary conditions in ourselves, and the caution addressed to us by "Hermes," in view of the liability of mortals to appropriate to themselves the importance appertaining to their mission when this transcends the ordinary. To this end, in the following Exhortation, he disclosed to us the heights yet to be ascended, saying--

He whose adversaries fight with weapons of steel, must himself be armed in like manner, if he would not be ignominiously slain or save himself by flight.

And not only so, but forasmuch as his adversaries may be many, while he is only one; it is even necessary that the steel he carries be of purer temper and of more subtle point and contrivance than theirs.

I, Hermes, would arm you with such, that bearing a blade with a double edge, ye may be able to withstand in the evil hour.

For it is written that the tree of life is guarded by a sword which turneth every way.

Therefore I would have you armed both with a perfect philosophy and with the power of the divine life.

And first the knowledge; that you and they who hear you may know the reason of the faith which is in you.

But knowledge cannot prevail alone, and ye are not yet perfected.

When the fulness of the time shall come, I will add unto you the power of the divine life.

It is the life of contemplation, of fasting, of obedience, and of resistance.

And afterwards the chrism, the power, and the glory. But these are not yet.

Meanwhile remain together and perfect your philosophy.

Boast not, and be not lifted up; for all things are G.o.d's, and ye are in G.o.d, and G.o.d in you.

But when the word shall come to you, be ready to obey.

There is but one way to power, and it is the way of obedience.

Call no man your master or king upon the earth, lest ye forsake the spirit for the form and become idolaters.

He who is indeed spiritual, and transformed into the divine image, desires a spiritual king.

Purify your bodies, and eat no dead thing that has looked with living eyes upon the light of Heaven.

For the eye is the symbol of brotherhood among you. Sight is the mystical sense.

Let no man take the life of his brother to feed withal his own.

But slay only such as are evil; in the name of the Lord.

They are miserably deceived who expect eternal life, and restrain not their hands from blood and death.

They are miserably deceived who look for wives from on high, and have not yet attained their manhood.

Despise not the gift of knowledge; and make not spiritual eunuchs of yourselves.

For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

Ye are twain, the man with the woman, and she with him, neither man nor woman, but one creature.

And the kingdom of G.o.d is within you[49].

The knowledge of the "Seven Spirits" whereby Deity operates in the universe, has been completely dropped out of sight by the Christian world. It is necessary, therefore, if only in vindication of the importance attached to them by our illuminators, to recite the instruction received by us concerning them, which is as follows. It is a chapter from the recovered Gnosis[50]:--