The Light of Egypt Part 10

The Tablets of Aeth, then, const.i.tute a spiritual astrology, a spiritual science of the stars, void of mathematics, yet possessing all the exact.i.tude of figures, constructed on the principles of astronomy, yet expressed by the methods of the Kabbalah.

The transmission of spiritual truth from inward to outward form, though differing according to the age in which it is expressed, is ever the same in principle. And in the same way that the sacred clavicula of Solomon became the Tarot of Bohemian gypsies, so did the Tablets of Aeth manifest their mysteries in the starry science of Chaldean lore. But there is this sharp line of demarcation between them, namely, the Tablets of Aeth deal with universal human life and nature, with infinite principles from which all finite laws radiate. The Tablets of Aeth express and symbolize the cause. All other mundane systems of occult study, astronomical or metaphysical, are spirito-natural effects, the individual intellectual fruits, gathered from the one universal tree of knowledge. Uncreated, Unlimited Potentiality, is the one impersonal truth s.h.i.+ning forever in the Great White Light of G.o.d.

All the laws, powers, and princ.i.p.alities, manifested in the moving Universe, are but the colored rays, blazing with glorious life through the prisms of matter.

Having stated thus much, the neophyte will perceive in what meditative sphere of thought the Tablets may be used. The method of study is, as shown, a purely synthetic deduction of human ideas from spiritual symbols of universal principles. The Tablets themselves const.i.tute a grand arcane Tarot of man, G.o.d and the universe, and of all the powers that dwell therein. They may be studied singly, as, for instance, meditating upon some one great universal idea or principle; or they may be studied in trines, as they appear in each separate book, or chapter, or as squares, like two, five, eight, eleven, or as the seal of two trines, one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, with No. twelve in the center, as the revealer of the mystery. And, finally, they may be contemplated as the Grand Oracle of Heaven, in the following manner:

Make a circle of the tablets, as you would with a pack of Tarot cards, beginning with No. 1, on the eastern horizon, and proceeding in the exact opposite order from a figure of the heavens--No. 2, being on the Twelfth House, No. 3, on the Eleventh, and {} on the M. C. of the figure, as in the Astro-Masonic chart, given in the second part of "The Light of Egypt," Vol. I, and so proceed with the rest of the twelve tablets of the stars. This figure will represent the potentialities of the macrocosm, the starry signs symbolizing the possibilities of things past or to be, and the rulers the active executors thereof. Study the figure in all its aspects as such, first singly, tablet by tablet, then as a whole--the cosmos.

Next, place the ruler of any given tablet at the side of the Mansion, and try to penetrate its various meanings, powers and possibilities. Then proceed the same with a trine and a square, and, last, with all the rulers, in the order of their celestial lords.h.i.+p of the signs, each in his appointed place, as a whole Arcana.

In any grave crisis of mental or physical affairs, wherein nations, and not individuals, are concerned, the tablets may be used as a celestial scheme of the heavens, thus: Cast a figure of the heavens for the Sun's first entry into the sign Aries at the vernal equinox, calculated for the meridian of the capital city of the country under consideration. Degrees and minutes are not wanted. Then place the twelve tablets in place of signs, exactly as they would occur in an astrological figure. Then place the rulers of the Sun, Moon and planets therein (each having its own tablet), as they are found to be situated in an ephemeris for the time of the figure. This done, study the whole from a spiritual standpoint as the causes and ultimates of the crisis, according to astro laws.

The foregoing simple directions will, I think, be sufficiently plain for all purposes, never forgetting that this holy study is not a system of divination, as commonly understood, but of Divine revelation, in its highest and most holy religious sense. Long study and most reverent meditation will be required to master this mystery, and many errors of judgment will occur to the beginner.

The interpretative reflections are added for the purpose of guiding and guarding the spiritually untrained seer from possible error in fundamental conceptions only. They must not by any means be taken as a complete revelation of the tablets, but only as a series of skeleton keys by means of which all things may be revealed to the earnest seeker thereof. To have added more than is given would only be to defeat the object of this work. Each seeker for the truth must excavate the mines of knowledge, and dig further into this universal well of truth for himself.

Remember that all interpretation will be personal to each student. Of no one can it be affirmed, "thou hast said," and so endeth the matter. Not so. To each, according to his talent, shall the mysteries of the kingdom be revealed, to every one according to his humility, spiritual light, and merit. But from the arrogant, the selfish, and spiritually proud, shall all things be taken away, and truth shroud herself in the veil of delusion. In simplicity of mind, then, and purity of soul, approach the Holy of Holies. "Suffer little children to come unto Me," saith a messenger of the Most High, "for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Verily, therefore, I say unto you, that not until you can look upon all the works of Nature--beauty in her nakedness or vice and crime in their repulsiveness, with pure thought and holy feeling, can you inherit eternal life.

Here endeth the introduction to the book which is called "The Tablets of Aeth."

PART I

OF THE TWELVE MANSIONS

Here beginneth Chapter I of the Book which is called "The Tablets of Aeth," wherein is transcribed the First Quadrant of the Twelve Mansions.

"I sent my soul through the invisible, Some lesson of that after life to spell; And by and by my soul returned to me And answered, 'I, myself, am Heaven and h.e.l.l.' "

"The moving finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line , Nor all your tears wash out a word of it."

TABLET THE FIRST

Aries

SYMBOL

A deep blue Sky, a blaze, as if something were about to rise.

I

REFLECTION

TABLET THE FIRST

The blush of dawn of a new life, all nature quivering with the sense of coming, conscious life; Isis, vibrant with love of the coming child, her bosom flushed in expectation of the little son soon to breathe on her yearning breast.

In this we trace the great lesson of preparation, of sending the light before the form, of the prophecy before the fulfillment.

Dawn must precede sunrise. What you expect will be your destiny.

It is the longing of centuries that incarnates a G.o.d, a real Sun-G.o.d, whose vibrant love-life can thrill other lives into prayer--aspiration, the struggle for eternal life. The dawn represents the expectant maternity of Nature--G.o.d.

O child of Adam! See that thou expecteth much, and that thy aspirations are reflected in thy outward life.

TABLET THE SECOND

Taurus

SYMBOL

A red sun on the horizon of an inky sea.

II

REFLECTION

TABLET THE SECOND

Nature has shown forth her glory, as brought forth by young Horus, but her creative force is still unreflected. The sea is black and inky. The Son of G.o.d is born, but the sea of human life still remains unconscious, in primeval darkness.

The angles of the Sun and the sea are not yet in right relation to each other. A few, standing on the watch-towers of life, seeing the red glow of the risen sun, call "Look!" But the unfortunate ones in the outer darkness cry, as they beat their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; "No! There is no light! You do but dream!" And yet the Sun of Life has risen--the Divine light glows.

O child of Adam! Remember that "In Him was life, and life was the light of man, and the light s.h.i.+neth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not."

TABLET THE THIRD

Gemini

SYMBOL

Two stars are rising at angles to each other and to the Polar star, while eight stars s.h.i.+ne faintly in the black s.p.a.ce of background.

III

REFLECTION

TABLET THE THIRD

The Divine symbol of soul-matehood is here signified in the two stars rising in the foreground; not only the soul-affinities of humanity, but the eternal father-mother forces manifested in the biune spirit of universal life and nature, the two great creative powers, Life and Light, whose harmony creates love, attraction and repulsion, and the straight lines of law and justice, which blend in the spiral of mercy.

The two stars are rising at an oblique angle to the pole-star, the center around which, material things revolve. So, too, life and love are balanced by the star of wisdom. Love in the spirit is adaption to the environment in matter and providence in universal life. The eight stars reveal the mystery of the tablet--universal death, present with life, the final end of all discord glimmers faintly afar off, and man questions the love of G.o.d, seeing that all things pa.s.s away, not realizing that death is the germinal promise of life, of transformation, of the realization of unrealized hopes, of the union of loving hearts in their starry pilgrimage back to the Father's home.

O child of Adam! Listen unto the words of the Teacher: "I and the Father are one." Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such ii the Kingdom of Heaven."