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Genesis, where we are told that at the time of the first man a mist went up from the earth, "for it had not yet rained." This condition evidently continued un- til the Flood, when the moisture finally descended and left the atmosphere clear so that the rainbow was seen for the first time, the darkness was dis- A Collection of Sacred Magick | The Esoteric Library | www.sacred-magick.com pelled, and the age of alternation, day and night, summer and winter, com- menced. By a study of the cosmology and the pictorial account of evolution given in the Northern Eddas, treasured among the sages of Scandinavia before the Christian Era, we may learn more of this period in the earth's history and the bearing which it has upon our subject. As we teach our children, by means of stories and pictures, truths that hey could not intellectually grasp, so the divine leaders of mankind were wont to teach the infant souls in their charge by pictures and allegories, and through these prepare them for a higher and nobler teaching of a later day. The great epic poem which is called "The Lay of the Niebelung," gives us the story of which we are in search, the cosmic origin of the rite of Baptism and why it is necessarily the preliminary step in the spiritual unfoldment of the Christian Mystic. The cosmogony of the Eddas is similar to that of the Bible is some re- spects, and in others gives points which bear out the theory of Laplace. We quote from the poetical version of Oehlenschlaeger: [PAGE 80] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION "In the Being's earliest Dawn All was one dark abyss, Nor heaven nor earth was known. Chill noxious fogs and ice, North from murk Niflheim's hole, Piled up in mountains lay; From Muspel's radiant pole, Southwards fire held the sway. "Then after ages passed, Mid in the chaos met A warm breath, Niflheim's blast, Cold with prolific heat. Hence pregnant drops were formed, Which by the parent air From Muspel's region warmed, Produced great Aurgelmer." Thus by the action of heat and cold Aurgelmer, or as he is also called, the Giant Ymer, was first formed. This was the pregnant seed ground whence came the spiritual Hierarchies, the spirits of the earth, air, and water, and finally man. At the same time the All-Father created the Cow Audumla, from whose four teats issued four streams of milk, which nourished all be- ings. These are the four ethers, one of which now sustains mineral, two feed the plant, three the animal, and all four the human kingdom. In the Bible they are the four rivers which went forth out of Eden. [PAGE 80A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION . ILLUSTRATION: THE SPIRAL PATH OF ORDINARY HUMANITY AND THE WAY OF INITIATION [PAGE 81] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM Eventually, as postulated by science, a crust must have been formed by the continued boiling of the water, and from this drying crust a mist must have ascended as taught in the second chapter of Genesis. By degrees the mist must have cooled and condensed, shutting out the light of the sun, so that it would have been impossible for early mankind to perceive the body even had they possessed the physical vision. But under such conditions they had no more need of eyes that a mole which burrows in the ground. They were not blind, however, for we re told that "THEY SAW GOD"; and as "spiritual things (and beings) are spiritually perceived," they must have been gifted with spiritual sight. In the spiritual worlds there is a different standard of reality than here, which is the basis of myths. Under these conditions there could be no clashing of interests, and hu- manity regarded itself as the children of one great Father while they lived under the water of ancient Atlantis. Egoism did not come into the world un- til the mist had condensed and they had left the watery atmosphere of Atlantis. When their eyes had been opened so that they could perceive the physical world and the things therein, when each saw himself or herself as A Collection of Sacred Magick | The Esoteric Library | www.sacred-magick.com separate and apart from all others, the consciousness of "me and mine, thee and thine," took shape in the nascent minds, and a grasping greed replaced the fellow feeling which obtained under the waters of early Atlantis. From that time to the present stage of egoism has been considered the legitimate attitude, and even in our boasted civilization altruism remains a Utopian [PAGE 82] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION dream not to be indulged in by practical people. Had mankind been allowed to travel the path of egoism without let or hin- drance, it is difficult to see where it all would have ended. But under the immutable Law of Consequence every cause must produce an adequate effect; the principle of suffering was born from sin for the benevolent purpose of guiding us back to the path of virtue. It takes much suffering and many lives to accomplish this purpose, but finally when we have become men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, when we have cultivated that keen and ready sympathy which feels all the woe of the world, when the Christ has been born within, there comes to the Christian Mystic that ardent aspiration to seek and to save those who are lost and show them the way to everlasting light and peace. But to show the way, we must know the way; without a true understanding of the CAUSE OF SORROW we cannot teach others to obtain permanent peace. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |