Man’s Development
A Bird’s-Eye-View of Man’s Development Through Genesis, St. John’s Gospel,
and Revelation.
In our quest for a better understanding of what the above Books are about to
reveal, let us first meditate on the following quotation from the Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conceptio, chapter VI: The Scheme of Evolution: ‘In the Beginning’. “In
harmony with the Hermetic Axiom, “As above, so below” and vice versa, Solar
systems are born, die and come to birth anew in cycles of activity and rest, as
does man. There is a constant flaming out and dying down of activity in every
department of nature, corresponding to the alternations of ebb and flow, day and
night, summer and winter, life and death”.
WHAT IS MAN: In the light of the Western Wisdom, man is infinitely more than
externalised form contacted with the outer senses. Man possesses a chain of
vehicles all of which, the physical body alone excepted, are invisible to the
ordinary sight; but which are nevertheless present, interpenetrating one another,
and functioning actively in maintaining the composite form through which the
Spirit manifests on this physical plane.
Meditation upon the above will activate the “Philosopher’s Stone”.
Contemplation brings about ‘Truth’. What is truth? The truth, certainty, truest,
without untruth. What is above is like what is below. What is below is like what is
above. The miracle of unity is to be attained. Everything is formed from the
contemplation of unity, and all things come about from unity; by means of
adaptation. Its parents are the Sun and the Moon. It was borne by the wind and
nurtured by the Earth. Every wonder is from it, and its power is complete.
Through wisdom it rises slowly from the world to heaven. Then it descends to the
world, combining the power of upper and lower. Thus, you shall have the
illumination and all the world, and darkness will disappear. This is the power of-
all-strength – it overcomes that which is delicate and penetrates through solids.
This was the means of the creation of the world. And in the future wonderful
developments will be made, and this is the way (quotes, from the Teachings of
The Thrice-Great Hermes).
GENESIS is the first Book of the Olds Testament and contains an account of the
war waged in Man’s Spiritual Consciousness, and how his consciousness fell by
reason of the abuse of the Holy Creative Life Force WITHIN his body. The Bible
closes with the most sublime of all visions, The Book of Revelation, which
concludes the story of man’s redemption. The Book of Revelation records the
ultimate glory of those who have followed this way, who have found this truth
and have demonstrated this life. They are the redeemed to whom the Christ
returns, and with Him they will inhabit the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Preparation will then commence for a transfer of the Kingdom from Christ to the
Father. With this event will be inaugurated a yet higher phase of religion than
that established by the Master.
It will thus be seen that the christian bible is a textbook for all humanity of the entire
Earth period. At the same time, it is the particular Book of the Aryan peoples. It
begins with the history of the first seven sub-races of the present Aryans
race and closes with a vision of the exalted attainment of the last of the seven.
The Book of Genesis lays the foundation for the succeeding Books of the Bible. All
that follows is an unfoldment of powers described and processes outlined in the
first of the sixty-six Books contained in the Holy Scriptures. Consequently, it is
known as the Book of External Beginnings.
Genesis opens the Bible with an outline of the past, present and future
development of man and the Earth over a period of Seven Days. Revelation closes
the Bible with Seven visions depicting the fulfillment of the work initiated in the
Seven Creative Days. Genesis foreshadows Revelation; Revelation recapitulates
Genesis. These two Books are the ‘Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end’
of a cycle of evolution. “Behold, I make all things new”, says the Voice of
Revelation. Regeneration and progression are the keywords of the Bible.
The new condition spoken of in Revelation will come when the four elements,
FIRE, AIR, WATER and EARTH have been sublimated into their pure spiritual
essences. This process, and its results, are described in the following verses from
Revelation: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that
had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and
over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God."
(Revelation. 15:2)
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven; prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband." (Revelation 21:1-2)
The sea of glass mingled with fire is descriptive of the blending within man
himself of the powers of head and heart, masculine and feminine principles. This
accounts not only for the two elements of fire and water, but also for their
complementary elements of air and earth. It is the alchemical union of these four
principles that fashions the ‘New Heaven’, and the ‘New Earth’ and the
indestructible robe of the soul, the Golden Wedding Garment. Recalling that the
conjunction of the elements of Fire and Water is the basis of all creative activity,
we note how the elements that were differentiated in the beginning are reunited
in the end, the fire and sea of glass referred to in Revelation being the fire and
water of Genesis.
The work of the Seven Creative Days as outlined in Genesis embraces the entire
span of man’s pilgrimage through time and matter. It covers the journey from
consciousness, undifferentiated being to individualised, all-conscious at-one-ment
with Universal Spirit. It describes the descent of the Spirit into matter and its
resurrection therefrom. Of the Seven days, three and one-half were consumed in
the involuntary process during which the Spirit took on forms of increasing
density, arriving at length at the nadir of materiality which was reached several
million years ago during the present Earth Periods. The remaining three and one-
half days will be devoted to the evoluntary process during which the Spirit will
gradually unfold its latent powers through meeting the resistance of form, and
progressively lay aside the vehicles acquired during involution until it returns as
pure, disembodied Spirit to the bosom of the Universal Father. It then will have
passed from impotence to omnipotence.
Genesis shows the formula for the creation of all things at the very beginning:
“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters: (Genesis 1:2).
This is descriptive of the process by which the formless takes on form, the infinite
becomes finite. It is Cosmic Knowing descending into time and space. Alchemically
interpreted, the passage, deals with the interaction of the masculine and feminine
powers of God (ELOHIM).
Man’s complex structure is the product of innumerable Intelligences working over
vast stretches of time. Progression is ordered, methodical and sequential; not
haste, but perfection is the ultimate objective.
The Book of Revelation has been termed the synthesis of world religions, and
correctly so, for it contains a recapitulation of all past and present endeavours.
Yet, infinitely more is concealed within its mysterious pages. The glorious vista of
man’s future status is revealed in John’s vision. The mysteries in Revelation can
never be correctly and fully interpreted except in the light of initiation. A key is
given in the statement that John’s vision was received upon the Isle of Patmos.
The name Patmos means illumination; in ‘Isle of Patmos’ is an old pre-Christian
term used in reference to initiation. That the inner meaning of this Book was
never intended to become open reading is made evident by John’s words to the
effect of, “Let him that hath knowledge understand these things”.
The Book of Revelation is an account of the redemptive process as it works in
both man and the universe. In order that its true concept and real purpose, be
apprehended it is necessary that it be approached both as a physiological and an
initiatory study. This Book is divided into Seven distinct parts or visions as
described by John. Seven is the number around which it is built; so, the number
seven contains the mystery of Revelation, a mystery the Ancients both concealed
and revealed in the figure of a warrior standing upon a cube and bearing aloft a
triangle.
The seven Days of creation record seven major stages of Earth’s evolution. They
also outline successive steps of Initiation by which man enters into the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven. Man as Spirit was, is and will be an integral part of the
work accomplished during each of these seven Days. This work he recapitulates
during successive Initiations. These Initiations formed the glorious sevenfold
vision of John upon the Isle of Patmos.
The work of the first four Creative Days deals with the underlying formative
processes of the four primary forces, FIRE, AIR, WATER, and EARTH. Also, the first
four Initiations deal with the development of these same forces WITHIN man. The
Fifth Day and the fifth Initiation deals with the amalgamation of these primary
essences in both nature and man. This new amalgam, the quintessence of the
four, produces a fifth element. The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth of the Nine
Lesser Mysteries deal with the work of the two final Days of Creation. The same
four forces of Fire, Air, Water and Earth continue to operate, but in still higher
degrees. The work of the Seven Creative Days outlines the evolution of our planet
and its humanity, not only up to the present time but to the end of the Earth
Period and, in a longer sense, to the end of the present Scheme of Manifestation.
The most profound secret of the Book of Revelation pertains to man, the embryo
God. In John’s vision man is seen as realising and expressing his divinity and as
manifesting the purpose of the divine plan; also, as having attained to the status
of Superman through the unfoldment of the God WITHIN, thus showing forth
powers destined to be realised during the present Earth Period which will mark its
highest achievement. Man will then be the Seven in Manifestation; the cube and
the triangle merged. The warrior will have become the wise man who has found
his Star in the East and has learned to prepare the way for the Master’s Second
Coming. No longer need man watch beside the manger where beasts feed
because in His Second Coming the Christ (Universal Love) will appear as a
bridegroom arrayed for the mystic nuptials.
The most important study of man is man himself. The first coming of Christ is
symbolised by the ‘BIRTH’, typifying in man the process of purification. The
Second Coming is symbolised by the ‘TRANSFIGURATION’. This is alchemically
defined as ‘Marking the Completion of the Great White Work’ and is described by
John as, “And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse he that sat upon it
was called Faithful and True.... And the armies which were in heaven followed
him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean”.
Man is more than just a physical being and the interrelationships of all his vehicles
becomes increasingly important to the understanding of how to release his
hidden potentialities as well as to work with the energies of healing. For achieving
a total picture of the human being from the archetypes created by the soul for
building of the vehicles to full maturity, an understanding of Occult Anatomy and
the Bible will be found to be a fundamental treatise.
“Man is the Microcosm, Creation the Macrocosm – the unity. All comes from the
one. By the joining of the power of contemplation all can be attained. This
essence must be separated from the body first, then combined with the body.
This is the work. Start with yourself, end with all. Before man, beyond man,
transformation” (Author unknown).
- By Students of the London Centre.
