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.