Qabalism
Ye are all Sons of God, are words which, falling on the dead ears of the outer world, nowadays, convey no tangible meaning towards self-knowledge. If the works of the outer world are God’s works, then indeed, is God the author of Evil and Man is not a free agent; but since man has a will, by which he can elect to do or not to do, good or bad actions, it follows that Man must be a free agent.
By the term God we understand the one male principle, who is the all good. That is, never does any ill, and therefore he is not a free agent, as man is, who can do both good and evil as he wills. Will, then, is the central principle which stirs into action the good or evil principle in man. When man elects to do good, for the Love of the good, and accomplishes that good, so much must be added to the God-work, power, or principle; he being for the time a Son of God. In this manner the Kingdom of God is eternally being enlarged as Man progresses or gravitates towards Divinity.
The Soul, Sun or Son, in man, when regenerated and made free as his Chief Intelligencer in act, word and deed, becomes his God; by, to and through whom he aspires, or prays, as his spirit ascends through, or is watered by, the rivers Gihon, Hiddekel, Euphrates and Pison, “which encompasseth the whole land of Havelah where there is Gold.” The four elements are here comprehended:—Anger or Wrath, Love, Will, Humility, and Prayer. The four Deific Streams, properly balanced, supply the “Garden of the. Soul,”—Eden, with the Water of Life, or Hoiy Spirit, which the good Gardner, uses joyfully in due course; and thus constitutes Heaven. From this we can readily comprehend that the following prayer, which I see in the R. C. “Manual of Piety,” originated with Cabalism, and from which root, all the religions in the world have had their origin.
“Before the closing of the day, |
| <Catholic prayer> |
Or, the words, “Deliver us from Evil” In this prayer will be recognized the equality of all souls regenerated and their oneness with God. (Christ himself having told his apostles, that, having faith, even greater works than his should they do.) Also the Trinity, or Ternary of Action, Passion and Projection. The Soul-Father actuating the passive, Son, Soul which projects or radiates forth in all directions, eternal emanations as a Central Sun, moving, gending, expanding and enlivening all things, as the Wholly (Holy) Spirit or “Ghost.” It is thus the Ternary of the God-head has to be comprehended.
As an illustration: When we gain or arrive at a certain knowledge, and we say we would love to do certain good or meritorious acts or things, which seem contrary to our worldly interests, and which we have been educated, psychologised and accustomed to consider as the greatest good or chief end of man on earth. Now to accomplish the object of this Love would seem to most to be the result of a single actuating principle; but, when analysed, we find it linked with, or composed of. other intermediate Elements.
God, whom, as yet, we do not know, and have not, as yet, recognized, (having previously looked upon God, or Soul, as a mean thing, and of no account, and a virtuous, truthful, benevolent and whole life as an arrant folly), and from whom we alone can get the power to accomplish what we so earnestly desire, compels us to bury or wash ourselves in Humil ity’s Noahcain Waters, before we can at all approach, in Prayer, the presence of that Father in Heaven knows best of all, what gifts his loving children require and desire in spirit, and deserving, invariably receive with Compound Interest. But this, will be seen, necessitates the expression of the will for the Divine—constituting a Divine Will in Man; then it is that Love gains a perfect expression. As it is in the Ternary God, so it is In the Ternary Man.
For God to come down to Man, as the term goes, is nothing else but the realized expression of this compound principle Love. The volatile soul, son, sun, or God is made through his, Man’s Love to become Humility itself. Especially when we find Him taking possession of a tenement of mind, only just being vacated by the Evil One; which illustrates the saying, “A contrary removed a contrary must take its place!”
Before the Will can move, or stir up Humility and Prayer in the Love of the Good, there must be, of necessity, a serious awakening of the spirit in Man as to his position spiritually, in this world and his prospects in the next; assuming him to have reasonable conceptions of the fact of a future existence, and that, “as ye sow in this world so will ye reap in the next.”
This awakening is the first step in the highest, Cabalistic preparation, and has been appropriately termed Self-examination.
In the R. C. preparation for confession, are given five conditions; for fulfillment, which I give because of their applicability, and the fourth and fifth of which the Initiate, before entering the adytum, will find imposed upon him by his spiritual guide, within himself assuming him to have got this far by his Will and his Works. So he may as well have them well conned over and pondered upon to a purpose; for without their mental fulfillment, to the letter, in their due order and course, as I have them qualified, he can never hope to reach the top round of Jacob’s ladder.
First. An examination of conscience, that we may know all our sins (of omission and commission).
Second. A heartfelt sorrow for having committed them.
Third. A firm resolution never to commit them again.
Fourth. A candid and humble confession of them |to a Priest [i.e. to God alone (all one or only one) who is] empowered to absolve us.
Fifth. A desire or intention of satisfying God and our neighbor also, if injured.
With this, I end for the present and trust I am making the matter plain enough for would be Initiates.
Footnotes
Sources
Spiritual Scientist, v. 3, No. 22, February 3, 1876, p. 260