THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MAN BY MANLY PLAMER HALL.pdf

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THE OCCULT

ANATOMY OF MAN

PART I

THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM

In Scripture we are told that God mademan in his own image. It is so stated notonly in the Christian Bible but also in theholy writings of nearly all enlightenedpeople. The Jewish patriarchs taughtthat the human body was theMicrocosm, or little cosmos, made in theimage of the macrocosm, or the great

cosmos. This analogy between the finiteand the infinite is said to be one of thekeys by the aid of which the secrets ofHoly Writ are unlocked. There is nodoubt that the Old Testament is aphysiological and anatomical textbookto those capable of reading it from ascientific viewpoint. The functions of thehuman body, the attributes of the human

mind, and the qualities of the humansoul, have been personified by the wisemen of the ancient world, and a greatdrama has been built around theirrelationships to themselves and to eachother. To the great Egyptian demigod.Hermes, the human race owes itsconcept of the law of analogy. The greatHermetic axiom was, That which is

above is like unto that which is below

and that which is below is like unto that

which is above.

The religions of the ancient world wereall based upon nature-worship. which ina degenerated form has survived to ourown day as phallicism. The worship ofthe parts and functions of the humanbody began in the later Lemurian

period. During the Atlantian epoch thisreligion gave place to sun-worship, butthe new faith incorporated into itsdoctrines many of the rituals andsymbols of the previous belief. Thebuilding of temples in the form of thehuman body is a custom common to allpeoples. The Tabernacle of the Jews,the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak,the religious structures of the Hawaiianpriests, and the Christian churches laidout in the form of the cross, areexamples of this practice. If the humanbody were laid out with the arms spreadin the shape of any of these buildings, itwould be found that the high altar would

occupy the same relative position in thebuilding that the brain occupies in thehuman body. All the priests of theancient world were anatomists. Theyrecognized that all the functions ofnature were reproduced in miniature inthe human body. They therefore usedman as the textbook, teaching theirdisciples that to understand man was tounderstand the universe. These wisemen believed that every star in theheavens, every element in the earth,and every function in nature, wasrepresented by a corresponding center.pole, or activity within the human body.

This correlation between nature withoutand the nature of man within, which wasconcealed from the multitudes, formed

the secret teachings of the ancientpriestcraft. Religion in Atlantis and Egyptwas taken much more seriously than itis today. It was the very life of thesepeoples. The priests had completecontrol over the millions of ignorant menand women who had been taught sincechildhood that these robed and beardedpatriarchs were direct messengers from



God: and it was believed that anydisobedience to the commands of thepriests would bring down upon theoffender's head the wrath of theAlmighty. The temple depended for itsmaintenance upon its secret wisdom,which gave its priests control over

certain powers of nature and madethem vastly superior in wisdom andunderstanding to the laity whom theycontrolled.

These wise ones realized that there wasa great deal more involved in religionthan the chanting of mantras and thesinging of hymns: they realized that the

path of salvation could be walkedsuccessfully only by those who hadpractical, scientific knowledge of theoccult function of their own bodies. Theanatomical symbolism which theyevolved in order to perpetuate thisunderstanding has come down tomodern Christianity, but the keys to itapparently have been lost. It is atragic situation for religionists that theyare surrounded by hundreds of symbolswhich they cannot understand: but it isstill sadder that they have evenforgotten that these symbols ever hadany meaning other than the foolishinterpretations which they themselveshave concocted.

The idea prevalent in the minds of

Christians that their faith is the one andonly truly inspired doctrine, and that itcame parentless into the world, isunreasonable in the extreme. A study ofcomparative religions proves beyonddoubt that Christianity has begged.borrowed, or stolen its philosophies andconcepts fom the religions andphilosophies of the ancient and

medieval pagan worlds. Among thereligious symbols and allegories whichbelonged to the world long ago beforethe coming of Christianity are a few towhich we would like to call yourattention. The following Christiansymbols and concepts are of pagan

origin:

The Christian cross comes from Egyptand India: the triple miter from the faithof the Mithraics: the shepherd's crookfrom the Hermetic Mysteries andGreece: the immaculate conceptionfrom India: the transfiguration fromPersia: and the trinity from the

Brahmans. The Virgin Mary, as themother of God, is found in a dozendifferent faiths. There are over twentycrucified world saviors. The churchsteeple is an adaptation of Egyptianobelisks and pyramids, while theChristian devil is the Egyptian Typhonwith certain modifications. The deeperone goes into the problem, the more herealizes that there is nothing new underthe sun. A truly sincere study of theChristian faith proves beyond all doubtthat it is the evolutionary outgrowth ofprimitive doctrines. There is an evolutionin religion as well as in physical form. Ifwe accept and incorporate into ourdoctrines the religious symbolism ofnearly forty peoples it behooves us tounderstand (at least in part) the

meaning of the myths and allegorieswhich we borrow, lest we be moreignorant than those from whom wesecured them.

This brochure is devoted to the problemof explaining the relationship existingbetween the symbolism of the ancientpriests and the occult functions of the



human body. We must first understandthat all sacred writings are supposed tobe sealed with seven seals. In otherwords, it requires seven completeinterpretations to understand fully themeaning of these ancient philosophicrevelations which we have liked to call

Hoy Wwrit. Those who understand itsliteral meaning understand the least ofits meaning.

It is a well-known fact that Shakespeare,for dramatic reasons, brought together.in his plays, characters who had actuallylived hundreds of years apart: butShakespeare was not writing history —

he was penning drama. The same istrue of the Bible. Scripture leaveshistorians hopelessly involved in self-contradictory chronological tables,where the majority of historians willremain until the judgment day. Scripturefurnishes excellent subject matter fordebates, and also ground forhairsplitting over the meaning of termsand probable locations of unknowncities. Many of the Biblical landmarksnow pointed out by guides were namedhundreds of years after the birth ofChrist by pilgrims who suspected themof occupying sites somewhere nearthose mentioned in the Bible. All thismay prove convincing to some, but tothe thinker it is conclusive evidence thathistory is the least important part of

Scripture.

When the Empress Helena, mother ofConstantine the Great, visitedJerusalem in 326 A. D., she discoveredthat not only all traces of Christianityhad already been lost but that a templededicated to the goddess Venus stoodon the hill now accepted as Mount

Calvary. Less than four hundred yearsafter the death of Christ there wasapparently no one in the Holy Land whohad ever heard of him! This does notnecessarily imply that he never lived.but it certainly does indicate that thehalo of miracles and supernatural

atmosphere with which modernChristianity envelops him are largelymythological. Like all other religions, theChristian faith accumulated a weirdcollection of fantastic legends which areits own worst enemies, for they havetaken the simple moralist of Nazareth,the man who loved his fellow creatures,and built around him a superstructure of

idolatry which loves no one and servesonly itself.

As Buddha in India merely reformed theBrahman concepts of his day, so Jesusreshaped the faith of Israel and gave tohis disciples and the world a doctrinebased upon that which had gone beforebut remodeled to meet the needs of thepeople who surrounded him and theproblems which confronted the Jewishnation. The Essenes who educatedJesus were of Egyptian, and his faithincorporated the best of that which hadgone before. The records preserved ofhim are largely allegorical, and thesimple man is plunged by them into agreat sea of supernaturalism. This wasnot entirely without purpose. However,

for as Shakespeare took license withhistory in order to present essentialtruths, so it seems the historians ofJesus used the character of the man asthe groundwork of a great drama. Hebecomes the hero of a seven-sealedstory, and those Christians who havestudied symbolism can gain from thatstory the key to the true Christian



Mysteries. They will then realize thatScripture is perpetual history: that itpertains to no nation or people but is thestory of all nations and peoples.

It is a wonderful thing, for example, tostudy the life of Christ in the light of

astronomy, for he becomes the sun,and his disciples the twelve signs of thezodiac. Among the constellations wefind the scenes of his ministry, and inthe precession of the equinoxes thestory of his birth, growth, maturity, anddeath for men. Again, the torturedchemicals in the retort further reveal tous the life of the Master, for with the

key to chemistry, the Scripturesbecome another book. In this particularwork, however, we can only concernourselves with the relationship of theseallegories to the human body.

We discover that the life of Christ, asfound in the Gospels, has beenconventionalized until it agrees perfectlywith the lives of dozens of world saviors,for all of them are also astronomical andphysiological myths. All of these mythscome to us out of the most remoteantiquity, where the primitive races usedthe human body as the symbolic unit,and the gods and demons werepersonified out of the organs andfunctions of the body. Among certainCabalistic writers the Holy Land is

mapped out on the human body, and thevarious cities are shown as centers ofconsciousness in man. There is awonderful study here for those who willinvestigate deeply and sincerely theancient Mysteries. We cannot hope tocover all the ground, but if you can gainfrom this booklet a key to the situationwe hope you will pursue the line of

thought until you have made it all-inclusive and opened at least one sealof the Book of Divine Revelation.

PART II

THE THREE WORLDS

According to the Mystery Schools thehuman body is divided into three majorparts, and in analogy with this theuniverse without is said to be composedof three worlds: heaven, earth, and hell.Heaven is the superior world and forsome unknown reason is supposed to

be above, although Ingersoll provedconclusively that owing to the rotation ofthe earth, up and down are alwayschanging places. Nearly all religionsteach that God dwells in the heavens.Their members are taught to believethat God is above them, so they raisetheir hands in prayer and lift their eyesto the heavens when they implore orpetition him. Among some nations he issupposed to dwell on the tops ofmountains, which are the highest placesof the world. Wherever he is andwhatever he is, his place of domicile isabove, overshadowing the world below.

Between heaven above and hellbeneath is the earth which theScandinavians call Midgard, or the

middle garden. It is suspended in spaceand forms the dwelling place of menand other living creatures. It isconnected to the heavens by a rain-bowbridge down which the gods descend.Its volcanic craters and fissures are saidto connect it with hell. the land ofdarkness and oblivion. Here. "twixtheaven and earth dominion wielding."



as Goethe said, exists nature. Thegreen grass, the flowing rivers, themighty ocean, exist only in the middleworld, which is a sort of neutral groundwhere the hosts of good and evil fighttheir eternal battle of Armageddon.

Below, in darkness and flames, tormentand suffering, is the world of Hel, whichwe have interpreted as hell. It is thegreat beneath: for as surely as we thinkof heaven as up, we think of hell asdown, while this middle place (earth)seems to be the dividing line betweenthem. In hell are the forces of evil, thetearing, rending, destroying powers

which are always bringing sorrow to theearth and which struggle untiringly tooverthrow the throne of the gods inheaven.

The entire system is an anatomicalmyth, for the heaven-world of theancients — the domed temple on thetop of the mountain — was the skull withits divine contents. This is the home ofthe gods in man. It is termed ‘up’because it occupies the northern end ofthe human spine. The temple of thegods who rule the earth is said to be atthe North Pole. which also, by the way.is the home of Santa Claus, becausethe North Pole represents the positiveend of the spinal column of theplanetary lord. Santa Claus, coming

down the chimney with his sprig ofevergreen (the Christmas tree) at theseason of the year when nature is dead,has a fine Masonic interpretation forthose who wish to study it.

The same is true of the manna thatdescended to feed the Children of Israelin the wilderness, for this manna is a

substance which comes down the spinalcord from the brain. The Hindussymbolized the spine as the stem of thesacred lotus: therefore the skull andcontents are symbolized by the flower.The spinal column is Jacob's ladderconnecting heaven and earth, while its

thirty-three segments are the degrees ofMasonry and the number of years of thelife of Christ Up these segments thecandidate ascends in consciousness toreach the temple of initiation located onthe top of the mountain. It is in thisdomed room with a hole in the floor(foramen magnum) that the greatmystery initiations are given. The

Himalaya mountains rise above theearth, representing the shoulders andupper half of the body. They are thehighest mountains of the world.Somewhere upon their summit standsthe temple, resting (like the heavens ofthe Greeks) upon the shoulders of Atlas.It is interesting to note that the atlas isthe upper vertebra of the human spineupon which the condyles of the skullrest. In the brain there are a number ofcaves (ventricles and folds), and in them(according to Eastern legends) live thewise men — the yogis and hermits. Thecaves of the yogis are said to be locatedat the head of the Ganges river. Everyreligion has its sacred river. To theChristians it is the Jordan: to theEgyptians it is the Nile: while to the

Hindus it is the Ganges. The sacredriver is the spinal canal, which has itssource among the peaks of themountains. The holy men in theirretreats represent the spiritual sight inthe human brain and are the sevensleepers of the Koran who must remainin the darkness of their caves until thespirit fire vitalizes them.



The brain is the upper room referred toin the Gospels where Jesus met with hisdisciples, and it is said that the disciplesthemselves represent the twelveconvolutions of the brain. It is thesetwelve convolutions which later sendtheir messages by means of the nerves

into the body below to convert thegentiles, or preach the Gospel in themiddle earth. These twelve convolutionsgather around the central opening in thebrain (the third ventricle), which is theHoly of Holies — the Mercy Seat —where between the spreading wings ofthe angels Jehovah talks with the highpriest, and where both day and night the

Shekinah's glory hovers. From this pointalso the spirit finally ascends fromGolgotha, the place in the skull. It is aclairvoyant fact that the spirit not onlyleaves but also enters the body throughthe crown of the head, probably givingrise to the story of Santa Claus and hischimney.

The Trinity in man lives in the threegreat chambers of the human body,from which they radiate their powerthroughout the three worlds. Thesecenters are the brain, the heart, and thereproductive system. These are thethree main chambers of the pyramidand also the rooms in which are giventhe Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft. andMaster Mason's degrees of Blue Lodge

Masonry. In these three chambers dwellthe Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghostwho are symbolized by the three-lettered word. A U M. The transmutation,regeneration, and unfoldment of thesethree great centers result in thesounding of the Lost Word which is thegreat secret of the Masonic Order. Fromthe spinal nerves come impulses and

life forces which make this possible.Therefore the Mason is told to considercarefully his substitute word, whichmeans " the marrow of the bone."

In the cerebellum, or posterior brain —which has charge of the motive system

of the human body and is the only braindeveloped in the animal — is to befound a little tree-like growth which haslong been symbolized by a sprig ofacacia and as such is referred to in theMasonic allegory.

The two lobes of the cerebrum werecalled by the ancients Cain and Abel,

and have much to do with the legend ofthe curse of Cain, which is literally thecurse of unbalance. For the murder ofthe spirit of equilibrium Cain is sent fortha wanderer upon the face of the earth. Ihave in my possession a veryremarkable skull which originally restedon the shoulders of a homicide. It is ofhigh organic quality, but bears the curseof Cain. This individual had a grudgewhich he nursed very carefully. Nursedgrudges sometimes become verydangerous things. This person sworethat when he met a certain man hewould cut his heart out and throw it inhis face. A number of years passed. Hishatred grew and at last, meeting hisenemy, he attacked him and fulfilled histhreat. He was hanged for the crime, but

the skull bearing the testimony to thebrain reveals a very interesting fact Theright half of the brain is under thecontrol of Mercury — the planet ofintelligence — and as a result of thecrossing of the brain nerves at the baseof the skull it rules the left side of thebody. The left half of the brain, under thecontrol of Mars — the spirit of anger and



impulse — rules the right side of thebody and likewise the strong right arm.As the result of his hatred and therulership of Mars which grew out of thathatred, the left rear side of the brain isfully twice the size of the right side. Theindividual allowed Mars to control his

nature. The impetuosity of Mars ruledhim and he paid with his life for the markof Cain. Science knows there is a verynarrow line between genius andinsanity, for any dominating vice orvirtue man must pay with unbalance.Unbalance always distorts the view-point, and distorted viewpoints areunfailingly productive of misery.

In the skull is the switchboard whichcontrols the activities of the body. Everyfunction of man below the neck is con-trolled by a center of consciousness inthe brain. Proof of this is the fact thatinjury to certain centers of the brainresults in paralysis of various parts ofthe body. Medical science now knowsthat the spinal cord is an elongation ofthe brain, and some authorities evenclaim the cord to be capable ofintelligence throughout its entire length.This cord is the flaming sword which issupposed to have stood at the gates ofthe Garden of Eden. The Garden ofEden is in the skull, within which is atree bearing twelve manner of fruit.

The brain is filled with vaulted chambersand passageways which have theircorrespondence in the spans andarches of the temples, while the thirdventricle is undoubtedly the King'sChamber of the Great Pyramid. Thespinal cord is the serpent of theancients. In Central and South Americathe Savior God is called Quetzalcoatl.

His name means a feathered serpentand this has always been his symbol.This is the brazen serpent raised byMoses in the wilderness. The ninerattles on the tail of the serpent arecalled the number of man and theyrepresent the sacral and coccygeal

bones within whose centers the secretof human evolution is contained.

Every organ of the physical body isreproduced in the brain, where it can betraced by the law of analogy. There aretwo embryonic human forms, one maleand the other female, twisted together inthe brain. These are the Yin and the

Yang of China, the black and whitedragons biting each other. One of thesefigures has as its organ of expressionthe pineal gland. and the other thepituitary body. These two ductlessglands are well worth consideration forthey are very important factors in theunfolding of human consciousness. It isknown that these glands are larger andmore active in higher grades ofmentality than in those of lower quality,and in certain congenital idiots they arevery small. These two little glands arecalled the head and the tail of thedragon of wisdom. They are the copperand zinc poles of an electric circuitwhich has the entire body as a battery.

The pituitary body (which rests in the

sella turcica of the sphenoid bonedirectly behind and just a little below thebridge of the nose and connected to thethird ventricle by a tiny tube calledinfundibulum) is the feminine pole ornegative center, which has charge of theexpressions of physical energy. Itsactivity also regulates to a large degreethe size and weight of the body. It is



also a thermometer revealing disorder inany other of the chain of ductlessglands. Endocrinology (the study of theductless glands and their secretions) isstill in its experimental stage, but someday it will be revealed as the mostimportant of all medical sciences. The

pituitary body is known under thefollowing symbols by the ancient world:The alchemical retort, the mouth of thedragon, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Grail,the lunar crescent, the laver ofpurification, one of the cherubim of theArch, the Isis of Egypt, the Radha ofIndia, and the fish's mouth. It may wellbe called the hope of glory of the

physical man. At the opposite end of thethird ventricle and a little higher is thepineal gland which looks not unlike apine cone (from which it secured itsname).

Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge, keeperof the Egyptian antiquities in the BritishMuseum, mentions in one of his worksthe Egyptian custom of tying pine coneson the tops of their heads. He statesthat in the papyrus rolls these cones arefastened to the tops of the heads of thedead when taken into the presence ofOsiris, Lord of the Underworld.Undoubtedly this symbol referred to thepineal gland. It was also the custom ofcertain African tribes to fasten pieces offat to the tops of their heads and allow

them to melt in the sun and run downover them as part of their religiousobservances. It is interesting that theAmerican Indian should wear hisfeather, which was originally symbolicalof spiritual perception -- in the sameplace where the Christian monk shaveshis head. The Hindus teach that thepineal gland is the third eye, called the

Eye of Dangma. It is called by theBuddhists the all-seeing eye and isspoken of in Christianity as the eyesingle.

We are told that ages ago the pinealgland was an organ of sense orientation

by which man cognized the spiritualworld. but that with the coming of thematerial senses and the two objectiveeyes it ceased to be used. and duringthe time of the Lemurian race retreatedto its present position in the brain. It issaid that children, recapitulating theirprevious periods of evolution, have alimited use of the third eye up to their

seventh year. at which time the skullbones grow together. This accounts forthe semi-clairvoyant condition ofchildren, who are far more sensitivethan adults along psychic lines. Thepineal gland is supposed to secrete anoil, which is called resin, the life of thepine tree. This word is said to beinvolved in the origin of the Rosicrucianwho were working with the secretions ofthe pineal gland and seeking to openthe eye single: for it is said in Scripture:"The light of the body is the eye: iftherefore thine eye be single thy wholebody shall be filled with light."

The pineal gland is the tail of the dragonand has a tiny finger-like protuberanceat one end. This gland is called Joseph

for it is the father of the God-man. Thefinger-like protuberance is called thestaff of God sometimes the holy spear.Its shape is like the evaporating vesselof the alchemists. It is a spiritual organwhich is later destined to be what itonce was, namely, a connecting linkbetween the human and the divine. Thevibrating finger on the end of this gland



is the rod of Jesse and the sever of thehigh priest. Certain exercises as givenin the Western Mystery Schools causethis little finger to vibrate, resulting in abuzzing, droning sound in the brain.This is sometimes very distressing,especially when the individual who

experiences the phenomenon, in all toomany cases, knows nothing about theexperience through which lie is passing.

In the middle of the brain andsurrounded by the convolutions is thethird ventricle, a vaulted chamber ofinitiation, Around it sit three kings, threegreat centers of life and power — the

pituitary body, the pineal gland, and theoptic thalamus. In this chamber also is asmall gritty seed which is undoubtedlyconnected with the king's coffer in theGreat Pyramid. The third ventricle issupposed to be the seat of the soul, andthe aura radiating from the heads ofsaints and sages is said to represent thegolden glow pouring from this thirdventricle.

Between the eyes and just above theroot of the nose is a spreading in thefrontal bone of the skull which is calledthe frontal sinus. The slight bulgecaused by the spreading of this bone isknown to phrenology as the seat ofindividuality. It is here that the jewels areplaced on the foreheads of the

Buddhas, and it is also from this pointthat the serpent rose front the crown ofthe ancient Egyptians. Several of theMystery Schools teach that this is theseat of Jehovah in the human body.While his function is through thegenerative system, his center ofconsciousness as a part of the spirit ofman is supposed to be located in a sea

of blue ether called veil of Isis, in thecenter of the frontal sinus. Whenclairvoyantly studying the body of manthat little point always shows up as ablack dot and cannot be analyzed. ThePalatine hill of the ancients, upon whichwere built the temples of Jupiter and

Juno, also has its place in the humanbody. The palate bone is a sort of hill-shaped structure, and right above it arethe orbital cavities containing the twoeyes, which are the Jupiter and Juno ofthe ancient world.

The cross, of course, represents thehuman body. The upper limb of it is the

head of man rising above the horizontalline of his outstretched arms. As alreadystated, the great churches andcathedrals of the world have been builtin the form of a cross, and contain(where the head should be) the altarupon which are burning lighted candles.These candles are symbolic of spiritualsense centers in the brain, while thecustom of placing a rose window overthe altar suggests the soft place in thetop of the skull. The skull — the upperroom — is the sanctum sanctorum ofthe Masonic Temple, and to it only thepure can aspire.

The winged bone, which medicalscience knows as the sphenoid, is theEgyptian scarab carrying in its claws the

pituitary body and also bearing aloft thegleaming spark of immortality located inthe frontal sinus.

We are told in ancient mythologies thatthe gods came down from heaven andwalked with men, instructing then in thearts and sciences. In a similar way thegodlike powers in man descend from



the heaven world of his brain to carry onthe work of constructing andreconstructing natural substances. Weare told that in the ultimate of evolutionman's body will slowly be dissolved backagain into the brain ( which was itsorigin) until nothing remains but seven

globular centers radiating seven perfectsense perceptions, which are the spiritsbefore the throne and the saviors whichhe is bringing into the world to redeem itthrough the seven periods of his growth.

Man is an inverted plant, gaining hisnourishment from the sun as the plantdoes from the earth. As the life of the

plant ascends its stem to nourish itsleaves and branches, so the life of man(rooted in the brain) descends toproduce the same result This lifedescending is symbolized as the worldsaviors who come down into the worldto die for men. Later these lives arereturned again to the brain, where theyglorify man before all the worlds ofcreation. So much for the story of thebrain. Now let us consider the next ofman's marvelous parts, namely, thespinal column.

PART III

THE SPINAL COLUMN

Connecting the two worlds (heavenabove and the sphere of darknessbelow) is the spinal column, a chain ofthirty-three segments protecting withinthem the spinal cord. This ladder ofbones plays a very important part in thereligious symbolism of the ancients. It isoften referred to as a winding road orstairway. Sometimes it is called the

serpent at other times, the wand orscepter.

The Hindus teach that there are threedistinct canals or tubes in the spinalsystem. They call them Ida, Pingala andSushumna These tubes connect the

lower generative centers of the bodywith the brain. The Greeks symbolizedthem by the caduceus, or winged staffof Hermes. This consisted of a long rod(the central Sushumna) which ended ina knob or ball (the pons of the medullaoblongata). On each side of this knobare wings arched over -- used torepresent the two lobes of the

cerebrum. Up this staff and twistedaround it wind two serpents, one blackand the other white. These representthe Ida and Pingala.

The ancient Hindus have a legendconcerning the goddess Kundalini. inwhich it is said that she descended bymeans of a ladder or cord from heavento a little island floating in the great sea.Connecting this with embryology, it isevident that the ladder or cordrepresents the umbilical cord, while thelittle island is the solar plexus. When theladder is cut away from heaven thegoddess flees in terror to a cave (sacralplexus) where she hides far from thesight of men. Like Amaterasu. TheJapanese Goddess of the Shining Face,

she must be lured from her cave, forwhile she is there and refuses to comeforth the world is in darkness. Kundaliniis a Sanskrit word meaning ‘aserpentine or twisting gas or force.' Thisforce. so the Eastern sages claim, canbe drawn up through the central spinalcanal (the Sushumna). When thisessence strikes the brain it opens the





This myth of the life force that camedown and took upon itself worlds isfound among all the civilized nations ofthe earth. This is the Hiram Abiff whobuilt the Masonic Temple (the bodies)and was then slain by the three vehicleswhich he formed. This is likewise the

Christ slain for the sins of the world.

Because of the fact that this spinal fireis a twisting serpentine force, the snakehas been used in all parts of the worldto represent the world saviors. Theuracus worn by the Egyptian priestsupon their foreheads was symbolic ofKundalini the sacred cobra who, when

she was raised in the wilderness, savedall who gazed upon her (Moses and thebrazen serpent).

As the brain is the center of the divineworld, so the solar plexus is the centerof the human world, for, representingsemi-consciousness, it links theunconsciousness below with theconsciousness above. Man is not onlycapable of thinking with his brain: he iscapable of a certain phase of thoughtthrough the nerve centers of the solarplexus.

It will probably be wise at this point todescribe the difference between amedium and a clairvoyant. To the

average person there is no difference,but to the mystic these two phases ofspiritual sight are separated by theentire span of human evolution.

A clairvoyant is one who has raised thespinal serpent into the brain and by hisgrowth earned the right of perceiving theinvisible worlds with the aid of the third

eye, or pineal gland. This organ ofconsciousness, which millions of yearsago connected man with the invisibleworlds, closed during the Lemurianperiod when the objective senses beganto develop. The occultist, however, bythe process of development hinted at

before, may reopen this eye and bymeans of it explore the invisible worlds.Clairvoyants are not born, they aremade. Mediums are not made: they areborn. The clairvoyant can become suchonly after years, sometimes lives, of selfpreparation; on the other hand, themedium, by sitting in a darkened room,or by other similar practices, may

secure results in a few days.

The medium uses the solar plexus as amirror, and upon its sensitive nerves arereflected pictures recorded in theinvisible ethers. Through the spleen(which is the gateway to the ethericbody) the medium permits decarnateintelligences to come into his spiritualconstitution, the result being voices andother spirit manifestations. Automaticwriting is penned by permitting theetheric arm of an outside intelligence tocontrol temporarily the physical arm ofthe medium. This is not possible untilthe medium removes his own ethericdouble from the arm, for two thingscannot occupy the same place at thesame time. The process of periodically

separating the life forces from thephysical arm is very dangerous, oftenresulting in paralysis. Mediumship isunnatural to man, while clairvoyance isthe natural result of growth and theunfolding of the spiritual nature. Thereare a hundred mediums to oneclairvoyant, for the clairvoyant canbecome such only through self-mastery



and the exertion of tremendous power;while the weaker, the more sickly, andthe more nervous an individual is, thebetter medium he makes. Theclairvoyant is unfolding his mind byfilling it with useful knowledge. while thefirst instruction given the would-be

medium is. "Make your mind a blank."

The reason mediumship through thesolar plexus is a retrogression may besummed up as follows: The group spiritswho control the destinies of the animalkingdoms govern then-charges throughpictures thrown against the solar plexus.for the animal has no self-conscious

mind. As a result instead of thinking withits own brain it thinks with the brain ofthe group spirit to whom it is attached byinvisible magnetic cords. These cordsconvey their impressions andphotograph them upon the sympatheticnervous system. Having no will of itsown, the animal is incapable ofcombating these urges andconsequently obeys them implicitly. Mangoverns himself through thecerebrospinal nervous system becausehe has developed individuality and thesympathetic system no longer rules him.Opening himself to impulses through thesolar plexus area, the medium isthwarting his own growth by preventingthe cerebrospinal nervous system fromcontrolling his destiny.

Man has always liked to lean onexternal things. He hates to face eachproblem and solve it with the brain Godgave him. He consequently leans on theinvisible worlds, asking them to help himto accomplish the labors which heshould do by his own efforts.

Thousands of people must carry thekarmic responsibilities of the mediumfor many follow this calling becausehundreds of people want to talk todeceased relatives or get inside tips onthe stock exchange. Those who by theirpatronage encourage things of which

they do not themselves approve arepersonally responsible for the injurywhich their selfishness has thuspermitted other persons to inflict uponthemselves.

The difference, therefore, betweenmediumship and clairvoyance is abouthalf the length of the spinal column. It is

the difference between negative andpositive; it is the difference between themidnight of the séance room and thenoonday of the temple.

All of the organs within the body of manhave their religious significance. Theheart with its chambers is itself a templestanding upon the mountain of thediaphragm. The spleen with its littleumbrella-shaped body collects the sun'srays and has charge of the etheric body.It is this etheric body coiled within thespleen that injects the white bloodcorpuscles into the circulatory system.

We know that the human body has beenthe inspiration for nearly all mechanicalcontrivances. Hinges are copied from

the human body; likewise the ball andsocket joint. We are told that the firstplumbing was reproduced from thearterial and venous circulatory systems.Hundreds of machines and implementshave been inspired by the subtleworkings of our own vehicles, for thehuman body is the most marvelously



constructed machine that the humanmind can study.

The close relationship between thegenerative system below and the brainabove (for the brain is a positivegenerating system) is of course due to

the spine connecting them. At a certaintime a number of little doors which nowseparate the brain from the generativesystem are opened, and the Sushumnabecomes an open tunnel so that everyimpulse is carried immediately to bothends of the body. It is for this reasonthat the candidate assumes the vows ofcelibacy, for the close connection

existing in the advanced disciplebetween the brain and the reproductivesystem necessitates an absoluteconservation of all life energies. Thetonsils are directly connected with thegenerative system; in fact they are partof its positive pole in the brain. Thecustoms of vaccinating healthy childrenand cutting out normal tonsils ongeneral principles, should bereconsidered. Most tonsils are infectedas the result of the child eating toomany sweets during the first years oflife. The moral is, don't cut out thetonsils, cut out the sweets. Manyparents are responsible for the illness oftheir children. Through either ignoranceor indulgence they, allow the infantileconsciousness. as yet uncontrolled by

its higher vehicles, to destroy itselfbefore life fairly begins. When childrenare sick during the early years of life thephysician will often find the cause of theailment in the parent; and the father ormother — not the child — should bedosed with pills. If the stomach is kept inproper condition the tonsils will give verylittle trouble. The absolute economy

exhibited by nature in the building of allits structures should be sufficient proofthat the Lord was not wasting his timewhen he made tonsils and appendixes.He apparently had reason for makingthem, but these poor, unoffendingorgans have become a gold mine to

medical scientists who remove them atthe slightest provocation. We are toldthat the vertical position assumed by thehuman body, which forces the contentsof the intestinal tract to travel part of thetime uphill, is the reason for theappendix, which is missing in creaturesof horizontal carriage. Every organ notonly has its visible purpose,. but also an

invisible spiritual purpose. and theindividual is to be admired whomanages to go through life preservingintact as many as possible of his originaanatomical parts and members.

While on the subject of the debt ofscience to the human body we mightadd that the decimal system is the resultof primitive man's counting on hisfingers. whereby ten became the unit ofenumeration. The ancient cubit also wasthe distance between the elbow and theend of the second finger, orapproximately eighteen inches. So itgoes back through the study of thingsuntil we find that nearly everything withwhich man has surrounded himself is anadaptation from the body with which

God surrounded his spirit

Man is gradually gaining control not onlyover the organs of his body but alsoover their functions. Science states thatcertain organs function automatically ormechanically, but occultism realizes thatthere is nothing mechanical about thefunctions of the human body. Let us



take as an example a workman throwinga piece of iron among the wheels andlevers of a smoothly working machine.There is a grinding crash and themachine stops. If on the other hand youfiguratively throw a monkey-wrench intothe human body, it will immediately

begin the process of throwing it back atyou. It will surround the foreign elementwith a coating and try to absorb it. If thisis impossible, it will try to eject itthrough. some channel appointed forthat purpose. If this means fails it will inmany cases accustom itself to thepresence of the obstacle and keep righton working anyway. This shows

unmistakably that the organic parts ofman possess some inherent form ofintelligence; therefore they are notmachines, for no mechanical device iscapable of intelligence.

Paracelsus, the great Swiss physician,who after many years in the Far Eastreturned to Switzerland to teachmedicine, first gave to the Europeanworld its concept of the nature spirits.He taught that the functions of naturewere under the control of little creatureswho, were invisible to the normalsenses, but who. working through thekingdoms of life — minerals, plants.Animals, and parts of the human body

— kept all of these evolving in anintelligent way. Under the control of the

great celestial hierarchy of Scorpiowhich has charge of all body-building innature, these elements are the invisibleintelligences governing the human bodyand its functions.

As the result of man's ever evolvingconsciousness, he is acquiring morecomplete control over the functions of

his various organs. There are two kindsof muscles— voluntary and involuntary

— the difference being that thevoluntary muscles, which are controlledby the conscious mind of the individual,have fibers running two ways andcrossing each other. while those which

are involuntary are without cross-fibers,The heart used to be considered aninvoluntary muscle, but it is nowbeginning to show cross-fibers, thusforeshadowing the day when man willconsciously and intelligently regulate thebeating of his own heart. The same willbe true with respect to all other organsthat survive the periodic changes taking

!place in the constitution of man. TheEastern holy man can successfully livewithout his heart beating; he can stop itor start it at will. By lifting the tongue sothat it closes the air passages into thelungs he can remain in suspendedanimation for months. Many Easternchelas do this while being given spiritualinitiations out of the physical body.There are cases on record where theseholy men have been buried in theground. Weeks later when the body wasdug up it was found to be dried likeleather. Water was poured onto it. andafter a certain lapse of time the manwho had not taken a breath in weeksgot up and walked off. This is the resultof extraordinary control which the mindis capable of gaining over the functions

of the body.

Occultism teaches that there is an entireuniverse within the human body; that ithas its worlds, its planes, and its godsand goddesses. Millions of minute cellsare its inhabitants. These tiny creaturesare grouped together into kingdoms,nations, and races, and become one



thing composed of many parts. TheSupreme Ruler and God of this greatworld is the consciousness in manwhich says "I am." This consciousnesspicks up its universe and moves toanother town. Everytime it walks up anddown the street it takes a hundred

million solar systems with it, butbecause they are so infinitesimal, mancannot realize that they are actuallyworlds.

In like manner, we are individual cells inthe body of an infinite creation which ishurling itself through infinity, at unknownspeed. Suns, moons, and stars are

merely bones in a great skeletoncomposed of all the substances of theuniverse. Our own little lives are merelypart of that infinite life throbbing andcoursing through the arteries and veinsof space. But all this is so vast as to bebeyond the comprehension of this little"I am" in us. Therefore we may say thatboth extremes are equallyincomprehensible. We live in a middleworld between infinite greatness on theone hand and infinite smallness on theother. As we grow, our world grows also,resulting in a corresponding increase inthe scope of our understanding of allthese wonders.

PART IV

THE INFERNAL WORLDS

At the base of the spine is located thethrone of the lord of form, commonlycalled Jehovah and Shiva. The !linga ishis symbol. He rides the great bull ofearthiness. His daughter is death anddestruction, yet he is not a thing of evil,

he builds the bodies which give us thepower to function in the lower worlds.He crystallizes them around lines offorce. Geometry is the skeleton, and allthe bodies which he builds aregeometric problems, geometric anglescrystallized into rocks and stones.

Gradually the crystallization whichbrings bodies into the world causesthem to become too dense andunyielding to respond to the subtleimpressions from the spiritualconsciousness. Slowly they turn tostone, and death is the result of thesame cause that brought the body intothe world. The early races of the earth

worshipped the procreative attributes oflife. They felt that the highest expressionof life was the power of giving stillanother life to the world. Therefore theprinciple of life-giving was personifiedinto a deity who gave life to all things, orrather brought into manifestation thelatent life which cannot grow or unfold inthe physical world without the vehicle ofdense substance.

To the occultist, birth is death and deathis an awakening. The mystics of ancientdays taught that to be born into thephysical world was to enter a tomb forno other plane of nature is sounresponsive, so limited as the earth-world. Time and distance were prisonbars chaining the soul to narrow

environments. Heat and cold tormentedthe soul, age deprived it of its faculties,and man's life was but a preparation fordeath. As life is lived under the shadowof death, they taught that it is amockery, a hollow thing, gilded to thecareless eye but tarnished and worm-eaten upon close examination. Thephysical body became the sepulcher.



their tomb, the place of burial in whichspirit lay awaiting the day of liberationwhen as a virgin spark it should ariseagain from the broken urn of clay.Therefore in all the religions of the worldwe have the lower world as a black pitinto which Yama. the Lord of the

Underworld, hurls the souls of thedamned to suffer in a hell of their owncreation, for it is true that each racemakes from its own nature the demonswhich torment it. Here Typhon, theEgyptian god of destruction, with thebody of a hog and the head of acrocodile, awaits with yawning jaws todevour those who have failed to make

proper use of life's opportunities. Amongmost peoples the demon is symbolizedas part animal, part human. He dwells inthe animal nature of man, and thosewho are controlled by their appetites,their likes and dislikes, their hates andfears, need no further damnation; theyhave built their own hell and areexperiencing its torments.

The generative system is graduallybeing absorbed into the brain, and theman of the next great world period willgenerate its progenies, or at least formvehicles for them, through the larynx.which is the organ of the spoken word.We are told that a small etheric bodywhich will later be the organ of positivereproduction is gradually being built

near the larynx. Ultimately humanbeings will become capable of raisingthe spinal fire through the Sushumnacanal. This is an evolutionary process,however, covering a long period of time.

The physical body is supposed to beunder the control of the moon, whichrules the liquids of the earth. The moon

was the last incarnation of the earth-spirit and the human race passedthrough its state of animalconsciousness in the etheric body of themoon lord. The lunar spirits are called'the ancestors' and are known toChristians as angels. These beings

have control of the generative powers ofanimal and man. The life coming intoincarnation often chooses its futurevehicle many years before it appears inthe world. It is said that the etheric germis placed in the body of the parent aslong as twenty years before the childcomes into the world. This is the resultof its search for an environment

especially suited to its spiritual andmaterial needs.

Certain occult schools have taught thatthe spiritual consciousness of man wasnot fixed in any point of the body butwas in whatever part of man histhoughts dwelt. We know that there arethree worlds where man may dwell. Thefirst is his mental world, where he maylive surrounded by his thoughts, hisdreams, and his aspirations. Thesecond is his human world, where hemay be one of the great middle classwhich thinks a little, eats a little, sleepsa little, and worries unceasingly. Thethird possible home is his animal world,where he may dwell in the midst ofpassions. lusts, and hates which burn

his soul and consume his body. Thehistory of primitive races shows thatthey have risen through all of thesestages until at last a few have becometruly thinking creatures.

The blood of every man is individual.When crystallizing, it forms intogeometric patterns which differ with



every person. so that by means of bloodanalysis a far surer system could beevolved for crime detection than eitherthe Bertillon or fingerprint systems. Thestory of man's soul is written in hisblood. The position he occupies inevolution, his hopes and his fears, are

all imprinted on the etheric forms whichflow through his blood stream. Until redblood came into the body, the spirit ofman could not enter, but hovered overthe body. attached to it by an electricthread. By studying crickets,grasshoppers, and similar smallcreatures clairvoyantly, it is possible toobserve impulses from the little globes

hovering over their bodies which resultin the primitive motion and sense whichthey demonstrate. Therefore it is saidthat the actual line between thevegetable and the animal is drawn withthe coming of red blood; consequently.certain small fishes, mollusks, etc.. aretechnically vegetables, although notrecognized as such by science. Theliver is the key to the red blood. Lucifer'sred garments derive their color from theblood, while the word Lucifer means "acarrier of light" (or heat) and is a namefor the blood. For this reason he is thespirit of temptation. In the ChristianMysteries the piercing of the liver ofChrist by the spear of the centurion isespecially mystical, while Prometheus.the friend of man, hanging upon the

peak of Mount Caucasus with a vulturegnawing at his liver, is the same mythexpressed in the symbolism of ancientGreece.

It is further interesting to note therelation between the words the and liver,for to have a liver is to live. Along thesame line we may note that the word

live spelt backwards becomes evil andthe word lived becomes devil. Thispeculiar relationship is found not only inEnglish. but to a slightly less noticeabledegree in several languages. When wetake up this, however, we becomeinvolved in the study of Cabalism, which

is the analysis of the symbolic meaningof words.

Red is the color of blood and the key ofthe liver and its effect upon animals isvery noticeable. It irritates, excites, andin some cases actually causes animalsto go mad. Therefore it is often used inmaking the capes worn during bullfights.

These the fighters flaunt in the bull'sface, and trouble usually follows. Theuse of red lights is not uncommon inblack magic. Evil magicians use them tomaterialize specters, while medicalscience has already discovered that redlight is a strong irritant when applied tothe human body.

During anger and hate the astral auraof man becomes streaked with redflames very closely resemblingthunderbolts. Very often the base of thespine glows with a murky red light,symbolic of hate, passion, or anger. Thisred glow, burning eternally at the baseof the spine has given rise to the storyof hell-fire and damnation, but thepreacher has failed to remind the laity

that they carry their own hell around withthem whereever they go.

The red power is said to be broken fromthe white light of the sun through thebody of Samuel, the spirit of Mars. Thisis the cause of the red glow in theheavens. Mars is the god of war,wrangling, hate, and dissension. He was



the patron deity of the Roman Empire,whose uniformed soldiers wore red as asymbol of his sway. Following the leadof this patron saint they conquered theworld and then fell upon the swords withwhich they had murdered others.

While red is the color of the body yellowis regarded as the color of the soul. Forthis reason the Buddhas and worldsaviors are usually symbolized as beingsurrounded with a golden nimbus orhalo. This light is the yellow robe; alsothe light bearing witness to thedarkness, of which St John wrote. Thislight, flooding through the third ventricle

represents the Shekinah of the Jewswhich hovers over the Mercy Seat as apact between God and man. Yellow is avitalizer, a life-giver. Therefore thegolden haired sun and its personification

— the Christ — are both givers of life.Devitalization may be successfullytreated by exposing the spleen tosunlight.

Blue, the highest of the three primary.colors, is the color given to the Father. Itis a relaxing, restful color, especiallyvaluable in the treatment of insanity andobsession. It is difficult for blackmagicians to function successfully in ablue light. Its affinity to the mind is veryevident, and it gathers as an electric seain the pineal gland as an extract from all

the spiritual qualities of human nature.The blue heart to every flame was saidto symbolize the invisible Father behindthe glowing sun. In the words of Christ."He that hath seen me hath seen theFather. I am in the Father and theFather in me.'

The use of colors in symbolism is veryinteresting. The green dragon, whomthe heroes of mythology usually slay,represents the earth. The white armor isa purified physical body. The blackmagician is darkness and uncertainty.All colors have symbolic value, and

great lessons can be learned from thestudy of the application of these valuesto occultism.

While discussing the subject of occultanatomy and physiology we must stopfor a moment to give credit to thealchemists and Rosicrucians who,during the Middle Ages concealed the

study of occult anatomy by dressing upthe organs of the human body in theform of retorts and alchemical vessels.One of their great exponents said insubstance; "Our chemistry is not withchemicals as you know them, but withcertain secret vessels" (internal organs)'and spiritual chemicals which areinvisible to the ordinary individual. Wedo not believe in torturing chemicals."(combining them to form gases. Vapors,or seething masses) 'for chemicals, likemen can suffer when brought intounkind relationship with each other."

The alchemical furnace was the humanbody. The fire that burned in it was atthe base of the spine. The chimney wasthe spinal cord up which the vapors

passed to be gathered again anddistilled in the brain. This was indeed asecret system brought to Europe fromthe Far East. where for centuries it hasbeen considered the highest form ofreligion. We may call these occult truthsthe principles of operative spirituality incontradistinction to modern religionwhich is made entirely of speculative



theories. People do not dream thatreligion is physiological, nor would theybelieve that their salvation dependsentirely on scientific uses of the lifeelements and forces within their ownbodies; but in spite of all that may besaid to the contrary, such is the case.

During the next few years much will bedone to enlighten man concerning thesecret workings of his own parts andmembers.

It is very interesting to note thesimilitude existing between theincarnations or appearances in theworld of the great avatar, Vishnu, and

the changes which take place in thehuman embryo previous to birth. Thisbrings us to our next subject; OccultEmbryology.

PART V

OCCULT EMBRYOLOGY

The great Lord Vishnu has alreadycome nine times into the world to savehis people. His tenth birth is yet tocome. His nine appearances closelyparallel the nine principal changestaking place in the human embryoprevious to birth. Vishnu was first bornout of the mouth of a fish. He then roseout of the body of a turtle. Still later he

appeared as a boar. then a lion,afterwards a monkey. And after anumber of still other changes heappeared as a man. I noted some timeago that a scientist had arranged a tableshowing the relationship of the humanbrain to various animals during theprenatal period. He followed exactly thelist of incarnations of Vishnu, while

totally unaware that he was linkingtogether Oriental occultism andOccidental embryology.

The cosmogony myths of nearly everynation are based upon embryology. Theformation of the cosmos is said to have

taken place in the same way that man isformed, only on a larger scale. Forexample, in The Vishnu Puranas we aretold that creation took place within thewomb of Mem. Space was surroundedby great mountains and cliffs (thechorion). The universe was created outof water and floated in a great sea (theamniotic fluid). Down a ladder (the

umbilical cord) came the gods. Fourrivers flowed into the new land, as toldin Genesis. These are the blood vesselsof the umbilical cord. So the story goes.and a marvelous correlation exists.Some day perhaps a new science maybe based upon the law of analogy. Thiswill prove to be a far greater contributionto scientific data than all the scientificspeculations of all ages.

It is reasonably certain that the story ofAdam and Eve and the Garden of Edenis based upon embryology, and that thewomb is the original Garden of Eden. Insymbolism it is represented by a dot in acircle. This dot is the primitive germ, andso on as far as you wish to carry theanalogy. The Egg of Brahma is the

story of the cosmic embryo. andembryology is the basic study ofcreation.

In embryology we also have a veryinteresting recapitulation of the passageof the human race through the variousspecies of nature. Here we find atcertain periods the Hyperborean



creatures. At another time we see theprimitive Lemurian man; later theAtlantean; and finally the Aryan. Wemost certainly recommend to all occultstudents that they make a very carefulstudy of this subject. Science knowsthat all life upon this planet came out of

the water. The human embryo isenveloped in water through all theprimitive stages of its growth. And in itwe find the story of the evolution of allthings. Sex did not appear upon theplanet until the third race. It does notappear in the embryo until the thirdmonth.

The recapitulation of the human embryothrough the lower kingdoms of nature isone of the strongest proofs of evolution,inasmuch as it proves conclusively thatman could not have been madeoriginally in his adult condition.Consequently he passed through acosmic embryology; in fact. he is still inthe embryo and will not actually be borninto the human race until he is trulyhuman. which will not be for manythousands of years. He is just in thestate of becoming man.

The nine months of the prenatal epochhave been employed in symbolism forages. Nine is called the number of man.because of the nine months that thebody is in a state of preparation. The

perfect number is supposed to betwelve, so at the present time man isborn three months before he is finished.The gradual unfoldment of the humanrace will result in more beingaccomplished during the prenatalepoch. until finally birth will be theultimate, and all experience and growthwill take place in the embryonic state.

Man is not born all at once. We may saythat he is born by degrees. Theconsciousness works outside of thebody, laboring with the plasticsubstances up to the time of thequickening, when it takes hold of the

vehicle from within and begins to mold acertain amount of individuality out of thematerials which surround it. At the timeof birth, the physical body is born, and aprocess of crystallization sets in whichnever ceases for a moment until death.Man begins to die the moment he isborn, and the span of life is the length oftime which this requires. At the seventh

year the vital body comes into action,and the greatest periods of growthcommence. It is then that parents beginto experience difficulties. It is the time ofletting clothes down and out. Childrenshoot up like weeds for they are literallyrecapitulating their plant existences.whereas before that time they wererecapitulating their mi octal state Atabout the seventh year the child beginsto manufacture vital essences within hisown body. Up to that time he lives uponlife forces secreted in the ductlessglands of the throat before birth. In otherwords he maintains himself upon lifewhich he has stored away from theparent. At about seven he starts work forhimself. He is on the go every minute,and if youth could only bottle up its

energy and preserve it for old age, whata wonderful world we would live in.

Between twelve and fourteen in thetemperate zones the liver starts activity;the emotional body is born. It is duringthese adolescent years that youth facesits greatest problem Emotionalism runsriot. The consciousness is recapitulating



in animal existences. It may truly besaid that these are the days of puppylove. These are years often filled withgreat mistakes. More lives are blightedbetween the fourteenth and twenty-firstyears than at any other period of life. Ithas been observed that the children of

strongly emotional races are oftenbrilliant and at the head of their classesuntil adolescence. When, however, theemotional nature becomes active atabout the 14th year, these childrenfrequently lose interest and ability informal education. Any school teacherwho has taught foreign children willvouch for this condition among certain

nationalities. The moron is an exampleof the loss of mental function with thebirth of the astral body, and there aremany of these examples. During theseyears of emotional riot, parents mustrule their children with firmness andkindness, or those same children willturn some day upon their parents andblame them for ruined lives.

Between eighteen and twenty-one.according to climatic conditions, themental body takes hold, and we say thatthe individual has reached the age ofmajority. He is then permitted to vote'.his father presents him with a goldwatch and sends him out into the worldto seek his fortune. Not one person in amillion realizes why twenty-one is set as

the age of majority. But every occultistknows the reason. The spiritualconsciousness, the true "I am." does nottake hold of in new body until thetwenty-first year. Up to that time it isruled entirely by the lower sensecenters. Life thus progresses in cyclesof seven years.

As an example of this, we know that thetwenty-eighth year is the period ofsecond physical birth; the thirty-fifth yearthe period of second vital birth, or, as itis called, second growth; the forty-second year the period of secondemotional birth. During these years

people otherwise perfectly normal veryoften grow sentimental. The forty-ninthyear marks the dawn of a new period ofmental activity, and the following sevenyears are the golden years of thought.They are the periods of philosophicreason, the crowning years of life. Andso on, cycle after cycle. If the individualwaits long enough he may pass through

his second, third, and fourth childhoods.

Few people realize that they arecomposed of mineral, plant, and animalelements. The bones are literally.Minerals, hair is a plant nourished bywaves of vital ether pouring out throughthe skin. while within every, individualare thousands of little wiggling.creeping. crawling things that makeeach of us a zoo all by ourselves. Theancient Scandinavians, realizing this,wrote many legends about the littlecreatures that live in man. A famousstatue of Father Nile shows him coveredover with tiny. human figuresrepresenting the attributes and functionsof man. Man is a great study. but wemake very little use of our textbook. The

Scriptures of all nations are filled withanatomical references to cities andplaces that have no existence outside ofman himself. The twelve gates of theHoly City are the twelve apertures in thehuman body. Like the twelve Masters ofWisdom and the twelve great schools ofphilosophy. these apertures are dividedinto two divisions of seven and five.



There are seven visible openings andfive concealed openings in the humanbody.

One of the Greek philosophers told hisdisciples to remember distinctly thatthere were six openings leading into the

human brain but only one leading out ofthe human head, and that one led fromthe stomach. Therefore they were tolisten twice (once with each ear) looktwice (once with each eye) sense twice(once with each nostril) but to speakonly once. and that what they spokewould come from the stomach and thebrain. The advice still holds good.

The Hebrews used the human head asa favorite symbol to express the divineattributes, calling it the Great Face. Thetwo eyes were correlated to the Father.for they were organs of consciousness;the two nostrils to the Son, becausethey were organs of sense and alsovehicles for Prana, the life force in theether. The mouth was used to symbolizethe Holy Spirit, the one who sent forththe spoken word and formed the world.The seven vowels to which the mouthgave birth were the seven spirits beforethe throne; also the vials and trumpetsof Revelation. They went forth as thearmy of their voice to create in theseven worlds, and all nature resultedfrom their creative power. Few realize

the magnificent symbolism concealedwithin the human head and how it hasbeen used in Scriptural writings.

To this article is appended a treatisewhich was published separately someyears ago but has been out of print forsome time. The treatise has a direct

bearing upon the subject of anatomicalsymbolism, showing how the principlesoutlined in the preceding pages workout when applied to different worldproblems of today.

OCCULT MASONRY

To the student of mystic Masonry oneproblem eternally presents itself. Heknows it under many names. It is told tohim in many symbols, but briefly it maybe defined as the purification andliberation of spirit and body from thebane of crystallization and materiality. In

other words he is seeking to rescue thelife buried amidst the ruins of his fallentemple and restore it to its rightful placeas the keynote of his spiritual arch.

When studying ancient Masonry we aredealing with one of the first revelationsof what we know as the WisdomTeachings. Like other great mysteries itconsists of solutions to problems ofeveryday existence. It may seem of littleuse to us now to study these ancientabstract symbols, but in time everystudent will realize that the things henow casts aside as worthless are the

jewels which one day he will need. Likethe centaur in the zodiac, man iseternally striving to lift his humanconsciousness from the body of the

animal; and in the three-runged ladderof Masonry we find the three great stepswhich are necessary for this liberation.These three steps are the three granddivisions of human consciousness. Wecan briefly define them as materiality,intellectuality, and spirituality. They alsorepresent action on the lowest rung,emotion on the central, and mentality on



the highest. All human beings are liftingthemselves up to God by climbing thesethree steps that lead to liberation.

When we have united these threemanifestations into a harmoniousbalance. we then have the flaming

triangle. The ancients declared God asthe dot in the circle, to be unknowable.but said that he manifested through histhree witnesses—the Father, the Son,and the Holy Spirit. Now the same istrue with man. The part of God which iswithin each of us can manifest onlythrough his three witnesses; the Fathermanifests through our thoughts, the Son

through our emotions, and the HolySpirit through our actions. When webalance our thoughts, our desires, andour actions, we have an equilateraltriangle.

When man's purified life energiesradiate through these three witnesseswe have a halo of flame added to thetriangle, in the center of which is God—the unknowable and unthinkable one;the ycd or flaming letter of the Hebrewalphabet; the abyss which no one canunderstand but from which all thingscome. The life of this unknown poursoutward through the triangle, which inthe higher degrees is surrounded by ahalo of flame. The halo is the soul builtfrom the transmuted thought, action,

and desire — the eternal triangle ofGod.

Among Masonic symbols is the beehive,called the symbol of industry, for itclearly demonstrates how man shouldcooperate with his fellow men for themutual development of all. It alsocontains a much deeper message, for

each living soul is a bee that travelsthrough life and gathers the pollen ofwisdom from the environments andexperiences of life. As the bee gathersthe honey from the heart of the flower,so each of us should extract the spirituanectar from each happening, each joy,

and each sorrow, and incorporate it intothe great beehive of experience — thesoul-body of man. In the same way it issaid that the spiritual energies in maneternally take the life forces he istransmuting and carry them up into thebeehive in the brain, where is kept thehoney or oil necessary for thesustenance of life.

The ancient gods are said to have livedon nectar and not to have eaten ordrunk like other men. It is quite true thathoney gained or extracted from copingwith the problems of everyday life is thefood of the higher man. While we eat atthe well laden board it would be well forus to consider whether or not thespiritual man is also nourished anddeveloped by the things which we havetransmuted in our own lives.

An ancient philosopher once said thatthe bee extracts honey from the pollenof the flower, while from the samesource the spider extracts poison. Theproblem which then confronts us is; arewe bees or spiders ? Do we transform

the experiences of life into honey. or dowe change them into poison Do they liftus. or do we eternally rebel against thepricks? Many people become soured byexperience, but the wise one takes thehoney and builds it into the beehive ofhis own spiritual nature.



It is well for us also to consider the "gripof the lion's paw." one of the world'soldest symbols of initiation, the ancienttimes the neophyte on his way throughthe mysteries of Egypt's temples wasfinally buried in a great stone coffer forthe dead, later to be raised to life again

by the master initiate in his robes of blueand gold. When the candidate was thusraised, the grand master wore upon hisarm and hand the paw of a lion as aglove, and it was said of the newlyraised disciple that he had been broughtto life by the "grip of the lion's paw." TheHebrew letter jod (which is used in thecenter of the triangle and is sometimes

a symbol of spirit because of its flame-like appearance) means, according tothe cabalist, a hand that is stretchedforth. We understand this to symbolizethe sun spirit in man which is said to beenthroned in the sign of Leo, the lion ofJudah. And as the fruits of the fields andthe seedlings are grown and developedthrough the sun's rays, so it is said thatthe crystallization of man is broken upand dispelled by the light of the spiritualsun which raises the dead with its powerand liberates the latencies of life. Thespirit in man, with its eyes that see inthe dark, is ever striving to lift their lowerside of his own nature to union withitself. When the lower man is thusraised from materiality by the higherideals which unfold within his own

being, it is said that the spirit of light andtruth has raised the candidate forinitiation by the "grip of the lion's paw.'

Consider the symbolism of the twoJohns as we find them in the Masonicrituals. John means "ram," and the ramis symbolical of the animal passions andpropensities of man. In John the Baptist,

dressed in the skins of animals, thesepassions are untrammeled, while inJohn the Evangelist they have beentransmuted until the vehicles andpowers which they represent havebecome the beloved disciples of theChrist-life in man.

We often hear the expression. "ridingthe goat" or 'climbing the greased pole."This is of symbolic import to those whohave eyes to see, for when manmasters his lower animal nature he cansay honestly that he is "riding the goat"and if he cannot ride the goat, hecannot enter the temple of initiation. The

greased pole which he must climb refersundoubtedly to the spinal column; and itis only when the consciousness of manclimbs up this column into the brain thathe can take the degrees ofFreemasonry.

The subject of the Lost Word should beconsidered as an individual problem.Man himself— that is, the true principle

— may be called the Lost Word but it isbetter to say that it is a certainsomething radiating from man whichconstitutes a password recognized byall members of the Craft. When man, asthe architect of his temple, abuses anddestroys the life energies within himself,then the builder, after having beenmurdered by the three lower bodies,

carries with him to the tomb where he islaid the Word which is the proof of hisposition.

Abuse of mental, physical, or spiritualpowers results in the murder of energy;and when this energy is lost, man loseswith it the sacred word. Our lives — ourthoughts, desires, and actions — are



the living threefold password by which amaster builder knows his kin; and whenthe student seeks admittance to theinner room he must present at thetemple gates the credentials of apurified body and a balanced mind. Noprice can buy this sacred word; no

degree can bestow it. But when withinourselves the dead builder is raised tolife once more. he himself speaks theword, and upon the philosopher's stonebuilt within himself is engraved the livingname of the Divine.

It is only when this builder is raised thatthe symbols of mortality can be changed

into those of immortality. Our bodies arethe urn containing the ashes of Hiram,our lives are the broken pillars.crystallization is the coffin, anddisintegration is the open grave. Butabove all is the sprig of evergreenpromising life to those who raise theserpent power, and showing that underthe debris of the temple is buried thebody of the builder, who is " raised'when we liberate the divine life which islocked within our material natures.

There are many of these wonderfulMasonic symbols handed down to usfrom the forgotten past; symbols whosemeanings long lost have been buriedbeneath the mantle of materiality. Thetrue Mason— the child of light— still

cries out for liberation, and the emptythrone of Egypt still waits for the king ofthe sun who was killed. All the world stillwaits for Balder the Beautiful to come tolife again; for the crucified Christ to rollaway the stone and rise from the tombof matter bringing his own tomb withhim.

When a man has so lived that he canunderstand this wonderful problem, thegreat eye or center of consciousness isenabled to see out through the cleanglass of a purified body. The mysteriesof true Masonry, long concealed fromthe profane. are then understood; and

the new master, donning his robes ofblue and gold, follows in the footsteps ofthe immortals who are climbing, step bystep, the ladder leading upward to theseven stars. Far above, the Ark — thesource of life — floats over the waters ofoblivion on high, and sends itsmessages down to the lower manthrough the cable tow. When this point

is reached, the door in the " C " isclosed forever, for the dot has returnedto the circle; the threefold spirit and thethreefold body are linked together in theeternal seal of Solomon. Then does thecornerstone which the builder rejectedbecome again the head of the corner,and man— the capstone long in fromthe universal temple— is again in place.

The daily occurrences of life aresharpening our senses and developingour faculties. These are the tools of theCraft— the mallet. the chisel, and therule— and with these self-developedtools we are slowly truing the roughashlar or cube into a finished block forthe universal temple. It is only then thatwe become initiates of the flame, for

only then does light take the place ofdarkness. As we wander through thevaulted chambers of our own being welearn the meaning of the vaultedchambers of the temple, and as theinitiatory ritual unfolds before our eyeswe should recognize in it therecapitulation of our own being, theunfoldment of our own consciousness,



and the story of our own lives. With thisthought in mind, we are able tounderstand not only why the Atlanteansof old worshipped the rising sun, butalso how the modern Mason symbolizesthis sun as Hiram the highborn who.when he rises to the top of the temple.

places a golden stone upon it and raisesto life all things in man.

FINI

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