PART I
THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM
In Scripture we are told that God made man in his own
image. It is so stated not only in the Christian Bible but also in
the holy writings of nearly all enlightened people. The Jewish
patriarchs taught that the human body was the microcosm, or
little cosmos, made in the image of the macrocosm, or the
great cosmos. This analogy between the finite and the infinite
is said to be one of the keys by the aid of which the secrets of
Holy Writ are unlocked. There is no doubt that the Old Testament
is a physiological and anatomical textbook to those capable
of reading it from a scientific viewpoint. The functions
of the human body, the attributes of the human mind, and the
qualities of the human soul, have been personified by the wise
men of the ancient world, and a great drama has been built
around their relationships to themselves and to each other. To
the great Egyptian demigod, Hermes, the human race owes its
concept of the law of analogy. The great Hermetic 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 were all based upon
nature-worship, which in a degenerated form has survived to
our own clay as phallic-ism. The worship of the parts and
functions of the human body began in the later Lemurian
period. During the Atlantean epoch this religion gave place
to sun-worship, but the new faith incorporated into it doctrines
many of the rituals and symbols of the previous belief.
The building of temples in the form of the human body is a
custom common to all peoples. The Tabernacle of the Jews,
the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak, the religious structures
of the Hawaiian priests, and the Christian churches laid out
in the form of the cross, are examples of this practice. If the
human body were laid out with the arms spread in the shape
of any of these buildings, it would be found that the high altar
would occupy the same relative position in the building that
the brain occupies in the human body.
All the priests of the ancient world were anatomists. They
recognized that all the functions of nature were reproduced in
miniature in the human body. They therefore used man as
the textbook, teaching their disciples that to understand man
was to understand the universe. These wise men believed that
every star in the heavens, every element in the earth, and every
function in nature, was represented by a corresponding center,
pole, or activity within the human body.
This correlation between nature without and the nature of
man within, which was concealed from the multitudes, formed
the secret teachings of the ancient priestcraft. Religion in
Atlantis and Egypt was taken much more seriously than it is
today. It was the very life of these peoples. The priests had
complete control over the millions of ignorant men and women
who had been taught since childhood that these robed and
bearded patriarchs were direct messengers from God; and it
was believed that any disobedience to the commands of the
priests would bring down upon the offenders head the wrath
of the Almighty. The temple depended for its maintenance
upon its secret wisdom, which gave its priests control over cer-
tain powers of nature and made them vastly superior in wis-
dom and understanding to the laity whom they controlled.
These wise ones realized that there was a great deal more
involved in religion than the chanting of mantrams and the
singing of hymns; they realized that the path of salvation
could be walked successfully only by those who had practical,
scientific knowledge of the occult function of their own bodies.
The anatomical symbolism which they evolved in order to per-
petuate this understanding has come down to modern Chris-
tianity, but the keys to it apparently have been lost. It is a
tragic situation for religionists that they are surrounded by
hundreds of symbols which they cannot understand; but it is
still sadder that they have even forgotten that these symbols
ever had any meaning other than the foolish interpretations
which they themselves have concocted.
The idea prevalent in the minds of Christians that their
faith is the one and only truly inspired doctrine, and that it
came parentless into the world, is unreasonable in the extreme.
A study of comparative religions proves beyond doubt that
Christianity has begged, borrowed, or stolen its philosophies
and concepts from the religions and philosophies of the ancient
and medieval pagan worlds. Among the religious symbols and
allegories which belonged to the world long ago before the
coming of Christianity are a few to which we would like to
call your attention. The following Christian symbols and con-
cepts are of pagan origin:
The Christian cross comes from Egypt and India; the triple
miter from the faith of the Mithraics; the shepherd's crook
from the Hermetic Mysteries and Greece; the immaculate con-
ception from India; the transfiguration from Persia; and the
trinity from the Brahmans. The Virgin Mary, as the mother
of God, is found in a dozen different faiths. There are over
twenty crucified world saviors. The church steeple is an adap-
tation of Egyptian obelisks and pyramids, while the Christian
devil is the Egyptian Typhon with certain modifications. The
deeper one goes into the problem, the more he realizes that
there is nothing new under the sun. A truly sincere study of
the Christian faith proves beyond all doubt that it is the evolu-
tionary outgrowth of primitive doctrines. There is an evolu-
tion in religion as well as in physical form. If we accept and
incorporate into our doctrines the religious symbolism of nearly
forty peoples it behooves us to understand (at least in part)
the meaning of the myths and allegories which we borrow, lest
we be more ignorant than those from whom we secured them.
This brochure is devoted to the problem of explaining the
relationship existing between the symbolism of the ancient
priests and the occult functions of the human body. We must
first understand that all sacred writings are supposed to be
sealed with seven seals. In other words, it requires seven com-
plete interpretations to understand fully the meaning of these
ancient philosophic revelations which we have liked to call
Holy Writ. Scripture is not intended to be historical. Those
who understand its literal meaning understand (he least of its
meaning.
It is a well-known fact that Shakespeare, for dramatic rea-
sons, brought together, in his plays, characters who had ac-
tually lived hundreds of years apart; but Shakespeare was not
writing history— he was penning drama. The same is true of
the Bible. Scripture leaves historians hopelessly involved in
self-contradictory chronological tables, where the majority of
historians will remain until the judgment day. Scripture fur-
nishes excellent subject matter for debates, and also ground for
hairsplitting over the meaning of terms and probable locations
of unknown cities. Many of the Biblical landmarks now
pointed out by guides were named hundreds of years after the
birth of Christ by pilgrims who suspected them of occupying
sites somewhere near those mentioned in the Bible. All this
may prove convincing to some, but to the thinker it is conclu-
sive evidence that history is the least important part of Scripture.
When the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the
Great, visited Jerusalem in 326 A. D., she discovered that not
only all traces of Christianity had already been lost, but that
a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus stood on the hill now
accepted as Mount Calvary. Less than four hundred years after
the death of Christ there was apparently no one in the Holy
Land who had ever heard of him! This does not necessarily
imply that he never lived, but it certainly does indicate that
the halo of miracles and supernatural atmosphere with which
modern Christianity envelops him are largely mythological,
lake all other religions, the Christian faith accumulated a
weird collection of fantastic legends which are its own worst
enemies, for they have taken 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 serves
only itself.
As Buddha in India merely reformed the Brahman concepts
of his day, so Jesus reshaped the faith of Israel and gave to his
disciples and the world a doctrine based upon that which had
gone before but remodeled to meet the needs of the people who
surrounded him and the problems which confronted the Jewish
nation. The Essenes who educated Jesus were of Egyptian or
Iliinlu origin, and his faith incorporated the best of that which
had gone before. The records preserved of him are largely
allegorical, and the simple man is plunged by them into a great
sea of supernaturalism. This was not entirely without purpose,
however, for as Shakespeare took license with history in order
to present essential truths, so it seems the historians of Jesus
used the character of the man as the groundwork of a great
drama. He becomes the hero of a seven-sealed story, and those
Christians who have studied symbolism can gain from that
story the key to the true Christian Mysteries. They will then
realize that Scripture is perpetual history; that it pertains to
no nation or people but is the story of all nations and peoples.
It is a wonderful thing, for example, to study the life of
Christ in the light of astronomy, for he becomes the sun, and
his disciples the twelve signs of the zodiac. Among the con-
stellations we find the scenes of his ministry, and in the pre-
cession of the equinoxes the story of his birth, growth, matur-
ity, and death for men. Again, the tortured chemicals in the
retort further reveal to us the life of the Master, for with the
key to chemistry the Scriptures become another book. In this
particular work, however, we can only concern ourselves with
the relationship of these allegories to the human body.
We discover that the life of Christ, as found in the Gospels,
has been conventionalized until it agrees perfectly with the
lives of dozens of world saviors, for all of them are also astro-
nomical and physiological myths. All of these myths come
to us out of the most remote antiquity, where the primitive
races used the human body as the symbolic unit, and the gods
and demons were personified out of the organs and functions
of the body. Among certain Cabalistic writers the Holy Land
is mapped out on the human body, and the various cities are
shown as centers of consciousness in man. There is a wonder-
ful study here for those who will investigate deeply and sin-
cerely the ancient Mysteries. We cannot hope to cover all the
ground, but if you can gain from this booklet a key to the situa-
tion we hope you will pursue the line of thought until you
have made it all-inclusive and opened at least one seal of the
Book of Divine Revelation.
PART II
THE THREE WORLDS
According to the Mystery Schools the human body is di-
vided into three major parts, and in analogy with this the
universe without is said to be composed of three worlds: heaven,
earth, and hell. Heaven is the superior world and for some
unknown reason is supposed to be above, although Ingersoll
proved conclusively that owing to the rotation of the earth, up
and down are always changing places. Nearly all religions
teach that God dwells in the heavens. Their members are
taught to believe that God is above them, so they raise their
hands in prayer and lift their eyes to the heavens when they
implore or petition him. Among some nations he is supposed
to dwell on the tops of mountains, which are the highest places
of the world. Wherever he is and whatever he is, his place
of domicile is above, overshadowing the world below.
Between heaven above and hell beneath is the earth which
the Scandinavians call Midgard, or the middle garden. It is
suspended in space and forms the dwelling place of men and
other living creatures. It is connected to the heavens by a rain-
bow bridge down which the gods descend. Its volcanic craters
and fissures are said to connect it with hell, the land of dark-
ness and oblivion. Here, "twixt heaven and earth dominion
wielding," as Goethe said, exists nature. The green grass, the
flowing rivers, the mighty ocean, exist only in the middle
world, which is a sort of neutral ground where the hosts of
good and evil fight their eternal battle of Armageddon.
Below, in darkness and flames, torment and suffering, is the
world of Hel, which we have interpreted as hell. It is the
great beneath: for as surely as we think of heaven as up, we
think of hell as down, while this middle place (earth) seems
lo be (he dividing line between them. In hell are the forces of
evil, the tearing, rending, destroying powers which are always
bringing sorrow to the earth and which struggle untiringly to
overthrow the throne of the gods in heaven.
The entire system is an anatomical myth, for the heaven-
world of the ancients— the domed temple on the top of the
mountain— was the skull with its divine contents. This is the
home of the gods in man. It is termed up because it occupies
the northern end of the human spine. The temple of the gods
who rule the earth is said to be at the North Pole, which also,
by the way, is the home of Santa Claus, because the North Pole
represents the positive end of the spinal column of the planetary
lord. Santa Claus, coming down the chimney with his sprig
of evergreen (the Christmas tree) at the season of the year
when nature is dead, has a fine Masonic interpretation for those
who wish to study it.
The same is true of the manna that descended to feed the
Children of Israel in the wilderness, for this manna is a sub-
stance which comes down the spinal cord from the brain. The
Hindus symbolized the spine as the stem of the sacred lotus;
therefore the skull and contents are symbolized by the flower.
The spinal column is Jacob's ladder connecting heaven and
earth, while its thirty-three segments are the degrees of Mason-
ry and the number of years of the life of Christ. Up these seg-
ments the candidate ascends in consciousness to reach the tem-
ple of initiation located on the top of the mountain. It is in
this domed room with a hole in the floor (foramen magnum)
that the great mystery initiations are given. The Himalaya
mountains rise above the earth, representing the shoulders and
upper half of the body. They are the highest mountains of the
world. Somewhere upon their summit stands the temple, rest-
ing (like the heavens of the Greeks) upon the shoulders of
Atlas. It is interesting to note that the atlas is the upper ver-
tebra of the human spine upon which the condyles of the skull
rest. In the brain there are a number of caves (ventricles and
folds), and in them (according to Eastern legends) live the
wise men— the yogis and hermits. The caves of the yogis are
said to be located at the head of the Ganges river. Every re-
ligion has its sacred river. To the Christians it is the Jordan:
to the Egyptians it is the Nile; while to the Hindus it is the
Ganges. The sacred river is the spinal canal, which has its
source among the peaks of the mountains. The holy men in
their retreats represent the spiritual sight in the human brain
and are the seven sleepers of the Koran who must remain in
the darkness of their caves until the spirit (ire vitalizes them.
The brain is the upper room referred to in the Gospels
where Jesus met with his disciples, and it is said that the dis-
ciples themselves represent the twelve convolutions of the brain.
It is these twelve convolutions which later send their messages
by means of the nerves into the body below to convert the
gentiles, or preach the Gospel in the middle earth. These
twelve convolutions gather around the central opening in the
brain (the third ventricle), which is the Holy of Holies— the
Mercy Seat— where between the spreading wings of the angels
Jehovah talks with the high priest, and where both day and
night the Shekinah's glory hovers. From this point also the
spirit finally ascends from Golgotha, the place in the skull. It
is a clairvoyant fact that the spirit not only leaves but also en-
ters the body through the crown of the head, probably giving
rise to the story of Santa Glaus and his chimney.
The Trinity in man lives in the three great chambers of the
human body, from which they radiate their power throughout
the three worlds. These centers are the brain, the heart, and
the reproductive system. These are the three main chambers
of the pyramid and also the rooms in which arc given the
Entered Appentrice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason's degrees
of Blue Lodge Masonry. In these three chambers dwell the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are symbolized by
the three-lettered word, AUM. The transmutation, regenera-
tion, and unfoldment of these three great centers result in the
sounding of the Lost Wbrd, which is the great secret of the
Masonic Order. From the spinal nerves come impulses and
life forces which make this possible. Therefore the Mason is
told to consider carefully his substitute word, which means
"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 brain
developed in the animal— is to be found a little tree like growth
which has long been symbolized by a sprig of acacia and as
such is referred to in the Masonic allegory.
The two lobes of the cerebrum were called by the ancients
Gain and Abel, and have much to do with the legend of the
curse of Cain, which is literally the curse of unbalance. For
I he murder of the spirit of equilibrium Cain is sent forth a
wanderer upon the face of the earth. I have in my possession
a very remarkable skull which originally rested on the shoulders
of a homicide. It is of high organic quality, but bears the
curse of Cain. This individual had a grudge which he nursed
very carefully. Nursed grudges sometimes become very dan-
gerous things. This person swore that when he met a certain
man he would cut his heart out and throw it in his face. A
number of years passed, his hatred grew, and at last meeting
his enemy he attacked him and fulfilled his threat. He was
hanged for the crime, but the skull bearing the testimony to
the brain reveals a very interesting fact. The right half of the
brain is under the control of Mercury— the planet of intelli-
gence— and as a result of the crossing of the brain nerves at the
base of the skull it rules the left side of the body. The left
half of the brain, under the control of Mars— the spirit of anger
and impulse— rules the right side of the body and likewise
the strong right arm. As the result of his hatred and the
rulership of Mars which grew out of that hatred, the left rear
side of the brain is fully twice the size of the right side. The
individual allowed Mars to control his nature. The impetuos-
ity of Mars ruled him, and he paid with his life for the mark
of Cain. Science knows there is a very narrow line between
genius and insanity; for any dominating vice or virtue man
must pay with unbalance. Unbalance always distorts the view-
point, and distorted viewpoints are unfailingly productive of
misery.
In the skull is the switchboard which controls the activities
of the body. Every function of man below the neck is con-
trolled by a center of consciousness in the brain. Proof of this
is the fact that injury to certain centers of the brain results in
paralysis of various parts of the body. Medical science now
knows that the spinal cord is an elongation of the brain, and
some authorities even claim the cord to be capable of intelli-
gence throughout its entire length. This cord is the flaming
sword which is supposed to have stood at the gates of the
Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is in the skull, within
which is a tree bearing twelve manner of fruit.
The brain is filled with vaulted chambers and passageways
which have their correspondence in the spans and arches of the
temples, while the third ventricle is undoubtedly the King's
Chamber of the Great Pyramid. The spinal cord is the serpent
of the ancients. In Central and South America the Savior
God is called Quetzalcoatl. His name means a leathered serpent,
and this has always been his symbol. This is the brazen
serpent raised by Moses in the wilderness. The nine rattles on
the tail of the serpent are called the number of man, and they
represent the sacral and coccygeal bones within whose centers
the secret of human evolution is contained.
Every organ of the physical body is reproduced in the brain,
where it can be traced by the law of analogy. There are two
embryonic human forms, one male and the other female, twist-
ed together in the brain. These are the Yin and the Yang
of China, the black and white dragons biting each other.
One of these figures has as its organ of expression the pineal
gland, and the other the pituitary body. These two ductless
glands are well worth consideration, for they are very impor-
tant factors in the unfolding of human consciousness. It is
known that these glands are larger and more active in higher
grades of mentality than in those of lower quality, and in cer-
tain congenital idiots they are very small. These two little
glands are called the head and the tail of the dragon of wisdom.
They are the copper and zinc poles of an electric circuit which
has the entire body as a battery.
The pituitary body (which rests in the sella turcica of the
sphenoid bone directly behind and just a little below the
bridge of the nose and connected to the third ventricle by a
tiny tube called infundibulum) is the feminine pole, or negative
center, which has charge of the expressions of physical energy A
Its activity also regulates to a large degree the size and weight
of the body. It is also a thermometer revealing disorder in
any other of the chain of ductless glands. Endocrinology (the
study of the ductless glands and their secretions) is still in its
experimental stage, but some day it will be revealed as the most
important of all medical sciences. The pituitary body is known
under the following symbols by the ancient world: The al-
chemical retort, the mouth of the dragon, the Virgin Mary,
the Holy Grail, the lunar crescent, the laver of purification, one
of the cherubim of the Arch, the Isis of Egypt, the Radha of
India, and the fish's mouth. It may well be called the hope of
glory of the physical man. At the opposite end of the third
ventricle and a little higher is the pineal gland, which looks
not unlike a pine cone (from which it secured its name).
Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge, keeper of the Egyptian an-
tiquities in the British Museum, mentions in one of his works
the Egyptian custom of tying pine cones on the tops of their
heads. He states that in the papyrus rolls these cones are fas-
tened to the tops of the heads of the dead when taken into the
presence of Osiris, Lord of the Underworld. Undoubtedly this
symbol referred to the pineal gland. It was also the custom of
certain African tribes to fasten pieces of fat to the tops of their
heads, and allow them to melt in the sun and run down over
them, as part of their religious observances. It is interesting
that the American Indian should wear his feather— which was
originally symbolical of spiritual perception— in the same place
where the Christian monk shaves his head. The Hindus teach
that the pineal gland is the third eye, called the Eye of Dangma.
It is called by the Buddhists the all-seeing eye, and is spoken
of in Christianity as the eye single.
We are told that ages ago the pineal gland was an organ of
sense orientation by which man cognized the spiritual world,
but that with the coming of the material senses and the two
objective eyes it ceased to be used, and during the time of the
Lemurian race retreated to its present position in the brain.
It is said that children, recapitulating their previous periods of
evolution, have a limited use of the third eye up to their seventh
year, at which time the skull bones grow together. This ac-
counts for the semi-clairvoyant condition of children, who are
far more sensitive than adults along psychic lines. The pineal
gland is supposed to secrete an oil, which is called resin, the
life of the pine tree. This word is said to be involved in
the origin of the Rosicrucians, who were working with the
secretions of the pineal gland and seeking to open the eye sin-
gle; for it is said in Scripture: "The light of the body is the
eye: if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be
filled with light."
The pineal gland is the tail of the dragon and has a tiny
finger-like protuberance at one end. This gland is called Joseph
for it is the father of the God- man. The finger-like protuber-
ance is called the staff of God, sometimes the holy spear. Its
shape is like the evaporating vessel of the alchemists. It is a
spiritual organ which is later destined to be what it once was,
namely, a connecting link between the human and the divine.
The vibrating finger on the end of this gland is the rod of Jesse
and the scepter of the high priest C ertain exercises as given in
the hasten) and the Western Mystery Schools cause this little
finger to vibrate, resulting in a buzzing, droning sound in the
brain. This is sometimes very distressing, especially when the
individual who experiences the phenomenon, in all too many
cases, knows nothing about the experience through which he
is passing.
In the middle of the brain and surrounded by the convolu-
tions is the third ventricle, a vaulted chamber of initiation.
Around it sit three kings, three great centers of life and power
— the pituitary body, the pineal gland, and the optic thalamus.
In this chamber also is a small gritty seed which is undoubtedly
connected with the king's coffer in the Great Pyramid. The
third ventricle is supposed to be the seat of the soul, and the
aura radiating from the heads of saints and sages is said to
represent the golden glow pouring from this third ventricle.
Between the eyes and just above the root of the nose is a
spreading in the frontal bone of the skull which is called the
frontal sinus. The slight bulge caused by the spreading of
this bone is known to phrenology as the seat of individuality.
It is here that the jewels are placed on the foreheads of the
Buddhas, and it is also from this point that the serpent rose
from the crown of the ancient Egyptians. Several of the Mys-
tery Schools teach that this is the seat of Jehovah in the human
body. While his function is through the generative system, his
center of consciousness as a part of the spirit of man is supposed
to be located in a sea of blue ether called the veil of his, in the
center of the frontal sinus. When clairvoyantly studying the
body of man that little point always shows up as a black dot
and cannot be analyzed.
The Palatine hill of the ancients, upon which were built
the temples of Jupiter and Juno, also lias its place in the human
body. The palate bone is a sort of hill-shaped structure, and
right above it are the orbital cavities containing the two eyes,
which are the Jupiter and Juno of the ancient world.
The cross, of course, represents the human body. The upper
limb of it is the head of man rising above the horizontal line of
his outstreched arms. As already stated, the great churches
and cathedrals of the world have been built in the form of a
(iciss, and contain (where the head should be) the altar upon
which arc burning lighted candles. These candles are symbolic
ol spiritual sense centers in the brain, while the custom of
placing a rose window over the altar suggests the soft place
in the top of the skull. The skull— the upper room— is the
sanctum sanctorum of the Masonic Temple, and to it only the
pure can aspire.
The winged bone, which medical science knows as the
sphenoid, is the Egyptian scarab carrying in its claws the pitui-
tary body and also bearing aloft the gleaming spark of im-
mortality located in the frontal sinus.
We are told in ancient mythologies that the gods came
down from heaven and walked with men, instructing them
in the arts and sciences. In a similar way the godlike powers
in man descend from the heaven world of his brain to carry
on the work of constructing and reconstructing natural sub-
stances. We are told that in the ultimate of evolution man's
body will slowly be dissolved back again into the brain (which
was its origin) until nothing remains but seven globular centers
radiating seven perfect sense perceptions, which are the spirits
before the throne and the saviors which he is bringing into the
world to redeem it through the seven periods of his growth.
Man is an inverted plant, gaining his nourishment from the
sun as the plant does from the earth. As the life of the plant
ascends its stem to nourish its leaves and branches, so the life
of man (rooted in the brain) descends to produce the same
result. This life descending is symbolized as the world saviors
who come down into the world to die for men. Later these
lives are returned again to the brain, where they glorify man
before all the worlds of creation. So much for the story of the
brain. Now let us consider the next of man's marvelous parts,
namely, the spinal column.
PART III
THE SPINAL COLUMN
Connecting the two worlds (heaven above and the sphere
of darkness below) is the spinal column, a chain of thirty-three
segments protecting within them the spinal cord. This ladder
of bones plays a very important part in the religious symbolism
of the ancients. It is often referred to as a winding road or
stairway. Sometimes it is called the serpent; at other times,
the wand or scepter,
The Hindus teach that there are three distinct canals or
tubes in the spinal system. They call them Ida, Pingala, and
Sushumna. These tubes connect the lower generative centers
of the body with the brain. The Greeks symbolized them by
the caduceus, or winged staff of Hermes. This consisted of a
long rod (the central Sushumna), which ended in a knob or
ball (the pons of the medulla oblongata). On each side of this
knob are wings arched over, used to represent the two lobes of
the cerebrum. Up this staff and twisted around it wind two
serpents, one black and the other white. These represent the
Ida and Pingala.
The ancient Hindus have a legend concerning the goddess
Kundalini, in which it is said that she descended by means of
a ladder or cord from heaven to a little island floating in the
great sea. Connecting this with embryology, it is evident that
the ladder or cord represents the umbilical cord, while the little
island is the solar plexus. When the ladder is cut away from
heaven the goddess flees in terror to a cave (sacral plexus),
where she hides far from the sight of men. Like Amaterasu,
1 he Japanese Goddess of the Shining Lace, she must be lured
from her cave, for while she is there and refuses to come forth
the world is in darkness. Kundalini is a Sanskrit word mean-
ing "a serpentine or twisting gas or force." This force, so the
Eastern sages claim, can be drawn up through the central spinal
canal (the Sushumna). When this essence strikes the brain it
(pens the center of spiritual consciousness and inner perception,
bringing with it spiritual illumination. The system of culture
whereby this is made possible is the most secret teaching of
the Eastern saints, for they realize that this spiral, twisting force
is not only illuminating but, like the serpent which is its sym-
bol, also a deadly poison.
Smatterings of Eastern occultism are coming all the time
into the Western world, but we are sorry to say they are bring-
ing with them endless suffering and sorrow, for these great
truths in the hands of individuals incapable of rightly under-
standing or applying them destroy intelligence and reason.
Along the spine are a number of nerve ganglia and plexuses.
All of these have their place in religious symbolism. Lor ex-
ample, we are told that the early Jews called the sacral plexus
and the sacrococcygeal ganglion the cities of Sodom and Go-
morrah There is a small plexus in the region of the kidneys
called the sagittarial plexus, which the ancients knew as the
city of Tarsus where St. Paul fought with the beasts. Higher
occultism teaches that the lotus blossoms (nerve centers on the
spine) are reflections or negative poles bearing witness of seven
great positive centers of consciousness located in the brain.
These seven function through the centers on the spine in ap-
proximately the same way that the seven spirits before the
throne function through the planetary bodies. The disciple is
warned not to work with the centers upon the spine, but to
labor instead with their true rulers— the centers in the brain.
The wanderings of the Children of Israel in the wilderness,
the pilgrimage of the Mohammedan to Mecca, the endless pil-
grimages of Hindu holy men who spend their lives going from
one shrine to another, represent the pilgrimage of the spirit fire
{Kundalini) through the nerve centers along the spine. By
certain specifications force is turned into these centers one after
the other until, when seen clairvoyantly, they are great, flower-
like areas from which light rays stream like petals. Each of
these lotus blossoms has a different number of petals according
to the number of nerves which branch out from it.
It is said that the Logos, when the time came to create the
material universe, entered a state of deep meditation, central-
izing his thought power upon the seven flower-like centers of
the seven worlds. Gradually his life force descended from the
brain (which was the great superior world) and striking these
flowers one after the other wave birth to the lower worlds.
When at last his spirit fire struck the lowest center the physical
world was created, and his fire was at the base of the spine.
When the world returns to him again and he once more be-
comes supreme in consciousness it will be because he withdraws
the life from these seven centers, beginning with the lowest,
and returns it again to the brain. Thus the path of evolution
for all living things is to raise this fire, whose descent made
their manifestation in these lower worlds possible and whose
raising brings them into harmony once more with the superior
worlds.
This myth of the life force that came down and took upon
itself worlds, is found among all the civilized nations of the
earth. This is the Hiram Abiff who built the Masonic Temple
(the bodies) and was then slain by the three vehicles which he
formed. This is likewise the Christ, slain for the sins of the
world.
Because of the fact that this spinal fire is a twisting, serpen-
tine force, the snake has been used in all parts of the world
to represent the world saviors. The uracus worn by the Egyp-
tian priests upon their foreheads was symbolic of Kundalini,
the sacred cobra who, when she was raised in the wilderness,
saved all who gazed upon her (Moses and the brazen serpent).
As the brain is the center of the divine world, so the solar
plexus is the center of the human world, for, representing semi-
consciousness, it links the unconsciousness below with the con-
sciousness above. Man is not only capable of thinking with
his brain; he is capable of a certain phase of thought through
lhe nerve centers of the solar plexus.
It will probably be wise at this point to describe the differ-
ence between a medium and a clairvoyant. To the average per-
son there is no difference, but to the mystic these two phases
of spiritual sight are separated by the entire span of human
evolution.
A clairvoyant is one who has raised the spinal serpent into
I he brain and by his growth earned the right of perceiving the
invisible worlds with the aid of the third eye, or pineal gland.
This organ of consciousness, which millions of years ago con-
nected man with the invisible worlds, closed during the Le-
murian period when the objective senses began to develop.
The occultist, however, by the process of development hinted
al before, may reopen this eye and by means of il explore the
invisible worlds. Clairvoyants are not born; they are made.
Mediums are not made; they are born. The clairvoyant can
become such only after years, sometimes lives, of self-prepara-
tion; on the other hand, the medium, 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 a mirror, and upon its
sensitive nerves are reflected pictures recorded in the invisible
ethers. Through the spleen (which is the gateway to the
etheric body) the medium permits decarnate intelligences to
come into his spiritual constitution, the result being voices and
other spirit manifestations. Automatic writing is gained by
permitting the etheric arm of an outside intelligence to control
temporarily the physical arm of the medium. This is not pos-
sible until the medium removes his own etheric double from
the arm, for two things cannot occupy the same place at the
same time. The process of periodically separating the life forces
from the physical arm is very dangerous, often resulting in pa-
ralysis. Mediumship is unnatural to man, while clairvoyance
is the natural result of growth and the unfolding of the spir-
itual nature. There are a hundred mediums to one clairvoyant,
for the clairvoyant can become such only through self-mastery
and the exertion of tremendous power; while the weaker, the
more sickly, and the more nervous an individual is, the better
medium he makes. The clairvoyant is unfolding his mind by
filling it with useful knowledge, while the first instruction
given the would-be medium is, "Make your mind a blank."
The reason mediumship through the solar plexus is a retro-
gression may be summed up as follows: The group spirits who
control the destinies of the animal kingdoms govern then-
charges through pictures thrown against the solar plexus, for
the animal has no self-conscious mind. As a result, instead of
thinking with its own brain it thinks with the brain of the
group spirit to whom it is attached by invisible magnetic cords.
These cords convey their impressions and photograph them
upon the sympathetic nervous system. Having no will of its
own, the animal is incapable of combating these urges and con-
sequently obeys them implicitly. Man governs himself through
the cerebrospinal nervous system because he has developed in-
dividuality and the sympathetic system no longer rules him.
Opening himself to impulses through the solar plexus area, the
medium is thwarting his own growth by preventing the cere-
brospinal nervous system from controlling his destiny.
Man has always liked to lean on external things. He hates
to face each problem and solve it with the brain God gave him.
He consequently leans on the invisible worlds, asking them to
help him to accomplish the labors which he should do by his
own efforts.
Thousands of people must carry the karmic responsibilities
of the medium, for many follow this calling because hundreds
of people want to talk to deceased relatives or get inside tips
on the stock exchange. Those who by their patronage encour-
age things of which they do not themselves approve are per-
sonally responsible for the injury which their selfishness has
thus permitted other persons to inflict upon themselves.
The difference, therefore, between mediumship and clair-
voyance is about half the length of the spinal column. It is
the difference between negative and positive; it is the differ-
ence between the midnight of the seance room and the noonday
of the temple.
All of the organs within the body of man have their re-
ligious significance. The heart with its chambers is itself a
temple standing upon the mountain of the diaphragm. The
spleen with its little umbrella-shaped body collects the sun's
rays and has charge of the etheric body. It is this etheric body
coiled within the spleen that injects the white blood corpuscles
into the circulatory system.
We know that the human body has been the inspiration for
nearly all mechanical contrivances. Hinges are copied from
(lie human body; likewise die ball and socket joint. We are
told that the first plumbing was reproduced from the arterial
and venous circulatory systems. Hundreds of machines and
implements have been inspired by the subtle workings of our
own vehicles, for the human body is the most marvelously con-
structed machine that the human mind can study.
The close relationship between the generative system below
.mil the brain above (for the brain is a positive generating sys-
tem) is of course due to the spine connecting them. At a cer-
tain time a number of little doors which now separate the
brain from the generative system are opened, and the Sushumna
becomes an open tunnel so that every impulse is carried im-
mediately to both ends of the body. It is for this reason that
the candidate assumes the vows of celibacy, for the close con-
nection existing in the advanced disciple between the brain and
the reproductive system necessitates an absolute conservation of
all life energies. The tonsils are directly connected with the
generative system; in fact they are part of its positive pole in
the brain. The customs of vaccinating healthy children and
cutting out normal tonsils on general principles, should be
reconsidered. Most tonsils are infected as the result of the
child eating too many sweets during the first years of life. The
moral is, don't cut out the tonsils; cut out the sweets. Many
parents are responsible for the illness of their children. Through
either ignorance or indulgence they allow the infantile con-
sciousness, as yet uncontrolled by its higher vehicles, to destroy
itself before life fairly begins. When children are sick during
the early years of life the physician will often find the cause
of the ailment in the parent, and the father or mother— not the
child— should be dosed with pills. If the stomach is kept in
proper condition the tonsils will give very little trouble. The
absolute economy exhibited by nature in the building of all
its structures should be sufficient proof that the Lord was not
wasting his time when he made tonsils and appendixes. He
apparently had reason for making them, but these poor, un-
offending organs have become a gold mine to medical scien-
tists who remove them at the slightest provocation. We arc
told that the vertical position assumed by the human body,
which forces the contents of the intestinal tract to travel part of
the time uphill, is the reason for the appendix, which is miss-
ing in creatures of horizontal carriage. Every organ not only
has its visible purpose, but also an invisible spiritual purpose,
and the individual is to be admired who manages to go through
life preserving intact as many as possible of his original ana-
tomical parts and members.
While on the subject of the debt of science to the human
body we might add that the decimal system is the result of
primitive man's counting on his fingers, whereby ten became
the unit of enumeration. The ancient cubit also was the dis-
tance between the elbow and the end of the second finger, or
approximately eighteen inches. So it goes back through the
study of things until we find that nearly everything with which
man has surrounded himself is an adaptation from the body
with which God surrounded his spirit.
Man is gradually gaining control not only over the organs
of his body but also over their functions. Science states that
certain organs function automatically or mechanically, but oc-
cultism realizes that there is nothing mechanical about the
functions of the human body. Let us take as an example a
workman throwing a piece of iron among the wheels and
levers of a smoothly working machine. There is a grinding
crash and the machine stops. If on the other hand you figura-
tively throw a monkey-wrench into the human body, it will
immediately begin the process of throwing it back at you. It
will surround the foreign element with a coating and try to
absorb it. If this is impossible, it will try to eject it through,
some channel appointed for that purpose. If this means fails
it will in many cases accustom itself to the presence of the
obstacle and keep right on working anyway. This shows un-
mistakably that the organic parts of man possess some inherent
form of intelligence; therefore they are not machines, for no
mechanical device is capable of intelligence.
Paracelsus, the great Swiss physician, who after many years
in the Far East returned to Switzerland to teach medicine, first
gave to the European world its concept of the nature spirits.
He taught that the functions of nature were under the control
of little creatures who were invisible to the normal senses, but
who, working through the kingdoms of life— minerals, plants,
animals, and parts of the human body— kept all of these evolv-
ing in an intelligent way. Under the control of the great celes-
lial hierarchy of Scorpio which has charge of all body building
in nature, these elements are the invisible intelligences govern-
ing the human body and its functions.
As the result of man's ever evolving consciousness, he is
acquiring more complete control over the functions of his vari-
ous organs. There are two kinds of muscles— voluntary and
involuntary— the difference being that the voluntary muscles,
which are controlled by the conscious mind of the individual,
have fibers running two ways and crossing each other, while
lhose which are involuntary are without cross-fibers. The
heart used to be considered an involuntary muscle, but it is
now beginning to show cross-fibers, thus foreshadowing the day
when man will consciously and intelligently regulate the beat-
ing of his own heart. The same will be true with respect to all
other organs that survive the periodic changes taking [dace in
the constitution of man. The Eastern holy man can success-
fully live without his heart beating; he can stop it or start it at
will. By lifting the tongue so that it closes the air passages into
the lungs he can remain in suspended animation for months.
Many Eastern chelas do this while being given spiritual initia-
tions out of the physical body. There are cases on record
where these holy men have been buried in the ground. Weeks
later when the body was dug up it was found to be dried like
leather. Water was poured onto if and after a certain lapse of
time the man who had not taken a breath in weeks got up and
walked off. This is the result of extraordinary control which
the mind is capable of gaining over the functions of the body.
Occultism teaches that there is an entire universe within the
human body; that it has its worlds, its planes, and its gods and
goddesses. Millions of minute cells are its inhabitants. These
tiny creatures are grouped together into kingdoms, nations, and
races, and become one thing composed of many parts. The
Supreme Ruler and God of this great world is the conscious-
ness in man which says "I am." This consciousness picks up
its universe and moves to another town. Every time it walks
up and down the street it takes a hundred million solar systems
with it, but because they are so infinitesimal, man cannot real-
ize that they are actually worlds.
In like manner, we are individual cells in the body of an
infinite creation which is hurling itself through infinity at
unknown speed. Suns, moons, and stars are merely bones in
a great skeleton composed of all the substances of the universe.
Our own little lives are merely part of that infinite life throb-
bing and coursing through the arteries and veins of space. But
all this is so vast as to be beyond the comprehension of this'
little "I am" in us. Therefore we may say that both extremes
are equally incomprehensible. We live in a middle world be-
tween infinite greatness on the one hand and infinite smallness
on the other. As we grow, our world grows also, resulting in a
corresponding increase in the scope of our understanding of all
these wonders.
PART IV
THE INFERNAL WORLDS
At the base of the spine is located the throne of the lord of
form, commonly called Jehovah and Shiva. The lirga is his
symbol. He rides the great bull of earthiness. His daughter
is death and destruction, yet he is not a thing of evil. He
builds the bodies which give us the power to function in the
lower worlds. He crystallizes them around lines of force. Ge-
ometry is the skeleton, and all the bodies which he builds are
geometric problems, geometric angles crystallized into rocks
and stones. Gradually the crystallization which brings bodies
into the world causes them to become too dense and unyielding
to respond to the subtle impressions from the spiritual conscious-
ness. Slowly they turn to stone, and death is the result of the
same cause that brought the body into the world. The early
races of the earth worshipped the procreative attributes of life.
They felt that the highest expression of life was the power of
giving still another life to the world. Therefore the principle
of life-giving was personified into a deity who gave life to all
things, or rather brought into manifestation the latent life
which cannot grow or unfold in the physical world without
the vehicle of dense substance.
To the occultist, birth is deadi and death is an awakening.
The mystics of ancient days taught that to be born into the
physical world was to enter a tomb, for no other plane of na-
ture is so unresponsive, so limited as the earth- world. Time
and distance were prison bars chaining the soul to narrow en-
vironments. Heat and cold tormented the soul, age deprived it
of its faculties, and man's life was but a preparation for death.
As life is lived under the shadow of death, they taught that it
is a mockery, a hollow thing, gilded to the careless eye but
tarnished and worm-eaten upon close examination. The phys-
ical body became the sepulchre, tire tomb, the place of burial in
which spirit lay awaiting the day of liberation when as a virgin
spark it should arise again from the broken urn of clay. There-
lore in all the religions of the world we have the lower world
as a black pit into which Yama, the Lord of the Underworld,
hurls the souls of the damned to suffer in a hell of their own
creation, for it is true that each race makes from its own nature
the demons which torment it. Here Typhon, the Egyptian
god of destruction, with the body of a hog and the head of a
crocodile, awaits with yawning jaws to devour those who have
failed to make proper use of life's opportunities. Among most
peoples the demon is symbolized as part animal, part human.
He dwells in the animal nature of man, and those who are
controlled by their appetites, their likes and dislikes, their hates
and fears, need no further damnation; they have built their
own hell and are experiencing its torments.
The generative system is gradually being absorbed into the
brain, and the man of the next great world period will gener-
ate its progenies, or at least form vehicles for them, through the
larynx, which is the organ of the spoken word. We are told
that a small etheric body which will later be the organ of posi-
tive reproduction is gradually being built near the larynx.
Ultimately human beings will become capable of raising the
spinal fire through the Sushumna canal. This is an evolution-
ary process, however, covering a long period of time.
The physical body is supposed to be under the control of the
moon, which rules the liquids of the earth. The moon was
the last incarnation of the earth-spirit, and the human race
passed through its state of animal consciousness in the erheric
body of the moon lord. The lunar spirits are called "the
ancestors" and are known to Christians as angels. These be-
ings have control of the generative powers of animal and
man. The life coming into incarnation often chooses its future
vehicle many years before it appears in the world. It is said
that the etheric germ is placed in the body of the parent a?
long as twenty years before the child comes into the world.
This is the result of its search for an environment especially
suited to its spiritual and material needs.
Certain occult schools have taught that the spiritual con-
sciousness of man was not fixed in any point of the body but
was in whatever part of man his thoughts dwelt. We know
that there are three worlds where man may dwell. The first-
is his mental world, where he may live surrounded by his
thoughts, his dreams, and his aspirations. The second is his
human world, where he may be one of the great middle class
which thinks a little, eats a little, sleeps a little, and worries un-
ccasingly. The third possible home is his animal world, where
he may dwell in the midst of passions, lusts, and hates which
burn his soul and consume his body. The history of primitive
races shows that they have risen through all of these stages
until at last a few have become truly thinking creatures.
The blood of every man is individual. When crystallizing,
it forms into geomtric patterns which differ with every person,
so that by means of blood analysis a far surer system could be
evolved for crime detection than either the Bertillon or finger-
print systems. The story of man's soul is written in his blood.
The position he occupies in evolution, his hopes and his fears,
are all imprinted on the etheric forms which flow through his
blood stream. Until red blood came into the body, the spirit
of man could not enter, but hovered over the body, attached
to it by an electric thread. By studying crickets, grasshoppers,
and similar small creatures clairvoyantly, it is possible to ob-
serve impulses from the little globes hovering over their bodies
which result in the primitive motion and sense which they
demonstrate. Therefore it is said that the actual line between
the vegetable and the animal is drawn with the coming of red
blood; consequently, certain small fishes, mollusks, etc., are
technically vegetables, although not recognized as such by
science. The liver is the key to the red blood. Lucifer's red
garments derive their color from the blood, while the word
Lucifer means "a carrier of light" (or heat) and is a name for
the blood. For this reason he is the spirit of temptation. In
the Christian Mysteries the piercing of the liver of Christ by
the spear of the centurion is especially mystical, while Pro-
metheus, the friend of man, hanging upon the peak of Mount
Caucasus with a vulture gnawing at his liver, is the same myth
expressed in the symbolism of ancient Greece.
It is further interesting to note the relation between the
words live and liver, for to have a liver is to live. Along the
same line we may note that the word live spelt backwards be-
comes evil, and the word lived becomes devil. This peculiar
relationship is found not only in English, but to a slightly less
noticeable degree in several languages. When we take up this,
however, we become involved in the study of Cabalism, which
is the analysis of the symbolic meaning of words.
Red is the color of blood and the key of the liver, and its
cfTcd upon animals is very noticeable. It irritates, excites, and
in some cases actually causes animals to go mad. Therefore it
is often used in making the capes worn during bullfights.
These the fighters flaunt in the bull's face, and trouble usually
follows. The use of red lights is not uncommon in black
magic. Evil magicians use them to materialize specters, while
medical science has already discovered that red light is a strong
irritant when applied to the human body.
During anger and hate the astral aura of man becomes
streaked with red flames very closely resembling thunderbolts.
Very often the base of the spine glows with a murky red light,
symbolic of hate, passion, or anger. This red glow, burning
eternally at the base of the spine, has given rise to the story of
hell-fire and damnation, but the preacher has failed to remind
the laity that they carry their own hell around with them wher-
ever they go.
The red power is said to be broken from the white light of
the sun through the body of Samael, the spirit of Mars. This is
the cause of the red glow in the heavens. 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 a
symbol of his sway. Following the lead of this patron saint
they conquered the world ami then fell upon the swords with
which they had murdered others.
While red is the color of the body, yellow is regarded as the
color of the soul. For this reason the Buddhas and world
saviors are usually symbolized as being surrounded with a
golden nimbus or halo. This light is the yellow robe; also the
light bearing witness to the darkness, of which St. John wrote.
This light, flooding through the third ventricle represents the
Shekinah of the Jews which hovers over the Mercy Seat as a
pact between God and man. Yellow is a vitalizer, a life-giver.
Therefore the golden-haired sun and its personification— the
Christ— are both givers of life. Devitalization may be success-
fully treated by exposing the spleen to sunlight.
Blue, the highest of the three primary colors, is the color
given to the Father. It is a relaxing, restful color, especially
valuable in the treatment of insanity and obsession. It is diffi-
cult for black magicians to function successfully in a blue light.
Its affinity to the mind is very evident, and it gathers as an
electric sea in the pineal gland as an extract from all the spir-
itual qualities of human nature. The blue heart to every flame
was said to symbolize the invisible Father behind the glowing
sun. In the words of Christ, "He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. I am in the Father and the Father in me."
The use of colors in symbolism is very interesting. The
green dragon, whom the heroes of mythology usually slay,
represents the earth. The white armor is a purified physical
body. The black magician is darkness and uncertainty. All
colors have symbolic value, and great lessons can be learned
from the study of the application of these values to occultism.
While discussing the subject of occult anatomy and physiol-
ogy we must stop for a moment to give credit to the alchemists
and Rosicrucians who, during the Middle Ages, concealed the
study of occult anatomy by dressing up the organs of the hu-
man body in the form of retorts and alchemical vessels. One
of their great exponents said in substance: "Our chemistry is
not with chemicals as you know them, but with certain secret
vessels" (internal organs) "and spiritual chemicals which are
invisible to the ordinary individual. We do not believe in tor-
turing chemicals," (combining them to form gases, vapors,
or seething masses) "for chemicals, like men, can suffer when
brought into unkind relationship with each other."
The alchemical furnace was the human body. The fire that
burned in it was at the base of the spine. The chimney was
the spinal cord up which the vapors passed to be gathered again
and distilled in the brain. This was indeed a secret system
brought to Europe from the Far East, where for centuries it
has been considered the highest form of religion. We may call
these occult truths the principles of operative spirituality in con-
tradistinction to modern religion which is made entirely of
speculative theories. People do not dream that religion is
physiological, nor would they believe that their salvation de-
pends entirely on scientific uses of the life elements and forces
within their own bodies; but in spite of all that may be said to
the contrary, such is the case. During the next few years much
will be dene to enlighten man concerning the secret workings
nl his own parts and members.
11 is very interesting to note the similitude existing between
the incarnations or appearances in the world of the great ava-
tar, Vishnu, and the changes which take place in the human
embryo previous to birth. This brings us to our next subject:
occult embryology.
PART V
OCCULT EMBRYOLOGY
The great Lord Vishnu has already come nine times into
the world to save his people. His tenth birth is yet to come.
His nine appearances closely parallel the nine principal changes
taking place in the human embryo previous to birth. Vishnu
was first born out of the mouth of a fish. He then rose out of
the body of a turtle. Still later he appeared as a boar, then a
lion, afterwards a monkey. And after a number of still other
changes he appeared as a man. I noted some time ago that a
scientist had arranged a table showing the relationship of the
human brain to various animals during the prenatal period.
He followed exactly the list of incarnations of Vishnu, while
totally unaware that he was linking together Oriental occultism
and Occidental embryology.
The cosmogony myths of nearly every nation are based upon
embryology. The formation of the cosmos is said to have
taken place in the same way that man is formed, only on a
larger scale. For example, in The Vishnu Puranas we arc told
that creation took place within the womb of Mem. Space was
surrounded by great mountains and cliffs (the chorion). The
universe was created out of water and floated in a great sea
(the amniotic fluid). Down a ladder (the umbilical cord)
came the gods. Four rivers flowed into the new land, as told
in Genesis. These are the blood vessels of the umbilical cord.
So the story goes, and a marvelous correlation exists. Some
day perhaps a new science may be based upon the law of
analogy. This will prove to be a far greater contribution to
scientific data than all the scientific speculations of all ages.
It is reasonably certain that the story of Adam and Eve and
the Garden of Eden is based upon embryology, and that the
womb is the original Garden of Eden. In symbolism it is
represented by a dot in a circle. This dot is the primitive germ,
and so on as far as you wish to carry the analogy. The Egg of
Brahma is the story of the cosmic embryo, and embryology is
the basic study of creation.
In embryology we also have a very interesting recapitula-
tion of the passage of the human race through the various
species of nature. Here we find at certain periods the Hyper-
borean creatures. At another time we see the primitive Le-
murian man; later the Atlantean; and finally the Aryan. We
most certainly recommend to all occult students that they make
a very careful study of this subject. Science knows that all life
upon this planet came out of the water. The human embryo
is enveloped in water through all the primitive stages of its
growth, and in it we find the story of the evolution of all
things. Sex did not appear upon the planet until the third race.
It does not appear in the embryo until the third month.
The recapitulation of the human embryo through the lower
kingdoms of nature is one of the strongest proofs of evolution,
inasmuch as it proves conclusively that man could not have
been made originally in his adult condition. Consequently he
passed through a cosmic embryology; in fact he is still in the
embryo and will not actually be born into the human race un-
til he is truly human, which will not be for many thousands of
years. He is just in the state of becoming man.
The nine months of the prenatal epoch have been employed
in symbolism for ages. Nine is called the number of man,
because of the nine months that the body is in a state of prepa-
ration. The perfect number is supposed to be twelve, so at the
present time man is born three months before he is finished.
The gradual unfoldment of the human race will result in
more being accomplished during the prenatal epoch, until fin-
ally birth will be the ultimate, and all experience and growth
will take place in the embryonic state.
Man is not born all at once. We may say that he is born by
degrees. The consciousness works outside of the body, labor-
ing with the plastic substances up to the time of the quicken-
ing, when it takes hold of the vehicle from within and begins
lo mold a certain amount of individuality out of the materials
which surround it. At the time of birth, the physical body is
born, and a process of crystallization sets in which never ceases
lor a moment until death. Man begins to die the moment he
is born, and the span of life is the length of time which this
requires. At the seventh year the vital body comes into action,
and (ho greatest periods of growth commence. It is then that
parents begin to experience difficulties. It is the time of letting
clothes down and out. Children shoot up like weeds for they
are literally recapitulating their plant existences, whereas before
that time they were recapitulating their mineral state. At about
the seventh year the child begins to manufacture vital essences
within his own body. Up to that time he lives upon life forces
secreted in the ductless glands of the throat before birth. In
other words he maintains himself upon life which he has
stored away from the parent. At about seven he starts work
for himself. He is on the go every minute, and if youth could
only bottle up its energy and preserve it for old age, what a
wonderful world we would live in.
Between twelve and fourteen in the temperate zones the
liver starts activity; the emotional body is born. It is during
these adolescent years that youth faces its greatest problem.
Emotionalisim runs riot. The consciousness is recapitulating
its animal existences. It may truly be said that these are the
days of puppy love. These are years often filled with great
mistakes. More lives are blighted between the fourteenth and
twenty-first years than at any other period of life. It has been
observed that the children of strongly emotional races are often
brilliant and at the head of their classes until adolescence.
When, however, the emotional nature becomes active at about
the 14th year, these children frequently lose interest and ability
in formal education. Any school teacher who has taught foreign
children will vouch for this condition among certain nationali-
ties. The moron is an example of the loss of mental function
with the birth of the astral body, and there are many of these
examples. During these years of emotional riot parents must
rule their children with firmness and kindness, or those same
children will turn some day upon their parents and blame
them for ruined lives.
Between eighteen and twenty-one, according to climatic
conditions, the mental body takes hold, and we say that the in-
dividual has reached the age of majority. He is then per-
mitted to vote; his father presents him with a gold watch and
sends him out into the world to seek his fortune. Not one per-
son in a million realizes why twenty-one is set as the age of
majority, but every occultist knows the reason. The spiritual
consciousness, the true "I am," does not take hold of its new
body until the twenty-first year. Up to that time it is ruled
entirely by the lower sense centers. Life thus progresses in
cycles of seven years.
As an example of this, we know that the twenty-eighth year
is the period of second physical birth; the thirty-fifth year the
period of second vital birth, or, as it is called, second growth;
the forty-second year the period of second emotional birth.
During these years people otherwise perfectly normal very
often grow sentimental. The forty-ninth year marks the dawn
of a new period of mental activity, and the following seven
years are the golden years of thought. They are the periods of
philosophic reason, the crowning years of life. And so on,
cycle after cycle. If the individual waits long enough he may
pass through his second, third, and fourth childhoods.
Few people realize that they are composed of mineral, plant,
and animal elements. The bones are literally minerals, hair is
a plant nourished by waves of vital ether pouring out through
the skin, while within every individual are thousands of little
wiggling, creeping, crawling things that make each of us a zoo
all by ourselves. The ancient Scandinavians, realizing this,
wrote many legends about the little creatures that live in
man. A famous statue of Father Nile shows him covered over
with tiny human figures representing the attributes and func-
tions of man. Man is a great study, but we make very little
use of our textbook. The Scriptures of all nations are filled
with anatomical references to cities and places that have no
existence outside of man himself. The twelve gates of the Holy
City are the twelve apertures in the human body. Like the
twelve Masters of Wisdom and the twelve great schools of phi-
losophy, these apertures are divided into two divisions of seven
and five. There are seven visible openings and five concealed
openings in the human body.
One of the Greek philosophers told his disciples to remem-
ber distinctly that there were six openings leading into the
human brain but only one leading out of the human head, and
that one led from the stomach. Therefore they were to listen
twice (once with each ear) look twice (once with each eye)
sense twice (once with each nostril) but to speak only once,
and that what they spoke would come from the stomach and
IK. 'I the brain. The advice still holds good.
The Hebrews used the human head as a favorite symbol
lo express the divine attributes, calling it the Great Face. The
two eyes were correlated to the Father, for they were organs
of consciousness; the two nostrils to the Son, because they were
organs of sense and also vehicles for Prana, the life force in the
ether. The mouth was used to symbolize the Holy Spirit, the
one who sent forth the spoken word and formed the world.
The seven vowels to which the mouth gave birth were the
seven spirits before the throne; also the vials and trumpets of
Revelation. They went forth as the army of tire voice to create
in the seven worlds, and all nature resulted from their creative
power. Few realize die magnificent symbolism concealed
within the human head, and how it has been used in Scriptural
writings.
To this article is appended a treatise which was published
separately some years ago but has been out of print for some
time. The treatise has a direct bearing upon the subject of
anatomical symbolism, showing how the principles outlined in
the preceding pages work out when applied to different world
problems of today.
OCCULT MASONRY
To the student of mystic Masonry one problem eternally
presents itself. He knows it under many names. It is told to
him in many symbols, but briefly it may be defined as the
purification and liberation of spirit and body from the bane of
crystallization and materiality. In other words he is seeking
to rescue the life buried amidst the ruins of his fallen temple
and restore it to its rightful place as the keynote of his spiritual
arch.
When studying ancient Masonry we are dealing with one
of the first revelations of what we know as the Wisdom Teach-
ings. Like other great mysteries it consists of solutions to prob-
lems of everyday existence. It may seem of little use to us now
to study these ancient abstract symbols, but in time every stu-
dent will realize that the things he now casts aside as worthless
are the jewels which one day he will need. Like the centaur
in the zodiac, man is eternally striving to lift his human con-
sciousness from the body of the animal; and in the three-runged
ladder of Masonry we find the three great steps which are
necessary for this liberation. These three steps are the three
grand divisions of human consciousness. We can briefly define
them as materiality, intellectuality, and spirituality. They also
represent action on the lowest rung, emotion on the central,
and mentality on the highest. All human beings are lifting
themselves up to God by climbing these three steps that lead
to liberation.
When we have united these three manifestations into a har-
monious balance, we then have the flaming triangle. The an-
cients declared God, as the dot in the circle, to be unknowable,
but said that he manifested through his three witnesses— the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now the same is true
with man. The part of God which is within each of us can
manifest only through his three witnesses; the Father manifests
through our thoughts, the Son through our emotions, and the
I [oly Spirit through our actions. When we balance our thoughts,
our desires, and our actions, we have an equilateral triangle.
When man's purified life energies radiate through these three
witnesses we have a halo of flame added to the triangle, in the
center of which is God— the unknowable and unthinkable one;
the yod or flaming letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the abyss
which no one can understand but from which all things come.
The life of this unknown pours outward through the triangle,
which in the higher degrees is surrounded by a halo of flame.
The halo is the soul built from the transmuted thought, action,
and desire— the eternal triangle of God.
Among Masonic symbols is the beehive, called the symbol
of industry, for it clearly demonstrates how man should co-
operate with his fellow men for the mutual development of all.
It also contains a much deeper message, for each living soul
is a bee that travels through life and gathers the pollen of
wisdom from the environments and experiences of life. As
the bee gathers the honey from the heart of the flower, so each
of us should extract the spiritual nectar from each happening,
each joy, and each sorrow, and incorporate it into the great
beehive of experience — the soul-body of man. In the same
way it is said that the spiritual energies in man eternally take
the life forces he is transmuting and carry them up into the
beehive in the brain, where is kept the honey or oil necessary
for the sustenance of life.
The ancient gods are said to have lived on nectar and not
to have eaten or drunk like other men. It is quite true that
honey gained or extracted from coping with the problems of
everyday life is the food of the higher man. While we eat at
the well-laden board it would be well for us to consider wheth-
er or not the spiritual man is also nourished and developed by
the things which we have transmuted in our own lives.
An ancient philosopher once said that the bee extracts honey
from the pollen of the flower, while from the same source the
spider extracts poison. The problem which then confronts us
is: are we bees or spiders? Do we transform the experiences
of life into honey, or do we change them into poison Do
they lift us, or do we eternally rebel against the pricks? Many
people become soured by experience, but the wise one takes
the honey and builds it into the beehive of his own spiritual
nature.
It is well for us also to consider the "grip of the lion's paw,"
one ol the world's oldest symbols of initiation, hi ancient times
the neophyte on his way through the mysteries of Egypt's tem-
ples was finally buried in a great stone coffer for the dead, later
to be raised to life again by the master initiate in his robes of
blue and gold. When the candidate was thus raised, the grand
master wore upon his arm and hand the paw of a lion as a
glove, and it was said of the newly raised disciple that he had
been brought to life by the "grip of the lion's paw." The He-
brew letter yod (which is used in the center of the triangle
and is sometimes a symbol of spirit because of its flame-like ap-
pearance) means, according to the cabalist, a hand that is
stretched forth. We understand this to symbolize the sun
spirit in man which is said to be enthroned in the sign of Leo,
the lion of Judah. And as the fruits of the fields and the seed-
lings are grown and developed through the sun's rays, so it is
said that the crystallization of man is broken up and dispelled
by the light of the spiritual sun which raises the dead with its
power and liberates the latencies of life. The spirit in man,
with its eyes that see in the dark, is ever striving to lift thei
lower side of his own nature to union with itself. When the
lower man is thus raised from materiality by the higher ideals
which unfold within his own being, it is said that the spirit
of light and truth has raised the candidate for initiation by the
"grip of the lion's paw."
Consider the symbolism of the two Johns as we find them
in the Masonic rituals. John means "ram," and the ram is
symbolical of the animal passions and propensities of man. In
John the Baptist, dressed in the skins of animals, these passions
are untransmuted, while in John the Evangelist they have been
transmuted until the vehicles and powers which they represent
have become the beloved disciples of the Christ-life in man.
We often hear the expression, "riding the goat" or "climbing
the greased pole." This is of symbolic import to those who
have eyes to see, for when man masters his lower animal na-
ture he can say honestly that he is "riding the goat;" and if he
cannot ride the goat, he cannot enter the temple of initiation.
The greased pole which he must climb refers undoubtedly to
the spinal column; and it is only when the consciousness of
man climbs up this column into the brain that he can take the
degrees of Freemasonry.
The subject of the Lost Word should be considered as an
individual problem. Man himself— that is, die true principle—
may be called the Lost Wbrd but it is better to say that it is
a certain something radiating from man which constitutes a
password recognized by all members of the Craft. When man,
as the architect of his temple, abuses and destroys the life ener-
gies within himself, then the builder, after having been mur-
dered by the three lower bodies, carries with him to the tomb
where he is laid the Word which is the proof of his position.
Abuse of mental, physical, or spiritual powers results in the
murder of energy; and when this energy is lost man loses with
it the sacred word. Our lives— our thoughts, desires, and ac-
tions— are the living threefold password by which a master
builder knows his kin; and when the student seeks admittance
to the inner room he must present at the temple gates the cre-
dentials of a purified body and a balanced mind. No price can
buy this sacred word; no degree can bestow it But when
within ourselves the dead builder is raised to life once more,
he himself speaks the word, and upon the philosopher's stone
built within himself is engraved the living name of the Divine.
It is only when this builder is raised that the symbols of
mortality can be changed into those of immortality. Our
bodies are the urn containing the ashes of Hiram, our lives
are the broken pillars, crystallization is the coffin, and disin-
tegration is the open grave. But above all is the sprig of ever-
green promising life to those who raise the serpent power, and
showing that under the debris of the temple is buried the body
of the builder, who is "raised" when we liberate the divine life
which is locked within our material natures.
There are many of these wonderful Masonic symbols handed
down to us from the forgotten past; symbols whose meanings
long lost have been buried beneath the mantle of materiality.
The true Mason— the child of light— still cries out for libera-
tion, and the empty throne of Egypt still waits for the king of
the sun who was killed. All the world still waits for Balder
the Beautiful to come to life again; for the crucified Christ to
roll away the stone and rise from the tomb of matter bringing
his own tomb with him.
When a man has so lived that he can understand this won-
derful problem, the great eye or center of consciousness is en-
abled to see out through the clean glass of a purified body.
The mysteries of true Masonry, long concealed from the pro-
fane, are then understood; and the new master, donning his
robes of blue and gold, follows in the footsteps of the immor-
tals who are climbing, step by step, the ladder leading upward
to the seven stars. Far above, the Ark— the source of life— floats
over the waters of oblivion on high, and sends its messages
down to the lower man through the cable tow. When this
point is reached, the door in the " G " is closed forever, for the
dot has returned to the circle; the threefold spirit and the
threefold body are linked together in the eternal seal of Sol-
omon. Then does the cornerstone which the builder rejected
become again the head of the corner, and man— the capstone
long missing from the universal temple— is again in place.
The daily occurrences of life are sharpening our senses and
developing our faculties. These are the tools of the Craft— the
mallet, the chisel, and the rule— and with these self-developed
tools we are slowly truing the rough ashlar or cube into a fin-
ished block for the universal temple. It is only then that we
become initiates of the flame, for only then does light take the
place of darkness. As we wander through the vaulted cham-
bers of our own being we learn the meaning of the vaulted
chambers of the temple, and as the initiatory ritual unfolds be-
fore our eyes we should recognize in it the recapitulation of
our own being, the unfoldment of our own consciousness, and
the story of our own lives. With this thought in mind, we
are able to understand not only why the Atlanteans of old
worshiped the rising sun, but also how the modern Mason
symbolizes this sun as Hiram the highborn who, when he rises
to the top of the temple, places a golden stone upon it and
raises to life all things in man.
