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where
the poison-laden bodies of the UNWILLING VICTIMS sacrificed for
sin were
consumed, and where the light shone but dimly through the enveloping
smoke.
This we may contrast with the light which emanated clear and bright
from the
Seven-branched Candlestick fed by the olive oil extracted from the
chaste
plant, and where the incense symbolized by the WILLING SERVICE of
devoted
priests rose to heaven as a sweet savor. This we are told in many
places,
was pleasing to Deity, while the blood of the unwilling victims,
the bulls
and the goats, was a source of grief and displeasure to God, who
delights
most in the sacrifice of prayer, which helps the devotee and harms no
one.
It has been stated concerning some of the saints that they
emitted a
sweet odor, and as we have often had occasion to say, this is no mere
fanci-
ful story--it is an occult fact. The great majority of mankind
inhale dur-
ing every moment of life the vitalizing oxygen contained in the
surrounding
atmosphere. At every expiration we exhale a charge of carbon
dioxide which
is a deadly poison and which would certainly vitiate the air in time
if the
pure and chaste plant did not inhale this poison, use a part of it
to build
bodies that last sometimes for many centuries or even millennia as
instanced
in the redwoods of California, and give us back the rest in the form
of pure
[PAGE 106] ANCIENT AND MODERN
INITIATION
oxygen which we need for our life. These carboniferous plant bodies
by cer-
tain further processes of nature have in the past become
mineralized and
turned to stone instead of disintegrating. We find them today as
coal, THE
PERISHABLE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE MADE BY NATURAL MEANS IN NATURE'S
LABORATORY.
But the Philosopher's Stone may also be made artificially by man
from his
own body. It should be understood once and for all that the
Philosopher's
Stone is not made in an exterior chemical laboratory, but that the
body is
the workshop of the Spirit which contains all the elements necessary
to pro-
duce this ELIXIR VITAE, and that the Philosopher's Stone is not
exterior to
the body, but THE ALCHEMIST HIMSELF BECOMES THE PHILOSOPHER'S
STONE. The
salt, sulphur, and mercury emblematically contained in the three
segments of
the spinal cord, which control the sympathetic, motor, and sensory
nerves
and are played upon by the Neptunian spinal Spirit Fire, constitute
the es-
sential elements in the alchemical process.
It needs no argument to show that indulgence in sensuality,
brutality,
and bestiality makes the body coarse. Contrariwise, devotion to
Deity, an
attitude of perpetual prayer, a feeling of love and compassion for
all that
lives and moves, loving thoughts sent out to all beings and those
inevitably
received in return, all invariably have the effect of refining and
spiritu-
alizing the nature. We speak of a person of that sort as breathing
or radi-
ating love, an expression which much more nearly describes the
actual fact
than most people imagine, for as a matter of actual
observation the
[PAGE 107] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT
WASHING
percentage of poison contained in the breath of an individual is in
exact
proportion to the evil in his nature and inner life and the
thoughts he
thinks. The Hindu Yogi makes a practice of sealing up the candidate
for a
certain grade of Initiation in a cave which is not much larger
than his
body. There he must live for a number of weeks breathing the same
air over
and over again to demonstrate practically that he has ceased
exhaling the
death-dealing carbon dioxide and is beginning to build his body
therefrom.
The Philosopher's Stone then is not a body of the same nature
as the
plant, thought it is pure and chaste, but it is A CELESTIAL BODY
such as
that whereof St. Paul speaks in the 5th chapter of Second
Corinthians, a
body which becomes immortal as a diamond or a ruby stone. It is
not hard
and inflexible as the mineral; it is A SOFT DIAMOND or ruby, and by
every
act of the nature described the Christian Mystic is building this
body,
though he is probably unconscious thereof for a long time. When he
has at-
tained to this degree of holiness it is not necessary for him to
perform the
foot washing so far as concerns the physical pupil who helps him to
rise,
but he will always have the feeling of gratitude, symbolized by
that act,
toward those whom he is fortunate enough to attract to himself as
disciples
and to whom he may give the living bread which nourishes them to
immortal-
ity.
Students will realize that this is part of the process which
eventually
culminates in the Transfiguration, but it should also be realized
that in
the Christian Mystic Initiation there are no set and definite
degrees. The
[PAGE 108] ANCIENT AND MODERN
INITIATION
candidate looks to the Christ as the author and finisher of his
faith, seek-
ing to imitate Him and follow in His steps through every moment of
exist-
ence. Thus the various stages which we are considering are reached
by pro-
cesses of soul growth which simultaneously bring him to higher
aspects of
all these steps that we are now analyzing. In this respect the
Christian
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