The Cloud Upon The Sanctuary

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.
com
THE CLOUD UPON THE SANCTUARY
by Karl von Eckartshausen
Translated by Isabel de Steiger
Introduction by A.E. Waite
Third issue, revised and enlarged
London, William Rider & Son, ltd.
[1909]
The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION
<page vii>
LETTER I
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LETTER II
<page 15>
LETTER III
<page 30>
LETTER IV
<page 41>
LETTER V
<page 61>
LETTER VI
<page 77>

[p. vii]
INTRODUCTION
APART from "The Cloud upon the Sanctuary," Eckartshausen is a name only to the C
hristian Transcendentalists of England. He wrote much, and at his period and in
his place, he exercised some considerable influence; but his other works are pra
ctically unknown among us, while in Germany the majority at least seem forgotten
, even among the special class to which some of them might be assumed to appeal.
"The Cloud upon the Sanctuary" has, I believe, always remained in the memory of
a few, and is destined still to survive, for it carries with it a message of ve
ry deep significance to all those who look beneath the body of religious doctrin
e for the one principle of life which energizes the whole organism. This transla
tion has offered it for the first time to English readers, and it enters here up
on the third phase of its existence. It appeared originally in the pages of "The
Unknown World," a magazine devoted to the deeper understanding of philosophical
and mystical religion, and it was afterwards republished in volume form, of whi
ch edition this is a new issue. It has attracted very considerable attention and
deserved it; it has even been translated into French, under the auspices of the
late Countess of Caithness, for the pages of L'Aurore. These few words of bibli
ography are not unnecessary because they establish the fact that there has been
some little sentiment of interest working within a restricted circle, as one may
hope, towards a more general diffusion and knowledge of a document which is at
once suggestive from the literary standpoint and profoundly moving from other an
d higher considerations.
[p. viii]
[paragraph continues] It encourages me to think that many persons who know and a
ppreciate it now, or may come under its influence in the future, will learn with
pleasure the little that I can tell them of its author, the Councillor Eckartsh
ausen, and of certain other books not of his writing, which, as I think, connect
therewith, and the study of which may help us to understand its message.
Perhaps the most interesting thing that I can say at the beginning concerning Ec
kartshausen is that he connects with that group of Theosophists of which Lavater
was so important a figure, the Baron Kirchberger an accomplished and interestin
g recorder, and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin a correspondent in France and a cer
tain source of leading. In his letters to Saint-Martin, Kirchberger says that Ec
kartshausen, with whom he was in frequent communication, was a man of immense re
ading and wonderful fertility; he regarded him in other respects as an extraordi
nary personage, "whatever way providence may have led him." It would appear that
at this period, namely, in 1795, Eckartshausen was looking for and obtaining hi
s chief light from the mystical study of numbers, but was also, to use the veile
d and cautious language of the correspondence, in enjoyment of more direct favou
rs. Saint-Martin confesses on his own part that he was more interested in Eckart
shausen than he could express. Kirchberger must have held him in even higher est
imation, and undertook a journey to the Swiss frontier actually for the purpose
of receiving from him the personal communication of the Lost Word; but the illne
ss of the proposed communicator frustrated this project. The point is important
because it establishes the pretensions of Eckartshausen. As to the Councillor of
Berne so to us, he comes speaking with authority; and whatever may be our opini
on as to the kind of sacramentalism or economy which was conveyed in a proposal
to
[p. ix]
communicate the incommunicable name, there are some of us who know, at least wit
hin certain limits, that the little book which I am here introducing is not one
of vain pretension. Saint-Martin acknowledges that part of the numerical system
of Eckartshausen was in astonishing agreement with things that he had learned lo
ng ago in his own school of initiation--that of Martines de Pasqually. Altogethe
r the French mystic had formed the best opinion possible of his German brother,
and his Swiss correspondent further tells us that Eckartshausen, although a cour
tier, walked in the narrow way of the inner life. In a letter to Kirchberger dat
ed March 19th, 1795, Eckartshausen bears witness to his own personal experience
and instructions received from above, his consciousness of a higher presence, th
e answers which he had received and the visions, with the steps by which he had
advanced even to the attainment of what he terms "the Law in its fullness." I ha
ve thought it well to give these data derived from private correspondence, the p
ublication of which was never designed or expected at the time, because they con
stitute a sketch of Eckartshausen taken to some extent unawares, when there coul
d be the least reason to suppose that he was adopting an attitude. Let us now co
mpare the very strong claim which they incorporate with that of "The Cloud upon
the Sanctuary" itself, and the little analysis which I shall give here will, I t
hink, be otherwise serviceable to readers as a summary of the chief purport of t
he work. It is possible by seeking inwardly to approach the essential wisdom, an
d this wisdom is Jesus Christ who is also the essence of love within us. The tru
th of this statement can be experimentally proved by any one, the condition of t
he experience being the awakening within us of a spiritual faculty cognizing spi
ritual objects as objectively and naturally as the outward senses perceive natur
al
[p. x]
phenomenon. This organ is the intuitive sense of the transcendental world, and i
ts awakening, which is the highest object of religion, takes place in three stag
es: (a) morally, by the way of inspiration; (b) intellectually, by the way of il
lumination; (c) spiritually, by the way of revelation. The awakening of this org
an is the lifting of the cloud from the sanctuary, enabling our hearts to become
receptive of God, even in this world. The knowledge of these mysteries has been
always preserved by an advanced school, illuminated inwardly by the Saviour, an
d continued from the beginning of things to the present time. This community is
the Invisible Celestial Church, founded immediately after the Fall, and receivin
g a first-hand revelation for the raising of humanity. But the weakness of men a
s they multiplied necessitated an external society, namely, the Outward Church,
which, in the course of time, became separated from the Inner Church, also throu
gh human weakness. The external church was originally consecrated in Abraham, bu
t received its highest perfection in the mystery of Jesus Christ. The Interior C
hurch is invisible and yet governs all; it is perpetuated in silence but in real
activity, "and united the science of the temple of the ancient alliance with th
e spirit of the Saviour," or of the interior alliance. This community of light i
s the reunion of all those capable of receiving light, and is known as the Commu
nion of Saints. It possesses its school, its chair, its doctor, and a rule for s
tudents, with forms and objects of study, and in short a method by which they st
udy, together with degrees for successive development to higher altitudes. We mu
st not, however, regard it as a secret society, meeting at certain times, choosi
ng its elders and members, and united by special objects; for even the chief doe
s not invariably know all the members, and those who are ripe are joined to the
general members when they
[p. xi]
thought least likely, and at a point of which they knew nothing. The society for
ms a theocratic republic, which one day will be the Regent-Mother of the whole w
orld. Its members are exactly acquainted with the innermost of religions and of
the Holy Mysteries, but these treasures are concealed in so simple a manner that
they baffle unqualified research.
This doctrine of the interior church must be interpreted by everyone after his o
wn lights; it is presented by Eckartshausen as one having full knowledge and amb
assadorial powers, as one speaking from the centre. My purpose is solely to show
that he was sincere, and this sincerity furnishes us with one more proof, out o
f many which are to be derived from other and independent sources, that there is
a great experiment possible, and that some have performed it. The sincerity of
which I speak is I think illustrated by his life, which I will now summarise bri
efly. Carl Von Eckartshausen was born on June 28th, 1752, at the Castle of Haimb
hausen in Bavaria, and was the natural son of Count Carl of Haimbhausen by Marie
Anne Eckhart, the daughter of the overseer of the estates. His mother died in g
iving birth to him, and he appears to have been the subject of the most solicito
us affection on the part of his father, being educated with the utmost pains. Ho
wever, from the earliest years, his illegitimacy is said to have filled him with
perpetual melancholy and an inclination to retire from the world, characteristi
cs which at the same time endeared him to his family and friends. Through all hi
s life he remained less or more a prey to the painful consequences of his origin
al disqualification. He was destined notwithstanding to a career of some public
importance. His first education was received at the college of Munich, and he af
terwards proceeded to Ingoldsladt for the study of philosophy and law,
[p. xii]
which he pursued with marked success. His university course at an end, his fathe
r procured him the title of Aulic Councillor; and in 178o he was appointed censo
r of the library at Munich. This, in spite of the rectitude and goodness which c
haracterised him, made him many enemies, but the favour of the Elector Carl Theo
dore sustained him against all combinations. In 1784 he was nominated Keeper of
the Archives of the Electoral House, an appointment said to have been conferred
upon him through the desire of the Elector to keep him near his person. He publi
shed in all some sixty-nine works, embracing many classes of literature, includi
ng science, the fine arts, the drama, politics, religion, history, and, in parti
cular, certain contributions of great merit to the occult sciences. As already i
ndicated, the majority of these are now forgotten, though some of his plays seem
to have been successful in their day. "The Prejudice of Birth " in particular,
his first published drama, is described as abounding in felicitous situations an
d interest. He even attempted a comedy, and this also received considerable appr
obation. One only of his books, under the title "God is the Purest Love," comman
ded wide popularity. Sixty editions are said to have been published in Germany,
and it was translated into most languages of Europe, as well as into Latin. It i
s a small collection of Catholic prayers and meditations on the fear of God, the
love of God, the elevation of man's sentiments towards his Creator, the knowled
ge of the Eternal, etc. There are also devotional exercises for use at Mass, bef
ore and after Confession, and at Communion, with acts of penance and adoration t
o the Blessed Virgin. In a word, I fail to see wherein or how far it differs fro
m the innumerable of piety which have been produced during the last two or thre
e centuries for the use of the Catholic laity. I believe, however, that it still
circulates in Germany, and perhaps even in France; it is
[p. xiii]
said to have a wonderful charm, though its intense mysticism is also stated to h
ave puzzled some of its admirers; it has indeed been described as speaking the l
anguage and expressing the soul of Fenelon. Eckartshausen, however, as already i
ndicated, wrote other and very different books, some on magic and some on the pr
operties of numbers, and he is even accredited with a certain knowledge of Alche
my. Finally, he was the author of "The Cloud upon the Sanctuary," though the bio
graphers to whom I am indebted almost for the words of this notice have scarcely
mentioned this last and crowning production of his intellectual life. In his pr
ivate capacity he was exceedingly amiable and charitable, devoting every month t
he result of his economies to the poor, and his whole time to the practice of vi
rtue. He was married three times, and left several children. He died on May 13th
, 1813, after a painful illness. The monographs of his period mention him as one
of the best writers of Bavaria.
There are two matters to which before concluding I wish to draw attention briefl
y, and, as regards the first, in a very particular manner. The point of view fro
m which "The Cloud upon the Sanctuary" should be regarded is important from the
claim which it makes. What is this inner church of which Eckartshausen speaks, i
s a question which readers must answer for themselves, according to their best d
irection. One thing which it is not has been indicated by Eckartshausen himself.
It is not any corporate body existing merely within the church and controlling
and leading it from a specific local centre. This possibility being negatived by
the best of all authority on the subject, I should like on my own responsibilit
y to negative also its most direct and clearest antithesis. It does not answer t
o the collective mind or oversoul of the most advanced members of the visible ch
urch, nor is it the consensus
[p. xiv]
omnium sanctorum which, according to the old church maxim, is sensus spiritus Sa
ncti. Despite the absence of all corporate bonds, there is in the claim itself t
oo direct a suggestion of conscious association occurring somehow in this presen
t physical life. We must take the key which Eckartshausen himself offers, namely
, that there is within all of us a dormant faculty, the awakening of which withi
n us gives entrance, as it develops, into a new world of consciousness, which is
one of the initial stages of that state which he, in common with all other myst
ics, terms union with the Divine. In that union, outside all formal sects, all o
rthodox bonds of fellowship and veils and webs of symbolism, we shall form or do
form actually a great congregation, the first fruits of immortality, and in vir
tue of the solidarity of humanity, and in virtue of the great doctrine of the co
mmunication of all things holy with all that seeks for holiness, the above and t
he below, this congregation is, in very truth, the leader of the visible church
of faith, aspiration and struggle, the church triumphant over-watching the churc
h militant, and the channel through which the graces and the benedictions of the
holy and glorious Zion are administered to the Zion which is on earth.
The second point concerns certain books which I have promised to mention as conn
ecting with the claim of Eckartshausen, and perhaps in some measure assisting us
to get in touch with that claim. Unfortunately, in this restricted notice, I ca
n do little more than name them. The first is "The Mystery of the Cross," origin
ally published in 1732, anonymously, in the French language, but evidently writt
en by a foreigner. It is a profound and beautiful work which, unknown to the wor
ld at large, has in private, if I may so speak, influenced many to their advance
ment, and to the deeper understanding and fruition of the hidden truth. Strongly
embedded in this
[p. xv]
book will be found several of the governing ideas and aspirations of schools of
mystic thought which became illustrious in later years. I may add that I am acqu
ainted with the existence of a translation made many years ago, but still remain
ing in manuscript. The next books which I would note come at first sight a littl
e strangely in the professed connection, but they enter none the less into the s
eries; they are the two dramatic poems of the German poet, Werner, namely, "The
Templars in Cyprus" and "The Brothers of the Cross." They are the work of a man
who was intimately acquainted with the occult movement of his period--that of th
e French Revolution--and a participant therein. After all his experience he carr
ied his great genius and exceptional knowledge into the fold of the Latin Church
and became a priest. His two plays convey many moving suggestions of a guiding
but unknown hand leading the Christian Church. The next book is of Russian origi
n, but was translated into French and published in Paris in 1801; of this transl
ation a reprint was issued recently at Lyons. It is entitled "Some Characteristi
cs of the Interior Church." It connects the point of view which is met with in "
The Mystery of the Cross " with that of Eckartshausen, and is interesting on acc
ount of its origin, and also for certain Martinistic associations, but it is les
s suggestive and less profound. Finally, there is a very remarkable and I may ad
d a very rare series of works published at Berleburg in the province of Westphal
ia in seven volumes, dated 1738. It is entitled "New Spiritual Discourses on var
ious matters of the Interior Life and the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, o
r testimony of a Child of Truth concerning the Ways of the Spirit." These discou
rses occupy three volumes; two others contain a commentary on the Apocalypse; th
e sixth volume is a literal and mystical explanation of the epistle to the Roman
s,
with some supplementary papers and a catechism of the science of Christian relig
ion. The seventh volume is another commentary, verse for verse, on the first thr
ee chapters of Genesis. The collection as a whole may perhaps be best described
as an appeal from external creeds with their differences, their arguments and th
eir justifications, to the witness of the heart itself. It is an appeal also to
the mystical doctors of the church, and it cites many of the great mystics from
Tauler and Ruysbroek to Engelbrecht, Antoinette de Bourignon and Madame de Guyon
. The discourses on the union of the Church of Christ and the spiritual union of
the children of God, as also on a new church, in the second volume, will be fou
nd very interesting to students of Eckartshausen. There are also extraordinary a
nalogies with Saint-Martin, Eckartshausen and the "Mystery of the Cross" to be f
ound in the third volume, and having regard to the proximity of the date of publ
ication to that of the last work, I incline to the opinion that there may have b
een some connection also in the authorship. When all these works have been studi
ed, not in the letter but in the spirit, along with "The Cloud upon the Sanctuar
y," the spiritual truths which Eckartshausen has to some extent veiled, and his
motives for doing so, will not be beyond discernment, nor the line of his experi
ences in all cases beyond pursuit. I should add that, so far as I can trace, Eck
artshausen always remained in loyal communication with the external church in wh
ich he was originally trained, and did not therefore regard apostasy and rebelli
on as among the first evidences of personal illumination. Perhaps, like one of t
he Eastern teachers, he thought that some things could be changed from within, a
nd essentially, without altering outward names and forms.
A. E. WAITE.

[p. 1]
THE CLOUD UPON THE SANCTUARY
LETTER I
THERE is no age more remarkable to the quiet observer than our own. Everywhere t
here is a fermentation in the minds of men; everywhere there is a battle between
light and darkness, between exploded thought and living ideas, between powerles
s wills and living active force; in short everywhere is there war between animal
man and growing spiritual man.
It is said that we live in an age of light, but it would be truer to say that we
are living in an age of twilight; here and there a luminous ray pierces through
the mists of darkness, but does not light to full clearness either our reason o
r our hearts. Men are not of one mind, scientists dispute, and where there is di
scord, truth is not yet apprehended.
The most important objects for humanity are still undetermined. No one is agreed
either on the principle of rationality or on the principle of morality, or on t
he cause of the will. This proves
[p. 2]
that though we are dwelling in an age of light, we do not well understand what e
manates from our hearts--and what from our heads. Probably we should have this i
nformation much sooner if we did not imagine that we have the light of knowledge
already in our hands, or if we would cast a look on our weakness, and recognise
that we require a more brilliant illumination. We live in the times of idolatry
of the intellect, we place a common torchlight upon the altar and we loudly pro
claim the aurora, that now daylight is really about to appear, and that the worl
d is emerging more and more out of obscurity into the full day of perfection, th
rough the arts, sciences, cultured taste, and even from a purer understanding of
religion.
Poor mankind! To what standpoint have you raised the happiness of man? Has there
ever been an age which has counted so many victims to humanity as the present?
Has there ever been an age in which immorality and egotism have been greater or
more dominant than in this one? The tree is known by its fruits. Mad men! With y
our imaginary natural reason, from whence have you the light by which you are so
willing to enlighten others? Are not all your ideas borrowed from your senses w
hich do not give you the reality but merely its phenomena? Is it not true that i
n time and space all knowledge is but relative? Is it not true that all which we
call reality is but relative, for absolute truth is not to be found in the
[p. 3]
phenomenal world. Thus your natural reason does riot possess its true essence, b
ut only the appearance of truth and light; and the more this appearance increase
s and spreads, the more the essence of light inwardly fades, and the man confuse
s himself with this appearance and gropes vainly after the dazzling phantasmal i
mages he conjures.
The philosophy of our age raises the natural intellect into independent objectiv
ity, and gives it judicial power, she exempts it from any superior authority, sh
e makes it voluntary, converting it into divinity by closing all harmony and com
munication with God; and this god Reason, which has no other law but its own, is
to govern Man and make him happy! . . .
. . . Darkness able to spread light! . . . Death capable of giving Life! . . .
The truth leads man to happiness. Can you give it?
That which you call truth is a form of conception empty of real matter, the know
ledge of which is acquired from without and through the senses, and the understa
nding co-ordinates them by observed synthetic relationship into science or opini
on.
You abstract from the Scriptures and Tradition their moral, theoretical and prac
tical truth; but as individuality is the principle of your intelligence, and as
egotism is the incentive to your will, you do not see, by your light, the moral
law which dominates, or you repel it with your will. It is to
[p. 4]
this length that the light of to-day has penetrated. Individuality under the clo
ak of false philosophy is a child of corruption.
Who can pretend that the sun is in full zenith if no bright rays illuminate the
earth, and no warmth vitalises vegetation? If wisdom does not benefit man, if lo
ve does not make him happy, but very little has been done for him on the whole.
Oh! if only natural man, that is, sensuous man, would only learn to see that the
source of his intelligence and the incentive of his will are only his individua
lity, he would then seek interiorly for a higher source, and he would thereby ap
proach that which alone can give this true element, because it is wisdom in its
essential substance.
Jesus Christ is that Wisdom, Truth, and Love. He, as Wisdom, is the Principle of
reason, and the Source of the purest intelligence. As Love, He is the Principle
of morality, the true and pure incentive of the will.
Love and Wisdom beget the spirit of truth, interior light; this light illuminate
s us and makes supernatural things objective to us.
It is inconceivable to what depths of error a man falls when he abandons simple
truths of faith by opposing his own opinions.
Our century tries to decide by its (brain) intelligence, wherein lies the princi
ple or ground of reason and morality, or the ground of the will; if the scientis
ts were mindful, they would see that these
[p. 5]
things are better answered in the heart of the simplest man, than through their
most brilliant casuistry. The practical Christian finds this incentive to the wi
ll, the principle of all morality, really and objectively in his heart; and this
incentive is expressed in the following formula:--"Love God with all thy heart,
and thy neighbour as thyself."
The love of God and his neighbour is the motive for the Christian's will, and th
e essence of love itself is Jesus Christ in us.
It is in this way the principle of reason is wisdom in us; and the essence of wi
sdom, wisdom in its substance, is again Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Th
us we find in Him the principle of reason and of morality.
All that I am now saying is not hyperphysical extravagance; it is reality, absol
ute truth, that everyone can prove for himself by experience, as soon as he rece
ives in himself the principle of all reason and morality--Jesus Christ, being wi
sdom and love in essence.
But the eye of the man of sensuous perception only is firmly closed to the funda
mental basis of all that is true and to all that is transcendental.
The intelligence which many would fain raise to legislative authority is only th
at of the senses, whose light differs from that of transcendental reason, as doe
s the phosphorescent glimmer of decayed wood from the glories of sunshine.
Absolute truth does not exist for sensuous man;
[p. 6]
it exists only for interior and spiritual man who possesses a suitable sensorium
; or, to speak more correctly, who possesses an interior sense to receive the ab
solute truth of the transcendental world, a spiritual faculty which cognises spi
ritual objects as objectively and naturally as the exterior senses perceive exte
rnal phenomena.
This interior faculty of the man spiritual, this sensorium for the metaphysical
world, is unfortunately not known to those who cognise only outside of it--for i
t is a mystery of the kingdom of God.
The current incredulity towards everything which is not cognised objectively by
our senses is the explanation for the misconception of truths which are, of all,
most important to man.
But how can this be otherwise? In order to see one must have eyes, to hear, one
must have ears. Every apparent object requires its appropriate senses. So it is
that transcendental objects require their sensorium--and this said sensorium is
closed in most men. Hence men judge the metaphysical world through the intellige
nce of their senses, even as the blind imagine colours and the deaf judge tones-
-without suitable senses.
There is an objective and substantial ground of reason, an objective and substan
tial motive for the will. These two together form the new principle of life, and
morality is there essentially inherent. This pure substance of reason and will,
re-uniting in us the divine and the human, is Jesus Christ, the light
[p. 7]
of the world, who must enter into direct relationship with us, to be really reco
gnized.
This real knowledge is actual faith, in which everything takes place in spirit a
nd in truth. Thus one ought to have a sensorium fitted for this communication, a
n organised spiritual sensorium, a spiritual and interior faculty able to receiv
e this light; but it is closed to most men by their senses.
This interior organ is the intuitive sense of the transcendental world, and unti
l this intuitive sense is effective in us we can have no certainty of more lofty
truths.
This organism is naturally inactive since the Fall, which degraded man to the wo
rld of physical senses alone. The gross matter which envelops this interior sens
orium is a film which veils the internal eye, and therefore prevents the exterio
r eye from seeing into spiritual realms. This same matter muffles our internal h
earing, so that we are deaf to the sounds of the metaphysical world; it so paral
yses our spiritual speech that we can scarcely stammer words of sacred import, w
ords we fully pronounced once, and by virtue of which we held authority over the
elements and the external world.
The opening of this spiritual sensorium is the mystery of the New Man--the myste
ry of Regeneration, and of the vital union between God and man--it is the nobles
t object of religion on earth, that religion whose sublime goal is none
[p. 8]
other than to unite men with God in Spirit and in Truth.
We can therefore easily see by this how it is that religion tends always towards
the subjection of the senses. It does so because it desires to make the spiritu
al man dominant, in order that the spiritual or truly rational man may govern th
e man of sense. Philosophy feels this truth, only its error consists in not appr
ehending the true source of reason, and because she would replace it by individu
ality by sensuous reason.
As man has internally a spiritual organ and a sensorium to receive the true prin
ciple of divine wisdom, or a true motive for the will or divine love, he has als
o exteriorly a physical and material sensorium to receive the appearance of ligh
t and truth. As external nature can have no absolute truth, but only phenomenall
y relative, therefore, human reason cannot cognise pure truth, it can but appreh
end through the appearance of phenomena, which excites the lust of the eye, and
in this as a source of action consists the corruption of sensuous man and the de
gradation of nature.
This exterior sensorium in man is composed of frail matter, whereas the internal
sensorium is organized fundamentally from incorruptible, transcendental, and me
taphysical substance.
The first is the cause of our depravity and our mortality, the second the cause
of our incorruptibility and of our immortality.
[p. 9]
In the regions of material and corruptible nature mortality hides immortality, t
herefore all our trouble results from corruptible mortal matter. In order that m
an should be released from this distress, it is necessary that the immortal and
incorruptible principle, which dwells within, should expand and absorb the corru
ptible principle, so that the envelope of the senses should be opened, and man a
ppear in his pristine purity.
This natural envelope is a truly corruptible substance found in our blood, formi
ng the fleshly bonds binding our immortal spirits under the servitude of the mor
tal flesh.
This envelope can be rent more or less in every man, and this places him in grea
ter spiritual liberty, and makes him more cognisant of the transcendental world.
There are three different degrees in the opening of our spiritual sensorium.
The first degree reaches to the moral plane only, the transcendental world energ
ises through us in but by interior action, called inspiration.
The second and higher degree opens this sensorium to the reception of the spirit
ual and the intellectual, and the metaphysical world works in us by interior ill
umination.
The third degree, which is the highest and most seldom attained, opens the whole
inner man. It breaks the crust which fills our spiritual eyes and ears; it reve
als the kingdom of spirit, and enables
[p. 10]
us to see objectively, metaphysical, and transcendental sights; hence all vision
s are explained fundamentally.
Thus we have an internal sense of objectivity as well as externally. Only the ob
jects and the senses are different. Exteriorly animal and sensual motives act in
us and corruptible sensuous matter energises. Interiorly it is metaphysical and
indivisible substance which gains admittance within, and the incorruptible and
immortal essence of our Spirit receives its influence. Nevertheless, generally t
hings pass much in the same way interiorly as they do externally. The law is eve
rywhere the same. Hence, as the spirit or our internal man has quite other sense
s, and quite another objective sight from the rational man; one need not be surp
rised that it (the spirit) should remain an enigma for the scientists of our age
, for those who have no objective sense of the transcendental and spiritual worl
d. Hence they measure the supernatural by the measurement of the senses. However
, we owe a debt of gratitude towards the philosopher Kant for his view of the tr
uths we have promulgated.
Kant has shown incontestably that the natural reason can know absolutely nothing
of what is supernatural, and that it can never understand analytically or synth
etically, neither can it prove the possibility of the reality of Love, Spirit, o
r of the Deity.
This is a great truth, lofty and beneficial for our
[p. 11]
epoch, though it is true that St Paul has already enunciated it (1 Cor. i. 2-24)
. But the Pagan philosophy of Christian scientists has been able to overlook it
up to Kant. The virtue of this truth is double. First, it puts insurmountable li
mits to the sentiment, to the fanaticism and to the extravagance of carnal reaso
n. Then it shows by dazzling contrast the necessity and divinity of Revelation.
It proves that our human reason, in its state of unfoldment, has no other object
ive source for the supernatural than revelation, the only source of instruction
in Divine things or of the spiritual world, the soul and its immortality; hence
it follows that without revelation it is absolutely impossible to suppose or con
jecture anything regarding these matters.
We are, therefore, indebted to Kant for proving philosophically now-a-days, what
long ago was taught in a more advanced and illuminated school, that without rev
elation no knowledge of God, neither any doctrine touching the soul, could be at
all possible.
It is therefore clear that a universal Revelation must serve as a fundamental ba
sis to all mundane religion.
Hence, following Kant, it is clear that the transmundane knowledge is wholly ina
ccessible to natural reason, and that God inhabits a world of light, into which
no speculation of the unfolded reason can penetrate. Thus the rational man, or m
an of human reason, has no sense of transcendental reality, and
[p. 12]
therefore it was necessary that it should be revealed to him, for which faith is
required, because the means are given to him by faith whereby his inner sensori
um unfolds, and through which he can apprehend the reality of truths otherwise i
ncapable of being understood by the natural man.
It is quite true that with new senses we can acquire sense of further reality. T
his reality exists already, but is not known to us, because we lack the organ by
which to cognise it. One must not lay the fault to the percept, but on the rece
ptive organ.
With, however, the development of the new organ we have a new perception, a sens
e of new reality. Without it the spiritual world cannot exist for us, because th
e organ rendering it objective to us is not developed.
With, however, its unfoldment, the curtain is all at once raised, the impenetrab
le veil is torn away, the cloud before the Sanctuary lifts, a new world suddenly
exists for us, scales fall from the eyes, and we are at once transported from t
he phenomenal world to the regions of truth.
God alone is substance, absolute truth; He alone is He who is, and we are what H
e has made us. For Him, all exists in Unity; for us, all exists in multiplicity.
A great many men have no more idea of the development of the inner sensorium tha
n they have of the true and objective life of the spirit, which
[p. 13]
they neither perceive nor foresee in any manner. Hence it is impossible to them
to know that one can comprehend the spiritual and transcendental, and that one c
an be raised to the supernatural, even to vision.
The great and true work of building the Temple consists solely in destroying the
miserable Adamic hut and in erecting a divine temple; this means, in other word
s, to develop in us the interior sensorium, or the organ to receive God. After t
his process, the metaphysical and incorruptible principle rules over the terrest
rial, and man begins to live, not any longer in the principle of self-love, but
in the Spirit and in the Truth, of which he is the Temple.
The moral law then evolves into love for one's neighbour in deed and in truth, w
hereas for the natural man it is but a simple attitude of thought; and the spiri
tual man, regenerated in spirit, sees all in its essence, of which the natural m
an has only the forms void of thought, mere empty sounds, symbols and letters, w
hich are all dead images without interior spirit. The lofty aim of religion is t
he intimate union of man with God; and this union is possible in this world; but
it only can be by the opening of our inner sensorium, which enables our hearts
to become receptive to God.
Therein are mysteries that our philosophy does not dream of, the key to which is
not to be found in scholastic science.
Meanwhile, a more advanced school has always
[p. 14]
existed to whom this deposition of all science has been confided, and this schoo
l was the community illuminated interiorly by the Saviour, the society of the El
ect, which has continued from the first day of creation to the present time; its
members, it is true, are scattered all over the world, but they have always bee
n united in the spirit and in one truth; they have had but one intelligence and
one source of truth, but one doctor and one master; but in whom resides substant
ially the whole plenitude of God, and who alone initiates them into the high mys
teries of Nature and the Spiritual World.
This community of light has been called from all time the invisible celestial Ch
urch, or the most ancient of all communities, of which we will speak more fully
in our next letter.

[p. 15]
LETTER II
IT is necessary, my dear brothers in the Lord, to give you a clear idea of the i
nterior Church; of that illuminated Community of God which is scattered througho
ut the world, but which is governed by one truth and united in one spirit.
This enlightened community has existed since the first day of the world's creati
on, and its duration will be to the last day of time.
This community possesses a School, in which all who thirst for knowledge are ins
tructed by the Spirit of Wisdom itself; and all the mysteries of God and of natu
re are preserved in this School for the children of light. . . . Perfect knowled
ge of God, of nature, and of humanity are the objects of instruction in this sch
ool. It is from her that all truths penetrate into the world, she is the School
of the Prophets, and of all who search for wisdom, and it is in this community a
lone that truth and the explanation of all mystery is to be found. It is the mos
t hidden of communities yet possesses members from many circles; of such is this
School. From all time there has been an exterior school based on the interior o
ne, of which it is but the outer expression. From all time, therefore, there
[p. 16]
has been a hidden assembly, a society of the Elect, of those who sought for and
had capacity for light, and this interior society was called the interior Sanctu
ary or Church. All that the external Church possesses in symbol ceremony or rite
is the letter expressive outwardly of the spirit of truth residing in the inter
ior Sanctuary.
Hence this Sanctuary composed of scattered members, but tied by the bonds of per
fect unity and love, has been occupied from the earliest ages in building the gr
and Temple through the regeneration of humanity, by which the reign of God will
be manifest. This society is in the communion of those who have most capacity fo
r light, i.e., the Elect. The Elect are united in truth, and their Chief is the
Light of the World himself, Jesus Christ, the One Anointed in light, the single
mediator for the human race, the Way, the Truth, and the Life--Primitive light,
wisdom, and the only medium by which man can return to God.
The interior Church was formed immediately after the fall of man, and received f
rom God at first-hand the revelation of the means by which fallen humanity could
be again raised to its rights and delivered from its misery. It received the pr
imitive charge of all revelation and mystery; it received the key of true scienc
e, both divine and natural.
But when men multiplied, the frailty of man and his weakness necessitated an ext
erior society
[p. 17]
which veiled the interior one, and concealed the spirit and the truth in the let
ter. Because many people were not capable of comprehending great interior truth,
and the danger would have been too great in confiding the most Holy to incapabl
e people. Therefore, interior truths were wrapped in external and perceptible ce
remonies, so that men, by the perception of the outer, which is the symbol of th
e interior, might by degrees be enabled safely to approach the interior spiritua
l truths.
But the inner truth has always been confided to him who in his day had the most
capacity for illumination, and he became the sole guardian of the original Trust
, as High Priest of the Sanctuary.
When it became necessary that interior truths should be enfolded in exterior cer
emony and symbol, on account of the real weakness of men who were not capable of
bearing the Light of Light, then exterior worship began. It was, however, alway
s the type and symbol of the interior, that is to say, the symbol of the true ho
mage offered to God in spirit and in truth.
The difference between spiritual and animal man, and between rational and sensua
l man, made the exterior and interior imperative. Interior truth passed into the
external wrapped in symbol and ceremony, so that sensuous man could observe, an
d be gradually thereby led to interior truth. Hence external worship was symboli
cally typical of interior truths, and of the true relationship between man
[p. 18]
and God before and after the Fall, and of his most perfect reconciliation. All t
he symbols of external worship are based upon the three fundamental relations--t
he Fall, the Reconciliation, and the Complete Atonement.
The care of the external service was the occupation of priests, and every father
of a family was in the ancient times charged with this duty. First fruits and t
he first born among animals were offered to God, symbolizing that all that prese
rves and nourishes us comes from Him; also that animal man must be killed to mak
e room for rational and spiritual man.
The external worship of God would never have been separated from interior servic
e but for the weakness of man which tends too easily to forget the spirit in the
letter, but the spirit of God is vigilant to note in every nation those who are
able to receive light, and they are employed as agents to spread the light acco
rding to man's capacity, and to revivify the dead letter.
Through these divine instruments the interior truths of the Sanctuary were taken
into every nation, and modified symbolically according to their customs, capaci
ty for instruction, climate, and receptiveness. So that the external types of ev
ery religion, worship, ceremonies and Sacred Books in general have more or less
clearly, as their object of instruction, the interior truths of the Sanctuary, b
y which man, but only in the latter days, will be
[p. 19]
conducted to the universal knowledge of the one Absolute Truth.
The more the external worship of a people has remained united with the spirit of
esoteric truth, the purer its religion; but the wider the difference between th
e symbolic letter and the invisible truth, the more imperfect has become the rel
igion; even so far among some nations as to degenerate into polytheism. Then the
external form entirely parted from its inner truth, when ceremonial observances
without soul or life remained alone.
When the germs of the most important truths had been carried everywhere by God's
agents, He chose a certain people to raise up a vital symbol destined by Him to
manifest forth the means by which He intended to govern the human race in its p
resent condition, and by which it would be raised into complete purification and
perfection.
God Himself communicated to this people its exterior religious legislation, He g
ave all the symbols and enacted all the ceremonies, and they contained the impre
ss, as it were, of the great esoteric truth of the Sanctuary.
God consecrated this external Church in Abraham, gave commandments through Moses
, and it received its highest perfection in the double message of Jesus Christ,
existing personally in poverty and suffering, and by the communication of His Sp
irit in the glory of the Resurrection.
Now, as God Himself laid the foundation of the
[p. 20]
external Church, the whole of the symbols of external worship formed the science
of the Temple and of the Priests in those days, because the mysteries of the mo
st sacred truths became external through revelation alone. The scientific acquai
ntance of this holy symbolism was the science to unite fallen man once more with
God, hence religion received its name from being the science of rebinding man w
ith God, to bring man back to his origin.
One sees plainly by this pure idea of religion in general that unity in religion
is within the inner Sanctuary, and that the multiplicity of external religions
can never alter the true unity which is at the base of every exterior.
The wisdom of the ancient temple alliance was preserved by priests and by prophe
ts.
To the priests was confided the external,--the letter of the symbol, hieroglyphi
cs. The prophets had the charge of the inner truth, and their occupation was to
continually recall the priest to the spirit in the letter, when inclined to lose
it. The science of the priests was that of the knowledge of exterior symbol.
That of the prophets was experimental possession of the truth of the symbols. In
the interior the spirit lived. There was, therefore, in the ancient alliance a
school of prophets and of priests, the one occupying itself with the spirit in t
he emblem, the other with the emblem itself. The priests had
[p. 21]
the external possession of the Ark, of the shewbread, of the candlesticks, of th
e manna, of Aaron's rod, and the prophets were in interior possession of the inn
er spiritual truth which was represented exteriorly by the symbols just mentione
d.
The external Church of the ancient alliance was visible, the interior Church was
always invisible, must be invisible, and yet must govern all, because force and
power are alone confided to her.
When the divine external [**] worship abandoned the interior worship, it fell, a
nd God proved by a remarkable chain of circumstances that the letter could not e
xist without the spirit, that it is only there to lead to the spirit, and it is
useless and even rejected by God if it fails in its object.
As the spirit of nature extends to the most sterile depths to vivify and preserv
e and cause growth in everything susceptible to its influence, likewise the spir
it of light spreads itself interiorly among nations to animate everywhere the de
ad letter by the living spirit.
This is why we find a Job among idolators, a Melchizedek among strange nations,
a Joseph with the Egyptian priests, a Moses in the country of Midian, as living
proofs the interior community of those who are capable of receiving light was un
ited
[p. 22]
by one spirit and one truth in all times and in all nations.
To these agents of light from the one inner community was united the Chief of al
l agents, Jesus Christ Himself, in the midst of time as royal priest after the o
rder of Melchizedek.
The divine agents of the ancient alliance hitherto represented only specialised
perfections of God; therefore a powerful movement was required which should show
all at once--all in one. A universal type appeared, which gave the real touch o
f perfect unity to the picture, which opened a fresh door, and destroyed the num
ber of the slavery of humanity.
The law of love began when the image emanating from wisdom itself showed to man
all the greatness of his being, vivified him anew, assured him of his immortalit
y, and raised his intellectual status to that of being the true temple for the s
pirit.
This Chief Agent of all, this Saviour of the World and universal Regenerator, cl
aimed man's whole attention to the primitive truth, whereby he can preserve his
existence and recover his former dignity. Through the conditions of His own abas
ement He laid the base of the redemption of man, and He promised to accomplish i
t completely one day through His Spirit. He showed also truly in part among His
apostles all that should come to pass in the future to all the Elect.
He linked the chain of the community of light among the Elect, to whom He sent t
he spirit of
[p. 23]
truth, and confided to them the true primitive instruction in all divine and nat
ural things, as a sign that He would never forsake His community.
When the letter and symbolic worship of the external Church of the ancient allia
nce had been realised by the Incarnation of the Saviour, and verified in His per
son, new symbols became requisite Tor external use, which showed us through the
letter the future accomplishment of universal redemption.
The rites and symbols of the external Christian Church were formed after the pat
tern of these unchangeable and fundamental truths, announcing things of a streng
th and of an importance impossible to describe, and revealed only to those who k
new the innermost Sanctuary.
This Sanctuary remains changeless, though external religion receives in the cour
se of time and circumstances varied modification, entailing separation from the
interior spirit which can alone preserve the letter. The profane idea of wishing
to "secularize" all that is Christian, and to Christianise all that is politica
l, changed the exterior edifice, and covered with the shadow of death all that w
as interior light and life. Hence divisions and heresies, and the spirit of Soph
istry ready to expound the letter when it had already lost the essence of truth.
Current incredulity increased corruption to its utmost point, attacking the edif
ice of Christianity in its fundamental parts, and the sacred interior
[p. 24]
was mingled with the exterior, already enfeebled by the ignorance of weak man.
Then was born Deism; this brought forth materialism, which looked on the union o
f man with superior forces as imaginary; then finally came forth, partly from th
e head and partly from the heart, the last degree of man's degradation--Atheism.
In the midst of all this, truth reposes inviolable in the inner Sanctuary.
Faithful to the spirit of truth, which promised never to abandon its community,
the members of the interior Church lived in silence, but in real activity, and u
nited the science of the temple of the ancient alliance with the spirit of the g
reat saviour of man--the spirit of the interior alliance, waiting humbly the gre
at moment when the Lord will call them, and will assemble his community in order
to give every dead letter external force and life.
This interior community of light is the reunion of all those capable of receivin
g light as Elect, and it is known as the Communion of Saints. The primitive rece
ptacle for all strength and truth, confided to it from all time--it alone, says
St Paul, is in the possession of the science of the Saints.
By it the agents of God were formed in every age, passing from the interior to t
he exterior, and communicating spirit and life to the dead letter as already sai
d.
This illuminated community has been through
[p. 25]
time the true school of God's spirit, and considered as school, it has its Chair
, its Doctor, it possesses a rule for students, it has forms and objects for stu
dy, and, in short, a method by which they study.
It has, also, its degrees for successive development to higher altitudes.
The first and lowest degree consists in the moral good, by which the single will
, subordinated to God, is led to God by the pure motive of willing with and to J
esus Christ, which it does through faith. The means by which the spirit of this
school acts are called inspirations.
The second degree consists in the rational intellectuality, by which the underst
anding of the man of virtue, who is united to God, is crowned with wisdom and th
e light of knowledge, and the means which the spirit uses to produce this is cal
led interior illumination.
The third and highest degree is the entire opening of our inner sensorium, by wh
ich the inner man perceives objectively and really, metaphysical verities. This
is the highest degree when faith passes into open vision, and the means the spir
it uses for this are real visions.
These are the three degrees of the school for true interior wisdom--that of the
illuminated Society. The same spirit which ripens men for this community also di
stributes its degrees by the co-action of the ripened subject.
This school of wisdom has been forever most
[p. 26]
secretly hidden from the world, because it is invisible and submissive solely to
divine government.
It has never been exposed to the accidents of time and to the weakness of man. B
ecause only the most capable were chosen for it, and the spirits who selected ma
de no error.
Through this school were developed the germs of all the sublime sciences, which
were first received by external schools, then clothed in other forms, and hence
degenerating.
This society of sages communicated, according to time and circumstances, unto th
e exterior societies their symbolic hieroglyphs, in order to attract man to the
great truths of their interior.
But all exterior societies subsist through this interior one giving them its spi
rit. As soon as external societies wish to be independent of the interior one, a
nd to transform a temple of wisdom into a political edifice, the interior societ
y retires and leaves only the letter without the spirit. It is thus that secret
external societies of wisdom were nothing but hieroglyphic screens, the truth re
maining inviolable in the sanctuary so that she might never be profaned.
In this interior society man finds wisdom and with her--All--not the wisdom of t
his world which is but scientific knowledge, which revolves round the outside bu
t never touches the centre (in which is contained all strength), but true wisdom
and men obeying her.
[p. 27]
All disputes, all controversies, all the things belonging to the false cares of
this world, fruitless discussions, useless germs of opinions which spread the se
eds of disunion, all error, schisms, and systems are banished. Neither calumny n
or scandal are known. Every man is honoured. Satire, that spirit which loves to
make its neighbour smart, is unknown. Love alone reigns.
Want and feebleness are protected, and rejoicings are made at the elevation and
greatness which man acquires.
We must not, however, imagine this society resembles any secret society, meeting
at certain times, choosing its leaders and members, united by special objects.
All societies, be what they may, can but come after this interior illuminated ci
rcle. This society knows none of the formalities which belong to the outer rings
, the work of man. In this kingdom of power all outward forms cease.
God himself is the Power always present. The best man of his times, the chief hi
mself, does not always know all the members, but the moment when it is the Will
of God that he should accomplish any object, he finds them in the world with cer
tainty to work for that purpose.
This community has no outside barriers. He who may be chosen by God is as the fi
rst, he presents himself among the others without presumption, and he is receive
d by the others without jealousy.
[p. 28]
If it be necessary that real members should meet together, they find and recogni
se each other with perfect certainty.
No disguise can be used, neither hypocrisy nor dissimulation could hide the char
acteristic qualities of this society, they are too genuine. All illusion is gone
, and things appear in their true form.
No one member can choose another, unanimous choice is required. All men are call
ed, the called may be chosen, if they become ripe for entrance.
Any one can look for the entrance, and any man who is within can teach another t
o seek for it; but only he who is fit can arrive inside.
Unprepared men occasion disorder in a community, and disorder is not compatible
with the Sanctuary. This thrusts out all who are not homogeneous.
Worldly intelligence seeks this Sanctuary in vain, fruitless also will be the ef
forts of malice to penetrate these great mysteries; all is undecipherable to him
who is not ripe, he can see nothing, read nothing in the interior.
He who is ripe is joined to the chain, perhaps often where he thought least like
ly, and at a point of which he knew nothing himself.
Seeking to become ripe, should be effort of him who sees wisdom.
But there are methods by which ripeness is attained, for in this holy communion
is the primitive storehouse of the most ancient and original
[p. 29]
science of the human race, with the primitive mysteries also of all science. It
is the unique and really illuminated community which is absolutely in possession
of the key to all mystery, which knows the centre and source of all nature and
creation. It is a society which unites superior strength to its own, and counts
its members from more than one world. It is the society whose members form a the
ocratic republic, which one day will be the Regent Mother of the whole World. [*
*]
Footnotes
^21:* I can't but think here that the words interior and exterior are transposed
in translating from the original German to the French from which I translate it
, but I put it as I find in the text of the very valuable edition to which I hav
e access.--I. de S.
^29:* Capitals are rarely employed. I always quote them, but occasionally use th
em in other places when the sense requires them, so as not to confuse the cases
and genders, for instance, esprit evidently requires to be written occasionally
Spirit, not spirit.

[p. 30]
LETTER III
THE absolute truth lying in the centre of Mystery is like the sun, it blinds ord
inary sight and man sees only the shadow. The eagle alone can gaze at the dazzli
ng light, likewise only the prepared soul can bear its lustre. Nevertheless the
great Something which is the inmost of the Holy Mysteries has never been hidden
from the piercing gaze of him who can bear the light.
God and nature have no mysteries for their children. They are caused by the weak
ness of our nature, unable to support light, because it is not yet organised to
bear the chaste light of unveiled truth.
This weakness is the Cloud that covers the Sanctuary; this is the curtain which
veils the Holy of Holies.
But in order that man may recover the veiled light, strength and dignity, Divini
ty bends to the weakness of its creatures, and writes the truth that is interior
and eternal mystery on the outside of things, so that man can transport himself
through this to their spirit.
These letters are the ceremonies or the rituals of religion, which lead man to t
he interior life of union with God.
[p. 31]
Mystic hieroglyphs are these letters also; they are sketches and designs holding
interior and holy truth.
Religion and the Mysteries go hand in hand to lead our brethren to truth, both h
ave for object the reversing and renewing of our natures, both have for the end
the re-building of a temple inhabited by Wisdom and Love, or God with man.
But religion and the Mysteries would be useless phenomena if Divinity had not al
so accorded means to attain these great ends.
But these means are only in the innermost of the sanctuary. The Mysteries are re
quired to build a temple to Religion, and religion is required to unite Man with
God.
Such is the greatness of religion, and such the exalted dignity of the Mysteries
from all time.
It would be unjust to you, beloved brothers, that we should think that you have
never regarded the Holy Mysteries in this real aspect, the one which shows them
as the only means able to preserve in purity and integrity the doctrine of the i
mportant truths concerning God, nature, and man. This doctrine was couched in ho
ly symbolic language, and the truths which it contained having been gradually tr
anslated among the outer circle into the ordinary languages of man, became in co
nsequence more obscure and unintelligible.
The Mysteries, as you know, beloved brothers, promise things which are and which
will remain
[p. 32]
always the heritage of but a small number of men; these are the mysteries which
can neither be bought nor sold publicly, and can only be acquired by a heart whi
ch has attained to wisdom and love.
He in whom this holy flame has been awakened lives in true happiness, content wi
th everything and in everything free. He sees the cause of human corruption and
knows that it is inevitable. He hates no criminal, he pities him, and seeks to r
aise him who has fallen, and to restore the wanderer, because he feels notwithst
anding all the corruption, in the whole there is no taint.
He sees with a clear eye the underlying truth in the foundation of all religion,
he knows the sources of superstition and of incredulity, as being caused by mod
ifications of truth which have not attained perfect equilibrium.
We are assured, my esteemed brothers, that you consider the true Mystic from thi
s aspect, and that you will not attribute to his royal art, that which the misdi
rected energy of some isolated individuals have made of this art.
It is, therefore, with these views, which accord exactly with ours, that you wil
l compare religion, and the mysteries of the holy schools of Wisdom, to loving s
isters who have watched over the good of mankind since the necessity of their bi
rth.
Religion divides itself into exterior and interior religion, exterior signifying
ceremony; and interior, worship in spirit and in truth; the outer schools
[p. 33]
possessing the letter and the symbol, the inner ones, the spirit and meaning--bu
t the outer schools were united to the inner ones by ceremonies, as also the out
er schools of the mysteries were linked with the inner one by means of symbol.
Thus religion can never be merely ceremony, but hidden and holy mysteries penetr
ate through symbol into the outer worship to prepare men properly for the worshi
p of God in spirit and in truth.
Very soon the night of symbol will disappear, the light will bring forth the day
and the mysteries no longer veiled will show themselves in the splendour of ful
l truth.
The vestibule of nature, the temple of reason and the sanctuary of Revelation, w
ill form but one Temple. Thus the great edifice will be completed, the edifice w
hich consists in the re-union of man, nature, and God.
A perfect knowledge of man, of nature, and of God will be the lights which will
enable the leaders of humanity to bring back from every side their wandering bro
thers, those who are led by the prejudices of reason, by the turbulence of passi
ons, to the ways of peace and knowledge.
We arc approaching the period of light, and the reign of wisdom and love, that o
f God who is the source of light; Brothers of light, there is but one religion w
hose simple truth spreads in all religions like branches, returning through mult
iplicity into the unity of the tree.
[p. 34]
Sons of truth, there is but one order, but one Brotherhood, but one association
of men thinking alike in the one object of acquiring the light. From this centre
misunderstanding has caused innumerable Orders, but all will return from the mu
ltiplicity of opinions, to the only truth and to the true Order, the association
of those who are able to receive the light, the Community of the Elect.
With this measure all religions and all orders of man must be measured. Multipli
city is in the ceremony of the exterior; truth only in the interior. The trend o
f these brotherhoods is in the variety of explanation of the symbols caused by t
he lapse of time, needs of the day, and other circumstances. The true Community
of Light can be only one.
The exterior symbol is only the sheath which holds the inner; it may change and
multiply, but it can never weaken the truth of the interior; moreover, it was ne
cessary; we ought to seek it and try to decipher it to discover the meaning of t
he spiritual interior.
All errors, divisions, all mis-understandings in Religion and in secret societie
s only concern the letter. What rests behind it remains always pure and holy.
Soon the time for those who seek the light will be accomplished, for the day com
es when the old will be united to the new, the outer to the inner, the high with
the low, the heart with the brain, man with God, and this epoch is destined for
the present
[p. 35]
age. Do not ask, beloved brothers, . . . why the present age? . . .
Everything has its time for beings subject to time and space. It is in such wise
according to the unvarying law of the Wisdom of God, who has co-ordinated all i
n harmony and perfection.
The elect should first labour to acquire both wisdom and love, in order to earn
the gift of power, which unchangeable Divinity gives only to those who know and
those who love.
Morning follows night, and the sun rises, and all moves on to full mid-day, wher
e all shadows disappear in his vertical splendour. Thus, the letter of truth mus
t exist; then comes the practical explanation, then the truth itself; only truth
can comprehend truth; then alone can the spirit of truth appear which sets the
seals closing the light. He who now can receive the truth will understand. It is
to you, much loved brothers, you who labour to reach truth, you who have so fai
thfully preserved the glyph of the holy mysteries in your temple, it is to you t
hat the first ray of truth will be directed; this ray will pierce through the cl
oud of mystery, and will announce the full day and the treasure which it brings.
Do not ask who those are who write to you; look at the spirit not the letter, th
e thing, not at persons.
Neither pride, nor self seeking, neither does any unworthy motive, exist in our
retreats; we know the
[p. 36]
object and the destination of man, and the light which lights us works in all ou
r actions.
We are especially called to write to you, dear brothers of light; and that which
gives power to our commission is the truth which we possess, and which we pass
on to you on the least sign, and according to the measure of the capacity of eac
h.
Light is apt for communication, where there is reception and capacity, but it co
nstrains no one, and waits its reception tranquilly.
Our desire, our aim, our office is to revivify the dead letter, and to spiritual
ise the symbols, turn the passive into the active, death into life; but this we
cannot do by ourselves, but through the spirit of light of Him who is Wisdom and
the Light of the world.
Until the present time the Inner Sanctuary has been separated from the Temple, a
nd the Temple beset with those who belong only to the precincts; but the time is
coming when the Innermost will be re-united with the Temple, in order that thos
e who are in the Temple can influence those who are in the outer courts, so that
the outer pass in.
In our sanctuary all the hidden mysteries are preserved intact, they have never
been profaned.
This sanctuary is invisible, as is a force which is only known through its actio
n.
By this short description, my dear brothers, you can tell who we are, and it wil
l be superfluous to
[p. 37]
assure you that we do not belong to those restless natures who seek to build in
this common life an ideal after their own fantastic imaginations. Neither do we
belong to those who wish to play a great part in the world, and who promise mira
cles that they themselves do not understand. We do not represent either that cla
ss of minds, who, resenting the condition of certain things, have no object but
the desire of dominating others, and who love adventure and exaggeration.
We can also assure you that we belong to no other sect or association than the o
ne true and great one of those who are able to receive the light. We are not als
o of those who think it their right to mould all after their own model, the arro
gance to seek to re-model all other societies; we assure you faithfully that we
know exactly the innermost of religion and of the Holy Mysteries; and that we po
ssess with absolute certainty, all that has been surmised to be in the Adytum, a
nd that this said possession gives us the strength to justify our commission, an
d to impart to the dead letter and hieroglyphic everywhere both spirit and life.
The treasures in our sanctuary are many; we understand the spirit and meaning o
f all symbols and all ceremony which have existed since the day of Creation to t
he present time, as well as the most interior truths of all the Holy Books, with
the laws and customs of primitive people.
We possess a light by which we are anointed, and
[p. 38]
by means of which we read the hidden and secret things of nature.
We possess a fire which feeds us, and which gives us the strength to act upon ev
erything in nature. We possess a key to open the gate of mystery, and a key to s
hut nature's laboratory. We know of the existence of a bond which will unite us
to the Upper Worlds, and reveal to us their sights and their sounds. All the mar
vels of nature arc subordinate to our will by its being united with Divinity.
We have mastered the science which draws directly from nature, whence there is n
o error, but truth and light only.
In our School we are instructed in all things because our Master is the Light it
self and its essence. The plenitude of our scholarship is the knowledge of this
tie between the divine and spiritual worlds and of the spiritual world with the
elementary, and of the elementary world with the material world.
By these knowledges we are in condition to co-ordinate the spirits of nature and
the heart of man.
Our science is the inheritance promised to the Elect; otherwise, those who are d
uly prepared for receiving the light, and the practice of our science is in the
completion of the Divine union with the child of man.
We could often tell you, beloved brothers, of
[p. 39]
marvels relating to the hidden things in the treasury of the Sanctuary, which wo
uld amaze and astonish you; we could speak to you about ideas concerning which t
he profoundest philosophy is as removed as the earth from the sun, but to which
we arc near being one with the light of the innermost.
But our object is not to excite your curiosity, but to raise your desires to see
k the light at its source, where your search for wisdom will be rewarded and you
r longing for love satisfied, for wisdom and love dwell in our retreats. The sti
mulus of their reality and of their truth is our magical power.
We assure you that our treasures, though of infinite value, are concealed in so
simple a manner that they entirely baffle the researches of opinionated science,
and also though these treasures would bring to carnal minds both madness and so
rrow, nevertheless, they are, and they ever remain to us the treasures of the hi
ghest wisdom.
My best blessing upon you, O my brothers, if you understand these great truths.
The recovery of the triple word and of its power will be your reward.
Your happiness will be in having the strength to help to re-unite man with man,
and with nature and with God, which is the real work of every workman who has no
t rejected the Corner Stone.
Now we have fulfilled our trust and we have announced the approach of full day,
and the joining
[p. 40]
of the inner Sanctuary with the Temple; we leave the rest to your own free will.
We know well, to our bitter grief, that even as the Saviour was not understood i
n his personality, but was ridiculed and condemned in his humility, likewise als
o His spirit which will appear in glory will also be rejected and despised by ma
ny. Nevertheless the coming of His Spirit should be announced in the Temples in
order that these words should be fulfilled.
"I have knocked at your doors and you have not opened them to me; I have called
and you have not listened to my voice; I have invited you to the wedding, but yo
u were busy with other things."
May Peace and the light of the Spirit be with you!

[p. 41]
LETTER IV
AS infinity in numbers loses itself in the unit, and as the innumerable rays of
a circle are united in one single centre only, it is likewise with the Mysteries
; their hieroglyphics and infinite number of emblems have the object of exemplif
ying but one single truth. He who knows this has found the key to understand eve
rything all at once.
There is but one God, but one truth, and one way which leads to this grand Truth
. There is but one means of finding it.
He who has found this way possesses everything in its possession: all wisdom in
one book alone, all strength in one force, every beauty in one single object, al
l riches in one treasure only, every happiness in one perfect felicity. And the
sum of all these perfections is Jesus Christ, who was crucified and who lived ag
ain. Now, this great truth, expressed thus, is, it is true, only an object of fa
ith, but it can become also one of experimental knowledge, as soon as we are ins
tructed how Jesus Christ can be or become all this.
This great mystery was always an object of instruction in the Secret School of t
he invisible and interior Church; this great knowledge was understood
[p. 42]
in the earliest days of Christianity under the name of Disciplina Arcana. From t
his secret school are derived all the rites and ceremonies extant in the Outer C
hurch. But the spirit of these grand and simple verities was withdrawn into the
Interior, and in our day it is entirely lost as to the exterior.
It has been prophesied long ago, dear brothers, that all which is hidden shall b
e revealed in these latter days; but it has also been predicted that many false
prophets will arise, and the faithful are warned not to believe every spirit, bu
t to prove them if they really come from God, i John iv. 5. The apostle himself
explains how this truth is ascertained. He says, "Hereby know ye the Spirit of G
od, every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of G
od, and every spirit which confesseth not is not of God." That is to say, the sp
irit who separates in Him the Divine and human is not from God.
We confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and hence the spirit of truth
speaks by us. But the mystery that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of wide
extent and great depth, and in it is contained the knowledge of the divine-huma
n, and it is this knowledge that we are choosing to-day as object for our instru
ction.
As we are not speaking to neophytes in matters of faith, it will be much easier
for you, dear brothers, to receive the sublime truths which we will present
[p. 43]
to you, as without doubt you have already chosen as object for your holy meditat
ion various preparatory subjects.
Religion considered scientifically is the doctrine of the re-union of man separa
ted from God to man re-united to God. Hence its sole object is to unite every hu
man being to God, through which union alone can humanity attain its highest feli
city both temporally and spiritually.
This doctrine, therefore, of re-union is of the most sublime importance, and bei
ng a doctrine it necessarily must have a method by which it leads and teaches us
. The first is the knowledge of the correct means of re-union, and secondly the
teaching, after the knowledge of the correct means, how these means should be su
itably co-ordinated to the end.
This grand concept of re-union, on which all religious doctrine is concentrated,
could never have been known to man without revelation. It has always been altog
ether outside the sphere of scientific knowledge, but this very of man has made
revelation absolutely necessary to us, otherwise we could, unassisted, never ha
ve found the means of rising out of this state of ignorance.
Revelation entails the necessity of faith in revelation, because he who has no e
xperience or knowledge whatsoever of a thing must necessarily believe that he wi
shes to know and have experience. If faith fails, there is no desire for revelat
ion, and the
[p. 44]
mind of man closes by itself, its own door and road for discovering the methods
revealed by Revelation only. As action and re-action follow each other in nature
, so also inevitably revelation and faith act and re-act. One cannot exist witho
ut the other, and the more faith a man has the more will revelation be made to h
im of matters which lie in obscurity. It is true, and very true, that all the ve
iled truths of religions, even those heavily veiled ones, the most difficult one
s to us, will one day be revealed and justified before a tribunal of the most ri
gid Justice; but the weakness of men, the lack of penetration in perceiving the
relation and correspondence between physical and spiritual nature, requires that
the highest truths should only be imparted gradually. The holy obscurity of the
mysteries is thus on account of our weakness, because our eyes are enabled only
gradually to bear their full and dazzling light. In every grade at which the be
liever in Revelation arrives, he obtains clearer light, and this progressive ill
umination continues the more convincing, because every truth of faith so acquire
d becomes more and more vitalised, passing finally into conviction.
Hence faith is founded on our weakness, and also on the full light of revelation
which will, in its communication with us, direct us according to our capabiliti
es to the gradual understanding of things, so that in due order the cognisance o
f the most elevated truths will be ours.
[p. 45]
Those objects which are quite unknown to human sense are necessarily belonging t
o the domain of faith.
Man can only adore and be silent, but if he wishes to demonstrate matters which
cannot be manifested objectively, he necessarily falls into error.
Man should adore and be silent, therefore, until such time arrives when these ob
jects in the domain of faith become clearer, and, therefore, more easily recogni
sed. Everything proves itself by itself as soon as we have acquired the interior
experience of the truths revealed through faith, so soon as we are led by faith
to vision, that is to say, to full cognisance.
In all time have there been men illuminated of God who had this interior knowled
ge of the things of faith demonstrated objectively either in full or partly, acc
ording as the truths of faith passed into their understanding or their hearts. T
he first kind of vision was called divine illumination. The second was entitled
divine inspiration.
The inner sensorium was opened in many to divine and transcendental vision, call
ed ecstacy because this inner sensorium was so enlarged that it entirely dominat
ed the outer physical senses.
But this kind of man is always inexplicable, and he must remain such always to t
he man of mere sense who has no organs receptive to the transcendental and super
natural, "the natural man receiveth
[p. 46]
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him and he ca
nnot know them, because they are spiritually judged," 1 Cor. xi. 14, i.e., becau
se his spiritual senses are not open to the transcendental world, so that he can
have no more objective cognisance of such world than a blind man has of colour;
thus the natural man has lost these interior senses, or rather, the capacity fo
r their development is neglected almost to atrophy.
Thus mere physical man is, in general, spiritually blind, one of the further con
sequences of the Fall. Man then is doubly miserable; he not only has his eyes bl
indfolded to the sight of high truths, but his heart also languishes a prisoner
in the bonds of flesh and blood, which confine him to animal and sensuous pleasu
res to the hurt of more elevated and genuine ones. Therefore, are we slaves to c
oncupiscence, to the domination of tyrannical passions, and, therefore, do we dr
ag ourselves as paralysed sufferers supported on crutches; the one crutch being
the weak one of mere human reason, and the other, sentiment--the one daily givin
g us appearance instead of reality, the other making us constantly choose evil,
imagining it to be good. This is, therefore, our unhappy condition.
Men can only be happy when the bandage which intercepts the true light falls fro
m their eyes, and when the fetters of slavery are loosened from their hearts. Th
e blind must see, the lame must walk,
[p. 47]
before happiness can be understood. But the great and all-powerful law to which
the felicity or happiness of man is indissolubly attached is the one following--
"Man, let reason rule over your passions!"
For ages has man striven to teach and to preach, with, however, the result, afte
r so many centuries, of but the blind always leading the blind; for in all the f
oolishness of misery into which we have fallen, we do not yet see that man wants
more than man to raise us from this condition.
Prejudices and errors, crimes and vices, only change from century to century; th
ey are never extirpated from humanity; reason without illumination flickers fain
tly in every age, in the heavy air of spiritual darkness; the heart, exhausted w
ith passions, is also the same century after century.
There is but One who can heal these evils, but One who is able to open our inner
eyes, but One who can free us from the bonds of sensuality.
This One is Jesus Christ, the Saviour of Man, the Saviour because He wishes to o
bliterate from us all the consequences which follow as result from the blindness
of our natural reason, or the errors arising from the passions of ungoverned he
arts.
Very few men, beloved brothers, have a true and exact conception of the greatnes
s of the idea meant by the Redemption of Man; many suppose that Jesus Christ the
Lord has only redeemed or re-bought
[p. 48]
us by His Blood from damnation, otherwise the eternal separation of man from God
; but they do not believe that He could also deliver all those who are bound in
Him and confide in Him, from all the miseries of this earth plane!
Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World; He is the deliverer from all human wre
tchedness, and He has redeemed us from death and sin; how could He be all that,
if the world must languish perpetually in the shades of ignorance and in the bon
ds of passions? It has been already very clearly predicted in the Prophets that
the time of the Redemption of His people, the first Sabbath of time, will come.
Long ago ought we to have acknowledged this most consolatory promise; but the wa
nt of the true knowledge of God, of man, and of nature has been the real hindran
ce which has always obstructed our sight of the great Mysteries of the faith.
You must know, my brothers, that there is a dual nature, one pure, spiritual, im
mortal, and indestructible, the other impure, material, mortal, and destructible
. The pure nature was before the impure. This latter originated solely through t
he disharmony and disproportion of substances which form destructible nature. He
nce nothing is permanent until all disproportions and dissonances are eradicated
, so that all remains in harmony.
The incorrect conception regarding spirit and matter is one of the principal cau
ses which prevent
[p. 49]
many verities of faith from shining in their true lustre.
Spirit is a substance, an essence, an absolute reality. Hence its properties are
indestructibility, uniformity, penetration, indivisibility, and continuity. Mat
ter is not a substance, it is an aggregate. Hence it is destructible, divisible,
and subject to change.
The metaphysical world is one really existing perfectly pure and indestructible,
whose Centre we call Jesus Christ, and whose inhabitants are known by the names
of Angels and Spirits.
The physical world is that of phenomena, and it possesses no absolute truth, all
that we call truth here is but relative, the shadow and phenomena only of truth
.
Our reason here borrows all its ideas from the senses, hence they are lifeless a
nd dead. We draw everything from external objectivity, and our reason is like an
ape who imitates what nature shows him outwardly. Thus the light of the senses
is the principle of our earthly reason, sensuality the motive for our will, tend
ing therefore to animal wants and their satisfaction. It is true, however, that
we feel higher motives imperative, but up to the present we do not know either w
here to seek or where to find.
In this world everything is corruptible; it is useless to seek here for a pure p
rinciple of reason and morality or motive for the Will. This must be sought for
in a more exalted world--there, where
[p. 50]
all is pure and indestructible, where there reigns a Being all wisdom and all lo
ve. Thus the world neither can nor will become happy until this Real Being can b
e received by humanity in full and become its All in All.
Man, dear brothers, is composed of indestructible and metaphysical substance, as
well as of material and destructible substance, but in such a manner that the i
ndestructible and eternal is, as it were, imprisoned in the destructible matter.
Thus two contradictory natures are comprehended in the same man. The destructibl
e substance enchains us to the sensible, the other seeks to deliver us from thes
e chains, and to raise us to the spiritual. Hence the incessant combat between g
ood and evil.
The fundamental cause of human corruption is to be found in the corruptible matt
er from which man is formed. For this gross matter oppresses the action of the t
ranscendental and spiritual principle, and is the true cause, hence, of the blin
dness of our understanding, and the errors of our inclinations.
The fragility of a china vessel depends upon the clay from which it is formed. T
he most beautiful form that clay of any sort is able to receive must always rema
in fragile because the matter of which it is formed is also fragile. Thus do men
remain likewise frail notwithstanding all our external culture.
When we examine the causes of the obstacles
[p. 51]
keeping the natural man in such deep abasement, they are found in the grossness
of the matter in which the spiritual part is, as it were, buried and bound.
The inflexibility of fibres, the immovability of temperaments, that would wish t
o obey the refined stimulation of the spirit, are, as it were, the material chai
ns which bind them, preventing in us the action of the sublime functions of whic
h the spirit is capable.
The nerves and fluidity of the brain can only yield us rough and obscure notions
derived from phenomena, and not from truth and the things themselves; and as we
cannot, by the strength of our thinking powers alone, have sufficient balance t
o oppose representations strong enough to counteract the violence of external se
nsation, the result is that we are governed by our sensations, and the voice of
reason which speaks softly internally is deafened by the tumultuous noise of the
elements which keep our mechanism going.
It is true that reason strains to raise itself above this uproar, and wishes to
decide the combat, seeking to restore order by the light and force of its judgme
nt. But its action is only like the rays of the sun constantly hidden by clouds.
The grossness of all the matter in which material man consists, and the tissue o
f the whole edifice of his nature, is the cause of that disinclination which hol
ds the soul in continual imperfection.
[p. 52]
The heaviness of our thinking power in general is consequent upon dependence upo
n gross and unyielding matter, this same matter forming the true bonds of the fl
esh, and is the true source of all error and vice. Reason, which should be an ab
solute legislator, is continually slave to sensuality, which raises itself as re
gent and, governing the reason that is drooping in chains, follows its own desir
es.
This truth has been felt for long, and it has always been taught that reason sho
uld be sole legislator. It should govern the will and never be governed itself.
Great and small feel this truth; but no sooner is it desired to put it in execut
ion than the animal will vanquishes reason, and then the reason subjugates the a
nimal will; thus in every man the victory and defeat are alternate, hence this p
ower and counter-power are the cause of this perpetual oscillation between good
and evil, or the true and the false.
If man wishes to be led to the true in such manner that we can only act after th
e laws of reason, and from the purified will, it is absolutely necessary to cons
titute the pure reason sovereign in man. But how can this be done when the matte
r out of which many men is formed is more or less brutal, divisible and corrupti
ble, hence misery, illness, poverty, death, want, prejudices, errors, and vices,
the necessary consequence of the
[p. 53]
limitation of the immortal spirit in the bonds of brute and corruptible matter.
Sensuality is bound to rule if reason be fettered.
Yes, friends and brothers, such is the general fate of man, and as this state of
things is propagated from man to man, it may in all justice be called the hered
itary corruption of man.
We observe, in general, that the powers of reason act upon the heart, but in rel
ation only to the specific constitution of the matter of which man is made. Thus
it is extremely remarkable when we think that the sun vivifies this animal matt
er according to the measure of the distance from this terrestrial body, that it
makes it suitable to the functions of animal economy, but at one degree more or
less raised from spiritual influence. Diversity of nations, their properties wit
h regard to climate, the variety of character, passions, manners, prejudices and
customs, even their virtues and their vices, depend entirely upon the specific
constitution of the matter from which they are formed, and in which the imprison
ed spirit operates accordingly. Man's capacity for culture is modified to this c
onstitution, likewise his science, which can only affect people as far as there
is matter present, susceptible to such modification, and in this modification co
nsists the capacity for culture suitable to such people, which suitability depen
ds partly on climate, partly on descent.
Generally, we find in each zone man much the
[p. 54]
same everywhere, weak and sensual, wise just in so far as his physical matter al
lows reason to triumph over the sensuous, or foolish if the sensuous obtains mas
tery over the more or less fettered spirit. In this lies the evil and the good s
pecially belonging to each nation, as well as to each isolated individual. We fi
nd in the world at large the same corruption inherent in the matter from which m
an is made, only under various forms and modifications.
From the lowest animal condition of savage nature man rises to the idea of the s
ocial state, primarily through his wants and desires, strength and cunning, qual
ities especially animal, inherently his as the animal develops thence gradually
into other forms.
The modifications of these fundamental animal tendencies are endless; and the hi
ghest degree to which human culture as acquired by the world, has attained, up t
o the present has not carried things further than the putting of a finer polish
on the substance of his animal instincts. This means to say we are raised from t
he rank of the brute to that of the refined animal.
But this period was necessary, because on its accomplishment begins a new era, w
hen the animal instincts being fully developed, there commences the stage of evo
lution of the more elevated desires towards light and reason.
Jesus Christ has written in our hearts in exceedingly
[p. 55]
beautiful words this great truth, that man must seek in his common clay for the
cause of all his sorrows. When He said, "The best man, he who strives the most t
o arrive at truth, sins seven times a day," He wished to say by this, in the man
of the finest organisation, the seven powers of the spirit are still closed, th
erefore the seven sensuous actions surmount them daily after their respective fa
shions.
Thus the best man is exposed to error and passions; the best man is weak and sin
ful; the best man is not a free man, and, therefore, exempt from pain and troubl
e; the best man is subject to sickness and death, and why? Because all these are
the natural inevitable consequences incidental to the qualities of the corrupt
matter of which he is formed.
Therefore, there could be no hope of higher happiness for humanity so long as th
is corruptible and material forms the principal substantial part of his being.
The impossibility of mankind to transport itself, of itself, to true perfection,
is a despairing thought, but, at the same time, one full of consolation, becaus
e, in consequence of this radical impossibility, and because of it, a more exalt
ed and perfect being than man permitted himself to be clothed in this mortal and
destructible envelope in order to make the mortal immortal, and the destructibl
e indestructible; and in this object is to be
[p. 56]
sought the true reason for the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the actual substantial Word by which all is made,
and which existed from the beginning, Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God working in
everything, was as the centre of Paradise of the world and of light. He was the
only real organism by which alone Divine strength could be communicated, and th
is organism is of immortal and pure nature, that indestructible substance which
gives new life and raises all things to happiness and perfection. This pure inco
rruptible substance is the pure element in which spiritual man lived.
From this perfect element, which God only can inhabit, and the substance out of
which the first man was formed, from it was the first man separated by the Fall.
By the partaking of the Tree of Good and Evil, of the mixture, the good and inc
orruptible principle with the bad and corruptible one, he was self-poisoned, so
that his immortal essence retreated interiorly, and the mortal, pressing forward
, clothed him externally. Thus, then, disappeared immortality, happiness, and li
fe, and mortality and death were the results of this change.
Many men cannot understand the idea of the Tree of Good and Evil; this tree was,
however, the product of moveable but central matter, but in which destructibili
ty had somewhat the superiority over the indestructible. The premature use of th
is
[p. 57]
fruit was that which poisoned Adam, robbing him of his immortality and envelopin
g him in this material and mortal clay, and thenceforward he fell a prey to the
Elements which originally he governed. This unhappy event was, however, the reas
on why Immortal Wisdom, the pure metaphysical element, clothed itself with a mor
tal body and voluntarily sacrificed himself, so that the Interior Powers could p
enetrate into the centre of the destruction, and could then ferment gradually, c
hanging the mortal to the immortal.
Thus, when it came about quite naturally that immortal man became subject to mor
tality through the enjoyment of mortal matter, it also happened quite naturally
that mortal man could only recover his former dignity through the enjoyment of I
mmortal Matter.
All passes naturally and simply under God's Reign, but in order to understand th
is simplicity it is requisite to have pure ideas of God, of nature, and of man.
And if the sublimest Truths of faith are still, for us, wrapped in impenetrable
obscurity, the reason for this is because we have up to the present dissolved th
e connection between God, nature, and man.
Jesus Christ has spoken to His most intimate friends when He was still on this e
arth, of the grand mystery of Regeneration, but all that He said was obscure to
them, they could not then receive it; thus the development of these great
[p. 58]
Truths was reserved for latter days, for it is the greatest and the last Mystery
of Religion, in which all the others retreat as to a Unity.
Regeneration is no other than a dissolution of, and a release from this impure a
nd corruptible matter, which enchains our immortal essence, plunging into deathl
y sleep its obstructed vital force. Therefore, there must necessarily be a real
method to eradicate this poisonous ferment which breeds so much suffering for us
, and thereby to liberate the obstructed vitality.
There is, however, no other means to find this excepting by religion, for religi
on looked at scientifically being the doctrine which proclaims the re-union with
God, it must of necessity show us how to arrive at this re-union.
Is not Jesus the life giving intelligence? He gives us the principal object of t
he Bible and of all the desires, hopes, and efforts of the Christians. Have we n
ot received from our Lord and Master while still He walked with His disciples, t
he profoundest solutions of the most hidden truths? Did not our Lord and Master
when He was with them in His Body after His resurrection give them the highest
revelation with regard to His Person, and did He not lead them still more deeply
into central knowledge of truth?
Will He not realise that which He said in His Sacerdotal prayer, St. John xvii.
22, 23: "And the glory which thou hast given to me I have given
[p. 59]
unto them, that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and they in Me,
that they may be perfected into One."
As the disciples of the Lord could not comprehend this great mystery of the new
and last alliance, Jesus Christ transmitted it to the latter days, of the future
now arriving, when He said, "And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have giv
en unto them, that they may be one even as We are One," St. John xvii. 22. This
alliance is called the Union of Peace. It is then that the law of God will be en
graven in the heart of our hearts; we shall all know the Lord; and we shall be H
is people, and He will be our God.
All is already prepared for this actual possession of God, this union with God r
eally possible here below; and the holy element, the efficacious medicine for hu
manity, is revealed by God's Spirit. The table of the Lord is ready and everyone
is invited; the " true bread of Angels " is prepared.
The holiness and the greatness of the Mystery which contains within itself every
mystery here obliges us to be silent, and we are not permitted to speak more th
an concerning its effects.
The corruptible and destructible is destroyed, and replaced by the incorruptible
and by the indestructible. The inner sensorium opens and links us on to the spi
ritual world. We are enlightened by wisdom, led by truth, and nourished with the
torch of love. Unimagined strength
[p. 60]
develops in us wherewith to vanquish the world, the flesh and the devil. Our who
le being is renewed and made suitable for the actual dwelling-place of the Spiri
t of God. Command over nature, intercourse with the upper worlds, and the deligh
t of visible intercourse with the Lord are granted also!
The hoodwink of ignorance falls from our eyes, the bonds of sensuality break, an
d we rejoice in the liberty of God's children.
We have told you the chiefest and most important fact, if your heart having the
thirst for truth has laid hold on the pure ideas that you have gathered from all
this, and have received in its entirety the grandeur and the blessedness of the
thing itself as object of desire, we will tell you further.
May the Glory of the Lord and the renewing of your whole being be meanwhile the
highest of your hopes!

[p. 61]
LETTER V
IN our last letter, my dear brothers (and sisters), you granted me your earnest
attention to that highest of mysteries, the real possession of God; it is theref
ore necessary to give you fuller light on this subject.
Man, as we know, is unhappy in this world because he is made out of destructible
matter that is subject to trouble and sorrow.
The fragile envelope--i.e., his body--exposes him to the violence of the element
s, pain, poverty, suffering, illnesses. This is his normal fate; his immortal sp
irit languishing in the bonds of sense. Man is unhappy, because he is ill in bod
y and soul, and he possesses no true panacea either for his body or for his soul
.
Those whose duty it is to govern and lead other men to happiness, are as other m
en, also weak and subject to the same passions and prejudices.
Therefore, what fate can humanity expect? Must the greater part of it be always
unfortunate? Is there no salvation for all?
Brothers, if humanity as a whole is ever capable of being raised to a condition
of true happiness,
[p. 62]
such state can only be possible under the following conditions:--
First, poverty, pain, illness and sorrow must become much less frequent. Secondl
y, passions, prejudices and ignorance must diminish.
Is this at all possible with the nature of man, when experience proves that, fro
m century to century, suffering only assumes fresh form; that passions, prejudic
es and errors always cause the same evils; and when we realise that all these th
ings only change shape, and that man in every age remains much the same weak man
?
There is a terrible judgment pronounced upon the human race, and this judgment i
s--men can never become happy so long as they will not become wise; but they wil
l never become wise, while sensuality governs reason, while the spirit languishe
s in the bonds of flesh and blood.
Where is the man that has no passions? Let him shew himself. Do we not all wear
the chains of sensuality more or less heavily? Are we not all slaves? All sinner
s?
This realisation of our low estate excites in us the desire to be raised beyond
it, and we lift up our eyes on high, and an angel's voice says--the sorrows of m
an shall be comforted.
Man being sick body and soul, this mortal sickness must have a cause, and this c
ause is to be found in the very matter out of which man is made.
[p. 63]
The destructible imprisons the indestructible, the ferment of sin is in us, and
in this ferment is human corruption, and its propagation and consequences form t
he perpetuation of original sin.
The healing of humanity is only possible through the destruction of this ferment
of sin, hence we have need of a physician and a remedy that really can cure us.
But an invalid cannot be cured by another; the man of destructible matter canno
t re-make himself of indestructible matter; dead matter cannot awake other dead,
the blind cannot lead the blind.
Only the Perfect can bring anything to perfection; only the Indestructible can m
ake the destructible likewise; only the Living can wake the dead.
This Physician and this active Medicine cannot be found in death and destruction
, only in superior nature where all is perfection and life!
The lack of the knowledge of the union of Divinity with nature, nature with man,
is the true cause of all prejudice and error. Theologians, philosophers, morali
sts, all wish to regulate the world, and they fill it with endless contradiction
s.
Theologians do not see the union of God with nature and fall therefore into erro
r.
Modern philosophers study only matter, and not the connection of pure nature wit
h divine nature, and therefore announce the falsest opinions.
Moralists will not recognise the inherent corruption
[p. 64]
of human nature, and they expect to cure by words, when means are absolutely nec
essary.
Thus the world, man and God, continue in permanent dissension; one opinion drive
s out another; superstition and incredulity take turn about in dominating societ
y, separating man from the word of truth when he has so much dire need of approa
ching her.
It is only in the true Schools of Wisdom that one can learn to know God, nature,
and man; and in these, for thousands of years, has work been done in silence to
acquire to the highest degree this knowledge,--the union of man with pure natur
e and with God.
This great object, God and Nature, to which everything tends, has been represent
ed to man symbolically in every religion; and all the symbols and holy glyphs ar
e but the letter by which man can gradually, step by step, recover the highest o
f all divine mysteries, natural and human, and learn the means of healing his un
happy condition, and of the union of his being with pure nature and with God.
We have attained this epoch solely under God's guidance. Divinity, next remember
ing its covenant with man, has given forth the means of cure for suffering manki
nd, and shewn thereby how to raise man to his original dignity, uniting him to G
od, the Source of his happiness.
The knowledge of this method ensuring recovery
[p. 65]
is the science of Saints and of the Elect, and its possession the inheritance pr
omised to God's children.
Now, my beloved brothers, I want you to grant me your most earnest attention to
what I am about to say.
In our blood there is lying concealed a slimy matter (called the gluten) which h
as a nearer kinship to animal than to spiritual man. This gluten is the body of
sin.
This material, this matter, can be modified in various manners, according to the
stimulus of sense; and according to the kind of modification and change occurri
ng in this body or matter of sin, so also vary the diverse sinful tendencies of
man.
In its most violent expansion this matter produces pride; in its utmost contract
ion, avarice, self-will and selfishness; in its repulsion, rage and anger; in it
s circular movements levity and incontinence; in its eccentricity, greediness an
d drunkenness; in its concentricity, envy; in its essence, sloth.
This ferment of sin, as original sin, is more or less working in the blood of ev
ery man, and is transmitted from father to son, and the perpetual propagation of
this baneful material, everlastingly hinders the simultaneous action of spirit
with matter.
It is quite true that man by his will-power can put limits to the action of this
body of sin, and can dominate it so that it becomes less active, but to
[p. 66]
destroy and annihilate it altogether is beyond his power. This then is the cause
of the combat we are constantly waging between the good and the evil in us.
This body of sin which is in us, forms the ties of flesh and blood which, on the
one side, bind us to our immortal spirit, and, on the other, to the tendencies
of the animal man. It is as it were the allurements of the animal passions that
smoulder and take fire at last.
The violent reaction of this body of sin in us, on sensuous stimulation, is the
reason why we choose, for the want of calm and tranquil judgment, rather the evi
l than the good, because the active fermentation of this matter impedes the quie
t action of the spirit necessary to instruct and sustain the reason.
This same evil matter is also the cause of our ignorance, because, as its thick
and inflexible substance surcharges the fine brain fibres, it prevents the co-ac
tion of reason, which is required to penetrate the objects of the understanding.
Thus falseness and all evils are the properties of this sinful matter, this body
of sin, just as the good and the true are the essential qualities of the spirit
ual principle within us.
Through the recognition and thorough understanding by us of this body of sin we
learn to see that we are beings morally ill, that we have need of a physician wh
o can give us a medicine which
[p. 67]
will destroy and eradicate the evil matter always fermenting banefully within us
, a remedy that will cure us and restore us to moral health.
We learn also clearly to recognize that all mere moralizing with words is of lit
tle use when real means are necessary.
We have been moralizing in varied words for centuries, but the world remains pre
tty much the same. A doctor would do but little good in talking only of his reme
dies, it is necessary for him actually to prescribe his medicines; he has, howev
er, first to see the real state of the sick person.
The condition of humanity--the moral sickness of man--is a true case of poisonin
g, consequent upon the eating of the fruit of the tree in which corruptible matt
er had the superiority.
The first effect of this poison resulted thus: the incorruptible principle, the
body of life as opposed to the body of sin or death, whose expansion caused the
perfection of Adam, concentrated itself inwardly, and the external part was aban
doned to the government of the elements. Hence a mortal matter gradually covered
the immortal essence, and the loss of this central light was the cause subseque
ntly of all man's sufferings.
Communication with the world of light was interrupted, the interior eye which ha
d the power of seeing truth objectively was closed, and the physical eye opened
to the plane of changing phenomena.
[p. 68]
Man lost all true happiness, and in this unhappy condition he would have for eve
r lost all means of restoration to health were it not that the love and mercy of
God, who had no other object in creation but the greatest happiness for its cre
atures, immediately afforded to fallen man a means of recovery. In this means, h
e, with all posterity, had the right to trust, in order that while still in his
state of banishment, he might support his misfortune with humility and resignati
on, and, moreover, find in his pilgrimage the great consolation, that every corr
uptible thing in man could be restored perfectly through the love of a Saviour.
Despair would have been the fate of man without such revelation.
Man, before the Fall, was the living Temple of Divinity, and at the time when th
is Temple was destroyed, the plan to rebuild the Temple was already projected by
the Wisdom of God; and at this period begin the Holy Mysteries of every religio
n, which are all and each in themselves, after a thousand varying modes, accordi
ng to time and circumstances, and method of conception of different nations, but
symbols repeated and modified of one solitary truth, and this unique truth is--
regeneration, or the re-union of man with God.
Before the Fall man was wise, he was united to Wisdom; after the Fall he was no
longer one with Her, hence a true science through express Revelation became abso
lutely necessary.
[p. 69]
The Revelation was the following:--
The condition of immortality consists in immortality permeating the mortal. Immo
rtal substance is divine substance, and is no other than the magnificence of the
Almighty throughout nature, the substance of the world and spirits, the infinit
y, in short, of God in whom all things move and have their being.
It is an immutable law, no creature can be truly happy when separated from the s
ource of all happiness. This source, this in whom, is the magnificence of God Hi
mself.
Through the partaking of destructible nourishment, man himself became destructib
le and material; matter, therefore, as it were places itself between God and man
, that is to say, man is not directly penetrated and permeated by divinity, and,
in consequence, he is thenceforth subject to, and falls under the dominion of,
the laws regulating matter.
The divine in man, imprisoned by the bonds of this matter, is his immortal part,
the part that should be at liberty, in order that its development should once a
gain rule the mortal. Then once more does man regain his original greatness.
But a means for his cure, and a method to externalize what is now hidden and con
cealed within, is requisite. Fallen and unwise man of himself can neither know n
or grasp this expedient; he cannot even recognise it, because he has lost pure k
nowledge and the light of true wisdom; he cannot
[p. 70]
take hold of it, because this remedy is infolded in interior nature, and he has
neither the strength or power to unlock this hidden force.
Hence Revelation to learn this means, and strength to acquire this power, are ne
cessary to man.
This necessity for the salvation of man was the cause of the determination of Wi
sdom, or the Son of God, to give Himself to be known by man, being the pure subs
tance out of which all has been made. In this pure substance all power is reserv
ed to vivify all dead substance, and to purify all that is impure.
But before that could be done, and the inmost part of man, the divine in him, be
once more penetrated and re-opened again, and the whole world be regenerated, i
t was requisite that this divine substance should incarnate in humanity and beco
me human, and therein transmit the divine and regenerative force to humanity; it
was necessary also that this divine human form should be killed, in order that
the divine and incorruptible substance contained in the blood should penetrate i
nto the recesses of the earth, and thenceforth work a gradual dissolution of cor
ruptible matter, so that in due time a pure and regenerated earth will be presen
ted to man, with the Tree of Life growing once more, so that by partaking of its
fruit, containing the true immortal essence, mortality in us will be once more
annihilated, and man healed by
[p. 71]
the fruit of the Tree of Life, just as he was once poisoned by the partaking of
the fruit of death.
This fact is the first and most important revelation and it embraces all, and it
has been carefully preserved from mouth to mouth among the Chosen of God up to
this time.
Human nature required a Saviour, this Saviour was Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of Go
d itself, reality from God. He put on the envelope of humanity, to communicate d
irectly the divine and immortal substance once more to the world, which was noth
ing else but Himself.
He offered himself voluntarily, in order that the pure essential force in His bl
ood could penetrate directly, bringing with it the potentiality of all perfectio
n to the hidden recesses of the earth.
Himself, both as High Priest and as Victim at the same time, entered into the Ho
ly of Holies, and after having accomplished all that was necessary, he laid the
foundation of the Royal Priesthood of His Elect, and taught these through the kn
owledge of His person and of His powers; now they should lead, as the first born
of the spirit, other men, their brethren, to universal happiness.
And here begin the Sacerdotal Mysteries of the Elect and of the Inner Church.
The Royal and Priestly Science is that of Regeneration. It is called Royal Scien
ce because it leads man to power and the dominion over Nature.
It is called Sacerdotal, because it sanctifies and
[p. 72]
brings all to perfection, spreading blessing and goodness everywhere.
This Science owes its immediate origin to the verbal revelation of God, it is al
ways the Science of the Inner Church of Prophets and of Saints, and it recognise
d no other High Priest but Jesus Christ the Lord.
This Science has a triple object; first, regenerating the individual and isolate
d man, or the first of the Elect; second, many men; thirdly, all humanity.
Its exercise consists in the highest perfecting of itself and of everything in N
ature.
This Science was never taught otherwise than by the Holy Spirit of God, and by t
hose who were in unison with this Spirit, and it is beyond all other sciences, b
ecause it can alone teach the knowledge of God, of nature, and of man in a perfe
ct harmony; while other sciences do not understand truly either God or nature, n
either man nor his destination.
The capabilities of this Science are the powers to know God in man, and divinity
in nature; these being, as it were, the Divine impression or seals, by which ou
r inner selves can be opened and can arrive at union with Divinity.
Thus the re-union was the most exalted aim, and hence the Priesthood derived its
name religio, clerus regenerans.
Melchizedek was the first Priest King; all true Priests of God and of Nature des
cend from him,
[p. 73]
and Jesus Christ himself was united with him as "priest" after the order of Melc
hizedek. This word is literally of the highest and widest significance and exten
t--mlkytz-dq (MLKIZ-DQ). It means literally the introducing of the true substanc
e of vital life, and the separation of this true vital substance from the mortal
envelope which encloses it.
A priest is one who separates that which is pure nature from that which is of im
pure nature, a separator of the substance which contains all from the destructib
le matter which occasions pain and misery. The sacrifice or that which has been
separated consists in bread and wine.
Bread means literally the substance which contains all; wine the substance which
vitalizes everything.
Therefore, a priest after the order of Melchizedek is one who knows how to separ
ate the all-embracing and vitalizing substance from impure matter, one who knows
how to employ it as a real means of reconciliation and of re-union for fallen h
umanity, in order to communicate to him his true and royal privilege of power ov
er nature, and the Sacerdotal dignity or the ability to unite himself by grace t
o the upper worlds.
In these few words is contained all the mystery of God's Priesthood, and the occ
upation and aim of the Priest.
But this royal Priesthood was only able to reach perfect maturity when Jesus Chr
ist Himself as High
[p. 74]
[paragraph continues] Priest had fulfilled the greatest of all sacrifices, and h
ad entered into the Holy Sanctuary.
Here we are now entering on new and great mysteries worthy, I entreat you, of yo
ur most earnest attention.
When, according to the wisdom and justice of God, it was resolved to save the fa
llen human race, the Wisdom of God had to choose the method which afforded in ev
ery aspect the most efficacious means for the consummation of this great object.
When man became so thoroughly poisoned by the fruit of evil, carrying in himself
henceforth the ferment of death, all around him became subject to death and des
truction, therefore, divine mercy was bound to establish a counter remedy, which
could be partaken of, containing within itself the divine and revitalising subs
tance, so that by taking this immortal food, poisoned and death-stricken man cou
ld be healed and rescued from his suffering. But in order that this Tree of Life
could be replanted, it was requisite beyond all things that the corruptible mat
erial in the centre of the earth should be first regenerated, resolved and made
capable of being again one day a universally vitalising substance.
This capacity for new life, bringing about the dissolution of corruptible essenc
e which is inherent in the centre of the earth, was, however, possible to no oth
er matter than divine vital substance enveloped in flesh and blood which could t
ransmit
[p. 75]
the hidden forces of life to dead nature. This was done through the death of Jes
us Christ. The tinctural force which flowed from His shed blood penetrated to th
e innermost parts of the earth, raised the dead, rent the rocks, and caused the
total eclipse of the sun when it pressed from the centre of the earth where the
light penetrated the central darkness to the circumference, and there laid the f
oundation of the future glorification of the world.
Since the death of Jesus Christ, the divine force, driven to the earth's centre
by the shedding of His blood, works and ferments perpetually to press outward, a
nd to fit and prepare all substances gradually for the great cataclysm which is
destined for the world.
But the rebuilding of the world's edifice in general was not only the aim of Red
emption. Man was the principal object for the shedding of Christ's blood, and to
procure for him already in this material world the highest possible perfection
by the amelioration of his being, Jesus Christ submitted to infinite suffering.
He is the Saviour of the world and of man. The object and cause of His Incarnati
on was to rescue us from sin, misery, and from death.
Jesus Christ has delivered us from all evil by His flesh, which he sacrificed, a
nd by His blood, which He shed for us.
In the clear understanding of what consists this flesh and this blood of Jesus C
hrist lies the true
[p. 76]
and pure knowledge of the real regeneration of man.
The mystery of being united with Jesus Christ, not only spiritually but also cor
poreally, is the greatest aim of the Inner Church. Become one with Him in spirit
and in being is the fulfilling and plenitude of the efforts of the Elect.
The means for this real possession of God is hidden from the wise of this world,
and revealed to the simplicity of children.
Vain philosopher, bend thyself before the grand and Divine Mysteries that thou i
n thy wisdom canst not understand, and for the penetration of whose secrets the
feeble light of human reason darkened by sense can give thee no measure!

[p. 77]
LETTER VI AND LAST

GOD made Himself man to deify man. Heaven united itself with earth to transform
earth into Heaven.
But in order that these divine transformations can take place, an entire change,
a complete and absolute overturning and upsetting of our being, is necessary.
This change, this upsetting, is called re-birth. To be born, simply means to ent
er into a world in which the senses dominate, in which wisdom and love languish
in the bonds of individuality.
To be re-born means to return to a world where the spirit of wisdom and love gov
erns, and where animal-man obeys.
The re-birth is triple; first, the re-birth of our intelligence; second, of our
heart and of our will; and, finally, the re-birth of our entire being.
The first and second kinds are called the spiritual, and the third the corporeal
re-birth.
Many pious men, seekers after God, have been regenerated in the mind and will, b
ut few have known the corporeal re-birth. This last has been attained to but by
few men, and those to whom it has been given have only received it that they
[p. 78]
might serve as agents of God, in accordance with great and grand objects and int
entions, and to bring humanity nearer to felicity.
It is now necessary, my dear brothers, to lay before you the true order of re-bi
rth. God, who is all strength, wisdom, and love, works eternally in order and in
harmony.
He who will not receive the spiritual life, he who is not born anew from the Lor
d, can not enter into heaven.
Man is engendered through his parents in original sin, that is to say, he enters
into the natural life and not the spiritual.
The spiritual life consists in loving God above everything, and your neighbour a
s yourself. In this double-love consists the principle of the new life.
Man is begotten in evil, in the love of himself and of the things of this world.
Love of himself! Self interest! Self gratification! Such are the substantial pr
operties of evil. The good is in the love of God and your neighbour, in knowing
no other love but the love of mankind, no interest but that affecting every man,
and no other pleasure but that of the well-being of all.
It is by such sentiments that the spirit of the children of God is distinguished
from the spirit of the children of this world.
To change the spirit of this world into the spirit of the children of God is to
be regenerated, and it
[p. 79]
means to despoil the old man, and to re-clothe the new.
But no person can be re-born if he does not know and put in practice the followi
ng principle--that of truth becoming the object for our doing or not doing; ther
efore, he who desires to be re-born ought first to know what belongs to re-birth
. He ought to understand, meditate, and reflect on all this. Afterwards he shoul
d act according to his knowledge, and the result will be a new life.
Now, as it is first necessary to know, and to be instructed in all that appertai
ns to re-birth, a doctor, or an instructor is required, and if we know one, fait
h in him is also necessary, because of what use is an instructor if his pupil ha
ve no faith in him?
Hence, the commencement of re-birth is faith in Revelation.
The disciple should begin by believing that the Lord, the Son, is the Wisdom of
God, that He is, from all Eternity from God, and that He came into the world to
bring happiness to humanity. He should believe that the Lord has full power in h
eaven and on earth, and that all faith and love, all the true and the good, come
from Him alone; that He is the Mediator, the Saviour, and Governor of men.
When this most exalting faith has taken root in us, we shall think often of the
Saviour, and these thoughts turned towards Him develop, and by His
[p. 80]
grace reacting in us, the seven closed and spiritual powers are opened.
The way to happiness.--Do you wish, man and brother, to acquire the highest happ
iness possible? Search for truth, wisdom, and love. But you will not find truth,
wisdom, and love, save in the unity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed of G
od.
Seek, then, Jesus Christ with all your strength, search Him from the fulness of
your heart.
The beginning of His Ascension is the knowledge of His absence, and from the rec
ognition of this knowledge is the desire for increased power to seek Him, which
desire is the beginning of faith.
Faith gives confidence, but faith has also its order of progress. First comes hi
storic faith, then moral, then divine, and finally living faith. The progression
is as follows: Historical faith when we learn to believe the history of Jesus o
f Nazareth, and through this simple historical faith in the existence of Jesus,
will evolve moral faith, whose development consists in the acquirement of virtue
by its search and practice, so that we see and find real pleasure in all that i
s taught by this Man; we find that His simple doctrine is full of wisdom and His
teaching full of love; that His intentions towards humanity are straight and tr
ue, and that He willingly suffered death for the sake of justice. Thus, faith in
His Person will be followed by faith in His Divinity.
This same Jesus Christ tells us now that He
[p. 81]
is Son of God, and He emphasizes His words by instructing His disciples in the s
acred mysteries of nature and religion.
Here natural and reasonable faith changes into divine faith, and we begin to bel
ieve that he was God made man. From this faith it results that we hold as true a
ll that we do not yet understand, but which He tells us to believe. Through this
faith in the Divinity of Jesus, and by that entire surrender to Him, and the fa
ithful attention to His directions, is at last produced that living faith, by wh
ich we find within ourselves and TRUE through our own experience, all that hithe
rto we have until now believed in merely with the confidence of a child; and thi
s living faith proved by experience is the highest grade of all.
When our hearts, through living faith, have received Jesus Christ into them, the
n this Light of the World is born within us as in a humble stable.
Everything in us is impure, surrounded by the spider-webs of vanity, covered wit
h the mud of sensuality.
Our will is the Ox that is under the yoke of its passions. Our reason is the Ass
who is bound through the obstinacy of its opinions, its prejudices, its follies
.
In this miserable and ruined hut, the home of all the animal passions, can Jesus
Christ be born in us through faith.
[p. 82]
The simplicity of our souls, is as the shepherds who brought their first offerin
gs, until at last the three principal powers of our royal dignity, our reason, o
ur will, and our activity [**] prostrate themselves before Him and offer Him the
gifts of truth, wisdom, and love.
Little by little, the stable of our hearts changes itself into an exterior Templ
e, where Jesus Christ teaches, but this Temple is still full of Scribes and Phar
isees.
Those who sell, Dives and the money changers, are still to be found, and these s
hould be driven out, and the Temple changed into a House of Prayer.
Little by little Jesus Christ chooses all the good powers in us to announce Him.
He heals our blindness, purifies our leprosy, raises the dead powers into livin
g forces within us; He is crucified in us, He dies, and He is gloriously raised
again Conqueror with us. Afterwards his personality lives in us, and instructs u
s in exalted mysteries, until He has made us complete and ready for the perfect
Regeneration when He mounts to heaven and thence sends us the Spirit of Truth.
But before such a Spirit can act in us we experience the following changes:--
First, the seven powers of our understanding are lifted up within us; afterwards
, the seven powers of our hearts or of our will, and this exaltation takes
[p. 83]
place after the following manner. The human understanding is divided into seven
powers; the first is that of looking at abstract objects--intuitus. By the secon
d we perceive the objects abstractedly regarded--apperceptio. By the third, that
which has been perceived is reflected upon--reflexio. The fourth is that of con
sidering these objects in their diversity fantasia, imaginatio. The fifth is tha
t of deciding upon some thing--judicium. The sixth co-ordinates all these accord
ing to their relationships--ratio. The seventh and last is the power of realizin
g the whole intellectual intuition--intellectus.
This last contains, so to say, the sum of all the others.
The will of man divides itself similarly into seven powers, which, taken togethe
r as a unit, form the will of man, being, as it were, its substantial parts.
The first is the capacity of desiring things apart from himself--desiderium. The
second is the power to annex mentally things desired for himself--appetitus. Th
e third is the power of giving them form, realizing them so as to satisfy his de
sire--concupiscentia. The fourth is that of receiving inclinations, without deci
ding upon acting upon any, as in the condition of passion--passio. The fifth is
the capacity for deciding for or against a thing, liberty--libertas. The sixth i
s that choice or a resolution actually taken--electio. The seventh is the power
of giving the object chosen an existence
[p. 84]
[paragraph continues] --voluntas. This seventh power also contains all the other
s in one figure.
Now the seven powers of the understanding, like the seven powers of our heart an
d will, can be ennobled and exalted in a very special manner, when we embrace Je
sus Christ, as being the wisdom of God, as principle of our reason, and His whol
e life, which was all love, for motive power of our will.
Our understanding is formed after that of Jesus Christ; First, when we have Him
in view in everything, when He forms the only point of sight for all our actions
--intuitus. Second, when we perceive His actions, His sentiments, and His spirit
everywhere--apperceptio. Third, when in all our thoughts we reflect upon His sa
yings, when we think in everything as He would have thought--reflexio. Fourth, w
hen we so comfort ourselves in such wise, that His thoughts and His wisdom are t
he only object for the strength of our imagination--fantasia. Fifth, when we rej
ect every thought which would not be His, and when we choose every thought which
could be His--judicium. Sixth, when in short we co-ordinate the whole edifice o
f our ideas and spirit upon the model of His ideas and spirit--ratio. Seventh, I
t is then will be born in us a new light, a more brilliant one, surpassing far t
he light of reason of the senses--intellectus. Our heart is also reformed in lik
e manner, when in everything,--First, We lean on
[p. 85]
[paragraph continues] Him only--desidare. Second, We wish for Him only--appetere
. Third, We desire only Him--concupiscere. Fourth, We love Him only--amare. Fift
h, We choose only that which He is, so that we avoid all that He is not--eligere
. Sixth, We live only in harmony with Him after His commandments and His institu
tions and orders--subordinare. By which in short, Seventh, is born a complete un
ion of our will with His, by which union man is with Jesus Christ but as one sen
se, one heart; by which perfect union the new man is little by little born in us
, and Divine wisdom and love unite to form in us the new spiritual man, in whose
heart faith passes into sight, and in comparison to this living faith the treas
ures of India can be considered but as ashes.
This actual possession of God or Jesus Christ in us is the Centre towards which
all the mysteries converge like rays to the circle eye; the highest of the myste
ries is this consummation.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of truth, morality, and happiness. It operates i
n the saints from the innermost to the outside, and spreads itself gradually by
the Spirit of Jesus Christ into all nations, to institute everywhere an Order by
means of which the individual can reach as well as the race; our human nature c
an be raised to its highest perfection, and sick humanity be cured from all the
evils of its weakness.
Thus the love and spirit of God will one day
[p. 86]
alone vivify all humanity; they will awake and rekindle all the strength of the
human race, will lead it to the goals of Wisdom and place it in suitable relatio
nships.
Peace, fidelity, domestic harmony, love between nations, will be the first fruit
s of this Spirit. Inspiration of good without false similitudes, the exaltation
of our souls without too severe a tension, warmth in the heart without turbulent
impatience, will approach, reconcile, and unite all the various parts of the hu
man race, long separated and divided by many differences, and stirred up against
each other by prejudices and errors, and in one Grand Temple of Nature, great a
nd little, poor and rich, all will sing the praise of the Father of Love.
Footnotes
^82:* The Three Magi.

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The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.

THE CLOUD UPON THE SANCTUARY

by Karl von Eckartshausen

Translated by Isabel de Steiger

Introduction by A.E. Waite

Third issue, revised and enlarged

London, William Rider & Son, ltd.

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

THE CLOUD UPON THE SANCTUARY

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, by Karl Eckartshausen, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

LETTER VI AND LAST

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