Study Set 1

The Doctrine

Contents

Seed Thought
Reading Assignment
Written Work to be Completed
Letter from Teaching Staff
Twelve Lamps of Deity

Reading Assignment:

REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST Pages 5-14

PROGRESSIVE REVELATION OF DIVINTTY (pamphlet)

WRITTEN WORK TO BE COMPLETED

"The reason He has not come again is that the needed work has not been done by His followers in all countries. His coming is largely dependent, as we shall later see, upon the establishing of right human relations. This the church has hindered down the centuries . . ." From THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST p. 12

1. If His coming depends upon the establishing of right human relations, what signs of preparation for His coming do you see:

a) In your own life?

b) In your community?

Having considered questions (a) and (b) would you like to carry this line of thinking still further and write out what signs you see of preparation for His coming--(that is, what signs do you see of improvements in human relations):

c) In your nation?

d) In the family of nations?

2. In which departments of life do you see the best preparation work being done? (Science, art, education, government, etc.)

In answering these questions with care and deliberation you will be clarifying your own opinions and stimulating your mind. Remember, your thinking is a contribution to the group's thinking. To think clearly upon an idea, gives that idea a clear definite form upon the mental plane. To express an idea clearly in speech or in writing, brings that idea down into manifestation on the dense physical plane.
 

Dear Fellow Student:

All thinking people, such as yourself, have probably questioned, at some time in their lives, the true meaning of the story of the Christ and have wondered why He was referred to by the names Jesus, Christ, Jesus the Christ and Christ Jesus. This series of study sets on THE COMING ONE should aid you in sorting out the various stories and in distinguishing between the one who was called Jesus and the One Who is the Christ. You will have the opportunity to explore new ideas concerning the Christ and to build a concept of God's love for humanity upon which to base your esoteric studies. The dawning realization that the Christ, an historic figure, is a living reality Who is concerned with the daily affairs of the world, is a great comfort. As your ideas about the Christ clarify, the sense of mystery which surrounds Him will disappear and you will have a better understanding of His relationship to mankind.

The value of esotericism is its transforming power. As your life is touched by the influence of esoteric meditation, esoteric study and esoteric service, you will discover yourself gradually growing into a radiant being who is able to meet certain specific needs in his environment. Your capacity for helpfulness will increase as your understanding unfolds, thus blessing and sustaining the lives around you.

Knowing well the self-delusion that derives from one-sided development, we encourage you to build meditative and service skills while you are expanding your comprehension of esoteric subjects. Meditation, study and service are as interdependent as the legs of a threelegged stool; without one the other two are useless. The value of meditation is high-lighted by study; meditation enlightens ideas contacted in study; meditation provides insight into service; meditation reveals service possibilities. Study explains ideas perceived in meditation; study benefits from service experience. Service requires study in order to equip the server to meet definite needs; service gives purpose to meditation. These three, meditation, service and study, add up to an overall understanding of Life and human nature which might be considered the seat of the three-legged stool. The search for understanding is considerably aided by the discovery that there is a Plan underlying the manifestation of the universe and everyone has a part to play, consciously or unconsciously, in that Plan. One of our aims is to help you to be more conscious of your part in the Plan.

Looking ahead in your study, the titles of the Study Sets in this series, THE COMING ONE are:

The Doctrine

Christ's Unique Occasion

Initiation Defined

The Reappearance of the Christ

The Work of the Christ

The Probationary Path and Discipleship

The Teachings of the Christ

The New World Religion

Rules For Applicants

Preparation for the Christ

The Work of the Hierarchy; The Founding of the Hierarchy

Summary and Evaluation; The Lodge of Masters; Departments of the Hierarchy.

The Meditation Outlines you will be using (not only during your work on Series II, but during your progress into more advanced work as well) are formulated in such a way that, if they are used as directed for a sufficient length of time, the needed revelations will take place. The text books are well organized for serious study. The questions to be answered in each study set of the series are designed to lead you into penetrating thought about service. You are encouraged to develop your own creative approach to locating yourself in the world of service.

Your study associate stands ready to offer steadfast, loving companionship as you travel along the way of spiritual exploration. We on the staff are prepared to offer you every aid and encouragement to spiritual progress that we are capable of giving.

Your enduring friends,

The Staff of ARCANA

TWELVE LAMPS OF DEITY

It seems incomprehensible that a thing as significant as that which is now to be disclosed could have been lost out of general knowledge. So evidently did astronomical and astrological presuppositions underlie theological doctrinism that the very name and function of the Avatar "coming" in each precessional period of 2160 years was assigned to him in reference to the zodiacal sign. He bore the designation and was vested with the characteristic qualities of the sign. Hence the Messianic personage changed his name and the whole scheme of portraiture under which he was represented at the beginning of each new period of precessional advance.

A large portion of the confusion has arisen from the fact that a number of designations and picturizations of Messiah in the many past cycles have survived and overlapped, introducing complexity through the very abundance and variety of descriptive data of the Savior. Furthermore every one of the twelve signs is a dual or double representation of its particular facet of divinity. The sages believed and taught that the divine nature expressed itself in both its positive and negative phases in each manifestation. When the two forces of life are not polarized in relation to each other life is not in manifestation. We shall see then how each sign presents the Messianic character and epic in the dual aspects suggested by its name and distinctive features.

Let us begin at the station of LEO in the zodiac. Under this sign the Savior manifested in his twin aspects of what the Egyptians called "the Lion of the Double Force", or the twin lions, the old and dying lion, adult of the previous generation or cycle, and the reborn young lion, the "lion's whelp" of the Old Testament. These two lions were represented as guarding the western and the eastern gates of life at the two equinoctial points of the ancient calendar, September and March. The Hebrews carried the Egyptian typism over into their own constructions and designated the divine Avatar as "the lion of Judah". The soul comes to earth time and again to become ever more expert in the science of maintaining the balance, or manifesting truth and righteousness. As the soul is the embryonic Christ, the Messiah coming in its Leonine phase was dramatized as the Lion of the Double Force, or as the lions of the two horizons, east and west.

The next sign is CANCER, the sign of the Crab but more anciently of the Beetle. Under its nomenclature the Coming One was called the Good Scarabaeus. He was dual in the two aspects of the old beetle dying as he went into the ground along the Nile's edge, and the young beetle reborn like the Phoenix out of its parent's death. It would be difficult to find a symbol or phenomenon in nature more faithfully matching the ideology of the incarnational "death" and the following resurrection of the soul in its periodical shuttling between heaven and earth, than the living economy of the beetle. It makes a perfect analogue with the experience of the Ego, which dies and is reborn with each embodiment in matter on Earth.

GEMINI comes next and its dual aspecting is readily seen in the Twins. The two brothers are pictured as in direct opposition to each other; one represents the spiritual aspect of life and the other, the material. They battle for alternate victory and suffer alternate defeat in their successive and never-ending conflict in the sphere of manlfestation. They are to be found in many biblical allegories such as the stories of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Tamar's twins, Pharez and Zarah; the Egyptian Sut-Horus and the Persian Ormazd-Ahriman legends deal with this allegory, also, and the Romulus-Remus story of Rome's founding is a variant of it. The names of Castor and Pollux, mythical brothers in a Roman fable, have been given to the two twinstars in the constellation of Gemini. Astronomically it is said that one of them is decreasing in magnitude, while the other is increasing.

Passing to TAURUS, the Messiah in bovine typology was born in the stable, and again in dual character the Christos under Taurian symbolism was the adult bull of the past generation, dying to be reborn as his own son, the golden calf of the Old Testament figurism. Candidates for initi- ation in the cult of Mithraism were baptized in the dripping blood of a slain bull. The initiated man was thus "washed in the blood of the Bull". The much-condemned worship of the Golden Calf in the alleged backslidings of the children of Israel into idolatry was no more reprehensible or an offense against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob than the later adoration of Christos under the signature of the Lamb of God. The only sin in the matter was the holding on to the emblem of the previous cycle after a new cycle with its changed figure had dawned.

As ARIES was the sign of the Ram, the adult dying phase was balanced by the renewed youthful phase in the Lamb of God. Here is found the warrant for the angelic announcement of the Avatar's advent to a company of shepherds in the fields; the parables of the Good Shepherd and the sheepfold; Jesus' figurative title of the Shepherd of Souls and the church "pastor"; the Shepherd's crook as an ecclesiastical symbol; and the congregational "flock". The sacrificial lamb on the altar was again an emblem of the immolation of God-life for man. "I am the door of the sheepfold", and "The sheep know me when they hear my voice" also point to the sign of Aries, for Jesus was-introduced as Aries was going out and the sun was entering the sign of Pisces.

PISCES blends its sign-types with those of Aries in Christian allegorism. It is the true sign of the Galilean Savior, and this dramatic character lived up to its proper emblemism with full fidelity. Jesus was exalted as the Great Fish in the mortal sea, and Christians dubbed themselves "little fishes". The twelve disciples were fishermen, and gold for taxes was found in the fish's mouth; the last miracle was the overwhelming draught of fish. One of the two typical articles of divine food which the Messiah fed the multitude was fish. Jesus offered himself as sacrifice for humanity not only as the lamb led to the slaughter, but also as fish to be eaten along with bread for mortal salvation. Duality is seen in the two fishes of the sign. Pisces is the plural form, piscis is the singular.

AQUARIUS is the Waterman, pouring out the ichor of divinity from his urn in two streams, again representing the division of the lifestream into spirit and matter, both equally beneficent. Nu is the watery fount of primordial origins, the elemental source, and holds the waters of the abyss. From it emanates that water which is to generate life for all the universes, as the sea water generates life on our planet. Aquarius is the only single man figure in the zodiac so the Aquarian Messiah signifies that in man the two streams of living water flow together to purify the nature for the generation of the Christ consciousness. Jesus proclaimed himself as the bringer of that water of life which all men must drink to be immortalized.

CAPRICORN, beginning at the winter solstice, is the Sea-goat. Matter's most consistent symbol in the ancient type-language is water. Spiritual consciousness is most deeply buried in matter at the point in evolution symbolized by the winter solstice. But as the Sea-goat is an animal mythic- ally combining the forefront of a land animal with the body and tail of a sea creature, the representation is that of man, who is a god immersed in a body composed of combined earthly and watery elements, though seven-eighths water. "Capricorn" means "goathorn", and the horn was an emblem of intellect and spirit, probably as growing from the head. Christ is a sacrifice for mortals, the "Scape-Goat" of ancient dramatism. His death for man spells tragedy which, oddly enough, in Greek means "goat song".

SAGITTARIUS yields duality in the half-man half-horse constitution of the Archer. Man is a god in the body of an animal, according to the pronouncements of ancient philosophy, which is the key to the meaning of this Centaur figure. He is the bowman drawing his bow. What is he aiming at? The answer to this has been found in only one place in archaic literature. In a verse from the BOOK OF THE DEAD Shu, a high spiritual God, says: 'I am the lion-god, who cometh forth with a bow; what I have shot at is the Eye of Horus". Coming in the late autumn with shortening days and waning sun-power, the shooting out of the Eye of Horus, great Egyptian symbol of divine sight, was a typing of spirit's loss of intellectual and intuitive spiritual vision as it descended into the darkness of material embodiment. So here the God Shu is figured as the mighty hunter, a title carried by Orion, Nimrod, Hercules, and other deific characters in the mythic annals.

The same autumnal loss of divine genius, but under a quite different allegorical guise, is portrayed in SCORPIO. Instead of the loss of his spiritual eye, the deity, plunging into matter and coming under its spell of inertia, here is typed as suffering the scorpion sting of matter's inhibitions, represented as poisoning the divine soul and throwing it into a lethal sleep or death. It is not the god himself who is personated by the scorpion, but the power which the god must overcome and transmute into the agent of his own resurrection on the other side of the zodiac. This is to say that the "sting" of incarnation, the temporary submersion of spiritual powers under the law of flesh and sense, is wholly salutary and beneficent for the purposes of evolution. Eventually the risen Christ in the heart imparts to all his followers as they grow to spiritual adulthood the power "to tread on serpents and scorpions". In ancient times the sign was represented by the eagle. As the eagle above and the stinging, poisonous insect below, it is again dual. Here, too, is the basis of the Phoenix myth; the bird as one phase and the worm which is to renew its dying life as the other. Christ is the swift eagle renewing himself periodically from the worm.

Standing on the great horizon line that divides spirit from matter, and so indicating the point of equilibration between the two evolutionary forces is LIBRA, the Scales of the Balance. Duality is seen here in the two, positive and negative, scales of the balance. The great truth carried by the sign is that while in the body man is standing directly on a horizon line separating the two kingdoms of life, spirit and matter; that he lives in both regions, heaven and earth, at the same time; and that consequently his whole experience is an ordeal of "being weighed in the balance". The teaching here is that the judgment takes place on earth during life in the body and not in heaven after death. The Messiah's title under this symbolism was "Lord of the Balance" in Egypt.

Next is VIRGO, Mother Nature, matter in its primal virgin state. It is an earth sign. This virginity of primal matter is shown by the position of the sign in the zodiac which is just above the border line between spirit and matter. It is still in the heavenly or spiritual world and not yet substantial in physical substance. Yet it is preparing to become the mother of the forms of creation that will eventually cause the body of man to be the birth-house of the Christos. The Christ of this sign is not the Virgin but her son. He is in the sign in His mother's arms. In Virgo is the constellation cluster called the Grapes. Rising in the autumn as the sign emerges above the horizon, this signals the coming of the Christ into the flesh and suggests the potent meaning that he will give mankind the higher intoxication of the Wine of Life, an uplift of consciousness which Plato calls "a divine mania." We have here the essence of all the wine symbolism in ancient Bibles. The elevation of mortal mind by the buoyant influx of divine thought quality which goes to the head and induces ecstasies and raptures, is what the ancients symbolized by the ideogram of intoxication said to result from man's imbibing the Wine of Immortality poured out for him by the gods. As all such symbolizations are dual, there is also an intoxication of another sort, that undergone by the god himself when he lands again on earth and becomes intoxicated with the wine of sense, reveling in it like a drunkard, forgetting his divine nature. The god-man and the animalman in us mutually intoxicate each other until in the end the higher intoxication neutralizes the lower and man becomes soberly wise.

The zodiac was designed in ancient sagacity to intimate the passage of the sun through each of twelve signs, symbolizing the progress of the soul through twelve stages of expanding growth, bringing to eventual manifestation the twelvefold perfection of its power. As the Christ unfolds successively each new aspect of his developing faculty, he "comes" to that further extent. So he "comes" in every new and full moon; in every morning sunrise; in every springtime; in every month of the year; in every precessional cycle of two thousand years, and in every Great Year of twenty-five thousand years. He 'comes" in every cycle large or small. Each age and aeon brings a particular segment of his nature to manifestation. He "comes" regularly and periodically because each throb of life's pulse pushes the living stream of divine energization farther out to the remotest periphery of being. Nothing less can accrue to knowledge of zodiacal typology than the realization that the various scriptural accounts of Messiah's coming were all grounded on astrological figurism, and had nothing whatever to do with history.

Based upon WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY? Alvin Boyd Kuhn pp. 444-45

Glossary

AVATARA An Avatara is a descent of a divinity from the divinespheres into our human world. The word in derived from the preposition "ava" meaning down, and the verb-root "tri" meaning to pass. An Avatara, or god in human form, is a temporary combination of three elements: an inspiring divinity from the realms of the gods, a highly evolved soul loaned by a Buddha or Bodhisattva, and a physical body which is found to be clean and pure.

BODHISATTVA One whose very essence or sattva has become an incarnation of wisdom or Bodhi. A human ego who has become fully conscious of its inner divinity. In exoteric Buddhism a Bodhisattva stands one step below a Buddha.

IMAM MAHDI A Moslem term for the Coming One.

KRISHNA A previous Avatara. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna, the Avatara, and Lacuna, his disciple, discuss lofty and spiritual philosophy. In this dialogue Krishna represents the divinity within each man, and Fauna the learning human entity.

MAITREYA An oriental name for the Coming One.

SANKARACHARYA An ancient oriental sage. An Avatara who lived in India from 510 B.C. to 478 B.C. He was a great religious reformer and was one of the greatest exponents of the Vedanta philosophy. In India he was called Sankaracharya, a compound word meaning "blessed spiritual teacher".

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