FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM pt 1

AN EXPOSITION OF THE COSMIC FACTS UNDERLYING
THESE TWO GREAT INSTITUTIONS AS
DETERMINED BY OCCULT INVESTIGATION




The great law of analogy is everywhere the master key of all spiritual mysteries, and, although Masonry and Catholicism do not begin till we arrive at the Earth Period, they have their prototype in the earlier Periods; we shall therefore briefly touch upon the essential facts.

In the Saturn Period, the Earth-in-the-making was dark; HEAT, which is the manifestation of the ever invisible fire, was the only element then manifest; embryonic mankind was mineral-like, the only lower kingdom of evolving life. Unity was everywhere observable, and the Lords of Mind who were human then, were at one among themselves.

In the Western Wisdom Teaching we speak of the highest Initiate of the Saturn Period as THE FATHER.

In the Sun Period the root of a new element, AIR, was evolved, and coalesced with the true fire, which, mark again, is always invisible, and which manifested as HEAT in the Saturn Period. Then fire burst into FLAMES, and the dark world became a blazing ball of luminous firemist at the word of power, "LET THERE BE LIGHT."

Let the student ponder well the relation of FIRE and FLAME; the former lies sleeping, invisible in everything, and is kindled into light in various ways: by a blow of a hammer upon a stone, by friction of wood against wood and by chemical action, etc. This gives us a clue to the identity and state of THE FATHER, "whom no man hath seen at any time" but who is revealed in "The Light of the World," the Son, who is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. As the unseen fire is revealed in the flame, so also the fullness of the Father dwelt in the Son, and they are one as fire is one with the flame in which it manifests. This is the root of all true Sun and Fire worship. All look beyond the physical symbol and adore "Our Father Who art in Heaven." The Mystic Masons of today hold this faith in fire as firmly as ever.

Thus it will be seen that the Unity which prevailed in the Saturn Period continued in the Sun Period. The ordinary humanity of that time has now evolved to the glory of Archangels; some were more advanced than others, but there was no antagonism among them. Our present humanity had advanced to a plantlike stage, and was slightly above the new Lifewave started in the Sun Period, and unity also here prevailed.

In the Moon Period contact of the heated sphere with cold Space generated moisture, and the battle of the elements commenced in all its fierceness. The heated ball of fire endeavored to evaporate the moisture, force it outwards and create a vacuum wherein to maintain its integrity and burn undisturbed; but there is and can be no void in nature, hence the outrushing steam condensed at a certain distance from the heated ball and was again driven inwards by the cold of Space, to be again evaporated and propelled outwards, in a ceaseless round for ages and ages, as a shuttlecock between the separate Hierarchies of Spirits composing the various Kingdoms of Life, represented in the Fire-Sphere and Cosmic Space which is an expression of the Homogeneous Absolute Spirit. The Fire Spirits are actively striving to attain enlargement of consciousness. But the Absolute rests ever clothed in the invisible garment of Cosmic Space. In 'It' all powers and possibilities are LATENT, and It seeks to discourage and check any attempt at expenditure of latent power as dynamic energy required in the evolution of a solar system. Water is the agent It used to quench the fire of active spirits. The zone between the heated center of the separate Spirit Sphere, and the Point where its individual atmosphere meets Cosmic Space, is a battleground of evolving spirits at various stages of evolution.

The present Angels were human in the Moon Period, and the highest Initiate is The Holy Spirit, (Jehovah).

As our humanity and the other Kingdoms of Life on earth are variously affected by the present elements, so that some like heat, others prefer cold, some thrive on moisture and others require dryness, so also in the Moon Period among the Angels, some had affinity for water, others abhorred it and loved fire.

The continued cycles of condensation and evaporation of the moisture surrounding the fiery center eventually caused incrustation, and it was the purpose of Jehovah to mold this "red earth," translated ADAM, into forms wherein to imprison and QUENCH THE SPIRITS OF THE FIRE. To this end, He issued the creative fiat, and the prototypes of fish, fowl and every living thing appeared, even including the primitive human form, which were created by His Angels; thus He hoped to make all that lives and moves subservient to His will. Against this plan a minority of the Angels rebelled; they had too great an affinity for FIRE to bear contact with water, and refused to create the forms as ordered; but thereby they at the same time deprived themselves of an opportunity of evolution along the conventional lines, and became an anomaly in nature; furthermore, having repudiated the authority of Jehovah, they must work out their own salvation in their own manner. How this has been accomplished by LUCIFER, their Great Leader will be made plain in the following articles; for the present, suffice it to say, that in the Earth Period, when various planets were differentiated to provide proper evolutionary environment for each class of Spirits, the Angels under Jehovah were set to work with the inhabitants of ALL PLANETS HAVING MOONS; while the Lucifer Spirits have their abode upon the planet Mars. The Angel GABRIEL is representative on earth, of the Lunar Hierarchy, presided over by Jehovah; the Angel SAMAEL is ambassador of the Martial forces of Lucifer. Gabriel (who announced the coming birth of Jesus to Mary,) and his lunar angels are therefore the givers of physical life, while Samael and the hosts of Mars are the Angels of Death.

Thus originated the feud in the dim dawn of this Cosmic day, and that which we see as Free Masonry today is an attempt by the HIERARCHS OF FIRE, the Lucifer Spirits, to bring us the imprisoned spirit 'LIGHT,' that by it we may SEE and KNOW. Catholicism is an activity of the HIERARCHS OF WATER, and places 'HOLY WATER' at the Temple door to quench the spirits seeking light and knowledge and to inculcate FAITH in Jehovah.

As the vernal equinox is said to be at the first point of Aries, no matter where in the constellations it falls by precession, so the point where the human seed-atom comes from the invisible world and is taken in hand by the Lunar God of Generation, Jehovah, through his ambassador, the Angel Gabriel, is esoterically the first point of Cancer. This is the Cardinal sign of the watery Triplicity, and is ruled by the Moon. There Conception takes place; but were the form built of water and its concretions alone, it could never come to birth, so four months later when the fetus has reached the stage of development corresponding to the second sign of the watery triplicity, Scorpio, the eighth sign, which corresponds to the house of death, Samael, the dauntless ambassador of the Lucifer Spirits, invades the watery domain of the Lunar Hierarchy and introduces the fiery spark of the spirit into the inert form, to leaven, quicken and mould it into an expression of itself.

There the Silver Cord which has grown from the seed-atom of the dense body (located in the heart) since conception, is welded to the part that has sprouted from the central vortex of the desire body, (located in the liver,) and when the Silver Cord is tied by the seed-atom of the vital body, (located in the solar plexus,) the spirit DIES to life in the super- sensible world, and quickens the body it is to use in its coming earth life. This life on earth last until the course of events foreshadowed in the wheel of life, the horoscope, has been run; and when the spirit again reaches the realm of Samael, the Angel of Death, the mystic eighth house, the silver cord is loosed, and the spirit returns to God who gave it, until the dawn of another Life-day in the School of earth beckons it to a new birth that it may acquire more skill in the arts and crafts of temple-building.

About five months after the quickening, when the last of the watery signs, Pisces, has been passed, the representative of the Lucifer Spirits, Samael, focuses the forces of the fiery sign, Aries, where Mars is positively polarized, so that under the impulse of their dynamic energy the waters of the womb are voided, and the imprisoned spirit is liberated into the physical world, to fight the battle of life. It may blindly butt its head against the Cosmic forces typified by the first of the fiery signs, Aries, the Ram, which is a symbol of the brute strength brought to bear upon the problems of life by the most primitive races; or it may adopt the more modern method of cunning, as a means of attaining mastery over others, which characteristic is indicated in the second of the fiery signs, Leo, the Lion, the king of beasts; or perchance it may rise above the animal nature, and aim at the stars with the bow of spiritual aspiration, typified by the last of the fiery signs, Sagittarius, the Centaur. The Centaur is just ahead of the watery sign Scorpio, a warning that one who tries to reach that prerogative as "PHREE MESSEN," a son of Fire and Light, will surely feel the sting of the Scorpion in his heel, which will goad him onward upon the path where men become "wise as serpents." It is from this class that Mystic Masonry is recruited with men who have the indomitable courage TO DARE, the unflagging energy TO DO and the diplomatic discrimination TO BE SILENT.

by
Max Heindel
[1865-1919]