i-VS' 4 THECHRlSflAfJCRBEE) C.W. LEADBEATER 6P 1 ijoi CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ^^^^ mw^^i 11 ^m)§ ^^^^^^^w^ Y^^ b^^(ri^^^ j "^ou-'-JtetJv DATE DUE %m^^ 971 M 1 - *»a .;- -^*- __, ■■ \ 1 r^ - : - _ . ''S"""'^ »^ i / ^SfcP-'r- ^^tt«^^ L l^ii^ f crgl - .,-<«■ ^'^ ^^^^Sms^ CAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S A, Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924095631291 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1924 095 631 291 THE CHRISTIAN CREED Hooks by the Same ^Author. AN OUTLINE OF THKOSOPHY. INVISIBLE HELPERS. CLAIRVOYANCE. DREAMS. MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. THE OTHER SIDE OF DEATH. SOME GLIMPSES OF OCCULTISM. THE ASTRAL PLANE. THE DEVACHANIC PLANE. OUR RELATION TO CHILDREN. THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, i6i New Bond St., London, W. THE CHRISTIAN CREED 3ts ©riQin anb Signification C. W. LEADBEATER SECOND EDITION t REVISED AND ENLARGED LONDON AND BENARES THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 1904 Reprinted 1909 V ff> CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Earlier Creeds 1 II. Their Origin 11 III. The Descent into Matter .... 33 IV. The Exposition op the Creeds ... 64 V. The Athanasian Creed . . , . .141 Index ........ 170 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. Chapter I. THE EARLIER CREEDS. Theee are many students of Theosophy who have been, and indeed still are, earnest Christians ; and though their faith has gradually broadened out into unorthodoxy, they have retained a strong affection for the forms and ceremonials of the religion into which they were born. It is a pleasure to them to hear the recitation of the ancient prayers and creeds, the time-honoured psalms and canticles, though they try to read into them a hicfher and wider meanina; than the ordinary orthodox interpretation. I have thought that it might be of interest to such students to have some flight account of the real meaning and origin of those very remarkable basic formulae of the Church which are c;\lled the Creeds, so that when they hear them or ioin in their recital the ideas brought 1 2 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. into their minds thereby may be the grander and nobler ones originally connected with them, rather than the misleading materialism of modern misapprehension. I have spoken of the ideas originally connected with them ; I ought perhaps rather to say the ideas connected with the ancient formula upon which all the most valuable portion of them is based. For I do not mean to say for a moment that any large number of the members, or even of the leaders, of the Church which now recites these Creeds have for many a century known their true meaning. I do not even claim that the ecclesiastical councils which edited and authorized them ever realized the full and glorious signification of the rolling phrases which they used ; for much of the true meaning had already been lost, much of the materializing corruption had been introduced, long before those unfortunate assemblies were convoked. But this at least does seem certain — that narrowed, degraded and materialized as the Christian faith has been, corrupt almost beyond recognition as its scriptures have become, an attempt has at least been made by some of the higher powers to guide those who have com- piled for it these great symbols called the Creeds, so that, whatever they may themselves THE EARLIER CREEDS. 3 have known, their language still clearly conveys the grand truths of the ancient wisdom to all who have ears to hear ; and much that in these formulae seems false and incomprehensible when the endeavour is made to read them in accord- ance with modern misconceptions, becomes at once luminous and full of meaning when under- stood in that inner sense which exalts it from a fragment of unreliable biography into a declara- tion of eternal truth. It is with the elucidation of this inner sense of the Creeds that I am concerned ; and although in writing of this it will be necessary for me to make some reference to their real history, I need hardly say that I am not in any way attempting to approach the subject from the ordinary scholarly standpoint. Such information as I have to give about the Creeds is obtained neither from the comparison of ancient manu- scripts nor from the study of the voluminous works of theological writers, but is simply the result of an investigation into the records of Nature made by a few students of occultism. Their notice was incidentally attracted to the question while following up quite another line of research, and it was then seen that the matter was of sufficient interest to repay further and more detailed examination. It will perhaps be a new idea to some of my 4 THE CHBISTIAN CREED. readers that there is such a thing as a record of Nature — that there are methods by which it is possible to recover with absolute certainty the true story of the past. The fact that this can be done is well known to those who have studied the subject, and much ancient history of most vivid interest has already been examined in this way. To explain the process would be outside the scope of this treatise, and I would refer those who desire further information upon this matter to my little book on Clairvoyance. ■ The Christian Church at present uses three formulations of belief, called respectively the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The first and second of these have many points in common, and may easily be examined together ; the third is so much longer and so difi'erent in character, that it will be more convenient to devote a separate chapter to its consideration later. As at present found in the Prayer-book of the Church of England, these Creeds are as follows : — The Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, sufi^ered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and THE EARLIER CREEDS. 5 buried ; he descended into hell ; the third day he rose again from the dead ; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty ; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. The Nicene Creed. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible ; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made ; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate ; he suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father ; and he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. 6 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets ; and I believe one catholic and apostolic Church; I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Since for the comprehension of the Nicene Creed so much depends upon accurate translation from the Greek original, I append here the re- ceived text for comparison. r[icrT€uo/;iev ets eva Qeov Harepa iravTOKpaTopa, TTOLrjTrjv ovpavov kol yrj?, oparmv re vdvTcov Koi aoparcav. Kal ets eua Kupioj' Irjcrovv l^pLcrrbv, tov vlov Tov Qeov TOV piovoyevrj, tov Ik tov IlaT/aos yevvr)- OevTa Trpo TTavTOiv Twv alcovcjv, 6ebv iK Oeov, (j)a)s CK (fxiiTO?, Oeov aXrjdivov e/c deov akyjOwov, yevvrj- devTa ov TTOVTjdivTa, op^oovcnov to) traTpL' St' ov ra TTavTa iyevcTO' tov Sl rfp,a€VTa' /cat dvacrTavTa Ty Tpi.T'^ THE EARLIER CREEDS. 7 rjfjiepq,, Kara ras y/aa^as" Koi aveXOovTa eis rows ovpavoii?, Koi Ka0e^6ij.euov Ik Be^toiv tov TlaTpb<;, Kai TTokiv ip)(6ij.evov fiera 80^175 Kplvai ^aii/ras koI vcKpov^' oil Trj'i ySacriXeias ovk Icrrat reXos. Kal ets TO Xli/eCjaa to aytov, to Kvpiov, koi to [fiJOTTOLOV, TO CK ToO IlaTpoS iKTropevOfieVOV, TO O'l'l' riaTpi Kai YlW (TVp.TTpOCTKVVOVp.f.VOV KoL (Tvvho^- atpjjLevov, TO \akrjcrav Sta Ta>v TTpocjiiQTCov' ets fitav ayiav Kado\iKr)v koX aTTOcrTo\i,icrjv iKKXrjcrCav ofio\.oyovjji.ev iv ^diTTicrpja eis a,^€(Tiv ajjiapTLCJV TTpoar8oKci)fji.ev dvdcrTacnp v€Kpu)v, koX tfiyr]v tov /iteWovTos aloivo?. Their Date and History. Before describing the true origin of these Creeds, let me very briefly epitomize the current ideas of orthodox theologians as to their date and history. At one time the ecclesiastical theory was that the Nicene and the Athanasian formulae were merely amplifications of the Apostles' Creed, but it is now universally recog- nized that the Nicene Creed is historically the oldest of the three. Let us take them one by one, and glance at what is commonly known of them. Some sort of brief and simple Creed seems to have been in use from a very early period, not only as a symbol of faith, but as a pass-word in military style. But the wording of this formula 8 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. appears to have varied considerably in different countries, and it was not until centuries later that anything like uniformity was attained. An example of the earlier form is the Creed given by Irenseus in his work Against Heresies : "1 believe in One God almighty, of jvhom are all things . . . and in the Son of God, by whom, are all things." The earliest mention of a Creed bearing the name of the Apostles occurs in the fourth century in the writings of Rufinus, who states that it is so called because it consists of twelve articles, one of which was contributed by each of the twelve Apostles assembled in solemn conclave for the purpose. But Rufinus is not regarded as any great historical authority, and even in the Roman Catholic encyclopaedia of Wetzer and Welte his story is considered as a mere pious legend. The Apostles' Creed is not found in anything like its present form till fully four centuries after the composition of the Nicene symbol, and the most authoritative writers on the subject suppose it to be a mere conglomerate slowly formed by the gradual collation of earlier and simpler expressions of belief. Occult in- vestigation negatives this idea, as will be explained later, and, though quite admitting its composite character, assigns to part of it at any THE EARLIER CREEDS. 9 rate a far higher origin than even that claimed by Rufinus. Much more definite and satisfactory, from the ordinary point of view, is the history of the longer formula called the Nicene Creed, which appears in the mass of the Roman Church and the communion service of the Church of England. Practically all writers seem agreed that with the exception of two notable omissions it was drawn up at the Council of Nicsea in the year 325. As most readers will be aware, that council was summoned in order to settle the controversies then raging among ecclesiastical authorities as to the exact nature of the Christ. The Athanasian or materialistic party declared him to be of the same substance as the Father, while the followers of Arius preferred not to commit themselves to anything stronger than the state- ment that he was of like substance, nor were they willing to admit that he also was without beginning. The point seems a small one to have caused so much excitement and ill-feeling ; but it appears to be one of the characteristics of theological controversy that the smaller the difi'erence of opinion the more acrimonious is the hatred between the disputants. Suggestions have been made that Constantino himself exercised a somewhat undue influence over the 10 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. deliberations of the council ; however that may have been, its decision was in favour of the Athanasian party, and the Nicene Creed was accepted as the expression of the faith of the majority. As then drawn up, it ended (if we omit the awful anathema, which shows very clearly the real spirit of the council) with the words, " I believe in the Holy Ghost," and the clauses with which it now concludes were added at the Council of Constantinople in the year 381, with the exception of the words " and the Son," which were inserted by the Western Church at the Council of Toledo in the year 589. Chapter II. THEIR ORIGIN. Having thus very briefly epitomized wliat is generally accepted by orthodox scholars with regard to the history of the Creeds, I will now proceed to recount what was discovered in relation to them in the course of the investiga- tions to which I have already referred. The first point to bear in mind is that all the Creeds as we have them now are essentially composite productions, and that the only one of them which in any way represents a single original document is the latest of all — the 4thanasian. I am perfectly aware that even this opening statement flies directly in the face of the ideas ordinarily received upon this subject, but I cannot help that ; I am simply stating the facts as the investigators found them. These Creeds, then, embody statements which are derived from three quite separate sources, and we shall find it of great interest to endeavour to disentangle these three elements from one 11 12 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. anotlier, and to assign to each of them re- spectively those clauses of the Creed (as we have it now) which have flowed from them. These are : — (a) An ancient formula of cosmogenesis, resting on very high authority indeed. (b) The rubric for the guidance of the hiero- phant in the Egyptian form of the Sohan or Sot^patti initiation. (c) The materializing tendency which mis- takenly sought to interpret these two documents (a) and (&) as relating the biography of an individual. Let us consider each of these sources a little more in detail. The Life of the Christ. It is not my intention here to enter at leng'Eh. into the extremely interesting information which clairvoyant investigation has given to us with regard to the true life -story of the great teacher Christ. That will be a work to be done here- kfter, but it will assuredly not be undertaken unless and until it is possible for us to adduce in support of our statements evidence entirely apart from that of clairvoyance — -evidence such as will , appeal to the minds of the scholar and the V.ntiquarian. It will, however, be necessary for '^ comprehension of the purpose of the ancient formula above mentioned that just a few words THEIR ORIGIN. 13 upon that subject should be introduced into this treatise. When the Churchman ends his prayer with the words " through Jesus Christ our Lord," he is confusing together three entirely separate ideas — (a) the disciple Jesus ; {b) the great Master whom men call the Christ, though he is known by another and far grander name among the Initiates ; and (c) the Second Aspect or Person of the Logos. With regard to the first of these, Mrs. Besant writes in that wonderful book, Esoteric Christianity : — " The child whose Jewish name has been turned into that of Jesus was born in Pales- tine B.C. 105, during the consulate of Publius Eutilius Rufus and Gnseus Mallius Maximus. His parents were well-born though poor, and he was educated in a knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures. His fervent devotion and a gravity beyond his years led his parents to dedicate him to the religious and ascetic life, and soon after a visit to Jerusalem, in which the extraordinary intelligence and eagerness for knowledge of the youth were shown in his seeking of the doctors in the temple, he was sent to be trained in an Essene community in the southern Judsean desert. When he had reached the age of nine- teen he went on to the Essene monastery near Mount Serbal, a monastery which was much 14 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. visited by learned men travelling from Persia and India to Egypt, and where a magnificent library of occult works — many of them Indian of the trans-Himalayan regions — had been estab- lished. From this seat of mystic learning he proceeded later to Egypt. He had been fully instructed in the secret teachings which were the real fount of life among the Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt as a disciple of that one sublime Lodge from which every great religion has its Founder. For Egypt has remained one of the world -centres of the true Mysteries, whereof all semi-public Mysteries are the faint and far-off reflections. The Mysteries spoken of in history as the Egyptian were the shadow of the true things ' in the Mount,' and there the young Hebrew received the solemn consecration which prepared him for the royal priesthood he was later to attain" (p. 129). Indeed, this was a young man of such wondrous devotion and such surpassing purity that he was found worthy of the highest honour that can come to man- — he was permitted to yield up his body for the use of a mighty Teacher sent out by the Great Brotherhood to found a new religion, to present in yet another form the wonderful truth, many-sided because divine, which now we are studying under the name of Theosophy. This Great One took pos- THEIR ORIGIN. 15 session of tlie body when it was twenty-nine years old, and used it for three years, two of which were occupied in instructing the heads of the Essene community in the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, and one in preaching to the general public among the hills and fields of Palestine. It is of this last year's work only that some traditions are preserved in the gospel story, though even those traditions are so cor- rupted and overlaid that it is all but impossible to sift the truth from the falsehood in them. Both the disciple Jesus and the great Master Christ are men of our own humanity, however far in advance of us they are along the path of evolution. It is therefore incorrect to speak of either of them as a direct manifestation or in- carnation of the Second Person of the Trinity, though it is true that there is a certain mystical connection here which is fully understood only by the advanced student. The Formula which He Taught. For the purposes of our present inquiry, however, we need not consider that side of the question at all, but may simply think of the Christ as a teacher within the bosom of the Essene community, living amongst them and instructing them for some time before his public ministry commenced. The heads of this com- 16 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. munity were already in possession of fragments of more or less accurate information — possibly obtained from Buddhist sources — with regard to the origin of all things. These the Christ put together and rendered coherent, casting them for the purpose of ready memorization into the shape of a formula of belief which may be regarded as the first source of the Christian Creed. The original of this formula may perhaps some day be exactly translated into English ; but such an undertaking would need the co-operation of several persons, and very minute care as to the niceties of meaning and choice of words. The attempt will therefore not be made here ; yet, since many have inquired what clauses were included in it, it may be well to give a rough idea of it in the words which follow — it being of course understood that this is a paraphrase of its meaning as enshrined in the hearts of those to whom it had been taught, rather than an attempt at an accurate rendering of it. " We believe in God the Father, from whom comes the system — yea, our world and all things therein, whether seen or unseen ; " And in God the Son, most holy, alone-born from His Father before all the aeons, not made but emanated, being of the very substance of THEIR ORIGIN. 17 the Father, true God from the true God, true Light from the true Light, by whom all forms were made ; who for us men came down from heaven and entered the dense sea, yet riseth thence again in ever greater glory to a kingdom without end ; " And in God the Holy Ghost, the Lifegiver, emanating also from the Father, equal with Him and with the Son in glory ; who manifesteth through His Angels ; "We recognize one brotherhood of holy men as leading to the Greater Brotherhood above, one initiation for emancipation from the fetters of sin and for escape from the wheel of birth and death into eternal life." The purpose for which this symbol was con- structed was to condense into a form easily remembered the teaching as to the origin of the cosmos which the Christ had been giving to the heads of the Essene community. Each phrase of it would recall to their minds much more than the mere words in which it was expressed ; in fact, it was a mnemonic such as the Buddha used when he gave to his hearers the Four Noble Truths, and no doubt each clause was taken as a text for explanation and expansion, much in the same way as Madame Blavatsky wrote the whole of The Secret Doctrine upon the basis of the Stanzas of Dzyan. 18 the christian creed. The Egyptian Rubric. In considering the second source, whicli we have decided to mark as (b), we have to re- member that the Egyptian religion expressed itself principally through a multiplicity of forms and ceremonies, and that even in its Mysteries the same tendency repeatedly showed itself. The highest step of these Mysteries placed a man definitely upon the Path, as we should now call it ; that is to say, it corresponded with what in Buddhist terminology is called the Sot&pafcti initiation. An elaborate symbolical ritual was performed in connection with this step, and part of our Creed is a direct reproduction of the instructions' laid down by that ritual for the officiating hierophant, the only difference being that what there stood as a series of directions has been recast into the form of a historical narrative describing that descent of the Logos into matter which the original ritual was in- tended to symbolize. This rubric of initiation, in the new form which we have described, was inserted in the formula (a) by the leaders of the Essene com- munity shortly after the Christ's departure from among them, in order that the details as to the descent of the Logos (which he had so often illustrated for them by reference to the ritual of THEIR ORIGIN. 19 this initiation) might be commemorated in the same symbol which gave the great outline of the doctrine. Teaching similar in character and similarly illustrated by symbol was given by him with regard to the work of the Logos in His First and Third Aspects, though comparatively little of it has been preserved to us ; but there seems no doubt that special importance was attached by the Christ to the accurate comprehension by his disciples of the descent into matter of the monadic essence which is outpoured by the Logos in His Second Aspect. This is readily comprehensible if we reflect that it is this monadic essence which ensouls all the forms around us, and that it is only through its study that the great principle of evolution can be grasped, and the law of love which sways the universe at all understood. For though undoubtedly evolution is also taking place in the case of the life which ensouls atoms and molecules, its progress is entirely beyond our ken ; and assuredly the same may be said, at any rate as regards the vast majority of men, with reference to that far higher evolution which we must suppose to be in operation in connec- tion with that' third great outpouring which comes from the First of the great Divine mani- festations. 20 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. Thus it is evident that it is only through the study of the method of this second outpouring that a comprehension of the whole system may be approached, and this would account for the emphasis which the Christ seems to have laid upon this part of his teaching. Knowing as they did the necessity for this emphasis, it is not wonderful that those who felt themselves responsible for handing on the teaching should have incorporated this symbolical outline of it into the special formula which was intended to epitomize their faith. No doubt in doing so they were actuated by the highest and purest motives, and it was not possible for them to foresee that this very insertion would presently open the way for the degrading and destructive action of tendency (c), of which in their time there was as yet no sign. It may perhaps be asked why the Christ should have chosen the somewhat complicated and material symbolism of this Egyptian rite to illustrate his teaching on such a subject. We are in no position to presume to criticize the methods adopted by one who knows ; but perhaps we may venture to suggest that a possible reason may be found in the close connection of the Essenes with the Egyptian tradition, and in the fact that Jesus himself had in earlier life spent some considerable time in THEIR ORIGIN. 21 Egypt and passed through at least one initiation according to its methods. Materialism and Degradation. (c) At a very early period in the history of the movement which afterwards became known as Christianity we find two rival schools or tendencies asserting themselves, which are in reality the outcome of two phases of the life- work of the Christ. As has been said, the greater portion of his time was devoted to giving definite instruction within the boundaries of the Essene community ; but in addition to this, and in opposition to the views of the official leaders of that community, he also passed beyond these comparatively narrow limits, and devoted a short period at the close of his life to public preaching. It was obviously impossible for him to put before the ignorant multitude those deeper teachings of the Ancient Wisdom which he had imparted to the few who by special educa- tion and a long life of ascetic training had fitted themselves, at least to some extent, for their reception. We find, therefore, that his public addresses may be divided into two classes, the first consisting of the Xdyta or proverbs, a series of short sentences each containing either an important truth or a rule of conduct, and the 22 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. second being composed of the irapaKhfjTijpia or " words of comfort " — those eloquent discourses which were called forth by the deep compas- sion he felt for the profound misery almost universal at that time among the lower classes, and the terrible atmosphere of despair, depres- sion and degradation by which they were over- whelmed. Some traditional fragments of the Logia have been incorporated here and there in what are now called the gospels ; and what seems to be a genuine leaf from a collection of them was discovered some time ago in Egypt by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt. Christ himself appears to have written nothing, or at any rate nothing that he wrote is now known to us ; but during the first two centuries after his death (which, be it remembered, took place considerably before what we now call the Christian era) many of his disciples seem to have made and written down collections of the sayings which were ascribed to him by the current oral tradition. In such collections, however, no attempt was made to give a biography of the Christ ; though sometimes a few words of introduction described the occasion upon which certain sayings were uttered, just as in the Buddhist books we con- stantly find a sermon of the Buddha's introduced by the statement, " On a certain occasion the THEIE ORIGIN. 23 Blessed One was dwelling in the bamboo garden at Rajagriha," etc. Words of Comfort Misunderstood. Though some of his Logia have been distorted, and many sayings have been attributed to him which he certainly never uttered, yet he has been still more seriously misrepresented with reference to the " words of comfort " or Para- kleteria, and with even more disastrous consequences. The general tenour of these addresses was an endeavour to inspire fresh hope in the hearts of the despairing, by ex- plaining to them that if they followed the teaching which he put before them they would assuredly find themselves in better case in the future than in the present, and that though now they were poor and suflFering they might yet so live as to ensure for themselves an existence after death and conditions of life upon their next return to earth far more desirable than the fate of those who now so cruelly oppressed them. It was perhaps not unnatural that many of the more ignorant of his hearers should appre- hend his meaning but dimly, and should go away with a general impression that he was vaguely prophesying a future in ^Yhich what they considered injustice should be righted 24 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. according to their wishes — in which savage retribution should overtake the rich man, mainly for the crime of being rich, while they themselves should inherit all kinds of power and glory merely because they now were poor. It will be readily understood that this was a doctrine which easily secured the adhesion of all the least desirable elements of the community, and among such classes in the ancient world it seems to have spread with marvellous rapidity. Nor is it wonderful that such men should have altogether eliminated from their doctrine the condition of good living, and simply banded themselves together, often in orgies of the most objectionable character, as believers in "a good time coming," when they should revenge them- selves upon all their personal enemies, and without effort of their own enter forthwith into possession of the wealth and luxury which had been accumulated by the labours of others. As this tendency developed, it naturally assumed a more and more political and revolu- tionary character, until it came to be true of the leaders of this faction as of David of old, that " every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto them." It is little wonder, therefore, that the organiza- tion which gathered round such men, filled as THEIK ORIGIN. 25 it was with jealous hatred of any knowledge superior to its own, should eventually come to regard ignorance as practically a qualification for salvation, and to look with uncomprehending contempt upon the Gnosis possessed by those who still retained some tradition of the real teaching of the Christ. Three Main Texdexcies. It must not, however, be supposed that this turbulent and covetous majority comprised the whole of the early Christian movement. Apart from the various bodies of Gnostic philosophers who had inherited a more or less accurate tradition from authentic sources of the secret teaching given by the Christ to the Essenes, there was also a steadily increasing body of comparatively quiet and respectable people who, though without any knowledge of the Gnosis, took what they knew of the Logia of the Christ as their guide in life, and this body eventually became the predominant force in what was after- wards called the orthodox party. Thus we see that in the course of the develop- ment of the Christian movement three main streams of tendency may be clearly recognised as residting from the teaching of the Christ ; first, the vast congeries of Gnostic sects which, generally speaking, represented something of 26 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. the inner teaching given to the Essenes, though in many cases tinged with ideas derived from various outside sources, such as Zoroastrianism, Sabaism, etc. ; second, the moderate party who at first troubled themselves little about doctrine, but adopted the reputed sayings of the Christ as their rule of life ; and third, the ignorant horde nicknamed " poor men," whose only real religion was a vague hope of revolution. As Christianity gradually spread, its followers became sufficiently numerous to earn recognition as a political factor, and thus to gain a certain amount of social influence. By degrees the representatives of our second and third tenden- cies gradually drew together into a party which called itself orthodox. Being united in its distrust of the higher teachings of the Gnostics, it found itself compelled to develope some sort of doctrinal system to ofi"er instead of theirs. By this time, however, the original Essene com- munity had been broken up, and the formula (which among them had never been written, but was handed down from mouth to mouth) had in various more or less imperfect forms become practically public property among all the sects ; and of course the orthodox party found itself obliged to produce an interpretation of it to set up against the true one as propounded by the Gnostics, THEIR ORIGIN. 27 A Disastrous Misunderstanding. Then it was that there dawned upon their mental horizon one of the most colossal mis- understandings ever invented by the crass stupidity of man. It occurred to somebody — probably it had long before occurred to the densely ignorant "poor men" — that the beauti- ful allegorical illustration of the descent into matter of the Second Person of the Trinity which is contained in the symbolic ritual of the Egyptian initiation was not an allegory at all, but the life-story of a physical human being whom they identified with Jesus the Nazarene. No idea could have been more degrading to the grandeur of the faith, or more misleading to the unfortunate people who accepted it, yet one can understand its welcome by the grossly ignorant, as being more nearly within the grasp of their very small mental calibre than the magnificent breadth of the true interpretation. The slight additions necessary to engraft this unworthy theory upon the growing Creed were easUy made, and not very long after this period fragmentary versions of it began to be committed to writing. So that the commonly accepted idea that the Creed is a conglomerate gradually gathered together is, though not quite in the sense usually supposed, partially true, but the 28 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. tradition which assigns its authorship to the twelve apostles is entirely unworthy of credit. The true genesis of the greater part of it is indeed far higher than that, as we have seen, and the early fragments are imperfect recollec- tions of an oral tradition, out of which eventu- ally a very fair representation of the original was compiled, and this was formally adopted by the Council of Nicsea, though that council showed its absolute miscomprehension of the whole thing by concluding it with a curse entirely foreign to its spirit. The Creed of the Council. In order that we may have before us the exact form of Creed which was the outcome of this exceedingly turbulent council, I subjoin here a careful translation of it, given by Mr. Mead in Lucifer, vol. ix. p. 204 : — " We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things both visible and invisible ; and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is to say, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both things in heaven and things in earth — who for us men and for our salvation came down and THEIR ORIGIN. 29 was made flesh, and was made man, sufi"ered and rose again on the third day, went up into the heavens, and is to come again to judge the quick and the dead ; and in the Holy Ghost. But those who say, ' There was when he was not,' and ' before he was begotten he was not,' and that ' he came into existence from what was not,' or who profess that the Son of God is of a different person or substance, or that he is created, or changeable, or variable, are anathe- matized by the Catholic Church." It will be perceived that though this form is broadly similar to that which now occurs in the communion service of the Church of England, there are yet several not unimportant points of diflference. Much of the materialistic quasi- historical corruption has not yet found entrance, though even already the fatal identification of the Christ with Jesus, and of both of them with the Second Logos, shows itself all too plainly. But since all accounts agree that the members of this ce leJ3rafed_councn^W£r&-in^ the^raain ignorant and turbulent fanatics, drawn together rargely~by tEeliope of promoting their persDnal interSts7"it is small 'wonder that the narro-wer- raffieFtEan'the'lvider idea commended itself- to-. them. ..S till it will be noted that the confusion of the conception by the Holy Ghost and the birth from the Virgin does not appear ; the 30 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. symbol of the crucifixion is not degraded into a historical fact, nor has the clumsy attempt been made to give an air of verisimilitude to the story by importing into it an entirely inaccurate date in the shape of an unwarranted reference to that unfortunate and much -maligned man, Pontius Pilate. All these missing clauses, however, appear in what is called "The Roman Confession," which is usually assigned to an earlier date; but we are in no way concerned in this discussion, since we recognize that most of these clauses are merely slight distortions of the Egyptian formula of initiation, which had certainly existed for many centuries. The Materialization of the Gospels. Whatever may have been the date (and it was undoubtedly an early one) at which the degradation of allegory into pseudo-biography first took place, we see its influence working upon other documents as well as upon the Creed. The gospels also have suffered under an exactly similar materializing mania, for the beautiful parable of the original has again and again been corrupted by the addition of popular legends and the interspersion of some of the traditional Logia, until in what are now called the gospels we have a confused compilation — hopelessly THEIR ORIGIN. 31 impossible, if regarded as history, and exceedingly difficult to sort out into its component parts. The knowledge that the gospel is a parable shows itself occasionally among the earlier Christians. Origen, for example, speaks very plainly with regard to the difference between the ignorant faith of the undeveloped multitude, based only on the gospel history, and the higher and reasonable faith which was founded upon definite knowledge. He calls the former ' ' the popular, irrational faith," and says of it " what better method could be devised to assist the masses ? " In Inge's Christian Mysticism, p. 89, he is quoted as explaining that " the Gnostic or sage no longer needs the crucified Christ. The eternal or spiritual gospel which is his possession shows clearly all things concerning the Son of God himself, both the mysteries shown by his words and the things of which his acts were the symbols." We may not feel quite so sure as Mr. Inge does that "It is not that Origen denies or doubts the truth of the gospel history " ; but we can cordially agree when he says that " Origen feels that events which happened only once can be of no importance, and regards the life, death and resurrection of Christ as only one manifestation of a universal law, which was really enacted not in this fleeting world of shadows, but in. the eternal counsels of the 32 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. Most High. He considers that those who are thoroughly convinced of the universal truths revealed by the incarnation and the atonement need trouble themselves no more about their particular manifestations in time." This subject of the true meaning of the original allegory in the gospels is one of great interest ; we must not, however, allow ourselves to be led away into its fascinating bye-paths, but must confine ourselves to the consideration of the Creed. Chapter III. THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. Before, however, it will be possible for the reader to appreciate fully the real meaning of the various clauses of the Creed, it is necessary that he should understand as far as may be possible the outline of the system of cosmogenesis which it was originally intended to indicate. This is of course identical with that taught by the Wisdom-Religion, and the statement of it with which we are now concerned is in fact an outline of the respective functions of the Three Aspects of the Logos in human evolution. It is of course understood from the beginning that this is a subject of which none of us can hope to attain perfect comprehension for many an aeon to come, for he who grasps it thoroughly must be consciously one with the Highest. Some indications may, however, be given which will perhaps help us in our thinking, though it is most emphatically necessary to bear in mind all the way through that, since we are looking 33 3 34 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. at the problem from below instead of from above, from the standpoint of our extreme ignorance instead of from that of omniscience, any con- ception that we may form of it must be imperfect and therefore inaccurate. We are told that what happens at the beginning of a solar system (such as our own) is, allowing for certain obvious differences in the surrounding conditions, identical with what happens at the re-awakening after one of the great periods of cosmic rest ; and it will probably be more possible for us not entirely to misunderstand if we endeavour to direct our attention to the former rather than to the latter. It should be realized, to begin with, that in the evolution of a solar system three of the highest principles of the Logos of that system correspond to and respectively fulfil the functions of the three Great Logoi in cosmic evolution ; in point of fact, those three principles are identical with the three Great Logoi in a manner which to us down here is wholly incomprehensible, even though we may see that it must be so. Yet we should be careful, while recognizing this identity in essence, on no account to con- fuse the respective functions of beings differing so widely in their sphere of action. It should be remembered that from the First Logos, which stands next to the Absolute, emanates the THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 35 Second or Dual Logos, from which in turn comes the Third. From that Third Logos come forth the Seven Great Logoi, called sometimes the Seven Spirits before the throne of God ; and as the divine outbreathing pours itself ever further outward and downward, from each of these we have upon the next plane seven Logoi also, together making up on that plane forty-nine. It will be observed that we have already- passed through many stages on the great down- ward sweep towards matter ; yet, omitting the detail of intermediate hierarchies, it is said that to each of these forty-nine belong millions of solar systems, each energized and controlled by its own solar Logos. Though, at levels so exalted as these, diflFerences in glory and power can mean but little to us, we may yet to some extent realize how vast is the distance between the three Great Logoi and the Logos of a single system, and so avoid a mistake into which careless students are constantly falling. Yet, though it is true that the distance be- tween the Absolute and the Logos of our own solar system is greater than our minds can grasp, it is nevertheless also certain that all the greatest of the qualities which we have ever attributed to the Deity — His love, wisdom and power, His patience and compassion. His omniscience, omni- 36 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. presence, and omnipotence — all these and many more are possessed to the fullest extent by the solar Logos, in whom in very truth we live and move and have our being. Let it never be for- gotten that in Theosophy we do not oflFer this as an article of religious belief, or a pious opinion ; to the clairvoyant investigator this Mighty existence is a definite certainty, for un- mistakable evidence of His action and His purpose surrounds us on every side as we study the life of the higher planes. Unmistakable also is the evidence given by His work of His threefold nature — the Trinity in Unity of which the Creeds speak ; but a fuller consideration of this will fall into place when we come to deal with the Athanasian Creed, which so especially devotes itself to this question. The Planes of Nature. It has often been stated that each of the planes of our system is divided into seven sub- planes, and that the matter of the highest sub- plane in each may be regarded as atomic qud its particular plane — that is to say, that its atoms cannot be further subdivided without passing from that plane to the one next above it. Now these seven atomic sub-planes, taken by themselves and entirely without reference to any of the other sub-planes which are after- PLANES OF NATURE. MAHAPARANIRVANIC FIRST TRIPLE MANIFESTATION ?TT5 SLCOr-'D-^ PARANIRVANIC ATOMIC NIRVANIC HREEFOLD PIRITIn AN PIRIT ( ATOMIC he eincarnating BUDDHIC ffo or oul In >an NTUITIONI MENTAL ARUPA RUPA ATOMIC iNTELLIGENCEul CAUSAL BODY MENTAL BODY ATOMIC ASTRAL ASTRAL BODY ATOMIC SUB-ATOMIC ETHERIC PHYSICAL 8UPER-ETHERIC DOUBLE ETHERIC GASEOUS LIQUID SOLID DENSE BODY THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 37 wards called into existence by the various com- binations of their atoms, compose the lowest of the great cosmic planes, and are themselves its seven subdivisions. (See Diagram I.) So that before a solar system comes into ex- istence we have on its future site, so to speak, nothing but the ordinary conditions of inter- stellar space — that is to say, we have probably matter of the seven subdivisions of the lowest cosmic plane, and from our point of view this is simply the atomic matter of each of our planes without the various combinations of which we are accustomed to think as linking them together and leading us gradually from one to the other. V Now in the evolution of a system the action of the three higher principles or aspects of its Logos (generally called the the three Logoi of the system) upon this antecedent condition of affairs takes place in what we may call a re- versed order. In the course of the great work each of them pours out his influence, but the outpouring which comes first in time is from that principle of our Logos which corresponds to the mind in man, though of course on an infinitely higher plane. This is usually spoken of as the Third Logos, or Mahat, corresponding to the Holy Ghost in the Christian system — the " Spirit of God which broods over the face of 38 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. the waters" of space, and so brings the worlds into existence. - An attempt is made in Diagram I. to indicate the scheme of the planes of Nature, as under- stood in the Theosophical teaching. A diagram of this kind, however, while it may be of the greatest assistance to our minds in one direction, is almost invariably a limitation in another ; so in studying this one it is necessary to bear in mind certain qualifications. In speaking of the movement from finer matter into grosser it is customary to use the word " descent " ; and for that reason it seems natural to represent these planes of matter in a diagram as though they lay one above the other, like the shelves of a book-case — nor, indeed, is there any other method by which their relations can so readily be diagrammatically expressed. Nevertheless, in reality the matter of all these planes occupies the same space ; and this apparent impossibility is readily achieved by a system of interpenetra- tion. Science teaches us that ether interpene- trates every physical substance, even the hardest and densest, and that even in the diamond itself no two physical atoms or molecules ever touch another, but each is floating in a sea of ether. Science has not yet taken the next step, which would bring it to recognize that ether itself is also atomic, and that its atoms in turn do not THE THREE OUTPOURINGS THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 39 touch one another, but float in a sea of still finer matter to which we give the name of astral. Astral atoms in their turn float in mental matter, and so on as far as the most highly -developed senses of any investigator can reach. So that when we speak of the Divine life as " descending " into matter, it must be clearly understood that no motion in space is implied, but simply the viviflcation of degrees or stages of matter of steadily increasing density. In Diagram II. we see again the seven planes of our system, arranged just as before, though in this case the names are not given. In Diagram I. the three Aspects or Persons of the Logos are represented as already descended into our system- of planes and manifesting themselves upon the seventh, sixth and fifth respectively. In Diagram II., however, we are supposed to be dealing with an earlier condition of afi"airs, and so the symbols of the three Aspects are placed outside of time and space, and only the streams of influence from them descend into our system of planes. The symbols here employed to designate the three Persons are of extreme antiquity, and are copied from those employed by Madame Blavatsky to represent the corre- sponding Aspects of the Highest Logos of all. As it will be necessary in a later chapter to take up this symbolism in some detail, I will say no 40 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. more of it now, premising merely that the three signs arranged one above the other represent in due order what are commonly called the three Persons of the Trinity. It will be seen that from each of them an out- pouring of life or force is projected into the planes below. The first of these in order is the straight line which descends from the third Aspect ; the second is that part of the large oval which lies upon our left hand — the stream which descends from the second Aspect until it has touched the lowest point in matter, and then rises again up the side on our right hand until it reaches the lower mental level. It will be noted that in both of these outpourings the divine life becomes darker and more veiled as it descends into matter, until at the lowest point we might almost fail to recognize it as divine life at all ; but as it rises again when it has passed its nadir it shows itself somewhat more clearly. The third outpouring which descends from the highest Aspect of the Logos differs from the others in that it is in no way clouded by the matter through which it passes, but retains its virgin purity and splendour un- tarnished. It will be noted that this out- pouring descends only to the level of the buddhic plane, and that the link between the two is formed by a triangle in a circle, THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 41 representing the individual soul of man — the reincarnating ego. Here the triangle is contri- buted by the third outpouring and the circle by the second ; but of this we shall have more to say later. For the moment let us turn our attention to the first of these great streams, which descends from the third Aspect of the Logos. The result of this first great outpouring is the quickening of that wonderful and glorious vitality which pervades all matter (inert though it may seem to our dim physical eyes), so that the atoms of the various planes develope, when electrified by it, all sorts of previously latent attractions and repulsions, and enter into com- binations of all kinds, thus by degrees bringing into existence all the lower subdivisions of each level, until we have before us in full action the marvellous complexity of the forty-nine sub- planes as we see them to-day. ^ For this reason is it that in the Nicsean symbol the Holy Ghost is so beautifully described as " the Lord and Giver of Life " ; and some clue as to the method of His working may be obtained by any one who wiU study carefully Sir William Crookes' paper on ' ' The Genesis of the Elements," read before the Royal Institution of Great Britain on February 18th, 1887. 42 the christian creed. The Second Outpouring. When matter of all the sub-planes of the system is already in existence and the field has thus been prepared for its activity, the second great outpouring begins — the outflow of what we have sometimes called the monadic essence ; and it comes this time from that higher principle corresponding in our system to the Second Logos, of whom the Christian writers speak as God the Son. Much that has been said of Him, though beautiful and true when rightly understood, has been grossly degraded and misinterpreted by those who could not grasp the grand simplicity of the truth ; but to this we shall return later. Slowly and steadily, but with resistless force, this great influence pours itself forth, each suc- cessive wave of it spending a whole aeon in each of the kingdoms of nature — the three elemental, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal and the human. It is thus obvious that at any given point in our evolution we have always present with us seven of these successive life-waves from the Second Aspect of the Logos, animating these seven kingdoms. On the downward arc of its mighty curve this monadic essence simply aggregates round itself the difi"erent kinds of matter on the various planes, so that all may be accustomed and adapted to act as its INVOLUTION & EVOLUTION. SPIRIT MAHAPARANIRVANIC PLANE PARANIRVANIC PLANE NIRVANIC PLANE k ....... / \ 1st EK ARUPA LEVEL / \ 1 / 2nd EK RUPA LEVEL A / \ \ I 3rd EK ASTRAL A w /\ ETHERIC MATTER 1/ de;nse MATTER ! MATTEP MINERAL. VEGETABLE. ANIMAL. HUMAN. SPIRITUAL. TV THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 43 vehicles ; but when it has reached the lowest point of its destined immeshing in matter, and turns to begin the grand upward sweep of evolu- tion towards ■ divinity, its object is to develope consciousness in each of these grades of matter in turn, beginning of course with the lowest. Thus it is that man, although possessing in a more or less latent condition so many higher principles, is yet for a long time at first fully conscious in his physical body only, and after- wards very gradually becomes so in his astral vehicle, and later still in his mind-body. Diagram III. expresses for us these stages of development in an ingenious fashion. Although in appearance this drawing difi"ers wholly from Diagram II., it is nevertheless only another representation of part of the same facts as those given in the earlier illustration. The parti- coloured column on our left as we examine Diagram III. corresponds to the left side of the large oval in Diagram II., for they both depict the downward sweep or descent into matter of the second great outpouring. In this case, however, the diflferent kingdoms are indicated by the use of certain colours which have been appropriated to their respective planes by Madame Blavatsky in one of the tables which she gives us in The Secret Doctrine. It is well that we should clearly understand that these different colours 44 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. are merely for the purpose of distinction, and that they do not in any way represent real characteristics of the planes. All the colours that we know, and some with which as yet we are not acquainted, exist upon every one of these higher planes, so that the use of a colour to distinguish one plane from another must not be supposed to indicate any preponderance of that colour in the plane which bears it. It would not be difficult to suggest fanciful reasons for their assignment — such as, for example, that the colour of sand or earth is very appropiate for the physical plane, and the rosy hue of affection or the lurid red of animal passion have a certain connection with the astral ; but all this is mere speculation, and the only fact upon which it is necessary to insist is that the astral plane is not as a matter of fact pervaded by a roseate hue nor the lower mental by a vivid green. The pointed columns or bands of colour which fill the rest of Diagram III. all correspond to various stages of the upward curve at the right hand in Diagram II., and the intention of them is to express for us in a form convenient of apprehen- sion the extent to which consciousness is developed in each of the great kingdoms. The scheme is that where the consciousness is fully manifesting, the band of the column is of full width, but it narrows down as we reach the levels upon which THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 45 that consciousness is only just beginning to function. In the case of the mineral kingdom it will be observed that full development exists only in that part of the band which represents the three lower subdivisions of the physical — the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous, and that as we pass through the etheric, the super-etheric, the sub-atomic and the atomic sub-planes, the power to exercise consciousness grows less and less ; whUe on the astral plane we have only a tiny point — indicating that slight though decided manifestation of desire commonly called chemical aflanity. Life in the Mineral. Only a short time ago the fact that definite life manifested itself at all in the mineral king- dom would have been disputed by all except students of occultism ; but recent discoveries are gradually altering the previously materialistic scientific position. Within the last few years three distinct lines of evidence have conspired to show the reality of life in the mineral. The researches of Professor Bose at Calcutta have shown that a mineral can be poisoned, and German chemists have devoted themselves to an exhaustive inquiry into an infectious disease which they have called the tin-pest, which attacks tin roofs, and may be communicated 46 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. from one roof to another. They are even hoping to acquire from this study great practical advantage and additional safety ; for they think that it may be possible to learn along these lines to prevent many of the accidents arising from what have hitherto been supposed to be un- avoidable causes — such, for example, as the sudden and inexplicable breaking of a steel tyre. At present, all that can be done to safeguard us against an accident that may arise from such a possibility is to test the tyre frequently for hidden flaws ; they suggest that in many cases sudden collapse may be due to weakness induced by disease, and that an additional test for health might usefully be applied to the metal. But by far the fullest and most satisfactory demonstration of the existence of life in the mineral world has been given by the experi- mental researches of Professor Otto von Schron of Naples. By the employment of exceedingly powerful micro -photographic instruments he has been enabled to watch in detail various processes, the very existence of which had never before been suspected. He has shown that crystals possess not only movement, but also the power of reproduction, and that they exhibit various processes of generation exactly analogous to those employed in the vegetable kingdom. He gives us clear examples of generation by THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 47 division, generation by budding, and generation by endogenesis with emigration. In this latter case the new crystal forms itself and comes to the surface of the mother crystal, withdrawing itself by a double movement, propulsive and rotary, exactly as do the zoospores of algae. When last at Naples, I had myself, through the courtesy of Professor von Schron, the opportunity of exa- mining a very large number of his exceedingly beautiful photographs, and also of seeing some- thing of the mechanism by which his very wonderful results have been obtained. An out- line of these most interesting investigations will be found in The Theosophical Review, vol. xxxi. page 142. As to the power of evolution possessed by the mineral kingdom, perhaps I can hardly do better than quote a remarkable passage from Ruskin's Ethics of the Dust, page 232. The Crystal Rest. " A pure and holy state of anything is that in which all its parts are helpful and consistent. The highest and first law of the universe, and the other name of life, is therefore 'help.' The other name of death is 'separation.' Government and co-operation are in all things, and eternally, the laws of life. Anarchy and competition are, eternally, and in all things, the laws of death. 48 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. " Perhaps the best, though the most familiar, example we could take of this nature and power of consistence, will be that of the possible changes in the dust we tread on. " Exclusive of animal decay, we can hardly arrive at a more absolute type of impurity than the mud or slime of a damp, over -trodden path, in the outskirts of a manufacturing town. I do not say mud of the road, because that is mixed with animal refuse ; but take merely an ounce or two of the blackest slime of a beaten footpath, on a rainy day, near a manufacturing town. That slime we shall find in most cases composed of clay (or brick-dust, which is burnt clay), mixed with soot, a little sand, and water. All these elements are at helpless war with each other, and destroy reciprocally each other's nature and power : competing and fighting for place at every tread of your foot ; sand squeezing out clay, and clay squeezing out water, and soot meddling everywhere, and defiling the whole. Let us suppose that this ounce of mud is left in perfect rest, and that its elements gather together, like to like, so that their atoms may get into the closest relations possible. "Let the clay begin. Ridding itself of all foreign substance, it gradually becomes a white earth, already very beautiful, and fit, with help of congealing fire, to be made into finest porce- THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 49 lain, and to be painted on, and to be kept in Kings' palaces. But such artificial consistence is not its best. Leave it still quiet, to follow its own instinct of unity, and it becomes, not only white, but clear ; not only clear, but hard ; not only clear and hard, but so set that it can deal with light in a wonderful way, and gather out of it the loveliest blue rays only, refusing all the rest. We call it then a sapphire. " Such being the consummation of the clay, we give similar condition of quiet to the sand. It also becomes, first, a white earth, then pro- ceeds to grow clear and hard, and at last arranges itself in mysterious, infinitely fine parallel lines, which have the power of reflecting, not merely the blue rays, but blue, green, purple and red rays in the greatest beauty in which they can be seen through any hard material whatsoever. We call it then an opal. " In next order the soot sets to work. It cannot make itself white at first, but, instead of being discouraged, tries harder and harder, and comes out clear at last, and the hardest thing in the world ; and for the blackness that it had, obtains in exchange the power of reflecting all the rays of the sun at once, in the vividest blaze that any solid thing can shoot. We call it then a diamond. " Last of all, the water purifies, or unites 4 50 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. itself ; contented enough if it only reaches the form of a dew-drop ; but if we insist on its proceeding to a more perfect consistence, it crystallizes into the shape of a star. And for the ounce of slime which we had by political economy of competition, we have, by political economy of co-operation, a sapphire, an opal, and a diamond, set in the midst of a star of snow." The Vegetable Kingdom. All this helps us to understand how conscious- ness slowly but steadily presses upward. We have life and evolution in the mineral, and the first faint beginnings of desire as shown in chemical affinity ; but in the vegetable kingdom we find desire much more prominent and decided, while the life-force is working actively for evolu- tion in a far more definite way. Indeed, many plants exercise a great deal of ingenuity and sagacity in attaining their ends, limited though these ends may be. We shall not be surprised, therefore, to find that the band in Diagram III., symbolizing con- sciousness in the vegetable kingdom, indicates a considerable degree of advancement. The full width of the band here extends through the higher as well as the lower subdivisions of the physical plane, while the point upon the astral plane has much increased in size. It is in fact THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 51 only within the last few years, since botany has been studied from the biological side, that we have wakened up to understand what wonderful things plants really are — that we have made an effective study of their consciousness, their habits and their tendencies. Nothing can be more marked than their likes and dislikes ; indeed, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that there is scarcely a virtue or a vice known to mankind which has not its counterpart among them. There was a time when flowers were regarded as created for the pleasure of man, but we have now realized that the life ensouling the plant adapts all its parts most wonderfully to the work which they have to do for the good of the organism as a whole. A plant or a tree may be said to be a colony of vegetable organisms. From the point of view of the plant, the flower, which seems to us the culmination and goal of the whole, is really an aborted and degraded leaf, though it also has its function to perform. We may say that the leaves act as accumulators of energy, for they gather carbon and liberate oxygen ; the flowers, on the other hand, expend energy, for they require oxygen and liberate carbon dioxide. The leaves store up food materials in the tubers and the stem, whUe the flowers draw upon this account — never selfishly, be it understood, but always in the interest of 52 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. the plant as a whole, and in the furtherance of its desire to found a family. They slowly and steadily store up energy, and then spend it all comparatively rapidly. The mouths of the leaves are on their under surfaces, and they are so tiny that a square inch of the ordinary lilac-leaf con- tains a quarter of a million of them. Forty-five million tons of carbon dioxide is thrown into the air daily by men and animals, and yet the whole of this is absorbed by those tiny mouths — or rather the carbon is extracted from it. The adaptability of plants is wonderful. All climbing plants, for example, have acquired the power of climbing in order to reach the sunlight, and have developed whatever organs are neces- sary for this purpose— hooks or tendrils or extra roots, or sometimes simply the power of twining. Varieties of flowers develope in order to attract different types of insects, and many of the adaptations are wonderfully ingenious. Some flowers, for example, carefully provide a lip for the insect to alight upon, and arrange that the vibration which he communicates to the flower in doing so shall shake down pollen upon his back ! Orchids cement their pollen, so that their insect messenger may not lose it fruitlessly by the way. The asclepiads defend themselves against the waste of their valuable material by catching and strangling flies which do not THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 53 fertilize. Again, vegetable ingenuity is shown in the development of fruit in order to suit the various tastes and sizes of birds. The fruit re- mains acid and undesirable until the germ or stone within is fully developed and ready to be carried away to a distance. Then the fruit becomes sweet, the bird eats it, but is unable to digest the hard stone or pip, and drops it some- where at a distance from the parent plant, so that it has a better opportunity to grow. Some plants develope thorns in order to pre- vent themselves from being eaten by mammals ; others, on the contrary, depend upon mammals for conveyance of their ripe seeds to a distance, as does the burdock or the goose-grass, which develope little hooks to cling to the coats of animals which pass by them. It may be re- membered that when foreign wool was imported into Gloucestershire, it was found that plants from the Cape and from South America began to make their appearance in the neighbourhood where the wool was combed. Various plants trust to the wind for the dissemination of their seeds, as do the thistle, the cotton plant and the lime. The cocoanut palm trusts to tides or rivers to carry away its fruit, and therefore grows by preference on the very edge of the ocean. Another way in which the ingenuity of plants is displayed is in the methods which they 54 THK CHRISTIAN CREED. adopt for their defence. Some develope bloom upon their fruit in order to shield it from the effects of rain and dew ; others produce poisonous secretions to save themselves from marauding insects. Others grow woolly hairs for this purpose, as the mullein, while some endeavour to protect themselves from being eaten by developing spikes or thorn.s, as in many familiar plants, or by impregnating themselves with silica, as do the horse-tails. Many more instances of their curious cleverness might easily be given, but they may be found in the later books on botany, and we must pass on now to the next stage. The Animal Kingdom. In the animal kingdom we observe the continuation of evolution along exactly the same lines. Here desire occupies a very prominent place, and there can be no doubt that the astral body is definitely beginning to function, though the animal has usually as yet but little that can be called consciousness in it apart from the physical vehicle. In the higher domestic animals, however, the astral body has sufficient development to persist after death for many days, and sometimes for months, while a certain amount of mental activity is distinctly beginning to show itself This latter fact is indicated in our illustration by the green point THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 55 which extends up into the lower part of the mental plane, while the fact that on the lowest sub-plane of the astral the band preserves its full width shows that the animal is capable to the fullest extent of the lower types of passion, emotion and desire. The rapid narrowing of the point as it approaches the higher astral level shows the kingdom as a whole to be capable only to a limited extent of the higher possibilities of the plane, though in some advanced individuals among the more developed domestic animals these possibilities are present to a very high degree. I remember that in the days of our youth we were told that reason was the dis- tinguishing attribute of man alone, and that no animal possessed it. Any person who has ever kept a pet animal, and has made a friend of that animal, as he will have done if he was worthy of the honour of animal friendship, knows that this is untrue, for he is well aware that the animal does reason, although it may be only along certain narrow lines. Any book of stories of the sagacity of dogs, cats or horses is sure to contain plenty of evidence of the possession of reasoning power. The Human Kingdom. When we come to the human kingdom we find that with the lower types of men desire is still emphatically the most prominent feature, 56 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. though the mental development has also pro- ceeded to some extent ; during life the man has a dim consciousness in his astral vehicle while he is asleep, and after death he is fairly conscious and active in it, and his life in it endures for many years, though as yet he has practically nothing of the higher existence of the heaven- world. Coming to the ordinary cultured man of our own race, we find him showing high mental activity during life, and possessing qualities which give him the possibility of a very long existence in the heaven-world after death. He is fully conscious in his astral body during sleep, though not usually much in the habit of usefully employing that consciousness, and not generally able to carry through any connected memory from the one condition of existence to the other. Examining the band of colour which represents humanity, we see that these various character- istics are indicated there. It retains its full width through the whole of the astral plane, and even to the lowest sub-plane of the mental, showing that man is capable of all varieties of desire to the fullest possible extent, the highest as well as the lowest, and that his reasoning faculty is fully developed as far as the selfish mentality of that lowest level is concerned. THE DESCENT INTO MATTER. 57 Higlier than that the development is not yet perfect, though it is commencing. The dark blue point on the higher mental levels shows that he is a reincarnating ego, and possesses a causal body, though to represent the average man correctly the point should not rise above the third of those levels. The cases of the comparatively few men who have as yet undertaken the task of self-develop- ment alonof occult lines show us that the future course of evolution simply means the unfolding of consciousness on higher and higher planes as humanity passes onward and becomes fit for such development. The band which appears at the extreme rio[ht of DiaOTam III. is emblematical of the spiritually -developed man — one who has trodden far upon the Path of Holiness. It will be observed that in his case the broadest part of the band, which indicates always that part of the nature in which the consciousness is centred, and in which it works most readily, is no longer upon the physical or astral planes at aU, but between the hisrher mental and the buddhic. The fact that he still retains his connection with the physical plane is indicated by the lower point ; but it i5 only a point, because that is no longer the central part of his life — because he retains the physical body only in order that through it he may help his feUow-men. Both on the astral 58 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. plane and on the mental his band is widest at the highest part, showing that to him the higher thoughts and higher feelings are those which come natural. His consciousness extends upward through the whole of the buddhic plane, and he has even a point which penetrates into Nirvana — indicating thereby that he must have attained the level of the Arhat. The Third Outpouring. The blue triangle which appears on the higher levels of the mental plane in the band which indicates the ordinary human kingdom, in Diagram III. corresponds exactly to the white triangle in a circle in Diagram II. It is into the genesis of this triangle that we have now to enquire, for it is the result of the third great out- pouring of divine life— that from the highest principle or Aspect of the Logos of the system, corresponding to the spirit in man, and holding the place filled in cosmic evolution by the first Logos, which has been called by Christianity God the Father. An attempt has been made to indicate how the monadic essence in its upward course gradually unfolds consciousness, first in the physical plane, then in the astral, and then in the lower mental. But it is only when in the highest of the domestic animals it reaches this THE DESCENT IN'TO MATTER. 59 latter stage that the possibility of the third out- pouring comes within measurable distance. For this third wave of divine life can descend of Itself no lower than our buddhic plane, and there it seems as it were to horer, waiting for the development of tit vehicles to enable it to come down one step further and be the individual souls of men. The phrase sounds strange, but it is difficult to express accurately in human words the mysteries of the higher life. Imagine (to use an Eastern simile) the sea of monadic essence steadily pressed upward into the mental plane by the force of evolution inherent in it, and this third outpouring hover- ing above that plane like a cloud, constantly attracting and attracted by the waves below. Auvone who has ever seen the formation of a water-spout in tropical seas ■n'ill grasp the idea of this Oriental illustration — will imderstand how the downward-pointing cone of cloud from above and the upward-pointing cone of water from below draw nearer and nearer by mutual attrac- tion. untU a moment comes when they suddenly leap together, and the great column of mingled water and vapour is formed. Similarly the blocks of animal monadic essence are constantly throwing parrs of themselves into incarnation like temporary waves on the surface of the sea, and the process of diflerentiation goes 60 THE CHRISTIAN CREED. on until at last a time corao.s when one of these waves rises high enough to enable the hovering cloud to effect a junction with it, and it is then drawn up into a new existence neither in the cloud nor in the sea, but between the two, and partaking of the nature of both ; and so it is separated from the block of which it has hitherto formed a part, and falls back into the sea no more. That is to say, an animal belonging to one of the more advanced blocks of essence may by his love for and devotion to his master, and by the mental effort involved in the earnest endeavour to understand him and please him, so raise himself above his original level that he becomes a fit vehicle for this third outpouring, the reception of which breaks him away from his block and starts him on his career of immortality as an individual. If we remember that the consciousness of the monadic essence has been developed up to the lower mental level, and that the hovering influence of the divine life has descended to the buddhic plane, we shall be prepared to look on the higher mental levels for the resultant com- bination ; and that is truly the habitat of the causal body of man, the vehicle of the reincar- nating ego. But here we note that a curious change has taken place in the position of the monadic THE DE