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 :iS^ r''W 
 
pRiNCESS KARADcJA has much pleasure in 
 announcing that two of the lectures, that she 
 has delivered this winter in London, are now 
 obtainable in print, viz : 
 
 The Esoteric Meaning of the Seven Sacraments, 
 
 bound volumes . . . 2/- 
 
 in paper covers . . 1/- 
 
 And 
 
 The Ancient Therapeuts, 
 
 In paper covers . . . 6d. 
 
 Single copies of both these booklets can be had — as well as 
 of all Princess Karadja's other works— from Messrs. Wooderson, 
 4, Great Russell Street, W.C. 
 
 The other lectures, viz: 'the True and False Gnosis, The Tower 
 of Babel, Balaam's Ass, and Jachin and Boaz will gradually be 
 pubUshed. 
 
 The state of the " GNOSIS Propaganda Fund " cioes not at 
 present allow this expenditure. 
 
 The lectures were Well attended and apparently appreciated, 
 but as a large number of tickets was given away, the net proceeds 
 — all expenses being defrayed — are insignificant. 
 
 When the printing of the two first lectures is paid, the Gnosis 
 Propaganda Fund will present a deficit of about ^25, which sum 
 is temporarily advanced by Princess Karadja. 
 
 She hopes that those friends who take an interest in her 
 Missionary Work will kindly help to wipe away this debt by 
 ordering copies of the two lectures now published. 
 
Those who wish to assist in spreading the Pure Gnosis by 
 distributing copies of these booklets among their friends, can 
 obtain them at reduced price, viz : 
 
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 15 copies of The Ancient Therapeuts for 5/- 
 
 if application is made directly to Princess Karadja's Secretary ; 
 Address : (ist April to ist Dec. 1910)— GOUVY, BELGIUM. 
 „ (ist Dec, 1910, to 15th July, 1911) — 
 
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 London, S.W. 
 
 Observe ! — No reduction can be made on copies ordered through booksellers. 
 
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 English and American Clergy. 
 
 The net sums realised by the sale of these two booklets will 
 be used to cover printing expenses of the following lectures. 
 
 Voluntary contributions or donations would gratefully be 
 accepted if addressed to 
 
 The Gnosis Propaganda Fund, 
 
 c/o Messrs. Drummond, 
 
 49, Charing Cross, W.C. 
 

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 TO. 
 
 WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF' 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
THE 
 ESOTERIC MEANING 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS. 
 
By the same Author :— 
 
 TOWARDS THE LIGHT, 
 
 A Mystic Poem. Third Thousand. 
 Bound copies 
 In paper covers 
 
 ZUM LIGHT (German edition of the same poem) 
 
 L'EVANGILE DE L'ESPOIR 
 
 DAS EVANGELIUM DER HO'FFNUNG 
 
 THE ANCIENT THERAPEUTS 
 
 Copies of above works can be had from 
 
 Messrs. WOODERSON, 
 4, Great Russell Street, W.C 
 
 2/- 
 I/- 
 
 I/- 
 I/- 
 I/- 
 
 ./6 
 
 To be published shortly : — 
 
 KING SOLOMON, 
 
 A MYSTICAL DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS. 
 Price 3/6. 
 
The Esoteric Meaning 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Seven Sacraments. 
 
 BY 
 
 PRINCESS KARADJA. 
 
 FIRST THOUSAND. 
 
 LONDON : 
 Messrs, Woodkrson, 4, Great Russell Street W.C. 
 
 1910. 
 
Matrimonii™, 
 
 Ordo 
 
 Unctio Extrema,.^ 
 
 ^SAtiCTlTKK 
 
 'Renovatio 
 
 PCENITENTIA 
 
 'CONTRITIO 
 
 EUCHARISTIA 
 
 Confirmation 
 
 Illuminatio 
 
 PTISMUSi 
 
 Re-gen eratio 
 
'TT'CCORDING to the Orthodox definition, the 
 ^/« ■ » Sacraments are " Ordained means of Grace, 
 necessary to salvation, instruments of Eternal Life, 
 which — through outward and visible signs— transfer 
 to the Faithful inward and spiritual Grace." 
 
 How is it that these divinely-appointed ordinances 
 of Grace, which ought to bind together the Members 
 of the Church, have turned into veritable apples of 
 discord ? 
 
 The reason is very simple. 
 
 The Sacraments have gradually lost their original 
 signification, and have degenerated into mere ritual 
 functions. As they repeatedly failed to transfer the 
 immense benefits which they were appointed to transmit, 
 these glaring failures gave birth to grave doubts con- 
 cerning their efiicacy. 
 
 At the Reformation five of the Sacraments were 
 simply discarded as "not necessary to Salvation." 
 Luther went so far as to style the Sacrament of Con- 
 firmation a " FiKMELUNG," which word signifies Fraud 
 or Cheat. If he had had the slightest notion of the 
 Inner Meaning of the Sacraments, he would not have 
 handled the pruning-knife with such deplorable alacrity. 
 
12 
 
 One thing is certain: no Reformation could have 
 occurred if the Church of Rome had retained possession 
 of the Sacred Gnosis. Knowledge of the esoteric 
 signification of the Mysteries was in ancient times 
 called "the Power of the Keys" (potestas clomcwm). 
 This power has long ago ceased to be the appanage 
 of Orthodox Christianity. 
 
 During the first centuries of the Christian era this 
 knowledge remained in the hands of different Secret 
 Societies, which were on this account terribly persecuted 
 by the Orthodox Priesthood. In our days the Church 
 has lost the faculty of inflicting bodily injury to those 
 who do not share her views, but the " Odiv/m Theo- 
 
 logicwm" still subsists Christians are still 
 
 requested to " detest, abhor, and condemn " certain 
 opinions, which are declared to be " wicked heresies." 
 
 Luther styled those who denied the efiicacy of 
 Baptism administered to unconscious infants, " Demons 
 possessed by worse demons " ! ! ! Such vehemence of 
 language meets scant approbation in our days. The 
 Spirit of Intolerance is gradually vanishing, and it is 
 to be hoped that, in coming ages, men and women will 
 be judged according to their acts, and not according 
 to their more or less strict adherence to certain forms 
 of belief . 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that nearly all the Sectarians 
 who have been persecuted on account of their heterodox 
 opinions were men of a deeply religious turn of mind. 
 
IS 
 
 Numerous records prove conclusively that disregard of 
 external ordinances can by no means be considered as a 
 token of impiety. 
 
 The Messalians, who had a very low esteem of the 
 Sacraments, were a Sect of Mystics, who devoted them- 
 selves wholly to prayer. 
 
 Ireneus informs us that the Gnostics declared all 
 outward and material Sacraments to be unnecessary: 
 their chief aim was enlightenment ; the illumination of 
 the soul was all that their hearts desired. 
 
 Can such a frame of mind fairly be described as 
 denoting particular " wickedness " ? The Gnostics did 
 in no way despise Divine Grace. It seems strange that 
 men, who apparently were eager to conquer Life Eternal, 
 should manifest contempt for the Ordained Means of 
 Salvation : there must be some cause for such an 
 anomaly. 
 
 The reason is this : — The Gnostics, as well as the 
 Mystics, refuse to be fed on husks. We do not despise 
 the husk, as long as it serves to hide and protect the 
 living kernel ; but if that kernel is once removed, then 
 the husk has, in our eyes, no value whatever. We do 
 not object to outward signs, unless these signs FAIL to 
 transfer the Inward Grace promised. We consider 
 external ordinances, void of spiritual signification, to 
 be acts of superstition, unworthy of a cultured mind. 
 
 These, our views, prove no contempt for the Holy 
 Sacraments ! On the contrary. It is just because we 
 
14 
 
 feel the deepest veneration for the ordained means of 
 Grace that we intensely object to their promiscuous 
 distribution unto unworthy recipients. 
 
 This, our mental atitude, is in strict* harmony with 
 the views of the Primitive Church. It is expressly 
 stated that the Outward signs confer Inward Grace TO 
 THE Faithful. These words of reservation imply tliat 
 if the Sacraments are administered to those who are 
 not faithful, then they remain mere outward signs, un- 
 accompanied by any vestige of spiritual Grace. 
 
 On this point there has been a general defection 
 from the Original Faith. The Church of Rome has 
 laid down the principle that the Sacraments are, in 
 their own nature, vehicles of Grace, which — from the 
 mere fact of their administration — convey Christ to the 
 Soul. 
 
 The Council of Trent anathematizes all who deny 
 that the Sacraments confer Grace ex opero operate. 
 The ritual function is supposed to act as a charm or 
 incantation, which brings with it magical results. The 
 present state of Christian Communities affords abund- 
 ant evidence of the fact, that this doctrine is simply a 
 melancholy fallacy, apt to engender feelings of false 
 security within the hearts of men. 
 
 All the Reformed Churches hold that Grace is NOT 
 inseparably tied to the reception of the Sacraments. 
 The glaring absence of all practical results makes this 
 admission indispensable. But it is a dangerous ad- 
 
15 
 
 mission ! It inevitably generates the question : " If 
 they fail to confer Grace, what is, then, the practical use 
 of all these ritual functions " ? 
 
 The Catholic Church is theoretically right. If 
 the Sacraments were administered as they ought to 
 be, — in spirit and in truth, — then they inevitably do 
 operate in a magical transformation of Man. The ex 
 opero operate is true if the recipient absorbs the living 
 kernel ; it is not true if he is merely fed on the value- 
 less husks. 
 
 The correct number of the Sacraments has been the 
 subject of considerable litigation. 
 
 The Church of Rome insists upon the number Seven, 
 though it has long ago ceased to be aware of the reason 
 WHY there ought to be seven Sacraments, neither more 
 nor less. 
 
 These Sacraments are : 
 
 I. Baptism. 
 II. Confirmation. 
 
 III. Eucharist. 
 
 IV. Penance. 
 
 V. Extreme Unction. 
 VI. Holy Orders. 
 VII. Marriage. 
 
 They have invariably been mentioned in this order. 
 There is something very remarkable about that fact. 
 
16 
 
 It proves conclusively that the Fathers, who thus 
 established the sequence, were initiates, and conscious 
 of the reason why the Sacraments ought to be men- 
 tioned in this order, and no other. It is exceedingly 
 unlikely that they should by chance have discovered 
 the order, which is esoterically correct. 
 
 From the human point of view, the progression 
 seems very strange. Goethe suggested that Marriage 
 ought to be the first Sacrament, and come before 
 Baptism, as the birth of the child ought to come after 
 the wedding. 
 
 The Church of England, which has not entirely 
 rejected the five minor Sacraments, places the Extreme 
 Unction last in the row. This seems, of course, very 
 
 logical If the Sacraments are simply outward 
 
 ceremonies, without hidden meaning, then there is no 
 apparent reason for placing Holy Orders and Marriage 
 at the end. 
 
 But human logic and Divine Wisdom are sometimes 
 at variance. There are powerful reasons why Extreme 
 Unction should be the fifth Sacrament and Marriage 
 the last. These reasons will presently be mentioned ; 
 but, first of all, it is necessary to point out that the 
 Church of Kome, — though it has the great merit of 
 having kept the sequence of the Sacraments intact, — has 
 severed the connecting link between them. One single 
 individual can no longer be the recipient of them all. 
 The man who has received the sixth Sacrament — Holy 
 
17 
 
 Orders — is, ipso facto, for ever excluded from the seventh 
 — Marriage. 
 
 The seven Sacraments are links in an invisible 
 chain connecting Heaven and Earth : each link is 
 indispensable; none can be left out with impunity. 
 If the links in a chain are disconnected, then they are 
 transformed into useless encumbrances. The Church 
 of Rome has carefully preserved the seven links, but 
 only imaginary benefits can be derived from them in 
 their present condition. The mere fact of having 
 faithfully preserved them is, however, very much to its 
 credit. The Reformers threw overboard all the Mys- 
 teries that they failed to grasp, and played sad havoc 
 with the " Divinely-appointed Ordinances of Grace.'' 
 
 Bishop Cranmer was much mistaken when he de- 
 clared that there was no ground in Antiquity for con- 
 sidering the number of the Sacraments to have been 
 Seven. 
 
 Systematic knowledge of the progressive phases of 
 Evolution was the Great Arcanum, imparted in all the 
 Ancient Mysteries. The Seven Sacraments are rungs 
 in the Mystic Ladder that Jacob beheld in his vision. 
 
 That ladder was well known to the Initiates of 
 Egypt, Greece, Mexico, India, and Persia. The 
 Egyptian Saviour, the Virgin-born Horus, was known 
 by the title tep-f-xet, that is, '' Lord of the Ladder." 
 The Ladder meets us in the Cave of Mithra and in 
 
18 
 
 the Well of Life in the Great Pyramid, and the num- 
 ber of the rungs is invariably Seven* 
 
 As none of the Reformers had the slightest notion 
 of the Inner Meaning of the Sacraments, they kept 
 Two, and rejected Five ! 
 
 In the Lutheran Catechism these latter are not even 
 mentioned. The Anglican Church is less radical: it 
 accentuates the importance of Baptism and Holy 
 Supper, but admits the others as " Minor Sacraments " ! 
 Imagine a ladder on which the first and third rung are 
 alone left intact ! There is something almost tragical 
 in such a mutilated ladder : the two rungs left, fail to 
 bridge the yawning gulf 
 
 But a ladder on which two rungs are " essential " and 
 five rungs "of minor importance" is a distinctly queer 
 thing 
 
 On the Roman ladder all the rungs are, happily, 
 intact, but, alas! it lies flat on the ground! As long 
 as it remains in that position it cannot be used as 
 a method of ascension. May the Spirit of Truth 
 illuminate the Leaders of the Church and engender 
 
 * Rev. J. Oliver states that the ladder with the seven steps was 
 used in the Indian Mysteries to designate the approach of the soul to 
 perfection. 
 
 The ascent to the summit of the Paradisical Mount of God by means 
 of a pyramid consisting of seven steps was an old notion entertained— 
 before the vision of Jacob — by the Mexican savages. (Humboldt, 
 "Researches in America,^' Vol. I., p. 86) 
 
19 
 
 within their hearts the Good-will, so that the Ladder 
 may soon be raised heavenwards! 
 
 After these introductory remarks, it is time to ex- 
 amine the original Meaning of the Sacraments. 
 
 The word Sacbamentum is the Latin translation of 
 the Greek word fii/o-Tn'piov (Mystery). 
 
 In ancient times it simply signified the sign and 
 symbol of a Divine Secret. 
 
 What could this Secret be ? 
 
 Knowledge of the Great Central Truth hidden in 
 all the ancient Mysteries — the Truth which is the 
 essence of all religions worthy of the name. REGENE- 
 RATION is the precious kernel everywhere embedded 
 deep in the husk of empty ceremonies. 
 
 Regeneration is a word with which all Christians are 
 familiar, but few people realize what it really means. 
 It has degenerated into a current term of the religious 
 vocabulary — a term more or less void of sense. 
 
 Originally the entire drama of Salvation was con- 
 densed in this unique word — Regeneration. 
 
 Let us carefully examine all that this term implies ! 
 
 Man is a potential God. Regeneration is the process 
 by which latent possibilities are transformed into 
 glorious actualities. 
 
20 
 
 The Human personality, — as well as the Deity, — is 
 a Trinity, composed of THOUGHT, Feeling, and Will. 
 
 When the dark thoughts ef unregenerate Man join 
 impure feelings they breed a will tainted from its very 
 birth by the germ of disease and death. 
 
 Salvation can only come through the destruction of 
 this evil will, — the offspring of earth, — and the substi- 
 tution of a Good-will, the Child of Heaven. 
 
 Whenever the Inner Christos is born in the heart 
 of man the Invisible Choir sings : " Peace and Good- 
 will to Earth " ! Good-will is the Saviour, the Re- 
 deeming Agency, through which we obtain ultimate 
 peace. 
 
 Through the Generation of the Good-will within the 
 Human Soul the Emanuel, or GoD-wiTH-US, is incar- 
 nated. 
 
 In the present state of Humanity the Brain has 
 not the faculty of procreating something that is im- 
 mortal ; but the Heart, when it is purified, is ever fit 
 to give birth to the Divine Babe. 
 
 The Heart must gradually re-become Virgin : then 
 only can it be fertilized by a Divine Thought and pro- 
 duce an Immaculate Offspring. 
 
 The Human Brain, like Joseph, is only fit to be a 
 Foster-Father. It is his duty to tend, guard and 
 protect the Heavenly-begotten Seed deposited in the 
 bosom of Mary, that is, within the Pure Heart. The 
 rational faculties in Man are unable to procreate a Will 
 
21 
 
 that is absolutely Good : their mission is to support 
 that Will, once it is begotten, through the Grace of the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 This is, in a few words, ihe Inner Meaning of the 
 Great Mysteries of Incarnation and Immaculate Con- 
 ception, which have been the subject of such endless 
 controversy when applied to historical personages. 
 
 The Incarnation is the first step on the Heavenly 
 Ladder ; the Atonement is the last. 
 
 The Seven Sacraments are the divinely-appointed 
 means through which man ascends the intermediate 
 rungs : — 
 
 Baptism corresponds to the Birth of the Christos 
 within the Soul. 
 
 CoNFlRMATON, to the gradual growth of the Divine 
 Child. 
 
 Eucharist, to His coming into the reception of His 
 Heritage. 
 
 Penance, to the struggle of the New and the Old 
 Adam. 
 
 Extreme Unction, to the final death of the latter. 
 
 Holy Orders, to the Consecration of the Victorious 
 Christos as King, Priest, and Prophet. 
 
 Marriage, to the unto onystica, the indissoluble 
 union of the Redeemer and the Redeemed, that is. 
 Divine Spirit and Human Soul. 
 
22 
 
 We will now examine the seven rungs on the 
 Heavenly Ladder one by one. 
 
 The first Sacrament is Baptism. 
 
 The Council of Trent anathematizes all who deny 
 that Baptism is necessary to Salvation. 
 
 No true Mystic would dream of denying this necessity. 
 But we DO maintain that the validity of the Ordinance 
 entirely depends on an intelligent faith on the part of 
 the recipient. 
 
 The Lord, in His commission to the Apostles, 
 associates Teaching with Baptism, and limits the 
 administration of the Sacraments to those who were 
 Taught. The Apostles baptized none but believers. 
 
 If the Ordinance is not connected with a moral and 
 spiritual change, then it is only a meaningless cere- 
 mony. As a matter of fact and experience, the vast 
 majority of the baptized never undergo the momentous 
 change called Rkgeneration ; they remain practically 
 unregenerate. Millions of Baptized infants grow up to 
 Manhood with no profit whatever from their Baptism. 
 
 It is stated by the Church that the performance of 
 this Ceremony confers " a special mark upon the Soul, 
 whereby Christians are discerned from non-Christians." 
 
 Can this claim be substantiated ? Can it be truth- 
 fully asserted that all the unconscious infants to whom 
 this Sacrament is administered are, in any respect, 
 different from pagan babies? Has empty formalism 
 
23 
 
 the power of transforming people into " adopted 
 children of God"? 
 
 The Ceremony of Baptism is declared to be "the 
 seed-time of spiritual growth, the moment when the 
 Spirit of God breathes into the nostrils the Breath of 
 Life Eternal." What an amazing statement ! Is the 
 Creator, then, a Step-Father nnto all the other nations 
 of the earth ? Is He wicked enough to neglect sowing 
 the blessed Seed of Immortality in the Heart of the 
 Truth-seeking "Heathen" who loves, honours, and obeys 
 Deity under the Name revealed to his forefathers? 
 Surely the Holy Ghost leads the Evolution of every 
 Soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, under 
 whatever conditions that Soul happens to be incarnated ! 
 Religion is not a geographical question ! An immoral 
 Christian is no nearer the Heart of God than a virtuous 
 Jew, Mussulman, Hindoo, or Parsee. No special "cove- 
 nant " ensures to the former undeserved prerogatives. 
 
 Baptism is a Rite ordained for our deliverance from 
 Sin. How could such an immense result be obtained 
 without the conscious Co-operation of the Recipient ? 
 The entire renewal of the moral nature cannot take 
 place within the infant. Not the slightest " change of 
 disposition " can be noted after the performance of the 
 Ceremony. 
 
 The glaring absence of all practical results compelled 
 the Church to declare that " all baptized persons, though 
 not PERSONALLY SANCTIFIED, have a RELATIVE HOLI- 
 
24 
 
 NESS (! ! !) because they are members of the Church, 
 which is Holy " (see Harold Browne's " Exposition of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles," page 617.) 
 
 The Invisible Church is, indeed, Holy ! but of THAT 
 Church unregenerate men and women are NOT mem- 
 bers. There are no withered branches on the True 
 Vine : their fruitless condition proves conclusively that 
 they are not in spiritual union with Christ. 
 
 The Ceremony of Baptism, performed upon uncon- 
 scious infants, confers upon them the dubious benefit 
 of nominal immatriculation into one of the hundred 
 quarrelling sects into which official Christianity is split 
 up — that is all ! 
 
 There is hardly a criminal in Europe who has not 
 been baptized — unless, by chance, he be a Jew. The 
 very scum of Earth is admitted to nominal reception 
 of the Sacrament, which is stated to consist in " the 
 enlisting into the Army of Christ " ! 
 
 One thing is certain : the Primitive Church ever 
 identified Baptism with Regeneration. Through this 
 Sacrament regenerating Grace was not merely pro- 
 mised, but actually bestowed. 
 
 Over-estimation of husk and shell is fatal to spiritual 
 life. 
 
 I heard a few years ago an anecdote, which clearly 
 illustrates to what strange mental aberrations IGNOR- 
 ANCE and FANATICISM can lead even good and well- 
 intentioned men. 
 
25 
 
 A certain Catholic Missionary in China rejoiced the 
 hearts of his Superiors by sending home glowing re- 
 ports concerning the splendid success which had 
 crowned his efforts : — thousands of Chinese had from 
 his hands received the Holy Sacrament of Baptism ; 
 funds were urgently needed to carry on this magnificent 
 work. Considerable sums were sent out to the energetic 
 Missionary, who soon reported a large number of fresh 
 conversions. It was deemed necessary to send out 
 another Priest to assist tending this huge flock. On 
 his arrival the new-comer begged to be introduced to 
 the Christian Community. 
 
 With some embarrassment, his worthy Colleague 
 explained THAT they were all dead. 
 
 All ! ! ? ? Why ? Had there been an epidemic or 
 a massacre ? 
 
 Oh, no ! The reason was quite simple, yet somewhat 
 
 startling Female Infanticide is very common 
 
 in China. The good Priest, who loathed the thought 
 of all these poor little heathen babies going to hell, 
 had had the bright idea of purchasing the right to 
 baptize them FOR a Penny a head ! ! ! Before they 
 were drowned the poor little mites had solemnly been 
 admitted into the Holy Catholic Church and assured 
 an eternity of bliss. 
 
 The Salvation of an immortal soul at a penny a head 
 is certainly wonderfully good value for the money in- 
 vested. 
 
26 
 
 What a strange conception such fanatics must have 
 of a God whose attributes are Justice and Mercy ! 
 How is it possible that a SANE man can believe that the 
 expenditure or non-expenditure of a base coin can have 
 the power of affecting for all Eternity the fate of a 
 human soul ! ! ! 
 
 Augustine held that all unbaptized infants would 
 perish everlastingly. It is stated in Scripture : '' We 
 are saved by the laver of regeneration " (Tit. iii. 5). 
 These words do not at all imply that the myriads who 
 are not " saved " shall perish. 
 
 The fate from which we are " saved " through 
 EEGENERATION is COmpulsory RE-INCARNATION. The 
 Heavenly Father's educational methods are full of 
 wisdom. Those children who fail to learn their lesson 
 properly are not punished " everlastingly." Nay ! they 
 are simply obliged to perform the same task over and 
 over again, under more and more painful conditions, 
 until they have finally grasped the signification of the 
 word Duty. The first lesson to be learned on this 
 planet consists in absolute submisssion to the Divine 
 Will. Each soul which murmurs in its darkest hours 
 " Thy Will be done " ! is regenerated. The most 
 difficult part of its education is accomplished : it has 
 ascended on to the first rung of the Ladder, and the 
 eager hands of invisible Helpers are ever ready to assist 
 its ascension, until the Soul is made " perfect " and has 
 become ripe for Immortality. 
 
27 
 
 Sponsors are not a human institution, but a Divine 
 Ordinance. 
 
 The New-born Ohristos needs aid and protection : 
 He has to " grow in wisdom and stature " (Luke ii. 52) : 
 Two Guardian Angels, or " Guides," are specially at- 
 tached to Him and attend to His welfare. The 
 Regenerated Soul is never abandoned to its own re- 
 sources, but tenderly guarded and led by Invisible 
 Protectors, until it has attained " the measure of the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ " (Eph. iv. 1 3). Then 
 only the Sponsors are relieved of their charge. The Soul 
 which has been admitted unto personal Communion 
 with the Saviour has no further need of " Guides." 
 
 Amongst us this magnificent Institution has de- 
 generated into mere farce. The Godfather and God- 
 mother are supposed to guarantee that the baptized 
 infant will faithfully keep the Covenant entered upon 
 on its behalf without its knowledge and consent : they 
 promise to see that the Child will really be brought up 
 as a Christian. Do they keep this pledge ? 
 
 In the majority of cases, the Sponsors never give an 
 atom of religious instruction to their God-children, and 
 most parents would resent any attempt in that direction 
 as an intrusion. All that is required of the Sponsors 
 is to give a more or less handsome present to the Baby. 
 
 What has this institution, in its present condition, to 
 do with Religion ? 
 
28 
 
 The Church, having, unfortunately, rejected the 
 Doctrine of Re-incarnation, found itself on the horns of 
 a dilemma: Salvation and Damnation became the 
 only two alternatives left. As Baptism was the means 
 through which damnation could be escaped, and as the 
 number of men and women who were really regenerate 
 was very small, it was deemed necessary to try to pur- 
 chase Heaven at a reduced price, so as to " save " all 
 the multitudes who were not in the least disposed to 
 yield up their own will. The consequence was — pro- 
 miscuous distribution of the Sacrament. 
 
 Imagine the state of a School in which the un- 
 fortunate youngsters had the option between two awful 
 alternatives : — either to enter without due preparation 
 an examination much above their mental capacity, or 
 else be expelled in utter disgrace and be ruined for life. 
 This is the only option offered to humanity by Orthodox 
 Creeds. 
 
 The Church, — which teaches that performance of 
 empty ceremonies has the faculty of procuring celestial 
 benefits, — resembles a schoolmaster who tells his pupils 
 that they can succeed in passing their examination by 
 cheating ! 
 
 Such educational methods cannot fail to produce 
 dire results : they lead to neglect of that which is 
 essential, viz. : the Development of the Divine Germ. 
 
 Regeneration is absolutely indispensable to Salvation, 
 
29 
 
 but the administration of H^O and empty formula are 
 void of any value whatsoever. 
 
 We now come to the second Sacrament. 
 
 Confirmation is the completion of Baptism. 
 
 The Church declares that both can be received but 
 once in a lifetime, as they "imprint a character, or 
 mark, upon the Soul which can never be effaced." 
 
 This statement is absolutely true if the Sacrament 
 of Confirmation is accompanied — as it ought to be—hy 
 the actual bestowal of spiritual gifts. This was in- 
 variably the case in New Testament times. 
 
 The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, as described in the 
 twelfth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 are not in the least " miraculous " : they constitute the 
 natural budding and blooming of the Divine Germ 
 hidden in the Soul. Spiritual faculties which lie 
 dormant in carnal Man are brought into vigorous action 
 through the Sacrament of Confirmation: there is no 
 more miracle in that than in the fact that the Acoen 
 gradually develops into an Oak. The acorn remains 
 hidden in the soil — a potential but unmanifested tree 
 — until the day when the combined life-giving influences 
 of moisture and heat compel the seed to evolve and fill 
 its destination. 
 
 The Moisture and Heat indispensable to vegetable 
 life are the physical counterparts of the " Water and 
 
30 
 
 Spirit," or Psyche and Pneuma, the two great agents of 
 Kegeneration mentioned by Christ in His well-known 
 reply to Nicodemus (John iii. 5) : " Verily, verily I say 
 unto thee, except a man be born of Water and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." 
 
 The symbolical Water bestowed in the Sacrament 
 of Baptism causes the Divine Seed within the heart of 
 Man to germinate. 
 
 The mysterious imposition of hands performed in 
 the Sacrament of Confirmation is the Magnetic Force 
 indispensable to the proper growth of the germ. 
 
 As long as the seed remains hidden in the soil it 
 still belongs to the dominion of Earth. A superior 
 element — Water — descends from above, to assist its 
 evolution, and, thanks to this aid, the seed emerges 
 from its obscure prison and rises upwards towards the 
 Realm of AiR. 
 
 The Ascension of Man from Earth to Heaven takes 
 place in a similar manner. The germination of Divine 
 Manhood occurs, unperceived by all mortal eyes, deep 
 in the bosom ; but there dawns a day when the Inner 
 Christos, the Great Light hidden beneath the bushel of 
 matter, breaks through the hard crust that imprisons 
 Him, and emerges in radiant consciousness on the 
 higher planes of life : a new world unveils to Him its 
 
 glory Regenerate Man SEES and hears and 
 
 FEELS with entirely new senses that He did not possess 
 at an earlier stage of evolution. 
 
31 
 
 The gifts of the Holy Ghost are not in the least 
 supernatural ; they constitute the glorious heritage 
 reserved for super-man. 
 
 It would be miraculous for an acorn to produce 
 a multitude of leaves below the surface of the soil ; it 
 is its nature to do so once it has emerged above ground. 
 
 Unregenerate Man is in darkness : his consciousness 
 is imprisoned in matter ; the five senses are the only 
 peep-holes through which impressions from the outer 
 world can reach him. But deep in the centre of his 
 nature lies hidden the rudiment of a sixth sense — that 
 of spiritual perception. 
 
 There has been considerable speculation within the 
 Church concerning the " Gifts of the Spirit," described 
 in 1 Cor. xiii. 1-11. It is generally believed that these 
 gifts were only distributed during the first centuries of 
 the Christian Era. One of them in particular is sup- 
 posed to have vanished, and that is the mysterious 
 " gift of tongues," Even the memory of what this gift 
 originally meant has been obliterated from out the 
 Christian Communities. 
 
 " The Speaking in tongues " is generally supposed to 
 consist in the more or less involuntary utterance of 
 incoherent sounds, void of any apparent sense. This 
 interpretation, — which is completely erroneous, — has 
 repeatedly prompted religious maniacs to pour out 
 torrents of incomprehensible sounds. 
 
 No wonder that the gift of tongues is generally con- 
 
32 
 
 sidered by the Church to be of small value, unless it be 
 accompanied by the gift of interpretation, which is 
 generally, however, granted separately. 
 
 One thing is certain : the faculty of understanding 
 Nonsense has never yet been distributed by the Holy 
 Ghost ! Utterance of sounds void of sense and imaginary 
 comprehension of their meaning are feats belonging to 
 the realm of mental acrobatics ; they ought to be re- 
 served for the Pentecost of the Lunatic Asylum. 
 
 It is sad to think that modern nations are so utterly 
 ignorant of the true nature of the gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost that they identify the ravings of unsound minds 
 with the magnificent faculty of " Speaking in Mys- 
 teries." 
 
 The real gift of tongues is of immense value : it is 
 the power of veiling eternal verities in the more or less 
 transparent garb of A.LLEGOEY. 
 
 Knowledge of celestial truths cannot be projected 
 into a human brain if they utterly transcend the com- 
 prehension of the Recipient. The thoughts of Heaven 
 must be expressed in the language of Earth : if not, 
 the message cannot be correctly transmitted. All our 
 poets possess, more or less, the gift of speaking in 
 tongues : their brain is a sort of receiving-apparatus for 
 thought-waves, which they sometimes fail to compre- 
 hend, yet register faithfully. It is the glorious mission 
 of the Inspired Artist to express sublime truths, of 
 which he has, perhaps, never himself grasped the Hidden 
 
83 
 
 Meaning. Goethe was an Initiate, yet it is doubtful 
 whether he ever understood the wealth of wisdom 
 which is embedded in the mystic ballad of the " King 
 of Thule." " Tannhauser " and " Lohengrin '' are Divine 
 Revelations in the fullest sense of the term, as they 
 contain truths from the celestial spheres — truths of 
 which Wagner had probably very incomplete knowledge. 
 Ibsen often sneered at critics who perceived in his 
 works depths to which the conscious thought of the 
 Author never had plunged. The great Norwegian poet 
 possessed the gift of tongues : he lacked that of inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 This latter gift of the Holy Ghost gives more joy 
 than any other: it consists in instant perception of 
 the Inner Meaning of Allegories, Metaphors, Fables, 
 and Parables. It is a magnificent gift, and St. Paul 
 was justified in saying " that it gave edification." The 
 faculty of speaking in tongues has been distributed 
 since time immemorial amongst all the nations of 
 Earth, as it is one of the favourite modes of mani- 
 festation of the Holy Ghost. It was particularly 
 abundant in the Middle Ages, and meets us constantly 
 in modern times. But this gift is only discerned by 
 those who have " from the self-same Spirit " received 
 the still greater gift of Interpretation. To one is 
 given the faculty of putting forth riddles, to another 
 that of expounding them, but the " same God worketh 
 in all," 
 
34 
 
 It is indeed an admirable working method ! The 
 literal meaning of allegories is generally of such childish 
 simplicity that it can be grasped and remembered by 
 the most unintelligent mind. Behind this plain surface 
 lie hidden worlds of beauty which remain unrevealed 
 for ages until the hour appointed by God. Then the 
 Veil is lifted away ; the gift of Interpretation is bestowed 
 upon some servant, so " that the Church may receive 
 edifying " (1 Cor. xiv. 5) ; then the Mystery hidden all 
 through the Centuries is suddenly revealed. 
 
 The late Anna Kingsford possessed, in a remarkable 
 degree, the faculty of Interpretation ; so did my 
 venerable friend, Mr. Michelsen. The Power of under- 
 standing Hidden Verities was the special gift granted 
 unto me when I received, in 1904, the Holy Sacrament 
 of Confirmation. 
 
 The bestowal of spiritual gifts invaeiably accom- 
 panies the actual reception of the Second Sacrament. 
 The wonder, mystery, and miracle of the Apostolic 
 times were not accidental, but are essential, to the 
 Divinely-instituted Church of God. 
 
 Those Christians who have received no special gift 
 
 ABE NOT YET CONFIRMED. 
 
 If you went to a nurseryman and asked for young 
 oaks, what would you think if he exhibited to you a 
 
35 
 
 collection of stale acorns ? You would stare at him in 
 amazement, and say : " Sir ! I want trees ! " Imagine 
 your feelings if he replied : " In New Testament times 
 acorns possessed the extraordinary and miraculous 
 faculty of being transformed into oaks : that was ' for 
 the benefit of others ' ! These acorns are oaks ' in an 
 abiding and ordinary state.' To remain unde- 
 veloped is quite compatible with the welfare of the 
 plant." 
 
 Would you not, in silence, turn your back on that 
 nurseryman and think : " You are either a knave or a 
 fool ! If those acorns had been submitted to proper 
 treatment, the great miracle of growth would have 
 occurred NOW, as well as two thousand years ago ! " 
 
 Great will be the confusion of the tens of thousands 
 of so-called Christian Priests, — who imagine that they 
 have received the Holy Sacrament of Ordination, — 
 when, on the Day of Judgment, they bring forth their 
 flocks of 350 millions of so-called " Christians," who 
 IMAGINE that they have been admitted into the True 
 Church of Christ by the administration of water and 
 empty words on their unconscious heads. 
 
 At the sight of this colossal sham the Spirit of Truth 
 will sternly say: " I know ye not : he only is a Christian 
 who leads the Christ-life." Thousands upon thou- 
 sands of so-called Pagans are members of the Invisible 
 Church : they may possibly never upon this earth have 
 heard even the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, but the 
 
36 
 
 Divine Seed in their own heart has reached glorious 
 maturity ; Angelic hands have baptized them with 
 tears they have shed in silence; Invisible Sponsors 
 have led their spiritual evolution ; and to-day these 
 despised " heathen " are Sons and Daughters of God. 
 
 The Church declares the Holy Supper to have been 
 instituted by Jesus Christ. It is, however, an un- 
 deniable fact that the Mystery of Holy Communion was 
 celebrated in different countries several thousands of 
 years before the Incarnation of Jesus. The magnificent 
 discoveries of Modern Archseology have proved this 
 conclusively. 
 
 In Egypt, Mexico, India, and Greece we find traces 
 of this Sacrament. Communion with bread and wine 
 played an important part in all the ancient Mysteries. 
 The notion of a heavenly food, — through the consump- 
 tion of which Man was Deified, — is of very ancient 
 descent. 
 
 In one of the Vedic hymns the worshipper exclaims : 
 " We have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal, 
 we have entered the Light, we have known the Gods ! " 
 
 The Egyptian " Book of the Dead," — which is the 
 Manual used at the Great Initiation, — speaks of " the 
 food of the Gods behind the Shrine." The Neophyte 
 exclaims : " My bread is white ; my drink is red : I eat 
 them under the trees I know, the branches beautiful." 
 
37 
 
 The two trees alluded to were the Vine and the Fig- 
 tree, symbols of Our Lord and Our Lady. The Ritual 
 further speaks of the " Divine food that giveth Power." 
 The Neophyte says : " I obtain power from the bread 
 of the Gods : I obtain power as I eat it beneath the 
 foliage of the Tree of my Lady." And, further on : " To 
 me is given splendour, joy, and peace of heart in the 
 place of Bread and Wine." 
 
 In one of the Ancient Sacred Writings of the Early 
 Eastern Church, " The Book of Adam and Eve," trans- 
 lated from the Ethiopic by Rev. S. C. Malan, we meet 
 the following startling passages : — 
 
 "Adam and Eve made an oblation of bread on the 
 • Altar. God said : ' This oblation ye have offered me I 
 shall make it my flesh,' and the Holy Ghost came down 
 on that oblation." 
 
 Later on it is stated : " Shem, son of Noah, prepared 
 Bread and Wine, and said : ' Keep this Mystery 
 secret.' " 
 
 Further on we find it related that Melchizedek, King 
 of Salem, took 12 stones and offered on them a sacrifice 
 of bread and wine, and that he gave Abraham the Holy 
 Eucharist, a cup of wine and a morsel of bread, and 
 Melchisedek said : "Take 12 stones, and make thereof 
 an altar, and offer upon it Bread and Wine." 
 
 In the presence of all this evidence, it is impossible 
 to maintain that the Holy Communion was originally 
 instituted by Jesus of Nazareth : Jesus was the High- 
 
38 
 
 Hierophant of the Essenes. In this capacity He ad- 
 ministered to His disciples the Holy Eucharist — a 
 Sacrament to which evolved Souls had been admitted 
 for many centuries.* 
 
 Jesus was a Manifested Ray of the Great Invisible 
 Spiritual Sun, the Source of all Illumination. The 
 Seven Sacraments are means of Grace ordained by the 
 Pre-existent Christ, the Divine Being with which the 
 Man, Jesus, was at-oned. Through the consciousness of 
 His Unity with that Central Self, Jesus was able to say: 
 " Before Abraham was I am ! " 
 
 The Holy Eucharist was NOT instituted by the 
 historical personage we reverence under the name of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, but by the Divine Being of whom 
 that historical personage was a temporary Manifestation. 
 
 At first sight, it appears as if this distinction were of 
 small importance. Such is not the case ! 
 
 If the HISTORICAL Jesus is the originator of the 
 Sacraments, then no one can have received them prior 
 to the Christian Era. All those who have in previous 
 ages ascended the Heavenly Ladder would, in that 
 case, be outside the fold. Why this injustice ? Surely 
 God has no step-children ? Are we not told that " the 
 Heavenly Father giveth the Holy Spirit to them that 
 ask Him " ? (Luke xi. 13) All men and women who 
 loved and obeyed God long ere Jesus was incarnated, 
 belong to the Holy Invisible Church, just as well as 
 
 * See note on page 55. 
 
39 
 
 those born at a later period and under different climes. 
 Time and space has nothing to do with Salvation ! 
 Religion is an ever-present reality, not a thing of the 
 future or of the past ! The Spirit of Christ, which has 
 overshadowed this planet since its first formation, leads 
 the evolution of ALL its children. 
 
 According to the Catholic Church, Salvation is the 
 great thing to be desired above all, the ultimate goal, 
 to which we must aspire. But what is salvation if not 
 an immortalization of Self ? The worship of Self is 
 
 the very Root of Evil Selfishness — the great 
 
 bar to Divine Communion — is not eradicated by life- 
 long endeavours to conquer spiritual advantages for 
 one's own personality. To sacrifice the joys of Earth 
 in order to purchase the joys of Heaven is simply a 
 commercial transaction. The prodigal who squanders 
 his immortal birthright " by riotous living " is a spiritual 
 spendthrift. The saintly person, who denies himself 
 legitimate joys in the hope of reaping posthumous 
 benefits, is a spiritual miser. In the eyes of the 
 Supreme, those two extreme types of manhood are, 
 more or less, on the same ethical level. 
 
 The Christian who still hopes for personal advantages 
 in recompense of his virtues is not yet sufficiently 
 evolved to be worthy of receiving the Eucharist. 
 
 This Sacrament is based upon the great principle of 
 Unity : no one can partake of it worthily in spirit and 
 
40 
 
 in truth unless he be keenly conscious of his solidarity 
 with the entire human race. 
 
 God desires the redemption of all humanity — not 
 merely the salvation of separate individuals. It is the 
 proud prerogative of Regenerate Man to co-operate 
 with Deity in the accomplishment of this grand labour 
 of love. 
 
 When we have patiently toiled our way upwards to 
 the Gates of Heaven, then we must crush our great 
 yearning to enter and return to the lower planes of 
 life in order to try to bring back to Our Father the 
 Sons and Daughters who are still far away from Home. 
 
 The mystic expression " to rest beneath the Altar " 
 (Rev. vi. 9), which has puzzled so many Christians, 
 refers to this great spiritual fact. No one who EEALLY 
 has been admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar would 
 wish to enjoy heavenly bliss as long as millions of his 
 fellow-creatures still suffer : THOSE WHO ARE Last must 
 ENTER First. 
 
 Those souls who are admitted unto true Communion 
 with Deity gladly sacrifice their spiritual prerogatives 
 in order to assist in executing God's plan of Redemption. 
 " They rest for a little season, until their fellow-servants 
 be fulfilled" (Rev. vi. 11). Upon the Mystic Ladder 
 that Jacob beheld in his vision Angels ASCENDED and 
 DESCENDED. This expression is very significant : THE 
 Angels did not remain at the Top ; their mission 
 is to serve those beings who are less evolved. Each 
 
41 
 
 Soul which has ascended into the Divine Presence re- 
 descends of its own free accord as a Messenger. But 
 Good-will and Peace ever walk hand in hand. Those 
 who labour for others enjoy rest in the Lord : they 
 " rest beneath the Altar," sustained by the Food of 
 Heaven, the Celestial " Meat " ever granted to those 
 who do the will of the Father (John iv. 34). The will 
 of the Father is " that not one of those little ones shall 
 perish." We cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven 
 until we have done His will and brought home the 
 sheep that have gone astray (Matt. vii. 21). 
 
 May the Church of Rome, which claims to have the 
 Monopoly of Salvation, remember that ! 
 
 In the Sacrament of the Altar each vigorous young 
 Tree which has grown up from the Divine Seed de- 
 posited in the Heart of " every man that cometh into 
 the world '' (John i. 9) yields up his right to a separate 
 existence, and is transformed into a tiny twig upon the 
 Great Tree of Life. 
 
 The Wine and Bread are nutritious elements which 
 sustain temporal life in separate individuals : the Blood 
 of Christ is the life-giving Sap which supplies nourish- 
 ment to all the Members of the Invisible Church, 
 " In Him we live and move and have our being." 
 
 Wine and Bread belong to the Realm of perishable 
 Matter : the Mystic Blood and Flesh of Christ belong 
 to the Realm of Immortal Substance. Through the 
 Holy Eucharist the regenerated Soul acquires the 
 
42 
 
 capacity of assimilating food directly from the Celestial 
 Sphere. The scant spiritual nourishment contained 
 in Creeds, Dogmas, and Ritualistic Ceremonies is 
 trans-substantiated into an everlasting draught from 
 the well of Absolute Truth. 
 
 The overwhelming magnitude of the Grace conferred 
 in the Sacrament of the Altar inevitably produces 
 within the Soul a crushing feeling of unworthiness : 
 it becomes keenly conscious of the necessity of the 
 Sacrament of Penance. 
 
 If a beggar is suddenly admitted unto the table 
 of a King, he may, in the first flush of emotion, forget 
 his humble station, and simply rejoice at all the glory 
 he beholds, but there inevitably comes a moment when 
 he feels ashamed of his rags. While he was still on 
 the path their wretched condition did not strike him, 
 but the undeserved honour conferred upon him makes 
 him yearn intensely for clean garments. 
 
 True reception of the Holy Communion has the 
 effect of making the Soul keenly conscious of SiN. 
 The vision of ideal Manhood, in all its immaculate 
 beauty, compels the Soul mournfully to recognize all its 
 own infirmities. 
 
 Each thought, word, or deed in our past life is photo- 
 graphed in our aura, and the moment when these astral 
 records are presented to our gaze is tebeible, even 
 
48 
 
 for those who have led pure lives, according to earthly 
 standards. This is the " Fiery Ordeal," mystically 
 called " the valley of the shadow of death." All men 
 and women inevitably have to traverse it when they 
 leave the physical body, but those who are admitted 
 to the great Initiation pass the Burning Furnace while 
 they are still in the flesh. Plunged in a death-like 
 trance, they behold all the inexorable past in the 
 merciless light of eternal verity and in an agony of 
 shame : " they begin to say to the mountains ' Fall on 
 us,' and to the hills ' Cover us ! ' " 
 
 During the Fiery Ordeal the Soul is brought face 
 to face with the "Accuser," the terrible being mentioned 
 repeatedly in Scripture. The Accuser is graphically 
 represented in the shape of a Crocodile-headed Sphinx 
 on the Ancient Egyptian drawing which represents 
 the Judgment of Osiris. The Accuser presides at the 
 Ceremony when the Heart is weighed in the balance 
 against the symbol of Divine Law. None of. us could 
 weigh down the Scale representing JUSTICE, unless 
 Grace placed itself at our side and supplied all that 
 is lacking. 
 
 No Man can pass victorious through the Fiery Ordeal 
 unless he is at-oned with the Saviour. We would all 
 succumb unless the Sacrament of Holy Communion ever 
 preceded that of Penance. "The Blood of Christ 
 wipes away all sin." That old familiar sentence is verily 
 true. 
 
44 
 
 Intense consciousness of sin transforms Man into 
 his own Judge, and that Judge is the sternest of all. 
 The culprit feels that there are acts in his life that he 
 cannot pardon himself, even if he obtained the pardon 
 of God and his fellow-creatures. The penalty of sin is 
 
 death In the agony of remorse, the Repentant 
 
 Soul begs to be wiped away from amongst the living. 
 
 At this stage of evolution the Soul receives the 
 ExTOEME Unction. 
 
 The Church of Rome never administers this Sacra- 
 ment until all hope of recovery has vanished : it is 
 given, in extremis, to all nominal members of the 
 Church, — men, women, and children, — often after con- 
 sciousness has left. A ceremony performed upon a 
 senseless body can, of course, in no way affect the welfare 
 of a soul which has just divested itself of its garments 
 of clay ; yet this ceremony is impressive, and seems 
 to have a soothing influence upon distressed relatives. 
 They apparentlybelieve that the anointing has a magical 
 effect, and will be of great help to the Soul in Purgatory. 
 Even those who consider the ceremony to be a mere 
 act of superstition would not care to deprive mourners 
 of this illusion .... But it is an illusion, and hardly 
 anything else ! 
 
 Loving prayers do assist a Soul in the dark hour 
 of death ; but ritual functions, performed by a stranger 
 
45 
 
 who attends the death-bed simply because it is his 
 professional duty to do so, can only be of scant benefit 
 to the departed. 
 
 The Oil or Cheisma, with which the dying man is 
 anointed, is a symbol of Peace ; but Peace and Good- 
 will are inseparable companions. If Good-will was 
 not generated during earth-life, there can be no Peace 
 in the Beyond. The Soul will suffer, and must suffer, 
 not because a wrathful Deity claims vengeance, but 
 because Pain is the great cleansing Agent : the Soul 
 will suffer neither more nor less than is absolutely 
 necessary for its purification. Those who attempt to 
 avoid pain resemble naughty children who decline to be 
 washed. It is not desirable to abbreviate the pangs of 
 Purgatory: the flames must not be extinguished until all 
 the dross in us is consumed and only noble metal left. 
 
 As a rule, the painful process of purification takes 
 place after death, but those souls who are eager to 
 ascend the Ladder have the faculty of entering the 
 burning furnace while they are still in the flesh. The 
 voluntary descent into Hades for 3J days was the 
 Central part of the Ancient Mysteries : each Initiate 
 had to cross the Chamber of Fiery Ordeal. The Sacra- 
 ment of Extreme Unction was not conferred on poor 
 wrecks of humanity who drifted against their will 
 towards the dark shores : the Chrisma was administered 
 to those strong souls who, of their own free will, left 
 the flesh-pots of Egypt and went into the desert to be 
 
46 
 
 confronted with the Last Enemy, which must be con- 
 quered before Victory is complete. But they had no 
 fear of Death, for they walked hand in hand with God. 
 
 The Soul which has ascended to the fifth rung on 
 the Heavenly Ladder never looks back with regret : it 
 has no longer the slightest wish to remain on the lower 
 planes of life ; it accepts with equal submission Life 
 or Death. Why cling desperately to the possession 
 of a physical body when there is a possibility to conquer 
 a glorious body? "The Golden Fleece" is only 
 granted to those who gladly yield up their " coats 
 of skin '' ; but that garment was given them to hide 
 sin, and we can only entirely dispense with it when 
 there is nothing in our nature left that needs hiding. 
 
 The 3 1 days spent in the Pastes, or voluntary tomb, 
 is the indispensable preparation to the sixth Sacra- 
 ment — that of Priesthood. Jonas was swallowed 3^ 
 days by the " Monster of the Deep " before he began to 
 preach 
 
 The Soul must die away from Earth before it 
 receives the Sacrament of Ordination. 
 
 The Church of Rome declares that no position on 
 Earth is as exalted as that of the Priest. According 
 to St. Chrysostom, the dignity of the Priest is far 
 loftier than that of Emperors and Kings. St. Bernard 
 declares that his power is greater than that of the 
 Angels and Arch-Angels. 
 
 These proud claims are absolutely justified if ad 
 
47 
 
 vanced in behalf of the half-deified being who, after 
 having ascended the Ladder of Evolution, has finally 
 been ordained by the Great Leader of the Invisible 
 Church. The true recipient of the Sacrament of Holy 
 Orders emulates in his person the functions of King, 
 Priest, and Prophet. 
 
 No higher position can be conceived. But the proud 
 affirmation of absolute superiority appears slightly 
 ludicrous when applied to the vast number of gentle- 
 men who have simply selected the clerical profession 
 in order to obtain a more or less comfortable living. 
 
 The Priesthood — such as it is established by the 
 official churches all over the world — has nothing to do 
 with the Sixth Sacrament. It is simply a stupendous 
 machinery, put in motion by conflicting forces. 
 
 It is the professional duty of the clergy to expound 
 the Scriptures to the multitude. How can this duty 
 be properly fulfilled by men who only grasp the 
 Literal sense, and are absolutely ignorant of the 
 Esoteric meaning ? There are, of course, individual 
 members of the clergy who are true channels of grace, 
 through whom spiritual life is actually transmitted to 
 the congregation, but many perform the " Magnum 
 Opus " d, rebours. They transform Bread into Stone, 
 that is, pure religion into adulterated and indigestible 
 theology. 
 
 To reserve the sixth Sacrament exclusively to 
 members of the male sex is an undeserved insult to 
 
48 
 
 womanhood. We must evolve into a nation of Priests 
 and Priestesses. Now that the great truth that God is 
 not only FATHER but also Mother is beginning to be 
 openly preached from our pulpits, Sex can no longer 
 be a bar sinister, excluding half humanity from the 
 reception of the sixth Sacrament. 
 
 The mission of the Priest is to offer up sacrifice. 
 The only sacrifice acceptable to God is the immolation 
 of Self. Whoever is willing to give up all that he 
 has and all that he is for love of the Redeemer is a 
 Priest or a Priestess in the kingdom of the Messiah. 
 
 The Priest is a King because he has legitimate 
 dominion over multitudes of less evolved beings and is 
 responsible for their spiritual welfare. 
 
 He is a Prophet, because he is appointed to hand 
 down the riches of Heaven, to which he has free access, 
 unto those who are beneath him on the ladder. One 
 of his hands must be lifted up to Receive, the other 
 one stretched down to Bestow. That is the mystic 
 attitude which meets us so frequently on drawings and 
 monuments, intended to transmit to coming ages the 
 Ancient Wisdom. " Solve et Coagula," the famous 
 occult formula, corresponds to the power to loose and 
 to bind, granted by Christ to the Apostles when He 
 conferred upon them the sixth Sacrament. 
 
 That power is bestowed only upon those souls who 
 have actually ascended the Ladder and passed vic- 
 toriously through all the phases of Re-generation. The 
 
49 
 
 true Priest has the glorious mission of liberating his 
 fellow-creatures. The intolerable chains forged by 
 Ignorance and Fanaticism snap asunder at the magic 
 touch of the shining sword in his hand. That all- 
 powerful weapon is — The Word of God. A Word 
 not shrouded in the venerable garb of antiquity, and 
 emerging from the pages of a justly reverenced Book, 
 but a Living Word, emanating from a heart filled by 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The true Priest is a Mediator between God and Man. 
 Unto him alone is granted access into the Holiest of 
 Holies. In rare and solemn hours of deep contempla- 
 tion his enraptured Soul is lifted beyond the Veil, and 
 he enjoys the Beatific Vision. He sees no longer 
 "in a glass dimly,'' but face to face. These rare 
 moments — sacred beyond expression — are the preludes 
 to the Ineffable Joy, which is reserved for the Soul on 
 the last rung of the Heavenly Ladder. 
 
 But the Priest is not yet entitled to remain per- 
 petually in the Sanctuary. He has still many duties 
 to perform. The six days of toil are approaching their 
 end ; a period of intense activity precedes the coming 
 of the Great Sabbath. On the sixth rung the Soul is 
 Betrothed to the Divine Bridegroom ; it is not yet 
 Wedded. It has fugitive glimpses of the Beloved, but 
 has not yet conquered the right to remain for ever in 
 His presence. 
 
 But when it has received the Seventh Sacrament, 
 
50 
 
 then the Soul enjoys Eternal Rest. It enters into 
 the peace that passeth all understanding. " It will go 
 out no more " — that is, it will never more re-incarnate. 
 The Prodigal Son has definitely returned home ; he has 
 for ever left "the far country," where it was his fate to 
 be " fed on husks." And, behold ! — the very minute 
 he " arose," and began to ascend the Ladder, his father 
 descended and ran to meet him on the third rung, and 
 brought him the " meat " of heaven. And when the 
 prodigal said " Father, I have sinned ! " — then he 
 received the white robe, and finally the mystic Ring, 
 the symbol of the Seventh Sacrament, Marriage, the 
 indissoluble union of the Redeemer and the Redeemed. 
 
 Of the Unio Mystica I dare not speak. It is a sub- 
 ject too holy to be treated publicly without profanation. 
 What bride would describe to strangers the rapture of 
 the first embrace ? The Soul, which has enjoyed " the 
 kiss of the Heavenly Sophia" (Divine Wisdom) — to 
 use Jacob Boehme's expression — will divulge nothing 
 concerning the Sacrament of Marriage. 
 
 One thing is certain ; it was not instituted in order 
 to legalize the physical union of man and woman. That 
 union is, under present conditions, indispensable for the 
 propagation of the human race. It is highly important 
 for the welfare of the child that the knot uniting its 
 parents should be solidly tied. But the link is not, by 
 its own nature, unseverable. 
 
 The great argument, " What God united let no man 
 
51 
 
 put asunder," cannot reasonably be applied to the 
 countless unfortunate alliances which meet us every 
 day. God unites no ill-assorted couples ! The mere 
 fact that a member of the clerical profession presided 
 at the nuptial ceremony does not imply that the union 
 met with the approbation of Deity. It certainly ever 
 lacked Divine sanction if the motive that brought the 
 two consorts together was not unselfish love. 
 
 Marriage is the contracting of a very important 
 partnership, entailing grave responsibilities, which 
 ought to be strictly and honourably kept. But if 
 the continuation of the partnership is found to be 
 impossible, I fail to see the necessity of prolonging 
 it, to the detriment of all parties concerned. The tie 
 between husband and wife is of a Legal, not of a 
 Sacerdotal, nature. The Seventh Sacrament was not 
 instituted in order to unite for ever two imperfect 
 beings on the physical plane. "The Great Mystery" 
 of which St. Paul speaks in his Epistle to the Ephesians 
 (v. 32) refers to the at-onement of God and Man, 
 not to matrimonial affairs. May those who consider 
 Marriage to be a Sacrament meditate upon this 
 problem: "Which is worse profanation, to administer 
 it to unworthy recipients, or to dissolve unhallowed 
 unions ? " 
 
 Ritualists may retort that the views expressed in this 
 paper are simply subjective and lack all objective value. 
 
 I am in a position to prove that these views are 
 
52 
 
 identical with those held in the first Christian era, at 
 a period when the Fathers were still in possession of 
 the True Gnosis. 
 
 I beg to quote St. Clement of Alexandria, the great 
 contemporary of Tertullian. We find the following 
 sentence in his "Paedagog," Lib. I.:— "Being Bap- 
 tised, WE ARE Illuminated ; being Illuminated, we 
 ARE Adopted; being Adopted, we are Perfected; 
 BEING Perfect, we are rendered Immortal." 
 
 These words describe with extreme lucidity the 
 ascension of the mystic ladder, step by step. No 
 corroboration of my statements could be more effective 
 than that of one of the Canonised Saints of the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalem also extols the virtue of the 
 Sacraments in the following words : " Liberty to the 
 captive, remission of sin, regeneration of the Soul, 
 garment of light, holy seal indissoluble, chariot to 
 heaven, delight of Paradise." 
 
 Is it probable that he would have used these glowing 
 words concerning the frigid ceremonies administered 
 in our days to countless millions of unregenerate in- 
 dividuals ? 
 
 May the Christian Community compare the magni- 
 ficent evolution of the Soul, as described by St. Clement, 
 with the miserable results obtained through the in- 
 discriminate distribution of the Holy Sacraments unto 
 spiritually ignorant multitudes. 
 
53 
 
 The Divinely-ordained Means of Grace are misused 
 to such an extent that they have almost ceased to be 
 instruments of life eternal. 
 
 Baptism — the Sacrament of Repentance and Re- 
 generation — is administered to unconscious infants. 
 
 CoNFiEMATON — the Sacrament of Interior Illumina- 
 tion — is conferred upon unripe youths and maidens. 
 
 The Eucharist — the Sacrament of Divine Com- 
 munion — is granted wholesale to men and women 
 steeped in vice. 
 
 Penance — the awful Ordeal of Inner Judgment— 
 is transformed into a yearly function, a more or less 
 superficial whitewashing. 
 
 Extreme Unction — the utter yielding up of the 
 Will, the Sacrament which claims the most intense 
 personal effort — is performed upon poor wrecks of 
 humanity too feeble to have a will and often entirely 
 unconscious. 
 
 Holy Orders — the Sacrament conferring upon 
 Manhood the highest dignity which can be conceived 
 — is granted to all those gentlemen who choose the 
 clerical profession. 
 
 Marriage — the most stupendous of all the Sacra- 
 ments — is supposed to be instituted in order to legalize 
 the amours of Jack and Jane 
 
 What is this if not " CORRUPT following of the 
 Apostles " ? The sad fact that the Sacraments are 
 
54 
 
 NOT properly administered is proved every day by their 
 utter failure to produce the blessed results promised. 
 
 Admission of this fact has far-reaching consequences. 
 
 The very Existence of the Christian Church, in 
 its present condition, is hinged upon this question: 
 "Are the Saceaments Properly Administered, — 
 Yes, or No " ? 
 
 If we arrive at the reluctant conclusion that such 
 is Tiot the case, then the inevitable consequence is 
 recognition of the fact, that there exists at present 
 no Visible Christian Church on this Globe. Millions 
 of good men and women belong to the Invisible 
 Church ; but the enormous ecclesiastical Machinery, 
 — put in motion sixteen hundred years ago at the 
 bidding of the iniquitous Emperor Constantine, — has 
 very little to do with the pure Religion taught by 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The problem : " Is Christianity a Failxire ? " 
 — which has been so difficult to solve truthfully with 
 
 a negative answer — is a thing of the past No 
 
 thing can be declared to be a failure until it has been 
 properly tried ! 
 
 Christianity has hardly Begun yet ! 
 
 But when it shall once be established, — then a 
 New Heaven will for ever smile down on a New 
 Earth ! 
 
 Pbincess Karadja. 
 
55 
 
 MOTE. 
 
 In the Apocrypha, " Life and confession of Asenath" 
 — which shows indisputable elements of Essene lore — 
 it is stated that Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar 
 and wife of Joseph, did spend eight days in fasting and 
 penance. 
 
 Then the Archangel Michael appeared to her and 
 announced to her that henceforth she should be reborn, 
 while eating the blessed bread of life and drinking the 
 cup filled with Immortality. When she had anointed 
 herself with the blessed oil of incorruption her name 
 would be written in the book of life, never to be effaced. 
 She was further told to put on her bridal gown, " pre- 
 pared from the beginning of the world." 
 
 Michael then disappeared in a fiery chariot drawn 
 by lightning-like horses. 
 
 I have quoted this strange fragment, as it evidently 
 refers to the Great Initiation and the various phases of 
 Evolution through which the Human Soul has to pass. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM PRESS OPINIONS 
 
 OONOEBNING 
 
 PRINCESS KARADJA'S POEM 
 "TOWARDS THE LIGHT." 
 
 T^mes. — "This poem was originally written in Swedish, and went 
 through six editions, and has been translated into German, Dutch, 
 and Danish. The present English verse-translation is by the Author 
 herself." 
 
 EngZisft Mwil. — " The translation into English vernacular does this 
 talented lady great credit, and, had she not acquainted the English 
 readers with the fact that it is a mere translation of her former work, 
 it would easily have been accepted as a piece of original English verse, 
 80 rich is the language and so melodious its tone." 
 
 Pall Mall Qaiette. — " .... a noble message from the Great 
 Beyond." 
 
 Aberdeen Da/ih/ Journal. — " This poem is a powerful meditation on 
 the theme : ' Whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap.' " 
 
 Universe. — " The poetess has a wonderful mastery of blank verse 
 and an excellent ear for English rhythm." 
 
 Ocealt Eevieui. — "This poem has met with a very considerable 
 Bucoess. There are incidents powerfully described. . . . The 
 poem is in blank verse of considerable vigour. It is interesting both 
 as a psychic experience and as a description of after-death conditions 
 and is thoroughly readable." 
 
 CatTioUc Watchman. — '■ .... this work contains a certain 
 number of truths, taught by the Catholic Church." 
 
 Nottinghami Ouardian, — " .... a deeply impressive work . , . ." 
 
 East and West, Bombay " This poem is both a psychic problem 
 
 and an inspiring message. . . . It is so remarkable that it requires 
 no story of a wondrous birth to account for its extraordinary success. 
 That treacherous medium, blank verse, is handled with an ease and 
 accuracy rare enough among native writers of the language, and 
 remarkable in one whose thoughts are habitually expressed in another 
 tongue. The poem is on the theme of Eternal Hope. It is at once 
 a warning and a promise. No theologian has better defined the 
 unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but no sermon, 
 taking the Founder of the Christian Faith as the Way, the Truth, and 
 the Life, ever contained less of dogmatic theology," etc. 
 
 Light. — " The story is told in a dramatic and moving language. 
 There are a chain of circumstances powerfully described. The poem 
 in the original Swedish has a delightfully musical flow, and much of 
 this is preserved in the translation made by the Princess herself, on 
 the success of which she is to be highly congratulated." 
 
 Theosophical Review. — " This mystic poem contains a serious state- 
 ment of an after-life experience. , . . The various steps of penance 
 and repentance are graphically ^escribed," 
 
.M>Ai.\ft:\yMM. 
 
 TO 
 
 WITH THE COMPLIMENTS 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
THE ANCIENT THERAPEUTS. 
 
TOWARDS THE LIGHT. 
 
 A Mystic Poem. Third thousand. Elegantly bound copies 2s. 
 
 In neat paper covers is. This work has received the cordial 
 
 approbation of several eminent theologians in England 
 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. — " A noble message from the great Beyond." 
 
 Aberdeen Daily Journal. — "This poem is a powerful meditation 
 on the theme : ' Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap.' " 
 
 Universe. — "The poetess has a wonderful mastery of blank verse, 
 and an excellent ear for English rhythm." 
 
 Catholic Watchman. — "This work contains a certain number of 
 truths, taught by the Catholic Church." 
 
 Nottingham Guardian. — " A deeply impressive work." 
 
 Glasgow Times. — " A remarkable inspiration. The theme is based 
 upon the autobiography of a man who, after having enjoyed all earthly 
 pleasures, is disgusted with life and commits suicide. His soul, 
 however, is as living as ever. It is the narrative of his spirit-life which 
 forms the main interest in the poem, and his subsequent redemption 
 through Sorrow, Mercy, and Love, to Divine Forgiveness. This difficult 
 — one might say daring — conception is beautifully worked out by 
 Princess Karadja with an originality, a simplicity, and a religious 
 sympathy which will appeal to the general reader as well as to the 
 metaphysician. From start to finish the poem maintains a high level of 
 excellence." 
 
 East and West. — " This poem is so remarkable that it requires no 
 story of a wondrous birth to account for its extraordinary success," etc. 
 
 Tasinanian News. — " A wonderful poem. . . There is found 
 therein some of the highest flights. It glows with poetry of the 
 
 'gem order.' Beautiful thoughts are enwrapped in beautiful language." 
 
 The Harbinger of Light. — It is seldom that a work absolutely 
 unknown in Australia should obtain at once such a first-rate importance 
 as Princess Karadja's poem. So warmly was it welcomed, that many of 
 those fortunate enough to obtain copies read and re-read its glowing 
 pages, affirming that new beauties revealed themselves with each 
 successive perusal. Towards the Light is a " gem of purest 
 
 ray serene." 
 
 Light. — ' ' Her Majesty Queen Alexandra has graciously intimated 
 her pleasure in accepting a presentation copy." 
 
THE 
 
 ANCIENT 
 
 THERAPEUTS. 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 PSYCHO-THERAPEUTIC SOCIETY, AT 
 
 THE CAXTON HALL, LONDON, S.W. 
 
 ON DECEMBER 6th, 1909. 
 
 By HER EXCELLENCY 
 
 PRINCESS KARADJA 
 
 (of Bovigny Castle, Belgium). 
 
 MESSRS. WOODERSON, 
 
 4, Great Russell Street, 
 London, W.C. 
 
The Ancient Therapeuts. 
 
 It appears at first sight as if the subject of my lectur© 
 could only be of remote interest to modern men and 
 women. 
 
 More than fifteen centuries have elapsed since the day 
 when the religious communities of which I intend ta 
 speak to-night vanished from the face of this globe. 
 What have we got in common with those silent cenobites 
 who lived and died in the far-away Libyan desert? We, 
 in our twentieth century, live in a whirl, and we rush 
 towards a grave that most of us avoid ever thinking, 
 about. Our thoughts are centred on the NOW, with its 
 feverish joys and poignant anguish ; their thoughts ever 
 circled round a glorious TO-MORROW and its perfect 
 peace. We build glittering castles in the air that ever 
 tumble down ; they patiently laboured at the erection 
 of a spiritual edifice, and that temple — though it was 
 not completed — cannot be entirely demolished by the 
 rolling wheel of time. Our highest thoughts and aspira- 
 tions are immortal and cannot perish. Each man and 
 woman who leads a noble, unselfish life adds a living 
 stone to the great invisible building which it is the 
 mission of humanity to erect. 
 
 Modern science has placed an enormous amount of 
 information at the disposal of the human race. In 
 ancient times mental wealth was the privilege of the 
 initiate. The evolution of the heart preceded that of the 
 brain, as it ever ought to do. The result was harmonious 
 development of all the faculties. The divine germ was 
 able to bud, blossom, and carry fruit. In our days 
 mental growth is all that is desired. Scant trouble is 
 taken about the culture of man's moral nature. The 
 
Tesult of this unbalanced evolution is disastrous for 
 humanitj-. 
 
 To most men in our days the welfare of the body is 
 the chief desideratum. Physical health — that is, the 
 possibility of enjoying aa much and as hng as possible 
 the pleasures of earth — is the main thing. It is the 
 all-important consideration to which everything else has 
 to be sacrificed. Hecatombs of living creatures — who 
 have as sacred rights to enjoy brief existence as our- 
 selves — are sacrificed daily to the insatiable Moloch of 
 vivisection, in the vain hope of purchasing immunity 
 from suffering for guilty man. 
 
 Happily a reaction has taken place. Various anti- 
 vivisection societies are energetically at work and try 
 to demolish the proud edifice, erected on the foundation 
 ■of iniquity, and silent healers have begun to recon- 
 struct the temple of health on hallowed ground. 
 
 The physician cures or kills his patient, according to 
 the latest fashion of medical science. He walks in his 
 ■own strength, and has at his disposal a more or less per- 
 fect knowledge of physical laws, gathered on the mental 
 plane. 
 
 The healer uses a working method, which has been 
 known from time immemorial, and can be submitted to 
 no change. He bestows upon his fellow creatures a 
 share of his own vitality. He is a living channel through 
 which force and grace stream down to suffering humanity 
 from the spiritual and celestial planes. He walks hand 
 in hand with God, and blessings ever follow the steps of 
 the True Healer. 
 
 I will now pass on to the real subject of my lecture, 
 and tell you what I know concerning the Ancient Brother- 
 hood of Healers. 
 
 We find no trace of them in the New Testament, for 
 reasons that I will later on explain, but the great his- 
 torians of the time, Josephus and Philo, give us plenty 
 ■of valuable information. 
 
 Flavius Josephus, who died in the ninety-third year of 
 the Christian era, was for a long time Roman prsetor in 
 Galilee. He was a celebrated historian, and belonged 
 to a family of Jewish priests. He was extremely well 
 acquainted with the religious movements in his country, 
 and had spent several years of his youth among the 
 healers. 
 
 The philosopher Philo was an Alexandrian Jew of 
 Levitic family, and a contemporary of Christ. 
 
 He relates in his " De Vita Contemplativa " that a 
 community of Jewish Ascetics, called Therapeuts, settled 
 
on the Lake Mareotis, in the vicinity of Alexandria. 
 They had branched oflE from the Essene Brotherhood, 
 which was spread all overPalestine. 
 
 FAITH AND PRACTICES OF THE ESSENES. 
 
 The Essenes were one of the three great sects into 
 which the Jews were divided at the time of Christ. They 
 were universally recognised as the most pious members 
 of the Jewish community. 
 
 The word " Essene " is supposed to come from the 
 Arabic root "hassan " — to' be pure ; or from the Hebrew 
 word " asa " — to heal. The word " therapeut " signifies, 
 as you all know, healer. 
 
 There were ver}- great analogies between the two sects, 
 but they were not absolutely identical. Their working 
 methods were slightly different, but they had the princi- 
 pal things in common. The members of both societies 
 were highly evolved men and women, true servants of 
 God, filled with a burning desire to help struggling 
 humanity upwards. They attempted to heal, not merely 
 the suffering bodies of their fellow-creatures, but above 
 all their darkened souls. The great a,im of their lives 
 was to restore the Adamic race to spiritual and physical 
 health. 
 
 They deserved indeed to be called healers. 
 
 It maj' be fairly questioned whether any religious 
 society has ever produced such a community of saints. 
 Through maintaining the highest possible standard of 
 purity and holiness, they hoped to be worthy of be- 
 coming recipients of Divine revelations. 
 
 Their programme was of sublime simplicity. They 
 XDromised : — 
 
 To love God above all things. 
 
 To show merciful justice to man and brute. 
 
 To lead chaste lives. 
 
 These three vows really include all our duties to God, 
 to our fellow-creatures, and to ourselves. It is impos- 
 sible to improve upon this threefold code of ethics. 
 
 In describing the different sects which existed among 
 the .lews in his own time, Josephus dwells at great 
 length and with special emphasis on the faith and prac- 
 tices of the Essenes. 
 
 What most struck the outside observer was their excel- 
 lent organisation and thorough-going asceticism. In vil- 
 lages and towns they generally settled around a central 
 house, in which they followed their religious observances, 
 of which one was the common meal, or holy supper. 
 There was no such thing as private property. Whatever 
 
10 
 
 anyone earned went into the common purse. They de- 
 spised riches, and neither bought nor sold anything. 
 Each one gave freely away all that was superfluous to 
 him and received in exchange all that he needed. They 
 had houses in most places in Palestine, where all mem- 
 bers of the sect were received and supplied with all they 
 wanted. 
 
 There were practical and theoretical members. The 
 former devoted their time to deeds of mercy ; the latter 
 lived in solitude in perpetual contemplation. 
 
 A candidate for admission had to pass through a 
 year's novitiate. He then received certain symbolic gifts 
 — an apron and a shovel — symbols which also meet us in 
 Freemasonry. At the end of this probation his character 
 was submitted to a fresh trial «f two years. The full 
 membership was only acquired at the end of this second, 
 period. 
 
 P!h(ilo describes their oOoupatttoiis in the Ifollowing 
 words: — "Some cultivate the soil, others pursue peace- 
 ful arts, toiling only for the provision of their necessary 
 wants. Among all men they alone are without money, 
 but, nevertheless, they are the richest of all, because 
 they have few wants, and are content with their lot. 
 Among them no one follows any occupation that leads 
 to injustice or covetousness. There is not a single slave 
 amongst them, but they are all free, serving one another. 
 They condemn masters as representing a principle of 
 unrighteousness, violating the law of Nature, which has 
 made us all brethren. 
 
 " They devote all their attention to ethics, using as in- 
 structor the Divine Spirit, without the outpouring of 
 which the human mind could possess no knowledge of 
 God and the beginning of all things. Following their 
 ancient tradition they obtain their philosophy by means 
 of allegorial interpretation. 
 
 " Their houses are open to all adherents coming from 
 other quarters. They bring their -wages to the common 
 treasury, for the use of all. They do not neglect the 
 sick, as they have aimple means to offer relief to those in 
 need. Their institution is not based on family connec- 
 tion, but upon zeal for virtue and philanthropy. They 
 only aooe^pt as members of the Community full grown 
 men, who are no longer carried away by tihe vehemence 
 of the flelsih, but enjoy genuine and true liberty. 
 
 " They live in the most happy state, being treated with 
 a respect which springs from spontaneous attachment 
 rather than from kinship." 
 
 The Essenes eschewed marriage, but brought up as- 
 
11 
 
 their own children a multitude of orphans and outcasts. 
 Not a single birth took place in the com/miinity, yet 
 there was no want of population. 
 
 Philo states that " they had no desire for mortal pro- 
 geniture, but yearned for the Immortal Fruit, which only 
 the pure soul can give birtih to, fertilised by a Divine 
 ray from the Father." 
 
 This passage is most interesting, as it proves that they 
 were acquainted with the great Central Truth, which 
 meets us in all divinely inspired religions — viz., the In- 
 carnation of the Christots in a Virgin Heart. 
 
 Pliny, sipeaking of the Essene community established 
 ou the Dead Sea, calls it " The Marvel of the "World," 
 and states that it was a race continuing its existence 
 for thousands of centuries, per seoulorem millia, without 
 eitJier wives or children. 
 
 Pliilo calls them " The Holy Ones,'' and states in a 
 pissage quoted by Euseljius tihat they had been initiated 
 by Moses into the mysteries of their sect. 
 
 ESSENES AND PYTHAGOREANS. 
 
 Zeller points out in his " Geschichte der PliilosopJiie " 
 what great resemblances there are between the Essenes 
 and the Pythagoreans, not only as to mode of life, but 
 also as to doctrine. 
 
 Both insisted on strict secrecy about their schools. 
 
 Both veiled their doctrines in symbols and metaphors. 
 
 Both based tlieir philosophy on allegorial interpreta- 
 tion of ancient tradlitions, whose authority they recog- 
 nised. 
 
 Both worshipped higher powers in the foxir elements 
 and offered up prayers to the rising sun. 
 
 Both cultivated the belief in intermediate beings 
 between the Supreme Deity and man. 
 
 Both had dualistic views of the retatiomship between 
 spirit and matter, good and evil. 
 
 I might add' several other points of analogy. 
 
 Both venerated the equilateral triangle. 
 
 Their dogmas included the Trinity in Unity of God 
 and the doctrine of the Marriage of Virgins with Deity. 
 
 B(Mi the Healersi and the Pythagoreans were absorbed 
 in the study of the unpronouncable name of Deity, the 
 Sacred Tetragramraaton, in modern times translated by 
 the word Jehovah. 
 
 The naane of God was no mere distinguishing title. It 
 represented the entii-e Hebrew conception of the Divine 
 Nature. The different letters corresponded to the various 
 attributes of Deity. That is the reason why it is stated 
 in certain cabalistic writings that the manipulation of 
 
12 
 
 the sacred letters forming the Divine Name was the 
 means used to create the world. Knowledge of 'the Nomen 
 Ineffaibile or Shem-Ha-Mephorash was reserved for the 
 most advanced members of the brotherhood ; the key to 
 the Holy Name was delivered to the disciple with great 
 solemnity. It was the name made known to Moses at the 
 vision at Mount Horeb. Its utterance was prohibited. 
 The High Priest alone spoke the Name of God on the 
 Day of Atoneanent. His voice was merged! in the song of 
 the priests, so that it should not reach those unworthy 
 to hear it. After the Destruction of the Second Temple, 
 the Inner Meaning of the Tetragrammaton was lost ; 
 there remained no trace of knowledge as to the correct 
 pronunciation of the name. 
 
 I cannot dwell longer upon this subject now. It v/ould 
 require an entire lecture to be properly treated. 
 
 This great analogy of doctrine between the most pious 
 memtiers of the Jewish community and so-called " pagan " 
 philosophers may seem startling to the outsider, who is 
 not aware of the inner unity of all revealed) religions. 
 Both the Healers and the Pythagoreans were initiates, 
 and recognised as brethren. God-fearing men of all de- 
 uominations, quite irrespective of outward creeds. 
 
 There has never been ,more than one single religion, 
 revealed and re-revealed, all through the ages. It is ex- 
 pressly stated in Holy Scripture that Moses was initiated 
 into all the wisdom of Egypt. Philo informs us in his 
 tract " On Repentance " that Moses brought together the 
 most pious members of his nation and invited them to 
 his most secret mysteries. We all know that there is 
 nothing mysterious in the exotei'ic religion founded by 
 Moses. It is interesting to know that he reserved his 
 esoteric teaching to the most (highly evolved men of his 
 race. The mystei-ies into which he initiated them were 
 identical to those revealed in pre-historic times to the 
 builder of the Great Pyramid. 
 
 The ancient wisdom was handed down from prophet 
 to prophet. We know for certain that Ahijah, the great 
 teacher of Elijah, was an Essene. He was one of the so- 
 called "seven long-lived saints" of Palestine. Ahijah 
 handed down to Elijah the Mystic Mantle, symbolic ot 
 superhuman power, which was afterwards given to Elisha. 
 The high hierophant was styled the Eagle ; the serving 
 brethren were called the Ravens. Knowledjge of this cir- 
 cumstance gives a very simple and natural explanation to 
 the fact that Elijah was fed in the desert by the Ravens. 
 They were his sahordinates, and as such bound to attend 
 to his wants, and not birds, as is generally supposed by 
 the ignorant. 
 
13 
 
 Pythagoras had also been initiated in Egypt. It is an 
 liistorical fact that lie remained several years in retreat 
 at Mount Carmel, where Elijah had estalblishedl a school 
 of the prophets. On his return to Italy he established 
 his famous sodality at Crotcna, which in so many respects 
 resembled that of the Therapeuts. 
 
 THE ESSENES AND THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 There was also a great analogy betwen the colony 
 founded by the Alexandrine Mystics and that of the 
 Egyptian priests, described by Strabo. There can be no 
 doubt concerning the fundamental unity of all these 
 various sects. 
 
 The Essenes are not mentioned in the Kew Testament. 
 This fact seems enigmatical. The utter absence of any 
 mention can only be explained! by the fact that the writers 
 were Ussenes. 
 
 Tliis assertion may at first appear rather startling, but 
 the analogy between the doctrines of Jesus and tihose 
 of the Brotherhood of Healers is so great that it must 
 bring conviction to every unbiassed minC, . 
 
 It would seem that there was room for .1 definite con- 
 tact between John the Baptist and this Brotherhood. 
 His timie otf preparation was spent in the wilderness, 
 near tlhe Dead Sea, where the Essenes had their main 
 establishment. His preaching of righteousness was in 
 complete harmony with the essene teaching. His insist- 
 ence on baptism was in accord with the essenic emphasis 
 on lustration. 
 
 He had) a Messianic outlook, which was one of the 
 chief tenets of the sect. 
 
 The prophetess Anna and Joseph of Arimathea, who 
 "waited ior the redemption of Israel," both belonged to 
 the Healers, and we know that the evangelist Luke was 
 also a " Healer." 
 
 The similarity between original Christianity and 
 Essenism is very striking. 
 
 The Essenes urged their disciples to -seek first the 
 kingdom of God and His righteousness. So did Christ. 
 Matt. vi. 19. 
 
 They demanded of all those who wished to join them 
 to sell all their possessions. This is the claim put by 
 Jesuis to the rich young man. Without this sacrifice he 
 was not fit to join those who strove after " per'fection." 
 
 The Healers had all in common. Their motto was 
 " Mine is thine and thine is mine." Many passages in 
 Holy Scripture prove that the first Christians were Com- 
 munists (John xii. 26, Acts ii. 44, etc.). 
 
 To the Essenes lAysical relationship was of small 
 
14 
 
 importance. Jesus said ; " Whasoeiver shall do the will 
 of God the same shall be My brother and My sister and 
 My mother." 
 
 The Healers commanded their 'disciples to call no man 
 on earth MASTER ; so did Jesus. 
 
 Like Him, the Essenes laid great stress on being meek 
 and] lov/ly in spirit. They enjoined their members to 
 mutual service : they praised the poor in spirit, the 
 merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. 
 
 Both the Bssejies and Christ declared that the power 
 to cast out evil spirits and to perform miraculous cures 
 would be possessed by their disciples. Boftih. combined 
 the healing of the body with Uiat of the soul. 
 
 The Essenes avoided swearing ; their simple word was 
 more brnding than an oath. Jesus told His disciples to 
 say merely yea, yea, and nay, nay. 
 
 The manner in which Jesus directed His disciples to 
 go on a journey (Matt, x.) is the same which the 
 Essenes adopted when they started on a mission of 
 mercy ; they never possesseii two coats and two pairs of 
 shoes, but used the same garments until they were 
 utterly worn out. They were never provided with gold 
 and silver 'because tfiiey knew that the members of the 
 brotheiftiood disseminated all over Palestine would sup- 
 ply them with all that they needed. All that the dis- 
 ciples had to do, when they arrived in a new city, was 
 to inquire, "Who is worthy V That is, " What Essenes 
 are there in this town ? " 
 
 The Healers veiled all their inner teaching in parables. 
 It is said about Jesus : " Without parables spake 
 He not unto them ; and when they were alone He ex- 
 pounded] all things to His disciples." 
 
 The Essenes paid the highest homage to the law-giver 
 — that is, the Holy Ghost, the Ruach Hakodesh. Those 
 guilty of blasphemy were punished with death. We know 
 that Jesus considered that sin against the Holy Ghost 
 oould not be pardoned. 
 
 The axe was one of the main symbols of the Essenes ; 
 their axe was laid unflinchingly at the root of those 
 trees v?hich dlid not carry fruit. 
 
 T might add another score of analogies. 
 
 JESUS AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF HEALERS. 
 
 I think that you will all find from th© points already 
 mentioned that there are s, good many reasons to presume 
 that Jesus and His disciples belonged to the Brotherhood 
 of Healers. 
 
 But there is one circumstance which transforms all 
 mere suppositions into quasi-certitude ; that is Jesais's 
 
15 
 
 words to Nathanaol : " Vexily, I saw thee undei the fig- 
 tree," and Nathanael's reply ; " Rabbi, Thou art the 
 Son of God!" 
 
 The vine and the fig-tree were Egyptian eymbols of 
 our Lord and our Lady. The two trees are repeatedly 
 referred to in the " Book of the Dead," the manual used 
 at the great initiation. 
 
 The vine corresponded to the King's Chamber in the 
 Great Pyramid, and referred to initiation into the great 
 mysteries. The fig-tree corresponded to the Queen's 
 Chamber, and referred to initiation into the lesser 
 mysteries. 
 
 Nobody knew the name of the neophyte save the high 
 hierophant. When Jesus said to Nathanael, " I saw 
 thee under the fig-tree," he revealed to him His identity 
 as grand master of the order to which they both belonged. 
 Nathanael instantly replied, " Thou iart the iSon lof 
 God," because this was the title by whdch the Grand 
 Master was invariably addressed. His reply was as 
 natural .as if in our days a subject replied to his sove- 
 reign, "Yes, your Majesty.'' 
 
 It is extremely improbable that the piouB Nathanael 
 would have given the sacred title "Son of God" to a 
 stranger, simply because he had given a vulgar demon- 
 stration of clairvoyance, a faculty very usual in those 
 days. 
 
 The spiritual interpretation that I have just given 
 also explains the cursing of the fig-tree which did not 
 carry fruit — s, story which has puzzled many Christians. 
 Gentle Jesus would never have reproved a physioaj. tree 
 for not carrying fruit out of season. He could never 
 have 'been guilty of such folly and would never have 
 misused his superhuman power in order ito vent his anger 
 at not finding physical nourishment where he hoped to 
 do so. But a member of the Essene community who 
 tailed to produce the "immortal fruit" of which Philo 
 epoke was doomed to be cut off and wither. 
 
 In the parable of the fruitless fig-tree it is also stated 
 that the owner sought fruit " these three years, and 
 found none." Neophytes were only initiated into the 
 lesser mysteries after three years' novitiate. If they 
 did not carry fruit during these years of probation they 
 were cut off from the community and doomed to wither 
 spiritually. 
 
 In anothpr parable Jesus said that the Kingdom of 
 Grod would be nigh at hand when the fig-tree should 
 shoot forth. That statement is supremely true. The 
 second coming of Christ takes place when He is re-born 
 
16 
 
 in a pure heart. When the human soul has re-beconie 
 VIRGIN, then the fig-tree shoots forth and our Lady be- 
 comes manifest in us. 
 
 Conybeare informs us in his scholarly work on Philo 
 that the first Christian historian, Eusebius, identific-d 
 the ascetic group described in the " De Vita Conteiii- 
 plativa " with the earliest Christian Church of Ak:i- 
 andria, which was founded by St. Mark. 
 
 This view, passing unquestioned for jnany centuries, 
 contributed in no small degree to shape the conceptions 
 of primitive Christianity entertained by mediseval 
 thinkers. In the sixteenth century it was challenged 
 because the Papal party made it one of its chief argu- 
 ments in favour of monkery. 
 
 THERAPEUTS AND CATHOLICS. 
 
 There are, however, numerous points in which the 
 mode of life of the Therapeuts and that of Catholic re- 
 ligious communities absolutely varies. 
 
 The latter are allowed to embrace the religious profes- 
 sion while stiU in the prime of youth. 
 
 The Therapeuts considered it to be their duty to remain 
 in the world until the age of f-fty, and there to set an 
 example of probity and noblfc aims to others. The true 
 life of solitude and contemplation was the sequel and 
 reward of am active life of service to their fellow-men. 
 
 Catholic ascetics do not, as a rule, give up their life 
 to independent study. In most monasteries very little 
 individual liberty is left to the members of the coan- 
 munity. Their time is strictly regulated, and most of it 
 is occupied iby endless repetitions of the same prayers 
 and litanies. Thinking men and women are thus 
 gradually transformed into praying machines. 
 
 The Therapeuts, on the contrary, devoted their time to 
 the study of the inner meaning of Scripture. They alle- 
 gorised and svmibolised, and finally saw the UNSEEN. 
 
 They were really the forerunners of the Christaan 
 Gnostics and Jewish Cabbalists. 
 
 The Catholic monks and nuns believe that they per- 
 foi-m a meritorious act by utterly yielding up their will 
 to that of their religious superiors. Blind obedience 
 may be a virtue in sheep, but it is no merit in beings, 
 who have risen above the animal plane. All vows of 
 absolute spiritual obedience to other men who call them- 
 selves our superiors, but who may in reality be our 
 spiritual inferiors, is pernicious. It is not desirable to 
 annihilate the will. Our aim must be to sanctify it, and 
 then to strengthen it tenfold. The Free Will is the most 
 precious gift granted us by God. No one has the right 
 
17 
 
 to crush that of his fellow-creature. Subjugation of the 
 will is really a dangerous hypnotic practice. It is not 
 justiiied. by the pretext that it is for the good of the 
 victim. If you rob a man of his most valuable property 
 this act is not exonerated by your statement that you 
 did so in order to prevent him from mis-using it. The 
 iron discipline of the Church of Rome may produce the 
 negative result of sometimes precentinij sin ; it does not 
 engender the far greater result of eradicating all wish io 
 commit it. 
 
 That is, however, the principal thing. 
 The ancient Therapeuts professed the maxim that no 
 religion is higher than truth. They were not forbidden 
 to read so-called " dangerous " writings. No index 
 limited their mental horizon to the narrow fields of any 
 particular .sect. No ! All the world was laid open to 
 their mental inspection. They studied not only their own 
 secret books, but also the revelations granted to other 
 nations, and saw the Divine unity in them all. 
 
 But the main difference between the Therapeuts and 
 Catholic monks lies in the inspiring motive for all their 
 actions. It is expressly stated in the Catholic catechism 
 that the obtention of salvation is the greatest object to 
 which a human being can devote his attention. The 
 Roman monk gives up the joys of earth in order io 
 purchase the bliss of heaven 
 
 The Therapeuts had no desire of reaping personal ad- 
 vantages in payment of their virtue. Their one desire 
 was to prepare the earth for the coming of the Messiah. 
 Their thoughts did not dwell on their own ixltimate fate. 
 They knew that heaven is a state and not a locality. Their 
 wish was not to conquer a distant heaven, but to share 
 with ofthers the heaven they carried in their own breasts. 
 The Roman Church hails the so-called conversion of the 
 Emperor Constantine as an immense spiritual victory. 
 It was in reality the gi'eatest disaster that ever befell 
 the Church of Christ. 
 
 •During the first centuries of the Christian era, the 
 followers of Jesus were exposed to all sorts of hardships. 
 Those only who followed the narrow path were admitted 
 into the bosom of the Church. When Christianity wii 
 transformed into a State religion, which it became mov? 
 or less compulsory to embrace, then the Holy Dove fled 
 in dismay from the desecrated temples. 
 
 The Emperor Constantine was one of the most infa- 
 mous men that ever disgraced this globe. The list of 
 his victims includes his father-in-law, his sister's hus- 
 band, his nephew, his former friend, his brother-in-law. 
 
■ 18 
 
 and liis own son ! Most of these h^'-nous crimes were com- 
 mitted after his conversion ! 
 
 It was from the hands of this monster that the mis- 
 guided Bishop Sylvester — corrupted through the bait of 
 earthly grandeur — received the dignity of Supreme Pon- 
 tiff ! The bloody hands of a murderer established the 
 throne on which the successors of St. Peter — the humble 
 fisherman — were to sit in pomp. 
 
 The unhallowed alliance of Constantine and Bishop 
 Sylvester did not bring about — as falsely represented — 
 the Christianisation of an empire. Its result was the 
 Paganisation of the Christian communities. 
 
 RESULT OF PROFANATION. 
 
 When the great Christos Mysteries, celebrated by the 
 Brotherhood of Healeas, were profanated and vulgarised, 
 then the true Initiates retired in silence to their inac- 
 cessible retreats in the desert. The Roman fanatics 
 organised persecution upon persecution in order to wipe 
 away from the face of the earth the retainers of the True 
 Gnosis. The murder of the noble and beautiful Hypatia, 
 the burning of the priceless library of Alexandria — all 
 the countless crimes of those dark ages were in vain. 
 
 Ostensibly the Essenes ceased to exist, and the name 
 even of the Therapeuts fell almost into oblivion, but 
 they eluded their persecutors and preserved intact the 
 sacred deposit of ancient wisdom. 
 
 We hear no more of the Healers, but we can trace to a 
 much later period the sect of the Bannaim, or Builders. 
 
 Those Builders still existed in Palestine when the 
 Crusaders invaded the Holy Land. The Wise Men of 
 the East then handed to the noblest sons of the West 
 their sacred treasure of occult wisdom. And when the 
 Crusaders returned to their own country they brought 
 with them — carefully hidden — the glorious light, lit in 
 their soul by the vision of the Blazing Star, which had 
 led their steps. 
 
 Wonderful, indeed, are the ways of Providence ! The 
 Crusades were organised to extend through fire and sword 
 the power of the Church of Rome. Their ultimate result 
 was the renaissance of the Gnosis, whioh Roane has 
 always considered as its most mortal enemy ! All the 
 "iiystic orders formed by the Crusaders — Knights of the 
 Temple, Knights of the Golden Fleece, Knights of St. 
 John, of Malta, of Calatrava, and many others — were 
 originally Brotherhoods of Initiates. 
 
 To-day the orders founded by the Crusaders are mostly 
 extinct or have lost their original signification, but their 
 offspring is as the sand of the sea. All ouar modern 
 
19 
 
 secret societies — Rosicrucians, Martinists, Oddfellows, 
 Illuminatii, and. last, but not least, the Freemasons — 
 ■ are descended from those Palestine mystics, the Bannaim, 
 or Builders, who preserved all through the ages the 
 heritage left by the Ancient Healers. 
 
 The aim of the Crusaders was to deliver the hoi.,y 
 TOMB. They imagined that they served Deity by cari.'y- 
 ing ruin and desolation into foreign lands ; they com- 
 mitted calmly the most terrible cruelties to the Glory of 
 God. 
 
 Mistaken conceptions of duty ever arise through our 
 deplorable tendency of materialising spiritual truths. 
 
 When in former days the Jews received tne command : 
 ■' Kill the animal ! " they began to slaughter hecatombs 
 of innocent beasts. They did not understand that the 
 animal which has to be killed resides within our own 
 breast and is our own lower nature. 
 
 When the Emperor Constantine saw in the heavens 
 the sign of the cross and heard a voice call out, " In this 
 sign shalt thou conquer ! " he nominally embraced Chris-- 
 tianity, in the hope of thus obtaining victory over his 
 enemies. He never grasped that the true warrior of 
 Christ has no enemy save the old Adam, and that the 
 only conquest attainable through the Cross is the conquest 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 When Peter the Hermit heard a voice from above call 
 out, " Deliver the Holy Tomb ! " he misinterpreted the 
 celestial message. The Holy Tomb which must be de- 
 livered is not a geographical locality. The Holy Tomb 
 is the gross physical frame in which a Divine spark is 
 buried. That spark has to be transformed into a, great 
 light. It will gradually illuminate and transfigure the 
 coarse bushel of matter in which it still is embedded and 
 hidden. 
 
 We are not for ever to remain shrouded in coats of 
 skin, dense physical bodies, which prevent us from per- 
 ceiving the glories of the Beyond. Nay ! We are some 
 day to be clothed with incorruptible bodies. We have 
 to conquer the Golden Fleece ! 
 
 May the gentle hands of the Modern Healers assist 
 Humanity to recover physical and spiritual health ! 
 
 May we all obey the Divine command, and start a 
 new crusade in order to deliver for ever the Holt Tomb ! 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 arV15543 
 
 The esoteric meaning ot the seven sacram 
 
 3 1924 031 321 635 
 olin.anx