The Phoenix. An illustrated review of occultism and philosophy

See Jung:
Modern Man
in Search
of a Soul
page 130

The venerable specter of Zarathustra the ancient Persian prophet, lying with the spear wound in his back; and Moses the Hebrew lawgiver, the strong man of Israel, alone in death upon the dreary hills of Moab.

The line is endless. These Masters of other days were men above creed and clan. They were nobler than those distinctions with which we separate the common aspirations of humanity. They served not idols but ideals. Theologies grew up about them, yet each was greater than the order which he founded. From the same place they all came forth. The spirit of their doctrines was identical. Each finally mingled his own smaller self with the common accomplishment. Among the great teachers of humanity there was neither superiority nor inferiority. There was simply difference. This was not a difference of purpose but of method. It was not a divergence of end but of way. Hand in hand they marched down the ages. Each revered the other, for all true greatness loves greatness, and only littleness hates. That same overshadowing consciousness that had made them truly great had revealed to them the brotherhood of all life. More than this, it revealed the identity of all life.

As never before, the secret doctrines of the ancients intrigue the philosophically minded. The insufficient creeds and dogmas that survived the Renaissance are fast crumbling before the crushing force of rationalism. Men who were once of different faiths are now united in the common questing of a more reasonable code of living. Though the objects of his veneration may change, man remains essentially a religious animal. He may break away from the limitations and futilities of ecclesiastical schisms, but he cannot escape from the inherent urge to venerate his Creator. The thinking man is ever surrounded by irrefutable evidence of an Abiding Destiny. He is powerless to resist that dominating impulse to propitiate the mysterious Spirit abiding in the Furthermost and the Innermost.

Throughout the first ages of humanity, certain divinely instituted Mysteries were the intermediaries between man and his Maker. These august institutions were the custodians of a superior learning. By this learning, the human mind was inclined toward the way of truth and understanding. But as nations verged towards materialism, the peoples of the earth ceased to venerate the Sovereign Good. These sacred schools gradually became corrupted. Those which escaped utter annihilation through compromise remained as perverse spirits. They began to impede the very progress which they had once sponsored.

Politically, we are disillusioned as to the divine right of temporal monarchs. Ecclesiastically, we are disillusioned as to the apostolic succession of the spiritual elect. We are disheartened by the sophistry of an unenlightened age. We turn from vagaries to renew our endless search for the substance of Truth. We would follow in the footsteps of those prophets of earlier days. They ascended the mountain tops of wisdom. They beheld their Maker face to face in the midst of the lightnings. They heard the deep rumble of his voice even above the far-flung echoes of the thunder. In his rocky cavern upon the slopes of Mount Hira, Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam, prayed. He asked that the pure religion of the first patriarchs might again be revealed to a humanity bowed down in sackcloth and ashes. The strong man of Arabia stretched forth his arms into the darkness. He pled with the night that the Wisdom which abides in Space might again come forth. He wished to lead men from idolatry back to the worship of that one God who is a Spirit. This God must be served in Spirit and in Truth.

Too long have we wandered in the vale of shadows. We have been grovelling before phantoms of our own creation and worshipping ghosts and specters. Too long have we been afraid to lift our eyes to the radiant countenance of our Creator. We feared we might be blinded by the awful light of Truth. Too long have we prostrated ourselves abjectly at the feet of gilded men, bestowing upon mortals that homage reserved for the gods alone. The shortness of our vision has made gods of men and men of gods.

The darkest pages of history are those upon which are traced the record of men's faiths. In the great march of nations and beliefs, Death has ever ridden in the vanguard. It looses upon the earth the horrors described by Milton. Men have sung their "hymns of hate." In their hearts, they have tired of gory splendor. We have had enough of the God who marches with the arms of ambition and stands upon the battlefield surrounded by the bodies of the slain. A disillusioned humanity, weary of its own mistakes, turns again in despair to the mysterious emptiness about it. This emptiness seems to be the abiding place of a mighty Spirit.

In all this panorama of confusion and error, Space alone seems capable of gentle comprehension. In extremis at the point of death the? ages have sought? seriously the? and individual? material world? fying Reality? when the? knows that? plicates the?

There comes a time in many lives when the bare thought of living becomes a burden. Continued existence and endurance become a wild temptation that grips the soul. Relief must come at this very moment. The over-laden heart snatches at any weapon of destruction. It sees it as the angel of mercy to end it all. It seeks to exchange the woe and sorrow of the world for blessed peace.

But does the slaying of the body bring peace to the man? Does it help the real man behind the mask of flesh? It does not. The mask has been thrust aside, but the reality that used it is still there. Now it is more helpless than before. The physical body acts as a screen and a buffer. It is a protection against the full impact of direct emotional force. The physical mechanism, with its play of intricate organs, acts as a vast receiving and distributing center. It lessens and steps down the full force of thought and desire. With this merciful screen removed, the real man must receive the impact unaided. He is stricken and stark. Moreover, he is held in time. He is unable to remove himself. He must repeat the last desperate act over and over while in the body. He cannot be released until the power motivating the act has been exhausted. At that time, he will have reached the natural limit of his present cycle on earth. Until this happens, he will be compelled to live in that last dreadful moment. He will think the thoughts that led up to it and do the deed. The natural laws that he has outraged will compel this horrid scene to live within his consciousness over and over again. He will have no release because there is no longer a physical body and brain in which to function. There is only unveiled consciousness.

Suicide is no escape. It is a turning back. It is a running away from what must be faced sooner or later. Tragically, it is the postponement that brings the greatest punishment. There are degrees of responsibility in suicide, but all must be met. Sometimes there is the motive of self-sacrifice rather than cowardice, or it

The Ladder of Souls

An intricate alchemical or mystical engraving titled "The Ladder of Souls." It depicts a central figure, the divine man, within a circular frame. He is surrounded by celestial symbols, stars, and clouds. Above the figure is a radiant sun or divine light. Below the circle is a landscape with a cross on the left and a tree on the right. An ornate border with floral and geometric motifs frames the entire scene.

In discussing the mystery of birth, the Chaldeans described the descent of the soul. This is the entrance of the ego into the generating sphere. The Egyptians and Greeks followed this description. They described the soul descending through the various spheres which constitute the body of the world. They symbolized the divine man as a glorious creature. His body is covered with a multitude of stars. In this, they did not depart greatly from the facts. Robed in the ninefold universal essence, man becomes a universe in truth. Like the universe which is reproduced in his parts the concept of the microcosm, he is a diversity circumscribed by unity.

Of this mystery, Julius Firmicus Maternus, the Platonic philosopher, writes: "It is requisite to know, in the first place, that the God, who is the fabricator of man, produced his form. He produced his condition and his whole essence in the image and similitude of the world. Nature pointed out the way. For he composed the body of man, as well as of the world, from the mixture of the four elements. These are fire, water, air, and earth. He did this so that the conjunction of all these might adorn an animal in the form of a divine imitation when they were mingled in due proportion. And thus the Demiurgus the divine craftsman or world-builder exhibited man by the artifice of a divine fabrication. He did this in such a way that he might bestow the power and essence of all the elements in a small body. Nature brought them together for this purpose. Also, he did this so that he might prepare an abode for man, which, though fragile, might be similar to the world. This was prepared from the divine spirit, which descended from a celestial intellect to the support of the mortal body. On this account, the five stars, and also the sun and moon, sustain man by a fiery and eternal agitation, as if he were a minor world. Thus the animal which was made in imitation of the world might be governed by an essence similarly divine."

Above the seven planetary spheres forming the ladder of the world stretches the empyrean. The Hermetics called this the firmament of the fixed stars. In their esoteric instructions, the Egyptians distinguished three conditions or aspects of this empyrean. Together, they referred to these as the "Thrice Deep Darkness." The highest division was the Ocean of Eternity. This diffused itself throughout all space. Innumerable masses of ungerminated stars were scattered through it. This was the Schamayim the Hebrew term for the heavens or fiery-water of the Cabalists. It is the heaven of fiery-water. The middle division was the Milky Way. This is the seed-ground of souls. The last division was composed of the fixed stars. These were 1,122 in number. The Syrian mystics symbolized them as a circle of cherubim filled with eyes. These three departments of the empyrean are equivalent to the three divisions of AIN SOPH in the Cabala and the three hypostases of Atman in Oriental metaphysics. AIN SOPH the Boundless or Infinite and the three hypostases fundamental aspects of Atman the Universal Self relate to this threefold firmament. It is from this threefold firmament that the three divine constituents of the soul are derived. The lowest circle of the firmament formed the wall of heaven. The Greeks knew this as Mount Olympus. The Hindus called it Mount Meru. In the outer classification of Ptolemy, the mundane sphere is divided into seven concentric circles. These are regarded as the orbits of the planets. In this system, the empyrean is not included. It is in no way a part of the inferior world. It is the abode of principles and not of vehicles. Paracelsus terms it the spirit of the world to distinguish it from the seven planetary rings which are the soul of the world and the four elemental substances which are the body of the world.

Enclosed within the firmament as a fruit within its rind are the concentric orbits of the planets.