第42章

It is strange, yea, passing strange, the amount of human ignorance and folly that is revealed.When we look upon this picture and then upon that, verily we cannot help but ask the question, is mankind really progressing? We know that it is; we are keenly alive to the truth that the Anthem of Creation sounds out "Excelsior"--"move on," but how, and in what way (SPIRITUALLY) we fail to comprehend.The cyclic development of the human soul is an inscrutable mystery.

All the considerations above presented must be thoroughly weighed and understood in order to arrive at the true value of "the dogma and ritual of high magic," as Eliphas Levi terms it; because, amid the vast array of tinselled drapery, the outcome of man's vain conceit and bombastic pride, we shall find very little that can be considered as vital and really essential to the rites of magic.The show, the drapery, the priestly ornaments and instruments, are to the really spiritual Occultist, but, as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.That they had, and still have, their legitimate uses, istrue, but these uses do not concern magic, per se, nor its manifold powers.They awed the popular mind, and impressed upon the masses a due reverence for the powers that be.They were instrumental in holding the untrained passions of the common herd in check, by a wholesome fear of summary vengeance from the gods, so that this pageantry of magic, the outward priestly show, was more of a politic development than a spiritual necessity, an astute but, philosophical method of enabling the educated few to govern the uneducated many.And it was only when the educational and initiatory rites of the temple became corrupt, and the priest became the persecuting ally of the king--when, in real fact, the priest lost his spirituality in the desire for temporal power and place, that the people began to disbelieve his professions and rebel against his tyrannical control.

The powers that be, are now wielding their sword of justice, and unfurling the knowledge of freedom and truth to the aspiring mind of man.He has begun to feel his bondage and the yoke of oppression.The words of promise and love, instead of lifting him up to the God he has been taught to worship, bow him down in slavish obedience to his priest.Mankind cannot remain in this mental and spiritual darkness much longer.Already I see the break of day, the dawn of a new life, a new religion; or, rather, the re-establishing of the true, which is as old as Time itself.There is but One Law, One Principle, One Word, One Truth and One God.