Manecheism, Catharism and Freemasonry. The unveiling of Isi

[joeblow]

Manecheism, Catharism and Freemasonry.

The unveiling of Isis and the Salvation of the human soul.

http://www.eleggua.com/Spirit/Manicheis ... sonry.html

Transcript  of two lectures
<> given in Sydney, 2003

By Adriana Koulias

 

 

 

 

 

Manecheism, Catharism and Freemasonry.

The unveiling of Isis and the Salvation of the human soul.

Exploring the dark annals of history and casting a light upon the future of this profoundly important and enigmatic mystery stream.

 

It is very difficult to disentangle the various streams that run through the course of human development. Each interpenetrates and influences the other in an organic way, much the same way that our physical organs work together so that all must be in existence at the one time balancing out the influences of external forces on our body, thus allowing the soul and spirit to work freely and in a healthy way. But in physiology there is one aspect that holds sway for all the organs. In our blood we carry a duality: alkaline and acid, negative cat ions and positive ions. A polarity. So too in mankind's development there has been a need for a polarity that in a sense works through all the various streams providing balance and allowing for the healthy and free interplay of creative forces. Macrocosmically this is illustrated in the dualist view of the cosmos of good and evil, and microcosmically in the dualist nature of our present root race - graced with two streams. The Manichean stream belongs to one of these and Rudolf Steiner tells us that it is the older and even greater than its offshoot, the Rosicrucian stream. It is logical then if we are to understand Manecheism, Catharism and Freemasonry that we have to go back a long way in the spiritual history of mankind. We have to take ourselves back to a time when mankind was at its infancy, pre 'history' as we know it. This will take us to the two streams of humanity, one of which inspires the above three. Tonight we will look at the foundation of this stream and its three offspring, the outer history and the inner understanding.  Next week we will explore the rebirth of this stream that even now is seeking incarnation and looking to its mission in our epoch and the epochs to come.

       

Let us begin!

 

Let us call to mind - in a brief way - the evolution of our cosmos. Some of us may know that there will be seven planetary conditions or Manvantaras. The first is called Saturn in which the first rudimentary beginnings of man's physical body were laid down, the second is Sun in which the Etheric body comes into existence, the third is called moon, in which man's astral body is formed and now, the fourth, the earthly globe whereupon man is works on the perfection of his ego. In future, there shall be three further globes the fifth - Jupiter, sixth - Venus and seventh – Vulcan where man will develop the higher aspects of Manas, Buddhi, Atma.

 

Our present earth condition is made up of seven great Epoch's or root races: Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, Atlantean, first post Atlantean, second post Atlantean and Third Post Atlantean.

 

Our present root race or Great Epoch is made up of seven Cultural Epochs or subraces; Indian, Persian, Egypto-Chaldean, Graeco-Roman, Anglo Germanic, Russian and American. Denoting the prevalent culture existing at the time.  The Indian culture worked most especially on the Etheric body, the Persian on the Astral body, the Egypto Chaldean saw man working with his ego in the astral body forming the sentient soul, the Greco-Roman era saw the ego working down into the Etheric body and forming the intellectual soul. In our cultural epoch, man is diving down with the ego consciousness right down into the physical body, where he will develop what Rudolf Steiner called a consciousness soul in preparation for the Russian epoch and the American epoch when it will become spiritualised for the beginnings of the interpenetration of Manas.

 

In this lecture we will begin with Lemurian times crossing over to Atlantean times. Here it is said that Lucifer first entered into mankind with the division of the sexes. In the Old Testament we find much that points to mankind's development subsequent to this time. Let's look then at the story of Adam and Eve.

 

In Genesis as illuminated by spiritual science, we are told that God created man, male-female. Rudolf Steiner tells us, both male and female existed then, not sexually defined.  Jehova, the Elohim that sacrificed his Sun existence to guide mankind from the moon sphere when the moon separated from the earth was of essentially female characteristic. She separated the female element of human kind and called it Eve and what was left behind she called Adam. Eve was created first before Adam. Recently science has begun to support this old mystery knowledge through its investigations of the Chromosome.

 

As a result of this separation humankind becomes ego-bearing. This the Bible depicts as the 'fall of man'.

 

What does the 'fall of man' really mean?

 

Human beings fall, as it were, to the earth. That is, when Lucifer entered into man's Astral body, the human being was then suddenly able to see the world around him, independent of himself, he became an ego bearing being and for the first time was capable of acquiring knowledge of the world. This is what is meant by eating the apple from the 'Tree of knowledge' or the Astral body and the physical senses.

 

This intervention was necessary. Without it humanity could not have developed freedom, it would always have been subject to higher beings and its advancement would not be won through the dint of personal effort. Death also became possible for the first time and alternating times between sleep and wakefulness.

 

Humanity however, fell a little further than intended. That is, Lucifer's influence was stronger than had been expected. Now, Higher spiritual beings were concerned lest this influence enter too far into the human sheaths. The Etheric or Life body was protected from Luciferic influence by higher beings in order that this might be prevented. In order to do this it was necessary for the human being's Etheric body to be lifted out of his physical body. This meant that from that time on humanity began to lose its connection or cognition of Etheric forces or  'The tree of life'. This was taken away by lifting out of the Etheric body.

 

We are told then that after this momentous event a sun Elohim that had sacrificed its female nature united with Eve and produced Cain, a representative of the Male stream.

 

Then Eve is said to have united with Adam and produced Abel whose Etheric body being the opposite of his physical body was feminine and became the representative of the Female stream.

 

Jehova not too pleased with a creation he had nothing to do with did not accept Cain's sacrifice only Abel's. Cain then kills Abel and is banished after which Adam and Eve have another child whom they call Seth.

 

In this killing of Abel by Cain we can see the beginnings of egoism. When Cain is asked concerning his brother he asks, 'Am I my brother's keeper?'

 

So we have two Streams – Cain and Abel.

 

Cain is a descendant of a god, a representative of the male stream - the material stream. In this stream lies all the wisdom concerning the physical world. Cain was a tiller of the ground, this signifies one who seeks spirituality through his own labours. This is sometimes called the Magian or Kingly stream. This is the stream of Conception or concept. Zarathustra was that initiate who belonged to this Northern Stream that concerns itself with the Outer world. He was a representative of this stream, as was Hiram the builder as well as the first Faust Simon the Magus. This is also the stream that could be called heretical because of its Gnostic roots and its failure to accept the priestly wisdom.

 

v     Abel/Seth – descendant of Man, representative of the female stream – the spiritual stream. In this stream lies all the wisdom received from inspiration from God. Signifies one who obtains spirituality without labour-old clairvoyance.  He is the keeper of the flock. It is the stream of the Shepherds or the priestly stream. This is the stream of Perception or percept. The Southern Stream. Inner experiences. The Initiate Buddha was a representative of this stream as was Solomon and Augustine. The prophets of the Old Testament belong to this stream. It is the stream of the Catholic Church.

 

In order for a new impulse to enter into human evolution two polar streams have to exist. In this way a synthesis of the two can create something higher – they were necessary to prepare mankind for the first and second mysteries of Golgotha. One occurring on the physical plane and one in the Etheric plane. We see the two streams coming together in the Shepherds who heard the call of the Angel Gabriel -  Abel stream and the three Magi of the East who followed the star and brought gifts to Jesus – Cain stream.

 

On Atlantis Ahriman's influence is made itself felt in the astral body in the seed of his intellectual soul and Karma became necessary. It is also on Atlantis that man abuses his gifts and causes the flood and we see Manu the biblical Noah a descendant of the Abel stream take what is left of humanity to the first Post Atlantean cultural epoch of India. Manu thus enters the stream of Cain via his son Ham's wife who couples with Tubal Cain and creates Nimrod, thus uniting the two streams.

 
Who is Manu?

There are many Manu's. Manu is a designation for those exalted beings that inspire mankind from above. A pupil of his takes on his name but in a different way. Now we have to do with an individuality through whom Manu works supersensibly a Manes. One such Manes was chosen to incarnate again and again in order to prepare to become the Manu of the sixth cultural epoch to midwife the new aspect of the Manichean stream that will soon incarnate. After his incarnation as a pupil of Manu in India, this Manes incarnates in the Egyptian mysteries as the man of Sais who pulls the veil off Isis, then again in Greco Roman times as the young man of Nain who also the son of a widow is intiated by Christ himself. He may indeed then have incarnated as Vitzliputzli the human god of the Totem of the Eagle in the Mexican Mysteries who fought against the Evil magician and crucified him in 33AD (Bernard Lievegood indicates this in his book Battle for the Soul) and then as Mani and finally as Parcifal, who brings the grail stream and the Arthur stream together. He is able to find the Holy Grail of our earthly round - the consciousness soul.  

 
The Manicheans – Etheric

 

The Manicheans were followers of a man who called himself Mani. The legend tells how in the 3rd Century AD, a seven year old boy named Corbicius was sold into slavery by his poor 'widowed' mother. He became the slave of a rich widow who adopted him as her son. The Legend goes on to say how this widow was a friend of a merchant whose name was Terebinthus ( a later incarnation of Buddha) a pupil of the initiate Scythianos. He was supposed to have written four important books that he bequeathed to the widow at his death. She then gave these books to her young charge. When he was eighteen Corbicius surrounded himself with students and gave himself the name Mani a Manes - Mana Raba – the promised comforter or Paraclete – the holy spirit promised to mankind. Not long after he withdrew for a year into absolute darkness and solitude there he experienced a meeting with the Christ - a Damascus experience where he was given a doctrine that encompasses man's development from Saturn to Vulcan.  

 

This Doctrine Christianised the teachings of Zarathustra.

The Legend tells us that, at one time the spirits of darkness wanted to take the kingdom of light by storm to conquer it. They were not successful and had to be punished by the kingdom of light. Since in this realm there was nothing evil only good they could only be punished with something good. The spirits of light took part of their own kingdom and mixed it with the kingdom of darkness- this created a new element...death. And so mankind was brought into existence. In this we can see a reflection of the fall. Manicheans believe good and evil are the same in their origin and in their ending. That there can be no light without darkness and visa versa. It believes in the principle that evil is only a misplaced or mistimed good and concerns itself with the redeeming of evil through the 'good'.

 

At the end of the 3Century AD Mani was executed.

 

In esoteric terms what doctrine did Mani receive in that cave?

 

The legend speaks of four books given to Mani pupil of Zarathustra by Terebinthus who was an  incarnation of Buddha pupil of Scythianos.

 

At the time Mani lived the Gnosis - Greek for 'knowledge' referring in this context to the direct acquisition of 'knowledge' of spiritual things without an intermediary in a state of little participation – that is in a passive way. This had, since the mystery of Golgotha begun to give way to a new Gnosis which sought to create a synthesis of the pre Christian mysteries with the Christian mysteries. Steiner tells us that esoteric Gnosis was possible only up until the time of the mystery of Golgotha. Thereafter it became exoteric and slowly died away by the 3rd century as man began to acquire the intellectual soul. This gnosis is what helped man prepare for the coming of Christ and it also helped him to understand the mystery of Golgotha. Now it was leaving mankind and Steiner tells us that a conference among the highest initiates of the earth took place in the fourth century to work out how best to preserve the mystery wisdom that had died away, the gnosis for a later time when it could be acquired actively with human participation. We must bear in mind that 333 AD was midpoint in the Greco-Roman cultural epoch, and it was at this time that the following initiates, Buddha, Scythianos, Zarathustra and the highest of them Manu met at this conference.

 

Legends usually concern themselves with spiritual occurrences.  It may be postulated that this council with the four Initiates may relate to the four books of the legend. This constituted a doctrine that would be kept safe for mankind for future times. The first being the purification of the physical body in preparation for its higher counterpart Atma or spirit man - Death and Resurrection. The Temple sleep. It concerns itself with the first and the last, the physical body that becomes the resurrection body, this was Scythianos' concern. The second was the knowledge concerning the Etheric body and its higher aspect Buddhi or life spirit. This was the mystery of Zarathustra - the knowledge of Christ as a Sun being and of the healing power of the Etheric body. Zarathustra prepared the ego for the Solomon Jesus Child so that at the age of twelve it could enter the Nathan Jesus child and prepare his body for the entry of the Christ ego who would bring down the forces of the tree of life to the world – that is he would enter into the Etheric body of the earth as a healing measure to prevent the progressive downward fall of man – the protection of the Etheric body of man by Christ.  The third was the knowledge concerning the Astral body and its higher aspect Manas or spirit self this was the Buddha mystery – catharsis through purification, and compassion. The last is the mystery of the ego, this was what the human Manu through his earthly representative would elaborate more and more in the future - the mystery of the transmutation of evil into good through sacrifice. The Holy Grail.

 

When we look at the four we see then that Freemasonry lives more in the will and therefore connected with Scythianos and the mysteries of the physical body. Catharism exists more in the feeling and so is deeply connected with the mysteries of the Astral body as vouchsafed by Buddha. The old Manichean stream lived more in the thinking and was therefore intimately connected with the mysteries of the Etheric as vouchsafed by Zarathustra, and The new Manichean stream will deal with what has been elaborated by the human Manu and relates to the mystery of the sacrifice of the ego and as a consequence the redemption of evil.

 

All great initiates in this stream were called sons of widows. Now we come to the question what does it mean to be the son of a widow.

 

Firstly who is the widow? We find the answer in the hearts and minds of the ancient Egyptians.

 

Isis wisdom or Sophia was the bride of Osiris, the Sun being. Osiris is killed by Typhon, the Ahriman of the Egyptians. Ahriman kills Osiris and throws him into the Nile, and it carries his body away. Isis wanders the earth looking for Osiris and finds him in Asia. She brings him back to Egypt where Ahriman cuts his body into fourteen parts. Isis buries these parts in various places so that from now on they belong to the earth. Now let us see what it means to be the son of Isis, that is the son of the widow. This describes spiritual facts on many levels. One of them concerns again a duality. During Egyptian times there were two forces present in the soul the mother and the father these were known as Isis and Osiris. Isis receives the divine and 'conceives' the spiritual into itself and Osiris is the divine that flows directly into man. When the father the fructifier withdraws from the world, the mother, the soul becomes widowed. This was necessary for the old clairvoyance had to die away so that it could be reborn at a higher stage. Initiates must live future conditions ahead of time and so those who were initiated into these mysteries had to undergo the Temple sleep where over the course of three days the Etheric and Astral bodies are lifted out of the physical body leaving only the ego behind. Steiner tells us that the Etheric body is the opposite gender to the physical body therefore the feminine Etheric body unites with the astral leaving the ego and male physical body behind. In order to do this he had to renounce his individuality his ego and dwell in a higher spiritual world that is why such initiates became one with their people, eg: Israelite or Persian. All initiates of this mystery became sons of widows for they had relinquished the old clairvoyance and would seek to work towards a future where a new clairvoyance, a conscious clairvoyance won through effort and work would arise.

 

Sons of a widow

 

Naboth becomes Elijah when he brings the young man - the son of a widow back to life.

The Macabees were comprised of seven sons of a widow and five sons of Mattathias who was a priest. This brings together the two streams in preparation for their future reincarnations as the twelve apostles that surrounded Christ.

 

Hiram Abiff the builder of the Temple of Solomon is known to have been the son of a widow as was his following incarnation as Lazarus who became John at his initiation with Christ as hierophant. Christ whilst on the cross gives him his mother the representative of Isis or Sophia who was also a widow. Christ says to Mary "Woman behold your son", and then to John "Behold your mother!"

 

The 'young man of Nain' was a son of a widow an earlier incarnation of Mani. He was the first man to be initiated by Jesus personally.

 

Jesus himself was a widow's son or fatherless before he began his ministry though he was born because the union of the Abel and Cain stream had made it possible – through his Abel/David/Solomon lineage and the Cain stream through Zarathustra.

 

During this fifth epoch of the earth the father (The spiritual world) has withdrawn and man has become widowed, has been thrown back onto himself. The whole of humanity has become sons of a widow - the soul is left on its own. The guidance from above for the soul has gradually withdrawn. As we have previously mentioned, Esoteric Gnosis had died out by the time of Christ and only an exoteric Gnosis was left to grasp the mystery of Golgotha. Then that too died out by the fourth century. Man became orphaned from the spiritual world, and this was most true during the dark ages. It was at this time, as gnosis began to die out that the priestly stream clamoured to keep its power by reverencing only the outward forms. Since what belonged to the priestly line - all inner wisdom - had begun to turn into outward perception, and the gift of the Hebrew prophets became materialistic outer knowledge that sought to raise the Catholic church above all else on a pillar of cannons. Manichean sects penetrated across Europe and as far as China. St Augustine was a Manichean before he turned Catholic and then went on to become one of its greatest opponents. The foremost of which, the Cathars, were persecuted by the church with unrelenting enthusiasm and were eventually 'wiped' out. Much of what had once existed as Manichean wisdom was lost.      

 

The Cathars - Astral

 

It began with the Paulicians, a Manichean sect founded by Constantine of Manaalis with strong Christian tendencies that flourished in Armenia and Asia Minor. In 872 this sect was conquered by the Greeks and was forced into submission. Manaalis was executed and many of his adherents were deported to the Balkans where an Asiatic people had established a kingdom south of the Danube called Bulgaria. It was here that the Paulicians found a seed-bed for their missionary zeal that spread to the midi appearing in the tenth century as Bogomilism. The heretics were therefore called Bogomils 'the beloved of God' or Bulgars. To this day, we have a word that Australians use almost every day and even commercials have made use of it. Bugger – a person who commits sodomy- or a Bulgar – a heretic to whom this crime was attributed.

 

This dualist Christianity was popular and almost became the official state religion of Bosnia and Serbia only the Turkish invasion in the seventeenth century was able to blot it out.

The sect moved across Europe and became known by various names in different countries. It settled in the south of France around the area known as Languedoc where it became known as the Cathar sect. The Cathars were devotees of John the Divine and carried the gospel in their cloaks at all times. In it Christ states that his true disciples are called Katheroi. Cathares comes from this word meaning to liberate to purify by liberating, to cleanse, to purge.

 

Life

They lived simple lives freeing themselves from earthly riches. They possessed knowledge of herbs and knew concerning the harmonising aspects of nature. They were vegetarians, did not consort with members of the opposite sex and allowed females into their ministries. In their society no prejudice existed. The wealthy was on the same footing as the poor what was cherished and honoured was virtue merit and self transformation. In their society the troubadours flourished, with their reverence for the Sophia and the higher union was the subject of songs and poems. This area because of its ports and strategic location was not so unlike Jerusalem and Alexandria, for it became a centre for the mysteries. Cabala was studied as well as the Arab and Greek philosophers. Mysticism and Gnosticism flourished - remnants of a once vibrant understanding of the Cosmic Christ. They strove to sharpen their senses and cultivate a sense for the arts as well as a purification of the soul in a highly democratic and cultured society. Soon Perfecti men and women were everywhere, Cathar churches were established in Languedoc, Beziers, Toulouse, Carcasonne, with their own priests and bishops. They taught pacifism and the shunning all violence. They taught concerning the transformation of evil with the power of love. That the I am was to be cultivated as Christ within, and that one did not need a corrupt priest as an intermediary since the ritual of the sacrament or confession if enacted by a corrupt priest was not valid. They taught reincarnation which had been formerly abolished by the church since the 3 Century AD. Their beliefs were Manichean and dualist - that the world was created by an evil demiurge but that parallel with the world of darkness there was a good earth and a good heaven where dwelt uncorrupted beings. Below fallen angels incarnated into human bodies, until they became pure, since the human being given a remnant of inner light could choose evil or good. Initiates could perceive the good world that was said to be more real than the evil world – where the good souls would go - the Arcadia. Christ had come to help mankind find his way back home therefore ending the cycle of incarnations. To a Cathar Christ had not died on the cross, only Jesus for Christ was an immortal being. The cross was a symbol of mortality of the lower nature of man. They understood that the mass had lost its meaning that the host was only a representation of Christ's body and blood only because his blood had entered the earth from which all things, wheat and grapes are grown. The Virgin Mary was the Sophia, the virgin birth of the self within the purified astral body. Killing any living thing was forbidden. Lies were abhorred and the swearing of oaths.

 

Cousins in the Cain stream were the Templars. The Cathars worked more towards a perfected true Christian religion, whereas the Templars were establishing social conditions necessary for such a religion to flourish. Like the Templars there were three degrees of Parfaits or perfects. The Sympathisers who only had to perform the 'Melhoriamentum' or bowing before a perfecti, kneeling and asking for his blessing, the Credentes or believers who submitted to the 'Apelhamentum' or confession before the group and the Advanced who became Bishops and partook of the 'Consolamentum' a ritual in which the holy spirit is bestowed upon the neophyte and he is initiated into the secrets of The Lord's Prayer and vows to remain pure by abstaining from sexual relations, eating a vegetarian diet and living a life of austerity. Such an initiate is called on to help pave the way for the Paraclete. The second coming of Christ in the Etheric.

 

The Catholic Church was corrupt in Languedoc, its Bishops avaricious and disinterested in the people. No mass was celebrated in many of the smaller churches or if it was, it was celebrated by ignorant young priests without experience, wisdom or knowledge.  By the thirteenth century the Cathar church with its pious, organised interested clergy, had spread widely and it is easy to see why it usurped the priestly Roman Church and became so powerful it began to voice its strong opposition to it.

 

Pope Innocent III a ruthless advocate of the priestly line branded them anathema, their study of the gospel of John heresy and sent its bishops to debate publicly with the bishops. Dominic Guzman, whose order of Dominicans became the chief Order in the inquisitorial process, was their opponent. Phillip-August King of France, then only sovereign of the north wanted the south for his own, since it had remained independent too long - a sovereignty of the counts of Toulouse who although the king's vassals recognised his power as purely nominal. An alliance was struck between Phillip and Innocent. Innocent wanted the extermination of the Cathars and in return he would hand Languedoc to the king on a silver platter. The priestly stream would wage one of the  bloodiest wars ever waged against the kingly stream.

 

An army of northern knights formed the Crusade against the Cathars. It was joined by the clergy - the bishop of Citeaux, Arnaud Amaury, and in May 1208 the invasion began at Quercy. They marched in the direction of Toulouse plundering, murdering, raping, setting fires, destroying crops, farms and villages. Onward they marched against Beziers a large Cathar centre. Outside the town when asked how must the crusaders tell between Catholics and Cathars Amaury answered famously, "Kill them all, God will recognise His own!" 7000 were killed in the church alone, as they kneeled celebrating a saint's day. The knights went on to pillage the city slaughtering twenty thousand men, women, the elderly, children, indiscriminately. In August Carcassone was put to the sword. Simon de Montfort the lion with the forked tail emblazoned on his coat-of-arms was recruited as associate leader of the Crusade. This man was ambitious and possessed of unbelievable cruelty. He felt a sinister, intense joy at seeing mass executions. It was by his order that in Bram the knights and mercenaries slit noses and lips, lopped off hands ears and feet, gouged out eyes. The historian Zoe Oldenbourg recounts how hundreds of blind, mutilated men, women and children were led by a one-eyed victim to the nearest town to show the consequences of opposition. Thousands were either massacred or burned alive. Their only refuge being Templar houses and castles, grottoes and forests. This goes on for another fifteen years. Two popes later the great pope Gregory, ordered an Inquisition. The Domincans became known as the 'Domini Canni' a play on Latin meaning the hounds of God. They together with the Franciscans had the power to interrogate and send any person to the pyre who was suspected of being a Cathar or Cathar protector. This continued for twenty years until there was nothing outward left of the Cathar Church except the citadel of Montsegur.

 

After the slaughter of the entire town of Avignonet those who had gone into hiding assassinated the inquisitors and the clergy. Another Crusade was called to advance on Montsegur. This was headed now by Louis King of France with an army of mercenaries, criminals and tramps.

 

Five hundred Cathari escaped to Montsegur. The siege lasted ten months. When they surrendered they were given fifteen days to prepare for the burning. In those fifteen days they fasted and prayed and prepared to save the treasure.

 

The treasure was a child. The child of Montsegur who would one day become Christian Rosencreutz. He escaped with the help of four Cathars on March 12th in the middle of the night. They were let down the steep precipice on ropes and through secret passageways. They travelled to a monastery at the foot of the Pyrenees - a Templar stronghold. Here in this monastery the child underwent an initiation by twelve who possessed all the wisdom of the past and of their time and would die young.

 

Those who were left, two hundred and five Cathares, on the appointed day descended from the citadel singing and holding hands. They made their way to a waiting pyre that had been constructed in a field that has come to be called the field of the Cremated. As they died they saw the small fire on a hill opposite, which signalled that the treasure had been rescued.

 

The Manichean stream was destined to withdraw. Its other representative the Templar Order also met with Sword and Inquisition. The Cathars had come to prepare that stage in man's soul development when he would seek for his own soul spiritual light. To develop human beings to a stage that would provide adequate vessels in the future for the new Manichean stream.

 

In a microcosmic way they were also vouchsafed the four mysteries. Firstly the mystery of Catharsis or purification through compassion and love that had been the gift of Buddha. The second mystery was that of the healing powers of the Etheric body vouchsafed by Zarathustra, hence many Cathars were healers. The third mystery concerned the physical body whose benefactor had been Scythianos. This was similar to the mysteries that were known by the Essenes, that is the scrupulous cleanliness, the eating of no animal products, no sexual relations.

 

The treasures of the Cathars and Templars that would advance the Manichean stream would be handed over to Freemasonry and through Christian Rosencreutz later, to another cousin in the stream Rosicrucianism.

 

 

Freemasonry – Physical body the Temple

 

All Freemason's see their founder as Hiram Abiff, representative of the Cain stream whose ancestors were Tubal Cain and Cain himself. Hiram is also the Son of a Widow. An initiate in the Egyptian Temple sleep – that is the Astral and the female etheric body was separated from the physical body - male and the ego. The soul and became widowed in order to obtain spiritual perception. He is called by Solomon, a representative of the Abel stream to build a Temple that would become known as the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.  As we know the male stream or Cain stream is the stream of those who are wise in the doing. The Abel stream is represented by those who are wise in the knowing. Solomon knew the dimensions of the building but he could not build it. Hiram knew how it must be built. In the course of time Solomon called to his court the Queen of Sheba who would be his betrothed but she became infatuated with Hiram who could build such a wonderful temple and command all men with the sign of the Tau. Solomon was jealous and did not prevent Hiram's enemies who were seeking to know the 'word' and set about to thwart Hiram's hopes of casting in bronze a molten sea. It was a disaster. The bronze overflowed the mould and when Hiram tried to prevent it with water it caused a rain of fire. A voice called out to him 'Hiram plunge into the sea of fire'. When he did he was taken to the centre of the earth where he met with his ancestors Tubal Cain and Cain. Tubal Cain gave him a hammer that would restore all things to their proper order ( a judge calls out "Order, Order!" as he strikes a hammer even today), he told him that he would be the father of those who would be born out of fire which brings wisdom and makes man thoughtful. The molten sea was restored by the hammer. Hiram then marries the Queen of Sheba, but a short time later is murdered by the three apprentices. But before he died he was able to save the triangle with the master word engraved which he threw in a deep well.  The triangle was found by Solomon and sealed up, buried in a place known only to twenty seven people. The new Master Word is that word that was uttered when the corpse was found. It remains the word today.

 

What does this legend represent?

Now, we have heard the origins of the female and the male stream. We have heard how the Abel stream embodies all the wisdom that streams down from God, we have also heard how the male stream is responsible for resisting wisdom that is not acquired by effort. Solomon is the strongest representative of the Abelites. He is of the priestly line. Hiram of the Cain line is called to undertake the molten sea – which in those times was the royal art, the art of transforming the mineral kingdom. He is also told that he will bring forth a new race. This new race is nothing other than the future race in the Jupiter round or six round of the our planet when man will no longer need to propagate through sexual means but will create through the spoken word, through the larynx. The gospel of Thomas a Gnostic gospel states  "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper side as the lower; and when you make the male and the female into a single one, that the male be not male and the female female; when you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom].

The male stream and the female stream unite once again to become a single one as in the marriage between Hiram and the Queen of Sheba. The 'Word' was lost when the two sexes originated. It was buried and hidden sealed over by the ten commandments. The laws of a moral world order suited to a time when there are two sexes will not be needed when the two become one. Freemasonry then is the preservation of the lost word which can only be gained when male wisdom awakens activity in itself. That is why Freemansonry had not accepted females into its ranks until recent times. Even so all that is preserved in symbols was in the first place derived from the priestly wisdom and so it is implanted in the higher degrees of Freemansonry that which was female wisdom. It has therefore been allowed to vanish and only Craft Masonry is left, and it only concerns itself with worldly things.

Since the mystery of Golgotha the very outer quality of this stream has become inward. As the wise men of the east were able to calculate from the heavens the exact date for the birth of Christ so has this knowledge of the world and the cosmos and its moral qualities turned inward and into what we now know as the dry geometry and astronomy and mathematics of today devoid of morals. However the Freemason knew that when mankind becomes independent of the sexes moral laws would become the same as mathematical laws eg: the sum of the three angles of a triangle will always equal 180' in the same way that in the sixth epoch what is good can be thought as nothing other and what is evil can never pass for the good. However this meant that for a time the priestly wisdom had to sacrifice itself. The female priestly wisdom would have to die away but it did not wish to. It had certainly managed to destroy the Manicheans, the Cathars and the Templars, but now it faced its opponent differently.  It founded the Jesuit Order to win the earth back to the priestly wisdom by infiltrating Freemasonry and therefore tainting it. After that Freemasonry lost its connection with the spiritual world.

Today there are two trends in Freemasonry. Symbolic or Craft Masonry which is divided into three degrees, the apprentice, the journeyman and the master degreees. And the higher degree Masonry, which preserves the Scottish or Accepted rite that  looks back to the Egyptian - the Misraim or the Memphis Rite. This higher degree masonry is traced back to the mysteries which have preserved the higher supersensible knowledge for the future. The mysteries that were a synthesis of East West South and Northern mysteries and contained the seed of all later spiritual culture. Through this knowledge the Freemason was able to anticipate in thought the events that are to occur in the world in the coming centuries and to perfect the high ideals of humanity in a fully conscious way, so that these ideals would not become abstract ideas - in the same way the plans are made by an architect about a building that will exist in the future.

 

In the past the royal Art was comprised of three pillars,

1.      The transformation of inanimate nature through truth and Wisdom .

2.      Pouring the human spirit into lifeless matter to ensoul it through Art  - Beauty.

3.      The reshaping of nation of the human race through Goodness.

The cross itself tells us what man must achieve. It represents the four kingdoms man mineral animal and plant. If we take out the mineral this symbolises that which man has not mastered.        

                     

Humanity has mastered the mineral but not the plant, the animal kingdom is a hindrance to human beings and it must be mastered before humans can become truly human. At the time of the Egyptians and later on into the middle ages the knowledge of the control of inorganic nature constituted the Royal Art. But since the mystery of Golgotha what this stream obtained outwardly had to undergo a change and has become inward. After the ninth century, Manes as Parzifal introduces a new impulse  into Freemasonry. The symbol of the Holy Grail or the principle of self sacrifice. The Holy Grail became from that time on the knowledge that would one day give rise to the control over all living things.

The Freemason's task ended with the Jesuit infiltration. The form should have been made to hold the work of Anthroposophy. This was the task of the Freemason. It had to give way to a new form, Anthroposophy. Anthroposophy should be the link between the male and the female stream, through which the buried triangle can be discovered.

 

The new Manichean Stream – the mystery of the sacrifice of the Ego and the Redemption of Evil.

 

When I saw the Two Towers last month the second book of Lord of the Rings I realised just how prophetic this work of J R Tolkien's really was.  In it if you have not read it a young Hobbit Frodo embarks on a quest to destroy a ring of power. A ring that if fallen into the hands of the evil magician Sauron will mean the end of mankind. "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." Like Parcifal Frodo is young and a fool, but he has a pure heart. It was this little hobbit's task to prevent the enslavement of the world by throwing the ring into a volcano thereby destroying it.  If we look at this ring in light of Spiritual science we come to understand that this ring is nothing more than the ego.

 

The ego is the ring of power. It is on the one hand what makes one ego feel itself better than another. It is what makes men want to drive all other egos away and be at war with them. On the other hand the ego is all that makes us free in the fullest sense of the word. It elevates us and exhalts us. It is what gives us our worth and dignity. It is our potential for the divine. It is through the power of the ego that man can work on his soul, his etheric body and his physical nature. There are opposing powers that would like to take hold of man's ego in order to control and rule him. Man must be willing in the end to sacrifice his ego in the fire of the spirit, as Frodo sacrifices the ring in mount Doom in order to rise to higher spirituality. This he can only accomplish through brotherhood and his friend Samwise Gamgee.

 

It is the task of our age to make the ego so independent that it can offer the free individual gift of love even to God. Looked at in this light we are all little hobbits, and man is under threat! The battle for mankind is at hand and there are spiritual forces working in the soul of man to take away his freedom and control him so that his ego becomes hardened and selfish. Self-love must be sacrificed, selfless love – brotherhood - must become the standard for all mankind. This is the task of the new Manichean stream waiting to incarnate in the world today.

         

Anthroposophy like the other streams before it came at the time it did for a reason. Dr. Steiner alluded many times to this fact. Anthroposophy was bestowed upon mankind in order to achieve the right social and educational conditions for the future incarnation of Manes the new human Manu, whose task will be to help humanity achieve the above tasks in an age which will see the incarnation of Ahriman, and a war of all against all. Manu will take what is left of the 'good' mankind onto the sixth Post Atlantean epoch of this earth much in the same way as the divine Manu took the seven Holy Rishis with him to India during the great Atlantean Catastrophe.

 

The fellowship of the Anthroposophical movement  therefore stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail. If it does not look away but prepares itself for a great sacrifice through brotherhood, it will be the womb into which the new Manichean stream will incarnate. To do this it must fuse both male and female streams in a harmonious way. That is both the industry and fire of practical knowledge of below must come to accept and unite itself with the calm waters of wisdom that comes from above. The knowledge earned through the Sophia/Isis must once again seek the Christ. That means that each individual Anthroposophist must have the initiation knowledge that will lead each one of us to develop not only new faculties of perception but also and along side this a deep concern and love for our fellow human being. The one cannot work without the other. Without this love, self- growth is egotistical, and without the proper schooling, love has no foundation upon which to work.

 

You see those of us, who know these things are called to live the future in advance. Just as the Manicheans, Templars, Cathars and Freemasons before us.    

 

What are the tasks of the new Manicheans?

 

1 Transformation of Evil

 

What is the evil that must be transformed?

The inner and outer path that we discussed represents for man the conquest of the two great adversaries, Lucifer and Ahriman. Lucifer being more inclined to the Abel stream and Ahriman being more inclined to the Cain stream. However since our times Asura the leading spirit of the Asuras originally high Gods transformed into non Gods at the transition of Lemuria into Atlantis is entering the scene. These are the kin of those beings whom the Bible tells us Christ tethered when he descended into the centre of the earth. There he put chains upon them so to speak and held them in check but they are now rising up again against the normal development of the consciousness soul so that full control of man's ego might be the outcome. Together these three form an evil trinity around the Biblical Sun Demon Sorat, or Sorath - 666. This opposition is necessary if man is to progress through his own efforts and through free will. He achieves far more because of this opposition in the same way that a body builder builds his muscles through the resistance of gravity to weights that he lifts. It is a painful process but it pays off.

 

How is it to be transformed?

 

1.      Creating the forms of the future - The new Royal Art

 

What is the new royal art?

You will recall from last weeks lectures that there are seven rounds or conditions of our planet. Saturn Sun Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan. During each round there has been a sacrifice by higher and lower beings in order that the earth develop the right condition for man's development. Man was bestowed the physical in Saturn due to a sacrifice of their own substance by the Spirits of Wisdom, the Etheric body on the Sun because of the sacrifice by the Spirits of will, the moon by the spirits of motion and now on earth man is working with his ego on the soul members thinking feeling and will.

 

The ego is the key, without it mankind could not have self consciousness and would exist like an animal. This self consciousness has worked its way downwards into man's being. Since the Egypto Chaldean times man's ego consciousness lit up in his Astral body and he became aware of his feelings, this developed a sentient soul, this sentient soul and ego lit up in his Etheric body and stimulated concepts concerning those feelings and he came to develop the Intellectual soul during the Greco Roman times, since the fifteenth century the ego consciousness in concepts and feelings have stimulated a consciousness of self in the life of the will or the physical body, this Steiner has called the Consciousness soul age. This consciousness soul is very special for such a conscious development, will lead  humanity toward the acquisition of higher faculties in the soul of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. But this requires the schooling of the will thought and feeling so that he can raise them to a higher level. Here man must perform his first sacrifice, the gradual sacrifice of his lower self.

This means that he must sacrifice three things.

·        His feelings must be raised higher to become moral intuitions. This is the sacrifice of the ego in the Astral – the feeling life must be fired up by all that is beautiful and noble. This will dispel all hatred and contention..

·         His thinking life must be raised higher to become spiritual imaginations – moral imaginations. This will be the sacrifice of logic, or the sacrifice of the ego in the Etheric. Truth must become indivisible in the same way that there can be no dispute that the three angles of a triangle must equal 180'. Cosmic thinking will work on earthly truth to find a higher truth a creative truth – this will dispel doubt.

·        His will life will be consciously guided by moral imaginations and moral intuitions, fired up by the higher truth and permeated by beauty will find the courage to do the good – the moral action - fear shall no longer exist. This will be a sacrifice of the ego in the physical body.

Steiner's subsidiary exercises along the eight fold path are a guide to achieving this.

When these necessary forces are awakened in human nature there will be no more unbrotherliness. This will be the gift of the Holy Spirit - Manas. Manes the paraclete, an incarnation of the Holy Spirit has already reached this stage. Now it is that those who wish to follow him must seek to become permeated once again by what streams in from the spirit. This is symbolised by Solomon's key and belongs to the Abel stream.


The two triangles are a symbol of the Grail. The unification of fission and fusion – this will give man power over living things. It also points to the marriage, or unification of man and Christ.

But for this new social forces have to come into existence and for this man must awaken the power in himself so that he can use the living forces of the cross in the social life. Such secrets will form the real content of the higher degrees of a new Royal Art which will be a social art.  Then man will acquire control over Etheric forces and will use them for the salvation of the social life. The Tau is a symbol of this. When it points down we see man has controlled mineral life. When it points up we see that man is in control of the Etheric or plant life.


   
   
   

      
   

 

 

It should represent a new power based on freedom and consisting in the awakening of new natural forces that are achieved by the power of selfless love. But this is happening already far too early without moral preparation. Genetic science is an early beginning. Unless scientists develop moral imaginations, intuitions and actions so that a moral science will result this will lead to no good end.

This knowledge was passed to Anthroposophy by the Rosicrucians Christian Rosecreutz - who had been Hiram Abiff the builder of the Temple and founder of Freemasonry. In the fifteenth century the Rosicrucians added roses to the cross, the knowledge of the moral development that must accompany such advancements - the purified man.



This is how man must conduct a proper recasting of the molten sea. As once the physical mineral earth had to be conquered, now man has to raise his moral life higher in order to master the Etheric nature of the world, then the astral and finally the physcial. This is the Chymical wedding of Christian Rosecreutz – the secret of the rosy cross with seven roses stands for the development of mankind from Saturn to Vulcan. From physical body to Atma.

 

What we do now in our soul is only the reflection of what man will achieve in the far future when further and more difficult sacrifices will be required.

                                                     

   1. On Jupiter the sacrifice of ego consciousness in the Astral body – thinking feeling and willing - will lead to higher perception of spiritual things - redemption of Lucifer – Manas – Holy Spirit – Whitsuntide experience.

 

   2. On Venus the sacrifice of ego consciousness in the Etheric body – true the good and beautiful – Cosmic laws - will lead to a higher perception of time – redemption of Ahriman –Venus – The Son – new Easter experience.

 

   3. On Vulcan the Sacrifice of consciousness in physical body- Gaseous, liquid and solid – Light Life Word – higher perception of space – conquering of Asuras + expulsion of Sorath – unification with the father – new Communion or Sacrament experience.

 

Just as we depict Christ in the symbol so too shall man be depicted thus, man will have become a God.

 



   
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the destiny of the world. Those who know such things in advance and work towards their realisation are working on the Temple of humanity - the new Royal art.  The new Manichean stream will work with other streams towards this future. We make small steps today, but every step is worth taking because it leads us the our goal. We create the forms of the future.

 

But for this to become a reality we must unite the two streams in our selves our hearts and minds and in the outside world. The Cain and Abel, Aristotlean and Platonist, kingly and priestly, so that the new, human Manu can incarnate and we can begin.

 

The enormous importance of this should fill us to the core with awe and touch us deeply. The fact that we are living at a time when Anthroposophy has created a path to Isis, through initiation so that the two streams may unite in the name of Christ.

 

We are at the beginning when so much in our world is in conflict, everything is splintering there is social and cultural chaos. But it is in the midst of this very Chaos that the Cain and Abel streams that once separated humanity must come together to bring about a new 'Gnosis'. Isis must be unveiled through human effort in the clear light of consciousness. Then shall it shall fire up our human hearts. And they will pour out the Etheric substance of love, the Christhood that has the power to redeem and transmute evil. How can war exist when all men agree on what is true, good and beautiful? How can war exist were men are working to understand one another, to care and love one another? How can there be a war of all against all when it is all for one and one for all? The great catch-cry of the musketeers must be our motto and this will come about when all men have moral imaginations, moral intuitions and perform moral actions. Then it shall be possible to have a Three Fold Social Order in the world, where each nation, each individual is respected for the contribution it gives to the world. It cannot come unless enough people develop such qualities.  All the slogans to end war will not stop what is coming. All is useless unless we are willing to sacrifice our lower selves for the sake of others – even those who despise us. This is what must come and can only be achieved if the Cain stream works in brotherhood with the Abel stream. For Just as a Temple could not be built without the wisdom of Abel and the knowledge of Hiram, just as the Christ being could not descend into bodily sheaths that were not representative of the two streams. So a new Jerusalem cannot arise without the two and the Holy Grail, the transmutation of evil right down into the physical nature of mankind cannot be achieved and we shall have missed our destiny. Things will have to happen without our participation.

 

The time has come for the dominant Cain stream to open up. It should not answer the question 'am I my brother's keeper', but instead ask the question 'what ails thee brother.' This is what Manes the new human Manu gave to mankind as Parcifal.

 

The whole of creation is waiting with baited breath for this. After all we have free will. They wait to see what mankind will do.  As a celebrated initiate once said, "All creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together, waiting for the Redemption of the state of childhood."

 

There exists a great White lodge of humanity in the etheric realm around our earth. The great Initiates and higher spiritual beings will help mankind to create the forms today necessary for the new cosmos, the cosmos of love. We have but to ask. Just as the earth is now permeated by wisdom, so will the new Cosmos be permeated by love. The Anthroposophical movement is preparing for this, has the Anthroposophical society kept up the pace? I leave this question to you.

 

Paul of the Cain stream foreshadowed the coming of Manu who would be able to work in the world because of Anthroposophy when he says in the first of the letters  to Corinth,

 

"For we speak of wisdom among the initiates, a wisdom not of this aeon,

Not of the world rulers of this eon who are passing away.

We speak a Theosophy in a mystery, an Occult wisdom which God ordained

Before the aeons."

 

If the impulse is not taken up the stream will have to look for other ways into the world and that will be a sad waste of good will and much human effort. Upon all of us here tonight who have come because we feel an affinity with this stream lies the burden. The burden of the martyrs who have died so that we could finally come to be here tonight at this point in time. The Manicheans, the Cathars, the Templars Rosicrucians and Freemasons and many others. We stand upon their bones.

 

How many of us will take up the challenge for humanity? And find ourselves in the fellowship of the ring?