The Initiates of the FlameHall, Manly P. (Manly Palmer)
Religion
The Initiates of the Flame
Hall, Manly P. (Manly Palmer)
Occultism; Symbolism
In the brain of man, between the wings of the kneeling cherubim, is
the mercy seat, and there man speaks with his God as the priest of the
tabernacle spoke to the spirit of the Lord hovering between the wings
of the Angels. Man is again the Ark, and within him are the three
principles, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--the tablets of the
law, the pot of manna, and the rod that budded. But as in the case of the
ancient Israelites, when they became crystallized the pot of manna and
the rod that budded were removed from the Ark, and all that was left were
the tablets or the letters of the law. When the individual crystallizes
and excludes various sidelights from his mind, he excludes the life force
which was flowing to him. In shutting out strangers, he shuts out his own
life, and all that he has left are the tablets of the law, the material
reasons from which the spiritual life has gone.
Solomon’s temple, or the perfected temple of the human body, the
perfected temple of the universe and the perfected temple of the soul,
finally forms the perfect shrine for the living Ark. There at the head
of a great cross it is placed, and there in man it becomes permanently
fixed. The staves of polarity upon which it was carried are removed,
and it becomes a living thing, a permanent place where man converses
with his God. There man, the purified priest, arrayed in the robes of
his order, the garments of his soul, converses with the spirit hovering
over the Mercy Seat. This Ark within is always present, but man can only
reach it after he has passed through the outer court of the Tabernacle,
after he has passed through all the degrees of initiation, and after he
has taken the Third Degree and becomes a Grand Master. Then and then only
can he enter into the presence of his Lord, and there in the darkened
chamber, lighted by the jewels of his own breast plate, he converses with
the Most High, the true spiritual essence within himself.
We are working towards this, and the time will come when each person
for himself will know the mystery of the Ark, when the student through
purification shall be led through the door of the Holy of Holies and
there be enveloped by the Light of Truth. This was his birthright which
he sold for a mess of pottage. “To this end came he into the world that
he might bear witness to this truth, that through this light all men
might be saved.” The Ark, that great spiritual principle, surrounded by
its loving workers, is calling all to follow it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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