ENQ. Does Christ teach anything of the sort? THEO. He does; and every well-informed Occultist and even Kabalist will tell you so. Christ, or the fourth Gospel at any rate, teaches re-incarnation as also the annihilation of the personality, if you but forget the dead letter and hold to the esoteric Spirit. Remember verses 1 and 2 in chapter xv. of St. John. What does the parable speak about if not of the _upper triad_ in man? _Atma_ is the Husbandman—the Spiritual Ego or _Buddhi_ (Christos) the Vine, while the animal and vital Soul, the _personality_, is the “branch.” “I am the _true_ vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.... As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the Vine—ye are the branches. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch, and is _withered_ and cast into the fire and burned.” Now we explain it in this way. Disbelieving in the hell-fires which theology discovers as underlying the threat to the _branches_, we say that the “Husbandman” means Atma, the Symbol for the infinite, impersonal Principle,[50] while the Vine stands for the Spiritual Soul, _Christos_, and each “branch” represents a new incarnation. ENQ. But what proofs have you to support such an arbitrary interpretation? THEO. Universal symbology is a warrant for its correctness and that it is not arbitrary. Hermas says of “God” that he “planted the Vineyard,” _i.e._, he created mankind. In the _Kabala_, it is shown that the Aged of the Aged, or the “Long Face,” plants a vineyard, the latter typifying mankind; and a vine, meaning Life. The Spirit of “_King_ Messiah” is, therefore, shown as washing his garments in _the wine_ from above, from the creation of the world.[51] And King _Messiah_ is the EGO purified _by washing his garments_ (_i.e._, his personalities in re-birth), in the _wine from_ above, or BUDDHI. Adam, or A-Dam, is “blood.” The Life of the flesh is in the blood (nephesh—soul), _Leviticus_ xvii. And Adam-Kadmon is the Only-Begotten. Noah also plants a vineyard—the allegorical hot-bed of future humanity. As a consequence of the adoption of the same allegory, we find it reproduced in the Nazarene _Codex_. Seven vines are procreated—which seven vines are our Seven Races with their seven Saviours or _Buddhas_—which spring from Iukabar Zivo, and Ferho (or Parcha) Raba waters them.[52] When the blessed will ascend among the creatures of Light, they shall see Iavar-Xivo, _Lord of_ LIFE, and the FIRST VINE.[53] These kabalistic metaphors are thus naturally repeated in the _Gospel according to St. John_ (xv., 1).