The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the new Gospel of Interpretation Part 14

This chapter will be devoted to some examples of the recovered Gnosis, bearing chiefly upon the supreme doctrine of Regeneration. As with all else received by the Seeress, they are the product of intuitional memory regained under divine illumination occurring mostly in sleep. And here I will take occasion to state explicitly and positively, that the states, whether of sleep or of trance, in which her faculty was exercised, were all natural and spontaneous, being induced by the Spirit itself; and that in no case were artificial means employed by either of us, whether drugs, mesmerism, hypnotism, crystal-gazing, or any other of the devices ordinarily used to induce abnormal states of consciousness or promote enhancement of faculty. Our work was to be a real work, done not only by us but in us, and we had from the first a profound instinctive distrust of results obtained by such artificial stimulation.

Nor was any change even of a word ever made in the teachings received.

They came one and all in the finished perfection in which they are put forth, coming down as the holy city from the heaven of the upper and the within, and incapable of improvement. The following are the examples proposed:--

(1) Concerning Holy Writ.

All Scriptures which are the true Word of G.o.d, have a dual interpretation, the intellectual and the intuitional, the apparent and the hidden.

For nothing can come forth from G.o.d save that which is fruitful.

As is the nature of G.o.d, so is the Word of G.o.d's mouth.

The letter alone is barren; the spirit and the letter give life.

But that Scripture is the more excellent, which is exceeding fruitful and brings forth abundant signification.

For G.o.d is able to say many things in one, as the perfect ovary contains many seeds in its chalice.

Therefore there are in the Scriptures of G.o.d's Word certain writings which, as richly yielding trees, bear more abundantly than others in the self-same holy garden.

And one of the most excellent is the history of the generation of the heavens and the earth.

For therein is contained in order a genealogy, which has four heads, as a stream divided into four branches, a word exceeding rich.

And the first of these generations is that of the G.o.ds.

The second is that of the kingdom of heaven.

The third is that of the visible world.

And the fourth is that of the Church of Christ.

(2) Concerning the Mystery of Redemption.

All things in heaven and in earth are of G.o.d, both the invisible and the visible.

Such as is the invisible, is the visible also, for there is no boundary line betwixt spirit and matter.

Matter is spirit made exteriorly cognisable by the force of the Divine Word.

And when G.o.d shall resume all things by love, the material shall be resolved into the spiritual, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.

Not that matter shall be destroyed, for it came forth from G.o.d, and is of G.o.d indestructible and eternal.

But it shall be indrawn and resolved into its true self.

It shall put off corruption, and remain incorruptible.

It shall put off mortality, and remain immortal.

So that nothing be lost of the Divine substance.

It was material ent.i.ty: it shall be spiritual ent.i.ty.

For there is nothing which can go out from the presence of G.o.d.

This is the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead: that is, the transfiguration of the body.

For the body, which is matter, is but the manifestation of spirit: and the Word of G.o.d shall trans.m.u.te it into its inner being.

The will of G.o.d is the alchemic crucible: and the dross which is cast therein is matter.

And the dross shall become pure gold, seven times refined; even perfect spirit.

It shall leave behind it nothing: but shall be transformed into the Divine image.

For it is not a new substance: but its alchemic polarity is changed, and it is converted.

But except it were gold in its true nature, it could not be resumed into the aspect of gold.

And except matter were spirit, it could not revert to spirit.

To make gold, the alchemist must have gold.

But he knows that to be gold which others take to be dross.

Cast thyself into the will of G.o.d, and thou shalt become as G.o.d.

For thou art G.o.d, if thy will be the Divine Will.

This is the great secret: it is the mystery of Redemption.

(3) Concerning Sin and Death.

As is the outer so is the inner: He that worketh is One.

As the small is, so is the great: there is one law.

Nothing is small and nothing is great in the Divine Economy.

If thou wouldst understand the method of the world's corruption, and the condition to which sin hath reduced the work of G.o.d,

Meditate upon the aspect of a corpse; and consider the method of the putrefaction of its tissues and humours.

For the secret of death is the same, whether of the outer or of the inner.

The body dieth when the central will of its system no longer bindeth in obedience the elements of its substance.