Home
Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
A to Z
Related Information
|
MEMBERS OF BODY (DIVINE)
A symbol of the more or less disciplined
qualities of the soul which have originally proceeded from the
segregation (dismemberment) of the qualities of the slain Archetypal
Man, the Prototype of humanity.
"Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof. And
God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets,
thirdly, teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
governments, divers kinds of tongues." -1 COR. xii. 27, 28.
It is pointed out that as the qualities have proceeded from the
perfect Archetype (Christ), they are partial expressions of the
archetypal on their way to completion. The Supreme Law has set the
highest active qualities in the innermost shrine (church) of the
soul. First, the highly developed qualities (apostles) which are in
harmony with the central Ideal. Second, the dawnings of the higher
spiritual consciousness (prophets). Third, mental faculties, which
draw down truth from above (teachers). Then psychic and spiritual
powers (miracles). Then spiritual processes of purification
(healing); thoughts of love and truth (helps); high principles of
action (governments); the inner expressions of Wisdom and Love
(tongues).
"Christ's death is the witness to His people, that since they are
His members, they must also be crucified with Him." - A. JUKES, The
Law of the Offerings, P. 198.
"What we are witnessing in the slow and toilsome evolution of
mankind from brute-consciousness to God-consciousness is simply the
emergence of Christ in the Race. When the sublime process is
complete we shall be one in him to all eternity." - R. J. CAMPBELL,
Serm., The Faith that Saves.
"The later Manichæans of the West designated the portions of Light
scattered in the world-in elements and organisms -and waiting for
redemption, Jesus patibilis (i.e. Jesus who suffered and died)." -
HARNACK, Hist. of Dogma, Vol.II. p. 325.
"Ra the creator of the names of his members which turned into the
gods who are in the following of Ra." - Papyrus of Hunefer, Ch.
XVII.
"There is no member of my body which is not the member of some god.
The god Thoth shieldeth my body altogether, and I am Ra day by day.
There shall none do me hurt, neither men, nor gods, nor the sainted
dead, nor those who have perished. I am he who cometh forth
advancing, whose name is unknown." - BUDGE, Book of the Dead, Ch.
XLIII.
"Afu-Ra addresseth words to the gods, who are (in the first division
of the Tuat) saying, 'Give ye light unto me, and make ye yourselves
guides to me, O ye who came into being from my members, my word hath
gone forth to you. Ye are made of my bodies, I have made you, having
fashioned you of my soul.'
.'” - BUDGE, Egypt. Heaven and Hell, Vol. I. p. 18.
The Logos (Ra) differentiates the qualities which proceed from him,
and are transmuted into the Ideals (gods) which approach unto him.
The higher mind (Thoth) gathers into the causal-body the higher
qualities, incarnation after incarnation, freed from all taint of
the lower nature. The indwelling Self shall be unaffected by all
externalities of mind, emotion, formation, or tradition. The Self
emerges in the qualities, and cometh not with observation," for the
differentiation (name) of Spirit is unknown of the lower
consciousness.
The incarnate God (Afu-Ra), or Archetypal Man, emanates the higher
qualities (gods) on the buddhic plane that they may enlighten and
prepare the way for his birth within the soul. For, verily, the
higher qualities have come into being through the involution of the
Spirit, and are now energized and evolved. The qualities are of the
Divine Life on the higher planes; they are manifestations outwardly
of the indwelling Self.
"Because men were generated from the Titans, who had been nourished
with the body of Dionysus, he (Orpheus) therefore, calls them
Dionysiacal, as though some of their members were from the Titans
(and came from Dionysus), so that the human body is partly of a
Dionysiacal and partly of a mundane nature' (Ficinus, L. IX. Enn. i.
83, 89). "For the smoke from the ashes of the Titans 'became
matter,' we are told." - G. R. S. MEAD, Orpheus, p. 182.
Human beings (men) possess within themselves the primal constituent
qualities and elements of manifestation (the Titans), which had been
rendered actual through the change to heterogeneity of the
Archetypal Man. So that human nature is partly spiritual and partly
natural of the lower planes : for it has the qualities (members) of
the Divine nature (Dionysus), and the qualities of the lower nature
(matter).
"The Manicheans could employ the pagan fables as a drapery for their
ideas. Thus the boy Dionysus torn in pieces by the Titans, according
to the mysteries of Bacchus, was considered by them nothing else
than the soul swallowed up by the powers of darkness, the divine
life rent into fragments by matter." - NEANDER, Church History, Vol.
II. p. 215.
“Pragâpati transforms himself, his body and his limbs, into the
different parts of the universe. Therefore in creating he is
swallowed up, he falls to pieces, and is restored by the performance
of some rite which is in this way recommended." - P. DEUSSEN,
Outlines of Indian Philos., p. 18.
The Logos, in manifesting, becomes the archetype of all things, and
when perfected passes into another state, which requires the
distribution of all qualities (limbs) to be restored again to unity
in the souls of humanity.
"Speech of Qebhsennuf :-'I am thy son (O Osiris), I have come that I
might be among those who protect thee. I gather together for thee
thy bones, and I piece together for thee thy limbs. I bring unto
thee thy heart, and I set it upon its seat in thy body. I make to
flourish (or germinate) for thee thy house after thee, O thou who
livest for ever (Sarc. of Seti I). - BUDGE, Egypt. Heaven and Hell,
Vol. II. p. 52.
The Higher Self, on the buddhic plane, undertakes to raise the
qualities (limbs) and re-form Divinity in humanity. The causal-body
(heart) is established potentially in the higher mind. It is
gradually evolved and perfected so as to be a vehicle (house) of the
eternal Spirit in the immortal soul.
|
See Also
|