whom it is directed and work its will upon him, then return to the sender. If the sender in the meantime gets a realization of his iniquity and repents, and enters into a vibration of intense aspiration for love, purity, and holiness, then the vibration of malignity will return to the place where it left him, because of the law; but also because of the law when it gets to where he should be according to that vibration, it will not be able to find him because he will be vibrating upon the planes above it, and it will pass under his feet, while the vibrations of love that he throws out will do much to neutralize it. So Ezekiel, here is trying to get the people to understand this law, and encourage them to rise above the limitations of the race and escape some of their race Karma, but as they refuse to accept the lesson, they must meet the effect of their past actions upon the Physical Plane, and when at last their prince does reach Babylon (the gate of God's House), he will be blind and unable to see the glories about him. The people shall be scattered among all nations (they shall be born many, many times among all nations) before they work out this load of Karma in the slow, natural evolutionary way.

Then he sees the Spirit of the Lord withdraw from the old Temple, with its north gate blocked by jealousy and sensuality, and its south, or spiritual gate defiled by the worship of the intellect and material things; and the Spirit rests upon the symbol of humanity. (No longer will the Spirit be confined to the external temple, but the heart of man will be its tabernacle.) This symbol, the cherubim and the wheels, resting upon the hills in the east, the elevations of intellectuality, or as Occultists would say, the higher mind. To make it plainer, the Spirit of God rested upon humanity as they rested upon the higher Mental Plane which is attained by a union of mind with spiritual aspiration; this is the plane that gives to man true wisdom.

In Chapter XLII we find Ezekiel describing another temple ; now note the measurements, five hundred reeds by five hundred reeds, that is, the wall is the limitation set by the development of the race, which is the fifth race. This temple wall marks the limit of the consciousness of the fifth race after it has been trained by the experience of the ages. Humanity, hereafter to be the Temple of the Living God.

He brought me to the gate, even to the gate that looketh to

the east. You remember we left the cherubim, or humanity resting upon the hills of the east, resting in the higher mind with God's Glory overshadowing them. So now the glory of the God of Israel (fifth root race) came by way of the east, or the intellect. The fifth root race is not to worship in blind superstition, nor from compulsion, but from intellectual comprehension.

And "His voice was like the sound of many waters." The truth will flow from many sources. "And the earth shined in His Glory." God's true wisdom will irradiate everything. "And the glory of the Lord entered into the temple" (of the race as a race, through the door of the intellect, Chapters 43-4), "and the glory of the Lord came into the house" (man) "by way of the east gate.

"And the Spirit of the Lord took me into the inner court" (the heart), "and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house." And he said unto me, "Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the house of Israel forever. Let them put away the dead bodies of their kings (their personalities that have been ruling them), and I will dwell in the midst of them forever, if they will be ashamed of the things they have done and will keep the good law (the law of evolution). Then follows a very elaborate description of the temple furnishings, its laws, etc., for which we have not the space at this time.

Chapter XLVII says: "And he brought me back to the door of the house" (this Temple of the Living God, the God-man), “and behold, waters issued forth from beneath the threshold of the house eastward." Waters of wisdom coming from the south, or spiritual side of the altar (heart) rushed out of the gate of the intellect. Intellect refined by Spirit gave out a flood of wisdom. "And he measured one thousand cubits and made me pass through the waters, and them came up to the ankles." (He entered the stream of wisdom and took the first Initiation.)

Then he measured one thousand cubits again, and caused him to pass through again, and this time the waters of wisdom came up to the knees. (He took a second Initiation, or was shown what a second Initiation meant).

“And again he measured one thousand cubits and caused me

to pass through, and the waters came to the loins." (Symbolic of the third Initiation.)

"Afterward he measured a thousand and behold a river to swim in." (The entire nature is submerged in the waters of wisdom, the fourth great Initiation.) Then he shows him how this river of wisdom flowing from the Temple of the Living God, or the regenerated heart of man, will fructify and sweeten the land and sea of humanity. How great trees, or great teachers, will grow on the banks; how the great restless sea of humanity in evolution will be strengthened and sweetened in their consciousness and healed of their iniquities.

He is then shown that the inheritance of Israel is to be divided equally between the tribes, or each man has an equal chance to obtain this extended consciousness. Each man to have his portion, each man to enter into his inheritance of this higher consciousness, and the whole to be offered as an oblation to the Great Supreme One. You will notice that the oblation is to measure twenty-five thousand reeds, or units (miles), by twenty-five thousand (the circumference of the earth is twenty-five thousand miles, so the whole planet is meant), and the new city measures forty-five hundred reeds by forty-five hundred reeds, or the fourth round and the fifth root race; so here is set the limits of the consciousness to be attained by the fifth root race now in the fourth round. In this city (the world) He sees all men dwelling in peace and enjoying to the full their inheritance of Divine Consciousness, all devoted to the Supreme One, and the name of the city shall be "God is There, " for each man will have found the God within his own heart, and will understand the meaning of the words, "The cord of the inheritance of Jacob," and "the God of Israel." Each man a "cephas, or "stone," carved without hands, fit to be placed in the walls of the Temple of the Living God, and he shall 'go no more out" as John says. "Behold the Temple of God is with man, the first things are passed away, and he that sitteth upon the throne saith, 'Behold, I will make all things new.'"'

66

CHAPTER XIII.

JEHOVAH COMMANDED NO BLOODY SACRIFICES.

Let us glance for a moment at one phase of misconception caused by the literal reading of what was probably meant in the beginning to be taken symbolically only, namely: the command to slay innocent animals in religious service.

The Kabbalah says (page 91, paragraph 7): "When inferior man descendeth (into this world) like unto the Supernal form there are found two spirits. With respect unto the right side he hath the holy intelligences. With respect to the left side, the animal soul." Here we may assume was the animal that God expected to be sacrificed upon the altar.

Page 316, paragraph 565: "Hence it is written Gen. VIII. 21. And JHVH smelled a sweet savor". It is not written, He smells the odor of sacrifice. What is sweet save rest? Assuredly the Spirit at rest is the mitigation of the Lords of judgment. When therefore it is said that JHVH smelled the odor of rest, most certainly the odor of sacrificed victims is not meant, but the odor of those mitigations of severity which are referred to the nose of Microprosopus (man).

"From the nose of Microprosopus proceedeth from one nostril smoke and fire, and from the other peace and beneficent Spirits."

We know from history that the Jews actually slaughtered animals in their religious services, using blood as a symbol of the sacrifice man should make of his animal nature, but we do not know when it was first introduced. That it was permitted to go on so long indicates that there must have been some good purpose in it, but when one studies deeply into the spirit of the inner teaching of the Grand Old Book one seems to be justified in assuming that those services must have crept in after the priests had forgotten the real Mystery teaching. This seems especially probable when we consider that the race has outgrown those ideas

and have really come to abhor that form of worship while studying the very book that seems to teach it. To be sure we are taught in Christian churches that Jesus died once for all, but the Jew does not believe that, yet he too in this country usually worships without the bloody sacrifice.

We find the first mention of animal sacrifice in Gen. iv, 2. Abel (Spirit) was a shepherd (teacher) and Cain (possessor) was a tiller of the ground (he cultivated his physical propensities). That is, humanity had come into incarnation with dual natures, therefore Cain and Abel are spoken of as twins. The animal instincts are so strong that they kill out the "Abel," or Spirit, when it remonstrates. The Spirit would have placed its whole animal nature on the altar, and have offered up the first fruits of its teaching to others willingly, because that was its nature; but Cain, the physical, would offer up anything else rather than its animal nature. Because he chooses the life of animal gratification rather than the true life, Lord Jehovah tells him he has brought the curse upon him; that is, he will have to suffer from the law of cause and effect, and will be a wanderer on the Physical Plane until he learns to offer the "reasonable service," the crucifixion of the lower self.

Read literally, Leviticus I seems to make Jehovah the author of animal sacrifice; but read symbolically another story is told. And may it not be that when first given out the true meaning was understood, but in the course of ages, because of the laxity of the priesthood, this was lost, and gradually the lower conception became established?

This seems to be a reasonable view if we take the testimony of Scripture itself. In Jeremiah vII, 21, we read: "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: For I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (ignorance and sin) "concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices." This is certainly a plain statement, and with just the same authority that we supposed Leviticus to have.

23. "But this thing I commanded them saying, hearken unto My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people; and walk in all the way I command you that it may be well with you. 24. But they hearkened not nor inclined their ears, but walked in their own councils, and the stubbornness of their evil heart and