Associate discourse 11

In the preceding discourse, we were given certain laws about man’s origin, his first splendor, his will, and the condition in which he finds himself at present. Certain errors, too, we found to be prevalent in the conduct and daily opinion of mankind in general. One of the greatest of these is the failure to distinguish between inanimate matter and the living organism. Why? We shall give three misconceptions which have resulted in this great error: The first is the error made by man in his apparent perception of evil. Let us reiterate the definition of evil:

“Evil is that which is opposed to the progress of each individual.”

Opposition to the progress of mankind makes man unhappy. If he is unhappy, then he must be guilty of not making use of the privilege of his free will because evil is nonexistent when confronted with good. The progress of every being on Earth, however, is subject to opposition as a result of its own evolution.

As far as actual practice is concerned, there is really a double action working upon man and nature. We can say, in fact, that in effect there are two opposing forces if we remember at all times that of these two only one can be real.

The second force, or apparent evil, can have neither weight, number, nor measurement since these conceptions belong to the very essence of good. Man will make much progress, therefore, if he will recognize at the start the great dual law of positive and negative forces at work in nature or corporeal creation. We must recognize this dual law in all temporal things, for this realization will be the means of unravelling it within ourselves. Since the beginning of man’s consciousness, there has always existed this law of dual action. It is necessary, however, that man understand and subsequently overcome his belief in the illusory power of negativeness, or evil.

As a result of man’s unfortunate belief in the power of negativeness, there has arisen a second error in this “Forest of Errors”: In his struggle for progress man has made of material nature an independent force. Although man was able to see that nature was living and active, he considered it separated from the main trunk of creation. Ultimately, he saw in it only an isolated being whose voice was lost in the distance. Therefore, the laws and truths which nature would have revealed were looked upon as oppositions rather than helpful lessons.

Since man has been bound to the material regions of the Earth, he has tried to discover the laws and forces extended into matter from the invisible realm; but he has been confused by the belief that such invisible guidance should be as tangible as matter itself. He has wanted to submit both matter and the directive force back of it to physical measurements. Such a corporeal measure can only be given to space and mass.

If mankind were correct in believing that invisible, directive force was the same as matter, it would mean that some of the spiritual emanations of Omneity would be within the bounds of limited and inaccurate sense faculties. This is directly opposed to what we understand about both man and the great spiritual forces of the universe, for we believe that previously man was able to perceive such forces. The solution to the two problems which have arisen as a result of our misunderstanding is that the invisible forces back of nature are superior to and control matter. Therefore, they cannot be of the same quality. Matter could not exist without these protective forces; yet these forces can exist without matter. It is the continual rhythmic recurrence of such forces that causes the regular renewal of corporeal beings.

This brings us to a third error or general misconception of mankind. Having seen bodies of animals and other living creatures decomposed and disappearing from sight and having seen as well these bodies continually replaced by other bodies, man has concluded that the new bodies were formed from the debris of the old ones, the different parts being again introduced in the composition of new forms. From this, man concluded that the particles of matter were going through a continual cycle of life and death, their fundamental nature always remaining the same. This is not true.

First, matter, that is, its forms and expressions, is not indestructible and is not eternal. Only the invisible cohesive forces of Omneity are eternal and indestructive, and they are the essence of matter. One must be careful not to confuse matter with the divine energy that supports it. Matter is only the outward, apparent, sensible, or tangible expression of the innate cohesive forces of Omneity.

As far as Omneity is concerned, there can be no end to any living creature. However, the Law of Duality causes the end we call death. It applies even to vegetables, which proceed from seed to full bloom. Opposition to its progress ultimately brings it to a conclusion.

Therefore, we see that bodies of animate things are made up of matter which is continually being reinforced by cohesive energy. Matter is unable to retain this force under the continual stress and strain of the negative aspects in nature; so death occurs.

Death results from the cessation of the activity of these cohesive forces. These forms are subject to decomposition only because the forces, having retired, abandon matter to its own chaotic conditions. These conditions, being negative, are opposed one to another. They divide and destroy themselves before our very eyes.

We can perceive somewhat the difference between the decomposed, unorganized matter and that which contains cohesive energy when human beings devour animals. When man eats a portion of the body of an animal, he obtains a very large quantity of this cohesive energy. This energy is not in its natural balance and brings a spurt of energy because it wants to return to its original source or to escape. During this struggle, the human being feels an effervescence that stimulates him to greater action. He feels quiet only after this cohesive energy has been released from his own organs.

This leads us to the logical conclusion that death is a simple phenomenon which concerns all. A wise main has the moral stability to contemplate his own death. Those who have comprehended the errors of this world and have been occupied in life with light and truth are sometimes aware of their approaching end because spirit is the universal torch of matter. We have said that man is composed of the physical body, the plastic envelope, and the ame. Using the analogy of a horse-drawn carriage and its driver, we say the driver is the ame, or soul of the individual, the carriage is the physical body, and the horse corresponds to the plastic envelope. If the carriage breaks down, the driver can mount the horse and ride on. That is what occurs at death. The rider travels on until the horse becomes old, weary, and worn out; then the rider must continue on foot.

In the materialistic conception, man pulls the horse, the horse is seated in the carriage, and the carriage directs the actions of the horse as to the way it should go. The same analogy might be applied to other conceptions in regard to death.
The wise man, therefore, convinced that this world is only a reflection of the unseen world, rejoices rather than grieves when the time comes to renew his acquaintance with his original estate, for he knows that originals are preferable to reflections.

Summary

• There operates in this material world a positive and negative interaction known in Martinist teachings as the great dual law. This apparent action is due to the manifestation of good and the effects of the absence of good, which are evil. Evil, by its nonentity, works in opposition to the progression of man.
• The general erroneous opinion held by mankind is that nature exists by and of itself, independent of all creation.
• If man guides his actions in life so that he can circumvent opposition to his progress, he will master life and comprehend so-called death.

Reference

A Brief History of the Martinist Order.

Associate discourse 8

It must be plain from what we learned in our last discourse that what has come to be called free will is simply man’s ability to decide for himself when and how he shall act to maintain his strength and his independence by resisting voluntarily the obstacles which tend to prevent his acting in conformity with the law of his innermost nature.

The fact that philosophers still ask about will and how it operates indicates that the average person has little idea that will is the governing power within man’s nature. Throughout the ages, men have concluded erroneously that will required reason to motivate it. If will were subordinate to external cause, how could man believe in a freewill? Yet most of us turn continuously in just such a circle, repeating the errors which keep us from being independent and free. To say that there can be no will without cause is to say that will is not a free deciding faculty. Such reasoning ignores the very essence of freewill, which is the ability of an individual to act on his own volition independently of all external influences. When man learns to rely on his inward resources, he will then be able to exert his will so that his relationship with his external world will be harmonious.

Free will is somewhat limited, nevertheless, for although man has the power to determine his own actions, he cannot control all the other influences in the world around him. Free will is also diminished by the lack of harmony within the constitution of man himself. The man who is not physically, mentally, and spiritually progressive will not even seek the freedom which free will can bring. The blind, frivolous person without ideals, who is guided solely by his senses, judges things by what they seem to be and not by what they really are. It would be futile to present to such a man truths opposed to errors, for he would compare them with his own dark and false ideas and find in truth only guilt and contradiction. Being muddled in his perceptions, he would choose to follow the dead and obscure law of his animal nature.

As was implied in our definition, the ideal freedom of the will cam only be achieved by the individual who frees himself from imitating others, from materialistic possessions, and from fear of loss so that he may act in accordance with his Inner Self. Such a man esteems himself sufficiently to desire to know himself. He watches his habits and has already tried to push away the veil of obscurity which surrounds him. Thus, he will fortify himself with the, strength which comes from the inner governing power of the will.

When the will is right, the rest of the constitution of man falls into harmony. The power of the will, then, commands all that which approaches the fortress of physical man; and through its exercise, all actions which have been limited through ill-usage are liberated. The harmonious appearance and functioning of the human body depend upon the proper functioning of every cell in a coordinated hierarchy of cells, tissues, and organs. In like manner, the harmonious functioning of each individual in society depends upon his ability to function harmoniously according to his own nature.

The proper exercise of free will can result in a freedom for man surpassed only by that state of freedom which existed at his origin. When we come to realize that “we are members one of another,” we cease to seek our own selfish ends at the expense of other members of society. As one member of society suffers, wants, or is sick; so, ultimately, will each member of society be affected. While such social responsibility resting on the free will of each individual’s nature can rarely be found today, one must not conclude that it cannot exist in the future. Collectively, as well as individually, we experience that which we deserve to experience.
We may ask why man has failed to recognize and use fully his inherent potential liberty. In part, the cause may be attributed to the negative aspects of various philosophies formulated by him. We might mention as examples:

• Fatalism, which holds that all things occur according to a fixed order wherein cause and effect are not related;
• Predestination, which holds that all that occurs is foreordained by Omneity; and
• Determinism, which holds that all volitions are determined by motives acting on the character of a person so that action is not really the result of free choice.

From such philosophies, mankind, in servitude to jobs, to the opinions forced upon it, and to the conventions of society, has decided vaguely that man was not created for freedom. Such fallacies are based on erroneous conceptions of freedom, the ability of man, and his will. Therefore, yearning for freedom while ignoring the will of man is not likely to bring even a small portion of that freedom which is the divine right of everyone.

If each individual were to discover and put into practice his innermost ideals, freedom from want and a more harmonious social order would inevitably result. As we realize that “we are members one of another,” we cease to force outside events. At the same time, we maintain the strictest allegiance to the law within our hearts. Each individual in society has the right and the power to strengthen or to weaken his freedom. When this power is used to strengthen, it has a most salubrious effect. There is a feeling of relief from a great load as well as a feeling of expansiveness. Bonds of worry and fear which have tightened about the man of servitude disappear, and a new attitude of trust and freedom from care enters his life. Old habits of limitation yield to characteristics of pliability and calmness even in the midst of turmoil and bustle.

Such seeds of new life once planted in the consciousness will take root and grow from day to day. Eventually, one will find himself more in conformity with the Divine Will. Environment and outward circumstances will also change, for the first Law of Universal Justice is that the ratio is exact between the nature of the result and the nature of the cause. Will is indeed the primary factor in the creation of proposed spiritual changes. Consequently, anything which tends to increase the power of the will and to make it more forceful is naturally to be desired. Generally speaking, we learn to strengthen this power of our soul—our will—by studying its attributes, by forming right habits, and then by exercising them.

Summary Free will is simply the ability of man to decide for himself when and how he shall act to maintain his strength and his independence by resisting voluntarily the obstacles which tend to prevent his acting in conformity with the law of his innermost nature. Humanity at large, at present held in servitude, has the power to live in an ideal state of freedom. The revivification of will in man by its use in a pure, positive, constructive manner is of primary importance to man’s freedom.

 

A Suggested Discipline for the Will Plan two hours of the day and try by all means to live according to this plan. It is usually best to choose Sunday or a holiday to make this experiment. Schedule each minute of those two hours and turn from one activity to the next on the moment, even though you may not have finished the previous activity. Vow to yourself that you will refrain from scratching your nose, pulling your ear, or putting your left hand to your face for a week. For each violation of this discipline, voluntarily pinch yourself always in the same spot. In time, the body will automatically refrain from performing the undesired action. (Pinching dates back to an ancient theory of the duality of man. In this way, the lower self is taught to obey the dictates of the will.)

Reference

A Brief History of the Martinist Order.

Providence

Peeke says:

“God sends every individual by His Law of self-development to this world for a purpose, but only to a few is delegated a particular mission for the world.”

Reference

Numbers and Letters: Or, the Thirty-two paths of Wisdom, M. B. Peeke, 1908.

Martinez Pasquales’s “Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings”: The Fall

The doctrines of Martinez Pasquales were essentially Kabbalistic and the Kabbalah formed the framework on which he based his rituals and expositions. Pasquales was a man of mystery, saying little about his own teachers or the mystic schools in which he had been instructed. His manuscript, called a “Treatise On the Reintegration of Beings” makes plain, however, that he was fulfilling a mission and that his sources of Light were traditionally correct in spite of his failure to make his theme altogether plain as a system of philosophy.

Since there were several copies of his work in manuscript, all somewhat different in style and phrasing, it is possible that he taught verbally and depended upon his disciples to record his teachings. It is equally possible that he improved his instruction from time to time.
His instruction, appropriately and significantly, began with God, the everlasting Creator of all that is.

The Treatise says that God is absolute in power and knowledge. God’s understanding surpasses that of any created mortal being; therefore, God is, in a sense, inscrutable and unknowable to us.
Let us think for a moment in terms of the BEGINNING. God, as the Creator, existed before any created thing, before the world of nature —man, or plant, or animal. God’s thought and power encompassed every possibility. God existed without limitation, want, hindrance, or insufficiency. In the divine Immensity, in the bosom of the Creator, existed the potentiality of an infinitude of beings, as well as endless
types of creations. For reasons knowable only to God, God emanated a class, or group, of spiritual beings. These were the first created beings. At the time of their emanation, they received laws of order and purpose appropriate to their natures and a free will. The crime of these first spiritual beings was that they turned their wills against God: They willed to change the order and purpose of their beings and even desired to challenge the powers of the Creator by creating other beings themselves—a thing absolutely forbidden to them. God, noting their crime and misuse of will, punished them by absenting Himself from them and by thrusting them into the prison house of the material world. The material world was emanated at this time for the express purpose of punishing these beings and teaching them humility, obedience, and harmonious cooperation.

Humanity was emanated as a second class, or group, of spiritual beings known as MAN-GODS, who were to be rulers of nature, the material creation, and the first perverse beings.

In the words of Pasquales:
“God would not be the Father and the Master of all things if he had not within himself an inexhaustible source of beings that he emanated at will through his pure desire. It is by this infinite multitude of emanations of spiritual beings without himself that he holds the name of CREATOR. His works form the divine creation—spiritual, temporal, and animal.”

Following his emanation, Adam (collective Man, known in the Kaballah as Adam Kadmon) enjoyed enormous powers and privileges. He had free access to the centre of the universe, to the divine thoughts, and his being was clothed in a spiritual form of glory—not subject to the ravages of time or the limitations of space.

One of the duties of Adam was to rule the first perverse beings and see that their proper and necessary lesson was learned. However, the chief, or prince, of these beings enticed Adam (collective Man), suggesting that he, too, challenge the immutable and absolute power of the Creator. Filled with pride and wilfulness, Adam succumbed to these blandishments and temptations, and attempted spiritual operations beyond his ordained powers. He set his will against the immutable Will and decrees of God, and thus sinned.

As a result of this weakness, this inability to resist temptation, this misuse of his free will, Adam fell. His FALL meant that he no longer dwelt in the centre of divine thoughts, in a body of spiritual form, clothed in glory. He was forced to exchange his glorious form for a material body, subject to the action of time and space. Furthermore, he lost his enormous powers as MAN-GOD of nature and created beings. He had to live in spiritual darkness, privation, pain, sorrow, and misery.

In the view of our Venerated Master, then, there were two Falls: The first, by which the perverse beings found themselves separated from God because of their attempted assumption of His powers of creation; the second, when Adarn, the MAN-GOD, was himself deceived by the perverse beings over whom he was placed as a guard.

The long story of mankind (the Adamic history) has been a ceaseless struggle to overcome the limitations and sufferings imposed by the FALL, to obtain reconciliation with the Creator, to recover the lost status as MAN-GOD, the favoured and intimate one of the Eternal Power. From this sad condition stems the power of the word Reintegration. The hopes and longings of the race are embodied in it. No one can ever find permanent rest and felicity until humanity, the collectivity of mankind, has regained completely the divine favour and obtained oneness, absorption, reintegration with the Creator of All, God.

The Fall of Man, properly conceived and broadly interpreted, is a fact. The traditional history of many peoples refers to a time when men lived in greater spiritual glory and closer attunement with God. This tradition is older than histories, legends of the Flood, and the existence of lost and mighty civilizations. Perhaps, too, our conceptions of sin are derived from faint recollections of our collective “original sin,” that of turning our wills from the will of the Creator, conspiring to ignore His laws, setting our wills against His commands and precepts.

After the Fall, collective man undoubtedly was in a miserable condition. Considering the misery, lust, and greed of a large proportion of humanity after many epochs of supposed evolution, the sense of man’s privation and darkness immediately after the Fall seems real and appalling. It must have been like abruptly leaving an intensely lighted room and plunging into a black and impenetrable abyss that was devoid of light and all other sense perceptions.

Especially tormenting must have been the faint memories of privileges enjoyed in the former high estate—the freedom of manifesting in a spiritual body, unencumbered by the wants and demands of the flesh; the ineffable peace and joy of participating intimately in divine thoughts, of basking, as it were, in the effulgence of God’s love and goodness. All of this, exchanged for a miserable, limiting physical body, which constantly warred against the inclinations of the subtler self within and imposed chains upon the freedom of the soul personality! It is small wonder that the body came to be known as the prison house of this world, the abode of the devil, a demon whose design was to work eternally for man’s destruction and obliteration.

In reconciling the above thoughts with the concept of evolution, it is evident that some progress has been made by collective man since the Fall. Many have evolved, perfected, and released their soul personalities to a considerable extent. Higher types of men and women do exist today. We are evolving upward—forward and onward—to the goal, the only worthwhile and enduring goal, that of reconciliation and reintegration with our First Spiritual Principle.

As has been stressed before, the punishment of man, following the misuse of his will, was the exchange of his glorious, spiritual, non- material form for the physical body which he inhabits during the present period of privation. Note that the anguish of privation, of man’s exile from the Creator, centers about the material body. What is wracked by pain and suffering, enfeebled and twisted by disease, tormented by insensate lusts and passions, anguished by worldly appetites which disconcert the soul personality? Obviously, the body. Therefore, the dominance of the material body over the soul personality must be overcome. A mistaken understanding of this has led many to the path of asceticism, which for us is a false and unprofitable one. In mastering the body, its harmonious functioning and possibilities as a vehicle for good should neither be weakened nor destroyed but rather subjected to the spiritual needs and aspirations of the soul personality within.

The metaphysical anatomy of an individual

An individual consists of an âme (A French word for spirit-soul, heart or essence), a subtle body (the fluidic envelope) and a physical body.

An individual is under God’s providence[1] and thus has constraints placed put upon his or her freedom. The individual:

1.    Is born into a body and subjected to its weaknesses.

2.    Has a physical constitution subject to genetics.

3.    Is subject to the Laws of Nature for the world the individual is in.

4.    Is born at a particular time and place and is exposed to cultural influences, education and wealth outside of the individual’s control.

5.    Has his own unique Law placed into him by God that corresponds to God’s Law.

Now the following is said to be true,

“Good, for each man, is the accomplishment of his own law. Evil is that which is opposed to his own law. Every human being has only one law, which is related to the primary Law of Good, which is One.”

Thus within the âme, I contend, there is something metaphysically called “the mind” and “the heart”. Now the bible says the Law will be put into the “the mind” and written onto “the heart”.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.” (Heb 8:10)

Figure 1 summarises schematically the metaphysical anatomy of a properly functioning human individual. Sadly, few are like this, as we like the moral ability to follow God’s Law. In a functioning individual desires arise at any one moment from any of the following sources:

1.    An external impulse.

2.    The emotions.

3.    The requirements of the Law.

4.    The Mind.

Competing desires come from multiple sources at any one time (we are beings that function within Time). Desires can arise internally within the âme and from the physical body, naturally and cyclically, e.g. the desire to eat. Once the desire is sated, the cycle starts again.

The Mind suppresses desires that are inappropriate due to reflection, experience and reason. It is the application of the Mind to suppressing desires that choice can be said to occurs. Jonathan Edwards [1] defines the will as “the mind choosing”.

Figure 1: The anatomy of a "pure individual"

Jonathan Edwards’ thesis [1] in his ‘Freedom of the Will’ is that we are free to choose that which we most desire. Gerstner [2] summarised Edwards as follows:

“Your choices as a rational person are always based on various considerations or motives that are before you at the time. Those motives have a certain weight with you, and the motives for and against reading a book, for example, are weighed in the balance of your mind; the motives that outweigh all others are what you, indeed, choose to follow. You, being a rational person, will always choose what seems to you to be the right thing, the wise thing, the most advisable thing to do. If you choose not to do the right thing, the advisable thing, the thing that you are inclined to do, you would, of course, be insane. You would be choosing something that you did not choose. You would find something preferable that you did not prefer. But you, being a rational and sane person choose something because it seems to you the right, proper, good, advantageous thing to do.”

No one is naturally inclined towards God. We hate God by nature. We have the natural ability to please him but we lack the moral ability. Our nature has to be changed if we are to seek God and do what he pleases.

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:10-18)

How is our nature changed? It requires God’s intervention:

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Once our natures are changed the battle to live out of the Law of God written on our Hearts and put into our Minds begins.

References
1.     Jonathan Edwards, The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended, in Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 10th ed., 2 vols. (Edinburgh/Carlisle, Penn: Banner of Truth, 1979, 1:1)

2.     John H. Gerstner, A Primer on Free Will (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1982) p.4-5.

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[1] All things are in accord with God’s law and Plan,

“The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the LORD weighs the spirit.
Commit your work to the LORD,
and your plans will be established.
The LORD has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.
…

The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.
…

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.” (Prov. 16)