Esoteric TowerReligious Magic & Esoteric Symbolism [Occult Lecture]
This evening we are going to try to draw
together many of the thread elements
religious ritual ISM as these converge
nearly religious rites Christianity
first of all is a broad point which we
have to more or less consider and that
is the magical or metaphysical element
in the celebrations of religious rites
such an element has always been assumed
to exist and to a very great degree
religion as religious ceremony has
developed around this central core of a
mystical or magical transformation of
substances materials and conditions by
religious means I think we have to go
back a long way to find the very
beginnings of this religious magic I
know for example in Southwest United
States the casino dancers of the Navajo
and Hopi people have a ritual but in a
strange way summarizes the entire
mystery of religious magic in their
various rites and ceremonies
most of the catching our dancers are
masks the masks are very simple homemade
productions as you might imagine usually
he fashioned from the skin of animals
painted adorned with fur feathers
and even various vegetable and plant
structures in the ritual of these people
the mask must be painted behind the back
of the artist he must not see it until
it is finished
this of course accounts for a certain
food myth but at the same time it is
amazing how well the designs can be
perfected even in this way once the mask
has been completed the artist with all
probability in all probability is also
going to be the wearer may look upon it
safely if he looks upon it before it is
finished he will be stricken blind
according to the belief of his people
after the mask is finished he must wear
it only at the most sacred ceremony he
is not submitted to put it on except
during the ritual itself
he cannot pose for it opposed with it
for a picture or anything of that nature
it must never appear on his head except
in the actual ceremony actually also
according to his beneath when he wears
this mask as part of an elaborate ritual
he is no longer himself in the process
of putting on the sanctified mask made
under magical situation he is inwardly
and internally transformed into the
deity in which the mask represents his
friends and neighbors may recognise him
even with the mask but they must give no
indication of this because while he
wears the mask he is not himself he is
the god the power of the mask is also
expressed to the people these people are
perfectly well aware that the dancers
that come out of the dust all means
on the old Mason's are not really
physically gods yet they are welcomed as
gods
referred to as God's because they wear
the God mask they're not masked men they
are deities a while that where these
sanctified regalia
they are transformed by a mystery into
the spiritual power for which these
masks stand now how are we going to
explain this in the terms of our common
everyday life we can't probably actually
explain it we can talk about it
psychologically and mystically or we can
take the attitude of the average tourist
who goes into the area but they are very
superstitious lot of other childish
people will believe almost anything so a
measure perhaps such a negative attitude
can be sustained rationally and
logically yet it is part of religious
mystery and it isn't limited by any
means to these humble people living
along the sides of the Rio Grande River
this mystery extends throughout the
world we find identical mystery rituals
with identical meanings in Tibet we find
the friend the priests take long the
various vestments particularly if this
process is accompanied by certain secret
religious formulas these priests are
then so transformed that the deities
become temporarily
embodied in them so we know that in the
areas around which our modern religious
life developed this kind of concept was
so quite dumb we know that the Egyptians
by means of masks and by means of
various sanctified images hell that
could be a religious truth but divine
powers could be brought to bear upon the
rituals and rites of their ceremonies
but in the masked priests the proximity
of the deity is for the sure the Greeks
had a similar belief using masked
religiously and sharing with many other
peoples the belief in the sanctification
of images though the the old idea about
the sacred image is again a form of the
concept of transubstantiation a certain
image of a deity made by an obviously
earthy artist composed of physical
substances marble wood stone plaster
whatever it might be this image by
certain rituals by certain rites and
ceremonies was caused to receive into
itself as the Greek said the presence of
a blessed being but in some way by
ritual and ceremony a transcendent life
power was focused through this physical
image all of those who accepted it
realized that the image was of
transitory material that it could be
broken
with a rock or an axe yet this is no way
to be attracted from the mystery with
which the image or the substance was
enveloped likewise also
antiquity it was assumed that magical
power could be cause to defend and
associate itself with various familiar
and common objects if these familiar and
common objects were subjected to certain
rituals and various processes of
purification ceremonies invocations
prayers of the light always however the
sacred object had to be consecrated in
some way and once having been so
consecrated it possessed a peculiar and
wonderful virtue and this virtue caused
it to be worthy of certain veneration or
adoration the Greeks tell us clearly
that they did not believe that Zeus
himself was captured within the great
statue of fashion in the name and
likeness of Zeus and now called the
Olympian Zeus oh one of the wonders will
be our artistic world of antiquity they
did not believe that the deity actually
inhabited the statue they did not
believe that the deity was bound to the
temple where that statue stood they did
not believe that this statue was the
proper person of the bearding but they
believe that this statue was in some way
associated to or connected by some
subtle energy with the power of the
deities that you might say it was
and so by a ray or an extension or a
quality of the Gods which it was
fashioned to represent we find the even
among very early Jewish law similar
ideas and certainly it abounded in the
ceremonial
magic of early and medieval Jewish
cattle ISM these older Greeks and some
of the wiser of the Egyptians such as
iamblichus are his mysteries of the
Egyptians and carolien attempts to
explain logically the story of the
relationship or the sympathetic ties
between an image and a divine power
Paracelsus also gave quite a
consideration of this subject in his
study of sympathetic medicines for the
healing of sickness according to the
more rational intelligence of the Greeks
there is a law of similarities or
similitudes
by means of which things of light nature
cannot be completely separated from each
other and whereas things of dissimilar
nature cannot be brought together that
which is like is like that which it is
like possessing the same quality power
or energy if therefore a magnificent
image of a deity was fashioned by a
great artist it was assumed that the
beauty the sublimity the nobility of
this image in some way was a similitude
to the God himself and that as a result
of that some part some extension some
vibratory overtone of a divine nature
was captured in this noble and sublime
likeness fashioned by men that in a
sense great beauty great dignity our
cups into which divine powers of
but nothing that is truly noble or truly
great can be completely separated from
that which is most noble and most great
namely God though there is another way
in which we can also think about this
problem and out of centuries of
consideration and not a little
controversy in the church st. Thomas
Aquinas more or less summarizes the
final attitude which was to prevail
concerning transubstantiation especially
at the ceremony of the Eucharist his
opinion was that this transubstantiation
actually factually and literally took
place only if the person in whose
presence it was performed or for whose
benefit it was performed was in himself
a noble and Lifan and spiritual person
therefore at the time of the Eucharistic
transformation or hell chemical mystery
of the mass for those who were profane
for the unbeliever or the unpurified
there was no real or visible change but
for the person who had the inward
consciousness the miracle was performed
therefore it might or might not appear
or be visible to the beholder or the
observer but it was known in the heart
it was an experience within
consciousness itself thus we seem to
find the entire situation finally thrown
back upon the believer we've seem to
find that the concept finally become
that an object is sacred
if the believer in purity and sincerity
so accepts it
you see that this object is worthy of
veneration
if it is experienced in the heart of the
believer that it is worthy of veneration
and the deity is present in the various
rituals rites and ceremonies of the mass
if this is beneath if this is held to be
a certainty of consciousness for these
conditions we see that we are very much
back again for the general philosophic
structure of man's religious team a
philosophic structure which is based not
affirm what occurred around me but the
interpretation which man himself places
upon this are these occurrences if
therefore the person looking out into
the world the rules in the seeking
nature with His infinite diversity of
manifestations and is thereby compared
to say I live in a natural world that is
all about the daily problems of his day
but if this person by some experience
within himself experiences the
transformation of the world so that by
some mystical reverie or illumination he
gazes out the from the same environment
and suddenly discovers it to be alive
with divine power suddenly sees nature
transmuted and transformed into the
radiant presence of the universal deity
itself then in that moment the
transubstantiation has taken place it is
the individual who his own experience
who experienced these changes the
suddenly recognizes the various levels
to which he can become aware and at the
same time his neighbor may see no
difference yet his neighbor denying that
there is a difference may
so be wrong well this difference occurs
within consciousness rather than within
the substances equation yet as some of
the fathers of the Council of Trent
pointed out that which is seen by this
internal experience they be regarded as
more true more real and more valid than
the objection raised by the one who does
not see who insists that nothing has
occurred here we come very close upon
through our oriental religion we come
very close to bowel ism and to the
experience of all out himself we
suddenly penetrating through the form of
things discovered the universe to be a
great design motion and into any truly
meaning full of life
it was no longer locked within the
competitively restricted dimensions of
the Kerman place in which we live
therefore we have one explanation to all
religious ceremonies an explanation that
can be applied to the Greek mysteries
the Egyptian mystery and rites and
ceremonies of ancient America or the
rights of the Brahmins Hindus in general
Chinese the Japanese Koreans and all
other ancient and distant people thus
the actual mystery of the transformation
of painting by religious insight falls
into the grand pattern of mystical
experience or illumination itself this
is one explanation which is the default
person overcoming certain common
objections and these common objections
did arise during the early
mr. the church it was observed
definitely that in the
transubstantiation at the time of the
Eucharist no visible change occurred
either to the bread the wine or these
water nothing seen interchange yet by
some mysterious power this ritual has
wrought a different and there was only
there were only two ways that you could
explain this difference either that it
was actual or that it was symbolically
needless to say the symbolical schools
at quite a bit of food the trivet also
down to the century in their reflections
about the matter the symbolic school has
always held all rituals to be symbolic
of some form of transformation which is
to occur within the light the body the
soul or the spirit of man himself it's a
symbol is a similitude or enlightenment
a visible a Lavoie a visible legend or
fable by means of which something itself
makes young description where it can be
figured or set forth in some way that
can be conceived or apprehended by the
average patient according to this point
of view the mystery of
transubstantiation is actually a story
of regeneration the transformation of
the elements of the Eucharist represents
the transformation of the mental
emotional physical mystical parts of man
the actual transformation may also imply
but by the presence of God all flesh and
blood they be transformed
including the flesh and blood of the
believer and that whereas the person
believes in the mystical experience may
assume that the Eucharistic right is the
actual taking into oneself of the blood
and Body of Christ the other group will
affirm that it is symbolic of the fact
that all life is sustained by the blood
and body of God and the fare for every
ritual of life is a Eucharistic ceremony
but whenever we breathe we breathe in
God whenever we take food we think of
the life of God in living things
therefore that all life lives upon life
and that there is only one life upon
which it can live and that is the
eternal and divine life which is the
source cause and sustenance of all
things religion therefore comes as a
dawning awareness of the sublime fact
involved a sudden recognition of losing
this possibility and all that is implied
by the fact that man live from the
bounty and from the very civic and body
of the universal creator the symbolist
then developed this line of law
this is ritual had about them some
double meaning something by which of the
outer life might be made more solemn
more splendid
and lighten but at the same time that
was an intimation of a mystery in man
himself
it had to be accomplished by the
regeneration of his own nature all of
these elements combined in in
establishing the point of union which
has always been the essential core of
Christian belief in Christian faith it
may be said with the man anciently
constituted the very substance and the
mass itself was merely a complex of some
rituals and ceremonies in the midst of
which was enshrined the Eucharistic
ceremony the ceremony of the
transformations of the bread and wine
according to me the last Passover of
Jesus prior to the crucifixion
thus the new Paris itself comes from
work is called and generally referred to
as the Last Supper and from this also
it was only a step to the recognition or
celebration of the Lord's Supper as time
went on the original pattern was a more
or less extended and the first extension
of the idea are properly attributed to
various commentaries given by st. Paul
in referring to the actual Last Supper
of Jesus it is Paul who first intimates
or arcane lis points out that this Last
Supper is more than a Holy See's more
than something to be remembered lovingly
by the
typing something more than the touching
story of a teacher knowing that he was
going to face death having this final
farewell million with his disciples the
power points out that there is more to
this but this represents a central point
around which it was to be filled it's
the concept or the idea of these
mucolytic life that a part of Christian
worship which means the continuing
repetition of this right by the faithful
that's the the celebration of the Lord's
Supper to constitute a peculiar and
wonderful remembering a continuing of
the solemn and sacred occasion which is
originally described so we have in st.
Paul the movie Civic of the
transformation of the historical story
or the legend of the Last Supper into
its inclusion as the central theme of
the mass of Christendom here again we
see only another aspect of st. Paul's
essential belief in the Christie ologies
sunset Paul was not satisfied to think
of Jesus as a teacher of the Jews was
not some of their was not satisfied to
regard him as an enlightened rabbin or
reformer of the temple nor was he
willing to include him among the
prophets and the elders who had gone
before in the history of the ancient
Jewish nation the st. Paul there was a
uniqueness about the entire story of
Jesus it was this uniqueness it caused
him to unfold a period of parallels or a
series of analogies by means of which
stories of price becomes no longer the
story of a man living in Syria 2,000
years ago but a continuing eternal
mystery in the spirit in mystery
infinitely reproducing itself
age after age a mystery which by certain
rites and sacraments continues to be in
force to relive its own existence he
expended power throughout the entire
expense of the survival of Christendom
itself
the fall began to emphasize this problem
of the Lord's Supper it is quite
possible but without Paul for a little
time the disciples had they been able
together might have continued to
celebrate this occasion of the Passover
there certain sad memories of the one in
which they had parted from their future
but now it became part of the basic
belief of the Christians million itself
and this was customary unnatural
probably originally only at the time of
the Passover
well the Christian community can repeat
as a sacred Rite this peculiar and
particular incident though we do not
know and frankly I cannot find any
record in either the Greek or Latin
fathers and according to the best
information obtainable no such record
again just exactly how the
forms of the mass began to develop I
think however that we have to realize
three or four different rings and take
them in a reasonably proper context
first of all the structures of mass
probably is not essentially pretty it is
probably frequency it is derived from
other sources in as much as nearly all
religious rites and ceremonies send some
previous beliefs invested it is quite
possible and quite obvious that some
part of this ritual could have developed
from the simple Jewish feast of the
Passover itself and from the early
belief for peoples of this area of the
consecration of bread of the setting
aside and the blessing of food for the
movement of man and even of these later
saint francis of assisi blessed the seed
of the camera and there is much evidence
that in very early time the blessing of
the harvest the blessing of the field
included the taught or the admonition
who remember that in some way this food
was a symbol or a carrier of divine life
the seed was sacred but the breaking of
bread was also a sacred symbol of the
bond of friendship and the this included
later the use of salt that's actually
wherever the individual shares in the
family food that found at table with the
family whether it be a stranger or
friends there was a certain fraternity
established but there was a Brotherhood
of bread and that those who broke bread
were bound together by a strange and
significant relationship he's another
man's bread was to acknowledge a
friendship was to become in certain
sense of how I of that man it may not
have been as strong as blood Brotherhood
but even in the problem of blood
Brotherhood we find that the mingling of
blood and the shedding of blood was an
ancient tribe at a great deal of this
information can be further developed in
the study of phrases encyclopedic works
the Golden Bough which has to do with
most of these primitive rituals of
mankind but that there was at the time
under consideration a sanctification
food that to break bread was symbolic
and mystical and that prayers offered in
the OtterBox communities of the
pre-christian period included the
sanctifying of bread and the setting
aside of certain parts of it as an
offering to God as we have the story of
the unleavened bread using the Jewish
ceremony a story which does defend
considerably into our Christian culture
so that the various rituals of others
people might and probably did affect the
gradual concept of the holy supper in as
much as the holy supper was a sitting
together in search of God the
preparation of the
in which the unseen guest was the
honored presence in the mid of the
mysterious banquet of the wise Plato
describes the banquet of Olympic Dora
this was a philosophic banquet in which
it was not seen but understanding and
the graces of the spirits which
nourished and fed those who assemble
together in search of truth so I don't
think we can doubt that the Eucharistic
ceremony could be traced we know that
the diameter rights of the Greeks
included the belief that the body of
dionysos was transformed into wine
therefore that the use of wine in a
religious ceremony the presence of the
mysterious cup except represented
Dionysos
and finally the mysterious monogram IHS
which has also been carried into
Christianity which was originally the
monogram of dionysos so that therefore
the body of the God was said to have
entered into wine a wine of ecstasy and
those who were listed into some kind of
a religious trance by this way the
sensitive soul also being sold by the
God but the use of being of the of wine
was anciently part of a ritual will be
also remembered from the meeting of
Abraham and Melchizedek at which time a
mysterious beast of wine Koren oil was
part of a sacrament at a very early
period
so that these elements unsaid
undoubtably could have resulted in the
gradual integration of a concept the
second point that probably has to be
taken into consideration is the gradual
change which took place in the structure
of the Lord's Supper needless the same
in the first centuries of the church and
the Brethren met under the most
difficult circumstances in cave in
fellows in the catacombs under cities in
isolated places or even if they were not
persecuted at all in most humble chapels
kids the houses of the desert have
little better than Adobe hunt it is
quite certain that in these times
anything that we realize or recognize in
the great and grand description of the
mass could not have existed there seems
to be no about therefore that in the
beginning the mass was exactly the same
as in its original performance by Jesus
it was a simple gathering of the
brethren there were divisions within the
structure of the early Christian
community and it is quite probable at
postulants of those who have not passed
beyond a certain degree of acceptance
were not permitted to partake of this
holy supper
therefore it was undoubtedly a symbol of
full membership a full acceptance into
the Christian religious communion it is
also quite certain that in these early
days a priest as we know them did not
exist
that many of these ceremonies
undoubtedly were performed without the
benefit of any religious officer
perhaps one of these roots itself being
appointed to lead or celibate this right
in this way and undoubtedly lingered for
quite a while and around it in this
precarious and difficult existence was
the gradually fading structure of the
ancient pagan world around the years and
the rise of Christianity the great
Egyptian rites were failing but they
were still visibly performed under the
colony and we're still powerful
particularly the rites of Serapis Osiris
and Isis in North Africa especially the
area around Alexandria also we know that
the ceremonies of the Alexandrian
Serapis Isis Osiris triad was not
regarded unfavorably by the early
Christian church growing up in its mid
in fact when certain important Christian
bishops visited Alexandria they first
gave their religious services to the
community of Christians and then wins
and performs a similar service in the
temple of Serapis thus the early Bishop
apparently celebrated whatever the
rituals of the early church were both in
the Christian community and in the pagan
community recognizing no essential
difference this is hard to understand
perhaps but we must realize that at that
time the differences in beliefs so
perhaps even harder to understand it was
a great similarity
in the visualization concept of Serapis
and Jesus the rapid was the weaken guard
of Alexandria he was represented as a
fall noble figure beheaded and the pair
falling on his shoulders and in his face
an expression of inconceivable family it
was called the weeping demon and he
stood Salomon alone the midst of the
great set of p.m. of Alexandria his sad
God his noble brow with his false fears
with his almost effeminate face there's
long flowing hair and Union ringlets on
his shoulders was not too many different
from the first contest the appearance of
Jesus the principles for which the lapis
stood were also very similar to the
Christian system but the rapper's was a
deity of intersection was a deity
forever weeping over the sadness and
wickedness of the world as Jesus wept
over Jerusalem the roughest west over
Alexandria and it was also so rappers
who was forever begging the evil minded
and those of corrupt nation to mend
their ways and restore themselves to the
kingdom of blessedness so it's not
entirely inconceivable that the priests
of these two faiths should have much in
common in a time when neither groups
were happy at any clear sense of
division or demarcation between
religious wishes I think we must assume
that in the first century especially as
most of the Christian converts were from
non-christian
learn Christian babies well the fall
Christian community was rising in the
late blender the Magnificent rituals and
grammars of Annisa
where the great rights of Greece was
still being performed where the
tremendous ceremonialism of Rome the
school Clarice
although perhaps without too much
essential meaning everywhere throughout
the known world Lowell temples still
story Lowell sanctuaries were still
served where they're gone where lights
blazed on a thousand non-christian
offers it is not impossible that the
development of a ritualism could have
been if not intentionally at least
strongly subjectively impelled by the
existing and prevailing patterns I have
discussed this problem with a number of
different important persons particularly
religious leaders in the Mediterranean a
Mesopotamian area and they all although
Christian men themselves they are all
convinced that much of this ritualism of
the early church that certainly derived
from non-christian sources but therefore
we have something upon which to build
our understanding of the gradual
submergence
of the older rituals into the Christian
Right and also perhaps a little clearer
insight as to how the early church was
able to take the places so many of these
earlier ceremonies
wherever we find records of the earliest
missionaries and that is in the first
two or three centuries going forth into
other parts of the world the converts
the unbelievers in these times we do not
generally find some
religious differences arising that mark
say the fifth of twelfth century many of
these missionaries on travelens receives
kindly and friendly by non-christian
people permitted to perform their
religious rights without interference by
the local religious beliefs a good
example of that of course is the story
of st. josep about a mafia having gone
to England according to the legend was
enabled to build his first little wattle
church on the Isle of Avalon a bear to
practice his faith in the presence of
the druid were parently made no effort
to interfere with it in fact they have a
fiend as many did that he was merely
another branch of their own beast
this continues until a considerably
later date when the rise of a more
clear-cut orthodoxy fourth the Christian
Church into a dynamic opposition to
other beliefs but in the early days this
opposition does not exist in fact we
find most of the ante 19 fathers
actually apologetic more in trying to
take the attitude that actually
Christianity was nothing more onerous
than an improvement of beliefs already
existing that it made no claims other
than those which had already been
advanced by other faiths this therefore
may have give us a second clue to the
rise of the
ritualism which we now know as the
rituals of the mass the mass almost
certainly was built upon a series of
foundations the greatest expression
probably of religious ritualistic
symbolism in the
today it's Pontifical high mass at st.
Peter's here has been gathered together
so many diverse elements of ritualism
but we are practically comparable to
recognize throughout the various
segments of this composite pattern
evidence of many religions have been
strangely woven into one tapestry of a
procedure there is much borrowing from
many places but this in itself is a
perhaps no very great importance it has
every religion even doctrinally is
indebted to others there cannot be any
other relationship or patterns in
religious life now the third factor that
we may observe is that having adequate
material available in other words living
in the suburbs of the great pagan
splendor of their time the Christian has
all that was necessary to provides the
machinery the technical structure the
precedence and even for that matter the
very mechanics of an elaborate religious
ceremony
and fitting them began to increase in in
temporal importance particularly after
the Council of Nicaea and resulted in
the recognition of Christianity as the
official religion
the Roman Empire it became perhaps
rather obvious that a very major change
was taking place and we religious
atmosphere of the time if this page the
older rituals and rites for gradually
falling partly they fell because of the
Roman attitude Roman becoming mastery
the world became a very highly
materialistic culture in which there was
little consideration for essential
values now various the Roman emperors
particularly the more corrupt one hated
and feared religious influence did
everything they possibly could to
discourage it gradually also
Christianity lots of the pagan
institutions and an elaborate conspiracy
and the various groups fought for
existence of the one of the most savage
types of secret warfare a warfare
centered around theological disputes in
any of them it is very obvious that as
Christianity increased in temple power
it was almost inevitable that it should
also make use of the machinery that it
proceeded and finally to develop a
highly dramatic highly spectacular and
highly impressive religious ritual
structure so as its temple power
increased its rituals became more
impressive involving greater displays of
worldly ostentation greater displays of
wealth greater evidences of temple power
as we study the history the papacy
only fine that it was really a very
strange kind of structure because here
we have the gradual developing of a
great power a power most spiritual and
temporal a power in which the influence
or the direction and domination of the
mind of Europe rested largely in the
power of the church yet here was the
church itself attempting to hold in line
particularly religiously and group of
extremely ambitious battle princes
Europe was leading gradually into its
most intensive period of feudalism here
we had robber barons and their castles
on the tops of mountains here we had a
circle of ambitious princes slowly
carving out the boundaries of what were
to be in the States and later the
countries of Europe
here we find despot dictators tyrants
and assorted whatnot all struggling for
physical authorities all of them seeking
to rule Europe and for that matter to
extend their rulership to the
circumference of a known world here also
during this same period a rising
conflict with Asia was developing the
was increasing in influence and
authority it was a little too soon for
the Crusades but they were in the making
and in the mid of probably the most
horses pandemonium that is possible
within
good the church the church attempting
not only to maintain itself but for home
its authority and expand this authority
over the entire domain of feudalism the
church at this time had no standing army
and no temporal power of whatever in a
physical or literal sense of the word
almost any of the robber barons could
have gone the road back the Vatican and
destroyed the church the church form
alliances with one rising power and
another always trying to keep a few of
political friends the fight us battle
for very often the church chose his
friends unwisely and they were defeated
in the church was left again like
Cardinal Wolsey bare and naked on to its
enemies malaria-ridden Rome well yet
many of the folks reigned less than a
month here it was in the midst of this
great rising political conspiracy of
Europe it was unarmed and gradually
increasing in wealth it had the stone
princes and its own leaders and noble
names actually except what was later to
be carved into a small area called the
papal space it had inherited the Cobre
of the Caesars but only after the
Caesars had lost everything they had it
became and carried the title the cycles
that Caesar had carried the folk became
the perfect map
the great bridge builder when he had the
piece of timber to his name to build
anything with it was really a rather
complicated situation because the church
at that time with a totally intangible
entity trying desperately the new were
its own survival and the cause to
advance it sold in in a world that
really cared nothing for it perhaps was
a little jealous onyx and ever ready to
stack it at a moment's notice under
these conditions the church had only
certain weapons which it could use and
it used them wisely and unwisely if you
some of them very wisely from the
standpoint of its own preservation and
it uses some of them such as specially
as its indulgences very unwisely because
they in turn resulted in the great break
ribs which was to result in the
Protestant Reformation the church had
only certain ways of achieving first all
of these states principalities and so
forth which were out slugging you
together to death on the fields of
battle the glorious feelings of war all
these states were nominally Christian
nominally was really an overstatement
they were destitute of practically any
visible indication of Christians ready
for charity but the robber barons
knights and princes had their chapels
they had their bishops and they made
certain the country allegiances to the
the only thing the church had to rule
with at that time with fear fear of a
madness fear of excommunication this
alone kept many of these feuding nights
and simply turning upon the traits and
destroying this it's next the possible
advantage was its ritual the complete
confusing the materially minded person
by the extravagances of a great TV
obstacle delivers a tremendous
ritualistic pageantry hi math and some
great Cathedral brought many a dictator
to his knees there was something that
was impossible to fight something that
seemed to be so bad
so intangible so mystical so magical so
filled with a kind of same transcendent
softly but the rather superstitious if
brave seven minded noble finally fell
before the intangible influence of the
church to maintain this intangible
influence the church was much of the
same position as the Rogers of India and
the people get all got a little unhappy
in old days the Rogers had a durbar
brought out all their best elephants but
on their finest robes wore their
greatest jewelry and paraded up and down
the main street of their city everyone
then was deeply impressed and went back
and lived happily ever after and this
was more or less what the church had to
do in order to survive it is certain
that this survival was at the expense of
a great many basic values and was
certain that in
period of time the church could only
establish a bath glamour it had to
glitter more brilliantly than anybody
else you can feel the fact that it does
not have even one regiment of soldiers
to defend it the only way could be
defended we forget suppose the
defendants the French the defendants the
Germans the defendant or the Italians to
defended it couldn't defend itself
and about the time the poles were ready
to defend it
the Austrians decided they didn't like
the poles and the church was in trouble
judge are they near final emergence of
all this was the establishment of a
great spiritual over government a
government of intangibles a government
that had its own priests and princes a
government which in order to advance its
own purposes made children Cardinals and
may laymen Pope's
bringing them in and consecrating them
as priests and popes the same day it
must be admitted that in the building up
of this tremendous bulwark against
feudalism the church surrendered a very
great part of its spiritual integrity
there's no boundaries but if you had
lived in the year 752 and had been
confronted with one of these problems
with a light and the mind and the
understanding the lack of understanding
that was general in those times probably
you would have had to win either by
opportunism or seeing everything you
stood for disappear so the church does
not intend to disappear never had that
intention and it did everything that it
could to survive but in order to survive
it gradually expanded it
it elaborated its processes it reached
the point where it exercised so vast a
psychological effect that men such as
Risha loo with a cardinal was never
truly a religious man he was a Jew that
he carried the Cardinals power and he
could bring the King of France to his
knees this power was all the brain power
of magic power ritual the power of a
great intangible built solidly upon the
prevailing religion of the time in the
area and building the Empire of this
world upon an almost invisible point in
space really nothing more or less
therefore a world a country and a land
and the high altar of st. Peter's this I
think gives us the real and practical
the world I do think however that is
obscene in the world today surgery no
way in which ritualism has become so
highly complicated as in Roman
Christianity in these other countries
ritualism has retained a certain
simplicity the one answer to this may be
that most other countries have not had
the wealth or the physical means to
sustain so tremendous a program also in
most other countries religions have not
been so completely dominant as they are
here they have nearly always had certain
divisions within their own structure
that for example taken China there are
three religions share a certain degree
of equality therefore there is no
complete dominance of one or one that
has able to control the economic
resources of the entire country while
there have been some fake religion most
of these state religions have not been
like the Western one and here we have
something that perhaps is worth another
passing moment applause and that is what
is the essential reason
I welcome Olivia ritualism has become so
complicated and Easton has not most of
the eastern nations have had similar
emergencies of those that influence the
West perhaps the answer is very
definitely in the psychology of the
people the East in general the whole
eastern hemisphere is strangely
introverted these have always thought of
religion primarily as something internal
religious a danger has always been a
very good word from the circumference of
the personality to someone within it
whereas in the West whether the Greek or
Roman Egyptian or a city an empires are
involved
always progress growth has been an
externalized was always a bad thing
out of itself into its environment and
has created great fans even the King
became the Builder of cities so it's
seen as a Western man has always been
bathing exterior to himself
yes surrounded himself with greatness
where are these from man as in
mysteriously always thought a staff of
the virtue of dignity of serenity the
sublimity of simplicity he had had a
little
different attitude and I think we can
invert it in the fact that Eastern
religions have a most part with the
possible exception of Islam never had
the political ambitions that have
dominated Western religiously so as a
result of that in your Asiatic religions
we find rituals but because this ritual
has pageantry which is extended it from
the comparatively simple things and this
will involved a process but a complete
study of the mass and mastery of its
technique will require 10 years of work
other peoples of the world haven't done
this before perhaps in some of these
other extinct ladies you can find that
it is almost totally submerged in the
mass you can find perhaps the essential
principle of this invasion separated
from it extremely new ways and
glittering and frustrations that have
assembled and gathered around it over
the period of centuries in all religions
we're not is the offensive purpose for a
second after they write such as the mass
we speak of Buddhist matters they are
also given we also know that certain
elements of the mass and not complete
but fragments of it particularly
interest have survived in the Protestant
denomination so that even in
Christianity certain elements of ritual
offer the most part and are perpetuated
in a very modified form by a number of
products agree the essential purpose of
being of the religious ritual in most of
these Eastern nations has been an
extension of the concept of individual
prayer in other words ritual is a
gathering of above eight people for the
purpose of horrified God it is a
collective congregational kind of
worship though in most other places
although not in all worship is divided
into two distinct sections one is a
worship by means of a hierarchy of
please
and the other is private workers
therefore in the Orient also you find
the same system
they the most hindu-buddhist feasel
temple priests are they please perform
certain rights and certain rituals and
have certain daily observances that are
15 years in their own obligations
through all the nations in other words a
tree or a mate of almost any of these in
the district is required by his
obligations to fulfill certain pious
ceremonies which are not required of a
layman but there is more activity in a
religious house
among its priests than there are among
the latest the second point in
connection with this is that on certain
days there are public ceremonies
performed essentially by the purging but
with this by the monthly these public
ceremonies consist of celebrations
relating to sacred days associated with
the life of the founder of the religion
or to certain Universal astronomical or
problem
because they which have gradually been
involved in the theology this common
practices in both East and West the
various rituals and ceremonies differ
slightly with the different sects well
these rites and ceremonies were
inaugurated by the founders effect
rather than by the founder of the
religion itself in Buddhism in Japan we
have 12 of 15 sense of importance each
of which has minor differences of
rituals all are essentially dedicated to
the same principle but each has
distinguished a way of worship that
varies slightly from others and in this
way these ways of worship have
particular meaning to members of that
view and our less leading health among
members in the development of the mass
and assisting them at least nine
different patterns developed these
patterns however that gradually divided
themselves into the nine
the Roman and non Roman Catholic Church
Turkey and the non-roman including the
Greek and a number of other Near East
Indies
they also the cops in wealth Africa but
these different rituals are performed
primarily in our row or in testimony of
gratitude team or in the sequence all
the power of the divine being
represented the only way how did you how
would you say for example with the
biggest thing which might be a parallel
the Christianity in many respects how
would the problem of the mass for the
Buddha panamath relate for instance to a
common symbolism that we know in the
sisterhood in the Buddhist temple the
may or may not be images of the Buddha
water separates our hats saints and
sages if they are there they are
enshrined or others very much as in the
case of the Western Church though maybe
smaller ring chapels to various deities
but those plugins or thank you
assessment and there may be a great
central icons or image of painting
either of a single divinity or the trans
persons coming in to the presence of
this initial group of images usually
make some Dania flexion as a symbol of
humility or as reason in most Buddhist
countries that we use that exactly the
same as use for another human being
there is not too much essential
difference there are not elaborate
rituals relating to the recognition of a
deity with a church or temple and the
recognition of a friend by salutation
the presence of the image is intended
for only one purpose and I think this
excuse essentially in Christianity - it
is merely a symbol of a principle it is
a for a center essential symbol
sanctifying that place indicating that
it is a sanctuary that it is not a house
of business or of entertainment but that
it is a
of working and in the presence of the
image which is usually an essential or
alter position the individual is
acknowledging not the image but the
concept principle or energies of except
image said this recognition may come to
either a prayer or of meditation or of
intercession we the pleading that the
deity will be of help in some emergency
it may be merely a ceremonial occasion
as the certain festival in which the
Javanese is merely to honor the deity or
it may be a supplication for help in
some great emergency or difficult even
however where it appears that the image
is a central element in the design I
think think is the same as in the which
confers with the image the Pacific's or
whatever may be presence is merely the
emblem of a conviction and at the end
this emblem of conviction is used as a
means of purchasing or centralizing as
the attention of the individual
all the literary work dealing with these
problems Orion we come upon a very
interesting thing wrong with going Japan
the great Fujiwara printers they have
been a very wonderful world at most a
little world
thank you and grateful serenity the
natural love of beauty of the native
people and the peculiarly sensitive
appreciation they had they know on other
made their their world away in charming
would at that time the figure are
aplenty where our convert to the
doctrine of the Armada or the doctrine
of the Indus that intercession of the
Amida Buddha for the redemption of
mankind this perhaps to that plaintiff
whatever moves to Christianity is
essential meaning when did the period
after the Fujiwara princesses and they
really believe that it is possible to
prepare a world here so beautiful and so
wonderful well that actually face
expression while me those Western
Paradise right in the wonderful eyes the
island of Japan so they did magnificent
temple thanks upon the ancient paintings
and pictures and from the stories of the
old pieces of Buddhism they fill these
pea temples with marvelous speculators
they safely and temple dancing
very wonderful is somewhat better than
that miss here these people actually
attempted to create a world of beautiful
affinity agenda and the forever
thoughtful mysterious world of ami
though that was suppose to be far beyond
the Western field life business I think
perhaps we have the secret of a good
many things these Fujiwara princes in
creating their little thanks upon the
sacred text of the Mahayana sutras
develop a wonderful unworldly pattern
the purpose of which was to lift the
human consciousness a little bit every
day and give that consciousness an
immediate
in the phase of the join the radiance of
that larger universe version of sin all
of the pimples represented miniatures of
a larger and better world the sanctuary
was its own
little valid heaven each one of these
sacred places was a place into which man
retire out of worldliness into the
beauty and sublimity of his face and
originalism right therefore seems to
carry the individual into this great
world over which the gilded amitabha
forever and then the radiant flowers and
dual rates of his celestial power the
ideal is therefore that in a mysterious
way even here why you see live with an
experience something as the world of God
that lies beyond the visible I did the
same thing with present is all infant
religious food if anything to try to
create somewhere in the world something
that has
the word something that was not just the
palace for the king but to a measure at
least was a doorway to a world of
greater mystical values it was only this
mysterious compact or sense of contact
with infinity but probably could hold
barbarian defect and to bring the lieth
to me there was something that was an
early about the day and I think that in
a sense as the studies of my or 13 son
great for a mystical interpretation of
the Maya such as we find and Vilas Park
about this needs to be know about in the
world that in the proliferation of math
and a great Cathedral the experience of
hierarchy is very strongly intended in
other words the individual is lifted up
by a mystical experience into some kind
of a sense of a physical world the great
Cathedral
with no the rounded arches is just not
at this world
and although it may be a monument of
centuries of human labor when lighted
only with citrine pounding and the here
surrounded by all the abilities of a
great face the solemnity of the mass
mass is exhibited it is something that
becomes a immediate mystical visual
experience it is the building up of
Saint food-wise it is the strengthening
of some kind of an inner belief school
exhibiting to that be the pomp and
circumstance of a great pageant after
all through the medieval Christian God
became God was not sucking up the mystic
things of God
rod was really a great spiritual monarch
ruling over a sublime Supreme Court in
heaven
warriors from the ports of any scenes of
earth God with an absolute desktop Ragna
served by a mysterious hierarchy of
angels and archangels interior business
an onerous by a strange hierarchy of
dedicated person on his bike reason to
progress with the Pope of Rome first a
great sense of medieval imperialism this
alone ties between your psychological
experience by which man forget to ask
reasonable questions and become
completely overthrown by the mysterious
testimony of it only senses great music
great art the same rhythm as the weird
prize all of these communities they
represent something the psychological
custody Venice instructions by this
inward touching breathin in the some
kind of immediate experience of the
appellant and the religious equation in
life though is important maybe Sparsit
evaluated as it's been seven maybe speak
mrs. Duncan you can tell him he'll
become a guide to a way of life with a
million the person is this it's
important this guide to a way of life
how red is a certain adjustment with
existence it has resulted in a life of
faith that was very strong the licenses
dedicated identity and a life far away
from the festivities by this the very
situation itself is engenders a lot of
this whole problem the equipment seems
to come to our attention so that these
factors help success some kind of a
belief in the faith of men when you take
all all music all beauty and also let
the face away from the religion I don't
think you can deny the fact it's to
impoverish this religion
some way last man something that
normally Kenneth years they knew asked
him to carry completely himself the full
burden of his religious life he tried to
tell him that religion is tremendously
important that he must discover this
ended things that the individual must
carrier they must work out his own
salvation we must succeed
virtue is an inner integrity but it is
very very difficult to make this work in
common practice and like saying to a
person on another level entirely there
is no need for me to go to school if he
is study eight hours a day from the
Pioneer seven the Lupron your
twenty-five have heard by yourself you
can learn just as much and there are
foods that were credit me for this work
well he's very good he is going to self
discipline yourself sufficiently to
devote his time to make this effort
for the sake of becoming educated it's
all the things
you expect this to be done by the
average human being only in company that
others of similar efforts only means
that the baby only shares in certain
minor competitive instincts with a
classmate can you keep him in line with
a long-range educational program for
fighting so this is the same way with
religion it is very hard for the
individual to achieve spiritual faith
without religious symbolism supported
this can be excessive and unnecessary
but that's one partner is the Israeli
seems to be a natural necessity for man
he needs the strength of some form of
religious symbolism you need if you are
or community or consensus he needs some
religious studies to integrate his
efforts remember it's a pattern by which
he can develop a spirit release
is not inclined to do so therefore I do
believe after watching the whole
situation pretty carefully well great
years that there is some me in in modern
religion for a greater expression of
emotional warmth a greater release of
the instincts abilities rather than a
thought of we're told to organism
because gradually come to dominate our
concept of religious life our religious
life in the West has for the most part
with the exception of the various
attachments motion magnificence in the
sense most necessary to the experience
of man
uh no conscience hierarchy I'm talking
of the simple impact of religious values
upon is synthesis of the person the Lord
is perfect in streams that the
individual can go out into nature and
come into the most beautiful cathedral
with ever created he has insight and the
mystic has been inside the mystic does
not mean literally the hominin actual
lipsticks that they have how many people
find as a rigid light strong enough by
their own mystical convictions alone to
enable them to live
they believe I think in modern time we
are having a difficulty which is one of
the difficulties at the church place in
1800 years of it we are a concern
gravely today with the example the lack
of again among young people this doesn't
apply to all young people but there is
an increasing number apparently are
falling away from religious convictions
increasing the very amazing burglaries
and 60% of our auto fare in the United
States committed by Geneon if people had
any
reverence for values had any deep
appreciation of something Norrington
than doing exactly as they Johnny well
please I don't believe that
with a vision the mobility of religion
in their face but they cook so quickly
and forgotten it nor do I think that the
majority of these young people are in a
commission to actually start new
religion I don't think they can get
unaided into the maze of modern
theologies and find what they need I
think they must recognize from happen
from value structure by which they are
given a situation with his very second
and which they come to effect upon earth
value well the great value of life is
badness is honored in quality recognized
in meditation experience in devotion it
is something that like the old policies
of the Fujiwara
Emperor's if something built in this
world expands of the glory of the
eternal now I don't think that this
needs to be a sense of social structure
as it was before the building of a
pyramid I don't think it needs to be
sectarian or creed or
in Our Lives remind them that we live in
a universe of truth universe of
principle and that the greatest joy the
greatest good in this whole world comes
to those who are able to truly love that
pieces to me worthwhile and you know
this is also a mess computers in our
rebellion against indulgences and
perversion we have brought over as if
something by means of it it comes with
inward symbolic excuse of the divine
world around at the universe we don't
have to defeat an Insectarium about any
part of it it so that's really this
Universal Temple which is the divine
nature of things is available to us
through our own heart it is available to
us through our own quietens and through
our own meditation but I do think
it is rather good that's something in
the form of an adequate sanctuary the
rise in the midst of nations not
something to our clean into the Battle
of our affection but something that's
and forever for the principle of good a
value unchanging in a changing world but
somewhere we should have that ties with
heaven that binding to the scribe means
we are not forever I think this is what
ancient people tried to do I think it
was that they they believed that if you
have periodic decoding time resides it
is sublime if you would be a better
person you might not understand
everything
perhaps even not it is not on defending
the gains of strength that even
understanding
so what was needed what was warded
there's a man could realize that he live
in it world is bigger than business
bigger than the physical cleaning that
he looks in strangers bigger than the
ambitious creatures hey there's an
apparent ease of the time a world which
also invited him in his values the world
in which he was prepared to meet the
changes of life affairs become the
prepare to roll but he has lived with
faith and Aida stationed somewhere along
the line he lost their exhibits in the
greatest straw participant has ever had
to fail exact it gradually lost so much
of its face a prominent place only came
up here here has been the most
destructive element in the entire
development of Christianity this here
we've tried to make many good when they
finally turned them from the base this
idea that some way of some way some
terrible destiny awaited us simplicity
was it off adults members or something
actually ruling party Pacific apart the
destroyed its value for us because in
this very experience
here we lost our primary love and
respect the truth how could we truly
live in PvP at the same time instead of
being that developed the devout father a
wonderful parent God gradually became
the difficult and defeat stepfather the
player and all of this fear is
undoubtedly with the machinery of
preservation
only time can gradually the law of most
of my religious convictions
we have probably heard you're losing
more reason to fear into any other
single player I don't mean necessarily
that we were all afraid and I mean that
the idea of here in a safe destroy our
faith in that thing that could be human
heart and it's only natural instinct
does not naturally fear the heart of not
fear to marry your fear to die it has to
be educated in the fear its own
naturally interfaith it does not want to
be lifted up in their sublime experience
one moment and passed down it into the
concept of purgatory of the nation by
the green
inconsistent allow the bitterness permit
allowing the animosity of the
intellectual gradually brought criticism
acid criticism the firmaface trust in
theology there's a fine way to escape
the fear they gave up the same this is
more or less the story of modern man is
now struggling desperately to regain his
sense of orientation to the man in
certainly the offense the friend owns of
a divine court defense some power or
some authority beyond our own with a
painful original it goes back thousands
of years
your means out of this afraid by the
most primitive and ancient instincts
within yourself when you come out of
this is a fear and something as precious
value is utterly destroyed in some way
we have to get a universe and we can
have this heaven without the car
we are told that in all lamenting my
hilarities of life you cannot have one
without the other you cannot have a
concept of internal good without some
vision of eternally old this I believe
of the facts believe what we still have
it the answer lies in the direct inward
realization of reality itself or if
instead of clinging to the need by which
men divide each other and although they
didn't have some negative problem we
come rather into the sense of reality if
I was a sublimity of religious
experience will arrive finally to the
realization that there is an external
spice the for this fact there is no
shadow terror but in the universe itself
being is not polarized there is not
light and darkness in the face of the
human soul where is reality men have
turned that light in darkness so that
out of all of this we have the
possibility of discovering a universe of
justice infinity infinite length of an
infinite life and at the same time that
is nothing in this universe to fear if
we can gain more understanding events I
think he will gain a great deal now
walked within the very essence of the
heart of the entire mystery of the month
in essence of life in which the mystery
of the transformation of the bread and
the wine this is a very living nature
Robinson connection strength this
initiative is said to be at ease I think
that underneath this entire mystery we
could find the absence also read a
little further perhaps in the dr.
Niccole adult physical here we find his
clear and distinct statement at the
Christ in you the hope of glory
therefore the transubstantiation of the
host occurs in you but this author is a
big mining day is a magical mystical
right the realization even as your mind
our background
by that arrangement create within you a
certain sensitivity to universal order
these very substantiation therefore is
in fact the substance of our
intelligence is that instant of
realization in which all things become
new this is the mystical experience
appropriate this is the moment in which
man limited the infinites activity and
in this infinite sight all things which
are material represented by the bread
and the wine become transformed and we
see that their materiality is only of an
appearance and that all things are
substantially spiritual and that this
realization of the substantial physical
universe and experiences also open to
our psyche or inner life the great
mystery of RP nutrition for efficacy
that man's body is supported by the
bread of this world for it is true
awesome that infinite is supported
as it is true that he may drink of the
water of this world and thirst again
you may also drink from the water of
eternal life and first no more verse
there is this eternally nutrition and
there is a physical our farming uses a
furnace price of color and that's the
bottom of habit red and it was harvest
the occasion but that by the very
chemistry of assimilation and by
gestures the film substantiation
occurred in the very process of the
digestion of food misty occurs in man
when in the service of life the bed if
you take into his body is transformed
into the life energy was must've fainted
thus the human body is continually
performing a strange and mysterious
nihilistic life and from this alone
Renkin people
wonderful price use the elevation
and by Christ we know that the early
church represented all signifies the
universal love of God the same principle
of infinite salvation that is intrinsic
in every grain of sand on every atom of
space therefore the cities of the pre
failure is actually clear present in
mind of a power of his own salvation can
be inconsistent in a dynamic experience
although this experience may last only a
few seconds constitute the miracle of
faith places it constitutes the
establishment of the experience of
spiritual association it accomplishes
that moment of identification with that
which is eternal and inevitable well
that in the midst of this mysterious
ritual there is supposed to be a strange
and mystic separation the feet from the
boat and though and the ecclesia or the
temple itself is the sheepfold and if
you do also that the ritual was
performed and which have a certain point
the profane were honored to depart only
those who were purified and prepares
were permitted to assemble for the final
and the greatest part of the faculty
then when the profane has departed the
purpose of the final mission was to
create this mood this created sense of
the presence of
whiskey conviction but if this need were
strengthened by whatever outfit means
were available whether it was the
simplest gathering of devout persons of
the most magnificent clustering of the
glories of a great man
whatever it was it had caused the
individual is suddenly be united with
his brethren and with his dog in this
one moment of extreme appease paprika
Mountain conceded voice he in this
instance rep recognized but he and his
fellow members of the congregation were
united as one being in life and at the
same time when he the police the bishops
hierarchy were also all united in one
substance in God but in this sense
immediate sense of identity which
perhaps as well expressed as any other
the entire concept of a mystical
experience there's a mystical experience
in crystalline consists of these two
factors it has to be simultaneously and
identically exceed may bring the
infinite Fatherhood of God had to be
total brotherhood of man these the same
take part in the experience itself exist
only experiences not that experiences
in a kind of indicator complete at the
same time experiencing that this
Brotherhood all of it existed in the
faster and greater a father or the deity
at the same time to reach out to the
immediate experience of absolute kinship
with our brothers these constitute one
experience they're the same experience
as
absolutism of other mystics of the
Vedanta it is two ways of expressing the
one thing and that is final unity of
existence existing with that internal
source of life we are also bound in the
same mystical relationship this is also
symbolically set forth in certain phases
of the month and this these phases of
course include the prayers for the bed
then he prays to and for the face so the
visible and the invisible for those here
and those give access but though he's
not born and though is less hostile and
for those things in transition waiting
for
replication we wear signifies the union
of consciousness with all orders of life
mundane and supramundane once in a way
the entire ceremony summarizes a kind of
mystical experience whether those who
fashioned that knew this we do not know
but those who pass through it under
certain conditions experiences
regardless as to whether it was
intentionally placed there and merely
represents the psychological culmination
of man's spiritual quest over the ages
in any event this is the way it adds up
or business 18.2 and I think we must
realize that this is the underlying
structure of the ritual and symbolism of
the north in Christianity
you
[Music]
